Suffering and it's Fruit

Background

How are we receiving correction or critique? how did they respond to the letter?

What do we take from 2 Cor?

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2. True ministry in the name of Christ and power of the Spirit involves both suffering and victory. 3. Serving Christ means ministering in His name to every need of the people. 4. Leaders in ministry need support and trust from those they minister to.

1. Suffering is multifaceted. I cannot explain every instance of suffering and its full implication, that takes a lifetime as we suffer.

In 2 Corinthians 1:4, the word used in the NIV is “troubles.” In the KJV the word is “tribulation,” which comes from the Latin tribulum. During the days of the Roman Empire, a tribulum was used to separate the wheat from the chaff. It was basically a wooden threshing sled with flint teeth on the underside. After harnessing it to a horse or an ox, a person would stand on top of the sled so it could be driven overtop of wheat that had been laid out on a hard surface. The combination of the weight, pressure and the flint teeth would crush the husks and separate the wheat from the chaff. From this we get the word tribulation, which speaks of a crushing weight, an intense pressure, and something in life that seems almost unbearable.

Suffering has many faces. The Bible doesn’t whitewash our experience of suffering by saying that it’s all of one stripe. Rather, it recognizes the multifaceted ways that suffering can come upon us. We will read later “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).

In those two verses, Paul lists several types of suffering — mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Each of these are different ways that we can suffer, and when suffering comes, often several of these types of suffering are involved.

2. Suffering happens in community. Christians still suffer as we wait for Jesus to return, but none of our suffering is random or without purpose.

The church is not meant to be a loosely bound association of functional Lone Rangers. Galatians speaks to this type of thinking “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Jesus always comforts us, He is ever present, His comfort ABOUNDS

Comfort-parakaleo

Para=to the side of

Kaleo=to call

The church is a place for those suffering. When a member is bleeding , the church applies the bandages; when a member is hurt, the church encourages; when a member is in need, the church comes alongside to help.

We need to understand that you don’t have to look very far to find broken hearts, broken lives and broken homes, we know that life takes a toll on everyone.

We get to come alongside of those suffering= we have been strengthened by the coming alongside of the God of all comfort=ABBA= Father you have cried to Him personally

3. Suffering equips us for ministry.

Our experience in suffering is essential in equipping us for ministry. You can use the word but when you know personally the suffering and the comfort of God.....the photographer thanked me for the reading of scripture yesterday…he said “its powerful when you read because I can see you believe what you read” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

David Powlison states it this way:the link between experiencing suffering and equipping for ministry

When you’ve passed through your own fiery trials, and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he has reshaped you more into his image. . . . What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress. (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, 166)

Philippians 1:29 (ESV)

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

granted means it is a gift for you

4. Suffering is a battleground.

Wherever there is suffering, there is a battle — a battle for your soul. The book of Job shows us there can be two ways to respond to suffering: one that curses God because of suffering and one that praises God, even in the midst of suffering (Job 2:9–10).

this is why v-8 he says we want you to be made aware of our affliction=to inform them that this is grounded in true experience of God, where God delivered from the sentence of death

beyond our strength=Paul is introducing and will carry through the letter of how the surpassing power of God overturns the reality of the battle. he says that even death itself-the death sentence had been pronounced and they were facing execution of that sentence and they are completely reliant on God and He comes through....who prepares you for battle? who is fighting your battles? is it you or God?

5. Suffering prepares us for more glory. God says a lot about suffering in Scripture so that you know where to look when the pain comes to you.

One of the counterintuitive truths about suffering is that it prepares Christians for more glory. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Suffering has a redemptive purpose

2 Corinthians 12:7–9 (ESV)

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Many people blame God when they experience affliction. According to the Bible, however, the Lord does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone

Colossians 1:24–28 MSG

I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth. This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.