Rise Up and Do Good | Rise Up | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

This is a reading from 1 Peter 3:13

1 Peter 3:13–22

through 22.

Now who is there to harm you?

If you are zealous for what is good.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ.

The Lord is holy.

Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone

who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you,

yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience,

so that when you are slandered, those who revile

your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good.

If that should be God's will than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,

but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed

to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey.

When God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared,

in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through the water.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you

not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God

for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God

with angels, authorities, and powers

having been subjected to him.

Well, good morning and welcome to the weekend

gathering of Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm so glad we get to be part of your weekend.

We are almost done with our fall sermon series.

Going through 1 Peter, which means, by the way,

that it's almost Christmas time, which is crazy, crazy.

But we are going through 1 Peter this fall for one simple reason.

Now, first, Peter is a letter written

to a growing church in the middle of a hostile culture.

And we think there are a lot of parallels between that church and this one,

that culture and this one, which means

that the message God has for that church where he calls them not to shrink back,

not not to hide out, but to rise up,

to engage the culture with the gospel is the same message he has for us.

So we've been doing each week is looking for a new way that God is

calling us as a church to rise up.

We're going to do that again this week.

In fact, if you have a Bible,

would you take it out and open it to 1 Peter chapter 3?

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Perfectly okay to take out your phone or your tablet.

Get there however you'd like.

And hey, if you're here and it's been a while since you've been in church,

I want you to know you're in absolutely the right place.

And even if you're thinking,

I have no idea where first Peter three is and I didn't bring a Bible, that's okay.

The verses are going to be on the screen behind me.

But if you want to in the back of East Hall or in the back of the pew

in front of you here in our West service is one of these Bibles,

and if you use one of them, I can tell you that today's reading is on page 954.

So glad you're here.

Thanks for taking that step.

But however you're getting to first Peter chapter three, let me hold out to

you three points I'm going to use as an outline to guide our time together.

Very simple.

I want to show you three things I want to show you the need,

the cost, and the question.

Okay. The need,

the cost, and the question.

All right. Let's start first with the need.

One of the things that you'll notice about this passage

is that Peter talks a lot about the way this church lives.

Now, I want you to keep in mind that the framework of this passage

we've been looking at for the last few weeks is that God has a vision.

This goes all the way back to first Peter chapter two, that God has a vision

and his vision to this young church in the midst of this hostile

culture is he tells them, everyone who is your enemy.

Today I want to be family tomorrow.

That's who God is.

God says, I know you're surrounded by people who hate Jesus.

They hate the Bible.

They hate the church.

And he says, but you have to understand my vision.

My mission is to turn them from enemies into

family, enemies into worshipers.

So everything God is calling this church to do is to accomplish that mission.

Two weeks ago that meant to surrender.

Last week it meant to live in relationship in a certain way.

And this week, what he says is if we want to see those people

go from enemies to family, it will take

your moral obedience is I want you to live lives

of goodness, lives of righteousness, lives of obedience.

Look with me at the passage.

Just pick it up in verse 13 and read through verse 16.

Here's what it says.

Now who is there to harm you?

If you are zealous for what is good?

But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ.

The Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks

for a reason, for the hope that is in you, yet

do it with gentleness and respect,

having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered,

those who revile your good behavior in Christ might be put to shame.

Do you see all those references? He talks about?

Good conscience, good behavior, righteousness.

What Peter is telling them is that part of God's

plan to reach your family,

your neighbors, your community,

your workplace, is your moral obedience.

And mine.

In other words, what Peter is saying is that the choices we make on a big scale

and a little scale are the things that God will use to get their attention.

Why, he says, live in such a way that they will ask you questions.

And then when they ask you, ask you questions, tell them it's because

of Jesus.

Your moral obedience matters.

Now, you might not be surprised to hear me say that.

After all, for most of us, when we think about God, we think a bit

about him as someone who probably cares about the way we live.

And if you've read the Bible, you know it has a lot to say about do's and don'ts.

Live this way, not that way.

And that's because God is holy.

God is righteous, and also because he knows how life works best.

So he's telling us that this life will lead to flourishing

and this life will lead to the opposite of flourishing.

What you may not realize, though,

is that the way you live is not just about you and God.

It's about you and the people around you.

It's part of God's mission to reach them.

Let me give you an analogy that I think will help this make sense

throughout history.

When armies would go to war with one another,

there would be this particular job that on the face of it,

was not very glamorous but was really important.

And that was the job of a flagbearer like in American history.

You can best see this in the Civil War.

A flag bearer was someone

who would march towards the enemy, and they didn't hold a weapon.

They held a pole and on the end of the pole was the flag.

And they served a really important job, actually, a couple of jobs.

I mean, one is they let people know where their army was

because once the battle got going, there was smoke and dust

and all kinds of things all everywhere.

And if you got separated from your unit, you would look for the flag.

It was a kind of rallying point.

It was also inspiration.

So as long as the flag was flying

and moving, that meant your side was still in the fight.

So in the thick of battle, you could look up

and if the flag was there, you knew we're moving forward.

Generals would stand a far away on a hill, and

and the flags are actually how they would know if they were winning or losing.

If their flags were moving forward, that meant they were winning.

If their flags were stalled out or down or retreating, that meant they were losing.

And so flag bearers would go to battle without a weapon.

But as a central part of the strategy of their side to win the war.

And the reason I think that's such a good analogy is that Peter says,

if you want to change your family, if you want to change your marriage,

your your, your neighborhood, your community,

your culture, your workplace, you don't pick up a weapon.

You pick up a flag.

You live your life in such a way

that it is a stark contrast to the people around you.

It is evident there's a different kingdom, a different way of living.

It brings up the idea that God is real, that he's changing people.

You see, when you move from a person of bitterness to a person

of forgiveness, the flag of Jesus is waving.

People have to reckon with that.

When you move from a from a life of greed

to a life of generosity, that flag is flying.

In other words, what Peter is saying is that if you want the culture around you

to change, you cannot see your daily obedience as insignificant.

It's crucial. It's crucial.

What this means then, fathers, if you want to shape your family,

your daily decisions matter.

Your moral obedience matters.

Husbands and wives, you want to shape your marriage

and doing relationships.

God's way matters.

Obedience is how the flag of Jesus flies.

You want to change your business.

You tell your partners, we're going to stop cutting corners.

You want to save your relationship.

I know it's counterintuitive.

You go home after the service and say, I think we got to stop living together.

Because the blessing of Jesus,

the evidence of God's reality, comes when the flag is flying.

And I want in particular young people to hear me on this.

If you want to go further than my generation with your experience

of God and your experience of the Kingdom, and I hope that you do,

the key to that is going to be to surrender to Jesus

in every area of your life, because Peter says,

When God's people are obedient,

the world takes notice.

How prone are

we to shaking our fist at the state of the world,

at the state of our family, at the state of our

marriage, of blaming everyone else, pointing at everything else?

When Peter says the only hope of change

is for you to start taking Jesus seriously.

So the first question is this is your flag flying?

Are you surrender to the Lordship of Jesus?

Can people see in you a contrasting narrative,

because the world is the way it is, because we do marriage

our way, relationships our way, money, sexuality, identity our way.

We have a broken world because we're broken people and we're in charge.

But people will live

and die that way unless there's a counter-narrative,

which is what Peter says your life is meant to do,

that's the need for your obedience

to fuel the mission of Jesus.

But here's the disclaimer.

Second point the cost.

You may have noticed this

when we read the verses, but these verses are like going up a hill.

You go up one side

and all he's talking about are goodness

and righteousness and living with integrity.

And that sounds nice.

And then you go down the other side of the hill and he's talking about suffering.

In fact, let's read these verses again.

But this time, instead of putting the emphasis on goodness,

I want you to notice how many references there are to suffering.

Verse 13.

Now who is there to harm

you if you are zealous for what is good?

But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ.

The Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone

who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you, yet

do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience,

so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior

in Christ may be put to shame, for it is better to suffer for doing good,

if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

Do you see how many references there are to suffering

when they do you harm?

When they persecute you?

He says he's talking about big persecution, physical jail, beatings

that many of our brothers and sisters around the world will experience today.

But he's also talking about little persecution.

He says, when they lie about you, when they slander you,

you see, God is very honest.

He says, if you decide in the middle of a broken world

that you are going to begin to follow Jesus, to really give your life to Jesus.

If you decide that,

then people are going to take shots at you.

That's what's going to happen now.

Now, why is that?

There are two reasons, and I want you to understand them.

The first, is it their own insecurity?

You know, he talks about when they slander you?

Well, why would someone slander someone for the way they pursue their marriage

or the way they pursue generosity, or the way they pursue forgiveness?

Why would your family turn on you

and you're the one working towards reconciliation?

Why would that happen?

Well, the answer is because none of us like it when our brokenness is exposed.

I can be wildly insecure.

Most people, by the way, who live their lives on the stage,

can be wildly insecure.

And in fact, let me give you an example.

We could be driving through the neighborhood, my wife and I,

and we pass a guy out in the front yard throwing the football to his son,

and Amy will say, oh, that's sweet.

What a great dad.

And I'll say what?

I throw the football with our son.

He probably doesn't work as hard as me.

He's probably not as tired as me.

You know, he's probably not his husband.

You know what?

You know, he's not even throwing a spiral.

But when I react in that moment.

It's not about Amy, is it?

It's not even about that dad in the yard.

It's about me.

I'm worried that maybe I'm not measuring up.

And another dad pursuing his son makes me feel threatened.

Friends, listen, you have to understand, when people take shots at you

for following Jesus,

when you have that hard conversation with the person you're in a relationship with,

when you tell your family that you are going to try to reach out again,

when you tell your business partner you're not going to cut a corner.

When they take

shots at you, it isn't about you,

it's about them.

And I only say that to say

that that's not a reason to stop.

How silly would it be for that dad to say when his son says, hey,

can we throw the football?

And he goes, actually, son, we go to seek.

And I've heard that makes Pastor Zach feel vulnerable.

So let's stay in the house.

That would be silly, right?

That would be silly.

But then why wouldn't

you push forward into what God has for you?

Just because someone's going to criticize you?

But here's the second thing.

The Bible tells us we're in a war, a spiritual war.

Can I tell you something?

If you're here and I've been saying this the last few weeks, I feel like,

let's be honest with you, I feel like the Holy Spirit has put this on my heart.

If you feel like your Christian life is boring,

stale, stagnant,

can I tell you why that is?

It's because your flag is laying on the ground.

Because if you live life the way

everybody else lives, you get the results everybody else gives you.

You don't get the blessing of God.

You don't get the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

You don't get the amazing move of God towards restoration and reconciliation.

The good news is no one will shoot at you.

The bad news is when the battle is over,

it will not even matter that you were on the field.

Is that what you want?

So here's the bad news.

If you pick up the flag, you know why. You know why.

Most American Christians have no theology of Satan.

I'll tell you why that is,

because if you leave your flag on the ground, he leaves you alone.

Why wouldn't he?

You're doing exactly what he wants you to do.

You see every benefit you get.

By the way, did you know in the Civil War, they shot flag bearers

first?

And the reason for that was because all.

All the benefit.

Smooth,

I already had it unwrapped and everything.

I'm a professional.

All the benefit that the flag bearers brought.

The rallying point, the inspiration, the ability to tell if you're winning.

If they were dead, the enemy lost all that.

Listen, brothers and sisters,

if you pick up the flag of Jesus, here's the good news.

Your Christian, your Christian life will not be boring.

It will not be stale.

It will be exciting.

It will be invigorating. It will be passionate.

You will see God move.

The bad news is you'll be on Satan's radar.

And he will come for you.

And you will suffer.

But here's the thing

we understand intrinsically, don't we?

The pursuit of anything good comes

with suffering.

You want to get healthy, you have to suffer.

You want to get in financial shape.

You'll suffer.

You want to earn in your career.

You will suffer. Jinxy, hear me on that.

You got to suffer a little bit.

It was one of the best metaphors I can think of for that is moms.

That's why we love moms.

Moms are incredible.

They will suffer for all of us.

I mean, my wife at 11:00 at night, you hear noises like, what is that?

You think the kids are okay?

I don't even care at that point. If I'm honest.

She'll go to bed late, she'll get up early.

She'll make your favorite lunch.

She'll drive things to you at work.

She doesn't care her life is about us.

She'll suffer every day for us. Why? We love moms.

And if you ask her, why don't you need some me time?

She'll say, the happiness of my family is worth it to me, I gladly suffer.

We get that.

So listen friends, if you find yourself at the point of obedience,

if the Holy Spirit has put his finger on something in your heart

and he's telling you to give it to him and you don't want to

because you know you're going to suffer, here's what you have to realize.

Your problem isn't pain tolerance.

Your problem is you don't know if the suffering will be worth it.

That's my third point.

Not just the need for you to follow Jesus, not just the cost of doing so,

but the question, if I suffer for Jesus, will

it be worth it?

That's why Peter answers,

but do you feel that in this room?

You know,

I know you feel that because I feel it.

That's why Peter ends this passage by teaching us this.

God never wastes the suffering of his people.

Look at what he says in verse 18.

Of course.

Where does he turn? But to Jesus is what he says.

For Christ also suffered once for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Being

sorry, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,

in which he went

and proclaimed the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey.

When God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared,

in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water.

Baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you not as a removal of dirt

from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven

and is at the right hand of God

with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying two really powerful things.

The first thing he's saying is

when you get to that moment of obedience and you think, God, if I give you this,

if I stop sleeping with him, if I stop living with her, if I stop

holding bitterness in my heart towards him, if I stop cutting corners at work,

if I start doing things your way, I am going to suffer.

And how do I know if it's going to be worth it?

Peter says, here's how you know it was the suffering

of God's own son that saved your soul.

God doesn't waste suffering.

He uses it to redeem.

He uses it to save.

Every blessing you have in Christ came

through suffering.

So when you get to that moment of obedience, it's as though

Jesus himself is saying, give it to me because I am your witness.

By the way. That's why he connects it to baptism.

We're baptizing 25 people across the weekend, which is amazing.

Maybe you're here because you came

because a friend or family member is getting baptized.

Maybe you thought, I don't know why they invited me.

Here's why.

Because when that person gets baptized, they're getting into Akron

City Water in a tub we bought, probably on Amazon.

So there's nothing holy about it except for this.

What they're doing is they're identifying with Jesus.

They're saying Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived in my place.

And then he died on the cross. And he and he died.

He went into the tomb.

So also I get lowered into the water and then he rose from the dead.

So also I get brought back up and they're raising the flag of Jesus,

and they're saying people can change.

God is real. He will forgive.

He does restore.

Here's how you know he's done it in me,

friend.

Suffering

is how God has given you every good thing

he's ever given you.

The amazing life

God has for you, the experience of the kingdom

that God has for us here at the church is on the other side of suffering.

It's on the other side of being lied about.

It's on the other side of being slandered.

It's on the other side of that hard obedience.

But here's the second thing he says

he does this whole weird bit about Jesus descending and preaching to spirits.

And some people say, well, that means Jesus went to hell after he died.

And I don't think that's true.

I'll give you two reasons why one, a Jesus on the cross as he was

dying, said to the thief next to him, today you will be with me in Paradise.

He didn't say, today you'll go to Paradise, but I have a layover in hell.

But second, he doesn't talk about preaching to everyone in hell.

He talks about preaching in the spirit to people in Noah's day.

Here's what I think he's saying.

He's saying that Jesus literally lived and died,

and he rose and ascended into heaven.

And he is with us now in spirit.

And you might think, well, I don't need a spirit, Jesus.

I need a physical Jesus.

But he says, but it was spirit Jesus who was preaching

through Noah back in Genesis.

It's the same Jesus who preaches through your obedience today.

You see, we don't have a general who stands on the hill

watching the flags to see if we're winning.

We have a king who's on the battlefield or gripping the pole

alongside of us saying, hang in there, we're going to win this thing.

The Christian life was not meant to be boring.

This should be the most exciting place in Northeast Ohio.

And I'm telling you, were close or close.

But sermons won't get us there.

Music won't get us there.

You know what will

your obedience

and mind.

So that the flag of Jesus

might be waving and draw all curious people

to him.

They pray for us, father God.

Our hope is in you. God.

God, we.

We struggle to give you the little things.

Some of us would be eager to give you.

Big things.

It's the little things that we struggle with, and I believe

in most people's minds and hearts right now.

They know what the thing is that you want.

Holy spirit, would you overwhelm us

with the belief that God does not waste suffering?

Would you give us a

glimpse of the families and communities and church we would have

if we would just raise your flag?

Would you make this church

the most exciting place in Northeast Ohio for your glory?

We just want to come along for the ride.

Use us in the little things

to raise the flag of Jesus that all men

might be drawn to him.

In his name we pray. Amen.