Pastor Scott Jonas
10/8/17
Phil. 3
Rejoice in the Lord
Last
Sunday night, an animal fired hundreds of rounds at innocent people in Las
Vegas. We use the term animal for a
person who does something inhuman. How
can a human being plan and execute the ripping apart of other human
beings? We understand when a shark
mindlessly attacks surfers. We know it
is a part of the shark’s nature to kill and eat. We get it when a vulture picks at a dead
carcass. That is just what a vulture
is. We aren’t confused when a rabid dog
launches himself at prey. That is what
rabid dogs do. It is easier to think of
the Las Vegas shooter as an animal than a human being.
Whatever
we call him, we focus our prayers and our sympathy for the victims. There is a path of destruction. The joy of the concert turned to unspeakable
sorrow. Families were confident they
would see their loved one again. But
after they heard the news their confidence plummeted. When they
didn’t answer their cell phone it dropped even more. When the officer showed up at their door
their joy was nowhere to be found. There
was only pain inflicted by the lowest of low.
Our hearts go out to the grieving.
We could feel it in my chest, seeing video of the crime scene, reading
news reports, hearing testimonies of the victims.
Just
talking about it seems to drain the happiness out of the room. One minute we are singing praise and the next
minute the world tries to steal it away.
We’ve been talking about Joy the last three weeks. It is the overwhelming theme of Paul’s letter
to the Philippians. God has had mercy on
Paul. This produced joy. Paul shared his story and his joy with the church. The church believed and the joy of Christ
spread. Paul says in 3:1 “Finally
brothers, rejoice in the Lord. I want
your joy to be safe and protected. I
want no one to steal it from you.”
Joy
from God is a precious gift. Because it
comes from the Lord, the devil will try to separate you from it. He will try to reach into your heart, grab it
and run. How the devil loves to destroy
joy? Joy is one of the greatest
advertisements for a good and loving God.
We must guard it and place it somewhere safe.
Then Paul gives a
warning, “Look out for dogs, look out for evil doers, look out for mutilators
of the flesh.” Sound familiar? Look out for people who resemble vicious
animals more than humans. Look out for
people who have rejected the good things of God and pursue evil. Watch out for those who mutilate or rip apart
the flesh. The warning was appropriate
then and unfortunately it’s appropriate this week. Look out for animals.
These “dogs” want
to steal the Philippians joy and Paul can’t stand for that so he uses the
strongest language possible. Forget your
image of a dog. How many of you have
dogs? We think of dogs as loving and loyal and happy. That was not the case in the ancient
world. Families did not have dogs. Dogs were wild. They were more like we think of wolves. They were pariahs who roamed the streets in
packs, hunting amidst the garbage dumps and snapping and snarling at all whom
they meet. If they can’t a defenseless
victim then they fed on garbage. In the
Bible Dogs stand for that which nothing can be lower. Proverbs says, “Just as a fool returns to
his own folly so a dog returns to his own vomit.”
When Paul warns of
“Dogs” among them he is choosing his words wisely. There was a group called the
circumcisers. The demanded that men be
circumcised in order to be saved. They
claimed to believe in Jesus but they added that you had to mutilate yourself to
complete the deal. Paul sees this for
what it is, a gross attempt to steal Christian Joy. Imagine hearing about Jesus and believing
that his goodness and love saves you.
That joy fills your life. You
share it with your family. You celebrate
it when you get up and when you go to bed.
You proclaim it in worship. You
sustain it in the Lord’s supper. But
then someone at church tells you that you aren’t really a Christian. Real Christians cut themselves as a
sign. No sign; no salvation. A man would wonder if his joy was based on a
lie. A woman would wonder if she was
ever able to be confident in her salvation because she couldn’t be circumcised. The devil runs away with joy under both arms.
Paul says there
are only two places to put your joy: in
earthly things or in heavenly things.
One is completely safe and one is not.
There is nothing wrong with putting your joy in earthly things but know
that earthly things change. Earthly
things die. We see this in big ways and
little ways. A little way is when
something funny happens to you. Just a
little moment that made you laugh. In
that moment you were joyful. Life was
good. You were connected in a good way
to the world and your part in it. Then
you try to share this funny moment with someone else. And they don’t get it. They don’t think it’s funny. You say, “I guess you had to be there.” An joyful earthly moment dies away.
The big ways are
obvious. We find joy in family, friends,
our neighborhood, music, concerts and
all the rest. It is good to find joy in good things. But as the Cardinals showed this year. The things of this world are at best a mixed
bag. Earthly things give joy one minute
and disappoint the next. At worst,
earthly things can be taken away from us in a horrible instant. In Las Vegas, Family died, friends stolen
away, a city known for fun devastated.
The music stopped and maybe forever tainted. Paul says you can put your joy in good things
and it will last for a time but it will not last forever. It
just may end up in the street.
The only safe
place to keep your joy is in the Lord.
Your joy comes from the Lord and is given to Him. He gave it to you at your baptism and you
handed it back to him for safe keeping.
The Lord is the only person you can have complete confidence in. The better you know him, the more you trust
him. He keeps every promise. He promised to be resurrected from the dead
and he did. If he can keep that promise,
surely he can keep you joy. His
resurrection guarantees that your life is important. It guarantees the life to come. Because he lives we shall live. In life and in death we can be confident that
the Lord is always with us. Death can’t
stop him from staying close to you. The
resurrection of Christ is the guarantee that this life is worth living no
matter how demeaning the world gets. Our
bodies are sacred to the Lord even when the world tries to rip us apart. When we suffer we share in Christ’s
suffering.
He promises that
the “dogs” of this world will not escape judgment. We can rest assured that he understands the
pain of Las Vegas better than any of us can.
He knows exactly what the shooter deserves. So much so, Jesus suffered on the cross for
that crime specifically. Everything that
the hundreds of victims suffered he felt on Good Friday. I imagine that the physical pain meant
nothing. The spiritual agony of feeling
the world’s viciousness was worse. The
devil ripped him to pieces even though he was innocent. He knew what he was getting into. It was worth it because he knew that on the
otherside was joy.
The devil can take
almost any earthly thing from you. Look
what he did to Job. He took Job’s
family, friends, wealth, and health. The
one thing that the devil could not touch was his faith. That was between him and the Lord. The Devil can attack your faith but he can’t
steal it.
Or look at the
Gospel parable of the Tenants. A man
plants a vineyard, builds a fence, digs a winepress and a guard tower. That is a lot of energy, money and time spent
creating something. A vineyard which
could bring joy to many: those who work it, those who drink of it and those who
own it. Tenants come in. They did not spend that energy, money and
time creating it. They were
animals. They beat servants, killed them,
and stoned them. They had total
disregard for human life. Finally they
killed the owner’s son saying “Come let us kill the son and take his
inheritance.” The tenants kill the son
and that’s when things really start to go down.
The owner shows up and suffice it to say the tenants get what’s coming
to them and it’s not the son’s inheritance.
The devil can not
get your inheritance either. That is
beyond his reach.
Martin Luther said
this about the devil.
“Why should you
fear? Why should you be afraid? Do you not know that the prince of this world
has been judged? He is no Lord, no
prince anymore. You have a different
stronger Lord, Jesus Christ, who has overcome and bound him. Therefore let the prince and god of this
world look sour, bare his teeth, make a great noise, threaten and act in a
menacing way; he can do no more than a bad dog on a chain, which may bark, run
here and there, and tear at the chain.
But it is tied and if you avoid it , it can not bite you. So the devil acts towards every
Christian. Therefore everything depends
on this that we do not feel secure but continue in the fear of God and in
prayer; then the chained dog cannot harm us.”
Your joy is in the
Lord and no one is stronger than the Lord.