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"HE SUFFERED, HE DIED, HE AROSE"
Philippians 3.10
INTRODUCTION:
1. Please turn to Philippians 3.10 in your Bible. When you find that verse please stand for the reading of God’s Word: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."
2. In my text for today the apostle Paul addresses the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those are just meaningless words to you who are not converted.
3. But these words don’t have to be meaningless. Young people, words are symbols used to communicate real facts and truths. And the words in this verse refer to historic facts that really did occur in time and history.
4. There really is someone Who is Jesus. He really did come from His Father in heaven. He really did suffer, and bleed and die, and rise from the dead. Let me speak to you this afternoon on those three realities.
1A. FIRST, THE REALITY THAT JESUS SUFFERED
By suffered, I mean that Jesus, the Son of God, actually did experience physical pain and emotional anguish. It was horrible beyond comprehension. It really did happen.
1B. There Are Reasons Why Jesus Suffered, Since It Was No Accident Or Coincidence
1C. Jesus suffered because of you. He suffered because of your nature. You see, you are sinful and estranged from the God Who made you. So, because God loves you and wanted Jesus to come and make a way for you to be reconciled to Him, Jesus came and when He came He suffered.
2C. He suffered because you have despised Him. He suffered because you have rejected Him. He suffered because you have not esteemed Him. He suffered because you have oppressed Him and afflicted Him. Now, you may protest that you have done none of these things, but God’s Word shows that these very things happened to Jesus, and they happened precisely because
your sin brought all these things upon Him.
3C. Looking at it from another side, Jesus also suffered because of His Own holy nature. To lightly esteem me doesn’t particularly affect me. To reject me may affect me for only a few moments. But I’m not holy. Jesus is holy. And His holy nature is extremely sensitive to sin and its rebellion toward Him. On one occasion Christ’s enemies said to Him that He was not yet fifty. What a thing to say to someone barely past thirty years of age. Why did they say that to Him? They said that to Him because He looked almost two decades older than He was. The cumulative effect on Him of living in the very midst of sinful men, you see. But He was willing to suffer at your hands because He loves His Father, and because He loves you.
2B. What Did Jesus Accomplish With His Suffering?
Let’s consider just two things He accomplished with His suffering.
1C. Amazingly, Hebrews 5.8 declares to us that though He is the Son of God, Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered. In other words, He actually experienced His suffering. His suffering was real. He felt the pain and the heartache. And in experiencing His suffering He actually experienced obedience to His Father.
2C. Now, that’s important, because Romans 5.19 shows to us that it was by His obedience that many were made righteous. But that’s not all.
3C. First Peter 4.1 shows that Christ suffered for us in the flesh. That is, He suffered on behalf of us in some way. Isaiah 53.3-7, written six centuries earlier, shows us the reason the Savior suffered during the last 24 hours before His death on the cross: "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. 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. 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. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
4C. Jesus took upon Himself your sins. Jesus suffered for you.
2A. NEXT, THE REALITY THAT JESUS DIED
By died, let me point out that the Son of God actually experienced physical death on the cross. He really did die. And as He was dying, and after He died, His blood was poured out. Let me take just a few minutes to point out to you four reasons why Jesus died.
1B. First, To Punish Sin
Perhaps your sins don’t seem like they are all that serious to you, but they are serious enough that Jesus Christ left heaven’s glory, and at a time appointed of His Father, He suffered the death of the cross for your sins. First Corinthians 15.3 tells us that Jesus died for our sins. Why did He die for our sins? In punishment for our sins. Remember, God had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. God punished Him for you, my friend. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," Romans 5.7-8. Few men would die even for a good man. Jesus died for a sinful scoundrel like you and me. If that isn’t love, what is?
2B. Second, Jesus Died To Propitiate God
It’s a difficult word to express a simple concept. First John 2.2 says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. It simply means that Jesus Christ, with His death and with the shedding of His blood, satisfied God’s righteous demands that sin be punished. In other words, God’s outraged holiness has now been vindicated through Christ’s sacrifice.
3B. Third, Jesus Died To Prepare The Way
Hebrews 9.12 and Hebrews 10.19 shows us that Jesus, with His Own blood, has obtained an eternal redemption for us and we are thus enabled to enter the holy of holies into God’s presence with boldness. This is something you unsaved people cannot do, since to you my God is a consuming fire and no one can come unto the Father but by Jesus. But the way is prepared for that sinner who will come to Jesus. My desire is that you will be that sinner who will come to Jesus.
4B. Fourth, Jesus Died To Purge Your Conscience
Many unsaved people who have had a religious experience think they are saved because they don’t feel guilty any more. But you are self-deluded and your conscience is seared if you feel this way before you are genuinely saved. Because of the work of Christ on our behalf the believer’s conscience is purged from dead works to serve the living God. My, what glorious blessings await the sinner who will but come to Jesus. Any clear conscience before conversion is delusion.
3A. THE REALITY THAT JESUS SUFFERED, THAT JESUS DIED, AND THAT JESUS AROSE
By this I mean that Jesus, the same Jesus Who came from heaven’s glory and was born of a virgin, the same Jesus Who suffered and bled and died for your sins, actually rose from the dead in a physical, but glorified, body.
1B. There Are At Least Three Reasons Why Jesus Rose From The Dead Bodily
1C. First, His nature demanded it. In Acts 2.24 Simon Peter declared that God raised Jesus up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held of it. And this makes sense when you consider what the Lord Jesus Christ said of Himself. In John 12.25 He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." That being true, it would be impossible for Jesus to stay dead.
2C. Second, His mission demanded that He rise from the dead. Romans 4.25 tells us that He was raised for our justification. Jesus shed His precious blood for the remission of your sins. But it is not until the blood is properly applied to the mercy seat that atonement is made. For that reason, after Jesus as the Lamb of God had shed His blood as our sacrifice and died, Jesus as our High Priest had to rise up and take His Own shed blood and complete the offering of that blood in heaven for the remission of our sins.
3C. Third, Christ rose from the dead after three days and nights because prophecies demanded it. The Lord Jesus Himself said that as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so He would rise again after three days. But that’s not the only thing which compelled His resurrection. There are many prophecies which predict the coming of the Messiah in power and great glory which have yet to be fulfilled. Jesus needed to rise from the dead so He could go, and then come again in fulfillment of those prophecies related to His second coming.
2B. I Close With The Reality Of Christ’s Resurrection
1C. No one denies that He suffered. No one denies that He died. People suffer such things all the time, though for different reasons than Jesus did those things. But so many people deny that Jesus rose from the dead. They like the idea of it but they deny the reality of it. How does the Christian faith respond to questions concerning the resurrection? Simple.
2C. Go ask the Jews who lived in Jerusalem about the soldiers who guarded the tomb: "Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day," Matthew 28.11-15. It was common knowledge in Jesus’ day that He rose from the dead, and that the soldiers were bribed to be quiet about it. That was quite a departure from normal Roman policy to execute soldiers who lost someone they were guarding. But you couldn’t execute the guards and still maintain
that Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, now could you?
3C. Or you could ask some of the 500 or so still alive in Paul’s day to tell you what they had seen, including Paul himself. "And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time," First Corinthians 15.4-8. No one for centuries dared question the resurrection, the proofs of it were so abundant. Only those far removed in time and distance have ever doubted that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
CONCLUSION:
1. Jesus suffered. Jesus died. Jesus rose from the dead. Indisputable. Undeniable. At least by reasonable and rational men.
2. All of this to secure your salvation from sin. Too bad it won’t do you any good.
3. It won’t do you any good, you see, unless and until you come to Jesus Himself and trust Him as your Savior. That done, He will apply to you the benefit of His suffering, of His death, and of His resurrection.
4. Come to Jesus and He will save you.
5. If only you will.