If you have your Bible with you tonight, I hope you'll turn with me to the book of 1 Peter once more. 1 Peter 4, where we pick up where we left off last week. 1 Peter 4, if you're using our Q Bibles, you're gonna find that on page 842. So we've noticed this theme in the book of 1 Peter. He's telling us, reminding us that suffering is coming. Sometimes it seems with him that it could be far off. Other times like tonight, it appears that it could be any day now. And of course that makes sense, knowing that Peter is writing to a large group of churches over a large region of Asia Minor. But one more time, Peter is going to bring before us tonight this topic of Christian suffering. Let's listen to these words beginning at verse 12. Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator. May the Lord bless his word read to us and preach to us as well this evening. Philip Schaaf, the church historian, tells us the story of Telemachus. Telemachus was a monk living around the year 400 AD. He was a man who became, over time, increasingly grieved. over the corruptions that he saw in the culture around him and particularly grieved about the gladiatorial combat that was such a regular feature of the Roman Empire. He decided to make the trip to Rome and he had thought to himself, I will go and I will preach against this corruption and point people to the true God. He went and found a street corner and he did that. He began to street preach and was largely unnoticed and unheeded over those several days. But then the day came for the games, for the gladiatorial games, and he decided, well, I'll go in. And and I'll watch and and still he wasn't sure what he was going to do once he got there but he goes in and begins to watch these games and as as you would expect revolted by the cruelty by by the Inhumanity by by frankly the murder that he saw before him and before he knew what he was doing he was jumping down onto the the field of combat and standing between the two gladiators and and appealing to them to stop. You won't be surprised to know that Telemachus lost his life that day. Some versions of the story say that the gladiators did it. Other versions of the story say that the crowd took up stones and put him to death. But it makes me wonder, in light of our passage tonight, was Telemachus surprised. Was Telemachus surprised that that had happened to him that day? And for that matter, the many other stories of martyrs, of those who lay down their life for Christ, are they surprised that that happened? Are we surprised when people don't receive us because they don't receive the gospel and the Savior that we live for? Are we surprised? Well, Peter, as I said a moment ago, one more time wants to speak to us about what it means to suffer for the sake Jesus and we looked last week at verse 11 and and you might remember that I said to you about verse 11 that it comes across as this spontaneous outburst this spontaneous doxology that Peter finds himself turning to God in praise as he thinks on the glory of the Lord. And now it's as if that doxology now launches Peter into this one last word of exhortation to us in which the glory of God is going to feature in a very important way. So the main point tonight is this. Don't be surprised when you suffer for Christ. Instead, rejoice and trust. Don't be surprised when you suffer for Christ. Instead, rejoice and trust. And just two main points that we'll look at tonight. The first one is this. As we look at verses 12 through 16, Peter's telling us this, he's saying you can rejoice in suffering because of God's glory at work. You can rejoice in suffering because of God's glory at work. And you notice that Peter is wanting you and me to transform our thinking, to transform our thinking about Christian suffering. He starts with the negative, doesn't he, in verse 12, before he moves to the positive in verse 13. He wants to strip away the wrong thinking. He says, don't think it's strange. And the word there, strange, it's not so much the idea of something being weird. But it's the idea of something being foreign or alien. It's the word from which we get xenophobia, the fear of the foreign or the fear of the foreigner. And what Peter is saying is it ought not to be alien to your thinking. that suffering will come because you are a Christian. Don't think it foreign. Don't think it alien to you. Back in verse four, we saw the same word as a matter of fact, didn't we? And and there the word was used to tell us, like, look, the Gentiles are going to look at your life and they're going to look at you like you're an alien. They're going to think it very strange, very foreign to them that you don't run in the same lifestyle that they do. And now he turns and uses the same word here and says, don't think it an odd, a foreign, an alien thing for you to face. Suffering for Jesus sake and and and he uses a word that we have here translated fiery trial Which is an important word that we're gonna refer to later on in our message. It could also be translated a refining fire a refining fire a fire that purges and purifies and so he says don't think it foreign and Then he turns to the positive in verse 13, doesn't he? but rejoice Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings. That word partake could also be translated share. It's that fellowship word, diakonia, that we see so often in Koinonia, sorry, not diakonia, that's a deacon, I think, yeah. Koinonia, that word that we find so often in the New Testament to speak of what we share with other Christians and also what we share with the Lord Jesus. So here's this new outlook. The new outlook on suffering is rejoice. Rejoice because you're sharing something with your Savior and your Savior is sharing something with you. And of course, that was teaching that Peter had received straight from the mouth of Jesus. Peter had been there when the Sermon on the Mount had been preached and he had heard those beatitudes that the Lord Jesus spoke that are still so challenging to us today. And that last and probably most challenging of the beatitudes, blessed are the persecuted, For righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ. And of course, we can't read this passage at all, can we, without thinking about our union with Jesus Christ that Peter is so heavily drawing on, that living union that we have with the Lord Jesus by which everything that he accomplished for sinners and we enjoy all the benefits of that salvation You're in my family now and you share a family resemblance and there's going to be something of a similar trajectory for your life that you're going to follow because you belong to me. Count it all joy. That's the way James puts it. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And if you'll run your eyes over verses 13, and 14 in particular, but also verse 16, you'll notice that there's this interplay between the idea of suffering and the word glory. suffering, and glory, suffering and glory. Verse 13, for instance, you're partaking of Christ's sufferings that when his glory is revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy. Next verse, if you're reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified. Glory, suffering side-by-side walking along together and what's especially striking about that is that the the verbs here in verses 13 and 14 are verbs of continuation that that goes something like this as you go on rejoicing you will also go on sharing and the partaking of Christ's sufferings. That's verse 13. And verse 14, as you go on being reproached for the name of Christ, you will also go on being blessed and the spirit of glory and of God will continue to rest upon you. And so it's these two concepts that are brought together into the life of the Christian, present realities for us. And the reason to hammer that home for just a moment is that usually we think that sufferings come first and then the glory is to follow afterwards, don't we? that there is the humiliation now, and then there's the exaltation to come. And that's a very biblical idea and way to think about life. There is full glory to come, isn't there? When sufferings will be no more. In the life of Christ, there was humiliation followed by exaltation. But something that Peter has been calling to mind through the course of this letter, we've we've remarked on it, but this is the clearest example of it. As he is saying that there is a glory that rests in the here and now. Upon the suffering Christian. And it's really a remarkable thing, verse 14, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. That's a phrase that comes out of Isaiah chapter 11. And who is being referred to? Who is it that the spirit of glory and of God is to rest upon in Isaiah 11? It's the coming Messiah. It's Christ who will enjoy the spirit of grace and glory resting upon him in abundant measure. And here Peter is taking that promise that those words of prophecy concerning Jesus and saying, Because of our union with Jesus, those things will be true of us too. In the midst of our suffering, in our moment of greatest need, we will find the Lord Jesus in His glory, the Spirit of glory resting upon us in abundant measure. so that he becomes our very present help in time of trouble. He becomes that sympathetic high priest that we so badly need, who knows our weaknesses from the inside out because he's been there and he's done that. and now is able to come and for his glory to rest upon us. And I've wondered about this. I've been fighting through this all week, to be honest with you. The end of verse 13, most commentators think, well, this is the glory to come that's being talked about here. When his glory is revealed, you'll be glad with exceeding joy. The problem is that doesn't really go with anything else that he says in these verses. Yes, there is the glory to come. We all believe that and we're taught that in other places, but I'm not sure that's what we're being taught here. I think what we're being taught here is that there is in the midst of our suffering. The glory of the Lord will be revealed in our lives. As he says in verse 14, the spirit of glory and of God resting upon you. Glory. suffering glory and humiliation. Peter heard about that from Jesus too didn't he? It's the Apostle John that makes a big deal of it as you turn to his gospel you find him refer to it in chapter 3 of his gospel and again in chapter 8 and then at least a third time in chapter 12 those are the places I found where he speaks of, Jesus speaks of the son of man being lifted up. And even by, even as I say those words, some of you are going in one direction and you're thinking about what that means. And some of you are going in a different direction. Some of you are thinking, well, the son of man being lifted up, that means he's being exalted. He's being recognized for who he is. no cloud of suffering or trouble in sight. And then others of you probably are thinking, wasn't that what the cross is all about? That at the cross, he was lifted up. And there's ambiguity there, isn't there? And it's ambiguity on purpose because what John is doing and showing in the life of Jesus in that moment of his greatest humiliation, when he was hanging upon the cross, when his humiliation had reached its lowest moment, it was there that his glory shone brightest. It was there that he was lifted up. He says in John 8 that when the Son of Man is lifted up, you will know that I am he. And John 12, he says, when the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. There's glory in the suffering of Jesus. And of course, we know, don't we, that there's nowhere that we see the wonder of God's love more clearly than we do at the cross. That the cross truly is the pulpit of God's love. And if we're looking for the one who is full of grace and truth, where else do we turn but the cross to see that in its finest expression? My Savior, full of grace and truth, stretched out upon the cross for me. And there's a glory in that, isn't there? His glory is being displayed there at the cross. And in some mysterious way, what Peter is saying to us is that since we are in union with him, we are made sharers in his sufferings. And that as we share in his sufferings. His glory is being displayed in our lives. And this glory is something that we personally enjoy and experience. If verse 14 means anything, when Peter says you are blessed in verse 14, if it means anything, it means this fellowship that we have with Christ in that moment. It's something that's enjoyed, but it's also something that enables. It enables us, it strengthens us to take that suffering and to rejoice in that suffering. And that puts all of this in a new light, doesn't it? Verse 13, rejoice to the extent that you share in Christ's sufferings. Romans 5, where Paul says that we glory in tribulations. Colossians 1, where Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings. James 1, where he says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. How on earth can we begin to do that? Unless the Lord Jesus himself stirring within us by his Holy Spirit is so working to give us that joy to help us to see that in the midst of our own emptying, our own struggling, our own temptation, our own trial, our own suffering, that the Lord is going to be our strength and our help in it. And he's going to come along and encourage us and help us and and give us joy and enable us then to count it all joy to rejoice. How else could we do that? if it weren't for the presence of the Lord with us. And brothers and sisters, I think this is just a special encouragement to you and me as we are called to suffer for Christ's sake. What Peter is saying to you tonight is that you will never be alone. You'll never be alone in your suffering. And for the sufferer, there is nothing worse is there, even on a human level. It's one thing to suffer, but to suffer alone just multiplies our griefs, doesn't it? To have a friend, to have family who can be with us, even if they can't make it better in any objective way, they make it better. And here what Peter is reminding us of is that the Lord is with his people and will never be alone in our suffering, that the Lord will be our very present help in our trouble. So even if all the world abandons you, deserts you, you can be sure that the Lord Jesus never will. The spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. You're blessed. You're blessed in the midst of your suffering. And it's this, it's this thing that gives us fortitude to keep going. It's this that gives us joy in our trials. It's this that allows us to be like Paul and Silas in the middle of the night, chained together in prison and singing praises to God. Because the joy of the Lord, they knew something about that. And it's a strange thing, isn't it? It goes against nature, it goes against logic to think that it's in the midst of suffering, that we know the Lord best, and we know His presence the most, we know His joy the most, but that's what we're told. That's what we're told. So we can count it all joy. And so that grace that we enjoy, It's a grace that enables us. To live for him, it's a grace that enables us to glorify him, and that's the other glory word here, isn't it? That there's this glory that rests upon us, and because of that we now desire to glorify him. In the crucible. You can rejoice. And suffering. Because. God's glory. is at work through it. But then that takes us to the second half of our passage and the second half of Peter's message to us here about suffering. And this is what he says to us in verses 16 through 19. He says, you can trust God in suffering because of God's design at work. We've seen that God's glory is at work, but we can also trust God in our suffering because of God's design. God's purpose is at work here. So verse 16 is sort of a transition to the second thought. And there's a word here that I just want to take a moment to point out to you in passing. The word is ashamed. And it's one of those words that we could easily gloss over and not notice. But it's a really big word in the scriptures. It's a big word in the book of Psalms in particular. And there in the Psalms and in the rest of scriptures, the idea is that for the believer to be in danger of being ashamed is that somehow he would be forgotten by God and that he would be left unvindicated by God. that he would be abandoned by the Lord and that his hope would turn out to be an unfounded hope. That's what's tied up in that word, ashamed. And that's why it's so important when we sing the Psalms, let me not be ashamed. We're really saying, God, be the God that you've promised to be. And here is Peter picking up on that and saying, we're not going to be ashamed. Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. Now, this is why that's important because what Peter is gonna suggest is the end is not yet. I think it was last week that we said the end is near, but now he balances that, doesn't he? The end is not yet. And there's something that's going to go on until the end. And that thing is. He's going to keep purifying his people. He's going to keep purifying his people. And he's speaking to this and this question and Christians ask this question, we ask it and we ask it again. Why must I suffer? Why must I suffer? And if you will bounce around this passage with me for just a moment, I want to tie a few threads together that Peter ties together. Start at the end, look at verse 19. Notice, first of all, that this suffering is by God's will. That's what that phrase means, according to the will of God. Probably better, because God has willed it. This suffering is by the will of God. Don't lose sight of that. The suffering that we experience as God's people, it's part of God's will. And then alongside that, there's this name given to God in verse 19. Now you would think that the word creator would be a word that we found all over the New Testament. But this particular word is only found once in the New Testament. And outside of the scriptures, it was a word used in ancient times for the founder of a city. You could translate it founder, it's the founder. I even saw a commentator, and a few of you will rejoice in this, that says architect is an acceptable translation. He's the founder of his people. He's the architect of their faith. He's the designer of all that comes their way. He has a purpose in it. He has a purpose at play. So whatever we experience is not the result of randomness. It's not the result of some precious God who's out there winging it along the way, it's part of a design, it's part of the work of the guy who founded the city, the God who founded the faith. And then carry back up to the beginning of our passage, verse 12, and take in again that word fiery trial, or refining fire. So one, our suffering is by the will of God. Two, he has clear purposes in our suffering. And three, what are those purposes? There's refining going on, and it's by fire. It's painful. He's refining us, but it's painful. And that carries us back to verse 17. The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. Judgment in the sense of sifting. Judgment in the sense of assessing, testing, purging. And there are a couple of passages behind this phrase that aren't completely just transparent to us, but one's Ezekiel 9, where the Lord says, start at my sanctuary as you do your refining work. And Malachi 3, where the messenger of the Lord is to come to his temple. and to bring his refining fire that will purge and purify his people. Start at the sanctuary, start at the temple. Judgment begins at God's house. Put it in a different way. For now, God is at work among us refining, purging, purifying, changing, sifting, transforming us through this fiery ordeal, this fiery trial that comes our way, the suffering that he sends our way. It's part of his will, it's part of his design, and it will be painful. but the time for fire is coming to an end. For the Christian, it's fire now, and then pure joy to come. But then he turns to the unbeliever and says, isn't this far better than for now, me to leave you alone, and then at the end, for there to be fire of a different kind. If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? And that explains so much, doesn't it? It explains life. It explains, well, you see it in somewhere like Psalm 73, where the psalmist looks around and says, why is it that the godless are healthy and wealthy and don't seem to have a care in the world? And meanwhile, I am getting crushed. We feel that, don't we? We see that. It seems like so many of the ungodly around us don't have a care in the world. It seems like life is going fairly well for them. And meanwhile, I'm going through it. Well, Peter explains it. The Lord explains it. He says, now's the time when I am refining my people. I'm starting at the house, at my house. But it won't always be that way. That's what's now, but that's not what is to come for my people. So we can trust him. We can trust him in our suffering because God's design is at work. This is God's design. And that's why he closes in verse 19. And this is his last word on suffering to us. And in a sense, it's a summary of everything that he has to say to us on this topic. Therefore, let those who suffer because God has willed it. Commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful founder, architect, creator. Commit their souls to him, trust him. Commit, that's a word that speaks to a day when there weren't safety deposit boxes. And if you were going on a long trip and you weren't able to carry all of your earthly treasures with you on that long trip, who are you gonna leave those treasures behind with? To whom are you going to commit all of your worldly treasures? You're gonna find somebody trustworthy, aren't you? And hear Peter saying, your God is just that faithful God. He's that trustworthy God. And isn't it wonderful as we come to a close here tonight, that as we think on these things, as we think on our suffering, and as we seek God's grace for help in our suffering, isn't it wonderful that Peter doesn't say, hey, look at how faithful you are. Keep up the good work, buddy. You've done a great job so far. Just keep going and keep being faithful. Instead, he turns our eyes to our faithful God. He turns our eyes to our faithful God. Because we need him to hold us by the hand. You know, parents, there's something that we do as parents when we're crossing a busy street with our kids. Something we say that isn't quite accurate. What do we say? We say, hold my hand. But that's not exactly what we're looking for, is it? It's not that we want them to hold our hand. We want to be able to hold their hand, and then we feel like they're safe, and we can cross together. That's what we're being told here by Peter. This is the one, the Lord is the one that you can commit your soul to. You can entrust your soul to him. And he will faithfully carry you through this time of suffering. No matter what it is, you can trust him. You can rejoice in what's happening now because good things are being accomplished by your God in the midst of your suffering. May the Lord encourage us with these things tonight. Would you please stand? We'll pray together. Our Father, we confess that there's part of us that just find these truths too big, maybe even too wonderful to take in. They're so counterintuitive and so unnatural to the way we think. We want to protect ourselves the best way that we know how, and Lord, we find that we're not very good at that. How we need you, oh Lord, to come to us and to aid us, to be our strength, to be our joy, to be our hope, to walk along with us in our trials and suffering, to minister to us and to give us your joy, to give us your presence. We pray that we might know more of what it means, the spirit of grace, the spirit of glory and of God that would rest upon us and be our blessedness. Lord, we pray that you would help us to trust you that you are indeed accomplishing good things as the designer. as the one who is both the author and the finisher. We pray our God that we would be able to commit ourselves, our ways, our souls to you. Lord, help us in these things. Help us to rejoice in what we understand and to seek for further understanding in these truths of your word. We pray this all in Christ's name, amen.