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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
This is a reading from 1 Peter 4:12
through 19.
Beloved, do not be surprised
at the fiery trial when it comes
upon you to test you as though
something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice
insofar as you share Christ's sufferings.
But you may also rejoice and be glad
when his glory is revealed.
If you are insulted
for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the spirit of glory
and of God rests upon you.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer,
or a thief, or an evildoer, or a meddler.
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God in that name.
For it is time for judgment
to begin at the household of God.
And if it begins with us,
what will be the outcome
for those
who do not obey the gospel of God?
And if the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly
and the sinner?
Therefore, let those who suffer
according to God's will,
and trust their souls
to a faithful creator, while doing good.
Well, good morning and
welcome to the weekly gathering of Christ
Community Chapel.
My name is Zach.
I'm one of the pastors here,
and I'm so glad
that we get to be part of your weekend.
And now our first 10:30 service.
Listen, I know you have had to disrupt
your schedule.
To accommodate a new service.
I just want you to hear me say thank you.
And I also want to encourage you
with something.
You know, two years ago,
we launched a Thursday night service.
We asked people to,
to really radically disrupt,
their schedules, to help us reach people
who might not be able to come
on the weekends.
And that service has easily
become my favorite.
And I think the reason
why is because there's something powerful
about a group of people
who want to join God in what he's doing.
And I don't want you to be jealous
because we have four new service times
and they're all competing
for my affection.
Okay,
so I'm open, but but I want you to know,
even the energy in the room just during
our worship set is a reminder that,
we are joining God and his desire
to connect with more and more families
who can come at more and more time.
So thank you.
Whatever sacrifice looks like
for your family, thank you for making it.
Hey, I'm also excited about continuing now
week nine of our ten week sermon series.
We've been going through the letter
of First Peter.
A pretty simple reason why.
First Peter is a letter written
to a growing church
in the middle of a hostile culture.
We think there are a lot of parallels
between that church
and this one, between that culture
and this one, which means then, that
the message
that God has for that church in that time
is very similar to the message
he has for this church in this time.
And so we've been leaning
into that message every week.
We're going to continue that.
In fact, if you have a Bible,
would you take it out? Open it.
To first Peter chapter four.
Perfectly
okay to use your phone or your tablet.
And hey, if you're here
and you're new to church, been a while.
Maybe church hasn't
been part of your story first.
I'm so glad you're here.
Probably a huge step for you.
I'm glad you took it.
Everything that happens this weekend is
as much for you as it is for anybody else.
If you want, the verses
will be on the screen behind me.
You can just look at that.
But if you want to hold a Bible
in the back of East Hall
or in the back of the pew in front of you
here in this service,
you'll find a Bible, same one I use.
And the reading today is on page 955.
Four points I'm going to use as an outline
to guide our time together.
Very simple. Here are the four things
I want to show you.
Number one, suffering is inevitable.
Number two, not all suffering is the same.
Number three, all suffering has a purpose.
Number four, suffering asks a question.
All right.
Let's start with the first one.
Suffering is inevitable.
If you've been coming
for the first Peter series
and you feel a little suffering fatigue,
like when you heard
that's what we were talking about
today, you thought, oh,
not another sermon on suffering.
I want you to know right back at you
that that feeling is mutual.
It's a lot of talking about suffering.
In fact,
I was curious, so I looked it up 37.4%
of the words in First Peter are directly
about suffering.
Over one third of the words in this letter
are directly about suffering.
This letter talks a lot about suffering.
So if you feel like the sermon series
has been a lot about that, you're right,
because the book itself is about that.
Actually,
the Bible talks a lot about suffering.
It has a lot to say, well,
look at the way this passage starts,
because I think this captures it
pretty well.
First Peter chapter four,
verse 12 says this, beloved,
do not be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you
as though
something strange were happening to you.
He says two things here
that I think are interesting.
The first is he says,
don't be surprised when you suffer.
Don't be surprised.
He says suffering is going to happen.
Suffering is inevitable.
By the way, that's true for all people.
It's not just true for Christians.
It's not just true for religious people.
Suffering is a part of the human
experience.
Suffering is inevitable, part of life,
he says. Don't be surprised.
And he says this don't feel bad
for yourself.
He says, don't be surprised, as though
something strange was happening to you.
I think he's saying that when we suffer,
we tend to say, oh, why me?
And why does this always happen to me?
And why am I
the only one who goes through this?
And he's saying, that's not true.
Suffering is a part of everyone's life.
Suffering is inevitable.
You're you're not alone.
All people will suffer.
The Bible says that a lot.
And you might be thinking,
you know, God, I know
I got an extra 30 minutes to sleep and,
going from 10 to 1030,
but but I'm still not really in the mood
on a Sunday morning for suffering.
Especially when,
going outside in Northeast Ohio
today is its own form of suffering.
Not really looking for that.
Have you ever thought about
why God talks so much about
suffering in the Bible? Why?
Here's why.
I don't know if you have had
the experience of flying on an airplane.
If you're paying attention to the news
soon no one will fly on airplanes.
But on an airplane, there are always.
There's always someone,
maybe multiple someones.
Maybe you're the
someone who's scared of flying
like it's in the air on the plane,
which I always find interesting
because at some point before you take off,
the pilot will come on the intercom and
and she'll say,
hey, thanks for flying with this airline
and we're glad
we're going to get you to Phoenix
or wherever you're going.
It's going to take this long.
And then sometimes
the pilot will say, hey,
I want you to know, about 20 minutes in,
we're going to hit some pretty rough air.
We're going to go through some turbulence.
And so I'm going to keep
the seatbelt sign on.
I'm going to keep the flight attendants
in their chairs
until we get to a certain altitude.
Then it'll be safe to walk around.
And that's funny because what the pilot
is really saying is, hey, some of you
are really freaking out about
flying and you should be
right.
Like, why would you say that?
And increase people's anxiety.
But but the reason is pretty simple,
you know, the reason is because
if she doesn't say
that when turbulence comes, you'll think
she's lost control.
You'll think she wasn't ready for it.
She didn't know it was coming.
So she tells you the turbulence is coming
so that when it hits,
you'll still feel a way about it.
But you won't worry
that the pilot has lost control.
Listen, God talks a lot about suffering
because he wants you to know
when it comes.
He hasn't lost control, he's not
surprised, and he's still doing something.
Suffering is inevitable.
But the second thing I want you to see
is that not all suffering is the same.
This is important.
And actually this is something
that Christians get wrong a lot.
You see, when you have a trite way
of thinking about suffering,
you say trite things about it
and you actually can really hurt people.
In fact,
if you're here and it's been a long time
since you've been to church,
this might be why.
And let me just say this.
You know,
there are two ways of quitting church.
You can stop coming, and then you can do
what I, what I think of as quiet quitting.
You can come every week
but be totally disconnected.
And if that's where you find yourself,
this might be why?
Because Christians can say
some pretty stupid stuff that hurt people.
Not all suffering is the same.
Look with me at verses 14 through 16.
Here's what the writer
says. We'll look at the screen.
If you are
insulted for the name of Christ,
you are blessed
because the spirit of glory
and of God rests upon you.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer,
or a thief, or an evildoer,
or as a meddler.
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God in
that name is a really funny way of saying,
because he goes, listen, listen.
If you're suffering for your faith,
you're blessed.
And he goes, but if you're suffering
as a murderer, you're not.
And like,
I didn't know we needed to say that.
Like, hey, if any of you are thinking
about murder, don't do it, okay?
You probably know that. What's he saying?
He's saying not all suffering is the same.
Some suffering you and I. Cause
that's what he's saying.
It's like, hey, if you're suffering
as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer,
or some of you need to hear this
as a meddler
like you brought it on yourself,
Galatians six says this, be not deceived.
God is not mocked. Whatever you.
So you're also going to reap,
in other words, a way of saying that is,
if you don't take care of your body,
at some point, it's going to break down.
If you are dishonest
in your business practices,
at some point that's going to cost you.
If you don't get control of your drinking,
that's going to harm you.
And when that happens, that suffering,
that's the product of your choice.
Some suffering we cause,
some suffering is the second kind.
Someone else causes.
I mean, after all,
if it's possible to suffer as a murderer
or an evil doer or a meddler,
then it's also possible to suffer
because someone else is a murderer
or an evildoer or a meddler.
Sometimes we suffer because even though
we were faithful, our spouse wasn't.
Even though we did our
work with integrity,
our business partners didn't.
Some of our moms and dads
couldn't get control of their drinking.
Sometimes you suffer
because of someone else,
and then sometimes he says, you suffer
because of your faith,
because you're obeying God
and it it cost you.
Here's the point he's making.
This is not an exhaustive
list, by the way.
These are three ways you can suffer.
There are actually probably 27 ways.
Suffering comes from a lot of places.
It might surprise you
that the Bible never actually encouraged
us, or invites us to pick
apart our suffering and try to figure out
where it's coming from.
There are a lot of reasons
people suffer, and the problem is
when we forget that,
we come up with overly simplistic answers
to a complex and nuanced question
why am I suffering?
Like, for example,
maybe you've heard this.
Some churches will teach you
that if you're suffering, it's
because you did something bad.
And these
churches are really good at giving you
a list of all the bad things.
Like if you're suffering, it's
probably because you watched a movie
you shouldn't have,
or you said a word you shouldn't have.
And until you're sorry for that,
you're going to keep suffering.
So you go to the doctor,
you get a terrible diagnosis,
and your first instinct is to say,
what did I do?
What did I do?
The Bible does say
some suffering is because of your choices,
but not all suffering,
not all suffering.
It's entirely possible you're suffering,
and it has nothing to do
with anything that you've done.
Here's the second way
I've seen this happen.
Some I've grown up in the church.
I have seen some pretty
awful things happen to women,
and oftentimes what they're
told is, God let this happen to you
so that you could help other women,
which is a horrific thing to say,
as though God looked out over the world
and said, hey,
there's this group of women out there
that I care very deeply about and I need
to help them through a bad experience.
So give me a name of somebody
we don't care about
so we can have her go through trauma.
What's her name? Oh, yeah. Her.
Let's let's have her experience
horrific things
so that we can help them.
Does the Bible teach that?
Sometimes God uses suffering to turn you
into someone who can help people?
Sure.
Is that why everybody suffers? Absolutely.
And you see, when we reduce suffering down
as though it's all the same, we give
trite, simplistic answers that actually do
a lot of damage to people.
And if that's your story,
can I just ask you to do something?
Just think about it.
You have to let God speak for God.
You cannot let Christians speak for God
because man, we will say
some stupid things and you'll end up
turning away from God not because of
anything he said or anything he did,
but because of things we said
and things we did not.
All suffering is the same.
But here's my third point
all suffering has a purpose,
and this one's
going to sting a little bit.
But hang in there with me.
All suffering has a purpose,
and the Bible says there's no use
pulling apart suffering
to figure out what where it comes from.
But but instead of trying to figure out
whose fault is this suffering?
Instead, what it tells us is to ask,
what does God want to do
with this suffering?
Look at first
Peter chapter four, verse 19.
We'll look at the screen. Here's
what it says.
Therefore, let those who suffer
according to God's will listen.
Entrust their souls to a faithful creator
while doing good.
You see what he says?
Here's what he's saying. Suffering is bad,
but God is good.
Suffering is bad, but God is good.
Listen, he's.
The Bible tells us that human history,
your life is not arbitrary.
It's not random that God is writing
a story and that story is going somewhere.
And listen, you know this about stories,
the great stories that you read or watch
or or listen to or tell.
All of them have chapters that are awful.
All of them.
But what the Bible is telling us
is that no matter how long
or how many difficult chapters
you are in the story
that God is writing is headed somewhere
and it's headed headed somewhere good.
Suffering is bad, but God is good.
Suffering is awful, but in God's hands
it can be used for good.
In other words,
think about it this way all people suffer.
Christians,
can I get me to say this to you?
We don't suffer any more
or any worse than anybody else.
All people suffer.
Atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Hindus,
Buddhists, Jewish people, everybody
suffers.
You might say, well, we suffer
for what we believe and everybody suffers
for what they believe in.
Have you ever been on social media?
Everybody suffers.
But but here's what separates Christians
from those that are not Christians.
It is not the experience of suffering.
It is the idea that there is a good God
who is working in suffering,
taking us somewhere good.
Like, let me just throw some examples
at you from the Bible.
Sometimes in the Bible, suffering,
sometimes in the Bible,
suffering is a stop sign.
Like for instance, Israel goes to war.
In the book of Joshua
with this little village called I.
It's like Ohio
State playing Bowling Green.
No offense. If you went to Bowling
Green. Go. Falcons can
and and Israel goes to war with AI
and they lose.
And Joshua goes back to the camp
and he throws himself on the ground.
And he says to God,
oh God, how could you do this to us?
How could we lose? And God says, get up.
You have corruption in your camp,
and until you deal with it,
you won't win another battle.
That suffering is a stop sign.
Stop doing what you're doing.
Sometimes suffering is sandpaper.
It's working out the edges.
The Book of Jonah
Jonah spends three days in a fish
because he's an ethno centrist
and a racist.
God doesn't want the fish for Jonah.
He wants neighbor love for Jonah.
But for Jonah to get there,
he's got to go through the fish.
Jonah's suffering. Is God working out?
Jonah would never be who God wanted him
to be, who he should be without the fish.
Sometimes suffering is a spotlight.
Saul is on the road to Damascus.
He sees Jesus in a vision. He's blinded.
And Jesus says, if you ever want your
eyesight back, here's what you got to do.
He's getting Saul's attention.
He's turning Saul.
In Nepal,
sometimes suffering is a steering wheel.
In acts one eight,
Jesus tells the disciples,
take the gospel to all the nations,
and they decide they don't want to do it.
They want to stay in Jerusalem.
So God uses the murder of Stephen
and the persecution of the church
to scatter Christians.
And that's why you're hearing the gospel
today.
There are 57 ways God uses suffering.
Here's the point suffering is awful.
God is good.
Suffering is terrible.
God is writing a story that is good.
The writer says, don't celebrate
suffering, but trust that in the hands
of a good God
writing a good story that loves you,
it will be used for good.
And I know that. Listen, I know that hard.
You say, well, wait a minute.
You're asking me to believe
that God loves me and he loves me,
so he uses suffering to get my attention.
Can he do it some other way?
What do you mean?
Like write a book?
Send his son.
Give you his Holy Spirit.
Now, the truth is, sometimes
suffering is the only way
God can get my attention.
So you're saying.
So wait a minute.
So God loves me, but he uses suffering.
How can I ever believe that? In friends?
There's only one answer to that
in the entire universe.
You've got to look at any religion,
any church, any podcast, any YouTuber.
There's only one answer
that even tries to answer this.
How can I trust that God loves me
when he uses suffering in my life?
And the answer to that is Jesus Christ.
Jesus was a sufferer.
Don't you know that?
Jesus didn't suffer because of him.
He suffered because of evil people
and because of obedience to God.
But God didn't always say, listen,
I'm not even going to teach you that.
I'm going to read you that look with me
at the screens in Isaiah 53
and notice two things the suffering of
Jesus and how God uses it.
Let's just read it. Here's what it says.
Who has believed
what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed?
For he grew up before him
like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty
that we should look at him, no beauty
that we should desire him. Listen.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,
and as one from whom men
hide their faces,
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken.
Listen, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace.
And with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned every one to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb
that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep
before its shearers is silent.
So he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment
he was taken away.
And as for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off
out of the land of the living, stricken
for the transgressions of my people.
And they made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death.
Although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth,
yet it was the will of the Lord
to crush him.
He has put him to grief.
When his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring.
He shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul.
He shall see and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall the righteous one,
my servant, make many to be accounted
righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore
I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he will divide the spoil
with the strong, because he poured out
his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet he bore the sin of many, and he makes
intercession for the transgressors.
Friends, Jesus was a sufferer,
but it wasn't wasted.
What happened to Jesus was awful.
It was evil.
Nowhere does the Bible call it good.
But in the hands of God,
who's good, who's writing a story, it's
what saved us.
It's what forgave us.
Friends, Christians ask God,
where are you?
God, what are you doing? You have to.
That's human. You. You have to ask that.
And if that makes you uncomfortable,
read the Psalms.
But then we ask,
what are you doing?
Okay.
What do you want?
Where are you taking me?
Who do I need to become?
I hate this, but I trust you.
And of course, that leads me
to my fourth point, which is to say that
suffering asks a question.
And the question is the question
for Jonah.
The question for Joshua,
the question for Saul, the question
for the disciples, the question for you.
The question for me is,
do you want
to go where God wants to take you?
Do you want to be who God wants you to be?
Do you want for your family
what God wants for your family?
Because suffering is a necessary,
scary way of getting there.
Listen, if you want what God wants, then
you might need the fish.
If all you want out of life is momentary
happiness,
a lake house, some nice vacations,
beautiful kids.
Who, Mary.
Beautiful people have beautiful grandkids
and then you die.
If that's all you want,
then suffering will happen.
It will be meaningless
and it will rock you.
But God says, I'm writing a story
so much bigger than you.
Do you want to be part of that?
Because if you do, then suffering
might just be a tool God uses.
Friends, hear me, hear me.
Maybe you need to stop drinking.
Maybe you need to
step up into the leadership
God is calling you.
Maybe you need to live out the vision
he has for your family.
Friends, hear me on this.
What if suffering is not a sign
that God has forgotten you?
What if it is a sign you are in the center
of his attention?
Wasn't it that way for Jonah?
Wasn't it that way for Saul?
What if we've thought about it all wrong?
Because if we have, then
that means we experience the suffering.
But our eyes are on the horizon.
That's what Paul says.
And second Corinthians four,
look with me at the screen.
Here's what it says.
So we do not lose heart.
Though our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed
day by day.
For this light
momentary affliction is preparing for us
in eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison, as we look
not to the things that are seen,
but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are
seen are transient,
but the things that are
unseen are eternal.
Suffering is awful.
But God,
God is good.
Let me pray for us.
Father God, thank you so much
for your honesty about suffering.
Thank you
that it does not mean you've lost control.
Thank you
that it does not mean you've forgotten us.
Thank you for the ways you use it.
But Holy Spirit, my prayer is
I couldn't possibly know what
every single person is
is dealing with in this room.
Could you put your finger
on what you want to do
in their suffering?
Could you give them some clarity,
some hope,
some purpose?
Could you help us trust you?
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.