Philippians 3:17-4:1 * February 28, 2010 * Lent 2 * Pastor Pagels
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
A professional athlete who uses performance enhancing drugs. A heart doctor who smokes like a chimney. The parent of a teenager who drives like a maniac. What do these descriptions of these very different people have in common? Let’s see if we can figure it out.
Whether the professional athlete likes it or not, kids look up to him as a role model. And when he is in public he says all the right things. He speaks out about the dangers of doing drugs, but what his young admirers don’t know is that his locker looks something like a personal pharmacy, and that for years he has been using steroids to increase his strength and improve his performance.
The heart doctor knows the statistics, and she lectures her patients about how smoking increases their chances of heart disease. What she fails to mention is that she is a smoker herself. And when she is not on the job, when she has a break, when she’s in her car or at home, she almost always has a cigarette in her mouth.
The parent isn’t convinced that his teenage daughter is ready to drive. When they go out together to practice, he is constantly reminding her, “Look both ways before you enter an intersection.” “Check your rearview mirror.” “Don’t go so fast.” But when he gets behind the wheel it’s a totally different story. He never checks his mirrors. He rarely uses his blinkers. And he ignores the posted speed limits.
There is a well-known saying that can be applied to all of these people. They have no problem telling other people how to behave, but they aren’t willing to take their own advice. And whether they say it out loud or not, this message comes through loud and clear (you can probably say it with me): “Do as I say, not as I do.”
To the first three examples we might add a fourth, a person who
can be described as an imprisoned missionary.
When Paul wrote the letter to the Christians living in the Greek city of
Paul wanted them to share his joy. Paul wanted them to carry on his work. And in the verses we will consider today, this (slightly different) message will come through. The apostle encouraged the Philippians, and this morning he encourages us…
“DO AS I SAY AND AS I DO”
I. Follow my example
II.
Stand firm in the Lord
“You need to be more like me.” If someone you knew said that to you, how would you react? Would you be irritated? Would you be offended? Would you be thinking to yourself, “Who does this person think he/she is?”
The Philippians didn’t react that way when Paul encouraged them to follow his example because they knew him. They knew that he wasn’t trying to puff himself up or put them down. Paul only wanted them to follow his example as he followed the example of Christ (I Corinthians 11:1). And when understood that way, words that might sound like boasting become pretty sound advice.
Remember where Paul was. He had been arrested even though he had committed no crime. And he could have complained about his situation. He could have complained to God for allowing him to be in this situation. But if Paul was unhappy, if Paul was upset, you wouldn’t know it by reading his letter to the Philippians.
The word that comes up again and again in Philippians, in
fact it could be the theme of the book, is “joy.” Earlier in the letter Paul wrote: “Even if I am being poured out like a drink
offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and
rejoice with all of you. So you too
should be glad and rejoice with me” (2:17,18).
According to Paul, it was an honor to suffer for Christ. It was a privilege to endure pain and suffering like Christ. His suffering gave him reason to rejoice, but there was another reason God allowed Paul to suffer. There was another purpose for his imprisonment. I’ll let Paul explain what that purpose was (this is from Philippians 1):
“I want you to know,
brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the
gospel. As a result, it has become clear
throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for
Christ. Because of my chains, most of
the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more
courageously and fearlessly” (12-14).
It wasn’t just that Paul saw the glass as half full. Paul wasn’t saying that the Lord had given him lemons and he was trying to make lemonade. The Lord had called him to be a missionary, and that is what he was. Even when he was behind bars Paul never stopped being a missionary. He just had a different mission field.
The Lord was blessing the work Paul was doing from prison, and Paul’s example was encouraging other Christians in other places to follow his lead. They were inspired to speak without fear. They were emboldened to speak with courage and confidence. The Word of God was spreading. More and more people were believing, but not everyone accepted the message.
Paul puts it this way: “As
I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Their
destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their
shame. Their mind is on earthly things”
(18,19).
Paul couldn’t ignore it. Paul couldn’t get over it. He had spoken about it many times before and it still bothered him now. The fact that there were still people in the world who were heading for an eternity of pain and suffering separated from God in hell, the very thought of it brought him to tears.
In Paul’s words we find an example…and a warning. Read Philippians, read any one of his letters and you will never question Paul’s love for people. Paul cared about people. Paul cared about all people, even people he considered his enemies. The tougher question is: Do we? Do we share Paul’s passion? Do we care about the people who are dying all around us? Does it bother us when we think about the people we know who don’t know Jesus as their Savior?
I am not saying that you have to stain the pages of your Bible with tears. I am not suggesting that every conversation you have has to be a spiritual conversation. With these questions I’m not trying to make you feel guilty…unless you should feel guilty.
I am guilty. We are all guilty. Every one of us worships the trinity that is me, myself and I. We live to serve ourselves. We live to satisfy our sinful appetites. We can get so wrapped up in the pleasures and pursuits of this life that we almost forget about the life to come. And if heaven isn’t a priority for me, why should I worry about, why would I even think about the eternal destiny of anyone else?
Paul has some pretty strong words for people who think and act this way. He calls them “enemies of the cross of Christ.” That’s what Paul was before Jesus appeared to him in a bright light and brought him out of the darkness of unbelief. That is what we were before God washed our sins away through the water and the Word. We were God’s enemies, but now we are God’s children. We are sinners, forgiven sinners. Because of Jesus. Because of Christ’s cross. Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death we are heirs of eternal life in heaven.
That goal is within your reach, Paul told the Philippians. The finish line is just ahead, Paul reminds us. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Do as I say AND as I do. Follow my example and stand firm in the Lord.
“Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends” (4:1). It would be easy to skip over the first part of this verse to get to the good stuff that follows, but then we would be missing something. The first word, “therefore,” is important. “Therefore” tells us that what comes before it is important.
So what was it that was so important? Why was it so important for the Philippians
to stand firm in the Lord? How can
Christians stand up to all the pressures and temptations to forsake their
faith? Paul tells us what we need to
do. All we need to do is look up: ‘Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under
his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his
glorious body” (20,21).
“Christians are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” I have to confess that I don’t know where that saying comes from. I think it was originally intended to be a criticism, but if anyone ever says that about you, you might want to take it as a compliment.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being heavenly minded. We should think about heaven. We should think about heaven every day. We need to remember that every day, including today, could be our last day on this earth.
That won’t make us “no earthly good.” It will help us make the most of the time we have. It will help us keep the ups and downs of life in perspective. It will help us through the good times and the bad because we know that the best is yet to come.
Let’s talk about that for a moment. Let’s talk about all the blessings that will be ours when our Lord returns. What do we have to look forward to? First and foremost, we will be with Jesus. Second, we will be reunited with our loved ones who have gone before us. We will get to meet the disciples and sing with the angels.
When our Savior comes down from heaven to take us to heaven, all of those blessings will be ours. But there is another blessing that I didn’t mention. This blessing is the focus of Paul’s encouragement for the Philippians: On the Last Day Jesus will use his almighty power to transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
I can’t tell you what that will feel like. I can’t tell you what our bodies will look like. But I can guarantee that it will be an amazing experience. You won’t need any prescriptions. You won’t need a cane or a walker or a wheel chair. We won’t need doctors or nurses or health care legislation. In heaven there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Heaven will be perfect. In heaven you will be perfect. In heaven you will be perfectly healthy forever.
Paul didn’t make this promise to the Philippians because he could sense that they were struggling and he wanted to make them feel better. Perfection is more than a pipe dream. Heaven isn’t a remote possibility. Our hope of heaven is real. Our hope of heaven is certain. That hope motivates us. It motivates us to follow Paul’s example, and it strengthens our resolve to stand firm in the Lord.
And while we wait, while we stand between the cross and the crown, while we wait for the hope of glory to become reality, we have God’s promise that he will not give us more than we can bear. The God who has given us the gift of faith will give us everything we need. He will protect us. He will sustain us. He will keep us strong, firm and steadfast, until we can stand on our own, until that day when we stand with Paul in glory. Amen.