1 Peter 1 Sermon – Trials and Joy

In this sermon from 1 Peter 1:6-9 Pastor Tim looks at the now and not yet of the Kingdom through the lens of inaugurated eschatology! We live in the age of trials and suffering, but also inexpressible and glorious joy! How can that be?

Well we are 3 weeks into our series on 1 Peter and already there has been so much rich teaching from this letter.

• We started by looking at the story of Peter and how that related to his greeting the churches with grace and peace.
• This had been his story… a recipient of grace and peace!
• Called by Jesus and there through his 3 years of ministry…
• And then reinstated after disowning Jesus at his crucifixion…
• This Peter is the rock upon which Jesus chose to build his church!
• And then last week his praise to God for the inheritance we receive as the children of God…
• New birth and the living hope of the resurrection…
• So today is in one sense about what it is like to live here on earth as Christians, while awaiting this future hope.

So let’s continue reading this letter. 1 Peter 1:6-9

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Well as I was reading this section of Peter’s letter this week…

• I started thinking about the phrase “a sign of the times.”
• It’s a phrase used to describe the things that are going on in the age that we live in…
• I also discovered that it was the title of Harry Styles hit single in 2017
• Which included these profound lyrics…

Just stop your crying, It’s a sign of the times
Welcome to the final show, Hope you’re wearing your best clothes
You can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky
You look pretty good down here, But you ain’t really good

That is profound… I think… actually I have no idea what he is talking about…

But actually knowing the signs of the times is a very profound thing for us Christians

• What in this present age marks the life of the children of God?
• And obviously that is going to be very different if you are a Christian living under persecution in Iran…
• Or you are a Christian living in poverty in sub-Sahara Africa…
• Or you are a Christian living on the Northern Beaches of Sydney…
• But whatever your experience of following Jesus is, you live in a period of history that is marked by certain things…

So we may say the sign of the times, or the age we live in is marked by technological progress…

• I walk around with a computer in my pocket which can call anyone in the world at any time…
• Or we may say it is marked by globalism and connectedness… we travel the world and the things we consume come from every corner of earth…
• But we might also say we live in an age of unprecedented isolation and disconnection…
• Where people through history have always lived as intergenerational families and communities, now we live increasingly alone.

But actually as Christians we also live in a particular theological age…

• We Christians believe there is another story for what time we live in…
• So, we live in between Jesus first and second coming… between his life, death and resurrection…
• And then before his glorious return when all things will be made new…
• And that could be described as the now and the not yet of the Kingdom…

What on earth do I mean by that?

• Well fundamentally we believe that into the brokenness of humanity and this creation, God has acted through Jesus Christ.
• And he has initiated the Kingdom of God where the lost are found and made new. 
• Right? Mark 1:14-15 “Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come’ he said, ‘the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.’”
• And as we see in the gospel, Jesus goes around healing and casting out evil and restoring the lost… and it continues in Acts and church history…
• The now of the Kingdom means because of Jesus and his work on the cross and resurrection, we can have peace with God….
• It is the definitive moment in human history and splitter of ages!

But we also believe in the not yet of the kingdom…

• Clearly as we look around we see that the world is still a mess…
• That even as Christians we experience brokenness and sickness and death.
• The Kingdom advances, and Jesus teaches us to pray “your kingdom come.” But we do not see it in full… which is why we keep praying for it to break in!
• Sometimes it advances only to decline again… moves of God where whole nations come to faith…
• And periods of darkness when the church goes to sleep…

And then there is this promise that Jesus will return again, and our living hope of resurrection.

• Todays passage, (verse 7) talks about when Jesus is revealed. 
• The Book of Revelation paints a picture of the future where there will be no more sickness or pain, no more tears or death…
• Where God’s presence will be fully with humanity and behold all things are made new!
• Yes, those who do not know Christ will be eternally separated, but for us who have faith in Christ, we will enjoy life everlasting!

So we live in an age don’t we? An age marked by living in between the Kingdom initiated by Jesus….

• And an age where his kingdom will fully come. 
• Jesus and his Kingdom is now, but it is not yet! (SLIDE)
• It is experienced, but not fully realized. That’s the sign of the times we live in. 
• And it is so key to understanding our lived experience as Christians in a fallen and broken world. 
• We do see healing, but not always… so keep hoping…
• We experience change and transformation, but not fully… 
• And as Peter’s letter will explain today… we experience trials and refinement, but also inexpressible and glorious joy!

Now I want to say this framework for understanding the Kingdom or the sign of the times… 

• It is so key to living well and making sense of our lives!
• Right? 
• I mean it can be confusing that so much good and so much difficulty can be experienced at the same time…
• Or we have seasons of breakthroughs and abundant life…
• And seasons of sickness, intense trials and grief. 

Because we are not always good at living in the tensions of the Christian faith.

• If we think its all “plate on the cake while we wait” it will lead to disappointment with God.
• But also if we just think it is only pie in the sky when we die… then similarly, that’s not the promise of abundant life from Jesus!
• So how much of our faith is cake on the plate while we wait… and how much is pie in the sky when we die?
• Because you’re missing out if your understand of being a child of God is all future reward.
• But then again you certainly cant understand being a child of God as all earthly fulfilment and abundant life… 
• Yes, salvation has begun in the experience of those who have put their faith in Christ
• But its full character and wonder will only be experienced in the crowning day when we enter heaven or Jesus comes again! 

Just quickly before we get into this section of 1 Peter, I think the Apostle Paul actually sums it up best when he says in Philippians 3:10…

• “I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings.”
• Right, there is that tension… to know Christ in this age has both edges…
• Knowing the power of his resurrection… so that is going to involve healing and reconciliation and transformation… that’s a big part of knowing Christ….
• But then also participation in his sufferings… so that is the reality of trials and sickness and unjust circumstances… 
• But it is both working together, sometimes in different seasons, sometimes at the same time, that makes us really know Christ and be transformed into his image!

So, that was the longest introduction ever…

• If you want to understand this more, theologically it is called inaugurated eschatology… 
• So let’s quickly look at this passage and this tension as brought out by Peter…
• In this passage its emphasized and marked by trials and refinement, and glorious and inexpressible joy!
• Yes? Helpful? 
• I mean think about even what we have seen in the first few verses of this letter…

Peter says to the churches that he is writing this letter to…

• Positive: you’ve received mercy, grace and peace
• Negative: you are now living as exiles
• Positive: you’ve received new birth and living hope.
• Negative: You’ll experience trials and refining…
• Positive: your filled with inexpressible and glorious joy…

I reckon that sounds like life! That is a true reflection of being alive.

• I know as a Christian I am loved…
• But I also know I don’t really fit in with the culture around me…
• I know that I am born again into this amazing new family and have the hope of eternal life
• I know that sometimes life just feels really hard and I’m being refined…
• I know that even within that, God has placed joy in my heart…
• We live in tensions… 

So if that is the case Peter wants us to hold the tension of this lived Christian life. 

• From todays passage you would say there are two big things he would call the sign of the times, or the markers of the age we live in 
• Firstly, trials and refinement and secondly, inexpressible and glorious Joy.

So firstly, the trials and refinement…

Verse 6; In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.

So Peter reminds the early churches that trials and refinement is a part of the age we live in.

• We are not immune from suffering grief, going through trials and being refined as like gold in fire!
• Now that is not to say we go looking for this… 
• But I don’t know any Christians who don’t somehow find this to be true, particularly if they are seeking to be faithful in their following of Christ.
• Right? 
• And I think particularly it is talking about the kinds of trial that Christians face for following the way of Jesus and believing in the truth of Jesus!

The image here is of a big chunk of rock… or ore that contains gold in it…

• But if you want to get the gold out in a pure form…
• It only comes through crushing, and the fires of refinement. It burns away the impurities and leaves only what is precious. 

And Peter seems to bring in the idea of redemptive suffering or redemptive trials.

• Indeed it says it leads to praise, glory and honour!
• The genuiness of your faith, which he compares to gold, the most precious thing in the world…
• Is only proven as it is refined by this kind of fire… through trials and grief.
• I am not saying it is fun thing to go through… but it is the only way to show your faith in Christ is genuine….

I remember when I flew back from London with my Minister from my church with the idea of planting a church in Sydney.

• And he was someone I greatly admired and more mature and seasoned in his faith. And he’d had some serious trials in life…
• And he asked me, a 27 year old bloke at the time, “what is the hardest thing you have been through.”
• And I remember at the time thinking “not much, really.”
• Now of course since then (and I get this stuff is all relative to others experiences) I have had a fair share of trials…
• Of actual grief, of the serious sickness of a spouse, of difficulties in my work life…
• Fortunately leading a church presents you with no shortage of opportunities to be refined… 

But what he was getting at was that it is only really through trials that we can grow!

• The reality is that people who have life handed to them on a plate, or who have been untested by serious trials can often be quite unformed people… 
• Paul says in Romans that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope…
• Right?
• The only way to get character in your life is the path of suffering!
• That might seem harsh, but it is true!

That is why James says in his letter to the churches “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

• There is a redemptive nature to our suffering and trials that produces gold. 
• Now hear me, I am not saying that when you are going through awful times, when you are betrayed or sick or alone…
• That you should just keep your chin up and smile…
• Because the reality of refinement is painful and hard! And we need to carry each other and be in a church community of love!
• But we have an eternal perspective… and it is producing something within us now.

And the Apostle Paul and Peter experienced this… it wasn’t theoretical to them.

• They were imprisoned, beaten and betrayed at different times. 
• In fact if they didn’t have the living hope that we talked about last week of the resurrection, I am sure they would have given in, or walked away.
• But they had seen Jesus risen from the dead and believed and experienced his promises of new life and eternal life!
• And as Peter says here, the genuiness of their faith was proven.

Well that brings us to the last thing and that is Verse 8-9: the reward of knowing Christ both now and forevermore…

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

In may seem paradoxical after all that Peter has been saying that he then talks about experiencing a filling of inexpressible and glorious joy!

• But there is a confidence and again a lived reality to what he is saying here. 
• To be a child of God is to know a joy that the world as it seeks after temporal pleasures and things… can not!
• As we sing in that song Firm Foundation “I still got joy in chaos”!
• Partly this is a present enjoyment of the future salvation we hope for in the present age….
• But it is more than that. 
• It is being filled with the deep and glorious joy of knowing Jesus. 

In Jesus parable of the Great Treasure that he likens to someone finding his kingdom, he says their experience is great joy!

• Joy is what we are told Jesus experiences when he sees his disciples returning from mission.
• We are told joy is what the women experienced when they encountered the empty tomb!
• Romans 14 says the kingdom of God is a matter of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 
• When Paul prays for the Philippians it says he always prays with joy!
• In 1 Thessalonians it says they were given joy by the Holy Spirt in the midst of much suffering
• And of course joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5… in other words the fruit or what is produced by having the Holy Spirit in you… is joy!

It is of course crazy what we chase after in this world thinking it will fulfil us or make us happy…

• We trade lasting, deep, inexpressible and glorious joy for momentary pleasure.
• We confuse accumulating things and stuff with the fulfilment and joy of knowing Christ and being a part of his people. 
• How many times when I am feeling empty or flat do I start doing a little online shopping
• Or look up another diet. Or I start scrolling Luxury Escapes…

Now listen… this is modern life… I am not saying we can’t enjoy the good gifts of life and the blessings of where we live!

• But listen to CS Lewis because I think he is spot on…. He once said;
• “Joy bursts in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.”
• Can I get an amen?

You see we all want joy… which is a state much more fulfilling than happiness… which is fleeting….

• But as CS Lewis says we cant manipulate it, we cant achieve it… we certainly cant buy it…
• But when we focus on Christ… his kingdom and the good at hand that we are called to do….
• Joy bursts forth!

Let me finish with this thought!

• It is interesting how often in the bible, joy is linked to the Holy Spirit and praise… 
• And I think that is because being filled with God is the ultimate experience of joy.
• And we are made to praise God and enjoy his presence!
• I had that last Sunday in worship… in the last song I started uncontrollably laughing…
• It is not something that happens all the time to me, but it is a well known experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
• There was a line about Jesus, I cant even remember what it was but it just sparked laughter and joy in me. 
• Contagious… Lani then got filled with the Spirit and started laughing…

Now I had had a rough day, I was feeling flat and to be honest a bit over leading a church… 

• But then the Holy Spirit filled me and joy was back!

Shall we praise God together? 

• Knowing the age we live in, the sign of the times 
• The Kingdom has come, the kingdom is still to come!
• Let’s praise God for our salvation and experience the inexpressible and glorious joy of the Lord!