When Fear Tempts Us to Silence (1 Peter 3:14-15)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. What They All Have in Common

Think about what all of these followers of Jesus Christ have in common:

• Maddy is a teenage girl at a new school. After a couple weeks of trying to connect with some of the other students, a group of kids invite her to sit with them at lunch. The interactions are going well until someone starts speaking about Christianity in a disparaging way. Eventually, after everyone else has commented, Maddy is asked about her opinion.

• Omar is a young father in an Islamic country. He has been a Christian for almost two years now, but recently, a relative saw him talking with a group of foreigners, foreigners that were, very publicly, expelled from the country for proselytizing. This relative is now pressuring Omar about the incident and constantly asking him about his religious commitments.

• Sheila is a rising star in her company. Sadly, one of her most supportive supervisors retired last month and she is finding her new boss to be difficult and demanding, and... an outspoken atheist. When a new position opens up, Sheila is excited about the opportunity. But she needs her supervisor's recommendation, and he's now bothered by why she won't work on Sundays.

• Jayden is a seventh-grader attending a Christian club after school. His mom is from a Buddhist home, the daughter of Asian immigrants. Two things she regularly emphasizes with him are honoring their culture and working hard in school. When he scores slightly lower on an important exam, she confronts him about homework and his after-school schedule.

So... were you able to discern what all of these followers of Jesus have in common? Yes. All of them are in a position to speak about their faith in Christ. But all of them are also in a place of temptation: the temptation to allow fear to silence their testimony. Fear of rejection. Fear of persecution. Fear of loss. Fear of confrontation.

I. The Passage: “Have No Fear of Them” (3:14-15)

In 1 Peter 3, the Apostle speaks to this very issue. Like the individuals I just described, Peter's audience was also encountering these kinds of opportunities... and these kinds of temptations. Look with me at verses 14 and 15. Actually, let's start in verse 13. Peter has just called them to a life of radical love and peace and purity, even if and when they encounter pushback. Verse 13...

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? [i.e., in most cases, doing good does not incite persecution] [14] But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. [Now listen to this] Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, [15] 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; yet do it with gentleness and respect...

Okay. If we took the time to read this entire letter (all five chapters!), we would discover many passages about the resistance, about the friction, that these believers were experiencing from their unbelieving neighbors because of their faith: 1:6; 2:12; 2:15; 2:19-20; 4:4; 4:12-14; 4:19; 5:9-10. But as I indicated, this pagan pushback was tempting many to be fearfully... silent.

Now if anyone knew about this kind of temptation, it was Peter. Three decades earlier, Peter had stood in a Jerusalem courtyard, around an open fire, and denied even knowing Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times. And why did he deny His Master and friend? Why did he stay silent about his testimony? About the grace of God in his life? Fear. He succumb to fear.

Now fear in and of itself is not a bad thing, is it. There is such a thing as healthy fear, just as there is such a thing as unhealthy fear. And of course, in the moment, in that moment when we are tempted by fear to stay silent about Jesus, it kind of feels like a healthy fear, doesn't it? In that moment, we can vividly imagine the potential consequences of our testimony. What I mean is that we can almost taste that rejection, that persecution, that loss, that confrontation, that discomfort... we can taste it even before it's a reality. And so... we're tempted to say nothing.

But when we step out of the moment, when we look through the lens of God's word and our own experience of his grace, then we know... all of us know that any fear that tempts us to shut our mouths about our great Redeemer... is absolutely unhealthy fear. Amen? So what can we do? How does Peter encourage his readers in the face of this kind of fear-inspired temptation? He writes in v. 14, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled... but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy...”. There it is. That is Peter's strategy for facing any fear that tempts disciples of Jesus to stay quiet and/or conform. “...but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy”.

How would you encourage Maddy if you could somehow stop time at that lunch table? “Maddy, in your heart, honor Christ the Lord as holy.” How you would help Omar as he struggles with his pressing relative? “Omar, in your heart, honor Christ the Lord as holy.” What about Sheila... or Jayden, and the difficult situations that were tempting them to silence? “Sheila, Jayden, in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy.” Okay. But what exactly does that mean? To get a better sense of what Peter is saying, look with me at the verses he's referencing here: Isaiah 8:12-13...

“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. [13] But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”

Now Isaiah 8 seems to be one of the Old Testament chapters Peter was meditating on before he wrote this letter. He's already quoted the next verse, 8:14, in 1 Peter 2:8. But do you see how Peter has adapted the language of Isaiah 8:12-13 in 1 Peter 3:14-15? Please notice in these verses from Isaiah that God is speaking through the prophet about unhealthy and healthy fear. Unhealthy fear was Judah's fear of neighboring armies. Healthy fear was (and is) the fear of God, the living God; the one true God.

In the same way, the disciples to whom Peter wrote were tempted by an unhealthy fear of their unbelieving neighbors (and maybe of civil officials). And yet, what remained true was healthy fear. A healthy fear was (and is) the fear of God, the living God; the one true God; the God whom Peter knew, amazingly, had come near to us in the person of Jesus. If Peter did not believe that Jesus was (and is) God, then he would never have used verses from Isaiah that called God's old covenant people to honor Yahweh as holy, and applied them to Jesus, calling God's new covenant people to “honor Christ the Lord as holy”. So...

What does it means to “honor Christ... as holy”? When God provides an opportunity to point others to Jesus, but at the same time, fear tempts us to silence, what does it mean to “honor Christ... as holy”? Well, the truth that God, that Christ, is holy, communicates the idea that there is nothing and no one like him. As God, he is truly set apart. He is wholly other.

The Bible describes things as holy, and places as holy, and even people as holy. But those are always somehow derived from God's holiness; because such things are associated with a holy God. In the truest sense, only God is holy. Therefore, He alone is to be feared above else. But are we really called to fear Jesus? Of course we are. He is God in human flesh. But let's be clear, that doesn't mean we, as disciples, are terrified of Jesus. No. Because of his cross and his victory over death, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). But... that should mean we revere Him (i.e., in awe of him) all the more!

To bring this all together, think again about those moments when we are tempted to silence. If we think of being afraid in terms of being overwhelmed by the possibility of hurt or harm, I think what Peter is encouraging his readers to do (and what God is encouraging us to do) is to, instead, be divinely overwhelmed in those moments by the fact that,“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to” Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18) And if “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3), that means he can truly uphold you (he can uphold us) in such moments; when fear tempts us to shut up, but God calls us to stand up.

III. The “Always” Here

Brothers and sisters, if we were to read all five chapters of Peter's letter this morning, one of the other things that would become apparent is how every chapter points us to Jesus; how every chapter reveals Jesus; how they present Jesus as holy. I mention that because I don't think Peter is instructing them only to meditate on and honor Christ's holiness in those moments of testimony and temptation. No. We believe that in every moment of every day God is calling us to this glorious and ultimate task: “in your heart, honor Christ the Lord as holy.” May that be our daily goal and daily prayer. As Peter put it at the end of his second letter: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Pe. 3:18) And as we do that, to be overwhelmed by his holiness; to the degree that when we have opportunities to speak of his greatness, fear can get no foothold.

And that leads us and links with the even more practical encouragement here: when you, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy”, make sure you are “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”; and that you do so “with gentleness and respect.” What does that mean? It means in addition to our daily call to honor Christ the Lord as holy, that if you have not done so, you take time today, or tomorrow, or sometime this week... you take time to think through and maybe write down what you would say to someone who, when they see Christ in you, asks you about your “hope”. That doesn't mean you have to come up with some long, complex, water-tight argument for Christianity or that you have to answer all their questions. It simply means you point them to Jesus. Maybe that's through a key verse or a good quote or through a simple version of your own testimony. But God has given us a command here: 'always be prepared'. Yes, brother, sister, let your light shine. But also, by His grace, be ready to talk about that light. And what a privilege it is to do so.

Faith family, think about what God has shown this morning. Because of His grace, and in light of all that we have in Christ, God calls us to speak about our hope, especially to those who are asking (those whom God may be stirring). He also knows we can be tempted by fear in those moments; tempted to stay quiet. But we have a great Redeemer in Jesus. We have an exalted King. In times like that, we don't have to shrink in fear. Instead we stand in awe of Jesus. And so our prayer this morning is for hearts that are growing in the greatness of Jesus, and mouths that are being prepared to speak about the incomparable hope we have in him. All to God's glory!