Philippians 1:27-30 April 13, 2008
Living With Opposition
When Paul first visited Philippi, he and Silas were arrested and beaten for setting a young girl free from a demon and for preaching the Good News of Jesus. Although they were released, for a traveling missionary, Paul saw the inside of a jail cell more than he saw the outside! He writes this very letter from prison.
With this paragraph, we see that he is not the only one who is experiencing persecution or opposition. The Christian community in Philippi is experiencing their own persecution or opposition. It is difficult to know whether the opposition is coming from the people of other faiths around them, or whether it is coming from the Jewish people, or if it is coming from people who call themselves Christians but believe other than the Biblical Gospel. It may be all of the above.
Wherever the opposition is coming from, Paul is telling the Christians how to live in light of the opposition.
In our world today, we often times forget that there is real persecution going on. All over the world, Christians are being discriminated against, beaten, jailed, tortured, and even killed for their faith. Persecution.net
Here in our own country, we are not likely to face physical persecution from the Government or even from non-governmental forces. But we do face opposition.
Two of the most popular non-fiction books in the past few years were The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. Both these books do not just put forward arguments for atheism, but the attack faith and belief with great vitriol. MacLean’s Magazine published an article at Easter titled: “The Jesus problem: The newest view of Christ - activist, politician, not very Christian - is hard to square with the Bible’s. Now some believers even say the faith might be better off without him.”
That is in the popular media, but some of you may feel like you are under attack, or living with opposition in your place of work, or school, or even in your home.
Thant may be you experience, or you might find that people around you are neith opposed to your faith nor in agreement with it.
If Jesus Christ were to come today people would not even crucify him. They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he has to say, and make fun of it. ~Thomas Carlyle
Often times, we are in greater danger of ridicule than assault.
So while our physical beings may not be at risk, I think that what Paul says to the Philippians can and will apply to Torontonians in 2008
As Citizens of Heaven…
The kingdom of heaven = the kingdom of God = the rule or reign of God
Knowing to whom we belong can give us a great confidence in the midst of opposition. Being a citizen of Heaven is very political language – It reminds us that we are in the midst of regime change – not just who is in charge of our individual lives, but there is a change going on in regards to who is in charge of the whole world. The amazing thing is that we know that regime change will happen. We are like the French resistance after D-day – the tide has turned, the outcome of the war is decided, and we are on the side of the winners, but we are still living under the rule of old regime.
This should not lead to arrogance, (arrogance does not belong in the new regime - the kingdom of heaven) but humble confidence that the outcome is assured.
Our first citizenship is in heaven – “we must serve God before men” – not an excuse to buck the system out of rebellion, but it is a reminder of who our first “boss” is.
In Acts 5, the apostles have been teaching about Jesus’ death and resurrection in Jerusalem and angering the authorities. They have them arrested and thrown in jail, but an angel lets them out and tells them to go back to the Temple and tell people about Jesus. The authorities collect them again and bring them before the religious courts and accuse them of not obeying their commands. Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than human beings!”
This is not an excuse to buck the system just because we don’t like authority. The same Peter that says, "We must obey God rather than human beings!” writes in his letter to the church: “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. …Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: … Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” 1 Peter 2:11-17
So since we are living under the rule of heaven in our hearts, we must live by the values of heaven, and the ways of the kingdom of heaven
Live in a manner worthy of the Gospel…
In Ephesians 1, Paul lays out the blessings of the Gospel:
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
What Paul is saying when he asks us to “live in a manner worthy of the Gospel,” is that God has adopted us into his family out of no merit of our own – he does it only because he loves us. But now we are in his family – blessed with all the blessings of being in the family – we should act like we belong! – out of gratitude for the blessing that he gives us.
To continue to act like we don’t belong in the family is to disrespect our adoption. The writer to the Hebrews says that when we act in a way that is unworthy od this great Gospel, we are crucifying Jesus all over again
Act like people who as greatly loved by God as you are.
Our best argument/defense is a life lived for God. When people around us oppose us and our faith like Dawkins and Hitchens do, it is really tempting to start to argue with them, but our best argument is a life lived in God’s way of mercy, grace, justice and holiness. In that same passage that Peter writes about living as foreigners and obeying the authorities, he says: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” - 1 Peter 2:12
Even if people would like to believe with Hitchens that religion is the cause of all the world’s ills, it is hard to argue against the St. Patricks, Dorothy Days, Martin Luther King Jr.s, Mother Teresas, Billy Grahams…
People might ridicule us for our beliefs, but that ridicule starts to feel pretty shallow if we continue to treat them with the same grace that God has shown us.
For some of you, the opposition you experience is in your own home. For this, Peter says that we should submit to our unbelieving spouse in the same way that Jesus submitted to the unbelieving authorities so that “if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by your behavior, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 1 Peter 3:1-2
Stand firm…
I have this picture of Jesus standing before Pilate. Jesus has been whipped within an inch of his life, and has spent the night with the beatings and mocking of the soldiers. He is completely humiliated. He is likely barely able to see through swollen eyes and barely able to stand before Pilate.
Pilate asks him some questions that Jesus doesn’t answer, and then he says to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
Jesus is able to stand before his oppressors because he knows who he is, and he knows who is really in charge. Paul invites the Philippians Christians to stand before their oppressors in the same way – not in physical or worldly political strength, but in the strength of an understanding of the big picture and your place in it.
Paul tells us not to be frightened in anyway by those that oppose us. The word that he uses is the word that describes spooked horses – “don’t let the people who oppose you spook you!”
I often watch the Christian community, as the latest anti-faith book, movie, article or tv show comes out, act like a bunch of spooked horses. We don’t need to be afraid – God is not scared of Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, and neither should we be. There have been times that poorly made anti-Christian movies have become popular just because of the spooked reaction of the faithful. If we just ignored them they would have went away! Paul knew that God could draw people to Jesus even through bad press.
The context of Paul’s destroyed/saved statement
I recognize that this statement that Paul makes may have grated on some of you. “How could he say that? Isn’t as arrogant as could be?” I think that we need to remember the context of Paul’s statement – he is nor writing from a place where Christianity has been the dominant religion for centuries. He is not writing from a place where the church has been seen as an oppressive force. He is writing at a time when the Christians were a small group in a vast city, he is writing from prison to a people who were in danger of being thrown in prison, or worse. His statement is not meant to condemn the oppressors as much as it is to lift the spirits of the oppressed.
Brining light to dark situations
In one accord…
In any situation where a group is facing opposition from the outside, there is a temptation to start to fight on the inside of the group. Paul reminds us that a united front is a strong front.
Stay together…
Understand suffering
Paul’s last verse in this section tells us that he is not giving us a a recipe for rescue from opposition and suffering!
He is not saying that if we live as citizens of heaven, live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, standing firm in unity and not in fear, that we will have victory against our opposition and never suffer!
No, he says: “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.”
He is not giving a recipe for rescue, but a recipe for endurance and faith in the midst of hardship. In fact e write as though their suffering for their faith was a gift!
I know, you’re not so sure this is Good News. But it is, because if we believe that God’s goal is always to rescue us from pain, we will often be let down.
Some how, the suffering that we go through for the faith unites us with the one we have faith in. This is what makes it good.
But in the midst of opposition We must remember our citizenship, our calling to live lives worthy of the Gospel, and we need to stand firm in unity, not in fear.
We must also remember that any opposition that we live through is minimal compared to many of our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world. We need to remember their chains and keep them in our prayers.
