Good evening. Would you turn with me and your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 1. While you're finding your place, let me say a few words by way of introduction. A little more than a year ago, my father was in the hospital. My brother went to see him and he saw next to his hospital bed a book by Jeremiah Burroughs, a Puritan from the 1600s. The book was Moses' Choice. My brother said to my dad, give it to me in a sentence, to which my dad replied without a beat, suffering is good. Now, if you were to say anything about suffering, that would most likely be the last thing that you would say. You might say that suffering is necessary. You might say that suffering is part of this fallen world. But would you say that suffering is good? Jeremiah Burroughs said so. And the Apostle Paul in this letter to the church at Corinth said so as well. He wrote to a church that wasn't quite convinced that suffering was a good part of the Christian life. They weren't quite convinced that it was a good thing that Paul should suffer. And indeed, Paul wasn't going to tell them and instruct them that suffering was good as an end in itself. but rather he was going to teach them that suffering is good because God uses our suffering to shape us, to form us for his glory and for our good. So if you found your place in second Corinthians chapter one, would you follow along with me beginning in verse three and I'll read to verse 11. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, It is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight asking for your mercy, as you are the father of mercies. We ask for your comfort, for you are the source of all comfort. We pray that you would open our minds to receive your word, both to understand it and to receive it with faith in our hearts, that we might trust you more and more, that we might worship you, that we might praise you and hope in you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as I introduced our passage, I mentioned that Paul faced certain challenges from this church in Corinth. I want to provide a little more context to what was going on. Paul had many interactions with this church already. And what had happened in Corinth was that false teachers had come and started to question Paul's ministry. They started to challenge what he was saying. The character of that challenge was a call to return to certain old covenant practices. It wasn't all that different in that way from what was happening in Galatia and many other churches in the first century. But in this particular case, they challenged Paul not simply by offering a different gospel, but they also challenged his person and his ministry by pointing to his suffering. When we look at the character of this letter and we look at all that Paul writes, we can infer the kind of things that they were saying. They were questioning, why is it if a person proclaims such a glorious gospel, why would his ministry be marked by no glory at all? Why would Paul suffer so greatly if he was proclaiming a glorious risen Christ? It didn't seem to make sense to them. And they used that to attack his ministry. And for many of the Corinthians, they were accepting this. They were thinking there must be merit to this. Maybe Paul really isn't an apostle of Jesus Christ. Maybe he really isn't what he claims to be. And so it was necessary that Paul should defend his ministry. And throughout this letter, he will defend his ministry, not by saying that his sufferings were out of the norm, but rather by showing that the things he suffered are part of the normal pattern of Christian life and were normative to the ministry to which he was called. Indeed, when Paul was called, the Lord said of him, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. All of the apostles suffered in various ways, but Paul seems to have experienced unique affliction. We read through the book of Acts and we see in one account in the city of Lystra how the people stoned him and left him for dead. And people were surprised when, after laying on the ground in his own blood and spit, that he got up. He went back into the city and proclaimed Christ crucified and risen. Again, Paul in Ephesus was confronted with a riot as people called into question the gospel he was proclaiming and stirred up the people of the city against him. We don't even read and act about all of the ways in which Paul was challenged and all of the ways he suffered in his ministry. Some of the instances he mentions in this very letter. And yet we know that Paul's entire ministry was marked by great suffering. And yet if it was marked by suffering, it was also marked by deliverances. It was marked by God saving Paul out of these situations to go and proclaim the gospel again. And Paul wants this church in Corinth to understand that this is the pattern of ministry to which he is called. And it also is the pattern of our life as Christians. I want to look back to the reason why that is. This morning, before our corporate confession of sin, our brother Chad read for us from Genesis chapter 3. I want to remind you of some of the things that he said. If we think about the things that God said to Adam and to Eve after they sinned in the garden, we can summarize those things in three words. Pain, conflict, and death. Their entire lives would be marked by pain and by conflict and death. And that's the normal experience of all human beings. All humanity born in Adam experiences pain, conflict, and death in our relationships with one another, in our relationship with the world. We experience pain in the work that we perform. Just as God said to the woman, in pain you shall bring forth children. Do you see? And as he said to Adam, from dust you came and to dust you shall return. Death is the end for all of us, at least in this earthly existence. And yet, when we look at God's revelation going forward, we see that he gives his people a pattern for a living that will lead to flourishing. If his people are to obey his commands, they will flourish. And they won't have so much conflict in their relationships. If husbands love their wives the way they ought to, if wives submit to their husbands the way Paul instructs them, if children honor their fathers and mothers, there's not going to be the kind of conflict that we would expect based on the fall. And so, as we think through these things, or we look at the book of Proverbs and see how the wisdom of God shows us how to live a life that leads to flourishing, we might think that the Christian life should lead to a good life. And in an ideal world, that's true. But there's another kind of conflict that God spoke about there in Genesis 3. It's not that normal conflict of a fallen world, But it's a conflict between the serpent and the woman. When the Lord said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. And he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. God spoke of an extraordinary conflict, one that would endure for all of time, as long as this earth endures, regardless. In fact, because we choose to pursue a godly life. That conflict endured, and we can see it throughout the Old Testament as the world confronted and attacked the people of God in the nation of Israel. And in Paul's day, we see it in the church as the world confronts Paul and the world confronts those who receive and believe the gospel and attacks them and hates them for it. That conflict is normal. and yet extraordinary. It's a part of this life. And so it should not surprise us that in many cases, the Christian life and Christian ministry is marked by opposition and suffering. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that's normal. And so as he begins this passage, blessing God, the father of mercies, the source of all comfort, he explains how that truth plays itself out. in his experience and in the Christian experience. God doesn't prevent us from suffering, but rather in our suffering, he visits us with comfort. Now it's important to understand these two words because they appear again and again and again in this passage. When Paul speaks of suffering, though it does include all suffering that is normal in our experience as human beings. As he says, all our affliction and any affliction in verse four. God comforts us in all of these things. Nevertheless, in this context, the specific focus is the kind of suffering that is because of the gospel. That is, we may suffer ridicule. We may suffer persecution. We don't see it as often in our own country, but in many places across this world, Iran, Afghanistan, China, people suffer the loss of property. People even suffer the loss of their lives. And this has been true for ever since the first century, when Christ came. Christ and his followers suffered. And yet, as Paul speaks about this suffering, and he describes it as affliction and these terrible experiences that he would describe as even causing him the despair of life itself and to be burdened beyond his strength. He also speaks of comfort. This word can be translated as well as consolation. That may help us to again understand what is meant here. Look back with me for a moment to the book of Luke, to Luke chapter two. If you'll turn there with me, I want to give you an example of what this means as we look to the example of Simeon. Simeon, to remind you, was a man that the Holy Spirit showed, revealed, to Simeon that he would not die before he saw the Christ. And when we see Luke describe Simeon and his character in verse 25 of chapter 2, he says this, Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. This was a man that was looking for the consolation or the comfort of Israel. He was not simply looking for someone to come and speak kind words to ease the pain of his nation. He was looking for something bigger, something greater than that. He was waiting for the Lord to come to his people with salvation. And so later in this passage, when he finally holds Christ in his hands, he says these words, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. For Simeon, what he was waiting for was a comfort that was bound up in the coming of Christ that would result in the glory of God and the revelation of God's glorious gospel to all the nations. He was thinking like Isaiah was thinking in Isaiah 40 when he said, comfort, comfort to Jerusalem. Comfort to my people, your warfare is ended. The comfort that we speak about, that Paul speaks about here, is a comfort that results in final salvation. It's a comfort that is ultimate, that means the end of suffering, and that is the comfort that we are promised by God. And yet, it is future. And as we look forward to that in our lives, we will see a pattern of suffering and comfort, where God will comfort us in specific afflictions, we will suffer again. And again, God will comfort us and bring an end to that suffering until we depart this earthly body, when we die or when Christ returns, and our comfort is complete and our comfort is final. And we need to understand, just like the Corinthian church needed to understand, this is going to be the normal pattern of our life. Paul tells them that they will suffer the same sufferings that he has suffered. He doesn't necessarily mean that they will suffer with the same intensity of suffering as he has suffered, but rather suffer for the sake of the gospel, suffer for Christ's name. That may be as minor as being hated by your colleagues or your friends at school. Or that may be as great as losing your life on the mission field. or even in your own community. And everything in between, but there is suffering in the Christian life, but we ought not to look at it and say there's something that it disproves the truth of what we believe, that it would lead us to reject the message we've received. Because we don't look for earthly and worldly comfort, but we look for that ultimate and final consolation that we will receive when Christ returns and ushers in the new heaven and the new earth. And so I want to show you, to help you to see that suffering is good. Not just that it's the normal pattern of our life, but that it's good. I want to give you four reasons that the apostle gives us in this passage. that show us the goodness of suffering. Again, not as an end in itself, but because how God uses suffering to shape us for his glory and for our good. The first way is that through suffering, God makes us able to comfort others. He gives us the ability to comfort those who are suffering. Look at what Paul says. In verse 4, I'll read from 3. Paul specifically argues that God comforts us for this reason, so that we might be able to comfort others. And not just with any comfort, not just with words of condolence or words of kindness, but with a specific comfort. With comfort that is rooted and based in the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. It's the comfort that we ourselves are comforted with by God. By way of analogy or illustration, many of you know my father passed away last year and I think of my mother often in this vein. She's been a widow for over a year now. And one of the things I've observed in her life is how she's engaged with other women who've lost their husbands at a relatively young age. She knows how to comfort them in a way that I can't really relate to. Because she knows what she needs and what she feels and what comforts her. Sometimes that's just being present with other people, by being with them. Sometimes, I don't even understand it, but she meets with these ladies. She goes kayaking. She reaches out to them in their grief and their loss. She knows how to comfort them. She's able to do it in a way that many others cannot because she's experienced it herself. And in the same way, Paul experienced great suffering, and yet he also experienced great comfort. And in that experience, he sees what it means to be comforted by God in the midst of great affliction. And so he knows what it takes to comfort those who are going through the same thing. And so in the same way, when we suffer for the sake of the gospel, we're enabled to come alongside those who are suffering as we receive comfort so that we might comfort others with those things that we know have brought us comfort. Those things that are rooted in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So God allows us to suffer. In fact, he ordains that we suffer so that we might be able to comfort even as we have been comforted. Second, God allows us to suffer, even ordains that we suffer, so that we might learn to rely upon him and not upon our own strength. Jumping down in our passage to verse eight, Paul relates this story about his experience in Asia. He says this, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. It's amazing to think that even Paul, even the Apostle Paul, had to learn humility in his ministry. You can read again the book of Acts and you can see the many successes that he had as he proclaimed the gospel and as churches were planted and as people came to Christ. And then, in this particular instance, God taught him an important lesson. He brought him back down to the ground in humility to show him Paul, your strength does not come from within. Your strength comes from me. And he showed that to him by bringing him to the point of utter helplessness. The point of realization that he had nothing within himself, no resource within himself to do that which he was seeking to do. And the realization that all he could do was turn to God and depend upon him. And that was the point of his suffering. That is why God ordained it. So that Paul would be changed in that way. I think of the sermon we heard preached this morning. We see the same thing in Jesus' life. Not that he needed to be corrected in some way. But in his incarnate life, he learned obedience. He learned it perfectly, without failure. But he still learned to depend upon the Father in everything. And we see that even as he went to the cross, as Pastor Ryan preached this morning. That as his disciples were pulling out swords and seeking to take matters into their own hands, he was kneeling in prayer, independence upon the father's mercy and the father's care. And in so doing, he was showing us the way of Christ, the way of the Christian life, just as Paul here learned. And we need to learn as well. Suffering teaches us that. that we don't have the strength and the resources within ourselves to do that which God calls us to do. And yet, He promises us that He will be with us, and He will sustain us, and He will enable us to do that which He calls us to do. So suffering teaches us to rely upon God, to depend upon Him. Thirdly, suffering teaches us to place our hope in God. Slightly different than relying upon Him. This is to look to Him as not only the source of our comfort, but as our final comfort. Paul says this in verse 7, Our hope for you, the Corinthians, is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. And again, in verse 10, he says, he delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us on him. We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Paul wanted the Corinthians to hope in God, and he had hope for them, and he had hope for himself that through God's work, they would receive comfort, that comfort we talked about, that final comfort that is salvation from all our earthly suffering. not comfort that's faced in this world. To illustrate that, think again back to the Gospel of Luke. There's a parable in Luke chapter 16 that Jesus tells about a rich man, a man named Lazarus. And in that parable, we see that the rich man boasts of his own righteousness, but Lazarus, this poor man, beats his breast, saying, I am unrighteous. I am not worthy, and yet, In this parable, in eternity, when they have died, the rich man is in torment, and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom. And when this rich man pleads to Abraham for some mercy, he says to him, child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus and like man are bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. What Jesus shows us in this parable is that if we place our hope in the comforts we can have in this world, we will not have eternal comfort, but we will have a comfort that is fleeting and that we won't want when we reach the other side of this, of when we die and we're in eternity. We'll be in anguish if we set our hope in the comforts of this world. But if we set our hope in God, who is the father of mercies, then we will have eternal comfort, just as Lazarus in that parable was comforted when the rich man was in anguish. And so suffering in this life teaches us not to hope in the comforts of this world that are fleeting, but rather to place our hope in the God who is the father of mercies, who is the God of all comfort. And lastly, the reason why we should say that suffering is good is that suffering causes us to bless God, to bless Him as Paul blesses Him, as the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. You see, this church was fighting. They were fighting over what was the true message of Christ. God had clearly revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. He had revealed himself in a new way as the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what Paul was saying is that, yes, he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That hasn't changed the fact that he is the God who is characterized by steadfast love and faithfulness. He is the God who is full of grace and truth. The same God who showed himself in mighty acts to his people, Israel, so that they might know his love for them, his covenant love, and that he is the God who keeps his promises, is unchanged. He has now revealed himself as the Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And yet he is still the God of steadfast love and faithfulness. He is, to put it another way, the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies. And so when we suffer and are comforted or when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ suffering and then comforted, it should cause us to bless God and to praise him with these words that Paul uses here when he calls him the father of all mercies, the God of all comfort. Suffering shapes us in our worship, causing us to praise him as we ought. causing us to see him for who he is. So for these four reasons, I say to you that suffering is good, not as an end in itself, but because it shapes us to be more and more like Christ, who suffered, in whose sufferings we share, and who was comforted and is comforted, and in whose comfort we will share. What can we do then? But what can we do in response to this word? In three simple words, hope, pray, and wait. Hope, pray, and wait. Just as Paul declares his hope for others and for himself, let us be marked by hope. Whether we face suffering or not in this life, we will face suffering. But whether that suffering is intense or light, Let us never lose hope in the gospel we proclaim and believe. Let us never lose hope in our final salvation. Let us never lose hope in Christ who died and was raised. Let's never lose our hope in the God who raises the dead. So hope. Pray. Paul calls upon the Corinthians to pray. In verse 11, you must also help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. As I mentioned earlier, our suffering in this country is relatively light when we survey the world. A brother shared with me this morning a story, I don't know the nature of the report, but how the Taliban went to a church this morning in Kabul and killed Christians. We don't know exactly what's happening over there, but I do know this, that Christians are not safe in Afghanistan. They weren't safe months ago, but they're less safe now. Many will give their lives, but we should pray for them. We should pray for Christians in Iran. We should pray for Christians in China, Christians in North Korea, Christians in America who are suffering for the sake of the gospel, that God will deliver them. that God will frustrate the plans of the devil, that God will show his comfort to them. And if they should give their lives, that they would remain faithful and receive that comfort that is eternal, that can never be shaken. We must be constant in prayer, depending on God for our own strength, but also praying for those who are suffering. And thirdly, we wait. When I say that we wait, I mean that we wait with endurance and faithfulness. As we experience trials in this life, we don't act like Peter saying, let me take matters into my own hands. Let me accomplish what needs to be accomplished. But rather, we act like Christ, who prayed, who waited, and when it was time to take action, he went to the cross. We wait for God to do what he's promised. If we're called to act in some way, then we act, but not without first praying and waiting for the Lord to show that he is the one who delivers us and strengthens us for the work that he calls us to perform. When the biblical authors speak of waiting, they speak of it with that sense of faithful expectation, the kind of waiting we saw with Simeon, who was waiting. for the consolation of Israel, who was looking for God to do what he did. It didn't mean he did nothing. It meant that he had his hopes so fixed on God's promises, that he didn't seek to take matters into his own hands, as many of his countrymen did, starting revolutions and revolts, thinking they would bring in the kingdom. But he waited for God to accomplish that which he had promised to do. So let us wait. And while we wait, let us pray. and let us hope. I want to close with the words of a hymn, a hymn written by John Fawcett and Constance Devers. They write these words, afflicted saint, to Christ drawn near, your savior's gracious promise here. His faithful word you can believe, that as your days, your strength shall be. Your faith is weak, your foes are strong, and if the conflict should be long, The Lord will make the tempter flee, that as your days, your strength shall be. So sing with joy, afflicted one. The battle's fierce, but the victory's won. God shall supply all that you need. Yes, as your days, your strength shall be. Let's pray. Father in heaven, cause us to praise you. as the Apostle Paul praised you on this letter, cause us to bless you with these words, saying that you are the God of all comfort and the father of mercies, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, change our minds so that we think about suffering and affliction as you would have us think about it, not seeking to, in our own strength, accomplish our salvation, but rather looking to you, the sole author of our salvation and looking to Christ and drawing near to Him who showed us how to live obediently. And as His disciples fail, who did it for us, may we follow Him in faith, trusting in Him for our salvation. And as we go through this life from suffering to comfort, from suffering to comfort, Cause us to fix our eyes finally and fully on the hope that we have in your promises and your son, the comfort that we will have for all eternity. Cause us to endure to that end. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.