If That Should Be God’s Will
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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:17-41
February 8, 2026
1 Peter 3:17-4:1: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if 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's patience 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 a removal of 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.
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
Sermon Outline
1. Introduction
Flavors of human experience
A new way for Peter's readers to categorize how they feel
2. A better way to suffer
Suffering for righteousness' sake
God's will is always at work
3. A living proof in Jesus
His priestly sacrifice
His prophetic role
His kingly rule
4. A Mature Way to Think
“The world sneers at religious profession. It refuses to believe that it is genuine. It defiantly asserts that what is called Christian principle is only selfishness, and that it would not stand severe testing. Then, godly men [and women] are called to endure loss, suffering, or sorrow, not because there is any particular evil in themselves which needs to be eradicated — but because the Master needs their witness to answer the sneers of the world.” — JR Miller
“A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means… I cannot understand and I cannot explain it. And there has been no one who has explained it” —Martin Luther
