What is Truly Good

All right, good morning, go and have a seat. Alright. It’s good to be with you guys. It’s been a while since I’ve been up here for you to join it online. It’s good, good to be with you two were we’re going to continue on in our first Peter series and I was looking at our verses for today and I was kind of thinking about this situation where have you ever had a conversation with somebody and you’re talking with them and you really think you’re laying your conversation out? It’s very plain, very clear, really evident. And then all of a sudden you come to realize that they misunderstood you that you guys cross past somewhere and and are on different roads completely and write what you thought you said and what they understood. We’re just wildly different. Right? That that happens quite often and for somebody who are married you probably. Yeah, that that was the other day. Right? So it’s there are things that we communicate and and it doesn’t always come off the way we thought we we use words all the time and well we have different connotations with different words to and so we we’ve read this book called Love and respect and they have an example in there where a husband and wife are talking, they can say the exact same thing and all of sudden you’re like wait right, The wife might say uh honey, I don’t have any clothes and well they don’t have anything fitting for the occasion or anything new to wear. The husband says honey, I don’t have any clothes. Well they’re all dirty, right? So I mean like it’s the same statement, just two different things. And so we can sometimes miss each other. English can be a difficult language when we think about, okay and now we have first peter written in greek and we’re taking it to english and english alone can be difficult, as we have miscommunication there. And so our goal, even as we read and study the bible is to look through and understand what the original intent of the, of the author was. What is God trying to tell us through the author in its original context, in its original meaning? Right, so the, the study of words is Entomology. And we’re not gonna spend uh all day kind of nerd out on Entomology, but we do want to look at words and what they mean. And and that’s gonna help us to determine what Peter was trying to tell us here in our, in our portion of scripture. So let’s flip if you have a bible or you’ll be up on the screen in your bible will be first peter 3 13 through 22. I’ll read that and then we’ll dive in. says, Now who is there to harm you? If you are zealous for what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled. But in your hearts regard christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason of hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience so that when you are slandered those who are vile your good behavior in christ maybe put the shame for it is better to suffer for doing good in. That should be God’s will than for doing evil. For christ also suffered once for sins. The righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when God patiently waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, In which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you not as the removable dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of jesus christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him. So even just starting off in the first verse, we look at the word good. Now, who is there to harm you if your zealous for what is good? And so do this little exercise with me real quick. Take a few seconds and define in your mind, define the word good. It’s kind of hard to define, right? It’s it’s very broad, it’s it’s very big and it can mean a lot of things, Right? So, I mean, what, what is good? Am I good? Are you good, then, Who gets to define good? Is it subjective based on who you are or the situation you’re in? We have to answer that question of what’s good. And there is, there’s different words. Again, in the greek they can use where we just have the word good and it can mean many different things, but the word peter uses agatha dose. And so it’s not just the vague general statement of doing something that’s kind doing something that might be generous, uh that might, you know, help somebody just a general good. It actually comes from the word derived to mean something that is intrinsically good, right? One who is just naturally good. So, you can think about it more in the form of, like, pure, there’s a purity about it. There’s a holiness about it. So that’s different than just this vague statement of good. Right? And so we asked the question, okay, well, if that’s what good is something that is intrinsically good and naturally good, this holy and pure, well, it goes against contra are popular belief, but we are not just naturally or intrinsically good. The bible lays out that only God is good in that sense. And this can be hard though, because we all probably know somebody who just is so, you know, it just seems so good. They’re they’re disposition, their manners, they’re the things that they do. It all just pours out of them and they’re so kind and so generous and they’re so loving, they won’t hurt a single person right there, just so good. But even the best person in that sense, the best person you can find that, you know, in light of the good of being naturally and perfectly and holy good in that sense, they are not good. I am not good. You are not good in that sense. And that’s what the apostle mark was talking about. And and when he was writing and mark 10, there’s a story here, it says, and jesus was setting out on a journey, A man ran and knelt before him and asked him good teacher, what must I do to do to inherit eternal life? And jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except for God. It’s very clear, very plain that I am not good. And you are not good. There is no good intrinsically naturally in the Holy sense. Besides God alone. Well then where does good come from? Because we can acknowledge that there are good things that we can do, that we can be part of James one, every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. So not only is God the only good thing, naturally, he is the source of all good things. So if he alone is pure and good and holy, and from him comes all good things, he would be the only one rightfully able to define and tell us what is good. So he sets those parameters in a lot of that we find in the bible. I mean, we even we encourage everybody to be reading the bible to be meditating on the bible. And there’s there is a guide that God has given us to know what is good and loving and pure in that sense. And it can be hard, right? Because sometimes you can’t really tell the bible talks about. There’s a difference between I can see somebody do something good. That might not mean they are good, right? You could have ill motive. What if I did something I want to go serve a charity? And it was not because I actually cared about anybody at that charity, but I just had I just I do these things during the week and I know they’re not good. But this kind of makes me feel better about myself. Kind of looking at the existential uh reality of all life and and good and bad. And I’m gonna outweigh the good that I do by doing these things that are called good, not because I care about people, but because right, for my own benefit, it’s it’s an ill motive. This isn’t pour out of natural good heart, right? Or you could use a stereotypical example, right? Just saying, oh, what about the politician who’s down there in a photo op, taking a picture, smiling chicken hands, you know? And then that’s done and it’s like, I’m out of here, right, Done. But well, what was the motivation behind that? Well, sometimes we don’t know, right? That could be hard because there could be something that is done that helps somebody and you’re like, yeah, that’s good and I’m glad that’s being done. And so am I right? But God knows the heart where I can’t go around and just judge people. We should not go around and just judge me. Like that’s that’s wrong. I’m sure you have a bad hard, you’re probably wanting something out of this. It’s that’s not my job. But I think about Samuel when God tasked him to go get a king right to anoint a king and he goes to the sons of jesse and he sees all these different kids and guys like, no, no, no. So I was like, man, these are like physical specimen. Like these are the ideal people to be a king. No, no, not him. Him. Him, no, he’s like, there’s no more kids. He’s like, oh yeah, there’s one more, the youngest go out in the field, tending sheep, bring him in. Well that’s that’s the guy I choose and Samuel is a little bit dumbfounded here and God says, Samuel man looks on the outside, God looks at the heart And so whatever we’re doing, god knows our motive, Whatever somebody else is doing, God knows their motive, he sees their heart. I think R. C. Sproul, he’s got a quote, I think it really captures exactly what this is saying here. So RC says from a biblical perspective, to do a good deed in the fullest sense requires not only that the deed can form outwardly to the standards of God’s law but that it proceeds from a heart that loves him and wants to honor him. So there are good things that we can do outwardly that an unbeliever can do outwardly. But to truly call it good, it has to align with God and it has to come from a heart that loves God. That is the purest sense which is why I would make a true statement by saying and like this I believe only a christian can produce the purest form of good on earth because the good produced comes from the love of christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s the purest form of good, because it flows from an indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a christian, you have the indwelling the Tryon, the third part of the Tryon God in you. Therefore because he is good, we can produce good as a believer differently than an unbeliever, the purest form of good. So when we talk about good and Peter’s talking about doing good, that’s why we look at these words and why we define things because what Peter’s talking about maybe different than the rest of the world, what they think is good and what Peter is saying is the good work to do are very different and that’s what he’s trying to address. They have different standards. That shouldn’t be surprising to us as believers, we are going to have a different standard of what good is because it is defined by God and we trust in the truth of God’s word as what is good, not based on what the world tells us is good. They are going to come into conflict. And what we start seeing in society though is that when they come into conflict, Wait, one has to win out, one becomes prevalent, one becomes dominant. Now, in a sense, truth can never be dominated in the light of God, but it can within your, within your culture, within your society. In Isaiah 5 20 says woe to those who call evil good and good, evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, right? When you start exchanging good, saying things that God says is not good and you call them good, I don’t care if the majority of people believe that or accept that it doesn’t change the truth of the Gospel. So it’s not subjective good in defining it is not subjective, but there’s a what I know is not good or what I know is not the source of good is social media, right? So don’t crucify me here because I’m going to use social media, something I saw on social media, another pastor posted, and I don’t know the source of it, but I’m going to use it as an example because I think it really just kind of grabs the attention of what I’m trying to say here. So it’s a fictitious argument between a conversation between the world in the secular world and the church. So, walk through this and you’ll you’ll see what I say, what I understand here. The secular society may say we want to do X. And the church says, you are free to do that. But you think X is wrong? Yes, because you want to control us? No, you are free to do what you want. But you think X is wrong? Yes, but only because we want your ultimate good, which is the definition of love. But we want to do X. You are free to do X. But we want you to say that X is good. We cannot say that. Why do you hate us? You see, it’s not that we just believe there are differences in what is good, but it is the difference of we want you to say what we believe is good. We want you as the Church. We want God to bow down to what the world says is good. That the world should get to define and not God what is good and there lies the problem. We don’t have the same understanding of good. And that’s what Peter addresses here. He’s saying. There’s going to be problems, there’s going to be persecution. But you need to you need a zealously live out that doing what is good. We all experience this in our life. There’s things right? Just because I want to do something just because I desire to do something. Just because I might have the physical means to do something doesn’t make it good, doesn’t make it good. It is not subjective, it is not varying. Truth is objective, defined by God. So, God himself is good, the only source of what is good. And we need to hold on to that. Yeah. But a lot of times we’ll walk into this when even our initial conversation of just okay, if God’s only one good, okay, we’re not. But am I really that bad? Okay. I’ll admit I’m not always good, but I’m not really that bad. And so I grew up in a denomination, a church that uh very large denomination. There’s some others who hold to this but they’ll they would say that the there’s a position right of man’s character that is not completely tainted, right? There’s like this small island within us that there’s a small part of us that is just good. We are righteous, you know in some degree like were born that way and sin may affect us and may affect many areas of our life. But there is this area that is just good because we’re we are good at our core. And I would say no, no, that’s not true. The bible does not teach that the bible would teach that we are polluted and corrupted in all things. It has affected everything, Right? So we get the two kind of arguments a little bit mixed up where some people think well that’s utter depravity and I was like, no, no, none of you. I am not utterly deprived, utterly deprived means you’re as bad as you could be, as corrupt as you could be. So you got the you read about the worst person you’ve ever thought of in your entire life or you know you’ve read about him or some person you’ve seen and they’re just the worst person. But one time as they were checking out of the grocery store they said thank you. Well they could have been worse, right? I mean no one is to the utmost the worst that they could be. We could always be worse. But what we are is we are totally depraved, right? Total depravity. Sin has touched every area of our life. It has not said, okay, well this area Sin is not going to affect. No. We have been affected in every area of our life because of sin. Every area has been corrupted in some way, shape or form romans. Three. It is written, None is righteous. No not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. All have turned aside together, they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. How much more clear could God be that there is no one who is naturally intrinsically born. Good Sin has affected and corrupted all areas. And so when we start studying good even it’s like well that’s kind of alarming and it is but thankfully we don’t stop there. If you stop there then it’s just like well then you just left us in a hopeless despair. Right? We we have no hope. We’re helpless. But ironically we have the Gospel and the gospels. The meaning of the word Gospel is good news. So we have a Good God right? The only person who is truly Good God, a good God who has good news for us because we were helpless. We were utterly by ourselves without help. And so jesus has good news for us that while we were still sinners in our despair, he sent his son to die for us. That jesus christ sinless and pure chose to die and bear the burden of our sin and that those who choose to accept that and repent, which means turn away and turn away from the life of sin. He’s given salvation too. And when you are saved, he has promised to end well, you with the Holy Spirit. And so we have the Holy Spirit in us. Therefore we can now produce what he says is these good works. So as Peter speaks to these brothers and sisters, he’s talking to people who have the Holy Spirit and he can have, you know, he can tell him to do these good works because they are believers and he doesn’t just tell them to do good works as if it’s like, you know, if it comes across your plate, you know, try to do a little bit of good now, he tells them to be zealous. All right, It says to be zealous for the good works right away in verse 13. Be zealous, zealous means to be devoted sold out, right, all in. You don’t hold anything back. Some of the translations might say enthusiastically, which is cool to see, you know, the word even enthusiasm, which we use so broadly today in Fios is just in God, right? The idea is that you are possessed by God, you are in God. Right? So the idea here is that something new has come that once didn’t exist, right? When you get a passion for something, it’s just like you are completely consumed by that. And so some of you are probably thinking back to the bible thinking, oh, that’s second Corinthians 5 17, right? Therefore anyone who is in christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come right, you are a new creation. You have this zealous fervor for the Lord. And so that’s what he’s talking about. He’s saying I have been set aside my old ways and I have a passion for christ, right? When we have an encounter with christ, when we got saved, if you if you have that experience, you don’t experience jesus and not get changed. Its, it will change every area of your life. And so I prayed that I would be a zealous man for God and the Gospel and I am thankful he has given me a church to be a part of that has examples, examples and more examples of people who are zealously living out. They’re called to be obedient to God. I’ve watched people give up jobs and money, notoriety, their own pleasures, all kinds of things, their time, their energy because they love God. They have devoted themselves and zealously pursued God. Again, that becomes a challenge because if you’re gonna be zealous, if you’re gonna be fully devoted, it’s gonna take time and energy and effort, it’s going to cost something of us. Maybe you get taken advantage of you, you try to help somebody and they take advantage of you or they ridicule you. And if we’re honest, probably more times than not, we might not be zealous just because we can be lazy or apathetic. We can really think it’s not that big a deal. I don’t really need to do those things, but you can’t escape by him save and I’m getting my reward. Is it really that important? And we value things more than the Gospel and that that would go against being zealous for it, right? Zealous is no, nothing competes with that. And so we have to ask ourselves, you know, what, what does that happen to be in your life? We all face different challenges. We are wired differently. What challenges is that for you that holds you back from living a life zealously pursuing God and the Gospel? Maybe you take some time this week to ask yourself, well why am I not doing more living a life that really is pursuing God and the Gospel? So I’d ask you to meditate on that and then take that, take it to the altar of God and like Abraham offering up Isaac offer that to God and say Lord I’m not going I won’t have this compete with you, I won’t have this compete with you and sacrifice that and live a life zealous for God. He then goes and talks about, okay, well if you are going to do good, who will harm you? Now? Naturally the answer would be no one if I’m doing something good and you believe that I’m doing something good, We’re on the same page. Nothing right. But the problem tends to be like we talked about earlier is we have different definitions and different ideas of what is good. And so he’s talking to people who are doing good and they’re being persecuted. So right, a little bit rhetorical as he says, who’s going to harm you if you do good because they’re raising their hands saying, well we are getting persecuted, so we’re doing something wrong. No, going back again to To the different definitions of good. And then Peter says, well look at verse 18 for christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Right? So that’s the epitome of unjust suffering. He says, Man, christ the perfect, the perfect God made man suffered unjustly. And then in 2nd Timothy again, very clear indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in christ, jesus will be persecuted, jesus is our example. The apostles tell us very clearly that if we live out this life even doing the good that we’re called to do, because others oppose some of those things, we will experience persecution and in America we have a very different world that we live in per se compared to other countries. And it might be in varying degrees. It might be in different forms. But if you zealously live out your life for the Gospel, you will experience persecution of varying degrees from time to time. Okay, so what are we supposed to do? Just cower around, hide in fear? So we don’t now that that’s not the way we are to live right Zealously living for something would not be to just shut it in and hide it and keep it to ourselves. And so are our perspective has to be very much different. We have to live with the view life and death differently. This is not the end game right here. This is not all we live for, right. We don’t protect this our time here on earth, knowing that this is all we get, it’s not right. We view this differently. Our life has been called to serve christ and to use every ounce of who we are and what we’ve been given to honor him. Knowing that our reward is in heaven. This is a small sliver of time compared to the rest of eternity. And so No, we’re not to fear the world Matthew 10 and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him. Who can destroy both soul and body in hell right? There needs to be a reverence and feared of the Lord to honor and serve him and that’s why he says we are to regard christ as holy. Alright looking at the verse But in your Hearts Regard Christ the Lord as Holy 15 regard means to sanctify to set apart Holy being wholly committed so to set apart right? You set him apart, distinguishing God from everything else right? God is not competed with buy anything else. We set them a start. Set him apart as holy. So think about this you you have you have regarded many things in your life. Okay? Um We have regarded having Children as worthy, right? And it’s easy for the guy to say yeah. I think all the pain and suffering and woman has to go through is worth it, right? And the women are sitting there like you know with a little twinge in there. I with little ptsd thinking, yeah, you didn’t go through it right? But obviously as a family we’ve we’ve decided that yeah, there there is the cost of having kids. We have regarded that as worthy. Whatever comes to make that happen, we’ve regarded as worthy. We know there might be pain and trial and suffering and difficulties but we’ve regarded that we’ve set it apart as holy right? Or some of you have regarded in a sense, college alright, paying an astronomically high fee for taking classes like astronomy and gerontology and I took one called rest and relaxation techniques. Sweet. I’ll go sleep. Right. I mean, paying all this money. I’m for college. I have a Master’s degree. So just all right. It’s not against college. But we’ve regarded that in a sense of saying those late nights, the studying the amount we have to pay, whatever we have to go through is worth the degree for my future. We’ve regarded that. We’ve set it aside. But this is even different saying we set aside christ as a sanctified God as holy Nothing should be competing with him in value and priority in love. And when we do that, when we live zealously for God doing the good that we are called to do and we regard him as holy, what we’re going to find is that it tells us to be ready to give a defense of your faith. When you live that way, there will come times when people are gonna sometimes it’s really kind and they’ll just ask you what, why do you believe this? Why why do you have this hope? And sometimes it’s not so nice and sometimes it might be belittling or it might come as a ridicule or whatever I b but you have to be ready to defend your faith. We shouldn’t be christians who are like I don’t know, I just my parents believe so I just figured I believe it’s like well that’s that’s not that’s not what we’re called to do and the way we’re supposed to believe we should believe because there is a vast evidence improved that jesus christ is exactly who he says he was and did exactly what he said he did. And we should believe because we have a general defense of our faith and we can communicate that with others now we can grow and it’s called right? Just apologetics. We can learn more and more as we continue to read the bible and grow in faith and we should, but when we when we defend our faith, what we need to do is make sure As 1st Peter three tells us that we do it with gentleness and respect. We’ve probably seen somebody share the gospel in the past where they do it in such a belittling demeaning way and you’re like, oh that is not good, right? I mean you’re not gonna win somebody to christ by belittling them. I mean Jesus was the perfect example how he could talk to the woman at the well who lived the life of really horrible sin. And he talked to her in a loving and kind and gentle way with absolute truth that sin is horrible. And she responded, she felt seen and loved and she went and told everybody of Jesus the Savior. There’s a there’s a quote by martin Luther says, go on in faith and love. If the cross comes, take it, if the cross comes not do not seek it, the gospel alone is going to bring you enough controversy within our world that we don’t have to go out there and seek disagreements. And an argument that’s not the goal right? That will come naturally as as part of just being able to defend our faith with gentleness and respect. But what are we defending? It says defending the hope that you have hope is really powerful, right? If you’ve ever seen somebody who has a dream and there’s just a little sliver of hope that it still could happen. They will hold on. It’s like a massive fuel source for for somebody to hold on to and they keep going and they persevere because they have a small sliver of hope. But again, as we look at this, peter is not saying hope in such a way as to like, well unsure, hopeful thinking right? That there’s a difference between what the bible talks about hope and how we casually use the word hope. So yesterday we were at the baseball game, the Husker Baseball game and they’re down I think 5-2 or 5-3 and I’m sitting in the outfield, right? My family’s out there. I’m hoping they come back, but I am unsure of their ability to come back. They were playing terrible. Now they won 11-5, like they did great right, they came back and won, but I had I did not have full assurance that that was gonna happen, right? But the bible when it talks about it, when it says the hope it is very different, he’s talking about a hope that is confident that is assured, right? It’s it’s this intensely desirous thing, but there is full confidence in it. So that’s why it’s very different than the world just saying, wow I hope I hope I get this job, I hope I do this or do that. Mhm. In Romans 1513 has made a God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. So that the power of the Holy Spirit may abound in hope. God is a god of hope. But again, it’s a different hope that we’re talking about. We’re all hoping something though, whether you believe or not, we have a hope in something. Some of us it might be I’m hoping that I get this job that pays really well and that this money is gonna write is gonna fulfill this longing that I have or I desire to be married. And once I get married, though everything is just gonna be better. It’s just good, I’m fulfilled. Or maybe that’s Children, right? There’s a lot of things that we can hope in and these things are good, They’re great. I desired all of these things. I desire to be married and I’m married, we have kids and I’ve desired these things, but that’s not my ultimate desire. That’s not what I believe is going to give me my great, fulfill my greatest need, my greatest longing. This is not going to fulfill every desire that I have only christ can do that. He is our ultimate hope. So when we hope in christ, it is not a wishful thinking, it is a intensity, strong desire to be with christ in the rewards that he has called us two at the end of life, right? We rest in that hope. So we ask ourselves, am I hoping to live my ideal life or God’s ideal life for me? two very different things, right, and I am. I desire to live my ideal life or God’s ideal life for me. I bet you those would have been two different things for paul, the apostle paul when he was living. Yeah, but again, he subjected himself to the will of God. And as we grow in christ, hopefully those converge right that they should get closer to converging my will, should more align with God’s will. Don’t don’t get me wrong, it’s not that God’s will is going to bend over here, is that my will will come into align with God’s will for my life. And that’s where my hope is. So, this flows onto some portions of the scripture that we are gonna not camp on. Right? So, as we keep reading through and versus 19 and 2021 22, right, we see that there’s in the church, there’s primary issues, you are saved by grace. That’s a primary issue. There are secondary issues. There’s tertiary issues. Then just down the line, right there, just Important to not important. This one is way down there. So versus 19 and 20 it says being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God’s patients waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through the water. Right? So this was a really fun one. You can debate, you can have a stance on, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t even matter. Right. Were they, were they spirits? Right? The formerly we’re on earth or was it the people in the time of Noah and those were the people write their spirits in prison. Was it something else? I don’t know right, but we can’t be dogmatic on that and it doesn’t change our faith at that point is not the point. But what is and what we can be confident of is that Jesus went and proclaimed different than preaching right? He didn’t go and preach to these souls in prison as if it was a purgatory state where there he was, giving him a second chance to repent and get saved. It was not, he went and proclaimed, what is it to proclaim? He went to proclaim victory as he was crucified, died and buried. He spent three days before he rose and he proclaimed victory that he defeated death. That satan could not hold him, that he was victorious as was formerly told right. He did exactly what he said he would do. And so he went and he proclaimed his victory. And so this goes into the right the symbolic nature of baptism, baptism in verse 21 which corresponds to this, now saves you not as the removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of jesus christ. So, baptism, which corresponds to this right? It’s not that the water was was Noah’s salvation, right? But it corresponds to that event and saying that it was not the removal of dirt, right? So if we read it, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you. If you stop there, it’s kind of like, well, does baptism save you? And it’s no right. Peter follows up really quickly after you’re saying it’s not the physical being baptized, this immersion of water that cleanses you physically. It’s it’s the appeal of God to a good conscience, right? It’s that submitting to God our hearts and our minds and being saved because of that, not because of any physical act. Right? As we look at the bible throughout Ephesians 28 and nine. It is it is uh by grace. You have been saved through faith, not by works so that no one can boast or the symbolic nature of baptism. In Galatians 2 20 where I have been crucified with christ, I no longer live but christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith of the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me right? The symbolic nature of death and burial. I didn’t physically get buried with christ but it says I have been crucified with christ. It is the symbolic nature of how that baptism looks as you go under and you come out. There is no physical act we can do to save us. It is by grace alone And Peter is drawing the correlation right? There’s a corollary between Noah and are the people he was talking to and 1st Peter. So I mean death is rain from all time. No one’s defeated death from Adam, it’s part of original sin. But jesus did. He defeated death. So he came as this meek, humble lamb, right? That’s the symbolic nature of jesus as he walked the earth. This meek, humble lamb by choice, he gave himself up for each and every one of us. But the lamb of God could not be conquered. Right? So we have the picture of the lamb of God as he is led to his death on the cross. But he rises as the lion of Judah, he rises to his rightful position of authority of power. He rises the lion, a very different picture than the lamb one that shows strength in power. And that’s where our final verse comes in in 22, Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is that the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to him? The right hand of God can be symbolic in many areas of the Bible where the right hand of God can draw somebody in and it can really talk about a relationship or a protection. But here to stand at the right hand of God means he is in a position of authority. Remember when James and john the Sons of Thunder wanted to be at the right and the left hand of God, They weren’t asking just to be relational close to him. They wanted that, they wanted that power, They wanted to be in that position and right, this is this is a symbolic nature of picture. He stands at the right hand of God because he now is in his rightful position which he was in creation before he came to the earth authority over all things. Right, jesus is the authority over life and death, of good and bad, of humans, of angels, of all creation. He is in his rightful position of authority. And so what we do is we look at, you know, portions of scripture. I ask this in our community group, our community. We’ll do this a lot of times. Okay, what is Peter? Or what is God through Peter trying to tell us here, right. How can we concisely narrow down these verses that we’re looking at today? You know, what did he want us to know from this to take away? So here’s how I summarized it personally. I’d say, you know, it’s likely that you’re going to be persecuted for your faith, but don’t let that deter you from doing what is good. But when it does happen, when persecution does come also don’t be caught off guard. Be ready to defend your faith, jesus though he was a perfect example of suffering unjustly, which we can again expect from our faith as a christian. But as jesus was victorious over sin and death, we one day will share in his glory if we persevere. So our versus today we can look at good and zealous in regarding christ. But when we step back and we say, well, what does, what does he want from that? He wants us to be, he wants us to be zealous for the good that God has laid out for us and to regard christ alone as holy above all things. And that persecution will come. But one day we will be rewarded as God has also promised. So as a church, I would just say, continue to do those good works no matter what may come. Whatever God has laid out for you as a person, as an individual, knowing you personally, he knows you personally. He he knows your strength and he knows your weaknesses. What he is the good he’s laid out for you, continuing that fully confident that God will bless you in those efforts. Amen Lord jesus. We thank you and we do. We regard you. We set you apart as holy above and beyond anything and everything help us live our life consistently and persistently like that. Lord help us to say no to those challenges and those struggles that may may want to supersede you Lord. That we would that we would live zealously all the days of our life and I pray that the church family would help support each other in that now we would draw strength out of that design. And so Lord, we again, we love you. Bless our day in your name, we pray. Amen.