Aspire to Know the Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings by the Power of His Resurrection

We need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings; first, we receive the power of His resurrection, and then by this power, we are enabled to participate in His sufferings and live a crucified life in conformity to His death. Amen!

This week we come to the second part of Phil. 3:10 to look deeper into this matter, and our topic for the morning revival is, Knowing the Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings and Being Conformed to His Death.

The knowledge that we want to have is not an objective knowledge, something that is merely in our mind, but a subjective knowledge, a knowledge in our experience.

We want to know Christ by enjoying and experiencing Him.

As believers in Christ, we need to realize that we can enjoy the Lord.

We not only can know God and learn about Him but even more, we can enjoy Christ.

The book of Philippians shows us Paul’s pattern in knowing Christ subjectively, enjoying Christ and experiencing Christ.

Today He is the Son of Man walking in the midst of the lampstands to shepherd us; He is girded at the breast with a golden girdle to care for us in His love.

He has already done everything; He is now shepherding the churches in love, loving us, caring for us, and causing us to go on with Him.

He cares not only for the churches as a whole but also for each one of us individually; we can all testify that His speaking to us is such a shepherding, and we can go on simply by opening to Him and allowing Him to speak to us and in us.

Each one of us needs to have a very personal seeking of the Lord, pursuing after Christ, so that we may cultivate and remain in a personal and affectionate relationship with Him.

God works in a personal and affectionate way, not in the way of a movement. It is easy to join a movement and not be inwardly changed or have a personal relationship with the Lord.

It is easy to merely know the truth outwardly and be ready to speak concerning God’s purpose, His salvation, and His plan for us, but we need to have a personal and affectionate experience of Christ.

On one hand, God is majestic and almighty, and He is sovereign over all things.

On the other hand, He comes to us in a personal way to have a personal and intimate relationship with us.

May we bring to the Lord the matter of our experience of Christ and our aspiration to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that He may lead us into the reality and experience of this matter.

The more we open to Him and bring to Him what He is speaking to us, the more He will lead us into the reality of what He desires to gain with us and in us.

We need to Aspire to Know the Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings by the Power of His Resurrection

When we speak of our need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings (Phil. 3:10) we need to realize that, though we may not like to talk about sufferings, these are necessary and even good for us.

Sufferings may be something that we do not want to mention, talk about, or get into, for they are unpleasant and quite unwelcome by most of us.

However, sufferings are a necessary part of our Christian life. Of course, human beings all over the world experience suffering; no one is immune from suffering.

Sufferings came in because of the fall of man; because man rebelled against God and came into direct conflict with God, there was chaos and much suffering.

Chaos and confusion came in when man rebelled, and suffering became the portion of every human being on earth.

Every human being, even the whole creation, experiences suffering.

We as believers in Christ, and in our experience, sufferings play a particular role.

In 1 Pet. 2:21 we are told that we were called to this, for Christ also suffered on our behalf, leaving us a model so that we may follow in His steps.

Christ surely suffered; He suffered for us and He suffered very much.

As Isa. 53 says, Christ was a man of sorrows; He understood suffering, He experienced suffering, He was acquainted with suffering, and He suffered on our behalf.

But He suffered in a way to leave us a pattern that we may follow.

May we be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may understand what is the purpose of Christ’s sufferings and how can we experience them.

We need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings; this is not something of asceticism, in which we desire to have suffering, but something of our normal experience of Christ.

The way we experience Christ’s sufferings is in the way of reproduction, not imitation.

The Lord reproduces His life in us, and this includes His sufferings.

In 1 Pet. 4:1 Peter indicates that, since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, we also need to arm ourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Peter tells us to arm ourselves with this mind, having the same mind as Christ; we need to have the mind to suffer.

Sufferings are a necessary part of our Christian life.

They are even a desirable part of the Christian life, for if we realize the gain we have by suffering, we will not despise them but rather welcome them.

In Phil. 3:10 Paul aspired to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

First, he wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and then, he wanted to know the fellowship of His sufferings.

With Christ, the sufferings and death came first, and then resurrection followed; with us, the power of resurrection comes first, and then we participate in His sufferings and are conformed to His death.

When we consider the chronology of the Lord’s life, we see that first He experienced suffering and death, and then He entered into resurrection.

He was taken prisoner, beaten, judged, accused, scourged, put on the cross, and then put on a tomb after He died.

Then, after three days, He rose from the dead in resurrection.

But in our experience, we first have the power of Christ’s resurrection and then, by this power, we experience the fellowship of His sufferings.

May we come to the Lord in prayer so that we may have the same aspiration as the apostle Paul; we need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings so that the church as the Body of Christ may be built up.

Lord Jesus, we come to You as we are; we want to go on with You little by little, day by day. Amen, Lord, we want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection! We aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings in our experience today. We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, to know You and the power of Your resurrection. May the power of Your resurrection operate in us and enable us to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Save us from running away from suffering. Renew us in the spirit of our mind that we may see the benefit of having the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Oh Lord, have a way in us. May we enter into the experience of the power of resurrection so that we may participate in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and be conformed to His death. Amen, Lord, grant us the experiences we need so that we may know You and the power of Your resurrection and the fellowship of Your sufferings, being conformed to Your death!

Receive the Power of Resurrection to be Enabled to Participate in Christ’s Sufferings and Live a Crucified Life in Conformity to His Death

The word of God is balanced and pure; in Phil. 3:10 we are not encouraged to seek more sufferings but rather, that we would know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

First, we need to know Christ. We need to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.

This excellency will inwardly motivate us to put aside and even to lose all things, for nothing compares to this supremely excellent One.

Then, when we know Christ, we will specifically know the power of His resurrection.

The power of His resurrection enables us to participate in Christ’s sufferings and live a crucified life in conformity to His death.

The sufferings we participate in are not the sufferings for redemption but for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ.

May we know Christ and experience Christ today.

When we experience Christ, we will realize that He is in resurrection, and we are infused with the elements of resurrection.

This infusion with Christ and His resurrection power enables us to partake of His sufferings for the Body.

On our side, we need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and open to the Lord about this.

Then, He will give us the experiences we need for us to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, so that, by the power of Christ’s resurrection, we may know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

Our desire is to enter into the fellowship of the Son of God (1 Cor. 1:9), and even more, to enter into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

Naturally, we are not inclined to share in the Lord’s sufferings, but this is what our portion is.

When we participate in Christ’s sufferings by the power of His resurrection, we will gain Christ and experience Him.

The more we experience the cross, the more we experience Christ.

When we allow the cross to operate in us, when we live a crucified life to be conformed to the death of Christ, we know Christ and experience Him.

When we open to the Lord and exercise our will to put ourselves aside, we experience Christ in His death and we remain under the cross.

Immediately, the power of Christ’s resurrection will be there, and we will sing, Tis not hard to die with Christ.

When we know the power of Christ’s resurrection, it is not hard to die with Christ.

When we enjoy the resurrection power of Christ, we will go with Him all the way to Calvary.

When we put ourselves aside and allow the cross to operate in us, the Spirit will be there as the reality of Christ’s resurrection, and we will enjoy Christ as the power of Christ’s resurrection.

In order for us to experience Christ, we must go all the way to Calvary; there is a wonderful death here, at Calvary, a death that brings in resurrection.

This is what Paul experienced.

Paul was not one who liked to experience suffering and pain; rather, he saw the benefit to God and to the Body of Christ when the Lord’s sufferings were experienced by him, and he aspired to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

By the power of Christ’s resurrection, we can participate in the sufferings of Christ for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ.

Even in our daily living, when we do not feel sorry for ourselves as we pass through difficult situations but take up the cross and remain under the death of the cross, we will discover that the power of resurrection is there.

May we not fight back with the Lord and with the sufferings He brings in our way.

May we not avoid the cross but allow the cross to operate in us, even remain under the death of the cross, being assured that the power of resurrection is manifested in us and through us as we experience death.

May the Lord unveil us to see that we must go all the way to Calvary if we want to experience Christ, and may we put the self on the cross so that the Holy Spirit will be there to manifest the power of Christ’s resurrection.

A. B. Simpson saw this, and he testified in a hymn that he wanted to go all the way to Calvary, not sorrowfully and with weeping but joyfully and with singing.

It is possible for us to enjoy death through the power of Christ’s resurrection.

We should not seek experiences of death and suffering; this is the Lord’s job, to assign us the sufferings and hardships and trials.

We simply need to aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings by the power of His resurrection.

Lord Jesus, we want to go with You all the way to Calvary to experience the cross, remain under the cross, and have the power of resurrection manifested in us. Save us from trying to avoid hardships and suffering. May we realize that it is not hard to die with Christ when we know the power of His resurrection. We desire to enter into the fellowship of the Son of God and even more, enter into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Amen, Lord, we want to gain more of Christ by participating in the sufferings of Christ. We put ourselves aside. We refuse to feel sorry for ourselves when the situations are difficult. We simply allow the cross to operate in us and we want to remain under the cross. May the Spirit as the power of resurrection operate in us as we remain under the cross. Amen, Lord, we aspire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings by the power of Christ’s resurrection!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray M. in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 142, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 5, entitled, Knowing the Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings and Being Conformed to His Death.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Crucified with Christ my Savior, / To the world and self and sin; / To the death-born life of Jesus / I am sweetly ent’ring in: / In His fellowship of suff’ring, / To His death conformed to be, / I am going with my Savior / All the way to Calvary. / All the way to Calvary, / Where my Savior went for me, / Help me, Lord, to go with Thee, / All the way to Calvary. (Hymns #481, stanza 1 and chorus, by A. B. Simpson)
  – I am crucified with Christ, / And the cross hath set me free; / I have ris’n again with Christ, / And He lives and reigns in me. / Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ, / To the world, and self, and sin; / Oh! it is so sweet to live with Christ, / As He lives and reigns within. (Hymns #482 stanza 1 and chorus, by A. B. Simpson)
  – To know Him and the power of His resurrection, / And the fellowship of His sufferings, / Being conformed to His death, / If perhaps I may attain / To the out-resurrection from the dead. (Scripture Song on, Phil. 3:10-11)