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Tyndale University presents a series of recorded chapel services from Tyndale's very own faculty and guest speakers.
Morning everyone. Reading from Saint Paul to the Philippians letter to the Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 to 14. Further, my brothers and sisters rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. And it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, if anyone thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the 8th day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law of Pharisee. As for zeal, persecuting the church. As for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of. Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ. Yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection of the dead. Not that I've already obtained all this or arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward. In Christ Jesus. The word of the Lord.
So last week there was an election somewhere. And at the time I was at a retreat for pastors and spouses. With evangelical covenant church, and there were some people from the US there in deep anticipation. Actually, it was exactly a week ago of of what was going to happen. And the next day it was an interesting time because some people were deeply, deeply distraught. And others were not so distraught. And. It's just interesting to see people coming from different directions. 1 of the things that we've seen in that election and of course, as Canadians, we're not completely isolated from events down there and we've got our own political things is just how quickly people can get divided into camps. Right. And a perceived enemy becomes very personal and and things blow up. I remember reading tweets like, you know this uncle or aunt that voted this way. I will never, ever, ever forgive them no matter what kind of thing. And it's like, wow. Interesting. It's hard sometimes, though, right? Because things matter. We get deeply disturbed by things in the world sometimes we're not heard or we don't feel heard and back and forth it can go. There are many distractions for Christians I think in the Christian life. And in this letter, Paul is counseling his church to remain focused on the one who matters more than anything else. The Lord Jesus Christ. To press on. And we press on by pressing into Christ. And through him, by pressing into one another in Christian community.
But it's hard. There are so many distractions. Right. It might be politics and ideology and the echo chambers of our social media feeds. It might just be the busyness of life. Keeping up with things, paying the bills. There are so many distractions and the church unfortunately falls prey all of the time to such distractions. I don't have a picture, but you guys know the meme of the man and the woman walking and the guys sort of looking over his shoulder at this beautiful woman who's just walked by and the the wife or the whoever girlfriend is looking at him with this look of like horror and anger on her face? And of course, all kinds of things get inserted into that meme. But I think he's the church. She's Christ. And the woman that passed, I don't know, fill in the blank. What's your distraction? What distracts you? From that focus and dedication and passion that belongs to Jesus alone. And you know, we could come down hard on that. Maybe sometimes we should, but I think one of the things about our distractions and maybe everyone here has a different one is that if you look a little bit deeper, they point to something deep within. To an area where we are not satisfied, we are not filled where Christ hasn't come and filled it, whatever it might be. Something deeper in you needing fulfillment. Something making you restless. Anxious. Not at peace. What are? What are you distracted by? Now, in fact, the Philippian church was distracted. It was facing an ideological threat within. Characterized by a faction or a sect. That was living in a self-righteous kind of way, a way of. Thinking themselves holier than others, looking down at others. Pointing to the acts that they were doing that others weren't, and so forth. So characterized by self righteousness and self justification. Paul identifies himself with them, so he's not simply the other who comes to other them more and say shame on you. He's like, you know, I was once like you. And frankly, of all of you, if anybody has a reason to feel pride about their moral position or religious position, it's me, right? I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews from the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a pharisee. He was like one of the top educated people of his day. He was personally selected by the resurrected Jesus, who appeared before him and said, you're my apostle to the gentiles like he wrote much of the New Testament.
If anybody had a reason to be prideful or self-righteous, surely it would be Paul. But he says I consider all of this garbage. It's nothing. It's meaningless. In fact, if that's my focus, it drags me down into the grave. And I consider it all lost for the sake of Christ. I've learned where my focus lies. And it's on him alone. So it's a distracted church facing an ideological threat, and the danger is it's a vulnerable church because they were not focused on that which matters most, they were focused on earthly rather than heavenly things. The passage tells us a little bit later, after what I read today. If you go earlier, you see that they're focused on themselves. And their desires. And then if you Fast forward a bit, Paul has to remind them, don't be anxious about anything. Does this sound familiar? Does a church that is focused on earthly rather than heavenly things that's focused on itself? And its desires, its consumer tastes and preferences. That's characterized by anxiety. If any generation is characterized by anxiety, how many people here have read Jonathan Hates recent book the Anxious Generation, but man. It's really a pandemic. This letter is for us, Paul says. Press on press into Christ and through him into one another. This involves a few different things. It involves a repentance, a turning around. It's like I have been focusing on the wrong thing. Jesus is there and I'm I'm doing this right. I'm that guy in that photo. So we're called to repent, to turn around again, do a 180 and look to Jesus to realign our focus. Right. Seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus. Not any particular Kingdom of this world, not your own personal, you know Kingdom, but the Kingdom of God and his righteousness his justice. And then all these other things that you worry about will fall into place in other words seek him first and your life will be properly ordered. Seek him second or third or 4th or 5th or 10th or 100th and everything will be disordered. Repent, realign, refocus. And this is an intentional word we need to focus on Jesus. Right it's like an intent kind of a focus.
But things are too hard. Paul, things are too hard for me. I'm worried about my grades. Try to get my assignments done. My finances are crushing me. I don't know how I'm going to pay the next bill. My relationships are a mess, or maybe that one relationship that's causing a lot of anxiety and stress. I am so distracted. My marriage is on the rocks and I'm not sure if it's worth maintaining. Whether it's worth pressing on. My addictions are keeping me down like a chain tied around my neck. My social media feed keeps me obsessed and yet empty. And you're saying press on, how am I going to press on in the face of all of this? There's one thing we can do. Maybe we can't fix all of that in an instant, but we can choose Christ. And that's going to look a little bit differently for each of us depending on what we're facing, but you can take the step that despite everything to choose Christ. And then choose him again. And then keep choosing him. Sometimes it's all that we can do is to grasp hold of the one who grasps hold of us. Notice the intentionality. The focus in this passage, I don't look behind me. I strain toward what's ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize. Paul has in mind here a race right pressing toward a finish line and a runner who's sort of looking around like this all the time or over his shoulder or whatever is not going to finish well. But you have to remain fixated and focused and intentional about running that race and not just when you're running the race, but the focus to even get to the race is very intense. It's intentional. It's very difficult. Choose Christ. Really, the key to running a race is just to put one foot in front of the other. And then do it again and then do it again to choose Christ and then choose him again. And then choose him again. Paul says also seek to know Christ because knowing him surpasses everything. And also to participate in Christ. I want to be found in Christ, he says. Not having a righteousness of my own. That's exhausting. And the bar is always changing. How do I know when I fit into it right? How do I know when I have the right view of things? But a righteousness that is God's own righteousness.
Christ's own righteousness given to me through faith. To participate in his sufferings, if we find ourselves in the midst of polarization. And conflict and the inability to talk with others. This is a call maybe to enter into their suffering. You can't begin dialogue if there's no empathy. For the other person, the other side. And if you haven't begun to understand why on Earth someone could think like that. Then you're already trapped. You've already othered. That doesn't justify one position or the other, it just means. How do we enter into each other's suffering each other's needs and hear each other? Well, we participate in Christ. This is a passage about focus. It's about perseverance. It's about resiliency in Christ. But to be frank, sometimes I don't feel very focused, sometimes I don't feel like persevering sometimes I don't feel very resilient. You guys know or many of you were here when I spoke last year and I shared about my health crisis and journey. If you weren't, I won't go into all the details, but it was of a severe health crisis where. Basically, I was on a death bed for about a month. It was a cardiac arrest initially, but then lots of complications, lots of organ shut downs. I was not expected to live. My family was called in several times to say goodbye, and even if I lived, they had no idea what state my brain would be in. It led to three months in the hospital and then about a year and a half recovering after that and to the amaze of everyone, I'm almost fully recovered. Left the hospital with the words your heart is severely and extensively damaged, only to find a few months later that there's minimal damage. God worked miracles and it was told that to me that you know, people would marvel and say you held on to life. You fought so hard. And it's a funny thing to hear because I guess I did. But actually throughout the whole thing I felt taken up into something. I felt that part of the holding on was letting go. Ironically. It was a participation in Christ. It was being carried by him and by the community which gave hope which gave life. And in the midst of that carrying, I indeed pressed on, but so little of it was me. So little of it.
I often joke that the most powerful thing I did to change people's lives was lie in a bed, in a coma for a month. Glory to God. The Christian life is a race, but it's not a baton race. I think the metaphor of a baton is a very poor metaphor of the Christian life. The idea that God first does his part, and then he turns around, passes the baton to us and says see you at the finish line, you're on your own. That's not Paul's metaphor, by the way, but it's a metaphor many of us carry I think, like God's done his thing, now it's up for me to do mine. It's actually a form of Pelagianism or semi Pelagianism, an ancient heresy. But it's not the truth. I want to point out a pattern in Philippians just quickly. Centering on Philippians 312, where Paul says not that I've already obtained all this, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Notice this participatory dimension. That Paul has taken up into something that goes beyond him. I press on he says. That's something he's supposed to do. That's the bit we can do. Choose Christ. But I only press on because Jesus has already taken hold of me. I'm running a race toward the finish line. But I've been roped in and I'm being pulled toward that finish line by the Lord, who has called me for that exact reason. This is a pattern evident in the whole letter. Go back to Chapter 1, Paul says I thank my God every time. I remember all of you in my prayers. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Choose Christ. But remember, he began it. He's in the middle of it and he will finish it. Chapter 2. Therefore, dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, to will, and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Work because God is already at work and not just to do, but even to will to do. That which he's calling you to. Maybe you're like. I don't think I want to do that, but I want to want to do that? So, Lord, can you start with that? And he can.
And then finally, Chapter 4, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, pure, lovely, admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you. There's some things for us to do. Choose Christ. Think about him. Focus on him. Put into practice the things you can manage, like worshipping, like being with other believers, like directing your attention toward him with spiritual disciplines. And it's not that those things recreate you, but it's that God, who has already taken hold of you through these things will nurture you and bring you to that finish line. There's stuff to do. We would do nothing if it weren't for him having already begun it. Doing it and has promised to finish it. This reflects a trinitarian pattern sometimes. As evangelicals, we get half of this right. We realize that God moves to us from the father through the son and the spirit we miss out on the part where we are taken up in the spirit. Through the son, back to our father. Truly, we live and move and have our being. In God, through God, to God. Julian of Norwich, a medieval Mystic. Talked about prayer in this way, she says. Is it amazing that this wonderful, courteous Lord we have, she says. Who puts a prayer item on our heart, something in our heart. A passion. Something that we want to pray about puts a desire in our heart. Then leads us to pray. For that request then answers the request, then turns around and congratulates us on our faithfulness in praying. What a courteous Lord we have. That from beginning to end, he's done it all. There is a part for our agency, but it's God who activates our agency. And then he sees it through to completion. So forget about the baton. It will never get you to the finish line. Here's another metaphor. Mommy, can I help? Right? Or Dad, can I help? I want to help you make cookies. You know precisely how much help this child's going to be like baking powder everywhere, you know, cookies on the floor, some of it eaten, stuff all over the place. But the good parent says come, I want to involve you. I want you to participate. Why don't you add the sugar at this point? You know, why don't you do some stirring and then at the end, look at these cookies that you made. Isn't that amazing? And this is the grace of our Lord. This is exactly what God calls us to do. Keep choosing Christ because he has chosen you. And he keeps choosing you. Someone who really needed to hear this years ago. Was a man named William Wilberforce. Many of you know Wilberforce. He led the abolitionist movement in the UK. And he's someone for whom this was not an easy thing. I mean, he dedicated his life to this pursuit. He faced all kinds of adversity, threats. But he worked for 20 years to abolish the slave trade in England. And then once the trade was outlawed, he worked for another 20 years to abolish slavery itself. The ownership of slaves in England, and it was not easy. The whole economy was built on this. And as I said, there were threats. There were people looking down on him, people who saw him as an idealist. This is never gonna happen. But he received a letter from John Wesley. In fact, this is the last letter Wesley ever wrote. And he wrote it because he wanted to encourage Wilberforce. And Wesley's on his deathbed. And he's writing this letter. He says dear Sir unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius against the world, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion of England and of human nature, unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you. Who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well doing. Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the Sun shall vanish away before it. So, dear friends, if God be for you. Who can be against you? Oh, be not weary of doing well. Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might. Press on God has got hold of you. Amen.