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1 Peter 4:12-16
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. The NT gives us definite reasons why Christians suffer. It might be said suffering helps a good person become a better person. We are going to look at how we suffer as Christians, then down the road a few weeks we will consider why we suffer. Let’s consider:
I. THE INFINITE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST! No other human will ever suffer as did Christ when He freed us from our sins. FIRST, Christ suffered from the Father. In 2 Cor. 5:16-21, and especially verses 19 and 21. We can never fully understand just how much and exactly what Christ suffered from the Father because of our sins. It is hard for us to comprehend the concept/idea “all God’s wrath toward sin.” We ought to thank Him daily that He suffered like that for us. SECOND, Christ suffered from men or the human race. In these sufferings Christians most certainly do share with Christ. That is where we want to focus today.
II. THE INHERENT SUFFERINGS OF CHRISTIANS. Read John 15:18-20. All true Christians suffer. No matter how godly, how spiritually mature, how Christlike you are, in this life you are going to suffer. We all suffer the same things, just at different times and in varying degrees. FIRST consider that to be a child of God makes us an enemy of the world. A person can be a tenant of almost any other “religion” and not suffer in the way Christians suffer. Notice how all the passage in John 15 is in the present tense! The world now constantly hates Christians. Since all people are born dead in trespass and sin, they are enemies of God. When a person becomes a child of God, they become an enemy of the world. When a person is truly saved, those spiritual forces of evil know it as soon as it happens, and they declare war on the person. We don’t even have to tell anyone we got saved, the devil knows it and makes sure we suffer. SECOND our daily sanctification makes us enemies. Satan used every possible means to get Jesus to sin just once. If that happened, salvation would be forever lost. The Scriptures clearly teach Jesus was without sin! Satan’s battle with us is to keep us from being transformed into the image of Christ and thereby destroy our testimony. Satan has also convinced many unsaved people that Christians are perfect and if we mess up, we are hypocrites. Christians are not perfect (yet) we are just forgiven. THIRD, when we suffer now, we will be glorified in heaven. Read Rom. 8:12-17 and 1 Peter 4:12, 13. We learn from these and other passages that suffering here is the only means to being glorified with Christ in heaven. That is God’s program of delayed gratification. When a Christians really makes a concerted effort to live as God directs, they are a witness to the lost world, and at the same time a witness against the lost. For us to suffer as Christians, all we have to do is be Christians. Paul well says in Rom. 8:18 “that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Remember, you are not suffering just because you are alive, you are suffering because you are alive as a Christian!
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