The Fellowship of His Sufferings - Part 2

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Look at verse 19. This is his response to the church about all of this. He says, For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are so wise.

For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face, you put up with it. And he says, To our shame, I say that we were too weak for that.

But in whatever anyone is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also. So, I mean, depending on the translation you use, this the sarcasm is a little more obvious. But if I can kind of paraphrase what Paul is saying here, he's like, you know, you guys are so smart.

You listen to fools. Good job. I mean, you know, way more than I do. I'm just an apostle. You know, way more than I do. You're so smart that you're listening to the ministers of Satan. Pat yourselves on the back.

That probably made a few people in the church upset. I would imagine. What does he say? The false teachers look at verse 22. The false teachers, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.

Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more so. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. And basically what he's saying is my life is consistently threatened.

So this is the suffering that Paul endured for Christ's sake. And what's he doing? He's showing this as evidence that I'm the real deal. Here's what I am willing to go through for Christ's sake. Are you willing to go through it before you criticize me?

Are you willing to go through these things? He continues verse 24 from the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.

A day and a night I have been in the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily? The deep concern for all the churches. Paul went through all this. He wasn't even focused on himself. He was worried about all the people in the church and their condition and their spiritual condition.

He says, who is weak? Am I not weak? Who is made to stumble? And I do not burn with indignation. So Paul suffered for Christ and in a very real way he was suffering for the church as well. And he's burning with indignation.

Why? Because when false teachers are leading the sheep astray, when false prophets are trying to devour the flock, trying to devour the church, that makes him angry with a righteous indignation. And then Paul talks about this time where his life was in danger yet again, and they let him out the window, kind of let him down in a basket in the middle of the night to escape.

Let's read about that. So turn to Acts chapter 9, if you would. Acts chapter 9. But this whole idea of the cost of discipleship, following Jesus will cost you something. All right. Following Christ, being a Christian will cost you something.

We read about all the things that Paul went through as the result of following Jesus. He was beaten. He was stoned almost to death. He was put in prison. In his travels he was shipwrecked more than once.

He was robbed at gunpoint. OK, maybe not gunpoint, but that would have been the equivalent. All right. He made friends with people and then they stabbed him in the back. He hungered. He thirsted. All of that he endured because he loved God and he loved Christ.

You know all of that proves his ministry was legit. Paul was no fraud. If he were a fraud would he really have gone through all of that? If Paul was a fraud he would have given up a long time ago. Remember Jesus in the parable of the sower?

He talks about those who receive the Word of God with joy. I believe in Jesus and they are excited about it and they receive it with joy. But Jesus says when persecution strikes because they believe in the Word of God they immediately stumble.

That word stumble means they fall away. They're not willing to suffer for Christ's sake. All right, look at Acts chapter 9. Most of us, hopefully all of us, know Paul's conversion story. But let's just briefly look at it.

Verses 3 through 5 says, As he, that is Paul, journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. In other words, Paul, why are you fighting against God? Why are you fighting against me?

Of course, Paul was persecuting the church. Jesus said when you persecute the church, you know what you do to a fellow Christian, you're doing it to Christ. Paul was resisting God, fighting against Jesus.

So then the Lord instructs him to go into the city where he will meet a man named Ananias. So the Lord speaks, we're going to skip over some of it. The Lord speaks to Ananias in a vision and instructs him about Saul.

Look at verse 13. Then Ananias answered upon hearing this, Paul, Saul of Tarsus, I'm going to use him for ministry. And Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

And look at verse 16. For I will show him how many things he must what? How many things he must suffer for my name's sake. You see the idea of suffering for the Lord's sake. Not exactly the most popular topic in Christianity today, is it?

You know, again, very few people woke up this morning and thought to themselves, I can't wait to get to church to hear how I can suffer. You just don't think that way. So Christians, you know, this people who have been believers for a long time and serve the Lord for a long time.

You know that sometimes you do have to face hardships for Jesus sake. Compared to Paul, though, you've probably been through very little, right? It's been very minor, I'm sure, compared to what Paul went through.

And we thank God for his mercy that most of us in our lifetime, we have never had to face anything like this. Living in this country, we've had it so good, haven't we? We still have it so good. But you realize that appears to be coming to an end.

In other countries, pastors are being arrested. Well, there's been a few in this country. But in other countries, pastors are being arrested. In this nation, there's growing censorship. You've heard of cancel culture.

How long before powerful people call for this book to be canceled? You know, they tried to cancel me last summer. And, you know, it didn't work, okay? But, I mean, you think about whatever I've said. I mean, I get it from the Bible.

But whatever I've said, there's things written in this book that are far more harsh than anything I've ever said. And you know that that's true. So we hear about all this, and we see what may be coming.

And, you know, Christians, the church, we're going to have to adapt, right? We can't just sit around and complain. And, oh, man, back in the day, you know, it was so much better back then. We have to adapt.

And we have to follow the Spirit's leading. But if the time comes where Christians are specifically targeted, you know, right now, everyone is kind of dealing with these things. You know, we're all in this together, as they like to say.

But if the time comes where Christians are specifically targeted, have you ever asked yourself, then what? If the time comes where publicly professing Christ as your Lord and Savior, if that would get you fired from your job, you'll lose your pension, you'll lose friends, family, what would you do?

We all like to say, well, I would stand, you know, I would never back down. You don't know until you're in that situation. Do you remember Peter? Lord, I'll never deny you. Everyone else will.

Not me.

Then that night he denied the Lord three times. But what happens if you faced fines or imprisonment for expressing biblical viewpoints?

What happens?

Would you be willing to pay a price for Jesus' sake? Because that's the case in first century Judea. We've talked about this, how a Jew living in and around Jerusalem, if they professed faith in the Lord, what would happen?

They are put out of the synagogue. They would be shunned by their families. It would be near impossible to do business. And then you had the Jewish authorities and then later the Roman authorities who were persecuting and eventually executing high-profile church leaders.

That's the way it was.

And that's the way it is even right now in certain Muslim countries and communist countries. And the common response people have, that could never happen here. We have a constitution. The constitution is a piece of paper.

If the people in power are not upholding it, it means very little. Now listen, I don't want to be all pessimistic. I see you guys like, oh man, this is bad. I'm not trying to be pessimistic.

Okay.

Realize a few things. Number one, I want you to be able to relate to what's going on in the scripture. Number one. And number two, yes, the spiritual condition in New England is pretty bad. But as an individual, you can still thrive.

You can still thrive. You can still be blessed by God. And all these times of adversity, I can say I've been through three periods of great suffering in my life. And at the time, it's not a lot of fun.

But it really grows you and challenges you. And you kind of have to overcome or just roll over and die. And when you look back, you can see how those are maybe the three greatest things that ever happened.

Not because they're good, but because all things work together for good to those who love God. And to those who are the called according to his purpose. So sure, the spiritual condition in this country is terrible.

Terrible.

But as an individual, you can still thrive. You can still be blessed by God. But we need to be able to relate to the things that we're reading about. Paul suffered for Christ's sake.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What does that have to do with me? Would you be willing to suffer for Christ's sake?

Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.