A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 5 of 5

Suffering for the sake of Christ.  We briefly touched on this last week as well.  Matthew 5:11-12 - “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Walking with Christ, following Jesus, means that you will be at some time or another, persecuted for your stance.  Satan hates that Christians, true Christians, live for God.  He hates every righteous step and sign of growth in us.  Like he did with Job, Satan is always trying to get God to revoke your salvation.  Guilt of sin is the one rope that Satan has with which God allows Him to pull us to hell.  When Christ saves you, the cord is severed.  Satan has no more grasp on you and so he will unleash with all his might on you to tempt you.  He was not afraid to tempt Christ Himself.  Who are we to escape a similar trial?

Our suffering, no matter how great, cannot compare to the suffering of our Savior on the cross.  Turn with me if you would to Revelation 5:1-14 - Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,  12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”  13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”  14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Verse 6 there says… ‘as if slain’.  Implying that the wounds are still visible yet He stands there alive.  The death brought by the wounds of our iniquities has no hold on Him any longer because He has risen!  He stands, He is worthy to take up the Book of Life!

The greatest suffering ever in the entire universe was the death of Jesus Christ.  And it is that suffering that is the center piece of the Grace of God.  It will be the theme of our unending praises in Heaven.  It will be the wonder of us for all eternity.  The cross was God’s plan before the foundation of the world and everything else is the mean’s He has used to demonstrate His Grace.

Jesus was slain… it’s the peak of God’s Grace.  John Piper says it like this, “The ultimate reason that suffering exists was so that Jesus could suffer and die for sinners.”  Jesus’ death on the cross was the highest demonstration of the Grace of God.  It brought Him the maximum amount of Glory.  He saves us through Christ and since He does it that way then it must have been the best and only way because if it weren’t He would have chosen some other way.  Let that sink in for a moment.

The word slain, more accurately rendered, is slaughter.  It’s not what you do to kill a human, it’s what you do to kill a lamb.  It’s a violent word.  The suffering of Christ was the worst suffering ever.  And in Him we can expect suffering as well, but Jesus said, “Rejoice” in suffering for His sake, for your reward in Heaven is Great.

The Cross of Christ is the central theme of the entire world and the entire universe.  The purpose of the Cross was that Christ would die to redeem a people.  Whose names have been written and sealed in the Lamb’s Book of Life long before the world began.  He accomplished that and now in all sufferings of any kind for any reason, Christians have hope because of Jesus Christ!

A question that typically arises out of this is, ‘Well, how do we know the difference between the types of suffering?’  Answer, there is no secret formula to it.  Each case of suffering, regardless of the type, should drive us to the Word of God and to prayer and God will strengthen us in that act of obedience.  He will renew our hope in Him.  If He do desires, He will make it clear to you why you are suffering… if not, you’ll understand it in eternity.  He saw no reason to explain to Job.  He didn’t see a reason to explain to Paul why the thorn was there, He merely said, ‘My grace is sufficient.’. 

If you are not in Christ.  If you’ve never repented (that is turned) from your sin and placed your trust in the sufficient saving power of Jesus Christ.  I plead with you.  Cry out to the Lord today to save you and do not stop until you feel Him assuring you that He has done just that.

Cry out to the only One who can wash your sins away and justify you before a Holy and Righteous God!

As always, if you are in need of me, I’ll be down front.  But I cannot save you any more than a prayer can.  But God can save you.  Cry out to Him.  He will save you.

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 4 of 5

Suffering for the Glory of God – You will also see this referred to in Scripture as suffering for the sake of Christ.  Grace does not always express itself in ways that are particularly joyous to us from an earthly standpoint, but are nonetheless joy packed.  At least not on the surface.

In John 9 we find an account of a man Jesus encountered who was blind.

John 9:1 - As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.  And then look at the first reaction of the disciples… John 9:2 - And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”  They looked upon his blindness as some form of punishment for sin.  They were assuming that God was chastening the blind man, the type of suffering we said was number two.  But look at what Jesus reveals.  John 9:3-5 - Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  5 “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 

This man had been permitted to be born blind so that the works of God could be made manifest in his life at this moment by Jesus Christ.  He was born blind for the Glory of God.  Born blind so that the grace of God could be displayed in his life.

John 9:6-7 - When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes,  7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.

Jesus healed him.  He brought sight to the man.  Why?  For the demonstration of His Grace and Glory.  Because HE is the Light.  And where the Light is present, you can see and there is no darkness.

There is a suffering, like this… and cancer… and other physical ailments like the Cerebral Palsy that Justin Peters has that are not a result of specific sin but is there to display the grace and glory of God.

This man spent years of his life in darkness so that at this moment, Jesus would heal him and bring God glory for it.  Now it may be that God even allows some sickness or blindness and does not heal from it… and for the Christian in this suffering… I know this is hard to hear… but that too brings God glory.  Now we certainly don’t run around thanking God for allowing someone to have cancer.  We aren’t cold and calloused.  That wouldn’t be loving of us. 

However, if that person who has it, I’m talking about the one that God doesn’t heal for whatever reason.  How amazing of a testimony is it for that person to leave behind that of their life we can say that they never let go of their faith and trust in God?
We all have testimonies of Christians we know who have suffered and died from cancer or lived with something like blindness or something who has persevered and never wavered in their hope and faith in God.  Not hoping that God would definitely heal them on earth, even though that is a rational and logical prayer request for them to make.  But they hold on to their hope that one day this will all be over for them and they would be in glory with God.  Worshipping forever, perfected and pain free… no more suffering.

It isn’t as an obvious reason for rejoicing as when God heals, but it is a way in which someone can glorify God nonetheless.  In the healings God performs, and I firmly believe that God does still heal, He is glorified obviously.  But He’s also glorified when a Christian holds fast to their hope, to their confession of faith… all the way to the end when God calls them home and says to them.  You’re suffering is over, come home.

What a testimony… what a legacy… I write our and record all these sermons and make notes in my Bible as I study … and I do that because it helps me to study and comprehend and learn more easily, but I really also do it so that if something were to ever happen to me before my children are grown, they can pick up these notebooks or put in a CD of my preaching one day and hear and read and remember… this was who my father was… Shortcomings and passions… this was who he was and I hope that they can say, he finished well.  He never lost sight of the Living Hope to which he’d been called.

I know this can be hard for us to deal with.  Especially non-Christians. But not so difficult if we set aside our emotions momentarily and remember that life is short… so short when measured by the span of eternity and that we were created to Glorify God… by whatever means He chooses to have us do it.

We can’t say that God is unfair… unfairness is unrighteous and there is no unrighteousness in God.  Psalm 92:15 - To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

This understanding of suffering also enables Christians to hold fast to their hope in God even when being put to death.  Which sets us up for our fifth and final type of suffering, in a few days.

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 3 of 5

Recapping, Part one is Constructive Suffering, Part two is Corrective Suffering... Part three then would be Suffering as a part of heavenly warfare.  Perhaps Heavenly warfare is not the best way to describe it.  Rather it is suffering that comes in a similar fashion to Job.

For an example of this we have to look to Job.  As the story opens, we see Job is happy and healthy.  He’s a favored man with many possessions.

Job 1:1-3 - There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.  2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.  3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

Enter into the scene… Satan.  Job 1:6-8 - Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.  7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”  8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”  Did you catch that?  Did you see that?  Satan appears before God.  The picture we get is that the presence of God is with Job’s family.  God has approved of the worship Job’s family is engaged in and He has accepted Job’s burnt offerings.  And Satan came and appeared before the Lord.  It doesn’t say why he came, although we can assume it was to accuse Job’s family before God just like he is the accuser of us all, all the time.  And God initiates a conversation with Satan.  “Have you considered my servant Job.”

Job 1:9-11 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?  10 “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  11 “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”

Satan says, you can’t use Job as an example of a person who hopes in You God because You protect Job and his family and bless him with gifts and possessions.  Satan is saying that true believers are only faithful while life is good and when good times go… so does their faith.

Job 1:12 - Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.  From this point in verse 12 and all the way through Job 2:8, God allows Satan to take away Job’s servants, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his camels, his sons and his daughters, and finally culminating in the striking of Job’s health.

How did Satan do it?  With the permission of god.  God has Satan on a leash essentially and God allowed Satan enough leash to do what was needed to prove to Satan that the faith of true believers is not in the good only that God gives, rather our hope is just in God.  Period.

How does God use Job to prove it?  Job 1:20-22 - Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 

Job 2:3 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” 

Job 2:9-10 - Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”  10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Shall we accept good from God and not adversity?  That sounds crazy!  Job is not cold hearted, he’s clearly mourning his losses, but he stands up through it because of his hope in God.  Listen, someone who is not a Christian… what hope for anything do they have to hold on to?  Nothing but this world which is perishing day by day.

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 2 of 5

Continuing on in our Biblical understanding of suffering... type number two is Corrective Suffering – It is when we are disciplined by the Grace of God.  Chastened by the Lord.  It is suffering that is meant to get us back on the path of righteousness.  A practical example would be spanking our children rightly.  Why do we do it?  Because their behavior has strayed from Godly behavior and the spanking is a jolt… a painful reminder… to get the child’s head on straight.  And beyond the age where you feel you can spank them, we correct them in other ways.

We have to teach them that when they do what is right in their own eyes that there are consequences.  We do it because we love them and so it is with the Lord.

Hebrews 12:5-11 - and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”  7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?  10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.  11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

I know I’ve had times in my life where God has had to thump me to get me back on the path to righteousness.  This type should truly be at the front of the list because every time we go through any type of affliction, the first thing we should do is a heart check to see if we need to confess and repent of a sin and return to the path of righteousness.

We need not to confuse this with punishment from God.  It is correction.  Discipline.  Punishment from God is the final judgment from God.  Punishment is the wrath of God poured out on all who reject Jesus.  Punishment from God is condemnation.  Condemnation will come on the unbelieving world.  The believer in Christ does not come under condemnation.

John 5:24 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

God does deal with the sins of believers, but because of Christ we are not cast out.  He deals with our actions by chastening us; disciplining us.  You see, when God saved and forgave you, He also placed you under His Lordship by giving you His Holy Spirit.

The call to salvation is a call to discipleship.  Submitting ourselves to Christ and His Lordship in our lives, and when we step out of line, He will discipline us to put us back in.  Think of the Disciples.  When Jesus said to them ‘Follow Me’, they didn’t just acknowledge it and then go right on living the way they wanted, nope, they dropped what they were doing and followed Him.

He doesn’t discipline us in an evil or mean spirited way.  But for our own good.  To protect our joy and lead us down the narrow path.  God’s corrective suffering removes the impurities in us.  Puts us through the Refiner’s fire to produce Godly living in us.

Sometimes, even, chastening is preventative.  Remember Psalm 139.  God has searched and known us.  He is intimately familiar with all our ways.  He knows what sins we are prone to stumble into.  That was the case with Paul.
2 Corinthians 12:7 - Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

This thorn was intended to hold Paul where he needed to be.  Kept him humble where the tendency of the flesh was to boast.  God does this purifying work in us to make us more holy.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

When we suffer at all, we need to see if it is corrective suffering… chastening… however, we are not God and do not know His mind fully and so we cannot nor should we ever point at suffering in someone else’s life and accuse them of some sin because of afflictions in their life.  We can go to someone who claims Christ, but is living in sin and, in love, confront them about it.  However, we cannot then look at their life and say that God is judging or chastening them because of the presence of some suffering.  That determination is God’s to reveal to that person, not ours.

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 1 of 5

Romans 5:3-5 - And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Consider it joy when you encounter suffering of all types. It’s the recurring theme of the Bible. We have a hope that through Christ we will one day stand with Him and be in the Glorious presence of God FOREVER!

There is no hope for eternity outside of the Grace of God. It is the duty of those of us who have this hope to always rejoice in it.

3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

and not only this!!! Paul’s joy is uncontainable! Pardon from God and peace with Him is infinitely valuable enough to give salvation worth. But we also rejoice in our tribulations! Here described is the process of sanctification as separate from the world. As we pull out and the world tries to grasp for us, we will be persecuted and afflicted, but we rejoice even still!

James 1:2 - Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

We don’t simply rejoice for the absence of tribulation, but tribulations, persecution, and afflictions actually serve to increase our hope and joy. They don’t hinder them.

Matthew 5:12 - “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We glory in our tribulations, especially when those tribulations are for the sake of righteousness.

Acts 5:40 - They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.

Peter and the disciples had been preaching Christ. And the Pharisees were torqued about it. But rather than kill them this particular time for it they decide instead to flog them. They beat them and then they sent them out saying for them not to preach Christ any longer. But look at their response.

Acts 5:41-42 - So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

This is crazy! A source of joy and hope and resolve this strong can only come from a Divine source! No man could ever stand up under this affliction without a supernatural intervention that protected his joy and hope. It conclusively proves that their focus was on the end of the race. On what was to come. What had been promised to them, namely forgiveness and eternal life. We rejoice in tribulation because they contribute to our ultimate glory and reward in Heaven.

The word tribulation has with it the underlying meaning of something being under extreme pressure. The same root word was used to describe the process of squeezing a grape in a wine press to get all of its juice out.

I spent some time working on a vineyard just after I graduated High School. Now our grape press looked different than their, but the principle was the same. Of course I always get asked the same question when people find out that I worked on a vineyard. They always ask, ‘Did you get to squash the grapes with your feet like Lucy did that time?’. The answer is yes, and it was awesome. But that only happened once or twice when the real press broke down.

For the real press, though, we’d put the grapes into a large metal cylinder that had small holes all around it. It was about 9 feet long or so I’d guess. Inside the cylinder was a large rubber rube that ran the entire length.

Now, just by the process of putting those grapes into the tube alone, some of the juice would begin to flow out and down into the pan below. But not much. Then, once we’d filled the grape press full we would lock down the lid and turn on an air compressor that would inflate the rubber tube. Effectively it would squeeze the juice out of the grape producing gallons of grape juice by the second.

I remember my first week of harvest ever. We pressed out the grapes and got, what I thought, was a lot of juice. And I was about to open the press and dump the skins and my boss, the owner of the vineyard, told me to spin the cylinder and press them again. Spinning it caused it to deflate the tube and tumble the skins like a dryer would clothing. So I did it, all the while thinking that those grapes had no more juice to give, and to my surprise we got even more juice out of them.

He had me do that 5-10 times more. And each time I thought there was no way we’d get anything, we always got more juice. You see it wasn’t about the grape, but what the grape produced that my boss was after. And he knew that the more we’d press them, the more juice they’d produce.

Lacking illustrations aside... In our context, it isn’t about us having an easy life. No, on the contrary it is persecutions that increase and strengthen our hope and faith in God. Produce more faith, produce more prayer and diligent reading of the Scriptures to find strength there.

And the results of that pressing produces more reward for us in Heaven as we persevere. More crowns laid up for us to lay at the feet of the Savior, because we live and suffer and die for His Glory and not our own.

2 Corinthians 4:17 - For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

Jesus said in John 15:20 - “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.

We have no reason to despair… no matter how great our suffering may become. Why? 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.

I should think that you ought to be more concerned about your soul if you are not now or have never gone through any persecution or affliction for your faith in God.

Rejoice in trials so that I get stronger. To an unregenerate soul, this is madness! But it actually can be evidence of our salvation. Assurance of our salvation. If we persevere and never waiver.

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints says that though Christians will by no means lead sinless or perfect lives, they will live a life that pursues holiness. It means that after the point in time that God saved you, you are continuing on in the faith. Obeying the teaching that you’ve been entrusted to.

John 8:31-32 - So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

If you continue on, then you are truly a disciple. So in our perseverance, in our continuing on and rejoicing in trials, we develop the proven character of one who has been redeemed by Jesus.

Those who continue on in the faith until the end demonstrate that God has sovereignly regenerated their heart.

Colossians 1:22-23 - And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

As we grow and our new hearts are further revealed and purified by testing and affliction we see that God is at work in us. He must have saved us! If not, you would not continue on in obedient faith. And the more God strengthens us, the more we see He is keeping us and THAT, Paul says, produces hope.

5a and hope does not disappoint – And Hope does NOT disappoint. And that hope is coming from God! Our hope produces a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation in the God who is the foundation of all our joy and faith.

Why does hope not disappoint? Because v5b - because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

God’s love, poured out in our hearts. Not withheld! The King James Version says the love of God is ‘shed’ on our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that He has given you. It is no mistake that the word for shed there draws images for me and for you of the shed blood of the Savior.

Galatians 4:6 - Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Our perseverance is the testimony of the Holy Spirit within us. Enabling us to cry out to God! Crying Abba Father!

Now we unpacked this verse last week. And it is not my usual practice to preach a topical sermon but I’d like to take the theme that Paul introduces here about our tribulations… which is essentially to say our suffering… and unpack that thought a bit more.

Ultimately suffering of any kind exists because sin exists. So God didn’t create suffering, man did by his sin, but He does allow it and use it for His purpose.

There are five categories that I think we can lay out our sufferings into. Or rather, five reasons for it that we see in Scripture. The first of these categories:

1.) Constructive suffering – Now, we won’t spend too much time here this morning because we really looked at this last week and also have been studying it through the life of Joseph in Sunday School. Sufficing to say, however, that this kind of suffering is suffering that God allows or ordains to prepare us for something later on.

Look at how God allowed all that suffering to come on Joseph. Sold into slavery, abandoned by his family, jailed, but ultimately ends up the most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh. God ordained and allowed those things to happen to Joseph, in order to shape Joseph and put him in places that he needed to be in to advance to where God had planned for him.

Another beautiful example of this same type of suffering would be the account of the life of Esther. Now we don’t know the circumstances behind this, but for some reason Esther had lost her parents.

Esther 2:7 - He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

Mordecai was raising Esther. Esther was his cousin. He was raising her because she had no parents Scripture tells us. Doesn’t say why, but her parents are gone. We can safely assume that her parents had died because if they were living I suspect that we’d learn her parents simply lived elsewhere.

None of us would suggest that a child without parents was better off than a child without parents. Obviously this is not an ideal situation. But God allowed and ordained for her parents to die. We must say that because we know that God has appointed the time and date that we will all die. So they have passed and Esther is being raised by her cousin. Clearly she had a tough life thus far at least emotionally.

Now, all of these things, God is using to shape and prepare her to stand before King Xerxes… one of the most ruthless Kings that world has ever known… stood before him to ask him to save her people, the Jews, from an evil plot by one of his own men to kill them.

God used her to save her people, just as he had used Joseph to save people from a famine. Sometimes it is that God ordains suffering in our lives to prepare us for something else.

We persevere through our suffering because God uses it to produce character and integrity in us. Hope in God produces perseverance, which produces character and character returns us to that hope that we have in Christ.