Part 4
‘The gospel momentum series’
Feature
7 minutes 43 second read
This article, the last in a series of talks by Simon L, National Director of Pioneers Australia, at the Pioneers Horizon ’24 gathering, focuses on an uncomfortable topic, one of four key ingredients essential to the momentum of the gospel through Pioneers.
Well, this not the subject we were hoping for! Suffering? A key ingredient as Pioneers serves unreached peoples? We have already discussed church planting momentum through the Word of God, the Spirit of God and the Prayer of God’s people. Now suffering? Surely other elements could be prioritised!
Hailing from Hertfordshire England, famed missionary Helen Rosevere reflecting on her service in Africa as a medical doctor and proclaimer of the gospel wrote…
God never uses a person greatly until he has wounded him deeply. The privilege he offers you is greater than the price you have to pay. The privilege is greater than the price.
There are different ways to view suffering. In the west, life is viewed as a series of problems to solve. In the east, life is viewed as a series of burdens to bear. So, in the west we pray, ‘Lord, solve my problems!’ In the east, ‘Lord, strengthen my back!’ Christianity was birthed in the east; but because many of us are deeply influenced by the west, we find suffering something to avoid. The biblical narrative, mission history, and endless accounts from cross-cultural workers serving with Pioneers today, however, attest that suffering is par for the course when church planting movements are at stake.
In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 we discover three reasons God comforts us.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
God never acts in a way that is inconsistent with who he is. Whatever he is like at the centre, determines how he will act at the periphery. Here, Paul says, I want you to know that God comforts us because of who he is.
No one reading this article ever met my father. But if you want to know what my dad was like, look at me. I look like him, sound like him, and many of my mannerisms are the result of his influence in my life. That’s the kind of situation Paul is trying to help us understand here. The Corinthians had heard about Jesus, and Paul says the God who wants to comfort them in times of trouble is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has the same qualities as the Son, for he is God (Heb. 1:3). No one has seen God at any time… but if you want to know what the Father is like, look at the Son.
What does that mean?
Compassion is a compound word comprising two parts. Passion means ‘to suffer.’ And com is a Latin prefix meaning ‘together with.’ So, compassion means ‘to suffer together with.’ God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the God who suffers with us! He is not indifferent, untouched or aloof. He does not have a heart of stone. God says, ‘I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them’ (Ex. 3:7). Our Lord Jesus, when he saw the crowds, ‘was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matt. 9:36). Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ funeral. Jesus wept in the garden. Our God is not simply compassionate; he invented compassion. Take heart – he is the Father of compassion.
What does that mean?
When we think about the world, and all its problems, we too are moved with compassion. Who doesn’t feel concern for the thousands of people groups with little or no witness to the gospel? Which Christian is unconcerned for the 63,000 people who will die today in places where there are no churches? We can’t be immune to such realities. We have the desire to help – we feel it – but not the resources needed to help them all. We are moved with compassion yet as we look at our own resources, we are totally helpless. But our God is not like that! He always has the resources commensurate with his compassion. Comfort is another compound word: a fort is ‘a strong place,’ again with the prefix com. Comfort means ‘strength when linked with another.’ The God of all comfort is the God who pours strength into our lives when we are linked with him. The God who suffers with us, has the power to strengthen us in our suffering.
God comforts us not only because of who he is, but because of what we suffer. Notice two little words that we would normally gloss over. The words in and all. Let’s have a look and see what they mean.
If you ever stroll along a beach in Indonesia, you are likely to come across vendors who guarantee every oyster they sell contains a pearl. They are confident because someone clever has injected a miniscule foreign substance into the oyster right near its reproductive organ. That irritation causes the oyster to secrete a nacre – a mother of pearl substance. The nacre wraps around the irritation until it produces a pearl – what someone has called ‘beauty wrapped around trouble.’ The little word in is true in that very sense. God brings his comfort into our lives only when irritation is there. If it wasn’t for the irritation – the trouble – we wouldn’t experience his comfort! It’s in our problems, when suffering comes, that God pours his comfort into our lives. He always comes through with the nacre – the grace to help us with our problems.
Not only the word in but notice the word: all. There are no exceptions to God’s comfort! Sometimes the troubles we experience are common to all human beings: redundancy at work, volatile financial markets, headlice, car accidents, cancelled flights, cancers, food poisoning, and so on. At other times, trouble comes as a direct result of our association with Jesus. Some 170,000 Christians are martyred every year. But in all these things, God can comfort us… because he comforts us in all our troubles.
Have you ever seen a square pearl? I have. Do you know how you get square pearls? You get square irritations. I once read in National Geographic that the King of Thailand wanted to present his bride on their wedding day a string of elephant-shaped pearls. So, he commissioned scientists to inject elephant-shaped irritations into multiple oysters and surprised his new wife with the exquisite result! And that is how God works in our lives. He comforts us in all our troubles. So, that if you have trouble X, God has grace X. If you have trouble Y, God has grace Y. Last year it may have been a health concern. This year it’s a relationship challenge. Or a problem at church. Or the challenge of grasping a new language for the sake of the gospel. Or financial issues. According to the shape of the problem, so is the shape God’s comfort.
What does all this have to do with gospel momentum and church planting through Pioneers? The whole reason God allows trouble to come into our lives in the first place, is so that we can comfort others in their troubles. God comforts us not so that we will be comfortable, but so we will be comforters. He has destined that we will be channels of blessing to others.
I have learned to kiss the wave that dashes me against the Rock of Ages.
C. H. Spurgeon
My mother discovered this reality when my brother died when hit by a car as he walked to Boys’ Brigade one evening, aged nine. In her grieving, she became a source of profound comfort to other bereaved parents. Her tragedy shaped her to bless others in unique ways. She had walked the same path. The purpose of our salvation is not so we can solely focus on being blessed! But that we will bring glory to God as we bless others in their troubles.
Remember that oyster? That poor little creature had to sacrifice its life to bring joy to another. Someone came along with a knife, opened the shell, sliced through its flesh, and retrieved the pearl. The little creature that suffered some irritation, had the comfort (the nacre) poured on top of that irritation so that the beautiful thing produced would minister in the life of someone else. A ring or necklace or perhaps an earring. God allows his people to suffer for the sake of others. And the witness is unstoppable.
