Your Problems? God’s Purpose!

Introduction

I have a little bit of a cold this morning, so we’ll see how we go. I want to think about the topic of reframing. Years ago, I was at boarding school, and in year 12, in order to help me focus on my studies, someone invited me out of the boarding house to stay in their house. A little bit less rowdy kids around, playing ping pong, and more focused on my studies. It didn’t work.

But in their house, they had this big picture, and on the picture was a picture of a violent storm. I remember thinking it was quite strange, in their lounge room, this picture of this violent storm as a comforting place to be. One night in the evening, just as the lighting was different, the picture felt completely different. It felt like this swell of water that was vibrant, colorful, and exciting. It was interesting to me and made me realize the value of that piece of art, that it had different moods and that’s something you could enjoy about that. That’s one of the things we think about art, that a good art piece can have depth to it, depending on different contexts and situations. There’s a sense where the surrounding behind an art piece can change it. You can have real contrast to different things.

They talk about the idea of framing an art piece to make a particular statement. A great example is in one of the Mr. Bean movies, the one with the artwork. He’s a curator of an art exhibition, and he destroys the artwork. In the end, he replaces this priceless artwork with a poster and puts it in the frame. Suddenly, theoretically, this poster has gained huge value as it sits in an art exhibition and looks like an amazing art piece. There’s a sense where changing the surrounding, changing the environment, changes the value of something.

Last time I went to an art exhibition, I folded up my coffee receipt into a little paper crane, and I found somewhere to put it on display. I tried to make it look like it was some kind of statement towards art and coffee and walking through the art. I don’t think the curators saw the same value in it that I did, and I imagine it went in the bin. To be fair, as I walked through the art gallery, there were some artworks that I thought mine was better. There were some that there’s more, I think, to the story of what you see. It’s more a story of the artist. It’s more a story of other art pieces they’ve done. They got a name for themselves, so they can do something that looks like a crane on a stand, and it’s valuable, right? The context changes it.

In that idea of thinking about reframing, I want to think about what that means for us. That phrase has been grabbed hold of in a psychological term to think about how we change our perspective on things. I think originally, psychologically, the language was cognitive restructuring or cognitive reshaping, and now it’s been distilled to this phrase, reframing, that is looking at your life and trying to not change the reality because the reality is there, but think differently about your reality in a way that might help shape your mind and strengthen your mind. As we come to the Bible, I think we see time and time again that the renewing of our mind that the Bible talks about, something the Holy Spirit is doing in us, is a reframing often of our lives around us. As we come to this second part of Philippians chapter 1, the second half of that chapter, as we think about joy together and what that looks like, I want to think a little bit about this reframing because it’s significant reframing that Paul does as he writes to this church. He is in a significantly difficult position. We got the glimpse of it. We talked about it last week, but we get it really spelled out to us this week. He is in chains.

Reframing Suffering

God Changes Chains

The first kind of reframing we see in this letter is a reframing of his suffering, that is a changing of his chains is what’s happening here. It’s not that he’s not in chains or pretend that’s not happening, but actually to think differently about it. Paul wants to point out to us that God changes chains, and he has great experiences of that in his life. You might remember the story of Paul and Silas. We read about it in the book of Acts. Paul and Silas are in prison. They’re in chains in a previous part of his life, and they’re singing for joy. A miraculous thing happens. God changes those chains in a very practical, real way. The door of the jail flies open. The chains fall off the walls. They are free. The jailer assumes that they’ve escaped.

This gives you a little picture into the Roman mentality. He prepares to kill himself because it’s better for him to kill himself than be caught with prisoners having escaped. Paul yells out, “No, don’t kill yourself. We’re still here.” He then has the opportunity to share the good news with the jailer. The jailer takes him home, meets the family. The whole household is baptized. Paul’s chains are changed in a very real way that the gospel goes forward. That’s not what happens in this letter. God is changing Paul’s chains here, but it’s not in the sense of freedom. It’s in the sense of changing the context of what’s happening here. Paul wants to say while it’s a different situation, it’s no less miraculous because Paul’s heart, the reframing of Paul’s suffering, is in the work of Jesus, not in his situation.

So in his story in Acts, we see the work of Jesus is the jailer and his family come to Christ. The story here is no less miraculous while the chains aren’t falling off in the same way because Paul has significant opportunity for influence. He says everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news. See what’s going on there? He’s saying that while I’m in chains and that’s not ideal from a comfort perspective, all of that has happened has helped to spread the good news. He continues, “For everyone here,” and then he says this, “Including the whole palace guard knows that I’m in chains because of Christ.”

Significant Opportunity of Influence

We can’t completely be sure where Paul is writing this letter from. It seems most likely it’s from Rome. He’s in chains a number of times, and one of them is definitely in Rome where, as we understand it historically, is where he eventually is executed. It would make sense in Rome when he says the palace guard. Another little clue to the fact that he’s most likely in Rome is at the very end of the letter he’s giving greetings. One of the things he says is also those from Caesar’s household send their greetings. That is the assumption that some who are in Caesar’s household are part of the church as well. Perhaps that’s been a part of Paul’s influence when he says the whole palace guard knows. Either way, if he’s in Rome, we’re talking about a significant opportunity of influence. It’s the capital of the Roman Empire.

We’re going to see in history how much the impact of ministry happening in Rome has on the world. It’s only a couple of years later that the emperor Constantine decides that he’s a follower of Jesus, stops the persecution to the church, and considerably changes the influence of Christianity in the world. We see that in time Rome is considered the capital of Christianity. In fact, even to this day, Catholicism is referred to as Roman Catholic. That’s the place where the pope is. This is a significant place in world history. Even to this day, we would think about as Christianity is a western religion because of the way it came out of Europe, out of Rome. This is a significant place of influence. Paul is here because God has placed him here, and he’s seeing miraculous things happening through that situation.

Not only that, but Paul wanted to visit Rome. We get in the letter to the Romans even before he visits. A lot of Paul’s letters, he writes back to people he already visited. But the letter to the Romans he hadn’t actually visited there. In fact, in the letter, he says, “I long to see you.” In this case, it’s be careful what you wish for because he got sent there in chains. He said, “I long to see you.” And Caesar said, “Okay, tie him up and send him in.” He got to see them, which is precisely the point of what he’s talking about here. It isn’t be careful what you wish for. It is long for God to be at work no matter how that happens. That was Paul’s longing. That was his wish. The reason he wanted to see them is not because he heard great things about the architecture in Rome and wanted to visit it. It’s because he wanted to serve God. And here he is serving God.

Gospel Confidence for Others

Reframing his suffering, thinking about the way it’s advancing the gospel significantly shapes Paul’s thinking. It doesn’t just change gospel advance, the good news of Jesus going forward. We see in this story, it changes gospel confidence for others. Paul’s story seems to be growing confidence in the church there in Rome. He says, “Because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.” There’s a growing confidence there. People are inspired maybe by Paul’s attitude in his suffering, but certainly they seem to be inspired by God’s work. Gospel stories help grow confidence in God’s people.

This was explained to me years ago, but we often think about in terms of sharing the good news of Jesus. We think about the idea of people struggle with confidence. But when we say that often we mean competence that I’m not competent to share the good news of Jesus. But I think there’s often a greater issue with our confidence and that is that God can use me even if I’m not competent. If we truly believe God is at work, then we can believe that he will use us in our weaknesses, in our incompetency to share the good news of Jesus.

There was a moment years ago, I think I’ve told this story before, but at a barber shop, the barber asked me, “What do you do for a living?” I said, “I’m a minister of a church.” Classic kind of conversation that happens. Then he said, “Yeah, the Christianity thing. What is that about?” My brain was like, “This is it. This is the moment. Every what is it? Two ways to live when God created the world.” I was like a deer in the headlights. I was like, “Jesus, it’s about Jesus. Yeah, Christians generally we believe about Jesus.” He said, “Oh, okay, good.” Then we moved on to the weather. I feel like I’ve been in ministry now for over 20 years. By that point, I had had years of youth group talks. I had framed the gospel in so many different ways. In that moment, it was like, I let God down. It is hard. We do feel like there’s moments where we’re not competent, where we don’t fulfill the opportunities that God gives us. We do want to be ready in every occasion. I think often one of the greatest challenges we have is gospel confidence that God is at work even in our weaknesses, even in our foolish rambling trying to make sense. Often what we need above all else is to be genuine.

I was in a barber shop this week, and the guy two seats over from me was chatting. He was very chatty. I’m often happier if the barber just says nothing. Let’s just cut the hair and let’s move on. He was very chatty, but he asked the barber, “Oh, where are you from?” He said, “I’m from Syria.” The guy said, “Ah, Christian or Muslim?” The guy said, “Christian.” As that conversation rattled out, it just felt so genuine and real. He didn’t express his faith. It wasn’t like he necessarily was trying to share Jesus with this guy, but I was just surprised how comfortably and easily he asked someone about their faith, their religion, and just it’s conversation. Sometimes we are in a space where terrified of moving into that space. One of the reasons we’re terrified is everyone has these circles of trust. Your innermost circle of trust is your core identity. That’s the thing that you only let a few people get into that space that might shape your core identity. As Christians, our core identity is in Christianity. Often we feel like to get into that space, I do think we need to build relationships with people. The gospel is a gospel of relationship. That’s helpful. Yet we also need to be ready in all occasions. We need to have gospel confidence. Paul is seeing a confidence that is happening in others because of his suffering.

As we think about reframing our suffering, it’s a recognition not just of God using us in our own lives, but actually as we go through times of suffering, the way we respond to that suffering can be helping others, encouraging others, building confidence in others in their journey. I want you to think about that just for a moment. The idea of suffering that we face because we will be in suffering. Our prayer will be, of course, our prayer will be, Lord, take this from me. There’s a question we need to ask ourselves and that is has God placed me in this space with an opportunity to use me in this suffering. Maybe the suffering isn’t being taken away because God is using you in the suffering because his greatest glory will come from the suffering.

I remember years ago, Susie reminded me this story, a friend in a church years ago, an elderly lady, she was quite elderly, quite frail, quite sick. She would bring an oxygen bottle to church, and her life was very limited. You can imagine quite a lot of suffering for her at that point in her life. In her limitation, she spent her week praying for people and writing letters to them, just letting them know she prayed for them and what she prayed for. Someone praying for you and writing a letter that they prayed for you is nice. Because of her suffering, there was a deeper meaning to those prayers and that message. There was something that God used in her suffering to strengthen her ministry. I wonder what it is for you. Are there things in your life that you’re praying, Lord, take me from this? Maybe your prayer should be in the meantime, Lord, use me in this.

Reframing Pride

Humility and God Working

Reframing our suffering, reframing our pride. Paul has a lot of reasons to object to his situation, and we see a lot of humility from him. What we don’t see from Paul is this kind of complaining about his incarceration. It’s not like, “Oh, and my horrible unjust imprisonment here.” He has lots of reasons to complain about unjust imprisonment. If it’s the journey to Rome, the way we see that story in Acts is Paul is hanging out with some Greek guys in Jerusalem. He then goes to the temple and he’s accused of, no evidence of, but accused that he brought those Greek guys into the temple. That’s what he’s accused of. The local people in Jerusalem mob him and beat him. The Romans step in to save his life. The solution, lock him up in prison, right? That protects him and it also appeases the crowd. It’s a win-win kind of situation that happens. He goes to the Jewish court case. They still are not happy with him. They hit him. He goes back to the prison to protect him once again. For 2 years he’s in the prison in Cesaria because the leader in the area, we’re told, is hoping for a bribe to get him out. The leader holds on to him for two years, not because he’s guilty of anything, but he was there to protect him and now they’re hoping for a bribe. They hold him for two years. Eventually he says, “Hey, by the way, I’m a Roman citizen.” They go, “Oh dear, we have to send him to Rome.” They send him to Rome. It’s a violent storm. For two weeks, he’s caught in a storm. We’re told no one on the boat eats for two weeks or eats very little because the storm. Then they’re shipwrecked. They’re stuck there for three months before they finally get another ship to Rome where he goes to prison for another two years. This is what’s happened. Because someone thought he’d taken the wrong person into the temple, he’s now been in prison for four years. If Paul has a reason to complain about the injustice of the situation, he should, he could, but he doesn’t. It’s very much not about him. In fact, what he says about his imprisonment is a side note to what he’s saying about God working. Look at what he said. Let me read it to you again. Everyone here knows that I’m in chains because of Christ. The chains is the side note. Because of my imprisonment, he says, believers have gained confidence. His imprisonment is a side note.

Preaching About Jesus

It’s not just his imprisonment that he could complain about. He could spend a significant complaining about the opposition he faces. We’re told that some people are preaching Christ in the area in where he is just to make his chains worse for him. This is what he said. Some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. Verse 17, they preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely. They are intending to make my chains more painful to me. Here is Paul. He’s in chains unjustly. There’s others who we assume are they’re at least calling themselves Christian. They’re in the ministry. They’re preaching about Jesus, but they’ve got this rivalry, this tension with him, which is causing a problem with that. It seems like they’re still clearly preaching about Jesus, but out of bad motives. Rather than complaining about all that, Paul says, “But that doesn’t matter.” Verse 18, whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way. So I rejoice, he says. Paul reframes his thinking about himself. He reframes the idea of pride.

Pride is an interesting word to think about because I think the meaning of pride has changed over time. We use the word pride differently. The original King James Bible only used the word pride to talk about sin. Just that the negative idea of pride being a destructive self-centeredness. That was the only kind of way the word was used. I think to be fair the word is used differently today. I’ve heard this said by a few preachers and as I researched I saw this more and more preachers kind of defending the idea saying no we society has just decided that the sin of pride is a good thing not a bad thing well that some of that is true but I think another thing has happened if you look up the definition of pride in a dictionary you will get that um you will get that it’s a consciousness of your own dignity right that’s not a that’s not a sin all humans are have a form of dignity uh we would say as Christians in the image of God worthy of being treated with dignity. So that’s not a sin. Or the other definition uh that comes up of pride there’s a few but the other one that comes up is satisfaction in your own achievements or in the achievements of someone connected to you. you have pride in someone else. That’s not a sin to have satisfaction uh that you accomplish something. We would talk about in mental health spaces. There’s there’s good things about that. It’s tricky because I think the word is used in both context. In fact, we would say in the Bible there’s two separate words in Greek that sometimes get translated into pride.

Satisfaction of Achievement

I’ll give you an example from this passage. The King James translates one of them verse 26 it uses the words rejoice in Christ Jesus. The word pride wouldn’t be used that way. But the New Living Translation says you will have even more reasons to take pride in Christ Jesus. It uses that word not because the New Living Translation has abandoned its emphasis on sin and pride is okay. No, it’s because we use the word differently. As we think about reframing ourself and if we think about the idea of reframing the idea of pride, it is not to say there isn’t a sinful destructive form of pride, but there is another kind of pride. It’s pride in satisfaction of achievement. The achievement, Paul wants to say, is in Christ. That’s where he puts his pride. That’s where he would boast. Some of the translations say that’s where he wants to rejoice.

We see it in the life of John the Baptist. John the Baptist obviously was a great preacher. We have in the Bible very little recorded of what he said. He has kind of his oneliners. Maybe that was it. He was just a great oneliner. If you watch the series The Chosen, they call him Creepy John because he’s wearing camel skin and eats locust is what the Bible tells us. He’s called creepy John. It’s a bit of a joke in our house now. If we talk about John, they say, “Oh, like the disciple John or Creepy John? Which one are you talking about?” John the Baptist, he clearly has despite the quirks that he has in his life, he clearly is a renowned preacher and people come and follow him. We get one of his, it’s not really a sermon. It’s just another oneliner. When disciples come to him and say, “Are you the one? You the Messiah? You the one that’s promised?” He points people to Jesus. Then he gives us this oneliner. It’s a great one. He says, John 3:30. He says he must become greater. I must become less. That is the heart of Paul here at the end of Philippians chapter chapter 1. He must become greater. I must become less. There’s a reframing.

I wonder what that looks like for you as you think about the different points in your life and where it’s about you or where it’s about Jesus. How do we reframe our lives? How do we reframe the things we want to boast in, the things we want to rejoice in to make them about Jesus? We reframe our suffering. We reframe our pride.

Reframing Hope

Confidence and Deliverance

The last one I want to say is we reframe hope, the things that we hope for. There’s this moment where Paul is talking about the things that he celebrates and he shifts into this really space of speaking about confidence. He says verse 18, I will continue to rejoice for I know that as you pray for me and at the as the spirit of Christ helps me, this is what he says. He says this with confidence, this will lead to my deliverance. He says this is his hope that the their prayers and the spirit of God will lead him to his deliverance. What does what does he mean by that? It actually gets more confusing because you’d immediately think his deliverance is probably his leaving prison, his freedom. That’s not the way he’s talking in this whole section. He’s not looking at some kind of hope of freedom. Look at what he says. The very next thing he says verse 20 I hope he says I will never be ashamed and we be will be bold for Christ so one of the things he seems to be delivered from wants to be delivered from is his temptation to shy away in the face of trouble so even though he’s he’s being bold he wants to be delivered from the fear of stepping back from that that’s the first part the second thing he says and I trust that My life will bring honor to Christ whether I live or die.

He cannot really be saying with confidence, I’m going to be delivered out of this prison if his words are, I don’t know if I’m going to live or die. You see what’s going on there? That can’t work. He can’t say I’m definitely going to get out, but I also might die. That’s not going to happen. If he’s talking about confidence, I will be delivered. He’s not talking about freedom from prison necessarily. He’s talking about being a citizen of heaven, whether that’s living as a citizen of heaven or going to be there literally in glory.

Citizen of Heaven

He uses this quite famous verse, this famous line, you may know it as NIV, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. The New New Living Translation spells it out a little bit clearer than that. It says living means living for Christ and dying is even better. He says, “But if I live, I can do even more work fruitful work for Christ.” He says, “So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires. I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live. This is Paul’s hope. His hope is that he will continue to be a citizen of heaven, whether it is with Jesus in glory or serving in prison or out of prison in this life. His hope is that he will be delivered from the temptation to shy away from that. His hope that he will hold strong as citizen of heaven and he calls us to do the same. Verse 27, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. There’s a reframing of what he hopes for. What he hopes for is anchored entirely in Jesus in being a citizen of God’s people in heaven.

Let me finish with just some thoughts on things that we could think about that might help us reframe our own thinking around reframing suffering, reframing our idea of self and reframing our idea of hope, what we hope for. Here’s some ideas. One of them is to think about what it would look like to do a daily prayer, a very simple daily prayer that first thing in the morning to to to pray the prayer, Lord, make this day yours. Help me to live for your glory. What does it look like for you to center your day on Jesus and to say, “Whatever today brings, I want it to be your day.” Or maybe helpful for you maybe to think about a weekly prayer. A practical thing you could do is open up your calendar, look towards things that are happening in the week in your calendar and just as you run your eyes over each one to do a similar thing. Say, Lord, in this moment, in this moment, in this moment, give me the wisdom to make each moment for you. Or maybe it’s looking back, thinking about Thanksgiving. In a practical way, it could be writing things that you’re thankful for. In a practical way, it could be looking back on a calendar and writing things as you reflect on a day or a week and say, “Even the troubled moments that I had this week, what things were God was God doing in my life that I can be thankful for?”

Maybe it’s thinking about encouraging. The story I told you about the lady that wrote letters of encouragement. Maybe it’s praying for someone and then letting them know that you prayed for them. While I was in Canes, I don’t know if I told this story personally to a few people. I don’t know if I’ve said it in a sermon. When I was in Canes this visiting my parents, there was a guy who’s been staying on my parents’ property. They have some campsites and he was talking to them and he heard my parents said our son is in ministry in Riverston and he was like oh I went to a church in Riverston while I was there and they said oh it’s you know the Anglican church that it’s Daniel he’s like oh I visited his church and so five years ago he visited us twice I didn’t remember him which may have been a little bit awkward But one of the things he wanted to say is just how much the follow-up ministry of our church had meant to him. That is he visited twice. He brought a friend. He was going through a difficult time in his life. He wasn’t feeling particularly anchored to God. Our follow-up system had sent him a couple of messages. We had prayed for him and we’d sent him a message letting him know we’d prayed for him. We never heard from him again. We didn’t know what happened. He wanted to say, “I just want you to know that that meant a lot to me.” God has used me significantly since then. He’s in a church there in far north Queensland. They’re doing monthly ministry to an Aboriginal community there. He’s involved in serving God there. He just said those things. God has worked through me and has answered some of the prayers that you prayed for me. It’s hard to know sometimes how much impact we might have in those moments, but it’s something maybe that you can do to encourage someone in your life.

Maybe something you need to think about is thinking about a difficult relationship that you have going on right now and asking the question, how can I love with the love of Jesus in that situation this week? Another just practical idea, the idea of walking through your house, looking at the things that you have, looking at your home, looking at your car, looking at your possessions, and saying, “How do I live as a citizen of heaven? Given what I have, the opportunities I have, given what God has blessed me with, how do I live as a citizen of heaven each day with everything he’s just some practical ideas in thinking about how we reframe our thinking? But the encouragement here from Philippians is that we do that, that we reframe suffering and put it in the context of Christ. We reframe ourselves. Put ourselves in the context of pointing to Christ. Reframe what we hope for. Put that in the context of citizens of heaven.