Rejoice in Suffering: The Gospel’s Path to Glory
Introduction: How do we view suffering? It is an obvious negative. In fact, it is not just negative, it is obnoxious to us. It is wrong; it is not fair; it shouldn’t be this way! It doesn’t matter whether we are a Christian or not, any kind of suffering, whether by stress or pain or disruption of a peaceful life, is to be avoided or remedied at all costs. Suffering brings about fear. Is this it? Is my life over? Will I ever have my health back or will this trial end so I can pursue happiness and comfort again? Suffering is a tragedy to the human mind.
But, that is not the way God looks at it, and it is time we learned to adopt God’s way of seeing suffering and not our own.
“…he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness (Hebrews 12:10).
The Godly Response to SufferingRomans 5:2-5 “We rejoice in our sufferings.” How do you read that? How have you always read that? Let me guess: “Paul is telling us that we ought to rejoice when we are suffering because it will all be over soon and I will get to be with God. So grin and bear it. Yes it is miserable, but it’s good for you.” But look more carefully:Paul does not command us to rejoice in suffering, he said we do rejoice in suffering. Rejoicing in suffering is a natural outcome of verse 2 – rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Because we have hope of attaining the glory of God, our natural response is to rejoice.That is not the response of a person in the world. Suffering is not rejoicing because the end of suffering is tragedy. But that is not our end, and suffering for us is not a tragedy, but a window of opportunity. Question: have we treated suffering as a tragedy? Yes, we have! We don’t see suffering the way Paul is describing it. Too often we are holding on to the way of the world in seeing suffering as loss; loss of joy, loss of a bright future, loss of fulfilling the joys and pleasures of this life. But, is that how Jesus and the apostolic writers treated suffering? They never saw it as a loss, they saw it as a gain.Now consider why sacrifice and suffering is not only a matter of rejoicing, but is also embedded in the Gospel message. Philippians 2:17-18 “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.” Acts 5:40-42 “…and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”1 Corinthians 1:17-18 “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” How many of us have considered why Jesus chose crucifixion over some other form of death? As Paul points out in this text, there is a message of the cross that was considered folly by the Corinthians. This is thematic in the rest of the two letters.1 Corinthians 4:8-16 confirms this message. Just consider that God actually gave Paul permission to say the words at the end of this paragraph, “I urge you then, be imitators of me.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?” (NIV11)How This Knowledge Should Change the Way We Live Note that we have seen a variety of ways that suffering takes place for a Christian. Some of these we relate to and some we do not.Persecution for Christ is the lot of every Christian who is faithful (2 Timothy 3:12), but not all persecution is “physical abuse” (Hebrews 12:4; Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Suffering can be from natural causes such as loss of health, an accident, a sudden death of those we love. Suffering can be mental debilitation from stress as a result of life’s circumstances, such as in a job, children acting out, a troubled marriage or death of family.First lesson: The apostles were not suggesting that when these events take place that we ignore our pain and dance about screaming, “Yay! I’m suffering!” That isn’t real, and isn’t the point. Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” That is the same point Paul made in Romans 5 & 8. We rejoice in suffering because of what suffering does in preparing us for glory. We cannot live in glory while being a natural, carnal person. Transformation into the image of God is necessary to live in glory with God. God’s word, lived out through suffering, is the path.Therefore, how do we balance experiencing the pain of suffering while still rejoicing in suffering? There are two answers:We refuse to allow suffering to defeat us. Suffering will not defeat us or deter us from continuing to serve God: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken…” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). (Ex of Dad, Mark) We allow suffering to do its intended work by driving us to a deeper relationship with God. This involves alone time with God. When your car breaks down you have to stop driving your car and fix it. Suffering reminds us of how much we need him! If you waste your trial of suffering by bulldozing through it with lots of activities so you don’t have to face the pain, you will ruin God’s purposes! Second Lesson: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Much could be said from this text, but we will notice two principles:Suffering keeps us from exalting ourselves. Without suffering, we become convinced that we are able to control our lives and successfully do things our way. Life becomes the glory of ourselves instead of the glory of God.God said through Isaiah that we are but “dust,” doomed to return to the dust. Notice the last words of verse 10: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul had learned the superior condition and benefit of living in weakness instead of in his own strength. When he realized he had no control over continually receiving “insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities,” he was able to simply rely on “the power of Christ.” It is important to know that it is impossible to read this text and understand the message of giving up control and truly living “in weakness so that the power of Christ” may rest upon you. It must be experienced. And when it is experienced, there is no greater joy than to know that God is your strength instead of yourself. Now you are ready to be transformed into the glory of God. There is no transformation is living for self. Give up self and God will transform you. The post Rejoice in Suffering – The Gospel’s Path to Glory appeared first on Woodland Hills Church of Christ.
