I don’t know a whole lot about advertising, but I know that when a movie studio wants to promote a movie, they usually come up with some sort of tagline to use on posters and in commercials. The tagline might be an important quote from the movie or some kind of hint about the plot, but whatever they choose, they try to choose a tagline that will capture the main message or story of the film. You might remember what movie these famous taglines are attached to:
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”—Star Wars
“Every man dies, not every man really lives”—Braveheart
“Collide with destiny”—Titanic
I want you to ponder something for just a moment: if someone were to make a movie about your life, what would the tagline be? How would the producers summarize your life in one short statement? Would it be something like—“The Life of Bob Smith: One man’s quest to eat at every truck stop in America.” Would it be something funny? Something sad? Something serious? What would you want it to be?
In our study in the book of Philippians today, I believe we are going to see the tagline of the Apostle Paul’s life. He got to write his own tagline, and his tagline gives us a clear insight into the way that a Christian is supposed to view all of life. What I hope you’ll see in this passage of Scripture today is this:
Whether we live or die, it’s all about Christ!
Turn with me if you would please to Philippians 1. As we look at these verses, you’ll hopefully remember that Paul was in prison at the time that he wrote this letter. He is going to write about life and death here because he was in a situation that was literally a matter of life and death. He was awaiting a hearing before Caesar himself regarding some trumped-up charges, but the charges were serious enough that Paul could be given a sentence of death. So in these verses, Paul is going to analyze the options of life or death and show us how we should look at such serious matters. Follow along with me as I read the last half of v. 18 through v. 26 [READ vv. 18b–26]
We can see that Paul is ready to live or die, and he actually sees advantages in both, but as long as he still lives we see that he wants to live in a certain way. Let’s look at three goals that he has for himself, goals which we should adopt for ourselves.
I. We can live without putting Christ to shame by praying for each other (1:18b–20)
Paul had just written that he rejoices over the preaching of the gospel, whether its done with pure motives or sinful motives, and now he continues by saying [READ vv. 18b–20]. Let me point out a helpful Bible study tip that will help us understand what Paul is saying here. In v. 19 he writes, “for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance.” Now we know that the word “deliverance” tells us that Paul is thinking about some kind of danger or trouble, so we need to answer the question, “deliverance from what?”
Now our first thought might be that Paul is talking about deliverance from prison, because he talks about that just a few verses later in verses 25–26. But grammatically, this statement is connected to the idea in v. 20 of Paul being put to shame. He feels that he needs to be delivered from the danger of being put to shame, and its not that he’s worried about his reputation or anything like that—rather, he is worried about Jesus’ reputation. He is probably thinking about his hearing before Caesar, and as Paul says, he wants to exalt Christ with all boldness.
He wants to be a good witness for Christ and not be put to shame, because that would bring shame upon Christ, and Paul sees the idea of bringing shame upon Christ as a danger from which he needs to be delivered, and that is a very interesting perspective. Here is Paul in a situation where he really could lose his life, and his biggest concern is making sure that he doesn’t bring shame upon Jesus. Whether he lives or dies, its all about Christ!
But Paul is confident that he will be delivered from putting Christ to shame. In v. 19 he mentions two things that give him this confidence [READ vv. 18b–19]. Here he mentions something from them and something from God—their prayers and the provision of the Holy Spirit, probably referring there to strength from the Holy Spirit. Now please don’t miss how closely he connects these two things—the prayers of the Philippians are joined together with strength from the Holy Spirit to enable Paul to exalt Christ through his testimony. This is an amazing statement about how our prayers for each other fit together with God’s work in our lives.
Throughout the Bible, God calls us to pray to Him so that we might confess our sins to Him or make requests of Him or pray that He would work in behalf of others. And it is not that God needs our prayers; He can do what He wants whether we’ve asked Him to do it or not! But apparently God wants us to have the privilege of joining in His work through prayer. It’s like when you might ask your child to help you with a project that you’re working on. You don’t really need their help, but you want them to learn and to have the satisfaction of helping to accomplish something.
That’s what its like when God invites us to pray for others. It’s like He’s saying, “Pick up that hammer and give me a hand,” or “pick up those crayons and let’s draw something together.” God grants us the privilege of seeing our prayers joined with His work to accomplish great things in the lives of others. Let’s remember what an important work it is to pray for each other.
Paul’s second goal is this…
II. Our lives should be defined by a healthy tension between living to serve Christ and going to be with Him (1:21–24)
It’s here in v. 21 that we find the tagline for Paul’s life. He had just stated in v. 20 that he wants Christ to be exalted in his body whether by life or by death, and now he reveals the perspective that makes that possible [READ vv. 21–24]. Let’s look at both parts of this powerful declaration here. First, Paul says that for him, to live is Christ. He clarifies what he means in verses 22 and 24 where he says that if he continues to live, he will pursue fruitful labor for the Lord and he will seek to meet the spiritual needs of the Philippians. So for Paul, this is what life boiled down to—bearing fruit for Christ and building up the people of Christ. Christ was the lens through which he viewed all of life, which made him look at how he could honor Christ in every situation of life.
What a lofty goal for life, and if you think about it that goal will give meaning and purpose to everything we do, even things that seem mundane or “non-religious.” We have developed an unhealthy perspective today of viewing our jobs as “non-religious” activity. We tend to think that we’re doing religious things when we come to church, but going to work is a “non-religious” activity. It’s not if you have Paul’s perspective. Perhaps you think, “Well, I’m just a farmer, I’m not a missionary or anything like that.” Really? Are you not a witness to the hired men who work for you, or the family members that you work with? Are you not obeying God by working to provide for your family and to have something to give to others who are in need? Are you not serving and loving other people by growing food for them to eat?
Or maybe you think, “I’m just a teacher; there’s nothing religious about that!” Really? Are you not a witness to the people that you work with? Are you not serving others by investing your time to teach them useful things that will help them be educated and mature and skillful?
Or maybe you think, “I’m just a stay-at-home mom. There are many days where I don’t see anyone but my kids. I’m not making a big impact for Jesus.” Really? Are you not obeying God by teaching your children to love the Lord? If you’re doing that, you’re not just raising your children—you’re discipling them!
You see friends, if we will adopt this perspective, then we can say, “For to me, to farm/teach/be a homemaker is Christ.” And beyond simply our jobs, all of life can be viewed through this lens, so that everything we do is focused on bringing glory to Christ.
So Paul tells us that to live is Christ, but then he goes on to say that to die is gain. He tells us why this is in v. 23, where he says that to depart (or to die) means that we will be with Christ, and he says that is very much better. You’ve got to love the way that he says that—it’s not just better, it’s very much better than remaining alive. The only way that that perspective can be true is if we learn to love Jesus more than we love the things of this world—including the people in this world.
For so many people, death is an enormous loss, and that’s why it’s such a crushing blow. They have spent their lives trying to grab hold of the things that our world says are important—things like money, fame, power. If that’s what you’re pursuing in life, then death is a tremendous loss because you have to leave all of that behind. But for the Christian, when we compare the loss of those things against the gain of being in the presence of Jesus, there is no comparison! If our lives are focused on serving Christ, then death is no longer a loss—it is a gain because we will get to be with the one that we love more than anything. But as I said, that’s only true if we do in fact love Christ more than anything—even more than our friends and family, because death separates us from them as well, at least until they pass away or the Lord returns.
So that’s Paul’s second goal in these verses, to have a healthy tension between serving Christ and going to with Him. As long as we live, we should be eager to serve Christ, but our love for him should make us ready to say good-bye to everything when our time comes to be with Him. We see our third and final goal in vv. 25–26.
III. As long as we live, our growth in the faith should be accompanied by joy (1:25–26)
In v. 25, Paul writes, “Convinced of this,” and he’s referring to what he concluded in v. 24. He knew that at the moment, it was more beneficial for the Philippians if he remained alive so that he could continue to instruct them. So he writes [READ vv. 25–26]. I like the way that the NIV translation reads in v. 26. It says, “so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” That really captures Paul’s idea well—the Philippians would be able to rejoice in Christ because Christ had allowed Paul to come back to them. And Paul says in v. 25 that his return to them will be for their progress and joy in the faith. His focus would be on helping them grow in the Christian faith, but please notice what characteristic he ties together with progress here—it is joy! As we grow as Christians, our growth is supposed to be accompanied by joy!
To many people, I don’t think Christians have the reputation of being a joyful people. That could be because people just don’t know us well enough, but I think it’s a perception that lives on still in the minds of many people. People think of Christians and the Christian life as dull; they think its all about saying “no” to anything that’s fun, or they think its about frowning all the time and reminding ourselves how wretched we are.
Let’s make sure that we don’t reinforce those kinds of stereotypes. I’m not saying that we should plaster fake smiles on our faces all the time, because everyone understands that life isn’t always fun, but we should be able to show people that the Christian life is about hope and grace and forgiveness and love, things that allow us to live with joy in our hearts. Philippians has been called the book of joy because Paul tells us several times to rejoice in the Lord, so let’s make it our goal to take that message to heart.
I want you to think again about the idea that I started with this morning—the thought of coming up with a tagline for a movie of your life. What if the tagline for your life were the same as Paul’s tagline here: “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain?” How would that tagline fit with the movie of your life? Would the tagline say “for to me to live is Christ,” but then the movie would show you not reading Christ’s words very often, not praying very often, not living as a witness for Christ? Or would the tagline say, “to die is gain,” but then the movie would show you filling up houses and barns and storage units with stuff that your kids will just sell off when you die?
How well does that tagline fit your life? Are there some areas that don’t match up? If right now you can’t say, “for to me, dating is Christ,” what needs to change? Or if you can’t say, “my marriage is Christ,” what needs to change? Let’s look at every area of our lives from that perspective, to ask how we can seek to honor Christ in every area of our lives. And if we find areas that don’t line up with that tagline, let’s endeavor to change. But change is never easy, so let’s pray for God’s strength to carry us through.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Unconquerable Joy--Philippians 1:12-18a
Have you ever noticed how the things we tend to desire most in life are usually the things that are the most difficult to get? And that when we do get them, they’re usually the most difficult things to hold on to? Now I’m not talking about a new boat or a fancy car or things like that—I’m thinking of the emotional needs that we search for in life; things like joy, contentment, peace, acceptance, a sense of purpose and satisfaction. These things are very difficult to get, and when we do get them, they are very difficult to hang on to. I think this is proof enough that something inside of us is seriously out of whack, which is precisely what the Bible teaches us.
According to the Bible, God created us in a state of perfection—we had no sin, and our ancestors Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with each other and with God. But we as humans rebelled against God and decided to go our own way, and ever since then we have had a natural desire to worship ourselves rather than God.
And I think that lesson tells us why things like joy, peace, and contentment are so hard to find—its because we’re looking in all the wrong places. Since we are estranged from God because of our sin, we start to look to our own accomplishments to bring us joy, or we look to the material things of this world to bring us joy, and what we find is that they never meet that need for us, and yet we often simply continue on down the same path because our sinful mindset continues to turn us away from God and back toward ourselves.
So what is the answer to this problem? How can we find something like lasting joy? Well, the answer the Scripture gives us of course is to rejoice in the Lord. We can find lasting joy by finding it in the Lord. But what does that mean exactly? When we say, “rejoice in the Lord,” that’s still a little bit of an abstract concept. Is it possible to be more specific about how we are to do that?
In our study today from the book of Philippians, we are going to gain some insight from the Apostle Paul as to how we can find a joy in the Lord that is lasting. What we will see from our study today is this…
We can have lasting joy when we rejoice in the unstoppable spread of the gospel.
Would you turn with me please to Phil. 1:12–18? Let’s read these verses, and then I want to look at two realities about the spread of the gospel that give us reason to rejoice [READ Phil. 1:12–18].
I. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution
In our last study in this letter from Paul to the Philippians, we saw Paul’s greeting to the people of that church. He told them how he prayed for them (with thankfulness and joy) and he also told them what he prayed for them (that they would have a knowledgeable love that would guide them into choosing what is best). Now, Paul begins to tell them about his present circumstances, which for Paul means that he is going to start talking about the gospel. Paul’s entire life was centered around the spread of the gospel, so Paul isn’t really going to talk about how he’s doing, instead he’s going to talk about how the gospel is doing. And perhaps to our surprise, we find that even though Paul was in prison, the gospel was doing quite well.
Notice again v. 12 [READ v. 12]. Now how could this be? Paul was in prison, under persecution first from the Jews, then from the Romans. How could that situation turn out for the greater progress of the gospel? Well, what Paul tells us gives us a couple of insights into how persecution can actually accelerate the spread of the gospel.
A. The gospel often spreads among those who are conducting the persecution
Look at what Paul writes in v. 13 [READ v. 13]. Apparently, all of the soldiers and the people in Rome who had come in contact with Paul realized that he was not an ordinary prisoner. He was not under arrest for a crime, nor was he really a political prisoner—he was under arrest for his preaching about Jesus Christ. This fact had become known among the guards and the officials, and some of them had apparently accepted the gospel themselves, because Paul writes in 4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” Now at that time, “Caesar’s household” would have also included servants and guards, so this may not have referred to Caesar’s actual family, but nevertheless the gospel had been accepted by some who were in the closest proximity to a man who proclaimed himself lord of all.
This shows us the amazing truth that when the gospel comes under persecution, it doesn’t stamp out the message—it actually causes it to spread farther, sometimes among the same people who are conducting the persecution! This truth has played itself out throughout church history time and time again. Some of the most incredible examples of this truth have come out in just the last few decades from countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. In his book Desiring God, Pastor John Piper records part of the autobiography of a former member of the Russian secret police named Sergei who became a believer through the willingness of Christians to suffer for their faith. I want to read part of that for you. Sergei writes about one of his police raids and he says:
I saw Victor Matveyev reach and grab for a young girl [named Natasha] who was trying to escape to another room. She was a beautiful young girl. What a waste to be a believer. Victor caught her, picked her up above his head, and held her high in the air for a second…Victor threw her so hard she hit the wall at the same height she was thrown, then dropped to the floor, semiconscious, moaning. Victor turned and laughed and exclaimed, “I’ll bet the idea of God went flying out of her head.”
On a later raid, Sergei was shocked to see Natasha again.
I quickly surveyed the room and saw a sight I couldn’t believe! There she was, the same girl! Only three nights before, she had been at the other meeting and had been viciously thrown across the room…I picked her up and flung her on a table facedown. One of my men held her down and I began to beat her again and again.
To Sergei’s shock, he later encountered [Natasha] at yet another prayer meeting. But this time something was different:
There she was again—Natasha! Several of the guys saw her too. Alex Gulyaev moved toward Natasha…then something I never expected to see suddenly happened. Without warning, Victor jumped between Natasha and Alex, facing Alex head-on…Victor’s feet didn’t move. He raised his club and said menacingly, “Alex, I’m telling you, don’t touch her! No one touches her!” Angered, Alex shouted, “You want her for yourself, don’t you?” “No,” Victor shouted back. “She has something we don’t have! Nobody touches her! Nobody!”
The Lord later opened Sergei’s heart to the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. As he later reflected on Natasha…he wrote:
…Natasha, largely because of you, my life is now changed and I am a fellow believer in Christ with you…God has forgiven me; I hope you can also. Thank you, Natasha, wherever you are. I will never, never forget you.*
What an amazing testimony to the way that God can work to advance the gospel through the persecution of his people! Persecution cannot stamp out the gospel, because it often spreads among its persecutors, and moreover
B. The gospel often spreads through believers who gain boldness in the midst of persecution
Look again at what Paul writes in v. 14 [READ v. 14]. Now this sounds awfully strange at first, doesn’t it? How could the other believers become more courageous in preaching the gospel after Paul had been arrested? Don’t you think the temptation would be for them to keep quiet to avoid being arrested themselves? Think of it like this—most of you are probably familiar with Dan Jones and his cowboy church ministry. Imagine that some local official got upset about what Dan was preaching and someone maneuvered to have Dan arrested for preaching the gospel. Don’t you think there would be a temptation for us to keep quiet?
But, imagine if some police officers and some other officials began to accept the gospel because of Dan’s witness in jail. That would probably give us a renewed confidence to preach. We would have living proof that our message cannot be stopped, and I think that’s what these believers around Paul discovered. They had more courage because they saw that nothing can stop the spread of the gospel—not prison, not persecution, NOTHING! And tell me friends, when you’re convinced that something will succeed, doesn’t that make you more confident to attempt it?
So Paul saw this new boldness in others to preach the gospel, and he saw the gospel advancing despite persecution, and this allowed him to rejoice even though his personal circumstances were not great. Nevertheless, he had a lasting joy because it was based on a lasting work—the work of God to advance the gospel through the preaching of his people.
So first, we can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution. And second,
II. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite the sinful motives of some who preach it
In v. 14, Paul mentioned that the believers around him in Rome had grown bolder in preaching the gospel, but in vv. 15–17, he goes on to state that they didn’t all have pure motives behind their preaching [READ vv. 15–17].
Now let’s distinguish these two groups. On one side, we had a group that was spreading the gospel out of love—probably love for Paul and for God. They apparently understood that even though Paul was in prison, he was right where God had placed him for the defense of the gospel, and they were motivated to carry on Paul’s evangelistic work.
On the other side, we had a group of Christians who apparently saw Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to gain something for themselves by preaching the gospel. Perhaps they saw the notoriety that Paul had achieved and the fact that people were sending him money and they thought, “Hey! Here’s my chance to get a piece of the pie!” For some reason they saw Paul as a rival, and therefore they viewed his imprisonment as a chance to get ahead.
Now we don’t know exactly who these believers were. They may have been Jewish Christians who thought that Paul wasn’t promoting the Jewish traditions enough. They may have been Gentile Christians who saw religion as a means for financial gain the way it was for the pagan priests. But please not that they were not spreading false doctrine. Verse 14 affirms that they were preaching “the word of God.” Paul would not have rejoiced in their preaching if they were spreading false doctrine, but as it was, Paul was able to say in verse 18 [READ v. 18]. Paul could rejoice because even though the proclamation wasn’t perfect, even though some people had sinful motives, Christ was still being proclaimed, and that was enough for him.
I’m sure in our own day that there are Christians who have sinful motives in preaching the gospel. In many different ways, Christianity has become “big business” today. There is a lot of money that changes hands in the Christians music industry and the Christian publishing industry, and wherever the possibility for profit exists you can be sure that the temptations of greed and selfishness are there as well.
Sometimes churches can engage in “turf wars” with one another where there is a subtle competition to become the biggest or the wealthiest church. Paul is not telling us here that such motives are okay, but he’s telling us to keep the big picture in mind. The crux of the matter is this—is the gospel being proclaimed? If it is, fantastic! If someone has sinful motives in their ministry, God will deal with them on that, but on our part, we can share in the joy that Paul demonstrates here over the spread of the gospel.
And that I believe is an important key for us if we want to have lasting joy. If we base our joy on temporary or transitory things, then our joy will come and go; but if we can learn to find joy in the spread of the gospel, we can have unconquerable joy because the gospel is unconquerable. It cannot be stopped by persecution or by the imperfections of those who proclaim it. So if you want to have more joy in your life, find out how the gospel is doing around you. Ask your Christian friends about people they might be witnessing to, stay informed about ministries in the US that are trying to spread the gospel. Keep up to date with the missionaries we support and find out how God is blessing their efforts. Base your joy in the spread of the gospel, and your joy will never be extinguished.
But of course, finding joy in the spread of the gospel means that you must accept the gospel message yourself, and you can do that today if you’ve never done that before.
*John Piper, Desiring God, 2003 Edition (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003), 275–278.
According to the Bible, God created us in a state of perfection—we had no sin, and our ancestors Adam and Eve had a perfect relationship with each other and with God. But we as humans rebelled against God and decided to go our own way, and ever since then we have had a natural desire to worship ourselves rather than God.
And I think that lesson tells us why things like joy, peace, and contentment are so hard to find—its because we’re looking in all the wrong places. Since we are estranged from God because of our sin, we start to look to our own accomplishments to bring us joy, or we look to the material things of this world to bring us joy, and what we find is that they never meet that need for us, and yet we often simply continue on down the same path because our sinful mindset continues to turn us away from God and back toward ourselves.
So what is the answer to this problem? How can we find something like lasting joy? Well, the answer the Scripture gives us of course is to rejoice in the Lord. We can find lasting joy by finding it in the Lord. But what does that mean exactly? When we say, “rejoice in the Lord,” that’s still a little bit of an abstract concept. Is it possible to be more specific about how we are to do that?
In our study today from the book of Philippians, we are going to gain some insight from the Apostle Paul as to how we can find a joy in the Lord that is lasting. What we will see from our study today is this…
We can have lasting joy when we rejoice in the unstoppable spread of the gospel.
Would you turn with me please to Phil. 1:12–18? Let’s read these verses, and then I want to look at two realities about the spread of the gospel that give us reason to rejoice [READ Phil. 1:12–18].
I. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution
In our last study in this letter from Paul to the Philippians, we saw Paul’s greeting to the people of that church. He told them how he prayed for them (with thankfulness and joy) and he also told them what he prayed for them (that they would have a knowledgeable love that would guide them into choosing what is best). Now, Paul begins to tell them about his present circumstances, which for Paul means that he is going to start talking about the gospel. Paul’s entire life was centered around the spread of the gospel, so Paul isn’t really going to talk about how he’s doing, instead he’s going to talk about how the gospel is doing. And perhaps to our surprise, we find that even though Paul was in prison, the gospel was doing quite well.
Notice again v. 12 [READ v. 12]. Now how could this be? Paul was in prison, under persecution first from the Jews, then from the Romans. How could that situation turn out for the greater progress of the gospel? Well, what Paul tells us gives us a couple of insights into how persecution can actually accelerate the spread of the gospel.
A. The gospel often spreads among those who are conducting the persecution
Look at what Paul writes in v. 13 [READ v. 13]. Apparently, all of the soldiers and the people in Rome who had come in contact with Paul realized that he was not an ordinary prisoner. He was not under arrest for a crime, nor was he really a political prisoner—he was under arrest for his preaching about Jesus Christ. This fact had become known among the guards and the officials, and some of them had apparently accepted the gospel themselves, because Paul writes in 4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” Now at that time, “Caesar’s household” would have also included servants and guards, so this may not have referred to Caesar’s actual family, but nevertheless the gospel had been accepted by some who were in the closest proximity to a man who proclaimed himself lord of all.
This shows us the amazing truth that when the gospel comes under persecution, it doesn’t stamp out the message—it actually causes it to spread farther, sometimes among the same people who are conducting the persecution! This truth has played itself out throughout church history time and time again. Some of the most incredible examples of this truth have come out in just the last few decades from countries that were part of the former Soviet Union. In his book Desiring God, Pastor John Piper records part of the autobiography of a former member of the Russian secret police named Sergei who became a believer through the willingness of Christians to suffer for their faith. I want to read part of that for you. Sergei writes about one of his police raids and he says:
I saw Victor Matveyev reach and grab for a young girl [named Natasha] who was trying to escape to another room. She was a beautiful young girl. What a waste to be a believer. Victor caught her, picked her up above his head, and held her high in the air for a second…Victor threw her so hard she hit the wall at the same height she was thrown, then dropped to the floor, semiconscious, moaning. Victor turned and laughed and exclaimed, “I’ll bet the idea of God went flying out of her head.”
On a later raid, Sergei was shocked to see Natasha again.
I quickly surveyed the room and saw a sight I couldn’t believe! There she was, the same girl! Only three nights before, she had been at the other meeting and had been viciously thrown across the room…I picked her up and flung her on a table facedown. One of my men held her down and I began to beat her again and again.
To Sergei’s shock, he later encountered [Natasha] at yet another prayer meeting. But this time something was different:
There she was again—Natasha! Several of the guys saw her too. Alex Gulyaev moved toward Natasha…then something I never expected to see suddenly happened. Without warning, Victor jumped between Natasha and Alex, facing Alex head-on…Victor’s feet didn’t move. He raised his club and said menacingly, “Alex, I’m telling you, don’t touch her! No one touches her!” Angered, Alex shouted, “You want her for yourself, don’t you?” “No,” Victor shouted back. “She has something we don’t have! Nobody touches her! Nobody!”
The Lord later opened Sergei’s heart to the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. As he later reflected on Natasha…he wrote:
…Natasha, largely because of you, my life is now changed and I am a fellow believer in Christ with you…God has forgiven me; I hope you can also. Thank you, Natasha, wherever you are. I will never, never forget you.*
What an amazing testimony to the way that God can work to advance the gospel through the persecution of his people! Persecution cannot stamp out the gospel, because it often spreads among its persecutors, and moreover
B. The gospel often spreads through believers who gain boldness in the midst of persecution
Look again at what Paul writes in v. 14 [READ v. 14]. Now this sounds awfully strange at first, doesn’t it? How could the other believers become more courageous in preaching the gospel after Paul had been arrested? Don’t you think the temptation would be for them to keep quiet to avoid being arrested themselves? Think of it like this—most of you are probably familiar with Dan Jones and his cowboy church ministry. Imagine that some local official got upset about what Dan was preaching and someone maneuvered to have Dan arrested for preaching the gospel. Don’t you think there would be a temptation for us to keep quiet?
But, imagine if some police officers and some other officials began to accept the gospel because of Dan’s witness in jail. That would probably give us a renewed confidence to preach. We would have living proof that our message cannot be stopped, and I think that’s what these believers around Paul discovered. They had more courage because they saw that nothing can stop the spread of the gospel—not prison, not persecution, NOTHING! And tell me friends, when you’re convinced that something will succeed, doesn’t that make you more confident to attempt it?
So Paul saw this new boldness in others to preach the gospel, and he saw the gospel advancing despite persecution, and this allowed him to rejoice even though his personal circumstances were not great. Nevertheless, he had a lasting joy because it was based on a lasting work—the work of God to advance the gospel through the preaching of his people.
So first, we can rejoice that the gospel advances despite persecution. And second,
II. We can rejoice that the gospel advances despite the sinful motives of some who preach it
In v. 14, Paul mentioned that the believers around him in Rome had grown bolder in preaching the gospel, but in vv. 15–17, he goes on to state that they didn’t all have pure motives behind their preaching [READ vv. 15–17].
Now let’s distinguish these two groups. On one side, we had a group that was spreading the gospel out of love—probably love for Paul and for God. They apparently understood that even though Paul was in prison, he was right where God had placed him for the defense of the gospel, and they were motivated to carry on Paul’s evangelistic work.
On the other side, we had a group of Christians who apparently saw Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to gain something for themselves by preaching the gospel. Perhaps they saw the notoriety that Paul had achieved and the fact that people were sending him money and they thought, “Hey! Here’s my chance to get a piece of the pie!” For some reason they saw Paul as a rival, and therefore they viewed his imprisonment as a chance to get ahead.
Now we don’t know exactly who these believers were. They may have been Jewish Christians who thought that Paul wasn’t promoting the Jewish traditions enough. They may have been Gentile Christians who saw religion as a means for financial gain the way it was for the pagan priests. But please not that they were not spreading false doctrine. Verse 14 affirms that they were preaching “the word of God.” Paul would not have rejoiced in their preaching if they were spreading false doctrine, but as it was, Paul was able to say in verse 18 [READ v. 18]. Paul could rejoice because even though the proclamation wasn’t perfect, even though some people had sinful motives, Christ was still being proclaimed, and that was enough for him.
I’m sure in our own day that there are Christians who have sinful motives in preaching the gospel. In many different ways, Christianity has become “big business” today. There is a lot of money that changes hands in the Christians music industry and the Christian publishing industry, and wherever the possibility for profit exists you can be sure that the temptations of greed and selfishness are there as well.
Sometimes churches can engage in “turf wars” with one another where there is a subtle competition to become the biggest or the wealthiest church. Paul is not telling us here that such motives are okay, but he’s telling us to keep the big picture in mind. The crux of the matter is this—is the gospel being proclaimed? If it is, fantastic! If someone has sinful motives in their ministry, God will deal with them on that, but on our part, we can share in the joy that Paul demonstrates here over the spread of the gospel.
And that I believe is an important key for us if we want to have lasting joy. If we base our joy on temporary or transitory things, then our joy will come and go; but if we can learn to find joy in the spread of the gospel, we can have unconquerable joy because the gospel is unconquerable. It cannot be stopped by persecution or by the imperfections of those who proclaim it. So if you want to have more joy in your life, find out how the gospel is doing around you. Ask your Christian friends about people they might be witnessing to, stay informed about ministries in the US that are trying to spread the gospel. Keep up to date with the missionaries we support and find out how God is blessing their efforts. Base your joy in the spread of the gospel, and your joy will never be extinguished.
But of course, finding joy in the spread of the gospel means that you must accept the gospel message yourself, and you can do that today if you’ve never done that before.
*John Piper, Desiring God, 2003 Edition (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003), 275–278.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Enter Into the Joy of Your Master--Philippians 1:3-11
How many of you would say that English was or is one of your favorite subjects in school? For those of you who raised your hands, how many of you would say that diagramming sentences was one of your favorite parts of English class? I, for one, really enjoy things like that. You’ll discover that I have a real strong streak of nerdy-ness that comes out every so often, and this is probably one of the ways that it manifests itself the most. I enjoy language and learning about how language works and how it helps us express our ideas to each other through words.
Words can be such funny things sometimes. It’s funny how small changes to a word or to word order can give us a totally different meaning in what we’re trying to say. For example, most of us wouldn’t mind being called a pleasant person. That’s a nice compliment—it means that we’re nice to be around; other people enjoy our company. But what if we change each of those words just slightly and flip the order around so that instead of being called a “pleasant person,” we’re being called a “people pleaser.” That’s a much different meaning, isn’t it? All of a sudden we’ve changed from a nice compliment to an insult! We’re not expressing kind thoughts when we call someone a people pleaser. What we’re saying is that that person just tells people what they want to hear, they never want to upset anyone or disagree with anyone.
But what if we make a slight change to that phrase again? What if take out the word “people” and insert the word “God,” so that now we’re calling someone a “God-pleaser” rather than a people pleaser? That’s much different; now we’re back to a positive idea again. The thought that we could be pleasing to God is an incredible thought. God is so great and powerful—does he actually pay attention to us, and could he actually feel joy over the things we do?
This morning we are going to learn that we can in fact be “God-pleasers.” God is at work in us and he is pleased when we cooperate with him and follow his will. The one thought that I don’t want you to miss today is this:
God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us press forward together in love until Christ’s return.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 1:3–11? Follow along with me as I read these verses [READ 1:3–11]. Let’s look at three aspects of God’s work in us.
I. God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us continue (1:3–6)
In vv. 3–6, Paul expresses his thanksgiving and joy for the Philippians work to spread the gospel, and when he talks about his joy, he’s undoubtedly expressing God’s perspective toward them as well. Let’s read these verses again [READ vv. 3–6]. As I mentioned last week, this is a very warm and friendly letter from the apostle Paul, and we can see that right here. He writes about his thankfulness for them and his joy over them because of what he calls their “participation in the gospel.” Paul probably had several ideas in mind here. He’s probably thinking about the blessings that they had received by accepting Christ after hearing the message of the gospel, but he is probably also thinking about their efforts to spread the gospel that had become a blessing to them. It seems that the Philippians were seeking to be faithful to spread the gospel to the people directly around them, and they were also financially supporting the apostle Paul to help him in his missionary ministry. So they had received the blessings of the gospel, and now they were focused on helping other people receive those blessings.
So the Philippians’ faithfulness was a source of thanksgiving and joy for Paul, even though he was locked up in prison. Undoubtedly this was because he recognized their faithfulness as the work of God in their lives. Paul may have been confined at the moment, but God was not, and God was continuing the work in the Philippians that had begun with the apostle Paul’s preaching to them. In v. 6 we have this beautiful and very familiar statement [READ v. 6]. Grammatically, this is tied-in to Paul’s thankfulness in v. 3—he is thankful because he is confident that God’s work will continue. But don’t overlook where Paul’s confidence is placed—he says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it…” His confidence was in God, that God would continue his work in the Philippians, and this confidence became a source of thanksgiving and joy.
I can attest that it is a source of joy for every minister when we see God at work in the lives of our people. When we see our people respond in faithfulness and obedience, it is extremely rewarding. But you know, I think the Bible tells us that your obedience isn’t just a source of joy for me—it’s a source of joy for God as well. Apparently, God is emotionally invested in our decisions, so that we cause him grief when we sin, and we cause him joy when we obey.
Let’s look at a couple of passages on God’s joy over our obedience. Turn with me please to Zephaniah 3:12. Now before v. 12, God is describing the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. They had rebelled against him, and as a result he was going to judge them and purify them. So then notice what he says in the next few verses, beginning in v. 12 [READ vv. 12–17] What a beautiful picture of God’s joy over the faithfulness of his people! Does this look like a God who is distant from us, or who is unconcerned about the things we do? Not at all! God is overjoyed when we respond to his work in our lives in the right way. We can think of the parable of the talents, where the master tells the faithful slave to “enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21, 23). Or we can think of the parable of the prodigal son, when the father runs to meet his wayward child who has come home.
What significance this gives to the choices that we make every day! Our choices don’t simply impact ourselves or other human beings, but they impact God as well. He is grieved when we sin, but he rejoices when we obey. That should be a strong incentive for us to do what is right.
So I believe God was rejoicing over the Philippians’ obedience, and Paul shared that joy and expressed it to them here in his letter. And then I think Paul expressed another aspect of God’s work in us…
II. Our work to spread the gospel should draw us together in sincere affection (1:7–8)
We see Paul’s deep affection for the Philippians coming through again in vv. 7–8, but he tells us here that his affection for them is not his alone. Let’s read these verses again [READ vv. 7–8]. Paul’s words here are a great testimony as to how our work to spread the gospel should draw us together in sincere affection. In v. 7, it seems that Paul is saying that the Philippians had been with him through thick and thin—they remembered him in his imprisonment by sending a visitor to him with a financial gift, and they stood with him in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, which apparently was earning them some opposition from others, as we’ll see at the end of chapter one.
All of this had forged a deep affection between Paul and the Philippians, and in v. 8 Paul says that his affection for them is not his alone. He calls it “the affection of Christ Jesus.” I think he is reminding us here that our connections with one another as Christians are based on our mutual connection to Jesus Christ. Paul and the Philippians were drawn together in affection for one another through their mutual tie as partakers of the grace of God.
I believe these verses provide a beautiful example for us of the unity that can be found in Christ. One of the sad realities among Christians today is that we seem to lack this kind of unity. I sometimes wonder if that’s why Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17. That chapter records Jesus praying on the night before he was crucified, and one of the requests that he made was that we would be unified. But today it seems like we divide over the silliest things, and the only thing we can seem to agree upon is that we should all fight for our personal preferences to the bitter end.
We need to strive for the unity that Paul describes here, and I think he tells us how to do that—we must have an affection for each other that is based in our mutual tie to Jesus Christ. We must remember that we all are in need of God’s grace. We are all sinners, we are all hopeless without Christ, but in him we are all brothers and sisters, united by our adoption as children of God. So when we find that we disagree with another Christian, we must remember first and foremost that God loves that person as his own child, so we should too. Any fight between born-again Christians is a family feud, and we don’t want to bring that kind of dishonor upon God’s family.
Now part of remaining united as believers is growing in Christian love. This brings us to the third aspect of God’s work in us…
III. Our love should grow in knowledge so that we’ll know what’s best as we live for Christ’s return (1:9–11)
In v. 3, Paul had written that he thanked God for the Philippians when he prayed for them, and now in vv. 9–11 he describes his prayer request for them [READ vv. 9–11]. Now we need to spend a moment looking at what Paul says about love, because its very different from how we think about love today. He writes, “I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” Here he ties love into knowledge and discernment, which are clearly mental or cognitive activities. But in our culture today we tend to see love as purely an emotional thing, and this leads us to all sorts of false ideas about love.
We have wrong ideas today about romantic love. Perhaps you’ve heard the famous quote from the 1970 film “Love Story” that says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Wrong!! Do not pass go…do not collect two hundred dollars! Repentance and confession of sin against each other is a HEALTHY part of a romantic relationship.
We also have wrong ideas today about love between friends. We tend to believe that if I love my friend, I won’t confront him or challenge him about anything. But Proverbs 27:5 says, “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.” The idea of that verse is that it is better to correct our friends when they need than to hide our love from them by saying nothing.
We also have wrong ideas about parental love when we act like our children can do no wrong or we refuse to discipline them. But again the book of Proverbs says in Proverbs 13:24, “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”
According to Paul, our love for one another should be expressed in the context of real knowledge and all discernment. I think he is undoubtedly talking about an intimate knowledge of God. His words seem to be an echo of Proverbs 1:7, which says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” The fear of the Lord is a frame of mind toward God that causes us to have a deep respect for him and a strong desire to please him. And the idea of “discernment” that Paul mentions in v. 9 is the ability to correctly apply our knowledge to our everyday decisions.
So Paul is saying that our love for one another needs to be expressed through a knowledge of what pleases God that will help us make the right decisions. And according to v. 10, the purpose of all of this is “so that you may approve the things that are excellent.” The New Living Translation says, “for I want you to understand what really matters,” and I think that captures the idea well. A knowledgeable love for one another will help us determine what really matters, and then we can pursue those things accordingly. I think this statement anticipates a couple of things that we find later in this letter. First, in chapter three, Paul writes about how he used to take such pride in all of the legalistic standards that he met in his life. By all of the standards of the Jewish people of his day, Paul was perfect, but he says that after he was converted he found all of those things to be worthless when compared to the value of an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. A relationship with Jesus is what really mattered, and Paul wanted the Philippians to remember that especially in light of a group that may have been trying to establish legalistic standards in their church.
The second thing that Paul may have been anticipating is in chapter four, where he addressed two women who apparently were at odds with each other. Euodia and Syntyche were apparently fighting about something, and perhaps Paul felt that their disagreement was based on something that didn’t really matter, and so Paul prays for them to express their love in a knowledgeable way so they could focus on the things that really did matter. That is such a key for keeping peace within a church. So many of the things that can divide members of a church really don’t matter, and so by focusing on the things that really DO matter, we can enjoy the unity that God wants us to have.
The result of all of this is found in the last part of v. 10 and into v. 11. We are to express our love for one another in a knowledgeable way “in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” When we express our love in accordance with what pleases God, we will bear the fruit of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in turn will make us ready for the day that he returns. Paul says that we will be “sincere” and “blameless.” Now blameless does not mean sinless; it means that no one can raise an objection against the way that you live. It means that you live for Christ, and when you do fail, you confess your sin and ask forgiveness and make restitution when its necessary. And the ultimate result, of course, will be that God receives glory and praise from the spiritual fruit that is in our lives.
So as we see, friends, we can not only bring praise and glory to God through our actions, but we can bring him joy as well. God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us press forward together in love until Christ’s return.
I hope that Paul’s prayer for the Philippians will be our prayer both for others and for ourselves. And we can be assured that God will be pleased as we live out our love in a knowledgeable and continue the work that he has started in us.
Words can be such funny things sometimes. It’s funny how small changes to a word or to word order can give us a totally different meaning in what we’re trying to say. For example, most of us wouldn’t mind being called a pleasant person. That’s a nice compliment—it means that we’re nice to be around; other people enjoy our company. But what if we change each of those words just slightly and flip the order around so that instead of being called a “pleasant person,” we’re being called a “people pleaser.” That’s a much different meaning, isn’t it? All of a sudden we’ve changed from a nice compliment to an insult! We’re not expressing kind thoughts when we call someone a people pleaser. What we’re saying is that that person just tells people what they want to hear, they never want to upset anyone or disagree with anyone.
But what if we make a slight change to that phrase again? What if take out the word “people” and insert the word “God,” so that now we’re calling someone a “God-pleaser” rather than a people pleaser? That’s much different; now we’re back to a positive idea again. The thought that we could be pleasing to God is an incredible thought. God is so great and powerful—does he actually pay attention to us, and could he actually feel joy over the things we do?
This morning we are going to learn that we can in fact be “God-pleasers.” God is at work in us and he is pleased when we cooperate with him and follow his will. The one thought that I don’t want you to miss today is this:
God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us press forward together in love until Christ’s return.
Would you turn with me please to Philippians 1:3–11? Follow along with me as I read these verses [READ 1:3–11]. Let’s look at three aspects of God’s work in us.
I. God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us continue (1:3–6)
In vv. 3–6, Paul expresses his thanksgiving and joy for the Philippians work to spread the gospel, and when he talks about his joy, he’s undoubtedly expressing God’s perspective toward them as well. Let’s read these verses again [READ vv. 3–6]. As I mentioned last week, this is a very warm and friendly letter from the apostle Paul, and we can see that right here. He writes about his thankfulness for them and his joy over them because of what he calls their “participation in the gospel.” Paul probably had several ideas in mind here. He’s probably thinking about the blessings that they had received by accepting Christ after hearing the message of the gospel, but he is probably also thinking about their efforts to spread the gospel that had become a blessing to them. It seems that the Philippians were seeking to be faithful to spread the gospel to the people directly around them, and they were also financially supporting the apostle Paul to help him in his missionary ministry. So they had received the blessings of the gospel, and now they were focused on helping other people receive those blessings.
So the Philippians’ faithfulness was a source of thanksgiving and joy for Paul, even though he was locked up in prison. Undoubtedly this was because he recognized their faithfulness as the work of God in their lives. Paul may have been confined at the moment, but God was not, and God was continuing the work in the Philippians that had begun with the apostle Paul’s preaching to them. In v. 6 we have this beautiful and very familiar statement [READ v. 6]. Grammatically, this is tied-in to Paul’s thankfulness in v. 3—he is thankful because he is confident that God’s work will continue. But don’t overlook where Paul’s confidence is placed—he says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it…” His confidence was in God, that God would continue his work in the Philippians, and this confidence became a source of thanksgiving and joy.
I can attest that it is a source of joy for every minister when we see God at work in the lives of our people. When we see our people respond in faithfulness and obedience, it is extremely rewarding. But you know, I think the Bible tells us that your obedience isn’t just a source of joy for me—it’s a source of joy for God as well. Apparently, God is emotionally invested in our decisions, so that we cause him grief when we sin, and we cause him joy when we obey.
Let’s look at a couple of passages on God’s joy over our obedience. Turn with me please to Zephaniah 3:12. Now before v. 12, God is describing the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. They had rebelled against him, and as a result he was going to judge them and purify them. So then notice what he says in the next few verses, beginning in v. 12 [READ vv. 12–17] What a beautiful picture of God’s joy over the faithfulness of his people! Does this look like a God who is distant from us, or who is unconcerned about the things we do? Not at all! God is overjoyed when we respond to his work in our lives in the right way. We can think of the parable of the talents, where the master tells the faithful slave to “enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21, 23). Or we can think of the parable of the prodigal son, when the father runs to meet his wayward child who has come home.
What significance this gives to the choices that we make every day! Our choices don’t simply impact ourselves or other human beings, but they impact God as well. He is grieved when we sin, but he rejoices when we obey. That should be a strong incentive for us to do what is right.
So I believe God was rejoicing over the Philippians’ obedience, and Paul shared that joy and expressed it to them here in his letter. And then I think Paul expressed another aspect of God’s work in us…
II. Our work to spread the gospel should draw us together in sincere affection (1:7–8)
We see Paul’s deep affection for the Philippians coming through again in vv. 7–8, but he tells us here that his affection for them is not his alone. Let’s read these verses again [READ vv. 7–8]. Paul’s words here are a great testimony as to how our work to spread the gospel should draw us together in sincere affection. In v. 7, it seems that Paul is saying that the Philippians had been with him through thick and thin—they remembered him in his imprisonment by sending a visitor to him with a financial gift, and they stood with him in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, which apparently was earning them some opposition from others, as we’ll see at the end of chapter one.
All of this had forged a deep affection between Paul and the Philippians, and in v. 8 Paul says that his affection for them is not his alone. He calls it “the affection of Christ Jesus.” I think he is reminding us here that our connections with one another as Christians are based on our mutual connection to Jesus Christ. Paul and the Philippians were drawn together in affection for one another through their mutual tie as partakers of the grace of God.
I believe these verses provide a beautiful example for us of the unity that can be found in Christ. One of the sad realities among Christians today is that we seem to lack this kind of unity. I sometimes wonder if that’s why Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17. That chapter records Jesus praying on the night before he was crucified, and one of the requests that he made was that we would be unified. But today it seems like we divide over the silliest things, and the only thing we can seem to agree upon is that we should all fight for our personal preferences to the bitter end.
We need to strive for the unity that Paul describes here, and I think he tells us how to do that—we must have an affection for each other that is based in our mutual tie to Jesus Christ. We must remember that we all are in need of God’s grace. We are all sinners, we are all hopeless without Christ, but in him we are all brothers and sisters, united by our adoption as children of God. So when we find that we disagree with another Christian, we must remember first and foremost that God loves that person as his own child, so we should too. Any fight between born-again Christians is a family feud, and we don’t want to bring that kind of dishonor upon God’s family.
Now part of remaining united as believers is growing in Christian love. This brings us to the third aspect of God’s work in us…
III. Our love should grow in knowledge so that we’ll know what’s best as we live for Christ’s return (1:9–11)
In v. 3, Paul had written that he thanked God for the Philippians when he prayed for them, and now in vv. 9–11 he describes his prayer request for them [READ vv. 9–11]. Now we need to spend a moment looking at what Paul says about love, because its very different from how we think about love today. He writes, “I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” Here he ties love into knowledge and discernment, which are clearly mental or cognitive activities. But in our culture today we tend to see love as purely an emotional thing, and this leads us to all sorts of false ideas about love.
We have wrong ideas today about romantic love. Perhaps you’ve heard the famous quote from the 1970 film “Love Story” that says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Wrong!! Do not pass go…do not collect two hundred dollars! Repentance and confession of sin against each other is a HEALTHY part of a romantic relationship.
We also have wrong ideas today about love between friends. We tend to believe that if I love my friend, I won’t confront him or challenge him about anything. But Proverbs 27:5 says, “Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.” The idea of that verse is that it is better to correct our friends when they need than to hide our love from them by saying nothing.
We also have wrong ideas about parental love when we act like our children can do no wrong or we refuse to discipline them. But again the book of Proverbs says in Proverbs 13:24, “He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”
According to Paul, our love for one another should be expressed in the context of real knowledge and all discernment. I think he is undoubtedly talking about an intimate knowledge of God. His words seem to be an echo of Proverbs 1:7, which says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” The fear of the Lord is a frame of mind toward God that causes us to have a deep respect for him and a strong desire to please him. And the idea of “discernment” that Paul mentions in v. 9 is the ability to correctly apply our knowledge to our everyday decisions.
So Paul is saying that our love for one another needs to be expressed through a knowledge of what pleases God that will help us make the right decisions. And according to v. 10, the purpose of all of this is “so that you may approve the things that are excellent.” The New Living Translation says, “for I want you to understand what really matters,” and I think that captures the idea well. A knowledgeable love for one another will help us determine what really matters, and then we can pursue those things accordingly. I think this statement anticipates a couple of things that we find later in this letter. First, in chapter three, Paul writes about how he used to take such pride in all of the legalistic standards that he met in his life. By all of the standards of the Jewish people of his day, Paul was perfect, but he says that after he was converted he found all of those things to be worthless when compared to the value of an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. A relationship with Jesus is what really mattered, and Paul wanted the Philippians to remember that especially in light of a group that may have been trying to establish legalistic standards in their church.
The second thing that Paul may have been anticipating is in chapter four, where he addressed two women who apparently were at odds with each other. Euodia and Syntyche were apparently fighting about something, and perhaps Paul felt that their disagreement was based on something that didn’t really matter, and so Paul prays for them to express their love in a knowledgeable way so they could focus on the things that really did matter. That is such a key for keeping peace within a church. So many of the things that can divide members of a church really don’t matter, and so by focusing on the things that really DO matter, we can enjoy the unity that God wants us to have.
The result of all of this is found in the last part of v. 10 and into v. 11. We are to express our love for one another in a knowledgeable way “in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” When we express our love in accordance with what pleases God, we will bear the fruit of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in turn will make us ready for the day that he returns. Paul says that we will be “sincere” and “blameless.” Now blameless does not mean sinless; it means that no one can raise an objection against the way that you live. It means that you live for Christ, and when you do fail, you confess your sin and ask forgiveness and make restitution when its necessary. And the ultimate result, of course, will be that God receives glory and praise from the spiritual fruit that is in our lives.
So as we see, friends, we can not only bring praise and glory to God through our actions, but we can bring him joy as well. God is delighted when we work to spread the gospel, and He will work to help us press forward together in love until Christ’s return.
I hope that Paul’s prayer for the Philippians will be our prayer both for others and for ourselves. And we can be assured that God will be pleased as we live out our love in a knowledgeable and continue the work that he has started in us.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Identify Yourself--Philippians 1:1-2
I imagine many of you of been receiving your census forms in the mail lately. We received ours not long ago, and I didn’t time myself but I think it took me a bit longer to fill it out than the ten minutes that they’ve been advertising on TV. I had to chuckle a bit when I came to the section where I filled out my race. For some of the categories, the form gave an opportunity to get very specific about your nationality. For the Hispanic category for instance, the form asked you to specify your ancestry, whether it was Cuban, or Mexican, or Panamanian, etc. The Asian category asked you to specify the same thing—whether your ancestry was Japanese or Chinese or Vietnamese, etc. But when you looked at the Caucasian category, there was just one big, all-inclusive option that said, “white.” I was a little disappointed; I wanted to identify myself as “Swedish-American,” but I didn’t get the chance.
Forms like that make you think a little bit about your ancestry and your nationality. People often take great pride in their national identity. The Winter Olympics that ended not long ago were a great example of that national pride. In some cases, we saw athletes who lived in one country but competed under the flag of another country because that was their heritage. Their ancestry came through that other country, so that’s the country that they chose to represent.
People take great pride in their national identity, but we don’t always think so much about our spiritual identity. Some people spend a great deal of time tracing their physical heritage through family trees and genealogies, but what about our spiritual heritage? Who are we spiritually, and what kind of identity does that give us in this world?
Questions like this are so important because what we choose to think about ourselves often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is to say that the thoughts we think about ourselves often show themselves in our lives. Thus, if I think that I am nothing but a failure in life, I oftentimes will fail at the things I try to do. Or if I think that I have no talents to offer to the world, I oftentimes won’t try to use my talents for others.
Thus, what we think about who we are is vitally important, and for Christians it is crucial that we understand who we are in the eyes of God. This morning we are going to start a series in the book of Philippians, and we are going to take a look at the first two verses of the book where Paul makes some very important statements about our identity in Christ. Would you turn with me to the book of Philippians?
Let me describe the circumstances of this letter for you as you’re turning there. This letter was written by the apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome. You might remember from the book of Acts that Paul was arrested at the Temple in Jerusalem after an angry mob thought he had taken a Gentile—a non-Jewish person—into a part of the Temple where only Jewish people were allowed. After Paul was arrested, he was put on trial before the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish Supreme Court, but after a murder plot was hatched against Paul, the Roman authorities sent him up north to the city of Caesarea to have the Roman governor sort everything out. From there Paul proceeded on to Rome after he appealed for a trial before Caesar himself, which was something that Paul had the right to do as a Roman citizen.
So Paul was now in prison in Rome, and while he was there he received a visitor from the church in Philippi by the name of Epaphroditus. The Philippians had sent Epaphroditus to Rome to deliver a financial gift that they had collected for Paul. Paul was preparing to send Epaphroditus back home, and as he did he took the opportunity to send a letter back to the Philippians with Epaphroditus. That letter is now the book of Philippians that we are about to study.
In this letter, Paul takes the opportunity to thank the Philippians for their financial gift and to give them an update on his circumstances. In this regard, Philippians is similar to some of the letters that you and I might receive today. If you have ever given a financial gift to a ministry, you’ve probably ended up on their mailing list. And normally after you give a gift, they will send you a letter thanking you for your gift and giving you an update about what’s going on with their ministry. That’s the basic purpose behind the writing of Philippians, although Paul of course takes the opportunity to address some needs in the church that he undoubtedly heard about through Epaphroditus.
As we go through this book, you’ll probably notice that this letter to the Philippians is a very friendly and heartfelt letter. There were times when Paul had to write some fairly stern letters—like Galatians or 1 and 2 Corinthians—and there were also times that Paul wrote to people whom he had never met—like the book of Romans—but that was not the case here. These people were friends, and they had supported him financially ever since he first came through their city, so Paul had a sincere affection for them.
Now in the first two verses of this book we find the introduction of Paul’s letter. In that time there was a fairly standard way of writing a letter, but in our day and age, letter-writing is kind of a lost art. Today we live in the age of e-mails and text messages. We don’t worry about form and most of the time we don’t really worry about spelling, but back then they followed certain forms for writing different letters, and we can see that in Paul’s letters.
So in the introduction, Paul identifies himself and his readers and he makes four important statements about who we are as Christians. Let’s read these two verses and then we’ll take a look at these four statements of our identity in Christ [READ vv. 1-2].
I. Jesus is the master whom we are to serve (“bond-servants” or “slaves”)
In v. 1, Paul identifies both himself and Timothy as “bond-servants” or “slaves” of Christ Jesus. Paul identifies himself in different ways in his letters, usually depending on the tone of the letter. Sometimes he spells out his credentials as an apostle when he needs to give someone a verbal spanking, but there was no such need in this letter so he identifies himself in a very humble but very meaningful way—he calls himself a “bond-servant” or a “slave.” Your translation might say “servant,” but “slave” is probably the most accurate translation, even though that word brings up a lot of negative ideas for us. But for Paul, the idea of being a slave of God was not a negative thing at all—in fact, it was an honor. Some of the greatest heroes of the Old Testament were called slaves of God—men like Moses, David, and Elijah. The idea was that they were carrying out God’s work; they were pursuing God’s objectives, not their own, and that idea was exactly what Paul wanted to communicate.
According to Paul, when Jesus paid the price for our sins, he purchased us as his own people to do his will. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20—“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
It is important for us to understand that when God set us from the penalty of our sins, he set us free from our old master—sin—so that we might serve a new master—Jesus. What this tells us is that we are not supposed to live as though we are the final authority in our lives. We are supposed to follow Jesus as the final authority in our lives and do what he tells us to do. We are supposed to pursue his goals and objectives, not worldly, selfish ones.
So this means that when we’re making decisions about how to behave, we need to do what our master tells us to do. When we’re dealing with a difficult family member or co-worker or classmate, we need to go to the Bible and do what our master tells us to do. When we have questions about how to handle our money, we need to find out what our master tells us to do, and do it. In our lives, the buck does not stop here (with us); Jesus is the final authority in our lives, and we are to carry out his will as his people.
II. Jesus gives us a unique relationship with God that makes us different from others (“saints”)
And speaking of living as his people, that is the second statement about our identity in Christ—Jesus gives us a unique relationship with God that makes us different from others. Notice that I did not say “better” than others or anything like that; I simply said “different.” When Paul addresses the recipients of his letter, he writes, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers (or elders) and deacons.” Now when we hear the word “saint,” we probably think of the people who are called “saints” in the Catholic Church, people like St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Patrick. These people are given the title of “saint” as an honor, and the idea is that they lived a life that was so godly that they are in a league of their own. They are in a class by themselves above that of ordinary Christians.
Not to criticize the Catholic Church, but the Bible never uses the word “saint” in that way. According to Scripture, anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is to be called a “saint.” Even immature believers are to be called “saints,” as we see in the introduction to 1 Corinthians. We are given the title not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Jesus has done and because of what we are called to do as a response.
The idea of being a saint is that we enjoy a unique relationship with God that those who don’t know Jesus do not have. Thus we are a unique people who are called to live in a unique or special way, to live a life that is different from those who don’t know Jesus so that they can see what God is like through us. So this title reminds us of both our privilege and our calling as Christians. It reminds us of the wonderful privilege that we have in our relationship with God, which was something that we did not have before we placed our faith in Jesus to save us. We now have the honor of being part of God’s people in this world, but with that honor comes a responsibility—the responsibility to live like Jesus and to be his ambassadors to the rest of the world.
This title should be such an encouragement to us because it tells us that we have such a meaningful role in this world. Even if we think we’re not special to other people, the fact that we are saints means we’re special to God—we’re part of his special people and we have a unique relationship with him. And we have such a profound reason to live because we have a special mission as ambassadors of Christ. So please don’t ever think that you’re not special or that you have no reason to live.
The third statement about our spiritual identity is this…
III. Jesus is the reality in whom we now live (“in Christ Jesus”)
In v. 1, Paul not only says that we are “saints,” but then he states that we are “in Christ Jesus.” This is a very interesting concept, and if you read through Paul’s letters you’ll find that its one of his favorite ideas. The idea is that Jesus is the reality or the atmosphere in which we now live. Let’s think about this in physical terms for a moment. The atmosphere around us on planet Earth is so vitally important because we draw our strength from it; it sustains our lives. We breathe in the air of the atmosphere around us, we eat the food that the ground produces, we drink the water that flows through the water cycle.
Now the analogy is this: what our atmosphere is to us physically, Jesus is to us spiritually. We draw our spiritual strength from him; he sustains our spiritual lives. Jesus described this so beautifully in John 15 when he said that he is like a vine, and we are like branches that grow out from him. The branches draw their life through the vine, and so we draw our spiritual life and vitality through Jesus.
What this really teaches us is how utterly dependent we are upon Jesus Christ. Our spiritual strength and power come through him, so how sad it is that we find ourselves at times going through a whole day without prayer, or without reading God’s Word. Would we try to go through a whole day holding our breath? I don’t think so! So why do we think we can make it through a day without drawing spiritual strength from Jesus? Why do we think we can make wise decisions without consulting his word? Why do we think we can love our family and our co-workers without drawing our strength from Jesus and acknowledging our dependence upon him? We must understand that we now live in Christ Jesus; he is the atmosphere in which our spiritual lives will grow.
IV. Jesus has made us children of God (“God our Father”)
In v. 2, Paul writes out something of a prayer for the Philippians [READ v. 2]. Here he refers to Jesus as “the Lord,” which can also be translated “master.” So this is the same idea that he communicates in v. 1 when he says that we are “bond-servants” or “slaves” of Jesus Christ. But before that statement in v. 2, Paul reminds of a beautiful piece of our identity when he states that God is our Father. As the apostle John wrote in John 1:12, “As many as received Jesus, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” And when John thought about this in 1 John 3:1 he said, “Behold how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”
According to Scripture, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, God not only releases us from the penalty of our sins, but he also gives us new spiritual life and adopts us into his own spiritual family. He doesn’t just forgive us—though that by itself is wonderful enough—he then says, “I will take on the responsibility of being a spiritual father to you; to provide for you and protect you, to discipline you and help you grow up spiritually into the kind of person that you should be.” That would be like a judge paying the fine for a criminal who is on trial in his courtroom and then welcoming that criminal into his own family to take care of him and show him how to live a better way. I don’t think we could EVER imagine that happening, but that is precisely what God has done for us.
So now when we think about obeying God, it’s not in terms of taking orders from a boss, but in terms of pleasing a loving Father. God has adopted us and he now empowers us to bear the family resemblance in terms of our character. We don’t need to worry or fear because God has obligated himself to take care of us, and he will not be a dead-beat dad.
Today we have seen some key statements that make up our identity in Christ. It is so important that we choose to think about ourselves in this way, because it will have such an impact on our lives. We will remember that we’re not worthless—we have tremendous value as a child of God. We are not aimless—we have a purpose in life in serving our master, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not nameless or anonymous—we have a unique relationship with God and we enjoy a special relationship with him. We are not powerless—we live in Christ Jesus and we draw our strength from him. This is who we are, even when we don’t feel like it and even when other people tell us differently. Remind yourself of these things often, and that biblical perspective about yourself will start to work itself out in your life, so that more and more, you will bear the family resemblance of a child of God.
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