©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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7/18/99
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All Things In Christ
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Philippians 4:13
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7/18/99 All Things In Christ
I would like to return today
to what I consider to be
some unfinished business from last week.
We spent our time last week
studying a well known statement
made by the Apostle Paul
in Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things through Him who
strengthens me.
This statement is made
in the context of Paul's final expression
of gratitude and appreciation
to the Philippians
for the supplies they sent him
while he was under house-arrest
in Rome,
waiting for his trial before Caesar
on charges of treason against the Roman
Government.
We saw last week
that Paul's statement "I can do all things
through Him who strengthens me..."
was made by Paul
as an affirmation that his contentment in
life
comes from the presence of Christ
with Him
no matter what his outward circumstances may
be.
In fact, as I was looking over that statement again
this past week
I discovered something
I hadn't seen before.
In the English text
we translate that verse:
Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Him
who strengthens me.
But the literal translation of the verse is this:
Phil. 4:13 I can do all things IN Him who
strengthens me.
Sometimes it bothers me
when the translators tamper with the text for the
sake of clarity or readability.
It bothers me here.
You see,
Paul was not simply saying
that Christ would give him the strength he
needed for the ordeal he was going through,
Paul was saying that Christ Himself WAS the
strength.
Paul's sense of security
and contentment
came from being immersed in the
presence of Christ.
It wasn't just what Christ was giving Him,
it was Christ Himself
that became his contentment.
We bumped up against this distinction
in our discussion last week,
the distinction between
what Christ gives us
and the presence of Christ Himself.
If you were here
you saw then my frustration
with finding ways of putting into words
the difference between simply
possessing the doctrinal knowledge
that Christ is with us,
and actually drawing strength
from the presence of Christ Himself.
Most people in our world
believe that Christianity is a religious system,
a system founded in the teachings of Christ,
and based upon the acceptance of His
life and death and resurrection.
But at its core it is seen as a belief system
that presents a set of doctrinal
and ethical principles
that must be accepted in order to qualify
a person as a Christian.
From the world's perspective,
if a person accepts the basic doctrinal beliefs of
Christianity,
and if they seek to follow the moral and
ethical standards presented by Christianity,
then they would be viewed as a "Christian".
I know I can do nothing,
or very little
to change the world's perception of
Christianity.
But the truth is
it's just not that way.
I don't often do this,
but I'm going to take a few minutes this morning
to read to you
from one of my unfinished writing
projects
with the hope that it may help me
better express something
I didn't express well last week.
Just so that you understand what's going on with
this,
this is written in the first person,
as if the Apostle Peter himself was writing,
sharing with his readers
his own personal thoughts
and responses
and reactions to his life with
Jesus when the Lord was here.
This particular passage
presents Peter's response
to his first extended trip with Jesus
as he traveled with the Master
throughout Israel.
And Peter says...
Though I didn't realize it at the time, Jesus used
our travels together throughout Israel to shape the
presentation of Himself we would follow for the rest
of our lives. From the first moment I met Jesus I
knew He was unlike any other leader I had ever met
before. His message, His miraculous powers, His
endless compassion, and insight, and His total
absence of any ulterior motives were all major
ingredients of that uniqueness. But there was
something else as well, something it took me many
months to fully appreciate, something that ultimately
impacted my own presentation of the Master to the
world more than all the rest. You see, my friend,
Jesus never attempted to win people to Himself.
Unlike all the other leaders I'd ever known, Jesus
never attempted to create a following. He did not
attempt to rally people behind Him, or to manipulate
people's loyalties through all the traditional
leadership techniques. He didn't try to sell Himself
to the masses. He simply sought to present
Himself to the people He met as accurately and
effectively as possible.
His approach to Israel was simple. He stepped
into the center of our world. Through His words
and His actions He enabled everyone to see exactly
who He was and what He was like. Then He
allowed us to decide for ourselves what we would
do about it.
His use of His healing abilities is a good
example. During the time of His public ministry
Jesus healed thousands of people. But not once did
He ever use His healing powers as a hook with
which to hold another human being. Never did He
say, "If you follow me I will heal you.", or
"Because I have healed you, I now expect you to
follow me." He didn't "buy" people with His
powers. He didn't manipulate people with His
persuasive abilities. He just stepped into their lives,
allowed them to see Him as He was, and then gave
them the freedom to decide what they would do
with what they had seen.
Most people were well pleased to take whatever
they could get from the Master and then walk away.
If they wanted healing they would take healing. If
they wanted entertainment they would join the
crowd, watch the show, and listen to the Master
teach. Then, when the party was over, they walked
away unchanged. My brother Matthew liked to call
those people "the multitudes". It was a good name
for them - an unthinking mass of humanity taking
what came without charge, closing their eyes to the
reality of what they were seeing and hearing.
Then there were some who hated Jesus from
the moment He entered town because He threatened
their power and control in the community. They
challenged Him whenever they could, they raised
questions about the source of His power, they
attacked and undermined His work whenever they
had the chance, and they rejoiced when He walked
out of town.
And finally, there were those of us who...well,
those who entered into His love. That entrance
came through our fulfilling only one requirement -
we had to want Him, on His terms, more than we
wanted anything else. There were thousands and
thousands who wanted what He could give. There
were not many who wanted Him. But something
amazing took place in our lives when we reached
that point. I can only describe it by saying He gave
us Himself. He allowed us to see His heart and in
so doing He created between Himself and each of us
a depth of intimacy unlike anything else we'd ever
known before. He ceased to be just the Prophet, or
the Healer, or the great Teacher, and became our
friend. He listened to us. He laughed with us. He
lived with us. He opened up His heart and His mind
before us and what we saw there changed everything
forever because what we saw there was ourselves.
WE were in His heart, in His mind. Having once
seen that, life could never be the same again. Most
of those we encountered, however, were never able
to see His heart because they were never willing to
give Him theirs.
During the years since His departure I have tried
hard to duplicate the pattern Jesus modeled for us
when He was here. It is not my responsibility to
attempt to sell Jesus to the world or rally the masses
to follow His teachings. It is my responsibility to
present Him as simply and accurately as possible and
let each person decide for themselves what they will
do with the Master. The few who submit to Him on
His terms will know His heart and His love as I have
known it. The rest will walk away. Or worse, they
will attempt to use Him for their own ends.
Already our Christian world is filled with those
who are busy building their little empires in the name
of Jesus. Brother Paul made a comment in one of
the letters he wrote to the Christians at Corinth. He
said, "We are not like many, peddling the word of
God." And there are many. I can hear them now,
"Who wants salvation? Who wants healing? Who
wants peace? Step right up! Jesus can give you
what you want." The focus, of course, is always on
what WE want, not on what HE wants. And the
result is an endless river of religious sewage flowing
out of the septic system of our own selfish pride.
My goal in that passage
was to present what I believe to be
the great destructive lie
about true Christianity.
For Peter and the other disciples in the first century
true Christianity
was simply entrance into a personal
friendship with Christ,
a friendship which involved
submission to
and trust in the Person of Christ.
The key ingredient, though,
was not simply that they liked and believed what
Jesus taught,
it was that they chose to live in a trust
friendship with Christ Himself.
The teachings of Jesus
were not the deciding factor.
The truth is, most of the time
the disciples totally misunderstood
what Jesus was teaching,
and even when they did understand
they often refused to submit to it.
But it wasn't the teachings
that made them Christian -
it was the friendship with Christ Himself.
And it is exactly the same way today.
The great dividing line
between "Christian" and "non-Christian"
is not doctrine.
It is the Person of Jesus Christ Himself.
I think my own entrance into Christ
has helped me a great deal with this whole
thing.
You see,
I was a "Christian" by the world's standards
long before I ever met Christ.
I was raised in a home
in which church involvement
and faithful "Christian" living
were high priorities.
I accepted the basic doctrines
and moral teachings of Christianity
all the way through my childhood.
I was absolutely "Christian"
by both my own definition of the term
and by the universally accepted definition of
the world in which we live.
But it was not until Christ Himself
confronted me with Himself during my
sophomore year in college
that I wrestled with the central issue of true
Christianity.
He wanted my life.
He didn't want my pledge of allegiance
to the Christian doctrinal system,
or my assurance that I would
always live by the Christian code
of ethics and morals.
He just wanted me.
He didn't care if I had been a good boy
or a bad boy by society's standards,
He didn't care what I accepted
or didn't accept from His teachings
and the teachings of Scripture.
All He wanted to know
is whether or not I was willing
to submit to Him as my Lord on His terms.
Did I want HIM in my life?
And when I finally agreed
and accepted His offer of Himself to me,
for the first time in my life
I entered into His love.
My point in this whole thing is simply this:
it is not our doctrinal belief system
that makes us a Christian,
it is the presence of Christ in our lives.
The truth is,
I have had far more trouble
in my relationship with the teachings of
Christ since becoming a Christian
than I ever did before.
You see, before I came to Christ,
or He came to me,
the doctrine didn't matter all that much.
It was simply a system of ideas
and beliefs.
I could bat it around
and philosophize about it
like any other set of ideas
and it affected me very little.
But once the Person and Presence of Christ
became the greatest reality of life,
it all became so real,
so personal.
There have been times as a Christian
when I have said to myself
and to my Lord,
"There is no way what You have said here will
work!
There is no way my needs
can be met within the boundaries You're
giving me!"
And more often than not
His response to my frustrations
seems to be one that says,
"That's OK, Larry. I know right now
you don't understand what I've said and you
certainly don't understand why I've said it.
But you trust Me.
And you and I are in this together.
I will never leave you,
and I will never forsake you.
And in time you will understand."
I've brought this whole thing up
because I wanted to try one more time
to explain what Paul is saying
when he says,
Phil. 4:13 I can do all things in Him who
strengthens me.
He could live in humble means,
or in plenty.
He could suffer need,
or he could have an abundance.
He could go hungry,
not because he accepted
or even always understood what Christ was
doing or why,
but rather because he went through all those
things
in the presence of Christ.
During my first full year in Trinidad in 1970
I met a boy we called Little Barry.
He was about ten or eleven years old,
and he was deaf.
He'd been deaf ever since his older brother
had kicked him down a flight of stairs
when he was about two years old.
Little Barry and I got to be great friends.
We worked out our own little system of sign
language,
and most afternoons
for most of that year
Little Barry would just hang out at
my house.
My transportation for that year
was a little 90cc Kawasaki motorcycle
and one of Little Barry's most favorite things
in life
was to be able to go for a ride with me on
that motorcycle.
Then came a time when
for several days Little Barry didn't come to my
house for a visit.
I finally asked one of the other kids in the
neighborhood where he was.
He told me Little Barry had a terrible tooth ache
and was just laying at home hurting.
I asked him to go get Little Barry and bring him to
me.
When Little Barry arrived
it was obvious he was in pain.
I asked him to open his mouth
and even I could see
the painful decay in one of his back molars.
I couldn't tell him what I wanted to do
because he couldn't hear me,
but I made our special sign
asking him if he wanted to go on a
motorcycle ride with me.
He nodded yes,
and he and I got on the bike
and took off.
But rather than just riding around the neighborhood,
this time we went into the heart of Port-Of
Spain, the capitol city.
We stopped in front of a building
Little Barry had never seen.
When we got off the bike
and started walking into the building
he looked at me
and with his eyes he said as clear as
could be,
"Larry, what are we doing here?"
I couldn't tell him.
I just put my hand on his shoulder
and tried my best to ask him to trust me.
And he did.
We walked into the Dentist's office,
waited until we were called,
and then we walked together into the
examination room.
Little Barry had never been to a dentist before.
He had no idea what was going to happen.
But he trusted me.
And because he trusted me
he followed my instructions.
Standing next to Little Barry that day
holding his hand while the dentist
pulled that rotted tooth,
unable to explain to him
what was happening,
or why,
was the hardest experience for me of that entire
year.
But it has helped me to understand a little better
what Paul is saying in Phil. 4:13
when he says:
I can do all things in Him who strengthens
me.
Little Barry allowed me to take him through pain
not because I could explain to him
what was happening or why,
but simply because he trusted me,
and because he knew I loved him,
and because I was there with him.
And sometimes that's the way it is
in our relationship with our Lord.
He can't explain to us what's going to happen,
or why,
but because He loves us,
and because He goes through the pain
with us,
we, too, can do all things in Him
who strengthens us.