THE SECRET OF ENDURING TRIALS

1 PETER 1:6-12

          In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith and the salvation of your souls.

          As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries., seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

          It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look (NASB).

INTRODUCTION

          It’s going to be a bad day when you see a “60 minutes” news team in your office. You call Suicide Prevention, and they put you on hold. You turn on the news, and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city. Your twin sister forgot your birthday. Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway. Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat. Your income-tax check bounces. You put both contact lenses in the same eye.

          No one enjoys a visit to the dentist, although all enjoy the long-range benefits of the visit. In a similar way, no one enjoys the difficulties of a trial, but all who endure them enjoy the side effects of perseverance, proven character, and hope. I would like to share with you on the subject: The Secret of Enduring Trials.

I.                  THE POSSIBILITY OF JOY IN TRIALS VV. 6-7

          In these verses, Peter comes to the actual situation in life in which his readers found themselves. Their Christianity had always made them unpopular, but now they were facing almost certain persecution. Soon the storm was going to break and life was going to be an agonizing thing. Jesus warns all of us who would become His disciples that the Christian life would sometimes be turbulent because there are adversaries. In the face of that threatening situation, Peter in effect reminds us of three reasons we can stand anything that come upon us.

          First, we can stand anything because of what we are able to anticipate. At the end of this brief life, there is the magnificent inheritance; that is life with God. When things have reached their limit, that the saving power of Christ will be displayed. For those of us who are Christians, persecutions and troubles are not the end; beyond lays the glory, and in the hope of that glory, we can endure anything that life brings to us. It sometimes happens that we have to undergo a painful operation or course of treatment; but we gladly accept the pain and the discomfort because of the renewed health and strength, which lie beyond. It is one of the basic facts of life that a man can endure anything so long as he has something to look forward to—and the Christian can look forward to ultimate joy.

          Second, we can stand anything that comes if we remember that every trial is, in fact, a test. Before gold is pure, it has to be tested in the fire. The trials, which come to us, test our faith and out of them, that faith can emerge stronger than ever before. The trainings that an athlete has to undergo are not meant to make him collapse but to make him able to develop more strength and staying power or stamina. In this world, trials are not meant to suck our strength, but to put strength into us. Peter says that in the meantime Christians may well have to undergo various trials. The Greek word is poikilos, which literally means many colored. Peter uses that word only one more time and it is to describe the grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10). Peter then, is saying our troubles as Christians may be many colored (variegated), but so is the grace of God; there is no color in the human situation which that grace cannot match. There is God’s grace to match every trial and there is no trial without His grace.

          Third, we can stand anything because at the end of it, when Jesus Christ appears, we will receive from Him praise, glory, and honor. Repeatedly in this life, we make our biggest efforts and do our best work, not for pay or profit, but in order to see the light in someone’s eyes and to hear his word of praise. These things mean more than anything else does in the world. We know that if we endure the trials of life, we will in the end hear the Master’s, “Well done!”

          Several years ago, a man reported his observations of the effects of a hurricane on a southeastern Gulf Coast town of the United States. As he walked up and down the ravaged streets, he observed that the palm trees had been uprooted and flung about. Once tall and majestic, their root systems were too shallow to withstand the hurricane force winds. But as he proceeded, he came upon a lone oak tree. The leaves had been blown away and some of the smaller branches have been ripped off, but the roots had gone deep, and the tree held its position. And in due season it would again produce leaves.

          So it is with us. If we are to endure in times of great stress and difficulty, we must beforehand have put down a depth of character that will sustain the blows of the trial.

          Therefore, in this passages Peter provides us with the recipe for endurance when life is hard and faith is difficult. We can stand up to the things because of the greatness to which we can look forward, because every trial is another test to strengthen and to purify our faith, and because at the end of it Jesus Christ is waiting to say, “Well done!” to all His faithful servants.

          The Christians to whom Peter wrote his Letter were the target of persecution. They were under persecution because they refused to worship the emperor as a god and thus were viewed as atheists and traitors. They refused to worship at pagan temples, so business for these moneymaking enterprises dropped wherever Christianity took hold. The Christians also exposed and rejected the horrible immorality of pagan culture. It is like the billion-dollar pornographic business and the gay agenda today. Some of them are trying to intimidate Pastors and Christians. It is said that in some countries  a preacher can be jailed because he preaches that homosexual lifestyle is a sin. In fact, Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:12 that all believers who desire to live godly lives will suffer persecution.

II.               INVISIBLE BUT NOT UNKOWN VV. 8-9

          In these verses, Peter is drawing an implicit contrast between himself and his readers. It was his great privilege to have known Jesus in the days of His flesh. Peter was one of the disciples and commissioned apostles of Jesus Christ. He walked with Him, ate with Him, talked with Him, touched Him, and saw almost all the miracles that Jesus performed. You and I and the believers that were the primary recipients of this letter had not had that privilege and joy. Though, we do not see Jesus bodily we believe in Him and love Him with our whole heart. The belief we have in Jesus brings to us a joy that is beyond words and clad with glory for even here and now it makes us certain of the ultimate welfare of our lives. In other words, we will spend eternity with Christ when He returns. The context suggests that the joy that suffering Christians experience is the joy of the end time overflowing into the present. This joy is inexpressible. It is the joy that cannot be expressed fully either in words or in deeds.

          There are stages in our understanding of Jesus Christ. The first is the stage of hope and desire, the stage of those who throughout the ages dreamed of the coming of the King. As Jesus Himself said to His disciples, “Many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it” Luke (10:23-24). There were the days of longings and expectations, which were never realized.

          The second stage came to those who knew Christ in the flesh (physically). That is what Peter is thinking about here. That is what Peter was thinking about when he said to Cornelius; “We are witnesses to all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem” (Acts 10:39). Our knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ is dependent on the testimony of those who walked with Him. These were eyewitnesses of what Jesus did and said. We call this the “apostolic testimony.” These are not fables or fabricated stories but authentic and inspired writings of godly men of God.

          The third stage is that there are those in every nation and time who see Jesus with the eye of faith. Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” (John 20:29). This way of seeing Jesus is possible because He is not someone who lived and died and exists only as a character in a book, but someone who lived and died and is alive forevermore. Jesus is not a memory; He is a Person whom you can meet. When a person dies the family takes flowers to the burial place during his/her anniversary, but we do not have to do that when it comes to Jesus, because He is not in a tomb. He is alive; He is risen never to die again.

          The fourth stage is the beatific vision. It was the Apostle John’s confidence that we shall see Jesus as He is (1 John 3:2). The Apostle Paul said, “For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). If your eye of faith endures, the day will come when it will be the eye of sight, and we shall see Him face to face and know even as we are known.

III.           THE PROPHECY OF THE GLORIOUS

          SALVATION VV. 10-12

          Here again we have a nugget from the pen of Peter. The wonder of the salvation that was to come to us in Christ was such that the prophets searched and enquired about it; and even the angels were eager to catch a glimpse of it. Few passages have more to tell us about how the prophets wrote and about how they were inspired.

          We are told of two things about the prophets. First, they searched and enquired about the salvation, which was to come. Second, the Spirit of Christ told them about Christ. The Holy Spirit revealed to them that in their prophecies they were not serving themselves but Peter’s readers of which we are also beneficiaries. The revelation to the prophets of the suffering and glory awake in them an eager desire to know when these things will take place. This led to further revelation in their prophecies regarding the Messiah’s sufferings and glory, but the prophets were not ministering to their own day but to an age to come. For example, passages such as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13-53:12 found their consummation and fulfillment in the sufferings of Christ. Passages such as Psalm 2, Psalm 16:8-11, and Psalm 110, found their fulfillment in the glory and triumph of Christ. Therefore, we are not to think that the prophets saw the actual man Jesus. They did foresee that there will come one in whom their dreams and visions would be realized.

          This text tells us for whom the prophets spoke. It was the message of the glorious deliverance of God that they brought to fallen humans. That was a deliverance, which they themselves did not experience. Sometimes God gives a person a vision, but says to the person, “Not yet!” God took Moses to Mount Pisgah and showed him the Promised Land and said to him, “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there” (Deut. 34:1-4). This has led to the adage, “Your eyes will see Canaan but your feet shall not step there.” One thing I see about the prophets is that though they were not the immediate beneficiaries of the prophecies, they were not selfish to share what the Lord had revealed to them. What are you doing with what Jesus Christ has revealed to you in His Word? Are you sharing it or keeping it to yourself? If somebody did not share the gospel with you, you would not have been saved today. What is the gospel? It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Any message that we preach or share, if it has none of these components in it, it is not the gospel. Furthermore, the gospel is what brings about salvation. Therefore, we are to point people to the fact that they are sinners, they cannot save themselves, and that they should come to Jesus to receive salvation. Salvation is the deliverance from sin and ultimate destruction.

          The preaching of the prophets is the announcement of salvation. Preaching may at times have to warn, threaten, and condemn of sin; the preacher may have to remind people of the judgment and wrath of God, but basically, beyond all else, his message is the announcement of salvation.

          This passage tells us that preaching is through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. The preacher’s message is not his own; it is given to him. He brings not his own opinions and even prejudices; he brings the truth as given him by the Holy Spirit.

          The passage also tells us that the preacher’s message is of things of which the angels long to catch a glimpse. Therefore, there is no excuse for triviality in preaching. The salvation of God is a tremendous thing. It is with this message of salvation and the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ that the preacher must ever appear before men and women.