I am going to read from “The Free Man’s Worship” by atheist Bertrand Russell, I’m going to tell you why I am doing this later…but for now, just listen to the emptiness of his ideas.
To Dr. Faustus in his study the demon told the history of the Creation, saying: The endless praises of the choirs of angels had begun to grow wearisome for God; for, after all, did he not deserve their praise? Had he not given them endless joy? Would it not be more amusing to obtain undeserved praise, to be worshipped by beings whom he tortured? He smiled inwardly, and resolved that the great drama should be performed. For countless ages the hot nebula whirled aimlessly through space. At length it began to take shape, the central mass threw off planets, the planets cooled, boiling seas and burning mountains heaved and tossed…and Man was born, with the power of thought, the knowledge of good and evil, and the cruel thirst for worship. And Man saw that all is passing in this mad, monstrous world, that all is struggling to snatch, at any cost, a few brief moments of life before Death’s inexorable decree. And Man said: “There is a hidden purpose, could we but fathom it, and the purpose is good; for we must reverence something, and in the visible world there is nothing worthy of reverence.” And Man stood aside from the struggle, resolving that God intended harmony to come out of chaos by human efforts. And when he followed the instincts which God had transmitted to him from his ancestry of beasts of prey, he called it Sin, and asked God to forgive him. But he doubted whether he could be justly forgiven, until he invented a divine Plan by which God’s wrath was to have been appeased. And seeing the present was bad, he made it yet worse, that thereby the future might be better. And he gave God thanks for the strength that enabled him to forgo even the joys that were possible. And God smiled; and when he saw that Man had become perfect in renunciation and worship, he sent another sun through the sky, which crashed into Man’s sun; and all returned again to nebula.“Yes,” he murmured, “it was a good play; I will have it performed again.”
So, in this myth, man is the bored God’s play toy, not his beloved.
However, Reality, Russell goes on to write, is even more meaningless than this fable…Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.
You think you love that child, or you are moved by beauty…you are wrong…it’s all chemical interactions, chance and time without meaning…there is nothing there.
But don’t despair…we do worship but what and how? Well, he tells us…
Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man, condemned to-day to lose his dearest, to-morrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day…to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance… despite the trampling march of unconscious power.
Merry Christmas, from Betrand Russell…and from all who worship at the shrine of human pride.
But let me give another perspective…a personal one.
Thanksgiving our family mourned the loss of my mom and dad, Christy’s mom, our two grandchildren…then we celebrated and gave thanks for food, for God’s grace, and for each other.
We celebrated the meaning and purpose found only in the gospel…we laughed with joy and we cried with sorrow.
At one meal, Earnest, who has joined us at countless holidays the past 40 years spoke of his own sometimes anger at God, and of his great love for God.
He talked about his confidence that all that has come his way is the eternal plan of a good God.
He is no pawn, and he is no chew toy for a cruel God…he is a beloved son.
It was all good and hard and difficult and powerful.
How does the truth of God’s plan…provide comfort when I lose my child?
How does this help me when my life is enormously difficult, and it is not due to my own bad choices but the bad choices of others?
One alternative is that God is as surprised as you are, he can do nothing to stop this.
You could get small comfort from a small God. “Sorry about that, my child, that must be hard. Wish I could do more to help.”
“Here I’ll send you Jesus, born in a manger to empathize…see…I understand how hard it is…but again, I wish I could do more.”
Another alternative is that the universe is not surprised nor does it care, because it cannot.
All that exists is matter in various forms and for a brief cosmic minute, it took the form you call you, and that collection of atoms you called a loved one and someday it all be forgotten in cosmic emptiness.
There is yet another option…God is all powerful, all knowing…nothing can stop his purposes.
He sent his son, not just to “understand us or to empathize” but to save us from our sin and to bring into relationship with him.
Meanwhile…we groan in our already but not yet redemption and full restoration.
Why did I start like I did? I’ll tell you a story to answer that question.
When I was in seminary I had a professor who was godly and brilliant…he pushed us to face our questions…in one class a student wept with tears, why was this professor doing this to us? .
The questions we addressed were hard, challenging…unnerving…difficult to answer.
This normally stern professor, suddenly became soft with compassion…”Because” he said “when you are out there pastoring that church, you will have these questions, your people will have these questions…we must deal with them here and now…so you will have the gospel answer then and there.”
I started like I started this sermon…because it is what is out there…and what, in different forms is in many hearts in here.
I will take any question from a child in super church and try to answer it from Scripture.
There are almost 300 videos I’ve made for our kids, they are on our website
And in here on Sunday’s, we address not merely the passing news stories that will soon be thrown into the dustbin of history but the bigger questions of the human heart and mind.
Whether or not the murder of Charlie Kirk will become a turning point in history, or a historical footnote remains to be seen…we will know which, in many years, probably decades from now.
There are larger things at play around us than his tragic murder.
There are large questions to ponder…questions that rise above the news cycles…and there are biblical answers to them.
Nothing was more important in world news between 1941 and 1944 than a world war…arguable, nothing in human history so are has been more important.
No person was more newsworthy than…Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Hitler.
During that time frame CS Lewis gave a series of radio talks on the BBC that became the book, Mere Christianity.
I have read it probably a dozen times; it is one of the all-time best-selling books…it’s content is timeless though it is set in the context of a World War and delivered to a people whose cities were being bombed and whose very existence was threatened.
He never mentions Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, or Hitler…his aim was to give an eternal perspective for their temporal troubles.
I am certainly no CS Lewis…but we must not let our minds become stuck in time…but anchored in eternity.
In here, on the Lord’s day…each week, we train to live in time, with our minds centered on eternity.
Your life runs on twin tracks…of joy and sorrow.
On the twin tracks of the already and the not yet…already Christ has won, not yet do we live in the fullness of that victory.
Sometimes you can’t see the sorrow for the joy…but often you can’t see the joy for the sorrow.
Normally the tracks of sorrow and joy are close together.
We ask the real questions because the gospel is true…life is confusing, but we fear no question…because we know what is real and true.
We don’t know every answer…but we do know the final answer that all questions must finally yield to.
Christ has come; Christ will return…the gospel is the grand story that makes sense out of every story.
We don’t make stuff up to comfort ourselves in the face of meaningless darkness…we remind ourselves of the truth that ultimate reality is the Triune God, Father, Son, Spirit and that the greatest event in history was the incarnation…Where God became man in Christ to save us.
This is what needs to be our focus…in London in 1941 with Hitlers bombs falling, or in Wichita in 2025 with whatever threatens to capture your attention and affection.
Upstairs a couple of weeks ago once question that a boy asked was “Did Peter really cut off a soldier’s ear and did he really pick it back up and stick it back on?”
I replied, “Many years from now when I am long gone and you are old, there are two things I want you to remember from everything I have ever said.
- If it is in the bible, it is true, it happened.
- Since it is in the Bible, you must ask why did God think this was important to tell us?
Another precious and honest question from a child was more of a statement,
“Sometimes I wonder what if God is not the real God.”
What a gift to have her ask that in the context of Church…not just in her own head alone in her room, or in some college dorm someday as she ponders whether to follow the crowd or follow Christ.
We are coming in on a final approach as we land our year through the Bible.
Then we take off again…Next year the plan is to read through the NT three times January through August…and to ask some important questions as we slow down and read the story of the New Covenant over and over.
Today we will go to the book of Philippians
Paul wrote this letter to the church in the Greek city of Philippi from his prison cell in Rome.
He would be released, then recaptured and then killed a few years later.
Though God did not prevent Paul from suffering he protected his life over and over according to his purposes.
On his way to Rome, he experienced a life-threatening shipwreck, soldiers intent on killing him, and then a bite from a deadly snake and this was just one of many similar series of events that could have ended him…but God had his purposes.
He finally arrived at Rome and was incarcerated for two years.
He went from mobile missionary to stationary evangelist, but his purpose never changed, and his impact never diminished.
From his house arrest in Rome, he welcomed visitors from around the empire and proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
Paul lived resolutely in the right column, that place where God has given us agency in our lives…the place of our choices.
He made the choices God gave him to make, and committed the left column to God, trusting him with choices that were not his to make.
Circumstances that were out of his control were often difficult, but he took them as the will of God.
In those difficult circumstances he leaned into using hardship to learn to trust God more fully and to make the gospel known.
The choices of others were out of his control, but they did not remove his own choice to be found faithful.
His life purpose was personal, portable, and permanent.
It was who he was, wherever he went…he was to be found faithful with the gospel.
This is a life void of empty despair and full of meaning and impact.
His life was in the hand of God; he never lived at the mercy of circumstances or at the whims of human actors.
Tradition says that Paul was beheaded by the vile Roman emperor Nero.
It was Nero’s will to kill Paul, but Nero had no power that was not given to him by God.
Paul died when he died and how he died, because that was God’s will for Paul.
Paul knew that nothing in his life was left to random chance.
His purpose was fixed, and it continually rose high above his circumstances.
Let’s go to one of Paul’s prison letters…look in your Bibles to Philippians 1:3-21
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 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. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. 12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. 15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
He wrote about how the Christian life is a perpetual win/win scenario.
Sure, he is in jail, but his imprisonment has only served to advance the gospel…and to embolden other believers.
*What is the purpose in your troubles, in your suffering?
“Terry, I wish I knew, I have no idea.”
I do.
God intends for it to advance the gospel and to encourage others…and to grow you.
But the purpose being revealed is tied to your own response to the circumstances.
His purposes are fixed…your response is not…how will you respond?
Paul knows he may be executed (this time in the Roman prison he won’t be, next time he will) but he fully expects that God will give him sufficient courage, whether he lives or dies to exalt Christ with his physical body because to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Do you expect and hope, that God will give you sufficient, just enough, courage for whatever comes your way?
He will…but are you training your mind and heart to believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain?
There were some who were preaching Christ from selfish motives but whether from false motives or pure, Christ was still preached and Paul rejoiced in this fact.
It is better if those who preach the gospel have hearts and lives that align with the message, but it is the message of the gospel and not the messenger that has the power to save.
Do you rejoice when Christ is preached, even when the one preaching Christ doesn’t live consistently like a Christian?
I normally don’t…but I should.
All this is not Paul merely being a glass half-full kind of guy, this is Paul knowing full well that since the gospel is true, everything has changed.
Since the gospel is true, his life purpose is fixed and his hope in death in assured.
The gospel life is win/win while life outside the gospel is a perpetual lose/lose.
He will go on in this short letter to talk about those whose eternal destiny is destruction, and their current lives are marked by slavery to their own appetites.
To live with no real purpose in life and to die with no hope in death… is that lose/lose life apart from Christ.
Paul was a free man in a prison cell; he knew that apart from the gospel he would be a slave imprisoned by his own sin.
Paul has been set free from selfish ambition, and he now lives in the power of humility.
Selfish and proud people he said are slaves to their own desires.
How much is enough for them?
Always more, a little more.
They are never content, always wanting more…and never having enough.
Again…the win/win life of the gospel verses the lose/lose life apart from Christ.
In Philippians 2 he elaborates…Do you want to live free, then look to the interests of others.
Selfishness never works…never has, never will…it is outside your design parameters.
Do you want to know how to do this…how to live this “others first kind of life”… then look to Christ.
He took on human nature, which is the nature of a servant.
Your essential nature is servant, when you live with that approach to others, you are living inside your purpose…you will maximize your joy and thriving.
Peruse the books in a bookstore, bookstores are coming back…look in the “self-help” section.
They are often larger than the history section…that tells you a lot.
They major on being more self-centered and self-focused in order to become healthy…it just isn’t working, because it cannot work.
It is like a drowning person being told you just need to learn to breath water…
No! We need to be rescued from the sea of selfishness to the shore of Christlike selflessness.
Lest you think being a servant is a low calling…Paul writes…remember that Jesus, whose name is above all names, came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
If this all sounds like more than you are capable of, you are correct.
Paul himself did not believe he had arrived, he trained, continually to keep the main thing, the main thing.
How did he train? The same way that we must train.
He rejoiced always, he prayed constantly, and he set his mind continually on things that are excellent and praiseworthy.
He hunted the good stuff.
That’s a summary of what you will read in in Philippians this week.
Here is a conclusion:
If your life purpose can be blocked by external circumstances or the choices of others it is too small.
What would happen if you embraced the life purpose of making Christ known wherever Christ puts you…location or circumstance?
What if your purpose was personal, portable, and permanent?
What would happen is that you would live in all circumstances with a consistent gospel focus that would rise high above them all.
It would not make any of it easer…it would make it all wrought with meaning.
Our lives run on twin tracks…joy and sorrow, already but not yet, meanwhile we groan yet we hope.
Our lives in Christ are the gift of a win/win scenario…to live is Christ, to die is gain.
“Terry, I know all that stuff…I tried all this…it isn’t working.”
Truth is not something you try…it is reality that you cling too.
If you were shipwrecked and clinging to a life vest…that vest is not merely a thing you try…it is do or die.
You don’t try the gospel and if it doesn’t work…go try something else.
You believe it, surrender to it, give yourself for it…cling to its truth for life.
It is, is Christ…he is our gospel hope.
This isn’t about trying some plan found in a self-help book in Barnes and Noble…this is about living life in line with the reality of God.
This is about yielding to God…not as a pawn in his cruel game, but as a beloved son or daughter.
I want to end with what I said to that young girl who asked the beautiful question, that was actually a heartfelt statement of honesty.
“Sometimes I wonder what if God is not the real God”
I said…
We know who God is because of what he has made and because he has put knowledge of himself in our hearts…Romans 1, 2
We know who God is because the Bible is true and we know this from history, and from how the Bible is put together and from the experience of the power it has in our lives…and because Jesus said the Bible is the Word of God.
We know who God is because Jesus said when we have seen him we have seen the Father.
Jesus is the greatest, smartest, kindest, best man to ever live…he died and rose again, he said that he is God and the only way to eternal life.
We don’t have to wonder…we are confident…God has made himself know to us in his world, his word, and in his Son.
INVITATION TO SURRENDER TO JESUS ANY AREA OF YOUR LIFE THAT YOU ARE HOLDING BACK…
-Repent of immorality and impurity
-Forgive and be forgiven by others
-Turn away from selfishness
-Give God your fear and your desire to control outcomes worry future.
PRAY
CS Lewis said that a young man who wishes to remain an atheist cannot be too careful of what he reads…there are traps set everywhere.
Listen to this song, and ponder the fact that those who want to deny God cannot escape what God has built into his world and into the human heart…it all points to him…and ultimately to Christ.
Don’t you want to thank someone? Why is that there in your heart?
God put it there, God put you here.