And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:17-18

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We spent some time last time we were together in the beatitudes of Matthew regarding this matter of suffering with him. And we spoke alot about the suffering of persecution. And we made a distinction between trials and tribulations that are common to man, and trials and tribulations that are common to Christ, and to all that will live godly in Christ Jesus. And we really just touched the surface.

The fellowship of His sufferings…

I want to take the time to explain something before we begin. I always want to strive for my doctrine to be sound. I don’t want to just come up here and tell you what I think and get things all jumbled up. I’d rather preach the doctrines of the Bible the best I can and let the Holy Ghost do his work depositing the word into the hearts of man, woman, and child. I must. For I surely cannot speak to your soul and spirit. But God can.

Now I know we talked alot about persecution; how that Christ was persecuted first. Therefore, his children will also be persecuted. How that they hated him first before they hated us. Now I know there is a certain sense which we spoke about in which we can suffer with Christ concerning persecution. We talked about how Paul said that I may know the fellowship of his sufferings. But I want to put the brakes here. I don’t want to go off the deep end. Or at least I don’t want anybody think I’m going off the deep end. There is a fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. I believe that the life of the martyr, the life of the persecuted Church most definitely is part of that. That is an aspect of the sufferings of Christ we covered last time we preached.

The substitutionary sufferings of Christ…

But there is an aspect Christ sufferings, that we cannot have fellowship. I guess we can call this the substitutionary sufferings of Christ. Christ suffered all hell, for all sin, for all sinners. We cannot do that. If we did, we would simply be just another dead sinner with no power to pull ourselves out from death as Christ did. Jesus was the only one that could suffer in this manner. Jesus is the only lamb without blemish. Jesus is the anointed one; the chosen vessel of our salvation. Jesus, when it came to the sufferings of the cross, suffered alone. There were two that were crucified along side him, but all they suffered was the cruelty of man, the pain of the flesh, the pangs of death. Jesus suffered all that, but he also suffered all hell, for all sin, for all sinners.

What Christ did on the cross, we cannot do. We cannot have fellowship in his sufferings in that manner. Yes Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. As it pertains to the salvation of our souls we can however know the fellowship of his sufferings as a benefactor. We can however go along for the ride. We can be thoroughly affected in his sufferings. Paul said:

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death… Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:3,6-7

We can indeed enter into the fellowship of his sufferings and know them by, as the bible says, baptism; not water baptism like almost every other denomination teaches, but by baptism into his death. Paul said I am crucified with him. So as it pertains to salvation we can know the fellowship of his sufferings if we’re talking about the sufferings of the cross as a benefactor. We can partake of the benefits of them; a benefactor, but we cannot do them or repeat them. No. Nobody suffered like Jesus suffered.

The Suffering of Christ Before Gethsemane…

One thing to consider regarding the sufferings of Christ is that His sufferings did not begin at Gethsemane. You know I’m always amazed around “Easter” time, around Resurrection Day, that so little is spoken about his Resurrection. You look on Facebook during Easter and there’s a zillion memes that say He is Risen! Praise the Lord. But what else can we say about it? You go to church or a typical church that’s putting on a play, and they’ll spend 55 minutes on the suffering and the crucifixion and five minutes on the resurrection. I’m just saying… I’m not complaining.

The garden. The sweat drops of blood. The passion. But Christ’s suffering did not begin amidst the garden of Gethsemane.

1) He Suffered in His Birth…

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death…” Hebrews 2:9

Jesus, the Son of God, to whom angels prostrate fall, was made a little lower than angels. Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, reduced to just flesh and bones. All of heaven falls down before him and worships him. The angels, the cherubims and seraphims, the four beasts, the twenty four elders; they all bow down and declare to him Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. The bible says that all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made. Yet he left his throne. The creator humbled himself under the creation. The bible says He…

“Made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself…” Phillipians 2:7,8

Jesus suffered in His birth. The King of all creation made to be a little babe in wrapped in swaddling clothes. The Holy God Almighty lying in a manger, yet also wrapped in the sinful flesh of Adam.

“God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…” Romans 8:3

The bible says “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Listen, he wasn’t made sin at Calvary. He was made sin in the womb of the virgin Mary. He was made sin for us in His birth. Holiness, divinity, and glory clothed in sinful flesh. Jesus suffered in His birth.

We can never do what Jesus did? Jesus was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He was in all points tempted like as we are. But not the other way. We will never touch the feelings that Jesus felt when he left his throne. In this point, we will never be tempted as he. Like the sustitutionary sufferings of Christ, we will never know the suffering that Christ endured in his birth.

2) He Suffered in His Society…

You think about what the people probably said about him. We believe that he was born from a virgin’s womb. Well, they didn’t believe that back then. What did people say about him? What did people say about his mother? I wonder if Jesus could hear the whispers behind their back. “There goes that promiscuous women and theat illegitimate child. There goes the bastard child.” He was looked down upon and scorned because of his irregular birth. Jesus sufferings did not begin at Gethsemane. When they brought that woman before him that was taken in the very act of adultery, and they threw her at Jesus feet and all picked up stones to stone her, Jesus knelt down and wrote something on the ground. I wonder if he thought of his mother, how that could have been her. I wonder as he saw the condemning faces around him, did he think about the looks that people used to give him.

3) He Suffered in His Family…

There is one passage in the John where the disciples are urging Jesus to go into Judea instead of the feast of tabernacles in Galilee, because his life was at risk there.

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him. (John 7:1-5)

His brothers, the ones that grew up with him: James, Joses, Juda, and Simon; members of his own house. Neither did his brethren believe him. Jesus suffered in His family

4) He Suffered in His Friends…

Yes Jesus had friends. He wasn’t a loner and a recluse. He had friends, but even his friends forsook him.  When Jesus was casting out devils and healing sick folk, the bible says this: “And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.” (Mark 3:20-21) That’s right, his friends thought he was crazy. Jesus suffered in His friends.

5) He Suffered in His Hometown…

Jesus suffered in his hometown. Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee and one of the first places he went to was his hometown of Nazareth.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way, (Luke 4:16-30)

His own city of Nazareth; his hometown. He suffered in his own hometown. The people he knew and grew up with. The bible says that he came unto his own and his own recieved him not. We usually think of Israel as a whole and it was Israel as a whole that recieved him not. But it was first his own hometown that led the way. He had just come out of the wilderness where he was tempted of the devil. He was filled with the Spirit and began his public ministry in his hometown, and they were the first to reject him.

6) He Suffered in His Preaching…

When Jesus preached on his body and his blood, not all the disciples stuck around after that. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life…” The bible says, “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”

We know the twelve stuck with him all the way to Gethsemane, but there were alot that didn’t. The bible goes on to say, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” Jesus suffered in His preaching.

7) He Suffered in the Upper Room…

As he sat with them and ate with them, and looming thoughts of Calvary came before him, he broke bread with the one that would betray him. He dipped his bread in the same sop in which his betrayer would dip his bread. And even after he united them together in the Lord’s supper, the bible says “And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.” Jesus suffered in the upper room.

Jesus suffering did not begin in Gethsamane. Now some of these we might be able to know, some maybe not. But I will say this. Nobody suffered like Christ suffered.

What truly are the sufferings of Christ…

But see, Paul was already saved. He was already crucified with Christ. He had already partaken of and had knowledge of the sufferings of Christ. Why then did he say that I may know the fellowship of his sufferings? He had already also experienced much persecution. What sufferings are you talking about Paul? What truly is the fellowship of his sufferings mean? Or for that matter, what does the power of his resurrection and being made conformable unto his death really mean? And even if we truly know what it means, do we have experiential knowledge, that which Paul the Apostle desired and yearned for? He said:

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 3:13,14

I mean if Paul hadn’t apprehended, then surely there’s more in this Christian life to apprehend than we’ve apprehended already. Paul said I’m reaching forth unto those things which are before. What are those things which are before? He said I’m pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God… What is that prize? That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and fellowship of his sufferings.

Let me go back to our scripture: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:17-18

There’s a whole other suffering that Jesus did or does undergo. And I believe this we may suffer with him? Jesus suffered in the presence of sin and sinners. Jesus was just as much God as God was God. He was just as holy and divine as the Father and the Holy Ghost. And God hates sin. And we ought to hate sin. We ought to abhor that which is sinful as God abhors that which is sinful. We ought to loath wickedness and pride and evil as God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit loaths it. But we have to remember that nobody hates sin like Jesus hated sin. Jesus hated sin so much that he suffered all these things we covered, and then on top of that, the sufferings of the cross: the betrayal, the unjust trial, the spit, the slap, the cat-of-nine tails, 9 x 39 stripes, the weight of the cross, the crown of thorns, the nails in his hands, the hour of darkness, and the wrath of God. Nobody hated sin like Jesus hated sin. Jesus hate for sin burned as hot as his love for sinners.

God commendeth his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God didn’t just show his lover for sinners at Calvary, but he also showed his hate for sin. I believe that the suffering of Christ is the love of sinners. Just like nobody hated sin like Jesus, nobody has ever loved sinners like Jesus did. I believe that if we could just walk in the Spirit, we could enter in to the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ Jesus. To suffer is to love.