This morning, the sermon text is going to be from Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4, if you’d like to turn there. And before we read that text, we’re going to ask the Lord’s blessing once more upon the reading of his word and the preaching and the hearing of that word. Let’s pray together.

Our great God and heavenly Father, we come again before you now, and we are eager to hear from you through your word. We come once again, and we sit at your feet to be still and to listen. And we pray, dear Lord, as we do so, help us to settle our souls and our minds and to focus our hearts. Help us to receive truly from you that which is most important, this your word, because there, it is there that you give us yourself, your grace, your blessing, your kingdom through your spirit. It is for all of these things that we yearn and we long Open our eyes, Lord, we pray, and our hearts, that we might truly accept by faith all that we hear, that it may change our lives and change our hearts, change our affections, change our actions, that we would truly be transformed into the image of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ. It’s in His name that we ask all of this, and all of God’s people sat together. Amen. Amen.

Philippians chapter 4, I’ll be reading the first nine verses. Philippians 4, starting at verse 1. Hear now God’s word.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Euodia and I entreat Synecdoche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What do you have learned and received and heard and seen in me? Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

A further reading of God’s Word. May He add His blessing upon it now as it is preached and heard by His people.

In this world you will have troubles, promised Jesus in the Gospel of John. In this world you will have trouble. And in the church there are troubles with the people of God. There are troubles. One of my professors would say that the church deals with, believers deal with rejection and resistance and relationships, right? And that these cause anxiety and worry and fear and sorrow. And truly, when one gives their lives to Jesus, there is rejection of that person, right? There is rejection from family members, from co-workers, from friends, and in the social, civil realm. When a person’s allegiance is for Jesus, they face resistance as well. Sometimes bodily harm or imprisonments come from commitment to Christ, surely in other places of the world. Or resistance comes in other ways, like in a more subtle, perhaps, in intimidation or being dismissed or being silenced. And surely in relationships, because relationships are made up of what? Are made up of multiple sinful fallen people. They cause anxieties in our lives. We have sleepless nights thinking about these things. We have fear or fear of losing or lost relationships that plague many of us, being fallen creatures in a fallen world. And in all of these, our culture, in our society, in our churches, these exist. But also these are the exact things that were going on in Philippi, the church to whom Paul is speaking and seeking to remedy and to offer a prescription of remedy for them. Paul’s trying to give them that remedy of anxiety caused by these troubles that caused anxiety to the church.

These are the problems that we face even today in our lives and society and in our churches. The church, the Christians at Philippi had plenty to worry about and so do we. and all believers throughout all time. And what antidotes to anxiety has the Lord prescribed for our troubled hearts in this world, in our day and age, and even for the Philippians, and even for us here in our city in Fort Wayne? And that’s what we’re going to look at this morning, this prescription. What is the Lord’s prescription to the anxieties that we face? And we see as we look at this passage that Paul first gives a plea In verses 4 and 6, then he tells the provision for this anxiety, and finally the promise. So the plea in verse 4 to 6, and then the provision in verse 7, and then in verse 8, he gives a promise.

The Troubles Faced by the Philippians—and by Us

So the Christians of Philippi had many things to worry about. They faced threats to their peace and their progress and their well-being, both internally and externally. From outside the church, there were adversaries, intimidating aggressors, They were overwhelming them. They challenged their courage to stand united. And at the time, Paul, their spiritual father, was locked up where? In Rome, waiting the verdict of the emperor, right? Life or death. And then within the church, there were those who were overly obsessed with their own issues and agendas, which jeopardized the church’s, what? Unity of mind, their affection towards one another, corroding the body.

Suffering, Selfishness, and the Call to Focus on Christ

And in chapter one, Paul addressed suffering and the threat that it posed to our joy and our peace, right? This suffering versus joy and peace. And he said in chapter one, verses 27 and following, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by faith for the faith of the gospel and not frightened into anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. And then he says this, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

All right, so suffering can threaten our joy and peace. We must remember that. And then Paul also speaks of the problem of selfishness and self-obsession. He said there’s this sinister subtle effect on the unity of the body of the church at the beginning of chapter 2. He says, so if there’s any encouragement, this is 2-1, Philippians 2-1, if there’s any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation, koinonia, in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being a full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

And then he goes on, what follows in this passage is that Carmen Christi, that glorious ancient hymn, the hymn to Christ as God, as it has been called, explaining that Christ, the divine second person of the Trinity, humbling himself,

And for both of these problems, the outside aggressions challenging their unity, and the inside selfishness threatening the unity, degrading unity, the Apostle’s prescription was that believers return their focus to Jesus himself. Paul demonstrated this to them from his own example. We don’t have time to examine the whole of the letter of Philippians, but we can begin to see the structure of his argument and what he’s doing.

Paul’s Plea: Rejoice Always, Be Gentle, Pray with Thanksgiving

Paul calls them, in verse 1 of chapter 4, to courage and humility, right? Again, therefore my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord my beloved. calls them to stand firm in the Lord. And he urges these two prominent members of the church to seek reconciliation in the Lord, right? I entreat you to, Iodia and Syntyche, to agree in the Lord. And then he says, help these women.

And in our passage, verses four and following, Paul continues with his wrapping up with a kind of to-do list, right? He says, rejoice, be gentle, don’t worry, pray, think good thoughts, do good deeds. And this is Paul’s common practice in his letters, as he closes by giving advice before his benediction.

We might think as we read this list that Paul is just giving disconnected advice or imperatives without much unity or connectedness to what’s going on, but that’s not the case. These directives are actually connected by more than merely Paul’s affection for them. These instructions are actually God’s antidote to the anxieties that so often disorient and disrupt and discourages our joy and deprives us of peace.

Human Control vs. God’s Supernatural Peace

And the prescription he gives, the remedy to the stresses follow from that, that we have from the pain of suffering and from the outside and from the stresses and friction from within the church. And we see that there are two radically different ways of dealing with these stresses of life. One is hardwired from our birth, our nature, our flesh, our hearts as those in Adam. And the other is supernatural. It only comes from a new heart and outlook produced by the gracious working of God himself.

The first is grounded in our desire to control all the things of our lives through our own grit and diligence and our own work. And the problem is that when this way of dealing with life comes in contact, collides with the brutal reality that there are truly very few things within our control. And there are so many things that lie outside of ourselves, beyond our control. This way offers a little bit more stress, and frustration, and infuriation, and more anxiety. And so the way of man, our way, is not the remedy. And we all know that if we’ve lived very long at all. We all know this. Any of us who have been, for instance, dedicated years of our lives to a particular job and then just let go for whatever reason. Anyone who’s been loyal for decades to a particular group or relationship and then be betrayed and treated as an enemy and not had that loyally reciprocated. You know that your hard work and determination does not make you the master of your own destiny. Anyone who’s been ill and had the care of that illness go from treatment of the disease to management of the pain, and worse, knows this.

But God’s word offers an entirely different approach to the troubles that anxieties cause. That’s what Paul gives here. The word offers a powerful antidote that is altogether deeper than our circumstances, and deeper than our marshalling of our own emotions, our self-attitude, or positive methods of stress management, right, that are so popular today. The anchor that Paul offers secures our well-being eternally in the life and love of what? Of our gracious, loving Heavenly Father. And he offers and he encourages to us the joy that he has found from a life defined by Christ, right? His cross and his resurrection power. And from that flows what? Calmness, gentleness, prayer with thanksgiving, the reflective imitation of Christ-like character in growing measure.

And then listen to this, the consequence is protection from that anxiety, right? Particularly from this passage we see that protection from that anxiety, how? Through the peace of God delivered to our troubled hearts through the living presence of the God of peace, right? The consequence of this, this God-supplied anchor for our problems. The consequence is the protection from anxiety through the peace of God delivered to our hearts, our suffering, hurting hearts, through the living presence of the God of peace.

Paul’s Example: Boasting in Weakness (2 Corinthians 12)

And so let’s see how Paul gets there by looking first at this plea that he gives in the opening of the section, verses 4 to 6. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be, reasonableness is gentleness or gentle spirit, right? Be made known to all, he says. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, right? And he repeats himself there. Rejoice in the Lord. When? Always. I say again, rejoice. Even and always in the sufferings that we go through, especially in those things by which cause us anxiety,

And fear. Did Paul know much about these things? Think about Paul. Who was saying this? The Apostle Paul. Was he acquainted with sufferings? You better believe he knew sufferings. We’re going to look at Paul and his teaching for a moment from 2 Corinthians. We learn this in chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 12. If you’d like to turn there, you can follow along. In Paul’s letters, and especially 2 Corinthians, there are themes that run through. affliction, suffering, throughout the letter. These are not foreign to Paul, nor to the New Testament, nor to the Christian life, nor to the lives of you and I as followers of Christ. And so in 2 Corinthians 12, chapter 1, verse 3, he says, the God of all comfort comforts us in all our afflictions. so that we may be able to comfort others in any affliction with the same comfort. Verse five, for as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort also. This is part of Paul’s opening statement to the Corinthians in this letter. He begins with this, in this hello, he is foreshadowing what will unfold and what he’ll interact with throughout this letter.

We can’t get into all this going on in 2 Corinthians, but Paul is dealing with false teachers and their attacks upon him. Their slander and their tearing him down, their persecution of Paul, their belittling and demeaning of Paul. They’re strong, Paul is weak. They don’t suffer, Paul radically suffered. And therefore what? They are blessed. Paul is cursed.

If the Corinthians are enamored with the false teachers because of credentials and strength, then Paul says he too will boast in his credentials to show the foolishness of the false teachers. Like the Proverbs, Paul has not answered the fool according to his folly. All the way from 1 Corinthians to 2 Corinthians 11, he has not answered the fool according to his folly. And then he does. And he shows their foolness. And he shows that if anyone has reason to boast, he has reason to boast.

Yet he boasted, what? In things that demonstrated his weakness. Because then the power of the gospel, Christ himself shines forth.

So we have a kind of mini autobiography here in 2 Corinthians 11, 29 and 30. And he asked the question, who is weak? Aren’t I? He says, if I must boast, I’ll boast in the things showing my weakness. He says, of anyone, I have a place to boast about myself. You want to boast? I have things to boast about. And he lays it out for them.

I have knowledge. I’m a Hebrew. I’m an Israelite. I’m Abraham’s seed. And those are expected. Those would impress many. Those wouldn’t be surprising. But Paul goes on and he says, also, I’m a servant of Christ. I’m the one who has labored much, been in prison more, been beaten almost to death countless times, five times I’ve been whipped, 39 lashes, three times beaten with rods, one time stone, three times shipwreck. adrift at the sea on journeys in danger from rivers and robbers, my own people and Gentiles, and in the city, in the wilderness, at sea from false brothers, in toil and hardships, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, without food, in cold and exposure, and also the daily pressure from anxiety from all the churches.

These are my credentials and my commitments and my qualifications, Paul is saying. But it’s that which shows my weakness in which I will boast. This is me, weak. I am the weakling. This is how I want you to see me. Right? And Paul is not complaining here. He’s not whining. Nor is he bragging. And this becomes clear in verses 29 and 30.

Paul made the point about the unwillingness of the false teachers to identify with the scandal of the cross. They wanted nothing to do with that. The false teachers who call Paul weak could never endure the things that he has endured. In fact, his weakness is the result of his calling from Christ to preach the gospel. And more importantly, these false teachers preach and teach a false gospel as they do precisely to avoid the kind of suffering and persecution that Paul endured.

False teachers want to be relevant and they don’t want to offend anyone because their goal is what? Popularity. There’s only one reason why Paul endures this. It’s because he’s been called to endure his sufferings by Christ. Suffering and persecution comes with the apostolic office. And he says, if anyone has a place to boast, it’s me. And he goes on. I have been shown extraordinary things. I have been privy to visions and revelations from the Lord. Paul heard things which cannot be uttered, which cannot be told, he says in chapter 12 verse 4. What does he boast of? His weakness, not these things.

Paul is of all people committed to his Lord, and he of all people has the qualifications to boast of himself, but he will not. And so he speaks of himself in the third person, if you notice here. He says, I know a man who, right, he’s trying to distance himself from that, and he speaks in the third person, and he tells us that to keep him humble, to keep him from this very boasting, he was given a thorn in the flesh.

There’s much opinion, much writing about what this, exactly what this thorn is, and we can’t get into all of that now. But whatever it was, and of course, providentially the Lord Didn’t see fit to specifically tell us what that was, right? Because of greater application. But whatever it was, it troubled Paul greatly. It was an ever-present reminder to him. And it is, for us, a reminder as well.

And of course, we need to be careful when we think about Paul in relation to ourselves. There’s not a complete analogy. We’re not Paul. We’re not apostles. But still, we need to keep humble, because we are bent to boast in many, many things. We were bent reflexively to boast in our strength, in our intellect, in our looks, in our money, in our services, in the good things that we do, in law-keeping, in our minds, in our theology, whatever pet issues we have. And these all make a way for us to look down on others and to boast in ourselves. And that’s something of Paul. Something of Paul, the one who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. He’s afflicted in this way. He’s thorn in the flesh.

And so we read in verse 8, three times he pled to the Lord to take it away. Three times, Lord, take this away, take it away, remove this from me. And what did the Lord tell Paul in response? He said, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. For you, my grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

In Paul’s response, this corrected and protected, reminded apostle’s response, this self-proclaimed divinely appointed weakling says what? His response comes in 1 Corinthians 12, 9. He responds to the Lord’s word to him. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness. Why? Why does he say this? He goes on. So that the power of Christ may rest upon me. They rest upon me. And that’s translated differently depending on your English translation, your reading. But it means abide, may abide in me, may take up residence in me, may reside in me, may come upon me, dwell with, dwell in me, just like that tent of old, right? It’s language connected to the Old Testament, the history of redemption.

It’s that Shekinah glory that descended and filled and dwelt in the temple and in the tabernacle. God dwelling with his people. the greatest blessing of God’s people with His people. This is the word, this is the imagery that should come to mind, that Shekinah glory of God filling the temple. It’s the exact word that we read every year when we recognize the birth of Christ, His incarnation from John 1.14 that we just looked at a couple of weeks ago. The word became flesh and made His dwelling, dwelt among us, tabernacled among us. It’s the same word, Emmanuel, God with us. And it’s the same word that we see in 2 Corinthians 6, the Lord is with us, for we are the temple of the living God. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, quoting the Old Testament. It’s glorious. These connections are glorious. This great promise throughout all the scripture we see consummated, completed, fulfilled in Revelation 21. The same word, the same connection.

where we read in Revelation 21.3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place, the tabernacle of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. What greater ground of rejoicing is that, dear Christian? Being made the dwelling place of the power of Christ, where he reveals his glory.

And then in verse 10, He says, for the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. He is strong in Christ, in his weakness. The sinner saved by Christ, rescued from certain and appropriate just punishment, from judgment, from the bondage of sin and self-righteousness, from the pretended control of his own life, from the delusions of his law-keeping. The sinner of whom Christ calls out and gives life is contented with the strength and power of his Savior.

Christ alone is the powerful one. Not Moses, not David, not Peter, not Paul, who’s been shown visions and revelations. And not you, certainly not me. We are weak and broken, not merely physically, but spiritually. But to weaklings like us, the powerful Christ calls. He calls and He corrects and He carries along the way. Praise God. He calls and He also commands that we be weak. And so for His sake, we be content in that weakness. For when you are weak, the power of Christ can shine through and be manifest in and despite your weaknesses. Because He is not weak. He is not weak.

Christ’s Grace Is Sufficient

And we think for a moment about our sufferings, right? But as we’ve seen already this morning, it has been appointed for us to suffer. has been appointed for you not only to believe, but to suffer for the sake of Christ. And so for those of you in pain and suffering and seeking deliverance, he says what? My love is enough for you. My love is enough for you. My love secures and implies all other goods. His favor is life. His loving kindness is better than life itself. Even the best life here in his love. And so is His love enough for you? We have to ask ourselves that. Is His favor your life? Or does this all, thinking about it, bring on a yawning, ho-hum indifference? I pray it does not. I pray it does not engender that in you. Because all of why you go through, all of it must be filtered through a knowledge of His love for you.

Can you say with Paul, the apostle, I will glory in infirmities rather than seek deliverance. I will rejoice in my sufferings. And as we read earlier in this letter, the Lord saw fit to use the foolishness and weakness of his creation, people, to deliver his message of salvation. Treasure in jars of clay. Treasure, the most valuable thing ever, in fragile vessels. And so it is with his answer to Paul. It is in weakness that Christ’s power is made perfect. And so the reminder, the suffering, the thorn in the flesh is the pointer to the important thing. And the important thing is Jesus Christ. That his grace is sufficient for you too. That in your weaknesses, his power is made perfect. This is the word of God to you, brothers and sisters, his precious children. My grace is sufficient for you. Have you gotten to the place, truly, to rejoice and glory in your sufferings? Truly. Not just to say it, but believe it and live it. I know it’s hard. I know well it is so hard. In all of our pain and sorrow, it’s hard to say, even if we know it, but we must, because it’s true. We must pray for truth, this truth to fill us with joy and delight and to live it to His glory. And as we do, He will grant that good. It is good for us. It is glory for Him.

This is the message He has for all who will come to Him and find His sufficient grace. Because outside of Him, there is no consolation. There is no comfort. There is no reason for your suffering. It is futile. There’s no hope outside of Him. For outside of Christ, this is all we have, this pathetic and withering world, and beyond this world worse. Suffering is a pointer, a reminder of the eternal sufferings that surely awaits all of us apart from Christ, who suffered ultimately, so that those who entrust themselves upon Him will enjoy the blessing of an eternity without suffering, no pain, no tears, no mourning, ever.

In Him there is abounding joy and life. In Him alone, it is in Him alone that there is boasting in His power. This is the weakling’s power. in the powerful Christ. So may we seek our contentment in the only one that can supply it. May we have eyes to see and hearts corrected and protected by those very things to bring us focus and true perspective, and may we find our rest and our comfort and our consolation and our power in the powerful Christ, Jesus the Lord.

We’ve been given the most important, the best news of all time in history, treasure immeasurable. Yes, in jars of clay like you and like me, Christ has come to bring salvation, rescue, hope, and eternal life to all those who entrust themselves upon him. And those who do are given a new heart and a home in heaven with him forever. And even in this life, they begin to live lives of gratitude for The truly marvelous and massive and glorious gifts that they’ve been given. Lives that move in the direction of God’s design and His will and His love for our lives.

So Paul says, let us rejoice. I say again, rejoice. Because in Christ we have it all. Confidence, boldness, assurance, joy, truly through the Spirit rejoicing in sufferings. How can it be? How can it be? It’s not by any earthly or physical means. It’s only by His Spirit working in and through us. And that is the reason to rejoice, a reason to repeat the gospel to a dead and dying world in need of such glorious, life-giving news, the only news that truly can give life.

And so may we, brothers and sisters, always overcome fear and anxiety and worry with the wonderful truth of the gospel. And may we continue to praise our wonderful and glorious King and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let’s pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for your work in our lives, for your love in giving your Son that we would have life eternal before you. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to maintain faith and trust in your providence. In your sovereign working in this world and even in this society, at this time, Lord, give us grace to love those who hate, to embrace and love those with whom we disagree. Help us to show the love of Jesus to the worst offenders. Lord, give us hearts that believe you when you say that vengeance is yours and that we are to bless and help and pray for those in need. Protect us, we pray, dear Lord, from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Dear Lord, give us strength for this week and every week until we can come again and be refreshed and reminded again of your love and the truths that you bestowed upon us and declared to us in your word. We ask this all in Christ’s name. Amen.