HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND STILL ENJOY LIFE
Sunday January 6, 2008
Introductory Sermon Pt.1
Scripture Reference: John 10:10
Intro.
A. You have heard me say on a number of occasions that I feel one of the reasons people avoid church and Christianity is that they feel these limit life rather than give life. Rather than finding fulfillment and purpose in being a follower of Christ they see just the opposite. They tend to see faith as a lot of rules and regulations about how you can and cannot live your life. Now I know this is not the only reason people reject Christ, at least rejecting the need to follow him and live as the bible instructs them to, but I feel it is certainly one of the major reasons why.
1. It is funny that some people feel this way because there is very little evidence in the bible that supports the idea (although unfortunately there is evidence for this in the way some Christians behave) that being a follower of Jesus Christ requires following a bunch of rules and regulations. I know we have looked at this scripture a number of times over the past two months but let’s look again at what Jesus said was the most important thing in life. Mark 12:29-30 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Jesus very clearly teaches us that what matters most is our love for God. If it were a bunch of rules and regulations that mattered most don’t you think Jesus would have told us so, but he didn’t! Now I will grant you this, to truly love someone will most definitely change the way you live, but that change will take place because of love not because there are now a bunch of rules to follow. Marriage is the best example of this. We could say that when a person gets married there are new rules that are in place, but that doesn’t seem to prevent people from getting married they get married because they are in love and it is their love that changes the way they live. This same thing should be true for those who follow Christ. My life should be changed not because there are new rules in place but my life should be changed because there is a new love in my life.
B. Background and Overview.
1. Today as I am sure you are all well aware I am beginning a new sermon series. The series is entitled “How To Be A Christian And Still Enjoy Life”. This series will be based on the book of Philippians. It has been a long time since I did a sermon series based on a book of the bible and I have to admit I am looking forward to this series. I have been preparing for this series since the past summer. Right now I have fourteen sermons planned but in this series I am not going to limit myself to just fourteen messages. If I feel it is necessary to preach one or more of these messages in two parts (or more) then I will do it. Right now we are looking at ending this series in April but we could well go into May or beyond and I am OK with that. My desire is not to being and end at a certain time but to dig deep into God’s word and for us to mine from this book all the jewels it has to help us enjoy the life Jesus put in us.
2. What we will do today is to look into the background of this letter and then next week we will take an overview look at the letter and see what themes come out of the four chapters we will be studying. So let’s get started with some background into the book of Philippians.
I. THE BACKGROUND OF PHILIPPIANS.
There are three things I want to accomplish in our consideration of the background of this letter. We will explore who the writer is, we will explore the place that is the city of Philippi and we will explore the history behind this particular church. Let’s talk first of all about the writer.
A. The Writer – Paul.
1. Few people would deny that the Apostle Paul was the writer of Philippians, I mean the first verse seems to make this clear, here is what it says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,. It is not only this evidence we can use to show that Paul wrote this letter but we can use the evidence found in other letters he wrote. Let’s consider just a few to affirm our belief that Paul was indeed the writer of Philippians; 1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2. Who Is Paul? Many of you are probably familiar with the Apostle Paul but let’s not take anything for granted shall we? Other than Jesus Christ himself there is probably no other person in the new testament more significant or prominent than the Apostle Paul. Our first introduction to Paul is found in Acts 7:58 let’s turn there but let’s begin at V.57 and read through 8:1 (read). Later we find Paul in Acts 9 where he is hotly pursuing the Christians and then is marvelously converted on the road to Damascus. To get the whole background into Paul I encourage you to read Acts 9 though the end of the book which is chapter 28.
3. One of the reasons Paul plays such an important role in the New Testament church and even in our lives today is because most of the New Testament was written by him. Thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were authored by Paul. If you include the book of Hebrews as I would be inclined to do then you find that he wrote over half of the entire New Testament. Much of the theology we have today comes from the writing of this one man. Now the question was asked of me. “What is theology?” Let me define Theology as simply as I can by enlisting the help of someone much more knowledgeable than I Dr. W.T., Purkizer who was one of our denomination’s leading theologians. Dr. Purkizer defined Theology like this, “it is our human attempt to think clearly and correctly about God.” Theology is the study of God just like Christology is the study of Christ and Eschatology is the study of end times. There now aren’t you all impressed with my big words? Probably in most peoples minds the greatest theological book of the bible is Romans which was written by Paul.
4. Another significant point we need to make about Paul and this letter is that this is also consider one of the “prison” letters. Paul was imprisoned on several occasions for preaching the gospel. The other letters it is believed Paul wrote while in prison were Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. When you consider the tone of these letters it only adds to my contention that life in Christ is meant to be enjoyed. In none of these letters do we find Paul bemoaning his circumstance and asking his readers to plead his case and help him get out. Who of us would be writing letters from prison that did not find as their main text GET ME OUT OF HERE! Probably few if any of us, yet Paul shows us that we can find joy even when things seem to be totally turned against us.
Trans. Now let’s consider for a moment this place called Philippi.
B. The City Of Philippi.
1. The city of Philippi was founded around the 4th century BC. It was named after the father of Alexander the Great who was Phillip the second. Later it was conquered by the Romans and this is why it became a Roman colony was Luke told us in Acts 16:12. Now the fact this Philippi was Roman Colony was very significant. It meant that this city would be sort of a miniature Rome. All the citizens of Philippi would be entitled to the same rights and privileges accorded to those who lived in Rome. [] You might think of it this way. Let’s say you buy a membership at 24 Hour Fitness here in Chino. That membership not only entitles you to use the facilities here in Chino but you have the same rights and privileges at any 24 Hour Fitness facility. So if you are out of town and want to work out and there is a 24 Hour Fitness you can go there and it will be the same as if you were going into the Chino facility.
C. The History Philippi.
1. We read about Paul’s first visit to Philippi in Acts 16. We are told that on the Sabbath they went outside the city to find a place of prayer. The reason they did this was because there was no synagogue in Philippi for them to worship in. What this meant was that there were less than ten Jewish men in this city otherwise there would be a synagogue. They go to the river where they find some women, now these were not likely to be Jewish women worshiping but rather women doing laundry. Here is what it says in V.13 We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. In other words Paul begins to share his faith in Christ with these women.
2. Back in 1989 I preached a series in the book of Philippians. It probably will surprise few of you that I never finished. In fact I spent over four months in the book and I only finished the first chapter. Don’t worry though I won’t go that long this time at least I don’t think so. One of the things that I remember learning in my studies of Philippians is something that I still love today. I want you to see it with me today as well. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Acts 16:6-10 (read). (Use a slide of map of the area mentioned here).
3. Now notice that Paul and his companions are trying to get into these areas to preach the gospel, a great thing to do right? But at every turn they are prevented and the bible says they were prevented from doing so by the Holy Spirit, in other words God was putting up roadblocks. That had to be frustrating especially for someone like Paul. The Paul gets this vision to go to the region of Macedonia where Philippi is located and then we read in Act 16:13-15 (read). Now if you just read this it probably doesn’t mean a lot to you but here is why bible study is so important. Notice where this first convert to Christianity is from. It says she is from Thyatira, now let me put the map back up on the screen (map on screen) and let’s see where Thyatira is. Do you see anything significant here? I sure do, the very place Paul was prevented by God from entering is where his first convert to Christ is from! Not only that but the whole family is saved. Can there by any doubt that Lydia goes back Thyatira and shares this faith she has found? Now we can see why Paul was prevented from entering these areas at this time, GOD HAD ANOTHER PLAN!
4. As we just learned the book of Acts tells us that Paul and his companions were seeking for opportunities to go into what is now Modern Turkey to preach the gospel but it says they were prevented from doing so, not by the local authorities or the government but by the Holy Spirit.
5. What is the lesson for us here today? I think the lesson is that even our most noble intentions may not be God’s will for us. I am reminded of what James the brother of Jesus said in his letter in 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. The equivalence for “teacher” here for us would be preacher. Who can deny that preaching the good news is a great and wonderful thing to do, but even though it is we should not desire to be a pastor unless it is God would calls us. Witnessing, sharing our faith with others is certainly a good thing for us to do and something we ought to do more of no doubt, but we need to seek the Lord to guide us in sharing our faith because to “Push” our faith on others will only move them away from Christ rather than drawing them to him. Listen, every good idea is not necessarily God’s idea for you. It may be something God wants done as surely He wanted the Gospel shared in these regions Paul could not enter but God had someone else in mind to go there first.
6. There is one more thing I want to share here that we find in Acts 16:10 (read). Now at first reading it sounds as thought Paul woke up in the morning, shared his vision and then they packed up and left, but that is not what we are told here. Notice that at the end of this verse is says, “concluding that God had called us”. Maybe in consideration of what I just spoke of you might say, “Well how can we know what we feel we want to do is what God wants us to do?” I think this phrase answers this in part. The fact that “they concluded” tells me there was some discussion about Paul’s vision and from what we know of these missionaries we must also conclude that they prayed together about this and as soon as they felt agreement in their spirit they left immediately. Let’s say you feel led to be a pastor, should you just run off to school tomorrow and get started? I would say “no”. I would say if you are feeling lead to become a pastor you need to talk this over with your pastor and with other mature Christians in whom you trust. You also need to ask these people to pray with you and ask them to see if they feel a confirmation in their spirit as you do. Now this might not be the only way you would decide whether or not God is calling you but it would certainly be a great help. If these people said they did not feel that confirmation I would be hesitant to pack up and go to school. Now you can apply this same procedure in almost any area you feel god’s leading. Seek council and ask people to pray with you. You know how much I hate it when people come to me and say, “Pastor we are going to ___________ pray for us.” My response is “Why should I pray if you have already decided to do this without asking for my prayers before you made the decision?”
OUR NEXT STEPS
A. Let me share one more story with you as I feel it fits what we have just been talking about. Paul told the Galatians Christians to not believe even an angel if that angel tells you to believe something other than the truth. Here is the verse, Galatians 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
1. I believe in angels but not as so many seem to do these days. [] Redwood City. I will admit that I am very skeptical about so called visions people have today, but I can tell you this with absolute certainly. If any supposed vision contradicts the bible that vision is a LIE and should be totally ignored. Nothing God wants to tell us will contradict His eternal word!
B. Where is God leading you? What is God leading you into? You might say to me today, “Well pastor I really don’t feel God leading me at all right now.” Maybe that is what you need to be praying about. Can you honestly say that God’s plan for you is idleness? That God has called you to do nothing? Even if we are waiting for further confirmation of some greater ministry we feel God might want us to do there are still things to do while we wait on the Lord.
1. If you are feeling God’s direction towards a certain area of service or ministry whom have you asked to prayer with you and to give you advice? Are they mature believers who you know to be people who have a close walk with God? If you have not done these things then I caution you to be very careful about moving forward. Just because it seems like a good thing to do or a “Christian” thing to do does not mean it is what God wants YOU to do.
