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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Friday, 01 August 2008 14:54 |
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1 Peter 1:3-9
March 30, 2007 - Lindsborg Cov.
“Good Grief”
(Rejoicing in Suffering)
Sermon
The year was 1555. The country was England. The state Church of England had wandered so far from the teachings of Jesus that many followers of Jesus no longer considered it to be the Church at all. John Denley was just such a man. He believed that the Church was built upon the apostles and prophets with Jesus as its head.
One day, as John was on his way to visit some friends, he was stopped and searched. The authorities found his written confession of faith. So, John was arrested and turned over to the Bishop for questioning. John refused to back down from his statement of faith, so he was condemned to die and turned over to the sheriff.
Within six weeks he was sent to the stake to be burned. When they lit the wood beneath him, John showed no fear. He cheerfully sang a psalm as the flames rose around him. One of his tormentors, hoping to either anger or silence him, picked up a piece of wood and threw it at him, hitting him in the face. John responded, “Truly, you have spoiled a good old song.” Then he spread his arms again and continued signing until he died. (Drawn from Jesus Freaks, by DC Talk, p. 61)
I chose to tell you this story this morning for two reasons. First, because for the next few weeks we will be studying the book of First Peter. Peter wrote this particular letter to a Church that was facing more and more persecution. In fact, some of Peter’s readers no doubt were burned at the stake as well, under the rule of Emperor Nero.
The second reason I tell you this story is because, if you are like me, you have a very difficult time relating to stories like that. I cannot relate to this story at all, for two reasons. The first reason is because never in my whole life have I ever experienced any kind of significant persecution. There have been some minor things, of course, but I cannot say that I have ever really suffered for following Jesus. The second reason I cannot relate to stories like this is because I simply cannot imagine expressing that kind of joy in the face of that degree of pain and torture. It is not just foreign to me, it seems downright bizarre!
Perhaps that is true of you as well. Certainly, I think it would be safe to assume that none of us, no one in this room has ever experienced any kind of persecution that comes even close to what happened to John Denley. So, on one level, it will be difficult for us to really relate to Peter’s original audience. But I want to say this as well, just because you have never suffered terribly for your faith, doesn’t mean that you have not suffered.
I have been around y’all long enough to know that some of you have suffered, and some of you have suffered much. There are all different kinds of suffering, of course. For example, some of you are the sole breadwinner in your family, and you have lost your job. Perhaps not right now, but it has happened to you before. Some of you have lost your health. Some of you have lost a child. Some of you suffer chronic pain. Some of you wonder if your prodigal child will ever return. Some of you have experienced the death of a dream. Some of you cannot have children. Some of you have been abandoned by someone you loved and depended on. Some of you long for a parent to love you. Some of you have an unhappy marriage. Some of you are financially devastated. Some of you long to get married. Some of you live in a wheelchair. Some of you have lost your spouse. Some of you have been injured. Some of you are desperately lonely. Some of you are weary from caring for a chronically ill loved one. Some of you have a sick child.
And the list could go on, of course. Do any of those hit close to home? Are you hurting today? Do you find yourself in a long season of suffering? If so, then this sermon is for you. This is a message of hope, from God, through Peter, to you. God has good news for you today. You can rejoice in the midst of your suffering.
Now, notice I did not say that you should rejoice for your suffering. That doesn’t make any sense at all to me. No one likes to suffer. Jesus didn’t enjoy suffering any more that we do. When we evesdrop on His prayer in the garden we don’t hear Him saying, “Father, thank You for this cup of suffering! May I have seconds please?” No! Jesus tried to avoid suffering just as we do.
So, we don’t rejoice because we are suffering, but we can rejoice in the midst of our suffering because of what accompanies it. In this passage I think Peter offers us two major reasons to rejoice in the midst of our suffering. We can rejoice because of God’s great mercy, and we can rejoice because of God’s great efficiency. We can rejoice because of God’s great mercy, and we can rejoice because of God’s great efficiency.
Let me explain. Let’s begin with mercy. If you want to follow along, please turn to 1 Peter 1:3. In this verse, Peter says, “He has given us a new birth into a living hope”. There is our word: Hope. God has given us a new birth into a living hope. What is our hope? Perhaps a more precise way to ask the question is, “Who is our hope?”
Remember, last week we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is the source of our hope. Jesus is alive, therefore, our hope is living! If I could paraphrase Peter a bit, he is saying that God has given us a relationship with Jesus Christ right now. This is not pie in the sky by and by. This is a genuine, living, dynamic relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
But that is only the first half. We find the second half in verse four. He says that God has given us “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in Heaven for you.” This is a reference to our relationship with Jesus in Heaven. So, we see both parts here. We have been given a relationship with Jesus now, and promised an ongoing and eternal relationship with Him in Heaven.
Peter mentions an inheritance. Think this through with me. Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, right? Right. Thus, He is the sole heir to God’s coming Kingdom, right? Well, not quite. Not anymore. You see, those of us who are in Christ have now been adopted into the royal family. This means that God is our Father and Jesus is our big brother. This is why Paul said in Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we re heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
Please pay close attention to that last part. He said that we are “co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Here again we see both parts: our relationship with Jesus now, sharing in His sufferings, and our relationship with Jesus in Heaven, sharing in His glory.
Some of you, I know have received an inheritance. But Peter here speaks of an inheritance that is fundamentally different from all earthly inheritances. It is not uncommon to hear stories of people who inherited massive fortunes, but then they squandered it. In some cases, it completely ruined their lives. I know of one case where the inheritance tore the family apart.
But even if an inheritance is used wisely, spent carefully, saved frugally, and invested strategically, it will one day run out. Or, it will lose its charm and cease to satisfy. At the very least, the benefactor will eventually die and no longer be able to use or enjoy it.
Not so with our inheritance in Christ. Peter says this inheritance will never perish, spoil, or fade. It will never perish. This means that it will not die, disappear, or be destroyed by hostile forces. It will never spoil. This means that it can never become polluted or ruined in any way. It will never fade, meaning that it will never lose its luster or its excitement.
Do you realize what this means? It means that we will be able to use and enjoy our inheritance every day and never use it up, never get tired of it, and never lose any of it, ever! This is the nature of our inheritance that is kept in Heaven, by God, for you. This is evidence of God’s great mercy, and this is cause for rejoicing.
Before we move on, I want to emphasize that this relationship with Jesus Peter speaks of is not an either/or proposition. It is both/and! This is critically important. I say it is important because I have known too many people who claim to have faith in Jesus, but faith only touches their distant past and their distant future. What I mean by that is that at some point in their distant past they prayed a prayer and this means that at some point in their distant future they will go to Heaven. However, their faith has little or no influence on their life in between. I am suggesting that this is a sad, weak, and pathetic faith. It is neither compelling nor believable. It misses out on half the point.
But the opposite error would be equally sad, if not more so. To put all of our eggs in the basket of this life would be tragic. Because this life can be hard, as many of you know. Life can be painful, and even cruel. This is why Paul said, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1 Corinthians 15:19)
No, the reason we can rejoice, even in the midst of our suffering, is because of the great mercy of God, a mercy manifest not only in our relationship with Jesus now, but the promise of that relationship forever.
The second reason Peter gives us to rejoice in our sufferings is because of God’s great efficiency. What I mean is that God does not waste pain. You can rejoice in the trial you are going through because you can actually benefit from your own trial. God is very efficient in this way. Suffering has a way of both purifying our faith and proving our faith.
Peter uses the analogy of gold in this passage. As I understand it, a metallurgist takes a bar of gold and subjects it to a source of extreme heat, melting it. Once the gold is in liquid form, the impurities naturally rise to the surface. Then, the metallurgist simply skims the impurities off the top, leaving only pure gold behind. The artisan can then shape the gold into whatever he or she wishes, and ends up with a product not only of great beauty, but great value as well. It is pure gold.
However, the only way for the gold to be refined is to go through the fire. You get the connection, don’t you? Suffering has a way of purifying our often mixed motives for following Jesus. To different degrees and in various ways, we all have false motives for following Jesus sometimes. The trial of suffering has a way of purging those impurities from our hearts. This, of course, can be a very painful process, but the only way to become pure gold is to go through the fire. In this way, suffering purifies our faith.
Suffering can also prove our faith. Peter says that trials test and prove the genuineness of our faith? How so? Well, think about it this way. I am going to briefly describe to you two hypothetical Christians, and you decide which one impresses you more.
Christian A is an independently wealthy man. He is the picture of perfect health. He has a large family that loves him dearly. He has dozens of devoted friends. He has multiple houses and a fleet of cars. He has a network of contacts in high and powerful places. And he praises and worships Jesus. That is Christian A.
Now meet Christian B. His business partner cheated him and he lost everything, including his house, and even his reputation. Then his wife left him, taking their children with her. Then his ex-wife poisoned the minds of his children against him so that they want nothing to do with him anymore. Also, due to his former business partner’s shady schemes he is now being investigated for insurance fraud and tax evasion, and may face prison time. Many of the people he counted as close friends have deserted him, and even his health is beginning to fail, but he praises and worships Jesus.
Here is the thing: both of these men may have genuine faith in Jesus, but only one of them has been proven, only one of them has been tested, and passed that test. Suffering, though never fun, can be used of God to both purify and prove our faith.
Now, while we are on the topic, let me draw an important distinction between tests and temptations. God tests people. Satan tempts people. God never tempts people and Satan never tests them. The primary difference is the motive. The purpose of a test is to prove the strength the object being tested. The purpose of temptation is to cause the subject to sin and thus lead the person toward self-destruction. A test is benevolent. A temptation is malevolent. A good example of a test is Job. Remember, God is the one who initiated this bet with the devil because He wanted to prove the strength and character of Job’s faith.
Now, it is possible to fail a test God puts us through, but understand that God is rooting for us to succeed while Satan is rooting for us to fail. This is why James says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13)
Now, I realize that for some of you, this whole conversation is sort of an exercise in the theoretical. And that is OK. If that is where you are, I encourage you to simply file this sermon away in the back of your mind because you may want to pull it back out again someday.
But for some of you this is not theoretical at all. This is right where you live. This is your pain. This is your sorrow. If this is you today, then please hear this word of hope, it is a word from the Father, through Peter to you. You can rejoice today because of God’s great mercy and because of God’s great efficiency. You can rejoice today in God’s great mercy because “He has given us a new birth into a living hope” and He has given us “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in Heaven for you.” You can also rejoice because of God’s great efficiency, knowing that God will not waste your pain. He will use it to purify and prove your faith, and when you come through on the other side of the fire, you will come forth as gold, as pure gold.
Peter, of course, is not the only New Testament writer who spoke about suffering in this way. So, I want to close with the voices of Paul and James. Paul said, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
James said, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
Could it be that God deliberately allows us to go through difficult times because He is more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort? Could it be that God would use our suffering to shine the light of His glory into the lives of those around us who walk in darkness, just as He used the suffering of His Son Jesus to redeem the lives of others? And could it be that when Jesus Christ is finally revealed, the light of His full glory will make the shadows of our sorrows flee and perhaps even seem trivial in comparison?
If you are suffering today, rejoice, not because you are suffering, but because you know that God can use your suffering to perfect you and praise Him.
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