Restoring
the Joy
Sermon # 3
Philippians 1:21-30
You will
remember that Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi was written while he was
imprisoned, literally shackled to a guard 24 hours a day. Yet no portion of the Bible has
more to say about the subject of joy. Paul refuses to allow the restrictions in his life
to become a cause of bitterness, and instead looked to see what God given opportunities he
might see in them. Paul knew that joy is a choice.
But life sure
can get complicated, can’t it? Sometimes life’s frustrations are captured very
well in cartoons. Charles Schulz in his famous
“Peanuts” cartoon captures the problem that we are going to be looking at today.
In one particular cartoon, Lucy has the floor, delivering one of her lectures.
“Charlie Brown,” she begins “life is a lot like a deck chair. Some place it
so that they can see where they are going. Others place it where they can see where they
have been. And some so they can see where they are at the present.” Charlie sighs,
and says, “I can’t even get mine unfolded.” I am sure that more than
a few of us can identify with Charlie Brown. Some times our perspective gets a little out
of wack.” [Charles Swindoll.
Laugh Again: Experience Outrageous Joy. (Dallas: Word, 1991) p. 63]
Perhaps the
greatest challenge to our joy is learning to live with the proper perspective. Learning
what is important in life and what is not! When we lose perspective in life, we also lose
joy. When we do not see the difference between good and best, we do have perspective. When
we do not see the difference between the means and the ends in life, we do not have
perspective. When we do not see the difference between the temporary and the eternal, we
do not have perspective.
“For to me,
to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (22) But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean
fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. (23) For I am hard-pressed
between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”
Paul uses a word
(senechomai)
(v. 23) to describe his situation of being between pressed by two different options. It is
a picture of a traveler in a narrow path between two solid walls of rock. Paul says that
there are two alternatives in life and he assesses each alternative. He says, “I am
either going to live or I am going to die this year.” And it appears to me that those are two broad
possibilities that we all face.
Paul says that
one possibility is to remain here and the other is death, which means departure. He uses a
Greek term right out of his own vocation as a tent maker – the term means to “strike your tent or pull your tent down.”
So death to him was merely a change of location. It was the pulling down your tent and
moving and setting up someplace new. It’s no big thing. It is just a departure. Paul
says, “Death
is just departure, just picking up your tent and moving someplace else.”
I have always
liked the story that is told about John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United
States. “When
John Quincy Adams was eighty years of age a friend asked him, “Well, how is John
Quincy Adams?” “Thank you,” he replied, “John Quincy Adams is quite
well. But the house where he lives is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering. Time and the
seasons have nearly destroyed it, and it is becoming quite uninhabitable. I shall have to
move out of it soon. But John Quincy Adams is quite well, thank you.” John Quincy Adams understood what
Paul was talking about.
The benefit to Paul was that he
would instantly be with the Lord in Heaven. In 2 Corinthians 5:6, 8 we read, “So we are always confident, knowing
that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord …. (8) We are
confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord.” To die for Paul would not be a tragedy but instead
it would be the realization of his hope and expectation. On one hand death would be a
release from all the toils and troubles of this life; and more than that, death is the
gateway into Christ’s presence. The
truth is that only those who are prepared to die, are ready to live.
The liabilities would be that
his death would deprave those who needed him of his presence. He could no longer be a
witness to the guards, He could no longer be an encouragement to the Church, he could no
longer be a voice for further missionary outreach.
Paul says, “I
don’t know which alternative I would choose.” But in reality the choice
is not his to make, it is made for him.
When we arrive at such dilemmas
in life and unable to decipher the right direction to go, if we hope to maintain our joy
in the process, we must the LORD to be our guide. When we do then the pressure is lifted
from our shoulders. Paul knew that the entire Roman Empire could not touch him as long as
God was using him and the church needed him. Augustine said, “Man is
immortal until his work is done.” What a blessing to realize we are immortal
until our work is done. No one can touch us, Death cannot take us until God is through
with what he is doing in us, and through us.
That is why Jesus could stand
before Pontius Pilate and say, “You have no power over me. You can’t take
my life” (John 19:11) He knew that God was not through with him yet. On the
cross, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Yet it was his
work that was finished and not his life. He didn’t say, “I am finished.” He was not
referring to his death. He was referring to the work that had been accomplish-ed. It was
finished, and so he could go home. He had done everything that the Father wanted to do
through Him so he was free to return to his home in heaven.
That is why Paul could say to
Timothy at the end of his life, “I have finished the race.” (2 Tim.
4:7). He knew that he would fall before the executioner in a matter of weeks if not days.
He says this because he knew then his work was done.
That is the perspective that we
too should live with. Therefore, there can never be, for a Christian, an untimely death.
We go when God has wrapped up the work he is going to do in our lives and through our
lives, and not one second before. And when we go, others should know it was God’s
time. He had finished his work.
Many of you have read books by
the author, Barbara Johnson, who wrote such books as, “Stick a Geranium in your
Hat and Be Happy” and “Splashes
of Joy in the Cesspools of Life.” Her life however, has been anything but
hilarious. Her oldest son, Steve was killed in 1968 in Vietnam. And exactly five years to
the day of his death, she was in the mortuary identifying the body of her son Steve, who
had been killed by a drunk driver.
She writes of that time, “We were mad at God? Yes we
were. But lying deep beneath all these feeling was our faith that god makes no mistakes.
He has never had to say, “Oops!” God didn’t cause that drunken driver to
cross the center line. Despite all of our questions and our bitter grief, we still knew
deep down, that nothing ever happens to us that God doesn’t know about. God still loved us, and He was there for us in our
grief, in our pain – and in our anger. And I found myself thanking God that he took
Tim at a time when he was closer to God than at any other time in his life.” Eventually Barbara Johnson,
worked through her grief, she regained her perspective on the eternal and she regained her
joy.
Paul goes on to
say, in verse twenty-four, “Nevertheless to remain in the flesh
is more needful for you. (25) and being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and
continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, (26) that your rejoicing for me
may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to your again.”
“Only let
your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am
absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit,”
The words
“let your conduct” are derived from (polituesthe) meaning “behave as citizens.” Philippi was a colony of Roman and they were very
proud of their status as citizens of Rome (Acts 16:20-21). While the people of Philippi
enjoyed the privileges and fulfilled the responsibilities of their Roman citizenship, Paul
reminded these Philippian believers that they in fact had a dual citizenship, for as
Christians they were considered citizens of Heaven. Paul later in this same letter says
(3:20-21), “For our
citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, (21) who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His
glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to
Himself.”
Paul is reminding these
believers that they should also live as citizens of heaven, with all the responsibilities
that status entailed.
Specifically Paul admonishes
the Philippian believers to behave as citizens of heaven by getting along well with one
another. Paul warned that disputes and grudges would drive a wedge into the church. We are
called to work hard at healing and working to mend offenses within the body. As Paul says
in his letter to the Ephesians, we are called “to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Getting along
with each other specifically meant standing fast literally fighting side by side as in a
military battle or a gladiatorial contest.
“and not in
any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you
of salvation, and that from God. (29) For to you it has been granted on behalf of the
Christ, no only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, (30) having the same
conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.”
When believers
really start to work together to accomplish something for Christ, there will be
opposition.
Paul uses a word in verse twenty eight
translated “in any way terrified” (ptoromemoi)
which describes a horse shying out of fear of something. Paul says that rather than being
terrified by opposition we should be reassured. The word translated “token” in
the King James Version and “proof” in the New King James Version. It is rendered
“omen” in the Revised Standard Version and “sign” in the New
International Version. In every case the idea is of an undeniable manifestation of
reality. The presence of opposition should always be a sign to us we are not of this
world.
Remember then that:
Joy Can Be Found In Living
With a Proper Perspective On The Eternal
With A Proper Perspective On
Our Citizenship
With A Proper Perspective On Hardships