He was a soldier in the Roman army, serving his tour of duty in the city of Philippi. He had been assigned to guard the prisoners in the jail and did his duty the way any other soldier would. He knew what was expected of him and he knew the penalty if he didn't obey. So he did what he had to do.
One night he was assigned to watch the prisoners during the evening hours. There had been a disturbance in town during the day, some rabble-rousers had caused problems for a fortune teller, a slave girl, so that she couldn't tell fortunes any more and the crowd turned against them. The two trouble makers were arrested, they got their due – a good beating to cool their heads. And were thrown into prison. The soldier was given orders to keep an eye on them so he put them in the stocks in the high security area.
Usually a good beating and a night in shackles is enough to break anybody down. But these prisoners were different. Their spirits weren't broken. Far from it. They didn't argue between themselves. They didn't pass blame to each other. In fact they seemed to be perfectly okay with their plight. They even started to sing. Not the drinking songs that he was used to hearing, that most of his prisoners were familiar with. They sang hymns and psalms. He was unnerved by it. It got to him.
And then it happened. By chance there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its very foundations. Enough so that the prison doors all fell off and the prisoners were set free. In the quake something must have landed on the guard's head so that he blacked out. When he came-to he saw the doors hanging off their hinges and he knew what had happened. Surely by now the prisoners were all long gone and he was going to be answerable. He knew the penalty. Any prisoner gets away and he had to pay for it with his life. Easier and probably less painful to do the job himself so he got out his sword and prepared to take his life. But just then a voice from the inner cell called out to him to stop. It was one of the singers. “Stop.” He said, “Don't hurt yourself. We are all here.”
The jailer had all he could take. He ran in to the prison, fell at the feet of his prisoner and begged him and his friend to tell him what he must do to be saved.
The prisoners were Paul and Silas. The story was no story. It's history recorded by St Luke in the book of Acts. You can read it yourself in chapter 16. Paul and Silas traveled to the city of Philippi where they preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the city. They were arrested and imprisoned and the result of their imprisonment was the conversion of this jailer.
I imagine when Paul wrote the words of our text, the letter to church in the city of Philippi, when he mentioned how he remembered them fondly in his prayers, the name of this Roman soldier must have come to his mind. I imagine, when these words were read for the first time at the church in Philippi, the soldier and his entire family must have thought back to that night when they took this prisoner into their home to bandage his wounds; how taught them about a man named Jesus who was God and who died to save them from their sins, and how he baptized them as believers in Jesus for their Salvation.
In our text, Paul mentions a “good work” that God began. That night was the beginning of the “good work” that Paul mentions here in our Epistle reading for today, the good work that was begun by the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of this soldier through the preaching of God's word and through his conversion to faith in Jesus. And Paul says that he who began that good work would be faithful, that he would see that good work through to the end, through to the end of his life and to the very last day when Jesus would return in Glory to judge the living and the dead.
And it was a good thing too, because it wasn't easy to be a soldier in the roman army. Roman soldiers were pagans. They worshiped pagan gods. They believed in luck and fortune telling. They wanted to stay alive and so they looked for help from any spirit or god they thought could give them help. They were a rough and tumble bunch. Not given to kindness and gentleness. You don't survive as a soldier by apologizing to people. They were immoral, given to prostitution and gambling and all kinds of vices. This man had his work cut out for him. But he was cut to heart by the preaching of the missionary and so he repented of his sin and he hoped to do better.
In that sense, in all those ways that we mentioned, the life of this Roman soldier isn't too different from our own, is it? It has been said that we live in a post Christian era. People used to believe in God, they used to know and respect Jesus. They used to know and respect what it means to be a follower of Jesus. These days, people don't care. They care to be spiritual, mind you, but Buddhism, mysticism, neo-paganism, is all just as good as any other kind of religion. We live in a immoral society. Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, and now Adam Lambert have all flaunted their sexuality and dared us to condemn them. People these days are dishonest, likely to steal if given the opportunity, likely to cheat if they know they can get away with it. Likely to lash out at you if you would dare to tell them they are wrong. The more the world changes the more it stays the same. Wouldn't you agree?
So Paul gives those comforting words to the soldier and his family struggling to remain pure and blameless and excellent and praiseworthy in a world that is immoral and impure and filthy. “He who began the good work will also see it to completion.” He who called you to faith, who brought you to faith who raised you from the death of unbelief and gave you the new life of faith will keep you alive, resuscitate you if he has to, give you spiritual mouth to mouth to keep you living and breathing as a child of God until the day of Jesus.
That was good news for the Philippians. That is good news for us. God does not leave us to ourselves. He who called us to faith has promised to keep us in that faith through to the very end.
This past week we have all witnessed the melt down of Tiger Woods as evidence has come out to suggest infidelity in his marriage. One who seemed so straight and controlled seems to have a dark side. In truth, we should not be surprised. Tiger Woods is a sinner, the way any one of us is a sinner. Tiger is enormously successful. An abundance of the world's goods attracts an abundance of the world's temptations. Any one of us in the same situation might very well do the same thing.
Consider King David, a man after God's own heart, who had a similar indiscretion with Bathsheba – even going so far as to murder her husband to cover his sin. If there had been super market tabloids in his day, imagine what the headlines would have been. Imagine the news reporters who would have camped outside his home to catch a glimpse or uncover a little bit more dirt. The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.
The truth is, Roman Soldiers, Kings and Giant killers, professional golfers, and every day people like you and me all need Christ's forgiveness. We all do stupid things that we know we shouldn't do. We all are a hair's breadth away from our own scandal. We all need the forgiveness and healing and restoration that is ours only through the power of the One who is faithful, who does not abandon us, but sees us through, faithfully keeping to that good work that he began in us so long ago, promising to bring it to it's completion at the very end.
David had his scandal. God did not leave him to flounder in his sin. Instead God mercifully sent the prophet Nathan to him to convict him of his wrong, to uncover his wickedness (which is sure to have been painful) and then to restore him. The Spirit that David had denied, had refused to give up so easily. He stayed with David. He pierced his heart with his own guilt and crushed his spirit with his own shame. But, David wrote, “Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me.”
In our text Paul mentions that he pray for the Philippians. He gives the content of that prayer. “That your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God.”
There's a lot there. There is much that is of significance and importance. Allow me break it down for you.
It is Paul's desire that the lives of the Philippian Christians be changed. Whether you were a soldier in the Roman army, a merchant, a common laborer or a slave, life was filled with temptations. Paul did not want them to give way to those temptations – he wanted them to be pure and blameless. But that doesn't just happen – not when sinful people live in a sinful world. That only happens with Jesus. That only happens when the one who began the good work sees it through to the end. The only way to make it happen, the only way to be filled with love, to be pure and blameless, to possess that knowledge and discernment, the only way to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, is to be where Jesus Christ is. Where he has promised to be for you.
David said, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean.” he was referring to the rites of temple sacrifice. The priests would sprinkle the worshipers with blood from the sacrifice with a branch from a hyssop tree. David, when he was caught in his sin, when he was guilty and shamed and broken, went to church. God restored his heart and made him new.
In the same way, Christians go where God has commanded them to go, Christians go where God has promised He will be: in church. In the means of grace. In the preaching and the reading of the Word. In the absolution. In baptism. In the Lord's Supper. Release from bondage to sin, restoration to life as God's child comes through God's forgiveness given out where he promises to give it. We come here. We confess our sins. God takes them from us and we are made whole.
This world is a minefield of temptation. Any soldier in God's army has their work cut out for them if they hope to make it through without stepping in something that will blow up in their face. So we do our best to navigate our way through the temptations, searching the Word of God for wisdom and discernment to keep us safe along the way. But we are careless. We are foolish. We fall to temptations that hurt us and would destroy us. But God heals. God restores. Through the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross we are once again made whole. May we be, all the days of our lives, where Jesus is for us.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment