I don't know about you, but these past two years have been pretty tough overall for us.
I think in part, whatever we may have going on in our own lives, it feels like I feel
these days like I am simply bracing myself for the next announcement of some massive
global event that we're going to be learning about in history class for the next five generations.
It just feels like every so often, it's just like another thing and another thing and another
thing.
It's been a tough couple of years, and I know personally, not only for us, but for many
of you, you have lots of things going on in your own lives that sort of add to that kind
of personal suffering.
And that's part of the reason why we've been in this series looking at 2 Corinthians, which
is all about how the gospel transforms power and weakness and how the gospel addresses suffering,
transforms the way we think about suffering.
In this passage that we're going to look at this morning, look at what Paul says in chapter
4 verse 16 about his own suffering.
He says this,
Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
I read that several times and I thought, how in the world is something like that possible?
How is it possible to, on the one hand, be wasting away?
I feel like over the last couple of years I've aged at least 10 years.
How can you be wasting away, decaying, breaking down, entropy, and at the same time being renewed?
New life, new vigor.
How is that possible in anybody's life?
And I think this is something that probably every single person in this room would love
to be able to say is true about their own life.
You know, I'm wasting away by all appearances, everything's breaking down, but I'm actually
experiencing new life.
I feel more alive than ever.
I would love to be able to say that.
How is such a thing possible?
And that's what we're going to focus on this morning.
The answer is quite simply this, that the gospel has actually transformed the role of suffering
in Paul's life.
It hasn't taken it away.
It has transformed Paul's relationship with suffering and weakness.
And specifically, what we're going to see is that the gospel has given Paul three things.
It's given Paul a new paradigm for suffering, an entirely new paradigm.
It's given Paul a new pattern for suffering.
And then finally, it's given Paul a new promise for suffering.
All of this he finds in the gospel.
So let's pray, and then we're going to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 together.
Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that, oh Lord, if these were merely words,
or if we were merely here to hear human wisdom, then woe be unto us.
Lord, but our great hope is that you're a living God, and that you're here, and that you speak,
and that your Holy Spirit is already at work in us.
Lord, your Spirit is here.
And we pray we all need your word to be not simply a written word, but a living word, a word become flesh.
Lord, we need the word become flesh this morning.
And we pray that in your Son's holy name.
Amen.
So first of all, a new paradigm for suffering.
The default paradigm for most people when it comes to suffering and how to make sense of suffering and weakness
is to assume that suffering is a kind of indication of failure in life.
Something has gone wrong.
You have messed up somehow.
Even irreligious people tend to think when things are really bad, what have I done to deserve this?
Is God angry with me?
Has God abandoned me?
And so what we typically think is that life is about climbing a ladder towards success.
If you do the right thing, if you work hard, if you live a good life, good things will happen to you,
and God will bless you, and you will be prosperous and successful.
And this was the paradigm of the first century leaders in the church in Corinth that came in after Paul left.
And this is why they are so critical of the Apostle Paul.
They're essentially saying this about Paul.
They're saying, don't listen to anything that guy says, because it is very obvious that God is not with him.
People would say, how do you know God is not with him?
And they would say, well, look how much he suffers.
Look how much he suffers.
Look at how weak he is.
How could God possibly be with and love and bless somebody like that?
Here's Paul's own description in chapter 11.
He says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned.
Three times I was shipwrecked.
A night and a day I was adrift at sea.
It just goes on and on and on.
We're going to preach on it, so I'll just leave off there.
So you can imagine these leaders, you know, first they point to Paul and they say, no wife, no kids.
He spent time in prison.
All kinds of horrible things have happened to him.
And then over here you got Ted.
Look at Ted.
Right?
Ted is 6'3".
Ted's got a full head of lustrous hair.
Ted lives in a nice house with a harbor view.
Ted has a lovely wife.
Ted has eight adorable children.
They all play musical instruments and speak multiple languages.
Right?
Ted's never been beaten with rods.
Ted's never been shipwrecked.
Ted owns a 50-foot pleasure yacht.
Ted's never been shipwrecked.
And since Ted started preaching, attendance at the church has doubled.
And you can imagine these people saying, which one of these guys do you think is blessed by God?
Which one of these guys do you think God is with?
Right?
And people say, oh yeah, well it's pretty obvious.
Right?
So this is their paradigm.
If you suffer, it means you are a failure.
It means God is angry at you or that He has abandoned you.
Successful people are the opposite.
Successful people have obviously done something right.
That's why God is blessing them.
And this is essentially what we call the karma paradigm of suffering.
The karma paradigm.
Now most religions and worldviews assume a kind of karmic structure to the world.
Right?
They say that ultimately good things are going to happen to good people.
Bad things are going to happen to bad people.
Even the kind of new age movement that talks about manifesting.
Right?
It's very popular these days to hear about if you want a good life, manifest it.
Send out those vibes into the universe and the universe will return unto you those good vibes
which have become reality.
Right?
This is just another version of the same old story of karma.
Right?
Whatever you put out into the world will eventually come back to you.
And so what they're assuming based on this paradigm is they're assuming that when they make all these accusations toward Paul,
what Paul's going to do is he's going to respond the way probably I would respond.
Probably many of us in this room would respond.
Paul is going to respond by doing a number of things.
He's going to minimize his failures.
He's going to justify himself.
He's going to explain why actually all of this and that and the other wasn't his fault.
That it was stuff outside of his control.
And then he's going to try to draw their attention to all of the successes in his life.
Well, look, I actually did this and that and the other.
And look, I'm not that bad of a guy.
I haven't failed that much.
In fact, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right?
That's what we would do.
Defend, justify, minimize all of the things.
But that's not what Paul does.
Essentially, Paul says this, your whole paradigm, your whole paradigm is wrong.
Your whole paradigm is wrong.
And then he probably would have said, you know, I used to have the same paradigm because he did.
Paul used to operate with the very same set of assumptions that these guys are operating with.
He used to be, you know, back when he was a Pharisee, he used to be very successful, very ambitious.
He had all of the trappings, the kind of outward symbols of success.
Back in the day, in Paul's young life, people would have looked at him and said, you know, that guy, God is with him.
God is blessing him.
Right?
He would have been more like a Ted in many people's eyes.
And then one day, this successful, ambitious, just kind of impressive young man is on his way.
He's on the road to Damascus.
And he encounters the risen Jesus Christ on the road.
And everything changes.
Because on the one hand, Jesus is the full embodiment of God's glory.
That's what this passage means in verse 4 when it says that he's the image of God.
He's the image of God.
He's all of God's character in the flesh.
Jesus is so blindingly glorious that Paul falls to his face and is struck temporarily blind because of the glory.
But on the other hand, Jesus, Paul knows, has suffered more than anybody.
Jesus has been humiliated.
He's been mocked.
He's been tortured.
He was executed like a common criminal.
And this completely turns everything upside down for Paul's paradigm of suffering and success, of blessing and curses.
Because the default paradigm that said if you suffer, it means you're a failure and God has abandoned you, can't be right.
That can't be true.
Because Jesus is God in the flesh and yet Jesus endured suffering and death.
God in the flesh who fails and is weak and suffers.
How can those things coexist?
And so a new paradigm begins to emerge for Paul.
This new paradigm says suffering is not evidence that God is far away from us.
In fact, suffering is a place where we can actually draw very, very close to God.
In fact, suffering may be the times in our lives when we are able to experience the most intimacy with God.
More than any other time in life.
Why?
Because our God is a suffering God.
He knows what it's like to suffer.
So a new paradigm begins to emerge.
This is why, by the way, Paul is able to say, starting in verse 8,
we are afflicted in every way but not crushed.
Perplexed but not driven to despair.
Persecuted but not forsaken.
Struck down but not destroyed.
If your paradigm of suffering,
if you look at something horrible going on in your life or the lives of others,
and your paradigm says, well, this must be evidence that either God is angry at me
or punishing me or has abandoned me or there is no God.
If that's your paradigm, some version of that,
then when you are afflicted, it's going to crush you.
When you're perplexed, it's going to drive you to utter despair.
When you're persecuted, you're going to believe that you've been forsaken.
When you're struck down, when daily life strikes you down, it might destroy you.
Because not only do you have the suffering that you're dealing with,
but you have this cosmic paradigm of meaning that says,
not only are you struggling this day in this particular situation,
but also it means God has abandoned you.
That's going to crush you.
But Paul is able to endure all of these things
because he recognizes them as opportunities to draw close to Jesus.
So however bad it might get, he has Christ with him.
And then Paul begins to see a new pattern emerge in his life
as he tries to make sense of his suffering.
Here's the new pattern.
The gospel says this.
The gospel says that the reason that there is suffering in the world,
the reason that we are all, as he says, wasting away
is ultimately because of evil.
It's because of human sin.
It's because of our rebellion.
And he says the God of this world, which is his reference to Satan,
has blinded us to the glory of God.
So we've sinned, we've turned against God.
That has given power to the God of this world
who has now spiritually blinded us.
We cannot see what is true, what is real, what is glorious.
We're blinded to it.
And here's the thing.
Often the God of this world uses the trappings of success.
Right?
Things like wealth or money or status or all of the things.
Uses those things to blind us to the truth of the gospel.
But then the gospel says that the true God sent his son, Jesus Christ,
into the world in order to suffer and die,
not just for the sake of suffering,
but in order to atone for sin and set free
those of us who are enslaved to sin.
Right?
To open our eyes,
to make it possible for us to see the glory of God.
Right?
And then after three days after he dies,
Jesus then rises again to life in all of his glory.
So Jesus comes to set the world free through his death and resurrection.
That's what the gospel says.
And then Jesus says,
everyone who comes to me in faith and repentance needs to be baptized.
Paul himself was actually baptized after his conversion.
And what baptism does is to actually spiritually join us to Jesus.
Paul often describes baptism as a death and resurrection.
We're baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection.
So when we are baptized,
it is though we die with Jesus and are raised to new life in him.
So this is essentially what the gospel says.
Now here's the thing.
Here's what Paul realized.
Since we are spiritually joined to Jesus,
even though death and resurrection were one-time events in Jesus' life,
because of that spiritual union,
the death and resurrection of Jesus
are relived again and again and again in our lives.
Right?
So even though there were one-time things in Jesus' life,
the death and resurrection of Jesus
become a pattern that are relived again and again and again
in the lives of Christians.
It becomes a pattern that we cycle through again and again and again.
This is what Paul means when he says in verse 10,
we are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake,
so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
In other words, the normal Christian life repeatedly reenacts
the death and the resurrection of Jesus,
again and again and again.
There's a guy who's written a great book on this named Paul Miller.
Actually, Jeff Simpson gave me this book,
and he said, you know,
this is one of the best books I've ever read on sanctification.
I finally got around to reading it,
and I have to agree, it's phenomenal,
and it's all built around this idea.
What Paul Miller calls this cycle of death and resurrection
in the Christian life is the J-curve.
It's the J-curve.
And he says essentially this,
this, you know,
Jesus dies and rises from death.
That was Jesus' J-curve.
And then when we're baptized,
we die with Jesus and rise to new life in Him.
Most people think it stops there.
But he says, no,
actually what Paul is saying is,
for the rest of our lives,
we continue in this pattern of death and resurrection.
That's how we experience union with Christ,
and it's how we become more like Christ.
And this can play out in many different ways,
but according to Paul Miller,
it always includes three things.
Number one,
we enter into some kind of suffering.
Some kind of suffering where evil,
the flesh,
sin is weakened in us
or killed in us.
And then number two,
by grace,
sinful parts of us are put to death.
And then number three,
we emerge from that experience
with new life,
with deeper faith,
with a little more maturity,
a little more conformed
into the image of Christ.
And by the way,
this can happen with different kinds of suffering,
because not all suffering is the same.
I can just illustrate with a few examples
of the ways I've experienced this
in my own life.
First example,
sometimes we suffer
because we are trying to address evil
somewhere in the world.
Right?
That's a kind of suffering.
Years ago,
I was in graduate school,
and I was working
at a residential treatment facility
for victims of abuse,
and I became completely burned out.
And I had a massive crisis of faith.
And it was largely because
I was spending so much time
in the face of just such
tremendous, overwhelming evil.
And it just sort of began
to break everything apart in me.
And I felt a huge disconnect.
And eventually,
I came through it,
but what I realized after the fact
is that that was a kind of
a mini death and resurrection
that I went through.
It was a death and resurrection.
And what I can tell you now
is that that experience
put to death
some of my spiritual pride.
And it put to death
a more simplistic faith.
And I think it greatly expanded
my understanding
of God's sovereignty
and God's love and mercy.
And it actually gave me
a little more compassion
for other people
who struggle with doubt
in their own faith.
Because I'd been there.
So it was a kind of a death
and a resurrection.
Now, sometimes we suffer,
not because we're trying
to address evil out in the world,
but because evil is done to us.
Years ago,
I was talking to a colleague.
I was sharing some ideas
with that colleague.
And then that colleague
went and wrote an article
that was widely circulated
and didn't credit me.
And I was furious
that I didn't get the credit
that I believed I deserved.
And I resented it.
And I wanted the credit.
And I was going into
that death and resurrection cycle
once more.
Right?
And then over time
and prayer,
I began to kind of wonder,
why am I really doing
any of this?
Am I doing this
for God's glory
or am I just doing this
for a little glory myself?
Am I doing it
for God's kingdom
or am I doing it
to get some recognition?
And I spent a lot of time
looking at Paul's words
in Colossians 3
that we should do
all of our work
as though we are working
for Jesus alone,
not to get recognition
from the people around us.
And it kind of set me free
from that resentment.
Again, a death and resurrection.
And I give you one final example.
Sometimes we suffer
not because we're trying
to address evil in the world
or even evil is done to us.
Sometimes,
if you're anything like me,
most of the time
we suffer because of evil in us.
That's the real cause
of most of the suffering
in my life.
I'll give you one example
from early in our marriage.
I had a problem
with sarcasm.
Grew up in a very sarcastic family.
I mean,
I still have a problem
with sarcasm,
but by God's grace,
I think it is decreasing.
But it was really bad
in the early years
of our marriage.
And so what I would do
is when I would get angry
or upset,
instead of just directly stating
my feelings or my needs,
which happens in healthy marriages,
I would use sarcasm.
And my wife did not grow up
in a sarcastic family.
She's not used to sarcasm
used in an angry way.
And so when I would have
angry sarcasm
as my unhealthy way
of expressing negative emotions,
it would really hurt her.
And then I would be
in this situation
where I would actually
feel better
because I had kind of
released some of that anger.
And then she would be
deeply hurt
because the sarcasm
cut like razor blades.
And then I would
begin to realize
this is going into the death
and resurrection cycle again.
I began to realize,
oh,
so here I am
using sarcasm
and expressing myself
in ways that make me feel better,
but I'm actually hurting
the person that I love
so that I can feel better.
And I realized
that's a profoundly
unloving thing to do.
It's in fact the opposite,
I think.
It's the polar opposite
of love.
And so I had to begin
to repent of those things.
And I had to ask Laura
to forgive me
for those patterns
that I was reliving
in our marriage.
And then I had to ask
the Lord to forgive me
for hurting the person
that I love.
And over time,
those death
and resurrection experiences
have begun to alter
and shift the patterns
of how we handle conflicts.
And now we can handle them
in more direct,
healthy ways.
Right?
So the implication is this.
Different kinds of suffering,
different kinds of J-curves,
to use Paul Miller's language,
nevertheless,
this cycle is playing out
again and again and again.
And practically speaking,
this can become
a kind of pattern
for life.
It's like a road map
that gives meaning
to much of the suffering
that we experience
from day to day.
So you can look
at past suffering
in your life.
Maybe some of you
are doing that right now.
Or you can look
at present suffering
in your life.
Stuff that's happening
right now.
And it could be
something major
like a crisis of faith
that I shared about.
Or it could be
something as minor
as being stuck in traffic
15 minutes late
to where you're going
and furious
at the person
in front of you.
It could be anything.
But what we do
is we look at the suffering
and then we think
about the death
and resurrection
of Jesus,
carrying around
the death
and resurrection
of Jesus
in our bodies
as Paul says,
and we begin
to ask ourselves
diagnostic questions.
What inside me
is being spotlighted
by this particular suffering?
Is it my need
to be in control?
Is it my need
for recognition?
Is it my need
to be right?
Is it my need
to be comfortable?
What is blocking me
from greater trust
or greater faith
in the Lord?
What is the thing
that is keeping me
from getting there?
What needs to be
put to death
in me right now?
What do I need
to let go of?
What do I need
to turn away from?
What truth
do I need
to embrace
about God?
In the midst
of this suffering,
right?
These are the questions
that we can begin
to ask ourselves
in the midst
of the struggle.
So just to summarize
where we are so far,
the gospel has given us
so far two things.
It's given us
a new paradigm
for suffering.
Suffering doesn't mean
that God is angry at you
or that God
has abandoned you.
In fact,
suffering,
within suffering,
there is an invitation
to draw close
to the God
who suffers with us
and for us.
And then number two,
the gospel has given us
a new pattern
for suffering.
Suffering is part
of the cycle
of death
and resurrection
that plays out
again and again
and again
in the lives
of Christians
to conform us
more and more
into the image
of God's Son.
Now there's one more
piece to this
that we can't
overlook.
the promise.
If we stop here,
if we stop here
and I say,
Amen,
go follow Jesus,
here's the problem.
We might make
the mistake
of thinking
that this is
some form
of stoicism
or masochism
that says
suffering is good.
We should embrace
suffering.
It's going to make
you stronger.
But that's not
what we're saying.
Scripture is very clear
that suffering
is not good.
Suffering is evil.
Suffering is part
of a fallen world.
So what we're saying
is that God
has the power
to redeem
and repurpose
evil things
toward His good ends,
which is a very
different thing
to say.
And even as we
recognize this,
we also need to
hold on to God's
promise that one day
all suffering
is going to come
to an end
and all tears
will be wiped
away.
The thing
that sustains
Paul through
all of his
suffering is not
simply the knowledge
that it's making
him a better person.
That's a good
thing to know.
And in all ways
he's seeking
to be conformed
more and more
into the image
of Christ.
But the thing
that sustains
Paul
is the concrete
hope
of what he says
in verse 14.
He who raised
the Lord Jesus
will raise
us also
with Jesus
and bring us
with you
into His presence.
That changes
everything.
What this means
for Paul
and for us
is that all
of the struggle
and wasting away
we experience
is not meaningless.
All the pain
and stress
and frustration
are not happening
in vain.
We're not all
vanishing
into a black hole
of pointless
suffering.
Instead
all of this
affliction
as Paul says
is producing
for us
an eternal
weight of glory
beyond all
comparison.
One day
all of the
suffering in this
world is going
to fade away
and it will be
like waking up
from a dream.
Have you ever
had a really
bad nightmare
and in the
midst of the
nightmare
it feels
so real?
and in the
midst of that
dream
you cannot
imagine
any other
reality.
You are
convinced
that the
nightmare
is true
and then
you wake
up
and even
within minutes
of waking
up
even the
memory
of that
nightmare
is starting
to fade
and you have
that moment
of thinking
I can't
believe
I thought
that was
real.
I can't
believe
I thought
that was
true.
I can't
even hardly
remember it
now because
you are
surrounded
by the
weightier
reality of
your bedroom
and compared
to the
dream
your sheets
and your
pillow
and your
room
feel so
substantial
and that
dream
that fading
memory
feels so
ephemeral
like smoke
clearing in
a light
breeze.
That's what
Paul is
saying here
even the
worst suffering
right now
it feels
so real
this is
all there
is
it's
all we
know
there
can't
be
anything
more
real
than
this
but
he's
saying
one day
we're
going to
enter
into a
world
the new
heavens
and the
new
earth
and it's
going to
be so
much
more
real
that this
is going
to seem
like smoke
it's going
to seem
like vapor
it's going
to seem
like a
dream
that even
as we
blink
our eyes
in the
light
of God's
glory
fades
from
memory
and we'll
say
what
was I
so
upset
about
what
was the
thing
that I
was running
from
what
was that
and it's
going to fade
away
and somehow
what we
encounter
at that
moment
will in
some way
that goes
way above
my job
description
to explain
it will
somehow
make sense
of it
and we'll
say
oh that's
what all
this was
for
that's
the
eternal
weight
of
glory
right
so this
is how
the gospel
begins
to transform
suffering
it gives
us a new
paradigm
it says
listen
the suffering
in your
life
is an
invitation
don't
give
into that
lie
from the
false
God
of this
world
that God
has abandoned
you
God
is drawing
near
draw
close
to him
it gives
you a new
pattern
to see
suffering
as a part
of this
cycle
of death
and resurrection
opening our
eyes
liberating
our hearts
reorienting
our affections
as we prayed
earlier
in the
collect
and then
finally
a new
promise
to see
suffering
is
finite
there's a
cap
there's a
limit
to embrace
the hope
that one
day there's
going to be
no more
suffering
and all
things
will be
made
new
so if
we want
to be
like
Paul
if we
want
to begin
to experience
inner renewal
in the midst
of suffering
we need
to see
our suffering
through the
lens
of the
gospel
this is
where the
gospel
ceases to
be something
that we
simply
intellectually
assent to
and then
move on
with our
lives
and it
begins
to be
something
that we
work
into
our
daily
lives
the lens
through
which
we see
everything
mapped
on to
the death
and resurrection
of Jesus
in us
let's pray
Lord we
thank you
for your
word
and these
are weighty
spiritual
topics
that need
more than
simply
discussion
and slides
we need
your Holy
Spirit
in us
applying
these things
making them
real in us
Lord I pray
as we confess
our faith
and as we
pray to you
as we sing
as we come
around your
table
that you
would
make us
help us
experience
the gospel
in stereo
that we
would not
only hear
it
but that
we would
taste it
Lord
that we
would
take it
into us
that we
would receive
the death
and resurrection
of Jesus
through this
meal
into our
hearts
and lives
Lord
and I
pray that
this would
make us
a community
that glorifies
you
Lord
that you
would transform
our relationship
with suffering
that we
would be
people who
point to
you
and bring
glory to
your name
we pray
this in
your son's
holy name
amen