Title: Fellowship of Suffering
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<First Sunday of Lent, March 9, 2003>
Nurturing Sermon / Video
fellowship of suffering
Isaiah 53:10-12
2 Corinthians 1: 3-11
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a period of devotional training in which we await the resurrection of Christ, meditate on the passion and death of Christ, and participate in it. The subject we will focus on during Lent is suffering. The Son of God came in the midst of sin-suffering men and took Himself out of suffering. Through the death and suffering of the cross, He opened the way to the resurrection of glory and to eternal life. Therefore, the place where we can come to know Christ and meet him is the place of suffering. In order to reach glory, we must go through hardship. This is why it is impossible to attain glory without suffering. Therefore, since suffering is a prerequisite for our faith, we need a deep understanding and study of suffering.
But if we follow our instincts to avoid suffering in this way, our faith will not grow, we will not be able to meet God in our suffering, and in the end we will remain as Christians in the form of not realizing the true meaning of salvation. Therefore, in order to become active believers, we must suppress our instinct to avoid suffering and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit to participate in suffering and meet the Lord who is with us.
comfort in suffering
In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, which we read today, it says, “In all our troubles, God comforts us.” He said, "As the sufferings of Christ abound for us, so also the comfort we receive through Christ abounds for us." What is noteworthy here is that God did not comfort them because He did not allow them to suffer, but came to comfort them in their suffering. Rather, he told Paul and his companions, the evangelists, "the sufferings of Christ abound." In other words, we are suffering like Christ. The word overflowing does not mean that you suffer from accidental suffering, but that you are persecuted and persecuted wherever you go. We think that the evangelists who preach the gospel will be given power and grace so that they will not suffer, but God is allowing them to suffer a lot. But he said that he would come to them in the midst of their suffering and give them a lot of comfort. The apostle Paul gives thanks to God who comforts us in our afflictions. For Christians who follow Christ and preach the gospel, suffering was seen as an essential process.
Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). He told us not to avoid suffering, but rather to bear the suffering ourselves and follow the Lord. In the Beatitudes, it says, "Blessed are you when you are insulted, persecuted, and accused of all kinds of nonsense because of me" (Matthew 5:11). This is also a message to suffer for the sake of Christ.
Of course, this hardship is different from the hardships we had to face because of war or the hardships we met through illness. It is different from common suffering because it is what you experience while trying to follow Christ and preaching the gospel. However, no matter what kind of suffering, God’s comfort is with you in the midst of suffering, and God’s work of salvation is accomplished through that suffering. Suffering is in every case a channel of encounter with a God who comforts us, and it motivates us to build our faith. You can see that faith and suffering, the gospel and suffering are inextricably linked. When discussing faith, suffering is essential because suffering becomes the soil for faith to grow.
to trust in God
Why, then, does God not remove suffering from us, but allow faith to grow in it? Paul writes the answer in 2 Corinthians 1:9.
We felt that we had already been sentenced to death. It is so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in the God who raises the dead.
Suffering makes us not trust in ourselves, but in God Almighty. Suffering makes us look to God, wait for God's salvation, and trust in God.
When people are at peace, they forget God and live. Not only does he forget God, but he falls into pride as he thinks that his peace was created by his own strength. Because there is no sense of crisis, there is no tension, and because there is nothing desperately desired, we do not seek God. A stress-free life degenerates us and draws us farther and farther from God. Even if you are an evangelist who goes to preach the gospel, when there is no hardship, you can trust yourself and preach the gospel in your own words, not in God's power. God puts them in the midst of suffering. That's what you did.
Instead of relying on the things of this earth that will one day fall down to sustain our lives, we must build a strong and unshakable life by relying on God, the sure source of our lives. It was said that God would shake both the earth and the heavens in the last days. It is to bring down all creatures that are shaken, and to leave things that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:26-27). Everything on this earth we have depended on until now will eventually collapse. Only those who are in Christ, who is the Rock, will remain at that time. Through suffering, God keeps us in Christ, who is the Rock of all time, and enables us to grow in him.
Thus, suffering is ultimately seen as a way to meet God. When we are in trouble, God's comfort comes and his power dwells among us. Suffering makes us endlessly humble, and God comes to us in that humility. Through the theology of the cross, the Reformer Luther said that Almighty God can be found not through human reason, the order of the universe, or the glory of the church, but through the lowliness and suffering of the cross. It is because of the history of suffering that the Korean church was able to grow as it is today. Suffering was the foundation for the growth of the Korean church, and it was a place where God was with us. Thus, when we remain in trouble, the comfort of God abounds in it, but when we are freed from it, we become proud again and turn away from God. After all, suffering is an important element of faith that is indispensable until we leave this world.
participate in suffering
The next thing to think about is that when we overcome hardships, we not only give thanks, but go one step further and share in the sufferings of our neighbors, and when we continue to bear the cross of suffering, our faith becomes more mature. In 2 Corinthians 1:7, which we read today, it says, "Just as you share in afflictions, you also share in comfort." The literal translation of this verse is, “As you are partakers of suffering, you are also partakers of comfort.” The original word translated “participant” here is 'koinoni', which has the same etymology as the word 'koinonia', which means friendship or solidarity. Translated again according to this etymology, it can be translated as “those who are in solidarity with suffering” or “those who have fellowship with the suffering.”
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to this earth and suffered to atone for our sins, and at the same time to share in or solidarize with our sufferings. In the parable of “The Last Judgment” in Matthew 25, Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” It means that the Son of God is in solidarity with the least of the earth. It means fellowship with those who suffer. Therefore, when we share in the sufferings of the most insignificant, we are in communion with Christ.
The Korean church should now come down to a lower position and strive to be in solidarity with the most insignificant and to share in their suffering. When everyone goes out to a higher place, the church should go down to a lower place and meet those who are suffering there and meet Christ who is with them while healing their pain. If the Korean church grows into a great force and tries to enjoy privileges while occupying a place that cannot be ignored in our society, like the Western church, its glory may soon disappear and the church may become empty. Therefore, we should not forget the past that we grew up in the midst of hardship and constantly go down to the scene of hardship to form solidarity with those who are suffering and bind their pain. Then, the Korean church will become a faithful church that realizes the reign of God on this earth as its spirituality deepens.
Beloved, communion of suffering is an important missionary mission of the Church. As we approach Lent, we should not stop meditating on the sufferings of Christ, but go to a place where we participate in and solidarize with those sufferings. As long as there are people suffering on this earth, our suffering is not over. Because that suffering is our cross, when we take it up and follow the Lord, there we will meet the Lord, and His comfort, power, and grace will overflow within us. Comfort outside of suffering is not from heaven. There is true God's comfort in suffering.
In order to meet the God who is participating in the sufferings of this land that are not yet over, I hope that you will share your life with them by participating in the suffering of your neighbors, the suffering of the nation, and the suffering of the world.