Faithbase

Good morning we're back thinking about the Bible and we are in Colossians chapter 1. I'm gonna read verse 24 and that's it. We'll make some comments on that. I'm glad when I suffer for you in my body for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body the church. Now that's from the New Living Translation and the the New King James says now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body which is the church. Now that translation others like that make it sound as if Jesus didn't finish suffering and somebody had to pick up the the slack so to speak and continue with that but I think the better way of understanding this I think the New Living Translation gives us a more clear view I am glad when I suffer for you in my body for I am participating the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body the church. Think of it this way if you were new on a job many years ago I worked construction work and before I went into full-time ministry and when you came on to a job with a new guy it was kind of sometimes you know you had to kind of get into the rhythm what was going on so you would sometimes hey hang out here with Joe and he'll show you the ropes. So you were participating in the work that Joe was doing you weren't doing Joe's work but he was showing you the ropes. All right we need to move this dirt pile over there and then we need to move that dirt pile back over here that would be on a government job of course but the idea that Paul is somehow making up the lack of Jesus suffering is ludicrous frankly what he's actually saying is I'm participating in I'm he's he's shown me the ropes and I am continuing this work of suffering and the suffering is work because as you know what Paul went through the things that he went through was obviously suffering but all of us are supposed to participate in the sufferings that Jesus endured. Why? Because we are supposed to crucify be crucified with Christ we crucify the flesh we are supposed to work hard to show the results of our salvation and so to participate in the suffrage of Jesus is to you might say work right alongside him work right alongside what he has already accomplished and he ascended to heaven and left for us the project of working out our salvation with fear and trembling so the thing that Paul is telling us here and this is the same thing we can do is that Jesus worked in his ministry to bring the truth to bear to express the gospel and then of course his death and resurrection all of that all the suffering he endured is was accomplished what what God had intended our suffering is to internalize or to actualize what Jesus actually already accomplished and on behalf of the church what Paul is talking about there is that he's he's taking this gospel into the whole world and he's endured a lot of suffering because of it so he's like the guy on the job who's watching Joe who does his work and so he's participating in that work he's not doing Joe's work for him but he's participating in that he's learning how to do it he's becoming more Christlike becoming more like the one that he follows as he does the same kind of work so he's participating in the sufferings the same kind of sufferings of Christ that continue these these these sufferings will continue until the end of all things because the gospel will always be resisted and the truth of Christ and his kingdom will always be resisted by those who deny Jesus as Lord and Savior so think about that today how are you participating in the sufferings of Jesus Christ part of us just to mortify the flesh that's something we do every day I hope and so there's some suffering there but also the suffering that we will endure as we boldly preach the gospel to those around us and so I would ask you to be thinking about that today how are you suffering as Jesus did how are you participating in the sufferings of Jesus Christ on behalf of his gospel on behalf of his church