April 27 — Being Ready to Make a Defense… — 1 Peter 3:15-22; Acts 17:16-31 — Pastor Charles Mallie

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April 20 — Always Being Ready to Make a Defense… — 1 Peter 3:15-22; Acts 17:16-31 — Pastor Charles Mallie

In the name of Jesus,
- Amen
“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
If you’ ve been paying attention to me when I preach, you may have noticed something particular about my sermons.
- I almost always preach on the Gospel.
- I do that because the words of Jesus are more important than the words of Paul, or Peter, or Charlie.
- - Sermons aren’t rightly about social issues, political agendas, or contemporary happenings.
- - Sermons are rightly about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
- - “Lord, to whom else shall we go, you, only you have the words of eternal life!”
Today I’m going to break stride and talk about something that you may not be used to hearing from the pulpit… evangelism and apologetics.
- Apologetics is the defense of the Faith.
- - Apologetics is the art of telling why you believe what you believe.
- I’m going to do something in the style and the manner of the apostles themselves.
- - I’m going to give you something that was first given to me at the beginning of my journey along the Way called Jesus.
My story is different than most of yours.
- I didn’t grow up in the faith
- - Most of you know that.
- I didn’t have the benefit of growing up at the feet of our Lord.
- Where I grew up, if anyone was a Christian, you’d never know it.
- - There were no church groups trying to evangelize on the street corners.
- - There were no missionary tracts on my windshield… EVER.
- - There was no Christian witness of any sort — good or bad.
- How would you like to grow up in that environment?
- - There was no moral compass.
- - Premarital sex? No big deal…
- - Drugs were everywhere.
- - Rampant liberalism.
- - No Christ, no church, no preaching, no nothin’.
- And by the way, the kids who saw through this had one other defining characteristic:
- - No Hope.
- How’d you like your kids to grow up in that atmosphere?
  - Well… keep on with the attitude that Sunday school is optional and catechesis is no big deal and that’s exactly what you’re going to wind up with.
- - And… that’s exactly where this culture is headed.
- Unless you are actively doing something about it, you’re part of the problem.
- - We are losing our world to unbelief.
- - … And our Synod to the lawyers and bureaucrats.
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.
- Can you defend Christianity?
- - If you were in a room with a non-Christian and he asked you, “Why do you believe that whole mess about Jesus?” Could you answer?
- - Could what you said to be true in a way that the non-Christian could investigate it for himself, objectively?
- - Or would you retreat saying:
- - - Christianity works for me…
- - - Or it makes me feel good…
- - - Or, I like it…
- - - Or something else that’s not helpful to the skeptical unbeliever.
- - And while all of that may be true for you…
- - That doesn’t mean it’s objectively true.
- It’s not your fault because you don’t know how to do this.
- - It needs to be taught
- - Unfortunately, it’s not taught in most churches or even perhaps most Christian universities.
- - And if you think you go to seminary to learn how to defend the Christian faith, I’ve got some bad news for you.
- - - The pastors I know (for the most part) are completely incapable of doing this.
- We ALL need to sit at the feet of St. Paul for so many reasons.
- - But this morning, we need to sit at his feet and watch and listen to how St. Paul walks Christ into a completely pagan culture.
Paul doesn’t go looking for a fight, but is the epitome of what Peter writes.
- “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
Paul’s message is twofold.
- It is the manner of apostolic preaching that has almost been lost in this age.
- The first thing that Paul does is build a bridge with the people.
- - He doesn’t preach at them from afar, he gets down in the trenches with them.
- You start by reaching out.
- - In the same manner as Christ reached out across heaven to descend to earth and take on our flesh, in the same manner He reached out across time and space to reach you through His Word.
- - In the same manner Christ reaches out through Word and Sacrament, Paul reaches out.
- - He meets people where they are.
- And there is an introduction.
- - For Paul it was, “You even have an altar to an unknown god… let me tell you about him.”
For most of you, this will be the most difficult thing you ever do in your entire life.
- You may study long and hard for that presentation at work in the morning.
- You may work for days to prepare for the board meeting.
- You work and sweat and labor and train and practice and role-play and simulate for all kinds of earthly tasks that are important to you.
Why would you think it would be any different here?
- Are you lazy when it comes to your faith, or just uncommitted?
- Or can you just not be bothered because you’re just too busy doing things that nobody will even remember after you’re gone.
- All the while your friend, your neighbor, your relative, your spouse… is one day closer to the grave and closer to hell.
My point is, in your personal life, you have pushed yourself into all kinds of situations that may have been uncomfortable for you, but you did it for some earthly reward.
- How is it that when it comes to evangelism the linchpin gets pulled and the whole cart collapses?
- You know why.
- - Sin.
- - That part of us that resists God, rebels, rejects.
- That is why Peter reminds us of our first step.
- - “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…”
We must begin this endeavor of reaching the world for Christ with a reminder that Christ has reached out for us.
- We must remind ourselves that we were in the position of the unbeliever.
- We were the ones ignorant of the blessings in Christ.
- We were the ones who were still in our sin, who were burdened by guilt, who had no hope.
But in Christ, all is different.
- In Christ, we have hope… the sure hope of the resurrection.
- The hope of eternal life.
- We have peace with God.
This morning, Peter reminds us, that we need to be able to give a reason for this hope that is within us.
Do you know how simple this is?
- Let me show you.
- First you need to meet people where they are.
- - You know what that means?

- - - You can’t sit in your living room and do this.
    - I don’t evangelize by sitting behind my desk.
    - That’s why I’m not there much.
    - You have to go where unbelievers are.
- - - - For Paul, that was all over the Mediterranean.
      - This morning, it’s Athens.
- - - For most of you it’s not so hard.
- - - - Work, school, the gym, Starbucks, grocery shopping… wherever you find yourself during the week, I’m willing to bet not everyone in your sphere of existence is Christian.
- - - - That’s good news for you, because you don’t have to feel guilty for not becoming a missionary and shipping off to Africa.
- Okay, so step one… finding non-Christian.
- - You all have them in your life.
- Now, if you like most people, you can manage to start a conversation about almost anything.
- - The weather, sports, politics… but when it comes to that one word… Jesus…
- - You have tremendous fear about bringing up that Name.
- But imagine being able to get even one person from your life into these pews to hear about what you have every day, forever.
- - Forgiveness, life, and salvation.
- Imagine if we could fill these pews.
- Imagine if we had to go to the three services… or even four.
- Imagine if we have the money to support all kinds of mission work.
- Imagine if we could fill heaven with souls redeemed by the blood of the Lamb all because we’ve learned to open our mouths at the right time!
- Imagine looking back on three years of your life and realizing that because you open your mouth, 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 or 1000 souls were brought “to the Word of God and their Names were now written in the Book of Life because when the Spirit wanted to work… you opened your mouth.
- Would you ever worry about your life not having the “meaning” you think it should?
- Okay, so you’ve found a non-Christian, and you’ve managed to actually talk to you… about something… sports, weather, business… whatever.
- Now what?
How do you get that over to Jesus?
- This is where the art of evangelism comes in.
You need to learn to cool your jets and LISTEN.
- Most people will open up about something to see if you can help.
- - For some people, they’ll bring up business, or some problem at work, or perhaps something personal.
- What you want to do is see if you can walk Christ into that situation.
- - To do that, you have to make that connection between whatever it is and Jesus.
- - Sound hard?
- It isn’t. Do you want to know what works in almost every situation?
- - When somebody brings up a difficulty you can ask, “Have you prayed about that?”
- - It works in most situations, because it points you right in the middle of evangelism and apologetics.
- - Now, as scary as it sounds, this is going to put you exactly where you need to be.
It’s like Paul saying to the Athenians, “I perceive you to be religious men…”
- Everybody believes in something. This is going to let you know how and what they believe.
- Now, you’ve done the hardest part.
- LISTEN to their answer.
- - If they say anything that is not in line with the Apostles Creed you can ask why they believe that.
- What do I mean?
- - Okay, well… let’s say they bring up something they are ‘going through,’ and you ask, “Have you prayed about that?” And they say, “No, but I did rub a pink crystal ball over my butt.”
- - Or something else utterly pagan.
- You get to say… with meekness and gentleness,
- - “Why do you believe that?”
- - Then, sit back and listen.
- Most people have no real idea about why they believe the things they believe (that goes for Christians too!) And they’ll get frustrated and turn it around on you…
- - SO… Mr. smarty-pants Christian, why do you believe what you believe?
And this is where the real work of apologetics and evangelism is done.
- You get to preach like Peter and evangelize like Paul.
You get to say, “I believe because He rose from the dead!”
- Repeat that.
- It’s amazing how Christians never think of it… but it’s what Paul says over and over.
- - “For I delivered to you as the first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, and then to all the apostles…”
- I believe because He rose from the dead!
But you’re thinking, “What if they challenged me on that?”
- Relax… they WILL.
- Then you get to defend the whole Bible as being an accurate historical work that I can trust far and above the New York Times for truth in reporting the fact.
Now, I want you to realize something.
- Whether or not they walk away from this conversation as a believer or not, you have done something very important.
- You have preached the gospel to that person, especially if you’re quoting the 1 Corinthians 15 passages that I just said.
That’s the thing that does the real converting — the Gospel.
- God works in the heart through His Word.
- What you’re doing is preaching and defending the preaching as true and reliable.
I know there’s more to it than this, but we have to start somewhere.
- I’d be willing to teach you all how to do this in detail, but it means you actually have to start coming to Bible Study.
I know this will take some work on your part.
- First, many of you hardly know your Bibles, and that has to change.
- Second, some of you aren’t even quite sure what you believe. That’s not so good either.
- And third, and defending the Gospel and the Bible is going to take a little work on your part.
But I will say this, if you’re unwilling to do 1, 2, and 3… then there really isn’t much point in paying a pastor to preach, much less two of us.
- And don’t be surprised if, in a decade or so, there isn’t a church for you or your children.
- - It’s a simple fact, churches that don’t evangelize, die.
  - Christ set it up like that for a reason.
If you’re here, God has called you to be a missionary to this community, no matter your zip code.
- This is your basis of operations.
- It’s where you get fed and where training is available to help you in this task for the purpose of bringing the Gospel to the four corners of the world… starting from this parking lot.
Where did all of this get Paul?
- Well, in the end it got him killed.
- - But you don’t really have to worry about that, you’ve already died with Christ… and you will rise with Him on the last day.
For Paul’s hearers that day in Athens… well, just listen to him…
- “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
- “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, ‘We will hear you again concerning this.’ So Paul went out from their midst but some men joined him and believed.”
Some are going to sneer.
- Some are going to make fun… and to be honest, some of it will hurt.
But every once in a while you’ll get a guy who says, “We shall hear you again concerning this.”
- And of those, some will hear and believe.
A Day of judgment has been fixed, is coming, and perhaps soon, when there will be no more second chances for those not in Christ.
To bring this back around, this type of conversation should lead to one place…
- BAPTISM, which is your entrance into the Body of Christ, the Church.
- This is why Peter writes about this as he is encouraging you to give an answer to anyone that asks.
- - “Baptism now saves, through the resurrection of Christ.”
You have been saved.
- You’re in… forever.
- Not even your own sin can get you out.
- All of it’s been paid for.
My prayer is that you’ll value what you have enough so that it just might move you to open your mouth.
In the name of Jesus.
- Amen.

God's Word at Work » Make a Defense

April 27 — Being Ready to Make a Defense… — 1 Peter 3:15-22; Acts 17:16-31 — Pastor Charles Mallie