PHILIPPIANS 1:6-7
Notes
Transcript
Handout
“Embrace the Chains, Magnifying the Cross”
“Embrace the Chains, Magnifying the Cross”
context
context
last week we considered the opening to this letter from Paul to the church of Philippi. Philippi is a church that Paul helped plant and a church that had a special place in the apostles Pauls mind.
the letter is being written by Paul from his second imprisonment. He would be being held in chains in Rome. Yet even in this historical truth, the major themes of this book mean all the more. Joy in Christ, Humility in all the Christians path, and the hope that it is to have faith in God. These truths permeate through the entirety of this book.
last week we saw the great joy it is for Paul to consider his brothers and sisters he has in Christ Jesus. How his new identity is being a slave of Christ Jesus, and how that has brought him to the current reality that he is now in. The situation he is in should remind us of Daniel. That regardless of his situations he was always serving God,and was known for this. The sovereignty of God should make us marvel at the ways that God has ordained for man to glorify Himself. We see this very clearly in the life of Paul. That his chains magnified the cross and the marks of Christ were something to praise God for. For we are undeserving of God’s grace and yet should rejoice when we suffer the battle wounds for the Kingdom of God.
verse 6
verse 6
For I am confident of this very thing. This is quite a wonderful thing for a man to proclaim to this church. A man that can not be certain for what tomorrow will bring. death, another beating, torture? he has no guarantee from man to him while in this prison. but this statement I am confident is quite amazing considering his boldness given his situation. this is what trusting in the gospel does to man. It gives the means to speak with boldness,it gives man a clarity of truth, it gives a man the ability to reason with this world in way that they can not. anyone in this situation that Paul is in would never speak in the way that we read that he is. What could they take from Paul? his food,so be it for this man to be hungry for he is filled by his God. take his fellow believers away from him, so be it for they will meet again and one day will be vindicated by God. Take his life from him....so be it, it is only gain.
Oh beloved Church of Hagerman do you lack confidence in the face of turmoil? Do you whimper at the thought of discomfort? Do you tremble in your boots at the thought that this world could do anything to you that would last longer but only a moment especially compared to eternity? We must be confessional daily of the hope that we have wrought in Jesus. If our perspective is always focused on the ultimate truth of Jesus and the hope laid in treasure above. Solely because of this truth we can face the physically despair that each of us run and but up against.
Family Hardship and death Rev. 21:4
and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
physical turmoil Phil 1:20-21
according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
rejection and hated John 15:18
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
He who began a good work. now first we must notice that Paul is calling the very work that has brought about this circumstance in this world as “good”. Paul would not be in prison unless explicitly planned by God to be so. Proverbs 16:9
The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
“He” began the work. What is the work of God John 6:29
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
How do we believe? John 1:12-13
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:1-10 is also teaches this very thing.
this is boiled down to t a theological debate know as synergism verses monergism. Essentially this is in common language known as “what comes first? faith or the new birth? is it God who acts first or man? does man response to this new birth or does God respond to our faith? I would be convicted by scripture such as this selected text today to profess monergism.
“It is God who is the active agent in my salvation, I am merely and greatly the passive benefactor of His grace.”
Consider Nicodemus in the before mentioned text. How much did Nicodemus take place in his first birth in the house of Abraham? Did Nicodemus choose to be born a jew? did he choose to be knitted together in his mother womb? did he shout to the birth deliverer “here i come” or was it by the work and choice of God to providentially have Nicodemus come about how he did? Our new birth is such as this. It comes about by the providential hand of God. just as the wind blows and we do not know its direction, so to is the Holy Spirit in the new birth
Why bring this up? Hebrews 2:10
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
because the greatness in knowing that the confidence of the completion of salvation is just as sovereignly declared as our new birth was. “IF” our new birth or the completion of our salvation was at all dependent on our own merit, we surely would lose all confidence and hope. We know that because we believe in jesus today that in His return we will be rewarded based off of what he did because we are in Him. Notice the pronouns in this text “He began” & “will perfect”. This is all Gods work.
“Until the day of Christ Jesus” eschatology. This should be a joyful thing to study. It is a profession of all Christians that Jesus is coming again. Now the way in which this takes places is one of much scriptural debate from a multitude of schools of thoughts. So the question then for us is what does this teach us about eschatology? That during the time between the first coming and the second coming is a time of sanctification that is a work of God, it is a time of hardship (such as Paul in prison) and that it would seem to teach in this text that this day brings about a end of sanctification. This would theologically be called glorification that stems from a judgement. Either you live with Christ or you are dead in your sins which has wrath awaiting.
verse 7
verse 7
It is only right. Paul here is stating that this is right way of thinking for himself in his present condition in prison and difficulty.
I have you in my heart. Paul is unable to see this church in the flesh at the moment, but says that he is longing for them. consider Phil. 1:4. He has join in remembering this group of fellow believers.
both in “chains” and “defense and confirmation” of the “gospel”. This is wonderful to put our mind to. What Chains/imprisonment is Paul speaking about? The very Chains that are bound to him as he pens this letter. Phil 1:13
so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,
Paul as an ambassador in chains sees his present situation as one of a place to defend the gospel and to also confirm his call in the gospel. Matt. 5:11
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Paul considers still that being apart of the gospel and suffering for the Kingdom of God to which he is a slave of Christ is to be a blessing and considered grace.
Why? Why is suffering for the gospel a gift? This is a question that is spoken usually by the hard pressed Christian that is the midst of grief. We can see that their are many false brothers and sisters who fell away who were actually never apart of the faith fallen when turmoil comes. May we be careful that in our suffering we do not blaspheme our God. How God is the Lord of all creation and situations. who are we to say to the molder “why?” As Ron says
“Instead of asking why we ought to ask what does this teach me”
Because if you are a child of God we are to welcome the sharing in the cross and suffering of this world that our Lord was given. now this is not me saying that we are not to be grieved by
the hard ships that take place but instead we ought to take a moment and say
“it is not me be the glory or the knowledge Lord, but to thine be the glory alone oh God. Thus I will cry out in prayer and petition that though I am in the very bowls of sheol and darkness has surrounded me, nothing can take the Light of Jesus from me and that is my comfort. Lord keep my eyes upon your cross, center me upon your Rock because Lord I can not stand on my own. Lord you have brought me here sovereignly but you have promised that the work that you have begun in me will be made complete in the same glorious way. So help me recognize the light at the end and not very in my gazing sight, and let my chains be known for your glory.
The Belgic confession-Guido de Brès (Guy de Bray) in 1561 wrote with the help of other men this confession that take part of the “three unities of faith” (Canon of dort, heidlberg confession, and the belgic confession) in its preface it says written to specifically Philip II of Spain in an attempt to show the separation from the Catholic church of Rome while also showing that they were not anarchist like the Anabaptist says “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire, rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession” and in that confession it proclaimed the salvation through grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone and also taught clearly the great mystery of the hypostatic union of Jesus Being truly God and truly Man distinguishing them from the Anabaptist. While it also taught that they believed in the Christian being subject to that of the civil government.
Guy de Bray died to the hand of Spain in 1562. He wrote a letter to his wife just before his death that stated in short;
The grace and mercy of our good God and heavenly Father, and the love of His Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, be with you, my dearly beloved. Catherine Ramon, my dear and beloved wife and sister in our Lord Jesus Christ: your anguish and sadness disturbs somewhat my joy and the happiness of my heart, so I am 2 writing this for the consolation of both of us, and especially for your consolation, since you have always loved me with an ardent affection, and because it pleases the Lord to separate us from each other. I feel your sorrow over this separation more keenly than mine. I pray you not to be troubled too much over this, for fear of offending God. You knew when you married me that you were taking a mortal husband, who was uncertain of life, and yet it has pleased God to permit us to live together for seven years, giving us five children. If the Lord had wished us to live together longer, he would have provided the way. But it did not please him to do this and may his will be done. Now remember that I did not fall into the hands of my enemies by mere chance, but through the providence of my God who controls and governs all things, the least as well as the greatest. This is shown by the words of Christ, “Be not afraid. Your very hairs are numbered. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall to the ground without the will of your Father. Then fear nothing. You are more excellent than many sparrows.” These words of divine wisdom say that God knows the number of my hairs. How then can harm come to me without the command and providence of God? It could not happen, unless one should say that God is no longer God. This is why the Prophet says that there is no affliction in the city that the Lord has not willed.
fellow partakers. again avoid all thoughts of solo Christianity that the world so quickly gives to the people. Paul even in his solo suffering sees that he is fellow partakers with those far away. He sees it as their benefit. and it is also to our benefit. oh how we would grow in faith if we looked to how Paul magnified Christ is the subjecting his flesh to humility. this brings about peace and mercy. Gal 6:14-18
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
The metaphor may have been suggested to Paul, sharp mind that he was, as a contrast with circumcision. “If you are going to have marks on your body, why not have some that have resulted from your battle for the gospel?” Or, “You may wish to be stamped as a son of Israel; I want to be marked as belonging to Jesus—and here are the markings.”
A second stream of reflection flows from the fact that in that day a master often branded his slaves with a mark that identified them as his. Paul had committed himself to be a slave for Christ. The scars, the result of wounds he had suffered in that role, formed his badge of identity. Not on his apostolic authority, but through his wounds he makes his appeal.
Paul saw the hardship, the chains, the bruises, the hunger, the loss, the pain, the bleeding flesh, and the marks as the sign to others and even to himself of the grace he had in the holy one of Israel, Jesus the Christ. Let us follow this Jesus outside of the camp bearing His same reproach, proclaiming Him has the true sacrifice.