Sermon Tone Analysis
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*A Privileged Existence*
(Ephesians 3:12-13)
We as Christians may not always realize it or feel like it, but we do live a privileged existence.
The Bible enumerates hundreds of ways in which we are privileged, but we are focused on two that are mentioned in Ephesians 4:12-13 which we began to study last week.
We saw that first, we are privileged in that we have direct access to God in prayer and we saw what a wonderful thing that is and how it works.
But the second privilege emphasized in this passage isn’t one we naturally gravitate toward.
In fact, when we experience it, we don’t usually /think/ of it as a privilege – and yet, it very much is.
The second privilege?
– */suffering!
/*You might title these two privileges prayer and pain.
The little word “So” ties them together.
*/Access to God is key to enduring the privilege of suffering.
/*
*/ /*
When most of us see pain, we are kind of like the guy whose wife was in labor with their first child.
Things were going pretty well when suddenly she began to shout, “Shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t, can’t, won’t!” “Doctor, what’s wrong with my wife?” the guy shouted.
“Nothing,” the Doctor said.
“She’s just have contractions.”
The doc didn’t get excited because he knew that while she was having pain, the pain would lead to a birth – just like /any /pain that God allows in our lives.
So let’s look at His perspective on this most important topic.
*II.
**Suffering For God*
* *
Paul says in verse 13, “So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”
Paul is in prison suffering for the sake of the gospel and concerned that his Ephesians friends might be tempted to pack it in before the heat gets closer to home, right?
“Don’t lose heart,” he says.
He considers it a /privilege/ to suffer for them if that’s what it took to the gospel to them and others.
Paul’s own commentary on this verse is found in Colossians 1:24 and it is a truly remarkable statement.
He says, “Now I /rejoice/ in my sufferings for /your/ sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions /for the sake of his body, that is, the chu/rch.”
Paul kept his eye on the prize, Christ -- not on the momentary pain.
I saw a t-shirt at a volleyball game this week that said, “Pain is temporary; pride is forever.”
I’d rephrase that slightly, “Pain is temporary, the prize (Christ) is forever.”
You say, “Sure, but that’s for heroes.
That’s all for the saints who are above us mere mortals.
I could never measure up to that kind of commitment.”
And I must admit, I feel the same way.
And yet, suffering is the second part of our privileged existence in Christ.
You say, how could suffering be part of a privileged existence?
Let’s gain some perspective.
#.
*Suffering is a gift*
* *
First of all, we should know that suffering is a gift from God. Now, I know our reaction: “Some gift.
I’d just as soon the Lord /kept/ that gift.”
Very natural reaction.
But I hope you will see by the time we finish today that we need an attitude adjustment regarding suffering – */not that we should seek it/*/, or go out of our way to find it./
We need not do so.
It will surely find us.
But when it comes and for however long it is our companion, we must remember -- God only gives good gifts.
But please turn with me to Phil 1:29 where Paul takes this to a whole new level: “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.”
Now, mark well what Paul is saying in this verse.
It has one verb – “has been granted”.
That is one word in the Greek language and it is the verb form of the noun “grace.”
Paul is literally saying, “It has been graced to you” or “graciously given” or, even better, “undeservedly bestowed upon you.”
Do you get the picture?
The Philippians, and we by extension, have been highly favored with a gift from God.
And what is that gift?
Well, the gracious gift is twofold.
We are first “graced” to believe in Him.
I like that one, don’t you? Couldn’t be in Christ were it not for that.
And /then/ there is the second part.
We have been “graced” to suffer for His sake.
And this isn’t just persecution.
*/Any/ suffering* can be the source of glorifying God and the cause of joy in your life.
*/Any suffering/*.
Paul says in Romans 8:18, “ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
And that is in the context of a passage where he talking about how the whole creation groans under the ill-effects of sin.
So, whether it is persecution, rheumatism, cancer, an injury, emotional distress, illness or even martyrdom, it is God’s gift to us and we need to embrace it.
I must tell you something else.
Anyone who tells you that God intends you to live a life without suffering and that it can */all/* be done away with enough faith is misleading you.
That’s not what the Bible teaches.
You say, “Well, is it wrong to ask for relief?”
Of course, not.
We are children of the Father; He cares about what hurts us and He may well give relief.
Paul asked for relief in II Cor. 12 from his “thorn in the flesh”, but as it did not come to him, it does not automatically or always come to us.
Sometimes there is a */greater/* good in store, so when God says “No,” or “Not now,” our reaction should be to embrace His gift with /thanksgiving /and /joy/ and /anticipation /at what He is doing.
Someone asked C. S. Lewis, “Why do the righteous suffer?” “Why not?” he replied.
“They’re the only ones who can take it.”
We’re so comfortable in our 21st century, affluent American existence that *we view ease and comfort as our God-given /right, /when it is actually /suffering/ which is our /God-given privilege./*
I think that most theologians would agree that Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who labored at the London Metropolitan Tabernacle from the 1850’s to the 1890’s was one of the greatest preachers of the gospel since Paul.
Spurgeon was deeply affected by chronic ailments, the most pronounced of which was a debilitating case of gout.
He was also afflicted by deep bouts of depression – unassailable depression.
Yet, here is what Spurgeon told his students.
Listen to this, “*/Our afflictions are the health regimen of an infinitely wise physician/*.
I daresay the greatest earthly blessing that God could give to any of us is health -- */with the exception of sickness/!*
If some men that I know of could only be favored with a month of rheumatism, it would be God’s grace to mellow them marvelously.”
And Spurgeon meant that for himself because he said, “I’m afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours might almost lie on a penny.
But the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and griefs is altogether */incalculable/*.”
Paul’s threefold personal goal expressed in Philippians 3:10 was “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and /may share his sufferings/, becoming like him in his death.”
In other words, “Bring it on.
I want to hurry up and fill up what is missing of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of others.”
We don’t hear much of that these days, do we?
But Paul understood that suffering is a gift of God, and He wanted God’s gifts.
#.
*Suffering Has a Purpose*
* *
The next thing we need to know about suffering is that suffering always has a purpose – always.
We may not see it at the time.
We may not /ever/ see it in this life, but /faith believes our Lord’s gracious intent is expressed in every instance of suffering.
/In II Corinthians 12 we see that sometimes suffering is intended to keep us from pride.
In Job it is a /huge /means of frustrating Satan.
But of the many purposes we could choose, let’s confine ourselves to just three reasons that God allows suffering to demonstrate that it /always/ has a purpose.
#.
*To Reveal Sin*
* *
God sometimes uses suffering to reveal sin in our lives.
This is certainly not the only and may not even be the main reason.
We should never look at someone else who is suffering and say, “Oh, oh – where’s the sin?”
That would be like the desperate mother of a four-year-old girl who kept sucking her thumb.
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