Strangers in a Strange Land: Fiery Ordeal

Preacher without a Pulpit Podcast

Strangers in a Strange Land:
“Fiery Ordeal”
1 Pet 4:12-19

Four Instructions about Suffering:

1. Expect Suffering

• Don’t be surprised: 1John. 3:13
• Persecution is keeping in step with Christ: 1Pet 2:20-21
• Persecution is inevitable: 2 Tim 3:12
• Jesus stressed persecutions inevitability: Jn. 15:20
• The purpose of testing is purified Faith: 1Pet 1:6-7

2. Exult in Suffering

• Suffering is proof that we are his possession: Rom 8:17
• He has already mentioned the abuse: 1 Pet 4:4
• The culture is repelled by our message: Acts 4:12
• Our present may be tenuous, but our future looks bright:Mt. 5:10-12

3. Evaluate Suffering

• God has ordained the practice of law: 1 Pet 2:13-14
• The shame of being seen as a fool: 1Cor 1:18
• We are the very stones of the temple: 1 Pet 2:5
• This brings us back to the concept of the “fiery ordeal” of verse 12; the testing of our faith: Mal 3:1-3
• Judgment starts in the house of God and moves out to the rest of the world, for us it is about salvation not condemnation: 1 Cor 11:32
• The fire that purifies the house of God will consume the wicked: Mal 4:1-2
• It is hard (difficult) to find salvation: Mt. 7:13-14
• The refining fire will separate those who are truly committed to Christ from those whose commitment is shallow or partial: Heb 10:26-27
• Peter is saying that the unbelievers eternal suffering compared to the believers temporal suffering, is far greater: Mt. 10:28

4. Entrust Your Soul to God

• Follow in his steps: 1Pet 2:21-23; Lk 23:46
• We react with the best interest of our persecutors in mind; we bless not curse: Lk. 23:34

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