Series: On The Way to Joy: A Study in Philippians

04/06/08 | Tim Schaaf

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July 21, 1861

• First major battle of the Civil War
• Union and Confederate armies clashed among the farms by a stream called Bull Run
• Roar of Artillery, Shouts of Pain, Gun-Fire

Odd thing happened

• Hundreds of Washingtonians came out
  • Senators
  • Representatives
  • Government Workers
  • Families
• Dressed for an outing and carrying picnic baskets
• Sat on a hilltop near Manassas to watch the battle
• One man commented "That is splendid. Oh my! Is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond this time tomorrow."
• Spirits were high
• Toasts were toasts
• Then the Rebel counterattack
  • Hard-charging cavalry swept over the Union flank driving them up that hill
  • The picnic ground was about to become a war-zone

The nature of sin is war.  Sin creates war - war with God, war with others, war within ourselves.

Marriage = two sinners saying "I do"

• So marriage can easily become a running war.

The little baby the doctor handed you is a sinner

• Parenting can feel like guerrilla warfare

Church = many sinners together worshipping the Lord

• So church can easily become entrenched in war

As the spectators found out at Bull Run - there is no safe place to watch the war happen.  We are in it.

1.  War in the "Joy Book"?

This book is supposed to be about Joy.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. (Philippians 3:1)The language of Joy dominates this letter

A.  Frequency and Source of Joy

The word "Joy" or "Rejoice" occurs 15 times in Philippians

• only 4 x in 1 Corinthians
• 8 x in 2 Corinthians
• 9x in Colossians
• 9x in 1 Thessalonians

We learned in the first week of this series that this joy is only found in Jesus.

• the name of "Christ" or "Jesus Christ" occurs seventeen times in the first chapter alone
• that this represents a frequency of more than once every two verses
• "Paul speaks of joy many times. This is significant. But it is greatly overshadowed by the number of times he mentions Jesus." (Boice)

B.  Joy Regardless of Circumstances

In the middle of this book on Joy, there is a sprinkling of rebuke and correction.

In other words - Philippi had problems.

I often have to remind myself of that.

• I often think that for a group to have this much joy, it must be pretty good.
• No false teaching
• No leaders arguing with each other
• No bad habits

Philippi had all those problems!

• We'll get into the details in a moment, but there were probably two groups of false teachers trying to pull the church down
• Two influential leaders were at each other's throats

Despite all this, Paul commands them to rejoice!

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. (Philippians 3:1)

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)

C.  We Can Have Joy - Regardless of our Circumstances

That's good news to me!

Our circumstances might not be perfect

• Marriage
• Kids
• Job
• Church
• Health

But our joy can still be real!

2. Joy is a Safeguard

3:1b "...it is a safeguard for you"

Secure against all attempts to break the hold. Βεβαίαν sustaining one's steps in going (βαίνειν to go): not breaking down under what steps upon it.

Example - The Two Towers when they go to Helm's Deep

"The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure. How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?" - Théoden

Théoden was right.

• No tower can withstand such numbers and such reckless hate.
• No government will endure it.
• No system
• No educational initiative

Joy in Jesus is the sort of guard that endures anything and can go anywhere.

Ernest Gordon - WWII, Scotland's  Argyle & Sutherland Brigade.

• Captured by Japanese
• Put in the Death House of Chungkai
• Months of backbreaking labor
• build the infamous Burma-Siam Railroad over the River Kwai, commonly known as the Railway of Death
• Allied soldiers begin to act like animals
• Stealing food from each other
• Robbing dying friends
• Fighting over scraps
• Gordon is ready to die when a new prisoner came to the camp and began to give his food to him, help clean his wounds, and taught him to hope.
• Gordon soon found they he would never be able to survive on his own...his circumstances were too terrible - but found that he could transcend his circumstances because of Jesus.
• Soon he and another prisoner started a college of liberal arts and a "church without walls" within the camp.
• The prisoners begin to regain their dignity and hope
• they are also encouraged to forgive their enemies and sacrifice themselves for their fellow POWs
• 20 years later Gordon became the chaplain of Princeton University and described the transformation with these words:

Death was still with us-no doubt about that.  But were slowly being freed from its destructive grip....Selfishness, hatred...and pride were all anti-life.  Love...self sacrifice...and faith, on the other hand, were the essence of life...gifts from God to men. ... Death no longer had the last word at Chungkai.

3.  Paul's Opponents

This joy was in jeopardy, in danger of being replaced with a lesser joy.

Overview of Judaizers' Practices

• Nice people
• Tradition
• Religious Heritage
• Best of Intentions
• They had to face lots of Change

All they asked:

• Circumcision
• Kosher

Verse 2 is carefully chosen language to achieve intense irony.

DOG

• Jewish context - this refers to Gentiles
• Unclean
• Outside of covenant community

See Jesus talking to the Syro-Phonecian woman

Mark 7:27 - "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

Paul's Point:

• The great reversal brought in Jesus means that the Judaizers now must be regarded as Gentiles
• There is a new way to be considered part of God's community.

Those Men Who Do Evil

Refers to the Judaizers' claims that they were doing the works of the law.

"We're only doing what God told us to do."

Paul's Point:

• No, you're going evil!
• Only true believers in Jesus can do good works

Mutilation

They called themselves "the circumcision"

Paul calls them "the mutilation"

"When Jewish rituals are practices in a spirit that contradicts the message of the gospel, these rituals lose their true significance and become no better than pagan practices." (Moises Silva)

• In Galatia, adopting Jewish Practice = Enslaved to pre-Christian practices

Galatians 4:9 - But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

• Circumcision is on the same level as barbarian practices

Galatians 5:12 -  As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

"Here...Paul takes the Judaizers greatest source of pride and interprets it as the surest sign that they have no share among God's people." (Silva)

Why This Level of Attack?

Because we will easily replace the joy we have in Jesus with the joy of contentment in our works.

There is a natural satisfaction we get from a joy well done.

It's a much more tangible, easy-to-achieve sort of joy than the joy we have in Jesus.

Paul attacks this, because he knows that we'll swap our safeguard in Jesus for the joy of checking off a spiritual to-do list.

• Get Circumcised
• Don't eat pork, lobster or cheeseburgers
• Then have joy in what you've done for God
• And when you wake up at night and wonder "Does God really love me?" you can reach over to your scratched off check-list, sigh, and say "Of course, I worked really hard for him today.  I did everything He asked me to.  He must love me."

But what happens when you slip?

What happens when you fail?

What happens when you don't get your list checked-off?

On a bad day, if your joy is based on a check-list, can you say: "I know God loves me"?

A Checklist Condemns, only the Gospel sets us Free

Romans 8:1-4 - Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:28-39 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

4.  How Do We Act the Same?

What check-lists do we add to our faith?

What check-lists do we add to other people's faith?

5.  Joy in Jesus sets us Free

#1 - Glory in Christ Jesus with no Confidence in the Flesh

To Glory // To Have Confidence

What is the object of our faith?

I believe in what I have done

• My good works
• My heritage
• My church attendance
• My prayer life
• My good attitude
• My hold on Jesus
• The Flesh = everything external in us that we could take pride in, outside of Jesus.

I believe in Jesus.

• His death on the Cross
• His giving of the Holy Spirit
• His ability to bring my lifeless soul back from the dead
• His ability to hold me until I die and go to heaven
• His ability to steer my through these challenges
• His ability to produce good works in me
• His ability to complete the good work that He started in me.

There are only two options.

We can either believe that we are accepted by God because of something we've done.

OR

We can believe that we are accepted by God because of something Jesus has done.

#2 - Worship by the Spirit of God

Spirit poured out is a sign of redemption

New age of salvation

Conclusion

War

No sidelines
Where has this war erupted in your life?

What is your safeguard?