The sermon presents suffering as a normal part of Christian discipleship and warns against portraying Christianity as protection from hardship. Believers suffer in union with Christ, especially when enduring for His sake and the truth, yet Christ personally shares their griefs. God uses trials to exercise faith and draw His people into closer dependence on Him, while supplying consolation proportionate to their affliction. The sermon’s pastoral appeal is for Christians—especially the despairing—to wait, be still, rejoice in hope, and count Christ as sufficient for certain victory.
Theological center: Union with Christ means that believers share in Christ’s sufferings and receive His sustaining consolation, presence, and victory.
Applications: Expect suffering as a Christian · Wait in hope · Rejoice amid trouble · Be still before God
Primary texts: 2 Corinthians 1:5 · 1 Peter 4:12 · Hebrews 12:6
“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:5 SEEK you rest from your distresses, you children of woe and sorrow? This is the place where you may lighten your burden and lose your cares. Oh, son of affliction and misery, would you forget for a time your pains and griefs? This is the Bethesda, the house of mercy. This is the place where God designs to cheer you and to make your distresses stay their never-ceasing course. This is the spot where His children love to be found, because here they find consolation in the midst of tribulation, joy in their sorrows, and comfort in their afflictions. Even worldly men admit that there is something extremely comforting in the sacred Scriptures and in our holy religion. I have even heard…