An Encouragement, Prohibition, Directive

Introduction and Review of 1 Peter 4:12-13

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 28th, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to 1 Peter chapter 4, and I shall read verses 12 through 19. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 12. Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you.

0:47 But insomuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you. Because of the name of Christ, you are rejoiced. Because of the name of Christ, you are rejoiced.

1:06 Because of the name of Christ, you are rejoiced. Then first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? And, if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Wherefore, let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful creator. One of God's servants, commenting on this section of the word of God, has written, Suffering for Christ leads to glory and tastes of glory. It also gives glory to God. When believers suffer because they are Christians, God is glorified.

2:26 Satan's accusations against God and Job were proven false. God was vindicated. Christians are given an understanding not granted to Job. All the more are they to glorify God.

2:40 God in the midst of their suffering for Christ's sake. Paul and Silas sang praises in the prison at Philippi. Peter glorified the name of Jesus before the very rulers who had delivered the Savior to Pilate. And through the centuries, Christians have defied their persecutors in order to praise the Lord.

3:02 Armando Valadares, for 22 years a prisoner of Castro's regime in Cuba, tells of how he, came to a living trust in Christ. And here's a quote from his book, entitled Against All Hope, The Prison Memoirs of Armando Valadares.

3:21 This is what he wrote. Those cries of the executed patriots, long-lived Christ the King, down with communism, have wakened me to a new life. The cries became such a potent and stirring symbol that by 1960, in the year of the war, in 1963, the men condemned to death were gagged before being carried down to be shot. The jailers feared those shots.

3:53 Here is a contemporary manifestation of men and women who internalized Peter's pastoral counseling with respect to the matter of the suffering that comes to us in the way of righteousness, the suffering that becomes ours, because of our allegiance to the Lord Jesus. Last Lord's Day, we began to unpack the paragraph read in your hearing, focusing our attention upon verses 12 and 13. Here were the heads by which I sought to unpack it in your hearing. We noted the gracious introduction.

4:32 Peter addresses them as beloved. Beloved of God, beloved of Him, all that follows is a transcript of genuine love for these suffering saints. Then we looked at the central concern. It has to do with what Peter calls a fiery trial of burning that is among them.

4:53 Among the churches there in Asia Minor, there were varying degrees and specific outbreaks of the kinds of persecution that we read about in the book of Acts, and from secular history, we read of the persecutions that came shortly thereafter, when Nero declared the Christian faith an unlawful religion. So Peter's concern is the fiery trial that is presently among them, that is occurring in order to prove them. And then we looked thirdly at the reaction forbidden. They are not to think it strange, or they are not to be surprised, as though something out of the ordinary has come upon them. The Lord Jesus had said, if they hate me, they will hate you. The servant is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. So they are not to react as though this is some strange and foreign element in Christian experience.

5:57 And then finally we looked at the response commanded, which is all summed up in the imperative of the word to rejoice. They are to rejoice. And they are to rejoice for two reasons. Their sufferings for Christ become a sharing and fellowship in the sufferings of Christ.

6:19 And secondly, their rejoicing in their suffering now, suffering for and with Christ, is a certain pledge of a greater joy that will be theirs at the coming of Christ. As one has said, wherever the expectation of the return of Christ is a living reality in the life of a believer, it inspires unswerving loyalty to the Lord and promotes a readiness to suffer for Him now. And then in conclusion, I sought to isolate this fundamental principle that is evident in verses 12 and 13, that biblical and apostolic faith is Christ-obsessed and future-oriented. As Peter is dealing with this subject, Christ is central, and the future is always set before them. Now this morning, we come to verses 14 to 16, and in these verses we have what I am calling, first of all, an additional encouragement, verse 14. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you.

Additional Encouragement: Blessed When Reproached for Christ (1 Peter 4:14)

7:35 Then this additional encouragement is followed with a necessary prohibition, verse 15, for let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler in other men's matters, and then verse 16, a further directive, but if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name. So we begin then with this that I am calling an additional encouragement. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God is resting upon you. This verse begins with Peter identifying a specific kind of flame in the fiery trial which is among them. It is the flame of being reproached for the name of Christ. As we saw last week, the imagery of the burning or the fiery trial was indefinite. It did point to trials that were intense, that had the capacity to destroy and to cause pain, capacities that fire has.

8:52 It was a way of describing some intense trial, but here he focuses upon one tongue of the flame of that trial, namely being reproached for the name of Christ. And the word used here means, to heap verbal insults upon another, to revile, insulting, abusive speech. In Mark 15 and verse 37, we find this word used by Mark in conjunction with the sufferings of our Lord Jesus. Mark 15 and verse, no, it's not 37, 32. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and believe, and they that were crucified with Him reproached Him. I believe that's the reference here. Yes, it is.

9:53 It's Mark 15 and verse 32. And they that were crucified with Him reproached Him. And we read in the Gospel records what that reproaching was. Taunting, mocking, jeering, taunting at very sensitive points in the spirit of our Lord Jesus, challenging His relationship to the Father.

10:16 And it's the word our Lord used in the Beatitudes when He said, Blester you when men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Blester you when men shall revile or reproach you. And it could well be that those words of our Lord Jesus lodged in the mind of Peter and that He uses that very word because of this Beatitude, spoken in His own ears years before by the Lord Jesus. And note that this reproach was coming to them in the realm of the name of Christ.

10:56 A literal rendering, as you'll see in the margin of some of your Bibles, is this. If you are reproached not for the name of Christ, but in the name of Christ, the reproach was coming in the context, in the realm of the name of Christ. That is, because of their open, unashamed attachment to the Lord Jesus. These believers had embraced the witness that was brought to them concerning the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God.

11:33 And as the Spirit of God blessed the proclamation of the Gospel, and this is given in the record, chapter 1 of this very letter, and as they were begotten again by the word of truth and embraced Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work, they were now unashamedly identified with His person, with His work, with His ways, with His laws, with His people. And Peter is saying to them, if you are reproached in the name of Christ, that is, because of your attachment to Christ and all the expressions of that attachment, Peter is identifying what this tongue of flame is from this fiery trial in terms of reproach. Now this is not the first time Peter has identified some of their suffering as verbal abuse. Look back to chapter 2, chapter 2 and verse 12. Having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles that wherein, here we are, speak against you, as evildoers.

12:49 Not the same word in the original, but you see, it's the same idea. They are speaking against them as though they were evildoers. Chapter 3 and verse 16. Having a good conscience that wherein you are spoken against.

13:04 They may be put to shame who revile. People are speaking against them and reviling them. The focus is upon verbal abuse. And then again, in chapter 4 and verse 4, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot.

13:22 And how do we know they think it's strange? By what they say, speaking evil of you. So you see, this is a recurring emphasis here in the book of 1 Peter. And it's one of the reasons why I, with a number of the commentators, share the view that Peter was not writing to these saints because some of them had begun to experience martyrdom.

13:42 Martyrdom may be there in principle, but the focus again and again is upon the persecution that is coming to these people in the form of verbal abuse. Their attachment to Christ makes them such radically different people that they can't understand what makes them tick. And because they don't understand them, they speak evil of them. Because the light that is in their transformed lives exposes the darkness of the unconverted.

14:12 And men love darkness rather than light. They seek to smear the light by verbal abuse. Now for a true child of God, this is no little thing. Calvin rightly observes, there is often in such attacks more bitterness than in the loss of goods or in the torments or agonies of the body.

14:34 For a true child of God, to whom a good name is better than thousands of gold and silver, to be reproached verbally at times is a horrible and a painful experience. Listen to old Archbishop Leighton commenting on this. If you be reproached, if we consider both the nature of the thing and the strain of the Scriptures, we shall find that reproaches are among the sharpest sort of sufferings and are indeed fiery trials. The tongue is afire, says James, and reproaches are the flashes of that fire.

15:16 They are a subtle kind of flame, like the lightning which, as naturalists say, crushes the bones yet breaks not the flesh. Now listen to these very perceptive words. They wound not the body. That is reproachful words.

15:32 They wound not the body as do tortures and whips, but through a whole skin they reach the spirit of a man and cut it. So in Psalm 42.10, As with a sword in my bones my enemies reproach me. Inasmuch as they are thus grievous, the Scripture accounts them so and very usually reckons them among sufferings and is apt to name them more than any other kind of suffering and that with good reason, not only for their piercing nature, as we have said, but withal for their frequency and multitude.

16:14 And some things we suffer do as flies more trouble by their number than by their weight. You can picture the poor man trying to have a meal with a whole form of flies and he said they trouble us not by their weight but by their number. And likewise he says with the reproaches that come from the words of men when other persecutions cease yet these continue. When all other fires of martyrdom are put out these still burn.

16:44 In all times and places the malignant word is ready to revile religion not only the avowed enemies of the Christian faith but those who have but a formal experience of the Christian faith and are Christians only in name and will scorn and reproach those that are Christians indeed. Well, as Peter begins to give what I have called this additional encouragement he identifies the specific form of the trial in terms of being reproached for the name of Christ. And what is the heart of the encouragement that he gives to such people? It is given in terms of the fact that they are blessed. In that condition they are the blessed ones and blessed as the text says because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rests upon them. Now, you'll notice if you have a good translation that is a translation and not a paraphrase that the words blessed are you are in italics.

17:59 There's no verb in the original. You have exactly what you have in the Beatitudes and exactly what we had earlier in 1 Peter chapter 3 when he uses the same construction and says that those who are suffering for righteousness sake verse 14 are the blessed ones. Makarios they are blessed ones. And that word blessing carries with it all of the weight of the understanding of God's covenant mercy and blessing.

18:30 It's the opposite of God's covenantal curses. And to be blessed ones means that we stand under the canopy of God's gracious covenantal commitment to us in Jesus Christ. So while the words are pummeling their spirits they are to stop in the midst of it and say yes I'm being reproached for the name of Christ but I am in God's eyes and in the theater of my own heart I am a blessed one. Why am I receiving this reproach?

19:03 Because God in grace has come to me in the gospel of his son has shown me my true state has pointed me to the Lord Jesus as the only answer for my state as a sinner who deserves the wrath of God. And I have found in Christ the pearl of great price whom having not seen I love. And though I yet see him not yet believing I know something of joy unspeakable and full of glory. Let the words continue to come like swords.

19:33 I am a blessed man. I am a blessed woman. Peter says that's your true condition. You are not what your enemies say you are.

19:42 You are what God has made you a blessed one. And their words cannot change what God has made you. Blessed. But then it's as though someone raises his hand in the congregation and says Peter is there any particular way that we should regard ourselves as the blessed ones in the midst of this verbal abuse?

The Spirit of Glory and God Rests Upon You

20:01 And Peter's response is yes blessed because blessed because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you. Now you have to bear with me for about two minutes while I tell you that there is a problem with seeking to know exactly what Peter wrote. There is some very good older manuscript evidence to point to what some would say is Peter's writing not merely blessed are you because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you but Peter wrote because the spirit of glory and the spirit or the spirit of glory and power rest upon you. Now it's my judgement that Peter did not add the words power so I will not preach as though that was in the original. And then there is the problem of an unusual construction. You'll see again an italics for the first use of the word spirit because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you.

21:06 In other words if we were to give a literal rendering of the Greek text it would be that the of let me get my writing it down here alright here it is the of glory and the of God's spirit upon you is resting. The of glory the what of glory he doesn't tell us right there the of glory and the of God the of God's spirit upon you is resting. Now that's horrible English and it seems in my judgment that those who translate it the way we have it in our Bibles are correct blester you because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you. And some of you say but wait a minute there is a last half to the verse that says that on your part he is glorified on their part abused whatever the exact language is well again the manuscript evidence for that is weak and therefore I'm going to preach as though that were not part of the Bible and I'm going to quote now with that behind us what is Peter saying here's what he's saying blester you and the proof that you are the blessed ones is that in the midst of this reproach the spirit of glory and the spirit of God is resting upon you the spirit of glory what in the world does that mean well again the exegetes and the commentators differ there is a wide range of difference but in my judgment there is a

22:36 but in my judgment it is at least this much is true as the father is called the father of glory in Ephesians 1 17 Christ is called the Lord of glory in 1 Corinthians 2 8 so the spirit is the spirit of glory that is he possesses all the fullness of all the divine attributes that are the very glory of God he possesses them with the father and with the son and here is an unreserved attestation of the divinity of the spirit he is the spirit of glory and the spirit of God not a different spirit he is one and the same spirit of glory spirit of God and Peter says you are blessed because he is resting upon you now that is a strange phrase you would think he might say you are blessed because the spirit of God dwells in you or the spirit of glory and the spirit of God is with you but he says is resting upon you and where did Peter get the notion of the spirit resting as being one of the unique blessings of being within the framework of a saving relationship to Christ well most likely he took the concept

24:05 right from the prophet chapter 11 verse 1 and there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse and a branch out of his root shall bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord now in that Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures the very verb that Peter uses the spirit is resting upon you is the verb that is found here in Isaiah 11 in verse 2 and most likely what was in Peter's mind was this wonderful truth taught elsewhere in scripture that is Christ has received from the Father the promise of the spirit Acts chapter 2 it is he who has poured forth the spirit upon his people as his crowning messianic king it is the final attestation of the identity of Jesus he being by the right hand of God exalted Peter says has shed forth this which you now see and hear let the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ God has

25:34 as it were publicly manifested the position of his son as the exalted messianic king when he sheds the spirit of his army in the hands of the earth and his spirit is not given to him but to who am I whom I am I am he who is I am you I am I am I am I I am I am I am Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of God. And whenever you are asked about why you live the way you live, it is always a road back to Christ. Why do you frame your life that way? It's Christ's will. Why do you do this? It will be Christ's glory. Everything about

26:30 you traces who and what you are back to Christ. So now they are reproaching you in the context of the name of Christ. Because of your attachment to him. Because of your constant reference to him as the one who has brought the change. Now in the midst of those cutting, biting words rattling in your ears and in your brain, remember who you are. You are the blessed ones. You are those under covenant blessing from the living God. And among the greatest of those blessings is this. All of their vicious words cannot drive away the love of Christ. All of their vicious words cannot drive away the love of Christ. All of their vicious words cannot drive away from you the endowment of the spirit given to you from the risen Lord who will be with you forever even as Jesus promised in that last discourse. I will send the comforter who shall be with you forever. And he says this very spirit of glory and

27:26 of God is resting upon you. Not for some temporary visit, but as the permanent endowment of the risen and the glorified. And he wants them to know that. That while these who oppose Christ and oppose them for Christ's sake seek to denigrate and express the venom of their hearts, God's disposition and God's relationship is attested by the abiding presence of God the Holy Spirit. And all of their animosity and their anguish and their disdain go away, even when they are not with him and believe they may be of no use. When opposition and persecution are most intense, there are increased and additional comforts and consolations and manifestations of the grace and power of the Spirit. Perhaps Peter was remembering his own experience. You remember that Peter and John are told to shut up and not to preach anymore? God gets them out of prison and then right back

28:32 into the temple precincts and they preach. They are apprehended again. The Ichonics were Again, now we read in Acts chapter 5 and verse 40.

28:44 They agreed to the counsel that one of their number gives. Verse 40, and to him they agreed, and when they had called the apostles unto them, they beat them and charged them not to speak, notice, in the name of Jesus, and let them go. They therefore departed from the presence of the counsel doing what? Commiserating at this terrible situation.

29:11 Organizing a campaign for more religious liberty in Jerusalem. Sending out a mailing to get a groundswell of the populace. No, what did they do? It says they departed from the presence of the counsel rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for what?

29:30 For the name. Rejoice! What? The fruit of the Spirit is love.

29:37 Joy. And in those situations where left to ourselves we would be nothing but a mass of despondency and discouragement, the Spirit of God comes in peculiarly intense manifestations of His grace. And He is then the Spirit of glory and of God who rests upon His people. You see, my unsaved friend, this is the fundamental problem that you have.

30:06 You don't have the Spirit. That's the way unconverted people are described in Romans 8. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. In Jude 18, the unconverted false teachers described as not having the Spirit.

30:22 They do not possess the Spirit. You live the way you live. You think the way you think. You desire the way you desire.

30:28 Because you are nothing but an extension of your first father Adam.

30:34 Adam's nature you have. And Adam's nature you express. You see no beauty in Christ. You see nothing lovely in the law of God.

30:41 You see nothing desirable in having heaven in your eye and the earth beneath your feet. My friend, it's because you have not the Spirit. And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And that which has transformed these believers and that which upholds and strengthens them is that in conjunction with the faith of the Gospel, they have been born of the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit.

31:07 They are perfect. The perspectives are the perspectives molded in shape by the Spirit. And their consolations come from the Spirit of glory and of God that rests upon them. Well, so much then for this additional encouragement.

Necessary Prohibition: Do Not Suffer as an Evildoer (1 Peter 4:15)

31:23 Now Peter comes in verse 15 to what I'm calling a necessary prohibition. You see the balance in the biblical writers? He moves from nothing but pure encouragement to a very necessary prohibition. Here it is.

31:40 For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler in other men's matters. Now at this point, Peter does something that a wise preacher will do. The pronouns and the verbs move from the plural to the singular. From the plural to the singular.

32:04 And at this point, Peter says, For let not a one of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, an evildoer, or as a murderer, or a thief, an evildoer, or as a murderer, or as a murderer, or as a meddler in other men's matters. Peter has been speaking generically to the saints. And now it's as though he is saying, as a preacher may do at times, Look, I want every one of you to imagine the two of us are sitting across the table face-to-face. Nobody else here.

32:17 Just you and me, and the living God who knows us both. That's what Peter is doing here. When he brings this necessary prohibition, he is isolating every believer before this truth that he's about to bring them. You see, it's the same thing here.

32:24 When he brings this necessary prohibition, he is isolating every believer before this truth that he's about to bring them. You see, it's the same thing here. Just you and me, and the living God who knows us both. That's what Peter is doing here.

32:32 When he brings this necessary prohibition, he is isolating every believer before this truth that he's about to bring them. And, you see, that's a crucial thing for us to know what it is. When we ought to be isolated with God and His Word and when we ought to be very conscious of our communal relationships. And you know what sin has done, it has so perverted us, then when we ought to be isolated and individualized, we want to be socialized and corporalized.

33:03 And when we ought to be corporalized, we become crass, self-centered individuals who only think of ourselves. And when God's trying to box us up, then we want to share it with everybody.

33:17 And when God's telling us to share something with everybody, our tendency is to box it up and be selfish. Peter is individualizing now. Let not any one of you suffer as. Yes, and what is prohibited to each and every one of the people of God in the churches of Asia Minor are sins which ought never to be named among the people of God.

33:38 Sins for which none should ever suffer, whether the suffering is the punishment of the civil authority, and Peter may well have that in mind, for he had said in chapter 2 and verse 14, governors are sent to do what? To take vengeance on evil doers. And Paul enlarges. He says on that in Romans 13, that the civil power bears not the sword in vain.

34:03 So Peter is saying there are certain sins that should never be found amongst God's people. Whatever suffering they experience, it should never be suffering either from the civil authority or the shame and pressure of their fellow men and women in conjunction with these sins. The first three are grouped together. You'll notice, again, if you have a good translation, you can see that subtle distinction in the text.

34:28 None of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer. Now notice, or as. An additional word. Peter takes these four things and groups the first three in one group, and then the last stands by itself.

34:46 And what does he prohibit? Well, in the first grouping he says, let none of you suffer as a murderer. A murderer is one who takes the life of another human being, without a divine warrant. Whenever you define murder, always put that last phrase.

35:04 All taking of human life by another human is not murder.

35:10 He bears not the sword in vain. When the civil governor exercises capital punishment upon a capital crime, he is not committing murder.

35:22 He's being God's hand to execute vengeance this side of the day of judgment. When a doctor makes the pain of a painful decision that the ectopic present pregnancy of a woman, a pregnancy where a fetus begins to develop in a fallopian tube instead of in the womb, will take the life of that mother, it is not abortion to remove that fetus. It's an act of mercy to the living mother. So not all taking of human life is murder.

35:55 But the wanton destruction of human life as a convenient form of birth control, that's murder. The passionate, angry retort that results in a smashed head and a coma and an untimely death, that's murder. And Peter is saying, let none of you suffer as a murderer. Or, he says, as a thief.

36:23 He not only identifies the sixth commandment and its abiding sanctity, but he identifies the eighth commandment. You shall not steal. Don't suffer as a thief. Never as a Christian should you be one who takes that which does not legitimately belong to you.

36:42 Goods, materials, time, whatever it is. Or, he says, as an evil doer. In its verbal form in chapter 3 and verse 17, it's the opposite of someone who does good. It's better if the will of God should so will that you suffer for well doing than for evil doing.

37:03 An evil doer. An evil doer is a morally based person. True believers are accused of this. Chapter 2 and verse 12, they speak against you as evil doers.

37:15 But Peter says, make sure that the accusation has no ground in fact. So there's his first grouping. None of you should suffer as murderer, thief, or evil doer, or as, and he isolates this, as a meddler in other men's matters. The word used here is only found here in the New Testament.

37:40 And in the contemporary literature outside the New Testament, there are only one or two references to this word being used around the time that Peter would have used it. One of the most respected lexicographers has written that, quote, with respect to this word, it is a word whose meaning is yet to be determined with certainty. The Spirit of God knew what he meant. Peter knew what he meant when he wrote it at the direction of the Holy Spirit.

38:12 What does it mean? We cannot dogmatize. And it's one of those times when we are shut up primarily to the etymology of the word itself. It's a compound word.

38:23 The word that speaks of another or another man, allotrios, and then the word that we get, episcopal, episcopos, a looker over, an inspector. And so the two words, together, point in the direction of someone who is looking over and inspecting the things of another. Hence our translation, a meddler in other men's matters. And I'm satisfied that that is probably at least the direction of the meaning.

38:55 Some suggest that this would not bring upon people civil punishment, therefore it must be the kind of meddling in other matters that would disrupt the stability of the political situation or people would be an irritant in society to such an extent that they might be punished. And that's all up for grabs. You can read the books as well as I did and get all these different opinions, but most likely he is speaking of a spirit of someone who is not content, as Paul says, to do his own business as he spoke to the Thessalonians, but was constantly prying into matters that were none of his concern. One commentator has written, references to the evil of this kind occur again and again. 1 Thessalonians 4.11, 1 Timothy 5.13.

39:45 One can easily believe that in many Christians a natural tendency to meddle with matters of various kinds with which they had no proper concern might be intensified by a misapprehension of what was involved in being a light in the world. Knowing they had received instruction from heaven affecting every question, great or small, on which moral principles bore, they might be apt to obtrude their knowledge in such circumstances and in such ways by their procedure to irritate instead of winning those around them. Error of this kind was not confined to the first Christian age. Maybe the Spirit of God was anticipating the time when professing Christians felt it was their duty to pick up the sword in defense of the Christian faith. And even to engage in enterprises of conquest in the name of advancing the Christian faith. And in that way were meddling into the affairs of the state which do not belong to them. I remain agnostic. I cannot be dogmatic.

Peter's Realism and Moral Absolutes

40:51 I'm simply giving you an overview of what may well be the meaning. There is no question about the first two. Now, if we look at such a passage and realize that Peter is addressing these Christians and says, let none of you suffer for these things, what do we learn? Well, it is clear that Peter is convinced that he's writing to true believers.

41:18 From chapter 1, verse 1 onward, he's assuming these are real believers. Apostle of Christ, do we elect sojourners according to the foreknowledge of God, sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood? Blessed be the God who has begotten us again. He has just expressed his confidence that the Spirit is resting upon these people.

41:42 Why in the world does he have to follow it up with this prohibition, let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, or a meddler in other people's matters? No real Christians would commit these sins, would they? Yes, not only would they, they have. Peter was a realist.

42:02 Peter knew his Old Testament. And he knew that his Old Testament contained the tragic record of the horrible sins of that man after God's own heart who murdered, who committed adultery. He knew his Old Testament and knew that Noah, the only righteous man who with his family is spared the frightening deluge when God sent rain down and broke up the fountains of the deep. He knew that Noah could get himself drunk and lie around his tent shamefully naked.

42:42 He knew that Lot, whom the New Testament calls Righteous Lot, would also be drunk and commit incest with his own daughters. Need I go on? Peter was a realist. He did not suddenly treat these people as though they weren't converted.

43:00 No, he has said, in the midst of the opposition, in the midst of the suffering for the sake of righteousness, let none of you suffer in these ways. For it is possible for true believers to fall into such wretched sins. He has already called them to a life of universal holiness in chapter 1, verses 14 to 16. Called them to a life of universal mortification, chapter 2, in verse 1.

43:27 He's called them to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, chapter 2, verse 11. He's called them to reject their old life in chapter 4, and now he comes around and he's warning them against murder, thievery, and being meddlers in matters not their own. Because he was a biblical realist. And he knew that any one of the saints of God left to himself for a moment could indulge any one or all of these sins.

43:58 So we learn that Peter was a realist. Second thing we learn by way of application of this part of the text, it's clear that Peter believed in codified, moral, and ethical absolutes. Murder is wrong. Thievery is wrong.

44:15 Meddling in the affairs of another is wrong. To use current jargon, Peter was taking his rights and wrongs and making them the rights and wrongs of all the believers in Asia Minor. He was not a postmodernist who said, look, my right is right for me, but it may not be for you. My wrongs are wrong for me, but I dare not impose them on you.

44:38 Different strokes for different folks. I'll give you my testimony. I believe the best way for me to commend the gospel and to be certain that all of my sufferings are for righteousness' sake is that I do not murder, and I do not indulge in theft, and I am not a meddler in other men's matters, but far be it from me to impose my standards upon you. I must respect your individuality.

45:03 I had someone recently, when seeking to press an ethical issue, look at me and say, but I'm not a Christian. And I had to say to this individual, it makes no difference. Almighty God is your creator and your judge, and he has a right to tell you that this is right and this is wrong. Imagine copping out and saying, well, I'm not a Christian.

45:26 I wasn't laying before this individual a responsibility to do something that is distinctly Christian. It had to do with a fundamental, ethical, ethical issue rooted in the moral law of God. Peter hadn't sold out to any of that mentality and furthermore, Peter believed that every Christian has Christ's name branded on him either to elicit unrighteous reproach or to promote a despising of the gospel through careless living. And so having encouraged them by saying, if you are reproached in the name of Christ, you manifest that you are one of the blessed ones and you are blessed because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God rest upon you. But let none of you who bear the name of Christ, who have been known to be attached to Christ by open, visible confession of his name, you're branded with his name, don't crack it into the dirt. Let none of you, let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a meddler in other men's matters. Well, having looked at the additional encouragement, secondly, a necessary prohibition, we come to verse 16, a further directive.

Further Directive: Glorify God When Suffering as a Christian (1 Peter 4:16)

46:52 Look at the text. But if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name. I call this a further directive. Look first of all to whom the directive is given, and then we'll look at the essence of the directive.

47:11 To whom is this directive given? But if a man suffer as a Christian, this directive is given to those who are suffering as Christians. Now, again, in your Bibles, you may have the words, a man suffer, if a man suffer, in italics. Why?

47:33 Because those words are not there in the original. The original reads, but as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. But what as a Christian? The weight of the previous statement is to be felt here.

47:47 Let none of you suffer as a murderer, but if a man suffer as a Christian. So that's why the words are inserted to give it clearer English sense. And though they are not there in the original, it is a good way to translate and to reproduce the thought of the Apostle Peter. So then, to whom is this directive given?

48:08 It is given to those who are designated as Christians. Now, we use the word very freely, but it is found very infrequently in the New Testament. In fact, only two other places in the whole New Testament is the word Christian found. It's found in Acts chapter 11 concerning the believers at Antioch, and we are simply told this much, and how we would love to know a lot more, and whole books have been written about who caused this, who coined the term, what was the motive, was it a derisive, insulting term, was it a noble term, why do you find a Latinized ending in a Greek word by Greek-speaking people?

48:48 You'd be amazed at what some people do in the interest of pursuing scholarship. But they do, and at least they take their Bibles seriously, many of them, so we can be thankful for that. But I'm not going to weary you with this theory and that theory. This much is clear in the Scripture, Acts chapter 11, and verse 26.

49:10 When he had found him, that is, Barnabas finds Paul and he brings him to Antioch, and it came to pass that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church and taught much people, and that the disciples were called Christians, Christianos, first in Antioch. They were called Christians. By whom? We don't know.

49:33 Out of what motive? We don't know. Why a Latinized ending? We don't know.

49:38 All we know is they were called Christians first in Antioch. And then the only other place that's found in the New Testament is further on in Acts chapter 26 and verse 28, Acts 26 and verse 28, our final usage. Paul is giving his defense before the heathen potentate, and now we read King Agrippa, Do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.

50:08 And Agrippa said unto Paul, With but little persuasion you would fain make me a Christian. And how we are to understand that verse again, I found no agreement among any of the commentators, but this much is clear, that this character who had no intimate connection with God's people but was aware of what was going on amongst these people who claimed allegiance to Christ, for him apparently it was a natural term to use, with but little persuasion, would you make me a Christian? Or would you fain make me a Christian? Almost you persuade me to be a Christian.

50:47 All we know is the word is found there, Acts 11, here in 1 Peter, nowhere else. But again, this much is clear. Whatever the mode it was, whoever and for whatever reason a Latinized ending to the word Christos was used, it is clear that the use of this word identifies the meaning of those people who are followers of Christ. The Herodians, that's a similar ending, were those who were followers of Herod, who were devoted to Herod's leadership and Herod's perspective, and they were called Herodians.

51:25 So much was Christ central to these people that they are dubbed Christians, those who are identified with Christ, who are attached to Christ, who embrace the ways and the people of Christ. That's who is addressed in this text. Now, what is the directive? And as we so often found in Peter, you have both a negative and a positive, and both of them are present imperatives.

51:53 And the imperatives are third person singular. Peter's still got every individual in the crosshairs. He said, don't get lost in the crowd. I'm talking to you and you and you and you.

52:04 Let not one of you suffer as a murderer, be for meddler in other people's matters. And if a man suffers as a Christian, two things, let him not be ashamed of the negative, but let him glorify God in this name, the positive. Let him not be ashamed. Now, what is shame?

52:27 You ever try to define this feeling of shame? You ever tried to? It's not a pleasant feeling. The dictionary describes it as a painful experience of having lost the respect of others because of improper or incompetence with respect to oneself or another.

52:46 You know where shame began? Not with God in the original creation. There was praise, there was wonder, there was adoration, there was joy, but there was no shame in Eden until Adam and Eve sinned. And one of the first evidences that they were cut off from living communion with God is that they were immersed in shame.

53:09 The creation account ends with sin. They were both naked and were not ashamed. No sooner do they sin, but they are clothed with shame and attempt to clothe themselves. And when they hear the voice of God in the cool of the day, they run to hide.

53:29 Why? They are swallowed up with this feeling of shame. This is the word that is used in Luke 16, 3 of that steward who said, I'm ashamed to beg. It would clothe me with this negative feeling were I to beg.

53:47 1 John 2, 28 Let us abide in him that when he is manifested we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Parents say to a child, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. How do you kids feel when you've done something that is openly and clearly in defiance of mom and dad's will and they come and catch you in the very act? You draw in.

54:16 There's that sense of shame. Now whatever the nuances of shame may be, this much is clear. When as a child of God you suffer as a Christian, you suffer as one who in your identification with Christ is so living out the reality of your union with Christ and your confession of Christ that you're exposing the darkness of sinful men around you and you get verbal and verbal abuse and you are reviled and you are vilified. Whatever you do, you must not be ashamed.

54:53 You must not hang your head in shame that you're being marked as we heard Wednesday night as a weirdo. How refreshing it was that someone stayed in the testimony time that he walked out of this place one time before the service was over because he didn't want to be part of these weirdos. Then he said, now I'm wondering, well, when you're called the weirdo and when you're called Holy Joe and when you're called any other kind of thing and when the pressure comes if you suffer as a Christian, that is as a Christian living consistently with who and what you are as a Christian, you and I are not to be ashamed. But positively, what are we to do? Another present imperative, let him be constantly glorifying God in this name. What does it mean to glorify God? It means to praise, to honor, to magnify God.

Glorifying God in Suffering: Examples and Historical Context

55:52 And to do this, Peter says, in connection with the name of Christ that you bear. Let him glorify God in this name. Does that refer back to the name Christian? Or does it refer back to Christ?

56:06 Well, it's really irrelevant. It's evident it refers to one or the other. I have my own judgment of what it is, but this much again is clear. It is in conjunction with one's unashamed union with and devotion to the person of Christ that the suffering comes.

56:25 So he says, when you suffer as a Christian, don't be ashamed. Glorify God in this name. That's what Paul and Silas were doing in the prison at midnight. They're not plotting how to overturn the unjust imprisonment and how to get back the Roman leaders in that area in trouble for this unjust punishment and incarceration.

56:52 No. They're singing hymns and praises to God at midnight. They're glorifying God and it's as though God said, I'm so pleased, I'm going to shake this place up. And God rattles the jail and loosens the prisoners and does an amazing thing that leads to the conversion of that Philippian jailer and his entire household.

57:12 They were glorifying God in the name. The name which had brought them there was Christ. Their attachment to him. And now, Paul and Silas are living examples of what this means.

57:26 The Acts 5.41 passage that we read earlier. Another example. And it could well be that Peter, if he wrote this from Rome, which I believe he did, is aware of what is going on in the seat of the imperial power there at Rome and knows that in a very short time, that there may well be unusual, intensified persecution being let loose upon the saints in Asia Minor.

57:53 And he says, this is what you are constantly to remember. Whatever suffering comes to you, no shame in that. But rather, glorify, magnify God that you are privileged to be found identified with the name of your blessed Lord. There's a wonderful touching story that comes to us from church history.

58:17 Some of you perhaps have heard this. A letter from the church of Smyrna in the second century describes the martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. The old man had been arrested and brought to the arena. The proconsul urged him to offer incense to Caesar.

58:35 Just offer a little incense and no martyrdom. Take the oath, said the proconsul, and I shall release you. Curse Christ. Polycarp replied, 86 years have I served him and he never did me any wrong.

58:53 How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? Tied to the stake, Polycarp prayed to be received by the Lord, quote, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice. And all around him, you see, saw this man glorifying God even in the midst of his martyrdom. When you've read some of the history of the Covenanters in Scotland, how even young girls were made bold to be executed for the sake of Christ, tied to a piling while the tide came in.

59:29 Their testimony is one of glorifying God when suffering for his name's sake. Here then is the further unfolding of how the grace of God in Christ is to be seen in the suffering of the saints of God. Don't think it's strange, verse 12, don't think it's strange, but rejoice. Rejoice because your sufferings bring you into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.

Summary of Directives and Call to Glorify God

59:58 Rejoice because your present joy in suffering for Christ is a pledge of greater joy at the coming of Christ. In addition, Peter brings us to these perspectives. When reproached, you must reckon that you are blessed ones. Blessed because the spirit of glory and the spirit of God is resting upon you.

60:20 But never do that which would make you suffer for committing sins, which even a godless society would punish. But when you are suffering, as the unsought consequence of your attachment to Christ, don't be ashamed, but always seek to glorify God in the realm of your attachment to Jesus Christ as God and Savior. I trust you've caught the overarching concern of Peter when he is giving directives in verses 7 to 11, how these saints are to conduct themselves in their life together in the church. You remember what the crowning motivation was for all of those directives at the end of verse 11. He says, I'm giving all of these directives to what end? In order that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and dominion forever and ever. And in this section that we've just studied together the last two Lord's Days, you see how the same motif comes through?

61:29 Don't be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name. The glory of God is to be the great end in our conduct one with another and in our corporate life. The glory of God is to be the great end as we handle our suffering for the name of Christ according to the directives of the apostle. And you see, Peter is assuming that in the hearts of true believers, when you say, this is what you must do and be to get God's glory, the heart of every true believer says, Lord, by your grace, I shall and I must, for you must be glorified.

62:11 And here again, it shows the unconverted heart. You can sit here and glory of God, glory of God, it makes no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And here again is one of the telling marks of your unregenerate heart and your impenitent spirit that the God who made you, that you might glorify him.

62:35 You're indifferent to him. You're indifferent to the very purpose for which you were made. And it's only as you seek that God through Jesus Christ as he is set forth in the gospel that you can begin to fulfill the very purpose for which God made you. And then by God's grace, as you are identified with Christ and you seek to live out consistently that relationship in the strength of Christ and by the grace of Christ, you will experience some of the suffering on behalf of Christ and you will count it a privilege to have fellowship in his sufferings, the one who suffered and died to procure your redemption.

Prayer and Benediction

63:16 May God help us to lay this truth to our hearts. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you again for your word. We thank you for your Spirit's direction in the life and in the ministry of the Apostle Peter.

63:37 We pray that this portion of the letter would be written upon the fleshy tables of our hearts and that we would be given grace to walk in the light of it. We do earnestly pray that none of us who names your name will ever be brought to any suffering for these gross and shameful sins. We pray that whatever measure of reproach we bear because of the name of our Savior, because of our attachment to him, we ask, O Lord, that we will respond to it in a way that mirrors these directives given to us in your holy word. We pray for those who do not have the Spirit of whom it cannot be said the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rest upon them. We ask, O Lord, that you would be merciful to deal with them in grace and pity and draw them to yourself until they too know the joy of sins forgiven and of experiencing the reality of having the heart of stone removed and being given a heart of flesh. Seal then your word to our hearts for your glory and for our good. We ask in Jesus' name.

64:51 Amen.