Now let us turn together in our
Bibles once more, this time to 1 Peter, 1 Peter and chapter
3. Now I know many of you have the new
King James Version, and I apologize for not taking just a moment
to explain why in my reading of the passage, Last Lord's Day,
and in my preaching of it, I kept insisting that Peter wrote, Sanctify
Christ as Lord, and you were looking at your Bible and it
says, Sanctify the Lord God. Well, if you look in your margin,
you will notice in that little key to the various textual variants,
that is, the manuscripts from which People compile a Greek
text, and from which they then will translate into an English
version. They were using manuscripts that
say the Lord God. But in my judgment and the judgment
of the majority of current evangelical scholars, that the greater and
more reliable manuscript evidence points to the translation that
you find in the center margin of your New King James, namely
sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. But I should have at
least explained that. Some of you children may have
been wondering why pastors making such a big point of the deity
of Christ when Christ was not even mentioned in that passage
in your version. All right, follow then as I read
beginning in verse 13. Chapter 3 in verse 13. And who
is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good?
But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed
are you. And fear not their fear, neither
be troubled. But sanctify in your hearts Christ
as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man that
asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet
with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that wherein
you are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile
your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better, if the will
of God should so will, that you suffer for well-doing than for
evil-doing. Because Christ also suffered
for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he
might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
made alive in the Spirit, in which he also went and preached
unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when
the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the
ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were
saved through water, which also, after a true likeness, does now
save you, even baptism, not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience towards
God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is on the
right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities
and powers being made subject unto him. In one way or another, to one
degree or another, at one time or another, every real Christian
will suffer for the sake of Christ. You heard those words last Lord's
Day, and God willing you're going to hear them for at least several
more Lord's Days. And I hope by the time we're
done working our way through verses 13 to 22 of 1 Peter, you
will be persuaded that in one way or another, to one degree
or another, at one time or another, every real Christian will suffer
for the sake of Christ. as surely as authentic Christian
experience involves repentance towards God and faith toward
the Lord Jesus, and no one instructed in the most elementary truths
of the New Testament would deny that, would he? What would you
think of the person who said, oh yes, I'm a Christian, but
I have nothing to do with repentance toward God and faith toward the
Lord Jesus? Or if you heard someone say,
I am a true proponent of the apostolic and biblical gospel,
but I don't believe repentance and faith are of any importance,
you'd say, look, you're missing it in something that is the very
heart of true Christian experience. Well, likewise, I'm asserting
that as surely as no authentic Christian experience would exclude
repentance and faith, So likewise, the truly penitent and believing
child of God is to be brought into the crucible of suffering
for the sake of the Christ upon whom he has believed. Across
the whole spectrum of all the possible kinds of suffering,
from the snubbing and frown of one's peers, to the emotional
distance and opposition of one's own blood relatives, to the bypassing
of a deserved promotion in the workplace, the precipitation
of slander and false accusation, all the way to the end of the
spectrum of the martyr's stake, of the martyr's bullet, or the
martyr's axe or club, plus anything in between. From the frown of
peers to the stake of the martyr, every true Christian will sooner
or later suffer for the sake of his attachment to Jesus Christ. Romans 8 and verse 17, if that
were the only text, would bear the weight of that assertion,
having spoken of the reality of our sonship attested by the
Holy Spirit Paul goes on to say in Romans 8, 17, "...and if we
are children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified
together with him." And you have two Greek words, each one with
the prefix sun, which means together. And you have, on the one hand,
you have together with Christ in his suffering, together with
Christ in his glory, and no one comes to the togetherness of
glory bypassing the togetherness of suffering. The apostle by
the Spirit of God has joined them as inseparable realities. And we come this morning again
to this portion of 1 Peter, in which Peter is dealing with that
which is the heart of his apostolic and pastoral burden for those
saints in those five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. It is the whole
issue of how he as Christ's servant is committed to a ministry of
seeking to enlighten to comfort and to strengthen the people
of God in the face of the present and future suffering. Our way through verses 13 to
17, and I call that passage suffering 101. In it, Peter gives some
of the fundamental perspectives on the subject of suffering for
righteousness sake. Now remember, It is not the generic
suffering common to all men in a falling world. It is a more
limited kind of suffering. It is suffering, verse 14, for
the sake of righteousness. It is the suffering that comes
as a direct response to the evidence of a vital attachment to the
Lord Jesus in life and in profession. And because no Christian will
forever be a stranger to suffering, no Christian can be indifferent
to this apostolic instruction. Now having given the basics of
what the believers are to think about suffering, that they are
not to be surprised if it does come upon them, they are to regard
themselves as blessed, their central duty is to set apart
Christ as Lord in their hearts, and those attendant realities
ready to give an answer with a right disposition out of the
context of a validating life After giving the crowning encouragement
in verse 17, it is better if the will of God should so will
that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing, Peter launches
into this lengthy statement beginning in verse 18 concluding with verse
22, that many serious students of the Word of God regard as
one of the most difficult passages in all of the New Testament.
Some regard it as the most difficult passage. What in the world is
this business of Christ going and preaching to spirits in prison? What is this business of baptism
saving us? These are difficult matters to
understand, and I could not help but think of Peter's words about
some of Paul's writings in 2 Peter 3. It says, Our beloved brother
Paul, as in all his epistles, has written some things hard
to be understood. I think if Paul had read this
section in Peter, he would have said, Peter, you've indulged
in it as well. You've written some things hard
to be understood. And as Peter said of Paul's hard-to-be-understood
things, the ignorant and the unstable twist them to their
own destruction. What is in this passage has also
been twisted to the destruction of people's souls. But what we
must remember, and I think it will be most helpful to you as
it has been to me, if we will not get ourselves on track from
Peter's basic purpose, what in the world is he doing in this
passage? He is seeking to instruct Christians
concerning the subject of suffering. to instruct them in such a way
as to encourage them, to stabilize them, to enable them to face
their sufferings in a way that will glorify God and advance
the cause of the gospel. Peter did not write these things
out of that pervasively practical and pastoral passion and then
turn around and write things that would simply give fuel to
future heretics to concoct their heresies. Nor did he write to
confuse those ordinary believers Nor did he write simply to give
fuel for men seeking to earn a Ph.D. degree and who do their
doctoral thesis on some aspect of this passage, and such theses
have been written, and more than one. When one begins to plow
through the literature on this passage, it is amazing how much
can be written that gives so little light and only adds to
the confusion. However, as we come to the passage,
we're going to come to it with this issue constantly before
the eyes of our souls. What is there in the passage
calculated to enlighten to encourage and strengthen believers facing
their present suffering and possible future sufferings for the cause
of Christ. Now, we know that there is a
connection because notice how verse 18 begins. It begins with
the words, because, and we know immediately then that there is
a logical and a thematic link between verse 18 and what follows,
and what precedes, at least in verse 17, if not the larger context
beginning with verse 13. He says, it is better, if the
will of God so will, that you suffer for well-doing than for
evil doing, because, because there is a clear, logical, and
thematic connection. Peter has not lost his track,
he has not suddenly gone out as it were, on the porch, scratched
his head and said, I'm going to think about some very marginal
ideas that I've heard floating around and give vent to them.
No, he is writing under the inspiration of the Spirit with a heart that
feels the pressure of his Christ-given commission to feed the sheep
and lambs of Christ's flock. And I would like you to imagine
that you are sitting there in an assembly of God's people somewhere
there in one of those five Roman provinces, and you have heard
someone appointed by the leadership to read the epistle when it first
came, and you've heard the words of verses 13 through 17, culminating
in the words, it is better if the will of God should so will
to suffer for doing well than for evil doing. And then there's a pause. And
the one who's reading is letting some of that sink in. And after
a brief pause, he begins with the words, because. And all the ears perk up. What
is going to follow the because? And the first thing that would
strike your ears are because Christ also suffered. And you are being taken to the
central issue of your Christian faith. the doctrine of Christ
dying, Christ suffering. And as the passage unfolds in
its initial content, it is Christ suffering for sins, the righteous
for the unrighteous. This one who was doing this to
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, made alive
in the Spirit. There is really nothing that's
very complicated in that verse, is there? It's dealing with familiar
territory. Now, if you'll just regard the
next three verses, verses 19, 20, and 21, as a parenthesis
with me. Move down to verse 22. Move from
verse 18. to verse 22, who is on the right
hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities
and powers being made subject to him. If sitting there in one
of those initial assemblies, all you heard was this, it is
better to suffer if the will of God should so be, because
Christ also suffered for sins once. the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but made alive in the Spirit, who is on the right hand of God,
having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being
made subject to him." You would not have left the assembly that
morning scratching your head, saying to one of your fellow
believers as you walked together to a place where you were going
to have lunch in the home of one of another of the believers,
saying, what in the world was Peter talking about? Had he only
given what is found in our Bibles in verses 18 and 22, we would
have gone home chewing over those central realities and wrestling
with the question, how does his suffering for us relate to our
sufferings? How does his suffering for sins,
followed by his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and
the subjugation of all spiritual powers to him, how does that
relate to our sufferings? You would be chewing over how
the common stuff of your common faith related to the common problem
of your sufferings. Agree with me? You still with
me? Or have I left you an Asia Minor somewhere? You see? It's
those middle verses that are the sticky wicket. They're the
difficulty in the passage. And most commentators have noted
that the bookends of the passage, the introductory statement and
the concluding statement, are, in the words of one commentator,
thus however dark and impenetrable may be the cloud of mystery that
overhangs the middle portion of the passage, Every eye can
clearly discern its commencement and its termination, the former
in the vicarious sufferings and atoning death of the Savior,
and the latter in his triumphant ascension and session at God's
right hand. Well, I want us to concentrate
this morning on the part that's clear, and then God willing,
next Lord's Day, I'll attempt to roll up my sleeves and work
with you through that which is less clear. And as we begin with
what is clear, I want you to note with me under these two
heads the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ
and the suffering of his people, And then secondly, the exclusive
aspects of the sufferings of Christ on the behalf of his people. So we're going to note areas
of similarity between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings
of his people. And then aspects of disparity,
dissimilarity. Areas where there are exclusive
aspects of the sufferings of Christ on the behalf of his people. First of all then, the basic
similarities between the sufferings of Christ and the suffering of
his people. Peter has written in verse 14,
but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, verse
17, it is better if the will of God so will that you suffer
for well-doing. Now he says, because Christ also
suffered. And that little word, also, is
critical. I'm amazed how many commentators,
I think, miss the mark in their treatment of the passage because
they treat it as though it simply said, because Christ suffered
for sins. And then they launch into this
marvelous exposition of the vicarious sufferings of Christ on behalf
of his people, and they make no connection between the sufferings
of the people of God and the sufferings of Christ. But the
Spirit of God has made a connection. Peter has said, if you should
suffer, and then again in verse 17, if the will of God should
so will that you suffer, when you come to suffer, remember,
Christ also suffered. And you are to bring his sufferings
into the theater of your contemplation of your own sufferings. For Christ also suffered. You Christians in Asia Minor,
you are suffering. You are about to suffer. When
you suffer, remember, you have a fellow sufferer. For Christ
also suffered because Christ also suffered. Now, some of you
may have a rendering that says Christ also died. And again, it's a matter of the
manuscripts. And I am persuaded and I'll not
give the reasons that what is in the New King James, the old
American standard, many of the current renditions of scripture,
that the word suffering is the proper word. And by the use of
this word, Peter brings their sufferings and Christ's sufferings
into the closest conjunction. Therefore, my first heading is
the basic similarities between the sufferings of Christ and
the sufferings of his people. Old Archbishop Leighton said,
God had one son without sin. He has none. without suffering. One son without sin, but none
without suffering. He has a suffering son and all
the sons whom he's been bringing to glory, they are suffering
sons with him. Now, what are the basic similarities
in the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of his people?
Well, let me suggest that there are at least three. Number one,
His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness.
His sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness. Earlier, Peter had described
the Lord Jesus in chapter 2 and verse 22 in these words, who
did no sin Neither was guile found in his mouth. He was the
utterly, perfectly sinless one. Here in this passage, he is described
as the righteous one. Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the unrighteous. Now what relevance does this
have to the people of God? Well, Peter has described the
people as those who are committed to a life of righteousness. They are determined, notice up
in verse 12, to be such as those upon whom the Lord looks with
favor, for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. Verse 14, but if you should suffer
for righteousness sake, And using different terminology, he says,
it is good and better, if the will of God should so will, that
you suffer for doing good. The suffering that they are experiencing
and will yet experience is suffering that comes to them, not in the
way of evil doing, but in the way of doing well. It comes in
the way of righteousness. And on the very surface then,
Peter's encouraging these saints, saying, you're not the first
ones to suffer in the way of righteousness. Your Lord and
Savior, the perfectly righteous one, has gone before you. And
that very term is one of the terms that is an apostolic designation
of the Lord Jesus. In Acts 3, Peter's preaching
and he calls him the righteous one whom they rejected and crucified. In Acts 7, Stephen refers to
him as the righteous one. And again, in Acts 22, 14, Ananias
speaks of him as the righteous one. And in 1 John 2, 1, I write
these things to you that you may not sin, but if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous
one. Now think what this would mean
to these believers. here by the grace of God and
the outworking of their new birth and their union with Christ and
the purification of their souls, leaving them in the posture of
commitment to obedience to the truth as he describes it in chapter
1 in verse 22, They are determined to live righteous lives, not
to earn their salvation, but because they've received the
free gift of an imputed righteousness. But out of love to the God who
has given that gift, and because of the regenerating work of the
Spirit implanting within them a passion to be righteous, to
be like their Savior, they are suffering. And Peter says, look,
Christ also suffered. He suffered. in the way of righteousness,
and your suffering then brings you more deeply into fellowship,
union, and communion with your Lord Himself. Now, many of us
don't think in terms of fellowship, union, and communion with Christ
in terms of suffering, but I remind you that that was one of the
passions of the Apostle Paul. He said in Philippians 3 that
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I suffered the loss of all things
and count them but refuse that I may gain Christ and be found
in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness
which is from God by faith. But he doesn't stop there. He
says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings. He has a passion to know communion
with Christ in his sufferings. As much as he has a passion to
be found in union with Christ, possessing a righteousness, not
his own. And it is The experience of the
people of God who are in Christ, for this is the way Peter had
described them, they revile your good manner of life in Christ. The doctrine of union with Christ
was not far from Peter's mind. And that union with Christ is
surely as it brings us into a union that makes it right for God to
impute his righteousness to us. It is a union that will inevitably
bring us into the train of the fellowship of his sufferings. And Peter comforts them by saying
there is a similarity between the sufferings of Christ and
the sufferings of his people. The first area of similarity
is that his sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness,
and so were theirs. But secondly, his sufferings
resulted in much good. According to the text, his sufferings
accomplished the salvation of sinners. Christ also suffered
for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he
might bring us to God. The highest good that could ever
come to men has come through the sufferings of Christ. Now,
Peter, all through his epistle, has been trying to educate these
believers to understand that when suffering and opposition
come to them, God has gospel good in mind in directing them
how to respond to that suffering. He had told them in chapter 2
and verse 12, having your behavior honorable among the Gentiles
that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, there's the
suffering of slander, that they may, by your good works which
they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Your godly
response to the suffering imposed upon you by the ungodly is to
have a good end. Even God's glory, and whether
this is speaking of the day of visitation in grace or in judgment,
God's glory and even the possible good in the salvation of others,
Likewise, when He calls upon these servants to respond to
their unreasonable and unrighteous masters in such a way, it is
to the end that they will see mirrored in their response something
of Christ Himself. When he calls upon wives to be
in subjection even to unconverted husbands who disobey the word,
what is the end in view? That they may, without a word,
be won by the manner of life of the wives. And here again
in the passage we just looked at in chapter 3, if you should
suffer for righteousness' sake, verse 14, what are you to do?
Sanctify Christ as Lord, ready to give answer. Here are questions
raised that never would have been raised had you not suffered.
Suffering becomes the precipitate of questions that lead to an
answer of gospel truth. You have opportunity to answer
concerning the hope that is in you. And now he says, when you
suffer, remember Christ also suffered. There is a similarity
between your sufferings and his. Not only a similarity in that
his sufferings were experienced in the way of righteousness,
and so are yours. But his sufferings resulted in
much good, and so may yours as well. But then thirdly, according
to this passage, his sufferings issued in exaltation and glory. Notice 18, the end of the verse. Because Christ suffered for sins,
being put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit, And
now down to verse 22, who is on the right hand of God, having
gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being
made subject unto him. His suffering was but a bracket
of his experience on the way to his glory. Peter was one of
those who actually saw him ascend into heaven. You read about it
in Luke 24 and then again in Acts chapter 1. And this reality
of Christ's sufferings issuing in Christ's exaltation and glory
was a precious truth to Peter. He speaks of it again and again
in this letter and even in his second epistle. This theme of
suffering that issues in glory is one of the major themes in
this epistle. Remember back in chapter 1 when
he spoke of trials, this is not suffering in the same category,
but trials more generically. He says, concerning these trials,
verse 6, if need be, you've put to grief in manifold trials that
the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that
perishes, though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise
and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. praise and glory
and honor are the fruit of your godly endurance of your manifold
trials. Verse 11, searching what time
or manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did point to
when it testified beforehand what? The sufferings of Christ
and the glories that should follow them. 121, through him are believers
in God that raised him from the dead and gave him Glory. 322, the one who suffered is
the one who's at the right hand of God. The place of power and
exaltation. The fulfillment of Psalm 110
in verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord, sit
at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of
your feet. Chapter 4, verses 12 and 13.
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that
is among you. Verse 13, inasmuch as you are
partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice. that at the revelation
of His glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy. Chapter 5
and verse 1, the elders among you I exhort, who am a fellow
elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. Verse 10 of the same chapter,
the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory after
you've suffered a little while. I'm not making something up when
I say this is a major theme. Suffering and glory. Suffering
and glory. Suffering and glory. And in God's
economy, the suffering must issue in glory. It must issue in glory. And the Apostle Peter understood
this as surely as Paul understood it in the Romans 8 passage that
I quoted to you earlier. And therefore, as God's people
who anticipate the glory to come, we must come to grips with this
realism that, as with our Lord, the path to glory lay through
the crucible of suffering in union and communion with Him.
It will be the same for us. But as surely as his sufferings
issued in exaltation and glory, so will ours, as they are the
fruit of our union with Christ. You remember Paul's words in
Philippians 1? For unto you it hath been given, not only to
believe on his name, but to suffer. It has been given. It's a donation
of grace to believe. It is likewise a donation of
grace to suffer. All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. A different word, one long Greek
word that we translate shall suffer persecution, but it is
a form of suffering. Now, I want to underscore this
with particular application to you young people. I have said,
other elders have said, One of the most thrilling things that
I have seen in 37 years of laboring here in North Jersey is what
I see right now among so many of you relatively young men and
women of a serious interest in and concern for the things of
God, a number of you even quietly but really professing to have
laid hold of Christ. And I've got to be an honest
and faithful pastor to you. And since we've come to this
portion of the Word of God in our regular exposition, I want
to speak very directly to you and ask you this very simple
question. Have you come to grips and counted the cost concerning
this principle, that if your grasp of Christ is real, you
have grasped Him not only to know His forgiveness, but to
enter into the fellowship of His sufferings? Right now, You
are wonderfully cocooned in the midst of your sympathetic parents
who are pleading with God for your salvation, and nothing makes
them more happy and more supportive than every indication that their
prayers are being answered for your salvation. And then you've
got many sympathetic peers. It's a wonderful thing to see
groups of you standing around and walk up on you and hear you
talking about things that really matter. As I said the other day,
something's bigger to you than the latest styles on the front
of Seventeen magazine, or Vogue, or Redbook, or some other softcore
pornographic thing passed off as a high-class ladies' magazine.
There are things more important to you than how you look when
you make your last look in the mirror, and you check the size
of your upstairs, the cut of your clothes, There are things
more important to you, the state of your soul, your relationship
to Christ, your Bible gets more attention than your television. That's wonderful. But you see,
that's in the midst, not only sympathetic parents, but some
sympathetic peers. And then you've got sympathetic
pastors. They rejoice when they hear this. And when they interact
with you, their hearts are thrilled that they can talk about the
things of God and not have the conversation go dead like you
were talking in tongues or like you had a bad, bad case of garlic
breath. It's wonderful. Sympathetic parents,
sympathetic peers, sympathetic pastors, and a sympathetic people
of God. some of whom get up early on
the Saturday morning and come in one of the last prayer meetings
for a solid hour with tears and pleadings with God for your salvation. Bless God for all of that sympathetic
cocoon. Now, what are you going to do
when that cocoon is split? And for you to make plain that
you're identified with Christ, that you cherish your virginity
not as a matter of personal taste, but conviction that your body's
been purchased with a price and you're going to glorify God in
it. And you're going to unashamedly say that's the taproot of your
commitment to ongoing virginity as a young man or a young woman.
What's going to happen? When they get talking about relationships,
and you make it plain that Christ's cross is stamped over every relationship. You're talking about future and
ambition, and you make it plain that you're thinking about your
identity as a man or woman biblically. You've not sold out to modernity
and to the notion that gender roles are all up for grabs, there
are no biblical absolutes, and you make it plain that you are
one of these kooky anachronisms. You actually believe that women
have a distinct identity ordained by God from creation? and that
in that identity there is a God-ordained subordination to male headship
and male leadership and a divine hierarchy, and you're committed
to that hierarchy. What's going to happen then,
girls? What's going to happen then, guys? You'll get the frowns. You'll feel the social ostracization.
And I don't talk as someone who doesn't know it. From being a
very popular guy in high school, I know what it was with the exception
of four or five guys to be dropped like I had leprosy. From being Mr. Cool Guy, because
I could laugh at the latest dirty joke in the locker room and do
a one-up and tell my own. Someone who would now say if
someone came with a dirty joke, I don't want to listen to it.
I'm now a Christian. hurts. Sure it hurts. But something would have hurt
more to go to the place where I prayed and have the heavens
blast and no communion with my Savior. The fellowship of his
sufferings was worth it. Now that's what you kids have
got to wrestle with because that's what it means to belong to Christ. You're going to enter in to the
fellowship of his sufferings. It's inevitable. In one way or
another, at one time or another, to one degree or another, if
you belong to Christ, you're going to suffer. Now, should
you go on out and make a nuisance of yourself and try to get everybody
mad at you to see if you'll stand the test? No. I'm just asking
you, in the secret place where you have dealings with God, you
think this issue through, and in the language of Jesus, you
count the cost. You count the cost, lest you
be like the king that goes out to war with an insufficient army,
or the builder that begins to build with insufficient capital
and materials. In all life, that is half-built
house. I love you enough to plead with
you, not to back off from Christ. No, but in coming to Christ,
remember that he says to young and old alike, if any would come
after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. That symbol of suffering, rejection,
and death, God says you must take it up. and in the fellowship
of his rejection and of his suffering and being made increasingly conformable
to his death, you follow him. But you do so, and this is what's
critical, in the confidence that beyond the suffering there is
glory. You say, well, Pastor, isn't
that a mercenary thing to think of that? No, in mercenary it's
biblical. And I don't have time, I'd love
to just go into the details of it. Remember what is recorded
in Hebrews 11 about Moses when he was come to years. He refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing what? You
talk about a wingnut. Choosing rather to suffer ill
treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. Now why in the world did he do
that? It says, for he had respect unto the recompense, the reward.
he saw through the suffering to the glory and he said the
glory is worth the suffering that's not being mercenary that's
being biblical and this is what I urge upon
you to recognize the suffering is real but it leads to glory
and the glory is certain and worth the suffering When Jesus
can say to him that overcomes, I will give to sit down with
me in my throne, as I am set down in my father's throne. You
read here in 1 Peter 3.22, he's at the right hand of God, having
gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers subject
to him. He is seated at the father's
right hand. He says, I'm going to share my
throne with you. That's amazing, but that's true.
You share in his sufferings, you share in his glory and his
exaltation. Because he is committed to make
that the experience of his people. So you're sitting there in the
congregation or one of the congregations there in Asia Minor. And one
of the leaders, one of the elders, one of those appointed to read
the epistle has read the epistle and you've heard the words, because
Christ also suffered. And you are to draw from that
reality of his sufferings, comfort and consolation and encouragement. I have a share in the kind of
sufferings my Lord experienced, suffering in the way of righteousness,
suffering that will result in good. suffering that will issue
in glory. However, as is so often the case
in the New Testament, in the midst of this most practical
instruction, Peter connecting Christ's sufferings with their
sufferings, we have one of the richest, the most profound statements
of the redemptive sufferings of Christ, those aspects of the
sufferings of Christ that were utterly unique and exclusive
to Him. And as I look at my watch, there's
no way that I can open this up in a reasonable amount of time,
so that's going to have to be held off, God willing, for next
week. Because we want to simply open up then, phrase by phrase,
the exclusive aspects of the sufferings of Christ. Christ
suffered for sins. Christ suffered the righteous
for the unrighteous. Christ suffered once. Christ
suffered that he might bring us to God. Some have noted that
this may be if not one of the most, the most rich distilled
statement of the nature of Christ's penal substitutionary sacrifice
for sin to be found anywhere in the New Testament. But be
that as it may, It's too rich and too important for me to just
skip over the heads, so I'm going to, in a very awkward way, bring
to a close a sermon that I had not anticipated would end with
the first heading, but let me just go back full circle to where
we began and ask you to think with me. You're sitting there
in the congregation. You've listened to the substance
of Suffering 101. You recognize that in the way
of righteousness, suffering may well be your portion in new dimensions
soon. That if you should suffer, what
am I to do? Sanctify Christ as Lord in my
heart. And with Christ being given His
rightful place in my affections, in my obedience, and in my confidence,
my trust in Him, I am to be constantly ready to give a reasoned response
to every questioner. I'm to do it with meekness and
fear. I'm to do it having a good conscience
and a blameless life. And I am to face that suffering
knowing it's better if I suffer in the will of God for doing
well than for doing evil. But then I'm to remember there
is a communion and a fellowship, a similarity in my sufferings
to the sufferings of my Lord, because Christ also suffered
for me in the way of righteousness, in a suffering that accomplished
good, in a suffering that led to glory. And that is my consolation,
that in my sufferings I am in fellowship with his sufferings.
And don't be ashamed to use that terminology. Yes, we cling to
the exclusive nature of Christ's redemptive sufferings, but the
concept of fellowship in the sufferings of Christ is too dominant
to play it down for fear. We will enter into some heretical
notion that we somehow earn our salvation by our sufferings.
No, Paul is not reluctant to say, I am filling up that which
is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake,
the Church. There are non-redemptive sufferings
that are part and parcel of true, vibrant, saving, biblical religion. And if we have that commodity,
dear people, suffering is going to be our portion. And we ought
to face it in the confidence that there is one who has gone
before. And in union and communion with
him, we will know him more intimately in the crucible of suffering
than we knew him in fair days when suffering was foreign to
us. For you who are not Christians,
you sit here and say this is the wackiest stuff I've ever
heard. You mean you're trying to induce
me to think seriously about becoming a Christian and you stand there
talking about suffering? That's exactly right. Because
you're just going to choose when you get your suffering. You're
going to suffer too. You can't avoid it. And I'm not
talking about the sufferings in this life. Psalm 73 makes
it plain that sometimes sinners escape much suffering in this
life. They even lie in their deathbed and there's no terror. Read Psalm 73. But suffer you
will if you go on in your unbelief and impenitence. Even the horrible
suffering of the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing
of teeth. My friend, I would entice you away from an eternal
suffering in the pit of everlasting burnings to bear in fellowship
of a glorious Savior a bit of suffering now on your way to
the glory that awaits the people of God. My unconverted friend,
you will suffer. And if in your unbelief and in
penitence, in love of your peers, in love of the world, you will
not turn from idolatrous attachment to your peers and idolatrous
attachment to the world, to cling to Christ in a death grip and
in fellowship with him be willing to bear reproach and suffering,
my dear friend, you're choosing an eternity of suffering, which
does not lead to anything but more suffering, which leads to
nothing but more suffering. May God help you to turn from
such folly and lay hold of Christ and bear for a little while the
fellowship of his sufferings here. You might join the host
of the ransomed who know nothing but glory in the age to come. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you
would take your word and write it upon all of our hearts Use
it, we pray, to draw some into vital union with your Son. We
pray that you will help us as your people, that we would not
allow ourselves to drift off into this unbiblical notion that
because we live in this country of affluence and with much common
grace restraining men's hatred to you and to your truth, that
we can forever escape the more intense expressions of suffering,
we ask, O God, that you will fit us and prepare us for whatever
may yet lie before us, and those of us who have known at least
some little measure of these sufferings for attachment to
Christ help us to think more and more biblically concerning
those sufferings, and ever look unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the
author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now
sat down at your own right hand. O Lord Jesus, We pray that the
fascination of your glory and the wonder of your grace will
more than compensate for a few frowns and a few blows until
we see you face to face. Seal then your word to our hearts,
we pray. Amen.