Broken Alabaster Boxes — E.A. Johnston

I was sitting with Adrian Rogers in his study one day and I asked him, I said, Dr. Rogers, when was the turning point in your life where you feel God really put his hand on you and your ministry? He looked at me very seriously and said, I believe it was when Joyce and I lost our baby boy, when he died.

Christlike Usefulness Through Suffering

I had to sit there in silence and chew on that for a while, because his remarks shook me. And there is a verse of scripture which gnaws at me, even to read it is hard, for it cuts like a knife. The verse is found in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind. You see, there is a golden key in that verse that unlocks the secret to usefulness in the Christian life. And that golden key is found in the word suffered.

For to be useful for Christ means great suffering. I recall Leonard Ravenhill remarking, when we get to the judgment seat, Jesus won't be looking for medals on us, but scars. I wholeheartedly agree. The saints whom God uses are the ones with scars.

Trials have cut them. Tribulations have lashed them. Crisis after crisis has weighted them down with unbearable burdens, all for the fellowship of his sufferance. A saint with scars is a mature saint and one who understands the ways of God in dealing with men.

Do you want to go deeper with God? Then be prepared to suffer. You'll get your scars for sure. If you study Christian history as I have, you will soon learn that the men and women whom God has used were often the greatest sufferers.

The pruning knife, the refiner's fire, and the powder's wheel are his tools, which he uses to strip, purge, reduce, and mold us into the image most Christlike, this side of glory. Study the life of George Whitefield and see how that dear man suffered for God and how greatly God used him.

Look at David Brainerd and peer into his short life and witness the loneliness and suffering he encountered for God. Is his diary still being read by thousands? If you find someone who has the smile of heaven upon their life and ministry, if you dig deep enough, you will find suffering.

Paul's Sufferings as a Pattern for Ministry

God spoke to Ananias about Saul of Tarsus. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Would you like to see Paul's laundry list of suffering for Christ? Listen. In labors, more abundant.

In stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In deaths, oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.

A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings, oft. In perils of water. In perils of robbers. In perils by my own countrymen. In perils by the heathen. In perils in the city. In perils in the wilderness.

In perils in the sea. In perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness. In watchings, oft. In hunger and thirst. In castings, oft. In cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

You see, friends, a life of usefulness for Christ will be a life of suffering for Christ. Do you desire usefulness? Then be prepared to suffer. Usefulness arises from the furnace of affliction. One great example of this is found in the life of Charles Spurgeon.

I have a photo of Spurgeon where the great British preacher is sitting at his desk with a quill pen in one hand and the other resting beneath his bearded chin. Spurgeon's eyes are framed by deep circles of wear and fatigue.

The dark circles beneath his eyes are so prominent in this photograph that they look as though they were made by a black magic marker. Spurgeon's face reveals a great atlas-like weight upon him. Weariness and burden is written all over his tired face.

He sits there regally like a tragic king whose kingdom is heavy upon his shoulders. He is marred by life and Christian service. His painfully sad eyes betray a deep manic depression. He sits there absorbed in his work yet detached.

Perhaps his mind is off in a more pleasant locale like Menton, France, his beloved winter retreat. He sits there as an object of pity. Yet how can this be? He's the great Spurgeon! But he looks like a worn-out old man yet he's just 56.

He carries the weight of the metropolitan tabernacle, the pastor's college, his orphanage, and his theological battles with his peers. The burden and care of the ministry mark his once cheery countenance.

The Suffering and Reproach of Christ

He is not the jovial Spurgeon here but one who is acquainted with grief. Yet Spurgeon's face reveals another visage staring out from behind the human form, the face of Christ, peers out beautifully behind Spurgeon's sagging face.

The man of sorrows is there with him, comforting him, encouraging him on in the work of the kingdom. For to be Christlike is not to receive awards or accolades or applause. Rather, it is to be deeply familiar with the great suffering.

To be Christlike is to know what it means to be misunderstood, an object of ridicule, and a target for enemies. To be like Christ is to experientially know reproach, rejection, and even abandonment of close friends.

Our Lord Jesus hung publicly in naked humility on a bloody tree. He was ridiculed, scorned, spat upon, rejected by his own people, and nailed to an ignoble cross like a common criminal. He bore reproach.

The great weight upon Christ on the cross would have been too unbearable for us, for he bore the sins of the world, and he suffered the turned face of the Father, who cannot look upon sin. The photo of Spurgeon reveals just how Christlike he really was.

So when the Apostle Peter writes, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, that is a varying cutting verse of Scripture, because it cuts to the heart of true Christianity.

How bad do we want to suffer for him? Sadly, we shrink from it. We back away from the pruning knife. Who wants pain? But to those who submit to suffering for him will reap benefits unheard of in this life and in eternity.

Our life of suffering brings glory to the Father. I remember Stephen Offord saying a pastor wanted him to go with him to hear a young preacher who was beginning to make some noise. They went to hear this young man, and on their return trip, the pastor asked Dr. Offord what he thought of the young preacher.

Stephen Offord replied, He shows great promise, but he hasn't suffered enough yet. There's a lot of truth in that remark. I like the story in the Gospel of Mark where Mary comes to anoint Jesus with the costly ointment.

Mary’s Broken Alabaster Box

Can't you just picture her as she walks down the street in her familiar neighborhood of Bethany? She turns a corner on her way to the house of Simon the leper. She is carrying something precious as she walks.

In her hands is that costly box of ointment. The Bible tells us the contents of that box in Mark 14, 3. Spikenard, very precious. She enters the house with that precious ointment and walks over to Jesus while he is reclined and at his meal.

Slowly, she approaches him and then she takes that alabaster box and the text says she broke the box. In other words, she smashed it so that the contents would pour out upon the master's head. Jesus commends her for her actions by saying to his murmuring disciples, let her alone.

Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good, but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for memorial of her. Notice Jesus says she hath done what she could and that's all he asks of us as his followers.

We are to do for him what we can with our lives right now while we are alive and have the time and health to do it. We are told to walk in the light while we have light. We must be searching for opportunities to pour ourselves out for him and his use.

You see friends, God's eyes are continually searching the earth for those rare individuals of whom the world was not worthy. Men like Moses and John the Baptist, Luther and Calvin, Whitfield and Wesley, Finney and Moody.

Men who live in a different atmosphere than other mortals. Men who have annihilated self with the cross and whose lives are broken alabaster boxes from which fragrances arise to the heavens from the broken pieces of selflessness, self-sacrifice and self-crucifixion.

God is always on the lookout for such men. I once heard Alan Redpath say when God wants to do the impossible, he takes an impossible man and smashes him. Well, I was an impossible man and God sure has smashed me.

He's pruned me and stripped me and smashed me and he almost had to kill me. I was such a stubborn, self-reliant, rebellious man. But in his mercy he smashed me so he could use me. How about you? Yes, it is a painful experience to be placed into his refiner's fire.

God’s Presence in the Refining Fire

The heat gets pretty intense at times, at times almost unbearable. But remember this, as the great silversmith holds the silver in the flames to purge out the dross and impurities, he never once takes his eyes off the silver.

No matter how deep your trial, friend, God is there with you in it. His eyes are upon you, working to will and do in you to make you more like his son Jesus. The book of Hebrews has the following solemn passage in chapter 5, verses 7 through 8.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

That verse has teeth, by the things which he suffered. There is that word again, suffered. He was a suffering savior, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Should we shrink from that? If we are privileged to suffer for him, what joy that should bring us.

Is that not what the apostles did in the book of Acts when they were arrested for their witness of Christ? Acts chapter 5, verses 40 through 41 tell us,. And to him they agreed. And when they called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. When persecution comes to the church in the West, we too will have the privilege to suffer shame for his name.

Fellowship in Christ’s Sufferings

Listen to the following story about Helen Roseveare, the greatly used missionary. Helen Roseveare had been a Christian for only a short time when she was privileged to sit under the ministry of Dr. Graham Scroggie, the great Scottish Bible teacher.

He wrote in her Bible the verse Philippians 3 .10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferance being made conformable unto his death. As he finished writing out the verse in the flyleaf of her Bible, he looked at her and replied, that I may know him.

You have come there, and I pray that you will go on to know the power of his resurrection. He paused and then, looking her straight in the face, he added, and one day you may be privileged to know something of the fellowship of his sufferance.

Well, that statement proved prophetic for 20 years later. Dr. Roseveare was the first white woman to be captured during the rebellion of 1964 in the Congo in Africa. She was beaten with a rubber hose and cruelly kicked, losing some of her teeth.

Alone, she was at the mercy of her cruel attackers. She cried out to God that she could bear no more when suddenly she was reminded that 20 years previous she had told God that she would accept the privilege of fellowship with his suffering.

Her fears were stilled, and she knew God was there taking her suffering with her. I repeat that to be greatly used of God, we must be prepared to suffer greatly for him. He suffered for us. We should be willing to suffer for him.

Christ’s Substitutionary Suffering

Does not the book of Isaiah speak of what he has done for us? Listen, as many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. He is despised and rejected of men.

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare to his generation?

For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. Christ suffered for us, so the purpose of God could be accomplished. In 2 Corinthians 5 .19, we see how God was working through the suffering and death of his beloved son.

Listen, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. You see, friends, when God allows us to go through a trial or a storm, he has a larger purpose in view. He often brings us to places of brokenness where we become like the broken alabaster box for to be a broken alabaster box means to have a fragrant life, pleasing to the Lord.

Suffering and a Deeper Prayer Life

We become better prayer warriors through trials for a prayer life that grips the attention of the heavenly throne room is not built beneath calm, sunny skies, but shaped during dark, sorrow-filled nights.

A serious prayer life is hammered out on the anvil of pain and anguish desperation and despair when hope hangs on a tattered thread and all human resources are gone. There and only there does the answer to the request come.

Here is where the vital prayer life commences, which gains the cupped ear of the Almighty as he leans over to listen more intently to the pathetic sobs and anguished heart cries, which in desperation reach out for his robe of righteousness to grab hold and not let go till the answer is attained.

For to become a person of prayer is to be a shrill, holy note which continually rings the ears of angels and rattles the gates of glory. Listen, friends, a true prayer life is not born out of comforts and prosperity, but through trials and adversity.

In your leanness, you will learn to lean upon him. Through your rolling on stormy seas, you will learn how to effectively storm heaven's portals for deliverance. When friends fail, disappoint, and desert you, you will seek and find favor with your faithful friend.

God’s Purpose in Trials

The great British poet William Copper wrote in one of his hymns, God moves in a mysterious way. His glorious wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the raging storm. You fearful saints, fresh courage take.

The threatening clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break and countless blessings on your head. Is that not true for the Christian? God's vantage point is higher than ours. He can see the outcome of his plans to bless us.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Whatever place of suffering God places us in, we can be assured that Romans 8, 28 is being accomplished.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to his purpose. For to be broken alabaster boxes means that we are in his hands. And whatever we go through in regard to suffering for him means that it will pour out a blessing to the Father.

For God will receive glory through it. Do you believe that? I sure do. Let me close with a poem that's been a means of comfort to me during difficult times. The author of the poem is unknown. The poem is entitled, The God of Comfort.

Listen, dear ones, to the following words. I have been through the valley of weeping, the valley of sorrow and pain, but the God of all comfort was with me at hand to uphold and sustain. As the earth needs the clouds and the sunshine, our souls need both sorrow and joy.

So he places us oft in the furnace, the dross from the gold to destroy. When he leads through some dark valley of trouble, his omnipotent hand we can trace. For the trials and sorrows he sends us are part of his lessons of grace.

Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning, forgetting the husband man knows that the deeper the cutting and paring, the richer the cluster that grows. While he knows that affliction is needed, he has a wise purpose in view.

And in the dark valley he whispers, Hereafter thou shalt know what I do. As we travel through life's shadowed valley, fresh springs of his love ever rise. And we learn that our sorrow and losses are blessings just sent in disguise.

So we'll follow wherever he leads us. Let the path be dreary or bright. For we've proved that our God can give comfort. Our God can give songs in the night. Amen. Dear friends, may the God of all comfort be with you in your trial.

The Promise of Restoration After Suffering

May he pour out his grace upon you and may you keep looking at him because Jesus will never ever take his eyes off of you. And remember the words found in 1 Peter 5, verse 10. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make ye perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.

To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Did you get that? After you have suffered a while. It doesn't say if you suffer, but after you suffer. Suffering and following Christ go hand in hand.

But the wonderful promise from this verse is that we can be assured that after we suffer, he will make us perfect through that suffering, making us more Christ-like than ever before. He will establish, strengthen, settle us.

There's encouragement here. So as we go forth to live each day as a blood-bought, born-again follower of Christ Jesus, let us be willing to be a broken alabaster box for him. For God will accept the fragrance of our brokenness and suffering to bring glory to him.