19For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. 20Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. 21For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. 22He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. 23He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. 24He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 25Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:19 - 25 (NLT)
Suffering is a fact of life. A woman’s husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet she had stayed by his bedside every single day. One day, when he came to, he motioned for her to come nearer. As she sat by him, he whispered, eyes full of tears, “You know what? You’ve been with me all through the bad times. When I got fired, you were there to support me. When my business failed, you were there. When we lost the house, you stayed right here. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. You know what?” “What dear?” she gently asked, smiling as her heart began to fill with warmth. “I think you’re bad luck.”
We all know people who suffer; we have all had our share of suffering. Job even stated the reality that we are born into having trouble as certainly as the sparks fly upward from a fire.(1) The real question we all have is, If God is good, and God is kind…WHY do we suffer? We want to know why God thought it necessary to put us through suffering in this life.
My favorite movie is “Shadowlands” – the story of the latter life of that great defender of the Christian faith, C. S. Lewis. In that movie we find the teacher, Dr. Lewis giving one of his famous speeches; he calls suffering a gift from God.
Not all suffering is a gift, nor is all suffering Christian; sometimes it is just a matter of circumstances, poor choices or both. The effects of cancer, a raging tornado or a thief that breaks into your home are certainly issues of suffering. But, they’re not the kind of suffering Peter has in mind.
Peter wrote to scattered, suffering saints, many of whom were slaves. In the verse preceding (18) our text we are told that this text is a direct command to the slave-Christians. Slaves in that era were treated worse than cattle or a hand tool. Peter’s admonition was that if they wished to be Godly, Christlike, they must bear suffering without retaliation or even thoughts of revenge. Rather they were to endure it, and go up to the level of Christlikeness; that which they learned from Jesus’ teaching – to love their enemies.
And so we would beg the question this morning…
When is suffering Christian suffering (or ministry)?
The “ministry of suffering” is not to be confused with not having enough money to pay your bills or having an upset tummy or being blind or diagnosed as terminal by the doctors. Rather than just saying what it is “not” – let’s look at what it “IS”…
I. Suffering is Ministry When It is Done to Fulfill God’s Purpose
19For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. 20Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. 21For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:19-21 (NLT)
The key to understanding the fulfilling of God’s purpose has to do with why you suffer. If you’ve made a series of poor or evil choices and you’re suffering because of them, you’re not in ministry…you’re in consequence!
A man who suffers the effects of a gunshot wound he received while he was robbing the local bank and shooting two tellers, a guard and four customers is not fulfilling God’s purposes – at least not the higher purposes God has for his life; he is suffering the consequences of evil choices.
Jesus told us through Peter that we are “called” to be His people, doing His work. Essentially that means we are to fulfill the purposes of our God, even if it means suffering; particularly if it means suffering. That’s why it would be called “ministry”! Peter said we are on God’s high approval list when we do that (suffering when doing right, for doing right).
That is how Jesus lived His life, making decisions that would be approved by His Father. God looked at the future of His Son and told us, this is my beloved Son – I’m pleased with Him – you listen to him. In the Garden Jesus prayed about that cross: nevertheless, not my will but Yours, Father. Jesus knew he was going to be put on that cross unjustly; He did it anyway…for us – that’s ministry! Suffering is ministry when it fulfills God’s purpose.
If you want to measure that in your own life, the measuring stick is whether you’re following Jesus, or doing your own thing. Following Jesus has always been where the bar is set for God’s approval”
23Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 (NRSV)
Suffering is ministry when it fulfills God’s purpose, and…
II. Suffering is Ministry When It is Borne by Authentic People
22He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. 23He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. 1 Peter 2:22-23 (NLT)
The most authentic evidence of following Jesus is doing the kinds of things Jesus did, in the manner that Jesus did them, and with the motive that drove Jesus to do them. Let’s unpack that; suffering is ministry when it is borne by authentic people who…
A. ENTER INTO OTHER PEOPLE’S SUFFERING
You see this when people love others by their actions. We tend to think of love as a feeling, however, Biblical love is a verb – it’s something you do! Let’s face it, life can be the pits. A 90-year-old caring for his or her spouse of 60 years who has Alzheimer’s disease isn’t driven by the warm, fuzzy feeling. I had a delightful friend who went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. Homer was in his 80’s. He got deathly ill and stayed that way for months and months.
On one of my weekly visits near the end I walked in the bedroom to find Homer sitting up, wearing his Atlanta Braves baseball cap, tee shirt, sweats and slippers. The look on his face told me he was in great pain. I asked him how it was going that day/week. I’ll never forget the way he looked at me with that look on his face that said, “My gas tank is almost empty”. The twinkle that used to mark his ways was just barely there. But, he said this to me with a wink, “Preacher, I’m still here, but with this pain there ain’t much romance in it!”
When the warm and fuzzy feelings have gone…
When the romance has dimmed and faded…
When the pain and God’s promises are about all you’ve got left, it’s a commitment of doing (not feelings) for that spouse that takes over. And authentic people have it!
Ministry is authentic when people enter other’s suffering and when they…
B. HAVE NO DECEIT (POOR MOTIVE)
Authentic people aren’t self-promoters, or just doing their duty. Suffering that can be called “ministry” is always marked by complete truthfulness, inside and out!
In seminary one of my fellow students was a young man named Scott. Scott was a very popular preacher. He received many invitations. His style was captivating and inspiring. Scott was a fake.
Once I asked him how he developed his sermons. His reply was the modern day equivalent of downloading a sermon off the internet and preaching it verbatim. Scott didn’t agonize in prayer over the people he was going to be with that weekend. He never even opened the Bible to study. He would gather a few verses together, match them to a catchy outline from a well-used book of sermons by “big-shot” preachers, commit it to memory, and let his natural “gift-of-gab” and down-home humor carry the day. Scott was deceitful, not authentically ministering through the suffering of pastoral care. Preaching God’s Word (the Truth) cannot be done with deceit.
Authentic, without deceit…this is the pattern. I have been supported financially the past eight years by someone. I don’t know who it is, but every now and then we receive an envelope with cash in it. That person knows us well enough to enter into our lives this way at the times we’ve needed it most. And yet the fact that his/her identity has never been revealed indicates there is no deceit….only the motive to give as it was given…as from God. That is the Jesus pattern.
Suffering is ministry when it: Fulfills God’s purpose; Is without deceit; and…
III. Suffering is Ministry When It Serves to Set People Free
24He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 25Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25 (NLT)
Jesus died for us so that we could live to something – that something is complete righteousness; that is, a life in complete and joyful fellowship with God. We have all “wandered away” from God’s original purpose for our lives; Jesus died to set us free from our wandering away from God. We have all played the lost sheep or prodigal; we have all lost sight of the One in Whose image we are created.
Peter says of the church, but you’ve turned back to the Shepherd. That’s what His coming was all about…setting us free to be with God, turning us back to our home in the Father’s love. Our calling is to do the same, even if it means suffering; particularly if it means suffering:
17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of econciliation; 2 Corinthians 5:17-18(NRSV)
Our calling – our job in the Kingdom is to help others find that freedom. Each of us has experienced the captivity of sin; when we are set free from that bondage our job is to run back to the pigpen and help others get free too!
So – what do we take away from here? Do we fill out an application for suffering, Preacher? No…believe me, NO! I don’t have a thing for pain or rejection. I like easy.
But…life isn’t easy.
• Sometimes, beyond the tummy aches and other boo boos there is the reality of God placing a person who needs ministry right smack dab in front of you.
• Sometimes there is the reality of a burden you feel about someone who is going through a rough time.
• Sometimes God pokes you in the side and says, “…why do you still have that when I made you aware of so-and-so who needs it?”
Sometimes HE calls on you to suffer…minister.
Are you ready to fulfill His purpose?
Are you ready to be authentic?
Are you willing to set someone free?
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ENDNOTES
1) Job 5:7
