Embracing Suffering: Humility and Hope in Christ

"Throughout the last four chapters, Peter has been driving home a number of things to his readers. He clearly lays out the challenges that this dispersed group are going to experience. He uses phrases like, you're going to be grieved by various trials. He talks about enduring suffering unjustly. Not justly, not getting in trouble because you did something wrong and you got arrested for it, but suffering and persecution and trials that come to you unjustly. He talks about being called to suffer. He talks about fiery trials. He talks about insults. He actually says, when people insult you for doing good, you are blessed." [00:03:46] (43 seconds)


"And now in chapter 5, Peter tells them that they will need to make a decision to remain faithful to Christ, even knowing that humiliation may result or will result. And so, again, Peter is very much providing for us an explanation, a practical definition of what it means to deny yourself and to take up your cross and to follow Jesus, right? Why would we think as Christians that we would get off any easier than our leader, right? Why would we trust in a Savior who was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and think that we wouldn't have any sorrow in life, right? Now, there's tremendous victory in the Christian life, but there is also this very real idea that we follow a man who is known as a man of sorrows, the God-man. He was acquainted with grief. He had nowhere to lay his head, and yet somehow we think that we'll get off scot-free. No, Peter is up front. He is very frank. He is very honest with us about what it is that we can expect, and then Jesus says, I mean, just after he says, take up your cross and follow me, what does he say?" [00:08:14] (80 seconds)


"Peter knows the dangers of pride firsthand. He's dealt with them. He knows the dangers of pride. That's what he, that's why, that's why he says, he says, God opposed, don't forget everyone that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. He, he, he knows exactly what the dangers of pride, the results of the day of, of, of, of pride. Every time a rooster crows, for the rest of Peter's life, every time he wakes up to a rooster crowing, he is reminded of what happened to him as a result of pride. Don't forget, Jesus says, Satan has asked me, he wants to sift you like wheat. Peter, Satan wants to sift you. He wants to mess with you, but I have prayed for you." [00:20:04] (55 seconds)


"Peter knows what it's like to fail, fall on his face, and be accused by the great accuser. And he says, resist his accusations. Don't just resist him. This isn't just resisting the devil. This is resisting his accusations because that's a very real thing that Satan does to Christians. He accuses you. He is the great accuser. Don't be deceived, though. He wants to ruin us. He wants to ruin you. That's his goal. He wants to ruin you, to put you on the sidelines so that you're no longer playing the game, which is much different than what the Holy Spirit does, right? The Holy Spirit convicts us. He doesn't accuse us. He convicts us. And he doesn't convict us to ruin us. He wants to restore us. There's a difference. There's a big difference. And part of being a Christian, is understanding the difference." [00:41:06] (59 seconds)


"Peter wants his readers and us to realize that these attacks by the adversary, they're not isolated. That's what he says. He says that, he says, knowing, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. That you're not isolated. You're not alone. The things that you're going through right now, the accusations that you're dealing with from the accuser, from Satan, are no different than any of the Christians across the world who are facing similar attacks. He wants you to know that you're not alone. Right? I mean, there's probably tons of examples of herds of elk, or herds. There's deer, or flocks of geese, right? And you're hunting, and you're just waiting. You're just waiting for the one to kind of get a little isolated. The lion is just waiting for the elk to get a little isolated so that he can attack. That's what Satan's doing. And when you start to feel isolated, you're not alone. You start to feel prone to attack. Peter says, don't forget that this is no different than what's happening to people all across the world." [00:42:48] (79 seconds)


"Peter moves from his call to humility and a call to resist evil to this amazing kind of doxology. It almost sounds like, and to him who is able to, right? And after you have suffered a little while, the God of grace, who has called you to his eternal glory, will establish you. He gives them this doxology, this doxology of hope. He gives his readers something that they can recall to mind, that they can memorize. And he says, There is no other source of grace, there is no other source of mercy, except God. He's the God of all grace. He has called you, and this God of all grace has called you to his eternal glory in Christ. It reminds me of Romans 8 .18, where Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And that's the promise here, that in a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory, will himself restore you." [00:45:05] (70 seconds)


"Peter tells his readers that they can trust God to make things right. Isn't that what we're asking when we say, where is God when we're suffering? Where is God when it hurts? Where is God when bad things happen? What we're really asking ourselves is, can I trust God to make things right? And Peter, in 1 Peter, he says, yes. Yes, you can. Not only does he care for you right now, but ultimately, glory to God. Glory. Glory is in your future. In the future glory, God himself, Peter says, will restore, will confirm, will strengthen, will establish. Restore. He will perfectly join us together with himself. He will put things right, eliminating any source of suffering. Confirm. He will establish us. He will set us in the direction of God. He will set us in the direction of God. He will set us in the direction of God. He will set us in the direction of our eternal future and immediately, immediately cause us to become more firm and unchanging in our beliefs. Immediately." [00:46:52] (70 seconds)


"Peter is assuring them and assuring us that what God himself is doing will be completed in the end, that you can trust him to actually do what he's says he will do. That's faith. Trusting God to do what he says he's going to do. For Peter's original audience, dominion was something that they didn't feel like they had. The Roman Empire had dominion, but they clearly did not have dominion. They wouldn't have been dispersed if they had dominion. If they had dominion and power, they wouldn't have been dispersed. They would have been able to stay where they wanted to, to live. They would have stayed where they were. I really like this neighborhood in Rome. I want to stay here. No, you have to be dispersed. Why? Because persecution is coming. You got to leave. They didn't have dominion, but here, here, here, Peter says to him, be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Maybe you don't feel like you have dominion in your life right now. Maybe you feel like everyone else has the power, that your work has the power, that your family has the power. But who knows what you're thinking and feeling. But Peter says, dominion. Nobody else has it. He has it. The God of the universe. To him be the dominion forever and ever. God is in charge." [00:51:21] (83 seconds)