Keep sharing good news without ads.
Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, good morning. It is so nice, once again, to be able to meet in the house of the Lord to worship. For all of you that are here online, that can't be here today, understand that you're with us just the same.
God has given us the technology to reach out and touch people, whether they're with us in the body or they are off in the distance, but it is so good to be able to broadcast from the church instead of from my bedroom.
In any case, this morning, we're going to begin with the second half of 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning with verse 12 and going through the end of the chapter. I'm going to read it first. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.
But rejoice insomuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part, he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.
For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soul to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us once again to meet together in person as well as online.
Bless us and keep us. Go with us through all the services today. Keep us focused on the Word of God. Keep us focused on Jesus. Keep us focused on all of the things that you have asked us to do. Help us to be obedient.
Help us to be obedient even when we are in times of testing. And we never know when those times of testing are to approach, but we are to know that they will come. Testing comes for both the believers and the non-believers.
Help us to be successful in clinging close to and being close to God throughout our testing periods. Bless us and keep us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, chapter 12 begins with this verse. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing had happened unto you.
If I were to paraphrase that, I would say, don't be surprised when bad things happen to you even though you are trying your best to be a good person. Don't think that this is not something that has happened only to you, that has happened to you and to happen to no one else.
Peter's primary reference in this verse, the verse concerning the fiery trial, was to the pending fulfillment of the Lord's prophecy with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem's destruction is spoken of in Luke chapter 19 and Luke chapter 21.
I'm going to read both of those. Luke chapter 19. Jesus is coming up the Mount of Olives and He looks up the final way to Jerusalem sitting on the mountain. And He is on His way up for the Palm Sunday experience.
But as He approaches the city, He weeps over it. Now, why do you think He's weeping over the city as He's coming up the mountain? On the way to Palm Sunday, the time when a large group of people will honor Him.
Why do you think He's weeping over the city? Well, I think you're right. I think He can see two things in front of Him. Oh, He can see several things in front of Him. He can see that in a short time, there's going to be a mob meeting Him and greeting Him and celebrating Him.
He has just fed 5 ,000 people and they know that. He has just healed many, many people and they know that. He has performed miracles and they know that. He's on His way to Jerusalem and they are recognizing it.
They're going to be curious about it. They're going to be swarming about Him. But He also can see further than that. He can see that the majority of the leaders of Jerusalem and in fact, eventually all of Jerusalem will reject Him.
He can see further than that. He can see the crucifixion that He has to face and the resurrection that He's going to experience later. He can see all of this. But the thing that He's weeping about is that Jerusalem is going to not accept Him as the Messiah.
They expected their Messiah to come as a white knight riding a white horse, come with a sword, come to battle, come to take Jerusalem from under the power of the Romans. But when He came, He came on a donkey, riding a donkey, coming as a servant.
And that's what He is weeping about. So, in fact, He tells us that in the next verse. And when He came and when He was come near, He beheld the city and He wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this day, the things which belong to thy peace, but now they're hid from thine eyes.
For the day shall come upon thee. Now He's describing what's going to happen. For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee.
And they shall not leave in thee one stone on another. And here's what I really should have asked my question. Why will there not be one stone left on another? He answers it, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
The Messiah has come, and only a scarce few people recognized that He was the Messiah. One was an old widow woman that recognized Him, and another was an old priest on the verge of death. And the rest of the people didn't recognize Him as the Messiah.
They recognized Him as a miracle worker. They recognized Him as a man with great power. They recognized Him as a lot of things, but they did not recognize Him as their Messiah. Okay, now we'll skip down to Luke chapter 21, picking it up at verse 20.
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then know thou that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let them that are not in the countries that enter there undo.
For these be the days of vengeance, and all the things which are written may be fulfilled. Bad time to be in Jerusalem, but woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.
For there shall be great distress in the land, and the wrath upon the people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive to all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.
And he puts a comma there. I'm going to put a period there and pause for a second. What has happened at this point in time where Luke puts his comma and I've replaced it for a second with a period. They shall fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive to all the nations.
And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. Jerusalem is going to be under the control of the Gentiles, no longer under the control of the Jews. So what happens there? That is the destruction of Jerusalem, I think in about 90 AD.
But if it's not 90 AD, it's somewhere in that area, 80, 90, 100 AD, about 100 years after the birth of Christ. About 60 or 70 years after Jesus has been crucified and resurrected, then Rome will come in and destroy Jerusalem.
And they will find, they'll set it afire. And they'll, and the gold that's made, they'll set the temple afire. And the gold in the temple will melt and run throughout. And they, the Roman soldiers will pry apart the very rocks that made the temple and peel the gold that's covering them off and leave not a single stone, one on another, unturned and unclean to the gold.
That happened in reality. That happened in history. That has passed already. And so where are the Jews now? They're under the control of the Gentiles. And they will be trodden down of the Gentiles, it says here, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Well, has that happened yet? The time of the Gentiles has not yet been, has not yet happened. We all think it's pretty close. Peter thought it was pretty close as well. So whether it's another 2 ,000 years like it was for Peter, or whether it's another 200 years, or maybe another 20 years, or maybe another five years, we don't know.
But we do know that there will come a time when the Jews will no longer be trodden upon, trodden down by the Gentiles. You might say right now there's a step toward that. The Jews now, in some sense, control their own destiny.
But they're still, what I don't know exactly what to say, affected by the Gentiles that are around them, both those that support them and those that are against them. Now here's some things that haven't happened yet.
And there should be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, man's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
So they're concerned about what's going to happen. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things become, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption, drawth nigh.
Now he's speaking the redemption not only to the Jews, but in fact to the church, which is present at the time as well. Now there is a secondary application to this story to the horrors of the Roman persecution, which was going to last two centuries.
From the time that Jerusalem fell and the persecutions of the Christians began, that persecution lasted for over 200 years. But when the 200 years were over and Rome fell and it was no longer Roman persecution, it was still persecution another 1500 years.
The Christians were persecuted by others, sometimes the Catholic church, sometimes Protestant churches. Remember when Columbus came to America? Part of it was the result of persecution in the churches.
In any case, over 15 centuries of persecution. Then we have a brief reprieve in some places. The United States was a haven for places where persecution of the church does not exist. We've had 200 years in this country where the church has not been persecuted, at least by governments.
But that's only reprieve. It's not going to be forever. And you can see it growing closer and closer. The persecution of the church by their government is growing closer and closer. Now, so even though this country, in this country, we haven't had to worry so much about governmental persecution, there might come a time when we will.
Peter explains to us that in order to be triumphant in the time of persecution, no matter what the source of your persecution is, there are four things that you have to have in mind, four attitudes that you have to have.
The first one he has already discussed in 1 Peter 4, verse 12. In a phrase, expect it. Now I was going to copy that down again, but I didn't. So I'm going to scroll back up. It'll take me a second. And I'm going to read this again.
This is verse 12, read again from the beginning. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing had happened to you. And we talked about that already.
And my paraphrase was don't be surprised when bad things happen to you. Expect it. And so now back to where we were. Four attitudes. One, expect it. Two, this one's a little bit harder, rejoice in it.
Three, evaluate its causes. Why are you being persecuted? And as you evaluate why you're being persecuted, keep in mind, your persecution may not be just. You may be persecuted for doing the right thing.
And if you're doing the right thing, what should you do? Keep on doing it. You might be persecuted for doing the wrong thing. If you're being persecuted for the wrong thing, what should you do? Stop doing it and do the right thing.
So we need to evaluate the reasons we're being persecuted. And then the fourth thing, and this is the most important thing, entrust it to God. As we go through the rest of this chapter, verses 13 -14, we'll deal with rejoicing in the persecution.
15, 16, 17, and 18, evaluating and responding to the causes of the persecution. And verse 19, entrust the resolution to the problem to God because that's the only thing that can solve it anyhow. So now let's go to verses 13 and 14.
Verse 13 first. But rejoice in so much as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Now listen to me. Any Christian who is persecuted for his faith is a partner in the same kind of suffering that Jesus endured.
Suffering for what is doing right. And if you're suffering for doing what's right, you should keep doing it and you should rejoice in it because you are being treated the very same way that Christ Himself was treated when He was persecuted unjustly for doing the right thing.
What good company to be in, to be in the company with those other people or that other person, that only one other person that was able to truly suffer for always doing the right thing. And in the company of other sufferers who sometimes suffer for doing the right thing.
So what should he do? He should rejoice. Matthew in chapter 5 beginning with verse 10 tells us about that. Matthew 10 verse 5. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil things against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
So you're not alone. You're not the first person that has suffered for doing right. You shouldn't think it's strange, as some strange thing, this fiery trial that you're facing. I don't know if any of you are facing fiery trials right now, but we're all facing trials of some sort at some time, and they will at times be very, very difficult to deal with.
Fiery trials indeed. In Philippians chapter 1 verse 28, Paul tells us,. And in nothing be terrified of your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God.
For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ. What? Not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. So if you're suffering for doing good, why are you suffering? For Christ's sake. Back to Peter.
When His glory shall be revealed. Now when is Jesus' glory going to be revealed? Well, let's look at Matthew 24, 29 and get a clue. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now Jesus is presently glorified in heaven, but His glory is not yet fully revealed on the earth.
Now, when it is, be glad also with exceeding joy. That is to exalt and rejoice with exceeding joy. A Christian who is persecuted for righteousness in this life will have overflowing joy in the future because of His reward.
Such an awareness of future joy enables him also to rejoice right here, right now, in this present time. In this present time of suffering, you can look past the suffering, understand that you will be swamped with exceeding joy, covered with exceeding joy in the future.
So much so that you can look past your trials and tribulations here and see what's going to happen in the future and rejoice right now in the midst of all of your trials and tribulations. That was verse 13.
Verse 14 goes on to talk about being happy in the time of tribulation. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.
Reproached, insulted, or treated unfairly for being a representative of all that Christ is. If your life reflects the life of Christ, there are going to be people that will insult you and treat you unfairly.
So your response, happy are you. This is not a general, nondescript happiness, so much as it is a specific benefit that in suffering triumphantly for Christ, that shows God's approval. When a believer suffers, God's presence specifically rests and lifts him to strength and endurance beyond the physical dimension.
You're able to do much more than you thought you possibly could do. Paul experienced that and tells us about two things that happened to him. Once, when he was in what he called the seventh heaven, and he had visions that he couldn't repeat.
And he goes on later to say in 2 Corinthians 12, 7, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation, all of those things that he saw in the future for him and for us, and lest I be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Be humble. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness. So Paul says, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Suffering for good doing. What should you do when you're suffering for doing good?
You should rejoice. You should keep in mind the almost infinite joy that you will have in the future, and that should carry you over through the hard times now. But what about suffering for bad doing?
Chapter 15, not chapter 15, verse 15, kind of changes the flow. And it says, But let none of you suffer as a murderer, as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. So that's kind of suffering for bad doing.
So what should you do when you suffer for bad doing? You should quit doing it. Paul here is dealing with matters that would lead to persecution by the government, particularly, or by your business, such as getting involved in a revolutionary disruptive activity, or interfering with the flow of government.
It might also refer to being a troublesome meddler in the workplace. You come into the workplace and your intent is to create chaos, just to mind everybody else's business but your own. Don't do that.
First, as a general rule, a Christian living in a non-Christian culture is to do his work faithfully, exalt Christ, and live a virtuous life. That's what you're called upon to do. Wherever you are, however you're being persecuted, whether it be in the workplace, whether it be in the government, wherever it is, if you're living in a non-Christian culture, your job is not to change the culture.
Your job is to change people within the culture, or to help change people within the culture, and to, with God's help, change yourself and make yourself what? Live a virtuous life. And if you can live a virtuous life in the midst of it all, whatever else happens, you will obtain some overflow of the glory that the Lord obtains.
Then he goes back in verse 16 to suffering for good doing again. Yet, if a man suffer as a Christian for good doing, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. So what's that say?
You're in the workplace, and you've got rules as to things you can do and things you can't do, and you, to the best of your ability, do all the things that you're allowed to do. And if you can't do them, if there's something that the Lord says that, you know, you can't do this, then you refuse to do it, but you refuse to do it with grace and dignity.
Living a virtuous life, don't be ashamed, and don't worry when you're punished for doing it. If you're doing something that you know is... No, no, no. I'm not saying it that way. If you're asked to do something by your boss that you know is wrong, you can't do it.
If you know it's wrong, you can't do it. You can refuse to do it, and you can bear the consequences. The consequences may be to get fired. The consequences may be to be demoted. The consequences may be to be isolated.
I don't know what the consequences will be. There will be consequences, probably. But if you suffer as a Christian for doing what's right, don't be ashamed no matter what happens. Paul was in Philippians when he wrote one of his greatest books.
I'm sorry. Was in prison when he wrote one of his greatest books, Philippians. He was in prison then, telling you what to do. What's the theme of Philippians? Anybody know? Rejoice. And again, I say rejoice.
As Myron Goldman once said, that's the most redundant phrase in the Bible. That means to joy again. And so what it says is joy and joy again. And again, I say joy and joy again. So you get the point. Philippians is about rejoicing.
And where was Paul doing all of this rejoicing? In prison. If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. Romans 1 chapter 16,. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Paul wasn't ashamed. He wasn't ashamed when he wrote the book of Romans. He wasn't ashamed when he wrote the book of Philippians. He was willing to take whatever consequences there were for doing the right thing.
The good thing about the consequences you're going to bear for doing the right thing, they're temporary. And sometimes you will see reward in this life. But not always. But always you'll see reward in the next life.
And the amount of time that you will receive the reward is so much greater than the amount of time that you will receive the punishment that there is absolutely no comparison. Paul again says in 2 Timothy 1 .8, Paul is talking to Timothy and he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things. So because of what he's doing, he's suffering. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
And then he goes on to say what would make a really good gospel song. For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. If I were a good singer, I would pick the song book up and sung it to you.
But I'll just read the actual text that the song was singing. Verse 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Now, that judgment that he's talking about in this verse is not condemnation. Not for them. It's the purging, chastising, purifying the church by the loving hand of God. The judgment that is beginning at the house of God.
If you're a child of God, if you really are the church of God, you're not being condemned. You're being changed. It is far better and more important to the kingdom work to endure suffering as God purges and strengthens His church than to endure the eternal suffering of the unbeliever in the lake of fire.
And who are they that receive the unbelievers? Them that obey not the gospel of God. And if God so strongly and painfully judges His church, which He loves, what will be His fury on the ungodly? Well, we know they will burn in hell forever.
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? The point is that if the justified Christian is saved only with great difficulty, pain, suffering, and loss, what will be the end result of the ungodly?
Verse 19. Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator. So we understand this. We are but pilgrims passing through.
We're not called to a monastic life. We're not called to live in a monastery in a cave on the backside of a hill. We're called upon to go forth into the world, into the very world from which we have been delivered, being in it but not of it, declaring everywhere God's offer of salvation through the finished work of His beloved Son.
And because we are doing this in an evil world, we can expect fiery trials. Not fiery trials that surprises, fiery trials that we expect. Maybe to the point of death. Tertullian declared this. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
Persecution can never destroy the church of God. Persecution can only make the church of God grow stronger. If anything, if anything damages a church, what we call a church, not what God calls a church, we call this church, I started to say Mount Pleasant Church, but we don't call it that.
Mount Pleasant Church is what we call the church I was at when I was 13 years old. Park Meadows Church. We call this Park Meadows Church. But Park Meadows Church is not this building. It's, I would like to say, and I think I can confidently say, it's all the people that belong, well I can say this for certain, all the people that belong to God that are worshiping God in this church, in this Park Meadows Church, are part of His greater church.
That I can say for certain. And were there someone in here, which I can comfortably say, I don't believe there is, that is not a member of God's church, then he's not really a member of Park Meadows Church.
Okay? But if anything were to damage this thing that the world outside looks at and calls the Park Meadows Church, if anything were able to damage that, it won't be anything from the outside. It will be only things from the inside.
It's only if we allow evil to exist in this church that this church could be damaged or destroyed. But I don't think it will. I don't think the Lord will allow us to tolerate. There were seven churches in the book of Revelation, and all of them were His churches.
But one of them at the very end might have had some church members in it, but the church itself was only Luke one. God doesn't want that. He said in Revelations, He would spit it out. Any comments or questions?
Otherwise, let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together again in person that we may worship you here in this physical building in the presence of real physical people.
And thank you also for all that are on the website with us this morning, studying along with us. Give us all your grace. Bless us and keep us. Go through the services today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.