WHAT THE CROSS MEANS TO THOSE WHO SUFFER: CONSOLATION ---

1 Peter 2:11-12, 18-25; 3:8-9, 13-18; 4:1-2, 12-16, 19; 5:1, 7, 10-11

“Does God really know who I am? And, Does He care about me and what happens to me?” Those are honest and important question asked by those who have felt the sting of pain and the sorrow that goes with suffering.

The Christian clear and compassionate answer is, “Yes, God not only cares about the world in general, He cares about each and every individual.”

But, how can we be sure of that?

When we look at nature we will get mixed messages about God. Psalm 19 says, “The heaven declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.” We can point to the sun that shines and rains that freely fall on the earth that causes crops to grow so we might have food to eat. But you would have to ignore that sometimes rains cause floods and the sun causes drought. In some places the earth is solid, but in other places it shakes, rattles and rolls. A comedian once said, “I put a seashell to my ear and got a busy signal.”

You can’t get an answer to the question, “Does God care?” when you look at the physical lives of people. Many people live relatively healthy lives, while others are sick from the day of their birth. Some live to old age; others die very early. Some have so much to eat they are overweight, while others barely survive in the face of starvation.

You can’t get an answer to the question, “Does God care?” when you study the behavior of people. Sure, there are people who genuinely care about others, so we could deduce that God must care. But for every person who is loving, there is at least another person who is cruel, cynical, even criminal.

You can’t get an answer to the question, “Does God care?” when you study the financial condition of people. For every generous person there is a greedy Scrooge. For every person who lives in luxury, another lives in poverty. Where is the fairness in that?

You can’t get an answer to the question, “Does God care?” when you study the history of Christian people and supposed Christian churches. While it is a catchy motto, “We’re not perfect, only forgiven,” that’s not much of an explanation for the attitudes and actions of people who are not great representatives of the God who has forgiven them.

For these reasons, an a hundred more, there are people who write God off their list of people they need to get to know and trust because it seems from every indicator that if there is a God, He is indifferent to our plight. Pain is endurable, but the seeming indifference of God is not. Sometimes we picture Him lounging, perhaps dozing, in some celestial deck chair, while the hurting, hungry millions struggle, eventually staving to death and buried in an unmarked grave.

The cross of Christ smashes that caricature. The God who allows us to suffer, once suffered Himself in Christ. And He continues to suffer with us and for us today.

“Only at the cross do we see the love of God without ambiguity. Here is God’s farthest reach, His most ambitious rescue effort. God personally came to our side of the chasm, willing to suffer for us and with us. At the cross His love burst upon the world with unmistakable clarity. Here at least we have found solid reasons to believe that there was a genuine connection between God and man. Here is mercy; here is justice. And here is a God who suffers with us,” Erwin W. Lutzer, Ten Lies About God, Word Publishing, p. 62.

Is it conceivable to us that “God suffers”? A God who cannot suffer is a God without emotion.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” 2 Corinthians 5:19.

God has built a bridge to us and paid the entire cost of its construction. And God walks arm in arm with us over the chasm, entering into our own suffering. And God did it all through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The hinge of all history is the cross of Christ.

1. Christ Suffered.

When you go to the cross and read of the sufferings of Jesus, we are led to believe that His suffering that day was more than any day before it or would be after it because He was suffering for the sins of the all the people of all the world of all time. Hebrews 2:9 says Christ “tasted death for every man.” In response to Peter’s attempt to free Jesus from those who came to arrest Him, Jesus said, “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11.

Jesus suffered a Vicious Death. Roman crucifixion...it was their favorite way of dealing with criminals and trouble-makers. Not a moment of decency. And the crucifixion of Christ was on the eve of the Jewish Passover in Jerusalem. This meant the city would be clogged with religious pilgrims...a good time for Rome to send a loud and clear message: don’t mess with us. Erwin Lutzer says “it is estimated that the Romans crucified 30,000 people...a year.”

The whole procedure of a crucifixion was pure torture….Stripped… scourged...shamed...public… procession… Golgotha… “The place of the skull” … Calvary… 9am...3pm… blood… screams…pain...

Jesus suffered a Voluntary Death. Jesus laid down His own life, no man took it from Him, John 10:17-18. He freely “gave Himself,” Galatians 1:4; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14. We were not saved because of what some Roman soldiers did to Jesus. Isaiah 53:7 portrayed Christ as a willing victim. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” He is said to be a “lamb” not because He was weak, but because He was willing. And as God’s lamb, Jesus was uniquely and absolutely innocent Himself. Jesus suffered a Vicarious Death. Jesus died as our substitute. The concept of substitutes dying in the place of others goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden where God killed the first animals to cloths Adam and Eve. The blood that was shed was the first of many pictures in the Bible pointing to a better sacrifice coming that would “take away the sins of the world,” John 1:29.

John Stott wrote, “I could never believe in God, if it were not for the cross… In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering,” -- The Cross of Christ, pp. 326-327.

The Father and the Son were unified in their resolve to bring salvation to mankind. They participated in the pain caused by evil.

2. Christians Suffer.

When one of only three times in the entire Bible that the word “Christian” is used and it is connected with “suffering” we need to pay some attention to that.

Suffering as an inhabitants of planet earth goes with the territory. Few people go through life untouched by suffering of one sort or another. If you live long enough you will attend “Suffering 101.” How many ways can we suffer? Broken hearts, unhappy marriages, painful illnesses, divorces, depression, loneliness. Why? Why me? Why now?

Christians are not given an exemption from suffering.

Christians suffer because of their Savior...we are called to suffering.

Actually, suffering is one of the ways we become more Christ-like. The life of Christ is experienced in “the fellowship of His sufferings,” Philippians 3:10.

We are “called” to, 1 Peter 2:21; 3:9. “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake,” Philippians 1:29. “...We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God,” Acts 14:22.

Christians, also, suffer when they Sin….its about consequences, Galatians 6:7. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap.”

Look at 1 Peter 4:14-16. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.” That’s suffering because of our Savior. Then verse 15 goes on. “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busybody in other men’s matter.” That’s suffering because of sin. But verse 16 gives us another way Christians suffer. “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” This verse tells us Christians will also suffering because of their Stand….their convictions. “Convictions” are “strong beliefs.”

There is “something” about people who have been touched and trained by suffering. They have, what John Stott calls, a “fragrance that others lack,” p. The Cross of Christ, 311.

John Bunyon (1628-1688) was arrested and placed in Bedford prison at age 32 for conducting religious meetings without permission from the state church. During the next 12 years he wrote nine books, including the treasure of Pilgrim’s Progress during his years of incarceration. He said, “In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experience of the love of God.” He ought to know.

Joni Eareckson Tada was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident in 1967 when she was only seventeen-years-old. She is so disabled that she cannot even blow her own nose or feed herself. Yet her radiant spirit is an inspiration to all who know her. She has been a fabulous public speaker and a tremendous artist by holding the brush in her teeth!

God permits what He hates to accomplish that which He loves.

It is easy to see that Christ suffered on the cross. He was a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” Isaiah 53:3. We also have no trouble believing we suffer. It happens all the time. But it is challenging to understand and affirm that God, the Almighty God, the true and living God, suffers on our behalf.

3. God Suffers.

Some believe that they are protecting the doctrine of the “perfection of God” by denying the ability of God to suffer (impassibility). They say that since God is immutable (changeless) nothing can disturb God on any level. In defense of this idea some theologians have concluded that Christ’s suffering was only in His humanity.

God does not need to suffer. He is both self-existent and self-sufficient. He is not a victim of His emotions. “A God who suffers because He cannot help it, or a God who suffers because of circumstances beyond His control, would be a pathetic creature unworthy of our adoration,” Erwin Lutzer, Ten Lies About God, p. 68.

“The God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about—not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience,” D. A. Carson.

God chooses to suffer. He has chosen the possibility of being rejected by some and accepted by others; He chose to have His beloved Son suffer in our behalf. As humans, we suffer reluctantly and involuntarily because it is out of our hands. But everything is always in God’s hands, everything. God only suffers because He wills it to be so. Man causes suffering to God, but no man can make God suffer.

God is pleased to suffer. God wasn’t forced into a situation He could not control. God is not forced to do anything because He only does whatever He pleases.

· “But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased,” Psalm 115:3.

· “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in the earth, in the seas, and all deep places,” Psalm 135:6.

Listen to a couple of awesome verses.

· Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put him to grief.”

· Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

On one hand God felt the pain of seeing His Son suffer; yet at the same time it pleased Him. When Christ gave His own life on the cross God said His sacrifice was like a sweet smell.

At the cross we hear the cry of Christ, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and know that God connected with suffering. “As parents, we know that if we watched our son die he would not be the only one suffering. With that in mind, think of the even closer relationship that exists between the members of the Trinity! Indeed, they are one in essence, one in purpose, and one in desire. If Christ suffered as man, we must boldly affirm that God suffered also,” Erwin Lutzer, Why the Cross Can Do What Politics Can’t, pp. 110, 111.

In the cross we have the clearest proof that God cares! He carries our sorrows close to His heart. When Christ asked Saul, who was arresting and murdering Christians, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou Me?” (Acts 9:4), He was feeling all the pain and hardships Himself. Jesus considers what is done to us is done to Him.

Through the cross we have the sense that God comforts! God walks with us, He feels our sorrows, He has been there because He was at the cross when His Son died. He is “the God of all comfort…” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

Josef Ton, a Romanian, lost his faith from communist teaching but regained it from the testimony of Christians. He lost it again from liberalism taught at a Baptist seminary. Again he regained his faith through the witness of Richard Wurmbrand and others. After study at Oxford University, he was warned not to return to Romania for fear he would be killed. In 1972, he returned to Romania, prepared to suffer as he evangelized. During Ceausescu's reign of terror, Ton was the pastor of a 1400–member Baptist church. Ton was arrested and imprisoned. When the officials threatened to kill him, he responded.

“Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. You know that my sermons on tape have spread all over the country, If you kill me, those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood. Everyone will know I died for my preaching. And everyone who has a tape will pick it up and say, ‘I’d better listen again to what this man preached, because he really meant it; he sealed it with his life.’

“So, sir, my sermons will speak ten times louder than before. I will actually rejoice in this supreme victory if you kill me.”

His interrogator sent him home. (Fisher, 267-268) He was exiled in 1981 and began a radio ministry. In 1990 he returned back to Romania working to train people for ministry. “Where is God When We Suffer?” p. 126.

By the cross we are assured that ultimately God will conquer all things, including suffering! The cross teaches us to believe in hope when there is no hope. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of of is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away,” Revelation 21:3-4. The “hope of glory” makes suffering bearable, Romans 5:2-3.

In the end there will be an end to all suffering….for those who know and love Jesus Christ. After Jesus “suffered” He entered into His “glory.”

“The only right attitude towards suffering is worship, or humble self-surrender. This is not a groveling humiliation but a sober humility. This is not to commit intellectual and moral suicide; this is to acknowledge the limits of our finite minds. This is in world to let God be God and to be content ourselves to remain men. This is reasonable, too, when we have had a revelation of God like Job’s. ‘But’, says a critic, ‘we have not’. Wait a minute! We have, you know. We have had a better and fuller one. We are much more favoured than Job. He only knew the God of nature; we know the God of grace. He only knew the God of the earth and the sky and the sea; we know the God of Jesus Christ. He only knew the God of the crocodile; we know the God of the cross. If it was right and reasonable for Job to worship, it is much more reasonable for us. We have seen the cross.” -- John Stott, Authentic Christianity, pp. 390-391