How Can We Suffer Well? - Peter's Principles for Prevailing Over Problems

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

Well, good morning.

My name is Joey Follett.

I'm the youth pastor here.

And um I'll start by saying this for those of you that know me well, you might notice my voice sounds kind of weird this morning.

Um and it's funny for a couple of reasons.

One, the topic this morning is suffering.

And uh the past two weeks, my family's been suffering a little bit with uh some sickness.

All of our kids had a cough, and there was like a seven-day span where like we didn't sleep at all.

And for those of you that have multiple kids, you know they kind of trade off and team up on you, right?

So like the first night one of them's sick, and then the next night, the next one's sick, and then the next night, the next one's sick.

And so um, you kind of, yeah.

So we did that for about a week and didn't sleep much, and so I'm the last one kind of dealing with uh a little bit of a cough and uh kind of losing my voice a little bit.

So, as I'm suffering, you can suffer too, because you gotta listen to my voice do weird things.

So we'll suffer together uh this morning.

But I'm excited because we're back in our study of 1 Peter, and it's been a couple of weeks uh since we've been in 1 Peter.

Uh we spent about three weeks celebrating 10 years of the road.

Uh we uh Pastor Stephen Liz talked about the history, the values, the vision of the road.

And uh and then last week, Pastor Brian spoke on the heels of our uh unveiled worship conference.

So we'll be back in 1 Peter 2 this morning.

So you can turn in your Bibles with me.

If you don't have a Bible, you should be able to find one in a seat back in front of you, um, or on your phone, or on your neighbor's phone, or over your neighbor's shoulder.

No excuses.

Should be able to turn to 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

So while you're turning there, I'm going to open us up in prayer.

So, God, thank you for your word.

Thank you that it speaks to us.

Thank you that it's useful for teaching, for learning.

God, I pray that you uh teach us something this morning through the opening and reading of your word.

Will you be with us here?

Will you guide us through this passage in Jesus' name?

Amen.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was driving into my neighborhood, and we live on a hill and uh like about ten houses down the hill, and so you come into our neighborhood at the top of the hill, and uh, was coming in and I noticed this uh neighbor on the corner had a pile of dirt in his uh on his curb with a sign in it that said free dirt.

And like most Americans, uh, we have a couple projects that we could use some dirt for.

And also, like most Americans, we have a hard time turning down anything that's free.

So uh I was talking to Allie about how do we get this dirt down the street to our house.

We don't have a truck, we don't have a wheelbarrow, and I do have a little car, a little hatchback, and so we thought about like putting a tarp in there and shoveling it in, which was a great idea, but for some reason we nixed that idea.

I don't know why.

Not blaming anybody.

I don't know, could have been me, I don't know.

So the idea we came up with was to take our trash can that you have like trash service.

You know, ours is green, I don't know what color yours is, but um two wheels, you know, you tilt it that that thing, you know what I'm talking about.

I'm not gonna say whose idea it was, because in marriage you're unified and you're one person, okay?

We're not gonna blame anybody, but uh we both agreed to it, so this was the idea.

So I threw the shovel in there, wheeled it up the street.

Miles came with me, hopped on his bike, get to the top of the street.

I started shoveling dirt into the trash can, quickly realized it wasn't mud, but it was pretty close.

It had rained, uh, it was heavy.

Um, Allie's last words as I was leaving were fill it to the top.

Um I didn't listen.

I filled it about three-fourths of the way, and so like that was good.

Went to bring it home.

I couldn't, it wouldn't budge.

So I started taking some dirt out, at which point the homeowner walked out of his house and saw me, and he thought that I was dumping my own dirt onto his pile.

And so I explained, no, no, no, like I it's your dirt, I just took too much, I can't move it.

But he was so desperate to get rid of it that uh he got this four-wheel dolly from his house, uh, just like a furniture moving dolly, and uh so it took three of us to pull this trash can down, slide the dolly under it, pick it up, and so now it's on four wheels, so I can push it.

I don't have to bounce it, right?

So I get it to the top of the hill.

I'm about to go down the hill, and I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking it just took off.

I wish, because that would have been a lot faster.

Um, no, no, no.

Even going downhill, I had to push this thing with every ounce of me.

And the our street needs to be repaved.

It's a disaster.

So there's a lot of big cracks.

So every time there was a crack, the front two wheels of the dolly get stuck in the crack, and I have to like pry it up one wheel at a time, or it would slide off the dolly altogether, which happened about three times.

So my poor son Miles had to help me out.

I would like hang on this thing, pull it down, I would tell him to shove the dolly underneath, and then I would pick it up while he's like holding it in place.

We did that a couple of times.

The whole thing should have taken like 20 minutes.

It took over an hour.

Um, at this point, I'm like four houses away.

Allie like comes with the car to see what's going on and to rescue me, and I'm like, no, I got this.

Right?

I wanted to finish the job.

I was four houses away.

I told her to leave, and then two minutes later, the dolly broke.

Um, so I called her, I was like, I need you to come back.

Um and so at that point, I we we put a tarp in the car, which we should have done the first time, and shoveled the dirt into the yeah, and got it done.

Um, okay, what does this story have to do with 1 Peter chapter 2?

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Basically nothing.

Um, except to point out we're talking about suffering.

Uh, like I said.

And Peter in this passage distinguishes between two types of suffering, two categories of suffering.

First category is suffering that's outside of our control, a situation that's outside of our control, or suffering that comes with good decisions that we made, right?

You're making a good decision, following the Holy Spirit, and you encounter suffering.

That's category number one.

Or suffering that comes with bad decisions, which was my example, right?

Um, and as I was about halfway down the street, I um encountered a neighbor.

I was kind of blocking her driveway, and she was pulling in and she rolled down her window.

I didn't know her, and she said, Are you okay?

And I said, Yeah, I'm just dealing with a really stupid decision.

At which point, Miles, my five-year-old, reprimanded me and said, Dad, we don't use the word stupid.

Um, and so that's the second category.

Peter makes that distinction in this passage between suffering that's out of our control and suffering that is brought on by our own decisions.

Okay, so uh last time we were in 1 Peter chapter 2, it was a while ago, Pastor Steve brought a message about government and how we as believers are supposed to respond to authority.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Today's passage is a continuation of that, but in context to servants and slaves with an emphasis on suffering.

So, who is excited to talk about suffering this morning?

Let's read this passage together.

So, 1 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 18.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the harsh, for this is commendable.

It's because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

But what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?

But when you do good and suffer, you take it patiently.

This is commendable before God.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you are healed.

For you're like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul.

So, who was Peter addressing?

Start with some context.

He writes, servants be submissive.

When Peter wrote servants, he's talking about those who are hired, like hired servants, who are paid, either long term or short term, but also talking about slaves, right?

Those who are captured, maybe prisoners of war, become slaves, things like that.

So we're talking about servants and slaves in this passage.

And slavery and servanthood was widespread in the Roman Empire during this time period, and Peter was most likely writing this letter from Rome to Christians throughout the Roman Empire, and he knew that within the church there are going to be people who fall into this category hearing his letter.

And he also knew that the life of a slave or a servant involved some level of suffering.

And so he starts by writing, be submissive to your masters.

And he makes a distinguish not just to good masters, gentle masters, but also to those that are harsh.

And he says, This is commendable.

And that word commendable in the Greek could be translated to mean a grace before God.

So there is grace on you.

It is commendable to you if you are submissive and if you are obedient to Jesus first and then to your earthly masters, whether they're nice or not.

It's commendable to suffer if one is behaving as a follower of Jesus should.

If your suffering comes because of a choice that you've made to do the right thing and follow Jesus, as you were so led by the Holy Spirit, then that's commendable in the eyes of God.

However, in verse 20, Peter makes that distinction we were talking about, right?

Are you suffering because you made a decision with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit?

Or are you suffering because of your own faults and your own sins?

And maybe the second is true of you today.

Maybe you're suffering because of a poor decision or a sin.

Maybe you can say, Yeah, you own it.

I'm suffering because I made a stupid choice, or sorry, we don't say stupid choice, a poor choice, right?

Or you're suffering because you're you're walking in sin.

So I would say, own it and confess it.

Then seek the Lord and follow the Holy Spirit.

James 5, 16 says, confess your trespasses to one another, pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

There's power and healing in confession.

If you are suffering because of sin, then confess it and seek healing.

Now, at first glance, a passage written by Peter in the year 62 A.D.

to slaves and servants in the Roman Empire may not seem very relatable to us today.

However, I believe there are many people here this morning and watching online who can relate to the idea of feeling stuck or feeling trapped or feeling burnt out, or maybe feeling mistreated or not valued in a job, position, or situation.

Now I want to pause real quick and make a clarification of what I'm not saying, right?

If you are currently being abused, right?

If you're if you're in an abusive relationship, if you're suffering abuse anywhere in life, be it verbal, physical, sexual, I encourage you to tell somebody and seek help.

That's not, I'm not telling you to deal with it.

That's not what we're talking about this morning.

So I want to make that clarification.

But maybe this morning you feel like you are suffering in a situation that's out of your control.

And that you have been walking in obedience and seeking the Lord and doing the right thing and following the Holy Spirit, but you still find yourself in a situation of suffering.

And ultimately, we know from Scripture that Christians are not immune or exempt from suffering.

I wish I could say that's the case, but it's but it's not.

And you might not hear that message at every church, but scripturally, I don't believe it's accurate to state that Christians won't suffer.

In fact, there's Christians suffering all over the world right now for the faith.

And if you look at the Bible, like look at Paul, right?

After Paul was saved, he encountered a lot of suffering, wrote many of his letters from prison.

So we know that Christians will encounter suffering in life.

And suffering's part of life for the believer and the unbeliever.

But I think the purpose of this letter from Peter and this passage from Peter is what should our response as Jesus followers be to suffering?

How are we different than the world?

How can we as believers suffer well?

So three ways we can suffer well from this passage.

And number one is embrace it.

Number one is embrace it.

As I was preparing for this message, I was talking through uh this passage with another pastor here on staff a couple weeks ago, and and uh we were talking about this idea of embracing it, and he uh, you know, the idea of like you can you can take on the suffering, the situation you're in, and see it as potential value and benefit, um, or or be angry about it.

And he used this phrase that you hear in the military from time to time and probably other circles too, but uh the phrase of embrace the suck.

And I was like, yeah, that's good.

And I was like, but I'm not gonna use that on Sunday morning because that's not appropriate.

Um and so uh, but that's the idea of like what's the value in this situation, as opposed to being upset about the situation.

And so uh when I was when I finished high school, I joined the Air Force and I did 10 years in the in the Air National Guard and I went to basic training uh when I was 18, right after high school, and before you go to basic training, boot camp, whatever you want to call it, everyone who's been before wants to give you advice about it, even though for a lot of them it's been like 20 years and they don't remember it, but they'll give you advice anyways, and so but the one piece of advice I remember getting was uh early on, like on your first day, they'll assign you a job, some sort of cleaning job, because you do a lot of cleaning, clean your dorm every day.

Um, and you're in a dorm with like 50 other guys, and uh don't they say, whatever you do, don't get put on latrine crew.

For whatever reason we call the bathroom the latrine.

So they said, Don't get on latrine crew.

And I was like, got it, okay.

Um, and so I get there, and your first 24 hours there are pretty nuts because you're just getting like yelled at and you don't know what's going on, and it's weird, like you don't make your bed properly, and it's like it's the end of the world, and everybody's upset, and you have to do push-ups and all that.

So I'm dealing with all that, very tired, figuring out, and so we're lined up, and it's like the first morning, and the sergeant's assigning jobs.

Like, here it is, the job.

What am I gonna be doing for the next two months?

And he points to like five of us and he says, Latrine crew, and totally out of my control, right?

Nothing I I could have, you know, actually, sir, I was told that I don't want latrine crew, right?

That that would have resulted in a lot of push-ups.

So I didn't do that.

I was like, okay, out of my control, I'm on latrine crew.

And then within latrine crew, there's kind of a hierarchy of other jobs, right?

So toilets, sinks, showers, floors, whatever.

Remember, this is a dorm of 50 guys for eight weeks.

So I don't remember how it happened, but I got assigned the job of lint rolling the floor of the bathroom.

Which you probably didn't even know was a job.

I definitely didn't.

So for two months, eight weeks, every single day, I lint rolled the floor of the bathroom.

And there's a choice there, right?

Out of my control.

I I mean, it was my choice to join the military.

I didn't know when I was enlisting in the military that I was signing up for that.

But um, so that part I didn't know.

But is that so it's out of my control.

That's my job.

Eight weeks, embrace it.

By the end of the eight weeks, I had extreme pride in the floor of that bathroom.

And I would challenge people to try to find something, right?

And if someone said there was something like, show me where.

Like, I I I mean, I was on the floor every single day, lint rolling the floor of that bathroom.

I took pride in it.

And we always have a choice to embrace the situation, make the best out of it, and glorify God.

And here's the thing: you can glorify God no matter what you're doing, even if you're lint rolling the floor of a bathroom, right?

You can do it well, the best that you possibly can, and give God the glory.

And um we always have that choice.

And we always, and the other thing I'll say is we don't always see the whole picture.

We don't always see the whole picture, right?

I had no idea that my time in the military, the Lord was preparing me to be a pastor.

The leadership skills that I picked up in the military, I use almost every day in this job, and I had no idea.

Twelve years later, it's so clear to me, but at the time, as I'm an 18-year-old kid, lent rolling the floor, but I didn't know where this was gonna lead, right?

I didn't know, but I knew that that Lord led me to make that decision to join the military, and so I'm gonna embrace and deal with and see what happens.

And and if you do that, eventually, might take a while, but eventually you'll see the whole picture.

Um, and I have that's a conversation I have with students a lot who feel like they they they're called to something higher, they they know what they're supposed to do with their lives, they they have a dream, they feel like they're they're called to big things, but they're at the time doing something else, right?

Working at a pizza shop or mowing lawns, or and they feel like they're spinning their wheels and stuck.

And uh, what I often tell them is you have no idea how the Lord will use what you're doing now later on in your life, if you let him.

So don't worry about the whole picture right now.

Just do it the best that you possibly can.

Give God the glory, and he'll open doors for you to do things else, other things later on in your life.

And we don't always see that.

And when I was in college, I went to college to be uh a history teacher.

I did that for a number of years uh before this, and and not every call, this is true of any major, not every class you take in college directly relates to your major, right?

They make you take all sorts of stuff.

So I had to take a science.

I'm a history major, I had to take a science.

I did not do well in math and science classes.

So I asked my advisor, what's the easiest science?

And he said, astronomy.

And I was like, okay, sure.

And uh it ended up being had nothing to do with being a history teacher, right?

But it ended up being my favorite class.

It was a night class, go on the roof of UCCS and look up and uh look at the stars.

And now I can always find Mars, which is really cool.

And I've shown so many people that, right?

There's five people in this room that I've pointed out Mars here.

Youth retreat.

I was outside with the kids showing them Mars.

Um, so uh ended up being my favorite class.

So don't underestimate the things that you don't think matter, because the Lord will make them matter.

He'll use them later on in life.

We can't always see the big picture.

So embrace it, right?

Embrace it.

And on Thursday, um, on Thursday, I mentioned family's battling some sickness, so I had a little bit of a cough on Thursday, and but nothing crazy.

And but I took a student out to lunch, and and after lunch, I was headed home and I started feeling really, really bad, like really quickly.

And I'm not sure what was going on, but my cough started like burning inside of me, and then by the time I got home, I had a crazy fever, and I was like shivering, and I got in bed, and I was bummed because like Ally had had a really tough day with the boys, and I was gonna go home and help her out, and instead she's like taking care of me in bed, and uh she was praying over me.

Um, it's really sick, and she's praying over me, and as she's praying, I I don't know if I I might have fallen asleep.

I had some sort of dream or vision, whatever you want to call it.

But uh, as she's praying, I I saw my family at the park, and there was a lot of people at the park.

We were at the park in our neighborhood, and then all of a sudden, like everybody left, and it was just our family and a few other people.

And so uh she finished praying, and I told her that, and but again, I had like a crazy high fever, so I don't know what if I was thinking straight.

Um, and then soon after that, I realized why I was feeling terrible uh was food poisoning from lunch, and so lunch left me.

I'll leave it at that, and then I and then I told Allie, that must be what the dream meant.

Just like all the people were evacuating the park, everything just evacuated my body.

She, though, she had a much better interpretation of the dream.

Um she said, You're preaching on suffering on Sunday, and you're suffering right now, and with suffering, people often leave, run from suffering, right?

We live in a culture that's very hyper-focused on comfort.

Comfort's the goal, right?

Convenience is the goal.

We want a quick, now, easy, affordable.

That's the goal.

But something I like to say, something I like to tell our boys is like, it's good to do hard things, right?

It's good to challenge yourself, it's good to do hard things.

And so, with the park example, when they're suffering, people run and flee.

And the other thought I had of it, you know, and so the idea is like, no, sometimes we're called to stay and embrace it.

That's where we're supposed to be, we're called to stay and embrace it and look for the potential value in it.

And the other thing I saw from that example, uh, or that vision, whatever, is um we weren't alone at the park.

There were a few other families there too.

And so when we're talking about suffering, it's important to remember you're not alone and you have blood stained allies.

And that's why blood stained allies are so important, right?

Because we will walk through hardships.

So who's in your corner, right?

Are you in a small group?

Are you in a community group?

Are you in a table, a men's group, women's group?

Like, do you have people that aren't going to run when the suffering comes?

Right?

So, number one is embrace it.

Number two is glorify God.

Even when you're suffering, even when you feel stuck, when you feel burnt out.

Glorify God.

We glorify God when we work hard.

A great example of this, my favorite example of this from the word, is uh Ruth.

Ruth is like one of, in my opinion, most underrated books of the Bible.

It's only four chapters.

Encourage you to reread it today.

But Ruth experienced suffering.

She lost her father-in-law, her brother-in-law, and her husband.

And she chose to honor her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law is God, who she didn't even know yet, by accompanying her back to Bethlehem, a foreign land, where she didn't know anybody and she was already a widow.

So to that time period, if you're a widow, you're at the bottom of society.

If you're a foreigner, you're at the bottom of society.

If you're both, I don't even know if there's a ranking for that, right?

You're at the bottom of society.

So what does she do when she gets there?

Ruth 2, verse 2.

Ruth 2:2

So Ruth the Mobite said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him and who side in my fine favor.

She takes the initiative and she works hard.

She knew that her and her mother-in-law were in a bad situation.

They're poor, they don't have anything, they don't have husbands, and they gotta eat.

So she says, I'm gonna take the initiative and provide.

She was working hard.

At that time, for people like that, their only option was to walk through and pick up uh grains that have been dropped by the workers.

Either ones they didn't want or ones they accidentally dropped.

And they could pick those up.

That's what they were allowed to do.

Hard work, not fun work, bending over in the heat, picking up wheat all day.

So that's what she did.

She didn't think anybody was watching, but people were.

And sometimes you're in a situation, like I said, doing a job you don't want to do, whatever, and you're working hard and you don't think anybody's watching, somebody is.

First of all, God's watching, but you don't know what else, who else might be watching the doors that will open.

And and uh Ruth didn't know it, but Boaz was watching, and Boaz was a wealthy landowner who loved the Lord.

And he was watching, and if you watch, uh read the rest of this chapter or the book, it will result in Boaz and Ruth getting married and end up being in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Um, but in the midst of suffering, Ruth chose to work hard, glorify God, doors were opened, and she was blessed.

So don't underestimate the power of hard work and the doors that the Lord will open for you if you glorify him in every season and every struggle.

Whether you like the season or situation you're in or not, glorify him, point to him, deflect the glory to God, make him famous.

Number two is glorify God.

Number three is choose joy.

Joy is a choice.

And there's a difference between joy and happiness.

Happiness comes and goes.

Happiness comes and goes.

It's fleeting, it comes and goes throughout the day.

But we have a choice to choose joy.

Paul in Philippians 4 wrote, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice.

He wrote that from prison.

So Paul knew that joy is a choice.

He said, always.

He didn't say rejoice in the Lord, except when you're in prison.

Always.

Right?

Why did he say that?

How did he know it's a choice?

Because he had hope.

Hope in something greater.

Right?

Without God, our hope is in the world.

In whatever.

I don't know, sports team, a politician, things that are fleeting and go away.

But if we have God, our hope is in something greater.

And so Paul's hope went beyond the prison walls and beyond the chains.

He knew that God was with him in the prison, that God saw him in the prison and in his suffering and was with him.

Paul had hope.

And people often say, in the midst of suffering, where is God in this situation?

Where is God in my suffering?

I think the purpose of this passage and what Peter is saying is, he's right there.

So what if instead of saying, Where is God?

We said, Thank you, God, for being with me in my suffering?

Are we seeking him in suffering, or are we blaming him for the suffering?

Because he's right there.

He's with you, he sees you.

And not only that, as we'll get to in a minute, we serve a God who's also suffered and has experienced suffering.

And we'll get there.

But what Peter's saying is he sees you in your suffering, he's with you, it's commendable.

And God can also sometimes use suffering to make you a better person, to make you a more whole-hearted disciple if you let him.

This isn't the best example, but um, my wife cuts our hair, she cuts my hair and our boy's hair.

And when she's cutting the boy's hair, I sit still, but they don't sit still.

So when she's cutting their hair, uh, they often squirm, right?

And need to be incentivized with things.

Um, and when they squirm, it's messy, it's more difficult, painful sometimes.

And that's true for us too.

If we're fighting what the Lord's trying to do in our life, it's more difficult, right?

But if we embrace it, choose joy, submit to the Lord, then he does his best work.

And something else my wife says often, and she didn't write it, I don't know who did, but so you can let a situation make you bitter or better.

We have that choice.

And and last example for choosing joy, um, Allie and I got to go see a movie the other day.

Well, I think it was the first time the two of us went to a movie since we had kids, so like five and a half years, so it's pretty cool.

Movies have changed a lot, like you have to reserve seats now and stuff.

I I know that.

But uh, anyways, we went and saw um the movie about uh for King and Country or Back St.

James movie, and um, there's a scene in that that was really impactful for me.

Um, and it was the scene where they we they went to the park, and so without giving too much away or spending too much time on it, basically the mom, they're in a really tough situation financially.

As a family, there's a lot going on, they're suffering, and the kids want to play at the park, and they want their mom to play at the park with them, which was like the most relatable moment for a parent, right?

A lot on her mind, and the kids are like, play with me.

Um, and those moments are hard, because you're like, okay.

And she did.

She chose joy, she chose to have fun with her kids in the midst of a tough situation in the midst of suffering, which was super impactful on all of them, right?

Her and them, to have a moment with her kids.

So joy is a choice, even in suffering.

So, why should we do these things?

Why should we try to suffer well?

Because Jesus did.

And Peter spends time in this chapter talking about the ultimate example of suffering.

The ultimate example of suffering well.

And there's no better example of that than Jesus.

No more powerful example of that.

We serve a God who suffered on the cross, who experienced a painful, painful death.

A God who can relate to our suffering because he did it.

And how cool is that?

We can't walk around saying, Well, God, you don't know my pain.

You don't understand my pain.

Right?

We can't say that because we serve a God who experienced pain.

A painful, horrible, horrific death.

Jesus walked through that.

Our God walked through that.

Verse 21 says, Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps.

He set an example.

He suffered not because of any sin or mistake or wrongdoing of his own, he suffered on our behalf.

In verse 22, Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah.

He says he committed no sin.

So Scripture says, follow Jesus' example.

What does that mean or look like?

Looks look back at verse 23.

Who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

To revile means to be insulted, like abusively insulted.

The natural knee-jerk reaction to being insulted is to throw one back.

Right?

To hurl an insult back.

Jesus didn't do that.

He restrained.

When he was insulted, he did not return the insults.

When he suffered, he did not threaten.

While being viciously beaten and tortured, Jesus did not threaten anybody who was hurting him.

Instead, he committed himself to God who judges righteously.

Even Jesus, who is God, in that moment knew it was not his job to judge or avenge.

Instead of seeking justice, Jesus trusted in God.

Our job is to trust God, not seek revenge.

Our job is to trust God, not seek revenge.

But led up to these moments of Jesus' death and torture, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, moments before he was arrested, I think is one of Jesus' most relatable moments.

If you want to turn there with me back in your Bible to Matthew chapter 26, leading up to his crucifixion.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

This was right before he was arrested.

Matthew 26, starting in verse 36.

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there.

And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

And he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

Stay here and watch with me.

So he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, What?

Could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak again.

A second time he went away and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done.

And I think this moment from Jesus is relatable, and it shows that he was already suffering.

Before he was arrested, before he was beaten, before he was spit on, before all of that, he's already struggling and suffering.

Mentally.

Right?

And I'm not gonna guess or say exactly what was going on in his head, it could be anxiety, a lot of things, but he was already suffering.

But he got his answer, and then he made a choice.

He chose to embrace the suffering and set the ultimate example on how to handle suffering.

In the midst of torture, beating, and crucifixion, Jesus showed extreme restraint.

He showed extreme patience, extreme grace, and extreme mercy.

And Peter quotes from the prophet Isaiah in this passage from 1 Peter 2.

So I'd like for you to turn there too.

Last place we're gonna turn.

We're almost done.

But Isaiah 53, we're gonna read a few verses of this.

Prophet Isaiah, about 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, was prophesizing this exact thing, the restraint of Jesus and how to suffer well.

So Isaiah 53 and verse 3 says, He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

And we are like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before it cheers or silence, so he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation?

He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people he was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but the with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Three times in that passage, Isaiah says that Jesus either didn't open his mouth or no deceit came out of his mouth.

So he's talking about that restraint, that example that Jesus set.

So why did Jesus suffer?

Well, that's the gospel message.

If you look back at verses four and five, he bore our griefs, our sorrows, our sin on the cross.

He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes we are healed.

He suffered and died for us for our sin.

Maybe you've never heard that message before, the salvation message.

I would encourage you to come up at the end of service after worship.

We'd love to talk you through that and pray with you.

There is suffering in life whether you are a believer or not.

The difference is that the believer is not alone and the believer has hope.

Hebrews 6 says we have hope as an anchor in our soul.

An anchor in our soul.

Hope is what separates us from the rest of the world.

This world is, we don't have hope in this world.

Isn't that great?

Right?

We have hope in something greater beyond this world.

We have hope in Jesus Christ.

We serve a God who suffered, a God who can relate and who's with us, who wants to trust, who wants us to trust in Him through the suffering.

Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.