Bible Study 1 Peter Pt 11

good afternoon antioch family um adria green here we are about to delve into some great bible study today but before we do let's just bow our heads you don't have to close your eyes for a word of prayer father god we thank you so much for your word thank you that it fills us i thank you that the word is alive and well and that it will not return void that it would set out to do exactly what it was intended to do and i pray that you would endow me with the strength to be able to rightly divide this word and we just thank you for our time together i pray for those who are tuning in and i pray that they will have something that they can take that's practical and palatable for them to be able to live out their lives for the remainder of their days in jesus name i pray amen today we are going to come from first peter 4 chapter 4. um we're going to start at verse 12 and we're going to go to verse 19. so first peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19 and i'll give you some time to to find it whether you have an actual paper copy or um you know your phone or your tablet or whatever you use i do not discriminate the word is the word wherever it lands okay first peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19 it says this dear friends do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal or darts that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of christ so that you may be over overjoyed when his glory is revealed if you are insulted because of the name of christ you are blessed for the spirit of glory and of god rests upon you if you suffer it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler however if you suffer as a christian do not be ashamed but praise god that you bear that name for it is time for judgment to begin with god's household and if it begins with us what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of god and if it is hard for the righteous to be saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner verse 19 so then those who suffer according to god's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good here in 1st peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19 all is simply talking about is what to expect as a christian as a result of bearing the christian name how we will most likely be treated as a result of it and how we should respond to such treatment let's walk the text together as we break bread and hopefully we all get good and full on this afternoon um so let's just start off with some background first peter was obviously written by peter the apostle who was one of the disciples that jesus kept close peter james and john are the top three peter was also known as a pillar within the church and his name literally means rock according to john chapter 1 verse 42 when jesus told him upon this rock i will build my church so peter was a leader and peter was trying to encourage those who were really going through it because christians were being severely mistreated and they were hated in rome at the time just to give you some background information about this particular text so verse 12. let's start off by starting at verse 12 verse 12 starts off with dear friends or some would say beloved these are both terms of endearment and it offers this demeanor of compassion uh this brings a bit of comfort to those whom he is writing to because of the news that is to follow which we've read together sometimes though it's good to know that you aren't alone in whatever it is that you're going through um when we get to verse 13 you'll see what that news is that's going to follow that i'm talking about so verses 12 and 13 suggests to us that we shouldn't think of trials tribulations circumstances situations or anything of the sort as strange it shouldn't be viewed as out of the ordinary but instead it should be viewed as an opportunity to participate in christ's sufferings because by doing this we will also get the distinct honor and privilege to partake of his glory in fact it tells us to rejoice because of the fact that we will be overjoyed at the aftermath of it all which is that his glory will be revealed at one point peter expressed to jesus that he didn't even want him to go forward with the suffering of the cross he was just being you know typical homeboy because who would actually choose to go forward with such suffering but now we see um and i'm sure peter eventually did as well why it had to be done jesus chose to go forward so that we could go forward and that's good news from glory um it's only right that we have the proper perspective when it comes to participating in christ's suffering because christ chose to participate in ours right if we think about it biblically our word tells us that jesus was the word wrapped in flesh and yet he humbled himself to have a commonality commonality with mankind so that it would make his sacrifice all the more worth it and meaningful anything that we can do to show that we're grateful the least that we can do is to be grateful that jesus blood was enough to atone for our sins and so it is a privilege to play a part and not even a fraction of what christ had to endure according to romans 8 and 18 our affliction is light and cannot be compared to the glory that will be revealed that just gets me excited i love that scripture but what i find is that we're here for the glory um we want to skip to the end and look over what all it would take to get to the glory it's as though we want the glory but not the story um it took something to get to where you are right now and had it not been for some of the things that you've come through you wouldn't be able to appreciate how you got over right the same rules apply here we are not exempt without an explanation the why of it all matters in order to get the glory we must learn to embrace the suffering that it will take to get to the glory and let's not forget that peter encourages us to rejoice in this suffering let's also not get so caught up on the suffering that we begin to undervalue the glory that is to come as well um the suffering is a precursor to victory i'ma say that again the suffering is a precursor to victory and we should fix our eyes on what a privilege it is to partake in the suffering of christ in hopes of the victory that is to come when we endure these trials with the correct lens but there's something here that i think if we skip over we will miss some very important news it says but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of christ this means in as much means there's a cap or a limit or an end at some point and that means that this is all temporary that means that it won't be like this always this suffering isn't permanent and understand that the sufferings that you all will endure or we will endure will reap a reward that far outweighs how we may be feeling right now in our present sufferings verse 14 reproach or insult some some would say some other versions for the sake of jesus's name that is a blessing i also want to note that there is a conjunction at the beginning of verse 14 the word if matters because that means that it may or may not happen every time this suggests that although suffering for christ's sake is necessary it won't always be like this in your relationship with him there will be some good times as well um on this side because i think sometimes we get so fixated on you know when i make it over to the other side but it's like the lord wants us to enjoy life on this side so following jesus doesn't always feel bad right it doesn't always include misery and you won't always be down trotting this matters because i think we can become fixated on the negative because of our lens right the problem here problem number one is what we view as negative from a human worldly perspective suffering is bad but the clause here is we don't suffer like the world does our suffering isn't in vain and ours isn't negative it's an honor to be relatable to the one who shed blood and took on the sins that i committed and that i will commit in the future and that we've committed and that we will commit in the future problem number two though is that it shouldn't be a problem at all right because we won't suffer always on this side of heaven why is it that we've become so obsessed right with being broke busted and disgusted right there is good to experience as a christian don't be fooled and so extra to the point that we fail to mention that there is much to be happy about while on this journey for christ as well but i digress i i'll i'll leave that there verse 15 says if you suffer there's that conjunction word again our sufferings won't be viewed as that of criminals or even a person that plays too much or middler we all know some of those people because those types of beings warrant consequences evil doers and believers are not the same okay evildoers sufferings warrant consequences believer's sufferings warrant great reward evildoers sufferings warrant consequences believers sufferings warrant great reward and while we are here i think it's important for us to establish that every suffering that we endure doesn't always bring glory to god right um some stuff we bring on ourselves uh spending our rent money on once and misappropriating our finances and or not prioritizing correctly and then looking to others to save us from our own bad habits doesn't bring glory to christ's name right so much that i can say here but what i will say is this and i'll move on it's not an accident that a meddler and a busybody is mentioned here amongst actions of evildoers such as murderers and thieves it's because hear me hear me good it's so easy for us to rank judge and to give other people labels right instead of considering some of the things that we do in our everyday day-to-day lives that doesn't make god's name great and doesn't bring glory to god verse 16 however if there's another word again you suffer as a christian there's nothing to be ashamed of why because there is now no condemnation to those who who are in christ jesus and who are called according to his purpose shame by definition means a painful feeling of humiliation or distress or remorse caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior this is important here because shame is mental conscious right so there's a difference between shame and guilt and i think sometimes we can kind of get mixed up in the differentiation between the two as well so shame is mental but guilt is literal right it means that you've actually done something wrong and the world has this way of making you feel like you've done something wrong when you actually have it there is no guilt when we legitimately suffer for christ's sake again i know what the world says right we should be upset we should be disgruntled we should be ashamed at suffering then pride sets in and then we look up and there's something else we gotta fight no we don't suffer the same way that those in the world do we are built different our suffering hits different we are not the same so quit letting the enemy guilt-trip you right if you do feel shame and it's it's normal here because again the world has a way of doing that you scripture says that that god will take the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and sometimes we get so caught up in those things that we look up we think we've done something wrong because we're different we are peculiar people we're supposed to feel different and there's nothing wrong with that so think it not strange when these things come about it's it's normal but understanding and know again we are not the same right our suffering is just it's different and not only is it different but our response is different literally the scripture tells us to rejoice in our sufferings the world looks at that it's like that's crazy right um it is what it is but that's that's the perk of being a christian that's the perk of bearing the christian name right so verse 17 and 18 are interesting when we take a more in-depth look here um our fire isn't even the same right for the believer our fiery trials are right now for the unbeliever their fire will come later that that did something to me in my study time so for the unbeliever their fire is punishment but our fire as believers yields something positive in fact our bible says that our fire purifies us and we should come forth as pure gold so while it may not seem like it because of our lens our sufferings produce purification not punishment our sufferings produce purification not punishment and because we're children of god the sufferings that we face currently is the worst that we will face that's good news what we endure is is is as bad as it's going to get on this side because we have more to look forward to uh this life is is for for the ungodly this life is the best that it's going to get for them right and there's nothing but an eternal fire when it's all said and done for them that the differentiation between the fires here is so is so so so very very important um so much so i think i'm gonna say that again what we endure here is as bad as it's going to get because we have something to look forward to and that's eternal life for the ungodly however this life on this side is the best that is going to get for them because there's not an eternal life waiting for them when it's all said and done when we look at verse 18 it says if it's hard for the righteous to be saved at first i kind of chuckled at this because i was like this is this is real here like it's it is hard for the righteous to be saved um but this isn't speaking about the fact that being a christian is hard because of all that you have to do in order to feel as though you're earning your salvation salvation can be earned that's not how this works uh what is being referred to here is that it's hard because of the challenge and discipline that takes place in us as a result of bearing the christian name right denying the flesh isn't easy friends it's just not um i know that y'all been saving the perfect all your life right but as for me it's not easy um saying no all the time uh it's hard out here but the reward is great we talked about earlier again peter differentiates between those who suffer as ungodly people versus those who suffer for the sake of christ again everything that we may suffer as believers isn't always necessarily godly i just want to make sure that we differentiate between the suffering for god's sake and the suffering for our flesh's sake right verse 19 shouts me out and y'all should know when it comes to me it doesn't take much to shout me the word does it for me but here in verse 19 the word commit here the word commit here in the greek get this translates to mean when you leave money on deposit with a friend that you really trust and this was one of the most sacred and admirable acts that a person could do to leave something of great value with someone that they trust and the trusted friend this is where it gets good the trusted friend is bound by honor to return the deposit intact okay let's try it this way let's try this way the word commit here is the same exact translation in one of jesus's last seven things when he told god into thy hands i commit my spirit and we know that god is the most trusted and faithful friend of all and we also know that god makes good on his word right jesus is at the right hand of the father right now and we too can have that same trust with the one who is the most faithful there is whatever you put in god's hands we have to trust literally here bound by honor to return it intact our lives are in tact we have eternal life waiting for us despite our current and present sufferings and we too can have that same trust with the one who is the most faithful there is y'all like there is no one greater there is no one more faithful um there is no one more honorable um and i am sure of this right that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of jesus christ that's philippians 1 and 6. he's the potter we are the clay and since he is the creator we can be confident being in his hands and allowing him to do what pleases him and what's best for us when it comes to our lives i pray and hope that there was many things not just something but many things here that you can take and that you can use and that you can be glad about right there's there's again there's so much to be happy about and joyful about even in our sufferings we are to rejoice we don't even respond the same so not only is the is the aftermath of our sufferings different not only are our sufferings different from those of unbelievers but our response should be different as the unbeliever so i i pray for you today and i hope that this was useful for you i know i know that it's easier said than done right we all go through things and i just want to challenge you to take a deeper look at the way that you're suffering and i want you to challenge yourself and ask yourself is this suffering because of what i've done or is this suffering for god's sake i think that that's important to ask ourselves as we continue in our journey and our relationship with christ let's pray father god thank you so much for this time spent together we thank you that the bread was broken and that we can digest it i pray that although some of it might have been a little difficult for us to digest nevertheless lord god we know that it is for our good so we thank you that not only is it an honor to be able to partake um in the sufferings that you may have had to partake in as well but that our um ending is different right how we respond is different help us to respond the way that you would have us to respond the way that first peter 4 suggests that we should rejoice in our present sufferings why because you you partook in our sufferings you humbled yourself wrapped in flesh came down here just so you could be closer to us and have something in common with us so we just appreciate you for your faithfulness i thank you that you are faithful i thank you that you are patient and i thank you for who you are not for necessarily what you can do and we praise you and we worship you i pray and i speak a special blessing and prayer over all of those who tuned in today and i pray that this is something that they can use that will bless not just them but the people that are in their lives as well thank you jesus thank you god for the son thank you that the blood still works in jesus name i pray amen you

Channel: Antioch Fellowship Church

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Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021