Part of the passage I want to focus in on here in 1 Peter 4 is right there in the beginning
where it says in verse 1,
For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.
For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
So the title of the message this morning is Christ Hath Suffered For Us.
Where it says there, Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh.
And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning,
is the fact that, just kind of remind ourselves of the sufferings of Christ,
look at some things about the sufferings of Christ,
and then we ought to remind ourselves that that is the same thing that we ought to do.
That because Christ suffered for us, we should arm ourselves with the same mind.
And that's kind of what this chapter is saying here.
It's saying if any man, you know, if he suffers as a Christian, you know, happy as that man.
We should be glad that when we are approached for the name of Christ,
because the Spirit of God rests upon us.
And there's this whole chapter, if we go through it,
there's several verses that are saying, you know,
don't think it's a strange thing that the fiery trial should come upon you.
That's the life that we've been called to, and that's the example that Jesus Christ has set for us.
Now, keep a bookmark in 1 Peter chapter 4,
but if you would, turn over to Isaiah chapter 53.
You see, we're not, we should expect suffering because it is the example that was set for us.
It says, Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, the mind that Christ had.
And the mind that Christ had was that he was one who was willing and ready and able to suffer in the flesh.
When he was on this earth in a physical body like you and I have,
he was willing to go to such great extremes that he was willing to suffer a great suffering in his flesh.
And we should be willing to do the same thing, that is the example that he set for us.
And I want to just look and remind you some things about the sufferings of Christ,
because when we get a good perspective of what Jesus Christ went through,
the sufferings that he suffered that makes the suffering that we might have to endure in this life seem a little bit easier.
We remember one of the great trials and temptations that Jesus Christ had to go through when he was in this flesh,
when he was on this earth, we can then be reminded when we have to go through some trial or temptation or something is asked of us,
when we're asked to sacrifice, we can always think of Christ, we can look unto Jesus,
and remember and understand that we haven't even begun to resist unto blood.
Now there in Isaiah chapter 53, the first thing I want us to see about his suffering overall is that it was twofold.
The suffering of Christ was twofold, it was physical and it was spiritual.
And Isaiah 53 begins us to give us a good idea of that physical suffering that he went through.
That's the first thing I want us to take note of about the suffering of Christ.
The Bible says that Christ had suffered for us and that suffering was a physical suffering.
And I'll have to turn over there with you to Isaiah chapter 53.
You have to forgive me, I started handwriting these things so I'm so used to not knowing I have to remember to turn every time.
Isaiah chapter 53, Christ's physical suffering, one of the things we need to understand about Christ's physical suffering is that it was prophesied.
It says there, you're turning to Isaiah chapter 53, but in Genesis 22, if we were to go back there, we would even see that even as far back in the beginning,
the suffering of Christ was something that was prophesied.
Where it says that Isaac spake unto Abraham and said,
Where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Now we know the story when Abraham was asked to take his son up upon the mountain and sacrifice his only son.
And while they're going up, Isaac asks his dad, says, Hey, where's the lamb?
Because he thinks he's just going up there, you know, for a regular sacrifice.
He doesn't realize that he himself is a sacrifice that's to be offered.
And he asked, Where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And that we know we can look back and see and understand that that is a picture of Jesus Christ, but that Jesus Christ is that lamb.
We could also think of the coats of skins in Genesis that God made for Adam and Eve when they were cast out of the garden.
When he decided to take the aprons off them and put proper clothing on them, he had to kill an animal.
That was the first animal that died. Something had to suffer and bleed and die for a covering of their sin.
That's a picture of Jesus Christ, the lamb. And of course, if we were to turn over to Revelation, we would see the land slain from the foundation of the world.
That term is used in Revelation five, six and twelve, thirteen and eight.
So we see that Jesus Christ always has been and always will be the land that is slain from the foundation of the world.
He is a picture that was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53 and elsewhere.
So we see, first of all, that in Isaiah 53, beginning in verse one, the Bible says, Who hath believed our report and to whom is the armor of the Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor cleanliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him.
He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
So we see here that this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ.
His physical suffering was something that was prophesied in Genesis and elsewhere.
Even here in chapter 53, we get a good picture of some of the things that Jesus Christ had to go through when he suffered on this earth.
And if you would, turn over to Psalm chapter 22.
The first thing we can understand about Jesus Christ's suffering is that it was prophesied, and that prophecy wasn't pleasant.
It was a very painful suffering that Jesus Christ was with.
I mean, painful is kind of a mild term to use for it.
Painful is something that we would describe if you fell and skinned your knee or something.
That costs you some pain.
We can use it to describe the sufferings of Christ, but I think sometimes we fail to understand,
and we need to understand it and get a firm grip on just how intense those physical sufferings of Jesus Christ were.
It's not something we like to dwell on, but it's something that we should be reminded of from time to time.
That Jesus Christ endured great physical suffering on this earth when he was here.
You're turning over to Isaiah, or excuse me, to Psalm.
I'll read to you from Isaiah chapter 52 verse 14.
Just a chapter back where it says,
As many were, as many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred,
was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.
This is saying that his visage, or the way he looked, was more marred than any man.
I mean, you watch some of these guys, like in these MMA fights, and they get beat up.
You see them afterwards, and their faces are bruised and broken, and they have fat lips and eyes, and they're bleeding.
But even the most beat up guy you've ever seen didn't even compare to what Jesus Christ said.
It says more than any man.
I mean, the physical suffering, the beating that Jesus Christ took on our behalf is more than anybody else has ever taken.
You're turning over to Psalm 22.
Let me get over there with you.
Psalm 22, we're going to look at verse 14.
We're talking about the fact that Jesus Christ's physical suffering was prophesied in scripture,
and that it was intense, and that it was physical.
We read there in Isaiah where it says that he was wounded, he was bruised, he was chastised, he had stripes laid upon him.
In Isaiah chapter 22, we'll see some more of that physical suffering that Jesus Christ went through.
In Isaiah 22, verse 14, he said,
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
I mean, can you imagine that?
Can you imagine going through that?
If anyone's...
I've never had to suffer that, let alone a broken bone, you know.
And, you know, would to God I never have to suffer anything like that.
But have you ever had...
I've heard that people have had their joints popped out of place when they have to set that joint back in.
That's extremely painful.
And it says here that all of his bones were out of joint.
That's some intense physical suffering.
You think, well, when did that happen?
You know, when I read that, I can imagine that was when he was on the tree, when he was crucified.
It was when they pierced their hands and his feet that, you know, that all of his weight would sink down.
And eventually, I wonder if it even pulled his own shoulders out of socket when he was out there on that cross.
You know, it's not something we like to think about,
but that's the physical suffering that Jesus Christ went through on our behalf.
It says that all of his bones were out of joint.
Look at verse 15.
He said,
My strength is dried up like a pot-shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws,
and that was brought me unto the dust of death.
These words that he's using here, dried, dust.
He's saying that his tongue cleaved to his jaws.
I believe the physical, just the thirst that Jesus Christ went through when he was on that cross.
Even he said, when he was crucified, he said, I thirst.
And if you remember, they gave him vinegar to drink.
So Jesus Christ went through that great physical suffering, and part of that was even that thirst.
You say, well, how bad is that?
Well, physical thirst can be excruciatingly painful.
It can be extremely uncomfortable.
I remember one time I sat out on a walk, but I was living down in the Caribbean.
I was living on an island down there in St. Croix.
And I just decided, you know, it was kind of a foolish thing to do,
but I just sat out on a walk.
I was going to walk down the whole island, and I was kind of in a fit of rage.
It's a long story.
Anyways, I just started walking, and I was so foolish I didn't even think to bring water.
I didn't bring any water.
I ended up in one of these mountains up on this island way back,
miles from anything, and I had no water.
I'd been walking for hours, and I got so thirsty.
And you know, it's embarrassing to talk about it,
but I got so thirsty, it got to the point that I found a little muddy puddle,
and I got down on my hands and knees, and I literally sucked muddy water out of a puddle,
because I was so thirsty.
I mean, you think about some of the extremes that people are driven to
when they find themselves in survival situations.
When the thirst alone is enough, when they have to have that water,
or they go to great extremes, you know, I don't want to talk about,
I mean, use your imagination, some of the things that they'll drink.
But that's what Jesus, part of the suffering of Jesus Christ, that thirst.
He had his bones pulled out of joint.
He had a great thirst while he was on that cross.
He went through great physical suffering.
Look at verse 17, where he says,
I may tell all my bones.
What does that mean, he'd tell?
It doesn't mean he was like talking to his bones, right?
You ever heard of a bank teller?
What does a bank teller do?
They count.
They're someone who counts money.
They add up things.
So when he's saying he can tell all his bones,
he could literally count his bones.
Now, I wonder what exactly that means by that,
but I've heard people saying, I don't think this would be too far off.
It probably is correct to say that when Jesus Christ was on that cross,
he could look down and see his ribs.
He could look down and see some of his physical bones exposed
from the lashing that he took, from the stripes that were laid upon him.
Great physical, intense suffering is what Jesus Christ suffered.
Look at verse 16, where it says,
For the dogs have compassed me,
the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
And if we're even loosely familiar with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
you know, it's understood that his hands were pierced and his feet were pierced
when he was hung upon the cross.
They literally took him at one point and put a nail on his hands
and drove a nail through his body.
And can you imagine that?
I mean, I've seen people shoot themselves with nail guns.
You know, I remember one time my dad was messing with the nail gun
and a 16-10, he went through the meat of his thumb and out
and then into the meat of his hand.
And I was just a little boy.
That's probably about Linda's age, about five, six years old.
My dad came around and it was one of the few times
I'd ever seen him with tears in his eyes.
And he had a rag over his hand.
He said, hey boy, look at this.
And he pulled it away and there was a nail sticking out.
And then he proceeded to slide that thumb back and forth from the nail
and then ripped it out in front of me.
You know, and of course I'm going, yeah, do it again.
You know, I was a little kid.
I thought I was great.
My dad was a tough guy, right?
I thought it was cool.
My dad could do that.
But I mean, you know, it was enough to drive my dad,
who I considered to be a very strong, tough man to the point of tears.
And he just had a little nail on his thumb, right?
I know I've shot myself with like a roofing gun on the leg.
And it was just like someone poking you with a pin.
But I can't imagine, I mean, if they would have taken a nail
to hang somebody when they crucified someone,
you have to imagine that's probably a pretty big nail
to support the full weight of a human being hanging off of a cross.
They had this nail driven through his hands.
I don't mean to offend us or to turn our stomachs
to trying to be grotesque, but I'd want to remind us this morning
of the physical suffering that Jesus Christ went through.
Intense physical suffering is what Jesus Christ went through.
His bones were out of joint.
He was pierced in his hands and his feet.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
1 Corinthians chapter 6.
His physical suffering was something that was prophesied in Scripture.
It's something that was, as we've seen, was physically intense.
It was physical suffering that he went through.
And it wasn't a mild thing.
It wasn't a headache.
You know, it wasn't some minor little thing that he went through.
It wasn't some, you know, it wasn't just some mild Chinese water torture.
Jesus Christ was marred more than any other man.
He suffered more than any other human being has ever suffered.
That's what I believe.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16,
1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16, the Bible reads,
Knowing ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
And I say, well, what's this verse about?
Well, before I move to my next point, I want to kind of lay a foundation here
to help us understand something.
Is that the Bible says here that we are today the temple of God.
So, when we look at scripture, we can look back and see that Jesus Christ,
with his suffering was not only prophesied,
but it was pictured in the Old Testament tabernacle,
which is a form of the temple before it proceeded the temple.
And today we have a physical body that is the temple of God.
And back then that wasn't the case.
The God's dwelling place on earth,
there was a physical place where the tabernacle was set up.
And just as Jesus Christ had a body, you know, and that suffered,
we can look back and see that, I believe that we can look back
and look at some things about the Old Testament tabernacle
and see the suffering of Christ pictured in the Old Testament tabernacle.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16,
Knowing not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you,
if any man defile the temple of God.
Talking about your body, your body today is the physical temple of God.
Therefore, we can look back and see that there's some things about the temple of God
in the Old Testament, the tabernacle, that would be a picture of Jesus Christ.
The Bible said, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, I'll read to you,
He said, And this place is one greater than the temple.
He said, I'm greater than the temple.
His physical body, his presence.
He told them in John 2, Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.
He spake of the temple of his body.
So Jesus Christ, I believe, his physical body, his dwelling on earth with men,
is something that can be pictured in the Old Testament tabernacle.
And if you would, turn over to Exodus chapter 26.
I want us to understand that we can look at the Old Testament tabernacle
and see some things about it that are a picture, I believe, of Jesus Christ's suffering.
It's something that I've thought about for a long time,
something I thought that I wanted to preach a whole sermon about,
but didn't think it was worthy of a whole sermon.
But this is definitely a point that we can make an application here
in this sermon, the physical suffering of Jesus Christ.
It was prophesied.
It was physical.
It was intense.
Not only was it prophesied, but it was also pictured.
There are many pictures of Jesus Christ's sufferings in the Old Testament.
And one of them would be the example of the tabernacle.
And it's particularly about the tabernacle,
what we could look to and see the physical suffering of Jesus Christ,
I believe, are the colors.
In particular, the colors that are used in covering things.
The doors, the curtains, even the ephod and the priest's garments.
There are three basic colors that are used consistently in every one of these coverings.
These are the colors of covering.
Blue, purple, and scarlet.
If you read through Exodus 26 and elsewhere,
where it talks about whether to set up the temple,
and the things and the colors that were used,
you'll see those colors used over and over.
Blue, purple, scarlet.
And they're always used as a covering.
Isaiah 26, or excuse me, Exodus 26.
Verse 1,
Move over, thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains.
Now what's a curtain used for?
It's used to cover, right?
We put it in front of our windows to cover it.
You know, you have a shower curtain to cover the shower.
You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen.
Blue, and purple, and scarlet.
So there's our first example.
Look at verse 4.
And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edges of one curtain
from the selvedge into the coupling,
and likewise thou shalt make of the uttermost edge of another curtain
in the coupling of the second.
Oh, sorry, that was, yeah, verse 4.
Look at verse 31.
We'll see it again, the colors of covering.
31, where it says,
And thou shalt make thee a veil of blue.
So this was the veil that was in the most holy place,
that separated the holy place from the most holy place.
That veil.
Thou shalt make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
Same colors as the curtains that they were to use to go about the tabernacle.
Look at verse 36.
And thou shalt make them hanging for the door of the tent.
So they were to go in at the door.
What did Jesus Christ say?
He said, I am the door, right?
And now we have this door of the tent.
What were the colors of that door?
They were blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine twined linen wrought with needlework.
So we see it consistently in the tabernacle.
Every time we see the curtains, the veil, the door,
and for sake of time we won't get into the priest's garments
that he was covered with,
you will see blue, purple, and scarlet.
And I believe these are pictures that were the colors that you would see
in Christ when he suffered.
And if you turn over to Matthew 27, we'll begin to look at it.
So where do you see these colors in Jesus Christ suffering?
Matthew 27.
You know, maybe there's another way to interpret the colors of covering there,
maybe there's another way to look at it,
but I definitely believe this is something that could apply.
I believe that because we see so many pictures of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament,
it would only make sense that we could look at the tabernacle of man,
where God chose to dwell on earth with men,
as a picture of when Jesus Christ came to dwell on earth with men.
And when Jesus claimed to dwell with men, he suffered.
So that suffering would have been pictured in the Old Testament as well.
I believe it's done through the colors that we see in Matthew 27.
Look at verse 27.
Of course this is when they have arrested him and he's about to be crucified.
And it says,
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall
and gathered him with the whole band of soldiers,
and they stripped with him and put on him a scarlet robe.
So there you go, there's that color.
That's one of the colors of covering, isn't it?
Blue and purple and scarlet.
That was one of the coverings that was put on Jesus Christ,
just as the Old Testament tabernacle was covered in a specific color.
He was covered in scarlet.
They put that scarlet robe upon Jesus Christ.
I believe that's a picture in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ's sufferings.
Another place you would see another one of those colors
would be over in John 19.
The first time I noticed is when someone pointed out the fact that it says
there's two different colored robes.
And then, I believe it's in Mark, it calls it a gorgeous robe.
They said, well, which is it?
Well, if it's a gorgeous robe, it's both.
It's scarlet and it's also purple.
If you look at John 19, look at verse 1.
John 19, verse 1, and Jesus...
Oh, that's not where I need to be.
John 19.
Oh, I'm in Luke, that's why.
I apologize.
John 19, let me get over there with you.
John 19, verse 1,
Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him,
and the soldiers planted a crown of thorns and put it on his head,
and they put on him a purple robe.
So this isn't two different instances.
This is the exact same instance where it says in one's gospels,
it specifically says it was a scarlet robe.
Then it says it was a purple robe.
In another passage, it says it was a gorgeous robe.
We say, what's more gorgeous than scarlet?
Is it purple?
Well, what's more gorgeous than purple?
Well, let's see if you had both.
I mean, that's what I meant.
That's how I would explain that, is that it was probably both.
It probably had both colors in it.
And in the gospels, we just see them, you know,
having pointed out two different colors.
One saw it as, hey, that's more of a purple,
and that one's more of a scarlet.
The fact is, if it was gorgeous, it would have had both.
But the point that I'm trying to make here is that
I believe that these coverings that Jesus Christ had put on him
and his sufferings were prophesied all the way back in the Old Testament tabernacle.
When he saw the purple and the scarlet, he said, well, what about the blue?
I mean, that was one of the colors of covering in the Old Testament tabernacle.
It would be the blue, wouldn't it?
Well, we'll see the blue.
If you're there, look at John 19, verse 3.
We'll read the passage again, verse 1.
And Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him,
and the sword just platted a crown of thorns and put it on his head.
And they put on him a purple robe and said,
Hail, King of the Jews!
And they smote him with their hands.
They smote him.
That's where you get the blue, is the bruises of Jesus Christ.
You have the purple in the robe, you have the scarlet in the robe,
but the blue is the bruises of Jesus Christ.
That's the covering that he wore on his physical body, I believe.
That blue covering in the Old Testament tabernacle
was a picture of the bruises that Jesus Christ would have had.
If you ever get a deep, hard bruise, you know that that is something that turns blue.
That's a good reminder to us of the suffering that Jesus went through,
the physical beating that he took.
The Bible says in Matthew 26, verse 67,
that they spit in his face and buffeted him,
and others smote with the palms of their hands.
Before he even got to the soldiers, before he was even brought before Pontius Pilate.
But when the Jews had him in their hands, they buffeted him and they smote him.
And it makes a distinction there that they smote him with the palms of their hands.
It says they buffeted him and others smote him with their hands.
So it means there's a difference between being buffeted
and a difference between being smote with the palms of your hand.
I believe a lot of those guys probably balled up a fist
and cracked Jesus Christ right in the face.
Beat him about the body.
I mean, can you imagine that?
The beating that Jesus Christ took.
Matthew 27, verse 30, they spit upon him,
and they took the reed and smote him on the head.
That was what the centurions did.
They took a reed, I imagine one of those thin bamboo shoots,
and beat him on the head.
After having put that crown on his head,
and they say that it was the Easter something, the Easter crown, Easter thorns.
It's a specific plant that grows in Israel that has thorns that grow quite long,
over an inch long.
They say that's what they put on his head.
And if that's true, they put that crown of thorns on his head with those long things,
and then they took that reed and beat that crown into his scalp.
I mean, can you imagine the physical beating?
And anybody that's ever had any kind of a nick in their head
knows just how profusely a head bleeds, even the small scratch.
I know once I just nicked myself right here in the forehead,
and in seconds my face was covered in blood.
Imagine the blood that Jesus Christ...
Again, that could be the scarlet right there.
That's pictured in the Old Testament.
It's that blood that covered Jesus Christ.
He was probably just covered in his own blood.
But he was also bruised.
He was buffeted.
He said, well, why did Jesus Christ have to go through all that?
Why did he go through that great, intense physical suffering?
Well, the Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 30,
that the blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil.
And we often take that verse and we apply that to child rearing, right?
That the blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil.
And it's something that even our own civil government should be applying
to evildoers today.
To those that would commit certain crimes.
The Bible prescribes a beating.
Meaning that the blueness of that wound that you get
is going to drive fluishness far from you.
But we could apply this, I believe, to Jesus Christ,
that the blueness of the wounds that he had,
that suffering that he went through,
was to cleanse away evil from our hearts.
Jesus Christ laid down his life.
He went through that intense physical suffering
so that we today could be cleansed from the evil that is in our own hearts.
So that we would not have to pay the price for our own sins.
He suffered in our place.
So we see, first of all, when the Bible says that Christ hath suffered for us,
it's not a light thing that he went through.
That he suffered intense physical pain.
And it was something that was prophesied and pictured in the Old Testament.
And not only that, if that weren't enough,
the physical suffering that he went through,
there was also a spiritual suffering that he went through.
And I won't go into it a lot.
I think anybody that's here this morning is probably quite familiar with the fact.
And it's something that we as a church and believers,
and those that would believe this doctrine,
have been accused of heresy over having believed this.
They would call us blasphemers for saying that Jesus Christ descended after he died,
after he became sin for us who knew no sin.
He became sin that he suffered the punishment of sin
when he descended down into hell for three days and three nights.
The Bible is very clear.
And it amazes me today that we even have Baptist preachers
who would stand up and call out people that believe this as heretics.
It's so plain in the scripture.
It doesn't take a lot.
As you'll see, turn over to Acts 16.
We're not going to spend a lot of time trying to defeat this.
Because I believe it's just so plain.
Even the unsaved Catholics who don't even have the Holy Spirit understand this.
This is just commonality.
You know the first time I ever heard this?
It was years before I got saved.
I heard it about it in a movie.
Some worldly Hollywood movie referenced the fact that Jesus Christ went down into hell.
Now that's not my sole authority.
I'm just saying that even the unsaved, even the lost,
even those that don't have the Holy Spirit understand this doctrine from God's Word.
And when people are shown this plain scripture
where it means what it says and it says what it means and they still want to fight it.
I don't know if they do it out of effect.
They just want to have something to point their finger at us
and try and call us out.
Or maybe they're not safe.
Maybe they don't understand the scripture.
Or maybe they're just plain ignorant and stubborn.
Or maybe they've never heard it taught.
And maybe it just comes as such a shock that they can't believe it.
Because it is shocking.
It is shocking to think that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came here.
Not only suffered that physical, intense suffering that he went through,
but then proceeded to descend down into hell for three days and three nights.
I mean that's the greatest suffering anyone will ever experience is going to hell.
Acts chapter 16, look at verse 22.
We're familiar with these scriptures.
And the multitude rose up together against them,
and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
And when they had laid many stripes upon them,
they cast them into the prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,
who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison.
Am I even in the right place? I hope I'm in the right place.
I'm not. I'm not.
Acts 2 31.
That's what I was looking for. Thank you.
I don't know how I got 16 out of that. Probably just...
Acts 2 31. Yes.
Thank you. I've been drowning up here.
Acts 2 31.
The Bible says, we'll begin in verse 30, 29.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and buried and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him,
that at the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.
He's seeing before, he's seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ.
So this is a prophecy in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ that David spoke.
That his soul, whose soul?
Not David's. Jesus Christ's.
That his soul was not left in hell.
It says it wasn't left there.
I mean, what's so hard to understand about that?
How can people read that and not understand that to be left somewhere you have to go there?
Right.
It'd be like my wife saying, hey, thanks for not leaving me in...
in, I don't know, Boise, Idaho.
Well, no problem, honey.
Didn't know we ever went there.
I didn't leave my wife in Boise.
Oh, yeah, because we never went there.
That doesn't make any sense.
I mean, I can tell you a lot of places I didn't leave somebody, right?
If I didn't have to go there.
You know, if I left today, if I left this church building when the service was over
and left my wife here, it's because she's here.
This is very simple.
This is very logical.
This isn't some deep, hard thing to understand.
But they want something to point at.
And what they're doing, whether they realize it or not,
when you're just going to take this and make it a matter of contention,
when you're going to make it a matter of something for you to try and, you know,
get a dig on us, something you could point a finger at and say,
oh, these guys, they believe this.
Well, while you're busy doing that, you're making light of Christ's suffering, right?
You want to just cast it out and say, well, Jesus didn't...
But the thing is, Jesus did do that.
Jesus did go down and descend into hell.
It says that he was not left in hell.
You know, and I don't want to beat this one on the ground,
but I mean, in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus said, you know,
there shall no sign be given of this generation except for the sign of the prophet Jonas.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,
or up in the Wales Valley, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth.
Where's the heart of the earth?
The center.
Now, what's in the heart of the earth?
What does science tell us is in the heart of the earth?
Fire, magma, all that hot molten rock.
That's where hell is.
It's in the earth.
It's in the center of the earth.
That's where Jesus Christ descended into for three days and three nights.
And you can love it or leave it.
I'll never budge in that because it's so clear from the scripture.
It's just plain.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 2.
On this point, one of the verses I often think about when I hear somebody
bring up the fact that Jesus Christ suffered in hell.
The Bible says that He became sin for us who do no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The Bible says that basically in that verse that He took our place.
That He became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God.
He took our place.
Now, what is the punishment for sin?
What is the punishment for it?
It's hell.
The Bible says in Revelation that death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.
So hell is the same place as death.
It's another study in the scripture.
Something we could take some time to try to really understand.
But it's very clear that those that go to hell are those that are dead.
That's what death is.
It's going to hell.
That's why people who are saved, it says that they've gone to sleep in Jesus.
Those that sleep in Christ shall God bring with them.
The dead in Christ shall rise.
The Bible says that they have gone to sleep.
They're not dead.
They're not in hell.
They sleep.
So it only stands to reason, you know, if Jesus Christ went to hell,
then in a sense that He was dead, right?
I mean, not just His physical body, but we understand spiritually speaking that
He went to that place that is called death.
He went to hell.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2, look at verse 9,
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for it.
Death for every man.
When Jesus Christ descended into hell for three days and three nights,
that's where He tasted death for every man.
He tasted of it.
He's not there now.
He came back three days later.
His soul came up out of hell.
That's why He wasn't left there.
It was a taste.
He went there and suffered the punishment of hell.
So not only did Jesus Christ suffer physically on this earth,
when He came here and was arrested and smote and buffeted and whipped
and had that crown of thorns put upon Him and beaten with that rod,
and His visage was so large more than any man.
He was bruised and bloody.
But even after that, He suffered that agonizing death on the cross for our sakes.
He even went so far as to go and descend down into hell for three days and three nights.
Christ truly hath suffered for us.
So we see first of all that His suffering was spiritual,
that His suffering was physical, that it was prophesied,
and that it was pictured.
Not only that, but the whole point of that,
and we know ultimately that the reason why Jesus Christ suffered for us was to save us.
He took our place.
We don't have to go to hell today, praise God.
Jesus Christ did all the hard work.
All we have to do is put our faith and trust in Him
and believe that Jesus Christ has died for our sins.
And if we'll just simply believe in Him, we can have eternal life.
That we don't have to suffer that spiritual suffering.
But you know what?
Even though we're saved, even though we believe on Jesus Christ today,
even though we're God's child, we've been born again,
that doesn't mean that we've been spared from physical suffering.
It might be that we have to suffer physically on this earth.
And we'll see here in a minute, we won't be the first ones.
We wouldn't be the first one of God's children that had to go through a physical trial.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 12, just a few pages over.
And people today, and we have so many Christians,
and this is why it's important to be reminded of the physical sufferings of Christ,
because we have so many Christians today, they don't want to suffer any kind of discomfort.
They don't want the mildest discomfort in their life,
let alone intense physical suffering.
They don't want to go through anything.
They don't want to be called names.
They don't want to have to take a hard stand on sin or doctrine.
I mean, that's why a lot of guys are still pre-trib.
That's why a lot of these pastors who know the pre-trib rapture is false,
who know that it's a lie, that it's a fraud,
they know that it's made up, and that it can't be proven from scripture,
they know it, but they'll never come out and say it,
because they don't want the persecution that comes.
They're afraid of the mildest persecution over that.
In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3,
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
He's saying, you know what, you need to consider Jesus Christ,
who endured that contradiction.
I mean, Jesus Christ could have stopped that suffering at any time.
He said, I lay down my life that I might take it up again.
No man taketh it from me.
He could have stopped it at any point.
I always think of that verse, and one of the first times I read it,
it just struck me, at the power that Jesus Christ had to stop it at any time.
When they came to arrest him in the garden, I believe it's in Matthew,
and they said,
listen John, I'm glad you guys are here today,
listen John,
and he came and uh,
you better be right about it, I'm going to check you out.
Anyway, they come, they arrest him, and they say,
you know, aren't thou Jesus of Nazareth,
said I am he, and they remember they all fell down,
but hey listen John, they all fell down backwards.
I mean, he could have stopped it at any time with just a word.
He told Peter, I could call ten thousand legions of angels now,
and my father would presently give them me.
At any time he could have stopped it,
but he went through it,
and that's why we need to consider the contradiction of sinners
that he suffered against himself.
I mean, you want to talk about somebody condescending the low estate of man,
to the point of letting them do the things that they did to him.
I mean, that's some humility.
He endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,
verse 3, for consider him that adored such contradiction of sinners against himself,
lest ye be weary and faint in your minds.
You know, if you're going through some physical trial,
if you're going through some kind of mental anguish,
if you're going through some hardship in your life,
you know, it's always good to look back and be reminded of what Jesus Christ went through.
You know, maybe it might just seem a little bit easier.
Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
I mean, the struggles that we have,
the trials, the temptations, and the struggles that we go through,
I mean, how intense are they?
Have we resisted unto blood?
Have we resisted unto blood like Jesus Christ did, striving against sin?
I mean, the temptation that Jesus Christ must have had
to stop the suffering that he was going through,
but allowed himself to go through it to the point of bleeding,
of being covered in his own blood,
Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3 and 4 show us that.
And that's the example that we have,
that we are to look to Jesus Christ
and consider the contradiction of sinners that he suffered,
lest we be weary.
But we have all these shallow Christians today,
they just avoid suffering altogether.
And what they're doing, when you avoid suffering,
when you're going out of your way,
to make sure that you don't have to suffer anything for the cause of Christ,
when you're not going to take the stand on doctrine,
when you're not going to preach hard on that sin,
when you're going to pull back on the message,
when you're going to trim back God's word,
when you're going to say,
you know what, I don't want to be on the 11 o'clock news.
That's so terrible to be on the news.
I'm glad we got some pastors that we know that wear that like a badge of honor.
I mean, they're looking for it.
I mean, it's kind of fun.
I kind of was driving down the road the other day,
I think I kind of miss it.
And I don't think we're ever going to see it again.
I think these media, at least the Phoenix, have wised up and said,
this never works.
Every time we protest this guy, it just gets bigger.
The Jamaicans Mission Strip is a perfect example of that.
You got all these haters of God that got together
and tried to keep Pastor Anderson out of the country
and they succeeded in keeping one man out,
but 38 other people went down there.
And in the process of doing that, they just spread the message.
There is no such thing as bad press.
That's the one thing that I keep thinking about.
Every time I see Pastor Anderson get banned,
or some news story, or some regular interview,
or some people are just attacking him with the same old talking points,
there is no such thing as bad press.
We got a bunch of shallow Christians,
they don't even know what's good for them.
They don't understand that that suffering, that persecution,
that trial could be used to the glory of God.
They just don't want any discomfort.
They want to just go through their life week in and week out,
show up at church, listen to preaching,
and they just go about their lives.
And never have to take a stand.
You know, it might be even with our own families.
It might be with our friends, our co-workers.
There's people that are going to...
We've all gone through it.
There might be some blowback for the stand that we take for Christ.
But when we become shallow, we avoid suffering,
we try to skirt suffering for Christ.
When we refuse to go through that discomfort
that we might be called to go through,
what we're doing is we're being disobedient to Christ's example.
We're disobeying the example that Jesus Christ set for us.
Look at Hebrews chapter 5.
We understand, of course, the reason why Jesus Christ
went through his sufferings was to save us from hell.
That we could have eternal life with him.
But part of that is also to set the example for us.
That even as he suffered, we should arm ourselves with the same mind.
That we should be willing to suffer in the flesh.
Hebrews chapter 5, look at verse 7.
The Bible says, speaking of Jesus Christ,
who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,
and was heard and that he feared, though he were a son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
So he learned obedience.
He became submissive to the will of the Father to suffer that.
You know, the Bible says that it pleased God, the Father.
To bruise him for us.
That he laid our iniquities upon him.
And by his stripes we are healed.
So when Jesus Christ went through that, he was being obedient to the will of the Father.
And he learned obedience through the things which he suffered.
Not through the things which he avoided.
Not through the things which he served.
Not through the things that he tried to not go through.
But by the things that he did go through.
By the trial and temptation that he chose to face.
He became obedient to that.
And he suffered.
That's the example that we have.
And when we refuse to suffer, we're in disobedience
to the example that Jesus Christ set for us.
When we suffer, we learn.
We learn things by suffering.
You know, I talked about it last week where it says in Ecclesiastes that
it's better to go in the house of mourning than in the house of feasting.
You know, for by it the heart is made better.
I'm kind of paraphrasing.
But it says it's better to mourn.
It's better to suffer.
It's better to go through hardships.
We learn things through our trials and temptations.
You know, sometimes I'll talk to my wife about some situation that we're in.
I'm in at work or something or some hard day.
Or the situation, just some job I'm doing or something.
She'll remind me of some other job I had years ago.
And I'll think, wow, this is nothing.
You know, I'll think about maybe having to do some kind of, you know,
where I'm at now, I really don't have to dig much.
You know, sometimes we put a floor safe in and I have to dig for like maybe 20, 30 minutes.
I'm talking like maybe a wheelbarrow full of dirt.
And then I'll think, you know, most people may think of digging.
It's not, they don't get excited, right?
That's not it.
It's like, what are you doing this week?
I'm digging, you know?
But I think about that and I'd say, man, I don't want to dig.
I've dug, dug for years.
But then I think, man, I dug for years.
So maybe this is nothing, right?
I mean, when you've dug out calf pens full of sodden hay,
sodden with you know what, this high for hours, multiple times,
you know, having to dig a little hole, it's nothing.
You know, it's child's play.
It's Mickey Mouse.
And that's what we learn through suffering.
We're made better by it.
When we suffer something in this life, you know, at the time it seems hard.
We're going through it.
We're saying, man, when is this going to be over?
But then eventually it's over.
And then years go by and we forget all about it until something pops up.
And then it reminds us and we go, oh yeah, I remember when I went through that back then.
And it makes this seem so much easier because we went through that.
We learn by suffering.
We learn and we gain experience through sacrifice and suffering just as Jesus Christ did.
We see it's the example of Jesus Christ.
It was his obedience to suffering.
And it's the example of great men that suffered in the Bible.
Every great man of God practically that you look at in the scripture suffered.
Went through some kind of a physical or mental or spiritual anguish.
James 5-10 says,
Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord
for an example of suffering affliction.
He says, look at the prophets for an example of suffering affliction.
Not for avoiding affliction, for suffering affliction.
I mean, sometimes I wonder these guys who don't want these thin-skinned preachers
and Christians who just are too meek and timid to take a stand for the Word of God.
What Bible are you reading?
Are you even reading it?
Have you read the prophets?
And when we see people that are timid about going through suffering,
or they just wilt at the slightest suffering that they have to go through,
have you read the prophets?
That's what the Bible is saying here.
Take them for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy who endure.
Now, happiness isn't something that you necessarily associate with suffering.
They kind of seem like they're worlds apart, because they are.
But it's after we've suffered we've become happy.
After we get through that trial, after we get through that temptation,
after we get through that struggle, and we've endured, we've been faithful,
then we're happy.
We're happy about it.
We're glad that we were able to make it.
We give God praise.
Look at Hebrews chapter 11.
Let's look at some of the examples.
Hebrews chapter 11 of the Old Testament.
Saints, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord,
some of the things that they had suffered.
Look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4.
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained a witness that he was righteous.
So I mean, here's God talking about the first man.
Actually, I guess Abel would have been the second born.
But here's God going all the way back to the Garden of Eden
and still talking about a man like Abel and giving him some praise.
I mean, really lifting this guy up.
He says that by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained a witness that he was righteous,
God testifying of his gifts.
Now, we would like to stop there and put a dot, right?
Just a period right there.
And by it, he being dead, yet speaketh.
He's dead.
How did he die?
He was murdered.
How did that happen?
I don't think they had ballistic rifles or handguns or anything.
I think when his brother rose up and slew him, it was a violent mess.
It was bloody.
It was brutal.
I mean, you look at some of the way people died in the Old Testament.
When they're slain, it wasn't done kindly.
It was up close and personal.
It was probably pretty horrific.
It doesn't say exactly how he did it,
but I imagine it probably had something to do with bare hands or a blunt instrument.
That wouldn't surprise me.
And that was something that Abel went through because he was righteous.
Because his sacrifice was more excellent than his brother's.
And when people see us living for God, they're going to want to attack.
And we might have to go through suffering because of their attack.
Hebrews chapter 1, you see, Abraham also...
I mean, Abraham suffered.
I think a lot of times you don't realize how much Abraham went through.
You think, wow, what a great life that guy...
Well, Abraham lived pretty much his life in a tent.
You know, that's not...
I mean, camping is fun for a little while.
But when you're living your whole life just wandering, wandering, wandering.
You know, I mean, even myself, we've been here for five years now.
We're kind of wondering, like, what does the future hold for the Russell family?
You know, is it here?
Is it in another city?
You know, we're waiting to see how things work out.
And, you know, we have hopes of what we want to happen.
But we're kind of in that limbo, you know.
Been in this two-bedroom apartment and praise God for it.
Wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Love where I'm at.
Just got good news this week that we're going to be able to stay,
even though we've got another child coming.
And he's not raising the rent.
I mean, we've got good rent, clean place, it's safe.
Wife's happy.
Kids are happy.
Praise God.
But boy, it sure would be nice to have a yard.
Boy, it sure would be nice to have that basement.
Boy, it would sure be nice to have a little bit more elbow room.
Where, you know, you're not trying to get to your closet like this,
dodging people.
And every time you turn around, you got someone,
little five-year-old slapping your legs or something like that.
You know, get some room.
Nothing wrong with that.
But I mean, I go through that, that's just a light suffering.
I mean, that's so mild.
I mean, there's people out there in the world that are living on a dirt floor.
There's people that I know back in these Ukrainian families,
that were my boss around Michigan.
He'd walk in and like their apartment was like a clown car.
He'd walk in there and it was just, they had huge families.
And they had like 11 kids in a two-bedroom apartment.
I'd be sitting out there in their living room.
It was just kid after kid after kid after kid after kid.
Just coming out of these apartments.
They were happy people.
I mean, look at Abraham here.
I mean, he's lived his whole life like that.
The suffering that he went through.
He suffered out of obedience.
I'm gonna move along for the sake of time.
The apostle Paul, I mean, there's a great example of somebody
who understood the suffering.
He obeyed and he suffered.
The Bible says, if you remember on the road to Damascus,
when he was called, when Jesus Christ,
before he appeared and went blind, he went into the city,
and then he calls, well, I'm forgetting his name.
Who was the guy that he called?
Starts with a name.
Ananias.
Was it Ananias?
Anyways, the guy he sends to Paul, right?
And he says to him, he says, go to Paul and he tells him this.
He says, for I will show him how great things he must suffer
for my name's sake.
I mean, Paul's probably wondering, okay, life has just had a dramatic change.
Well, I wonder what God's got in store for me.
I'm blind.
I'm sitting here.
Here comes this guy to give a message.
You know, what's Paul, I wonder what he's thinking.
What's this guy gonna tell me?
Oh, by the way, Paul, you're gonna suffer great things for Jesus Christ's sake.
I mean, didn't Paul suffer?
I mean, he talks about the sufferings that he went through.
I mean, that's a list, man.
I wouldn't want to go through one of those things that he went through.
Being out lost in the deep, shipwrecked.
Being stoned by the Jews to the point of death.
You know, being whipped.
All these things that he went through.
But that's the suffering that he went through.
And why?
Why did Paul go through all that?
Why did all these Old Testament saints go through the suffering that they went through?
Why did Jesus Christ go through that physical, intense suffering?
Why did he descend down into hell and come back for the benefit of others?
That's why he did it.
He did it for the benefit of others.
And that's why we should be willing to suffer.
Turn back to where we were in 1 Peter.
Look at 1 Peter chapter 2.
If you kept the bookmark before, just turn back a few pages to 1 Peter chapter 2.
You see, we suffered for the benefit of others as Christ also suffered for us.
That's the example.
It wasn't because God's some kind of a sadist who just gets kicks out of seeing people suffer.
It's because there's a purpose behind it.
And God wants us to be willing to suffer for others.
1 Peter chapter 2, look at verse 21.
Bible says, even here unto where ye called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that he should follow in his steps.
That's the example that we have.
Christ suffered for us.
That's why he suffered.
And we should suffer and sacrifice for others.
I mean, Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of the whole world.
The Bible says that he's a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only,
but for the sins of the whole world.
That's who he died for.
Everybody.
Not just me and you, everybody.
He went through that suffering.
We should be willing to suffer and sacrifice to see others saved.
Now, of course, we're not going to go lay down our lives on a cross.
We're not going to go suffer the exact same things that Jesus Christ suffered.
But we could sacrifice a little bit of our time to see other people saved.
If you think about these people on the Jamaican missions trip,
they had to pay to get themselves down there.
They had to sacrifice their time.
They had to get away from their families.
I mean, they had to go to Jamaica.
I mean, poor babies, right?
Oh, man.
Suffering in the Caribbean, right?
But there is some sacrifice involved.
And if we're going to see others saved, if we're going to benefit others,
we might have to sacrifice some of our time to go do something like soloing.
You know, Sunday afternoon comes up and it's like,
I would like to just go back and just take my Baptist nap.
Have some pot roast, or maybe I could suffer a little bit
and be a little more tired in the evening service.
You know, maybe I just need a sandwich and some chips.
Oh, man, what suffering I have to go through, right?
But that's, I mean, that's so mild.
And yet today we have people who can't even suffer that.
They can't make the mildest, just the most mean.
I can barely call it a sacrifice.
At the best, you could probably call it a minor inconvenience
for people to take time out of their schedule to go soloing.
The Bible says in John 3.16,
Hereby perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
We ought to allow ourselves to be inconvenienced for the brethren.
We ought to allow ourselves if we're called upon to do something, to do it,
and not to have a bad attitude about it.
You know, I've got, I know one brother that I've had to bail out of,
get him into his car more than once.
He keeps locking himself out.
The last time he was just up and down, he was,
Man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I keep bugging you.
I was glad to do it.
I was more than happy to do it.
I mean, I had no problem.
Why? Because the guy's a brother.
The guy goes soloing and he's faithful.
He loves God. He loves the Bible.
I mean, oh man, I got to go to 20.
I got to get in my car, my air-conditioned car, my plush seating and drive.
Oh, 20 minutes to go help a brother out.
That's nothing, man.
But today we're living in a world where,
in a time where Christianity becomes so shallow and weak
that people don't want to suffer anything, even for the brethren.
We can give up our time and energy.
Look at Hebrews chapter 2.
Turn back in Hebrews chapter 2.
Look at Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10.
I'll read it for you when I turn there.
Hebrews 2 verse 10.
For it became him for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things,
bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
In order to bring many sons unto glory, somebody had to go suffer.
In order for all of us to go to heaven, Jesus Christ had to come and suffer.
And if we're going to go out and we're going to see some sons brought into glory,
we might have to suffer a little bit.
We might have to deal with some inconveniences, some discomfort.
The question is, can we be slightly inconvenienced?
Can we at least be slightly inconvenienced to go out
and suffer a little bit of mild discomforts?
I mean, soul winning in Phoenix, Arizona in August, borderline suffering.
When you're out there and there's no heat and you drunk your third bottle of water and you're out
and you're parched and your mouth is dried out
and you're getting doors slammed in your face and it's hot and you've been out there,
that's some pretty mild suffering.
But a lot of people would avoid that.
A lot of people would skirt that.
A lot of people do.
Can we be slightly inconvenienced?
And how much of a sacrifice can we really make?
I mean, what if we are living in that time where we see the rise of the Antichrist
and we see the seals open and we see the tribulation started
and we go through that suffering.
I mean, the people that can't suffer anything right now,
do you think they're going to make it?
Their world is going to fall apart.
They're nowhere near prepared for anything.
Their little world is just going to get shook up because they're asleep.
It's going to come as a shock to them.
So how much can we make today?
What can we do today to prepare?
What if we do live in that generation?
The Bible says in Jeremiah 12,
if thou hast run with the footmen and they had a weary deed,
how canst thou contend with the horses?
What are you going to do when the real tribulation starts?
When the real inconvenience comes along?
When the real suffering starts?
And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustest they weary thee,
then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
You know, when everything's nice and easy and going
and you're getting more out then when there's no tribulation
and every little thing is just a major inconvenience to you
and you can't go through any discomfort,
what are you going to do in the swelling of Jordan?
What are you going to do when the floods of tribulation come in?
What are you going to do when your world is just swallowed up by the Antichrist?
We'll close in Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3 beginning of verse 7.
But what things were gained to me,
those I count lost for Christ, yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but lost 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 dumb,
that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith,
that I may know him and the powers of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death,
if by any means I might obtain unto it the resurrection of the dead,
not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect,
but I follow after,
if that I might apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count 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,
I press toward the mark,
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,
let us therefore be perfect,
be thus minded,
and if in anything he be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto you.
He's saying look,
you have to be thus minded to be able to count all but dumb
and suffer the loss of all things,
that you might obtain a better resurrection.
That's the example that we have,
to be minded as Paul to suffer for the sake of others,
because that's the example that Christ set for us,
when Christ suffered for us.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, again thank you for the Bible,
thank you for the,
Lord, the suffering that you went through for us.
Lord, help us to think on it,
to dwell on it, Lord,
whenever we read the scriptures or hear the preaching,
Lord, that we would allow that imagery to come into our minds,
that we wouldn't try to avoid that picture
that you've put in your word, Father.
You've pictured these things from cover to cover
that Christ suffered for us,
that you suffered physically,
that you suffered spiritually.
Father, help us to never be those that would,
Lord, that would skirt that discomfort,
that would not be willing to suffer for your sake.
Help us, Lord, to understand that if we suffer,
for your sake,
that we could be counted happy,
and that we would be pleased and willing
to suffer for your sake,
that we might obtain a better resurrection.
We love you, Lord.
Thank you for all of the great things you've done for us.
Please be with us as we go.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.