The Imitation of Suffering

The question of this morning is: How does the Christian respond to suffering for Christ’s sake? In this sermon I do not want to focus primarily on the persecutors themselves, and their sin, and the condemnation which will surely come to them if they do not repent. Instead I want to focus on how the Christian, who has never really received much persecution, might learn to suffer more for Christ and the gospel. If we focus on the persecutors, it might make us angry at them. Perhaps it will be righteous anger. But there might sinful anger mixed up with it as well. It might make us less willing to suffer for Christ’s sake. But if you focus on the example of those dear Christians who have gone before you, you may indeed become stronger in your witness, and glorify God when it comes your time to suffer for righteousness. In this hour we want to look at godly imitation as a means to learning to endure suffering for Christ. We want to look 1st – At the church at Thessalonica’s imitation of other churches. We will look 2nd – At their imitation of Christ and the prophets. And 3rd – We will look at their imitation of the Apostle Paul. Let us pray, as we study this, that we will become by God’s grace, imitators of those faithful Christians who have gone before us.