Order in the Court of the King! (The Struggle)

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Order in the Court of the King! (The Struggle)

Everyone in the world has problems and struggles to one degree or another because of the Adamic curse after Adam and Eve sinned against God –

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:16-19

The Human Struggle

We all ‘struggle’ in this world because of sin and the curses that followed. We struggle with family relationships. We struggle financially. We struggle with our health and the health of our loved ones. Struggle, suffering as it were, seems to be part of everyone’s life. However, we have a Savior who ‘bore’ our suffering and pain. His Name is Jesus –

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:1-12

There is great suffering and pain in this world, and God has provided a way ‘out’ for those who will believe –

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:14-21

God has provided salvation to people who will look to Christ and believe. That is a primary function of God’s Eternal Plan. God the Son (also known as the Son of Man) came from Heaven to earth to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). One of Jesus’ first sermons is found in Luke 4 and it demonstrates the concern God has for those who struggle in this world –

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19

Jesus was reading from the prophet Isaiah who lived centuries before the birth of Christ. Again, we see God’s Eternal Plan. Struggle is an integral part of that plan. Look at the words Isaiah wrote and Jesus read –

preach the gospel to the poor

heal the brokenhearted

liberty to the captives

recovery of sight to the blind

set at liberty those who are oppressed

Each one of those words describes an aspect of the ‘struggle’ humans experience in life. When God told Adam that he would ‘surely die’ if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Lord knew that death would include far more than the physical death people would experience at the last moment of their life on earth. He knew they would struggle throughout their lives.

God sent His Son into the world to share in the struggles we all have in this life –

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

Jesus Christ, our King and High Priest, ‘sympathizes’ with our weaknesses. The Greek word is sumpatheó and means ‘have compassion on, to have a fellow feeling with, sympathize with.” It comes from the word sumpathés (sympathetic, compassionate) which is made up of the words sun (together with, association with) and paschó (to feel heavy emotion, to suffer, to experience ill treatment, endure suffering). Jesus certainly did all of that for all of us –

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Matthew 16:21

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Luke 24:26-27

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Acts 3:18

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:21-25

This was God’s Eternal Plan for His Son –

“who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:6-11

The Christian Struggle

Those who are ‘followers’ of Jesus Christ have many of the same struggles that unbelievers have in this life, but believers also have the extra challenge of suffering persecution and affliction for believing in Jesus –

Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.’ Luke 9:23-24

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. John 15:18-20

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:32-33

Some English translations use the word “trouble” to describe the idea of “tribulation” –

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. NIV

However, the Greek word means more than “trouble.” It’s the word thlipsis and means ‘affliction, distress, persecution.’ The meaning of the word is of ‘pressure’ in a narrow place that causes difficulty for the person in thlipsis to get out. It comes from the word thlibó, ‘to press, afflict, make narrow by pressure.’

Another way of explaining what Jesus told His disciples was that they would find themselves ‘persecuted’ and ‘afflicted’ because they were His followers. Jesus first told them how tough things would be for them –

All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. John 16:1-4

However, He also gave them hope when he said –

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:32-33

Keep in mind that Jesus came from Heaven to earth for a specific purpose –

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8

Christians are involved in God’s Eternal Plan to destroy the ‘works’ of the devil. We must be ‘resolute’ in finishing the work God has given us to do.

One person who understood being ‘resolute’ was the Apostle Paul. At the beginning of his discipleship, God told Ananias –

Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake. Acts 9:15

I’ve always found that statement interesting, that Jesus would show Paul how much he would suffer ‘for My name’s sake.’ Suffering was a big part of Paul’s life as a disciple –

… in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

Paul also spent many years in various prisons because of his discipleship and preaching of the Gospel. May we be able to say with the Apostle Paul –

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8

Next Time

Part of our ‘struggle’ as God’s people is ‘against heresies.’ Standing up against ‘heretical’ teachings and practices is an important part of glorifying God and finishing the work God has given us to do. We’ll dig into that in the next part of our special series, Order in the Court of the King!

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Order in the Court of the King! (The Struggle)