Faith in the Fire | 1 Peter 4:12–19 | Finding Joy When Faith Is Tested

When trials come, we often look for an escape. But in this passage, Peter calls us to something far greater—to rejoice in suffering because it unites us with Christ and strengthens our witness to a watching world. In this message, we see how believers can endure hardship with hope, entrust their lives to a faithful Creator, and live boldly for the glory of God.

Watch the full sermon below and be reminded that no matter what we face, God is with His people in the fire.

Watch “Faith in the Fire”

Are you finding hope in the middle of life’s trials? This message is part of our Living Hope series through 1 Peter, where we explore how God’s Word equips us to stand firm in faith no matter what we face.

👉 Explore the full Living Hope series here and keep growing in the confidence that our hope in Christ never fails.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.

I'm guessing that all of us at some point have been standing at a mailbox and we've come across an envelope that fills us with a sense of dread. And since we only really receive advertisements and bills in the mail anymore, I think you know specifically what I'm referring to. Most likely it would be a bill for something like say, a medical procedure of some kind. And maybe you weren't sure how the insurance was going to cover it. And, and maybe you're the type of person who would tear that envelope open right away and get the sense of dread over with. Or maybe you're a person who's like, you know what? I'm going to go home and sit down and open this envelope someplace comfortable. Regardless how you approach a situation like that doesn't change what's inside the envelope. Now I've often thought that maybe it would be nice to have some sort of warning system in place for these kind of situations. You know, a means of sort of easing us into what we're about to experience. Now obviously privacy would be an issue, so maybe different establishments could have different color coded systems. They would give us maybe a soft pink envelope if the bill is small, maybe green if everything is covered and you don't have to pay anything, and maybe red if it's a doozy.

Now obviously I'm being facetious, but you can understand the sentiment I'm getting at here. Now imagine that you are a first century Christian who is experiencing persecution and you find out you that your local body of believers has received a letter from the Apostle Peter. Now I don't know what they would have expected to receive in this letter from Peter, but as we have seen in looking through this book, the encouragement that Peter is sending their way isn't really an easy solution or an easy out for what they are experiencing. Instead, the message of this book has been, you are experiencing persecution and you're going to have more. There is more coming down the pike. And what Peter has been doing here, he's been continually calling them to endure these hardships and to use those circumstances as a means of witnessing to the faithfulness of Jesus, to the people that they come in contact with. And while he speaks of the blessings that they will receive as faithful followers of Christ, this letter would likely be delivered in an envelope that would notify them that more difficulty is on the way, that more hardship is coming.

It wouldn't be an easy path, but they are going to experience continued hardship. So as we come to our passage from First Peter today, we're reminded that Peter isn't hiding this fact that they're going to experience suffering for Jesus. There's no fine print here in this letter, and he doesn't sugarcoat the situation either. Persecution and enduring suffering is something that. That they are facing, and they're going to have to face more of it. He tells them not to be surprised by the trials, and he lets them know that this isn't strange. It's actually a part of the Christian life. But we understand. Peter shows us here that this isn't without a purpose. He tells them how believers can face trials with joy and. And how we can wear the name of Christ boldly as we trust him with our lives, as we give our lives over to a God who does not fail his people. He equips and supports us as we have faith in the fires that we face. So as we turn to our passage today, we see Peter isn't mincing words at all here. He says that they should not be surprised by the fiery trial when it comes upon them.

He doesn't say that it's going to be a season of mild hardship or you'll have a few days of discomfort. His description here is fiery trial. Now, we try to soften everything, or we even try to make things fun. In our culture, if something is hard, we try to mask it, right? We are basically against anything that is moderately unpleasant. We try to make things fun that were never meant to be fun. You know, we kind of have a Mary Poppins philosophy and take the approach that a spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down. And if that doesn't work, add a few more cups of it. That's what we try to do. But Peter doesn't do that here, does he? He tells us straight out that they will face a fiery trial. And you have to honestly appreciate the bluntness he has. As much as we try to soften difficult things, when hard times come, we know there's no hiding things. When something isn't easy, we know it's often good to be able to see it coming, right? And Peter also lets them know here that it's going to be a test. This isn't something easy.

This is going to be challenging. It's going to require them to stand firm. But he also wants them to know that this isn't something unnatural. Or unusual. Now, suffering naturally causes you and I to assume that we're doing something wrong, that we're being punished for something that we've done. That's why we have hardship. We probably intellectually know that's not true. But let's be honest, that's kind of our default setting, isn't it? If something isn't going well, what did I do to deserve this? I must have done something. But Peter not only tells us that suffering for Christ is not something strange, he also tells us here that it is a reason to rejoice when believers experience persecution. He tells it, that tells us that we are sharing in the suffering of Jesus. And the idea here is that in the same way the world hated Jesus and crucified him, the world is also going to be opposed to those who follow Jesus and those who stand on his word. Those who follow a Savior who was persecuted by the world should not expect that things will always go well for them in that same world.

But as I said, Peter makes it clear that this is a cause for rejoicing. Our natural response to difficult times is to change things so that we don't experience hardship anymore. If the course is difficult, we want to change it. And that's why Christians are persecuted. They want you to change course. They want you to lack faithfulness. That's the whole point, to create compliance. But Peter doesn't tell us to comply. He tells us to rejoice. And this is not a natural way of thinking. But what Peter wants us to have here is a long view of the game. There is a purpose to this. Even though what we experience in the present may be difficult, one day the glory of Christ will be revealed. All the hardship, the tribulation, the persecution that those who trust in Christ experience, whether now, during this time, or anywhere through history, that is insignificant compared to the glory that will be revealed. What an amazing thought that is. God's glory is so great that all that is done to his people is overwhelmed by his glory. That's just amazing to think about all the hardship through history. It's wiped out by the glory of Christ.

And with that in mind, Peter pushes us to live as people who understand the fullness of. Of the blessings that we have in Jesus. So our natural way of thinking is to think of blessing in terms of worldly success. Right? When we make the statement that God has blessed us, what are we usually saying? That we have blessings in regards to? Friends, family, maybe financial success, Something like this. That's what the context in which we usually say that God has blessed us. And in our affluent culture, I think we really struggle to wrap our minds around the idea of what Peter is saying here. Imagine that someone takes everything you have and insults you because you're a Christian. The next time you're talking with a friend, you say, you know, I'm so blessed to be persecuted. We grasp what Peter is saying, but I don't think we can really take hold of that idea because we aren't in that situation. But Peter wants us to know that when we are insulted for the name of Jesus, the spirit of glory and of God rests upon his people. And we endure as those who are strengthened by God to persevere.

Persecution. And this is important for us to know. And like I just said, we struggle with this. I struggled this week with what to preach about this passage, because here I stand in front of you with the freedom to proclaim the gospel. I am so blessed by the freedoms that we have in our nation that I not only feel comfortable to come here and proclaim the gospel boldly to you, but we broadcast it out from here into the entire world. That is how great our freedom is. We don't even think about the idea that we're sending out a message that somewhere else people are persecuted for. We just come here and I proclaim it and we transmit it to the world. But it's not just me standing up here preaching that has to feel that. You got up like you do most Sunday mornings. Did it cross your mind that anyone might keep you from coming here? Was there any obstacle to your getting here this morning? There wasn't. Our greatest hardship is the fact that we might not want to get out of bed. I don't feel like getting ready this morning, or do I really want to drive all the way there?

My point is, I don't feel qualified at all to speak about persecution. And I'm guessing you feel the same way. For most of us, the closest we'll ever come to persecution is an unbeliever making a verbal dig at our faith. But at the same time, it's essential that we lay hold of what this passage and what really what the entire book of First Peter has been saying to us about faithful endurance and about clinging to the living hope that we have in Jesus. While great persecution may never come to us, we need to be persistent in holding fast to Christ each day. While we won't have a test of our faith today that will threaten our lives or our families, our faith is tested each and every day. Generally speaking, we see a test of Our faith as something big, right? Something that is out of the ordinary. But the truth is, today your faith will be tested in some way. Will you hold fast through the temptation that you face? Will we trust that the spirit of glory and of God rests upon us in the small things? Or will we give in? If we are going to endure the fiery trials, it starts by enduring the first flickers of tests in our everyday lives.

So as we see the influence of the Church in our day in decline in our culture, it isn't because we have the boot of the state or on our necks to silence us, is it? The loss of the influence of the Church has happened because of our complacency and our indifference. So may these words here from First Peter make us realize just how blessed we are that we might cling to the truth, that the spirit of glory and of God rests upon us, and that we would be aware that it's in the little things each day where we are tested. And may we endure. May we hold fast, as Peter is calling our first century brothers and sisters who are facing great persecution, as he was calling them, to endure. May we desire to endure in the small things. And this idea is made clear to us as the passage continues. And so there's actually a little bit of repetition that's happening here. There's. We've seen this idea before in First Peter. The idea that if you're doing something wrong and you experience hardship, well, you deserve it, right? If you're a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, a meddler, you have brought any hardship you face on yourself.

In other words, what Peter is saying here is don't think you're oppressed because you did something bad and you're being punished for it. You know, don't be like a little brother who pesters and annoys his older siblings all day and when he gets punched in the arm, runs to mom like he's an innocent little angel. Don't be that guy. If you suffer, you are to do so as one who holds fast to the faith, and you are to do so as one who is not ashamed and as one who glorifies God for having put his name on us. In other words, if someone identifies you as a follower of Jesus, bring glory to God for the fact that he has saved you and that you have the opportunity to witness to his saving work in your life. And this leads us to easily the most challenging statement in this passage, where it says that it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God. This drives home the idea that I was expressing earlier, all of this comes down to the trials and tests we have every day as the people of God. Will we hold fast to his word?

Will we give in to temptation to ignore his law? Our inclination is, is to worry about what is out there. That's natural. We do that. But that's not what Peter is saying. Peter here isn't telling us to ignore issues in the greater culture as if it doesn't matter. That's not what he's saying. That's not the point. The point he's making is similar to the sentiment that Jesus expresses when he says to remove the plank in your own eye before you worry about the speck in someone else's. When Peter tells us that judgment begins at the household of God, he isn't telling us to go around evaluating each other and condemning each other. That's not what he's saying. He's telling us to look at our hearts first. The world is going to be the world. The world is going to be hostile to the things of God. We are called to hold fast and to witness to the work of Christ and in that world and trust that God is the one who changed the hearts. That's how the process work. We are faithful. We witness to the Gospel. The Spirit brings people to faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and hearts are changed.

So our call is to faithful living and to faithful witness. And that is a difficult thing. It serves as a purification process. It strengthens our faith and it expands our witness. And the statement here by Peter at the verse of, at the end of verse 17 shows us the urgency of this, the urgency of our witness. If we are judged as the people of God, what is the outcome for those who reject the Gospel? You know, it's far too easy for us to just ignore the idea of God's judgment. We just brush it aside. But the judgment of God is a reality. And Peter makes it clear that the outcome for those who are outside of Christ is not good. He's not asking this question here at the end of verse 17 and quoting here from Proverbs 17 or Proverbs 11, verse 31, to bring us to despair. That's not what he's doing. Instead, he is reminding us of the urgency of holding fast to Christ in a world that's fading away. And so notice here in verse 19, he's not telling us to suck it up, to grit our teeth and hold on until it's over.

Instead, he tells us as believers, to entrust our souls to, to our faithful Creator and continue to serve him with good works. We lay our lives, our fears, our trials, and the daily tests of our faith at his feet. And we trust that he is faithful. And so we give everything to Him. This is how you prepare to endure the fiery trials? By entrusting ourselves to the One who is sovereign over all things. Our Creator is faithful to his people in anything that we might face. So instead of shrinking back or living in despair, what we do is we give ourselves to God because He is with us in the fire. And so we can be certain that we can endure with joy and we can be confident that he will be glorified by our living for him no matter what what we face. Like I mentioned earlier, we struggle with this general idea in an age of affluence and freedom. But I believe there is a vital challenge for us in this passage, because before we ever face a fiery trial, we come up against small sparks every day. And you know what these things are in your lives.

I'm guessing you have things in mind right now as I speak. It might be as simple as holding your tongue when you want to snap back at someone. It might be something such as opening your Bible instead of wasting your time on something else. Or it might be speaking the name of Jesus when you'd rather stay quiet instead of witnessing to his faithfulness. Those are the types of places where we are called to endure and to be faithful. Start there, endure there. Entrust your soul to your faithful Creator and do good. And you can be confident that he is preparing you through those things through His Word and Spirit to endure greater trials. So as you step into the world this week, be mindful of the opportunities that you have to grow by asking yourself this question, where is my faith being tested today? And ask that question confidently that God is equipping you to endure. He's not only strengthening you to do this, but he's also giving you the opportunity to opportunity to be a faithful witness to his saving grace. Life is not going to come at us with color coded envelopes to warn us of what's coming.

You're not going to get a pink one for an easy week or a red one for the fiery trial when it comes. But because we're in Christ, we don't need them. No matter what arrives. We have a Savior who is with us in the fire. And because we have been united to him in his death, resurrection, ascension, we know that we can endure and that we will endure until his glory is revealed. Amen. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we thank you for the gift of your Word and for the challenge that it offers to us. We pray that we would see our daily circumstances as an opportunity for faithful witness to you and like those that Peter wrote to in the first century, that we would know that we can be your witnesses through those things. Grant us the strength to endure in all things, and we pray that you would help us to have our faith built up that we might be ready to endure through the fiery trials as well. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website edgertonfrc.org.