Millions of Americans are into reality shows—you may be one of them.  This morning I have a “reality” question for each of us to consider:  which is more real: this life—here and now or life in heaven with God?  Throughout history, the more a group of people suffered, the more their thoughts turned to heaven, while the more a group of people was blessed and gained abundant material wealth, the more their thoughts turned to this life. In our day, here in America most folks—even most Christians—don’t think about the reality of heaven too much.  Thoughts of heaven are reserved for times of extreme illness, or catastrophe, or for those at the upper end of the aging process.  In the New Testament era--the time after Jesus lived, died on the cross, rose again and returned to heaven--being a Christian often meant great suffering.  In the midst of that suffering New Testament writers offered hope.  This morning’s Scripture from 1 Peter 2:21-25 reminds us that in the midst of suffering – in the depth of suffering – the cross of Jesus leads to life.  Let’s stand and read God’s word together and see what that reality means for us:

²¹This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. ²²He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone. ²³He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. ²⁴He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds! ²⁵Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.    1 Peter 2:21-25 NLT  Let’s pray….. Amen.  (Please, be seated.)

     Let’s take a little survey right now to gain a glimpse of our reality as a group here this morning.  How many of you have ever gone through any kind of suffering in your life?  (just raise your hand if you would, please)  Okay.  How many of you have suffered the loss of a loved one to this life through death?  (raise your hand)  How many of you have ever suffered an accident or an illness that caused you enough pain that had to miss work or school?  How many of you have ever suffered through a friend “stabbing you in the back”?  (figuratively, of course!)  How many have suffered losing a job either through being fired, downsizing, or the company going out of business?  We could continue this survey for a long time, but what we’ve established already is life brings suffering.  Some of us are surprised when suffering comes to our lives.  Some of us have been told by well-meaning Christians that if we love Jesus we’ll never have to suffer again, that Jesus is the answer to all life’s problems.  Jesus IS the answer to all life’s problems, but being a fully devoted follower of Jesus is no guarantee that we will enjoy a suffering-free life once He becomes our Savior and Lord.

     In fact, this morning’s Scripture tells us clearly that  SUFFERING IS EXPECTED FOR FOLLOWERS OF JESUS!  Lets read 1 Peter 2:21a aloud together once again:  ²¹This suffering is all part of what God has called you to.  1 Peter 2:21a NLT.  Since we picked up in 1 Peter 2:21a, we missed out on the explanation of the kinds of suffering that comes to Jesus’ followers, so let’s turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter 2:19-20 and see the source of the suffering to which Peter refers:  ¹⁹For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment. ²⁰Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.  In these verses Peter was actually writing to Christians who were slaves. He was telling them that as slaves their suffering was pleasing to God, when it occurred for the sakes of their consciences, or when they patiently endured unfair treatment.  He also reminded them that if they suffered for doing wrong, there was no credit for that.  While we live as free people, the principles offered are the same:  When we suffer for doing right God is pleased.  When we suffer for doing wrong God gives us no credit.  Suffering is part of the fallen human condition.  Sin brings suffering.  We all know that, but Peter tells us that suffering is also part of the redeemed human condition.  Even after Jesus died on the cross, shedding His precious blood to save us from sin and death, suffering continues.  Some of that suffering is of the nature described in our survey---the suffering of loss, or ill health, or broken relationships.  As followers of Jesus we aren’t exempt from that kind of suffering, but Peter spoke of another reality:  suffering for doing good. He tells us that such suffering is God’s calling for our lives.    

 You may be wondering, “What do you mean by suffering for doing good?”  I mean these kinds of things:  being laughed at by people at school for standing up for the classmate who no one else likes.  I mean being passed over for a promotion at work, because you won’t compromise your integrity in order to help the company improve its bottom line.  I mean losing a boyfriend or girlfriend because you’re unwilling to go along with our culture’s lax morals and standards when it comes to sex.  I mean being considered intolerant because you believe that God’s word is true, and seek to apply it to every area of your life.  If we love Jesus and put Him first in our lives we WILL suffer, whether that suffering is just verbal abuse, or whether it has economic implications, or even means that people won’t want to be friends with us.

     So, how do we respond when we find ourselves in the middle of suffering for doing good, when we’ve done everything God wants us to do and the result is that we bear the costs associated with it?  Peter tells us that

JESUS’ RESPONSE TO SUFFERING IS OUR EXAMPLE WHEN WE FACE SUFFERING!  Let’s look once again at what he wrote:  Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. ²²He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone. ²³He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.   1 Peter 2:21b-23 NLT.  Wow!  That’s challenging isn’t it.  When Jesus suffered He responded in five, specific ways: 1) He never sinned.  When someone causes you to suffer for doing good are you ever tempted to sin?  Of course you are.  So was Jesus.  Do you think when the Pharisees ridiculed Him that He enjoyed it, that He wasn’t tempted to respond in a sinful way?  He was fully God, but He was also fully human, so of course He was.  It seems to me that it must have been even harder for Jesus not to sin when He suffered for doing good, because He had so much more power available for retaliation than we do.  Remember the time when the Pharisees said that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub or Satan?  Jesus could have sent the demon He cast out into a Pharisee.  He could have given the Pharisee leprosy or some other dreaded disease.  But Jesus never sinned when He suffered for doing good.  When we follow Jesus’ example we return evil with good.  That’s only possible as we live in the power of the Holy Spirit—but it IS possible!

     2) He never deceived anyone.  Deception is so much a part of our lives that to consider living without it is amazing.  When someone hurts us or shows us ill will, because we are doing good, we have all kinds of deceptive options open don’t we?  We could pretend to abandon Jesus and live like the world.  Many folks do that.  We could pretend that it wasn’t really our idea to do what we were doing, and blame it on someone else—I don’t really want to be nice to that kid at our lunch table, but the preacher told me I should, so that’s the reason I do it. We could put on a “mask” and pretend that we’re someone else.  In fact, most of us do that at least part of the time, and some of us do it ALL the time.  Jesus didn’t wear masks. Jesus never deceived anyone.  When we are called to suffer for doing good, let’s just suffer and not turn to deception.  In that way others will see Jesus in us, and just as Jesus is our example of how to respond in times of suffering, we will be theirs.  3)  He did not retaliate.  Wow!  How hard is that?  It’s so easy to return an insult for an insult, isn’t it?  We live in a put down culture.  When I was a teenager, I developed putting down others into an art.  As Jesus took over my life, one of the biggest challenges was--and still is sometimes—the challenge of not firing back a put down when someone fires one at me for following Jesus.  4) He did not threaten to get even.  This is closely related to number three, isn’t it?  Retaliation can be carried out in a knee-jerk fashion—you insult me.  I insult you.  Or it can be more calculated.  Getting even is typically more calculated than a knee-jerk retaliation.  When someone hurts us, the natural response is to get even, to find a way to hurt them as much as they hurt us.  As followers of Jesus, seeking to follow His example, when others hurt us, when we suffer for doing good, we must not even threaten to get even. That’s tough.  As we mentioned last Sunday, our culture has taught us that a failure to retaliate is a sign of weakness.  Actually, it’s a sign of strength.  Jesus had every right and every reason to retaliate or get even when He was arrested, when He was attacked by Pilate’s soldiers, when He was beaten, or even as He was crucified.  Instead, He accepted it all—all that abuse, which we deserved.  He accepted it not as a weakling, but as the strongest human being who ever lived!  How could he do that? Because of 5)  He left His case in the Hands of God who always judges fairly.  Jesus’ perspective was always an eternal perspective.  He knew why He came here—to live a sinless life, and to die a sacrificial death in our place.  He came to pay the penalty for our sins.  That means He wasn’t going to retaliate or get even. He left judgment to His Heavenly Father.  How did God judge Jesus’ actions?  God vindicated Jesus’ actions in the most amazing way ever—He raised Him from the dead!  If Jesus had retaliated or gotten even Easter would never have happened.  There would be no makeovers of our reality.  This life would be the be-all end-all for us, because we would have no hope of eternity with God.  But Jesus left His case in the hands of God—thank God!

     As a result of Jesus willingness to leave His case in the hands of God, Jesus died on the cross.  That death is the pivot point of history for us, because JESUS’ DEATH ON THE CROSS BRINGS NEW LIFE TO US!  Listen again to how Peter put it:  ²⁴He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds!  1 Peter 2:24 NLT For Jesus the path of the cross led to death—and His death was a death died once for all of us—so that for us the path of the cross leads to life.  This is the “punch line,” the main point, the summation of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3, “You must be born again.”  Our natural state is a state of sin and death.  We are born to die, and apart from Jesus that death means a permanent separation from God.  But Jesus personally bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin and alive to all that is good!  What a promise!  What a hope.  When we suffer, and for most of us our suffering for doing good is not all that extensive, but when we suffer let’s remember that Jesus’ suffering on the cross was so much greater and in it He bought a new life for each one of us.  If we want to talk about reality—how about this:  we are dead to sin and alive to all that is good! 

     We don’t often live as if we’re dead to sin, because we’ve let the “reality” of this life reign supreme.  We chase after the world’s rewards and the sad thing is whether we get them or not we lose!  Only when we turn away from the things of the world and put Jesus first do we win.  Over the past month it seems that the world has been infatuated with the twisted life and “untimely” death of Anna Nicole Smith.  The reason the death is considered “untimely” is because she was so young in human terms.  The reality is the life she chose—the reality she chose—was worldly, and the outcome was predictable.  I’m not judging Ms. Smith’s eternal destiny.  I don’t know where she’s spending eternity.  What I do know is that if she was a follower of Jesus, she wasn’t an effective one. She wasn’t living the new life Jesus died to give her in any evident kind of way.  Could the same be said of any of us, or all of us?  Are we living the new life Jesus died to give us effectively, gratefully, fruitfully?  Suffering is part of this life from beginning to end.  Some of it is the consequence of poor choices. Some of it is the result of natural processes.  Only when we suffer for doing good are we following our calling and living into the new life that Jesus died to give us!

Peter reminds us of our former condition—our “pre-Jesus” lives and our current condition.  He uses the image of sheep, which is a common image for us in Scripture.  Peter tells us AS JESUS’ “SHEEP” WE MUST FOLLOW HIM, SINCE HE IS THE GUARDIAN OF OUR SOULS!  That is virtually what he wrote:  ²⁵Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.  1 Peter 2:25 NLT One of the strangest realities of this modern era is that before we turn to Jesus we are “lost” sheep.  Once we turn to Jesus we are “found.”  We have new lives. We have a shepherd—THE Good Shepherd, who is literally the guardian of our souls, but most of the time we’re more concerned with what the “lost” sheep around us think about us than about what our Good Shepherd thinks.  If you’ll stay with the illustration for a minute, consider this:  lost sheep are in clear and immediate danger of death. When a sheep is lost it is subject to all kinds of predators.  In addition, it is already lost and may wander over an embankment or into a thicket, or to any of a hundred places where the outcome is suffering and even death.  Then along comes the Good Shepherd.  He welcomes the sheep into His fold.  He offers the sheep life—eternal life.  He provides for and protects the sheep in everything.  If the sheep gets hurt, He binds the wounds and brings healing. Now, here’s the question, and it seems to me that you don’t really need to be smarter than a fifth grader to answer it:  Which reality seems preferable:  #1--the “lost” reality, the reality where any moment suffering and death can come—and that suffering and death is then eternal; or #2—the “found” reality, where Jesus, the Good Shepherd, watches and protects, and provides healing for any suffering that comes along?  We KNOW that #2 is the right answer, right?  Then what keeps us from following that path of the cross that leads to life?  Many things: pride, ignorance, a desire to maintain the illusion of control.  The reality – deepest reality – is, unless we follow Jesus, unless He becomes the Shepherd of our lives and the Guardian of our souls life has no ultimate and lasting reality.  There is no substitute in life for the life that Jesus offers.  Our task is to welcome that life, to live that life in the power of the Holy Spirit and when suffering comes—as it surely will—to remember that Jesus suffered to the point of death and has now received the crown of life.  So will we!  Faithfulness to Jesus does not mean suffering disappears.  It means that suffering has meaning---suffering refines us, and makes us more and more like Jesus.  We can live “lost” lives.  We may even become famous doing it.  Is that really what we want?  Why not live “found” lives?  Why not live the life Jesus died on the cross and rose again on Easter to provide!  That kind of life is not boring. It’s not weak. It’s filled with power and adventure of the God of the universe living in and through us.  Let’s stand right now and commit ourselves to living in Jesus, living as followers of the Good Shepherd and letting others know the way to Him—that kind of reality is real indeed!  Let’s pray…..Amen.

TAKE HOME POINT