← Ask Pastor John
Ask Pastor John
Suffering for Joy
00:13:32
Christianity isn’t a fix for all suffering in this life — but it does offer unshakable joy in trials and immediate relief from the deepest of pains.
Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:04]
A
Many people come to faith because they think Christianity is going to fix their pain, fix their life, and fix it fast. But what if God's goal for his children is not that we enjoy an easier life, but that we share in Him a deeper joy? Today, Pastor John walks through the book of Second Corinthians to show how suffering isn't wasted. It's transformed in Christ. Today on Ask Pastor John. Suffering for joy, Suffering for joy Pastor John As May begins, so begins another read through Second Corinthians in our Bible reading this month, the first half of this month. How would you challenge someone who believes Christianity is mostly about emotional healing and feeling good again? They don't want to suffer in this life. They want relief and they want to rid life of all discomforts. And for that, for that fix, many would believe in Christ. So how does this book we are diving into now, Second Corinthians, point us to a God who doesn't just fix pain, but who intends to use our most challenging experiences in life in order to deepen our joy?
- [01:16]
B
2nd Corinthians really is a sobering and thrilling gateway into the Christian life. I think it's fair to say that no other book in the New Testament is more stark or painfully realistic about the sufferings that Christians experience in this life, while at the same time this book, more often than any other New Testament book, insists on overflowing joy in the Christian life in spite of, even because of, that suffering. That's what makes it so peculiar and sobering and thrilling as a gateway into the Christian life. One way to come at this book is to ask if there is so much suffering that Christians are to expect, what's good about the Good News? If you can be killed in persecution or die of cancer at age 42 and leave four kids behind, what's good about the Good News? And the answer that comes back from this book is that first, the afflictions and suffering are actually working for our good. Yes, even the ones that end in death. And second, that there is a pain that the gospel really does relieve, both in this world and the next. So let me touch on three things. First, the sufferings. Second, the way they're working for our good. And third, the pain that the gospel really does relieve right now here's an example of Paul's afflictions as a Christian, and I think they're not unique to him. This is 2nd Corinthians 6. As servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. We are treated as impostors, yet are true as dying. And behold, we live as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich. Now, how much of that any particular Christian is called upon to endure is up to God, but none of it should surprise us. This is what Jesus promised in John 16:33. In the world you will have tribulation. It's just a promise from the Lord. In the world, tribulation, take heart. I have overcome the world. So that's the first thing, the suffering. Here's the second thing. God makes these tribulations work for our good. Here's two examples. Second Corinthians 1:8:9. We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. We felt that we had received the sentence of death that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. God's purpose, not Satan's purpose. This is God's purpose. In Paul's suffering was the deepening of his faith that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. In other words, this affliction might kill us, but God will raise us to everlasting joy. So let the affliction drive you to God. That's the point. So here's the second example that I'll gift. This is from 2nd Corinthians 4. We do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day for this light, momentary affliction. And by that he means like 80 years, like a lifetime, is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So even if this suffering takes us right to the grave, it is not without purpose, because it is preparing. Now mark that word. So many people slide over that word. It is preparing an eternal weight of glory. It's not just followed by an eternal weight of glory. Everybody who's a Christian believe that. What a lot of people don't realize is that it's preparing. It's producing, it's bringing about this wasting away of John Piper's old 80 year old bodies. This wasting away is producing a greater weight of glory after death. This is an absolutely wonderful truth. When we must suffer to the very end or watch people suffer to the very end, if the sufferings drive us to God, instead of driving us away from God, they produce a weight of glory beyond all comparison. Now here's the third thing that maybe we don't stress enough. So let me really stress it. The third thing is there is a pain that the gospel, the good news of Christ crucified and raised for sinners. This gospel really does relieve a pain. It relieves now, not just in eternity, but now. 1. The gospel relieves the pain of meaninglessness. Now nothing in the Christian life is without meaning. There is divine purpose in everything. No Christian suffering is random or pointless or absurd, no matter what it looks like. It often looks that way. Of course it does. We're just finite. It is all working for our glory. 2nd Corinthians 4:17 when you trust Christ, you never have to feel the pang again that your life is meaningless, ever. It's not, not one part of it. Second the gospel relieves the pain of guilt. Now, right now. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 for our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We do not wait for eternity for this freedom. It is now, and it is glorious. No condemnation, no guilt. Now Christ took it. God declares it. This is why Paul can say in in 2 Corinthians 4, 7 in all our affliction we are overflowing with joy because he had no guilt. What an amazing freedom from pain. And it's also why the Macedonians could say in 2nd Corinthians 8:2, in a severe test of affliction, our joy overflows, judgment is passed, guilt is gone. Now they were leaping for joy in the midst of their affliction because the pain of guilt was gone. 3 the gospel relieves the pain of being unloved now, right now. 2nd Corinthians 5:14 the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. Therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised. Oh, how Paul loved being loved by Christ. He couldn't get over it. He said, the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, me, used me, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 and number four. The gospel relieves the pain now of fearing death. The Bible says people are held in bondage by the fear of death their whole life long. It's a painful thing. We have to suppress it all the time. 2nd Corinthians 5:8 we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. For Paul, death was not fearful, it was the final corner that we turn onto the street and see our old homestead. Home is home. What a gift in this life to be freed from the pain of the fear of death because it means home with the Lord. And let me mention one more thing. Finally, the Gospel relieves all suffering beyond death. All of it. All of it. There will only be an eternal weight of glory. Chapter 4, verse 17. There will be no more suffering. None. Absolutely none. So yes, it's true. The Gospel does not relieve 80 years of all suffering in this life. Just 80 billion billion billion ages of all suffering. That's all. May God for our dear listeners, may God do a great liberating work in our lives as we walk together through Second Corinthians, this amazing gateway into the Christian life indeed.
- [11:59]
A
Yes, it is a sobering and thrilling gateway into the Christian life. There's no other book in the New Testament like it that is more stark or painfully realistic about the sufferings that Christians experience in this life. And no other book in the New Testament more often that insists on overflowing joy in the Christian life in spite of even because of that suffering. Second Corinthians is a monumental book when bringing together the realism of pain and the awesome hope of eternity. And to show you that your suffering, my suffering, isn't just something followed by glory. It's the very thing preparing that glory for us. 80 years of suffering now producing 80 billion ages of joy to come. Producing. We have covered so much ground on the topic of suffering. If you want a summary to help you see the ground that we have covered over these past 13 years, see the aspestorjohn book in that section titled On Trials, Sorrow and Chronic pain on pages 365 to 394. Thank you, Pastor John. Thanks for joining us today. If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find a link to email us and find our complete episode archive at the same place askpastorjohn.com I'm Tony Reinke. We'll see you Thursday as we look at Learning to delight in God's Holiness. How do we delight in God's holiness? That's next time. We'll see you then.