PT-1 "The Suffering of the Ministry" (Col. 1:24a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/12/2017 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                    Focus:  PT-1 “The Suffering of the Ministry”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 1:24a

            Message of the verses:  “In my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

            Now we have been discussing the aspect of joy in our past SD’s and we can see here that Paul wants to emphasize that his circumstances are independent of his joy as he writes “in my sufferings for your sake.”  Remember that Paul was in prison for proclaiming the gospel when he penned this letter, as he was suffering for the cause of Christ.  Even while in prison Paul could rejoice while in there because he always viewed himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and not a prisoner of the Roman government, as we can see from another letter he wrote, “1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, 9 yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you-since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus- 23  Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, (Philem. 1:1, 9, 23).”

            We can see from the fifth chapter of the book of Acts that the early believers considered it a privilege to suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ as we read in Acts 5:41 “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”  Paul writes the following to the Philippians in 1:29 “29  For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”

            We can see that suffering brings believers closer to Jesus Christ “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10).”  When believers suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ they get a better understanding of what Christ went through in dying for their sins as He suffered on the cross paying for the sins of the world.

            Now we will look at one more reason for believer’s sufferings and then save some for our next SD as it is Sunday and I usually write shorter SD’s on Sunday.

            Second reason is that suffering assures that believers belong to Christ, and when you think about this you have to agree that if a person did not belong to Jesus Christ then he would not suffer for Him.  Jesus said in John 15:18 “"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”  Matthew 10:24 says “"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”  If Jesus suffers then His followers will also suffer to because they belong to Him and He is in heaven and cannot be gotten to so the next best things are to get at His disciples.  When Jesus was talking to Saul of Tarsus who was persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ He asked him why he was persecuting “Me.” 

            Paul writes in his very last letter which was to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  Peter tells the suffering believers he was writing to “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Pet. 4:14).”  MacArthur adds “Suffering causes believers to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, which gives assurance of salvation.”

2/12/2017 9:02 PM