This past Sunday we recognized and celebrated the hard work of some of our graduates. Given that, we gave some attention to what a graduate might need to hear before heading out into the world. More specifically, we gave some attention what a graduate who happens to be a follower of Jesus might need to hear before plunging into a deeply secular environment. Incidentally, as our culture continues to secularize, this turns out to be some encouragement we all need to hear. Let’s dive in.

When the Going Gets Tough

We do not live in a Chrisitan culture any longer. We haven’t for some time, but it’s getting worse. Well, worse may not be the most charitable word there, but it is nonetheless the case that our culture is moving further and further away from its Chrisitan worldview foundations. Of course, we have never technically been a Christian nation as our Constitution sets out the framework for an explicitly secular government, but it is also true that our Constitution is clearly and intentionally written from the standpoint of the Christian worldview, and it not only does not make sense on another worldview framework, but no other worldview framework could have produced it. Perhaps more significantly, no other worldview framework is capable of sustaining it long term. 

In light of this cultural drift, our culture is in a bit of an odd place. On the one hand, there are more and more anecdotes floating around out there of individuals and whole entities going after genuine expressions of faithfulness to Christ with all the resources at their disposal including the power of the State. At the same time, we have a Supreme Court that is more intentional and robust in defending religious liberty than we have had in a long time. 

And, while all of this is going on, there is a growing movement toward the church on the part of many folks in our culture, especially younger folks, and especially younger men. It is interesting that for years, women came to church and men didn’t give it too much of a second thought. Now, men are drifting toward the church in ever-increasing numbers while there is a growing exodus of women. 

What all of this means is that we are growing increasingly polarized as a culture. This kind of polarization means that the likelihood of our experiencing opposition to being a follower of Jesus is going up all the time. We generally still lag rather far behind other nations in the world in terms of the kind and severity of opposition we face for following Jesus, yes, but the growing non-Christian segment of our culture is more comfortable hating Christians and Christianity all the time. It is also more ignorant of Christianity and the Christian worldview than it has ever been. And there are few places this likelihood of opposition is increasing as fast as it is on college campuses. What are we supposed to do with this? 

As we recognize and celebrate our various graduates this morning, some of whom are headed off to college in a few weeks, and some of whom are departing from there to the next phase of life, that is exactly what I’d like to talk to you about for a few minutes this morning. Facing opposition for our faith in Jesus may not feel particularly good when we are in such a moment, but it’s also not something we should imagine to be strange or otherwise outside the norm of what we should expect as followers of Jesus. After all, Jesus Himself warned us more than once that we should live our lives as His followers with a clear and well-developed…let’s call it a theology of persecution. He told us to count the cost, meaning we should expect to pay one. Opposition for our faith is not something that should surprise us or catch us off guard in any way. The real question we need to work through is how we are going to respond to it. 

Well, while we can find several bits of counsel in that regard scattered across the New Testament, no one writes as thoroughly or compellingly on the matter as the apostle Peter. His first letter to believers living in the region that is now the nation of Turkey, all in the midst of a culture that did not appreciate, respect, or very much tolerate their commitment to Jesus, has long been a great and encouraging haven for believers who are similarly living in harm’s way. And as our culture continues to turn away from and even occasionally against robust, genuine expressions of faith in Jesus, Peter’s words are becoming more relevant all the time. If you have your copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way to Peter’s first letter with me. It is found way in the back of the Bible. If you hit Revelation, you’ve gone too far. If you find yourself in Hebrews, you’re not quite there. Let’s land in 1 Peter 4. Here, near the end of the letter, Peter addresses the issue of Christians suffering for their faith directly. Take a look at this with me starting in v. 12. 

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.” In other words and again, if you experience some kind of opposition because of your faith in Christ—even intense opposition—don’t let it worry or surprise you. Opposition to our faith should not catch us off guard. That kind of thing isn’t unusual. It is par for the course. Now, that opposition may come in all sorts of different forms and fashions, shapes and sizes, but its presence at all will not change. 

And before you worry too much about why God would allow His people to face “fiery ordeals” like this, Peter has already told us. “Don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you.” In a couple of weeks we’re going to make a trip to Maryland where Micah and Gray and another friend will compete in the International SeaPerch Competition. They built a robot out of PVC pipe that they will navigate through an obstacle course and a mission course where they have to use it to do a variety of things, all under water. In order to do the competition, they didn’t just slap a robot together the day before and wing it. They researched and drew up a design for it. Then they assembled it. Then they tested it in a variety of different ways to make sure it was up to the task they were going to be putting it to. 

In a similar way, God tests His people to make sure we are up to the tasks He has in mind for us to do. His testing isn’t of our mechanical parts, though, but of our spiritual parts. Do we have the faith to trust in Him so that He can lead us through whatever it is that is coming? He also gives us the opportunity to prove the genuineness of our faith. God doesn’t allow us to face hard times—including persecution—just randomly or because He’s having a bad day. He intends to use them to accomplish a very specific purpose. What the purpose is isn’t always terribly clear, but that He has one should not be in doubt. 

Instead of getting all discombobulated over these kinds of experiences, Peter offers some different counsel: Rejoice. “Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.” Rejoice? In the face of suffering? Why on earth would we do that? Because if we are suffering like Jesus did, then that means the world is seeing Him when it looks at us. And if the world is seeing Jesus when it looks like us, do you know what that means? It means we look like Jesus as far as the world is concerned. If our goal is to become like Christ by the work of His Holy Spirit in us, what greater testament to the successfulness of our mission could there be than that? 

“So, if you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” We often think that hard times are an indicator that we are doing something wrong. After all, pain is nature’s way of alerting us to a problem. If you are hurting somewhere, and if that hurt lingers longer than it should, you should be paying close attention and starting to investigate the reason for the pain. There’s probably a problem that needs to be addressed. But in the context of God’s advancing kingdom in the midst of a world that very much does not want that to be the case, pain is often an indicator that we are doing something right. If you are being ridiculed for the name of Christ, that means Jesus is shining through you because of the work of His Spirit in you such that the world can see Him and is reacting accordingly. You are blessed in that instance. 

Of course, there’s an other side here. Experiencing suffering and hard times as a follower of Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean that God is testing you somehow and affirming your advancement in His holiness. It could just mean that you are facing the natural consequences of bad choices. To put that another way, if people hate on you because you are walking consistently in the character of Jesus, rejoice. If, on the other hand, people hate on you because you’re a self-righteous jerk, that doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. That just means you need to quit being a self-righteous jerk. Similarly, if your hard times are the result of something else ungodly that you’ve gotten yourself into, you are merely reaping the bitter rewards of your unfaithfulness to the character of Christ. “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler.” 

That’s always been a funny list to me. The first three are big and obvious sins. If you get put in prison for murder, you are not blessed, you are a murderer. If you get arrested for theft, you are not blessed, you are a thief. If you face some significant consequence because you’ve done something evil, you are not blessed, you are an evildoer. We get that. But a meddler? What even is that? Well, the word in Greek means just what it sounds like: a person who meddles in the affairs of others. Another translation opted for “troublemaker.” We could have just as easily used the word “busybody.” If you are the kind of person who is constantly sticking your nose in other people’s business, eventually someone is going to metaphorically punch it (or maybe actually punch it…who knows). The pain you experience for that is your own fault and doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. Don’t expect a pat on the back from God for it. 

This caveat aside, Peter goes right back to the point in v. 16: “But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name.” Listen, if you profess Christ, do so publicly, and live in a manner that is consistent with your confession, there are people who aren’t going to like that. We live in a bit of a cultural bubble here in this area relative to much of the rest of the world, and we shouldn’t take that fact for granted, but when you leave this bubble, it’s a very different place out there. People believe all sorts of different things that are not only contradictory to things you have perhaps been taught are right and true, but they believe them with a conviction that might reveal your own conviction to leave something to be desired. The thing is: ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. You could very well be the victim of someone else’s bad idea. And if that idea is that to some degree followers of Jesus are of no account like He was and can be treated accordingly, then the harder you lean into Jesus, the worse their treatment of you might become. 

When that happens, just smile to yourself and offer up a prayer of gratitude that God has seen your faithfulness and is giving you the opportunity to demonstrate its genuineness. And, like I said earlier, there are few places that you are as likely to experience this kind of opposition as a college campus. That even goes for campuses that are still Christian in name. If you follow Jesus faithfully, times are occasionally going to get pretty tough because of the fact that the world around you hates Him and you are the easiest, most convenient target. But when faithfulness gets tough, the wise lean more into Jesus. 

Okay, but how do we do this? Well, what we have been talking about for the last little while is a good first step. We have to know what’s true. More than that, we have to be rooted in what is true. It’s not true that God has turned His back on you when you are facing hard times. It’s not true that you are judgmental or an exclusivist or a bigot or anything else along those lines simply because you profess faith in Jesus and seek to live out His commands in the world around you. It is true that you serve the God who has promised to never leave you or forsake you. It is true that He can and will sustain you through hard times if you will keep seeking Him and doing life according to the commands of His kingdom. It’s true that hard times experienced because of Jesus are a cause for rejoicing and celebration. It is true that the people around you aren’t your enemies, but rather the ideas they represent, and while you should always be gentle with people because Jesus was, you should be ruthless with ideas. That’s what Jesus did, and He’s the way through this hard season. When faithfulness gets tough, the wise lean more into Jesus.

Part of knowing what is true in these matters is knowing that you can’t ultimately stand firm in Christ if you are trying to stand on your own. One of the most common ways God extends His hope and help to us in these times is through the ministry of other followers of Jesus with whom we are living in community together. Notice the assumption there. You need other followers of Jesus with whom you are living in community together. To put it more directly: you need the church. It is true that going to church doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus. But you aren’t—won’t—can’t be a good and faithful follower of Jesus without the church. And if it sounds to you like I’m arguing that you can’t be a good Christian without being deeply connected to and invested in a church community, then you heard me correctly because that’s exactly what I’m saying. You need the strength and support of a whole community of believers who will pray with you when times get tough, who will stand with you so you know you aren’t standing alone, who will advocate for you and listen to you, and give you wise counsel when you need it. Simply put: you need the church. 

When you get to college—or perhaps even now for some of the adults in the room—there is going to be a very great temptation to set the church to the side and focus on other things. And indeed, there will be many, many other things vying for your attention. If you aren’t intentional about getting grounded in a community of faith—a good, solid church—the likelihood that you come away from the experience with your faith intact is going to go way, way down. You might still live with a set of morals that are basically Christian in form, but detached from the only foundation that will actually support and strengthen you, you may wind up somewhere very, very different from where you started. The suffering that comes your way on the other side of that transition will not be because of your faithfulness to Christ and you’ll be on your own to navigate it. 

This same thing is true for adults too, by the way. Unless you are deeply connected to a church, your faith will not thrive. It will not grow. It will not really even survive. It will wither and die, and while you might maintain a veneer of Christianity because of the community you live in, you won’t be the kind of person Jesus recognizes as His when you are standing before Him. The tough times you endure then, you will endure by yourself. Faithfulness is tough, and that’s why you need the church. When faithfulness gets tough, the wise lean more into Jesus. 

There’s one more thing here, and this is a kind of extra for experts addition. The people around you who might be the form this opposition you face for following Jesus takes aren’t your enemy. They are people who are lost and clueless as to the real state they are in. They are a reminder for you of just how important it is that you cling to Christ and of how important it is that you boldly share the Gospel with them even in spite of how they have treated you. Because here’s the thing: this world isn’t going to last forever. There is a day coming when all things are going to come to an end. On that day, God is going to assess each of us according to our deeds. Let me just tell you now: That’s not going to go well for anyone. No one is going to make that particular cut because the standard is going to be God’s perfect righteousness, and we have all fallen woefully short of it. Our only hope is Jesus. 

This is something Peter points out at the end of the chapter. Come back to the text with me in v. 17: “For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? And ‘if a righteous person is saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’” There are people around you who are separated from God, a state of affairs that will become permanent unless they are reconciled with Him. They may be persecuting you because of your own relationship with Him, but what they need from you is not hatred in response to their hatred of you, but a display of the love and kindness of Christ combined with an invitation to come and explore what’s really true about the world, and to experience the hope and fulfillment that can bring to our lives. They literally don’t know what they are missing, and it’s your job by offering the example of Jesus’ love to them along with a Gospel invitation to help them find it. 

“So then, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator while doing what is good.” When you are standing firm on the foundation of Christ Jesus, you will be able to let a great deal run off your back like water off a duck. You will be free from the burden of having to offer a response in kind. Instead, you can just resort to kindness. You can just do what is good, trusting that God will take care of the rest. As you lean into Jesus, He will make sure you are able to weather the storms and come out with a stronger, more robust and resilient faith in Him. When faithfulness gets tough, the wise lean more into Jesus. 

Given where our culture is, the odds are fairly high that you will one day find yourself in the crosshairs of someone’s efforts to ridicule you for your faith or to persecute you for it or otherwise try to intimidate you away from it. Don’t give in. Double down. Double down on the love of Christ. Double down on His kindness and gentleness. Double down on winsomeness and generosity of spirit. Double down on sharing the Gospel with humility and boldness. Double down on your commitment to what is true. Their lies and deceptions may be clever, but that won’t make them any truer. And do all of this from out of the context of a church family who is there to support and sustain you every step of the way because you would do the same for them. If you do this, you will not be shaken. When faithfulness gets tough, the wise lean more into Jesus. So lean in and reap the rewards.