Scripture: Philippians 1:12-26
As a reminder, today’s sermon is Part 2 in our current sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I’m calling the series “Unstoppable Joy,” and in today’s sermon, I’m focusing on two principles that are absolutely essential—I mean, we have to understand these two ideas—if we want, alongside Paul, to possess unstoppable joy… The first principle is God’s providence…
And here I’m not referring to the capital of Rhode Island; rather, I’m referring to the doctrine that our God is sovereign over everything—that he’s in control—and that he’s always, always, always at work—in ways that we sometimes can see or perceive, but much more often in ways that we cannot perceive[1] —and he’s always at work to accomplish his good purposes in our lives and in the world…
Remember, for example, Joseph, the eleventh of Jacob’s twelve sons, in the Book of Genesis… Jacob shows favoritism to Joseph—spoils him rotten, in fact. And his other brothers notice and resent him for it. So much so that they intend to cause him great harm by selling him into slavery in Egypt. And Joseph suffers greatly there; among many other indignities, he is falsely accused of a crime, and he languishes in prison for years. But in the midst of this incredible suffering and these heartbreaking setbacks in his life, God is working in small and imperceptible ways. Until after thirteen years in slavery and prison, Joseph gets the equivalent of a very large promotion:He becomes Pharaoh’s prime minister.
Through Joseph’s wise leadership and stewardship—made possible by God’s powerful, providential hand—Joseph saves Egypt from a devastating famine; and he even saves one particular Hebrew family from starvation… a family that includes his brothers—the very ones who got him into this mess in the first place! Years later, after their father Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers fear retribution… they fear that Joseph—now this powerful ruler—will have them imprisoned or even executed for what they did to him so many years earlier.
But no… Instead, Joseph says to them, in Genesis 50:20[1] , “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
I love those two most glorious words: But God…[2] [dot, dot, dot] Those two words, and certainly the concept, show up over and over in scripture.
Circumstances may appear to be unfavorable… unchangeable…even bleak… hopeless… out of control… beyond repair… beyond redemption…
But God…
So I hope you get the picture: Joseph’s brothers—through their own free and sinful choices—conspired to harm Joseph. What they did was genuinely evil: “You meant evil against me,” as Joseph says. “But God meant it for good…”
[3]
Obviously, if we humans intend one purpose, and God intends some other purpose, whose purpose do you think will win out. That’s right… God’s purpose. God’s purpose will always overrule every other purpose.
And here’s the good news: What God did for Joseph—taking evil and transforming it into something that will ultimately be good for Joseph and the world—God promises to do for all of us who are his children through faith in Christ. Did you hear that? It’s the same promise that we all know and love in Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” It’s the promise of Romans 8:31[4] : “if God is for us, who can be against us?” Answer: no one and nothing… can be ultimately against God’s children!
But to say that “nothing can be against us” might be putting it too mildly! Because of something Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing in that letter to a church that is badly divided… they’re divided over the question of pastoral leadership, among other things. Some in the church say that they are loyal to Paul, others to Apollos, others to Cephas—otherwise known as Peter… Still others, perhaps with a note of self-righteousness, say they’re only loyal to Jesus, not to any human…
In this context, Paul speaks one of the most astonishing promises, in my opinion, in all of scripture. I don’t think I adequately grasp the truth of this promise. Because if I did, why would I ever worry? I’m serious… Judge for yourself: if what Paul is saying is true (and of course it is!), then why should any of us ever worry or feel anxious.Listen to these words and prepare to be blown away. This is from 1 Corinthians 3:21-23:
So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. 1
In other words, you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God…
In other words, God, in his sovereign control of the universe, is ensuring that everything that happens in the universe will ultimately be for you… will ultimately serve your best interests… will always be for your ultimate good. I mean, how much money would you be willing to pay in order for everything that happens in the universe to be for your good. [Say a word about “mobster” movies… But the power and protection of mafiosos in these movies can’t begin to compare to what God does for us!] That’s what this promise says!
Of course, in spite of this astonishing promise, we often do worry and feel anxious and afraid… Why? Because we so often disagree with God about what is actually “good for us,” but that’s our problem… and that’s a topic for another sermon!
And I think I said this last week, but suppose “worst comes to worst”—from our human perspective—and we get that frightening diagnosis… and die. Or we get killed in a car crash or a natural disaster or an act of violence… How is that “for our good”?
Are you kidding? If we’re living our lives for Christ and his glory, then we can be sure that Christ has transformed death into nothing other than a passageway to experience infinitely more of Christ and his glory than we can ever experience on this side of eternity. Not a bad deal at all!
This is why Paul can say, in verse 21[1] , “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
In other words, “living for Christ is the greatest thing ever—it’s the only sure way to find love, joy, satisfaction, and contentment. And dying therefore—at the time that God appoints for each of us to die—is even better.” Because we get infinitely more of the thing that we’re living our lives for!
So… if you are a Christian, you better believe that even death will be “for our good”!
But getting back to Joseph… Perhaps none of us has flesh-and-blood enemies who are trying to physically harm us… I hope! But like I said a couple of weeks ago, we all have an ultimate spiritual enemy, Satan, and his minions, who are always working to harm us!
But armed with the the truth of God’s providence, we can literally say of the devil’s worst schemes against us: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
And how could it be any other way for those of us who are in Christ?
No greater evil was ever done, after all, than the evil that was done to Jesus. Satan and his army of fellow demons, conspiring with the world’s evil powers, could not have done worse evil than they did on Mount Calvary when Christ was crucified. Yet God took that evil—the worst that had ever been perpetrated in history—and what did he do? God transformed it into the greatest good the world has ever known: which is, salvation for all who receive God’s gift of eternal life in Christ! Adoption into God’s family forever! The defeat of sin and death! The redemption of God’s creation! New and eternal life!
If God has the power to do that with the worst act of evil ever perpetrated in history, then, to say the least, God has more than enough power to do that with all lesser forms of evil that the devil can throw at you and me! Amen?
No human enemy and no supernatural enemy has the power to prevent God from working good and fulfilling his ultimate plan for us in the midst of all circumstances. What a relief! Praise God!
Decades ago, back in the ’70s, a Christian singer-songwriter Phil Keaggy [2] wrote a song called “Disappointment.” It included these words:
Disappointment, His appointment
Change one letter, then I see
That the thwarting of my purpose
Is God’s better choice for me…
[3]
And in so many words, Paul makes the same point in today’s scripture!
Recall that Paul is probably writing this letter from prison in Rome. Luke, the author of Acts, tells us at the end of that book that Paul spent two years under house arrest in Rome.
But this isn’t like “house arrest” as we might know it today—freedom to roam around the house with an ankle monitor. Paul had it much worse: Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, Paul literally had a Roman soldier chained to him. They worked in four-hour shifts. Think about that: For those two years, Paul had no privacy. He couldn’t even go to the bathroom without this soldier chained to him.
Seems bad, doesn’t it?
Not to Paul…
Verse 12[4] , “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”
Paul goes on to say that what’s happened to him has actually helped to fulfill his life’s mission—in three surprising ways.
First, as I said a moment ago, he says the gospel is being preached “throughout the whole imperial guard.” The imperial guard was a highly trained and elite unit of soldiers who worked for Caesar himself. And Paul, the most persuasive evangelist the world has ever known, is preaching the gospel to them; some are being converted; and then they’re going and preaching and converting others.
Second, as fellow Christians find out that Paul is in prison for the gospel, they get inspired by his example and they share the gospel more boldly.
And third, even Paul’s critics and opponents in the churches are sharing the gospel more boldly—perhaps because they’re jealous of how much their fellow Christians admire Paul, and they want to be admired in the same way.
Regardless, Paul says, the message was getting out to more and more people… more people than Paul alone could ever reach. For Paul, that’s all that matters. Certainly not his own comfort, welfare, or reputation. He’s not in it for himself; he’s in it for Christ!
So Paul can see with his own eyes three good purposes[5] for which God is using his imprisonment… There might be ten thousand more good purposes that Paul can’t see… For example, Paul likely didn’t know that the very words of this letter would be captured by God and included in the Bible’s second part… i.e., the New Testament… that these words would strengthen and encourage Christians throughout the ages!
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Disappointment, His appointment
Change one letter, then I see
That the thwarting of my purpose
Is God’s better choice for me…
Paul perceives three good purposes for his imprisonment. There may be ten thousand more that he’s unable to see.
The same will be true for us!
And the same will be true for us: When we’re enduring difficult trials in our lives, which God promises that we will, we might see a couple of good things that God is doing through those circumstances… but there may be hundreds or thousands of good purposes that we can’t see. So we don’t become impatient… we don’t lose heart… and we trust that God is always working his good plan!
Anyway… that’s God’s providence, and it’s the first principle for experiencing “unstoppable joy.” Here’s the second:
How God works his good purposes and plan in our lives depends—in part—on our prayers.
As I said last week, Paul had been in prison many times before, but this time he wasn’t so sure whether he’d live or die. But finally, in verse 19[1] , he says that he believes that he will be set free from prison so that he can continue his apostolic ministry. He writes, “for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.”
Did you notice that: “through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
Here’s a good question: Since God hardly needs to be informed about what it is we truly need—he knows what we need far more than we do… Why didn’t Paul just say “through the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”? After all, God the Holy Spirit has all the power to deliver Paul from prison and death. Why does the Spirit also require prayers of God’s people?[2]
Answer: God doesn’t require the prayers of his people. But God wants the prayers of his people. God chooses to use the prayers of his people to accomplish mighty things!
And the sobering truth is that God will often wait to act in powerful ways until God’s people pray as they should! Because that waiting is good for us! And if, in the meantime, this waiting causes pain and discomfort to God’s people, God seems okay with that. Because even that pain and discomfort is good for us. After all, if pain and discomfort are what it takes to motivate us to pray, then the pain and discomfort will be worth it. The nineteenth century English pastor Charles Spurgeon said, “Anything that causes us to pray is a blessing.” Whew! Think about that!
God wants us to pray before he wants us to do anything else! And God is happy to wait until we do…
Now consider this: There are blessings that we miss out on when we don’t pray! There are blessings our church misses out on when we don’t pray!
Paul himself makes that clear… In fact, in verse 19, Paul implies that one blessing he might miss out on if the church at Philippi fails to pray for him is his future freedom, his continuing life in this world, and his continuing ability to preach and teach the gospel and glorify God through his ministry in this world.
Do we pray as if our lives depend on it? Do we pray as if the lives of our brothers and sisters in church depend on it? Because they do. To some extent… Both our physical and spiritual wellbeing depend, in part, on our brothers and sisters in Christ praying for us…
Years ago, the Christian philosopher William Lane Craig[3] was asked on a podcast about an item that was in the news at the time. Some seminary professor out west was conducting a year-long experiment: He was going to live his life as if he weren’t a Christian—for the first time in his life… No prayer. No churchgoing. No nothing related to his faith… for an entire year. He would then “compare and contrast” a life of faithful Christian living with a life without faith. And find out for himself whether Christian faith makes a positive difference in his life?
News flash… if you’re willing to take a year away from living your life as a Christian, guess what? You’re already not a Christian!
An idiotic experiment, I know. But not to worry: he got a book deal out of it… He called the book A Year Without God or something like that.
So Dr. Craig was asked what he thought of this publicity stunt. And you know what his very first objection to this experiment was? He said, “This man has brothers and sisters at his church who are counting on his prayers for them. They could be harmed because this man isn’t praying for them.”
Whoa…That would not have been near the top of my list of objections… In fact, that thought didn’t cross my mind… but that’s my problem, not Dr. Craig’s.
Because everything I’m preaching right now convicts me too…
Just yesterday in my quiet time I read from Ephesians chapter 1, and I read these startling words. These words come from the part of the letter where Paul shares his prayer for them. And he says that he prays that they would know
what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places… 2
Did you hear that: “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us…” This is not some power in the abstract; it’s power that’s available in us and through us and to us because God’s Spirit is living in us!There’s a contemporary praise and worship song that uses these verses to say,
The same power that rose Jesus from the grave
The same power that commands the dead to wake
Lives in us, lives in us
The same power that moves mountains when He speaks
The same power that can calm a raging sea Lives in us, lives in us
The Holy Spirit has all the power to deliver Paul. Why does the Spirit also require prayers of God’s people?
These words are 100 percent true! And God’s Word tells us that God wants to use this power for us when God’s people pray. As Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” 3
Do we believe it? Do we pray like we believe it?
Let’s say church is like a hot fudge sundae[2] —we get out a bowl; we put a few scoops of ice cream in; we slice bananas; we chop nuts; we add them to the ice cream; we top it with lots of whipped cream; we heat up the chocolate sauce; we pour it over the mixture; maybe we throw in some candy sprinkles—and then, at long last, we take that maraschino cherry—which, let’s face it, no one really likes anyway—and we place it on top. It’s like a decoration. Something we quickly put off to the side before we dig in to the sundae.
I’m afraid that, too often, we as a church treat prayer like that maraschino cherry. Like it’s the last and least important thing we do. I am guilty of this! I go to plenty of committee meetings, after all… Church council meetings, and church business-related meetings. I sanctify the proceedings with an opening prayer; I bless them with prayer when the meeting is finished. But in between… Do I believe that prayer is connected to everything else that happens in the meeting?
What if, instead, prayer is supposed to be the most important thing we do… even at these meetings?
What if we changed our mindset and said something like this instead? The first purpose of Church Council is for its members to gather and pray for our church—for its ministries, for its administration, for its pastor and staff, for its success in fulfilling the Great Commission. And then we do some other things, too… but prayer remains its first and most important purpose. What if we thought like that? Crazy? The first purpose of the Finance Committee is for its members to gather together and pray for the church’s faithful stewardship. And then we do some other things. The first purpose of Staff-Parish Relations Committee is to gather together and pray for our pastor and staff. And then we do other things.
You get the idea… We’re still a new church! We still have the opportunity not to fall into harmful ruts, not to get into bad habits. Not to fall back on the “way things have always been done.” We still have the ability to set precedents.
Let us at Five Forks Methodist set a precedent of faithful prayer before anything else!
Our church’s work begins with prayer… it continues with prayer… and it finishes with prayer…
Eight-hundred pound gorilla in the room… As you probably know, next year, our lease, or sublease, on this building is up… We have move to a new location. Y’all know this better than me. Next week’s “town hall” will update us on all that.
As we enter this season of discernment, of prayer, of stewardship, let us ask ourselves these questions:
Do we believe that God has all the power in the universe to give our church a new home next year?
Do we believe that God wants to give our church a new home?
Do we believe that as God’s faithful children at FFMC pray, God will give us a new home?
Do we believe that faithful prayer between this moment and next year will help shape the kind of church home that God will give us?
If the answer to these questions is “yes”… then what?
Then… we’re supposed to be afraid and anxious? No way!
If the answer to these question is yes, then God’s people at the new Five Forks Methodist Church will pray…
We will pray “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us”… and we will look forward to what almighty God will do…