When Pain Becomes Your Platform: What the Apostle Paul Teaches Us About Suffering

Meta Description: Your pain has a purpose. Discover three biblical reasons for suffering and how God transforms your deepest misery into your greatest ministry. URL Slug: when-pain-becomes-your-platform-acts-28 Featured Image: A weathered hand holding an open Bible near a campfire, with warm light illuminating the pages — evoking both Paul's fire on Malta and the warmth of God's presence in hard seasons.

This past Sunday, I shared something that I believe is one of the most important truths you'll ever need to hold onto: your pain has a purpose. And the Apostle Paul's final chapter in the book of Acts shows us exactly how that works.

We just finished 40-something weeks through the book of Acts — verse by verse — and Acts 28 is the pinnacle. It's Paul at his greatest. And what we see in this chapter is that Paul's pain became his platform, his trial became his testimony, and his greatest ministry came from his deepest misery. I believe God wants to do the same thing in your life.

Everyone Suffers — But Not Everyone Profits From It

Here's something I've noticed: everybody experiences pain. That's not the question. The question is what you do with it. Most people squander their suffering. They never figure out how to harvest their hurts. But disciples of Jesus Christ — people who are actually following him, not just cheering him on from a distance — they learn from their losses. They gain from every pain. And because of that, they keep getting better instead of bitter.

That's what Acts 28 shows us in Paul's life.

Three Reasons Pain Enters Our Lives

As I walked through this chapter, I found that the Bible gives us three distinct categories for why we suffer. And it really matters which one you're in, because it changes how you respond.

1. General Sin

In Romans 5, Paul writes that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people." Adam's rebellion as the federal head of mankind had ramifications for all of creation — including you and me. The world as you're experiencing it right now is not as God created it. God made everything good. Sin corrupted it. So when kids get cancer, when hurricanes happen, when things fall apart — that's not the world God designed. That's the world sin has broken.

2. Human Sin

Sometimes your pain isn't from the brokenness of the world in general. Sometimes somebody sinned against you. Paul was innocent — he said so himself in Acts 28 — and yet he was arrested, chained, and hated. Here's the truth: sometimes you're not suffering because you did something wrong. You're suffering because you did something right. You had a backbone. You stood firm. And the world didn't like it.

But let me also be honest with you: sometimes the pain in your life is because of your own choices. As Proverbs 4:23 reminds us, the heart is deceitful. This is why you need people around you — brothers and sisters who love Jesus and love you enough to speak truth into your life when you're going sideways.

3. Demonic Attack

This one surprises people, but it's all over Scripture. In Acts 28, right before Paul is about to testify about Christ in Rome, a serpent attacks him. Almost every Bible scholar agrees this is no coincidence. And the book of Job makes it even clearer — Job didn't suffer because of his sin or anyone else's. He suffered because of direct demonic attack, with God's permission, for a greater purpose.

Here's why this matters: how you frame pain determines where you run. If you think God is punishing you, you'll run from him. But if you recognize that the enemy is attacking you, you'll run to your heavenly Father. That's not a small distinction. That's everything.

Joy That Doesn't Depend on Happenings

One of the things I love most about Paul in this chapter is his unshakeable peace. He survives a shipwreck, washes up on a strange island, finally gets warm by a fire — and then a viper latches onto his hand. And all he does is shake it off and keep telling people about Jesus.

How? In Philippians 4, Paul explains his secret: "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances... I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength."

Notice he says he learned it. It didn't come naturally. Here's the distinction Paul is making: happiness is based on happenings, but joy is based on Jesus. Happiness goes up and down with your circumstances. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When your joy is rooted in him, a viper on your hand doesn't have the final word.

Your Misery Can Become Ministry

Romans 8:28 says it plainly: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

All things. Not some things. Not the easy things. All things.

I want to tell you about a man named Kelly Gudro. Kelly sat right here at our Rockwall campus for years. About five years ago, he grabbed me and my wife Jana in the lobby with a big smile on his face and told us he'd just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only had a few months to live. Every time we saw him after that, he asked the same thing: "Will you pray for me that I'll have faith through this to share Christ with everybody I can?"

Kelly started a ministry called Hope Bags. He took his Bible — highlighted with every verse that had encouraged him in his cancer fight — and gathered a team of Lake Pointers to create bags filled with those Bibles and practical supplies for people fighting terminal illness. Over the last few years, they've mailed 6,000 Hope Bags to people in 40 states, 8 countries, and 2 languages. Just recently, they mailed their first pediatric Hope Bag to children fighting cancer.

An oncologist in Dallas told one of our church members this week that no one in history has had more impact on her patients and nursing staff than Kelly Gudro — because of his faith, his steadfastness, and his joy in the middle of his fight.

Kelly went to be with the Lord a few weeks ago. And he left behind a legacy that will outlast all of us.

That's what God does when we stop squandering our suffering and start asking, "Lord, how can I use this for your kingdom?"

What Will You Do With Your Pain?

I don't know what you're walking through right now. But I know this: God wants to turn your pain into a platform, your trial into a testimony, and your misery into ministry.

The happiest people you'll ever meet aren't people with fewer problems. They're people with a purpose greater than their problems — a purpose that makes every hard thing worth it.

Whatever you're facing today, I want to invite you to press close to your heavenly Father. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Ask him, "Lord, what do you have for me in this?" And then watch what he does.

Watch the full sermon on our website or YouTube channel, and share it with someone who needs to be reminded that their pain is not wasted.

If you want to go deeper on these themes with others who are walking the same road, join one of our small groups — community is where this kind of faith gets lived out and grows strong.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): Your pain has a purpose. The Apostle Paul's life shows us that God doesn't waste a single hard thing — he transforms our deepest misery into our greatest ministry. This week's message from Acts 28 will change how you see everything you're going through. 🔥 Read the full blog post at the link in bio.

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