Live in the Spirit

1 Peter 4:1a “1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh.

Its the greatest truth in human history. That God on high, the holy one who oversees all of the world, who put it into order, who crafted and formed man kind. The creator and sustainer of life would choose to suffer on our behalf.

Consider His willingness to reach you.

Consider His desire and the lengths at which He went in order to save you from your sin.

He could have stayed on the thrown and experienced continual perfect unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He could have chose every amenity and comfort. But instead chose to leave the throne room of heaven. He chose to become a man, to experience hunger, thirst, sweat, and tears. He knows what it is to experience every physical hardship as well as every form of temptation. Beyond that Jesus modeled the perfect life, giving great teaching about the Father, about heaven, and kingdom principles. Jesus is the great teacher, who lowered Himself and used examples of this world to reveal to us the truth of heaven.

Beyond that, Jesus chose to suffer. It wasn’t a difficult discipline, it wasn’t a light burden. Jesus chose to suffer; to be mocked, spit on, rejected by those who were close to Him. He chose to be whipped and beaten repeatedly. The Bible tells us in all of this, He never called out in pain, He didn’t demonstrate frustration, or cry out that He had taken enough blows. At any moment he could have stopped all of it. He could have spoken a word and put an end to the entire situation. But for your sake, for my sake, He chose to allow it. He chose to endure it. He chose to allow them to mutilate His body, experiencing the most excruciating pain.

1 Peter 2:22-24 “22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

How often do you physically suffer and remain silent about the other person who caused it?

How often do you have half truths and lies spread around about you and you remain silent about those who spread this false gossip?

How often have you been threatened, where you did not threaten in return?

Culturally, it seems that our natural disposition to all of these situations is to stand up and defend ourselves. But what did Jesus model for us? What did He demonstrate? Did he get angry? Did He get defensive? Did He fight back?

He willingly endured all of this as an example, as an act of love, as a form of pursuing us, desiring to save us, He did all of it for us. In so doing, He modeled a posture of living in the Spirit and not in the flesh. He trusted the Father with the outcomes of His pain and suffering. He showed us that we don’t need to get so hung up on defending ourselves about worldly issues because if we learn to abide in Him, we know the outcome will be for His glory and that there will be Spiritual movement.

This humble, enduring, abiding posture that Jesus demonstrates is powerful. He gives us the same power, the same Spirit to guide us through our trials so that we can model and exemplify to people around us that suffering, being lied about, being threatened is only a temporary struggle that we can freely surrender to the Lord and He will give us the strength and patience we need to abide in His power through our trials and hardships. This is what Jesus did. This is what He modeled in His suffering.

What Jesus did for us, is so great, so far beyond us, that we will never repay Him. We cannot be good enough, we cannot do enough. There is nothing that we can offer Him that He needs from us.

Yet, look at what He did! look at the cost that He paid for you and for me!

When we read this line, “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh,” allow that to sink in. Stand before His throne and just say thank you Jesus! Praise you Jesus! We worship you Jesus! Look what you have done! Jesus we can’t even understand it; it is to too great for us! So we worship you Lord Jesus, we praise you because of your great love, of your great commitment to a faithless and wicked people, of your great patience and pursuit of us. We lift your name because your name is worthy of praise in every imaginable sense.

Jesus suffered for you, He suffered for me. And we cannot ever lose sight of the significance of this reality.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Preaching and Preachers)

"There is something essentially wrong with a man who calls himself a Christian and who can listen to a truly evangelistic sermon without coming under conviction again, without feeling something of his own unworthiness, and rejoicing when he hears the Gospel remedy being presented."

I would add this to that statement, “There is something essentially wrong with a Christian who has the ability to gloss over the suffering and death of Christ without feeling a sense of conviction as well as a sense of praise and gratitude.”

Recognize how Peter has laid out this letter. He continually draws us back to the person of Christ and what He has done. He consistently sprinkles gospel seeds throughout the letter in an attempt to help the scales fall off our eyes and pay attention to the reality God’s intricate work in our lives and in this world.

Whatever pain and suffering you experience in this life, know that Jesus not only went through worse, He chose it, on your behalf!

Throughout this letter, if you go back and read it, you will find that Peter has consistently talked about suffering. He gives a line or two per a chapter about the suffering that we will experience. But he keeps the focus on Christ by continually recalling the ways that Christ has suffered for us. In the midst of this discussion on suffering we find another theme:

1 Peter 1:15 “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”

1 Peter 2:5 “5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 3:15 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

It is clear that Peter is trying to point to Christ as the example and the one who is able to save. But not only to save, also, move us from a place of wickedness to a place of holiness. Where we as God’s children have been set apart to be like Him - set apart from everything else in this world.

And there is something about suffering. When we experience suffering - because we are believers, because we are living out our call - there is a transformative work of holiness that God is doing in our hearts and minds.

God in heaven demonstrated for you and for me how we can enter into the suffering and trials of this life in a godly manner. And its not by our strength! It’s by His strength. But here is the catch, you have to take initiative by responding to God’s redemptive plan. You need to pursue God so that He can transform you and prepare you for these types of trials.

1 Peter 4:1-2 “1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”

Peter is saying, there will be a day in which you suffer. Perhaps your suffering is mild or perhaps it will be severe. either way, you need to arm yourselves with how you think, so that when suffering comes you will respond with a godly attitude and godly action.

There is a reality that if Jesus is at work in you, your thinking should shift and your understanding of suffering. We should not think “it will never happen to me or it should never happen to me.” We should not think about witty comebacks, verbal threats, mind games, or physical action. But rather, when it happens, I will turn to the Lord! I will ask Him to give me a humble, enduring, and abiding posture in Him. Trusting Him with outcomes, trusting Him as the model to use me to also demonstrate and communicate deeper love than this world knows.

Furthermore, notice this last line of verse 1: “for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Like we already said, there is something about holiness that works its way into our life when we suffer for godly reasons. That work of holiness helps us gain a better sense of our commitment to Jesus and His kingdom. In that greater understanding, we are more disciplined and focused to put an end to sin in our lives.

There are so many Christians who are unwilling to deal with the sin in their lives. They know what they are doing isn’t ideal or they justify it as a grey area. They know they have sinned against certain people but are afraid to confess it. They compare it to others and rationalize that it is okay because other Christians also do it. There is a reality that one day you will have to stand before God and give account for your sin. In that time, there will be no ability to rationalize or justify sin. As Christians, we need to live in light of that day. Peter tells us, that suffering for the Lord is not only going to happen, but it is a good thing, because it draws to a greater commitment and focus on the Lord than on your sinful desires.

1 Peter 4:3-4 “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;”

Its amazing to me, that 2,000 years ago Peter was having to say to the church, because you are redeemed by Christ you should not live in sensuality, because you are a child of God you should not get drunk, because you are a an agent for God’s kingdom you should not get involved with orgies, the party scene and idolatry.

These were normal practices within their culture and the same is true today. Here, in Delta county there is a widespread cultural practice of drinking parties, drunkenness, drugs, the party scene. Everything that Peter is pointing to here, we also struggle with today. Peter’s point is that this may be part of you story. Its possible that you have personally participated in these forms of sin, but as God’s redeemed children you are called to be done with these sinful practices. To resist what is evil in the sight of God and act as a Holy People who are now kingdom citizens. These things are no longer permitted. They are no longer acceptable. Even if you feel the social, cultural pressure the answer is no. Reason being, these are the very things that you have been saved from. A life lived full of self destructive behavior that gets a hold of you and your life. You have been freed by Christ to walk in grace instead of in sin. When we choose our old ways, we are not choosing Christ and we are not modelling who God has called us to be.

Now hear me on this because this is where we frequently think about this from the wrong angle. This is where we have a tendency to think “I need to be better, I need to try harder, I just need to figure this out....” And there is some measure of truth to that; you need to be intentional about removing sin from your life and removing opportunity for sin to sneak into your life. That’s why in verse 1, Peter says “Arm yourselves,” or “Prepare yourselves,” to stand against your own sinful tendencies.

Psalm 119:15-16 “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”

So there is a measure of pulling up your bootstraps. unfortunately, that is where we stop. We think about how we need to quit our bad habits, we decide to commit to it and a month later we are no better off. We find ourselves in the same cyclical pattern and its so frustrating. We can’t figure out why we fall and we stumble over and over. Its because if this is where you stop in your thought process, you are practicing moralism. You are just making yourself good enough to conquer it. The problem is that it hardly ever works and when it does the person develops into a prideful person because they did it in their own strength. The reality is, Satan will wear you down with one form of temptation or he will trap with another.

So what do we do????

This last week, my daughter made a comment that was on point. We were driving in car from Norway back to Gladstone and she started singing, “When your having a hard time, turn it around, call pastor Tim!”

Now Tim is not the answer. But I know Tim well enough to tell you, that if you are struggling and you call him, he is going to point you toward the Lord.

We are not called to fight sin in our strength but in the strength of Jesus. When we fight it in our own strength we are just as wicked in the end. But when we lean into His strength, when we put on the armor of God instead of the armor of self we experience transformation as we learn dependency on Christ.

Consider Isaiah’s encouraging word:

Isaiah 40:28-31 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

This is the place where we learn to go through hard situations with open hands trusting God with the outcome. Let me give you an example.

many times when there is an identified sin pattern in someone’s life, they seek out an accountability partner. We all know this, when we have an accountability partner, we tell them when we mess up. But what happens is this, I mess up and I think to myself “right now is not a good time for them; I mean they are going through so much.” or we think “I don’t know how to tell them or when to tell them.” So we let a few weeks go by to try and forget about it or even to think of a way to make it sound better.

This thought pattern is all about self and this person is trying to fight sin in their own power. Ultimately, in time it becomes clear that they are not living in the Spirit of God as a child of God, but instead they are practicing moralism.

But when we learn to abide in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to act by the Spirit’s power instead of our own, we find a different example. When this person messes up, they confess their sin. They don’t try to make it sound better, they don’t look for the perfect time or withhold anything. Instead, from a place of brokenness they come to the accountability partner and say, this is what I did. I am sorry.

Furthermore, when this person is tempted to sin again, they turn to the Lord. They don’t try to distract themselves, they don’t slowly rationalize what they are about to do. Instead, they pray and ask God for strength. They turn to Him and focus on His purpose, His plan, His glory and honor. Because it isn't about them being perfect, its about them being submitted to God.

As we fight sin in the name of the Lord, and adamantly remain in that place, the Lord meets us and gives us everything we need to resist temptation. When you are tempted stop doing whatever you are doing and prayer. After praying, go read one of the gospels. Go look at what Christ did to pay for your sin. Praise Him and seek Him. Don’t get lost in fighting temptation by yourself, instead, seek and praise the Lord. Turn these times of temptation into times of exaltation.

1 Peter 4:5-6 “but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

Just a few quick notes here. A day is coming when we will all stand before the Lord and be held accountable for our sin. Those who are saved and those who are not will all stand before the judgement seat. Those who are saved will have a different outcome than those who are not. And its not because of anything they did, but what Christ did in them and for them.

finally, look at this last line.

“that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

Peter is looking forward to a day when temptation will cease. When our physical and spiritual trials will come to an end. We will know what it means to flourish and thrive the way God intended. Peter is also mirroring what He learned from observing Jesus. That our God is a forward looking God. A God who makes great promises and always follows through. Our God not only follows through, but continues to remind us of what He has already done, the promises that He has already fulfilled; as a reminder that we can trust Him fully moving forward.

This series is called “A Fresh Wind of Hope.” If you look at what Peter has masterfully put together here and in the words building to this passage, we see a call to be like Christ. We see a model laid out before us in the person of Jesus, a call to enter into the same posture before the Lord, with a reminder, that the same power that Jesus leaned into is the same power that lives in the children of God. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When you abide in Him, when you run to Him in praise, and worship crying out for strength - When you pivot your focus from king self to king Jesus - there is no temptation that can overpower you. There is no form of peer pressure or even suffering that you can’t make it through when you learn how to be filled and live in the Spirit.

I am not saying it will be easy. But I am saying the same power that was modeled for us in Jesus, is available and living inside of every believer!

Talk about a fresh wind of hope!