Rejoice in What?!?!
TCF Sermon
September 17, 2006
What do you rejoice in? For the language-challenged among you, rejoice means “to feel joyful about something; to be delighted about something.”
You might rejoice in something you accomplished. You might rejoice in your childrens’ accomplishments. You might rejoice in your favorite football or basketball team’s success. You might rejoice in some simple pleasure, like a favorite food, or a vacation in the mountains, or a good book.
You might rejoice in God’s provision for you. You might rejoice in His wondrous love and amazing grace. There are many things we can think of to rejoice in.
And there are things we wouldn’t normally think of rejoicing in at all, except, perhaps, when those things are tied to an understanding of the Kingdom of God, and God’s love for us.
Romans 5:1-5 (NIV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
So far, so good, huh? As followers of Jesus, we can all look forward to the glory of God, being in His radiant presence at the last day, or at our death, and then throughout all of eternity, about which the Word of God says in:
Revelation 21:23 (NIV) 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Thinking of this, hoping for this, and remembering that hope in scripture isn’t a mere wishing, but it’s sure and certain, so hoping for this is definitely something we can rejoice in, isn’t it?
But wait. There’s more. This passage in Romans doesn’t end there.
Continuing with verse 3: Not only so, (in other words, not only do we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God) but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given.
Now wait a minute, you might think, upon reading this passage for the first time. I can relate to rejoicing in some things, especially rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, but suffering?
You might be inclined to say, upon reading that we rejoice in our sufferings:
Rejoice in what!?!?!
But what Paul writes here to the Roman Christians is absolutely clear. There’s no ambiguity at all, no need to explain it away with some interpretation other than the clear meaning of the text.
Verse 3: We also rejoice in our sufferings. The NASB says: “we also exult in our tribulations”
Let’s back up the rejoicing truck a second. Maybe rejoice doesn’t mean the same thing here as it meant in the previous verse. But no. It does.
In fact, one commentary suggests rejoice may not be a strong enough word. Exult, as in the NASB, might be a better word. Or even boast.
The Greek word here is translated in the KJV of the New Testament as glory 23 times, boast 8 times, and rejoice 4 times.
Well, then, maybe sufferings only includes suffering for Christ. Maybe this is addressed to the suffering church, and not the rest of us regular, everyday Christians.
Unfortunately, scripture doesn’t let us off the hook there, either. The English words used in the KJV for tribulation, which is rendered suffering in the NIV, include tribulation 21 times, affliction 17 times, trouble 3 times, anguish 1 time, and persecution 1 time.
The complete Word Study Dictionary says this word means,
"In a figurative manner, pressure from evils, affliction, distress (2 Cor. 2:4; Phil. 1:16); of a woman in travail (John 16:21). Often as a (substitute word) for evils by which one is pressed, i.e., affliction, distress, calamity (Matt. 13:21; Acts 7:10, 11; Rom. 5:3; 2 Cor. 1:4; Heb. 10:33)."
So, it’s clear there are passages where the context is referring primarily to suffering for the cause of Christ - and we might make a case that those passages might also apply to more generic suffering. We also should note that this passage in Romans would obviously also apply to persecuted believers, but there’s no doubt it’s referring to sufferings, tribulations, troubles of all kinds.
The bottom line here is that Paul is exhorting us to rejoice in our sufferings. Sufferings, plural…. that means any and all sufferings, from stubbing our toe or getting caught in a traffic jam, to significant pain, and the more serious things that cause us to suffer, either emotionally or physically,or both.
Now, believe me, I don’t say this lightly. First of all, I know the circumstances in many of your lives, past and present, and know that many of these circumstances could be classified in no other way than as suffering.
Secondly, God’s been dealing with me personally in the past three weeks with a little object lesson of my own. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Third, Paul was writing to the Romans as one who could say about suffering, “been there, done that.”
One of the resources I studied for this message this morning, was a sermon of Christian pastor and author John Piper. Let me quote from his sermon titled, We rejoice in our sufferings.
--------
When Paul says in Romans 5:3, "And not only this (that is, not only do we exult in the hope of the glory of God), but we also exult in our tribulations" - when he says this,) he is not speaking as a spectator but a fellow-sufferer. Paul’s sufferings were long and hard. But in 2 Corinthians 12:9, he said, "[Christ] has said to me, ’My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.’" Notice, just as it says, "We exult in tribulations" here in Romans 5:3, he says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that he "most gladly" boasts or "exults" (same word) over his weaknesses. Paul practiced what he preached. And what he means by "weaknesses" in 2 Corinthians 12:9 he shows us in the next verse: "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." The whole array of distresses and weaknesses and sicknesses and difficulties are meant by these afflictions in Romans 5:3, not just persecutions. And Paul says he exults in them, instead of murmuring and complaining about them.
Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in the goodness and power and wisdom of God is tribulation.
---------
I’ve listened to this sermon on an mp3 player a couple of times in the past few weeks. I’ve found it encouraging and strengthening, and challenging. Each time I listened was in the middle of the night, because I couldn’t sleep. For much of the past three weeks, about the best relief from pain I could get would be classified as very uncomfortable.
Most of the time, it’s been significantly painful, as I’ve had a bout of sciatica. It’s rendered me unable to sit, to stand, to lie down for any length of time. About the only sense of relief I get is when I’m moving, walking or even swimming.
So, I’ve paced the house in the middle of the night listening to sermons by John Piper and Ravi Zacharias that I downloaded from websites.
It’s been a very difficult three weeks, and I haven’t slept very well at all. I literally haven’t had a full night’s sleep most of the past three weeks. Most nights I’ve been up out of bed a lot more than I’ve been in bed sleeping. But God has used this time to teach me some things about this passage. I told Jim Grinnell earlier this week that this sermon will be different for me, if only because I’ve spent less time studying, and more time meditating on these truths, than I usually would.
That wasn’t by my choice, it was by necessity, because studying requires sitting at a desk, and I couldn’t do that very much.
But apparently, this whole episode is being used by God for me, and maybe this morning for you. Look what it says about suffering in these verses, beginning with verse 3:
we also rejoice in our sufferings, (why?) because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given.
Suffering produces perseverance. The NASB says it this way: tribulation brings about perseverance. The idea here is: To work out; to bring about, accomplish, to carry out a task until it is finished…to effect, produce, to be the cause, or author of...
What is worked out, brought about, accomplished in us through suffering? First, Paul tells us, is perseverance. Patience. Endurance.
One commentary says: patience is the quiet endurance of what we cannot but wish removed.
Can’t we fellow sufferers, regardless of the form our individual suffering takes, say a hearty amen to the idea that we cannot help but wish our suffering were removed? But patience is the quiet endurance of that suffering, even as we ask God to shorten the time of the suffering.
So, let me be quick to add that I don’t think this perseverance and endurance excludes the idea of calling out to God for relief from our suffering. The Word says to pray for the sick. It doesn’t distinguish between a sickness that God may be using in an individual to produce endurance, and any other kind of sickness.
Let me tell you, I’ve prayed for myself, and I know many of you have prayed for me the past few weeks. I have to believe that one of the results of those prayers is this sermon this morning. I pray that another result would be what this passage speaks of: that I would develop perseverance, and God would work deeply in my character.
So I don’t believe we have to just grin and bear it. We’re not sadists. We’re also not positive thinkers, or proponents of the health gospel, which says we should never be sick or have trouble if we’re really walking with God. That’s just bad theology, and as Chuck Farah used to say, “bad theology is a cruel taskmaster.”
But, even as we seek God for relief from whatever suffering we’re undergoing, I believe we are also to seek His grace, so that we can endure until He lifts this burden from us. I also believe it’s good for us to consider what God may be working in us, even as we suffer.
Since we’re looking at the aspect of suffering and how it relates to others, let me also add this sidebar. I think when we’re suffering ourselves, we must be open to what the Holy Spirit desires to work in us, to teach us, with suffering as the means of our education. On the other hand, I think when we’re involved with someone else who’s suffering, we must be very careful not to impose our view of their suffering on them.
In other words, I don’t want to go up to Spencer, who’s suffered with pain in his elbow for weeks now, and say, Spencer, you should rejoice, God’s teaching you, God’s building endurance and character. That may or may not be true, but it may not be my job to say that to Spencer. What’s more, Spencer should feel free to say to me, “hey, I’m hurting.” We can be real with each other about our pain.
Can you see that there’s a difference in preaching the Word of God from the pulpit, in a general sense, and saying those things to a suffering brother or sister in Christ in the midst of their pain?
What I’m saying is, that it’s up to the Holy Spirit to bring conviction or understanding, or application, to individuals. The Word also says we should rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
What I should do with Spencer is pray for his healing, pray that God, in His mercy, would bring healing.
So, let’s be careful not to be like those who came to comfort Job, and give him advice in his suffering. Some of the things they spoke sounded right on, and in a different context might have been correct – but God later said that these people did not speak rightly of Him. The common denominator of those people was that not a one of them helped Job, or brought him any sense of comfort, at least after they began to speak to him.
While we can look at this passage of scripture, and see in a general sense what God desires of His children in the midst of their suffering, it’s for God, by His Holy Spirit, to impress that understanding on each individual. We must be careful how and when we speak such things to our hurting brothers and sisters in Christ, lest they grow discouraged. We can encourage them to hang in there, to cling to the grace of God, and tell them that we’re praying for them, but it’s cruel to try to be the Holy Spirit in the lives of others.
I won’t go so far as to say we should never speak anything like this, but we should do so only when clearly directed by God.
That said, we cannot get past what these verses are saying to each of us as believers, in a general sense. And since it’s me I’m talking about, I can say with complete assurance that this passage is speaking to me, that God has used and is using my suffering to produce endurance, and from endurance, to build character in me.
In recent months, God has been convicting me about my grumbling and complaining. So, even when I might think I have something legitimate to grumble and complain about, I’m now impressed with this conviction: I’m not only not supposed to grumble and complain, but I’m to rejoice in my tribulations.
Rejoice in what?!?!?
I have to be honest with you. I’ve rebelled against this idea, and much of the past three weeks, I have not been rejoicing in this suffering.
Now, I don’t think rejoicing in suffering means denying reality. Again, it’s not positive confession. It’s not when Barb asks me how I’m feeling, that I lie and say, “Oh, just fine,” when I’m not fine. I can say what’s real. God can handle it. So can Barb.
But there’s a difference between admitting that you’re hurting, and grumbling and complaining about your suffering, which would clearly be the opposite of rejoicing.
Now, what does it mean to rejoice in my tribulations? Does that mean I have to say, “Thank you, God, that I’m in such severe pain that I can’t sleep for three weeks, that I can’t sit and eat a whole meal, that I have to take pain meds for days at a time.”
No, it means that I recognize that my suffering has a purpose,and it’s a good purpose, and it will develop in me not only perseverance, but character, and that will lead to hope.
Believer’s Bible Commentary says:
(another) blessing that flows from justification is that we also glory in tribulations—not so much in their present discomforts, as in their eventual results (see Heb. 12:11). It is one of the delightful paradoxes of the Christian faith that joy can coexist with affliction. One of the by-products of tribulation is that it produces perseverance or steadfastness. We could never develop perseverance if our lives were trouble-free.
Think about that. Do you have to persevere through a good meal? No, you savor it. Do you have to persevere through a wonderful family vacation? No, you wish it would go on longer. Do you have to persevere through a Bill Sullivan sermon? No check that, bad example.
Do you have to persevere through a beautiful fall day? No. It takes nothing extraordinary in our character to get through good and easy and pleasant things in our lives.
It often takes much perseverance and character to get through the difficult things in our lives. And I have news for you. Becoming a follower of Jesus doesn’t make your life trouble free. We all have trouble in our lives. Big and small troubles. Trouble that lasts a seemingly long time, and trouble that comes and goes quickly.
If that comes as a surprise to any of you, come to me after the service and we’ll get a couple of elders and pray for you.
John Piper says about sufferings:
These are normal, not abnormal. It would be abnormal for a Christian not to have them, because Paul taught all the churches, according to Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
Yes, in this world, you will have tribulation. Is that a promise you’ll hear a TV preacher tell you? No! But that’s a promise of Jesus. Look it up.
John 16:33 (NASB77) 33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
We can take courage in tribulation, because Jesus has overcome the world…
Because He has overcome the world, we can have confidence that our suffering has a purpose, and a meaning, in God’s grand scheme of things. In that knowledge, we can rejoice.
So, rather than say, “thanks, God, for the pain, bring more to give me more endurance,” I can pray, “God, thank you that through this ordeal, you can and will build in me, perseverance, and you can and will build in me, character, and that these things will bring hope that will not disappoint me, because I know from experience your love for me, and that because of your omnipotence and omniscience, in your love for me, you’ll know and do what’s best for me.”
That’s a far cry from thanking God for the pain itself, and again, this can be emotional as well as physical pain.
It’s like a mother giving birth thanks God for the results – a newborn baby, a new life brought into the family. I’ve not heard any moms thank God for their labor and delivery. But I’ve heard many moms thank God for sustaining them through their labor and delivery, and for the end result – a healthy baby boy or girl.
Even Job, in the classic story of the lessons of suffering, understood the results of trials in the life of a follower of God. What did He say? In the midst of His troubles, against which most of our troubles pale by comparison, Job stated in faith:
Job 23:10 (NASB77)
10 "But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
I can’t come to a close this morning without another very important recognition here. This ability to rejoice in suffering is not something we can work up. It’s not something we can just decide to do and then do it, by an act of our will. It comes only by God’s grace, which we must then receive from Him.
Again quoting John Piper:
How can this be? The answer from verse 2 is that we are standing in grace. (Verse 2 speaks of this grace in which we now stand.) This is God’s omnipotent power to help us though we don’t deserve it. You don’t hold the key to this wonderful, supernatural way of life that should set Christians off from the world, God does. The power to rejoice and exult in tribulation comes from omnipotent grace that we receive by trusting in God’s promises.
We find an illustration of this in 2 Corinthians 8:1-2. In this passage, Paul speaks of how the Macedonian Christians rejoiced in their afflictions, even in the midst of great poverty. As we read these verses, notice the key to their ability to rejoice.
2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (NIV) 1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
It’s grace. It’s the unmerited favor of God. It’s grace as a power in the lives of these suffering Macedonians, giving them the ability to persevere in what Paul called a “severe trial.”
As a result, they had joy, and their joy resulted in generosity. We, too, can stand in this grace, as it says in our passage from Romans 5. We can stand in the grace of God, which leads to this wonderful “chain reaction” or “domino effect” of suffering in the life of a believer:
Suffering leads to perseverance, which leads to character, which leads to hope…
Or we can forget the grace of God, and instead of overflowing with rejoicing, we can overflow with complaining, become self absorbed, become critical. God’s power through His grace, effective in our lives, is the key.
I want to close with this song from Wayne Watson. As we listen to this song, I want us to consider whether or not we’re standing in His grace, enabling us to rejoice in our suffering – especially to rejoice in what our sufferings can and will accomplish in our lives, in a hope that will not disappoint, as it says in Romans 5:5,
“because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts.”
As an act of faith this morning, you may want to stand as this song plays, and say to God – help me to stand in your grace, help me to trust you to make something of my sufferings.
I’m going to stand in God’s grace. If God’s speaking to you about this, stand with me this morning, and seek the Lord for His grace as this song plays.
A Beautiful Place
By Wayne Watson
If I had my way, I must admit, if I called every play of the game, I’d pray for good times, blue sky and sunshine, and avoid with a passion the pain. But with every blow from an angry wind, and with every dark shadow that falls, there’s a better view up around the bend, where this puzzle makes some sense after all.
Chorus:
Mistakes and misfortunes will come and go, but to try and to fail is no disgrace, sometimes a rough and rocky road can take you to a beautiful place.
Is there anyone, looking back in faith, that can deny that the Father knows best, but at the time and place, for the life of you, you saw no good reason for the test. But now, remembering as you’ve watched His hand put the color to your black and white dreams, maybe one more time past what you can see, the trouble of the moment’s not as bad as it seems.
Chorus:
Mistakes and misfortunes will come and go, but to try and to fail is no disgrace, sometimes a rough and rocky road can take you to a beautiful place.
And the unspoiled beauty of the wisdom of God lies in the wilderness, up there beyond the easy reach, where the journey takes a little more faith, I guess….
Chorus:
Mistakes and misfortunes will come and go, but to try and to fail is no disgrace, sometimes a rough and rocky road can take you to a beautiful place.
