Why do we suffer

Judgement is a reality so let Christ be Lord, testify through suffering for him, be purified by him and don’t be an idiot so that you escape condemnation.

Scene 1/ There are some confronting truths that the Bible teaches; one of those is that God will judge sin – We understand the idea of judgement for wrongdoing on earth, so why shouldn’t the same apply spiritually? 1 Peter 4:17c-18 &15

Misconceptions about Christianity abound!

With many people I talk to there are a whole heap of misconceptions that they have about God, the Bible, the church and especially about Jesus.

For some God is this nice fatherly figure full of love and everyone gets to heaven.

For others God is this angry person waiting to smite everyone.

For some Jesus was a good moral teacher who badly miscalculated the response of the ruling elite and was crucified as a result.

For others Jesus was an especially influential guru, one among many.

For some the Bible is full of nasty stories, these are often the same people who see God as the angry person waiting to smite everyone.

For others the Bible is a collection of object lessons and comforting words like the 23rd Psalm.

One of the problems that we have in the church is that all of the things I have just mentioned aren’t just true of those outside the church.

They can also be true of those inside the church.

Western Christianity has a woeful understandings of its own faith.

That is why I tend to teach in series, through a topic or a whole book of the Bible.

That way you can’t skip over the difficult bits.

You can’t just focus on your favourite topics.

You have to deal with everything and it is a proven fact and my hope that if you are here often enough you will get the whole picture and be able to deal with the difficult and the comforting truths of Christianity.

Now as we have worked through the Apostle Peter’s first letter to the churches we have come across a number of difficult topics.

And today we come across the idea of Judgement.

Now everyone of us understand the idea that if you do something wrong there is a penalty, if you breach the laws of the land there is a cost.

As a child you might not be able to play with something or go somewhere if you disobey your parents.

As an adult we know that fines or even jail may result if we break the law.

In Redland Bay a few years ago I heard something a little unusual one night.

It is not unusual where we currently live.

I heard police sirens.

The sort of sound that you hear when the police are indicating to a car that they want them to pull over.

I immediately also heard a car accelerate away at high speed and the police car give chase.

Then I heard other police cars and then a helicopter doing a grid search.

There was a person or persons who had done wrong and they were seeking to escape judgement.

Rather than accept their wrong doing and going through the process of paying for their wrong they made things worse by seeking to escape.

Hearing the police helicopter at Redland Bay was a rarity, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard it here.

When will people learn that you can’t outrun a helicopter or police radios.

The Bible also speaks of judgement against those who have disobeyed God’s rule.

1 Peter 4:17–18 NLT

17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?”

If we understand the concept of judgment here on earth why can’t we accept the same concept spiritually?

God even makes it easy for us.

He only has one rule.

Unlike earth where there are hundreds of thousands of rules in hundreds of different countries, which is often a problem for travellers, especially those who fail to appreciate different cultural viewpoints about modesty, business deals, and drug use.

God’s rule is simple.

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

In 1 Peter 4 at the end of verse 17 it speaks of those who have never obeyed God’s Good News.

The Greek word is evangelion.

Literally the Gospel.

Christ is Lord, he died on the cross to pay for our sins, he was raised to life so that we may have victory over death; he has ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father as Lord and judge of heaven and earth.

To accept his Lordship and your need for forgiveness from your sins through his sacrifice on the cross is to obey the command of Matthew 22; to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength.

To reject this is to reject God’s rule, his forgiveness.

It is to reject Grace and mercy and to choose judgement.

This is why in verse 18 the Apostle Peter quotes Proverbs 11:3.

He is telling his readers that while suffering here on earth is difficult, it has a purpose, to refine us so that as we become more like Christ; by following him we will escape the condemnation coming upon those who reject him.48[1]

So there is judgement for those who do not follow God.

Scene 2/ The Bible also teaches that we can suffer for being an idiot. 1 Peter 4:15

Have you ever come across the person who when they get a speeding ticket, blames it on the corrupt government that is simply raising revenue.

Or if they have an injury from falling off a ladder it has nothing to do with the fact that they never follow even basic safety procedures, instead it is a plot to stop them doing God’s work.

Or they are in significant trouble because they have had a car accident and they haven’t got insurance and it is an attack of the devil to cause them harm.

Or they get fired from work because they spend all their time bothering people about God instead of doing the work they were paid for.

Or their relationship is in trouble because they are so worked up about “spiritual things” that they neglect giving practical help and attention to their spouse.

Or ........

Now when I listen to people who go on and on about these sorts of things I quickly lose patience.

The thought very quickly comes into my head, “Mate you aren’t suffering for being a Christian, your suffering for being an idiot”

And sometimes I will even say it ... gently.

The Apostle Peter makes it very clear in verse 15 that some things are your own fault and the suffering that results is to be expected.

Here Peter speaks of serious crimes and doing wrong.

Murder & stealing are pretty obvious but the word translated evil doing or criminal or trouble maker is pretty broad in its meaning.

It refers to people who do evil deliberately, especially people who deserve to be punished.

And then at the end of verse 15 is the word translated as busybody or meddler, someone guilty of prying into other’s affairs.

Peter’s use of this word is unique; this is the first time it is found in any Greek literature not only in Biblical material but also in the secular literature of the time.

Peter realized that most Christians will not be guilty of obvious sins like murder and stealing, and so he concluded by encouraging believers to even refrain from interfering and annoying others. [2]

As one commentator put it, “They shouldn’t be pests who deserve ostracism and mistreatment.” 34

Scene 3/ Christians need to differentiate between suffering for being an idiot, suffering as a result of living in a broken fallen world and suffering as a testimony to Christ. 1 Peter 4:14-16

It is pretty obvious that the world is a broken place.

We get sick, people die.

We get injured.

Other people do bad things which affect us.

Fire, flood, storm & tempest cause untold suffering.

Why should we escape these things just because we are Christians?

Have a look at 1 Peter 4 verse 14 & 16.

READ 1 Peter 4:14

1 Peter 4:14 NLT

14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.

1 Peter 4:16

1 Peter 4:16 NLT

16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!

We live in a broken fallen world.

Some of the things we suffer are common to humanity. Simple fact!

Other things we suffer are because we are a testimony to Christ and as the world rejects him so it rejects those who belong to him.

Jesus himself told us this would happen in Matthew 5:11

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.” (NLT)

When Peter wrote to the churches there was a level of persecution.

The Christians stood out, they attracted attention by the things they would no longer do and some of the things they did.

Christ called them to a new standard, a new way of living.

A standard that rejected the values and beliefs of those around them.

This is what brought suffering on them.

Because they stood for Christ, they had to suffer for him and as the last phrase of verse 14 tells us because they stood for Christ, God’s Glory is revealed through and in them.

In the midst of their suffering others will see their reliance on God.

In the midst of their suffering the presence of the Holy Spirit will sustain them and give them a glimpse of the presence of God that they will experience when they are with him for eternity.

Scene 4/ Suffering has another purpose, it refines us as fire refines gold. 1 Peter 4:12-13 , 17a.

Have a look at the first half of verse 17.

“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. (1 Peter 4:17a, NLT)

When you read this verse in light of verse 12 which speaks of “fiery trials” we get a fascinating picture.

A picture not of destruction but of purification.

When Peter speaks of God’s household in verse 17 he is not speaking of the individuals or people in the house.

He is speaking of the house as in the temple of God.

Today there is no longer a physical temple.

The temple of God is the church, those who believe in Christ.

God’s judgement begins with the church

The picture comes from Ezekiel chapters 8 & 9.

Ezekiel 9 is part of an incredible vision of judgement where God takes Ezekiel on a journey pointing out to him all the failings of the nation.

Their idolatry and corruption.

But in Ezekiel 9: 4 there is a focus not on those who are doing wrong, but on those who groan, who weep at the wrong that is occurring.

In Ezekiel those who groan and weep are given a mark, not a mark of condemnation but of protection from judgement.

When the Apostle Peter picked up this concept that judgement begins with the house of God he is applying it to Christians, as a picture of starting at the “house of God’ with a purifying judgement.

And he completes this picture because 1 Peter 4:12 speaks of a fiery trial.

A concept spoken of in Malachi 3:1-4.

Where the Lord comes as a refining fire, purifying the priests & Levites as gold and silver is purified by fire.

This is the exact same concept that Peter used at the beginning of his letter in 1 Peter 1:6-7.

1 Peter 1:6–7 NLT

6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

This is how suffering can purify us.

All that is impure is burnt away as the impurities come to the surface and are brushed away when gold is melted.

Just as those who groan and weep at the idolatry and corruption of Israel were marked as belonging to God so we to are marked by our suffering as belonging to God.

Willing to pay the cost of being his.

This is why there can be joy in the midst of suffering.

Through reliance on Christ, through dependence on his grace, whether we suffer because of illness or calamity or even sword.

We reflect his glory.

Because as 1 Peter 4:19 tells us

Scene 5/ Suffering also teaches us to rely on God alone. 1 Peter 4:19

Being a Christian is not a free ticket through life in total bliss.

It is not come to Jesus and it will all be good.

God has a lot to say to us first and one way he does that is through suffering.[3]

So when you are suffering remember this; God is probably using the situation to refine you, to make you more like him, to rely on him.

Or it might be that you are suffering because you stand for Christ, that your life is a visible testimony to his standards.

Or it might be that you are suffering for being an idiot and you are getting what you deserve.

48 So C. E. B. Cranfield, I & II Peter and Jude: Introduction and Commentary, TBC (London: SCM, 1960), 122; Goppelt, I Peter, 333; Achtemeier, 1 Peter, 316. [1] Schreiner, T. R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Vol. 37, p. 229). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. [2] Schreiner, T. R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Vol. 37, p. 224). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. 34 Cf. E. J. Richard, who points out that Peter in other places in the epistle may have been warning believers about annoying unbelievers (Reading 1 Peter, Jude, and 2 Peter: A Literary and Theological Commentary, RNT [Macon: Smith & Helwys, 2000], 192–93). [3] Michaels, J. R. (1998). 1 Peter (Vol. 49, p. 275). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.