Fellowship of His Sufferings — E.A. Johnston

Knowing Christ Through Resurrection Power and Suffering

We read in Philippians 3 .10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. The Apostle Paul could write those words because he had experienced them personally.

He knew Jesus intimately, and when he preached the gospel, he proclaimed it in the power of his resurrection, for the gospel Paul preached had power to save. Paul knew intimately the fellowship of his sufferings, for his sufferings were foretold by Jesus unto Ananias, as we see in Acts 9 .15.

Paul’s Sufferings Foretold by Christ

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name unto the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

Do you want to read Paul's laundry list, friends, of his sufferings? Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and take a good look at that list where Paul lists his great sufferings in the fellowship of his sufferings.

In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in death soft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned.

Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Besides those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. And if you're a pastor, you know what he's talking about. The apostle Paul was a gnarly little man because his body was gnarled from all his beatings and sufferings.

Learning to Accept Trouble and Hardship

Years ago I attended my father's funeral and the army chaplain who did the eulogy read from Psalm 27. And when he got to verse 5, I didn't like what he was saying. Psalm 27 .5 states, for in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion.

And when I heard those words, I recoiled, I drew back and tried to get them out of my mind. I didn't want any time of trouble to come my way. At the time I was a successful businessman and everything I touched turned to gold.

My life then was all sunshine and honey blossoms and I wanted to keep it that way. The last thing I wanted was a time of trouble. It's ironic now looking back on those years for little did I realize just how much heartbreak and trouble and tragedy and physical ordeals I would pass into, not just briefly but for many long years, years full of great suffering.

I was sitting in a hotel room with my dear friend Richard Owen Roberts and he looked me in the eye with pastoral compassion and he said, I don't know any man who's gone through what you have. One thing the apostle Paul knew was this, you can't have the power of his resurrection without the fellowship of his sufferings.

Resurrection Power Through the Fellowship of Sufferings

They go hand in hand like biscuits and gravy. When John Song was in the midst of one mighty revival after another that sent rumblings all across China to where hundreds of thousands of souls were being saved and his preaching was so full of the power of God, the Chinese would weep as though judgment day had come.

People would come up to John Song and say, your sermon was like a surgeon's scalpel just cutting me to pieces. Your sermon was like a powder keg blowing up everything around it. Or they'd ask, why are your sermons so powerful?

Little did they know how great a sufferer John Song was and every time he preached he bled from his bowels and was in constant unbearable pain. Every servant of God I've ever studied were new in person who was greatly used to God were also great sufferers.

Helen Roseveare and the Cost of Missionary Service

I'll never forget the story of Helen Rosevere, the missionary to the Congo, who when she first was called of God to be a missionary at the time, she was a member of Dr. Graham Scroggie's church in Edinburgh, Scotland, Charlotte Baptist Chapel.

She came down front to answer that call and share the news with Graham Scroggie who smiled and took her Bible and in the flyleaf he wrote Philippians 3 .10 and he told her, you have come here in that you know him.

It is my prayer that someday you will know the fellowship of his sufferings. In the 1960s in the Belgian Congo at the height of the mob riots, Helen Rosevere was serving there as a missionary when she was brutally attacked by four men who beat her with clubs.

They kicked out her teeth. They savagely raped her and she later said the only thing that got her through that terrible ordeal were the words of Graham Scroggie years ago who had said to her, it is my prayer that someday you will know the fellowship of his sufferings.

That is the only thing that got her through friends, the fellowship of his sufferings knowing she was there. I was sitting with Adrian Rogers in his study one day and I asked him if he could tell me when it was that he knew God's hand had come upon his preaching and he got a far away look in his eye and he said, it was right after my little boy died.

I went through a period of real soul searching where I was going deeper with God and he touched me then. Well, Adrian Rogers sure preached with authority and I will end my message with a story friends that my homiletical mentor Dr. Stephen F. Olford shared with me many years ago.

Suffering as Preparation for Authority in Ministry

He said a fellow pastor asked him to accompany him out of town to go hear a young preacher that was beginning to make some noise within the denomination and this pastor wanted Stephen Olford to go with him to hear this young man.

Well they did and on the drive home the pastor asked Dr. Olford what he thought of the young preacher boy and Stephen Olford commented, oh very fine, very fine, much promise but, and he paused and he said, but he hasn't suffered enough yet.

Pastors Called to Know Christ’s Sufferings

Do you want power in the pulpit brother pastor? Then it is my prayer for you that you will come to the place where you know the fellowship of his sufferings and that you will be able to say with the apostle Peter, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.