Let’s talk about death. Next week, we’ll talk about war and taxes.

Steve Brown:
Let’s talk about death. Next week, we’ll talk about war and taxes, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was author and seminary professor Steve Brown, and this is Key Life. We’re all about radical grace. Because of what Jesus has done, God’s not mad at you. Keep listening and that message will set you free to live a life of joy and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, open it to the first chapter of Philippians. We are looking at Philippians 1:18b through 26. And we’re looking about joy and where it comes from. It’s surprising, frankly. When you look at this passage, it opens with rejoice and twice in this very short passage, the apostle Paul talks about joy in himself and joy in the people that he loves. But there’s one other thing, and I kind of hesitate to bring it up because you don’t usually associate death with joy, but it’s there. You should be aware as we have seen that joy not only comes from knowing the powerlessness of isolation, the irrelevance of circumstances, the danger of safety, the superficiality of egoism, the emptiness of taking, but note also the joy comes from knowing the unimportance of death. Look at Philippians 1:20b through 21.

Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and for me to die is gain.

Then Philippians 1:22b through 23.

Yet what shall I choose

Now, he’s talking about choosing life or death. And he’s in prison, and he could be executed.

Yet what shall I choose I don’t know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.

Fred Smith one time told me about a farmer who put all of his money in a suitcase and in the attic. And told his wife that on his way up he would take his money with him. He died and the wife never checked the attic because she just assumed, because husbands are always right, that there was no money. One day, she was cleaning up in the attic, and she noticed the suitcase filled with money. And she shook her head and said, poor Paul, he must have gone in the other way. D. L. Moody said one time.

One of these days, you’re going to read in the newspaper, That old D. L. Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it. He’ll be more alive then, then he ever was when you knew him in this life.

I have a friend I haven’t thought about him in years, Joe Clemente. Joe and I worked together at a radio station in Boston and his father had a restaurant in Boston called Brandy Pete’s. Sometimes we’d go there for a lunch and Brandy Pete’s didn’t even have a sign out front and people from all over New England went there and it was always packed. And I remember that Joe’s father had a slogan and everybody knew it. The customer is always wrong. And people loved it. If you brought a new person to Brandy Pete’s, you had to buy Brandy a Brandy. The customer was always wrong. But I love Joe Clemente, he was a sweet man in so many ways. And what he did is that he was in the helicopter that went up and viewed the traffic in the mornings at a station. Now, I never put my weight on a helicopter or an airplane. I hate those things. But every day, he went up in that sucker, and he traveled over the highways in the Boston area and reported on the traffic. And I said, Joe, every time you go up, you increase the odds that you’re going to crash. And he said, I don’t worry. If I go down, I go up. The promise is that when you die, you will live forever, and that is something else. Do you know what we did last week? We had the memorial service for Pat Williams. And if you know anything about sports, you know who he was. Well, he was at the very center of various professional sports organizations. He was responsible for the chapels that went on. When we had the Orlando Magic start in Orlando, he was the one who started it. And ran it for so many years. He, at the point of his death, he had told me he was trying to bring a professional baseball team to Orlando. And he was close to achieving that. I mean, sports stars from all over the country were at that memorial service and they stood up and praised him. And then Jim Henry. who was the Pastor Emeritus at First Baptist Church here in Orlando, spoke at the end. It was three hours long. I almost left after the first hour and a half, but I’m glad I didn’t because what Jim Henry said was so good. He said, Pat Williams isn’t dead, he’s in heaven. And then Jim said, When you die, you can make sure that you go there too. And then he told them how. If you’re a Christian, death is scary. Scary for me. But it’s exciting too because.

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Joy can be found in death. Well, that’s actually encouraging. Thanks Steve. We’ve been studying the Book of Philippians, specifically taking a look at chapter 1 verses 18b through 26. More to discover tomorrow, do join us. Kardashian, Cruise, Swift. Are you familiar with these last names? Yeah, me too. What about Tertullian, Augustine, Barth? Maybe less familiar with these theologians? I know I am. Well, recently on Steve Brown Etc. we talked theology with Jennifer and David McNutt. Take a listen to part of that conversation, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

You know, guys, there’s a perception that when you say theologians, you’re talking about a pile of dead white European dudes. You have European non white people and women. I wonder if you would, can you highlight some of them?

Jennifer McNutt: Thank you. I’m happy to jump in. Dave and I do want to emphasize that really everybody is a theologian. As soon as you say Jesus is Lord, you are making a theological claim. And what we’re really trying to do is not turn people into theologians, but help them to be better theologians. That’s something David and I really think is so important for the church and the formation of Christians as they are maturing in their understanding to be able to articulate their faith. with understanding of how the history of the church has thought about these questions and answered them. Theology is in our prayers. Theology is in the hymns that we sing. We have just all the rich theology that is present there. And then we think about, I think theology in some of the spiritual encounters that we face. We look at, we attended to the women of the medieval monastic period and their theological contributions. And sometimes those are happening through their experience of the Lord’s presence, in soundly Orthodox ways. We included Julian of Norwich and sometimes women are writing that down and sometimes men are writing that down for women. And that even brings us to the Cappadocian four. We’re calling them the Cappadocian four and we have attention to Macrina, who’s a sister. You know, she’s a sister, she’s the older sister of two of the most important Cappadocian fathers. And her brothers are pointing to her as an important teacher of thinking through resurrection and the soul and just as a marvelous model of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

David McNutt: Yeah, well, thanks for bringing it up, Steve. I appreciate it. It’s a good question that why should we get to know these theologians? Like, aren’t they imperfect people too? Like what, you’re right about Barth. Like there have been scholarly studies about his particular relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum, who was his assistant and co author in a way, as he was writing his church dogmatics and the relationship that they had and the complexities of that. So, I think it’s a helpful reminder of all of the realities that all of us face, that is our brokenness, our sinfulness, our need for God’s grace. In one of his final recordings, one of his final events, Barth was actually on a radio show, and they were playing some of Mozart’s music, and he said, this is right near the end of his life, he said, what I want to do, what I’ve tried to do my whole life, is to point to Jesus Christ, to point to the grace that we receive through Jesus Christ. So, he was certainly one of, like all of us, who needs that grace, who needs God’s love. And yeah, I mean, you could point to that across the spectrum here for all the theologians that we’ve tried to highlight. Not as a way to say, these theologians are worthy of our worship. Not at all. God alone is the one that we worship. And yet, we think that each one of these theologians can contribute to our understanding of the faith. So, could you find problems with each one of the theologians or with each one of us? Sure. I mean, some of the things that Luther said, or what he wrote, Augustine is very clear in his own life as he’s writing about his conversion to the faith, of the ways that he was living prior to becoming Christian. So, each one of us faces these challenges. So, in a way, the broader topic for us is, yes, we want you to know these theologians. We want you to get to know your family of faith better. But the broader goal is actually for you through them to get to know Jesus Christ, for you to know and love and serve the Triune God.

Matthew Porter:
So good. We would love to send you that entire episode on CD for free. So, call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. Again, that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for the free CD featuring Jennifer and David McNutt. And Hey, before you go, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word or two. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.