What Suffering In Christ Does

We'll read God's word today, trusting that it is his inspired, infallible, inerrant, clear, and sufficient word.

It's God's very own word for you, his people.

In verse 12, we begin reading.

I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.

And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill.

The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add to my affliction and my chains.

But the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

The word of the Lord for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of the Lord stands forever.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Lord, I ask that by the illumination of your Holy Spirit, the Spirit that dwells in every true believer,

the Spirit of God that breathed out these words of Scripture,

by the power of that Spirit, Lord, will you please minister Christ to his people today.

May Christ be so near to us in these moments that we'll share next, Lord, under your word.

May we know what it means to be in Christ, especially through suffering.

We ask this for your glory.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, everyone who is a human being suffers.

Everyone suffers.

In verse 13, Paul describes his suffering once again as his chains.

His chains.

And his suffering is a physical suffering in the body, away from the church, in solitude, loneliness.

Seeing all the problems of the early church all around him.

What a picture of the Christian life.

It's such a mix, isn't it?

There's profound joy and there's deep sweetness in the Christian life.

But there's true suffering, true pain.

It's a mix.

I know many of you are suffering today.

We're grieving.

We're healing.

We're worried about the future.

For Paul, he called it my chains.

Some of you might feel trapped to a job or a desk.

Another is maybe it's the exhausting task of parenting and raising little ones.

Feels like you're always around the sink doing dishes.

Others of you have been laid up in bed.

You've been sick.

You've been not able to get around.

Depending on others.

So humbling.

And my encouragement is that in Hebrews 5, 7,

in the days of his flesh,

though Jesus Christ was the Son of God,

yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered.

Psalm 119, verse 71,

Psalms 119:71

the psalmist adds his testimony to God's faithfulness,

and he says,

My suffering was good for me

because it taught me to pay attention to God's decrees.

And he prays this to the Lord.

Thank you for the suffering

and what you taught me through it.

So everyone suffers,

but the only ones who are happy

through the suffering

are you whom God teaches

to suffer in Christ.

So beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

my encouragement for you today

is what suffering in Christ does.

Suffering in Christ does something

in you and through you.

And I hope you'll be encouraged by these verses.

Number one,

what does it mean to suffer in Christ?

Look at verse 12.

Paul says,

These things that happened to me.

He's referring briefly in a few words

to what we read in Acts chapter 21 through 24.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

If you want to get a deep dive picture

of these things that happened to Paul,

read those chapters.

Acts 21 through 24.

Or I'll summarize it in three lines for you.

After going on the missionary journeys,

Paul came back to Jerusalem

and he preached the gospel.

And he said,

I was one dragging Christians

out of their fellowship,

putting them in chains,

having them unjustly arrested.

I'm the chief of sinners.

But Christ died for sinners like you and me.

That's what he stood up

and preached in Jerusalem.

Well, because he brought with him some Greeks

on this trip,

even though they didn't go into the temple,

Paul was arrested on the false accusation

that he had defiled the temple,

even though Christ had already torn the veil in half.

So he was unjustly arrested.

And as he was carried away,

he had the opportunity to preach once more

as he's being accused

and all these false witnesses

whose stories don't even match.

And Paul preached to them and he said,

you continue to reject Jesus Christ.

And Paul says,

Jesus Christ,

who you tied up

and unjustly threw into the trial

and then whipped and put on the cross

and you killed.

This is the Christ,

the Son of God

that I'm preaching to you.

He's alive.

He is risen.

And Paul is now following

in those exact footsteps of Jesus Christ,

identifying with Christ,

almost play by play

in the suffering of his Lord.

See, so Paul is not the Messiah here.

Paul is merely a disciple

following the footsteps of Jesus.

Well, then Paul is tied up

and they say,

let's torture him by whipping him

until he tells us what he really did.

He's going to be flogged

without a trial.

And in that moment,

Paul appeals to Caesar

because he's a Roman citizen by birth.

He's elite among the empire of Rome.

From that moment on,

they put a chain from Paul

to a Roman soldier.

And those soldiers would take shifts

who would be on the other end

of that chain attached to Paul.

From Paul's perspective,

when he was arrested,

carried all the way to Rome,

and then left there in house arrest,

he's had a chain attaching him

to a Roman guard

24-7,

365 days a year

for two years.

And he says in verse 13

of our sermon text,

my chains are in Christ.

Not my chains are for Christ.

He says in verse 13,

it has become evident

that my chains are in Christ.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to suffer in Christ?

This is an odd Greek phrase,

and I'm no scholar,

just enough to understand the basics.

But listening to other commentators

on the Greek language,

the word-for-word translation is this,

the bonds of me,

that's my chains,

apparent,

that's,

it has become evident,

in anointed,

that's in Christ,

to be becoming.

That's how the Greek reads word-for-word.

It's not easy to interpret that.

Maybe the best summary in English would be this,

my chains manifest

in Christ became.

This strange language construction

forces us,

as this Greek scholar put it,

it forces us to rest

and pause and reflect

on every word

in its turn.

So let's walk through those three phrases.

My chains,

number one.

Number two, manifest.

Number three, in Christ.

Number one, my chains.

These are the instruments used by the Lord

to spread the gospel

among and beyond

those Roman guards.

My chains.

He says,

my chains manifest something.

They reveal

to these guards

something

of how

precious

Christ is to Paul.

See,

these guards,

they were getting a good read on Paul.

And they knew

when they look at Paul,

there's something

very precious to Paul,

and it's Christ.

It's Christ being manifested

through the chains,

through this picture

of his suffering.

And in Christ,

he says,

his chains are part

of what is entailed

for Paul

to be united

to his Lord.

The chains come with

being a disciple.

So for Paul

to live

in Christ

means chains

for two years.

Could you turn with me

to Philippians chapter 3,

Philippians 3:10

verse 10?

I think here

we have a great insight

into what Paul means

to suffer

in Christ.

In Philippians 3,

10,

Paul writes that

he wants to know him

and the power

of his resurrection

and the fellowship

of Christ's suffering,

being conformed

to his death.

You see,

for Paul,

the greatest blessing

is to be able

to identify

with his Savior

in the suffering

that his Savior

bore for him.

That's what it means

to suffer

in Christ.

It means that

you get to share

in the sufferings

of Jesus

and to know him

even better.

whenever a child

gets sick,

you'll often hear

the mother

or the grandmother

say,

I just wish

I could be sick

in your place.

I wish I could

share in your sufferings.

If a loved one

of yours

is going through

something like that,

you want to know them

and relate to them

so deeply

that you're feeling

what they're feeling.

Do you see

how Christ suffered

for his people?

And there's no

greater blessing

than to know Christ

at that level

to identify

with your Savior

in his suffering

for you.

So your union

and communion

to Christ

become visible

in suffering

when you suffer

in Christ.

That's what it means

to suffer

in Christ.

Now what does

suffering in Christ

do?

When you suffer

in Christ,

here's one thing.

You tell

of God's providence

to his family.

When you suffer

in Christ,

it does something

in you

that makes you

want to look back

and tell the story

of how he

had you all along.

It was his good

hand over you.

And you want to share

that with his family.

Another testimony

added to the providence

of God.

Look at how Paul

does this in verse 12.

He says,

I want you to know,

brethren,

that the things

which happened to me

have actually turned out

for the furtherance

of the gospel.

Yes, he's suffering,

but he wants the church

in Philippi

who he calls brethren,

my family,

and the Lord.

You need to know

all those things

that happened,

here's how they turned out.

God's gospel advanced.

We can infer that

when Paul was with

the church in Philippi,

he had shared with them

his heart.

That's what Paul does.

He had a vision

of going through Rome

and not to stop in Rome.

If you read the letter

to the Romans,

it's to let them

take joy

and also sending him

on to Spain.

And you get to be

part of this church.

Look what God is doing.

His kingdom is advancing.

Oh, but Paul wanted

to go to Rome.

He wanted to preach

to Caesar Augustus himself.

This is the time

of the Roman peace,

the Pax Romana.

And this was the great

Augustus Caesar

who had unified the empire.

He had annexed Egypt,

parts of Spain,

and Central Europe

under one great empire.

And Paul couldn't be

more excited

to get to Rome,

the capital of the entire empire,

and preach the gospel.

He had done this

at Little Rome,

Philippi,

and now how will he get

to do this

in the big capital itself?

He says,

I want you to know, brethren,

the things which happened to me

didn't set any

of those dreams back.

In fact,

that's what God used

to actually turn out

in fulfilling all of that.

when he says

they actually turned out

this way.

He's telling

of God's providence

to the family of God.

What is God's providence?

This is a big word.

God's providence

means His sovereign hand

governing,

ruling over all things.

Our confession

describes it this way.

God,

the good creator

of all things,

in His infinite power

and wisdom,

He does uphold,

direct,

dispose,

and govern

all creatures

and things

from the greatest

to the least

by His most wise

and holy providence

to the end

for which they were created

according to His

infallible foreknowledge

and the free

and immutable counsel

of His own will

to the praise

of the glory

of His wisdom,

power,

justice,

infinite goodness,

and mercy.

That's God's providence.

And Paul says,

all that happened to me

actually turned out

for the furtherance

of the gospel.

See that phrase

in verse 12,

the furtherance,

the advance

for the greater progress

of the gospel.

That word is a military term,

the advance

or the furtherance.

And remember,

in Philippi,

Little Rome,

there would have been

many veterans

of the Roman Empire.

These were veteran soldiers.

They would have been

very patriotic.

And when he uses

a military term like that,

you can imagine

that congregation

receiving this

as encouragement.

Here's what that term means.

To advance.

The Roman Empire

would send out scouts

ahead of the invading army

to take a new territory.

Those scouts

would clear the path

through a dense forest.

They would make a way

for the rest of the troops

to follow.

They would also scout out

the land.

See, here's a strategic inland.

Here's a point

where we can get access

and it'll open up

and we'll be able

to conquer this region.

You come back

and you tell the army,

this will be

the most favorable terrain

for you to march on.

This is how we can advance

our army

and what we're claiming.

When you come back

and you hear this report

from a scout,

you feel strengthened.

You want to stand up

as a soldier

and march onward,

hasten onward.

The kingdom is advancing.

Let's follow

where these scouts

have gone next.

And so that's what Paul says

that everything

that I suffered

up to this point,

it revealed God's sovereignty

and if I die in chains here,

which he does,

you church,

you come as the next army

pushing on

and planting the church here

and establishing,

furthering the gospel

mission of King Jesus.

So when you suffer in Christ,

you tell of his providence

to his family

and it encourages them.

See, Paul's not attaching

any of their hope

to Paul himself.

Paul is pointing

to the gospel.

It's the gospel

of the living Jesus Christ

who through his Holy Spirit

he will advance.

Our confidence

is not in man,

even the apostle Paul.

It's in the gospel

carried on

through the word of God.

I want to prove this.

You can turn to

2 Timothy 2.9.

2 Timothy 2.9.

If you don't want

to turn there,

you can also listen.

Here's what

2 Timothy 2.9 says.

And to give you

a point of reference,

Philippians is one

of Paul's earlier letters

that he wrote

from prison.

And it's so joyful.

You might think,

well, this is just him

thinking he won't be

there too long.

2 Timothy is the last letter

we have from Paul.

The very end

of his time in prison.

Notice what he says

in 2 Timothy 2.9.

I am suffering

bound with chains

as a criminal.

But the word of God

is not bound.

The word of God

is not in a chain.

See, their confidence

should be in the advance

of the gospel

through the word.

It's not tied

to any one man.

It's God's word

that advances

his gospel.

And Paul joyfully

goes out as the scout.

That's where he'll

end his life.

He'll never get

to go to Spain.

But the word of God

will march onward

through his church.

And with every step

of the way,

you bear witness.

Look, even through

my suffering,

see God's providence

advancing his kingdom.

We get to do that

when we suffer

in Christ as well.

Number three.

What does suffering

in Christ do?

When you suffer

in Christ,

the life of God

in you

becomes evident

to others.

When you suffer

in Christ,

the life of God

in you

becomes evident

to others.

Look at verse 13.

It has become evident,

Paul wrote,

to the whole

Petrarian guard,

the whole palace guard,

and to all the rest

that my chains

are in Christ.

It has become

evident to them.

Who were these guards?

Well, I've mentioned briefly,

these were the elite

Roman soldiers

that worked

for the emperor himself.

They were estimated

to be 9,000

of these guards

called the

Petrariani.

In Christ,

in Paul,

through Paul's suffering,

is evident

to these guards

one by one

by one.

See,

from their perspective,

they see

an old

minister of the word,

a Jew,

now in Rome,

who's trapped

to a chain.

From Paul's perspective,

suffering in Christ,

Christ is being revealed

through his suffering.

He says,

I'm the one here

who is free

to preach the gospel

to you.

And you're chained

on to me.

You have to listen.

Imagine what that would be like

to be one of these

elite guards.

You work for the biggest empire

the world has ever known.

You don't just work

on the army

in some outskirt colony.

You work in Rome.

Not just in Rome.

You work for the emperor,

Caesar himself.

You're among the elite.

And part of your rotation

is going to be

to spend a watch,

a quarter of a 24-hour shift

with this old minister.

Imagine what that handoff

is like.

Many of us have jobs

where you rotate a shift

and you check in,

you check out.

And it's part of the job

of a nurse

or someone else

with a shift

to get the report

from that shift

so I can be ready

for the next one.

And these guards

would know each other

and you can just see it

in this man's face.

One of the toughest,

most hardened soldiers

around.

He's the alpha.

And you just see

his face looks peaceful.

And you see a calmness

in this man.

He's always trying

to prove to everyone

he's the tough guy.

And he's just so relaxed now.

What has happened?

You don't even know

what's coming up for you.

That chain goes on to you

as the guard

and it's your shift.

Paul starts telling you

of God himself

who created you

and how you have no hope

standing before the holy God

in your sin.

But God himself

took on flesh

and he fulfilled his own law

for his people.

And it's not just good news

for them,

it's good news for you

if you believe in him.

And the kingdom of God

advances.

When you suffer in Christ,

the life of God in you

becomes evident to others.

How could it not?

It's God himself

inside of you.

We read in verse 13,

it wasn't just

the Petroirian guard,

it was also

all the rest.

Word spreads

that my chains

are in Christ.

Who are all the rest?

We can connect

a dot here

that was so cool

for me to see.

Would you turn

in your Bible

to Philippians 4?

You're in Philippians 1.

Flip the page there.

Who might be part

of all the rest

who hear

of the precious Christ

through Paul's ministry?

Philippians 4.22.

As he's writing

to the church

back in Philippi,

Philippians 4.22,

he says,

all the saints,

all the believers,

everyone in Rome

within the church,

those who have visited me,

or even those here

that are part of the guard,

they greet you,

church in Philippi,

especially those

who are of Caesar's household.

Do you see

how that desire

for Paul

to go to Rome

and preach to Caesar

and preach

to the great capital,

it's being fulfilled

through the suffering,

through the chain.

As he's back in Philippi

looking out

at the Roman Empire,

man,

wouldn't it be amazing,

church,

let's pray

that God's gospel

will reach

the Roman army,

the greatest army

in the world

that they would believe

and that the emperor,

Caesar,

would believe.

Let's pray,

church in Philippi,

that God would do that

and look at how God did it.

It's through his chain.

Christ speaks

through Paul

and through his word

and listening to Christ's voice

as we sing,

new life,

the dead receive,

the mournful,

broken hearts rejoice,

the humble poor believe.

Second Timothy 2.9,

Paul said,

I am suffering,

bound with chains

as a criminal,

but the word of God

is not bound.

The life of God

is in you

who believe

just that same way,

just as powerfully.

There's a book

that Jonathan mentioned

in Sunday school

and I enjoyed reading it

this week.

It's called

The Life of God

in the Soul of Man.

And that's exactly

what it is

to be a Christian.

The life of God himself

dwells in the soul

of man.

This book quoted

an old poet

who described

the gospel that way.

The love of God

shot all these golden arrows

at man,

but nothing could penetrate

man's heart of stone.

So the God of love

put himself

in his bow

and shot himself

at your heart

to shatter your heart

of stone

and overwhelm you

with his love.

And when you suffer

in Christ,

the life of God

in you,

it becomes evident

to others.

Number four,

what else does

suffering in Christ do?

When you suffer

in Christ,

God uses your life

to embolden

his family.

When you suffer

in Christ,

God uses your life

to embolden

his family.

Look at verse 14.

Philippians 1.14.

Most of the brethren

in the Lord,

having become confident

of my chains,

are much more bold

to speak the word

without fear.

God uses the suffering

of his people

to embolden Christians,

to embolden

the church.

From the world's

perspective,

if we can just make life

hard for Christians,

if we can persecute

and shut them down

and not let them meet,

not let them gather

in the name of Jesus,

not let them preach

the gospel

or at least censure

what they're going to say,

we can stop

the spread of Christianity.

That's what Satan's

trying to do

through the world.

We can look at

even recent history

and see it's just

the opposite.

In 1949,

the population

of China

was 542 million people.

Out of those

540 million Chinese,

only 1 million

were believers.

30 years later,

that 1 million Christians

went to 12 million.

What makes this remarkable

is it's during the time

when all the churches

were shut down,

when it was illegal

to preach the gospel,

where the Bible

had to be smuggled

into China.

The church exploded.

Today,

the population of China

is 1.5 billion

with 100 million Christians,

mostly worshiping God

underground.

100 times

the growth

in this one country

during the most

intense times

of persecution

in modern history

in just a period

of 75 years.

That's what our God does.

As the Christians

are persecuted,

the brethren,

the family of the Lord,

gets much more bold

to speak the word

without fear

and His kingdom advances.

And that's why

2 Timothy,

that same letter,

that last one

from prison,

2 Timothy 4,

2 Timothy 4:1

verses 1 and 2,

Paul wrote with confidence

to Timothy,

the church in Ephesus

and to all of us,

I charge you,

therefore,

before God

and the Lord Jesus Christ

who will judge

the living and the dead

at His appearing

and His kingdom,

preach the word,

be ready in season

and out of season,

convince,

rebuke,

exhort,

and teach

with all long suffering.

That's what suffering

in Christ does.

God uses your life

through suffering

to embolden

His family.

Number five,

what else does it

do

to suffer in Christ?

Of all of these verses,

these are the ones

that were the most

convicting to me,

the most work God

still has to do

in my own heart.

Here's the doctrine I see.

When evil motives

become evident,

you identify

even more with Christ

in His suffering.

Evil motives

are everywhere

and we see them.

Sometimes we suspect them

and then other times

they become very clear.

But when evil motives

become evident,

you feel that injustice.

You feel that sense of wrong

in the name of Christ.

You identify even more

with Christ

in His suffering.

Let's read verses 15,

16, and 17.

Some indeed

preach Christ

even from envy

and strife

and some also

from goodwill.

The former

preach Christ

from selfish ambition,

not sincerely

supposing to add

to my affliction

in my chains,

but the latter

out of love,

knowing that I am

appointed

for the defense

of the gospel.

Paul spent

serious time

reflecting

on the early church.

The early church

is no better

or worse

really than the church

today.

Sometimes we want to

make it like a golden era.

We should just be more

like the early church,

full of envy

and strife

and selfish ambition,

not sincere.

That's not the early church

we should go back to.

It's the same.

It's the same church

as today.

There's much wrong

going on

in the name of Christ.

You felt it.

You've seen it.

And it should bother us.

It bothered Paul.

He's naming it

very specifically.

Three verses of this.

It's clearly been

something heavy on him.

I'd like to walk you

through these words

he uses.

In verse 15

he uses the word

envy.

Envy means

to be discontent

at the sight

of the reputation

or happiness

enjoyed by another.

To grieve yourself

at the superiority

of another

and to hate him

on that account.

In Mark 15.10

we read that

our Lord Jesus Christ

knew that the chief priest

had delivered him

for envy.

And Paul

is identifying

with Christ

in his suffering.

There are many

wanting to preach Christ

even preach correct doctrine

because they wanted

the attention

and the fame

that Paul

got as an apostle.

He uses the word

strife.

It can be translated

as rivalry

in verse 15 as well.

It's contention

debate

variance

for the sake

of arguing.

It's to struggle

and to vie

for superiority

over others.

You see what

all these have in common

is they're looking

at man.

They're not looking

at the glory

of Christ.

Christ.

In verse 16

he describes

the wrong motives

of selfish ambition.

This was a reference

to political campaigns

in the Roman Empire.

Electioneering.

Partisanship.

Political

self-promotion.

It was the practice

of Roman candidates

for office

who went about

the city

to solicit votes.

Do you get the picture

of what was going on

among these churches

in Rome?

In verse 16

Paul describes

those troublemakers

as insincere.

Preaching Christ

but trying to do it

so that Paul

will suffer even more.

He says

insincerely

to add

to affliction

of my chains.

It means

to be

raising up

even more

accusations

against Paul

to push Paul down.

It's the opposite

of clean

and pure.

In verse 18

he describes

the preaching

as being done

in pretense.

Pretense

is to cloak

or color something

like put makeup

on something

purely for

outward show.

Jesus

spelt this too

and he preached

against it.

In Matthew 23

14 he said

woe to you

scribes and Pharisees

hypocrites

for you devour

the weak

and for a pretense

you make long

public prayers.

Therefore

you will receive

greater

condemnation.

How is it

that this can happen

that so much evil

such evil

motives can be

rewarded

and celebrated

and permitted

within churches

that call themselves

Christian

in the name of

Christ who suffered

and made himself low.

How can this happen?

Well I think

Paul was wrestling

with that very question

and that's what

he cautioned

in that same

last letter

from prison

2 Timothy 2

3

he warned

the time will come

when they

these congregations

people like you

and me

we will endure

sound doctrine

no longer

but instead

according to

our own desires

because we have

itching ears

we will heap up

for ourselves

teachers

that will do

just that.

So we need to

guard against

this church

we're just as

vulnerable

as the early

church was

to this.

I want to

encourage you

in our

constitution

it calls

for vows

for elders

just as

members make

vows to the

congregation.

Here are two

of the questions

that potential

elders are asked

that I believe

get at the heart

of what Paul

is addressing.

Number one

have you been

moved

as far as

you know

your own heart

to seek

the office

of the holy

ministry

from love

to God

and a sincere

desire to

promote

his glory

and the

gospel of

his son.

A potential

elder will

have to stand

here and

vow to you

yes

that's my

motive.

Number two

do you promise

to be zealous

and faithful

in maintaining

the truths

of the gospel

and the purity

the peace

and the unity

of the church

whatever opposition

may arise

unto you

on that account

you must say

I do.

When the evil

motives become

evident

to Christians

we identify

with Christ

in his suffering

and we hunker

down as a

congregation

back to his

word

back to our

purpose

which is

to glorify

and enjoy

God

together.

Amen?

Well those

are the things

I see in this

passage that God

does

as we suffer

in Christ

and I love

how Paul

leaves us

with such

a sweet

taste in the

mouth

in verse

18.

After wrestling

through that

you see what

he asks

rhetorically

he says

what then

what

yes this is

all going

on what are

you going to

do it

in Philippi

what are you

going to do

about it

what am I

going to do

about it

here

in chains

in Rome

what then

and here's

the conclusion

that by the

grace of God

the spirit

taught Paul

I hope he'll

teach this to

me before he

takes me on

to glory

in every way

whether in

pretense or

in truth

Christ

is preached

Christ

not financial

prosperity

nor Christian

nationalism

but Christ

and Christ

alone

must be

preached

Christ

is preached

not legalism

nor licentiousness

but Christ

and Christ

alone

must be

preached

Christ

is preached

not your

works

not God's

grace

plus your

works

but Christ

and Christ

alone

must be

preached

Christ

of the

Nicene

Creed

that we

say

together

and we

have

held

with the

church

ever since

he's the

one

and only

Lord

of the

church

the

promised

one

he is

who we

preach

and Paul

writes

in this

I rejoice

Christ

the God

of God

light

of light

true

God

of true

God

he is

preached

and in

this

I rejoice

Christ

creator of

all

who came

down

who was

made

flesh

he is

preached

and in

Christ

being preached

we rejoice

Christ

who entered

humanity

for us

for our

salvation

he is

preached

freely

to anyone

who will

come

come

and welcome

come

oh

sinners

and rejoice

Christ

who suffered

died

and rose

again

and ascended

to heaven

he is

preached

he rules

he is

the king

and lord

of all

and we

rejoice

when he is

proclaimed

Christ

is coming

to judge

the living

and the dead

the full

gospel

of Christ

is preached

and we

rejoice

Paul says

in this

I rejoice

yes

and I will

rejoice

every time

I hear

the name

of Jesus

being proclaimed

and preached

I rejoice

and I resolve

I continue

to rejoice

in Christ

because though

I am suffering

I am bound

with chains

as a criminal

the word

of God

is not

bound

so dear

brothers and

sisters

you too

suffer

but suffering

in Christ

does powerful

works through

his people

I encourage

you

through your

suffering

tell of

God's

providence

to others

trust him

to reveal

the life

of God

inside of

you

through your

suffering

to others

I pray

Lord

that as we

suffer

with one

another

bear one

another's

burdens

we cry

together

we pray

together

as we do

that

that we

will be

emboldened

as a

church

we will

identify

even more

with him

in his

suffering

we'll trust

him that

even through

the suffering

somehow

he's advancing

his gospel

purpose

and together

every time

the name

of Jesus

is proclaimed

and named

and prayed

under

we rejoice

together

Psalm 119

71

you can testify

as well

my suffering

was good

for me

because it

taught me

to pay

attention

to the good

Lord

who gives me

his loving

lordship

with Christ

my king

and his law

we settle

we're under

him

we're not

a prisoner

to Rome

we're not

under the

chains

of our

suffering

we're slaves

to Christ

and his

word is

unbound

everyone

suffers

but happy

are you

whom God

teaches

to suffer

in Christ

let's spend

a moment

reflecting

and asking

God to

minister

this truth

to our

hearts