I make a
broad plan for my sermons in the Fall every year. I try to switch up which
readings I focus on in each season so that I give you a good sampling of the
full message of God’s Word. So it was back in October when I planned to preach
on 1 Peter over the Easter season. I just want to say, I really didn’t wrap my
mind around how much this book talks about suffering!
I don’t know
about you, but I’m finding this challenging. I don’t really like thinking about
suffering, not even to think about how God uses suffering to bless us
sometimes! But Peter has put our focus on it, and it’s something we need to
confront in our lives.
I heard a
quote this week that went something like this: “How strange it is that we spend
so much time pampering our bodies, which age, die, and decay, and yet we ignore
our souls, which live forever.”
Peter
writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you
to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” These fiery
trials are not just the troubles of this life that come to everyone. These
trials are all the things that keep you from following Jesus, living in repentance,
and trusting in His forgiveness and grace.
The
temptations, the struggles, the pushback, the criticism, and the accusations we
face as we live this faith we have in Jesus are normal. Sometimes they come
from outside of us. (Remember, Satan means “accuser,” and we are always being
accused by the devil, the world, and our sinful nature when our lives of faith
get evaluated.) Sometimes they come from inside of us. And these things bring
pain into our lives – as Paul says in Romans, he tried to do good, but finds
that he doesn’t do it, instead, he calls himself a wretched man as he
recognizes that he keeps on sinning and doing what he shouldn’t do as a
Christian.
Our
confidence when we face these fiery trials is not in ourselves, but in the
crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus. And as these trials touch our lives and
disturb our comfort or even hurt us, remember that when Jesus ascended the
Apostles were told that he will come again. This world will end, and those
things that hurt us in this life – that hurt these bodies, these feelings,
these comforts – they will end with this world. They cannot follow us into
eternal life – eternal life our souls already possess, and our new bodies will
have in the resurrection.
With that
confidence, Peter urges us to rejoice insofar as you share in Christ’s
suffering.
There are
two ways that we share in Christ’s suffering. The first way is to give thanks
when bad things happen to us because we follow Jesus. The Apostles show us a
great example of this in Acts 5. They were arrested for proclaiming that Jesus
was the savior, and the proof was that God raised Him from the dead. They were
put on trial by the same court that sentenced Jesus to death, and they were
beaten for it, yet it says that they “rejoiced
to be counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Gospel.” If someone
mocks you, mistreats you, or even hurts you because you follow Jesus – rejoice!
That is, in the kingdom of God, an honor. The same way the world treated Jesus,
it will treat His followers.
We have been
blessed to not have to deal with that much! But our brothers and sisters in
Christ have dealt with much worse in the way of persecution, and they have done
so bravely because of their faith in Jesus in the face of suffering.
The second
way we share in Christ's suffering is that we are recipients of it. Jesus gives
us His suffering, connects us to Himself, and His suffering. In Romans 6, we
read that all of us who are baptized into Christ are baptized into His death.
Jesus gives us His death, along with His suffering, to give us forgiveness and
new life
But notice
what Peter says in v. 14-15 – he’s actually reiterating what he’s said earlier.
“Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or even as a
meddler.” How do you like that progression? From murder to meddler. If you read
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us ways that all of us break the
commandments, including things like murder and stealing. However, meddling in
other people’s business … that doesn’t seem so bad by comparison, but Peter puts
them all on the same level and says we shouldn’t get wrapped up in them – they
bring just and righteous suffering into our lives. But, “If anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” Glorify
God by proudly bearing the name Christian – a little Christ, or
Christ-follower. That’s who we are!
For it is
time, Peter says, for judgment to begin at the household of God. He’s urging us
to look at ourselves, the same way Jesus taught him and the disciples in
Matthew 7, when he talked about not trying to take a piece of sawdust out of
your neighbor’s eye when you’ve got a whole log in your own. We should call
sin, “sin,” especially … especially … when it is our own. We should take God’s
law seriously in our own lives. We should hold His Word sacred, hear it, learn
it, and see it as authoritative over us. This is the life of repentance and
forgiveness.
Then Peter
gets practical – How do we do this?
In 4:19, he
says, let those who suffer entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while
doing good. He’s saying we live in faith, strive to do good, and all while
trusting in Jesus’ salvation. And in all things we imitate Jesus, who, in the
end, said, “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”
He says,
“Humble yourselves.” This, too, is living by faith, taking the lower place and
walking with God as a creature and not trying to be His master. Nor do we stand
over others, recognizing the same sin in each of us that Jesus died to pay for
and the same forgiveness offered to them as we cherish for ourselves.
He says,
“Cast your anxieties on God, because He cares for you.” Pray. Trust in God’s love
to hear and answer you – just as Jesus did, as did the prophets, the apostles,
and all the children of God of all times.
He says, “Be
sober-minded,” and “be watchful.” There is an enemy out there who would tear
you away from your salvation if he could. But notice he prowls like a roaring
lion. When a lioness comes up on prey, she does not roar. She comes with
stealth. Lions roar to warn, to intimidate, and because they are frustrated.
The devil is a defeated enemy – not entirely powerless, but defeated – and he
goes about raging to bring fear into our hearts so that we won’t trust that
Jesus has defeated him for us.
Peter says,
“Resist him, firm in your faith.” God has made great promises of life and
salvation to you, and He will keep them all.
And know
this, “the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood
throughout the world.” Perspective matters. None of this is new. All throughout
history, God’s people have suffered, wondering, “Why do the wicked prosper?”
That’s all seeing things from this life’s vantage point. God sees that they are
like chaff, or dust, that is just blown away by the lightest breeze – they have
no substance, and they cannot last.
But that is
not your end. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all
grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, with Himself restore,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and
ever. Amen.” Amen.
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