Romans 8:18-39 –

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that
is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of
God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it,
in hope 21 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. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 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. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches
hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called
he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did
not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give
us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger,
or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Introduction

I have entitled this sermon “Your Extraordinary Hope in Suffering”. By Extraordinary I mean “unusually great”. All of you, at one time or another, and many of you right now, are experiencing sufferings and trials of many kinds. You may be gripped by physical illness and weakness; you may be facing an onslaught of discouragement or temptation from the evil one; you may live in relationships with problems that seem insurmountable; the evil one may remind you again and again of your past failures; you may be grieved in your heart because of the evil you see in the world; you may be suffering because you are a follower of Christ; there is no end to the kinds of suffering you may be experiencing.

Suffering is hard, but shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus prepared us for this. And Jesus Himself suffered. He suffered for us. He set an example for how we can respond to suffering. And He calls us to endure suffering in faith.

Hebrews 12:1–3 says: ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Jesus calls us to follow Him, enduring suffering with joy, and as we will learn today, Jesus calls us to not lose hope in our suffering.

But, sometimes our suffering overwhelms us. Sometimes we lose sight of any glimmer of hope. My desire today is to point you to the Extraordinary hope that is yours in Christ! If you are a Christian, your hope in Christ is unusually great. There is nothing ordinary about our hope—it’s the kind of hope that pulls us through suffering. Its greater than we can begin to imagine. I want you to see it, and to savor it, and to live in light of it. God doesn’t promise to always remove the suffering, but He does promise to sustain you with hope as He carries you through it! In no way do I want to minimize the suffering you are facing; instead, it is my desire for you to understand that the hope that is yours is far greater!

Our text of Scripture this morning is Romans 8:18-39. Today I want to highlight from this text 3 reasons for your Extraordinary hope in suffering, and I want you to see 3 key questions and answers that fortify that hope! But let me be clear first and foremost: this hope is for the person that Christ has saved, the person that is born again, who has been justified by faith, and who has (objective) peace with God. This hope is anchored in and built upon the person of Jesus Christ who redeemed us through His shed blood, and whose righteousness is ours by faith.

If you are here this morning and you are not trusting in Jesus for your salvation, I urge you to run to Him today, put your faith in Him, that you too may have this Extraordinary hope.

3 Reasons for Your Extraordinary Hope in Suffering

There is one thing that must be said before we look at reason #1, and it’s this: Romans 5:3-5 teaches us that “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”. God is present and at work in our suffering. And He promises to be doing good things in the lives of His children in the midst of suffering. In fact, our hope is refined in the furnace of afflictions. Suffering leads us to put our hope in Christ! Our hope isn’t tied to our circumstances in life. Our hope isn’t tied to other people and their opinions of us in life. Suffering leads us to see that our hope is tied to and built upon Jesus Christ. In fact, in suffering we learn to identify with Christ and His sufferings! In Romans 8:16-17 we learn that “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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 Jesus, suffering came before glory! It’s that way for us too. So, in our flesh we may fight against suffering, we may not want to accept suffering, we might lose sight of anything good in our suffering, we may be overwhelmed by our suffering, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can accept and even rejoice in our suffering because of reason #1.

Reason #1: Our present sufferings don’t begin to compare with the glory that will be revealed to us when Jesus comes again (Rom. 8:18-25).

If we suffer with Christ, we will also share in His glory. And that glory will make any suffering in this lifetime seem pale in comparison. What does the glory that will be revealed to us when Christ comes again look like? In short, that glory will be the most beautiful and satisfying thing you will ever see! John Piper says, “God’s glory is the radiance of his holiness, the radiance of his manifold, infinitely worthy and valuable perfections”. And when Christ comes again, His glory will be fully revealed to us! God will give us eyes to see and savor Him in all of His breathtaking beauty in an unhindered way. I Cor. 13:12 says it best: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known”.

In this lifetime we wait for glory. We long for it. In fact, verse 23 says “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” The Holy Spirit was with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but still, Jesus experienced deep agony as He was preparing for the Cross. Yet, He was able to pray “not my will, but yours be done”. Jesus endured suffering. Jesus trusted and obeyed His Father’s will, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In fact, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. I think it was the joy of doing His Father’s will. As believers, it’s important to know that real genuine life giv...