To this end I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily. Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for the Holy Scriptures. We thank You for Your Spirit. We pray even now, Lord God, that You would fill us with the Spirit. Guide us into understanding Your truth, and not just to know it, God, but to be doers of the Word.
We don't want to be like that foolish man that James writes of, who looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he has seen. But God, help us to look into that perfect law of liberty. Help us to see, Lord God, where we fall short. cry out to You for forgiveness and to find grace and mercy to support, to sustain and to help us in our Christian lives. God, certainly as we look at such a man as Paul the Apostle, we are humbled when we consider ourselves.
We just pray, Lord God, that this would nevertheless be an encouraging look to the Scriptures, that You would help us, Lord God, to leave here more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And do forgive us now for all of our sins and all of our transgressions, And we pray through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Introduction
from prayer, to theological instruction, to historical reminder, and now on to his ministry, his role in the plan of God in terms of preaching and teaching for the glory of God and the good of souls. All of this will serve as the foundation upon which he will combat the heresy plaguing the church in Colossians chapter 2. The reference to his becoming a minister of the gospel in verse 23 facilitated his instruction concerning his role now as a minister of the church. Notice, in verse 23, he says, "...not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister." He is a minister, a servant, of the gospel, but he's also a minister, a servant of the church, which he highlights in verse 25 in our passage.
Now, there are three things that we want to notice in this section in verses 24 to 29.
The Suffering of the Apostle
The first is the suffering of the apostle. That's how he begins this presentation of his ministry. It is a ministry that is marked by, that is highlighted by suffering, by trial. And just as we were singing that last hymn, I thought about the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel.
I suspect most of us in this room would oppose such a mindset or oppose such a teaching or a doctrine that teaches you must always be healthy and wealthy and prosperous if you are in fact a child of the king. We doctrinally oppose it, but I think practically we all imbibe it. I think practically we all believe we're titled or entitled to health, wealth, and prosperity. Especially in North America, in the affluent West, where we have precious little trial, precious little difficulty.
When something does come along and give us just a little bit of discomfort, we can wind to high heaven. And I think we ought to learn something from the Apostle as we focus on the suffering of Paul in verse 24. He then highlights his role as a steward of the Gospel in verses 25 to 27. And then we'll notice something of the preaching of the Apostle in verses 28 and 29.
More than likely we'll look at that this evening. Paul as a preacher or the method engaged in proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice the suffering of the Apostle. He states it very clearly in verse 24, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you.
So it's not only that he suffers, but he's also happy. He's also rejoicing. He's filled with joy. He actually does what James says.
James says in James 1 that we are to count ourselves blessed when we fall into various trials. That is probably something that you and I struggle with. It is not something that Paul struggled with, for he relates it here very clearly. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you.
This does not mean that Paul was a sadist. A masochist, rather. A masochist likes to be hurt. A masochist likes to have pain inflicted upon himself.
That's not Paul. He's not rejoicing in the pain. Rather, he's rejoicing in the fruit that accrues because of that pain. In other words, his suffering means benefit for the church.
His suffering means growth for the people of God. His imprisonment means that the people of God will be emboldened and will be released to do what they're supposed to do. That's how the brother can rejoice. Calvin said he can rejoice in his suffering because of the fruit which results from that suffering.
I was thinking about this text and several years ago there was a sports star. I can't remember his last name, but his first name was Bo. He was good at just about everything. Bo knows football.
Bo knows whatever. Bo knows this. I thought about that. Paul knows suffering.
Paul knows suffering like you and I don't know. Paul knows suffering something like Habakkuk knew. Remember that prayer of Habakkuk in chapter 3 last Sunday night. Though everything around us fail, though Costco dry up, though Superstore be empty, Though Wal-Mart be no longer, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." That was the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, in the vernacular to be sure, for they didn't have Costco's and Wal-Mart's and Superstore.
Paul's Sufferings Catalogued
But turn to 2 Corinthians 11 for just a moment so we can illustrate the fact that Paul knows suffering. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul is put in an awkward position with reference to the church in Corinth. So much of this second epistle is Paul's defense of himself. Paul's defense of his apostleship.
Paul's defense of his ministry and the fact that he genuinely does love these Corinthians. Paul had spent 18 months in Corinth teaching the Word of the Lord to them. He then departed from there, he goes back to Antioch for a season, and then he ships out on the third missionary journey where he spends about three years in Ephesus. Well, when he had departed from Corinth, some people came in and basically said, you know, Paul really isn't about your spiritual well-being.
Paul really doesn't care about your growth as Christians. These guys came in and they would have worn the suits and been very polished and they would have been very gifted orators and they would have said, you know, you really need to listen to us because we're really where it's at. And so Paul gets wind of this, and that's why he writes 2 Corinthians, and so much of it is a defense of his ministry. He's got to prove to them, or he's got to tell them, that yes, in fact, I love you.
Yes, in fact, I care for you. Yes, in fact, I want the best for you. And these super apostles are boasting about what glorious things they have done. They're glorying in all of the things that the flesh glories in.
And so that's the introduction to what he says here in 2 Corinthians 11.22. This is why it sounds like a defense, because it is. Only he doesn't glory in what he has, he glories in what he suffers. 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.
In labor is more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often." Now, kids, I hope you all know what stripes means there. It doesn't mean Paul put highlights in his hair. It doesn't mean he went to see Carlos, the hairdresser, and left from there with a new look. Stripes meant the whip on his back that left gouges of flesh.
That's what the stripes are. Stripes were bloody sores and wounds from having met a Jewish whip or a Roman rod. That's what he is boasting in. That's what he is declaring.
He says, verse 24, from the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Why 40 minus 1? Because Deuteronomy says, in a flogging, or in Leviticus, when you flog someone, you are not to exceed 40 lashes. And so they would make sure that they were well guarded and wouldn't go near 40.
They would do 40 minus 1. Let's have a margin for error on this side of keeping the law. Well, praise God, they were so fastidious. Five times he received that.
Three times he says in verse 25, I was beaten with rods. I actually don't think the Roman civil authority subscribed to the law of God. Whether this was within the context of 39 or not, no one knows how many times He actually received a beating with these Roman rods in these three sessions that he received. He says, once I was stoned.
We saw that in our studies in the book of Acts, outside of Lystra in Acts 14. You know, the very interesting thing about that occasion is that he was stoned. The people suspected or supposed that he was dead. It's a legitimate expectation.
If I was stoned by big rocks, I would probably die. Well, they thought that Paul was dead. They dragged him to the edge of the city. And the text is very conspicuous.
He rose up. He went back to the city. And on the next morning, he set out for Derby. Now, Derby was about a 50 to 60 mile walk.
He didn't use his frequent flyer miles. He didn't get on the Amtrak. He didn't get on the Greyhound. He didn't get in his SUV with all of its accouterments and just soar into Derby.
You know, when Paul is in prison and he writes to the Colossian Christians that out now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, it's very important for us to sort of capture just what it is he's talking about. He says, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day 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 among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily? My deep concern for all the churches." So, while he's in the midst of the water, while he's being beaten, while he's in prison, while he's running for his life, he's worried about the Corinthian church.
He's worried about what's going on in Ephesus. He's concerned for the saints in the region of Galatia because Judaizers want to come in and disrupt sound doctrine. You see, that's what Paul is all about. I don't think Paul would give a second to the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, whether doctrinally or practically.
He would look at us in our aversion to suffering the most minute discomfort for the gospel or the church, and he would say, please, Please. We are so easily offended. We are so easily tried. We are so easily discomforted.
And we think our entitlement is to health and wealth and prosperity. Paul is sitting in a Roman prison. And he's telling the Colossian Christians, now I rejoice in my sufferings. He says, for you.
Paul developed a doctrine of joyful suffering out of the context of his own apostolic ministry. This wasn't theory to Paul. I can stand up here and preach to all of us. We ought to joyfully suffer for the cause of Christ.
We ought to joyfully suffer if our brothers and sisters act like jerks toward us. We ought to joyfully suffer if the magistrate invades our space. But it's all theory for me. It wasn't theory for Paul.
He developed this doctrine of joyful suffering out of the context of his own apostolic ministry. He invites his ministerial companions to participate in it with him. In 2 Timothy 1 at verse 8, he says to Timothy, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. You see, Paul presupposes there will be suffering.
He doesn't say, Timothy, I'm going to try and let you in on this nasty little secret of the Christian life. You know, sometimes if you don't play your cards right, you may be tried or you may suffer a little discomfort. Paul tells Timothy, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner.
But I want you to share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God. He says in 2 Timothy 1 at verse 12, For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day. In 2 Timothy 2 at verse 10, he says, Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Isn't that awesome? He's writing to these Colossians and he's saying, I rejoice in suffering for you.
Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ
He goes on to say, And I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. It's a difficult phrase. caused no small amount of interpretative difficulty. Look at the text. Verse 24, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
Now, I don't know that I know exactly what he means. I'll offer up a couple of thoughts here in just a moment. But I know for certain what he doesn't mean.
Rejecting the Roman Catholic Reading
Roman Catholic interpreters have taken this text and have essentially taught that Jesus' atonement lacked. In other words, there were some defects, it wasn't completed, and so the saints are called upon to suffer and contribute those sufferings in order to complete the package of salvation for the people of God. In other words, what Paul is saying here, as a saint, as a contributor, I'm doing my part to throw extra sufferings onto the heap of Christ's sufferings so that that will avail for the people of God in their redemption. That's not what the text says.
That's not what the text means. Has Paul, in this letter at all, given any room whatsoever for us to suspect that Christ has not accomplished salvation? I mean, he has lifted up Christ in a way that few others ever have. He has told us that Jesus is the head of the body.
That Jesus is the one whom the Father has bruised for the reconciliation of sinners. As he leaves this idea of Jesus' reconciliation of the entire cosmos, he comes to the Colossians. He says, you were alienated, but now you're reconciled. It's not because of Paul's sufferings.
It's not because of your sufferings. It's because of Christ's sufferings. It's because of what Christ accomplished at Calvary. We are not contributors to the atonement.
We are not helpers with Jesus in salvation. That is not what this text is teaching. The scriptures elsewhere are very clear. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We don't add to it. Paul doesn't say, I suffer instead of. As a substitute, he suffers in behalf of. So what does he mean?
Christ Identifying with His Body
Well, he quite possibly means that Christ as the head so identifies with his body that when they suffer, he suffers. We have an illustration of this in the calling of the Apostle Paul. Remember in Acts 9, Paul is on his way to Damascus. He's got orders in his hand.
He can arrest Christians and he meets the resurrected Lord on the way. Paul says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Jesus identifies Himself with His people.
So much so that when they suffer, it is, in a sense, as if He's suffering.
The Messianic Birth Pangs View
Or, He could be speaking with Rabbinic Judaism in His mind. A Rabbinic Old Testament interpretation. Which taught that prior to Messiah's coming, there would be a period of woe. There would be birth pangs.
There would be trials. There would be difficulties. We don't live in a Pollyanna world. We don't live in a world where everybody is happy, peppy, and always up.
We live in a world marked with brutality. We live in a world punctuated by sin. We live in a world that is affected by the curse of sin. And in this thought, Jesus has initiated for His church suffering.
We might find that to be a difficult concept, but the Bible tells us. Paul, after being stoned, which we mentioned in Acts 14, when he went on to Derbe, do you know what his text was? Do you know what he preached in Acts 14, that verse 22? He said we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.
I doubt they said, well, what about health, wealth and prosperity? We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. Or consider Paul's statement in Philippians 1 at verse 29. Paul said, on behalf of Christ it has been graciously given to you, not only to believe in His name, lest you ever think faith was conjured up in your own rebel heart, think again.
Philippians 1.29 says it was graciously given to you to believe on Him. But that's not the point of the text in Philippians 1.29. That's a bit of incidental information. Not only has it been graciously granted to you to believe the Gospel, but also to suffer.
To suffer for Jesus.
Momentary Light Affliction
F.F. Bruce summarizes it this way, Jesus had suffered on the cross. Now His people, the members of His body, had their quota of affliction to bear. And Paul was eager to absorb as much as possible of it in his own flesh.
The suffering of affliction now was, for the followers of Christ, the prelude to glory at his advent. And such was the incomparable and eternal weight of glory to which they could look forward that the hardships of this present life are described in relation to it as this momentary light affliction." Don't you love that? We get the trials, we get the sufferings, we get the problems and we just follow them. Paul says, they're momentary light afflictions when looked upon next to the exceeding weight of glory.
You may have 80 miserable years in this world. You just might. You might not always have carpet in your playroom. You might not always have a functioning SUV.
You might not always have a Costco membership. As hard as that may be to grasp, you may not have access to $20 pork loins the size of your leg. You may be in another country where you know imprisonment, where you know hardship, where you know toil, where you see olive trees that don't bear fruit. where you see blight, where you see famine, where you see all of that. And yet, according to this brother who suffered so much, he says, this is a momentary light aflitcha when viewed in respect to the eternal weight of glory.
That's the kind of mindset my prayer is that will develop. I don't think we've got it, man. I look around at 21st century North American Christianity, and while I may hear us say, oh, I'm ready to go die for Jesus, are we living for Him? You're going to tell me you're going to go preach the gospel in China.
You're going to call a brother that wasn't at church and say, you know, I missed you and I love you. We'll all do the great. Yet we've forgotten that fundamental principle of the Master who said He was faithful in little is faithful in much. If you're not faithful in little, you're not going to be faithful in much.
If suffering for you is not having a leg-shaped pork loin for 20 bucks from Costco, I'm afraid you don't understand Pauline Christianity. Now brethren, I'm optimistic. Some of you might even think too much. I believe that what Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 2.14 is a reality.
That the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. But I also know that between now and then there will be suffering. There will be tyranny. There will be trial.
There will be Jehoiachins. There will be Nebuchadnezzars. Now, I'm an American, and I have followed what has happened in America from a distance, and it's an amazing thing to see all of the hoopla involved and about this man being put into the presidency. And I'm not here to advocate, I'm not here to say anything other than this.
Habakkuk lived in a day when Jehoiakim was king of Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. I don't think, brethren, for a moment we can entertain what that kind of a lifestyle was. Jehoiakim was anti-God to the core. Nebuchadnezzar was the leader of a bitter and a hasty nation that went around and gobbled up territory.
We need to keep an eye on the fact that Jesus is still on His throne. And we need to realize that if we are called to suffer, we are to imbibe the apostolic ethic of Acts 5.31. They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. They walked out of a Roman prison, their backs still bloody, and they're laughing, they're praising, and they're joyous.
Why? Because we got beaten for Jesus. God, that we'd have something of that in our day. And we can learn it from this brother.
These sufferings, Douglas Moose said, have no redemptive benefit for the church. We don't add to the finished work of our beloved Savior. But they are the inevitable accompaniment of Paul's commission to proclaim the end-time revelation of God's mystery. It is in this way that Paul's sufferings are on behalf of the church, including the Colossian Christians.
Suffering for the Church
And don't miss his statement there in verse 24. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church. See, Paul would gladly suffer for Jesus. Paul would gladly take a rod, a whip, a beating, a stoning, an imprisonment, a trial, perils for the Lord Christ.
But he's also explaining to us here that he'll do it for the church. He'll do it for you and me. If His imprisonment, if His bloody back, if His stoned head means that you're going to glow as a result, Paul will gladly suffer. He will gladly fill up as much as he can possibly gobble up for the people of God.
That's Christianity, man. That's what it's all about. Again, we're all willing to go serve on the other side of the world. What's serving right here?
How about that? How about calling somebody or talking to somebody you don't normally talk to? I'll suffer for God. I'll suffer for the church.
You know, really? I mean, I've gone through... I look at this and I just can't stand me. I don't think I know what it is to be a minister of the gospel when I look at Paul.
It's like, you're going to beat my back for Jesus? Man, I'm going to struggle with that. But let alone for them. That's what he says.
He's not sitting there like, you dirty, rotten scoundrels, do you know what I'm going through on your behalf? No, I now rejoice in my sufferings. Remember, he's sitting in a Roman prison at this time. Prison then isn't like prison now.
They don't have TVs. They didn't get paid. They didn't get three squares. They ate if a friend brought them something.
That's why in these letters you see Paul saying, thank you for sending Epaphroditus in the Philippian letter. Why? Because I would have died if he didn't bring me food. That's why at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 4, which the book of Acts stops at 28, the last couple years of Paul's ministry are not recorded in the book of Acts.
There was a first Roman imprisonment. That's where Acts 28 ends. That's where these epistles were written. Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon.
The prison epistles. Paul was released after two years. We don't know. I mean, we can sketch from the rest of his epistles kind of his movements and those sorts of things.
But from 2 Timothy, we know there was a second Roman imprisonment. That's why he says to Timothy in chapter 4, when you come, bring the books. Especially the parchments. Because I want to read.
I'm in prison. I'm not going to go online and become a lawyer. I want to read theology. I'm not going to make shivs and go cut up my fellow inmates.
I'm going to read and write and move troops to expand the kingdom of Jesus. And then he says, and when you come, not only bring the books, but bring the cloak. Why, Paul? Because I'm cold.
They don't give us wool blankets in the prisons today. They don't have heated cells. I can't just complain that they come fix my window and they do that. They throw me in a rock room with no windows, no nothing, probably dank, probably very wet, probably smelly and mildewy.
I want my cloak. And yet this brother is writing saying, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you. I rejoice in my sufferings for the church. I so love the church that my talk isn't cheap.
I've got back, you know, scars. You may have had a limp by now. You may have had permanent defects from these beatings. A body can only take so much.
I mean, can you imagine that? Five times I was beaten by the Jews with 40 minus 1? I'm guessing, brethren, that leaves a permanent mark. Three times I was beaten with Roman rods?
This isn't some papal celebration of suffering. This is simply illustrating what it is to be a Christian who genuinely values Jesus and who genuinely values the church. They don't just say it. They don't just talk about it.
They don't just read books concerning the subject. They live it. They move, they live, they have their being in terms of their commitment to Christ and their commitment to His church. It's been said, generally speaking, in an organization, 80% or 20% do about 100% of the work.
People have tried to take business models and apply them to the church. I still operate with this zany notion that Christians are just going to do what they're supposed to do. You're not going to beg them to serve. You're not going to have to beg them to show up.
You're not going to have to beg them to participate. It's got this idea that when the Spirit of God is in you and you've got a Bible in front of you, you may need some help. You may need some encouragement. You may need a little guidance.
But you don't need top-down imposition. It's not the federal government, man. We don't have to start a bureaucracy for everything in the church. We shouldn't have to. should be a voluntary, happy association for the glory of God and for the good of my brothers and sisters.
It's no wonder this guy, this man, this beloved apostle, don't mean to call him guy in some wicked sort of way, but this beloved apostle could write, esteem others as better than yourselves. Well, what do you mean by that, Paul? You wouldn't have asked him. You wouldn't have needed exegesis.
You wouldn't have needed a definition. You wouldn't need a biblical theology of putting others first. You just know that that's what this guy always does. Look out for the needs of others, he says to the Philippian Christians.
Do you ever come to church looking out for the needs of someone else? Ask yourself that question right now. Internalize it. Do I ever come into this place looking out for the needs of others.
Am I one of those people that could stand before someone bleeding out of their eyes and me say, well, you know what happened to me and what this and that and me, me, me, me, me, me, me? That's not this kind of Christianity. I'm sorry if this is hurtful. I'm sorry if there's pain.
Sometimes we need to be plowed up. We need to look into the mirror right here and say, do I ever rejoice in my sufferings for Christ and His church? Well, no, because I don't really suffer for Christ and His church. Then we ask the question, why not?
I'm not saying you run out and you spit in people's face and, I want to suffer for Jesus. That's not what I'm saying.
All Who Live Godly Will Suffer
There is a principle according to Paul in 2 Timothy 3 that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now I realize that in the Orissa state that may mean your house is burned, you're thrown in prison, and you're shot in the head. And it's going to look a little bit differently in the lower mainland. But there will be persecution if you try to live like Jesus.
That's the principle. Maybe the gossip down the street won't come over all the time, filling your ears with the neighborhood rhetoric. Maybe the guys at work will make jokes about you because you're so eww when it comes to their dirty jokes. You know, it may have a different expression than a bullet in the head, but if you actually live like Jesus, there will be persecution.
Jesus said, don't marvel if the world hates you. Now, we can take that to the other extreme. You know, I've met people who say, well, beware if anybody likes you. What?
You've got 20 people in your church. You must not be preaching the truth. Well, beware if all men never speak evil about you. Hopefully your brothers will love you.
You're not that obnoxious. You're not that disgusting and repulsive to all civil interaction. There is a principle, though. When we live like Jesus Christ, the world's not going to say, hey, great, we love you, man.
We mentioned a couple of weeks ago, as long as the church is not making any waves and she's sitting quietly in her little ghetto, the world doesn't mind. Let her step out of that ghetto, and let her press the crown rights of Jesus Christ, and then she's militant. She's racist. She's filled with hate.
Jesus said, if the world hates you, know this. They hated me first. Well, I don't want to keep going at this point. I don't want to move into the stewardship right now.
I want to stop here. I think there's enough for us to think about and meditate on. I think there's enough for us to fill our minds and our hearts with. And I'm not here to bruise you and break you and hurt you and make you feel bad.
I don't even think we've begun to touch the surface on what it means to suffer for the cause of Christ and the cause of His church. Study the book of Acts. You may not be able to get here on a Wednesday night, but please read it on your own. It's been very fruitful.
It's been very encouraging. It's been very much a blessing. Pick up a decent commentary, read, just see what the church went through in the first century in a very hostile environment. They had not one but two arch enemies in the church in the first century.
You're going to think the first was the Roman Empire. They were actually the second. The unbelieving Jews were the first. Later on, the Roman Empire certainly took more of an active, aggressive stance against the church.
But initially, the church of Jesus Christ was looked at as a subset of Judaism. Judaism, while not a legal religion in the empire, was nevertheless a tolerated religion in the empire. But they despised the church. They despised when Paul and Barnabas would stand in their synagogues and be at Ezekiel before their eyes and say, since you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, we will turn to the Gentiles.
The unbelieving Jews put a lot of miles on their shoes if they had them, chasing down Paul from city to city to city. The first missionary journey, the second missionary journey. Paul would go to a city, he would preach Jesus as the Christ. Some would believe, thankfully, others would be opposed.
Those opposers would gather up in groups among themselves. One instance, we haven't even got to yet in our Wednesday night study, a group of men take a vow that they will neither eat nor drink until Paul is dead. I've often read that, and I thought to myself, are Christians that zealous to promote the cause as anti-Christians are to destroy the cause? Have you ever taken a vow not to eat or drink until, you know, someone was saved?
They did, with reference to Paul dying. See, the early church didn't just sit happily in their little Christian ghetto singing kumbaya, exchanging group hugs and not affecting their environment for Christ. And when they went outside and they affected that environment for Christ, they felt the heat. They were persecuted, they were shunned, they were hurt.
You read the letters to the churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3. If you read carefully, you'll see that they suffered things like economic oppression. These Jews that got converted to Christ suffered ostracizing from their community. It affected them in their business dealings.
It affected them at the market. It affected them in their world. Why? Because they were faithful to Christ.
Faithful to His church. Faithful to doing what they said they would do when they signed on the dotted line. Christ was so good to us in Luke. He said, count the cost.
Application: Count the Cost
There might be someone in here right now that's not a Christian. And you're hearing this saying, man, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Why would I want to join something where all I do is suffer? Well, remember that suffering is a momentary light affliction in comparison to an exceeding weight of glory.
But Christ is candid. Christ tells you to count the cost. Christ says, don't be like a man, a general, a commander of an army that wants to go out to battle without first surveying the opposing army. You may have 10,000 troops and they're crack shots and they're great soldiers.
But if your enemy's got 20, you're going to lose. You need to count the cost. You need to make sure that when you go to build, you have all the money necessary for the materials. See, it was like then, the way it is now.
I don't think any of you brothers or myself go to Rona or go to Pioneer and they say, oh, it's you. Here's wood. Go build. No, it costs money.
So Jesus says, you don't start to build unless you count the cost. You don't go buy half the materials, build half a structure to have everybody you know laugh at you. You just don't do that. Christians, non-Christians.
Well, first of all, Christians, have you forgotten these vows? Have you forgotten what it is to be a Christian? It's not just long-term fire insurance, okay? It's not just, I get to be in heaven.
There is something of what Paul speaks of in verse 23. If indeed you continue in the faith. Continuing in the faith at times is hard. Continuing in the faith at times is difficult.
Being grounded, being steadfast. Not being moved away from the gospel. It takes a tenacity. It takes a grabbing hold and not letting go.
It takes commitment. It takes lifelong commitment. We live in a non-committal age. Well, we get married.
If we don't like it, we get divorced. We buy a house. If we don't like it, we don't make the payments. I get a burger.
I don't like it. I'll go get a different burger. We live in a non-committal age. That ethic of Psalm 15 and men swearing to their own hurt just doesn't really affect us today, unfortunately.
Application: Remember Your Vow
So I call each Christian here to remember the vow. Remember the conversion. Remember when you said yes to the Lord Jesus Christ, when by God's grace He showed you your sin and its ugliness, and He showed you the remedy. And He showed you the one in whom alone there is forgiveness, the remission of sin.
Think back to that day when you believed that Gospel. And you said, Christ is mine and I am His. And ask yourself the question, am I being faithful to that vow? You see, Christ is always faithful.
Christ never leaves us. He never forsakes us. And I'm not saying your faithfulness and your vow keeping somehow keeps you in. I'm appealing to your ethic of Christianity.
Living the way you're supposed to. You're being faithful. You're willing to suffer shame for the cause of Christ and for His church. I love the language Paul uses.
He's a servant. Diakonos. He's not the Lord's tyrant. He's not the right Reverend Paul.
He's not Dr. Accomplished Theologian. He's a servant. Unfortunately, the word deacon has taken on some sort of an ecclesiastical error.
But that's not the word. The Word is consistent with what Jesus taught about servant leadership. Look at the Gentiles. You see how they do it?
Don't be like them. They lord it over people. They oppress. No.
You want to be great in the kingdom? You be the least. You want to be the first? You be the last.
I guarantee you, the day that we see a church that is punctuated by people who want to be the last and the least, We can truly say heaven has come down and glory has filled our souls. That's where the proof is. And if you're not a Christian, it's better to suffer for Christ, to suffer for His church, than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. This is what it says of Moses in Hebrews 11.
He would rather suffer reproach with the people of Christ than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Why? Because he just liked to suffer? Because he was just one of those kinds of guys?
He was a bit of a forerunner of the ascetic movement? A bit of a monk? A bit of a guy that would come later on in the history of the church and sit on a pole and weather the elements? No.
No. Because he said, you know, to suffer for the cause of Christ right now is so much better than to have the passing pleasures of sin. By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Why?
Esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. He's still a simple man. He wasn't an ascetic. He was an accountant.
Okay, right now I get passing pleasures of sin and eternal shame. I get the reproach of Christ and the reward. That's a no-brainer, man. What do you mean?
There's a choice here? Of course I want Christ. So if you're sitting here and you hear this suffering, does that mean you're going to walk out of this room and you're going to get hit by lightning and everybody's going to hate you? You're going to end up in prison today?
It could mean that. You've got to be ready for it. But it means you're going to be Christ's and He's going to be yours. Paul's going to later define the mystery that he's speaking of as Christ in you, the hope of glory.
I don't even know how to exegete Christ in you. I kind of think I know what it means. It sounds wonderful and fantastic. That's what you get in signing on the dotted line.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures and we thank you for this example of Paul the Apostle. We know that his ministry was unique in the life of the church. Nevertheless, it does serve as a great example of what it is to be a Christian man, to be a Christian minister and a missionary. And I pray, God in heaven, that we would take from this study a resolve, a desire, a commitment to serve you, to love you, to fear you and honor you.
I pray that you would go with each one of us now, help us to get in secret today, to examine our hearts, to test ourselves, to see whether we're in the faith, to ask hard questions and not to be satisfied until we can answer that Christ is ours, that Christ is in us, the hope of glory. I just pray now that you would go with each of my brothers and sisters and that the balm of Gilead would be our portion. And we pray through Jesus the Lord. Amen.