Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6-9; Hebrews 11:32-39
Title: This is a Test
Tests and trials are a part of life – Simon Peter shares with us how to deal with those tests.
INTRO:
How many of you remember that interruption/message of the Test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Suddenly, you would hear this strange noise and then the following words:
"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Federal, State and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System."
How many of you while you were in elementary school had what was called: Test Friday?
You would study all week on your spelling words, your math equations, or the section of history that you were reading and then on Friday you would take a test to see if you could spell all the words correctly, understand how to do the different equations and remember certain historical facts and dates.
That is how it was in the elementary school where I grew up. We would study all week or even a couple of weeks and then it would be time to take a test. About 90% of the time those tests would take place on Friday.
Tests and trials are what Simon Peter shares in his next section of his letter to the house churches in Asia Minor. Tests and trials that I am sure had different meanings to different people just like they do today.
What could be called a test by one person was no big deal to another. And what could be called a life transforming trial by one person may be considered of little consequence by another.
This morning before we share Holy Communion, let’s take a moment and lean into this idea of tests and trials that Simon Peter is alluding to in verses 6-9.
1. Simon Peter doesn’t provide us a ranking order of tests and trials.
Have you ever been around a group of people that began to talk about all their operations, their mishaps and their life tests and trials?
I am sure that you have, and I am also sure that at some time or the other you have joined in that type of conversation.
People start sharing about all their operations and some even want to show their scars. Look here where they cut me from here to there. I just had my 10th surgery on my back or leg.
People sharing about the times that they were treated unfairly at work or at home. Perhaps even being dismissed for something that they did not do.
We all know people who have suffered all kinds of tragedies – death, disease, physical disabilities, financial ruin, loss of a family member, marriage, persecution etc…
It’s easy to listen to people and then to think:
“Wow, I don’t know if I could survive that.”
Or:
“Listen to that poor baby, (bless their hearts – Southern style) if they had to endure what I have had to endure then they would have something to complain about.”
It’s important for us to see that Simon Peter doesn’t start a list of tests and trials saying that this one or that one is the easiest or the hardest. He doesn’t talk about the pecking order of tests and trials.
I mean he could have – he could have taken the time to mention some of the most difficult ones we find in the Bible.
+Eve losing her first two sons – Abel because his brother Cain killed him and then Cain because he had to live the life of a cursed fugitive.
+Joseph for being sold into slavery at the age of 17 and then unlawfully being put into prison for the rest of his life.
+Bathsheba for being molested by King David, having her husband murdered and losing her newborn son.
+Elijah, Job and Naomi having to deal with seasons of intense depression and despair.
We could spend all morning sharing all kinds of Bible stories that deal with the tests and trials that came to people like Abraham, Sarah, Daniel, Esther, Moses, Hannah, Samuel and Mary.
The Bible is full of such stories of tests and trials. Life is full of such tests and trials.
And I think that is what Simon Peter wanted us to remember and focus on.
It doesn’t take long in this life before we are faced with some type of test and/or trial. While they may not all be of the same depth or duration, they are very real.
+We may never face being burned in a pot of oil or nailed to a cross but when we are dealing with pain, be that pain physical, emotional or mental we are still in pain.
+We may not be facing the loss of a loved one but difficulties at work and the possibility of the loss of employment can still paralyze us.
I think Simon Peter does not mention different levels of tests and trials for a reason.
He wanted his readers to understand that whatever they were going through, be it small or great, they could call upon the LORD to walk with them and guide them through it.
He wanted his readers to know that different people are at different points in their lives and what may be a big deal to one may not be a big deal to another and that we all should do our best to understand and be there for one another.
My mother was good at this. No matter what I was going through she didn’t try to downgrade it but allowed me to share it and then worked with me to get through it.
For years I didn’t know what tests and trials she had to endure growing up.
+Her father died of a coal mining accident when she was five years old.
+She had to be the nurse maid to one of her older sisters who ended up dying which caused her a great deal of emotional stress and pain.
+Her family was broken up with some of them moving away to be taken care of by other relatives because her mother could not afford to raise them after the death of her father.
+Having to leave home at an early age and trying to take care of herself.
+Married and divorced by the time she was 20 years old.
+Having her first child born out of wedlock only to lose that child to infant death syndrome three months later.
There was a lot more I discovered as I grew up but in all of that she never focused on her own sufferings and trials but on listening to ours and helping us endure our trials which were nothing on the scale of what she had to endure.
I think that is the direction that Simon Peter was directing his readers. He doesn’t want his readers to take the time to try to one up each other on just what had happened to them. And from what we have found out about Simon’s readers there were plenty of things that had happened to them - slavery, bankruptcy, exile, disease and intense persecution for their faith.
He wanted them and us today to put our focus on the One who will walk with us through our tests and trials.
He wanted them and us today to discover ways to help one another go through our different tests and trials.
He wanted them and us today to understand that in this life we will face trials and tests but there is something that we do need to remember and that takes us to our second point:
II. All Trials have a Beginning and an End -
Before Simon gets into all the testing and trials, he does give us a reminder – it’s an important reminder.
No trial, no test will last forever.
Now, if you are going through something that may not give you much comfort, but we do need to be reminded that no test or trial will last forever.
Even if your test or trial begins at your birth and ends at your death, it will not last forever for the Bible is clear that one day – all tests and trials will be over.
We looked at that last week when we read Revelation chapter 21 and saw where on the New Heaven and New Earth there will be no sorrow, no pain, no tests or trials.
There is coming a day after we are resurrected in Christ that all the things we have had to deal with in this life will be gone forever.
Until that day, Simon Peter also wants to remind us:
III. Our struggles, our trials and our tests can refine us; make us a better person.
I like the fact that Simon writes about gold.
He doesn’t tell his readers that they could be refined into gold but that they were already gold.
They were already something valuable.
They were already something precious.
They were not losers. They were not worthless. They were not cast aways.
The Good God of Creation; the Lord God Almighty had made them gold.
Simon reminded them that they had been made into the image of God, not a mirage of God.
The Devil will always tell us that we are worthless. That is what He tried to tell all the saints in the Bible. That is what he tries to whisper in our ears especially when times are tough.
But as Simon Peter writes here – we are gold and the trials and tests that come our way can be a way of making that gold purer, brighter and more valuable.
There are times when a few lines on a person’s face are not just lines of aging but lines of intelligence, wisdom and grace.
When we put our trials and tests in God’s hands, we can be assured that the LORD will help us use them to become better people of gold.
Now, there are some tests that God allows in our lives.
There are many tests and trials that are of our own doing.
And there are some that result from our fallen nature and free will.
Joseph didn’t want to be captured and sold into slavery, but at the same time it probably would have been best for him not to have bragged all the time and walked around in a rich man’s robe while his brothers had to wear work clothes. You could say that Joseph brought some of his suffering on himself.
However, Joseph at the same time didn’t deserve to be thrown into prison. That was Potiphar’s wife lying about Joseph because he wouldn’t have sex with her. That suffering was caused by an evil woman’s desire for revenge.
Joseph didn’t deserve to have to spend all that time in prison when he could have been released when he interpreted the cup bearers and baker’s dreams. That continued suffering was caused by the cup bearers’ negligence.
But when you look back over Joseph’s life – He allowed God to help him work through all his suffering and in the end His “gold” look well refined; bright and valuable.
The same happened in the life of a young Albanian woman by the name of Agnes born in Northern Macedonia on August 19, 1910.
We don’t know her today by the name of Agnes. She took on another name that has over the last 50 years become famous – Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Her life was not an easy one. It was one filled with ups and downs, with poverty and riches, with helping people die with dignity along with a life that had to endure depression, malaria, heart disease and persecution.
Mother Theresa took it all and allowed God to use those things to refine her gold.
I think that is what Simon Peter is encouraging all of us to do as well.
To not minimize what we or anyone else is going through.
To not glorify one trial or test over another.
But to place all of it in God’s hands and allow His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us so that instead of breaking us and destroying us that it will make our lives shine brighter and brighter.
I am reading a book entitled Hearts of Fire. It is a book about eight women’s faith stories as they had to endure all kinds of tests and trials.
All their stories are heart breaking and yet inspirational and challenging.
One woman was captured; tortured for her faith in Jesus, made to abandon her first husband and forced to marry a man of another faith and bear his child. She had to watch many of her friends and other family members be tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus. Her home and the homes of everyone she knew were burned to the ground.
Years later, she was miraculously rescued and reunited with her first husband and family. Today, her family is doing well but they must constantly stay alert. She is still a wanted woman by those who first captured her. They would love to recapture her, force her to testify against her faith and put her back into a life of bondage.
We may not like some of the tests and trials that we must go through in this life.
However, I believe as Simon Peter believed that when we work with God those tests and trials can help refine us, make us stronger and purer. They can help us shine an even brighter light for the LORD.
And they can lead to one more point that Simon makes in verse 7.
IV. Our Tests and Trials can be ways to receive God’s praise and to give God praise.
Listen to two different translations of verse 7:
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. – New Living Translation
The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again. – God’s Word Translation
If you notice one translation leans into the thought that we will be given praise, glory and honor when Jesus returns.
The other translation leans into the idea that all our trials and tests are ways that we can give God praise, honor and glory.
If you ask me which one do I think is correct, I would answer YES.
I think both are true –
+Our tests and our trials are ways that I believe we can give God honor – much like the man in the Bible who was lame for 38 years was able to give God honor through his healing.
+Our tests and our trials are ways that I believe that we will receive honor when Jesus appears – much like what Stephen saw as he looked into heaven as they were casting stones at him.
When everything is done – when our lives on this Old Earth are over – I believe all of us want our lives to stand for something –
+I believe those of us who follow Jesus want our lives to reflect His Love, His Grace, His Mercy and His Love.
+I also believe that when we die that Our Lord will welcome us with:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of the Lord”.
Until that time – let us press on. Let us do all we can do to be the best we can be for the LORD. Let us help one another in times of trials and tests. Let us not compare our tests with those of others but understand that with God’s help our tests and trials can be used by God to refine us to be better people tomorrow than we are today.
This morning I invite you to receive God’s Holy Communion
+It exists because of God’s Only Son – Jesus Christ of Nazareth taking the most difficult trial and test of all time – that of becoming a human, taking on the sin of humanity and paying the price of sin with His life.
+We receive Holy Communion not looking at it only as the result of a trial but as a means of grace that came out of that trial.
Because of what Jesus went through today we can receive His Presence – His grace, His mercy and love through bowing before Him, receiving the elements of bread and wine and asking God to forgive and renew us in His Holy Spirit.
We can come together as One – as the Body of Christ and uplift one another, encourage one another, accept one another, and pray for one another.
We can then go forward in Renewed Grace and Power to be the Church – the People of God to those who are in the World.
Holy Communion – Prayer – Blessing
