YouTube video sermon
1 Peter 1:6-9
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me (again) to 1 Peter 1. I had the opportunity to meet Dave Roever when I was in college. He came and addressed the Corps of Cadets at The Citadel. If you’ve never heard of David Roever let me just share a little bit of his story with you.
Dave grew up in a minister’s family in South Texas. At the height of the Vietnam War, he received his draft notice. Rather than serving in the infantry, Dave joined the U.S. Navy and served as a riverboat gunner in the elite Brown Water, Black Beret in Vietnam.
During a nighttime raid on an enemy stronghold, David experienced the greatest trial of his life. He and his men were pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire, when he pulled a white-phosphorus grenade from his belt and stood up to throw it. But as he pulled his arm back, a bullet hit the grenade and it exploded next to his ear.
Lying on his side on the bank of a muddy river, he watched part of his face float by. His entire face and shoulder alternately smoldered and caught on fire as the phosphorus that had embedded itself in his body came into contact with the air. David knew that he was going to die, yet miraculously he didn’t. He was pulled from the water by his fellow soldiers, flown directly to Saigon, and then taken to a waiting plane bound for Hawaii.
David’s problems were just beginning. When he first went into surgery – the first of what would become dozens of operations – the surgical team had a major problem during the operation. As they cut away tissue that had been burned or torn by the grenade, the phosphorus would hit the oxygen in the operating room and begin to ignite again! Several times the doctors and nurses ran out of the room, leaving him alone because they were afraid the oxygen used in surgery would explode! Incredibly, David survived the operation and was taken to a ward that held the most severe burn and injury cases from the war.
Lying on his bed, his head the size of a basketball, David knew he presented a grotesque picture. Although he had once been a handsome man, he knew he had nothing to offer his wife or anyone else. He felt more alone and more worthless than ever before. But David wasn’t alone. There was another man who had been wounded in Vietnam, and he, too, was a nightmarish sight. He had lost an arm and a leg, and his face was badly torn and scarred. As David was recovering from surgery, this man’s wife arrived from the States. When she walked into the room and took one look at her husband, she became nauseated. She took off her wedding ring, put it on the nightstand next to him, and said, “I’m so sorry, but there’s no way I could live with you looking like that.” And with that, she walked out the door. He could barely make any sounds through his torn throat and mouth, but the soldier wept and shook for hours. Two days later, he died
Three days later, David’s wife, Brenda, arrived. After watching what had happened with the other soldier, he had no idea what kind of reaction she would have toward him, and he dreaded her coming. Brenda, a strong Christian, took one look at Dave, came over, and kissed him on the only place on his face that wasn’t bandaged. In a gentle voice she said, “Honey, I love you. I’ll always love you. And I want you to know that whatever it takes, whatever the odds, we can make it together.” She hugged him where she could – to avoid disturbing his injuries – and stayed with him for the next several days.
Now, I want to tell you, that’s an incredible story and it’s an incredible testimony – out of the midst of hurt and pain you see hope and joy. That’s exactly what Peter is trying to convey (in 1 Peter 1) to those Christians that have been scattered all across Asia Minor. Remember now, he’s just shared with them this blessing and reminded them of God’s great mercy that redeemed them through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which has resulted in them becoming heirs to an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. So, take your Bibles now and follow along with me:
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
“Teach us, Lord, full obedience, holy reverence, true humility. Test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of Your purity. Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see Your majestic love and authority. Words of pow’r that can never fail, let their truth prevail over unbelief” (Speak, O Lord by Keith & Kristyn Getty).
Peter is writing in about 66 A.D. and for the next 200 years the Church is going to enter into an incredible, unholy period of pure persecution. It’s just starting. The Christian’s of Peter’s time were just beginning to get a foretaste of what was coming. Do you see and hear an application for our day and time? Peter was trying to prepare them. It wasn’t going to get better. It was only going to get worse. And what Peter is trying to get them to understand is that you don’t have to lose your hope in the midst of your hurt. You don’t have to lose your joy in the midst of your pain. He didn’t want them to confuse the testing of their faith with the failure of their faith.
That’s what happens many times. We go through a test, we go through a trial, we experience a difficulty and what do we say, “Well, God, I’m just not sure that You love me. I’m not sure that my faith is real. Why is this happening to me, if You love me. Maybe I’m not saved.” All of this confusion just rises to the top when we go through trials, and Peter wants his audience to understand that you can maintain your hope in the midst of your hurt, that you can maintain your joy in the midst of your pain when you…
See Trials In Light Of Eternity
That’s the very first thing he says, “…though now for a little while…” Paul says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Every now and then, we need to be reminded that this life only accounts for a very small sliver of our existence. We don’t tend to think about this, which is all the more reason why we need to be reminded and why Peter is reminding his listeners, but this life that we’re living right now is miniscule in comparison to eternity. Over and over again we’re told that this life is fleeting. It’s momentary. It’s vanishing.
James 4:14 says, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
Job, you gotta love the way Job puts it. He says, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not” (Job 14:1-2).
1 Chronicles 29:15 says, “Our days on the earth are like a shadow…”
The psalmist says, “Behold, You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before You. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath” (Psalm 39:5)!
Psalm 144:4 says, “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”
Do me a favor. Put your hand about 6-7 inches in front of your face and breath on it. Do it again. The authors of God’s Word testify again and again that that’s how long our earthly lives are. Listen, let me tell you something, everything that hurts, everything that damages, everything that wounds, if you die never trusting Jesus Christ, your absolutely worst day in this life will seem like paradise when you’re in hell. But, oh, there’s another side to that. Your absolutely worst day in this life, when you die in Christ, somewhere over on the other side you’ll say, “Hey, hey, hey, there was something that happened. It seems like a fog. It’s hazy. It’s blurry. I can’t make out the particulars. I really can’t grasp what it was, what happened, what was it that was so bad. Oh, I can’t remember it in light of glory!”
Peter says you can maintain your hope in the midst of hurt, you can maintain your joy in the midst of your pain when you see your trials in light of eternity. And secondly, you can maintain your hope in the midst of hurt and joy in the midst of pain when you…
See Trials In Light Of Necessity
This is hard to explain, but that little phrase, “…if necessary…” is not really saying what we think it’s saying. We read the word “if” and translate it “maybe/maybe not.” That’s not how that phrase works in the Greek. Some of you are saying, “Pastor, I don’t even have that phrase.” If that’s you, then you’re likely reading from the NIV, NLT, or the HCSB, and they’ve translated this in the fashion that the Greek actually intends. The phrase “if necessary” is actually in the Greek text, but what it means is not “maybe/maybe not.” What it means is this: “it’s necessary, it’s inevitable, there’s need of it, it’s right and proper.” What Peter is saying is this, it’s a fact of life, it’s reality, if you’re a Child of God, if you’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, then you are going to suffer some type of persecution and trial.
You say, “Now, Pastor, I don’t like that.” Well, I don’t like it much either, but it’s a fact. Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul says, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” It’s a fact. It’s a reality. It’s coming (if it hasn’t already shown up). Then, a little further down in that same chapter (v. 12) he says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
I know that some of you are facing religious persecution in your own families – family members that mock you and ridicule you because of your position on faith, or morality, or sexuality and gender, because of what you will/won’t do. Maybe you’ve experienced persecution and trials at work. You’ve been overlooked for a promotion because you choose integrity over cutting corners and closing your eyes to shady business. Sure, your sales could’ve been as great as the next guy if you chose to operate with questionable standards and fudging the numbers. That’s what Peter is saying. You’re going to suffer. Whatever you do, you hang on, through the suffering, with hope and see the necessity of it.
That’s what happens to a guy named Saul, in the New Testament book of Acts. You know the story. The Lord sends Saul off to a guy named Annanias, and God is saying to Annanias, “I want you to go down and help out this fella named Saul.” And Annanias is saying, “Lord, I’m not so sure You know what You’re doing. He’s kind of dangerous. He has all kinds of authority from the Chief Priests to bind up all who call on Your name.” And Acts 9:15 says, “But the Lord said to [Annanias], ‘Go, for [Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
God doesn’t say to Annanias, “Go down there and show him the new Gulfstream airplane he’ll ride in, or the Bentley that he’ll drive, and the great big home that he’ll live in, and that he’ll never get a cold or COVID or pneumonia or anything else as long as he’s faithful to me.” No. God says go down there because I’ve got to tell him that it’s gonna get rough, and then it’s gonna get rougher. That’s reality. It’s necessary. God is working. God is doing something in us through these sufferings and difficulties and trials that couldn’t be accomplished any other way.
Our Men’s Bible study just finished a 2–3-month study of James. Listen to what he says in his introductory remarks, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).
Paul writes this in Romans 5, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
When we get over to 1 Peter 4:12-13 we’re going to hear Peter say, “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 insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
Peter says that we can maintain our hope in the midst of hurt, that we can maintain our joy in the midst of pain when we see our trials in light of their necessity to perfect our faith. Finally, we can maintain our hope in the midst of hurt and our joy in the midst of pain when we…
See Trials In Light Of Testimony
What do I mean by that? Well, when you come through a test, when you come through a trial, when you overcome difficulties in your life what do you have? You have a testimony. When you suffer trials, when you go through testing, when you endure persecution, Peter says all of that is like the refining process for gold and look at what comes out on the other end (of verse 7), it “result(s) in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Part of our problem – when we’re going through trials and persecution and difficulty – is that we don’t appreciate the fact that it gives us the opportunity to shine the spotlight on God. If we’d see the hardships of this life as an opportunity to lean into God, to say to others “I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I’m trusting the Lord,” to remind folks of God’s goodness even in the midst of pain and suffering, even in the midst of death and disease, then it would result in Jesus being praised and glorified and honored.
This is the way that it is. Satan comes in before the throne of God and he says, “That girl, Abbie Barnette, she has cancer. Cancer cells are all loose in her body and she’ll never praise you.” And God Almighty, like He does in Job, says you just wait and see. Listen for her testimony in a few years.
“Oh, their child has died. They’ll curse You. They’ll turn from You. They’ll never praise You.” And God says, “Oh, hey, devil, have you met my servants down there, Nic and Claudia? Have you heard their testimony?”
In the weeks and months that followed David Roever’s incident, his wounds slowly but steadily healed. It took dozens of operations and months of agonizing recovery, but today, miraculously, David can see and hear. In sermon after sermon and speech after speech, David Roever will often say, “I am twice the person I was before I went to Vietnam. For one thing, God has used my suffering to help me feel other people’s pain and to have an incredible burden to reach people for Him. The Lord has let me have a worldwide, positive effect on people’s lives because of what I went through. I wouldn’t trade anything I’ve gone through for the benefits my trials have had in my life, on my family’s life and on countless teenagers and adults I’ve had the opportunity to influence over the years.”
We can maintain our hope in the midst of hurt and our joy in the midst of pain when we see our trials in light of eternity, when we see our trials in light of their necessity, and when we see our trials in light of our testimony – that our lives and our faith may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.