Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Tom Shepherd

1 Peter Ch. 3 Part 2

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Lord, we thank you for this wonderful book of 1 Peter and how it teaches us how we should build our communities, how we should bear up under suffering, and how we should look to you and to the soon coming of Jesus.

We pray, Lord, for your blessing on this class today in Jesus name.

Amen We're finishing up chapter 3 and then we're going to go into chapters 4 and 5 where we left off yesterday we were talking about first Peter 3 18 to 22 a passage that is Controverted that is a little harder to understand, but we said that whatever explanation 1 comes up with for 1 Peter 3 18 to 22, it should in some way be a support for what Peter says in verses 13 to 17, which is about witnessing.

Okay, why should you witness for Christ even in the face of persecution, all right?

And the way we were describing it here is that what verses 18 to 22 present is Jesus' death for us on the cross and his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven.

And that he placed, he subjected all of the evil angels, they were subjected because of his victory at the cross and his resurrection.

So In the midst of this, Peter gives a reference to baptism.

I used to ask my students in class, do you have to be baptized in order to be saved?

And almost without fail, they always said no.

And then I would read them from 1 Peter 3, baptism now saves you.

And the point that I would make is that if you are convicted to follow Christ, and if you have the opportunity to be baptized, then you need to be baptized.

Because Jesus gave that example, and the New Testament says that's the entry point into the church, is baptism.

And so baptism isn't, he says it's not, You know, it's not something magical.

You become conscious of God, like we said before, and you're entering into a relationship with Him.

Baptism is the New Testament memorial of the resurrection of Jesus.

It is the connection of the believer with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

By the way, tomorrow we will have a baptism over at the church at 6 p.m.

If you're interested to come, I will be baptizing the young lady from the Alclair Church who requested that she be baptized at Camp Media.

Her name is Hadassah Campbell, and she's not very old.

She's like 8, 9 years old, and I had a baptismal class that she was in and we're excited for young people.

When young people give their heart to Christ, they have their whole life in front of them to serve Him.

When an older person gives their life to Christ, they've already used part of their life up.

So It's kind of like you're baptizing a whole person when you baptize a young person.

And we're thankful for her commitment to Jesus.

It'll be also mentioned over in the soul winning hour.

I'm going to talk there about how I have a baptismal class at my church.

All right, so here we meet the way, when we talk about baptism, when we talk about this discussion of Jesus' victory, here we meet the way in which verses 18 to 22 support verses 13 to 17.

We are to give a faithful witness before the world, even in the face of persecution.

Because we are headed to heaven and victory with the Lord Jesus, just as he rose from the dead and was victorious over the evil forces.

So even if we suffer for Christ in sharing our faith, we also share in his victory.

So it's good news that we will have the same victory that he did.

Just as he suffered and died and then rose again to glory.

So we will experience that same victory and glory because we give a faithful witness and are connected with him.

Now, Peter will kind of come back to this theme in the last chapter of the book that we're gonna look at.

Now let's look at a few takeaways from chapter 3.

We often see the negative side of submission, but submission is a pathway to the heart.

It is a pathway to reach them for Christ.

Because when you submit, you're in a lower position of power.

Do you remember the story I told you about the accident I had in Brazil and how it made me dependent on the Brazilians.

Well, then what happened was I bonded with them more quickly.

Because I was in a position of weakness and they sensed they needed to come to my aid.

So when you submit to your boss or in family relationships or whatever, you actually, when you are weak, then you are strong, as Paul said.

Now let me say that this is not the funnest kind of experience.

When I had that accident and I was in need, it was true, when I am weak, then am I strong.

That's a true statement, but it's not an easy 1 to experience, I'll tell you that.

And some of you have gone through some of these things and know what I'm talking about.

Husbands and wives are equal before God as heirs of His grace.

You know, when you submit to somebody, it doesn't mean that you're not their equal.

Men, women, children are all made in the image of God.

Unity, humility, love and sympathy are keys to Christian community.

If we would just focus on that more, love, humility, sympathy, boy oh boy, we'd have much happier churches.

Some people say, oh I don't go to that church, it's cold.

Well now listen, if you know the difference between hot and cold, then maybe God is calling you to that place that's cold so that you can warm it up.

Be a little heater, you know, be a little heater and help warm things up by being kind and loving.

A kind, loving, and lovable Christian is hard to not care for, hard not to like.

Christian witness, even in the face of persecution, is a blessing and the means of bringing people to Christ Peter keeps coming back to this Why because his people are being persecuted and because when you get persecuted the tenancy is just to step back Well, those people don't want to hear the gospel.

You know, we gave them the great controversy.

We handed out the Bible lessons and they weren't interested.

And the last 1, we must not be discouraged by persecution and suffering.

Jesus went through the same and his victory is ours.

So the first thing we're going to do, of course, is read the text, Living for Christ in the Midst of Suffering, chapter 4, verses 1 to 6.

So I need somebody to read those verses for us, all 6 verses.

Steve, starting to learn a few names, okay.

All right, all right, it's interesting verses, and there's some verses, there's some questions, there's some verses there that kind of raise question marks in people's minds, okay, several of them, okay.

So first of all, Peter continues instruction for the Christians to follow the example of Jesus, right?

1 Peter Ch. 3 Part 2

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