Bella Vista Church of Christ

06/16/2019 P.M.

Learning To Deal With Trials

1 Peter 1.1-2 – 6-9 & 2.11-12

Our Sunday Evening lessons are being taken from Jeff’s study of the Book of Revelation. We are looking at his Sunday Morning Text… GATHERING A SUBJECT FROM THAT TEXT and making it our Sunday Evening study.

There is no doubt that the Book or Revelation was written to Children of God who were undergoing PERSECUTION… Or would be in the near future.

So…Go with me to the Christian World of the First Century…

It was this time of year… July 64 A.D... A fire broke out in the city of Rome...

• Hundreds of buildings were burned to the ground....

• Thousands of homes destroyed...

• Tens-of-thousands left homeless.

History has concluded that EMPEROR NERO set that fire to destroy ram-shackled slum buildings... Making room to erect marble palaces and monuments he thought would establish his legacy in history.

Historians of his day claimed that the fire was quickly extinguished in one part of the city… But… Suddenly… Mysteriously… It was relit... Almost making it certain that this burning was on purpose.

Well...The populace was incensed... They were ready to revolt and overthrow their Caesar... So Nero quickly looked for a scapegoat… Someone he could blame for the fire.

New Testament Christians became the target!.

After all… Some strange things were being said about them...

• There were rumors that they were cannibals...Because they talked about gathering together in their houses… Drinking someone's blood and eating his body…

• They spoke about love feasts… Love gatherings... Where they greeted one another with a holy kiss...

• They shared and confessed their innermost faults and problems with each other.

These people were already under deep suspicion.

So...When the Emperor needed a scapegoat... The rumor was started that Christians had burned the city.

As a result... Nero began a very serious series of persecutions against the Christians.

• As Gladiators... They were thrown to the lions… And other wild beasts in the Coliseum.

• Some were forced to fight till death against… Trained… Seasoned… Soldiers.

• Others were dipped in tar and burned as torches to light the gardens of Nero during official outdoor parties.

• Christians were tied to chariots and dragged through the streets of Rome.

• They were sown into leather bags and placed in public water tanks so that when the leather shrank… They were squeezed to death.

• In hideous other ways… Nero sought to impress Rome with the folly of being a Christian.

The early historian Tacitus tells us that thousands of these CHRIST FOLLOWERS died during this time.

However...The persecution was basically confined to the city of Rome and its immediate area. But it didn’t stop there... In the next decade... The persecution was carried on by Trajan and Dominican to the limits of the Empire. It continued even till the time of Constantine. Tradition tells us that eleven of the Apostles died as martyrs during these persecutions.

Now...It was against this backdrop... That the letters were written to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.

Listen church… Persecution… Trials… Suffering… Temptation... Has never Stopped!... Will never stop!

We all suffer!!… We all deal with trials and persecutions that we struggle to understand.

We’ve been to…

• The Emergency Department…

• The Operating Room..

• The Cath-Lab…

• The Funeral Home…

• The Cemetery…

• The Divorce Courts…

Too many times… We know that if we are not suffering tonight… It won’t be long until we’ll be thrown into this fiery furnace.

For instance…Last Wednesday Evening… A member of our church family came to me in tears… Her feelings were hurt… Her heart broken… Because she felt ostracized by another… Told that she couldn’t be a part.

Listen…During that very moment… Across town… The Webb Family was in the process of losing a… Husband… Father… Father-in-law… Friend… We lost a brother in Christ.

We could go on… George Bowman… Chuck Pippin… David Reeves with a stroke… David Bradley with a brain tumor… Ava Sailor and her cancer… Mike Lacey on dialysis… On-and-on we could go with people we know.

We will all be called to suffer!!

Access A Worship Bulletin… And let’s read some Scriptures that affirm this idea that suffering and persecution Will come to all…

2 Timothy 3.12...Everyone… Everyone… Who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Philippians 1.29...For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him... But also to suffer for him.

Matthew 5.10… Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Luke 6.22… Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

2 Corinthians 4.17 Do not lose heart... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

2 Corinthians 12.10 has Paul saying… I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Revelation 2.10... Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you... And you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Romans 8.35 beginning asks in rhetoric… Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?... No… In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

James 1.2-4 & 12… Count it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything… Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial… Because when he has stood the test… He will receive the crown of life.

So…We begin our application knowing FULL WELL

that we will face persecution…

A time of… trials… Suffering… Temptations…

Because that’s just the way life is.

But the next time we are called to walk in the valley of pain and loss...

Perhaps we’ll be better prepared…

Come…Let’s see what we can learn from First Peter…

A book written to those who must suffer.…

The first thing we note is that we live in a counterculture…. We live in a world within a world... We are strangers in this culture… Or at least should be…

Go with me to First Peter chapter one... We read the first two verses.... Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world… Those chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Peter describes his readers as…

• Strangers in the world...

• Aliens in the NASV…

• Sojourners... In the ASV of 1901…

• Exiles in today’s ESV.

Church…It should be evident that WE as…

• God’s elect…

• Those sanctified by the work of the Spirit because of our obedience…

• Those sprinkled with the blood of Jesus…

Are to be different people… Countercultural people.

Later Peter calls us…

• Peculiar people…

• A royal priesthood…

• A holy nation…

• Those who belong to God…

• Those who have escaped the corruption of the world.

James tells us that loving the world and things of this world makes us an enemy of God.

It was John who said… We cannot be of the world… Nor can we love the world… Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from theFather but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.

Church…It’s important that when suffering and persecution come... That we understand that...This world is not our home… We are strangers here… PILGRIMS!

Listen…As our own country moves further and further away from God and His will… We who are IN CHRIST are seen more and more as… Pilgrims... Strangers... Foreigners... Those of the Diaspora.

Each day we catch a glimpse of how our country is moving away from God… Where we as Christian people are increasingly exposed to… Hate… Ill treatment… Our rights questioned… Because of our faith.

But…Peter is saying… We can endure this world’s suffering... Because there is something better to come… AMEN?

Secondly… We learn that suffering and persecution have purpose.

Chapter one… We begin with the verse numbered six... Are you there?... In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith--being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

These verses have several insights for us…

First and foremost… Peter is saying that our faith and faithfulness is molded by trials…like gold in the refiner's fire.

Listen…We grow a lot more in suffering and persecution than we do when things are going well… And there seems to be no problems in life.

In suffering… If we do it right… We’re drawn closer to God and closer to one another.

World War II brought our nation closer to Him and closer to one another.

You see… Life is forever… Changed… Molded… Strengthened… Reshaped… Remade… Bytrials.

Listen to David… It was good for me to be afflicted… So that I might learn your decrees… So that I might know your law… Your will.

Solomon wrote… Blows and wounds cleanse away evil and the beatings of life purge the inner being.

Elijah said… God, why have you dried up my brook? God said…. Because I don’t want you to stay by the brook any longer.

Noah was saved by a world-wide flood.

Jacob found his wife while running from the threat of Esau.

Jonah’s life was redirected to Nineveh after spending three days & nights in a fish’s belly.

Paul learned contentment by trials and suffering.

Listen…Every trial has a lesson!! Every trial a purpose!!!… God help us to learn from it.

God help us… In every trial… To be strengthened in our faith and character… Amen?

Then we hear Peter say that we are to rejoice in trial and suffering...

This sounds strange doesn’t it?... Rejoice in suffering?!!

But James tells us why... Count it all joy when our faith is tested and strengthened by earthly… Trials... Tribulation... Suffering… Persecution. Because it has a purpose…

• It Strengthens our faith…

• Develops perseverance…

• Makes us mature and complete…

• Then perseverance under trial brings blessings from God.

I know it is against our human nature to rejoice in trials and suffering…But both these Holy Spirit Guided Writers challenge us to see the suffering in this light.

You remember it was Corrie ten Boom… Who… In the German concentration camp… Was thankful for the fleas because they kept the German soldiers from coming into the barracks and raping them.

It was Paul who tells us that his thorn in the flesh had a purpose… It kept him from becoming conceited…

And even though he asked God to take it away and He didn’t!!... Saying “My Grace Is sufficient”… God was saying Paul… “Watch My power at work in your life!”

Then we here Paul say… Give me more thorns because…

• I delight in weaknesses…

• In persecution…

• In Hardships…

• Insults…

• In difficulties…

For when I am weak… He makes me strong.

We may not be able to correctly identify Paul’s thorn… But ours come as…

• Health problems....

• Natural tragedies...

• Manmade tragedies... Car accidents... Fires... Wars…

• Ruptured relationships...

• Financial issues...

• Persecutions from others...

• There will also be spiritual problems.

Jesus tells us... In this world you will have tribulation... But in Me you will have peace.

Church…Are we rejoicing in our thorns because they…

• Make us strong...

• Increase our faith…

• Give us peace?

I pray that we are!!

We learn that the trials are to be TEMPORARY.

Undoubtedly…This LITTLE WHILE may have reference to a short time... Days... Weeks... Years. In Revelation chapter two it was… You will be tried Ten Days

How many of us remember what troubled us… A year ago... Five or ten years ago?

Most of us are not even cognizant of what we suffered a few days ago... RIGHT?

You see... God doesn’t cause these trials... But He uses them for our benefit...For our good.... And so... God knows how much and how long.

The promise is that we will not be tempted or tried beyond our ability to learn.

Even though Nero ruled... God over-ruled... He’s sovereign...And His promise is that we will not be tempted and tried beyond our ability to stand the test and be strengthened by it.

Paul concludes in Romans 8.18... I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Then in Second Corinthians 4.17... For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

One more point and the lesson is yours… How we handle our trials… Persecution… Suffering can be evangelistic.

Read with me… Chapter two… Verses 11 and 12… Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Our family... Our children... Our neighbors... The church... The world about us... Are all watching us as we walk in our fiery furnaces.

Like…Shadrach… Meshach… Abednego… Of long ago…

• When they were faithful…

• When they exited the furnace unharmed…

King Nebuchadnezzar and the people expressed a faith in God.

May others see God in us… As we walk through our fiery furnaces… AMEN?

Tonight with this lesson… I hope we can all say this poem with me…

I thank God for the mountains,

And I think Him for the valleys,

I thank Him for the storms He brought me through;

For if I’d never had a problem

I wouldn’t know that He could solve them

I’d never know what Faith in God could do.

Tonight…We give you an opportunity to become a child of God by… Faith… Repentance… Confession of Jesus… And New Testament Baptism.

If you have… Troubles… Trials… Sufferings… That need the prayers of the church… We are ready to pray with you and for you…

Come…As we stand and sing this song together.