The Price of Admission

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 18th of October, 2026.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

You don’t have to answer out loud, but have you ever said, “Why me, God!?”  “Why did this happen to me?”  “I’m not perfect by any stretch, but I’ve been pretty good, haven’t I?”  “So why me???”

If you can honestly say nothing like this has ever crossed your mind, then we need to nominate you for sainthood.  I mean, it just seems natural to me - human – to question the God we worship and adore when everything seems to be going against us.  Even atheists ask these questions, although I’m not sure who or what they’re asking them of.

But suffering is part of being human.  Jesus suffered when He was in human form, and He assured us we would suffer, too, even though we follow Him.  Or maybe because we follow Him.

If there is anyone in our Bible who suffered because of their faith and witness, it was Paul.  Perhaps it was life paying him back for so greatly persecuting the church before his conversion.  More likely, though, it was so that he could show the glory of God, so that the people could see that even as he suffered greatly, his faith and belief held strong.  When Paul prayed that Jesus would remove a personal hardship from him, the Lord responded, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  Jesus certainly worked great things through Paul.

Please listen and follow along as the Apostle Luke recounts an incident experienced by the Apostles Paul and Barnabas during one of their missionary travels.  This is found in verses 8 through 28 of the 14th chapter of Luke’s Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

8 While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting 9 and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. 10 So Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking.

11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” 12 They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. 13 Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles.

14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings — just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In the past He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, 17 but He never left them without evidence of Himself and His goodness. For instance, He sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.” 18 But even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them.

19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. 20 But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

21 After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, 22 where they strengthened the believers. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. 23 Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 Then they traveled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia. 25 They preached the word in Perga, then went down to Attalia.

26 Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. 27 Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too. 28 And they stayed there with the believers for a long time.

--Acts 14:8-28 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.  And now, Father, please open our hearts to receive Your message this morning.  Touch each of us with Your most Holy Spirit that we might more patiently await the joy of our Lord Christ Jesus, and the glory You will reveal to us.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Someone once asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?"  "Why not?", he replied.  "They're the only ones who can take it." 

The little Our Daily Bread periodical once posted this interesting account:

Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down.  The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water.  The man giving the tour then took Bailey to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly.  "These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks," he said.  "You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them.  This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture.  Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area.  While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth."

How deep do our spiritual roots run?  How much hardship and suffering can we endure before our faith weakens and wanes?  How much can we take from the world’s assaults before we begin to have doubts, like Thomas?  Family, we’ve got to let God’s Holy Spirit fully take root and dig ever deeper into our hearts, so that we can find comfort at a greater depth when a spiritual drought hits.

So Paul and Barnabas are preaching to a crowd in Lystra when Paul spots a crippled man listening intently to what Paul is saying.  Paul, through his Jesus-given insight, could tell the man had the faith to be healed, so the Apostle simply shouted to him, “Stand up!”  And the man immediately jumped to his feet and walked around.  I bet he did a little dance with the walking.

When the crowd saw this, they declared Paul and Barnabas to be gods – lower-case “G” gods – and chief among the Greek gods at that.  They decided to go to the temple of Zeus to offer animal sacrifices to these gods among them, but Paul and Barnabas stopped them, declaring themselves to just be humans, like everyone else there.

Now while they did not suffer physically at this point, I can’t help but feel that they suffered spiritually, emotionally.  They were there doing their best to tell the people about the one true God and His Son Jesus, when those same people started calling them gods.  Were they not listening?  Did they not hear anything Paul said?  Only the formerly crippled man seemed to have paid attention to the Apostle’s words.  That had to have hurt, thinking that nothing he had said had made any difference.

But our passage continues and then the physical suffering comes in.  Some Jews came to Lystra from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against Paul and Barnabas.  The crowd gathered again, this time to stone Paul.  They dragged his battered body out of town and left him for dead.

Of course, he wasn’t dead and he went on and continued his mission trip, making new converts and strengthening the believers, encouraging them to remain strong in their faith.  And then he reminds them, and us, that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.  Suffering is our price of admission to heaven.  Our faith is the key.  Our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord opens the door.  But suffering is the price we pay to be forever saved.

We don’t suffer alone, though, do we.  Jesus suffered, Paul suffered, you and I suffer.  My arthritis reminds me of its presence every time I stand up after sitting for a while.  We suffer, but we can’t let the suffering break us.

In verses 14 through 25 of the 8th chapter of his letter to the church in Rome, Paul encourages us to be patience - yet confident - as we suffer in and through this life...

14 All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

--Romans 8:14-25 (NLT)

What we suffer now, in this life, is nothing – nothing – compared to the glory that will be revealed to us when we go home to heaven.  As we look forward to that glory, we must wait patiently, and confidently – confident in God’s promises, confident in our salvation through Jesus.  As adopted children of God, we are brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus.  To share in His glory, we must also share in His suffering.  This is the price of admission.  But it is a small price to pay considering the rewards to be received.

Family, no matter how much we might suffer in this life, whether physically or emotionally or spiritually, we must continue in our faith, for this is the true price of admission into heaven.  It's not the suffering.  It’s the faith.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of the one true God.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for reminding us that suffering hardship is a part of human life.  Even though we follow Your Son Jesus and try to live in a way that pleases You, we know that we are not immune to suffering and pain.  Please help us remain strong when we are hurting, steadfast in our faith through our trials.  Help us accept hardship with courage and grace, as did Jesus and Paul.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to You and our Lord Jesus, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for warning us that we will still suffer hurts and hardships in this life, even though we have accepted You as our Lord and Master.  And thank You most of all for loving us even when our faith fades a little due to our hurting.  Lord, please forgive us when we question why we suffer, rather than accepting it and going on, like You did.  Please help us remain strong and faithful even in our worst days.  Stand with us in our trials.  Let us feel Your presence in the darkness of suffering and the red haze of pain.  But nonetheless, even during our own hardships, help us show Your love through our love.  And in showing Your love, help us seek the lost and lead them to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.