Mike Riccardi | "Suffering Worthy of the Gospel" | Math3ma Symposium 2024
00:00:00.000 | Well, thank you.
00:00:08.320 | It really is an honor for me to be with you.
00:00:11.560 | I'm sorry for your sakes that Pastor John wasn't able to make it, but I am honored by
00:00:17.420 | the opportunity to open the Word of God to you in his place.
00:00:21.400 | I said to Brad Armstrong on the way in, I said, "I'm here to disappoint everybody."
00:00:27.780 | You know, I'm trusting the Lord that he will minister grace to you through his Word, even
00:00:33.400 | if the steward is different than expected.
00:00:37.000 | I have, as I hope was evident in the Q&A, I have great respect for what you do, Christians
00:00:43.320 | working in the STEM fields, in environments which are often extremely hostile to God,
00:00:49.360 | hostile to Christ, hostile to Scripture, and hostile to the very truth that you and they
00:00:56.040 | must presuppose if you were to do your jobs well.
00:01:01.160 | The sciences, properly executed, I said something about this in the last hour, they discover
00:01:07.460 | and articulate truths that God has revealed in His creation, the creation over which Christ
00:01:14.840 | presently reigns as Supreme Lord and King, the truths that are amplified and further
00:01:22.020 | revealed and clarified in the 66 infallible and inerrant books of the Old and New Testaments.
00:01:30.260 | The very success of the people in your fields depends upon these foundational facts that
00:01:38.180 | so many in your fields reject out of hand, inconsistently, of course, but reject nonetheless.
00:01:45.860 | It's something like a mechanic who is vehemently morally opposed to the existence of nuts and
00:01:52.260 | bolts and screws, right?
00:01:54.540 | It'd be really tough to work in that guy's garage.
00:01:58.140 | Don't talk to me about nuts and bolts and screws.
00:01:59.940 | Don't talk to me about a Creator and a King and truth.
00:02:05.660 | That's akin to what many of you have to do since these fields have been hijacked by the
00:02:10.460 | enemies of truth and who so often persecute those who don't receive their a priori secularism.
00:02:18.660 | There's a sense in which you are all like special agents of the true King working behind
00:02:24.580 | enemy lines, but in territory that really belongs to the King.
00:02:29.640 | And in those environments, you're bombarded with unbiblical ideas and worldly agendas
00:02:35.020 | each and every day.
00:02:36.880 | And so Mathema exists to help you think biblically about these issues and to assess and evaluate
00:02:42.740 | them according to a biblical worldview and to encourage and strengthen you to be faithful
00:02:48.500 | witnesses to the truth in hostile territory.
00:02:52.980 | It's a delicate balance to be sure.
00:02:55.620 | On the one hand, your employer has not hired you to be a Christian missionary to your organization,
00:03:00.580 | right?
00:03:01.580 | And you're there to do a job and you're there to honor Jesus by doing that job with excellence.
00:03:11.140 | And on the other hand, Jesus has sent you to that workplace to be a witness to the truth
00:03:19.220 | and your commitment to Him supersedes everything in your life.
00:03:24.180 | So truly, I don't envy the position that you're in.
00:03:26.940 | I'm glad that I work where I work.
00:03:29.700 | God has gifted me to do this, and I'm glad that I get to do it.
00:03:32.920 | But God has gifted you to do the things you're doing.
00:03:36.540 | I still don't envy you.
00:03:38.220 | The challenges and the temptations are obvious, right?
00:03:41.240 | How much will I be willing to compromise in order to keep the peace?
00:03:46.320 | What truths won't I speak about for the sake of keeping my job?
00:03:52.100 | And we can get very pragmatic.
00:03:54.940 | I mean, I need to provide for my family.
00:03:57.020 | I've spent all these years in education, you know, sometimes I've got student loans to
00:04:01.340 | pay back.
00:04:03.460 | Even if I've paid them all back, I need to provide for my family.
00:04:07.020 | If I'm not here, if it's not me, they'll hire somebody else who doesn't have a biblical
00:04:11.660 | worldview at all, who's not concerned at all to be a witness to the truth.
00:04:17.460 | So I don't envy you.
00:04:19.100 | But in the time that I have with you, I do want to encourage you not to compromise.
00:04:25.240 | I do want to stir you up to be bold in your stand for the truth behind enemy lines.
00:04:32.420 | If you are going to be, as the TMU mission statement says, empowered for a life of enduring
00:04:38.420 | commitment to Christ in the midst of our society, you are going to need to be equipped to suffer
00:04:45.700 | for Christ's sake in a manner that is worthy of the gospel.
00:04:50.820 | If you're going to persevere in a life of sacrificial, life-laid-down ministry to a
00:04:56.620 | world that is actively hostile to you and to your Savior, you need to be equipped with
00:05:02.900 | a sound theology of Christian suffering.
00:05:07.140 | And in the text that I've chosen for this final session, Philippians 1:29-30, the apostle
00:05:14.280 | Paul is aiming to lay just such a foundation for the Philippians, to equip them to suffer
00:05:20.940 | in a manner worthy of the gospel.
00:05:24.020 | Now the Philippians had been transformed by the gospel.
00:05:26.680 | They were no longer slaves of Caesar.
00:05:29.800 | They were now faithful slaves of Jesus.
00:05:33.020 | Their identity was no longer in being devoted citizens of the Roman Empire.
00:05:39.080 | They were now citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
00:05:41.920 | They had been called out of darkness into Christ's marvelous light, 1 Peter 2.9.
00:05:47.520 | And so, they began to face hostility from the darkness around them.
00:05:53.760 | We read in Philippians 1.28 of their opponents.
00:05:58.960 | Verse 29 speaks of suffering for Christ's sake, and verse 30 speaks about the conflict
00:06:05.640 | they're experiencing.
00:06:08.260 | And it's in this context of opposition and suffering and conflict that the apostle Paul
00:06:14.400 | calls them in chapter 1 verse 27 to conduct yourselves as citizens in a manner worthy
00:06:21.660 | of the gospel of Christ.
00:06:24.780 | They are to live lives that are driven by that gospel.
00:06:30.980 | And specifically, he says, that means they are, verse 27, to stand firm in one spirit.
00:06:38.800 | They are to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
00:06:43.840 | And they are to be, verse 28, in no way alarmed by your opponents.
00:06:50.540 | They were to hold their ground amidst attacks to compromise.
00:06:55.720 | They were to continue their mission of propagating the gospel behind enemy lines.
00:07:01.860 | And they were to do it all without so much as flinching, because the king of heaven remains
00:07:08.320 | on his throne.
00:07:10.160 | And he is infinitely more powerful than any opposing force could ever dream to be.
00:07:18.000 | And then, in verses 29 and 30, Paul throws more fuel on the fire of the Christian's fearlessness
00:07:25.860 | in the face of the opposition to the gospel.
00:07:28.060 | He says, "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him,
00:07:37.740 | but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and
00:07:46.220 | now hear to be in me."
00:07:50.180 | What we have in this text are four truths about Christian suffering that increase the
00:07:55.860 | believer's resolve to endure hardship as soldiers of Jesus Christ.
00:08:03.020 | Because for both the Philippians and for us, part of what it means for us to live in a
00:08:07.380 | manner worthy of the gospel, verse 27, is to suffer in a manner worthy of the gospel,
00:08:12.600 | verse 29.
00:08:13.600 | And my prayer for you is that properly apprehending these four truths about Christian suffering
00:08:20.140 | will put a holy fire in your eyes.
00:08:24.200 | So that when the hostility of the world comes, you will be undeterred, there'll be steel
00:08:30.100 | in your spine, you'll be fearless in the face of suffering, and thereby be equipped to live
00:08:37.300 | and to suffer in a manner worthy of the gospel.
00:08:41.820 | And that first truth is, number one, suffering is a mark of Christian identity.
00:08:48.620 | Suffering is a mark of Christian identity.
00:08:51.660 | And the key to understanding this is to see the close connection between believing in
00:08:55.340 | Christ and suffering for Christ's sake in verse 29.
00:08:59.940 | If you have your Bibles, look at the text.
00:09:01.820 | "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also
00:09:10.580 | to suffer for His sake."
00:09:13.180 | And so, brothers and sisters, though many who name the name of Christ would want to
00:09:18.980 | deny this, we must make no mistake, suffering for Christ is a mark of Christian identity.
00:09:27.820 | That teaching is established all throughout the New Testament.
00:09:30.500 | Jesus Himself said it in John 15, 19, "If you were of the world, the world would love
00:09:34.340 | its own.
00:09:35.340 | But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this,
00:09:40.140 | the world hates you.
00:09:42.400 | Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master.
00:09:46.500 | If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you."
00:09:53.860 | Peter wrote to suffering Christians in 1 Peter 4, 12, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the
00:09:59.640 | fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing
00:10:04.520 | were happening to you."
00:10:06.140 | Hear how he's reasoning?
00:10:08.020 | Don't be surprised.
00:10:09.020 | Persecution is not strange.
00:10:10.780 | This is normal for the follower of Jesus.
00:10:13.740 | If they persecute Him, they'll persecute His followers.
00:10:18.140 | Romans 8, 16, and 17, Paul writes, "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we
00:10:24.280 | are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
00:10:31.060 | if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him."
00:10:39.340 | We are heirs if we suffer with Him.
00:10:43.940 | And it's stated nowhere more clearly than in 2 Timothy 3, 12, where Paul states plainly
00:10:49.020 | and emphatically, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
00:10:57.620 | There's no wiggle room there.
00:10:59.540 | It's not all Christians in closed countries will be persecuted.
00:11:03.340 | It's not all pastors and missionaries will be persecuted.
00:11:07.140 | It's not all super-evangelistic, super-spiritual, super-Christians will be persecuted.
00:11:11.820 | No, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
00:11:19.500 | Why?
00:11:20.820 | Well, because the darkness hates the light, because the kind of life that is commanded
00:11:29.100 | of those who would conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel sticks in the
00:11:34.540 | craw of the enemies of righteousness.
00:11:38.100 | And that kind of life lived on the path of light indicts the sinful lifestyle of those
00:11:45.460 | on the path of darkness by exposing it, by exposing it in the light of holy living.
00:11:53.420 | I don't like that guy.
00:11:54.540 | Why?
00:11:55.540 | He's a goody two-shoes.
00:11:56.540 | I don't like that woman.
00:11:58.060 | Why?
00:11:59.060 | Because she's so perfect.
00:12:01.540 | That's not necessarily so, but when you aim to conduct yourselves according to a standard
00:12:07.580 | of righteousness, not in order to earn your salvation, but because you've been saved,
00:12:12.540 | the people who recognize that's not my life, they're indicted by it, they're convicted
00:12:19.060 | by it.
00:12:20.060 | And because people suppress the truth in unrighteousness, they do what they can to stuff that down.
00:12:26.540 | So the darkness hates the light.
00:12:31.080 | So you ask, so how, for Paul and the Philippians, how in the world is telling them that suffering
00:12:36.900 | is certain supposed to comfort and strengthen the Philippians to face that persecution?
00:12:43.740 | Well, it's comforting because Paul is telling them that suffering for Christ in the way
00:12:48.300 | that they have been suffering and the way that they will continue to suffer is an identifying
00:12:54.660 | mark of one who truly belongs to Christ.
00:12:59.100 | It has been granted to you not only to believe, but also to suffer for Christ's sake.
00:13:03.860 | Suffering for Christ marks you out as a true believer.
00:13:10.060 | John Calvin put it beautifully in his commentary on this passage.
00:13:13.180 | He says, "Persecutions are, in a manner, seals of adoption to the children of God,
00:13:20.060 | if they endure them with fortitude and patience.
00:13:23.260 | Their adoption can no more be separated from sufferings than Christ can be torn asunder
00:13:28.060 | from himself."
00:13:31.180 | So suffering for Christ's sake is the seal of our adoption into His family.
00:13:37.340 | It's our birthright.
00:13:39.400 | It's our badge of authenticity.
00:13:41.740 | Peter says again in 1 Peter 4, "Don't be surprised, but," verse 13, "to the degree that you share
00:13:47.540 | the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory
00:13:54.060 | you may rejoice with exaltation.
00:13:56.640 | If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory
00:14:04.500 | and of God rests on you."
00:14:09.700 | And so this hostility that you experience at the hands of the adversaries of the gospel
00:14:14.780 | is, Philippians 1:28 says, "Assign an evident token from God of your salvation, for because
00:14:27.540 | to you it's been granted, not only to believe but to suffer, because the God who has given
00:14:32.140 | you His salvation has, with that gift, also graced you to be Christ's people in the world,"
00:14:39.700 | which means you will suffer for His sake just as He did for your sake.
00:14:48.140 | The question that you've got to ask yourself is, "If suffering for Christ is a mark of
00:14:53.080 | Christian identity, am I suffering for His sake?"
00:14:59.140 | And I don't just mean martyrdom and imprisonment and physical abuse.
00:15:03.400 | I mean the kind of social ostracism and opposition that comes from faithfully and obediently
00:15:10.940 | following Christ in a world that hates Him and everything He stands for.
00:15:17.400 | Do you know what it is to be shunned as a hateful bigot simply for refusing to compromise
00:15:23.380 | on the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality and transgenderism?
00:15:28.580 | Men, do you know what it is to be mocked as a prude because you won't join the men at
00:15:35.340 | work in making sexual comments and evaluations of this woman or the other?
00:15:41.580 | Ladies, do you know that look of alienation and bewilderment from the other wives and
00:15:49.060 | mothers or ladies at the workplace who don't complain about their children or gossip about
00:15:55.460 | their husbands or boyfriends?
00:15:59.860 | Do you know what it is to be looked upon by the sophisticated minds of society as a knuckle-dragging
00:16:06.060 | fundamentalist because you won't compromise the scriptural teaching about men's and women's
00:16:11.260 | roles in marriage and in the church?
00:16:14.140 | Or because you won't compromise the scriptural teaching about God's creation of the universe
00:16:18.540 | in six literal 24-hour days?
00:16:22.620 | Can you pour out your heart to someone in proclaiming the gospel to them, lovingly and
00:16:27.820 | sincerely entreating them to be saved from the wrath to come and to run to everlasting
00:16:33.620 | joy and salvation in Christ, only to have them mock you as a narrow-minded xenophobe
00:16:41.540 | who just wants to control everybody and make people believe the same as you?
00:16:47.340 | Do you know the feeling of being aliens and strangers in the world?
00:16:52.740 | Do you know the pain of knowing that you're far from home?
00:16:58.820 | Foxes have holes, birds have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere on this earth that He spoke
00:17:05.060 | into existence and sustains with His Word to lay His head.
00:17:11.740 | The key is if so, if you know those pains of alienation, of being strangers, don't be
00:17:19.740 | discouraged.
00:17:22.060 | Those are marks of the citizens of heaven, those who are out of place as citizens of
00:17:29.620 | the kingdoms of this world.
00:17:33.480 | On the other hand, what if you don't know that pain, that ostracism?
00:17:42.480 | Can you fit right in?
00:17:44.160 | I mean, you go to church on Sundays, maybe Bible study once a week or every other week,
00:17:50.120 | but for the rest of your time in the world, is it that you seem right at home?
00:17:58.400 | Have you so domesticated your faith?
00:18:00.520 | Have you so compartmentalized your relationship with Jesus Christ that no one can tell the
00:18:06.200 | difference between you, a professed follower of the Lord Jesus and a pagan who loves and
00:18:12.500 | serves himself?
00:18:16.320 | No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket.
00:18:20.000 | Do you stick out as a light among the darkness or can you get along just fine in the world
00:18:26.820 | because you've been unwilling to stand publicly for what would bring inconvenience for Christ's
00:18:33.920 | sake?
00:18:35.600 | We need to hear this, friends, because the kind of convenient, polite, socially inoffensive
00:18:42.960 | spectator kind of Christianity that provokes no hostility from the enemies of the gospel,
00:18:49.520 | Paul says, that kind of Christianity is a sham.
00:18:53.960 | He says that kind of Christianity won't take you to heaven because to you it has been granted
00:19:00.580 | not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake.
00:19:08.080 | Suffering is a mark of Christian identity and so rather than running from it, when it
00:19:13.800 | comes we ought to be encouraged by it.
00:19:17.840 | Christ said this would happen and it's happening.
00:19:22.020 | I'm happy actually to bear that reproach.
00:19:24.920 | I'm real.
00:19:26.960 | I'm not just playing a role, I'm not just playing pretend.
00:19:30.360 | I'm a believer and I know I'm a believer in part because I'm willing to suffer loss for
00:19:36.040 | his sake.
00:19:39.160 | The strings of my heart are not so attached to what they can take from me.
00:19:44.960 | They're attached to him.
00:19:47.480 | I'll say more about that in a moment.
00:19:51.360 | Secondly then, suffering for Christ's sake is a gift of divine grace.
00:19:57.940 | It's a gift of divine grace.
00:20:00.240 | Look with me again at verse 29, "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not
00:20:07.280 | only to believe in him but also to suffer."
00:20:09.900 | So we've established suffering inevitably comes to the true believer in Christ but where
00:20:14.900 | does it come from?
00:20:17.680 | Does it originate merely in the hostility of the opponents themselves?
00:20:22.840 | Does it come from a random chaotic uncontrolled universe so we've just drawn the short straw
00:20:28.720 | and need to make the best of things?
00:20:31.820 | Does it come from a random impersonal governing force like fate so we just have to grin and
00:20:37.120 | bear it?
00:20:39.600 | Does suffering ultimately come from Satan or demons?
00:20:46.520 | Ultimately we have to answer no to all of those questions.
00:20:51.240 | Ultimately suffering comes from God.
00:20:56.400 | Why do I say that?
00:20:58.040 | Well one, Scripture calls God the one who works all things after the counsel of his
00:21:05.440 | own will, Ephesians 1:11.
00:21:08.480 | And we know, Romans 8:28, that God causes all things to work together for good to those
00:21:13.920 | who love God and are called according to his purpose.
00:21:17.840 | All things, not just the good things.
00:21:21.800 | And not God turns all the bad things into good things for those who love him.
00:21:27.880 | That's not what the text says.
00:21:29.200 | God does not just make the best out of a bad hand he was dealt.
00:21:34.300 | He ordains all things for his purpose to glorify himself, to magnify his name.
00:21:43.860 | Joseph said as much in Genesis chapter 50 in verse 20, "You meant it for evil, the brothers
00:21:48.860 | who sold me into slavery, but God meant it for good."
00:21:55.140 | Not just turned it out for good.
00:21:57.900 | God's good on his feet.
00:21:58.900 | He can make the best of a bad situation.
00:22:00.900 | No, God meant the sinful action of Joseph's brothers for the good of preserving life.
00:22:08.660 | Genesis 45, 5 to 8.
00:22:10.580 | Job says the same thing.
00:22:12.120 | Chapter 1 verse 21, "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away."
00:22:19.140 | Job 2.10, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity from him as well?"
00:22:29.300 | Even as Jeremiah the prophet stands in the rubble of the ravaged city of Jerusalem at
00:22:34.340 | the time of the Babylonian invasion, he asks, Lamentations 3.37, "Who is there who speaks
00:22:40.840 | and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?
00:22:45.880 | Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?"
00:22:54.900 | But even if I didn't have all those verses to turn to, you know how else I know that
00:22:58.420 | suffering for Christ's sake ultimately comes from God?
00:23:02.020 | Because Philippians 1.29 says, "It's been granted to us not only to believe but to suffer."
00:23:08.220 | Well, who has granted that we believe?
00:23:12.420 | Certainly not our opponents of the gospel and certainly not Satan.
00:23:18.220 | It's God who has granted us faith, Ephesians 2.8 and 9.
00:23:21.900 | Faith is the gift of God and in the same way it is God who grants us to suffer.
00:23:32.260 | And consider the word itself, He grants us to suffer.
00:23:35.980 | The word is charizomai from charis which is the New Testament word for grace.
00:23:40.620 | It means to give as a gift or to give freely.
00:23:44.460 | It's the same word in Romans 8.32 where Paul says, "He who did not spare his own son but
00:23:49.260 | delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?"
00:23:57.660 | Dear friends, what Paul is teaching us here is that the suffering that comes upon the
00:24:02.260 | people of God as a result of their faithful obedience to Christ in a hostile world is
00:24:09.700 | nothing less than a free gift of sovereign grace.
00:24:16.440 | And I ask you, does God give poor gifts?
00:24:20.940 | Does He give gifts that are without purpose and without wisdom?
00:24:24.740 | Does He ever give gifts that are not beneficial and for the greatest good of those whom He
00:24:30.300 | gives them to?
00:24:32.140 | Of course not.
00:24:34.060 | All of God's good gifts to His children are good for His children.
00:24:40.620 | This text tells us that He gives us suffering for Christ's sake as a gift of His loving
00:24:46.600 | unmerited favor.
00:24:50.880 | Now some of you are thinking, "What kind of favor is that, suffering?"
00:24:55.180 | If you're thinking that, I want you to know the apostles would have had no idea where
00:24:59.820 | you were coming from.
00:25:00.820 | They just wouldn't get it.
00:25:02.580 | And if you have your Bibles, turn over to Acts chapter 5.
00:25:06.920 | The Sanhedrin had already thrown the apostles into prison for violating their command not
00:25:11.980 | to preach any longer in the name of Jesus.
00:25:15.380 | But the angel of the Lord came in the middle of the night and freed them, and the next
00:25:18.700 | morning they were back in the temple preaching again, and so the Jews called them before
00:25:22.020 | the council again, and after some discussion about what would be done to them, verse 40,
00:25:27.740 | they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then released
00:25:34.300 | them.
00:25:35.300 | So, Acts chapter 5 and verse 41, "They went on their way from the presence of the council,
00:25:42.180 | rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name."
00:25:49.700 | Our generation of professing Christians seeks to run from shame as far and as fast as possible,
00:25:57.780 | as if it were a pure, unmixed evil.
00:26:00.820 | If you're ashamed of the way that you feel inside, go ahead and mutilate your bodies
00:26:05.740 | so that you can match the body to the feelings and not feel that shame.
00:26:11.040 | If you're ashamed of what your inclinations are, let's have a whole month dedicated to
00:26:16.620 | celebrating those inclinations so that nobody feels any shame.
00:26:22.780 | But the apostles' generation rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to receive
00:26:28.540 | the divine favor of suffering shame for the name of Jesus Christ.
00:26:37.020 | And I would ask that God would grant that we see the glory that they saw.
00:26:43.620 | That we would be so satisfied by Christ that we would count it a privilege to meet the
00:26:49.660 | world's shame, if it means that by that means we can put His glory on display.
00:27:01.780 | Years after being flogged that day, Peter would write again in 1 Peter 4, "To the degree
00:27:07.080 | that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing."
00:27:12.240 | And again, if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but to glorify God
00:27:17.860 | in that name.
00:27:20.500 | To glorify God in that name.
00:27:22.660 | You see, suffering for Christ's sake provides us with a wonderful opportunity to put the
00:27:28.220 | worth and sufficiency of Jesus on display to the world.
00:27:33.380 | It gives us an opportunity to magnify Him by being more satisfied in Him than by all
00:27:41.980 | that life can offer us and all that death can take.
00:27:45.740 | I'm going to say that again.
00:27:48.220 | Suffering for Christ's sake gives us an opportunity to magnify Him by being more satisfied in
00:27:53.660 | Him by showing the world that He is more satisfying than all that life could offer and all that
00:28:00.100 | death can take.
00:28:02.700 | It's like the hymn says, "When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope
00:28:09.100 | and stay."
00:28:12.180 | And so one pastor writes, "If we hold fast to Him when all around our soul gives way,
00:28:16.700 | then we show that He is more to be desired than all that we have lost."
00:28:24.180 | And friends, magnifying Christ, showing that He is more to be desired than all that we
00:28:29.780 | could lose, that's what we were created to do.
00:28:33.620 | I don't care what your job is, you were created to show the world that there is no greater
00:28:39.020 | joy than making much of Jesus Christ.
00:28:44.140 | There is no greater joy than knowing Him and the fellowship of His sufferings and making
00:28:49.580 | Him known through our sufferings for His sake.
00:28:54.780 | It's a gift to suffer on behalf of Christ.
00:28:57.820 | It's a gracious gift of unmerited favor to be given the privilege of being prisms to
00:29:04.780 | reflect the glory and the sufficiency of Jesus to the world.
00:29:11.480 | But I'll take your treasure, oh, I've got a treasure you know nothing about.
00:29:16.420 | I'll take your family, my heavenly Father provides for all my needs and my elder brother
00:29:22.780 | sits on the throne of heaven.
00:29:25.380 | I'll take your children, maybe, but God would grant, if He is gracious, an opportunity for
00:29:30.860 | me to make spiritual children out of those that I might minister the gospel to.
00:29:36.820 | I'll take your very life, you can't do that.
00:29:39.100 | My life is hidden with Christ in God.
00:29:42.340 | I'm seated in the heavenly places already.
00:29:44.940 | You see, when nothing, when everything that the world values doesn't hold a candle to
00:29:52.260 | you and to your affections, but you say, "He is more to be desired than all those things,"
00:29:58.500 | we make Christ look great.
00:30:02.980 | That's why suffering is a gift, because what do you want in this life more than to make
00:30:08.540 | Christ look great?
00:30:10.140 | You, a sinner from the dung heap, from the mud pile, from the miry clay, you treasonous
00:30:22.500 | rebel, traitor to the King, whom He has graciously plucked out of the fire, you say, "I, me?
00:30:32.380 | I can make much of Jesus?
00:30:34.100 | My horrid little life could make much of Jesus?"
00:30:38.820 | Yeah, by the grace of God, it can, if indeed to you, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
00:30:49.180 | And so, when suffering and persecution come from those who would oppose Christ and His
00:30:53.100 | gospel, and when things get hard, and when it starts to hurt, and it threatens those
00:30:58.180 | things and those people whom you most treasure, don't try to save God from His sovereignty
00:31:04.940 | by thinking that those trials originate from someone other than your heavenly Father.
00:31:10.780 | Don't cut the legs out from under the theology of sovereign grace upon which you stand.
00:31:16.540 | You would destroy the very comfort that you seek if you did that.
00:31:23.660 | Another great hymn says, "Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, hereby faith in Him to dwell,
00:31:29.180 | for I know whatever befall me, Jesus doeth all things well."
00:31:35.780 | Where do heavenly peace and divine comfort come from?
00:31:39.560 | From the knowledge that whatever happens, Jesus, the sovereign Lord, is doing all things
00:31:46.400 | well.
00:31:49.520 | So don't try to save God from His sovereignty and in the same breath steal your heavenly
00:31:53.960 | peace and divinest comfort.
00:31:56.120 | Instead, count that suffering as a gracious gift from the loving hand of your Father.
00:32:03.420 | Then you would suffer in a manner worthy of the gospel.
00:32:08.520 | Suffering for Christ's sake is a mark of Christian identity, and it's a gift of divine
00:32:12.160 | grace.
00:32:13.160 | The third truth about Christian suffering is that Paul teaches us, or that Paul teaches
00:32:17.840 | us in this text, is that it is endured for Christ's sake.
00:32:22.520 | It is endured for Christ's sake, and you can flip back to Philippians 1 and read verse
00:32:27.480 | 29 with me again.
00:32:29.120 | You've heard the repeated emphasis as I've said it over and over again, "For to you it
00:32:33.800 | has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His
00:32:40.240 | sake."
00:32:42.360 | Paul does not want to be misunderstood, he repeats it.
00:32:45.800 | And so all the suffering we've been talking about this afternoon is the hostility believers
00:32:49.840 | face, particularly as a result of opposition to the gospel.
00:32:55.780 | This is persecution in the proper sense, the more narrow sense.
00:33:00.600 | One commentator puts it helpfully when he says, "The suffering in view here is not everyday
00:33:04.240 | headaches and heartaches.
00:33:06.340 | Suffering on behalf of Christ is caused by public identification with Christ in a world
00:33:10.920 | hostile to Christ."
00:33:14.360 | Now the Bible has glorious truths and promises about how we are to respond righteously to
00:33:19.600 | the everyday headaches and heartaches, for sure.
00:33:23.180 | And certainly the truths we've observed already can be carefully and legitimately applied
00:33:28.360 | to those circumstances.
00:33:30.220 | But the suffering that is in view in this text and in much of the New Testament is suffering
00:33:35.440 | that is endured on behalf of Christ.
00:33:38.440 | And you hear this emphasis everywhere, Matthew 5, 10 and 11, "Blessed are those who have
00:33:43.080 | been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
00:33:48.600 | Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of
00:33:53.000 | evil against you because of me."
00:33:57.600 | Mark 10, 29, "Truly I say to you, there's no one who's left his house or brothers or
00:34:02.020 | sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake,
00:34:09.080 | but that he will receive a hundred times."
00:34:12.340 | And one we've come back to a couple times, 1 Peter 4, 12 to 16, "Don't be surprised as
00:34:18.360 | if something strange were happening to you, but to the degree that you share the sufferings
00:34:22.780 | of Christ, keep on rejoicing.
00:34:26.140 | If you're reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory
00:34:30.560 | and of God rests on you.
00:34:32.200 | Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evildoer or a troublesome meddler.
00:34:38.000 | But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in
00:34:44.200 | this name."
00:34:45.200 | And so when I say that we need to shine as lights in a dark world, I don't simply mean
00:34:50.180 | that we need to "live differently" in some sort of general sense.
00:34:56.420 | You cannot legitimately claim these promises of comfort for suffering for the sake of a
00:35:02.200 | generic morality that holds doors and pulls out chairs and doesn't use foul language and
00:35:08.040 | is generally respectful of people.
00:35:10.680 | On a horizontal level, even enemies of the truth can be polite and respectable people.
00:35:17.420 | But Paul is calling us to the kind of suffering that happens on behalf of Christ.
00:35:24.700 | And when I say that we need to eschew this kind of convenient Christianity that provokes
00:35:29.780 | no hostility, I don't mean that provoking hostility in and of itself is a virtue.
00:35:36.060 | If you suffer hostility because you're belligerent and annoying, or if you stick out from the
00:35:41.680 | world just because you're a strange person, that's not Christian suffering.
00:35:46.820 | One preacher said, "This is not a Christian kookishness that counts it the highest virtue
00:35:51.340 | to go around disturbing people by being different."
00:35:53.740 | No, this is suffering particularly and specifically as a result of our attachment to and likeness
00:36:01.220 | and commitment to Christ.
00:36:05.220 | And so our suffering is to be endured for Christ's sake.
00:36:08.940 | And I would say that that gives us strength to endure the trials that are coming.
00:36:13.060 | Because friends, I ask you, is there anything that you cannot endure for His sake?
00:36:20.180 | For the sake of the innocent Lamb of God who bore the unfettered wrath of His own dear
00:36:25.540 | Father on the cross so that impure, unholy, treasonous rebels like you and me could be
00:36:34.500 | purified and reconciled as friends and seated around the table of the King of all kings?
00:36:43.020 | To bear reproach for His sake?
00:36:46.380 | That's no trouble for me, not when He's borne so much reproach for my sake.
00:36:54.140 | What are the frowns of a few fellow mortals if we can see His smile, if we can know Him,
00:37:02.540 | if we can walk more closely and more intimately with the Savior who is the apple of our eye,
00:37:08.860 | who is at the very bottom, the very bedrock foundation of our joy and comfort?
00:37:15.260 | Surely we can endure suffering for His sake.
00:37:22.780 | And then number four, the fourth truth about Christian suffering that will prepare us to
00:37:28.020 | suffer in a manner worthy of the gospel is that suffering is a means of sweet fellowship.
00:37:34.660 | Suffering is a means of sweet fellowship.
00:37:37.080 | Look with me at verse 30.
00:37:39.120 | It's granted to you to suffer, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and
00:37:46.460 | now hear to be in me.
00:37:50.860 | And what we see here in verse 30 is what one writer calls a masterful stroke of pastoral
00:37:56.100 | comfort on the part of the Apostle Paul.
00:37:59.420 | The Philippians would remember, like it was yesterday, the beatings and the imprisonment
00:38:03.980 | that Paul suffered at the hands of the crowds in Philippi.
00:38:07.020 | It's recorded in Acts chapter 16.
00:38:09.940 | And now they're hearing of his resolute fearlessness in the midst of his sufferings, his resolve
00:38:15.640 | to magnify Christ whether by life or by death, verse 19 of chapter 1, or verse 19 and 20.
00:38:22.940 | And he's preaching the gospel unto the conversion of many even in the praetorian guard into
00:38:27.700 | Caesar's own household, Philippians 1, 12 to 18.
00:38:31.980 | They hear of the sufferings and they think of all that Paul's endured for the sake of
00:38:37.300 | the gospel.
00:38:38.740 | And you realize they came to regard him like we regard him, right, as a hero.
00:38:44.980 | And Paul is saying, you're now experiencing that very same thing.
00:38:52.360 | We are brothers in arms.
00:38:55.460 | And the Philippians would have been thrilled to hear that because there is a sweet fellowship
00:38:59.740 | that exists between brothers and sisters who suffer together for the cause of Christ.
00:39:05.420 | And knowing that Paul regarded them as having the same kind of fellowship with him would
00:39:11.140 | have strengthened their hands to stand firm.
00:39:14.540 | It would have strengthened them to continue striving together to be courageous and undaunted,
00:39:20.000 | no way alarmed by the opposition.
00:39:24.260 | And I think it should be no different for us.
00:39:27.260 | We should be enticed to a resolute fearlessness in the face of opposition by knowing that
00:39:34.900 | suffering on behalf of Christ is a means of sweet fellowship with all of our brothers
00:39:40.220 | and sisters throughout the ages, all the faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ who have gone before
00:39:45.220 | us, who have been despised and forsaken by the world, men like Justin Martyr, and Polycarp
00:39:51.340 | of Smyrna, and Ignatius of Antioch, and William Tyndale, and John Huss, and Martin Luther,
00:39:57.260 | and John Rogers, and Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley, and John Knox, all of these and thousands
00:40:03.900 | of others of whom the world was not worthy, who loved not their lives even unto death,
00:40:10.540 | they are our brothers in arms, our band of brothers.
00:40:17.460 | And more than that, suffering is not just a means of sweet fellowship with them, with
00:40:20.540 | other believers, but with the Apostle Paul himself.
00:40:24.420 | This is a man who laid down his life to travel the known world, who endured all manner of
00:40:28.380 | hostility, who wrote half the New Testament, and who's a spiritual hero to every Christian
00:40:33.220 | who's ever lived.
00:40:35.460 | He can lay down our lives for the same gospel mission that he suffered for.
00:40:44.620 | And Matthew, I want to know, don't you want your life to count for something?
00:40:50.020 | Of course you do.
00:40:51.700 | Don't you want to live so that you don't waste the years that you've been given?
00:40:55.900 | Of course you do.
00:40:56.940 | Don't you want to invest yourselves and to spend and be spent for something that is truly
00:41:02.800 | worthwhile and meaningful, something that will outlast this earth, where moth and rust
00:41:08.060 | destroy and where thieves break in and steal?
00:41:10.820 | I mean, talk about being part of something that's bigger than yourself.
00:41:15.780 | We can be engaged in the very same conflict that the Apostle Paul himself was engaged
00:41:22.140 | in, provided we are willing, as he was, to lay down our lives, to live in a manner worthy
00:41:27.940 | of the gospel in a way that cuts straight across the grain of the world that we live
00:41:33.060 | in.
00:41:35.860 | But it gets better even than that.
00:41:38.300 | The suffering that you experience for Christ's sake is not only providing you with the opportunity
00:41:43.200 | for unique and intimate fellowship with other soldiers of Christ.
00:41:47.300 | It also provides you with the opportunity for unique and intimate fellowship with Christ
00:41:51.180 | himself.
00:41:52.180 | See, when we become willing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to preach his gospel,
00:41:59.620 | to walk in holiness as he walked, we will provoke the same hostility from sinners that
00:42:05.740 | he provoked.
00:42:09.200 | And in counting so many times people say, you know, we were just nice and we were just
00:42:13.580 | loving, and if we were just gentle, you know, like Jesus was, the world would like us, and
00:42:19.100 | then they would listen to the gospel.
00:42:20.100 | It's like, guys, they killed Jesus.
00:42:23.060 | He was the nicest, gentlest, most, you know, respectful man that ever lived.
00:42:27.740 | He was sinless and perfect, and they still killed him, and you think you're going to
00:42:31.620 | win them over by your winning smile and cunning charm?
00:42:37.980 | They killed him.
00:42:40.580 | But you see, as we count Christ more satisfying than all that life can offer and all that
00:42:46.420 | death can take, we suffer for the same cause of righteousness as the Lord himself, the
00:42:53.740 | creator and king of the universe.
00:42:56.580 | That's a fellowship that the world knows nothing about.
00:42:59.420 | That's what Paul means, Philippians 3.10, to know the fellowship of his sufferings.
00:43:04.420 | It means a camaraderie.
00:43:05.980 | It means an intimacy that we can have with our Savior by sharing in the sufferings that
00:43:10.720 | he experienced.
00:43:13.060 | And that should be an enormous amount of fuel to lay down our safe and comfortable lives
00:43:19.980 | and to lose our lives for Christ's sake and the gospel's sake.
00:43:24.260 | It is worth enduring all manner of hostility if we get to know him more intimately because
00:43:32.180 | of that hostility, if we get to see more of him in ways that we wouldn't otherwise know
00:43:37.700 | if we kept ourselves in the safety of our Christian bubble.
00:43:41.100 | Nice, polite, respectable, but are you willing to lay down your life for Christ, not just
00:43:49.140 | to die for him, but to lay down your life living for him?
00:43:53.380 | Are you willing to go to him and bear his reproach?
00:44:00.180 | Turn with me to Hebrews 13, we'll end here.
00:44:03.940 | Hebrews chapter 13, verse 11.
00:44:05.900 | All throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer draws parallels between the Old Testament
00:44:10.660 | sacrifices and the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice.
00:44:14.980 | In chapter 13, verses 11 and 12, he makes the point that just as the sacrifices were
00:44:20.420 | burned outside the camp, signifying a place of uncleanness and shame that was cut off
00:44:27.220 | from the community of God's people, so also was Jesus sacrificed outside the camp of Israel
00:44:35.700 | in hostile territory.
00:44:39.340 | And then in verses 13 and 14, he gives the implications for the church.
00:44:42.700 | So Hebrews 13, verse 11, "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into
00:44:48.500 | the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
00:44:55.100 | Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered
00:45:01.980 | outside the gate."
00:45:04.900 | So let us go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
00:45:14.220 | Why?
00:45:15.540 | For here, we do not have a lasting city.
00:45:19.320 | We are seeking the city which is to come.
00:45:22.500 | So you see, we are to leave the securities and the comforts of the camp and we are to
00:45:29.540 | go out and bear his reproach.
00:45:34.340 | The reproaches that have fallen on you have fallen on me.
00:45:39.020 | But the magnificent sweetness of this verse is that we don't simply go out, but that we
00:45:43.460 | go out to him.
00:45:46.160 | He is out there on that road of suffering.
00:45:49.980 | Jesus is out there waiting for you on that path of suffering endured for the sake of
00:45:56.100 | the gospel.
00:45:57.100 | And he is calling us to come and enjoy the sweetness of the fellowship of his sufferings.
00:46:05.260 | I can't say anything that would make it so that I might lose my job.
00:46:10.860 | I can't say that thing.
00:46:13.660 | I can't have that conversation.
00:46:16.180 | Why?
00:46:17.740 | Because then I'd be on a road that leads me to the unemployment line.
00:46:21.900 | You know what?
00:46:22.900 | Jesus is on that road.
00:46:25.380 | If endured, if suffered for his sake truly, and not as an evildoer or a troublesome meddler,
00:46:32.820 | he's on the road of suffering and he's already walked it.
00:46:39.660 | The 19th century London pastor Charles Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers by so many,
00:46:46.020 | asked his congregation the question I ask you today, "Can you take the side of a despised
00:46:52.980 | Christ?
00:46:55.840 | Can you stand at his cross?
00:47:00.180 | Can you own him when the blood is dripping from his wounds, when everybody thrusts out
00:47:04.880 | his tongue at him and has ill words for the crucified one?
00:47:09.720 | Can you say, 'I love him still'?
00:47:17.920 | Can you say with the hymn writer, 'Go then, earthly fame and treasure, come disaster,
00:47:24.880 | scorn and pain?
00:47:27.960 | In thy service, pain is pleasure.
00:47:31.720 | With thy favor, loss is gain."
00:47:36.080 | With thy favor, loss is gain.
00:47:37.760 | To live is Christ and to die is gain.
00:47:40.360 | I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my
00:47:46.800 | Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that
00:47:51.200 | I may gain Christ.
00:47:55.680 | May God grant that it would be true of all who sit here this afternoon.
00:48:00.480 | May God grant that it would be true of us.
00:48:03.200 | Let's pray.
00:48:05.320 | Father, would it be true, may it be true by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would
00:48:11.560 | seal to the hearts of your people this word that gives boldness, that breaks chains of
00:48:18.440 | cowardice, that frees unto fearlessness?
00:48:24.160 | We wouldn't go looking for suffering.
00:48:26.600 | We wouldn't go taunting the enemies of the gospel to cause us to suffer, not at all.
00:48:33.840 | But Lord, where faithfulness in this increasingly hostile world requires that we go out to Christ
00:48:41.360 | and bear His reproach on the road of suffering, I pray that you would give grace for us to
00:48:46.600 | walk out on that road.
00:48:48.960 | It may be that simply being faithful to you in the public square means that we don't have
00:48:56.200 | jobs, means that we have to find another way of supporting our family, means that we have
00:49:02.880 | exceptionally tough questions to answer, but it's worth it.
00:49:12.000 | None of what we have now is worth losing your favor.
00:49:20.600 | Nothing that they could offer us is as sweet as the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
00:49:25.520 | Help us to see that.
00:49:26.760 | Help us to believe it, not just in our minds but in our hearts.
00:49:30.800 | May it be that you cause us to walk so nearly with you that these things are...of course,
00:49:37.560 | these things are...yeah, the sight of Christ that I see in my morning devotions is sufficient
00:49:43.040 | to satisfy my heart for eternity.
00:49:46.440 | And so you couldn't get me to trade that for anything.
00:49:50.000 | Change us into such people who, when presented with sin, whether sins of compromise or any
00:49:56.200 | other sin, say, "What could you offer me that approaches the value of the blood of Christ
00:50:03.720 | shed in my place to free me from these very sins that you tempt me to?"
00:50:10.280 | It's madness.
00:50:11.280 | It's lunacy.
00:50:12.280 | And I pray that as these dear people go to work and interact with the people that you
00:50:20.520 | have sovereignly placed in their lives, that you would open their mouths, loosen their
00:50:25.080 | tongues, free them to be the ministers and witnesses to the truth that you have purchased
00:50:32.800 | for them to be by Christ's precious blood.
00:50:36.400 | Give them a holy joy.
00:50:38.640 | Protect them from rancor and anger at unrighteousness.
00:50:46.200 | Give them a boldness, but may it be a brokenhearted boldness that speaks the truth with tears
00:50:52.760 | in the eyes and calls with tears of joy to come and know the great Savior that has purchased
00:51:01.640 | our inheritance of a lasting city.
00:51:05.440 | Here we have no lasting city.
00:51:06.840 | We're seeking the city which is to come.
00:51:09.720 | Father, do in hearts what preachers cannot do and change your people for the glory of
00:51:14.920 | Christ, we pray in his name, amen.
00:51:16.960 | Amen.
00:51:17.960 | Amen.
00:51:18.960 | Amen.
00:51:18.960 | Amen.
00:51:19.960 | Amen.
00:51:19.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]