The Problem of Suffering

Introduction

On June twenty-fourth of this year, two massive earthquakes struck the South American country of Venezuela. These earthquakes were only thirty-nine seconds apart, and they negatively changed thousands of people’s lives forever. More than four thousand people were killed. Nearly seventeen thousand people were injured. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble, and still several thousands of people are missing. This was a horrible, horrible tragedy. It appears that it came without warning. It appears that there were no indicators. In less than one minute, almost out of nowhere, thousands and thousands of people experienced suffering.

But unfortunately, these kinds of cases are nothing new.

Innocent people who are being assaulted and abused. And we hear stories about innocent people being killed by drunk drivers and by innocent and by evil people in drive-by shootings and school shootings and people losing their lives and plane crashes and in explosions and implosions. And we even hear stories today about people being murdered in places like this, places where people have come together to worship. We hear these kinds of stories of suffering every single day all around the world, and then think about our own lives. Think about your life. I mean, in your life, have you ever experienced suffering? Have you ever experienced suffering in your body? Have you ever suffered because of chronic pain? Or because maybe you had to battle with cancer or another serious illness.

Maybe you suffered because you’ve experienced a miscarriage. Or you had to experience bearing a child or spouse or friend or somebody else you loved who died in a very tragic and unexpected way. Maybe living here in Florida, you’ve experienced the loss of things you worked hard for in a hurricane. Or maybe you’ve experienced abuse in your life. Maybe you experienced abuse as a child. Maybe you’ve experienced a loss of a job and you struggle figuring out how you’re going to feed your family. Or you face disappointment, and you’ve been let down by people you had a lot of confidence in, or maybe you have had to watch a faithful Christian, a faithful brother or sister in the church suffer with a terrible disease until they died.

There are all kinds of examples we could give this morning when it comes to this, but the point remains the same. The point is suffering is something that we all have had to experience. Suffering is a universal problem. It is something that I have dealt with, and I’m pretty sure you have dealt with. And the question that a lot of people have so often, even Christians, is the question of why? Why? Why do we live in a world where God allows suffering? This is a question that we find being asked all throughout the Bible. It is asked all throughout the Psalms. It is asked all throughout the book of Job, as Job, if you remember, had to suffer terribly in his life. This is a question that was even asked by the apostles of Jesus Christ.

Do you remember John chapter 9 and John chapter 9 and verse number 2? The Bible tells us about a time when Jesus and his apostles came across a man who was born blind.

And the apostles asked Jesus, what’s up with this? Why is this man suffering? Why was he born in this condition? Is it because of sin? If it’s because of sin, then who’s sin? Is it because of his sins or the sins of his parents? The apostles had some questions about suffering, and I’m pretty sure that there are some folks here who have those same kinds of questions. In this congregation, where there are so many people that I know and love and respect who’ve had to deal with suffering before in their lives, I’m pretty sure that some of those folks have the same question. Why? Why do we have to deal with this? Why do we have to deal with the problem of suffering? If you don’t mind, for a few minutes in this lesson, I want to open up the Bible and tackle this subject.

1. Suffering Has Many Causes

I want to share with you a few things that the Bible has to say to us about the problem of suffering. And the first thing I want to share with you this morning from the Bible is according to the scriptures, suffering has many causes. There are many causes of suffering in this life according to the scriptures. And so get your Bible out, please and go to the book of Proverbs. I want you to go to Proverbs because one of the causes of suffering in this life is actually us.

Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine. Those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red. When it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly, as a lash that bites like a serpent and it stinks like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things, and you’ll be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, and one like one who lies down on the top of a mast. They struck me, but I did not become ill. They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake, I will seek another drink? What’s Solomon talking about in those verses? When in those verses, Solomon is talking about drinking.

He’s talking about the negative consequences that can result from drinking alcohol and losing your ability to be sober minded. He says that when we make the choice to drink alcohol, some bad things can happen to us. And how many people in the world have to learn this the hard way, right?

How many people across the globe find themselves getting sick, becoming addicted, in situations where they’re vomiting all over the place, they’re stumbling around, they’re passing out, and in some cases, they’re waking up the next morning next to a complete stranger, not able to remember how they met that person or even what they did with them the night before. All because of drinking. Sometimes people suffer because they make the choice to mess around with alcohol, and then other people sometimes suffer because they foolishly choose to ignore the speed limit and they drive too fast and they get into a car accident. Or maybe because they choose to be sexually promiscuous and they contract a disease, or maybe because they choose not to be careful with their words and they damage their relationships, they hurt people, or maybe because they choose not to control their tempers and they pull out a weapon and take somebody’s life.

Sometimes we suffer in this world because of ourselves, because of our own foolish and sinful choices, but other times maybe we suffer in this life. People suffer in this life not because of their sinful choices, but because of the sinful choices of others.

When you go back to Luke chapter 13 and look at the first two verses of that chapter, there the Bible tells us about some people who come to Jesus and they report to him about how Pontius Pilate, that’s the same Pontius Pilate, that Jesus will stand before not long before he’s crucified. Some people come to Jesus and tell them about how Pontius Pilate had murdered some people.

Well, according to verse number two, Jesus says that it wasn’t because they were worse sinners than other people, instead, it was because of the wicked actions of one man. It was because of Pilate. Those people suffered because of the evil actions of Pilate. And the same thing is also true in the case of a child born to David in Bathsheba. We just spent the last three days having a wonderful vacation Bible school. Where we stated about David. And if you remember, in 2 Samuel chapter 12, we learn about an occasion when David’s child with Bathsheba died as a punishment for David’s sins of adultery and murder. That child suffered because of the sinful choices of his father. And then what about the persecution of Christians that we can read about in the book of Acts?

What about the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7? And the scattering of the Jerusalem church in Acts chapter 8, and the death of the Apostle James and Acts chapter 12, and all the persecution and beatings and imprisonments that the Apostle Paul faced as he preached the gospel all throughout the world in all those cases. God’s people suffer because of the sinful choices of other people.

You see, brothers and sisters, unfortunately, much of the suffering that people experience in this life is the result of free will.

It is the result of free moral agency. It is the result of us not being created as puppets, but instead we’re created with the ability to choose. God made us with the ability to make choices. He made us with the ability to make decisions. He made us with the capacity to decide for ourselves what we’re going to do and where we’re going to go and how we’re going to conduct ourselves while we live on this planet. This is a big part of being made in the image of God. This is the main reason why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the garden of Eden. The reason why God put that tree in the garden was so Adam and Eve can exercise their ability to choose.

God made us to choose. And some may wonder well, why did God make us like that? Well, why did God set things up in that way? Why did He make us with the capacity to make evil and wicked decisions? Well, that’s a good question. In fact, I believe that’s a great question, and the Bible gives us some answers to that question. We find an answer to that question in Joshua. Our key verse that has to do with our theme this year.

After the people of Israel finally conquered the land of Canaan, and they began to divide up that land. Joshua had this to say to the people, he says, but if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you you will serve. Whether the gods which your fathers served, which are beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods or the Amorites, whose land you’re living, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You put that with what Jesus says in John 14 and verse 15. And Jesus says very plainly, if you love me, you will do something. You will keep my commandments, you will do the things I tell you to do. Now you put that with what Jesus also says in Matthew 26, or Matthew 22, I’m sorry.

Look at Matthew 22. Matthew 22, look at verse 36. Matthew 22 and in verse 36. Here in Matthew 22 and verse 36, a teacher, a lawyer comes to Jesus with the question. And the question is, what is the great commandment? What’s the great commandment of the law? And in verse 37, Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it.

What do we see when we put all these verses together? Well, we see that the reason why God didn’t make us program robots, the reason why he didn’t make us puppets or hardwired machines that just simply carry out commandments, is because he wants us to love him and love, brothers and sisters, requires choice. It requires making a decision. You see, we cannot decide, if we cannot decide to love somebody, if love is hardwired and forced upon us, then is that even love? Is that real love? Is that genuine love? Of course not. Of course not. You see, just like we want our spouse to choose to love us if we’re married. And just like we want our kids to choose to love us if we’re parents.

And just like you want your grandkids to choose to love you if you are a grandparent, God desires that we choose to love him. He desires that we choose to love him with all our heart and our soul and our mind. And unfortunately, many people don’t choose to do that. Unfortunately, many people don’t choose to love God. They don’t choose to obey God. They don’t choose to love their neighbor as themselves. Instead, what a lot of people do is they choose to hate.

Suffering sometimes happens because of our sinful choices and because of the sinful choices of others. And then sometimes, according to the Bible, people suffer as a punishment for sin. As a punishment for sin. And we see that going back to the life of David, right? Going back to the case of David and 2 Samuel 12. Remember God took the life of that child that was born to him in Beathsheba because he was punishing him for his sins. And in the cases of the northern and southern tribes of Israel, God allowed both of those kingdoms, both of those groups of people to be taken into captivity for a period of time as a punishment for their sins. And in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5.

And in the case of Achan in Joshua chapter 7, and in the case of Korah and the rebels in Numbers chapter 16, all of those people received swift judgment from God as a punishment for their sins. The Bible specifically says that those people suffered. Because God was punishing them for their sins, but not only are sometimes people punished by God for their sins, sometimes people also suffer because of the devil. Because of Satan or the evil one.

And then remember what Paul said about his thorn in the flesh? Remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7, Paul says he had a thorn in the flesh, and he calls it a messenger of Satan. He blamed the devil for it. When’s the last time you heard anybody do that? When’s the last time in our culture and society you heard anybody blame the devil for anything? People always want to blame God. What about blaming the real enemy? The devil was the source of these sufferings. And then let me just add that sometimes people suffer as just part of the natural experiences of life. I mean, since we live in an imperfect world, right? Since we’re clearly not in heaven yet, where there’s no tears and no sorrow and no pain.

Well, you know what that means? That means we’re going to experience suffering. That means we’re going to experience problems as we live in a world that’s been contaminated by sin. This means that people living in Venezuela, because of where they’re located on this planet, they’re going to face the possibility of earthquakes. That’s always going to be there. And we live in Florida. And living in Florida is beautiful and it’s wonderful, but it also means that we’re always going to have to deal with hurricanes. And if you drive a car, well, it’ll get you where you need to go, but it’s always going to be that possibility that you would get into an accident and die. And if you ride in an airplane, while it gets you somewhere fast, quick, and in a hurry, there’s always a possibility you could die in a plane crash.

And since we have imperfect bodies, that means we can get sick. We can find ourselves having aches and pains in our joints and our muscles. We can find ourselves having to battle diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis and heart disease. We can find ourselves having to suffer as a result of aging. And the Bible talks about that in Ecclesiastes 12, does it not? Remember at the beginning of Ecclesiastes 12. Solomon urges young people to take advantage of their youth. He urges young people to serve God right now with every fiber of their being, because days are going to come in the future when things are not going to be so pleasant in your body. He says your eyesight and your hearing is not going to be as good one day.

2. Suffering Can Bring About Some Good

He says you’re going to tremble and you’re going to become easily, more easily nervous and afraid. He says, your teeth are going to fall out, and you won’t be as strong physically as you once were. That’s called life. Solomon gives us a reality check. The Bible says there are many causes of this. There are many causes of suffering in this life. And we can’t always understand them. But one thing we do need to know is even though there are many causes of suffering, suffering can actually bring about some good. It can accomplish some good in our lives for the glory of God. And the Bible talks about this. Go in your Bible to James. Look at James chapter 1. In James chapter 1, look at verse number 2.

In James chapter 1 and in verse number 2. James here is writing to Christians who are being persecuted in the first century. And he says in James 1 and verse 2, consider it all joy. Listen to this. Joy, my brethren. When you what? When you encounter various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and that endurance have its perfect result so that you may be that you may be perfect. The idea perfect there means spiritually mature, a level of full spiritual maturity and complete lacking in nothing. Now you put that with what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, please. Because in 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter is also writing to Christians who were suffering. They were being persecuted in the first century.

And he says in 1 Peter 1 and verse 6, in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you’ve been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith be more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you see what James and Peter is telling us there? Notice how the Bible says that while sufferings in this life can be painful, while they can hurt, while they can torment us, while they can cause us to have a lot of emotional distress, and we want God to get them out of our lives immediately, they can also bring about some good.

Trials can remove from our lives the things that God wants removed. Trials can make us better in the service of God and reveal if we are real, genuine, and authentic in our faith. That’s what those verses say. And you know, sometimes we need that, don’t we? Sometimes we need that because it’s easy to serve God when life’s going okay for us. It’s easy to serve God when life is going exactly the way we want it to go. Our jobs are going great. Everybody likes us. Our relationships are solid, our relationships are healthy, we’re healthy, our family is healthy. We’re surrounded by a bunch of people today who love God and serve God and want to worship God. It’s easy to serve God when life’s going like that.

It’s easy to serve God on a Sunday when you gather with a bunch of other Christians, but what about when things in life aren’t going the way we desire? What about when life gets miserable and uncomfortable and chaotic? What about when we hear bad news from the doctor? Or if we lose our job, or if our body’s in pain every single day, or one, one of our children dies. What do we do then? How do we respond to that? Do we quit on the Lord? Do we throw in the spiritual towel or do we pray more and read the Bible more and trust more and become more dependent on God? Let me show you what Paul did. Go on your Bible, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Because in 2 Corinthians, the 12th chapter, Paul says this about some suffering he had in his life.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7. Paul says, Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. For this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I’ll rather boast about my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I’m well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Notice I hear Paul talks about this thorn in the flesh.

We don’t have a clue what that was. But whatever it was, it was bringing him pain. It was making his life miserable. It was a great source of suffering. In fact, he says he prayed to God three times. He begged God through prayer to remove it, and God said no. God said no to a prayer request from the apostle Paul. God says he was not going to remove that thorn. Instead, he was going to let it stay right where it was because it had a purpose. It had a good purpose. Through it, God was going to work in Paul’s life. He was keeping him humble. He was keeping him more dependent upon him. He was helping him avoid developing a spirit of pride.

Through this thorn, God was refining him. He was making him better. He was making him more like Jesus, making them stronger in his faith. That’s what sufferings can actually do for us by the glory of God. In fact, look at chapter one of this letter, please. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Because in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3, Paul talks about suffering again. Listen to what he says.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so for this purpose that we’ll be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. Do you see what Paul is saying there? Notice how, in addition to helping us develop perseverance and to test our faith and refine our faith, Paul says sufferings can also equip us.

How often do you think about how in that moment God could be equipping you to help somebody you love? He could be equipping you to be able to relate to somebody and comfort somebody who is battling cancer, or who also lost a child, or suffered a miscarriage, or had to bury a spouse, or is shedd tears over a prodigal son or daughter. God could be equipping us. While going through suffering can hurt, bring pain, beat us down. They can also be tools to equip us in a very special way.

3. Repent or You Will Likewise Perish

That’s what the Bible says. In fact, that brings us to the last thing I want to say about suffering this morning. And it’s found back in Luke 13. I want to end where we started. Go back to Luke 13 one more time, please. And you’ve listened so well. In Luke chapter 13, and those first five verses, Jesus talks about some people who suffered, right? He talks about some Galileans who had been murdered by Pilate and had their blood mixed with sacrifices. And he also talks about 18 people who had a tower fall on them. I mean, both of these groups of people suffered terribly, but I want you to notice what Jesus does when describing both of those cases. Verse number three. And in verse number five of that chapter, after telling his audiences about these tragic cases of suffering, he then tells them to repent.

He tells them to repent or you will likewise perish. Why in the world Jesus talk about repentance there? What is that all about? Why does he mention repentance when talking about suffering? Well, I submit to you that the reason why Jesus talks about repentance in that text is because he wanted these people to understand, and he also wants us to understand that all tragedies and cases of suffering happen in this life, and they’re very serious. They’re not more serious than sin. They’re not more serious than dying in our sins. And experiencing the spiritual consequence of sin, according to Jesus, dying in our sins is far more serious than experiencing any kind of suffering in this life, which means that if we’re currently living in sin, if we’re currently harboring sin, if we’re currently involved in some secret sin, instead of spending all of our time wondering why did God let this happen?

And why did God let that happen? What we need to do is repent. We need to turn away from our sins. We need to wake up and understand that sudden death cannot only happen to people in Venezuela who died in those earthquakes. And they not only can happen to people who die in plane crashes and school shootings and terrorist attacks and car accidents, but sudden death can also happen to us. It can happen to me and it can happen to you. It can happen to any single one of us because life is fragile. Because death is often unpredictable, because suffering that results in death can happen to any one of us at any time in this sinful and fallen world. You see, according to Jesus, we can’t always control when and how and why we suffer in this life.

But you know we can control? We can control our spiritual path. We can control whether or not we repent of our sins. We can make sure that we avoid having to suffer in the next life. In fact, that’s exactly why Jesus came into this world to suffer. The reason why Jesus was willing to experience suffering and death on the cross was so we can be saved from having to suffer in the next life. You know, so often people wish that God would eliminate all kinds of suffering. So often Christians wish that God would do that, but I want to suggest that if God did that, if he eliminated all kinds of suffering, then we would have no path to receive forgiveness of sins because Jesus would not have suffered.

Conclusion

Because Jesus was willing to suffer on the cross through Jesus’ suffering. We can all experience forgiveness and go to heaven. And maybe there’s someone here this morning who needs to come to Jesus. Maybe there’s someone here this morning who needs to come to Jesus for the very first time. You need to obey the gospel. Believe in Him. Repent of your sins. Confess Him as Lord, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, or maybe you’ve done those things in the past, but you’re not living right and you want to repent and you want us to pray with you. If there’s someone here this morning who is living in sin and you want to avoid suffering when you exit out of this life, we want to help you with that and we will.

Come to the front. Let’s stand. Let’s sing together.