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September 20, 2020
Jason Meyer (Downtown Campus) | 1 Peter 4:12-14
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.—1 Peter 4:12–14
Introduction: Recap of 1 Peter
A) Theme
I want to remind you that the theme of 1 Peter can be stated by combining 1 Peter 5:12 and 1 Peter 1:1.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.—1 Peter 5:12
This grace is a firm foundation—so his exhortation is to stand firm on the firm foundation! Therefore, the theme of the letter according to 1 Peter 5:12 is stated in seven words: Stand in the true grace of God. I think a helpful further analysis would be one that can combine this verse with the first verse in which Peter tells the readers who they are.
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.—1 Peter 1:1
So once we add the phrase “elect exiles,” the melody line of the letter can be stated in 10 words: Stand in the true grace of God as elect exiles. We will keep referring back to this melody line as the letter returns to this note again and again.
B) Context
The apostle Peter wrote this letter to a church living in the midst of chaos and trial and uncertainty. It was during the reign of the emperor Nero and was probably a few years before the climactic persecution of Christians that Nero would lead. Apostles Peter and Paul would be martyred during that time. So in this letter, there is not an outbreak of persecution but the threat of it. The volcano has not yet erupted, but it is smoking and the ground is shaking and it seems ready to erupt.
The letter is written to Christians living throughout the provinces of Rome in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Most people think that Peter names these provinces in the order of the route that the letter would follow as it is delivered.
Peter names believers with some weighty words of identification: “elect exiles of the dispersion.” Peter’s point here seems to be that we are all spiritual exiles—we are all citizens of heaven and thus exiles on earth always longing for our true home and thus never fully feeling at home here. There will always be a sense of deep spiritual homesickness. Have you felt this? You never feel like you fit fully here. To feel at home in this world would be worldliness. Citizens of heaven are exiles on earth always looking for that city whose builder and maker is God—the heavenly country (cf. Hebrews 11:16).
C) Structure
Section 1: A Trinitarian Salutation
They are elect exiles, chosen by God, set apart by the Spirit, to obey Jesus and belong to him by the sprinkling of his blood.
Section 2: Live Like the Saved People of God You Are
Then he builds on that opening declaration with a call to become what they are. Verses 3–12 of chapter 1 and verses 4–10 of chapter 2 are the indicative of what God has done. First Peter 1:13–2:3 is the five-fold imperative of what believers are supposed to do.
1 Peter 1:3–12
Because you are the saved people of God who have an imperishable hope (1:3–5), an inexpressible joy (1:6–9), and a profound sense of privilege (1:10–12) …
1 Peter 1:13–2:3
Therefore, live like the saved children of God: 1. Hope fully (v. 13), 2. Be holy (vv. 14–16), 3. Fear God (vv. 17–21), 4. Love one another (vv. 22–25), and 5. Long for the milk of the Word to grow up into salvation (2:1–3).
1 Peter 2:4–10
Because you are the saved people of God, a spiritual house of priests proclaiming the excellencies of the one who saved you …
The commands move from our vertical relationship with God (hope, be holy, fear our Father) to the horizontal relationship with fellow children of God (love one another). Now he builds to a climax in which we are called to grow up into the salvation we have received, which will come as a result of drinking deeply of the word of God.
Section 3: How to Live Like the Saved People of God in the Midst of Trials
The third section of the letter now gets specific. How can you be heaven’s citizens on this earth? What does it look like? You proclaim his excellencies with your lips and your lives. You fill the places you live with beautiful behavior and fight the lusts of this world that wage war against your soul. How should it look as you interact with challenging circumstances in the political sphere, social sphere, and family sphere (2:13–3:6)?
Believers should not play earth’s game of dodgeball when they are reviled by throwing the ball back at unbelievers (3:9–12). Rather, they should have their hearts hot and ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them with gentleness and love (3:13–17). They need to be armed and ready to suffer by looking to Jesus in his suffering and his victory (3:18–4:1). This present temporary judgment will be reversed by the final judgment to come (4:2–6). End-times living looks like devoting yourself to prayer, loving one another, showing hospitality and using your spiritual gifts as good stewards of God’s grace (4:7–11).
We have come now to the fourth section of the letter (4:12–19). This is perhaps his most direct address on suffering. He focuses on enduring trials by helping them interpret the trials so they can not be surprised by them, but even rejoice in them.
Main Point: Suffering should lead to joy, not surprise, because suffering does not lead to loss, but gain.
Outline
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
Peter is a good pastor. He does not just acknowledge their experience; he interprets it for them. He tells them once again that suffering should be part and parcel of anticipation and preparation. It cannot operate on the outskirts of their expectations.
Now Peter has already made this point plain. He said in 4:1–6 that they should arm themselves with the same way of thinking that Christ had in suffering. They must resolve to suffer. If Christ suffered, they will too. If they are going to experience what he experienced, then they should think how he thought.
If suffering is seen as strange, then it will land on us with surprise. And suffering is already a heavy burden. Disappointment is the distance between what we expect and what we experience. If you expect people to support you and they oppose you, then the surprise and disappointment will be greater. Therefore, the trial of suffering becomes an even bigger trial when we do not expect it, we are unprepared for it, and we are greatly disappointed because of it.
Suffering already has a surprise factor or a shock value. People who are ready for the polar plunge will have a different experience than those that just fall into icy cold water.
But let us freely acknowledge that we can understand why Peter would have to utter this command. We do not have to give commands for things that are unnecessary. When you give kids an ice cream cone, you rarely have to command them to eat it. It is a little more common to have to command them to eat their vegetables.
Suffering is strange. It strikes our spiritual taste buds with a bitter taste. After all, we would not plan suffering and hardship for our kids, and so why would God the Father plan suffering for his children? Do you sometimes find yourself asking Father: “Why does it have to be so hard?”
Have you ever had someone look at you as “strange?” Sometimes people look at something you are doing and they have a certain look that says, “What in the world are you doing? I can’t quite figure it out!” In those settings, you have to give an explanation. After you do, people usually nod their heads and say, “Oh, I get it. OK.”
If you see someone going around the parking lot multiple times, and trying different parking spots, you may stare and wonder what is going on. You are missing a piece of information. If that car had “student driver” on the side of it, then you would be better able to interpret it. What would you think? “Oh, I get it now. Student driver. They are practicing their driving and parking. That makes sense.”
How are we to stop staring at suffering with a look that says, “What in the world are you doing, God?”
That is what Peter is doing in this text. He wants to give them the interpretation. If we are to stop regarding suffering as strange, it means we are going to have to understand what suffering does. We already have the beginning of an explanation in this verse. Notice that Peter does not call it suffering. He calls it a “fiery trial.” Some people read this and assume that Peter must be writing during the time of Nero when he blamed Christians for starting the great fire in Rome and subsequently used them as human torches in his gardens for parties.
I don’t think the text has that backdrop in mind at all. First, I think the rest of 1 Peter shows that the suffering is primarily verbal threats and hostility, not physical persecution. But second, because “fiery” trial is paired with the word “test.”
... fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you ...
There is one other place in 1 Peter where the concepts of fire, test, and trial come together. Does it ring a bell for anyone? It is 1 Peter 1:6–7.
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.
Peter is saying that trials serve a refining purpose. It is necessary that faith would be refined from its impurities by the fiery heat that comes from trials. Why does God use suffering? It is the fire in the hands of the Refiner. It burns hot and it hurts, but in his hands it has a purifying purpose for our faith. The hotter the fire, the purer our faith.
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design,
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
2) Rather Rejoice (1 Peter 4:13–14)
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
If believers are commanded to not regard suffering as strange and thus respond with surprise, then how should they regard it and how should they respond? He calls us not to be surprised by suffering but to interpret it rightly so we can rejoice fully.
Notice that rejoice is a response of joy. We are in the realm of Christian hedonism once again. The Christian life really is all about joy. Why do we respond to something with joy? We respond with joy when we receive something we regard as gain. The world may look at believers and how they handle suffering as strange because to them it really looks like loss! But believers respond to it with joy because to them it is gain. They are rejoicing in what they have gained, not lamenting in what they have lost.
So what do we gain in suffering that causes us to respond with rejoicing?
A) Share in Christ’s Sufferings (v. 13)
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.
Christians rejoice to be united to Christ. We belong to him. Martin Luther loved to use the wedding analogy. When you marry someone, your debts become their debts and their riches become yours. That is what happens. Though he was rich, he suffered and died so that through his poverty we might become rich. He paid our debts on the cross. We receive the riches of his righteousness. We receive the gift of his saving life and resurrection.
And we take on his reproach. The way he was regarded in this world is how we will be regarded. Again we should not expect to be treated better than Jesus, especially since we never obeyed better than Jesus.
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
We can rejoice now because we belong to Christ now. The world does not rejoice in Christ and so the world will certainly not cheer us on for following Christ. But we will rejoice even more when the faith becomes sight and sin and death and suffering and persecution are no more. We will be with him in glory. We will experience not the pain of rejection of this world, but the joy of having our acceptance in Christ be reinforced on every side—with all our tears wiped away and the riches of his glorious inheritance will be ours.
We need to take a moment to receive the rebuke of the Lord and his word here. Many of us are fixated on the here-and-now. It is easy to do. The here-and-now is in your face. There is the tyranny of the urgent and the urgency of now. But only looking at now with blinders on can be called now-ism (as if the now is all there is to see).
Let me make this visual. I still go back to an illustration that Pastor John Piper shared from John Newton (author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”). He tells this story:
Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!”1
We could modernize the illustration by talking not about a carriage, but a car. One of the cars we had growing up we bought for $150. And let’s just say you get what you pay for. We did not have a way to measure how fast it could go from 0 to 60. You would push down the pedal and it would lurch. It could not get to 60 mph without shaking too much to drive. We just drove it around town. And sometimes randomly it would just decide to swerve. Now let’s say that my Ford Fiesta broke down on the way to inheriting a billion dollars.
That means I could trade in my Ford Fiesta for a Ferrari. It costs 1.4 million dollars, weighs less than 2,800 pounds, goes from 0 to 60 in less than three seconds or 0 to 124 in seven seconds. Wait a little longer and it will get to 217 mph. You would be a fool for complaining about a flat tire on your Ford Fiesta. And if you had a billion dollars you could buy not just one thousand Ferraris, but one thousand million. These numbers are too much for me. But in the same way, the glory to be revealed is way greater than we can fathom.
C) Share the Blessing of What Rests on You (v. 14)
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
Peter does something spectacular here. He summarizes the believers’ suffering and how they are being treated with reference to the words of Jesus.
The Words of Jesus
The word combination of insult and blessed is almost certainly a reference to Matthew 5:11.
“Blessed are you when people insult you.”
The word insulted is very important because it reiterates that the persecution is mainly verbal right now. Do not think “fiery trial” and imagine that Christians are being burned at the stake. Believers are targeted for hostility but it is primarily at the vocal level. And verbal assaults often precede physical persecution.
Persecution is proof of their blessedness. Why? Receiving insults is a blessing because it is a sign: you really belong to Christ. You see dark clouds and hear thunder rolling in and it is a sign that rain is coming. You receive insults and it is a sign: you really belong to Christ. Being Christlike often means being treated like Christ.
The Words About Jesus
But Peter is up to something even more spectacular than we see at first glance. Not only does he repeat the words of Jesus in the first part of verse 13, but in the last part he repeats the words about Jesus spoken in Isaiah 11.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Isaiah said, “the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him.” You can see that Isaiah used a future tense verb (will rest on him), while Peter uses a present tense verb (Spirit of God is resting). Isaiah spoke with reference to Jesus (rest on him), while Peter applies it to Christians (resting on you). The prophecy has been fulfilled not only in the coming of Jesus, but also now in how the Spirit of Christ rests on Christians.
In other words, Christians bear the same weight of insults and reproach that Christ bore, but they also have the same hope of glory and the same Spirit resting upon them!
Let’s dig even deeper here. I promise it takes effort, but it will be worth it. The ESV seems to say that the Holy Spirit is called two things: the Spirit (1) of glory and (2) of God. But the grammar and word order of the verse suggests a very different reading. It does not take away from the presence of the Spirit, but it adds the fuller sense of end time glory.
The translation should read you are blessed because “the glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you.”
Why? “Spirit” in the original language only occurs with the second phrase (Spirit of God). It does not appear in the first clause with the word “glory.” If the word “Spirit” were the reference for both words, the word “Spirit” would normally be repeated or it would occur first.
But why would Peter say “glory” without further reference? Because he is referring back to the glory that he just mentioned in verse 13: his glory is “revealed.”
In other words, the reference to glory ties the two verses together: “The end-time glory I just mentioned in verse 13 and the Spirit of God are now resting upon you.”
Schreiner comments correctly in my opinion:
Peter’s point was that they were blessed because they possessed even now the glory that would be theirs at the end time and also that the eschatological gift of the Spirit even now rested upon them.[2]
Application
Peter wants to put their suffering in perspective. How do you go from viewing suffering as a curse and a loss to seeing it as blessing and as gain? The idolatry that we want to see God topple today is a worldly definition and understanding of blessing and rejoicing. Most people understand blessing to be a state in which you are avoiding pain and grief (minimizing the negative) and enjoying the positives (good job, good car, good family, etc.)
The Christian adopts a different definition of the good life. The good life without eternal life is no life at all. Belonging to Jesus and following Jesus on the path to eternal life is the life that is really life.
That means embracing suffering. Many people will look at this and it will seem truly strange. Verse 4 says they will be surprised that you are not seeking to grab hold of as many earthly pleasures as possible. It looks like you are accepting loss. And you are willing to embrace shame and ridicule. They cannot see that it is really gain.
That is why Peter says they are surprised (4:4), but you should not be (4:12). But this raises a question of experience and expectation. What if you are not experiencing God’s presence in suffering, but rather feeling God’s absence is part of the suffering?
We need to make a distinction between feelings and perspective. Pain is never pleasant. But the one great thing we need to do with our pain is put it into perspective and interpret it. It is going to hurt no matter what. But meaningless pain hurts way worse than meaningful pain.
I will give you an example. Birth pains are intensely painful, but also intensely meaningful. I have never seen such pain as the pain of childbirth. The look of pain I will never forget. But when our daughter was handed to Cara, I will never forget the look of joy on her face.
No mom in that moment will say, “Well, that was not worth it.” Knowledge that these are birth pains, not dying pains, makes all the difference in your approach and outlook and expectations. It does not take away the pain, but it puts the pain in perspective so you can adopt a different outlook. And though it does not happen immediately and exclusively, God does reveal himself and he does draw near, and God teaches us so much through suffering. Usually people say things like, “I would not trade what I learned about God for anything in the world.” That does not mean that suffering will feel like revival, but that God uses the process and he grants us a perspective.
Conclusion
God’s presence and God’s perspective make all the difference in suffering.
Andy Crouch tells the story of a ropes course with trapeze bars high above the forest floor and balance beams 50 feet off the ground. The inside joke about ropes courses is that they are about as far from real risk as possible. People are strapped into the “expert-tested, lawyer-approved, triple-checked, over-engineered systems of harnesses and ropes that secure every maneuver.”[3] He felt terrified at the top of a thirty-foot pole, looking at a 12-inch square platform that he was supposed to stand on—though he was probably safer than any other time in his life.
Getting one foot on that platform felt like a perfect storm between the primal fear of falling and the vivid anticipation of the embarrassment of failing. But it would also be embarrassing to have to slither down the pole in defeat. So he said maybe he would just jump now.
But his friend, Karl, held the belay rope he was tethered to far below. Karl designed the course, and Karl was a close friend. So Karl began to coach him: “You are close to standing up; why not just try to get one foot up there?” He was surprised that he could do it. “You are close to getting another foot up there. Just try.” Then, “Why not just squat down? Good job. How about just try to stand up?” “Inch by inch,” Crouch writes, “slower than I have ever stood in my life, I stood up.”
He says, “We had to follow Karl, who had built the course, inspected it, trained on it. He asked us to try nothing he had not tried, and to trust nothing that he had not made trustworthy. We needed his voice from the forest floor, coaching us further than we could have gone. We needed someone who had already gone where he was asking us to go.”[4]
Unbelievers do not know the One who built the course. They do not know that the Creator of the course came to it, inspected it all, trained on it without any net and passed it perfectly. They do not know the one who has already gone where he is asking us to go.
Unbelievers are on the ropes course and there is no net below and they are not tethered to anyone. When they fall, they will fall to everlasting death.
How different is the Christian life! Oh, what we have in the gospel. Only the Christian is tethered to Christ—the one who designed the course and the one who passed the course. But he did so much more. He had to do the course without a net. But because he paid for our sins and defeated death, we have the harness and we have the rope and it is tethered to him! And he speaks to us and says, “Why not take the next step? You can get the next foot up there!” Christ is raised from the dead, and we are tethered to him always! All that we are losing is the dross that he is consuming and what we are gaining is the gold he is refining—the faith he is purifying.
_________
[1] Quoted in Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, in The Works of the Rev. John Newton, 1:107 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985).
[2] Schreiner, T.R., 1, 2 Peter, Jude, Vol. 37, p. 221. (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003).
[3] Crouch, Andy, Strong and Weak, p. 164 (IVP Books, 2016).
[4] Ibid., p. 166
Main Point: Suffering should lead to joy, not surprise, because suffering does not lead to loss, but gain.
Outline
Discussion Questions
Verse 12
Verses 13–14
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to not be surprised by suffering, but to interpret it rightly so we can rejoice fully.