An Incentive for Suffering
Notes
Transcript
Suffering is part of the human experience. I don’t know if there is any stage of life that is easy. The kind of hardships we face change from one stage to another. Economic hardships are one thing, but when hardships come at the hands of others, it is especially difficult. The world can be a cruel place, and one can often be left wondering what the point of suffering is.
The churches Peter is writing to are dispersed because of persecution. In the book of Acts, we see a lot of winning moments. We see people coming to faith and the church growing by leaps and bounds. We see miracles taking place and mission trips developing. The church goes from Jerusalem to the heart of the Roman empire in about 30 years. This is tremendous growth, but it is against the backdrop of persecution.
I want you to realize that for about the first 300 years, Christians were persecuted everywhere they went. It began in Jerusalem with Saul. It spread to Antioch and everywhere Paul later went. We read stories of imprisonments, beatings, and martyrdom, yet the gospel still spread. The churches Peter writes to are suffering. They didn’t move because they wanted to. They moved to escape trouble.
Jesus promises that anyone who follows him will have trouble. Persecution is part of the Christian experience. The world hates the truth, so if you are unwavering on the truth, the world will hate you. Jesus told his disciples,
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
A chapter earlier, Jesus said,
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
We are strangers in a foreign land. We are a peculiar people living in peculiar times. The world hates the truth and anyone who stands for it. This leads to suffering. Without a reason, suffering seems cruel and unbearable. Why would we suffer for the sake of the gospel? We believe that suffering in this life leads to great reward. This is what Peter begins to address in the opening of his letter.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
These two verses begin with a blessing toward God. This is ascribing him praise. The reason is that he has caused us to be born again. I want to pause here for a second and look at these words. The reason God is so praiseworthy is the gift of being born again. He has caused us to be born again, which means we are the recipients of the act, not the cause. We did not cause ourselves to be born again, but this was an act God initiated.
Look at the phrase just before this. It is according to his great mercy. Our being born again is a result of God’s mercy. Salvation is a merciful act. God is just in giving us the due penalty for our crimes, but he chose to extend mercy in Christ, who paid our debt. We owe God our lives as payment for our sins, but he send Christ to pay his life on behalf of ours.
But our hope does not rest in the death of Christ.
In Christ, we have a living hope.
In Christ, we have a living hope.
Our hope rests not in a dead man, but in a living Christ. We don’t worship the memory of a good man or a great teacher. We worship a risen Savior who has conquered the greatest enemy of all: death. One who was innocent rose from the dead as he prophesied. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we worship in vain. Because he rose from the dead, we have a living hope. It is a living hope not only because he is alive today, but we are promised eternal life. So no matter whether we die in this life or we make it to the day he returns, we are given an eternal life when we are raised to new life in Christ.
Marci and I have been watching a show together at home, and one of the main characters dies. What actually happened was the actor wanted to do something else, so they had to write him out of the show. But his character dies and the family is left to move on without him. Something struck me about the show after a few episodes of watching the aftermath of this character’s death. There is no hope in the show. Everybody is just doomed to live on and process the hurt. There is no talk of any afterlife. There is no mention of seeing loved ones again. There is zero hope.
It reminds me of how sad death is for those who don’t believe in the gospel of Christ. Losing a loved one is miserable enough, but losing a loved one with no hope has got to be worse. It reminds me of what Paul said to comfort the Thessalonian church about this future hope:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
This is a popular passage for funeral services. I have preached this before. The people in Thessalonica were unclear about the hope of those who had passed on before Christ’s return. But here we see that there is indeed great hope! Those who pass on before Christ’s coming will rise and join him when he does! We are called to encourage each other with these words. We have a living hope! When Christ comes, all who have faith in him will be there with him.
In Christ, we have a great inheritance.
In Christ, we have a great inheritance.
Verse four tells us we are born again into a great inheritance. Then it proceeds to describe that inheritance. Our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and will never fade away. We are going to unpack that. These three words combined give us the impression that this inheritance is permanent. But what is our inheritance?
This word was used in the Old Testament to refer to the Promised Land. Every nation has borders. God uniquely established Israel’s borders. The Jews saw the land beneath their feet as an inheritance based on the promise given originally to Abraham. Israel did not see this promise realized until 450 years later when Moses led them to the banks of the Jordan river and his successor Joshua led them on a conquest of the land promised to them.
An inheritance is a set of assets one takes possession of after the passing of a loved one. The inheritance is usually in the form of some sort of physical asset. It might be property, it might be jewelry, it might be money, or it might be a garage full of stuff they could never bring themselves to throw away. Our inheritance in Christ is not any of that. Our inheritance is a kingdom without borders. It is a person, not a place. It is the forever family of God. Our inheritance will be a new heaven and a new earth. It will be the eternal life God promised in his Son.
We have a great inheritance that is eternal. It will never be subject to rot or decay. It will never be less than perfect. It will never tarnish. I have a silver wedding band at home that doesn’t fit since I lost weight. I haven’t had it resized yet. I noticed the other day it is a little tarnished. We have a silver polishing cloth that I use to clean it up and restore it to its clean and shiny state. Our inheritance is not like silver. Our inheritance will never lose its luster. We have a great inheritance.
In Christ, our hope is secure.
In Christ, our hope is secure.
The latter part of verse four says that this inheritance, this living hope is kept in heaven for you. Notice you don’t keep it. God does. God initiates salvation. He gives you new birth, but he is also keeping this inheritance in heaven for you. So who does salvation depend on? Does it depend on you, or on God?
Some believe they have to earn their way to heaven, but the Bible teaches us that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone, and by Christ alone. Then there are some who believe that salvation is our responsibility to maintain. They will agree that salvation comes by faith, but there is now the things one must do to maintain it. If not, salvation can be lost. I get the appeal of that, but this verse among numerous others shows me that salvation is not mine to lose as much as it is not mine to earn.
Verse five says that we are being guarded by God’s power. This is a great hope for those enduring persecution for the sake of the gospel. It is good news for those who suffer hardship. You don’t have to suffer persecution to appreciate what God has done for you. You don’t have to suffer persecution to be grateful for the fact that this great hope, this new birth, and this great inheritance is guaranteed. If you are a believer in Christ, you are already born again. You don’t have to wait for that. What we are waiting for is inheritance, a place where we belong, and a person who we belong to.
Because of these things, it provides an incentive for suffering. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t like to suffer. But suffering is a part of the human experience, and Christians are not exempt from that. But we have an incentive for suffering because we have a hope that the suffering we endure will not last forever.
As our society continues down a tumultuous path, life will feel uncertain. In those times, we have to focus on the hope that we do have. A hope that in imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Remember your ultimate treasure is not in earthly possessions but in the eternal inheritance God has prepared for you. Everything we own on earth is God’s gift for us to enjoy. It is also ours to steward. I encourage you to live with a heavenly mindset, prioritizing spiritual growth and eternal values over temporary gains. It is the one thing that will give you the greatest joy.