Download paul`s prison letter to the philippians

REJOICE IN THE LORD: PAUL’S PRISON LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS
(5) REJOICING IN THE REAL WORLD (PHIL. 3:17-4:9)
There’s a phrase that appears in a poem entitled ‘Burnt Norton’, by the poet T.S. Eliot, that
has always resonated with me.
Near the beginning of the poem, Eliot writes:
“Human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.”
According to Eliot, we all instinctively try to avoid difficult and painful truths that we see in
ourselves and in the world around us.
And if that is true of humanity, then there are many people in our world who presume that it
must be doubly true of Christians.
Christianity is seen by many as a crutch for people who cannot cope with the real world –
who cannot bear reality.
It was Karl Marx who described religion as ‘the opiate of the people’ –
And many people today presume that the attraction of Christianity lies in the escape it
offers us from painful realities.
Christianity drugs us into believing fantasies about God and heaven –
Into believing that our lives matter, that they have a purpose –
Into believing that there is a God out there who is good and who loves us.
Instead of these fantasies, secular commentators argue that in reality, we are on our own to
make the best of our lives –
That God either does not exist or is entirely uninterested in us.
They argue that for some people, that reality is too frightening – and so those people turn to
different religions or spiritualities to enable them to cope.
And Christianity is just one of those options.
According to this view,
Christians cannot bear very much reality.
Speaking as a Christian this morning, I want to confess that at times we can resemble that
caricature more closely that we’d like to think.
When Christians gather together on a Sunday, often we encourage one another to forget about
the difficult realities that we’re facing in our everyday lives out there.
Instead of facing up to our anxieties and struggles, we seek to avoid them –
Through lively worship – through sermons – through prayers, that all seem designed
to shield us from the real world.
In fact, over the years as I’ve spoken to many fellow-Christians, I’ve picked up a low-level
anxiety in some of them:
A fear that maybe – just maybe – our faith in Jesus isn’t able to help us in our everyday lives
–
That maybe the Christian gospel isn’t quite as powerful as the Bible claims it is –
And that maybe if we ask too much of Jesus Christ – if we lean too heavily on him – then our
faith will be exposed as just not fitted out for the real world.
Perhaps Christianity isn’t designed to cope with the harsh realities of life –
Maybe it’s fine for a Sunday, or in a homegroup Bible study – but out there, in the
real world, it isn’t able to make much of a difference to our lives.
Maybe the way Christians can cope with the real world – is by avoiding it.
At first glance, the apostle Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:4 seems to add substance to that
depiction of the Christian life.
Read v.4.
Isn’t Paul just advocating the power of positive thinking here?
‘Rejoice in the Lord...’ – and then you won’t have time to think about the big bad
world out there, with all its problems...?
Or even more so, look at v.8.
Read aloud.
I’ve often heard this verse used to warn Christians off any engagement with aspects of this
world that don’t measure up to Paul’s criteria.
So –
Christians should avoid engaging with politics, because of sleaze and corruption.
Christians shouldn’t go to the cinema or watch television because of sex and violence.
Christians should avoid contact with anything that is not good and godly.
Isn’t that what Paul is saying here?
Well... no – I don’t believe it is.
When we read verses 4 and 8 of Philippians 4 in their original context, we see that they are
actually commands given by Paul in a passage that is deeply concerned with and involved in
the real world –
In the harsh realities of life in a fallen world.
Paul doesn’t urge the Philippian Christians to run away from the real world –
Instead, he wants them to be aware of the problems and difficulties that will challenge
them in their life together as a church.
What Paul does urge the Philippian Christians to do – and through this letter, what Paul urges
us to do – is to find joy in knowing the Lord Jesus in the midst of a fallen world.
Christians shouldn’t hide from or fear life in a broken world –
They don’t have to run away from painful realities –
And the reason isn’t because Christians are somehow stronger or more resilient that other
people...!
The reason we can rejoice in the midst of a fallen world –
Is because the Lord Jesus is with us –
And he has overcome the world!
As we’ve seen again and again in this letter, a Christian’s joy rests completely on the Lord
Jesus Christ!
Without Jesus, we would be forced to run and hide from this world, as so many people do in
different ways...
But with Jesus, we can not only cope with painful realities –
Paul is confident that we can even rejoice in them!
That doesn’t mean the real world is not a painful place for us to live in at times.
Alongside rejoicing in the Lord, there is a place for tears in the Christian life –
In fact, we find Paul himself in tears at the beginning of this passage.
Read vv.18-19 of chapter 3.
In the real world –
 People reject the cross of Christ (3:18-19)
Philippians is Paul’s great letter on joy –
But that joy can only come when someone submits themselves to Christ –
when they confess their sin and ask for forgiveness on the basis of Christ’s death on
the cross for them.
To live as ‘an enemy of the cross of Christ’ – is to live as an enemy of joy!
If someone rejects the cross of Christ, then they are walking away from the grace of God.
They are rejecting the God of grace.
And in doing that, they are headed for God’s judgement –
As Paul puts it in v.19 – ‘their destiny is destruction.’
And that matters to Paul!
Paul cannot think of people turning their back on Christ and life, and heading towards
judgement and death, without weeping.
Paul may be referring to professing believers here, who claim to follow Jesus but whose lives
demonstrate that in reality, they don’t.
We could certainly apply his phrase ‘enemies of the cross of Christ’, to anyone who rejects
Jesus and ignores him.
The New Living Translation of these verses renders the end of v.19 –
“all they think about is this life here on earth” –
And that could describe so many of the people around us – so many of the people we love
who don’t follow Christ...
And that gets to Paul!
It hurts him!
‘As I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of
the cross of Christ.’
Paul wants the Philippian Christians to understand a painful reality:
Not everyone they know will come to faith in Christ.
And if you’re a Christian here this morning, you need to hear Paul’s words here too.
Not everyone you pray for or share the gospel with will confess their sin and follow Christ –
And not everyone who claims to follow Jesus actually does follow him, as
demonstrated by their lives.
Paul has told the Philippians this before and he tells them it again here:
Not everyone in this world becomes a Christian.
Paul wants us to know this – so our hopes in evangelism are not impossibly high.
I’ve seen some gifted evangelists almost broken when the people they’ve prayed for and
shared the gospel with, just will not put their faith in Christ.
Paul wants us to see here –
That is a painful reality of this world – and sometimes, we just need to accept it.
But Paul also wants us to be moved by it!
There are people dying today without Jesus Christ –
And we should weep over that!
Paul’s tears for lost people headed for destruction without Jesus Christ motivated him to
share the gospel with them –
And it should motivate us, too!
Paul doesn’t hide from the reality of God’s judgement here –
And neither should we!
We’ve acknowledged already that Paul wants Christians to live in the real world –
And here, he wants us to be realistic in accepting that there will always be people
who reject the cross of Christ.
But all too often, we think of realists as people who calmly – even cynically – accept painful
realities as ‘just the way things are’ –
And that is not the attitude Paul is calling us to here!
Paul does not call on Christians to be calm realists –
He calls on us to be weeping realists!
We shouldn’t be shocked by the opposition we face when we share the gospel –
But we shouldn’t be left cold by it, either!
We should be deeply troubled by it – even to the point of tears!
According to Paul, Christians need to recognise the realities of sin and opposition in the real
world around us –
But we are never called simply to resign ourselves to them.
We need to recognise these realities –
And then recognise that the same Lord Jesus Christ in whom Paul calls us to rejoice –
can do something about them!
Christians should live in the real world –
But we trust in a Saviour who rose from the dead!
We trust in a Saviour who one day will transform this fallen world into a glorious, physical
new creation, more ‘real’ than the world we see around us today!
And we trust in a Saviour who can take hold of his enemies – and transform them by his
grace into his friends!
Remember the first half of Philippians 3!
Paul himself lived as an enemy of the cross of Christ for much of his life –
And Christ transformed him!
Christ met him and forgave him and gave him new life!
Not everyone we know will follow Jesus – not everyone we know will trust in him –
But many will!
Many in Philippi did – and Paul rejoices in that!
In 4:1, he calls them his ‘brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown...’
And many in Oxford will today!
At our Annual Church Meeting this week, Peter reminded us that we’ve seen 9 people
baptised over the past year.
These were real conversions – brought about by people meeting the living Lord Jesus!
Jesus is able to take his enemies – and transform them into his friends!
That might not happen with everyone we pray for and share the gospel with –
But we can rejoice that Jesus is still at work today!
In chapter 4, Paul turns to another aspect of life in the real world that Christians might be
tempted to avoid or run away from:

Christians will disagree and argue with one another (4:2-3)
Paul has a lot to say about unity among Christians in this letter –
See chapter 2, where he argues that ‘being like-minded... and one in spirit and
purpose’ is a vital part of following Jesus Christ...
But Paul is also clear:
Even in a relatively healthy church like the one in Philippi, there will be disputes
among believers.
Read v.2.
We can only imagine how embarrassed these two women must have felt to be named directly
by Paul here –
And how much worse they’d have felt if they’d known that this letter would be
included in the New Testament, so that now, 2,000 years later, we know of these two women
primarily because they were at loggerheads with each other...!
Paul is clear in his assessment of these women –
They are believers!
Acts 16 tells us that the Philippian church began with a group of women who met to pray by
a river outside the city –
Euodia and Syntyche may have been among them.
They have ‘contended at [Paul’s] side in the cause of the gospel’ (v.3).
Their disagreement with each other doesn’t cast doubts over their salvation –
They are committed Christians – and yet they still disagree with each other, to the
point where the apostle Paul thinks it necessary to intervene...!
Painful as it is, in the real world, Christians sometimes disagree –
Christians still struggle with sin and we will sometimes violently disagree with one
another.
Paul doesn’t hide from that fact here.
BUT –
As with people who reject the cross of Christ, Paul both accepts that reality –
And he refuses to resign himself to it!
‘I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.’ (v.2)
Unity among believers was too precious to Paul not to fight for it –
And disunity was too damaging for him just to let it pass.
Christians will disagree – Christians will argue with one another –
We shouldn’t be surprised by that...
But we should pray and work together at avoiding those disagreements, wherever possible!
Again, from our annual church meeting this past week, we can thank God for the unity he has
given us as a church.
There were big issues to discuss about how we should move forward as a church – and on
some issues people disagreed with each other on the best way ahead.
But at the end of the meeting, there was no bitterness –
Church members demonstrated great love for one another, and there was a sense of
unity among us.
Let’s thank God for that!
But let’s also remember –
If committed believers like Euodia and Syntyche can disagree violently with each
other – so can we!
We need to guard against that – to pray against that!
We need to remind one another of the gospel and of what God has done for every one of us
who trusts in Christ.
We need to love one another and bear with one another, just as Christ loved us – just as
Christ bears with us!
The third reality of life in the real world that Paul wants to prepare us for is alluded to in 4:6
–
‘Do not be anxious about anything...’
Paul needed to write those words, because he knew that anxiety would come.

Anxieties will shake our hearts and our minds (4:6)
In this letter, we catch glimpses of some of the anxieties felt by Paul and the Philippians at
the time this letter was written.
Paul
Was anxious when Epaphroditus nearly died (2:28) –
And he was anxious that the Philippian Christians would not believe the false teachers
who were teaching them they needed to be circumcised (3:2)
The Philippians
Were anxious that Paul’s imprisonment was hindering the spread of the gospel (1:12)
–
And they were anxious about the opposition they were facing as a church (1:28).
Both Paul and the Philippian Christians experienced anxiety in their lives –
Paul’s emphasis on joy in the Christian life does not remove the reality of anxiety for
believers.
I don’t know what things you might be feeling anxious about this morning –
But I’m pretty confident that we are all familiar with feelings of anxiety in our lives.
We get anxious – because we are not God!
We can’t see the end from the beginning! We don’t know and can’t claim to know
what the future will bring for us – for our loved ones – for our children – for this church...
Anxieties will come in the Christian life – Paul is confident of that here.
But as with all his engagements with painful realities in this world,
Paul is both a realist –
And a follower of the risen Lord Jesus!
Anxieties will come –
But thanks to Jesus, we don’t have to be anxious!
Our hearts and our minds will be shaken by anxiety –
But Paul is confident that the ‘peace of God’ can guard against anxiety!
Paul lives in the real world –
And so should we!
And Paul can cope with the real world of opposition and disagreements and anxiety, because
he knows that:
The Lord Jesus is with his people!
And through faith in him, we can overcome the world!
Because of the Lord Jesus, Christians don’t have to fear the real world –
Instead, we can find joy in knowing him, even in the midst of painful realities!
So –
What things in this passage can help us rejoice in the Lord in a fallen world?
Rejoicing in the real world
 Look to the future Christ has in store for you (3:20-4:1)
After acknowledging that the Philippian Christians will face opposition from enemies of the
cross of Christ, Paul then lifts their eyes to the future.
Read vv.20-21.
Philippi was a Roman colony – and the residents there took pride in their Roman citizenship.
Paul urges the believers here – take greater pride in your heavenly citizenship!
You now belong to God!
While others may reject you, God never will!
And one day, your heavenly citizenship will be enjoyed to the full –
In the new creation! When the risen Lord Jesus ‘transforms our lowly bodies so that
they will be like his glorious body’!
Look to the future Christ has in store for you, says Paul –
And rejoice in it!
Why do the New Testament writers keep banging on about the Christian’s hope and the new
creation?
And why do I find myself preaching about it all the time?
Speaking for myself, I know that if I don’t preach about the new creation – I will just forget
about it and live as if here and now is all that matters.
Naturally, I’m just like the ‘enemies of the cross of Christ’ in v.19 –
My mind is on earthly things – all I think about is this life here, on earth.
If I don’t preach about the new creation – I’ll forget about it!
And I believe that’s why Paul and the other NT writers keep coming back to the
future!
We need to remember the glorious future Christ has in store for us, if we are going to
persevere for him here and now!
This life here on earth looks like it will go on forever –
But it won’t!
It looks as if life here and now is the important stuff, and that spiritual things – faith in Jesus
Christ, reading the Bible, praying –
Nice as they are, they’re just not as important...
But the opposite is true!
Our lives here and now only make sense if we live them in the light of our future hope
– if we live them in the light of eternity!
A few moments ago, we acknowledged that anxieties come because we don’t know what the
future holds for us and for our loved ones.
That is true of the immediate future –
But in a fundamental sense, if we’re Christians, Paul argues here that we do know
what the future holds!
Jesus Christ will return!
He will bring the whole of creation under his control!
And he will transform our lowly bodies so that there will be no more sickness, weakness, pain
or death!
If we are going to rejoice in the midst of a fallen world, then we need to lift our eyes to the
future Christ has in store for us –
We need to actively remind ourselves of it – for it is glorious!
Paul’s next bit of advice for Christians to rejoice in the real world is:
 Remember the Lord who saved you (4:2-7)
In 4:3, Paul remembers how Euodia and Syntyche once ‘contended at my side in the cause of
the gospel’ –
But now they were at loggerheads with each other.
Paul seems to suggest that the problems came – when they forgot the gospel that saved them!
When Euodia and Syntyche remembered the gospel and let that act as the driving force for
their lives –
then they contended side-by-side with one another to make Christ known in Philippi.
When they were no longer focussed on the gospel, they focussed their energies on other
things –
And that led to their disagreement!
In v.4, Paul urges Euodia and Syntyche – and all of us! – to ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’
This is so important, he repeats himself – ‘Rejoice!’
The key to joy and unity among believers is that we remember the Lord who saved us – and
the gospel that transformed us.
We won’t just stumble across joy and unity as a church –
God won’t just zap us with them.
God calls on us to actively find our joy in the Lord Jesus and what he has done for us in the
gospel –
Because only then will we relate to one another in a way that honours Christ –
And only then will we begin to discover who we really are in Christ!

‘Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near’ (v.5)
Jesus Christ is our example in gentleness –
In his gracious dealings with the humble and the stumbling and the broken.
Remember that he is with us, and learn from him –
So we can love one another and treat one another with gentleness –
And find joy in the Lord as we do that!

‘Do not be anxious about anything...’ – instead, pray! (v.6)
Remember that thanks to Jesus, you are now a child of God –
And your Father in heaven loves to hear your prayers!
Present your requests to God with thanksgiving –
Because he has already given us his Son and new life in him!

‘And the peace of God ... will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’ (v.7)
Paul doesn’t promise that we will always get what we pray for –
But he does promise us ‘the peace of God’!
And he likens it to a garrison of soldiers, given to us to protect our hearts and our minds from
attack.
We are ‘in Christ Jesus’, Paul reminds us –
And he is committed to protecting you!
So – pray to the God who saved you!
And rejoice in the Lord who is with you – and who will keep you!
Paul is convinced that Christians can find joy in the midst of a fallen world – because the
Lord Jesus has overcome the world.
In his resurrection from the dead, he won his great victory over sin and death And he will return from heaven one day to establish that victory once and for all.
In the present, Jesus is still Lord – and he is with us and will hear our prayers and protect our
hearts and minds by his peace.
And Paul’s final piece of advice on rejoicing in the Lord in the real world?

Meditate on God’s goodness to you in Christ (4:8-9)
Read v.8.
We’ve already seen that this verse can be used by some to argue that Christians should avoid
any contact with evil or the sordid realities of this world –
But Paul has just reviewed some of those very realities – opposition to the gospel,
disagreements among Christians, causes of anxiety...
Paul isn’t advocating that Christians run away from the real world here –
Instead, he urges us to remain healthy in this world by meditating on God’s goodness
to us in Christ –
To fill our minds with God’s goodness to us.
It’s never enough simply to run away from sin and evil all around us –
We need to run towards Christ!
We need to positively turn to him – and find our joy in him!
Look over v.8 again –
The words Paul uses could all be descriptions of Christ’s character –
‘true...noble...right...pure...lovely...’
Meditate on who Christ is!
Read your Bible with that goal in mind – that you might rejoice in knowing the Lord
Jesus!
Meditate on what Christ has given you!
Every good thing in your life comes from God – be it family, friends, achievements,
laughter, this church...
Recognise God’s goodness to you – and rejoice in it!
And supremely, rejoice in Christ’s gifts in the gospel:
 Of forgiveness
 Of new life through his Spirit
 Of peace with the God who made you!
Christians can rejoice in the real world –
Because we know the Lord Jesus, who has overcome this world!
Christians don’t have to fear or hide from the realities of this world Because the Lord Jesus is with us in the midst of them!
And Paul reminds us here –
The ‘real world’ around us – with its opposition and disagreements and anxieties –
will not have the last word.
That belongs to Jesus Christ, who will judge this world, before transforming it into a new
creation fit for the people he loves!
How should we respond to life in the real world?
Not by running away from it – instead, listen to Paul:
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’
I finish with some words of Jesus from John 16, spoken to his disciples:
‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33)