If God is all good, all loving, and all powerful — why is there so much suffering in the world? In the seventh sermon of our spring apologetics series What About?, Pastor Kent Keller takes the hardest question Christians and skeptics share, head-on, from 1 Peter 4:12–19. Three movements: don't be surprised by suffering, don't be unprepared for what comes next, and don't lose sight of the final outcome. The Bible was written by suffering people to suffering people. God himself, in Jesus, entered our suffering first — and the pattern that runs through the whole biblical story is suffering, then judgment, then glory. As former Senator Ben Sasse has said, facing his own stage-four cancer: "There are no maverick molecules in the universe." Nothing in your story is outside God's care.
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Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And "If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
