Are we witness to the suffering of Christ?

[good samaritan]

14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance

I have not noticed this before, but Peter has insight of his death. How would we serve God with such an insight.

and a witness of the sufferings of Christ

I so acknowledge how little I know about the sufferings of Christ. The apostles who knew that it was just a matter of time until their decease, were still vehement about spreading the gospel. Many are guilty of managing their lives, balancing their relationship with God like they would a checkbook. I believe God wants us to be taken out of our comfort zones and enter into the walk of faith.

[Esaias]

Good point, brother. May I add the following remarks?

1. We share in his sufferings when we suffer for him. While here in America there is not much suffering for Christ (a whole sermon series in itself, I'm sure), there is SOME. Whenever you witness and are ridiculed and rejected. Whenever you take a stand for the Word and suffer any kind of push back. Even just suffering the uncomfortableness of getting out there and witnessing, while seemingly insignificant to what He actually endured, nevertheless is all a small sharing and fellowshipping with his sufferings.

2. When one member suffers, the Body suffers. And as we are Body of Christ in this earth, our sufferings are His. When we share the sufferings of our brethren, we share in the sufferings of Christ.

3. The psalms are wonderful tools for worship, both as sung or recited praise and songs, and as prayers. We may at first think "this psalm of lament has no correspondence with my personal experience" but those psalms express the experiences of God's people through the millenia. Indeed, they express Christ's experiences! By joining in singing (or just reciting) and in praying the psalms, we join in the experiences of our Lord and our brethren. Thus we learn to weep with those who weep, etc.

4. Taking up our cross and following Him means being conformed to his image. And that means participating in his sufferings. Not that our participations have any merit, but rather that his sufferings become real to us, they are "acted out" in us so to say, so that we are formed by those experiences and "fitted for glory". That is, molded and shaped so that we will be properly prepared for glory.

And being told this is what it takes to get eternal life, to be his disciple, it must be our priority. We must ask God to reveal Christ, not only " to" us, but IN us. We must seek that, and by faith experience it, and abound more and more in it. Because after all, that IS eternal life.