In Revelation 1:9 John says that he was a “joint partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus.” To say that we are joint partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance in Jesus indicates that we are suffering. When Jesus lived on earth as a man, He suffered continually. According to the history of His life, His name Jesus denotes a suffering person, a man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3). Therefore, to be a joint partaker of tribulation in Jesus is to suffer and to be persecuted as we follow Jesus the Nazarene. The book of Revelation is for those who are suffering tribulation in Jesus. As we wait for the coming of the Lord, we must be willing to suffer. This suffering is for the Body, the church. We must participate in the sufferings of Jesus for the sake of the church.
When Jesus was on earth, He was persecuted by the Jewish religion, a religion formed according to God’s oracles. John 5:16 says that the Jews persecuted Jesus because He broke their Sabbath. Religious people cannot tolerate the breaking of their regulations. Any violation of their religious regulations will stir up persecution. When Jesus broke the Sabbath, the Jewish religionists persecuted Him and even sought to kill Him. Eventually, religion succeeded in sentencing Jesus to death.
Just as religion persecuted Jesus, it also persecutes the followers of Jesus. We know from the book of Acts that the Jews in the synagogues stood up in opposition to the apostles. Paul suffered this kind of persecution very much. John, the writer of Revelation, also experienced it. John was exiled to the island of Patmos “for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” He became a joint partaker in the suffering, the affliction, in Jesus.
The persecution against the Lord Jesus originated not with the secular world, but with the religious world. In the book of Acts we see that the situation was the same regarding the persecution of the apostles. The opposition did not come mainly from the Gentiles, but from the Jewish religion. In like manner, a great many martyrs have suffered persecution at the hand of religion. Religion always persecutes the genuine followers of Jesus. Now it is our turn to undergo this persecution, this suffering for the building up of the Body of Christ. During the years I was with Brother Nee in China, I saw how much he was persecuted by religion. The rumors, opposition, and condemnation came from the religious people. In his subtlety, Satan, the Devil, uses religion to oppose and to persecute those who follow the Lord Jesus. Therefore, like John on the island of Patmos, we also must be joint partakers in the tribulation in Jesus. In this way we make up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the church.
In 2 Timothy 2:10 Paul says, “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake.” This verse is a further indication that Paul suffered for the sake of the elect, God’s chosen people.
Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 1:5 and 6 say, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” This is another indication of how much Paul suffered for the saints.