The Cross and The Crown

Our scripture reading please remain standing for our

scripture reading which is Romans not chapter 6.

Sorry. It's chapter

we are in chapter 8,

and we are doing verses

16 to 18. Romans chapter 8

Romans 8:16–18

verses 16 to 18. I'm actually going to

be

focusing

the sermon on the second part of verse

17

and, of course, verse 18 as well speaks

to that, but I'm reading from verse 16

to have the full context

of this section. So please listen now to

the reading of God's word beginning in Romans

Romans 8:16

chapter 8 verse 16.

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are children of God.

And if children then heirs heirs of God

and fellow heirs with Christ,

provided we suffer with him in order that

we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this

present time

are not worth comparing

with the glory

that is to be revealed to us. This

is the word of the lord.

Thanks be to god. Please be seated.

In John chapter 9,

John 9 · chapter mention

the disciples asked Jesus concerning a man that

was born blind.

They asked him if the man was born

blind because of his own sin

or if he was born blind because of

the sin of his parents.

Jesus answers that it was neither because of

the man's own sin

nor because of the sin of his parents

that he was born blind.

Rather, Jesus says that the reason

what the man was born blind

was so that the works of God

might be displayed in him.

Of course, the works of God are indeed

displayed in that man since Jesus goes on

to miraculously

restore his sight.

And yet the question the disciples asked Jesus

is one of is one that many Christians

continue to ask themselves

whenever they experience suffering.

Perhaps it's a question that you are asking

yourself today.

The question is,

am I being punished

for my sin?

Now our sins do in fact have consequences

for our lives

and for the lives of others.

Consequences that often entail

suffering and which can be painful

and have devastating effects.

But this does not mean that our suffering

is a punishment from God.

There's another reason for it.

Or is there actually

no reason behind it at all?

No purpose for it. So that our suffering

is meaningless and pointless

as unavoidable

as it is irredeemable.

This morning's sermon will answer these questions as

we consider what Romans

Romans 8:17–18

8 verses 17 to 18 teaches

about the suffering of Christians.

In fact, the main point in this morning's

sermon is this,

suffering in Christ

anticipates

glory with Christ.

Suffering in Christ

anticipates

glory with Christ. Or one might put it

another way and say that the cross

leads to the crown.

The cross leads to the crown.

And we will develop the sermons proposition under

2 headings.

The first one is why Christians experience the

cross

and the second

why Christians expect the crown.

And we're gonna spend almost all of our

time in this sermon in this first one,

why Christians experience the cross. I wanna talk

about

suffering in the life of a Christian and

why

we suffer as Christians. But we will talk

about the glory and we'll talk more about

the glory of that we have in Christ,

next week,

in the next section in Romans 8.

Alright. So let's look at the first heading,

why Christians experience the cross. In verses 16

17, again, Paul writes,

the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are children of God. And if

children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow

heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him

in order that we may also be glorified

with him.

Last week, we learned that the Holy Spirit

who dwells within Christians

gives us assurance of salvation

by testifying to our spirits that we have

been adopted, that we are now members of

the household of God,

and that we are now heirs with Christ

of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

We neither merited nor in any way deserved

such a great blessing.

And yet through the perfect

atoning work of Christ, our sins have been

forgiven.

We have been saved

by grace through faith,

and we have been brought into God's family.

But now in the second part of verse

17,

after writing of the extravagance

of God's grace toward us,

Paul jolts us back to the painful reality

of this fallen world by introducing the topic

of the Christian's present suffering

and by linking it to the Christian's expectation

of future glory.

Paul writes that as Christians,

we shall enjoy an unimaginably

rich inheritance

as God's heirs

and that a day awaits us still when

we shall bask in God's glory

with this caveat

that we first suffer with Christ

in the here and now.

Well, that does dampen the mood a little

bit, doesn't it?

The reason Paul hits the brakes

and causes us to slow down and to

consider

the topic of suffering

is that Paul is a good pastor.

Paul knows that suffering is an integral

and unavoidable part of the human experience.

On this mother's day, the moms in this

room can confirm

that pain and suffering envelope

the very moment of birth.

And the first thing that we do when

we are born

is to cry.

The moment of death is likewise

enveloped by pain and suffering

and is followed by days months of mourning

and weeping.

And we don't only meet suffering at the

bookends of life of life

for it is a recurring character in the

pages

that tell the human story.

So Paul writes now about suffering

because suffering is part of life.

Whether we talk about it or not,

whether we understanding

understand it or not, suffering

is reality.

So let's talk about suffering

and see what we can understand about it.

The first thing to note is that it

is impossible

to meaningfully

explain suffering

according to an atheistic worldview.

There's irony here

since many people attribute their atheism

to the existence of suffering.

They say, how can a good god

allow suffering to exist?

Yet atheism is not a viable

alternative.

You see, if god does not exist,

then there is no ultimate purpose

neither for our lives

nor for humanity

nor for the universe.

Everything is the result

of blind forces

acting

on random molecules

without a purpose

and toward no end.

In such reality,

life is like a soup that is prepared

and stirred, but not by a cook,

obeying a precise recipe

that no chef concocted

and destined to be consumed,

but not enjoyed.

When such a world serves a cold dish,

there's no one to complain to

nor is a complaint even warranted

for no menu was ever presented,

and no dinner party was ever planned,

and no banquet

was ever prepared.

In the godless ecosystem

of mere survival,

the game

is about avoiding famine not about enjoying a

feast.

And in that planet of pointless possibilities,

a cold cup of soup will do.

So in the face of suffering,

an atheist might reasonably respond with indifference

Whether through philosophical systems like stoicism

or through religious systems like Zen Buddhism

or through the numbing influence of alcohol,

drugs, and entertainment,

the godless solution to suffering

involves

either emotional detachment

or more likely

the relentless pursuit of euphoria,

hoping to artificially

drown down

the sadness of reality

in the fantasy

of escapism

or to overwhelm suffering

by the brute force of a dopamine hit.

Is this your response

to suffering?

Do you believe

the answer to suffering

is to abandon your faith

and to become indifferent to suffering

altogether?

In River Out of Eden, evolutionary biologist and

atheist, Richard Dawkins writes,

the universe we observe has precisely the properties

we should expect if there is, at bottom,

no design,

no purpose,

no evil and no good,

nothing but blind,

pitiless

indifference.

And yet,

truth be told,

very few people regardless of worldview or creed

are indifferent

to either human suffering in general

or to their own suffering in particular.

In fact, far too often,

the atheist general posture toward life, including that

of Richard Dawkins,

whom I just quoted,

can be accurately described by the creed,

I don't believe in God

and I hate him.

The so called new atheism movement that began

2 decades ago and which found its main

proponents in men like Richard Dawkins,

Christopher Hitchens,

Sam

Harris, and Daniel Dennett

was not characterized by love,

joy, and peace

but by hate,

anger,

and belligerence.

The reason for this

is that life is hard

and suffering cannot be ignored,

and people are looking for answers and looking

for someone to blame.

This is why the most common response to

suffering is not indifference,

but incense.

After the sadness and grief

that accompany

suffering subside,

irritability

and indignation

typically set in whether one believes in god

or not.

Is this how you respond to suffering?

Do you become indignant?

Do you blame God for the misfortunes

and the tragedies that may befall you?

Again, atheism neither ameliorates the sting of suffering

nor does it redeem its effects.

Now if we are to find any consolation,

we must not run away from scripture rather

we are to run to scripture.

For we see in verses 17 18

that the bible does not avoid the topic

of suffering.

So according to the bible,

why does suffering exist?

And why must Christians

carry a cross?

The answer to the first question, why does

suffering exist, consists in one word,

sin.

Unlike the unsatisfying

answer or non answer of atheism, which says

that suffering is the coincidental

consequence

of chemistry and chaos.

The Bible explains suffering as the consequence of

cosmic treason.

In Genesis 3, we learned that suffering entered

the world after Adam sinned

because Adam broke the covenant

that God had made with him. A covenant

that promised eternal life to Adam and to

his posterity if Adam obeyed,

but death to Adam and to his posterity

if Adam disobeyed.

Because Adam broke the covenant

that God made with him,

suffering and death entered

into the world.

God pronounced a curse

against Adam

telling him that he would now only eat

by the sweat of his brow

and that the very ground which used to

feed mankind

would now swallow him up at death.

He pronounced a curse against Eve

telling her that she would suffer pain in

childbirth

and that her relationship to her husband would

be strained.

But significantly,

God also pronounced a curse against the serpent

condemning it to crawl on its belly,

but also foreshadowing

the ultimate demise of sin,

of suffering, and of death, promising that one

day the woman's offspring would crush the serpent's

head.

Therefore, suffering is not random.

Its reason is cosmic treason.

But God's word not only tells us

that man's sin is the source of suffering,

It also tells us the solution to suffering

is

the woman's offspring.

So the burden of suffering may indeed be

heavy and its yoke hard,

but God's word of hope makes the yoke

easy

and the burden

light.

Suffering is not the last word.

God's word is.

The answer to the second question, why must

Christians carry a cross,

will help us understand the extraordinary

hope that we have in Christ

and God's commitment

to complete the work that he has begun

in us.

Jesus virgin birth identifies him as the promised

and long awaited offspring of woman who would

one day

conquer sin,

conquer suffering,

and conquer death.

His death on Golgotha

which means the place of the skull in

Aramaic,

far from being his defeat was the moment

he drove the cross

through the serpent skull.

Jesus' victory was confirmed

when he was raised from the dead,

and our own victory was secured

when Jesus ascended into heaven where he ever

lives to intercede for us at the right

hand of the father.

Therefore, when Paul writes in verse 17

that we are now heirs with Christ,

provided we suffer

with him in order that we may also

be glorified with him,

He does not mean by this that our

blessedness

depends on our own suffering.

Christ has already suffered in our place.

He has already been judged for our sins.

He has already crushed the serpent.

He has already defeated sin and suffering and

death.

He has already secured our victory. All that

is done. It is finished.

What Paul means in verse 17

is that when we suffer as Christians,

our own sense of security

in Christ grows

even as the spirit bears witness with our

spirit that we are children of God, that

we are his heirs.

In other words,

although everyone suffers because of sin,

the suffering of Christians has a sanctifying effect

on us.

It is used by God to conform us

more and more to the image of Christ.

So how does suffering help us to grow

in our faith?

1st,

suffering teaches us that this world is not

our home.

In John 15 verses 18 and 19 Jesus

John 15:18

writes,

I mean, Jesus says,

if the world hates you,

know that it has hated me before it

hated you.

If you were of the world,

the world will love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world,

but I chose you out of the world,

therefore,

the world hates you.

Earlier this week,

I had dinner with a friend from Europe

who told me that he was perplexed when

Christians in this country talk about being persecuted

for their faith.

He said, when I grew up in Europe,

I rarely met Christians

and I never told people that I was

a Christian.

But here,

there are Christians everywhere

and there is no shame in identifying as

a Christian.

There's

a great this is a great country for

Christians, he said. So no Christian in America

should be worried

about persecution.

Although I wholeheartedly

agree that one of the great blessings of

being a Christian in America

is that we enjoy great liberty to worship

God and to practice our faith,

I do believe

that there are dark clouds gathering over Christianity

in our country.

I won't get into my assessment

now of the situation since it's beyond the

scope of this particular sermon.

However,

even though there is there are clear signs

of a storm on the horizon, not the

just the one that we hear now,

and perhaps even if your raindrops

have already begun, maybe God is trying to

tell us something,

by and large

it is still comfortable

to be a Christian in America.

This freedom is a great blessing, and we

must steward it well as long as it

lasts.

But

our freedom and comfort

also presents a great challenge for us. It

presents a great challenge to the growth of

our faith in this country

because it is easy to identify as a

Christian

because it cost us very little.

We believe we can curate

our Christian experience.

We take the aspects of Christianity

that we like,

meeting people with good family values,

finding nice friends for our kids,

listening to an inspiring sermon every once in

a while,

and perhaps even having an inside track to

network with potential business partners or with

potential clients.

We take these parts because we like them,

but we discard the parts that we don't

particularly enjoy.

Pursuing holy living,

all this talk about sin and repentance,

attending weekly worship,

attending Sunday school,

volunteering to serve,

tithing,

staying for fellowship, and so on. Plenty of

things make it hard to be a Christian.

We build our own Christian experience

because we can.

Because life in this country is so good

that we really don't feel like we need

the church.

We don't need

Christianity.

It's just nice to have.

Well, when suffering comes to us

not because of our sinfulness

or because of our foolish decisions

or because of other people,

and the fact that they're jerks sometimes,

when we suffer because of our faith,

the term of the self curated Christian experience

goes away.

If associating with Christ,

if obeying him

causes us to bear a cost,

then we will have to reflect on God's

love.

We will have to consider

Christ's sacrifice for us.

We'll have to rely on the Holy Spirit

to persuade us that the cost is worth

it

and to sustain us when things become

difficult.

In short,

when we suffer as Christians

we are disabused from the idea that our

joy

and happiness and peace are found

in the premises and promises

of our materialistic

culture.

And instead,

we rightly discern that only in Christ

can we find fullness of joy.

In the beatitudes,

in the beginning of Matthew 5, Jesus writes,

blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'

sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and

persecute you and utter all kinds of evil

against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is

great in heaven, for so they persecuted the

prophets

who were before you.

It's easy for us to understand

that we are greatly blessed when we are

not being persecuted

and when we are not suffering because of

our faith.

But Christian,

you must know

that when you are persecuted

for righteousness sake,

that when you are reviled and slandered on

account of Christ,

that too is a great blessing.

And Jesus calls you to rejoice and be

glad in that moment

because it reminds you that your ultimate reward

is not here,

but in heaven.

It is good to enjoy

the correct perspective.

Another way in which suffering sanctifies us is

that it encourages us to pray.

In 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16 to

18,

Paul writes,

rejoice always,

pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances.

But the truth is that when things are

not when things are going great

we are prone to forget to pray.

We're more likely to live life almost as

if we were self sufficient.

But when there is a crisis in our

life,

whenever we encounter suffering

especially when it is due to a circumstance

that is

entirely

outside of our control,

we will be much more ready to pray.

And this is true

whether the crisis is the result of a

religious

persecution against us

or whether it's simply the consequence of living

in a fallen world.

During our last presbytery meeting on April 8th,

we had hoped

that the presbytery would vote to officially

approve our church plant at that meeting.

This was not

the outcome that transpired when the presbytery for

various reasons voted to postpone the vote until

August.

It wasn't what we hoped for,

but one of the immediate benefits

from that outcome was that it gave those

of us who were there from our church

plant,

who were there at the meeting,

the opportunity to gather

and to pray

and to thank God

for his wisdom,

for his sovereign will

because he knows what is best for us

and he knows what will bring him the

most glory.

We can trust him with that and we

have to rejoice in that and we have

to thank him. He knows better than we

do.

And so we had that wonderful opportunity.

Adversity

pushed us to pray together

and it made the time that we had

more sweet.

It allowed us to feel God's presence with

us and it gave us the opportunity to

trust in his good and perfect will for

this church. Praise the Lord.

A third way in which suffering helps us

to grow in our faith is that it

reminds us of our sinfulness and gives us

an opportunity to repent.

I'm not saying that God is punishing us

when we suffer.

Again,

suffering because of our sin does have painful

consequences,

but our suffering is not God's punishment for

our sin

and we know that to be true because

Christ was already punished for our sin.

He was punished in our place.

But anytime we suffer, we are reminded

that this is a world that is in

rebellion against God.

And this realization also gives us an opportunity

to reflect

on our own sinfulness

and to repent of it and to ask

God for forgiveness.

Remember that only Jesus

was entirely without sin when he suffered.

And remember that it was your sin

and my sin

that led him to suffer on the cross.

So whenever you suffer unjustly

on account of Christ,

rejoice

because in that moment God has given you

the great privilege

of imitating Jesus.

And take the opportunity

when that happens

to repent of your own sin

which was imputed. It was credited

to Jesus on Calvary. He took it on.

He was punished

for your sin and my and for my

sin. He took our place.

As you do this,

God through the holy spirit will purify and

refine you,

causing you to grow in your hatred of

sin,

especially your own sin,

and in your love for your savior.

A 4th way in which suffering sanctifies you

is that it gives you a stronger grip

on your assurance of salvation.

When former boxing

heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson,

was asked if he was concerned

about his upcoming fight with the great Evander

Holyfield,

Tyson famously responded,

everyone has a plan until they get punched

in the mouth.

It's one thing to say one believes

in God's sovereignty,

in God's love,

in Christ lordship,

in the power of the Holy Spirit to

transform hearts, but it's another thing altogether

to confess Christ and curse Caesar

when you're in the middle of the Roman

Colosseum

and you can hear the lions roaring.

None of us want suffering.

None of us are called to look for

suffering.

However, we are told to expect it

and we are called to be faithful when

the moment of trial comes.

Suffering is a severe mercy in this.

It gives us the opportunity

to test our trust in God

and to test our love for Christ

and to test our reliance on the Holy

Spirit.

And if we endure that trial

and we persevere in our faith,

then our assurance of salvation will only get

stronger.

During the Last Supper that Jesus shared with

his disciples,

Jesus took a moment to privately speak to

Judas

and separately

to Peter.

To Judas, Jesus said,

what you are going to do,

do quickly.

But to Peter Jesus said,

Simon, Simon,

behold,

Satan demanded to have you that he might

sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you

that your faith may not fail you.

Perhaps the most significant reason why Peter who

denied Jesus three times and even cursed him

did not apostatize

while Judas did

is that Jesus prayed for Peter.

Dear Christian,

don't miss this.

In that same room where Jesus celebrated the

last supper with his disciples,

he prayed for them,

he prayed for Peter,

but also and significantly

he prayed for

you. Look at what Jesus prays and for

whom he prays during what's known as the

high priestly prayer

of Jesus

in John 17.

Beginning in verse 20, we read this is

Jesus praying.

I do not ask for these only. That

is, I do not ask for the disciples

only.

But also for those who will believe in

me through their word

that they may all be 1 just as

you,

father,

are in me

and I in you

that they also may be in us

so that the world may believe

that you have sent me.

The glory

that you have given me,

I have given to them

that they may be 1

even as we are 1.

He prays for those who will believe in

him through the word of the disciples. Jesus

is praying for each and every Christian in

this room.

And he says that he has given you

the glory

that the father

gave him.

This brings us to our second heading

with which we will conclude the sermon why

Christians can expect the crown.

In verse 17,

Paul wrote that Christians who suffer for Christ

can be certain that they will also be

glorified with him.

Paul complements this concept in verse 18 where

he writes,

for I consider that the sufferings of this

present time are not worth comparing

with the glory that is to be revealed

to us.

We'll talk more about verse 18 and the

verses that follow next week especially how they

relate to the glory that is to be

revealed.

But right now

I want to leave you with this thought.

For the Christian,

suffering

in Christ anticipates

glory with Christ.

Be encouraged

even when you suffer because the cross leaps

to the crown.

Inevitably,

the word glory is not easily defined,

but it has to do with the weight

of something or of someone's

worthiness

or holiness

or honor

or with his his brilliance or radiance or

splendor.

All of these things

are part of what the word glory

means.

And Paul writes that if you were to

put the substance of your sufferings on a

scale

and put the substance of your future glory

on the opposite part of the balance,

you would realize that it is no contest.

That the substance of suffering as significant as

that suffering may be

is not in the same league

as the glory that is already yours in

Jesus Christ.

Paul puts it this way in 2nd Corinthians

chapter 4

verses 17 and 18.

He writes,

for this light momentary affliction is preparing for

us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

as we look not to the things that

are seen,

but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient,

but the things that are unseen

are eternal.

Dear Christian,

your suffering is light, but your glory will

be weighty.

Your suffering is momentary,

but your glory is eternal.

Your suffering is earthly and will pass away,

but your glory is heavenly

and will last forever.

And you can be sure of this because

you are united to Christ

who has endured the cross and has received

the crown,

and it is with him. As it is

with him,

it shall be with you. Your union with

Christ

through a spirit wrought faith

guarantees it.

You have been sealed

by the holy spirit.

I remember hearing

the late RC Sproul

who was one of the sharpest theologians and

one of the most gifted teachers of our

time. I remember hearing him tell a story

about a trip that he made to Eastern

Europe in 1990.

He said that he had been invited to

do a series of lectures in 3 countries

in Czechoslovakia,

in Hungary, and then finally in Romania.

These three countries were Soviet satellite states at

the time.

As they were leaving Hungary and they were

gonna go into Romania, they were warned that

the border guards in Romania were quite hostile

to Americans and so they should be prepared

to be hassled and perhaps even arrested at

the border.

So they boarded the train with some trepidation

and they reached,

the border, with Romania. And at that moment,

2 guards jumped onto the train.

They couldn't speak English, but they pointed to

the passports and to the luggage.

As they scowl, they rudely gestured for the

Americans to open their luggage.

Suddenly,

the their boss appeared, a burly officer who

spoke some broken English.

And he noticed that one of the women

in the group had a paper bag and

that there was something

that was,

peeking out of that bag as it were.

He said, what's this in the bag?

Then he opened the bag and pulled out

a bible.

RC Sproul says that in that moment, he

thought, uh-oh.

We might be in big trouble.

The officer began leafing through the Bible quickly,

going through various passages.

Then he stopped,

looked at r c and at his wife,

both of whom were holding American passports,

and he said to them, you are not

American.

They were confused,

concerned, a bit frightened

at what might happen next.

But then the officer smiled

and he said, I'm not Romanian.

Then he pointed to the bible,

gave it to RC and said, read what

it says.

And RC read the text which was Philippians

Philippians 3:20

chapter 3 verse 20 and it says our

citizenship

is in heaven.

The guard was a Christian.

He turned to his subordinates and said, leave

these people alone. They're okay. They're Christians.

RC gave a sigh of relief

and thanked God for his mercy.

Our suffering in this life is not random

or pointless.

Through it, God is preparing us for an

eternal weight of glory for a crown

forged

by the loving work of our savior.

The crown is radiant because it reflects the

splendor of its maker.

It's kept secure in heaven

in the country that we belong to.

But I say,

we let his glory shine here in this

country,

even if imperfectly

as we reflect the attributes of the master

craftsman

by building a community

that radiates love, joy, and peace,

and exudes patience, kindness,

and goodness,

and displays faithfulness,

gentleness, and self control.

The cross leads to the crown.

So let us not tire in proclaiming the

cross

that the glory of the crown

might shine more brightly.

Let's pray.