Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Just bow our heads in prayer, please, at this time.
Father, we give you thanks and praise that you love us, that you are our Father in Heaven who cares for us,
that this is your world, and that when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we become your children by adoption and grace. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit will lead,
bring your word and the gospel home deep into our hearts, so that your word and your gospel may form us,
so that we may live lives in this world that are confident and joyful, with our confidence and joy
in Christ. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
Thank you.
So, actually, just before, just as part of my beginning, once again, we've been going through
the book of Philippians. Last week was the first sermon. We have bought these ESV scripture journals
for people in the congregation. It gives a nice print, nice paper, a nice print on one side of the page
is the text. On the other side of the page, it's blank for you to make your own notes, comments,
questions, prayers. They are there in a box. You can sort of ignore me and go get one,
or you can wait till after the service. But I will be using this and preaching. It's the Bible,
and it's on page eight. But before we turn there, a more proper introduction to the sermon.
I think I shared last week that, oh, I didn't start my timer. That's not a good idea. I might preach
for five hours. No, just joking. I mentioned last week that the book of Philippians has,
from very early on in my Christian life, been one of my favorite books in the Bible. And some of you
know that the book of Philippians is a source of many quotes. In fact, you might once, as you go
through it, if you weren't familiar with this before, by the end of Philippians, you'll say,
oh, that's why I saw that on that Christian mug, or on that Christian t-shirt, or something like that.
And they're often very good quotes for people, for Christians, who have terrible attitudes.
Now, before you raise your eyes and roll your eyes and go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
terrible, you know, bad attitudes and all of that. By the way, rolling your eyes at the idea of good
attitudes is a bad attitude. Because the fact of the matter is, is that some Christians have
absolutely crappy attitudes. And part of the problem for Christians with crappy attitudes is
we mistake our crappy attitudes for a sign of wisdom, or realism, or insight. We aren't like those
other blind, easily led, gullible Christians. We see the world as it really is, and we tell ourselves
this story. But the fact of the matter is, we have crappy attitudes. Now, I'm saying that because you are
looking at, for many years, exhibit A of a Christian with an absolutely crappy attitude. And in fact, it was
only when I was in my mid-30s. I'd been ordained at that time about seven years. And there was things in
my life that the wheels started to come off my life. And the reason the wheels were coming off, I mean,
on the outward sign, my life was quite success as a Christian, the church was growing, all of that type
of stuff. But I had a whole pile of junk in my life. And as I was forced to deal with it, in God's
grace, I was forced to deal with it. And one of the things that started to really hit me was the fact
that I had a terrible attitude about a whole pile of things. I mean, there's other things as well. I
didn't recognize anxiety. I didn't recognize stress. I dealt with that. Those are other sermon
illustrations. But all of this came home to me in a very powerful way. I'm not naturally a mystical guy,
but I do have occasionally mystical types experiences. And I was in my parish in Eganville,
and I looked after four little churches. And I was driving from where I lived in Eganville to
Killaloo to do an event. And by this point in time, I'm spending a... I was a year or more into
trying to deal with the junk in my life. And one of the things that was junky in my life was having
a terrible attitude. And I'm driving along, and I'm praying, and I'm asking God to, you know, to work
in my life. And it's almost like I got... I mean, I was driving a car. So it's not that God just
froze my hand to the wheel, because then I would have gone off the curves and into the trees. But it was
as if God almost had me in his grip. And he, for a moment, helped me to see myself as I was.
And as he brought me to see myself as I was, as I'm driving, it brought me to tears.
Because I realized that the way I thought about myself and my ministry and the churches that I was
serving is that I thought to myself that in 10, 20 years, the churches that I was serving would be
smaller, weaker, just all bad... just smaller and weaker. I myself personally would be faithful,
but the churches that I served was right then, and the churches I would come to serve, they would be
smaller and weaker. And it was as if God shone a flashlight in my heart. And I realized that's how I
thought. That was my attitude. And as he did that, I realized that could not possibly be his attitude for
the churches that I served in. That could not possibly be God's hope for that church or this church.
His hope for you isn't that this church will get smaller and smaller and smaller and weaker and weaker
and weaker while I stay faithful. That's not... that is not how God wants to form my heart or your heart.
Now, I mention this because this is a bad attitude that's directly attacked or dealt with or confronted
in the book that we're about the passage that we're going to look at today. So I invite you to turn in
your Bibles to Philippians chapter 1. We're going to be looking at verses 12 to 26. If you're using these
little booklets, it's page 8. And I encourage you to bring your own Bibles. It's good to make notes.
It's good to check to see that I'm not, you know, playing fast and loose with the text or anything
like that. I want to handle the word well. And last week we looked at it. We're going to go through all
the way through the book of Philippians. Just 108 verses. Short, but very powerful. And excuse me,
this was written while Paul was under house arrest. And house arrest isn't as easy as it is here in
Canada. Paul was shackled in chains. He always had several Roman guards with him. And those guards
were changed every four hours to keep them fresh. And Paul was in chains and he wasn't guilty of
anything that deserved this. He's been in imprisonment either in house arrest or actually in jails or military
barracks for two and a half years or three years or something like that. He has people who want to
kill him and he's innocent. And that's his situation. And it's while he is in Rome waiting to be tried by
Nero that he writes this letter somewhere in the years 60 to 62. And here's what he says next. It begins
at verse 12. I want you to know brothers and sisters. And by the way, here throughout the book
of Philippians, whenever you see the word brothers, you should add the word sisters. The original word
in the original language is referring to both brothers and sisters. It's older English where
the masculine can apply for both, but you should read it brothers and sisters. I want you to know,
brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me, remember I just told you what's all happened to him?
And he says this, what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
Okay? Like I can just tell you, I haven't read church growth books in a few years,
but I can tell you this, nobody says in a church growth book, if you want to grow the church,
get arrested. Okay? Like that has never been, I've never seen that in an article. Maybe I should be the
first one to write it. I don't know. It never says, if you want to have the gospel grow, get arrested.
But anyway, he says, what is really, has served to advance the gospel, verse 13, so that it has become
known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. In
other words, he viewed the jail as a mission field, almost as if Nero is going to stick me with a couple
of soldiers, changing them every four hours for two years, they're going to hear about Jesus.
I mean, that's sort of the attitude that he took to it. Like, how kind of Nero to send people to me
every day that I can tell about Jesus. I mean, that's sort of his attitude, right? By the way,
you can see how this isn't a good attitude, by the way, to have, isn't it? You can see that,
but we'll keep going, because we're getting to the nub in a moment. And most of the brothers and
sisters, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the
word, that is to tell people about Jesus, without fear. Some, and this all just sounds very almost
hallmarky, like the sort of thing that a John Maxwell would say, or a Tony Robbins would say,
but now it takes a very, very, a bit of a darker turn. Listen to what he does in verse 15.
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. Now just pause. That word envy is, in the original
language, you could almost translate it more literally in English as hateful envy, an envy which
is closely connected to hatred. And that's why they're doing it. And rivalry isn't just sort of
something like, you know, Leafs and Sens fans joshing each other. It's, it's factionalism, it's tribalism,
it's pursuing your own tribal or family good at the same time that you're trying to keep the other,
other people down. It's a, it's a very, very bad thing. So he says, some indeed preach Christ
with these terrible reasons from envy, hatred, hate, hateful envy and rivalry, but others from
goodwill. The latter, that's the ones who do it for goodwill, do it out of love, knowing that I am put
here for the defense of the gospel. And by the way, that word goodwill is a very, it's a good, good word,
but I want to bring out a nuance with it about what it means. It means that you do it out of a spirit
of love and benevolence. So why do I tell, bear witness to Jesus at the coffee shops that I go to
and when I meet other people? It's because I love those people. And I really believe that if they gave
their life to Christ, it would not only be better for their eternal destiny, but it would be better
for their day-to-day life as Christ becomes the Savior and Lord of their life. I like, I really,
that should be the attitude that you tell other people about Jesus. Not so you win arguments,
not so people will think you're clever, not, you know, not because it's like, yeah, not for any of
those, or not so you can, I don't know, say to people, you talk to more people than others, like,
no, no, no, no, no. The spirit that you do that in is a spirit of benevolence and love. That's the
proper thing. You love these people. You want the best for them. And you have come to know Christ,
and to know Christ, you know that Christ is the best for them.
Verse 17, the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition. In other words, a self-centered
ambition. Not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me, cause him grief in my chains. The words
imprisonment there throughout this text literally are, while I'm in my chains. What then, verse 8,
13. Now, here's the shocking thing. Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Now, this is, this is a sort of an odd conclusion,
isn't it? If we think about it at first, when you're just reading it, like, you think to yourself,
is, has Paul been taking some type of drug? Like, is he on Valium? Or I don't know what the latest
drugs are to improve your mood. You know, has he been smoking one of those substances, or chewing
them that you can buy here in Canada to mellow you out? Is that what's going on? Is he just like a guy
with his head in the sand? Or is he, you know, some of you know what I mean. I hear this as a term of
derision, painted smile Christians. They have a painted smile, big beaming smile, but underneath
that, they don't actually love you. They don't actually care about you. They're not actually very
good people. They've just painted a smile on their face. Is that what's going on here with Paul? So he
has all these people causing him affliction, doing, telling people about Christ for terrible reasons,
and he ends by saying this odd thing, Christ is proclaimed and that I rejoice. So what's going on?
It's not that he's on drugs. It's not that he's a painted smile Christian. I mean, far from it. Good
grief. He's writing this with chains on his hands, and a Roman soldier close by, maybe two or three or
four. That's how he's doing it. The opposite of a painted smile Christian. What's going on? Well,
last week, some of you might remember that I talked about how significant verse six is. I'll just read
it to you again. It's not going to be on the screen, maybe, but in verse six, Paul says,
and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, or bring it to
perfection at the day of Jesus Christ. And I talked about how one of the things which is just so
beautiful about that is that it's saying that when you give your life to Christ, and you enter into
him, and he enters into you, he begins to work in your life. And the work that he does will bring you
to glory. It's not because I'm very competent. It's not because I'm always a wonderful Christian.
It's not because I never sin. It's not because I never struggle with shame or terrible attitudes.
It's not because of anything like that. It's because Christ himself, through the Holy Spirit,
actually begins a work in you, and he will keep that work going in you until you see Jesus face to
face and are like him. My confidence is in Christ's work in me, not in my work for Christ.
And that's what your confidence should be as well. And so one of the things which is so beautiful about
the Christian faith is it's really the Christian faith, which of course is the Old and the New
Testaments for us, so our Jewish friends share in this to a considerable extent, that it's really
granted to the world the importance of every human being. Every human being is important and precious.
That's a Christian discovery. It's a Christian message that every human being has worth and value
and integrity. And from that, the importance of the individual has come, the doctrine of individualism.
And individualism isn't necessarily, in fact, there's many things which are bad about individualism,
because it's not just that we human beings are particular people, but we also need other people.
And Christianity keeps this balance between the importance of the individual, the person,
and the group, whether that group is the family, whether it's the local church, whether it's the nation,
that other larger group is also very, very important. And so this same promise that God has made to you
and me as particular people, that the work that he has begun in you and me, he will bring it to perfection,
that same promise applies not just to us as individuals, but in a slightly different form to the work of the local church.
God is bringing the gospel to more people.
And that is his work. It's not because Church of the Messiah is spectacular, wonderful, brilliant, rich, talented,
beautiful, funny, cute, any of those things, as much as some of those things describe us.
It's God who's advancing the gospel. If you could put up the first point,
here's how the text is trying to get at it, that God draws straight with the crooked lines we humans draw.
Right? Paul has just, God draws straight with the crooked lines that we humans draw.
I'm trying to get a bit of a poetic way to express this truth,
because Paul's very frank about the fact that there's terrible things going on behind the sharing of the gospel.
And it's part of another way to express this profound truth that first comes in Genesis 50,
and you can go back and read it later on, and it's all the way through the Bible,
and it helps us to understand the sovereignty of God,
that God is our Father in heaven, and we are his children by adoption and grace,
and he is in control. And so, I can't go into all of it, but there's a story of Joseph and his brothers,
and his brothers hate him, and so they, when he comes to visit them when they're out in the wilderness,
they take him and they're going to kill him because they hate him so much.
These ten brothers hate their brother Joseph.
And then they decide, well, why kill him when we can sell him as a slave to slave traders
and still get rid of him and have extra money in our pocket?
So that's what they do. They sell Joseph into slavery.
And then if you go ahead and read the chapters in Genesis just before this,
there's all the terrible things that happened to Joseph,
and by the end of it, though, God ends up working through events
so that Joseph becomes very powerful in the land of Egypt
and is going to save Egypt from a famine
and ends up saving his family from death.
And so after he saved them from death by famine
and their father dies, they come to Joseph and say,
by the way, before our dad died, he said,
don't get revenge on us.
And this is the very powerful part in Genesis 50.
Joseph calls them on it.
He said, no, he didn't.
Our dad didn't say that to you, and I'm sure they must have just,
because he's like the second most powerful person in Egypt.
He can just do that, and soldiers can come and kill them.
And in Egyptian culture at that time, that would be fine.
The second powerful people wants to kill irritating people.
You just kill irritating people.
No big deal.
But he says, you meant it for ill,
what you did to me.
You meant it for evil,
but God used it for good.
You meant it for evil,
but God used it for good.
God draws straight with the crooked lines that we draw.
So the text is not saying,
this is one of the things which is so wonderful then about this text,
is that God is at work in spreading the gospel.
There are more Christians today in the world than there was a year ago.
There might not be more Christians in Ottawa,
but there are more Christians in the world.
And God will use us.
There's no guarantee that our church will get bigger.
I mean, it might just very well be that God has these weird plans for us.
That we'll stay a relatively small church,
and we die and go to heaven because Christ hasn't returned yet.
And we discover that because we support Samir in his work
and pray for Samir in his work amongst the Afghan people,
that God uses Samir to bring some young Afghan person to Christ
who becomes the Wesley of all Persian-speaking people of the world.
I mean, I don't know.
Maybe that's going to be it, right?
Maybe right now our prayer support
and sometimes financial support for Korgala Ministries,
that one of those young orphaned boys becomes a Christian
and he becomes the Wesley or the Billy Graham of Africa
and impacts the rest of the world
as missionaries from Africa come to Canada
to bring the gospel back to us.
God is advancing the gospel.
That's this profound thing.
That's the bracketing of it.
You know, this is serving to advance the gospel.
I'm just praising God.
That's how the whole thing is framed.
If you look at 12 and how it ends at 18,
God, that's the message.
That's the good news.
God draws straight with crooked lines,
the crooked lines we humans draw.
And if you put up the second point, Claire,
that would be very helpful.
And that leads to a very important attitude prayer for us,
an attitude prayer for you and me.
Lord, please mold us and use us as you advance the gospel
in Ottawa, Gatineau, in Canada, and throughout the world.
You see, when you understand this,
it's why we say, you know,
we haven't been doing much in evangelism.
It's time to repent.
And it's worth it.
It's worth it to repent.
It's worth it to pray for people.
It's worth it to pray that God will give you an opportunity
to bear witness to Jesus.
Why?
Not because you're good at sales.
Not because you're the world's most brilliant apologist.
Not because you're the most holy person
who's ever lived on the planet.
You are none of those things.
I am none of those things.
But because God is at work,
and that's what makes it worth taking the trial,
the pray and to try.
Lord, please mold us.
Please mold me.
And please use us.
Please use me as you advance the gospel
in Ottawa, Gatineau, in Canada, and throughout the world.
Now, I'm about to do a faux pas in Canada.
In Canada, you are not allowed to ask this question.
Have you thought very much about the fact that you're dying?
Like, did you wake up this morning and think to yourself,
I am one day closer to my death?
Have you thought about that?
That's a faux pas in Canada.
You can't say that in a party.
I mean, maybe you could as a bit of a joke,
and they'll think, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
But they say, no, no, no, I'm actually serious.
I'd really like to talk to you.
Have you actually thought about the fact that you're going to die?
And by the way, if you're at a party,
and you want to be by yourself,
that's a good thing to say, by the way.
In Canada, it will mean that people will leave you alone
if you want some quiet time.
If you want to spend less time with your family
at the next family gathering,
just say, by the way,
have each of you thought very much about the fact
that you're dying?
You're one day closer to death?
So I'm about to do a faux pas,
but it's one of those things where the gospel
is really, really powerful
and really, really helpful.
You'll notice that, you know,
the text has said that the gospel is going forth.
Well, what is the gospel, first of all?
The gospel is true news from God.
It's not good advice, not good rituals,
not good therapies, not even good attitudes.
It's true good news from God about Jesus,
and it comes with power from God to change you.
That's what the gospel is.
Romans 1, 16 to 17,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and then to the pagan.
That's what the gospel is.
It's good news about Jesus,
that comes to you from God,
and because it comes from God,
it is a power that transforms you
and changes you.
And it's in light of this
that we understand that we as Christians
can think a little bit about the fact
that we will die,
and the people around us will die.
In fact, it is a challenge to every system of thought.
You have your boutique spirituality,
you have your apatheism,
you have your atheism,
you have your skepticism.
Have you thought about the fact that you will die?
How does that measure up?
How does your materialism,
your consumerism,
measure up to the fact that you will die?
You will lose everything.
Everything.
Well, 18 to 26 is,
you'll see in a moment why I'm asking this question,
not just to have clickbait or anything like that,
but look at how it continues.
So 18 begins with,
what then?
Only that in every way,
whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is proclaimed,
and in that I rejoice.
Yes,
and I will rejoice.
And it's interesting,
because the rejoicing is both going backwards
to the fact that God is advancing the gospel,
and therefore we can be involved in meaningful labor
and meaningful change,
and it's also rejoicing forward,
because it's a message about union with Christ
and about death.
And then verse 19,
for I know that through your prayers
and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
this will turn out for my deliverance.
Now just pause.
This isn't an attitude that you can take
just by itself.
Paul has a particular promise
that he will be delivered from death this time.
Read 2 Timothy for the balance
when he knows that the second time
and final time he's in prison in Rome,
he will not leave to go free again.
He will be martyred.
So that's not the attitude.
But it's a particular thing in this case
that he knows, however, from the Spirit,
and it ends up being true.
Verse 20,
As it is my eager expectation and hope
that I will not be at all ashamed,
but that with full courage,
now as always,
Christ will be honored.
And that word honored can also be translated
as magnified.
People will honor Christ.
They'll have a higher opinion of him.
They'll want to know more about him,
that Christ will be honored or magnified
in my body,
whether by life or by death.
And here is the famous,
one of the famous quotes in the book of Philippians.
Verse 21,
For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
To live is Christ,
to die,
life is Christ,
death is gain.
To live is Christ,
to die is gain.
That is not how Canadians think about death.
We'll come back to it,
but let's keep going.
For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
If you're going to get a tattoo,
that's a good one to get.
If you're 25,
you won't be embarrassed with it at 90.
Not like most tattoos that most people have.
I'm not dissing you.
It's just, I mean,
have you really thought about the fact
you might live for 60 years
before you get that tattoo?
But that's a whole other topic of conversation.
One of the reasons I don't have tattoos
is I wouldn't want to have the same hairstyle
for the rest of my life.
But that's a whole other topic of conversation as well.
For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
If I am to live,
verse 22,
in the flesh,
that is, in the body,
that means fruitful labor for me.
In other words,
work that will bear fruit.
Yet which shall I choose,
which I shall,
but yet which I shall choose,
I cannot tell.
I am hard-pressed between the two.
My desire is to depart and be with Christ,
for that is far better.
But to remain in the flesh,
the body,
is more necessary on your account.
Convinced of this,
I know that I will remain,
that is, living,
and continue with you all,
not for himself,
but for your progress
and joy in the faith,
so that in me
you may have ample cause
to glory in Christ Jesus
because of my coming to you again.
the excitement we get
from answered prayer.
And that's how he views it.
So, what's going on here
in this text?
To life is Christ,
death is gain.
And why is it that he seems
to almost talk
as if he's considering suicide?
And some people would say to me,
well, George,
and have said to me,
George,
if what you're saying
is so true about
what it means to be in Christ,
like, why wouldn't you kill yourself?
If that's,
if death is just going to mean
you're going to have
a glorified body
and be with God
in the new heaven and earth forever,
like, why wouldn't you
just kill yourself?
And people have asked me that
and I probably have often
not given very, very wise
and helpful answers.
But it's not,
he's actually not considering it.
It's a,
you can check the commentaries.
It's a rhetorical device
that's used back then
to get people thinking.
Uh,
but,
well,
it's still
a shocking thing.
Life is Christ,
death is gain.
I mean,
most people in Canada
will say that
when you die,
you go to a better place,
but they don't really believe it.
I don't think anybody
believes it
when they say it.
I think it's just
one of those hallmark words
that you just say
to another person.
But it's not what you believe.
And you have no ground
to believe it.
The fact is that
death feels unnatural.
It feels like a judgment.
It's something which is,
we're afraid of.
It's something that
we will do all sorts of things
to try to avoid.
It seems unnatural.
And most of the religions
of the world
aren't very helpful with it.
Even those more popular religions
in North America
that people will choose
over Christianity,
like karma.
Karma is not
a hopeful thing.
I mean,
the fact that you die
and you might come back,
I mean,
maybe you'll come back
as somebody famous
and important,
but more likely
you'll come back
as some animal
or even a bug.
And it's
millions and millions
and millions
and millions of years
of going through
the pain of death
and pain of death
only to be reborn
and only knowing
that you're going to go
through the pain of death
and pain of death.
It is not a hopeful idea,
but a depressing idea
that you are trapped.
You are like a hamster
on a little cage
just running
and running
and running,
but you never stop
and leave the cage.
You're just always
caught in a treadmill.
So why is it
that Paul says,
life is Christ,
death is gain?
One of the commentaries
that I read
is a very good one
by George Guthrie,
and he shares the story
that he was told
by a co-worker.
And this co-worker's dad
was a business guy,
but he was a very
devout Christian.
And when he was
in his 80s,
he got diagnosed
with cancer
that was probably
inoperable.
And he only lived
about six months
after the diagnosis came.
And one day,
this fellow
was driving his dad
to go get scanned.
And as he picked
his dad up afterwards
and was driving him home,
he asked his dad
what he was thinking
about
when he was in
that big device
scanning him.
And this is what
his dad said.
What did I say
over and over?
Every molecule
that makes me me
belongs to Christ.
Every molecule
in my body
belongs to Christ.
That's what he said
over and over
and over again
while he was in
that device
scanning him
to see how bad
the cancer was.
Every molecule
in my body
belongs to Christ.
If you could put up
the third point,
that would be
very helpful.
What's going on here
is this very,
very beautiful
doctrine of union
with Christ,
which I talked
about last week
and I'll talk
about a little bit
more today.
Every molecule,
if you are in Jesus,
every molecule
in your body,
every part
of your soul,
your yesterday,
today,
and forever
is in union
with Christ.
Your sexuality,
your time,
your mind,
your creativity,
every part
of what makes
you you
is in union
with Christ.
There is not
a molecule
in your body
that is not
in union
with Christ.
You know,
I don't think
we can ever
believe this
too much.
It's both
very, very
helpful
when we look
at other people
people.
You know,
maybe we have
a child
who's profoundly
handicapped.
Maybe we have
a man
or a woman
in our congregation
who is quite
mentally disabled,
but we know
they've come to Christ.
We pray that they
come to Christ
and to look at them
and to say,
you know,
every single part
of who they are
is in union
with Christ.
For you and me
as we age
and in the
hour
as we approach
our dying,
everything in my
past
and my present
and my future,
everything that
makes me me
in my soul
and my body
is in union
with Christ
with nothing
left over.
In fact,
you see,
what salvation
really is
is
that when I put
my faith and trust
in Christ,
or I come to realize
that I put my faith
and trust in Christ,
and I talked about this
a little bit last week,
I won't belabor it,
you can go back
and listen,
he really enters
into me
and I really
enter into him
and now I really
am in union
with him
and that's part
of what makes
the whole death
upon the cross
and everything
so unbelievably
precious and beautiful.
It means with
that union of Christ,
the sin
and the shame
and the wrong
things I've done
and the good things
I should have did
but didn't do
and not doing that
and whatever punishment
is deserved of that,
that comes into him,
his life
and he takes that
into himself
and all of the things
which he did
which were good
and beautiful
and all of his destiny
comes into me
and just as
Jesus was conceived
and begins life
as a zygote,
what he has done
for me
and my union with him
goes right back
to that zygote stage
for both of us
and he is in heaven
and that comes right
into me as well
and that's what happens
when I put my faith
in Christ
when you do too.
From the time
you were a zygote
till you die,
you are in union
with him
from the time
he was a zygote
until he dies
and he is now in glory
and you are in union
with him
and so the moment
of my death,
the moment of your death
brother and sister
if you are in Christ
is the moment
that your eyes
will open
and you will not
necessarily feel it
but you are
bearing
an eternal
weight of glory
that has transformed you
an eternal
weight of glory
is now you.
Why doesn't
Paul commit suicide?
Just very,
very briefly.
Here's a bit
of a hack
about reading
the book of Philippians
is that
I'm going to read
this text right now.
I'm just going to read
it from a
different translation
because the ESV
gives very technical stuff
but really
everything in the book
of Philippians
is to be understood
in the light
of Philippians
chapter 2
verses 6 to 11
the so-called
Christ hymn
or Christ creed.
Everything in the book
of Philippians
is centered
or is reflected
or is seen
in light of this
and I'm going to look
at this,
we're all going to look
at this next week
but for now
I'll just read it
in a simpler translation
and here's what it said.
It says,
you know,
that we're to be,
because remember
I just said
we're in union
with Christ
and it talks about
Christ who though
he existed
in the very nature
as God
did not consider
regard equality
with God
as something
to be grasped
but he emptied
himself
by taking on
the form
of a slave
and by looking
like other human beings
and by sharing
in human nature
he humbled himself
by becoming
obedient
to God the Father
to the point
of death
even the shameful
death upon the cross
and as a result
God exalted him
and gave him
the name
that is above
every name
that at the name
of Jesus
every knee
will bow
in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth
and every tongue
confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord
to the glory
of God
the Father
Amen
You are united
to Christ
You
that
Philippians 2
6-11
is what you are
united with
in Christ
and that gives me
to my fourth point
very briefly
if you could put it up
Claire
you did not make
the story of Jesus Christ
or the Bible
but God
is using them
to make you
I get this from
Rich Mullins
I know
my buddy
John O'Hare
is a big
Rich Mullins fan
if you do not know
Rich Mullins
make a note
Google it
go on Spotify
absolutely brilliant
Christian musician
who died in 1997
in a car accident
way too young
and a hymn
that he wrote
or a song
that he wrote
in 1993
was called
The Creed
and the lines
go something like this
he goes through
the whole
Apostles Creed
sung very beautifully
and he says
the chorus is
I did not make it
it is making me
and I believe
what I believe
is what makes me
what I am
I did not make it
no it is making me
it is the very truth
of God
and not
the invention
of any man
and he gets that
perfectly
he gets that perfectly
he nails it
you did not make
the story of Jesus Christ
you did not make
the Bible
I did not make it
but God
uses the Bible
God uses
the story of Christ
to make me
and if
that is the case
and if in fact
it truly is
that the moment
I die
is the moment
I wake up
and I realize
that I have
a resurrected body
that there is
an eternal weight
of glory
upon what had
before been
frail human flesh
and why would I
not do that
was how can I
possibly do that
if I am in union
with Christ
and the whole
story of Christ
is emptying himself
for others
that is the story
that starts to make you
and make us
that should be our prayer
that is why we have
church on Sundays
and tell what the Bible
is saying
it's why we have
the Lord's Supper
and remember the words
of Jesus
it's why we have
small groups
and scripture memorization
is that the story
of Jesus
will become
the story
by which we live
it's the story
upon which we stand
it is the story
by which we look
at the world
it is the story
by which we look
at ourselves
it is the story
by which we look
at others
it is the story
by which we look
at our sexuality
our identity
our money
everything
invite you to stand
let's bow our heads in prayer
father thank you so much for your word thank you for this profound truth may you burn it on our
hearts that given that when we put our life in christ our lives in christ's hands we enter into
union with him and now we can say life is christ death is gain
father we are not worthy of such a gift we give you thanks and praise that your love for us is so
great so deep so high so wide so pure so good so just so kind so merciful so thorough so unfailing
that you do this in our lives so father we ask that the story of christ the gospel and the bible
that that would form us and make us and make us more and more and more and that you would mold us
and and form us so that you will use people unworthy as we are to tell others about jesus
as you bring more and more people to a faith in jesus father we know that when we pray this we're
praying what you would have us pray these aren't father bold prayers they're humble prayers father
make us humble enough to pray these humble prayers that sound like boldness and we ask all these things
in the name of jesus your son and our savior and all god's people said amen we'll be
pray these έ