Questions People are Asking: "Using your Spiritual gifts for God" – 1 Corinthians 12:1-31

Years ago I read an article about a man that was called to the scene of a death in a public park in Washington D.C. He was brought from his office by the police to identify a body, and when he arrived he realized that the man he was to identify was not someone he recognized. The man was a veteran, and he died in front of the Korean War Memorial on the Washington Mall – an eerie monument with lifelike statues of a platoon of armed men passing through a rice patty. Sit long enough in the dusk, and the figures begin to look more and more real. The homeless man, with tattoos that showed he served his country in a Marine division in Korea, died of exposure on a cold night in early January. He died beside the statues that identified a moment in his life when he thought he made a difference. He died with his fellows in arms just a few steps away – perhaps as he thought he might have years before. The man was wearing a coat he received from a local church mission, and in the coat was the business card of the man the police brought to identify his body. Unfortunately, the business card was from the donation of the coat, and the man from the office did not know the veteran who passed away. Yet, the man from the office did recognize the insignia of the tattoo and was able to give the police the necessary details to track down the dead man’s identity.

Why would a man lay on the cold ground beside the monument of his former wartime colleagues? In his stupor, a basic instinct emerged. He was drawn back to a familiar scene in his life. He returned to a time he felt he was productive and making a difference. He returned to a time when he KNEW someone else cared about him. One writer said it well: “War is strangely both a solitary place and a place of forged companionship. In war, you don’t fight for your home and family. You don’t fight for your honor or for metals and pins. You fight for the man in the hole next to you, and he fights for you. It is all you have.”

I don’t think the man’s return to a place where he made a difference is so hard to understand. Everyone wants to make an impact on their world. Everyone wants to help the people they care about, and make a difference in the conditions of the world they live in. For a soldier, basic training is not just about saving his life in conflict – it is about saving his buddies on the field of battle as well. Companionship is forged quickly in the fires of war…. And that takes us to our New Testament passage in 1 Corinthians 12.

The early Christians at Corinth faced a spiritual war, and a deep and significant personal emotional struggle to become real followers of Jesus, and when they made that choice – they wanted to make a difference. They came to Christ, but were disoriented because of a loss some of us may never have thought about. It is at the heart of every missionary’s presentation to a first generation culture when presenting Christ. Romans revered their dead ancestors. They lit candles daily for them, and believed their “pietos” (doing the right thing) included upholding the honor of all the family – both living and dead. As a Roman came to Christ, it became painfully clear that his family members were lost. A daily routine that once brought strength, now brought an enormous sting of pain to them. They could easily feel they “lost” part of their family in joining the body of Christ. As a result, God revealed truths that would help them connect to the body in a more full way, and make a difference in the lives of people that would fill up the empty holes left in their heart. He gave them His Holy Spirit to connect their identities – and He supplied gifts to them, to help the body flourish and grow. He continues to do the same for us. Just as in the training of the soldier, so in the regulated use of special “God enabling gifts” will a believer become both impacting and valuable to the work of the body of Messiah.

Key Principle: God offered the principles that govern both our understanding and use of the special enabling gifts He has given to each member of the body of Christ in the local congregation.

There were apparently at least four specific problems that came up in the public services at the Corinthian congregation that gave rise to the question they wrote to Paul:

Problem #1: Bad Message: Apparently someone shared in a public worship setting a “revelation” from God that Jesus, because of the crucifixion, was accursed by God. They evidently encouraged the congregation to follow after something other than Jesus, confused by false pronouncements. (cp. 12:3)

Problem #2: One Size Fits All: It appears that some in the congregation were emphasizing the unity and unchanging nature of God, and they could not believe that God’s gifts were not similar in their manifestations. They were struggling with the uniqueness of each believer (cp. 12:4-7)

Problem #3: Spare Parts: Some apparently were arguing about whether some unique manifestations in the lives of the believers were gifts of God, or mere expressions of differing personalities. They likely felt that some of the “so-called gifts” were unnecessary for the body. They were probably saying, “You know, Pastor, that stuff isn’t important! What we need here in Corinth is more of…” (cp. 12:8-11).

Problem #4: Over-importance: Many that got excited about the sense of the flow of the Spirit using them became convinced that their gift was the key to everything in the Word and the world. They believed that more of “their gift” would make the place break open for God and take off! (cp. 12:12-20).

“Eight Truths about Spiritual Gifts”

1. It is easy to get confused by what is actually a work of God when we came from a Christ-less and Spirit-less background (12:1-2).

12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.

There was no experience background in their lives to help explain the work of the Spirit in the local church. The work of the Spirit is not like other religious processes, because God works internally to enable ministry. Three things are clear in the opening verses:

a. We need learning to understand how the gifts work – or we will be “unaware” (12:1).
b. Our God speaks, whereas false gods do not of their own accord (12:2). This is NOT to say that they possess no power, but that any voice of any spiritual authority that is not leading men to God is an echo of the voice of the enemy – not the voices of actual different gods. That was an important truth to those who believed they could hear the voices of both gods and ancestors.
c. Not everyone came from the same pre-Christ background – but were “led” in different ways before coming to faith and getting the Spirit (12:2).

There is an important underlying truth – not all men came to Christ from the same place. Some of our conviction, so deep, intense and real to us, is NOT God’s call to all men everywhere. Our understanding of one another should be tempered by patiently spotting “where the other guy came from”. This isn’t pablum, it is terribly important. Christians need to hear each other’s testimony stories to allow us to filter each other patiently. A man who came from a violent home may be much more sensitive to the violence in a film well accepted by other believers. A woman who grew up in a home with alcoholic parents may have no desire to be tolerant of another believer who will have wine with a meal. A man who came from an occult background may rage against anyone who would let their children eat from a candy bowl at Halloween… these are all perfectly understandable. In order for a body to grow, we must learn to listen to each other and hear the stories that helped the formation of people – because God’s work in them is individualized. He wants to grow all of us, but He works with us as individuals.

A patient church is a God honoring church. We need to be learning, but not harsh in our attempts to get everyone to “grow up” at the same rate. Patient instruction is the key to moving people from being “unaware” to allow the Spirit to use their Bible education to move them to obedience. Not everyone who is confused or even expresses the wrong opinion is evil – they may simply need loving guidance that will allow the Spirit to correct them.

2. God sets the boundaries on the use of gifts in order that they may produce His desired effect (12:3).

12:3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

God is the source of the gifts, and God has a message He wants to get out. Exercises of so called gifts that tell a different story are NOT exercises of the Spirit, but the mimicry of the enemy, or the pollution of the flesh.

I think that most everyone would agree that such a prophesy would be banned from any church. At the same time, the principle is clear: the gifts of the Spirit are only validly used in harmony with the revealed truths of the Word of God. People cannot claim to have a revelation that does not square with the Bible and expect to offer it unchallenged to the body. If someone says, the Lord told me… listen very closely. The Lord will not speak to them in contrast to the truths He spoke through His Word.

I have noticed that one influence of the charismatic movement on churches of all kinds is the tendency to equate deep emotional responses with the Lord’s Word. That is a mistake. Most of the time the Lord’s direction is not deeply emotional at all. If God directs you to act in a certain way, and you know it was Him, you need not expect anything dramatic to happen. Let me offer the most common example from my own experience. Let’s say I say something that as soon as it leaves my mouth, I know is wrong. I may not have formed the sentence to be evil, but what I said was wrong, or hurtful, or even untrue. At that moment, as a Jesus-owned and operated man, the Spirit of God will fire an arrow into my heart. I will know the sting of conviction. No one else will see it, but I will no, without a doubt, that God is unhappy with what I just said. I can quietly ask His forgiveness, and then openly correct what I just said. There need not be lights in the sky or dramatic music in the background – just a simple conviction.

Let me be clear: God DOES speak. Much of the content comes from His written Word, and ALL of the content must agree with His written Word. At the same time, we are not becoming emotion or weak minded when we say that the Spirit individually speaks in our lives. He does. He leads, He convicts, He corrects. Remember the principle: Every word of God fits within the revealed truth of the Written Scripture, or it is not from God.

3. God works as He chooses in different people in different ways – according to His Divine purpose and choice (12:4-11).

Without negating the truth that every word must fit within His revealed written Word, we must also see that God works in different ways with different people. Paul wrote:

12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

a. One Spirit gives a diversity of kinds of gifts, a diversity of ministry assignments, and produces a diverse set of products in ministry – but He is the same God (12:4-6).
b. Everyone who is in the body is given God’s manifest presence and empowering (12:7a).
c. The purpose is NEVER for the individual’s glory – but for the Body’s good (12:7b).
d. The gifts appear to be grouped in three ways:

1. Word of wisdom; word of knowledge.
2. Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Distinguishing of spirits.
3. Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues.

e. Gifts cannot be taught or taken – they are freely given by God as He desires to give them. Paul acknowledged that all gifts were important and valid, and all believers are recipients – but not of the same ones.

One of the problems with the study of the gifts as Paul described them, is that each of the gifts has taken on the pattern of a modern day ministry, and as such we may think we understand their operation, when what we understand is someone’s idea of how a specific gift operates. For instance, maybe we grew up in a church that taught healing only as a work of God in a service – when clearly God works also by other means. We need to be careful about defining terms in Scripture by what we see on a television set.

The ministry of the Spirit in FAITH for instance, is an operation of God in a man or woman to have extraordinary comprehension of God’s Word and its principles. Some people have the ability – Divinely given – to set out God’s principles clearly without all the requisite years of study others of us take to get there.

4. We are all a unique and distinct package of God’s enabling gifts, but our distinctions are not bigger than our purpose together (12:12-20).

12:12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body.

The point of gift use is never the exaltation of any one gift or gift holder, but for the body to work together well for His purposes and His glory.

a. The body functions to support ONE LIFE (12:12).
b. Entry to the ONE body (in justification) made all other distinctions of less importance as it regards salvation (12:13). No one is MORE SAVED than the rest of the body.
c. No ONE gift or holder should see his or her value as ANYTHING apart from the whole (12:14).
d. No PART should over or undervalue itself (12:15-17).
e. God arranged the parts and God gifts according to His master plan (12:18).
f. We all NEED each other to function properly (12:19-20).

5. We must respect the value of our differences and not simply be “wowed” by some who have more visible gifts (12:21-24).

12:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked…

The most critical members of the body are not the most easily recognized parts, but the parts that keep the body alive and well. The honor of the part is GOD’S to ascribe – not ours!

6. We must see and function as though our care for another as a greater priority than our complete understanding of one another (12:25-26).

12: 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

The body must focus on the way it can pull its energies to the benefit of all and the progress of the whole goal. Each believer must deliberately fight the notion that others are not held back by their disobedience and stubbornness. When I refuse to yield to God – others in the body suffer. When I hide sin, I wound the body. I set back the team when I don’t discipline my body and work out….

7. Each of us plays a specific type of role for God, yet these roles vary widely. We cannot anticipate that others will naturally understand our role, or see its significance (12:27-30).

12:27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?

We should answer more of our conflicts by understanding that we are all gifted uniquely, and may struggle to see things through the eyes of others who are gifted differently. Evangelists will believe the only thing a Christian should do is share Christ. Teachers will worry about what people are learning and feel that evangelists are far too focused on a “conversion” moment, and not on the necessary equipping. Administrators will worry about sustainability of ministry in funding, and staying above any suspicion in accounting. All have their place, but they will pull in different directions.

8. God will (if asked) balance out your group with the right combination of gifts if the group is obediently using those He gave and find a lack among them (12:31).

12: 31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.

Rather than teach people to be gifted in an area they are not, we should seek God to supply them, while covering the gaps. Churches that don’t encourage people to exercise their gifts, don’t know what they need, and don’t seek God for what they need. Slowly, they dry up by putting too much on a few and allowing most to coast doing nothing…

A man from Illinois decided to travel to Wisconsin to go duck hunting. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of the fence. As the flatlander climbed over the fence, a dairy farmer drove up on his tractor and asked what was going on. The hunter said, “I shot a duck and I’m retrieving it.” The old farmer replied, “This is my property and you’re not coming over here!” Well, this made the hunter mad so he said, “If you don’t let me come over the fence I’ll call my Chicago lawyer and I’ll sue you.” The farmer smiled and said, “Apparently you don’t know how we do things up here. We settle disagreements with the Wisconsin three-kick rule. I’ll kick you three times, and then you kick me three times, and so on, back and forth, until someone gives up.” The Illini liked this challenge because he thought he could easily take the old farmer. The Wisconsin Badger climbed down from the tractor and planted the steel toe of his heavy work boot into the man’s shin. The man fell to his knees. His second kick went directly to his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The farmer than landed his third kick to the side of the hunter’s head. The disoriented man slowly got up and said, “Okay, you old codger, now it’s my turn!” To which the farmer responded, “Nah, I give up. You can have the duck.” (sermon central illustrations).

The modern church has spent too long turning God’s enabling power into a fight over how to use gifts. The whole topic of spiritual gifts has been a battleground for many years, going back to the first century church at Corinth. Some of the tension results from an overemphasis on certain gifts, others because we like to pick fights with those who are wired differently than we are. In the next few weeks, the principles should clear up much of the fog and allow us to confidently operate within the Word. Our problem has not so much been people MISUSING gifts, and UNDER USING gifts. Let me end this week’s installment simply by asking – Do you know what your gifts are? Are you using them? Is the Body of Christ being built up by them?

Avoiding Myself: "A Story of the Unthankful Heart!" – Luke 17:11-19

There is an old proverb that says “Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses.” It is right to think like that, but it is HARD to think like that! Have you ever been so overtaken with a complaining heart that even YOU can’t stand being around you? I have. It is embarrassing to admit it, but I can think of a number of times in my life when through poor planning of schedule or over commitment, I have become worn down and negative to an extreme. It is something I have to constantly guard against in my life, because I tend to over commit time.

The longer I live, the more I believe that most people spend their energy endlessly reviewing their past days, often murmuring and complaining of their present days, and beneath it all constantly worrying about their future days. I am reminded of the words of the poet and literary critic Randall Jarrett: “The people who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.” Sadly he wasn’t wrong. We often don’t realize the best days of our lives are the best until much too late. Even as believers, the deep cracks of a complaining spirit can easily show… and we don’t realize how destructive those cracks are in our lives. Complaining people aren’t thankful people – and believers begin their journey with Jesus in both awe and thanksgiving for His work done for us. Our most treasured meal is the little wafer of the Communion meal called the “Eucharist” -the Greek term for “Thank You!” Our faith is formed and rooted in thanksgiving.”

One of the reasons we are un-thankful is simply because we don’t see a complaining spirit through God’s eyes. I recall when that lesson first became real for me. In my early Christian life and experience I recall reading through the Pastoral Epistles for a High School class in Bible. I was fortunate enough to go to a great private Christian school, and had wonderful Bible teachers in my early formative years. During my first read through the words of Paul to Timothy and Titus, I was struck by some words that seemed misplaced in my young life. Because I was reading the verses from the King James Version, let me read them back to you as I was experiencing them, and see if you can identify my problem:

2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

In that shopping list of sinful traits, I confess two portions of the reading bothered me. At the time, I was too young to know why.

The first part that bothered me was that some of the words seemed smaller than the others. Some sinful traits like “blasphemers” or “fierce” seemed extreme and powerful – while others seemed, well… ordinary by comparison. Did God view an “unthankful” person as he did a “blasphemer”? Was “disobedient to parents” a charge that should be on the same list as “traitors”?

• The second problem I had with the list was the end in verse five: “from such turn away”. The problem was that some of those items on the list were true of ME. I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to stay away from people when I was ONE OF THEM!

Years have passed, and I think some maturity has helped me understand some of the problem – but not all of it. I recognize now that God DOES view disobedience to parents like He views pride and blasphemy. When I reject the authorities God places in my life, I am essentially rejecting Him, and acting arrogantly. I see that now. At the same time, some part of that list still haunts me – because if I am honest, I recognize that I am not nearly as thankful to God for what He has done and continues to do in and for me, as I was meant to be. Some days I should just be obedient to Scripture and AVOID MYSELF. Do you know the feeling?

Thankfulness is a godly characteristic. It is a holy trait. It is an essential statement of our recognition of Who our God is, and what He continues to do for us. Thankfulness is part of practical holiness and practical Christian maturity – but it is too little taught and emphasized. Today’s lesson is about this critical trait.

Key Principle: Real thankfulness is not about reveling in the things God has given, nor about celebrating the way He has fixed my latest problems – it is about looking past the issues and recognizing WHO God truly is, and what He is truly like.

Real thankfulness isn’t just about sentiment, it is about recognition of the truth. God IS good. He DOES love me. He KEEPS caring for me – in spite of my stubbornness. Thankfulness is that overwhelming sense of awe at the grace of God, the mercy of God and the goodness of God.

Tucked into the account of the Gospel according to Luke is a tiny story about this recognition of truth. Jesus told a story that explained the need for thankfulness, and illustrated how it actually was designed to work in us. For a view of the story in perspective, let’s take a moment and set the scene within the narrative:

At the risk of being too repetitious, let’s review the major themes of the Gospels. Remember that Matthew focuses on the WORDS of Jesus. Mark reveals the WORKS of Jesus. Luke is bent on exposing the CHRONOLOGY of the ministry of Jesus, while John focuses on the CONFLICTS in the background of the ministry of Jesus as set before the Temple leaders of Jerusalem’s aristocracy.

Because our story is in the Gospel according to Luke, let’s zoom in and set the book in its context as well.

• Luke was a Macedonian physician and biographer, and traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. He is the only known Gentile born writer included in the New Testament library.

• His two included works – the Gospel according to Luke and the Book of Acts appear to some scholars to be two works of an intended trilogy that was apparently either unfinished or the third part was lost.

• The works are addressed to one called “Theophilus” (friend of God), and has been widely thought to be directed to the lawyer that was defending Paul before Nero. The first part of the writing, according to that scenario, was likely done while Paul was imprisoned at Caesarea (that is, the Gospel) while the later work was done in Rome during Paul’s first house arrest (the Book of Acts).

• Luke says that he collected his accounts from eyewitnesses – so it is more a reporter’s version of the story in the Gospels. It contains more detail on many points than the others, because Luke took the time to ask many people about events.

The layout of Luke’s Gospel follows geography and a biographical form.

• The first two chapters contain seven reporters interviews of both the prophecy and coming of John the Baptizer, and the prophecy and coming of Jesus the Messiah.

• Breaking from standard form, Luke includes in chapter three a REVERSE genealogy of Jesus back to Adam – an apparent attempt to clarify that Jesus was truly human in contradistinction to some of the offshoot groups that were claiming Christ was a Divine entity but not fully human.

• Luke four picks up the life of Jesus when He reached about thirty, the time when a priest in the Temple would begin His holy ministry. The opening story is of a wrestling with Satan on how He would be made known, followed by an announcement of His ministry in a synagogue in Nazareth, His home town. With the extreme and negative reaction of his clan, Jesus relocated to the Sea of Galilee area and began to show extraordinary powers over demons, disease and nature. Luke five includes a number of such miracles, but also begins to show Jesus as a teacher.

• In Luke six through nine, Jesus called a large number of disciples with a smaller more intimate inner circle and began a teaching ministry to them – pouring into them His words and traveling with them to neighboring villages. By chapter ten He sent out the larger group to spread His message, and then entered the Perean Ministry – found in Luke ten through nineteen – an intense time of preparation of the Disciples for His departure.

• By mid-way through chapter nineteen, Luke records Jesus in the Passion Week, facing the Cross.

Our story is during that preparation of the Disciple by Jesus in the winter teachings in Perea. “Snow birds” from Jerusalem stayed in the warm area nearer to the Jordan during that season, so they could hear great Bible conference speakers while the cold rains swept across the Judean mountains. The moderate climate made the area much more pleasant, and the rabbinic teachers of God drew crowds near the Jordan. Jesus was periodically teaching and traveling – using these last months to prepare the Disciples for a time when they would carry the message without Him. They had no idea of the hour, nor of the coming trials.

Let’s pick up our story on the road traveling with Jesus in Luke 17:

Luke 17:11 While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? 18 “Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

The Problematic Setting (17:11):

Luke first sets the scene by telling us of the place where Jesus was moving along the seam between Samaria and Galilee, a well known roadway etched into the base of the hills (11). Jesus had some measured popularity in the Galilee region, but was less regarded in the Samaritan hills.

Jesus had what could be described as a “complicated” relationship with the Samaritans. Early in the ministry, Jesus passed through Samaria with His first disciples (John 4) and gave the Gospel to them through the encounter with a woman at the well of Sychar. He signaled a willingness to encounter those who were on Judaism’s largely rejected fringes – and both the woman and the village responded in what appeared to be spiritual hunger. Some time later in His preaching ministry, He spoke well of some in His preaching – such as the “Good Samaritan” story in Luke 10. Yet, a careful look at the ministry of Jesus reveals that as time went on, Jesus didn’t expend any real effort revisit the people of Samaria. It was not until late in His earth ministry, during the last months before His Crucifixion. His disciples showed they had little love for the Samaritans (an understatement) and, in fact, had continued in a disdain for them.

James and John illustrated their bias openly just after the Transfiguration, when Jesus decided to pass back into Samaria on the way to Jerusalem, as recorded in Luke 9:51: When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village.

The villages that rejected Jesus in Galilee brought no such words from James and John in the text – but these were Samaritan villages, and they didn’t like Samaritans much. Back to our story on the road… Luke reminds that the lepers included some Samaritans.

Isn’t it strange how prejudice drifts in the face of extreme pain and suffering. Subtle racism slips away when the nurse caring for you has different colored skin, but shows humanity, kindness and love in spite of your inner hesitancy. How small we are when we come to the place that we believe we can measure someone by color, or value someone less because of ethnicity. When we tolerate such small thinking, we show that we forget that God created from a pallet that included many more colors and designs than those we are most familiar with. The leperous Samaritans and Jews that approached Jesus for healing in Luke 17 were separated by theology, but bonded by physical sickness and calamity. We have seen the same from those who suffer from the aftermath of a powerful storm. No hungry person questions the politics of the one dispensing the soup into bowls. No suffering man or woman refuses help from a person who can relieve their pain based on their ethnicity. My point: our prejudices can be broken by the bonding that comes from pain and suffering – it doesn’t go as deep as people think. One of the gifts of pain and trouble is that it melts false walls and reminds us that we share the planet with many who may not look like us on the outside, but they are the same as us on the inside.

Let me be painfully clear: racism is ungodly. Prejudice is a devil-sponsored thought.

Jesus didn’t die less for a yellow man or black man than for a white man. If you think that, you don’t understand God’s Word and you don’t share God’s heart. God weeps for lost men around the world. His heart is to send the Gospel, to rescue the perishing. An African village is as much holy ground when surrendered to Jesus as any township in the west. Cambodia is not less important from the standpoint of the Gospel, they are simply less blessed with the exposure we have had – and that should tug our hearts.

The Pained Sick (17:12-13):

Jesus was nearing a small village, and the leprous and sick men who lived outside the village, (because they were unclean) approached the Master. They cried out and begged Him to have mercy on them. His reputation as a healer preceded Him (12-13).

The ministry of Jesus is built on His ability to heal our brokenness and our confession of need. Unbelieving people don’t receive Jesus because they don’t see Him as Who He is – the Perfect Son of God able to save. Arrogant people don’t come to Jesus – because they don’t think they need to – but have deluded themselves into thinking that they are moral enough to deserve a favorable judgment, or that no such judgment exists.

Consider for a moment the lives of these lepers. They lived apart from other in constant misery and rejection. Torah Law restricted them from daily interactions with family and friends: Leviticus 13: 46 “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothed and let the hair of his head be disheveled.’’ They were to LOOK the part, so that no one would mistake them for NORMAL PEOPLE. Add to that, they understood their reality to be because God smote them. How painful to live a life apart from others, believing God had rejected you. The physical agony was accompanied by the mental anguish of Divine rejection.

The Provided Savior (17:14):

Jesus turned and addressed them, instructing them to get up and go to show themselves to the priests, as though they were healed (14).

In the most basic sense, these broken men were reaching out for some glimpse of mercy and compassion from the Master. They wanted Him to SEE them, and have pity on them. One who seeks pity has been broken by the load, and is searching for some small scraps of acknowledgment and affirmation from their wrecked world. From the ashes they cry and hope someone will hear. Fortunately, there is a Savior. There is a LISTENER. He has heard their cry, and He is able to save.

He could simply have waved a hand and said “Be healed!” Yet He chose to give them an opportunity to remove the mantle of victimization they had woven over their broken bodies. He told them to turn and find their priest, and show him their cleansing – even before it happened. Only in obedience as they went, did they get their healing. They were to take a step of obedience BEFORE they saw the results of obedience – that is God’s way. When we are only willing to obey when we can see the end – that is not trust or faith. God will hear you, but He expects you to walk in His Word BEFORE you see the benefit. He wants you to be faithful in your marriage when the times are tough – and later He will bless you for it. He wants you to stay in His Word when you aren’t feeling anything – and later the Word implanted will be a rescue to you.

There comes a time in most everyone’s life when they will cry out for the tender mercy of the Lord. One Pastor wrote: “A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. “But I don’t ask for justice, the mother explained. “I plead for mercy.” “But your son does not deserve mercy, Napoleon replied. “Sir”, the woman cried, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for”. “Well, then”, the emperor said, “I will have mercy. And he spared the woman’s son”.

Jesus doesn’t approve trials and troubles in our lives without purpose – but the troubles come like rough wrapping around a great gift. It is a gift to be brought to an end of self – for it is there one discovers the Savior. He waits to be wanted, but the satiated have no need of Him – only the hungry.

The Pleased Samaritan (17:15-18):

One man, a Samaritan in this mixed group, saw the healing happen in and upon himself, and exclaimed praise to God, returning to Jesus with a heart filled with thanksgiving and praise (15-16). As the healed man bowed before the Master, Jesus turned to the disciples and remarked: “There were ten, but only one – and that a Samaritan – came to say thanks for what God has done in them.” (17-18)

Here is the heart of the incident. A broken man was excited about being made whole, but that wasn’t the most profound part of his exclamation. He understood something new about God – and that gave rise to his praise.

In difficulty, we respond with complaint – because we see the problems, and not the shaping hand of a loving God behind the approval to allow the problems to touch our lives. We live in the delusion that life should work well – even in our fallen world. We come to the wrong belief that comfort is a right, and that our personal advancement and prosperity are major objectives of God. We don’t see the bigger plan, because we make ourselves too large a player in the plan.

Though Samaritans were considered by Jews as strangers to God and apart from the commonwealth of Israel, this man didn’t care – He still approached Jesus. The truth is that anyone can come to Jesus – but only if they will first humble themselves and recognize that God sent His Son. They must remove the stain of their old identity – like the “LEPER” and put on their new new – “PRINCE”. If our first identity will be found in Him, we will be made whole.

The man needed to LOSE something to GAIN wholeness – and so do we. We must lay aside the stains that marked our lives and not allow our sin to NAME us. It is important that our Master’s blood, our Lord’s favor, our God’s grace displace all our past. We are no longer an alien, a stranger, a lost man or woman – we are a child of the King. It is preceded by repentance and its transforming power is wrought in change within and without. No man or woman truly encounters God’s grace and salvation and is left unchanged.

The Perfect Solution (17:19):

Jesus turned and told the man to go along to the priest, his faith had made him whole again (19).

There is an old story about a devout king who was deeply disturbed at the ingratitude of his subjects eating without a word of thanks to God. He saw this particularly among the privileged in the royal court. On a certain day he asked for the kitchens to prepare a large banquet for the nobles. When he and his guests were seated, he told them to wait before they began. Quietly they all watched as a beggar was shuffled into the hall by royal guards. The man in rags sat down at the king’s table, and promptly gorged himself with food. When he finished, without saying a word to anyone, he arose and left the banquet hall. The guests were sickened by the display, and furiously requested the king to send guards to seize the beggar for his ingratitude. The king replied, “This beggar has done only once to an earthly king what each of you does three times each day to our Heavenly King. You sit at a table and eat until you are satisfied. Then you walk away without recognizing God, or expressing one word of thanks to Him. How is it that you do not deserve also to be arrested?”

The Gospel records six times Jesus said to someone “your faith has made you whole”. What does that mean? Is there some inner quality that brings about healing? If I lack this quality, would Jesus be blunted in healing me? Is it not His power that brings about healing?

All of these are valid questions. Let us first acknowledge that what the Bible means by FAITH is not what some believe. It is not blind belief in the unexplained or unknowable. That isn’t what the Bible means by faith at all. The term means simply: “Seeing things through God’s description, not through natural appearance.” Faith is seeing it the way God says it is. It is so trusting His knowledge that we allow Him to take us by the hand and lead us as though we were completely blind. In our own inability to see the whole of any situation, we follow God’s Word and His Spirit that we may see through His eyes.

Don’t forget there is a clear distinction between healing and wholeness. Healing refers to deliverance from physical ailments, and wholeness signifies a change on a deeper level – a transformation of the inner man on a spiritual level. The great benefit of the man’s leprosy was that it broke him, so that when the Savior came by – he was fully prepared to acknowledge his need and extended his hand. Jesus met him on the road, but he also met his need within. Has He done that for you as well?

Real thankfulness isn’t just about sentiment, it is about recognition of the truth.  If He has changed you, perhaps you recognize what the hymn writer expressed when thankfulness spilled out of his grace-transformed heart. He could sense Heaven and the stirring sentiments of the seasoned saints in 10,000 different tongues that cried out to thank the Lord for his salvation. Join the chorus of the Redeemer’s praise, and He will show you something new of Himself. Remember, real thankfulness is not about reveling in the things God has given, nor about celebrating the way He has fixed my problems – it is about recognizing WHO God truly is, and what He is truly like!

The School of Joy: "Defeating the Resistance" – Philippians 1:13-30

As Christmas approaches, you will see and hear the word JOY much more often than you do at any other time of year. If you are fortunate, you will sing, “Joy to the World” and be reminded of God’s great gift to us, or you will be reminded of Jeremiah the bullfrog – but that is a whole other story. You may hear songs exclaim: “How great our Joy!” With all the talk about joy – you would think that people had a clear understanding of what it actually is, but the sad fact is that they do not. Biblically speaking, joy isn’t happiness – you can be joyful at the funeral of a friend, but deeply sad at the same time. The Biblical understanding of JOY is closer to a celebration of assurance. That assurance is not in circumstance, but rather in the character of the Sovereign One that holds all my life’s circumstances carefully in His hand. Joy is rooted in understanding that God is on the throne, and that He is not worn out by being there. He is on the job and He is fully engaged. More than that, joy is the assurance that He knows me and my needs – and He isn’t forgetful. He is the very essence of good, and I am on His heart and in His mind.

In our first lesson from Philippians, we read the opening words of the letter, and found that “Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice. The Apostle Paul had to learn JOY. He had to practice at it – and so do we. How should we do it? We saw seven lessons we glanced at the words of God’s Spirit pressed from the quill of the Apostle:

• He laid down any expectation but that of a slave of Jesus (1:1).
• He humbly recognized his need for the others on his team (1:1).
• He trusted wholly the process of God’s grace that leads to God’s peace (1:2).
• He openly recited a litany of God’s blessings (1:3-5).
• He celebrated the power of the Gospel in others – both near and far (1:6).
• He identified the power that came from tying hearts together in Christ (1:7-8).
• He practiced surrender through prayer –exchanging his broken perspective for God’s whole view (1:9-11).

Now as Paul continued his journey to know, reflect and even attempt to spread JOY to other believers, he had to identify something within, and allow God to defeat it. He had to know and face the fact that there is a strong resistance of the flesh to be molded by the Potter’s hand. Do you have that problem?

Have you ever tried to mold a shape from dough? If the dough has any yeast within, it will grow and change shape after you have handled it. Leave alone your tiny creation and it will become, by completely natural processes, a chubby and unformed version of your former creation. Only an oven can stop the changes. If you really think about it, we are not altogether different from that dough. Deep within our heart, every believer has fallen “natural” tendencies to take the shaping work of the Spirit of God and push out all the forming work that has been done. We exert ourselves and in our flesh we often undo the changes that God is making because of a hunger to regain control by recalling our old systems, our old methods of doing things. Surrendering to the hand of the One who would reshape us and mold us is not easy – but it has incredible benefits and can create exciting open doors for God to use our lives! I can only really spread joy when I am in the Master’s hands and stop wrestling with His shaping work in my life. Our text for this lesson will show a truth that we need to grasp:

Key Principle: Paul’s surrendered heart allowed God to reposition him in places he would not choose to go, but could be most useful to God’s service.

Paul sat in a cell for several years, and then moved to a house arrest near the Tiber River in Rome. Nearly five years of life slipped away as he sat under bonds. He waited for the Master to use Him in God’s chosen way in God’s selected moment. Surrender is truly a self-defining act – it admits limitation in understanding and trust in God’s sovereign plan. I will only ever be what God wants me to be when I recognize that I don’t fully know what that is – and I don’t have the ability in the flesh to get there. As he wrote the Philippians, he said, “I wanted to start churches, but God wanted to reach prison guards. I wanted to teach believers, but God used my prison bars to embolden them without ever seeing my face.” What is at the center of surrender? It is nothing less than excelling in trust in God while admitting my trust in self must be torn away.”

Paul sat in a cell and waited for God to use Him in God’s chosen way. Surrender is a self defining act – it admits limitation in understanding and trust in God’s sovereign plan. I will only ever be what God wants me to be when I recognize that I don’t fully know what that is – and I don’t have the ability in the flesh to get there. I must learn trust to practice surrender.

How did Paul learn to let God shape him?

As Paul wrote Philippians, he sat in his room and waited for another visitor from Colossae. He was used to sitting long hours by now. His days by the sea in Caesarea as he awaited questioning taught him well. God takes His time, and God knows best. Think back with me to Paul’s life over the last half decade before he wrote our text in Philippians. Don’t rush this… because the slow move of God’s hand is part of the point of the lesson…

First there was the questioning of Procurator Antonius Felix, five years before. Felix was a man of Paul’s own age.

• He was given the position of Procurator by Emperor Claudius, who was also responsible for introducing him to his first wife – one Drusilla of Mauretania – a maternal cousin of the Emperor. Claudius arranged for them to marry in Rome around 53, about the time Paul was on his second mission journey.

• By the time Paul met him, Felix had divorced his first wife – after her family connection was no longer of political help to his political career because Claudius had died in 54 and Nero was now hailed as Emperor. Felix dropped her and married another woman- this one also named Drusilla (that way he didn’t have to change the dishes and stationary). The second wife was a Judean princess – the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I (whose death “smitten of worms” was recorded in Acts 12).

• Felix’s second wife, we’ll call her “Drusilla II” like a boat named at a nearby dock – became an interesting historical footnote. She and two children perished along with the many of the inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 CE. Drusilla was one of only two major figures reported as dying in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the other being Pliny the Elder. Little did she know when she sat in Acts 24:24 on a judgment seat before Paul, that one day Paul’s Master would sit in permanent judgment over her life – abruptly ended by a volcano.

Paul met Felix at a time of transition for the Procurator. His term of service was nearly completed, and his Imperial patron was no longer on the throne. Nero was a good Emperor for his first years (before 59 when he killed his mother). Felix was facing an uncertain future with a new Judean bride. Would he be called back to Rome? He probably didn’t know. This was a time for uncertainty. You can hear it when reading the New Testament account. Luke reminds us of the time Paul and Felix met:

Acts 24:24 But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” 26 At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. 27 But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

Paul prayed fervently, met with Antonius Felix, and then saw his hope fade as he was sent back to his cell, time after time. The frequent discussions may have helped Paul to interject the Gospel, but didn’t get him out of prison. At the same time, they were the closest to LIFE that Felix would ever get. He heard of Christ. He heard of a life free of facing the JUDGE of man. His greed and his fear blinded him – just as it has so many others since.

Felix wasn’t so different from many people we meet today. Any discussion of things like “righteousness”, “self control” and “judgment to come” make them squirm. They want the Gospel of God’s love – not the one that requires them to deny themselves and take up His cross daily to follow Him. I understand. I want to be selfish now and glorified later – but that isn’t Christianity. At least Felix lived when it was clear that you either needed to surrender life and choice to Jesus – or not claim to be a follower. Today, across the airwaves and in many a book there is a “cheap grace” Gospel that pervades – a “have it all now” and “get it all later” version. That teaching isn’t the Gospel of the Apostles – it is a much more modern adaptation. It is not about sacrifice or loving service of Jesus, but about personal greed and comfort. If the Gospel of ME were available at the time of Procurator Felix, he may well have signed on to the Jesus movement – but it would have been the same cloaked self-centered faith that it is today – not a real heart transformation that leads to following Jesus Christ.

Don’t back down when people try to suggest that a Gospel that includes surrender is not the real Gospel. Look at what Paul was sharing. Ask why he didn’t just emphasize what Felix could get from Jesus, but rather what was truly at stake without surrender of the heart and life. Paul’s Gospel wasn’t so easy, and we need to be careful that ours isn’t either. Some would call what I am saying heresy – but it is right within the black and white words of Luke’s account in Acts 24:25. The words of Paul to a lost man were not simply about self-benefit and self-acquisition. It wasn’t all – “You get Heaven… and you get blessing… and you get healing… and you get…” WAIT! The words were about “righteousness”, “self control” and “judgment to come”. Let’s admit that truth isn’t any more popular now than it was in the beginning of the move of the Gospel. When the truth became too hard to swallow, many simply adapted the message to something more palatable. Voila! We have a Christian message that guarantees heaven but requires nothing of surrender! I can both claim Christ and live for self. The only problem is it doesn’t please God and it doesn’t save – because it isn’t real.

The Gospel is this: I cannot work to get to Heaven, because my sinfulness isn’t just about my actions, but about my judicial guilt before a perfect God. Jesus, the Perfect Son of God put on skin and took my place in judgment. He paid my deserved penalty of sin – all of it. I need only acknowledge the gift by truly opening my life to becoming His man or woman – to be a vessel of His will and His choices – and He will gladly receive me before His Father when my life on earth is through. It will be a journey, not an instant surrender. There will be setbacks and I will never be perfect. That isn’t the point. Christians aren’t perfect, they are on a journey to surrender to the nail scarred hands of the Savior, just as He surrendered His life for us. To ask Him to come into my heart so that He may elevate ME is not the message of the Christian church. Our message is about the exaltation of HIM in light of what He has done for us. Surrender is essential to the message, but it is quickly being tossed out of the faith in favor of a new adaptation called the “Gospel of self benefit”.

Back in his cell, Paul sat. Time passed slowly… The second set of questions came from the replacement Roman procurator of Provincia Iudaea, one Portius Festus. He took office near the end of 58 CE, and Provincial coinage changed in the year 59 CE. As Festus rose to the office, Emperor Nero was sinking to new lows. He had his mother Agrippina murdered, and he stole away a Roman general’s wife, and took one Poppeia Sabbina of Pompeii as his new bride. Strangely enough, one of the houses that you can visit today that has been entirely uncovered and excavated is her family home. The Empire was very likely beginning to recognize the uncertainty of the future as the great philosopher and writer Seneca was called for less and less as Nero’s tutor and advisor.

• Festus not only faced the shifting sands of Rome, but inherited problems regarding the creation of civic privileges for Jews under Roman rule. The status of Jews was a constant problem. Festus wanted the Jewish leadership to be quiet, and that didn’t play well into Paul’s possibility of release. In fact, it imperiled him. I suspect he knew it, and that is what caused him to turn down the offer for a trial in Jerusalem. He knew he would be killed on the road to the Holy City, and never make it to trial.

• If he DID get to the Temple, internal fighting made any trial there uncertain, as the increasing controversy and tension between Herod Agrippa II and the Temple priests in Jerusalem bedeviled Festus’ administration. No doubt Paul heard of the troubles, even while imprisoned in Caesarea.

The Apostle Paul stood before Festus. Festus sought to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem for trial; Paul appealed to the Emperor. Luke recorded it this way:

Acts 25:1 Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. 2 And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul, and they were urging him, 3 requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way). … 6 After he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. 7 After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him which they could not prove, 8 while Paul said in his own defense, “I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.” 9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?” 10 But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know. 11 “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.” 12 Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.”

The lessons in the school of JOY did not take place in a Paul that was half asleep. He was aware of the danger lurking below the surface. He trusted God to do what was best, and at the very same time kept his eyes peeled and mind working to make the best choices he could. Believers aren’t lacking trust when they are planning – they are rehearsing with God the possible outcomes and trying to sense His direction. Paul faced a CHOICE about how to move forward. He didn’t go back to his cell and wait for God to divinely intervene. God HAD loosed him from jail before, long ago in Philippi. Rather, he looked at the options and tried to discern what would be the best direction based on his honest understanding.

I get nervous around Christians that believe that no matter WHAT they choose, God will always intervene in a way that makes their lives easier. That just isn’t how a mature believer should think. God loves me, but His highest agenda isn’t my ease – it is my surrender and His message of life. Paul chose ROME because it seemed the best way to get the Gospel to the place where all roads led. He wanted it to hit home, and then be spread from that place.

A third set of questions was now posed to Paul. It is hard to tell from the record how Paul felt about the apologies and defenses he was forced to give. From the Epistles it seems like Paul knew it was not a CHORE, but an OPPORTUNITY. That is the sense we get, especially from the first chapter of Philippians.

The defense before Herod Agrippa II recorded in Acts 25 and 26 is rich, but time won’t permit us to really address it in this lesson. Suffice it to say that Paul offered a defense of the Gospel so ringing that Agrippa replied that he was “almost convinced”. By the time Paul sat on the Tiber River, he had been through a shipwreck, a snake bite, and a tin of official questioning. His freedom was GONE. His travels curtailed. He was a man on a leash.

Tell me that Paul never had a moment with his inner struggle to surrender. I don’t believe it. He learned TRUST by God’s molding work of love.

He fought the questions that arise in the immature heart. At the heart of many un-yielded Christians is a lack of trust. Does God really know what is best for me? Look at what the surrendered and matured man of God could write:

Philippians 1:12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

• It looks like I have been out of the work for years, but the work has grown in new ways (1:12). (God has the right to set me aside from traveling and put me in a locked room, if that is where He wants to work) – the implications of a slave’s expectations.

• I wanted to start churches, but God wanted to reach guards (1:13). Paul was like any other man serving Christ – great plans filled his mind. Yet, God moved him from the front line of service to the cells of jails and now to a small house by the Tiber – waiting. The great struggle of surrender in the believer is nowhere clearer than when his will is powerfully subjugated by God’s overruling hand. God knows the plan and I don’t – I know only my small piece of the puzzle.

• I wanted to build believers by discipleship, but God wanted to make my life an example to stir others (1:14).

Look at the things Paul found out about a surrendered heart…

Paul’s surrendered heart allowed him to look past the petty nonsense that easily engulfs others.

Philippians 1:15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Jealousy thrives in every community, even the community of faith. Some will be angered by any success of others – because they have an selfish heart. One problem with selfishness is that it blinds from God’s real direction. Paul saw his appointment from God – it was clear and real to him. At the same time, as a mature believer, Paul lost no sleep trying to discern the motives of other men – but let their works be measured by God alone. He rejoiced in anything that he could rejoice in. He didn’t draw back his hand from instructing people – his letters are filled with specific injunctions against believers behaving badly. At the same time, he didn’t run around looking for a fight. He wanted to celebrate the proclamation of Christ more than he wanted to find what was wrong with everyone else.

Paul’s surrendered heart opened him to anticipation rather than fear.

Philippians 1:19 for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20 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. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Surrendered people may not think everything is coming up roses, but they are also not glum people that preach gloom and doom. The plan has not left the Master’s hands. He is very much in control. Understanding that truth is at the heart of JOY. Paul didn’t know if he would live or die – but that wasn’t the point. He KNEW the Gospel would change the world. His only point of anxiousness, and many of us really understand this one, was that HE didn’t want to drop the ball and become a weak link in the chain. He wanted to be bold and face both life and death. He wanted to apprehend in his heart the real meaning of the Resurrection – that Jesus “rendered inoperative” death itself. Facing the sword, he didn’t want to whimper, but to face his own mortal end with an air of Christ’s victory.

Paul’s surrendered heart pushed him from no-win to no-lose thinking.

Philippians 1: 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Believers don’t face a lose-lose life. We will either live today, and have opportunity to exalt our King, reach our neighbor, celebrate a sunrise and sunset, sing for God’s goodness to us – or we will leave this life – and stand in His presence complete, our life’s journey over. If we really understand that, we should have the biggest smiles in the town – for to live or to die is a great opportunity to serve and celebrate the Savior.

I love the grumpy old man who said: “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” That was the Roman orator Cicero in 55 BCE! Things aren’t even close to better now, so who wants to put their trust in society and government?

Why do we labor so hard to be encouraged and seem so easily discouraged? Do we not DESIRE to honor the Savior with the day we have? Are we unsure of what life will be when the body dies? Is the problem that He hasn’t spoken or that I haven’t believed? I suspect we know the answer. It is time for believers to recognize they have been duped into measuring life by material prosperity and not by things that are real. Nothing you buy on “Black Friday” goes past the black hearse at the end of your life. It isn’t real. It isn’t the root and source of happiness. It is just more STUFF. If it helps you be what God wants you to be for Him today, then it is a tool in your hand. If it doesn’t – then it is at least a distraction and at most an idolatrous thing. If we measure life from the wrong perspective, we will be negative when we should not be – for God has told us both in this life and in the next what to expect. Life for the believer is one of anticipation – not despair.

If the dollar falls, my faith will keep soaring until I am home. If my health fails, things will hurt more, and will no doubt cost more – but my life is not dependent on this frail body – but on an ever loving, ever giving, ever generous, ever blessing Father.

Paul’s surrendered heart allowed him to focus on the others in his life and their needs.

Philippians 1:25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.

I am always amazed when I visit people who I know are experiencing intense pain, and they ask about me and my family. I feel small when I stand next to those who have graduated from the school of God’s amazing “other person focused” curriculum. Mature believers care about the others in the room. They aren’t trying to constantly re-direct the focus back to themselves – that isn’t how they live!

Paul truly believed that he would return to them though he was about to stand before a man whose picture is found in the dictionary under the word “unstable”. Nero was at least unpredictable and at most despicably cruel and heartless. Paul was confident, because he was looking at the church of Philippi and projecting the hope that God would allow him yet another time to sit with them, love on them and share with them. Surrender and self run in opposite directions, and Paul was not his own. You can hear it in his words.

Paul’s surrendered heart gave him confidence that God was always working His plan in the best way.

Philippians 1:27 Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28 in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. 29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

Those who lack surrender lack trust. They lack confidence that God is capable, qualified and truly GOOD. That lack robs the essential elements of JOY from them. They keep score on wrongs committed against them, and bump up their own score on righteousness. They whimper, whine and complain, and then sing hymns of faith on Sunday like an opera star.

Look at Paul’s words. He PUSHED the people to LIVE CHRIST, not just talk Christ. They weren’t supposed to relax the Gospel because of his imprisonment – they were to step it up! They were to anticipate that God was GOOD even if persecution and suffering increased. They were not to back away from the faith because their leader was under arrest and facing Nero – they were to see this as God being faithful, and Paul being tested. They were not supposed to shut off the possibility of harder times ahead – they were to take JOY from serving Jesus no matter what came next. They were to learn what God taught Paul after long hours of sitting under arrest…

A surrendered heart allows God to reposition us in places we would not choose to go, but those places may be the most useful ones for God’s service.

Strength for the Journey: "Radical Commitment" – Numbers 6

The line between courage and foolishness is sometimes quite blurry. I cannot imagine why anyone would walk a tightrope between two tall buildings. It seems insane. Yet the story of Man on Wire is all about just that very idea. The official trailer to the movie said this:

On August 7th, 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the New York World Trade Center’s twin towers. After dancing for nearly an hour on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. This extraordinary documentary incorporates Petit’s personal footage to show how he overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges to achieve the artistic crime of the century.”

Whatever you think about Petit’s idea of walking 110 stories above the ground, you have to admit one thing – the guy was committed. Not only was he committed enough to work at it for months – he was committed enough to trust his life to be dangled by a tiny wire. He trusted his feet to remain steady amidst the perilous cross-winds. He trusted his abilities and took on what could only be termed RADICAL COMMITMENT.

Rest easy, I am not going to be asking you to walk on a high wire a thousand feet in the air. I am, however, going to speak about a radical kind of personal commitment. God will not call ALL of us to do this – but he may call YOU. Some believers will be engaged, in each moment of each generation, in a radical kind of commitment that will force them to stand out in the face of the rest of us. If they take on the challenge, we will all be changed by their testimony. We will all be moved to recognize their intimacy with God. We will all be the better because of the commitment of a few.

Key Principle: A specific call to radical commitment may come to you from God’s Spirit and God’s Word. If it does, you will know how to respond Biblically and sensitively if you follow the pattern God left for us in His Word.

Radical commitment isn’t something new – it is as old as a walk with God itself. It isn’t for everyone. God has a call for specific people at specific moments. The important thing about the call is that it demands a proper response. Even before we turn to Numbers 6, let me show you a picture of what I am talking about:

Johann Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann, were two young Moravian Brethren from Herrnhut, Germany that were called in 1732 to minister to the African slaves on the Caribbean islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix. One source recalls that when the men were told that they would not be allowed to do such a thing, Dober and Nitschmann offered themselves into the bonds of slavery if this were the only way to make passage – an irreversible offer of extreme commitment to the cause of Christ, on behalf of a forgotten people – the slaves. Another source shared the story that as they boarded a ship bound for the West Indies, and the ship pulled away from the docks, loved ones on shore cried out, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!” It is not clear that they actually became slaves. What is clear is that when asked by a court official how they would support themselves, Nitschmann replied, “We shall work as slaves among the slaves.” Another point is also clear. They left Copenhagen on October 8, 1732, and arrived in St. Thomas two months later on December 13. While in the St. Thomas, they lived frugally and preached to the slaves, and they had significant success. Other Moravian missionaries continued the work for fifty years afterward, and Moravian missionaries baptized 13,000 converts before any other missionaries arrived on the scene. Few direct quotes of the two men survive, but one is particularly moving: “Even if no one should be benefited, and no fruits follow my efforts, yet I will go, for I must obey my Savior’s call.” – Leonard Dober

These Moravians, and many others like them, were called to radical commitment. They vowed by the move of God’s hand, to do the extraordinary – and they felt that any less was blatant disobedience to God’s call in and to them. Long before the Moravians, long before the ministry of the Cross of Jesus – there was a pattern for radical commitment. It is found in a group that were called NAZARITES – those ordinary Israelites that were impressed by God to offer a special vow to complete a specific act in accordance with their call. Often they appeared quite radical – but they were following God to do extraordinary things. The pattern of that call, and the proper response is the subject of today’s lesson.

What should a “radical commitment” look like?

It is a commitment that originated from God and is in line with God’s revealed truth (6:1-2).

Number 6:1 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the LORD…” The text offers four truths that help define this radical commitment:

The Lord gave the specific rules – that means that He is acknowledging the burden that came from Him in His people. Because He regulates the practice, such commitments must be according to His parameters.

The person making the vow was individually led to do so. No discussion is given to how the man or woman received the burden to make the vow – so it appears it is not the same for everyone.

The issue of the rules was to regulate not call them to a vow. Because I have a burden for something I am not more spiritual than others – I am just called to play a specific role in what God is doing.

The vow (neh’der) can be for personal service, or the giving of a special offering (votive) for a season. It is always given to the Lord and no other, and done for His purposes and no other reason. Jesus warned that there were those who gave “to be seen of men”. Mt. 6 and Mt. 23 both offer this insight from Jesus: “People who are seen of men because they have desired to be – have the only reward they will receive for their sacrifice right here and now.”

The issue of Numbers 6:1-2 then is this: God may call a certain man or woman to a radical commitment from a burden within for a time and for His purpose. We should not feel deprived if we are not so called, but be readily responsive if we are called. Most importantly, we must check the vow against the Scripture and it must fit into the priorities of God as stated in His Word. God is absolutely consistent: He will NOT call you to do something that He has placed outside the boundaries of proper ministry. Care should always be taken to check a burden against the pattern of the Word of God.

I remember when I was a freshman in Bible College, a speaker came from Inner City Ministries in Chicago. He shared about the terrible conditions of people in his part of the city, and how desperately they needed help. I remember coming back to the dorm and thinking, “What am I doing here? I can help! Why not quit school and go right to that area and start working?” Then one of my older room mates came and sat down to talk with me. He explained that God told me to be at school, and the needs would wait until I was made ready. He spoke of it in terms of a surgeon, whose impulse to help needed to be matched by training to help. I needed to be calmed down. Vows to the Lord are not just emotional springboards after a stirring Chapel speaker – they are considered, careful and planned.

It requires a disruption from the normal life patterns and setting aside of personal pleasures (6:3). It is a distinct call for a set time, taking extreme care to commit every effort to strict obedience (6:4).

6:3 “…he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes. 4 ‘All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.

Because of the radical nature of a specific commitment to the Lord, it is essential that there be complete and absolute sobriety and clarity of thinking. Doubt will creep in when the vow get hard to accomplish – so it is essential for the duration of the commitment to abstain from anything that would decrease clarity, making it ever clearer that the direction was from the Lord, and for the Lord.

Fences must be set away from any possible violation. Every care should be taken to see to it that no one can even claim an influence beside the Lord – so there is both complete abstention from wine, and even from anything that can be made into wine. Though the person under commitment does not vow to be seen of men, it must be clear that what he has committed to do was not influenced by anything but God’s call.

Apart from the vow, the normative behavior was to be able to drink wine and eat grapes. The point is not that such a normal ancient practice was ungodly – it was not. Note that after the vow, they are specifically told they are allowed to do so: 1: 1:20 ‘Then the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offered by waving and the thigh offered by lifting up; and afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.’

Let me interject here that abstention from alcohol is a perfectly acceptable practice among believers. Since we do not know if another believer was an alcoholic, it may be wise to abstain, at least in front of that person. Yet, abstention was not the norm in the Biblical period. We must guard against any haughty spirit that can be found in us because we abstain from normative practices. If God has told you to stay away from anything alcoholic – don’t even take cough medicine with alcohol in it. We will all understand. It is God’s call on the body you live in – but it is only a loaner body. You must do what He tells you to do.

On the other hand, what He specifies for you is personal, and cannot be applied to everyone in every place. I recently dealt with a woman that knew God told her not to wear pants of any kind. She was to wear dresses and skirts. She wouldn’t even were pajamas that had pants. The problem was that she was busy trying to get every other woman to stop wearing them – and I cautioned her that she had no business trying to do so based on Scripture. Her understanding of God’s call in life was no more general than her personal life. The Scriptures offer direction and the Spirit speaks to each of us through the Word. We need not make lists for one another that are longer than stated Scripture. Follow the Word on what is stated. Ask the Spirit for what is left to license. I have every confidence that if you are truly willing to follow God in all things – you won’t go wrong.

It should so obviously dominate your life that every aspect of it is affected – from appearance to daily practices (6:5).

6:5 …‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.

Most vows and covenants required a symbol. We are physically oriented people. That is why we baptize people – because the work of the Spirit is invisible, but the world we live in is visible. We have a marriage ceremony to represent something that happens in Heavenly places as two become one.

The distinct look of one under a vow also helped others to encourage them to walk uprightly. When someone undertook a Nazarite vow, you wouldn’t offer them a glass of wine or a grape. You would see their appearance, judge their commitment, and help them accomplish it. Believers should be seeking ways to encourage each other to walk with God in the call He has made for each of us. Don’t try to get the other guy to explain all that he is going through with God. Suffice it to say that he is working out something in his walk, and God is leading him. Help him with it; don’t hinder it.

God expressed no desire to have those who were following Him walk around wild-eyed saying strange things. At the same time, you don’t know what God is taking another brother or sister through. We see only what they DO, God sees WHY they do what they do. Be encouraging to one another, pulling each other up with words of encouragement – not pulling each other down with words of discouragement.

It will restrict even normal commitments and desires – and entrust them into the hands of the Lord for that season (6:6-8).

6:6 …‘All the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead person. 7 ‘He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 ‘All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.

Separation to God’s work for the specific time of the vow takes one out of the normal loop of life. We should not enter any vow lightly, because God takes them very seriously. While in the vow, there may be things we would otherwise normally be responsible to do, that we cannot do. This should be considered before we take on the vow to accomplish something.

There are seasons in life when it would be unwise to take on a vow to the Lord –as in when a parent is quite ill and failing. Because that is true, it was important for the Lord to explain exactly what He desired concerning that time under the vow.

One of the greatest privileges of a son was to be the one to sensitively and lovingly care for the body of his parent in burial. It is a strange concept to us, but it was an honor for them. I have only one memory that compares – when I carried the body of a former colleague out after his death the hearse that was to take him to the funeral home. I will always feel that was a special honor for me.

In this time of a vow, a man forfeited that honor, and any other honor that he would anticipate – because the vow took precedence over everything else. It became his passion – his duty and his focus. Jesus warned that there would be radical commitment involved in following Him in Luke’s Gospel:

Luke 14:25 Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

Jesus pressed the disciples and called on them to count the cost of following Him. Yet, not everyday are we called to live the extremes. We have to reckon that such a time may come, and we must be readied to know what comes first on the list of priorities.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time when people measure rights more than responsibilities – privileges more than priorities. We have had the wind of culture at our back for generations, and we have come to expect much more out of life than the disciples of the early years of the faith. We consider any derision in public a form of persecution. Yet, we know little of the days of real peril known to the early church.

Under Emperor Nero, Peter was crucified upside down at the circus grounds west of the city of Rome. Paul was beheaded south of Rome. Domitian is recorded as having executed members of his own family generally assumed to have been Christians. Under Emperor Trajan, Christians were outlawed but not deliberately sought out. Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic had the Church Father Polycarp killed in Asia Minor. Under Emperor Septimus Severus (202-210) the famous martyrdoms of Perpetua and Felicity were carried out. Perpetua (born around 181) was a 22-year old married noble and a nursing mother. Her co-martyr Felicity, an expectant mother, was her slave. They were thrown before wild cows and trampled, and when they did not die, they gave each other an embrace of peace and then helped the hesitant executioner find the mark with his sword. There are thousands of other stories – all like this one. Were they different than we are? Not really. They met Christ and He changed them. They knew He was Savior, and they gave all they could. Why do we expect less? We can and should HOPE for better, but should we EXPECT better?

We may yet see days ahead where extraordinary commitment and radical devotion are called for again. I pray it is not so – but I recognize it is fully possible. It is happening in some places today, and it could happen where we are in days to come. Christianity cannot be indelibly linked to temporal success – that is not its message. The Gospel is about salvation from sin – an abundant life that may seem distant to a Christian martyr, but they die with confidence that God hears every cry, sees every tear, and knows every sacrifice.

Only in the most extreme providential situations can it be broken, and then it requires a renewal to the commitment (6:9-12).

6:9 …‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. 10 ‘Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting. 11 ‘The priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall consecrate his head, 12 and shall dedicate to the LORD his days as a Nazirite, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days will be void because his separation was defiled….

I love that the Word of God is tremendously practical. God offers this to the one under the vow: If the man beside you keels over dead – you must break your vow and care for his needs. This was a call to the Priest and Levite of the Good Samaritan story. People who have no help, must be helped. Set aside the vow – there is a way to renew and start again says the Lord. Do you see the shocking irony? I must forfeit caring for my father and mother, but take care of the stranger that has no one else to care for him? How can that be? It is the way God works. He knows our desire is for our family, but His providence overrules our right.

The technical part of how to present the specific Nazarite offering is given (6:13-21):

We will not address the specifics of the way to offer the Nazarite sacrifice given in verses 13-21 in this lesson, but suffice it to say that every aspect of the separation and cleansing are carefully prescribed. God did not ask men to take on the seriousness of the day without ample instruction as to what they must do and not do. He is a precise God. (6:13-21).

Finally, there are unique benefits of the radically committed to the community (6:22-27).

God called some to a vow before Him. He had them make a radical commitment. He nudged their hearts with a prayer burden and a spiritual burning fire within. They felt it. They knew they needed to abandon all other pursuits and follow Him. Their names may seem a blur, buried in the past of ministries and commitments – but they are God’s heroes.

They are men like Adoniram Judson – called to reach into south central Asia, and David Livingstone – called to the dark continent called the “white man’s grave yard”. They were single women like Charlotte (Lottie) Diggs Moon and Amy Carmichael. They were student volunteers like C.T. Studd converted at a Moody evangelistic crusade and sent to China, India and later Africa. There was John R. Mott who reached into China, the likes of Rowland Bingham of the earliest days of Sudan Interior Mission. One writer introduced Mr. Bingham in this way: “Failure, death, and despair marked the beginnings of the Sudan Interior Mission..”.

What made these people surrender comfort and loving care of home to go so very far away? God’s burning passion within. God’s flaming call that pulled them from normal life. There may be a life like that today, right in the sound of my voice. God may be calling someone to extraordinary commitment. I mention their names and feel the words of Hebrews 11: “of whom the world was not worthy.”

Their lives pave a road for the Gospel, and the salvation of the souls of men. Look at the blessing they become to all of the people of God:

6:22 …Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: 24 The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ 27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

Two times in the verses, God’s face is mentioned as turning toward His people. His tender but mighty attentions flow to those who are prepared to “leave it all on the field” for the Lord. Half hearted commitment doesn’t move God’s face – whole surrender does. How can we give Him less if He calls us to lay down all for Him?

A specific call to radical commitment may come to you from God’s Spirit and God’s Word. If it does, you will know how to respond Biblically and sensitively if you follow the pattern God left for us in His Word.

I close with a passage taken out of the book: From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya that slaps my commitment in the face every time I read it, It is a selection about Mary Moffatt, wife of Robert Moffatt:

The Moffats’ early years in Kuruman were filled with hardships. They lived in primitive conditions, their first home being a mud hut, with the kitchen separate from the house. Although Mary was not used to doing heavy domestic work, she adapted to African life remarkably well. She washed clothes by hand in the river and cooked on an open fireplace. She overcame her aversion to cleaning the floors with cow dung and even recommending it: “It lays the dust better than anything and kills the fleas which would otherwise breed abundantly.” Her husband Robert wrote: “Our labors might be compared to the attempts of a husbandman laboring to transform the surface of granite rock into arable land.”

I read this stuff and think to myself – Randy, you are a wimp. Shut up. Just shut up. They ministered in radical commitment – you (I tell myself) need to stand silent as you read their names. Radical commitment may grab your heart. Count the cost, but look even further. At the end of life’s journey, when the whole ordeal is over, the face of the Savior stands at the finish line of life. Run to see Him smile – and the journey will be worth it all!

The School of Joy: "Seven Secrets of a Happy Prisoner" – Philippians 1:1-11

Something horrific happened this past week – many of us felt it deeply. I know that across America this Sunday there will be a collective GROAN in churches that are deeply concerned about some of the issues our nation selected as they exercised their respective votes. Some states voted to allow marijuana to be legalized. Others voted to install in the Senate openly homosexual leaders in the country. Still others defiantly framed “true care for women” as the unmitigated and inalienable right of a woman to terminate a life in her womb – even if it simply because she finds that life inconvenient. We saw people party in the streets for so-called “rights” that are nothing more than the wholesale licensing of moral wrongs into civil rights. While the pundits spoke of an impending fiscal cliff, many believers across the country were in shock –over the seeming moral cliff our countrymen wish to push all of us over. It was sobering, and it was hard for some of you. I truly do understand.

Yet, I stand as a man full of JOY. If joy is defined as “the resolute assurance that God has neither lost interest in me, nor the power to deal with my problems” – I am truly standing in abundant JOY. I cannot hardly contain myself for all the joy of the Lord that I find within me. You surely have a right to question why I should find such joy and speak in this way. I think that MUST be because I have been spending much time with an old friend of mine – the very man who first helped to teach me about a walk of joy. I want you to meet him today – because he will be our real speaker today. He supplied all the material we will study today, because the hand of God was mighty through his pen. His name is Shaul of the city of Tarsus – but many of you know him by his Gentile name – simply Paul. He was a man who learned joy, and taught joy – and I am one of his disciples in this lesson.

The other day, I stood worshiping God in a dark and dank room that was part of the building, many scholars feel, of Paul’s first imprisonment. I stood in a tenement building from the first century in Rome that belonged to Jews who were cloth dyers and heavy cloth weavers. Situated near the Tiber River, at the heart of the ancient city of Rome, Paul found himself under a “light chain” of arrest somewhere close to where I was standing. From those chambers he received visitors according to Acts 28. From those rooms of house arrest he penned a personal letter to a friend named Philemon of Colossae, and also wrote profound and challenging letters to the small but growing churches at Ephesus, Colossae and Philippi. Facing charges that led him to stand before Nero – a man who killed his mother and kicked his pregnant wife to death – there was a reasonable chance that Paul was at his end. Yet, Paul sat on a stool, quill in hand, with unparalleled joy! He was not a man on the ropes, but a man unstoppable with a message contagious. I want you to catch what he knew. I want to restore the joy to those of you who may be over weighed by life’s troubles. I want you to hear Paul’s surrendered heart and be lifted by his courage and gentleness. It is with that purpose we open the pages of our Bible to Philippians 1 and its first eleven verses. As we do, it will become apparent that Paul learned to meet troubles with joy – but he had to learn how to do it. He learned to stare down loss with a buoyant companion- but it did not come without sincere practice. We will see, at long last, a key truth…

Key Principle: Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice.

How do you face setbacks and attacks with joy? What did the Spirit of God offer through the Word that can supply us with the tools to work at life when evil seems to march ahead and good seems to suffer? There are seven lessons that we must carefully learn to bring back the hop in our step that comes with the walk of a confident and joyful believer.

What are the seven lessons?

First, I must learn to live with the expectations of a bond-servant (1:1a).

1:1 “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus…”

The Roman world was full of slaves. In fact, in Rome at the time of Paul, there were on any occasion more slaves than free citizens. Slaves were not “stupid”, and performed much more than manual labor. Some were domestic servants, while others were employed at highly skilled jobs and professions. Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves. In Roman elite culture Greek slaves in particular were often highly educated. Among the lowest classes, unskilled slaves (or sometimes those condemned to slavery as criminal punishment), worked on farms, in sulfur or rock quarry mines, and at mills. Often their living conditions were brutal, and their lives short in these harsh places.

Slaves were considered property under Roman law – they had no legal status as a person at all. Unlike citizens, they could be subjected to physical beatings, sexual exploitation (prostitutes were often slaves), sadistic torture, or summary execution. Their testimony could not normally be heard in a court of law except under extreme conditions – and then only after they were tortured – a practice based on the belief that slaves would be too loyal to reveal damaging evidence unless coerced by painful means. Caesar Augustus imposed a 2 percent tax on the sale of slaves, estimated to generate annual revenues of about 5 million sesterces—a figure that indicates some 250,000 sales. The tax was increased to 4 percent by 43 CE under Claudius. Slave markets appear to have existed in many cities, yet outside Rome the major center was of purchase appeared to be ancient Ephesus. Most new slaves were acquired by wholesale dealers who followed the Roman armies. Julius Caesar once sold the entire population of a conquered region in Gaul, no fewer than 53,000 people, to slave dealers on the spot.

In Rome, slaves were sold at public auction or sometimes in shops, or by private sale in the case of more valuable slaves by Roman fiscal officials called “quaestors”. They may have been put on revolving stands, tagged from sale with a plaque of the slave’s place of origin, health, character, intelligence, education, and other information making them more appealing to purchasers. Because the Romans wanted to know exactly what they were buying, slaves were presented naked. The dealer was required to take a slave back within six months if the slave had defects that were not manifest at the sale, or make good the buyer’s loss. Slaves sold “as is” – with no guarantee – were made to wear a cap at the auction.

Why do I mention all this? Because Paul thought of himself as a SLAVE of Jesus Christ. He was not saying it to suggest that Jesus had treated him badly, or shamed him in some way. He was very likely following the pattern of Dr. Luke, who accompanied him to Rome. It appears, from scholarly research, that Luke must have sold himself as a slave to Paul in order to make the journey. Paul’s status on the journey likely increased in the eyes of the Roman soldiers that accompanied him to Rome – because Paul journeyed with a personal slave-physician.

How can learning the expectations of a slave life help me to be JOYFUL? Because the attitudes of privilege and anticipation of personal comfort rights can damage my outlook when it comes to following my Savior. When I think I deserve better than my Master, I become self oriented, and self concerned – and I lose the real perspective I am to have in life. Jesus had a mind to please His Father – even in His death. Paul had a mind to please his Savior – even unto death. Paul did not write that he deserved his “best life now” – quite the contrary. Paul thought of himself as one who was born to serve his Master – and not himself. Did that mean he did not laugh, sing and celebrate life? No, not at all. It meant that he did not consider it strange when hard things came into his life – and therein is a secret.

When believers focus on their own comforts and pleasures, they grow in self focus. When they pay close attention to the delight of their Master – whether in comfort or in difficulty – they become reflectors of a surrendered heart. God is searching for people who desire to serve Him because they love Him – not those who will serve Him simply for the benefits they receive from His good hand.

Matthew Henry wrote, “Whom Christ blesses the world curses. The heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of woman (Eve) and of the serpent (Devil). Why did Cain hate Abel? Because Abel’s works were righteous.

Persecution is part of Christianity. Jesus warned of it in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. Paul warned Timothy that “…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Timothy 3:12). It is stated, and reminders are placed carefully into Scripture because we are offensive to the world. Righteousness in daily living makes us an offense to people who live for the themselves and feed their flesh. A life surrendered to Jesus Christ convicts those nearby who live for themselves.

Christians need not seek persecution. Conversely, they should neither retreat from it, nor offer retaliation in the face of it, or stand shocked that it has come. Their reward is clearly set in Heaven, and their joy is found in facing earthly strife with the attitude of the early believers who were “…rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Christ].” (Acts 5: 14).

Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were the two American Christian aide workers being held by the Taliban under threat of death during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on America and the resulting U.S. attack on Afghanistan. They open their book, “Prisoners of Hope” with these words, “To the Afghan people whom we so dearly love.” These words reflect the heart of Christians who are willing to risk persecution and perhaps death for the sake of taking the gospel to the lost, those who are without Christ as personal Savior and Lord. They also wrote; “To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your everlasting love healed our hearts and set us free. May we honor and love you with all that we are for all of our days.” (sermon central illustrations).

Blessed abundantly with the “Righteousness” clothed from God’s forgiveness wardrobe, a believer with a surrendered heart does not resist His will, regardless of the pain or cost. They have learned to think as a slave, not as a freedman. They feel blessed to be counted worthy to undergo persecution for the sake of the righteousness of Christ.

Second, I must learn to build a team in my life (1:1b).

1:1b “…To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons…”

A slave and persecution mentality normally makes people suspicious and wary of connection, yet that is a terribly mistake. Jesus warned that His message would divide families, and cause some to turn against their own flesh and blood. Light contrasts against darkness, and makes the darkness look cold and uninviting. As children of light, we are called to adopt the mentality of those who KNOW THEY NEED each other. Christianity CANNOT be properly lived in isolation, nor can it be properly and fully practiced apart from relationship.

Paul knew the people on the ministry team at Philippi, because they openly declared their allegiance to Jesus by putting their time, talent and treasure on the line for the work to grow. Can the same be said of YOU? Seriously, are YOU in the situation that so clearly demonstrates your commitment to Jesus that your accountant can see that? How about your spouse? How about your co-worker? Is your faith obvious, or is it distant and implied?

Paul saw himself as part of the others who were working for the Kingdom. He wrote BOTH the believers, AND their leaders – both their “episkopos” – their overseers and “diakonos” – their congregational servants. He wrote as a kindred spirit.

It takes a team to pull of Christian testimony. It takes leadership, organization, evaluation and most of all – caring. God drew us into team work. The Christian world has far too many ball hogs that want the stands to acknowledge their every accomplishment. The acid test of the Christian is work that is hard, pushing their endurance – that gets credited to someone else. If you can work hard and know that your Master misses no sacrifice, forgets no suffering and remembers every exploit done for Him – without the need for applause this side of Heaven – you understand your call. We serve on teams, and sometimes your roll will not be singled out. Don’t worry, Jesus keeps perfect score!

Third, I must learn the process God uses to draw men and women (1:2).

1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Note that Paul’s salutation was specific and ordered. “Grace” came first, then “peace” followed. The fact is that is always the case in the days of the Gospel’s move forward. Grace is God’s unmerited gift of a personal relationship with him, while peace is the result of a life held tightly in His grip. I need to experience God’s grace before I can know God’s peace – that is the Divine process.

In our day, far too many people are committed to the product without the process. We want a great marriage without the requisite work in the relationship. We want the money that comes from hard work without doing the work itself. We want to play the instrument of life well without the hours of tedious practice on its strings… but we know that isn’t real. Yes, people win the lottery or inherit a whirlwind of money – but most live out their days without the “Publisher’s Clearing House” people showing up at the door. They work, and they save. They try to do their best to keep the job they have. In the process of life, they advance painfully slowly at times – but they do advance. Our faith is no different. We cannot be more committed to the end than the process. We must first accept God’s grace, and learn to live in it – then we will gain His peace.

Note that Paul made perfectly clear the source of these incredible blessings – God the Father, and His Son Jesus – the agent of blessing in a life lost to sin. God loves you. He sent His Son to secure your life and bring you peace where it really counts – between you and Him. No man or woman will ever truly have peace with others until they surrender their heart to God’s rich gracious gift of forgiveness – and then begin to feels the washing over of warm peace that soothes the pain-ridden soul.

Fourth, I must learn to be conscious of God’s hand of blessing and RECITE them (1:3-4).

1:3 “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all…”

Paul was not embarrassed, even under the light chain of arrest and awaiting a hearing, to proclaim himself an incredibly blessed man. He took sheer delight in the relationships that grew out of the expansion of the Gospel. As people came to Christ and asked Him for salvation, the family grew. As the family grew, so the photo portion of Paul’s mental wallet grew. Pictures upon pictures upon pictures of new lives, new marriages, new hope, new smiles. Paul thought about them as he flipped through the plastic sleeves of their pictures affixed in his mind and heart.

He thanked God regularly for each of the men, women and children that were being drawn to Christ through His testimony, and through the testimony of those who were already part of God’s Kingdom. Every time he thought of one he prayed, he sought God’s best for them. He was close to them within, though far away without. He wanted them to know they were on his heart, and in his soul. He spoke words of familiarity and care. “Out of sight, out of mind” is not a Christian thing – quite the opposite. We must intensely follow and fervently pray for those who are spread out in many places, as God burdens our hearts for them.

Fifth, I must learn the encouragement of God’s power through the Gospel (1:5-6).

1:5 “…in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Paul took courage and strength from the move of the Gospel and the power of God saving men and women. We should learn this pattern too. We are too self consumed in our culture. God’s work doesn’t STOP at the edges of our church, our movement or even our country.

A year ago, Dr. Wafik Wahba, Associate Professor of Global Christianity at Tyndale University reported a massive meeting of Egyptians. I had a personal friend in that crowd that verifies what was reported:

An estimated 70,000 Egyptian Christians gathered on November 11, 2011 for praise, worship, and prayer at St. Simon Church in Cairo while millions around the globe followed the event live on TV and the Internet. This was a significant event: It was the largest Christian gathering in the modern history of Egypt…The focal point of the gathering was repentance and forgiveness. The leaders of all churches came together in unprecedented unity to lead thousands of people in worship and prayer for Egypt: “We are here to rend our hearts before the Lord and repent for all our sins,” said one priest as he reflected on Joel chapter 2. Before leading the people in prayers of repentance he reminded all church leaders, Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” – Joel 2:17. Another priest prayed for the healing of the land and for God’s intervention to save the country from a disastrous famine as the Nile is drying up at alarming rate. The powerful time of praise and worship focused on God’s glory being declared, once again, over the land of Egypt with several songs on the theme of “Blessing Egypt”. One of the highlights of the event was a prayer of dedication, wherein the country and its people were covenanted to the Lord to live a consecrated life. (Tyndale online).

Last week one year later, Stoyan Zaimov, a Christian Post Reporter filed this exciting piece:

October 26, 2012|12:19 pm “A massive four-day national prayer event is starting today, Oct. 26, in the desert north of Cairo, and is expected to draw 50,000 people from all over Egypt and reach around 5 to 6 million viewers with television coverage. “What is happening in Egypt this month is truly awesome. In the midst of increased persecution, turmoil and uncertainty, Christians are reaching out to others and fervently praying ‘in such a time as this.’ Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ during this weekend event,” said Jerry Dykstra, Media Relations Director for Open Doors USA. A Christian contact in Egypt who was not identified but spoke with Open Doors, a nonprofit persecution watchdog, explained that the main theme of the event will be to show to Egyptian people how Christ can change lives. “There is no doubt that God is moving in Egypt and showing Himself in mighty ways to many of His children, and to many who are seeking to know Him,” the contact said. “The hunger to know about Jesus and to get to know more about the Christian faith is phenomenal.” He added, “These are, indeed, difficult times we live in today. With all the political, social, economic and religious challenges we have faced here in the last few months, all Egyptians are left with many uncertainties and concerns about the present and future. “But we Christians of Egypt are realizing more and more every day that God is visiting our country with a powerful divine presence, and that the things He is going to do in our country are beyond imagination. This is what we pray for and this is what we are waiting in faith to see happening.”

To walk in the certainty of JOY is to trust the power of God to change lives and renew work. It is to believe that economies are secondary and temporal concerns – hearts of men and women are forever. It is to seek prayerfully the encouragement of God’s harvest in fields all about the globe – instead of looking with disdain and disbelief at the weeds in your own yard. The Gospel IS moving forward, and lives ARE being changed. We can grouse about our own moral downturn, or place it in the context of a God that is ON THE MOVE. Joy cometh in the morning (Ps. 30:5).

Sixth, I must learn the POWER of connected hearts (1:7-8).

1:7 “For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

We talked about TEAM at the end of verse one, but this is something even MORE. Paul openly states that it is RIGHT for him to have them attached to his heart, and it is RIGHT for them to feel the same connection to him. Look at the term “affection” in verse 8. This is the word “splágxnon” – a word for the internal organs. It is a way of figuratively saying “gut-level compassion”; the depth of emotion that is a byproduct of a real and deep relationship. Some of you have been believers for many years, but have to honestly say: “I don’t really feel that about other believers!” Those are hard words, but they are true ones. Let me suggest why that may be the case. Deep relationships form under pressure and strain. Our churches in North America have been largely culturally accepted for generations. Real persecution hasn’t really hit us hard. In places where it costs deeply to belong to Jesus, deep bonds are formed in the lives of believers to one another. We have lived through a time where we had a free hand to be light in our touch to one another. Yet, if the skies truly foretell a gathering of morally dark clouds, the church in America will learn anew the lessons of old – and deep relationships will be forged – leading to a powerful connection to one another.

When openly admitting to being a Christian is costly, the fake fly off. Those who have come to Christ and felt His touch draw toward one another. Frivolous differences flake off. We stop our whining about the silly things. I have traveled the earth and met many believers who have suffered. They are not nearly so picky about each other. They love and support each other with all their respective differences. They have seen the edge of the sword, and they have chosen a family with which to take their stand. It is not done lightly – and Paul stated his connection to the believers at Philippi as witnessed by God Himself. It was profound – because they were born again in the trenches of warfare, not the beds of luxury. A powerful connection is forged when the odds are stacked against us in the flesh, and the work of the Spirit within is all that keeps us strong. Persecution turns believers into magnets – attractive to one another, and deeply committed to standing as one. Prosperity and ease lead us to silly divisions, and frivolous chatter – but that falls away under pressure. In a strange way, believers amid persecution report they feel uniquely BLESSED by one another.

Seventh, I must learn the settling nature of a vibrant PRAYER life (1:9-11).

1:9 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

We have talked about prayer many times, simply because God’s Word speaks of it constantly. We have defined prayer as the exchange of my broken view, forged in weakness, with His perspective. When I truly pray effectively, I leave with a different view than I came. My pleading gives way to rejoicing – for no other plan is better than the one God has prepared for me.

Look closely at Paul’s prayer. It included several elements:

First, he prayed that the love founded among them would grow abundantly – showing itself in real practical knowledge and discernment about how to live righteously. Don’t skip past this, look closely:

• The terms “real knowledge” are from the Greek compound word “epígnōsis” or epí, “on, fitting” which intensifies “gnṓsis” “knowledge gained through first-hand relationship”. It is “contact-knowledge” or appropriate (“apt, fitting”) experience of first-hand practice

• The term for “discernment” is aísthēsis, a feminine noun – the kind of sensible perception that “cuts through” hazy ethical (moral) matters to really “size things up” (used only in Phil 1:9).

Paul was praying that their love would not be blind and theoretical – but experiential and leading toward greater clarity in truth. Believers need THAT BRAND of love to prevail. We need a growing sense of connection that is holy and discerning and practical.

Next, Paul prayed for their ability to prioritize properly the spiritual growth steps that would lead them to maturity. Believers are easily distracted by the lesser lights of philanthropy. We can feed the hungry and build shelters for those in the cold – and that isn’t wrong. At the same time, the Gospel is not a social theory branded to make life on earth better. The Gospel is about the eternal, not simply the temporal. We must care for others in practical ways, but never at the expense of the Gospel or the exclusion of it. Pagans can feed hungry people, and God’s people should do it in direct connection with credibility to underscore the love of God and the rescue message of God’s Word…I am concerned when practical help replaces Gospel commitment. I am disheartened when those who will not profess Christ in their mouth are so quick to pick up a hammer and call that their witness. It is true that we need to care for men and women so that they will see the love of Christ. I simply argue that faith – true saving faith –comes by hearing, and that by the Word of God. No one was ever saved by being fed or clothed apart from the clear presentation of God’s holy Gospel – we must not forget that.

Finally the goal of Paul’s prayer was the fruit of lives committed to Jesus. He wanted them ready to meet Jesus at the sound of the trumpet, carrying baskets filled up with righteous fruit, as an overflow of the work of God’s spirit within.

He wanted love that drove them into experience and practice. He wanted people who could sort out the most important objectives spiritually and stay focused on them. He wanted people overflowing with fruit that came from the Spirit’s work within. He wanted what any real Pastor wants… mature believers that can think and act in Biblically mandated ways at work, at home and in the public square. He would not stay up nights, tossing and turning about this – it was far beyond his control. Rather, he would bow his knees and humbly hand the situation over to the powerful work of the Spirit of the Living God.

Prayer releases me from having to find a way to do what I cannot do. It opens my heart to allow God to show me how small I am, how BIG He is, and how capable His power can be. Prayer brings peace, because it properly moves over to God the things which He says He will care for – and removes me from the Messiah complex of fixing things in my own power.

In the end, Paul had to learn JOY. He had to practice at it. How did he do it?

He laid down any expectation but that of a slave of Jesus.
• He humbly recognized his need for the others on his team.
• He trusted wholly the process of God’s grace that leads to God’s peace.
• He openly recited a litany of God’s blessings.
• He celebrated the power of the Gospel in others – both near and far.
• He identified the power that came from tying hearts together in Christ.
• He practiced surrender through prayer –exchanging his broken perspective for God’s whole view.

Joy is not a random gift; it can be learned – but it takes practice.

The story is told of an old recluse who lived deep in the wooded mountains of Colorado. After his death, his relatives appeared one day from the city to collect his valuables. The arrived to see an old shack with an outhouse beside it. In the main room of the shack, next to a rock fireplace, was an old cooking pot and some rusted mining equipment. A three-legged chair sat beside a cracked table, and a kerosene lamp served as the only centerpiece for the Spartan surface. On the end of the little room was a dilapidated cot with a threadbare bedroll on it.

Within a few minutes of their arrival, a mountain neighbor appeared to watch them pick through the old relics. A few minutes more passed and the family members started to leave. As they placed the few items they found in their car, the neighbor on his mule, asked them: “Do you mind if I help myself to what’s left in my friend’s cabin?” They didn’t hesitate, and thought the man looked just as poor as their old relative turned our to be. “Go right ahead,” they replied. After all, they thought, what inside that shack could be worth anything?

The family drove away. The old friend entered the shack and walked directly over to the table, moved it, and released one of the loose floor boards. He took out all the gold his old friend had discovered over the past 53 years – enough to have built a palace. That old solitary man died with only a single friend knowing his true value. As the friend looked out of the little window, he watched the cloud of dust behind the family car as it disappeared. He remarked to the mule, “They should have got to know him better.” (adapted from Andrew Chan, sermon central illusrations).

Dear ones, I wonder if perhaps many of us are struggling through life because we do not know the resources our Father has for us. Could it be you lack JOY? You can have it, but it will take practice.