JOYFUL ENTRUSTMENT

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 6, 2019 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: March 6, 2019 from 1 Peter 4:14-19

Theme: We should look upon our times of suffering for Christ as a call to entrust ourselves joyfully to His safe-keeping.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

As we saw in last week’s study, one of the most important things we can do to serve our Lord in times of persecution for our faith is to make sure that we have the right attitude while in the midst of those times. In 1 Peter 4:12-13, Peter wrote;

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy (vv. 12-13).

If we rejoice during our brief trials now, we will rejoice even more on the glorious day when Jesus returns. And just as Peter taught us about our attitude of joy in those two verses, he goes on to teach more about this joyful disposition in the verses that follow. As this morning’s passage teaches us, the key is to embrace an attitude of ‘entrustment’ when suffering for Jesus:

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now

“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator (vv. 14-19).

In those times when we are called upon to suffer for our Lord Jesus in some way, we shouldn’t look upon it as a woeful sacrifice—as if we’re ‘giving up’ something and counting it as forever lost to us. Rather, we should look upon it as an opportunity of joyful entrustment—that is, an occasion for committing our very selves over to the Lord Jesus in faith, and for trusting Him to hold our lives for us in His safe keeping until the future day of glory at Jesus’ return (see also Mark 8:34-35 and 2 Timothy 1:12).

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We can joyfully entrust our lives to the Lord in times of suffering if we do the things that Peter points out to us in this passage. First, we should …

1. REMEMBER THAT WE ARE BLESSED IN SUFFERING REPROACH FOR OUR LORD.

In verse 14, Peter writes, “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (Some translations include the words, “On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified”; and many scholars believe these words were added later in an attempt explain how the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us.) What a humanly strange-sounding idea this is!—to actually consider it a blessing when we suffer for Jesus! And yet, it’s absolutely true that suffering reproach for our association with Him, and being attacked for bearing His name as “Christians”, is, in God’s gracious plan for us, a truly blessed thing. And we must always keep that remarkable fact ever before us.

Just as the unbelieving world hated our Lord, it also hates those who are associated with Him (see John 15:18-25). We may not feel very ‘blessed’ when we experience that hatred. But Peter says that, nevertheless, we truly are blessed if we see things from the standpoint of the ultimate outcome. We should jump for joy for it! Our reward, from the standpoint of eternity, is unspeakably great! As Jesus said;

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

Not only are we blessed, but the Holy Spirit also comes upon us at such times and uses us as His instruments to communicate truth in this world. Jesus also said;

“You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:18-20; see also Luke 21:13-15).

So; let’s entrust ourselves to Him gladly in such times; knowing that we are truly blessed in suffering reproach for Him. The power of God truly rests upon us when we thus suffer for the name and cause of Christ.

Another way we joyfully entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus at such times is if we …

2. GIVE GLORY TO GOD THAT WE ARE IDENTIFIED WITH HIM.

Peter began by offering a warning. It’s true that times of suffering for Christ may come; “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters” (v. 15). This list goes from what we typically think of as the most serious of crimes to crimes that we typically don’t consider so serious. But we’re really guilty of them all at times. Peter is urging us to make sure that when we suffer, it isn’t for any of those reasons. (We go a long way in our testimony for our Lord when we make sure that, whenever we’re spoken of as evil, it’s not because we truly have behaved in an evil way!)

But Peter then goes on to say, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” This is one of the only three times in the whole New Testament that the word “Christian” appears (see also Acts 11:26 and 26:27-28). In those two other times, the word “Christian” was uses as a term of derision. But Peter said that if anyone suffers “as a Christian”, he shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Rather, he should glorify God for it.

The apostle Paul—again in a prison cell, shackled with chains—wrote to Timothy;

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel …” (2 Timothy 1:8-10).

It’s a high honor to suffer shame for Jesus’ name! We should glorify God whenever we are given the great privilege of being identified with the King of kings—even if it means shame, for a brief time, in the eyes of this fallen world. We can rest assured that there ‘ll be no shame at all in bearing that name ‘Christian’ (which means “little ‘Christ’ ones”) when He returns in glory!

Another way we can joyfully entrust ourselves to the Lord in such times is if we …

3. RECOGNIZE THAT JUDGMENT BEGINS WITH THOSE WHO ARE HIS.

Ever since the Lord Jesus came and walked on this earth, and died on the cross, and rose from the dead, and ascended again to the Father, we have been living in the closing period of God’s redemptive history. Nothing remains except for the Lord Jesus to return as the Judge of all mankind. Those who reject our Lord and rebel against Him will be judged on that day. And it seems that God allows ‘a prelude’ to that great judgment to fall upon His own people. Peter writes; “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God …” (v. 17).

We should not understand this to be a judgment for sin in our case, however. That judgment has already been administered on our behalf upon our Lord on the cross. When we suffer this ‘prelude’ to God’s judgment as believers, it’s for our discipline and refinement. As Peter wrote at the beginning of this letter, it’s “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).

But we who belong to Jesus do suffer the beginnings of the judgment—as something of a ‘prelude’ of the judgment that God will administer to the ungodly. God is, through that suffering, getting rid of the remnants in us of the sinfulness that characterize and dominate this world. Peter quotes Proverbs 11:31 when he says, “and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’”

God our Father lovingly disciplines His children—certainly because He loves them and wants to correct them, but also as a clear warning to the unbelieving world that He does indeed judge sin! We suffer the beginnings of judgment in order to show the unbelieving people of this world that such judgment is soon coming upon them. When Peter speaks of those “who do not obey”, he uses a form of the word that means that they ‘do not obey as a continual habit’. Perhaps some will see that God does indeed judge sin and will repent. But for those who will not, judgment is declared to be certain. (See 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10 for a further explanation of this.)

So; we can embrace those times of suffering as times of true entrustment of ourselves to Him, if we recognize them to be the evidence that we truly belong to Him … and that future judgment is certain for those who do not.

And Peter mentions one more way; and that is if we …

4. COMMIT OUR SOULS TO HIM IN OUR SUFFERING BY DOING GOOD.

Peter says, “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (v. 19). Our Father in heaven is our Creator. He made us for Himself and has the rights over us. But because He is a ‘faithful’ Creator, we don’t ever have to fear what it may be that He calls us to do. He loves us; and He will not fail to vindicate us in the end. So; as Peter says, we can fully commit our souls to Him in “doing good”.

If you were to look back to 1 Peter 2:21-23, you’d find God has already set before us the perfect example of how we are to do good in our sufferings for Christ;

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

“Who committed no sin
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously … (1 Peter 2:21-23).

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Suffering for Jesus is not ultimately a matter of sacrifice or loss. Those who have even gone so far as to lay down their lives for Jesus did not lose their lives at all. They will have simply entrusted their lives to Jesus for safe-keeping until the day of His return. And then, they will gain it back forever. As Paul said in Colossians 3:3-4, if “your life is hidden with Christ in God”, when Christ appears, “then you also will appear with Him in glory”. Oh how much we need to remember that in these trying days—and keep the right attitude in our times of suffering!

Let’s remember what Jesus said in one of the letters to the seven churches …

“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:9-10).

EA