Title: Opportune Pain and Suffering
Text: James 1:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5
Thesis: Pain and suffering is an opportunity for the development of Christian character.
The Series:
This is the fourth message in a Lenten Series: Knowing Christ through Pain and Suffering.
The Apostle Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
This morning as we reflect on pain and suffering as necessary for the development of a strong faith and character… we are reminded that Jesus did not go from glory to glory without incident. In between there was a crib, a cross. We know something more of the experience of Christ as we move through the trials of life.
Introduction
In 1726 Daniel Defoe wrote in The Political History of the Devil, “Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.”
Benjamin Franklin is quoted in The Works of Benjamin Franklin published in 1817, In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
In 1936 Margaret Mitchell expanded on that thought in a line in her book Gone with the Wind when she wrote, “Death, taxes, and childbirth! There is never any convenient time for any of them.”
(http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/death-and-taxes.html)
There is never a convenient time for some of the certainties of life… there is only the certainty of their arrival at our doorsteps. Trouble is one of the certainties of life…
I. Trials are inevitable… it is a fact of life!
• Whenever trouble comes your way… James 1:2
There are three thoughts that emerge from the text at the very onset.
A. The inevitability of something…
An inevitability is something that cannot be avoided or evaded.
On Wednesday night, a Navy ship The USS Lake Erie, sailing about 600 miles south of Hawaii, launched a missile over the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to shoot down a dead spy satellite. The size of the satellite has been likened to both a school bus and a min—van In either case, it would have made an uncontrolled reentry into Earths atmosphere in March. The satellite was intercepted 133 miles above the earth and traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. The intent was to burn up 1,000 pounds of potentially deadly fuel and let the junk would fall harmlessly to through the atmosphere and not orbit the earth as space junk. (Navy Succeeds in Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite, Department of Defense, 2/20/2008, 11:23 P.M., http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=35114)
If the satellite had not been intercepted and destroyed, it would have inevitably reentered Earths atmosphere and fallen as debris that would have been potentially harmful.
It is unfortunate that we all do not possess personal arsenals of Standard Missile 3s (SM-3s) to fire at and intercept incoming trials, troubles, tests, and temptations. Some things can be avoided or evaded… some things cannot. Those things that cannot be avoided or evaded are inevitabilities.
One version of the bible says we are to count it all joy when we experience divers temptations. Another says we are to count it all joy when we experience all kinds of testings. Another says whenever troubles come your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.
The bible does not say “if” you ever experience trials… it says “when” or “whenever” you experience trials. Trials are not a question of “if” but “when.”
The second thought is that trials are inevitable.
B. The inevitability of trials.
The word I am using is trials. The word has been variously translated as troubles, testings, and temptations. There is some difference: A trouble is something that disturbs or agitates us. A test is a critical examination for the purpose of evaluation. A temptation is an enticement or lure. And a trial is a putting to the test or proofing. They are all different and yet they are all the same. It is safe to say that troubles, tests, and temptations are all trials.
The third thought is that trials take many forms.
C. The inevitability of a variety of trials.
I mentioned earlier the variety of ways the translators inferred a multiplicity of trials:
• The Authorized Version refers to “divers temptations.”
• The NIV states “trials of many kinds.”
• The American Standard speaks of “manifold temptations.”
• The New American Standard states “various trials.”
• The Amplified Bible puts it “trials of any sort.”
We often hear about phone fraud. How can you tell if you are the mark of a phone scam? A Canadian web site called PhoneBuster suggests a number of ways to tell if you are being scammed over the phone. You can tell by asking:
• Is the offer too good to be true?
• Do I have to pay in order to play?
• Are they asking me for private financial information?
• Do they want me to send cash or a money order?
• Is the caller more excited than I am?
• Is the opportunity so limited that I must act now?
How can you tell if you are the intended mark of a trial?
James Whitcomb Riley is known as the “Hoosier Poet.” It was because of the lifestyle of comfort depicted in his poetry that the phrase, “The Life of Riley,” was coined around 1880. It was James W. Riley who is said to have originated the adage, “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, I would call it a duck.” (http://www.jameswhitcombriley.com/)
There is nothing mysterious about the forms a trial may take… it is as simple as this: If a trial walks like a trial, quacks like a trial, I would call it a trial. You will know it when you see it! But if you are in doubt, trials may take the form of sorrow, seduction or enticement, fear, loss, disappointment, discouragement, threat or danger, sacrifice, rejection, embarrassment or humiliation, conflict, pain and suffering, worry and anxiety, isolation and loneliness… you name it. If it tests your faith, it is a trial.
However you understand the term… the idea is that whatever it is that we are dealing with, be it a troubling circumstance, a temptation, a testing, or a trial, it is intended toward an end. The idea is that having gone through it, whatever it is, we will emerge stronger and our faith will be purer.
How does God say we should respond to trouble when it comes into our lives?
II. Trials are an opportunity for joy!
• Whenever trials come your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. James 1:2
The translators are consistent and insightful.
• The NIV states “consider it pure joy.”
• The NASV and KJV puts it, “consider it all joy.”
• The Message tells us to “consider it a sheer gift.”
• The Amplified instructs us to “consider it wholly joyful.”
• The NLT states “let it be an opportunity for joy
The Message and NLT capture the intent of the text. A trial is something to be received as or considered a gift or an opportunity.
I can’t say that I recall exactly what I said when I received a call to serve as pastor here at Heritage, but I suspect that I said something like, “Thank you for giving me this opportunity.” I considered your call a gift or opportunity to do something or experience something that I would not otherwise have been afforded. Serving as a pastor is a bitter sweet opportunity. There are smooth times and there are times of trial. Both the smooth times and the times of trial pose opportunities.
A. Trials pose opportunities.
B. Trials may be received with joy.
The logical question at this point is: What makes a trial an opportunity?
We often hear a variation of the phrase, “Experience is a great teacher.” It is through experiencing life that we learn and grow or we wither, are stunted, or perhaps even die inside.
My first inclination is to wave a white flag at God, Satan, and everyone and everything in the world and say, “Hey, spare me the opportunity to experience pain and suffering. Spare me the opportunity to learn and grow. I would rather just skip all the hard stuff. Let my life be about leisure and ease.”
A couple of years ago, our daughter decided that she would run the Chicago Marathon with four of her friends. The marathon was coming… it was inevitable. She paid her entry fee and committed to the race. She could either prepare for her marathon experience or she could lay around the house for months, sipping on Classic Coke and reading People Magazine and just show up on marathon day. For months she and her friends got up early every morning and ran. They ran greater and greater distances on the weekends and finally, on the day of the marathon they were ready to run further than they had ever run before.
Trials are inevitable. We can try to beg off and avoid them but they are unavoidable and cannot be evaded. Eventually we have to face something that will require some having some experience with hard won battles. That is why James says we can joyfully welcome the trials that come into our lives. It is through persevering through trials that we become spiritually fit.
III. Trials exercise our faith, which makes us increasingly fit.
• For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. James 1:3
• We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. Romans 5:3
The text I favor refers to the testing of our faith as the way we develop spiritual fortitude. Being spiritually fit means we have spiritual endurance that helps us persevere through the trials of life.
• The KJV refers to the trial of our faith as “working patience.”
• The NIV says trials “develop perseverance.”
• The NASV says trials “produce endurance.”
Trials have a cumulative effect. The more our faith is exercised, the stronger we become.
A. Trials can have a negative cumulative effect.
The negative cumulative effect is what Satan was going for in Job 1 and 2. Satan thought that if he could bring enough pressure upon Job, his faith would erode to the point of spiritual despair and to ultimately reject his faith or trust in God. Satan believed that he could reduce Job’s spirit to the point that he would literally curse God to God’s face.
Several years ago, while attempting to put a new deck in my fishing boat, I ruptured my biceps tendon. There was the sound of a snap or pop in my arm, followed by stabbing pain as my bicep muscle pulled loose. I did not realize the extent of the injury and figured it would eventually heal up... but it didn’t and when I could no longer lift a plate out of the kitchen sink, I went to see a surgeon. After the surgeon had reattached the bicep muscle, I noticed that it was considerably smaller than it was at the time of the accident. The muscle had begun the process of atrophy. The lack of use resulted in a percentage of my muscle wasting away.
When we do not use a muscle… when we do not exercise a muscle, it becomes weaker. A muscle does not hold its own during periods of lack of use, it begins to degenerate.
When a faith is not tried and tested, it not only does not grow, it degenerates into a weaker form of faith that will be less fit when confronted by the trials of life. That is why it is important that we seize trials as opportunities to become stronger.
B. Trials can also have a positive cumulative effect.
In 1904 Angelo Siciliano emigrated to the United States from Southern Italy. He grew up in Brooklyn… a skinny and sickly kid who had trouble climbing the three flights of steps to their third floor apartment and who was the target of bullies.
After seeing a statue of Hercules in a Brooklyn museum he joined a local YMCA and began working out. He was so enthused by the idea of fitness and strength that he built a set of barbells out of a broomstick and rocks, which he used in their apartment.
Eventually, through isometric exercises, Angelo developed a 54” chest and 17” bicep muscles and people began to notice. Someone suggested that he looked like the statue of Atlas that was on the corner of a bank building, so he changed his name to Charles Atlas. In 1922, he competed in a body builder contest and won. H was dubbed the worlds most perfectly developed man. He then used the prize money to set up a mail order muscle- building course. Perhaps some of you remember seeing those advertisements on the back of comic books depicting a bully kicking sand into the face of the ninety-five pound weakling who then ordered the Charles Atlas muscle building course and was transformed into a muscleman. Amazingly, at the time I was drooling over the prospects of becoming a Charles Atlas, Charles Atlas was nearly eighty years old and would die in 1972. (ttp://www.essortment.com/charlesatlasbi_ohn.htm)
I deliberately used a word a few moments ago… I said he “eventually” developed into a mighty, muscleman. It was through the positive cumulative effect of thousands of repetitions of weight lifting and isometric exercises that he was transformed from a skinny, ninety-five pound weakling into the worlds most perfectly developed strong man.
“Trials are not sent to make us fall; they are sent to make us soar. Trials are not sent to defeat us; they are sent that we might defeat them. Trials are not sent to make us weaker; they are sent to make us stronger.” (William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter, P. 50)
It is as we lift small trials that we become strong in faith so that we can lift the heaviest of trials… the heaviest of pain and suffering. The ultimate goal of spiritual exercise is strength of character.
IV. Trials strengthen our character so that we can deal with anything
• So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. James 1:4
I like the reading of verse 4 as it speaks of the trial of faith resulting in a fully developed or perfect or completed character. I like the way a fully developed, perfect, or completed character is ready for anything put in its way.
• The NIV puts such character as “not lacking anything.”
• The KJV says it “lacks nothing.”
• The Message describes the completed character as “not deficient in any way.”
• The Amplified says such a character is “with out defects.”
William Barclay defines the verb used to express the idea of something that is lacking as something that comes up short. An army that is defeated is lacking. Failure to reach a goal is to come up short of be found lacking. (William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter, P. 52) When the character of the Christian is fully developed through trials, it will not come up short… it will endure and it will persevere and by the grace of God, it will overcome anything.
In the Spring 2007 issue of Kindred Spirit, Chuck Swindoll wrote, “A friend of mine is one of those crazy runners. You know the type – fifteen miles a day, marathons, pilgrimages to his favorite running routes all over the country, an obsession with breaking personal records…
“I recently asked my friend why he would do what he does to his body and what it was about running that so motivated him. He said, ‘The finish line.’”
Every trial that comes into our lives is an opportune moment to further develop our spiritual character… to become even more fully transformed into the image of Christ. The bible says that as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. II Corinthians 3:18 But ultimately, it is about the finish line.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. Romans 5:3-5
