Drinking Mercy (and Coffee) Instead of Sorrow

“...I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 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. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith” (Philippians 1:18-25).

Sometimes we read (and teach) this passage with an emphasis on Paul’s “gain” and “desire to depart and be with Christ.” This is a good and right thing – we need more of a scripturally-informed leaning toward and yearning for Christ’s heaven (Colossians 3:1-4 is a very important passage to me). However, that’s not the whole story.

I got to be part of a 100th birthday for a dear sister in Christ yesterday. She was having a difficult day health-wise, but it was a joy to see her reach – by God’s grace – this landmark. I thought of the difficulties and sorrowful loss her family has experienced in the years I’ve been their pastor, and was reminded of this profound truth proclaimed in the midst of heartbreak:

“This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul,

‘Therefore I have hope in Him.’

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently

For the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:21-26).

This was Tuesday’s meditation for me.

Today is Wednesday. I got a call this morning telling me that another dear sister in Christ, a 94-year-old prayer warrior of the highest degree, was in the hospital with a possible stroke. I confess: I felt a bit of fear inside. I was thankful to find her sitting up, smiling, eating breakfast, and drinking coffee (that magnificent elixir gifted from heaven to a sod-bound race). It was good to see her like this.

I don’t know what the next hour, day, or month holds, but I told her I hoped we’d be celebrating her 100th in six years. She agreed. I read Psalm 30 with her, prayed, and left. On the drive in to the office another passage from Philippians came to mind, and it wasn’t the one at the top of this post.

“But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow” (Philippians 2:25-27).

It’s interesting that Paul’s “gain” and “desire to depart and be with Christ” didn’t make him emotionless or oddly inhuman about “the last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26). The apostle loathed this thing (as I do with all my soul) and considered it the mercy of God that his fellow servant and dear brother was brought back from the brink, so that Paul wouldn’t have to drink a cup of “sorrow upon sorrow.”

I long for the heavenly Home where my Savior and Lord is. A lot. But I hate the process of getting there, and despise the fact that a funeral is always somewhere unseen around the corner. Paul held both of these emotions without contradiction or sin, which strengthens me. I pray for the grace to do the same.

Christ's Suffering, Our Growth, and the Ordinances

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship [κοινωνιαν] of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

I love the ordinances commanded to the Church by its only Lord and High Priest, Jesus Christ. I am passionate about them, and am convinced that by minimizing them for more flashy and entertaining pursuits, we have robbed ourselves of a blessing the Head of the Church Himself has given us for our spiritual benefit.

Today’s Southern Baptists identify the ordinances as one of the marks of a true Church:

• “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers...observing the two ordinances of Christ” (Baptist Faith & Message 2000, VI).
• “Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour [sic], the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming” (BF&M 2000, VII).

While we typically read passages like Philippians 3:10 (“the fellowship of His sufferings”) as a reference to persecution (see also Matthew 20:23; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:11; 1 Peter 4:13), I believe the ordinances to be a regular and consistent liturgical means by which the Lord brings His Church into conformity with His own “sufferings.” I don’t deny that for the apostle Paul (and countless believers in the past and today) these passages speak of a literal experience of Christian suffering, but given what else Paul says on the subject, I would suggest that we shouldn’t limit his language to these persecutions. Instead, there is a way in which biblical Christian liturgy makes these realities a regular experience of the gathered Church for our spiritual growth and sanctification. Let’s consider the language the apostle Paul uses in other places concerning the ordinances.

Concerning baptism: “...do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:3-13). Baptism is “an act of obedience symbolizing” union with Christ’s suffering, but Paul certainly takes it beyond just symbolic act in his teaching on this ordinance. “...we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death...our old self was crucified with Him...we have died with Christ...” This is strong language connected with the ordinance, and we would do well to take it seriously! So when Paul speaks of “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” to the Philippian church, it is not necessarily limited to persecution and martyrdom. Paul’s own language to the Romans shows us that the ordinance of baptism brings us into this experience which should produce profound ethical/moral fruit in our lives. Let’s look at the Philippians passage again: Paul counts all things (both his sin and his own personal righteousness) as loss, so that he may have a righteousness “which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (3:9,10). Justification (being proclaimed righteous) by faith in Jesus Christ is followed by a union with Christ which includes “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” as experienced in the ordinances.

In addition to baptism, Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance which brings us into this “fellowship” and “conformity.”

“Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [κοινωνια] in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing [κοινωνια] in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16,17). Just as the doctrine of baptism should have spiritual fruit in a believer’s life, so too does the Lord’s Supper have powerful implications for unity in the Church and dedication solely to Christ (read the rest of chapter 10 through the end of chapter 11...and truth be told, probably through the end of chapter 14!).

We need to continually remember Paul’s confession “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). We must remember it so that we “do not nullify the grace of God” (2:21) – a continual temptation for every believer. The ordinances are an instrument of this grace and sanctifying work in our lives.

Early in ministry, a wise deacon (now in Glory) once told me that humans never stay in the middle of a position/opinion/doctrine, but are continually swinging back and forth to extremes. My dear Baptists, I fear that in this day we have gone so far on the ordinances that they are barely there in the life of the Church. May we consider the testimony of the Scriptures and carefully, thoughtfully, and purposefully begin moving the pendulum back to a more faithful view of the ordinances which grants them the central place in Christian liturgy that the Scripture itself gives them. The promised fruit of Scripture concerning the ordinances and what they represent is freedom from sin, service to God’s righteousness, unity, and faithfulness to Christ. Sound like something needed in the Church today? All these things come from union with Christ in His death and resurrection – the very reality the ordinances lead us to walk in together.

For by them we regularly “may know...the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that [we] may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

A Weapon in Each Hand to Fight the Darkness

I got to fill in for one of our Sunday School teachers yesterday morning, and took the opportunity to look at one of the most challenging Psalms – 88. In the English and original Hebrew, the last word of the song is “darkness.” The only positives in the Psalm is the sons’ (of Korah) opening address to “the God of my salvation” and meditation on the perfections of God in 88:10-12 (“wonders,” “lovingkindness,” “faithfulness,” and “righteousness”). Everything else is dark in the Psalm. We spoke about the place of lament and emotional discipleship in the life of the congregation, since the song is titled “for the choir director.” This is in stark contrast to contemporary Christian worship, which is a pep rally, and the suffering of the saints with depression, which is too often alone. The Spirit’s work through the teaching ministry of worship (“be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” Ephesians 5:18,19) is neglected, since these days challenging emotions are not dealt with in the context of corporate discipleship as they would be in a Psalm-based liturgy. Psalm 88 (and similar Psalms), voiced by the congregation as a whole, would teach us a Spirit-inspired way of walking through depression and darkness. This seems like a valuable thing to do. As I pointed out to the Sunday School class, however, we have some Christian cultural expectations to overcome to utilize this Spirit-empowered scriptural tool. I can imagine our worship leader taking us through a Psalm like 88 and the uncomfortable reaction of the congregation. Some would have their brows furrowed as they struggled through the dark lyric, and others would joke their way out of the experience. The worship leader might be quickly questioned for putting such a “downer” of a song in the line-up.

We need this. I know not just from my place as overseer of the souls of the congregation (I know where many places of darkness are), but from my own experience with difficult days and weeks. Corporate lament and emotional discipleship would be an ultimate blessing to the people.

With this fresh on my mind this Monday morning (woke up at 5 a.m. worrying over a few specific souls), I read the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (4:7).

Ah, I’m jealous for this. I want this for dozens that I’m thinking of this very moment as I write this. How, Lord, can I help my fellow brothers and sisters find this? They have the peace with God that comes through being justified by faith in Christ (Romans 5:1). But this peace in Philippians 4:7 is a guarding peace promised to believers as we sometimes walk a very dark path. How, Lord? Then I saw the word, “and” (yes, it’s in the Greek, too). This precious promise is announced in connection with something that comes before it. Commands.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7, the bold marks the specific imperative verbs).

The God-Who-is-present (“The Lord is near.”) works through...

• ...our rejoicing in the Son (Who is called “the Lord” in 1:2; 2:11,19; 3:8,20; 4:23). Which means we are looking to Jesus regularly as He is on abundant display in the Scripture, and rejoicing in what we see.
• ...our cultivated reputation as gentle (1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 3:2; James 3:17). “To all men.” Challenging. It’s hard for some to let themselves be seen by others when they’re in the midst of the darkness.
• ...our refusal to anxiousness (Jesus issues similar commands in Matthew 6:25-34//Luke 12:22-26; Matthew 10:16-20//Luke 12:11,12; Luke 10:38-42). Interestingly, the apostle Paul describes anxiousness in a positive way in Philippians 2:20. Apparently, worrying over the spiritual welfare of other believers is acceptable!
• ...our thankful petitions to the Father (“God” is so identified in 1:2; 2:11; 4:20).

The Guardian of souls promises to work a protecting peace over those who pursue these disciplines (remember, they are commands, not suggestions). I’m not saying any of these things are easy to accomplish – especially for someone in a Psalm 88 kind of darkness. But it’s there.

The Spirit has shown me two weapons in two days to help others fight the darkness (Psalm 88 and Philippians 4:4-7). Pray with me, beloved, that He will wield them powerfully through the congregation and through this wholly inadequate overseer.

Psalm 88:9-17 in the ARP Psalter

Self and the Jailed Apostle

I’ve had a slow leak in a tire on my truck for a few weeks, but I haven’t had time to do anything about it. A guest speaker this Sunday meant that after my men’s group this morning, there were actually a few hours unaccounted. So I went to the tire shop. While waiting, I read through the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Lord willing, we’ll finish the Old Testament book of Numbers in our evening service in a few weeks (we started in July of 2013), and I’ve been considering where to go next. I’ve preached or taught through all of Paul’s letters – except Philippians. So I read through it with Sunday nights in mind.

It’s a popular letter. I know people who’ve memorized it. I’ve had more than a few people tell me it’s their favorite of the New Testament books. In this letter Paul has some pretty challenging things to say. Challenging, that is, to a self-centered, self-exalting, self-esteem, self-self pop-Christianity (and its songs heavy on the words “I,” “me,” and “my”). There’s a church marquee in town that says, “God believes in you.” Paul (and the entirety of the Bible, for that matter) is deadly to that utterly non-scriptural humanistic bilge. Philippians is one of his so-called “prison epistles,” and the wisdom of a life so centered on Christ that it ends up in chains is worth listening to more than the inspirational “life coaches” of today.

Consider:

• He doesn’t pray for release from his chains, but rejoices that the Gospel has spread because of his imprisonment: “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, 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” (Philippians 1:12-14). The Gospel is more important than his freedom or comfort!
• Losing everything in this life (including this life) is gain compared to being with Christ; continuing in this life is utterly selfless, to be spent on the spiritual growth of the saints: “...with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 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. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake” (1:20-24). He’ll speak more of true gain later in the letter, as well: “...whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” (3:7,8).
• “...to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me” (1:29,30). It’s been “granted.” Thanks! This reminds me of the leaders of the early Church, who, after having been flogged, went away “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). Before they kept on preaching Christ. Or of Paul’s incredible statement that is an ironic echo and overturning of the prosperity gospel: “...all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you” (1 Corinthians 3:21,22). “All things”? Wow! Wait. “Death”? Umm...do I have to accept that part of “all things,” Lord?
• “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5). The attitude of Jesus is then described in the great hymn of 2:6-11 as a total emptying of personal rights and a total obedience to God’s will even to death, to gain not self-centered reward but the glory of the Father (yes, a long run-on sentence, but totally justified)! How can we read this and “church shop,” or form cliques in congregations, or argue over carpet color, or flock to teachers that make us feel good about ourselves and our life-choices? That’s not at all what we find in the Christ we’re called to imitate.
• “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (2:14-16). Our attitudes and treatment of each other is part of our witness – all based solidly on the Word alone, not our preferences or opinions or comforts.
• This next one has challenged me throughout my few 21 years of ministry. Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself or burned out or tired, I hear the apostle say this: “...even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all” (2:17). “Poured out.” Not dripping or a thin trickle or a reasonable percentage. All of it. He’ll say it again in his last letter (2 Timothy 4:6). Lord, forgive me. Soon after, in describing Epaphroditus, we’re told this good minister “came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in [the Philippians’] service to me” (2:30).
• The man imprisoned says to the free Church, “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (4:4). And, “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (4:6). And, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (4:11,12).
• Having read all of that, how can we so brazenly misuse the one sentence in the letter (what I like to call a “coffee-cup verse”)? “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (4:13). Paul’s “all things” and my selfish ambitions are pretty far apart.

My fears, self-obsession, craving for approval and popularity and praise, and all the ugly things in me cower before such Spirit-inspired truth. We need this letter, Church. I need this letter. Having worked in a tire shop, I was becoming impatient with how long the fellow in the bay was taking with a simple leak. I wasn’t in a prison cell. Or even a little uncomfortable. Or late for anything else.

Paul’s prayer at the beginning of the letter is a worthy one: “...this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:9,10). A Christ-centered, continually growing love based on biblical knowledge and discernment; it is the exact opposite of the self-actualizing humanistic false-christianity so popular today!

Yes, I think our Bible study for our Sunday night prayer meeting will be in Philippians for a while.

Today's Ancient Sermon

Over 2,800 years old, & the Holy Spirit speaks it just as powerfully today through the pages of Scripture as He did through Isaiah then: “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God Who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), ‘I am the LORD, and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek Me in a waste place”; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, declaring things that are upright. Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save. Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance [Philippians 2:10]. They will say of Me, “Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.” Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. In the LORD all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory’” (Isaiah 45:18-25).

He alone is God & is right.

Leave the gods of the works of your hands & come to Him in repentance.

Bow before His Son & confess Jesus as Lord (45:23//Philippians 2:10).

Enjoy His righteousness & glory forever.

The ancient Gospel is still Good News today!