Suffering for Jesus
1 Peter 4:1-6
Introduction-
Turn to 1 Peter 4:1-6
Good morning-
Last week I asked you if you realized that your attitude plays a big factor in what you receive during the service.
I hope you thought about that a minute and determined that as you came into church this week that you would bring an attitude of expectation.
What does it mean to suffer for Jesus?
We hear the term but do we know what it means? What does that looks like?
Most times we think of a missionary overseas in a dangerous troubled area where they could lose their life for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is definitely true but there are other ways people of faith are suffering for Jesus.
How should we as believers respond to suffering?
The word suffering and its derivatives are used twenty-one times in this epistle.
Peter has a lot to say about suffering.
Nero was having Christians covered with tar and burned at the stake to light up his garden.
These Christians needed to hear that suffering was part of the will of God and that they should not be shocked by it.
They also needed to understand how to respond it.
How should we respond to being mocked by friends for our belief system? How should we respond when sometimes even our families don’t understand us?
Peter talks about this in this passage.
1 Peter Chapter 5 Peter gives us some warnings
“That we need to humble ourselves before the Lord, that we get not puffed up in ourselves.
To be alert and live self-controlled because our enemy (devil) prowls around like a roaring lion to devour us. Recognizing that we have an enemy of our soul-
That we must resist the devil, stand firm and he will flew from you
Stand firm in your faith because you realize that you have brothers and sisters throughout the world who are undergoing the same suffering.
He warns us…God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
He brings down the proud and lifts up the humble.
Pretty sure that if He gives us warnings and instructions on how to live that he would give us a working definition of suffering.
Illustration-
On September 11th, 2001- I was an associate pastor and working full time (bi-vocational) for a local propane company. I was in the home of a customer when the first tower was hit at 8:46am and the whole day each place I went added to the moment because everyone had something to say about it. It was not till I got back to the shop at the end of the day and began my paperwork and talked with my boss that 911 became realized. He began telling me that his daughter was working for Chase and was in tower one working that fear struck me to the heart. For two days he did not know if his own daughter was okay. By God’s wonderful hand of mercy, at about 8:00 that morning she had left the tower and went with a friend to get a cup of coffee and dealt with the chaos outside but was not trapped in the building.
Nothing gives you a reality check like going through crisis moments or near crisis moments that change your life.
They both teach valuable lessons and are part of who we are.
One person tells the story of how God miraculously spared a life and the next is describing the event and how life was tragically lost.
Prayer-
This morning Lord, we come in the powerful name of Jesus to ask you Lord to use the things that go on in our lives to transform us more into the image of Christ and not ourselves. As we look at your suffering and realize that we must also suffer for the name of Christ, may we do it with a humble heart and a desire to live for you. Living for you is not easy… that is why so many are not doing it. May you help us and lead us to be all that you desire and would you transform our thinking, our actions to reflect Christ and not this world. In Jesus Name! Amen!
Please turn to 1 Peter 4:1-6 Read from Bible
Remember I told you that when a verse starts therefore... that you must go back a few verses to find out what it is therefore.
We see that in the previous verses that we will suffer even if we are doing good.
We see that Christ Himself suffered for the righteous and the unrighteous and that He did not deserve to die it but was willing to suffer for each one of us.
“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.”
Peter tells us to follow Christ example, he draws attention to Christ suffering.
No one likes to suffer. No one would dare choose to suffer if they had a choice not too.
He gives strong language as believers we will suffer like Christ suffered.
It is a battle of flesh against spirit in us and it is a battle that the world does not understand because they do not know Christ as Lord of their lives.
We are to be Christ-like and rid ourselves of the fleshly desires that fight against the things of God.
1 Peter 4:1 Passion version- “ Since Christ, though innocent, suffered in his flesh for you, now you also must be a prepared soldier, having the same mind-set, for whoever has died in his body is done with sin.”
It is better to be obedient and suffer than to do wrong and avoid it.
Let’s talk about that- “Arm yourself” is a military term meaning equipping yourself adequately.
Out of context would mean that believers should seek suffering and martyrdom.
Peter never praises suffering in itself as inherently beneficial for believers.
He commends doing what is right, and if suffering comes as a result, so be it.
Having the same attitude as Christ is choosing obedience, even if it brings suffering.
He tells us it is better to do the right thing and suffer than to do the wrong thing to avoid suffering.
1 Peter 5:10
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
Christ died for sin, once and for all- by faith believers identify with Christ and arm ourselves that we are done with sin. That, as believers we choose Christ-likeness over the fleshly desire to do what we want to do.
Like Christ, we are to reject the sinful ways of the world.
The attitude of Christ considers obedience to God more important than suffering or death-
You don’t seek suffering, but you have to be willing to suffer so you do not act contrary to the things of God.
The world will think your strange
“As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.”
No longer concerned with human desires but consumed with what brings pleasure to God.
Unbelievers should see a difference in believers-
Sometimes that means that they will not be happy with your choices of life and allegiance, but they should see that you are different than the world and that you will not be changed by the world but trying to change to world to Christ likeness.
(4) “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation.”
The change they see was dramatic enough to be noticed by their neighbors.
Sexual immorality and lust-
Drunkenness-
Idolatry – it is amazing how many believers look to horoscopes and mediums, witchcraft (white magic)
Peter portrays the pagan lifestyle as reckless.
We have a large mirror in our back bedroom, which I face a lot of times to make sure I am all together.
Though my back is to PD (Pastors dog), he can see my facial expressions because of the mirror.
If I direct my attention to PD reflection in the mirror and just mouth the words,
“You want to go in the truck?” He will immediately start barking and running to the door
“Do you want a treat? Same response and go to his goodie box.
He also understands do you want a bath? I get a response, but he is on the move getting as far from me as he can- he actually hides by Becky.
Peter calls his audience to mirror/reflect/Jesus.
PD even in a reflection in the mirror recognizes me and my voice and will respond to commands given to him- even the ones that he did not want to hear like getting a bath!
God’s people must strive to intentionally mirror/reflect Jesus.
Romans 5:3-5
“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
James 1:2-4
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
A lot of people say “I want to spend more time with my kids, my wife, my church” - and it just doesn’t happen.
The reality is that they really DON’T want to.
They just think it a nice idea.
Let’s be honest. The things that really matter to us, the things that are priorities in our lives, we make time for.
The world will think you are crazy as you stand on His word.
They will think you are crazy because you do not do the things other people do.
(3) “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do- and they will heap abuse on you.”
While most have good ideas and good intentions- you as a believer have to put your beliefs and morals in action… and that will bring you some persecution and strange looks.
You desire with God’s help to defeat the fleshly desires so you can experience the spiritual victories that come from a life of obedience.
You were in bondage long enough! Your allegiance is to the Lord and not the things that keep you in an at best casual relationship with the Lord
They will think it strange that you will live for God!
Peter shifts the focus from how the Christian Community is to behave in relation to society to the inner life of the community of believers.
They may think it strange and they may give you abuse, but you desire to live for God
1 Peter 4:5-6 from the Bible-
Close
They (Those who do not have a relationship with the Lord and those who serve the Lord) will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge and is the only true judge of our lives.
One day we will all give account-
To some “one day’ never comes, but to the believer desiring to serve God… one day cannot come fast enough.
The inner life of the community is willing to suffer for Jesus because Jesus suffered for them and they desire to please God more than they desire to please themselves.
Revelation 21:4
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
John 17:15
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but you protect them from the evil one.
Not that you take them out of the world, but that you take the world out of them!”
We remember that life is short. Time on this earth will go quickly-
Illustration-
It’s sort of like the pilot who announced over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re making excellent time. The bad news is that our navigational systems are malfunctioning and we have no idea where we’re going."
Sometimes our lives are like that -- the days are going quickly by, but we don’t really know what we’re trying to do with our lives.
Life is short, and life can be wasted.
As you think about your own life today…maybe you realize that it is going far quicker than you want it to, and as you think about your life, you realize that your life is not really what you want it to be.
We need to take careful inventory of how we spend our days.
Paul writes to the church at Ephesus : “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
So this takes us back to what Peter is telling us here in chapter 4:
We have spent enough time wasting our lives like the world.
A Christian knows he is to consume his life with doing the will of God. In verse 1, it reminds us that when we suffer, we are reminded that we endure suffering faithfully not because we like it, but because we are willing to face suffering if it is in the will of God.
The unsaved people you work with, you live next door to, some in your family, will think you are strange when you don’t get excited about wasting your life with worldly things, and they will even make fun of you and mock you and call you “preacher”, “Radical” “Holy roller” “Out dated”
But Peter reminds us that we have to give an account of how we lived our life to our master.
So, if we want to make a difference for the Lord with your life… there will be some suffering.
If there is not… are you living for Jesus? Do they see Jesus? Or do they see the world and not much difference.
Prayer-
