Submit to God in Christ

Submit to God in Christ

Pastor Ed Evans

January 20, 2019

Philippians 1:12-21

¹² Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have actually advanced the gospel. ¹³ The whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else knows that I’m in prison for Christ.¹⁴ Most of the brothers and sisters have had more confidence through the Lord to speak the word boldly and bravely because of my jail time.¹⁵ Some certainly preach Christ with jealous and competitive motives, but others preach with good motives. ¹⁶ They are motivated by love, because they know that I’m put here to give a defense of the gospel;¹⁷ the others preach Christ because of their selfish ambition. They are insincere, hoping to cause me more pain while I’m in prison.

¹⁸ What do I think about this? Just this: since Christ is proclaimed in every possible way, whether from dishonest or true motives, I’m glad and I’ll continue to be glad. ¹⁹ I’m glad because I know that this will result in my release through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. ²⁰ It is my expectation and hope that I won’t be put to shame in anything. Rather, I hope with daring courage that Christ’s greatness will be seen in my body, now as always, whether I live or die.²¹ Because for me, living serves Christ and dying is even better.

Key Verse: “Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have actually advanced the gospel.” – Philippians 1:12

Let us Pray – “Father, we thank You for this opportunity to look closely at the life and times of Paul, and his dedication to You.  May we look closely at our own lives and study our dedication to You even as You are dedicated to us.  We may not be in danger of imprisonment for our faith as Paul was, but there are things in this life that would lock us up and away from You, Lord.  Help us, even as we study this morning, to step closer to You, that You might strengthen our faith and our ability to have a positive impact on others for Your sake.  Lead us and guide us, Father, that we might more closely follow Jesus.  Amen.”

          Above all else, this lesson demonstrates the priority of the gospel, for Paul, above everything else in his life.  The gospel of Jesus Christ had priority ever since he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

          What we are looking at today are letters Paul wrote from prison. He spent some four or five years in the custody of the Roman Empire, serving time Caesarea and in Rome.  Some think he was even in custody in Ephesus.

          Then there was the brief stay in the Philippian jail by he and Silas, before an angel shook things up.  That makes Paul the first follower of Christ to write letters from prison.

          In this letter Paul is writing from a gold mining town midway along an East-West trade route, the Via Egnatia, near the coastal town of Neapolis.

          The way in which Paul happened to plant a church there, according to Acts 16, has to do with a chance meeting with a woman named “Lydia, a gentle God worshipper.”  She was also a dealer in purple cloth, and she led Paul to remain in Philippi long enough to preach, exorcize and ungodly spirit, get flogged and thrown into prison, escape from prison, baptize and entire family of new Gentile believers, and then get kicked out of town, all in Christ’s name.

          According to Luke, it was Paul’s highly conspicuous stay in Philippi that contributed to the establishment of a community of Christians there.  Yet oddly enough, nowhere in his letter to the Philippians does he mentioned Lydia, a fact that continues to puzzle scholars.

          So where was Paul when he wrote this letter to the Philippians?  The conventional answer is Rome, in prison there.  Paul had appealed to Caesar and had b4een taken as a prisoner to Rome.  That entailed a wait, in prison, of two years, according to Acts. 28:30.

          Since Paul was apparently martyred in Rome, at some stage of that imprisonment he found himself under a capital charge, a situation reflected in Philippians 1, by his mention of the “Praetorian Guard.”  This is supported by Paul’s writing in his letter that he is waiting for a trial date to be set, and perhaps even a death sentence to be handed down.

          Now I want to pause right here, and share with you some verses not in your lesson, verses 1-11 from Philippians, Chapter 1: (This is from the Common English Bible.)  My question to you is this, what effect do you think hearing these words as a call to worship during a Sunday morning service, what effect would they have on our congregation?  These are Paul’s words:

From Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus.

To all those in Philippi who are God’s people in Christ Jesus, along with your supervisors and servants.

² May the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

³ I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. ⁴ I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. ⁵ I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. ⁶ I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus. ⁷ I have good reason to think this way about all of you because I keep you in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace, both during my time in prison and in the defense and support of the gospel. ⁸ God is my witness that I feel affection for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.

⁹ This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. ¹⁰ I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. ¹¹ I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.

          What do you think?  Some of it is pretty personal.  Any effect at all?

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          Paul, as a prisoner but also a preacher, writes not private but public letters, writing “to all the saints.”  He was probably aware his words would be read in a worship setting, and so he filled his epistles with confessions, hymns, doxologies, eulogies, prayers, and benedictions.  Yet, Paul wrot4e to congregations, not to the church universal.  His ministry was to particular groups trying to live out the gospel in concrete ways.  His messages are as if from one of our own pastors whose Christ-focused friendship has helped form us into a Christ-filled fellowship; information, support and encouragement from one who knows us best.

          It’s worth pointing out that Paul’s letters still highlight the singular theme of joy, even as he is in prison awaiting an unknown outcome, that he would so thoroughly express joy in Christ and encourage joy in others is actually remarkable.  That attitude of joy underscores the theme of this lesson’s Purpose statement: “To practice our devotion to Christ daily in the ordinary things of life and to do our best at it.”  How do you do your best at anything without a certain amount of joy in your heart?

          So let’s take a closer look at what Paul has written here, probably cooped up in a small, stone room, with steel bars between him and the rays of sunshine from outside.

          His opening words in verses 1-11 of the first Chapter are acclamation, assurance, and thanksgiving.  He wants his readers to be assured that they were claimed by God, namely, “saints,” and called by God to be on display, to be conspicuous as they lived as Christ-followers even as they lived as Philippians even as they lived along this popular trade route with all its temptations and problems.

          In verse 3, Paul launches into an extended thanksgiving and right away we read the word “joy”!  14 times Paul works the word “joy” into this letter.  Paul rejoiced in all that the congregation at Philippi had shared with him: the gospel, certainly, but also the prayers and financial support they had shared with him.  In those days, if you had no contact outside the prison, you did not eat. If your clothes wore out or ripped, you made do with what you had.  But the Philippian Christians didn’t forget Paul, and foremost in Paul’s mind and in his writings was celebrating God’s grace in his relationship with fellow believers.

          Even when Paul refers in 1:7 to his own imprisonment, Paul describes the Philippians as those “share in God’s grace.”  Maybe we would expect him to say they shared in his suffering, but Paul regards every circumstance as an experience of grace.  And his attitude of celebrative confidence leads Paul directly into the subject of our focal test for this lesson.

          His opening phrase “I want you to know” translates a standard Greek phrase, a “disclosure formula” that signals the writer is about to provide the reader with information.  We might say, “Listen to this,” or “Let me tell you what happened,” because this is something he really needs you to know and understand.

          Paul was indicating he was about to share important information with the “brothers and sisters”, the “beloved”, indicating a relationship of equality rather than superiority.  The Philippians were more like siblings, family, to Paul and he wanted them to know that.

          So the crucial information Paul was about to impart to his Philippian family was essentially a message about God’s providence.  Mentioning his imprisonment by the Romans, twice in as many verses, yet Paul’s concern was how the gospel had been made known in his situation – how his captivity had afforded him the opportunity to be a witness for Christ. 

          First, his witness had “penetrated the whole Roman establishment.”  The Praetorian Guards around him and everyone else in his vicinity had been hearing him preach Christ.

          Secondly, Paul’s fellow prisoners were there for crimes against the community or the Emperor; robbery, murder, crimes of selfishness and desire.  But to everyone there is became clear that Paul’s bonds were for Christ; that is, for nothing illicit was he being held, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul’s imprisonment, the danger to his life, had become an encouragement to fellow believers.  They had gained more confidence through the Lord thanks to their being inspired by his predicament.

          Paul’s boldness inside the prison had resulted in a boldness outside the prison.  Perhaps that shot in the arm was just what the Philippian church may well have need; a shot of encouragement.

          As we move into verses 15 through 18, we find Paul still celebrating such a remarkable witness among his supporters, but Paul also recognizes that his imprisonment had inspired some of his rival preachers.  It should come as no surprise that Paul was not everyone’s favorite pastor.

          We know from reading Acts and his other letters that Paul was not the only strong pastor/preacher of his day.  Others stepped up to preach the gospel out of love and fill the void cause by Paul’s absence.  But it sounds as though for Paul’s rivals, their motivation was self-centered rather than Christ-centered.

          The language of verses 15-18 picks up the accusations of persuasive rhetoric: envy, self-ambition, sharply contrasting with those whose motivation was love.

          Now, the fact is we know nothing about these alternate Christian preachers except what we learn from Paul’s critique of them.  They may have been well-intentioned missionaries whose strategy or way of operating was in disagreement with that of Paul and his companions.

          Some scholars have suggested Paul’s rivals might have been suspicious of Paul and felt his approach was bringing the Christian community into conflict with the Roman authorities, and therefore into physical danger.  They might have been relieved that Paul was out of the way, in prison, unable to cause trouble by disputing with his fellow Jews.

          Obviously, we do not know all that Paul knew when writing this letter. What we do know is that Paul was keenly aware that the gospel proclaimed is always more important, more noble, than the gospel proclaimer.  That was the source of Paul’s joy.

          In verses 18 through 21, Paul goes on toe celebrate the proclamation of Christ by any mouth and by any motive, expressing continued joy in what he believes will be his deliverance, and his salvation.  Even so, scholars don’t believe Paul envisioned his imminent release from prison here, for in the next verses he seems to express his hope in speaking as a prisoner on behalf of Christ.

          Paul then draws on his knowledge of the Psalms to express that he would gladly accept shame in bondage or in death, in exchange for the exaltation of Christ.  His purpose is that the person of Paul in whatever state, living or dying, bound or free, would reveal the glorified person of Christ.  However they looked at Paul, they would see Christ.

          Then comes Paul’s summary in verse 21: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  Paul wrote something similar to the Galatians: “I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).  Here, though, Paul’s Greek phrasing is succinct and deep.  He may well have been speaking in the language of the ancient philosophers, whose maxims celebrated the noble death as nobler gain, as a release from the burdens of mortality.  But Paul’s aim was higher. 

          He explains that living IS Christ.  Living is the same as Christ.  Christ IS life.  The only greater gain than Christ-living is Christ-dying; that is, dying so that the living Christ is glorified.

          Paul was anxious that that his readers saw what he saw, felt what he felt, knew what he knew.  When Paul writes “for me to live is Christ,” he doesn’t want us just to read, see, understand that, but to believe and live what that means: “for me to live is Christ.”

          Maybe if we rephrased it, such as “For me, living serves Christ and dying is even better.”  Or maybe that just doesn’t touch us in the right places.  Does it mean anything more just because it uses more words?

          Each of our lives, even at this age, remains a work in progress.  We still would like to imbed more completely our living in the living Christ.  But it will take more practice.  Maybe if I just say it simply, “For me to live is Christ.”  No comma, no hurry.  One breath.  Every day.

          But I would be even more truthful with you.  I mentioned earlier Galatians 2:20.  And that has been my favorite verse, my life verse, from the moment I found Christ on Dec. 28^th, 1958.

          Those words come alive within me when I repeat them: “I am crucified with Christ.  Nevertheless I live.  Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

          That’s what I strive for.  And I fail a lot.  But I never stop trying.  For He loved me first, before I ever knew Him.  He loved me first, He knows everything about me, past, present, and even future, He knows how many times I’m going to fail, and He still came to me.

          Now, the writer of the student book notes many Christians may have difficult seeing Paul’s zeal as a model of faith: “Most of us want our Christian faith to be part of our lives but not the entire story.  We seek balanced lives.”

          So I ask you to consider and discuss these two questions from the student book: First, when is a balance a good thing, and when does it interfere with your commitment to follow Jesus?

          And second: What do you need to change or reshape in your daily life so as to better reflect your commitment to follow Jesus?

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          Remember, as it says in your student book: “God hasn’t called us to be effective but to be faithful.”

          Last question:  What personal call do you hear from Paul’s words to the Philippians?  Anyone?

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          Any final thoughts or questions about today’s lesson?

          If not, let close with the prayer in your student book on page 60:

          O God, help us to be faithful, doing our best for Christ.  Where possible, let us also be effective, but let not an absence of visible results dampen our commitment to be Jesus’ disciple; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.