Rejoice Within Reason
Pastor Don Carpenter / General
Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner / Joy; Rejoicing Person; Trial; Temptation; Affliction; Depression / 1 Peter 1:6–7
Alan Mairson wrote an article for National Geographic about beekeepers who raise and transport bees for a living. He told the story of Jeff and Christine Anderson and how their daughter overcame an allergy to bee stings.
To build up her immunity, doctors administered a series of injections to Rachel over a four-month period. But, in order to maintain immunity, she needed a shot or a bee sting every six weeks over several years.
So every six weeks Rachel’s parents would go outside and catch a bee. Then, as Rachel recalls, “Mom would take hold of my arm and roll my sleeve up. Then my Dad would make the bee mad and stick it on me and count to ten before he took the stinger out. But it worked. Now when I accidentally get stung, it barely swells, it barely hurts.”
In a world full of bees, a loving father must not shield his child from every sting. In fact for the child’s own good the father must at times induce pain.11 Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 382–383.
Have you ever gone through a dark time so intense that it seems that this pit you are in must now be the new normal? Tonight we will discover that you can rejoice again, within reason.
Peter was addressing the scattered Jewish believers who were facing some trials and were about to face colossal trouble. The Apostle has clearly articulated some fantastic truths about salvation, eternity and the protective hand of God. In verse 6 he moves from what God has done to what believers should do… rejoice.
Rejoice??!!?? How in the world can believers rejoice when facing fiery trials from the world, the flesh and the Devil? Our passage shows us how and why to rejoice. There are very solid reasons we can rejoice in the middle of our trials. Tonight let us learn to Rejoice Within that Reason.
1 Peter 1:6 KJV
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
Rejoice In Your Lively Hope
1 Peter 1:3–5 KJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Believers have been:
• Begotten again
• Given a living hope
• Given an inheritance reserved in Heaven
• Guarded by the Power of God
• Guarded by the Power of Faith
• Promised the revelation of our final salvation at the last time.
“Rejoice” is from a Greek word speaking of extreme joy expressing itself externally in an exuberant triumph of joy. In verse 8 we see that it is a glorified joy made possible by our future glorified state, a joy not possible now in our mortal bodies. Tears of joy are just an evidence of the inability of our present state to fully feel the joy that comes to us at times. But then in our bodies of glory we will be able to drink in and appreciate all the boundless joys of the Saviour’s presence.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 24.
Rejoice In Spite of Sorrow and Trials
1 Peter 1:6 KJV
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
heaviness wheel*
The word “temptations” is from peirasmos (?????????) which refers both to trials and testings, and also solicitations to do evil, in short, to all that goes to furnish a test of character. The trials may come from God or under His permissive will from Satan, or may be the result of our own wrong doing. The solicitations to do evil come from the world, the evil nature, or Satan. These are described as manifold, namely, variegated. The word emphasizes the diversity rather than the number of the trials. The word “through” is from en (??) with the locative, speaking of the sphere in which these Christians have been made sorrowful.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 25.
Rejoice Because Trials are Temporary.
“Season” is from oligon (??????) which means “little, small, few,” and refers here to a little while. Surely, this present life is a little while compared to eternity. And then a loving God sees to it that in the midst of the shadows and heartaches and trials, His children have their days of sunshine even in this life.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997),
2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Rejoice Because Trials are Necessary
The words “if need be” are hypothetical, not affirmative. That is, they do not state that there is always a need for the dark days, for testing times and difficulties. In some lives there seems to be more need of trials than in others. To those servants of God whom He purposes to use in a larger, greater way, many trials are allowed to come, for “we must be ground between the millstones of suffering before we can be bread for the multitude.” And then, in the case of a saint who is not living close to his Lord, it is necessary to send disciplinary trials to purge his life of sin and draw him into a closer walk with God.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 24–25.
Gradual growth in grace, growth in knowledge, growth in faith, growth in love, growth in holiness, growth in humility, growth in spiritual-mindedness—all this I see clearly taught and urged in Scripture, and clearly exemplified in the lives of many of God’s saints. But sudden, instantaneous leaps from conversion to consecration I fail to see in the Bible.1
1 Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
slide
Rejoice Because The Results Are Praiseworthy
1 Peter 1:7 KJV
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Trial = Results of the Test
In this verse we are informed as to the reason and purpose of these trials, namely, that the trial of our faith might result in praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The word “trial” is the translation of dokimion (????????) the noun, dokimazo (????????) being the verb of the same root, the latter referring to the act of putting someone or something to the test with a view of determining whether it is worthy of being approved or not, the test being made with the intention of approving if possible. The word was used of the act of examining candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. It is the approval of our faith which is to resound to the praise of the Lord Jesus. Testing times put our faith to the test, and as we are submissive to God and remain faithful to Him and are ready to have Him teach us the lessons He would have us learn through them, we demonstrate by our actions that the faith we have is a genuine God-given, Holy Spirit produced faith, the genuine article. This faith and its working in our lives is to the glory of the Lord Jesus. It is not the testing of our faith that is to the glory of God, but the fact that our faith has met the test and has been approved, that redounds to His glory. This is made very clear by the Greek grammar involved in the statement.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 25–26.
These Results Are Precious!
1 Peter 1:7 KJV
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
If here we have to suffer for Christ’s sake, there we shall be blessed. It is through a cross and through afflictions that we are tried, like gold in the fire, by the Builder who formed the world out of nothing. Blessed then shall we be, if we persevere in that which is good, even to the end.
John Huss1
1 Elliot Ritzema and Rebecca Brant, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).
HUSS Slide
It is not the approved faith, but the approval itself that is in the apostle’s mind here. For instance, a gold-mining company wishes to buy a proposed site where gold is said to have been found. But it is not sure whether the metal is real gold or not and whether it is there in sufficient quantity so that a mine if sunk would be a profitable venture. It engages an assayer of metals to take samples of the gold ore to his laboratory and examine them. The assayer sends his report to the effect that the ore contains true gold, and that the gold is found in sufficient quantity so that the venture will pay. The report of the assayer approving the gold ore is of far more value to the mining company than the gold he returns with his report, for upon the basis of the report, the company can go ahead with assurance and buy the land and begin mining operations. The fact that God finds our faith to be one which He can approve, is of far more value to Him and to His glory, than the approved faith, for He has something to work with, a faith that He knows can stand the testings and the trials which may come to the Christian. The fact that God can trust a Christian as one that is dependable, is of great value to Him, God is looking for faithful, dependable workers, not necessarily gifted, educated, cultured ones. It is a “well done, thou good and faithful servant” that will greet the ears of the saint at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Peter tells us that this approval of our faith is much more precious than the approval of gold, even though that gold be approved through fire-testing. The words “of gold” of the a.v. are an excellent rendering for a literal word-for-word translation. But the words “the approval of” are necessarily supplied to make clear the apostle’s thought. It is not the approval of our faith that is compared to gold, but to the approval of gold. The picture here is of an ancient gold-smith who puts his crude gold ore in a crucible, subjects it to intense heat, and thus liquifies the mass. The impurities rise to the surface and are skimmed off. When the metal-worker is able to see the reflection of his face clearly mirrored in the surface of the liquid, he takes it off the fire, for he knows that the contents are pure gold. So it is with God and His child, He puts us in the crucible of Christian suffering, in which process sin is gradually put out of our lives, our faith is purified from the slag of unbelief that somehow mingles with it so often, and the result is the reflection of the face of Jesus Christ in the character of the Christian. This, above all, God the Father desires to see. Christlikeness is God’s ideal for His child. Christian suffering is one of the most potent means to that end11 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 26–27.
True virtue never appears so lovely as when it is most oppressed, and the divine excellency of real Christianity is never exhibited with such advantage as when under the greatest trials.
Jonathan Edwards
EDWARDS SLIDE*
Rejoice within reason??? YES! We have a reason in our living hope! We have a reason to rejoice in spite of our heaviness and trial! He have a reason to rejoice because this is temporary. We have a reason to rejoice because these trials are needed. We have a reason to rejoice because the trial that demonstrates our faith is more precious than refined gold! So Rejoice Within Those Reasons!
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:20 PM January 29, 2020.