人生のフォーカス
By Pastor Maki Umakoshi
While I was quarantined for several days due to Covid, I watched a TV drama. Some of you may know it. It’s called Queens Gambit. It is a story set in 1950s America about a girl who is a genius at chess and becomes a world champion. When I told my wife that this story was interesting, she said, “You’re really late getting on board.” Apparently, this drama was quite popular last year, but it motivated me to do something. I decided to start playing chess. When I told my wife, she responded, “You are really simple.” So, I’ve been playing chess almost every day for the past 3-4 weeks.
For the first week or so, I could hardly win. I even lost to my 7-year-old daughter. As I wondered why I couldn’t win, I discovered it’s because I didn’t understand the fundamental concept of chess in the first place. In chess, there are six kinds of pieces, and each piece has particular strategic importance. For example, this pawn is worth one point. The bishop is worth three points. The knight, like the bishop, is worth three points. The duke is a whopping five points. Knowing this, we are always required to decide what to sacrifice and keep. I couldn’t win at chess because I tried to keep all my pieces from being taken.
To win in chess, you have to constantly decide what is most important and what is not.
It’s the same with our lives. Faced with various opportunities and problems, I have to constantly make decisions about what is necessary and is not. There are times when we don’t know where to send our daughters to school, what job to get, or what we need to focus on to get things done. I also think that sometimes we get distracted by things that are not so important. We get distracted by unimportant, trivial things, and we go through life not doing what we really need to do.
We’re constantly preoccupied with our relationships, complaining about that person, gossiping about this person, and then we stop and wonder what the heck we’ve been doing.
So today, I would like to consider with you what we should focus on in our lives. With that question in mind, I would like to take a look at today‘s scripture passage from Philippians to see what Paul focused on in his life when he wrote this letter. Before I begin, let me pray for you and for myself. (Prayer)
[What has happened to me.]
I would like to read from Philippians chapter 1, verse 12.
12Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.
First of all, when Paul says, “what has happened to me,” he is talking about all the hardships he went through. If you read the book of Acts, you will find that when Paul finished his third missionary trip, he was caught by the Jews who were jealous of him in Jerusalem. He was falsely accused, and the people of the city beat him to a pulp. The whole city was in turmoil because of the riots, and eventually, the Roman soldiers came and captured Paul. Paul is now under arrest by the Roman soldiers, and just before he is tortured, he plays his trump card of being a Roman citizen. This is like Mito Komon approach of “Do you not see this?” holding up his Roman citizenship certificate. At that time, it was forbidden to punish a person with Roman citizenship without a trial, so Paul managed to escape the Roman torture.
After that, Paul was transferred to the city of Caesarea, where the Roman governor was located and spent two years in prison there. After that, to avoid being judged by the Jewish law in Jerusalem, Paul again used his Roman citizenship to appeal directly to the Roman emperor.
So, Paul was finally transported to on a prison ship to Rome. While at sea, the ship encountered a storm and was shipwrecked. Somehow, he managed to reach an island and finally arrived in Rome, where he spent his life under house arrest in a Roman house.
In this passage, Paul says, “I want you to know that everything that happened to me ended up advancing the gospel, which means that “all the hardships I went through to get to Rome ended up spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In other words, Paul did not focus on the tremendous hardships but on the gospel that came out of those hardships, and he lived a life focusing on it. If Paul had not lived his life with an eye on the gospel, he probably would have thought that my life was over when he arrived in Rome.
He must have thought that there was nothing more he could do and that his future was bleak. But the most important thing for Paul was the gospel. Therefore, even though he lost his freedom in Rome, he didn’t stop working for the gospel, did he? As a matter of fact, while Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote four letters: Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. All of this was because Paul’s life was focused on the gospel.
What are you focusing on in your life today?
One thing here reminds me of a family I was close to when I lived in Korea. This family had a daughter, Yuna. She was the same age as our daughter, Reika, and they always played together. Yuna’s parents were blind and could hardly see. They had many difficulties in their daily life, so my wife sometimes helped them. One day, her mother and Yuna visited the zoo in Seoul. They had a fun day, but somewhere along the way, Yuna dropped her favorite hat and lost it.
The mother was disappointed and couldn’t look for it because she was blind. With a heavy heart, she went home. She told her husband about the whole story that evening. “We lost Yuna’s hat,” she said. Then her husband said, “I’m sorry you lost Yuna’s hat, but I’m glad you didn’t lose Yuna. When the mother heard this, she returned to herself and was happy that she did not lose Yuna, the most important daughter. When we focus on what is important, we are left with joy even though we make mistakes.
When we focus on what is important, even when we fail, joy remains; even when we struggle, hope remains.
If we don’t have our priorities straight in life, we will quickly become discouraged when difficulties prevent us from doing what we want to do. What the heck is God doing causing me so much pain? We tend to focus on the negative.
But if the Almighty God is alive and He is the focus of our lives, then we can think that there is sunshine above the clouds, even when there are hardships.
Before Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he had written a letter to Rome from another place. It’s one of the New Testament epistles known as the book of Romans, and in chapter 8 of that book, he says this, “God works all things for good to those who love Him.” This is not to say that all things are good. In fact, there are many hardships and failures. It’s just that God, who is sovereign, will use all things to work for good in His eyes.
Returning to the topic of chess, when I watch a professional chess match, sometimes I don’t know what they are doing. The professionals move their pieces thinking 20 moves ahead. So, even as an amateur, I would think that the move they just made was a mistake. However, the move that looks like a mistake will eventually lead to victory.
In the same way, when our focus is on God, we will be able to see that even though there are failures and hardships, in the end, a good God will make it all worthwhile.
Why is that? No, no, Paul is in a situation where he can’t be free right now, isn’t he? Why do you think Paul’s imprisonment in Rome would lead to the spread of the gospel? So Paul goes on to explain the reason.
13As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
He is saying that Paul’s imprisonment will tell all the bodyguards about Jesus Christ.
The Roman bodyguards were the elite soldiers who acted as bodyguards for the Roman emperor at that time. If you read the Gospels, you will find that the Roman bodyguards first captured Jesus Christ.
It seems that the bodyguards were on duty 24 hours a day at the time, watching Paul outside the house where he lived to make sure he did not escape. The soldiers changed every four hours.
So Paul must have been telling the soldiers, who were taking turns, that he had spent his life persecuting Jesus Christ, but after he met Jesus, his life changed 180 degrees. He must have been telling them about the miracles of Jesus, about the cross, about the resurrection of Jesus, day after day, to the point that the soldiers were sick of hearing about it.
The situation was such that it was impossible to tell whether Paul was already locked up or the soldiers on guard were locked up.
The soldiers, who heard this every day, must have spread the stories to their colleagues back at the barracks. A strange guy named Paul came and talked about Jesus Christ every day. The entire bodyguard group was told the gospel of Jesus Christ through Paul’s mouth.
So, as we see in verse 14, by Paul boldly speaking the gospel to the Roman soldiers, the other Roman Christians who admired Paul were also given courage and were able to boldly speak the gospel.
These Roman Christians were Christians who existed before Paul came to Rome. They were Christians who believed in Jesus Christ through different means and lived in fear of persecution in Rome. They must have always wondered how they could spread the word of Jesus Christ in this city of Rome.
Then Paul appeared and spread the gospel to the most influential people in Rome, the soldiers who served the Roman emperor.
Even though he could not go anywhere, Paul had influence throughout Rome.
In the last part of the greeting in this letter to the Philippians, it says this.
22All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
In other words, Paul’s preaching of the gospel to the soldiers had awakened some in the royal household of the Roman emperor who had accepted Jesus Christ.
Paul did not focus on his imprisonment but on the gospel. It was a joy for Paul if he could speak the gospel. This is because the No. 1 priority in Paul’s life was to speak the gospel.
Let us remember today that when we, like Paul, live with our eyes fixed on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can turn adversity and hardship into opportunities.
Paul goes on to say.
15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,
As Paul was spreading the gospel, of course, not everything went smoothly. It is said that other Christians were jealous of the good work Paul was doing and tried to hinder his work. Maybe they were the church leaders in Rome before Paul came to Rome.
In every age and place, the church is also the same. There is always a division within. Some people are jealous of their leaders. It is not an exaggeration to say that Jesus Christ was also crucified because of people’s envy.
The Jewish leaders of that time were jealous of the explosive influence of Jesus Christ, so they made up reasons and crucified him. “Listen, Jesus, why don’t you keep the Sabbath?” “Look, Jesus, why do you always eat with sinners?”
I’m currently doing church planting work in Detroit, and sometimes I feel like I have to be careful not to fall into envy. Oh, that church is growing, but my church isn’t, or that pastor over there is good at what he does.
If I focus on the size of the church or the number of seats in the church, I will not be able to do what I really need to do as a pastor.
So, what was Paul’s response in verse 18? What does it mean? Paul is not asking a question here, but he is using rhetoric, the art of argumentation. In Japanese, it sounds formal, but in a sense, it means, “So what?
I rejoice in the fact that Christ is being proclaimed in every way, whether in pretense or truth. Yes, I will rejoice even now.
In other words, Paul is not distracted by those who disagree with him but focuses on the gospel. After all, as long as the gospel is spoken, that’s all that matters! By focusing on the gospel, Paul’s joy was constant even in the midst of division.
We are usually faced with a lot of division. Conflicts with people, arguments. We have it in the church too. What can we do to stop the division? Sometimes we try to do it by trying to change the other person.
Oh, how I wish the pastor had a little more leadership or polished his message a little more.
It’s the same with the division between husband and wife. I wish my wife would be a little more supportive. I wish my husband would listen to me more. The other day, we argued because I was wearing my wife’s socks by mistake. My wife said, “Why are you wearing my socks?” I replied, “Come on!! They’re only a pair of socks!”
In this way, Satan creates division by focusing our attention on the tiny and trivial things.
But at such times, we need to say, “So what?” as Paul said here, and turn to Jesus Christ. If we turn to Jesus Christ, we will forgive others. We will be able to admit our mistakes and repent. Satan’s tricks will not deceive us. And we will be able to live for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is really important, and for the church, which is the body of Christ.
Finally, Paul says here.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
For Paul, life and death are all for Jesus Christ.
This word “venerated” is the original Greek word “meganoo,” which means to make something small bigger. Just as a star that looks small when you look up at the sky becomes big when you use a telescope. Like that, Jesus Christ used to be in the corner of my heart and was only small. But now that I understand the cross of Jesus Christ and His love, the small Jesus became big in my heart, and that is the purpose of my life. So for me, it is as Paul said, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
A pastor in the U.S. took this verse from the Bible and said something like this.
In this verse 21, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” to be valid; the word “Christ” has to be in there. If any other word but Christ were used here, the sentence would not stand. For example, if, for me, living is money, then dying is not a gain but a loss. Or, for those who say that living is work, dying is not beneficial.
The only time we can say the same thing about living and dying in this sentence structure is when we live by the word of Jesus Christ. When we live for the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be able to rejoice in any situation.
Today, are you looking at the gospel of Jesus Christ, or are you looking at the problem? God sent Jesus Christ into the world for us so that each of us can live a confident and joyful life. Let us not turn away from Jesus, but let us walk together again this week.