Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 4:7–5:14

THE CALL TO SUFFER

Overview

Peter’s first letter focused on the themes of submission and suffering.

Yet the book is vibrant with optimism.

We sense this tone in the opening chapter.

Peter praised God

•           for new birth

•           for a living hope

•           for an inheritance that can never perish

•           for shielding by God’s power.

In view of these great blessings we have joy, even though “now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1:6).

Such trials are precious, for they are intended not to trip us up, but to demonstrate the genuineness of our faith, that when Jesus Christ comes He—and we—might receive praise, glory, and honor for our faithfulness.

So salvation does not promise an easy life here.

Instead we can expect difficulties and trials.

Jesus Himself was not immune to suffering, and neither are we…

The subject of suffering is not a popular one.

But it is an important one.

No one is immune, everyone experiences it…

Commentary

Throughout the New Testament, hope is the dominate message…

We have hope because of our participation in Christ…

Our suffering is viewed as the continuation of Jesus’ life on earth; life He continues to live through members of the body.

And so Peter called us to “rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ” (4:13).

A Christian’s suffering is no cause for shame.

It is to be seen as God’s hand at work in our lives, shaping and equipping us in wise discipline.

In thinking about our own suffering, it is instructive to remember what we read about Jesus in Hebrews.

“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all” (Heb.

5:8).

Suffering was necessary to perfect Jesus for His role as sympathetic High Priest.

Of course, Jesus was already perfect as God.

But to become our High Priest, Christ had to experience human weakness.

We often misunderstand the nature of weakness.

All too often we think of it as sin or as giving in to temptation.

Not so.

Our weakness is feeling the pressures life places on us.

Our flaw is choosing to surrender to sin.

Jesus did not choose sin.

He was without flaw.

But Jesus did know hunger and exhaustion.

He knew the pain of rejection, and the hurt of ridicule.

Jesus knew feelings of abandonment and felt the anger of those whose hearts fed on hate.

In all this, Jesus suffered.

And in all of it, He experienced what it means to be human.

Having learned, He became our salvation.

It’s very possible that suffering is necessary to perfect us in the same way.

Jesus is the High Priest, but you and I are a royal and holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5, 9).

We not only participate in Christ’s experiences, we participate in His ministry.

And for us to sympathize, we need to know what it means to hurt.

This is an important thought.

Our calling does not pull us away from the world.

Instead, it leads us to live Jesus’ life in the world!

Jesus’ ministry was to seek and to save.

He never forgot the lost; instead He lifted them up to become sons.

Perhaps one good that God brings through our suffering is to remind us of our fellowmen—of the pains they know and the suffering they experience, without any source of joy.

If we remember who we are, we may be moved to reach out as Jesus reached out.

Instead of drawing away from those who sin, we reach out with a firm and loving grip and draw them to Jesus, who holds the door open wide.

©Link to Life: Youth ~/ Adult

Ask each person to jot down a word or two reminding them of at least three personal experiences of suffering.

This can be physical suffering, emotional pain, whatever.

Then in groups of three, ask each person to share at least 潮攠潦⁴

 one of these experiences.

How did it affect your life?

How long did the experience last?

After each has shared, draw the whole group together again.

Looking back, can your members see any good which has come from the experience he or she talked about?

From your group members’ experiences, try to construct a list of different positive results that may come from suffering.

Pain and Suffering in Scripture

The ancient Stoic philosophers saw suffering as man’s fate in an impersonal universe.

Even the wisest have, throughout history, been forced to shrug off the question as unanswerable.

And those who are antagonistic to God have argued that the very existence of suffering in a universe supposedly created by a good God proves that “God” either does not exist, or that He is not good.

Yet the Bible affirms God, and teaches both His power and goodness.

And, in the context of a personal universe, the Bible speaks directly about human pain and suffering.

Pain and suffering in the Old Testament.

The Hebrew language has m

many different words that communicate the ideas of pain and suffering.

Here are some of the more frequently used:

~* 

any different words that communicate the ideas of pain and suffering.

Here are some of the more frequently used:

~* K

 emphasizes pain.

While physical pain is involved, words derived from ka’ab are most concerned with the mental anguish associated with hurt.

~* 

b are most concerned with the mental anguish associated with hurt.

~* <

 and its derivatives.

These words are translated as grief, sorrow, and wound.

Here too both physical and mental pain are in view.

~* Use of .

This is a graphic word that is very strong: it suggests writhing in agony, and is used of terror at搠獩獡整

 disaster and extreme mental anguish.

A study of the use of these words in the Old Testament draws attention not to painful events themselves, but to how human beings are affected by life’s tragedies.

If it were only the bout with illness, or the loss of a job, or an unjust lawsuit, in itself, but the real suffering is in how such events affect us within—the doubts, the uncertainties, the fears, as the future we looked forward to seems dashed and all ahead black,

The Book of Job reminds us that while the Old Testament is sensitive to human suffering, it offers no easy answer.

God permitted Satan to assault Job, a truly good man.

Despite the most intense suffering Job maintained his trust in God—until three friends tried to explain why.

Then Job too was catapulted into an attempt to explain his experience.

Job and his friends had an image of God as righteous Judge.

So the friends concluded that Job’s suffering must be a punishment from God. Job had not knowingly sinned, and so would not admit fault.

Yet Job himself had no other explanation.

Overwhelmed by what seemed betrayal by the God he trusted, Job began to challenge the beliefs of his friends about how the Lord works in human affairs.

Job’s inability to explain his suffering, and the accusations of his “friends,” brought the sufferer close to despair.

How clearly we see in Job, stripped of hope and fearful in a universe he suddenly did not understand at all, reflections of our own feelings during times of intense personal suffering.