WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Now I can tell, I can tell already, that you're not going to like this sermon. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 I just have a feeling that you're not going to like it, and how do I know that? 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Because I know my own heart, and I recoil from the whole reality of it's involved in suffering. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.000 None of us like that. You might have guessed by now the theme is the suffering of Paul, 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:34.000 or looking at Paul's life and see what we can learn about the Christian life from him through Scripture. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:38.000 And I think it's fair to admit this morning nobody is interested in suffering, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.000 or at least nobody wants suffering in their lives. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:50.000 I think it's fair to say all of us want comfort, and acceptance, and happiness, and belonging. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:59.000 These are all great things, and it's wonderful, and it's important that that is at the very depth of our heart. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.000 None of us want suffering. There's something wrong with us if we want suffering. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:11.000 Isn't there? That is the reality, and that's absolutely right. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:16.000 But the danger for us, the danger for me as a Christian, and the danger for me as a minister particularly, 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:25.000 I think when you're presenting the gospel, is that we try and sell Christianity like we would sell a product. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:33.000 We give all the plus points of being Christian all the time, and we want people, and rightly so, 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000 we want people to know peace, spiritual peace, and peace with God. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:45.000 We want people to hear and understand the message of forgiveness, and love, and healing, and eternal life, 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:53.000 and all these great things. But our tendency, and our natural bent, is to bury the bad news, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.000 is to not talk about suffering for being a Christian. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.000 It's not a great USP, is it? It's not a great unique selling point. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.000 Hey, come and become a Christian, and you'll suffer like never before. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:11.000 It's not that attractive. It's not that appealing. So we tend not to say anything. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:17.000 It's not a pool. It's not something that we would naturally do, either in sharing our faith, 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.000 or looking at in Christian experience. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Can you imagine if you say, become a Christian, come on, become a Christian. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.000 You should become a Christian. It's a great thing, an important thing to be a Christian. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Because when you do, people are going to hate you, and you'll be battling internally with yourself, 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:38.000 all of the rest of your life, and you'll be opposed by spiritual powers of darkness. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:42.000 Come on down, be a Christian. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 It's not really the way we do things normally, is it? 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And it's not a natural thing for us to talk about or to discuss. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.000 But we're going to today, so you're not going to like the sermon. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:01.000 But I am going to give you some caveats at the beginning, as we deal with this theme of suffering. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:07.000 Of course, it's not the whole picture in this life for us as Christians. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.000 There is joy and comfort and belonging and love and forgiveness, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 unparalleled when we come to Christ and when we know Him. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.000 There is hope beyond anything else when we are Christians. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 I leave that caveat. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Also, even in suffering as a Christian, there can be something really good going on. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:42.000 God can be using the dark realities of our experience for some great purpose. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.000 Caveat, Saul's experiences will not be ours. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:48.000 We're not Saul. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.000 We're not Paul, whether you call them Saul or Paul. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Either or. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.000 His experiences will not be ours. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.000 His sufferings will not be ours. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:06.000 But there will be suffering in your life as a Christian and in my life as a Christian when we are following Jesus. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:11.000 The last caveat, no, second last caveat, it's temporary. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 Okay? 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.000 You will not always need to hear this sermon. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.000 In fact, it will be a day when you'll not hear any more sermons at all. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 And that will be great. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:27.000 But there is something far better still to come for us as Christians. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 The suffering in Him is only temporary. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:37.000 And the last caveat that I bring is I simply don't have all the answers. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:43.000 And especially with regard to why some people suffer more than others. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.000 And why some people don't seem to suffer very much. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:51.000 It's not something you can just give a quick blog answer to on a Monday morning. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:54.000 It's not easy for us to appreciate. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:03.000 And I think it's glib and unhelpful to try and suggest that we have all the answers to the sufferings that people go through, individuals particularly. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.000 So these are some of the caveats. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:16.000 But I want to look briefly at Paul and learn from Paul about why we will suffer as Christians. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Why it is absolutely indispensable and unavoidable that we will suffer as Christians. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.000 A miserable theme for a sermon. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:35.000 Paul, firstly we see that the hunter became hunted. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.000 We read that in the accounts that we read from that. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.000 We went back to passages we've looked at before. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:50.000 And we read that Paul, who was the hunter of Christians, became hunted as a Christian. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.000 So he was breathing out threats and murder against Christians. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:02.000 He had this great venomous hatred for Jesus Christ and for Christians. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:17.000 And then we're told, after he meets with Christ on the Damascus Road, that he would suffer many things for the sake of the name of Jesus. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:19.000 So the hunter becomes hunted. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:26.000 And that really helps to tell us everything about suffering in the Christian life. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:32.000 See, before Paul became a Christian, before Saul became a Christian, he hated Christ. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 He hated what Christ stood for. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:42.000 He hated Christ's followers until he met with Christ on that road to Damascus. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:44.000 He was a religious guy. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.000 He was moral. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.000 He was upright. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.000 And he was successful in his life. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:07:02.000 He was a really upright, upstanding individual who had an irrational fear of Christ and the Christian message. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:10.000 He saw it as a real danger to him in his own life, even though he was religious. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.000 It was seditious. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.000 It was changing people's lives. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:19.000 And it was challenging his own personal beliefs, his social standing. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:25.000 And the religious status quo that he was part of in Israel. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:39.000 And as he heard the teaching of Jesus and was exposed to it, there must have at some point been an exposure of his own heart's rebellion against God, which he hated. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:46.000 And that drove him to silence Jesus and silence his followers. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:52.000 That was Paul that we're speaking of before he became a Christian. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:59.000 And it expresses some of the reality of why we suffer as Christians are going to see. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Because what happened to him? 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:15.000 What happened to this upright, moral, powerful, religious leader who was hell-bent on destroying the fledgling Christian church and denying the teaching of its Savior Jesus Christ? 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:20.000 He met with Jesus. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.000 That's what changed him. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:28.000 He met with Jesus and everything in an instant in Paul's life is changed. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.000 We don't know all what happened. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:32.000 Not all is recorded. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.000 But he met with Jesus on the Damascus Rose and it changed everything. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Remember what he had already heard and seen. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:48.000 We know that he knew certain things about Jesus and we know that the clothes of Stephen, the first martyr, were laid at his feet. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:53.000 And that he heard the testimony of Stephen about Jesus and he knew the teaching. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.000 And then he met with this Christ. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:00.000 And the Bible would explain that in terms of a rebirth. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000 He was reborn. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:09.000 He put his faith in this Christ that he previously wanted to crush and to destroy. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:10.000 He repented. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:11.000 He was forgiven. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:12.000 He was baptized. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:22.000 He was filled with the Holy Spirit and he had a new heart which was able to love God and recognize who Jesus was and what Jesus had done. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.000 He had met with the truth. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:31.000 You know, as I think Corey said it here, and it's not Corey's original, 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:34.000 it doesn't have any original thoughts, it's all from Keller. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.000 But he does attribute to Keller certainly. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:43.000 You know, if Christ walked out of the tomb, it changes everything. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 And that was it, wasn't it? 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000 If Christ walked out of the tomb, it changed everything. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.000 And that is exactly what Paul came to recognize was the truth. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000 He met with the truth in Jesus Christ. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:58.000 He met with Christ. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.000 He was reborn. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.000 Oh boy. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.000 And he suffered. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.000 He suffered like never before when he became a Christian. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:09.000 It's bad news. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:16.000 It's not a good sell for the gospel in this comfortable society in which we live. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Because Paul suffered. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:23.000 We read in Acts at the end of chapter 23, the plot to kill him. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:30.000 There was a substantial group of men that vowed not to eat and drink until they murdered Paul. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:36.000 They now must be very thin, because they didn't quite make that. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:41.000 Them themselves, though they plotted to murder him. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.000 He was shipwrecked three times. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:49.000 He was on house arrest for two years, unable to get out to his churches and the people he loved 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:54.000 and the evangelism he wanted to do, which we read of at the end of Acts. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:01.000 And 2 Corinthians 4, 11 speaks about him being in poverty, being beaten, being stoned, being homeless, being mugged. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.000 He was opposed within the church. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.000 He was opposed outside of the church. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:06.000 He was hungry. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 He was thirsty. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:16.000 And he had all the pastoral burdens of the people that he had brought to faith as an apostle. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.000 So that's Paul's experience. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.000 He met Christ. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.000 He was reborn and he suffered. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:31.000 That is not a good apologetic for coming to faith as a bear apologetic, as it's just left like that. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.000 But we need to unpack it a little bit. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:40.000 What is God teaching us about suffering through Paul's own experiences and through the Bible's teaching? 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:50.000 Because he goes on from his life of suffering to teach a great deal by God through the Holy Spirit for our understanding 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.000 and under the guidance of the Spirit. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:57.000 What is God teaching us about suffering through Paul's experience? 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Firstly, and there's many things that we'll not have time to look at today, but the reality of sin. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:09.000 The reality of sin makes suffering for us absolutely inevitable. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:12.000 That's the reality of the world in which we live in. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:21.000 Because of sin in our hearts and in the world, it makes suffering inevitable. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.000 You see what Paul was like before he became a Christian. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:32.000 He was hell bent on destroying Jesus Christ and God because of the challenge that it was made to his own. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.000 He opposed God by nature. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:39.000 Now that is absolutely the same for every single one of us. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:44.000 That sin in our hearts is opposed to God and His grace and His goodness. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:54.000 Because it exposes our self-righteousness, our independent spirit, our legalism, our rebellion against God, 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000 our desire to be lords over our own life. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:02.000 And we hate God's lordship, naturally. That's sinful nature within us. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.000 And we don't like the message that there needs to be a change. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:11.000 That there needs to be a denial of ourself. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:17.000 That there needs to be a falling on our knees before Christ for salvation and hope and for a future. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:26.000 Because it goes against all our natural inclinations to be lords of our own life, to be in control, to do things our way. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:30.000 And what right is God to say anything to us? 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Our sinful natures give us that. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:38.000 Welling up within us against the message, the uncomfortable message of sin in the gospel. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:42.000 We don't like that in our lives, as Paul clearly didn't. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:49.000 And as Christians, that doesn't go away the moment we become Christians. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:54.000 Paul recognized that in his own battles, internal battles. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000 I'm not speaking about anything outside ourselves at the moment. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:04.000 But that, when we come to Christ, that denial of our sinful selves, that is, may I say, 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:10.000 it's a Christian of 35 years or so, or longer, nearly 40 years. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.000 That is an ongoing battle. That doesn't get easier. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:21.000 The battle against our own natures, where God encourages us to say no to ungodliness. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:25.000 You know, there is a point where as believers we have to say no. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:30.000 No to ungodliness. We don't like that, because we love ungodliness. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Deep down we love it. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.000 We love all that it gives us, and we love the self-control that allows us to have. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:40.000 And we don't like the self-denying aspect of the gospel. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.000 So we struggle with that. We struggle with that all the time. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.000 And we are seeking the transformation in Christ to deal with our sin, 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:58.000 to deal with our selfish nature against His grace and against His goodness and against His love. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:05.000 Not only is that an internal battle, but of course there is the reality that we live in a fallen world, 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:08.000 and therefore we'll be suffering within that world that Paul experienced, 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:13.000 and we will also, the poverty, the illness, the unemployment, the loss of loved ones, 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.000 the things we hate, the things that we want to avoid, the things that we curse God for. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:23.000 These are all the reality of living in this world that is broken 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:29.000 and out of its rightful relationship with God and with itself. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:39.000 And also the genesis of evil, the darkness and the powers of darkness, 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:44.000 and the spiritual forces of darkness, the devil hates Christ and his followers. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:50.000 And that brings opposition because of the reality of sin that makes it inevitable. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.000 That's why the psalmist, I agree, you know, we go back to the psalmist, in Psalm 73, 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:06.000 he envies the fact that, he's envious of the fact that unbelievers seem to have a struggle-free, battle-free life. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:12.000 He longs to be like them. Can you imagine any other book that is speaking about 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:20.000 the importance of truth being open enough to allow this reality to be exposed? 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.000 He looks at everyone who isn't a believer and he says, they've got a great life. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.000 My life's rubbish, and I'm supposed to be a believer. Why is my life so rubbish? 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:36.000 Their life seems so great. The perceived struggle-free life of the unbeliever 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:41.000 until he recognizes the truth of God. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.000 So the reality of sin makes it inevitable. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:50.000 Second thing is that it's our identity, and it's the first of the slides, I think, for the screen. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.000 It's our identity in Christ that I may know him, Paul says this when he's writing to the Philippian church, 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:02.000 and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:14.000 So there is a fact that being a Christian and identifying as a Christian will mean that we share his sufferings as Christians. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:21.000 Does that mean well? In the same way that Paul turned from being someone who is against Christ 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.000 to being a believer because he met with Christ. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.000 So every one of us as Christians can say the same, maybe not in such a dramatic way, 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:39.000 but we have met with the living Savior by faith through grace. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:47.000 We have met with Him, and therefore the gospel, as it changed Paul's heart, is also changing our hearts. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:51.000 And just as Paul had the presence of Christ in him through the Holy Spirit, 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:56.000 so you and I have the presence of Christ in us through the Holy Spirit. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:03.000 That makes us offensive. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:08.000 We are not to be offensive, but it makes us offensive. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:17.000 As we live as Christians, and as we identify with Christ, He was beautiful. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.000 He was perfect. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:21.000 He was gracious. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:23.000 He was respectful. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:26.000 He was gentle, but he was strong. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.000 He didn't say bad things about people. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:30.000 He never gossiped. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:35.000 He didn't speak badly of others in a way that was untrue. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:40.000 He was the perfect human being. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.000 But he was rejected, wasn't he? 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.000 People didn't love him. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:49.000 He was rejected and opposed and crucified. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.000 And we will share that as Christians. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:55.000 We will share that. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.000 It's absolutely inevitable. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:04.000 If we are living our lives reflecting Jesus Christ and seeking to follow Jesus Christ, 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:12.000 if Christ is our Lord, then we are in a collision course with the world in which we live, 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.000 as well as with our own hearts, which we recognize. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:21.000 But in that collision course, grace is to act as the airbag. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.000 Please remember that. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Grace should always be at work in however we live our lives. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:37.000 We are going against the normative and the current world view, its morality and its ethics. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:45.000 When Christ speaks about self-denial, when the gospel speaks against the rejection of rampant individualism, 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:50.000 when we won't follow the world and our friends into their excesses, 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:55.000 when we defend the rights of the voiceless, the poor and the unborn, 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:08.000 when we take our stand gently and persuasively and quietly about biblical teaching on sexuality and gender roles, 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:17.000 and when we speak of absolute truth or when we share our own moral delinquency before God 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:24.000 and say that that is a reality for all of us, when we oppose self-righteousness, 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:29.000 when we demand that Christ's message is an exclusive message, 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:36.000 when we speak about trusting in a crucified but risen Savior, 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:42.000 we will find ourselves in a collision course that we simply can't avoid. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:45.000 And we have to come in terms with that. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:50.000 There's no other way for us, we will suffer because of our faith in Jesus Christ, 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.000 because Christ Himself, the great example and the great Redeemer suffered. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:00.000 There is no such thing for us in reality as private faith. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:05.000 It's not simply just about me and my God, quietly, 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:12.000 because as we are identified with Christ, we will suffer because of that. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:19.000 Now there are all kinds of caveats and nuances that we need to make in that area, isn't there? 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:28.000 We need to recognize the need not to be obnoxious, not to be spluttering forth our understandings 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.000 and sometimes our misunderstandings about people and their needs, 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:44.000 and we need to remember and recognize the great importance of loving everyone that we come alongside. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:51.000 But it is inevitable that we will suffer because we're in a collision course. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.000 But the irony of that is that it both repels and attracts. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:02.000 When we live for Jesus Christ, when we are gentle and compassionate and humble, 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:11.000 but also Christ-like and seeking to be obedient and loyal to Him and His grace and His truth, 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:16.000 as we express our own faith, it both repels and attracts. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.000 So what am I saying here? I'm saying here that the church will grow. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:28.000 People will become Christians when we recognize the reality as a Christian church of suffering. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:34.000 You will make enemies as a Christian. You probably have made enemies and you felt really hurt about it 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:40.000 because you've sought to be gentle and compassionate and understanding in what you believe, 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:43.000 but you've made enemies. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:45.000 But you know what the difference is when we make enemies? 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:51.000 As far as it is possible up to us, we live at peace with them. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:56.000 We love them. We serve them. We pray for them. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:02.000 I have no time for a kind of, and the Bible has no time for a self-righteous separation 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:08.000 from those who disagree with us as if somehow we are better than them. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:16.000 Jesus says, get right in there and love them, even though they may hate us 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:22.000 and even though they may be, as it were, our enemies. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:30.000 It will repel, but we also know that the grace we show as we live that way also attracts 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.000 because it exposes good news. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:41.000 It exposes that we are humble and we recognize our delinquency and have come to Jesus Christ 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:50.000 and He has changed us, just like Paul was changed from breathing out murderous threats against Christians 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:57.000 to being the one who shared lovingly and who gave sacrificially of his life for Jesus Christ. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:05.000 It's the huge paradox of the gospel, and we need, and you need, and I need the spiritual metal 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:12.000 and the guts to accept both, both the reality of suffering and the power of grace. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:19.000 It's not an option for us either to recoil into privacy and say, well, I'm just this kind of private, 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:23.000 I don't want to offend anyone, I'm just a private Christian, or the insularity, 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.000 or resorting to judgmental shouting from the sidelines. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:29.000 Neither are an option for us. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:35.000 We don't have the right to judge other people because God says, look at your own heart. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:46.000 Nor do we have the right to simply go into a cocoon and stay forever private in our faith. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:51.000 We need to go forward in grace with the good news, recognizing that we are part of the problem 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.000 and that Christ is the only answer. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.000 That is where the church grows. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:03.000 That is where the church will grow when we are faithful to Jesus Christ 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:09.000 and we will stand side by side with Him in His suffering with all humility and with all grace 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:15.000 and with all compulsion. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.000 It's our identity. We don't have another identity. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000 You want another identity? Come on up and preach that. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:25.000 But it's not the identity that we find in Jesus Christ. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.000 So we have a choice. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.000 We have a choice either to accept His grace and its beauty 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:43.000 and the temporary suffering that we will experience as we follow Jesus Christ. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:50.000 And as we do so and recognize that, we will see the kingdom come 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.000 and the church grow in our lives. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:01.000 And the church grow as people come to faith and are attracted by the simplicity and the strength 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:06.000 and the courage and the humility of the way we deal with suffering. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:12.000 We can choose that or we can choose to be ashamed of Jesus. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:14.000 And that's easy for us to do. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000 I know that. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:22.000 I know that because there are times when I am ashamed to stand up for Jesus Christ. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.000 Mark 8 verse 38, let Jesus speak in His own words, 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.000 for whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation of Him 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:36.000 will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with His Holy Angel. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:38.000 These are strong words. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:42.000 Are we content just to be ashamed of Jesus? 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:46.000 Actually, it's great to be a Christian, but I'm kind of ashamed of Him. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:52.000 Or are we willing to suffer because of our identity and grace 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:58.000 and recognizing that it is first a battle in our own hearts? 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:02.000 So lastly and very briefly, we look for suffering 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.000 and Paul's example of suffering to change our perspective. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:11.000 It changed Paul's perspective of life and of what was important. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:14.000 It made him reliant on Jesus Christ. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.000 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7, 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:22.000 but we have this treasure in Jarser clay to show that this surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:27.000 He was probably the greatest Christian, if you can talk in these terms, correct me if I'm wrong, 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:31.000 that ever lived, the most effective and powerful. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:37.000 And yet he recognized his weakness and that he was at Jarser clay. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.000 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:43.000 but my grace God said to him, my grace is sufficient for you, 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:45.000 for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.000 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly my weaknesses, 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:51.000 so the power of Christ may rest on me. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:59.000 His suffering exposed his weakness and yet it was his strength. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Again, the further paradox of the gospel, he wasn't self-reliant. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:08.000 He didn't ride out on a white horse and I'm a Paul the apostle 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.000 and I'm going to change the world. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:11.000 It wasn't like that. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:16.000 He was humble and weak and not self-reliant. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:21.000 And he came to recognize that he didn't suffer alone, 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:24.000 that he was suffering unlike Christ's suffering, 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:29.000 where Christ took the sting and the isolation and the brunt of suffering 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:32.000 and didn't have any respite. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:36.000 And Christ took that so that when Paul and when we suffer, 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:39.000 we can say we're not crushed. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:41.000 We're not in despair. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:42.000 We're not abandoned. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000 We're not destroyed. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.000 That's what Paul said in the reading we did together. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:51.000 There was victory for him and presence. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:54.000 The presence of God in the midst of that. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:59.000 His will, he could see that God was doing something in his life, 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:05.000 that there was stripping back that sinful self-reliance that is in us all 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:07.000 and he was using the suffering to change him 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.000 and it strips away the dross and the excess in our lives 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:14.000 if we are willing to let him do that. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.000 And of course it's the final nail in Satan's coffin 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:20.000 because you would think, wouldn't you, at the end of Acts, Paul's, 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:26.000 it's a kind of ignominious end of this great second book of Luke 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:29.000 where we just have this one couple of verses that say, 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:32.000 I knew he was in prison for two years. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.000 And yet in Philippians 1, 12 and 13, Paul says, 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.000 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:42.000 has really served to advance the gospel 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.000 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:47.000 the whole of the Roman guard, 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:50.000 and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000 So he was imprisoned. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.000 It stopped him doing what we thought he was going to be doing, 00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.000 travelling around the world as I mentioned, he was sharing the gospel 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:03.000 and yet it was used by, he could see that this clipping of his wings 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:06.000 had a great spiritual purpose. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.000 Now I know within that there's great mystery 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:11.000 and there's great mystery in our suffering 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.000 and I please don't think I'm trying to minimize people's suffering, 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:18.000 your suffering, the difficulties that people go through. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:21.000 I have no answer to many of these things. 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:28.000 And we know that nobody likes suffering or persecution. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:34.000 But we also know it's always been the way. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.000 There's never been a comfortable church 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:41.000 or comfortable Christians 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:47.000 that have known the power of God at renewal, blessing and growth. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:53.000 It's simply, it's an oxymoronic statement 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.000 to say that you can be a comfortable Christian 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:59.000 and know the blessing and grace and growth of God. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:02.000 Because just like a plant in the garden, 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:06.000 it will only grow effectively and beautifully 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:10.000 when it is pruned and fed in the right way. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:15.000 And if we are wanting to be comfortable Christians 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:17.000 who Jesus will rubber back and say, 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:21.000 there, there, just have a great old life, 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:26.000 then we'll probably stagnate and we'll return to the world 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:33.000 and we'll shrink because we will recoil from the light of Jesus 00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:36.000 shining into the darkness of our own hearts 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:41.000 and the suffering but also the healing that it brings. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000 And use this story just before I finish. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:46.000 A story that I've used a hundred times but it's a good story. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.000 Okay, it's that pain of healing. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:52.000 An old friend of mine had a very serious car accident. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.000 You probably all heard this. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:56.000 I used to visit him in hospital regularly. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.000 I was up in Inverness and he was lying out in his bed 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:03.000 because he had broken hundreds of bones in his body, 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:05.000 especially his legs, couldn't walk. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:08.000 And then I went and one after months went in one day 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:12.000 and he was sitting over the side of the bed. 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:14.000 He was up, sitting up. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:18.000 But when I went to see him, he was crying. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.000 I said, why are you crying? 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:22.000 What was wrong? 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:26.000 He said there's desperate pain in my legs. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:29.000 It was the blood that was flowing back into his legs, 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:33.000 having been lying flat for weeks and weeks. 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:36.000 And it was excruciating pain. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:38.000 But it was healing pain. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:41.000 And it was healing suffering for him 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:45.000 so that he could walk again in days to come. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:48.000 And that's the reality that we face as Christians. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.000 None of us look for suffering. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:53.000 None of us go after that. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.000 But as we see God at work, we see him bringing healing to us 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.000 so that we can walk spiritually for him. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.000 It challenges our perspective to be reliant 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:07.000 and also to recognize the unseen reality that is now 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.000 and in the future, Romans 8, 18. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:13.000 I consider Paul says, in all his sufferings, 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:15.000 in all that list of sufferings, 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:18.000 the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:20.000 that is to be revealed. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:25.000 And 2 Corinthians 4 speaks of just his presence 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.000 and the light and momentary afflictions. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:33.000 Remind us of the unseen realities 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.000 that are not transient but are eternal. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:41.000 So it reminds us that the suffering here is temporary, 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:43.000 that we are not alone, 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:49.000 and it's important that we see we don't only live once. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:55.000 That in many ways, this is just the opening chapter. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:58.000 If it's even that, there's something for us far better 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:01.000 where suffering will not be, 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:04.000 where the tears will be wiped away. 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.000 That's the great hope in our suffering. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:11.000 You sing Negro spirituals and you see and you recognize 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:15.000 that that was the ongoing hope of those who were enslaved 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:17.000 and going through difficult times, 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:24.000 that there was a future hope on that great shore. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:29.000 And there is simply no comparison to what there will be. 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:33.000 Death will not be annihilation, it will not be the end, 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:39.000 but for the Christian, the great reality is that the best is still to come. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:44.000 And the challenge in suffering is not to take our eye of Jesus 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:50.000 nor to shake our fists at Him, but to fix our eyes on Him. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.000 So what will it be for us in this sermon that you haven't enjoyed at all? 00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:01.000 The temptation to give up when the going gets tough? 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:07.000 Did Jesus not walk out of the tomb? 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.000 What's the alternative? 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:16.000 A life of ease now that denies the truth or a life of joy, 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:24.000 even in suffering now and eternal and incompatible riches eternally. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:30.000 We all need to ask these questions afresh on this lovely summer's morning. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.000 Let's bow our heads. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:36.000 Lord God, help us to recognize that you are God, 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:50.000 that you don't seek to meet our agenda, nor do you change, 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:53.000 but you are love and you are grace, 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:59.000 and you have transformed our lives as we have met with you 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:05.000 and we've seen you as being worth serving and following. 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:11.000 Forgive us when we are more concerned about ourselves and our comfort 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:19.000 than the reality of standing up for Jesus gracefully, humbly, 00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:23.000 in a self-denied and in a courageous way. 00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:30.000 And forgive us for hating our enemies so often rather than loving them. 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.000 Forgive us for being smart alex with them sometimes 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:36.000 trying to win the argument. 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:39.000 Forgive us for ignoring them or rejecting them 00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:48.000 or denying our role in praying and seeking their good. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:54.000 And help us to learn how to live in such a way 00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:00.000 that will make us useful in your kingdom 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:06.000 and will offer Christ in an honest and genuine way. 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:10.000 Help us in that and forgive us when we fail you at every turn. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:13.000 And above all, keep us from being ashamed of you 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:20.000 because you were not ashamed of us to the very point of crucifixion, 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.000 hell and dereliction, and in resurrection you've given us life. 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:30.000 We thank you for that. Amen.