Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: 1 Peter 1:6-8

EASTER SUNDAY

If you have your Bibles, would you grab them? We’re going to be in 1 Peter, chapter 1. So, if you’re new with us, hi, welcome. I’m Greg. It’s nice to meet you. You all look great, by the way. 

We go verse by verse through Scripture. So, we’re in the Book of 1 Peter. We’re just systematically working through the verses, and we spent the last three or four weeks just looking at verses 3 through 5 in 1 Peter, chapter 1, and really settling into what Peter’s teaching about the love of the Father. 

And so, I want to invite you into this journey. We’re going to be in verses 6 through 8 today, and I think we have that we can throw that up on the screen, because Peter makes a statement here in verses 6 through 8, and it says this: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

Let’s read that again. That’s a mouthful. “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

GREATLY REJOICE

So, Peter opens with this statement: “In this you greatly rejoice.” Now rejoice, how many would agree with me, not a word you hear at King Soopers very often? It’s kind of one of those words that you only really hear in church. 

Can you imagine if you’re at King Soopers, and you’re checking out groceries, and the attendant there says, Are you rejoicing today? You will instantly know they’re a believer, would you not? Because it’s kind of a believer word. 

Nothing wrong with it being a believer word, but because of that, when we encounter these kinds of words, we have to recognize that a lot of times we don’t actually know what they mean. We don’t actually know how to put them into practice because they’re just not a part of our regular language. 

And so, Peter opens with this statement about rejoicing. So, I just want to ask this question: what’s it mean to rejoice? The actual word in the Greek means to be exceedingly glad, or to jump for joy. How many have ever jumped for joy? How many would say, I’m never going to jump for joy, there’s nothing in the world that gets me that excited? 

Jumping for joy is a pretty potent picture. It means you’re so excited, you’re so exuberant, something has happened that has caused you to react in a way that the only fitting and natural response is to jump for joy. That’s the word that Peter uses here. So, from a pastoral perspective, what he’s saying is, Hey, church, here’s the thing you need to be stoked in and celebrate. 

Now, in the Greek language, we have a lot of nuance to it that’s not necessarily in English. This word here comes to us in the dative case, which means it’s personal. So, Peter’s not saying, Hey, you in general, as a church, should jump for joy. What he’s saying is you personally. 

And I want you to grab onto that because Peter’s talking very personal at each person. He’s talking to us. He’s talking to individuals. He’s saying this: you should be rejoicing. And I’d offer that what Peter’s actually doing here is he’s coaching a right choice. He’s coaching something he wants to see in them, and he’s giving them a directive: You’re going to rejoice in these things. 

Why would Peter challenge that? There’s two reasons. As a pastor, his goal is to help them live in the Kingdom with success. I would say, as a pastor, that’s my goal– to help us live in the Kingdom with success, to coach the things that will lead us to success. 

CHOOSING OUR RESPONSE

There’s a second thing that I think Peter understands here, and that is how you choose to respond to a situation has a massive impact on how you’re going to navigate that situation. 

Have you ever noticed that? You ever noticed that if you can push pause and be calm, the situations usually go easier? If you’re a very reactive person that flies off the handle, what usually happens? Nothing really of any value. You end up having to do clean up on aisle everywhere before you can even deal with the real situation. 

So, we should hear this passage more in the lens of Peter saying, Hey, what I’m going to share, you need to learn so you can make the decision to rejoice. Instantly, for me, when I consider that, my first question is, Okay, so what in my life can get in the way of making that choice? 

If we go back to verses 3 through 5, we recognize that Peter spends quite a while focusing on the goodness of the Father, and what he’s doing there with this young church is he’s shaping their perspective on the Heavenly Father. He wants to shape their understanding. 

I want you to consider that in our culture, how most people interpret life circumstances, I wonder if you know anybody like this: I had a friend once, I was out on my driveway, I was cleaning my road bike and getting it all fixed up because I would ride road bike in the afternoons. 

And my friend comes across the street, and he knows I’m a pastor, so I’m probably the only guy in his life that he really wants to talk spiritual stuff with. So, he walks up the driveway, he says, Hey, man, I think God and I are doing really good, like, He’s really for me. 

Now, in my mind, the answer is, Duh, but I just stayed quiet, and I said, How come? I’m curious because I’m hoping that there’s been some download from Heaven, he’s had some encounter with the Lord, and it’s wonderful. And his answer, not so much. Where I was going, all the lights turned green today. 

Now, here’s the tragedy of that: this same friend, a couple years later, took his own life because all the circumstances in life went bad and he decided God hated him. Now you’re like, Wow, thanks for that story, Greg. But I want you to understand that in our culture, most people read their circumstances as an indication of God’s love for them. 

And perhaps what Peter’s doing here is working to put a right perspective towards life circumstance in order to protect this young church from a common pagan practice of reading the signs as an indication of God’s love. 

And maybe you’re here, and you’re like, Wait, I do that. And let me just tell you the real simple answer: stop. Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us that He calls us sons and daughters. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. 

The love of God was displayed at the cross. It was displayed in Jesus Christ. It will never be displayed in your life circumstances. What happens in your life is not an indication of God’s love for you. His love was given to you at the cross. Jesus is an indication of God’s love for you. 

And if you don’t have that straight, you will make crazy life mistakes and decisions based on assuming that somehow the signs are pointing you somewhere. He has no desire to lead you through signs. He has a desire to lead you through His voice. 

That’s the principle that we see in the Old Testament. That’s the principle we see in the New Testament. And I just want to encourage you, if you’re looking at your life and trying to read the signs, stop it. They will not lead you where you’re supposed to go. Have the courage to go have an encounter with the Lord. He will speak to you. It’s a different message. 

THE RESURRECTED LIFE

Perhaps what Peter is giving them is a lens to live through, that the secret for choosing joy is about learning how to manage your perspective. We mentioned verses 3 through 5, where he’s teaching them about the goodness of God, and he’s working to create a right perspective that, in other words, here’s the perspective he wants for them, that they can’t relate properly to God until they truly understand His love for them as a Heavenly Father. 

Now, that study for the last four or five weeks has been really powerful, really impactful, for a lot of us. A lot of you have shared with me and commented like, Well, this has really brought some stuff up. I realized I needed to fix some things with my own father, those figures of authority. 

But see, Peter will shift here now in verses 6 through 8, and he’s going to again challenge perspective, but it’s not a perspective with God. Now, he wants to challenge their perspective on difficulty and trials. What is their lens on difficulty and trial? What would be Peter’s ultimate goal? I think it’s simple: to help this young church understand what a life of believing in Jesus actually means. 

So, let me state what it is: a life of believing in Jesus is about learning to adopt and carry the nature and the image of Christ in our daily lives. 

So, it’s Resurrection Sunday, whether you call it Easter, whether you call it Resurrection Sunday, I literally couldn’t care less. I don’t geek out over that. Here’s why: I kind of like Easter as a term. Do you know where it comes from? I do. I’ve done the research. 

Here’s why I like it: it’s one day in our culture where, globally, everyone’s eyes are on the cross and on the resurrected King in some way, shape, or form, whether it’s because of the Cadbury bunny, or whether it’s because of the Reese’s eggs, it doesn’t really matter. In the back of their mind, they’re thinking about Jesus. And I love that. 

I think we should take advantage of that. I’m a fan of our culture making a big to-do about an event that draws them back to the reality of the King. I want you to consider this: that this is a day, where, across the globe, everyone’s eyes are drawn to the name of Jesus. 

So, in that spirit, I want to have a quick theological conversation, because this for sure is not an Easter message. So, I want to have a quick theology conversation about the death and resurrection of Jesus so we can make today Easter legal. 

See, sin had to be dealt with. This is the story in the narrative of Resurrection Sunday. It entered the world through Adam and into humanity, and according to the Book of Hebrews, blood had to be spilled to purchase humanity back, and not just any blood– perfect blood. 

So, Jesus, as the sinless, spotless Lamb, came into the world, born of a virgin, lived before man sinless, and before God sinless, offered His life by the will of the Father as a sacrifice, and in the moment He died, sin was beaten. 

But this is Resurrection Sunday, it’s the day we celebrate the empty tomb, and we celebrate it rightly. But I want to draw our eyes to what we’re celebrating. You see, His death and shedding of blood beats sin. A lot of times when we think about Easter, we think about Resurrection Sunday, we’re thinking about the fact that our sins were forgiven. 

I just want to draw our attention to something: that his death on the Cross did that. Without the shedding of blood, there’s no remission or propitiation or dealing with sin. He dealt with it there. See, His resurrection was about something different, and I want to make sure we have our theology right. 

His resurrection was to become the firstborn of those who would and could carry His nature in this world as human beings. His resurrection was to show us how to live this life. 

Now, you see, there’s a really common perspective that happens in the church and out of the church, and it goes like this: at the gates or not at the gates? In other words, am I going to be at the gates of Heaven or not? Everybody’s worried about the endgame. Am I going to get saved? Am I going to be saved? 

That’s not what the resurrected life was about. Peter’s working to teach this young church the same thing. I want to push on us how to live the Kingdom now. That’s what the resurrection life is about. I want us to have that lens as we dive back into this. 

DIFFICULTY AND TRIAL

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you’ve been distressed by various trials, so the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

So, I want to grab a sentence out of this that I think encapsulates what Peter’s saying, and then we’re going to work back through some of the details in this. You greatly rejoice that the proof of your faith may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

There’s some words and phrases that are important for us to understand. The phrase greatly rejoice, it means to be exceedingly glad, filled with joy, carries the picture of jumping for joy. Now, I didn’t share this before. It’s a reflexive verb, it’s in middle voice, which means I make myself rejoice. It’s a very different message. I make myself rejoice. Because what that tells us is this is not a response, it’s a choice. 

He uses the phrase proof of faith, which means the testing or proving of one’s trust or belief in God. The testing or proving of one’s trust or belief in God. How many have ever had someone say, Prove it to you? What are they asking for? They’re saying, Hey, you just said this. I want you to show me something that’s evidence of it. What Peter’s talking about here is something that creates the ability to have an evidence. 

The word result here, I think it’s an important word for us to look at. It means towards something, as in, it’s taking one to a destination. That’s kind of the core essence of what Peter’s saying. He’s just painting a picture of what it looks like to have a right attitude and perspective towards testing and difficulty in life. 

But that’s not the whole message. There’s some words we took out that we have to look at, they offer different understanding. This phrase, for a little while, Peter makes a statement here that in the Greek just means a short season.

And I think it’s wild because a lot of times when we face difficulty and trial, we get mired in the fact that we start to assume it’s never going to change. And Peter just says this: Hey, time out, this isn’t going to last forever. 

He makes a statement that it’s not forever. I want you to consider that as a promise: Scripturally, your Heavenly Father would never allow the trials and the difficulties to last forever, that there’s a season to them. 

He uses a phrase, if necessary. I think this is kind of the key in the whole verse because the phrase indicates it needs to happen, as in whatever comes after this is a decision that was made because it was necessary for the person. 

We understand this concept. If I say to you, Do whatever is necessary, you know that I just gave you carte blanche authority to assess a situation, figure out what needs to happen, and do it. That’s what Peter’s saying here, that a situation has been assessed, and what was needed has been added to the situation. 

So, here’s the question: he’s saying someone’s doing that. Who? Who’s making that decision that it’s necessary in your life for difficulty? I know you don’t want to give the answer. It’s the Father. It is God’s decision. He’s making the decision that in our life, we need this thing. Why? So our faith can grow.

As I read through this, it was kind of like I could hear the brakes screech in my mind. Because what happened was I went, Oh, time out. If He decided it was necessary, who am I to argue with it? 

And we spent four weeks looking at the character of the Father, and these are some of the phrases that came out of it: He’s good, He’s merciful, He’s kind, He is for us, not against us. Could I remind us that those statements tell us that there’s nothing that would drive Him to make a decision in our life that’s punitive or cruel? It’s always for our benefit. 

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Peter goes on and says that your faith being more precious than gold. Now, that’s a phrase in the Greek, it’s an economic phrase. It means of greater value, which is a wild statement, that he’s saying when your life is over, your faith, your trust in God, has greater value than money. 

It’s more important, it’s a more costly commodity, that at some point in your life, you begin to recognize that my trust in God is actually of more economic value to me than money in the bank. 

A lot of us as Americans really have a hard time connecting those two things, but let me put some context on it. Maybe we consider it this way: that perhaps the Lord knows this, the Lord knows that the thing He needs to help us grow the most isn’t our bank account. It’s our faith account. It’s our ability to trust Him, and He knows this. 

It sounds very churchy, you’re like, That’s such a church phrase, but He actually knows that in the course of our life, this is going to be more important for us. It’s going to protect us more. It’s going to do more for us. 

Consider that your faith is actually what keeps you sane in a chaotic world. Consider that your faith is actually what keeps you married in a climate of rampant divorce. If you’re looking at your spouse and your answer is, I’m still married because my spouse is awesome, it’s going to fail. You’re still married because you trust the Lord, and you trust what the Lord said, and you’re unwilling to go a direction He said not to go. Got quiet in here. 

Want you to consider that faith is actually what draws reward from your King, that when you stand before Jesus, He’s not going to say, Hey, well done. You said yes to Me. Anybody could say yes to Him. We didn’t do anything in that. It was grace. We did nothing to earn it, correct? 

We just said yes to something that was being freely offered. I’m not getting rewarded for that. That’s like wanting to be rewarded for showing up at work. No, what we get rewarded for before the Lord is what we did in this life that was motivated out of our trust and belief in Him, that we knew who He was. We took what He said to heart, and we were willing to live in a way that showed that. 

And then when we stand before Him, He says, Well done. So, He understands that that’s what He’s going to reward. So, if that’s the truth, then we have to look at this through the perspective of, I need to invest in and protect my faith. 

REJOICING VERSUS COMPLAINT

I think that’s what Peter’s getting at. I think what he’s actually working to do, and we’re going to show this for just a few moments, he’s working to expose a tendency that’s in us that actually erodes our faith, instead of building it. 

A lot of times, in order to understand what a passage says, there’s a discipline called the reciprocal or the inverse value. In other words, you can write out what the verse means in its opposite, like its negative form. 

Anybody remember math? Remember reciprocals? Come on, let me know, what’s a reciprocal? It’s a fraction. If you have four over one– which means four– the reciprocal value is what? One over four? It’s the inverse of it. 

In this same way, we can take the exact opposite message out of a verse, and sometimes it brings things to light differently. So, I’m going to read that to you. Here’s the inverse of this passage: “In this you constantly complain, even if what you go through is only short-term, even if it’s good for you. You find complaint in your difficulty and trouble, revealing the weakness of your faith because you assume it has no value and it will not matter when you see Jesus.” 

Let me read that one again. “In this you constantly complain, even if what you go through is only short-term, even if it’s good for you. You find complaint in your difficulty and trouble, revealing the weakness of your faith because you assume it has no value and it will not matter when you see Jesus.” 

When we read that, something jumps out at us instantly. Peter’s making a connection between our perspective and our declaration in context. We know what he’s talking about, making a choice to rejoice in the midst of difficulty. 

We asked the question earlier, so what can get in the way of that choice? I think the answer here is incredibly obvious, and it’s a single word: complaint. Let me say it more directly: based on this passage, I think it’s fair to conclude that we’re either going to make a choice to rejoice in difficulty and trial, or we’re going to make a choice to complain. 

And the choice to complain is a choice to undermine and erode one’s own trust in God. Have you ever considered complaint as a consequence? And that consequence is, without knowing it, you’re eroding your own ability to trust God because you’re speaking against a situation that He thought was needed to grow your faith. 

And so, by rising up and being willing to speak against a situation that you’re in– and there’s a myriad of those situations, I don’t want you to just go to the tough stuff, I want you to go to all of it. I want you to go to complaint in general. Where am I willing to complain? Because if I’m willing to complain, that means my opinion of a situation matters more than my trust of God. 

And by doing that, you’re choosing to destroy your ability to trust God by complaining against the situation He’s deemed is necessary for your faith to grow. How? Because you’re fighting His rule. 

Peter puts these two concepts in opposition: rejoicing and complaint. You can’t rejoice if you complain, because the mouth is the gateway of praise, and either blessing is coming out or cursing is coming out. 

We tend to believe it’s like a water faucet. We just turn the one on we want and turn it off and turn the other one on. But Scripture says it doesn’t work that way. And I think Peter’s teaching that choosing to rejoice in attitude and in word is actually about what we will say and what we won’t. You see, your declaration is just that: it’s yours. Nobody can make that choice for you. 

One last thought in this that I think we have to see: Peter connects this choice on earth, a choice we make in this life, with the end result at the day of Jesus. In other words, he’s doing a juxtaposition of there’s something you’re doing now, and it’s going to result in something when you stand before the Lord. 

He’s fast-forwarding us, and he’s trying to keep our eyes– he will do this through the whole book– he’s trying to keep our eyes on the day we will stand before the Lord. He wants us to learn to live with the right perspective of, Where are my life decisions today taking me? 

And he says, in this you greatly rejoice, so that your decisions– I want you to hear that, I’m adding this phrase in– in this you greatly rejoice that your decisions resulted in praise, glory, and honor of Jesus on that day. 

The decision of the choice to rejoice has an impact on the day we stand before Jesus. Please hear this: the decisions we make each day about complaint versus rejoice are being measured and remembered, and every place we choose to rejoice becomes praise, glory, and honor to Jesus on that day. 

That means every place we don’t works against us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stand in front of Him and have Him say, Hey, son, you never could figure out the mouth gate. I never could trust you to discipline your response. You just found a way to complain in every situation. 

Every time I tried to put something in your life to grow you, you found a way to complain. Every time I tried to put someone in your life to help grow you, you found a way to complain against them, you found a way to fight against them. Every time I opened a door for you, for your growth, you found a way to complain against it. 

Why? Because you wanted to lead yourself, and I could never take you where I wanted to take you, because you wouldn’t come under what I was doing. 

So, let’s put some actionable skin on this. What’s it look like to rejoice in the midst of difficulty? Number one: be unwilling to complain and speak against the situations you’re in because you believe like Peter teaches, that the Father is the One who put you there. 

Secondly, choose to be silent before the Lord. I want you to catch this one. When you are in a difficult situation, the first thing I can tell you is, do not react. Choose to be silent before the Lord until your head, your heart, and your mouth can align. 

What’s that look like? It means you go sit with the Lord, and you just say it this way: Hey, I’m all kinds of riled up. I need Your help to make sure that my heart and my mind and my mouth can align. 

Because a lot of times, our mind knows what we’re supposed to do, our mind knows what the Scriptures say. A lot of times, we can feel the tug of the Holy Spirit in our heart. But how many would agree with me that sometimes the mouth doesn’t want to comply? 

How many have ever been guilty of saying things, and as soon as they leave your mouth, you’re like, Ooh, that shouldn’t have left, and now it’s out there? Or sometimes, our heart is so passionate that it wants to lead us into stupid places, and we need to allow the Lord to corral it. Other times, our minds don’t actually know the Scriptures, and we err. 

And so, we got to go sit with the Lord until He’s been able to whisper to us His direction. So, choose to be silent before the Lord, until your heart, your mouth, and your mind can align in His goodness. 

And then, lastly, I want you to learn to step into the supernatural power of speaking and declaring His faithfulness over your circumstances. What do I mean by that, the places that drive you crazy, the places you’re feeling struggle, learn how to say back to Him, I trust Your leadership. I don’t understand this situation. I don’t like this situation, whatever it is, but I’m going to declare Your goodness over it. 

Some keys for you, I want you to hear this: you don’t have to like your circumstances to rejoice. You have to choose it. And you don’t have to understand your circumstances to rejoice. You have to choose it. 

And how do you choose it? You have to trust the One who’s watching over you. You can’t worship in the middle of difficulty unless you trust your King more than you fear your circumstances. 

How do you change your perspective on what you’re going through? You choose to rejoice, which is to declare His faithfulness. You choose to worship, which is to declare His character. And you choose to let your faith grow, which means you’re patient until He changes the situation. 

I would love if we could learn to say this: I don’t love this situation, but I’m not moving until You move me. I want to remind us all the while, there’s one place it’s safe to take everything that’s in your heart and just speak it openly, and there’s only one place: that is alone with the Lord. 

In the secret place, you have carte blanche authority to share your perspective on situations. You can tell the Lord how lousy you think it is. You can complain all you want because it’s safe there, and He doesn’t have any problems Scripturally taking our burdens on and hearing our complaints. And when we allow Him a place to speak to those things, it protects us from looking stupid in the marketplace. 

Stand with me, please. Happy Easter. Holy Spirit, thanks for today. Thanks for Your goodness. Lord, there’s probably not a single place that we struggle more in our lives than with the incredible belief that we have a right and need to share our opinions. 

Holy Spirit, we ask for You to bring government to that, that You’d use this teaching to help us recognize and corral that tendency, so that we’d be a people who just rejoice before You always. 

Lord, there’s so many places in Scripture I’m thinking about that say, Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again, I say rejoice. Paul will teach that it’s over and over again, that there really is one response pattern that’s always right. 

Would You lead us and guide us through the difficulties of life to choose that response pattern, that we’d remember these words of Peter and we’d put it into practice? We love You. We honor You. Jesus’ name, amen.