Transcript

Pain With A Purpose

2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Pastor Randy Smith

As we began Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians last week, we discussed the primary theme running through this letter. We learned that the apostle's heart was extremely heavy over the awful condition of this church and their despicable treatment of him. His deep love for them only made him extra vulnerable to their unrepentant behavior and lack of spiritual progression and gutless attacks on his character and ministry.

How could Paul or any pastor worth his weight willingly place himself in the line of fire and endure the ongoing suffering that comes with the office of serving on the front lines? Often the discouragement far outweighs the encouragement. The goals are seldom reached. The expectations are beyond what is humanly possible. The criticism never ceases. The labor is unceasing. The burdens are weighty. The personal dedication and devotion from others is rare. The standard for character and conduct is nothing less than Jesus Christ Himself. I'm sure all pastors to some degree can identify with Paul's bleeding heart.

So what kept this man going? Here is a clue: Why does Paul conclude his two verse introduction and then immediately in verse 3 start off praising God in a letter that is saturated with physical and emotional anguish? This morning we'll find out.

Perhaps all I have accomplished thus far in this introduction was hook the hearts of the two pastors of this church that understand what I am talking about. As for the rest of you, perhaps I piqued your curiosity, but you probably feel that unless you are being called to full-time ministry that you will not fully identify with this sermon. Don't think that.

As we learned a few weeks ago, each and every one of you should be devoted to some aspect of ministry in this church. And if you are committing yourself to ministry in some degree on a volunteer basis, I believe you'll understand what I'm talking about.

• Let's say you teach children's Sunday school. You spend hours in preparation, teach on a weekly basis and yet a parent of a student has yet to ever say "thank you" after investing your life in her child.
• You coordinate a ministry. You are given a commitment of service from another and then that person fails to show up and you have to miss the church service yourself to fill the gap in that individual's absence.
• You need help running the fall picnic. You ask twenty people who are doing little to nothing in the church to help you out and then hear those twenty people say they're not interested.
• You begin teaching an evening class. You come prepared and then half the class arrives late. From some people who are contributing nothing to the church you receive nothing but complaints.

How do you maintain a loving heart? How to you keep persevering though this stuff that just makes you want to throw in the towel?

Hopefully, now I've now touched a chord in all your hearts. If not, I'll make one more attempt. It's going a bit out of the context, but it still nevertheless applies. How do you deal with severe financial issues? How about a child with an incurable disease? How about constant ridicule from classmates? How about a family member that won't talk to you? How about an alcoholic husband? How about unkind and unreasonable parents? How about persecution for being a Christian? How about any form of affliction that comes from living in this fallen world? How do you deal with it? Would, like Paul, praise to God be the first words out of your mouth?

This morning we'll take a look at the Christian response from verses 3-7 in chapter 1. I'm going to chop up the text a bit to show you the progression - how our affliction produces glory to God. I hope this radical thinking that you'll never witness in secular counseling will be a great blessing for you.

1. The Promise of Affliction

I start off with "The Promise of Affliction," our first point. This might be a tough one for some of us to swallow but bear with me through this point as the news will only get better.

What I love about the Bible is that is does not sugarcoat the reality of suffering. Contrary to many false Bible teachers, we are not promised health, wealth and prosperity. The Bible confirms what we all know; people suffer in this life and even Christians, once saved will still suffer oftentimes to even greater degrees. Our hope as a Christian as we will soon see is not the absence of suffering, but rather the provision of God's sufficient grace in the midst of the suffering whereby the suffering results in our good and God's glory. So let's sound the death knell to the surprise of suffering and start ringing the bell of understanding suffering from God's perspective.

Jesus suffered. God's people suffer. And as Paul made so clear in this epistle, even the most cherished apostles suffer as well. Look at the beginning of verse 5, "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance."

I believe Paul is simply saying this: "I could have had a nice life. Good paying job. Approval from the world. Would there be suffering? Sure to some degree like all people, but now that I have rather chosen to devote myself to the service of Christ, the sufferings of Christ are mine abundantly. The rejection by family and friends - been there. The defection and minimal gains from the closest followers - been there. The physical and emotional abuse on my body - been there. The more I follow Christ and serve Him faithfully, the more I enter into His sufferings."

Chapter 1, verses 8-9, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to usin Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves."

Chapter 4, verses 8-9, "We are afflicted in every way…perplexed…persecuted… [and] struck down.

I'm glad I waited sixteen years as a full-time pastor before I preached this epistle. One, because I might have never entered full-time ministry, and two, because it helps me to be able to identify to at least a tiny degree with what Paul's getting at here. And if we are following Christ, I would hope to some degree we can all relate to these comments as well.

It might not be what we want to hear, but it's the very thing Jesus promised all His true followers. We need to hear it to be prepared. Paul needed to hear it as well. Immediately after his conversion, our Lord's words to him were: "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake" (Ac. 9:15-16). And Paul accepted this. In Philippians 3:10 he said, "That I may know Him…and the fellowship of His sufferings."

There's a purpose in the suffering that we'll get to in a moment, but for now I want you to clearly see that there will be suffering for all Christians. Peter told the believers in Asia Minor, "For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps" (1 Pet. 2:20-21).

You see my friends, the concern among the Christian shouldn't be why I am suffering. Rather the concern should be, why am I not, to some degree, suffering for Christ? 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Romans 8:17 says , we are "heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." Listen, Jesus did not die to remove all your pain this side of heaven. Jesus died that you might not experience the eternal pain that comes after this life is concluded. And He died that you might now have a purpose in the pain, especially the pain that comes from following Him in the life you are presently living.

Before we go to the second point, we see Paul again speak of his suffering at the start of verse 6, "But if we are afflicted." Paul even at the end of the verse 6 speaks about the similar sufferings the Corinthian church was experiencing when he says they are "enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer." This is the lot for all Christians.

The news gets much better, but did I make clear the point about the reality and expectation of suffering?

2. The Provision of Comfort

Point number two, "The Provision of Comfort."

Christians will experience suffering, but what we have in our corner that the world does not have is the living God. Yes, God permits us to suffer, but God is also there to provide the comfort we desire that meets and often exceeds our need. I believe that was Paul's point when he said in verse 5, "For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ." So ironically, the great text on suffering here in 2 Corinthians is also possibly the greatest text on divine comfort found in the entire Bible. As a matter of fact, the word comfort is found ten times in the short span of these five verses!

Paul identified God immediately as, verse 3, "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." The point is simply this: All true comfort comes from outside ourselves. All true comfort comes from God the Father as it is mediated through God the Son, Jesus the Messiah. As a matter of fact, "comfort" is a major theme in the latter chapters of Isaiah (40-66) that predict a prominent role of the promised Messiah. The Holy Spirit is also known in the New Testament as the Comforter.

This, dear Christian, this is a promise that God has made to you! There is a promise that you will experience difficulties as we just learned, but there is also a promise right here that you can experience divine comfort if you seek that comfort in God.

As Psalm 46:1 states, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ephesians 2:4 says He is "rich in mercy." Or as Paul reiterates in verse 4, God is the One "who comforts us in all our affliction." And I stress the word, "all." There is comfort available from God that will always outdistance all our afflictions.

How does it work? This comfort comes as we abide in Christ and don't run from affliction or curse God, but rather patiently endure it. And when the comfort from God comes it comes in a variety of ways that we will recognize if we have the spiritual eyes to see it. For example, last week we learned that before Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, he wrote what is often referred to as a "severe letter" to this church. He came down upon them in a heavy way and went through a period of agonizing grief wondering as to how the church would respond to it. Eventually the good news arrived from Titus of the church's humble reception. In chapter 7, Paul speaks of the comfort he received from God: "For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus" (2 Cor. 7:5-6).

How has God comforted you? A verse in Scripture? A godly example from another Christian. A deep peace after a time in prayer? A loving comment or note from a brother or sister in Christ? A word of encouragement? Simply to know the Lord is using the ministry here at Grace is often the most comforting thing I can receive as I battle through the frequent discouragements of pastoral service. For example, a daughter from out of the state wrote to me this week of her father's walk with God since he began attending our church: "First, to thank you. I cannot express what it means to me that my dad is attending a church filled with God's presence, love and truth. He shares with me some of what he has learned and it is thrilling to hear the tenderness and excitement in his voice about the things of God. From week to week, he is being changed and renewed! He tries to verbalize how it feels when he's there, it's overwhelming for him… and he is usually moved to tears when he makes any attempt to express his newfound love for God. What a blessing!" Those words were used by God this week to really comfort and encourage my heart!

3. The Purpose of Comfort

So the Bible teaches we will experience affliction because of our service to Christ. The Bible also promises comfort from God that is sufficient to cover our sorrows. I think for many people this is where the chain of suffering and comfort terminates and this sermon comes to an end. Such thinking is not Christian. It's actually kind of selfish. It makes it all about me. It puts ourselves at the center of divine providence. Our walk with Christ is to always extend beyond ourselves in our ability to love others. Therefore the comfort from God we receive is to spill over from us to help others with their sorrows. Let's go to the third point which I have entitled" The Purpose of Comfort."

Near the beginning of verse 4 we read that we experience comfort "so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Did you catch that? There's no doubt that God wants us comforted, but in this verse we see one of the reasons that we experience affliction is so that we might go to God to receive comfort and then be used by God as His vessel to extend the comfort we receive to others who are experiencing affliction as well.

Whatever sorrow you might be experiencing, I believe we have people in the church who have already suffered in a similar manner. Is it the loss of a spouse? Is it an overbearing boss? Is it a rebellious child? Is it a loved one caught up in an addiction? Is it the betrayal of a friend? Is it a terminal sickness? You see, these individuals have walked with Christ and have been comforted by Him through their trials. There is no better source for you to identify with your pain and pass along words of wisdom and encouragement. Perhaps now it is your turn to comfort others in the ways that God has comforted you!

This is the ministry of a healthy church. Becoming not bitter but better from our trials and using what God has taught us to be used by Him to relieve the sufferings of others. Therefore if we are all commanded to be personal encouragers to others, we have to conclude that personal suffering (to receive and learn about the comfort of God) is an essential part of our ministry. Someone once said, "Sympathy is perfected by experience" as our pain has a tremendous ability to tenderize our hearts to the pain of others and then share with them as a tool of God the encouragement we have received from God.

This is our ministry of comforting others. As you know, dear Justin Condoluci from this church has been battling leukemia. Just this week I read what his mother Amy wrote in their family blog, "We have been particularly blessed by many members of our church family lately, who prefer to remain anonymous. We cannot begin to express the joy you've given us and our prayer for you all, in accordance with Matthew 6:4, is that the Lord reward you - abundantly!!"

Look at verses 6-7, "But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort."

Our Lord basically taught the same principle to the apostle Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers" (Lk. 22:31-32).

Have you suffered? Has God comforted you? Are you presently comforting others in this church with the comfort you have received from God? This is so far from the run-in-and-run-out, come-when-you-feel-like-it, don't -lift-a-finger-for-anyone, live-only-for-self Christianity. This is being a part of a body as we are commanded and putting the needs of others above our own.

4. The Product of Everything

So we experience suffering. We seek comfort from God. And then we extend that comfort to others in their suffering. Now does it stop here? At least these three steps go from the selfish to the unselfish domain, but they are still not distinctively Christian. What's missing? The ultimate goal of all things - the glory of God! As we move to point four I want you to see how this whole thing comes full circle and terminates on Christ Jesus.

We put it at the end this morning. Paul started off his whole discourse on this topic with it. Verse 3, "Blessed bethe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, all praise goes to God because He uses affliction to bring us His comfort and then through the comfort we receive from Him through Him we are able to comfort others all to His glory.

The teaching of this wonderful principle in the context of this letter is a masterful stroke from the apostle Paul. His opponents were attacking his authority throughout this letter. They were calling his apostleship into question because he experienced suffering. They reasoned, how can God allow a choice servant of His to suffer to such a degree? Yet Paul turns it around and explains how his specific suffering was used by God to bless people in the church and further the glory of our Savior. His suffering actually validated his commitment and service to Christ.

Remember my friends, your suffering is never in vain. As the title states, there is a purpose in the pain. God wants to show you His abundant comfort. God want you to become better at comforting others as a tool of His grace. And God wants all of us to become more dependent on Him for our good and His glory.

As Paul concluded in chapter 12, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (2 Cor. 12:9). He got it. Do we? Are we being transformed by Christ to think and act this way?