Joy in Suffering

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

About a year before the series of events that led to his current predicament, he wrote this about the suffering he had experienced since committing his life to Jesus:

2 Corinthians 11:24–28 ESV

24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

That kind of helps us put whatever difficulties we might be going through right now in perspective, doesn’t it? But as difficult as those circumstances were, things were about to get even worse, if you can believe that.

After returning to Jerusalem, he went to the Temple to demonstrate to his fellow Jews that he had not abandoned the law. But he was still attacked by a Jewish mob and, had it not been for the intervention of the Roman soldiers, he probably would have been killed.

After being taken into custody, he was then compelled to testify before the Jewish religious leaders, and before the governor and the king of the territory that included Jerusalem. After languishing as a prisoner in Caesarea for two years, he was finally put on a ship headed for Rome. He eventually arrived there, but only after surviving a shipwreck and being bitten by a poisonous snake along the way.

On his arrival in Rome, he was placed under house arrest for two years, chained to a Roman guard 24/7, as he awaited his trial before Caesar. Talk about a “stay at home” order!

Tension

I want to ask you this morning to think about how you would have responded to those circumstances. Or let’s bring this even closer to home. How are you responding to whatever suffering or difficulties that you’ve experienced in your life, either in the past or the present? And how are you equipped to deal with whatever trials you might face in the future?

Truth

For the apostle Paul, whose life I have just described, the answer is that he continued to do whatever he could to advance the gospel. One of the ways he did that was to write several letters that have become among the most influential and important parts of our Bibles. That includes the letter we’re studying right now - the letter to the church in Philippi - a letter whose main theme is joy. Think of that. In the most difficult circumstances, Paul writes a letter that is focused on joy.

Last week we began our study by learning about how Paul was able to have joy in the midst of being isolated and lonely. This morning we’ll focus on his joy in the midst of suffering.

Philippians 1:12–18 ESV

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:

I have joy in my suffering by focusing on God’s purpose rather than on my pain.

A couple weeks ago we were in Greer for several days on vacation. One morning I went out to fish along the stream. As I was walking up and down the stream I was focused on the stream itself and where to cast my lure for the best chance of catching a fish. My attention was so focused on the stream that I didn’t realize that I had managed to walk right up to a couple of deer who were drinking from the stream - at least not until I startled them enough that they scampered off and scared me half to death. I’m just glad it was a couple deer and not a bear.

That’s the kind of laser focus that Paul had on God’s purpose for his life. He was so intent on seeing the gospel of Jesus proclaimed that his own comfort and personal reputation really weren’t of any concern. So in verse 18, he ends this section by writing that he is rejoicing that the gospel is being advanced even though his personal circumstances were far from ideal.

With that big idea in mind, let’s work our way through this passage and see how Paul had been able to have that kind of joy even in the midst of being a prisoner.

He begins in verse 12 by pointing out that his imprisonment had served to advance the gospel. In fact, he writes, it was known throughout the entire imperial guard that was the case. The Greek word translated “imperial guard” in the ESV is literally Praetorian and it referred to the members of the elite Praetorian Guard there in Rome. These highly trained soldiers were kind of a hybrid of the Secret Service and special forces and they had become an important political force in Rome.

In today’s culture, if someone wanted to influence the highest government officials for the gospel, I suppose that he or she would rent a big venue and have a big crusade. That person would invite all the important government officials, feed them a really nice meal and serve the finest wine and then make a very professional high tech presentation of the gospel.

But Paul takes a completely different route. As we’ve talked about before, the prisons of Paul’s day were a lot different than those in our culture. Paul was actually under house arrest, although he was chained to one of these highly trained guards every minute of every day. From the perspective of the guards, Paul was chained to them, but from Paul’s perspective they were actually chained to him.

Since the guards were changed every six hours, that meant that every day during the two years he was under house arrest he had four different soldiers who became his captive audience and who would have to listen to him as he preached and taught. So over the two years he was there, that was nearly 3,000 opportunities for these guards to be exposed to the gospel. While Paul likely didn’t get a chance to present the gospel personally to all 9,000 members of the Praetorian Guard, it is not surprising that his reputation for his devotion to Jesus and his message became known throughout the ranks.

Not only that, as his fellow disciples of Jesus observed his behavior, they, too, developed more boldness and became more confident in their own proclamation of the gospel there in Rome.

So God was definitely using Paul’s imprisonment to advance the gospel there in Rome in ways that nobody would have ever expected. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some problems. Apparently there was a group of pastors there in Rome who were trying to undermine Paul and his ministry. We don’t know the whole story, but from what Paul tells us here I think we can make some pretty accurate assumptions about what was going on.

First, we can confidently say that these other preachers weren’t preaching a false gospel since Paul had no problem calling out anyone who did that in some of his other letters. These were not heretics who were preaching the “name it and claim it” or prosperity gospel or a Jesus who was not fully God and fully man.

But what they apparently were doing was taking advantage of the fact that Paul was in prison to promote their own ministry at his expense. Maybe they were saying things like this:

“You know how much we love and respect our brother Paul. So we’re really heartbroken that someone who has done so much for the gospel, has damaged his reputation and his ministry by getting himself arrested. The guy is a great preacher, but he just seems to stir up trouble wherever he goes. I’ve heard some things about what he did back in Jerusalem and based on what I’ve heard, I’m just not sure he’s fit for ministry any more. Besides, he can hardly be our spiritual leader as long as he’s in jail. So we need to pray for Paul. Let’s pray that he’ll be released from prison soon and that God would send him somewhere else where his tattered reputation won’t be such a drawback”

But rather than get all upset at those who were trying to take advantage of his imprisonment for their own benefit, Paul instead chooses to rejoice that in spite of their wrong motives, these other preachers were preaching the gospel of Jesus.

So Paul certainly demonstrated the main idea we talked about earlier:

I have joy in my suffering by focusing on God’s purpose rather than on my pain.

For Paul, God’s purpose of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus was far more important than his personal comfort or his reputation.

Application

HOW TO EXPERIENCE JOY IN MY SUFFERING

Identify my “chains”

I’m pretty sure that none of us here this morning are physically chained to a prison guard. But we may very well have our own chains. Some of you may feel like you’re chained to your jobs. Some of you feel like you’re chained to a difficult relationship. Some of you are chained to some kind of physical ailment. Some of you are chained to your debts.

This first step is actually pretty easy for most of us. We don’t have to dig too far to identify the chains that have us in some kind of bondage in our lives.

It’s interesting to me that Paul actually does this not only here in this letter, but also in some of his other letters where he lists all of the chains he has endured during his ministry. But when he does that, Paul avoids some of the ways that we respond instinctively when we begin to think about our chains:

For many of us the first instinct is to try and get free of those chains. And there are situations where that is certainly something we should do. I’m going to address that more in a moment. Paul could have been released at any point by just taking back his appeal to Caesar, but he chooses not to do that.

We often complain about those chains. But notice that Paul doesn’t complain here about being imprisoned nor does he complain about the attacks to his reputation.

Get free from my chains if appropriate

While human suffering will always be a part of our lives because we live in a world that has been corrupted by sin, not all suffering is helpful in carrying out God’s purposes. There is a difference between “suffering for Jesus” and suffering as the result of my sin.

Sometimes we end up in chains as a result of our own sin and bad decisions. We end up in a wrong job because we didn’t pray about it before we took that position. We end up in debt because we didn’t adhere to Biblical principles with our finances. We have difficulties in our relationships because we are gossips or because we refuse to forgive others. We have physical ailments because we have bad eating habits or have a substance abuse problem.

In those situations, it is often appropriate to change some of our own behaviors to try to get free from those chains. But, as we’ve talked about before, while God will always forgive us for our sins if we are disciples of Jesus and we confess and repent, He doesn’t always remove the consequences of our sin. So even though we might change some behaviors, God is not necessarily obligated to remove those chains. But we ought to go ahead and repent and make the changes we need to make anyway.

Whether or not God chooses to change our circumstances, the next step is to...

Be faithful where I am

Throughout his ministry, Paul’s circumstances changed frequently. And much of the time, his new circumstances made it even harder for him to carry out that ministry. But I can’t think of even one time that Paul told God, “Lord, I’ll start serving you again just as soon as you get me into some more favorable conditions”. Instead he was just faithful to serve God the best he could in his current circumstances.

In general, we’re really good at making excuses about why we don’t spend more time and effort doing the things we could to advance the gospel. We promise God that we’ll put more effort into that just as soon as our circumstances change - when we have more money, or get that new job, or when football season is over, or when we finish school.

But the fact is that there are almost always things we can do to bring the kingdom of God near to those who aren’t already a part of it and serve those who are right where we are. And God is often waiting to see how faithful we are in our present circumstances before He provides us with even greater opportunities.

In the parable of the talents, both servants who were faithful with what the master had entrusted to them, heard these words from their master:

Matthew 25:21 ESV

21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

I am confident that all of us want to hear those words one day, too.

Consider how God can use my “chains” to advance the gospel.

Most of the time we can’t control our circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them. So when we have chains in our lives, we need to follow Paul’s example and ask “How can I use this situation to further the gospel?”

Maybe God has you in a job you don’t really like, but He has you there to be an example of what it means to work as to the Lord to the other employees who don’t know Jesus.

Maybe you’re suffering physically so that you will have opportunities to have an influence in the lives of the medical professionals who are treating you or other patients.

Maybe you’re living in a neighborhood where you don’t really want to be because God is going to use you to share the gospel with one or more of your neighbors.

Maybe you lost your job, because God is going to use the way you handle that situation to minister to others in that same situation.

So each day I need to ask, “What can my chains do to advance the gospel today?”

Trust God to change my circumstances if and when He is ready

Admittedly, this is the hardest of all the principles we’ve identified to put into practice. I’m going to be right up front and tell you that while I’m convinced that we see Paul implement this principle throughout his life, it’s not easy for me to tell you exactly how to do this.

Paul remained under house arrest there in Rome for two years. By now Paul is probably in his late 50’s so two years out of his life at that point was certainly a long time. But I have to believe that was exactly the amount of time God needed him to remain there in order to reach the entire Praetorian guard with the gospel and to encourage the rest of the disciples who would carry on Paul’s work after he is executed by Nero a few years later.

Although we can’t find some formula for knowing when to stay and when to go by reviewing Paul’s life, we can find some hints about some of the things we can do to discern God’s will when it comes to our circumstances. With a couple of notable exceptions, we rarely see God instructing Paul directly on when and where to go next. But we know that Paul was a man of prayer and we know that he was keenly aware of the leading of the Holy Spirit. And that is certainly a good place for us to start, too.

What I will say is this. We need to be really careful about trying to force a change in our circumstances when God isn’t finished with us right where we are. And when we’re in the midst of painful suffering our tendency is to try and force God’s hand before He is ready for us to move on. So perhaps a good rule of thumb is that we ought to err on the side of being too slow to move on from our present circumstances rather than being too quick.

Action

I know that many of you are going through some kind of difficult situation in your life right now. If you’re not, I can pretty much guarantee that you will experience suffering sooner than you’d like, probably in a form you least expect. While you probably aren’t or won’t be happy about that suffering, we’ve learned this morning that you can have joy. But that won’t happen automatically.

So what I want to encourage all of us to do is to make practical application of what we’ve learned today. And here is how I would suggest you do that. Take out a piece of paper and make some notes as you work through the principles we’ve discussed today step by step:

Write down a list of the chains you have in your life right now.

Ask God to reveal if any of those chains are due to your own sin, and if so, confess and repent before Him.

Commit to God to be faithful right where you are and to only move when He is ready for you to move.

Consider some concrete ways that God can use your chains to advance the gospel and take just one of those steps this week.

Inspiration

I have joy in my suffering by focusing on God’s purpose rather than on my pain.

I can really relate to what we’ve learned from our passage today. As a pastor who is roughly the same age as Paul was when he wrote this letter, I know that being arrested and going to prison would certainly not be the best career move. But what we learn from Paul here is that our perspective in times of suffering makes all the difference.

If we can learn, like Paul, to judge everything by the priorities of the kingdom of God rather than our own comfort and pleasure then we, too, can have great joy even in the midst of that suffering. If we live solely for His kingdom and seek to advance His purposes, then we will not only be able to endure the pain, but we can use if for God’s glory. That is certainly something worth rejoicing in.