Suffering Is Not The End | Crossroads Students

Hey, I'm Parker, and I'm Hannah, and we are here on a boat in the Mediterranean. We're kind of risking our lives right now, honestly, a little more intense. We're here because this is where Paul came. Paul was in Turkey. We're no longer in Turkey anymore. Welcome to Greece. Welcome to Greece. We're here. We made it. Paul's in Turkey. He's going to go to this area called Macedonia, which is where we are right now, and he comes on a boat to this exact city. It was called Neapolis, where he goes to the city of Philippi, and he shares the good news. And that's a big deal because Paul didn't just share the good news here, but he had a critical step on his journey, one that you and I have to have if we are planning to walk anywhere with God. And that word is a little bit of a scary word because none of us like to do it. It's called suffering. And it was here that Paul suffered really, really well, and the reason I say well is because he had joy in that suffering, and he learned something, and then he came out on the other side. Yes, he did. So, Parker is headed to go figure out what even happened here, why is Philippi significant, and why was it a crucial step of Paul having an impact on this entire city? What comes to mind when I say the word suffering? Maybe it's loss, anger, pain, not necessarily the things that you and I want to talk about. But if you follow Jesus, even if you're a human, you know suffering, and Paul knows suffering too. And that's why Philippi is so powerful. This place is beautiful.

Philippi is on the northern side of Greece. It's surrounded by these majestic mountains. There's olive groves and vineyards, and it's close to the sea. It is a beautiful place, and it's also a Roman colony. It maybe is the most Roman colony because this is where they would send retired soldiers to come live and work land, like this was their retirement package was to live here, and they controlled this place. Roman buildings, Roman streets, Roman culture. This is a place that waved its flag and said, we are better than you, and we know it. And Paul and Silas come to this place, and they come here, and they have some early success. They meet a lady named Lydia. Lydia is, she's a businesswoman. She deals in purple cloth, which might sound strange, but back in the day, purple cloth was like the finest of the fine. It was for royalty and elites. It was very hard to get, and so she is wealthy. She's well-connected. She has some really legitimate business going on, and she's also chasing the dream that she sees. She's chasing the good life of having everything that she wants, but she needs more. She knows that something's missing in her story. So Paul and Silas, they go down to this river, and they meet Lydia there, and they tell her the good news about Jesus, and she says yes. She accepts Jesus. She gets baptized, and then everyone in her community that she lives with, that she leads, they also hear the news about Jesus, and they too get baptized. And it's amazing because she goes from this wealthy, powerful leader in her society to being a leader of the very first church. In this city, Lydia helps start and is the pastor for the very first church in Europe happening here in Philippi.

It's an amazing start. Paul has some early success. It's going great, but that doesn't last long because shortly after that, he gets in a little bit of trouble. See, the gospel, just like in today's world, it's disruptive. It can go against what society says and what people and culture value, and so Paul shares the good news with people, and they don't like it. And pretty soon, a mob attacks him and Silas, and he's standing right here on this stone. This is called a bima. This is where you would stand to get judged, to get beaten, to get thrown in jail, and that's exactly what happens for Paul. He's standing here on this stone. There's a railing right here where these holes are, and he's holding onto this railing like this, and the two strongest guys in the entire city have rods, and they are beating him, bloody, bleeding on these very stones right here. And he gets beaten near death, thrown into jail. And jail in Philippi is not like jail today. Jail here is different. You're in a cave, so you're basically in solitary confinement. You have no food. You have no water. You have no bathroom. Anything you have is because someone brought that to you in jail, and you're not like waiting for a trial. You're not waiting to get out on good behavior. You are waiting in darkness, waiting to die. Did you see it? Suffering didn't stop Paul's mission. God actually used it. And I'm not saying that when we suffer, it's magically going to be fun, or it's going to

be easy, or it's going to be amazing. It's going to be difficult. But it's the times when we suffer that God can actually show up more clearly. Paul writes a letter later to this community called Philippians, and the words that he uses over and over again to talk about his experience with Jesus is joy. Joy in the midst of suffering. Joy when things don't seem to make sense at all. Joy because our hope is not based on ourselves. circumstances, it's based on Jesus and that even when we are down, even when we're in a place of suffering, God can show up clearly in that place. It's here, it's his moments here that he thinks about when he's writing Philippians 4.13, when he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He can find joy and hope even in the midst of suffering and pain. So here's why Philippi matters for you. When you're going through something difficult, you're not alone. When you feel chained up by circumstances, Jesus can bring freedom. And when you feel like suffering is the end of your story, God is writing a new chapter. Paul in Philippi reminds us that even when we go through suffering and we go through difficult times, God is not done with us. It's not the end of our story. He has more for us and he will do more for us if we're up for that. And sometimes it's actually the way God shines through us the most. Well, welcome back, Parker. Very cool that you got to stand in the exact place of Paul and just experience what that would have been like for him. And we're in another cool spot right now. Yeah. So this is the octagonal church.

This is Lydia's church. We talked about Lydia earlier and how she went on to become the first pastor. And this location right here is where she lived and they built a church on top of it. This was the first church in Europe. So Paul goes through some wild stuff here, right? He goes through some suffering, some really, really hard times, but he didn't let it end his story. He didn't let it be the end of everything that God would do through him. Instead, he persevered. And this church is here and spread across this region because of what Paul did. So this is just the middle. Can you believe it? We still have so much to go. So we hope you come back and join us for the rest of Real Encounters.