Rejoicing through the Hard Times.

Introduction

We have been looking at the beauty of being God’s children. We looked at how it is God who chooses and saves us in Christ and how the Holy Spirit Sets us apart so we can obey God rather than the world.

Last week we looked at the blessing of heaven. How we are born again into God’s family and so we can have joy because God is holding it and protecting it for us, His Children.

Today we are looking at how God protects and guards us here and now, especially as we go through suffering and pain right now. Instead of thinking on the suffering and pain we are going through, we can fix our attention on the joy waiting for us when we leave this world.

You see, what God wants us to focus our mind on is His love and care for us. If we can remember what Jesus has done for us and how God is protecting us for heaven, then we can keep trusting His promises to us when our world tumbles down around us. Our focus then should be on Eternity, because nothing can destroy it, nor can anything take us away from it.

Great Joy in Our Eternal Inheritance

This passage speaks about the joy we have in our secure salvation and how God uses various trials to both strip away our false beliefs and strengthen our genuine faith. Now the trials mentioned in this passage are not the everyday troubles every person goes through. Peter is more particularly referring to the persecution Christians were facing in first century Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Though Peter is speaking to suffering caused by living for Christ, we can apply this principle to the suffering we go through because as we go through the various sufferings in the life, we do so as Christians. Christianity is a 24/7 reality for us. Therefore we are to look at the suffering differently. Like Peter, we need to keep our focus on the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls, in verse 9.

Sometimes when we go through great suffering we feel alone. We might even question whether God really loves us, or wonder what we have done wrong. This is where knowing the promises Peter gave earlier helps us. The Bible helps us to remember that God loves us and is protecting us through the hard times and pain filled days.

Verse 6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice.” Peter doesn’t tell the believers to be happy, but to greatly rejoice. Rejoice is a little different to being happy. Rejoicing is a spiritual attitude, and comes from the heart. Christian rejoicing is the outward expression of trusting in Christ’s death. We greatly rejoice God saves us in Christ. It is as certain as getting wet if you jump into water. We know that what God promises comes true: when God says that He will keep you, you are kept. For how long? Peter answers this question in verse 7, “at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This means that God will continue to protect us until Jesus returns. We greatly rejoice because God is faithful to His promise of preserving us for eternal life. No matter what temporary suffering we go through now we will get to our destination.

God is Sovereign

We are reminded in this passage that God is knows everything and is more powerful than everything. God brings blessings upon us through various trials and allows sufferings to come upon us. These trials we go through though are temporary, and only if need be. There is an end in sight when Jesus returns for the final time.

Trials come upon us for several reasons.

Firstly, according to Psalm 119:67 trials may be disciplinary if we disobey God’s will. We see this in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30.

Secondly, they may prepare us for greater service in His kingdom. David’s early life throughout 1 Samuel is a prime example.

Thirdly, they may be given to prevent us from sinning against Him. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, was given a thorn to keep him humble.

Fourthly, sometimes God doesn’t give us a reason why we are suffering. Sometimes we never find out the reason for our suffering.

While we are suffer it does hurt. And suffering can cause scars on our minds - anxiety, depression and anger. But whether trials are to discipline us, prepare us, prevent us from doing something bad, or some other unknown reason, we learn to depend on God, to trust in His Word.

Genuine Faith

This is what verse 7 talks about, 1 Peter 1:7 (NKJV):“that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Only genuine faith will pass through the fiery trials. Only genuine faith will make it to the end. Only genuine faith will praise, honour, and glory at Christ’s second and final coming.

Genuine faith is being refined in preparation for the revealing of the Lord Jesus, and Peter compares the refining of our faith to the most precious of all metals, gold. It is said that ancient goldsmiths kept the gold in the furnace until they could see their face in the molten metal. This means that all the rubbishy material has been taken off. In the same way God keeps us in the suffering of trials until we reflect the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ. This is how our faith is refined.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” God uses the pain and suffering in our lives to refine our faith, so that only the genuine faith remains, which is more precious than gold, that perishes. This is part of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. He is taking our faith and testing it through various trials, which burns away false faith, leaving us with a pure faith. It is this pure faith that praises, honours and glories at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Peter shows how highly valuable their faith in Jesus Christ is, in verse 8, “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” The believers, in 1 Peter, had never seen the Lord, either while He was on earth or after His resurrection. Yet, verse 8 tells us, they love and they believe, and they rejoice in Christ. And so are filled with unexplainable joy and the glory of the risen Lord Jesus. And the ultimate goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls.

Conclusion

You may be having a terrible time at the moment, but your eternal reward, given you by God through Christ’s death and resurrection, is superior to all this life may throw at you. Your faith is even more precious than everything this world offers. Your faith in Christ is so definite that Peter tells you that it will outlast gold, lasting to the end. And the angels rejoice at the outworking of God’s salvation, from beginning to end.

Until the time when the Lord Jesus Christ returns we will suffer grief in various trials. God’s promise to bring us to the end helps us to trust and obey Christ. To persevere in the suffering we experience. If there is found genuine faith in us then we will praise, honour, and glory at our Lord Jesus Christ’s return. AMEN.