Developing a High Christology: Part 5
September 28, 2019      |     By: Sam McVay, Jr.      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: Wichita
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The Stunning Glory & Gain of the Sufferings of Christ

Colossians 1:18 (NIV)
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Jesus is only in the “right place” when He is in the “first-place” of everything!

“First-Placedness” in creation, nations, cities, church, mission, marriage, family, worship, dreams, affections, sexuality, money, and everything else is the only right place for Jesus!

This will take a miracle of the Holy Spirit to accomplish and it WILL be accomplished by The Father’s sovereign plan and will.

But a High Christology is not complete without a growing revelation of The Stunning Glory & Gain of the Sufferings of Christ.

Hebrews 2:10, 17-18 (ESV)
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Let’s be clear that the profound and death-producing sufferings of Jesus scourging and six hour crucifixion were not his only sufferings.

Jesus suffered:
-as a baby born in a cave-manager
-as a toddler fleeing murdering soldiers
-as a child living in a foreign land
-as a starving man in a desert
-as a rejected man by family and nation
-as a human in a weak body that got tired and thirsty
-as a merciful heart that constantly witnessed pain in peoples’ lives
-as a misunderstood and deserted leader
-as a tired minister
-as an accused and cursed minister
-as a broken hearted friend who wept
-as a brow bleeding anguished intercessor in a garden

The Comprehensive and Thorough

Isaiah 52:13-15 (ESV)
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

Isaiah 53:1-12 (ESV)
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The sufferings of Christ provide for us increased adoration, liberation, revelation, and inspiration in the midst of a suffering age.

Adoration: The full scope of the sufferings of Christ will cause our hearts to swell with Spirit empowered worship and praise.

Liberation: The sufferings of Christ have actually set us completely free from eternal suffering and also provided miraculous tastes of “future relief” in our temporary sufferings now if received by faith.

Revelation: The sufferings of Christ were actually longed for by the Apostle Paul and others through church history because of a desire to have deeper revelation of knowing Christ Himself. (Philippians 3:10)

Philippians 3:10 (ESV)
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

Inspiration: The sufferings of Christ empower and motivate us to glad endurance in the midst of our own sufferings.