Philippians 1:12-26 December 6, 1998
The problem of suffering is a conundrum for the believer more than the non-believer. What philosophers call "theodicy," trying to reconcile the presence of evil in God’s universe, is only a problem for theists. It is a problem for those who believe, first, that God is good and second, that God is in control. The problem of evil, injustice, suffering is an acute problem for Christians. It is more of a problem for us than anyone else. If you are outside the faith, if you don’t believe God is God, then you can’t talk about the problem of evil. If someone does not believe in God, then we must agree with the Marquis de Sade who said, "Whatever is, must be right." If there is no God then evil is just a matter of opinion; this world is all there is. What is wrong with the strong destroying the weak? That is just the way things are. But if we believe that God has established objective moral values, we know there is a standard of good and evil outside the world. We can judge good and evil then. But it is then we must ask the hard questions, "Why would God allow?" We may ask why God allows such awful things. Why did my brother die? Why did my marriage fall apart? Why did I lose my job? Those are hard questions. The questions only become more difficult when we see those who have made sacrifices for the gospel; they’ve served God, they’ve given up career and comforts. They work among the poor and teach the gospel. Then we see them suffer for the Gospel. Why does God seem to find the most strategic way to scuttle His own cause? You wonder if this is His cause, His gospel, His work. Elizabeth Elliot wrote a novel, No Graven Images, in which a lady goes into jungles, devotes her life to a remote tribe to reach them with the gospel. Then she accidentally kills the only person who knows English, Spanish and the native language. Everything in her life is destroyed. All she sacrificed for came to an end. Christians who read this were in an uproar. God would never allow such a thing to happen, they said. But Elliot said the novel was based on a real story. We need to see what the Philippians came to see that not only does God allow suffering, but that God allows evil to happen to what appears to be the most strategic situation in His kingdom.
Paul has solved the problem of suffering for himself. It was through suffering that Paul came to see suffering in a different light. Paul sees his suffering for what it is, as something that is unpleasant, but is still used by God for reasons we may see or we may never see. Still, God is at work. We must see the reality of suffering - (verses 14-17). The reality of suffering may mean the end of what we love. Paul’s chains were a constant reminder that his suffering was very real. It meant the end of his work as an apostle, a church planter, preacher. Paul was in a demeaning, demoralizing, dehumanizing situation. His life was to serve God and for that service, God has him languishing in prison, chained to a tough Roman guard waiting to be tried and perhaps executed. It appeared as though Paul’s career was over. Yet he does not appear discouraged or in despair. He writes a letter to the church in Philippi that is a letter of joy. Yet few of Paul’s writings carry the pathos, the underlying theme of suffering than Philippians. But Paul does not whitewash the troubles he has. He is very honest in this paragraph that God may free him or God may take his life, God may allow him to return to the work as pastor or God may end it all now. The reality of suffering may mean people mistreat us. Not only has Paul’s career ended, there are those who seem to relish his dire circumstances. Some have stepped into the gap left by Paul and found greater grit to "speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." There is a motivation in the midst of suffering by some to step forward and do what needs to be done. But some are already dancing on his grave. In verse 15 we read: "some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry" and in verse 17 "the former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains." Our instinctive reaction to verses 15-18 is that no true Christian would ever dream of behaving in such a way! How can one preach Christ out of selfish ambition? Unfortunately Paul doesn’t give us much more go to on here. We don’t know all the details. It may be that it was not so much that they thought if they were more vocal in explaining the good news of Christ, Paul would be punished more. Rather, this appears to refer to those who sought to usurp Paul’s authority and gain influence in the churches during Paul’s absence. During Paul’s life, as today, there was the idea that God would never allow those who live rightly to suffer greatly. Since Paul was suffering, some concluded that his message must be misguided, his faith flawed, his life displeasing to God. Paul is an incurable optimist. There are those who when confronted with good will see ill and those when confronted with the worst in life see only good. Paul doesn’t maintain a Pollyanna perspective, calling evil good, just to sweeten his life. He calls the troublemakers evil. A mother’s twin boys were exact opposites. Bill was an eternal optimist. No matter how dark the cloud, he always found a silver lining. Bob was a hopeless pessimist... always finding the negative no matter how good the situation. Mom asked a
psychiatrist what to do about Christmas. The doctor told her to buy all the toys she could
for Bob, the pessimist; and to get nothing for Bill. In fact, he told her to wrap up some
manure for Bill. Christmas morning, Dad and Mom came downstairs and found the twins by the
tree. She asked Bob what he got for Christmas. We must see beyond our suffering - (verses 12-13; 18-20). Seeing beyond our suffering sees God’s hand Paul neither denied the reality of his suffering nor did he consider it determinative of his life. Having his freedom curbed, his life hanging in the balance, he knew God was bigger than his career and his life. Rather than seeing prison as a disruption of God’s plan, he understood that this dark providence of his loving Father was a strategy to advance the gospel by bringing it to people who otherwise would never hear it. The soldiers to whom Paul was chained were not the type to seek out this old rabbi. But every day a soldier of the Praetorian guard, Caesar’s special bodyguards, found themselves a captive audience to the greatest evangelist of all times. When the people of Philippi heard verse 12 read, I’m sure a smile broke out on the faces of one family. Paul’s certainty that imprisonment was a means to advance the gospel was seen earlier in Philippi when the jailer demanded of his prisoner what must he do to be saved. God works in prisons; He works in suffering and hardship. When you place your life at the disposal of God no circumstances can ever prove to be a final barrier to the advance of the gospel. Matthew Henry, in his commentary on this passage, calls this "a strange chemistry of Providence, to extract so great a good as the enlargement of the gospel out of so great an evil as the confinement of the apostle." It has been said that God is the only true alchemist. Alchemy was the pseudo-science of the Middle Ages. There were those who thought they could change lead into gold, thereby becoming wealthy. Lead was thought to be a worthless, useless material. But they thought they could find a process to turn something useless into something exquisite and expensive. They thought they could make gold out of lead. It was never done. But God does that all the time with the circumstances of your life. Paul sees God, the alchemist, at work. He comes to the situation, sees suffering for what it is, painful, upsetting, frustrating. But he knows that God will be at work in this situation. He gets a glimpse. In verses 12 and 13 he sees just a sliver. This is the not everything, but it evidences his faith that God’s gracious hand will work in horrible situations. Paul in verse 19 goes further. He knows that he will be delivered. What does he mean? Does he expect to be freed? By verse 25 he seems hopeful this will be the outcome. But the translators make verse 19 confusing. The word for deliverance in the New Testament is the word for salvation. Paul sees the big picture through all of this. Even in such horrible circumstances, God will work it to no other end than the greatest end - his eternal salvation. Paul appears to refer to Job 13:13-16. Like Job, Paul trusts that even if the Lord kills him, he will trust in Him. Paul doesn’t just believe that God can turn situations from lead to gold, but that God will turn Paul from lead into gold. This is advanced Christianity. This is not something in which you can say, "Oh, that is how I should deal with tragedies in my life; I’ll start tomorrow." This is not an easy thing. I’m just showing you what a great man looks like. He is not overthrown. He will weep, struggle, but he will conclude that God will turn the situation into gold and him into gold. Through this he will be saved. But, does that mean when bad things happen to a Christian, it automatically purifies you? You’ll meet Christians for whom tragedy does not sweeten them, it sours them. It doesn’t soften them, it hardens them. It doesn’t warm them, it freezes them. This may have happened to some of you. It is not automatic. Seeing beyond our suffering sees Christ as central When we see beyond our own pain and see God’s hand at work, what is it He seeks to do? He makes Christ increase in your life. Notice what Paul concluded here in verse 20. His eager expectation denotes a keen anticipation of the future, most likely the end of all time, at the final judgment. This anticipation is like a craned neck trying to catch a glimpse through a crowd. Paul’s positive attitude to whatever the future may bring will not allow him to succumb to fear. In fact, in the face of his present ordeal he desires to have new courage, literally, boldness in public speaking. All of this will result in one thing: that Christ will be honored in his body. Christ will make Himself great. The honor of Christ will be achieved in a sublime indifference to what appear to us today as momentous issues, either by life or by death. We must see the Suffering One - (verses 21-26) When we see the reality of suffering, that it is part of our life and then we see beyond that suffering to see God’s hand at work in us, we then come to the means by which we can make it through suffering. We’ve seen that the circumstances may go poorly, but it is not those circumstances by which you define your life. We define our lives, we understand our suffering by seeing the One who suffered for us. When we see Jesus Christ, the Son of God who suffered for our sins so that we may be adopted as His sons and daughters, when we see Christ as the means by which we will define our life, then life is worth living regardless of whatever else happens. God’s work of alchemy in your life, God turning lead into gold, sufferings into rejoicing, all depends on your definition of what is supreme in your life. For Paul the answer is simple: verse 21 - "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." It is the ultimate win-win scenario for Paul, Paul’s bottom line, when all else is stripped away from him: this is the only thing that lasts. What are the alternatives? How would you fill in the blank? For me to live is to have fun and pleasure. Do you work just so you can have the pleasures in life, but take away pleasure from your life and you have no life? For me to live is to be in control. How many of us are control freaks? As long as we hold all the cards, as long as we know what we are doing and when we are doing it, we are just fine. But when our lives are spinning out of control, when life does a nose dive, suffering is all we see. For me to live is to be good. As long as I keep my nose clean and others think I am good, all is well. What I am really living for is the illusion that I’m better than others. Yet when the reality of my dark heart is revealed I run in terror. For me to live is my family. The goal may appear more noble, less self serving, but equally dangerous. If your life is your kids, your spouse, if you define who you are by that, when tragedy strikes you will either collapse or be forced to change your definition of life. When your love collapses and your life collapses, the problem is that your loves were your life. Your problem is not your circumstances, but your definition of life. Tragedy and troubles come to us and take away from us and make our lives not worth living. Unless you change your definition of life, you’ll collapse. Paul says there is only one thing that will stand up to the bottom line: "to me to live is Christ." Paul’s career is kaput, but his career is not his life, so he says, "so what, I may live or die, it has not touched my life." If your career is collapsing and your whole life is collapsing the problem is not the circumstances of your life, it is the definition of your life. How can Paul say this? Is it because he is some super-saint, untouched by the problems of life you and I face each and every day? Not at all. Rather, Paul understood the exchange that took place on Calvary when Jesus was nailed to the Cross. For Paul to live is Christ, to die is gain, for the simple reason that his life is centered on the Suffering Savior who died so that Paul might live. His life is defined by the Lord who rose from the dead, and now Paul is risen as well. Paul knows the Suffering Savior and for this reason he says in Galatians 2:20 that he has been crucified with Christ. If crucified, he is dead. What can suffering do to him now? What can the collapse of a career, the loss of loved ones, the imaginary belief that he is in control do now? Nothing! Since he has been crucified, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." What does suffering mean to you? It gives you but another opportunity to see your Savior who suffered for you. When faced with suffering, look to the Suffering One who rose from the dead, still bearing the scars of His death for you. |