Trials and Glory - Part 4 - 1 Peter 4:12-14

1 Peter 4:12: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Well, my Bible tells me, don’t be surprised; persecution is coming. You see, there was a time in Peter's life when he did not believe that suffering and the Christian life went together. He was following the Lord Jesus Christ along with the other disciples. One day at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked them, "Whom do people say that I am?" And they reported, "Well, some say you're Jeremiah, some say you are Elijah, some say you are John the Baptist come back from the dead." How confused the public can be about the Lord Jesus. And then He said, "Well, now you men, whom do you say that I am?" And Peter spoke up and said, "Why, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God." He gave his witness of his faith in Christ. 

It was then that Jesus told the disciples He was going to go to Jerusalem and that He was going to die. And you'll recall in Matthew 16:22 how Peter got Jesus off to one side and said, "Far be it from you, Lord, that you should suffer or die. Pity yourself. We're talking about a kingdom. We're talking about the building of the church. Now surely you're not going to go and die." Peter did not understand the relationship between suffering and glory. He thought that suffering and glory were incompatible. It's interesting in this first letter that Peter wrote, he uses suffering and glory about sixteen times. He mentions the glory of God and glorifying God. He mentions suffering, and over and over again he connects suffering and glory. He learned his lesson, didn't he? You see, we pray, "Oh God, be glorified in my life." How is God glorified in our lives? Oftentimes through suffering.

Well, Peter said, think it not strange. Don't be surprised because official persecution is coming. There are places in this world where believers are experiencing brutal persecution, and there have been many, many who have laid down their lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, persecution did come on July 16, 64 AD. Nero, the emperor, got the Roman fire going, and official persecution broke loose against the church. Peter said you're going to suffer for righteousness' sake. Now, I don't want you to suffer because of your sins. 1 Peter 4:15: Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Suffer for righteousness' sake. And he compares it to a fiery trial. 1 Peter 4:12: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.

You know, in the Bible, the trials and testings of life are pictured in different ways. Sometimes the trials are pictured as storms. "All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me," said the psalmist. Sometimes the trials of life are pictured as battles. I had a Christian friend who's now home in glory. Whenever he met me, he would say, "Well, how goes the battle?" And sometimes it is a battle. We are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. But here he compares the trials of life to a fiery furnace. And the point he's making is simply this: You and I as believers need not fear the fiery trials. Why? Well, because we understand the purposes that God is seeking to accomplish in these fiery trials. 

You see, times of trial are, first of all, times of revealing. If you want to find out what you are really like, then go through the fiery furnace. Fire has the ability to test the nature of things. You put paper into the fire, it becomes ashes. You put wood into the fire, it takes a little longer, but that wood becomes ashes. You put gold into the fire, you put silver into the fire, the dross comes to the top, you skim off the dross, and you end up with pure, expensive, valuable, beautiful metal. You see, the fire determines the nature of things. This is why in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, Paul said all of our works are going to be tested. He’s talking about believers building the local church. Are you building the local church with wood and hay and stubble—cheap ingredients, cheap materials that you can pick up on the surface of the ground? When the fire hits that wood and hay and straw, it's all going to burn up. Or he says, are you building God’s church with that which is precious and valuable: gold and silver and precious stones? When they go through the fire, they come out pure, they come out beautiful, and they last.

The times of trial are times of revealing. Now, they don't reveal anything to God. God knows everything about us. Why put us through the fiery furnace? We don’t know about ourselves. Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, you’re boasting that you’re going to go with me to prison and death. Peter, before the cock crows, you’re going to deny me three times." Peter said, "Oh, I’ll never do a thing like that," and so said the other disciples. Each of those men was sure that he would stand true to the Lord, and each one failed miserably. You don’t know your own heart. Jeremiah tells us the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Now God is going to permit the fiery trial to come because times of trial are times of revealing. It’s going to reveal who is really trusting the Lord.

Yes, the fiery trial is going to come. But times of trial are times of revealing. And if you’re walking close with the Lord and you know Him and love Him, don't be afraid of the fiery trial. The furnace can only polish you. It can only cleanse you. It can only refine you, which is our next point. Times of trial are times not only of revealing but times of refining. 1 Peter 4:12: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. Peter had talked about this fiery testing earlier in his letter. 1 Peter 1:7: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 

You see, God tests our faith. Now the devil attacks our faith. He wants to weaken our faith. But God tests our faith and tries our faith in order to purify it and strengthen it. That's why He did what He did to Job. And Job began to understand what God was doing. Job 23:10. Here's what Job said: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And he did. At the end of Job’s trial, he came forth purified and bringing glory to the Lord. Isaiah 48:10 reads like this: Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Not, "I have chosen thee out on vacation sitting at the beach." Nothing wrong with vacations and beaches. But the Christian life is not comfort; the Christian life is being made like the Lord Jesus, and that means suffering. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And if you’re one of God’s chosen ones, you’re going to have to go through the furnace. Why? It's a time of refining.

You see, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ constantly needs to be purified. Our values are wrong. We're putting our money and our time and our interest and our concern in things that really are not going to last. And God said, "I've got to put my people through the furnace. The only way I can purify them, the only way I can melt them together, is to put them through the furnace." Now, don't think that this is something strange. You say, "I'm living for the Lord on my job. I’m honest. The other fellows or the other girls in our office or job are crooked; they’re lying, they’re cheating, they’re stealing. I’m being honest, and I’m getting persecuted. Where is God?" God's right there. God knows all about it. 

Peter is saying you rejoice because you are partakers of Christ's suffering. Why did they crucify Him? Because His light was shining and it exposed all the dirt in their lives. Why did they crucify Jesus? Because He spoke the truth and exposed the lies in their lives. Why was the Lord Jesus Christ crucified? Because He dared to obey the will of His Father. Now times of trial are times of revealing. You’re going to learn a lot about yourself when you go through the trial. You’re going to find out what you really trust. You’ll discover how deep the roots are, how strong the foundations are. And times of trial are times of refining. God puts us through the furnace not that He might punish us, but that He might purify us. He knows just how long and just how much because He wants you to come forth as pure gold.

God never promised to make you comfortable. Nowhere in the Christian life is there the assurance that we will always have it easy. The Bible doesn’t promise an easy life. Rather, it does promise that God is going to refine us, He’s going to work on us, that we might be more like the Lord Jesus. And so times of trial are times of revealing, and times of refining. In 1 Peter 4:13, we’re told that they are also times of rejoicing. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:14: If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. Now He uses "rejoice," "be glad," "exceeding joy," "happy." Isn't that interesting? He uses these different words to tell us one thing: that even though there is suffering, even though there is pain, even though we may hurt, we can experience rejoicing. 

Now you can't explain this psychologically. The unsaved crowd thinks that Christians are crazy because we have joy in the midst of sorrow. Our Lord Jesus Christ, just before He went to the cross, met with His disciples and He said, "Now my joy I want to be in you." Can you imagine that? Going off to a cross to be ridiculed, to be humiliated—oh, how He suffered, oh, how He suffered—and yet He talked about His joy. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. That's amazing, isn't it? Our Lord had joy in the midst of suffering and sorrow, and so may we. In fact, Peter talked about that back in 1 Peter 1:7: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

That’s the same word he uses back here in 1 Peter 4:13—exceeding joy. Joy unspeakable, full of glory. He’s talking here about the fact that you and I can have rejoicing in the midst of reviling. We can have rejoicing in the midst of reproaching. We can have rejoicing in the midst of pain and suffering and difficulty. Now why? Peter's not denying the reality of the pain. He’s not denying the reality of the hurt. What he’s saying is that God transforms that pain into joy. God transforms suffering into rejoicing. Now, how is this possible? 

Well, number one, we rejoice because our suffering gives us the assurance that we are saved. That's important. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 and said, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now, if you're not suffering in some way for your faith, I wonder if you have any faith. A faith that can’t be tested can’t be trusted. I notice in the parable of the sower that when the seed is sown and the plants start to come up, there's persecution. The sun rises, and where there are no roots, those plants just withered away. The sun represents the persecution that comes because of the word. Now, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and you’re living for him, but you’re wondering about that fiery trial, that fiery trial is evidence that you are a Christian. There are those today who preach, "If you don’t have faith, then this won’t happen and that won’t happen," and so forth and so on. And yet Peter says, "My friend, you're going through the fiery trial because you do have faith." We rejoice in the times of trial, not because we rejoice at hurting, not because we rejoice at suffering—it’s the assurance that God has saved us. Once again let me quote for you Isaiah 48:10. You ought to mark this verse in your Bible. Isaiah 48:10: Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And when you’re in the furnace of affliction, it’s proof that God has chosen you.

There’s a second reason why we rejoice. It’s because we are sharing in the fellowship of his suffering. Did you notice that? 1 Peter 4:13: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Paul talks about this in Philippians 3:10: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. In Acts 5:41, this is what we read about the apostles: And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. They departed rejoicing that they were able to fellowship with Jesus Christ in his sufferings. When people start treating you the way they treated the Lord Jesus, that’s a good sign that you’re growing in the Lord; you've been promoted.

Now just think about that. Peter’s not saying to us, "You’re suffering because you spoke too much," or, "You’re suffering because you criticized," or, "You’re suffering because you did some sin." No. He’s saying you’re suffering because you did righteousness. You’re living like the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we start living the way Jesus lived, they’ll start treating us the way they treated him. They’ll lie about us. They’ll ridicule us. They’ll reproach us. They’ll do their best to destroy us. And when these things come to your life, they mean that God has promoted you to the fellowship of his sufferings.

Yes, times of trial are times of rejoicing because they assure us that we are saved. They promote us into the fellowship of his suffering. And thirdly, they assure us of future glory. Notice what he says in 1 Peter 4:13: Inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Today we rejoice because we’re a part of his fellowship—the fellowship of his suffering. But tomorrow, when our Lord Jesus returns, we’re going to rejoice with exceeding joy. We’re going to see all that suffering turned into glory, which leads us to a fourth reason why we rejoice: we are glorifying his name now. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, on your part he is glorified. Right now today we are glorifying the Lord by the way we respond to trials. Instead of complaining, we’re rejoicing. Instead of getting impatient, we wait on the Lord. Oh, how we need this. God cleanses us. There are times of rejoicing—rejoicing because we know we’re saved, rejoicing because we’re fellowshipping with Christ in his suffering.

But times of trial are also times of refreshing. That may sound strange. He tells us in 1 Peter 4:14, the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. That word resteth means to rest with refreshing power. It means the spirit of God comes and rests upon you and refreshes you as you're going through the furnace. You see, we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit when we're going through the furnace. We have to be like Stephen. He was arrested; he was lied about. I read in Acts 6:15: And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. The glory of God rested upon Stephen. Stephen was able to pray for his murderers, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." The refreshing work of the Holy Spirit of God. Peter’s talking here about the Shekinah glory. Back in the Old Testament, the glory of God dwelt in the tabernacle and dwelt in the temple. And now Peter is saying when you go through the furnace, you’re not alone. The Holy Spirit of God rests upon you in a refreshing and renewing way. I can’t explain this, but I’ve experienced it. The furnace seems to be heated seven times, and yet that Holy Spirit of God rests upon you with refreshing and renewing power. And so you see the question when you go through the furnace is not how can I get out of it? The question is what can I get out of it to the glory of God?