'The Fellowship Of His Sufferings

by L.M. Ross, Aberdeen, Scotland | Category: Simon Peter: Bondservant And Apostle | Mar 1995

'Lord ... I am ready to go both to prison and to death', asserts Peter. No romantic idealism this, but words expressing his conviction that his Master is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Perhaps many times in the ensuing years he would recall his words, not we like to think, with any sense of regret for the sentiment expressed. True, there was much regret at his failure to give answer concerning the hope that was in him (1 Pet. 3:15) when three times he denied the Lord, but the Master's prayer was answered. Faith did not fail, but was strengthened to allow him a ministry of strengthening his brethren. 'I am ready' would be tested many times. At Tiberias, in resurrection, the Lord told Peter of the death by which he would glorify God (John 21:19; 2 Pet. 1:14), and immediately said 'Follow Me'. Here is the cornerstone of true discipleship - following. 'Take up your cross and follow Me' was the Lord's clear directive, and for Peter this would mean a very real experience of the 'fellowship of His sufferings' (Phil. 3:10). Peter speaks of his decease in 2 Peter 1:14-15 and recalls the day when he was an eyewitness of the Lord's majesty when on that mountain He spoke of His decease, His great exodus from this world. It's not clear whether or not Peter heard His conversation with Moses and Elijah, but he would learn that before his Master could accomplish that decease He would have to endure all the suffering that was Calvary. 'I am ready'. Yes Peter, you too will have a path of suffering to tread before your decease.

Acts 4:

'I am ready'. The will of God for disciples of this dispensation had been delivered to the apostles by their Lord (Acts 1), and following His ascension they exercised themselves in prayer, and after Pentecost, preaching. The Lord had come preaching the gospel of God, doing good and healing, and now the healing of this lame man and the subsequent preaching by Peter would bring into sharp focus for him the cost of following. 'A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

The fact of the change in the lame man could not be denied by the authorities (vv. 14-16), but they would not share in its joy. The means of achieving the miracle was to them a threat, just as the life of the Lord Jesus had been perceived as a threat to the stability of the nation, though it was

for envy that He was delivered up (Mat. 27:18). He had forewarned His disciples that they too would have similar experiences - 'they will deliver you up to councils ... but when they deliver you up be not anxious how or what ye shall speak ... it shall be given you in that hour what he shall speak' (Mat. 10:17,19). How true these words were proved to be! Detained overnight because the authorities were sore troubled at the preaching of the apostles, they were brought before the intimidating presence of the council and cross-examined. 'Ignorant and unlearned men' perhaps, but 'it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you' (Mat. 10:21). And so, in the hour when their very faith was being tested, they displayed that spiritual boldness which is such a feature of Acts 4. Like a true deacon, Peter demonstrates 'great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus' (1 Tim. 3:13). Quite a change from earlier days!

When the disciple sincerely sanctifies in his heart Christ as Lord (1 Pet. 3:15), when he totally commits himself to the Lord and His service, he will, like Peter, have to experience the fellowship of His sufferings in some measure. It may be, as Peter wrote, that the disciple's good manner of life in Christ will be reviled by some, but he says, it is better if God so wills, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing (1 Pet. 3:16,17). Whatever the test, to experience like Peter the reality of the Lord's promises at such a time

is to gain great encouragement and a strengthening of faith.

And it was not only Peter and John who suffered. All the company of the disciples had fellowship with them in their experience. More than likely they had been praying for their release and when it came their reaction was to exercise themselves in further prayer -'grant unto Thy servants to speak Thy Word with all boldness'. It was united prayer in the face of threatenings which touched heaven and brought an answer. 'They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness' (v.31). God was working. Exercised prayer was answered! Threatenings, however, would lead to beatings, and with multiplied trials would come multiplied grace.

Acts 5:

'I am ready'. The scene is set for confrontation. The Devil never gives up, and where God is working he is not very far away. Jerusalem is in a stir. The Church is growing: multitudes both of men and women. Many sick folk are healed. The Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit (Acts 23:8) imprison Peter and the apostles, but during the night they are released by an angel and told to continue to speak about this resurrection and spiritual life. They are re-arrested and charged 'you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching' - glorious fulfilment of the prayers of the disciples which we earlier considered. True, they had disobeyed the charge not to speak to all, nor teach in the Name of Jesus, but Peter's answer to this was uncompromising, 'we must obey God rather than men' (v.29). This was not a deliberate policy of civil disobedience, simply rendering to God the things that are God's (Mat. 22:21). The commission to preach the gospel was laid heavily upon Peter by the resurrected Lord and if this brought him into conflict with the authorities, so be it. Like Paul he might have said 'necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel... I have a stewardship intrusted to me' (1 Cor. 9:16,17). Peter had said to the Lord one day 'Lo, we have left all and have followed Thee', to which He replied that no one who left all behind for His sake, and for the gospel's sake, would ever regret it though it would mean persecutions: eternal life lay ahead. Persecutions would accompany preaching - it was 'the fellowship of His sufferings'.

The murder which was in the mind of the council was tempered by the advice of Gamaliel, and so they contented themselves with beating the apostles before releasing them.

Contrary perhaps to expectation they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the Name (v.41). No morbid gratification this, but 'the fellowship of His sufferings'.

Acts 12:

'I am ready'. If previously the opposition was inspired by the religious leaders, here it is politically motivated. Herod, to please the Jews who so hated these Christians, kills James and imprisons Peter with a view to slaying him too. But his hour is not yet come. The incident brings the Church to prayer. In God's sovereign will the prison door secured by the authorities and guarded, is opened, only for Peter to face a closed door which should have been readily opened. '0 foolish men, and slow of heart to believe'.

What a lesson this was for the disciples in prayer. The Church was earnest in its prayer for Peter: many of them continued praying at the house, and yet when the answer came there was an unwillingness to believe it. Through Peter's experience God was teaching them an important lesson, and does it not challenge our own attitude in the matter of believing prayer?

(Mark 11:24). Do we really believe that God is able to do what we ask, if

it is His will?

'The Fellowship of His Sufferings':

It was Paul who penned the words. Peter uses a similar word when he writes about being 'partakers of Christ's sufferings' (1 Pet. 4:13). To those who so suffer he says 'rejoice', for he anticipates the time of the revelation of His glory. Sufferings and glories - the pattern of the Saviour's experience (1 Pet. 1:11). The consideration of the glorious resurrected Christ, raised for our justification and raised that we might not remain in our sins, will lead us into a like experience of suffering and glory. What does it mean?

We shall be ever sensitive to the fact of the Lord's own suffering: the bitterness of the Calvary experience of which Peter writes (1 Pet. 3:18). Thank God we have no part in that experience, for there was no sorrow like His sorrow. Can our hearts remain unaffected? This was the culmination of what Peter speaks about in 4:1 'forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh' - He was ever a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, suffering for doing God's will, and it is in this aspect particularly that we can have fellowship in His sufferings. 'The disciple is not above his Lord'.

Are you ready?

L.M. Ross, Aberdeen, Scotland | Mar 1995
Simon Peter: Bondservant And Apostle