Hope in Everyday Suffering

Good morning, Faith Church – I’m mindful of the Lord’s providence in calling to mind hymns that speak of the reality of a fallen world, but even more so, the reality of the sovereign over the helm of his creation.

Horatio Spafford intimately understood what could happen in a fallen world – he was the writer of the hymn we just sang. He was an attorney who lost his fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Compound the loss of his fortune with the loss of his son to Scarlet fever.

With the loss of his son and fortune – he sent his wife and four daughters to England, while making plans to join them soon afterwards – but that didn’t happen, as their ship would sink into the Atlantic Ocean. 200 souls perished at sea, including his four daughters, but his wife survived the ordeal.

When Horatio’s wife arrived in England, she sent a telegram back to her husband which said, “saved alone. What shall I do?” Immediately, Horatio sailed to England where he met up with his wife. While on his way to England, the captain of the ship was aware of what happened with what had happened to the other ship.

So when they passed over spot where the ship had sunk, the captain told Horatio what had transpired. As Horatio thought about his daughters, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down, and they have since become a well-beloved hymn:

When peace like a river, attends my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll—

Whatever my lot, you have taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul.

What arises from your heart when you think through the implications of the Lord’s Table? I can tell you what rises out of mine – 1 Timothy 4:13 “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.”

The teachings of Scripture is what gives us peace – it gives pace to our lives. The teachings of God’s Word is what attends my way. The teachings of the Scriptures are what helps me when sorrows like sea billows roll, that whatever my lot in this life, God’s Word has taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.

Consider this in light of the early church and how the historical narrative that unfolds for us in the book of Acts 12:3-19, specifically as it relates to the birth and growth of the church.

If there’s an applicational stream that runs through the pages of Scripture it would be The Hope of The Lord’s Help with a view toward Hope in Everyday Suffering. Why don’t we start there and work our way together to an outline that I hope would be reflective of that stark reality in the life of every follower of Christ.

I want you to see two realities of the Christian life so that you may have hope under suffering

Let’s start with the fact that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” - 2 Timothy 3:12

My friends, this is true of all believers in Christ. No doubt that was the case with the early Christian church, so our emphasis for today is to turn to the book of Acts 12 – I want us to look at Peter and the Apostles.

Please turn to Acts 12:3-19

I. The Persecution of Peter and The Apostles

Our Lord said to expect this. This is not something we can run from.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” – John 15:20-21

So then, if you live for the Lord of glory, understand that your living for him will come with cost – it is costly to follow your King of Glory.

John MacArthur “So you want to follow Jesus, do you? It’ll cost you absolutely everything. The Lord might not take your family or your spouse. He might not take your job. But you need to be willing to give it all up, if that’s what He asks. You need to be desperate enough to embrace Christ no matter what the price.” (John MacArthur “Hard to Believe,” p. 11)

Christian, persecution/tribulation can comes in a variety of ways. For the Apostles, persecution

Followers of Christ will inevitably be persecuted for what they believe (vv. 1-4)

Verses 1-4 “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. ² And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. ³ When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.” (stop)

Understand why Herod Agrippa I did what he did. He was the grandson of King Herod – you know, the guy who was eaten from the inside by worms. Aside from the fact that that is disturbing commentary of how a person passed away

[insert picture of Herod Agrippa https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Agrippa_I-Herod_agrippa.jpg/330px-Agrippa_I-Herod_agrippa.jpg

[picture of Emperor Tiberius https://roman-empire.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/tiberius-caesar-695x1024.jpg?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb1

Herod had a shaky relationship with both Rome and with the Jews. At one point, the emperor had Herod thrown in jail over some comments he made against Tiberius to which a servant overheard this and somehow it got back to the Emperor, so he spent one year in Jail.

Herod probably would have spent the rest of days in prison, were it not for the fact that within a year into his sentence, the Emperor passed away. Herod had already established a prior network and allegiance of some friends in high places, he was released and back in power because he gave his support to the new emperor

Insert picture of Emperor Caligula https://cdn.britannica.com/49/147549-050-99483725/Caligula-Lazienkowski-Park-Warsaw.jpg

Now, he didn’t want to lose his power again – so what does he do? He cozied up with the religious Jews because he knew they didn’t like him, and the religious Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t at all like…the Christians, you see where this is heading?

According to history, Herod was raised as a Jew – if that’s the case, he was familiar to their custom and laws, which stands to reason that what sparked the persecution of the early Christians was over the Person of Jesus Christ, right? So since, James was one of the leaders in the early church, Herod had him killed.

Now take note of what verse 3 “When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.” Uh oh…

I ask you: what was the centerpiece of their persecution? Answer: What the Scripture said about Christ in the law, the prophets, and the writings. Sola Scriptura! (stop)

Followers of Christ will inevitably be persecuted for believing in the Scriptures. The kind of persecution may vary depending upon what the persecutor can get away with in our society, but nonetheless, the centerpiece of why we receive persecution finds its origin with the Person of Christ and the Scriptures.

“If they hated me, they will hate you…” Turn on the media and Christians have, by and large, been pushed out of the every corner of the marketplace. It seems rare to find a Christian voice speaking the culture at large because the culture hates what we believe and what we stand for.

This should not come as a shock, Christian.

I spent 8 years in law enforcement. I tell you, there was much pressure by the police officers that I worked with to conform to their way of living, or to conform to their way of thinking.

And when you don’t conform to it, the wagons will circle around you because they’re trying to figure you out because you are peculiar to them. And should you lovingly give them the Gospel of salvation, some bear with you to listen to it well enough, while others may attempt to get you into trouble because they know what you believe about human sexuality.

They know what you believe about the kind of holy standards you raise against the cultural motifs of the day…so they separate from you and associate themselves with darkness and not light.

I’ll never forget the time when my morning hours changed soon after some of my fellow officers were asking me questions about what I believed about the sanctity of life, so I told them – so they started a debate with me on the subject and teamed up on me.

To make a long story short, one of my superiors looked so angry with me afterwards that he refused to associate with me the entire work day.

He also happened to be in charge of maintaining the schedule – so after the month was finished, he changed my hours and gave a relatively brand new officer who he teamed up with my hours…

At first, I didn’t understand why my hours changed – it was just passing strange – but the long and short of it was that my relationship with some of my co-workers changed…all because of what I believed about the Scriptures.

The longer I was there, the longer they understood what I stood for.

Some may persecute you to seek the favor of men, while others do it because they either hate the Scriptures because it bears conflict upon the sinners heart. In the case of Peter, he indicted the religious hypocrite of his day for not believing in…the Scriptures – don’t think it strange, Christian.

1 Peter 4:12-14 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

Let me give you 4 points to consider in light of you believing in Christ who is your hope of glory.

1) Expect persecution and suffering (v. 12)

2) Rejoice (vv. 13-14)

3) Evaluate it’s cause (vv. 15-18)

4) Entrust it to God (v. 19)

So because we will inevitably be persecuted for our faith, we must pray, Christian, because we don’t pray like we ought to

God’s people must pray

Verse 5 “ So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”

Γινομένη – refers to something that continually arose in response to something. In other words, when the church heard that Peter was in prison as a result of his faith in Christ, they began to προσευχὴ - refers to prayer.

Their prayer was Ektenós. Referring to a kind of prayer was earnest, strenuous, fervent. It was the kind of prayer associated with the hope of the Lord’s help in everyday suffering.

Christian, our prayers should be likened to breathing Inhale, exhale. It ought to be a normal routine of your life. And when something happens in your life, our prayers should be all the more earnest – all the more strenuous – all the more fervent like the church prayed for the Apostle.

There’s a garden where Jesus is waiting,
There’s a place that is wondrously fair.
For it glows with the light of His presence,
‘Tis the beautiful garden of prayer.

My wife and I have a small binder in that it contains a list of would eventually categorize as short term prayer requests and long term prayer requests.

Prior to marriage, I can’t say that I kept a log of prayer requests, but I can tell you now that not only do we have one, we can bear witness that God has not only has answered our specific prayers, we can also bear witness that God has seen fit to not answer other prayers as well, and that’s ok. What we may think or perceive is not the ship that the Holy Spirit sails.

We are under the providential care of the King of glory who provides hope for us in due time.

Please note, the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much – that will always hold true.

Take note of that in the life of the church in receiving their answer to prayer regarding Peter

II. Peter’s miraculous deliverance

The Lord answers our prayer in accordance with his will (vv. 6-17)

⁶ On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. ⁷ And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. ⁸ And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he *said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹ And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. ¹¹ When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” ¹² And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. ¹³ When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. ¹⁵ They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” ¹⁶ But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. ¹⁷ But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to James and the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place. ¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. ¹⁹ When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

It seems necessary at this point to give us some hermeneutical rules of thumb. Hermeneutics refers to the art of bible interpretation. The passage I read to you is descriptive – meaning, the it’s merely describing something that happened. So in the case of Peter, he was miraculously delivered from prison.

So then because we read that it happened to him, but that does not mean that this event should happen to us as well, you see? Let me give you an example that I think will help us. I just want to touch on this point.

Take an example from David and Goliath. Do you remember how Goliath died? David killed him with a slingshot because he was a blasphemer of God. It’s a descriptive text. All the author is doing is describing what took place.

It’s not a prescriptive text – meaning, it’s not saying that we should sling rocks and kill blasphemers too! To put it simply, we want to draw out a proper application from the text.

What we don’t want to do is draw out from a given passage a wrong conclusions. What we can draw out from David’s life is the value of trusting God. What we can draw out from Peter and the church is that the Lord will answer our prayers in accordance with his will.^[1]

So then because the Apostolic ministry of the Apostles was to set the foundation for the early church, their commission was unique, and not repeated. So then it bears saying that we ought to pray and not lose heart, but we pray in accordance with his will in that when we “suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. entrusting our lives to a faithful Creator.” – 1 Peter 4:19

“Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” – 1 Peter 4:19

That is where our hope comes from in everyday suffering.

God will deal with those who persecute his people in his time. (vv. 18-19)

¹⁸ Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. ¹⁹ When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.

Of all the times Herod could have repented of his sins, you’d think it would be here – but that’s not what happened, right? We know that because he killed the guards. Rather than to except their clear testimony, he had them all killed and just moved on with his life.

And that’s what many do, rather than to inquire into the eyewitness of Scripture, they will go on their merry way and do what they want to do with you, not at all considering the terrible judgment that awaits them. Don’t be surprised by this, Chris – that is hope for you, yet doom for them.

Philippians 1:28 ^“in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God.”

We will go about our lives and preach Christ and Him Crucified. Should we marry up, we will serve the Lord and build up a house of faith.

And should the time come for our providential persecution come, let us not be alarmed nor intimidated – we will have hope because the Scriptures remind us that your persecution is a sign of salvation for us, but a sign of destruction for them.

Before we commence with communion, I want to try and briefly remind all of you of some saints of light in history past who suffered with an eternal hope of Christ of whom the world was not worthy to keep them.

The first was John Rogers. He was the first protestant martyr of the Reformation. He was burned at the stake on Monday February 4, 1555. Mary Tutor ordered his death. Her nickname “Bloody Mary”, because of the number of Protestants were murdered under her bloody reign as Queen of England.

On the morning of John Rogers’ they hurried him to the stake to die in front of an immense crowd. He was heard repeating Psalm 51. They said of him that he walked steadily and unflinchingly to his death. A French ambassador said that Rogers went to death “as if he was walking to his wedding.”

A second English reformer who died under the reign of Bloody Mary was John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester on Saturday 5^th, 1555. He was a preacher of the Word of God. He lingered in prison for 18 months before he would be burned at the stake. He urged the Bishop to spare himself by recanting from his teachings, and that “Life was sweet, and death was bitter.” To this, the Bishop responded, “Eternal life was more sweet, and eternal death was more bitter.”

On the morning of his execution, he was allowed to pray, but was not allowed to speak to the crowd the Word of God. They gave him one last chance to recant, to which he said, “Away with it; if you love my soul, away with it!.”

“He was fastened to the stake by an iron round his waist, and fought his last fight with the king of terrors.”

A third reformer was Rowland Taylor – he died on February 9, 1555. We don’t know much about him except what is recorded about what said just prior to his burning at the stake. He close friends told him to flee away, but he refused and kept on preaching to his congregation.

Just before his death, his words were recorded as saying the following:

“Good people, I have taught you nothing but God’s Holy Word, and those lessons that I have taken out of the Bible; and I am come here to seal it with my blood.” He would have said more, but he was violently struck on the head. He prayed Psalm 51 and cried out, “Merciful Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake, receive my soul into your hands”, while he was in the burning, one of the guards, dashed out his brains with a halberd, and he died.

A fourth one was Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St, David’s in Wales. He was burned at the stake on March 30, 1555. It was said that while he was in the burning, he held out his hands until they were burned to stumps, until a passerby saw him and struck his head and put an end to his suffering.

One more…

A fifth English reformer was John Bradford. He was a Chaplain to Bishop Ridley. He was burned at the stake on July 1^st, 1555 at the age of 45. On the day of his execution, he said to the crowd, “O England, England, repent of your sins! Beware of idolatry; beware of false antichrists! Take heed they do not deceive you. After that, he turned to another young man who was burning with him and said, “Be of good comfort, brother,; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.” Finally, he said, “Broad is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leads to eternal life, and few there be that find it.” One writer who witnessed Bradford’s death said that the way Bradford died was “as a fresh gale of wind in a hot summer day.”

Perhaps some of you may be wondering – what was their crime? Answer: They taught that the communion meal was a symbol of the death of Christ, not that it was transubstantiated. Meaning, they denied the Roman Catholic Mass, that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ – which was central to the Roman Catholic faith.

Ultimately, they died because of the teachings of Scripture…

That’s what they found their hope in the Scriptures. You will not find your hope the unbelieving world. Your hope and my hope is built on nothing less…

than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.

[Refrain]

His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

[1] See https://www.gotquestions.org/descriptive-vs-prescriptive.html