Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer

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Here's a recap of John Piper's messages on suffering that he gave over the last few days at Wheaton College:

• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1
  If you are a Christian, it is not a question of whether you will suffer, but when. And natural suffering like disease or disasters can be as much for Christ as persecution is.
• Part 2
  Whether God is delivering us from suffering or prolonging it, one thing is most important to him—displaying the worth of Christ.
• Part 3
  God ordains and orders the suffering of the world to show how horrific sin is.
• Part 4
  How can we have joy amid so much suffering?
• Q & A
  John Piper answers questions from Wheaton students.

Seven Aims in This Series

Our theme is “Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer,” and I have at least seven aims in our time together:

1. I want to persuade you that your suffering is an essential part of Christian existence. You will suffer (Acts 14:22). And there is kind of suffer that honors Christ and a kind that does not.
2. I hope to be able to help you suffer in a way that will make Christ look great (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
3. I hope to help you taste and see that Christ is more precious than everything else in the universe (Ps. 73:24; Phil. 3:8; 1:20; Ps. 63:3).
4. I want to help you believe that nothing will happen to you apart from God’s will. And in the worst of times, he is 100 percent for you—and not against you—if you are in Christ. Not 99.9 but totally for you (Matt. 10:28-31; Rom. 8:31-32). Everything you need is yours in Christ.
5. I would like to persuade you that you are in Christ by faith alone apart from any works you do before or after your conversion (Phil. 3:9-10). If being in Christ is the place where everything works for your good, then how you get there really matters. And by works is not how you get there—before or after your conversion.
6. I want to motivate you and empower you to embrace suffering and hardship and risk and danger for the relief of human suffering, especially eternal suffering, for the glory of Christ. May Wheaton not be one of those ludicrous places where it is thought to be loving to relieve physical suffering for people who are on the road to hell without mention of the gospel. You don’t have to choose between those. Love will embrace the hard-to-reach place and go at life’s peril (Mark 8:34-35).
7. I am praying that God will use these talks to introduce you into, or confirm you in, the mysterious way of life found in 2 Corinthians 6:10, which we wave as a banner over our church: “Sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”