Sermon: "Making Sense of it All"

Second in the "Philippians" series.
Delivered June 25, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Theme: Suffering is one of the hardest things to accept in life. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering, and yet his attitude about it was positive. Let's see why.

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Let's pray: Gracious God we thank you for the privilege of being able to worship. We thank you for your word and for this time that we can unite our hearts and minds together in looking in to what it says. Help us to understand. Help us to respond to the truth that's in Jesus Christ. So work in our hearts whatever you desire so that we might live worthy of him in every respect. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I would like to read to you from the Book of Philippians. We are in our second week of our series on the Book of Philippians. We are now in the second half of the (first) chapter beginning at Verse 12. We will go from Verse 12 to the end of the chapter. You can find it on page 830 of your pew Bibles.

"Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved-and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have."

We are in our second week on this series on Paul's letter to the Philippians. We can never catch everything that's in a text in a series that is only nine weeks long on the Book of Philippians, so we are going to have to pick some things and so understand from the front, from the outset, that we are not going to cover all the things we can see in this text. Just pick one theme per week in the passages that we are looking at. Last week what George focused in on was God's abounding love; how fundamental it is for us to experience that love and then to grow in love for each other and for God. This is my prayer that you love may abound more and more.

Philippians is a special letter. Most scholars agree that Philippi was perhaps Paul's favorite church. The letter to them is full of warmth. You can sense how he longs to be together with them. Paul had been through a lot with the Philippians. In Acts 16 where it talks about the birth of this church, Paul and Silas after preaching there are put into prison and beaten, and because of the persecution, Paul actually had to leave Philippi earlier than he would have liked to. It's an eye opener for these early Christians, because instead of the proclamation of the gospel ushering in an easy good life, belief in Christ made things worse. And so Paul has to leave early and can you imagine his concern; all the things he would have liked to have said to them, all the things that he would have liked to have done to establish them firm in the faith, but because of the persecution he has to leave and has to trust God to build in their lives anyway.

And so now Paul is writing to them and Paul is in prison again. You've got to think about it from Paul's point of view. He is writing this young church. These are people that only knew the gospel originally from what Paul had preached and from what they could read in the Old Testament in the Jewish scriptures. And this young church had only experienced that and here is the person that preached the gospel to them whose back in prison and suffering again and perhaps there is the possibility of facing death, because Paul mentioned that in this passage. Paul wants to be sure that his suffering does not become a cause for their faith to fail. And so as he writes them this letter that includes all kinds of concerns about their life together, one of his concerns is that they understand what's going on his life in his suffering and that this does not become a cause for them to back off on their faith in Christ.

This is important because Paul knows that are biggest questions about God come up when we face suffering. When everything is going well with the family, with the job, with our health we point to our blessing, we point to our successes. There, see God is working here. God is working there. And it's easy to see the blessing of God and enjoy the goodness of God. But then problems come up. Sometimes it's a problem like Paul faced; it's persecution. Other times it's illness or failure, family issues or maybe it's just age. And when these things start to happen to us and our life feels like it is closing in on us and things are not as good as it was before, it's harder to point to specific blessings so the tendency is for our faith to weaken and things that seemed obvious when things were going well seem distant and unreal when we start to suffer. Paul knew that his current imprisonment could shake their faith so he shares two insights that shape his own response to suffering and that he wants to shape their response as well.

The first is that God uses my suffering and the second point that he makes is I am safe. God uses my suffering is the first thing that he points to. This comes out in Verses 12 to 14. It comes out again in other places including Verse 18. "I want you to know brothers that what happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." Verse 14, "Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." Paul's comments address the issue of purpose in our suffering. Things are easier if we can see some purpose in it all.

Now the problem is, we can't always see purpose in what's happening to us. So lets say that right out front; that this is not always an answer we can hold out to ourselves or to other people. But when we can see purpose, when we can get perspective, it makes things easier to bear and Paul sees the results of his imprisonment and he sees some of the good affects that it is having. It served to advance the gospel. The palace guards know more about Jesus Christ. People outside are preaching more and more on the streets too about Jesus. It's a mixed group. Some have bad motives. Some of them are viewing this as an opportunity that Paul is in prison. Maybe now is my chance to make a big splash among the Christians. Others might be preaching more boldly because they actually want to make it a little harder on Paul, because they figure that if they can start more trouble the authorities might even be more angry. There are some ugly motives going on here, but Paul sees it all as leading to Jesus Christ being more of an issue out on the streets. It's being preached more and more and so Paul rejoices in that good result.

It's a matter of perspective. If Paul just looked at his situation from a very narrow personal view, he would see things very differently. And that's really what we do usually; see it only from our very narrow personal view. Look at it from Paul's personal view. He is in prison. God has made him an apostle; a sent one. That means he is supposed to go around and get to places and tell people about the gospel and God puts him into prison. Not a great game plan. He is uncomfortable. This is not what he desires. He would rather have some freedom. He is locked in. No mobility--can't get out to share the good news; God what are you doing? You called me to share the good news and now you have me imprisoned again, cooling my heels, unable to do anything for you. If Paul was viewing it just from his personal perspective, that is where he would be.

Do you ever feel like that? "God, I thought you wanted to do something with my life. But now you have me here. What's going on?" I know that one. That is one that I have said in the past. "God, I thought you loved me, but I am still sick. Where are you?" "God, I tried to do what is right, but it has all turned against me; why haven't you done something?" "God, I am still alone; why am I still alone?"

Last week I was talking to someone about serving, someone who is serving in a ministry here in Baltimore. And when he began to serve, all kinds of things began to go wrong in his ministry. As things started to fall apart around him, he decided that he needed to go pray about it and he went to a retreat center and there is a small lake there. It was on a cold February day and he is walking out there and he looks at the lake and he sees this grey lake and a sharp wind is blowing across it and so there are choppy waves coming across the lake and boy he thought to himself that is exactly how I feel. That is what life is like. It's grey. It's ugly. It's dangerous looking and it's cold. So he continued to walk and to pray. Finally, he had walked to the point that he had gotten to the other side of the lake. And when he got there and looked over the lake, he saw that the lake was no longer grey, because the sun was on the other side of the lake when he looked at that choppy lake. Every wave was now glittering in his eyes. It looked like a jewel. The same lake, the same day, same wind from a different perspective. And he had realized that as he had walked around the lake God had started to give him a different perspective on what was going on in his life and ministry; that there were some things going on that were beautiful. There were some things going on that brought glory to God. Nothing had changed in his situation, but he had changed. He had a new perspective.

This does not happen automatically. He had to go off and he had to pray and he had to wrestle with it to come to a viewpoint that understood better what God was doing through the difficulties in his life and I believe that Paul had to work on it too. I think we are dealing with fairy tales if we imagine that Paul experienced difficulty and immediately had the right response. He probably was just like you and I and he had to wrestle with selfishness. He had to wrestle with what was happening to him and he had to pray and he had to have his viewpoint broadened. But he did pray and he thought deeply about what God was doing and he saw how God was using it by a change of perspective. But what I find amazing about Paul is that he never saw the main reason perhaps why God had him in prison; the main way God was using him. God was doing something amazing by putting Paul in prison. Because if Paul had been able to visit every church face to face he would have never written his letters and it is his letters like this one, letters written when he was in prison that God has used now for 2,000 years to be his voice to the entire earth. One glittering facet of what God was doing that Paul never understood. God has purpose in our suffering. God uses it when you just struggle with a change of perspective.

The second point that Paul makes to his friends is that in the middle of all of this persecution that he is experiencing, he is safe. I am safe. It is well with my soul. Verses 20 and 21 get at that. "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in now way be ashamed, but I will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death, for me to live as Christ and to die is gain." Paul is at peace. Paul is actually experiencing joy in prison. But it's not because he is absolutely sure he will be released. He is pretty sure he will be released. It comes up in Verse 25, because of the needs of the churches, he believes that God is going to allow him to live a little longer. But that's not where the core of his assurance lies because in Verses 20 and 21 whether I live or I die, it's Christ. Either way he is safe, because it is all about relationship. Paul makes that absolutely clear what makes all of life have meaning for him, what makes him safe in the middle of it all is not what happens to him; whether he lives or dies. What he wants to do is exalt Christ in his body, because to live is Christ. It's knowing Christ in it all. To live as Christ knowing him right now. Living for him no matter what happens. Following him wherever that leads. Experiencing his love in all the ups and downs of life. This is what makes life worth living. This is what defines who Paul is as a person. Not his circumstances, not his health, not his successes, not his failures. Christ is what it is all about.

Philip Yancy has written a book called, "Soul Survivor" and in that book he talks about a leprosy patient that he met in India; a guy named Sadon. Sadon told Yancy about all the kinds of rejections he had experienced by being someone who had Hansen's disease; leprosy. When he was younger, classmates made fun of him in school. He recalled a time when he was thrown off a public bus because people were afraid of his infection. He talked about even being turned away repeatedly from hospitals because the hospitals told him they don't treat lepers here.

And then one day he met two missionary doctors, Dr. Paul Brand and his wife, Dr. Margaret Brand. These two people were the first medical workers who dared to touch him in his whole life. He had almost forgotten what human touch was like. And as he talked about his experience since he had met the Brands, he recounted all of the surgeries that he had to endure. He had tendon transfers, amputations and nerve strippings, and all of that work allowed him to still retain some movement in one of his hands so that he could write and hold things. And the stigma that he had experienced was something that he was still experiencing up until that day because his daughter was recently married, but during the wedding ceremony he remained in the car and watched it from a distance, because he was afraid that his presence would disturb his guests. And yet, Yancy heard Sadon share this when he was sipping his last cup of tea in Sadon's home before he left. This is what Sadon said, "Still I must say I am now happy that I had this disease." Yancy's reply, "Happy, Happy?" "Yes, apart from leprosy I would have been a normal man with a normal family chasing wealth and a higher position in society. I would have never known such wonderful people as Dr. Paul and Dr. Margaret and I would never have known the God who lives in them." To live is Christ.

God created us to be his children. God created us to be his friends. God created us to know him and to know his love and once that is in place nothing else can destroy the core of who we are. To live is Christ. Paul goes on to say, "and to die is gain". Because its relationship. Death is the worst thing that we face in life and maybe the pain that we anticipate. Death strips away everything; body, health, it strips away our work, it strips away our play, it strips away our routine, it strips away our loved ones. It's a total and final interruption of all that we have experienced in life except Christ. All of that void of what was lost is immediately filled by the one who loves us. He fills it with a love so sacrificial that it paid the cost of restoring our relationship, a love so deep that all we have experienced of it in this life is just a mere taste; a love so strong it will catch us up and protect us from all harm; a love so tender it will wipe every tear from our eyes; a love so lasting that eternity can't contain it.

Paul says in Verse 23, "I am torn between the two. I desire to depart with Christ, which is better by far." To die is gain. That is what Paul believed and he wants the young church to understand this so that their faith will remain strong. So in Verse 27 he tells them that no matter what happens, live a life worthy of Christ. This is pretty much the conclusion of his thought. Paul talks about his own confidence that God, Christ will be exalted in his body and now calls for the Philippians to live in the same way no matter what happens. Conduct yourselves in a way that is worthy of Christ. So no matter what happens to Paul, live a life worthy of Christ. Paul says to the Philippians, "No matter happens to you Philippian Christians, live a life worthy of Christ. Don't be thrown off by your suffering." And because in the providence of God this letter is God's word to us now, Paul across the years is saying to us as well, you who live in Baltimore now, no matter happens to you, no matter what, live a live worthy of Christ. God uses our suffering. We are safe. Whatever happens, let's live a life worthy of him.

Let's pray. Gracious God, the only way we can make sense of it all, is knowing that in our lives you are present and that we are safe and in relationship to you and have a future with you. And so God, anchor our hearts in Jesus Christ so that no matter happens we will live in a way worthy of you for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org