Our text tonight takes us a little further in Luke’s narrative. If you remember, last week we read how Paul had gone on his first missionary journey and had led many Gentiles to the Lord as he preached a very God-focused message. This week, we see that Paul then travels on to Iconium where he repeats his same strategy of first preaching in the synagogue and then preaching to the surrounding Gentiles.
However, some weird circumstances surround this aspect of the ministry. First, at Iconium Paul and Barnabas meet resistance, so they decide to leave and go to Lystra. When they arrive at Lystra they find great acceptance as the Spirit heals a man who had been lame from birth. In fact, their acceptance was too great, for the people think that Paul and Barnabas are gods who have come to visit them.
Paul and Barnabas apparently do not understand what the individuals think at first because they were speaking in the Lycaonian language. That is why they do not react until the priest comes to the city gate to sacrifice oxen to them. However, once they realize what is going on, they rebuke the people, explain they are mere men, and restrain the men from offering them sacrifices.
However, the people’s delight in Paul and Barnabas does not last long. For Jews who had opposed the missionaries in Iconium and Antioch soon make their way to Lystra and win over a crowd to their hatred of Paul and Barnabas. Therefore, the crowd who had once tried to worship Paul was soon joining in with the hostile Jews and stoning him. They stone him, drag him out of the city, and leave him for dead.
God allows Paul to live through this, however, and when he is able, he departs from Lystra with Barnabas, and they go to Derbe and preach the gospel there.
Though they have many converts in Derbe, the missionaries soon decide to return to Lystra—the very place where Paul had been stoned and left for dead. While they are there, they encourage the disciples who had believed on their first time through the city. And it is how they encourage the believers there to which I want to direct our focus to tonight.
Luke writes that they returned, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’” (14:22).
Therefore, I want to exhort us to continue in the faith tonight by looking into the implications of this truth and how it is that we are to deal with it. And the way in which I want to go about that tonight is by giving you a statement based on this verse (and the surrounding text) and then qualifying why I think it is true and what we must do in light of it.
The statement is this: The manner in which we should prepare for and endure suffering is by thinking much on God.
Now, in order for this to have a great impact on your life, you need to realize that suffering will be a part of your life if you are a believer. That is why the evangelistic strategy that appeals to one’s suffering is sometimes misleading. Being born again does not mean that you will have fewer problems in this world. In fact, it guarantees that suffering will be a part of your life.
Paul tells these new believers that it is “through many tribulations [that they] must enter the kingdom of God.” He actually makes it a qualification for one entering the kingdom of heaven.
Now, I am not sure that he means that suffering is a means by which God saves us. For he might simply see suffering so equated with following Christ that he puts together reasoning that goes as follows: to be a believer is necessary to enter the kingdom, and to be a believer is to suffer, therefore to suffer is necessary for one to enter the kingdom. Either way, however, it is still true that in Paul’s mind, suffering is a necessary part of anyone’s life who will enter the kingdom of God.
If suffering is then on the path to the kingdom, everyone who finds heaven as his final destination will walk in the midst of it.
If this is hard to swallow, then be assured that Luke’s recording of Paul’s thought is consistent with the rest of scripture. A few examples are:
2 Timothy 3:12—“And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Romans 8:16-17—“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”
1 Thessalonians 3:2-4—“We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.”
2 Thessalonians 1:5—“This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering.”
John 15:20—“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you’” (Jesus to his disciples).
Matthew 10:24-25—“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and the salve as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!”
Suffering is part of the Christian life. To think otherwise is to think unscripturally.
What is so awkward about preaching this and reading this is that our minds have such trouble comprehending this truth. In fact, I think our actions show that we do not believe it at all. For how often when we find ourselves in suffering do we ask what we have done wrong? I think many of us would have to say that we do that quite often.
If we were to go witness to someone today and the man or woman spoke harshly to us, we would probably be tempted to walk away asking God how we messed up. But scripture tells us that if we desire to live godly, we will suffer persecution.
Having your care stolen (William), by the guy that you try to show the love of Christ is not something that should be too surprising. According to scripture, it should be the rule rather than the exception. If your fellow employee hates you for displaying traits like your Lord and you are fired, you should not automatically assume that you have done something wrong. It would seem from all these statements in scripture that we would actually expect them to happen if we are living like our Lord. Therefore, it would seem that we should not ask what we have done wrong if we are suffering, but we should more often ask ourselves how godly we are living if we find that there is an absence of suffering in our lives. For if such is the case, maybe it is difficult for others to associate us with our Lord.
And on that note, let me exhort us publicly not to criticize one another when suffering occurs in the life of one who is striving to be obedient. For such criticism is too common in the church, stems from a lack of understanding of the faith, and discourages believers from radical obedience which is far from needing to be tempered in this country. It is hard enough for someone in America to put his finances into supporting the great commission (where he will find few companions willing to do the same) without someone constantly reminding him that his kids might not get to have the nice things that others’ kids will have growing up. Encourage one another instead by reminding them that trials are an expected part of the Christian faith.
If it is shocking, the reason that I say we should “encourage” on another with this reminder is that Paul uses his reminder of the same thing to encourage and strengthen the believers in 14:22.
Now, at a glance, that seems like an odd way to encourage some doesn’t it? How is it an encouragement to remind someone that trials are to be expected? Or maybe a better question would be, “To whom is it an encouragement to remind them that trials and suffering are to be expected?”
I think that such a statement will prove encouraging to only one group of people, namely, those who currently find themselves in suffering, or soon will. For isn’t it comforting and encouraging to hear that suffering is okay? It helps you to be able to recognize God’s presence and work in your life—or it will help you when you encounter suffering in the future. For suffering is an inevitable part of anyone’s life who will enter the kingdom.
So, if it is inevitable, how should we be about preparing for it now, and when it comes, how are we going to be able to endure?
This is where the other part of my original statement comes in. We prepare for and endure suffering by thinking much on God. In fact, I do not know of any other way in which we would find enough strength to continue to endure. For we are not simply talking about disease which we cannot control, but choosing actions which will bring about suffering. So, maybe the question would be better asked, “How do we prepare for and endure suffering that we will choose for ourselves in choosing to follow Christ and in walking in obedience to him?” The answer is the same.
I think it is clear that Paul did this from the text.
If you remember, when God called Paul to himself, God told Ananias that he was going to show Paul what things he must suffer for his name’s sake. Therefore, Paul knew that to obey God meant suffering. So, when he and Barnabas are worshiping and fasting at Antioch and God calls him, he knows that to say yes is to walk into a life of suffering. So how does he do it?
I think he was able to be obedient because in thinking on God (which he was no doubt doing in his time of worship and fasting), he was able to assure himself that God was able and would work through his life. In other words, he did not have to fear that his life of obedience and consequent suffering would come to nothing. He knew God would call people to himself through Paul.
Unless someone believes that such power is in the hands of God and thinks on that daily, I do not know how anyone endures years of suffering in the work of world evangelization. How would you be able to press on unless you believed that it was in God’s power to change men’s hearts?
And, as I mentioned, I think this is clearly Paul’s understanding because of his comments to the church at Antioch when he returns after his trip. He tells them in verse 27 “all [the] things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” I believe therefore, that Paul was able to press on even in his struggles because he believed that God would call some Gentiles to himself. That is why that he gave God the glory as the Gentiles believed. Therefore, as you encounter suffering, focus on God’s power to work in your midst.
Also, let your focus on God be your source of motivation for endurance. For Paul did something spectacular in this text. He was beaten, left for dead, and yet returned to the very city in which he had been stoned. What drives a person like that? He must be crazy!
I think he was crazy about showing the world how great his God was (and is). Therefore, he endured the suffering and returned to the source of it because in his focus on God, he was driven by a purpose greater than anything else in life. He was driven by an opportunity to put God on display in his actions. And that is in fact what he was able to do in his sufferings. He “filled up” the afflictions of Christ, presenting them in bodily form (Colossians 1:24) and he even remarked that he bore the scars of Christ (Galatians 6:17). And I believe that he saw such glory and honor in being able to present the sufferings of Christ to people that he found joy in it. But to model that, you must be obsessed and in love with your God.
Therefore, let me encourage you tonight to understand that suffering is a part of the Christian life. We will suffer if we follow Christ. And, if you are suffering for his sake, you can rejoice because as you explain the gospel to men and tell them of Christ suffering that they might know the Father, men will be able to say, “even as you have endured sufferings that I might know?” And hearing those words is what I think is the whole reason that we are able to rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer for his name’s sake.
Therefore, prepare now by striving continually to renew your mind to the greatness, majesty, and power of God; and strive to delight in him to the point that you would find honor in displaying his sufferings to the world.
May we find grace in his sight. Amen.