Week 5 Video

He was mocked in the streets, jailed, laughed out of courtrooms, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal. Ironically, within a few years of Peter, would be a literal fiery ordeal. In 64 AD, when Rome burned, the emperor blamed the Christians. The historian Tacitus tells us what happened. Believers were rounded up, stoned into animal skins, thrown the dogs, nailed the crosses, coated in tar and set ablaze to light Nero's gardens at night. Imagine the smoke of the saints, lighting Nero's dinner parties. Though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer a little while. Can a lifetime be a little while? It can, when it is measured against eternity. Peter knew what the name would cost. Within a few years, he would die for it. The conspiracy of the cross means that the way of Jesus never bypasses the cross. No one ever escapes the refiner's fire of suffering. A refiner's fire only has one job. Burn away everything that isn't gold. But God does promise that he will meet us in our pain, and our pain has a purpose. The suffering in the early church started social. Slander, exclusion, the cold shoulder of a culture that finds you strange. But by the final chapter, Peter's language turns hotter. The thing feared is beginning. If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed,

but praise God that you bear that name. - Peter tells his readers, "Don't be ashamed. "Christian isn't a slur." Now, the word was coined by outsiders as a sneer, like a Christ lackey. And these lackeys served a man that Rome had executed. But Peter says, "No, it is a badge of honor." This is, in fact, the one place in the New Testament where followers of Jesus take that very name and apply it to themselves. In the early '60s AD, being branded a Christian cost you socially and was actually starting to get really dangerous. Not long after, in plenty's letters, we want your Roman governor interrogating people over whether they will admit to the label. To confess to being a Christian was itself the crime. You didn't need to have done anything else. The label was the charge. And the word carried contempt from the start. It could cost you your spot in the trade guild, cost you your job, cost you your standing. And in the wrong moment, it would cost you your life. - So Peter's question isn't whether suffering will come. It's what believers should do when it does. Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ

so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. - We compare suffering in two unhealthy ways. Sometimes Christians exaggerate our hardships. Not every snide comment is persecution. Other times we look at Christians in places like Nigeria or Iran and compare our experiences to them. Peter doesn't tell believers to compete over who suffers most. He teaches them how to suffer faithfully. Social rejection hurts, imprisonment hurts. We don't argue over who's pain wins. Christian suffering is not about what happens to who. It is about the who we suffer for, the name of Jesus. - When you recognize these trials as a test, a fire, it helps you to be prepared mentally. Peter calls it a refiners fire. That happens inside of a crucible. A heat resistant pot, set in a furnace, turned up to be hot enough to melt gold. The intense heat turns the ore to blowing liquid. Some impurities burn off, some turn to gas, some float up as scum to be skimmed away. What's left behind is pure gold, tested and proven by surviving the flames. Our refiners fire is suffering for the name of Jesus. That burns off all of the fate Christianity that's in us and leaves the real stuff. Our faith is better proven under pressure

than in a life of comfort. Peter never treats suffering as pointless. He says it proves our faith, it deepens our fellowship with Jesus, it matures us as believers and it becomes a witness to others. None of that means that pain is good, but it means that God won't waste our pain. Suffering as a Christian is not something to be ashamed of. The name that exposes us, If suffering is not wasted, then neither is the fear that comes with it. Peter knows believers under pressure-carry anxiety, so before he talks about the enemy outside them, he reminds them of the God who cares for them. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. But Peter pulls the camera back to show who is really behind it, not your neighbors, not the empire, an older enemy. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Peter gives clear orders. Stay sober-minded. Stay alert. Stand firm. There are two ditches. One is pretending evil isn't real. Causing defenslessness. The other is becoming so preoccupied with the enemy that behind every inconvenience is a demon, which is just another way of handing him power. Peter threads them. Take the threat seriously enough to stay awake, and trust God enough to not be afraid. Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples. Peter's answer to the prowling lion is a healthy flock and humble attitudes. Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Christians suffer together, not alone. The strong, shared identity of community is part of how we thrive in the fire. One of the strongest predictors of resilience is human connection. People handle trauma better when they don't face it alone. Peter knows that and encourages the community to carry each other's burdens. Peter says to rejoice in suffering. To someone in real pain, that can sound cruel or insensitive. If God genuinely cares, why does Peter promise to restore them after they have suffered, instead of just sparing them the fire? One reason people struggle in suffering is that we instinctively interpret pain as abandonment. If this hurts, God must be distant.

If I'm suffering, God must not care. This is not true. In fact, some of the people closest to God in Scripture suffered profoundly. Hagar, a powerless, abused slave, Joseph, imprisoned, betrayed by family. Job, he lost everything. All of these people suffered unjustly, but God was with them. Peter separates two things that we often fuse together, and that's suffering and abandonment. We are deeply loved by God and still walk through fire. We don't have to enjoy pain or enjoy suffering, but our pain and suffering do not have the final word. We have Elroy, the one who sees me. Peter has been honest about life and people. The world might mock you, exclude you, call you a criminal. It can take your comfort, your reputation, your freedom. In Peter's own case, it would eventually take his life. But there is a line, no empire, no accusation, no suffering, no power on earth can pry you from the grip of God who chose you and called you. Through the precious blood of Christ, we have eternal life, and that is why Peter's final word to a scattered suffering people is one of hope. In the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever, amen. A plan hidden for ages then revealed in Jesus, a bunch of nobodies given a new name. People embedded in a hostile world holding on to who they are, a community that fought with blessing instead of force. And now people under fire who refuse to break, because they already know how the story ends.