What Does It Cost to Follow Christ

SCRIPTURE READING

If you would stand with me for the reading of God's Word from 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning in verse 12 this morning to the end of the chapter.

Hear now the holy and infallible word of God. 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. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 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?

And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever. You may be seated.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

We mentioned and we've noted a couple of times that as we've been studying through the book of 1 Peter, that there came a shift in chapter 2 verse 12 where the apostle was beginning a practical application. He's been spelling it through many different avenues of life, that you as a Christian live as one with a living hope because Christ is raised from the dead.

It changes how you're a citizen. It changes how, if you're a master or a slave, that you live. It changes how your marriage actually looks. And one of the things he's most centrally writing this letter to these elect exiles to say is it changes even the way that you suffer. We haven't been able to make it more than a week as we've been studying 1 Peter without seeing suffering, and also the beautiful reminders of Christ's suffering.

Here's the moment in the book where Peter's gonna really turn our attention to something he's continuously mentioned with suffering throughout the book, throughout his letter, that now today we look at it particularly, of what does it cost to follow Christ in this suffering? Christ gives us forgiveness of our sins.

He gives us peace with God, a place amongst his people, a hope that is everlasting, and there is no greater treasure than knowing him. Peter's called it an imperishable treasure, an inheritance that is stored for you and protected by God. But the reality is, following Christ is not always easy. What does it look like to follow Christ when it might cost something?

It may cost approval of people whose opinions matter to you. It may cost opportunities that you maybe otherwise would have had. It may cost friendships, professional advancement, or even just comfort. Sometimes the cost is more severe: rejection, hostility, or even physical suffering. We don't always like to talk about it.

We would rather speak about all the blessings of the Christian life, and I think rightly so. But Peter writing to comfort this church, to remind them of the good news of the gospel, is saying that the suffering might happen. These Christians are experiencing hostility, and he doesn't want the church to be surprised when following Jesus might have suffering, when following Jesus might cost something.

Peter wants the church to understand what is happening and how they respond when following Christ costs something. He's writing to Christians who are trying to live faithfully in a world that does not share their allegiance to Christ. The church needs to understand that the cost of following Jesus must be considered in light of the glory that awaits.

So what does it cost to follow Christ? We're gonna consider three things in our passage this morning. This is outlined for you on page 22 in your bulletin. First, we're gonna see that you may suffer for His name. Second, that you must refuse the world's shame. And third, you must entrust your life to God. Peter begins in verse 12 in this section.

YOU MAY SUFFER FOR HIS NAME

Let me read it, verse 12 again for you. He says, "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." He begins first, "Beloved. Beloved." He's speaking pastorally to a people who are suffering. He doesn't minimize their pain or tell them that faithful Christians just don't struggle.

He reminds them of this reality that they're loved, and he tells them not to be surprised. Now, why would they be surprised? Perhaps they had assumed in some way that because they belonged to Christ, that life was simply just gonna be easier, that it was gonna be more convenient. They had come to know the love of God, the forgiveness of sins, the fellowship of the church.

Why then are they being treated with hostility? I think we can hear this similar expectation sometimes. We know that the Christian life involves taking up our cross, but we can still be caught off guard when the cross becomes uncomfortable. We may expect that if we try to live faithfully, people will recognize our sincerity, they'll respect our convictions, and maybe even decide to just leave us alone.

But Peter says that suffering for Christ is not something strange, that it belongs to the ordinary experience of the church in a world that's in rebellion. He calls it a fiery trial, the image of an intense heat, like a fire used to test and refine. The trial reveals, it tests the genuineness of faith. It brings what is in us to the surface.

It exposes our fears and the weaknesses, and it teaches us more and more to depend on God. This is not strange to you, Church. That doesn't mean that suffering is pleasant. It doesn't mean that we need to pretend that suffering, that fiery trials don't sometimes hurt, nor does it mean that every hardship is persecution.

A serious illness, a financial setback, the death of someone we love, these all can be painful trials. But Peter is particularly addressing the suffering that comes because you belong to Christ, because you are a Christian. There's a difference between suffering because we follow Jesus and suffering because we behaved foolishly.

There's a difference there. If you lose a friendship because you refuse to participate in something sinful, you are suffering for Christ. If you lose a friendship because you are rude, you never call them back, you always leave them on read, you might have lost that friend just because you were being a bad friend.

If your employer treats you unfairly because you refuse to violate the Sabbath, you are suffering for righteousness. If your employer disciplines you because you are lazy, taking naps at your desk, that's a different story. You are not suffering for righteousness. Matter of fact, you might be a little bit lazy then. We need to be honest about the difference.

Otherwise, we can use the language of persecution to excuse even sin, like being a lazy worker. But when you suffer precisely because you belong to Jesus, Peter says, "Don't regard it as something strange." Jesus even tells the disciples that they will suffer for bearing His name. You're experiencing something you were told to expect.

You can't act like it was then strange. Peter goes on in verse 13 and he says, "But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed." How can Peter tell suffering Christians to rejoice? If you called me or I called you and said, "Hey, I'm really suffering," and you said, "Rejoice," you probably wouldn't be the friend that I'd call the next time I'm suffering.

Peter's telling them to not enjoy pain or to deny their grief, but he's saying that Christian joy does not require us to pretend that evil is good or that suffering doesn't matter. Rather, Peter is telling us to see our suffering in relation to Christ, Christian suffering in relation to Christ who is our king.

We share in Christ's suffering, not in the sense that we contribute to His atoning work in any way. Christ's sacrifice for sin is once and for all and complete. There's nothing we can do to add to Christ's suffering, to His humiliation as we confessed this morning in our affirmation of faith. Rather, we share in the pattern of His life.

The world rejected Him, and it may reject those who belong to Him. It is a sharing in Christ's humiliation as you bear His name. Jesus was faithful to His Father, yet He was mocked, He was misunderstood, He was falsely accused and crucified. If we belong to Him, we should not assume that we will be treated better than our own master was treated.

You are not entitled to somehow more benefits than the one who made all things. But there's also another side to this. Peter says that we rejoice in sharing Christ's sufferings because we will also rejoice when His glory is revealed. The suffering is temporary. The glory is coming. Whatever following Christ costs you in this life, it will be worth it.

And it's not to say go out and try to seek suffering. We see this in the patristic period of the church, the patristic being the fathers, where you had many going out and actually seeking martyrdom, seeking joining in the sufferings of Christ. I believe even as we read this passage in Peter that the apostle Peter would've called them fools of not going out and seeking persecution for persecution's sake.

There's a foolishness there. In the same way, this partaking of the suffering in the medieval period of the church, we saw what was called self-flagellation, of people actually having things to cut their legs as they walked. Think monastic monks. "Oh, I need to suffer." Both of these are wrong. The patristic's temptation towards martyrdom and seeking out martyrdom was, "I wanna do anything."

Well, you live for Him. In the medieval period, "Oh, let me punish my flesh. Let me bleed as Christ bled. Let me wound myself with this self-flagellation." Why? "'Cause then I might atone for my sin." You're not the atoner of your sin. Your blood cannot atone. Only the spotless lamb, Jesus Christ, can atone.

But whatever the Lord calls you to, whatever lot He gives you in life, whatever it might cost you to follow Christ, I can guarantee you it will be worth it. It might be hard, it might be difficult, but I truly believe you will never regret anything you do in this life for Jesus Christ. No Christian will stand in the presence of Christ, our King, see Christ's glory, and look back on the suffering that they might have had in life and go, "I don't know if it was worth it."

It's just not going to happen. When His glory is revealed, and that's where Peter draws their attention, that no one will regret having been faithful to Christ. No one will wish that he had compromised a little bit more, concealed their faith longer, or chosen the world's approval instead. We may struggle to see that now.

There might be hard and difficult days, and in the middle of suffering it can feel overwhelming. We can wonder whether faithfulness is worth the cost, whether obedience is worth rejection, whether standing firm is worth the trouble. But Peter directs our eyes to the day when Christ's glory is revealed.

On that day, we will see clearly what we can only grasp by faith now, that the suffering was temporary and that following Christ was worth it, and the glory He has prepared for His people far surpasses anything you might endure here and now. Christians can endure suffering and rejection because they know that the world's verdict is not the final verdict.

The people who mock Christ now will not determine what is true about Him. They will not pass judgment when He returns in glory. Think about how much influence that somebody's opinion can have over your day. Perhaps you got dressed this morning and your spouse went, "Oh, you're wearing that?" You might turn and go change.

A small little opinion. Now, that's a small and trivial one, and Christina didn't say anything bad about my tie. But it's a small and trivial one, and that opinion can change the course of your day. You having no intention to change, you might turn and change. A critical comment can stay with you for days, weeks, months.

You might replay a conversation wondering what someone thinks of you. You might be tempted to change what you say or how you act just to avoid being strange, just to fit in and be normal. Peter is asking for you to lift your eyes beyond the immediate pressure. The approval that you crave from people is temporary, but the glory of Christ is eternal, and that changes how we live when we say there's a cost to following Christ.

We don't have to secure everyone's approval. You're not a politician trying to get your approval rating up. You belong to him. Verse 14 makes the statement, "If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." Peter says that when you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are actually blessed.

If you're like me, maybe you thought of in the Book of Numbers where Balaam, the prophet, goes and tries to curse Israel, overlooking their camp, and instead blesses them. Here's something intended for blessing or for cursing, and instead it is blessing. A pattern that we see throughout the Old Testament.

The world may regard you as foolish, might regard you as outdated, backwards, out of step with the times. It may assume that because of your Christian convictions you are less intelligent, that you are less compassionate, that you are less worthy of respect, but the world's judgment is not God's judgment.

If you are insulted for Christ's name, the spirit of glory of God rests upon you. The very thing that makes you appear shameful in the eyes of the world is not shameful in the eyes of God. His spirit is with you. This should encourage us, but it should also lead us to examine ourselves. I wonder, dear Christian, if you've ever concealed your faith because you were afraid of what somebody might think.

Have you avoided mentioning that you are a Christian, that you belong to Christ because you were worried the conversation might feel awkward? Have you stayed quiet when somebody misrepresented Christ your King because you thought that it would be easier just not to get involved? "Oh, I don't know them that well."

"Oh, you know, that's just their opinion, man." We should not turn every conversation into an argument, but Peter is calling us to not simply remain silent. There's a difference between being gracious and being ashamed. And when we think about Peter writing this letter, how could you not think of Peter in the Gospels?

"Before the rooster crows three times, you will deny me." Peter is an apostle who knows something about shame, about denying Christ. He's not writing from some sort of moral, high, holy hill. "Oh, I would never do it."

He denies him three times. And what do we see at the end of the Gospel of John but Christ's gentle calling him back? And it's a call to repentance. I'm underlining that it's gentle, breakfast on a beach with the risen king. But there is a repentance there in calling him back. "Do you love me?"

If the only way to maintain the approval of people around us is to keep our allegiance to Christ hidden, instead we're seeking their approval more than the glory of God. We're saying the cost of following Christ is too great. You may not be called to suffer dramatically in the Lord's providence. You may never face imprisonment or physical violence for your faith, but you may have to bear the cost of being known as a Christian. The awkward conversation, a loss of approval, the refusal of somebody for you to participate, or the willingness to be misunderstood rather than to deny what is true.

Do you know that Galilean? Following Christ may lose you the approval of others, but if you suffer for His name, you are not abandoned. You belong to Him. His Spirit rests upon you, and His glory is coming. This leads us to our second piece here, that you must refuse the world's shame, even as I just talked about Peter's shame.

YOU MUST REFUSE THE WORLD'S SHAME

In verse 15, we read, "But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler." Peter has just encouraged Christians who suffer for Christ, and now he makes clear that not all suffering is suffering for Christ. There is suffering that comes because of what you might do, and there is suffering that comes because Christ's name is placed upon you, and we must not confuse the two.

Peter lists murder, theft, evildoing. These are obvious sins, but then he includes something that might surprise you, meddling. A Christian can be guilty of meddling or intruding into other people's affairs, of stirring up trouble or involving himself in matters that aren't his responsibility. We might be tempted to think that because we have strong convictions that everything is our business, and our opinions on everything then are just better.

But being outspoken is not the same as being faithful, and being criticized for meddling is not the same as being persecuted for righteousness. This is an important warning for the church. We should not be so eager to identify ourselves as the persecuted that we become unwilling to examine our own behavior. You can suffer for having Christ's name placed upon you.

A Christian should not suffer for being known as a murderer, as a thief, as a meddler. Perhaps a coworker avoids you because you turn every ordinary conversation into an argument about politics, and you stamp it with the fact that you're a Christian. Perhaps a neighbor is frustrated at you because you've been inconsiderate.

Perhaps a family member doesn't wanna talk to you about faith anymore because you've treated every disagreement as an argument just to lecture them. We should not immediately conclude that we are always suffering for Jesus. We should ask whether we have spoken the truth in love. We should evaluate ourselves, even as we read earlier in Peter, that we should be ready to give an answer for the hope that's within us, but with gentleness and respect. The name of Christ must never become a cover for our own pride or our own sin. Peter turns our attention to the other side of the matter in verse 16.

He says, "Yet if anybody suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name." Here's the heart of the matter: Do not be ashamed to suffer as a Christian. The word Christian was a name associated with belonging to Christ. To identify yourself as a Christian is to identify yourself with Jesus, to acknowledge that He is your Lord and that you belong to Him, and that identification can bring shame.

Paul says that you might even be the stench of death to the world that is around you, but to those who are being saved, you are the smell of life. People might look down on you, scrunch up their nose and say, "I smell death." Peter says, in effect, "Don't let their judgment determine how you regard your faith."

Don't be ashamed of the name, but glorify it. Well, why might we be ashamed or tempted to be ashamed? Sometimes we're afraid of losing something, and we're counting that something as more valuable. We wanna be accepted by our colleagues. We wanna be included amongst a peer group or respected by people whose opinion matters to us. We don't wanna be the person who makes things awkward.

Sometimes we are afraid that our Christian convictions will make us appear as fools to the world. We should be willing to listen, to acknowledge, and accept when we are wrong, to model repentance and forgiveness, and to explain our convictions with gentleness and respect. But there are times when we are tempted to hide the truth, not because we lack an opportunity to speak graciously, but because we are afraid of what faithfulness might cost.

Think about the ordinary decisions involved in following Christ. Your friends begin to gossip about someone who isn't present. You can join in with them and remain a part of the conversation, or you can refuse to participate. A colleague could ask you to misrepresent something at work. You don't work for your employer, ultimately.

You work for your employer even saying, "Glory be to God with all of the work of your hands." But a colleague might ask you to help misrepresent something to avoid getting in trouble, and you have the choice there. Do you go along with it and avoid making trouble, or do you tell the truth? Someone asks you why you believe what you believe, and we all know what can happen.

There are times where somebody has maybe asked you if you're a Christian or goes, "Oh, hey, I noticed it seems like you go to church." There's times where you can go, "Oh, I'm ready to have a conversation." There's times where maybe you actually choose to kind of deflect. "Oh, yeah. We go sometimes. Yeah, we do."

"We go sometimes. Yeah." It's easy to deflect things that we don't wanna talk about. None of these situations requires us to be combative, and often the most faithful response is quiet, simple, and gracious, but sometimes even we know that that cost is going to cost us something. Peter commands us not to seek shame or manufacture conflict, but to refuse to let the possibility of conflict let it shame us from honoring Christ.

And notice what he says we should do instead. We should glorify in the name of God. The Christian's goal is not to prove that we are better than other people. It is to honor the God who made us, who saved us through Jesus Christ, no matter the cost. We have no reason to boast in ourselves. We are sinners who have received mercy.

We do not stand before God because we have lived more respectable lives than our neighbors. We stand before God, before Him, because Jesus Christ gave Himself for sinners, and He rose for our justification. That's why we should never be ashamed of the gospel. It tells the truth about who we are. It tells the truth about our sin, but it also tells the amazing truth of God's grace.

It humbles us because we cannot save ourselves. It gives us hope because Christ is sufficient. If someone thinks less of you because you need Jesus, remember that you do need Him. The gospel is not an announcement for respectable people that have simply found a way to improve themselves. It is the good news that God saves the ungodly through the death and resurrection of His Son.

And Peter gives us a sobering reason to take this seriously, church. In verse 17 he says, "For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God." Now, what does that mean? Peter's reminding the church that God takes the holiness of His own people seriously. His judgment begins with His own household, not because the church has no hope, but because those who belong to God are not exempt from His purifying work.

The church must not assume that because we are Christians, we have nothing to examine, to repent of, or to correct. We must be willing to confront our sins, repent of them, and help one another walk faithfully. This should be the reputation of the church. They're willing to fight with one another, in a good way.

They're willing to forgive one another. They're willing to walk in lives of repentance with one another, not to try to perceive themselves as perfect. Because by nature of even being a Christian, we're saying there is one who is perfect, Jesus Christ. There is no facade that we need to put up in the cost of following Christ.

If bitterness takes root between members in a congregation, we don't ignore it. You might do that at work, but we don't ignore it in the church. When we've wronged someone, we're willing to confess it. We're willing to seek reconciliation. This is not an invitation to become suspicious or judgmental towards one another, but it's a call to love one another enough to take sin seriously, the reality that judgment begins with God's own house.

We're a people who bear one another's burdens, speak the truth in love, and pursue restoration. We do this because we belong to the God who seeks to do the same thing. He is the God of restoration. And Peter's words also challenge the way that we think about the world around us. We can become so concerned about the sins of our culture.

Let judgment begin out there. That we pay no attention to the sins inside the church. We can spend our energy demanding that unbelievers adopt all of the standards of God's moral law and neglect to actually show our need for Christ. Of course, we should care about justice, truth, and the good of our neighbors, but we should speak clearly about what is right and wrong.

But we must remember that our deepest problem facing our neighbors is not that they don't live like us, but that they're sinners in need of the gospel, just as all of us were. The deepest problem of our neighbors is not the way they might vote on Tuesday, but that they're alienated from God. Their greatest need is reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

We cannot make people Christians by just making them more respectable. And we cannot expect people who do not know Christ to live as though they do. So Peter's words to the church is, "Let us begin with ourselves." Let the church be a place where sin is confessed, where grace is proclaimed, where holiness is pursued, and sinners directed to Christ, their Savior.

Let us speak to our unbelieving neighbors, not as people who have no need of mercy, but as people who have received mercy, and we want others to know about that mercy. Peter continues. He says, "And if it begins with us," this judgment of the household of God, "if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God?"

He reinforces his point here. He quotes Proverbs 11:31, "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" Scarcely saved does not mean that God barely manages to save His people. That is not what that means, or that our salvation is uncertain. This is not what that means.

Peter is speaking of a salvation that comes through difficulty and suffering. But not your suffering. The righteous are saved, but not by a path that avoids every trial. God brings His people through testing and into glory. If even God's own people experience His purifying work, the judgment beginning with the household of God, we should not imagine that those who reject the gospel can simply ignore it and face no consequence.

The world's approval is not the final judgment, neither is the world's disapproval. God is the judge, and His verdict is what matters. So what does it cost to follow Christ? It may cost us our reputation in the eyes of others, but we must refuse to be ashamed of the very name by which we are saved, and we must be more concerned with God's judgment than the world's judgment.

YOU ENTRUST YOUR LIFE TO YOUR FAITHFUL CREATOR

This is a cost of following Christ. Peter brings this passage to a close in verse 19. He says, "Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good." This is the response that Peter, through the Holy Spirit, writes to the church, to Christians who suffer, to Christians that he calls beloved.

Entrust your soul to God.

He is our faithful creator. God is not a distant observer of our suffering. He is the creator who made us. He is the creator who sustains us. He is the creator who rules over all things because all things are his. Nothing that happens to us falls outside of his sovereign care, and he is faithful. He does not abandon his people.

He does not forget his promises. He does not fail to accomplish his purposes. It doesn't mean we'll always understand a trial or a suffering in our life. There will be times when suffering seems senseless, when we cannot see what good possibly can come from something, and even when obedience feels costly.

But Peter does not promise that we will receive an explanation for everything. Instead, he calls us to trust in everything. You won't get an explanation for everything, but he calls you to trust in everything. Think of what that means when faithfulness comes at a cost. You may have to tell the truth when lying would protect you.

You may have to stand by a biblical conviction when doing so is unpopular. You may have to continue serving someone who never thanks you, forgive someone who always hurts you, remain faithful in a difficult situation even when sinning would create an easier path. You cannot control how people respond.

You cannot guarantee that doing what is right will bring immediate relief, but you can entrust yourself to God and continue doing good. Those last words matter. While doing good, entrusting ourselves to God is not something passive. It is not an excuse to withdraw from the world, to stop serving others or to assume that everything we do matters.

It means that we can continue doing what God commands even when we cannot control the outcome. We can love our neighbors without requiring for them to approve of us. We can serve the church without needing recognition. We can tell the truth without knowing whether or not it will benefit us. We can continue in faithfulness because our lives are held by God, not by the opinions of others.

And why should we trust him? Because the faithful creator is also the God who acted to save us. The cross is the clearest demonstration of God's purposes, where they can be at work even when his people experience suffering and injustice. Christ, who was rejected, who was falsely accused, who was put to death, yet his suffering was not outside of God's plan.

Through the death of his Son, God accomplished the salvation of sinners, and through the resurrection, he declared that death would not have the final word. This is one of Peter's big points in this whole first letter. Because Christ was raised from the dead, you, this is in chapter one, can have a living hope.

Christ has gone before you through suffering and into glory. We do not follow a Savior who asks us to walk a road that he has never traveled. We follow the risen Lord who has conquered sin and death, and who will bring his people into his presence. Our hope then is not the faithfulness of someone else, but the faithfulness of Christ.

Our hope is in the faithfulness of God who raised Christ up from the grave and who is coming in glory. This is why we can entrust our lives to him. When there's a cost to following Christ, we know that the amen of the story comes, and it is Jesus Christ, our King. Amen.

CLOSING PRAYER

Would you pray with me? Father Lord, we give thanks to you for your Word, for the encouragement through the apostle Peter and your Holy Spirit given to us that we might have courage even in the midst of suffering.

Lord, help us to not base our lives around what others might think about us. Lord, when there is suffering, when there are fiery trials, Lord, sanctify us by your Spirit. Lord, when there are moments where we lament and cry out, when wickedness or sin is done to us, help us by your Spirit to have a confidence in you who are our creator, who sustain your world, who govern all things.

Lord, when we are at a loss for being named as those who are Christians, who follow Christ, when we share in his suffering, Lord, help us not to then boast in ourselves, but to look at the suffering of our Savior who has gone before us and to see your provision, even raising him from the dead, even as we await the resurrection of the dead at the end of times, you who are the judge of the world.

We pray this in Christ's name, amen.