HEAT-TEMPERED CHRISTIANS 1 Peter 4:12-19

Transcription

1 (sermon by Pastor Paul Naumann) Deuteronomy 11:18-21, Matthew 7:21-29 Psalm Hymns: 262, 451, 423, 410 HEAT-TEMPERED CHRISTIANS 1 Peter 4:12-19 Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Amen. Our Sermon text for today comes from the First Epistle of Peter, chapter four, beginning with the twelfth verse, as follows: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. In Christ, Whose sufferings we share as Christians, Dear Fellow Redeemed, Tempering is a metallurgical process in which a metal instrument usually a tool or a weapon - is made stronger by heating it white hot and then cooling it very quickly. You can't, for instance, just take a block of steel, attach a handle to it and use it for a hammer; in a very short time it would turn into a useless lump of banged-up metal. In order to be useful, a hammer must be made of tempered steel, hardened by intense heat. There is a tempering process that we Christians go through, too. Trials in our lives that are hard to live with, but which make us stronger. Troubles that subject us to terrible heat, but which help us to endure and become more useful servants of Christ. The source and degree of heat will be different in each individual's life, but the Bible is very clear on one point: every Christian will go through some tempering! In our text for today, Peter urges us to be, in the words of our theme... HEAT-TEMPERED CHRISTIANS 1. Feeling the heat from the world. 2. Feeling the heat from God. Our text really talks about two sources of heat in the life of a Christian. The first is the heat we feel from the world. We're told to expect it: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to

2 the extent that you partake of Christ s suffering. What? Jesus felt the heat from the world too? Of course He did! Practically from the very first day He was born! Part of the Christmas account told about how King Herod hated the baby Jesus, and saw Him as a threat to his authority. So he plotted to kill Him. While Jesus was still a small child, his parents were forced to flee to Egypt to escape Herod's death squads. Thousands of innocent babies were slain in the effort to kill the newborn King. From that point onward, Jesus' whole life was a chain of suffering and persecution. And you could say that that chain was made with highly-tempered metal. For each link in the chain was tempered with sorrow and tears. He lived a life of constant poverty: "Foxes have holes," Jesus once said, "and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Mt 8:20). The jealous scribes and Pharisees were constantly on His back, trying to trap Him into saying something that would get Him in trouble. One of His own disciples turned traitor and betrayed Him to His enemies. A crazed mob screamed for His blood in the court of Pontius Pilate. Finally, Jesus was subjected to the most painful and humiliating form of execution there was death by crucifixion. Jesus went through the fire, all right! He felt the heat from the world. He was tempered for the great work He needed to accomplish. In fact, His spirit was tempered to the point where He could even endure the agony of the cross in order to secure your salvation and mine. And praise be to God for that! So what is it that Peter is telling believers in this section? He's saying, basically, that being a Christian is no bed of roses. The early believers to whom he was writing were already feeling the heat. They were being tempered by the hostile world in which they lived. They were ridiculed for not taking part in the drunken parties of the heathen. In regard to these, he said, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, and they speak evil of you (1 Pet 4:4). Worse yet, Peter knew that things were going to get even hotter for the Asian Christians. A time was coming when they would be imprisoned for their faith. They'd be beaten, tortured, burned at the stake and fed to the lions for the amusement of the crowds. We re all familiar with this sad chapter in Christian history. What's amazing is that Peter actually tells these believers that they should rejoice in the midst of these sufferings! Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. When the world is pressing you hardest, he says, that's how you know that the Spirit of God is with you. And on the Day of Judgment, when the glory of Christ is revealed, you'll see that it was more than worth it! The heat of the world tempered the faith of those believers. The persecutions, far from nipping Christianity in the bud, strengthened it, and made it into a mighty empire that has lasted right down to 2014! Peter's talking to us, too. He's inviting us to share in the sufferings of Christ. To feel the heat of the world. It's not quite the same for us, though. The heat has shifted somewhat in our day and age. God has blessed us Americans with a government that protects our right to worship as we choose. We don't have to meet secretly in someone's home to hold services, like they do in some eastern countries. We don't get thrown in jail for being a Christian, like they do in

3 Communist China. You may well be thinking to yourself, "Things haven't been very hot for me at all as a Christian in fact, I'm pretty comfortable!" But God never meant for believers to get comfortable in this world. We are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. We're temporary residents in a world that is constantly trying to get us to go along and relax our standards. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do, the world seems to say. Everybody gets drunk once in a while, so let s forget about what the Bible says about being sober and vigilant! Cheating on your taxes is standard procedure, so let s overlook what the Bible says about obeying the government! Obviously, the best way for young people to get to know one another is to live together, so let s agree to ignore the Sixth Commandment! Scientists tell us that the universe was created by a huge explosion fourteen billion years ago, so let s just discard the Bible teaching that In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). Don't be a stick in the mud! Get with the times! And if you don't if you stand up for what the Word of God says you are going to feel the heat. The heat that tempers your Christian life may come in different forms. If you re lucky, people will simply sneer at you and treat you like a simpleton for believing the Bible. If you re a young person, your college professors may ridicule and belittle your faith. If you re a working person, you may have trouble on the job. Your may find your coworkers giving you the cold shoulder if you don t join them in their gossip, or their off-colored stories, or their bar-hopping after work. And those things can hurt. But following Christ may require greater sacrifices than that. It s happened many times that people who put Christ and His Word first have lost friends and been estranged from family members because of it. Jesus said, He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (Mt 10:36-38). I ve personally known several people who gave up a promotion or even gave up their job because they were unwilling to move to a city that had no CLC church. And could persecution of Christians be on the rise in America? Many prominent leaders in our country particularly in the media are openly critical of the Christian faith in a way that they ve never been before. Could there even come a time when there again is open, physical persecution against Christians? May God preserve us from having to deal with that eventuality. But God will preserve His believers in any case, as He says in Isaiah, Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Is. 43:1-3). If you haven't been feeling much heat lately, maybe you should take another look at what your lifestyle is saying about you to other people. If you have been feeling the heat, you should be happy, for Jesus said, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Mt. 5:11-12). The second part of our text talks about another kind of heat that is applied to our lives, and that's the heat of sufferings that God Himself sends our way in order to correct and strengthen us. Peter says, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God? Now

4 If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. The correction that God sends into our lives can be very hard for us to understand. Peter reminds us that God's judgment upon sin begins with us believers! He wants us to remember that we are scarcely saved. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago we need to realize very clearly that there's only one thing separating us from eternal destruction and that s our Savior, Jesus Christ! And to keep us from losing sight of that fact, God is constantly applying the heat of correction in our lives. He does it in order to bring us back in line, and keep us from hurting ourselves spiritually. The Bible says, It is for discipline that you endure chastening: God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons (He. 11:7-8). God's chastening His discipline of His children is always out of love, and it s always for our good. But that doesn't change the fact that it hurts! There's a true story about a woman who was vacationing in Switzerland. One day she took a walk in the hills, and came upon a shepherd with his sheep. One of the sheep was lying down, and appeared to be hurt. When she looked at it closely, she saw that it's leg was broken. She asked how it happened and was shocked when the shepherd told her that he, himself, had broken its leg. "Of all the sheep in my flock," he said, "this one was the most disobedient. It would never follow where I led, and was always wandering to the edge of dangerous cliffs. Not only that, but it kept leading other sheep from the flock astray. So I broke its leg. The first day I went to feed it, it tried to bite me. I let it lie by itself for a couple of days, and went back, and now it not only took the food, but licked my hand in submission and even affection. And let me tell you something more. When this sheep is well, as it soon will be, it will be the model sheep of my flock. No sheep will hear my voice so quickly. None will follow so closely by my side!" Much of the suffering that God permits in our life is exactly like that. God will do whatever is necessary to bring us back to His side, even if it means pain for His dear children. When we are judged, Paul says, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (1 Cor 11:32). God knows what's best for us, even when we can't see it. God knows exactly how much heat to apply in order to temper us, and make us strong enough to meet the challenges that will confront us in life. You parents can relate to this. When we discipline our children, it s not because we dislike them or because we enjoy causing them pain, is it? It s because we love them so dearly, and because we know that the discipline, though painful now, will work for their benefit. Likewise, your Lord chastens you for a specific purpose in order to save you from spiritual harm, and to preserve you unto everlasting life. Your Savior Jesus gave His life on Calvary s cross for you. With His blood and righteousness he erased every sin of yours from God s book. Each of those misdeeds which have haunted your conscience those acts in your past of which you ve been so rightly ashamed Jesus has expunged by His death. And now, because of Jesus, you stand justified in God s sight. You are free from sin s punishment! In Christ, eternal life really does belong to you as your possession, right now! That s why the Word of the Gospel, through which He communicates this Good News to us, is so very precious us. It s more valuable

5 than diamonds and gold. Is anything in this world worth putting that precious treasure at risk? Nothing! And if you ever start to lose sight of that fact, you can count on your faithful God to turn up the heat a few degrees until you remember! The Bible says, If we are faithless, He remains faithful. God cannot deny Himself. As we look to the future, we know beforehand that there will be heat. There will be trials to go through and challenges to face. For each one of us there will be suffering as well as joy, hardship as well as happiness. I think we all tend to ask God to remove those sufferings from our path. But maybe we've been praying for the wrong thing. It's good for us to feel the heat; the heat the world puts on us, and the heat our loving God applies as chastisement. It will temper us, and give us the "metal" we need to live our lives as God's faithful servants. Perhaps, instead of praying that God remove the hardships, we should take the advice of the evangelist Phillips Brooks, who said, Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger people! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Or in other words, pray that God may make you HEAT-TEMPERED CHRISTIANS. In Jesus name, Amen.