Suffering is a Showcase for God

6 · Asserts that expositional churches are uniquely positioned to prepare people for future suffering by addressing suffering theologically before crisis arrives, distinguishing this from cultural norms that only address suffering reactively

One of the advantages to going to church, at least a church that's kind of centered on His Word, is you are going to be amongst the entire population of the city of the country that you live in. You're going to be uniquely confronted with challenges to prepare for suffering well before you suffer. There's no other venue in the world that I know of that routinely speaks to people who are Doing well about preparing for the time in which they will not do well. The church is unique in this respect. Now, let's be clear. The church has to be centered on the word because there are plenty of churches that barely talk about suffering at all. And if they do, they mostly do to respond to people in the midst of their suffering. And even then, I'm not sure that they give great answers. But a church that is just dedicated to going through the word of God as the word of God is here, what you're going to find is that churches are going to talk. Those churches are going to talk a lot about suffering. And you're going to be in seasons of your life where you not suffering. And it's so unique. You will not find this anywhere else where people really. The Lord, right, He cares about you so much that he wants to prepare you for the next hard moment.

7 · Offers pastoral testimony of observing many deaths over 30 years of ministry, establishing ethos and setting up the comparative observation to follow

I was. Somebody was calling me. Oh, I can remember the details now, I won't share them, but somebody was asking me something about someone who's near death. They're walking with someone who's near death. And I remember just kind of had this flashback of all the times I've been with someone as they've passed from this life to the next. And, you know, 30 years of pastoring, there's quite a few folks like that.

8 · Asserts the principle that theological preparation for suffering dramatically affects the quality of suffering itself, because sin in response to suffering amplifies the pain

And then I just got to thinking about something I've been thinking a lot about this year, and that is, boy, there sure is a world of difference between how people suffer in terms of the attitude that they take, in terms of the way that they frame it, the way that they understand it, the way that they handle it. There's a world of difference between two people can go through the exact same difficult thing. And if one of them has been prepared by the Lord through his Word to suffer, well, man, a dramatic difference in how they endure hardship. One of the things I really wish I could tell everybody who's going through hard things is your hard thing is hard, but. But your sin in the hard thing is really what's going to make the hard thing much harder. As somebody once said, there's no bad situation you've ever been in that you can't make worse. The truth is, is that if you don't sin in reaction to the suffering that comes into your life, the suffering itself becomes a much more manageable experience. The majority of people who are really, really fully deconstructed. Storm comes, knocks the house down completely. Are people who had never been prepared to suffer. Well, never been taught how to think about suffering. And so forth. All that to say, don't you dare. Don't you dare think as you're sitting here. I'm okay. So I'll check out. As Chris talks about thinking. Well, about suffering. No, the Lord is good. He knows that one day you will need this. And now's the time to build your, you know, your house on the rock.

9 · Direct pivot from the importance of thinking about suffering to the exposition that will provide the biblical framework for doing so

So let's think about this. How do we think about suffering? How would God have us think about suffering?

10 · Re-reads John 9:1-2 and applies the earlier epistemological principle to suffering specifically: polluted presuppositions about suffering will make suffering itself much harder

Go back to verse one. As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind. Now, as I said a moment ago, we all enter into all sorts of things with polluted presuppositions. But what God wants to do this morning through his Word is like, you definitely need to get rid of those polluted presuppositions when you face suffering. It's important in general. But if you walk into your suffering with, like, bad ideas from the beginning, it's going to be really difficult.

11 · Applies the disciples' wrong presupposition to the category of caring for others who suffer, showing how bad theology makes us bad comforters

Say that you aren't suffering, but you just like this. Like these disciples, you're encountering someone else that's suffering. Do you see how their bad presuppositions are making them bad friends and bad neighbors? Right? Because they're looking at this guy and their first instinct is like, how can I help this guy? Their first instinct isn't like, man, I have compassion for this guy. Their first instinct is because of their presupposition that being people who suffer must have done something, they deserve it. They immediately become Job's friends. So here's another deal. Like, you don't even have to be the one suffering if you need to think about this. Well, so that when someone in your life is suffering, you're not a jerk to them. You're actually helpful. There's a passage in Job's Three Friends. Essentially, all they're doing is saying over and over again what the disciples said here. You must have done something, Job, to deserve this. Eliphaz says, who being innocent, has ever perished? Their categories are wrong. They haven't spent sufficient time bringing their broken presuppositions to the Lord. And so these terrible friends plague Job throughout the entire book with their faulty thinking.

12 · Identifies a second error — Job's own faulty presupposition that he is entirely righteous and therefore his suffering is entirely unjust

There's another danger. If you don't have the right idea about suffering, if you don't know how to think about it, well, you might enter it and you might start thinking like Job thinks. Job's thinking is broken as well. He thinks that he is righteous, completely righteous, and this whole thing is completely unfair, which is also kind of a broken idea.

13 · Introduces the extended illustration of John Knight — a man whose son was born without eyes and who responded to that suffering with rage against God, believing God to be wicked and capricious

So you need to walk into this thinking, well, I'm going to tell you a story throughout this sermon about a guy that I eventually met, but long before I met him on July 4, 1995, this man, whose name is John Knight, was cheering on his wife in the delivery room as their son Paul came into the world. And this was not their first child. And everything seemed to be routine. But as the nurse is cleaning up little Paul, she says, I think we have a problem. And this child was born without eyes, just born completely without eyes. John and his wife were members of Bethlehem Baptist Church back when Piper was the pastor. And listen to the words that he shares with Piper many years later about that experience. He says, we were the good family at church, John. We volunteered for things, came to church every Sunday, went to Sunday school. We were the nice young couple, just as proud and self righteous as we could be sitting in your pews. I came to your church because it was a smart church. I thought I was a Christian. But it was about two months later when Paul was hooked up to more tubes and sensors, surrounded by medical professionals over at Children's in Minneapolis. I just came to the conclusion, God, you are strong, that's true. And you are wicked, you are mean, you are capricious. What did this boy ever do to you? That's in September 29, 1995, John Knight continues.

14 · Continues John Knight story: he abandoned the church, the church pursued him relentlessly, members brought John 9 to him, and he responded with verbal violence

So we separated ourselves from our church. We quit our small group and quit the Sunday school. We quit coming to church over the next year. The church did not quit on them. In what sounds essentially like potentially a legal case of stalking, many meals appeared without asking, without permission. And many people appeared in their lives week after week after week for years. One of the things that would happen every once in a while, fairly regularly, is that church members would appear to speak with John with John 9 in their hand. Makes sense. This man who had been born blind, parents in that story, John and his wife's experience with their son Paul being born without eyes. And here's how Mr. Knight responded to those efforts. He says, I don't know who God has wiped away my memory of the people I did this to. But there was more than one person who came and brought John 9 to me and I attacked them with my tongue and I took out every weapon I had and I left them bleeding.

15 · Draws the application from the John Knight story: without right theology, we all default to rage and sin in suffering

So friends, like, this is the stakes. If you don't think about suffering, well, you're not any better than John. Like, this is where we go. Unless we have been trained by grace and lean not on our own understanding. It's just crucial that you commit well before the hardship comes to thinking about suffering the way that this passage teaches you to think about suffering.

16 · Third reading of John 9:1-3, now with full attention on Jesus' answer in verse 3

Look back again. Let's read the passage again. Three short verses. As he passed by, he saw a blind man from birth. And his disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it is not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

17 · Announces the sermon's main thesis: the key to making sense of suffering is understanding the fundamental purpose for which human beings exist

Now, I'm going to leave you just with one idea in this sermon that is fundamental. As I've walked with people who have suffered great horrific difficulties, buried children, discovered cancer at stage four, discovered a marriage that was built on lies, and so on and so forth, I will tell you this is absolutely the fundamental key, and Jesus gives it in this passage, in order to make sense of pain, a human being has to understand their purpose.

18 · Expounds the controlling theological claim of the sermon: human beings are created to display God's works and character

Now, I'm going to tell you what your purpose is. And I'm also going to tell you you have absolutely no vote. You didn't make you, you didn't design you, you didn't put you in this world. You have a purpose and you get absolutely no say in what your purpose is. That's up to the one who made you. And that purpose is seen in Jesus. Response. He says, it's not that this man sinned or that his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Underline the word displayed. That's the key to understanding suffering is to know what you are, what purpose you serve, why you exist, and why you were placed on the earth. And that is human beings are billboards. They are canvases. They are created. You are created to display things about God. We see this at the very beginning when God determines to make man in his own image. He causes us human beings to be brought into a world that already existed, to do one thing that the rest of the world is only doing incompletely. And that is we are called to bear the image of God. We are displays, we are billboards. And you don't get a say in that. I don't get a say in that. That's just what you are. And Jesus says, you're thinking about this wrong. It's not about this initial causation, who sinned, and so on and so forth. He opens it up entirely and says, no, this man is blind because he is a billboard.

19 · Develops the display-purpose anthropology across the entire arc of redemption: we were created to display God, saved to display God's patience, and will be glorified to display God's riches in eternity

Now, when you encounter your suffering or when you encounter someone else's suffering, this understanding makes all the difference. We all, indeed, creation itself, exists to display the glories of God. And in your greatest moments of pain, you have to understand this. You were put on this earth to say things about God. You were put on this earth to be a canvas. You are God's poema. Ephesians 2. You are his workmanship, his epic poem. All of your crud, all of your glories, all of your hardships, all of your triumphs, all of your thorns in the flesh. You're a story meant to tell the world something about God. And if you will understand that and accept that, you will be able to start thinking well about suffering. This is the fundamental truth that carries all the way throughout Scripture. If God has saved you, he has done so in order to display his perfect patience. Paul says that in first Timothy one. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. There's no difference between Paul and you in that respect. You were saved to display God's perfect patience. You were saved to display God's perfect glory. And one day, if you are saved, you will be delivered into his presence. And what will your purpose be there in eternity forever? You're still a billboard. Ephesians 2. Even when we were dead in our trespasses. Ephesians 2 5. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, we were made alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places. In Christ Jesus, what are. What is your purpose in eternity so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus, you and I are displays.

20 · Applies the display-purpose directly to suffering: just as salvation and glorification display God, so does tribulation

So what do I think about when I'm suffering? I need to understand that my suffering is telling the world a story about God. That's what my suffering is for. The key to thinking rightly about suffering is to remember what you were put on this earth to do. And that is to display, to teach, to tell, to bear image. So your salvation displays the goodness of God one day, your glorification, which is what we call that moment when you arrive into heaven one day your glorification will display the goodness of God. And the key to this passage is just that, your tribulation also displays the goodness of God.

21 · Cites 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 to establish Paul's own theology of suffering-as-display: affliction shows that sustaining power belongs to God, not us

Second Corinthians 4, 7, 10. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power. There's that word, show Again to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

22 · Offers a personal story about learning to water ski and trusting the life jacket to bring him back to the surface after crashing

Growing up, we lived about 30 minutes north of the Lake of the Ozarks, and our uncle had a cabin there, and it was. It was pretty great. We had a ski boat and all that stuff. And so at a young age, I would, you know, get out there and try to water ski and kind of a difficult thing to do. And tubing really wasn't as big of a deal as water skiing was back in the 70s and 80s. You know, we liked our life simple. We water skied and, you know, we drank Mountain Dew and, you know, things were. Things were simple back then. There was always this moment when you fall and you're going fast, especially if you have a crazy uncle who's, you know, maybe drinking Bush Light instead of. And there's this moment where you fall and, like, the only thing that you understand in that moment is like, the life jacket's doing all the work because you crash and you burn and, like, you're underwater, but there's artificial buoyancy to you and suddenly kind of pop up out of the water again. And you learn to trust in this thing. So that then. That's really. Actually, for me was the key to learning how to water ski was to understand that this thing would do its job every single time.

23 · Applies the water-skiing illustration to 2 Corinthians 4: Paul's story is that Christ sustains him through repeated crushing, and that sustained resilience is the story our suffering is meant to tell

What Paul's saying in 2nd Corinthians 4 is that I've been crushed, I've been abandoned, I've been perplexed, but Christ keeps lifting me up. And that's the story that his suffering is telling the world. And that's the story that your suffering is meant to tell the world. Your suffering is meant to tell the world that God is faithful. When you are at your most fragile. That's what it's for.

24 · Direct pastoral address about the congregation's aging and the inevitability of hard diagnoses in the coming years

Friends, I've been here for a while now at this church, and I look at some of my. One of the things I was so excited about when I came to Providence eight years ago, I guess, was there were people that were older than me here. My last church, I was the oldest guy. And so there's some people here that are a lot older than me anyway, but, you know, they weren't that old when I first got here. And now we're in this phase where Angela and I talk about this every once in a while it's like some of our people, maybe even us, are going to get some hard diagnosis from the doctor in the next ten years, so forth. And you just realize like, that's just what this stage of life brings friends. Like, this is serious stuff. Do you know not only that you have the life jacket, but that that story is sweet and God is eager to tell it to the world, that in your most catastrophic crisis he will sustain you. And are you okay telling that story with the last chapter of your life? Because that's actually the best possible story you could tell with the last chapter of your life.

25 · Applies the display-purpose to the command not to hide: when we suffer, we must not hide, because hiding prevents the world from seeing Christ's sustaining power

Now, how do we apply this? Well, one of the things that we need to make sure we don't do when we're suffering is we better not hide. We better not hide. This brings a whole new perspective to me, to what Jesus says in Matthew 5 when he tells us to not hide our light. When I read that verse as a young man, I think that hiding my light means like, I got to show like all of my tri. I got to make sure the world sees all my triumphs, you know, all the things I do well, all the, all the disciplines of grace and my great manners and my great love for my wife and the great fathering I've done and so on. I've got to. And now I realize like a bunch of the light that I have to show the world is a resilience that comes only because of Christ's faithfulness.

26 · Applies the anti-hiding command personally: admits his own temptation to withdraw and hide when suffering, and explains that hiding contradicts our created purpose to display God's works

So friends, one of the temptations I face when I'm at my worst, when I'm suffering, either self inflicted or not, is I'm one of those guys that when I start to choke, I'm going to go out to the woods and die alone. You know, I want to hide. I don't want to be a hindrance to other people. I don't want people to look at me weird like they're looking at this guy who was born blind. I don't want people having theological conversations about my suffering. So my temptation, I think some of you do this too. My temptation is like, I just want to hide. And so the miscarriage comes or the job is lost or whatever. And there's a great temptation in these moments to just fade into the background. But that would be. If you hide, it shows that you don't understand your basic purpose. And you don't understand your basic purpose for your suffering. Because your basic purpose, including the times when you suffer, is to display. And you can't display. Well, if you're hiding,

27 · Introduces a mnemonic device (SHOW acronym) to help the congregation remember what they are meant to display when they suffer

I was thinking about this this week, about just like I want you to understand that when you're suffering, when you're the one who's sick, when you're the one who has the limp, when. When it's going poorly for you, I want you to understand you can't hide. Then you need to show what God is doing. And so I just developed this acronym. It's not very good, but maybe it'll be helpful to you. And it's just the acronym for show.

28 · Unpacks the 'S' in SHOW — strength not our own

And the S stands for strength, A strength that is not your strength. That's one of the things that you'll display. Paul, after he has this incredible vision of the third heavens, there's a risk that he might become arrogant. God afflicts him with a thorn in the flesh. And Paul doesn't like this. And he says, Three times, I pleaded with the Lord. This is Second Corinthians 12. I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in work. Weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

29 · Unpacks the 'H' in SHOW — hope that does not disappoint

The H in show stands for a hope that does not disappoint. What are you showing in your hardship? Number one, a strength that is not your strength. Number two, a hope that does not disappoint. Romans 5:3. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

30 · Unpacks the 'O' in SHOW — outweigh

The O in show stands for outweigh. There is a glory that is coming that far outweighs our present sufferings. Romans 8:18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

31 · Adds 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 as a second witness to the outweighing glory, emphasizing that present affliction is preparing an eternal weight of glory

2nd Corinthians 4:16. We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 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.

32 · Unpacks the 'W' in SHOW — world

And the W stands for world. This world is not our home. Hebrews 13:14. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

33 · Summarizes the SHOW acronym into a single imperative: show up, don't hide

In your hardship, show up, don't hide. Let the story of God's faithfulness, the buoyancy of his grace imputed to you, prove that he is good even when you're not.

34 · Reads John 9:4-7, narrating Jesus' healing of the blind man through mud and spit

Now look back at verse 4 John 9, verse 4. Jesus corrects in verse 3, says, hey, it's not like that. It's not because this one sinned or that one sinned. He exists to display the works of God. And in verse four, Jesus says, we must work the works of him who sent me. While it is day, night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, go wash in the pool of siloam, which means sent. And so he went and washed and came back seeing

35 · Recounts a seminary professor who made the class make mud with spit to demonstrate how awkward and earthy Jesus' healing method was

we had this nutty, weird, like, what's the word? Substitute Bible professor. I don't know what else to call him. Like he was a visiting Bible professor. He just appeared like Melchizedek one day in class. Like I have no idea where he was, where he came from. He left after this and he did a whole lesson on this. He took us outside and he had us make mud with spit. It's like really hard to make enough eye covering mud with spit. And I don't really remember the point of that. I just remember thinking, gee, Jesus, Jesus. Like it would have been a long time, like, like a fair amount of work to just stand there. It's just very awkward, you know. Now the blind guy doesn't know what's going on. He's just hearing things. But, but it's always been interesting. I'll tie this in in a second. It's always been interesting that Jesus chose to heal him this way. Nothing about this is like necessarily triumphant. This is all very earthy.

36 · Summarizes the rest of John 9: the Pharisees interrogate the healed man, revealing their spiritual blindness despite physical sight

So as a result of this, we won't read the rest of the chapter. But as a result of this, we get another one of these Pharisaical inquisitions like we had when Jesus healed the man who had been lame for 38 years. Pharisees again. This happens on the Sabbath. I've talked about this already. Jesus is doing this to provoke a who do you think you are? Kind of thing. And Jesus reveals his divinity by making it a point to Heal people on the Sabbath and so forth. So there's this Pharisaical inquisition. Now, we have two different characters. We have the man who was blind, who was born blind, and he's been healed. He's been given vision at this point. And we have the Pharisees who can see but show their spiritual blindness. Okay, so now we have a contrast in the story between someone who can see and someone who can see but can't see. There's two layers of seeing that emerge in this passage. There's spiritual sight and there's physical sight.

37 · Makes the eschatological observation that the Pharisees' spiritual blindness will eventually become physical blindness in hell

Now, one of the things that you need to understand is, is that the Pharisees go from spiritual blindness to physical blindness. You say you mean Jesus made them blind? Guys, The Pharisees leave this earth with eyes that work and enter into a world of outer, complete, utter darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's interesting because they depart this world and enter into physical blindness. They're spiritually blind, and then their bodies match their spiritual state.

38 · Draws the application from the Pharisees' fate: do not take salvation for granted, especially in suffering

Now, why do I bring that up? Well, one thing is this. Don't take your salvation for granted. In the midst of all of your suffering, don't take your salvation for granted.

39 · Returns to John Knight with a stunning reversal: the man who cursed God now writes that disability with Jesus is infinitely better than a healthy body without Him

Listen to this sentence. We want to shout that life with a disability and with Jesus is infinitely better than a healthy body without him. We want to shout that life with a disability with Jesus is infinitely better than. Than a healthy body without him. You know who wrote that? John Knight. The man whose son was born without eyes. The man who left the church, the man who spent the first year of his sufferings cursing God.

40 · Recounts John Knight's conversion: walking through a hospital hallway, God showed him the bitterness in his own heart, and he realized he was not saved

You know how he realized his need for Christ? He was walking through a children's hospital hallway, feeling intense anger toward, I think, one of the caregivers, actually wishing that person was dead. And God put a mirror up to him and said, look at you. And John saw the bitterness and the venom in his own heart. And he knew, I am not a saved man. I am not a saved man. I do not love like a saved man. I am a selfish, hard, bitter man. Now I have friends that were friends with John before he was saved. John thought he was great before he was saved. All of my friends say he was a real idiot. So I think everyone knew John except John. John has this moment where he's like, I need Christ. I need the same one who chose for my son to be born without eyes to give me spiritual sight.

41 · Concludes John Knight story: despite worsening circumstances (mental disabilities, seizures, wife's cancer), he became a radiator of joy because he understood salvation and did not take it for granted

When I met John many years later, there was no trace of an angry man at all. All I saw was a man full of joy and here's what's really interesting. His life had gotten much worse when I met him, as his son not only was born without eyes, but also wound up having serious mental disabilities and wound up also having seizures. And later on, his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. This is a man who has spent the majority of his adult life on this earth suffering. And all I met, when I met him was this little radiator of joy. Why? Because he had a moment when he realized that without Christ he was going to go to hell. And that Jesus shed his own blood to save his soul. And he didn't take his salvation for granted. He realized that without Christ, he deserved eternal punishment for his sin. He realized that he was a debtor to mercy. And that was his story for as long as I've ever talked to him.

42 · Reads John 9:35-38, where Jesus seeks out the healed man after he is cast out of the synagogue, reveals Himself as the Son of Man, and the man believes and worships

This brings up one more thing I want to share with you. Look at verse 35. At first, the guy who's born blind gets healed physically. He goes through this tangle with the Pharisees. The Pharisees kick him out of the synagogue. And in verse 35, it says, Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him.

43 · Makes the observation that the blind man's healing is in reverse order from most Christians: he receives physical healing first, then spiritual healing

All right. This story is unusual because the normal order of operations for Christians is backwards here. And here's what I mean by that. For the majority of us, our spiritual sight comes first. We are saved from spiritual blindness. The God of this world no longer blinds our eyes to keep us from seeing the face of Jesus. We see Jesus. We believe in Jesus. Our spiritual vision is restored. And then one day, when we proceed from this life to the next, God heals all of our physical infirmities. So this guy's just kind of living an exceptionally backwards life in that respect. He's healed first, and then he's spiritually healed second. But what I want you to understand is that the order of operations sometimes changes, but both things always happen.

44 · Asserts the eschatological promise: the same hands that healed the blind man will one day wipe every tear and heal every infirmity

This is key. Some people get saved after they get healed. Most people get saved and then eventually pass from this life to the next and get healed. What I want you to understand is that the same hands that applied that mud to those eyes will not might, will one day wipe the tears away from your suffering eyes. You will be healed of all the stuff. All the stuff. You will one day come into the presence of this same God. And he will delight in removing every gram of infirmity from your body, even as he is delighted by applying his righteousness to remove your sin. Let's be clear, like, for sure, the day is coming when you will be just like this man. You'll be healed twice. You will be healed spiritually, and you will be healed physically. And so if you're going through suffering right now, you need to understand that, like, both of these things are going to happen. I don't know the order, but they will happen, absolutely will happen. And if you love someone who's suffering, understand this. They will be healed. Jesus Christ is faithful.

45 · Reads Revelation 21:1-7 and applies it as the eschatological fulfillment of the healing Jesus performed in John 9

I want to end by reading to you from Revelation chapter 21 and begin to discuss how we apply this to our time of communion. Revelation 21 begins, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. You. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning or crying nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Trust to the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment to the one who conquers will have this heritage. And I will be his God, and he will be my son. That is your future. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, if Jesus has applied his righteousness to your soul, if his cross work has been your only hope for salvation, the day is coming when he will wipe every tear and every ounce of pain from your body. He will make you new, and you will be as this man was.

46 · Reads the 1 Corinthians 11 communion passage and connects it to the eschatological promise: communion proclaims the Lord's death until He comes to make all things new

And the communion table is God's gift to us to keep pointing us to that ultimate coming future. First Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Until he comes to make all things new.

47 · Issues the invitation to communion, framing it as a forward-looking act anticipating the day when all healing is complete

So, friends, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, if you are confident that he has shed his blood for your soul, would you come and partake of this, looking forward to the day when all of the healing is made complete. And even then, even then, you will simply be a showcase of all of his great mercies and kindness. Please come.