Intro:
How we see things in our lives and in our worlds is a lot more powerful and has a lot more impact on us than we might imagine. For example, if we see the world as existing to bring us pleasure and happiness, then when it doesn’t we get angry or frustrated or confused: “why is this happening to me? I’m a good person, I don’t deserve this, why???” On the opposite side, if we see ourselves as completely worthless, and someone does a kindness to us, we reject that because we don’t deserve it. Less extreme, if we see our city as a place that exists to serve us then we get impatient sitting on the Quesnell Bridge during construction rush hour. If we see God as a gentle grandpa handing out nice presents we’ll look at difficult times as indicators of a problem, like maybe God left us alone. If we see church as a place full of hypocrites because we knew some we won’t want to join. If we see a Muslim woman wearing a burka, or a native man on the street walking towards us, and we feel some twinge of fear, that reveals to us something of how we see the world.
This “learning to see” comes from our personalities, our life experiences, and from the manipulation of forces eager to have us see things the way they want us to see them. But as Christians, perhaps one of the absolutely most counter-cultural ways of being is to learn to see things as God sees them. Through God’s eyes, not just the eyes of our personalities or life experiences or the manipulation of others.
Easier said than done…
Phil 1:12-18 (NLT):
Last week I introduced the book of Philippians, which we are going to study this fall. It was written by Paul to the church in the city of Philippi, with whom he enjoyed a strong, mutual, loving relationship. The Philippians knew that Paul was in prison and have just sent him a financial gift so that his needs might be met while he waits for his trial before Caesar, and he sends this letter back with the man who had brought the money. Now obviously, the Philippians are eager to hear how Paul is doing, how he is holding up under such terrible circumstances. Is he discouraged? Ready to give up?? Angry??? Paul responds:
“12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. 13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. 14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.
15 It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice.”
Perspective on Suffering (vs. 12-13):
It is immediately clear that Paul has one main “lens” through which he sees everything: the gospel (or the “good news”). This is all he really cares about: is the message about Jesus getting out to people? Are they hearing about the love and forgiveness and life that God desires us to have and has provided through Jesus? The Philippians would have been concerned about Paul, because of their love for him, very natural and appropriate, but Paul doesn’t care about that, Paul cares about the spreading of the “good news”. Vss. 12-13 make that really, really clear. As much as he hates the chains around his wrists and ankles, as much as he can’t go anywhere and is stuck in a Roman jail, his perspective is that “everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.”
And so Paul does not despair. Well, now that is quite nice for Paul and everything, he is one of those “super-Christians”, but what does that have to say to us today? None of us are in chains because we were telling people about Jesus. But we do have “bad things” happen to us. Here comes the hard part: how does God see those “bad things” in our lives? I know how we tend to see them – unfair, painful, hampering us, to be ended as quickly as possible. But how does God see them, and is there a perspective there that might be different than ours? That might in fact be healthier?? I’m not going to answer those questions in a sermon because they are too specific and have too wide a range, anywhere from “God hates those bad things because they are a direct result of our sin and He doesn’t want us to live like that a moment longer”, to “God sees these as opportunities for “pure joy” like in James 1 where we read that as “your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
The point is not that I answer that question, but that you ask it. “God, how do you see what is going on in my life?” Paul saw the events of his life through the purpose of his life, which was to spread the good news about Jesus, and that perspective profoundly shaped how he responded to the hardships of life.
And before moving on, there is a major theme introduced here that permeates the entire letter – Jesus first. The commentators call this “the primacy of the Gospel”, but I prefer the simpler “Jesus first”. This, I suggest to you, is the best lens through which to see all of our lives.
Perspective on Fear (vs. 14):
Verses 12 and 13 give us some perspective on suffering, verse 14 gives us some perspective on fear. “And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.” This is a little confusing at first glance, because we might expect the opposite. Seeing someone who has “boldly spoken God’s message” thrown into prison and shackled to the wall might be expected to dampen the desire among others to “boldly speak God’s message”, but Paul reports the opposite. “most of the believers”, and let’s pause there for just a moment and recognize and acknowledge that this is NOT the official leaders and other “super-Christians”, but rather the entire group of Christians, have not shrunk backwards because of Paul’s persecution but instead have done the opposite – “have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.”
What is going on here, in its original context, and what does that mean for us today? I can answer the first one but then I’m going to ask for your help in understanding the second. In Paul’s day, I believe the “most Christians” saw it like this: if Paul is willing to suffer that much for Jesus, surely I can take the risk of talking about Jesus with the people around me. Paul’s willingness to suffer if necessary EN-couraged them, and they responded. Now I need some help, because while I can talk about fear and how I think it impacts how we live (particularly in relation to how we speak or don’t speak about Jesus), it isn’t something I can really relate to. I have other struggles, but that isn’t one, so maybe some of you can help me. What does vs. 14 have to say to us in 2010 about a perspective on fear that will help us? Why are we afraid, how does that feel, how does it impact our lives and our witness for Jesus? Can anyone help me out?
I think fear feeds on lies. Now of course there are legitimate fears based in truth – one feels fear about jumping of the top of a bridge towards the Nile river even if a bungee-cord is securely wrapped around one’s ankles. But most of them, I think, are based on lies – we’ll be rejected, we’ll be mocked, we’ll be left out… and (here is the hidden part of the lie), that will really matter and be bad. For example, the lie: “I am afraid to share about Jesus because I don’t like feeling rejected because it makes me feel worthless”; the truth: “I can tell people about Jesus even if they reject me because God will never reject me because he loves me whether I succeed or fail.” See how “Jesus first” changes perspective and chases out the lies?
Perspective on Motivation (vs. 15-18):
This next paragraph details a perspective on two things, “preaching” and “motivation”, which again can teach us something that applies to our lives today. Paul’s imprisonment has resulted in boldness in “preaching”, from two different motivations. Some are doing so out of love for Paul, others have some “jealousy” and “rivalry” and “selfish ambition”. Obviously it is not all neat and tidy, there are human forces at work then as now, and what interests me most is Paul’s conclusion. The NLT makes it a statement, “but that doesn’t matter”, while the original is a question, “what does it matter?” (NIV), the point being the same. “So what?” Paul doesn’t really care that some are hoping to gain in personal prestige or spiritual power or influence, and are hoping it will make Paul jealous as he sees how much freedom they have to preach and win people to Christ and thus make him frustrated that he is stuck in prison while they are free. Paul really could care less, because “Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice.”
Here’s what I take out of this: Paul knows it is not about him. Not about his ego, his prestige, his impact, how many followers he has, how effective his ministry is vs. how effective someone else’s ministry is. It is about Jesus. This is important for us, it helps with the perspective on fear and on suffering which we’ve just talked about, and it certainly helps with our perspective on our ministries. It is about Jesus – that is what matters.
Perspective on Preaching (vs. 15-18):
The last thing I want to take out of this passage and apply to us today is the idea in vss. 15-18 about “preaching”. It is the main theme, our translation uses the word 6 times (it is there 3 times in the original language because Paul likes writing really long complicated sentences). In Paul’s day, it meant “1) to announce, declare, promulgate, make known; 2) to proclaim publicly, publish” (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2605&t=KJV), and “the sense is that of the proclamation or declaration of a completed happening” (Kittel, TDNT 1:70). So it was probably mostly verbal proclamation, but not the way we associate “preaching” today with some professional like me standing before a group of people who believe much the same thing in a formal setting like a church congregation. There would have been some of that, but that is obviously not what Paul is talking about when he says “most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear”.
Instead, what it means is that Paul saw the Christians around him talking about what Jesus had done for them: announcing, declaring, proclaiming publicly what they had come to know (head, heart, and spirit) about Jesus.
This, I submit, is still our task and our goal. Now in our culture the word “preach” is full of negative connotations. Madonna sang “papa don’t preach” in the 80s, the adjective “preachy” means “Having or revealing a tendency to give moral advice in a tedious or self-righteous way” (dictionary.com). So we need to re-think what it means for us to live out the clear message of Phil. 1:12-18, we need to boldly proclaim publicly what Jesus has done for us, in a way that will get the message heard. In Canada in 2010, let me make a few guiding suggestions:
• It must be authentic: people around us have mostly heard of a Christianity that is contrived, shallow, formulaic, pushy, and off-putting because of claims of superiority. That is so opposite what Paul is talking about. We can’t put on a pretense, we can’t present something we haven’t experienced, we can’t pretend. It has to be real, and when it is, people around us are actually eager to hear about it. If you don’t believe that, then try it and prove me wrong…
• It must be natural: it is not natural in our culture for a perfect stranger to knock on the door or walk up to a complete stranger and try to dump a load of spiritual truth. For it to be natural, we have to have relationships. There must be some connection, some history, some shared interest, in which we can talk about things that really matter. This means that we need to cultivate relationships with people around us that are genuine, caring, mutual, and that can lead to opportunities to talk naturally about spiritual things.
• It must be demonstrated: in our culture, words are not enough, and words probably are not even an effective place to start. Demonstrations, however, – and by that I mean active, visible, tangible expressions of the Kingdom of God – are first simple ways to obey the call of God on us, and second they create opportunities that are natural so that we can be authentic.
Conclusion:
Two examples will wrap us up this morning. For the next two Wednesday nights we are going to demonstrate what it means to be the people of God by collecting food for the Edmonton Food Bank. In the example of the sheep and the goats, Jesus says “I was hungry and you fed me”, concluding that “whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me”. That demonstration is natural in our culture, festivals collect food, football games collect food, corporations collect food, distribution is organized and administered by our city, so for Christians like us to join in something like that is easy and natural and a demonstration of our commitment to Jesus. And it creates opportunities for us to be authentic – if people ask why we are collecting food we can tell them, and when you talk to people on Thursday at work or school or in social situations and they say “what did you do last night” you can tell them. Or maybe you want to be proactive and invite them ahead of time to come and help.
Second story. Last week I had coffee with someone I knew when they were a junior high kid in my youth group 17 years ago. This is one of the big advantages of staying in one place as long as I have. He needed someone to talk with because his life is messy, and because of a history where I’ve demonstrated my faith in the past, we had a natural opportunity for an authentic conversation. As I listened, offered some counsel, I also was able to say at one point in a very natural way, “for me, I have something in my life that keeps me going when things are hard – I know I am never alone, I am always God’s child and thus always loved and accepted, and I have that foundation, I’m forgiven, and that is something you could have to.”
Perspective: on suffering, fear, motivation, and “preaching”. How does God see your life, your actions, your opportunities? Find that perspective, and you’ll find “life to the full”.
