Suffering
About this series:
The kingdom of God is not a static subject, but a dynamic reality. The presence of God and his reign with his people makes an experiential difference and while that should be clear throughout the whole series, this section should especially emphasise that. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ comment about this is helpful: ‘The Christian life after all is a life, it is a power...That is the thing we so constantly tend to forget. It is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but something infinitely more.
The topics we’ll cover are (though not necessarily in this order -please see further below):
Power (introduction - the Christian life is a life of power!)
Healing: theology
Healing: practice
Gifts: prophecy
Gifts: speaking in tongues
Salvation
Freedom
Suffering
The reason for including a week on suffering is that, as God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). We all know that one of the greatest evidences of God's kingship as displayed in the life of his people is his power that sustains us when we suffer - it's definitely a mark of his reign.
About this talk:
When we think of the power of God’s rule being evidenced in the world and in people’s lives, we usually have in mind things changing in a positive direction - a healing, a spiritual gift being exercised, a breakthrough in someone experiencing freedom, someone coming to faith in Jesus. We tend to think less of God sustaining people in their challenging situations, about his rule being expressed in their lives when circumstances don’t change.
But any fair reading of the Bible would have to conclude that it is often in the most difficult situations that God’s power and presence are manifest. To illustrate by way of a few examples:
Paul hears God say that, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” and then responds, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Paul testifies that he, “can do all this through him who gives me strength” in the context of, “any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want (Philippians 4:12-13) - He was presently “in chains” (Philippians 1:13-14, 17).
God promises through Isaiah that his presence will sustain his people in all manner of trials: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Daniel’s three friends experienced the power of God’s presence in a literal fire” (Daniel 3).
David’s testimony in Psalm 23.
And of course the primary example we see in Scripture of God’s kingdom breaking out through weakness and suffering is the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, never before or since has God’s kingdom been more supremely manifest and the enemies of God more comprehensively defeated than in the death of the Son of God. And then, the testimony of Christians throughout the centuries has been of God being powerfully present and his reign being expressed in their suffering.
So how is God’s reign and power manifest in the suffering of his people? We could answer that in these three ways:
Sustaining us. This is the example of Paul. Having repeatedly prayed for his ‘thorn’ to be removed, he does not receive the answer he was hoping for, but does receive a different answer as God reassures him that he will be sustained by God’s grace for as long as his trial is allowed to continue.
Growing us. Most Christians agree that God’s plan is to lead us to grow in evidencing the fruit of the Spirit. And yet what is often missed is that those qualities usually grow in dark places (see Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-4). Love develops where costly decisions to prefer the other are required; peace is most truly seen when the natural response would be fear; patience grows when it needs to be exercised, in trying circumstances. All of which are not just growth in character in a general sense, but evidence (fruit) of the life of the Spirit in someone’s life.
Delivering us. God’s grace will be sufficient in our suffering and God graciously delivers from our suffering - either through intervening to change the circumstances we are in or, ultimately, delivering us into his presence through death.
As we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we ask that God’s power is increasingly manifest in every imaginable way. After all, He is Almighty God, He is reigning in power, He is active in his creation, He is present with his people. “Send your power in salvation, healing, freedom and gifts. And may your empowering presence equip us to stay faithful to you and grow in Christlikeness even as we suffer.”
Audio only
