Faithful to God

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 6th of June, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Have you ever seen someone suffering and wonder why?  Why are they hurting so much?  They’re a good person, maybe even a good, faithful follower of Jesus.  Why are they having to suffer so much?  Maybe you’ve even asked that question of your own condition: why am I having to suffer so much?  And I’m not talking only about physical hurts here, but suffering of the spirit as well.

This is a question that has been asked and debated for thousands of years now.  If God loves us all so much, then why does anyone ever have to suffer in this life?  If God loves us, why do we too often hurt so much?

The Apostle Peter was a fisherman by trade before he gave it all up to follow Jesus.  As such, he would not have been overly educated in any discipline, and most would not have thought of him as a biblical scholar.  But let’s hear how Peter responded to that question, so often asked.

Please listen and follow along to what Peter wrote in the 4th chapter of his 1st letter to the early church, verses 1 through 11, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 Christ suffered here on earth. Now you must be ready to suffer as He did, because suffering shows that you have stopped sinning. 2 It means you have turned from your own desires and want to obey God for the rest of your life. 3 You have already lived long enough like people who don’t know God. You were immoral and followed your evil desires. You went around drinking and partying and carrying on. In fact, you even worshiped disgusting idols. 4 Now your former friends wonder why you have stopped running around with them, and they curse you for it. 5 But they will have to answer to God, who judges the living and the dead. 6 The good news has even been preached to the dead, so that after they have been judged for what they have done in this life, their spirits will live with God.

7 Everything will soon come to an end. So be serious and be sensible enough to pray. 

8 Most important of all, you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins. 

9 Welcome people into your home and don’t grumble about it.

10 Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well. 11 If you have the gift of speaking, preach God’s message. If you have the gift of helping others, do it with the strength that God supplies. Everything should be done in a way that will bring honor to God because of Jesus Christ, who is glorious and powerful forever. Amen.

--1 Peter 4:1-11 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us so many chances to do right in Your eyes.  You even sent us Your Son, that through Him our sins might be forgiven if we only accept Him as our Lord.  Thank You, Father, for also giving us a special gift, a talent or ability to be used in our service to You.  Please help us make the best use of that gift.  Help us reach out to others and share the Good News with them.  Help us remain faithful and true to You and to bring honor to You in all that we do.  And Father, please protect us from Satan’s traps and snares and from those who do his evil work.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and our service to Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these extraordinary times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Tell us of Your steadfast love, even in our times of suffering.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus, your Son, who suffered for us all.   Amen.

There was a French tightrope walker who did amazing feats at scary heights.  His greatest act had him crossing over a span while blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow in front of him.  An American promoter heard about this and invited the man to do his act over Niagara Falls, first stating that he didn't believe the walker could make it.  The walker accepted the challenge, even though he had never been to America nor seen the Falls.

The day of the highly promoted event came and a great crowd anxiously awaited the act.  The walker started from the Canadian side and ended on the American side, all the while blindfolded and pushing his wheelbarrow.  When he finished, he asked the promoter if he now believed the walker could do it.  "Of course," the promoter replied.  "I just saw you do it."  "No," the walker insisted, "do you really believe I can do it?"  "Yes,", the promoter replied again, "I really do believe you can do it."  "Then hop in the wheelbarrow and let's go again."

The word "believe", in the Greek, means "to live by".  We say we have faith in God, we believe in Christ, but do we live by that faith and belief?  Do we live daily as Jesus would have us live, as Peter instructs us to live?  Or are we afraid to get in the wheelbarrow?

At the start, I posed the age-old question: If God loves us, why do we have to suffer?  One way to respond to that question is with another question: where does our suffering come from?  Or more to the point, does our suffering come from God?  According to Peter, it isn’t God’s doing.  God does love us.  Every true believer knows that without a doubt.

So why do we suffer?  Peter says that our suffering shows that we have stopped sinning, that we have turned from our earthly desires and wish only to serve God.  So our suffering must be coming from the relentless attacks of Satan as he tries to pull us away from God.  Our suffering is from all the temptations of this world in conflict with our longing for eternal life in paradise.  The world will continue to grasp at us, trying to hold us back.  Some of our old friends may have abandoned us since we gave our lives to Jesus.

Peter reminds us that, soon, this life will come to an end, and God will judge us all for what we have done.  So we must pray – seriously pray.  We must love each other sincerely, unconditionally, not judging others because that is God’s job.  We must be hospitable to one another, welcoming folk without grumbling about it.  And we must use the gift that God has given us, whatever it is, in our service of others.  By serving others, we serve God, and we must do so in a way that brings honor to Him and Him alone.  And all this we do because of our Lord Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf, our Christ who is glorious and powerful forever.

So according to Peter, our suffering is an indication that we are being faithful to God.  We are trying our very best to not sin, to resist temptations, to withstand Satan’s attacks, to love one another unconditionally and sacrificially.

Peter notes that even Jesus suffered while He walked this earth.  The very Son of God suffered and hurt, so we should be ready to suffer as He did.  Granted, we most likely will not be whipped to the very point of death, nor nailed to a cross to die.  But I think the greatest pain Jesus endured was the wounds inflicted upon His spirit: being scorned and rejected by the very people He came to save, taking the sins of the world unto Himself, He who was without sin.  We can’t take on someone else’s sins, and we certainly are not without sin ourselves, but in all likelihood we will be scorned and rejected by some of the folks we try to share the Gospel with.  We may be ridiculed and made fun of, just as Jesus was.

Let me add just a bit more to our scripture reading, picking up where I left off in the 4th chapter of Peter’s 1st letter.  Please listen as I read verses 12 through 19…

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised or shocked that you are going through testing that is like walking through fire. 13 Be glad for the chance to suffer as Christ suffered. It will prepare you for even greater happiness when He makes His glorious return.

14 Count it a blessing when you suffer for being a Christian. This shows that God’s glorious Spirit is with you. 15 But you deserve to suffer if you are a murderer, a thief, a crook, or a busybody. 16 Don’t be ashamed to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God that you belong to Him. 17 God has already begun judging His own people. And if His judgment begins with us, imagine how terrible it will be for those who refuse to obey His message. The Scriptures say,

18 “If good people barely escape,

what will happen to sinners

and to others

who don’t respect God?”

19 If you suffer for obeying God, you must have complete faith in your faithful Creator and keep on doing right.

--1 Peter 4:12-19 (CEV)

We shouldn’t be surprised when we have to suffer, when our faith is put to the test.  Instead, we should be glad to suffer as Jesus suffered.  I’m sure He was glad to endure His pain, knowing that it would bring us eternal life in heaven.

I’m willing to bet most of us would not consider suffering to be a blessing.  But Peter says that suffering for the sake of Jesus, suffering because we follow Jesus, is indeed a blessing.  It’s a blessing because it shows that God’s Holy Spirit is within us, and that we belong to Him.

God will indeed judge us all, good and bad, believers and non-believers.  Our present suffering doesn’t even come close to how much those who continue to sin and those who don’t respect God will suffer.

So even as we suffer in this life, let our suffering be because we obey God.  Whether we are suffering from illness or loss, from rejection or ridicule, no matter the source of pain, let us remain completely faithful to God.  For He is ever faithful to us.  As long as we obey and serve Him and our Lord Jesus, we will have to suffer in this life.  But our reward in the next life will be great.  And then, there will be no more suffering.

Be faithful to God.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for being faithful to us.  Thank You for adopting us as Your own children when we accepted Jesus as our Lord.  Please help us in our suffering.  Sometimes, Father, this life just beats us down.  Sometimes we falter and stumble under the blows of Satan and all he throws in our path.  Please, Father, help us endure all this with peace and grace.  Help us remain ever faithful and obedient to You.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You left Your beautiful home in heaven and came to earth to offer us all the chance to live eternally with You in paradise.  And we showed You our gratitude by ridiculing You, by nailing You to a cross, by rejecting You and all that You offered.  Thank You, Jesus, for suffering for our sakes.  Thank You for taking all our sins upon Yourself so that we could be seen as clean and sinless by God Almighty.  Lord Jesus, we ask You to help us be ever faithful to our Father God no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in nor what situation faces us.  Strengthen our will to do what God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love to a world where there seems to be such a short supply of love.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.