“

 “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:3-6

We have been talking about the subject of suffering. We live in a world of suffering. Unless it’s touching us we are pretty out of touch with the suffering in our world.

Millions without access to clean water, adequate nutrition, or the safety of shelter. Many go weeks without baths, or clean clothes. Many walk miles and stand for hours in line to get a small sum of food.

We waste more food in a year than some nations eat. Illnesses that you and I get over quickly are deadly in some parts of the world where medical help is scarce and primitive. Death is so near to so many. Speaking of death.

I have heard somewhere around 6,000 to 7,000 people die every hour in the world, That’s around sixty-one million people a year. Of those, five million are under five years old.

Suffering is part of human existence. When Adam chose to disobey he chose death, and suffering. People like to blame God for the suffering in the world. They say either He is all powerful but a monster because He could end suffering and doesn’t or He is not all powerful and therefore powerless to stop suffering.

Neither of these are true. The Bible reveals that God is in fact all powerful and yet He allows a world of suffering. Before going on let’s establish one thing about His atheist accuser. They blame God for suffering but it was our disobedience that brought suffering in the first place.

Since much of the suffering in the world is the result of sin we perpetuate suffering by going on in our sin. In fact most of the suffering in the world is brought on by the sins of others.

The starving masses are victims often of selfish and wicked governments. You could say that most of the suffering in the world today is the result of direct sin. This is a case of a villain blaming the good guy. God allows suffering in the world but He will one day bring justice.

He will judge righteously and that’s what the atheist truly hates. The rest is just a cover for loving his sin. Every person who has ever lived will stand before the Judge one day and be held responsible for every injustice, every sin, every idle word, every evil thought and intention of the heart.

Suffering is real and it’s our fault. God has intervened to bring us salvation and to bring justice to the world. He allows suffering for a time but He is working a bigger plan that will make everything right in the end.

God doesn’t exempt His children from suffering. This is so important to understand. We saw last week all the things that the Apostle Paul suffered as he was out doing the will of God. We remember what Stephen suffered while doing the will of God.

A number too high to count have suffered in the name Jesus over the millennia. Some eaten by wild beasts, others set on fire, some drowned and many others tortured and killed in various forms. All named the name of Christ and served Him faithfully.

Why would He allow this? We don’t know. Not having the answer does not mean God is evil it simply means we don’t know. The theme last week was trusting in the dark. I repeat God is under no obligation to tell us anything of why He does what He does. Saying all of that we know He is good.

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:9-11)

These are children of God who have suffered and they are given robes and told to rest. Their suffering was not in vain. It would be rewarded at the right time. It would also be avenged. God would bring to justice those who made them suffer.

Look at what Jeremiah says about God.

“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” (Lamentations 3:21-25)

So we know why unbelievers suffer. They suffer the consequences of their own sin as well as the affects of living in a fallen world. Why do Christians suffer? There are several answers we have to take in.

1. The first answer is obvious, we too live in a fallen world. Sin and suffering affects everything it touches and that includes us.

2. Suffering can be discipline.

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Hebrews 12:5-6)

We need to understand the difference between retributive punishment and discipline. God does not punish believers in the sense of us paying for our sins. Christ has done that once for all. God’s punishment is not to make us pay but to teach us how we are to behave and not behave. It’s corrective not punitive.

That being said it’s sometimes going to bring suffering. In those cases our suffering is intended to teach us something.

3. Suffering helps us help others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

Those who have experienced the grace of God in their trouble are better equipped to help others find the same grace in their trouble.

Joni Eareckson Tada is a good example. A diving accident when she was 17 years old left her a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. Everyday she deals daily with pain and lack of mobility.

For several decades she and her husband have overseen ministries that serve the disabled. They have summer camps for the mentally challenged and a project that provides wheelchairs to impoverished handicapped people. God has allowed her to suffer in order to help others who are suffering.

4. Suffering brings us closer to the Lord (Philippians 3:10).

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Christ suffered in the flesh and you tend to turn to someone who can relate to what you’re going through. we tend to draw nearer to God in bad times as opposed to good times.

Suffering makes us long to be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:1-2).

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

When we are rich, comfortable and happy we tend to think less of heaven. Suffering reminds us that there is a better home and that this is temporary. Christians who suffer tend to have more heavenly priorities.

Not only does God allow His children to suffer but God the Father willed that His Son suffer. Jesus being part of the Trinity willed this as well (Isaiah 53:10-11).

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

It pleased the Father to crush the Son. It brought joy to God as Jesus was undergoing the miseries of the cross. Not because God is sadistic but because He was satisfied with the payment for sin.

God saw the travail of the soul of Christ and was satisfied. He knew that in that suffering and in that travail was the salvation of multitudes from every tribe, tongue, nation and people. That suffering brought justice, and righteousness eternally. It began to take back what was lost in Eden.

“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” (Acts 4:24-28)

Did you catch that? Jesus suffered whatsoever God determined before for Him to suffer. Even on the cross His suffering was only to the point God had ordained. No more, no less.

Christ’s suffering was not pointless and neither is ours. Christ’s suffering brought great reward and so will ours.

“This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world.” John Piper

“To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God’s will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God’s will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.” Oswald Chambers

It is God’s will that we suffer. It was the will of the Father that the Son should suffer. God’s will is not about our comfort. He is working on a larger, grander scale than we can imagine and our suffering in this life is but a small dent on the surface of the plan of God.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12)

Paul is going into the sufferings that he and others go through to bring them the Gospel. Then he tells them why they have accepted that suffering.

“Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.” (Vs. 14)

There is suffering here and now but there is also the promise of the resurrection. Christ suffered and then was raised and glorified. Then he says in verse 14 that the same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead will raise us as well.

This is a tremendous promise. Suffering now, resurrection and glorification with Christ later. What does this mean for our present suffering?

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (Vs. 16-18)

Temporary suffering then eternal glory. Paul says we don’t even look at the outward or the seen because that’s perishing but the unseen now that is eternal. Why does our suffering here earn an eternal weight of glory? The answer is in verse 15.

“For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”

Our suffering when looked at properly is a glorious thing because it brings with it greater glory to Jesus Christ. It causes us to draw nearer to Him, to trust Him more fully, to talk to Him more often.

When our suffering ends and our rest in eternity begins our praise will be more glorious and when He finally brings complete righteousness and justice to mankind we will glorify Him all the more having suffered injustice.

Let’s go back to our text and apply a few things. What did Paul do while suffering?

1.He gave thanks (Vs. 3)

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”

Every time he remembered the Philippian church he gave thanks for them. I bet that was often. Paul wasn’t dwelling on his present circumstances, he was thinking about them and in doing so became thankful.

Do you want to be thankful even in bad times? Think about others. When you do this it will fill your heart with thanksgiving. Pray for others when you are suffering. You’ll often find that God brings peace to our hearts during times of intercession.

2. He served others (Vs. 4)

“Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.”

In every prayer he made request for them. This brought joy. He took himself out of his present trial and found joy in interceding for these Christians. Are you suffering today? Serve others. Do it physically if you can or in prayer if you can’t.

We have forgotten the true power in prayer. We don’t see prayer as a ministry anymore. We don’t truly believe it does any good. Paul disagreed and poured himself into prayer as if prayer actually accomplished something.

3. He held firm to the promises of God (Vs. 6)

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”