June 1, 2014 · Philippians 3:7–14

Knowing Christ Through Suffering (Philippians 3:7-14)

“So, how does Jesus deal with the pain and fear of realizing that he's about to suffer and die on a Roman-cruel cross, naked and alone? And even deeper than the physical and emotional pain of that suffering was the spiritual suffering of taking on the world's sin and evil unto himself in that death. All the ugliness of human sin, all the lying and the bitterness and the greed and violence and abuse and neglect and selfishness and the adultery and the hatred of self and others, all of that. That's what Jesus had to experience as if dying on a cross wasn't enough, the physical pain. So, we go to this scene in the Scriptures, this scene where Jesus is in a garden called Gethsemane and his soul is overwhelmed by sorrow to the point of death it says. He feels like dying, like giving up. His disciples were with him, but they didn't understand what's happening. All they wanted to do was take a nap, and Jesus, in this intense suffering, here's what he prayed. He prayed, if there's some way, God, that I can get out of this. If there's some way that I could avoid this suffering and pain. If there's some other way, please, God, I don't want to go through this. But in the end, he knew he had to go through it. If he was going to conquer sin and death for all humanity, he needed to go through it and he finally prayed, Father, your will be done.”