The Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings

By Pastor Matt Black

17 September 2006
Lord's Day morning
Philippians 3:10

Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  The title of this morning’s message is “The Fellowship of Christ’s Suffering”.    Let’s stand together and read Philippians 3:10

[Stand and read Philippians 3:10]

Paul says here in verse 10 of Philippians 3, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”.  Whatever we love, we will seek an intimate knowledge of it.  Our 21^st century culture cares nothing of Christ.  Even we who profess Christ know so little about Him.  In order to know Christ, we must walk where Christ walked.  We must be tempted and tried by the world.  We must live above this world, in the power of His resurrection, and we must live contrary to this world and contrary to our impulses in the fellowship of His sufferings. 

We love to talk about the power of Christ’s resurrection.  Resurrection is exciting.  Newness of life and purpose and optimism are all things we long for.  Yet we do not live on the mountain top of resurrected living because we know so little about how to get there.  You get there by entering into Christ’s death. 

Paul says, yes, I want to know the power of His resurrection, but do not miss this.  He says in essence—I cannot live above the world in the power of Christ resurrection unless I am dead to the world.  Remember Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

In order to experience Christ living in you, you must die.  You must be crucified.  So many Christians live for the American dream.  They avoid pain.  They love relaxation, recreation, retirement… Our lives are marked by shallowness and indulgence.  We rarely say no to our impulses.  Jesus said, “Deny thyself”.  We say “Indulge thyself”.

Self-discipline is the answer.  That is we must live by what is good, what pleases God, not according to our impulses.  How do we do this?

I. Live above the world.  Paul says—I want to know Christ.  When I know Christ, I count everything as it truly is in comparison to Him—refuse—dung!  Knowing Christ means living above the world, in the “power of His resurrection.”

Illustration: Recently I saw an interview with a man by the name of Mark McEwen.  He was a successful journalist on the early show at CBS for 15 years.  If you go into his home, you can look up at his walls, and they are filled with pictures of him with several Presidents, with Muhammad Ali, with all the rich and famous people of the world.  Last year, Mark McEwen had a severe stroke that showed him how empty his life was.  He had to learn how to walk and talk again.  He had barely turned 50 years old.  He says this, “All this fame and fortune is an illusion”.  We, like this man, invest so much in indulging ourselves.  We live for the world, but it is all an illusion.  It is flimsy and fake and fickle. 

We must live above the world—in the power of Christ’s resurrection.  How do we do that?

A. Focus.  To live above the world, you must look above the world.  The Lord says in Isaiah to “look and… be saved” (Isaiah 45:22), in other words, “Look and Live!”  Whatever you are looking at is what you are living for.   What do you give your eyes, your mind, and your time to?  “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. 

Colossians 3:1-4, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

B. Follow.  Take up your cross and follow Me!! Mark 8:34, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”  Following means a death to the world and a living for one purpose. Focus on Christ, and follow Him! 

Living above the world means that you may exist on this earth, but you LIVE for heavenly things!  You follow the resurrected Christ!  1 John 2:6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

II. Suffer with the Lord.  Paul says not only did he want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, but he says something shocking.  He says he wants to know the “fellowship of his sufferings”. 

A. Enter into His sorrows.  We must understand that nothing compares to the Lord’s sorrows.  He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).  Understand that our sufferings are nothing compared to what Christ suffered.  And yet if you are a Christian, you are called to a life of suffering.  You must not please yourself, but God.  You must unite yourself with the sorrows of Christ.

A. Persecution.  2 Timothy 3:12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

We must take to heart what the Lord Jesus said in John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

And how did the world treat Jesus?  He was perfect and good and gentle.  They cast Him out and hated Him!  Lenard Ravenhill said this, “There [was] no room for [Christ] in the Inn.  He got a bit older, and there was no room for Him in His family, and His family turned on Him.  He went to the Temple—no room in the Temple—the Temple turned on Him.  And when He died, there was no room to bury Him.  He died outside of the city.  Why…do you expect to be accepted everywhere?  How is it that the world couldn’t get on with the holiest Man that ever lived, and it can get on with you and me?  Are we compromised?  Have we no spiritual stature?  Have we no righteousness that reflects on [the world’s] corruption?”

Dear friends, the reason we are not persecuted is because the world sees nothing in us to be with.  We are in agreement with the world on most things  Have we given the world any reason to be angry with us?  Have we exposed its darkness at all?  Or are we loving the same things that they are loving?   If the world hated Christ, it will hate those who follow Christ!  Enter into His suffering!  Take up His cross!  Take up His identity.  Be buried with Him in His death!  Walk in newness of life!

B. Self-denial.  When Paul says I want to “know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (verse 10), he is essentially saying—my agenda is meaningless.  I forfeit it that I may win Christ.  Remember what Paul had said in verse 5? “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung”.  Paul had it all together.  In man’s estimation, he was a member of the best church—he was faithful.  He had a prestigious degree from the best university!  He had connections and people were singing his praises.  He probably had money that other people didn’t have—and on top of all that—he was sincere!  He had a very sincere heart.  He couldn’t be wrong!  But he was!  Paul was living for himself.  When he met Christ he began to understand self-denial.  Paul says in verse 8, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung”. 

We know little of Christ’s suffering.  Our lives are out of control.  We have not time for the most important because we say yes to trivial things that please us.  We know little of self-denial.  Jesus said in Mark 8:34, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

We know little of discipline.  Discipline can be defined as “the ability to regulate your conduct by divine principle and sound judgment, rather than by impulse, desire, high pressure, or what is socially acceptable around you.”  Self discipline is the ability to say deny ourselves for the sake of that which is right and good and best.  There is a price to be paid.  The sweet taste of doing what is right and good comes only by denying that which is immediately pleasurable for that which will give us a deep and profound and eternal pleasure.  We lack discipline.  We are mediocre because we want to be immediately happy instead of being obedient.  

We know very little how to subordinate our emotions and our body and to bring them under control.  Do you do whatever you feel like doing?  Do you do whatever pressure dictates that you do? 

For the Christian—self discipline is to obey the Word of God no matter what you feel like.  To obey the Word of God regardless of the pressure. 

Application:  Self discipline gives you an ability to talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” 

CJ Mahaney gives an excellent example.  We listen to ourselves every day.

“You know the routine.  Every morning the alarm clock erupts, demanding attention. 

Make it stop…make it stop!  You hit the snooze button. 

A precious eight minutes of floating, timeless oblivion pass.  Then the grating alarm starts again.  You open your eyes and the “listening” begins.

          You roll over.  But there’s no more rest as you remember the weird noise the car started making yesterday…and the checkbook that needs balancing…and all the sarcasm expressed at the dinner table last night. 

          Life is just one big broken, whirring mess…

          You slip out of bed.  You know you should exercise, but your back is sore.   Forget it.

          As your bare feet hit the cold bathroom floor, the voice picks up its pace.

          [The voice is CLEAR] Can’t anyone in this family learn to put the toothpaste back?

          There’s so much to do today, and you know you should pray.

          But I haven’t got time.

          You didn’t pray yesterday either.

          No time.

          You star in the mirror.

          Oh, I feel so drained…

          The fleeting thought recurs that it might help to spend a few moments in prayer and reading the Scriptures.

          But God feels so distant.

Have you ever felt that way?  How ‘bout this morning?  Instead of listening to our self—instead of listening to a lecture from professor flesh, we need to talk to ourselves.  Now I know your mother may have warned you about talking to yourself, but just give me a minute and you’ll understand very clearly what I’m saying.

Instead of listening to yourself, you need to talk to yourself about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He’s accomplished through Christ. 

· Something bad happens.  Listen to yourself.  What does ‘yourself’ always say?  “Why is this happening to me?!”  Now talk to yourself.  What does God say?

o Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

o Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD.”

o Every detail of life is “predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11). 

o Romans 8:28, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

o Joseph said to his brothers who sold him into slavery, “ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20).

You may be in a situation that would make you very angry.  Be a peacemaker!  Be poor in spirit!

B. Enter into His love. 

III. Never look back.  Look at verse 11 and 12—Paul says I have one goal—I want to attain to the resurrection of the dead.  When the roll is called up yonder I want to be there!  He had a single focus.  He had one thing in his scope.  One dot on the radar screen.  “I want to be raised like Christ!  Heaven!  But it is very obvious to him that he has not yet arrived yet.  He is not yet perfect.  He could still say “O wretched man that I am!”  He still looked upon himself as the “chief of sinners”.  He said in Ephesians 3:8, I “am less than the least of all saints”.  He had accomplished so much, but he did not have a high view of himself. 

Look at verses 13 and 14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Forget the past.

A. Forget your failures.  They’re done.  Learn from them.  Don’t repeat them again, but don’t wallow in them.  Understand the very greatest of human beings before you were just wretched old dirty sinners saved by grace.  Moses killed the Egyptian in the sand.  He hit the rock twice.  He messed up.  David got caught up in lust and murder.  He had failures too.  Abraham turned to lying.  Paul stood against Christians.  Jacob’s home by today’s standards was a dysfunctional home.  I mean 12 children by four different women?  Forget it all.  Forget the past.  Look at Psalm 103:12.  Forget your failures.  Confess your sin and forsake it.  It will do you know good to root against yourself.  Paul says we need to FORGET THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND.  That includes our sins.  Read Psalm 103:12 with me.  Let’s read it aloud together, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”  Have you confessed your sin?  Forsaken it?  God has forgotten it—why haven’t you? 

B. Forget your victories.  In other words—“Don’t rest on your laurels”.  Your victories are meaningless at this moment.  It matters not that you won the battle.  God would have you win the war.  Saul was one who rested on his past victories. 

Conclusion:  As we look to the Lord’s death, let us not look to ourselves to carve out our own happiness.  Let us remember that our happiness comes from the Lord.

The joy of the Lord is your strength—Nehemiah said!

Rejoice in the Lord!

Enter into his sufferings!

Closing Hymn: 243 When I Survey