Welcome to St. Paul’s Anglican Church!
We are delighted to be able to communicate with you through the medium of this website. It is just one way of the many ways in which parishioners and others can find their way into our community and through this into a deeper life of faith.
Jesus said, "Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28) It is our hope and prayer that through the ministry of all the members of our church family you will come to know Jesus Christ, the Good Shepard, in our midst and that you will truly find rest for your soul.
Rev. Andrew S. Faust+
Welcome to St. Paul’s Anglican Church!
We are delighted to be able to communicate with you through the medium of this website. It is just one way of the many ways in which parishioners and others can find their way into our community and through this into a deeper life of faith.
Jesus said, "Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28) It is our hope and prayer that through the ministry of all the members of our church family you will come to know Jesus Christ, the Good Shepard, in our midst and that you will truly find rest for your soul.
Rev. Andrew S. Faust+
November 29, 2020
Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel (Philippians 1:12-18)
12 I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.
15 Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. 16 These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; 17 the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. 18 What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. (NRSV)
I want us this morning to think about three questions as we look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
1. Where has God put me? That is, what is your life situation, where has God placed you? He put Paul in prison. Did he have a reason?
2. Is God using my situation? We all have challenges in our situation. God used Paul’s imprisonment, is he using you?
3. How might God work his purpose out through me? If God works his purpose out in all things, how will he do that with you? What is your part in it?
God used Paul’s imprisonment (v. 12). God puts us where he wants us for his purpose.
Paul was arrested for preaching about Jesus. It must have been frightening to be under the thumb of the power of Rome in this way. It would not have been what he wanted, or anything he would have welcomed. It must have seemed to thwart his ministry. But Paul’s imprisonment caused a buzz, people were talking about it.
Someone once said to Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the famous (or notorious) Irish wit and author, that everyone was talking about him because of his scandalous behavior. “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about,” Wilde quipped, “and that is not being talked about.” Paul’s imprisonment apparently was a little bit like that. Or perhaps a better analogy is the familiar spiritual with the chorus:
Everywhere I Go
Everywhere I Go, My Lord
Everywhere I Go
Somebody talkin' about Jesus
In Paul’s missionary’s report to this supporting church, he assures them that even though he is in jail, God’s using it because everyone is talking about Jesus. Imagine the guards seeing how Paul conducted himself, how he showed the love of Christ to all, and how he openly proclaimed his faith and trust in Jesus. They would have talked about it. Their officers would have heard it. The talk spread. Members of the imperial household would hear the talk. They might even had said, “Everywhere I go somebody’s talking about that fellow Paul in jail and this Jesus he proclaims.” They wanted to know what it was all about. We don’t have the details, but Paul is reporting that this “buzz” about Jesus was having impact.
Believers were also bolder because of it. They took up the word and preached about Jesus, though not all from good motives. Yet God even used those who preached Jesus out of wrong motives, and people heard about Jesus. Paul was overjoyed. The gospel was advanced! As one commentator put it, “Paul's confinement was doing what his circumstances outside of prison could never do.”
Context of the Letter
Most scholars believe Paul was jailed in Rome, in about AD 60, apparently to try to suppress his preaching about Jesus. Paul had been a missionary and evangelist for Christ for about 20 years. Some ten years earlier, on his first missionary journey into Europe, Paul had met Lydia and had helped establish the church in Philippi, a colony of Roman citizens, many of whom were retired military officers. The Philippian church had been strong and faithful in supporting Paul's ministry. Part of his purpose in writing the letter was to thank them. But his main purpose was to assure them that despite his imprisonment, Christ was being proclaimed and the gospel was advancing.
Try to imagine being a member of that church in Philippi hearing that Paul, your beloved founder and leader, had been arrested, jailed, and seemingly disgraced: a setback for the early Christian Church, whose leader, Christ himself, had died a humiliating public death. Perhaps they would have wondered, are we putting our faith in something foolish? Nobody likes to look foolish. The Christians were already strange and different to many, and the object of hostility from the Jewish establishment and pagan critics. Now their most distinguished leader was in jail like a common criminal?
Paul was quick to reassure them. He told them it had become widely known he was imprisoned for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Far from stifling his ministry, this notoriety started people thinking and talking about Jesus. Throughout the military structure in the Imperial guard and all the Imperial Palace, people became aware of Paul and his ministry. More importantly, they became aware of Jesus Christ, and it would appear that many embraced the gospel.
At the same time, people who opposed Paul (we are not really able to tell with certainty who those people were) went out preaching the gospel but not with a sincere and humble heart, but out of pride and malice, hoping to seize the acclaim and discredit Paul. God did not permit that but used them along with the more noble preachers to advance the gospel. As Paul told his beloved Philippians, “Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true.” In that, he assured them, “I rejoice” (v.18).
God uses our circumstances to proclaim Christ and spread the gospel if we are faithful (vv. 13-17)
God can, and often does, use wicked people or difficult situations to accomplish his purposes. What is your situation? Might God be putting you in a place where he could be using you?
Think of the example of Joseph, who's brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely imprisoned in Egypt, but because of his faith God raised him to a high office. Because of Joseph’s trusting faith God used him to preserve the land of Egypt in famine and drought, and then enabled him also to save his own people from a famine in their land, preserving God’s promise to Abraham. As Joseph said to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good (Genesis 5:20).
Or consider Daniel, exiled to Babylon and conspired against by jealous officials who wanted him killed. He remained faithful and was used by God to show forth God’s majesty to the people of Babylon in that day and to provide a powerful witness to us in the present day (Daniel chapter 6).
Did Paul’s chains thwart the advance of the gospel? No, indeed, for “most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.”
God is working his purpose out, so be confident and faithful in all things. (v. 18)
What does this speak to you and me today in 2020? Only that we should never think that adversity we experience is any kind of obstacle to the will of God. We must never despair or grow weary from following Christ and representing him to the world. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” (2 Thess 3:13, ESV). Or to the Galatians, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9, ESV).
Remember, wherever we are, we are in the place God has put us. There is no accident or “chance.” Like Paul’s jail, we may be in a place we don’t choose to be or a place we don’t like. Maybe you’ve had to move or change jobs or schools. Maybe you’ve had a setback of some kind, your car broke down, your house was broken into, you had a fire, you had severe weather like the ice storm years ago, or a pandemic like today Maybe you have to be somewhere or experience something that is hard.
Years ago, I had a friend in church who worked on an electric utility company line crew. He was a sensitive and expressive Christian, totally up front about his faith. But many fellow workers disrespected him and even made fun of him. It hurt him to the point he was at times emotionally crippled. Talking to him about it, many of us tried to encourage and support him, but also to get him to realize God had put him in that spot, maybe to be used to pour hot coals on a few heads (Prov 25:22; Rom 12:20) by his perseverance and grace under fire. When he did that and did not retaliate or let them see his joy vanish, some people began to come around. Some even apologized and we believe started considering what he had that they lacked.
Another example, in 2015 I was hospitalized for nine days with a life-threatening staph infection. It was no fun, and I certainly did not want to be going through it. But it gave me multiple opportunities to show a confident faith in Christ by the way I handled it and the way I interacted with others, including other patients. God enabled me to have several significant conversations with health care providers, patients and even a hospital chaplain. Not because of me, but because of God, I felt a strange peace most of the time and a strong sense of confidence that God was working his purpose out in the whole thing, miserable though it surely was in many ways. There were ways God used me in that place and time.
Or consider Queen Esther, placed in the royal household in Persia at a time that enabled her, though only by risking her own life, to save her exiled Jewish people from a plot to massacre them. Had they been massacred, God’s overarching purpose of fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant through the line of Judah would have been compromised. As her uncle Mordecai said, perhaps God had put her there at that very time for that very purpose (Esther 4:14).
You may be working or going to school in a place surrounded by people with no interest in Christ, or who think your faith is foolish. It’s an opportunity. Maybe in your family you’re the only one who has faith. That can be pretty uncomfortable, but God may be using you in ways you cannot even see. As George MacDonald said, “All things are possible with God, but all things are not easy.” You may be burdened today, carrying a heavy cross. But in our circumstances we have the opportunity to show forth the love of Christ. Paul was in chains. Joseph was a slave. Daniel and Esther were in exile and in danger. But God used their faithful trust. We can give voice to our confidence in God. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Jesus tells us if we are burdened he will give us rest (Matt 11:28). Remember you’re where God wants you to be. Setbacks and adversity in life are hard, even though we know they will come. God understands that and has firsthand experience of it (e.g., Is chapter 53; Heb 2:17-18). But if we persevere, if we are faithful, God will use us. His purposes are known to him not necessarily to us. God can advance the gospel through you, no matter what the circumstances. God will use us if we are obedient. Be confident. Be faithful in all things. Will you do your part? You can be sure God is working his purpose out.
God is working his purpose out,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
“God Is Working His Purpose Out,” Arthur Campbell Ainger (1894).
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Saint Paul’s Anglican Church Sermon October 25, 2020
Jonah 2:7-9
“When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah, the prophet who tries to run away from God, comes to the depths of despair and remembers the Lord, and turns to him. How like you and me. He ends with the well-known words, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
In his great American novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville composed a powerful allegory of the hatred of evil for righteousness. Ahab, the personification of evil (and how apt is that, in reference to the wicked King Ahab of 1 Kings 16-20?) has a monomaniacal hatred of Moby Dick, the white whale, who according to many scholars personifies the qualities of God himself, or Jesus Christ. The late R. C. Sproul, a great admirer of Moby Dick, said,
If the whale embodies everything that is symbolized by whiteness—that which is terrifying; that which is pure; that which is excellent; that which is horrible and ghastly; that which is mysterious and incomprehensible—does he not embody those traits that are found in the fullness of the perfections in the being of God Himself?
In one view, at least, the entire novel is about the hatred of Ahab, representing the world’s hatred, for goodness and purity and, thus, for Jesus. Many see it as an allegory of the triumph of Christ over evil.
In addition to Ahab, the novel includes the character of Ishmael and the story of the ship Rachel searching for her lost crew, all biblical metaphors. And in a striking scene, just before Ishmael’s whaling ship departs from Nantucket, Ishmael attends church at the mariners’ chapel, and hears a sermon on Jonah by father Mapple. (Father Mapple’s Sermon, Moby Dick, chapter IX).
Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sea-line sound! What a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! … But what is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his willful disobedience of the command of God—never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command. … ‘With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the captains of this earth.
As Father Mapple says, Jonah’s sin is his bad attitude, his disobedience to a direct command from God. He thinks a mere ship can take him to a place where “God does not reign,” and he learns the lesson, for himself and for us, that no such place exists. Is Jonah not like you and me? We all tend to go our own way, to think (or hope) that God does not see our failures to love God with all our hearts, or to love our neighbors as ourselves. As the Psalmist says, “Then they say, ‘The Lord does not see this; the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.’” Ps 94:7.
But “shipmates,” happily we need not run from God. No, we can run to him, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. As the gospel today (Matthew 22) teaches us, God is pleased to draw sinners to himself, to call to himself a people, both “bad and good,” who are received by him not for their merits but out of his love. Like the wedding guests in Jesus’ parable, who did nothing to earn their place at the celebration, we can join in with God, we can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We can walk with Jesus in this life and stand before God without fear one day.
How? By placing our trust in Jesus. Jesus said,
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:4-6 (RSV)
And in another place he says to us, “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” Jn 6:37
This is the Christian good news, the gospel. All who turn to Christ will be received by him. He will hold onto his own. It is a unique message in all the world. No other religion, no other system, contains such a promise! Do you feel guilty? Do you feel like you’re not good enough? Do you feel that you have to try harder and harder to be pleasing to God? You are not alone. The good news is that it is not about our performance, but about our faith. We cannot be good enough to live up the standards of a holy and perfect God, but we can be clothed with the proper wedding garments by putting on Christ! That’s the only way, but a sure way.
May each one embrace that good news, that very good news. No Jonahs here. No need to flee from God because we have a savior in Jesus Christ.
To view a dramatic rendition of Father Mapple’s sermon in the classic movie, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWV8sBZ9ho
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The Truth of the Resurrection
Acts 5:27-32
When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
The resurrection of Jesus was a fact on which the Apostles and leaders of the early church hung their faith.
Acts 2:24, 32 (Peter on the day of Pentecost)
And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. … God has raised Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Acts 13:29-37 (Paul in Antioch of Pisidia)
When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, * * * “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: * * * ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’
Acts 3:12-16 (after Peter healed the lame beggar at the temple)
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “
1 Corinthians 15:3-19
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. * * * Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Defense Of The Resurrection Of Jesus
This is the pivotal fact. Unless Christ was raised from the dead, our hope is vain, as Paul told us. The preaching of the Apostles always included the affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they saw him.
Standard proofs of the truth of the resurrection often go something like this:
1. Jesus died on the cross.
2. Jesus was entombed in a known place belonging to a known person.
3. On the morning of the third day a group of women discovered his tomb was empty and that the body of Jesus was not there.
4. Various people reportedly saw and interacted with the resurrected Jesus.
5. The followers of Jesus were completely transformed by their experience of the resurrected Jesus and asserted at all times that he had risen from the dead and they had witnessed him alive again. They did not falter in this assertion despite persecution.
These are compelling facts that are generally not disputed and demand an explanation. Many scholars who are skeptics largely concede these essential facts, and the Christian apologists who defend the veracity of the Resurrection rely on them. Consider from the perspective of how the legal systems considers facts proved: there is no question that in a trial in court the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus would be considered proved by clear and convincing evidence.
In addition to the foregoing, a trial lawyer could present the following:
1. The best evidence to prove a fact is eyewitness testimony. The trial lawyer could have put Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Doubting Thomas (a great witness because he was a skeptic), the Emmaus Road disciples, all the women at the tomb, and multiple other eyewitnesses on the stand who could testify under oath that they saw the risen Jesus. Just a few years after the events most of the 500 witnesses Paul mentions were still alive and could have been interviewed and called to a trial.
2. Though the eyewitnesses could be cross examined, it is safe to assume they would have stuck to their stories, as they did so under pains of torture and death.
3. It is also safe to assume no eyewitness could have been called to contradict their testimony. Why is that a safe assumption? Because if there had been eyewitnesses to the contrary, the Bible might not have recorded that (though it does not shy from inconvenient or embarrassing facts), but certainly those eyewitnesses could and would have contradicted Peter and others when they proclaimed the resurrection publicly repeatedly in Jerusalem. They easily could have pointed to the body remaining in the tomb. If they were lying the witnesses never would have gotten away with it.
4. The next best evidence is contemporaneous written records. In 1 Cor 15:3-8 Paul relates what he was told by the eyewitnesses, as well as his own eyewitness experience of the risen Lord. This document was written probably within 5 years after the Resurrection itself. According to most scholars, Luke, who apparently interviewed the Apostles, Mary, and other witnesses wrote his accounts around 80-90 A. D. That is within 60 years or so, within the memories of the witnesses and reasonably close in time to the events themselves. Scholars think Mark’s account of the empty tomb to be based on accounts as early as the time of Jesus’ death. The written evidence coheres and is not refuted, as far as we know, by any other written evidence.
5. Even unrefuted evidence need not be accepted by a fact finder in a court of law, though to reject it the fact finder would have to articulate reasons.
One reason would be inherent improbability of the evidence, and arguably this would apply to evidence proving a man killed on the cross could return bodily to life. When you come down to it, this is why skeptics reject the truth of the Resurrection.
However, the witnesses would be extremely credible. Their stories are consistent on the crucial facts even though they vary to some degree on secondary facts, as you would expect from any group of witnesses. If every detail were exactly the same, it would start to sound like the contrived story the skeptics claim it was.
The witnesses do not hide embarrassing facts (e.g., that only women had the nerve to go to the tomb and thus were the first to report that Jesus had risen).
They knew that by affirming the Resurrection they would antagonize the authorities who had the power of life and death over them, as in fact took place. People may cling to something they believe though it is false even to the point of death. But would people cling so tenaciously to something they knew was a lie? They would gain nothing by affirming this lie, unless perhaps to vindicate their following Jesus in the first place. But who cared about that? Could Peter not have gone back to his fishing boat and lived out a prosperous life? Couldn’t they all have gone back to their old lives?
Would all the eyewitnesses, with their diverse backgrounds and skills, have banded together to affirm a lie about the resurrection in order to be somehow vindicated? Wouldn’t that just invite further humiliation? Could not a skeptic easily have demanded to speak to the living witnesses from the 500 said to have seen the risen Lord?
If the witnesses were lying could they have stuck to it? Remember how Chuck Colson told us how quickly 12 tough, high powered, cynical political operatives caved in totally when the Watergate scandal erupted.
6. On balance, we can conclude that in a trial before a court of law one could have marshaled an overwhelming case to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. It is proof by more than a mere preponderance.
Case closed.
Sir Edward Clark, British High Court Justice, who conducted a thorough evaluation of the evidence for the Resurrection, said,
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over gain in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.”
Lord we believe, increase our faith. Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief. Help us Lord to be encouraged and strengthened by the confident knowledge that you raised your son from the dead, and that we can trust you to raise us along with him on the last day!
Additional Resources
Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann, Paul Copan & Ronald K. Tacelli, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. (New Testament accounts thoroughly examined and judged reliable).
Greenleaf, Simon. The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1995.
Reliability
Luke describes in Acts and his Gospel his own investigative methods, which was very unusual. The famous historian and skeptic turned believer William Ramsey notes in Acts Luke described 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands, with zero errors. When Ramsey first went to Asia Minor, many of the cities mentioned in Acts had no known location and almost nothing was known of their detailed history or politics. The Acts of the Apostles was the only record and Ramsay, skeptical, fully expected his own research to prove the author of Acts hopelessly inaccurate since no man could possibly know the details of Asia Minor more than a hundred years after the event— when Acts was then supposed to have been written.
He therefore set out to put the writer of Acts on trial. He devoted his life to unearthing the ancient cities and documents of Asia Minor. After a lifetime of study, however, he concluded, "Further study . . . showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement. "(The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85). On page 89 of the same book, Ramsay wrote, "I set out to look for truth on the borderland where Greece and Asia meet, and found it there [in Acts]. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment..."
Paul’s Chains Advance the Gospel (Philippians 1:12-18)
12 I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.
15 Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. 16 These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; 17 the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. 18 What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. (NRSV)
I want us this morning to think about three questions as we look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
1. Where has God put me? That is, what is your life situation, where has God placed you? He put Paul in prison. Did he have a reason?
2. Is God using my situation? We all have challenges in our situation. God used Paul’s imprisonment, is he using you?
3. How might God work his purpose out through me? If God works his purpose out in all things, how will he do that with you? What is your part in it?
God used Paul’s imprisonment (v. 12). God puts us where he wants us for his purpose.
Paul was arrested for preaching about Jesus. It must have been frightening to be under the thumb of the power of Rome in this way. It would not have been what he wanted, or anything he would have welcomed. It must have seemed to thwart his ministry. But Paul’s imprisonment caused a buzz, people were talking about it.
Someone once said to Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the famous (or notorious) Irish wit and author, that everyone was talking about him because of his scandalous behavior. “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about,” Wilde quipped, “and that is not being talked about.” Paul’s imprisonment apparently was a little bit like that. Or perhaps a better analogy is the familiar spiritual with the chorus:
Everywhere I Go
Everywhere I Go, My Lord
Everywhere I Go
Somebody talkin' about Jesus
In Paul’s missionary’s report to this supporting church, he assures them that even though he is in jail, God’s using it because everyone is talking about Jesus. Imagine the guards seeing how Paul conducted himself, how he showed the love of Christ to all, and how he openly proclaimed his faith and trust in Jesus. They would have talked about it. Their officers would have heard it. The talk spread. Members of the imperial household would hear the talk. They might even had said, “Everywhere I go somebody’s talking about that fellow Paul in jail and this Jesus he proclaims.” They wanted to know what it was all about. We don’t have the details, but Paul is reporting that this “buzz” about Jesus was having impact.
Believers were also bolder because of it. They took up the word and preached about Jesus, though not all from good motives. Yet God even used those who preached Jesus out of wrong motives, and people heard about Jesus. Paul was overjoyed. The gospel was advanced! As one commentator put it, “Paul's confinement was doing what his circumstances outside of prison could never do.”
Context of the Letter
Most scholars believe Paul was jailed in Rome, in about AD 60, apparently to try to suppress his preaching about Jesus. Paul had been a missionary and evangelist for Christ for about 20 years. Some ten years earlier, on his first missionary journey into Europe, Paul had met Lydia and had helped establish the church in Philippi, a colony of Roman citizens, many of whom were retired military officers. The Philippian church had been strong and faithful in supporting Paul's ministry. Part of his purpose in writing the letter was to thank them. But his main purpose was to assure them that despite his imprisonment, Christ was being proclaimed and the gospel was advancing.
Try to imagine being a member of that church in Philippi hearing that Paul, your beloved founder and leader, had been arrested, jailed, and seemingly disgraced: a setback for the early Christian Church, whose leader, Christ himself, had died a humiliating public death. Perhaps they would have wondered, are we putting our faith in something foolish? Nobody likes to look foolish. The Christians were already strange and different to many, and the object of hostility from the Jewish establishment and pagan critics. Now their most distinguished leader was in jail like a common criminal?
Paul was quick to reassure them. He told them it had become widely known he was imprisoned for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Far from stifling his ministry, this notoriety started people thinking and talking about Jesus. Throughout the military structure in the Imperial guard and all the Imperial Palace, people became aware of Paul and his ministry. More importantly, they became aware of Jesus Christ, and it would appear that many embraced the gospel.
At the same time, people who opposed Paul (we are not really able to tell with certainty who those people were) went out preaching the gospel but not with a sincere and humble heart, but out of pride and malice, hoping to seize the acclaim and discredit Paul. God did not permit that but used them along with the more noble preachers to advance the gospel. As Paul told his beloved Philippians, “Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true.” In that, he assured them, “I rejoice” (v.18).
God uses our circumstances to proclaim Christ and spread the gospel if we are faithful (vv. 13-17)
God can, and often does, use wicked people or difficult situations to accomplish his purposes. What is your situation? Might God be putting you in a place where he could be using you?
Think of the example of Joseph, who's brothers sold him into slavery. He was falsely imprisoned in Egypt, but because of his faith God raised him to a high office. Because of Joseph’s trusting faith God used him to preserve the land of Egypt in famine and drought, and then enabled him also to save his own people from a famine in their land, preserving God’s promise to Abraham. As Joseph said to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good (Genesis 5:20).
Or consider Daniel, exiled to Babylon and conspired against by jealous officials who wanted him killed. He remained faithful and was used by God to show forth God’s majesty to the people of Babylon in that day and to provide a powerful witness to us in the present day (Daniel chapter 6).
Did Paul’s chains thwart the advance of the gospel? No, indeed, for “most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.”
God is working his purpose out, so be confident and faithful in all things. (v. 18)
What does this speak to you and me today in 2020? Only that we should never think that adversity we experience is any kind of obstacle to the will of God. We must never despair or grow weary from following Christ and representing him to the world. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.” (2 Thess 3:13, ESV). Or to the Galatians, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9, ESV).
Remember, wherever we are, we are in the place God has put us. There is no accident or “chance.” Like Paul’s jail, we may be in a place we don’t choose to be or a place we don’t like. Maybe you’ve had to move or change jobs or schools. Maybe you’ve had a setback of some kind, your car broke down, your house was broken into, you had a fire, you had severe weather like the ice storm years ago, or a pandemic like today Maybe you have to be somewhere or experience something that is hard.
Years ago, I had a friend in church who worked on an electric utility company line crew. He was a sensitive and expressive Christian, totally up front about his faith. But many fellow workers disrespected him and even made fun of him. It hurt him to the point he was at times emotionally crippled. Talking to him about it, many of us tried to encourage and support him, but also to get him to realize God had put him in that spot, maybe to be used to pour hot coals on a few heads (Prov 25:22; Rom 12:20) by his perseverance and grace under fire. When he did that and did not retaliate or let them see his joy vanish, some people began to come around. Some even apologized and we believe started considering what he had that they lacked.
Another example, in 2015 I was hospitalized for nine days with a life-threatening staph infection. It was no fun, and I certainly did not want to be going through it. But it gave me multiple opportunities to show a confident faith in Christ by the way I handled it and the way I interacted with others, including other patients. God enabled me to have several significant conversations with health care providers, patients and even a hospital chaplain. Not because of me, but because of God, I felt a strange peace most of the time and a strong sense of confidence that God was working his purpose out in the whole thing, miserable though it surely was in many ways. There were ways God used me in that place and time.
Or consider Queen Esther, placed in the royal household in Persia at a time that enabled her, though only by risking her own life, to save her exiled Jewish people from a plot to massacre them. Had they been massacred, God’s overarching purpose of fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant through the line of Judah would have been compromised. As her uncle Mordecai said, perhaps God had put her there at that very time for that very purpose (Esther 4:14).
You may be working or going to school in a place surrounded by people with no interest in Christ, or who think your faith is foolish. It’s an opportunity. Maybe in your family you’re the only one who has faith. That can be pretty uncomfortable, but God may be using you in ways you cannot even see. As George MacDonald said, “All things are possible with God, but all things are not easy.” You may be burdened today, carrying a heavy cross. But in our circumstances we have the opportunity to show forth the love of Christ. Paul was in chains. Joseph was a slave. Daniel and Esther were in exile and in danger. But God used their faithful trust. We can give voice to our confidence in God. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Jesus tells us if we are burdened he will give us rest (Matt 11:28). Remember you’re where God wants you to be. Setbacks and adversity in life are hard, even though we know they will come. God understands that and has firsthand experience of it (e.g., Is chapter 53; Heb 2:17-18). But if we persevere, if we are faithful, God will use us. His purposes are known to him not necessarily to us. God can advance the gospel through you, no matter what the circumstances. God will use us if we are obedient. Be confident. Be faithful in all things. Will you do your part? You can be sure God is working his purpose out.
God is working his purpose out,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
“God Is Working His Purpose Out,” Arthur Campbell Ainger (1894).
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Saint Paul’s Anglican Church Sermon October 25, 2020
Jonah 2:7-9
“When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Jonah, the prophet who tries to run away from God, comes to the depths of despair and remembers the Lord, and turns to him. How like you and me. He ends with the well-known words, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
In his great American novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville composed a powerful allegory of the hatred of evil for righteousness. Ahab, the personification of evil (and how apt is that, in reference to the wicked King Ahab of 1 Kings 16-20?) has a monomaniacal hatred of Moby Dick, the white whale, who according to many scholars personifies the qualities of God himself, or Jesus Christ. The late R. C. Sproul, a great admirer of Moby Dick, said,
If the whale embodies everything that is symbolized by whiteness—that which is terrifying; that which is pure; that which is excellent; that which is horrible and ghastly; that which is mysterious and incomprehensible—does he not embody those traits that are found in the fullness of the perfections in the being of God Himself?
In one view, at least, the entire novel is about the hatred of Ahab, representing the world’s hatred, for goodness and purity and, thus, for Jesus. Many see it as an allegory of the triumph of Christ over evil.
In addition to Ahab, the novel includes the character of Ishmael and the story of the ship Rachel searching for her lost crew, all biblical metaphors. And in a striking scene, just before Ishmael’s whaling ship departs from Nantucket, Ishmael attends church at the mariners’ chapel, and hears a sermon on Jonah by father Mapple. (Father Mapple’s Sermon, Moby Dick, chapter IX).
Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sea-line sound! What a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! … But what is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his willful disobedience of the command of God—never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command. … ‘With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the captains of this earth.
As Father Mapple says, Jonah’s sin is his bad attitude, his disobedience to a direct command from God. He thinks a mere ship can take him to a place where “God does not reign,” and he learns the lesson, for himself and for us, that no such place exists. Is Jonah not like you and me? We all tend to go our own way, to think (or hope) that God does not see our failures to love God with all our hearts, or to love our neighbors as ourselves. As the Psalmist says, “Then they say, ‘The Lord does not see this; the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.’” Ps 94:7.
But “shipmates,” happily we need not run from God. No, we can run to him, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. As the gospel today (Matthew 22) teaches us, God is pleased to draw sinners to himself, to call to himself a people, both “bad and good,” who are received by him not for their merits but out of his love. Like the wedding guests in Jesus’ parable, who did nothing to earn their place at the celebration, we can join in with God, we can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We can walk with Jesus in this life and stand before God without fear one day.
How? By placing our trust in Jesus. Jesus said,
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:4-6 (RSV)
And in another place he says to us, “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” Jn 6:37
This is the Christian good news, the gospel. All who turn to Christ will be received by him. He will hold onto his own. It is a unique message in all the world. No other religion, no other system, contains such a promise! Do you feel guilty? Do you feel like you’re not good enough? Do you feel that you have to try harder and harder to be pleasing to God? You are not alone. The good news is that it is not about our performance, but about our faith. We cannot be good enough to live up the standards of a holy and perfect God, but we can be clothed with the proper wedding garments by putting on Christ! That’s the only way, but a sure way.
May each one embrace that good news, that very good news. No Jonahs here. No need to flee from God because we have a savior in Jesus Christ.
To view a dramatic rendition of Father Mapple’s sermon in the classic movie, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWV8sBZ9ho
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The Truth of the Resurrection
Acts 5:27-32
When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
The resurrection of Jesus was a fact on which the Apostles and leaders of the early church hung their faith.
Acts 2:24, 32 (Peter on the day of Pentecost)
And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. … God has raised Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Acts 13:29-37 (Paul in Antioch of Pisidia)
When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, * * * “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: * * * ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’
Acts 3:12-16 (after Peter healed the lame beggar at the temple)
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “
1 Corinthians 15:3-19
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. * * * Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Defense Of The Resurrection Of Jesus
This is the pivotal fact. Unless Christ was raised from the dead, our hope is vain, as Paul told us. The preaching of the Apostles always included the affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they saw him.
Standard proofs of the truth of the resurrection often go something like this:
1. Jesus died on the cross.
2. Jesus was entombed in a known place belonging to a known person.
3. On the morning of the third day a group of women discovered his tomb was empty and that the body of Jesus was not there.
4. Various people reportedly saw and interacted with the resurrected Jesus.
5. The followers of Jesus were completely transformed by their experience of the resurrected Jesus and asserted at all times that he had risen from the dead and they had witnessed him alive again. They did not falter in this assertion despite persecution.
These are compelling facts that are generally not disputed and demand an explanation. Many scholars who are skeptics largely concede these essential facts, and the Christian apologists who defend the veracity of the Resurrection rely on them. Consider from the perspective of how the legal systems considers facts proved: there is no question that in a trial in court the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus would be considered proved by clear and convincing evidence.
In addition to the foregoing, a trial lawyer could present the following:
1. The best evidence to prove a fact is eyewitness testimony. The trial lawyer could have put Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Doubting Thomas (a great witness because he was a skeptic), the Emmaus Road disciples, all the women at the tomb, and multiple other eyewitnesses on the stand who could testify under oath that they saw the risen Jesus. Just a few years after the events most of the 500 witnesses Paul mentions were still alive and could have been interviewed and called to a trial.
2. Though the eyewitnesses could be cross examined, it is safe to assume they would have stuck to their stories, as they did so under pains of torture and death.
3. It is also safe to assume no eyewitness could have been called to contradict their testimony. Why is that a safe assumption? Because if there had been eyewitnesses to the contrary, the Bible might not have recorded that (though it does not shy from inconvenient or embarrassing facts), but certainly those eyewitnesses could and would have contradicted Peter and others when they proclaimed the resurrection publicly repeatedly in Jerusalem. They easily could have pointed to the body remaining in the tomb. If they were lying the witnesses never would have gotten away with it.
4. The next best evidence is contemporaneous written records. In 1 Cor 15:3-8 Paul relates what he was told by the eyewitnesses, as well as his own eyewitness experience of the risen Lord. This document was written probably within 5 years after the Resurrection itself. According to most scholars, Luke, who apparently interviewed the Apostles, Mary, and other witnesses wrote his accounts around 80-90 A. D. That is within 60 years or so, within the memories of the witnesses and reasonably close in time to the events themselves. Scholars think Mark’s account of the empty tomb to be based on accounts as early as the time of Jesus’ death. The written evidence coheres and is not refuted, as far as we know, by any other written evidence.
5. Even unrefuted evidence need not be accepted by a fact finder in a court of law, though to reject it the fact finder would have to articulate reasons.
One reason would be inherent improbability of the evidence, and arguably this would apply to evidence proving a man killed on the cross could return bodily to life. When you come down to it, this is why skeptics reject the truth of the Resurrection.
However, the witnesses would be extremely credible. Their stories are consistent on the crucial facts even though they vary to some degree on secondary facts, as you would expect from any group of witnesses. If every detail were exactly the same, it would start to sound like the contrived story the skeptics claim it was.
The witnesses do not hide embarrassing facts (e.g., that only women had the nerve to go to the tomb and thus were the first to report that Jesus had risen).
They knew that by affirming the Resurrection they would antagonize the authorities who had the power of life and death over them, as in fact took place. People may cling to something they believe though it is false even to the point of death. But would people cling so tenaciously to something they knew was a lie? They would gain nothing by affirming this lie, unless perhaps to vindicate their following Jesus in the first place. But who cared about that? Could Peter not have gone back to his fishing boat and lived out a prosperous life? Couldn’t they all have gone back to their old lives?
Would all the eyewitnesses, with their diverse backgrounds and skills, have banded together to affirm a lie about the resurrection in order to be somehow vindicated? Wouldn’t that just invite further humiliation? Could not a skeptic easily have demanded to speak to the living witnesses from the 500 said to have seen the risen Lord?
If the witnesses were lying could they have stuck to it? Remember how Chuck Colson told us how quickly 12 tough, high powered, cynical political operatives caved in totally when the Watergate scandal erupted.
6. On balance, we can conclude that in a trial before a court of law one could have marshaled an overwhelming case to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. It is proof by more than a mere preponderance.
Case closed.
Sir Edward Clark, British High Court Justice, who conducted a thorough evaluation of the evidence for the Resurrection, said,
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over gain in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.”
Lord we believe, increase our faith. Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief. Help us Lord to be encouraged and strengthened by the confident knowledge that you raised your son from the dead, and that we can trust you to raise us along with him on the last day!
Additional Resources
Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann, Paul Copan & Ronald K. Tacelli, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. (New Testament accounts thoroughly examined and judged reliable).
Greenleaf, Simon. The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1995.
Reliability
Luke describes in Acts and his Gospel his own investigative methods, which was very unusual. The famous historian and skeptic turned believer William Ramsey notes in Acts Luke described 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands, with zero errors. When Ramsey first went to Asia Minor, many of the cities mentioned in Acts had no known location and almost nothing was known of their detailed history or politics. The Acts of the Apostles was the only record and Ramsay, skeptical, fully expected his own research to prove the author of Acts hopelessly inaccurate since no man could possibly know the details of Asia Minor more than a hundred years after the event— when Acts was then supposed to have been written.
He therefore set out to put the writer of Acts on trial. He devoted his life to unearthing the ancient cities and documents of Asia Minor. After a lifetime of study, however, he concluded, "Further study . . . showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement. "(The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85). On page 89 of the same book, Ramsay wrote, "I set out to look for truth on the borderland where Greece and Asia meet, and found it there [in Acts]. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment..."