Arm Yourselves - 1 Peter 3:18-4:2

6 · Returns to thesis statement with added clarity about Peter's argument: fighting like Christ rather than the world makes pain productive

So I think that Paul's, Peter's thesis is something like, when you are in a hard time, fight like Christ.

Don't fight like the world.

And if you fight like Christ, you will see that your pain is productive, just as Christ's pain is so productive.

7 · Introduces the first of three application points, delivered as direct instruction

And I think that there's three application points underneath that thesis.

Number one.

Application number one.

And I'll support these as we move on.

Comfort zone living is costing you character.

Comfort zone living is costing your character.

You have to have a Christian view of pain that doesn't cause you to be consistently avoidant of it.

Because if you are consistently avoiding discomfort, your character will suffer.

Building a life to avoid pain is antithetical to God-honoring productivity.

Building a life to avoid pain is antithetical to God-honoring productivity.

8 · The second application narrows to gospel proclamation specifically

Application number two.

The pain that comes as a consequence of proclaiming the gospel is massively productive and should not be avoided.

Do you hear me?

The pain that comes from sharing the gospel, from being rejected, from being thought of as weird,

from being excluded, from feeling insufficient.

With a Christian view of pain, that pain is massively productive and should not be avoided.

When we avoid it, we are really taxing both our character and our legacy.

We are limiting our productivity in this life, and we are also limiting the development of our own character.

9 · The third application makes a crucial distinction: suffering for Christ (cause) vs

Number three, third application.

Even when you are not suffering for Christ, you must always aim to suffer like Christ.

In other words, there's different kinds of suffering.

And Peter discusses a number of them.

One being, you are suffering because of Christ.

What he's, it's interesting that he does this, he doesn't assume that just because a person is suffering for Christ,

that they will suffer like Christ.

He says, hey, you know, yeah, you're being picked on.

The world's not liking you.

Jesus said this would happen.

They're rejecting you.

There'll still be a temptation for you to respond to this suffering like the world responds.

So there's a difference between suffering for Christ and suffering like Christ.

First Peter is mostly a book about however, whatever suffering comes your way, you should always suffer like Christ.

Even if that suffering is physical, has anything to do with persecution, or even as a consequence of your own sins,

whatever the cause of your suffering, whether it's suffering, whether it's for Christ or not,

we need to ensure that we're always suffering like Christ.

That we have a Christ-like attitude in our suffering, wherever that suffering comes from.

10 · Signals the shift from front-loaded conclusions to textual demonstration

Okay, so let me kind of support the thesis and the application points by showing you, walking you through the text.

11 · Identifies 1 Peter 4:1 as the grounding verse for the entire passage and reads it twice for emphasis

I think that verse 1 of chapter 4 is probably the verse that grounds the entire passage and helps us to see clearly Peter's intent.

Verse 1, 1 Peter chapter 4 says this,

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

12 · Exegetes the phrase 'way of thinking' by distinguishing disposition from mere doctrine or attitude

The way of thinking is a really interesting term.

I think that very often Christians sometimes believe that if they just get the right doctrine, that that's the goal.

It's the accumulation of right beliefs.

It's like, no, we are actually looking for the right disposition.

Not just the right doctrine, but the right disposition.

The phrase, the way of thinking, is it relies on a very unique Greek word that doesn't simply mean ideas or mind or even attitude.

It's something even deeper than that.

It's the idea of disposition.

It's like who you naturally are in reaction to your environment.

13 · Introduces the fight/flight/freeze framework from stress research to make the concept of disposition observable and familiar

If you think about it this way, there was the famous study that said, you know,

that people respond in one of three ways to stress.

This started in the early 1900s into attacks, rather.

And the first were fight or flight.

You guys have probably heard that many times.

And then a third was added, which I think is totally reasonable and observable, and that is freeze.

So there's three possible ways that people respond to things.

And it tends to scary things, to pain, to the potential of pain.

Fight, flight, or freeze.

And that's a disposition.

Like, there are some people that do it this way.

There are some people that do it that way.

14 · Completes the fight/flight/freeze framework by adding the fourth way: faith

And what Peter is saying here is, is that you should arm yourself with the fourth way, which is faith.

There's a fourth option to difficult circumstances.

There's a fourth option to the things that are frightening, as Peter just got done talking about earlier in chapter 3.

And that is faith.

Respond like Christ did.

Arm yourself, he says.

The phrase arm yourself, that's a term for combat or for war.

This, your disposition, whether you realize it or not, is your weapon.

It's the thing you reach for instinctively to handle hard things.

And Peter is calling us to arm ourselves, not with one of the three worldly dispositions or human dispositions,

but to arm ourselves with the disposition of Jesus Christ.

How he fought, how he endured suffering, his attitude toward pain.

That's the disposition that the Christian should have.

15 · Names Walter Cannon and uses the martyrs as historical evidence of the fourth way

Walter Cannon, in this initial idea of fight or flight and then eventually freeze,

I want to say, yeah, there is a fourth way.

We see it in Jesus and we see it in the martyrs.

What are the martyrs doing exactly when they die the way they do?

Are they fighting?

Kind of.

Are they freezing?

Kind of.

There's something going on here that doesn't fit any of the three normal categories

when a faithful person faces persecution.

And the answer is, is that they have armed themselves

with the disposition that Christ has toward pain, toward suffering.

It's a fourth way.

It's the way of faith.

Arming ourselves with this way of faith is rooted in the fact that Christ has already showed us

the productive pathway, the productive response to pain.

Look back at verse one again.

Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh.

Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh,

arm yourself, therefore, with this way of thinking.

We have a path cleared out by Jesus that shows us the right way,

the most productive way to respond to pain.

And now we have to, as Peter's telling us in verse one,

arm ourselves with this new disposition.

Put on this new disposition.

16 · The transition word 'therefore' in the text becomes the transition in the sermon—signaling backward movement to support the forward claim

Now, the word, therefore, in verse one tells us that we do need to spend a little time looking backwards

because Peter's referencing some stuff that's already happened

and some stuff that he's already said.

And you can kind of see where we're supposed to look.

If you look at verse 18, you see that there he is also talking about the sufferings of Christ.

17 · Reads the entire passage (1 Peter 3:18-22) aloud without commentary, allowing the congregation to hear its complexity and density

Verse 18 of chapter three.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us to God and being put to death in the flesh,

but being but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison

because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah

while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons,

were brought safely through water.

For baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you,

not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience,

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven

and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers,

having been subjected to him.

18 · Validates the congregation's potential confusion and models intellectual humility

If you ever read the Bible and just feel like,

I'm a dumb person.

I don't understand what's going on.

That's sometimes the absolute right reaction to reading the Bible.

This is one of those places where it is,

okay, you just said a bunch of things, Peter.

I'm going to have to really think about what you're trying to tell me.

There's a lot going on in this particular section,

so let's see if we can unpack some of what he's doing.

19 · Teaches hermeneutical method: canonical interpretation using clearer passages to illumine difficult ones

By the way, the way that I always tend to try to figure things out

is I look in the rest of the book and say,

well, what else is he saying similar to this?

But I think the big key to understanding the Bible, frankly,

is that ultimately there really is only one author of the whole book,

the whole Bible.

One author through many different personalities,

but one author making one point through many different places

and personalities to different people.

And so one of the things that I rely on a ton when I get to these passages

is I just ask, well, what does God mostly like to talk about?

And how does God talk in other places?

And I sort of use the other passages that are clearer

as a kind of Rosetta Stone to understand this particular passage.

That's why I'm fairly confident that I won't start a cult today.

Because everything I'm seeing in this passage,

I can see much more clearly in some other passage.

20 · Identifies Peter's controlling pattern across 1 Peter: sufferings followed by subsequent glories

So let me try to walk you through what I think he's saying here.

I think one thing to acknowledge is that Peter just has this consistent pattern

throughout the entire book that we could summarize

in a statement he makes early on in chapter 1,

where he uses the phrase,

the sufferings of Christ and his subsequent glories.

I think that phrase,

sufferings and subsequent glories,

is the way that Peter wants us to think about pain.

It's a pump.

It's an annoyance.

It's a hardship.

But it's producing for us an eternal weight of glory.

And he grounds that in Jesus,

who suffered and then experienced subsequent glories.

21 · Multiplies examples of the suffering-to-glory pattern across 1 Peter with rapid-fire citations

In verse 21, he does the same thing in chapter 1.

He says,

God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory.

I think the main sort of axiom,

the main machine, if you will,

in Peter, it's a pump.

It goes down and up.

It goes in and out.

It produces by declining to some degree.

There's this idea of the seed falling to the ground and dying.

That's what Peter's doing.

He's just using different terminology.

He says,

after you have suffered a little while,

later on,

God will himself confirm,

restore,

restore,

confirm,

strengthen,

and establish you.

He says,

humble yourself under the mighty hand of the Lord,

so that in due time,

he will exalt you.

And so,

this is why I say that Christians ought to have a different attitude toward pain.

Because we actually believe it produces something.

We believe it produces a lot of things, actually.

22 · Synthesizes the exegetical work into a clear claim structure: Peter is proving pain's hyperproductivity by pointing to Jesus' suffering and its results

So,

one of the things Peter's clearly doing is,

is he's pointing us back to Jesus,

so that we see just the classic seed narrative,

the seed story arc,

the falling down,

the being result,

the resultant exaltation,

and fruitfulness,

and so forth.

And I think the big idea is,

is that when you faithfully endure pain,

that pain produces far more

than you could have ever asked or imagined.

And I think what Peter's doing mostly in this passage,

is he's giving us two proofs,

that pain can be hyperproductive.

He points to Jesus and says,

look,

here's someone who endured suffering faithfully.

And look what God produced,

as a result of this faithful suffering.

23 · Announces the two-product structure explicitly and invites the congregation to discover it themselves by reading the text again

And I think he's saying,

there's two things,

that Jesus' suffering,

was used by God to produce.

Let's look back at verse 18 again.

I'm saying there's two things in this passage,

that Peter's saying,

look what God used,

look how God used Jesus' pain.

Look what,

look what was produced,

as a consequence of Jesus' faithful endurance.

Let's read this again.

You tell me if you can see,

two things here.

24 · Re-reads 1 Peter 3:18-22 in full a second time, now with the two-product framework in mind

Verse 18,

1 Peter 3,

For Christ also suffered once for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us to God,

being put to death in the flesh,

but being made alive in the spirit,

in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

because they formerly did not obey.

When God's patience waited in the days of Noah,

while the ark was being prepared,

in which a few,

that is eight persons,

were brought safely through the water,

baptism,

which corresponds to this,

now saves you,

not as a removal of dirt from the body,

but as an appeal to God for a good conscience,

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who has gone into heaven,

and is at the right hand of God,

with angels, authorities, powers,

having been subjected to him.

25 · Identifies the first product of Jesus' suffering: our redemption

What did Jesus' pain produce?

Well, first of all,

it produced our redemption.

Do you see that in the passage?

Jesus' pain produced our salvation.

Verse 18,

For Christ also suffered for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us back to God.

26 · Demonstrates that Peter has already made this move in chapter 2—pointing to Christ's suffering as both example and atonement

Peter has run this exact play before,

earlier in chapter 2.

He's talking to servants who are suffering

under unjust masters,

and in verse 21 he says this,

listen, he's calling these servants to suffer well,

to suffer like Christ,

and listen to what he says,

For to this you have been called,

because Christ also suffered for you,

leaving you an example,

so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin,

neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled,

he did not revile in return.

When he suffered,

he did not threaten,

but continued entrusting himself

to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body

on the tree,

that we might die to sin

and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed,

for you were straying like sheep,

but have now returned to the shepherd

and overseer of your souls.

27 · Makes Peter's rhetorical strategy explicit: you are exhibit A for pain's productivity

So do you get the play that Peter's running?

Here, and in chapter 3,

he's saying,

Endure suffering like Jesus.

If you endure suffering like Jesus,

there will be all sorts of things produced.

And here's exhibit 1.

What did God produce

with the sufferings of Jesus?

You!

He produced you

in your current justified, adopted state.

He's saying,

You want evidence?

Do you want evidence

that God turns pain

into something productive

if you will endure in faith?

You are that evidence.

He died for you

to return you back to God.

You were like sheep straying,

and now he has returned you

to the shepherd of your souls.

That's an incredible sort of way

of saying,

Here's,

You want some proof?

You want some proof

that the pain is productive?

You're the proof.

28 · Creates an analogy to make the absurdity of Christian doubt about pain's productivity vivid

Friends,

I want you to lock this saying in

and really think about it

in terms of how your attitude

toward pain

is reflected in this.

I truly believe

that a Christian

struggling to believe

that pain can be productive

is like an apple

struggling to believe

in apple seeds.

I really think

it's the most insane thing

in the world

that a Christian doubts

whether faithfully endured pain

can be productive

because they themselves

are the evidence

that it can be.

29 · Transitions to the second product of Jesus' suffering: the prison sermon

That's one of the,

I think,

tricks,

tricks,

rhetorical plays

that Peter is running here.

He's saying,

Yeah,

Oh yeah,

it works.

Look,

you,

you exist.

You have been saved.

How did that happen?

Because Jesus didn't fight

like the world.

Jesus entrusted himself

to him

who judges justly.

Also,

Jesus did not fear pain.

Not as a fundamental.

Jesus did not commit

to living in his comfort zone,

did not commit

to a life primarily dictated

by the search

of personal peace

and affluence.

He embraced the Father's will

and he produced something glorious

as a result.

And now,

we get into this next section

where it says in verse 19

that in addition to producing our salvation,

it produced a prison sermon.

It produced a prison sermon.

Do you see that?

Verse 18 and 19,

For Christ also suffered

once for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us to God,

being put to death in the flesh,

but made alive in the Spirit,

in which he went

and proclaimed to the spirits

in prison

because they formerly

did not obey

when God's patience waited

in the days of Noah

while the ark was being prepared.

30 · Explains the two-brag structure across the New Testament: (1) salvation of sinners, (2) defeat of spiritual powers

Okay.

What's going on here?

What's Jesus doing,

preaching,

and when is Jesus doing it?

What is Jesus doing,

preaching the spirits in prison,

and when is Jesus doing it?

Well,

I think that this is part

of the classic one-two punch

in gospel proclamation

in basically every book

of the New Testament.

And there's basically two ways

that New Testament writers

brag about the cross's consequences.

One, he saved us.

He saved us from our sin.

He died.

He made atonement.

He propitiated God's wrath.

He saved us.

And there's a second brag

that shows up all the time,

and that brag is,

and he subdued all of the principalities

and powers and demons and so forth.

What is the gospel?

What's happening in the gospels?

Just helping a bunch of people out?

Kicking a bunch of demons out.

Like, what's happening in Acts?

Helping a bunch of people out?

Kicking a bunch of demons out.

What is Revelation about?

Nearly every epistle you'll find

has two celebratory exclamations

littered throughout them.

Number one, he died for us

while we did not deserve it.

Number two, he defeated Satan

and all of his enemies.

And so my understanding

of what's happening

in this section of Scripture

from, you know, verse 18 through 22

of chapter 3

is that Peter is going back and forth,

and he's showing the two things

that Christ's cross

have most famously accomplished.

One, salvation,

and two, superiority

over all principalities and powers.

And if that is the correct take,

that would make sense of verse 22.

You see verse 22?

This is a very common way of talking

in the New Testament

about Jesus' cross victory.

Who has gone into heaven

is at the right hand of God

with angels, authorities, and powers

having been subjected to him.

So I think what Peter's doing here

is he's saying the two outcomes

of Christ's cross

that show that pain can be productive

when entrusted to God

are the salvation of souls

and the superiority

over all other beings.

31 · Lays out two interpretive options for the spirits in prison (human spirits vs

Now, this idea of Jesus

going into a prison to preach,

it's like, well, where does that happen?

There are multiple ways

of thinking about this,

multiple theories.

I would tell you that they basically

fall into one of two categories.

Number one, these are spirits

of human beings

who during the time of Noah

did not obey

and were cast into

sort of the outer darkness,

not hell, but shoal

or something like that,

and that Jesus went and preached to them

not a message of salvation,

but a message of condemnation.

You should have listened.

The other option is pretty close.

It's just that they're not human spirits.

They're demons.

Either disembodied

or cast into the gloomy darkness

during the flood

in which Jesus also did the exact same thing.

He went and preached

a message of vindication

of his superiority.

When did he do this?

There's two options.

He did this during the time of Noah

or he did this

after his resurrection

or after his death

or after his resurrection

or something like that.

32 · Establishes the boundaries of legitimate interpretation: this was not a salvation offer (rules out post-mortem evangelism) but a vindication message (Christ's victory proclaimed)

But there's a few things

we can know for sure.

Number one,

this was not a message of salvation.

It would just disagree

with everything else in the Bible

to suggest that Jesus

was going to people

after they had died

or to demons

and offering a message of salvation.

We know that for sure

and we know that

the message of vindication,

I have won,

is indeed something

that God delights in saying

to the principalities,

the powers,

and so on and so forth.

So I think that's what's going on.

I'll try to walk you through this

a little bit more in a minute.

33 · Shifts to the second theological landmine: baptism saves

Now, what about this

baptism saves thing?

In fact, what about,

why is Peter taking us to Noah

in general?

34 · Identifies the hermeneutical move: typology

I want you to think about

three ideas in the Noah typology.

See that phrase in verse 21,

baptism, which corresponds to this,

now saves you,

not as a removal of dirt from the body,

but as an appeal to God

for a good conscience.

That word corresponds

is the word for type.

Peter's doing typology here.

And I think this is

an important lesson

and not just something

kind of

that you might want to know about.

His invocation of Noah here

is really interesting

and using the ark

is really interesting

for at least three reasons.

35 · First typological insight: the floodwaters represent pain/judgment that either destroys or delivers depending on whether you are in the ark (Christ)

Number one,

I think one of the ideas

being communicated here

is that pain can either

be productive or destructive.

Pain can either be

productive or destructive.

If you place your faith in Christ,

the same pain that judges

and destroys the unbeliever

will deliver

and purify the believer.

The floodwaters being God's pain,

God's judgment,

the suffering.

What is suffering?

What do the floodwaters

of suffering

do to the unbelievers

outside the ark?

Destroys them.

What will pain do to you

if Christ doesn't preserve your heart,

fill you full of the Holy Spirit,

and let you persevere in Him

through hope?

It will destroy you.

You will deconstruct.

You will walk away

and you will blame God

because a good God

wouldn't do X, Y, and Z.

When the waters rise,

if you are not truly in Christ,

the suffering,

the hardship,

the calamity,

it will destroy you.

But if you are in Christ,

what do the waters do then?

They transport you

to the mountaintop.

They move you

to the next stage.

They put you

in a unique position

of authority

and leadership.

You see,

the idea is

that the pain

that destroys

can also

save

and secure

and start over

if you are in Christ.

36 · Applies the ark typology directly: Christ is your ark, so arm yourself with his disposition

And so, like,

again,

the big message

of Peter is

if you're going to

suffer anyway,

suffer in Christ.

Christ is seen

as the ark here.

Put your faith in Christ.

Live out your life

in Christ.

Put on the mind

of Christ.

Arm yourself

with the disposition

of Christ.

Make him your ark.

And when the waters

of suffering

and hardship rise,

you will find

not that they destroyed you,

even though there will be

moments where you're

hanging on

and it's really

gusty out there,

you will find

that that same calamity

has brought you

to a place

that you needed

to be,

that was in God's

next step

for you.

That's why the Christian

just has to have

an entirely

different attitude

toward pain.

37 · Third typological insight: baptism represents entrance into Christ (the ark), not a mechanical salvation

And the third idea

is when he says

that baptism

saves,

I think what he's

really saying here

is that baptism

is the ceremonial

entrance into the ark.

It's the thing

that is represented

by baptism,

which is,

I am trusting Christ.

The idea,

I think,

here is you have

entered into Christ

like those eight survivors

entered into the ark,

and because of that

you are saved

from calamity

and the natural

consequences of calamity

and the natural

consequences of pain.

The very thing

that could drive you

away from God,

the very thing

that could make you

angry and bitter

and self-pitying

and full of excuses

and just a victim

will drive you

into obedience,

into faith,

into a higher level

of your walk

with the Lord.

38 · Cites Wayne Grudem to clarify that Peter is not teaching baptismal regeneration but rather that baptism symbolizes the inward reality of faith

Wayne Grudem

talks about this

in his commentary

on this issue.

He says,

Baptism now saves you

not the outward

physical ceremony

of baptism,

but the inward

spiritual reality

which baptism represents.

An appeal to God

for a good conscience,

Grudem says,

is an inward

spiritual transaction

between God

and the individual,

a transaction

symbolized by the

outward ceremony.

39 · Recaps the two-product structure (salvation and demon defeat) and emphasizes its normalcy across the New Testament

So as we're working

through this,

we've said,

okay,

Peter seems to be

doing two things.

He's talking about

our salvation

and he's talking

about demons.

And I want to

help you to see

that that's

extraordinarily normal.

It's just the way

that the New Testament

talks about the victory

of Christ.

It's routine

that we see

this idea

that Jesus'

authority

over the darkness,

over principalities

and powers,

it just shows up

over and over

and over again.

It's in Romans,

it's in 1 Corinthians,

it's in Ephesians,

it's in Philippians,

probably most famously

it's in Colossians.

40 · Cites Colossians 1:16 and 2:15 as clear examples of the two-brag pattern, then applies it to 1 Peter 3:19

For by him

all things were created

in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones

or dominions

or rulers

or authorities,

all things were created

through him

and for him.

And then again

in chapter 2,

he disarmed

the rulers

and authorities

and put them

to open shame

by triumphing

over them.

You see this

throughout everywhere

and I think

that's what Jesus

is doing

to the spirits

in prison.

I think he is

on a I told you so

mission

that is a holy

righteous vindication

of his name.

He's displaying

his greatness,

he's making

his enemies

his footstool,

so on and so forth.

41 · Recaps the two evidences (salvation and demon defeat) and announces a third product of suffering to be found in 4:1-2

Now,

those are the two

main evidences

that Peter,

we're almost done,

thank you for your patience,

this is a lot.

Those are the two

main evidences

of

Peter's proof,

his thesis.

Endure pain

like Christ

and it will be productive.

How do you know?

Number one,

he saved you with it.

Number two,

he subdued

all the demons.

And now we're ready

to look at verses

one and two again,

kind of land here

because there seems

to be a third

thing

that Peter says

can be produced

by faithful

suffering.

42 · Reads 1 Peter 4:1-2 and immediately flags the third theological landmine: the claim that suffering ends sin

Since therefore,

look at verse one

of chapter four,

since therefore

Christ suffered

in the flesh,

arm yourselves

with the same way

of thinking,

for whoever has

suffered in the flesh

has ceased from sin

so as to live

for the rest

of the time

in the flesh,

no longer

for human passions

but for the will

of God.

See, this is another

potential cult moment

because we could just

say like,

hey, if we suffer

enough in the flesh,

we won't sin anymore.

By the way,

I have an iron

in a branding fire

outside

and afterward

we'll make our way

outside and,

you know,

there's this

broken,

you know,

flawed,

heretical doctrine

called perfectionism.

It's held by Nazarenes

and other people

and that is

that you arrive

at a certain place

where you no longer sin.

Which is insane

because I know

some Nazarenes

and I love them

but they most definitely

still sin

just like me.

43 · Corrects the perfectionist misreading by locating the verse in a sanctification framework rather than perfectionism

So Peter's not saying

that we can somehow

go through

one hardship,

one significant hardship

and just stop sinning

but he is saying

that that is

the path

to sanctification.

That doing hard things

in the name of the Lord,

insisting

that you follow Jesus

when your flesh

is barking

at you to stop,

that is going to have

an effect

on your relationship

with your flesh

and with sin.

44 · Supports the sanctification reading with James 1:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5, both of which teach that trials produce godly character through faith and the Spirit

We know,

the Bible's clear,

that suffering

produces godliness

in some way

when it is

joined with faith

through the Spirit.

Jared read from James,

consider it all joy,

my brothers,

when you encounter

various trials

for you know

that these trials

are going to produce

things in you.

Steadfastness

will have its full effect

and then you will

be perfect and complete

and lacking in nothing.

Romans 5,

not only that we

rejoice in our sufferings

knowing that suffering

produces endurance

and endurance

produces character

and character

produces hope

and hope does not

put us to shame

because God's love

has been poured

into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit

who has been given to us.

45 · Synthesizes the exegesis into a clear statement of what 1 Peter 4:1-2 means: suffering practices Christ-like disposition, develops spiritual muscles, and changes our relationship with sin

I think what Peter's saying

is similar.

He's saying that a person

who endures suffering

with faith

has in some sense

practiced the disposition

of Christ-like suffering.

He has turned a corner

in terms of

becoming a new person.

He is a person

who has in the hardest

moments of his life

resisted the barking

and yelping of the flesh,

quieted his soul,

entrusted himself

to him who judges justly,

and in that sense

by enduring suffering

he has developed

some of the muscles

that are needed

to say no consistently

to sin and the flesh

and yes consistently

to God.

I think that's what

Peter's saying here.

Not that certain amounts

of suffering

will make you perfect,

but that one of the things,

one of the three things

he's saying

suffering produces

is for us

as sinners

a new relationship

with our flesh

and with the truth.

46 · Makes the transfer principle explicit: trust practiced in gospel-rejection transfers to daily temptation resistance

All of those times

we spent telling ourselves

during those hard moments

when we want to quit,

when we want to hit

the eject button,

all of those hard moments

where we instead

choose to trust,

that trust transfers

into our daily life

and how we approach

just the normal annoyances

of being simple

and the normal temptations

that are accompanied

in this world.

I think the idea

is something like this.

What if you started

sharing the gospel routinely

so that you became

routinely rejected

and ridiculed

and mocked?

Would that help you

with your porn habit?

With your whatever?

Yes.

Yes.

That's the idea.

Yes.

If you will suffer righteously

and develop a Christ-like

relationship to pain,

with pain,

it will produce godliness

in a way that cannot

be produced

in any other

particular way.

47 · Returns to application point one with reinforcement from the exegesis

Which brings us back

to our application.

question.

Number one,

comfort zone living

is costing you

character points.

Comfort zone living

is costing you

character points.

If you have built

a life around

avoiding hard things

because you don't have

a Christian relationship

with pain,

that is affecting

your character.

that is affecting

your ability

to sort of be

who God's called

you to be.

We don't want

to do that.

Building a life

to avoid pain

is antithetical

to God-honoring

productivity.

Pain is actually

a part of the process

that God uses

to produce.

Think of the oil pump.

48 · Returns to application point two, now grounded in Peter's two-product argument

Number two,

gospel suffering,

gospel-related suffering,

is massively productive.

The pain that comes

as a consequence

of proclaiming

the gospel

is good pain.

Productive pain.

It will help you.

You shouldn't avoid it.

You should understand

that this kind

of endurance learned

is exceptionally good

for you.

It's exceptionally good

for the world indeed.

In fact,

that's the whole idea

here is that

when you endure

suffering in faith,

you see other people

blessed.

And you see yourself

blessed.

49 · Returns to application point three with pastoral specificity—not everyone is suffering for Christ, but many are suffering

And number three,

suffer like Christ

even when you are

not suffering

for Christ.

I don't know

how many people

in this room

are suffering

for Christ,

but I know

several people

in this room

are suffering.

And what I would

just encourage you

to see is

that fundamentally,

if you can endure

this season

of suffering

by arming yourself

with Christ's disposition,

which is a hopeful

and trusting disposition

to hardship,

you will see God

use your pain

to produce

all sorts

of excellent glories.

50 · The prayer recapitulates the sermon's themes: God's sovereignty over suffering, Christ's suffering as our start, suffering as productive, and the call to look to Jesus and suffer like him

Let's pray.

Amen.

Father God,

would you,

through your Holy Spirit,

help us

to stop being afraid?

Lord,

we live in a world

perfectly and totally

controlled by our

Father God,

who has already

demonstrated He loves us

and that He gave

His own Son for us.

Lord,

we should just have

a completely different

relationship to suffering

than anybody else

in the world.

It's where we got

our start

in the sufferings

of Christ.

It's why the world

is the way it is

to the extent

that there's anything

good here.

It's because

Christ has shed

His blood

for this world.

It is our freedom

and our joy

and our hope

and, Lord,

it all came about

because someone

did a really hard thing,

the only thing

that He could do

for us,

that no one else

could do.

I think Peter

would have us

look to Jesus,

the author

and perfecter

of our faith,

who for the joy

set before Him

endured the cross,

forsaking its shame.

Lord,

would You please

help us

not only to receive

the comfort

that comes from

the cross,

but also

our marching orders.

Would You please

help us

to suffer

like Jesus Christ?

to see

pain

and difficulty,

especially

gospel-related pain,

to see that

through the eyes

of faith

and hope,

expectation.

Lord,

would You please

through Your Holy Spirit

do this work for us.

In Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

51 · The communion invitation reframes the call to take up the cross as investment advice rather than sadism

Well,

for communion,

I just thought

I would share

something real quickly

with you.

Jesus says

to every person

in this room,

if you want

to be His disciple,

you've got to

take up your cross

and follow Him.

And I want to

clear something up

before you come

and celebrate

this reminder

of His cross,

His presence

in this celebration.

Do you think

that Jesus

is calling you

to take up your cross

because He's like

one of these kind

of guys

who suffers

and wants everybody

else to suffer too?

Like,

what is Jesus

actually,

why would Jesus

tell you

to take up

your cross?

Why is He

telling you

to do that?

The answer

is that He

loves you

and there's

certain crowns

that you can

only get

on the other

side of that

cross bearing.

That's the answer.

He loves you.

He's not

doing a hard thing

and like,

well,

you've got to do

a hard thing too

because I'm doing

a hard thing.

No,

He's doing

the hard thing

for the joy

set before Him

and He loves you

and He wants you

to follow Him

so that you find

the glory

after the suffering.

And so this

communion

is an invitation

by Him

not only

to be saved

but to follow

this most excellent

person

to the cross,

to the grave,

out of the grave,

to the throne,

it's the last

thing He prayed

for you.

Did you know

that the last

thing He prayed

for you

was that you

would see

His glory,

that you

would be with

Him where He

is,

that you

would reign

with Him.

Why is He

calling us

to do hard

things,

to endure

hard things,

to suffer?

Because He's

a meanie?

No, He loves

you and He's

giving you

the most excellent

investment advice

ever given

to anybody.

unless a seed

falls to the

ground and

dies, it

remains only

a seed,

but if it

falls to the

ground and

dies, it

produces, it

produces, it

produces, it

produces.

So this

communion is an

invitation for

you to just

have that

conversation with

Jesus and

say, Lord,

I'm not you.

I live under

you, I live

in you, but I

do want to be

like you.

Would you

please give me

the faith to

follow you?

Come and

partake of it.

Come grab the

elements.

Sit down.