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The Tension Bridge. Suffering is a Common, Defining Experience for Humanity. The “suffering” that the New Testament almost exclusively speaks directly to and about is suffering for the Gospel. Suffering is a Common, Defining Experience for Humanity.
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Suffering is a Common, Defining Experience for Humanity The “suffering” that the New Testament almost exclusively speaks directly to and about is suffering for the Gospel
Suffering is a Common, Defining Experience for Humanity Suffering is not inherently good (not made for it), yet it is a key means of growth in the Gospel & a key means through which the Gospel advances in our world
How Can I Become Bolder for Christ? • 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 9 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
How can I become bolder for Christ? “I think one of the most serious theological blind spots in the western church is a defective understanding of suffering. There seems to be a lot of reflection on how to avoid suffering and on what to do when we hurt. We have a lot of teaching about escape from and therapy for suffering, but there is inadequate teaching about the theology of suffering. Christians are not taught why they should expect suffering as followers of Christ and why suffering is so important for healthy growth as a Christian. So suffering is viewed only in a negative way. The ‘good life,’ comfort, convenience, and a painless life have become necessities that people view as basic rights. If they do not have these, they think something has gone wrong. So when something like inconvenience or pain comes, they do all they can to avoid or lessen it. One of the results of this attitude is a severe restriction of spiritual growth, for God intends us to grow through trials.” -Ajith Fernando in The Call to Joy & Pain • 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 9 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel enables us to boldly comfort others with the Gospel • 2 Cor. 1:3-73 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel drives us AND others to trust more boldly in Christ • 2 Cor. 1:8-118 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel frees us to boldly love others with the Gospel • 2 Cor. 2:4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. • 2 Cor. 3:1-3 1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel frees us to boldly love others with the Gospel • 2 Cor. 11:28-29 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
Brokenness & Boldness • “Whatever nation or culture we live in, if we are committed to people, we will face much pain. When Paul faced rejection and pain from the churches, he did not give up on them and go on with the ministry God had given him.” • “Our generation could be called the aspirin generation because people have become used to numbing and avoiding pain. This attitude has infiltrated our approach to ministry also. A common way this expresses itself is in Christians not being too committed to the group to which they belong and not getting too close to the people in the group. If we keep a safe distance from people, we can avoid a lot of pain . . . Our culture can also be called a throwaway culture. We are used to disposing of things that are not useful to us. Repairing broken things is too costly, so we just throw them away.” • -Ajith Fernando in The Call to Joy & Pain Brokenness for the Gospel frees us to boldly love others with the Gospel • 2 Cor. 11:28-29 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel reveals the bold power of God in Christ • 2 Cor. 4:7-127But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel causes us to boldly fix our eyes on eternal things • 2 Cor. 4:16-1816 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel causes us to boldly root our identity and acceptance in Christ • 2 Cor. 6:4-10 as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel causes us to boldly root our identity and acceptance in Christ • 2 Cor. 10:12,18 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise . . . For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Brokenness & Boldness Brokenness for the Gospel enables us to be bold without burnout • 2 Cor. 5:14 For Christ’s love compels us… • 1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us.
