Welcome back. We've been looking at John Piper's new book recently titled "Come, Lord Jesus Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ." And we're going to return to the book next time, but we ended the episode on Monday looking at how the second coming of Christ gives us the grace that we need to endure suffering with joy.

That was 1 Peter 4, verses 12 and 13, a key text that has appeared 20 times on the podcast already. It's a very critical text if you want to understand Pastor John and Christian hedonism and what the Bible says about suffering. 1 Peter 4, verses 12 and 13. So we're going to hit pause on our little series on the second coming to press into this reality, suffering with joy, connecting our suffering to our joy.

It's a very sensitive connection, and it came up in Hawaii back in 2014 with Pastor John speaking to a room full of pastors and their wives, a room that included, likely not aware to Pastor John, a woman, a woman from Kahului, Hawaii, who was in the room suffering silently.

She shared this clip with us in her story. First the clip, then her story. Here's Pastor John. Now, connecting joy and suffering is a risky business, and I would only do it because of 21 texts I wrote down here. I'm not going to read them all. That would be tedious.

I'm going to read 10, because I think I can read them non-tediously. So this is kind of a bath right now. I'm just going to bathe you with one truth, okay, and you'll hear it. The connection between joy and suffering in the New Testament. One, Romans 5, 3, "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope doesn't disappoint." Number two, James 1, verse 2, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." Number three, 1 Peter 4, 13, "We rejoice insofar as you share the sufferings of Christ, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed." Number four, oh, I skipped from three to five.

Maybe I only have nine. I see my numbering is off here. So I'm going to stick in another one to make it 10. Hebrews 10, 34, "For you had compassion on the prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property." Number five, Acts 5, 41, "They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor." Number six, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, "I will all the more gladly boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for the sake of Christ's end." I am content, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, calamities, for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Number seven, Philippians 2, 17, "Even if I am to be poured out as a libation," that means die, "poured out as a libation on the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all." Number eight, Colossians 1, 24, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ." Number nine, 1 Thessalonians 1, 6, "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with joy, inspired by the Holy Spirit." Number ten, 2 Corinthians 8, 1, "We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God that has been given, shown in the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part." So that's ten of the twenty.

Now you cannot miss the point here. The New Testament pervasively tells us to rejoice when we're suffering, whether it's persecution or whether it's cancer. And the ground of that suffering clearly is not prosperity or health or wealth. And you see that in this last text because it says, "Their joy abounded in a severe test of affliction." So all their comforts and safety and security are being taken away, and at that moment, they are rejoicing.

So it's not based on comfort and the absence of trouble. And it says, "Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed." So the grace of God in their lives hadn't taken away their poverty, and their lack of money and resources did not take away their joy. So the joy must be in something else, right?

It's in the grace of God that was poured out in verse one. And that's what you're preaching for. That's what you're preaching for. How do you do it? How are you helping your people not be happy in money, not be happy in health, not be happy in comforts, but so happy in God, if they lose all that, they're coming to church with joy.

That's what you're after, right? It's really all of your ministry is about how to have your people have a superior joy in Christ over pain and pleasure. The devil only has two weapons, pain and pleasure. He will either hurt you so bad you hate God, or give you so much pleasure you don't need God.

And the solution to both is the same. God is more precious than what I lose. God is more precious than what I gain. You can't have me, Satan. I'm safe from pleasures in Hawaii. I'm safe from pain in South Vietnam. Okay. What is clear now from these texts so far is that the joy of a Christian is not in circumstances, good or bad.

The joy of a Christian is indestructible. It can't be reached by humans because it's in God, it's in Christ. He is precious. He's our treasure, and he can't be taken away. So I want to spend the rest of our time on six observations about why he would ordain suffering.

Because these other guys said he doesn't have any. He doesn't have any purposes. And I see at least six in the New Testament. And just a practical word, pastors all know this, but I'll say it anyway just to encourage you. When sufferers in your church or in your family cry out, they cry out, "Why?" Usually the first word is, "No!" That's the first word.

So when people say, "Why?" that is a cry of anguish, not a cry of inquiry. And then what's needed at that moment is not six answers. Piper said there's six reasons. Let me tell you two or three of them right now. You're pastors. You know, you know, weep with those who weep.

But there comes a time later when it's no longer an anguish cry. It's an inquiry. They're making an appointment, and they want an answer. Why'd you take my husband? And at that point, I hope you don't say, "The Bible doesn't give us answers like that." That's not good news to sufferers.

We may try to persuade ourselves that ignorance is helpful and bliss, but the Bible doesn't think so. So here they are. I'll see if I can pack them into the next few minutes. Number one, these are biblical reasons for why God wills suffering for His children. That's what I want to know, because I'm serving those people and need answers for them.

They need strength. They need help. They need to persevere. Number one, deeper holiness and deeper faith. A couple of texts. Hebrews 12, verse 10. He disciplines us for our good, and in the context, he already said, "You have not yet resisted unto the point of shedding blood." So clearly, this is hard.

This is hard. There's a lot of conflict in the community, but not quite to throat-slitting yet. And he's explaining what's going on. He says, "He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness." That's probably the biggest overarching banner of why suffering happens. To make us more holy.

Here's the way Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 1.8. "We don't want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. We felt that we had received the sentence of death." Now, here comes a purpose statement, and you've got to decide, exegetically, theologically, who's the purposer?

Because it's a purpose clause. "We felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was in order to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." That's why it happened. Now, whose purpose is that? You've got three possibilities. The enemies who were opposing him, the devil, and God.

I can't think of a fourth option. So, which one of those three wants Paul to rely more on God? Because that's the purpose. Well, the devil sure doesn't. His purpose is to destroy his faith. And so is the enemy. "This God is Caesar's Lord, not Jesus' Lord." So, God is the purposer here.

So, let me just put that in as I read it. "We felt that we had received the sentence of death." We were so unbearably crushed. "But God did this so that we would not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." And the reason he said, "the God who raises the dead," is because he was that close to dying.

All I could see between me and death was nothing. If I were to have any hope, right in this little gap between where I am and my death, it would be hope in the resurrection. And so he says, "that's why you're there. So you'd believe in the God who raises the dead." And you'd trust only in Him.

Isn't that the way it works in our lives? How many people have you ever heard say, I've never heard one, but you may have since you live here, how many people have you ever heard say, "I saw God most deeply, and I experienced Him most fully on the bright and sunniest days of my life." But I hear everyone say, "I saw God most deeply, I experienced His resources most fully on the worst days of my life." That's the design according to 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8.

That's Paul's testimony. So my first point is, deeper holiness through deeper faith. God knocks the props out from under your life. I could tell you props in my life that I wish were there. I really want things to change in some areas of my family. No answer yet. Except no, or not yet.

Why? There is a work to be done here. There's a God-centered, Christ-dependent work to be done in John Piper's heart and my wife's and others. God's always doing a thousand things, and you can see two of them. Amen. Always doing a thousand things in every situation. And what about that line, "The devil only has two weapons, pain and pleasure.

He will either hurt you so bad that you hate God, or give you so much pleasure that you don't need God. And the solution to both is the same. God is more precious than what I lose. God is more precious than what I gain." Powerful. This was from his sermon titled, "Joy in Risk and Suffering," preached in 2014 in Hawaii.

The full video is online at the TGC Hawaii YouTube channel. That's where I found it. The TGC Hawaii YouTube channel. Michelle from Kahului, Hawaii sent it to us with this note. "Hello, Pastor John and Tony," she wrote. "Thank you for your edifying work through this podcast. Nine years ago, I saw Pastor John preach this sermon in person in Hawaii.

I remember it vividly because just hours before the conference started, my husband and I had an ultrasound and found that our baby didn't have a heartbeat. We sobbed through many of the messages that weekend, but the Lord ministered to us through this conference. This message in particular marked the start of my journey in grappling with and becoming truly grateful for God's sovereignty as we continued along a very difficult road to becoming parents.

May this sermon clip help many others as it helped me to trust God's goodness in all circumstances and finding my true satisfaction in Him." Wow, thank you, Michelle, for sharing this clip and for sharing your story with all of us. We're back on Friday. I'm Tony Reinke. See you next time.