Fiery Trials

Fiery Trials 2021 01 17

1Peter 4:12 – 19

  

Today with modern media, we are able to see some of the terrible things that humans will do to other humans.  But there is nothing like what humans who are sold out to the devil will do to Christians.  Just as was done in Romans times, and as the Christians of Asia Minor to whom Peter wrote his epistles from Babylon, Christians today are being put to death in the most inhumane ways possible because of their faith.  Christians today, as has been done to us throughout the millennia, are being beheaded, crucified, burned alive and roasted to death.  The devil utterly hates Christianity and those who blindly follow him know no bounds to their cruelty.  Today it is ISIS, Boko Haram, and other scattered extremists, but the day is coming when such fiery trials will once again be the practice of the government, itself, just as it was in Peter’s day.

 

 

1Peter 4:12 – 19

 

When this epistle was written, the Christians of northern Asia Minor were wondering what value there was in being Christians.  They were social outcasts.  Most likely they had lost everything.  They were looked upon with suspicion because they didn’t hold to the state sanctioned religions.  Most of them would soon be executed as enemies of the state, often by crucifixion or being burned to death.  Yet the record passed down to us shows that many of them pushed to the head of the line at their trials, willing to be martyred as their Saviour was, because they knew that He rose from the dead and they soon would too.  They were willing to suffer the worst kind of death to be identified with Jesus Christ who also suffered the worst kind of death for us all.

 

 

I It’s Not Strange

  1. There is nothing strange about Christians suffering for our faith.
    1. These early Christians were shaken by the struggles they were going through because of their faith. God sent them this message by the hand of Peter to let them know that their faith was not pointless.
    2. There’s nothing strange about Christians facing fiery trials. It has always been that way and will be until Christ returns.
  2. Christians here in the Western World: don’t think it strange if you have to face difficulties and even fiery trials because you are a Christian!
    1. The Christians of Peter’s day faced fiery trials. Many were literally burned to death. Nero even used Christians for torches to light his garden parties (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/christians.htm)
    2. The Christians of northern Asia Minor were soon to face a fiery trial in the Roman purges against Christians.

           

II  Rejoice

  1. Here in the very spoiled and pampered Western World, there’s a pill for virtually everything. If you think you have a headache starting, you take a pill.  If you feel slight tickle in your throat, you take a pill.  If you feel unhappy, you take a pill… and so it goes.  People in the Western World don’t like to suffer, and unfortunately, that includes many Christians.

 

  1. What does this mean? Most modern Christians want to fit in, enjoying all the same music, clothing, entertainment and drugs as unsaved people.
  2. We don’t want to be singled out as being weird. We don’t want to be excluded from all the fun everyone is having.  Most of all, we don’t want to suffer simply because we’re Christians.  Most western Christians would rather tolerate anything this lost and depraved world tells us we must tolerate than be singled out.  That last thing we want is to lose any privileges, suffer any kind of loss, or risk fines or jail for our faith.
  3. Yet Christians in the East are even today losing their lives in the most horrific ways anyone can imagine for their faith. Who is right?
  1. God says to rejoice when you share in the sufferings of Christ.
    1. As put in the JFB commentary, “be so far from being offended at your sufferings, as rather to reckon that there is great matter of rejoicing in them; their being trials makes them tolerable, but your being in them partakers of Christ’s sufferings makes them comfortable.”
    2. This is why many of those early Christians, when the time of their fiery trials came, was willing to be first, gladly suffering death even as their Saviour did, knowing that when His glory is revealed at the rapture of the saints that they will be glad, with exceeding joy.
  2. Christian, do you believe you will be glad, with exceeding joy when Christ returns for you?
    1. Are you certain enough that you will see His glory revealed that you would gladly face a fiery trial, knowing the outcome?
    2. Would you exult in your trials, knowing that even if you lose your life now, it only means your sufferings will be over and that next comes rest and eternal joy?
    3. Are you confident enough that you are going to be resurrected that you do not fear death right now?
    4. Are you absolutely certain that you have everlasting life right now, that you are going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

III  Are You Happy?

  1. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then if you suffer disgrace, abuse and censure in this life because you are a Christian, “happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part evil is spoken of Him, but on your part He is glorified.”
    1. If you truly trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you are going to suffer these things to one degree or another, even in North America. It’s getting worse.  Some Christians have recently lost everything because they trust Jesus Christ enough to suffer for Him, rather than suffering with them.
    2. If you don’t trust Christ enough to suffer for Him, perhaps it’s because you don’t really trust Him, at all. Unless you truly trust Him enough to suffer with Him, you may suffer with the lost at the last judgment, because you may not be truly saved.
      1. In 1526, Brother Hubmaier, a Baptist preacher in Zurich, Switzerland was tortured on the rack by the Protestants under Zwingli for refusing to accept infant baptism. He came near to recanting in his tortured and broken condition, then strengthened by the Lord cried out, “Infant baptism is not of God and men must be baptized by faith in Christ!”  He was thrown back in the dungeon, where he wrote these words of prayer:

 

  1. “O, immortal God, this is my faith. I confess it with heart and mouth and have testified it publicly before the Church in baptism. I faithfully pray thee graciously keep me in it until my end, and should I be forced from it out of mortal fear and timidity, by tyranny, torture, sword, fire or water, I now appeal to thee. O, my compassionate Father, raise me up again by the grace of thy Holy Spirit, and suffer me not to depart without this faith. This, I pray thee from the bottom of my heart, through Jesus Christ, thy most beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour. Father, in thee do I put my Trust, let me never be ashamed.”
  • God went on to use Bro. Hubmaier in a powerful way for a mighty harvest of souls in Moravia. He faced his final fiery trial on March 10, 1528, when he was burned at the stake at Zwingli’s orders in Vienna.  His faithful wife was drowned 8 days later.
  1. Christian, are you willing to face fiery trials should they come? Are you Christ’s?  Happy are you if you suffer reproach for the name of Christ, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you!

 

Conclusion

  1. Beloved in Christ – what a wonderful title to carry! All who truly trust, not simply believe, but trust in Christ are beloved in Christ and beloved by Christ, who is beloved by God.
  2. Beloved in Christ, don’t be surprised by trials, even fiery trials when they come, as if something strange is happening. If you’re saved, you will go through trials that will test your faith to the edges of its limits but rejoice when you do.  If you must become partakers of the sufferings of Christ as so many of our brothers and sisters have throughout the centuries, do not fear it, but embrace it, knowing that then end of this life is the door to the next with Christ, that when His glory is revealed at the rapture you may be glad, with exceeding joy.  If you are mistreated and abused for the name of Christ, don’t mourn, but happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
  3. Christian, it’s time to separate from the desire for the same comforts the world longs for and stand up for Jesus. Do you believe and trust in Jesus Christ or not?