The past couple of sermons I’ve preached have reviewed Philippians 1-2, the first half of Paul’s letter to his friends in the Roman colony of Philippi. We said that the big current running through this first half is the Gospel. The good news of what God has done through Christ Jesus for the life of the world. So far, Paul’s not so much explaining the Gospel as he is expressing how it changes people who hear and believe this good news.
How does believing the Gospel change people? Believing the gospel puts new work in front of you. Involves you in extra suffering. Expands your horizon. Sets you into a community. Sets you into a good experience. Teaches you deep things about how life works. Gives you a new set of heroes.
So, believing the gospel changes your worldview. You end up experiencing life differently than those who don’t believe. You have relationships that you’d never have otherwise.
But the biggest change from believing the Gospel we saved for last. Believing the Gospel brings you to Jesus Christ. This last point is kinda the magical one. And it’s the hardest to explain, but then again, even if you don’t understand it, it’s still just as true. But let me try to explain.
Review, the Gospel is news about something that has already happened. Good news of what God has done through Jesus the Christ for the life of the world. Done 2000 years ago, at least 1900 years before any of us was born. God was the actor. Not me. Through Jesus Christ, not me. So, weirdly enough, in announcing this Gospel we should accent that has to do with events that are far removed from us.
But here’s kinda the flip side to that: believing the Gospel brings Christ Jesus near to us. It brings us into a relationship with the Lord Jesus. A real, living, actual (what other words can I use?) interaction with Christ.
While hearing and believing the gospel that centers on Christ, however, the Spirit of Jesus Christ contacts my spirit, my spirit connects to Him, and afterwards they will never depart from the other. Yes, a relationship with Him begins that will never end (just consider that) and, if I’m thinking clearly, becomes the most important fact about myself. This is magical. Amazing. A genuine miracle. Permanent change at the very center of me, my identity, my heart.
I say again, believing the Gospel brings Christ near. Or perhaps more precisely we move toward…near…in Jesus Christ. That’s the preposition Paul keeps using. At various places in the NT we’re given analogies to help us make sense of this connection. For example: Jesus is a vine, we are branches coming off the main vine. The life of Christ, that Man, that Resurrected Man, is what renders us as alive, even when our bodies continue to die. There’s much more to say about this; for now just understand that Jesus isn’t an imaginary friend that we only pretend to talk to. He’s not simply an inspiration to add some spark to our days. He is with us. We are in him.
This reality of us in relationship to the living Christ pops up all over this letter. Just look at the very first verse: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. Paul doesn’t waste any time in bringing Christ Jesus into the conversation. Sometimes you’re driving with the family and your phone is plugged into your car speaker system and when someone calls you the first words out of your mouth are something like: Hi Roger, before you say anything want to let you know you’re on speaker phone with my family. Point being, their presence is going to change the dynamic of the conversation and so that needs to be disclosed up front.
That’s something like what Paul is doing here: at the outset he wants this letter to be colored by the authority and the presence of Christ. Right away he establishes that he doesn’t speak simply from himself, full stop. But he writes and sits in prison and plans and breathes under the direction of Christ Jesus. Because the Gospel has brought him to Christ and now he thinks and speaks and writes with Christ, under Christ.
So, you’re not just getting me, Paul says. But then with the next phrase out of his mouth he implies, Also I realize I’m not just dealing with you, simply, without qualification. Because he names the recipients of this letter as saints in Christ Jesus. The people he writes to are saints, that is, they’re set apart from the rest of the world by the fact that they are tied into Christ Jesus.
So, Paul says from the outset – 1a: Christ is with me as I write. And then in 1b: Christ is with you as you read. I’m not my own. You’re not your own. Of Christ… In Christ. I’m not simply “Paul.” You’re not simply “Philippians.” You’re not simply Grandpa. Dad. Resident. Aunt. Co-worker. Babysitter. Student. While all those labels are accurate and all important, the defining truth that should affect all other roles and interactions: Saints in Christ Jesus.
Man, the gospel really “took” with Paul! And it’s little expressions like these that demonstrate it. How personal this is for Paul! What has his attention is a Who – this Man! Paul was enamored of Jesus Christ.
This is unusual. Sometimes we do the good thing in order to be celebrated by people or to avoid their disapproval – that’s not great. Most times if we end up doing the good thing it’s because we think it’s the right thing to do – it’s fitting, it’ll help, it will turn out the best, my conscience will be clean, this is connected to some principles I hold…. But the point is that – if we’re not doing the thing to suck up to people – we’re normally doing the thing for a reason– it’s all pretty impersonal.
Well, I’m not saying that none of these were entailed in Paul’s big thought, but his big thought for why he did what he did and experience and think was personal: for Him, to Him. Christianity didn’t fill his soul; Christ Jesus filled his soul. That’s actually a game-changer.
And Paul had the wild idea that every Christian should be so taken with Christ that He – Christ – becomes the ground for all their living too. Because they are, in fact, in Him. Don’t work for your boss…work for Christ. Wives, don’t nag your husbands to get them to do what you want. But then don’t just simply do what they say. Submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.Bring Christ into the frame. Don’t be a trad wife simply because you prefer the old-fashioned aesthetic or because you don’t like where feminism has taken society – look through your husband and to Jesus Christ. Submit to Jesus Christ. We can talk someday about what that might look like, but the point here is that Paul thinks we should always be reacting to, thinking from and toward, in conversation with…Christ Jesus. Don’t simply behave a certain way. Don’t simply do the right thing. See Christ!
He says further into the letter (1:21) For me to live is Christ. So, confirmed. It’s not just a real relationship, it’s a central relationship. If I were to say, and I do say for me to live is Tonia, I’d mean that my choices were made in reference to her, that my private self, my public space were all heavily influenced by her. That her plans and goals orient me, her words linger in my mind, that my whole self is wrapped around hers like a tire on a rim.
That’s what has happened through the Gospel. We’ve not only come to Jesus Christ, we’ve come into Him. He is here. He is with you. I read this week that Jeff Bezos has a rule that at all Amazon meetings there must be an empty chair representing “the Customer.” Maybe we should leave do something similar in our gatherings, recalling “the Lord.” Except there’d be a key difference. It’s not like we’re recalling Christ in His absence. He’s here.
Treating quickly just one objection: someone says, if Christ is here, then why does it seem that He’s not? For example, why do I come to the end of my shift, and it’s all been so…worldly? There are no signs that Christ is working through me, that His power is making a difference. Rather, my whole work environment is “of the flesh” – there’s little joy, people are backstabbing, tasks are done sloppily, there’s no sense that anything truly important or permanent is going on. Or, perhaps good work is being done but there are no gospel relationships being established. I sense that we’re bound tightly in this secularity. No sign of the presence of Christ.
Or, changing the setting: my household is chilly. Sure, we go to church sometimes, maybe often, but that religious stuff seems to be segmented from the rest of life. In the hurly burly of life there’s only this low-grade anxiety, frustration, bickering, sloth, lust. As the kids get older, I feel my influence on them fading and they’re being drawn to the world. The picture of my family would be a miry pit that we’re slowly sinking into. Except for the occasional spiritual charges I get at church or wherever, Christ seems to be absent.
Bringing us up to the question: How is the presence of Jesus Christ activated so that it’s not just an interior truth but so it makes a difference in my experience?
Listen to Paul in 1: 18c and 19: Yes and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.
When the saints pray, God pours out the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and into stagnant situations and conflicts and all kinds of failure enters the powerful Presence of the Resurrection Christ. When the saints don’t pray, the Resurrection life of Jesus Christ doesn’t show up, express itself, make a difference.
Brothers and sisters, let me say that again. The prayers of the saints call forth the Resurrected life of Jesus Christ and activate the powerful help of His Spirit. Prayer and the Spirit. Prayer and the Spirit of Jesus Christ coming in effective power. These things go together like the inhalation and exhalation of breathing. So, prayer is fundamental – no the word is vital – to expressing the life of Jesus Christ – in your parenting, in your friendships, in your habits, in your marriage, at your work.
We shouldn’t think of prayer only when people are in the hospital or the church is running short of funds. Christ is with us. When do we need the expression of His power? And I’d hazard: ALL THE TIME. Some of us are afraid of work. Some are embittered toward their spouse. Some are fatally flat or wooden or dishonest or awkward in relationships. All of us have assignments and roles where the key difference maker can only be the power and activity of Jesus Christ.
So, we have believed the Gospel and Christ is among us… but still we lack power – – PRAY. Let’s pray for everything that troubles us, that gnaws at us, where we feel powerless. Let’s pray with supplications and prayers – that is, in set times of prayer and in the odd moments throughout the day.
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:5b-7)
Prayer activates the Presence of Christ. God hear us and the Spirit helps. “We have not because we ask not.”
And when His saints pray for the assignments God has assigned to them, God answers. Ah, but how does He answer? In victories? With shows of strength?
Not usually. Remember our lesson from last week: that the Gospel which brought Christ to us has also taught us the deep things of life. The way that God saved life will be the same way that life continues. Life was saved by Christ humbling himself all the way to death. And so most often when we pray God first will answer by taking us down, down, down into humbleness and death.
We’re saying – hey wait, I started to really pray and this is what happens!?
But what is going on? In response to our prayers the Spirit of the crucified Christ is starting His work, and often His works begin through humbleness and death. You’ll feel flat and dead after prayer. The water heater will leak. The thing you’re praying for will get worse. Keep praying! And humble yourself under the Word of God!
And someday, often later and sometimes sooner than you think, there is exaltation. Answered prayer. Often that answer is not as you imagined it – in order to show that the surpassing power belongs to God, and not to us. But the Spirit of Christ will be active in all of this, and instead of deadness there will be life.
The Gospel brings us to the Christ who humbled himself, died and was raised. After we are in Him, prayer activates the Spirit of Christ who answers us in humbleness, death, and the Resurrected life of Christ.
AMEN
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