God’s Purpose In Our Pain Series

One of our pastors shared a story with me Thursday about a bittersweet moment that he experienced on Wednesday as he attended the funeral visitation of the mother-in-law of one of our former staff members. I wasn’t able to travel to the visitation myself but I have genuinely been praying for his family because I knew that this was the fourth death of a very close family member in three years…in fact, his mother-in-law passed away just days after his wife’s grandmother had died. One of our pastors was able to catch up on life and ministry and got to see his little boys that we haven’t see in a while, but when he offered his condolences to his wife on the passing of her mom, and to let her know how we have been praying on her behalf, she immediately responded with this statement. “It’s been so hard…but God has a purpose in all of it.”

Now, if you’re a Christian, and ESPECIALLY if you’re a pastor’s wife, this is what you are SUPPOSED to say. In fact, sometimes we say things like this so often that it becomes cliché. But not only did she say it with a resounding sense of joy, she then went on to specifically spell out how they have seen God’s purposes at work with some people actually coming to faith in Christ through her mother’s testimony in her final weeks of her life. And it was those tangible evidences of God’s purpose that brought her great comfort EVEN as she grieved the loss of her mother. “It’s been so hard…but God has a purpose in all of it.” And so this morning I want to ask you, do YOU believe this? That even in the midst of suffering and pain, that God has a purpose in all of it? Not in a cliché kind of way, but in a deep inner conviction that you will draw from on your darkest days.

This morning we are beginning a brand new series through the book of 2 Corinthians. And this morning, in the very first chapter, I want to encourage you with this truth – God really does have a purpose for your pain. As you are turning there, I want to give you a little bit of a challenge. As we begin this series, we want to encourage you to immerse yourself in the text by reading the entire book every week. If you do that math, that’s only two chapters a day for six days and one on Sunday.

In this series we’re going to explore the relationship the apostle Paul has with the church at Corinth…a church he actually started back in Acts 18. And this particular church is giving Paul fits. And Paul is now having to address the fact that they are abandoning some of the foundation truths upon which the church was built. In fact, they had started following some so-called “super apostles” who were flashy and gimmicky and preaching an eloquent, but false message. And these “super apostles” had to assault the character of Paul in order to clear the way for their own platform to teach a false gospel. And so Paul finds himself in a position where he has to defend himself to these people within the church.

2 Corinthians 1:1-11

[I’m just going to read the first three verses and we’ll read the rest of the passage in a few minutes.] 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

Oddly, Paul starts his defense by directing people to the “God of all comfort” (verse 3). And since that’s an odd place to start, let’s look back at some contextual keys to what was going on for Paul at that particular moment. In fact, it’s always good to ask the Who, What, When, Where, and Why questions as we begin a new book study.

So Paul is with his understudy, Timothy. It’s roughly the year 55 or 56 AD meaning it has been about 25 years since Jesus’ resurrection. And when Jesus ascended into heaven, the global church had launched and local churches began to spring up all over Asia and Europe. And about three years earlier, Paul had started the church in Corinth (which was located on the European shores of Greece) and he spent nearly 18 months training the church leaders. After he left to continue to plant other churches, he writes them his first letter, and now he gets word from one of his partners named Titus that things were falling apart.