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Following is an excerpt of "When Bad Things Happen To Good People (1 Peter Part 21)" by Jim Henry.
Jim Henry, Pastor
First Baptist Church
3701 L. B. McLeod Road
Orlando, Florida 32805-6691
Reprinted from Radio Program, "WE BELIEVE"
Program #218, CT 402122

I PETER SERIES, PT. XXI
"When Bad Things Happen to Good People"
I Peter 3:13-17

13 And who is there to harm you if you prove
zealous for what is good?
14 But even if you should suffer for the sake
of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT
FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE
TROUBLED,
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always bein-g ready to make a defense to every
one who asks you to give an account for the
hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and
reverence;
16 and keep a good conscience so that in the
things of which you are slandered, those who
revile your good behavior in Christ may be put
to shame.
17 For it is better, if God should will it so,
that you suffer for doing what is right rather
than for doing what is wrong.
Some time ago a Rabbi wrote a best-seller, entitled, When Bad Things
Happen to Good People. It's a question that many people have dealt
with.
Jesus said that bad things were going to happen to good people. He
also said that good things were going to happen to bad people. When
that happens, we have questions, but Jesus made this statement in
Matthew 5: "It will rain on the just and the unjust. That means that
it not only rains on the Christian's citrus crop, but on the
non-Christian's as well.
2
It also means that Christians may have children that go wrong. It
means that Christians may experience having a spouse walk away. It
means that Christians have checkbooks that don't always balance. It
means that Christians get sick. It means that sometimes bad things
happen to people who know and love Jesus Christ.
If this were not true, there would be literally hundreds of people who
would want to come to Jesus simply to escape family problems, financial
problems, sickness, etc. It doesn't happen that way.
However, Christians have a way of dealing with it better than those who
do not have Christ in their lives, and that makes the difference. In
this passage which Peter is giving us, he reaches back into Isaiah
chapter eight, and the key verse is found in verse 18: "Sanctify the
Lord your God in your hearts." That was the word God gave through the
Prophet Isaiah to old King Ahab, who wanted to make an unholy alliance
with the King of Assyria, in order to protect himself.
Isaiah told Ahab: "Don't fool with that ungodly king. You fear God,
and don't worry about an unholy alliance with an unholy man."
God, through the Holy Spirit, brings that same text over here and to
the believer He says: "You trust Me. Sanctify Me in your hearts, and
trust My lordship and My sovereignty when bad things happen to you."
Let's look at four things I believe he tells us in this Scripture.
I. A SECURITY THAT EXEMPTS US FROM LONG-TERM HARM
Notice that he gives us a security when he says in verse 13: "Who is
there to har ...

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