Oasis Conference
Philippians 3:7-14
When Clement spoke on Sunday night he gave a summary of what would be talked about in the teaching sessions of the Oasis Conference. As he worked his way through Philippians 3:7-14 he talked about Paul’s desire to know Jesus. There was nothing more important to Paul than knowing Jesus. For Jesus’ sake, Paul said, he had lost all things and considered them garbage. Paul had thrown away the prestige of being a leading Pharisee, well respected and honored. He had thrown away a comfortable life with a wife and children and grandchildren. He had thrown away a safe life without fear of persecution. It is not that Paul considered a safe, comfortable life with a family to be garbage, but in comparison to what he gained by following Jesus and being obedient to the call of Jesus to go out into the world and preach the gospel to the Gentiles, it was so much less important that in comparison it was like garbage that is thrown out.
Clement went on to talk about Paul’s desire to know Jesus and came to verses 10&11.
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead
It would be much easier for us if Paul had written, “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and his sufferings.” Then we could focus on how much Jesus suffered for us and be grateful and that would be all. But Paul goes beyond the intellectual knowing of the sufferings of Jesus and says he wants to participate in the sufferings of Jesus, becoming like him in his death, and somehow to be raised with Jesus from the dead.
So this morning I have brought my hammer and some nails and I offer you the opportunity to come forward. I will drive a nail through the bones of your wrist so you can participate in the suffering of Jesus. Do I have any volunteers?
Each year on Good Friday in the small town of Cutud in the Philippines, there is a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus. People whip themselves and have their hands and feet nailed to crosses. Is this what Paul meant when he wrote,
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead
If this is not what Paul meant, what does it mean to participate in the sufferings of Christ?
First of all, it does not mean that we share in the pain he experienced on the cross. The physical and spiritual suffering Jesus endured was completed when Jesus said, “It is finished.” The price had been paid for all sin for all time. Jesus does not have to climb back on the cross each year to pay for the sins of that year. There was nothing incomplete in the suffering of Jesus. Jesus does not need to continue to suffer for sin, this was done once for all time on the cross.
Driving nails through our hands and feet and hanging on a cross does nothing to share in the sufferings of Christ.
Second, if the sufferings of Christ were completed on the cross, in what way does Jesus continue to suffer? We can see this in Acts 9:1–6
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Saul (this is the Hebrew name for Paul – which is the Greek name he used for his ministry to the Gentiles) was zealous for God. In his zealousness he persecuted the followers of Jesus whom he viewed as a dangerous cult, threatening the purity of Judaism. Paul had overseen the arrest of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Stephen had been stoned to death. Most of the followers of Jesus had fled from Jerusalem to other parts of the world. Then he heard that there was a community of followers of Jesus in Damascus and received permission to go there to do what he had done in Jerusalem. It was about a one week journey for Saul to go from Jerusalem to Damascus and at the end of the journey, he met the Risen Lord Jesus in the heat of the noonday sun.
The brilliance of the heavenly being that appeared to Saul outshone the sun and Saul heard the words, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul knew he was in trouble and asked, “Who are you, Lord?” And then came what Saul thought was a death sentence. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” and Saul knew he was in deep, deep trouble. Saul had thought Jesus was just another radical who had to be killed, but now, to his horror, he discovered Jesus was divine.
Notice that Jesus did not say, “I am Jesus and you are persecuting my followers.” Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
The followers of Jesus were suffering as they were put in prison, beaten, and killed. But Jesus told Saul, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
As the followers of Jesus suffer in the world, Jesus suffers. The suffering of Jesus on the cross completed his suffering for the sins of the world. The most cruel and wicked sinner can be forgiven because Jesus has completed the suffering for his or her sins. But the suffering of Jesus continues because he suffers with his followers as they are persecuted for his name.
When the disciples were flogged because they defied the orders of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Jewish elders, they suffered but Jesus also suffered. When Stephen was stoned to death and Saul stood as a witness, Stephen suffered, but Jesus also suffered. When the 21 Coptic Christians knelt on the beach in Libya and were beheaded by ISIS, they suffered but Jesus also suffered.
Third, we share in the sufferings of Jesus when we suffer because of our faith in him.
1 Peter 4:13–14
13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
You don’t have to be tortured and killed to participate in the sufferings of Christ. You don’t have to be physically harmed to participate in the sufferings of Christ. When you are insulted because you are a follower of Jesus, when you are discriminated against because you are a follower of Jesus, when your family and friends reject you because you are a follower of Jesus, when you suffer in any way because of your faith in Jesus, you participate in the sufferings of Christ.
Fourth, not all our suffering shares in the sufferings of Christ.
Peter continues in verses 15 & 16
If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
When our sin creates difficulty for us in life, we bear the responsibility for our sin. If we commit a crime and get caught, we suffer (and in fact we suffer even if we do not get caught), but we trivialize the suffering of Jesus if we say that we are sharing in his sufferings when it is our own sin that has caused the suffering.
Because Jesus loves us, it causes him pain when we are sick or when we have difficulty, but sharing in the sufferings of Christ is specifically talking about suffering because we are his followers.
When Clement introduced the topics for the teachings in this conference, he said that this topic of sharing in the sufferings of Christ was a difficult one for us. We don’t like it. We read it, acknowledge it, and move on to something more pleasant.
John Fischer wrote a song titled, Nobody Wants to Die. Listen to the lyrics.
Nobody Wants to Die – John Fischer
You want to have wisdom
Without making mistakes
You want to have money
Without the work that it takes
You want to be loved
But you don’t want the heartaches.
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die.
You want to be forgiven
Without taking the blame
You want to eat forbidden fruit
Without leaving a stain
You want the glory
But you don’t want the shame.
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die.
You want to be a winner
Without taking a loss
You want to be a disciple
Without counting the cost
You want to follow Jesus
But you don’t want to go to the cross.
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord
Nobody wants to die
We want to be like Paul. We want to be able to teach and preach with his power. We want to have the gift of healing Paul had. In Acts 14 when Paul was in Lystra, there was a man who had been lame from birth. He had never walked. (Acts 14:8-10)
Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
In Acts 16 when Paul was in Philippi he was being followed by a female slave who predicted the future and made a lot of money for her owners in the process. She kept shouting out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” This seems wonderful but she became a disturbance, shouting this out all day long, day after day. Finally, Paul, in his annoyance, responded. (Acts 16:16–18)
Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
When we pray for deliverance it seems that it takes so much energy and prayer for this to happen, but here Paul spoke out a word because he was annoyed and the demon left her.
In Acts 19:11–12 we read:
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
Paul cast out a demon with a quick word and here the power of the Holy Spirit worked through him so powerfully that cloth he touched healed people.
In Acts 20:7–11 Paul stopped in Troas. He did not have much time and had so much to say that he went on and on and at midnight he was still speaking. A young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill, fell asleep and fell three stories to the ground and died.
Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.
Paul raised a man from the dead and this did not stop him. What he had to say was so important that he kept on talking after this brief interruption until the sun rose.
The Holy Spirit worked so powerfully in Paul that the miracles that surrounded him did not distract him from his call to take the gospel of Jesus to the Gentile world. We look at the miracles recorded in Acts and are in awe. It is almost as if Paul took them for granted.
So we would like to be like Paul. We would like to have the power of Paul to heal and deliver. But are we willing to suffer as Paul suffered?
In 2 Corinthians 11:23–27 Paul is giving a defense of his apostolic ministry to those who were challenging him in Corinth. In the process, he talks of his suffering for the gospel.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord, Nobody wants to die.
The men in Corinth who were challenging Paul’s authority, the men Paul called “super-apostles” wanted to be winners without taking a loss. Wanted to be disciples without counting the cost. Wanted to follow Jesus but did not want to go to the cross. They wanted the glory of being leaders of the church. They wanted the prestige of being leaders in the church. They wanted the money they received by being leaders in the church. But they did not want to have to suffer in the process.
Paul was a great church planter. He had a great intellect that has fed the church through the ages as we read his letters. He had a great conversion story to share. We would like to be like him. We would like to be chosen by Jesus to have an important call. But remember that along with the glory of Paul’s call came another word. (Acts 9:15–16 )
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
We want to know Jesus without suffering. We want to be with Jesus at his resurrection but not with Jesus at his crucifixion. We read in Luke about Cleopas and an unnamed person, perhaps his wife, who were walking when Jesus came alongside and talked with them. They did not recognize him until he broke bread with them and then disappeared. In their excitement, they raced back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples they had met with the Risen Lord Jesus. (Luke 24) Have you ever wished you could have been there to hear Jesus talk and explain from the Scriptures that he had to die and be raised from the dead? Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to be in the garden and see the risen Jesus? Or to be in the upper room with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them?
But have you ever wished you could have been the thief on the cross next to Jesus, suffering the agony of crucifixion? He had an incredible conversation with Jesus. The thief said, (Luke 23:42–43)
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
We want to be with Jesus at his resurrection but not with him on the cross.
Everyone wants to get to heaven Lord, Nobody wants to die.
How do we share in the sufferings of Christ?
As I mentioned at the beginning, driving nails through your hands and feet is not helpful in any way in drawing closer to Jesus. Let me walk you through two stories in the life of Jesus that lead us into how we can share in the sufferings of Jesus. This is taken from a book by Henri Nouwen titled, In the Name of Jesus.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan and heard his heavenly father tell him, (Mark 1:11)
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Following this Jesus went into the wilderness to be alone and reflect. He fasted for forty days and at the end he was hungry. (That is an understatement.) In this hungry state, the devil came to tempt him. (Luke 4:3–4)
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
The devil tempted him to do the spectacular. In the first miracle recorded in John’s gospel, Jesus changed water into wine. Here the devil tempted Jesus to satisfy his hunger by changing stones into bread.
Whenever I am in a difficult situation, whenever someone I love and care about is in a difficult situation, my temptation is for the spectacular. For ten years I visited a home for children who had been abandoned. The parents were mostly Western parents and they took in these abandoned children just days after they were born and raised them as their own children. I was chairman of the board of this home called The Village of Hope and visited the children about eighteen times a year. When I drove onto the site, the children would call out, “Ami Jack! Ami Jack!” “Uncle Jack! Uncle Jack!” Then in March 2010, the government of Morocco abruptly deported these parents. They had just seven hours to pack their bags and say goodby to the children they had raised since infancy. They were taken to the airport in Casablanca under police guard, kept under guard over night, and then escorted by the police to their planes. This was an incredibly painful year for me and I continue to grieve for the children I have not been permitted to see since then.
In my grief I prayed for the children and my mind would drift to one way or another to rescue them. I fantasized about getting a bus, picking them up, and driving them to Ceuta. In my fantasy no one would stop us and the border guards would wave us through. Then the children could be reunited with their parents.
This is the way my mind works. I think this is how most of us work. We see a problem and we seek a spectacular solution.
But Jesus does not call us to do the spectacular; he calls us to take on his heart for the world. I pray for the children. I continue to grieve for them. I don’t know the future but I have to trust God to take care of them. He loves them far more than I do. I put them in his hands.
In John’s gospel, Jesus appeared to the disciple on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter, who had denied knowing Jesus three times, was there. He had wept bitterly after the third time he denied knowing Jesus. He had been the leader of the disciples but now he was not sure where he fit in. He was not sure if he could even be a disciple after having denied knowing Jesus.
So Jesus pulled him aside and asked him, (John 21:15–18)
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”
Did Jesus tell Peter, “Go out and do the miracles I did?” No. He said, “Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep.”
Jesus does not call us to do the spectacular; he calls us to take on his heart for the world.
In taking on the heart of Jesus for the world, there will be healings. There will be deliverances. There will be signs and wonders. Jesus sent out the 12 disciples and then later the 72 disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to heal, and bring deliverance. Spectacular miracles will be seen because it is God who is at work. But we need first to have the heart of Jesus for the world if we are to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit. If we seek the spectacular, then we will be like Simon Magus.
Peter and John went to Samaria because they had received word from Phillip that there was a great response to the gospel. There was a man in Samaria named Simon who made his living by practicing sorcery. He amazed all the people of Samaria. The people said, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”
But then Simon saw the Holy Spirit working through Phillip and Peter and John. He was astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. (Acts 8:9–23)
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
Simon sought the spectacular and was rebuked. He wanted the power of the disciples but he did not have the heart of Jesus for the world. His heart was wrapped up in how he would benefit by the use of this gift.
It is interesting to note that some time after this, Simon and a prostitute he met in Tyre, represented themselves as Greek gods and created a theology that said the world would end and only those who followed them would be saved. They had a great following and this cult lasted for three hundred years. Simon’s lust for the spectacular was not to be denied.
We are called by God to take on the heart of Jesus for the world. When we do this we enter into the suffering of Jesus because the world is a place of suffering.
There is a delightful movie titled, The Princess Bride. In this movie Princess Buttercup is being taken by the Man in Black. Buttercup says, “You mock my pain!” and the Man in Black responds, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Read the news, watch the news broadcasts on television. It is depressing. Political rulers scheme to see how they can protect their power and accumulate more wealth. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This summer it seems that every day we hear of yet another terrorist attack someplace in the world. A news analyst said we have to begin to think of terrorist attacks like we think of lightening strikes. We don’t know when they will come or where they will come. Every year people die from lightening strikes and every year people are going to die from terrorist attacks. That is depressing.
We come to church with smiling faces that hide the pain of our past. Many of us had difficult experiences with our father or mother or both. People who have been hurt inflict pain on others. Children suffer from the abuse of adults. Women suffer from the abuse of men. We suffer from the abuse of those with power over us.
Jesus is not indifferent to this suffering. Jesus grieved for Jerusalem who he knew would be destroyed in another forty years. (Luke 13:34)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
Jesus wept for Mary and Martha who were grieving the death of their brother. (John 11:32–35)
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
I heard a story of a woman in this country who had a dream. In her dream she was crying because of all the difficulties and pain in her life. She looked up and saw a man dressed in white, standing in the corner of the room, weeping with her. The next morning she woke up feeling comforted by her dream but not knowing who it was who had been crying with her. Later that day she was watching an Arabic Christian satellite station and another woman was describing the same dream. She too had dreamed of a man in white weeping with her. And then the woman being interviewed said the man in her dream was Jesus. This is how the woman discovered that it was Jesus who had wept with her.
Take on the heart of Jesus for the world and enter into the suffering of the world. Open your heart to the pain of your own life. We bury that pain, push it deep down so it will not interfere with what we are doing. But that pain is destructive. It needs to be dug up, placed before Jesus, and be healed. Bring your own pain into the light where it can be healed.
Open your heart to the pain of others. Listen to their stories. Cry with them. Pray with them. Help them to find healing for the pain they have experienced.
But let me caution you. As you open your heart to suffering in the world, you will be crushed. The enormity of the pain in this world is too much for us to bear. You can see this in those who have a career as social workers, those in the medical field, anyone whose career involves close contact with those who suffer. Because the heart cannot cope with all the pain of the world, those who care for people who suffer often develop a defense to protect their heart. They can become professional, doing their work but not feeling the pain of those they care for.
If we are to take on the heart of Jesus for the world and enter into the world of suffering, we need to have a love relationship with God that is stronger than the pain in the world.
The more intimate we are with pain, the more it hurts. If we read about a bus crash in Peru where 50 people died, we might say, “That’s too bad.” But if we know someone whose brother was on that bus, it is more painful. If it is our own brother who was on that bus, the pain is greater.
Jesus is more intimate with every person on earth than we can be with even one person. Jesus feels the pain of the world more deeply than any of us can possibly feel the pain. Why is Jesus not overcome by the pain in the world? Why is Jesus not crushed by the weight of all this pain? The love of God is more powerful than all the pain of the world and so if we are to take on the heart of Jesus for the world, we have to have a love relationship with Jesus strong enough to sustain us. When we begin to feel overwhelmed, it is time to go to Jesus and renew our relationship with him.
This leads me to my last point. Scripture lays a strong emphasis on the principle that suffering is the path to glory. This was true for Jesus. When Jesus was walking with Cleopas and, perhaps, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, he told them, (Luke 24:25–26)
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
The writer of Hebrews wrote: (Hebrews 12:1–2)
let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If this was true for Jesus, it is true for us. The goal in life for a follower of Jesus is to draw close in relationship with Jesus and discover how much loved we are, to cling with desperation to Jesus who alone is able to rescue us, and take us safely into his eternal kingdom, our eternal home. This is Paul’s passion. (Philippians 3:10–14)
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Entering into the suffering of Jesus, taking on the heart of Jesus for the world, is the path to glory and it is the path to intimacy with Jesus.
2010 was the worst year of my life. The parents of the children of the Village of Hope were deported, some of my closest friends were deported, and in addition to my grief, I carried the anxiety that I might be next to be deported.
At the end of that year I wrote a letter to friends who support my ministry and several responded saying that it seemed I had grown in my faith in Jesus. I wrote back and told them that if I had, it was not intentional. All I did was hang on desperately to Jesus.
When we hang on desperately to Jesus in the midst of great pain and suffering, that is when we grow most in faith.
I wish I could grow in my relationship with Jesus by laying in my hammock, sipping a cold glass of ice tea, and reading a good book. But it is in the most difficult times in my life that I have experienced the most growth.
I know a woman who was held prisoner by the Taliban in Afghanistan and she told me that the sweetest experience she has had with Jesus came during that time of captivity.
Walking on the path of suffering will lead you to intimacy with Jesus and to glory. You don’t have to go looking for suffering. It is all around you. All you need to do is pray and ask God to help you take on the heart of Jesus for the world.
Resist the impulse to be powerful. Resist the temptation to seek the spectacular so you can be recognized in the church as a “powerful woman of God” or “a powerful man of God”. I get emails several times a year from someone telling me they have a powerful ministry of healing and deliverance and want to come to Rabat to speak at our church. My response is to tell them if they really had such a powerful ministry, they would not have to promote themselves.
Don’t be tempted by the spectacular. Take on the heart of Jesus for the world. Enter into the suffering of the world. Maintain a love relationship with Jesus that will sustain you as you take on his heart. And then allow God to work through you with his power.
