CHBC has a four year rotation of "core seminars" (aka Sunday school) that cover every aspect of the Christian life, theology and understanding of the old and new testaments, and they make each class applicable to anyone. ( This link shows the overview of how their seminars are set up.) For instance, the "missions" class, though it includes instruction on how to know if you are called to be a missionary overseas, etc, isn't just for people interested in being a missionary, but for everyone since we are all on the mission field as Christians living in a post modern world. Today's topic in the missions class was "Is Jesus the Only Way to God?".
The class we attended today however was on suffering. It is a thirteen week course, and today's specific topic was on The Future of Suffering - The
importance of heaven and hell in the suffering of a Christian
(Sorry for the long post, but it was such great stuff!. . .most of what I have here is taken directly from a download of the teacher's manuscript, which are available for any church to use on CHBC's website).
Our teacher began with an example of a sports event for which you don't know the outcome. It's nerve wracking wondering who's going to win, but it's also what makes the game exciting when your team wins, and disappointing when you lose.
It is completely different watching a game that has been recorded and you accidentally overheard the outcome before actually watching it. Regardless of how tense the game is originally, you are able to calmly watch, knowing the outcome ahead of time.
The same is true for the Christian life. God in His kindness has told us how it all
ends. He wins. Satan, sin and death itself are defeated and
there will come an end to suffering!
To suffer as a Christian means to suffer with the End of all
things firmly fixed in your view. But when we suffer with the End in mind, our
hope burns brightly because it shows that what we get far surpasses anything we
give up. And in that hope there is glory
to God and joy for us, even in the midst of suffering.
Any answer to the problem of suffering that does not mention
the end, cannot be called a Christian one.
We may believe that there is life after
death, but push it to the backburner until the idea of eternity becomes more of
an insurance policy just in case[2]. When we lose sight of heaven, tragedy (big or
small) can leave us in despair because it robs us of hope.
Martin Luther understood this reality well and said that he
lived as if there were only two days on his calendar: this day and that day. This day referring to today, the one you find
yourself in; that day referring to the end, the day when we will stand before
God as Judge.
So what we’ll do is begin
by looking at the end and consider what God is doing with the realities of hell
and heaven. With that in mind, we can
move back to this day, today, and see
how those realities help us as we suffer.
Hell and the Last Day
Now recently, there has been much debate over the idea of
hell. So, let’s consider what the Bible
says about Hell…
When the Bible speaks of hell, it describes it as place with
suffering so unbearable it will be filled with “weeping and gnashing of teeth”
(Matt. 8:12).
It’s described as a
furnace of fire, an unquenchable fire where their worm does not die, and the
fire is not quenched (Matt. 13:42, Mk. 9:43, 48).
Imagine that, a fire so fierce that it never
goes out, ever; a place filled with a
stench and rottenness so bad the maggots never go away.
Those in hell long for an end, but there is
no end in sight.
Scripture describes it
as a place where sins are punished, not for 10 years or 100 years, or 1,000
years, but forever – that’s why Revelation
14 speaks of the smoke of their torment rising for ever and ever. A torment
that never allows for rest day or night.
Yet the most terrifying aspect of all is the complete
separation from God – of being at odds with Him, of facing His wrath, of
knowing you will never be able to be reconciled to the God who you were created
to worship (2 Thes. 1:9).
And where
there is separation from God, there is also separation from our friends,
family, and loved ones.
No matter what
Hollywood or the recent comic strip tells us, Hell is not a party where people will be reunited. Those in hell will forever be at odds with each
other, constantly torn apart inside by realization of their guilt and
shame.
So what does this tell us about God? What’s he doing?
Can you imagine if God looked at the evil in this world -
rape, murder, theft, abuse, discrimination – and did nothing about it – even
called evil good? That would not be a
God who is good - that would be an evil tyrant.
But God is not indifferent toward sin, and Hell serves as evidence. Because he is good and just, He will
punish every sin – as God revealed in Exodus 34, He will not leave the guilty
unpunished. Nothing will be swept under the carpet – He will never be the
wicked Judge who takes a bribe, shows partiality, or gets the verdict wrong.
Okay, if that’s what God is doing on That Day, what difference does it make for us for how we live Today?
What difference does it make for us in the midst of suffering?
Hell and Today
Imagine someone who has been sinned against – someone has
undeservingly done them wrong. Maybe
they’ve been cut off in traffic. Maybe
their spouse blamed them for something they didn’t do. Maybe someone robbed them. Maybe they’ve been
abused by a parent or spouse. Maybe
they’ve lost a spouse or child because they professed to be a Christian.
In any of these scenarios (and you can imagine countless
others), what does the victim long for? Justice!
And that longing is good and right – it’s an expression of being
made in the image of God.
The problem is
that vengeance was never meant to be a burden we were designed to carry – it’s
too heavy. When you live as if vengeance
is up to you, the desire for justice can consume you. You can’t forgive the person because if you
do, he might get away with it! And so
anger and resentment start to grow inside until you are left bitter.
To those who find themselves suffering under this burden,
God mercifully comes along and offers to take it off their shoulders and carry
it for them. We read in Romans 12, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do
what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends
on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave
room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’
says the Lord.”
It is God's job to avenge, not ours. We can trust God to make right every wrong,
to provide justice in every situation.
God is much better at getting vengeance than we are. Those who have wronged you will answer to God
for it and they won’t get away with
it. One day, on That Day, they will stand before God and answer to Him. If in this life they refused to repent, they
will drink the cup of God’s wrath.
So when I see the Biblical picture of hell I can trust God
to avenge. More than that, I can let go
of the bitterness, the anger, and resentment.
Instead of being overcome by evil I can now overcome evil by doing good
to that person. When I see Hell for what
it is, I don’t want to wish that on my worst enemy.
Now that Christ has come, God can be absolutely just and
still forgive sinners – He can, as Paul writes in Romans 3, be just and be the one who justifies. How does that
work? When a person refuses to repent of
their sin and trust in Christ, they face God’s wrath on their own – that’s how
vengeance comes and God’s justice is preserved.
But if that person repents and trusts in Christ, God’s vengeance comes a
different way. As an atoning sacrifice,
He substitutes Himself in the place of those who trust in Him. Either way, God remains just.
In that sense, the reality of hell has another purpose in
our suffering. When we are wronged, we
long for justice. But, when we are
guilty of the wrong, what do we long for?
Mercy. Hell isn’t just what other people deserve (the Hitlers, Stalins, Bin Ladens); it is what
we deserve. “There is no
one righteous, not even one; there is no
one who understands, no one who
seeks God…all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God…like the rest, we
were by nature objects of wrath.[3]” As a result, what is fair, what is just, is
for us to be cast into hell.
If Hell is not real, we’ve not been saved from much. But if it is real, Hell serves as a backdrop
to show the depth of God’s mercy, to show us what we’ve been saved from!
In the midst of suffering, it’s easy to feel sorry for
ourselves and think God owes me His
kindness; to forget what I deserve
because of my sin. And when we become
ungrateful, suffering becomes unbearable.
But, the more we appreciate God’s mercy, the more we’re able to get our
focus off of self and take the long-view of things. In that sense, even when I don’t understand
everything God is doing, I can rest in the truth that God is good – and that
hope is what gets us through.
That day and Heaven
On That Day, the Day
of Judgment, Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, the righteous from
the unrighteous. So we need to consider
not only what the Bible says about Hell, but what it says about heaven.
When the Bible speaks of heaven, it describes it as a place
where there is no more suffering. Thus
we read in Revelation 21, ““Now the
dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his
people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of
things has passed away.” No longer will
there be headaches, cancer, arms that don’t work, eyes that don’t see. There will be no more sadness, no more pain,
no more funerals. We will be given new
bodies that never break down, never wear out, never get sick.
There will be no more sin to fight; no
more guilt and shame from broken pasts.
We will be with our friends and family who have trusted in Christ and our
relationships will be without envy, rivalry, or competition. Instead there will be perfect love – each
person caring for the other, able to trust completely.
And best of all, heaven is described as the place where we
will dwell with God and be perfectly happy, satisfied in Him.
It is
impossible to put to words how wonderful this will be. Imagine the best pleasure you can imagine in life…God, is infinitely
better. Every good in this life is a
sign post to the ultimate good of God Himself.
He is what is amazing about heaven.
If heaven was just about avoiding hell, just about singing songs and
sitting on a cloud – all those comforts would eventually become boring. But we will never plumb the depths of the
beauty, majesty, wonder of who God is.
He will take our breath away again, and again, and again.
So what does heaven teach us about God? What is He up to?
Well if hell shows us the goodness and justice of God,
heaven shows us the grace and mercy of God.
Heaven is not what any of us
deserve but it is real and it is enjoyment beyond our imagination.
So if this is true about God, what difference
does it make for us in the midst of suffering?
How should it affect how we live in This
Day, Today?
This Day and Heaven
For one, it reminds us there is an end of suffering – it
will not go on forever.
Without hope, suffering will crush us with despair.
Think about the suffering we endure because
of our bodies. Ever since sin entered
the picture our bodies have groaned under the weight of aging – breaking down,
getting sick. But the hope we have is
that these bodies are only temporary - in the new heavens and new earth, our
bodies will be made new. In Philippians 3:20-21: “But our
citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his
control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious
body.”
Joni Eareckson Tada who has suffered as a quadriplegic since
1967 explains how this crucial this hope has been for her in her
suffering. She writes:
“I
still can hardly believe it. I, with
shriveled, bent fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees, and no feeling from
the shoulders down, will one day have a new body, light, bright, and clothed in
righteousness – powerful and dazzling.
Can you imagine the hope this gives some spinal cord-injured like
me? Or someone who is cerebral palsied,
brain-injured, or who has multiple sclerosis?
Imagine the hope this gives someone who is manic-depressive. No other religion, no other philosophy
promises new bodies, hearts, and minds.
Only in the Gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible
hope.”
Those suffering physically need
hope – and the hope of heaven is that
our bodies will be made new. One thing
this points to is that our God cares deeply about our pain and suffering. David writes in Psalm 56:8 “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in
your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
He is not indifferent toward our pain, He is not cold and removed. One day, God promises to wipe away every tear, to right every wrong, remove every pain - and heaven
is reminds us that that such hope is sure.
Another benefit of the reality of heaven for suffering is
that it points us to our greatest hope: to
be with God.
It reminds us that our
suffering is never wasted. In the 18th
century, Jonathan Edwards described heaven as being a place where everyone will
be deeply satisfied - who will have a cup and have their cup filled to the brim. Our cups will be of different sizes – some
will have a thimble, others a glass, others a five-gallon bucket, but everyone
will have a full cup. What makes the
difference in the size of the cup? Paul
writes in 1 Corinthians 4:17-18, “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.”
Did you notice that?
In Paul’s affliction, his suffering has an effect on the weight of
glory he experiences in heaven
- it’s preparing for him a weight of glory.
As we endure today with
patient faith, suffering has a way of carving out a deeper bowl for us – an
expectation and appreciation of heaven when we get there. In this sense, we are helped in our suffering
now, knowing that it is being used by God to give us a greater capacity to
enjoy Him both now and in eternity!
Our longing for God may be the most important function of
the reality of heaven in our suffering.
If God is our greatest treasure suffering that once seemed like an
insurmountable mountain turns into a speed bump. That’s not to say that it won’t hurt anymore
– just that we will not look to our circumstances to satisfy us. Consider Paul’s words in Philippians 3:8 – “What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Paul had just spent time reflecting on the things that were
once valuable to him – his religious heritage, family background, education,
and achievements in keeping the law – and now says, all those things are
rubbish. In fact, think about what would
be excluded from Paul’s list that he considers rubbish. Nothing! So whether his health, his relationships, his
reputation – everything goes into the rubbish category, when he compares it to the surpassing value of knowing Christ. In that sense, His present love for Christ
and hope to one day be with Him would be untouchable. He could be wasting away on the outside, but
renewed on the inside. No one worries
about their trash being ruined or stolen.
How can we grow in
this? A few suggestions:
·
Read God’s word
o
Meditate on Revelation 4-5; 21-22
o
Meditate on Psalm 2 – the Lord laughs, scoffs at
those seeking to derail his program – our future is certain.
o
Reflect on 1 Corinthians 15 – promise of a new
body that works
·
Pray
o
Pray for heart of wisdom to number days rightly
(Ps. 90)
o
Examine your schedule – are you so busy that
your focus is always on now? Need to
trim down to
o
Pray for a heart that is deeply satisfied in God
(Psalm 73:25-26; Phi. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:16-18)
·
Good things to read:
o
Jonathan Edwards sermon “Heaven, a World of
Love” or “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”
o
·
Sing Hymns that help you reflect on heaven:
o
It is well
o
Jerusalem my happy home
o
Lo He comes
o
How sweet and awful is the place
o
Hark I hear the harps eternal
o
There is a happy land
o
The sands of time are sinking
o
I will glory in my Redeemer
[1]
See 1 Thes. 4:13
[2]
We need to pray as Moses in Psalm 90:12 asking God to “Teach us to number our
days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
This after considering the brevity of life: “The length of our days is
seventy years – or eighty, if we have the strength; yet the span is but trouble
and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we
fly away” (Ps. 90:10).
[3]
Rom. 3:10-11, 23; Eph. 2:3b
[4]
Rev. 21:27
[5]
When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada
and Steven Estes, pg. 216
[6]
Cf. Matt 5:11-12
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