The Manual for Suffering

I’mIntroduction:

Story: Aaron Olige where's the manual?

Context: 1 Peter

This letter is written to dispersed Christians, jews, and Greeks who believed in Jesus.

Peter probably wrote this letter sometime around the persecution of Nero in A.D. 64. He sent it to the believers who were living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia .”

If you know anything about the great fire of Rome, emerpeor nero, who was a tyrant and a quite mad man, blamed this on the Christians, so Christians were very hated and scattered at this time.

These people are not in their home lands, clearly they are hated for being Christians, insulted, etc, no jobs, poverty, they face many trials, we'll get into that a bit.

Peter writes this letter as encouragement in this chapter to his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, offering motivation on how to endure and what to do when suffering for the name of Christ. He gives them a manual for suffering

to rejoice in the sufferer as we partake and share them with Christ who suffered for the sins of the world.

As Christian followers today, though we may not be despised and persecuted, we still suffer in many different ways, let'st's read the text

What is suffering before we read the text?

Like I said before, we may not be dispersed and persecuted today, at least here in America, but we suffer in many ways. I never want to diminish the suffering today'sy's Christians

I want to define suffering quickly before we get into our passage and make some things clear for us all

I never want to diminish any form of suffering. In Johnny Ardvanis' book, consider the lilies finding perfect peace in the character of God. A good book, I reccomoned jhonny talks about his life as a camp administrator in California and how he would counsel kids who were scared to tell their parents that they didnt want to be doctors or they failed a class with a C and had this pressure of being perfect and would rather take their lives than live with this pressure so they were suffering aneitxty worry depsression was on the rise in these cirucumstances now then after that he pastors a church in tennnesee and he says he hears the same thing but now its a older woman who cant have children and is saddned at the death of her two misscarraige both suffering both serous but let me make somthing our human minds like to think one is grateer than he other right? but let me say this in biblical cousnling we never dminshes ones proablem there equal casue thoe circusmatnes equally casued both those people suffering anxitery depression etc in light of our suffering and trails in life we must seem them with hope so lets get inot the text.

Read The Text: 1 Peter 4:12-19

Step 1

1 Peter 4:"2 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to y"u.”

Do not be surprised

this is why im not a fan of preaching or teaching of chrsitian victiuris lvivng

The Christian life is fun, wonderful, full God'sd's goodness, grace, and all the good please dont think im saying its not

But it'st's all we teach, when believers suffer, what happens? They are surprised, wait, what? andy, you said the Christian life was a butterfly and a kitten

It can be and it will be, but we as believers are not restrained from suffering

because often when we do suffer, we are surprised, lik" " how can this happen to me?

We say God, how could you let this happen to me?

“believer’sIn light of the passing, I want to quote John Macarthur: “ he says this God allowed it, designed it for the believer's testing, purging, and cleansin". “

This leads us to the passagdon'tn't be surprised, why not? When it comes to testing you?

Test me, what does that mean?

God puts these fiery trials in our lives as a refining procesLet'st's think of it this way, life is the classroom in which the instructor, God, clearly gives us tests to refine us in our faith as believers

I love this illustration where being refined is like Gold. Does anyone have GolI'mI'm broke, so I have silver, but gold to be pure has to be put in immense heat and pressure. Gold, and in the same way, God purges and refines the Christian all so that we may lack nothing, this suffering should make our faith stronger in God James writes about this in James 1:4 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 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.”



Step 2

1 Peter 4:"13Christ’s “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is reveal"d.”

rather rejoice i need to see my suffering in light of its producing somthing

But the text says we share Christ'st's suffering

guys, Christ dies and took on the full wrath of god that we could not endure so that we would be made righteous in the sight of God, a wrath, pain, and suffering we can never imagine

Our worst sufferican'tn't even compare to what Christ endured on the cross, but in our suffering, we share something

He became a man and suffered so that our sufferiwouldn'tn’t be meaningless. It is good to share anything with Jesus, even His suffering.

isnt good to know we have a savior who relates to us he knows us and loves us

Sometimes we relate like God, do you know what I'm feeling? Yes, he does because he became flesh and dwelt among us

The second part of the text tells us we can also rejoice in his glory to be revealed

I’mEssentially saying that the monetary afflication that we face today is nothing to what we will see in glory in heaven that when we suffer in this world and as we see these trials are testing my faith, I'm growing ultimately in sanctification so that one day glorification may happen when we get to heaven and we no longer have this sin and flesh, mawe'll'll look back and say that was it? It was worth every bit for the glory that we will see and that awaits when Christ returns

Step 3

1 Peter 4: 4 “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

We must remember the context of this text; these believers are probably being insulted for Christ, they have been lied about as these evil people who destroyed Rome and the city, so a lot of people truly hate them

In our context, we oftdon'tn't get influenced in the West where we live because of freedom of religion, and we should be thankful. I'm sure some of us have stories of getting made fun of and things, but not to this extent of being scattered away from our homes Nonetheless, there will be end times when Christians will be hated The text said you are blessed becasaue when your bein insulted at least its for christ sake its a good thing to bear the name of christ

We must remember that, back in this context, Christian was a slur that we then adopted to say hey, we are Christians

We literally hit a Uno reverse on them like boom, well take the name jokes on y'all

because the spirit of God rests upon you

God spirit dwells on those who suffer he loves us and will help us it hurt to be unsuted mistrated as these beilver physically mentally and spirtually

God promises to rest upon those he will comfort them

When we suffer, especially for his name, God's presence specially rests, lifts, strengthens, and sustains those.

Step 4

1 Peter 4:15 “But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.”

Some suffer at times, is it caused by our own doing, correct? But we act like Why is this happening

there 2 diffrent section in this small verses the first 2 are murder and theif thos are more civil and authiry based that if we suffer for thos the govmernt will have to intervien for our action and if we do suffer for this its kind of earned

its would be kind of wild to be like it was double homiscide i cant beilve they locked me up for life why?

Sometimes we hear people choose and they suffer for them, and at times deserve Secondly, we are evildoers or meddlers. This is more of a moral one. If you suffer from these reasons, you're running your testimony and making the name of Christ look bad Also, this one can be as if to be deserved if you meddle, you'll get in trouble

Step 5

1 Peter 4:17–19 “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? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

In the context of suffering, Peter tells us that judgment begins at the house of God. Right now, God uses suffering as a judgment (in a positive, purifying sense) for Christians (the house of God).

Now is our time of fiery trial (1 Peter 4:12); the ungodly will have their fire later. The fire we endure now purifies us; the fire the ungodly will endure will punish them. Yet we always remember that there is never any punishment from God for us in our sufferings, only purification. For the Christian, the issue of punishment was settled once and for all at the cross, where Jesus endured all the punishment the Christian could ever face from God.

Christians can rejoice that the sufferings they face in this life are the worst they will ever face throughout all eternity. We have seen the worst; those who reject Jesus Christ have seen the best of life their eternal existence will ever see.

So when Christians commit their souls to Him, they leave their souls in a safe place. God is a faithful Creator, and we can give ourselves to Him as pliable clay in His hands.

f. Faithful Creator: Much of the agony we put ourselves through in times of trial and suffering has to do with our disregard of God’s faithfulness or of His place as Creator. He is our sovereign Creator, with the right to do with us as He pleases. Yet He is faithful, and will only do what is ultimately best for us.

Application/Conclusion.