Suffering For Christ’s Sake

• Introduction
o Turn to Romans 8:16
o We are going to be looking at suffering for Christ’s sake
o How do I explain suffering for Christ when me, myself can not even comprehend the suffering of other believers.

Donald Cargill was a Scottish Presbyterian when such were outlawed. One listener said his sermons “came from his heart and went to the heart. He spake as never man spake, and his words went through us.” People often complained his messages were too short. But his life proved almost as short as his sermons. His arrest being imminent, he gathered his people and spoke from Isaiah 26. The final words of his last sermon were recorded thus: He exhorted us earnestly to dwell in the clefts of the rock, to hide ourselves in the wounds of Christ, to wrap ourselves in God’s promises, and to make our refuge under the shadow of his wings until these sad calamities pass over.
On July 10, 1681 Scottish troops burst into the house where Cargill, James Boig, and Walter Smith were sleeping. The men were rousted from bed, tied to barebacked horses, and taken to prison. Soon, two others joined them. All were condemned.
At the scaffold Cargill put his foot on the ladder, turned, blessed the Lord with uplifted hands, and said, “The Lord knows I go up this ladder with less fear, confusion or perturbation of mind than ever I entered a pulpit to preach.”
After watching Cargill die, Walter Smith ascended the executioner’s block. A hood was placed over his head, but he lifted it and said, “I have one more word to say, and that is that all who love God and his righteous cause would set time apart and sing a song of praise to the Lord for what he has done for my soul. To him be praise.” The hood was replaced, he was forced against the decapitated corpse of his friend, and his head, too, fell.
James Boig was next. He shouted praise to God, saying he was as calm at the scaffold as he would be at the marriage altar.
The next to die was William Cuthill, and finally William Thomson—five good men all martyred in Edinburgh on “that never-to-be-forgotten bloody day—327 years ago today, 27 July, 1681.
o Don’t have to look to history, we know men and women are being martyred today all over the world because of Jesus Christ
o With this mindset, let us read the word of Paul in Romans 8:16-18
"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:16-18, NKJV)




• Must We Suffer
o Is Paul saying that we as believers must suffer or we are not heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ? - I believe so
o “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him,”
o Is suffering a requirement for salvation? – No
o Just as works not requirement, faith without works is a dead faith
o Works and suffering are an outflow of our relationship with Christ.
o Paul and Timothy told the Philippians, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake," (Philippians 1:29, NKJV)
• Apostles Suffered
o James - (Acts 12:2). King Herod had James put to death “with the sword” – likely a reference to beheading.
o Apostle Peter - was crucified, upside-down on an x-shaped cross, in Rome, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (John 21:18).
o Matthew - suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.
o John - boiled in a huge basin of boiling; miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote Revelation on Patmos and was later freed and returned to what is now modern-day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
 Tradition holds he was the only one not to die a martyers death because he was the only Apostle at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified
o James, the brother of Jesus
 (not officially an apostle), the leader of the church in Jerusalem,
 Thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
 He survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club.
 This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.

o Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia, present-day Turkey, was martyred for his preaching in Armenia. He was flayed to death by a whip.
o Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece.
 After being whipped severely by seven soldiers,
 Andrew's body was tied to the cross with cords to prolong his agony.
 His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it."
 He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died.
o The Apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there.
o Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.
o The Apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.
o There are traditions regarding the other apostles as well, but none with any reliable historical or traditional support.
o It is not so important how the apostles died.
 What is important is the fact that they were all willing to die for their faith.
 If Jesus had not been resurrected, the disciples would have known.
 No one will die for something he knows is a lie.
 The fact that all of the apostles were willing to die horrible deaths, refusing to renounce their faith in Christ – is tremendous evidence that they had truly witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• What Is My Point
o Now, the point off all of this is not to depress you.
o All of us die and how wonderful to die for Christ
o Shake us out of our gumdrop little world – Paradigm shift.
 Many of our fellow believers have been lured into the lie that we should not suffer as believers
 And the answer to why they suffer is because they choose to not believe. If they only believed the promises of God, they would not suffer. (select promises)
o As believers we will suffer for Christ
 "“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also." (John 15:18-20, NKJV)
• We as believers are not of this world, but have been chosen out of it
• We will suffer, maybe not as bad as some believers, but that is only because of God’s grace
• Some have been persuade into wanting to be friends with the world
 "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4, NKJV)
• Some want to be Christians, but not suffer
• We can not be friends with the world and with God.
• We can only serve one master
o “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
o These men and women faced horrific times, yet not to be compared.
o "But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”" (1 Corinthians 2:9, NKJV)
 We can’t even imagine how wonderful heaven will be
 Once we are there, we will realize how little all of us have suffered in our obedience to Christ
 We look forward to His return with hope.
• Why Do We Suffer
o Could be from discipline
o Romans 8:28
o "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28, NKJV)
o "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29, NKJV)
o Example of Joseph
• The Most Important Suffering
o As believers we will face suffering,
 otherwise we are friends with the world
o Most important suffering was what Christ did on the cross over 2000 years ago.
 Expound
 Our suffering can not be compared to Christ
 He suffered so we would not suffer eternal death
 Salvation