Kathryn Leatherwood from Washington, Ohio, recalls spending a week with a roomful of VBS preschoolers. Many of them had been first-timers and attended with loud protests.
Toward the end of the week, she noticed Jessica adjusting her colorful headband with a look of frustration. After quieting yet another crying child, Kathryn touched Jessica's hair and asked, “Do you need some help, Jess?”
“Well, yes,” Jess said pointing to her headband. “There's a headache in here somewhere.”
Kathryn thought to herself, “I knew the feeling” (Kathryn Leatherwood, Washington, Ohio, “Kids of the Kingdom,” Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com)
In our increasingly secular society, with cancel culture on the rise, many Christians are feeling a headache in there somewhere. There is a rising concern about increased persecution even here in the United States of America.
Some of you just face an uncertain future with medical or financial issues, and you too are feeling a headache in there somewhere. So what do you do about it? What do you do about those times of pain? What do you do when you face the fire of adversity? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4, where Peter addresses a group of believers literally going through the fire in his day.
1 Peter 4:12 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 (ESV).
Believers and suffering are no strangers to each other. Faith doesn’t take away the pain. It only gives your pain meaning.
So don’t be surprised when painful trials come. Literally, don’t be surprised by the burning, and in Peter’s day this was a literal burning. In A.D. 64, the great city of Rome caught fire, and Nero blamed it on the city’s small Christian community. So, in a twisted sense of justice, Nero burned many of them alive. He covered many of the believers with pitch and used them as living torches to light the imperial gardens at night. With Christians literally glowing on the horizon, Peter says, “Don’t be surprised by this. “Don’t be surprised by the burning.” Instead…
BE GLAD IN THE FIRE.
Rejoice when those fiery trials come. Look at verse 13: “But rejoice insofar as you share Chris’s sufferings.”
If you’re going to come out of the fire refined like gold and not burned, then adjust your attitude. Instead of being surprised by the fire, celebrate when the fire comes. “Rejoice,” Peter says. Why?
Because the fire brings fellowship with Christ. Suffering allows you to share Christ’s sufferings. Pain gives you an intimacy with Christ that you could not otherwise know.
In the 19th century, Armenian Christians, under a Turkish Muslim government, experienced a tremendous amount of persecution. The government lifted the ban on Muslims converting to Christianity in 1856. Then just eight years later, they began arresting these Muslim converts to Christianity. From 1895 to 1896 government soldiers killed up to 100,000 Armenian civilians in an attempt to kill every Armenian Christian within Turkish borders. Lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and other intellectuals were rounded up and charged with subversion. Many had their heads placed in vises and squeezed until they collapsed.
Then the Turkish government set April 24, 1896, as the day to kill the rest of the Armenian Christians. Nearly 600,000 Christians died on that day, but some escaped. One of those who escaped was a young girl of 18 who stumbled into an American camp.
“Are you in pain?” a nurse asked when she arrived.
“No,” she replied, “but I have learned the meaning of the cross.”
The nurse thought she was mentally disoriented and questioned her further. Pulling down the one garment she wore, the young girl exposed a bare shoulder. There, burned deeply into her flesh, was the figure of a cross.
“I was caught with others in my village. The Turks stood me up and asked, ‘Muhammed or Christ?’ I said, ‘Christ, always Christ.’ For seven days they asked me this same question and each day when I said ‘Christ’ a part of this cross was burned into my shoulder. On the seventh day they said, ‘Tomorrow if you say “Muhammed” you live. If not, you die.’ Then we heard that Americans were near and some of us escaped. That is how I learned the meaning of the cross.” (Marti Hefley, By Their Blood, Baker, 1996, p.342; www.PreachingToday.com)
She learned it through the burning, and that’s how you too can learn the meaning of the cross. You learn it through the fiery trials that come your way.
George MacDonald (1824-1905) once said, “The Son of God suffered unto death, not that [people] might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his.” So don’t be surprised by the fire. Instead, celebrate it, because it allows you to experience what God Himself experienced on the cross. Rejoice, because the fire brings fellowship with Christ.
More than that, rejoice, because the fire brings greater joy in the future. Your suffering only leads to an overflowing joy when Jesus comes again. Look at verse 13 again.
1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed (ESV).
One day, Jesus will reveal all His glory; on that day, you won’t be able to contain the joy! You will be “overjoyed!” The Apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 8. He said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Two seconds into eternity, you’ll be so overwhelmed with joy that the pain will have seemed like the tickling of a feather.
When they took Perpetua, one of the early Christian martyrs into the arena to be killed by wild beasts, she cried out, “This is my day of coronation.” (James S. Stewart, “The Rending of the Veil,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 57; www.PreachingToday.com)
And she was absolutely right! The future is bright for the believer no matter what happens today! So rejoice, because the fire only brings fellowship with Christ. Rejoice, because the fire only brings greater joy in the future.
Then rejoice, because the fire brings the ministry of the Holy Spirit today. God’s Spirit rests upon you when you suffer. Your pain gives us a taste of God’s glory today.
1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you (ESV).
Insults don’t bring shame. No! They bring God’s Spirit of glory.
This reminds me of the Shekinah Glory of God that rested on the tabernacle in Old Testament days (Exodus 40:34). At night, it was a blazing pillar of fire that hovered over that special tent where God chose to meet with His people. And that fire was a comfort to the people of God back then. Even better than a nightlight for a young child, that blazing fire drove away all fear for the people of God. After all, what enemy would dare to attack them with such a demonstration of God’s power right there?
In the same way, when you go through the fire, God’s fire rests upon you and takes away the fear. It’s what Stephen, the first Christian martyr, experienced when he was being stoned for his faith. Acts 7 says, “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God” (Acts 7:55). The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you when you go through the fire.
Randy Alcorn talks about what happened to his friend, Ethel Herr in his book, If God is Good. She had had a double mastectomy. Then two months later, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. One of Herr’s friends in shock asked her, “And how do you feel about God now?”
Herr says, “As I sought to explain what has happened in my spirit, it all became clearer to me. God has been preparing me for this moment. He has undergirded me in ways I've never known before. He has made himself increasingly real and precious to me. He has given to me joy such as I've never known before – and I've no need to work at it, it just comes, even amidst the tears. He has taught me that… he will lead me on whatever journey he chooses and will never leave me for a moment of that journey… God is good no matter what the diagnosis or the prognosis or the fearfulness of the uncertainty of having neither” (Randy Alcorn, If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil, Multnomah, 2009, p. 399; www.PreachingToday.com).
Ethel Herr experienced the comforting presence of God’s Spirit in her pain, and that’s the experience of every believer in Christ. When you go through the fire, God’s Spirit rests upon you, and He makes His presence more real to you than you’ve ever experienced before.
So don’t be surprised by the fire. Instead rejoice! Rejoice, because the fire brings fellowship with Christ. Rejoice, because the fire brings greater joy in the future. And rejoice, because the fire brings the ministry of God’s Spirit today.
Don’t let the fire burn you. Instead, let it refine you. How? Well, 1st of all, be glad in the fire. Then 2nd…
GLORY IN THE FIRE.
Praise God in times of pain. Honor the Lord even when you are dishonored.
1 Peter 4:15-16 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name (ESV).
The term “Christian” occurs only three times in the Bible – here and twice in the book of Acts (Acts 11:26; 26:28). And in each case, the context suggests that it was a derisive term which unbelievers used in the first century to insult believers, but those first century believers turned the insult around and made it into a badge of honor.
And that’s what you must do if you want the fire to refine you without burning you. Don’t be ashamed when you suffer because of that name you bear, the name “Christian.” Instead, use the dishonor as an opportunity to honor God. Use the dishonor as an opportunity to give people a high opinion of our Lord. In other words, turn the pain into praise.
Praise God, because the fire refines you. The fire is God’s discipline designed to make you more like His Son. It’s like God cleaning up His own house before He cleans up the rest of the world.
Verse 17 says, “Praise God… For it is time for judgment to begin with at the household of God.” The original text actually says, “It is time for judgment to begin with the HOUSE of God.”
In the Old Testament and the Gospels “the house of God” is a clear reference to a physical temple – a place where God chose to reveal His presence. But Peter, earlier in this book, makes it clear that we BELIEVERS are being built into a “spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). We are the living stones God is using to construct a spiritual temple through which He wants to reveal His presence to the world.
WE are God’s house, not this building or any other building. WE are God’s house, but that house gets dirty sometimes, doesn’t it? So God has to clean house every once in a while, but that’s not a cause for shame; that’s a cause for praise, because it can only mean that we will sparkle with a brighter shine for God’s glory after we come through the cleansing fire.
Some time ago, in a Leadership Journal article, Pastor John Ortberg argued that stressful and painful situations can actually help us grow. He wrote:
Imagine you're handed a script of your newborn child's entire life. Better yet, you're given an eraser and five minutes to edit out whatever you want. You read that she will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes easily for some kids, will be laborious for her. In high school, she will make a great circle of friends, then one of them will die of cancer. After high school, she will get into her preferred college, but while there, she will lose a leg in a car accident. Following that, she will go through a difficult depression. A few years later she'll get a great job, then lose that job in an economic downturn. She'll get married, but then go through the grief of separation.
With this script of your child's life and five minutes to edit it, what would you erase? Psychologist Jonathon Haidt poses this question in this hypothetical exercise: Wouldn't you want to take out all the stuff that would cause them pain?
If you could erase every failure, disappointment, and period of suffering, would that be a good idea? Would that cause them to grow into the best version of themselves? Is it possible that we actually need adversity and setbacks—maybe even crises and trauma—to reach the fullest potential of development and growth?
Ortberg contends that God doesn't always erase all our stress and pain before it starts. Instead, God can use the failures, disappointments, and periods of suffering to help us grow. Ortberg writes, “God isn't at work producing the circumstances I want. God is at work in bad circumstances to produce the me he wants” (John Ortberg, “Don't Waste a Crisis,” Leadership Journal, Winter, 2011; www.PreachingToday.com).
God uses pain to produce beautiful people. Please, let Him do it for you. Stop fighting Him and start praising Him, because the fire refines you.
More than that, praise God, because the fire is limited. The fire you experience in this life as a believer in Christ is nothing compared to the fires of Hell unbelievers will experience through out all of eternity.
1 Peter 4:17 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? (ESV)
Or better, “What will be the outcome for those who refuse to be persuaded by the Gospel of God?” Let me tell you: their end is not a happy one. The Bible describes it as “a lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14-15). Jesus Himself said that those who refuse to believe in Him will end up in hell “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).
It is a place of eternal torment; so dear unbelieving friend, please don’t refuse God’s offer of eternal life anymore. Put your trust in Christ who died for your sins and rose again. Trust Him with your life today and secure your place in heaven tomorrow. Sure, it may bring you some heat in this life, but it’s nothing like the fires of hell in the next.
1 Peter 4:18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (ESV)
Or more literally, “Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Sure, Christians have a hard time in this life, but unbelievers have it much harder in the next, and that’s forever! So praise God, dear believer, because your suffering is limited. It’s not near as bad as what the “ungodly” will experience in hell.
The movie The End of the Spear tells the true story of five missionaries who gave their lives to reach the violent Waodoni tribe in the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950s. Led by Nate Saint, the missionaries were eager to reach the Waodoni people before they all died off from their intertribal warfare and vicious revenge killings.
As Nate prepares for his adventure, his family gathers around him on the dirt airstrip in front of their house. As he kisses his wife goodbye, his son, Steve, looks at the gear in the plane and notices a rifle. Obviously worried, he turns to his father and asks, “If the Waodoni attack, will you use your guns? Will you defend yourselves?”
Nate looks his boy dead in the eye and responds, “Son, we can't shoot the Waodoni. They're not ready for heaven. We are.” (End of the Spear, 00:32:30—00:33:48, Every Tribe Entertainment, 2006, directed by Jim Hanon, written by Bill Ewing and Bart Gavigan; www.PreachingToday.com)
Nate Saint understood the fate of the unbeliever as compared to his own fate. He knew he could withstand some temporary pain, but he didn’t want the Waodoni people to experience the eternal pain of hell, at least not before they had a chance to hear the gospel.
You see, as a believer, your pain is very limited compared to those who don’t know Christ. So praise God! Praise God, because the fire refines you, and praise God, because the fire is limited. It will soon come to an end, especially when you think about it in light of all eternity.
Don’t let the fire burn you. Let it refine you. How? 1st , be glad in the fire. 2nd, glory in the fire. And 3rd…
GIVE YOURSELF TO GOD IN THE FIRE.
Entrust your life into His hands. Commit your soul to Him.
1 Peter 4:19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good (ESV).
That word for “entrust” is actually a banking term. It means to deposit something for safekeeping. Well, that’s what you can do with your life when you go through times of suffering. Deposit your life in God’s bank (so to speak) for safe keeping. Trust Him to preserve you in the fire. Give yourself to the Lord while continuing to do good.
That’s what Bethany Hamilton did. At one time, Bethany was ranked as the #1 amateur teen surfer in Hawaii. Then she lost an arm to a tiger shark in October 2003, but she never lost her faith.
Soon after the attack, she began to raise money to restore a man's eyesight. While visiting New York City, she gave her ski coat to homeless girl. When asked about the gift, she said she had more than she needed in life.
At the time, Steve Thompson, her pastor, said, “She's looking forward to the future. She's asking herself, ‘How can I show the world I still have a life, that I enjoy my life, and that my life is filled with joy?’ She has an underlying trust that God is taking care of her” (Jill Lieber, “Teen Surfer Riding Wave of Amazing Grace,” USA Today, 3-19-04; www.PreachingToday.com).
Bethany Hamilton entrusted herself to her faithful Creator. She didn’t quit living when she lost her arm. No! She gave her life to God. She deposited her life for safekeeping into His hands. And later, God gave her an international platform from which to share her story and bring Him glory.
Bethany Hamilton returned to surfing; and just over a year after the shark attack, she took 1st place in the Explorer Women’s division of the 2005 NSSA National Championships – winning her first National Title. Since then, she has turned pro, and TriStar Pictures produced Soul Surfer, a major motion picture about her life in 2011. More recently (2018), Entertainment Studios produced another movie about her life called Bethany Hamilton Unstoppable, And today, she teaches Unstoppable Life Courses to thousands of people online (www.BethanyHamilton.com).
Bethany Hamilton gave her life to God in her pain, and God is using her to reach people all over the world.
God can do the same for you. So don’t give up when the fire comes. Just give in to your loving Heavenly Father. Entrust yourself to your faithful Creator while continuing to do good. Depend on the Lord while continuing to do what you can to serve people and bring honor to Christ.
Don’t be surprised or ashamed by the fire. Instead, Be glad in the fire. Glory in the fire, and give yourself to God in the fire.
It’s the attitude Karen Watson had before she was killed with four other missionaries in Iraq on March 15, 2004. She knew her life was in danger, so she wrote a letter to her pastor a year previously (March 7, 2003) to be read in the event of her death.
In that letter, she said, “When God calls there are no regrets… I wasn't called to a place. I was called to him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, his glory my reward.” Then she urged her pastor to “keep sending missionaries.”
“Care more than some think is wise,” she said. “Risk more than some think is safe. Dream more than some think is practical. Expect more than some think is possible.” Karen wrote, “I was called not to comfort or success but to obedience… There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving him” (“Keep Sending Missionaries,” Baptist Press, 3-24-04; www.PreachingToday.com).
Trying times are no time to quit trying, no! Keep trusting and keep serving even in the fires of adversity.
