This morning I'm going to be reading out of 1
Peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19. Dear friends,
don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes
among you to test you as if something unusual
were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you
share in the sufferings of Christ so that you
may also rejoice with great joy when his glory
is revealed. If you are ridiculed for the name
of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit
of glory and of God rests on you. Let none of
you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer,
or a meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God
in having that name. For the time has come. for
judgment to begin with God's household. And if
it begins with us, what will the outcome be for
those who disobey the gospel of God? And if a
righteous person is saved with difficulty, what
will become of the ungodly and the sinner? So
then, let those who suffer according to God's
will entrust themselves to a faithful creator
while doing. what is good. This is God's word.
Thank you, Kimberly. Will you join me in praying
for our time in the word this morning? Father,
we come to you and we do want your name to be
honored as holy. May our hearts long and yearn
for your kingdom to come and your will to be
done in us and on this earth as it is in heaven.
We pray that your word would cut deep. It would
divide soul and spirit. It would nurture and
feed our spirits and help us to overcome the
flesh to the glory of God in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. If you've ever stood in the middle of pain,
confusion, or rejection and thought, this doesn't
feel like the blessed life I signed up for, well,
Peter wrote this for you. We live in a world
that increasingly sees faithfulness to Jesus
not as a virtue or virtuous, but as an offense.
In the West, it's getting more costly to follow
Christ. And many believers are surprised when
their commitment to Christ leads not to applause,
but instead to pain. We are shocked when suffering
comes and rattled when obedience to Christ results
in rejection. And some of us instinctively assume
that hardship means we've done something wrong.
Somewhere along the way, we've picked up a distorted
version of Christianity, one where following
Jesus means life gets easier, not harder. One
where trials are interruptions instead of invitations
to follow. And one where comfort is assumed and
suffering is avoided at all costs. But Peter,
riding to exiles, to scattered believers who
are facing pressure and persecution and marginalization,
says something radically different. He says,
don't be surprised. Don't be ashamed. And most
of all, don't give up. Instead, expect the heat.
Embrace the honor while examining your life and
entrust the outcome. Because suffering for Christ
is not evidence of his absence. It's evidence
of your union with him. And if the fire is burning,
it may not be to destroy you, but to actually
refine you. And that's what we're going to look
at today under four points. I mentioned it last
week. I'll mention it again. We are a Bible people.
We love the word and we love to go to the word
and have the word shape and transform us. We
also should become a note -taking people because
as I said last week, within 24 hours of this
message, you are going to lose 70 % of everything
I said. Now maybe 70 % is worth losing, I don't
know. But as long as you know the passage of
the scripture and maybe a couple of headings,
maybe the Lord will use that to refresh and draw
you back to the word. If you're taking notes,
the first point I'll have you write down is expect
the heat. Expect the heat. Verse 12 says, don't
be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among
you to test you. Why does Peter say, don't be
surprised? Well, I think that's easy because
Christians are always surprised when suffering
comes. I don't know what it is about us, but
when suffering comes, we're always like, where
did that come from? And why? And what have I
done to deserve that? I thought I was doing pretty
good. I thought I was living pretty right. Suffering
has come. But suffering as a Christian is normal,
not strange. It's normal, not strange. It seems
natural for Western Christians to buy into or
develop their own version of some sort of prosperity
gospel. The belief that God's ultimate desire
is to give you everything that you've ever wanted,
including luxury and comfort, if you just have
enough faith. And this gospel, which is no gospel
at all, Throws people for a loop when they suffer
because this non -gospel has no theology of suffering
whatsoever. Suffering equals the displeasure
of God. Suffering and trials are evidence that
I must lack faith. In this non -gospel, this
prosperity gospel, if only I had a little more
faith, I could finally be done with suffering
and live the prosperous life God wants me to
live. And to believers, Peter says, no, don't
be surprised. This is normal. Don't be surprised.
This is normal. And why is it normal? Well, it's
normal because Jesus is our normal. Why is suffering
normal? Jesus is our normal. What do I mean by
that? Jesus suffered for having a right relationship
with God. Jesus suffered for doing what was good.
Jesus loved God so much that it messed with people's
heads. They were jealous, envious, angered, and
murderous toward him. Peter calls it a fiery
ordeal. Don't be surprised by this fiery ordeal.
Why does he call it that? Well, Peter's trying
to help believers reframe their suffering from
random pain. an inconvenience to something else.
He wants them prepared. We live up in fire country,
and we are right in the middle of the season
here. Really, it's the next few months, July,
August, September, where the big fires usually
ignite. All the way into November, they can be
burning. And I thank God. for those who have
committed their life to going into the field
of firefighting. I guess I've run into crews
of firefighters after they've been out on the
field for a very long time, 12, 16, 24 hours,
covered in soot head to toe, sleeping at the
base of the gas station wall, just lined up trying
to catch a few winks of sleep before they head
on out. But you know what never surprises firefighters?
Fire. You know, they don't run out to the field
and like, what is that? What is this Bernie thing
over here that seems to be consuming things and
it's hot? Oh my goodness, what is that? They're
not surprised by that. Why? Because they're prepared,
right? And not only are they prepared for fire,
they're prepared for fire behavior. What does
the fire do in certain circumstances, in certain
places? They're prepared in all kinds of ways
that you and I... will never think about fire
in those ways, but they're prepared for it. They're
prepared for it and they're preparing for it
when there are no fires so that when the fires
come, they're prepared. Praise God. They've saved
many houses and many lives because of that preparation.
And Peter is trying to get the people of God
to reframe their suffering and to get them prepared
because right now, most likely when Peter is
writing this, the greatest of persecution hasn't
yet broken out. Right now, yes, Christians are
being marginalized or ostracized in society,
in social circles, and maybe in the marketplace
because of their faith. Because of the choices
that they're making, their choices to not participate
in certain pagan activities. They're being mocked
and belittled. But the big persecution is about
to come. The persecution that will cost many
of them their lives and will scatter them to
the four winds. And Peter knows that persecution
and suffering are a part of the package and he
wants to get them ready to reframe. And so he
uses the metaphor of fire or the fiery ordeal
and he connects it to their suffering. And this
would have directed the hearers of his word to
think of a fire used in a forge or used as a
refining fire that refines precious metals. A
refiner's fire. The suffering is like a refiner's
fire. A refiner's fire is there to burn away
all of the impurities as you heat it up. Things
that aren't the purest and the most sustainable
metals, the ones that can last the heat, everything
else begins to burn or the dross begins to collect
and they siphon it off until what's left is the
pure, precious metal that they were aiming for.
And interesting, the fire doesn't burn that up,
but it can burn up a whole lot of other things
that are mixed in with it. Suffering is like
the refiner's fire. It's not random pain, but
purposeful purification and necessary strengthening
of the believer. In fact, Peter was probably
drawing on imagery from the Old Testament prophets,
the Ezekiel, and maybe more so on Malachi. Malachi
chapter 3, the prophet records that the Lord
will suddenly come to his temple. And he will
be like a refiner's fire and will first refine
and purify the sons of Levi. So the Lord's going
to come to the temple. He's going to be like
a refiner's fire and he's going to first refine
and purify the sons of Levi. Well, who are the
sons of Levi? The priesthood. They were the priesthood
called to serve before the Lord, called to be
pure and holy, set apart. He's going to come
and purify them first. Well, earlier Peter had
said that believers are like living stones. Believers
are a spiritual house, a temple of God being
built together. And then he went on to say that
they are a priesthood, a royal priesthood, to
offer acceptable sacrifices to God through Christ.
But Peter definitely has Malachi in mind because
Malachi ends that whole section after he says
the Lord will appear in his temple and he'll
purify the sons of Levi. He ends it by saying,
then they will present offerings to the Lord
in righteousness. He's going to come to his house.
He's going to come to his house, his building,
his temple. We are his temple. We are the house
of God. We are the living stones being built
together. Off the cornerstone of Jesus. That
is us. And he's going to come to the house suddenly.
And what is he going to do? What's his first
agenda? To purify us. To make us clean. To put
us in the refiner's fire. Before he addresses
the world, he addresses us first. Expect the
heat. Because the heat is necessary to make you
into the people God intends. God allows the fiery
ordeals of life to test us, to refine us, and
to strengthen us, not to destroy us. And trials
and tests and suffering are not necessarily judgment.
Here's the crux. If you are going to follow Jesus,
you are going to have to follow him into tests,
into trials, and into suffering. I'll bet if
I asked who wants to follow Jesus, we'd see most
of the hands go up, right? Even if he walks into
that furnace and he's the fourth one in there
and the other three of you are like, how did
we get in here? You want to follow Jesus? Follow
him into trial. Follow him into test. Follow
him into suffering. Sometimes suffering hits
and Christians ask, why me? Why me? And I think
Peter gently says, do you want to be like Christ?
Then why not you? If you're taking notes, the
second thing I'll have you write down is embrace
the honor. From verses 13, 14, and 16, Peter
says, instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings
of Christ so that you may also rejoice with great
joy when his glory is revealed. If you are ridiculed
for the name of Christ, you are blessed because
the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him
not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in having
that name. You want a radical claim of Christianity,
it's rejoice in suffering. Rejoice in suffering.
How can that be? Why? Well, when we suffer for
the name of Christ, you are being identified
with Christ. Now, he's not simply talking about
generic hardship. There are difficulties of being
a human in a fallen world, and God can use all
of those for his purpose. But specifically, Peter
here is talking about purposeful suffering because
you follow Christ. Opposition to Christ that
is directed toward you. And in verse 16, he says,
if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not
be ashamed. Some of you probably know this already,
but the word Christian was originally a derogatory
term. It was a label put on Christians to mock
them. It was a way to shame them and mock them
and laugh at them. They could be called Christians.
But Peter flips it and he says, wear it proudly
because you're carrying Jesus's name. Wear it
proudly and do not be ashamed. In fact, glorify
God in having the name of Jesus Christ. The world
may hate you for bearing the name, for your allegiance
to Jesus, but heaven honors it. If you have your
Bibles, there's an illustration I want to draw
from Acts chapter 5. Turn on over to Acts chapter
5. The gospel has been preached. After the day
of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends, the gospel
is preached, many are added to the church. The
church is seeing crazy, wild outpourings of the
Spirit. The Lord is near and active, working
through the early church in Jerusalem, in that
area. So much so that there's a story of a husband
and wife, Ananias and Sapphira, who sell a piece
of property and they donate the funds or the
proceeds to... the ministry. So they laid at
the feet of the apostles to be distributed and
helpful and useful in ministering. But in the
process, they lie about how much they sold the
property for and how much they gave. And it seems
the implication is they were trying to earn the
praise of people by claiming that they gave the
whole amount when they held back some for themselves.
And they get called on it by divine revelation.
and discernment through the apostles. They understand
what's going on in the situation. They get called
on it. And when they're called on it, judgment
is swift. Ananias drops dead right there. And
when they're called on it and Sapphira is brought
in, she drops dead as well. And judgment is immediate
and swift because the presence of God is near
and he's moving and active. And so the refiner's
fire burned up everything there and found nothing
precious left behind. It was swift and abrupt
and final. And so it says that fear. came on
the whole church and all who heard these things.
And then it goes on to say, many signs and wonders
were being done among the people at the hands
of the apostles. People were being healed. Demons
were being cast out. The shadow of the apostles
was falling on people and people were getting
healed. It was like crazy revival, weird stuff
going on, right? The talk of the town. As in
the middle of this, the high priest rises up
in Jerusalem and he and all who are with him
who belong to the party of the Sadducees were
filled with jealousy. There it is. You want to
follow Christ. You want to honor God. A right
relationship with God will not make everyone
happy. Some people will be jealous. Some people
will be envious. Some people will be angered.
Some people will be murderous. They won't like
it. And they won't like what it's doing. They
won't like the kingdom come. And so they arrest
the apostles. They throw them in jail, but an
angel comes and opens the door and lets them
out at night. And when the jailer arrives in
the morning to retrieve them, to bring them before
the council, they find a locked door with no
one inside. And when they're scratching their
head trying to figure out what on earth happened,
they get word that the apostles are back in the
temple preaching boldly the word of Christ. Right
where they were arrested before, they went right
back to preaching and proclaiming God's word.
Some came and reported, look, the men you put
in jail are standing in the temple and teaching
the people. Then the commander went with the
servants and brought them in without force because
they were afraid the people might stone them.
And now they stand before the Sanhedrin. And
they're asked, didn't we strictly order you not
to teach in this name? Look, you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined
to make us guilty of this man's blood. Verse
29 of chapter 5, Peter and the apostles replied,
we must obey God rather than people. the God
of our ancestors, raised up Jesus, whom you had
murdered by hanging him on a tree. God exalted
this man to his right hand as ruler and savior
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness
for sins. We are witnesses of these things and
so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those
who obey him. And right there in the middle of
this council after they boldly proclaim, we have
to obey God rather than you. One of the Pharisees,
Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was respected
by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin
and ordered the men to be taken outside for a
while. And then he addressed the Sanhedrin and
he said, men of Israel, be careful about what
you're about to do to these men. And then he
goes on to say, lots of people have risen up
in the past few hundred years. risen up to overthrow
the government risen up as as saviors or messiahs
and their their men rallied around them but as
soon as we killed them or as soon as we put them
in prison or got rid of them eventually it all
died down you got to be really careful about
making this guy into a martyr be be careful and
then he says in this present case i tell you
stay away from these men and leave them alone.
For if this plan or this work is of human origin,
it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not
be able to overthrow them. You may even be found
fighting against God. And the presence of this
ruling board with the boldness of the apostles,
they listened to the advice of this Pharisee
and they say, let's just let them go. Let's tell
them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus and
let's flog them. Anyone know how bad flogging
feels? I've only heard, but I can imagine that
it is excruciating, it's painful. And so they
were commanded to not preach in the name and
they were flogged and they were released. And
verse 41 says this of the apostles. Then they
went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing.
They just were flogged, by the way. They went
out from the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully
on behalf of the name. They went out joyful,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy. It was
an honor to be treated shamefully, to suffer.
for the name, to proclaim the good news of Jesus.
And guess where they went right after that? The
next verse says, and they went right back to
the temple and began to preach. The apostles
understood that suffering for Jesus wasn't a
curse or the displeasure of God. It was a crown
of honor. That's the kind of gospel confidence
that Peter is calling us into. Do you see suffering
as an interruption to your witness or as an invitation
to glorify God? What price are you willing to
pay for the name of Jesus? Do I see rejection
by the world as a sign that I belong to Christ
or as something to be avoided at all costs? It's
a conflict. I know for myself, if I was to collect
all of the things that I've suffered in my life,
it would probably pale in comparison to a flogging.
And yeah, they were flogged, commanded to not
preach. They knew what would happen. They knew
what would happen if they keep pushing the buttons.
They saw what happened to Jesus. Number three,
examine your life. Verse 15 and 17 and 18 of
1 Peter chapter 4. Let none of you suffer as
a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler.
For the time has come for judgment to begin with
God's household. And if it begins with us, what
will the outcome be for those who disobey the
gospel of God? And if a righteous person is saved
with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly
and the sinner? Peter does make a sobering distinction
here, one that we all know too well, that not
all suffering is for Christ. Amen? Sometimes
we suffer because we're stupid. Sometimes you
suffer for that reason too. We included you.
Sometimes human suffering is the consequence
of being foolish or being evil. And Peter says,
no believer should suffer as a murderer or a
thief or an evildoer. And then there's one last
point that he puts in there, which kind of stands
out as odd being there in that list of like,
murder, thief, evildoer, meddler. What is a meddler?
A meddler is someone who inserts themselves into
the affairs of others, causing strife, gossip,
and division. The Greek word used here literally
means to make oneself another's overseer or a
self -appointed overseer in someone else's affairs.
Anyone know meddlers? Point at them. Anyone ever
received uninvited parental advice? Yeah. Man,
if I were you, I wouldn't let your child act
that way. Well, good, you're not me, so. Or how
about, man, I just thought you should know what
so -and -so said last week in small group. Or
when someone shares a prayer request about a
private matter that they didn't get permission
to share, but the one who shares, man, I just
feel like you really need to know. Let's cloak
this in spiritual language so my gossip is a
little more palatable as you swallow it. Sometimes
we insist on being informed or counseled or consulted
on every decision. I thought I wanted to be in
the loop. I needed to know even things that are
outside of our responsibility because we feel
entitled to be in the loop. A list of what a
meddler is. A meddler is someone who offers uninvited
opinions or corrections, assumes spiritual authority
or superiority that isn't theirs. inserts themselves
into private matters not entrusted to them, justifies
their actions as helping or being concerned,
and often stirs up division and distrust. I don't
know, it's kind of crazy that that's in a list
with murderer, thief, evildoer, meddler. And
he says, you shouldn't suffer for being any of
those things. If you suffer for being any of
those things, that's your just desserts. But
as a believer, we should not suffer for doing
wrong. But if we do even, I believe that God
will use that, whatever means to refine us until
everything that is impure is burned away and
all that is left is what is lasting and enduring.
I heard a pastor use an illustration and in his
illustration, he said, he heard a pastor who
heard from a pastor. that there was a guy he
knew who refined metal. And so I'm a pastor who
heard from a pastor who heard from a pastor.
So we're down the line here. We can't confirm
or deny whether the story is true. But he said
he talked to the refiner, and the refiner was
saying, he asked the question, the original guy,
way down the line, asked, how do you know when
the process is done? How do you know when it's
refined enough? As a man who refines metals,
refined silver, said he knew that it was done
when he could see his reflection in the molten
silver without anything clouding it. When he
could see his reflection. And I think the same
is true of God. He is going to refine us like
silver until all that remains is the pure reflection
of his glory in us. He's willing to do that work.
In us, in the house of God first, among the sons
of Levi, the royal priesthood. That's why it
says judgment begins with the household of God.
The judgment is purifying. Before he deals with
the world, God will clean his own house. And
suffering is one of the primary tools God uses
to purge sin and refine our motives and strengthen
whatever remains. Listen to what 1 Corinthians
chapter three, it uses this kind of same imagery.
It says, if anyone builds on the foundation with
gold, silver, or costly stones, wood, hay, or
straw, each one's work will become obvious for
the day will disclose it because it will be revealed
by fire. The fire will test the quality of each
one's work. If anyone's work that he has built
survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's
work is burned up, he will experience loss, but
he himself will be saved, but only as through
the fire. Every one of us is building our life
and our work on the foundation of Jesus if we
are in Christ. We are all building on the foundation,
but that doesn't mean we're all building with
the same materials. And God will test the household
of faith first to see how we have been building.
And some will build with things that last, things
that are of eternal value in the kingdom economy,
the gospel faithfulness, Christ -like love, spending
your life on fulfilling the great commission,
being one whose heart burns for one more person,
one more lost person to come to know Jesus Christ.
one who endures suffering for the glory of God,
one who holds to integrity and purity and holiness,
or who has spirit -filled service to the Lord
and to his body. And those qualities compare
with gold and silver and precious stones. But
others will build with things that won't survive
the fire. They'll build with ego. They'll chase
after applause. They will do good works to earn
righteousness for themselves instead of works
built on a gospel foundation. They will engage
in religious activities but without love. They
will conform to culture. They will make every
effort to look impressive on the outside. They
will murder. Do evil and meddle. And their work
of hay, wood, and straw, when the fire comes,
poof. The fire tests the work. The fire proves
the work. The fire makes what is precious. Even
more valuable because the fire refines it. I
am not a construction guy. I'm going to look
at a few guys here as I'm talking. And if they
start shaking their head, we're bailing on this.
But I'm pretty sure that when you're building
things of significance and you begin to pour
concrete, that concrete has to be tested by someone
to test the strength of it. by piling up and
it melts down in a certain way. Like you're testing
the quality of it that it can hold the weight
of whatever's being built on top of it, right?
And so you can pour concrete and go, hey, I poured
concrete, start building on it. And you go, no,
no, no, no. We need to test this first. We need
to make sure as soon as we start building and
we get to the second floor, it doesn't crumble
and fall into the ground. We need to test it.
Well, how do you test it? Well, they have this
fall test, I know, but I imagine you could also
do a pressure test of some sort too and push
really hard on it and see what happens, right?
The fire tests the work. The fire proves the
work's quality. The fire makes what is precious
even more valuable because the fire refines it
further. But the fire burns to absolute nothing.
that which isn't made to face the fire in the
first place. If you build your life with worthless
things, you may be saved, but only as one escaping
the fire and you will suffer great loss. And
the reward, the reward is only promised to one,
to the one who builds with those things that
survive, those things that are refined in the
fire, not burned away. The final point, number
four, entrust the outcome. Verse 19. So then,
let those who suffer according to God's will
entrust themselves to a faithful creator while
doing what is good. God's will includes hardship
for his purpose. This doesn't mean that all suffering
is directly caused by God, but that nothing touches
a believer that God doesn't allow and won't use
for their refinement and good. And this calls
us to trust a sovereign God, God's sovereignty,
especially when suffering seems unfair or confusing.
We have to trust that God will not allow this
to be wasted. But he will use it to further refine
us, to burn away the parts in our life that we
were building with hay or stubble or wood. And
to take the precious things, the eternal things
that were a part of our building, our life, our
works, and further refine them to make them more
precious and more enduring. And Peter Enns was
saying we should entrust ourselves to a faithful
creator. And that's an interesting title. He
didn't just say, trust yourself to God. But he
says, entrust yourself to a faithful creator.
As a faithful one, he doesn't abandon his own.
And he keeps his promise and as creator he made
you and he knows you and he's powerful enough
to bring you into existence and he's powerful
enough to sustain you to the end. He is a faithful
creator and you are to entrust yourself. Entrust
means handing over something valuable to someone
for safekeeping. Entrust yourself to God even
in the midst of the suffering and the pain and
the difficulty. Put yourself in his safekeeping.
He is a faithful creator. In fact, this word
entrust is the same word that Jesus used when
he entrusted his spirit to the Father on the
cross. When suffering comes, we follow Christ,
not by taking matters into our own hands, but
entrusting our life into the hands of our faithful
creator while we continue to do what is good.
Here's the final thought that I'll leave us with
before we move into our time of communion. And
I think this is a very helpful and life -changing
thought. At least for me it was. And it is this.
Christians don't need to survive. Have you ever
met someone who says, how are you doing? And
they say, oh, I'm surviving. Or they're in the
middle of a difficult time and it's like, yeah,
man, things are really hitting me and it's coming
from left, it's coming from right, it's coming
from everywhere, but I'll survive. The glory
and the beauty of being in Christ and following
Christ is we don't need to survive. We don't
need to survive. Christians don't need to survive.
That's not a prerequisite to our joy or our flourishing
is that we survive. And you think even in the
midst of suffering, take suffering all the way
to the end, just like Christ experienced. Suffering,
suffering, suffering, abuse, shame, shame, death.
Death isn't the end. Death is a doorway into
the glory of God unveiled. Death is a doorway
into ultimate fellowship with God and worship
and love of God with his people. Even death itself
has no sting. It has no bite. We don't need to
survive. We can cast all restraint to the wind.
We can run free because Christians don't need
to survive. We don't need to just cling on and
hold on for dear life. That's what the apostles
experienced in chapter five of Acts. They went
and it's like, hey. The worst you can do is do
what you did to my savior and look at the glory
that came as a result of that. That's the worst
you could do. And so we're gonna preach and then
you're gonna arrest us and put us in. And an
angel is gonna release us and put us back out
there. And we're gonna preach and then you're
gonna arrest us and pull us in. And then you're
gonna flog us and release us and we're gonna
go preach the good news because we don't need
to survive in order for us to flourish and thrive
in the kingdom of God. It's not a prerequisite
for our joy. And that reality changes everything
about how we can face anything that we're going
through.