Christ's Example of Suffering

I want to talk about something that is in a sense related to the spring holy days. And again, as all of you know, prior to the time of the Passover, which will be April 5th, a little less than four weeks from now, we're always encouraged to examine ourselves.

That's clearly biblical. It's clearly something that you can read in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians, directly statements that tell us to examine ourselves. But I'd like to maybe cover a little bit of that process maybe a little differently than you might have thought about it, and I hope that this would be helpful to you.

I think what we're told, especially there in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, it says to examine your faith. That's what it tells us to do. Often we examine ourselves as to how well are we doing, how well are we obeying, and clearly we ought to be doing that. I'm not suggesting we don't do that, but what it tells us is to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith. Examine the faith that we have in God and in Jesus Christ. And make an analysis, and it's always amazing. I know during the time, or leading up to the time of the Passover, I know it's helpful to read the Gospels, because obviously that's the life of Jesus Christ.

It's describing the life in several different ways. Matthew and Mark and Luke are all, you know, somewhat similar but, you know, synoptic in the way that they are put together. John is completely unique, and I tend to like to read John, maybe more than the others, although I don't want to neglect any of them. But I know that connected with the Passover service, we often read a number of the chapters from chapter 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17 of the book of John.

But I will encourage you to read one of them, read one of the books of the Gospels, and John happens to be the one that I usually focus on. But what I'd like for us to think about today, and we know that Christ allowed His blood to be shed, and ultimately that is for the forgiveness of our sins. That's fabulous. That is something that we are, and we should be, eternally grateful to God that He sent Jesus Christ to the earth in order to be the Lamb of God. In order to be, as He was, slaughtered and His blood shed, and that blood covers our sins, and through that He extends to us eternal life.

But what I'd like to think about today is really what Jesus went through before. What He went through before, He was actually nailed to the cross or stake. Before He was ultimately crucified, what did He go through before that time? And what kind of example did He set?

Because His example, you know, we all know that we want to be Christian. We want to live or try to acquire the mind of Jesus Christ. That's what we're told that we ought to seek. It says, let this mind be in you, which also is in Jesus Christ. And so we want to seek the mind that Jesus had. And yet it's absolutely amazing to me to see what Jesus endured. Now, Mr. Perewitz mentioned to you, he has a list of people that we have mentioned over, you know, actually several years, and kind of updates on different prayer requests. And he mentioned the Haseltons there in Fulton, and certainly, you know, I appeal to you to continue to pray for God's intervention because, you know, we desire, you know, to God to show His power, to show His work, because He can clearly do it.

It's a matter of us seeking that, appealing to Him in that regard. And clearly, you know, we want to grow in our faith, and I know the Haseltons appreciate, you know, the prayers of all of you, as well as others around the world who are praying.

But we have a list of, as he mentioned, several pages long of different people who are suffering, and even the man from Nashville, you know, apparently has numerous, numerous illnesses and ailments that he's suffering from right now. And you know what, brethren? All of us, all of us do suffer at different times in our life. We hope we don't suffer the entirety of our life.

We hope our suffering is minimal. That's what I hope for me. I'm sure that's what you would like for you. But see, the example of Jesus is very important because he showed us how to suffer. And that's what I want to cover with you today. Here in Matthew chapter 26, Matthew 26, and I'm going to be reading out of the new Revised Standards, so it'll vary a little bit from what you're probably, whatever translation you carry, it'll vary a little bit, but it's very, very similar to what it is in the New King James.

I just want to mention that to you because the wording will be a little bit different.

And I must not use my Bible quite as much as Mr. Ott.

He either must use his so much it's just falling apart or he actually drops it a lot.

One or the other. I've dropped mine enough that some of the pages start falling out a little bit, but I'm glad to see he's laboring with the word there. That's really neat. But here in Matthew 26, I want to read some of the things that obviously these are not unfamiliar to you. You're aware of what these things are, but I'd like for us to think about it in this context of the suffering. Because ultimately, death in a sense was a release. Ultimately, death as far as when Jesus ultimately had the spear stuck in his side, and it says he gave up the ghost. He died. That was the end of the suffering. From then on, things were much better. But certainly during the week or more leading up to, and perhaps even you can think of, the mental awareness that Jesus had to have. See, as Mr. Ott mentioned, the disciples really were kind of clueless. They were struggling figuring out, what is he telling us? I'm going to go away, and I'm not going to be here anymore. I'm going to be three days and three nights in the grave. They didn't understand what he was really describing, but he full well knew what he was going to do. And yet, he had to also know, in order to fulfill the prophecies that we read about in the Old Testament, he had to know that he was going to go through and endure a lot of physical pain and a lot of suffering. He had to know that. He knew that. Why was he an anguish? Why was he taking Peter and James and John, come out with me and pray? Of course, they go to sleep. They're like some of us. They're like all of us at times. We just can't keep it up. Christ understood the severity of what he was going to go through. And even though he came back to them three different times, they were asleep every time. They just couldn't understand the turmoil. They couldn't understand the distress. They couldn't understand the frustration or the anguish that Jesus had in his mind and that he was going to endure for a reason. See, there was a definite reason why he was going to endure that. And he knew that it was for us. It was for us. So here in chapter 26 verse 59, it says, the chief priest and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death. So here Jesus is. He's before the, you know, the people who actually hated him, the high priest and those who gathered around him to try to criticize Jesus, to try to accuse him. So they were looking for people to accuse him. Yet in verse 60 it said they couldn't find any. There were none. There was nothing they could bring up. There were never any flaws. There were never any sins. Nothing that could be presented.

Even though they found none, you know, some of the witnesses came forward, at least two, came forward and said, well, this fellow said, I'm going to, I'm able to destroy the temple of God in the building in three days. Now they were trying to make something out of that. He did say that. He actually did do that. So it wasn't that that was something he could be accused about, but they were trying to come up with something. And amazingly, this just is infuriating to me to read what it says in verse 62 as the high priest looks down upon the Lord of life, looks down upon the one who created him, looks down upon Jesus Christ and says, do you not have an answer? What is it that they testify against you? And yet, amazingly, in verse 63, what does it say?

It says Jesus didn't say anything. Jesus was silent.

And then the high priest said to him, well, I put you under oath before the living God. Tell us if you're the Messiah, the Son of God. That's not what I want to be saying to Jesus Christ.

That's the type of inflammatory, the type of angry, the type of heat-filled, the type of derogatory, dismissive, destructive speech. And certainly, you know, the high priest was saying, tell us if you're the Messiah. And Jesus said, you have said so.

Again, he did say a little bit here. He said, you say that I'm the Son of God. But I tell you, from now on, you're going to see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of glory. See, that was Jesus's response. He didn't say I'm innocent. He didn't say I don't deserve this destructive criticism and treatment. He didn't answer back. See, what did he mean when he later said, or actually, not later, he earlier had said to his disciples, again, the disciples didn't get this, and I doubt that we really get it either very much.

What did he mean when he said, turn the other cheek? Because clearly in Matthew 5, that's what he said. That's the example that he set. That's what he was doing.

Verse 65, the high priest tore his clothes and said, he's blasphemed. Why do we need any more witnesses? You've now heard this blasphemy. What is your verdict? And they said, well, he deserves death. And so in verse 67, it says, they spit in his face. See, about a derogatory thing as you can do.

Certainly something that's highly inflammatory, something you see at times. If you watch any kind of athletics, occasionally, at least I've seen on the baseball field, sometimes umpires even are attacked with, you know, some hotshot baseball, usually major league baseball players spitting either on the ground or at their feet or try to spit in their face. You know, they make a huge thing out of that because it's such a derogatory thing. And yet here, our creator, our maker, is spit upon.

They, so it had to be, I guess, more than one, must have been several, decided that, you know, this man deserves to die. And so we're going to spit on his face. We're going to strike him.

It says, they spit in his face. They struck him. They slapped him, saying, prophesy to us, you Messiah. Who is it that struck you? See, now, I don't know exactly, you know, all the derivation of that statement. It would appear, you know, if they're asking, who struck you? Was he blindfolded or was, had he been already beaten to a point to where he couldn't see well?

You know, what was, what, you know, that statement had to come for some reason. And yet, what I point out to you is just simply what Jesus endured, what he suffered.

Now, physical suffering is one thing. Physical infirmity, and again, all of us are going to go through some of that. And unfortunately, I've found that the older I am, the higher likelihood I have of suffering with different stuff. When I was 25, like some of you are, I felt great.

I wanted to stay 25 forever, but, you know, that doesn't happen. We all age. Some of you are in your 70s. Some of you are a little older than that, but it's not as easy as being 50 or 30. Usually, physically, as we age, we, you know, we struggle. And of course, that's by God's design, that's not out of the ordinary. And yet, what we see Jesus going through was not only going to be physical suffering and physical pain, but humiliation. Being despised, being, you know, beaten down with words and with anger and with hatred, and willingly enduring that.

That's what we see. Let's turn over to page 810 in your Bible, in my Bible. Turn to the next page, if you would, usually, in chapter 27. We'll pick up again in verse 11. Jesus stood before the governor, and so not only was he accused and criticized and despised and torn down by the high priest and his cohorts, his hooligans who he had with him, but here is before Pilate. Chapter 27, verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor said, governor said, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, well, you say that I am.

Of course, this was his response several times. But in verse 12, when he was accused by the chief priest and elders, he didn't answer. So this is pointed out again. See, whenever he was criticized, when he was accused, when he was, in a sense, being demoralized, humiliated, it says he didn't answer. Verse 13, Pilate says, do you not hear how many accusations they make against you? But it says in verse 14, he gave no answer. He gave no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. He just couldn't believe it. He said, this is beyond comprehension. This is in understandable how this, what appears to me to be a pretty innocent man, is able to stand there and take this kind of abuse. He's not answering back. He's not telling them where they're wrong and where he's right. He's not defending himself.

It says the governor is greatly amazed. He's really perfect, he's actually getting a little unsure about the setting here. He said, this doesn't look real good. This doesn't look good for me to be in a position of condemning someone who appears completely innocent, which he was.

Over in verse 24, so Pilate, when he saw that he could do nothing, I mean, things were just spiraling out of control. You know, the high priest and his cohorts were continually harassing Jesus. When Pilate saw, it was getting unclear what would happen. Rather, a riot was beginning. He took some water and he washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I'm innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourself. And so the people as a whole said, his blood be on us and on our children. And so he released Barabbas. He released the criminal to the crowd. And yet it says in verse 26, they flogged, they scourged Jesus and handed him over to be crucified.

See, what Jesus was enduring, what he was going through, the example of suffering.

Was an example that we want to learn from. And it, I'm not trying to describe the flogging or the scourging that Jesus went through. I'm sure if you've been around a while, you probably have heard some of that before. And yet clearly and amazingly, we've got depiction of that on film that filmmakers make anymore. They make it look really bad. They make it look really real and horribly painful, bloody, brutal, violent. And that was what a Roman scourging was characterized for. Trying to inflict as much pain as possible and not just stop short of killing somebody because they wanted them to die being crucified. But this is what it says Jesus endured. In verse 27, the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters.

They gathered the whole cohort around him and they stripped him.

And they put a scarlet robe on him and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they jammed that on his head. And they put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him. Mocked him saying, hail, king of the Jews. And they spit upon him.

So here's another group of highly intelligent, I doubt, very cruel, very despicable Roman soldiers. Spit upon Jesus, took the reed and struck him in the head, again mocking him and stripped him of the robe and put on his own clothes and led him away to crucify him. See, that's what Jesus was going through before he was ever put to death. Before he was ever hung to eventually die. He went through a great deal of suffering. And that suffering was not only physical pain, but it was also mental awareness of what was going to happen. He was in anguish when he was with the disciples. He knew that as he rode into Jerusalem on the colt that he was riding on, he knew what was going to happen. He said, this is not going to be a pretty scene. He knew exactly because he was aware of what had been predicted. But I think it's good for us to think about what can we learn from Christ's example.

How is it that he was able to do what he did? Well, clearly he was the son of God. Clearly, he was God in the flesh. He called himself the son of man. He did that in order to endure what it is to be human, to go through what the struggles that we go through so that he very highly identifies with us. Now, I have to assume the Father identifies with us as well.

I know he does, but Jesus went through a human life. He went through the suffering of the cruelty that we see described here, and he bore the suffering and pain, as we're going to read here in Isaiah. He did that in order to give us relief, in order to provide us the benefit of healing, the benefit of knowing that someone else has borne our burdens. If we turn back to Isaiah 52 and 53, our prophecies of Jesus as the suffering servant. That's probably written in your Bible at the top of the page. This is not uncommonly understood to be a description of what Jesus would go through. The heading that my Bible has talks about the suffering servant, starting in verse 13. And yet in Isaiah 52, verse 13, it says, See, my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up. He shall be very high, just as there were many who were astonished at him. So marred was his appearance beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of mortals. See, this is talking of the cruel treatment that Jesus would receive. Down in verse 2 of chapter 53, actually the entirety of chapter 53, I guess that all probably ought to go together, the last few verses of chapter 52 and 53, in its entirety. In verse 2, it says, He grew up before them like a young plant and like a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, neither nothing in his appearance was that we should desire him. And yet he was despised and rejected a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity. And as one with whom others hide their face, he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases. Yet we account him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquity. And upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his strikes, by his bruises, we are healed. See, Jesus went through the pain, the suffering, the degradation, being despised, being humiliated. He took that upon himself and actually, it says, rejected. Jesus rejected, well, clearly was by the Pharisees, he clearly was by the Romans, he even was by his own disciples. All of them had to turn and run. Even them, even those like Peter, who said, I'll never leave you, I will never forsake you, I will never turn my back on you, Jesus said, oh yeah, you will. Actually, it won't be very long from now. Actually, it'll be, you know, very shortly that you're going to deny me more than three times.

You're going to hate yourself for it, but you just can't help it. You are a broken human being who needs me. You need what I have to give. You need the power that I'm able to provide to you.

See, the fact is, brethren, every one of us need Jesus Christ more than we probably ever imagined.

Now, I'm sure we knew that or understood that. I certainly realized that statement when I was baptized. I desperately wanted to be forgiven. I wanted the Holy Spirit. I wanted to be given help from God. I wanted to be forgiven. But see, I don't know that I understood at that time that I really need Christ living in me. And that's what all of us need. We need to desire the mind that Christ had. We need to ask that God would allow Christ to live in us. And here in chapter 53, it describes how it is that it was predicted that He would react, that He would respond whenever things got bad. You think about Jesus' life, and as a baby, He was miraculously born into this world.

We don't have much information about His childhood. It says He was with His parents. He said He was obedient. He grew in wisdom. We have a few things that explain what He was like. I have to almost imagine Jesus' life was pretty good. He was smarter than everybody in many ways. It said at 12, He was able to dumbfound the doctors of the law in the temple. So He had to be ahead of them.

He was extremely able in every way. And yet, ultimately, His life was going to lead up to the three years He would be preaching, three and a half years of His ministry. And then, ultimately, things are going to turn real bad. Things are going to be very sad. Suffering is going to be required. And this, of course, predicts that. And if we drop down in verse 6 here of 53, it says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned to our own way, and yet God has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted. Verse 7, Yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that's led to the slaughter, like a sheep before the shear is silent, He didn't open His mouth. See, we already read. That's the way Jesus responded. Whenever He was in the hot seat, whenever He was bearing a burden and setting an example for us, He did exactly what He was predicted to do. He responded through that suffering by not returning the insult. See, that's so often what people want to do. That's what we want to do.

Too often, it's easy to lash back, whether that's with each other, whether that's with husband and wife, whether that's with boss and co-worker. Too often, we get incensed over something that we might feel an injustice having been done to us. Some of the time, that might be the case. An injustice was done to us, and we're told to respond correctly. Sometimes we completely deserve whatever we got. Sometimes, at least that's my experience. A lot of times, I just get what I ask for. I get what I deserved because of some misdeed or misstatement, usually. Too quickly do things come out of my mouth that I would hope that later I should have edited better. But, thankfully, we have a very merciful God. Thankfully, we're able to repent and ask God for forgiveness and mercy. But I think it's amazing, as we read chapter 53 here, because it describes Jesus' response to suffering and how there's a high likelihood we're going to suffer some. All of us live here in this country. We have a relatively good life, even though we've got ups and downs here in the country. There are a lot of places around the world that are a lot harder to live than it is here. Most places around the world are quite a bit harder to live than here. Certainly places that we read about and we even hear about from our brethren in Africa or in other parts of continents in this world that are far more distressing, far more difficult than what we experience. And yet, all of us end up enduring a certain amount, and we suffer a certain amount. I want us to look in 1 Peter chapter 2, and I know at least Mr. Pirwitz told me that he is going over 1 Peter in Bible study. But it's fascinating to see how that Peter wrote, as he wrote to the churches in general, as he wrote letters of encouragement, because that's what he was writing later on toward the latter part of his life.

He was telling people, don't be surprised that you have to endure some affliction. Don't be surprised of the fiery trials that will come upon you, like some strange thing happened to you. See, that's what, in a sense, we should be prepared for. But here in chapter 2, I want to read in verse 21 what Peter told Christians, and as he tells us, 1 Peter 2 verse 21 says, he's talking about suffering. He's talking about Jesus suffering. He's talking about Jesus suffering in an undeserved way. And yet, in verse 21, it says, in this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you should follow in his steps. See, what did I expect? I expected I wouldn't have to suffer. I expected I'd be able to get out of it.

I expected I'd be able to take it to God and he'd take it away. Well, sometimes he lets us suffer.

Sometimes he allows us to go through the type of suffering that, not exactly, I'm sure none of us would ever go through what Jesus did, but, you know, he says, I want you to understand that you're calling, in verse 21, is to suffer as Jesus did. Over in chapter 4, it says in verse 13, Rejoice, brethren, in so much as you are sharing Christ's suffering, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when your his glory is revealed. So we don't know what we are yet to go through. We don't know what we're going to need to endure before the coming of Jesus Christ, but I kind of doubt, looking at what it has predicted to happen, that it's all going to be very pretty. It's going to be extremely ugly. It's going to be extremely difficult. Undoubtedly, many of us will suffer and, you know, suffer from whatever type of thing that we could come into, whether it's, you know, pain and suffering physically, whether it's property destruction. See, here in the U.S., there have been more tornadoes in the last, you know, little while here, early, early spring than we've had in centuries.

Tornadoes have not only been right up the middle of the country, like they usually go from Texas to Oklahoma to Kansas to Nebraska. I grew up in Oklahoma, and I've seen numerous tornadoes. I never was afraid of them because they were kind of common down there. But as you see destruction, either down here at Branson or all the way through Alabama, actually, my brother lives in Athens, Alabama. And here in the last month or two months, I guess, there have been two tornadoes that have come through the housing division where he lives. I mean, you would think that, you know, if that happened once, you'd really wake you up. Now, thankfully, you know, they did not have damage, but others did in their community. And certainly, that's only one little isolated area to the whole band of tornadoes.