Group Guide
This Week's City 7:
5. Why do I follow Jesus? I follow Jesus because Jesus rose from the dead proving that He is the way, the truth and the life.
(Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:6)
(Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:6)
Ice-Breaker:
- What's the dumbest injury you've ever caused yourself?
Scripture
1 Peter 4
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”
19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
Discussion Questions:
- Peter closes chapter 4 with some pastoral encouragement for his readers that were undergoing real persecution for their faith. The first thing he says to do with suffering is to EXPECT it. Suffering is not unusual. So then, these fiery trials are not to take us by surprise but are to be expected. Instead, we usually get stuck on asking God, "WHY?? WHY ME??" This isn't a question someone asks that was expecting the trial all along. When you face a trial and experience suffering, does it take you by surprise? Do you tend to question God? How might you handle trials differently if you were expecting it to come?
- Instead of being surprised by suffering, we should rejoice! Peter says to EXULT IN our suffering. That means to feel or show triumphant elation or jubilation. Why would we be glad? Because our suffering makes us partners with Christ in HIS suffering. And when the world around us sees how we handle the trials in our lives, the result is that we EXALT Christ THROUGH our suffering. Verse 14 says when we suffer for His sake we are blessed by his Spirit resting upon us. And as we've talked about before, if you have God's Spirit in you, your life (including the way you handle suffering) should look differently than those who don't. Is that true of you? How can you better exalt Christ through your suffering?
- In verse 15, Peter says that we need to make sure we suffer for the right reasons, not for our own sin. This means we need to EXAMINE ourselves in our suffering. Like David, we need to ask God to, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you." Sometimes what we think is a trial or an attack from the enemy is just the result of sin and disobedience in our lives. And our pain is the result of either God's discipline or just the natural consequences of our bad decisions (or both). If that is the case, we are to REPENT and turn back to God, like the prodigal son. Have there been times in your life that you experienced suffering because of your own sin? Are there ongoing sin issues in your life that you need to repent of and turn from? What has God been convicting you of lately?
- Verses 17 and 18 speak of trials being a kind of judgment for both believers and nonbelievers, both now and when He returns. Personally, trials test our faith to make sure it's really legit. It also refines us, burning out our impurities so we look more and more like Jesus. Brandon shared this description of a silversmith on Sunday: "When silver is refined, the silversmith places the metal into a crucible and heats it until it melts. As it heats, the impurities—the things that don’t belong—rise to the surface, where they can be removed. The silversmith carefully watches the process, because the temperature must stay just right. Too cool, and the impurities stay mixed in; too hot, and the silver could be damaged. He knows the refining is complete when the silver becomes pure and smooth—clear enough to reflect an image like a mirror- where he could see a reflection of himself." How have you seen this process happen through trials in your own life?
- The bottom line is, Peter is encouraging us to keep doing what is right, even if it causes suffering, and ENTRUST ourselves to God. He is our faithful Creator, and He has the right to do with us as He pleases. Even if it hurts, even if we're desperate or angry, even if we don't understand... we trust. God is doing His DEEPEST WORK in your DARKEST MOMENTS. Reflect on this quote from Jack Deere: "I've suffered in my life for things that I've done wrong, I've suffered in my life for things that I didn't deserve, but I've never experienced suffering I didn't need." What is God saying to you through these passages? What needs to change?
Prayer Topics:
- That we would learn to expect trials, rejoice in them, and exalt God through them.
- That we would embrace the refiner's fire.
- That we would learn to trust God, no matter what.
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