Getting Ready to Give Answers
1 Peter 3:12-17
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15)
The command in 1 Peter 3:15 is clear: Sanctify the Lord God in your heart to be ready to give a defense – an answer to every man. Based on this verse, the message is plain. As believers, you and I should get ready to give answers to others about our confident hope in Jesus Christ. Let’s get ready.
During the last six months of World War II in Europe, the Nazis surrounded Bastogne, Belgium. Their forces cut off all seven roads leading into the city. On December 22, 1944, the Germans offered terms of surrender to the thousands of Allies within the city. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe sent them back a one word response: “Nuts!” But the situation was serious.
In June, 1944, the Allied forces had come ashore at Normandy, France in a counterattack against Nazi Germany. Over the next 6 months, they marched forward, liberating France and moving into Holland and Belgium. And now, as Christmas approached, the Allies were preparing to invade Germany. General George S. Patton told his commander, Omar Bradley, that he was ready to launch an offensive across the Sauer (Saar) River into Germany. But Adolf Hitler had different plans: the Ardennes offensive. This was Hitler’s last big gamble to win World War II.
Also known as “The Battle of the Bulge,” the German counterattack broke through the Allied lines, in late December, 1944. Their purpose was to divide the Allied armies, and capture the port city of Antwerp, Belgium. Then the Nazis planned to destroy the armies of the Allies one by one.
Knowing that the freezing rain and fog would keep the Allies from responding by air, the German infantry surged forward. But General Patton had been closely watching every movement of the enemy for weeks. His intelligence officer, Colonel Koch had noted that the Germans were assembling armament and supplies by the trainload. Patton knew that the enemy was up to something big. On December 14, Patton told his general staff to prepare plans, just in case they needed to go north and east into Belgium, rather than west into Germany. This would be a complex maneuver, involving a ninety degree turn for the entire army.
On December 16, the Nazis launched an offensive into Belgium. Their maneuver showed that they were capable of encircling and destroying Allied armies. On December 18, General Eisenhower convened a meeting of his generals at Verdun, France to discuss what to do next. It was a grim meeting, but one man had been preparing for this moment. When asked, General Patton announced that his Third Army was ready to attack with 3 divisions within 48 hours and press through to Bastogne. The others at the table were stunned by his announcement. Patton was ready. He had his men trained and ready to go.
After the war, Patton’s aide wrote, “To disengage three divisions actually in combat and launch them over more than a hundred miles of icy roads straight into the heart of a major attack of unprecedented violence presented problems which few commanders would have undertaken to resolve in that length of time.”[i] But Patton was ready. On December 26, 1944 his tanks broke through the German lines first and entered Bastogne, opening up an important supply line to the city. By making excellent preparations, the Third Army was ready for battle on all fronts. You and I need to get ready to give answers to everyone who asks us about our hope in Christ.
How to Get Ready: Sanctify the Lord in Your Heart
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
By reading the intelligence signals in 1 Peter 3:12-14, we can see the situation. It’s easy to think that our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil have the upper hand. But verses 12-13 tells us a very different story:
“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
Understanding that our Lord knows, sees, and hears everything helps us. He is paying attention to our requests. Knowing this helps us to set Him apart in our thoughts. Instead of dawdling and drifting from one distraction to another, we could concentrate on remembering the Lord’s presence with us. Set Him apart in your mind by praying. In the words of the Lord’s model prayer: “Hallowed be Thy name” (Matthew 6:9).
News articles today are alerting us to the influence of “Big Brother.” That’s a reference to a fictional work entitled “1984,” written by George Orwell. Writing in 1949, the author looked to a future day when cameras and microphones would be everywhere. Just think about it. How many hundreds of video cameras and microphones would you imagine are around you: at the grocery store, department store or in any public place? Such thinking could be intimidating. Like the characters in Orwell’s novel, we might hesitate when we wonder who is listening. Who is monitoring our social media, email, or the activities of our smart phones?
But think again about verse 12: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” This helps us to take our eyes off the observant enemies around us. Like Daniel, we can face conspiracies by turning to the Lord (Daniel 6:10). The Lord is listening for you to pray. Thinking this way helps you to know how to sanctify the Lord in your heart. It is so easy to let the news reports, fake news reports and rumors trouble you. But here is what you know. You know that the Lord is watching and listening. You know that even if you do have to suffer for righteousness’ sake, you can be prepared to press on by prayer.
Will this be easy? No, verses 16-17 paint a picture of the potential problems ahead.
“Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation [behavior] in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”
The day may come when you are falsely accused of evil when you do good work for Christ. But it is better to suffer for doing right than to do evil. The evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say, “It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.” To get ready for the days ahead, you and I should worship the Lord alone by setting Him apart in our thoughts, and crying out to Him with our pleas.
What to Get Ready: Answers and Reasons
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15)
Be ready – continually ready – to give an answer. The word “answer” translates the Greek word [apologia] meaning “to make a defense.”[ii] Specifically the answer Peter has in mind is this: why do you have hope? Why do you have a confident expectation in Christ? What is it that you need to get ready? You need to get answers and reasons ready.
As you read through Peter’s first letter, you can see what he says about this hope:
- Ours is a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1:3
This is the only way that someone is born again or born anew. We were brought forth alive to a living hope by the bodily resurrection of Christ from the grave.
- Ours is a future hope with faith in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. 1:13
This confidence causes us to prepare our minds for action and live soberly.
- Ours is a hope in God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1:18-22
Think about the way that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is expressed in these verses “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.” (1 Peter 1:18-22)
It was not by idols, but by the precious blood of Christ that we were saved. He alone, the Lamb without blemish, could be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind. God planned for Him to take this role, even before the foundation of the world. Through this blessed hope, Old Testament and New Testament believers have been gloriously saved. For God raised our sacrificed Lord and Lamb from the dead and gave Him glory. This is why we have faith and hope in God. This Gospel truth is what purified our souls through the Holy Spirit.
J.O. Fraser, a missionary with the China Inland Mission, ministered among the Lisu mountain people in southwest China near Burma (now Myanmar). On one occasion, a woman from a village came to him with a question: “The joy of telling of the Great Deliverer to those who had never heard was quickened, here and there, by the response of prepared hearts. Talking with a few men in a poky little shop one day, Fraser was surprised by the entrance of a bent and suffering woman who addressed him. She had caught the drift of his preaching out on the village street, and ventured a question, ‘If idols are false and cannot help us, then what is true?’ Very simply Fraser told her of the living Savior and how to put her trust in Him. It was a joy to hear her say, as she left him that her heart was now ‘ten tenths at peace.’”[iii] Ours is a hope in God that brings peace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Ours is a reasonable hope that we can share with others. 3:15
It is one thing to say that you have confidence in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation. But there’s more. This is a confidence – a faith, a hope – that can be shared. It is a reasonable hope based on the plain facts and principles of the Scripture. This is the basis for our defense: our reasons for such confidence.
Monica wept for her wayward son. Though he was brilliant, he was a prisoner of sensuality. At the young age of eighteen, he fathered a son. He lived with the boy’s mother in an illicit relationship for fifteen years thereafter. Monica’s wayward boy went on to become a famous teacher of speech and rhetoric. His father praised his son’s remarkable abilities while ignoring his son’s immorality. But his mother, a genuine Christian believer, was heartbroken; she faithfully prayed for her adult son. That man later confessed that he felt so guilty during this wayward phase of his life. “I was rolling in the slime of sin, often attempting to rise, and still sinking deeper”[iv] When this struggling sinner arrived in Milan, Italy in 384 A.D., he came into contact with the church at Milan, and its leader, Ambrose, “orator, scholar, poet and pastor.”[v] In the summer of 386, Monica’s wayward son would recall, “’there was no place where I could escape from myself…’ Finally, in tears he cried out, “O Lord! How long shall I go on saying ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment?’ At that second he heard a voice, as of a child, repeating the refrain, “Tolle lege”, “Take it and read, take it and read”. Augustine rushed into the house, opened a book containing the letters of Paul, and in silence read the first words his eyes fell upon: “Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and spend no more thought on the lust of the flesh.” (Romans 13:13, 14). Augustine would reflect upon his conversion in later years saying, ‘in an instant.. .it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubts dispelled’. The passage came to his mind as a direct message from heaven.”[vi]By now, you may have guessed that this is the testimony of the Augustine, who is often referred to as St. Augustine. He gloriously trusted Christ in his early 30’s and renounced his sinful past. He went on to become one of the greatest apologists that Christianity has ever known. His hope was in the Gospel of Christ, and he trained to get ready to give answers. You can too. Let’s get ready to give answers about our confidence.
Ways to Get Ready: A Systematic Approach
How would you answer these questions: What is the chief end of man?[vii] How can I know about God most completely?[viii] Can you prove from the Bible that God exists in Three Persons – which we commonly call “The Trinity?” How are we to interpret the Holy Scriptures?[ix] When will our Lord return to the earth again?[x] What will believers experience when our Lord returns?[xi] Since we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth, what should we be doing?[xii]
- Sunday School
We are laboring to answer questions like these in our current Sunday school series. It’s important to get together with like-minded believers and latch on to doctrinal teaching. This helps us to get ready to give answers.
- Kids4Truth
Our Wednesday night children’s ministry will resume in mid-October. This would be a great way to help your children get ready to answer these questions. Deuteronomy 6:7 reminds each parent to use the words of God to “teach them diligently unto thy children.” The idea is “teach them repeatedly.”
- Catechism
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines, “catechize” as “to instruct systematically by questions and answers, explanations and corrections.”[xiii] In some circles, the word “catechism” has been wrongly associated with “Catholicism.” Don’t give up on this word so easily. It merely means to categorically or systematically teach – especially using the question and answer approach. A sound, doctrinal catechism is especially appropriate because it helps believers anticipate the questions they will encounter. It helps them to get their answers ready.
We would like to recommend a very excellent catechism prepared by our sister congregation at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. The pastor, Dr. Mark Minnick, has labored diligently with his congregation over the last two years to compile this catechism. It is available on the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church website at https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/treeology. The unusual name, “Treeology Theology” is connected to the teaching about the believer in Psalm 1. There we learn that the believer who meditates in God’s Word day and night shall “be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season.” We contacted Mt. Calvary this week, and they told us that they can make these catechism cards available to us for purchase through our bookstore. We have been using the references in this catechism for our Scripture memory verses for the last few weeks.
In the spiritual warfare around us, we need to look for the intelligence signals. Like General Patton and his intelligence officer, Colonel Koch, we need to get ready. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 describes our warfare:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations [arguments] , and every high thing [opinions] that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
As Hitler’s Germany demonstrated, ideas have consequences. It is time for you and me to enter into the battle of ideas all around us. The captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, calls us into the battle. We need to get ready to give answers to others.
Consider for a moment just how important it is for each generation to convey doctrinal truth to the next generation. “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1-2). Now as we conclude, think about the words of verse 2: “the things” and “the same.” Timothy accompanied Paul and heard him teach and preach, in many situations. He had probably heard him teach, preach and exhort for hundreds of hours. Timothy was so familiar with Paul’s teaching that Paul could have stopped his messages, turned to his disciple and said, “You teach this time.” Paul continually reemphasized the importance of the “sound words” to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:13). So don’t miss his point. Each generation is supposed to get such a grasp on “the things” “the sound words” “the same” that they can teach them to a new generation. Faithful men and women are looking for faithful men and women to whom they can impart these words. And the new generation needs to bless the newest generation with these same magnificent truths.
For today, will you make God-honoring choices?
- Will you set apart the Lord God in your heart?
- Will you pray, remembering that He is listening for your prayers?
- Will you get ready to give answers to others – to tell them about your Gospel hope?
Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio
[i] David T. Zabecki, The Untold Story of Patton at Bastogne, Excellent intelligence and superb staff work produced a feat of generalship even more amazing than Hollywood’s version. History.net, November 2007, accessed at https://www.historynet.com/untold-story-patton-bastogne.htm The logistics of this move were astounding. Zabecki notes that what it involved. “Though they were helped by truck companies provided by the 12th Army Group, the logistical feats accomplished by the Third Army over the next few days would prove nothing short of phenomenal. By the time they were through, the Third Army’s staff had established dozens of new depots and dumps, shifted 63,000 tons of supplies in five days, and moved an average of 4,500 tons of ammunition per day. Hundreds of thousands of new maps, weighing 57 tons in all, were distributed. Some 2,800 miles of road were reconnoitered by transport officers. An entirely new field communications system was set up, requiring 20,000 miles of wire to be strung.” See also https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/battle-bulge
[ii] [apologia] Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 208.
[iii] Mrs. Howard Taylor, Behind the Ranges, Biography of J.O. Fraser, Chicago: Moody Press, 1964, p.103
[iv] Duane W. H. Arnold, Augustine: A Pilgrimage of Grace, Ashland Theological Journal, 1988, 20:0 p. 21 citing Augustine’s Confessions, VI, xvi, 26
[v] Ibid. p. 23
[vi] Ibid. p. 24
[vii] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-1_2.pdf
[viii] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-4.pdf
[ix] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-8.pdf
[x] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-82.pdf
[xi] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-83.pdf
[xii] https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/site/user/files/49/final-number-90b.pdf