Senior High Thursday Evening - Present Reality and Future Glory. Are you Ready?

Intro

Starting off with a couple of obvious statements: I am a man, and I have never given birth to a child. Ok, that’s out of the way

That being said, I have been actively involved in the birth of my two daughters, Elsie and Aria. I got the opportunity to be with Morgan when she was giving birth, and she did both of them naturally without pain medication or being hooked up to machines and things like that. She’s a boss.

I remember driving to the birth of our second daughter Aria, both giddy with excitement and fearful for the suffering I knew my wife was about to go through. I remember looking to her at one point on our drive there as she was going into labor and asking her with a smile that was full of joy and fear, “are you ready?” This is the title of my sermon, and it is the question I am going to ask you at the end of the sermon.

I have to say, from my experience and my wife’s, that childbirth is one of the most intense, unbelievable, scary, hopeful, anxiety-producing, fulfilling things I have experienced. For 12 hours I watched as my wife was laboring through painful contractions while her body was getting ready to produce a baby that we could call our own. There were moments of anxiety, impatience, exhaustion, hope, suffering, prayer, and praise, just to name a few.

And at the end of that absolutely insane process, I was met with another, different experience that was even more powerful: overwhelming joy as I got to hold my baby girl in my arms. Tears of joy and thankfulness were pulled out of my eyes as I looked at this beautiful child my wife had just given to me.

But in order to experience that overwhelming joy and glory of a newborn baby girl, my wife and I had to experience a process that was insanely difficult on her emotionally, mentally, and physically, and hard on me in ways that were very emotional and mental as well.

Yet the suffering of the birth process suddenly feels like nothing compared to the joy of holding that newborn baby.

Do you know that this is what the Christian life is like? I learned a lot about how I am meant to live as a disciple of Jesus through that process. This life we now live is one of joyful suffering that will eventually produce a glorious new life that will make all the pain in the process seem like nothing.

Present Reality: Joyful Suffering

Romans 8:18–23 (ESV)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

If you confess the Apostle’s Creed, you can expect to run into your fair share of suffering in this life; all true believers will. You can take that to the bank, and do you know why? The answer might surprise you, and it has to do with your union to Jesus.

You see, the sufferings of this life are meant to unite you to the sufferings of Jesus and perfect you for the glory that God has coming for us.

This is what Paul means when he says,

Romans 8:19–22 ESV

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

All of creation is waiting with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Theres that longing that we have for the end result to be made known to us. We long to see the end of the story, the product of our suffering, the object of our hope.

But until we do, we have been subjected to futility. Do you know what this means? Have you felt as though your life has been subjected to futility? If I had to put an image to it, I’d say its like spinning your wheels. Life can sometimes feel like you’re constantly running into the same brick wall, stuck in the same rut, getting knocked down by the same bully, trapped in the same cycle.

If you do, then know this: it is because God has intended for it to be that way with a purpose.

Now, before you get angry at God for something like this, let me show you why he has done this.

In our sinful condition, we are all living in the pains and miseries of this life, and do you know what the end is? The final death. In Adam’s sin, we are all experiencing the symptoms of sin until the disease finally finishes us off and our sinful lives give birth to sin’s wages: death.

This is the state in which God’s creation has plunged itself into, and God could have done one of two things for us.

First, he could have given us a numbing agent to help with symptoms of our disease while allowing the thing to slowly eat away at us until we die in our numbness. Thank God that this is not what he has done.

In his mercy, God has not just provided a medication for the symptoms of sin, but has provided a cure for the disease itself.

In allowing us to feel the effects of sin, pain and misery in this life, he has allowed us to become wise to our need for a cure.

Our disease is sinfulness, and his cure is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ

And just like antibiotics burn as they enter into your bloodstream in order to kill the infection that threatens your life, so too the righteousness of God will burn as it puts to death the sin which has taken hold on your life.

So the life of a Christian is not a painless life, but quite the opposite. If we are to seek a cure for this disease that runs in our veins, we have to be ready to experience the pain that is associated with such a cure.

When Jesus called Paul to follow him, he explained to him the many things that he must suffer for the name of Christ. (Acts 9)

When Jesus was saying farewell to Peter, he explained to him that he was going to die a painful death for the name of Christ. (John 21)

all the disciples would experience painful lives, but their pain was filled with joy and eager longing.

Suffering in this life will mark the life of the believer, but we will experience a suffering that is unique, a suffering that is filled with joy.

Joyful suffering

Romans 8:23–25 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

And so we see that the pain we experience isn’t a hopeless pain, but one that is mingled with immense joy; because we know that the end of this painful process is a newness of life that will make all the pain seem like nothing in comparison to what we will receive at the end

The suffering of a Christian is markedly different than the suffering of an unbeliever, because the unbeliever has no consolation, no hope that the suffering isn’t in vain. But the believer does have a consolation, a hope that shines brightly in the midst of the darkness of suffering. We don’t suffer as those who have no hope, but even in our groaning we have a deep longing for what we know comes at the end of this suffering.

And what is that hope? That all things will have worked together for our good.

Future Reality: Glorious Life

Romans 8:28–30 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

This is a very commonly quoted verse, and it ought to be able to bring immense comfort to the Christian who is suffering. What this verse teaches us is the very reason why the Christian doesn’t need to despair when it seems like life is falling apart and everything is going to shambles.

As Christians we don’t believe in chance, we don’t believe in luck, we don’t believe that this universe is just a collection of random atoms bumping into each other with no sense of direction or purpose.

Rather, we believe in a God who is very involved in the workings of of our universe, who is very intentional about what he does and why he does it.

We believe that behind the scenes of what seems like madness to us at times is a loving God who is busy at work weaving all of it together into a masterpiece that will be a new and full life in glory.

APPLY: My brothers and sisters, I know there are times where it doesn’t feel like this is the case. I know there are times where it feels like nothing is adding up, there isn’t any plan in place, and everything is going miserable wrong. I need you to know that this isn’t the case, that God has everything in his hand, and everything is going exactly according to plan, no matter how much it may feel like its falling apart.

Can I tell you why I know that?

It has everything to do with some women who found an empty tomb just outside Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.

Do you want to know when everything seemed like it was falling apart the most? I think it would be when you look into the life of Peter, a man who left everything to follow after a Jewish Rabbi that Peter had become convinced was the Messiah of God, the Chosen one who would bring salvation to God’s people. Things weren’t easy, but they seemed to be going according to plan for three years as they walked together, until one night during the celebration of the Passover. Here his master and Lord was arrested and put on trial for crimes he didn’t commit. He was convicted and sentenced to death on a cross. Peter was distressed, and he follwoed at a distance. To make matters worse, Peter denied even knowing this man that he loved three times when he needed him most. He watched as his lord was led away to be murdered by the Romans, and would hear as everything hit rock bottom when Jesus was laid in a tomb to finalize and seal his death. At that moment it seemed like nothing made sense, everything was a lie, God had no handle on the situation, and nothing mattered anymore.

But then three days later Peter would come face to face with the same Rabbi that he just saw get murdered on a cross. All of a sudden everything that seemed so random, so doomed, so utterly hopeless clicked into place and the plans and purpose of God became beautifully and wonderfully clear to Peter.

When things seemed most out of control, most hopeless, it was when the Savior in the World had been apparently defeated by death that God showed just how in-control he is. When Jesus rose from the dead he proved to a watching world that he is in control and that everything is going exactly according to the plan that he put in place all the way back in the beginning.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is proof positive that God has not lost his grip on this world, your life, or any of its details.

Those whom God has predestined he has called, and if he has called you he has justified you, and if he has justified you then he will glorify you. Your end is not up in the air, your end is glorious eternal life with God.

Before you get there though, you will experience the pains of this life. You will experience suffering, but because of the hope we have in Christ in will be a joyful suffering as we await the glory that we know God has in store for us.

So, I’m going to look at you now and ask you, “are you ready?”

Are you ready to go back home and endure the joyful suffering God has ready for you?

Are you ready to watch as God works everything together for good?

Are you ready to push forward for the glorious and everlasting life Christ has purchased for you through his humiliation and exaltation?

Are you ready to do all that together with me, with us, with the church?

God has wonderful, painful things in store for you; and every single one of them is going to be working together to bring you to the best ending you could possibly have.

May God receive all glory and honor and praise, amen.

FCF: We are subject to the miseries of this life

CFC: Christ has all the pain and misery working together for our good

the call: Trust God as you live for him in the present, waiting for the hope of eternal life that he has prepared for you through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ.