A FINAL LOOK AT LIVING TOGETHER IN CHRIST
Philippians 4:21-23
INTRODUCTION
A. Viet Nam veteran who had just returned from Viet Nam and called his mother.
The phone rang in the home of high society Boston. On the other end of the line was a son who had just returned from Vietnam and was calling from California. His folks were part of the pseudo-cocktail circuit, wife-swapping party kind. The young man said to his mother, "I just called, Mother to tell you that I wanted to bring a buddy home with me." His mother said, "Sure, bring him along for a few days." "But Mother, there is something that you need to know about this guy. One leg is gone, one arm’s been shot off, one eye’s out, and his face is quite disfigured. Is it alright if I bring him home, Mama?”
His mother said, "Bring him home for just a few days." The son said, "You don’t understand,, Mother, I want to bring him home to live with us. The mother began to make all kinds of excuses about embarrassment and what people might think … and the phone clicked.
A few hours later the police called from California to Boston. The mother answered the phone. The police sergeant at the other end said, “We just found a young man with one arm, one leg, one eye, and a mangled face who has just killed himself with a shot in the head. The identification papers on the body say he is your son.”
B. As Paul gives his closing greetings and thoughts in Philippians he wants us to have our perspective right.
1. This is an expansion of the normal closing to ancient letters, which was Paul’s practice.
2. In this closing Paul summarizes the two main themes of the book.
3. There is a personal thrust to the closing, as noted by the use of “I” and “you.”
C. The perspective of these last three verses of Philippians is an important perspective to have.
1. Paul has said in numerous ways through Philippians that unity, living together in Christ, is critical to the life of the church.
2. I have seen this over the years by observing that most church fights come down to people’s opinions, and not doctrine. When people’s eternal salvation is at stake, that is just downright stupid.
3. I listened to a sermon tape this week by Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, CA. My sister-in-law attends there, and I have visited there once. It is a fast developing church north of San Diego with a diversified ministry. Osborne told about some information he had heard about some churches in their community, only to reveal that all the statements were made about North Coast Church. The statements were misrepresentations of the facts about the church, and were likely made by Christians who disagreed with their style of ministry.
4. Paul says about that kind of approach in 1:18 that the important thing is that Christ is preached.
5. I have increasingly come to the conclusion over the years that there are very few things that it is worth dividing the church over. Those issues would include the nature of God, the divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation. However, you rarely hear about church fights over such matters.
6. In fact, the main doctrine that the early years of the Restoration Movement brought to the church was this concept that we should be only Christians and consider ourselves one with all those who name the name of Christ. That is the
idea that Paul has developed in Philippians.
7. Now he closes the book, by re-emphasizing this idea.
KEY STATEMENT
In this final look at living together in Christ Paul mentions two concerns that we need to have in perspective for living together.
I. HAVE A GREETING PERSPECTIVE – Vss. 21,22.
A. Paul was writing against the background of division.
1. The night I was called to Bob and Sandy Brown’s house in Andover, IL. That night was a miniature of their relationship. Although, some of us spent a great deal of time working with them, their marriage did not survive because there was too much division between them that they could not correct.
2. That is the way things had been in the Philippian church. There were two situations in Philippi that brought this about:
a. Those who preached Christ out of envy – 1:15,17.
b. The division between Euodia and Syntyche.
3. These kinds of things happen when we want our own way at any cost:
Chuck Swindoll tells about sitting on a 727 about halfway back in the coach section (three-plus three configuration) when a family of three came aboard. Apparently they had purchased their tickets late and were unable to secure reserved seating in the same row. The airline attendant assured them that there were several empty seats...surely someone would be willing to swap.
His row on the right side was full, as were several others, but just in front of him were two empty seats, middle and window...and on the other side, same row, the middle and aisle seats were open.
The family — all of them friendly and courteous — asked the gentleman on the aisle if he would be willing to move from the right side aisle seat to the left side aisle seat. That’s all...just stand up, take two seats to the left, then sit back down. Just swap seat 17D for seat 17C.
Do you think he’d do it? No way. He wasn’t even courteous enough to answer verbally. Just stared straight ahead as he shook his head firmly. And when a flight attendant tactfully tried again, he unloaded a piece of his mind he couldn’t afford to lose. I mean the guy absolutely refused to budge. This was his "space." He had paid good money for it, and there was no way he was going to let anybody, for any reason, take it away from him. Small world, small mind.
4. Paul is not saying these kinds of differences will not find their way into the church.
B. Paul simply calls for us to greet each other.
1. He will not promote disunity, but greets "all the saints," "the brothers," "all the saints," and "those who belong to Caesar’s household.” Look at what he is saying by this:
a. We will find wherever we go people who are in Christ, some who are members of a class of people we do not normally associate with or which we may have been prejudiced against. This was particularly true with the Roman Empire and these Philippians who were mostly retired Roman army veterans. There were groups of people they just did not associate with. There all kinds of barriers in the empire separating different groups of people. Paul urges us to reach across the old barriers, which used to divide and to "greet all the saints."
b. Paul also looks around at his immediate company in Rome and associates them with the Philippians as fellow members of one family: "The brothers who are with me send greetings." We might well write to former Christians we have known and send them greetings from the brothers who are with us. We are in the same family.
c. There is not one who cannot send such greetings: "All the saints send you greetings."
d. Those in Philippi who were Roman army veterans had settled in Philippi in new homes which were partial payment for their service. They would still, though, have links with those who continued to serve Caesar, so Paul says "those who belong to Caesar’s household" who were not Christians especially send their greetings.
2. Further we are "in Christ" together.
When she turned 21, Tammy Harris from Roanoke, Virginia, began searching for her biological mother. After a year, she had not succeeded. What she didn’t know was that her mother, Joyce Schultz, had been trying to locate her for twenty years.
According to a recent Associated Press story, there was one more thing Tammy didn’t know: Her mother was one of her coworkers at the convenience store where she worked! One day Joyce overheard Tammy talking with another coworker about trying to find her mother. Soon they were comparing birth certificates.
When Tammy realized that the co-worker she had known was, in fact, her mother, she fell into her arms. "We held on for the longest time," Tammy said. "It was the best day of my life."
Each week we rub shoulders with people whom we may barely notice. But if they share a birth in Christ, they are our dearest relatives. How precious is the family of God!
3. Paul has emphasized this throughout the book, and now he closes with it.
a. 1:5,9,18; 2:1-5,14; 4:2,3; and he uses the example of Timothy and Epaphroditus.
b. We need to learn to greet one another, even with a "holy kiss."
c. Someone has said, "Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about things, and small minds talk about people."
d. What Paul is talking about instead is seeing the importance of each individual.
e. When we don’t, we need to hear this:
I was in the supermarket one day, and a lady came down the aisle whom I could barely see over the top of her groceries. I got somewhat frightened because she seemed to be heading straight for me. She screeched to a halt within a few feet of me, peered over her load, wagged her finger, and said, "I left your church. I left your church".
So I said, "Well, if it’s my church, I think that was a very wise decision. If it’s my church, I think I’m going to leave too."
She said, "Don’t you want to know why I left?"
I said, "No, not particularly, but I think I’m going to find out". And I was right.
She said, "You weren’t meeting my needs".
I answered, "I don’t ever recollect seeing you before, let alone talking to you, let alone knowing your needs. Did you ever tell anyone specifically what your needs were?"
She couldn’t recall that she had, so I raised another question. "Can you tell me, if we have 5,000 people sitting in that church, all with your attitude, how anyone’s needs are going to be met? If you reserve the right to have that attitude, then you must give everybody the freedom to have that attitude. And if everybody has that attitude, who on earth is going to do all the need-meeting?"
Standing her ground, she demanded, "Then you tell me who will."
Relieved, I said, "I thought you’d never ask. This is what will work: when people stop sitting in the pew saying, ’They’re not meeting my needs and start saying, ’Whose needs can I meet?’ Then needs will be met. When the servant spirit flourishes in a congregation, then they minister to each other as unto the Lord."
f. When we do see the importance of each individual, here is what will happen:
During WWII, economist E. F. Schumacher, then a young statistician, worked on a farm. Each day he would count the 32 head of cattle, then turn his attention elsewhere. One day an old farmer told him that if he counted the cattle, they wouldn’t flourish. Sure enough, one day he counted only 31; one was dead in the bushes. Now Schumacher understood the farmer: You must watch the quality of each beast. "Look him in the eye. Study the sheen of his coat. You may not know how many cattle you have, but you might save the life of one that is sick."
II. HAVE A GRACE PERSPECTIVE – Vs. 23.
A. Who should receive grace? Max Lucado says in his book In the Grip of Grace that the things he has the most difficulty understanding about Jeffrey Dahmer is his conversion. I have heard Roy Ratcliff tell how the Lord used him to bring Dahmer to Christ. Is God’s grace sufficient for someone like Dahmer?
B. Paul begins the letter with grace – 1:2. Now he ends with it. The free, unmerited grace of God needs to mark all we do to live together in Christ.
C. The idea of grace stands central to the book.
1. In Ephesians Paul explains grace and how it works.
2. In Philippians, Paul pictures grace at work.
3. He spoke about grace when he referred to those who preach out of envy and rivalry – 1:15-18.
4. Grace is at the center of the work of Christ – 2:6-11.
5. Grace means God is at work in us – 2:12,13.
6. Paul’s life is all about grace – 3:1-14.
7. Our heavenly citizenship comes by grace – 3:20,21.
D. Grace needs to mark our lives.
1. It needs to mark our relationship with God. John Newton at age 82 said, "I remember two things: I am a great sinner, and Jesus is a great savior."
2. It needs to mark how we deal with other people: illustration from Les Miserables helps us see how sin enslaves and forgiveness frees:
The movie Les Miserables, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, opens with a vagabond curled up on a stone bench on a desolate French street corner. His bedraggled appearance makes him seem dangerous and causes the townspeople, from whom he sought food and shelter, to snub him. Finally he slumps over in dejection -- until a passerby points to a place where he can find refuge.
He goes to the door and knocks. The homeowner, the town’s bishop, is startled by the late-night visitation but attentively listens to his story. His name is Jean Valjean, and he reveals that he is a recently released convict and marked by the authorities as dangerous. Even so, the bishop welcomes him into his home and serves him dinner.
Later, in the middle of the night, despite the bishop’s kindness, Valjean double-crosses him. Valjean remembers the sparkling silver spoon he used to eat his soup at dinner and sneaks to the dining room to steal the bishop’s valuable silverware. The clanking of metal arouses the bishop, who rises to inspect the clattering below. When they meet face-to-face, Valjean strikes the bishop, leaving him unconscious, and escapes with a heavy knapsack of silver.
The following morning the bishop’s wife laments the loss of her silver, but the bishop seems unperturbed, telling his wife, "So we’ll use wooden spoons. I don’t want to hear anything more about it." Moments later, authorities appear at the bishop’s manor with the stolen silver and Valjean handcuffed.
Looking deeply into the thief’s eyes, the bishop says, "I’m very angry with you, Jean Valjean." Turning toward the authorities, he asks, "Didn’t he tell you he was our guest?"
"Oh, yes," replies the chief authority. "after we searched his knapsack and found all this silver. He claimed that you gave it to him."
Stooping in shame, Valjean expects the bishop to indict him. A new prison sentence awaits him. But the bishop says, "Yes. Of course I gave him the silverware." Then, looking intently at Valjean he asks, "But why didn’t you take the candlesticks? That was very foolish. They’re worth at least 2,000 francs. Why did you leave them? Did you forget to take them?
The bishop orders his wife to hurry and fetch the candlesticks, while the authorities stand dumbfounded. They ask, "Are you saying he told us the truth?"
The bishop replies, "Of course. Thank you for bringing him back. I’m very relieved."
The authorities immediately release Valjean, who is shocked by the turn of events, and the bishop thrusts the retrieved candlesticks into Valjean’s knapsack.
Once the authorities leave, the bishop drops the heavy bag of silver at Valjean’s feet. After peeling away Valjean’s hood, which was cloaking his guilty face, the bishop sternly looks him in the eyes and orders Valjean, "Don’t forget...don’t ever forget you’ve promised to become a new man." Valjean, trembling, makes the promise and with utter humility asks, "Why are you doing this?" The bishop places his hands on Valjean’s shoulders, as an act of blessing, and declares, "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I’ve bought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred. Now I give you back to God."
Jesus has bought mankind. We no longer "belong to evil." We have been freed to return to God.
CONCLUSION
A. Much more, I suppose, could be said about Philippians, but these two ideas sum it up. Paul is saying we should be there for people.
B. Father Henry Fehren in the May, 1986, issue of U.S. Catholic, said, "When disaster strikes and innocent people suffer, or especially when something bad happens to a good person, Christians often ask, "Where was God?" But if Christians accept that they are People of God, it may be better to ask, "Where were the People of God?"
C. We should thus become the people of God, instead of dividing. Larry Osborne, in the sermon I cited earlier, lists six things over which we ought not to div ide:
1. We ought not to divide over leaders and teachers.
2. We ought not to divide over issues of personal tastes or preference.
3. We ought not to divide over issues of ministry styles or focus.
4. We ought not to divide over theological differences when the Bible is unclear or silent.
• Style of baptism
• Style of communion
• The Lord’s Return
• Church Government
• Role of men and women
5. We ought not to divide over lifestyle differences when the Bible is unclear or silent.
6. We ought not to divide over honest blind spots and errors.
D. Ben Hooper’s life shows us how we need to extend God’s grace to people and accept them if we are to live together with them.
Fred Craddock ate one day in a restaurant in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He wanted to just sit and relax away from the people, but an old man came over to his table. He did not really want to talk to the man, but he asked him what he did. Craddock said he was a preacher. The old man grabbed a chair, sat down, asked if he could sit down, and said he had a preacher story to tell him. Craddock thought he was in for another preacher story he did not really want to hear.
The man told how he was born as an illegitimate child and therefore not accepted by anyone. They all made fun of him. When he was in junior high, he went to a church where a preacher who always wore a long cut-away coat with striped pants and a long beard preached. The boy would slip in and slip out before anyone could talk to him.
One day he felt a hand on his shoulder as he left and saw the striped pants out of the corner of his eye. He knew he was caught. He looked up and a voice said, "Young man, you are a child of God." He then slapped him on the bottom and said, "Now, go out to claim your inheritance."
By then, Craddock was interested and asked his name. It was Ben Hooper.
Craddock said, "Ben Hooper, Ben Hooper. My father told me about an illegitimate child named Ben Hooper who had grown up to be elected a two term governor of Tennessee. Ben Hooper was born the day a preacher said, ’Young man, you are a child of God.’"
ISSUES OVER WHICH WE OUGHT NOT TO DIVIDE
1. We ought not to divide over leaders and teachers.
2. We ought not to divide over issues of personal tastes or preference.
3. We ought not to divide over issues of ministry styles or focus.
4. We ought not to divide over theological differences when the Bible is unclear or silent.
• Style of baptism
• Style of communion
• The Lord’s Return
• Church Government
• Role of men and women
5. We ought not to divide over lifestyle differences when the Bible is unclear or silent.
6. We ought not to divide over honest blind spots and errors.
