At a recent missions conference, renowned theologian Sinclair Ferguson delivered a profound message on the intrinsic relationship between Christian mission and suffering – a topic he described as both “tremendously important” and “delicate.”
Ferguson began by acknowledging the care needed when addressing suffering, noting how easily a preacher might mishandle the subject by using stories of historical Christian suffering as “a rod to beat the backs of fellow believers into a sense of guilt and failure.” Instead, Ferguson emphasized that the apostles’ accounts of their suffering were meant to encourage believers by pointing to Christ’s faithfulness.
From Leadership to Servanthood
Ferguson observed a concerning shift in evangelical culture: whereas 50 years ago the emphasis was on discipleship and sacrifice, today’s language centers around leadership. “If you scour through your New Testament, you will notice that word [leadership] is virtually absent,” Ferguson noted. The dominant New Testament language for Christian believers isn’t about leadership but servanthood.
He quoted 2 Corinthians 4:5, where Paul writes, “We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves your bond slaves for Jesus’ sake.” This perspective, Ferguson suggested, runs counter to contemporary Christian culture where leadership training abounds but institutes for “service, sacrifice, and being a bond slave” are scarce.
The Christ Pattern Throughout Scripture
Ferguson outlined how the relationship between suffering and mission follows what he called “the Christ pattern” – embedded in Scripture, illustrated in Paul’s life, and continued throughout church history.
Starting with Genesis 3:15, where God first promises redemption through the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head while having his heel bruised, Ferguson traced this pattern of redemptive suffering throughout the Bible. He described the Old Testament as “sprinkled with blood, sprinkled with sacrifice, and therefore sprinkled with suffering” because this is God’s way of restoration.
The culmination of this pattern is found in Christ’s words in John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Ferguson explained that this principle doesn’t just apply to Jesus but extends to all who follow Him.
Paul: The Working Model
Ferguson highlighted how Paul’s life exemplified this Christ pattern. In 2 Corinthians, Paul repeatedly explains how his sufferings relate to his ministry’s fruitfulness.
“We’re always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested,”
Ferguson quoted from 2 Corinthians 4. He explained that through union with Christ, believers participate in both His death and resurrection: “You share in his death and in his resurrection and, inevitably therefore, if that was the Divine pattern for his fruitfulness, the purpose of it all is that it is the Divine pattern for the church’s fruitfulness.”
Ferguson proposed that Paul himself learned this pattern from witnessing Stephen’s martyrdom – how “death is at work in me and life is going to be at work in you.”
The Pattern Throughout Church History
This pattern of suffering and fruitfulness continues throughout Christian history. Ferguson quoted John Calvin: “From the very beginning God has designed things so that death would be the way to life and the cross would be the way to Victory.”
The diversity of missionary suffering was illustrated through examples like John Paton in the Pacific Islands, Henry Martin in India (who waited nine months for a letter rejecting his marriage proposal), William Chalmers Burns in China, and an unnamed Cambodian Christian who pretended to be mentally ill to secretly share the gospel in a prison camp.
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