PHILIPPIANS #17: ELIMINATING ANXIETY

On July 10, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Person standing on a grassy hilltop looking at sunrise over foggy mountains — A hiker enjoys a breathtaking sunrise above a cloud-filled mountain valley.

Anxiety does not simply go away when we pray to God for our concerns. It goes when we worship God, thank him, and we allow him to be truly King of our lives, and of the Universe. When we worship and thank the Lord, we are undermining our reasons to be anxious. The bigger God is in our own hearts, the less room there is in our hearts for anxiety.

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When we have encountered other passages of scripture that teach the counter-cultural message that men and women are to have some unique roles in the family and in the church, I have not shied away from teaching and explaining it. There is an often repeated teaching that men are to serve their families and churches in spiritual leadership. Paul says, on more than one occasion “Man is the head of woman,” meaning spiritual head (as Christ is head of the church).

However, though fewer and fewer churches in the Western world are willing to keep teaching this, there are some who do, and among them, at times, they take it too far. It would be utterly wrong and unbiblical to suggest that women are somehow lesser in status, or less capable. Though, according to scripture, roles involving “spiritual headship” belong to men alone, from the very beginning of Christianity, women were vitally involved in all sorts of different important ministries and Christian service.

From within scripture we know that some women provided financial and practical support to Jesus and the disciples. Later, women opened their homes in hospitality to fellow believers, both for church services, and also as places where Christian ministers were welcome to stay. They prayed, both privately, and out loud during worship, and some were called by God to be prophetesses. Some women labored side by side with their husbands in discipling believers. Women taught and discipled other women, and children. Some women were considered deaconesses, which was a role that involved coordinating practical, and sometimes financial, matters for the church.. Some women served as messengers between Christians in various cities. A woman named Phoebe carried Paul’s letter to the Romans from Corinth to Rome.

We know from the writings of early Christians that some women had ministries visiting the sick, and prisoners, and helping to see to their needs. Women brought communion from church services to give to those who couldn’t be there, for whatever reason. They ministered to orphans and widows. Though such things aren’t often mentioned, no doubt some women ministered through music, and others through art, and others through particular skills they had, like weaving or sewing.

Jesus, and his teachings through the apostles, elevated the status of women and marriage, and women responded by trusting and serving him whole-heartedly.

So, it should not surprise us to see that Paul testifies that these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, have labored for the gospel side by side with Paul. Whatever Paul’s own teaching about male spiritual headship means, it does not mean that women cannot have important roles in ministry, or the church. Clearly, Paul expected women to be deeply involved in the mission of Christ, just as he also expected that of men.

Unfortunately the two women who are the subject of verse 2 were not getting along with each other. There has been a lot of speculation about what the problem might have been, but no firm evidence. Paul’s exhortation is for them to put aside their differences and agree in the Lord.

Next, Paul says another thing that has caused a great deal of speculation.

Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women

It stands out in the text. He has been speaking in the plural to the Philippians, and now suddenly he speaks to a single individual, whom he calls “my true partner.” More literally, the Greek is something like, “My legitimate yoke-partner.” The idea of a yoke partner comes from agriculture. Often two oxen would be selected for similar size and strength, and complementary temperaments. The oxen would be harnessed to each other with a wooden yoke, and with the yoke, they would work together to pull things. See the picture below. Speaking of people, it means that they are linked together in some way for a common purpose.

So who was this “legitimate yoke-partner?”

One fascinating possibility is that it could be Paul’s wife. It is clear that Paul was not married when he wrote 1 Corinthians (read 1 Corinthians 7:8). But that was almost ten years before he wrote this letter to the Philippians. He could have gotten married in the interim. The term “legitimate yoke-partner” does evoke thoughts of marriage. Clement of Alexandria, writing about a hundred years later, thinks that this might be the case. It would also add a new layer to the way Paul was reassuring them at the beginning of the letter that things would probably turn out well for him. It would also make sense that he is asking his wife to help sort out a dispute between two women.

But if Paul was married by this time, it seems strange that his wife would not be mentioned at all in the book of Acts, which followed Paul all the way up to the time he was imprisoned in Rome (from where he is writing this letter). There are reasons I could think of why she wouldn’t be mentioned, but I’m not sure they are more likely than the fact that he actually remained single his whole life.

Some commentators think that Paul is writing directly to Epaphroditus, but that seems strange, since Epaphroditus was carrying the letter. Paul could have spoken to him face to face about the matter. Others suggest Timothy, but the same thing applies to him.

One possibility, that I think is more likely, is that he is speaking to Luke. Luke spent at least 8 years in Philippi, and he might have actually been from there originally. I suspect anyway that Luke returned to Philippi, after he saw Paul brought safely to Rome (which Luke writes about at the end of Acts.)

One other possibility is that it is Lydia, who hosted the first house church in Philippi. I don’t really have reason to think it is her, other than that she lived there, and was one of the first Christians, and opened her home to Paul and his companions. It also makes sense, as I mentioned above, to ask a woman to intervene between two women. However, if it is Lydia, Paul’s language of “legitimate yoke-partner” again raises the question of whether he had married her.

I think the most likely thing is actually very mundane and a bit of a let down. The term “yoke-partner” is one word in Greek : Syzygos. It could be simply someone’s name. So, Paul is saying, “I ask you, faithful Syzygos, to help these women…” Now, it’s true, there is no record in any other ancient Greek literature of Syzygos as a name. But we don’t actually have a way to know every single name that was used in antiquity. And it might even be a nickname.

One reason I think it’s a name is because Paul is making a point about names. He names the two women, then (in my opinion) Syzygos, and then Clement, and then: “the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.”

That’s the big deal here: their names are written in the book of life. That should be far more important than any dispute. That should help to mitigate any issue between the two women. So, the message goes sort of like this: “Think about your dispute with the perspective that both of your names are written in the book of life, along with these others. Surely, in light of that, you can find a way to resolve things.”

Paul continues with more truth that far outshines any disputes:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7, CSB

We have already talked about what it means to rejoice in the Lord, so I won’t repeat that here. If you missed it, go back and read, or listen to, Philippians #11. So we come to one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, verses 6-7, above.

I’ve been a pastor long enough to know that some people read verses 6-7, and say, “Yeah. Right. Just ‘don’t worry.’ Like that’s ever going to happen. I do pray, but I don’t have this amazing peace.”

I think sometimes we rush this process. We are anxious about something, and so we say something like “Lord, please fix this. Please, please, fix this the way I want you to fix this. Amen.” When our prayers do not result in the unusual peace of God, I think it is because we are ignoring a lot of what it actually says here. I want to dig into the Greek briefly, and then make this practical.

As you may have noticed, depending on which translation you have, there appear to be three words for prayer here. The CSB, quoted above has: prayer, supplication (thanksgiving) and requests. But actually, I think these words have slightly different meanings. Here is my own rough, literal-ish translation:

“Do not, in even one thing, be anxious, but in all things, through worship, in prayer, permeated with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.”

The word often translated “prayer” is actually closer to “worship.” I’m talking about the Greek word: “proseuche.” In our modern way of talking sometimes “worship” means an entire worship service, including singing, prayer, fellowship, communion and hearing a sermon. At other times, when people use the same word—worship—they mean only the singing part of a church service. So, in the same way, sometimes the Greek word proseuche means specifically and only prayer, and at other times it encompasses all that might be included in “worship.”

I think, given that Paul uses two other words for types of praying, that Paul is using the word proseuche (“prayer” in the CSB) he means not only prayer, but worship in general. This is why: When we experience anxiety, the first line of defense is not asking God for stuff, but, rather, worship. When we worship God, we admit that he is God, and we are not. We remind ourselves of who he is. Among other things, he is the Creator and Master of the universe, infinitely more wonderful, wise, holy and good than we can ever comprehend. You can see, when you think about it, that when we worship, we are undermining our reasons for anxiety. God is so much bigger than our troubles. His goodness so far outweighs our sufferings that our sufferings are hardly worth mentioning. When we worship the Lord, we are resetting our perspective, reminding ourselves of God’s infinite goodness and his wonderful, eternal plans for us. When God is big in our hearts, there is very little room left over for anxiety.

I think this concept is also found in the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus. We start our prayer (or worship) by praising God as our Father, and then praising and seeking his holiness and goodness to be revealed in our lives, and the lives of others. We want him glorified. Next, we ask for his kingdom—his rule and his purposes—to be manifested in this world. Then we ask for his will to be done in all things, including our own hearts, minds and lives. Then, and only then, after we have set our perspective in terms of God’s greatness, love, holiness and purposes on earth, can we turn to our specific requests for our “daily bread.”

As Jesus taught about praying for daily bread, Paul says here that there is also a place to unburden ourselves to the Lord (“supplication”). We are to cast our cares on him, trusting that he does care for us (1 Peter 5:7). It is good and right to express our fears and failings and needs to the Lord. He is ready to hear, and he remembers that we struggle. We don’t need to hold back. When we bring our supplications to God after we have worshipped, we will already be on the path away from worry.

But, if we really want to let go of anxiety and experience God’s peace, even when we pray, we do so by permeating our prayer and worship with thanksgiving.

When we thank God, we are taking a concrete step of trust. Thanking him is one of the big ways in which we actually “take hold of” his promises. Thanking him opens a two-way portal by which we transfer our troubles to the Lord, and leave them there with him, and he, for his part, returns peace to us.

Many people have discovered that thankfulness can absolutely transform your life. So, for example, say you have a job that you really hate. But, if you start each day by thanking God for the things you don’t hate, you find that it balances out the negatives in your life, or at least, it does to some degree. I often start my thanksgiving with something small, like hot water as I take a morning shower, and towels, and coffee. The more I thank the Lord, the more I think of other things I can thank him for. Soon, it’s not just that I have thanked God for many specific things, but I find my heart being drawn into an entire attitude of thanksgiving. And it is very hard to be both extremely grateful and extremely anxious at the same time. Many, many people have found this sort of thing to be very helpful in maintaining a peaceful heart and positive attitude.

I want to challenge us to push the envelope on giving thanks. I speak from personal experience when I say that I have learned to thank God even for things that I really, really don’t like. To do so, is an act of trust. When I thank God for something that I wish he would change, I am acknowledging that He is in control, and I am not. I am reorienting myself around the truth that he knows better than I do. I am agreeing with his Word, that:

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

This can be tremendously freeing. It can create a vast reservoir of peace and joy in your life. I know this to be true, because I have experienced it. In my struggle with chronic pain, I began to find real peace and joy when I started to thank God not, in spite of the pain, but for the pain. At the same time I began to thank him for all of the other stupid stuff that was going on in my life that I wished was different.

When I started doing this, it was a pure act of will. I didn’t feel grateful for my pain, or any of the other stuff. I said, “I think I need to do this Lord. So, I don’t feel thankful, but even so, as an act of will, or intent, I am thanking you for this pain.” I went on and thanked him for financial hardship, and several other things. One of the first times I did this, Kari and I did it together. I won’t say we ended by feeling truly thankful, but we did start to feel a little bit more peace.

I have been living with kidney-stone-level-intense pain for almost eleven years. I’m in pain right now, as I write this. I spend hours out of every day just trying to cope with the pain. How could I have peace about such a thing? By remembering that God is God, and I am not. By thanking God that he works all things (even this pain) for my good. And by and large, though many days are just plain physically difficult to deal with, I do have peace about my pain.

My daughter has cancer, and this week has been a difficult one. I am not yet to the point of thanking God for the cancer. I don’t think he sent it to her. But I am at least thanking him for how well my daughter has handled the pain, humiliation and difficulty of this disease. I thank him that she is still with us in this mortal life. I thank him for how the beauty of her character shines as she rests in the Lord for all things. This is a beauty that no one might see, unless she had cancer.

I don’t think anyone gives thanks with 100% purity of heart, 100% of the time. We have grace to fail. But if you are struggling with anxiety, if you are not experiencing God’s peace, I know of no better way to begin to change that other than by developing a habit of thankfulness to God. And if you are not interested in learning to give thanks in all things, I think you should not expect to find peace, or to be free of anxiety. Presenting your requests without worship and without thankfulness is not a Biblical pathway to the peace of God that passes understanding.

If this is difficult for you, I have one final suggestion: ask God for help in becoming more grateful, and when you do, thank him for hearing your prayer. I’m completely serious. We can do nothing useful on a spiritual level without the work of the Holy Spirit in us. So ask for the Holy Spirit to give you an attitude of thankfulness.

And then, as much as possible try to put this into effect. Don’t just ask God for stuff, or pray about what bothers you. Worship him, remind yourself that He is God, and he is a good Father, and he is holy, and all of life was created for his purposes, and to bring him glory. Then, when your heart is settled in the fact that God is God, and you are not, go ahead and unburden yourself to him. Finally, leave those burdens with him by thanking him.

PHILIPPIANS #16. PEOPLE OF THE CROSS

On June 26, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Wooden cross on grassy mountain ridge with sunrise and clouds in background — A wooden cross stands atop a mountain ridge overlooking a foggy valley at sunrise.

The cross of Christ calls us to humility, and to look beyond this world to our eternal joy in fellowship with Christ. This is just plain weird to most of the world. We need the examples of other Christians to help us live this way, and at the same time, we should be willing to be that example for someone else. Above all, we focus on the promises of God for eternal life in the New Creation.

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PHILIPPIANS #16. Philippians 3:16—4:1.

¹⁶ In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. ¹⁷ Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. ²⁰ Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
¹ So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. (Philippians 3:16 – 4:1, CSB)

In 1993, basketball star Charles Barkley declared in a Nike advertisement: “I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”

It’s important to know that at the time, Barkley had a “bad boy” image, and had been criticized for some of his off-court words and actions. I remember the cultural moment pretty clearly, The ad made it seem like he was encouraging kids to look to their parents, and there’s a great deal of truth to that. But that ad was kind of a sanitized version of what was really going on in that cultural moment. There were other interviews and comments, and overall, the main thing Barkley seemed to be saying is that he felt that he didn’t have a responsibility to live in a way that others could constructively imitate. He suggested that he should be allowed to live his own life however he wanted, and he didn’t owe anything to the public. Marvel comics is famous for the line: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Barkley, at that time, seemed to be flatly contradicting this. He didn’t say it this way, but he gave the impression that in his view, with great power comes the right to do whatever the heck he pleases. He rejected any responsibility he had to others. He declared himself free from obligation, free to please only himself.

Two thousand years earlier, the apostle Paul vehemently disagreed with Charles Barkley’s perspective. We have a responsibility to live the kinds of lives that others can imitate. You might think you aren’t very far along as a Christian, and that might possibly be true in some cases, but, says Paul, you have the responsibility to live up to what you do know, so far. We don’t get to be like Charles Barkley, and live to please ourselves, and not care who might need us to be an example.

Now, I want to make something clear: this is not about our salvation, or about how God views us. Paul has made it abundantly clear already that we don’t put any confidence in our flesh—good, or bad—to make a difference in God’s love for us. So, being an example for others to imitate is not about earning points with God. Instead, it is about letting God use us to bless others.

One amazing gift that we have is that we have thousands of generations of Christians to look toward for examples to imitate. I can be inspired by the examples of my Dad, or of some of the missionaries I knew growing up. I can also look to C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Martin Luther, Irenaeus, and the apostle Paul himself. What a gift to have such a wealth of people I can learn from!

A second important point: no one except Jesus is a perfect example, not even Paul. I think about whether I could say to others: “Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.” I think there are ways in which I could say that. But there are other areas in my life that I don’t think would be a good example to imitate. Thankfully, this isn’t about perfection. But it is about stepping up (unlike Charles Barkley) and letting your life be lived for something other than your own preferences.

Paul’s next sentence flows on naturally from this one:

“For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things.”

Who is Paul talking about? I think he’s talking about people who claim to be Christians. At the time that Paul wrote there were probably fewer than 10,000 Christians in the entire world. Most people had not even heard of Christ in the first place, so it would be strange for Paul to think of them and be brought to tears that they were “enemies of the cross of Christ.” It makes far more sense that Paul is talking about some people who claim to be Christians, but still live as “enemies of the cross of Christ.”

Next question: What does it mean to live as an enemy of the cross of Christ, especially if such a person is claiming to be a Christian? One place to start is to understand the meaning of “the cross of Christ.” In the first place, Jesus called all who want to follow him:

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25, ESV)

Taking up our cross means dying to our flesh. It means being identified with the humble death of Jesus. It means that we are no longer are own people, but we belong to Jesus, even (maybe “especially”) when it feels like a part of us has to die as we follow him. Paul described his own experience like this:

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

Bible commentator Matthew Henry puts it like this:

Christ came by his cross to crucify the world to us and us to the world; and those who mind earthly things act directly contrary to the cross of Christ, and this great design of it.

Now, when Paul is talking about “enemies of the cross” I do NOT think he is referring to ordinary Christians who sometimes struggle to surrender everything to Jesus. I think he has in mind people who deny, in heart and mind and action, the call of Christ to surrender to him, to be humble, and even to lose all things in order to gain Christ.

In our present Christian culture I can think of at least one group of people who call themselves Christians, but deny the cross: Those who follow the “Prosperity Gospel” in its various forms. The heart of the prosperity gospel is that if we follow God, he will fulfill our dreams. If you do right, you will be blessed, and if you aren’t blessed in obvious, worldly ways (like financially, or having obedient children, or a great marriage, or a big influence, etc.) then it is your fault for not doing it well enough, or, God is testing you (but only temporarily). Such folks maintain that if you do and say the right things, eventually, in this life, God must bless you (according to your view of “blessing”).

However, the way of the cross is completely foreign here. The idea that you might have to actually give up your non-sinful dreams is considered a lie of the devil. Christ calls us to die to ourselves, and that sometimes means dying to things that are not necessarily wrong or sinful. The gospel of Prosperity calls us to cultivate our own desires, and use God as a means to get them. The cross, however, calls everything else rubbish, as Paul said earlier in the chapter. Prosperity says suffering is an aberration, it’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen. To the way of Prosperity, suffering means we have done something wrong. We must try to avoid suffering by thinking and speaking the right ways, so that we don’t bring hardship upon ourselves. But the way of the cross says:

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, (Philippians 3:10, NLT)

Just to be sure we understand about the enemies of the cross, Paul describes them a bit more:

¹⁹ They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. (Philippians 3:19, NLT)

We see here the similarities with modern prosperity preaching. Their focus is on what they desire in this present life. They brag about promotions, and riches, and larger houses and a “bigger life.” They do often “give glory to God” for it, but that always strikes me as a kind of formulaic lip service thing they do to “make the system work.” And they are “giving glory” not to a God who calls us to trust beyond what we understand, but rather, to a god who gives us what we want.

I know this might be a bit strange, but I think one of the best illustrations of this attitude is Peter Gabriel’s song, Big Time. Give it a listen, if possible (but wait until you’re done with the sermon!) with headphones, or a system that has plenty of bass. It’s fun, but it’s also sad, when we remember there are so many people like that.

Here’s another contrast between enemies of the cross and followers of Jesus (the way of the cross): enemies of the cross are looking for approval and acceptance from the people of this world, while followers of Jesus die to their desires to be accepted by those who don’t love Jesus.

For example, I find this is a temptation for me with regard to my intellect. I am an intellectual. I’m tempted to be proud about it, which leads me to want the respect and recognition of other intellectuals. But, I’ve had to face the fact that it is not intellectually respectable to insist that God made the world—not even when I have good intellectual arguments for saying so. Above all, it is not intellectually respectable to claim that a human body was fully dead, and then was raised again to life. Again, I think I have rational reasons for believing the resurrection, but even so, following Jesus usually means dying to my desire to be considered “respectable” by my fellow intellectuals. In fact, many people would reject my self-designation as an intellectual, precisely because I do trust Jesus and believe the Bible.

Some corporate environments are all about “getting ahead,” chasing the next promotion, gaining more influence, and so on. The humble path of the cross is not a respectable alternative in such places. If you really follow Jesus, you might stand out in your workplace as kind of weird. Sometimes, you might even be called out for not being a team player (which means, in this context, not fully engaging in the corporate culture).

Another important part of “the cross” is humility. People today wear crosses around their necks, or get cross tattoos. It’s considered a cool symbol. But in New Testament times, when Paul was writing, the cross was seen primarily as the worst thing that could happen to a person. It was humiliating. It’s like the electric chair to us, or lethal injection. To accept the cross of Christ is to be identified with humility. So one mark of enemies of the cross is that they are not humble.

I think it is striking that Paul’s final word on these “enemies of the cross” is that they are focused on this (mortal) life. They are after what they can get, here and now.

In contrast, Paul says that we are citizens of heaven, and our hearts are looking toward that eternal home, and the appearance, at last, of our savior, Jesus. That doesn’t mean that we should not find joy or happiness here and now, in this life. It doesn’t mean that we can’t work hard to buy a needed vehicle, or look forward to a vacation, or enjoy sweet moments with our loved ones. But I do think it means we limit how much time and energy we spend on trying to make this life as comfortable as possible. Above all it means that our focus, energy and desire is mainly aimed at the life to come. C.S. Lewis said many useful things about this:

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next…

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you’ll get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you’ll get neither.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So, focusing on the coming New Creation doesn’t lead us to neglect this world. It leads us to neglect our own earthly goals and desires for those of our savior, Jesus. And that often turns out to benefit this present world.

I think sometimes we forget how weird Christians ought to look to those who do not walk with Jesus. What Paul is saying is that we do not value what they value. We don’t pursue what they pursue, or worry about what they worry about. We are “not from around here.” We are citizens of a country that we haven’t yet been to, and it’s a country about which the world knows nothing. In fact the values of our heavenly country are strange to this world. If we are imitators of Jesus, and Paul and other mature believers, we are going to look strange, humble and unimportant to many others.

Paul adds:

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

We should trust that there will come a time when our humility is lifted up by God.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, (1 Peter 5:6, CSB)

We will share in the glorious joy of the Lord. If we entrust our needs to the Lord now, someday we will find that the sufferings of this present life are not worth mentioning compared to the glory that is revealed to us (Romans 8:18). We can be OK with a life here and now that is far less than perfect, because we will have infinitely longer to enjoy a life that is more than we could ever ask or imagine, in the New Creation.

Paul closes this section with this exhortation:

So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

How do we stand firm? By

1) living up to what we know;
2) Imitating other believers who are, in some ways, more mature than us, while at the same time being willing to be role models ourselves;
3) Recognizing that the way of the cross is completely different from the ways of the world;
4)Looking forward to our eternal future with Jesus in the New Creation.

PHILIPPIANS #15: RUNNING THE RACE IN GRACE

On June 19, 2026 By Pastor TomIn apostle paul, Bible, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Person running on a mountain trail at sunset with a scenic mountainous landscape — A trail runner enjoys an evening run along a mountain ridge with a vibrant sunset.

God has taken hold of us. We are safe. We now have a righteousness that has nothing to do with us—with our good deeds, or our failures, or bad deeds. This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. While holding that to be true, the apostle Paul tells us that it is also true that we should pursue Jesus Christ with all our being.

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PHILIPPIANS #15. Philippians 3:7-15

We’re going to finally move forward past Philippians 3:1-11, but I do want to catch verses 7-11 on the way out, because they form background to the main point that Paul is making in verses 12-16.

We talked about what Paul meant when he said he considered all things as rubbish, and loss, for the sake of Christ (verse 7-8). We also talked a little bit about verse 9 – that our righteousness does not depend upon us, but upon Christ. We covered this a bit when we talked about not having confidence in the flesh. The actions of our flesh, whether good, or bad, are irrelevant, in Jesus Christ. We gain good standing with God (righteousness) through faith, but we should not be concerned about the relative strength of our faith. We depend not upon faith, but upon Christ. Faith is just exactly that—depending upon Christ. Our faith may feel like it wavers sometimes, but Jesus Christ does not waver. So, even if we feel like we are wavering, or struggling, we can be at peace, because our lives, our eternal future, depend on Christ, not us.

Imagine two men traveling on a bus to San Diego. They end up sitting together. One of them looks very relaxed, and the other nervous.

Stu looks at his seatmate, a man named Rex. “Do you think that guy is a good Driver?”

“I’m sure he is,” says Rex.

“Well, I’m not,” says Stu.

The bus gets underway. Rex slips on some headphones, and picks up a book. Stu can’t believe how trusting he is. When they go through traffic, Stu gets stressed and angry. When a thunderstorm hits, and there is wild wind and a huge amount of spray, Rex perks up, and even seems to enjoy the storm, but Stu is only more worried.

Stu stresses about the route they take, wondering if the Driver really knows the way to San Diego. There are unscheduled stops, and sometimes it seems like they are even backtracking. At times, the engine appears to make a strange noise, and this too, bothers Stu. Rex remains unruffled. He seems to trust the Driver, and the Bus.

At last they pull into their destination in San Diego.

Now: here’s a question: which one of these two men made it to San Diego?

Both, of course! Rex had faith in the Driver and enjoyed the journey. Stu had enough faith to stay on the bus, but his faith waxed and waned, and he had great doubts, and moments of fear and anger. Even so, he arrived at the same destination as Rex, and at the same time. You see, once they had enough faith to stay on the bus, it wasn’t their faith that carried them to their destination—it was the Driver and the Bus that did that.

So, in the same way, we aren’t carried to the New Creation by our faith. We are carried there by Jesus Christ. Our faith is about “getting on the bus,” and “staying on the bus.” Our faith relies upon Jesus Christ. But our faith doesn’t save us—Jesus Christ saves us.

However, back to our analogy, the relative strength or weakness of their faith did make a difference in this one way: The journey was much more relaxing, enjoyable and peaceful for Rex. Rex’s stronger faith did not carry him farther, or faster. Rex was on the same journey as Stu. He went through the same storm, took the same detours, heard the same grinding noise in the engine of the Bus. But Rex’s trust in the Driver and the Bus made his experience of the journey better. But in the end, they both arrived safely. So we have a righteousness that is not our own. It comes by faith, and it is Jesus, not our faith, that carries us to our eternal home.

Paul carries on:

¹⁰ My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹ assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Paul trusts in Christ, not in his own strength of faith. But Paul here, and in the following verses, makes it clear that he is not content to arrive after having been worried and stressed out the whole time. He wants to know Christ more, to experience the fullness of Christ’s life in and through his own life. He doesn’t want to arrive without pursuing all that it means to have Jesus in this life.

By the way, verse 11, where he says: “that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead,” Paul doesn’t mean there is doubt about whether or not he will experience resurrection. What he doesn’t know is the particular journey he will take to the resurrection. Will he be martyred? Killed by robbers on a journey? Will he die of old age, surrounded by friends? Will he still be alive when Jesus returns? Whatever pathway leads there (that is, “by any means possible”), he will, through Jesus, be raised from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

I’ve said before that there are many truths that Christians hold in tension. For example: Jesus was fully God. And, also, he was fully human. God is three persons. And, there is only one God. This is one of the somewhat unique characteristics of Christianity, compared with other religions.

When it comes to practical Christian living, another way to express it, is that we are on a road, with a ditch on either side. These verses here express that well. On the one side, we might fall into the ditch of thinking that someone our salvation depends upon us, even if just for us to have “enough” faith, or the right kind of faith. On the other side, there is the ditch of thinking, since it is all up to Christ, and not to us, we might as well wander off and live however we want to, and just meet up with Jesus after we die.

Paul has just addressed the first ditch. Just in case we missed it, he says:

I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

So, we rest secure in knowing that Christ is the one who has hold of us. This is not about us having to work to gain our salvation, or to earn God’s favor. Christ has already taken hold of us.

With that understanding, that Christ has hold of us, we, now, have the wonderful privilege and joy of also taking hold of Christ. Just to cement this idea, let me give you an illustration.

I love my little granddaughter. She’s just over a year old. I pick her up, and carry her, or hold her on my lap while we read books, or I take her outside to see the goats and the birds and the trees. These are sweet times with her as a baby, and I’ve been doing these things with her since before she could even really interact with me.

Now, of course, she is old enough to interact with me. The last time I was with her, she began trying to say “Grandpoppa,” which is my “name” with her. It melted my heart, and thrilled me all at once. She actually said something like “PupPop,” but what she was trying to do was clear.

These days, she also loves to crawl up to me and then hold out her hands for me to pick her up. Again, it melts my heart. Sometimes, when she’s having trouble getting to sleep for a nap, I lay down with her, and she cuddles up to me with a stuffed animal in her arms, and a pacifier in her mouth, and falls asleep.

Now, do I hold her because she just said “PupPop?” Of course not. I hold her because she is my grandchild, and I love her. I held her long before she could respond to me. Every once in a while, when we are babysitting her, she has a hard time getting to sleep, and she resists it, and gets upset and cries a lot. Does that make me love her less? If you are a parent or grandparent, you know that is an utterly ridiculous question.

The times that she interacts with me are a wonderful joy to me. I crave more of it. But her actions (or lack of actions) are not the basis for our relationship. I do hope that as she grows she will respond to my love with hugs and words of her own, but I loved her before she could do such things, and I will love her, regardless of what she does or doesn’t do.

Even so, my expectation is that she will grow and mature in the ways that she should, so that as time goes on, we will interact more and more with each other, and with greater understanding, and at deeper levels. I would be concerned if she was a teenager and she could only say “PupPop!” and she still lifted up her arms for me to carry her. I wouldn’t love her less, but I would know that something has gone wrong.

This is our situation with the Lord. He has taken hold of us. He did so before we had done anything at all to please him. We are safe in his love. Our actions do not change his love for us. As the apostle John wrote:

¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. (1 John 4:10, GW)

Now Paul tells us a second truth, and warns us of the second ditch:

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

We are secure in his love. But, says Paul, there is much more to come, so he strains forward, pursuing God’s heavenly call as a prize to be won. This is not an isolated thought. Look at these other verses about the same thing:

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV)

⁴ No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ⁵ An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ⁶ It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷ Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:4-7, ESV)

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8, ESV)

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:1-3, ESV)

The idea that “getting saved” is just a ticket to heaven that you keep until you die is not a Biblical one. The Bible shows us that we are utterly secure in Christ. It also shows us that the normal path for those who belong to Christ is to pursue more and more of Christ, above all other things in our lives. When I die, and someone asks, “What was Tom Hilpert’s life all about? How would you sum it up?” I want the answer to be something like “He was all about Jesus,” or “He kept learning to love Jesus more and more.”

And here’s the thing: every single Christian should want that to be true of them as well. That is the normal pattern for those who follow Jesus. Paul puts it like this in our text today:

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

We’ve had discussions in our house churches about whether or not there are rewards in heaven, beyond the reward of “just being there.” Many people don’t seem to like the idea, and seem to think it’s best to have the attitude that they are just glad to be there at all. They don’t need anything extra. But that’s not the attitude that Paul is showing us here today. Paul wants it all—everything he can possibly get in and through Jesus Christ. He pursues like a runner, fights for it like a soldier or boxer. And he tells us that if we are mature, we will pursue Christ in the same way. Maybe one way to think about it is this: regardless of what the Bible means when it talks about rewards in heaven, we should pursue Jesus as if doing so will win us some kind of prize. We should go all out for Jesus, like a runner who doesn’t look back. Again Paul says that all who are mature should think this way.

Here’s part of what is going on here: the love of God, given to us in Jesus Christ is the only thing that is safe for us to desire without limit. You all have heard far too much about how I really love eggnog. Sometimes, I wish I could just sit and guzzle eggnog for hour after hour. I want eggnog without limit. But eggnog without limit will literally kill me. The truth is anything without limit will kill us. Even drinking too much water can kill human beings (it takes a LOT, but it can happen!).

The only thing it is safe to desire without limit is Jesus himself. And so, Paul says, “Let’s go for it! Let’s desire and pursue the one thing that is safe to desire and pursue without limit.”

Now, it’s easy to think, “OK, I guess I have to quit my job and go join a monastery, or go on the mission field, or something.”

It may be that the Lord is calling you to something like that. But I think it’s more likely that he is calling you to make him the main thing in your life as it is right now. If you are a drug dealer, or something like that, then probably you should make immediate changes. But for most people, it starts by pursuing Jesus in the midst of everyday life, where they are right now.

Here’s a small example. Our doorframe recently shifted, and I decided that the best option (for now) is to plane off the vertical side of the door until it fits better. I didn’t have a plane, so I went to a home-improvement store to get one. I asked a store employee to help me find one, and he did. He also turned out to be a talkative individual. Now, normally, this is the kind of situation I hate. But I felt like the Holy Spirit nudged me, and let me know that this man just needed to talk for a bit. So I stood there for far longer than I ordinarily would. Why? Because my life belongs to Jesus, and he made it clear that my mission, before planing the door, was to spend some time with this guy. I am trying always to be Jesus’ man, not my own. As it turned out, after listening for a while, I got to go fix my door as well. But I stopped to listen to the man because I’m living for Jesus, not myself.

I want to hasten to add, like Paul, that I haven’t achieved this perfectly, not by a long shot.

So, I think for most people, you keep on living life more or less as you have been doing, but within that framework, you are pursuing Jesus, and trying to let him use you, and remembering that your life is about him, not you.

Like Paul, as I just said, we will not do this perfectly. But Paul also says,

Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind means, at least in part, forgetting about the ways we have failed in the past. No, we don’t do it perfectly, but God has already taken hold of us, so we are secure. We leave the past to Jesus, and move forward, toward him.

PHILIPPIANS #14: CONFIDENCE

On June 6, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pair of hands raised upward in prayer with sunlight streaming through a church window — Hands lifted in prayer inside a sunlit church

If you feel that you are a bad Christian because of your failures, you might be putting confidence in the flesh. If you feel that you are doing OK as a Christian (because, well, you are doing OK, at least right now), you might be putting confidence in the flesh. But the Holy Spirit calls us to put all our confidence in Christ, not our own performance.

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This is our third installment on Philippians 3, verses 1-11. Last time we focused primarily on putting Jesus above all else, and considering everything a loss compared to the surpassing wonderfulness of knowing Jesus Christ. But I want to return to something Paul said here:

“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh”

We talked a little bit about how Jewish people put their confidence in how well they observed man-made regulations about the law of Moses. Paul did that himself. But this time, I want to talk about what it means for Christians to put no confidence in the flesh. Most of us are not putting confidence in how well we obey the Jewish Sabbath regulations, and so on. But even so, we are prone to putting confidence in the flesh.

“Flesh” in this sense means, “not the Spirit of God, but human effort, or human values.” Another way to think of flesh is “the self, apart from God.” So when we put confidence in the flesh, it shows up in two major flavors. One way of “putting confidence in the flesh” is to feel that we have performed well. So, for instance, when I manage to pull together some self-discipline and maybe change some ungodly habits, (like gluttonous eating) I might feel pretty good about myself. Or, perhaps I’ve started a godly habit of praying every day, or serving others every week, and so I feel that I’m in a better place with God than I was a couple weeks ago, when I only prayed once, and dodged every chance I had to help anyone. Now, here’s the important part: In these examples, even though we are trying to live more godly lives, we are doing so by putting confidence in our flesh. To put it bluntly, we feel that we are better off because we have performed better. This was the way in which Paul previously put confidence in the flesh. He was incredibly self-disciplined, and so he performed well, and he thought that made him right with God. Our good feeling is not because we have confidence in Jesus and what he has done for us, it is because we have done well. Our confidence that we’re doing well with God is based on our own performance.

There’s another way that also puts confidence in the flesh, and it is this: we feel badly about our spiritual state because we have performed badly. Yes, this, too, is putting confidence in the flesh. Our hope is in our flesh behaving well, and that hope has disappointed us. But our hope, our confidence, even in this situation, is still in our flesh, not in Jesus Christ. We feel bad because we feel that some measure of the Christian life is up to us. We are still judging ourselves and our performance based on how well (or not) our flesh behaves.

To summarize: If you feel that you are a bad Christian because of your failures, you might be putting confidence in the flesh. If you feel that you are doing OK as a Christian (because, well, you are doing OK, at least right now), you might be putting confidence in the flesh.

This is part of what Paul considers “loss” and “rubbish” compared to Jesus Christ. You think you should feel good about yourself because you’ve managed to stay disciplined for a few months? Rubbish! Trash! Don’t put any confidence in your own good performance. Do you feel badly because you can’t seem to put two decently-Christian days together in a row? Garbage! Filth! Don’t put any confidence in your own bad performance.

I’ve had to wrestle with this in my own ministry. When I was 25, I started a network of house churches. After just two months, the first non-believer became a disciple of Jesus. He was followed by two more a few months later, and then an avalanche of people who had never followed Jesus began to do so. Along the way we experienced miracles of healing and deliverance and words from the Lord. Believers who had been stuck in their faith began to grow. The church grew. People were delivered from demonic forces, from psychological problems, from troubled marriages, and so many other wonderful things happened. I look back at some of the sermons that I wrote then, and think, “Where in the world did I get that kind of wisdom at 25 years old?”

Well, as it happens, both then and now, I knew where the wisdom came from, and where the miracles came from, and everything else: It was all the work of the Holy Spirit. At the time I was very clear about not claiming any credit for myself, and today I stand by that. It was a wonderful work of God, and I just got to go along for the ride.

So, fast forward a few years. I love our New Joy Fellowship, and our Life Together Churches network. I love that a lot of other people I’ve never met tune-in online. But, objectively, things haven’t gone quite as stunningly well as they did during my younger years. Things seem to be moving a lot more slowly. Several years ago, I was kind of lamenting this, and assuming responsibility for it. I thought I must be failing in various ways, since things were so different than they were when I was younger. My wife said to me: “Tom, did you take credit for all those wonderful things when we were younger? Would you take credit for them today?”

The answer was a clear and obvious, “Of course not.”

She said, “So why are you trying to ‘take credit’ for things not going the way you want them to right now? You said back then it was all the Lord. If that’s true, than isn’t this time also all up to the Lord?”

I married a wise woman.

If any of that good stuff when I was younger came about simply because of my effort, then it was not worth much. The point is this: The good stuff is rubbish unless it came from Jesus. And so is the bad stuff. I have never been perfect, when I was young, or now. But it doesn’t matter. I put no confidence in good flesh, or bad flesh.

I want to flesh out (hah!) what I mean by putting confidence in bad flesh. I’ll call out a few of my own sins and failings here. I have been really trying to stop being so angry and judgmental toward the many (many!) abysmal, horrible, thoughtless, moronic, ____, drivers that I encounter when I get in the car (you see my problem). We can laugh about it, but it’s not actually funny. What comes out of me when another driver offends me is ugly, rageful, and rude, prideful and selfish. My family have seen me that way, and I would be genuinely ashamed for anyone else to see me when I’m like that. Now, when I fail in that way, I should, and do repent, apologize to the Lord, and to whoever is in the car with me. But what happens after that? I have two possible paths. One, the path of “bad flesh.” It looks something like this: I think “When am I ever going to grow up and get over this stupid reaction I have? How can I possibly preach to people that Jesus changes us, when, week after week, month after month, I still fail in this way? What kind of pathetic Christian am I, anyway?” If it’s really bad, I can go into a cycle of thinking this way for days. Now here’s the thing we may not realize: when I act this way, spending a lot of time and energy being bothered about my failure, I am putting confidence in the (bad) flesh. To put it simply, I am acting as if the flesh matters. But in Christ we are to put no confidence in our performance whether it is good or bad. When we are in Jesus, the flesh doesn’t matter either way. Good performance doesn’t matter. Bad performance doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t give any weight to our performance, either way.

Paul helps us with this when he is talking about his potential reasons for confidence in the flesh. He starts off mentioning his reasons for confidence in “good flesh:” his birth, circumcision, career as a Pharisee, and so on. But then he says “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church.” Why throw that one in there? I think Paul is saying, “If I wanted to put confidence in the flesh, I could also spend a lot of time thinking about what a terrible person I have been.” In other words, the fact that he was persecuting the church tempts him to give weight to “bad flesh” in his life.

Now, if we really get this, and we say, “The flesh doesn’t matter if it’s good, or even if it’s bad,” some questions naturally come to mind: “Why bother to be good? Why worry about being bad? If it’s really true that neither one matters, why don’t I just live to please my own desires, even if they are sinful?”

The answer to such questions is love. I am legally married to my wife Kari. That remains a legal fact, no matter how I behave. There was nothing in my marriage vows about doing dishes, listening, cuddling, holding hands, taking walks, managing finances, being supportive, or taking the garbage out. I can do those things, or not, and still be married to Kari. So, why would I do any of those kinds of things? The answer is obvious: love. I have learned the sorts of things that are important to Kari, and because I love Kari, I try to engage in such behaviours. I do not do so perfectly, not by a long shot. When I fail to do certain things, it causes injury to our relationship. Listen carefully: it doesn’t end our relationship, it just means that I need to recognize that I’ve hurt Kari, and that we need to talk about it, forgive one another, and move on. I don’t live this way with Kari because of some kind of rule or law. I do it because I love her.

We are in the same situation with Jesus. When we love him, we want to do things that make him happy. When we fail, we need to go through reconciliation. But the whole thing is not based upon performance, but on relationship, on love. In fact, we find that Jesus and his apostles taught us that this is exactly how it works. Jesus said:

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. ¹⁷ He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.(John 14:15-17, CSB)

Now, it can be easy to misunderstand. It can sound like Jesus is saying, “In order to prove you love me, you must do what I command.” But I think what he is actually saying is this: “If you love me, you will naturally, as a result of that love, want to do the things I want you to. If you love me you won’t want to intentionally hurt or disappoint me, and you will want to do the things that are important to me.” He then adds a brief statement about the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can truly love Jesus. We don’t have to come up with love for God out of our own strength (that would be relying on the flesh again). No, the Holy Spirit within us helps us to love God.

When a teacher of the law asked him about the commandments, here’s another way Jesus put the same concept:

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40, ESV)

Of course, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to show us that our neighbor is everyone we encounter in this life. So, if we love God, we will want to do things his way. If we love our neighbor, we will not intentionally hurt other people.

Now, believe me, I know the next objection: “But I do actually do things my own way, rather than God’s (often!), and I do sometimes do things that I know will hurt other people. Therefore I must not really love God, or my neighbor.”

So, two things here. First, a question: Do you want to do such hurtful things? Obviously, a part of you must want to. We’ll call that part the flesh. But isn’t there also a part of you that says, “I wish I wasn’t this way. I wish I could do better. I don’t really want to be like this.” If there is, than you have confirmation of the fact that part of you is made from flesh that is in rebellion against God. That’s the part that is not interested in being loving, unless you can get what you want that way. But the other part of you is the Holy Spirit of God in you. So, there is a part of you that does love God and neighbor. Your heart agrees with God about what is right or wrong, even when you don’t follow it.

I had a friend who wasn’t a follower of Jesus, and then eventually, he became one. He told me that after becoming a Christian, he started to struggle with lust. This surprised me. I asked him to explain. He said, “Before surrendering to Jesus, I didn’t struggle with lust. I just lusted. There was no struggle involved. But now, part of me doesn’t want to lust anymore.”

So, if you struggle to do the right thing, the very fact that part of you wants to do it shows that you do, in fact, love God, and your neighbor. It also shows that your body is corrupted by sin, and is working against those loves. But remember: the flesh is irrelevant.

Loving God is not the same thing as putting confidence in your flesh. Your performance—how well you love God (or not)—is irrelevant. God loves you, regardless of how you perform. You love God, in spite of the fact that sometimes you don’t act like it.

Here is another wonderful thing. As I mentioned above, it is not up to us to come up with love, like it would be up to us to come up with good performance. No, the Holy Spirit, who enters us when we trust Jesus, will himself give us the ability to love God and our neighbor. If you feel like you don’t know if you really do love God enough, ask him to help you love him better. That’s a prayer he will answer!

Put no confidence in the flesh—not when you can make it behave, not when you can’t. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus Christ. Through faith you have a righteousness that has nothing to do with the flesh, or the law. It is righteousness that comes from the Holy Character and Life of Jesus Christ himself, based upon him, not you.

PHILIPPIANS #13: RUBBISH

On May 22, 2026 By Pastor TomIn House Church, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Glowing locked treasure chest glowing inside a freshly dug hole outdoors at sunset — A glowing treasure chest is uncovered at sunset in a scenic valley

This is the heart of the gospel: Jesus is surpassingly good. He, and he alone, is worth everything. Nothing else can compare to him, and when we have only him, then through him, we have everything we might need.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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We are working our way slowly through this passage in Philippians. These verses are very dense with meaning, so we’ll be spending several weeks here, but I want us to remember that each “lesson” goes along with the whole passage. Last time we looked at what Paul meant when he told the Philippians to watch out for those “mutilators of the flesh,” and that we are “the circumcision.” He continues:

For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh — ⁴ although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
⁷ But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

One of the key issues that came up repeatedly in the early church was the issue of following the Jewish law. Last time we looked at how Paul, throughout all his letters, makes it clear that we do not need to follow the various laws and regulations of the Jewish law. The Jewish leaders of the church in Jerusalem agreed with him, and made it clear in Acts chapter 15. Here, Paul says that we are the chosen people of God, who worship Jesus Christ, and “do not put confidence in the flesh.”

What does he mean by this expression? In the first place, he means that we do not put confidence in the fact that we have been circumcised, or that we were born Jewish, or went through Jewish conversion. Paul makes this clear by saying “I could put confidence in the flesh, if anyone could,” and lists his birth into the tribe of Benjamin, and his circumcision among such things. But he adds more. Not only was he born a Hebrew, but he points out he was a Pharisee, which was the strictest version of Judaism, and among Pharisees, he was particularly zealous. He claims that he was blameless in following the law.

Many Christians in modern times wonder how Paul could say he was blameless according to the law? The God’s Word version captures his thought very forcefully:

When it comes to winning God’s approval by obeying Jewish laws, I was perfect. (Philippians 3:6, GW)

We find this difficult to believe, because we have an understanding of the law that has been shaped by the teaching of Jesus. Jews at the time of Jesus and Paul had created a system for how to follow God’s law perfectly. So, for instance, God commanded this, through Moses:

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8 ESV)

The Jews were worried about how to apply this, so they made up a bunch of additional rules that, in their minds, would guarantee that they followed this command properly. So, for instance, they came up with a number of steps they were allowed to walk on the Sabbath. They weren’t allowed to “work” by lighting lamps on the Sabbath, so they made sure they had enough oil in the lamps to burn for a whole night and day. They could do certain farm chores, like caring for their animals (almost everyone was involved with agriculture in some way), but not others. Now, the Bible never actually tells how many steps a person can walk on the Sabbath, or that a person shouldn’t light a lamp on the Sabbath. It never actually specifies exactly what should or shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath, except it excludes “work.” But at about this point in history, the man-made rules of this type began to be more important to them than the actual scripture.

What Paul is saying is that he followed all the man-made rules correctly. Jesus is the one who said “if you follow the rules, but you have sin in your heart, you have still broken the law.” By that measure, Paul was never blameless. But by the measure of man made rules, Paul had a perfect record.

There’s something else here, that we may not realize at first glance. What Paul is telling us here, and what we know from other sources, is that he was pursuing a career as a Jewish Rabbi, and he was headed for elite status. His mentor was Rabbi Gamaliel, whose teaching still provides some foundational ideas for Jews, even today. Paul was a rising star, an exceptionally intelligent scholar, with all the right connections, and all the right attitudes. His future was bright indeed. To understand better, imagine a young man today who went to Harvard Law School, and graduated summa cum laude. He passed the bar exam with ease, the very first time he took it. He clerked for a Supreme Court Justice, and knows several senators. Just when he seems poised to take the world by storm, he quits practicing law and becomes a missionary to the country of Djibouti. (If you haven’t heard of Djibouti, that’s the point).

Or, for a more mundane example, imagine someone who has worked her way up the levels in her company. She’s put in hard hours and sacrificed, and seems about to become the first female CEO of her company. But instead of doing that, she leaves, giving up all that hard work, and that huge opportunity.

That was Paul’s situation. He gave up everything he had worked to achieve. He gave up what others thought was a very bright future. He gave it all up because:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Jesus Christ is worth more than a bright future as an elite leader. Jesus Christ is worth more than an excellent career, or the praise of your peers, or money, or power, a nice retirement, or any of the other things we human beings think are valuable. In expressing this, Paul is simply putting the teachings of Jesus into practice. Jesus himself said:

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39, ESV)

Nothing in this life, not even our closest relationships, are worth as much as Jesus. On another occasion, Jesus put it even more strongly:

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied 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 bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33, ESV)

Jesus makes it clear. When we become his disciples, we have only him, we are to be ready to give up everything else, even our own lives. Anything else we “have” is given through Jesus, and by Jesus, and must be subordinate to Jesus. He even says, in the Luke passage above: “Hey, you should consider this carefully before becoming my disciple. Can you handle this extreme cost?”

Now, does this mean you need to quit your job, divorce your spouse and neglect your children? Not at all. Jesus was using extreme language to make a point. I think what it means is that you have these things—really, everything—only in and through Jesus. I was a disciple of Jesus when I met Kari (so was she). We both felt that it was his desire for us to be married. You might say I am married to Kari through Jesus. In our marriage, my goal is for the will and work of Jesus to be done through me, with and for Kari. So you might say my marriage is for Jesus.

The same sorts of things should be true of our work. If you work in construction, then, for as long as you are in that industry, you are there for Jesus. Yes, you are there to earn a living, and maybe because you enjoy that kind of work. Or, maybe, because you have no other options right now. But regardless, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you are in construction (for the moment, anyway) because (at least for now) Jesus wants you there. Firstly, he wants to reach others who don’t know him, and he wants to do that through you. He also wants to encourage other disciples, and again, he wants to do it through you. And perhaps he wants to build things well—again, through you.

Here’s an analogy that might help. Picture a girl of about twelve years old whose parents abandoned her at a young age. She’s bounced around the foster system for some time. And now, she’s been adopted by a very rich (and kind) father. Before she was adopted, she had some worn out clothes and things—nothing of any real value. Now, as part of the rich father’s family, she has a nice house, and delicious food to eat, beautiful clothing, and opportunities in life that weren’t available to her before. All of the new, wonderful things in her life come through her adoption into the father’s family. She has none of it without the father. With the father, she has all of it.

That’s the way it is meant to be with us and Jesus. I have Jesus, and everything else I have is conditional upon how Jesus wants to use it in my life. My house is his to use. My job is his. I’m not pursuing my own goals, but his goals for my life. Now, that’s not necessarily to say I can never move or change jobs. But when I do, I do so in consultation with Jesus, seeking his purposes for my life, and for any change I might want to make. I have had times in my life when it seemed like Jesus was OK with me changing jobs. I’ve had other times when he made it clear he wanted me to stay put. But this is the deal: I really have nothing, except Jesus Christ.

Jesus put this in a parable for us:

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46, ESV)

We give up everything in order to have the one thing that is beyond price: Jesus Christ himself. When we have Jesus, then we have everything. When we don’t have Jesus, nothing we have is worth anything.

In the nineteen fifties, there was a young man named Jim Elliot who, along with four other young men, determined that Jesus wanted, through them, to take the gospel to an unreached jungle tribe in the Amazon. A few years before this, Elliot had written:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

He meant, among other things, that even his own life was not his own to keep. All people die; no one gets to “keep” their own life. So, even if he were to give up his life, he was not giving up anything that was truly his anyway. What he gained by giving Jesus his life was an eternal life that no one could ever take from him.

A few years after writing that, Elliot and his friends were murdered in the Amazon jungle by the tribe they were trying to reach with the gospel of Jesus. He fully gave up what he could not keep. But at least three things happened as a result. That awful event, along with Jim Elliot’s quote, inspired at least two generations of Christians to take seriously the call of Jesus to give our entire selves into his keeping. It also inspired many young people to become missionaries. Thirdly, their martyrdom was the catalyst that led to the peaceful conversion of that tribe to faith in Jesus Christ.

Jim Elliot might have been thinking of this passage in Philippians when he wrote his famous words. Nothing compares to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. All things are worthless compared to Jesus. Everything that is good, that will endure, will also be found in and through Jesus Christ.

I let the world tempt me into thinking that I’m missing out, or that I need to chase down my own goals, to have the life I want. But scripture says that all things are rubbish compared to Jesus Christ. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you today.

PHILIPPIANS #12: CHOSEN

On May 16, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Fiery heart breaking metal chains with sparks and fragments flying — A glowing heart shatters heavy chains binding it, symbolizing liberation.

God’s chosen people are those who belong to his family through Jesus Christ. Through Christ, all the promises of the Old Testament are applicable to those who follow him. What an honor, what unearned favor, that we have been chosen by God!

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PHILIPPIANS #12. Philippians 3:1-11

Really, all of Philippians 3:1—4:1 is one cohesive section. However, there is so much within that section that we are taking it piece by piece. As we do so, however, remember what came before, and how it all fits together. So, last time we did a deep dive on finding our joy in the Lord. That thought is related to the rest of the passage. Paul goes on:

² Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. ³ For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—” (Philippians 3:2-3).

Just in case you don’t know the background of this, let me set it up for you. Christianity, when it began, was unquestionably, and entirely, Jewish. All Christians, during the first few years after Jesus was raised from the dead, were Jews who believed that Jesus was the Jewish messiah who fulfilled the teachings of the Law and the Prophets (that is, what we call the Old Testament). They saw no conflict between being Jewish and being Christian, and indeed, there is no necessary conflict. In every generation since that time there have been Jews who are Christian. In the first years of Christianity, the question went the other way: Is it possible for non-Jewish people, (whom Jews called Gentiles), to receive salvation through Jesus Christ?

After a few years, Gentiles began to be converted to Jesus. First, some Samaritans were converted, as described in Acts chapter 8, but the church may have considered them “not fully Gentile,” because they had some relationship with ethnic Jews, and with the law of Moses, and the promised land.

The first definitive record of Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus is in Acts chapter 10, which describes how the Holy Spirit led the apostle Peter to preach to the household of a Roman official named Cornelius. This was probably around A.D. 41-43, eight or ten years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Part of Acts chapter 10 describes a vision that Peter had, and that vision made it clear that God himself desired for Gentiles to receive salvation through Jesus Christ, and that Jewish food laws were not necessary. This was a very big deal, but it probably helped that Peter, who had the vision, and the experience, was the leader of the church at that point in time.

The other thing was that when they considered what Jesus had taught them, and what they had seen him do, the church began to realize that since salvation was through Jesus Christ alone, the Jewish law itself did not save anyone, not even Jews. Logically, that meant that non-Jews (Gentiles) could be saved if they put their trust in Jesus.

But this idea that non-Jews could be included in the people of God was pretty radical to ordinary Jews, and there were some within the church who had a hard time accepting it. In fact, even as leaders like Paul and Barnabas were bringing the gospel to Gentiles, in some places, Jewish Christians were arriving after they left to tell the new Gentile Christians that they must be circumcised. “Circumcision,” or, “being circumcised” really was a stand-in expression that referred to the whole process of being converted to Judaism. It was the last necessary step to take if a man wanted to become officially Jewish. Women, obviously, were spared this, but the implication of circumcision for both men and women was that they had to go through the entire extensive process to become Jewish, and afterwards to follow all the Jewish laws and regulations.

In about A.D. 49, many Jewish church leaders convened a council in Jerusalem. They all agreed that it was not necessary to follow the Jewish law in order to be saved. They wrote a letter to the Gentile Christians, which can be found in Acts chapter 15. They reminded Gentile converts to stay away from pagan idolatry, and affirmed that salvation is in Jesus Christ, and that it is not necessary to become a Jewish convert, or to follow Jewish religious laws.

Even so, as Paul’s letters indicate, Jewish people would still, from time to time, try to get Gentile Christians to follow all the Jewish laws. It’s not clear if these were always Jewish Christians, or if possibly some non-Christian Jews, confused about Christianity, were also chiming in. I tend to think it was both, since, at the beginning, Christianity was part of Judaism.

So, this is what Paul is talking about when he writes: “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.” Mutilating the flesh means circumcision.

Paul goes on:

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh

This is a remarkable statement. Paul puts it very simply here, but it contains a great wealth of truth, some of which he elaborates on in his other letters. He is saying this: in times past God’s people, the Jews, were chosen, and set apart, by circumcision and by God’s laws. However, now, through Jesus Christ, God’s chosen people are those who worship by the Holy Spirit and glory in Christ Jesus, and trust Jesus himself, not their own performance. In other words, all those who truly trust Jesus are God’s people—not only Jews, but Gentiles also. By the same token, those who do not trust Jesus, even if they are Jews, are not God’s people.

Now, I do think that the continued existence of the Jewish people with their distinct culture has something to do with the blessing and promises of God. There are many Jews who are not religious—they see Jewishness as an ethnic and cultural identity. However, though their knowledge is incomplete, Jews who do worship God are worshipping the same God as we Christians.

I think that even though more Jews than not have rejected Jesus, God has been using the Jewish people to show the world his goodness and truth. Their continued existence as a unique people-group is truly astonishing. They were without a homeland for 1,700 years, and yet their culture survived. Again, this is a clue to the truth of the Bible and the power of God’s promises. Even so, we must not mistake God’s blessings for his endorsement. He blesses whomever he chooses to bless. That doesn’t mean that those blessed by God are always following the right path, or doing the right thing. In fact the Old Testament history of Israel shows that they often made the wrong choices, over and over again, in fact. Also, I do not think of the modern nation of Israel as “God’s chosen people.” God continues to bless the Jews (all over the world), but the modern nation of Israel is a secular state, and most of the people there are neither Christians, nor even faithful orthodox Jews. It doesn’t make any sense to me to call that secular nation “God’s chosen people” at this point in time.

I do need to be clear: antisemitism is a sin, and Christians should have no part in it. Nothing I’m saying means that we should look down on Jewish people, or discriminate against them, or hurt them in any way. I’m simply reaffirming what the Bible says, which is that salvation comes through Jesus, and Jesus alone.

We need to remember this: according to the New Testament, people are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by any other means. Jewish people don’t get an exception. If they are to be saved, it must be through faith in Jesus. All people must humbly surrender to Jesus. Our ethnicity will not reconcile us to God. Our ethnicity will also never keep us from being reconciled to God through Jesus.

Peter was hauled up in front of the Jewish leadership council after the Lord used him to heal a crippled man. He said:

¹¹ This Jesus is “the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.” ¹² There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12, CSB)

Remember, he said this to Jewish people. The only way of salvation is through Jesus. Paul wrote:

²¹ But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. ²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. (Romans 3:21-25, NLT)

Paul also wrote:

²⁸ A person is not a Jew because of his appearance, nor is circumcision a matter of how the body looks. ²⁹ Rather, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is something that happens in a person’s heart. Circumcision is spiritual, not just a written rule. That person’s praise will come from God, not from people. (Romans 2:28-29, GW)

And so, when we trust Jesus, even if we are not born Jewish and we do not convert to Judaism, we are now the true chosen people of God, heirs to the promises given to Abraham and the ancient people of Israel. Here’s more about this, again, from the same letter (Romans):

¹¹ Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. ¹² And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
¹³ Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. ¹⁴ If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. ¹⁵ For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)
¹⁶ So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. ¹⁷ That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” (Romans 4:11-17, NLT, bold formatting added by me)

The Jews in Jesus’ time were proud that they were descendants of Abraham; that is, that they were part of God’s chosen people. They sometimes used the term, “uncircumcised,” as an insult to Gentiles. But Paul makes it clear: those who trust Jesus, even if they are not Jewish, are the spiritual descendants of Abraham; in other words, God’s chosen people. And those who are literally, by blood, descended from Abraham, are only counted as chosen people if they have faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul also writes that we who trust Jesus have been “circumcised” in a spiritual way.

¹¹ When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. ¹² For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
¹⁶ So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. ¹⁷ For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. (Colossians 2:11-17, NLT)

Just in case you still have any doubt:

⁷ Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. ⁸ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” ⁹ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:7-9, ESV)

I think there have been times in my life where I feel a little jealous of Jewish people. They are blood-related to Jesus himself! They have a wonderful history of God’s promises and work on their behalf. But I need to remember that through Jesus, all that is mine, also. I am one of God’s chosen people. So are you, if you trust Jesus. The promises of the Old Testament are written for us. The amazing history of God’s work is for us to rejoice in. This is one reason my family celebrates Passover each year. It isn’t because we think we need to, to fulfill some requirement. We want to, to partake I the joy of it. The deliverance and joy of the Passover belongs to all Christians, through Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus himself told his disciples that Passover was about him, and is for his followers. Christian churches all over the world celebrate the Passover (though in an abbreviated form) whenever they partake in Communion.

Let’s connect all this back to rejoicing in the Lord (the message before this one). When our true joy is anchored in the Lord Jesus Christ, we find that we are the chosen people of God. This in turn, leads to even more rejoicing.

I’ve shared a lot of scripture, but here’s one more, about being chosen to be God’s people:

³ Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One (Ephesians 1:3-6, CSB)

We were chosen before the foundation of the world to belong to God through Jesus Christ. You can’t get any more “chosen,” than that!

Let the Holy spirit speak to you today. You have been chosen by God, to be one of his special people. All the promises of the whole Bible apply to you! This is not something you could possibly have earned, it is a free gift. Rejoice and glory in Jesus for his kindness to you.

PHILIPPIANS #11: JOY

On May 8, 2026 By Pastor TomIn apostle paul, House Church, Jesus, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

If our joy is fully in the Lord, then our hearts will always be satisfied, because the one thing that Jesus gives us without limit is himself. If what we want is Jesus himself—not the stuff he can do for us, but his presence—then we can continually rejoice in the Lord. Even if Jesus is the desire of our heart, it may seem sometimes like we are not fully satisfied, but scripture tells us that the Lord is in us, and with us, even when the voices of the world, flesh and devil whisper that our experience says otherwise. We can count on the promises of God to be with us always.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

You can also find us on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/6KKzSHPFT466aXfNT2r9OD (This will open to the latest sermon. You can search from there if you are looking for a previous one)

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¹ Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. (Philippians 3:1, ESV)

Just a quick language note. Some scholars see the first word of verse one (“finally” in the ESV) to mean that Paul was actually wrapping up his letter. They think, as a result, that the letter should end somewhere in chapter three, and that chapter 4 was not part of the same letter.

In the first place, if that were true, it doesn’t change the fact that God inspired and preserved all of the words of Philippians for us as part of his word.

However, I doubt that the claim is true in the first place. Every ancient copy of Philippians contains the whole letter, and there is no evidence that this was ever anything but a single letter, so that isn’t likely. In Greek there are actually two words here, that, taken together, literally mean something like “finally.” However, at that point in history, the expression wasn’t used in a strictly literal fashion. So, in English, we might say: “I was blown away,” but we do not mean that some great wind actually came and blew us away, or that we were in an explosion. So, the Greek expression here is, I think, better translated something like: “furthermore.” A few other translations pick up on this: “whatever happens” (NLT), “in addition” (CSB,) “now then” (GW), “further” (NIV).

You probably didn’t want, or need, to know that, but I mention it because some critical scholars use it to try and undermine the Bible, saying that Philippians was cobbled together out of two or three different letters. But the entire argument rests on a poor understanding of the Greek expression. I guess I’m telling you this because I’m sure you realize that there are skeptics, who don’t believe the Bible is even what we think it is. I’m showing you that, at least with regard to Philippians, the skeptics have virtually no ground to stand on. (This is a typical case, which is why I don’t have a ton of respect for skeptical biblical scholars).

Moving on to the text, Paul tells them to rejoice in the Lord, and adds that it is no trouble to write the same things to them. What does he mean? Well, for one thing, this is now the sixth time that he has used the word “rejoice.” He uses it nine times altogether in this letter. He also uses the verb form, “joy,” five additional times in the letter. So this is a major theme. Up until this point Paul has talked about rejoicing in a general way, or rejoicing for specific things. But now he says “Rejoice in the Lord.”

Let’s start by considering a few other places in the New Testament that talk about rejoicing. Here’s Jesus:

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12, ESV)

When his disciples came back from their first training mission, they were amazed and thrilled that demonic spirits fled at the name of Jesus. Jesus said this:

²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20, ESV)

Before he left this world, he told his disciples:

²² So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.( John 16:22, ESV)

In the book of Acts, when the apostles were first persecuted, their response was to rejoice:

So they took his advice, ⁴⁰ and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. (Acts 5:39-41, ESV)

Elsewhere Paul wrote:

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, (Colossians 1:24, ESV)

Peter wrote:

¹³ But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13, ESV)

James used the noun form of the word (joy) rather than the verb (rejoice) but you can see that he means the same thing:

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4, ESV)

Let’s have just one more, from Paul again:

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, ESV)

There are actually many, many more verses. So you see, this isn’t just a major theme in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Rejoicing is a major theme of the New Testament. The Greek verb “rejoice” is used 74 times in the New Testament, while the noun-form of the same word, “joy,” is used an additional 56 times. There are a few other words that have similar meanings, and are sometimes translated as joy or rejoice, but I didn’t include them in these results, because they come from different Greek words. In Greek, the word “joy” is related to the word “grace.” I’m not sure exactly where to go with that, other than that God’s grace brings about joy, and joy impresses upon us the experience of grace.

One thing we can see from the verses I quote above is that rejoicing is not dependent upon our circumstances. In fact, many times, the New Testament tells us to rejoice in trials and sufferings, or records people (like Peter and John, in Acts chapter 5, above) rejoicing in difficult situations.

This tells us that rejoicing is not primarily about accessing an emotion. Rejoicing is declaring to yourself (and others, depending on circumstances) the trust of what we have in Jesus.

I think it is vitally important that we rejoice in the Lord. Psalm 37:4 says this:

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Now, unfortunately, this verse gets misused constantly. Many people take it to mean something like this: “Become a committed Christian, and, in exchange, God will give you the things you want.”

But that’s not what the verse says, nor what it means. I think it is very similar to “rejoice in the Lord always.” It works like this: let the Lord himself be your deepest desire and joy. When what you want most of all is the Lord himself—not what he can do for you, not the blessings he gives you, bur rather, Jesus, for the sake of Jesus alone—then, your soul will be satisfied by Jesus himself. If what you desire more than anything is the Lord himself, that desire will be granted to you. The one thing that Jesus gives us without limit in this mortal life is himself. Nothing else is safe enough, good enough, strong enough, to be the deepest, most important desire of our hearts without corrupting us. If our deepest joy is Jesus himself, we are safe and at peace, and at rest. It is when we rejoice in “Jesus, plus _____” that our souls get shipwrecked. If I need something other than Jesus, or even something in addition to Jesus, to be joyful, satisfied and at peace, then I will never be at peace; I will never be truly joyful.

If we rejoice only in healing, or only when things go the way we want them to, or only when we feel OK, then our joy is not in the Lord. Then, our joy is contingent upon something else, and if we don’t have whatever that is, we don’t have joy. To rejoice in the Lord is to rejoice fully in Jesus. It is to have our joy contingent upon Jesus alone. When that is the case, we can rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances, because we are never without Jesus.

Rejoicing in the Lord is partly a discipline of the mind that we can learn and improve in. We need to remind ourselves of the amazing gift of Jesus, and focus on that, rather than on the things that bother us, or that we feel we lack. Don’t let “perfection” become the enemy of “improving.” If you aren’t used to disciplining your mind, of catching yourself worrying, or angry, and then refocusing on the joy we have in the Lord, it will be a slow process to begin with. It might be a slow process for your whole life. The point is not to achieve something, but to be moving in the right direction. So, suppose you catch yourself wishing you could change something that you really can’t (like, for instance, another human being) pay attention to your habit of thought. Release what you can’t change to the Lord, and focus on the joy we have in Jesus.

Rejoicing in the Lord is also an act of faith. Sometimes, Jesus feels distant. In fact, sometimes, he feels entirely absent. Please understand that this is part of the normal human condition in our mortal flesh. Our own sin, our flesh, the clamour of the world around us, the devil and his minions—all of these can interfere with our perception of the closeness of Jesus. But we need to remember that our perception of Jesus’ presence with us is flawed. Just because we can’t see it or feel it does not mean that Jesus isn’t there. In times like that, we are called to trust the Word of God, to trust beyond what we can perceive or understand. We are called to go on with life as if Jesus is right there by our side—because he actually is.

I am going to quote several different scriptures in which the Lord promises to be with us. Take a moment, right now, to pray something like this: Lord, please help me to hear and trust your promises that you are always with me, and will never leave me. Help me to trust you, even when I’m struggling to see or feel that this is true. Help me to rejoice entirely in you.

Now read these promises prayerfully. Take your time. Pause after each verse. Let the words sink in. You are not alone. Since coming to Jesus, you have never been alone. Jesus is the only worthy thing for you to fully rejoice in. So hear, trust, and rejoice:

⁵ Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, ESV)

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9, ESV)

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20, CSB)

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:18-20, CSB)

¹⁰ fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10, ESV)

¹ Now this is what the LORD says —
the one who created you, Jacob,
and the one who formed you, Israel —
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you,
and the rivers will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched,
and the flame will not burn you.
³ For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.
I have given Egypt as a ransom for you,
Cush and Seba in your place.
⁴ Because you are precious in my sight
and honored, and I love you, (Isaiah 43:1-4, CSB)

Finally, this one:

²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
²⁸ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹ What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? ³³ Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. ³⁴ Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: Because of you; we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:26-39, CSB)

PHILIPPIANS #10: ADVENTURES IN DISCIPLESHIP

On April 30, 2026 By Pastor TomIn apostle paul, Bible Teaching, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Three travelers on an ancient Roman road

Epaphroditus gives us another example of what it means to live a life surrendered to Jesus Christ.

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Philippians #10. Philippians 2:19-30

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. ²⁰ For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. ²¹ For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. ²² But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. ²³ I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, ²⁴ and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.
²⁵ I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, ²⁶ for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. ²⁷ Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. ²⁸ I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. ²⁹ So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, ³⁰ for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. (Philippians 2:19-30)

Paul pauses here to explain a little bit more about why he is sending this letter. He’s planning to send his ministry protégé, Timothy, to the Philippians, because he knows and trusts that sending Timothy is almost as good as going himself. He says something that reveals he’s very human, and also that human nature doesn’t change much: “For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”

It’s not hard to become discouraged in ministry, and to feel like no one else is really whole-heartedly following Jesus Christ. After all his labours and journeying, nights full of prayer, days full of teaching and encouraging, Paul feels that the only person that he can really count on at the moment is Timothy. The discouragement was real, and also, Timothy’s faithfulness was real.

Paul decided to hold back on sending Timothy, however, until his court case is totally resolved.

Next, Paul explains that he is sending a man named Epaphroditus to the Philippians. It appears that Epaphroditus was, himself, a member of the Philippian church. In fact, Epaphroditus was in Rome with Paul precisely because, originally, the Philippians sent him there with a gift for Paul.

I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent (Philippians 4:18, ESV)

So let’s lay out the timeline. The church in Philippi decided to send Paul a gift. Roman prisoners were not allowed to work, but they were not provided with food or other necessities, either. So, prisoners had to be supported by friends and family. The Philippians sent a gift to help support Paul. There was no postal service to speak of, so the gift had to be personally delivered by someone trusted. The church at Philippi chose Epaphroditus to be the messenger, and deliverer.

The journey from Philippi to Rome (or vice-versa) was a very big deal. Philippi is in modern Macedonia, to the northeast of Greece. If you were to go the most direct route in those days, you would go overland from Philippi on the Via Egnatia (the major Roman “highway” in the area at the time) across Macedonia, and go into, and then across, Albania to the location of the modern-day city of Durres. Most of that first four hundred miles or so involves rugged mountain country. I’ve been in that part of the world, and still today, to go between Philippi and the Albanian coast is not for the fainthearted, and is difficult, even with vehicles. Roads quickly fall apart in that part of the world, and there is snow in the mountains in the winter, floods in spring and fall, and so on. Most people would make this first part of the journey by walking, which would take about three weeks—but only if the weather stayed good and you stayed healthy enough to walk twenty miles a day (carrying all your stuff with you) with not a single day for rest, or unforeseen issues. It also requires that all the river fords be passable, which was not necessarily something to be counted on. You might wait for several days for a flooding river to get low enough to safely cross (there were few bridges). After finally arriving on the Albanian coast, you would take a few days to find a ship to cross to the eastern side of Italy. Next, you are walking once again, across Italy from east to west, navigating additional mountain ranges to get to the area of modern-day Salerno. From there, you would probably go up the western side of that country to Rome. I have been in that region of Italy, as well, and again the country, at times, gets very rugged. The entire journey would be more than thirteen hundred miles, all but a small portion of it on foot, more than half of it through mountain country. If you figure about twenty miles a day (which is an average in ideal conditions) it would take at least sixty-five days, with zero time off for rest. In reality, it could be significantly longer—say three months.

You could make the entire journey by ship, which would have been easier, but also more expensive, and it would take almost the same amount of time. Ships were used primarily for carrying cargo (rather than passengers), and so ships would have journeyed from port to port over relatively short distances. Periodically, the travelers would have to leave their ship at a port, and find a new ship that was going in their direction, in order to keep moving toward Rome. Remember, these are vessels powered by wind and oars. Even the process of going into and out of a port would often take several hours. Then, to find the right ship and price going their way might take several days, each time they had to change vessels.

The first five-hundred miles of the ship journey would take the travelers south, away from Rome, to get around the bulk of Greece. The ship-journey would cover maybe 1,700 miles. It would include dangers from weather, from pirates, and from crooks and con men and thieves in each port. During the years 2014-2023 there were an average of 2,600 casualties/incidences of accident, injury, or loss of life at sea in and around Greece and Italy. That is with modern ships, using modern technology and safety precautions. You can imagine that things were far worse in the time of Paul and Epaphroditus. In ancient times, travel at sea, though physically easier for passengers than walking, was by no means safe and relaxing. Ships were often dangerously overcrowded and/or overloaded. It was risky.

The point is, no matter which way they did it, it was a really big deal that Epaphroditus (and probably a few companions) traveled all that distance, risking all those dangers, hardships and troubles. The fact that Epaphroditus was carrying a relatively large amount of money as a gift for the apostle Paul made it doubly-dangerous.

As I just mentioned, almost certainly, Epaphroditus took a few companions with him, in case something should happen to him, and also to help guard against robbers. In any case, it appears that either shortly before, or after, he arrived in Rome, Epaphroditus grew seriously ill. His companions returned home to Philippi after they knew that Epaphroditus was sick, but without knowing whether or not he had recovered.

Epaphroditus probably had loved ones in Philippi, because when he recovered, he agonized over the fact that his companions had carried news of his serious illness back home to Philippi. He hated to think of his loved ones wondering if he lived or died. So, some time after he had fully recovered, Paul decided it was best to send him home to bring comfort to the church back there, who didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.

Paul certainly had a great deal of admiration and gratitude toward Epaphroditus. He calls him: brother, co-worker, fellow-soldier, messenger and minister.

Brother, was commonly used by the first Christians to mean “fellow-Christian.” Paul is affirming that Epaphroditus was a brother in Christ. He also calls him a co-worker. The word here means laboring together (it’s actually the word from which we get the English: synergy). So, apparently either at some point in the past, or, more likely, in Rome, Epaphroditus had been engaged in Christian ministry with Paul. Paul then describes him as a fellow-soldier. I assume Paul had been observing the soldiers that guarded him, and realized that following Jesus together is like campaigning together as soldiers (the word could also be translated “co-campaigner”).

The fourth word here, which the ESV translates as “messenger,” is literally “apostle.” I think it might help if we have a clear idea of what that word meant in the First Century Greco-Roman world. An apostle is a designated messenger, someone who acts and speaks on behalf of the one who sent him. So, the apostles of Jesus were his special messengers, who were designated to act and speak on his behalf, to carry out his mission and purpose in the world. But we need to remember that the word existed before Jesus, and had a broader meaning in the culture than “the special representatives of Jesus.” So, Epaphroditus was the special messenger sent by the Philippians to Paul, to act and speak on their behalf to him. It does not mean that we should consider Epaphroditus an apostle of Jesus in the same way that Paul and Peter were. But he was sent by the Philippians to deliver their gift to Paul, and to do for Paul what they, themselves, would do, if they were present. In a way, he was the embodiment of the Philippian church to Paul.

Paul’s final description of Epaphroditus makes more sense, now that we understand the full depth meant by apostle/messenger. Paul calls him “minister to my need.” Paul didn’t use the normal Christian word for minister/servant here. Instead, he described Epaphroditus as if he where an appointed government or religious official.

This little section about Epaphroditus is, in some ways, one of the main purposes for which Paul wrote this letter. The Philippians sent Epaphroditus not only to deliver the financial gift, but also to be part of the gift himself. They sent him to be a co-worker, a co-soldier, a minister in whatever way he could serve Paul. The gift they sent was money, plus Epaphroditus himself. But now Paul was returning part of the gift—he was sending Epaphroditus back. So, here, he explicitly says that Epaphroditus was everything he should have been, and more, but that things have changed, and, for several reasons, it seemed best to have Epaphroditus return home.

One of the reasons for Epaphroditus to go home is because he was extremely ill already before his companions returned to Philippi. It would have taken those companions 3 months or more to get back. It would be another three months or more before Epaphroditus himself could have gotten home. During all that time his loved ones would have been deeply worried about him. On the other side, Epaphroditus was feeling upset that his loved ones won’t be able to ease their minds until he returns.

Second, Paul’s trial had begun in earnest, and Paul expected a resolution, soon. This is one reason he kept saying that he hoped that he himself (or at the worst, Timothy) would see them in person before long. He wanted them to understand that he did not need Epaphroditus in the same way that he might have before. In all of this, he wanted to make sure that they understood that, even though he came close to dying from his sickness, Epaphroditus fulfilled his mission fully in every way, and the fact that Paul sent him home should not be seen in any way as negative for Epaphroditus.

Now, I want to back out a bit, and consider two lessons from Epaphroditus. You may not have thought about it, but there’s something surprising here. Epaphroditus was sick, so sick that they thought he might be about to die. Paul was extremely worried about him. So what? Well, elsewhere, Luke writes about this same Paul:

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. (Acts 19:11-12, ESV)

And yet here was Paul, who, in the past was used by God for extraordinary miracles of healing, and here was a man whom Paul testifies was a model follower of Jesus, and he was extremely sick. Obviously, he was not healed miraculously, not even through Paul. If he had been, it would have happened when he was first sick in Rome, and his companions would have carried the news of the miracle back to Philippi. Paul himself makes no mention of a miracle of healing. It seems clear that Epaphroditus fell deeply ill, and in spite of the prayers of Paul and the Roman Christians, he got even sicker, coming close to death before he finally began to recover.

There are some people who claim that God always intends to heal a sick person, no matter what. If there is no miraculous healing, it is due to lack of faith. This is not only untrue, but it is a dangerous teaching to spread, because it spreads disappointment with God and bitterness along with it. But Paul says nothing like it. Like most of us at one point or another, he watched helplessly while his friend battled for his life. No doubt he was comforted by knowing that even if Epaphroditus died, he would be with the Lord, but Paul says that in the moment it would have given him “sorrow upon sorrow” (v. 27). We don’t always understand the workings of God, of why some are healed, and some are not. Even the great apostle Paul encountered this mystery. We need to come to terms with some amount of mystery in various areas of our lives.

The second point I want to consider is this: the suffering of Epaphroditus was considered by Paul to be suffering for the sake of Christ. This suffering was not persecution, but rather a sickness that occurred in the ordinary course of life. Paul doesn’t mention anything unusual about it, except that it was a very serious illness. Why does Paul then claim that Epaphroditus, in his illness, nearly died for the sake of Christ?

I think it is this: Clearly, Epaphroditus was someone who had surrendered his life to the purposes of Jesus Christ and his church. Did Jesus need someone to take the gift of the Philippians to Paul in Rome? Then Epaphroditus was up for it, because his whole life belonged to Jesus. He was willing to do whatever was necessary in the service of Christ. In his life, which was surrendered to Christ, all things were for Christ and his glory. So, as Paul already explained, concerning himself, if Epaphroditus lived, it was for Christ. If he died, it was for Christ. In a life that is surrendered to Jesus Christ, all things are for Christ. In a way, what Paul is saying is that Epaphroditus shared the same attitude that he, Paul, had: to live is Christ, to die is gain.

Where does this leave us? I hope we can look at Timothy, and Epaphroditus, and be inspired. I want to live in such a way that I’m not living for my own purposes, but for those of Jesus. I would like to earn the titles of brother, co worker, co-soldier, messenger, and minister. Do any of these strike you? Which ones? What is the Lord saying to you about that?

If I do surrender my life in the way that Epaphroditus did, then I can also trust that whatever transpires (other than my own sin), it will be considered as in the service of Christ. If I am serving the Lord on the mission field, it is for Christ. If I am working at a company in the United States, but if my life is surrendered to him, that too, is for Christ.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now.

PHILIPPIANS #9: SHINING

On April 17, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Church, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

If we avoid grumbling and complaining, and we hold fast to the word of life, we will shine like stars, especially compared to the crooked and perverse generation of those who do not follow Jesus.

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Philippians #9. Philippians 2:14-18

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ¹⁷ Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸ Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Philippians 2:14-18

Paul has just told us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, while reassuring us that it is God himself who is doing the work. I mentioned last time that one of the keys to doing that is trust. Now, Paul tells the Philippians to do everything without grumbling or disputing. Why does he bring up these two things particularly? How is that related to working out our salvation? Grumbling and disputing arise when we are not trusting the Lord.

The people of Israel, wandering in the desert with Moses, grumbled and complained when they didn’t trust that the Lord was going to take care of them. They wailed and moaned when they were cornered at the Red Sea. They wouldn’t have done that if they trusted the Lord to save them. They griped about being hungry, and the Lord gave them manna. This didn’t shut them up for long. Soon, they wanted more than just plain manna—they wanted meat. So he gave them quail. Then they grumbled about not having water, and on and on it goes.

Maybe sometimes it is not so much that we don’t trust him as that we aren’t really paying attention to him at all. We’re living our own lives, for our own purposes, and so we groan and moan because things don’t work out the way we think they should.

Let’s do a thought experiment about grumbling and trust. Imagine that one day, you and your loved ones need to set out on a road trip, heading toward the Rocky Mountains. You have to take your old car—it’s your only vehicle. After a hundred miles, sure enough, the car breaks down. After you finally get it fixed, fifty miles later, you run out of gas, because someone forgot to fill it up after the hassle with the breakdown. Then, you run into a snowstorm. After the snowstorm, you get lost.

Now, picture the conversation inside the car when these things are happening. What is it like? Probably, there is a lot of grumbling and disputing:

“You were supposed to get the gas!”

“I was too busy with the engine. If you remembered it why didn’t you do it yourself?”

“I told you we should wait until the weather was better!”

“Yeah? Do you have a crystal ball for predicting the weather?”

“We should have taken the other road back there, but oh, no, you couldn’t imagine that I was right.”

It’s all too easy to picture how much grumbling and complaining there could be on such a journey.

But now, let’s change the story a little bit. The reason you are taking the journey is because you had an extremely wealthy relative, about whom you knew nothing, before. Your relative has died, and he has left you a fortune worth 10 billion dollars. You will never have to work again. You’ll live however it suits you, wherever it suits you. The executor of the estate had called you, and informed you that you have inherited this vast fortune. The terms dictate that you need to travel to a remote cabin on a lake in the Rocky Mountains where you will sign papers, and officially take over the fortune. You can come anytime, there is no deadline, so it’s not a big deal if you are delayed. Although the cabin is remote, it is apparently luxurious, and is connected to electricity and the internet. Once you are there, you will be able to leave, when you want, via a float-plane (and pilot on retainer), which is part of your inheritance.

Now, would the purpose of the journey, and the result of the journey, have any effect on the grumbling and complaining along the way? A breakdown, getting lost, running out of gas, and so on, are annoying. But when you think about where you are going, suddenly, it seems a little small-hearted to complain about relatively minor, temporary difficulties, the whole time while you are on the way to collecting ten billion dollars. It’s a pain right now, yes, but soon you’ll be able to buy any car you want to. Soon, in fact, you could take the airplane instead of the car. Yes, while you are lost or waiting by the roadside, it’s frustrating. But the bottom line is, everything is actually quite wonderful. The difficulties are annoying and inconvenient. But they are nothing compared to what’s in store for you.

That’s what we need to remember. We are on a journey to an unimaginably wonderful future. What we are inheriting is far, far, better than ten billion earthly dollars. So, the apostle Paul writes, elsewhere:

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18, ESV)

It’s not worth grumbling about our present sufferings. What’s coming is incomparably better. So, he also wrote to the Corinthians:

¹⁷ For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.¹⁸ So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18, HCSB)

Obviously, we do encounter real problems and difficulties in this life. My daughter has life-threatening cancer at the moment. I am not pretending that it’s no big deal. And yet, in a sense, it ISN’T a big deal. She is an enthusiastic, mature, follower of Jesus. If we are parted right now, my heart will break, but it won’t be broken for forever. The parting would be only temporary. In our eternal inheritance, neither one of us will ever die, or suffer from cancer.

Our future is so much better than simply inheriting 10 billion earthly dollars. Wealth like that, as huge as it is, can’t change our hearts for the better, or end our bad habits. It can’t make us more loving. It can’t bring our loved ones back from the dead. It can’t comfort us in sorrow, or rejoice with us. It can’t save us from ourselves, or from death. But Jesus gives us all of that, and more.

I’ve used this illustration before, but I think it’s helpful. Imagine you are a football player who is playing in the Super Bowl. Many truly great players never get a chance, not once, to play in that game. So you are in the Biggest Game, a tremendous honor given only to a few. You’ve already made $192,000 in bonuses above and beyond your normal multimillion dollar salary for getting through the playoffs. Your bonus for playing in the Superbowl is $103,000 more if you lose, $178,000 more if you win. In other words, you could buy a house with just the bonus you get for being in the big game.

Now, in the game, you play hard. But maybe you make a mistake and cost your team a penalty. Maybe an opposing player gets away with a bad one that wasn’t called. Maybe the refs make a bad call. All these things are upsetting, to be sure. You see players getting upset about such things all the time. And yet, at the end of the day, no matter what happens, you are a multi-millionaire who has earned at least an extra $300,000 this year. When the game is over, win or lose, you have the next several months off, and you are set for money for life. When you are playing, the game feels all-encompassing. The things that happen during the game feel like major events. But when the final whistle blows, even if you lose, you go home to a life that most people can only dream about.

The same thing is true for us. When we draw our final breath, we will go home to a life we can only dream about right now. That should give us some perspective. It should help us moderate the grumbling and disputing.

When we live with a clear view of the perspective of our life in Christ, it will make us stand out from other people. I would guess that at most workplaces, if you don’t complain or argue, you will stand out, in a very good way.

Now, at times we do have to take a stand for what’s right. We can’t be party to doing something wrong, something that will end up hurting someone else. At times, expressing the truth of the Gospel involves disputing conflicting ideas. But I think those times when we need to take a stand on principle are not at all the same thing as grumbling and disputing here in this text. We need to do the right thing, even if it brings us into conflict with others at times. Even so, we don’t stand on principle by grumbling behind the back of the person we need to confront. When we have to stand up for what’s right, grumbling doesn’t really apply. I think it’s safe to say, Paul is talking about grumbling and unnecessary disputing.

Paul says that if we remember that we are citizens of Heaven, and from that perspective, minimize unnecessary disputing, we will shine like the sun when we are among people who are not doing that. I think anyone who has ever had a job where they worked with other people knows that this is true. It seems to be human nature to gripe and moan about life. But because we are heading to an amazing eternal future, we can let the small stuff go.

I do think it is more than simply remembering that we are bound for the New Creation. As we saw last time, it is the Lord himself who works within us. Jesus within us does not grumble or quarrel. The more we recognize that he is living his life through us, and the more we let him do so, the less we will grumble and dispute.

If we avoid grumbling and complaining, and we hold fast to the word of life, we will shine like stars, especially compared to the crooked and perverse generation of those who do not follow Jesus. I think sometimes we get kind of overwhelmed and fatigued with how twisted and perverse the world truly is. We get used to it. If you could take a television show or movie from 2025 back in time to 1991, things that are normal now would horrify and shock us back then.

I remember when pornography was something people were ashamed of. Now, it has been “normalized.” 61% of all people report viewing pornography. That’s 78% of men, 44% of women. 73% of teenagers have viewed porn. One survey of thousands of online porn videos found that almost half of them involved at least one act of violence. No wonder our world seems to be going down the tubes—this is insane. We do indeed live in a crooked and perverse generation.

Paul expects also that the Philippians will be holding fast to the word of life. That is for us, also. This week I’ve come across two different groups of people who believe that Jesus wrote a book and the Roman Catholic church suppressed it, along with other books that were supposed to guide Christians. Those ideas are completely at odds with historical reality, with about as much evidence for it as there is that a secret cabal of lizard people rules the world, but it was clear that these people had found support for their conspiracies online, and fully believed them.

If anyone reading this worries about whether the Bible is reliable, I encourage you to watch this video by Dr. Peter Williams.

Lecture – Dr Peter Williams – New Evidences the Gospels were Based on Eyewitness Accounts

The video is several years old, but not too long ago, Dr. Williams also wrote an excellent (and short!) book called: Can We Trust the Gospels? If, like me, you prefer reading to listening or watching videos, you should pick up that book. You could also look at my own book, Who Cares About the Bible. The first several chapters of that one address the reliability of scripture.

We need to be clear in our minds that the Bible is in fact, the word of life, and we need to hold fast to it. Holding fast means that we know the truth taught by scripture, and we live our lives in step with that truth.

The world around us has mostly rejected the truth of the Bible. Especially online, it isn’t hard to find people living almost the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. It’s easy to find people mocking the Bible, undermining it. Everywhere we look, people seem to be getting on with their lives as if scripture is irrelevant. We need to understand that this was exactly the situation for those Christians in the city of Philippi. It was a pagan place. Most people neither knew, nor cared, about Christianity. In such an environment, we need that helpful encouragement to hold fast to the word of life.

Paul points out that he himself is holding fast, and if they, too hold fast, then his labor would not have been in vain. This would have been a powerful appeal to the Philippians. In that period in history, in that culture, teachers and leaders were held in very high esteem. Most normal people would have wanted to please someone who was their teacher or leader. It would have been very important to them that the teacher/leader could be proud of them. So, Paul is essentially saying: “Make me proud. Don’t make my work meaningless. Make all my hard work and sacrifice worthwhile.”

Paul ends this section by reminding them that even his death would not be in vain. In fact, both he and they can rejoice if Paul is executed, because it means he will be stepping into his inheritance in Christ. That inheritance is so good, so wonderful and amazing, that it can influence how we live here and now.

2026 RESURRECTION SUNDAY: BELIEVING IS SEEING.

On April 5, 2026April 4, 2026 By Pastor TomIn Bible Teaching, Jesus, Podcast, Religion, Resurrection, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Woman running to embrace a figure resembling Jesus in a dusty, sunlit landscape. — Mary Magdalene joyfully runs to embrace Jesus on the morning of the resurrection.

In John’s account of the resurrection, he shows us that faith in what we have not yet seen is more blessed than faith that insists upon personal, sight-and-touch verification. That kind of faith in the resurrected Jesus changes everything for those who have it.

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2026 Resurrection Sunday John 20:1-31

If you are reading this, rather than listening, please read John 20:1-31. It’s important to have the whole chapter in front of us in order to see some of the points John is making.

John chapter twenty records the disciples as very human and lost on the morning of the resurrection. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb before it was light, and found the stone moved from the entrance. She ran back to Peter and John (John, writing, calls himself only “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) and the three together ran back to the tomb. John, being younger, outdistanced Peter, but when he arrived, he waited, whereas Peter went straight into the tomb. After Peter entered, John also went in. Jesus’ body had been wrapped very tightly in linen strips, with a separate cloth used for the head. Jewish records from the time show that this was a common tradition when someone was buried. Lazurus, also, had been wrapped the same way, as it describes in John 11:44. Peter and John could see that the strips of linen were lying there, empty and the head cloth was folded neatly. There is really no significance to the headcloth—the only reason John records it is because that is what he saw.

John then writes: “The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed.” (John 20:8, CSB). (Again, remember, John never names himself, so “the other disciple” is him). If we stopped reading right here, we might think that John is sort of pointing out that he was the first to believe in the resurrection. But he adds this:

“for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” (John 20:9, CSB).

So, when we read this in the context of the whole chapter, we can see that actually, John is pointing out that his faith was weak, since he believed, like Thomas, only because he saw the physical evidence in front of him. He didn’t yet believe the scriptures which predicted the death and resurrection of the Messiah, scriptures which Jesus had mentioned many times. John is not proud of his faith; rather, he is lamenting the fact that he had to see before he believed. He makes no comment on the state of Peter’s faith at that time, although he does say that “they” did not yet understand the scriptures, so possibly Peter had the same response as John.

Next, John records that the first person to see Jesus in his resurrected body was Mary Magdalene. Matthew also records this, although he gives us the additional information that there was another Mary along with her. This is remarkable, because in First century Judaism, women were not allowed to give legal evidence or testimony—they were considered unreliable. And yet, all four gospels agree that the first people to hear and see that Jesus was alive again were women. The only reason for the gospel writers to say that is because it was what actually happened. A story that was made up in the ancient world would not have included this detail. This is one of the many things that give the gospels the ring of truth.

The scene with Mary is very poignant and moving. Jesus delivered her from seven demons (Luke 8:2), so it is likely that Jesus has become one of the most important people, if not the most important person, in her life. By the way, some people conflate her with the prostitute who anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, but I doubt she is the same person. Mary Magdalene was apparently a woman of some wealth, since she helped provide for the physical needs of Jesus and the disciples. She went with them in their travels, supporting their ministry. Since her deliverance, her entire life had been oriented around Jesus. But then the enemies of Jesus captured him, abused him and then tortured him to death. And now, (she thinks), they won’t even leave him alone in death, but have taken his body, probably in order to humiliate him and his followers even more. I want us to pay attention here. The greatest thing since the creation of the world has just occurred, but to Mary, it looks like things are going from horrible to awful. Her way of viewing the situation was precisely the opposite of the reality. If we could talk to her in this moment before Jesus revealed himself to her, I’m certain she could give very coherent and logical reasons to believe that the empty tomb was more bad news. Her logic was impeccable. Of course this was worse, piled on top of bad. How could it be anything else? And she persisted in this belief while she was in the presence of two angels, and Jesus himself!

They did try to tell her. The angels said “Woman, why are you weeping?” She explained to them. Turning, she saw another man, whom she took to be the gardener. Apparently, Jesus could hide his true appearance from them, after the resurrection. The two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him either, until he revealed himself to them.

Jesus, too, says to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” I’m not saying it was wrong for Mary to weep. Certainly we have a plethora of examples of people of faith, weeping, struggling with depression, crying out to God in fear and so on. But Jesus is trying to show Mary that now, it is no longer the time for such things. There’s a lyric from a contemporary Christian song, “O My Soul.” It goes: “There’s a place where fear//Has to face the God you know.” It was time for Mary’s fear and grief to face the resurrected Jesus.

He simply spoke her name.

I can picture the scene so clearly. “Rabboni!” she screams. I imagine that she threw herself on him, sobbing, not knowing if they were tears of grief released, or of relief, or joy. What an incredible moment. He is here. He is with her. He has shown that he is greater even, than death. Everything is now permanently all right.

There is such a moment waiting for each one of us.

For the rest of the disciples, the moment was that same evening. Mary told them what had happened. Luke records that they had difficulty believing her. But then, that evening, Jesus came and stood among them, though the door was locked. I don’t know why the ESV says the disciples were “glad” when they saw the Lord. That makes it sound like their response was sort of low-key, chill, even. But the root Greek word is “rejoice,” and most other translations say things like: “So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord (CSB),” or, “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord (NIV).” This moment was as big for them as it was for Mary. It changed everything.

And then we come to Thomas. Unfortunately, Thomas is famous for this one incident, his time of doubt. But his example provides us with some helpful instruction. Skepticism about someone rising from the dead is entirely natural. However, I wonder what Thomas thought of his brother-and-sister disciples. Were they all crazy together? Honestly, it seems a little rude to not trust their word, either as individuals, nor as a group. In any case, he dug his feet in, and said, “No, I can’t believe unless I see it with my own eyes.”

In our modern world, we think this is a reasonable position: skepticism until proof. But it’s almost impossible to actually function that way in every day life. I’ve been to nineteen countries in my lifetime. I have no “proof” that any of the others actually exist. I’m taking the words of other people on faith about those other countries. I have not gone to the bank and seen my physical dollars sitting in a vault somewhere. I take it on faith that I have those dollars, and I can use them when I need them. I have not seen proof that the food I eat is safe. I take it on faith, and that faith is almost always justified, but I am acting on faith again every time I eat something. I am trusting that my car will start when I turn the key. I trust that other drivers will stop for red traffic lights.

Some things have demonstrated themselves to be reliable to me, but the first demonstration of them came when I was too young to remember. I was four years old when I first flew in an airplane. I was too young to be skeptical, and after that, my own experience said that airplanes were a reliable means of transport. The same is true of motor vehicles. We have not actually verified by sight and touch even a fraction of the things that we trust to be true.

But Thomas took this position of radical skepticism. Jesus, of course, answered Thomas, but along with his answer came a mild rebuke. And now John finally reaches his main point. All of the disciples, himself included, believed Jesus physically rose from death, because they saw the evidence with their own eyes. They were all like Thomas, though they may not have spoken it as boldly as he. But we are called to something different.

²⁹ Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:29-31, CSB)

John is inviting us, his readers, to a faith greater than his own was, at the time. Jesus says that we will be blessed when we believe even though we have not seen him with our own eyes. John says, “I’ve seen it for myself, it’s all true! But you could be more blessed than me if you believe it now, not having seen it.” We are called to believe what is written, to believe the scriptures.

Maybe you are in a place like Mary. Horrible things have been happening, and it looks like it won’t stop anytime soon. And yet, even as Mary held this very reasonable, logical point of view, she was standing right next to the risen Lord. Her most awful fears had already been resolved. Though she might experience more struggles in the future, the resurrection of Jesus changed everything, for good, forever.

Paul, in a letter to the Corinthians, describes how the resurrection changes things for him:

⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.
¹³ Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, ¹⁴ knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵ For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:8-18, ESV, bold formatting added by me for emphasis)

We are invited to be among the blessed who do not see, but yet believe. We are invited to look to the things that are unseen and eternal. Yes, in the present we might be pressed, persecuted, struck down, followed by death. But the resurrection of Jesus means that in the end, life will prevail, and in the end, everything is actually, truly, very, very well. In the end, we do not lose anything worth keeping.

This is not theoretical for me. A few months ago, one of my children almost died. The doctors said later that she was actively dying, and they don’t know why she didn’t actually finish it. The experience was traumatic and heartbreaking for me. But it wasn’t ultimate. Even as it was happening, I knew for her, death would lead to a life that is unimaginably better. For me, it would lead to deep grief, but, even so, only temporary grief. Time does not heal all things. But resurrection does! Believing the scriptures, trusting the resurrected Jesus, made all the difference to me in those hours. It should do so all of the time, for those of us who have trusted Him.

And so the question to you is this: will you trust the Risen Savior, Jesus Christ? Will you trust, even before you can see? Will you focus on what is unseen and eternal, knowing that the Lord Jesus will one day raise you, and all who trust him?

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