UNDERSTANDING THE ENIGMATIC NATURE OF TURBULENT & DIFFICULT TIMES

TITLE: MYSTERY OF SUFFERING

TEXT: HEBREWS 12:2; 2:9, 10; John 15:20

INTRODUCTION:

Years ago in Ghana, a devoted Christian guy lived with the vision of acquiring his own palatial place of habitation which can accommodate his future wife and children. He ran through the mill by enduring through the sweats of hardships. By virtue of his dreams and aspirations, he was devoid of excessive expenditure and consequently bereft of daily extravagance. Industriousness was the order of his day till he notched up his dream and vision. His dream came to a reality after 5 years. He had this house furnished with every luxurious household necessity. His wedding was the talk of the town and his fully-packed luxurious mansion was awaiting his presence. His honey moon was in progress when he had a phone call. Amidst the periphery of felicity and splendor encompassing his life, he came face to face with suffering re the complete smoldering of his life time investments. The caller said, your house you built is on fire and as I am talking to you now, everything is completely in ashes. The man didn’t believe his ears so he boycotted his honeymoon to catch a glimpse of his shambolic experience. He sped off into the realms of clamor and howl beyond pacification. His pastor heard about his predicament and came to his comfort but still to no avail. He was wailing like a banshee and reiterating his lamentable words of doom and despair. He entered the house which was down in ashes and saw that everything he laboriously worked for was gone with the wind. Everything in the house was beyond recognition. As he was perambulating through the shambles, he saw a metal-made bird on the grounds. Everything was gone but this artistry was whole and complete without deformity. After some few seconds, his onlookers were laid aback when they beheld this crying bridegroom burst into unprecedented laughter and still holding unto the metal-made bird. Wacky and dementia was the obsession of the witnesses about him. The pastor pleaded for assistance to take him to the hospital. He exploded with oomph and comfort that nothing was wrong with him but God is speaking to him. He continued that, God asked him why all is gone in ashes but the thing in the hand is still without blemish and stain. He answered God that it is because it is metal. God told him that, that thing has endured through the pressures of fire and heat so it’s beyond being burnt again. God continued that…He is in the process of fire and heat and when he is out, nothing can withstand him from enjoying expansion and enlargement.

Suffering is indeed a mystery which needs to be uncovered or brought to the fore or better still understood by us all. A tea leaf cannot release its flavor unless it goes through hot water. Beauty and glory is notched up in the furnace of affliction and suffering. The invaluableness and priceless of gold is tested and approved by the vehemence of fire.

Job wholeheartedly affirmed this scenario when he retorted back to his friends that [He (God) knows the way that he take, that when He had tried him, he will come forth as GOLD] Job 23:10. Transformation is birthed from the corridors of pains. Birth is the product of travail. Victory is gained out of warfare. War is waged with weapons and weapons are the products of fire.

BODY OF MY SERMON:

The author and finisher of our faith endured the affliction appending the cross because of the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Suffering produces joy and ecstasy. The result of the night is the morning. David said, “Weeping may endure the night but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Darkness is every time equated with sufferings and pains, but we must not be oblivious of the premise that, darkness precedes the morning. Which is to say that, there is no……..

Pay without pain.

Gain without Gale.

Winning without Weaning.

Testimony without a Test.

Triumph without Trials.

Message without a Mess.

Pleasure without Pressure.

Praise without pains.

Crown without being a clown.

In Hebrews 2:9, 10, Jesus was fashioned to swim in the pool of despondency and affliction before He annexes the crown of glory and honor. Crowns are the rewards of champions. Champions are products of endurance. In verse 10, the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings. Brethren, suffering is a mystery and consequently, it is employed by God to cause us to be conformed into the image of His Son Jesus Christ. I CALL SUFFERINGS AND AFFLICTIONS THE WILDERNESS OF EXPERIENCE.

All the legends of faith listed in Hebrews 11 perambulated through this wilderness. It’s a GLORIOUS EXPERIENCE which becomes the PERFECT TEACHER OF GREATNESS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. Abraham (run into Egypt), Isaac (followed the footsteps of his father into Egypt), Jacob (struggled with life – Laban’s house), Moses (40 years of training in the wilderness), David (40 years running away from Saul in the wilderness), Elijah (without food in the wilderness, being fed by ravens, running to serepta for food) Elisha (walking three days after Elijah for his double unction and power) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and his friends etc…

The servant is not greater than his Master. If Jesus was crowned with power through the quagmire of sufferings, then we are no exceptions to this puzzle. Ordinary is the life devoid of trials and pressures; extraordinary is the life outlived with afflictions and sufferings.

ILLUSTRATION: BUTTERFLY

There is a struggle from the stage of deformity into the stage of uniformity when a butterfly meanders its way into existence from the shell of a cocoon. This is a class example of suffering. A farmer en route to the farm bumped into a queer but glaring scenario when a butterfly being formed out of the clothes of a cocoon was struggling onto the atmosphere of life. The farmer glanced at this wonder but shove off unto his daily duty. On his way back, he saw that the butterfly was still fluttering its wings in pursuit to deliver itself from the heat of his habitat. He opted to help it and to lessen its misery so cut open the part which was stuck in the cocoon with his knife. He later discovered that, in his quest to be a catalyst of liberation, he became a mainstay of demise; he killed the beautiful transforming butterfly. Suffering is our time of transformation from the ordinary into extraordinary. Christians are called for excellence in all facets of our lives and not to trail. Excellence is the finish product of being expelled out of the society by reason of fiasco. You can’t excel in your field of specialty unless you have tasted the ignominy of being expelled and debarred. An escape root from suffering is suicidal. It is dying before our time.

Transformation is an apotheosis or paragon of a channel of affliction and pains. It’s a process. It is a means to an end – Blessings and greatness.

WHAT SUFFERING PRODUCES:

THREE FOLD BLESSINGS OF SUFFERINGS

1. IT PRODUCES PERFECTION (Hebrews 2:10)

“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings”.

Jesus became Perfect in all standards through the labyrinth of sufferings. Philippians 2:5-8 expatiates on Jesus being highly exalted and given a new name by the father. Before this accolade, He endured through suffering and shame by humbling Himself unto death, even the death of the cross. Excellence, beauty, ecstasy and maturity are the nonce words here.

The butterfly experiences beauty when it goes through the process of change. Like the butterfly, we need the coat of emergency to survive. Gold is graded as priceless and sparkling after it passes through the torture of fire. The bird in the hands of the man whose house got burnt became perfect beyond the vehemence of the destruction of fire. The mystery of suffering is that, it creates in us the SEED of perfection. It is contagious. It affects our progeny like the consummation of fire. Trials and afflictions create in us the power of maturity and growth.

ILLUSTRATION:

A shipwrecked man managed to reach an uninhabited Island. There, to protect himself against the elements and to safeguard the few possessions he had salvaged, he painstakingly built a little hut which he constantly and prayerfully looked at the horizon for the approach of a ship. Returning one evening after a search for food, he was terrified to find the hut completely enveloped in flames beyond recognition. Yet, by divine mercy, this hard affliction and suffering was changed into a mighty advantage. He struggled for a place to lie and luckily he slept. Early the following morning he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island. When the captain of the ship stepped ashore, he explained that, “we saw your smoke signal and we came to your rescue. Everything the marooned man owned had to be destroyed before he could be rescued.

If God promised His servants an unbroken run of prosperity, there would be counterfeit Christians. Don’t be surprised at famine and hunger…it is permitted to root you deep as a 30 storey building survives and thrives on the deepness of the foundation. The deeper you dig down, the higher your greatness and blessings!!!

2. IT IDENTIFIES US WITH CHRIST (John 15:20b)

“Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you…..”

As Disciples of Christ, we are created in His image and likeness. Philippians 2:5 says, we should let the mind of Christ be in us as disciples. The mind of Christ was to endure through sufferings because of the joy set before Him.

Suffering is the badge of true discipleship. Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffering. Gold is gold because of the furnace of fire.

ILLUSTRATION:

Hammer is a useful tool so close and united with the nail. But if the nail has the feeling, voice and intelligence, it could present another side of the story. For the nail knows the hammer only as an opponent. Brutal, merciless enemy who lives to pound it into submission, to beat it down out of sight and clinch it into place. That is the nail’s view of the hammer; it is very accurate except for one thing: The nail forgets that it also lives to identify itself with the hammer. The nail is no nail without the hammer and vice versa. It forgets also that both it and the hammer are servants of the same work man. If it knows this…all resentment toward the hammer will disappear.

God uses the storms of life to shape us into becoming choice vessels for His use. We must identify ourselves with the sufferings to understand that we can do nothing without the presence of trials and sufferings.

3. IT PRODUCES OBEDIENCE: (Hebrews 5:8)

“Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered”

Jesus our Master is spoken of by the author of Hebrews that He was intimated with the spirit of obedience by reason of His sufferings. Obedience is better than sacrifice. The topsy-turvy we face in life causes us to be subject to the will and purpose of the Father. Trials and afflictions instill in us the spirit of submission to God. Because we cannot do anything to relieve ourselves from the pains, we learn how to succumb and yield our entire life to our Creator.

The tea-leaf succumbs to the hot water to produce the flavor which satiates hearts and calm nerves.

Jesus saw the boisterous winds as an avenue from which the disciples will learn to trust in Him and put their faith in God. The bible explicates on God’s sovereignty in causing the Israelites to walk through the wilderness for 40 years in lieu of the 40 days journey through the Philistine territory. God purposefully orchestrated it to strengthen the faith and to cause the Israelites to be obedient to His call and will. Jonah’s affliction made him obedient to God’s call and will for the people of Nineveh.

CONCLUSION:

Brethren, we must not count it queer and strange concerning the fiery trial and suffering which tries us as though some strange thing happened unto us. But let us rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, we may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of God, happy are you; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you 1 Peter 4:12-14.