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Storms and Suffering

October 20, 2024 Speaker: Jim Davis Series: The Book of Acts

Passage: Acts 27:39–44, Acts 28:1–10

We have been walking through Acts every August to Advent for five years now and we are officially in the last chapter. Robert, hold back your excitement. I want to look at this as sort of a part two from last week. This passage is obviously the second part of Paul’s challenges on the sea. Last week we looked at the storm they faced and this week we are looking at them shipwrecked for three months on the island of Malta. Because it’s the same story, I want to continue to pull on the theme of storms and suffering. 

We finished last week by looking at Romans 8:28. The great promise that all circumstances will work together for the good of those who love God. Even the heaviest and hardest of circumstances. But, what if you are here and you’re wondering if that applies to you? What if you have made bad decisions and wonder if that takes you out of God’s will? What if you feel like you have married the wrong person? What if you haven’t beaten your addiction? What if you feel like you’ve been an absentee parent too long? What if you decided to follow Jesus late in your life and you wonder what God can do through you now? Or, we can believe most of the verse, but struggle with the ‘those who love God part. Is that me if I’m suffering so much? All of these things can cause us to wonder if Romans 8:28 still applies to us. 

Well, the answer is, if you believe and trust in Jesus, Romans 8:28 very much applies to you. God will use those bad decisions to conform you more into the image of Jesus and glorify himself through your story. I think if anyone could be prone to thinking like this, it would be Paul. He not only resisted Jesus for years, he arrested and murdered Christians, and here he is shipwrecked on a remote Mediterranean island wondering how in the world he’s going to get to Rome. The way we can know that Romans 8:28 applies to us in any situation hinges on our understanding of suffering. There are wrong ways to respond to suffering that cause doubt and there are right ways to understand suffering that will build us up, and we see both in our passage. So those are the two points. And when we have these categories, I think it will help us to embrace and feel the goodness of God in Romans 8:28 all the more. 

  1. Wrong ways to respond to suffering

We see three wrong ways to respond to suffering in this passage. First, self-preservation. After 14 days in the storm not ever seeing the sun or stars, they can finally see land. They see a bay and they do a bunch of sailory things to get there, but the bow (that is the front) runs into some shallow water and is firmly stuck and the surf pounds against the ship and it breaks the stern (that is the back) off. And it’s at this point that the soldiers decide to kill Paul and all the other prisoners. 

Why would they do that? Well, at one level, we know that they are responsible for the prisoners and if the prisoners escape, it could cost them their lives. Remember the Philippian jailer who thought Paul and his friends had escaped? He was about to fall on his sword because he knew he would be responsible. But, of course Paul stopped him. Well, instead of killing themselves, these soldiers were going to kill the prisoners because that would best preserve themselves in this trial. 

Now, self-preservation can be a good thing when you need to defend yourself or are stuck in a storm at sea and need to swim to land. In the mental health world it can certainly be a good thing, especially in situations of trauma, where it’s important to establish boundaries to create a path toward health. But, self-preservation becomes bad when it harms other people, prevents real connection with others, or when it causes us to not love our neighbor as ourselves. Obviously, these soldiers are engaging in a bad form of self-preservation because it would come at the cost of the lives of the prisoners. 

We may call it self-preservation, but it’s actually a form of isolation that becomes self-destructive. We can blame others out of fear and then isolate ourselves because we don’t want to let someone in. In our isolation, we can cope with our pain through alcohol, drugs, or pornography. Self-destruction can feel like self-preservation because it keeps us from feeling pain. All of these things are going to cause us to not believe the good promises God has given us because we are responding to suffering in the wrong way. It doesn’t mean that these promises aren’t still true, it means that we will struggle to see them as such because we are closing ourselves off from the community God has given us. 

One small example of where we see this right now is on social media. In any political season you see fear rising. That fear causes people to say harsh things online that they often would never say to someone’s face. This is a form of self-preservation. It’s creating harsh relational boundaries out of a sense of fear which actually destroys the relationship in order to preserve themselves and the result is that they become more isolated from the community of God’s people. 

Fortunately, for all the prisoners, the head centurion wasn’t acting out of self-preservation, but out of a desire to help Paul and he ordered that everyone should try to make it on land however they can and that is what happened. 

The second wrong way to respond to suffering is self-loathing. By this I mean the mindset that my suffering is God punishing me for my bad actions. And we see this in the passage too. The entire group of 276 people make it to land and they meet the natives. The word Luke uses to describe them is ‘barbaroi’ which is where we get the word for barbarian, but really Luke just means that they don’t speak Greek. This group of Natives are incredibly hospitable to the shipwrecked crew. Luke says they showed them unusual kindness. It was cold and raining at this point and the natives began to make a fire for them. 

Paul, who seems to always be willing to help out, began to get wood for the fire and picked up a venomous snake that had become stiff like a stick in the cold weather. But when Paul put the wood on the fire, the snake warmed up a bit Paul and latched onto his hand. Immediately the natives thought this kind of suffering was their God’s judgment on Paul. They thought Paul was a murder and, even though he had escaped the sea, Justice with a capital J has not allowed him to live. 

That’s not how Christianity works. We are justified in Christ and now seen every bit as righteous as Jesus himself…there really is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus…God will not interact with us as enemies, but as loved children. Now, someone might say, “Yeah, but what about Annanias and Sapphira back in Acts 5? Sure seemed like God punished them.” There is a lot to say about that and you can go back and listen to my sermon, but what happened there is unique in redemptive history and not how God tells us he deals with his people. 

In Luke 13, Jesus is talking with some Jews and makes this same case, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?...4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in sSiloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No… - Luke 13:2,4,5a Here you have a moral disaster and a natural disaster creating terrible suffering and Jesus says that neither are a direct result of their sin. We can’t look at our suffering the way the natives looked at Paul because it causes us to focus on our actions and not God’s grace and the logical result is that we won’t see Romans 8:28 as a promise to us. Because of Christ, our suffering is not judgment. 

But, we can’t go the opposite direction either. Third, we can’t view a lack of suffering self-righteously. They waited and Paul not only didn’t die, he didn’t even swell up. Then the natives went from thinking he was a murderer to a god! That’s quite a swing in public opinion. They thought that because Paul wasn’t suffering when he ought to that he had done something to merit his health. Maybe he lived an unusually good life, maybe he was a god. But, no amount of morality is going to spare us from suffering. It can save us from needless suffering like going to jail or overdosing on drugs, but it can’t save us from the normal sufferings of life. 

Some teach that if we have enough faith then we won’t suffer and that suffering is a sign of lack of faith. But, you just can’t find that in the Bible. The prosperity gospel teaches that if you pray enough, believe enough, and live righteously enough, you’ll be rewarded with comfort. One scholar confronting this movement wrote,The prosperity gospel is a theodicy, an explanation for the problem of evil. It is an answer to the questions that take our lives apart: Why do some people get healed and some people don’t? Why do some people leap and land on their feet while others tumble all the way down? Why do some babies die in their cribs and some bitter souls live to see their great-grandchildren?” If we think it is because of our right living and our great faith, it’s only going to make us self-righteous, intolerable, and isolated. I won’t dwell on this, but simply say that if the Apostle Paul, who is a pillar of our faith, was not spared suffering through his faith, then why would we think we would be? 

If we think that our suffering is a result of our lack of faith, then we are again, focusing on our ability to save ourselves through our good works and not on the work of Christ. And, yet again, that is going to take the promise of Romans 8:28 out of God’s hands and put it into ours and make it very hard to believe when times actually get tough. 

So what is a proper understanding of suffering? Second point. 

  1. Right ways to understand suffering

The Bible gives us five categories of Christian suffering. I’m taking the five ‘C’s from a pastor named Jim Boice who died of cancer in the 90’s. First, we have common suffering. Things like aging. Things like arthritis. Things like the sicknesses in Malta that Paul healed. Second, we have corrective suffering. This is what we call discipline. It’s when God uses some measure of hardship in our lives to call us back to him. It’s not punitive, it’s loving the way a parent disciplines his child to help the child make wise decisions that result in a flourishing life. This is what the author of Hebrews said in chapter 12 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. iGod is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, jin which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to kthe Father of spirits landlive? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but hedisciplines us for our good, mthat we may share his holiness. 11 nFor the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields othe peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. - Heb 12:7-11

Third, we have constructive suffering. This is suffering that is used to build us in our character. This is the kind of suffering that results in Paul who is as cold and wet as all the others building the fire for everyone else instead of just standing beside what was already lit. Now, these aren’t totally separate categories because common suffering is often also constructive. Fourth, you have Christ-glorifying suffering. Sometimes God brings a measure of suffering into our lives so that he can be glorified through it. In John 9 we read, As he (Jesus) passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, c“Rabbi, dwho sinned, ethis man or fhis parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. - John 9:1-3 Then Jesus put mud on his eyes and he was healed. 

This man was born blind in part so that he could be healed and the glory of God seen more clearly in Jesus. We can include the hardening of Pharaoh's heart as well. The suffering of the Israelites that it caused resulted in God being glorified through the parting of the Red Sea. And again, these aren’t totally separate categories because the common suffering of the sick people in Malta resulted in Christ-glorifying suffering as Paul healed them. 

Now, while I don’t think we can or should make Paul’s healings normative for the Christian life, I also don’t think this totally stopped with the Apostles. I have a close friend whose child was diagnosed with a serious cancer when he was three. It was diagnosed in the children’s cancer hospital in Memphis and then confirmed at MD Anderson in Houston. There was really no chance of a misdiagnosis. They had plans to start chemotherapy when a friend said she felt led to come to Oxford and pray over the boy. She and some others did that and after they prayed, she declared that he was healed. Well, they went back to MD Anderson to start treatment, but they could find no cancer. The doctor who was not a Christian said the only thing he could attribute this to was a miraculous healing. He had never seen it before or since. I can tell you that the suffering the parents went through gave way to much Christ-glorifying in their lives. 

Then, fifthly and lastly, we have cosmic suffering. This is the suffering of God’s wrath for our sins. The real eternal suffering in hell that comes justly for all those who do not place their faith in Jesus. You may have noticed this, but when I read those verses from Luke, I left something out. Jesus uses the real, unavoidable suffering in this life to foreshadow this cosmic suffering. Let’s go back and look again. 2 And he answered them, q“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you rrepent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in sSiloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you rrepent, you will all likewise perish.” - Luke 13:2-5

It’s interesting to me that it is a snake that bit Paul and threatened to kill him. The theme of a snake throughout the Bible both illustrates cosmic suffering and answers the question about God’s solution for suffering. All the way back to the Garden of Eden, everything went wrong with the appearance of the serpent. The serpent was Satan and he created enough doubt in Eve’s mind about the intentions of God for she and Adam to go against God and bring sin into the world. God cursed Adam and Eve and the earth as a whole. So we can see the entry of suffering in the world. But, then God cursed the snake and foreshadowed his end. God said one day, someone will come from the line of Eve and while you will bruise his heel, he will crush your head. 

Then, fast forward to Numbers 21, the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt to the promised land and they began to grumble against God and God sent fiery serpents that bit the people and they died. But, God gave them a way out. This is corrective suffering that becomes Christ-glorifying. In verse 8 we read, And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So jMoses made a bronze3 serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. - Numbers 21:8,9

And the way that that corrective suffering becomes Christ-glorifying becomes clear in John chapter 3 when Jesus is telling Nicodemus that to be saved, one must be born again. This confuses Nicodemus and Jesus said, …as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man ebe lifted up, 15 that whoever believes fin him gmay have eternal life. - John 3:14 Jesus is showing the solution to cosmic suffering. Jesus is the one lifted up. The salvation of looking and seeing the serpent on the pole is pointing toward looking and seeing Jesus on the cross and being saved. Saved by him taking on the wrath of God for us and giving us his perfect righteousness. All we have to do is look and see. And in that moment, what looked to be Satan’s greatest triumph, became like a bruised heel to Jesus who would die and resurrect three days later. And Satan would be defanged forever for all those who look and see Jesus. 

Paul knew this. I mentioned 2 Corinthians 11 last week where Paul lists the trials he’s been through. 25 Three times I was hbeaten with rods. iOnce I was stoned. Three times I jwas shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers,danger from robbers, kdanger from my own people, ldanger from Gentiles,mdanger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 nin toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, oin hunger and thirst, often without food,2 in cold and exposure. - 2 Cor 11:25-27 Paul is arguing against false teachers who are teaching that prosperity and comfort in this life is evidence of God’s blessing, favor, and vindication of their authority. Sound familiar? But, what conclusion did he come to in chapter 12? 10 mFor the sake of Christ, then, nI am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For owhen I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Cor 12:10 Paul sees these sufferings, including shipwrecks, not as God punishing him, but as God’s good redemptive work in his life. 

My community group listened to a sermon last week on suffering and the pastor made the statement that suffering in this life can destroy you. If you don’t have the categories like the five we went through, it can destroy you. But because of the way God graciously uses suffering in our lives, a life of no suffering will destroy you. God uses our suffering to draw us closer to him and make us stronger and he will deliver us from all suffering in a way that makes all of it feel like a brief nightmare that scares you, but when you wake up, will make you all the more thankful for where you are. 

I know this is sometimes so hard to see. It’s hard to see the way a child can’t always see how the decisions of his parents are ultimately for his good. There is a huge gap between the understanding of the parents and the understanding of the child. And if that’s true, how much greater is the gap between our understanding and God’s? We may not always see or even feel God’s goodness in the moment, but that doesn’t mean Romans 8:28 isn’t still true. That’s why we have the promise. A promise for all of us who look and see Jesus. No matter what we have or haven’t done. Our job is simply to look and see. The Holy Spirit over time will help us to see and feel. He will even pray what we should when we are too weak to do it. He will allow us to know that our God took on suffering to redeem our suffering and that all our suffering will work for our good and his glory. 

More in The Book of Acts

November 10, 2024

When God Answers Questions You Aren't Asking

November 3, 2024

God Did What He Said He Would Do

October 27, 2024

And So We Came to Rome