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Reading 1 Peter 4:12-19 and talking about how Christians should understand that we will endure suffering for the cause of Christ. Visit wwutt.com for all of our videos!
Peter says, 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. Because we as Christians should get used to the fact that we are going to be ridiculed for the name of Christ when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We are in 1 Peter chapter 4 today, and we'll finish up the chapter next week, which is the final week of 2016. We'll look at all of chapter 5, and then we'll start 2017 with a brand new book study, 2 Peter.
We'll just move on from 1 Peter to 2 Peter. That's a good succession, wouldn't you say? All right, let's go to chapter 4, beginning in verse 12, and we'll finish off the chapter here. Peter says, 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, but rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
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? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. So we go back to the beginning of the section with Peter saying, Beloved, and this actually begins the final section of Peter's letter.
We talked yesterday about how verse 11 ended with Peter saying, Amen. And that sounded like a great place to conclude the letter, right? But we still have another chapter and a half to finish up. And then in chapter 5, verse 11, we see another Amen.
So that's the conclusion of that final section of Peter's letter. So this begins with Beloved. It doesn't begin with a therefore, but we'll see a therefore pop up in verse 19, therefore come up again in chapter 5, verse 6.
So continuing those thoughts through the rest of chapter 4 and on into chapter 5, we'll just kind of have to keep that in mind or bring together the context next week when we jump into chapter 5. So here he addresses the body of Christ once again as Beloved and telling them not to be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
In other words, Christians need to be used to the idea or they should understand the fact that we are going to endure persecution for the name of Christ. I mentioned a verse earlier this week, 2 Timothy 3, 12, where Paul says to his servant, Timothy, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Not you might be persecuted. You will be persecuted. Now, when we use that word persecuted, it doesn't just mean physically beaten. It also means ridiculed, derided, excluded because of the faith in Christ that we have.
All of these are forms of persecution. Now the highest form of persecution, of course, is going to be martyrdom. It's going to be being put to death for the name of Christ. But most of us will probably not experience that.
Especially most Americans will not experience death for Christ. But we will be ridiculed. We will be made fun of. We will be slandered and have evil spoken against us because of the name of Christ. Spoken against us falsely, as Jesus puts it in Matthew 5.
I'm going to come to that passage here in just a moment. So we should not be surprised whenever these kinds of things happen to us. Remember how James began his letter. James 1, verse 2. So when we are persecuted, when we're ridiculed and derided for our faith, and yet we stand firm and we know how to do something that Peter had said earlier in the letter, 1 Peter 3, verse 15, to give an answer for the hope that lies within you, but do this with gentleness and respect.
How will we know how to do that? But whenever we face ridicule and persecution for the faith that we have. So when we experience these things, we stand firm in our faith. And the gospel that we believe does not change when we are persecuted.
What do I mean by that? Well, when somebody would ridicule you for your faith, you don't then go back to the gospel and then kind of try to shape it or morph it a little bit, make it a little softer, a little more friendly to this derision that you were receiving.
When somebody says to you, oh, well, you believe this, you don't come back and go, oh, no, I don't believe that. Most Christians believe that. But what I actually believe is this. And then you try to say that the Bible teaches that when it really doesn't.
But you've softened the gospel to try to soften the blow of the ridicule that is coming your way. All right. Or you will change the gospel into something that is more culturally friendly. You'll make it something that is less offensive to people, makes people happier.
And you'll take certain parts out and put other parts in and look, we can all just kind of get along. I mean, this is this is the problem with the seeker friendly church. What they do is changing the gospel so that it is attractive to more people.
And then they get bigger churches and more money. All right. In this instance, if that's you, if that's what you've done, you failed the test. But if you are being tested in your faith by this ridicule that's coming your way and you stand firm on the gospel and it it causes you to rejoice in the Lord all the more, just like the apostles rejoiced in Acts chapter five after they were beaten for preaching the gospel.
And they rejoiced for being counted worthy of being persecuted for the name of Christ. That's what they were rejoicing in God for. Thank you that we were counted worthy for this. So when you have been ridiculed for your faith and you rejoice in God, realizing that now you have shared in some of Christ's sufferings in this way, it's producing a steadfastness within you.
This has come upon you to test you so that you would even know that your faith is sure and it is genuine and it is not something that you believe out of convenience. It's not something that you believe because your parents believed it.
It is something that you are standing firm and true on because the Holy Spirit is actually upon you, that you have been given the spirit of God who resides in you. And now that you have been tested in this way, you know, and have greater assurance in this faith in Jesus Christ because you passed the test.
Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. You will rejoice all the more. Praise God all the more when his glory is revealed, when Christ returns because of the deliverance that he brings from the suffering that you have endured.
The more you suffer, the higher your praise in God. I remember a song from Stephen Curtis Chapman called Remember Your Chains. It was from his Heaven in the Real World album back in the 90s, way back when, however long ago that was.
I don't remember the exact year, but anyway, I can still remember the song vividly in my memory. I have it almost entirely memorized, but I especially remember the second verse where Chapman begins, there's no one more thankful to sit at the table than the one who best remembers all his pain.
So we are going to be the most grateful to sit at the table of God at the wedding feast of the lamb that's described in Revelation at the end of the book of Revelation. The ones who are going to be most thankful to sit at that table are going to be the ones who suffered the most for Christ.
And so rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Rejoice when you suffer persecution or when you are ridiculed for your faith, because you know that you are going to enjoy all the more that that table, the wedding feast of the lamb, when we are gathered together in glory.
Verse 14, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. The picture that Peter is using here is the same picture that we see in Matthew chapter three, at the baptism of Jesus, John, the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the Jordan, and then heaven was opened up and the spirit of God descended like a dove and rested on him.
And a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And so Peter here is using that same picture of what happened there at Jesus's baptism to describe what we have received when we have suffered for Christ.
We are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon us as well. So do you understand that when you are persecuted and stand firm in your faith and the faith that you believe in is solid, it is true.
According to the word of God, you have been tested and you have passed the test that God is saying of you, this is my child with whom I am well pleased. The same spirit of God resting upon us that rested upon Christ, the Holy Spirit, the way the apostle Paul puts this in Romans chapter eight is the very spirit that has bought brought Christ back from the grave is the same spirit that has raised us from death to life as well.
So here, Peter uses this picture in this way, that the same spirit that rested upon Christ at the Jordan when he was baptized is the same spirit that rests upon us when we are persecuted as Christ was for our faith and endure.
Praise God, that wonderful Holy Spirit that was with Christ at his baptism is with us also when we face this ridicule for our faith. What can man do to us? If God is for us, then who can be against us?
You are blessed if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. And this comes back to something that Jesus shared in the Beatitudes or at the end of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five.
We talked about this earlier when we were talking about the same subject earlier in first Peter, Jesus said in Matthew five, 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely.
On my account, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So you could also equate this as the same spirit that rested upon Christ is the spirit that rested upon the prophets is the spirit that rests upon us when we are persecuted for our faith and yet we endure.
We pass the test. We continue to stand firm on the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't try to soften it to soften the blow at all. We are firm in Christ Jesus. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler.
So none of us should be suffering for doing wrong things in this world. If you suffer for doing something wrong, having broken the law, you deserve the suffering that you receive. But the suffering that you receive because you preach the gospel of Christ, even if that might be against the law, you don't deserve that suffering.
And indeed, a day is coming when you will be exalted because you suffered for the cause of Christ. And that's where Peter goes next in verse 16. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
You have suffered because you hold to the name of Christ, because you wear the name of Christ. You know, the word Christian only comes up three times in the New Testament. This is one of those occasions.
So Peter says, if you suffer as a Christian, it was a word that the Gentiles used to describe those who were followers of Christ. Oh, those Christians. It was a derogatory term. And yet Peter is saying, if somebody calls you that, rejoice.
Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name, that he would be worthy of being called that because he is a follower of Jesus Christ. 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? So let's first look at the first part of that verse, verse 17, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
This goes back to a couple of places in the prophets, Ezekiel chapter nine and Malachi chapter three. I'm going to first turn to Ezekiel chapter nine here. That is, my pages are sticking together, there's chapter seven, chapter nine.
All right. So chapter nine, verses one through, I think about six here, then he cried in my ears with a loud voice saying, bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.
And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand. And with them was a man clothed in linen with a writing case at his waist.
And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing case at his waist, writing case at his waist.
And the Lord said to him, pass through the city, through Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. And to the others, he said in my hearing, pass through the city after him and strike.
Your eyes shall not spare and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the elders who were before the house.
Then he said to them, defile the house and fill the courts with the slain, go out. So they went out and struck in the city. And while they were striking and I was left alone, I fell upon my face and cried, ah, Lord God, will you destroy all the remnant of Israel and the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?
And then he said to me, the guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood and the city full of injustice. For they say the Lord has forsaken the land and the Lord does not see.
As for me, my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will bring their deeds upon their heads. And behold, the man clothed in linen with the writing case at his waist brought backwards saying, I have done as you commanded me.
So here we have the judgment of God being poured out on his own people. And so Peter is using that equivalent. The other place you see this is Malachi chapter three verses one through four. I went ahead and read all of Ezekiel chapter nine.
So you can read that one on your own. But but as as Peter is using that here in his letter, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And there were those who were spared because they were grieved over what was happening in Israel.
There were others who were not and were continuing to dwell in this sin and this debauchery, and they were struck down and killed. So the judgment happens at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
So those who were judged by God and found to be righteous were spared. Those who were judged by God and found to be guilty were destroyed. So that's the that's what Peter is is drawing from that story.
Those of us who are in Christ, we are still judged, but we're spared because we're in Christ. Those who are not in Christ will be judged all the more strictly. They fear that judgment of God. And then Peter quotes from Proverbs after that, verse 18, if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
Now, as that's being quoted, that's out of the Septuagint. That's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. If we read that in English, it helps us to understand a little bit better. Proverbs 1131, if the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner.
So the righteous will still endure the wages of sin, which is death. We will still die because we have sinned in these bodies and all of creation has been subjected to futility because of sin. That's how serious sin is, a rebellion against God, the creator of the entire universe.
So the righteous is repaid for this sin, even on earth. So how much more will the wicked and the sinner be repaid? We will be delivered from the final judgment and ushered into God's glory. But those who are not in Christ will face judgment all the more worse than this.
Verse 19, therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Let us rejoice and understand that it is God who is faithful. We are going to stumble and fall, but we have no reason to fear because God is faithful to his promises.
If we have suffered for the cause of Christ, if we have endured persecution for his name and have passed that test, then we know that the spirit of God rests upon us and God is faithful to his promises.
He is faithful to the people that have been reconciled to him through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. He is faithful to those people that are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God. God is faithful.
And so we can rejoice and know that we are his. We will be rescued from this plight on this earth. We have nothing to fear of the judgment that we face here on this planet. For those who do not know Christ will be judged all the more worse.
Let us also be charged in this to spread the gospel all the more so that those who do not know Christ will repent of their sin, will turn to Christ and be saved from the coming wrath that God will bring upon this earth at the end.
Let us pray. Our great God, we thank you for saving us in Christ Jesus. We thank you for the salvation that has been given to us in Christ. Forgive us our sins. And when we sin against you, when we break your law, may we be convicted in this.
Let us not become complacent in this sin. Let us not become comfortable in it, but always let us be grieved. If the Holy Spirit truly dwells on us and in us, let us be convicted to our core, cut to the heart for the sins that we commit against God, that we may come before you broken, beating our chest and saying, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
And let us be granted forgiveness as is promised to us in your word. If we ask forgiveness for our sins, you are faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You are faithful even when we are not.
So let this be our comfort, our assurance as we read these things in the scriptures. And God, we pray that we would be emboldened by this gospel of Jesus Christ when we have been persecuted in it and we hold steadfast.
It creates in us a boldness so that we may take this gospel to the lost and share it with them so they too might hear and repent from their sins and believe. Give us the strength by your spirit. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.