Suffering - God's Way

This sermon was preached on October 11, 2009 

Suffering – God's Way

Intro.: In 1894 a man died who struggled most of his life with tuberculosis.[1]

1. Though he lived the last part of his life in American Somoa, a memorial stone near his home in Scotland reads: 

Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

2. Shortly after being diagnosed with TB, Robert Lewis Stevenson traveled with his new American wife to American Somoa in order to care for his disease. He wrote, “Not every man is so great a coward as he thinks he is—nor yet so good a Christian."[2]
3. I expect none of us would like to leave our homes, with or without a new bride, because of some disease that we have. Yet, Robert Lewis Stevenson did exactly that – and still made a major impact on English literature that is not forgotten even today.
4. Stevenson was a believer that did not let his suffering stop him from making an impact on his world.
5. I want to look at a writer in the NT that understood suffering and helped the early Christians deal with it.

Read: I Peter 4:1-6

Pray

Trans: We return today to a series that we began last year at about this time.

1. Peter had spent three years with Jesus. He was a leader in the early church.
2. Peter knew his own suffering – as he wrote in the early years of Nero's reign of the Roman Empire. In Rome, where Peter probably lived at this time, Christians were used to feed wild animals, they were burned alive as torches for Nero's festivities.
3. Yet Peter calls Christians to consider why they are suffering.

T.S. Let's take a look at what Peter tries to teach the early church about suffering.

1. Suffering is a normal part of life.
1. Peter is does not try to minimize the difficulties that we face in life.
2. He is readily aware of that Christians, as well as everyone else, will face suffering as part of their life.

(Ill.) In fact suffering is major part of the letter that Peter writes to the Christians who are living throughout Asia minor. Seventeen times in this short 5 chapter book, Peter mentions suffering. Every chapter of his letter draws his listeners to this topic.

1. In chapter Peter reminds his readers that even the OT prophets wondered about the suffering that Christ would suffer.
2. Chapter 2 shows how Christ endured unjust suffering
3. Chapter 3 demonstrates that when we suffer for doing well, we will be blessed
4. Chapter 4 tells us – well, we'll say more about that later
5. In Chapter 5, we will see that suffering is not just for the dispersion, but is common to all believers in all parts of the world.

(Appl.) This week when you find yourself suffering (and most of your will), remember that you are not alone. You are not being picked on, you are not the only one being hurt. When you find yourself facing a major decision that leaves you feeling overwhelmed, the pain and confusion that you feel is not yours alone. Suffering is common to all mankind.

2. There are three causes of suffering.
1. I would like to suggest that there are three kinds of suffering.
2. Common suffering
1. As broken people we experience suffering
2. It might be an illness – as simple as a common cold or as complex as a mental illness
3. It might be an accident – if I take plan on using this hammer to put a nail into a board, but hit my thumb – I suffer. But so would everyone else who hits their thumb.(
4. Common suffering is a result of the limitations we have as humans.
5. But when Peter speaks of suffering in chapter 4, he never mentions the common suffering that we all share as human beings. Instead he has two other sources of suffering in mind.
3. Consequential suffering – Peter does discuss what I am calling “consequential suffering” - suffering that is the result of being out of the will of God.
1. Peter hopes that the believers are willing to aside the way they lived their lives as gentiles.
2. He list some of the behaviors that had led to their suffering - lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
3. It is amazing that the same problems that were so prominent 2000 years ago are still present in our world. And Peter's advice has not changed.
4. I find myself too often making sin general – Peter gets specific. God is not as concerned about the general idea of sin as he is about how it gets played out in our individual lives. I doubt that the list here is intended to be all inclusive – but it is indicative of the fact that living our lives outside the will of God, can contribute to the suffering we experience in this life.

(Ill.) There is a factory in France where spiderwebs are regularly cultivated, and of the delicate fibers ropes for military or weather balloons are constantly made. It seems almost incredible that so frail a thing can, by multiplying, be made into a strong rope, strong enough to strangle a man; yet so it is. Cobwebs can now literally become cables. Sinful thoughts, shadowy and filmy at the first, may become so strong by constant indulgence that the strong cords of avarice, lust, and hate may at last bind the soul to its utter undoing. Beware of the beginnings of evil.[3]

5. As Peter says it, “You have already lived long enough like people who don’t know God.” The six sins listed in I Peter 4:3 are not meant to be all inclusive, but Peter is clear in that God is concerned about how we live our lives.
4. Righteous suffering – I Peter 4 has another type of suffering.
1. In fact, this third type of suffering is what most of I Peter is about.
2. It is the same suffering that Jesus experienced – He suffered not because being out of God's will, rather He suffered because He was in God's will.
3. Those around you will think it strange when you do things God's way, rather than their way. You will seem out of place, you may even, like Jesus, suffer for doing things that seem strange to this world.

(Appl.) Collary – because suffering comes from three different causes, we cannot assume that because we are suffering, that we have done something wrong. Or because someone else is suffering, we cannot assume they have done something wrong.

(Ill.) Do you remember the story in John 9. Jesus and His disciples were walking and passed a man who had been blind from birth. One of the disciples asked the inevitable question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” The answer is that neither happened – Jesus was there to heal the man. The question is not who sinned, but what does God want of us?

Conclusion

Pray

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[1]Federer, W. J. (2001). Great Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced according to their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions. St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch.

[2]Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1889, in his work The Master of Ballantrae—Mr. Mackellar’s Journey. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 669. Found in Federer, W. J. (2001). Great Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Quotations Influencing Early and Modern World History Referenced according to their Sources in Literature, Memoirs, Letters, Governmental Documents, Speeches, Charters, Court Decisions and Constitutions. St. Louis, MO: AmeriSearch.

[3]AMG Bible Illustrations. 2000 (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; Bible Illustrations Series. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers.

Suffering For Blessing

Suffering For Blessing

Intro.: Paul once wrote, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;”

1. Suffering is never easy, yet it is part of life. It is part of all of our lives.

2. For some it is physical suffering, for some it will be emotional suffering, for some it will come in the form of financial hardship.

3. For some it will a short term problem, for others suffering is a part of their whole lives.

4. For some it is the result of the choices they have made. For some it is the result of the abuse given by others. And for some, it is just the result of living.

5. I don't have all the answers, but I want to look at one passage that gives us some insight into God's view of suffering.

Read: I Peter 3:13-18a

Pray

1. Suffering is a Win-Win situation

   1. Listen to Peter, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.”

   2. Peter begins by making it clear that harm should not be a part of the life of a believer. There is no one that should harm you if you are living the life that God calls you to.

   3. Of course, just because there is no reason to be harmed, doesn't mean it won't happen.

(Ill.) For example, there is a story told of child in India. On the Western shore of India – near the Southern tip – lies a region known as Travancore. In the middle of the 19th century the Bishop of Madras was visiting Travancore, there was introduced to him a little slave girl called “The Child Apostle.” She had won this title by the zeal with which she talked of Christ to others. Her quiet, steady persistence in this had won several converts to Christ. But she had suffered persecution too brutal to relate. When she was introduced to the Bishop, her face, neck and arms were disfigured and scarred by stripes and blows. As he looked at her, the good man’s eyes filled, and he said, “My child, how could you bear this?”

She looked up at him in surprise and said, “Don’t you like to suffer for Christ, sir?”¹

4. But it should not really surprise us – as we have said before, the only perfect man who ever lived was persecuted. Isaiah described Him as:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him. (Is 53:3)

5. And like Christ, when we do suffer, we end up being blessed.

6. Seems strange – I suffer, I am blessed. But it does means I do not need to be afraid of suffering. “God is an ever present help in trouble”

2. Suffering accompanies obedience

   1. Along with helping us to see the connection between suffering and blessing, Peter also points out the connection between suffering and obedience.

   2. In the midst of Peter's instructions about suffering, he gives a series of five commands.

      1. Have no fear of them

      2. nor be troubled

      3. honor Christ the Lord as holy

      4. always being prepared to make a defense to anyone

      5. having a good conscience

   3. The commands start by reminding us that we do not need to be afraid of those who challenge us. Remember that perfect love casts out fear. We no longer need to be afraid.

   4. But from telling us not to fear, he refocuses our attention on Christ the Lord.

(Ill.) A little over 400 years ago scholars believed that the universe centered around the earth. It was Copernicus that realized that the science of a earth centered universe did not explain all the events that he saw in the sky – the planets, the sun, the stars, did not behave as they should if the earth was the center of the universe. He set about to explain what he saw and came to the conclusion that the known solar system rotated around the sun. But that was considered a heresy and he could not publish his findings. It would be another 100 years before his findings would be released by Galileo and finally accepted as good science. The world thought that the universe centered around the earth. And even now science teaches that our solar system circles the sun. But they miss the truth – at the center of it all is not the earth, is not the sun, but is the God Himself. Peter reminds us that rather than focusing our attention on so many little things – we must focus our attention on Jesus.

5. Finally, Peter gives instructions about how we are to live – be ready to give a defense and live with a good conscience.

(Ill.) I was always surprised when a number of years ago a friend who knew me only as a computer science instructor remarked that he was surprised on how open I was with my faith. You see, I thought that was the way every believer lived their lives – I mean if Christ is the most important thing in their lives, we will be talking about Him. We will be ready to give a defense of our faith.

6. And living our lives with a clear conscience is one of the best ways we can be a witness for our faith.

Conclusion: Suffering is part of life.

1. There is no reason we should suffer as believers.

2. But when we do, we know that we will be blessed.

3. And then we saw that suffering will be accompanied by obedience.

4. Suffering may be part of life, but our faith in Christ prepares us to face it.

Pray

¹Choice Gleanings quoted in Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.