BBC Sermon Cast

When people—including Christians—undergo (especially intense and inexplicable) suffering, it is not uncommon to hear them say some not-so-easy-to-digest words. As Christian counsellor Diane Langberg recently tweeted, “If you are going to enter into the suffering of those who have been traumatized, you have to learn how to sit with and listen to fear, anger and great grief with compassion and understanding. You will also have to learn how to do it for far longer than you prefer.” Job is a case in point. Job’s friends were angry that he was not hearing their counsel—and he was angry that they were not hearing him. In response to Eliphaz’s second speech, Job said some hard-to-hear things as he agonised in confusion. His response reveals a crushed spirit. We consider this lengthy section under the following outline:

I. Eliphaz’s Accusations (15:1–35)

A. Awe-less Arrogance (vv. 1–16)

B. Woeful Wickedness (vv. 17–35)

II. Job’s Excruciating Pain (16:1–22)

A. Exasperated with Friends (vv. 1–5)

B. Exhausted by God (vv. 6–22)

III. Job’s Broken Spirit (17:1–16)

A. Hope Broken (vv. 1–9)

B. Hope Buried (vv. 10–16)

In a world of consumers, Christians are to be fruitful. We are to be characterised by fruitfulness, which is full of love and joy because we are connected to the Vine, because it is God's will for our lives, and because it has been God’s design for his people from the beginning. We will consider our text under the following headings:

1. The basis for fruitfulness (vv. 1–7)

a. Where there is fruit there is life; where there is no fruit there is death (vv. 5–7)

2. Fruitfulness as God’s will (vv. 8–10)

3. The fruitfulness of Joy (v. 11)

4. The fruitfulness of love (vv. 12–17)

The psalmist asked, “From where does my help come?” In response to his own question, he answered, trust the Lord and he will protect you all the way to heaven. We consider this brief psalm under the following headings:

1) Trust the Lord (vv. 1–2)

2) Your Protector (vv. 3–8)

a) from slipping (vv. 3–4)

b) from fainting (vv. 5–6)

c) from failing (vv. 7–8)

Clear-thinking Christians are united in their agreement that Christ, not Caesar, is our ultimate authority. Clear-thinking Christians are also united in their agreement that Christians owe some form of respect to human government. But there is a diversity of opinion on what that submission looks like. Does the Bible have any guidance for us in this regard? As we continue to work our way through 1 Peter, we come to a text that tackles head on the Christian response to human government. We consider 2:13–17 under the following headings:

1. The Expectation of Submission (v. 13a)

2. The Specification of Submission (vv. 13b–14)

3. The Motivation for Submission (v. 15)

4. The Disposition of Submission (v. 16)

5. The Qualification of Submission (v. 17)

The Bible is filled with accounts of believers who illustrate the faith of the distraught father, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). It is perplexing that believers can sometimes be confident and yet not confident at the same time. We might call this a confused confidence. This describes Job in the text before us, which we will consider under the following headings:

1. Job Confident: Lord, I Believe! (13:6–28)

A. A Confident Rebuke (13:6–12)

B. A Confident Resolve (13:13–19)

C. A Confident Request (13:20–28)

2. Job not so Confident: Lord, Help My Unbelief (14:1–22)

A. Disturbed by Depravity (14:1–6)

B. Discouraged by Mortality (14:7–12)

C. Delighted by Immortality (14:13–17)

D. Depressed by Futility (14:18–22)

Having previously emphasised his readers’ need to love those within the community of faith, Peter, in the text before us, begins to exhort them to love those outside the community of faith. In light of their identity in Christ, they should respond to outside opposition in a Christlike, rather than a fleshly, manner. We consider these verses under three broad headings:

1. An Exhortation to Hear (v. 11)

2. An Expectation to Honour (v. 12a)

3. An Examination to Heed (v. 12b)

Of Job’s three friends, Zophar appears to have been the most zealous in his attempt to defend God’s honour and condemn Job’s critique of how God was running his universe. His verbal thrusts, no doubt, wounded Job deeply, who responded with great angst. We find in this interaction the familiar pattern in which those at ease offer suffering saints simplistic but unhelpful platitudes. We should pay careful attention lest we fall into the same trap. We will consider the text before us under six major headings:

1. Job Insulted (11:1–12)

2. Job Indicted (11:13–20)

3. Job’s Complaint (12:1–12)

4. Job’s Conundrum (12:13–25)

5. Job’s Contempt (13:1–5)

6. Job’s Confused Confidence (13:6–14:22)

In the chapters before us, we consider the counsel that Bildad offered Job and Job’s response to his friend. Bildad’s approach was simplistic yet satanic, truthful yet trite. Job unhappily responded to this unhelpful counsel in chapters 9–10 with perhaps his most depressive speech. As we work through these chapters, it is helpful to remember that Job’s counsellors held to a form of prosperity theology. And while Job shared some of their theology, his confusion stemmed from the fact that he knew he had not, in fact, sinned. We will consider the material before us under seven broad headings.

1. Bildad’s Blast (8:1–7)

2. Bildad’s Belief (8:8–22)

3. Job’s Agreement (9:1–13)

4. Job’s Argument (9:14–24)

5. Job’s Agony (9:25–35)

6. Job’s Distressing Words (10:1–17)

7. Job’s Death Wish (10:18–22)

The local church is God’s chosen and holy community, which displays a holy conduct (1:1–21) as it grows in holy communion with one another and with the Lord (1:22–2:3). In 2:4–10 Peter reminds his readers that they are a holy community. He employs uses several descriptive phrases, grounded in the Old Testament, to remind them of their identity and to show them that, if they will live properly as a community of faith, they must appreciate their amazing identity as assigned by God. We will consider these verses under the following headings:

1. A Community that is Drawing Near (v. 4)

2. A Community that is Building Up (vv. 5–8)

3. A Community that is Speaking Out (vv. 9–10)

In chapters 6–7, Job responds to the speech of Eliphaz while repeating much of theme of chapter 3, where he lamented that he is alive. In despair, Job just wanted to die. But, before he died, he wanted to know why God had targeted him with such trouble. He felt as though he was living with a target on his back that invites the arrows of the Almighty. We consider Job’s first response to Eliphaz under four broad headings:

1. A Hopeless Feeling (6:1–13)

2. Heartless Friends (6:14–30)

3. Human Frailty (7:1–10)

4. Honest Faith (7:11–21)