Beginning to Understand Pain and Suffering

There are many really great days being a pastor. I get to share the gospel with people, counsel couples as they prepare to get married, train up new leaders, teach the Bible, and celebrate alongside people as God works in their lives. And there are many incredibly tough days too. Days where I see apathy destroy someone’s faith, addiction ruin relationships, infidelity damage marriages, and even days where I’m confronted with the real and deep sting of death. 

In the past months at Hiawatha Church, we’ve had to say goodbye to two children whose premature deaths rocked our world. For many of us, the reality of death is all too real right now. And even if you knew neither of these families, if you look around you’ll see that pain, suffering, heartache, and death are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. 

If this doesn't seem right to you, know that it shouldn't. The world wasn't meant to be like this. Death and thorns and brokenness were not part of the perfect world that God created. They are a symptom of our rebellion.

So how should we view life, the world, and God when we encounter crippling pain and suffering?

We live in a fallen world

When our first father and mother rebelled against God and thereby declared themselves their own "god", all humanity (and all creation) fell with them. And because of this fall, our world is marred. We're no longer in perfect relationship with God. The Earth is now cursed, filled with thistles and weeds, hardship and brokenness, blood and tears. Disease, sickness, and death are now the new reality.

Another effect of the Fall is that we are now enemies with our creator and each other. Relationships are damaged, people abuse each other physically and emotionally, and brokenness is common. Jesus promised us that as his followers, we'd receive trials and tragedy, persecution and suffering. Even though it isn't fun, we shouldn't be surprised when it comes. If our savior went through the most horrific suffering, pain and death, we should expect that in this world we will experience some of the same as his followers.

Despite the hardship we'll face in this life and world, we're reminded that as Christians we have hope. John Calvin writes, "Eternal life is promised to us, but it is promised to the dead; we are told of the resurrection of the blessed, but meantime we are involved in corruption; we are declared to be just, and sin dwells within us; we hear that we are blessed, but meantime we are overwhelmed by the untold miseries; we are promised an abundance of all good things, but we are often hungry and thirsty; God proclaims that he will come to us immediately, but seems to be deaf to our cries. What would happen if we didn't rely on hope, and if our minds did not emerge above the world out of the midst of darkness through the shining Word of God and by his Spirit?" 

We have a foretaste of eternity now

Despite having to endure a fallen world in our broken, mortal bodies, we are given a foretaste of eternity now. We get glimpses of what the new heaven and earth will be like. We experience gracious communion with God and his people that,  albeit veiled, is still a small glimpse of what eternity will be like.

In Christ, we've been given his Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation and life with him. We've been sealed through the Holy Spirit for the day when we'll be fully redeemed and it is his promise that he'll protect us as his own until he returns and make us a part of his family. Not only is the Spirit a guarantee of our salvation but the author of Ephesians also uses a word that describes that the Spirit is a first installment of the future glory we'll receive. It's like being let into the kitchen to have a taste of the glorious feast that is being prepared. 

Not only does Christ's Spirit live in us, empower us, comfort us, and use us, we are also graciously given the communion with Christ here on earth through the Church. The Bible describes the church as Jesus' body, visible and relational. In the book of Matthew, Jesus taught that essentially when we give, serve, and love other believers (others from the Church), that we're doing it for Jesus. This is just before he is crucified and leaves his disciples. He is reminding them that even though he will leave them, in a very real and tangible way, he will be with them as the gathering of believers.

This is not the end

Those who put their faith in Christ do not put their hope in this life. Christians believe This is Not the End. We know that this world is not "it"; that this life is just the beginning. Jesus promised that if we put our faith in him we will spend eternity with him and his people in paradise, a new recreated, restored and renewed earth. 

We know that just as God created us originally, through Christ we will be re-created as well as our fallen world.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.”  - 1 Corinthians 15:51-54

Tim Keller reminds us that “resurrection is not just consolation — it is restoration. We get it all back — the love, the loved ones, the goods, the beauties of this life — but in new, unimaginable degrees of glory and joy and strength."

Not only is this not the end, but our enemies will also be defeated. Everything that brings, creates and produces our pain and suffering will be destroyed! Sin, Satan, and death are all defeated by Jesus through his death, resurrection, and second coming! 

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more," neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.  - Revelation 21:4

The cross helps us understand pain and suffering

Jesus left his throne in heaven and "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7) on a mission to become our savior. At the cross God took the most horrific and unjust evil and made it into the most beautiful and glorious good this world has seen. What the enemy wanted to use for destruction, death, slavery and oppression, God used for the greatest joy and blessing humanity could ever receive. Through the cross (the most evil act in history), God brought the greatest news ever: people can now be reconciled to their creator, have their sins forgiven, and receive life everlasting. 

"Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great"  - Tim Keller. 

Conclusion

Don't be surprised when (not if, but when) you are flooded with pain and suffering. Remember that we live in a broken world that is this way by our own making. Remember that we get a glimpse and foretaste of paradise and eternity now through the Spirit and the Church. Remember this world is not the end but for those who have faith in Christ, this is the closest to hell we will ever get. And finally, understand your pain and suffering by looking at the cross: the pinnacle act of God defeating our ultimate enemies and bringing life out of death.

*Tim Keller quotes from Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering.

Song Book: Look What God Has Done

We’re starting to include a new song in our Sunday morning worship: “Look What God Has Done”, written and recorded by a band called Ghost Ship. Why is this song a good addition to our worship gatherings?

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul spends time talking about how God has not only redeemed his people by the blood of Christ, but he has built the people into a Church. He has united people from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and races into a new spiritual family. God’s people didn’t do anything to gain inclusion into this new spiritual family. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in our sins, completely incapable of turning and being obedient to his call.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

(Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)

Yes, by nature, we are all born into disobedience and sin and deserve, not the love of God, but the wrath of God. It is in this helpless state that God finds us and, instead of quickly snuffing us out of existence, he offers his obedient and sinLESS Son to bear the wrath and punishment for our sin.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

Now, the song “Look What God Has Done” celebrates this amazing truth. The lyrics point to the fact that God is the one orchestrating our salvation, not us. We were lost and dead in sin. We were orphans without hope. But he came for us and adopted us. And beyond just that, he gave us purpose in this life. He created good works and invites and enables us to walk in them as a unified and diverse church on earth. What an fantastic reality to live in - that the work of our salvation is done and now we are being sent by the author of that salvation tell other about it and to be living, breathing examples of it.

The chorus of the song jumps ahead in Ephesians to chapter 3 and echoes the closing prayer (the doxology) that Paul writes there. When we look at the amazing work of the church, it’s easy to start praising ourselves (which Paul cautions against in chapter 2). Here, Paul is moved to shout glory to God for HIS power that’s at work in the church. A power that has endured through generations of people from Paul’s day to today.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

(Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV)

“Look What God Has Done” has a lot of theology wrapped up in it and at its core, it’s one of a few songs we sing at Hiawatha that has some lyrics that are actually directed at the church itself. As we sing this song, we are singing to each other. We are reminding each other that what we do at Hiawatha Church is not about us. It’s about God. We look around at our spiritual family. We talk to each other. We grow together. We sing and learn together. And we even scatter “together” when we leave the building. We are unified and sent by the work of God the Father through his Son Jesus. So when we sing this song, we remind each other and ourselves that Hiawatha Church exists to glorify God and to point to what he has done. Forever and ever.

PETER CARLSON / WORSHIP LEADER

Why does Hiawatha Church Gather on Sundays?

Why do we gather as a church on Sundays? Is it simply for our own encouragement and edification? Or do we meet for a service on Sunday mornings in order to reach out to the community, intentionally and deliberately gearing everything we do for them? For us the answer is both (although we lean more towards building up the body of believers through the gospel).

We want everything we do when we gather on a Sunday morning to teach, equip, and encourage the church to be on mission with God to make disciples AND to be missional in itself (missional means to be on mission with God as he saves the lost, making disciples for this glory and our joy). At Hiawatha Church, nearly everything we do during our Sunday gathering is intentionally both. Let’s go through a typical Sunday gathering and show how each aspect sets the agenda for mission and is also to some extent missional in itself.

Gathering: We gather on the Lord’s Day to remember Christ’s resurrection, which gives us the desire and ability to live on mission with Him. We also gather as one body to remind us of our need for each other, the relational aspect of God’s love, and to serve and encourage each other. These gatherings show the world that we are his disciples by our love for each other and display a community (a spiritual family) that attracts many.

Everything we do when we gather is centered on the cross, the good news of Jesus' death on our behalf.

Being Greeted as We Enter the Building: This reminds us of the gospel in a particular way. At the cross Christ brought us into fellowship with himself. We also purposefully put a few people at each door so that every single visitor is greeted, given a smile, and is welcomed. We want a newcomers’ and non-believers’ first interaction with Hiawatha Church to reflect how Christ has welcomed us spiritually to God through his death and resurrection.. 

Hospitality: We’re reminded that Christ is our spiritual sustenance and gives us true friendship, nourishment, rest, and satisfaction through the ospel. To non-believers it gives us an opportunity to meet and talk with them and demonstrates that we care about both the body and the soul. It also demonstrates Christ's generosity to us and hopefully makes the church feel like more of a safe place to check out.  

Welcoming and Fellowship: We welcome both visitors and members at the beginning of each service, reminding us that our God has welcomed us (his former enemies) and has brought us back into relationship (fellowship) with him through the cross. This also gives us the ability to forgive and to be reconciled to our neighbor. All are welcomed in a spirit of non-partiality as we shake hands, introduce ourselves, share stories, and cross aisles of all types to bring unity and show that we’re all sinners in need of a savior and his grace.  

Communion: We remember the gift of Christ's body and shed blood regularly and communally as a church. As we do this, non-believers understand that they cannot partake in all parts of church gathering and realize that they are still in some ways an outsider, in need of forgiveness and grace. But they still continue to hear the gospel explicitly and are called to belief, repentance and faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. 

Reading the Word: We read the Bible because it is God’s Word, a missional text to us, telling us His story and inviting us into mission with him by the power of the Holy Spirit. It prepares us for the rest of our worship service by re-centering the mind and soul around something (and someone) much bigger than us and whatever we bring into the room. 

Prayer: When we pray we remind ourselves that we’re in need of grace, the ever-present Holy Spirit to empower us to be on mission and to do good, and to praise and thank our God for the cross. Prayer also is missional in that it gives the non-believer a glimpse into the intimate communication between a Christian and their heavenly father that we can have because of the gospel.  

Worship: We respond to the good news (gospel) through worship, reminding ourselves of what we’ve been saved from and saved to. We choose to sings songs that proclaim the gospel, remind us of our sin and God’s mercy, and are done in a relevant and culturally appreciated medium in hopes of creating no stumbling blocks to the gospel, other than the gospel itself.  

Preaching: We need to be continually reminded of who we were, who we are, and how we’ve been redeemed. These reminders spur us on to more belief, to love and good deeds, and are used to give us a heart for the lost as we see own stories in theirs. This is our most explicit form of missional intentionality as the lost are saved (and the saved are saved afresh) through the hearing and preaching of the Gospel. 

There are many more things we do to intentionally be missional and set the agenda for mission (i.e. children's ministry, giving, testimonies, music, etc.) that we could mention as well but this is a good start. We are not perfect at this, by any stretch, but we have been deliberate in crafting our Sunday gatherings for both the believer and unbeliever who attend. And the main strategy for this is to make the gospel central to everything we do.

SPENCER PETERSON / COMMUNITY LIFE PASTOR