WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.179 Hey folks, I just need to get a few things set up here as we get into opening God's Word. 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:11.660 We're going to have a very long introduction before we get into Philippians chapter 1, 00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:17.440 verses 12 and following. So you might want to get your Bibles, but there's a bit of a longer 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:22.839 introduction than usual for this sermon. Philippians chapter 1, verse 12 and 18. 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:29.740 But before we open the Word, let's just pray. Father, this is your Word. You know each 00:00:29.739 --> 00:00:37.579 human being individually, in our uniqueness, and in our depths. And Father, we ask that the Holy 00:00:37.579 --> 00:00:45.500 Spirit would bring your Word deep into our hearts so that we would be gripped by the Gospel and learn 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:50.500 to live for your glory. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:00:51.379 --> 00:00:59.280 Start my timer. I used to have the great privilege of visiting this. When I say an older man, I mean 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:07.840 an older man. His name was Ephraim, and he lived in a nursing home. This is a decade or more ago. 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:15.859 And I got to start visiting him when he was 98. And I visited him in 98, 99, 100, 101. And then I moved 00:01:15.859 --> 00:01:21.140 to a different church. And so my visits with him stopped. And about a year after, six months or so 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:26.260 after I stopped visiting him, he passed away. Anyway, he was a really, really, really interesting 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:34.719 guy. Full of his mental faculties were perfect. He was really smart. He was a really interesting 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.920 guy to talk to. And one of the day, one of the times, I don't know how it came up, but one of the 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:44.680 things, all out of the blue one day, he said, you know, George, one of the things that changes when you 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:51.060 get older, he said, is when you get older, you don't notice the pretty girls like you used to. 00:01:51.060 --> 00:01:57.900 And he said, you know, there's all sorts of things you think about that are different as you get 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:03.020 older. But you know, when I was a young guy, you know, I found women attractive all the time. And 00:02:03.020 --> 00:02:08.099 it sometimes could be a bit of a distraction in my life. But you get a certain age, he said. Now, 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:13.500 he's 98 when he's 99 or 100. When he's telling me this, he said, you get a certain age, those things 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:19.759 sort of don't have the same power or attraction that they did when you're a young man. Now, I mentioned 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:25.479 this because I'm going to talk about a sin today, in light of the gospel. And I'm going to talk about 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:31.479 the sin of envy. And one of the things I think that surprises both Christians and non-Christians 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:36.579 is that often, both within the Christian church and outside of the Christian church, there's this 00:02:36.579 --> 00:02:44.439 perception that we Christians are obsessed with sexual sin. And some, I guess, are obsessed with 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:50.199 sexual sin. If you think about it, it's definitely the case that we live in a culture which is obsessed 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:57.400 with sex. So maybe Christians are just reflecting the culture. But actually, in older, in ancient 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:04.139 Christian moral thought, there was this very, very interesting way of trying to examine your 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:10.500 conscience, examine your life. They came up with this idea of the seven deadly sins. And lust, 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:17.099 which is the desire to have sexual knowing or sexual stimulation with someone who is not 00:03:17.099 --> 00:03:27.759 your married husband or wife, in a heterosexual sense, that actually is on the list as one of the 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:32.560 seven deadly sins. But believe it or not, it's actually usually considered to be the least deadly 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:39.379 of the deadly sins. And if you think about it, partially because it's so completely and utterly connected 00:03:39.379 --> 00:03:48.259 to your body. And if your body goes and lives long enough, like Ephraim's, I mean, he didn't have 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:55.419 a problem with that at all anymore. Just not because he'd been increasing in virtue or self-control, 00:03:55.500 --> 00:04:00.400 he just got old and tired. That wasn't something that he had to struggle about or even think about 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:07.479 very much. So surprisingly, the two most deadly sins, the sins are pride, see if I can remember them, 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:16.779 pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony. I'm going to forget one right now. Lust is the seventh. The 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:19.480 other one, I should have written them down. I just can't remember what the sixth one is. Probably 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:25.899 the one I'm most guilty of. Anyway, but pride and envy are considered to be the two most dangerous 00:04:25.899 --> 00:04:30.480 of the seven deadly sins. They're all deadly. It's not saying, okay, just because I have pride, 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:35.939 then lust isn't deadly. No, no, they're all deadly. But for the ancient Christians, pride and envy were 00:04:35.939 --> 00:04:40.399 actually the two most deadly sins. And we're going to talk about envy. And part of the reason is, 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:46.480 is that they are so completely and utterly connected to the mind and to the will. They're 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:54.159 not as connected to the body so much. And while the body can wither away, the mind and the will, 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:59.199 in fact, can become very strong. I never talked to Eph about this. I don't know if he struggled with it. 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:05.439 But you could well imagine that a man who lives to have his 100th birthday party with all of his 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:12.420 mental faculties, just as sharp as a pin, as they used to say, that he might not struggle with lust, 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:17.680 but you could easily imagine he struggled with pride. I mean, he's outlived everybody. In fact, 00:05:17.719 --> 00:05:21.919 he even outlived some of his kids. And so you could see how that could be a bit of a problem. So we're 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:29.360 going to look at envy. And one ancient Christian writer described the sin of envy as a sorrow, 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:36.600 having sorrow at another person's good. It was a person by the name of Thomas Aquinas. He wrote 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:43.060 about 800 years ago when he was just summarizing older Christian writers. He was a brilliant 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:51.900 summarizer and systematizer of centuries of Christian thought. And he described the sin of 00:05:51.899 --> 00:06:02.239 envy as feeling sorrow at the good that someone else has. Now, some of you might say, George, 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:09.839 that sounds like a weird sin. Like, don't you think that envy is like a very helpful thing? Like, 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:17.459 don't you think envy fuels improvement and development and trying to be a better person? 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:24.939 And I'd say, well, if you're interested, by the way, underneath on the little comment sections, 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.539 I'm going to have seven brief things I'm going to say about envy. And if you look in the comment 00:06:29.539 --> 00:06:35.599 section, you'll see them posted as I go around. But here's the first one. Envy is corrupted, 00:06:36.379 --> 00:06:45.199 poisonous aspiration. Envy is corrupted, poisonous aspiration. So when you say, George, 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:50.159 don't you think that envy is actually a good thing? Because you see a good that somebody else has, 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:57.279 and that can motivate you to try to be a better person? What you're really thinking of is aspiration. 00:06:57.659 --> 00:07:06.819 You're not thinking of envy. Envy is a corruption of aspiration. And I'll try to give you a bit of a 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:12.379 sense. Well, I'll do it when I give you the second point about envy. And the second point about envy 00:07:12.379 --> 00:07:20.639 is that envy is zero sum. It has a zero sum view of the universe. So here's an example, 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:28.879 some examples about envy. Maybe you're in a, I'll use a personal one like myself. I can look at 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:34.819 another man who preaches, who opens the word, who's a public speaker. I'd think of somebody like Tim 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:40.480 Keller, for instance, a simple one. But I really admire him. I can think of Kevin DeYoung. And I watch 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.420 these guys or listen to these guys. And I think, gosh, I wish I could speak like them. 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:50.500 And that's aspiration. You see somebody who does something really, really, really well. Maybe 00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:56.560 you go to visit another family. And you see how the big family interacts. And you see a person who's 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.100 obviously the favorite aunt or the favorite uncle. And you just see how they're, they really, 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:06.100 they relate to the parents well, the kids well, even the teenagers, the young kids, the babies, 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:10.500 you can just sort of see, there's just something about the way they love and the way they live and 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:15.560 the way they relate to people and their selflessness, maybe that you think to yourself, gosh, you know, 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:21.420 when my family gets a little bit bigger, I hope that I'm, I'm like that. I hope I'm like Uncle Joe. I 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:32.200 hope I'm like, you know, Aunt Betty, or whatever, Aunt Ruth Joe. That's aspiration. But envy is corrupted 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:39.820 and poisonous. It's when aspiration, this, this thing which actually can help us to inspire to 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:46.720 get better and better. It's when it gets corrupted and gets poisonous that it becomes envy. So in this 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:52.120 particular case, you're in the family and you notice that Uncle Joe is the favorite uncle. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:09:01.379 Everybody loves him. And you see this and you notice this, and it makes you unhappy. 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:06.960 It makes you dissatisfied. You want to have that role. 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:15.600 And it never sort of dawns on you that there could be two favorite uncles or a favorite uncle and a 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:22.799 favorite aunt, or there could be three, or how cool would it be if everybody's love and compassion and 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:28.620 fun and generosity was such that everybody in the family, you couldn't pick a favorite aunt or uncle 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:34.639 because they were all so awesome. You don't think of it in those terms. You think to yourself, 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:41.139 that makes me unhappy that people think that way about this man or this woman. And 00:09:41.139 --> 00:09:48.679 dang it all, that should be me. And not only does it, and it starts to irritate you. You no longer 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:53.440 think of them. You look at, you see everything they're doing as in a negative light. And then before you know it, 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:58.420 you start to make little insinuations about their motives. Because you see, at the heart of envy 00:09:58.420 --> 00:10:03.780 is that you want to bring them down so you can have that place. 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:09.840 You know, you think about it, so it would be as if, you know, in a church, if there's a bigger church, 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.520 I, you know, or Daniel or somebody like that. And I start to think that Daniel is 00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:17.660 preaching better than me. And rather than thinking that Daniel is preaching better than me, 00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:22.100 I think, wow, that's, he's, it's fantastic. He's a young guy and he's doing such an awesome job. 00:10:23.199 --> 00:10:26.360 You know, that's a really interesting thing, the way he handles this and the way he handles that. 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:31.719 I want to learn to do that. But instead of that, if I start to, to make innuendo or do other types of 00:10:31.719 --> 00:10:39.860 things to hurt him so that he gets lower and I try to take that place. You can go on and on and on and on. 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:46.740 You see, aspiration isn't zero sum. You can have two brilliant preachers, three great uncles, 00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:52.720 four spectacular aunts. You can keep adding to it, but in envy you can't. It's zero sum. 00:10:53.800 --> 00:11:01.300 And here's the other thing about it is that, number three, it is a short walk from envy to hatred. 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:11.339 It is a short walk from envy to hatred. Like just as a, as a bit of an aside, if you see in two of the 00:11:11.339 --> 00:11:18.539 Gospels, when they ask why it is it that Jesus died, like what is the reason why people hated Jesus? 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:26.639 I mean, all he did was feed the hungry. He healed the sick. He delivered people from demon possession. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:34.539 He, um, he showed mercy to people who were in the down and outs. He healed lepers. He reintegrated 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:40.220 them into society. Like he only did good things. And yet as his ministry continued and continued and 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:46.360 continued, there was more and more hatred of him until the point that there are so many of the people 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:51.460 who should know better, who should be the leaders, is that they couldn't look at him without trying to 00:11:51.460 --> 00:11:55.819 figure out a way to bring him down and tear him down. And they eventually found a way to do it and 00:11:55.820 --> 00:12:00.560 they end up hanging him on the cross. And it's interesting in two places in the Gospels, it says 00:12:00.560 --> 00:12:07.640 it was for envy that the leaders put him to death. It was for envy that the leaders put him to death. 00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:14.860 Think about maybe somebody, anyway, you can just sort of see it. It creates and sustains a type of, 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:22.280 so envy creates and sustains, sorry, it's a short walk. I lost my place in my points. It is a short walk 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:27.259 from envy to hatred. You know, I use that in the example, a simple example of being the favorite 00:12:27.259 --> 00:12:31.139 aunt or the favorite uncle. But it can go on other places. If, you know, if you're an employee in 00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:34.720 something like a Starbucks or something like that, and you don't sort of think to yourself, 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:40.379 there's lots of Starbucks, there's lots of chances for promotion. And to see a person who's 00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:44.659 obviously doing a really, really good job as a barista, and you maybe think to yourself, 00:12:45.079 --> 00:12:48.980 you don't just think, wow, if I just learned that and learned that and learned that, I could get that 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:53.960 promotion. I could get that respect, like people would think I'm, but no, no, you, that's aspiration. 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:58.879 Envy is when you start to think of, how can I bring that person down? How can I make little asides? How 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:04.940 can I do things to make their life miserable? And the more they succeed, the more you don't like them, 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:13.600 if you're honest. The more you don't like them. And it's the same thing, you know, in churches and 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:19.720 denominations, it's a major, major, major human problem. You see, when the older Christians were 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:23.560 talking about the seven deadly sins, they weren't talking about Christian things. They were talking 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:31.420 about human experiences and human problems, trying to bring them to light. Here's a fourth thing. 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:38.560 Envy creates and sustains fear. You see, here's the interesting thing about it is that as you become 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:43.739 more and more taken up with envy about a particular person or a particular situation or several 00:13:43.739 --> 00:13:48.759 different situations, first of all, as it starts to enter into one person or one situation or one 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:54.799 context, it becomes easier and easier and easier to carry over into other types of contexts. You know, 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:59.479 maybe it begins at work, but before you know it, it's affecting how you view your extended family. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:05.919 And then maybe it affects how you start to view your friends. You don't look at a person in the group 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:09.500 of your friends and everybody loves that friend because they're so funny. They're so witty. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:16.219 Everybody just hangs on their every word. And you think I should have that place. I don't like that 00:14:16.219 --> 00:14:22.620 person. And you start to do things to try to undermine them. And what happens is the envy creates and 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:32.219 sustains fear because, you see, the heart of envy is this sense, like often the anthem of envy is, 00:14:32.220 --> 00:14:38.560 I'm as good as that person. I'm as good as that person. But I'm better than that person. 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:46.420 But nobody who says that ever gets any pleasure from it. And the fact of the matter is, is that it 00:14:46.420 --> 00:14:53.980 begins with a deep type of insecurity and it grows your insecurity. And it grows your fear that you're 00:14:53.980 --> 00:14:59.820 never going to measure up, that you make all your attempts to undermine that other person, but they don't 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:03.680 get undermine. They just get better and better. And it creates a type of not only a hatred of them, 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:08.500 but a fear of them and a fear of your own inadequacies and a fear of yourself. And before 00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:15.440 you know it, it's hard to even, you just, as the sin becomes a bigger part of your life, 00:15:15.940 --> 00:15:22.180 it becomes the lens by which you see everything. Now you see the other people around you and you 00:15:22.180 --> 00:15:27.340 wonder, you think to yourself, you know, I've struggled and I've struggled and I've struggled to get a 00:15:27.340 --> 00:15:33.899 little shred of respect and a little bit of a shred of a foothold in this particular place. And you 00:15:33.899 --> 00:15:39.660 look around at other people and you start to have a fear that they're trying to undermine you. And so 00:15:39.660 --> 00:15:43.660 that when they make a comment, when they make a joke, it's not just a joke, it's not just a comment, 00:15:43.780 --> 00:15:50.220 you start to see it from a fearful perspective that they're trying to do the same thing to you that 00:15:50.220 --> 00:15:59.139 you're trying to do to this other person. So that envy, as it grows within you, it creates and sustains 00:15:59.139 --> 00:16:06.100 fear. Now here's another thing, and this by the way is, many Christian writers have said this, it's 00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:11.740 very true, that in some ways, and I know that for, if you're a non-Christian, one of our non-Christian 00:16:11.740 --> 00:16:19.860 friends watching this out of curiosity, and the word sin is a very, very odd word for you. It's sin, 00:16:19.860 --> 00:16:25.600 for Christians, isn't another way of talking about sex, as I hope you get from my talking about envy 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:34.259 as a sin. The thing about sin is it reminds you of the fact that it's because the triune God exists 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:43.840 and he's created all things, that right and wrong is rooted in the reality of the triune God, the 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:49.879 character and the nature of the triune God, which is reflected in this created order in which we live. 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:57.420 And so sin helps to remind you that doing right and wrong isn't just a matter of hurting people or not, 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:04.200 and it's not just about human conventions, that it always involves this aspect of God. It's always 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:10.840 in light of who God is and what God is like. And so, in some ways, 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:18.539 ancient Christian writers have said this fifth point, envy gives you no pleasure. This fifth point, 00:17:18.699 --> 00:17:26.939 envy gives you no pleasure. You know, in some ways, there's pleasure from being proud. I mean, 00:17:26.959 --> 00:17:32.339 it also crushes you and ruins you. Obviously, gluttony, there's some connection to pleasure with 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:37.240 gluttony. Lust, obviously, there's a whole range of pleasures that go along with that. 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:43.400 You know, there's actually a type of pleasure from anger as well, but there's no pleasure from envy. 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:53.559 There's no pleasure from saying, that person has a position and a respect that I think I should have. 00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:59.599 That never gives you pleasure. And at the end of the day, Christians would say that all sin 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:07.099 is ultimately something that robs you of pleasure. It might not in the brief moment, 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:13.879 but if you look at it over the course of a day, a week, a year, a month, sorry, a year, a decade, 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:21.059 the rest of your life, it actually is a pleasure sucker, something that sucks it up and robs you of 00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:27.059 pleasure rather than giving you pleasure. So in some ways, the sin of envy is a window, 00:18:27.059 --> 00:18:32.480 an opportunity to understand all sin. Now, just a couple of things before we actually get into the 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:38.019 Bible text, which talks about envy in a very, very helpful and insightful way, actually. The sixth 00:18:38.019 --> 00:18:44.519 thing is that it's very hard to see envy in yourself, but it is easy to see envy in others. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:50.159 See, that's one of the reasons the problem with, one of the reasons that the ancient Christian 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:57.200 writers looking at the Bible sort of gave a bit of a rank of the deadliness of sins is not only are 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:02.779 the sins more deadly in the sense that they become more spiritual, because they're not limited or 00:19:02.779 --> 00:19:10.160 constrained by physical things, or the aging of your body. But at the same time, the more dangerous 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:15.700 sins are the ones that it's hardest to see in yourself, to recognize in yourself and to deal with 00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:20.140 in yourself. So part of the reason that envy is, I mean, maybe some of you have been listening to 00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:28.279 this and you say, yeah, that exactly describes my sister. That describes my husband. Now I understand 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:33.259 why my mom is the way she is, right? And some of you might be thinking this, but the fact of the matter 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:39.259 is, is that it is hard to see envy in yourself. It is easy to see it in others. I use you all the way 00:19:39.259 --> 00:19:45.059 in my points to try to make this more personal, but I could be saying me. In fact, part of my reflection 00:19:45.059 --> 00:19:51.960 all this week is how much, in fact, I'm not going to go into self-confession, but I realize that some 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.899 of the things that are going on in my life, that envy is in fact part of it. And it's not a pleasant 00:19:55.899 --> 00:20:02.319 thing to realize that that's part of what describes who I am. And this is a final thing as we go into 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:11.859 the Bible, the seventh thing, you matter to the triune God. So he reveals sin in the hope of connecting 00:20:11.859 --> 00:20:21.879 with you for your true good. You matter to the triune God. So he reveals sin in the hope of 00:20:21.879 --> 00:20:27.039 connecting with you for your true good. See, this is the very powerful thing about maybe starting to 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:33.599 recognize the place of envy in your own life and your powerlessness in the face of envy, is that God 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:39.979 reveals it to you so you'll call out to him for help, only the help that he can give. So let's look at 00:20:39.980 --> 00:20:45.799 this very short passage of the Bible that talks about envy in a very helpful way. I'll try to, 00:20:46.099 --> 00:20:52.079 maybe you'll see some of it. I have my Bible opened to the wrong passage. Philippians chapter 1, 00:20:52.640 --> 00:21:01.079 verses 12 to 18. We'll see how fast I can find it. There we go. And this, just in terms of the 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:05.099 context, well, actually, I'll give you the context as we start to read it a little bit. 00:21:05.099 --> 00:21:12.379 Verse 12, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has really 00:21:12.379 --> 00:21:20.019 served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard 00:21:20.019 --> 00:21:28.259 and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Now just pause. The word imprisonment there 00:21:28.259 --> 00:21:34.779 is literally chains, and it means imprisonment, but actually chains is a very, Paul could have said 00:21:34.779 --> 00:21:41.680 imprisonment, but instead he used this very, very powerful image of chains. And so what he's talking 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.599 about is this. He's, here it is, it's very, very interesting. He's a Jewish man who used to hate 00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:54.420 non-Jews. He's writing to a group of Christians who used to be pagans, mainly pagans, very few Jewish 00:21:54.420 --> 00:22:00.539 people, mainly pagans, who had come to accept Jesus as their Savior and as their Lord. And he's calling 00:22:00.539 --> 00:22:06.279 them his brothers and sisters. And what he's saying is, they know that he's been through this terrible 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:13.340 journey, that he was in Jerusalem. He ends up being accused of proclaiming that Jesus had died, 00:22:13.580 --> 00:22:17.700 which is not anything that would get him in jail for, but that he'd actually risen from the dead, 00:22:17.700 --> 00:22:25.140 and that he was the Messiah, that the thousands of years of ancient Jewish writings, that Jesus 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:31.500 is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies in his life and death and resurrection. And he is the one 00:22:31.500 --> 00:22:37.840 who can make you right with God when you put your faith and trust in him. And because of this message, 00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:44.480 this message of the truth of Jesus's resurrection and what it means in terms of vindicating him as the 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:50.079 Messiah. And what it means is having this universal message, in a sense, out of envy and hatred. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:58.460 He gets thrown in jail. And he begins this very long process of being in jail in Jerusalem, being in 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:07.900 jail in Caesarea, of having shipwrecks, of finally being brought to Rome. And he is writing from Rome 00:23:07.900 --> 00:23:14.360 in chains. And we don't know if it's the beginning of his imprisonment. We know that he spent at least 00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:20.039 two years in this first imprisonment in the center of the empire. And what he's saying is funny, you 00:23:20.039 --> 00:23:25.899 know, if I had gone through all those things, if I had done hard time in Jerusalem, and then hard time 00:23:25.899 --> 00:23:32.159 in Caesarea, and then hard time in a ship, and then hard time in Rome, or maybe just medium, like, 00:23:32.379 --> 00:23:36.979 not maybe hard time in Rome, because it's house arrest, but he's still in chains. You know, I would be 00:23:36.979 --> 00:23:41.179 talking about, you know, by the way, I'm feeling grumpy. You know, I hope you're all, you know, 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:46.779 I talk about me, right? The amazing thing is, if you read the book of Philippians, it's such an 00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:53.480 upbeat letter. And you can see it right here. Look at it again, verse 12 and 13. I want you to know, 00:23:53.560 --> 00:23:59.860 brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me, hard time in Jerusalem, he almost got beaten to 00:23:59.860 --> 00:24:06.960 death by the crowd, hard time in Caesarea, lies about him. He got moved from hard time in Jerusalem 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:13.880 to hard time in Caesarea, because there was a plot on his life to murder him. The long, painful sea 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:21.579 voyage, the time actually shipwrecked in chains in Rome. And he says, all of this has served to 00:24:21.579 --> 00:24:26.460 advance the gospel, which is the good news about who Jesus is, and what he has accomplished for 00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:33.720 ordinary people like you and me, in his life, death, and resurrection. Why it actually means he sort of, 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:37.660 I mean, if you think about it, on one level, he does this hard time, he ends up getting to talk 00:24:37.660 --> 00:24:45.980 about these powerful kings and Roman leaders for an entire region. And here he is now in Rome, 00:24:46.019 --> 00:24:51.480 and all of the elite guards are guarding him. And he gets to tell them about Jesus, and all of the 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:54.839 officials, he tells them about Jesus, and he's eventually going to appear before the emperor 00:24:54.839 --> 00:25:00.819 himself, and tell them about Jesus. And so rather than viewing this as a shameful thing, because to be 00:25:00.819 --> 00:25:07.879 arrested for these reasons, and give away a bit of the plot, later on, about five or six years after 00:25:07.879 --> 00:25:13.460 this, I mean, Paul will eventually be released from jail. But about a few years after he is released, 00:25:13.539 --> 00:25:19.000 he's arrested a second time, and he's martyred. He dies a cruel, torturous death at the hands of Nero 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:26.179 in Rome. If you read the book of 2 Timothy, it's a very precious book, because in this book, he lets you 00:25:26.179 --> 00:25:29.980 know that he knows that this time he's not going to be delivered. He's been delivered from jail a lot of 00:25:29.980 --> 00:25:34.839 times. He's gotten out of, he has a long record, a record as long as your arm. He's got out of jail 00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:40.319 time and time again. But the, you read 2 Timothy, he knows that this is it. This is the time that he's 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:44.860 going to actually die the horrendous death. And he's doing really, really, really hard time in Rome. 00:25:45.620 --> 00:25:51.880 But he says, they know about my, you know, look at verse 13, they become known throughout the whole 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:57.019 imperial guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. That's actually what it says, 00:25:57.019 --> 00:26:05.720 literally, my chains are in Christ. He sees Christ and the gospel as shaping how he understands his 00:26:05.720 --> 00:26:12.279 experience. And he continues in verse 14, and most of the brothers and sisters, having become 00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:19.619 confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. In other 00:26:19.619 --> 00:26:24.200 words, to tell people about Jesus. The people in Rome, they see what's happened to him, and rather than 00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:29.700 being ashamed of him, many of them have now actually become far more bold in sharing the gospel. 00:26:30.460 --> 00:26:35.100 But then there's a bit of a dark turn, and this is where envy comes in. And one of the things which 00:26:35.100 --> 00:26:40.180 is so neat about this, it's what's neat about most of the Bible. I don't know if you have a friend who's 00:26:40.180 --> 00:26:44.460 really good at drawing, but if you have a friend, or if you've seen somebody on YouTube or whatever, 00:26:44.539 --> 00:26:49.980 there's some people and they can do like five lines, and you think to yourself, wow, like, 00:26:49.980 --> 00:26:57.019 that's the person, or like, that's like this scene. And they just do one, you do, do, do, do. They seem to 00:26:57.019 --> 00:27:03.680 do it quickly and effortlessly, and you have this wonderful representation of something. And that's what 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:08.240 happens in the Bible time and time again. It's one of the things we miss if you're like me and you race 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:15.480 through the Bible. But these couple of little things which perfectly capture the issue, and look what 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:26.460 happens in verse 15 to 18a. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry. And rivalry here, 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:31.360 the other types of words, the ways that you can translate that word from the original language 00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:37.779 is strife and contention. So it's not to be understood as a type of a good rivalry where one 00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:44.440 person, you know, maybe two rock climbers are sort of egging each other on to climb faster, 00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:48.519 climb better, climb stronger, and they're really helping each other with a type of friendly, 00:27:49.120 --> 00:27:53.960 good-spirited rivalry. You have to understand the word here means contention. It means fighting. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:28:02.279 It means discord. Okay? So some indeed, read it verse 15 again, some indeed preach Christ from envy 00:28:02.279 --> 00:28:09.539 and rivalry. It's connected to envy, right? In other words, for some reason, people are preaching the 00:28:09.539 --> 00:28:14.259 gospel. They're telling people about Jesus. They're trying to do a spectacular job, 00:28:14.259 --> 00:28:20.579 but they're trying to do a spectacular job in such a way. Well, let's look. Paul goes on to it. 00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:26.259 They're doing it out of rivalry with Paul and rivalry with each other to try to create 00:28:26.259 --> 00:28:33.259 strife and contention as to who's the best, who's numero uno, who will have that place and put other 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:39.940 people in a lower place. Let's look at verse 16. The latter, that's the ones who are doing it out of 00:28:39.940 --> 00:28:47.460 agape love, a self-forgetful, giving, generous love that seeks the good of the other person. 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:52.400 That's what the word love there means. It's agape in the original language. The latter do it out of 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:59.460 love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former, that's those who are 00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:06.579 characterized by envy and by contention and strife. Proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, 00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:16.160 not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. See, you get all of it right there, 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:24.299 this sin of envy, the contention and strife that's caused by it, right? Because if you go into a family, 00:29:24.299 --> 00:29:29.000 you start trying to do insinuate that the other person's doing bad things or do things to bring 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:34.119 them down, all that does is create discord. People push back. And before you know it, there's the, 00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:39.519 the family is, is, is ruined. The workplace is ruined. The church is, is ruined. The academic 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:46.319 department, the dance studio is ruined. Um, and so many, you know, the neighborhood is ruined and, 00:29:46.399 --> 00:29:52.740 and he captures this. There's the envy, there's the rivalry, it's selfish ambition. It's not, 00:29:52.740 --> 00:30:01.920 it makes you insincere and it wants you to afflict, to hurt the other person. But here's the really 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:07.460 surprising thing in verse 18. What does Paul says? What then? Only that in every way, whether in 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:13.640 pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in that I rejoice. And some of you are thinking, what? 00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:24.140 What? What? That makes no sense. Like here you've given us this big buildup about this sin. And then 00:30:24.140 --> 00:30:28.860 it looks as if Paul just sort of just shuffs it off as if says, you know what? Look, look, some people 00:30:28.860 --> 00:30:33.960 are, they're, they're doing a good thing or apparently good thing, but their motives suck. And it's actually, 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:38.740 they're trying to hurt me. It's, it's rivalry. It's envy. It's a very, very dangerous type of sin. 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:44.759 And then he seems to say, what? You know, it doesn't really matter. Okay. So this, this actually, 00:30:44.839 --> 00:30:49.859 one of the things which then is so helpful about this text is why it is that Paul says what he says 00:30:49.859 --> 00:30:58.140 in verse 18. And, and why it is that Paul says this in verse 18 is that it has to do with what the 00:30:58.140 --> 00:31:06.160 gospel is. You see, if the gospel was just about me being able to persuade you of particular things, 00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:13.740 if, if I was just so winsome, so funny, uh, so persuasive, uh, that you are start to change the 00:31:13.740 --> 00:31:19.360 way you think. And in a sense, it's all about my abilities to do something like that with you. 00:31:19.460 --> 00:31:26.320 Then what Paul is talking about makes zero sense. But what is the gospel? The gospel 00:31:26.320 --> 00:31:36.100 is me telling you that God has provided grace. That means a type of power that comes from him that 00:31:36.099 --> 00:31:42.219 will work in you to make you right with God and through being made right with God to begin to 00:31:42.219 --> 00:31:47.819 be made right with other human beings, with yourself and with the entire created order. 00:31:48.299 --> 00:31:53.519 And you begin to live that now. And when the end of the end of the end of the end of the end comes, 00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:59.939 when the entire world comes to its proper end, all those things that begin in you now come to their 00:31:59.940 --> 00:32:05.539 completion and fulfillment and that you will once again be at peace with the triune God. 00:32:05.900 --> 00:32:10.160 And there will be a wholeness and a peace within yourself and a wholeness and a peace with other 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:14.920 human beings and a wholeness and a peace within the entire created order and a completely different 00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:20.500 way of relating to everything. And that begins now. And it comes to its completion when Jesus comes back. 00:32:20.820 --> 00:32:26.299 And the point of the matter is, is all I can do, all I can do is share with you who Jesus is and what 00:32:26.299 --> 00:32:32.379 he did for on the, on the cross. The Holy Spirit has to bring that into your heart. If you feel a, 00:32:32.379 --> 00:32:38.899 a bit of a longing for it, don't resist it. Say, come Lord Jesus, come Holy Spirit, 00:32:39.419 --> 00:32:46.359 come into my life. And it's God who does this work. I can't do anything. 00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:53.500 It's God's work. And that's why he says, you know, on one level, it doesn't matter. 00:32:53.500 --> 00:32:59.980 Because you see, if it was all about me persuading and me persuading you to be more like me, then it really matters. 00:33:01.339 --> 00:33:05.099 Now, it still matters because it's still a sin. And we're going to see that Paul's going to talk about this 00:33:05.099 --> 00:33:11.920 very powerfully, not this next sermon, but the one after that. But it matters, but it doesn't matter on one level 00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:17.480 because the gospel is God's power in you. You see, if any of you have tried to deal with any type of really 00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:24.240 major sin, you realize there's this fundamental part of you that just can't really deal with it 00:33:24.240 --> 00:33:29.660 forever. You might have a bit of a power over it for a while. You might even have power over it so 00:33:29.660 --> 00:33:35.360 that it no longer is the case. I know of people who've had, you know, drug or alcohol problems and 00:33:35.360 --> 00:33:39.920 through the gospel they go away. But it doesn't mean that there aren't other sins that they have to deal 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:45.960 with. It just means they're not struggling with that, you know. And maybe you deal with envy in your life 00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:49.960 as the gospel grips you. But then what happens is you have to deal with pride because you're proud 00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:53.380 of the fact that you dealt with envy. And I'm way better than all those other people who weren't 00:33:53.380 --> 00:34:00.259 able to deal with envy. Or you deal with envy, I don't know, by lust or something like that, 00:34:00.299 --> 00:34:04.860 which just is moving a more deadly sin for a less deadly sin, but it's still deadly. It's like eating, 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:10.460 say, oh, I no longer eat poison that 10 times can kill me 10 times. I just eat a poison that'll kill me 00:34:10.460 --> 00:34:15.820 three times. It's still going to kill you. It doesn't get you anywhere. And it's all about God's work in you. 00:34:16.539 --> 00:34:21.900 You see, when we were talking last week about grace and peace to you, grace is God's unmerited 00:34:21.900 --> 00:34:28.179 kindness and favor to you to bless you. And blessing means a power from God for you to thrive. 00:34:28.720 --> 00:34:34.059 And you do that through receiving Jesus. When you hear this good news and you ask Jesus to come into 00:34:34.059 --> 00:34:41.280 your life and you ask that you can get into Jesus's life, there's a power that comes from God for you to 00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:48.040 begin to thrive in a way that is good for you. And so that's why he can say that. You see, and saying, 00:34:48.260 --> 00:34:54.220 and the other thing is, you notice what he says, brothers and sisters, when you say yes to Jesus, 00:34:54.800 --> 00:35:00.820 who he is and what he has done and what he will do, you are given a new identity and destiny. You see, 00:35:00.860 --> 00:35:07.300 this points to this remarkable reality that it doesn't matter if you're watching this in Africa or 00:35:07.300 --> 00:35:11.780 China. It doesn't matter if you're watching it in the Arctic. It doesn't matter if you're watching 00:35:11.780 --> 00:35:17.400 in South America. It doesn't matter if you're watching it in Lebanon or Jordan or in Ottawa. 00:35:17.660 --> 00:35:21.780 But when you give your life, it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. But when you give your 00:35:21.780 --> 00:35:29.960 life to Jesus, he comes in and you are now the adopted child of the triune God. But one of the 00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:34.120 things which is so powerful about the gospel is that whenever it talks about adoption, it says you're 00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:38.400 adopted as a son. This is some of the thing that made the gospel so attractive because 00:35:38.400 --> 00:35:45.699 the language is always used as the favored one who inherits everything. And so in a world where a 00:35:45.699 --> 00:35:51.299 third of all the people were slaves, if you give your life to Jesus, you are no longer a slave is not 00:35:51.299 --> 00:35:57.980 your identity. Your identity is the adopted son. If you're a woman and you have no power whatsoever in 00:35:57.980 --> 00:36:03.539 Roman society and you give your life to Jesus, he comes into you, begins a work within you, 00:36:03.539 --> 00:36:11.000 and your new status is as if you are the adopted son, the favored, beloved son who will inherit 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:19.619 everything. That's the status you have. And so we have this wonderful picture of receiving Jesus and 00:36:19.619 --> 00:36:24.079 how it gives you this new identity, which is characterized by brothers and sisters. You see, 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:34.199 that's why if you're watching this in China or in Russia or in Jordan or in Saudi Arabia or in Korea 00:36:34.199 --> 00:36:39.059 or in South America and you have given your life to Jesus, you are my brother and you are my sister. 00:36:39.179 --> 00:36:44.940 That is my new primary identity and it speaks of the destiny that I have in this identity that 00:36:44.940 --> 00:36:52.599 is given to me freely by Jesus. And what we're going to look at, if you go later on, because I'm having to 00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:57.259 wrap this up now, if you go and look at Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 and 11, which we're leading to, 00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:05.000 you'll see that what brought evil into the world, the source of evil isn't some demonic power or some 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:12.619 evil force, the source of evil is within us. Human beings looked at God, the triune God, and we wanted 00:37:12.619 --> 00:37:19.139 to be like God. But we not only want it to be like God, because if we're like God, then God can't be God. 00:37:19.139 --> 00:37:25.239 And that means that we not only have to, we don't only want to like God, have God to be like us, 00:37:25.259 --> 00:37:32.779 it means that we are going to have God under us. He has to be under us if we can be like God. And 00:37:32.779 --> 00:37:38.920 and and that's just something which is so completely and utterly powerful about how we understand, 00:37:39.299 --> 00:37:44.279 how we understand our relationship with God. We don't want the triune God to be real, 00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:49.980 because if he's real, how on earth could we possibly be over him? We don't want we want his 00:37:49.980 --> 00:37:57.620 place. We want him to be under us. We want him to serve us or leave us alone according to our demands 00:37:57.620 --> 00:38:03.740 and whims. We do not want the gospel to be true, because for the gospel to be true, we have to 00:38:03.740 --> 00:38:10.040 surrender something we feel is essential to being human. But all we think of as essential to being 00:38:10.039 --> 00:38:16.460 human is envy, which is poisonous, corrupted aspiration. And see, the wonder of the gospel 00:38:16.460 --> 00:38:22.059 is, and it shows you the power of envy in your life, is that the gospel describes, you'll see it 00:38:22.059 --> 00:38:27.619 in Philippians chapter two, verses five to 11, we can't solve this problem for ourselves. And so the 00:38:27.619 --> 00:38:34.000 the Philippians two, five, eleven, unpacking the gospel says, God, the son of God lives in glory and 00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:38.739 splendor with all of his divine prerogatives. And out of love for ordinary people like you and me, 00:38:38.739 --> 00:38:44.679 out of love for ordinary people like you and me. He sets aside his appearance as God, his privileges, 00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:51.179 his prerogatives, all of the things that if you saw him face to face, it would unmake you. He sets 00:38:51.179 --> 00:38:57.739 all of that aside, but remaining God, he he takes into himself our human nature, even to the point of 00:38:57.739 --> 00:39:04.899 being born, being being in the womb of Mary. And he lives a human life suffering the trials and 00:39:04.900 --> 00:39:10.980 temptations that we suffer only without sin. And he continues to, rather than wanting to grasp and 00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:17.300 be like God and hold on to that and be over God, he continues this descent, even to the point of taking 00:39:17.300 --> 00:39:23.059 into himself all of the lovelessness, all of the hatred, all of the envy, all of the pride, all of the 00:39:23.059 --> 00:39:31.199 gluttony, all of the sloth, all of the lust that characterizes human life. He takes it into himself 00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:38.139 going lower and lower and lower. And from that lowest place, he is exalted. You know, it's as if 00:39:38.139 --> 00:39:44.059 he's taking all of the pride and all of the envy, and it's as if it's bent you and me and bent you and 00:39:44.059 --> 00:39:48.259 me and bent you and me and every human being. And it's as if the only way that he can fix is that if 00:39:48.260 --> 00:39:55.620 God, the Son of God himself, so to speak, comes down and reverses envy and reverses pride to get 00:39:55.620 --> 00:40:01.120 to that place where we can get the status of the one who is straight, we'll only begin to taste the 00:40:01.120 --> 00:40:07.500 beginning of that on this side of the grave. But when he returns, when the new heaven and the new earth 00:40:07.500 --> 00:40:15.840 comes, we will experience the sweetness and the fullness to be unbent for all eternity. You see, as the 00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:24.260 gospel grips you, as the gospel advances in you, you begin to see the story of your life and the story 00:40:24.260 --> 00:40:30.120 of the world through the gospel. As the story of who Jesus is and what he has done for you, it becomes 00:40:30.120 --> 00:40:35.720 the ground in which you stand. It becomes the thing that covers you from the elements. It becomes the 00:40:35.720 --> 00:40:40.140 lens by which you can start to look out and see the world. It becomes the lens by which you can start 00:40:40.139 --> 00:40:48.159 to look within. It gives you a safe spot with God's power to begin to see a different story to live out 00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:59.000 of that changes all of your story. Friends, consider Jesus. Let's pray. Father, help us to recognize the 00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:04.659 place of envy in our own lives. And Father, we know that if we just see that and don't know about the 00:41:04.659 --> 00:41:10.819 gospel, it can only depress us. So we ask, Father, that you would grip us with the gospel. You would 00:41:10.819 --> 00:41:16.659 help the gospel to become more and more real to who we are so it can be the place by which we see 00:41:16.659 --> 00:41:22.799 our envy and call out to you for help. Father, we want to aspire to be better. We want to have a good 00:41:22.799 --> 00:41:27.059 ambition that seeks the good of the city and the good of the world and the good of the family and good 00:41:27.059 --> 00:41:32.940 of others that is generous and just and merciful and good. We want those things to be true of us. 00:41:32.940 --> 00:41:37.980 So, Father, grip us with the gospel and we ask that the Holy Spirit would move in a mighty way in our 00:41:37.980 --> 00:41:43.420 lives to humble us, grip us with the gospel, and help us to begin to amend our lives. And all God's 00:41:43.420 --> 00:41:44.700 people said, Amen.