Suffer Accordingly
Notes
Transcript
If you can… if you are a Christian… would you just proclaim that out loud with me this morning? I am a Christian. I am a Christian. Say it again… I am a Christian. I’d like us to think for a bit about those words… and what it means to bear the name Christian… what it means to live the life of a Christian in our world.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been on the Voice of the Martyr’s website… but they post prayer requests every week about people who are being persecuted. I want to read one of those requests to you very quickly. This was posted on Thursday of this past week…
An Arab convert from Saudi Arabia has suffered great difficulties after being exposed as a follower of Jesus. Last year, the believer was open about his faith and was reported to the authorities. Conversion is illegal and punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, and authorities opened an investigation against him. Several years earlier, the believer helped his sister, also a follower of Christ, flee the country with her children after she faced family persecution. Afterwards, the family accused him of financial wrongdoing and sued him. That case is ongoing. The Saudi Christian has already faced several prison sentences and floggings due to his faith. His family is threatening to harm his wife and son.
In Saudi Arabia, to say… I am a Christian… has pretty significant results. And there are thousands of other stories just like that one. Two weeks ago, we had three kiddos in Discipleland confess Christ… yet I read a story about a little girl who confess Christ and she was drug out into the street, and had a knife put to her throat… Denounce Christ or die… oh and by the way… it was her parents doing that to her.
Outside of Park Hills Missouri… what are the consequences of saying… I am a Christian? For now, we have it pretty good in the US. When we say those words… when we live that life… when we bear the name of Christ, we don’t feel too much pressure. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t suffering.
And listen… I’m not talking about general suffering. There are sufferings that we go through just because the world is fallen… because it’s broken. Cancer, Job loss, financial hardship… there’s all kinds of brokenness in our world and so we suffer that way. But that’s not the suffering that I’m talking about this morning. What I’m talking about is the suffering that comes because we bear the name of Christ… because we live the life of a Christian… because we have convictions from the Scriptures.
These sufferings are shame, loss, and hardship. It’s where you are put down or looked down upon because of your faith. It’s when there’s a financial, social, physical, or mental hardship because you bear the name of Jesus Christ. That’s the kind of suffering that we’re talking about this morning. And depending on where you live, or your circumstances, there are different degrees of this suffering.
Imagine being in the water… and the current is coming against you. We know that the world and it’s systems are against Christ and His church… so that current that’s coming against you in the water is the world system. Here in rural Missouri, we might be ankle deep in the water with the current flowing against us. The man that we read about earlier from Saudi Arabia, the water for him is up to his chin.
My goal this morning, as we look at 1st Peter… Peter is writing to people who were going through moderate kinds of suffering as Christians. It wasn’t explosive, although there were moments it was… but overall, it was a moderate kind of suffering. And so Peter is right there with us in what we may experience in the future as the current grows against us. And so my hope this morning is to equip you as the day of suffering for the name of Jesus Christ comes upon your life. Here’s the truth… If you do not prepare for suffering for the name of Christ, you will not be ready when it happens.
So if you have your Bible, turn with me to 1st Peter chapter 4. 1st Peter chapter 4. The 1st idea that Peter gives us is the idea of the buddy system… don’t go alone. If you’re going to try and stand firm in the cultural current that’s against Christianity, if you try to go it alone, it’s not going to turn out so well. So don’t go it alone. Look at verse 12…
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
(DEAR FRIENDS… STOP RIGHT THERE)
We lose so much in translation here. Peter uses this phrase a couple of times… Dear friends. The idea here… this is an endearing phrase. The idea is… Come close… listen… I’m speaking to you as someone who loves you… and we have such a special and close relationship… I feel like I could tell you anything.
This is Peter’s community. This is Peter’s family. And Peter is supposing that they are going through these sufferings… and will go through these sufferings TOGETHER. This is not something they’re doing on their own, and then they just come back to complain to everyone else about… they’re doing this together… as community… as family.
I recently heard the phrase… If you want to go fast, go alone… If you want to go far, go together. When Peter writes about what it means to suffer as Christians… to him, suffering is done together as a community. So don’t go it alone.
Let’s keep reading… verse 12…
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
Suffering has always been… and will always be a chapter in the people of God’s story. Throughout the Old Testament… into the New Testament… think about the people and what they went through… suffering has always been a part of the Christian story… therefore, we should expect that it will be a part of our story. So be ready. Don’t be blindsided by it… know that suffering is going to happen.
I want to rewind in chapter 4 for just a moment here… and show you a quick example of how Peter supposes this suffering might happen. Look at verse 3 with me…
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.
Listen… if we are living out the Christian life… in its basic tenets of the faith… there are things we know God has called us to do… and things we know that God has called us out of. What we’re called to, and what we’re called out of… these are two parts of living the holy life as we’re commanded. And when we live that holy life we’re called to… we will receive ridicule and shame from the world because of that life.
Now… listen carefully to me… I’m not encouraging you to go to work and pick fights with people for the sake of standing out… but, we do need to grow a Christian backbone and stand up and say… no… I’m not going to go along with that… or… I can’t support that because I am a Christian… and this is what God says about that. We’re not called to be closet Christians.
You say… but yea, Pastor Joshua… aren’t we supposed to humble? Of course we are… but humility does not mean weak or cowering. You can be bold, strong… yet still be humble. So if you are… step out of the closet… humbly, yet boldly live out the Christian life at home, at work, at the gym… wherever you go.
Let’s keep reading… let’s just hit verse 12 again… We’ll see the purpose of suffering here…
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
(… to test you)
Now real quick… flip back to chapter 1 with me. Very quickly I want to read verse 7…
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
There’s a real sense here that when we when suffer for bearing the name of Christ… it is part of God’s purpose to refine us… like gold is refined in fire. To test us… to strengthen us… to deepen the core of our faith.
Now jump back over to chapter 4… and read verse 13 with me…
But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Peter says the other purpose of suffering is that it identifies us with Christ. It puts us in company with Jesus Christ… as His people.
And notice that in both of these… there is a forward look… this idea of when God is revealed. Both of these Scriptures look to the future of event when Jesus returns… and we stand before God… we will have been tested… and refined… and identified with Jesus… and having been through all that, we are able to stand before God without fear. One commentator said it this way… If we bear sufferings now, we live eternally without suffering. If we don’t bear sufferings now, we suffer for eternity. That’s how we have this joy in suffering. This is not mindless suffering… it has a purpose.
And we have to keep our minds on that. When we go through suffering… and we can only see the suffering… we get lost in that suffering… and we become hopeless. Peter wants us to see that there is purpose in suffering. God is at work in your suffering… so embrace it… embrace God’s purpose.
Let’s keep reading… verse 15…
If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.
You want to know what Peter is saying here? He’s saying… don’t poke the sleeping bear. Don’t go looking for unnecessary trouble. Don’t go trying to stir the pot. Stand firm and strong in your convictions… yes… absolutely… but don’t go looking for trouble. Don’t invite people to persecute you. If they persecute you because of Christ… Praise God. If they persecute you because you’re being obnoxious in the name of Christ… Peter says… don’t be that Christian.
And now we get to the homerun of the passage. Verse 19…
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
There’s a danger in suffering. We get into this place where we feel like the world is spinning out of control… our lives are unraveling before our eyes… and the response to that is to hunker down in the fetal position of fear and only worry about me, myself, and I.
Oh woe is me… I’m going through persecution… I’m experiencing shame and loss and hardship… and so I’m going to put up all my defenses… I’m going to hide in my home… the world is coming to an end… I just can’t take it anymore.
This is Peter saying… buck up buttercup… the suffering you’re going through is not about you… don’t make it about you. Yes… God has a purpose for you in your suffering… but make no mistake about it… it’s about God. If you suffer accordingly… then it’s God’s will… and that ought to change our whole attitude about it. That ought to cause us to look up and say… Ok God, if this is what you want, I will walk through it in confidence that you’ve got me… I will trust you… I will rely on the peace that you give… I will not hide… I will not be fearful.
And Peter hits the final nail by saying… continue to do good. This is not Peter saying keep being moral… although that’s part of it. This is not about ethics… although that’s part of it. This is Peter saying… Trust God. Go out into your community and continue to proclaim and live out the gospel.
As we end our series through 1st Peter this morning… I want to end with verse 14…
If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
You know… most of the time when we use the word blessed… it’s because God just gave us a new house… a new car… or he helped us get out of debt… or because we got an extra thousand in our tax return this year. I just want to flip that idea of blessed for us real quickly. There’s nothing wrong with those things at all… but in this verse, Peter kinda has a different definition of blessed… doesn’t he.
Let’s read verse 14 one more time… and pay very close attention to how Peter defines being blessed…
If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Suffering… Persecution is intended to bring shame upon you. But Peter, here, says… but instead of receiving shame… the spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests on you. That my friends… that’s what it means to be blessed. And that’s what God does. He takes what is intended to bring harm… and shame… and He get’s glory out of it… and we get to be a part of that. I’m reminded of the story of Joseph in Genesis… What you intended for evil… God intended for good.
I don’t know what kind of suffering you’re going through… I don’t know if you’re going through any at all. And perhaps that’s a question that you need to ask yourself… why am I not? Am I being a closet Christian?
But if you are… my hope this morning was to encourage you. But perhaps a month from now… a year from now… 10 years from now… you will experience some suffering because you bear the name of Christ. My hope is that this sermon… this series will encourage you. Suffer accordingly. You are not alone. The Spirit of God rests on you… and we, your church family, are with you. Draw near to God… draw near to His people. There is strength… there is courage… there is hope… there is security. Everything you could ever need is found in Him.
Pray with me…