How to Experience Good Days

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Gentleness. Respect.

That is supposed to describe our witness, our defense. You can do everything right. You can be a great defender of theology or even adopt a child. You can be a model Christian. But the minute you speak hatefully towards somebody else, you're going to undo all of that.

It makes the rest of your life feel like a shame. Welcome to a brand new week of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. I know the weather is getting colder, but think about this with me for a second. Doesn't a moment of shade feel so good in the middle of a hot summer day? Well, today, our passage in 1 Peter tells us how to experience shade from the harsh heat of the world and then how we can then provide that kind of shade for others. Pastor J.D. shows us how to experience good days in the midst of bad days. Remember, if you'd like to listen to the previous messages in this teaching series called Together We Endure, you'll find them all free of charge at jdgreer.com.

But for now, grab your Bible and let's join Pastor J.D. Well, in 1 Peter 3, we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 22 today. I've heard this passage described like a shade in the midst of a really hot day.

It tells you how to experience shade from the harsh heat of the world and how to provide that kind of shade for others. Remember, Peter writes this letter, 1 Peter, to suffering believers. Persecution and political upheaval have scattered them out of their homes all over the Roman Empire. By the way, I think the word that I've heard more than any other word this year is the word unprecedented, and I get it. These are unusual times, and I have used the word about that word about this time. But saying that might be a little bit naive, even arrogant. A troubled, stressful world is not unprecedented.

In fact, it's been the norm in history. I was arrested this week by this phrase in the next section of chapter 3. It's in verse 10. It says, For the one who wants to love life and to see good days. Love life and see good days.

That sounds awesome, doesn't it? So that's going to be the title of this message. How to experience good days in the midst of bad ones.

Some of you were like, that's not possible right now. Peter tells you that it is. This passage has four basic instructions. He tells us firstly to seek peace. Then he tells us secondly to expect suffering. Then he tells us thirdly to turn misery into ministry. And then fourthly, he tells us to stay on message.

Number one, seek peace. Look in verse 10. For the one who wants to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do what is good.

Let him seek peace and pursue it because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil. A quote from Psalm 34. So how do we seek good days in the midst of bad ones? Well, Peter tells us we keep our tongues from speaking evil. We turn away from evil and do good and we seek peace with all people. This is a continuation, by the way, of Peter's theme throughout this letter that in any situation we can always respond like Jesus.

Listen, there is a sweetness, a peace in giving up the responsibility to control everything, to always get even. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take him at his word. That spirit of sweetness and rest ought to characterize the church, Peter says.

And that sweet, peaceful spirit should feel like shade on a hot day. It's how, he says, we love life and we see good days. Peter's gonna give us several words in these verses that describe this sweetness in action, words that he says ought to characterize the fellowship of the church. Look at verse eight. He says, be like-minded. Be like-minded means pursue unity.

By the way, let's point out the obvious here. The fact that Peter commands this of us means it doesn't always come naturally. If it came naturally, he wouldn't need to command us. And that's because in a New Testament church, you're supposed to have people of different cultures and backgrounds who find common cause in Christ. And when you have people of different cultures and backgrounds, well, they bring in different perspectives and cultural preferences and that creates tension. Jesus and the apostles never envisioned the church as a place where everybody thought the same thing about everything, where everybody liked everything equally, a place where everybody thinks alike on every issue and all likes the exact same things.

That's called a cult. A church is a group of diverse people who find a unity in Christ that outweighs those differences. They discover, believers discover a message that unites them, that goes far beyond any secondary agenda that divides them. Peter then gives us two words that are necessary for that kind of like-mindedness.

First of all, he says in verse eight, be sympathetic with one another. Sympathy means feeling something alongside someone else, trying to enter in with them into their pain. During a time of conflict, if you are sympathetic with your brothers and sisters, that means that you'll ask, do I really understand their perspective? What hurt is behind that perspective?

Even you'll say, why do certain political messages resonate so deeply with them? Now, I'm not saying you have to agree with them, but sympathy means you at least try to see things through their eyes. Here's a question, if you're on the opposite side of some other believer in our church with some issue, could you state their opinion in a way that they would say fairly represents their view? Could you identify the concerns or the pain that underlies their perspective?

Again, hear me, I'm not saying that in seeking to understand them that you got to concede they're right about everything, but I am saying that they're human and they need Jesus and you can't give them Jesus if you don't even understand them. Then Peter adds, he says love one another. Love means you care deeply about somebody, even more in fact than you do having your own opinion always affirmed back to you. Living with the gospel above all means caring more about each other and our unity in Christ than we do uniformity and opinion on secondary matters. Are you okay being around people who differ from you in some cultural or political perspective because your love for them is greater than the affirmation of your perspective? We see that spirit exemplified, by the way, with Paul in Romans 14.

We looked at that earlier this year. There were issues in the church that were deeply divisive between Jews and Gentiles and Paul had his opinion about who was right. He backed up his perspective with Scripture. He even called those who didn't see things his way, he called them weak in their gospel understanding. Yet Paul said that he would rather downplay his convictions on those issues in the church than he would see disagreement on them destroy the unity of the body. Unity from love, not uniformity of perspective.

Is this what you want? Now let me give you a warning. This is hard. It's hard when you are deeply passionate and deeply convinced about something. It's hard to be around people who think differently from you.

But is the body of Christ and the message of the gospel worth that kind of tension? Notice what he says next. He says and be compassionate. The root word for compassionate in Greek is the word splagma.

The word splagma means a deep feeling of pity that works up from within. You can hear it when you say it. It means you don't just fake nicety like we do here in the south.

Oh, bless his heart, he is such an idiot, right? It means you really feel somebody's pain. Let your love for others, he says, let it be more than just surface level platitudes.

Really invest yourself emotionally in the pain of your brothers and sisters. Share it, bear it. By the way, people can tell the difference when you're being polite and when you actually care. And they won't care what you have to say until they're convinced you really care for them. I always heard that as people don't care what you know until they know that you care. Peter goes on, he says, and be humble. Be humble.

I think one of the chief causes of disunity in the church is a bunch of people strutting around all the time, assuming they're right about everything. Are you at least open to being wrong, to having your perspective changed? Here's a problem with me.

I'll just put it out there for you. I always think that I'm right about whatever I'm thinking at the moment. My wife says the motto of my life, if I die, she's gonna put this on my tombstone. Often wrong, never in doubt, right? But I'm always convinced of whatever I think in the moment. Yet now here I am, I look back five years, 10 years, and I see perspectives I had back then, and now I think, whoa, I was way wrong then. But at the time, I was totally convinced that I was right. Well, see, maybe that ought to evoke some humility in me now that I'm not right about every perspective I have now, right?

Right, you think? Be willing to listen, he says. You might still disagree, but maybe they'll help you see something you haven't seen. Again, here's a really practical tip. When you're in the midst of a disagreement, before you offer your opinion, make sure that you can repeat back the point the other person is making in a way where they'll say, well, that's exactly right. That's exactly how I feel. Don't just listen to them so you can refute their arguments.

That's what we typically do. Listen so that you can understand them. Let me just ask you to consider, how do you think people see you?

Do you think they see you as someone primarily concerned to get your opinion out or somebody that is really eager to listen? Humility means that you're going to be seen as somebody who is eager to listen, quick to hear, as James says, but slow to speak. He continues on in verse nine. He says, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult.

Now, y'all, this is Peter's go-to theme. Be like Jesus who never returned evil for evil. When Jesus was reviled, he didn't revile in return. When he was cursed, he blessed in return. When somebody says something hurtful or harsh or condescending, don't return in kind.

He says, all right, real talk right now. Are you seeking in your heart, look in your heart, are you seeking to bless your enemies? Do you desire the good of your enemies? Are you praying for their good? Are you looking for ways to be good to them? Friends and family, this is the way of Christ. And what happens when you live this way? Peter says, verse nine, you'll love life and you'll see good days. You're like, good days right now? That's just not possible.

COVID and race and this election. But Peter says, there is a way to love life and see good days, even in the midst of bad ones. It's promised right there in the text. Trust like Jesus, respond like Jesus, live like Jesus, and you'll have the joy and the peace that Jesus lived with. Thanks for joining us today here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I don't know about you, but it's around that time of the year where I'm really starting to get into the Christmas spirit. And to help you do that, right now we're offering our Summit Life listening family a set of Christmas cards that reflect the real reason we make such a big deal out of this season. As our gift to you for your generous support today, we've crafted a set of 20 Christmas cards for you to send your friends and family this holiday season.

Few things are as meaningful as a handwritten note, especially in our increasingly digital world. Each card has a message of hope. Things like Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace to remind us of the reason we're celebrating. And each card has plenty of space to write a special note to your loved ones. Receive your set with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry today.

You can give by calling us at 866-335-5220 or by visiting us online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Number two, expect suffering. Verse nine, in talking about experiencing hardship and suffering and justice, Peter says, again, you were called for this. There is a reason prosperity gospel preachers don't spend much time preaching from First Peter. Peter says suffering is the norm of the Christian life. Now, what Peter does in these verses is he points to different kinds of suffering. First, he says, there is suffering because you did evil. And he says, there's no real joy in that.

You should avoid that. Think Jonah in the Bible. Jonah suffered in the belly of the fish because he ran from God. Avoid that kind of suffering, he says.

But second, he says, you can also suffer for doing right. Here you should think Joseph in the Bible. Joseph was sold into slavery and put into prison for doing the right thing. But God used that suffering to bring salvation to others. This is a suffering you want to emulate. As Joseph said at the end of his life to the brothers that had enslaved him, he's like, hey, you meant that for evil against me. God actually meant it for good to bring it about so that many people would be kept alive as they are today. This is Christ-like suffering, and it still happens today.

It's still the norm for the Christian life. Third, sometimes God has us suffer for no perceivable reason. Think Job in the Bible. He might change you in it.

He will change you in it, but you never really quite know what he's doing in the world through it. It's more of a mystery. Three kinds of suffering depicted in the three Joes of the Old Testament. Jonah, suffering for doing what is wrong. Joseph, suffering for doing what is right.

And then Job, who is suffering for no perceptible reason. Peter says in all of these, you can be confident that God is at work and know that just because you're suffering, that doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Verse 17 says, for it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil. Sometimes it's just God's will for you to suffer. You can do everything right and still suffer. Listen, y'all, we got to get rid of this idea of what I call the smooth sailing God, who when you please him makes everything smooth sailing and peachy keen for you. That's not what Jesus' life was like, and he did everything right, and he pleased God, and he still suffered.

And you were called to this, Peter says. We need to teach our kids to expect suffering in life. Otherwise, we're going to set them up for a crisis of faith.

If we teach them that if they do their part, everything's going to be smooth sailing, well, then at some point something goes wrong in their lives. They get denied the job. They get taken advantage of. They get dumped.

Their marriage falls apart. Death comes, and they feel like, but God, I did everything right. God, what's wrong with you?

Are you even there? They need to understand in that moment, I was called to this, and I can have the presence of Jesus in this moment and the promise that he's going to work it all out for good, and that's even better than a life about suffering, right, which leads me to number three. Number three, Peter tells us, verses 15 and 16, that we should turn misery into ministry. Verse 15, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anybody who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Peter says your suffering just might be the best moment you have to point others to Jesus. Pastor Brian here says that there's a difference in giving a defense of our faith versus being defensive about our faith, right?

Most Christians are really good at being defensive about their faith, but being ready to give a defense means first living a life that is so different that it evokes questions from others and then being prepared to answer those questions well. So let me ask you to consider both sides of that, okay? First, when is the last time somebody asked you the reason for your excessive joy or your hope and pain? When is the last time somebody asked you why you are so generous, so forgiving, so patient? Be honest right now, on a scale of one to ten, how different slash amazing is your life in this regard? Don't say ten, all right, that's reserved for Jesus. Don't say one, that's reserved for the devil.

So the scale of one through nine with ten reserved for Jesus, where would you rate yourself? How different is your life from those around you, from the people you go to school with, people you work with that live in your neighborhood, maybe in your own family? By the way, this was the secret of the early church's success. They lived in ways that just blew people's minds. When was the last time somebody asked you about your generosity oddness?

Because if they haven't asked you that in a while, maybe that's because you're not that much different. You see, that kind of living is the most effective evangelism there is. A couple years ago, I read a book about the final days of the very famous atheist Christopher Hitchens. During the last years of his life, he toured around university campuses debating a Christian scholar named Larry Taunton. Larry wrote the book that I was reading, and he described how very few of his intellectual rebuttals on the platform at these universities made any deep impression on Christopher. But during his last months, he said Christopher really began to question things. And it was mainly, Taunton said, because of Taunton's family's decision to adopt a special needs girl from Russia who had a lot of health problems. Larry said in the book, he said, he said, Christopher kept asking me, Larry, why?

Why would you bring that into your life? That, and he heard the hope in Larry's voice when he talked about life after death. Now, there's no proof that Christopher Hitchens became a believer before he died, but that kindness and that hope did something in his heart that intellectual arguments could not. Friends, family, this is effective evangelism. Effective evangelism doesn't come from mastering an evangelistic presentation. That's important, but that's not where the power comes from, the bridge, the four spiritual laws, the evangelic cube, right? Effective evangelism comes from living in a way that provokes the question, which is the other side of this.

Are you ready to share that when you're asked? Let me give you one more observation about this before we leave this point. Peter says, even in this, verse 16, you should do this with gentleness and respect. It doesn't matter how good your answer is or even how compelling your life is, if you answer without gentleness and respect, you're going to forfeit your witness. Screaming at somebody in Jesus' name does not change them. Amen, right? Nobody ever gets converted through you saying mean, cutting things on Facebook or picketing a gay pride parade. Gentleness, respect, that is supposed to describe our witness, our defense.

Gentle, gentle, respect, respect. You can do everything right. You can be a great defender of theology or even adopt a child. You can be a model Christian, but the minute you speak hatefully towards somebody else, you're going to undo all of that.

It makes the rest of your life feel like a sham. Lastly, number four, he tells us to stay on message. Look at verse 18. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirit, in which he also went and made proclamation of the spirits in prison, who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In that ark, a few, that is eight people to be exact, were saved through water.

Verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and who is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers now subject to him. Oh my, some big old questions in those verses, am I right? By the way, these verses in first Peter are regarded by many to be one of the most, if not the most confusing passage in the New Testament.

So I want to very, very quickly answer the two hardest questions there, okay? Number one, what in the heck does Peter mean when he says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison? And number two, what does he mean by baptism now saves you? All right, verse 19 says that Christ by his spirit also went and made proclamation of the spirits in prison. Verse 20, who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared.

That could mean one of two things, right? It could mean that after Jesus's death he went and proclaimed his victory to a group of disobedient demons, principalities, and powers who had been at work in the days of Noah, who were now bound up awaiting judgment, and Christ went and proclaimed to them his ultimate victory as like a foretaste of what would happen at the final judgment. The other option, and the one that I prefer, is that Peter is saying that Christ through his spirit was preaching through Noah during Noah's disobedient generation, just as he is preaching now through us to ours. Noah preached for 120 years to his generation and pretty much nobody listened. And Peter is saying, don't be discouraged if sometimes you get the same reaction Noah got, because God eventually kept his word to Noah and God brought salvation.

And we can be confident that he's going to keep his word to us also, right? If you were reading it that way, you would read verse 19 like this. In his spirit, Christ in the past proclaimed the gospel through Noah to the spirits, that is the souls of people who are now in prison, that is they're in hell because they didn't believe Noah's message. But don't get discouraged, God eventually brought salvation in Noah's day, he'll bring salvation in ours too.

Okay, that's your first one. Second confusing phrase is in verse 21. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

And you're like, what? Baptism saves you? I thought scripture says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Or if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead, right, then you'll be saved. For with the heart man believes under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. There's nothing about baptism in there.

Well, no, Peter is not contradicting that. He's not saying that getting baptized is actually what saves you. It's just that baptism was closely associated with conversion, with salvation. We often say here at the Summit Church that it's like the ring ceremony in a marriage, and you could easily conflate the two. If I tell you that 20 years ago, by the way, 20 years ago this week, July 28th, that Veronica and I exchanged rings and were married, I don't mean that the exchange of rings alone made us married.

I'm just speaking in shorthand. I'm taking the ceremony and I'm talking about that as the moment of marriage. Well, that's what Peter is doing here. He makes clear, in fact, that he is not saying the water of baptism going over you is what saves you. He says it's the response of faith expressed through baptism. See verse 21.

He says, I'm not talking about the removal of dirt from the body. I'm talking about the pledge of a good conscience, that is the request for forgiveness of sins toward God that you are declaring in baptism. So that's your answer, all right? You can all explain one of the most confusing passages of scripture now. Congratulations, you are all certified Bible nerds. But in those technicalities, don't lose Peter's main point, okay, in this section.

Here it is. Christ wins. Just like you won in the days of Noah when everybody thought Noah was a fool, right? Christ won and so He will today. He wins.

And so Peter says, don't get off message. There's one winner to this whole thing, Christ. Keep preaching Him, even when it feels like nobody's listening, even when it feels like the world is coming unraveled and falling apart. Keep preaching because just like He brought salvation through Noah, so He is going to bring it through you also.

Summit Church, the Gospel is first here at the Summit Church and always will be. It is the one message, the one mission, the one agenda that I know is guaranteed to succeed. I don't know where everything is going in our world. I don't know where society is going, but I know where Jesus is going.

So sure, let's talk about politics, but here's our main talking point. Both Democrats and Republicans need Jesus. And the ultimate salvation that we're looking for didn't come riding in on the wings of Air Force One.

It came cradled in a manger. And whether you belong to the donkey or the elephant is not nearly as important to me as whether you belong to the lamb. And yeah, let's talk about the economy, but our main message is that both the rich and the poor need Jesus.

And yeah, let's talk about race. Our main message is going to be that people of every race need Jesus and that Jesus came to make one equal family of brothers and sisters out of all of us. And that changes how we think about each other. Yeah, these subjects matter, but Jesus matters most of all. So we're going to stay on message by God's grace. This is the shade and the hot sun of a chaotic world.

This is how you love life and see good days. We all need Jesus. He matters most of all. His covering allows us to love life and see good days. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. We make all of our online Bible study resources available free of charge because we want people everywhere to be able to dive deeper into the gospel with us without cost getting in the way. But did you know that it's friends like you who make this possible? As a nonprofit ministry, Summit Life relies on the financial support of listeners who believe in our mission. And today, when you give, we have a new resource from Pastor J.D. that we'd like to send to say thank you. It's a set of Christmas cards that we've designed just for you this season.

And these 20 cards are a great way to send a hope-filled message to a loved one this Christmas, because each one has a reminder of the Savior that we're celebrating. We'll send you a set today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. You can give by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or give online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Join us again Tuesday as we continue our series through 1 Peter right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.