What does First B Jackson teach about suffering?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on suffering starts with an honest refusal to look away from it. Brad Yates opened his two-part series by naming what most people already sense: suffering, or the fear of it, is probably the main reason people never turn to God at all. Rather than offering quick comfort, Brad pressed into three competing ways the world handles pain and found all of them wanting. The Epicurean impulse is to medicate and escape; the Stoic and Eastern impulse is to detach and lower expectations. Christianity, Brad argued, holds a third and harder position: suffering is genuinely grievous, it exists because of sin, and God is present in it. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus even knowing he was about to raise him, and he did not call his followers to be stoic either.
The teaching also moved from the theological to the practical. When someone around you is suffering, Brad was blunt that this is not someone else's job. The most effective thing anyone can do is show up and listen, which he put more memorably as "show up and shut up." He warned against throwing what he called ninja star verses at someone in acute pain, with Romans 8:28 being the example he named, because truth applied to an open wound at the wrong moment acts more like poison than medicine. He also went directly after prosperity-gospel thinking, saying that a person's failure to be healed on their expected timeline is not evidence of insufficient faith. For those in Christ, God is not punishing sin through suffering, because Jesus paid that price in full, and God cannot accept double payment.
Pastor Jason and Pastor Mark both worked through Hebrews 12 to show that God's discipline through suffering is not a sign he has abandoned his children but a sign he claims them as his own. The hard center of that passage, as Pastor Jason put it, is that if you are in Christ and you are suffering, that suffering is not outside the hand of God. Both messages held in tension that sinful people are fully responsible for the harm they cause and that God is sovereign over all of it, without letting go of either truth. The Nigerian pastor held captive by Boko Haram, whose video both messages used, became the clearest example of Hebrews 12 actually being believed: he said he had never been discouraged, because all conditions a person finds himself in are in the hand of God.
Taught from Hebrews 12:3-11 · 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 · Luke 13:1-5 · Job 2:11-13 · Romans 8:28
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- August 11, 2024 Sunday, August 11th, 2024 - 11am Traditional Service - Guest Speaker Brad Yates - "Suffering Part 2" Brad Yates walks through what the Bible says to do when suffering hits, whether you're helping someone else through it or facing it yourself.
- August 11, 2024 There Is Another in the Fire: Suffering, Part 2 Brad Yates walks through what the Bible says about suffering: how to help others in pain, how to prepare yourself, and where lasting joy actually comes from.
- August 4, 2024 Normal But Not Natural Brad Yates of First Baptist Jackson explores why Christians suffer, what Scripture says about it, and why God's presence makes suffering bearable.
- August 4, 2024 Normal, But Not Natural Brad explores why Christians suffer, what Scripture says about evil, and why God's presence in our pain is the only answer that holds up when life falls apart.
- June 9, 2024 Sunday, June 9th, 2024 - 11am Service - Comfort in Christ: Sharing His Peace Through Suffering A pastor walks through 2 Corinthians 1 to show how God's comfort in our deepest suffering equips us to carry that same comfort to others.
- June 9, 2024 Comforted So We Can Comfort Pastor Ray walks through 2 Corinthians 1, showing how God's comfort in suffering equips believers to sit with others in their pain and point them to hope in Christ.
- January 19, 2020 Wrestle Until You Rest A pastor walks through Hebrews 12:3-11 on God's discipline, exploring how suffering shapes faith and why endurance leads to the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
- January 19, 2020 Wrestle Until You Find Your Rest in God A pastor wrestling with Hebrews 12 on suffering and discipline, asking whether hardship has purpose and where God is when life is genuinely painful.
Mentioned along the way
- March 1, 2026 Come to the Valley of Judgment Felix and Guadalupe's testimony of healing and provision leads into Van's teaching from Joel 3 on God's judgment, mercy, and the hope found only in Christ.
- February 21, 2024 Women's Bible Study - February 21st, 2024 - Power of Prayer Deborah walks through James 5, exploring patient endurance, prayer, and God's faithfulness through suffering, drawing on Job, a farmer's hope, and a friend's battle with ALS.
- October 4, 2023 Women's Bible Study - October 4th, 2023 Natalie draws on her half marathon journey to explore what it takes to train, endure, and stand firm in faith for the race God has set before us.
- June 12, 2022 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God Peter commands humility, sobriety, and resistance against the devil. Pastor Carl walks through 1 Peter 5, showing what we do and what God promises in return.
- June 12, 2022 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God From 1 Peter 5, four clear commands for anyone who feels stuck: humble yourself, stay sober, stay alert, and resist the devil. God promises to do the rest.
- May 2, 2022 To Follow Jesus Is to Serve Others In Mark 10, Pastor Felix walks through Jesus predicting His death and redefining greatness: true followers serve others, just as Jesus gave His life for many.
- August 16, 2021 Monday Night @ First B Aug 15th (The book of Philipians) Pastor Carl opens Philippians at a Monday night study, showing how Paul wrote from prison with overflowing joy rooted not in circumstances, but in knowing Jesus.
- November 11, 2018 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God Pastor Nathan walks through 1 Peter 5:6-11, showing what believers are called to do about anxiety and pride, and what God promises to do in response.
- October 7, 2018 Done with Sin Peter calls believers to be done with sin. The pastor walks through 1 Peter 4:1-6, Christ's suffering, holy living, and the hope that grounds it all.
- September 23, 2018 Called to Bless, That You Might Inherit a Blessing Peter calls all believers to bless rather than repay evil, submit to God's order, and live faithfully so that even unbelieving spouses might be won to Christ.
- September 16, 2018 The Word of the Lord Endures Forever A pastor leads his grieving church through 1 Peter 2 after the sudden death of an elder, finding hope and purpose in Christ's example of suffering and trust in God.
- August 26, 2018 Woe Is Me: Encountering the Holiness of God A study of 1 Peter 1:10-22 on the holiness of God, the salvation promised through the prophets, and what it means to live as a believer set apart for God.
- August 19, 2018 Born Again to a Living Hope Peter writes to scattered believers facing persecution, promising an imperishable inheritance, living hope through Christ's resurrection, and God's protecting power through faith.
- July 9, 2017 Doing Follows Being Walking through Ephesians 1-3, the pastor shows how God's grace transforms dead sinners into one body, calling the church to be what it already is before doing anything.
- April 30, 2017 By the Will of God The pastor walks through Ephesians 1:1-2, examining what it means that Paul was an apostle "by the will of God" and what God's will looks like in a believer's life.
- April 30, 2017 By the Will of God The pastor walks through Ephesians 1:1-2 and examines what the will of God actually means for believers, from salvation and purity to suffering and submission.
- July 10, 2016 The Sufferings of This Present Time Romans 8 holds hope, but Pastor Ray lingers on the suffering first, naming real losses and asking what it means to wait on God's glory while still feeling the weight.
- July 10, 2016 Not Worthy to Be Compared Romans 8 sermon on the sufferings of this present life and why Paul says they are not worthy to be compared with the eternal glory yet to be revealed.
- June 12, 2016 Work the Works While It Is Day A pastor walks through Romans 7 and John 9 to show how union with Christ through faith calls believers to simple obedience, honest testimony, and worship.
- October 18, 2015 The Only Way Out Is Through Paul's appeal in 2 Corinthians 6 calls believers to endure hardships by God's power, trust faith over sight, and widen their hearts to the gospel.
- October 7, 2015 WWW Be Right (32) Romans 8 shows us we are not condemned, not slaves to sin, and not alone. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us as we walk by faith toward glory.
- September 16, 2015 WWW Be Right (18) Romans 5 shows that faith brings peace with God, access to Him, standing in grace, and confident hope, even through suffering that refines and strengthens us.
- September 13, 2015 Therefore We Do Not Lose Heart From 2 Corinthians 4, Pastor Blake walks through Paul's list of pressures and why hard-pressed believers are not crushed, forsaken, or destroyed.
- August 2, 2015 The God of All Comfort The pastor opens 2 Corinthians by asking why we suffer, and finds in Paul's words a God who comforts us so we can comfort others with real, hard-won power.
- February 11, 2015 Prisoner of Christ, Not of Circumstances A pastor shares Ephesians 3 on grace, the church, and suffering, including her own grief after a tragic loss in her home, and what she learned about God's faithfulness.
- March 24, 2013 From John 18-19, Morning Praise (2) Palm Sunday sermon on God's sovereignty over suffering, tracing Job, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53 to the cross of Christ, showing why Christians can still say "blessed be the name of the Lord."