Colossians Part 3

Again, this mind that was in Paul of Tarsus is absolutely unbelievable. He saw the church, and he really did see the church as Christ. He really did see that body as Christ, and he looked at that body living at that time as Christ. And he looked upon the reality of that being Christ so much that he knew that Christ living on this earth as a body, and that’s what it says, that body as part of Christ, members of it must suffer Christ’s suffering for the sake of the body and space and time. Did you understand what I just said? It doesn’t matter if you don’t.

To Paul, what’s in this room right here is Christ living and breathing today. Christ lived in Judea and Galilee, and He suffered, He suffered on the cross. But this man has such a sense of the body being Christ that he sees Christ alive again in physical form—you as a corporate body, and he knows that the sufferings of Christ have to be made complete.

Are you a member of Christ? Are you a limb of Christ? Yes or no? Well, say it. Yes. All of you say it. Well, sometimes a limb has to suffer for the whole body. Don’t go ask for this job. Don’t ever be such a foolish person. I almost want to call you a fool, but the New Testament says don’t ever call anybody a fool. So, I would say you’re very foolish. I wish Paul hadn’t written this. I’m up here in Rome as a limb doing my part to fill up and make complete the sufferings of Christ that belong to His body to suffer.

Somebody in Chicago has got to suffer some kind to fill up Christ’s sufferings in His body. Did you see that? In His body, which is the ekklesia, the assembly, the church. I don’t really like to talk about these subjects, but sometimes somebody’s got to suffer. If that’s true and if my sufferings are for the church, I wish the Lord would go pick on somebody else. I would like a little relief. I had one good day; it’s been so long that I literally do not remember. I can’t remember far enough back that I was not in constant pain. And one day I got up there in my home in Maine. I got up feeling good, and I went out and worked like you work, physically all day long, had more fun, and at 11:00 that night, I beat my chest like Tarzan.

That’s the only day I remember ever having energy and freedom from pain. I don’t know why that’s true. I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me, but I am warning you that every once in a while, totally apart from me, but in the witness of Paul of Tarsus, some of us have to suffer to fill up Christ’s sufferings because the body is present and physically here. Just ask the Lord not to pick on you. But sometimes you will catch it and thank God for the day that, in your sufferings, you learn some wonderful thing out of what you have gone through, because the rest of the church needs the discovery you made in your suffering.

Have you noticed how much riches there are in Paul’s writings? The discoveries he made in Christ for the church. These things come about, brothers and sisters, through sufferings. Has anybody in this church, think with me now a minute, have you ever been helped by someone else in the church because of something that other person went through? A word, a testimony, something, and you remember it, and you know it. And you can remember it right now. Not just I have a general idea. Somebody who was really hurting and went through it, and because of what they went through, they got help. Would you raise your hand? I just like to see how many there are. I’ve got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 people.

Well, then, let me just tell you that most of the help you get from me came from something I went through. I can speak on the cross with complete ease, I can speak on the sufferings of Christ with complete ease, I’m not reading this out of a book. These things that you hear from me are discoveries made in the desperate hours when you so desperately need the Lord, and in that respect, I can say Lord, send suffering to the church that we might be comforted with the comfort that the other person might be comforted with the comfort where we ourselves were comforted of God.  That’s a passage of scripture you are familiar with, it’s in Romans. That I might comfort you and you might comfort me, and that you might be comforted by the comfort where I myself was comforted by God. There must be suffering in the church, but I don’t comprehend how a man a thousand, well, 6 or 700 miles away from those people, could possibly suffer and it be for their benefit, and I don’t understand how it is that we fill up the suffering of Christ. I can only tell you it’s true. And will you please listen to me? This has got nothing to do with individuals. Everything I have said to you is about the church of Jesus Christ.

It is for her sake we suffer; it is for his sake we suffer. And if we go to prison, it’s for Christ’s sake and the church’s sake. And if you suffer here in this town, then let me tell you, you are filling up the sufferings of Christ for somebody. I want to back away before I go, before I do anything else, and let me ask you something else, and then tell you, you’ve been meeting here for a minimum of 15 years. Have you had a hard time? You had a good time, but you had a hard time. As a corporate body, have you suffered? And as individuals, have you hurt? And you don’t know what you have meant to others, do you? I’m going to tell you a very tiny little story.

We sat in this room as a bunch of people who are outsiders and from the other churches, and the doors were closed, and you had your black drops out here, and you put on one incredible show, and we began to applaud. Do you remember? And nothing happened, and we kept on cheering and applauding, and nothing happened. And I hollered, “If you’ll come out here, we’ll stop applauding.” And y’all came out here like people with pie in your phone in your face. You were utterly, totally bewildered. You kind of look like this, like a deer looking at headlights. Nobody bowed; you just stared at us.

I don’t know if you realize this or not, but you were telling us that you had not done that for personal pleasure, that you were not people who come out and take a bow. You were astonished that we wanted to thank you. You never noticed that, but it made a big impression on a lot of people. I’m going to tell you again, there’s not a church I work with that reaches all the way to Romania, but what you have influenced them and not a little bit. I told you the other day you were outclassed by Denver. You should rejoice in that. In Denver, they would have never done or known how to do or had any comprehension of how to do that, really, if they had not seen you.

You’ve made an enormous contribution that has come out of your suffering in Chicago, and you have aided, and you have comforted the brothers and sisters, and you have helped me enormously. There have been times I’ve wanted to load all of you up and dump you on one of the churches going through some problems, and just let them sit down and hear you tell your story. You didn’t know it was for a purpose, did you? Outside of your own personal edification, you have suffered for the body of Christ, and you know something, you should rejoice in that now that you’re not hurting so badly. I want you to go home and say, “Lord, I didn’t know. Thank you very much for what we went through. You are a testimony to the other brothers and sisters you see from time to time.”

Well, we’re going to quit. I don’t even know what the next verse is, but we’re going to quit. Don’t expect me to speak like this very often. We don’t have a chance of getting through this, do we? This weekend, it’s not a prayer of a chance. Have you heard everything that’s been said? Have you heard a little bit? I wonder if you understand anything that’s been said here, and the brothers and sisters from Michigan, do you think you’ve understood some of this? These are mysterious things that defy space and time, and they all have to do with the mystery of the body of Christ and the practicality of the body of Christ. And of these things we are not worthy, and of these things we are not capable.