God Suffered With Us

Outline

Jab 1

Shocking. Misery loves company.

Suffering brings us together. It creates bonds that don’t get formed any other way, for example...

Jab 2

Top Gear to Grand Tour

I’ve brought up my enjoyment of the British car show Top Gear...

I haven’t gotten interested in the series since they replaced the cast. There was something about the original.

19 years of misery. motorcycles across Vietnam, building a convertible mini van, hospital trips, break downs, trips across Africa in station wagons…suffering. They never act like they like each other, on the show or off.

When Jeremy made a huge error in judgement and the BBC chose to discontinue his contract, Richard and James went with him. They made a new show.

Suffering brings a loyalty and unity, one more example...

Jab 3

Enchanted Forest

Kelly and I went many times over the years.

Hiding and jumping, laughing and running.

That said, overall, Kelly and I loved one another…but did not get along. We (at least I) didn’t seek opportunities to hang out.

No trip meant more than one taken in 1996. I had just graduated high school. Kelly was about to be a sophomore.

Jab 2

We had just gotten the word that our parents were splitting up. Vows had been broken. Security had been shattered. Every plan we had for our future, every dream of holidays with grandma and grandpa Hart in the home we grew up in someday when we had kids was gone.

So I picked Kelly up and we drove to Salem. We played. We laughed. We grabbed ahold of childhood firmly with both hands and made a choice to walk this road together.

Suffering changes a relationship. I hate what Kelly and I went through. I love the result.

Transition

Immanuel. God With Us.

God ate with us. He desires fellowship with us.

God learned with us. In Christ, God experienced all that makes us human. He grew, and learned, and became like us, so he could identify with us. Or as Hebrews puts it:

Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Heb 4:

Beyond that, as we remember the incarnation, as we examine what it meant that God became “Immanuel”, God With Us, he took an additional step and suffered with us.

He wrote the story, he could have planned it so he was raised in security and comfort, chosen disciples who would be nothing but faithful, or simply avoided incarnating all together, and just started over with a new race of creatures who would not choose sin, and would never need a savior.

Yet because of his great love, for the glory of God, Jesus dwelt among us, suffered, hurt, and ultimately died on our behalf.

As we celebrate a baby in a idyllic manger scene, may our joy be all the more full, our wonder all the more enhanced, and our hearts be all the more moved to the love and glory of God to live fully for him as we look beyond the manger and into the way that God, Immanuel, suffered with us.

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4

Pray

Jesus suffered (like us)

Jesus Suffered Physically

Illustration:

Physical pain is a common experience for all of us. From the growing pains of adolescence, to the annoyance of chapped lips or a stubbed toe. By simply being alive, Jesus had to endure the same physical pains and aches we do.

His journey to the cross would be much worse.

Isaiah 52:14 ESV

As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

Isaiah

Explanation

One of the first elements I wanted to know about when I started here was what we did for Good Friday. While Christmas and Easter are celebrated universally, apart from the experience of Good Friday, it’s all fluff.

The man Jesus was put to the ultimate in torture and trauma that Friday. The greatest physical pain you have experienced, he’s been there. There are some sects and cults which believe that Jesus did not feel any of that pain, that he withdrew into the God side of his being and it was like all of that torture was happening to a lifeless puppet.

This is in direct contradiction to anything in scripture.

Hebrews 2:9–17 ESV

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

But as we knew well, suffering is more than pain...

Hebrews 2:9-

Jesus Suffered Emotionally

Illustration

Transparent moment. I cried a little when I wrote out the illustration I used earlier of my sister and I at Enchanted Forest. (I cried a little more when I wrote that last sentence)

I hurt a little when I make the desserts my Nana used to make at every holiday.

Scroll back through my photo app ten years or so and so many faces and memories will spark a reminder of futures that can’t be, relationships broken, lives lost, and opportunities missed.

If I know one thing, it’s that I am not unique.

Some hurts are fresh, some far off. Some have healed into sweet memories, others are still tender to the touch.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry people came and went. A crowd would gather, Jesus would say something like, “Take your cross and follow me” or “If you would be my disciple you must eat my flesh and drink my blood” and the crowd would thin pretty quickly.

“Jesus, you were a lot more fun when you made fun of legalists and made bread multiply”

Except his disciples. They were there through it all. Then came the night of his arrest.

Matthew 26:56 ESV

But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Matthew 26:51–56 ESV

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Matthew 26:

Matthew 26:

Explanation

All the disciples…left…fled…Peter would go on that night to claim he never even met Jesus.

Abandoned by those to whom he had given the most of himself. I would say imagine that pain, but for some of you, maybe most of you, you don’t have to imagine very hard.

Jesus experienced the loss of people. Though we miss the story between Jesus age 12 and Jesus age 30, we know one thing. Jesus age 12 had a dad in Joseph. Jesus age 30 is visited by mom and brothers. On the cross, Jesus will ask one of his disciples to take care of his mother. We can connect the dots here and recognize that Joseph is gone. Likely, Jesus had to bury the man who taught him to hold a hammer.

Whatever pain your heart feels today, every anxiety, every loss, Jesus has walked that road before you. He has hurt like you. And know this: because of his love for you, no one knows you more clearly than he does, he hurts with you today.

Jesus Suffered Spiritually

Illustration

When I was in middle school, I had quite the career going for me as a thief. I don’t remember where it started, but once it did, I got hooked, and I got good. I had a room full of random things which I took for no other reason than that I could.

I think my worst act by far, was the drawer full of Christmas bulbs, taken from yards in the middle of the night. Why? Because apparently not too bright. Dim bulb maybe?

Then came the day when I got caught. My parents had to come get me from the drug store where I sat in a back room. Never had I felt remorse for my actions. Frankly, I still didn’t feel bad for the action. What killed me (and my career in petty theft) was the distance that arose between me and my parents. I had destroyed any ounce of trust and relationship with them. It was like we were strangers.

It wasn’t long after before God would use that same feeling to help me understand the way sin impacted my relationship with him and my need for a savior.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus Suffered Under Pressure

Explanation

Those 2 dozen words are some of the most shocking in all of scripture. Jesus had never not been in perfect unity with the rest of the Godhead. Father, Son, Spirit, eternally together, eternally loving, eternally intimate, and in a moment, God laid upon his sinless son the weight of my sin…the weight of your sin…the weight of the sin of the world laid upon his account…God couldn’t look at himself.

Jesus felt that sense of separation and loss like you or I could never imagine.

Jesus Suffered Anxiety

That feeling would lead him to cry out on the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?!”

He suffered physically. Good Friday...

He suffered emotionally. Abandonment and loss...

He suffered spiritually. Separated from the father for the first and only time in all eternity.

Conclusion:

Psalm 22:14–18 ESV

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Psalm 22:14-

Jesus suffered like us. And as hard as it is for us to see it sometimes, his suffering, like ours had purpose.

Jesus’ Suffering had purpose (like ours)

Jesus Suffering Accomplished Atonement

Jesus Suffering Identified Him with Us

illustration

Who has had their wisdom teeth pulled?

Who has had an esophageal echo cardiogram?

Ok, heartburn?

Stubbed toe?

Have divorced parents?

I am a part of a support group. There are a group of pastors I get together with on a regular basis because there are unique pains and challenges with which we can relate to one another.

There are also many friends with whom I am much closer because of shared painful experiences. As hands raised around the room, you could feel the connections being strengthened. You know what I have endured, so you can understand me a little better than someone who doesn’t

Re read the end of that Hebrews passage we just read:

Hebrews 2:17–18 ESV

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:17-

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus Suffering Unmasked Sin

Explanation

We do not have an advocate in heaven devoid of understanding. He endured all you have endured. He has felt all you have felt. He was able to both the substitute for our sins, and the companion and leader for our journey.

There was an even higher purpose for his suffering however...

Jesus’ Suffering Glorified God

Illustration:

I shared a couple of Wednesdays ago about my friend Ahren…We left that room like the end of a worship service.

Revelation 5:11–14 ESV

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation 5:

Explanation:

That is the scene being played out in the heavenlies. Today and forever more.

Close your eyes a moment and consider. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. To receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!

The way Jesus suffered, brought glory to the father. We have the opportunity to do the same. When we suffer, we tell the world what we believe about God. Do we trust him? Do we think he is good? Is he still worthy of our praise?

Throughout history, the suffering among God’s people have been the ones who create the deepest impact. Maybe not the widest, but watching a man suffer and praise at the same time changes a person at their core. They are left with little choice but to at least acknowledge that the person suffering has something supernatural about them.

The highest and best purpose of any person is to bring glory to God. As the reformers have said, the “chief end (purpose) of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever”

Our greatest joy comes in God’s greatest glory.

Jesus glorified God, he put all of God’s character on display for every being in heaven and on earth to see as he hung on that cross. And so experienced the greatest joy, even through the pain.

His suffering was unique from ours in one remarkable way...

Suffering

Jesus Suffering Accomplished Atonement

Illustration

Colossians 2:9–15 ESV

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Col 2:

Explanation

No illustration needed. Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, died to bring glory to God by redeeming a people for his purposes. Saving those who would place their faith in him from their sins.

Our sin, our rebellion against God had created a debt we had no hope to repay.

God drew a picture of what would be needed in the OT...

And now the lamb, slain for the forgiveness of sin. And then...

Jesus’ Suffering had an end (and ours)

Jesus Suffering Preceded Resurrection

(Worship Team)

The death of Christ did not simple come before the resurrection. It was the price paid for it. The wrath of God was fully satisfied, the holy curse against our rebellion and sin was absorbed. The price was paid and all that remained was the public declaration of God’s endorsement. If the death of Christ paid for our sin, the resurrection is our assurance that the price was paid in full.

Allow me the indulgence of bombarding you with scripture as we close. For I cannot say it better:

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

1 cor 15:1-

and more

Romans 6:5-

Romans 6:5–11 ESV

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

To revisit

Ephesians 1:15–23 ESV

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Eph 1:15-

Or finally the words of Jesus himself, days before the sin of the world would be laid on his shoulders, when his life would be given on a cross, he speaks these words to a mourning woman:

John 11:21-

John 11:21–26 ESV

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

This morning we answer the question of Jesus. Yes. Yes, we believe that you are the resurrection and the life. We believe you suffered with us and died for us.

Prayer teams

Prayer

Invitation, proclamation, surrender.