Philippians chapter 4, and we're going to read that short section from verse 4 to verse 7,
thinking together about Christian peace for anxious times.
Philippians chapter 4 and at verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I will say it again. Rejoice.
Let your gentleness be evident to all.
The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Now, I came across a comment that stuck with me this week as I was thinking about this passage.
It was a Bible scholar by the name of Gordon Fee,
who was making the point or suggesting that we as the church,
as the people of God, will serve society well,
and we will be most effective in our mission
when we live out this good news of true peace and wholeness
and fullness of life that Paul is talking about here.
And as we point others to Jesus as the true source of that peace.
Now, I don't know what you think about that suggestion,
but I'm sure you recognize with me that peace is a quality that's in high demand.
There are many people around us who have various troubles, concerns, anxieties,
whether we're thinking about our own personal lives
or whether we're thinking globally, we see the need for peace.
But at the same time, it can seem for so many so hard to come by.
And in that context, the Christian testimony to a life marked by a deep peace and a solid joy,
indeed, a church's testimony to life and joy and peace found in Christ Jesus
may well prove to be our most compelling argument to the world
as to why they need to consider Jesus the Savior.
As we listen to Paul this morning, Paul the preacher,
who also at this point in his life is Paul the prisoner,
what we're going to see in that short section towards the end of his letter
is that there are two practices concerned with peace and anxiety that we are to cultivate
and there are two promises to cling to.
Now, as we gather together, I don't know everybody here, there's lots of visitors, obviously,
but I know that many of us, we have anxieties and concerns for ourselves and for our families.
There are lots of people who are moving on and people are not always sure what they're moving on to.
This word, I guess, is one that we all need to hear, one that we all need to hear regularly.
And so my hope is that all of us, whoever we are, however we've come here, wherever we've come from,
that we will feel compelled to trust in this same Jesus,
to know peace in anxious times in the same way as Paul came to experience joy and peace
through knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.
So we're going to think, first of all, about these two practices that we are to cultivate,
the first of which we find in verse 4,
Paul commands us to be joyful.
And that's very striking, perhaps.
It might be confusing to us,
especially if we think of joy in connection with simply our emotions
or joy as a response to the circumstances of our life,
then it can seem almost far-fetched to be told to have joy always.
If you have lost your job,
or if you have family members who are ill,
or you have anxieties of various kinds,
it can be hard to imagine where joy might come from.
But here's where the Bible helps us.
Because the Bible is careful to connect our thoughts with our feelings.
That right thinking leads to right feeling.
That thinking the right thoughts about God and His Son, Jesus Christ,
can produce and will produce joy in us.
When our joy is rooted in knowing Jesus,
when our joy is focused on that relationship that is available in Him,
when it's rooted in facts about Him,
then we can have solid joy,
even if our circumstances are chaotic and all over the place.
Paul is a great example of this in this particular letter.
So we read Philippians chapter 1.
What do we learn about Paul in that chapter?
Verses 7, verse 13,
it's clear that he's a prisoner of the Romans.
In verses 15 and 17,
it's clear that there are some people who are in the church
who are trying to make Paul's life more difficult for him in prison,
even as they're preaching about Jesus.
And in verse 20,
we see that he is facing the very real prospect of death.
So here surely is somebody who has just cause for a loss of joy.
But what do we find?
Chapter 1 again,
we see him expressing joy for the partnership in the gospel
that he has with this church in Philippi.
Joy in God's saving work,
that if he begins a good work,
he will carry it on to completion.
That gives Paul joy.
He has joy in verse 18,
in the fact that the gospel is spreading.
He doesn't care whether it's false motives or true.
Jesus is being preached.
People are being saved,
and that gives him joy.
In chapter 2,
we didn't read this,
but he has joy in the faithful witness of the Philippians
as children of God,
as they shine like stars in the darkness,
as they hold out the word of life.
He can face death with joy
because of the testimony that he sees
to their transformed lives in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 3, verse 1,
it's on our page
as he turns to,
finally,
what's the note that he wants to strike?
Finally,
my brothers,
rejoice in the Lord.
This is a letter marked by Christian joy.
Helpful definition from John Piper.
Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul
produced by the Holy Spirit
as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ
in the words and in the world.
So this Christian joy isn't superficial.
It's experienced in our core of who we are,
in our souls,
and it's prompted by God's Spirit,
not by circumstance.
And it's based on seeing the goodness
and the beauty of Jesus.
Where?
In the word of God,
in the word of the gospel,
in the word of salvation.
There is joy in that message,
and there's also joy from Jesus in God's world,
among God's people,
the joy of fellowship,
the joy of enjoying all of his good gifts,
the joy of a wedding,
like Roland and Evie's wedding yesterday,
good gift from God
and a source of Christian joy.
And so we discover that the more that we see
the beauty of Jesus as individuals
and as a church,
the more that we celebrate
and cultivate a joy and thanksgiving,
the more attractive our lives
and our message will be.
There will be a compelling force to them.
We see clearly that Paul has come to understand
that life in Christ Jesus is a life of joy.
That for Paul, as a believer,
Jesus is everything to him.
Jesus is his Lord,
his creator, his sustainer.
Jesus is the one who has saved him at great cost,
giving his own life to pay for sin,
to redeem him and give him new life.
Jesus is his way of life,
the one who he seeks to follow and imitate.
Jesus isn't just his present,
but also his hope for his future.
So in the battle that goes on
in our hearts and minds against anxiety,
here is a practice to cultivate.
The joy of knowing Jesus.
Now that's not to say
that we should all wear plastic smiles
and pretend like life is going wonderfully
when it's not.
But it is saying to us
that there is something solid and substantial
in knowing Jesus that can sustain us
even when life goes bad.
But we need to adopt this discipline
of reminding ourselves of what we have in Jesus,
of preaching the gospel to ourselves every day,
to remind ourselves what Jesus has done for us
and what Jesus continues to do for his own people.
What's Jesus doing for us now in the glory of heaven?
He is praying for us.
He is keeping us.
He's sending his spirit to be with us.
That is cause for joy.
And remember this is written to a church.
It's saying,
church, there should be this attitude of joy among us all.
So we need to encourage one another
sometimes to fight for joy
when our experience would say
there is much cause for anxiety,
to remind one another
of the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus.
I've been really struck recently
reading a book by a man called J. Todd Billings.
He's a theologian in the States,
same age as me,
father of two young children
who was diagnosed with a terminal cancer.
And he's written a book called
Rejoicing with Lament,
which is an incredibly helpful study
on using the Psalms to process suffering
and how we talk to God
in suffering from that position of,
I know that I'm in a covenant with God
and he's made promises to me.
How do I deal with it
when life seems to be opposite to my expectations?
And here are some of his words,
not written from the ivory tower of an academic,
but written in a cancer ward.
And he says,
For true hope in the face of death,
we have nowhere else to go
besides the word of God,
which finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ,
the Holy One of God.
In praise and in lament,
in life and in death,
we hope in this Holy One of God,
because truly we have nowhere else to go.
What's he saying?
What's Paul saying?
What's the Bible saying?
It's saying that to value Jesus Christ above all else,
to long for nothing more than his smile
and to be in his presence,
is where we can find peace in anxious times.
So that's the first practice
that Paul calls us to cultivate.
The second we find in verse six,
and that's to pray with thanksgiving.
Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
Pray and pray with thanksgiving.
Why pray with thankfulness?
Well, it gives us a right perspective.
It gives us that right perspective
that fundamentally God is good.
And it's a sign of us being willing
to submit to his good rule.
But why pray at all when we feel anxious?
The words of David Paulus
and a Christian counselor
are perhaps helpful for us.
When he says,
praying is worrying Godward
instead of letting worries
stay in the pit of your consciousness.
Those worries that can keep us awake at night,
those worries that cause that upset
in the pit of our stomachs,
are worries that we can take
to Almighty God,
our Father in heaven.
So prayer is deliberately inviting God in.
In all the details,
in all the circumstances,
choosing to pray
instead of choosing to fret and worry
and stress out
and feel like we have nowhere else to go.
So we're trying to deal with it all
by ourselves.
And we're trying to deal with it all
Alec Mateer,
another biblical scholar,
points out that part of
stilling our anxious hearts
comes from remembering
who we are praying to.
We're in conversation,
and we're not just in conversation
with any old person.
It's not just somebody
who might give us good advice.
It's not even simply a counselor.
We are placing our trust in
the all-wise,
all-powerful,
all-loving God
who has, the Bible says,
appointed the circumstances
in our lives.
All of them.
So we take those circumstances
and we invite God in.
We take those circumstances to Him
and we pray over them
remembering who He is.
If you want an example of this
in the Bible,
King Hezekiah,
Isaiah chapters 36 and 37,
is a great example
of what we should do
in terms of prayer
when we're surrounded by trouble.
So Hezekiah in Jerusalem
hears message of foreign attackers
who are coming against Israel
and coming against the city.
And the enemy king's ambassadors,
they come and they've got a message.
They've got letters promising
in such and such a time,
we're going to come,
your city's going to be
absolutely destroyed.
You've got no hope.
We've done this
to all the other nations.
We will destroy you too.
It's over, Hezekiah.
What does Hezekiah do
when he gets those letters?
Isaiah 37.
He goes straight to the temple
and he spreads the letters out
before God,
asking God to intervene
and reminding himself
of who God is.
His is the example
that we are to follow.
We are to spread our needs
before God,
spread our worries
and troubles before Him
and how we feel about them.
We take our anxieties before God.
We don't need to pretend.
God knows our hearts.
He knows our thoughts.
So we can be honest
and we can invite Him in
and we should invite Him in,
remembering that God
is with and for His people always.
Again, words from J. Todd Billings
who came to value the language
of the Psalms of lament
for processing his new reality
facing terminal cancer.
He understood that the psalmists live
in the genuine,
biblical,
mysterious paradox
of serving a good,
almighty God
who holds the world in His hands
even when the world
seems to be spiraling
out of control.
What should we do
when we find ourselves
in those circumstances?
We should pray
to our almighty God
who is our Father in heaven.
We should cast our cares upon Him
because He cares for us.
Pray the Psalms.
Remember who is for us.
So those are the two practices
that we are to cultivate
to find peace in anxious times.
There are also two promises
God's people are invited
to cling to.
The first is in verse 5
where He says,
Let your gentleness
be evident to all.
The Lord is near.
He's saying to them,
I know you're facing opposition.
Face opposition like Jesus.
Treat your enemies with gentleness
and remember the Lord is near.
He's writing to assure the Philippians,
Your future is secure.
Yes, you're facing opposition now
but your hope,
your future is secure
because your faith
is in Christ Jesus,
the Lord who is near.
The one who said
to His followers,
I am with you always
to the end of the age.
The one who says to His people,
I will not leave you as orphans.
I will come to you.
The one who says,
I will come back
and take you to be with me.
The one who says,
I am coming soon.
The Lord is near.
And because that is true,
we can entrust our lives
to His care.
He's not a distant stranger.
He is the friend
that sticks closer
than any brother.
He is an invitation
not to deal with our anxieties
on our own.
Here is cause for rejoicing
with hope
because the Lord is near.
For praying when we feel anxious
because we've not been abandoned,
but rather,
the Lord is near.
that God in Jesus
has drawn near to us.
He's experienced life
with all of its joys and sorrows.
He's come near to us
in our need.
He's taken our sin
on His shoulders.
He's suffered and died
to end our separation.
He comes near to us,
living in us by His Spirit
so we are never alone.
Rejoicing reminds us
of this great promise.
The Lord is near.
Praying catches hold
of this great promise.
The Lord is near.
You and I,
we will all find times
when the one thing we want
is to have somebody
in our corner.
Somebody who is there
with us and for us,
holding our hand,
walking with us.
Here is this wonderful promise
in the Bible
that for those who have faith
in the Lord Jesus,
we have Jesus with us
in our corner,
promising to be near.
And there's another promise
in verse 7.
The peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
The peace of God
to guard our hearts
and our minds.
Here is truly
a priceless gift.
Here is something
we all want.
Peace.
True peace.
Lasting peace.
So to help the Philippians
to understand
what they have in Jesus,
Paul gives them
a picture.
Philippi was part
of the Roman Empire.
But it wasn't
a typical city.
It was an outpost city.
So it was a part of Rome,
but it was surrounded
by enemies.
And because of that,
Rome needed to work hard
to protect the citizens
of Philippi.
So you had a wall
and you had soldiers
that would guard
the city walls
and the city gates
to protect the citizens.
And Paul uses
this picture.
For us,
we're very fortunate
where we are.
We're in Edinburgh.
Some of you have maybe
been to visit the castle
or will visit later on.
Let me invite you
to think.
Put yourselves
in Edinburgh Castle
for a moment
during a siege.
So imagine you're
looking out over the wall
and you can see enemies
coming on every site.
What do you have
when you're in
Edinburgh Castle?
You've got the solid rock,
the castle rock,
and you've got
those heavy stone walls
that you're behind.
You'll have those
heavy iron gates
that have been drawn up.
You'll have all of those
cannons primed
and aiming down
at the enemies
at all points.
You'll have the soldiers
standing guard
on the wall.
And Paul is saying,
this is what God does
for his people.
When anxious thoughts
come to lay siege
on our hearts
and our minds,
the God of peace
sends his peace
to be our guard.
God himself
is present
to help us,
to guard us,
to give peace
to us
in the battle
for our heart
and for our mind.
And he brings
a peace
that we're told
transcends
all understanding.
It goes beyond
any peace
we could ever
produce for ourselves
or imagine
for ourselves.
That it is possible
facing opposition,
facing death,
to have peace,
Paul is saying,
because of the Lord Jesus
who is near
and with us.
So often,
how Christians
hope with suffering,
how Christians
cope with trouble
and adversity
makes a huge impression
on friends
and family
and colleagues.
This is a peace
that transcends
understanding.
It's a precious gift
from God
and it can help us
stand out
and stand up
for the Lord Jesus.
So,
what is Christian hope
for anxious
and troubled people?
It's that we have
a loving
and a powerful God
who is present
with us
and for us
always,
no matter
what our circumstances
are.
there is hope
in that we are
invited to bring
our anxieties
and cares
to this God
who cares,
who hears
and who is near.
And we have
cause for joy
in the middle
of anxiety
because God
loves us,
because Jesus
has died for us
and is now
raised to life
for our present
and future
hope
and security.
so God
and thee
might very well
be right
that true peace
through knowing
Jesus
is one of the
great gifts
held out to us
in the Bible
and it's one of the
great gifts
that we hold out
to a world
that is seeking
peace
in anxious times.
Do you know
this peace?
Then rejoice.
And if you don't
then let me
invite you
to come
to Jesus
to talk to him
to pray to him
to tell him
about your needs
and your worries
because he already
knows.
To confess your guilt
to confess your rebellion
to trust him
as Lord
and Savior
to come to him
that you too
might know
this peace
that transcends
all understanding.
Let me pray.