4-23-2017 Weekly Message

Contemplation of the Week: Psalms 13:1-6

Text: Philippians 3: 1-14

Word of the Word: Can You Count Things That Are Beneficial To You As Dung For Christ?

         Before Apostle Paul  met Christ Jesus in person, he boasted of his strength and enthusiasm for killing Christians, and he wanted to be praised by people as a religious leader. He lived a rich life and persecuted Christians without being persecuted or mocked by anyone. He lived a life of mockery against Christians, and he had nothing to do with any distresses at all. He was one of successful men at that time.

         After he met with Jesus in person, he became humble.  Looking at the unsaved religious leaders as himself in the past, he spoke of them as dogs to warn to watch out for them. He testified of Philippians as the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus.

          After he had met with the Lord, he repented and was born again of the Spirit of God,. Since then,  he was living like Christ Jesus.. About Christ Jesus, the God who appeared in the flesh, the prophet Isaiah prophesied in detail of  his personality and character:  

 “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?report: or, doctrine?: Heb. hearing? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.we hid…: or, he hid as it were his face from us: Heb. as an hiding of faces from him, or, from us Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.wounded: or, tormentedstripes: Heb. bruise. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.“(Isaiah 53: 1-6)

          Apostle Paul testified that when he wrote to the Corinthians, the Lord in necessities:

” For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich…. (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. “(2 Corinthians 8: 9; 9: 9)

        That is correct! God became  a person and had lived in  all the weaknesses, insults, poverty, persecutions, and distresses for us. through his suffering and death. The Lord Jesus became a true ensample for us, and said to follow him denying oneself and take up his cross. he also said, if anyone follow him not taking his cross, he is not worth of him. (Matt. 16 (Matt. 10:38; 16:24).

           In other word, he cannot be a true disciple and cannot live the life of Christ’s witnesses unless he denies himself and takes up  his cross.. To deny  oneself and to up his own cross is to forsake things that are  good for him, and to live like the  Lord in all their weaknesses, insults, poverty, persecutions, and distresses. If not, Christ cannot be manifested in our life so that we are not able to testify of the Lord Jesus.  . The disciples who are witnesses of Christ and  preach the gospel must be able to manifest the life of Christ.

           Therefore, Apostle Paul, who realized this truth, testified about his life as a loss to Christ for whatever was beneficial to him, and he most wisely noticed that the knowledge of Christ Jesus was the most noble. He also testified that not only did he lose everything that was beneficial to him, but that he had no choice but to smell like dung.

          He also suffered the suffering, the death, and the burial with the power to overcome all suffering in communion with Christ, suffering in this affliction through the life of Christ, and aiming at the resurrection of the resurrected Christ on the third day It was. Because of this, the goal he sees is that he looked at the day of Christ’s resurrection and change in Christ’s day. As to this day of rapture, he wrote a very detailed letter to the Thessaloniki and Corinthian Saints.

         He  wrote to his spiritual son Timothy, saying, God wants to save  all men and let them come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2: 4). Everyone who believes  in Christ Jesus has to know him in person in details to understand   the meaning of his suffering, death, and resurrection, to have  mysterious fellowship with the Lord.

        Also, when he wrote to the Philippians, he said, ” I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.” (Philippians 4: 13-14). This is because he joined Christ’s suffering and witnessed that through his mysterious fellowship with Him, he was able to overcome all things and receive the power of Christ in his life, and that he could do the Lord’s work well.

        Apostle Paul also gave the same evidence to the Corinthian church members upon hearing the voice of the Lord, saying, “My grace is enough for you ” when he  asked the Lord  three times because of the thorn in the flesh. After hearing the word of the Lord, he testified, ” I am proud of my  weakness, and testify that the power of Christ has given me  a life that dwells in him. He  testified that the life in insults, in need, in persecution, and in distress, was rather joyful  for Christ, because I had personally experienced what I had become stronger by the power of Christ when I was weak.”

           Apostle Paul was subjected to much suffering and persecution following Christ, and he was able to go all the way even to the place where he was beheaded for Christ, along with Christ, because he was able to do everything with the power he received from Christ in the fellowship of mysteries of Christ and suffering.

            Even before the Lord left these disciples behind, and before he left the world, he spoke to the disciples, knowing in advance that the disciples had to suffer great persecution and the Gospel because of Christ:

” Do ye now believe?  Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world “(John 16: 31-33)

Amen! Hallelujah!