Suffering and Our Desires

Order of Service

• Sermon
• Prayer Requests and Pastoral Prayer

---

Sermon Title: Suffering and Our Desires

Scripture: Mark 14:26-31

I. Introduction: Suffering Exposes Our True Desires

A. Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film The Stalker illustrates the frightening gap between what we think we want and what we truly desire B. The central question: What if what lies behind that door is not what we truly want? C. Jeremiah 17:9 — "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure; who can understand it?" D. Suffering functions in Scripture to expose the true and often ugly desires hidden within our deceitful hearts

1. Marriage as an illustration: couples enter thinking they want sacrificial love, but suffering reveals they wanted comfort, admiration, and companionship on their own terms
2. Peter's denial in Mark 14:26-31 serves as the primary case study

II. First Misguided Desire: The Idea of the Christian Life vs. the Actual Reality of It

A. Peter holds a romanticized idea of the Christian life — "Even though they all fall away, I will not" (Mark 14:29)

1. The gospel story is genuinely inspirational, even to unbelievers
2. We love the heroic images of the martyrs: Polycarp, Martin Luther, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Eric Liddell
3. But none of those men had inspirational music playing in the background — they stood alone, much like Paul in a Roman prison B. Without suffering, we can gauge our Christianity by how inspired we feel rather than by the reality of living it C. Peter's specific romanticized ideal: Christ and his Jewish culture — he wanted the approval of important people alongside his allegiance to Christ
4. His three denials come as fellow Jewish people confront him about his loyalty to Jesus
5. Galatians 2 — Paul must rebuke Peter for abandoning Gentile table fellowship when the popular Jewish crowd arrived D. This mirrors a common temptation today: wanting Christ while also wanting the approval of influential cultural voices
6. We daydream about gospel conversations where the unbeliever responds with amazement, or has a Philippian jailer moment (Acts 16)
7. When those conversations go poorly — when we are mocked or ridiculed — we ask what we did wrong, rather than recognizing that rejection is often the reality of faithful gospel witness E. The hymn How Firm a Foundation: "The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine"
8. Suffering burns away the romanticized idea of Christianity
9. Suffering refines the gold of the actual reality of the Christian life

III. Second Misguided Desire: A Jesus-Plus-Me Christianity

A. A doctrinal analogy: just as Rome's justification formula is faith + works = justification, many American evangelicals operate with the formula Jesus + me = Christianity B. Peter's declaration embodies this: "Even though they all fall away, I will not" — essentially telling Jesus, "Don't worry, you've got me"

1. All the disciples shared this attitude (Mark 14:31)
2. The disciples repeatedly bickered about who was the greatest (Luke 22:24)
3. James and John asked their mother to request the seats at Jesus's right and left hand in the kingdom C. Suffering exposes the truth: we are not part of the solution — we are part of the problem
4. Peter does not stand with Christ; he denies him three times and flees
5. We are not Christ's comrades at the cross — we are, in our sin, his executioners D. The correct formula is not Jesus + Peter = Christianity, but Jesus alone
6. Suffering strips away the pride of the Jesus-plus-me mindset
7. It exposes that we are recipients of grace, not contributors to it
8. It illuminates the marvelous grace of God in Jesus Christ, who needs nothing from us yet dies for us and invites us into the kingdom he wins by his blood alone

IV. Conclusion

A. Suffering is painful, but it serves God's gracious purpose of exposing our deceitful hearts so that we may live in the reality of the Christian life rather than a romanticized idea of it B. Suffering humbles our Jesus-plus-me pride and drives us to rest in Christ and his mercy alone C. Preview of next week: the inevitability of suffering, and a distinction between general suffering and distinctly Christian suffering