10-28-12 A Healthy Helping of Grace Phil. 1:7-11

We are studying the book of Philippians,

Paul’s survival manual

for the prisons in our lives.

This letter was written by Paul

from a Roman prison

while waiting for a trial

that could end with his own execution.

Paul, of course, was in a literal,

physical prison,

but his comments and attitudes

can be of tremendous value

in helping us to cope with

any circumstances in life that are beyond our control.

I sometimes find myself as impressed

with some of the things NOT said in the New Testament

as I am with the things said.

Did you know that not once

in any book in the New Testament

are God’s people ever referred to as VICTIMS.

The concept of being a victim

as it relates to Christians

does not exist in Scripture.

A victim is a person whose life

is negatively impacted by someone

or something beyond his or her control.

From our perspective

Paul was a victim of the hatred of the Jews in Jerusalem

whose determination to kill him

ultimately resulted in prolonged imprisonment in Rome.

Did you know that at one point

in the chaos that led up to Paul’s imprisonment

there were more than 40 men

who had bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until Paul was dead?

Sounds to me like Paul

was clearly the victim of intense

and unjustified hatred.

Ever felt like a victim?

If you’ve ever felt like you were in prison

you have undoubtedly felt like a victim...

the victim of a job you hate,

or a boss who hates you,

or a family situation that’s tearing you apart.

Perhaps you’ve seen yourself

as the victim of events in your past,

the intentional

or unintentional sins of others,

sins that have forced you to deal with evil you would never otherwise

have had to face.

It’s impossible to live in this world

without being victimized

at some points

by someone or something

that we would never have chosen for ourselves.

And the world was really no different

2000 years ago.

The reality of evil has been the backdrop of the human race

since Cane killed Able.

So then why isn’t the concept of being a victim

dealt with in Scripture?

Why doesn’t Paul talk to us

about the way in which he has been victimized by the Jerusalem Jews

and by the Roman Government?

It’s because God is committed

to offering us the truth,

and the truth is that circumstances

never make us a victim -

the only thing that has the power

to make us a victim

is our attitude towards those circumstances.

At the heart of the victim mentality

is the belief that my happiness,

and my success,

and my future

are all being controlled by someone

or something else.

“I would like to choose a different life,

a different place,

a different way,

but I’m a victim of forces beyond my control,

and all I can do is hang on

and hope the world will treat me better in the future.”

Now set that attitude next to that statement we looked at last week.

Phil. 1:6

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.

That statement is carefully designed

to serve as the ultimate in anti-victim mentality.

Paul is telling his readers

that no one and nothing can ever prevent God from accomplishing

His healing and restoring work

in the life of the Christian.

Now look at this -

Paul is not trying to suggest

that this stuff didn’t happen to us,

or that it didn’t hurt,

or that it didn’t

deeply affect our life.

But what he is saying

is that the stuff that happened

is not what determines

our hope

or our future.

I’ll tell you the way I word this truth to myself...

I see God telling me

that anything I choose to place into His hands

He has the power to reshape

into good in my life.

I can become a victim

only at those points in my life

where I choose to believe

that God either does not care

or is not able to use the circumstances in my life

for my greater good.

And wait ‛till you see where Paul goes from here.

Let me put verse 7 together with verse 6.

v. 6 says,

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.

and then in verse 7 Paul goes on to say,

[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.

Now for us to make any sense

out of what Paul is saying here in this 7^th verse

we need to talk for just a few minutes

about grace.

We’ve looked at all sorts of definitions

for the word “GRACE”

at different times.

Sometimes it’s defined as “unmerited favor”,

sometimes its defined as “God’s riches at Christ’s expense”.

I like to define grace as “God picking us up and hugging us”.

Underlying all our attempts to define

the Grace of God

is the fact that it means we are able to come into direct contact

with the reality of God’s personal love for us

because the barrier of our sin

has been removed forever through Christ.

It is the Grace of God

that allows us to discover

that the Creator of all that is

is not only all-powerful,

but He is also incredibly,

and unfathomably good!

OK, now let me read that 7^th verse once again:

Now what events in Paul’s life

enabled both him and the Philippians

to become a partaker of God’s grace?

Well, he tells us -

his imprisonment,

and what Paul calls “The defense and confirmation of the gospel.”

Do you hear what he’s saying?

He’s saying that the two events

that have opened him up more fully

to the realty of God’s love for him

have been his being thrown into prison

and being required to offer some sort of defense

for why he should not be executed

for his involvement in Christianity.

He is saying that

not only has his being thrown in prison

not made him a victim,

but it has actually proved to be

the doorway through which

he has been able to more deeply experience the grace of God.

HUH?

Paul is telling us that

not only has his prison experience

NOT hindered his awareness

of His Lord’s love for him,

but it has actually intensified

his awareness of that love.

Have you ever wondered why

God hasn’t fixed the things in your life

that you know with such certainty really need fixing?

Here we are, one of the tiny elite

who have heard the voice of God

and responded to His call

and placed our life into His hands.

We are the few, the chosen, the holy.

We are among the few in human history

who are in league with God Himself.

We’re not playing at religion,

we’re not just tossing a few bones

in the direction of the Hound of Heaven

hoping He’ll be distracted

and leave us alone.

We have dared to reach out to His

nail-scared hand

and identify ourselves with Him.

We are now and forevermore on His team.

So then why in the world

doesn’t He fix things for us?

I mean,

why doesn’t He use some of that infinite power of His

to fix what’s wrong with our life?

Do you know the really big question

that I see coming out of the book of Philippians?

If Paul really was God’s chosen man,

living a life that was well-pleasing to God,

why was he in prison in the first place?

And as long as we’re asking questions,

why did Epaphroditus get sick?

And perhaps even more to the point,

why has God not done something about that prison He has YOU in right now?

Why didn’t He change Paul’s circumstances?

And why hasn’t He changed yours?

In verses 7 -12 of this first chapter of Philippians

Paul allows his own life

to offer a few answers to those questions.

And the first answer he offers

is found in this 7^th verse.

Paul tells us in this 7^th verse

that his imprisonment has allowed

both he and the Philippians

to become partakers of the grace of God in a very special way.

Or, if I were to restate what I see Paul saying,

there are some things about His love that God can only say to us inside a prison cell.

Do you remember that little incident

recorded for us in Exodus chapter 14?

The nation of Israel had been living in the land of Egypt,

slaves to the Egyptian people.

It certainly wasn’t a good life,

but it was predictable,

familiar,

safe.

They did their work,

and their Egyptian rulers fed them,

and clothed them,

and provided them with a place to live.

Then God stepped into their lives

through the person of Moses

and made it clear that this was not the life He had in mind for His people.

Through a dramatic series of miracles

God freed the Israelites from slavery

and promised to lead them

into the land He had prepared for them,

a land He described as “flowing with milk and honey”.

And He even took a pillar of fire

and placed it in the sky at night,

and a pillar of cloud

during the day to lead them...constant visible reminders of their God’s presence with them.

Sounds like a great deal, huh?

Several million people following God

to a life of freedom and abundance.

Do you know where God led them first?

Right up to the banks of the Red Sea -

no boats,

no bridge,

no way around.

And to complicate things even more

he placed a furious Egyptian army

at their backs,

hungry for revenge.

In other words, this loving God of the nation of Israel

lead His people directly into prison.

Why?

Because there are some things about His love that God can only say to us inside a prison cell.

These people had lived for 450 years in a sub-human existence

in which they neither knew God

nor needed Him

because their very meager existence

was provided by the man who held the whip

and told them where to work that day.

And if they were ever to discover

the abundant life God had for them

step one was learning they could trust Him,

no matter what He said,

no matter where He led,

no matter what they saw

in front of them or behind.

You see, there are some things about His love that God can only say to us

inside a prison cell.

You might enjoy reading that 14^th chapter of Exodus on your own

just to remind yourself how things worked out for Israel.

The parallels, of course, are obvious.

When we come to our Lord

or more accurately, when He comes to us,

we, too, are in a sub-human existence,

in our own type of slavery.

We don’t know our God,

we certainly don’t trust Him.

We just crank out our own pitiful,

futile little brand of performance

and someone rewards us

with food, and shelter, and something to wear.

We pretend it’s a great life,

because we have no alternative,

but inside we know its all emptiness

and games.

And then our Lord steps into our life

and calls us to Himself.

In His own perfect way

He tells us that this pitiful existence

was not what He created us for -

He created us for Himself,

and longs to lead us into real life,

life abundantly.

And so we start to follow.

But before we’ve hardly begun,

we too find ourselves in prison.

Maybe the bars are made of fear,

or incredible loneliness.

Maybe it’s a financial prison,

or maybe our bars are made

out of some powerful addiction,

or an aching empty feeling of futility.

But whatever it looks like,

it does NOT look like the promised land,

or any kind of abundant life.

Why?

Because we, too, have no idea

what it means to trust our Lord.

And there are some things about His love that God can only say to us inside a prison cell.

Paul says his prison has been the doorway

through which he was able to partake

of the grace of God,

through which he was able to

feel the reality of God’s hug

in a way he could never have done

had the bars and chains not surrounded him.

You see, it’s one thing

for Paul to hear God saying, “I love you”

when he is charging around the world

starting churches

and preaching sermons

and working miracles

and doing great things for the Kingdom.

But it’s a very different thing

for Paul to hear God saying, “I love you”

when he finds himself sitting in confinement day after day after day.

It’s one thing for Paul to hear his Lord saying to him, “You will find Me adequate for your needs this day”

when he is standing before several thousand people

preaching the Word.

But it’s a very different thing for Paul to hear his Lord saying, “You will find Me adequate for this day.”

when all the day may hold

is boredom and inactivity.

Let me see if I can simplify

what I’m trying to say here.

Our Lord has every one of us

in the same basic training program:

we are in the process

of learning how to trust our God -

to trust both what He says,

and what He does in our life.

But trusting God is something

we have never done

prior to our entrance into the kingdom,

and something that very definitely

does not come naturally.

And so, because He loves us

and He wants very much for us

to know His love

and trust His love

there are times when He allows us

to spend some time in prison.

He places us into a situation

where we have no alternative

but to reach out to Him

for the strength to face the day,

and for the hope of finding a way out.

There are some things about His love

that God can only say to us inside a prison cell,

and a special kind of grace

that can only be experienced

behind bars.