The Bottom Line: Philippians 4:2-9 Neil Ryan

Date: October 9, 2005
Passage: Philippians 4:2-9
Message: The Bottom Line
Series in Philippians [13]

One of the problems of being a Christian in the 21st century is that the Bible has lost much of the 'shock' factor. We often read it with the mind of those who know what it is says. Imagine hearing this passage for the first time!

Here they are in Church [house] assembled for worship and the leader jumps up and says there won't be a sermon today. They have a letter from Paul to read out! They all settle back as Paul begins...

"Paul and Timothy . . . to the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi along with the elders and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

The reading of the letter goes along nicely with encouraging words as to how Paul was faring in prison, then that magnificent passage on humility culminating in those inspiring words..

...therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father

Worship leader leans over to her husband and says,
'Those words would make a great hymn!'

Then Paul shares his testimony including his great passion in life to ..forget that which is behind and strain forward to what is ahead.press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward.

The congregation are spellbound as they listen to Paul's words and then suddenly the room temperature plunges when Paul turns the spotlight on a couple of the leading ladies in the Church called Euodia and Syntyche and tells them to sort out their damaging quarrel!

How's that for preaching!
All of a sudden everybody is a bit squirmy.
It's getting a bit close

We like sermons to be practical but we don't want our name attached to it do we!!
Poor old Euodia and Syntyche have all their dirty washing aired and on top of that Paul says in effect..I want the rest of you to get in their face to make sure this thing gets resolved!!
How's that!

One of the things I love about the Bible is that it never seeks to cover up what seems to contradict it!
We have the sins of all the saints in clear view.
We have the failures, doubts, impetuousness, fear, ignorance of the people of God on full display!

Truth is - conflict happens!
It happens when you least expect it.
It happens when you don't want it.

Eg.
I went off to the Shop in good mood on Thursday. I went round and round looking for a car park until I saw someone pulling out. I put my indicator on and waited. As he pulled out another car saw the park and accelerated up and drove into it in front of me!!!

Now you say,
'It was just a car park!'
But there is a principle here!!!!
I just let the man know that I didn't think that was a very nice thing to do!!
He wished me a happy day and kept walking.

I'm ashamed to say that for the next few minutes I thought of all sorts of things I could do..to his car!!
My wicked mind thought about things like
Tyres
Spray Paint
Eggs!!
Fortunately I remembered I was a Pastor and just moved on!!

Conflict happens everywhere and at anytime!
I love reading John Wesley's diary.
Listen to this.

Sunday, A.M., May 5 Preached in St. Anne's. Was asked not to come back anymore.

Sunday, P.M., May 5 Preached in St. John's. Deacons said “Get out and stay out.”

Sunday, A.M., May 12 Preached in St. Jude's. Can't go back there, either.

Sunday, A.M., May 19 Preached in St. Somebody Else's. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn't return.

Sunday, P.M., May 19 Preached on street. Kicked off street.

Sunday, A.M., May 26 Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.

Sunday, P.M., June 2 Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.

Max Lucado in his book In The Eye Of The Storm tells the story of a fishing trip he took that went sour because of foul weather. Instead of fishing he and the others had to sit around inside waiting for the weather to clear. After a couple of days they are getting on each other's nerves. He made the profound statement that, “when those who are called to fish, don't fish; they fight.”

What can we learn from this conflict with Euodia and Syntyche?
This is a reminder that you cannot be a Christian in the abstract.
You cannot consign Christianity to the deep recesses of the heart and ignore the everyday realities of it!

The most glorious, inspiring, heart lifting sense of God's presence must live side by side with the nitty gritty, uninspiring, ordinary things that confront us everyday!

Christianity doesn't thrive in rarefied air.
It is not a form of escapism where we can just ignore reality while we retreat for a time of sentimental ruminations!

Eugene Peterson does a marvellous job pointing out the fact that glory and earthiness dwell side by side in the ministry of Jesus.

Luke 9 is amazing chapter
Peter, James and John are allowed up to mountain to be with Jesus.
They see him Transfigured
Face shone and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightening.

Then shortly after they came down from the mountain a man confronted Jesus with a demon possessed child and said,
I brought him to your disciples but they could not heal him.

So here are 3 disciples who have seen something of the glory of God on the mountain top with Jesus and the other 9 disciples wrestling with a demon possessed boy they couldn't help.

Do you know what happened next?
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest [Luke 9:46]

How predictable is that?
Who are the greatest...the mountain top disciples or the scrubbers who couldn't get the job done at the foot of the mountain!!!!

Glory and earthy dwell very close together!

At the end of Philippians 3 Paul is writing about ...
Eagerly awaiting the saviour...who by the power that enables him to bring everything under control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

And now in the next stroke of the pen he is talking about sorting out of good, old fashioned dogfight!

Paul doesn't elaborate on the problem and we don't need to know.
We know how easily conflict comes.
Maybe it was about doctrine?
Maybe it was about how to run the thrift shop.
Maybe it was about the way the other was raising their kids.
The truth is, the list of things that cause conflict is endless.

But the bottom line is that Paul loved these two ladies.
They had worked their hearts out to establish that little Church in Philippi.
They had contended at my side for the cause of the gospel [v3]

In short Paul's advice is to sort out this mess, but his longer solution encompasses a broad and glorious vision of the Christian life!

We have tended to think of v2-3 as a cute little side issue before Paul moves on to more warm and fuzzie issues like ..
Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice [v4]
But these things all belong together.

You know we have a number of songs, hymns that take up this theme of
Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice but as far as I know there is no song been written that goes like -

'Euodia and Syntyche had a great fight but they learned to rejoice in the Lord always and let their gentleness be evident to all!'

Paul doesn't just move on from this squirmy issue with a whole lot of other instruction.
This is a vision of the kind of life that solves our conflict.

I am going to come back to this passage next time but for now let's take in the big sweep of what Paul says.
He reminds them the Lord is near.
He calls then to courageous faith that drives us to pray.
He reminds us of a peace that comes only from Jesus.
Then his heart wells up, and in one big rambling sentence in the original Greek, Paul urges to them look at life and others with a wide-eyed wonder and see that which is..

...true. noble.right.pure.lovely.admirable, excellent.praiseworthy

How different from the narrow eyed sinicism with which we often scan one another looking for and seeing that which is annoying and subsequently divisive.

As Kathleen Norris writes in her new book, Amazing Grace, if it is a gathering of like-minded individuals you're looking for, then you should join a political party, not a church. Because in a church what you have is a group of wildly diverse people who share in common mostly just their faith.

Such faith may be the most important thing in the world but it's not always enough to head off the kinds of conflicts and disputes that can so often make life in a congregation difficult.

Let's go back to the start
I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other.
He is not calling on them to finally work out who was wrong and who was right.
Life is far too complex for that.
The answer to Christian unity is not to give up all of the things we disagree on, it is to know WHAT we agree on!

He calls on them to agree that disunity robes the cross of its power.
It robs the very gospel they contended for of its credibility.
Cross is about reconciliation between God and man.
It makes no sense to say we have been reconciled to God and yet remain unreconciled with our sister!

...who's names are in the book of life
That's what he calls them to agree on.
These ladies wouldn't sit together at Church but their names are together in the book of life.
They no longer went to meals at each other's house but their names were in book of life.
One of the things I was blessed with was a great sense of family.
I was not the most well behaved child ever born.
I had a lot of living to do before I got to 15!!

My poor Mum was often hauled into headmasters office to answer questions about me.
She had to front up to parent teacher interviews.
She would sometimes have to listen to complaints of neighbours who told her what I was up to.

But you know when she would come to me and try and deal with the issues she would always say something to me like..
For these other people you are a problem to be solved, but for me you are my son.

She was undeterred from her responsibility in dealing with issues but she ALWAYS dealt with me as a son!
That's what Paul is calling us to.

Conflict..inevitable
Difference...surely
...names in book of life
We are family!