1 Peter 4:1-6 | The Call to Arm Up

Sunday Morning | December 15, 2024 | Colby Flowers | Louisville, KY

This Sunday's speaker is our own student pastor, Colby Flowers. His sermon, "The Call to Arm Up" is taken out of 1 Peter 4:1-6.

Every believer is called to arm up with the attitude of Christ. The more we live a godly life, the more we will suffer. So we must be prepared to suffer by arming up with the mindset of Christ, resisting sin and setting our hope on the resurrection.

You can join us on Sunday mornings at 11 AM for worship. We are located at 8911 3rd Street Road, Louisville KY 40272.

Transcript

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Good morning. Church. How are we doing? It's great to be with you. My name is Colby Flowers. I'm the student pastor here at Valley View. And John gave me the opportunity to teach this morning, and I'm so looking forward to it. But if you can't hear to my voice yet, I am dealing with a little throat issue. But we're going to power through. So if you don't mind me, I may cough from time to time. I may pop in a cough drop, but I assure you I am ready to go. I'm excited about what God's Word has for us this morning, and we're going to be in First Peter chapter four. We're to look at six verses here in First Peter. And as we're approaching Christmas, we're hanging on to the first Peter. And, we're looking at this continuing theme and idea of suffering. And so we're going to be focused on these six verses this morning. And I'm so excited, looking forward to it. And I pray that your, your eyes and ears will be open to what God has for us this morning. In the year 1940, there is a war raging in Europe. Germany and the Nazi forces were pushing through various countries Luxembourg, Netherlands, and they're heading into France and all across Europe. Countries were having to make a decision. Are we going to avoid this conflict? Are we going to surrender to the enemy and let them take over all of our land and their territory, or are we going to stand and fight? And in May 1940, May 10th, 1940, Great Britain voted and elected Winston Churchill to be the Prime Minister, a very famous man and he would go on to help Great Britain stand to stand against the forces of evil in Germany and the Nazi Germany forces. And he gave a speech just nine days after he was elected in May 19th, 1940. And he has some famous words in there that I believe this morning should impact us and give us an idea of what the text is going to say this morning. I'm gonna throw these words up on the screen. But this is what he said to the nation in his first public speech in Great Britain. He says, arm yourselves and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict. For it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the will of God is in heaven. even so, let it be. So he comes, and he steadies and prepares his country that they are about to go to war because it's better to fight than it is to sit by and allow the enemy just to take over. But he says the word. There's two words. First, that I think are going to be very important for us this morning. He says, arm yourselves and want [you] to see in the text this morning that we are called as Christians, believers to arm ourselves. In fact, every believer should prepare to suffer by arming up with a Christ like attitude. And we may not want to hear this this morning, but the Bible promises that we're going to suffer. If you are a Christian and you're following Jesus throughout the span of time, no matter the era that we live in, we are going to suffer because we are following Jesus. And we're going to look at that this morning. But what the Bible teaches us is that we need to be prepared for this. And so we're going to look at this idea this morning that we need to be prepared by arming ourselves with the mind or attitude of Christ. And so what I've tried to do this morning is I've tried to normally when I go to read the Bible, I try to ask myself questions. It's how I read the Bible. I'll read the Bible. I'll ask some questions. What does this what is this saying? What is it saying about what I should do? And so I've got two questions for this morning that we're going to answer. Okay. Just to give us some context, just to help us understand where we're going this morning. So the first question is this why should Christians prepare to suffer if Jesus already suffered for us, why should we prepare to suffer? What would be the point if Jesus already suffered for us? Why do we also need to suffer as well? And why should we have to prepare for it? Second question is this what benefit is there to believe in Jesus if Christians still suffer and die? What's the point? What's the benefit, the advantage? The point of me believing in Jesus to follow Jesus, but then to suffer because of my faith and ultimately die? What's the benefit? The advantage. And Peter is writing to real Christians, real believers living in a time of persecution in which they were persecuted for their faith, as we're going to see. And he's trying to encourage them in these verses. And this is what he says in verse one. First Peter four verse one says this since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, here's our word, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now, just like every other passage that we look at in First Peter, it's hinging off what he was said before. Pastor John went over this last week, and he talked about how the pathway to victory, the pathway to exaltation, is suffering. The victory of Christ, to get there, he had to suffer. So what Peter is saying here is if if Christ suffered in the flesh, guess what? We should be prepared to suffer. If we follow Jesus, if we live the life that Jesus has called us to live, then we will suffer. But it's interesting. As we talked about, he uses this phrase arm yourselves. This is the only time in the New Testament that we get this word, to arm. It's got the root word of of tool or instrument or weapon, and you kind of get this picture of a military idea. There's connotation there that we are to arm up. And it's true this is not what the Christian life is. I mean, we see this all over the Bible that Christians are compared to being a warrior. Paul says in Ephesians five, the days are evil. Then in chapter six of Ephesians, Paul says, take up the whole armor of God and wield the sword of the spirit. Jesus even says that the way of righteousness, the path of righteousness, is narrow and difficult. He even informs his disciples. At one point in Luke 22, he says to them, go, sell your cloak, and metaphorically you need to go buy a sword. Get ready. Fighting! And the war is here and it's coming even stronger. So this idea that Christians should be sitting in our head that, listen, we are going to suffer for our faith. So. So Peter says, arm yourselves up with this same attitude, the same mindset of Jesus. So simply, believers must arm themselves with the attitude that they will suffer. Now, we might not like to hear that, but we do this in life, don't we? We prepare ourselves for difficult tasks. For instance, something simple. When you go to the gym, you got to prepare yourself that I'm going to go and be sore for a good. I want to get in shape, I want to, I want to get fit. And so I have to go through workout and running, and there's a little bit of suffering involved for me to get to that point. So we prepare ourselves mentally, we rack the weights up and we're ready to go, but we have to prepare ourselves. My wife just gave birth to our second child, our son. He's made it to the house today. I'm so excited that my wife came in, but, yes. He is a big baby. Okay? He was born 9 pounds and he has not gotten smaller. But my wife has said she has kind of admitted that I was more prepared for this delivery than I was with our first child. And that would make sense, because the first child, as you go through the first delivery, you know, you're kind of learning for yourself what's going to what's going to happen and what you have to do, the decisions you have to make. And this time around, Maggie admittedly said, you know, I was more prepared. I was mentally prepared, physically prepared. And despite the fact that our first daughter was 6 pounds and our son was 9 pounds, there's a lot more pain involved in the second delivery. But it was a less stressful experience for her because she was ready. She was prepared to suffer. And I think this is true for us that as Christians, we need to be prepared to suffer. Now the reality, we live in America, thankfully. Praise God, we live in a country where we can worship God freely. So suffering in the same way that the first century Christians probably doesn't happen very often. It's not normal. It's not normative for us to suffer in that way. But the reality is, the closer you get to Jesus, the more you're going to suffer. Look what Paul says in second Timothy three. He says, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And this is the way I kind of see that the more you live for Jesus, the more you live to spread the gospel, the more outward about your faith that you are, the more you're wanting to take down the domains of darkness, the more you're wanting to kill sin, the more you're wanting to stand for truth. The world is going to persecute you more. Now, I don't want to come off as saying, well, if you're not persecuted, you're not a Christian. That's not what I mean. But the truth is, the more you live out your faith and follow Jesus, the more you are going to be persecuted. So maybe it does say something about where you're adding following Jesus, because I believe some of us, even in America today, we want to do the bare minimum, right? When it comes to chores, I want to do the bare minimum. Do just enough. But we can also apply to our faith that I want to do the bare minimum of my faith, so long as I'm called a Christian and I can follow Jesus. But the more and closely you follow Christ, the more you're going to suffer. So part of what this means is, is preparing to suffer. And this is the best way to do it right here. Preparing your attitude daily should begin with Scripture and prayer. You need to saturate your mind and heart with God's Word. I highly encourage you if you don't have a Bible plan, if you don't have any of the scriptures, we've got some for you out here in the lobby. We want you in God's Word. We want God's Word in you to saturate your mind, your heart, with with Christ in His Word. Because then when you respond to things, the way you react to things, it will be according to Christ's word and not just simply out of emotion and out of desperation, but that you would respond even in adversity with God's Word. So this morning, if that. If you need a Bible, I highly encourage you to grab one. But if you do have one, get in the Word of God and get that Word of God in you. Amen. He also says in this first verse, in this last clause he says something interesting. So he says that we should arm ourselves up with this same way of thinking. And here's why. For whoever suffered in the flesh, that is, the body has ceased from sin. Now reading that you might think, are you saying, Peter, that if a person suffers they're perfect, that they that they're never going to sin again? Because looking at at face value, I mean, maybe that's what it means, but to pause and consider the context in what Peter's writing here is, he's writing to people who are suffering for their faith right now. But his point is this that if you are willing to resist sin to the point of suffering, it proves you've triumphed over it. It proves that you have won victory over sin. And I think we kind of see this when we see people deal with addictions. So my family has been long time smokers, my family growing up, we were smoke, they were smokers. And you can even apply this to any other addiction that you can see. But addictions like this are hard to break. But I noticed one family event that we went to had an uncle who was not going out with the herd of people outside to go and smoke cigarettes, and I noticed that I was kind of like, you know, what's going on? What are you in here for? And he said, well, I quit smoking. Awesome. But you know, how did you do it? He said, I just quit cold turkey. I stopped, had to do it. I want to go out there. But I know in myself I need to stop. And so props to him. But breaking that addiction, it shows and proves something in him that the addiction of cigarettes no longer has a hold on him. But for you and me, it's the same thing with sin. If you and I have broken off our relationship with sin when we're suffering for our faith, it's because we're not going into sin anymore. It's proof that we're not going in to sin. So Peter's encouraging them. Listen, if you are suffering for your faith, that's a good sign because you're no longer living in sin, because the world sees it and they're persecuting you for it. And as we're going to see Peter is going to encourage them. Because when you say no to sin, you're likely going to be persecuted for it. He says in verse two, he goes on and explains the result, what it looks like when we arm ourselves with this mind, this this attitude of Christ. He says. So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. In other words, when you have the attitude of Christ, it's going to help you pursue the will of God and not your old human passions. You're saying goodbye to the old you and yes, to the new person in Christ Jesus. But that requires a change in your mind, a change in your mindset. So my first point for this this morning is simple arm yourselves with the mind of Christ. Arm yourselves up. You have a change in your heart and your mind and your outlook. Because if you live for God, you will at some point deal with persecution and suffering. And the more you live for God, the more you're going to be experiencing suffering. So when you have the mind of Christ, the beautiful part about this is that you will live for God's will and not your own human passions. You look at this text in Philippians two. This is talking about Jesus. It's likely one of the first hymns of the church, and it's describing Jesus as having this attitude, this mindset that he was humbled to the point of death, even death on the cross, that he was willing to suffer the greatest persecution for us. And we too need to have that mindset that I'm willing to suffer so much that I will say no to sin. I'm not going back because here's the danger. We live in a culture that not want, not merely wants you to join in them with their sin. They want you to celebrate it. Look at this in verse three. For the time that is past suffices. That is the past. That's enough. We've lived enough in the past for doing what the Gentiles want to do living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Peter here is pointing out this lifestyle that they used to live in. These are people who were once Gentiles, once unbelievers, and then they stepped out of that lifestyle and started following Jesus. And so Peter's saying, listen, that was your old lifestyle. In fact, that was the normal lifestyle of the first century world. But I'll ask you this morning, do you see much of a difference between that and what we see today? You know, we don't get a lot of glimpses into into these types of things. But just because the news typically sometimes wants to hide it, or people are so good at being deceptive and covering things like this up. But but we see little glimpses of this, for instance, in like, the Jeffrey Epstein stuff or the Sean Combs that with the rapper, the P Diddy that how all this stuff that was going on. I'm not going to go into those details, but we get a glimpse into this, these things that are happening in our world and we say, well, that's really not around me. You sure? The reality is, is this is our culture and it remains. And these Christians were called out of that lifestyle and to follow Jesus. And so the temptation is, is, is to pursue sin and to go back into it. So listen this morning, temptation to pursue sin, it can come from your passions in you, but it can also come from your peers. There is an internal pull from you, but there's also an external pull. The old self still remains, as the Bible talks about. But there is this external peer pressure that wants to pull us back into the mainstream. Look at this in verse four. He says, with respect to this lifestyle that you just mentioned the world, they are surprised when you do not join them. They're surprised. And he uses a couple words here. He says in the same flood of debauchery. Interesting. This word flood has this connotation of and picture of being a wide stream. We might use the term mainstream, but it's this picture here that people were jumping into the wide stream of culture and just going with the flow. And when Christians left that lifestyle, left that lifestyle, and stopped living in sin, the culture was like, what? What? Why would you do that? This is the best lifestyle. You get the most pleasure. You don't have a lot of commitments. You be unrestrained, you can do what you want. And so they’re surprised and even today, when when Christians truly live out their faith, the world surprised, like, why would you not want this part of your life? And I can even speak to our teenagers, you know, being a student pastor, I have to keep up with all the things that they're going through. But social media is this huge influence on our teenagers lives to push them into a lifestyle that's anti-God, anti God's word and it's end of the world. And I'm thankful that we have so many people that are praying for our students. But it's for all of us. We are all tempted on the outside by our peers and by our culture to jump into this wide main stream of sin, because what we what we've grown up doing that we've kind of become numb to, or we think that is okay. In reality, it may not be okay. The things that we watch. The things that we view online, the way that we talk, the things that we think those aren't really that bad. It's not that big of a deal. But if you look at God's Word, maybe they are, that maybe we have a little bit more world in us than we think. But what Peter's trying to express here is, listen, you used to be a part of that life, and when you don't join them, they are surprised. In the final two words of that verse that says they malign you, they blaspheme you, they they slander you, they talk down you, they talk bad about you. And that's what we live in. In a world today when there's cancel, cancel culture all over the place, if you don't live up a certain way, we're going to cancel. You want to speak out against you, want to destroy you. But this is why Peter has been dealing with this all throughout the book of First Peter. He says in chapter one, verse 13, prepare your minds for action. Be ready. But for the first century Christians, they had it really hard. There's this man named Tacitus. He was a Roman historian and politician, and he has some interesting writings about this time. And we get a lot of picks, a lot of information about the early church and in fact, Jesus from this unbeliever. And as he was writing during the first century, I want to put this up as a picture of what the early Christians struggle with. This is Tacitus writing in the first century, he said. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Now the spelling there is a little bit different, but he's writing in light of rumors and what he's hearing. But at the time, there is this huge fire in Rome, and so the Emperor Nero, what he did is he blames the Christians, he puts the Christians and basically elevates them to being the people who did it. Now legend has it that it was actually Nero that started the fire. But he goes on here, Tacitus says accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty. Then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted. Tons of Christians were convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, but here was their crime as of hatred against mankind. Nero tried Christians as people who hated mankind. Do we not see that today? You don't accept me the way that I am. You must hate me. You're telling me something's wrong in my life. You must hate me. You are hatred of you. You hate mankind. You don't let this happen. You hate mankind. You're hypocrites. We hear this all the time and it's been going since day one. But what's even scarier? Look what he continues to say. I know this is a long quote, but this is so helpful in our understanding of what Peter's dealing with. He says. Tacitus says mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. So he mocked. They mocked them as they killed them. They covered with the skins of beasts. They were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as nightly illumination. When daylight had expired. Why? Is it because they set fire to the city? No. It's because they hated mankind. No, it's because they weren't going along with the world. And when you and I don't go with the flow of the main stream. Listen, you're going to be persecuted. So the world can tolerate Christians so long as they go with the flow, with the mainstream. But as soon as we start following Jesus, truly following Jesus and living our life with passion and with a purpose for Christ, the world is going to notice. That's why I'm thankful for the book of First Peter, written to Christians who were in a place in a time, in a season, in a culture where they were strangers, exiles, as Peter calls them. But here's what he says keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil of you, when they malign you, when they blaspheming you, they may see your good works, and they may glorify God on the day of visitation, that through our suffering we can actually lead people to the gospel and to Christ, because we have suffered. So here's your second point this morning. Arm yourselves with a holy resistance to sin. Don't give in. Don't go back. Don't allow those human passions, those old desires, that old you, to come back and take a foothold. Christian, stand firm, resist. Don't run back to sin. Continue with Christ. Follow his will for your life, not the human passions, but the will of God. And even though you suffer, it may lead to someone coming to know Jesus. And at the end of the day, eternity is in is in view here. Not the momentary affliction that we may we might experience, but by you living a life committed to the gospel, committed to God, not going back. You may suffer now, but you may lead someone else to Christ. I pray that that is our attitude. That is the attitude Christ had. That's why we arm ourselves up with this. I pray that that is you this morning. So our last two verses, Peter wants to give some hope here. He says in verse five, but they are the persecutors, the unbelievers who are persecuting you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. See, normally we don't talk about judgment as a good thing, but Peter here is giving his believers a hope of judgment, saying, listen, the judgment is coming, and it is a good thing. Peter says one day, these people who are persecuting you, they will stand before God, whether they have already died or they're alive today, the living and the dead, that they will give an account for their life and they will have to answer to God. And so for us as Christians to to hold off on getting our revenge is difficult. When you're in the workplace. And you're being persecuted or you're being singled out, it is hard not to respond and answer back. Is it not? When you have that family member who you may have interacted at Thanksgiving and you know who's coming to Christmas, and you know you all don't share the same views, and, you know, if you speak with the gospel and you speak about Christ, that it's going to create an argument maligning, it's hard not to respond with anger. But look at this in Romans 12. This might help you in this season, beloved, never avenge yourselves. What? Never, never avenge, never pay back, never get retribution. No. He says, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. He also says this to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, what do you do? Feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. What would your workplace relationships look like if this was your response, what would your family time at Christmas look like if this was your response? What would this look like on social media? That when you were persecuted for following and loving Jesus and to reach the lost with the gospel and you got persecuted for that, that you responded instead with love, truth and grace. Now, this is not to throw everything out and just say we become a human doormat. That's not what this means. What this means is that you defend the truth, but you do it with loving grace because you're looking to this person's eternity, not the current argument that you're having. In this, but I want to make this point to them believers should not surrender to temptation or their persecutors, because here's the reality as Peter is trying to explain to them, it's because God will have the last word. What that person says to you at work, that's not going to be the last word. What that person is saying about you or to you on social media won't be the last word. What that thing that family member has said to you in the past or continues to say about you, that won't be the last word. But what we want to pray for is that person that come to know Jesus. So we get to be with them in glory on the day of visitation. Last verse this morning. This is likely the the hardest one to interpret. There's been some difference of interpretation on this verse, but it says for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit, the way God does. So Peter, at the end of here, he's still pointing to the end times, and he's trying to explain to these Christians the reason why the gospel was preached to these people who he's called dead is because they one day can stand before God in salvation, in eternity. That's why the gospel preached. But we need to consider what does he mean here by preached even to those who are dead? I'm here to go through all the the ideas here, but a couple of them will help us understand. Some people understand this to be this. The idea of dead is spiritually dead people. There's people who are alive but are spiritually dead on the inside. I mean, they don't know Jesus. They don't, they haven’t obeyed the gospel. But in this context, it really kind of doesn't make sense because Peter's using the word alive and dead to me, literally here, some people take it to this to mean as that Peter is saying, we can preach to people who have already died, they've gone on and we can go through some type of medium, or we can pray to God and preach the gospel to people who have already died, and they might hear it. They might believe it as a second chance. Some people, some, Catholics, hold the view of purgatory, and so they might see this as connecting with it. That purgatory, you get a second chance to pay off your sins and penance, and then eventually you can get to heaven. But that also doesn't stand with Scripture, because Scripture is clear that this life matters, your decisions and your choosing. And following Jesus on this life matters. And there's a great chasm between us and heaven, so there's not really a communication that we can preach the gospel to people who are dead. But here's what I think it means for us this morning. Peter's talking about Christians who have already died, that is, believers who have accepted Christ, but since believing they have died, because here's what they were hearing in the first century. Christians, you believe in Jesus, but you still suffer and die. What's the point? Why would you believe in Jesus if you still have to suffer and you still have to die? What advantage? What benefit is there? And this is what Peter would say, that even though they have died and they're judged in the flesh the way that people are, they will live in the spirit the way God does. So two things I want us to say this morning. How you respond to the gospel in this life is eternally important, eternally important. This is not some meantime. We can live in the meantime, and then at later on, I can decide to follow Jesus after I'm gone. Don't fall for that lie. Your decision to follow Jesus now in this life is eternally important. Second thing, even though believers will die, death does not have the last word Church. You and I can have confidence in a God who raised Jesus from the dead, that he was the first fruits. And we are going to come after that. All those who believe in Jesus one day will also be raised from the dead. Not just some metaphorical idea, but we will rise from the dead just like Christ did, and we will be with him in eternity. So you know what the hope is for you and I? That even though we suffer in this life, we know resurrection is coming. So last point this morning, arm yourselves with the hope of resurrection. Have this truth in your mind always, so that when you are suffering, when life is hard, when things are tough, you can always hold to this reality that one day I'm not going to have to deal with these issues and problems and pain and suffering anymore, because I will be raised with Christ forever. So my challenge for us this morning is do you daily arm yourselves with the attitude of Christ? Is that your mindset during the day? Are you prepared to suffer for following Jesus? Are you armed with a holy resistance to sin? And do you keep the resurrection, the hope of the resurrection in front of you at all times? And friends, I have to come back to this same idea. This is important. It starts with getting in your word and saturating your mind with his truth. If you are seeking to go through life without his word and without leaning on him in prayer, it's going to be very, very difficult. That's why we have a community of faith. That's why we have God's Word. God has given you every weapon tool in your arsenal to fight back the darkness and to handle the suffering. I pray that you would use that in this morning for you. Maybe some of you this morning you need to come to Jesus for the first time, that the hope of the resurrection needs to be a reality for you. Now. And if that's you, you don't leave here without talking to somebody. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth of the gospel. God, we know that suffering in this life is inevitable for Christians. And we should not be surprised by it. But God, we also we cannot cave to the temptation. We cannot cave to the peer pressure and the the cancel culture of of all the things that are going on around us to go back into that lifestyle that you've called us out from, because in Christ we have died to sin, and now we live for you. God, I pray for every believer in this room right now that you would give them every tool and weapon to arm themselves up with the attitude of Christ, to arm them up with a holy resistance to sin, and that you would arm them up with the hope of resurrection, that today, whatever they might be going through, whatever potential suffering they might encounter, they can always fall back on the truth that you have already conquered death, and that you will not allow our enemies to have the last word. We pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.