1 Peter 4.15-19
1 Peter 4:15-19
2/14/99
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Introduction:
A man by the name of Bruce Larson looks back to the time when he was a boy and has this to say:
“When I as a small boy, I attended church every Sunday. . .in Chicago. . . for me, the most awesome moment in the morning service was the offertory, when twelve solemn, frock-coated ushers marched in lock-step sown the main aisle to receive the brass plates for collecting the offering. These men, so serious about their business of serving the Lord. . . were the business and professional leaders of Chicago.
One of the twelve ushers was a man named Frank Loesch. He was not a very imposing man, but in Chicago he was a living legend, for he was the man who had stood up to Al Capone. In the prohibition years, Capone’s rule was absolute. The local and state police and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation were afraid to oppose him. But single-handedly, Frank Loesch, as a Christian layman and without any government support, organized the Chicago Crime Commission, a group of citizens that was determined to take Mr. Capone to court and put him away. During the months that the Crime Commission met, Frank Loesch’s life was in constant danger. There were threats on the lives of his family and friends. But he never wavered. Ultimately he won the case against Capone and was the instrument for removing this blight from the city of Chicago. Frank Loesch had risked his life to live out his faith.
Each Sunday at this point of the se4vice, my father, a Chicago businessman himself, never failed to poke me and silently point to Frank Loesch with pride. For my Dad and for all of us this was and is what authentic living is all about.”
Knowing how to handle adversity, is what authentic living is all about. That’s because real life has its ups and downs. Know matter how much a person runs, or hides, the trouble still seems to find him in one form or another. Our study in 1 Peter has been about handling the tough times properly.
How not to let a trial get the best of you.
Last week we started consolidating the principles of 1 Peter on how to handle trials. We saw four “action items” that will help us handle the tougher side of the Christian life. Things that will help us endure when life is full of hurt. We saw the following action items:
#1- Do not be surprised when trouble comes.
#2- View the troubles of this life as being tests
#3- Learn to rejoice in the face of difficulty
#4- Remember that we are not alone when we suffer
Today, I would like to complete this list of action items by adding four more items. Things that will help us stay standing tall through the furnace of affliction.
Read 1 Peter 4:15-19
I. Action Item #5 - Never encourage suffering by doing something wrong!
Now this is one that Christians can tend to overlook. Let me give you an example. You have a worker at a factory. He’s a Christian. He tells others about Christ on his job. He shares his faith and is not ashamed of the gospel. That’s good. That’s the way we need to be. But there’s a problem. This worker tends to be late. Oh, it’s just a couple of minutes everyday. And he tends to maybe not be as energetic shall we say as he works. So his manager calls him in and warns him. But nothing changes. He’s still late as usual. So the manager calls him in and fires him. And as that Christian factory worker walks away, he de3velops a martyrs complex. He thinks he’s suffering for Jesus. After all, he did speak up for Christ on that job! All at once it becomes a holy war.
But really, can he claim to be suffering for Christ? Can he claim that he is sharing in the sufferings of our Lord? No. It’s his own fault. He’s not suffering because of Christ. He’s suffering because of himself.
This is basically what Peter says in 2:20. He says, what “glory is it” if you take patiently punishment for wrongdoing?
Look at what Peter says in verse 15. Look at the things he mentions
A. Murder, stealing, evil deeds, a busybody.
1. We can’t claim that we are suffering for Christ, when that suffering comes because we deserve it.
2. That pain is not a trial, it’s a punishment.
We all basically understand the meaning of murder, stealing and evil deeds, but what about being a “busybody in other men’s matters?” What does Peter mean?
B. Busybody-
1. A busybody is someone who meddles in other people’s affairs. An agitator. Getting involved in the business of someone else for the purpose of satisfying ones own curiosity or causing trouble.
2. It can take on a few different forms.
a. Might be a critical word about the way someone does something.
b. Might be a word of gossip.
c. Might be taking sides in some conflict.
d. One scholar points out that it’s a “prying curiosity.” Wanting to know about what’s happening in the private lives of others.
e. The dangerous thing about it is that it can easily be cloaked in what appears to be genuine spirituality.
And there’s a fine line here. I don’t think any of us, who wants to grow would mind someone who is genuinely concerned coming alongside and saying, “you know, I’m seeing some things here that concern me.” It’s all in the motives.
Being a busybody is not necessarily starting the trouble, but maybe just stirring the pot a bit. Being an agitator.
Charles Simeon has five rules when it comes to the matter of gossip:
1st- To hear as little as possible what is the prejudice [gossip] of others.
2nd- To believe nothing of the kind till he’s absolutely forced to it.
3rd- Never drink in the spirit of one who circulates an ill report.
4th- He wants always to moderate, as far as he can, the unkindness which is expressed toward others.
5th- He wants always to believe that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.
Not being a busybody. There are few things that are more destructive to interpersonal relationships than gossip.
That’s what Peter is talking about. He tells us, be sure that when you suffer, you’re not suffering because you deserve it. Don’t be a murderer, don’t be a thief, don’t be a an evil-doer, don’t be a meddler in other people’s business.
We harvest the crop in keeping with the seed which was planted. We plant murder, we harvest punishment. We plant dishonesty, we get the consequences. We plant meddling in the lives of other people for the purpose of satisfying our own curiosity or causing trouble, then we harvest the results.
Peter says to us, “don’t blame it on Christ!” We can’t claim suffering sainthood if we’ve been making bad and sinful decisions. Christ will have none of it!
F.B Meyer says it in the following way:
“This is the bitterest of all- to know that suffering need not have been; that it has resulted from indiscretion and inconsistency; that it is the harvest of one’s own sowing; that the vulture which feeds on the vitals is a nestling of one’s own rearing. Ah me! This is pain!”
Are we suffering today because of something we have done to encourage it? If that’s the case, we need to confess it, and go on, asking God to help us endure the harvest of our own planting. We have to face up to it.
Stop running.
The next question we need to ask ourselves is, “What are we planting today?” Is it dishonesty, gossip, evil deeds? We reap what we sow, and we cannot blame God or get special merit because we endure the suffering our own harvest brings.
So that’s the first action item in surviving suffering. Don’t go asking for it. Don’t set ourselves up for it by wrongdoing.
II. Action Item #6- Never be ashamed to suffer as a Christian (vs. 16)
We should be ashamed of wrongdoing, but whatever we do, we should not be ashamed of being a Christian.
A. The name Christian is used only 3 times in the New Testament.
1. Its origin- Acts 11:26 (read it) A.D. 45
a. It was coined by outsiders. Unbelievers. It was somewhat of a title much like the title given to certain people who were called. “Herodians.” That is, followers of Herod.
b. So New Testament believers were given this title “Christians” because they were followers of Christ.
c. It seems to have been a term which made fun of believers. You can almost hear the unsaved world sneer as they said, “there goes one of those Christians again!”
d. This was around A.D. 45. But by around the 2nd century, believers had taken on the title with pride and its been in existence to this very day.
B. Peter says, use it as a way to “glorify God” (vs. 16)
Suffering and difficulties often give us a platform to glorify God, which we would never otherwise have.
Illustration:
One evening the great conductor Arturo Toscanini conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. As he concluded the crowd went crazy! They loved it! They stomped their feet, whistled and clapped. When things finally subsided he turned and very fervently said to his orchestra, “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! I am nothing. Gentlemen, you are nothing! But Beethoven is everything, everything, everything!”
The believer engulfed in pain has a platform whereby the world can see his love for Christ. The world looks on with dubiousness. Will this “Christian give up his faith in Christ? Will he cave in?”
But when the Christian stays firmly rooted in his love for Christ, he in essence is saying, “Christ is everything, everything to me!”
And that gives God great glory!
III. Action Item #7- Learn to see suffering as a time of purging (17)
A. Peter says that judgment begins with the house of God.
1. What does this mean? Does it mean that we will be judged? Does it mean that we will suffer the wrath of God
2. The word judge can mean to assess for both the good and the bad in something.
3. So during the trials, God is assessing His children on how they handle those trials. It’s a time of purging.
We know that when we get saved we are cleansed from sin. But sometimes in our lives we allow sin to once again reign. Suffering helps us with this. It helps us focus. When we suffer for Christ, it helps us in our daily life to cease from sin. It is a purging process. It doesn’t cleanse us entirely from sin. Christ did that on the cross. Rather, it purges our daily living.
We saw this in 4:1.
B. The warning
1. The warning then which Peter gives is, if God allows His children to suffer, what will happen to unbelievers? Those who are not His children? What will happen to them in the end?
2. To me, this is the greatest reason to become a Christian. That is, to escape hellfire. The judgment of God. Don’t think that God will not judge, because He will. He’s waiting patiently at the present time, giving every man a chance to respond.
I’m amazed at the graciousness of God. He gives everyone a chance. Most Americans have multiple chances to receive Jesus Christ. But men often let these opportunities slip one by one through their fingers. Until, the last chance has been given and that person moves into eternity.
I hope you’re not like that. Today, in this service, God is giving you another opportunity to receive Christ. To not have to face the judgment of the ungodly. Will you take it? It could be the last chance.
If God let’s His children face suffering in this life, what will it be like for those who haven’t received Christ as they move into the next life?
The suffering a Christian faces in this life is a time of purging. A daily break from sin.
And so we come to our final and crowning action item.
IV. Action Item #8- When facing trials, we must learn to entrust ourselves into God’s care.
A. We must commit our souls to God.
1. entrust into God’s hand for Him to guard and protect.
2. Where did Peter get this teaching? Luke tells us that when Christ hung on the cross, “He cried with a loud voice. . . Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost.”
3. We don’t have to fight the trials, we just need to entrust ourselves into God’s hands and God’s care.
B. He is “faithful”
1. He is sure,
2. He is true.
3. He is worthy of the entrustment of our souls.
4. God never promises that there will be no deaths, no sorrow, no heartache. But of one thing we can be sure. When we entrust our souls to Him, the body may be gone, but our soul is safe within His safety deposit box.
Conclusion:
So let’s review as we close out this portion of the book of 1 Peter. Over the last two we’ve seen eight action items, or ways that Peter presents for handling trials properly.
#1- Do not be surprised when trouble comes.
#2- View the troubles of this life as being tests
#3- Learn to rejoice in the face of difficulty
#4- Remember that we are not alone when we suffer
#5- Never encourage suffering by doing something wrong!
#6- Never be ashamed to suffer as a Christian
#7- Learn to see suffering as a time of purging
