I guess it's always dangerous to speak for somebody else, but I imagine that you're like me. If I could design my normal week, the week that I would like to repeat again and again and again, it would have no suffering. In fact, it would have no difficulty of any kind. Nothing would be in my way; no one would disagree with me; everyone would applaud my presence; my ideas would always rule the day. I would have an incessant smile on my face, a body that was completely healthy, a stomach that was full, a mind that was entertained.
You Are Not Unlike Me
I can tell by the smiles on your faces - you are not unlike me. I think perhaps this passage that I'm about to work through with you is as radical as Christianity gets. I think it may be the most important summary of what God is doing in us and through us that we find in this letter. I said to you when we began Chapter 4 that you ought to begin to feel the crescendo of this letter - you should hear the timpani begin to roll; you should begin to hear a little bit of clang of the cymbals, the instruments beginning to rise, and that's really what we're in the midst of as we look at these verses that we're going to look at this evening.
God has called us to a new normal, a normal that doesn't focus on the kind of comfort and ease and pleasure that we would like our lives to be if we could sit on the throne and be sovereign. But a life that is so amazed and attracted and directed by the glory of God, by the stunning beauty of His Kingdom, by the amazing reality of grace, that we would be willing to walk toward difficulty, to involve ourselves in suffering, because those things don't actually challenge the glory that has now engaged our hearts.
When I think of that, I think of how far I yet am from that, and how much I still need the daily rescue of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like you to turn to page 6 again in your 'Order of Worship' to those words that are there; we're going to be looking at verses 12 through 19. This is really a textbook on what to think and how to respond in moments of suffering; there are six very important directives in this passage. I think maybe a thousand preachers have said this a thousand 1000 times - this is one of those passages that you could live in for months (we won't in case you're nervous).
But it's deep, and full, and opens doors to the expansiveness of the radical difference that a Christian worldview has where God is really at the center, and His plan is really at the center, and His grace really is our hope. And in that way, I would very much encourage you as your pastor, go back to this passage; study it; stick it on your refrigerator; put it on your mirror; pray it into your heart, and rest in God's call and God's grace. First directive: when suffering comes your way, don't be surprised.
"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." Those words 'surprised' and 'strange' depict something out of the ordinary. And I don't want to say this to hurt your feelings, but if you're a believer and you greet difficulty - that range of mundane little obstacles or hurts or pains all the way to those huge life altering moments of suffering; if you greet that as something weird, out of the ordinary, strange - you are not thinking in a Biblical way about who you are, about who God is, and about what is going on in the 'here and now' - it's just true.
And I think that our response to suffering, the degree to which it seems weird and strange to us, the degree to which it causes us to wonder what in the world God's doing, and where in the world God's promises are, depicts to us how much we need to grow in our allegiance to and understanding of what God is actually about. I mean, think about it with me: if what God is working on is your temporal, present, "right here, right now" comfort and ease, His plan is a massive failure. It's got to be that God is working on something else; there's got to be something else going on.
And so you are immediately greeted: "why is suffering presented in Peter's perspective as the new normal?" Well, let me just give you three reasons and then look at some specific words here. First reason: because God has chosen for you to remain in a fallen world. That's not an accident; that's not God messing up the schedule; God means for His children, once they have been born anew by His grace, to live in the middle of the harsh realities of life in a fallen world. We've talked about it. Peter depicts it.
A Terribly Broken Place
It's all over Scripture--the depiction of this world as a terribly broken place, and you will not escape its brokenness just because you're one of God's children. In fact, God chooses for you to live in that brokenness so that you may be one of His lights and so that His work may continue in you. You will suffer because you live in a fallen world. Secondly, you will suffer because of your identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus said words that were hard for his disciples to hear as He was getting ready to leave earth.
He said these words, not the kinds of words that we would often think are good parting words. He said, "The world hated me and it will also hate you." If you stand for Christ, if you step out of that, "I rule my life; I am sufficient; I am autonomous; my-will, my-way" way of living, your life will be constantly offensive to people who live that way. And you'll seem alien and different as you talk about a higher law, and a higher Master, and an eternal hope, and all of those kinds of things. Some of you are already experiencing that at universities or workplaces.
Some of you are in courses where you don't know what you are going to write on your term paper because the world there is so radically different. Some of you have faced the kinds of 'dog-eat-dog' bend and break the rules in order to make money pressure at the workplace, and you're standing for what is right, and you are already feeling the tension of that. Some of you have faced rejection in your extended family because you are now connected to Christ, and you live in a different way, and you don't even have to be preachy; your very way of living makes people uncomfortable.
There's a third thing, and this is where the words of this passage go that God intends to use difficulty, suffering, to promote the continuance of His work of grace in you. Look at the words: "Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you." Those words 'fiery trial' and 'test' immediately should make you think of what Peter talked about in chapter 1, verses 3 through 9, where he talked about the fact that God would use the difficulties of life to refine us. That fiery trial is meant to test you, not test in terms of an exam, but test in terms of the tempering of metal.
Now all of this means this - it's inescapable, we must buy into this: that God has chosen for us to suffer. I've said this to you in a variety of ways that that suffering is not a sign of His unfaithfulness and inattention. It's a sign of your inclusion in His great redemptive plan; it's a sign of the operation of His grace; it's a sign of relentless, transforming love. And so Peter would say, "You should not be surprised. You should not think of it as strange." Second directive: determine to rejoice.
Verses 13 and 14: "But rejoice insofar 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." Now I can tell you this for sure: if you can stand in the middle of a moment of suffering, and your heart is rejoicing, the grace of God has visited you, because we all know for sure that's not a normal way for us; that's not a typical way for us to respond to difficulty.
You know that minor difficulty can cause you to think and do things that you wouldn't want anybody to see. Some of us can have a flat tire and question the existence of God, let alone face major, long-term suffering. And so we ought to ask the question, "What is it in this experience, what is it that God is giving me reason to rejoice?" He's not saying that you rejoice because pain is something to be happy about. It's not wrong to feel the pain of mockery and rejection. Listen, if you're a loving person, you should desire good relationships to people, and that rejection is painful.
This Is Not Stoicism
This is not stoicism. You shouldn't name sickness as fun. That's not what Peter is saying. But Peter is saying, "There's a God behind that who is doing something that is worth rejoicing," and if in this moment, all you get is the pain part, and you don't get the rejoicing part, you're missing this beautiful thing that God is seeking to do in you. "But rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed." Christ's physical suffering on earth was followed by glory, and that suffering and glory that followed was a down payment that, as we suffer in His name and for His sake, we also will receive the glory to follow.
Brothers and sisters, I know it's hard to imagine this. I know it's hard for us to blow our minds beyond the 'here and now' struggles that we go through, but there will be a day when you are experiencing such shocking, stunning, pervasive, long-term glory that you will look back on this moment of suffering, and it will be hard for you to remember how great the pain was. And the weight of that glory will overwhelm every moment of pain, and rejection, and tears, and sorrows you ever experienced. We believe in eternity, and we believe every moment of suffering is marching us toward glory.
Praise God! Now that should get you up in the morning even when you know the morning you're awaking to is going to be dark and hard. You're propelled by a deep-seated belief in the glory to come. Peter says another thing that's just sweetness added on to sweetness. "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rest on you." This is an amazing thing. Nobody would ever reject Paul Tripp for his normal character because I am, in all ways, a broken sinner in need of redemption.
When that rejection happens, it's because the Spirit of God is alive in me; the spirit of God is working things in me that I could never work into myself. That person is not rejecting me so much as they're rejecting the God who is in me, who is revealing Himself through my words, and my thoughts, and my actions - what a glorious thing that is that literally I now stand, Paul, I now stand with the Spirit of God visible in me in a way that could make a person uncomfortable or make a person angry; what a miracle that is!
What a miracle it is that this man could ever be that kind of vessel! Boy, I love what it says in 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says it in this sweet way: "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." God shows His glory through cracked pots (not crackpots; sometimes that happens too!) It's those fissures in our strength, those fissures in our wisdom, those fissures in our righteousness reveal it's not us; it's the Lord! It's the glory of Christ that's being seen.
Oh, that should motivate you. You ought to say, "Oh, if just once, the glory of Christ would be seen through me in my university. Oh, if just once, my children would see the glory of Christ in me. Oh, if just once, my neighbors would see the glory of Christ in me. Oh, if just once, the watching world would see the glory of Christ in me - that would be worth suffering for." That's the plan. That's the plan. Determine to rejoice. Third directive: keep your suffering pure; again, a theme that Peter returns to.
Keep Your Suffering Pure
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or an evil doer or as a meddler." Keep your suffering pure. I'm convinced that Peter is showing his pastoral heart here, and he understands how our hearts work, that moments of suffering are often moments of spiritual vulnerability. There are moments where you're tempted to wonder if your obedience is worth it. "Why are you working so hard to please God and this is what you get?" I've already said to you, you see those kinds of questions echoed in Psalms, like Psalm 73.
And Peter wants us to understand that the kind of suffering that he's talking about that we should not consider strange, that is a cause for rejoicing, is not suffering because you've done evil. We have a great ability to trouble our own trouble. Your moment of suffering is made worse because you get angry; and in your anger, you mistreat the people who would be there to be your support and comfort. Or your suffering tempts you to doubt God, and you don't run to one for help whom you have decided to doubt.
And you trouble your own trouble in that moment. Peter is calling us to a high standard; it's holiness; it's a God-honoring life no matter what I'm experiencing. Difficulty does not change the call. Difficulty does not alter the rules of the game. Now, notice the words here, "Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or a meddler." You may think, "Well, I don't do those things." Remember as we've said again and again, as we are faithful to read God's law, Sunday evening after Sunday evening, that these sins are first sins of the heart before they're ever sins of the hands.
I know for sure that in moments of difficulty, I have thought hateful thoughts. Minor things - I remember once making a home repair, which is very difficult for me - when I go to repair something in the house, my whole family would leave, because they knew something was going to happen, and it wouldn't be good. I actually made a successful repair, and a member of my family, a day later, not thinking that thing was repaired because they really had no trust in daddy's ability, yanked on the thing as they had to before and broke it once again.
I had murderous rage! I didn't move; I began to call names of my family members. I have an intelligent family, no one answered. A little thing - if just that moment, I could not stand before God and say, "I'm free of breaking this command." There's an anger, deep anger in my heart. Or thievery? Who hasn't, in a moment of difficulty, wished that you could steal the life of someone else and make it your own? Maybe you've even shopped the catalog of other people's lives looking for the one that you'd like to step into?
Who, in that moment, hasn't meddled in other people's things wondering maybe if they would be more deserving of suffering than you would be? This is a very practical list. Are you committed to a life that pleases your Savior no matter what? Does your obedience weaken in moments of difficulty? When you're going through trial, do you find it hard to read and pray? Do you wonder if it's worth coming to services of worship? Do you sing hymns with less enthusiasm? Keep your suffering pure. Fourth directive: don't give way to shame.
"Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name." You see, again, we get this big picture worldview. Peter is very zealous to remind the people that he's ministering to where they are to get their identity; where they are to get their meaning and purpose; where they are to get that inner sense of well-being. He's reminding them that the only stable place to ever get that from is from the Lord. "Now we are the children of God," John says. And that indeed is what we are.
Not Shopping for Identity
I have been accepted by the King of kings and the Lord of lords; I'm not out shopping for identity. Praise God! I have been freed from that by His grace. My heart is at rest. I know who I am; I know who He is. I know my acceptance. Jesus said, "Though all men forsake me, yet I'm not alone for my heavenly Father is with me." There's the Gospel; that's how the Gospel transforms the way you think about your relationships. Oh, you should want good relationships with people; you should want to build communities of understanding and love, but you must not put your identity in the hands of others, and that's particularly deadly when those people are rejecting you and rejecting you for your faith.
Peter says, "But let him glorify God in the name." That suffering actually reinforces my identity. I've taken His name. It's now my name because we are of the same family. I am a Christian and I glory in my identity. I glory in that name. All the affection, and all the respect, and all the praise human beings could give me could not compete with the deep joy I have in being included in the family of King Christ. Fifth directive: consider God's judgment. "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?
If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" The word that's used in this passage for 'judgment' is not the word for 'condemnation' as he's talking about the family of God. It's a word that's closer to the word for 'discipline.' A holy God is not satisfied for uncleanness to continue to be in the hearts of His people. A holy God quests for His people to be holy, and so that holy God will visit His people with His discipline. If people who have now been made righteous by Christ still are needing the judgment of God in order that they may become actually righteous, if they are scarcely saved, what in the world is the hope for the ungodly?
What a powerful picture that is of how deep and pervasive our need of God's grace, our need of His rescue, our ongoing need of His discipline. Hear the words of Scripture, "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens." Final directive: rest as you work. I think some of us have rest and work as opposites. If you're working, you are not resting; if you're resting, you are not working, and Peter really puts those together. "Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."
Your Creator is your Savior. The one who holds the world together holds you by His grace. The one who owns all things has the power to supply all that you need to go through what He's calling you to go through. Notice, if you would for a moment, the nervousness, the anxiety that often comes into your mind as you go through times of suffering--will you make it through, will you have what it takes, how will this turn out, what's going to happen next? And Peter says, "In this moment, it's very important not to forget that your hope is not figuring it all out, somehow, and finding rest in your understanding; your hope is in one thing, your Creator Savior who holds all things in His hands, who rules all things by His power, and who has promised to supply everything you need.
Now Peter says this: "Because you can rest that way, get busy!" Don't waste your time trying to figure out things you won't figure out. Don't waste your time with paralytic anxiety because you know that you can rest in your Savior who rules over everything that He's talked about. You can now give yourself to the good work that He's called for you to do. Listen, people who are suffering God's way are busy! Busyness for the Kingdom of God is a sign that you get it right. And God's grace is freeing you from anxiety and doubt and the sins of despair.
And God's grace is propelling you to the best kind of busyness ever-- busyness for the Kingdom of God. Now there's only one thing that can ever transform people like us from what we are to what Peter has described: it is the transforming grace of the cross of Jesus Christ. And what this passage should do this evening, one more time, is drive you to the foot of the cross, not in desperation, but in hope. In humble hope that admits you are not there yet, but you know you will be someday. And you ask again for the forgiveness that that cross has purchased, for the deliverance that is the gift of that cross, for the power that that cross displayed, and you get up off your knees, renewed once again and you get busy.
