A Personal Call to Pain and Suffering
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This morning, I want to start off with a couple questions.
Why would God allow persecution, pain, and suffering in the world?
You know the argument from non-believers:
If God is a good God why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
If God is all powerful why doesn’t he put an end to all suffering in the world?
We are left in a place of trying to explain why God does what he does, why He allows the things to happen He allows. We are in a sense left trying to justify God and His works through pain and suffering.
Theodicies - attempts to justify God and His ways.
Dr. Welty’s theodicy is “the pain and suffering in God’s world play a necessary role in bringing about greater goods that could not be brought about except for the presence of pain and suffering. The world would be worse off without pain and suffering, and so God is justified in pursuing good by these means.”
As we spend one more week in verses 21-23 this morning I want us to think about why God would have allowed, planned, and even foreordained Jesus’ suffering, and why He calls Christian’s to faithful suffering.
If we remember that;
The world would be worse off had it not been for Jesus’ suffering and,
The God accomplished a much greater good through Jesus’ suffering would he not be doing the same through the suffering of followers of Christ?
English Standard Version Chapter 2
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Peter begins this section with the Christian’s call to suffer. Remember this call comes in the context of Peter commanding Servants to be subject to your masters. Or as we considered, employees be subject to your employer’s. Whether they are good and gentle or unjust. Whichever the case we are called to be submissive to them.
In light of that call in the days of the early church and the church today it is understood that we are going to work in a fallen world under fallen leadership and is with this understanding that we can expect to be in situations in which godly suffering will occur.
Therefore, Peter begins verse 21 with an,
I. Exhortation to Suffer.
I. Exhortation to Suffer.
A. The Personal Call to Suffer
A. The Personal Call to Suffer
For to this you have been called.
Notice who he Peter is giving this exhortation.
You. Peter was writing to the sojourners and exiles of the dispersion, but His Word has been inspired and kept by the Spirit in order that you, I , and the Church today received the same exhortation.
For to this…you have been called.....
What is the this in verse 21? Look back at 19-20
2:19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what Credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, suffering because we sin does not count. Suffering because we disobey God’s word is not a gracious thing in the sight of God. Suffering because of sin, is recieved our just reward, not suffering unjustly.
Now when we do good and suffer for it this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
So what does it mean that we are called suffer?
This word called means,
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 33.312 καλέω; κλῆσις, εως; προσκαλέομαι
to urgently invite someone to accept responsibilities for a particular task, implying a new relationship to the one who does the calling—‘to call, to call to a task.’
In other word’s as we have been invited, or called to salvation, to our new relationship to Christ we are invited to suffer as he suffers to endure unjust suffering as he endured unjust suffering.
Pastor David explains it this way, “The call of God for your life is to endure unjust suffering. This is not to the exclusion of joy and satisfaction even in this temporal life, but it is a primary expectation for what God commonly has for those who are in Christ – endure unjust suffering well.”
Listen to how Paul explains his desire to know Christ and share in his sufferings.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3
Do you hear Paul explaining how he counted everything as loss. How he suffered for the sake of Christ.
That he may know Him and share his sufferings, becoming like him in death, that by any means possible attain the resurrection of from the dead.
Paul understood what it meant to be called to suffer for Christ sake, according to the will of God.
Here is our question of application for this exhortation. How are we answering Peter’s invitation to suffer with Christ? How are we responding to the call to share in his sufferings? Are we doing good and enduring suffering for it?
B. The Encouragement in Suffering
B. The Encouragement in Suffering
because Christ also suffered for you.
Are you seeing this personal call followed by a personal reason we suffer. We don’t just suffer because we like pain.
We don’t just suffer because we like to endure hardship.
We don’t suffer because we enjoy persecution.
We don’t suffer because we find pleasure in personal rejection.
We suffer because Jesus Christ also suffered for you....
The Sinless Son of God suffered for you.
The Second Person of the Godhead suffered for you.
The Suffering Servant Suffered for you.
The Son of Man Suffered for you.
The Savior of the world Suffered for you.
Do you and I truly understand what Jesus did for us? The Messiah who truly had no reason to suffer other than our salvation. The One who could honestly say he was sinless, a good person, who had not sinned and fell short of the glory of God. The One who did not deserve the wage of death. The One who demonstrated His own love for us in that He died for us who had sinned and deserved death by dyeing a death that we deserved.
How then should we respond in light of the suffering of Christ. Paul told the Philippians,
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians
The King of Kings and Lord of Lord was willing to empty himself, put off His kingly privileges and put on the form of a servant and be born in the likeness of man so that he might suffer for you and me and all who would believe!
Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter Exposition
We must put on a coat of mail and be enveloped in the whole panoply of God. We must have, as our great controlling principle, the mind of Christ, that, as He endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, we also may endure it and not be weary or faint in our minds. We shall best bear our own sufferings when we find fellowship with Christ in them.
Remember what Jesus said regarding his suffering and the expectation of suffering His followers should have.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 18:
Jesus suffered because of the world’s hatred for him.
His followers suffer because of the world’s hatred for them.
Jesus was persecuted because they did not know the Father.
His followers will be persecuted because they do not know the Son.
Think for a moment about Peter’s call to suffer.
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
John
Peter recieved a very personal call from Christ to suffer…Jesus told him,
You will stretch out your hands.
You will be dressed by another.
You will be carried off by another.
You will go where you do not want to go.
Do you remember Peter’s response?
What about John? Jesus, told him don’t worry about John…(Buck’s translation).
How many of us sometimes question our call to suffer by saying what about ........? Here in Peter’s letter he makes the general call personal, but the application of that call will look different in each one of our lives.
We have considered the Exhortation to suffer, not let’s look at Christ’s,
II. Example in Suffering
II. Example in Suffering
We see you have been called to suffer,
We see the reason we suffer, because Christ also suffered for you, now we see our example in suffering in that,
Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Warren Weirsbe writes,
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Somebody’s Watching You! (1 Peter 2:11–25)
We are not saved by following Christ’s example, because each of us would stumble over 1 Peter 2:22: “who did no sin.” Sinners need a Saviour, not an Example. But after a person is saved, he will want to “follow closely upon His steps” (literal translation) and imitate the example of Christ.
This is a great point from Weirsbe, we have to be careful to remember our salvation is not a result of our follow Christ example. Our following His example is the result our our salvation granted us according the the mercy of God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter has provided us the gospel throughout the first chapter of this letter, then led us to how we ought to live in light of God’s glorious salvation.
We are saved according to the foreknowledge of God by His mercy.
In the sanctification of the Spirit,
For obedience to Jesus Christ (not by)
Through the Resurrection of Christ from the dead.
By the good news that was preached to you.
Through the living and abiding Word of God.
Robert Mounce explains,
A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter Called to Unjust Suffering (2:18–25)
The Greek word means literally, “something written underneath.” Christ is our example in the sense that he furnishes us the pattern we are to trace. Specifically, the ideal is to be a “carbon copy” of him.
Not only are we to be a carbon copy of Jesus we are to follow Him, we are to imitate Him as Paul says. How then are we to be a copy of Jesus and imitate Him? Does this just happen automatically at salvation? Nope.
We must know Him to be like Him.
We must obey Him to be like Him.
How then do we grow in our knowledge and obedience to Jesus Christ who suffered for us leaving us an example to follow?
What do we know about Jesus suffering that we should imitate or follow?
He suffered without sin.
As we mentioned last week Peter watched Him for three years day after day, hour after hour. He saw Jesus interact with his family, the religious, with the non-religious, and with his inner circle of friends. Through all that Jesus committed no sin. He watched Jesus be mocked, made fun of, be mutilated with with a cat of nine tails, nailed to a cross and through all that Jesus remained sinless.
Remember Jesus is the sinless Lamb of God, it is because of His sinless sacrifice that we can imitate Him and follow Him.
knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Peter 1:18-
He suffered without deceit.
When suffering came Jesus did not try and smooth talk his way out of it. He didn’t try to outwit or outlast his enemies. He didn’t attempt to deceive or trick anyone to avoid persecution. Instead anytime he was in a precarious situation, He pointed to the Truth.
Do we stand on the Truth of God’s Word when persecution comes?
Do we point to the Person and Work of Christ when we are persecuted?
Do we trust in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when we are tempted to try and come up with our own scheme to escape suffering?
He suffered without retaliating.
Last week we looked at his suffering in Matthew, let’s consider how Mark recorded Jesus’ suffering at the crucifixion.
And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.
And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
Mark
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!”
Mark 15:
So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.
Now consider for a moment, how great Jesus suffering was, how much agony, and humiliation he faced.
Now think about even the original audience of Peter. These men and women were turning to Christ. They were being rejected by their families, friends and peers. They were losing their livelihood potentially having their lives threatened. They were being accused of great evils cannibalism, incest, and other vial sins. Peter is telling them look to Jesus, he did not revile he did not retaliate, he remained silent, FOLLOW HIM!
Compare that to the suffering you and I have experienced over the last week, month, or even a lifetime…How often then have we retaliated, reviled in return, slung insults or slanderous remarks?
Jesus also did not threaten.
He knew He didn’t need too. He had perfect knowledge and trust of the Father. The Just Judge. Jesus knew that those who trusted in His propitiatory sacrifice would be saved. He also know that God the Father being perfectly Just would avenge those who refuse to repent of their verbal abuse, their slander, and their reviling of Christ.
Mounce explains,
A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter Called to Unjust Suffering (2:18–25)
The conviction that righteousness will be rewarded and evil punished provides the basis for committing oneself to a life of nonretaliation. A moral God must and will vindicate the righteous sufferer.
This is why Christ continued entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. This is why we can continue entrusting ourselves to the one who judges justly.
We can be certain if we are in Christ, if we know Him, if we share in his sufferings that His Father, the perfectly Just Father who adopted us into His family will save us from this suffering and show us the glory that is to come. This is the sure confidence that we have in our salvation in Christ that because of His perfect suffering the sons and daughters of God can persevered through suffering knowing that He has earned what we could not earn that is eternal life and future glory.
Suffering is not only for future glory, it also benefits us in this life now. God uses suffering to sanctify us and conform us into the image of His Son.
John MacArthur provides 8 benefits of suffering.
Verifies our faith
Confirms our sonship
Produces endurance
Teaches us to hate sin
Clarifies our priorities
Identifies us in Christ
Can encourage other believers
Enables us to help others
We looked at Peter’s first response to Christ’s call to suffer earlier and we saw a bit of immaturity. But by the time he writes this letter notice how he has grown in his understanding of suffering for Christ.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
We cannot forget that suffering for doing good is what Peter is calling Christians to. As we seek to grow in our sanctification and faithfulness to Christ we will suffer in some from or fashion.
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,
1 Peter
Remember Christ suffered to bring us to God, to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. In His suffering He was put to death in the flesh in so that we might die with him and mortify the deeds of the flesh. Christ was also made alive in the Spirit and all those who believe in Him are made alive by the same Spirit.
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, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
Peter goes on to say because of Christ suffering in the flesh, we are to put on the same way of think, have the same mind and suffer as he suffered, without sin. Not living by the flesh but by the Spirit. This is sounding a lot like Romans 8!
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
While we are doing Good we are to follow Christ’s example by entrusting our souls to the One who judges justly. Not worrying about today as He will care for us in our time of trouble.
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Notice these wonderful truths about suffering in this final verse.
Suffering is short term, for a little while.
Suffering is God’s call to us to lead us to glory in Christ.
Christ will restore us from suffering.
Christ will confirm you in and through suffering.
Christ will strengthen you in suffering.
Christ will establish you in suffering!
Look to Christ in your suffering!
David Powlison who recently went to be with the Lord today, June 7, 2019. On May 23, 2019, David Powlison was scheduled to give the closing comments at the Westminster Theological Seminary Graduation Ceremony. He was unable to attend, however, because he was receiving hospice care at home. His remarks were read in his absence, and he pled with the students—about to begin their public ministries—as follows:
My deepest hope for you is that in both your personal life and your ministry to others, you would be unafraid to be publicly weak as the doorway to the strength of God Himself.
Why Not Me? In his suffering book, David Powlison noted that so often our initial reaction to painful suffering is:
Why me? Why this? Why now? Why? . . . He wrote:
[God] comes for you, in the flesh, in Christ, into suffering, on your behalf. He does not offer advice and perspective from afar; he steps into your significant suffering. He will see you through, and work with you the whole way. He will carry you even in extremis. This reality changes the questions that rise up from your heart. That inward-turning “why me?” quiets down, lifts its eyes, and begins to look around. You turn outward and new, wonderful questions form.
Why you? Why you? Why would you enter this world of evils? Why would you go through loss, weakness, hardship, sorrow, and death? Why would you do this for me, of all people?
But you did.
You did this for the joy set before you. You did this for love. You did this showing the glory of God in the face of Christ.
As that deeper question sinks home, you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God’s story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long.
The question generates a heartfelt response:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of his benefits, who pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Thank you, my Father. You are able to give true voice to a thank you amid all that is truly wrong, both the sins and the sufferings that now have come under lovingkindness.
Finally, you are prepared to pose—and to mean—almost unimaginable questions:
Why not me? Why not this? Why not now?
If in some way, my faith might serve as a three-watt night-light in a very dark world, why not me? If my suffering shows forth the Savior of the world, why not me? If I have the privilege of filling up the sufferings of Christ? If he sanctifies to me my deepest distress? If I fear no evil? If he bears me in his 5 arms? If my weakness demonstrates the power of God to save us from all that is wrong? If my honest struggle shows other strugglers how to land on their feet? If my life becomes a source of hope for others?
Why not me?
Of course, you don’t want to suffer, but you’ve become willing: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Like him, your loud cries and tears will in fact be heard by the one who saves from death. Like him, you will learn obedience through what you suffer. Like him, you will sympathize with the weaknesses of others. Like him, you will deal gently with the ignorant and wayward. Like him, you will display faith to a faithless world, hope to a hopeless world, love to a loveless world, life to a dying world.
If all that God promises only comes true, then why not me?