Suffering for Jesus

Introduction:

So often you hear the phrase “suffering for Jesus” and people are referring to someone who actually is not really suffering at all. It might be someone who is on some tropical island on a mission trip, or someone who is in a place that we would love to visit. At one point in time, did you know that the Georgia Baptist Mission Board had missionaries at several resort locations! These people need to hear from Jesus too, but that definitely would be a great job!

However, the concept of suffering for Jesus where we actually do suffer has been lost in an age where popular Christian groups have pastors that teach that Jesus doesn’t want anyone to endure suffering or sickness. Some of these pastors teach that Jesus wants to heal everyone of their diseases and never calls for anyone to live the life of suffering.

This is a faulty understanding of the purpose of suffering in the life of the believer. It is a belief that suffering is always bad and should always be eliminated. Now to be sure, Jesus is recorded as almost always healing people that He encountered who were not whole, or who were sick or maimed. The purpose of these miracles was to give a foretaste of what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like one day and to reveal who Jesus really was. In fact, that’s really the main purposes of miracles in general. The Apostles used them to validate their authority to speak on behalf of God, as did the Old Testament prophets.

It is also true that God does answer our prayers for healing others, sometimes in dramatic fashion. However, we have bought into the idea that God always desires to eliminate our suffering. One day, certainly, God will wipe away every tear from every eye and there will be no more pain, sorrow, or suffering. Everyone will be made whole.

But God, in His divine wisdom, has chosen to make that day of wholeness and relief in the future and not always in the present. God uses suffering in our lives to draw us closer to Himself and to make us a witness for Jesus.

This morning we are going to take a look at what it looks like to suffer for Jesus and why that is not always a bad thing.

2 Thessalonians 1:5–12 ESV

5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. 11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Story of Joni Erickson Tada

Transition to Paul and the Thessalonians

1. Consider it an Honor to Suffer for God’s Kingdom (1:5)

Paul calls it a mark of authentic Christianity (evidence) to suffer for Jesus

He almost considers it a calling as opposed to a choice

All of the disciples died for Jesus. No one would do that if they were not absolutely convinced that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that they had everything to gain from their deaths for Jesus

In the NT, Christians saw imitation as the greatest form of flattery and counted it an honor to suffer and die like Jesus

Peter, according to church tradition, did not consider himself worthy to die exactly like Jesus did on the cross, so when they crucified him, he asked to be hung upside down!

Illustration:

Those in church history who afflicted themselves vs. those who genuinely encountered suffering in their service of the Lord

Application:

Are you currently enduring hardship for the sake of the gospel?

Is your hardship suffering because of something you have done that is sin, or is it a result of your service to Jesus? If it is sin, repent. If it is for serving Jesus, rejoice!

2. Wait for God’s Judgment on Those Who Afflict You (1:6-10)

Justice

We can have certainty that in the end, God will give justice for us to those who have afflicted us

We see this in Revelation 6:9-11

Revelation 6:9–11 ESV

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Notice that these who are martyred during the Great Tribulation also are told to wait a little while longer

However in the end, the day will come where God will finally bring judgment that the persecutors deserve and justice for the victims.

This is revealed at the Great White throne judgment in Rev. 19 -

verse 8 says that this will come in flaming fire and verse 9 says it will be eternal destruction, away from the presence of God. This is a description of hell

Comfort

While we wait, God has also promised us that He will comfort us

God will grant us relief when Jesus comes

Sometimes God may give us relief in this life. That can come from people we love that help us in suffering. It can come from a change in our circumstances.

Ultimately the relief that we long for only comes on the other side of eternity

On that day we will glory in Christ and marvel at Him

3. Work Hard to Give Glory to Christ Though Your Suffering (1:11-12)

We are not worthy of His calling, but God makes us worthy

Have a resolve for good and work out your faith

Give glory to God by living out your faith in the midst of your suffering.