1 Peter 4:12-19

12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. 14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God[a] rests upon you.15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” 19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.

2. Embrace suffering.

It’s one thing to expect trials, it’s another thing to embrace and exult in them, and because exulting in suffering is not easy Peter repeats the command to rejoice 4 times. He uses the present imperative, meaning we’re to “keep on rejoicing” Suffering and glory are twin truths woven into the fabric of the Christian life. Suffering must be seen in the perspective of eternity, what starts as suffering goes to glory. The problem is that we want the glory without the groaning, but there is no crown without a cross. Peter gives us three reasons we can rejoice in our trials:

• Trials deepen our fellowship with Jesus.

Peter says that persecution makes us partners with Christ. Today when we talk about close friendships we use the word tight. Peter is saying that it’s the trials that make us tight or tie us to Christ. It’s the trials that deepen our friendship and fellowship. Unfortunately today the church equates fellowship with food and fun but actually its suffering that deepens our fellowship and join us to Jesus in a way that nothing else can.

• Trials deepen our joy as we focus on Jesus return.

Suffering can cause us to set our sights on the Saviors return, and as we do we experience jumping joy. Something supernatural happens when we suffer, we don’t just smile we skip, because our focus isn’t on the suffering it’s on the Savior and His second coming. We may have pain in the present but we will profit in the future. Jesus gave us a wonderful illustration concerning suffering when He reminded us that after a woman endures pain and suffering to give birth, she forgets about the agony when her baby is born because the suffering is transformed into glory (Jn. 16:21). Are you focusing on the trials or on truth?

• Trials deepen our dependence on the Holy Spirit.

It’s a wonderful thing to know that the “glorious Spirit of God rests upon you” God’s glory is one of the greatest gifts we can receive. God’s glory is His weighty reputation, the sum total of all His attributes. When we suffer rightly we get to experience God glory resting on us, His Shekinah glory shining in the suffering. It’s what Stephen’s persecutors witnessed when his face became as bright as an angel” in Acts 6:15. Suffering Christians should shine not whine. When you suffer what will the world witness, will they see a shining witness or a whining witness?