Philippians 1:12-30 The Advance of the Gospel April 30 06

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Philippians 1:12-30 The Advance of the Gospel April 30 06 30 minutes max:


Do you know the story of the boy Alexander, featured in the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?
Alexander says, I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

At school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul's picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle.
At singing time she said I sang too loud. At counting time she said I left out sixteen. Who needs sixteen? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
I think I'll move to Australia.

There were lima beans for dinner and I hate limas beans. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing. I think I'll move to Australia.

My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes…. and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas.

It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says some days are like that.

Even in Australia.
We all, at one time or another in our lives, find ourselves in midst of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day—or a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad or week or month or season. Maybe some terrible experience at school, work, in a relationship, or something related to our financial picture our health or a combination of the above.
The apostle Paul new what is was like to face great adversity:
Paul in about the year 60 AD was in jail in Rome for his faith. The Emperor Nero was becoming increasingly hostile toward followers of Christ, and was Paul living under the threat of death…
But in spite of this, as he writes to church at Philippi exudes joy and hope…
This morning we’re going to discover why:
If you have your Bibles please turn to Philippians 1:12-26
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance (or salvation). 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.
The church at Philippi Paul was writing here to would have been understandably distressed by Paul’s being thrown into prison for the Gospel.
Paul was the arguably the greatest messenger for Christ ever.
He would go into cities and debate with leading intellectuals--and people would be converted to Christ and churches would be formed…
Perhaps, the church at Philippi wonders now that Paul is in imprison, what will happen to the “movement”?
Some of people who knew Paul had been thrown into prison for the Gospel of Christ may have began to doubt Paul and the movement itself.
It was very common then and it’s fairly common today to believe that if something bad happens to a person they must be “cursed” and if something “good” happens to a person they must be blessed.
Paul claims to be a servant of God and to be preaching the truth and yet he ends up being arrested for this and being thrown into a Roman prison!
Is God really with him?
Perhaps seeds of doubt are starting to settle into their own minds.
And Paul responds in this letter from prison with a higher elevation perspective.
In vs. 12 Paul says my being thrown into prison has really served to advance the Gospel.
As a result of my being imprisoned, the whole palace guard in Rome, knows I am in chains for Christ.
The Palace guard would numbered several thousand and some of these guards would have had personal contact with Paul.
Apparently Paul while in prison Caesar’s household came to know Paul was in prison for Christ. In 4 vs. 22 Paul says members from Caesar’s household send their greetings.
This isn’t to say all the guards and Caesar’s household all were being converted to Christ, but they knew why Paul was there and some were likely drawn to Christ through him. There a rumor in that famous advisor to Nero Seneca visited Paul and may have come to believe.
I know someone who is in a pretrial prison on what I believe is a false charge—and in prison he’s come to connect more deeply with Christ and others in prison are coming to know about Christ because my friends presence there…
Paul saying, I am in chains for the Gospel, but the Gospel isn’t stopped, it’s now spreading like a good virus it’s spreading in this environment…
2nd… Paul because says my chains most of the brothers and sisters have become more confident in the Lord and speak the word of God without fear…
There’s something about Paul risking his life and declaring the Gospel, the news that Christ was crucified and rose again so that our sins could be forgiven and we can be reconciled to God, that drew people closer to God and enabled them to become bold messengers for God.
Now for most of us we’re not going to find ourselves in chains for stepping out saying something related to our faith.
But there even in our culture there can be a kind of risk in sharing our faith.
Naomi Wolf, the famous feminist, had an experience of Jesus and said, in our culture we can talk about money, sex, politics… one of areas that is difficult for us to talk about is our spiritual journey…
Deep down there is still a part of us that’s a self-conscious 13 years old…
When we step out are share about our faith it can encourage to drawer closer to God and if they believe can become bolder.
One summer I was working for the Parks board and a group 12 or so of us went for lunch… and someone in the group asked what kind of career direction I wanted to take, I shared my hope to go into the ministry one day… she asked why? And it led to story about my journey to Christ… I could feel people leaning in a little closer to listen..… but one secretary’s eye become like swirly lollipops, I didn’t know what she was thinking…
Later that afternoon back in office… this secretary came up to me and looked both ways to make sure no one who could hear and whispered, you’re a Christian! She said, I thought I was I was the only one… but there’s you… I got the sense she was really “undercover” with her faith, but she was willing to identify herself as Christian at least to me…because I talked about mine…
If we talk about our faith when it naturally comes up just like we would talk about an other important relationship or as might as we our love of snow boarding or hiking it will help other people of faith drawer and become bolder about their faith and it will draw others one step closer and.
And Paul is saying my willingness to declare Gospel even though meant prison has actually helped people draw closer to God and become bolder about their faith in Christ!
Paul says some are even inspired by my imprisonment to get ahead… and are preaching Christ out of rivalry and ambition…
Because, Paul’s imprisonment… it seems that other were thinking the number #1 leader is out picture, we can position themselves, to be the number one spokesperson for the cause, we can increase our market share, our “fan base.”
With Paul Martin having stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party, a number of would be leaders of the party are stepping up, some likely from noble motives wanting to serve our country and others are likely driven by personal ambition and some of course, with a mixture of motives.
When Paul was arrested a number of people stepped forward and stepped up in their proclamation of the Gospel, and some were preaching from noble motives and some from impure motives.
Paul is saying that even though the Gospel is preached in some cases with bad motives it still is powerful and can change lives…
I remember being in seminary and sitting in my apartment north of Boston with some other students. We were studying for a theology exam. We were studying how in order for us as human beings to have someone to represent us and bear on our behalf the punishment for sins that we deserved, that representative would need to be one of us, a human being. But that human being would also needed to be perfect--to satisfy a holy God’s perfect requirement… and we studied how God became a human being so he could represent us…but how he was the perfect human being so that he could satisfy the requirement for a perfect sacrifice…
As we were explaining this to each other… we so moved, we spontaneously declared how extraordinary God was and took some time for silent awe…
Our motives for studying this Gospel were NOT especially lofty… we just wanted to pass an exam. But even our motives weren’t we deeply moved by the Gospel itself.
I love to study to classical music, when a musician plays Mozart, or Beethoven, or Bach faithfully, regardless the music still has power….
And the Gospel ipreached as it is, even if it’s done with impure motives still has power.
And Paul is saying because I’m in prison, others have been inspired to preach the Gospel, some of impure motives, but who cares the Gospel is advancing!
So, we you if think my being in prison is some kind of irreparable disaster think again!
Because I am in prison the Gospel is making inroads among the people in prison, in Caesar’s house, brothers and sisters have been emboldened to share the Gospel, and people out of personal ambition to replace me, but who cares, I’m glad the Gospel is going forward.
In the economy of God, what appears to be a bad thing can actually be a great thing, what appears to be a tragedy can actually further God’s purpose…
One of favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Joseph. The Scriptures tell us was sold into slavery a young person in Canaan because his brothers were jealous of him…
In Egypt Joseph ends up in prison on a false charge and then through a completely unforeseeable turn of events Joseph becomes prime minister!
A great famine comes over the land of Canaan and his brothers who sold him into slavery come to Egypt not recognizing that Joseph their brother is now prime minister… when Joseph reveals himself to them… they are deathly afraid, but he says don’t be afraid, what you meant for evil God meant for God….
Looking back can we see the how God choreographed details our lives, even the things that are not good in of themselves, to fulfill his purposes for us?

Even in bleakest circumstances, God can bring out good.

Paul is in prison with the Emperor Nero who is become more and more hostile toward the followers of Christ in power and Paul does not know whether he will live or die…

Most people think that the worst case scenario is death, but Paul says “For me to live is Christ… but to die is gain." “Gain” for Paul here means that he will come to know Christ more fully after death.

If we have faith in Christ, we will have hope even in the face of death, because we know we will gain Christ more fully...

Sang Yoon Kim passed quietly early in the morning October 17th, 2005. Sang and my younger sister Annie were three days away from being married this fall when he went into the University of Michigan hospital for an emergency surgical procedure. What began as the sad postponement of their wedding soon became a six week battle in the intensive care unit…Sang had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease over a year ago…an inflammatory bowel disease that attacks your intestines…

It was sad enough that his quality of life would be greatly affected, but no one excepted him lose his life to the disease so quickly…especially not then…

There is much I could say…and I feel I need to acknowledge that though I am sharing this morning out what I have experienced and learned through this time…it has been Sang’s family…my mother and father who are here this morning…and especially my sister…that have bore the weight of his loss…I am eternally grateful for their example to me…for the space they gave me to participate in their loss and grief.

I want to share this morning about the life and hope I saw in the midst of our family’s suffering, but I must say a word about the nature of this suffering…

I have learned so much through this time. I have seen and experienced so much love, comfort, hope, and beauty…but I would never wish this on anyone…not on my sister, not on my friends, not on any of you…what our family experienced was truly the brokenness of a sin-stained world…and it has taught me to say…this is not how it’s supposed to be…

Sang and our family, his family…we suffered…but because of the kingdom…because in their suffering, they choose obedience, submission, trust, hope….I believe their suffering has meaning…is life giving…their loss became an experience of the cross…in his death…gospel life pours forth…in annie’s life, in Sang’s sister’s life…in our lives…

In our suffering, we always have an opportunity to experience the cross…to experience and share in the suffering of Jesus…and in that…to know his power and resurrection…hope becomes more hopeful…when he comes…it will mean that much more to us…

I truly believe that Sang’s suffering, his life and even his death gave life to others…I saw it as his friends and family gathered the evening after he passed…as they shared stories about his life…laughed and cried and listened with each other…I saw it as hundreds gathered for his memorial services…story after story arose about how his simple gentle life served people, included people, gave them a glimpse of God’s amazing love…

We will always know…death does not have the final word…for there is a day, when we will see God face to face…when we will see Sang again…

Until then we grieve…we trust…and we promise not to forget…

When we recognize God’s hand even the darkest circumstances, it’s not as though we don’t experience pain…we do experience pain, but we also experience gratitude…

In a sermon called the Mystery of Providence, John Flavel says:

Look back over your life and explore and remember God’s providence toward you (i.e. think about how God has choreographed events in your to achieve his purposes for you)

Flavel asks, has God use events (whether good or bad in and of themselves) to draw you to God?

Has God used things (whether good or bad in and of themselves) to fulfill his purposes for you?

As we trace the pattern of God’s providence in our life we will become people of gratitude.

Second, understanding God as the great choreographer of our lives will make us people of humility.
A wise Chinese man had horse ran away and everyone said “bad luck.” The man says we don’t know it’s bad luck or good luck. Then one days the horse comes back with a stallion and all his neighbors say what "good luck." The man says we know don’t if this is good or bad luck. The next day the man's son was out riding the newly found horse when it got spooked and threw him, breaking his leg. Again, the neighbors came by and expressed their sorrow for the bad luck. But the man simply responded, "we’d don’t whether this is bad or good luck.”
Now there was a war going on in the land and the king ordered the conscription of all the young men, most of which were being killed in battle. But when the soldiers came to collect the farmer's boy, he was excused because of his broken leg, which probably saved the young man's life. The son ends up caring for his father into old age.”
We don’t know whether something will prove to be good or bad… But if we know that God will choreograph something to service a purpose we may not even be aware of now, this will cause us to live with humility…
So knowing God is God, makes us people of humility, gratitude, and finally hope…

Even if we’re in the midst of a terrible, no good, very bad circumstance… like Paul if we know God is working out his purposes we can have hope…

Thomas Merton was a young person who had been wild partying student at Columbia University back on the 1930’s. But he gave his life to Christ and a yearning grew within him to become part of a Trappist monastery.

But there a strong possibility that because of his scandalous past he might be rejected by the monastery (he had been rejected in an application to a Franciscan monastery), and might be drafted into the army.

In his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain he writes:

Mile after mile my desire to be in the monastery increased beyond belief… and yet paradoxically mile after mile so did my peace…

What if I were rejected by the monastery and were drafted into the war, it would be clear that this was God’s will…

I had done everything in my power to enter the monastery, the rest was in God’s hands.

For all the tremendous desire to be in the monastery, the thought that I might find myself instead in the army camp, no longer troubled me in the least.

I was free… I belonged to God…

Merton had freedom and hope… because he knew his life was in God’s hand…

When we our lives are in Christ, like Paul even in terrible, horrible circumstances we can people gratitude, humility and hope, knowing that God will fulfill his purposes in us…

Philippians 1:1-11 Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer April 23 06

Philippians 1:1-11 Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer April 23 06

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Several years ago 118 Russian crewmen were dying when a series of explosions caused the Russian submarine Kursk to sink. Twenty-three of these men survived in an isolated chamber for several hours after the explosion. One of them was 27-year-old Lieutenant Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov, and he wrote a note to his wife while he waited to die. Two words from that note were displayed in a black frame next to his coffin at his funeral service. He wrote, " Mustn't despair." Mustn't despair.
Prisoners of the Nazis in a Warsaw ghetto, after seeing people shot or starved to death, used their last breaths to write notes and store them in crevices in the wall.
When a person is terminally ill they often want to convey an important message to loved ones.
When a person thinks he or she will die, they seem to want to write a message to a loved one--an expression affection or passing along some kind of wisdom.
Paul while a Roman prison in about the year 60 A.D. with as Roman Emperor Nero became increasingly hostile toward Christians, Paul wondered if he would live or die…
While in prison, Paul not sure whether he would live or die, sends the church at Philippi a Roman colony in Ancient Macedonia (modern day Greece), a letter filled with affection and wisdom so they will be able to encouraged and strengthened in their journey with Christ…
The church at Philippi was the one church that actively did something for Paul while he was in prison. They sent him a member named Epaphroditus to bring him food. Unlike prisons today, there were no proper feeding systems in the prisons of Paul’s world. Prisoners in this first century culture would have been dependent on loved ones to bring them food and water in order to survive…
The Philippian church sends Epaphroditus to take care of Paul… but Epaphroditus falls sick! As he recovers, Paul writes a letter for Epaphroditus to bring back to Philippi that will re-introduce and commend Epaphroditus to a community that may resent him for getting sick on this important mission, but letter also carries great affection and wisdom from a man who’s not sure he’ll ever see them again…

Over the next several weeks we’re going to look at this letter of the apostle to the church a Philippi.

If you have your Bible’s please turn to Philippians 1:1
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
(Paul though a very educated and sophisticated person refers to himself as servant or as the Greek would douloi can be translated as a slave of Jesus Christ… most of us today whether sophisticated in a worldly sense or not, would not freely describe ourselves as a servant or a slave—but when really come to know Christ because--who is Christ, we feel it natural to describe as servant and even slave of Jesus Christ).

To all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Paul’s typical signature in his letters…)
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
In this letter it’s obvious Paul has great affection for the church at Philippi.

We know this because of the absence of formal biographical info at the beginning of the letter which would have been included had he not known the community as well, and also because of the warmth and personal nature of this letter…

Notice vs. 3, Paul writes,
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy…
Even though Paul is in prison, when he thinks and prays for the Philippians he experiences joy…
He talks about remembering them and praying for them with joy because of their partnership in Gospel. In vs. 8 he tells that he has affection for them from the deepest part of himself literally (greek splagnoi) from bowels or guts, we would say from the depths of our heart.

In vss. 4-5 He talks about the joy he has with the Philippians because of their partnership in the Gospel with them… The Greek word translated partnership is the word koinonia which can also be interpreted fellowship or friendship.

In Paul’s Graeco-Roman world, friendship was more important than it is today in our culture. Great philosophers and thinkers, like Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca wrote essays on friendship, what it mean to give and receive in friendship…

Today friendship is not nearly as valuable… today we’re more in how much money does have, or does have style, or a person’s appearance… not as much how caring that person is…. But it was important to Paul…
C.S. Lewis in his book the Four Loves, points out that the higher form of friendship is not where two people look at each other face to face as in the case lovers, but look at a common object… and for Paul and this church it was a friendship based on the work of the Gospel….
In vs. 6 Paul says…
6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
When Paul says being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on until the day of Christ Jesus…
The Greek word for work is the word “ergon” and it has the idea of a deed or an action that shows itself in a concrete and real way…

We know from the context “good work” Paul speaks of here includes the work of the Gospel, the proclamation of the good news that Christ is risen and alive,

Part of the work as Paul suggests in context of giving thank for the Gospel is a desire to share that news that Christ is risen with others…

According the front page Vancouver Sun article a week ago last Saturday “In the Presence of God.” 62% 6 in 10 Canadians claim that through the life, death, and resurrection God provided a way for their forgiveness of sins.

But only 25%, 1 in 4 believe it’s important to share that news with others.

One of the signs that we really trust that through the life, death, and rising from the dead that our sins are forgiven is that we have a desire to share that with others.

I was talking recently with a person who relatively recently committed her life to Christ.
She was saying now I’ve given my life to Christ, I want to talk about my faith because it’s so important to me, but I also don’t want to over do it because I want keep those friendships.

We talked briefly how to keep up those friendships, even after we come to faith through keeping others regular interests alive…

I said, the changes that are happening inside you in terms of your values and your desire share your faith, are signs that God is doing a work in you…

Part of the “good work” is a desire to partner with God in sharing the Gospel…

We also know the “good work” also speaks of purification of our hearts by God. Paul speaks here of the “good work” being carried on until the day of Christ… that the day of Christ’s return we know from Paul’s use this kind of language in. vs. 10 where Paul prays that the church at Philippi will be blameless until the day they day of Jesus Christ… and in his use of this kind of expression in other writings that “good work” must also refer to God’s entire work of purifying them. If we have really given our lives to Christ, God will work about a good concrete work inside us.

If you were socialized, in a conservative protestant environment, it may be the case that you had (to use Dallas Willard’s image) a kind of “bar code” to Christianity.

The idea goes when we you prayed to invite Christ in your life (or when you were baptized) it was as though God put kind a bar code on you such that if you were scanned by God’s computer, it would read forgiven (use an object to illustrate this).

Like a product you buy at the store, whether there had been a change inside the product or you or not, as long as long you have the barcode on it will “read” whatever was programmed for the barcode.

Many conservative protestants believe that when you give your life to Christ, you had a kind of bar code imprinted on you by God so that regardless of whether there is an inner change in you’re forgiven, you’re “in the clear.”

Catholics in the other hand, generally speaking, have tended to emphasize, righteousness that is imparted to us slowly by God gradually over time… like dye being released in water…

The Bible does teach when we give our lives to Christ there is a kind technical righteousness that that is imprinted on us. The theological way to express this kind righteousness that has been legally attributed because of our connection to Christ is called righteous “imputed to us.”

Because righteous has been attributed or imputed to us, Paul can call the church of Philippi vs. 1 the saints (hagoi” in the Greek) or the holy ones and he can even call the sinners at Corinth saints or holy ones because of a righteousness that has been imputed to them because of their connection with Christ.

But the Bible also teaches that there is a there is a gradual process by which we are made righteous through and through. The theological word righteousness imparted.

If we really have given our lives to Christ, not only will we receive a kind barcode from God that reads forgiven, but we will also experience change on a much deeper level…

Part of that work (the ergon) or the concrete work Christ does in us will be a refining of our character so that we come to reflect more the of fruit of Christ’s character: more Christ’s love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness and self-control.

Paul says to church the Philippi, I thank God for our partnership in the Gospel, being confident of this that God who began a good work in you will complete till the day of Christ’s return, the work being both the partnership in the Gospel and the work of inner purification…

Vs. 9 Paul continues the letter as he prays for the God work of God to be effected in the lives of people at the church at Philippi…

Paul prays that your love may abound more and more

When we think of growing in holiness many of us would think of not being involved promiscuous sex or pornography or gambling or over-drinking…

Some people, think being a Christian about what you don’t do. Joy Davidman, C.S. Lewis’ wife, tells a story about a missionary in Africa who’s trying to share the Gospel with elderly native Indian chief. The chief says I think I understand what being a Christian, it’s means I don’t spear people to death… and steal their land, I don’t chase women and commit adultery… I understand… Being Christian is the same as being really old… I’m already a Christian… Can’t do anything of those things anymore… (I guess a young child could have said, I’m too young any of things, being a Christian is the same as being really young, I must be a Christian…). Some people think being a Christian is just about what you don’t do…

Certainly a follower of Christ does refrain from certain things we do, but more important being follower of Christ is about something become a certain becoming a kind of person who does certain things, a person who loves other people.

Most in my extended my extended family are not followers of Christ, but I have seen that those who have come to Christ have grown in love.

My mom’s dad, my grandfather, was a ceo and she grew with up certain privileges. She was born and raised in Japan, but during a time when Japan was rebuilding after the war, her dad her sent to USA be educated at some of the best universities.

While we were living in London, England, she and dad worked for the B.B.C.
We lived in a lovely home and other people come help make meals and clean the house and make our beds…

When we moved to Vancouver, my dad ended working writing an economic/business journal covering the performance Canadians businesses for Japanese companies. Sounds interesting if you enjoy economics… but the journal had a small market. And we went life of privilege to not having much money at all…. Things were really tight financially for us. As our family economic picture went down and number of kids went up 5 and we fought a lot, my mom’s stress level rose…

I remember how she could be frustrated and angry… but then she re-committed her life to Christ… and over time became the most loving, gentle, wise person…

(Mom’s dad was a ceo. Scary dude. I remembering walking with him in Tokyo one day with my cousins and we were all walking behind him like little chicks and I started walking ahead of him… he turned to me and snapped, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

At 85 or so he came to Christ. According he to my cousin, he became a gentler more considerate and for the first time in his doing the dishes… )

A big part what it means to have good to a good work in us means that we become people who bear the love of Christ… So, Paul writes I pray that your love would abound more and more

When God is at work in us we become more loving people…

But we cannot judge… Have you ever thought I know some people who aren’t Christians who are more loving that people who are Christians… we may be tempted they’re not real Christians…, but if tempted to judge (and only God knows for sure who belongs to him) let me remind of what C.S. Lewis said, some people are born pit bulls and others born golden retrievers and if you’re born a pitt bull and you come to know God, you become more loving… but may still be less loving than someone born a Golden retriever, but if the retriever came to know God, that person would be even more loving… kind of people who we say to ourselves they’d great Christians…

Paul says in vs. 9b I pray that your love would abound more in knowledge…and depth of insight so that you be able to discern what is best…

The word Paul uses here that is translated knowledge comes from the Greek word aisthesis it means common sense.

It refers to the kind of wisdom comes out of real life experience or relationships.

Sometimes we think of Christians are very “spiritual” people, but lack common sense and Paul is praying that the church at Philippi will have common sense.

We know that in such of Philippi there were two people who were fighting. We don’t know the details, but we know they were in conflict.

Part of means to be a person of common sense is to know what’s worth fighting over and what one should “let go.”

Some churches fight and split over the color of the carpet… or whether to have a Christmas tree in the Sanctuary or not… I read about two people at church in Texas got into fist fight in the parking over whether to have Christmas tree or not in the Sanctuary during advent…

If I am talking to a younger leader about leadership, sometimes about the need to develop the ability to know what’s really important and what’s not so important. What are things to fight for, die on the hill and what to let go of….

John W. Garnder, who taught at University of California and served high level government posts in his classic book entitled On Leadership, Gardner the top two attributes of leader are physical stamina and judgment in real life situation. He points possible to be brilliant but lack judgment. He says there nothing more dangerous, than stupid person with a brilliant mind!

A very different source… Mother Teresa said if you want come work in my mission I require physical stamina and common sense.

Paul says we I pray you will have knowledge (aisthesis) so that you will be able to discern what is best…and may be pure and blameless until the day of Jesus Christ…

It requires common sense to discern what is really important in a relationship, in life (what’s worth fighting for and not worth fighting), what is truly valuable, what it is true wealth? It takes common sense to create list of things to do and list of things to stop doing.

So as Paul as writes from prison he speaks of his affections, he assures the Philippians of God’s ongoing work of God in their lives… he prays that they would grow in love and common sense…

At our home Bible study this past week, when someone found out I had had a recent birthday, she said when you a certain age, birthdays they are nothing to celebrate, they’re depressing…

After our Bible study, I went running at Douglas park and someone passed me on the trail, it used to be no one used no passed while I ran me--if I saw some one in my “review mirror,” I’d next gear up and not let them pass… now people are passing me, I’m getting old!

This past week, in my daily reading, I read in 2 Cor 4, where Paul says though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day…

Gail Sheehy in her book New Passages "If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing."

Paul prays for us that we would be continually awakened by God’s work of forming love and wisdom, if that happens, we will never grow old in the most important sense, we just keep growing, we just keep becoming like Christ, growing in love and wisdom and purity until the day we meet Him face to face.

John 20 Easter M 2006(16-Apr-06)

John 20 Easter M 2006

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

When Robert and Joanne McMynn discovered a week ago last Tuesday that their son Graham, a 23-year-old U.B.C. computer student, had been kidnapped at gunpoint not far from their home in the Southlands of Vancouver, they felt agonizing despair…

They felt so desperate that against the counsel of the police they went on TV and pleaded with the captors for the release of their son… with a photo of their son in the background and defying conventional wisdom they announced to their captors, “we have money…”

Not certain whether they would ever see their son again, Robert and Joanne McMynn were descending in a downward spiral of despair…

What the McMynns were feeling was likely an echo of what Mary Magdalene felt the morning of the third day after Christ had been crucified…

As she came that Sunday morning to the tomb where Jesus dead body had been laid…
she must have felt as though her life was now completely empty….

Jesus had been her mentor, guide, and friend…

People have said when the great artist, Picasso died, it was like a huge shipwreck-- everyone closed to him felt, felt they were drowning…

Jesus Christ, the son of God, was the most charismatic person ever to walk the face of the earth, when he died those close to him felt like the oxygen of their world had been sucked out…

Perhaps no one felt this way more than Mary Magdalene… a woman with a sinful past, who had been had 7 demons cast of her, a woman on margins of society, who’s very life had been awakened with through her friendship with Jesus…

And Mary comes to his Jesus tomb early Sunday morning and if you have your Bibles,
please turn to John 20…
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, awhy are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Mary stands outside the tomb weeping.
As she weeps, she kneels to look into the tomb and sees two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus' body had been laid.
They angels ask, "Why are you weeping?"
"They have taken my Master," she said, "and I don't know where they put him…
Her heart sinks. First her guide and friend Jesus had been murdered by his enemies, now his body had been stolen by grave robbers…
So she finds herself first in the presence of the gardener, it’s really Jesus Christ…
We don’t know for sure why, but after rising from the dead… Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene…
I don’t know why Jesus after rising from the dead chose to appears first to this woman, but I’m glad he did he chose to appear first to troubled woman like Mary who had had a sinful past, had been demonized, who was a woman who a second class citizen, because if he appeared to her, it’s not such a far jump to believe Jesus could appear to you and me…

It’s interesting that Jesus appears first to Mary but she doesn’t recognize him… Jesus tends appear in our lives in all kinds of unexpected ways, before we ever we ever recognize who it is that in our life…

long before we ever even thought to seek Jesus, Jesus has been seeking us…

(optional…By the way, in this culture a woman’s testimony was not considered legally admissible in court, so if John (and the other writers of the Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke) were “making this up” as a kind of “tall tale” hoping people would believe him, they would have had Jesus first appearing to the man, not a woman.)

Mary comes to tomb and sees the tomb in empty…

And she’s weeping…
Jesus, whom she does not recognize speaks to her and asks, "Woman, why are weeping? Who are you looking for?"
Mary assumes that he is the gardener and says "If you have taken him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him."
She turns and sees Jesus, but assumes he’s the gardener…

Sir she says if you have taken him away tell me where you have put him…

And Jesus says Mary…

He calls her by name…

The risen Lord is the one who calls us by name…

He is the one who sees us and he calls us by name…

And it being as we seen and named by Christ we are made whole.

Earlier this year, while in studying in California, I met a couple Thom and Jill Boyce.

Thom teaches Medicine at the University of California, describes coming across a young boy, no more than seven years of age afflicted with a terminal, disfiguring disease, called mucolipidosis.

“His eyes were clouded and protruded from his face as did his tongue, like the overstuffed contents of a pastry shell too small to contain it…

His gums, surrounding his peg like teeth, were similarly boated and were often bled.

This grotesque, little tomato-or-a-boy looked turned away even the most forgiving eyes…”

Whenever a doctor or nurse tried to offer medical care that didn’t help much, Blake responded with a raspy incoherent grunt and a flailing motion of his arm, which mean “Get out of my face.”

One July evening, Thom as held in the hospital late by some unanticipated events.

He approached Blake’s room at an unaccustomed hour.

His young single mom, who worked during the daylight hours at her own place of work, was sitting on the edge of the bed, deeply immersed in a conversion with Blake.

Thom stopped transfixed by this scene.

Blake’s mom was talking to him.

In hushed and comforting tones she spoke of the day, wondering how thing had gone, asking him about his new nurse, and reviewing the events of her own day at work.

As spoke, leaning over her son, her hand stroked his forehead and hair in a mundane gesture that filled the room with her love for the boy.

Blake eyes were moist, and utterly devoid of his stern resistance looked up into his mother’s face, absorbing every moment, every piece of her presence with him.

Relaxed and peaceful Blake seemed to melt into his mother’s eyes.

She stroked his round, swollen face and said him, “Oh my beautiful little boy.”

Thom said, Blake, was a child visibly changed by his mother’s love.

When we are seen for who we are by Christ and named we become whole.

The Gospel tells is the risen, wholly knows us and and names us and in that being known and being named we become whole…

In John 10 the good shepherd speaks and we know his voice…

Mary says, rabboni which simply means teacher and embraces Jesus…

Jesus says don’t hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to my Father…

Jesus seems to be saying to Mary, you can’t relate to me any in the way you have related to me in the past…

It used to be the case that Mary would interact with a physically present Jesus, now she would relate to him through the enduring presence of my Holy Spirit….
Jesus says, “Go instead to my brothers and sisters and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
Women in this culture rarely if ever enjoyed the status of courier….

So, for Mary Magdalene to be assigned as the first messenger of the greatest news of all time—the news that God had raised Jesus Christ had risen from the dead—was a big assignment!

When we meet the risen Lord, we were called by name and become whole and we receive a greater call for our lives….

When I first really encountered the risen Christ, I was a high school student…

That was during a time for me in my life when sports were really important…

I was reasonably good at high school level, captained a couple of teams, but I knew I had no real prospect a really successfully in sports at larger collegiate level…

I had a sister, though, who was this amazing natural athlete… the kind who would hardly practice and would make named MVP or all provincial volley ball player…

Once in a while I’d say if I had your body, more strong and stocky, I could be middle linebacker in the National Football League one…

She’s retort, well I had your skinny leg… I could be a runway model in New York…

After I met Christ as a teenager, we were driving down the King George Hwy in Surrey, stopping to drying buy 99 nursery and I said, I had your athletic gifts, I’d could making money playing sports one day…

She said… your life is going about something more important than sports…

Never forgot that…

When we meet the risen Christ, our lives will be much important that whatever our life’s biggest life goal at the time is.

Much bigger than just getting a degree, being a success in sports or art or a carrier, much bigger than finding a particular kind of partner or condo or having a particular kind of family… Our life purpose may involve one or more of those things…

But it involved something great, like Mary, our life purpose will also be about the declaring through our life, through who we are and what we do what we say… the great news ever that God has raised Jesus Christ from and dead and is alive….

I’ve been connecting with a friend who on his way starting to really meet the risen Lord.

He’s very gifted and now says, I want my life to be about a higher, purpose, I want my be a help find the hope in Christ…

I don’t see going in the “ministry” but his gifts and vocation as means to shine the light of Christ…

When we come to know the risen Christ… we are named and we are made whole, and we’re given the greatest purpose in the world--declaring the reality that Christ is risen in the way we live and in the hope we voice.

Revelation 12 Overcoming the Accuser(2-Apr-2006)

April 2, 2006

Revelation 12 Overcoming the Accuser

(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Last year while flying back from Japan, I ended up sitting next to a person who worked as a scout for the Seattle Mariners baseball team…
This guy was the person who had recruited Ichiro, the star lead off batter for the Seattle Mariners.
I asked the scout how was it that Ichiro became such a great batter. He’s very disciplined about practice, apparently his biggest complaint about the Mariner’s is that he can’t find anyone who is willing to practice as early on game day as he wants to. Ichior never looks at computer screen or watches TV expect with special glasses to protect his eyes, at games in between he goes to a video room and watches how he’s doing against the pitcher… he asks what is the pitcher doing against me and how am I responding?
As a batter there’s something about knowing what your “opponent” the pitcher might do, that can give you an advantage.
The Bible teaches that we have an opponent of the soul that seeks to strike us out—called Satan.
We battle against our personal shadow side, what the Bible calls the “flesh,” and against the darkness in our social environment, what Bible calls the “world” and against transcendent spiritual forces of evil, which Bible describes as Satan or the spiritual forces of evil.
As we look at our text this morning and continue our mini-series on spiritual warfare, we want to examine how this evil one does battle against us… If you have your Bibles please turn to the last book of the Bible Revelation and go to chapter 12.
The Woman and the Dragon
1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who "will rule all the nations with an iron scepter." [a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
The woman here is the one clothed in sun, is the one who’s son will rule the nations with an iron scepter, a quote from Psalm 2 referring to the Messiah… Jesus Christ
The woman is Mary… (and in the view many scholars may be metaphor represent the people of God).
A dragon is attacking the pregnant woman. From vs. 9 we know that the dragon is the devil.
In vs. 9 the text says the dragon has been hurled to the earth, and in vs. 12 we read he is filled with fury because he knows his time is short…
vs. 17 Satan is making war against the rest of her offspring, namely the people of God…
The Bible teaches that the dragon, Satan… was defeated by Christ on the cross… when Christ died, bearing our sins in his body so we could be forgiven.
Some commentators have compared this defeat of Satan to D day—the day when the Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944. With that invasion, the enemy was “in effect” defeated, but there would a lot of fight until the final VE-Day victory day in May 1945.
So Satan has been defeated but there is a still a lot of fight in him knowing because as vs. 12 points out, he knows that his time is short.
How does Satan wage war against the people of God?
One of the ways he does his by accusing us…
In Vs. 10 we read that Satan is the accuser of our brother and sisters the people of God.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
The name Satan in Hebrew means accuser.
The name the devil in Greek means slanderer.
He’s hurling a lot of what may be technically true or partially true statements about us, with the intent of “strikc us out” before God.
Satan also loves to accuse us to God’s face.
He also loves to accuse us directly so our lives are full of shame.
As teenager and as a young person, I felt almost no guilt.
I remember my sister saying, to me, “You never feel guilty do you?”
I remember thinking that’s true (the only time when I’d feel guilt being when I failed to do something bad—I did experience some remorse then).
When you feel no guilt it really expands your possible extra--circular activities…
As I’ve shared with many of you before, one of favorite hobbies was shoplifting… and reselling goods to kids at school or giving them away…
I never felt any guilt over what I did.
My parents were concerned about me, ending up taking me on a field trip to prison, my dad later said I wanted have a chance experience a open so you could see your future home, that didn’t phase me, so he took a Christian conference and where I met and Christ and asked him to forgive my sins and become my life guide…
After giving my life to Christ, I swung over time, to the other extreme and developed in some ways an over-sensitive conscious.
Having no conscious is obviously bad.
But having a hyper-sensitive conscience is not good either…
I ended up making restitution for the things I had stolen: i.e. approaching store managers, giving money back for things I had stolen and asking forgiveness…
But I felt this hazy guilt… and shame…
I went to my then minister in Balfour Jacobsen and he gave me a passage to read in old book by SD Gordon called Quiet Talks. S.D. Gordon said this is how you can recognize whether the voice is from Satan or not… if the voice tends to convict you of sin and then leads you closer to God, it’s God’s voice, if the voice tends to condemn and drive you from it’s likely the voice of Satan, the darkness…
If it’s the voice that convicts and draws us to God, it’s the Spirit’s voice.
If it’s the voice that condemns and drives us from God it is the voice of the accuser…
In Revelation 12:9 we’re also told that Satan deceives the whole world.
Satan is an accuser and he is also deceiver.
Jesus in John 8:44 calls him the Father of lies…
Satan will often try to deceive…
In very first temptation of our ancient forebears, Adam and Eve Satan said…
Did God really say, you could not eat of any tree in the garden?
Satan deceives Adam and Eve, by twisting God’s words and making them seem more prohibitive than they were. God never said, as Satan suggested, you cannot eat from any tree in the garden, he only prohibited them eating from one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… God never said you cannot touch fruit of that one particular, just don’t eat…
And Satan says, if you eat that fruit, you won’t die, you’ll become like God… not true… but powerfully alluring…
Satan deceives, seeks to twist God’s words to make them seem more burdensome than they are and whispers if we follow God’s way we will miss out, we won’t really be living…
Adam and Eve, eat the fruit believing that they will miss out if they don’t and what happens? Instead of being become more fully alive, for the first time they are filled with a sense of shame…
Satan uses this deception… as a kind of jab… to tempt us…
Come just do it… why are you being so uptight! you’re such a stick in the mud…you can handle it… you’ll miss out if you don’t, God will forgive you… You do it…
and “bam Satan” comes the guilt of shame and self-loathing comes on you… and you call yourself Christian… your, low life and you think God forgive you now?
So the Satan will try to deceive and tempt us so he can in turn accuse us…
(*This is his character and his way, and as side by note if we find that we are getting caught up in spirit of accusations and slander and/or tempted to deceive people… we are mirroring the work of Satan and the darkness—we at least a moment an instrument of darkness)
So how do we overcome Satan?
The text says they overcame him by blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives unto death…
What does this mean?
The blood of the lamb…
When Satan we hurls slander and accusations at us and a lot of what he says is technically true or partially true…
Satan can try to strike us out by accusing us of sins and failure that are true or at least partially true of us…
How do we overcome? Vs. 11 Tells us that the people of God overcome Satan through the blood of the lamb…
The blood of Christ… shed on the cross washes away our sin…
Martin Luther talked about the difference between active vs. passive righteousness…
Active righteousness is that righteousness we develop by laws of God, like the 10 Commandments…
Passive the righteousness that’s attributed to us by God, based on what Christ has done.
Active righteousness might be defined by something we did (or participate in).
In active righteousness, we play a key role in becoming righteous.
Passive righteous is righteousness, we receive from God.
We say might “active wealth” is wealth you’ve earned through work.
Passive wealth you receive from someone else… say an inheritance…
We experience this “passive righteousness” in Christ…
Bible teaches when Christ died on cross he bore our sins on the cross…
When we give our lives to Christ, God regards our sin as having been paid for by him and Christ’s perfect record in credited to our account… it’s the “great exchange.”
We are to seek “actively” to be righteous, but we will fail…
If we rely primarily our active righteous to be accepted by God, we will be filled with all kinds uncertainties and anxieties, because we can never be fully sure of our performance.
What helps us overcome the accuser is the knowledge that we have received a “passive righteousness” from God through Christ.
A typical “conservative religious” approach to guilt, would say try harder morally, reform yourself and you’ll feel better.
A typical liberal secular psychological approach to guilt might say, don’t worry about it, you’ve accept yourself as you are, you’ve got read to treat yourself with “unconditional positive regard.”
The Gospel does NOT just say, not try harder…. Not just God loves as you are, but something even better God loves you as you are in Christ, cleansed and made pure…
We overcome by the blood of the lamb…
And vs. 11 we overcome by word of our testimony…
We must declare our forgiveness.
Some of you have heard me say, whether we have a collar or an office or not we are all ministers… in that we all have a gift that we to use to serve God and the common God.
We are also all preachers… in that we are to preach if to no one else at least to ourselves.
I’ve people say, I wish I could carry you on my key chain… Every time I need a word, I could push a bottom on you and you’d say something helpful.
You don’t need me on your key chain! You can learn preach to yourself!
When I was dealing with accusations from the enemy as teenager… and new Christian, I memorized Psalm 103…
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
Know this book, commit some it to memory… and preach to yourself… overcome by the word of your testimony…
Lamentations: 3:23
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
How do we become people who will not overcome by the darkness?
How do we become invincible?
Vs. 11 They overcome through the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they did not love their lives unto death.
When we understand that we have been made pure by the blood of Christ and proclaim the word of our testimony back to ourselves… we will come to the conviction… as Darrell Johnson has pointed out that death is not the last word, but only the second to the last word.
If we realize that our sins are forgiven and that we have been received by God and will spend eternity with God… we will know that death is not the last word, but only the second to the last word…
And that is why people who have overcome by the blood and of their testimony can put their lives “on the line” and not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
I have a “hero” who after graduating from college, along with some of his friends, sensed God calling him to serve as a missionary to a group of Auca Indians of Ecuador.
They went to Ecuador with their wives and young families studied the language of Acua’s, after several some months of trying to establish rapport with Auca by dropping gifts by plane by communicating at a distance through loud speakers saying we are your friends and, they felt they were ready to have a first time face to face meeting…
These young men went in to meet with Acuas and they were speared to death…
The secular press cried “Why would the church allow this to happen to such gifted young people?” The answer was found in the journal of one of the young men, Jim Elliot, who wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose…”
People who have overcome through the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, knows that she is no fools who gives what she cannot keep—even that something is her life on earth—and gains a prize she can never lose…
How is that Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh and their Christian peacemaking teams colleagues Norman Kember and Tim Fox members were willing to lay down their lives for God in Iraq? And Tim Fox literally did that as he was killed.
Because they believe in peace, but also because they knew death is not the final word, it is only the second if you’re believe in Jesus Christ…
But, how do we become who can live like that.
Because even if we believe in the blood of Christ to make us clean, proclaim that to ourselves through the word of our testimony, death is still a loss. Jim Elliot left behind his wife, Elizabeth. Tim Fox left behind his family.
I think when come to know how much God has loved us, we become people who able to live and die like this…
The fact is some people are easier to love and sacrifice for than others…
Last week, I was with a man in the Carolinas who’s been a mentor and friend. Through his foundation he has helped me pay for part of my education, he’s opened doors for me, introduced me to some of my closest friends, and has been present for in success and failure, in joy and pain…
This past week, I and some of his closest friends met in South Carolina to talk about what his vision will look like after he fully retires and dies…
Each of us gathered around this person is willing to sacrifice and to give something to continue this person’s vision, because we’ve been loved by this person.
When you know you’ve been loved by someone, whether a parent, a friend, it’s not such a big step to give yourself for that person…
The Bible we says love God, because he first loved us…
Knowing that God loves laid down his life for us in Christ, we can those who overcome in over by the blood of lamb, the world of our testimony, and by laying down our live for God…
When we look at the cross, we see this love with such clarity…
On the night Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took bread…
Communion…
(Alpha…)