2010-10-24: It Comes As No Surprise

Sermon: It Comes As No Surprise
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 29:24
Size: 13.4 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“It Comes As No Surprise”
1 Peter 4:12-19

I. The Passage: “Do Not be Surprised” (4:12-19)

Why were his readers surprised by their suffering?

Maybe their belief that suffering was “something strange” flowed out of a belief that Christianity was only about victory, and glory, and prosperity, and blessing, and a crown.

Their understanding of God and salvation, their theology, has a hard time dealing with the subject of suffering.

II. It’s Not “Strange”, It’s…

Peter gives five reasons why suffering is not “something strange“.

1. The Father’s Test (4:12)

Suffering is a refining tool that God the Father uses to test and prove the genuineness of our faith.

2. The Son’s Sufferings (4:13)

Because we are in Christ, we experience the very hostility and resistance that resulted in Jesus being hung on the cross.

There is no Christianity without the cross. There is no genuine salvation that only offers a crown.

Wherever “the rub” is felt, we know that such sufferings demonstrate our connection with Jesus.

3. The Spirit’s Evidence (4:14)

Peter is reminding them here that their suffering is not “something strange”, but is in fact a wonderful reminder that God’s Spirit is working in and through us.

When we suffer for Him, we should be encouraged by the fact that our suffering is evidence that God is very near…that He is working in us through His Spirit.

4. An Opportunity to Glorify God! (4:15-16)

Peter wants to make sure that his readers make sure that they are suffering for the right reasons.

If anyone is suffering for the right reasons, let them not be ashamed, but glorify God in the name.

5. The Beginning of Judgment Day (4:17-18)

So here he is saying that your suffering is not “something strange” because this is what we should expect at the beginning of the great Day of Judgment.

III. True Protection (4:19)

Because suffering is not “something strange”, but is in fact, the Father’s test, and the Son’s sufferings, and the Spirit’s evidence, and an opportunity to glorify God, and a sign of the beginning of Judgment Day, therefore

True protection in the face of suffering can only be found in the One who made us.

How is He calling you to endure this morning in your suffering for Christ, maybe he’s calling you to rejoice and count yourself blessed in that suffering?

The call of the gospel is that our eyes are always fixed on the cross of Jesus Christ.

Next Week
“The Chief Shepherd”

1 Peter 5:1-4