A Great Conflict of Suffering – Hebrews 10:32-34

Kootenai Church

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Hebrews chapter 10, and be prepared to begin looking at verse 32, and the last

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Lord's blessing on our study here before we begin. Our Father, it is always with great expectation that we can come to your word, knowing that you reveal yourself in the pages of scripture and you speak to us, your people, in the pages of scripture.

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And when we rightly understand the meaning of the text, then we are hearing your voice there in what you have recorded for our benefit.

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And we pray that that would be the case here today, that you would grant to us illumination and shed your light upon our hearts, upon our minds, upon our souls, that we may see ourselves as you see us, that we may see

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Christ as he is in truth, and that we may apprehend him, and that you would fill our hearts with joy and with love and affection for him for what he has done for us.

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We pray that in all that is said here and in our study together, that you would be glorified and honored as you help us to understand this passage.

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We pray this in Christ's name. Well, I'm very grateful today for preaching for me in my place last

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Sunday, because that allowed me to spend time at the church camp out, which is always a joy to be there with my family and not have to worry about preparing a sermon.

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But today we are back in the book of Hebrews, beginning looking at verse 32. We're talking about sufferings and trials and affliction and reproaches.

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And if anything I say sounds familiar this morning, it's because Dave always likes to piggyback on what I'm preaching and try and take whatever subject

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I happen to be dealing with and shoehorn it into 1 Peter. And actually, as in the providence of God would have it, these closing chapters of Hebrews happen to parallel very well the entire book of 1

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Peter, because the book of 1 Peter is about how we as Christians handle suffering and persecution, affliction when we suffer for righteousness.

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How should we approach that? How should we view that? What are the opportunities that we should take in the midst of that? The book of Hebrews, these closing chapters are one long exhortation to enduring in the midst of suffering and persecution and trials and afflictions.

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So the subject matter that we're each dealing with happens to be very similar. And consequently, you are going to hear me quote quite a bit from 1

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Peter. Not from Dave's sermon, but from 1 Peter this morning. And probably a lot more of that in the weeks ahead, as I just remind you of what it is that God says concerning our responsibility in the midst of persecution and suffering.

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I know that persecution and suffering is not really a chipper, upbeat message, but it's a lot better than it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God, talking about judgment for weeks on end. And we're done with that. You have endured through all of that. And now we're at something of a little bit more of a positive subject.

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Even though we're talking about afflictions and trials and tribulations and persecution, the way that the author handles this by reminding us of how we should handle that and the encouragement that he gives is actually intended to encourage us, to put courage into us and strengthen us for the trials ahead.

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And that I think is one of the positive aspects of how the author here handles this subject matter. So the author is confident of the salvation of most of his readers, which is why after the stern warning passage in verses 26 through 31, in continuing in the warning passage actually, but after those stern warning there, he encourages his readers by really saying that he is confident of their salvation because in the midst of persecution and affliction and suffering, his readers had actually participated in the suffering of others and had endured this.

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And so we saw last week that he begins verse 32 by reminding his readers, by telling his readers to remember the former days when after being enlightened, they endured a great conflict of sufferings.

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And we just focused on that encouragement to remember and what that meant a couple weeks ago.

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I said last week, but it was actually a couple weeks ago. See, that's how fast I forgot Dave's sermon. That was not intended to sound like that actually, but there's no recovering from that.

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No, that's it. So after, he encourages his readers to remember their former afflictions and to remember their sufferings.

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Why? Not for the purpose of bemoaning how horrible their life is or for having a poor me attitude or trying to get somebody's sympathy or to try and constantly play the victim and bask in their victimology.

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The purpose of remembering all the sufferings was so that they could recall the grace of God in the midst of all of those sufferings and thus be encouraged for whatever lie ahead.

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If they could look back and see the faithfulness of God in all that they had endured, then they could certainly at that moment look forward to whatever might be coming down the pike and say, if God has been faithful here, he will be faithful there.

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And if God strengthened me to endure this, he can strengthen me to endure whatever is to come. And it's that from which we gain our encouragement.

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It's that from which we gain some of our strength. He is reminding them that short -term enthusiasm withers under the heat of hostility for the faith.

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Long -term endurance is the mark of genuine faith. It is easy to be enthusiastic in the short -term about a confession of faith or a conversion or an experience that you had, a religious experience, but that is not the test of genuine saving faith.

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The test of genuine saving faith is the long -term endurance. Enthusiasm in the short -term is easy.

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Enthusiastic fakes are a dime a dozen, but enduring faithfulness is a rare gem.

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And it is the enduring faithfulness which is the mark of true salvation. So after encouraging them to reflect upon the sufferings that they had endured, the author now describes the afflictions and their participation in them and picking up now in verse 32.

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Let's just read verses 32 through 34. And we're not gonna get to all of this, but we're gonna get to some of it.

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But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

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Now, just a word of encouragement to those of you who may be a bit squeamish. Whenever a preacher has the opportunity to speak on the subjects of persecution and suffering and trials and tribulations that Christians have endured over the years, it is always tempting for the preacher to rely heavily upon the accounts of those who have suffered persecution.

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And to get up and to read whatever the last newsletter was from the voice of the martyrs, or to read as it were

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Fox's book of martyrs and tell you about all the horrible things that have been suffered. And that makes for a rhetorical flourish.

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It makes for an emotional appeal. It really does strike us in the feels and brings a tear to our eye.

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I want to encourage you, if you are squeamish in any way, that is not how I'm gonna be handling the subject of persecution and trials.

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If that is something that you enjoy reading and hearing about those things, then feel free to go home and read

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Fox's book of martyrs and enjoy yourself. Enjoy it, you do you, but I'm not going to stand up here and read all of those accounts.

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Because you'll notice that the author does not get into all the gory details. We don't need to know the gory details of suffering and persecution or to be reminded of how horrible it can be in order for us to intellectually appraise what our response should be to it and for us to deal with it in a

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Christian way. So I'm not gonna get up here and pour out gory details. So if you've been wondering, at what point do

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I get up and walk out or at what point do I plug my ears, then probably many of you here are like that. Just calm down, just take a deep breath, relax.

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We're not gonna get into any of those gory details. Because I don't think we need to. In fact, I think that the way that the author handles the subject here, by just dealing with persecution and sufferings in terms of their various categories and things that Christians are likely to suffer,

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I think that that is instructive as to how we should handle the same subject when we talk about it and teach on it.

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Now, before we dive into the passage, I want you to notice the structure of the passage and how all of these statements of affliction and suffering are connected in verses 32 through 34.

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You'll notice first that he says, you endured, this is at the end of verse 32, you endured a great conflict of sufferings.

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That's just a general statement that describes the greatness of their suffering, the kinds of suffering.

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It is the most generic and general and broadest way of speaking of sufferings that the author could have used.

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Then you'll notice in the next verse, verse 33, that he talks about two kinds of suffering. Partly, he says, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

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There are two kinds of sufferings that he mentions. He says, on the one hand, or partly, you were made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and on the other hand, partly also, you became sharers with those who were so treated.

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Those are two different kinds of suffering. One is a personal suffering. They had been made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations.

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That was personally what they had endured. The second kind is a participatory suffering.

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I should always practice that before I get up here. It's a participatory suffering where they had participated or shared in the suffering of other people.

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They had joined in with those who were so treated. So those who had not endured the public spectacle, the trials and tribulations, they were able to join in the suffering of others who did endure those things.

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They participated in their suffering, as it were, even though they might not have personally been enduring any of that. So two different kinds of suffering there.

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Then you'll notice that the author gives an illustration of both of those kinds of suffering, a specific illustration of it in verse 34.

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For you showed sympathy to the prisoners. That is the participatory suffering. They had participated in the suffering of those who were in prison by showing sympathy to them, by probably providing for them, by doing something to reach out to them and comfort them in that affliction.

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They had participated in the suffering of others. And then the second example is they had accepted joyfully the seizure of their property.

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That was their personal suffering. So a very general statement of suffering. And then he says there's personal suffering and participatory suffering.

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Here's an example of participatory suffering. You shared with those who were so treated. And here's an example of your own personal suffering. They had accepted joyfully the seizure of their property.

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So that is kind of the outline of the passage. And now, and they had, by the way, endured all of that. And it was an evidence that they had for themselves a better possession, that they were genuinely saved, that they had genuinely converted, that they were not apostates.

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They were not of those who shrink away to destruction, verse 39, but they were those who had faith to the salvation and the preserving of the soul.

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Now, let's look at the description of their afflictions. And as I've already noted, I think the key to understanding the passage, or at least their attitude toward it, and the reason what they were to remember was they had endured.

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That is what he is calling them to remember. Not the pain of the affliction, not the difficulty itself, but the fact that they had endured this.

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They were to remember or recall to their mind that they had already gone through a number of afflictions, being made a public spectacle, reproaches and tribulations, sharing with those who were so treated.

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They had their property seized. They had endured all of these things. That's what they were to remember. The word translated endured is the

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Greek word, hupomeno, hupo meaning under, and meno meaning to abide or to remain or to stay.

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So that word endured literally has the idea of staying under or abiding or remaining under.

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And it doesn't just mean that they were there and that they gritted their teeth, but rather that they bared up under the weight of the affliction that they were enduring.

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There is a weight that is to be borne. There is a cost that is to be paid. There is a difficulty to be faced, and they had stayed under it.

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They had hupomeno, remained underneath of that affliction and suffering, and they had endured it all the way from the beginning of it all the way to the end of it until the weight of that affliction was lifted from them.

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But at no point did they skirt out of it. Instead, they endured it by remaining under the affliction. And just the word endured conjures up to your mind something that is either uncomfortable or even at the worst, painful, does it not?

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The very word endured has with it the idea of something that is very difficult to endure.

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After all, you don't endure eating a steak, do you? I don't endure eating steak.

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I might endure being burned at the steak, but I don't endure eating steak. I don't endure spending time with my wife.

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I enjoy spending time with my wife. There's no burden that is to be borne in the things that we enjoy. But he chooses the word endure.

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He uses a word that means to remain under, to remain steadfast under, and to bear up, to carry that burden of the suffering and afflictions.

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That indicates to us that what they were enduring, and you can tell from the words that are used, reproaches and tribulations and prison and having your property seized, that these were not things that were pleasant.

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You can see that the difficulties that they faced were those difficulties that needed to be borne up under. They remained under them and carried the weight of it.

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Without looking for a way out, that is the idea. They had endured it. Tells you that what they were going through and what they faced was not pleasant.

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Now you may be thinking to yourself, but Jim, it says that they joyfully accepted the seizure of their property. That sounds like eating a steak, doesn't it?

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That sounds like how somebody might respond if they were eating a steak, doing it joyfully. They were enduring this, and they accepted joyfully the seizure of their property.

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Do you have to endure things that you enjoy? No, you don't. Was it the seizure of their property that brought them joy?

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What was it that brought them joy? That they knew for themselves that they had a better possession and a lasting one.

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That was the cause of their joy. It wasn't the pain that they suffered that brought them joy. It was the fact that in the midst of suffering the pain, they knew that they had a better and a lasting possession.

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So it is not the seizure of their property that brought them joy. They were joyful not because their property was being seized, but because they knew that they had property that could not be seized.

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They looked beyond the seizure of their property in the immediate and said to themselves, we have things that nobody can take away from us.

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We have an inheritance, we have a kingdom, we have an eternal possession, we have glory and grace and a future that nobody can rob from us.

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And even if they take everything here and our lives, they cannot take from us that lasting and better possession.

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That brought them joy. They didn't stand around and say, oh, goody, our stuff is being taken again. That was not it.

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They endured that, but they did so with joy in their hearts because they knew they had things that could not be taken from them.

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They were looking forward, as it were, and seeing something that was yet unseen, an eternal possession that they had.

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They saw it, they almost, you could say, that they had the assurance of what they hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

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Wouldn't you say that? That sounds like the definition of faith, doesn't it? In Hebrews 11, because that's exactly what it is.

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By faith, they looked forward and said, we have things that cannot be taken from us. And therefore, take what can be taken from us.

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And we will be joyful that we have things that you cannot take from us. They endured that.

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It is interesting to notice how Scripture uses the word endure. It is sometimes translated endure, as it is here, it's also translated as persevering or perseveres.

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A couple times it is translated as patiently enduring, because it has the idea, not just of remaining under something and staying under something, but to do so with patience.

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It is an enduring that looks forward to the future, but is willing to wait for either the lift of the, the difficulty of the suffering to be lifted, or it is willing to wait until the end when there is no more suffering, for one reason or another.

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James 1 .12 translates the same word as persevere. Listen to this, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial.

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Now, as I read these Scriptures to you, I want you to hear how the ideas of tribulation and trial and affliction are coupled with this idea of persevering, and perseverance and enduring.

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James 1 .12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the

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Lord has promised to those who love him. Notice how James, in that passage, talks about persevering under trial, but then he also points forward to something that we receive, the crown of life, that the

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Lord gives to those who love him. There is the reward that is held out in James, just like here in Hebrews, a reward that is held out for those who will endure and persevere all the way to the end.

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James 5 .11, we count those blessed who endured. You've heard of the endurance of Job, and have seen the outcome of the

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Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful. Romans 12 .12, Paul says that we are to be rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation.

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That's our word, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. 1 Peter 2 .20, this word is used twice, where Peter says, for what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?

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But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

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What is it that we endure? We endure being harshly treated, and we endure that with patience.

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We suffer for it, and we patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. I find it comforting that the same word is used to describe

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Jesus, too. In this same book, Hebrews chapter 12, verses two through three, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

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So here in chapter 10, the author calls us to remember our own suffering, and God's faithfulness in the midst of that, and to be willing to endure this great conflict of suffering.

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Then in chapter 12, he points us back to the Lord Jesus, and says, consider him who did the same thing, endured such hostility against himself.

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Jesus endured something, he suffered on our behalf, and remained under the affliction. He could have, at any moment, asked the

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Father to send legions of angels to his aid, and they would have come, but he didn't do that.

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Instead of getting out of the affliction and the suffering, instead of finding an easy way out, he endured that suffering and affliction, and he did so for our sake.

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1 Peter 2 .20, which I just read to you, it uses the word endure twice, the very next phrase says that we are followed to follow

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Christ in this example. We are called to follow Christ in the same suffering. 1 Peter 2 .21, you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return, while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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That is the example that we are called to follow. Christ suffered for us in our step, in our stead, and we are to follow in his steps, to endure that, to face that, to stand up and bear up under the same suffering, so you and I can know that the high priest, our high priest who intercedes for us, who understands our weaknesses, has himself endured suffering and hostility from sinners, and he has done so with faithfulness, and now he calls us to follow him, and to do the exact same thing, and to do so in his name, knowing that if the world hated him, it will hate us, if the world persecuted him, it will persecute us, and we are called to endure and to be steadfast, and stand up and bear under that burden of the oppression and the hostility that the evil world will throw at us, and we are to do so with faithfulness.

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He calls us to endure a great conflict of suffering. He has already endured a great conflict of suffering, and we are to, in this position, we are to stay or remain.

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That's part of the meaning of this word endure, the pomeno, to stay or to remain, and it's a beautiful picture of what endurance is.

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Really, we are under the weight of trial. We are there bearing a burden and persevering under it, and presumably, we are supposed to be able to say that we would endure or remain under the suffering, to stay there.

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Sometimes this word is translated, not in any context that has to do with suffering or enduring, but simply as the idea of remaining somewhere or staying somewhere.

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I'll give you two examples of how it's used that way in Scripture. In Acts chapter 17, then immediately the brethren sent

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Paul out to go as far as the sea, and Silas and Timothy remained there. This means they stayed there.

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See, the idea behind this word, you stay there. You endure it, and you stay there. You stay in that position. You don't get out. Luke 2, verse 43 describes

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Jesus as a child saying that he, as they were returning after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of it.

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So the word is used to describe just the idea of remaining or staying in a place. Enduring conflict and sufferings involves staying under the weight of it when

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God calls you to stay under the weight of it. Now, there is a way that you can escape affliction and sufferings and the hostility of the world, isn't there?

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There is an escape route. There is an exit, and it's got compromise written right over the top of the door.

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You can escape the world's hostility if you will bow your knee to the spirit of the age, if you will deny the truth, if you will not proclaim it, if you will compromise, if you will adopt the world's affections and the world's priorities and the world's worldview, the world will love you.

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The world loves its own. So throw in your lot with the God -hating sinners, those who reject him and hate the light and love darkness.

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Throw in your lot with them. Mimic their talking points. Mimic their worldview. Mimic their ideology. Mimic their priorities and affections.

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If you do all of that, the world will love you. That's the escape route. You can get out from underneath of the world's hostility and affliction if you just cast your lot in with the world.

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It really is that easy. But instead, we're to endure. In other words, we could put down the weight of the world's opposition to us.

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We could put it down. But it would involve compromise, and it would involve sin. And we are called to endure rather than to escape.

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Now at this point, you're probably thinking to yourself, so Jim, does this mean then that it is always wrong to avoid suffering?

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Is it always wrong to avoid suffering? Or are there circumstances and situations where if we can, we should avoid suffering?

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And I would say there are certainly situations where if you can, you should or can avoid suffering.

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I'll give you four examples from the life of Paul, all of them from Acts chapters 23 and 24. And I almost think that the

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Holy Spirit's point in giving us these four examples from the life of Paul is to show us that there are times when it is okay to avoid suffering if suffering can be avoided.

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Example number one is when Paul was arrested on the Temple Mount for going into the Temple Mount, and the centurion had him up, and he asked him on the stairs of the

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Temple Mount to be able to address the Jews that were below him. This is in Acts chapter 23. And he gave this long address, and he got to the part about him being sent to preach the gospel to the

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Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, and the Jews went crazy. They just went nuts, ballistic, calling for his blood.

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The commander of the forces in Jerusalem had to take Paul, seize him, and bring him into the barracks. And then the commander said,

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I'm going to, let's have him scourged, and we'll just beat him and lash him until he tells us why it is that the

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Jews outside were angry with him. Now really, what he should have done was take the Jews outside and scourge them until they told him why they were angry with him, but he decided he was gonna do this to the apostle

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Paul. And so they're stretching him out, getting him ready to be scourged. Do you remember what Paul did? He dropped his little

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Roman citizenship card right on the table in front of the commander and said, excuse me, but is it lawful for you to beat a man who is a

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Roman citizen and uncondemned? And the centurion said, rot ro, shaggy.

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That is unlawful. It is unlawful for us to arrest him. It is unlawful for us to bind him.

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It is certainly unlawful for us to take measures to scourge him. That is not something you wanted to do if you wanted to keep your job or keep your life.

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Paul used his Roman citizenship to escape suffering at that moment. That's not the only example.

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There's a second one. On the very next day, the centurion brought Paul in before the Sanhedrin. Again, Acts chapter 23.

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And the Sadducees and the Pharisees were there, and they're having this discussion, and all of them are allied against Paul. All of them want him dead.

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And do you remember what Paul did? He said, today I am on trial for the hope and the resurrection of the dead.

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And instantly, the entire gathering was divided into two camps. They had the Sadducees who denied resurrection, who wanted

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Paul dead, and suddenly the Pharisees who affirmed resurrection and felt strangely compelled to defend this guy.

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Just moments earlier, they wanted him dead. But now their doctrine is on the line. They can't cast in their lot with the

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Sadducees and see this man get persecuted and killed if indeed he is on trial for the hope and the resurrection of the dead.

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That just blew up the whole meeting. And eventually, the controversy got so heated that the centurion had to grab, the commander had to grab

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Paul and take him by force out of there lest he be torn to shreds. Paul escaped that by just deftly making one statement that split the whole thing and blew the whole meeting up.

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He avoided suffering and possibly even death. The next example, example number three. Since that plot foiled, and the plot before that had foiled, the

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Jews decided that they were gonna get together and bind themselves by an oath not to eat or drink until they killed the apostle Paul. Well, Paul's nephew found out about this, and he went and told

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Paul, hey, Uncle Paul, there's 40 guys who've sworn not to eat or drink until they kill you. Do you remember what Paul did?

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He said, go tell the commander. The nephew went up, told the commander, and the commander took Paul by night and ushered him out of Jerusalem to Caesarea to escape that ploy.

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Paul worked and moved in order to avoid suffering. Example number four. When he was in Caesarea, he first stood and gave his defense before Felix.

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Felix sort of put Paul on the shelf for a bit until he was replaced by Festus. Festus, wanting to curry favor with the

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Jews, went to Jerusalem, a little PR visit, and while he was there, the Jews were in Jerusalem saying, hey, you got this guy named Paul. We would really like to see him die.

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I mean, we'd really like to try him to see if there's any reason for him to suffer at our hands.

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And Felix, wanting to curry favor with them, said, sure, come on out to Caesarea when I go. We'll call him out and see what he has to say for himself.

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So they had this little trial, and Festus is there, and the Jews accusing Paul are there, and they bring their accusations against Paul, and Paul gives his defense, but Paul can smell it in the air that Festus' desire is to turn him over to the

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Jews and be done with him, to wash his hands with the apostle Paul, knowing that they will take him back to Jerusalem. They'll try him, and what they do with Paul, he doesn't care, he's not worried about it because it's not his prisoner, it's not his circus, it's not his monkeys, he doesn't care, but Paul can see that coming.

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So Paul says, I appeal to Caesar. Now, as a Roman citizen, Paul had every right to appeal to Caesar and every right to have

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Caesar hear his case. From that point forward, it was no longer Festus' hands, it was no longer in the

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Jews' hands. Paul had to stand before Caesar where he could present his case. Now, Paul knew in all four of those instances that he faced suffering and likely even death if he didn't act in all four of those instances and what the apostle

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Paul do. Twice he used his Roman citizenship card, and both of times, he just definitely knew exactly what to do, to avoid suffering.

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So are there times when we can avoid suffering if it's avoidable? Yes, in fact, that's the wise thing to do.

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But there are times when it is impossible to avoid suffering because suffering is unavoidable. So, are we required to wake up every morning and wonder, how can

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I suffer today? I'm gonna find something miserable that I can endure today.

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I'm just enjoying my cup of coffee and my Bible in the morning, I have to find some way to be miserable before noon or my day is not fulfilled.

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Is that our responsibility? No, it's not our responsibility. But our responsibility is to bear up under whatever unavoidable suffering comes our way.

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And if we cannot get out of that suffering except by compromise or denial or some sin or unfaithfulness to Christ, if we can't escape through any of those routes, we are to bear up under it, to stand under it, and to endure it.

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So what is it that we are to endure? We are to endure a great conflict of sufferings. I love this description, great conflict.

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The word conflict there, I think, is very instructive as to what the writer has in mind here. It is a word translated as fight in the

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King James Version, as contest in the NIV, as struggle in the ESV and in the New King James.

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And it is here translated as conflict. The noun form of the word was used in the New Testament, and that's the form of it here, to describe a challenge or a contest.

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It was a word that was used of an athletic competition or a struggle, which was a public event.

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In fact, you'll notice in the text that he talks about being made a public spectacle. Those who would enter into the arena and fight one another, they would enter into one of these contests, the word used here.

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And they would struggle and fight against one until one left the victor and one left the vanquished or one left the victor and one was carried out the vanquished.

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And that's the word that's used here, the noun for conflict, a struggle, a challenge, a competition between two people.

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The verb form of this is used of competing in an athletic contest.

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It's used that way in 2 Timothy 2, verse five. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

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There, the word is used in the verb form twice to speak of competing in an athletic contest. And the imagery here of the athletic imagery that the author is employing is intended to call to our mind the need for preparation and discipline and self -control and endurance.

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It's intended to call to our mind to struggle. It is a conflict of struggling. And what is it that we are to fight against?

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You'll notice that the author does not say who our opponent is in the ring. We have been made a public spectacle, put out into public view, as it were, put on display through reproaches and trials and tribulations, and we have entered into this conflict of suffering.

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Though he uses a word that describes two people challenging and competing against one another, you'll notice that the author does not say who our struggle is against.

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Is our struggle against suffering? He doesn't say it's against suffering. He said our struggle is suffering.

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He doesn't say that our struggle is against one another. And you might think at this point, well, Jim, this is a great opportunity to bring up the fact that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and princes of darkness in this present day.

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That would be a great opportunity to mention that. Yeah, but that's not what the author is talking about here. He's not even talking about our spiritual opponents against which we are struggling.

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He's using the analogy of struggling and conflict and suffering to describe, sorry, this conflict and struggle to describe what suffering is like.

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In other words, the suffering that we endure is like an athletic contest in that, as we face the hostility of the world, it will require discipline, single -minded focus, intentionality, preparation, work, strength, some sort of forethought, some sort of looking forward and anticipating what is to come.

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It is very tempting when we live in a world that is very quickly going crazy, very quickly going crazy, to put our fingers in our ears and say, don't mention persecution, don't mention suffering, don't mention conflict.

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I don't wanna hear about it until it comes. Hold on a second. You ought to be preparing for whatever lies ahead, at least in your mind, saying,

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I'm going to prepare my mind, gird up the loins of my mind to prepare for whatever is ahead of me. If it is suffering, then

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I will be prepared for that, and if it is not, then praise the Lord. Because there are really only three things that can happen to you.

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Either God is going to bless you graciously and things will go well and you will be extremely blessed in this world, in which case, you have received the blessing of God.

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Or God is gonna pour out on this nation wrath and you may be persecuted and suffer affliction, the seizure of your property and imprisonment, in which case,

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God will sanctify that and make you more like Christ, which is a blessing. Or you might suffer persecution and die, in which case, you go to be with Christ and that's a blessing.

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So no matter what, we are winners. Because if we lose everything, that sanctifies us and we become more like Christ.

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If I die, I go to be with Christ. And if he just pours out on me his blessings, then I get the blessings of Christ. There's nothing good that can come to us.

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So we ought to fix our minds and our hearts upon that reality and understand that we need to like an athlete who is fixing to step into the arena and to compete against another, to prepare ourselves to fight and endure and be strong enough in such a way that we walk into this arena of affliction and suffering, whatever the future holds, and say to ourselves, we can do this, because Christ has called us to it and we have an example in him.

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And we can follow in his footsteps and we can do this faithfully because he will strengthen us in the midst of it. Suffering is a struggle and it is a struggle in that it will require discipline and a single mind to focus and you are not going to be able to walk away loving this world and Christ, because you're gonna lose one of those.

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I promise you, you will lose one of those. So love him or love this world and you will choose.

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If you love this world, you're the apostate described in verses 26, 31, and you get everything that is described there. Love Christ and you get all of the reward and the blessings that are to come.

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Like an athletic competition, the struggle also brings with it a prize or a reward.

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You'll notice the language that is used in verse 34, we have a better possession and a lasting one. He speaks of the great reward in verse 35, receiving what is promised in verse 36 and the preserving of the soul in verse 39.

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That's the language of reward. Like in an athletic competition, our struggle and our suffering and our enduring affliction in this world and the hostility of this world brings with it the promise of a great reward.

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That is why Paul in Romans chapter eight says that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

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There's no comparison between these things. Second Corinthians four, verse 17, the momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison.

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Whatever suffering it is, the seizure of your property, the imprisonment, the affliction that you endure, and the retrials, the tribulations, the reproaches, all of it, anything that he calls you to suffer in this world is not worthy to be compared with even a moment of the glory that we receive in the afterlife.

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We have for us a kingdom which cannot be taken and an inheritance that is preserved and kept for us.

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And we have the saints and we have a new creation and a new body. All of that awaits the children of God.

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And therefore, the sufferings of this world are not even worthy of comparing with that. So whatever it is that we do endure in this struggle, the reward that we receive is well worth it.

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Athletes in the first century competed to receive a wreath that would just wither away and perish. We compete to receive a wreath, a crown, which cannot be taken away, a treasure which cannot rust or decay, which moths cannot destroy, which thieves cannot break in and steal.

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That is what we get to anticipate. It's not even worthy to be compared with the suffering that we endure.

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So the athletic imagery is used to describe the difficulty of suffering because the author is very straightforward.

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There is pain, there is loss, there is risk, there is suffering, there is a need to endure. You need strength.

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You're gonna face tribulations and reproaches, all of that, but you're gonna need discipline and endurance to do it.

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And we are called to bear up under it. It is not easy, which is why he uses the word conflict of sufferings.

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And that word that's translated sufferings there is the most generic word that he could have used to describe suffering. It describes all kinds of suffering.

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It describes anything that is contrary to us, anything that is hard or afflictive to us in our nature.

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If you just wanted to use a word that could describe any kind of suffering from any source for any reason, this is the word he uses.

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It's the most generic word he could have used. In fact, the word is used twice in the same passage in 1

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Peter chapter four, once to describe the suffering of unbelievers for committing sins, and another to describe the suffering of believers for doing righteousness.

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So it is used to describe those who would commit a sin and suffer for it, and those who would do righteousness and suffer for it.

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1 Peter chapter four. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, or an evildoer, or a troublesome meddler.

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But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in that name. Just the most generic term, can just apply to believers or unbelievers, can apply to any kind of suffering.

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And there are, by the way, just to be a further encouragement to you, there are, by the way, all kinds of sufferings.

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We can endure bodily sufferings and spiritual sufferings, emotional sufferings, physical sufferings, financial sufferings in your reputation, loss of opportunities.

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We might go without things that we otherwise might have had if we were not Christians and we were not faithful to the

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Lord. We may lose relationships and friendships or connection with close family members. Your Christian faith could cost you a promotion, a business deal, or even having your property seized.

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This is the beautiful thing about sufferings. There's all kinds of them. There's so many different kinds.

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It is almost like you could live a whole life in this world and just go from one kind of suffering to another and never exhaust the supply of sufferings that could be reserved for you.

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That's the beautiful thing about it. Not only are there all kinds of sufferings, there's all kinds of sources of suffering.

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You might suffer at the hand of government magistrates or business partners or neighbors or friends, coworkers, customers, spouses, children, or one -time church members who are now apostates.

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There's almost an endless source to your suffering. There's a number of causes of your suffering. There's almost no end to the potential of things that could cause your suffering.

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You might suffer because you are a school teacher and you refuse to teach something in a public school system that is contrary to your worldview or to Scripture, and you refuse to do that.

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Or you may be the employee of a large corporation and you refuse to list your preferred pronoun and bow your knee to the spirit of the age and the gender insanity and mental illness that seems to be creeping in everywhere, and you could lose your job for that.

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Or you might suffer simply because you refuse to go along with a friend or a family member or a relative who has decided that they have a different gender or a different sexual orientation than which they were born with or that which they have preferred up to that point, and you refuse to call it okay and say it's okay and live with it and just go along with it and pat them on the back and affirm their lifestyle.

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All of those things can cause you suffering. You might find that you are a photographer, a flower arranger, or a cake baker, and all of a sudden you refuse to do one of those services for something that violates your conscience, and then the whole world wants to shut you down, close your business, fine you, put you in prison.

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This is the beautiful thing about suffering. There's almost no end to the number of ways that you can suffer, and there's no end to the degrees of suffering either.

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It's another beautiful thing about suffering. You can endure anything from people rolling their eyes at you as you walk away to burning you at the stake, and in between is this massive spectrum of kinds of suffering and degrees of suffering.

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We are subject to all of those. When the author says that you have endured a great conflict of sufferings, he is talking about the struggle and the weight of all kinds of things that come upon Christians.

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This is why Scripture uses the word various trials to describe our suffering. Consider all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, all kinds, multifaceted, multicolored.

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Now what happens when you have different sources, different kinds, different causes, and different degrees of suffering, and you take all of those and you combine them together?

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If you have an endless list of things that can cause it, and an endless list of ways that you can suffer, and an endless list of kinds of suffering, and then you can just sort of handpick between one of those, any of those, you can create literally this multifaceted myriad of kinds of suffering.

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It's like a beautiful mosaic, isn't it? I'm intentionally trying to get you to look forward to suffering.

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That's part of my agenda of being up here, to open us up to the reality that Scripture describes for the

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Christian various trials, and therefore we should expect it. Expect the fight, expect the struggle, expect the difficulty, expect to bear up under it, and expect to endure, and expect to know the

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Lord's faithfulness in those times of trial, whatever it is that he calls you to endure. This is what Peter meant when he said in 1

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Peter chapter four, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.

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You hear Peter's almost a slight note of sarcasm. Don't be surprised at this, as if something strange were happening to you.

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What did you expect when you went from darkness to light? Did you expect the darkness to love you? What did you expect from swearing your allegiance to everything ungodly and hostile to the faith in this world, and swearing your allegiance to the one who is outside of this world, who is going to judge this entire world for swearing their allegiance to all the things of this world?

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What did you expect as a result of that? You ought to expect hostility. Therefore, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal, as if something strange were happening to you.

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It's not strange at all, Peter said. Instead, he says, to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.

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So also, at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exultation. You rejoice now in the midst of that suffering, not because you enjoy the pain, but because you look forward to seeing that which is unseen, the fact that you have a better and a more lasting possession than anything this world will take away from you.

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That is the cause of your joy. And fix your eyes and your hope there, and upon that.

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And you will endure a great conflict of suffering. Now that is all that we have time for today, without getting into any of the details that the author does here.

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I'm not gonna pretend to be surprised that we only got through that one phrase, because I wrote the sermon. But I will pretend to be as disappointed in that as you are.

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And next week, we will tackle the specifics of what they had endured and how they viewed those things. And we just dealt with the general things today.

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I've spoken today of the suffering of Christ, that He endured suffering for our sake, and the fact that we are called to suffer with Him, and to share with Him in those sufferings.

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The purpose of His suffering was redemptive, it was atoning. There was a salvific element to His suffering.

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When we suffer and share in Christ's suffering, we're not in any way paying for our sin, nor are we paying for the sins of others, nor are we making any kind of atonement for iniquity.

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Christ's suffering has accomplished that in full. He suffered in our stead, bearing our burden on the cross, bearing the weight of all of our sin, past, present, and future, so that we may look forward by faith, and through repentance, we may look forward to that glory which is to come to us as His children.

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That was His suffering. When we suffer, we suffer not in place of Christ, but we suffer the same kinds of sufferings that He endured.

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Consider Him who experienced such hostility from sinners, so that you too may take courage in that and not lose heart.

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We look at His suffering, and it is atoning, it is redemptive, but it is also instructive for us as to how we are to endure the same kinds of suffering in this world.

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Those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we have cast our lot in with Him, we have pledged our allegiance and our fidelity and our faithfulness to Him in our repentance and faith, and in doing so, we ought to expect that we will endure something, some taste of what the world threw at Him, some taste of the hostility and the opposition and the affliction that it poured out on Him.

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His suffering paid the price for our sin, and our suffering does not pay any price for sin.

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So as we gather together at the Lord's table, we are looking at the cost of our redemption.

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We're looking at the cost of our salvation, that it cost Him His body and His blood, and that in His flesh,

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God the Father prepared a body for Him, and taking that body upon Himself, He offered up as a sacrifice for any and all who will believe upon Him.

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And in the cost of that one payment for sin, there is redemption for any who will trust in Him, turn from their sin and believe upon Him.

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We do not deserve the gracious offer of salvation, we do not deserve to have our sins forgiven, it is all of grace, it is all the work of God, we do not contribute to that one bit.

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Because we have lied and stolen and blasphemed God's name, we deserve His judgment, and instead we look to the one who suffered in our stead and bore the penalty for all of those sins and so many more.

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We have to be aware, even as we sit here, of not just our own sin, but of the fact that we have sinned thousands of times without even knowing it, and we have sinned thousands of times, tens of thousands of times without ever confessing it or acknowledging it.

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And most of the sins that we have committed are lost to our memory, but they're not lost to His memory. And He paid for all of those, our known sins and our unknown sins, in His body, on the cross by bearing the weight of our salvation and the weight and the cost of the wrath of God for our sin.

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So before we pray, I would just encourage you and remind you that if you are a Christian and you are living in unrepentant and continual and habitual sin,

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I'm calling you now to repent of that and to turn from it and to seek forgiveness and faithfulness and endurance and grace at the cross of Christ and in the memory of His sacrifice.

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If you are not a believer here today, you've never repented of your sin and trusted Christ for salvation and born again, let the elements pass from you.

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Nobody's gonna judge you. This is not for you. This is for those who are saved, who are believers, who belong to Christ.

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I would call you, if you are not a believer, to repentance and faith in Christ, or you will face the judgment that is to come, described in verse 31.

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It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So let's take a few moments. We'll bow our heads to pray together, and I'll have a couple moments of silent prayer.

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And at this time, I'd ask the ushers to come forward and stand with me up front. And after we pray, we'll partake together. Lord, we know of our sin.

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We are aware of our sin, but not even the full weight of it or the full penalty of it. We know that we are sinners, and for that reason, we have sought refuge and comfort and payment, atonement in the person of your

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Son. And we are grateful that you have provided a sacrifice that is sufficient to atone for all of our sin and all the weight of the burden that we bear before, that we would have bared before you.

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We thank you that Christ has taken it. He has taken it out of the way. So that now there's no condemnation for us.

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So we come to you and we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge our iniquity. We pray for that forgiveness, the restoration of that relationship.

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We pray for strength to mortify sin in its every form. And we pray that you would fill our hearts with love and joy as we reflect upon what

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Christ has done for us in bearing our sin, bearing our burden, and taking it far away.

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We thank you for this great gift of salvation and for the cost of it, which was borne by your Son. In his name we pray.