The Divine Purposes of Affliction
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
“You seem to imagine that I have no ups and downs but just a level and lofty stretch of spiritual attainment with unbroken joy and equanimity. By no means. I am often perfectly wretched, and everything appears most murky.” These words were written by the man who was called in his day the greatest preacher in the English-speaking world, John Henry Jowett. He pastored churches, preached to thousands of people, wrote books that were a tremendous source of help to many people.
“I am the subject of depressions of spirit, so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.” These words were spoken in a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, whose blessed ministry in London made him perhaps the greatest preacher England ever produced, the prince of preachers. Affliction is no respecter of persons. Disappointment, pain, trials, losses, affliction is no respecter of persons. Discouragement is no respecter of persons.
In fact, discouragement seems to attack the fruitful far more than the unfruitful, for the higher we climb, the farther down we can fall. So we're not surprised that the great Apostle Paul was “burdened”, –in verse 8, – “excessively beyond our strength”, – he says, – “so that we despaired even to live”. Yet in spite of all the trials he experienced, Paul was able—rather, enabled—by the grace of God to write a letter that is saturated with encouragement.
In fact, the Greek word in this text translated comfort, ‘paraklēseōs’, the Greek word, means called to one side to help, called to one side to help, to encourage, to comfort. It is one of the key words in this letter. The verb form is used 18 times, ‘paraklēseōs’, in this letter. The noun form, ‘paraklēsis’, 11 times. What was Paul's secret of victory when he was experiencing pressures? What was his secret when he was experiencing affliction, disappointment, trials?
Simply put, here's the secret, if you want to call it a secret: God. God, God. His sufficiency was God. Beloved, when you find yourself in the fires of affliction, discouraged, disappointed, ready to quit, get your attention off of yourself, off of the circumstances, and focus it on God. Stay your mind on Jehovah Jesus. Set the Lord always before you. In the language of Paul, focus your mind, your eyes, your heart on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
Introducing our study this morning, it is important that we examine the meaning of the word found in this passage, particularly this word, affliction—this important word, affliction. The Greek word is ‘thlipsei’. I trust you're familiar with it. But it means that which is pressing. It means to crush, to compress, to press, to squeeze until the juice comes out. It is from the verb ‘thlibo’, which means to break. It has come to speak of oppression, tribulation, trouble, affliction.
It refers to distress brought upon men and women, particularly by outward circumstances, which then in turn create inward distress. Pressure cooker circumstances that are brought upon the people of God. It's that which God reveals is the portion of all of His people—the pressure, the oppression, the tribulation, this inward distress brought about by outward circumstances. Our Lord says that will be the portion of all His people.
It is for this reason that our Lord in His parting words spoke the following words in John 16:33, "In the world you have"—and it is the same Greek word, ‘thlipsei’—You will have ‘thlipsei’ – “but,” – thank God for this “but” – “Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” He had given them some tremendous encouraging promises in that context. You remember about the coming of the ‘paraklēseōs’—the Comforter, the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Promises concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit: the consolation, the illumination, the impartation of graces and gifts and power.
But lest they misunderstand this, to think that they would come to some level of experience in the Holy Spirit that would either make them immune to or totally lift them out of the realm of tribulation and affliction, our Lord says toward the conclusion of the statement—the words of John 14, 15, and 16—In the world you shall have tribulation.
And so, in the light of the fact that the Scripture teaches that affliction is one of the common denominators of the people of God, and that affliction can be the occasion of pain, consternation, disappointment, frustration, it is absolutely necessary for every believer to learn how to confront affliction, how to respond to affliction, how to view affliction.
And one of the great problems we face, as in many other areas we carry over into the Christian life, is really skewed views of affliction— even at times worldly views of affliction. You see, the world looks upon afflictions as their greatest enemy, as his greatest enemy. Every affliction that comes into such a person's life is a roadblock in the pursuit of his temporal goals. And therefore, affliction is always his enemy; he can never embrace affliction and say, welcome my God-sent means of sanctification. Can never say what the psalmist says in Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes."
But now, for the child of God, there should be, as we see here, a totally different perspective concerning the subject of affliction. Many children of God, to some degree or another, have absorbed a skewed mentality and don't understand the purpose of God in affliction. What then, according to our text, is the divine purpose in affliction? We need this, all of us. We live in a broken world. Jesus our Lord said, "In this world you will have many ‘thlipsei’ ". And I want to submit this morning that the Apostle Paul indicates there are at least five divine purposes in affliction. We do well to learn them. This is an important lesson for all of us, God's people, as we live in a broken world.
It's set before us in verses 3 and 4, the first one: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction." As the Apostle Paul breaks out in praise to God, he praises God with specific reference to the revelation of God's character that has come to him—how? In the context of affliction. And so the first purpose of God in affliction, beloved, mark it down. The first purpose of God in affliction is to give us a fuller revelation of the character of God. God wants us to know Him more, more deeply, more fully.
Paul begins with a eulogy: "Blessed be," verse 3, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." ‘Eulogētos’, blessed, that's the word—not ‘makarioi’, like in Matthew 5. And here this word means to speak well of. It means to deem as praiseworthy, worthy of praise and honor and glory. Just like the same word is used in Ephesians 1:3. This is a eulogy—to speak well of God.
And as Paul begins, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to speak well of God, he blesses God for what He is in Himself and in His revelation of Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this portion of God's Word, God is called three things under inspiration. Look at them with me. When Paul addresses Him as, first of all, the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, he's indicating that God has been revealed to him, first of all, in the saving revelation made in and through the one and only Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whatever follows in this text, whatever other revelation is made of God, it is made—mark it down, don't miss this—it is made in the context of that fundamental revelation of God as a saving God in the one and only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always a starting point. Always.
And before we move forward, if you do not stand in a saving relationship to God through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the comfort that is bound up in this message is not for you. It's not. All of the consolation of God to His suffering saints is through their vital union with Jesus Christ.
Now notice that the Apostle not only knows God as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, but He also knows Him as “the Father of all mercies”. And he uses an interesting word for mercies. It's that word, ‘oiktirmōn’, pity to those who are in distress. Pity to those who are in distress. This is the character of God as a Father who has compassion, has pity, has compassion on His children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him. And so he addresses God in terms of God's attitude, His inward disposition in the face of the afflictions of His own people.
He doesn't behold the afflictions of His people with an indifference from a distance. Like an indifferent God, well, you know, I have ordained it, it's for their good, well, let them now work it out on their own. No, no. No, no. The Scripture is clear, beloved, Isaiah 63:9, “In all their affliction He was afflicted." In all their distresses, He, God, was distressed. He is the source of all mercy. He's the source of all pity. Mercy and mercy is an attribute of God Himself. He is full of “compassion and gracious, Long-suffering and abundant,” – overflowing – “in loving kindness and truth”, Psalm 86:15.
But also, thirdly, Paul says that God is the “God of all comfort”. Where the reference to mercy focuses on the disposition of God's heart, the attitude of God's heart, this reference to comforting points now to the activity of God. The activity of God. He not only has an attitude of pity, of compassion, of mercy, but He puts forth that attitude in actually comforting His people. In the midst of the pressure of the distress, He is the God who comforts His people. He's the God of comfort.
Question, how did Paul come to know God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well you see that revelation was made to him in the way that it's made to all sinners, including us, all sinners. He must first of all come to a sight of his own wretchedness, of his own sin. He must be brought to a sight of the mercy of God extended in Jesus Christ, saving mercy. And just as no one knows God as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the experimental knowledge of sin and of grace, so you cannot really know God as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort unless you're in the experimental crucible of ‘thlipsei’, affliction.
You see, beloved, you don't have pity on those who are well off. You don't need to extend comfort to those who are completely at ease. Pity is for the afflicted. Comfort is for the distressed. And so the Apostle tells us in this passage that the first purpose of God in affliction for His children is to give them this further unfolding of His own character, more of God, a greater vision of God, a lofty vision of God, to bring them into this concrete awareness of the God that He is.
Did you have further revelation of the character of God, beloved? Not in the abstract, but in the real stuff of human experience, then dear, dear, dear child of God, don't look upon your afflictions as your enemy. They're God's means of sanctification as well. It's in the context of affliction that you will come to know God as the God of all mercies and the God of all comfort.
And so the first purpose of God in affliction is to give us a fuller revelation of His character.
Is that not what we learn in John 11? Lazarus was sick unto death. They called for the Lord to come and heal him. And He delays Himself on purpose. And He goes after Lazarus was dead and buried. And Martha meets Him half down the road and she says, "Lord, had You been here, my brother would not have died”. Yes, Lord, we believe You're a healer. You've done this before many times before we've seen You. Why didn't You come, Lord, why? The Lord says, "I am the resurrection and the life." And you know the rest of the account, how He raised him from the dead.
And what was the point? The point is exactly what we learn here in the first purpose in affliction. What is it? Martha, Mary, had I come and healed him, all you would have known about Me is that I can heal the sick, but you would never come to a greater understanding of who I am, that I am the source of life. I am the resurrection and the life. I want you to know Me for who I really am—a greater revelation of God.
Secondly, the second divine purpose in affliction for the child of God is to equip us for a more useful ministry to the people of God. To equip us further for a more useful ministry to one another, the people of God, and it's found in verses 4 through 7. Here's the purpose for which God has been comforting us in our affliction—comforting us because it is in His very nature to do so. He is the Father of compassion. He's the God of all comfort. He's been comforting us in our afflictions, but He has been doing it according to the stacks.
Look at verse 4: "so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Notice the thread of thought. God comforts us so that we may be able to comfort others. Sufferings abound in us, comfort abounds through us. If we are afflicted, it is for your sake. If we are comforted, it is for your sake.
You see, beloved, God has placed you in the body of Christ that you might be an instrument of maturity and development in the lives of the other members of the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 deals with this so clearly. As I referred to it earlier, when one member suffers, all members suffer with it. The whole body hurts with it. When one member is comforted, then all members are comforted with it.
And turn with me to Ephesians 4, please. Ephesians 4—this is really important. Verse 15, "but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together," – now watch this, – "by what every joint supplies." That's each and every single member of the body of Christ. “Held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
You can't be just isolated in and out. You're a member, you're to be a member of the body as a child of God, and you are to work, to do certain work—the working of each individual part. That assumes that each individual part is doing something. I don't want to deviate, but this is a signature text on the importance of membership.
How are you going to be made more useful—back to our text—in your ministry to others? Paul says, here's one way to look at it, and ought to look at it: it's going to be in the midst of affliction. It's going to be in the midst of affliction. If affliction is the common experience of all of the people of God in all ages, then, beloved, one of the great needs that they have is for brothers and sisters to be able to console them and comfort them in their affliction. Well, who's going to be able to do it? Who's going to be able to do it?
Oh, beloved, those who themselves have proven the consolation of God, the comfort of God in the midst of affliction. Those who have experimentally learned how to face the needle and the scalpel, and instead of screaming and ranting and raving to get off the operating table, have said, Oh Lord, do Your work in me, with tears flowing down the cheeks. Do Your work in me. May I prove You to be the God of all comfort, the Father of all mercies, to the end that I may have a more useful ministry unto my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, to the glory of Your name.
Perhaps there are few things which reveal the extensiveness of our short-sightedness and the depth of our blindness, really, more clearly than the quickness with which we reject and look down upon affliction. Lord, this is doing this and that and the other. Lord, it's not fair, it's not right. And if this is the price I must pay to be an instrument of grace in Your hand, I want that, Lord. That's the right response, instead of, it's not fair. I want to be an instrument of blessing to others, and Lord, I'm willing to submit to whatever You bring my way, that I may be an instrument of consolation to my fellow brothers and sisters.
Let me ask you, beloved, isn't that the true mark of divine love? Love does not seek its own. And isn't that our problem? Left to ourselves, it's natural—the moment that affliction comes, we're quick to react. This is doing this to me, it's not fair, my comfort, my plans, my needs, my... And Paul looked at it differently. He did not look at it this way. When afflictions came tumbling upon him, he said, “Blessed be God”. Blessed be God, because a lot more of God's people are going to be helped.
Isn't that what he said in verse 5? "For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." And he embraced the affliction, knowing it's going to be a refining means to equip him for more useful ministry to the people of God. Look at verse 5. Paul offers an explanation, ‘hoti’, for. He offers an explanation of how he's able to comfort others through his affliction.
The verb translated "abound," – ‘perisseuei’, belongs to a family of words and in the commercial context expresses profits, surplus. In describing his sufferings in Christ, Paul pictures a balance sheet of two columns, and you have sufferings of Christ versus comfort through Christ.
Ministering in this present evil age, in this broken world, brings him a surplus of suffering that becomes almost unbearable, to the point of even despairing of life. But the consolation column also shows a surplus, and it more than balances the suffering.
Paul's hope of our final deliverance melts the pain away. He said elsewhere, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Wow! Romans 8:18. The future governs his understanding of everything in the present.
So he says here in verse 5, "For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." And the order of the Greek text, following the words in the Greek text, is more forcible than in the English translation. Literally, the order is this: "So also through Christ abounds also our comfort."
And notice “the sufferings” – plural, verse 5 – are many. But the comfort, though singular, it's enough to swallow up all of them. All of them, no matter how many. Some who may this very day be in the midst of unusual time of affliction and sufferings, oh dear children of God, I want to encourage you in light of our text: cry out to God, "Lord, there are no accidents with You. You know every single person to whom I must be an instrument and means of grace all along the way from here to glory. Lord, I embrace all that You're doing in my life that I might be a source of blessings to others."
Well, Paul goes on to give us a third purpose of affliction. In affliction, that helped him to look at affliction not as a foe but as a friend, and it's found in verses 8 and 9. And here it is, simply this: to shut him up more fully to the power of God, to shut him up more fully to the power of God.
Notice his words in verse 8: "For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our – ‘thlipsei’ – affliction, which came to us in Asia." And now we're not precisely certain what it was exactly, the kind of affliction he's describing here, referring here, that he experienced in Asia—but whatever it was, here's what was important: not what the trial was, but what the purpose of God was in the trial. That's what was important.
Notice he said, here's God's purpose, here's God's purpose, and this is critical. We had this affliction come upon us that brought us to the place “that we were burdened excessively,” – he says, – "beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live." And then he says in verse 9, "Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves." In other words, we were as good as dead. To what purpose? To what purpose?
‘Hina’, again that Greek word, ‘hina’, so that—for the purpose of. Tell us the purpose, Paul; "so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead." In other words, Paul said we were brought to a place where the only way out of that circumstance of affliction was a manifestation, an operation of divine power equal to the power that raises dead men to life. And therefore, he says, this affliction served them well because it shuts them up more fully than ever to have the confidence in an all-powerful God.
Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength.'" John 15:5, without Me, our Lord said, “you could do” – what? – “nothing.” And we remember in 2 Corinthians 12, remember that account? Paul was, by the grace of God, as a preventative measure, contending with the tendency to be proud. The Lord said to him, “lest you be puffed up beyond measure because of the revelation given to you, I'm going to allow the messenger of Satan to buffet”. Affliction.
And Paul said, "Lord, I don't get it. This is too much, way too much. I can't bear this. I cannot fulfill my ministry and my calling with this thorn in the flesh. Take it, Lord, take it. It hinders me, it cripples me, it weakens me. God, please, I beg You, take it away from me." And the Lord said, "No. No, no, Paul. If I took it away, your pride will weaken you and will cripple you. Therefore, I'm going to allow this affliction so that in the midst of your affliction and your weakness, you will be conscious of where your dependence is, and in the midst of your utter weakness, the power of Christ will be manifested."
The thorns. Oh dear people of God, the thorns should be the means of displaying and magnifying the power of Christ in us, the strength of Christ in us. So let me ask you, as I had to ask my own heart: what are you doing with your sorrows? With your suffering? Circumstances? Pain?
Oh beloved, let us not waste our affliction. If we have the right attitude, afflictions do not destroy, but they cause us to depend upon the Lord, to cling to Him all the more. And you can live above the changes and above the circumstances in your life. God accomplished His eternal purpose in Paul's thorn. And He does the same thing in us as we make our commitment to cling to Him and depend on Him when the pressures of life are applied to you.
Let me ask you this morning, what comes out? When the pressures of life are applied to you, what comes out? When you are being squeezed, what comes out? This morning I brushed my teeth, as all of you here, I trust. I picked up a toothpaste, the tube, and when I squeezed it, out came toothpaste. Did you know that only what's in there will come out?
What comes out when you are squeezed? When you are crushed? What kind of fragrance are your thorns producing? Is there a sweet-smelling aroma of Jesus? Are the pressures of life making you like Jesus? What was Paul's attitude toward affliction? What was it? 2 Corinthians 12:9c, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." Paul considered his petition completely answered, and God turned his sorrows into joy. He could glory in his tribulations and make his affliction the occasion of joyful triumph. It's not like, okay, I'm going to bear under the pressure and grind my teeth. No, no, he said, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."
James, you remember James in our studies, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing,” – not speculating, but – “knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Paul discovered, to put it in Spurgeon's language, “Man's extremity is God's opportunity”.
Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." And Paul responded, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." “Therefore”, – verse 10 – "I am well content with my weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong."
And please note what Jesus said to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." It is in the perfect indicative active. What He said to Paul remained with Paul as an abiding source of assurance and comfort. The answer, in other words, was not simply something past, but something which continued in its reassuring power every single day.
Annie Johnson Flint says it better than anyone, I believe, in her song titled “He Giveth More Grace”:
“He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase,
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed, ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.”
Oh, dear child of God, if the Apostle Paul needed more afflictions to shut him up more fully to confidence in the power of God, why do we think that we will be shut up to God's power by any other means? An affliction makes us consciously embrace our weakness. You know, it comes like scissors to cut the cords and the nerves of creature confidence. The Apostle says these things are the divine purpose in affliction.
Moving along to the fourth divine purpose in affliction, we find it in verse 10. Having spoken of trusting God who raises the dead, Paul goes on to say in verse 10, "who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us." You see the words, “set our hope"? They translate one Greek word, ‘ēlpikamen’. Meaning, the word means to expect in absolute sense, to anticipate with certainty.
You see what He's doing? He's left the realm of testimony, and now He's making an affirmation of faith and looking back upon His circumstances—whatever it was that shut Him up to the exercise of divine power. He says that the fourth function of affliction was to increase His faith in the promises of God, to fortify His faith further in the promises of God.
Way back when God called Paul into ministry, He made him a promise. He made a promise to him. We read that promise in Acts 26:16–18, where He called him to be His servant, to appoint him as a servant, a witness. But also He promised that as he's serving Him, that God will rescue him from the Jewish people, from the Gentiles to whom God was sending him, so that he would proclaim the Gospel to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, from Satan to God, and they receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Him. Here was the promise: Paul, I'm commissioning you with this gospel commission, and in the fulfilling of your commission, I will deliver you from every opposition until My purpose for you has been complete.
And again and again, Paul was brought into circumstances where it seemed like his life was going to be snuffed out. When times stones were heaped up on him. Other times plots were laid to take his life. But again and again, when afflictions came, God fulfilled His promise. What did that do? What did that do? Every time he was about to lose his life, God came through, delivered him. What did that do? It increased Paul's faith in the promises of God, and his faith strengthened in two ways: strengthened by looking to the greatness of God who made the promise, and secondly, by experiencing the reality of the fulfillment of that promise.
And faith is strengthened in those two ways: beholding the God of the promise, the God who makes the promise. God is able. That's the emphasis of Romans 4:20–21, You remember Abraham? Paul writes, “grew strong in faith, giving glory to God” – how? – “being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to do it”. As he conceived in his mind the character of God, the power of God, the might of God, he could look at his own body as good as a dead body and say, "This body yet will father a child," because the God who made the promise is able to father a child through the dead body of Abraham. He's able to do something to Abraham's body to make him able to father a child. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
But the Apostle Paul in our passage is focusing upon the second way in which faith is strengthened—strengthened by the experiencing of the reality and the fulfillment of these promises. And so the Apostle says, when we had the sentence of death within ourselves, we despaired of even living unless God put forth the mighty arm of resurrection power. And once He did, Paul said, we have confidence that the God who has delivered will still deliver and continue to deliver us until His purposes for us are accomplished.
In other words, Paul said, we are immortal until our work on earth is done. That's how he lived. That's how he lived. Even in 2 Timothy 4:16 and 18, he's about to depart. This comes out. He said there, this past deliverance strengthens my faith that the Lord will yet deliver me from every evil work and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The meaning clearly is: the Lord, who stood by me at my trial when everyone else deserted me, will continue to be my Savior. He will deliver me from every evil design of my enemies and from all the wiles of the devil. In short, from the whole power of evil, He will bring me safe into His own kingdom of light and righteousness. You know what he's saying as well? A triumphant martyrdom is as true a deliverance as escape from death itself.
And Paul saw God's hand of deliverance, whether he looked back, around, or ahead. And Paul used in verse 10 in our text this word, rescue, ‘rhysetai’. This word means to draw, snatch from danger, to help out of distress, to save, to protect. Paul's confidence simply is that the Lord would, in His own good time and way, transfer him from this present evil world, from the powers of darkness, into His eternal kingdom of light and righteousness. Sometimes God delivers us from our trials. Other times He delivers us in our trials. And he's confident that God will continue to deliver him.
But the verdict of death has not been removed. His hope is set on God's final deliverance from death. You see, beloved, your faith is not strengthened by pulling your promises out of the promise box that you have in your family room. Your faith is strengthened when that promise of God goes with you into the fire of affliction. That's when your faith is strengthened and fortified. You prove God in terms of His promise in the midst of affliction. And then you're able to come forth with that ringing affirmation, The Lord has delivered, the Lord will deliver, He shall deliver from every evil work.
Again, it's easy to pray, "Lord, increase my faith." And then when God begins to put us in the context of affliction, we say, "Lord, what does this have to do with my prayer?" The answer is right here. It's by affliction that our faith in the promises of God and in the God of the promises is strengthened all the more.
The fifth and final purpose of God in affliction is found in verse 11. Verse 11, look at it with me. He says, "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many." Now, whether the Apostle Paul is referring to past prayers of the people of God or whether he's saying that in the light of what I have told you, you will now have a renewed prayer involvement with myself and Timothy in our ministries, whether then he's looking to past deliverance or thinking of future deliverances in which their prayers will have a part, this thing is clear.
That the end result will certainly be this. Here it is: "thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons." In other words, as Paul is delivered from affliction, preserved in the midst of affliction, the divine purpose at this point will be to promote corporate praise and thanksgiving to God for the deliverance wrought to the servant of God. So that's number five: to promote corporate praise and thanksgiving to God.
When Paul reported what God had done for him, a great chorus of praise and thanksgiving went up from the saints, the people of God, to the throne of God. The highest service that you and I can render on earth is to bring glory to the God of glory, and sometimes that service involves afflictions, so that thanks may be given by many persons.
You see the word persons, translated persons? The Greek word actually is an interesting word: ‘prosōpōn’, faces. Face, many faces, from many faces, countenance. The verse then means that from many faces, the gracious gift bestowed on us may be thankfully acknowledged by many on our behalf. God, Paul implies, will be well pleased, glorified, when He sees the gratitude, thanksgiving, beaming from many countenances of those who thank Him for His answer to their prayers on His behalf.
The word "gift," – ’charisma’, means a gift of grace, a gift of the Spirit, and in this case, Paul's deliverance from death—a wonderful gift. And one of the great delights of being a child of God and biblically identifying oneself with the visible local community of God, like here today, is that when we do enter that affliction—mark it down—we do not enter it alone. We don't enter it alone. We're a family. We're a family. We're the household of God.
Paul says in verse 11, "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf." "Joining in helping"—’synypourgountōn’ is the Greek word, translated "joining in helping." It's only used here in the Greek New Testament, and it's made up of three words: *syn*, together with; *hupo*, under; *ergo*, to work—to serve or work together under someone. And it's a picture of laborers under their master, working together, shoulder to shoulder, to get the job done. And what a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.
We have not only the presence of our Lord Jesus, the living Head of the Church, by the Spirit, but we also have the presence of the Lord Jesus in the members of the body. And Christ in His union with the members of His body is not merely a theological concept, beloved. So vital is that union that Paul says, If you sin against the weak brother, “you sin against Christ" (1 Corinthians 8:12). That brother is a member of His body. You touch my finger, you touch me. That's part of me. When someone hammers your finger, you don't say, "Well, you just hurt my finger, don't worry about it." You say, "No, no, you hurt me by hammering my finger."
Remember what Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" This concept of this organic union between Jesus and His people was so real in the mind of the Apostle that he says, when we're afflicted, and in answer to your own prayers, deliverance is brought, and we are preserved, then the end result will be corporate praise to God for the comfort and consolation ministered unto us.
And one of the great delights as a servant of Jesus Christ is to hear the testimony of brothers and sisters who have entered into unusual periods of affliction and to have them share, among other things, they said something to this effect: the concept of biblical unity of the body of Christ has become so precious to me in my affliction in a way that I've never experienced it before, prior to affliction coming. When you pass through affliction and go through a trial, you do not pass through it alone. You don't. There's not only the Lord Jesus ministering through His own grace directly by His Spirit to your own heart, but there's the Lord Jesus ministering through His body.
That's why when you're going through affliction, you don't flee from the body. You run to the body. You come to the family. This is where Christ is. That supportive role of love and intercession and sympathy and compassion, understanding through the body of Christ—the realization that the body of Christ is not just a theological term. It's not just that we meet under the same roof and hear the same sermons and sing the same songs and hymns.
Beloved, there's a bond of identification, of love, of compassion, which, when God is pleased to undertake, results not just in the person who was afflicted and has received comfort giving praise to God, but as the whole body of God's people entered into that affliction by their supplications, love, and care, so now they enter into praising and rejoicing before the Lord as well. And God is glorified and magnified not just by one, but by the many.
And notice, that's the clear emphasis of the text: "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many."
The Scripture is clear. Psalm 50:23, “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me.'" Now think about it. If God is glorified by the praise and thanksgiving of one of His saints, He is glorified more intensely by the body of His saints rendering thanksgiving and praise to Him.
And so, based on this portion of the Word of God, we have at least five distinct divine purposes in our affliction, yours and mine. And in light of these divine purposes, may I ask you, beloved, think about it. Can that which gives you a fuller revelation of the character of God be your foe or is it your friend? Can that which equips you for more useful ministry to the people of God—can that be your foe, or is that your friend? Can that which shuts you up more fully to the power of God be your enemy or your friend?
Can that which increases your faith in the promises of God even be conceived of as an enemy or as a friend? And can that which spurs corporate prayers and praise of thanksgiving to God be your enemy or a friend? Oh, dear child of God, let us have biblical views of ‘thlipsei’. Let us look beyond the temporal. Let us look beyond the here and now as well.
I've shared this before, but it's fitting to share it again concerning looking beyond the temporal. Young Adoniram Judson, before he had resolved to be a missionary, had made up his mind to the sufferings and privations which he well knew were in store for him as he was set to go to be a missionary in Burma. He was there, by the way, for nearly 40 years. He left North America in 1813 until his death in 1850. So he wrote this letter before he went, asking for Mr. Hasseltine of Bradford's—his daughter's hand in marriage.
Listen to what he wrote, "I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God. Can you consent to all of this in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness, brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved through her means from eternal woe and despair."
That was his proposal. Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. “For our momentary light affliction” – Shipwrecked three times. Beaten with rods. And much more – "our momentary afflictions, light afflictions, is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison", 2 Corinthians 4:17–18.
Look beyond the temporal. Beyond the immediate. And oftentimes flesh-withering disciplines of affliction, and realize that through affliction you will come to know Him in a way that you could not otherwise know Him. That through affliction you will be made a more fit instrument of blessing to God's people. That through affliction your faith will be fortified and strengthened. Your sense of the certainty of the promises of God is fortified. Your involvement then with the people of God in praise and thanksgiving will be increased. This is the divine purpose in affliction.
And if you are presently in the midst of affliction, may God help you see that affliction biblically and remind yourself that in this world you shall have affliction, but be of good cheer. Our Lord has overcome the world. May God help you and me to view our afflictions in the light of Scripture.
You see, beloved, allow me a few more minutes, please, I beg you. Reformed theology offers us life-giving hope. When I say reformed theology, I'm talking biblical theology. It offers us life-giving hope in the wake of unspeakable sorrow. And I understand to those who are ignorant, it sounds cruel to say that God willed that my loved one dies. But believing that my loved one died against God's will is far worse. That would mean that God is not in control, evil can ultimately win, and my future is uncertain.
Moreover, it would mean that my loved one's death was random, meaningless, without purpose. I really, honestly cannot imagine a more depressing scenario. Our greatest comfort is knowing that God is sovereign. Utterly sovereign. He has ordained all my trials, and therefore my afflictions, my suffering, has purpose. That one word changes everything. It comforts us when pain envelops us and darkness is our closest friend.
Jesus Christ does not delight in our suffering, but He is a sympathetic Savior. He gives us hope and assurance that our suffering is not in vain. The Lord is sympathetic with us, knowing He will redeem our suffering. As Joni Erickson Tada says, "'Every sorrow we taste will one day prove to be the best possible thing that could have ever happened to us. We will thank God endlessly in heaven for the trials that He sent us here.'"
It is comforting to know that everything God sends is the best possible thing for me. Let me say that again. It's comforting to know that everything God sends is the best possible thing for me. Nothing comes into my life without it first having to pass through the sacred desk of God. And if He lets it come to my life, it's the best possible thing for me. Nothing can derail His plan. No sin, no accident, no affliction.
Satan does not have the last word on my suffering. God does, and He has decreed it all and will use it all. And as we see in the book of Job, God is not reacting to Satan's agenda. God alone is in control over all things. Romans 11:36, where Paul, after opening up the grand scope of salvation in Jesus, he closes with this tremendous statement: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen."
He says "of Him," in sovereign will and purpose. He says "through Him," by sovereign, imminent, all-encompassing providence. And then he says, "and unto Him," in praise, honor, and glory. He says what? Are what? All things. All things. You know what all things is? It means all things. Every created reality in its largest and smallest motion and disposition, from the farthest yet undiscovered galaxy to the subatomic particles and all the other terms that people give to them, are all things. All things.
Or in the language of Ephesians 1:11, He is the God who is working actively, imminently, powerfully, infallibly. He's working all things after the counsel of His own will. The all things of the familiar text of Romans 8:28: "And we know that… all things"—are the cells in man's lungs things? Are they? When some kind of a histological change, abnormal change in tissue and cells goes on and the experts in the lab, the pathologist says, that's a cancer cell. Is that a thing? Is that a thing? I ask you, is that a thing in God's world? And is it not included in the all things?
All things. That all things are working together—not just working, but working together—and not just for some undescribed end, vague end. No, no, no. They're working together “for good”. Good. Good, to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
Blessed be God. He's the God who is in the heavens, who does whatever He pleases, Psalm 115:3. You see, the doctrine of God's sovereignty is not some theological abstraction, nor was it intended to be an arena in which Christians slug it out, arguing and debating. Either God, who made this world and everything in it, rules it—and everything in it He rules—or if you rule Him out of one subatomic particle, then you've ultimately ruled God entirely out of His world and ultimately created a god of your own making.
Listen, beloved. Submission to the sovereignty of God does not mean painlessness. It doesn't mean prayerlessness, and it doesn't mean paralysis. It means amidst the pouring out of pain and grief and the fears, amidst the pleading with God—God, help, God, I don't understand, God, I'm suffering, God, I need You—amidst taking every effort responsibly to address affliction, at the end of the day, you say from your heart, as did our blessed Lord amidst His pain and prayer and His responsible actions, nevertheless, “not My will, but Yours be done."
And if we believe that the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 1 that God's dealing with us in bringing us into this crucible of intense affliction is that we might prove Him experimentally to be the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, to the end that we may be able to comfort others by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God, then when these intense afflictions come upon us, we don't ask, "Why me, Lord?" But we ask, "Who then, Lord? Who then, Lord?" You see the difference? Not "Why me?" but "Who then?" You have brought this upon me, Lord, that I may further prove Your grace to minister to suffering saints.
Who then, Lord? Who then is the candidate for Your comfort that You're gonna bring to me, that You're gonna bring to me in this crucible of affliction? Who? Who do You want me to minister to, Lord? May this message radically reorient our understanding of God's hand in our affliction.
Spurgeon, who struggled with many, many things, he writes, "It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity." You see, God weighs every minute detail of my suffering. He weighs it. Not a hair falls from your head apart from His will.
That assurance will sustain you and me as we weather the storm of life and affliction. And while you may be brokenhearted, staggered beneath excruciating pain, you know and are confident that God will ultimately use them for your good and for His glory. And you will never know all that God is doing in our trials. We will never know. But you'll be able to see Him refining your character, drawing you closer to Him, and enabling you to minister to others in the body of Christ through your own afflictions.
May it be your earnest prayer and mine this morning that through our suffering, through our affliction, the works of God are being displayed in our lives. Beloved, the great consolation is that your affliction is not meaningless. It has a purpose. To God be the glory.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for this much, much needed reminder to recalibrate and reorient our understanding concerning Your hand in our affliction. Father, we thank You for the reminder that nothing comes into our lives without it first passing through the sacred dusk of our God, and that our trials, our afflictions are measured out by You—in weight, in quantity, in duration—with precision. And You are with us.
Comfort Your people in this place who are going through affliction. And particularly today, we pray for Lara and Stewart and their families. May You minister to them directly by Your Spirit, and also through the body of Christ. Comfort Your people, we pray.
And help us, O Lord, have a biblical perspective on affliction, on trials, on difficulties. O Lord, help us give You glory, honor, and praise. What a consolation to know, as well, that what we endure is not meaningless. It has a purpose, it has a purpose. Thank You, Lord, we love You.
Help us to practice the one another's. Help us to be, indeed, the body of Christ, the family of God. Help us to stand and bear one another's burdens. Help us, O Lord, to make much of Christ.
We pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory.
Amen.
“I am the subject of depressions of spirit, so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.” These words were spoken in a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, whose blessed ministry in London made him perhaps the greatest preacher England ever produced, the prince of preachers. Affliction is no respecter of persons. Disappointment, pain, trials, losses, affliction is no respecter of persons. Discouragement is no respecter of persons.
In fact, discouragement seems to attack the fruitful far more than the unfruitful, for the higher we climb, the farther down we can fall. So we're not surprised that the great Apostle Paul was “burdened”, –in verse 8, – “excessively beyond our strength”, – he says, – “so that we despaired even to live”. Yet in spite of all the trials he experienced, Paul was able—rather, enabled—by the grace of God to write a letter that is saturated with encouragement.
In fact, the Greek word in this text translated comfort, ‘paraklēseōs’, the Greek word, means called to one side to help, called to one side to help, to encourage, to comfort. It is one of the key words in this letter. The verb form is used 18 times, ‘paraklēseōs’, in this letter. The noun form, ‘paraklēsis’, 11 times. What was Paul's secret of victory when he was experiencing pressures? What was his secret when he was experiencing affliction, disappointment, trials?
Simply put, here's the secret, if you want to call it a secret: God. God, God. His sufficiency was God. Beloved, when you find yourself in the fires of affliction, discouraged, disappointed, ready to quit, get your attention off of yourself, off of the circumstances, and focus it on God. Stay your mind on Jehovah Jesus. Set the Lord always before you. In the language of Paul, focus your mind, your eyes, your heart on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
Introducing our study this morning, it is important that we examine the meaning of the word found in this passage, particularly this word, affliction—this important word, affliction. The Greek word is ‘thlipsei’. I trust you're familiar with it. But it means that which is pressing. It means to crush, to compress, to press, to squeeze until the juice comes out. It is from the verb ‘thlibo’, which means to break. It has come to speak of oppression, tribulation, trouble, affliction.
It refers to distress brought upon men and women, particularly by outward circumstances, which then in turn create inward distress. Pressure cooker circumstances that are brought upon the people of God. It's that which God reveals is the portion of all of His people—the pressure, the oppression, the tribulation, this inward distress brought about by outward circumstances. Our Lord says that will be the portion of all His people.
It is for this reason that our Lord in His parting words spoke the following words in John 16:33, "In the world you have"—and it is the same Greek word, ‘thlipsei’—You will have ‘thlipsei’ – “but,” – thank God for this “but” – “Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” He had given them some tremendous encouraging promises in that context. You remember about the coming of the ‘paraklēseōs’—the Comforter, the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Promises concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit: the consolation, the illumination, the impartation of graces and gifts and power.
But lest they misunderstand this, to think that they would come to some level of experience in the Holy Spirit that would either make them immune to or totally lift them out of the realm of tribulation and affliction, our Lord says toward the conclusion of the statement—the words of John 14, 15, and 16—In the world you shall have tribulation.
And so, in the light of the fact that the Scripture teaches that affliction is one of the common denominators of the people of God, and that affliction can be the occasion of pain, consternation, disappointment, frustration, it is absolutely necessary for every believer to learn how to confront affliction, how to respond to affliction, how to view affliction.
And one of the great problems we face, as in many other areas we carry over into the Christian life, is really skewed views of affliction— even at times worldly views of affliction. You see, the world looks upon afflictions as their greatest enemy, as his greatest enemy. Every affliction that comes into such a person's life is a roadblock in the pursuit of his temporal goals. And therefore, affliction is always his enemy; he can never embrace affliction and say, welcome my God-sent means of sanctification. Can never say what the psalmist says in Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes."
But now, for the child of God, there should be, as we see here, a totally different perspective concerning the subject of affliction. Many children of God, to some degree or another, have absorbed a skewed mentality and don't understand the purpose of God in affliction. What then, according to our text, is the divine purpose in affliction? We need this, all of us. We live in a broken world. Jesus our Lord said, "In this world you will have many ‘thlipsei’ ". And I want to submit this morning that the Apostle Paul indicates there are at least five divine purposes in affliction. We do well to learn them. This is an important lesson for all of us, God's people, as we live in a broken world.
It's set before us in verses 3 and 4, the first one: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction." As the Apostle Paul breaks out in praise to God, he praises God with specific reference to the revelation of God's character that has come to him—how? In the context of affliction. And so the first purpose of God in affliction, beloved, mark it down. The first purpose of God in affliction is to give us a fuller revelation of the character of God. God wants us to know Him more, more deeply, more fully.
Paul begins with a eulogy: "Blessed be," verse 3, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." ‘Eulogētos’, blessed, that's the word—not ‘makarioi’, like in Matthew 5. And here this word means to speak well of. It means to deem as praiseworthy, worthy of praise and honor and glory. Just like the same word is used in Ephesians 1:3. This is a eulogy—to speak well of God.
And as Paul begins, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to speak well of God, he blesses God for what He is in Himself and in His revelation of Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this portion of God's Word, God is called three things under inspiration. Look at them with me. When Paul addresses Him as, first of all, the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, he's indicating that God has been revealed to him, first of all, in the saving revelation made in and through the one and only Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whatever follows in this text, whatever other revelation is made of God, it is made—mark it down, don't miss this—it is made in the context of that fundamental revelation of God as a saving God in the one and only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always a starting point. Always.
And before we move forward, if you do not stand in a saving relationship to God through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the comfort that is bound up in this message is not for you. It's not. All of the consolation of God to His suffering saints is through their vital union with Jesus Christ.
Now notice that the Apostle not only knows God as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, but He also knows Him as “the Father of all mercies”. And he uses an interesting word for mercies. It's that word, ‘oiktirmōn’, pity to those who are in distress. Pity to those who are in distress. This is the character of God as a Father who has compassion, has pity, has compassion on His children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him. And so he addresses God in terms of God's attitude, His inward disposition in the face of the afflictions of His own people.
He doesn't behold the afflictions of His people with an indifference from a distance. Like an indifferent God, well, you know, I have ordained it, it's for their good, well, let them now work it out on their own. No, no. No, no. The Scripture is clear, beloved, Isaiah 63:9, “In all their affliction He was afflicted." In all their distresses, He, God, was distressed. He is the source of all mercy. He's the source of all pity. Mercy and mercy is an attribute of God Himself. He is full of “compassion and gracious, Long-suffering and abundant,” – overflowing – “in loving kindness and truth”, Psalm 86:15.
But also, thirdly, Paul says that God is the “God of all comfort”. Where the reference to mercy focuses on the disposition of God's heart, the attitude of God's heart, this reference to comforting points now to the activity of God. The activity of God. He not only has an attitude of pity, of compassion, of mercy, but He puts forth that attitude in actually comforting His people. In the midst of the pressure of the distress, He is the God who comforts His people. He's the God of comfort.
Question, how did Paul come to know God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well you see that revelation was made to him in the way that it's made to all sinners, including us, all sinners. He must first of all come to a sight of his own wretchedness, of his own sin. He must be brought to a sight of the mercy of God extended in Jesus Christ, saving mercy. And just as no one knows God as the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the experimental knowledge of sin and of grace, so you cannot really know God as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort unless you're in the experimental crucible of ‘thlipsei’, affliction.
You see, beloved, you don't have pity on those who are well off. You don't need to extend comfort to those who are completely at ease. Pity is for the afflicted. Comfort is for the distressed. And so the Apostle tells us in this passage that the first purpose of God in affliction for His children is to give them this further unfolding of His own character, more of God, a greater vision of God, a lofty vision of God, to bring them into this concrete awareness of the God that He is.
Did you have further revelation of the character of God, beloved? Not in the abstract, but in the real stuff of human experience, then dear, dear, dear child of God, don't look upon your afflictions as your enemy. They're God's means of sanctification as well. It's in the context of affliction that you will come to know God as the God of all mercies and the God of all comfort.
And so the first purpose of God in affliction is to give us a fuller revelation of His character.
Is that not what we learn in John 11? Lazarus was sick unto death. They called for the Lord to come and heal him. And He delays Himself on purpose. And He goes after Lazarus was dead and buried. And Martha meets Him half down the road and she says, "Lord, had You been here, my brother would not have died”. Yes, Lord, we believe You're a healer. You've done this before many times before we've seen You. Why didn't You come, Lord, why? The Lord says, "I am the resurrection and the life." And you know the rest of the account, how He raised him from the dead.
And what was the point? The point is exactly what we learn here in the first purpose in affliction. What is it? Martha, Mary, had I come and healed him, all you would have known about Me is that I can heal the sick, but you would never come to a greater understanding of who I am, that I am the source of life. I am the resurrection and the life. I want you to know Me for who I really am—a greater revelation of God.
Secondly, the second divine purpose in affliction for the child of God is to equip us for a more useful ministry to the people of God. To equip us further for a more useful ministry to one another, the people of God, and it's found in verses 4 through 7. Here's the purpose for which God has been comforting us in our affliction—comforting us because it is in His very nature to do so. He is the Father of compassion. He's the God of all comfort. He's been comforting us in our afflictions, but He has been doing it according to the stacks.
Look at verse 4: "so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Notice the thread of thought. God comforts us so that we may be able to comfort others. Sufferings abound in us, comfort abounds through us. If we are afflicted, it is for your sake. If we are comforted, it is for your sake.
You see, beloved, God has placed you in the body of Christ that you might be an instrument of maturity and development in the lives of the other members of the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 deals with this so clearly. As I referred to it earlier, when one member suffers, all members suffer with it. The whole body hurts with it. When one member is comforted, then all members are comforted with it.
And turn with me to Ephesians 4, please. Ephesians 4—this is really important. Verse 15, "but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together," – now watch this, – "by what every joint supplies." That's each and every single member of the body of Christ. “Held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
You can't be just isolated in and out. You're a member, you're to be a member of the body as a child of God, and you are to work, to do certain work—the working of each individual part. That assumes that each individual part is doing something. I don't want to deviate, but this is a signature text on the importance of membership.
How are you going to be made more useful—back to our text—in your ministry to others? Paul says, here's one way to look at it, and ought to look at it: it's going to be in the midst of affliction. It's going to be in the midst of affliction. If affliction is the common experience of all of the people of God in all ages, then, beloved, one of the great needs that they have is for brothers and sisters to be able to console them and comfort them in their affliction. Well, who's going to be able to do it? Who's going to be able to do it?
Oh, beloved, those who themselves have proven the consolation of God, the comfort of God in the midst of affliction. Those who have experimentally learned how to face the needle and the scalpel, and instead of screaming and ranting and raving to get off the operating table, have said, Oh Lord, do Your work in me, with tears flowing down the cheeks. Do Your work in me. May I prove You to be the God of all comfort, the Father of all mercies, to the end that I may have a more useful ministry unto my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, to the glory of Your name.
Perhaps there are few things which reveal the extensiveness of our short-sightedness and the depth of our blindness, really, more clearly than the quickness with which we reject and look down upon affliction. Lord, this is doing this and that and the other. Lord, it's not fair, it's not right. And if this is the price I must pay to be an instrument of grace in Your hand, I want that, Lord. That's the right response, instead of, it's not fair. I want to be an instrument of blessing to others, and Lord, I'm willing to submit to whatever You bring my way, that I may be an instrument of consolation to my fellow brothers and sisters.
Let me ask you, beloved, isn't that the true mark of divine love? Love does not seek its own. And isn't that our problem? Left to ourselves, it's natural—the moment that affliction comes, we're quick to react. This is doing this to me, it's not fair, my comfort, my plans, my needs, my... And Paul looked at it differently. He did not look at it this way. When afflictions came tumbling upon him, he said, “Blessed be God”. Blessed be God, because a lot more of God's people are going to be helped.
Isn't that what he said in verse 5? "For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." And he embraced the affliction, knowing it's going to be a refining means to equip him for more useful ministry to the people of God. Look at verse 5. Paul offers an explanation, ‘hoti’, for. He offers an explanation of how he's able to comfort others through his affliction.
The verb translated "abound," – ‘perisseuei’, belongs to a family of words and in the commercial context expresses profits, surplus. In describing his sufferings in Christ, Paul pictures a balance sheet of two columns, and you have sufferings of Christ versus comfort through Christ.
Ministering in this present evil age, in this broken world, brings him a surplus of suffering that becomes almost unbearable, to the point of even despairing of life. But the consolation column also shows a surplus, and it more than balances the suffering.
Paul's hope of our final deliverance melts the pain away. He said elsewhere, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Wow! Romans 8:18. The future governs his understanding of everything in the present.
So he says here in verse 5, "For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ." And the order of the Greek text, following the words in the Greek text, is more forcible than in the English translation. Literally, the order is this: "So also through Christ abounds also our comfort."
And notice “the sufferings” – plural, verse 5 – are many. But the comfort, though singular, it's enough to swallow up all of them. All of them, no matter how many. Some who may this very day be in the midst of unusual time of affliction and sufferings, oh dear children of God, I want to encourage you in light of our text: cry out to God, "Lord, there are no accidents with You. You know every single person to whom I must be an instrument and means of grace all along the way from here to glory. Lord, I embrace all that You're doing in my life that I might be a source of blessings to others."
Well, Paul goes on to give us a third purpose of affliction. In affliction, that helped him to look at affliction not as a foe but as a friend, and it's found in verses 8 and 9. And here it is, simply this: to shut him up more fully to the power of God, to shut him up more fully to the power of God.
Notice his words in verse 8: "For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our – ‘thlipsei’ – affliction, which came to us in Asia." And now we're not precisely certain what it was exactly, the kind of affliction he's describing here, referring here, that he experienced in Asia—but whatever it was, here's what was important: not what the trial was, but what the purpose of God was in the trial. That's what was important.
Notice he said, here's God's purpose, here's God's purpose, and this is critical. We had this affliction come upon us that brought us to the place “that we were burdened excessively,” – he says, – "beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live." And then he says in verse 9, "Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves." In other words, we were as good as dead. To what purpose? To what purpose?
‘Hina’, again that Greek word, ‘hina’, so that—for the purpose of. Tell us the purpose, Paul; "so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead." In other words, Paul said we were brought to a place where the only way out of that circumstance of affliction was a manifestation, an operation of divine power equal to the power that raises dead men to life. And therefore, he says, this affliction served them well because it shuts them up more fully than ever to have the confidence in an all-powerful God.
Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength.'" John 15:5, without Me, our Lord said, “you could do” – what? – “nothing.” And we remember in 2 Corinthians 12, remember that account? Paul was, by the grace of God, as a preventative measure, contending with the tendency to be proud. The Lord said to him, “lest you be puffed up beyond measure because of the revelation given to you, I'm going to allow the messenger of Satan to buffet”. Affliction.
And Paul said, "Lord, I don't get it. This is too much, way too much. I can't bear this. I cannot fulfill my ministry and my calling with this thorn in the flesh. Take it, Lord, take it. It hinders me, it cripples me, it weakens me. God, please, I beg You, take it away from me." And the Lord said, "No. No, no, Paul. If I took it away, your pride will weaken you and will cripple you. Therefore, I'm going to allow this affliction so that in the midst of your affliction and your weakness, you will be conscious of where your dependence is, and in the midst of your utter weakness, the power of Christ will be manifested."
The thorns. Oh dear people of God, the thorns should be the means of displaying and magnifying the power of Christ in us, the strength of Christ in us. So let me ask you, as I had to ask my own heart: what are you doing with your sorrows? With your suffering? Circumstances? Pain?
Oh beloved, let us not waste our affliction. If we have the right attitude, afflictions do not destroy, but they cause us to depend upon the Lord, to cling to Him all the more. And you can live above the changes and above the circumstances in your life. God accomplished His eternal purpose in Paul's thorn. And He does the same thing in us as we make our commitment to cling to Him and depend on Him when the pressures of life are applied to you.
Let me ask you this morning, what comes out? When the pressures of life are applied to you, what comes out? When you are being squeezed, what comes out? This morning I brushed my teeth, as all of you here, I trust. I picked up a toothpaste, the tube, and when I squeezed it, out came toothpaste. Did you know that only what's in there will come out?
What comes out when you are squeezed? When you are crushed? What kind of fragrance are your thorns producing? Is there a sweet-smelling aroma of Jesus? Are the pressures of life making you like Jesus? What was Paul's attitude toward affliction? What was it? 2 Corinthians 12:9c, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." Paul considered his petition completely answered, and God turned his sorrows into joy. He could glory in his tribulations and make his affliction the occasion of joyful triumph. It's not like, okay, I'm going to bear under the pressure and grind my teeth. No, no, he said, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."
James, you remember James in our studies, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing,” – not speculating, but – “knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance. And let perseverance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Paul discovered, to put it in Spurgeon's language, “Man's extremity is God's opportunity”.
Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." And Paul responded, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." “Therefore”, – verse 10 – "I am well content with my weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong."
And please note what Jesus said to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." It is in the perfect indicative active. What He said to Paul remained with Paul as an abiding source of assurance and comfort. The answer, in other words, was not simply something past, but something which continued in its reassuring power every single day.
Annie Johnson Flint says it better than anyone, I believe, in her song titled “He Giveth More Grace”:
“He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase,
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed, ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.”
Oh, dear child of God, if the Apostle Paul needed more afflictions to shut him up more fully to confidence in the power of God, why do we think that we will be shut up to God's power by any other means? An affliction makes us consciously embrace our weakness. You know, it comes like scissors to cut the cords and the nerves of creature confidence. The Apostle says these things are the divine purpose in affliction.
Moving along to the fourth divine purpose in affliction, we find it in verse 10. Having spoken of trusting God who raises the dead, Paul goes on to say in verse 10, "who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us." You see the words, “set our hope"? They translate one Greek word, ‘ēlpikamen’. Meaning, the word means to expect in absolute sense, to anticipate with certainty.
You see what He's doing? He's left the realm of testimony, and now He's making an affirmation of faith and looking back upon His circumstances—whatever it was that shut Him up to the exercise of divine power. He says that the fourth function of affliction was to increase His faith in the promises of God, to fortify His faith further in the promises of God.
Way back when God called Paul into ministry, He made him a promise. He made a promise to him. We read that promise in Acts 26:16–18, where He called him to be His servant, to appoint him as a servant, a witness. But also He promised that as he's serving Him, that God will rescue him from the Jewish people, from the Gentiles to whom God was sending him, so that he would proclaim the Gospel to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, from Satan to God, and they receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Him. Here was the promise: Paul, I'm commissioning you with this gospel commission, and in the fulfilling of your commission, I will deliver you from every opposition until My purpose for you has been complete.
And again and again, Paul was brought into circumstances where it seemed like his life was going to be snuffed out. When times stones were heaped up on him. Other times plots were laid to take his life. But again and again, when afflictions came, God fulfilled His promise. What did that do? What did that do? Every time he was about to lose his life, God came through, delivered him. What did that do? It increased Paul's faith in the promises of God, and his faith strengthened in two ways: strengthened by looking to the greatness of God who made the promise, and secondly, by experiencing the reality of the fulfillment of that promise.
And faith is strengthened in those two ways: beholding the God of the promise, the God who makes the promise. God is able. That's the emphasis of Romans 4:20–21, You remember Abraham? Paul writes, “grew strong in faith, giving glory to God” – how? – “being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to do it”. As he conceived in his mind the character of God, the power of God, the might of God, he could look at his own body as good as a dead body and say, "This body yet will father a child," because the God who made the promise is able to father a child through the dead body of Abraham. He's able to do something to Abraham's body to make him able to father a child. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
But the Apostle Paul in our passage is focusing upon the second way in which faith is strengthened—strengthened by the experiencing of the reality and the fulfillment of these promises. And so the Apostle says, when we had the sentence of death within ourselves, we despaired of even living unless God put forth the mighty arm of resurrection power. And once He did, Paul said, we have confidence that the God who has delivered will still deliver and continue to deliver us until His purposes for us are accomplished.
In other words, Paul said, we are immortal until our work on earth is done. That's how he lived. That's how he lived. Even in 2 Timothy 4:16 and 18, he's about to depart. This comes out. He said there, this past deliverance strengthens my faith that the Lord will yet deliver me from every evil work and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The meaning clearly is: the Lord, who stood by me at my trial when everyone else deserted me, will continue to be my Savior. He will deliver me from every evil design of my enemies and from all the wiles of the devil. In short, from the whole power of evil, He will bring me safe into His own kingdom of light and righteousness. You know what he's saying as well? A triumphant martyrdom is as true a deliverance as escape from death itself.
And Paul saw God's hand of deliverance, whether he looked back, around, or ahead. And Paul used in verse 10 in our text this word, rescue, ‘rhysetai’. This word means to draw, snatch from danger, to help out of distress, to save, to protect. Paul's confidence simply is that the Lord would, in His own good time and way, transfer him from this present evil world, from the powers of darkness, into His eternal kingdom of light and righteousness. Sometimes God delivers us from our trials. Other times He delivers us in our trials. And he's confident that God will continue to deliver him.
But the verdict of death has not been removed. His hope is set on God's final deliverance from death. You see, beloved, your faith is not strengthened by pulling your promises out of the promise box that you have in your family room. Your faith is strengthened when that promise of God goes with you into the fire of affliction. That's when your faith is strengthened and fortified. You prove God in terms of His promise in the midst of affliction. And then you're able to come forth with that ringing affirmation, The Lord has delivered, the Lord will deliver, He shall deliver from every evil work.
Again, it's easy to pray, "Lord, increase my faith." And then when God begins to put us in the context of affliction, we say, "Lord, what does this have to do with my prayer?" The answer is right here. It's by affliction that our faith in the promises of God and in the God of the promises is strengthened all the more.
The fifth and final purpose of God in affliction is found in verse 11. Verse 11, look at it with me. He says, "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many." Now, whether the Apostle Paul is referring to past prayers of the people of God or whether he's saying that in the light of what I have told you, you will now have a renewed prayer involvement with myself and Timothy in our ministries, whether then he's looking to past deliverance or thinking of future deliverances in which their prayers will have a part, this thing is clear.
That the end result will certainly be this. Here it is: "thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons." In other words, as Paul is delivered from affliction, preserved in the midst of affliction, the divine purpose at this point will be to promote corporate praise and thanksgiving to God for the deliverance wrought to the servant of God. So that's number five: to promote corporate praise and thanksgiving to God.
When Paul reported what God had done for him, a great chorus of praise and thanksgiving went up from the saints, the people of God, to the throne of God. The highest service that you and I can render on earth is to bring glory to the God of glory, and sometimes that service involves afflictions, so that thanks may be given by many persons.
You see the word persons, translated persons? The Greek word actually is an interesting word: ‘prosōpōn’, faces. Face, many faces, from many faces, countenance. The verse then means that from many faces, the gracious gift bestowed on us may be thankfully acknowledged by many on our behalf. God, Paul implies, will be well pleased, glorified, when He sees the gratitude, thanksgiving, beaming from many countenances of those who thank Him for His answer to their prayers on His behalf.
The word "gift," – ’charisma’, means a gift of grace, a gift of the Spirit, and in this case, Paul's deliverance from death—a wonderful gift. And one of the great delights of being a child of God and biblically identifying oneself with the visible local community of God, like here today, is that when we do enter that affliction—mark it down—we do not enter it alone. We don't enter it alone. We're a family. We're a family. We're the household of God.
Paul says in verse 11, "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf." "Joining in helping"—’synypourgountōn’ is the Greek word, translated "joining in helping." It's only used here in the Greek New Testament, and it's made up of three words: *syn*, together with; *hupo*, under; *ergo*, to work—to serve or work together under someone. And it's a picture of laborers under their master, working together, shoulder to shoulder, to get the job done. And what a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.
We have not only the presence of our Lord Jesus, the living Head of the Church, by the Spirit, but we also have the presence of the Lord Jesus in the members of the body. And Christ in His union with the members of His body is not merely a theological concept, beloved. So vital is that union that Paul says, If you sin against the weak brother, “you sin against Christ" (1 Corinthians 8:12). That brother is a member of His body. You touch my finger, you touch me. That's part of me. When someone hammers your finger, you don't say, "Well, you just hurt my finger, don't worry about it." You say, "No, no, you hurt me by hammering my finger."
Remember what Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" This concept of this organic union between Jesus and His people was so real in the mind of the Apostle that he says, when we're afflicted, and in answer to your own prayers, deliverance is brought, and we are preserved, then the end result will be corporate praise to God for the comfort and consolation ministered unto us.
And one of the great delights as a servant of Jesus Christ is to hear the testimony of brothers and sisters who have entered into unusual periods of affliction and to have them share, among other things, they said something to this effect: the concept of biblical unity of the body of Christ has become so precious to me in my affliction in a way that I've never experienced it before, prior to affliction coming. When you pass through affliction and go through a trial, you do not pass through it alone. You don't. There's not only the Lord Jesus ministering through His own grace directly by His Spirit to your own heart, but there's the Lord Jesus ministering through His body.
That's why when you're going through affliction, you don't flee from the body. You run to the body. You come to the family. This is where Christ is. That supportive role of love and intercession and sympathy and compassion, understanding through the body of Christ—the realization that the body of Christ is not just a theological term. It's not just that we meet under the same roof and hear the same sermons and sing the same songs and hymns.
Beloved, there's a bond of identification, of love, of compassion, which, when God is pleased to undertake, results not just in the person who was afflicted and has received comfort giving praise to God, but as the whole body of God's people entered into that affliction by their supplications, love, and care, so now they enter into praising and rejoicing before the Lord as well. And God is glorified and magnified not just by one, but by the many.
And notice, that's the clear emphasis of the text: "you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many."
The Scripture is clear. Psalm 50:23, “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me.'" Now think about it. If God is glorified by the praise and thanksgiving of one of His saints, He is glorified more intensely by the body of His saints rendering thanksgiving and praise to Him.
And so, based on this portion of the Word of God, we have at least five distinct divine purposes in our affliction, yours and mine. And in light of these divine purposes, may I ask you, beloved, think about it. Can that which gives you a fuller revelation of the character of God be your foe or is it your friend? Can that which equips you for more useful ministry to the people of God—can that be your foe, or is that your friend? Can that which shuts you up more fully to the power of God be your enemy or your friend?
Can that which increases your faith in the promises of God even be conceived of as an enemy or as a friend? And can that which spurs corporate prayers and praise of thanksgiving to God be your enemy or a friend? Oh, dear child of God, let us have biblical views of ‘thlipsei’. Let us look beyond the temporal. Let us look beyond the here and now as well.
I've shared this before, but it's fitting to share it again concerning looking beyond the temporal. Young Adoniram Judson, before he had resolved to be a missionary, had made up his mind to the sufferings and privations which he well knew were in store for him as he was set to go to be a missionary in Burma. He was there, by the way, for nearly 40 years. He left North America in 1813 until his death in 1850. So he wrote this letter before he went, asking for Mr. Hasseltine of Bradford's—his daughter's hand in marriage.
Listen to what he wrote, "I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure to a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God. Can you consent to all of this in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness, brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved through her means from eternal woe and despair."
That was his proposal. Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. “For our momentary light affliction” – Shipwrecked three times. Beaten with rods. And much more – "our momentary afflictions, light afflictions, is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison", 2 Corinthians 4:17–18.
Look beyond the temporal. Beyond the immediate. And oftentimes flesh-withering disciplines of affliction, and realize that through affliction you will come to know Him in a way that you could not otherwise know Him. That through affliction you will be made a more fit instrument of blessing to God's people. That through affliction your faith will be fortified and strengthened. Your sense of the certainty of the promises of God is fortified. Your involvement then with the people of God in praise and thanksgiving will be increased. This is the divine purpose in affliction.
And if you are presently in the midst of affliction, may God help you see that affliction biblically and remind yourself that in this world you shall have affliction, but be of good cheer. Our Lord has overcome the world. May God help you and me to view our afflictions in the light of Scripture.
You see, beloved, allow me a few more minutes, please, I beg you. Reformed theology offers us life-giving hope. When I say reformed theology, I'm talking biblical theology. It offers us life-giving hope in the wake of unspeakable sorrow. And I understand to those who are ignorant, it sounds cruel to say that God willed that my loved one dies. But believing that my loved one died against God's will is far worse. That would mean that God is not in control, evil can ultimately win, and my future is uncertain.
Moreover, it would mean that my loved one's death was random, meaningless, without purpose. I really, honestly cannot imagine a more depressing scenario. Our greatest comfort is knowing that God is sovereign. Utterly sovereign. He has ordained all my trials, and therefore my afflictions, my suffering, has purpose. That one word changes everything. It comforts us when pain envelops us and darkness is our closest friend.
Jesus Christ does not delight in our suffering, but He is a sympathetic Savior. He gives us hope and assurance that our suffering is not in vain. The Lord is sympathetic with us, knowing He will redeem our suffering. As Joni Erickson Tada says, "'Every sorrow we taste will one day prove to be the best possible thing that could have ever happened to us. We will thank God endlessly in heaven for the trials that He sent us here.'"
It is comforting to know that everything God sends is the best possible thing for me. Let me say that again. It's comforting to know that everything God sends is the best possible thing for me. Nothing comes into my life without it first having to pass through the sacred desk of God. And if He lets it come to my life, it's the best possible thing for me. Nothing can derail His plan. No sin, no accident, no affliction.
Satan does not have the last word on my suffering. God does, and He has decreed it all and will use it all. And as we see in the book of Job, God is not reacting to Satan's agenda. God alone is in control over all things. Romans 11:36, where Paul, after opening up the grand scope of salvation in Jesus, he closes with this tremendous statement: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen."
He says "of Him," in sovereign will and purpose. He says "through Him," by sovereign, imminent, all-encompassing providence. And then he says, "and unto Him," in praise, honor, and glory. He says what? Are what? All things. All things. You know what all things is? It means all things. Every created reality in its largest and smallest motion and disposition, from the farthest yet undiscovered galaxy to the subatomic particles and all the other terms that people give to them, are all things. All things.
Or in the language of Ephesians 1:11, He is the God who is working actively, imminently, powerfully, infallibly. He's working all things after the counsel of His own will. The all things of the familiar text of Romans 8:28: "And we know that… all things"—are the cells in man's lungs things? Are they? When some kind of a histological change, abnormal change in tissue and cells goes on and the experts in the lab, the pathologist says, that's a cancer cell. Is that a thing? Is that a thing? I ask you, is that a thing in God's world? And is it not included in the all things?
All things. That all things are working together—not just working, but working together—and not just for some undescribed end, vague end. No, no, no. They're working together “for good”. Good. Good, to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
Blessed be God. He's the God who is in the heavens, who does whatever He pleases, Psalm 115:3. You see, the doctrine of God's sovereignty is not some theological abstraction, nor was it intended to be an arena in which Christians slug it out, arguing and debating. Either God, who made this world and everything in it, rules it—and everything in it He rules—or if you rule Him out of one subatomic particle, then you've ultimately ruled God entirely out of His world and ultimately created a god of your own making.
Listen, beloved. Submission to the sovereignty of God does not mean painlessness. It doesn't mean prayerlessness, and it doesn't mean paralysis. It means amidst the pouring out of pain and grief and the fears, amidst the pleading with God—God, help, God, I don't understand, God, I'm suffering, God, I need You—amidst taking every effort responsibly to address affliction, at the end of the day, you say from your heart, as did our blessed Lord amidst His pain and prayer and His responsible actions, nevertheless, “not My will, but Yours be done."
And if we believe that the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 1 that God's dealing with us in bringing us into this crucible of intense affliction is that we might prove Him experimentally to be the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, to the end that we may be able to comfort others by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God, then when these intense afflictions come upon us, we don't ask, "Why me, Lord?" But we ask, "Who then, Lord? Who then, Lord?" You see the difference? Not "Why me?" but "Who then?" You have brought this upon me, Lord, that I may further prove Your grace to minister to suffering saints.
Who then, Lord? Who then is the candidate for Your comfort that You're gonna bring to me, that You're gonna bring to me in this crucible of affliction? Who? Who do You want me to minister to, Lord? May this message radically reorient our understanding of God's hand in our affliction.
Spurgeon, who struggled with many, many things, he writes, "It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity." You see, God weighs every minute detail of my suffering. He weighs it. Not a hair falls from your head apart from His will.
That assurance will sustain you and me as we weather the storm of life and affliction. And while you may be brokenhearted, staggered beneath excruciating pain, you know and are confident that God will ultimately use them for your good and for His glory. And you will never know all that God is doing in our trials. We will never know. But you'll be able to see Him refining your character, drawing you closer to Him, and enabling you to minister to others in the body of Christ through your own afflictions.
May it be your earnest prayer and mine this morning that through our suffering, through our affliction, the works of God are being displayed in our lives. Beloved, the great consolation is that your affliction is not meaningless. It has a purpose. To God be the glory.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for this much, much needed reminder to recalibrate and reorient our understanding concerning Your hand in our affliction. Father, we thank You for the reminder that nothing comes into our lives without it first passing through the sacred dusk of our God, and that our trials, our afflictions are measured out by You—in weight, in quantity, in duration—with precision. And You are with us.
Comfort Your people in this place who are going through affliction. And particularly today, we pray for Lara and Stewart and their families. May You minister to them directly by Your Spirit, and also through the body of Christ. Comfort Your people, we pray.
And help us, O Lord, have a biblical perspective on affliction, on trials, on difficulties. O Lord, help us give You glory, honor, and praise. What a consolation to know, as well, that what we endure is not meaningless. It has a purpose, it has a purpose. Thank You, Lord, we love You.
Help us to practice the one another's. Help us to be, indeed, the body of Christ, the family of God. Help us to stand and bear one another's burdens. Help us, O Lord, to make much of Christ.
We pray this in Jesus' name and for His glory.
Amen.
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