Between a Rock and a Hard Joy - Part 1

Bryan Chapell: In him is my identity. My sin buried his righteousness in my place. And with that identity of who Christ is, I take not only hope, I begin to have perception of the reality of Christ in everything I face. I recognize to live Christ, not just in me, but before me is the reality of the working of Christ. His hand, his working.
Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Brian Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Brian shares a lesson from Philippians Chapter 1. Doctor Chapell highlights the calling of this life, even in hard times. We are to proclaim the message of the gospel, for while there is glory to come, to live is Christ. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for the children's book, Anyway and Always, written by Pastor Brian and his wife Kathy. Through this book, the Chapells present the promise of the covenant fulfilled by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand. Let's hear now from Dr. Brian Chapell, as he shares the lesson, "Unstoppable Joy."
Bryan Chapell: Roll call was at 4:30 AM in Ravensbrook, the concentration camp in North Germany. Corrie Ten Boom would write about it later, saying that in the chill air at 4:30 AM, even mid-winter, the roll call would take sometimes up to three hours in which the women would have to stand in ranks waiting for whatever arbitrary decision was made. One day, the woman standing in front of Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch girl whose father, the watchmaker, had made a decision to hide Jews in their house, watched as the woman in front of her fainting from standing out on the cold, was then beaten mercilessly by the one they would call the beast of Ravensbrook, the hyena, the woman who took her rage unbridled out on those who fell. In that morning as the woman fell, and the beating was so intense, Corrie said, "I did not know if any of us would survive." And just as she herself was about to give up hope, there was a skylark who flew over the camp whose piercing song went through the still cold air, in a way that all heads in the camp rose upward. And Corrie said at that moment, she thought of the scriptures, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the love of God for those who fear him." And in that moment she said, "I realized that the ocean of the mercy of God was more real than the cruelty of humanity." That there was that promise of God that she would cling to, even in the midst of the awfulness of the concentration camp of Ravensbrook. For the next three weeks, right at roll call, the skylark flew and sang, giving them fresh hope and fresh courage. But as you think about it, even though Corrie was believing that God's grace and mercy was higher than the heavens, she was facing awful hurt and harm. Why, why not join the skylark? Why not go to heaven? Thousands already had in Ravensbrook. Thousands already had experienced the merciless nature of humanity. Why not go to the mercy and the rest and the goodness of God? Why not say, "This is done. I want to be with God." It's not just a question of a little old lady in a concentration camp. It's the question of believers facing crisis, or suffering, or abuse, or a shattered relationship, or lost significance. Why, why not just go on? I believe that heaven is real, that God is good, that there's an eternal rest there, that the misery will be behind me. Why not just put it all away? It's even the question of an apostle. Why not just depart to be with Christ, which is far better? His answer is, "The reason is because it's far better for you that the witness of the apostle remain." It's the, the answer that Christians have to have over and over again, "Why not just depart? Why, why choose earth over heaven now?" And the answer is, "Because of the mission of Christ Jesus, which he gives to all who put their faith in him, that he has said, 'Yes, there is glory to come, which is far better, but for now, to live is Christ.'" And that purpose and calling are so important that the apostle, even in prison says, "For me now, I will rejoice, for whether I'm bound to this Roman soldier or released to heaven, I believe that the mercy of God is going to go forward in his purposes for those who call him Lord." Why, why do we need that kind of joy? I mean, the answer is so plain as the apostle describes it in verse 20, "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body." I, I need joy even in the midst of suffering and sorrow and sadness and abuse and hurt. I, I still need this joy in me that God has some purpose for my life. And the reason I need it is because I need courage, whether it's before boss or coworker or spouse or family tragedy or friends looking on. I, I want to speak with courage of the one in whom I have faith, so that Christ be not dishonored. It's living for the sake of another. And the fuel for that kind of joy is itself explained in verse 19, "For I know," Paul says, "that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." I'm, I'm needing the joy to be sustained, the joy that is my strength for the courage that I need. And where does that joy come from? He says, "The prayers of God's people and the Spirit of Jesus Christ." It's a, a combination that the apostle consistently puts together his, in his epistles, that the prayer of God's people becomes the working of God by his spirit so that the purposes of God go forward. It's, it's the great encouragement that we take over and over again in our lives, that in our flesh, we are the candle of God by which he is showing his light to darkness. People around us, people who don't know, people who would reject it. And yet by the prayers of God's people and the working of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, God is making known his name and accomplishing far more than we could ever imagine. It's, it's the message of Romans 8:26-28, where the Apostle Paul, the same apostle says, "We don't know how to pray." Aren't you glad an apostle said that? "We don't know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep to utter." I'm falling asleep in my prayer, and the Holy Spirit is groaning before the throne of God with, with deeper intensity than I can muster. And the consequence is God, who knows the mind of the Spirit, now intercedes not only in according with the will of God, but Romans 8:28, "So that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose." The biblical perspective is that those who are consistently praying before the Lord, that their prayers and the work of the Holy Spirit make us co-creators of a new reality by which God is working all things together for good. And that's giving me such profound understanding of the hand of God on and in my life, that I take joy in all circumstances. There is Corrie Ten Boom, the, the young Dutch girl at that point going through the gate at Ravensbrook. She has on her person, smuggled into her clothes, a little Bible, condensed print for underground workers. And as she watches the women being searched before they go through the gate, the one in the lines ahead of her, she recognizes the Bible, which is her source of hope, will be taken from her. And so she begins to pray, "Lord, send angels to shield the eyes of the guards from the Bible so that I can keep it as I go in to do your work." And then she has this awful thought, "Angels are transparent. The guards will see right through them." Still she prays, and as she gets to the gate, the woman in front of her causes a commotion. The guards all focus on the woman in front of her and push Corrie through the gate with the Bible in her hand. She has this wonderful sense God is with her, regardless of what she must face. It's, it's the reality that we have that God is working through us, that, that we take this pivotal understanding, that through prayer and the working of the Holy Spirit, we have cause for joy even in the hardest of circumstances. And the, the prayers and the purpose of God are put together in verse 21, which is the fruit and the result of lives that see themselves as the candle that God is burning before the world. There Paul says these amazing words, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Those dozen words, some Bible scholars say, "This is the apex of the statement of the gospel in all the scriptures." It's the most balanced statement, so much so that Martin Lloyd Jones, the great English preacher said, "This, even to be explained is to touch the balance and ruin it in some way." This is holy ground where God is stating so clearly and so compactly, "This is the gospel. For me to live now is Christ, and to die is gain." This life or the life to come, both are put in front of us there, balanced perfectly for the work of the gospel. And, and even though it's holy ground, in this moment I ask you to walk on that ground with me, to put aside the sandals that you have of, of worn weariness or shame or guilt or hurt or abuse or suffering and say, "Can we walk on this holy ground and say, what does it mean for me to believe to live is Christ." And to die is only gain.
Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Brian Chapell. Raising children to love the Lord can sometimes feel like a daunting task. The physical, mental, and emotional energy needed to engage with a child can also lead to feelings of inadequacy and doubt for parents. How then can you effectively talk with children about Jesus, or demonstrate to them his love? Written by Pastor Brian and his wife Cathy, "Anyway and Always" is a heartwarming children's book, designed to help explain the love of Christ to a child. The Chapells present the promise of the covenant fulfilled by Christ in a personal and meaningful way for young children to understand. Page after page of beautiful illustrations compliment Brian and Cathy's captivating storytelling. Whether you read this as a bedtime story, or share it around the family dinner table, this book is sure to become a favorite of children and parents alike. You can request your copy of "Anyway and Always" when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. And now, more from Brian Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.
Bryan Chapell: In this moment I ask you to walk on that ground with me, to put aside the sandals that you have of, of worn weariness or shame or guilt or hurt or abuse or suffering and say, "Can we walk on this holy ground and say, what does it mean for me to believe to live is Christ." And to die is only gain. What would that mean? We almost have trouble explaining it because even the words that we take begin to upset the balance. "For me to live is Christ." In the Greek, there's no word "is," no being verbs. If you actually said it in Greek, you would say it simply, "For me to live Christ," as though the looking glass of the world that's bouncing back at us, our faults, our frailties, our crises, our difficulties, as though we have stepped through the looking glass of this world and we're on the other side in the new reality and are saying, "For me to live Christ." That's where I am now. That's my reality. That's my identity. Here am I in Christ. So much so that Christ now is the new reality for me, my identity itself passing away. What Paul would say in Galatians 2 and verse 20, "I'm crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Somehow I have been eclipsed, and because I have been eclipsed for me to live, Christ is my reality now. And the dimensions of that reality are made clear in the unfolding of the verses that are before us. Paul says in verse 20, right at the end, "Now as always, Christ will be honored in my body." As always? Paul, you have been a persecutor of Christians. You have murdered people for what you thought was faith. You, you have suffered. What do you mean now all that's shameful and difficult and dishonoring to Jesus? As always, Christ will be honored in you now. As though there's this eclipsing of the sin and the brokenness of the apostle's life for him now. Christ is his new identity. The way Corrie Ten Boom would say it, and the way she would share it with friends is to say, "All the sin, all the shame in your life is taken away and cast into the midst of the sea." And the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ has put a no fishing sign on the shore. You can't fish in those waters anymore. Your sin has been cast away. Don't fish there anymore. That's no longer your identity. You are made by the work of Jesus Christ, one with his identity. Corrie Ten Boom struggled with that, honestly. I mean, we, we sometimes make her a saint in our notion of what it means to be such a person who gave herself for the sake of others, but she struggled. Do you know with what? With bitterness. The reason that she and her whole family were put into the prison camp was because they were betrayed by a neighbor, a neighbor that they had helped by sharing food under the Nazi occupation. And that neighbor began to believe, "I can get a little more food if I turn in the Ten Booms." And the neighbor did. And then you may remember that Corrie Ten Boom went into the camp with her sister. And the guards, as the women were searched and stripped, leered at the women. She had trouble remembering it particularly later in life when she met one of the guards who had done that. She struggled with the fact that her father would die, her sister would die, her brother would die, all as a consequence of the concentration camps. How does she forgive? How does she forgive the hyena who took those who were stricken and tortured them even more? Just some pleasure out of cruelty. But that wasn't even the hardest thing that she struggled with. It was, it was after the camps. It was when she began to have worldwide ministry and fame by speaking of the reality of Christ in her life, and there was a couple that had supported her in ministry until they became jealous of her fame and notoriety. And then tried to undermine it for their own sakes. And Corrie Ten Boom was honest about how she struggled with unforgiveness, and recognized that God who had forgiven her, wanted her to be able to forgive others, and she would plead to God, "Give me the heart of forgiveness, and forgive me that I struggle with it." And then to remember, "My sin too is cast into the midst of the sea. I bear it no more." There is a no fishing sign there. "I struggle, yes, I struggle, but Christ is my life now. In him is my identity." My sin buried his righteousness in my place. And with that identity of who Christ is, I take not only hope. I begin to have perception of the reality of Christ in everything I face. I recognize to live Christ, not just in me, but before me is the reality of the working of Christ. His hand, his working. So that Paul himself can say at the end of verse 19, even his imprisonment will turn out for my deliverance in Jesus Christ. Hard words if you study it in Greek, because the word deliverance is just the word for salvation. Everything that's happened to me is going to work out for my spiritual eternity. Even this imprisonment, I, I see things happen that are good, things happen that are bad. I, I see the rejoicing of Christians and the suffering of the missionaries, and, and all of this, he says, is, is God's hand in my life, and I begin to believe it. And so I have joy even in the midst of hardship. For Corrie Ten Boom, that meant going through the gates and then being put in a dormitory built for 200, but having 800 women crushed into it for their daily existence. In such close proximity with so little hygiene, the lice began to take over, making miserable life for all of them. But it also meant the guards would not go in the place. And the women were saved from molestation and the greater harms that could have come upon them. And Corrie began to see the hand of God. It's, it's not just that he's in me. He's all around me. He is working. And because he's working, I believe not only is there, is there some perception of Jesus around me, there is a purpose for my life. It's what the apostle will actually say in verse 24, "To remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account," does he say to the Philippians? That, "That God has put me here in this place, chained to a Roman guard." But I believe this is right because the message is going to spread. Somehow by my faithfulness in this hard time, God has a purpose yet for my life. For Corrie Ten Boom, what that meant was as the lice began to occupy the building, remember she still had her Bible? Because the guards would not go in the building, the women, the 800, had prayer meetings with the Bible twice a day. Corrie would later write, "I saw thousands die, but I saw many, many, Jew and Gentile, that went to be with God with Jesus on their lips." God still had a purpose. He was still working. He was still doing what he intended. Paul said, "I'm in a prison." Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You feel imprisoned in a marriage of cruelty. Perhaps there is difficulty in your work situation. There are issues that you are facing, and you say, "I don't know why God would allow this." But if you actually believed, I mean, if it was possible to believe, that for me to live Christ, that, that somehow you believed the reality of Christ was here in the midst of it all, not, not only forgiving you and covering your sin, but the hand of God present. So that there was a purpose to witness before spouse. There was a purpose to witness before coworker and boss. That neighbors were watching you, and this was all part of the plan and the purpose of God for the salvation of many, that God would have a purpose in your life that's far beyond your seeing, far beyond your knowing, and God was actually working that way. What you would begin to plead is, "God, if you have this purpose for me, then give your power." Paul is saying, "Christ is your life." Then that power is available as well. Verse 26, "In me," he says, "you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again." Now Paul has already said he may die. What does it mean to come to them again? It may mean that he'll be released from prison, come in the flesh, or it may mean that he will come with the angels. But whichever way he comes, he say people will say, "God is at work." And for that reason, as they see Paul's life, that candle of God, not only, not only Christ within, but Christ all around, and now filling him with purpose. He begins to say, "You're going to see me and give glory to Christ Jesus." His power is going to be at work so that ultimately you will point to him and say, "Look what God has done."
Guest (Male): That's Pastor Brian Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Brian's daily devotional, sent right to your inbox. While you're there, also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Brian Chapell and his wife Kathy, called "Anyway and Always." We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com, or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again, we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.