Suffering Again Isa 2:1-5; Ps 80:1-7; 1 Pet 4:12-19; Matt 24:36-44
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27damkqSSc
Introduction
Last week’s sermon described how those committed to “lawless idolatry” and debauched living were turning aggressively on the Church. Degree by degree this is happening across Australia today. Dale has titled today’s sermon, “Suffering Again”, and I assume the “again” relates to the fact that suffering for Jesus is addressed repeatedly in the first three chapters of 1 Peter. Taken at face value “Suffering Again” sounds morbid, but if we understand it as suffering with Christ any sense of morbidity is replaced by an anticipation of glory. 1 Peter 4:12-19 is one of those passages in the New Testament whose weightiness is for the mature, and whilst its references to trials and judgement are richly illuminating about what it means to follow Jesus, such teaching is too meaty for the average Anglican congregation (Heb 5:12-14). But in his mercy the Lord does not want us to be an “average congregation”.
Exposition
12 Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Peter begins by addressing his fellow believers as “beloved”. Some recent translations (NIV, NLT, CSB) have “dear friends” which is a pathetic inaccurate rendering of the Greek and fails to understand that it is precisely shared suffering for Christ that bonds believers together in a tremendous fellowship of love for one another. Christians shouldn’t be surprised at suspicion, ridicule and persecution, for Jesus prophesied, in the same passage as today’s Gospel reading, “you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matt 24:9 cf. John 15:18; 1 John 3:13). “Fiery trials” are testings sent into our lives by our sovereign Father, like the preparation Jesus himself had to endure in the Garden of Gethsemane.
According to Peter the fruit of such suffering with Christ (cf. 2:21; 4:1; 2 Cor 1:5; 4:10; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24) should be joy, this is a joy which anticipates the resurrection life we will share with the Lord forever (Luke 24:41; Rom 8:17-18). Do you recall Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, ““Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matt 5:11-12). Trusting God through afflictions build character, serves as an example to others and makes us more sensitive to their afflictions. (I remember praying for a teenager who had a chronic illness and she had been made mature enough to recognise her afflictions had gifted her to better understand the sufferings of others. Suffering for Christ imparts a sense of the nearness of the End when we will see the Lord in the fulness of his glory (1 Pet 1:5–7; 5:1; Rom 8:17–18; Jude 24). Peter goes on to speak of great and marvellous things.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
“for the name of” means “on account of/because of” and Peter seems to be referring to bad-mouthing by neighbours, friends, work mates and the like. This is a cause for rejoicing, not because of the suffering as such, but at the fact that people are recognising and responding to the presence of Christ in us. This is how he came to Jesus as his baptism (Matt 3:16 cf. Isa 11:1-2), because it was Christ’s first public step towards the cross. On the eve of trial and execution with supreme clear-sightedness the Lord declared his sufferings were the hour of his glorification, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” (John 13:31-32). The glory of obeying the Father as a true Son may have been veiled in the cross but it was fully manifested in the resurrection (Rom 6:4). We are called to share in such foundational realities. Like Stephen, who, as they were stoning him, “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:54-60). What was the pain of martyrdom compared to such a great revelation? Suffering for Christ is not a miserable means to a distant final glory but the place of experiencing a foretaste of such glory now (cf. Eph 3:13). Beloved, these are great things, glorious things, but the absence of fiery trials on the Church in Australia has robbed most of us of a sense of the greatness of the glory which will be ours at the end of the age (1:7; 5:4; 2 Cor 4:17; Col 3:4 etc.). are we wiling for this to change so “the Spirit of glory and of God” may come to rest on the Church?
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Unfortunately, we all know stories of Christians who have suffered, not for Jesus, but for their criminality. It’s only a few years since headlines shouting “Evil 8” about a paedophile ring in Perth included information about a prominent pastor. To “suffer as a Christian” is to be a witness to Christ. “Christian” wasn’t a name of honour in Roman times, but a name of degradation attached to those who crazily worshipped a crucified man.
About a generation after 1 Peter was written, and in the same area, the Roman governor Pliny wrote to the emperor Trajan (c112 A.D.) about Christians who he interrogated under torture concerning crimes “associated with the name”, those who showed “stubbornness (and) unshakeable obstinacy” i.e. who refused to recant, he executed. The Early Church with clear-sightedness saw such things to be an honour, for they were an opportunity to glorify God through faithful witness (Acts 5:40-41).
17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
The one attribute of God that infuriates sinners i.e. all of us the most, is God as Judge. No one reacts to the claim that God is love, but guilty people hate the truth of judgement. We must embrace the reality that judgement begins with the Church e.g. Ananias and Sapphira who were struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts ch.5, Paul says to the rich Christians in Corinth who were despising their poorer brothers and sisters, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Cor 11:22, 30-32). The final sorting out of humanity starts with God’s own people under a great tribulation (Rev 7:14) where the difference between real and false faith is laid bare (Rev 16:15), for only the genuine will survive the final testing (1:7) and be acknowledged by Christ when he returns (Luke 12:8-9).
The judgement which comes on us has nothing to do with eternal condemnation, but it is a sign that the Lord is purifying his people and through it we become a sign of the End in midst of nations. Knowing how our Saviour deals with us who believe the gospel we are constrained to accept that those who do not “obey the gospel” are in the deepest possible trouble. Paul speaks of when, “the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel” (2 Thess 1:7-8). This is what Jesus will do when he returns for obedience to his gospel is the sole criterion of judgement.
18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
Amidst criticism, mockery and abuse, subtle or open, it’s not easy to persevere for Jesus. I was speaking with a mature brother recently who, a little depressed, remarked how many of those who he’d known as zealous believers decades ago had fallen away. With so much at stake Peter’s conclusion is as definite as it is defiant of worldly pressures.
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Many churches deny that a Christian could ever “suffer according to God’s will”. This false teaching undermines the ability of the people of God to keep testifying for Jesus no matter what fiery trials come. (Whether these be persecution, pain or poverty.) It is only in those times when we find it hardest to believe that we learn through perseverance that God really knows what he is doing. Our heavenly Father is asking us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who entrusted him to be a Just God (2:23). If God is our good Creator, he can surely be trusted to be our Judge. So, let’s keep on doing good even as we know that such doing good will lead to suffering.
Conclusion
The stark realism of New Testament Christianity is far removed from the costless spirituality of most Australian church life. The Bible says suffering for Jesus is normal, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). The radical difference between a Christian worldview and all other belief systems is that in Christ the power of the cross has dignified suffering and converted what in the eyes of the world is shameful into a glorious privilege. The one who chooses to suffer for Christ is already undergoing the End time judgement, not for destruction (1 Thess 5:9), but for cleansing, maturity and a clear sightedness in the Spirit of the glories of eternal life. Historically, we have every reason to believe that the little churches in Asia Minor to whom Peter wrote did keep the faith. But it is an open question as to whether the household of God in Australia as we know it will endure the fiery apocalyptic ordeal that is coming upon us more and more. Under increasing opposition from mainstream culture the Church can compromise and wither away as irrelevant to the kingdom of God because the Spirit of glory and of God has departed (cf. Ezek 9:6; 10-11), or, by faith in the wisdom of the cross the people of God will embrace a host of new opportunities for doing good and testifying to Jesus in ways that haven’t been available for centuries. It is not right to desire suffering, but it is godly to make oneself available to suffer, according to God’s will, for his glory (Luke 24:26).