WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT SUFFERING?
Let me begin this sermon with a personal reflection to you. You all know that a few weeks ago my grandfather died. I don’t think I have ever experienced loss as great in my life before. I sat with him on the Saturday before he died, I had written him a long letter the week before telling him how much I loved him and how he had influenced my life. The last words he spoke to me were to follow Christ and all would be alright. I had to fly to Uganda the day of his funeral. You know I would not have chosen that to be the time he died. I would not have chosen for him to become sick and bedridden over the past few months. Yet without that I would never have sat down and wrote him that letter. I would never have had the opportunity to talk with him about Jesus, to pray with him, to bring him HC, to hear him witness from his death bed to my cousins. My aunt would never have heard him singing ‘What a friend we have in Jesus.’ His suffering I did not understand. His suffering was not as a result of any sin, other than old age. Did God send it? I don’t know. Did God allow it? Yes. Did God use it? Yes for his glory and the furtherance of his kingdom in my life and in the life of many within my family. Why am I telling you this? It is not for your sympathy vote but to say to you I am not just preaching an academic subject here this morning. This is real.
I have been your pastor now for over six years. I have been connected with HT for over nine years. In those years I have sat with many of you through painful and pain filled experiences. I have been at the hospital bedside when someone has died. I have sat while we prayed and worried through an illness. I have sat with you and listened to personal tragedies, personal pains and personal sorrows. That has been the privilege of my life. So what I want to say this morning to you all concerning suffering I do so conscious of the amount of suffering and pain that is in this family of God. I am very conscious of the fact that many of you have endured more than most in this family will ever experience in their lives or will ever know in their lives. The pain of suffering for all of us is real. We are not to ignore it, nor dismiss it but we are going to listen for God’s voice in it – because sometimes it is the only way he has of getting our attention and because it is the only voice which matters in the face of suffering. Because he alone has the answer to it. So this morning I pray with all my being that you hear God speak to your soul in this area of suffering.
Imagine the scene: A group of men are walking along a dusty road. Sitting by the roadside begging is a blind man. He has been so since birth. Most days no one takes any notice of him. If by chance they do and are moved to pity, not compassion, they toss him a few coins. They do so more to appease their own conscience than out of any sense of compassion for this man. Today however, is going to be different. Today a group of men stop. Then he hears one of them ask a question: ‘Who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?’ Does that not seem a dreadfully insensitive question to ask? Yet for the disciples of Jesus it was a perfectly natural question. They lived in a world that believed all sickness, all suffering was a result of sin, either your own sin or that of your parents. We will come to Jesus’ answer in a few moments. But let me change tack for a moment. Do you and I not ask the same question of God when we ask ‘Why?’ in the face of suffering.
A crowd gather at a graveside and ask Why death? Why this person? Why now? The doctor tells a young couple they cannot have children and they ask Why us? The man is told he has a terminal illness and he asks Why me? The woman is called into the office and told her job is going and she asks Why now? We encounter difficulties, suffering, evil and we turn immediately to God and ask Why? Why did you allow this? Have I not been faithful? Have I not been striving to serve you with all my heart? We demand answers of God?
You see we are no different than those first disciples that day on the road to Jerusalem. We are no different than them in believing that if we follow God then all will be rosy in the garden of life. We either consciously, or unconsciously, believe that if we are followers of Christ then God will keep us from all harm, we will not suffer and in fact I would go as far as to say we believe God lets us down when we suffer. Where did we ever get the idea that suffering was not part of the Christian life? I want to answer two questions for you this morning – which I believe arise out of the passage before us from John 9.
DOES GOD SEND SUFFERING?
DOES USE SUFFERING?
DOES GOD SEND SUFFERING?
The simple answer to that is ‘Yes’. Yes he does send suffering but he does not send all suffering. Let me repeat that: Yes God sends suffering but he does not send all suffering. There is an important distinction there. You see we can easily fall into one of two traps:
Belief that God wants us to be healthy (and wealthy). That because he is a good God he could not send suffering and he would not send suffering because all suffering is ban and he wants only what is good for us.
The second trap is to believe that if we suffer then God must be disappointed with us. That suffering is a punishment from God. Which is really just an outworking of the first myth.
Both of these are wrong. We nowhere in Scripture read that God promises health to those who follow him. If that were true then you and I would never catch a cold, never have a headache, never get sick and in fact we would never age or die. It is equally wrong to believe that all suffering is a punishment from God. Some suffering may be a punishment from God but that is not the same as saying all suffering is a punishment from God.
Come back with me to the first question: Does God send suffering?
If we look at the OT we find many occasions when God sent suffering. You have Noah and the flood. Listen to what God says in Genesis 6.5-7. The Flood was a sent by God as punishment for sin. You have Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 being destroyed because of sin. You have the plagues sent upon Egypt. You have the wilderness wandering of the people of Israel and the sending of serpents for their disobedience. You have the whole history of exile of the people of God – captivity in Babylon and in Assyria. There are also occasions in the NT when God is said to have sent punishment. Anninias and Sapphira, those who fell ill in Corinth because of their sin. We can see from these incidents that God does send suffering. However, we cannot go as far as to say that God sends all suffering. There is a difference between what God sends and what God allows. This is an important tension in Scripture.
This is most vividly illustrated in the book of Job. Read it some time. Read how God allows his righteous servant Job to suffer. God does not send the suffering but he allows it – why? Because Job is a righteous man and God shows satan, and the world around Job, that suffering is not as a result of sin but may in fact be the result of grace in your life. There is no other explanation for Job’s suffering other than he is a man of God. That is what chapters 1 and 2 tells us. Satan believed that Job only remained faithful to God because God had blessed him with health and wealth. God knew Job’s faith rested not on material blessings and would proved true in the testing fire of suffering. Friends how much of our faith would survive the testing fire of suffering? How often have I heard, have I witnessed faith shine forth in the midst of darkness, pain, sickness, and in the face of tragedy and death. You see it is not until the fire of suffering comes that faith is really faith. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abdnego face the fiery furnace of Nebuchanezzar – that is where faith, real faith speaks. We will not bow down, our God can save us but even if he does not we will not bow down – Daniel 3. Compare that to Peter and the little slave girl – whose faith was real in the testing fire of suffering. Friends sometimes it is because you are a man or a woman of God that the suffering comes. You are overlooked for promotion because you will not bend the rules, or compromise a principle or do a dodgy deal. Your name is slandered because you will not join in the scam or you speak the truth in a situation. You suffer because you follow Christ. Your suffering is actually a sign of God’s grace in your life. Satan would not be interested in you if it were not so. Let me share a warning with you all this morning. Over the next 12 months we are going to face all sorts of trials and tribulations because we are building God’s kingdom here. Do not dismiss this lightly. Satan is going to have a real go at us in the next 12 months because people are being saved, healed, renewed and we are making a difference for Jesus in this community. So don’t be surprised when it comes and don’t be dismayed either because God is in control, even of satan.
DOES GOD USE SUFFERING?
Turn again to the passage in John 9. Look at verse 3. Do you hear what Jesus says here? This man’s suffering is not as a result of his sin or the sin of his parents but is here so that glory might be brought to God. Some suffering is just the result of living in a fallen world but it is here that glory might be given to God through it.
SIN – sometimes God uses suffering to turn us away from our sin. Adam and Eve are punished because of their sin of disobedience. David and Bathsheba – the result of that sin is the break up of David’s family and his kingdom. You can read all about that in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. Read Psalm 51 and David’s lament and suffering because of his sin. Read also in this Psalm his words of heartfelt repentance towards God on account of his sin. It was his suffering that brought him to his knees before God. What was the purpose in each of these? That they might repent and come back to God. Why did God send the plagues on Egypt that they might repent and let the people go? Why did God send the serpents in the wilderness? – that the people might repent and turn back to God. God uses suffering as a means to turn us back from sin and turn us to him. Friends such suffering is for our good. We would never have heard the voice of God, the call of God if we had not suffered as a consequence of our sin. Some suffering is a direct result of our own sin.
C S Lewis once said these words:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Some suffering is a direct result of other people’s sin and not our own sin. I must confess before you this morning this is a complete mystery to me as to why God allows me to suffer because of someone else’s sin. Yet when I turn to the Cross I see my Jesus suffering as a consequence of my sin – he had no sin but my sin. I struggle to give an adequate answer to you this morning as to why God allows me to suffer, or you to suffer, because of the sin of someone else. But this I know – He is good and he wants only what is best for me in my life – so there is a reason and there is a purpose and I am going to seek to answer how God uses suffering in your life and mine.
TO DISCIPLINE US.
Read Hebrews 12.5-6. Hear what God says here to us. I discipline those I love, those I consider to be my children. Parents let me say to you this morning you do not love your children if you do not discipline them. Children your parents are showing love when they discipline you. God uses suffering to discipline us because he loves us. If I sin then God may, will, can use the result, the consequences of that sin to bring about repentance in my life. God’s discipline in my life is a sign that he loves me. His discipline is a sign that I am his child and he is concerned that I grow in stature before him and that I learn the lesson he wishes to teach me. That lesson may only be taught and learnt through suffering.
There are times in all our lives when only suffering gets our attention. Only suffering lifts our eyes off ourselves and makes us lift them towards God. Do not despise God for that. It is a sign of his love for you. It is a sign that he wants your attention – think about that for a moment. God wants you to notice him, to hear what he has to say to you. God wants your attention. The King of kings, the Creator of the universe wants your attention. Suffering may be the only means of doing that. It may be the only means of getting you to slow down, quieten your heart and mind, removing all the clutter and all the noise – and he says ‘Good now I have your undivided attention. Listen to my voice.’ Friends we live in a world full of noise. We are people who are afraid of silence. We are a people who live such hectic lives, racing around busy and God sometimes just pulls us up short and says – Okay, if I have to make you lie on your back to get you to look upwards, then so be it.’ I can testify to that on many occasions in my life. I am slowly learning that all over again since my car accident. Let me ask you a few questions: Would David have turned again to God if Nathan had not confronted him with his sin and if God had not sent the wasting into his bones (Psalm 51)? Would God’s people have turned back to him if he had not sent the serpents in the desert? Would Pharaoh have let the people of God go without the plagues and the angel of death? Would Joseph have become the humble man with love and compassion for his brothers if God had not allowed him to be sold into slavery in Egypt? Would Nebuchadnezzer have believed if he had not witnessed the faith and deliverance of those three young men? Would Namaan have turned to the living God if he had not been struck by leprosy? Would this man have found Jesus if he had not been born blind? Would the woman of Samaria had a life changing encounter with Christ if she had not had to go to the well in the heat of the day because of her past life? Would the paralytic have had his sins forgiven if it were not for four friends lowering him down on his bed because he could not walk to see Jesus? Would Zaccheus have met Jesus if he had been 6ft tall and a Pharisee? Friends we could list many examples not only from the bible but from our own lives when God used suffering to grab someones attention – to deliver them from sin, to draw them closer to himself. He uses suffering to get our attention because what he has to say is of life changing significance. Do not despise him for it – it is because he loves you that he allows it. It is because he wants you to hear his voice, to know his love, to experience his grace that he sends, that he allows and that he uses suffering in your life.
TO BUILD AND ENCOURAGE OUR FAITH. Here is another reason God uses suffering in our lives. It is a means of encouragement and building in our faith. When we come through a time of testing, of trial or of suffering our faith in God is strengthened. We know that when all seemed lost and hopeless, when all the things of earth failed us, when friends deserted us, when those who were supposed to protect us didn’t, when the pain seemed unbearable – when it genuinely seemed all hope was lost – we felt, we knew, we experienced his arms around us, protecting us, lifting us, soothing us and wooing us back to himself. Without the suffering we would never have known the depth of his love, the power of his strength and the wonder of his grace.
Take time when you go home and read Psalm 23. I want you to notice some things when you read it. Note if you will that the sheep does nothing but follow. The Shepherd does it all. Note too please that it is only after the valley and the shadow of death, in the presence of enemies that the goodness and mercy flows. There is an old Arabian proverb which says this: All sun makes a desert. Friends if you want only sunshine in your life – it will be a desert.
Illustration. I remember watching once on television one of the Twilight Zone programmes. In it a gambler dies and goes into this room and it is a casino. Every game he plays he wins. He always has a winning hand, always picks the winning numbers on the roulette wheel. He wins jackpot after jackpot. Then he begins to realise he has no one to share the winnings with. He got all his heart desired as a gamble – to always win – but it was hell because he had no one to share it with and he had no experience of losing to compare it with.
It is the same for you and I in our lives. If all we want are good times, the highs and never the lows – our lives will be shallow and empty. They will be bereft of love, of compassion, of humility, of gentleness, kindness, of grace and mercy. There are certain characteristics of Christ Jesus that can only be formed and nurtured in our lives through suffering.
Peter – his faith must have been encouraged by those few steps out of the boat into the storm tossed waves. He must have learnt even more when he began to drown and Christ rescued him. His faith took an awful battering when he denied Jesus to a little slave girl. How much must it have been restored when Christ told him ‘feed my lambs Peter.’ Don’t you think his sermon on the day of Pentecost was helped and shaped by those experiences?
Would Paul have been the compassionate and passionate missionary without his thorn in the flesh? Would he have had the strength of faith without the experiences of jail, of being shipwrecked and the numerous whippings? Would he have known God to be sufficient in all and every situation without such experiences? Would he have been able to tell believers ‘for me to live is Christ and to die is gain?’ Such a statement would sound empty and hollow if he had lived a life of ease and luxury.
Mary and Martha – ever wonder what happened to their faith after Lazarus was raised from the dead? How could it have been encouraged if their beloved brother had not died?
Thomas – how his faith must have changed after going through that period of doubt. How his heart must have been encouraged to see Jesus again and have his questions and doubts answered. Yet without the suffering he would not have had the experience.
Zaccheus, blind Bartimeus, Matthew the tax collector, the Samaritan woman at the well, the prostitute who anointed Christ’s feet with tears and Nicodemus who came by night. Don’t you think that the suffering these people experienced helped, shaped, moulded them for Christ.
Joni Erickson Tada – would she have the ministry she has today without the accident that put her in a wheel chair.
Chuck Colson – prison fellowship would never have begun if he had not gone to prison.
Friends we miss out on so much because we fail to see what God would teach us through our suffering. We fail to understand that He is refining us by fire because He wants us to be ‘pure gold.’ His desire is to remove the dross from our lives. To bring to the surface the dead, the drudgery, the sin that so easily entangles life and he does so that He might remove it and bring healing, forgiveness, renewal and freedom. Suffering builds character, resolve, perseverance and it leads to an intimacy with God which cannot be experienced any other way. When all else fails me, I am sorry to say usually the last resort, I turn to God and I find my father smiling at me. I hear him say ‘What took you so long to come to me?’ His desire is for my good, for my faith to be matured, to be encouraged – sometimes it takes a hard time, a painful experience for that to happen.
Illustration: Tiger moth – cuts a small hole in the cocoon to squeeze through. The effort to squeeze through such a small aperture forces the fluid in its body out into the wings and enables it to fly. If the hole is enlarged by human hands in order to ‘help’ the moth is crippled. Friends it is the same in my life and your life. Without suffering we are crippled people – doomed to limp along. Doomed like the tiger moth to walk when it should be flying. Why? Because without the experience of the struggle and the suffering to squeeze through the small hole the fluid does not go into the wings and they remain unformed. It has wings but no strength to fly. It is the same with you and me. We have faith but without the testing, the refining and the maturing that comes from times of trial there is no strength. The result is we walk when we should be flying. We limp along bemoaning that God does not answer our prayers, that our faith is weak compared to other people. That God is always working somewhere else and in someone else’s life. Why is that? Because we have failed to hear his voice and learn the lesson he would teach in and through suffering, through trial and tribulations. You want to soar with the eagles as Isaiah says in 40.31? Then learn from his experience of being a suffering servant for God. Read Isaiah 52 and 53 – yes it is about Jesus but it is also about Isaiah’s personal experience of being a man of God – suffering for the message he brought. You want to have faith that knows what soaring like and eagle is like – you got to go through the valley, the shadows, the firey furnace, the wilderness – because it those moments, those times that nothing else matters but the voice of God.
One of my cousins is a navigator in the RAF. He tells me that there are times when you are in the plane and you can see nothing because of cloud or fog. He says that is the time when the all the hours of training pays off. Why? Because you fly by the instruments. When you cannot see what is ahead because it is foggy and dark, and clouds block your view – you have learned to trust these instruments and you fly by them. He says you come in to land and you cannot see the runway but your trust the watch tower, the radar, the instruments and the pilot – and suddenly when you think there is nothing there – you see the lights of the runway and you are home safe.
Friends this is how Spafford put it:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea billows, roll
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
Spafford wrote that hymn after he had received a telegram from his wife which simply stated ‘Saved Alone.’ His four children had perished when the ship they were on had been lost after striking another ship in mid-Atlantic. Friends I have no experience like that and I have no great desire for it to come into my life either. But if it does I want to be like Spafford, to be able to fly by the instruments when the days are dark, the way clouded by pain because I have learned to say ‘it is well with my soul’ because I know that He is with me. That he is beside me. That his arms enfold me and lead me to the place of blessing that can only be reached by suffering.
I know enough about myself to know that if God allowed me to choose:
Object of suffering – I would never choose what was closest to my heart.
Force of suffering – it would never be enough to hurt me or change me.
Time or season of suffering – it would always be the wrong time, tomorrow would always be a better day for it to come.
Instrument of suffering – I would always say if only it had been . . . and not . . . I would never make a choice.
You see I am really selfish at heart, but then so are you. We are all very fond of ease and comfort and we actually are guilty of thinking that is how the Christian life should be. You know God I did you a favour by coming to you – the least you could do in return is make sure this Christian life is easy. You know he said his burden was light and easy but he never said that about the way. Remember the symbol of our faith is a cross, not a cushion.
Suffering is not empty of meaning nor purpose. Let me quote you a verse in the OT that has sustained me on many a painful journey in my life. Genesis 50.20 READ. Do you hear what God is saying to you from this verse this morning? Let me connect it to another verse in order to explain it to you – Romans 8.28 READ. Friends God, GOD, works for good in all things. God works good out of all things, even evil. Joseph’s brothers meant to do him harm but God used it many years later to save them from starvation. God worked good out of the evil they had perpetrated. I would not be so naïve this morning to tell you that I understand, or that I can see the good coming out of every evil situation. But this I do know and proclaim – God brings good out of evil. God brings good out of suffering. How can I say such a thing?
Turn with me to the Cross this morning. Was ever such evil perpetrated on one man? He who knew no sin, became sin for us. He whom the Father loved, the Father punished. He who was perfect, sinless, innocent – was judged and condemned, whipped and beaten, stripped and crucified so that I, you, sinner, guilty might be healed, saved, forgiven and freed. Christ gave meaning, gave purpose and gave dignity to suffering. We may not understand why it has come but it has a purpose. In fact when you read Job you realise that in the end God does not answer Job’s question as to the reason Why? God does not have to give us a reason for anything, not even when we get to heaven. He is God and as he says in Isaiah 55.8 his ways and thoughts are higher than ours and we are unable to fathom them.
Amen.
