Apologetics
A sermon by
1 Peter 3:13-22
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SERMON: Apologetics
I clearly remember the first time I heard the word "apologetics." It was in a small group study at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Pastor H. D. McCarty gathered about twelve students each week to study Campus Crusade's Ten Steps to Christian Maturity. I recall that I really did think I would have Christian maturity after studying those ten booklets in my sophomore year.
During one of our study sessions, Pastor McCarty explained that apologetics was the branch of Christian theology dealing with defending our faith, and he said that it came from the same root as the word "apology." That's what got me. The only use of the word "apology" I had ever heard was actually the second meaning of "apology" in the dictionary, which is "an acknowledgment of some fault, injury, insult, etc. with an expression of regret and a plea for pardon."
Well, I certainly didn't think I needed to express regret or fault about my faith. I was proud of being a Christian and argued at length with the pastor that I didn't think that "apology" was a good word to use.
Only much later did I look up the word and discover that it comes from the Greek word apologetikos meaning "suitable for defense." And the first meaning of the word "apology" is "a formal spoken or written defense of some idea, religion, philosophy, etc."
I am still embarrassed that I made such a big deal out of it, and I was totally wrong. That has happened to me more times that I like to admit.
Today I want to focus on three particular verses in our passage, verses 15, 18 and 21. First we look at verse 15, which says, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence." Or as the King James Version says, "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."
I hope you will believe me when I say that defending our faith is apologetics. Perhaps one the greatest challenges to Christians is learning how to make an adequate apologetic statement in the best sense of the word. How can we make a formal spoken defense of our faith? It is not an easy thing to do.
Most of us want to think that our lives are statement enough about our faith. "We will just live our faith," we say, "and everyone will know by the way our lives that we are Christians." Of course, the problem is that they won't know. First of all, we are not really good enough to let our lives be our witness. If we think we are, then we need to look carefully at what the Bible says about pride. Secondly, even when we are good, there is no way for people to know the content of our faith. There are plenty of people who have apparently good lives who are not believers in Jesus Christ.
So that leaves us with the need to give a spoken defense. How can we make a formal spoken defense of our faith?
The first step is for us to say the name of Jesus. I am afraid that some people are so timid about their faith that the name of our savior never crosses their lips. How can anyone know of our faith if we never say his name.
The name of Jesus doesn't just belong within the church walls. We may be comfortable talking about our faith and our spiritual pilgrimage here or with Christian friends. But somehow we need to find a way to speak of our faith to those who do not have faith.
Some of our elders have started wearing pins on their suits as a way of breaking the ice. Gerald Deskins wears a pin in the shape of a yoke. Matthew 11:28-30 says,
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light."
When people see that yoke pin on his suit or his hat, they often ask what the pin is for. Then Gerald can explain about his faith in Jesus. He is not fighting the battles of life alone, for he has a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
Jim Brown likes to wear a pin which is a tiny red chalice. When people ask about it, he can explain the importance of the Lord's Supper in our church and in his own life. Communion with Christ is one of the key building blocks of our faith experience.
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The second step in our witness involves telling what a difference Jesus has made in our lives. What we may believe about Jesus is not as effective a witness as the difference Jesus has made in our lives. People may not care that we believe that Jesus was the virgin-born Son of God. They may not understand at all if we suggest Jesus is the third person of the Trinity now sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.
But when we say, "Jesus changed my life," people sit up and listen. One of my former pastors, John McClanahan, used to love to tell a story he heard a church member tell him once. This church member was a recovering alcoholic, and it was his faith that enabled him to turn from the bottle. A skeptic once asked him if he believed that story about Jesus turning water into wine.
The man replied, "I don’t really know what happened at the wedding at Cana All I can tell you is what happened to me. At my house, Jesus turned money for beer into money for furniture!"
But the other side of that point is that if Jesus has made no difference in our lives, then we really don't have anything to say in defense of our faith. In that case, we need to come on our knees before Jesus.
The third thing we can do to give an effective witness is to use "I statements." We would do well to get the word "you" out of our speech as much as possible. We testify when we say, "I." We meddle when we say, "You." But it is very difficult to argue with someone who uses the word "I" to tell about their own experience with Jesus.
According to our text, another step in our witness is to do it with "gentleness and reverence." Most people are afraid to give a witness for Christ because they think they are supposed to "button-hole" someone and verbally wrestle with them until they finally give up and accept Christ as their Savior. But our job is not to convert people. That's the role of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to give a witness, and to do it with gentleness and reverence.
The next verse that I want to focus on in our passage is verse 18: "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God." That verse is as good a summation of the gospel we are to defend as any in the Bible.
This sentence tells us that "Christ suffered for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous." The message of the New Testament is that somehow, someway Jesus took the sins of the world upon himself. The writers of the New Testament frequently turned to Isaiah 53, which gives a perfect description of this sacrifice:
"Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This verse makes a point to say, "once for all." Hebrews points out the contrast the earthly high priests to the supreme and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 7:27 says, "Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself."
Hebrews 9:12 says, "…he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption."
Hebrews 9:26 says, "But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself."
And finally, Hebrews 10:10 says, "And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Finally, this verse explains the whole purpose of Jesus' life, death and resurrection by saying it was "in order to bring you to God." In the footnotes, we find that "us" is also a good translation. Jesus suffered for sins in order to bring us to God.
When I shared with a lectionary listserv group that I intended to preach on this text, Rick Loader, pastor of the First Christian Church in Bardstown, wrote back, "The idea that Christ brings us to God is pretty comforting. A little awesome, really, with the hint that Christ has a hand on us and guiding us to God. Comforting, unsettling…"
Finally, I want to look at verse 21 which says, "And baptism, which this prefigured, 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…"
There is a common misunderstanding about baptism. Some people think baptism is a washing, when it is primarily a symbol of burial and resurrection.
I guess there is always some fluidity in symbols like baptism. Certainly we use water which has an implication of washing. And there are a couple of passages in the Bible that relate baptism to washing.
Acts 22:16 And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’
Hebrews 10:22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
One of the problems with the washing imagery is that we need to be washed again and again. Do we need to be baptized every time we sin? We need to be washed every time we get dirty.
But the primarily meaning of baptism can be found in verses like Romans 6:4
"Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life."
When I baptize someone, I always say, "We are buried with Christ in baptism; we are raised to walk in new life." That's why we prefer immersion baptism. It gives the picture of someone dying and coming up out of the grave. It represents not a cleansing, but a transformation.
Colossians 2 says,
"…when you were buried with him in baptism,
you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And when you were dead in trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made you alive together with him,
when he forgave us all our trespasses,
erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.
He set this aside, nailing it to the cross."
Our three texts for today give a great summary of the heart of our faith:
"Always be ready to make your defense
to anyone who demands from you an accounting
for the hope that is in you;
yet do it with gentleness and reverence."
"For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
in order to bring you to God."
"And baptism, which this prefigured, 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…"
–– Copyright 2005, Dr. Mickey Anders. Used by permission.