Finding Sanctuary in Suffering: 1 Peter 1:3-9

The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky.

We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message from Pastor Chris May.

If you'll stand with your Bibles for the reading of God's Word.

Today we are not in Matthew, we are in 1, peter, 1, 3 through 9.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

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 be 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.

You may be seated Grateful for Ron and Kay.

They are just massive encouragements to Nikki and myself.

The Bible says be ready in season and out.

I had Kay scheduled to read the scripture, which was supposed to be in Matthew, but yesterday I felt like the Lord changed what I was or I doubt he changed it.

Maybe I missed Him beginning of the week, but he laid something else on my heart when I was just prepping and got up this morning and just felt like the Lord was speaking.

So, anyways, I've forgotten to tell Kay and, as she was, I saw her with her phone out ready to read.

I thought, oh man, I didn't tell her.

So thank you for being gracious, kay.

Well, guys, over the past few months I've listened to many of your stories and I've just heard a lot of you share about some of the trials that you've been going through.

There's been a season of great suffering in many of your lives, be it sickness Some of you have lost loved ones near and dear to your heart, financial issues, some of you have experienced job loss and you're unable to find a job, and the list could go on and on and on.

Some of you are being persecuted at some level.

I hate to use that word because we really don't know persecution here, like other parts of the world.

But you know you're being challenged quite a bit and mistreated because of your faith.

Maybe I covered you somewhere in that, but I know there are many other problems as well.

So, as I was just praying last night, I had studied out my Matthew passage and had my notes ready and was going to just put it all together.

I came to church and it was late and I just felt God speaking to my heart.

I just believe he wants me to encourage you in suffering.

So I hope this helps somebody, because this puts me behind in our Matthew series and I'm going to have to make up for it.

So, because we don't have the words on the screen, I hope you'll get out your Bible or device, and if you're on your device, please only stay in the Bible app, but I want you to see these scriptures as we go through them.

So the book of 1 Peter it's written to believers who were scattered throughout Asia Minor, which would be modern day Turkey In verse 6, in chapter 1, tells us and this is this idea is throughout the letter to these Christians that they are being grieved with various trials.

So this is not just one type of trial, but they're going through many, many challenging circumstances Not only do Christians experience.

Think about this when we come to Christ.

Are we immune to sickness and financial troubles, relationship issues?

So are we immune to those things?

No, we still deal with those things.

In addition to that, jesus promises us that we will be hated for his namesake.

All right, so we've got the normal troubles of the world.

Now we've got persecution.

And then let me just read you, if you want to flip there with me, 1 Peter 5, just go over a few chapters in verse 8.

Here's what Peter writes be sober-minded, be watchful for your adversary.

The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Alright, so here it is.

As Christians, we experience the normal pains of life.

True, as Christians, we are hated sometimes for our faith.

True, and as Christians, we have a real devil, a real adversary, who goes around like a roaring lion wanting to devour our faith.

True, how you doing?

Aren't you feeling encouraged?

Aren't you glad you're a Christian this morning?

Here's the point, beloved Christian suffering is inevitable.

It's inevitable.

If you don't realize this, you will be left jaded and disappointed and frustrated, wondering if God is even real.

So I've got good news in all of this.

Listen to this God means for Christians suffering to be a path of glory, not a path of crushing or despair.

Let me say it again God means for our suffering as Christians to be a path to glory, a path to splendor, rather than a path to despair.

That's really good news.

Let me just show you this in the text.

We're going to jump to the end of the text that Kay read 1 Peter 1, verses 8 and 9.

1 Peter 1:8

Though you have not seen him, this is Christ.

You love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and watch this and you rejoice with joy Inexpressible.

He's just told him hey, you're suffering, right, with various trials, and here's what he says but you don't see the Lord, but you love him and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible.

And here it is filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The road of suffering for the Christian is not a road of destruction, beloved, it's a road of glory.

In the Christian life, suffering and glory.

Don't miss this.

In the Christian life, suffering and glory are inextricably bound.

They're bound.

There's no other way to glory outside of suffering for those of us who are in Christ.

Think about this Jesus exaltation.

How did it come?

Through suffering.

Jesus glorification came through suffering.

Why would it be any different for us?

And this is what the New Testament teaches that as Christ suffered and then was exalted, so you and I must suffer in one day.

As Christ was raised.

We shall to be raised, amen.

That's what we mean by glorification, the end goal of our salvation.

Listen, I know that we talk about this a lot, particularly on Wednesday nights, but the goal of the Christian life is I'm going to shock some of you it's not to get to heaven.

Heaven is a real place and the Bible talks about.

Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And so there's a state that when a Christian dies, that he or she somehow there's great mystery there body is in the ground, but that the soul or the spirit, however you want to say it that person is with the Lord.

And we know it's good.

We know very little about this state, but we know it's good because Paul says it's far better than being here, far better.

But I just finished preaching through Revelation last Wednesday and man, we just had a wonderful time just learning together about God's plans, his redemptive plans and the end of the story.

If you just go to chapter of Revelation, chapter 21, 22, and at the end of Revelation, it's not about us going up to heaven.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

What's it about?

It's about heaven coming to earth, and so when Jesus returns, we call this the day of the Lord.

When he returns, what's going to happen is we will be raised bodily.

Okay, we're not going to be floating around for all of eternity.

Our bodies will be raised.

But not only were our bodies raised, but they will be perfective.

They will be in a glorified state, as Jesus experienced after his death and then resurrection.

Paul calls Jesus resurrection, the first fruits of our resurrection.

And so in our glorified state listen, no more back pain, no more chronic disease, no more wheelchairs hallelujah.

No more pain, no more suffering.

But it's not only the physical part that changes, it's the spiritual part, because we shall no longer sin ever.

Sin will be completely eradicated.

Not only will we not sin, but there will be no sin and we shall be on the renewed earth.

We're heaven and earth overlap.

God will be with us.

We shall be in a glorified state and so the way that we are being prepared for that glorified state, you know how God is preparing us for that Wrath of our suffering and your suffering.

So how do we respond to suffering?

That's really what I want to talk about.

Look at verse 6.

Peter writes in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary.

You have been grieved by various trials.

So here in this verse we see rejoicing and grief.

One verse, and so Tim Keller calls this the paradox of Christian suffering, and I just want to lean on him for a minute as I heard him kind of expound on this.

It's really unbelievable.

In the Greek, both the words that we translate rejoice and the words that are translated, that's translated trials, they're both in the present tense.

So it's not that this is the point, it's not that sometimes we grieve from trials and other times we rejoice.

No, it's that there is a grieving and a rejoicing at the same time.

How does that work?

It's not a contradiction, but it is a paradox.

So in our lives we're walking through a world that there's almost never a time that we don't feel the pain of some kind of suffering, we don't feel the weight of some kind of suffering.

But as we walk through the world, here it is.

We grieve over suffering, but at the same time there is a deep, seeded joy that can never be taken from us.

And here's why this is important, because some Christians feel guilty for grieving in suffering.

They sense that it is a lack of faith.

And there's some reasons for this.

I mean in the evangelical church.

Think about some of the songs we sing.

One of my favorite hymns At the Cross, at the cross.

At the cross, where I first saw the light.

You know this one and the burden of my heart rolled away.

We're good so far, and it was there.

By faith I receive my sight Still good, but here it is.

And now I am happy all the day.

Aren't you smiling when you're singing that?

And now I'm happy all the day?

What that sounds like is that if you're a Christian and you have faith, that you ought to go through life all bubbly all the time.

Don't people like that drive you crazy?

Come on, let's just be honest.

The weirdest thing happened to me several years ago.

I went to a funeral A guy's wife had passed away and a dear couple and I'm weeping and I'm like to the husband.

I say I'm so sorry for your loss.

I'm so sorry for your own.

I agree for you.

He goes.

The Lord is good and he has like no emotion.

And this is a man that loves his wife.

By the way, he wasn't like saying yay, she died or anything like that.

It was, it was.

It was no.

Why are some of y'all looking at your spouse?

Can I just tell you a story real quick.

We went on a wonderful men's camping trip.

We missed some of you men.

I'm looking around and, man, we had a great time and before we went we were going out in the field and it was kind of rainy on Thursday.

So Thomas told me.

He said get you some, some mud boots.

I got a tractor supplying, got some rubber boots.

And what else did I get?

I got like two other things.

What's that?

Oh, I got a tarp.

And then one other thing in the and I'm not thinking about it in the in the lady looks at me as she's checking me out.

She says this doesn't look suspicious at all and I'm thinking where do you keep the shovels?

So I was thinking about death.

That's the correlation.

But I want to pause there and say, thomas, thank you for leading a great event, by the way, it's a lot of fun.

So so this anyways, this guy, he, he doesn't seem.

It's almost like men are great faith, by the way, but it's almost like he was afraid to show emotion less.

He would be seen of lacking faith.

When you read, when you listen to the TV preachers and TVN people, you're going to see people who are smiling all the time and don't talk about suffering Because in they write books called your best life now, but as a Christian, it's your hardest life now.

The best life to come, beloved, if you're saved, is to say, and so my point is this many of you have you're, you're going through heartache.

I just want to free some people today and say it's okay to grieve.

It is okay to grieve, but on the other hand though, in the Christian life, grief does not overwhelm us.

Actually, grief is overwhelmed by joy.

That great grief is overwhelmed by joy.

Now let me pull from Keller just another moment.

Keller points out that, as Christians, our emotions are not dulled, but rather they're intensified.

And listen to what he says.

This is you're going to have to think through this for a moment.

He says Christians true Christians are both the saddest and the happiest people in all the world and you go wait a minute, saddest.

That sounds like heresy, right In Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27,.

Ezekiel 36:26

You know what God promises.

He promises that one day he would remove and this has come through Christ.

He would remove our hearts of what Stone and give us hearts of flesh.

And you know what that means?

It means that as Christians, when we come to Christ, we become more tender than ever.

We are more sensitive to the pains of this world, the injustice of this world, the pain in our own lives and the pain in the lives of others.

We know, by God's grace, how the world should be and we realize, when we come to Christ, how the world is and how far away it is from God's design and plan.

I've had many Christians come to me, particularly men, and they'll say I don't know what's wrong with me, I just cry all the time.

Now, what is it, man?

Don't be ashamed to cry, because when the presence of God is in your life, you feel things.

You feel things.

Our emotions are heightened as Christians.

So in one sense we're the saddest people in the world, but on the other hand, we're also the happiest people in the world, because we have hope and suffering.

And this is what we see in the life of Jesus.

I mean, we've been going through the book of Matthew and what have we seen?

Jesus is constantly overwhelmed with compassion as he sees the needs of the sick and the poor and the marginalized.

Jesus, we know, was grieved over Jerusalem as they had rejected his ministry, their Messiah, and they were like sheep without a shepherd.

He wept.

We know that in the garden, before his arrest, jesus was grieved, so intensely grieved, but in all of that Jesus was at perfect peace.

Do you get the balance?

Grief, enjoy, we weep, but yet we weep, but yet we have hope.

That's inexpressible.

So, christian suffering, it is inevitable, but our but God means for our suffering to lead to glory rather than crushing us, and our suffering is missed, mixed with joy and grief.

So I'm just going to give you very quickly four ways to handle suffering, four ways to handle suffering, and I hope this helps you.

Look at verse three, the first thing we need to do if we're going to handle suffering.

Well, here it is.

We must remember God's passion, and I hope you'll write this down.

Remember God's passion.

First, peter, one, three blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

He's given us a spiritual rebirth and he's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Okay, there is a temptation.

When we suffer immensely, there is a temptation for us to doubt the love of God.

We might think that the Lord is mad at us, or that he has rejected us, or that he doesn't love us.

There's a real temptation there.

So, if we are going to glorify God in our suffering, we must remember God's passion.

And that's why, before talking about suffering, peter gives us verses really, you can go back to one, but he gives us one through three.

He says remember the mercy of God that has given you this new birth, this birth in you, a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The week leading up to Easter.

We call it Holy Week, but we also call it do you know the other name for it Anybody?

Passion?

Yeah, passion Week.

Why do we call it Passion Week?

It is the week of Christ's sufferings, and the word for suffering there, passion, comes from this Latin word.

I don't know if I'm saying this right, but Paseo, paseo I don't know, but it comes from that Latin it's Passion Week means suffering week.

And so in suffering, because here's what Peter says in verse three.

He says we have this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And so we're reminded that Christ suffered for us, christ loved us enough to die for us, to take our suffering upon himself, to enter into the human condition, to clothe himself with our suffering.

So I don't know why God's letting you go through what you are going through, but I can tell you what the reason is.

Not, it's not a lack of love.

And if you're going to remember that, if you're going to believe that, then all you've got to do and we need to do this daily go back to the gospel, look to the cross, and if you see the cross, you will never doubt God's love.

So you'll go in suffering.

You may say, well, I don't know what the purpose is of this particular trial, but I know what it's not.

It's not a lack of love on God's part.

Are you with me?

So how do you handle suffering?

Number one remember God's passion.

Number two remember God's promises.

Verse four tells us that we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus.

So, in a sense, when you're suffering, what do you do?

First you look back to the cross.

You look back to your moment of salvation, where you were brought into the kingdom of God and you rejoicing that.

But not only do you look back, you also look ahead.

You look ahead to this living hope, to again, to our glorification when the Lord returns and we are raised bodily.

And we, you know, from that point on, we never experienced any kind of trial, any kind of suffering again, and this life is but a drop in the bucket when compared to eternity.

That's why, in verse six, peter says if necessary, you will be grief for a short time.

The short time is your whole life and it may not feel short, but in comparison to eternity it's short.

So you remember God's promises.

Your ultimate salvation is coming.

Number three how do you handle suffering?

Remember God's presence.

Verse five says that by God's power we are being guarded.

By God's power we are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Beloved, look at me, you are not alone in your suffering.

You're not alone.

First of all.

God's presence is what he sent the Holy Spirit, the great comforter.

The great comforter and God himself, by his own power.

Not only is he comforting you, but when you feel like you're not going to make it, you just, in.

The Bible, calls us over and over, conquer, persevere to the end.

And you go, man, that's a lot of weight I can barely to bear.

I can barely get out of bed.

How am I going to persevere in the Lord?

And then you remember oh wait, god's with me, christ is with me, I'm being guarded, he is guarding me.

There's an inheritance, it says, that's being guarded, we're being guarded, god is with you.

Psalm 34 tells us that God is close to the brokenhearted Beloved.

If you're suffering, you may not feel this now, but one day you're going to look back and know man, this is when I felt the closest to God.

I'll quote Charles Spurgeon again.

I've quoted this saying many times, but he said God keeps his best wine in the cellar of affliction.

I can look at my back in my life and some of the most horrible times in one sense, were the sweetest times, because it dropped me to my knees.

I knew that the Lord was with me.

You know why Jesus can comfort us in our wounds.

One reason because he has wounds as well.

No other God offers this.

There is no other God, to be sure, but any other religion that God doesn't suffer.

You uniquely have a Lord who can sympathize with you and you're suffering.

He can help you with your wounds because he has wounds as well.

Remember God's passion, remember his promises, remember his presence and finally, remember his purpose.

Conor, you might just come Play softly.

Please Remember his purpose.

Verses six and seven.

In this you rejoice.

So now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, and here it is, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes through it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You know what suffering does.

You know what God uses it for.

It puts our faith to the test, because there's a lot of sunny day Christians, which means they're not Christians at all.

See, suffering is a gift of grace beloved.

Anybody can praise God on the mountaintop, but it's in the valley that you're tested.

When God allows things in my life that I don't think he should allow, how do I respond to him then?

Matthew 13, jesus gives a parable of the sower.

You've got the sower.

He's going around in these sowing seed right and the seed falls on different types of soil.

In one of the examples, jesus says that the seed that's being sown falls on rocky soil and then birds come and devour it.

Well, in verses 20 and 21, jesus gives us the interpretation of that example.

He says the seed is the gospel, it's the good news.

The preachers of the gospel sow the good news and the gospel falls on many different types of soil and sometimes it does fall on rocky soil.

And Jesus says what that means is that he says some endure for a while, but he says that when tribulation, suffering or persecution arises on the account of the word, immediately that person falls away.

And there are a lot of people who I mean they seem to make real decisions, but then trouble comes and they're out.

Now let me say this when you're a new Christian and trouble comes, you're going to struggle.

That's okay.

But I'm talking.

There's some that immediately say oh man, I thought this is not what I signed up for.

I thought all my troubles were going to go away and actually they're intensified and the temptation is to say I don't want this, I'm throwing in the towel.

And what's interesting, I was thinking about this this is a testing of our faith.

Does the Lord need to know whether or not our faith is genuine?

He already knows.

This is a gift of grace because this is for us.

He tells us to make our in another text I'm sorry, I don't remember the reference but the scriptures tell us to make our election sure, in other words, our salvation, make sure that we're truly in the kingdom.

And one of the ways we do this you know what it is it's to evaluate ourselves when we go through trouble and say where am I then?

What's my attitude then?

What's my response to Jesus then?

And so today, if trouble sends you running away from God rather than to God, it's a gift of grace for you to know that, so that you can say man, lord, I'm sorry, my faith is not as strong as what I thought.

I really need you.

You know, christianity uniquely helps us deal with suffering.

Give me two more minutes here.

You know Eastern religions.

They teach that suffering is just an illusion.

You just need to change your perspective.

It's.

It's not really actuality, and that that really helps you right.

Imagine your wife coming and sharing like hey, I'm really going through this right now.

It's really hurting.

Maybe it's just an illusion.

In other words, get over it, right.

Karma religions you know how they deal with suffering.

It's well, just deal with it, because it's your fault.

It's what they say, you reap what you sow, and and you know a lot of those karma religions.

They believe in reincarnation.

So if you have a life of suffering, you should just take it like a chant because you are apparently a horrible person in your last life.

It's not helpful.

True, the, the secular world that you could say atheists, agnostics, here's, here's what they say there's no purpose in life.

We just arts, everything's happens, dance.

So suffering is unmitigated, it's meaningless, and so it just happens.

There you go.

That that's helpful.

Christianity uniquely equips us to deal with suffering because, first, peter, here's what it says.

Peter says that any suffering that we go through is and you can maybe underline this in your Bible, highlight it it's necessary.

This is good.

This is good.

It means this Suffering is not meaningless.

Second, corinthians, chapter four Paul says that our sufferings are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison.

He calls suffering light and momentary.

Light and momentary.

And Paul had a pretty tough life as a Christian.

For the Christian, sufferings not meaningless.

Uh, let me just quote John Newton.

Uh, amazing grace, right, he wrote amazing grace.

Here's what he says Everything is necessary which God sends.

Nothing is necessary which God withholds.

Can I say that again?

Just meditate on this, all right.

Everything is necessary which God sends.

Nothing is necessary which God withholds.

If you pray and the Lord doesn't give it, you don't need it, right, and anything in our life.

And I'm not saying God is the cause of everything, but he is sovereign, he allows things.

Why?

Because we need it, it's necessary.

So I just want to encourage you today for suffering.

I don't I'm not going to stand up here and say this is the reason, but I know what it's not.

It's not a lack of love.

I don't know the specific thing that God's doing in your life, but here's what I know he's preparing for you.

He's preparing you for glory.

So so, listen, the Bible calls us to weep with those who weep, as as Casey prayed earlier this morning.

She said uh, listen, lord, let us I don't remember exactly what you said, but but let us bear one another's burden, let us encourage one another.

We're to weep with those who weep.

Listen, don't you never have to be ashamed in this church for grieving.

We're going to weep with you.

I promise you that.

Can I get a witness?

That's the way this church is, but we're also we're not we're also not a doom and gloom church.

We're going to help you.

We're going to point you to Christ so that, as you grieve, you can have a deep seated joy, a peace that makes no sense, a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Listen, god is with you in your suffering.

He loves you, he cares for you.

Then you have a savior who can sympathize with you.

Glory be to God.

So here's how we're going to close.

I know it's late.

Here's how we're going to close.

I'm going to ask you to stand.

These altars are going to be open.

I'm going to sing.

I'm going to ask our deacons uh, our deacons in here.

We have some deacons Matthew, who else?

We got Carols downstairs, all right, um, k, would you mind to come up and pray?

Jam, would you come up and pray?

Oh, jerry, you're in here, that's right.

So if you're suffering anyway this morning, man, we'd love to pray with you.

Um, and let me say this one more thing If you're here and you do not know Christ, the only way you're going to get through suffering, the only way you're going to be on this road to glory.

It's not well, I just purposely sufferer and then God will accept me.

No, we're saved not by suffering.

We're saved by grace, through faith in Christ.

So the way onto this path is through Jesus Christ.

So if you've not professed faith in him today, I invite you forward.

If you're scared to come, uh, grab somebody's hand next to you.

They'll come with you.

I promise Um God right now, just encourage those in suffering.

I believe you've laid this on my heart to minister some people, uh, right where they are.

You've ministered to me through this.

So, lord, let us see this is not a road that will crush us if we are in you, but it's a road that will bless us, help us be better, not bitter.

Thank you for your grace that helps us in every season of our lives, and if one, there's one here today that doesn't know you, may this be the day of salvation.

We pray in Jesus name, amen.

Thank you for listening.

If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at info at myrealchurchorg.

We're going to be talking about the way to get through suffering.

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Real life community church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, Kentucky.

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