1 Peter 1:6-9 Rejoicing in the Midst of Trials

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:6-9Three Alliterating Points this morning:#1 The Problem of Suffering#2 One Purpose for Suffering#3 The Person in Suffering#1 The Problem v. 6: We can ask: Really Peter, rejoicing while being grieved in trials?“in this we rejoice” because we are secure in Christ. “In this,” in what was said in verses 3-5 about our eternal inheritance and our salvation. We rejoice because of our living hope our eternal, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance we have in Jesus we talked about last week. You can rejoice in various trials because you are Secure in Christ. That is Peter’s statement.But what is meant by various trials?v. 6: you have been grieved [heavy laden] by various trials…tested by sufferingsTwo Problems – One is suffering specifically for following Jesus. And second more broadly suffering due to this fallen world.First Peter’s context: Suffering for following Jesus, Dan Doriani helpfully says, “in most places and times, Christian beliefs and practices are exceptional, not normal. If we tell the world that its ideas are false and its practices dangerous, as we must, the world will not be pleased, and that displeasure readily leads to opposition. When worldviews clash, we don't have the right to sit in silence. When we push against a misguided world, the world will push back hard. We should expect it and rejoice in it, as Jesus says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary Series).Or in Jesus’ words: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad..., because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5:10-12)In the same way Christ suffered to save us. But we also recognize a the bigger broader problem. There is much suffering due to this fallen world. And we must be able to think about the problem and begin meditating on the many reasons we can have both “joy & sorrow” at the same time as believers and offer that to others.We need to offer biblical suffering to others because Americans are horribly equipped to deal with the reality of sufferings. We try to solve it and every solution fails. Does American wealth solve suffering? Does health solve? Does stoicism? Does borrowing from Buddhism solve it? Does secular materialism? Does modern science? Does moralistic-therapeutic deism? Do Psychologists and our army of counselors solve it? Does limitless dopamine supplied by your phone or entertainments solve it? No! They all fail.Tim Keller observes Secularism is unequipped to Suffer “No matter what precautions we take, no matter how well we have put together a good life, no matter how hard we have worked to be healthy, wealthy, comfortable with friends and family, and successful with our career — something will inevitably ruin it.” (Keller Suffering, 3)How do the secular view suffering? According to Keller and others. They have observed that “in secular materialism suffering is always a meaningless, random interruption of your pursuit of maximizing happiness and pleasure.” All Causes of pain have a material cause that can be fixed. So all suffering is psychologized or assigned to some structure of society.The Bible never attempts to merely manage the external circumstances of your suffering but…in the suffering…to fill it with meaning and purpose. N ow be careful. Suffering itself is not good. It is just not purposeless, there is a sovereign personal God who has ordained for his purposes. We are not ascetics who view suffering as good. Neither do we not take steps to care for and address suffering and trials when we are in them.Consider the meme Dog in fire “this is fine.” Not its not “fine” its evil, or a result of the fall, or a severe trial you desire to end as soon as possible. But that doesn’t mean pointless and not used for a good end.How do different worldviews react to this? Keller on page 30 of his book. (He unpacks this way more than I am going to this morning. “Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.” (Keller, 30)So it is Real. Suffering Hurts. But the bible readily offers a variety of real purposes for it. And behind those purposes is Jesus and a loving Father. Michael Kruger lists potential reasons saying, just as a visit to the dentist may hurt it is for our good, suffering can make us more like Christ, it can be a punishment for sin, it can cause salvation to be a glorious light in a dark room.C.S. Lewis points to suffering as God’s Megaphone: “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The bible never systematizes a single reason for suffering. And so each of the worldviews I mentioned seem to flatten down the reasons to one or run away from reality. But We serve an all-wise, all-knowing, sovereign God whose ways are not our ways, we should not expect to know his mind on every event in human history. If we could comprehend the what and why of every occurrence then we would be God “the secret things belong to God” (Deut. 29:29).It is the difference between in your suffering as a Child looking to your mom or your dad to be in control to be there they are there to know what to do and why. Versus growing up and realizing you are the adult and looking over your shoulder for the real adult to come in with understanding, purpose, and a plan for the situation. (If you have a Car Wreck who do you call? First Call is always dad.)Let God be God. The one who saves. Grows us. Punishes evil. Sometimes we are the Evil. And does not always answer, Why? There is no way to explore everything about grief, and trials, and suffering. 1 Peter has several more particular words on this topic. If you are interested, I have several books on the shelf that go deeper.This brings us from the Problem. Its real. it hurts. To One Purpose for suffering: Peter here gives just 1 Purpose and two Comforts about suffering. Particularly suffering for following Jesus. The believer suffers trials and grief for a real purpose with real comforts given to them.#2 They Serve Real Purposes & Comfortsso that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation [appearing] of Jesus Christ.Purpose of Trials #1 Testing & Proving Faith – Trials produce a Genuine growth in Faith.After losing his wife, in most places and times, Christian beliefs and practices are exceptional, not normal. If we tell the world that its ideas are false and its practices dangerous, as we must, the world will not be pleased, and that displeasure readily leads to opposition. When worldviews clash, we don't have the right to sit in silence. When we push against a misguided world, the world will push back hard. We should expect it and rejoice in it, as Jesus says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary Series). He continues… “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course, it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”So we can sing, we believe in the goodness of God, that God is a merciful Father… And yet trials Peter says, test that faith, and trials not only test faith but affect and temper faith.Testing by fire has a very real affect of strengthening faith, and strengthening the resulting praise and glory of Jesus at his coming. The Image of v. 7 is of running gold through a purifying fire. If it is real gold, real faith, it will not burn. The gold will remain, but also the fire will further remove impurities enhancing the real and tested value of the Gold even further. You have faith? You have gold? Well, you won’t mind us setting it on fire…because if its real it won’t harm it. It will only purify what is already there. You have gold? Well compared to faith it will perish and disappear. But the gold of faith is purified by fire and will last forever! We know it will last forever because verses 3-5 say that it is a gift of the regeneration of the Spirit and guarded by God’s divine power. And so suffering will not destroy faith but Mature faith.The prophet Jeremiah is an example of this. He is the author of the book of Lamentations. Which is a lengthy poem of distress at how the sin of Judah resulted in the horrible destruction of the city and the exile of Judah in 586 BC. There is a lengthy lament and grieving over suffering. And yet…In Chapter 3 Jeremiah lifts up these words that he has struggled in grief towards.Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (ESV)What is the context of this verse? The destruction of Jerusalem. Just before this his prayer to God is one of wrestling with suffering: Lamentations 3:17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”Suffering is too difficult for us to endure. So how did Jeremiah go from No Endurance No Hope! He speaks the truth of God’s Character to himself. Just as David does over and over again in the Psalms. He Has Faith. He has Trust. He has belief, saying “But this I call to Mind…It takes effort he calls to his heart to remember “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”v.24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” [25] The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. V. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.We struggle with this. The Author of Lamentations, Jeremiah, struggles to say this. Yet he does. He spirals back in the later verses wrestling with God…Suffering is not an illusion to Jeremiah. Suffering is not a brief interruption to his pursuing self-fulfillment, prosperity, and ease. Suffering in a fallen world purifies faith, leaving only a cry of trust in the midst of anguish to the Lord as the best portion our souls life and salvation, and faithful to us.How does Jeremiah model praying in suffering? “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. (vv.55-58).He acknowledges the depths of suffering. He appeals to the Lord in a painful praying. Remembering his Life is in God. The Hymn How Firm a Foundation models this truth for us:"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"Through the fiery trial. Purified. Genuine Trust. Even if it’s a clinging faith, a faith crying out for more faith. Remember this when you are in the valley of the shadow of death. There are rich and abundant resources like Lam. 3, Job, Psalms where you can turn in prayer and cry out to the Lord to strengthen and prove your trust in him. Lord I believe help my unbelief. Lord the night is dark show me your light.Last Keller quote: “While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” (ibid, 31.)Faith that is Genuine, proven, and a gift from heaven will not perish, though it may become a flickering and sputtering candle in the night…Sit in the sorrows and Remember you are trusting in a God who is near to the brokenhearted.Two Comforts go with this purpose of fire-tested faith.First, notice that phrase “for a little while” “for a season.” There is an end: 2nd Corinthians 4:17 “our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. We are invited to view our suffering that right now feels likes forever with the reality that it is a fire that is really “a flash in the pan” a bolt of lightning compared to the warmth of an eternal day, where Jesus is the Sun of righteousness and we will live forever in paradise.In the final analysis, in eternity suffering now is brief. This does not minimize the pain but invites us to maximize the goal and purpose of it, as leading us to Eternity. Now is this the comfort you say in the moment of affliction? (Caution…Decide ahead of time…not in the moment…)The Second Comfort is Glory: Note that Faith’s end, its purpose is praise and glory…Both praise and glory of and to us by Jesus. But also of Jesus himself as our Commander. At Christ’s final revelation in Judgement Day we will receive glory but it will be an echo of the glory of Jesus himself. Glorifying God in Christ Jesus is sweet to the soul. Christ is the risen and reigning Lord who as we talked about last week suffered and bled in our place. He suffered every misery of this life. Jesus has skin in the game. And so Jesus earns the crown of glory for suffering on our behalf. He is not an distant spectating deity.The reality of the Christmas and Easter means We can never accuse God of standing on the sidelines disinterested and unfazed by the world. So we are invited in our sufferings to think about the excellencies and beauties of the way Jesus suffered on our behalf. He was a Man of Sorrows, The Spotless Lamb Slain, the Suffering Servant, bearing shame and scoffing rude,– The soldiers beating and mocking him putting a purple robe and crown on him.And in addition to his Physical & social suffering he had the weight of Spiritual suffering. He suffered uniquely, being a perfectly good and righteous man, grieving at the way sin harms sinners as one not blinded by his own sin to the harm. But his Suffering purchased Glorification for us. And Glorification in us purchases greater Worship.Revelation 4:9–11 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to [Christ] who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, [11] “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”All our glory and honor is a work of grace in our lives. So yes, we will receive glory and honor for our earthly trials…The Angels are amazed by grace and the life of a Christian…And they will be amazed as we who have experienced grace receive honor to properly lay it at the feet of Jesus.So we can rejoice in the midst of Trial because our salvation is secure, because it purifies our faith, because it gives opportunity for virtue and value, because we know its just a momentary affliction preparing us for the weight of glory in eternity with Christ our King.All these things should strengthen our perseverance in Loving and Believing in Jesus by Faith.Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.#3 Loving Him We have not Seen: Faith and Love for the Unseen Christ.v. 8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, [9] obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.Loving and believing in him we have not seen. Peter has seen Christ: Peter has seen the glory of Christ at his transfiguration, at his resurrection, Peter saw Jesus’ glorified body, his sufferings on our behalf and the nails in his hands. And his ascension up into heaven.Peter has seen these things. The Apostle John indicates that blessed are those who have not seen yet believed (John 20:29). I do not know when I went from hearing about Jesus intellectually, knowing a worldview where I was a sinner and needed Jesus to be saved to loving Jesus to trusting my life to Jesus. But I know with Peter that I love him, that I am being saved, that I will be saved, that I will see Jesus face-to-face one day, And until then I rejoice in following him.There is a joy in reading the gospel and hearing about Peter and the conversations he had with Jesus, and joy in the Word in the Spirit and the Fellowship of God‘s people gathered in worship. God’s Word is sufficient to build up our love and belief in Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit does a supernatural work in our hearts. …blessed are those who have not seen yet believed.The Spirit fills us with love for Christ and trust in Christ, even as Christ has a love for you. Do not forget that Christ loves you in the midst of trials and suffering. He may in fact be using those trials to strengthen your faith, your hope, and your love in him. To loosen your clinging to the world and what it offers…to cause you to cling to him for the life found in him.That is to say cling to Christ and you can be joyful your sins are forgiven. Cling to Christ and you can be joyful that evil and suffering is defeated and every second of the day brings us closer to the day where “there will be no more sorrow and tears” and the murderer, the lyers, the traitor, the manipulator, evil will be judged.”You can rejoice and say to your soul. “I am safe, he is a shelter in the time of storm” “a cleft for me…let my hide myself in thee.” “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine O what a foretaste of glory divine” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com