1 Peter 4:1-6
Suffering with Christ, Waiting for Judgment

It is Saturday night in Asia Minor, 68 A.D. The first day of Spring. Your friends are going to the temple to drink themselves silly at the festival of Dionysius, god of. In their state of drunkenness they will find a temple prostitute and spend the night with her, awakening the next morning in a pool of dried vomit, unable to remember the previous evening or to find their clothes and wallets. These are the original frat boys in a toga party to end all toga parties.

All the men of the city are bringing their wives for a wife-swapping orgy (except the few troublemaking women who refuse to honor the god by participating.)

They have given their slaves the day off so that they too may dance before Dionysius and call his spirit of madness down upon themselves, forgetting for one night their subjugated condition. But again, a few subversive slaves here and there refuse. They have to get up early the next morning, they say.

And there you are, less than three months after your baptism being invited, cajoled, teased, ridiculed, mocked and slandered as you steadfastly maintain your allegiance to one and only one God. You not only decline the invitation, you let your friends know you believe their drunken orgy is wicked and invites the judgment of that one true God. Your baptism represents your passage through that judgment, you say; you have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and called to a higher standard. The only religious wine you'll be drinking is tomorrow morning in the Lord's Supper while they're sleeping off their hangovers.

They go away, grumbling among themselves, plotting to hand you over to the civil government as an atheist, one who doesn't believe in the gods. Your views are clearly troublesome to society and must be suppressed. Perhaps if they turn informer, they will be awarded a portion of your confiscated property. Or maybe they'll just confiscate it themselves. You don't have the political clout to bring the case to trial; and even if you can, what judge will be sympathetic to your seditious views? They'll just tell him about your cannibalistic blood-drinking, flesh-eating rituals.

You're intimidated. You feel alone. The power of God seems far off while the power of the Roman government breathes down your neck. Will Christ really return in judgment? Your friends laugh at the thought. Look at the Christians who've already died, they say. It's too late for them. And soon it will be too late for you.

This is the plight of those to whom Peter writes urging them to continue in doing good. He promises suffering, the judgment of all mankind, and the resurrection of the dead. And now, almost 2000 years later, these saints sit in heaven with Christ, a vast cloud of witnesses bearing testimony to the truth of God's word. They have put their trust in him and have not been put to shame. They must wait only a little while longer for their final vindication, the resurrection of their bodies.... They wait while this message comes to you as well. As Peter testified to them, so they with Peter testify to you that God is faithful. So put behind you all deeds of the flesh and press on toward Christ.

1. Have the mind of Christ who suffered and finished with sin
   1. Arm yourselves with the mind of Christ
      1. Christ has already suffered in the flesh
         1. The words "for us" in KJV/NKJV are not in the more reliable mss and should be omitted.
         2. And this suffering was so severe it resulted in death (3:18)
            1. Peter swoops back from Christ's resurrection, ascension and sitting down with power to deal with the death once again
            2. But he does it so he can bring believers through that cycle to a clearer statement of the hope of their own resurrection.
         3. No one can suffer more ridicule than Christ suffered.
         4. No one can in his body bear more pain and agony
         5. No injustice is greater than this one
      2. So take on this "mind" or "thought" or intention
         1. Christ is again held up as the perfect example.
            1. He was the Stone that the builders rejected (2:6ff)
            2. He was the one who suffered while doing good (2:21ff) and thus Peter says we are called to follow in his footsteps (2:21)
            3. He is the one who suffered for sins, the just for the unjust (3:18) in the thought that Peter now resumes.
         2. The early church Father Origen took advice such as this quite seriously and deliberately sought death at age 17. He hoped to be put to death by unbelievers and so become a martyr. His mother restrained him.
         3. And this is not Peter's idea.
            1. They don't have to go looking for trouble
            2. The trouble has come to them.
            3. So Peter says remember that Christ suffered and therefore so will you.
      3. Arm yourselves with it
         1. A deliberate military metaphor
         2. He's about to speak of the scorn and blasphemy of the Gentiles, but he wants to give these believers protection first
            1. After all, it is tempting in the face of open unbelief to begin to doubt
               • Where is your God? Why doesn't he come?
               • You say he's coming in judgment? Oooooo, we're scared!
            2. And it is tempting in the face of open persecution to wonder if God is really on your side.
               • How can he permit such things?
               • Is he powerless to stop them or does he just not love you?
         3. What armor can stop these missiles from reaching your heart and turning you from your Lord and Savior?
         4. Simply this: Christ also suffered
            1. They taunted him before and on the cross
               • They dressed him up in royal robes, blindfolded him and cried "Prophesy! Who hit you?" mocking Christ the prophet and Christ the king in a single hideous game.
               • "He saved others let him save himself."
               • "He trusted in God. Let God deliver him since he delights in him so much"
            2. They tore into his flesh with whips, pressed thorns into his head, drove nails through his hands and feet, and hung him on a cross.
         5. Did God falter for one moment in his love for his eternal son?
         6. Did the judgment of men reflect the judgment of God? No! Christ was a righteous man, unjustly punished. The judgment of God came on the third day when Christ rose again from the dead.
         7. Arm yourselves with this as the attack of the unbeliever comes against you.
            1. Christ suffered though God loved him
            2. Your suffering now causes you to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
            3. No scorn, no suffering, no death itself can separate you from the love of God in Christ.
   2. Because he suffered and is through with sin
      1. Don't be fooled by the medieval ascetics
         1. They thought this meant that bodily suffering would somehow purge them of sin
         2. So they walked around, shirtless, whipping themselves on their backs until the blood ran down in streams
         3. But the Holy Spirit isn't giving you some strange philosophy that says "anyone who suffers, ceases from sin." The suffering is in the past tense.
      2. "He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" refers first of all to Christ.
         1. He has not "ceased from sin" in the sense that he used to sin and now he doesn't
         2. He has finished with sin. He's done dealing with it.
            1. Heb 9.28 "so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."
            2. So Peter himself notes Christ suffered once for sin (3:18). He's done now.
   3. Therefore you also have died to sin in him
      1. Remember last week's glorious truth
         1. You have a good conscience before God because of the resurrection of Christ (3:21)
         2. God vindicated Christ and thus he vindicated you
         3. This mystery of Union with Christ is crucial to the Christian life
      2. So not only his resurrection affects you by granting you a good conscience
      3. Prior to that the death affects you so that sin no longer has any more power over you than it does over a dead man. Christ, in his suffering and death, finished with sin for you as well by taking you out from under sin's dominion.
      4. Ro 6.6,7 "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin."
      5. Believe it!
2. He did this so we would live for the will of God not men
   1. So the rest of your life belongs to the will of God
      1. This phrase "will of God" also occurs in 2.15, 3.17, 4.19, each time emphasizing that suffering is (or at least may be) the will of God
      2. But here, Peter simply means "the things God wishes you to do" (in contrast to the things the Gentiles want you to do.
      3. The "rest of your life" belongs to him
         1. Note the great divide. You were one thing and now you are another.
         2. When did the change take place? At baptism when you were baptised into the death of Christ.
         3. This is what baptism means: That your time of serving sin is past. You have a new master now
      4. Even though it's life "in the flesh"
         1. almost ironic
         2. You've been put to death in the flesh (through Christ)
         3. Yet you must still live in it until your own death.
         4. But don't live as one in the flesh but by faith in the Son of God.
      5. You find yourself tempted to sin and you say, "This is not why Christ died for me."
         1. Indeed, our sin denies the death of Christ
         2. It says, I have not really died to sin. Sin still controls me.
         3. Forsake those sins and follow after the will of God in pursuing the love of the brethren and contentment with your lot in life.
   2. You've spent enough time pursuing the desires of the "Gentiles"
      1. Note use of "Gentiles" to mean unbelievers.
      2. Again ironic: You've spent more than enough time.
      3. Those to whom Peter writes shudder at the memory of what they've done. Who could want to go back to that?
      4. Those to whom Peter writes had gone to those quasi-religious drunken orgies.
         1. they lived in sexual immoralities and lusts of every sort
         2. They were gluttons, drunkards, and carousers
         3. They confessed by their wanton appeasement of every bodily desire they had that their mortal flesh was the most important thing to them.
         4. They had no thought of their souls nor hope of the resurrection of their bodies.
      5. And you, converted as adults, shudder as well.
      6. And you children, how blessed by God you are that you cannot remember a time before your baptism. You've sinned, but you don't have lots and lots of sins to remember and be ashamed of and wish you'd never done them. Even the time you have had to run in sin — none at all — is "enough". You don't need any more.
      7. This is not the will of God but the plan of the Gentiles
         1. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die
         2. Who has a better plan for you?
      8. And all this was lawless idolatry as they worshiped their flesh and false gods as well.
      9. Whatever the world entices you with, it can't offer you eternal life
         1. It hasn't saved you; Christ saved you from it. You owe the Gentiles nothing
         2. Remember the abhorrence of your own sins and put them behind you
         3. This is not what God saved you for.
   3. And they are surprised and irritated that you've stopped
      1. They can't understand why you wouldn't feed the desires of your flesh in every conceivable way; the flesh is all there is.
      2. But to you it's a "flood of dissipation"; It's like Noah stepping off the ark back into the judgment waters — you have no incentive.
      3. This flood is sweeping them away and longs to sweep you away as well. Stand firm and believe what the Spirit tells you: The will of God is that you should not sin. And he will bring it to pass.
      4. They even blaspheme
         1. They slander you
            1. You're so judgmental
            2. You're a hypocrite (all X-ians are; that's why I don't attend church)
            3. You must not be a normal red-blooded male; are you a little light in the loafers?
         2. And they blaspheme God
            1. When is he coming? (People have been saying he's coming back for almost 2000 years now)
            2. Why does he let such bad things happen to you?
            3. Look at all the X-ians who've died
3. There will be a Judgment Day for everyone
   1. The "Gentiles" will give an account to Christ the Judge
      1. The very ones who asked you to give an account (3.15) will one day stand before Christ and account for their misdeeds and slander and blasphemy.
      2. Live your life according to the will of God as one who is aware that this day is coming.
      3. He is "ready"; he really might come at any moment — like a thief in the night.
   2. This is why Christ was preached even to the dead
      1. In light of Judgment day, the gospel is certainly necessary.
      2. But "to the dead"?
         1. Is this those "spirits in prison again?" Yes and no.
         2. It's them, but it's everyone else too.
         3. And in fact, Peter has in mind primarily those who accepted the gospel.
      3. Here's what's going on: The early church didn't know how long Christ would delay. Many expected to remain alive until he came. As they began to die, the faith of the survivors was shaken. Death seems so final, so irrevocable.
   3. Human judgments will be reversed before the Court of Christ
      1. According to men, they've been judged in the flesh
         1. Just as Jesus was judged in the flesh
         2. I.e. in the eyes of men, our judgment has taken place when we die.
         3. Death speaks against all our talk of eternal life.
         4. How can we claim to be free from the curse of sin when its ultimate curse comes down on us just as on them?
      2. According to God, you will be made alive in the spirit
         1. Just as Jesus was
         2. I.e. in the eyes of God, their will be a resurrection
         3. Though you are dead yet will you live. And whoever lives and believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.

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