Sermon Tone Analysis

Inscription: Writing God’s Words on Our Hearts & Minds

Part 91: Engaging a Hostile Culture

1 Peter 3:13-17

October 14, 2012

PRAYER

SCRIPTURE READING: 1 Peter 3:13-17 (Brandi)

MAKING THEM LOOK BAD

LAST WEEK, I talked about how HARD WORK GLORIFIES God and how glorifying God is the best to ENGAGE our CULTURE.

After service, Doug and I were talking about that, how we had been DISLIKED for WORKING HARD and showing everyone else up.

Q Have you ever had a job where you WORKED really HARD and inadvertently made the others LOOK BAD?

~* MCDONALDS in San Dimas (Sound like the training video).

Q HOW can we “engage culture” in that situation?

Q Do we work SLOWER and start STEALING from the company to “become all things to all men”?

~* EG: PARENTS who BUY for the friend to be cool.

I realized when I talk about engaging culture, I usually assume that doing what is right would be met with APPROVAL.

What happens when that is what makes us HATED?

PETER’S WORLD

This is the world that PETER was WRITING to.

There wasn’t wide-spread persecution, but Christians were very UNPOPULAR: The Jews thought we were HERETICS and the pagans thought we were FREAKS.

~* Christians were losing FRIENDSHIP and JOBS because of faith.

But a STORM was looming on the HORIZON.

The emperor at the was Nero, a nut-job of a emperor who would go on to introduce the first major persecution of Christians.

~* Within a couple of years Peter would be EXECUTED under Nero.

PROVED GENUINE

As in the book of Hebrews, Peter’s readers are getting DISCOURAGED by the trials they were facing.

Peter is writing to encourage and PREPARE his readers.

1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Then, as now, we can have this SUBTLE EXPECTATION that when we do right we will be REWARDED and get in trouble for doing wrong.

Most of the time that is true, but:

Q What is the BEST TEST of your character: Doing the right thing when applauded or when cursed?

Q Are you more impressed by MLK’S stand against racism or modern politician’s unanimous stand against it?

Being HATED for doing what is RIGHT REFINES us, it tests our motives.

Are we truly doing it “as UNTO the LORD,” or for how it will HELP US out in society?

~* It one thing to do what is right because it is POPULAR, another to do it to the GLORY of GOD.

In some small way, EVERY TIME you ENCOUNTER RESISTANCE for righteousness, God is showing you your motives.

When:

~* Your CO-WORKERS hate your integrity.

~* Your BOSS demotes you for not fudging.

~* Your FRIENDS mock you for your morals.

Q How are your MOTIVES holding up?

FIRST WORLD PERSECUTION

Emphasis on “in SOME SMALL WAY.”

The persecutions we face are just barely worthy of that name.

Around the world, Christians are still persecuted.

If you convert to Christianity in some MUSLIM nations, you could be LYNCHED or EXECUTED.

In India, churches are being burned down.

~* The persecution we face is PALTRY in comparison, but it is our world nonetheless.

I am not trying to teach you how to survive in India, but in AMERICA.

Q HOW can we ENGAGE culture and shine Christ’s light in a world that is hostile to him and his claims?

WE ARE ALL JERKS

That is the question we need to answer, but it is a little more COMPLICATED than that:

When I was younger, I assumed that people rejected God because of their own sin.

Then I started to see just how RESPONSIBLE we as Christians are:

“I like your Christ, I do NOT LIKE your CHRISTIANS.

Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

~* This is attributed to GANDHI; though that is questionable, that is irrelevant – it represents how many people feel.

Then I went into what I call my “NOBLE PAGAN” stage – assuming that they were honestly seeking truth and it was our fault they had missed it.

Then I started reading “SKEPTIC: magazine and saw that atheists have all the wishful thinking, arrogance, manipulative techniques, etc that annoyed me about Christians.

~* I realized JERKDOM is a HUMAN CONDITION, not isolated to Christians or non-Christians.

REASONS FOR HOSTILITY

That to say, in order to glorify God and ENGAGE a CULTURE that is frequently HOSTILE, we need to look carefully to understand WHY they are HOSTILE.

I see at three reasons:

1.

We are being jerks.

Glee episode...

Q WHY does Hollywood use these STEREOTYPES?

Because they are just about the only SAFE cliché.

However, they work only because many people KNOW CHRISTIANS like that.

~* The BITTER IRONY is the church is not known for GRACE, but JUDGMENT – because we expect non-Christians to act like us.

Face it; we can be real jerks – SELF-RIGHTEOUS, ARROGANT, JUDGMENTAL, HYPOCRITICAL.

Add to that the ignorance of “God said it, that settles it” Christians.

~* “God’s name is BLASPHEMED among the Gentiles because of you” (to borrow from Romans 2:24).

So Peter says:

1 Peter 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Our goal as Christians is to so consistently live good lives that when Glee uses that stereotype, it rings as HOLLOW as a “lazy Mexican” stereotype, that viewers say, “That’s not true!”

~* We can only work on OURSELVES, but that is challenge enough for a lifetime.

Q HOW can we change?

EXAMINE if there is any truth to the allegations of JUDGMENTALISM and HYPOCRISY.

Q How would your CO-WORKERS DESCRIBE you?

The answer is not “TRY HARDER” but “Jesus, change my heart more, help me lean on your GRACE more.”

OWN UP TO THE CRUSADE

In addition to changing how we live, the second most important way to refute the Christian jerk stereotype is to humbly OWN UP to Christians FAILURES and APOLOGIZE.

Q Have you ever heard a politician disagree with his party?

He gains credibility.

2. They misunderstand us.

A lot of times we are just MISUNDERSTOOD, and people say a lot of dumb things about us.

At the Porterhouse I overheard a guy say Christians CAN’T EAT FIGS because Jesus cursed them.

Q Did you know that the Christians of Peter’s audience were accused of being ATHEISTS, CANNIBALS, and INCESTUOUS?

They saw US as the THREAT to MORALITY!

What’s more, because we would not WORSHIP CAESAR, they believed we were rebels and a threat to law and order.

That is why Peter wrote:

1 Peter 2:13-15 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.

Peter specifically has them contradict the PREVAILING FALSEHOOD about being rebels.

He tells them to SUBMIT to the government in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE to SILENCE the foolish talk.

Q What is some of the “ignorant talk” about us now?

~* That we hate SCIENCE.

~* That we are idiots who believe in FAIRY TALES.

~* That we hate GAYS.

~* That we are JUDGMENTAL and think we are better than everyone else.

What is the best way to contradict this ignorant talk?