PILGRIMS AND THE GOOD LIFE

Alan Pihringer

Progressing as Pilgrims • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

1 Peter 3:8–12

0 ratings

· 1 view

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

-{1 Peter 3}

-Moms invest in their children by giving them the tools to live a productive life. Mothers (and fathers and other family members) try to pass down their wisdom on how their children can thrive in a fallen world filled with so much uncertainty. They try to equip their kids to be able to live on their own in a Christ-honoring way. They tell them, “This is the path…walk in it.”

~The heartache comes when the kids completely ignore what you tell them and think they know better than you. It’s like the years of learning and experience that you’ve gone through are meaningless. It may take many years, but they eventually come around and figure out: Hey, maybe mom and dad and everybody knew what they were talking about. All along mom was telling me how to live the good life, but I had to go through the hard life to figure it out what the good life is.

-That seems to be everybody’s desire—to live the good life. Of course, everybody defines that differently. Some think the good life is the American Dream. Some think the good life involves fame and fortune. Some think the good life is being an influencer and having a million likes on their Tik Tok. Some think the good life is comfort and ease.

-But God has revealed through His Word that the good life has nothing to do with you fulfilling your dream or meeting your goals or satisfying your desires. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. The good life for you is when you actually give away your life. The good life is a life lived for others, and not self. You find life when you use it for other people’s benefit. In fact, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 10:39 that if you find your own life, if you live trying to satisfy yourself, you actually lose your life. But if you lose your life for the sake of Christ, you actually end up finding it.

-Peter picks up with this theme, and tells us what the good life is actually all about. So, what we want to take away from today’s passage is that living a “good life” means being a blessing to everyone else.

1 Peter 3:8–12 NET 2nd ed.

8 Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble. 9 Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing. 10 For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit. 11 And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the Lord’s face is against those who do evil.

-{pray]

-Peter’s epistle tells us that this world is not our home—we are temporary residents, pilgrims. We have been given a new life in Jesus Christ, and we are waiting for our life with Him in eternity. But until then, we are to live a certain way while we have this temporary layover on earth. Since this world is not our home, it only makes sense that the good life cannot be found within the world. Instead, the good life is living for Christ and living for others while we are passing through.

-Until the time of Christ’s return or our own home-going, we live the new life a certain way. Part of that life is submitting to the authorities that we have on this earth—we honor God by honoring those authorities. Now he tells us a different part of living as a member of God’s people. We live the good life by being a blessing to others. And He gives us some specific context of how to be a blessing...

1) Be a blessing to the church (v. 8)

-Peter starts the passage in v. 8 by listing five virtues that are part of the new life in Christ. But these virtues are specifically how we live in the context of the church—living amongst the people of God.

-This is reaching back to the beginning of chapter 2 where he told us that we are living stones being built into the structure of the heavenly temple—the heavenly assembly of God’s people. Being a part of this people, we live not with selfish ambition, but we live to be a blessing to the other living stones—the other people who make us the heavenly temple. We are to live to bless the church.

-I believe that this is a timely topic because many used the pandemic as a reason to distance themselves from the church. People found that through the internet they can get their dose of spirituality and then go do their own thing without having to bother with the church. The use of internet and live streaming which makes it possible is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing in that those who are home-bound and unable to attend for various health reasons are able to be uplifted and encouraged. And those who might be on vacation or recovering from a procedure are able to keep up with the messages. But what many healthy, able-bodied people found is that they can get their shot of Jesus without being an active participant with the church. It turned into some sort of substitute.

-I guess this ties in to the greater consumer mentality of American Christianity today—the church exists for me. And like Burger King, I can have it my way. And like a consumer, I just want to take and take. But Peter says instead, no, you are to be a blessing to the church and give and give. Yes, there are times when we need to be ministered to, but not at the neglect that we also do some ministering. And this blessing to the church is reflected in these virtues.

-The first virtue that we are called to is to be harmonious. It means that a church is to have an accord and harmony of thoughts and feelings among the members. It doesn’t mean that everybody is a cookie-cutter copy and don’t have their own ideas, but it does mean that the members work together toward the greater gospel goal. Picture an orchestra, made up of all different instruments that each make their own unique sound, and yet when working together make the most sweet melodies. If one instrument decides to do its own thing or tries to make noise to draw attention to itself or maybe even it that instrument is absent, the song they make is affected and not pleasant. Brothers and sisters in Christ work together in harmony for the sake of the gospel so the Kingdom of God comes and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

-Next, we are called to be sympathetic. The word literally means to suffer like another does. It is when a person is so in tune with what another is going through, they share the feelings and sufferings of another. According to Hebrews 4:15, this is what Jesus did with us. Jesus was touched with the feelings of our spiritual infirmities, and it compelled Him to the cross. We are called to be touched with the feelings around us in the church, and letting that compel us to ministry as we are called and gifted.

-Then Peter says that we are to be affectionate / brotherly. This is the word philadelphos—the idea of brotherly love. The word carries with it the idea of loyalty to the family. You care for the family and do what you can to protect the family. It reminded me of some statements that were made by New Yorkers after 9/11. They said to the effect that nobody on the outside messes with the family. We as a church have an affection for our church family such that we are protective of one another.

-Then Peter says we are compassionate. The word speaks of having deep emotion for another such that it compels you to action. Very much related to sympathy, we see someone with a problem and we do what we are able to fix it. It is being moved by a need such that you do something about it. This is where great ministries came from, be it something local like Downtown Rescue Mission, or global like the Salvation Army. They saw needs and met them. Within the context of the church—if there is a need, the church rallies around them.

-Finally, is says to be humble. It means to have a modest opinion of yourself. You see, if you have a high opinion of yourself, you’ll expect everybody else to serve you and make everything all about you. But if you are humble, you reflect Christ who put others before Himself, and serve them.

-You see, these are the virtues that are needed to truly be a blessing in the church. You can be a blessing or you can be a leach and suck the life out of a church. But you will never experience the good life being a leach. You find the good life when you are a blessing. And it doesn’t stop at the level of the church, we also find that the good life is found when we strive to...

2) Be a blessing to the antagonist (v. 9)

-A continual theme in Peter’s epistle is that the world is antagonistic for the faith, and those who are in Christ might suffer at their hands. If this is the case, Peter continues a theme that Jesus Himself gave in the gospels—when your enemies persecute you, you do not seek to avenge yourself. Instead, you actually seek the good for the other person. As Peter explains in v. 9, we are not to return evil when evil is done to us; and we are not to return insult when we are insulted. Instead, we are to bless those who do such things because of the ultimate blessing that we are called to inherit.

-When people who do not know Christ act against us because of our faith, they are acting out of their nature that is naturally set against Christ. Even though they are in rebellion and antagonistic to the things of God, they are also the object of Christ’s affection because He died for their salvation as well. He does not desire them to die without knowing Him—He wants them to be saved.

-We, who have the gospel message, have the life-giving message that they need. We have inherited the blessing of eternal life. When we act contrary to what might be considered the natural reaction to such intimidation, when we react to their hostility in the same manner as Christ, it may soften their hearts toward the gospel message. But if we return evil for evil and insult for insult, the door is shut.

-The Scriptures constantly bear witness to the call of treating our enemies with the agape love of Christ. Earlier, in 2:23, Peter reminded us of what Christ did when He was unfairly beaten and crucified—Peter says that when He was maligned, He did not answer back; when He suffered, He threatened no retaliation, but committed Himself to God.

-Jesus was merely living out His own teachings. Jesus said in Luke 6 that we are to love our enemies—not merely tolerate them, not ignore them, but love them. He says that when they hate us, we do good for them anyway. When they curse us, we pray for them. When they strike at us, we do not strike back, but actually turn and offer the other cheek as well. We are kind and gentle and generous to those who are antagonistic toward us because we follow Jesus.

-This is what marks us as being different from the world. Jesus said that if you merely love those who love you or love those who are like you, what good is that? How are you any different than anybody else? Pagans love other pagans. Anarchists love other anarchists. Rebels love other rebels. We are called to something different. As Jesus says in:

Luke 6:35–36 NET 2nd ed.

35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

-Yet, there is something within us that wants to stick it back to people, even in small ways.

I read a story about an Internet entrepreneur who discovered that revenge can be popular and profitable. Mat Carpenter started a website where patrons can order an envelope with a folded up piece of paper filled with glitter and send it to people they don’t like. He says the idea for sending glitter came from personal experience. Glitter gets everywhere and never seems to come out. He added, “It reminded me of a few relatives over the years who used to send small amounts of glitter with their birthday or Christmas cards and how it annoyed me.” When Carpenter launched the site, it became so popular so quickly that he had to beg people to stop buying his product because he couldn’t keep up with demand. People love to get revenge, even in small ways.

-We are called to something better. We always say that we want to be like Christ, but rarely do we want to do the hard things to make us like Christ. If we want to be like Christ, then be kind to ungrateful, evil people. Show mercy to the antagonist. This is tied to the good life. When you bless those who hate you because of your faith, you yourself are greatly blessed. No, you won’t get the shiny new car or that promotion you have always wanted, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have reflected Christ. And, who knows, maybe you will have softened their heart to hear the life-changing news that Jesus died for them so they too can have eternal life. Finally and quickly, we are called to...

3) Be a blessing to the world (vv. 10-12)

-vv. 10-12 quote Psalm 34, and start out with our theme—you want to love life and see good days (or, you want the good life), then don’t do evil but do good. Do good to the world. Be salt and light. Go forth and show Christ by being a visible beacon of righteousness and goodness. Live out the fruit of the Spirit. You bless the church and you bless the antagonist—now go out and bless the world in the name of Jesus.

-I have to be careful with a passage like this, because too often we merely turn Christianity into some sort of moral edict of do this and don’t do that. But there is a basis for why we are called to shun evil and called to go out and do good in the world. It’s because God did the ultimate good for the world in that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for sinners and be raised to give newness of life. Jesus did the ultimate good on the cross and the empty tomb. And because we have been recipients of the greatest blessing, we then turn around and bless everybody else so they too can partake in that ultimate blessing.

-Our ethics and morals are based on the finished work of Christ. Once we believe in Jesus, we don’t stop there. In fact, life has just begun. We don’t work for heaven, but we work because we have inherited heaven, and want to bear God’s Kingdom on this earth in the here and now. And so we shun evil and do good in the world. How can we do that?

-We can bless the world by speaking the positive truths of Scripture and keeping our tongue from lies, gossip, and negativity. In v. 10 he says to keep the tongue from evil and lips from uttering deceit. We are people of the truth, and so we are to speak the truth in love. But this also means keeping a guard on our mouth from all sorts of negativity. We aren’t to be people marked by murmuring and complaining. We aren’t to talk about people behind their backs. We aren’t to lie to get our way. The Bible warns against a proud tongue, a perverted tongue, a destructive tongue, a gossiping tongue, a flattering tongue. That’s the way of the world. We bless the world with God’s truth spoken in gentle ways for encouragement and edification, ultimately pointing to the gospel.

-We also bless people by turning from evil and doing good (v. 11). We are to seek out opportunities to do good in the world. Paul told Titus

Titus 3:8 NET 2nd ed.

8 This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

-Hebrews 10:24 tells us what we are to do as believers:

Hebrews 10:24 NET 2nd ed.

24 And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works,

-We can change people’s lives when we do good.

-Peter also says to seek peace and pursue it (v. 11). Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers. Christians aren’t called to be rioters, rabble-rousers, and troublemakers. We are to seek peace with all people as much as it is dependent upon us.

-And in the back of our minds we remember that the eyes of the Lord are with those who act righteously and He hears our prayers (v. 12).

-With all the darkness going on in the world, with all the violence, with all the hate, the world is looking for someone who will stand up and do good. Who better than us who have the life-giving message of the gospel. Why aren’t we the ones making the difference in the world rather than spending all our time on social media cutting one another down. You want the world to change? Then why aren’t you out there changing it? When we change the world for good, when we do the world good, then we have found what the good life is all about.

Conclusion

-I’ll close with this thought.

I read about author Dave Freeman who popularized the expression, “The Bucket List”, in his bestselling book entitled 100 Things to Do Before You Die. Following an accident, he passed away at his home in Venice, California. He was only 47 years old at the time of his untimely death.

Ironically, his book begins with the words that “life is a short journey – so how can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?”

In Dave Freeman’s personal bucket list, he included things like attending the Academy Awards ceremony and running with the bulls in Spain.

This was how he intended to live the good life – and these were the things that he believed would fill his life with the most meaningful things.

According to comments from his father, Dave had only made it halfway through his bucket list before dying.

As one pastor said: Ask the average person on the planet what it is that makes life fulfilling and meaningful and what brings you the most happiness and you will hear a variety of answers, but most of them will have to do with doing something fun or experiencing something exciting or visiting a lot of places around the world – or maybe all of the above.

This is what makes for the good life! So write out your list and go for it.

-The Bible tells us something different—the good life means we are a blessing to others. Are you living the good life? Christian, come to the altar and commit yourself to living the good life.

-But the good life begins by repenting of your sin and believing in Jesus. If you have never done that, come forward and start the good life today...