Fellowship of His Sufferings — E.A. Johnston

Knowing Christ Through Resurrection Power and Suffering

J. Sidlow Baxter's life verse was Philippians 3 .10. When he would autograph one of his books, he would write Philippians 3 .10 beside his name. In fact, I have one of his signed books in my library with that verse in there.

Philippians 3 .10 reads that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. I submit to you, friends, that you cannot have the power of his resurrection without the fellowship of his sufferings.

Historical Saints Who Suffered for Christ

All the great saints of God were great sufferers. George Whitefield was once stoned by an angry mob while preaching in Ireland, and it almost killed him. When Whitefield was in New England, he was introduced to a Boston minister who said he was from Ireland.

To this, Whitefield removed his beaver cap, and leaning over, he pointed to a large scar on his forehead, and remarked, This wound, sir, I received while preaching Christ in your country. Sidlo Baxter's predecessor at Charlotte Baptist Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland, was W. Graham Scroggie.

Helen Roseveare and the Cost of Missionary Obedience

Scroggie had a member of his congregation approach him one day. It was Helen Rosevere, who would become a missionary to Africa. She informed Graham Scroggie about her call to the mission field. Scroggie took her Bible and inscribed on the inside jacket the verse Philippians 3 .10, and he read it to her.

As he handed her Bible back to her, he said, That I may know him. You have done that. It is my prayer that one day you will have the privilege of knowing something of the fellowship of his sufferings.

About twenty years later, in the mid -1960s, the Belgian Congo was in riot and an uproar, and this was the field of labor where Helen Rosevere was. She was captured by some rebels. One man kicked her in the ribs.

Another man knocked out her teeth. Another tormentor raped her. As she was in the midst of her agony and in great pain, Graham Scroggie's words rang in her ear, It is my prayer that one day you will have the privilege of knowing something of the fellowship of his sufferings.

Suffering as a Path to Obedience

Focusing on those words is what got her through her ordeal. We sometimes wonder why we have to suffer so as we live on this crying planet called Earth. It is well to remember Philippians 3 .10 and such trying times as they speak of the one of whom it says in Hebrews, Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.

Let us pray.