Suffer Well
Selected Scriptures
April 10, 2022

The Title of the Sermon is Suffer Well. We need to suffer well because the human experience is FULL of suffering. It seems at every corner of life we experience some form of suffering, whether it be from frustration, bad decisions, relationship break-downs, other people, health problems … there is no lack of suffering in the world. There is no person that suffering will not touch. Often times we suffer for years on end with some form of suffering. This morning, through a topical sermon, I want to take a look at what God has to teach us about suffering as we begin Passion Week and think about.

PRAY

#1 All Suffer Physical

Suffering is directly correlated to sin! Every ounce of it.

• Triggered by Adam’s fall in The Garden, therefore plunging humankind into suffering and being cursed by God.
  • Part of the curse was that all humans had to return to the dust.
    • We have to die.
    • [Passage 1] Genesis 3:19, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
    • Very few leave the earth suddenly.
    • Most of us will be placed into a bed of suffering, for a time, through the process of dying.
    • We leave here is the most humbling ways in suffering.
  • Medical problem cause suffering even for the young.

ILLUSTRATION: Many people have excelled with suffering.

Most of the Psalms were born in difficulty. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. … Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress from jail. Florence Nightingale, too ill to move from her bed, reorganized the hospitals of England. … During the greater part of his life, American historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely that he could not work for more than five minutes as a time. His eyesight was so wretched that he could scrawl only a few gigantic words on a manuscript, yet he [strained] to write twenty magnificent volumes of history. (Hansel)

# 2 We have Adams sin in us that causes suffering.

Being part of Adam’s sinful prodigy has brought an incalculable amount of suffering to humankind.

• Our hearts contain murder, theft, greed, gossip, lust, hate, impatientness, lack of contentment, anxiety, worry—you name it—it’s there.
  • People think they define sin.
  • We needs God definition of sin—not ours.
    • Sin means missing the mark.
    • Some use: sin is anything we think, say or do that doesn’t please God.
    • Practical work out is withholding love from anyone at any time for any reason.

#3 Out of our heritage also come personal, sinful choices which bring more suffering.

• Our sin makes us suffer
• [Passage 2] 1 Peter 4:15, But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
• Some of consequences in a way are a silver lining: if there were not suffering consequences for sin, all people—including Christians—would do a lot more of it!

Our sins may make others suffer and vise versa.
Who has not been touched by the sins of another?
We are in a Suffering Soup.

• The consequences of sin are as incalculable as the sins themselves.
• Texas’ prison system budget for 2022 = 3.7 Billion
• BUT THE HUMAN COST IS MUCH HIGHER
  • The pain, the lost, the torment, the broken families. The children.

#4 Christians suffer in particular ways

• Christians suffer as a One Body > In community
  • [Passage 3] 1 Corinthians 12:26a, If one member suffers, all suffer together.

We suffer due to acute home sickness
- > [Passage 4] Romans 8:20-23
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

• We are the people in the world without a home anywhere!
• We are aliens without passports!
• It’s out of this curse that comes The Great Christian Hope:
  • Groan = suffering (implied here)
  • Redemption of our bodies
  • Adoption as sons = redemption of our bodies (yes-but not yet). FULL REDEMPTION
• We long for ALL the promises of faith to be fulfilled.
  • There delay causes groaning therefore suffering for us.

Temptation Brings Suffering

• [Passage 5] Hebrews 2:18, For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
  • Jesus suffered when He was tempted.
  • As an outflow of His ministry he continues to help us when we are tempted as He was.
  • A Christian has a war going on inside.
    • Before saved.
    • After salvation.

From Spiritual Disappointment

• [Passage 6] 2 Corinthians 2:3, “And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.”

From Doing The Ministry God has Called Us To

• [Passages 7] 2 Timothy 1:8, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.
• 2 Timothy 4:5, As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
  • What is your God given ministry?
  • Find out!

ILLUSTRATION
Amy Carmichael’s life.
She wrote,

Hast thou no scar’
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand’
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar’

Hast thou no wound’
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spend,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound’

No wound, no scar’
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wounds nor scar’

SUFFER > SUFFER > SUFFER

• Physically break down
• Suffer from the sins of others
• Suffer from our own sin
• Suffering in the Church community
• 15 ideas I am not covering

“Suffering gets our attention; it forces us to look to God, when otherwise we would just as well ignored Him.” (Yancey)

The Calls To Biblical Responses

To Rejoice

• Charles Spurgeon, “I do not know of any command anywhere in Scripture, ‘Groan in the Lord alway; and again I say, Groan.’”
• [Passage 8] Colossians 1:24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. … 1 Peter 4:13, But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. … 1 Peter 4:16, Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

To Pray

• [Passage 9] James 5:13a, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

To Endure

• [Passage 10] 1 Peter 2:19-20, For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

We Are To Example Jesus In Suffering

• [Passage 11] 1 Peter 2:21-23, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

To Trust God

• [Passage 12] 1 Peter 4:19, Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
• God is sovereign. We don’t understand all of His ways.

ILLUSTRATION

At the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the 4th century A.D., of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith. (Havner)

• This has always continued:
• While at church, on average, 6 Christians died in the world for their faith in Jesus.

APPLICATION

• Do we have a Christian world-view of suffering in our lives. Or a world, world-view?
• Patience , rejoicing, prayer, enduring, and trusting.
  • These are the biblical responses to suffering.
• Maclaren said, “Those who know the path to God, can find it in the dark.”

#5 Benefits of Suffering Well

When we respond with biblical responses, we shall receive the God’s blessings:

• Honor / Worthy / Privilege
• [Passage 13] Acts 5:41, Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. … Philippians 1:29, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.

Character Built

• [Passage 14] Romans 5:3-4, Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
• Notice suffering starts an important list of character.
• Struven said, “A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.”

Comfort

• [Passage 15] 2 Corinthians 1:5-7, For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
  • Comfort moves through our lives to others.
  • Their comfort moves from others’ lives to ours.
  • Jesus is the source of all comfort.

Intimacy

• [Passage 16] Philippians 3:8-10, Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Honor, privilege, comfort, character building, intimacy with God, if that is not enough there is great …

REWARD
[Passage 17] A Christian world view embraces suffering. The Scripture teach the necessity of suffering:

• Romans 8:17-18, And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Martin Luther wrote:

If we consider the greatness and the glory of the life we shall have when we have risen from the dead, it would not be difficult at all for us to bear the concerns of this world. If I believe the Word, I shall on the Last Day, after the sentence has been pronounced, not only gladly have suffered ordinary temptations, insults, and imprisonment, but I shall also say: “O, that I did not throw myself under the feet of all the godless for the sake of the great glory which I now see revealed and which has come to me through the merit of Christ!” (Luther)

“The Merit of Christ” / The Result of Jesus’ Suffering

• Jesus’ Suffering Prophesied
  • No less than 8 verses from the NT w/ “suffer”
• It was Necessary For Jesus To Suffer
  • No less than 5 verses in the NT w/ “suffer”
• Jesus’ Suffering Is Proved
  • No less than 2 verses w/ “suffer”

And suffer Jesus did; for what purpose?

• [Passage 18] Hebrews 13:12, So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. … 1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

APPLICATION
GOSPEL IN A CONTEXT OF PALM SUNDAY

Carmichael, Amy. No Scar? Bible.org, accessed March 28, 2022, >https://bible.org/illustration/no-scar.

Hansel, Tim. You Gotta Keep Dancin’. David C. Cook, 1985, p. 87. As quoted by SermonIllustration.com. Accessed April 7, 2022, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm.

Our Daily Bread. As quoted by SermonIllustration.com. Accessed April 7, 2022, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm.

Scripture is from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Struven, Mildred Witte. Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, p. 6. As quoted by SermonIllustration.com. Accessed April 7, 2022, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm.

Yancey, Philip. Where is God When it Hurts? p. 58. As quoted by SermonIllustration.com. Accessed April 7, 2022, http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm.