Suffering Christian Faces Temptations
Da-abo. Krisdonyan
gu Timacrave “or2ov;ivnnyr
1 Peter 4:1-6
The early church faced
enormous persecution for its faith. We
spoke about this in the previous sermons. We move today to a new chapter where Peter
encourages the early church to be ARMED.
It’s not a joke. This is serious matter. And what kind of temptation are they facing? “Giving up the Christian
faith”, the temptation to turn back to their old life, the gentile world.
Temptation is an old trick
that devil uses to gain power. From the
beginning, in Genesis, humanity was faced with temptation.
Jesus too was tempted. He was
tempted by the devil. Yet He was
victorious in all his temptations. Nothing
could harm our Lord. (Read Luke 4:1-13)
The early church was tempted
everyday to give up their faith. They
were also tempted to be irresponsible towards their political leaders, towards
their family duties, and towards the workplace. They faced hostility because of their faith. Peter is giving practical instructions to face
these temptations, to arm themselves
against “the flaming
arrows of the evil one” (Eph 6:16).
How are we going to be armed?
1. “Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also
with the same attitude,” (vs 1)
Again and again, Peter explains
the essentials in their faith and ours as well.
There is no Christianity
without the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ did suffer in his body. It means while he was on this earth, he faced
all kinds of persecution, intimidation, beating, insult and physical pain all
the way till his death on the cross.
When we as Christians identify
with Christ’s death and resurrection, we experience these events in our lives. Let me give you the picture of baptism (the
imagery was in the 3rd chapter). When we immerse someone in water, we are symbolically
putting the old life to death. The
sinful life is put to death. The old man
is dead. Last Sunday we read about the imagery of Noah’s ark and baptism. Noah and his family were saved from drowning
in the water. Our new ark is Christ
himself who saves us from sin.
“For
Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring
you to God. He was put to death in the
body but made alive by the Spirit,”(vs 3:18)
In this act, the devil, the temper
is defeated once and for all. After
the cross and resurrection the temper had no effect on Christ. “Where, O death, is your
victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?" The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor
15:55-57).
2. “Arm yourselves
also with the same attitude because he who has
suffered in his body is done with sin.” (vs
1)
We
will continue in English