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Suffering for Joy · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Many people come to faith because they think Christianity is
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  Speaker 1: going to fix their pain, fix their life, and fix
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  Speaker 1: it fast. But what if God's goal for his children
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  Speaker 1: is not that we enjoy an easier life, but that
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  Speaker 1: we share in him a deeper joy. Today Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: walks through the book of Second Corinthians to show how
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  Speaker 1: suffering isn't wasted, It's transformed in Christ. Today on Aspastor
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  Speaker 1: John suffering for joy, suffering for joy. Pastor John, as
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  Speaker 1: may begins, so begins another read through Second Corinthians in
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading this month the first half of this month.
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  Speaker 1: How would you challenge someone who believes Christianity is mostly
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  Speaker 1: about emotional healing and feeling good again. They don't want
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  Speaker 1: to suffer in this life. They want relief, and they
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  Speaker 1: want a rid life of all discomforts, and for that,
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  Speaker 1: for that fix, many would believe in Christ. So how
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  Speaker 1: does this book we are diving into now? Second Corinthians
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  Speaker 1: point us to a God who doesn't just fix pain,
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  Speaker 1: but who intends to use our most challenging experiences in
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  Speaker 1: life in order to deepen our joy.
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  Speaker 2: Second Corinthians really is a sobering and thrilling gateway into
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  Speaker 2: the Christian life. I think it's fair to say that
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  Speaker 2: no other book in the New Testament is more stark
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  Speaker 2: or painfully realistic about the sufferings that Christians experience in
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  Speaker 2: this life, while at the same time, this book, more
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  Speaker 2: often than any other New Testament book, insists on overflowing
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  Speaker 2: joy in the Christian life in spite of, even because of,
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  Speaker 2: that suffering. That's what makes it so peculiar and sobering
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  Speaker 2: and thrilling as a gateway into the Christian life. One
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  Speaker 2: way to come at this book is to ask, if
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  Speaker 2: there is so much suffering that Christians are to expect,
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  Speaker 2: what's good about the good News? If you can be
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  Speaker 2: killed in persecution or die of cancer at age forty
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  Speaker 2: two leave four kids behind, what's good about the good News?
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  Speaker 2: And the answer that comes back from this book is
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  Speaker 2: that first, the afflictions and suffering are actually working for
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  Speaker 2: our good, yes even the ones that end in death.
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  Speaker 2: And second that there is a pain that the Gospel
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  Speaker 2: really does relieve, both in this world and the next.
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  Speaker 2: So let me touch on three things. First, the sufferings,
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  Speaker 2: second the way they're working for our good, and third
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  Speaker 2: the pain that the Gospel really does relieve. Right now
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  Speaker 2: here's an example of Paul's afflictions as a Christian, and
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  Speaker 2: I think they're not unique to him. This is sick
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  Speaker 2: and Christian six. As servants of God, we commend ourselves
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  Speaker 2: in every way by great endurance. In afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors,
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  Speaker 2: sleepless nights, hunger. We are treated as impostors, yet are
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  Speaker 2: true as dying. And behold we live as sorrowful, yet
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  Speaker 2: always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich. Now, how
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  Speaker 2: much of that any particular Christian is called upon to
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  Speaker 2: endure is up to God. But none of it should
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  Speaker 2: surprise us. This is what Jesus promised in John sixteen
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  Speaker 2: thirty three. In the world you will have tribulation. It's
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  Speaker 2: just a promise from the Lord in the world tribulation.
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  Speaker 2: Take heart. I have overcome the world. So that's the
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  Speaker 2: first thing, the suffering. Here's the second thing. God makes
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  Speaker 2: these tribulations work for our good. Here's two examples. Tewod
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  Speaker 2: Corinthians one eight nine. We do not want you to
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  Speaker 2: be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.
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  Speaker 2: We felt that we had received the sentence of death
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  Speaker 2: that was to make us rely not on ourselves but
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  Speaker 2: on God who raises the dead. God's purpose, not Satan's purpose.
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  Speaker 2: This is God's purpose. In Paul's suffering was the deepening
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  Speaker 2: of his faith. That was to make us rely not
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  Speaker 2: on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, this affliction might kill us, but God will
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  Speaker 2: raise us to everlasting joy. So let the affliction drive
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  Speaker 2: you to God. That's the point. So here's here's the
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  Speaker 2: second example that I'll give. This is from Second Printing's four.
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  Speaker 2: We do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is
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  Speaker 2: wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by
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  Speaker 2: day for this light, momentary affliction. And by that he
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  Speaker 2: means like eighty years, like a lifetime, is preparing for
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  Speaker 2: us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So
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  Speaker 2: even if this suffering takes us right to the grave,
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  Speaker 2: it is not without purpose because it is preparing. Now,
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  Speaker 2: mark that word. So many people slide over that word.
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  Speaker 2: It is preparing an eternal weight of glory. Is not
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  Speaker 2: just followed by an eternal weight of glory. Everybody who's
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  Speaker 2: a Christian believe that. What a lot of people don't
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  Speaker 2: realize is that it's preparing, it's producing, it's bringing about
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  Speaker 2: this wasting away of John Piper's old eighty year old bodies.
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  Speaker 2: This wasting away is producing a greater weight of glory
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  Speaker 2: after death. This is an absolutely wonderful truth when we
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  Speaker 2: must suffer to the very end, or watch people suffer
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  Speaker 2: to the very end, if the sufferings drive us to
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  Speaker 2: God instead of driving us away from God, they produce
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  Speaker 2: a weight of glory beyond all comparison. Now here's the
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  Speaker 2: third thing that maybe we don't stress enough, so let
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  Speaker 2: me really dress it. The third thing is there is
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  Speaker 2: a pain that the gospel, the good News of Christ
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  Speaker 2: crucified and raised for sinners. This gospel really does relieve
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  Speaker 2: a pain. It relieves now not just in eternity, but
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  Speaker 2: now number one. The gospel relieves the pain of meaninglessness. Now,
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  Speaker 2: nothing in the Christian life is without meaning. There is
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  Speaker 2: divine purpose in everything. No Christian suffering is random or
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  Speaker 2: pointless or absurd, no matter what it looks like. It
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  Speaker 2: often looks that way. Of course it does. We're just finite.
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  Speaker 2: It is all working for our glory two Corinthians four seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: When you trust Christ, you never have to feel the
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  Speaker 2: pang again that your life is meaningless. Ever, it's not,
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  Speaker 2: not one part of it. Second, the Gospel relieves the
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  Speaker 2: pain of guilt now, right now, Second Prindians five twenty one.
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  Speaker 2: For our sake. God made Christ to be sin, who
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  Speaker 2: knew no sin, so that in Him we might become
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  Speaker 2: the righteousness of God. We do not wait for eternity
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  Speaker 2: for this freedom. It is now, and it is glorious.
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  Speaker 2: No condemnation, no guilt. Now Christ took it. God declares it.
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  Speaker 2: This is why Paul can say in Second Prindians four seven,
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  Speaker 2: in all our affliction, we are overflowing with joy because
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  Speaker 2: he had no guilt, an amazing freedom from pain. And
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  Speaker 2: it's also why the Macedonians could say in Second Crincients
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  Speaker 2: eight two, in a severe test affliction, our joy overflows,
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  Speaker 2: judgment is passed, guilt is gone. Now they were leaping
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  Speaker 2: for joy in the midst of their affliction because the
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  Speaker 2: pain of guilt was gone. Number Three, the Gospel relieves
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  Speaker 2: the pain of being unloved now right now, two Printons
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  Speaker 2: five fourteen. The love of Christ controls us because we
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  Speaker 2: have concluded this that one has died for all. Therefore
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  Speaker 2: all have died, and he died for all that those
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  Speaker 2: who live might no longer live for themselves, but for
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  Speaker 2: Him who for their sake died and was raised. Oh
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  Speaker 2: how Paul loved being loved by Christ. He couldn't get
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  Speaker 2: over it. He said, the life I now live, I
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  Speaker 2: live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
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  Speaker 2: me me. He used me, who loved me, and gave
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  Speaker 2: himself for me Galatians two twenty and number four. The
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  Speaker 2: Gospel relieves the pain now of fearing death. The Bible
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  Speaker 2: says people are held in bodies by the fear of
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  Speaker 2: death their whole life long. It's a painful thing. We
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  Speaker 2: have to suppress it all the time. Sewo Cristians five eight.
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  Speaker 2: We are of good courage, and we would rather be
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  Speaker 2: away from the body and at home with the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: For Paul, death was not fearful. It was the final
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  Speaker 2: corner that we turn onto the street and see our
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  Speaker 2: old homestead. Home is home. What a gift in this
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  Speaker 2: life to be freed from the pain of the fear
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  Speaker 2: of death, because it means home the Lord. And let
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  Speaker 2: me mention one more thing. Finally, the Gospel relieves all
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  Speaker 2: suffering beyond death, all of it, all of it, there
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  Speaker 2: will only be an eternal weight of glory. Chapter four,
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  Speaker 2: verse seventeen. There will be no more suffering, none, absolutely none.
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  Speaker 2: So yes, it's true. The Gospel does not relieve eighty
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  Speaker 2: years of all suffering in this life. Just eighty billion, billion,
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  Speaker 2: billion ages of all suffering. That's all. May God for
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  Speaker 2: our dear listeners. May God do a great liberating work
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  Speaker 2: in our lives as we walk together through Second Corinthians,
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  Speaker 2: this amazing gateway into the Christian life.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, it is a sober and thrilling gateway into
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life. There's no other book in the New
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  Speaker 1: Testament like it that is more stark or painfully realistic
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  Speaker 1: about the sufferings the Christians experience in this life, and
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  Speaker 1: no other book in the New Testament more often that
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  Speaker 1: insists on overflowing joy in the Christian life in spite of,
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  Speaker 1: even because of that suffering. Second Crindly is a monumental
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  Speaker 1: book when bringing together the realism of pain and the
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  Speaker 1: awesome hope of eternity, and to show you that you're suffering.
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  Speaker 1: My suffering isn't just something followed by glory. It's the
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  Speaker 1: very thing preparing that glory for us. Eighty years of
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  Speaker 1: suffering now producing eighty billion ages of joy to come producing.
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  Speaker 1: We have covered so much ground on the topic of suffering.
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  Speaker 1: If you want a summary to help you see the
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  Speaker 1: ground that we have over these past thirteen years, see
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  Speaker 1: the Aspestor John book in that section titled on Trials,
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  Speaker 1: Sorrow and Chronic Pain on page three sixty five to
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  Speaker 1: three ninety four. Thank you, Pastor John, thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us today. If you have a question to ask Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: find a link to email us and find our complete
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  Speaker 1: episode archive at the same place ask Pastor John dot
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  Speaker 1: com Tony Ranky. We'll see you Thursday as we look
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  Speaker 1: at learning to delight in God's holiness? How do we
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  Speaker 1: delight in God's holiness? That's next time. We'll see you then,