Key Bible Passage(s):

II Cor.11:23-28; Phil.1:15-30; Phil.3:7-10

Tier 1

For Paul, suffering for the Gospel is an integral part of the Gospel. It is not a reason to doubt God, or our salvation. It is not necessarily a sign we are doing something ‘wrong’ It may in fact be quite the opposite. Such sufferings are anticipated by Paul & are part of his pastoral strategy in leading Churches is to prepare, support and encourage Christians who are enduring trials and suffering themselves.

Tier 2

When Paul writes to the Church at Philippi, He is both modelling and teaching how to respond to suffering in a Christ-like way. He teaches us how to prioritise the Gospel over our own comfort, and warns us about a number of temptations that we routinely face in the midst of suffering opposition and hostility… and a number of ideas that can sustain us in that suffering.

Tier 3

The suffering of the Church remains the suffering of Christ. His suffering is present tense. It isn’t that He shares in the suffering of the Church, but that the Church shares in suffering of Christ. So Phil.3:10, I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings… Our union with Christ is the reason for our suffering. But our suffering doesn’t achieve the same end. It is not redemptive. Our union with Christ is also the reason for our future hope. And that hope outweighs all our ‘light and momentary troubles’.

Therefore, I bind these lies and slanderous accusations to my person as an ornament; it belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached and reviled, and since all this is nothing but that, as God and my conscience testify, I rejoice in being reproached for Christ's sake.

John Bunyan

Group Discussion Questions:

after watching the final talk in Tson’s series: With Christ in Persecution,

How do you know that your ‘mental picture’ of the world corresponds to reality? Why does it matter?

‘My greatest enemy is sin. How can I be victorious over sin?’ Were you inspired by Tson’s answer as he worked through Romans 5-8?

‘Christ-like character can only be formed in the battle’ (see Rom.5:3-4)? Do you agree? What about Christians who don’t have any experience of ‘the battle’?

‘The purpose of union with Christ is that the power of sin might be destroyed in you’. How does that affect your attitude to discipleship?

and later in the session:

Read again I Thess.1:4-10

How would you feel at the prospect of someone becoming an imitator of you as a Christian? ...or of MIE being held out as a ‘model’ Church?

How would Paul respond to someone struggling to believe God loved them because of their experience of suffering?

Do you agree that Paul seeing some level of persecution as normal Christian experience?

What does joy in the midst of suffering look like? How could we cultivate that?

Paul stretches back before this age (vv.4) and to the end of the age (v.10). How does this perspective help us as we wrestle with suffering?

and towards the end of the session:

Have you ever heard Philippians explained like this?

Do you agree / disagree that it is what Philippians is about?  why?

If this was news to you, why do you think you’ve been able to read Philippians previously without seeing this?

Homework:

Read and Reflect on Hebrews 10-13 ahead of next session.

Let me know if you would be willing to talk about your experience of DTP from the front of Church. As we prepare to start a second cycle, it would be great if folk could get a vision of the difference DTP can make!

Memorise Phil.3:7-10

Watch this video of an interview with Richard & Sabina Wurmbrand

Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian pastor (like Tson), and founder of Voice of the Martyrs, Richard Wurmbrand is interviewed with his wife Sabina. The interview puts a human face on much of what we’ve been thinking about at DTP over last few sessions. …and it shows us that what we read in the Scriptures isn’t theory, or idealism. It is the expectation of Christ for actual Christian experience.

If you’ve never heard of Wurmbrand, or are unfamiliar with his story, you can see a documentary about it here; a great animation suitable for children here; or read about it at a number of places on the internet, including here.

If you want to discover more about the persecuted Church, you can do so through the ministry of organisations like Open Doors; Barnabas Aid; or Voice of the Martyrs.

If you want to take Wurmbrand’s adivce, you can find collections of such stories, collected for daily readings in ‘Heroes of our Faith’ by Patrick Sookdheo:. It is available at several online bookstores.