The Role of Expository Preaching in Christian Suffering

Mark J. Crocco

To live on this planet for any length of time is to suffer. As God’s children, we are not immune from suffering. As a matter of fact, human suffering is actually a vital component of our calling as God’s people. The apostle Paul writes, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). Our Lord Jesus Christ clearly warned us, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). The apostle Peter calls us to joyfully “suffer for the sake of righteousness” (1Pet. 3:14), while considering suffering for Christ as a major blessing in our lives. To live in a sinful, fallen, and broken world is to suffer, even as a child of God.

Four months ago, I received a cancer diagnosis which required major surgery. That surgery led to a series of unanticipated medical complications immediately following surgery. As a result, on a deeply personal level, I have experienced physical and emotional pain that has been unprecedented in my life. In the last few weeks, I started a six-month journey into the world of chemotherapy. I am not sharing my personal story with you to draw attention to myself or anything I have been through. The purpose of this article is to challenge preachers to make a connection between the relationship that exists between expository preaching and human suffering.

We always preach to the suffering. Our broken world is filled with incalculable suffering. Every time we enter a pulpit to preach, we will preach to those who are coming out of a time of suffering, to those who are presently suffering, or to those who are about to enter a time of suffering in their lives. In this day of man-centered, felt-needs oriented preaching, we must enter our pulpits to proclaim the glory, sovereignty, and majesty of our God. We must preach with the conviction that a weak view of God produces weak Christians, while affirming that a strong view of God produces strong Christians. Expository preaching exposes the biblical text empowering the preacher to speak as a mouthpiece for God, as the living God is revealed upon the pages of Scripture.

Every sermon that we preach must be delivered with clarity and purpose. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones proposes that the chief end and purpose of preaching “Is to give men and women a sense of God and His presence. Preaching worthy of the name starts with God, with a declaration concerning His being and power and glory.” What kind of preaching prepares our people for the inevitable suffering that is certain to enter their lives? The kind of preaching that gives our listeners a sense of the Most-High God—lofty and exalted, glorious and majestic, infinite in power and grace.

A.W. Tozer has written, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”. As preachers, we must preach knowing that what comes into the minds of our people when they think about God will determine how they choose to respond to the pain and suffering that enters their lives. As I have battled cancer, it has been my vision of who God is that has brought the emotional comfort, peace, and stability that I have so desperately needed in what have been some of the most challenging moments of my life.

Moving from an intellectual knowledge of God to an experiential knowledge of God is what spiritual growth and Christ-like transformation are all about. From the standpoint of biblical preaching, I have come to the conclusion that nothing will prepare our people for suffering more than a steady diet of preaching that focuses upon the glorious majesty of our great and awesome God! I have been meditating on the words of the prophet Jeremiah through this ordeal in my life, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the LORD.” Knowing my God on an intimate and experiential level through my suffering has reminded me that He alone is to be the supreme treasure of my life. As we seek intimacy and communion with God in our suffering, rather than mere relief from our pain and discomfort, we will experience God in ways that will provide the courage and endurance we need to face our suffering. 

Over the past few months, I have been clinging to the promise of God’s faithful and uninterrupted presence from Hebrews 13:5, where God emphatically promises us that it is “beyond the realm of possibility” that He would ever leave, forsake or abandon us. My illness has forced me to ask the question, “Who is this God who has promised He would never leave me?” That question is answered upon every single page of God’s holy, inerrant, infallible, and all-sufficient Word. To know God intellectually is to know about Him in our thought processes. To know God experientially is to know God personally and intimately as He is integrated into every area of our lives. When we suffer as the people of God, who or what we choose to focus upon will determine how we navigate through the turbulent waters of suffering. I would like to celebrate three specific assurances that I have needed in my journey with suffering. Pastors who are committed to the expositional preaching of God’s Word will encounter these three assurances repeatedly from Genesis to Revelation.  

1. As preachers, we must preach God-centered sermons that assure our people that their sovereign God is in charge, and in control of all things. The first reality I would like to celebrate is that our God is a Sovereign God. He is ruling and reigning over His universe (Psalm 99:1). He is always in control of the people, events, and circumstances that enter our lives. He relentlessly orchestrates everything that enters our lives (including cancer) with the purpose of conforming us into the image of His Son for His glory (Rom. 8:28-29). The older I get, the less concerned I am about “understanding” everything that occurs in my life. I have been using my vision of who God is as the filter through which I am processing my current situation. My God is my King. I am His servant. I exist for Him, His purposes, and His glory. He does not exist for me, and my purposes, and my glory. He is in control. I am not in control. In many ways, the sovereignty of God is the rock-solid foundation of my life, assuring me that His divine plan and purposes for my life are perfect. I can completely trust Him for everything that is occurring in my life because I am exactly where my sovereign God wants me to be. What a source of comfort and encouragement in all of our trials and suffering as God’s children.
 
2. As preachers, we must preach God-centered sermons that assure our people that their omnipotent God is greater and more powerful than anything they ever face in this life. I am learning that it takes courage to fight cancer, and to overcome any of the obstacles we face in life. While failing to believe that God could give Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age, God asked the rhetorical question, “Is there anything that is too difficult for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14; Jer. 32:27). The God who spoke the entire universe into existence is capable of handling anything we are struggling with in this life. Throughout my entire adult life, and more specifically over the past few months, I have asked the question, “Is there anyone or anything that I am presently facing in life that is greater or more powerful than my God?” Every time I ask that question, I always come up with the correct answer because my God is an “infinitely” powerful God. I have sought to focus upon God’s ability “to do far more abundantly than all that we could ever ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20), while acknowledging the sufficiency of God’s grace in all things (2Cor. 12:7-10). After all of these years of ministry, the entrance of cancer into my life has challenged me to consider that “trusting the Lord with all of my heart” and “walking by faith” (Prov.3:5-6; 2Cor. 5:7) are both far more radical and simple than I have ever imagined. God is more powerful than anyone or anything (including cancer) we will ever face in this life. What a source of comfort and encouragement in all of our trials and suffering as God’s children.
 
3. As preachers, we must preach God-centered sermons that assure our people that their omniscient God completely understands everything they are going through at all times. I can echo the words of the Psalmist when he expressed, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). As an individual who has spent his life “leading” and “ministering” to others, it has been so good for me to come face to face with my own sin and personal limitations. In those moments when I have been fearful, anxious, and overwhelmed, God has reminded me of my own personal mortality and the fragility of life. This has led me to a place where I have relinquished the illusion that I have “control” over my life, while living as a man who is utterly desperate for his God every moment of every hour of every day of my life.

When we are struggling with human suffering, we often cry out in our spirits “Does anyone really know and understand what I am going through?” Our omniscient and all- knowing God is the only person who can totally and completely grasp what we are going through in our pain and suffering. He is the God who knows everything that there is to know about us, while being “intimately acquainted with all of our ways” (Psalm 139:1-6). In some of my darkest hours on this journey, knowing that God totally understands what I am going through has brought hope, encouragement, and comfort to my life. In light of the fact that it is easy to lose the cutting edge focus that is required to live the Christian life successfully, I am seeking to “live in God’s presence” in the spirit of Psalm 16:8, “I have set the LORD continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken”. Our God always understands us, and everything we ever go through in life. He knows everything there is to know about us at all times. His knowledge of us and what we are going through is total, complete, and perfect. Never changing, faltering, or failing us. What a source of comfort and encouragement in all of our trials and suffering as God’s children.

My battle with cancer has been a reminder to me of the strong link that exists between expository preaching and Christian suffering. What sustains us in our suffering? What produces a spirit of courage and perseverance in our suffering? What brings the certainty and assurance of our eternal hope in heaven in our suffering? What brings purpose to our suffering? The answer to these questions is our vision of who God is as He is revealed to us upon the pages of God’s Word. To live in this world is to suffer. God’s children are never victims, which is why the apostle Paul, in the midst of his sufferings could write, “No, in all of these things (suffering and hardship) we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). We can live as “more than conquerors” as we allow the living and risen Christ to live His resurrected life in and through us, as we trust Him each day (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:1-4).

There is a direct relationship between expository preaching and Christian suffering. In my current battle, I have needed a God who is in charge, a God who is more powerful than anything I will ever face, and a God who completely understands everything I am going through as an individual. He is all of those things—and so much more! What do your people most need in their suffering? They need a God who is in charge, a God who is more powerful than anything they are facing, and a God who completely understands what they are going through. In the final analysis, how your people handle suffering in their lives is directly related to your preaching. The accumulated quality of your pulpit ministry over an extended period of time shapes and molds your flock’s vision of who God is in their lives as much as anything else in their lives. May the aim of our preaching be “to give men and women a sense of God and His presence”. I praise God that through His grace, and through no merit of my own, I am knowing the living God “experientially” by God’s sovereign grace which causes me to cry out with joy in my suffering, “God is enough!” Our ultimate prayer as preachers is that our people will have such an exalted view of who God is that no matter what suffering and heartache may come their way they will be able to cry out, “God is enough!”

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About the Author:
 
Mark J. Crocco is the Owner, and President of Integrity Leadership Development Inc. Mark spent fifteen years in pastoral ministry and has spent the last twenty years developing leadership in organizations. Mark is a highly sought-after leadership development expert, public speaker, and author. He oversees the Crocco Catalytic Leadership Institute, which exists to create leadership materials with the goal of developing leadership. Mark speaks at many leadership conferences throughout the country and often speaks at churches, bible conferences, and retreats. He is a graduate of Philadelphia College of Bible and Grace Theological Seminary.