Title: Prescriptive Pain and Suffering
Text: Philippians 3:7-11, Romans 8:17; I Peter 4:12
Thesis: Pain and suffering help us understand the suffering of Christ.
This is the second message in a Lenten Series: Knowing Christ Through Pain and Suffering. The Apostle Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the
resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
Introduction:
When you are given a prescription, you are given a written directive for a therapeutic treatment. In simple terms it means the doctor writes an order telling you how to get well. I would like to stretch the definition a bit to include “how to” do something.
How do you get to know someone?
The wikihow.com people offer a written directive on how to get to know someone on their web site. They suggest:
1. Keep conversations active by listening and responding physically. Nod you head. Smile. Look your new friend right smack in the eye.
2. Don’t forget to respond verbally too. Ask questions. Convince yourself that you want to know about the other person.
3. Plan activities that allow you to spend time together. Make consistent contact either by phone, e-mail, or in person. Let them know you enjoy their company.
4. Be honest about your interests and opinions.
5. Keep their interest. Tell them interesting things about yourself, your likes, and dislikes.
6. Offer to share something nice, like cookies.
7. People are drawn to people who look like they are enjoying life, so wear that winning smile.
I was especially amused by their “How to Act Like You Care” suggestions:
1. Make sure you are making eye contact… don’t be looking off into the distance.
2. Nod a lot and pretend like you are interested in what they are saying.
3. Smile periodically and say things like, “Oh really? Wow” and “Yeah…” a lot. And throw in a “mhm” or a “hm” from time to time.
4. Have a sincere face at all times.
5. When they are finished talking explain how you hate to leave and how you really enjoyed talking about whatever it was they were talking about. (http://www.wikihow.com/Get-to-Know-Someone)
What does it mean when we read the expressed sentiment: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead?
Our text raises a series of “what does that mean” questions:
• What does it mean to know Christ?
• What does it mean to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection?
• What does it mean to share in Christ’s sufferings?
• What does it mean to attain the resurrection of the dead?
So how is it that we may know Christ?
I. What does it mean to know Christ?
• I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… Philippians 3:7-9
The easiest way to understand the phrase “to know” is to understand the meaning of the Hebrew word “yada.” It is not so much a knowledge word as an experience word. It signifies a close, intimate, and personal knowledge of another person… not just knowing about another person.
Initially it means that we need to realize that, contrary to everything we might think about ourselves, we do not begin a relationship with Christ thinking that Christ is really lucky to have the chance to get to know us.
We begin a meaningful relationship with Christ by dropping all pretenses.
A. It means loosing one’s sense of self-righteousness and spiritual entitlement.
• I have reasons for confidence in the flesh… Philippians 3:4-6
• I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. Philippians 3:8-9
It also means that we also accept all that Jesus Christ is. We accept what Christ brings to the table… that being his mercy and grace.
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B. It means gaining a righteousness that comes from God. It suggests that this relationship is about the other person… Christ.
• I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. Philippians 3:9
Bonnie has an antique balancing scale which balances weights on a slide against whatever is in the pan. But I would like for you to stretch you imaginations to an even older style of balancing scale… one with two pans. In one pan you place all of the good things you can put together that you consider of be of spiritual merit: Your heritage and Christian upbringing, your dedication, your baptism, your confirmation, your church membership, your Christian marriage and home, your witness in word and deed, your service to God and others, your contributions… and you place it all in one pan. You can visualize seeing the weight of all those things radically tip the scale to the side of an exaggerated sense of self-worth and achievement.
Then you place your faith in Christ alone in the other pan. And suddenly, the scale tips to the other side. It is a sudden and dramatic shift reminiscent of when two children are riding a seesaw or teeter-totter and one jumps off creating an incredible imbalance, creating a world class John Madden “Boom.” Everything is a loss compared to the surpassing the greatness of knowing Jesus Christ.
Paul used a similar analogy in II Corinthians 4:16-18 when he weighed the temporary troubles of today against the immeasurable glory of eternity.
We begin to know Christ when we divest ourselves of our own self-righteousness and invest in the righteousness of Christ alone.
The second question is, what does it mean to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection?
II. What does it mean to experience the power of his resurrection?
• I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection or experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. Philippians 3:10
Knowing that resurrection power begins with a spiritual transformation.
A. It means being transformed into a new person – Now!
• Those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. And a new life has begun! II Corinthians 5:17
This is not a power you can only experience after death. This a power that may be at work now or today in our lives. The same power that raised Christ from the dead, transforms us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive in Christ. Now it is time to become Christ like. It is not only a transforming experience… it is a process of our being conformed to the image of Christ.
B. It means being a person in process – Now!
• God who has begun a good work in you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ comes back. Philippians 1:6 (see 2:13)
• As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory more and more. II Corinthians 3:18
We get to know Christ more and more as we become more and more like him.
What do Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, baseball’s Lou Gehrig, basketballs Michael Jordan, Barbara Streisand, the inventor of the polio vaccine Jonas Salk, President Franklin Delano Rosevelt, and Norman Rockwell have in common? They were all born in New York City. But if you were to go to New York and ask, “Were there any great men born here in New York City?” The honest answer would be, “No, only babies were born here in New York City.” No great or accomplished man or woman has ever been born… just babies. We are born again, so to speak, in Christ and then we begin the life-long process of becoming Christ like men and women.
The third question is, what does it mean to share in Christ’s sufferings?
III. What does it mean to know the fellowship of sharing his suffering?
• I want to know Christ… and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in death. Philippians 3:10
Sharing the sufferings of Christ begins with a having a Christ like attitude.
A. We empty ourselves of ourselves.
• Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing… Philippians 2:5
Sharing the suffering of Christ is also about action.
B. We participate in the human experience.
• He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:7-8
Our participation in the human experience is ultimately and expression of Christ living out his life through us.
C. We let Christ live out his life in and through us.
• I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
We empty ourselves of ourselves. We participate in the human experience. And we let Christ live our his life in and through us.
Maxie Dunnam wrote of Nina Hermann, a chaplain at a children’s hospital. She was not unlike any among us who sometimes has a difficult time understanding where God is, in the midst of pain and suffering. When she went home at night she often struggled with balancing the suffering she saw every day with her belief in a good God.
One cold night, all snuggled up in front of her fire place with a good book, the phone rang. It was the mother of a former patient who had just readmitted her daughter to the hospital and was insisting that Nina come in at once.
She had been with this family before and always for false alarms. She didn’t want to go. There was another chaplain on duty. It was cold and it meant getting bundled up and leaving her warm fire, her comfortable chair, and good book. But she went… She trudged through the snow and arrived at the hospital to find the child was alright. So she sat down to chat with the mother, reassuring her and encouraging her through her ordeal.
Later she wrote, “I had read about God and Jesus participating in the human experience, participating in suffering, knowing rejection, knowing aloneness and pain and fear, knowing anger, even anger at God… and I never understood it until now.” (Maxie Dunnam, The Communicator’s Commentary, Vol. 8, P.294-295)
So we go with Jesus doing what Jesus did and continues to do through us. We leave the warmth and comfort of our homes and go with Jesus, trudging through the snow to be with those who are suffering. We sit with Jesus and listen to the anxious mother… we hold her hand and pray with her. We participate in the human experience and let Christ live through us. It is in knowing that as we go, we go with Jesus. And as we go with Jesus to be with others who are in suffering and in pain, that we share in his suffering.
We have thought about what it means to know Jesus now, to experience the power of his resurrection now, and to share his suffering now. The final piece of this passage is an expressed desire to attain the resurrection in the future.
The last question is, what does it mean to attain the resurrection?
IV. What does it mean to attain the resurrection?
• And so somehow, I can attain to or experience the resurrection of the dead!” Philippians 3:11
The word “somehow” hints at uncertainty. I want to experience eternal life and somehow, I hope to attain it.
Here in Colorado we have identified fifty-four mountains that are at least fourteen thousand feet above sea level. We call them 14’ers. They are soaring peaks that pose formidable physical and mental challenges. If you want to experience the thrill of the climb and the spectacular view from the top… you have to “somehow” get to the top.
You will have to figure out how to get to the trailhead. Some have marked trails, other do not, so you have to be prepared to do some bushwhacking. You have to be prepared to cross creeks. When you get above tree line, you have to be prepared to cross fields of scree and talus. You may need to bring along clamp-ons and a climbing axe. You will have to navigate switchbacks as you make you way to the ridge and from the ridge work you way to the peak. It will be seven to ten hours of mental and physical exertion. Or, you can charter a helicopter and be flown in.
In either case, be it by physical and mental effort or by flight, you arrive at the peak of the 14’er. The only question or uncertainty is, how will you attain the peak?
Getting to the peak, so to speak, is certain.
A. Eternal life is certain!
• For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone3 who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
• God has given us his Son. So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son, does not have life. These things are written to you who believe, so that you may know that you have eternal life. I John 5:11-14
How we get to the peak, so to speak, is the question.
B. The “somehow” is the uncertain part.
The resurrection of the dead is linked to the return of Jesus Christ. The only question in Paul’s mind was, “When Christ returns, will I be dead or alive?” How will it work if I’m dead when Christ returns? How will it work if I am alive when Jesus comes?
The answer is found in I Thessalonians 4:11-18:
• I tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will comedown from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. I Thessalonians 4:15-17
One way or another… we will attain the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. One way or another, whether living or dead, I want to reach to the top.
Conclusion:
I mentioned last week that my sinus’ had been bothering me and that I had visited my physician. I checked in, ran my insurance card, paid my co-pay, waited until I was called to an examination room, told the nurse why I was there, and waited to see the doctor.
He asked me questions, examined me, sat down on a little stool in front of me, and began talking and writing on a pad. He wrote:
1. Drink lots of fluids.
2. Take a 24 hour, over-the-counter antihistamine and decongestant for five days.
3. Have a prescription for a three-pack of Azithromycin and instructions to take one pill a day for three days.
I walked out of the doctor’s office with a prescription in hand and the assurance that if I followed his instructions, I would get well. This morning we will all walk out of here with a prescription of sorts. If you want to know Christ, you may get to know him through experiencing his experience.
You get to know Christ through experiencing Christ:
• By receiving Christ into your life.
• By letting Christ transform you into his likeness.
• By going with Christ into the suffering of the human experience.
• By attaining the resurrection of Christ.
