Today Pastor Choi encourages God’s people to pray for the persecuted believers in Christ in the world. He also urges the congregation to take up their own cross and follow Christ. He points out that Christ Himself suffered on behalf of humanity. We too as followers of Christ must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him for the eternal good for all.
Following is a summary of the sermon:
Church and Suffering
Colossians 1:24 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
Introduction
Bulletin insert: “I Commit to Pray”— use it to lift up our sisters and brothers in Christ in prayer. [Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body—Hebrews 13:3].
Our topic this morning is Church and suffering.
Suffering is a very unpopular topic to talk about in today’s society; whenever you talk about it, it is almost certain that you will make someone mad, either at you or at God. In my 25 years of ministry, I preached over 1,000 times. Yet, only once or twice I spoke about pain and suffering, because people generally don’t appreciate it. Furthermore, the topic itself is too broad to cover with one sermon; you have to deal with evil in the world (to begin with) and with so many sufferings that don’t make any sense such as school shootings, plane crashes, children’s cancer, and so forth.
This morning, I am going to wise up myself and limit my focus on the Christian suffering; suffering in the context of Church, the body of Christ; the believers’ suffering due to their faith. Questions or comments on other types of suffering must wait for another time. Lord willing, I will deal with them later. So, pray with me now: Lord, open up our hearts and ears to listen to Your truth about Church and suffering. Amen.
Contents
MY OWN TRANSLATION OF GREEK TEXT
Let me read to you today’s text one more time—this time my own translation with my own commentaries. Remember: Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter— in a Roman dungeon—not because of his wrongdoing but because of his witness for Christ.
Now I rejoice [keep rejoicing—not liking it, but whenever suffering comes, I take it in stride and with an attitude of welcoming it] in my sufferings [multiple occasions] on your behalf [my sufferings have a purpose in it—they are for you the Church], and I fill [keep filling] up in my flesh [my own share of physical pain] the lacking things of Christ’s afflictions [‘lacking’ means, afflictions will continue to happen to God’s people until God says enough—Revelation 6:11. ‘afflictions’ means unpleasant experiences] on behalf of His body [once again my sufferings are not meaningless—they are for His body], which is the church.
DEFINITION OF SUFFERING
Secular understanding: Oxford dictionary defines as [u] pain of body or mind; [plural] feelings of pain, unhappiness, or etc. General attitude: avoid it at all costs.
Biblical understanding: in the entire Bible there are 150 entries under ‘suffer,’ ‘suffered,’ ‘suffering,’ or ‘sufferings.’ Only once, it talks about suffering as a consequence of our sins [murder, for example]. It is not God’s will for us to suffer for wrongdoings. However, there are times and occasions that God wills and considers it worth suffering; for instance, sufferings for Jesus and His Kingdom. In the New Testament, the believer’s suffering is described exclusively in the context of Christ, Christians, and Church. E.g. suffering on account of faith in Christ, suffer according to God’s will, suffer while doing what is good / right in the sight of God. Proper attitude should be like Paul’s: rejoice and take it in stride.
CHRIST THE SUFFERING SERVANT
The Christian understanding of suffering begins with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you know Christ Himself was not exempt from suffering even though He was equal to God and sinless? Why did He suffer, then? Not because He had done anything wrong, but because God willed His suffering. It was God’s perfect will for Christ to suffer and die for us. He suffered vicariously for humanity. In Isaiah 53, we see Christ the Messiah, the suffering servant. He was without sin yet suffered on behalf of the sinners. God sent Him to the Cross to pay the wages of our sin. On the cross, He had to endure excruciating pain for hours. Let’s not forget: He didn’t deserve to be punished like that. Rather, He suffered on our account and on our behalf so that we may go free. Such suffering, God wills and approves. Listen more.
SUFFERING WITH A PURPOSE
I already told you that God appointed His only begotten Son to suffer and die on the Cross: not that He didn’t love His son, not that He wasn’t pleased with Him, nor that the Messiah deserved such a punishment. But that it was God’s will and His plan that were laid out even before the creation of the world. Here’s the truth. Christ’s suffering was with a divine purpose. It was not meaningless or senseless. Christ the Righteous died for the unrighteous. It makes no sense in human eyes where the penalty should go to the perpetrator, not to the innocent, yet it sure makes perfect sense to God. Some of us still grapple with it. You may call it God’s mystery. You may even reject the cross and accept only good things of the gospel such as peace, joy, love, and eternal life, yet one thing you cannot deny is that Christ suffered. The same God expects us to be like Jesus including suffering (2 Corinthians 1:5, 4:10, 1 Thessalonians 3:3).
TWO-FOLD MEANING OF CROSS: suffering and eternal good
“Deny yourself, take up your own cross daily, and follow Me,” commands the suffering Christ (Luke 9:23). He means what He says. He is never ambiguous about it. Neither should we. Remember: cross means suffering. Think of the cross in the time of Jesus. It was a means of public execution. Everyone understood the meaning of it —public disgrace and hours of excruciating pain that led to death. As Christ took up His own cross, He commands us to take up the cross of our own—be ready to die for Him and for the sake of others. We too, as He suffered, have our own share of suffering in our heaven-bound journey. However, our suffering is not senseless or meaningless. It too has a purpose. What’s the purpose? Eternal good for ourselves and for others. Imagine a relationship where no one wants to sacrifice themselves on behalf of others. Imagine a family where no one wants to take the garbage out, cook, do the dishes, or clean the toilet. Every troubled relationship or nation has one thing in common: no one wants to take up their cross and they blame everybody else for the problems. Somebody has to take up the cross for the sake of others.
Let’s face it. When we became a believer in Christ, very few of us signed up for the cross; rather, we signed up for blessings such as eternal life, health, wealth, wisdom, love, joy, peace, and self-control. Now, we must realize that those ‘good’ things are not the ultimate goal of a Christian (they are benefits, not the goal). Our ultimate goal is Christ Himself; do whatever He commands, go wherever He leads, and live out His will. All other ‘good’ things are the byproducts of the cross: they come afterwards not before. Jesus says, the cross is good for you; take up your own cross and follow Me; in the end, it will benefit all; you, others, and the Church. Let me tell you one more time: the cross is eternally good for all. The cross and crown go together. However, the cross comes before the crown. You can’t have the crown without the cross.
APOSTLES AND THE BODY OF CHRIST IN THE NEXT TWO MILLENIA
I already told you that Paul wrote today’s text in prison taking part in Christ’s suffering. Later, he was executed. So were all the other apostles; they fully participated in Christ’s suffering by enduring public disgrace, shame, and death: all of them filled up their bodies with suffering on behalf of the Church.
For the next two thousand years, countless believers followed Christ’s steps and filled up His body the Church with their own sufferings, too. Like Pastor Suta today. Like an Indian sister in Christ who was attacked with acid that ruined her face.
We call those believers who died on behalf of Christ “martyrs.”—meaning “witnesses” with their own death. For them, it was worth it all—for the sake of Christ and His Church!
Wherever martyrdom takes place, one thing always happens to the body of Christ; revival and growth. The opposite is true, too. History tells us that when there was no persecution or suffering, the Church became corrupt, compromising, stagnant, and even declined. E.g. one American Christian sect dissuades its followers from meditating on the Cross because it reminds them too much of suffering and pain. They even removed the crosses from their church decorations. Is it a coincidence that the Church in America is dying when it avoids the cross by all means? I don’t like a recent increase of persecutions in America against believers, but in a grand scheme, perhaps God has a different plan to purify His Church through suffering.
When persecution arose against the body of Christ, and when the believers underwent torture, imprisonment, and death, the Church of God stayed pure, strong, and even grew in number. Today, all around the world, persecutions abound and the Holy Spirit is at work. The Church is growing leaps and bounds in the midst of suffering.
REALITY CHECK IN AMERICA
Understand the culture we are living in: Get rid of pain/suffering by all means. E.g. pain killer business—multi-billion dollar business every year. I understand why non-believers push suffering away from them. What about the Church? We too avoid suffering at all costs, do we not? But, how can we help the people in the world without knowing and experiencing the suffering first hand? How would we understand the meaning of apathy, sympathy, empathy, and compassion when we have not tasted of suffering at all?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating needless pain or suffering for the sake of suffering and pain. Neither am I looking for it for the sake of having it. Like many others, I myself prefer no suffering and a painless life. Yet, when it comes down to legitimacy and necessity of pain and suffering in the believer’s life and the life of the Church, if that’s what God has in mind, I am willing to take it. In fact, God’s Word confirms it. That’s why I urge you all to be willing to take your own share of suffering for the sake of Christ. I am thankful that ours will not be as drastic as Christ’s or Paul’s. Most of us are grateful that God doesn’t consider our faith as strong as Paul’s. However, all of us have our own crosses to bear. As long as we take it, let’s take it in stride.
Conclusion
Millions of believers in the world today go through all kinds of persecution because of their faith in Christ. They rejoice as they fill up their own lives with Christ’s afflictions such as mockery, physical pain, financial loss, and even death. Let us remember them in our prayers. Support them financially if you can. May the Holy Spirit convict us; strengthen our hearts to follow Christ all the way like our brothers and sisters in the world do.
May God awaken our souls and grant us the desire to follow Him with our own crosses.
Let us pray.