Important Sermon On #Coronavirus

The Call to Local Church Commitment and Gospel Partnership

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Philippians 4 and the Christian Response to Fear

To Philippians chapter 4.

You know when we were recently in Scotland, I mentioned that we had about a three and a half hour Covenanter tour. The Covenanters in Scotland. So we got to see a lot of the famous places, got to see John Knox's house where he used to walk through every day, even the little corridor, the place where he used to preach.

Daily.

We got to see where they were persecuting Christians for refusing to say that the king was king over the church. They were willing to die for that, to recognize the two different realms of authority that the government had no right to control the church.

We also got to walk down this path where they took the Christians out that they would break their thumbs or break their legs to torture them and they would bring them down this long path to this place where they would execute them, beheading them at times.

We even got to see the guillotine that they would use still there. In the museum, you can literally touch that, which is weird. They'll let you touch the thing where many martyrs had their blood spilled.

And one of the things our tour guides said was as they would bring these Covenanters down this long path, often again, having been tortured, they would drag them down there and they would bring them up on this platform so that everyone could witness the execution, them being martyred.

They did that, of course, to keep people in fear, like, you know, you obey us or this is what's going to happen to you. So they would do these executions in public and again, you got to think these were believers who believed in the doctrines of grace.

They believed in the word of God. It's an herency, the gospel, Christ alone for salvation. All that we hold dear and they held to those essentials and what they were saying, you know, was just simply we can't acknowledge, we can't say that and swear to that the king is king over the church itself.

So they died. All they had to do was say it, the king's king over the church and they died to say no, no to that. It's a powerful testimony to Christians and there was just so many stories of torture and months and months of starvation and all kinds of just horrible atrocities committed and there's even this one spot on the ground that's right outside John Knox's church where now people are just passing right over it.

But you notice it's stained. It's this heart on the ground in the middle of it's this sort of brick and it's definitely dirty and stained. You can see the splotches all over it and the Scottish people walk past it and as a tradition they spit on it.

Most of them don't know though why they're spitting on this thing. And we were told that this was the actual location where they would bring these Christians in and try them and torture them and then drag them down this place to execute them.

So spitting on it was a sign of disdain for that kind of murderous act. So of course we went and spit a few times on it. But one of the stories that I just want you to think about in terms of the word of God and this particular moment we're in and of course all that's happening in our communities, stuff like this is happening all the time, but now it's highlighted.

Death has the ability to focus the mind. And that's what we're seeing. But I want you to know how seriously I take this privilege to bring the word of God to us in this particular context. There was a story of a pastor who was brought down after being tortured and brought up and of course they reveled in the fact that they were torturing these people and they were in control at this time.

But one of the things they would try to do is the guards would try to strike fear into the martyrs being killed up there in front of everybody else. And so this faithful minister, as he was going up, the guards were trying to make him fearful of the fact that he's about to have his head cut off and the record of the witnesses is that he stopped as he was going up and he told them, he said, I have less fear coming up here to be killed than I do every Lord's Day when I come up to present the word of God to the people of God.

I'm way less fearful of this moment. That's a powerful thing and I think it tends to focus the Christian mind as to the glory and the benefit of the word of God in a moment like this. Especially when you have communities fearful.

Of the future.

We ought not to be fearful at all.

We should rejoice.

And so with that in mind, we're in Philippians 4. Again, as I said, we're jumping ahead. We will get right back on track. I had a plan to do right behind Wade's position in the text. Do everything without grumbling and complaining, but I thought it'd probably be very valuable right now with eyes on this particular message and our communities in the state that they're in to do actually, Philippians chapter 4.

So let's go ahead and start in Philippians 4, verse 4. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything. 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. As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together. Father, we come before you as your people rejoicing.

We know who you are. You've made yourself known to us. You've disclosed yourself in history, in creation itself, in special revelation, the giving of your word and your law, and supremely in Jesus Christ, Father.

Thank you, God, for your word and this privilege that we have to hold it and to hear it and to meditate on it. I pray, God, that you would get the preacher out of the way. Lord, you know that in myself, outside of Jesus, I have no right to hold this word.

And so I ask, Lord, for your blessing by your Spirit that you would speak, God, for your glory, for the benefit of your people. Teach us, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're in Philippians, and the main theme that we've been talking about as we're going through this is pursuing authentic joy.

I mentioned as you look through Philippians, this very short letter written by the apostle Paul while in prison, in chains, I mentioned that you keep seeing the constant points of joy, joy, joy, rejoice, rejoice.

And so we have talked about the fact that this is a peculiar thing from a human perspective, because as we've noted, the apostle Paul, from a human perspective, has got the worst life now. It's the worst, right?

I mean, he's constantly struggling for the health of the church. He's fighting against false teachers. He mentions, of course, at one point that he's been beaten times without number. He can't remember how many times.

There's so many times. He's been shipwrecked. He's in danger constantly. He's got false brethren to deal with. He's got trials to deal with. He has people falsely accusing him, and he calls all these struggles in this life, I mean, think about that, the hunger, the difficulty, the being lowered out of windows, the beatings, all the false accusations and trials.

He calls this a light and a momentary affliction. Light and momentary. And in Philippians, while in chains, he's praising God for his chains. He sees the big picture in terms of who God is. God's wielding of history, his control over every detail of the world.

Paul's life.

Hurts.

It hurts.

He doesn't have the lavish lifestyle, the big home. He doesn't have all the details of life that people think that they need to have joy and to be rejoicing. I think as we often think and we take, we find books that will sell us that story, right?

Like, this is what you should pursue. Like, here's the lights, the stuff, all the stuff. Just gather, gather, gather. And if you can make your life a garden, then you'll be joyful. Then you can rejoice because you're surrounded by the garden, right?

So let's get to that place of garden status, and then we have a reason to rejoice. Well, by all accounts, the apostle Paul is sitting in a desert. And you've got the man in the desert with more joy and genuine, authentic rejoicing than many of us who find ourselves in a garden.

How? So we've talked about, like, what's the source of this authentic joy? Because what we don't want to do is pursue the plastic smile. We don't want to pursue the external, right? The fake. None of us want, if you're truly a child of God and you want a deep and authentic, intimate relationship, a life of worship with God, none of us want the fake, the facade, right?

To pretend like all is well, and then to turn around and have the frown and the brokenness and the depression and the loneliness, all of that. We want the authentic joy. We want true renewal, real transformation, renewing of our minds.

We want authentic relationship with God. Jesus constantly goes after things that religious charlatans just won't, because they don't have it. The authenticity. Jesus condemns the hypocrisy, hoopakrite, the actor, the pretender, the mask.

Jesus goes right for the jugular. He tells them, if you're going to fast, do it so nobody sees you fasting, knows you're fasting. If you're going to give, don't let one hand know what the other one is doing.

If you're going to pray, don't do it for the applause of men, so the others see you praying. Go into your closet, do it in secret. Why would you ever do that from a human perspective? Well, if God is who he says he is, and this is true, then there's no reason to do it for the applause of men, because God is who he says he is, and we are who he says we are.

And so the private prayer is the authentic prayer. It's a genuine relationship. Now, Paul knows this, and so he's sitting here in these circumstances, rejoicing, having joy, praising God, and we've asked the question, how?

How do you do such a thing with so much pain from a human perspective, so much brokenness all around? How do you do it from the wilderness? Because we all get it when there's a garden. We know what it's like to have people pour gifts out on us.

We know what it's like to have money in the bank account, maybe, and okay, I'm okay now, and our rent is paid, our mortgage is paid, right? The bills are paid. Okay, we're on an even place right now. I feel basically good.

I got expendable income. I've got food in the cabinets. Okay, I'm in the garden now, right? Maybe we have the opportunity that God gives us the grace to have, that we go on vacation, and we celebrate with family, we have holidays, and Christmas, and rejoicing, all that.

We go, I get the celebration of the garden. But the real question is, how is there authentic joy in the midst of plague,.

Disease,.

Imprisonment,.

Persecutions, slander, gossip, death? How do you have authentic joy there? Because Paul, as a child of God, redeemed by the same blood and filled with the same spirit as us, has it. And he has it in the midst of troubling circumstances.

And he says, clearly, that God is the center. Stop, because that's just an easy Christian t-shirt. That's the mug. That's the typical Christian quip, right? God is at the center. God is the gospel. We're all good as Christians of having the one-liners and saying, I affirm, I check the box.

I understand that. I acquiesce to that truth. I believe it. But we have to understand, if we're going to have authentic joy and be transformed by the renewing of our minds and have death in our intimacy with God, our relationship with our creator, we have to understand that that's the source of it all for Paul.

God is the center. It's the very reference point. There's pain. Yes, but God. There's persecution. Yes, but God. There's death all around me. Yes, but God. You see, that's the source of the authentic joy.

And so Paul understands God's character. You see it through Philippians. All the way through. His thanks to God. Why? For who God is. He knows about his control over all things. He knows what God is doing.

He knows about the righteousness that we have that comes through Jesus Christ to the praise of God. He knows that every detail of all of this story in history is wielded by God and that God's in control of it.

And so the apostle Paul can't help but rejoice. He can't help but having joy in the midst of troubled circumstances. He's even rejoicing over people's sin and preaching about Christ. He sees the sovereignty of God and the ability to rejoice in it.

And of course, the center of it all for the apostle Paul is the sovereignty of God. And I wanted to say especially in this moment as we talk about not being worried, not being anxious, not being fearful.

If you don't understand this doctrine, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, make it your whole life's effort over the next 30 days to put the sovereignty of God front and center in your life. I think the brokenness around us, even within Christian communities, in terms of how we respond to calamity, plague, difficulty, trial, and death, comes to us, comes out of us for a reason.

And there's theological reasons. Paul's enduring what he's enduring because of what he knows about God. It's his relationship with God that's at the core of his rejoicing and his joy. And so I want to say as we face a fallen and broken world, we have to understand the foundation for our authentic joy in the midst of difficulty.

The foundation for our freedom from fear and worry and anxiety isn't going to be through physical exertion, trying to make our way through it, putting on the plastic smile, just trying to endure. It's going to come from a place of true healing for our souls and minds.

And that's on truth. The truth about God's sovereignty, his ruling over everything. You see, the biblical God, the way that God describes himself in scripture is many times far from what we hear, even from the mouths of modern evangelicals.

People think about God in terms of, well, he knows about the future, but somehow his hands are tied. There are things that happen in the world that, of course, God is all-knowing. Every Christian wants to affirm that truth about God.

He's all-knowing. He's not like the pagan deities of mankind and world religions. He knows everything. And so people say, well, he knew about this particular plague or this disease or this trial or tribulation.

But you see, this is a fallen world. Some people would even suggest under the rule and control of Satan, Satan's the one really dictating the story and the whole narrative, or they'll say, but God really can't do anything in the midst of what he knows is going to happen because there's such a thing as free will.

And what people mean by free will ultimately is that man is free and God is not. That's not the biblical perspective of the will of man and the will of God. They say the creature has the real free will, but God ultimately can know what's going to happen, but his hands are tied.

Brothers and sisters, no wonder. No wonder. Men and women who even profess faith in Jesus Christ live in fear in moments like this. Live in fear. There is anxiety. And I want to say this, very, very important, and I hope this cuts somebody.

You cannot cloak your panic in piety and think that it's impressive to God. People at times will cloak their panic in pious language and they'll think that somehow it's impressive. It isn't. We have to find the heart of all of this and the sovereignty of God, his full control over all things.

The God of the Bible declares the end from the beginning. He doesn't just know as though he looks through time and figures out what's going to take place in history. He sees ahead of time and goes, well, let me understand what's happening there.

God doesn't learn anything. If he learned anything through looking through history, that would mean he wasn't all knowing because he learned something by looking. That's not the God of the Bible. When we talk about God knowing the future, we're talking about God who decrees the future.

He determines yes or no. He can hold back people from sinning or he can determine to allow them to sin. People say, well, that sounds really powerful and sovereign. And how does that even work out? I would say all of us understand this in the murder of Jesus.

We grant the arguments with the murder of Jesus.

Brutality, grotesque, bloody,.

Painful, awful, lies, false witness, slander, all of that is at the heart of Jesus' trial. And what do we recognize? The church prays to God in Acts chapter 4. They gathered against Jesus and this Holy Spirit, your holy servant Jesus.

They say it's Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel, the Gentiles, to do what? To do whatever your hand predestined to occur.

God.

Predestined the graphic brutality and murder of Jesus Christ. And all of us recognize, yes, praise God. All glory to God that God determined the murder of Jesus Christ. That was in his hands to determine.

That Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Yes, before the fall even occurred, God had determined to bring glory to himself through the sacrifice of his son and the redemption of an undeserving people.

That's the story and that's the true God. So for the apostle Paul, the heartbeat of authentic joy, the heartbeat of rejoicing during times of trial and tribulation is God's character. It is the sovereignty of God.

It is our status. God's character, his sovereignty, our status. You know the part we were just in. I had the privilege of preaching on Philippians chapter 2 and the apostle Paul talks very clearly about the fact that he is rejoicing and he talks about the fact that he is grateful to even die.

That was actually in chapter 1. He says in 21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful label for me. Yet, which I shall choose, I cannot tell.

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. How do you have that kind of mindset?

He understands God's character. He understands the sovereignty of God and he understands his status. I'm a child of God. I've been redeemed. Jesus bought me. I have eternal life. I'm not condemned. God declared me righteous.

God counted me righteous, Romans 4, apart from works. And God does not count my sin against me. That's the heartbeat. So Paul says, look, I'm good. I am good and I am good to rejoice. Because to stay with you is fruitful labor.

Glory to God. All this fruit from God actually ends up bringing him praise and to depart or weigh the anchor and sail away to be with Jesus is so much better. Each way I get more of Jesus. Each way, each way.

But the ultimate for Paul is to depart and be with Christ is so much better. It's so much better. It's the kind of power granted through that knowledge that gives a pastor the ability to stand up on a platform and to say,.

You think I'm afraid of this?

You think I'm afraid to have my head cut off? You think I'm afraid to go and be with my redeemer? I'm more fearful walking up these steps to come up to this pulpit to handle this word from this God. That's the core.

God's character. God's sovereignty. Our status in Christ. And so that leads us to actually address today our current circumstances, but also the text. Philippians chapter four, verse four, the apostle Paul says rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice. You just can't get away from it. I said to you as we started to do the series before we even entered it. I said spend time just reading this very short letter over the next 30 days.

Just read it. You can read it daily. No problem. And try not to find the encouragement to joy. The encouragement to rejoicing. And keep in mind the apostle Paul's circumstances. You see it's so easy for the charlatan with 50 million dollars in his bank account to come out on stage and to smile and to say rejoice.

Rejoice.

It's easy.

It's easy with the beautiful jet. The beautiful private jets. Plural. It's easy when you're driving the fat Cadillac. It's easy to say rejoice in those circumstances, but Paul has it in chains. And he just said it in Philippians three.

Look at the chapter as it begins there. He says finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord. That had to be unnerving for people who are like in those circumstances with Paul, right? Like if I come into you today and we got people making mad rushes for the meat and for weird toilet paper, people have surprised me.

Human beings have surprised me in my country. Very much so. We are more concerned with what goes out of our bodies and going out with clean behinds than we are with what goes inside our bodies. It's like you're doing it backwards.

Wrong thing, right?

But.

We have to consider the circumstances Paul was in. They understand the persecution. Remember this. In this time Christians are a persecuted minority. They are persecuted minority. We're at the very beginning of very intense persecution.

Not too long after this in history was a neurotic persecution of the Christians where they're slaughtering the Christians. That persecution lasted a very very long time through history until ultimately the Roman Empire was conquered by Christianity and the gospel.

But what if you did that in today's circumstances, right? We got people dying in the streets in Wuhan. You got people all over the world dying and you hear from a Christian minister, rejoice. Joy in God.

Rejoice. Rejoice. It's unnerving, right? Because as you're hearing a minister of the gospel from the word of God say, rejoice in everything. Rejoice always. Again, I say rejoice in the midst of these circumstances or people are clearing the shelves at times or people are losing loved ones around the world where you have people panicking at times unnecessarily and you hear a minister saying rejoice.

But Paul says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, these are God's words. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Always. Always.

What about when I lose a child through miscarriage? Is it possible to rejoice? To actually rejoice? Not to say we don't grieve. There is a time to grieve. There's a time to weep. There's a time to cry.

Yes, a time to gather around one another and to get on our knees and be broken. Yes, but even in the brokenness when you know God, his character, his sovereignty, our status before God, there's a reason to rejoice.

Why? Because this isn't all there is. People panic and people fear the future because this is all they have. This is all they have. They don't know God. This is all they have. They don't know the future ahead of us.

And so they panic. Paul can say in these circumstances, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, to God's people throughout the ages,.

Rejoice.

In the Lord always.

Again, I'll say rejoice. Rejoice during plagues in history. Yes. Especially during plagues in history. Always. Always rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. Some translations will say gentleness be known to everyone.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. How's that for a difference? How's that for a difference in terms of the community of Christ, the Messiah's people in the world, facing the world with a completely different context, a completely different perspective, an entirely different way of seeing every detail of the world, so that the world can look in and see that there's a balance with the people of God.

There's gentleness with the people of God. There's an endurance of the difficulties of this world that looks vastly different from the way the world faces things. The world faces things apart from God, not wanting God, worshiping other gods.

So there's fear, there's trembling, there's difficulty. But Paul says rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I must say rejoice. Let your gentleness, reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hands.

He says, do not be anxious about anything. I'm going to say it again because it's so, so.

Superior,.

Vastly superior to what the world offers any of us. Please hear it. Do not be anxious about anything.

That's a bold, that's a bold.

Statement.

Do you believe it?

Do you want to embrace that? Because that's a big commitment. It's a big commitment in a fallen world. It's a big commitment for moms and dads that are looking at a bank account and then looking at hungry mouths and looking at bills coming in and perhaps not knowing the future.

It's a big commitment when you know that the attack is coming. It's a big commitment with the enemies surrounding the camp to say,.

Lord,.

I don't want to be worried about anything. Lord, I don't want to live with fearfulness of what the enemies can do or what the world can bring, what this fallen world has to offer. Be anxious about nothing.

It's interesting because the word here for anxious merimnate is the same word that's used, we're going to go here in a minute, in Matthew 6 .25 by the Lord Jesus when He tells His people as a command, not a request, not a suggestion.

He tells His people by way of command, do not be anxious. Do not be worried. Do not be anxious. Same word there. But the word there essentially means worried.

Worried.

Fearful about the future. Worried. Anxious. Oh, we're good at cloaking it. Aren't we so good at cloaking it? The world doesn't know how to solve the spiritual problem. All they see is the material in front of them and they say, well, there is no creator God.

All we've got is matter. And so the physicians and the doctors and the psychiatrists, all of the therapists will say, here's the problem. So here's the pill, right? You have worry and fear and anxiety.

So take this pill. And don't you love it? I saw last night and it's so perfect too because.

I'm.

Thinking about this. I got an ad in my feed. Look, I was questioning. I don't understand. Is this for the drug or is it against the drug? I was like, I don't get it. So I click on it. And it's an ad to help people who have ADHD and it's a particular drug that helps with ADHD.

And it's so interesting because it's like promising all these amazing things. Like my family never believed me and that this is a real issue and now they know and I have this medication to help me. And this woman's smiling.

And so then the next 30 seconds after the woman gives the praise for the medicine, she's sitting on the couch and she just, all she's doing is smiling different poses, right? Trying to cover up the narrative underneath of it, which was all the warnings about the pill.

And all the warnings were the pill were graphic. It wasn't even like subtle, like it could cause some this because it was like taking this pill could cause instant death, heart attack and stroke and she's just like, you know, like, yeah, and it's like, just know that this is considered a very serious criminal offense.

Keep this medicine contained. Giving it away or distributing it is a crime. And if she's just like, you know, I got this, you know, myself. Right. That's how we solve the problems. The world says, well, okay, what do we got here?

We've got a person with neurological responses going on. Something's out of whack. And by the way, we don't deny that as Christians that we are spiritual and material creations of God. There's impact to our physical bodies and stuff that impacts our brain and brain chemistry.

We understand all that. But the world says, here's the pill to settle the fear. Here's the pill to settle the worry. My question is, what do you do when the pill stops working or isn't available anymore?

What are you left with? Same hearts, same mind, same fear of the future, same separation from God. These are spiritual issues, first and foremost, that result from a broken relationship with God. And so the command of scripture is, do not be anxious about anything.

But it's really interesting because if you read this from the Greek text, there's actually a structure to the text where actually there's a stress there over the word anything. Do not be worried about anything.

Maiden, the word is nothing. Nothing. And the words at the beginning of the sentence, nothing. Nothing be anxious about. Nothing be anxious about. So the stress there is nothing. Well, how about nothing?

But what about the nothing?

But there's got to be nothing. Nothing be anxious about. Do not be worried. Do not be fearful about.

Nothing.

And that's a powerful charge for the people of God. It's a command from God. It's a command from scripture. Do not be worried. Now listen, it's easy to say it because if you say it to the unbeliever, it really falls on deaf ears.

It means nothing to them. You can say to the unbeliever on the street who's panicking.

About a particular virus,.

Be worried about nothing. And ultimately it's just words. It's just words to them because they don't have the context. They're at war with God. They don't know him. They refuse to acknowledge his rule.

They refuse to bow the knee. They refuse to believe or understand his character. And so they're suppressing that truth. And so there is nothing but constant fear about the future and every reason to be worried.

They don't know God. But for Paul and for those who've been redeemed by God, this is truth that satisfies the soul. It calms the minds. It heals the hearts. I used to be a person who was ruled by fear of the future.

I used to be the person that was panicking constantly. If things didn't go as I thought they should go, if there was a plan that got broken in some way, I was the one literally throwing my fist up to God, angry with God.

Why aren't you showing up? Why did you allow this to happen, God? Why? And it wasn't until God really broke my mind, my heart, and the way that I saw the world and him. It wasn't until then that I received real healing and hope.

And it was because I understood who God truly is in the midst of this fallen world. But the Bible says, do not be anxious about anything. You see, the source of fear, worry, and anxiety is a broken view of God and his wielding of history.

It's a broken view of God and his wielding of history. If I don't believe that God is sovereign and in control of all of history, then it makes sense to be fearful about the future because God's not in control.

This time, maybe this universe is just time and chance acting on matter, right? Maybe it's just sound and fury, signifying nothing. Maybe it's just stuff happening all around us. All the stuff happening in the world, all the brutality, all the sin, all the evil, all of the pandemics, it's all just accidents.

It's just the universe moving throughout space. It's just happening. There's every reason to be fearful and worried in that context because you won't acknowledge God and his sovereignty. The source of fear, worry, and anxiety is a broken view of God and his wielding of history.