“Life Can Be Hard”
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
First let me say, I feel like I’m standing before a battered army this morning. Some of you were in the thick of this terrible storm – you lost your homes, your businesses, your pets – everything you own. And even though we thankfully didn’t see deaths in our church family, some of you even saw your neighbors lose parents, children, siblings, classmates and students. This week some of us also saw our friends lay a precious young daughter to rest.
I’m so honored to say that many of you worked from daylight to dark this week to serve your neigh-bors in this community. Some of you ministered to the physical injuries right after the storm. Others helped them dig their belongings out of the rubble, you cut brush and hauled it away. Some of you donated money and supplies and others received and organized donations brought into our church in huge quantities – and you welcomed and assisted those walking wounded who came through our doors and tried to send them away with food, clothing, household supplies and the idea that Jesus and this church cared that they were hurting. Some of you rode on vans hundreds of miles over the course of the week, providing hot meals to those victims and relief workers that have flooded in to help us. You prayed with, cried with, worked with and ministered to so many this week. You were the hands and feet of Jesus to hundreds who needed His presence in this chaos. It’s been a hard week, but I’m so proud to know you as friends, brothers and sisters in Christ.
It has been a week of destruction, devastation and even death. A week which makes us ask the crucial question, Why? Why has this happen? Why do bad things happen? Especially, Why do bad things happen to good people? Is there a purpose in pain and suffering? I wish I could tell you that at the end of this message you will have the answers to all these questions. Some of the answers we will not have until we get to Heaven. But there is one ques-tion I hope to answer provide some answers to, today. That question is, “Is there purpose in our pain?
First, God Is Our Source Of Comfort. (1:3-5)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, (4) who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (5) For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. (6) Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. (7) And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consol-ation.”
By any estimation 1 Corinthians 1:3-7 contains the Bible’s greatest single text on the subject of comfort. The word “comfort” in its noun and verb forms occurs no less than ten times here, which is essentially one-third of the thirty-one occurrences in the whole New Testament.
However, our modern use of the word “comfort” has robbed it of all its strength. To us, comfort means something soft, and soothing. But in the Bible, “comfort” is the translation of the word (parkaleo) which literally means “to call alongside to help.” It is the same word that Jesus used in John 14:6 to describe the Holy Spirit. Our English word comfort comes from a combination of two words which mean “with strength.” So to comfort; means to come along side someone and to give them your strength.
Paul knew what he was talking about for he reveals in (2 Cor 11:24-28), “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. (25) Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; (26) in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder-ness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; (27) in weariness and toil, in sleep-lessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—(28) besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”
But Paul says that through it all he has learned that God is the one “who comforts us in all our trib-ulation.” In effect he is saying that he has learned that when he is sick, God is there by his bedside. When he runs out of money, God is there with him in his poverty. When he is hated and despised, God stands by his side. And even when he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, God is present and takes him by the hand and leads him through.
Second, God Has A Reason For Allowing Suffering.
(1:6-11)
When we are suffering we think that the crucial question is “Why?” “Why has this happen-ed? Why me? Why now?” Although we will never in this life have the all-inclusive answer that we desire, in this letter Paul does provide us with five reasons why God allows us to suffer.
1st To Prepare Us To Help Others Who Struggle (vv. 4, 6-7)
“who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. …(6) Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. (7) And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.”
The truth is that God doesn’t comfort me to make me comfortable, but to make me a comforter! Some Christians are so self-centered they remind me of the story I heard about a guy named Sam who was taking a first aid class. One week, Sam said, “Last week I got to apply what I’ve learned in this first aid class.” The instructor said, “Tell us about it.” Sam said, “A few days ago I heard a terrible crash in my front yard. When I went outside I saw that a car had veered off the road and plowed head-on into a big tree in my yard. There were injured passengers in the car. And because I had taken this class I knew exactly what to do. I immediate-ly sat down on the steps and put my head between my knees so I wouldn’t pass out!” Sadly, that’s how many Christians feel about their faith. To them, church is coming and sitting and soaking it in. Then they leave and just use whatever they’ve learn-ed to make themselves more comfortable. But that was never what God intended.
2nd To Make Us Focus On What’s Really Important (v. 8)
“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.”
We do not know what painful event Paul is describing in verse eight, he says that it was so pain-ful that he fully expected to die. Paul frames his despair in memorable terms because the Greek words translated “burdened beyond measure” (thlipsis) were used to describe an overloaded ship riding low in the water or a pack animal that pitifully falls in despair under its load and it literally means “to be crushed.” Paul had multiple life-threatening experiences, a stoning; five beatings, that each took him to the point of death; multiplied dangers and shipwrecks but none had crushed him as much as whatever had happened to Paul in Asia.
As Vance Havner used to say, “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, you aren’t interested in calling a symposium on how to drain the swamp.” Adversity has a way of making us focus on the impor-tant things in life. Pain gets our attention.
C.S. Lewis wrote two books dealing with suffer-ing. The first was a philosophical treatise on suffe-ring called “The Problem of Pain.” In it he discusses pain from an intellectual perspective. But then at age of 59, C. S. Lewis married Joy Davidman Gresham, an American who was 16 years younger than him, divorced, a Jew, a Communist, and an atheist before she became a Christian by reading Lewis’ books. When they married she had been diagnosed with cancer and even called their marriage “a deathbed wedding.” She was in remission for awhile and they had four years together before she died. After her death, Lewis wrote his second book on suffering entitled, “A Grief Observed.” This second book about pain however, was a personal expression of his pain and anguish over the death of his wife. In writing about pain, Lewis made the famous quote you’ve probably heard: “God whispers in our pleasure, but He shouts in our pain.” But there’s another quote that is also powerful but less familiar. He wrote: “Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.” (The Problem of Pain). In other words, when things are going great in our lives, we tend to major on the minors. It’s only when pain comes that the veil is removed and God gets our attention. Suffering makes us focus on the real issues of life and death.
3rd -To Empty Us Of Self-Reliance. (v. 9)
“Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”
Dr. Alan Redpath in his commentary on 2 Corinthians entitled, “Blessings Out of Buffetings” has stated, “God has one great purpose for His people above everything else; it is to destroy in us forever any possible confidence in the flesh.” [Alan Redpath. “Blessings Out of Buffetings.” (Fleming Revell; Tappan, NJ, 1965) p. 16]
Hard times can teach us something that we would otherwise never learn. Most of us grow adept at handling the moderate problems of everyday life. But sometimes things happen that knock us to our knees, it at only at the point when our only hope is the Lord that truly learn dependence. The writer of Proverbs states it this way, (Prov 3:5-6) “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; (6) In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
So as we follow the Lord, and experience events that threaten to take us under, we need to remember to entrust ourselves to God who alone is able to raise the dead.
4th - To Convince Us To Trust In God Alone (v. 10)
“who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.”
Paul uses the word “delivered” three times in this verse, “who delivered us from so great a death” (past) “does deliver us” (present) and “will still deliver us” (future).”
God’s plan is to take us to where we have no human resource left to call upon intellectually, physically, or emotionally. That's exactly where God wants us; it is the perfect place because, as Paul will tell us later in 2 Corinthians 12, in our weakness that God's power is made perfect.
It is said if you're ever called upon to rescue someone who is drowning, that if you're really thought it through, you won't try to rescue them until they go down for the last time. That sounds harsh but the truth is if you try to intervene at any point prior to that when they still have the strength to kick and fight, they're liable to drown you. But when they come to the very end of their strength and there's no confidence left in their own deliverance, and they are weakened and still, it is then that they can picked up and brought to safety. And that's exactly where the Lord wants to take us, to the place where we've given it our last shot and we're sinking for the last time and there's nothing in us that can save us and there's no human resource. And that's exactly where God's power intervenes.
“A workman was employed on a building project. One of those high-rise deals. It was necessary because of some deadlines and bad weather for them to work at night. While busy on the edge of the wall, he slipped, lost his balance, fell over the edge, grabbed the edge of the wall with both hands and hung on desperately. He began to scream and cry and call for someone to rescue him. It was pitch black, riveting machines were going, metal hammers were beating and pounding, mechanical motors were running and nobody could hear a word. Gradually his arms grew numb as he hung suspended over the street below and his fingers began to slip and against every effort of his own will to hold on, at last he lost his hold and he fell...about three inches to a scaffold that had been there all the time. The darkness prevented him from seeing it. And all through his anxiety he was completely safe.
We are often terrified by our predicaments while all the time there's the scaffold of God's care beneath us. Our ignorance doesn't change the certainty but it does destroy the peace, doesn't it? We need to remember that underneath us are the Lord’s everlasting arms and you don't know that until your fingers slip and you drop.” [John McArthur. “Comfort In Trouble” 2 Cor. 1:8-11. www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/47-4.HTM]
5th - To Reveal To Us The Power of Prayer .(v. 11)
“you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.”
Paul’s confidence rested not only on the faith-fulness of God, but also upon the prayer of those who prayed for him. I like the way the NIV translates the first phrase of verse eleven, “You help us by your prayers.” Paul uses a Greek word that occurs only here in the New Testament. It’s a compound word that comes from three other words meaning “with,” “under,” and “work.”
Our prayers matter. It makes a difference whether or not we pray. Paul is saying, “When I thought I was going to die, you prayed and God delivered me." We will never know until we get to heaven how many times the prayers of others rescued us. But I believe in that great day, when all the secrets are revealed, we will discover that we would have fallen but someone prayed for us. We would have given up but someone prayed for us. We would have made a stupid decision but someone prayed for us. We would have given in to temptation but someone prayed for us. We would have retaliated but someone prayed for us. We would have crumbled under pressure but someone prayed for us.
Paul of all people understood the value of prayer.
Philippians 1:19 “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:1 “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you.”
CONCLUSION
Some of you will have scars either physical or emotional from this trial. But remember that every scar tells a story -think about your scars. You can be proud of your scars, because they prove that you suffered, but you survived. To paraphrase what Paul was really trying to communicate, he wrote, “I have suffered, and I have scars, but I have survived, and I have a story to tell of God’s deliverance!”
We are battered, but we are not a defeated army! We know how this war ends – with King Jesus’ return and that in His time He will set everything right. There will be a day with more death – nor more storms or pain – no more tears. We may not understand this part of the plan but we trust that there is a plan and Someone in charge of it all that really does know what He is doing.
In the very last book of the Bible the Apostle John write, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. (4) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”(5) And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Rev 21:3-5 )
“Life Can Be Hard”
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
First, God Is Our Source Of Comfort. 1:3-5
Second, God Has A Reason For Allowing Suffering. (1:6-11)
• To Prepare Us To Help _____________ Who Struggle. (vv. 4, 6-7)
•To Make Us Focus On What’s Really _______________. (v. 8)
•To Empty Us Of Self-_____________________. (v. 9)
•To Convince Us To Trust In __________ Alone. (v. 10)
Paul uses the word “delivered” three times in this verse, “who delivered us from so great a death” (past) “does deliver us” (present) and “will still deliver us” (future).”
•To Reveal To Us The Power of _____________. (v. 11)
(Eph. 6:18-19, Phil. 1:19, 2 Thess. 3:1)
