Big Issues: Suffering in the World
This is the second sermon in our three-week series on Big Issues that Block Belief. This sermon is “Suffering in the World”. Preacher: The Rev’d Adam Lowe. Bible Readings: Matthew 9:35-38; Hebrews 2:5-18; 1 Peter 1:3-12
Sermons – St Bart's Anglican Church · The Rev'd Adam Lowe
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Show Notes
Sermon & Small Group Resources
This is the second sermon in our three-week series on Big Issues that Block Belief. This sermon is “Suffering in the World”. Preacher: The Rev’d Adam Lowe. Bible Readings: Matthew 9:35-38; Hebrews 2:5-18; 1 Peter 1:3-12
DOWNLOAD the Small Group Questions, Going Deeper, and Sermon Transcript (PDF).
Next Steps this Week
BIBLE READINGS
Matthew 9:35-38
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’
Hebrews 2:5-18
It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honour
and put everything under their feet.’
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,
‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.’
And again,
‘I will put my trust in him.’
And again he says,
‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
1 Peter 1:3-12
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
CONNECT: What area of life do you struggle to live consistently in line with Godʼs will? Bring it before God.
WARM-UP
Do you know anyone for whom suffering has been a significant ʻbelief blockerʼ? Have there ever been times in which your own experience (or witness) of suffering has caused you to wrestle with your faith?
What are the typical responses to suffering in our culture? When have you experienced/witnessed Christians demonstrate helpful and unhelpful responses to peopleʼs suffering?
Read Matthew 9:35-38
What has Jesus been doing so far in chapter 9? What does he dispatch the disciples to do in chapter 10?
When Jesus saw the crowds, what did he feel for them? Why did Jesus feel this way?
If Jesus has compassion for us – longing to be our shepherd – how is this encouraging news in the face of suffering and struggle? What does it mean for you to know that Jesus comes alongside us?
What helps you to experience Jesusʼ compassion day-to-day and especially in times of struggle? Has there been a time – of suffering – in which you experienced Jesusʼ compassion at work in your life?
How have you witnessed Godʼs compassion at work through Christian community?
On one of your main frontlines, how can you be a bearer of Jesusʼ compassion?
Why is it a dangerous idea to suggest that all personal suffering is connected with our own personal sin?
As sin entered the world, in what ways does this create a brokenness in the world? If sin is the root cause for the brokenness of the world, why would God create us with the capacity to sin?
Read 1 Peter 1:3-9
What is Godʼs solution for suffering in the world? How does Jesus taking all suffering on himself show us definitively that God is neither cruel nor powerless?
In what ways were Jesusʼ healings both a demonstration of compassion and a pointer to the complete healing weʼll receive when he returns? How is Jesusʼ resurrection a victory for us all?
In your experience of suffering, how does the combination of Jesusʼ current presence and future return help you to persevere and make sense...