God Promises a Suffering Servant

Daniel Norman

TGP A Kingdom Divided • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Jesus is the suffering servant who was rejected and struck down on our behalf in order to win the victory. In response, we embrace a life of service and suffering on His behalf as we share the gospel with others.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Video: Road to Emmaus

So that video is a dramatization of a section of Scripture that most of our Bibles have entitled “The Road to Emmaus”. At this point, Jesus has died and risen again and He is showing himself in his resurrected body to many people on earth. As He catches up to these two men he keeps them from recognizing who He is as he asks them questions about their discussion. The reason that I wanted to open our teaching time with this story is that in it we find Jesus doing exactly what we have been doing these last several weeks.

Luke 24:25 ESV

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

You see these two men, and doubtless many more, believed that Jesus was the Messiah right up to the point that he was captured, tortured and killed on a Roman cross. They had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel, but now they figure they must be wrong because…well…He is dead.

Luke 24:

You see these two man, and doubtless many more, believed that Jesus was the Messiah right up to the point that he was captured, tortured and killed by the Roman soldiers. They had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel, but now…He is dead. He did so many wonderful powerful things right before our eyes and we were certain that he must be the Messiah, but when he finally came face to face with our oppressors…He didn’t use any of that stuff on them. He just let himself be captured. He just let them beat him and crucify Him. He didn’t even try and fight back…so He couldn’t be the one that the prophets talked about.

They watched Him do so many powerful and miraculous things right before their eyes, but when he finally came face to face with the Romans, the oppressors of Israel…He didn’t use any of that stuff on them. He just let himself be captured. He just let them beat him and crucify Him. He didn’t say a word, let alone try and fight back. He just quietly suffered under this horrible unjust violence. And now…He is dead. So this Jesus guy must not have been who they thought He was.

Much of the dialog you heard was directly from Scripture, including the part where Jesus says:

Luke 24:25–27 ESV

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:25-

Luke 24:25 ESV

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Do you see what is happening here? Jesus took these two men on their own Gospel Project. Just like we have been doing, He took them through the stories of the Old Testament and pointed to all the places where the redeemer of Israel is mentioned. And He especially highlighted the many places where it says that the Messiah, the Christ will suffer.

It is easy to see how these men could be confused, we also don’t look for our heroes among the suffering. From our perspective, the one who leaves the battle in the most pain is the loser…but God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His way are not our ways, and God’s plan all along was the salvation that He promised His people would come down a path of great suffering.

The fact that the Messiah would suffer and die is such a prominent theme among the prophets that Jesus considers it foolish to have somehow missed it.

would experience suffering and death in order that His people would experience freedom and life. And that was the plan all along.

Tension

And this story is found in the book of Luke chapter 24. Luke is one of the four Gospel writers of the New Testament. We call them the “Gospels” because they contain the biographies of Jesus and the good news that his life, death and resurrection brings to all people. But even though we have been in the Gospel project for some time, we haven’t spent much time in these books called the “Gospels”. We have been learning, just as Jesus taught these two men, that God’s perfect plan to bring the Savior into the world can be found throughout the Bible.

One of the Old Testament prophetic books that we find this in the most often is the book of Isaiah. In fact, some people have come to call Isaiah “The Fifth Gospel” in light of all that is written prophetically there about Jesus. Specifically about how he will suffer in his role. The second half of this very long book contains a series of 3 long poems about someone called “The Suffering Servant”. This role is clearly identified in Chapter 53 to be a name for the coming Messiah.

The question that we have to ask ourselves is why did Jesus

What did people do before the Gospels were written?

Jesus explained everything that was written about Him in the Scriptures…

Called them foolish because they “thought” he was the Messiah before but now they “thought” he wasn’t because He suffered and was killed.

Disciples later on He did the same thing for

Found in the book of Luke, one of the four Gospels in the New Testament

The fifth Gospel: Isaiah

Isaiah was talking about Jesus.

things that were not even invented yet!

, some of these descr them pointing to things that had not even been invented yet.

Now understand that this was 600-700 years before Jesus was born into our world, but as a prophet the LORD gave Isaiah vision to see His plan for the Messiah who would come to save His people. And part of that plan was for Jesus to suffer.

So one of the question that the book of Isaiah brings us to ask is “Why did God plan for our salvation to come through suffering?"

That is so hard for us to understand, because when we sit down to make a plan for something, one of our greatest values is how can we accomplish this task with as little pain as possible. Our plans are always to avoid suffering, but it was a vivid part of God’s plan all along.

Every k

plans with the expressed intent of avoiding suffering. We have all experienced suffering, to one degree or another, but when planning something out in advance, we plan to avoid suffering whenever possible…even though it is a part of all of our experience. .

The thing that we have to remember about suffering is that it is always, in some way, a result of sin. The only time in history when there was no suffering was in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned. So suffering and sin go hand in hand…but Jesus never sinned. He lived His life perfectly obedient to His Father and yet...He still suffered. What are we to do with that?

And maybe even closer to home is to ask ourselves what this might say about the suffering that we have experienced in this life. Because suffering is not something experienced by just a few select people. To one degree or another we have all endured suffering, but none of us has done so to the point that God’s own Son did.

We suffer as a result of our own sin. A consequence for our own selfish actions.

The thing that we have to remember about suffering is that it is always a result of sin. The only time in history when there was no suffering was in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sin. So suffering and sin go hand in hand…but Jesus never sinned. He lived His life perfectly obedient to His Father and yet...He still suffered. What are we to do with that?

For one thing it throws out the

We suffer as a result of someone else’s sin. We are sin against, and so we suffer as a consequence of what they did to us.

We suffer as a result of living in this broken sinful world. The world we lived in is not how God created it, it has been forever been tainted by sin and so we all endure sickness, pain, natural disasters, animal attacks, viral attacks, car accidents, fire accidents and the list goes on. Not a direct result of our sin or anyone sinning against, but just another sign that this world is not as God created it to be.

You can see the common word in all three of these can’t you? Suffering is a result of sin. There was no sin in the garden of eden

The thing about our suffering, however, is that sometimes it is a result of wrong decisions that we have made. The consequences of life altering decisions that we made and maybe even continue to make in such a way that we can follow these sufferings right to their source…ourselves. But the thing about Jesus’ suffering is that He never made any decisions like this. He lived His life perfectly obedient to His Father and yet...He still suffered. What are we to do with that? We can make sense of someone suffering for their own wrong decisions, but why would anyone have to suffer for something that they didn’t do? Or even worse, something that they did that was actually the right thing to do?

You see we can make sense of someone suffering for their own wrong decisions, that seems justified, but it was a part of God’s plan all along to send this horrible suffering into the life of the one person who never once sinned? What does that say about us? None of us have even close to a perfect record like Jesus.

What does that say about us? None of us have even close to a perfect record like Jesus. ,

But Jesus never made any wrong decisions. He was perfect in every way…and yet He suffered. Jesus is the only person that we can know for sure did not suffer as a consequence for His own wrong decisions…so why did He suffer? Finding out the answer to that might help us to understand why it is that we sometimes suffer in ways that are not tied to our own decisions.

ding out the answer to that might help us to understand why it is that we sometimes suffer in ways that are not tied to our own decisions.

I believe as we look into God’s plan for Jesus to suffer in this world, we will begin to better understand the meaning behind some of our suffering. So open your Bibles up with me to Isiah chapter 53, page 613 in the Bibles in the chairs. Let’s pray and then we will tackle this “Suffering Servant” idea together.

So open your Bibles up with me to Isiah chapter 53, page 613 in the Bibles in the chairs. Let’s pray and then we will tackle this suffering servant idea together.

Tension

Truth

So as I mentioned earlier, this passage is part of a much larger section of poems about someone called “The Suffering Servant”. If you really like poetry like this then you can go back this week and read from chapter 49 up to 53. But if you are more like me, then you don’t find poetry like this the easiest to understand. On top of the metaphorical language, these poets also are not too concerned about keeping their thoughts in sequencial order. They often put what they think is a more important event first, rather than the one that happened first and that just messes me all up and gets me confused.

I know poetic form is not always the easiest to understand but stick with me because much of what we will be reading here has a bit of a story like feel to it. I do have to warn you though, that eastern poetry like this is not often too worried about sequencial events. Sometime they just float back and forth in the timeline, prefering to put what they see as the most important things first, instead of putting the

But thankfully, we have an advantage here that the first readers did not have.

We are going to back up just a little into verse 13 of Chapter 52 and then run right through to verse 3 of 53:

You see, prophecy is much easier to understand when looking backward, then it is to nail down looking forward. This is to our advantage because we have the written record of both the sufferings of Jesus and Jesus himself saying that the words spoken here are about Him. So as we read through these words, even in their wacky order, I want to encourage you to listen for those things that you can connect with what you already know about the story of Jesus . Who knows, it could be a fun exercise, even for those of us who are not really big on poetry.

Who knows, it could be a fun exercise, even for those of us who are not really poetry buffs.

So the first theme that we come upon is how:

The Suffering Servant is despised and rejected ()

We are going to back up just a little into verse 13 of Chapter 52 and then run right through to verse 3 of 53:

Isaiah 52:13 ESV

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

Isaiah 52:14-53:3

Isaiah 52:

Isaiah 52:13–53:3 ESV

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 52:13–53:3 ESV

Isaiah 52:14–53:3 ESV

14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 52:

So what kind of connections did you make in this part of the poem between the “Suffering Servant” as Isaiah describes him and what you know about Jesus’ story? Did you get that he will be

High and lifted up, exalted? You could take that in reference to the physical act of being lifted on the cross and/or you could take it as a reference to the effect of what Jesus’ suffering brought. His ultimate glorification, having accomplished all that God gave him He was exhaulted and seated at the right hand of the Father. Of course that happens after all the suffering, but remember poems are not always in order of happenings but order of importance. So this must be important.

Did you connect the marred and unrecognizable form with what we know about the kind of flogging that Jesus endured before He even went to the cross. This kind

What about the “marred and unrecognizable human form”. I don’t know how much you know about the flogging that Jesus endured before His Crucifixion but that technique did so much damage to the flesh of a person that they were barely recognizable as a person after it was done.

What did you make of the “sprinkling of many nations”? This word “sprinkle” is the same word used for the way that the Priests would sprinkle the blood of each sacrifice in the Temple for the forgiveness of sins. But unlike the Temple ceremony, Jesus’ sacrifice here was not limited to the Jewish nation, but offered to “many nations”, So that gentiles like you and I could be saved.

Then Isaiah sees this picture of a young plant…what do you think that would mean? It is a little tricky as it is an ancient metaphor, but Theologians tell us that this plant and the dry ground most likely refers Jesus’ pedigree. This suffering servant would not be seen as a powerful person with a great family name. He would be pretty normal, nothing regal or attractive about him. He would deal with the same everyday struggles that every common person deals with, not live in the lap of luxury like the powerful.

Isn’t this Jesus’ story? While He was a descendant from David, He wasn’t recognized as having grown up with anything particularly special about him. The people in His hometown said, “Isn’t this just Joseph the carpenters son?” How could He be the Messiah. Not to mention that it was well known that “nothing good could ever come from Nazareth”. The suffering servant would be just a common working class stiff like the rest of us, until he did something none of us could do.

The suffering servant would be just a common working class stiff like the rest of us, until he did something none of us could do.

Our second theme for this weeks is:

The Suffering Servant is struck down as a substitute ()

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Isaiah 53:4–9 ESV

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

This is the section makes it clear that Isaiah was talking about Jesus. For one thing, there are so many references that easily bring our minds to the crucifixion. Being pierced, crushed and wounded and it would be another 200 years before crucifixion even exists. But even more than that, we can know that Isaiah is seeing Jesus because this “suffering servant” will do something that no other person can do. He will suffer for the sins of others.

There is no one else that Isaiah could be talking about here other than Jesus. For one thing, there are so many references that easily bring our minds to the crucifixion. Being pierced, crushed and wounded and it would be another 200 years before crucifixion even exists. But even more than that, we can see that this “suffering servant” will do something that no other person can do. He will take our sins upon himself.

The only person who could ever take on the sins of others is someone who wasn’t already bearing the weight of his or her own sins. And I love how you can hear in the wording how Isaiah includes himself and all of us when he says “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned -every one- to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all”.

Do you see the Clear Gospel connection here? It is the connection that Jesus made to those men on the road to Emmaus. The good news of Jesus Christ is that we desperately needed something that only He could do, and He did it. Through the suffering and pain that He endured He accomplished for us something that we could never do for ourselves. The LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was struck down as a substitute, and listen to how He did this. Not at all like you and I would...

Do you see the Clear Gospel connection here? The good news of Jesus Christ is that we needed something that only He could do, and He did it. Through the suffering and pain that He endured He accomplished for us something that we could never do for ourselves.

Isaiah 53:7–9 ESV

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:

Because we are looking back at this prophecy instead of trying to figure it out looking forward it is easy to make connections here with Jesus isn’t it. You and I get loud when we feel we are unjustly cut off in traffic, but Jesus walked through all this injustice without ever crying out on his own behalf.

And you probably see many of the other connections between Jesus’ experience in suffering and the descriptions here:

You and I get loud when we feel we are unjustly cut off in traffic, but Jesus walked through all this injustice without ever crying out on his own behalf.

He was secretly arrested in the middle of the night during passover when everyone else would have been home in bed.

He was tried unlawfully at night with false witnesses brought in who couldn’t even keep their stories straight

He was given over to be crucified by a frustrated and cowardly Roman governor who just wanted to settle an angry mob

Since crucifixion was reserved for the worst of the worst they usually threw the bodies into a mass grave and that would have been Jesus’ fate too if the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea didn’t step in and get permission to take the body to his own tomb.

tried unlawfully with false witnesses who couldn’t even get their lies straight and then condemned to die because a cowardly governor just didn’t want to deal with the unruly mob before him. There wasn’t anything right or fitting about any of this, and yet he just went along with it all.

The people yelled crucify

Why? It was all a means to an end. It was all part of God’s plan that He set in motion before the beginning of the world. Think about it, Jesus could not have been justly punished, because there was nothing to punish him for. He was completely innocent! So in order for Him to be put to death, it had to be done in an unjust way. And the sin, greed and selfishness that runs rampant in our world provided the perfect mess of violence against one whose only real crime was speaking the truth to people who didn’t want to hear it.

And this caused him great suffering, but the suffering was not the end of the story, because in our third and final theme we find that

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

This brings us to our final theme...

The Suffering Servant is exalted and victorious ()

Isaiah 53:10a

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief”

Wait a minute…did we read that right? It was God’s will to crush Jesus. He was the one who did this? I thought it was the jealous religious leaders working together with the Roman soldiers. They were the intruments that God used, but it was the LORD who “put him to grief”. Did the Father somehow take delight in the suffering of the Son, I don’t think so. But He took great delight in the obedience of the Son…because of what that obedience means for you and me:

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

Isaiah 53:10

Did you catch that? I know it is presented in poetic language, but the outcome of Jesus’ obedience “the will of the Lord” is that God’s children “the offspring” will have eternal life “prolong his days”. That is the mission that Jesus was sent here to accomplish. It’s right here in .

Isaiah 53:11–12 ESV

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:10–12 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

This is not a

Gospel Application

Why did God send His son on this mission of suffering? For sinners like us. For transgressors like us. He poured out his soul to death to bear our iniquity, our transgressions and our sins. That is the good news of the Gospel, the good news that Isaiah clearly spoke of 600 years before Jesus walked down the road to Emmaus with those two men. They figured Jesus couldn’t have been the Messiah because He suffered and died, and Jesus told them that greatest evidence that He was the Messiah was that He suffered and died.

iniquities, trangressions and sins

The suffering that Jesus endured was the suffering that we deserved, but He stood in our place and took it for us. That is why one who was perfectly righteous had to suffer as if He was sinful. In order to give his righteousness to you and me.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Landing

Gospel Application

Matthew 8:14–17 ESV

14 And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

John 12:37–41 ESV

37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

John

Luke 22:36–38 ESV

36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” 38 And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.”

So that is why God made a plan to save us through the suffering of His son, in order that we might receive His righteousness, but what might we learn from the suffering of Jesus about our own suffering?

Suffering Justly vs. suffering for doing good.

Sometimes we suffer as a direct consequence of our choice to sin. Even as believers who have been freed from the bondage of sin, we do sometimes choose it. And when we do, there are consequences and suffering as a result. But other times we suffer not because of our own sin, but because someone else has sinned against us. When this happens, we can be take an example from Jesus.

1 Peter 2:19–25 ESV

19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

No matter who you are or what you have suffered it all comes from the same source, but that source manifests it self in three different ways.

Acts 8:32–35 ESV

32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

We suffer as a result of our own sin. A consequence for our own selfish actions.

Because we have recieved life through the sacrifice of Jesus, we can embrace a life of service and suffering on His behalf, especially as we share the gospel with others.

Since Jesus has b

Romans 10:16–17 ESV

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We suffer as a result of someone else’s sin. We are sin against, and so we suffer as a consequence of what they did to us.

Let me close with this final verse from 1 Peter, is rich within this part of Peters letter. He says it this way.

1 Peter 2:20–25 ESV

20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

We suffer as a result of living in this broken sinful world. The world we lived in is no longer how God created it, it is tainted by sin and so we all endure pain, sickness and natural disasters. Not a direct result of our sin or anyone sinning against, but because our world is broken in sin.

1 Peter 2:20-

I pray this is true of you, that you are no longer straying, but have returned to the one who oversees your soul. It doesn’t really make suffering pleasurable, but it does give us the vision to see how our endurance in suffering pleases the LORD.

It was Jesus who gave

You can see the common cause in all three of these can’t you? Suffering is a result of sin…but Jesus died to save us from sin. That means that are two kinds of people in this room right now. Those who have trusted in Jesus and have become “the righteousness of God” and those who have not. If you have not done this then that is your next step, but if you have to save them from their sins and those who have not. If you a

Matthew 24:13 ESV

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Let’s pray and prepare our hearts for Communion.

Let me invite the servers to get prepared for communion,

If you have not

Communion.

We suffer as a result of our own sin. A consequence for our own selfish actions.

We suffer as a result of someone else’s sin. We are sin against, and so we suffer as a consequence of what they did to us.

You can see the common word in all three of these can’t you? Suffering is a result of sin.

“The only person who could ever take on the sins of others is someone who wasn’t already bearing the weight of his or her own sins.” Now that we are saved, we can suffer for the sake of others to the glory of God!

Jesus only real crime was speaking truth to those who didn’t want to hear it

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”