A Theology of Suffering

Series: Breakout
June 15, 2008

Last we unpacked what I could have called “a theology of joy.” We live in a culture that is joy-obsessed. People are searching for it with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. But because they have made joy their god, they find themselves not on the upward trajectory to happiness, but the downward spiral to misery. They accumulate stuff, they become workaholics, they look for the one person to make them complete, and joy continues to elude them. But this desire for happiness and joy is God given, it is good, and it’s part of what it means to be human. So we don’t abandon the search for joy, we just need to look in the right place!

We look to God. We affirm that true joy, the kind of joy that isn’t faked or forced, that wells up inside of us, that transcends time, place, situations and circumstances, comes only in God. For our God is a God of joy, who made joy, who is joyful, who gives us joy in Him. We put our life in Him, we put our faith and trust in Him, we put our belief in Him, and when we get our purpose straight in Him, we are, as CS Lewis put it, “surprised by joy.” We are surprised to find the joy of the Lord. It’s the icing on the cake, the after-effect we we’re expecting, which makes it all the better.

But joy isn’t the whole story of our lives is it. In fact, our desire for joy really stems out of the other side of the coin, the other extreme of our lives, and that’s the reality of suffering. In this book of the bible we are studying, Paul, the author, rejoices over the church he planted in Philippi. He prays for them, he thanks God for them, he has the full assurance that God will complete his plan and purpose for them. And he knows that Jesus is coming again, maybe in his lifetime. He knows Jesus will come and complete his work of redeeming and renewing all of the creation. He will complete His redeeming work in all of us, His children. This is the source of his joy! God started a great work of salvation in our world and in our lives, and He will see it through to completion. His plans for the world and our lives cannot and will be thwarted. God is in control!

But there’s the crazy thing: all of this, he shares from a jail cell. He shares from one of the most miserable, hopeless, helpless situations a man can find himself in. He writes this letter of joy even while he suffers. And that’s what we want to get into today.

Listen to the sermon on our website or read the whole sermon here.