We Suffer, Yet We Rejoice Greatly

We Suffer. Yet We Rejoice Greatly How do you respond to suffering? Complaining is probably the most common response. Many try to blame someone or even God. Many get discouraged and some get depressed. But Peter, Paul, and James all say that we should rejoice! How can we rejoice in suffering? Why can we rejoice? Today I begin a study of the first letter of Peter. Peter was writing to former pagans who had come to faith in Jesus and now faced persecution. He wrote to encourage them in their trials. Let us look briefly at the opening of Peter's letter, 1 Peter 1:1, 2: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Peter calls his readers strangers in a world that rejects them and compares them as God's chosen people to the scattering of Jews in the diaspora. They are chosen by the Triune God, emphasizing the foreknowledge of the Father, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and the Lordship and redeeming work of the Son, Jesus Christ. He then gives a typical Christian greeting emphasizing grace and peace. Grace points to our favored position before God. It is His grace that enables great joy even in times of suffering. Peter begins the body of his letter with praise to God for His gift to us. Listen to verses 3-5: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. God in His great mercy, as a gift of His grace, gives us new birth to a new life in Christ. This new birth gives us a great future described first as a living hope, a confident expectation of future blessing, and then as a sure inheritance that is kept in heaven for us until that day we receive it in full. While we possess salvation now, the full experience of life is future. Salvation has a past tense, the freedom from guilt and the penalty of sin we received when we first put our faith in Jesus. Salvation has a present tense, as the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit progressively frees us from the power and control of sin in our daily lives. But salvation has a great future tense with the promise of deliverance from the presence of sin and its consequences including sickness and all suffering when Jesus takes us all to be with Him. Until then, as a part of our present salvation, we are shielded by God's power, not shielded from all suffering, but shielded from being overwhelmed and defeated by it. This hope and inheritance are our source of joy as we suffer in this fallen world. Listen to verses 6-9: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. In our present life, we do suffer grief in all kinds of sorrows. Peter does not limit his concern to persecution. We experience these troubles now, for a little while, but not forever. There is value to our present suffering. In his first chapter, James tells us that trials develop maturity in us. In Romans 5, Paul tells us that suffering develops character and hope. In our text, Peter tells us that suffering proves our faith and that proven faith will result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus comes. It is because suffering has such value that we can rejoice in the midst of it. We love Jesus, we believe in Him, so we are filled with joy. We can rejoice that we are receiving the goal of this faith, the salvation of our souls. Our joy comes from focusing on our future salvation, not on our present suffering and testing. And this is great joy, inexpressible and glorious. Our favored position of being God's chosen people by God's grace is a place of privilege. Let us finish our first study in 1 Peter with 1:10-12: Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. Even the Old Testament prophets did not experience the privileges we possess. They knew a greater grace was coming. They sought to learn more. But they were told it was not for their day. Even angels cannot experience the grace we have received. Redemption and salvation are only for humans. Yet angels desire to know more about this grace. Shouldn't we seek to know more? We can experience salvation now! Jesus has already died for our sins. His glories have already begun with His resurrection and His ascension to the Father's right hand. This gospel has been preached to us. When we hear and believe, we begin receiving the salvation of our souls. But the greatest glory is yet to come. Ultimate salvation will be revealed in the last time. When Jesus is revealed, there will be praise, glory, and honor. We will then be with Jesus forever, like Him in glorified bodies that never get sick, and free forever from all sin and all its evil effects. In conclusion, we now still struggle with our fleshly nature, the evil influences of this world, and the attacks of the devil. We now still struggle under persecution, under disease, under failures of family, friends, and ourselves, and under many other trials. But we have much for which to rejoice now. We are God's chosen people in Jesus. We are born again to a living hope and a sure inheritance. We are shielded by God's power as we live by faith in Jesus. We are sprinkled by Christ's blood, purified from all sin. While our current suffering is only for a little while, our salvation will last forever. We have a joy that is inexpressible and full of glory. Let us cast all our cares on Jesus and rejoice!