The Lord is At Hand
Introduction
Major Ideas
Characteristic #1: The church should be a people agreeing (vv. 2-3).
Reconciliation often requires third-party intervention, in this case a true companion. This person is unnamed in the ESV, although the word (Gk. syzygos, “true yokefellow,” see ESV footnote) could be read as a proper name. Paul is especially eager to see Euodia and Syntyche reconciled because they have labored side by side with him in the gospel. Cf. 1:27, where Paul also encourages unity among those who are “striving side by side” (Gk. synathleō, the same verb used here) for the gospel. Paul did not isolate himself and minister alone; he deliberately worked with many others. In view of first-century culture, Euodia and Syntyche probably ministered mainly among women (cf. notes on Acts 18:26; Rom. 16:7; 1 Tim. 2:12). The book of life has OT roots (e.g., Ex. 32:33; Ps. 69:28; cf. Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27) and refers to God’s record of those who belong to him.
The best explanation is to leave suzugos untranslated and take it as a proper name. That Paul calls him true or genuine Suzugos is a play on words, indicating that Suzugos was a genuine yokefellow and thus lived up to his name. Paul made a similar play on words in Philemon 10–11, “I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful [Onesimus means “useful”] both to you and to me.” Similarly Barnabas lived up to his name, which means “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36). Suzugos was a genuine yokefellow, just as Onesimus was genuinely useful and Barnabas was a true son of encouragement.
Paul also had a personal reason for wanting Euodia and Syntyche to be reconciled: they had shared his struggle in the cause of the gospel. Sunathleō (shared my struggle) means “to fight alongside of” or “labor together with.” As noted above, Euodia and Syntyche may have been two of the women who heard Paul preach when he first came to Philippi (Acts 16:13). If so, they witnessed the turbulent events that marked the founding of the Philippian church. After Lydia’s conversion (16:14), the apostle and his ministry team stayed with her at her home (16:15). After being harassed for several days by a fortune-telling, demon-possessed girl (16:16–17), Paul finally cast the demon out of her (16:18). Her masters, infuriated by the loss of her moneymaking potential, hauled Paul and Silas before the authorities (16:19–21). As a result, the two preachers were beaten and thrown into jail (16:22–24). But God sent an earthquake and released them from prison, which led to the jailer’s conversion (16:25–34). After discovering to their horror that they had beaten and wrongfully imprisoned Roman citizens, the frightened authorities begged Paul and Silas to leave Philippi (16:35–39). They did so after a last visit to the believers gathered in Lydia’s house (16:40).
The tragic conflict between Euodia and Syntyche reveals that even the most mature, faithful, and committed people can become so selfish as to be embroiled in controversy if they are not diligent to maintain unity.
Nothing is known of Clement, so there is no way to identify him with the Clement who was bishop of Rome at the close of the first century, as some have.
Characteristic #2: The church should be a people rejoicing (v. 4).
Undertakers
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of “the greatest justice since John Marshall.” At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”
Moody Bible Institute’s Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 13.
But joy is not a feeling; it is the deep-down confidence that God is in control of everything for the believer’s good and His own glory, and thus all is well no matter what the circumstances.
Another reason for believers to rejoice is that God has promised to supply all their needs. Paul reminded the Philippians, “God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Let Your Balloon Go
A conference at a Presbyterian church in Omaha. People were given helium-filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren’t free to say “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.” All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over one-third of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go.
Bruce Larson, Luke, p. 43
Resource
Christians
As a third-century man was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: “It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians—and I am one of them.”
Moody Bible Institute’s, Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 18
#3: The church should be a people forbearing (v. 5a).
epieikēs. Perhaps the best corresponding English word is graciousness—the graciousness of humility; the humble graciousness that produces the patience to endure injustice, disgrace, and mistreatment without retaliation, bitterness, or vengeance. It is contentment.
Statesman and Financier
British statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes, whose fortune was used to endow the world-famous Rhodes Scholarships, was a stickler for correct dress—but apparently not at the expense of someone else’s feelings. A young man invited to dine with Rhodes arrived by train and had to go directly to Rhodes’s home in his travel-stained clothes.
Once there he was appalled to find the other guests already assembled, wearing full evening dress. After what seemed a long time Rhodes appeared, in a shabby old blue suit. Later the young man learned that his host had been dressed in evening clothes, but put on the old suit when he heard of his young guest’s dilemma.
Today in the Word, February, 1991, p. 10
Preaching Themes: Character, Honesty
Spanish runner Iván Fernández Anaya was running in second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2012 London Olympics. As the runners came toward the finish, he was trailing the leader, Abel Mutai from Kenya, by a distance too great to overcome. Mutai would get the gold and Anaya would settle for silver.
Then Mutai made a big mistake. Thinking he had crossed the finish line, the Kenyan pulled up 10 meters short. Anaya quickly caught up and that is when his integrity kicked in. Instead of exploiting Mutai’s mistake by passing him and claiming victory, he stayed behind, using gestures to guide Mutai to the finish so he could cross first.
“He was the rightful winner,” Fernández Anaya said. “He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn’t going to pass him.”
It is better to be proud of a silver medal honestly attained than wear a gold medal that rightfully belonged to another.
—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell
When Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy he once remarked to his mother, “Momma, you can’t be good without praying.” “How do you know, Robert?” she asked. “Because I’ve tried!” he answered.
Morning Prayer
Dear God,
So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help.
Prayer a Privilege
A comment by Robert A. Cook, president of The King’s College in New York, renewed my appreciation for the privilege of prayer. Speaking at the Moody Bible Institute, Cook said that the day before, he had been at a gathering in Washington and had talked with Vice President George Bush. Two hours later he spoke briefly with President Ronald Reagan. Then smiling broadly, Cook told us, “But that’s nothing! Today I talked with God!”
Our Daily Bread
Dear God: Please help me is school. I need help in spelling, adding, history, geography and writing. I don’t need help in anything else. - Lois, 9
#5: The church should be a place of peace (v. 7).
A Prayer Life Costs
British writer Samuel Chadwick had this to say: “To pray as God would have us pray is the greatest achievement on earth. Such a prayer life costs. It takes time….All praying saints have spent hours every day in prayer….In these days, there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray.” - H.G.B.
Our Daily Bread, November 17
Quotes
• God’s child can conquer anything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian or to hinder him in the use of it? - Andrew Murray
• Prayer should be the means by which I receive all that I need, and for this reason, be my daily refuge, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy. - O. Hallesby
• Prayer is the hand that takes to ourselves the blessings that God has already provided in His Son. - R. A. Torrey
• If in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door back and let God in, every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God. - Oswald Chambers
• Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid. - E. M. Bounds
• Prayer goes by faith into the great orchard of God’s exceeding great and precious promises, and with hand and heart picks the ripest and richest fruit. - E. M. Bounds
• We need to learn to know Him so well that we feel safe when we have left our difficulties with Him. - O. Hallesby
• God’s greatest movements in this world have been conditioned on, continued and fashioned by prayer. God has put Himself in these great movements just as men have prayer. Persistent, prevailing, conspicuous and mastering prayer has always brought God to present. How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide its reach! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not do if prayer was not offered. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. The only limits to prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises. - E. M. Bounds
• Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray—to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight—all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice. - Robert E. Lee
• The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing, but it is the chief thing. The great people of earth are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray. - S. D. Gordon
• William Gurnall, the Puritan preacher, used to say, “When people do not mind what God speaks to them in His Word, God doth as little mind what they say to Him in prayer.”
• Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men and women. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. - Phillips Brooks
• Without time for prayer, nothing can be accomplished. - Scroggie
• He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. - John Bunyan
• Pray as though everything depended on God; work as though everything depended on you. - Augustine
• Keep praying, but be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your prayers! - William Culbertson
• What ever is made a matter of prayer should cease to be. - Anon
• I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day. - A. Lincoln
• When asked how much time he spent in prayer, George Mueller’s reply was, “Hours every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming.” - Anon
• There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. - Anon
• Too many people pray like little boys who knock at doors, then run away. - War Cry
• When praying, do you give instructions? or report for duty? - Anon
• It was your Lord who put an end to long-windedness, so that you would not pray as if you wanted to teach God by your many words. Piety, not verbosity, is in order when you pray, since He knows your needs. Now someone perhaps will say: ‘But if He knows our needs, why should we sate our requests even in a few words? Why should we pray at all? Since He knows, let Him give what He deems necessary for us.’ Even so, He wants you to pray so that He may confer His gifts on one who really desires them and will not regard them lightly. - Augustine
• For more than half a century, I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 40 years, I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. I have nine assistants always at work corresponding in German, French, English, Danish, Italian, Russian, and other languages. Then, as pastor of a church with 1200 believers, great has been my care. I have had charge of five orphanages; also at my publishing depot, the printing and circulation of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles. But I have always made it a rule never to begin work till I have had a good season with God. - George Mueller
• There is a divine principle in regard to prayer which runs all through the Scriptures. It is that God is pleased to unite His people with Himself in whatever He is about to do. He first of all leads them to pray, and then does what He intends in answer to their prayers. - Russell Elliott
• Prayer is a weapon, a mighty weapon in a terrible conflict. Our prayers are to be a continual, conscious, earnest effort of battle, the battle against whatever is not God’s will. - P. T. Forsyth
• Prayer is “a sincere, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.” - John Bunyan
• What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more. - Robert Murray McCheyne
• It was your Lord who put an end to long-windedness, so that you would not pray as if you wanted to teach God by your many words. Piety, not verbosity, is in order when you pray, since He knows your needs. Now someone perhaps will say: ‘But if He knows our needs, why should we state our requests even in a few words? Why should we pray at all? Since He knows, let Him give what He deems necessary for us.’ Even so, He wants you to pray so that He may confer His gifts on one who really desires them and will not regard them lightly. - Augustine
• When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words, than thy words without heart. - Martin Luther
• Prayer is no more inconsistent with the unchangeable purposes of God, than the use of any other means; for God in forming his purposes had respect to all appropriate means of producing the intended ends, and among these prayer has an important place. - Archibald Alexander
• Words are but the body, the garment, the outside of prayer; sighs are nearer the heart work. A dumb beggar getteth an alms at Christ’s gates, even by making signs, when his tongue cannot plead for him…Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping. - Samuel Rutherford
• Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you. - Martin Luther
• When I cannot pray I always sing. - Martin Luther
• The fewer the words, the better the prayer. To have prayed well is to have studied well. - Martin Luther
• “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.” - C. S. Lewis
• “God can pick sense out of a confused prayer.” - Richard Sibbes
• “There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for him.” - William Law
• “If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.” - Martin Luther
• Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers. - Sidlow Baxter
• I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach. (Charles Spurgeon)
• Nothing can so quickly cancel the frictions of life as prayer. If you find yourself growing angry at someone, pray for him—anger cannot live in an atmosphere of prayer. (William T. McElroy)
• You need not cry very loud; He is nearer to us than we think. (Brother Lawrence)
• If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. (Robert Murray McCheyne)
• The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not! (J. Hudson Taylor)
• May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love, and joy of God’s presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of my self as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love.” Andrew Murray
• Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers. (J. Sidlow Baxter)
• What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer. (E. M. Bounds)
• The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray. (Samuel Chadwick)
• The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history. (Andrew Murray)
• Sir Isaac Newton said that he could take his telescope and look millions and millions miles into space. Then he added, “But when I lay it aside, go into my room, shut the door, and get down on my knees in earnest prayer, I see more of heaven and feel closer to the Lord than if I were assisted by all the telescopes on earth.”
• When Luther’s puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes; he (Martin Luther) said, ‘Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish or hope.’” - Luther’s Tabletalk
• “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.” - E. M. Bounds
• “I have been benefited by praying for others; for by making an errand to God for them I have gotten something for myself.” - Samuel Rutherford
• “He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn.” - John Trapp
• “God never denied that soul anything that went as far as heaven to ask for it.” - John Trapp
• “Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven.” - Thomas Brooks
• “I fear John Knox’s prayers more than an army of ten thousand men.” - Mary, Queen of Scotland
• “But some one will say, Does He not know without a monitor both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit Him by our prayers, as if He were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? Those who argue thus attend not to the end for which the Lord taught us to pray. It is not so much for His sake as for ours. He wills indeed, as is just, that due honor be paid Him by acknowledging that all which men desire or feel to be useful, and pray to obtain, is derived from Him. But even the benefit of the homage which we thus pay Him rebounds to ourselves.” - John Calvin
• “I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous.” - Thomas Lye
• “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” - Westminster Shorter Catechism
• “The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel.” - Thomas Watson
• “Christ went more readily ad crucem (to the cross), than we do to the throne of grace.” - Thomas Watson
• “When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words without heart.” - John Bunyon
• “You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” - John Bunyon
• “Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.” - John Bunyon
• “Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for His divine perfection, our gratitude for all His mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in His forgiving love, our submission to His authority, our confidence in His care, our desires for His favor, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others.” - Charles Hodge
• “Yea, but we have waited a long time. Well, but yet know that you are at the right door.” - Jeremiah Burroughs
• “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson
• “Lord, teach us to pray.” (one of Jesus’ disciples, Luke 11:1)
• The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - Samuel Chadwick (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Keep praying, and be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your prayers! - William Culbertson (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan. - John Bunyan (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Andrew Bonar kept a card on his mantel that read, “He who has truly prayed has completed the half of his study.” - Marjorie Bonar (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The only way to trouble God is not to come at all. - Anon (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Some men’s prayers need to be cut short at both ends and set on fire in the middle. - Dwight L. Moody (Prokope, January-March, 1998, p. 2)
• Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of men? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. C.S. Lewis
• The object of most prayers is to wangle an advance on good intentions. - Robert Brault
#6: The church should be a people thinking (v. 8).
Half a Head of Lettuce
A man working in the produce department was asked by a lady if she could buy half a head of lettuce. He replied, “Half a head? Are you serious? God grows these in whole heads and that’s how we sell them!”
“You mean,” she persisted, “that after all the years I’ve shopped here, you won’t sell me half-a-head of lettuce?”
“Look,” he said, “If you like I’ll ask the manager.” She indicated that would be appreciated, so the young man marched to the front of the store. “You won’t believe this, but there’s a lame-braided idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a-head of lettuce.” He noticed the manager gesturing, and turned around to see the lady standing behind him, obviously having followed him to the front of the store. “And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half,” he concluded.
Later in the day the manager cornered the young man and said, “That was the finest example of thinking on your feet I’ve ever seen! Where did you learn that?”
“I grew up in Grand Rapids, and if you know anything about Grand Rapids, you know that it’s known for its great hockey teams and its ugly women.”
The manager’s face flushed, and he interrupted, “My wife is from Grand Rapids!” “And which hockey team did she play for?”
Source Unknown
When You Can’t Read You Got to Think
A man had bought a new gadget-unassembled, of course—and after reading and rereading the instructions he couldn’t figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought the help of an old handyman who was working in the backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces, studied them, then began assembling the gadget. In a short time, he had it put together. “That’s amazing,” said the man. “And you did it without even looking at the instructions!” “Fact is,” said the old man, “I can’t read, and when a fellow can’t read, he’s got to think.”
Bits and Pieces, February, 1990, p. 2
#7: The church should be a people practicing (v. 9).
Hard Work!
Nothing worthwhile or long-lasting can be achieved without hard work. Former basketball great Sen. Bill Bradley once said that during his Princeton days, his father would tell him, “Son, when you’re not out practicing, someone else is. And when you meet that person, he’s going to beat you.”
Rep. Gary Franks, Searching for the Promised Land: An African American’s Optimistic Odyssey (HarperCollins), quoted in Reader’s Digest, August, 1996, p. 147
Natural Nothing
Ted Williams, baseball superstar of 40s and 50’s was known as a “natural hitter.” Once was asked about this natural ability and replied, “There is no such thing as a natural-born hitter. I became a good hitter because I paid the price of constant practice, constant practice.”
Ted Engstrom, The Making of a Christian Leader, p. 95
Notre Dame Football
Quarterback Tony Rice led Notre Dame’s football team to a national championship in 1988. Before the season, sportswriters wondered whether Notre Dame could beat the tough teams with a quarterback like Rice, whose passing often was inaccurate.
They didn’t know that coach Lou Holtz had brought Rice a dart board and told him to practice throwing darts an hour a day. Rice didn’t see how that would help his passing, but he did as his coach said. Soon he began to throw passes with more accuracy and confidence—both of which were evidenced in a banner season.
Imitating Major League Batters
Luke 6:40; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Ephesians 5:1–2
Preaching Themes: Discipleship
Gar Ryness never thought he would be famous. It all started as a prank video shot in his backyard where he began imitating famous batting stances of Major League Baseball players with a Whiffle ball bat. A year and a couple of million YouTube video hits later, he was on the David Letterman Show doing his shtick. Ryness said, “The whole thing is just so ridiculous. I’m still not believing the hype.… I have the least marketable skill in America.” Now he is known as “the batting stance guy” and has become a phenomenon among fans and players alike.
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. As Christians, we are to be imitators of Jesus Christ. That is how we show him that we love him.
—Jim L. Wilson and David Johnson