Don’t I deserve better than to suffer like this?

That question doesn’t need explaining.

Don’t I deserve better than to suffer like this?

Now, the problem isn’t that the issue of suffering is complicated… …it’s that suffering is such an emotional, difficult, raw issue for all of us here today, and watching online later.

I could literally go through the last 7 commandments, and list blatant ways they identify that many of us are suffering right now:

—cut off from family and not shown proper respect
—raw anger, accusations, and attacks
—loneliness—lack of spouse, lack of friends
—attacks on your livelihood, a stalled career, or lack of job
—reputations falsely attacked, gossip and slander believed
—crafty schemes to get at you, and separate you from what you love.

And in response to these thing, the Apostle Peter was an incredible pastor: He doesn’t give a philosophy lecture. He doesn’t give a theological treatise.

Instead, in a letter saturated with the Gospel of Christ, Peter does one simple thing: He kills self-trust as a refuge.

To try and do justice to how helpful he is, I’m going to unpack his response in four steps.

Peter says:

1) Expect suffering, because we’re joined to Jesus
2) Suffering burns away glory and joy in ourselves
3) Suffering leaves only glory and joy in Christ
4) Your Creator God is faithfully at work as you walk in your vocation of suffering

So, first Peter says:

1) Expect suffering, because we’re joined to Jesus

Please just look at v. 12:

¹² Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.

Now, I can’t hide from any of you my own personal spiritual slowness in this matter.

You all know that I feel constantly surprised, constantly taken off guard, by my own sufferings.

But, I’m not the only one. We all feel suffering is a surprise, undeserved, unfair. And Peter knows we do: that’s why he addresses it.

That’s ok… …let’s cheerfully be God’s children together, and let him comfort us in our weakness.

Just think about our Gospel reading for today: Jesus, as a baby, was forced to flee as a refugee.

Herod’s hatred and anger was so strong, he massacred all the children who were anywhere near him.

And Peter drives home two lessons from this through his whole paragraph: Jesus suffered—but he obviously didn’t deserve it. In the same way: suffering is not about what you deserve. And those near Jesus suffer because they are connected to him. And you are united to Jesus by baptism.

So, Expect suffering, because we’re joined to Jesus

What does that mean? Three things: Suffering is not random. Suffering is not punishment. Suffering flows from union with Christ.

This isn’t a philosophical position, it’s what it means to belong to Jesus, says Peter.

But, that doesn’t mean suffering is useless or pointless, God has good purposes in it, because:

2) Suffering burns away glory and joy in ourselves

Please look at v. 13:

¹³ Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.

Paul says something similar in Romans 8:17 that we are:

heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Both Apostles are sharing the same idea: not that suffering earns us anything, but that our hope, both now and in the future, comes from being united to Christ. And Christ suffered, so being united to him we will suffer.

So, if I don’t want to be united to Christ anymore… …if I stop looking at his cross, my baptism, God’s Word …and instead look at, and unite myself to, something else that I think will give me glory and joy …like being faithful, being religious, being good, being successful, being nice, being smart, being impressive, being wealthy, being an improver.

If I place my trust in these things, in anything other than Christ, I’m trusting in myself and not in Christ.

Peter illustrates that thought in vv. 14-15, look there with me:

¹⁴ If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵ Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler.

This is why Christ stood under this judgment first—so that when it reaches you, it is no longer wrath but discipline.

Peter’s pointing out the obvious: everyone suffers anyway, so as you suffer, where does your trust lie?

Are you suffering because you’re connected to Christ? Being ridiculous, embarrassed, gossiped, slandered—in other words publicly shamed as one whose trust is in Christ and his promises alone?

Or are you suffering because your trust is in: Your self-righteous anger and accusations that crush those who’ve hurt you? (a murderer) Your self-reliant taking of what you think is rightfully yours regardless of the law and external rule (a thief) Your self-focused twisting of anything to get what you think you deserve? (an evildoer) Your selfish acts of jealousy where you do what’s wrong in a way that looks right because you think you’re righting wrongs done to you (a meddler)

You’re going to suffer, Peter says: but how are you going to suffer? As one united to Christ in Baptism, trusting in his promise? Or as one severed from him, trusting in yourself?

Now, whatever the details of your situation, publicly, as a Christian, you can expect your good name to be ruined because publicly Christ’s good name was ruined.

That’s Peter’s point in v. 16:

¹⁶ But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name.

Peter’s not concerned with external labels. You don’t need to be fed to the lions by pagans to suffer as a Christian.

Jesus even explicitly warns us in John 16:2 that much of the suffering we will experience will come from people who own the same labels as us

² They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God.

Are you united to Christ? Are you a member of Manchester Lutheran Church? And so a Christian, a true Catholic, an original Protestant, a thorough Evangelical, a confessional Lutheran?

Then you can expect to suffer as one united to Christ even from others who own the label: Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and even Confessional Lutheran.

Don’t be ashamed, Peter encourages you, but I’m not discouraged to feel ashamed when I’m attacked by people different to me—only when I’m slandered by people who own the same labels as me.

When this happens: don’t be ashamed, glorify God… …yet not because of a label, but because you’re united to Christ.

All this comes from the Old Testament pattern that Peter now explicitly cites in vv. 17-18:

¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And if a righteous person is saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?

Peter didn’t just make this teaching up out of thin air, he got it from the Old Testament.

In Ezekiel 9, God’s judgement falls on his temple, and spills over into Jerusalem, the nation of Judah, neighbouring Israel, and finally the world.

The sword falls, slaughtering those who trust in themselves.

But as God’s Law falls upon the temple and flows to all the world, it does not fall on those trusting in Christ and trusting in themselves in the same way.

The prophet Jeremiah explains this super clearly. In 7:4 he shows us it’s all about what we trust:

Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.”

And so suffering applies to those who trust in Jesus in a different way to those who don’t, Jeremiah 30:11:

For I will be with you—this is the LORD’s declaration—to save you! I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have scattered you; however, I will not bring destruction on you. I will discipline you justly, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

As the Apostle Paul tells us: the Law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust.

Suffering burns away all of those parts of us that are unjust: that trust in anything other than Christ.

So, the Law burns, but it cannot destroy the one who is already hidden in Christ.

In fact, Peter opened his letter saying exactly this, back in 1:6-7:

⁶ You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials ⁷ so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Suffering refines faith—it burns away trust in the wrong things. And now here, Peter simply makes that more specific:

Suffering burns away glory and joy in ourselves

And the result is:

3) Suffering leaves only glory and joy in Christ

Did you see, Peter keeps repeating that:
v. 13: rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ
v. 13: you may rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed
v. 14: ridiculed for the name of Christ
v. 14: the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you
v. 16: if anyone suffers as a Christian
v. 16: let him glorify God

In Christ is true glory and joy… …not that rests on circumstances or performance that can burn away; …but permanent, perfect, pure glory and joy that will last forever.

Here’s a few ways Peter describes that in his letter:

You’ve been born again (1:3)
You have an imperishable inheritance (1:4)
God’s power guards you, not your strength (1:5)
You are a living stone in God’s house (2:5)
You’re God’s own people—you’re all priests (2:9)

Your joy:

depends on the resurrection of Christ (1:3)
coexists now with grief (1:6)
is grounded in faith not sight (1:8)
is focused on Christ, not outcomes (1:8)
is about future revelation, not present relief (4:13).

Suffering leaves only glory and joy in Christ

God wants you to have that, be certain of that, be assured of that.

And so if suffering removes every false assurance we might have… …imagine what it will be for those who have refused him?

That’s the question Peter’s quote from Proverbs poses in v. 18.                   Designed to help you see that nothing compares to Christ.

And Peter ends with this final encouragement:

4) Your Creator God is faithfully at work as you walk in your vocation of suffering

The suffering we experience is expected, and it’s not an accident, v. 19:

¹⁹ So then, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator while doing what is good.

God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. God is faithful and has made promises to you. God has prepared good works for you to walk in.

And one of those good works God has prepared for us is suffering. Expect suffering to happen. As you walk in suffering, know that: God has a purpose for it. God is creating something through it. God keeps his promises to you in it.

Peter doesn’t give us a philosophical explanation for exactly why this suffering occurs, or that suffering has happened.

There’s not need to start picking over our lives trying to work out the whats and whys of things that happen.

In fact, that’s the opposite of Peter’s pastoral advice: entrust yourself to him.

Why this particular suffering and this particular time? I don’t know. But, God does. He’s got it. He’s using it. It’s not wasted. He’s your creator, your sustainer, your redeemer, your lover.

Suffering is a Christian vocation, and every Christian can be assured of this:

Your Creator God is faithfully at work as you walk in your vocation of suffering

So: Don’t I deserve better than to suffer like this? That’s certainly how we feel so much of the time. Peter tells us: stop thinking in terms of Law and deserving.

In fact, suffering should push us away from any thoughts like this.

1) Expect suffering, because we’re joined to Jesus

Jesus suffered. Right from when he was a baby. He didn’t deserve it. You’re united to him through baptism; what happens to him, happens to you as well.

2) Suffering burns away glory and joy in ourselves

Are you suffering in your civil life, your marriage, your family, your career, your relationships, your community, your loneliness?

Since the fall, God’s Law has been falling, first on his household, and from there to the world.

But, this Law is for the unjust, not the just. It burns away all trust, glory and joy in everything that is outside of Christ. Baptism kills the old Adam. Many live exclusively in the old Adam.

But, 3) Suffering leaves only glory and joy in Christ

And Baptism gave you rebirth in Christ, a New Adam. God is holding him or her tight.

So, in whatever way you are suffering today, look at this:

4) Your Creator God is faithfully at work as you walk in your vocation of suffering

Suffering is not random. Suffering is not punishment. Suffering flows from union with Christ. Suffering is part of God’s calling and purpose for your life.

And his purpose really can be trusted, because it comes with this promise:

the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you

rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed