2020-08-05 1 Pet 4.1-2
Notes
Transcript
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
I. Don’t expect to avoid the road Christ walked.
I. Don’t expect to avoid the road Christ walked.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
A. As followers of a suffering savior we are called to embrace the suffering of Christ.
A. As followers of a suffering savior we are called to embrace the suffering of Christ.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
Illus: I want to be crystal clear about what I say. We are called to more than just survive, or endure suffering. We are called to embrace suffering.
This idea is so completely contrary to our humanly nature it seems absurd.
When we face suffering we say, how can I get our of suffering as quickly as possible.
Truthfully so much of the conflict and angst in the world around us shows us how we have not embraced a biblical understanding of suffering.
When things do not go the way we intent, we look for either the quickest way out of the pain, or a person to blame for the pain.
Let us take the virus as an example as it has transformed the very world we live in. THe virus has brought some suffering into our lives.
On the lightest side we have to wear uncomfortable masks, still mildly some have contracted the virus with light cases and have had to be inconvenienced by quarantining. On a greater scale, many have lost jobs. Most seriously have been the lives lost.
I dont want to take lightly any of these forms of suffering whether the lightest or or most serious. I want to talk about how God intended to use this suffering versus how we responded in practice.
This temporary suffering that we are walking through should have drawn us to find strength in God, and embrace his character while walking through these days.
Instead, I believe for many, this suffering has pushed us away from God. Where the compassion of the cross should have driven our every word, we have instead found comfort in conflict.
This suffering has turned our hearts from love to anger when we stew in anger attempting to blame others for our suffering living out our rage towards our fellow man.
When we suffer we either embrace the character of the cross or we reject it. Your response to suffering shows deep down if your faith is truly in christ.
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.
13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.
14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
B. We are to arm ourselves with the understanding that suffering is inevitable and that God will use it to draw us to him.
B. We are to arm ourselves with the understanding that suffering is inevitable and that God will use it to draw us to him.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
Illus: Like putting on armor we are to so embrace the idea that we will follow Jesus in suffering that we are prepared when it comes.
Now I will admit that I am not good at suffering. Last Friday our Air Conditioner kicked the bucket. I have ridden the emotions from anngst to anger to rage creating in my mind a theory that my home warranty is out to get me.
This week has not been a sanctifying week in my life. The loss of air hit me out of nowhere and because of that I have allowed my sinful nature to drive my response.
What scripture is teaching is to arm yourself, prepare yourself for the coming of suffering. Don’t be surprised when it comes. Why? So that when suffering comes, you will not follow your sinful nature, but instead will be ready to follow Christ in suffering embracing it as he did.
Suffering reveals and refines who you are.
If at your core you are a self centered and self indulgent person, suffering will magnify further that characteristic.
If at your core you are angry, suffering will magnify your anger.
If at your core you are argumentative, suffering will magnify your heart.
If at your core you are a faithful follower of Christ, you will magnify Christ both by what your say and by how you react.
More than that, suffering will act as a refiner in your life helping you to embrace cross centered behaviors that a life of ease could never refine.
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
II. The way you embrace suffering shows what Christ has accomplished in you.
II. The way you embrace suffering shows what Christ has accomplished in you.
A. Suffering reveals what our heart longs for.
A. Suffering reveals what our heart longs for.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
Illus: Do you belong to Jesus or do your belong to yourself?
If your hope here on this earth, or is it in eternity?
The christian hope is not that temporary human circomstances will work out. The christian’s hope is in the resurection of the dead.
It is in the fact that God will make all things new, and will redeem those who belong to him.
Arming ourselves with eternal hope transforms the way we walk through suffering.
Arming yourself with eternal hope reminds us that anything this world can do to us is temporary. Even death.
That eternal hope reprioritizes our lives. Everything is reordered because what matters in our lives is the resurrection of the dead.
We look at the way we interact with the world, with politics, with loss, with this virus and say, how does my reaction to this affect other’s eternity.
Does my life show the hope of Christ?
16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.
17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.
18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
B. Suffering exposes what we trust.
B. Suffering exposes what we trust.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
Illus: The way you react to the world around you shows whether you really trust God.
If I have preached one idea consistintly over the last 5 or so months it is the soverignty of God.
It is that God is in control
God is in control in the midst of this pandemic.... therefor we do not worry, nor gripe.
God is in control over the nations.... therefore we resist the urge to fight and scream over politics.
God is in control as we walk through cancer and child loss… so we see eternity as our ultimate hope.
No matter what pain you walk through, the answer is trust in the sovereignty of God.
Our grand God is working and redeeming this world, even while suffering keeps our eyes from seeing his plan.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time,
7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.
8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
10 The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.
III. A heart that is fixed on God joyfully embraces suffering.
III. A heart that is fixed on God joyfully embraces suffering.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—
2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
A. When you suffer, is your hope and joy in God, or in the temporal relief of suffering?
A. When you suffer, is your hope and joy in God, or in the temporal relief of suffering?
Illus: Let me challenge you today to ask the question… if someone who did not know you observed the way you walked through pain, wold they be led to trust in Christ?
I am afraid that the way we suffer has shown the world that we are hopeless people.
We have allowed suffering to lead us to fear, rivalry, foolish with our mouths, and anger towards our fellow man.
I am challenging you arm yourselves with the knowledge that you will suffer, that you will know CHrist in a way that only suffering can produce, and that your hope is in the resurrection of the dead.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.