CBS News anchor Dan Rather admits he was always fascinated by the sport of boxing, even though he was never good at it. “In boxing you’re on your own; there’s no place to hide,” he says. “At the end of the match only one boxer has his hand up. That’s it. He has no one to credit or to blame except himself.”
Rather, who boxed in high school, says his coach’s greatest goal was to teach his boxers that they absolutely, positively, without question, had to be “get up” fighters. “If you’re in a ring just once in your life, and you get knocked down but you get back up again, it’s an never-to-be-forgotten experience. Your sense of achievement is distinct and unique. And sometimes the only thing making you get up is someone in your corner yelling.”
We have all had our fights and battles with discouragement, depression, stress, anxiety, and just all around suffering. There is nothing out of the ordinary about these things; it’s just a fact of life. We all have times when we could use a little encouragement to help us get back up, and get back into the fight. For the most of us tonight, this is a time when we really need some encouragement.
When I think about the New Testament, I am often amazed at how many approach it. It is almost as if most people sell it short, believing that it is only a collection of writings that teach the doctrine of how to get to heaven. The truth is, it is so much more than that. It is a manual, an instruction book on how to handle life, and cope with difficult times.
It should serve as a help to realize that the New Testament offers instruction on how to make it in difficult times, but even at that, we too often receive instruction, but never receive an answer to the question of “Why?” Sometimes it seems as if there is just no good reason as to why we must suffer some things, or endure such trying situations.
It is common when we suffer through rough times to look to the life of Job. Surely if anyone saw affliction and experienced heartache, then Job was the one. But when you think about him you come to the place where even Job, as godly as he was, asked the question, “Why?” “God, why do I suffer? Why am I hurting? What is the purpose of this? God, why are you letting me go through these things?”
God didn’t punish Job for questioning Him. But, when you look at that story, God didn’t exactly give Job an answer that satisfied his question. The answer was simply, “Job, I allow you to suffer because I’m God, and I can.” And it is in times like this, with answers like that, it is really no consolation to have instruction like “think right, do right, and feel right.” It is good instruction, but there is no solace in it because we never seem to understand the “why” of the matter.
How can you think right if you don’t understand? If you can’t think right, then how can you do right? If you can’t do right, then how can you feel right? The instruction is good instruction. I will not deny that part of it, but it does not give us any answer as to why we suffer heartaches, disappointments, stress, affliction, and just generally tough life-situations.
I thank God that we don’t need to settle our minds upon the answer given to Job. Throughout history, God’s revelation to man has been progressive, all the way to the completion of Scripture. That is, the longer that God has had dealings with man, the more about Himself that he has revealed to man. And by His grace and love for us, in about 55A.D., through the pen of the Apostle Paul, He finally gave to all of humanity the answer to the question, “Why do the people of God suffer?”
In our text, were you to look at it in the original language, you would notice two words that are used repetitively. It is not as obvious in our King James Version because the words were translated into different words, but one word is used 10 times, and the other is used 4 times.
The word used 10 times is translated several times as comfort. The other word is translated as trouble, tribulation, and affliction.
Paul’s theme at hand is that of encouragement through suffering. Literally, the word comfort means to exhort, to strengthen, and to encourage. Encouragement is not just a kind word of consolation, but the word means to place courage into another person.
The word translated as affliction literally means pressure, stress, turmoil, despair, and discouragement. Discouragement means to take courage out of someone. Affliction is that thing that gnaws at your mind, and turns your stomach in knots. It attacks the heart, and tortures the emotions.
This problem of suffering or affliction has a definite process. If left unchecked, it could tear you apart. Affliction starts out by bringing in fear. There is a fear of what will happen. There is a fear of what will not happen. There is a fear of what you know. There is a fear of what you do not know. There is a fear of the certain, and of the uncertain.
Fear feeds a little thing called stress. Because of fear, problems become bigger, and pressure becomes stronger. The end result is often ulcers.
Stress leads to discouragement. You begin to loose confidence in everything. Because of rattled confidence, you begin to think, “There’s just no way I can make it.” And discouragement opened the door for complacency. “I just can’t go on any further.” And we have all been there. We have all reached this place never fully understanding the answer of the “Why?”
Paul certainly suffered affliction, but notice verse 3. “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”
Do you see what Paul did? While addressing affliction and encouragement, he begins by praising God. He offers up blessings to the Heavenly Father in light of affliction. How can Paul be so happy during suffering and tribulation and persecution? What enabled Paul to have that kind of mindset? Very simply, he knew the answer to the question of “Why?”
Paul gives to us in our text, four reasons as to why we experience suffering. Would you write them down?
First, we experience discouragement, suffering, affliction, because it is in those times that you discover what God can do. We suffer so that we can see what God can do. Look at verse 4, “who comforts us in all our tribulation.”
Any rest that you receive, any comfort that you find, any hope that you have, and any encouragement you get during the time of suffering is a direct provision from God. When we begin to realize that, then even the smallest amount of encouragement will cause us to offer praise to God.
You need to notice something about what God does in that comfort. Look at verse 5. “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” Do you see what Paul is saying? Even though you suffer for Christ’s cause, and that suffering seems to flow like a gushing river at times, His comfort, His encouragement, His strength will always be in equal proportions to the suffering we encounter. Times of suffering might hurt, but by God’s provision, they wont cause you to break.
We suffer so that we can see what God can do. But secondly, Christians suffer so that we can help others who are suffering. Notice again in verse 4, “that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble.”
Why is it important for you to realize the reason we must go through certain things? It is because someone is watching you. Younger Christians are looking at older Christians to learn how they handle times of suffering. Allowing affliction to give way to complaints, murmuring, and complacency sends a very clear message. It tells the younger believers that the correct response to discouraging situations and difficult times is to just give up, and start complaining. Paul said that we are to glory in tribulations. G-L-O-R-Y does not spell growl.
Young believers are not the only ones watching you. The unsaved are looking on as well. An improper reaction to life’s trials does nothing but send the message that God is not faithful, and His word is not true.
How does suffering act as an encouragement to others who are suffering? It is because when we handle it the right way, it serves as hope to them that they can make it through as well.
We suffer so that we can see what God can do. We suffer so that we can be an encouragement to others. But thirdly, we suffer so that we will not rely on self. Notice verse 9, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God.”
One of man’s biggest problems is that of self-reliance. Man is taught a doctrine of self-sufficiency throughout life by the voice of the world. As a result we develop a stubborn self-will that spares no resource to work its way out.
The Apostle Paul was the same way. God had to place him in situations of total despair to cause him to rely on God and not himself. And, we are no different. Too often we have an, “I can handle this” mentality, when all the while God wants us to reach the end of ourselves so He can work through us. When the situation looks impossible, remember, God can, so let Him.
Fourthly, we go through times of trouble to show us that we are not individuals, but a church body. Look at verse 11. “Ye also helping together by prayer for us…” Did you see that? Helping together. The word in the original actually means to assist one another in unity. When we come to difficult situations as a church body, it is so that we will pull together, and help with a sense of unity. Looking at the verse again, you would notice that prayer is an essential, but the result of that unity, that working and helping in a unified effort, doing all in prayer, gives way to amazing results. Notice verse 11 again. “That for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.” You can turn suffering into thanksgiving by working together.
Why do we suffer? So that we can see what God can do, so that we can teach others how to handle suffering, so that we will not rely on ourselves, and to cause us to work together.
