Rejoice in Christ Proclaimed
9/24/17
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You’ve probably heard these words
start a sermon before. The words may no
longer leave an impression. They are
simply words of greeting like, “Dear distinguished guests or To whom it may
concern.”
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes if we hear the same
phrase over and over it loses it’s initial power. Hear the words “I love you” for the first time to someone
and your cheeks get flushed. There are
butterflies in your stomach. Hear the
words “I love you” for the 10,000th time from the same person and we
nod and smile.
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we begin diving into Paul’s
book to the church in Philippi. I want
us to hear this epistle again for the first time. Let’s take a journey to the year 66AD and
imagine that you are Paul’s disciples, unsealing a scroll that traveled 800
mile across land and sea to your congregation.
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul started the church in Philippi
which is modern day Greece. He
proclaimed Christ crucified there. He
told them the story how Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under
pontious pilate was crucified died and was buried, but he did not stay dead, He
rose. Paul retold the story in Philippi
to whoever had ears to hear. When Paul
left the region, the story was retold again and again by the church.
At a later time and at another
place, Paul was arrested for telling that same story about Jesus. For two years he was under house arrest. Eventually, he was taken to Rome to face
civil judgment there. Imagine waiting to
hear word about your former pastor. Eight
hundred miles away was another world.
Rome was the craziest city in the Mediterranean. What did the strain of being captive for two
years do to his spirit? Has suffering
beaten him down? Has his message changed
now that he has been in chains for proclaiming it? Is this the same Paul? Does he preach the same Christ?
(Unroll scroll) Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Same Paul, same simple words that
proclaim Jesus. The Philippians felt
joy.
The read on,
“I thank my God in all my
remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my
prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day
until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will
bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel
this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all
partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and
confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all
with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may
abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may
approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to
the glory and praise of God.”
Feel the emotional connection Paul
has to his fellow believers. Prison has
not kept Paul from praying for his churches.
In fact, maybe incarceration is a gift because he has more time to
pray. When he thinks of what Christ has
done for the people of Phillippi it gives him joy. Planting the seeds of faith through
proclaiming Christ has produced miracles.
People received grace from God.
His friends have peace with Jesus Christ. He saw the miracles when he was with
them. He trusts that God is still active
in the church and one day he will complete his good work on the last day. This makes Paul happy.
One of the themes of Philippians is
that the Christian life produces joy.
Paul says “Christ is proclaimed, in that I rejoice.” “I am glad and rejoice with you all.” “Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice
with me.” “Rejoice in the Lord.” Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.” Prisons are supposed to be dark but Paul
finds joy in a hopeless place.
Even in prison Christ can be
proclaimed. Paul was not in a place like
dungeon. He was under house arrest. He was chained to a Roman guard, who took
shifts watching him. Meanwhile, he was
allowed to pray, read scripture, host friends and write letters. He was confined to a limited space but God’s
word will not be confined. Paul told the
guards the story of Christ crucified.
They were so impressed with this weird prisoner that the told the story
to their families and fellow guards.
What kind of evangelism plan is this? First we get our pastor arrested, then he gets
sent to the capital, eventually Romans with no access to the Gospel will be
saved. Its nuts.
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hearing Christ proclaimed brings
joy to the heart that belongs to God. To
the heart without the Spirit, the good news just hits it and goes thud. Nothing.
That heart says I don’t need Jesus.
But when God has been working in your heart, you hear Christ proclaimed
and the Holy Spirit jumps inside you.
I heard Christ proclaimed by a
three year old and a 97 year old this Thursday and the Holy Spirit jumped
inside me both times. I got to lead my
first chapel with our preschool. The
first three rows were filled with the two year olds, three year olds four year
olds. The babies are in these little
carts with seat belts. I taught them to
proclaim in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. I said we use our pointer finger not our
thumb, not our pinky. And we make the
sign of the cross because Jesus loved us so much that he died on the cross for
us. They used their little finger to
make the sign of the cross. The
proclaimed Christ crucified. They may
not be baptized but the words of God can work on their hearts. We have no idea what life is like for the
kids he gives to us. Maybe their parents
are proclaiming Christ at home. But
Christ can take our words in chapel and plant faith in a heart forever if he
wills it. That brings me joy. We should celebrate what God is doing here
Monday through Friday.
It
also brought me joy to visit Pastor Dale Griffen. I made an appointment to bring him
communion. He lives on Elm anout a mile
from church so I decided to walk. As I
walked I prayed for the neighborhood. I
proclaimed Christ down the sidewalk.
Pastor Griffen is 97 years old. I
was supposed to be ministering to him but as so often happens on these type of
calls, he ministered to me. He said,
“every day is a gift from Jesus.” We
talked about forgiveness and sharing Christ with broken people. You can tell that he has spent a lifetime
proclaiming Christ and he has this joy that glows. I hope God continues to give me joy the way
he gives Dale Griffen joy. By the way,
Dale watches every Sunday via the internet so everyone say Blessings Dale!
Not
everyone is as gracious as Dale. Paul
says there are some who preach Christ from envy and rivalry. Some believers did not trust Paul because he
was a persecutor of the Christians. They
actually used his imprisonment as an opportunity to undermine his
influence. But it doesn’t matter. Paul will not let them steal his joy. What matters is that Christ is proclaimed. It doesn’t matter why someone proclaims him,
as long as the Gospel advances. Paul
isn’t looking for credit. He doesn’t care
if he has the biggest church. He doesn’t
care if another pastor has a bigger name.
All that matters is that the good news spreads.
We
really can proclaim Christ better when we don’t care who gets the credit. I had to make phone calls this week about
members who want to transfer to another lcms congregation. At first, it’s easy to feel defensive. I want people to stay and be blessed through
the ministry here. But I asked them, do
you feel God is calling you there. Do
you feel that God can use you to spread the gospel there? Then go in peace because Christ is proclaimed
here and there.
Today we are giving you a new tool
for your faith tool box. It’s Daily
Bible readings based on the Sunday Morning scripture….
We all need to hear Christ
proclaimed everyday.
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You may have heard those words more
times than you can count, but rejoice in knowing that they have the power to
change the world.