Impractical Christianity Part 3

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Impractical Christianity Part 4

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. A reading from 1

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Peter 3. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

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Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

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For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed

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Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you do likewise.

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And do not fear anything that is frightening. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

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Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, a humble mind.

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Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.

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For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

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Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the

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Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

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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.

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Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you.

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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.

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For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

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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

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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.

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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 and authorities and powers having been subjected to him.

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This is the word of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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So, we are to the third chapter of 1 Peter, and I've named the sermon series, not 1

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Peter, I've named it Impractical Christianity, because you'll note that pretty much everything we've been reading week after week, as we've been working our way through 1

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Peter, seems completely out of whack with our post -modern culture.

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And I must warn everybody that as we work through these little vignettes of thoughts, and they're kind of strung together loosely, that as we work our way through them, there's some things here that, well, could get us in trouble if we were to say these things in public.

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Well, technically we are in public, and it's being recorded, so I expect there will be people with pitchforks outside my home sometime before the end of the week.

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But all of that being said, consider what Peter is writing here. Consider what the

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Holy Spirit would have us look at. And consider, well, the type of relationship that husbands and wives are to have here.

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And I think about years ago, there was a fellow who made his wife a pastor.

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And so she was preaching one Sunday, and I happen to review a lot of really bad sermons.

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And she was preaching one Sunday, and she said, you know that Proverbs 31 woman? And from the pulpit she says,

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I hate her. Just sitting there going, there's so much wrong here.

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There's no way to fix this. This is just really bad. But she went on, in her liberated feminine self, feminist that she is, she felt that we could just put all of that aside.

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This is the 21st century. But listen to these words that God the Holy Spirit has had the

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Apostle Peter pen for us. Wives, be subject to your own husbands.

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Don't throw stones at me or tomatoes, please. That's what the text says. Be subject to your own husbands.

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So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

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When they see your respectful and pure conduct.

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What? And you're gonna note here that Peter's admonition to Christian women does not apply merely to those wives who have husbands who are believers.

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The idea here is actually quite simple. The office of husband is established by Christ, and the office of wife is established by Christ.

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And that being the case, whomever holds that office is to be respected by virtue of that office.

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Yeah, but my husband, you don't understand. He is completely worthless. He does things that drive me completely bonkers and crazy.

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If you had to live with this man, you wouldn't want to show him any respect either. Yeah, put all that away.

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You see, note it says that they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

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And do not let your adorning be external. The braiding of your hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, or even the clothing that you wear.

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I cannot even imagine how much money Peter is saving women to not have to chase after the latest vogue fashions, right?

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Instead, he says let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit which in God's sight is very precious.

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Very precious in God's sight. Remember last week we heard about how our suffering for doing good is very precious in God's sight.

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And that this is something that we are called to as Christians. And so in the same way, something that is very precious in God's sight is that inner beauty that doesn't fade away with age.

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In fact, this kind of beauty that's being described here would only grow more beautiful over time.

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And then consider then, as a great cross -reference here, what God the Holy Spirit had penned in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 31.

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An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

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The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

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She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands.

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She is like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

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She considers a field and she buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.

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She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the staff and her hands hold the spindle.

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She opens her hand to the poor, reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all of her household are clothed in scarlet.

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She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

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She makes linen garments and sells them. She delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.

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She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

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Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also. And he praises her.

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Beautiful picture. And it's a picture of what Christ intends for our relationship with our wives to be.

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And over and again we must remember that God created Eve, fashioned her from Adam, and that she is

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Adam's helpmate. And so you get a picture of this. And I understand that this is quite the standard and that bringing this up would cause one to feel like maybe

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I haven't lived up to that. That's how the law works. Consider then, as Peter continues, talking still about the adorning of the hidden person.

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This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves. By submitting to their own husbands.

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As Sarah obeyed Abraham by calling him Lord. And you are her children if you do likewise and do not fear anything that is frightening.

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The last part is actually quite fascinating. And do not fear anything that is frightening.

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Over and again you'll note that many marriages struggle. Struggle when a woman is having fear and anxiety.

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And usually that fear and anxiety will have something to do with money. Something to do with the family or whatever.

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And that fear and anxiety causes them to freak out and to take matters into their own hands and to seize control oftentimes.

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And that is not what they are called to do. They are to continue to submit to their own husbands and do good even in the midst of frightening situations.

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It doesn't say that frightening situations will not come. It says that do not fear anything even when it is frightening.

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But likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel.

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And weaker vessel here, I think this oftentimes gets misunderstood. I think a good way to think of it is that we men are a little rough around the edges.

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If we were a vessel, we're kind of big, large, ugly clay pots.

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And if we're into sports, maybe we've got our favorite sports team's logo on that pot. Or if we're into hunting or whatever, you have

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AR -15s and stuff like that on the outside of the pot. You kind of get the idea. And there's nothing beautiful about the pot and there's nothing fragile about it.

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But a woman, a wife, as the weaker vessel, is a fine, fine china vase, beautiful and ornate, and needs to be handled with care.

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That's the idea here. So we are to honor our spouses, our wives as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you.

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And you'll note then that Peter makes it very clear that women and men both equally have the same standing before the

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Lord, and that women and men both, husbands and wives both, are heirs of the grace of life.

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And then a little bit of a warning here. And the warning is that treating your wife harshly may actually cause your prayers to be hindered because you are sinning against the woman whom

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God has honored. The idea is simple. And when you read Ephesians 5, it makes it very clear that this relationship between husbands and wives physically portrays the mystery between Christ and His bride, the church.

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And so when a husband abdicates his responsibility to love his wife as Christ has loved the church, to love her sacrificially, then he is doing violence to her in a way that is contrary to the very nature of Christ.

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And that's why this warning then, that your prayers may be hindered. And now Peter changes the subject.

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Finally, all of you, now we're talking to everybody, because you know that not everybody's married, right?

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Not everybody's married. I look at Brenda, it's going to be a while. It's going to be a while for you, right?

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So that part of the sermon, if you checked out, it's okay, kind of, but you should make note for the future.

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But this next part is for all of us. Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

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Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.

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And of course, I always read a passage like this, and then go, really? Serious? So the idea kind of works like this.

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You do not repay evil for evil. Instead, you repay evil with a blessing. You do not repay reviling for reviling, but instead, you pay reviling with a blessing.

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Of course, you read something like that, and you go, who does that? Oh, I can name somebody who did that.

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He hung on a cross. That's kind of the point, right? So, bless. For to this, and here's that word again, you were called.

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We were called to this. This is our calling, so that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and to see good days, and who doesn't want that?

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Let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

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Let him seek peace and pursue peace, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.

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But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Important to note, over and again it always surprises me, but it shouldn't, that when people hear a passage like this, especially verse 12, that the eyes of the

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Lord are on the righteous and he hears their prayers, that oftentimes we as Christians think of ourselves outside of that group because we look at our own sin, we look at our own shortcomings, and you go, well,

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I'm not exactly a righteous person. I may aspire to that someday, but maybe the

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Lord doesn't hear me. No, no, no, no, that's not how this works.

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You see, we must remember that we poor sinners, in our sin, in our tattered rags of sin, that Christ has taken those tattered rags on himself and he's given us in exchange his own clothing, his own righteousness.

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And so because we have been declared righteous by God, that's a verdict given by the

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Father himself. You have been declared to be righteous. The gavel has fallen, it slaps down, and y 'all are righteous.

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So therefore, know this and be confident in it, that God's ears are open to your prayers because they are.

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Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Let that question kind of hang out there in outer space for a second.

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Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Of course you sit there and go, well, the answer to that question is obvious.

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No good deed goes unpunished. So, of course there's people who are going to harm you if we're zealous for doing what is good.

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That's kind of how things operate, and the Christians get in trouble all the time for doing good things.

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And then Peter anticipates the answer. He says, yeah, but even if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.

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Hmm. Okay. So he says, have no fear of them, nor be troubled.

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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.

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And this is the old apologist's text, right? This is the one that John Ward Montgomery and the other apologists, and you think of the late

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Dr. Walter Moore, and he would love to tell you this text. Because defense. Always be ready to make a defense.

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It's the Greek word apologia. So always be ready to defend the Christian faith. But I would argue it's not quite that when you consider the context.

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Because listen to this. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

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Huh. Oh. Yeah, and what is our hope? Our hope is a new heavens and a new earth.

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Our hope is a world recreated by Christ where there is no sin, there is no death, there is no pain, there is no suffering.

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Our hope is to see God face to face. You see, that's a great hope.

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And so when anyone says, why do you have that hope? Well, a defense would go along the lines of, well, haven't you heard that the tomb is empty?

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Things like this. You can talk like that. But when you make your defense, do so with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, notice he doesn't say if, so when you are slandered, you

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Christians, pay attention, when you are slandered, then those who revile your good behavior in Christ that they may be put to shame.

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It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

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I would prefer a different option. Is there any way we can have some alleviation on the suffering part?

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But then again, this is what we are called to. Remember last week, it is better to suffer for doing good.

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And here's the reason why. And you'll note, so far we've been hearing a whole lot of law again.

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And as I read through these texts and preach through them, and as you're hearing them,

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I can see on your faces that you sit there and go, this is great stuff, pastor.

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If only I measured up. Me too. But know this then, and here's the gospel again.

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Christ also suffered. He suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring us to God.

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Being put to death in the flesh, he was made alive in the spirit. You see, because we do not measure up, because over and again, even we

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Christians who have a sinful nature have to be admonished, have to be told again and again to put that old sinful

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Adam to death. Consider him already dead. To walk by faith and sanctification means to believe the truth about what has happened to your sinful nature.

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And according to Scripture, your sinful nature has already been crucified with Christ.

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You have been united with Jesus in his death and his resurrection, and your old sinful nature pulls the old

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Monty Python stunt and says, I'm not dead yet. And you say, yes, you might think so, but Jesus says likewise.

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So I'm going to believe what Jesus says, and I'm going to consider you dead and crucified, and I'm going to stop listening to you, and I'm going to listen to Christ, because He has suffered for me.

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He is the righteous one, and He has bled and died for the unrighteous, which is you. As we approach

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Good Friday, and it's just a few weeks away, consider again vividly the details of what it took to save you and to save me.

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That Jesus, having been flogged and beaten and having a crown of thorns pressed into His head, was suspended between heaven and earth and had to pull

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Himself up by His arms even to breathe when He was on the cross. And He suffered, and He languished, and He bled and died, the righteous one for you and me, the unrighteous ones.

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And He did that because of His great love for us so that He might bring us to God. And being put to death in the flesh,

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He was made alive in the Spirit. And then He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.

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And this is that portion, over and again when you hear it in the Creed, He descended into hell.

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And you sit there and scratch your head and go, what's that all about? Well, here's one of the texts that gives us just a glimpse as to what that meant.

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That when Jesus went down to Sheol after He died, when He said, He cried out, it is finished, and gave up His spirit because He was in charge of when

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He died. He went down to Sheol. And there in Sheol, we remember from that story of the rich man and Lazarus that in Sheol, there's the two compartments,

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Abraham's bosom, on the one side where the righteous, those who had faith go, and then another side that's, well, called

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Hades. It sounds a lot like the warm -up act for hell. And between them, there's a great chasm.

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And so from this picture, then we get that Christ descending into hell goes to the side of Abraham's bosom, there, and shouts out across the chasm to those who refused to repent, to those who refused to believe, to those who refused to be forgiven and repent of their sins.

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Even when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, that He proclaimed His victory to them.

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And see, invoking Noah, then, does something kind of two -fold.

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Noah, we learn here, that while the ark was being prepared, only a few, that's eight persons in all, were brought safely through water.

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And that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. 120 years he preached. Worst results ever for a pastor as far as preaching is concerned.

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At the end of the day, only eight were saved. And they were all family. And yet God was patient.

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And the end of the world is likened by Christ to the days of Noah. Jesus says that just like in the days of Noah, so will be with the coming of the

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Son of Man. On the day that He appears, there will be people marrying and giving in marriage, and going about their business, not even knowing that calamity is soon to strike.

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You know, I always think about that, what Jesus says there in Matthew 24. And you feel, you've got to feel some sympathy for the young gal who planned her wedding for the day when the flood came.

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Right? Mmm. And now, a little bit of fun here.

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Peter reminds us that Noah being saved through the flood is a type and shadow, and the thing that it gives way to, the substance, is found then in our baptism.

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Verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to the flood, or is the anti -tupos in the

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Greek, the anti -type of the flood. It, baptism, now saves you.

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And it does. And it does this, he says, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.

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And when you put all the passages together, and consider what Paul writes in Romans 6, that in our baptisms we are united with Christ in His death and His resurrection.

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Peter says that our sins are washed away, and that we receive the Holy Spirit. In another passage,

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Paul makes it clear that our hearts are circumcised by Christ, and that in our baptisms, our old sinful atoms are crucified.

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And so, how could it not save? It is the means by which, or one of the means by which

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God regenerates people. That's exactly what Titus chapter 3 says. And so then, for the

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Christian, we return in repentance daily to our baptisms. Because it says here of our baptism, it is an appeal to God for a good conscience.

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And this is the reason why even though the devil rage and try to remind you of all of your past sins, and say you are a worthless, lousy, horrible, half -hearted

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Christian, to which you say yeah, thanks for the reminder, but I'm baptized. And I have a good conscience knowing what

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God has done for me in the waters of baptism. Baptism, it now saves you, Peter says.

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As an appeal to God for a good conscience to the resurrection of Jesus, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

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What a fun text, and I like the fact that both chapters 2 and 3 begin with law and end with the gospel.

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Quite appropriate. Especially during Lent, as we always and again remember that repentance comprises sorrow for sin, lament even for it, and yet at the same time a confident belief and trust in Christ, that we are saved and forgiven for his sake, by his merits, not our own.

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So let us again embrace our repentance here. Let us again see the ways in which we do not measure up, the ways in which we have fallen short, and let us also confidently believe in the one who has suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, because we, through him, have now been brought to God.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744. We thank you for your support.

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