But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect,But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear,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:but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:
4 sermons cite this verse
… problems. Number one, St. Francis of Assisi never said it. And the second problem is that the gospel always needs words. Like the preaching of the gospel always needs words. In fact, 1 Peter 3.15 says, always be ready to give a reason for your hope. You need to do that with words. Always be ready to give an explanation for the faith that's within you. So hopefully people will hear the gospel from us. But the question is, do they ever see the gospel in us? Again, not perfectly, but just practically. Practically speaking, if someone followed you around for a week, would they get to see anything different from someone who wasn't Catholic? If someone just observed your life on a regular basis. would you or I look any different from someone who was not a friend of Jesus? Would your life or my life look any different than someone who wasn't striving to be a saint? I think, let's be practical, that there are, let's say, three areas, three areas of life. …
… to be a good worker who correctly explains the word of truth. And in 1 Peter 3.15, it says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. And as we share our faith with others, we need to know the scripture. Just as artists know their brushes and pens, as builders know their tools, as soldiers know their weapons, we need to know the word of God. And this is because God's word will simply never return void. Why is it important for you to know the word of God? Because when you share the word of God, you have a promise from God that it will never return void. That doesn't mean that that person's going to get saved right there, but it does mean that it's going to have an effect that you might not see until you're in eternity. God's word never returns void. So lead with the word of God. The power is not in our cleverness. …
… Amen. I used to think when I read 1 Peter 3.15 that says, always be ready to make a defense to anyone who has a reason for the hope that is in you that it meant, Piper, you need to nail down three or four solid historical arguments for the resurrection and you need to nail down three or four solid historical arguments for the authority and truth of the Bible. and I thank God that there are people who are called to do that because those arguments really do exist. I don't think that's mainly what this verse means because this church, those five churches throughout Asia Minor, they're just ordinary folk. you know from chapter 3 they're slaves they didn't know anything they didn't have any education last thing they had was access to our sophisticated intellectual university trained historians what then did it mean? I think when he said this, that last phrase mattered. Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. …
… And what you find in the New Testament is the very reverse. As Peter says in 1 Peter 3.15, what you need to be prepared for is to give an answer to those who ask you questions. So the question for us as local churches is what is it that creates the difference? And what created the difference here was the character of these people, the fact that they were a local church filled with the Spirit, that they tasted the power of the preached Word of God, that they tasted awe in worship, that they tasted this lovely unity of the the fellowship of God's people. I said a moment ago that there seemed to be four pictures of the church that dominated in the New Testament, and they all seem to be here, body, temple, bride, family. One of these is the odd one out. Remember those intelligence tests you did at school, which is the odd one out? And you could argue for each of them being the odd one out, but actually biblically there's one that's the odd one out. Body, bride, temple are pictures. Family is not a picture. …