Embracing The Journey / Glory & Suffering

The Question of Why the Righteous Suffer

Let's turn to the gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 20. I'll just start with a question. I think this is one of the most common questions people ask. Why do the righteous suffer? Or why do Christians suffer?

After all, we're supposed to be God's children. We're supposed to have God's favor. Why then do we face so many difficulties in life? If I really have God's favor, I should be living on easy street. I think that's the way, that's the assumption a lot of people might have.

But when I think of this question, why do God's people suffer? My mind automatically goes to Jesus. Jesus was God's only son. Jesus was without sin. He never, you know, sometimes we bring things on ourselves.

He never brought anything upon himself. And yet Jesus suffered like no other man. Why is that? Well, the reality is whether we understand it all or not, this is all part of God's plan. As a Christian, whatever you're going through, whatever God allows you to go through, whatever suffering there may be, it is all part of God's plan.

It's all part of our journey, our life journey, journey of faith. And I'm calling upon everyone this morning to embrace the journey, whatever it is that you're going through, embrace it. Here in Matthew chapter 20, Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem.

He knows where this road ends. He's on that final March to Jerusalem to the cross where he would suffer. But the road to glory, here's what we need to understand. The road to glory is often a road of suffering.

So let's start with verse 17. We'll read Matthew 20 verses 17 through 20. It says, now Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 disciples aside on the road and said to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles and mock to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And then he throws this in at the end and the third day he will rise again. So Jesus is talking about himself in the third person. He is the son of man. I think they understand that much. Jesus is saying, we're going to Jerusalem.

I'm going to be arrested, betrayed. I will have to suffer the death of crucifixion. So let's start with the setting. That's the setting. He's on this final, final journey, the three and a half years of ministry.

This is going to be the climax. It's all been headed in this direction. And Jesus several times at this point has spoken openly about his betrayal and his death. Even though he tells them about the good news after that, he will rise from the dead.

I'm not so sure the disciples even hear that part. They hear the part about Jesus having to suffer and that just does not compute. I mean, they're like a lot of people today. You're the son of, if you're the son of God and they believed that he was, why would you have to go through that?

And he's going to tell them as we read the next section. But you know how it is when somebody says, you know, I have, you've, we've all said this to people. We've all had it said to us. Some will say, I have good news and I have bad news.

Which do you want first? What do you say? We all want the bad news first. But here's the thing. If the bad news, and usually the bad news really isn't that bad, right? Uh, but when, if the bad news is so terrible, the good news afterwards that you're not even hearing that you're just focused on the bad.

And I think that's what the disciples are doing here. Uh, they, they hear the bad news or oftentimes when he's telling them about his betrayal and death, they don't even hear the part about the resurrection.

So it's, it's very typical, but I'm not even so sure they really believe what he's telling them about the suffering. Again, this still doesn't compute in their mind. The Messiah is going to come, you know, the story he's going to come, he's going to take the throne.

He's going to drive out the Romans. He's going to restore Israel to greatness. And he would usher in a time of great blessing and prosperity. So the Messiah having to suffer just, it did not fit their view of who the Christ was supposed to be.

So when he says that I'm going to have to be betrayed and suffer and be crucified, I don't even think they believe it, first of all, but I'll get to that in a moment. But why, let's just ask another question.

Why is Jesus telling them this ahead of time? Why tell them that he's going to be crucified? Well, number one, I think it's to prepare them when something bad is about to happen. We want to be prepared.

So in telling them ahead of time, this is going to help hopefully to prepare them for what's about to take place. Second, after it happens, this will prove that Jesus is who he said he was. If you can predict your own death and resurrection afterwards, they will recognize, okay, he told us this happened just like he said, this will prove that he is the sovereign Lord.

So number one, it's to prepare them. Number two, it'll prove that he is, he is the Lord. And then the third reason Jesus is telling them is because they are his friends. Friends tell friends what they do and what they're going to do.

We read this in John 15 verse 15, Jesus says, I no longer call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father.

I have made known to you. And you know, by extension, the fact that we have God's word and we have so much detail about what's going to happen in the future. This is a great comfort for me that God considers, he considers us not only his servants, but his friends because he has told us of things to come, but the things to come, that's another sermon for another day.

But Jesus here, he's predicting his own suffering, but the suffering, that is the path to eternal glory. But I don't think the disciples are picking up what he's putting down. I, they, they just don't get it.

We've seen that before. And I think we're seeing that again here. And I know that because of how they respond next, this next passage, what are they doing? What are they doing? They're jockeying for position in the kingdom of God.

They want the number two position, the number three position. So this part about suffering and Jesus dying, it's like in one ear and out the other. So they're just not understanding why the Christ has to suffer.

Ambition in the Kingdom and the Cup of Suffering

So let's read, let's read this next section, verse 20. So after hearing about the crucifixion, this is the conversation. It says, then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from him.

And who are the two sons? James and John, right? Fishermen, you know, kind of rough guys. They had the nickname sons of thunder. So they probably had a, you know, a temper. These men were, you know, average working class men and, and they don't understand the big picture here.

So Mark's gospel gives us the impression that James and John, they have put their mother up to this. So the mother comes and asks the question, but we learned from the other gospels that I think the question is really coming from James and John themselves.

Verse 21. So Jesus talking to their mother, he said to her, what do you wish? And she said to him, grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your kingdom.

So you see what they're focused on. I mean, nothing, nothing about suffering or why do you have to die? Just forget all that. We want to be, you know, Jesus is the president. I want to be the vice president.

I want a top cabinet position. I mean, this is really what they're focused on, which tells you they don't understand the purpose of the suffering and the cross. So they want to be number one, number two, Jesus is number one.

They want to be number two and number three. And I can just imagine if Jesus agreed to, let's just say, hypothetically, Jesus said, okay, I will give this to you. You will sit on my right and left hand.

Then James and John would do what? Start arguing about who's going to be number two. I mean, that's almost a guarantee. So look how Jesus responds. Verse 22. So he hears this request. He knows where this is coming from.

It says, Jesus answered and said, you do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? Now this is a cryptic way of speaking.

What does this mean to drink the cup or to be baptized? Remember in the, uh, in the garden of Gethsemane was a John 17, when Jesus is praying to the father, he says, let this what cup pass from me. So the cup is either the cup of God's wrath, which will be poured out on Jesus on the cross.

Or you could say it is a cup of suffering. So you don't realize what you're asking for. You want to be number two and number three in order to have that level of glory, you need to suffer because I'm going to suffer.

And you're going to have to suffer. And by the way, you know, we preach here at Morris corner church chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Honestly, I don't think this is a sermon that I would choose to preach, you know, on my own, if I were just coming up with the topic, Hey, let's talk about how Christians suffer and how you may have to suffer.

Some, some of you are suffering, but it's, this is, this is the advantage to going chapter by chapter verse by verse. You, you touch on those things that maybe some people don't want to hear about, but it's what we need to hear because it is in the word of God.

So this is the passage we're at today. So that's what we're going to cover. So the baptism back to the baptism in the cup, they're different ways of saying the same thing they represent for Jesus is betrayal, suffering and death.

And for the Christian, yes, the cup and the baptism, it represents suffering James and John. Listen, guys, you're gonna have to suffer. All of the apostles would have to suffer, you know, except for Judas, who obviously took a different course and he suffered in his own right.

And here's the thing you say, well, you know, if, if Christianity is about suffering, then I'm out, I'm just going to bail out. Well, let me just tell you, some people have done that. You will suffer.

If you drop out, if you leave the faith, I promise you, you will suffer. It may not be next week. It may not be next month. Here's the difference for us. And all people suffer in this life. I mean, you just can't get around it for the Christian.

There's actually a purpose for suffering. And some people, some Christians have that fairly easy. It's not like it's going to be that hard for everybody, but there's a purpose. And there's a reward because again, this road or path of suffering, what's the end it leads to begins with a G glory.

But this is what certainly for the early church, this is what ministry was about James, John, you're, you're going to have to suffer. What did Jesus tell them already to be my disciple? You're going to have to take up your cross and follow me, take up your cross.

They understood what that meant. The cross was the, like we sing about the emblem of suffering and shame. And it's not just Jesus who taught this. The apostle Paul would say in Acts chapter 14, verse 22, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.

There's some people right now, you are going through and you're, you're well accustomed to trials and tribulations, and it's not abnormal. It's, it's part of life and it is part of the Christian life.

You know, if we want to live on easy street, then just here's, here's how you live on easy street. Just go along with the culture, whatever they say on TV, whatever Hollywood says, whatever, you know, whatever's coming out of the, just do what everyone else is doing.

Will you really avoid suffering if you do that? No, but things will be easier in the moment because yeah, you're just going with the flow, but to be a disciple of Christ, we are called to go against the grain, to swim against the current.

True Greatness as Servanthood

Now this whole thing about Jesus having to suffer and the disciples having to suffer, and maybe people today suffering. I feel like I should point out the obvious that this is a message that yes, not everyone wants to hear about this, but it's a message that often gets ignored in many pulpits.

In the day and age we live in where the most famous ministers of our time are the prosperity preachers. This usually gets ignored if not flat out contradicted. I try to get people to realize that as we speak, true biblical Christianity is being replaced in our nation by the self-help motivational gurus who try to capitalize on a false form of Christianity to make it about blessing and health and wealth.

These are things that everybody wants, but it's just not true to the message of Jesus. You can't read the gospels and come up with the prosperity gospel. It's just not possible. But all of that to say this, this new spin on Christianity, your your best life now, the positive only preaching, the seeker sensitive movement, it really does try to downplay or ignore these teachings of Jesus.

Take up your cross and follow me. Or as Paul said, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. But again, Jesus tells us these things so that we will be prepared. We need to know, and new converts need to know, what they're getting into.

And then when things happen like Jesus predicted, we'll know that he really is in control. And see, this is the greatest comfort of all, knowing that Jesus predicted it and Jesus is in control of it. That whatever happens to me, Jesus is involved.

His hand allowed it. His hand allowed it for a reason. So I take great comfort in that. But the apostles, you know, going back to them, this is a requirement of being a true disciple. Take up your cross.

And here even the apostles are inclined to think that this either isn't true or it's just not what we want. They want to hear the glory without the suffering. They wanted Christianity in a sense without the cross.

Now afterwards, after Jesus rose from the dead, that is absolutely not what they wanted because they preached the cross. But as of this moment, they're still not getting Christ and his mission. What they want, what they're focused on, I want to be the vice regent in the kingdom of God.

I want to be number two, number three. Isn't this what they're asking for? So I can't prove this, but I think when they hear Jesus predicting his death, this is probably what is going on in their mind.

You know how Jesus talks in metaphors, right? He's speaking in parables and dark sayings. You know, he says, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. I think when the disciples heard that in John chapter six, everybody else was offended and they left.

Jesus could have had what we might call a mega church. He had just the multitudes following him. And then he preached the sermon about drink, drink my blood and eat my flesh. And everyone was upset and they turned their back on him.

But the disciples, I think they got it. Okay. Jesus isn't being literal here. And oftentimes Jesus wasn't being literal when he said, I am the door, the I am statements. I am the bread of life. I mean, obviously a lot of that stuff isn't literal.

So here's what I think is happening. He says, I'm going to have to go to Jerusalem, be betrayed, suffer and be crucified. I think they're what's going on in their mind is like, no, that can't be, this must be a metaphor for something else.

Because again, Jesus dying just doesn't fit what we believe he's come to do. So I don't think they really believe that he's going to be crucified. I could be wrong, but anyways, he makes this statement.

Are you able to drink the cup? Are you able to receive the baptism? And what did they say? Verse 22 at the end, they say, yes, we are able. Verse 23. So he said to them, you will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.

But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give. It's like, oh man, that didn't work out so well. We just, we just signed up for our own death sentence maybe. And we don't even get those top positions.

What does that tell us? You know, selfish ambition, that often backfires. So it didn't work out for James and John. Although you could argue, you know, the kingdom hasn't happened yet. Maybe John will be number two, but Jesus says it's not mine to give, but it's for those whom it is prepared by my father.

All right. Now as for drinking the cup, did James and John experience suffering in their ministries? Yes, absolutely. Did they experience crucifixion? So, so James was beheaded, right? Acts chapter 12, James was beheaded.

Uh, John, we believe, uh, was exiled to the island of Patmos, wrote the book of revelation, probably died of natural causes. So it's not as if every follower of Christ is going to face exactly what Christ faced, but they did suffer.

And all of the apostles, we believe were martyred except for John. So John sort of got out of that, uh, easy for lack of a better term. But Jesus is trying to get through to them that true greatness in the kingdom.

Guys, you want to be great. You want to be number three. You want the glory, but you don't want the suffering. You want the glory, but you don't want the service. It doesn't work like that. And I'm just going to say that to you this morning.

We all want eternal life. I'm assuming that's why you're here because you believe on Jesus for salvation and eternal life. And you're thankful for that. And you're here to worship God in response, right?

I mean, more or less. So we all want the glory. We all want eternal life. The question is, do we want to serve now? Are we willing to go through a few things now in order to get there? Because, you know, in 10 years of being a pastor, I've seen people go through, usually it's the same two or three types of things.

People go through this and they bail. If they face this, someone drops out. But this is common to man. We want the glory. We don't want the suffering. So all of that happens and Jesus tells them, well, you know, this position that you want, this lofty position, I can't, guys, I can't guarantee you that.

And look at verse 24, when the 10 heard it, when all the rest of the disciples heard what James and John were up to with their mother, what does it say? When the 10 heard it, they were greatly displeased.

Yeah, you better believe they were displeased. That's an understatement. I think they were probably pretty upset. Look at verse 25. And then we get maybe to the theological point of why Jesus came. Jesus called them to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. And just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, I'll come back to the statement about giving his life as a ransom.

But the point Jesus is making about James and John and their mother, and also the other disciples, and really for all believers for all time, that this truth, that leadership, Christian leadership is different from leadership that's in the world.

The type of leadership, the world exercises, and the term Gentile here is just a synonym for an unbeliever. So here, here's the way it is in the world. If someone's in charge, they don't necessarily care about the people that they're bossing around or the people, the people who are in charge don't really care necessarily about the people underneath them.

Uh, they Lord it over those. So, Hey, I'm, I'm in charge. Do what I tell you to do. And that, that's it. Some of you probably work, at least a few of you work at, at a job and that's the way it's run, right?

Your boss doesn't care about your problems. Your boss doesn't care about anything except that you get the job done, right? At least a couple of you. Sometimes you have a good boss who does care, but it's very common with unbelievers say I'm in charge.

You're here to do the job, just shut up and do it. And that's kind of their attitude. But in Christianity, that's, that's not what true greatness looks like. That's not what leadership looks like. Jesus says again in verse 28, just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve when Jesus led, he did it by what he led by example.

You, we never saw a story of Jesus sitting back in a chair and Peter and John are fanning him with the palm leaves. Remember those old movies and he's just sitting back eating grapes and all right, you do this, you do that.

No, Jesus was out front, usually doing the job and he was leading by example. And that's the way Christian leadership is supposed to be. You lead by example. So Jesus was interested in doing the work of the father and he was willing to do whatever the father told him to do.

The Ransom of Christ and the Meaning of Substitution

I know some of the things that we read about in the gospels, like pick up your cross. Well, that seems hard. It seems unreasonable. You know, God is asking an awful lot from me. Well, did he ask it of Jesus?

If Jesus is our Lord, Jesus is the one who went through more than I'll ever go through. The father put on Jesus more than he's ever going to expect from us. So Jesus was so committed to the mission. He was willing to die.

He was willing to suffer for three and a half years, having no place to lay his head. And he was willing to die the most humiliating death imaginable, dying naked or half naked on a tree. Philippians 2, 7 and 8 says that Jesus made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And really, you know, dying half naked on the tree, that was just insult to injury when you consider the torture of crucifixion.

But why did Jesus go through that? Well, he tells us, I came not to be served, but to serve. So Jesus leads by example, and it's all about giving his life as a ransom. He says, a ransom for many. Now the word translated for means in place of, and we've all heard and understand Jesus died for us, right?

Jesus died in our place. This speaks of the substitutionary nature of Christ's sacrifice. God demands perfect righteousness and holiness, and we have fallen short. And because mankind has sinned, because we have sinned, sin must be punished.

But instead of us being punished for what we have done, Jesus took our place. He died for us. Now this word ransom that's mentioned here, when you hear the word ransom, what do you think of? Money. Money, right?

Yeah. You've probably all seen a movie where there's some kidnapping and someone is being, they've taken hostage and they're being held for ransom, right? So the only way to let that person go is to pay the ransom, to pay the price.

So mankind, we are in bondage to sin. We're in the clutches of Satan. That's our natural condition. A ransom has to be paid to set us free. Now some people assume that the ransom must be paid to the devil.

I mean, this is one theory that people have that Jesus, his death is the payment. And they're saying, well, he's, he's making the payment to the devil. That's just not true. Jesus paid the payment to who?

Right. God, the father to satisfy the justice, God, the father's justice and wrath against sin. So the price paid was Christ's own blood as an atonement, the just for the unjust. Now, do the disciples understand the theology of all of this?

No, the connections between the Passover lamb and all of the sacrifices, they, they haven't made these connections, but Jesus tells them ahead of time so that they can later on. But thankfully this path of being, you know, crucified is not the path that God has called us to, you know, Jesus dying, we can't die in anyone's place anyways, at least not in that sense.

But at the same time, if you are walking with the Lord, you have gone through some difficulty. And again, there's people right now going through difficult times. You know, the Bible, some people say this, they say, well, the Bible says that God will never give us more than we can handle.

Well, that's probably a misreading of first Corinthians chapter 10. I tend to think that God will give us more than we can handle so that we'll have no other option than to turn to the Lord for help. There are people here, you came to saving faith in Christ, or at least, you know, someone who came to saving faith in Christ because they were in such a difficult position.

They were suffering so much. They, they couldn't take it. And when life was going well, they weren't interested in Jesus. Like, is any of this sounding familiar? Oh, life's going great. What do I need God for everything?

God, maybe God is up there to bless me and give me the things that I need. And I can pray to him if I'm in a jam, but most people don't really care that much, but they're put in a situation of great suffering.

They legitimately can't handle it. They feel like they can't handle it. And that is the exact thing that caused them to turn to Christ for help. And they called upon the name of the Lord and they were saved.

So all of that, just try to wrap this up. The Christian life is a life oftentimes of suffering. Some people will go through a little bit. Some people go through a lot. Jesus went through like this much.

We'll never have to go through that much, praise God, because He made the provision. He did that for us, but you will have to go through some times of difficulty. So just this question, just to answer the question, why do the righteous suffer?

Why do Christians go through great trials and tribulations? Number one, it's always for a reason. Again, the disciples, they don't get it right now. They don't understand. They went on to become the greatest theologians the church ever had.

They understood it all. When Paul was writing Romans, of course, Paul's not with them at this time, but when John is writing his epistles, he had it pretty much figured out. At this moment, he didn't know.

So you might be going through things right now. You just don't understand it. Here's the thing, you don't need to understand it. What you need to do is trust, number one, that God has a plan, and then number two, I'm calling again on you to just embrace the journey.

Jesus embraced it. He knew that He was going to Jerusalem to die on the cross, and His desire was to obey the Father. So whatever you're going through, embrace it. And the third reason, the third thing that suffering does, it's as they say in the gym, you know, no pain, no gain.

It actually makes you stronger. It'll actually make you a better person. Little kids who grow up having everything in life handed to them, what do you call that? Spoiled. And if they grow up, and they're like that as a teenager, and they never get punished, and everything's just handed to them, and it is like life on easy street up until their 20s, they are the worst people on earth, because they haven't had to go through anything difficult.

It makes you a better person. Romans 5 says, tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. So along with the pain, having a purpose, and one last thing, you know, I said that, you know, living in this world as an unbeliever, unbelievers are going to have difficulties too.

They're going to have to suffer too. The thing is, we have light at the end of the tunnel, okay? We have a destination. Well, they have a destination too, and it's a destination of even more suffering, more suffering than they can possibly imagine.

And there will be people who try, in order to try to get out of suffering in this life, to suffer for Christ's name's sake, they're going to try to take the easy way out, and they're going to end up in that other place, greater suffering than they can possibly imagine.

But for believers, yes, the road may be difficult, but the road of suffering is a road that leads to what? Leads to glory and everlasting life. Let's pray. And Father, I just ask if there's someone here today who is going through great difficulty, maybe somebody listening later on radio or internet, and they truly are suffering in their life.

And Lord, as we all think, we say, why? Why is this happening? And we ask those questions, and we don't get that immediate answer from heaven. But Lord, you have given us your word, which has the answers, I believe.

But Lord, if there's someone who is suffering, and they don't know where else to turn, I just pray that they would turn to Christ, and that they would give their life to him. And Lord, there are so many blessings.

We don't want to make it sound like the Christian life is just horrible and terrible, and just suffering all day, every day. It is a joyous life. Lord, you have given us, blessed us with so many blessings in the heavenly places.

And Lord, you are good to us. You provide for us. So we thank you for that. But we do thank you that there is purpose and meaning in the things that we go through. And we just pray that you would strengthen those going through difficult times.

May they lean on you and lean on others, that they would call their brothers and sisters in Christ and let them know that they can help them bear their burdens. But we thank you most of all for your grace and your care.

And we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen.