His Glory and Our Good
Tom Groelsema, Speaker
1 Peter 4:12-19 | August 10, 2025 - Sunday Evening,
Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter 4. We are picking up where Chad left off with us this morning so we’re picking up at verse 12. 1 Peter 4:12-19. I hope you have been blessed by our study of 1 Peter this summer. We often, of course, don’t stay in one book from morning till evening and yet I think there’s been something really special and profitable this summer about going back and forth from text to text to text and being able to see Peter’s argument and his message traced out from passage to passage. Again, tonight we look at 1 Peter 4:12-19. As we read these words remember that this is God’s holy infallible and inspired Word.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Let’s pray together.
Father in heaven, as we turn tonight to your Word and as we think about another message from the apostle Peter about suffering, we pray Lord that you would tenderly speak to our own hearts tonight. Father all of us here tonight suffer in some way or another, but Lord there are a number of us no doubt who are suffering greatly, suffering because of Christ, because we’ve taken a stand for Christ or simply suffering as a Christian, facing all kinds of different trials. And Lord we need to be reminded of what you are doing, how your glory and our good is being served even in the midst of trials and tribulations and suffering. So, speak to us tonight Lord and pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Dear friends of the Lord Jesus, I want to introduce you tonight to my mother. None of you have met her, she passed away 17 years ago, but I was blessed to have a Christian mom and grew up in a Christian home she was committed to the Lord. She was a caring mom, but I thing that I want to tell you about her tonight is this, that she was a sufferer. So, she lost her first husband in a farming accident when she was in her low 20s. She had two children; she was a widow for about 10 years raising my sister and my brother alone aside from living with her mom for a while. Her mom helped her out. She was afflicted by severe arthritis in her 50s so many of my memories of my mom are centered around that, that she suffered from that, she had multiple surgeries to replace joints. I remember one episode where my mom had to learn basically how to walk again, she couldn’t walk, so much pain, a crippled over the years. When I was in college, a sophomore in college she nearly died of a brain aneurysm, had surgery for that, it was repaired. My mom through all of this did not complain, she wasn’t bitter, she kept trusting the Lord and I remember one comment that she particularly made about her suffering. This is what she said, she said, “All that I’ve been through has given me just a little taste of what Christ suffered for me. All these sufferings that I’ve experienced have given me just a little taste for what Christ suffered for me.” In other words, she saw her sufferings and the context of Christ’s sufferings. Her sufferings drew her to Jesus, they were shaping her, they were sanctifying her. She understood that God was at work in them. People of God, this is what Peter reminds us of in this passage about suffering tonight.
When I came to this passage and began to study it, kind of the question that was on my mind is Peter, what are you gonna tell us about suffering this time because Peter over and over again in this letter has been talking about suffering as a Christian. Chapter 1:1 he calls the people he is writing to elect exiles. Chapter 1:7, he talks about the testing of our faith. In chapter 2 you remember he said that Christ has given us an example to follow in suffering. Chapter 3, it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil and he’s not done yet here by the way in chapter 4, he’s gonna go on in chapter 5 and his doxology to say this, after you’ve suffered a little while the God of grace will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you and so on my mind was this question, what is unique Peter about what you’re saying regarding suffering in this text and I think it’s this, in this passage he calls us to rejoice in suffering. In fact, he says, if we suffer for Christ we are blessed, there is blessing in suffering. And of course that raises another question, how can that be, and I think Peter gives us two answers, the main points of the message tonight. First of all, he tells us in verses 12-16 that when we suffer as Christians we are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, and then in verses 17-19, we suffer as Christians, we have to remind ourselves that we are being refined by God in suffering.
So, the first, we suffer as Christians, we are sharing with Christ in suffering. Peter, of course, rights this as a pastor, he’s an apostle, but he is a pastor, and he is writing to a number of different churches and Peter knows what he is about to say to these believers is going to be hard. It’s challenging isn’t it to help people think through suffering. It’s kind of upon me as I was writing this message. In fact, I told Sheri this week every time I preach about suffering, I feel like, well I don’t know much about it. And I think about people who are sitting in front of me, who are suffering greatly, well here’s Peter the pastor writing to Christians who are suffering, and he is both realistic and he is spiritually tender. Look what he says in the opening verse, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” Suffering, Peter says, is part and parcel of our lives here on earth even as Christians. Notice he doesn’t say don’t be surprised if suffering comes upon you, but don’t be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes on you. It is going to come, Peter is saying, we are not exempt from suffering. He walks here about trials that we face, fiery trials. We’ll say something more about that in a minute, but trials. Peter is particularly talking about suffering because we are Christians. That’s what he’s been tracing all throughout this book, hasn’t he? It’s better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Suffering for Christ’s sake or in His name and yet the Word that He uses here can also apply to suffering in general as a Christian and what Peter says here is this, that sometimes our suffering surprises, sometimes when we’re going through suffering isn’t it true we might think it’s strange, why is this happening to me, what is going on, Lord I don’t get it, what are you up to.
This reminds me of a book years ago that I read by James Dobson where he talks about something called the betrayal barrier and what he is describing there is simply the sense that sometimes we feel that God may have abandoned us when we suffer. Lord, what are you doing? You remember Jobe and his friends, they were a bit surprised by suffering, and they searched for all kinds of answers. Here’s why it may be happening, this is why is might be occurring, this was what’s going on. Even the psalm writers, psalm 73, that famous psalm receives the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering, he says, “Lord what is happening”, and he says, “When I thought about how to understand all of this it seemed to me like a wearisome task, a bit surprised by suffering.” Peter, he calls to the church here, these Christians who were first hearing this letter and to us, calls us beloved. Speaking as a shepherd to the sheep that he lives, a pastor to suffering saints, a pastor who understands because he suffers with them, in fact, he is going to face his own martyrdom in a matter of years. Peter knows what it’s like and he says to us tonight, he says, “Your sufferings are not strange, it is not strange sufferings that you ought to be thinking about, but rather shared suffering.”
Again verse 12. “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you. To test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings.” The word insofar is an important word, isn’t it? Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings. In other words, suffering can either be counted or blessing or we can miss out what God has for us in suffering. Suffering can either draw us to Christ or it can leave us empty and distant from him. When he uses the word share there that word can also be translated participate in. It’s the Greek word Koinoneo, it’s the verb form of koinonia. Now you’ve heard that word before probably. Koinonia, it’s what we often describe as what Christians share together, they enjoy Koinonia, enjoy fellowship and what Peter is saying here is that the way to rejoice in suffering is to understand that suffering can bring us into deeper fellowship with Christ. We share with Him in suffering; we enjoy fellowship with Him in suffering. In fact, our fellowship with Him can grow through suffering to fellowship in Christ’s sufferings is the path to fellowship with Him personally and suffering Christ often becomes more precious to us. We feel His nearness; we feel His presence in suffering. We taste more deeply of His grace through suffering. When we’re weak He becomes strong. We become more satisfied with Christ rather than the fleeting pleasures of the world. Sharing with Christ in suffering is more than simply the fact that Christ suffered, we’re going to suffer, but rather what Peter is saying is that God draws us into a deeper union with Jesus through suffering. It’s one of the ways that God works, to draw us to Himself.
Paul understood that Phillipians chapter 3, Paul talked about sharing in Christ’s sufferings, he says, ya know there’s so many things that I could be boasting about, right I’m from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day as for zeal, persecuting the church and Paul is, ya know, listing his pedigree, listing all of these things that he could boast in. But Paul says, I’m not gonna boast in any of those things, in fact I count them all as loss that I may know Christ. The power of His resurrection and may share in His sufferings. All these other things that I could brag about, Paul says, no, I want to know Christ and one of the ways that I get to know Him is through the power of his resurrection and sharing in his sufferings, growing to know Christ by sharing in His sufferings and affliction.
Friends, I think that is what my mom was saying. I think what my mom was saying when she said, ya know I’ve just learned a little bit about what Christ suffered for me through my sufferings. I think she was saying, in my suffering I’ve learned something more about His love for me. This is what suffering has taught me. I ran acrost a book this last week, I haven’t read it yet, I just saw it advertised, it looks like a good book called Limping Heavenward, Living By Faith in Comprehensive and Chronic Suffering. The author of that book writes this, says, “In the race of faith, it doesn’t matter how quickly we can run, it just matters that we keep moving in the right direction toward the Lord, and that we don’t give up, limping isn’t less noble or less difficult than running, in fact, sometimes the opposite is true, our limp is real, but so is the destination of heaven. Our groaning is real, but so is the glory that will one day be revealed to those who by God’s grace endure to the end. These sufferings do push we toward the Lord and toward glory.”
And that’s in fact what Paul says, he says rejoice in so far as you share Christ sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. Paul connects our sufferings to glory here, and I think there’s a number of different ways that Paul makes this connection. First of all, we need to be reminded that suffering precedes glory, suffering comes first and then glory. There is an order to this and friends you can’t miss it, you can’t arrive at glory if you haven’t gone through suffering. Rejoice in so far as you share in Christ’s suffering, that you may rejoice when His glory is revealed. That suffering of course is gonna look different for all of us, but suffering precedes glory. There are no crown wearers above who are not cross bearers below. If we want to experience glory, we have to take up our cross, we have to follow Christ. Suffering precedes glory, suffering will give way to glory, glory is coming, it’s a promise here. His glory is to be revealed. Our suffering is not going to last forever. There is a time coming when our suffering will be over. Remember Paul says that in Romans 8. He says, “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.” And Peter says it too, he’s gonna say this in the next chapter, chapter 5:1. He says, “I am an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed.” I think there’s a little bit of a contrast there. Peter says, I am an eyewitness to the sufferings of Christ, Christ is suffering, I saw it, saw Christ suffer, but I’m not just gonna be an eyewitness of the glory that is to come, I’m gonna be a partaker of it. I’m not just gonna be on the sidelines watching it happen; I’m going to be a partaker of the glory. Suffering is going to give way to glory. And then suffering also provides an opportunity to bring glory to God. Peter says that in this passage as well. He says verse 15, “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, thief, evil doer, as a meddler.” Our suffering, in other words is not always because of righteousness, but when we have an opportunity as Christians to glorify God we must do it. So, verse 16, “If anyone suffers as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name.”
I think suffering is one of the biggest stages that the Lord gives us to display that God is great and glorious. The world that watches not so closely our lives when things are going well, but how does that person react when they’re suffering, what do they do when they’re facing trial and affliction, what then, how do we look for Christ and see the opportunity to worship Jesus in those times. Do you remember what the apostles did, even Peter? In Acts chapter 5 they’re before the council and we’re reminded there that they rejoice that they were counted, worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. Hallelujah, we get to suffer for Christ. I don’t know if they said that, but they were rejoicing, right, they were able to suffer for the name of Jesus and you know what, that had an impact on those who were watching because in the chapter before, in Acts chapter 4, when the council saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated men they were astonished and recognized that these men had been with Jesus. Their life was a testimony, even the suffering, their boldness, people could see it so suffering provides an opportunity to bring glory to God and then Christian suffering is also a sign that we belong to God and to glory. Peter says that in verse 14, “If you were insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Suffering for Christ’s sake is a sign that the spirit is ours, we belong to God, we are owned by Him and that we are bound for glory.” Peter of course was just echoing something that Jesus himself had said. We read it for Matthew chapter 5, “Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely. On my account rejoice, be glad for your reward is great in heaven or so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Friends I remember hearing a story once by another pastor who was telling about a Christian who lived in Asia under an oppressive regime and government. This Christian man was being persecuted for his faith, he had been sent off to a labor camp and his job in the labor camp was to empty the latrines, so he would have to go armpit deep wading through the latrine, bucket by bucket to empty out the latrines and he said, he said “Because of the job that I had, the job really became a blessing because there were no guards who ever wanted to be around me, right, all the smell, and so they would leave me alone, they’d go away.” And he said, “When they went away and I was in the latrines I would sing”, he said, “I would sing I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and a voice that I hear falling on my ear, the son of God discloses and He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has even known sufferings drew him to Christ as he shared in the sufferings of Jesus.” Well Peter has a second point and that is we can learn to rejoice in suffering when we remember that we are being refined by God in suffering.
And this is verses 17 through 19. For the most part Peter has been talking about suffering coming at the hands of others so persecution and trial, but in the last part of the passage here he talks about suffering being used by the hand of God. For example, verse 19 he talks about suffering according to God’s will, of course reminding us that all things have been decreed by God, but also telling us that God has a purpose, God has a design in suffering, He’s working out his will in our sufferings. That’s why I think in the last verse he describes God as our faithful creator, kind of an interesting description of God in the middle of this section about suffering, but I think what Peter is wanting to do is to remind us that God is our creator, designer, our architect, God is the one who draws the blueprints for our world and for our lives. God is a design; God has a design for the finished product of what our suffering would be. Well in this section Peter contrasts two kinds of judgement. That’s the word that he uses in verse 17 adenopathy 18, “For it is time for judgement to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, then what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? “
There’s a kind of judgement that falls on the household of God Peter says. Literally the house of God. And for Peter, the household or house is simply another name for the church. He has described that earlier in the letter, chapter 2:5, “Christians are a spiritual house.” So, there’s a kind of judgement that falls upon God’s house, upon God’s people, upon the church and then there’s a judgement, a kind of judgement that God uses and brings to bear on those who disobey God, the ungodly and the sinner as he describes them here. He’s making a contrast, two different kinds of judgement, and then he goes on, the judgement that falls on God’s household, it comes now. It is time for judgement to begin at the household of God, it’s not later, we don’t have to wait for it, it is now. But contrast that to what is going to come upon the ungodly. There is a judgment that is to come, there is a judgement that is going to fall at the end of the age. And then one other contrast, the outcome of these two judgements is different. It’s really implied here if judgement comes to God’s house, what is the outcome, Peter says, of those who disobey? There’s a different kind of outcome of these judgements for Christians and non-Christians, and it’s the outcome of these judgements that is really Peter’s point here.
Take the second judgement first. What is the outcome for those who reject the gospel? Well Peter doesn’t exactly tell us here, but the questions that Peter raises create, don’t you think, kind of an ominous tone. Look at those questions again. If judgement comes to God’s house, if it begins with us, then what will the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God. Peter as it were saying, well there’s this judgement that comes upon the people of God, but what about the outcome for those who do not obey, it’s gonna be something greater. Or verse 18, “If the righteous is scarcely saved, then what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” There’s a sense of warning in those questions and you get that even from Peter’s quotation. You can see it in your own Bibles; it’s bracketed off in verse 18. A quotation from the Septuagint version of proverbs 11:31, “If the righteous are scarcely saved, if the righteous are barely saved”, and I don’t think Peter’s point here is that we just sort of sneak in, but really what Peter is driving at here is to think about how much we are undeserving and yet we receive salvation and glory, then what will the outcome be of those who have rejected God? And while Peter gives no direct answer here, he does give an answer in a second letter, 2 Peter 2:6. He talks about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and he says, “By turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes God condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.” Peter gives us a picture, what is the outcome going to be for the sinner and the ungodly, Peter says, “Look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, just wiped out, made extinct and there’s a picture of what is going to happen to the ungodly.”
The apostle Paul gives us a picture too. 2 Thessalonians 1:6 and following. Righting the suffering Christians, just like Peter was. He was suffering for the kingdom of God and Paul says, “Since God indeed considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels and flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and in those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” “Suffering the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of God and the glory of his might.” Peter is describing the outcome of God’s judgement on the one side for those who have not obeyed or rejected the Gospel it’s condemnation.
This would be a warning tonight for us to anyone here who may not be a Christian. You might know a lot about God, you might be around God or the things of God often, but the scriptures say here tonight if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you’ve not repented of your sins and turned to Him, then there is a just judgement that is to come. And friends you see there’s a warning tonight, but this warning is a mercy of God. Every opportunity the Lord gives us when we hear a warning for not trusting in Him is a mercy of God, time for you to come to Christ, to know Him, to serve Him, to love Him, to bow before Him, but then what about the judgement on God’s house. Well, the outcome of that judgement is not condemnation, but it is purification. Now how do we know that, well because of the way Peter describes things here. Right back to the very beginning, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that comes upon you, a trial that as it were puts you through the fire. What does fire do, it purifies, it burns away the impurities, it burns away the dross so that what comes out is more pure than before. Or even the language there in verse 12 to test to, metal is tested in a fire, it is made stronger, made more pure. I think what Peter is doing is drawing upon Malachi chapter 3. We read that passage as well tonight, but this reminder that Malachi’s word that God is coming and He is like a refiner’s fire, He is like a fuller soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. You’re saying that the judgement that comes to God’s house is designed to purify us, to make us more holy, to make us shine, not like the judgement that will come at the end of time, this is a judgement that has already begun. Friends, this is what our suffering is about. Call it the judgment of God, call it as Hebrew says, “The discipline of God.” The hand of our father in our life, to shape us, to mold us, to make us more like Christ. Hebrew says he disciplines us for our good that we may share His holiness. You see it there, there’s the purification that we may share His holiness, his discipline so that we may become more holy than this word from Hebrews that is so pointed, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews is so realistic. Discipline is not pleasant. Suffering is not pleasant. The only reason we can rejoice in it, the only reason we can count ourselves blessed is because we know that God is at work in it, to make us more like His son.
There was a silversmith who had his silver in the fire and somebody was observing and watching and they said to the silversmith how long do you know that you need to leave the silver in the fire, how do you know when you’re supposed to take it out, and the silversmith said, “Well if I take it out too soon all of the impurities won’t be burned off so I can’t take it out too soon. If I leave it in the fire too long than the metal will be damaged.” Well again, how do you know when it’s just right, when you’re supposed to take it out? He said, “I know it’s just right when I take it out of the fire and I’m able to see my face reflected in the silver.” Friends, that’s what God wants for us, to see His face more and more reflected in our lives. He’s shaping us, He’s refining us. Let me end tonight with just three brief words of application. First of all, Peter says, “Do not be surprised by suffering or think it’s strange when you suffer as a Christian. Suffering will come and God is at work in it.” Number two, “Do not be ashamed when you suffer as a Christian, but glorify God in it and ask yourself the question, Lord how can you be shown to be great in the suffering that I endure?” And then finally, “When you suffer entrust yourself to God.” The word entrust there is like a deposit, right, when you go to the bank you entrust your money to the bank or maybe even a better picture, when you’re a parent and you go away for an evening you entrust your children to a babysitter, right, you’re gonna take care of them, you’re gonna watch them. Peter says entrust yourself to the Lord in suffering, entrust your soul to the God who loves you, to the God that will keep you till the final day. Let’s pray together.
Our heavenly Father, suffering is not pleasant, it is painful and yet tonight you’re calling us to rejoice and to count ourselves blessed, especially when we suffer for the name of Christ. Help us to see father how we might share with you in suffering, share in the sufferings of Christ, drawn into deeper fellowship with Him, you remind us Lord of how you’re refining us and shaping us. You are at work for your glory and for our good. We pray that you give us eyes to see and humble hearts to believe and to trust in Jesus’ name. Amen.
