Lent: Stairway to Heaven | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Good morning.

My name is Matt Armstrong.

I'm one of the associate pastors here at Redeemer, and it's my privilege to get to bring the scriptures to you this morning.

As Ref said, today is Palm Sunday, the week, the Sunday before Easter.

It's that time of year when we remember Jesus' triumphal entry, and it stands in stark contrast to just a week later.

This crowd that gathered the day that Jesus came to Jerusalem, praising him with the words we sang this morning, Hosanna in the highest.

And a fair number of them just a few days later were crying, crucify him.

This is the tension of the world that we live in, a tension between sorrow and praise, hope and despair.

It's a tension that we feel even this morning, with loss in our own church, within the Teague family, but in countless numbers of stories in our community.

But the beauty of our faith, the beauty of Christianity and our God is that He is the God who meets us.

He is not afraid to step into our sorrow.

And whenever he does, he brings hope and renewal.

And that is our hope this morning, this Palm Sunday.

Last Sunday, just a week ago, I went with my daughter to see the movie Dune Part 2.

It's an epic.

I went to see it in IMAX, which is awesome.

I haven't been to an IMAX theater since they only showed nature documentaries.

If you're my age, now they show real movies.

And it's amazing.

And being there in this cinematic feast, recommended by Sam Rapp, our local movie critic and theologian.

I was reminded how much I love a good story.

Especially in that IMAX theater, it was easy to be swept away into this grand narrative, this incredible story.

Whether it's uh Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or a good Marvel movie, I love a good story.

Now, whether it's a big, epic, sweeping story or it's a small, intimate, personal story, any good story moves the heart.

I think stories are like tuning forks.

You know what a tuning fork is?

You you kind of tap it on the end of something in it and it sends out this invisible frequency.

And when that frequency resonates with the deep desires in your own heart, we are moved.

I was taught a few years ago this saying that I find myself repeating often, which is, when tears come, heaven draws near.

The things that draw us to tears are the things that connect with the deep desires of our hearts.

And when we're moved by a story, whether it's a movie or a novel or a comic book or a song, the tears flow.

Courage is unleashed, joy erupts, grief is released.

And I think this is because we were made for stories.

We were made to live in a story by God, the God who, when he tells us who we are, tells us about himself, how we're to understand ourselves and the world and him, he tells us a story.

The Bible is a story.

It's a story that begins before creation and it ends at the end of time.

And it's filled with hundreds and thousands of tiny, intimate, personal stories.

And as Christians, we realize that we have been taken up into that story.

We are part of that story.

It was here before us, it will be here after us.

God tells us stories.

When Jesus taught, he taught in parables, he taught in stories.

Stories are incredibly meaningful.

I love the way Flannery O'Connor talks about stories.

She said, a story is a way to say something that can't be said in any other way.

It takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.

You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate.

I think she's exactly right.

In the book of Philippians, Paul presents us with two narratives, two stories, and he invites us to live into one of them, in essence, to choose between the two of them.

That brings us to point one.

Point one is story number one, the story of glory.

Paul sees, uh says that he first lived his life according to what we're gonna call a story of glory.

He lived his life in the service of his own glory.

He told a story, he lived his life on like a stairway up.

He was seeking to ascend the story, uh, the stairway of glory.

Listen to Philippians 3, 4 through 6.

And you can see we're gonna start at the top and then we're gonna jump to the bottom and read to the top.

Notice the shape of the story.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more, he says.

I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law.

Blameless.

To these first four stairs, steps on this stairway upwards are the identity he was given by birth as an Israelite, right?

Circumcised on the eighth day.

That's what a faithful Israelite did.

He was born into the people of God, of all the peoples of the earth, the chosen people.

And within the nation of Israel, he was of the tribe of Benjamin.

This was a warrior tribe.

They were proud of their heritage.

The first king of Israel, Saul, was of the tribe of Benjamin, and the apostle Paul was given the birth name of Saul.

He was named after the king.

He summarizes and says, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Every step up the stairway, his glory grows, and the ring, the circle of people included shrinks.

The next three steps are Paul's personal achievements.

He says, as to the law of Pharisee, the Pharisees were an elite group of Israelite men who studied diligently to earn that rank.

But more than simply a Pharisee, he sent, he went out in his zeal to persecute this emerging church that followed Jesus.

And then under the righteousness of the law, he says, blameless.

He was at the top of his game.

What he's describing here is the natural disposition of the human, sinful, fallen heart that seeks to climb the stairway of success in order to prove its worth, in order to justify our existence.

Now, we all do this.

We look for ways to take pride in the tiniest of things.

One of those things is where we went to school.

I noticed moving back to Marietta after living down in the city for a number of years where nobody really seemed to care where you went to school.

It was much more diverse schooling-wise where people were from.

When I came to Marietta, I noticed a distinct difference.

Now, one is not better than another.

It just was easy for me to notice coming in from the outside.

And you know, I've known that UGA fans are obnoxious all my life.

But once you guys won the national championship, I mean, good night.

It is kind of over for me being a Georgia Tech graduate.

Now, what I also found out when I came up here, when people would find out that I graduated from Georgia Tech almost to a person, I would get something like this.

I just simply wanted to receive, you know.

I'm not going to open my mouth and change your mind about how smart I am.

You know, I'll just receive that glory, right?

I mean, when you receive glory for something either that you've achieved or something that you just have by the nature of your birth, right?

It's intoxicating.

You like that honor, you like that praise.

Now, now about that obnoxious comment, I apologize.

Uh, but I feel like I can say that because I grew up a Florida fan, University of Florida, go gators, and I think Steve Spurrier is amazing.

Now I'm dating myself, but um no one is more obnoxious than Steve Spurrier or an age-old University of Florida fan.

So it takes one to know one.

So you're welcome.

All right.

So what here's the question for us.

For you, what do you boast in?

What's your stairway?

What is it about yourself, your heritage, your background, your blood, your your personal achievements that you receive glory from and you hang on to?

Maybe it's your education, your salary, maybe it's your follower count.

Teenagers, I'm talking to you.

Right?

I don't even know what TikTok is.

Apparently, it's gonna be banned in the United States.

But I have teenagers.

They tell me about follower counts and how the algorithm, you gotta work it because sometimes not enough people see it.

There are apps that tell you how many people have newly subscribed to you or whatever, followed you, and how many people you've lost today.

I think they should name that app Torture.

Right?

Torture the app.

How many people, how many followers have I gained or lost today?

TikTok.

Maybe it's your title at work, the car you drive, maybe it's your kids, parents, right?

Maybe you gain glory from your kids, either their academic success or their athletic success.

Maybe it's your good looks, your country club membership, maybe it's your marriage.

Have you ever thought that a good marriage could be an idol?

Something that you receive glory from.

Again, this is something that we all do.

We do it instinctively, being born in sin, apart from God.

This flesh that Paul speaks of is our ancient allergy to God.

It's the natural bent of a sinful heart away from God towards self-sufficiency and evil.

The problem, though, that we've all experienced, I can safely assume, is that when we fail to move up the stairway of glory, it feels like death.

Whether you grow stagnant on a particular step or you actually get knocked backwards, it feels horrible.

Can you think of a time recently or maybe in your past where you were knocked down a few rungs?

How that felt.

Maybe your marriage failed.

A boyfriend or a girlfriend dumped you.

Maybe you lost a job.

Maybe you were turned down for a job after an interview.

You didn't make the team.

Can't afford the country club membership anymore.

Maybe your kids didn't turn out the way you hoped and prayed over many years.

When we get knocked down, when we move backwards down the stairway of glory, it feels like failure.

It feels like worthlessness.

We feel needy.

Anybody like feeling needy?

Anyone?

No?

I didn't think so.

We move down the stairway of glory.

Surprisingly, though, this is where Paul tells us that when we move down, when we move backwards, we're actually starting to move in the right direction.

This leads us to point two.

Story number two, the story of Jesus.

In chapter two, in our sermon passage today, Paul tells us an alternative story.

Now notice the shape of this story as I read it again.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Now these two stories that Paul has presented to us could not be more different.

Jesus' story is humble, it's hidden, it's full of love.

Paul the Pharisee's story is proud and boastful and full of hate.

Jesus slowly disappears as he heads down this stairway until he disappears in death.

While Paul steadily, Paul's path steadily expands upward with his own glory.

Paul instructs the Philippians at this point.

He says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

He's telling us, he's inviting us to step out of the story of glory, where most of us find ourselves, and to step into the story of Jesus.

This is why Paul says elsewhere, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Jesus not only came and died for our sins and rose for our justification, he is our Savior and King, but he is also telling a story with his life.

And Paul invites us into that story, and he says, Your story, your life can bear Jesus' story too.

See, Paul's message here between Philippians 2 and 3 is very similar to the story that the author of Ecclesiastes that Russ referenced last week.

This is what Solomon was talking about in that book.

This is the point of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Solomon is saying, I have the wealth and the ability to actually see if I can find life, if we can find life and fulfillment and satisfaction through material things, through wealth, through sex, through power.

And guess what?

When I got there, when I got to the pinnacle of all of those things, what I discovered is that they are all vapor.

A chasing after the wind.

And so he says, look, I went there so you don't have to.

Take my advice.

Don't look for life and dead things.

And this is exactly Paul's message in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He says, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Yet when I met Jesus, I realized that all that stuff was just empty garbage.

Now, after tasting the life that Jesus gives, I'm willing to lose everything this world has to offer in order to hold on to it.

He is the pearl of great price.

He is the treasure buried in the field.

And that brings us to our third and final point that the stairway to heaven is down and then up.

Beloved, this is why the Lord often leads us into seasons of suffering and loss.

When we feel out of control, when the world doesn't make sense to us anymore, when we go back to doing those things that we used to do, that used to bring us joy or enjoyment, right?

Even spiritual things, good things.

And they don't seem to work any longer.

This is what the ancients of our faith call the dark night of the soul.

And I was telling someone about this who was going through a very difficult time, and they said, that's kind of a misnomer.

I mean, one night, that's not very long.

Well, no.

This is a long night.

This is a season of darkness when the light seems to go out.

And the question we all ask when we enter the dark night of the soul, and we tend to repeat and ask again and again through that season is why?

Why is this happening?

Lord, what is going on?

What are you doing?

Are you doing anything at all?

And the answer to that question for each and every one of us is deeply personal and deeply specific.

And we do well, and it is wisdom not to try to answer that question for others.

Because every detail and every specific of your story and your story of loss and suffering has its own particular meaning because the Lord is present in it.

But here is the answer, more broadly, that we can derive from the story of Jesus what is God doing in these seasons of suffering and loss?

It's this that God is inviting us down the stairway of suffering in order to take away our idols, our empty cisterns, so that He can feed us with His eternal life.

When we when our idols are removed, these things that we feed on, the Old Testament calls them empty cisterns, these places we're going for for life, but that have no life to give, when they're actually taken out of our hands, a hunger grows.

A hunger grows for real life.

We develop a hunger for Christ.

And our faith begins to shift.

As we take our questions, as we take our anger and our confusion, as we take it to the Lord, he begins to feed us with himself.

These things I have taken away.

These old habits, these old places of safety I have removed, so that I am all that you have left.

And our faith begins to shift, shift from the approval of others, the success we have earned, the wealth that tells us who we are.

We shift to God's approval.

The name that God has given us uniquely as a beloved son or daughter, and the rest that He offers us.

You see, notice what happens in the rest of our sermon passage.

Okay.

Remember in verse 8, we ended at the bottom of the stairwell, right?

Where are we?

Okay, we took it out.

That's fine.

Thank you for editing that.

Um we ended with Jesus being um even willing to die, death on the cross.

But look where it goes after that.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, to the glory of God the Father, uh, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glow.

Whatever, you see it.

It's there.

Note what you need to notice is that it steps going up.

There you go.

Illustration made.

Beloved, this is the story of Jesus.

It's a story that descends into death and then it ascends into resurrection life.

And it is this story that the Father is inviting you to enter into.

I had lunch with a pastor friend last week, and we were, you know, discussing the sermon passage, and he made this comment that has stuck with me over the weekend.

He said, we often don't want to go down that stairway.

The stairway down, the stairway of Jesus.

Um, and and I put myself there.

Nobody wants to suffer, nobody wants to experience loss.

But he said, that is where Jesus is.

And so if we want to be with Jesus, we have to follow him down those stairs.

And as we learn from him, as we are weaned from the things of this world, even good things that we were finding life in, and we are filled with his life, we begin to walk in his story.

Our lives begin to reflect his story.

And so, as we who have been ministered to by the Spirit of God in our own sorrows and life, now as we see our brothers and sisters and even non-Christians down in their own personal pit, we emulate Jesus by walking down their stairway and being present with them and their present suffering.

This is the beauty of resurrection life, the beauty of your life imitating Jesus' life.

That we receive eternal life.

And then through our imitation, God gives eternal life to others.

Beloved, our God leads us into a fellowship of Jesus sufferings so that dying with him, we might also be raised with him.

Yes, on the last day, but also every day of our lives.

The story invites us to take a different view of suffering and loss, weakness and strength.

And as we walk this final week of Lent, reflecting on our need for Jesus' death and resurrection, may we walk into the story of Jesus.

Let's pray.

Our Father and our God, Lord, you alone have the words of eternal life.

Where else will we go?

When the waves come and buffet us, when we experience grievous loss, Lord, we have nothing but you.

And so we pray, we ask, we cry out to be faithful to your promises, Lord.

Feed us with yourself.

Give us resurrection life.

May rivers of living water flow out of our hearts into the glory of the Father.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.