Philippians 1:27-30
All right, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read a few verses from Philippians. This is chapter 1, the last four verses. This is what Paul writes from prison.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God.
The Lord has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Well, we’ve been in the book of Philippians, and I think this is message number 5. We did an introductory message, and then I think this is number 4 on chapter 1. So, let me kind of get us caught up to speed, just a little bit of review of the book of Philippians. Paul’s writing this from a prison. He’s really under house arrest in Rome.
He’s been on trial, and he makes an appeal to Caesar. And so, he’s sent to Rome, and he ends up being under house arrest. He can have visitors, and people are coming and visiting him.
And actually, Epaphroditus, part of the Philippian church, came and visited him and brought a gift. And the book of Philippians, in one sense, is a thank you note that Paul writes for the gift that they brought to Paul. So, he’s under house arrest, and he’s being productive.
He’s making wise use of his time. He writes four letters while he’s in prison. He was under house arrest for like two years.
They’re called the prison epistles. And it’s Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And so, Paul writes this from prison.
On Wednesday, I was working with some of the Awana boys, and they were trying to memorize the books of the Old Testament. You know, you get into those minor prophets, and it gets kind of tough sledding. But the New Testament, some of these epistles are easy to remember.
Here’s how I remember the order of some of the New Testament books. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. All you need to remember is, George eats pork chops.
That’s how I remember that. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, George eats pork chops. Somebody told me that years ago, and I still remember it.
Anyway, so he writes this letter from prison, and it’s his most personal letter. We looked at verses three through eight, where Paul says, I have you in my thoughts. He writes in verse three, I thank God every time I remember you.
Isn’t it nice when you get a text or a letter or a note, and it lets you know somebody’s thinking about you? And Paul says, I have you in my thoughts. And then he says, I have you in my prayers as well. He goes on to say, in all my prayers for all of you, I pray with joy.
So, he’s not only thinking about them, but he’s also praying for them. And he’s thankful for them, for their partnership in the gospel. They were partners in advancing the gospel.
And then Paul says, I have you in my heart. Later on, in the passage here, he says, it’s right for me to feel this way. Verse seven, since I have you in my heart, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
So, Paul had been there, had started the church there, and he had a very close relationship with the Philippian believers. And he says, I have you in my thoughts, I have you in my prayers, and I have you in my heart. Well, we looked at one of Paul’s prayers then, in verses nine through 11.
It’s a very short prayer. He says, this is my prayer. He prays for three things, that your love may abound more and more for God and for one another, that you might increase in knowledge and insight, and that you can discern what is best.
And isn’t it interesting, as we study the prayers of the Bible, and we mentioned this, that most of the prayers of the Bible are focused on spiritual growth and progress. And that challenged me because our prayer lives, and yes, we need to pray for those that are sick and those that have physical needs, and the list is very long, but it challenged all of us to balance our prayer life with what? Spiritual growth. Praying for our family and praying for our kids and our grandkids, for what? That they may grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, that they might make spiritual progress.
That was the focus of Paul’s prayer. And then last Sunday, we looked at verses 12 through 26, a message entitled, Three Things Paul Wants Us to Know. And here he’s writing from prison to the Philippian church, and he says, I want you to know three things.
And number one is found in verse 12, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. Paul says, don’t feel sorry for me. God has me here for a purpose and a reason.
And guess what? The gospel’s going forward because I’m able to share the gospel with the Roman guards. And you get to the end of the book of Philippians, and Paul closes the book of Philippians, greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus, the brothers and sisters who are with me, send greetings, all God’s people here send greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. So, he’s writing to the Philippian churches, Caesar’s household is sending you greetings.
And so, some of the people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Christ. So, Paul says, I want you to know, we called it Paul’s declaration. And then Paul’s deliverance, Paul says, I know I’m going to be delivered either by life or by death.
If I die, I’m going to be with Christ. And that was Paul’s dilemma. He’s going to go on trial.
He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die, but he gives a life statement. It’s a great life verse if you don’t have one. It’s Philippians 1:21, Paul’s verse, to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
And then he talks about this dilemma that he feels trapped. I’m torn between the two. Verse 23, I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
It’s a triple superlative. Because heaven’s going to be far, far, far better than planet earth. But then Paul says in the next verse, convinced of this, I know that I will remain.
So, I think Paul knew that his time wasn’t up yet. And he was going to use his remaining time, what, to minister to others and to encourage the Philippian believers and to continue ministering. Well, that brings us to the last four verses of chapter one, verses 27 through 30 that we read earlier, and simply this is entitled, How Should We Then Live? How Should We Then Live? Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a great Christian philosopher, apologist, wrote a book a number of years ago with this title, How Should We Then Live? And it really is a question of once we come to know Jesus as our Savior, that’s just the beginning point, isn’t it? God’s not finished with us yet, and God has a plan for us and a purpose for us.
And so, we’re going to ask this question this morning, how should we then live? In one sense, we’re like, what’s the job description for a follower of Jesus? I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this position, and I remember I only had one job that I worked a number of years ago, but job descriptions are important because it gives you a clear focus on what the expectations are. And if you don’t know what’s expected of you, then you never really know if you’re hitting the target. And I remember one job I was in, and it can be very frustrating because you don’t know if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Well, the scriptures give us job descriptions. In fact, outside of the Gospels, a lot of the New Testament is really telling us a job description. This is how I want you to live.
And it’s a whole new way of life, isn’t it? Once we come to know Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians, if any man be in Christ, he’s what? A new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become what? New.
It’s a new way of life. Ephesians chapter 4, when Paul writes to the Ephesian believers, he puts it in these terms of putting off our former way of living and putting on something new. And he writes to the Ephesian believers, we’re to be made new in the attitudes of our mind and to put on a new self, created to be like God in the righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truth to your neighbor. No more lying, you got to speak truth, be a truth teller. No more stealing, but I want you to work with your hands so that you might be productive, so that you might have extra to minister and to help those that are in need.
No more rotten speech coming out of your mouth. The end of chapter 4, Paul says, I want you to get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, slander, be kind and compassionate towards one another. So, that’s all part of our job description.
And here in Philippians, the last part of chapter 1, Paul gives us a job description. He gave it first to the Philippians and in turn, it speaks to us as well. So, we’re going to look at four thoughts here of our job description or how should we then live.
So, let’s pick it up in verse 27, chapter 1. Paul starts off by saying, whatever happens. So, the context is, and we’ve already mentioned it, he doesn’t know if he’s going to live, he doesn’t know if he’s going to die. Paul says, regardless, regardless if I ever see you again, here’s how I want you to live.
And he gives this charge or this imperative in verse 27, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Conduct yourselves, live your life in a manner that is what? Worthy of the gospel. It’s a major theme throughout Paul’s writings.
Paul talks about the worthy walk, Ephesians 4:1. As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. To the Colossian believers, Paul says, we continue to ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all wisdom and understanding so that you might live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way, being fruitful in every good work and growing in the grace and knowledge of God. That’s Colossians 1:9. By the way, just on a personal note, 47 and a half years ago when Diane and I stood up in front of a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana and expressed our vows to one another, when we were dating, we came up with a verse that kind of wanted to characterize our lives.
We picked Colossians 1:9 and 10. I had it engraved on the inside of my wedding band that we would live lives that are worthy of what God has called us and that we would be fruitful for Him. So, Paul’s talking about this worthy walk.
Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. The Greek word there is axios. It really means suitable.
One commentator writes, the word worthy refers to balancing the scales, meaning to live your life so that your life gives proper weight to all that God has done for you. Here’s the message, the paraphrase of the message, live in such a way that you are a credit to the message of Christ. So, what’s the worthy walk look like? Well, Paul tells us there are four things here.
1. Stand firm
Let’s look at the first one that’s found in verse 27 at the end. Paul says, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit. So, here’s the first aspect of living a life worthy of the gospel is standing firm in the Spirit.
He’s talking about unity of our position, that when you come to faith in Christ that you are put into the body of Christ. This is Galatians chapter 3, 26 through 28, talks about the baptism of the Spirit. What is the baptism of the Spirit? A lot of confusion on that.
It’s when we accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit places us into the body of Christ and we’re one. We’re one family. There’s no distinction between races or gender.
We are one in the Spirit, and the Apostle Paul is pleading with the church at Philippi to stand worthy of the gospel means to be united in our oneness in the body of Christ. Now, there’s a difference between unity and uniformity. We are to be united in the fundamentals of the faith, but there are times within the body of Christ that we can agree to disagree on some non-essentials.
And so, it’s the unity that we need to acknowledge, and Paul writes about it to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 4:3, make every effort to keep or maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Sometimes you have to work at it, and the church is simply one big family, and just growing up in a family, sometimes the kids don’t get along. Sometimes there’s some sibling rivalry, and well, we need to work through those.
And so, Paul talks about the unity of the Spirit. Stand firm in your oneness in Christ. In fact, when we get to chapter 4, and we’ll get there probably in a couple of months, Paul actually calls out two ladies in the Philippian church who weren’t getting along.
Now, these letters were read publicly. Can you imagine on a Sunday morning, and they’re reading, they’re excited to get this letter from the Apostle Paul, and you get to the end of the letter, and Paul says, I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind. He’s like, hey, you two ladies, you need to get along.
You need to have oneness. You need to have unity and acknowledge that. Stand firm in the Spirit.
2. Strive together
Well, the second aspect of the worthy walk is found in the last part of verse 27. It goes on to say, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. So, stand firm in one Spirit.
Now, he says, I want you to strive together. Some translations say contending together. It literally is the Greek word is sunathleó.
It’s an athletic term. It means I want you to work together. For what? For the gospel to achieve the same goal, the advancement of the gospel.
Somebody once said, the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. And the main thing is what? The gospel. 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4, Paul says, I want to tell you what is of first importance.
It’s the word priority, that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day.
That’s the gospel. And that’s our focus. We always need to keep the gospel primary.
Yes, there are social issues. Yes, there are political issues. But we can’t get distracted from the gospel.
I was just thinking about our AWANA program on Wednesdays and Beyond AWANA. And we’ve gotten away this year from saying the pledge, the AWANA flag. We used to say it every Wednesday.
We’re just a little different format this year. But part of the AWANA pledge is that the goal of AWANA is what? To lead boys and girls to the gospel of Christ. That’s the focus.
And so, Paul says, I want you to work together, strive together as a team, T-E-A-M, together each accomplishes more to remember that our priority, our main focus is what? The advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine a sports team that doesn’t really understand what the whole object and purpose of the game is. That we don’t realize the rules and what the focus is, and that would be utter chaos.
I went to a small private Christian school back in the dark ages in Cleveland, Ohio. And we were so small that like, here’s how you made the basketball team that hold up a basketball. Like, can you identify this? Like, that’s a basketball.
Like, all right, you’re starting. You know, we barely had enough guys to put a team together. And I remember one JV game, we were playing a game, and we had one guy who was tall.
His name was Dan Hurst. He was six foot four. He wasn’t really all that coordinated, but he was our tallest guy.
And he goes up and he gets a rebound and we’re all excited. Dan gets this rebound and he puts it in the basket. And we’re like, um you just scored for the other team, Dan.
Our basket’s down here. You need to know what the goal and the purpose is. And we need to be reminded that it’s the gospel.
Well, the worthy walk, to walk worthy is to stand firm in the spirit. That’s unity of position. It’s to strive together to achieve the same goal.
That’s the gospel. That’s unity of purpose. Then Paul goes on to list another aspect of the worthy walk. And let’s look at it. Striving together as one for the faith of the gospel, verse 28, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.
3. Share the gospel
The third thought here, the worthy walk. It’s part of our job description is to share the gospel without fear of opposition, without being frightened. The word there, frightened, is a word that was used to describe a horse that gets spooked and it kind of rears up and then it runs the other direction. Paul’s saying, share the gospel without fear of those who oppose you, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.
And when we read the word oppose, you might say, you mean there’s opposition? Yeah, there’s opposition. If you haven’t encouraged or encountered rather opposition in your Christian Walk, it might be because maybe you’re an undercover Christian, if there is such a thing. Maybe nobody knows you’re a Christian, or maybe you’ve never shared your faith with anybody else.
So, if that’s the case, you’re not going to have any opposition. But if you are sharing your faith, if you are bold in your stand for Christ, there will be opposition. Jesus talked about it in John chapter 16 verse 33, in this world you will have trouble.
You will have opposition. But nevertheless, I’ve overcome the world. You know, the apostles in the book of Acts are a great example of this.
You know, you read through Acts and the early church and here’s Peter and John and they’re preaching the gospel and the religious hierarchy. The Sanhedrin calls them in and tells them not to preach the gospel anymore. And what does Peter say? You know, we ought to obey God rather than man, so we’re going to keep preaching.
Later on in Acts chapter 5, there again, apostles brought before the Sanhedrin. They’re told, hey, I thought we told you not to preach the gospel. This time they are beaten, they are whipped, and then they leave the Sanhedrin, and they say we are grateful that we can suffer for the cause of Christ.
They were rejoicing that they could suffer for Christ. So, share the gospel without fear of opposition, without being frightened. 2nd Timothy 1:7, when Paul writes his last letter, this time he’s back in a Roman prison, and this time he’s ready to be executed.
But he writes, the Spirit of God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a self-discipline. The fear doesn’t come from God, that the Spirit of God wants to give us peace and wants to give us boldness as we share the good news. So, we’re called ambassadors, 2nd Corinthians 5:20, therefore you are what? Ambassadors for Christ.
Here’s our message, be reconciled to God. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God, we might receive the gift of eternal life. And so, share the gospel without fear of opposition.
This is something we all need to work on and can do better at. We’ve got some tracts back on the table there, and when you come in it’s just to your left at our main entrance there called Steps to Peace with God. That’s a tract that I like to give out, I’ve used that for years.
And we just have six or seven of them back there, we need to order some more. But I’d encourage you to pick one of those up and pray about who you might be able to share that with in the coming days and weeks. And so, the job description, stand firm in one spirit, that’s unity of position, strive together to share the same goal, achieve the same goal, that’s the gospel.
4. RECOGNIZE that suffering may happen
Share the gospel without fear of opposition. And then we come to number four, job description number four, how should we then live? And here’s the last part of Philippians 1:27 through 30. Recognize that suffering may be part of your job description as a Christian.
Recognize or realize that suffering might be part of your job description as a Christian. There are some preachers, TV preachers that preach what’s known as the prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel says God wants you healthy, wealthy, and wise. Well, he does want you wise, but the healthy and wealthy part may not be part of the package.
And here Paul writes to the Philippian believers, and he says, God’s not only given you a gift, the gift of salvation, it’s been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. Since you are going through the same struggle you saw that I had and now here that I still have, about three years after Paul writes this, the city of Rome burns. And Nero’s on the throne and Nero is looking for a scapegoat, like a good politician.
Who does he blame? Blames the Christians. And shortly after Paul writes this, the persecution of Christians is going to be ramped up. They’re going to be in the Colosseum fighting the lions and losing.
They’re going to be human torches in Nero’s garden. And so, Peter writes the book of 1st Peter to these believers who are now scattered because of persecution. And the whole theme of 1st Peter is pain with a purpose.
I know you’re going through a difficult time, but God has a purpose in your pain. Paul writes to these believers and says, recognize that suffering might be part of the job description as a Christian. Your life on earth might be more difficult after you come to Jesus than it was before you did, possibly.
Jesus talks about that in John chapter 15 verse 20 there in the upper room discourse, Jesus talking to the disciples before He goes to the cross. And He says, remember I told you; a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
2nd Timothy 3, all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. So, the message of the New Testament is that suffering might be part of the job description. I want to say for the most part, any suffering or persecution that we might experience here in the United States of America is very mild compared to what’s going on around the world.
What persecution or suffering might we experience for being a Christian and being bold in our faith? Well, you might be known at work, I’ve known some people that are known at work, and they share their faith and they’re called preacher boy. You know, hey, your preacher boy, kind of a derisive term.
Um, you may lose some friends when you come to Christ. Now you, you know, you’re not going to do that party scene that you used to do. And some, you might lose some friends.
Could lose your job. Years ago, um, I don’t remember the fellow’s name, but this is like 35 years ago, he was the editor for the Dayton Daily newspaper. And there was some advertisement that was, came across his desk and this fellow was a Christian and he kind of drew the line and says, you know what, we’re not putting those ads in our newspaper.
And, uh, created quite a stir and the people that own the newspaper ended up saying, well, um, then you’re, you’re not going to be the editor of the Dayton Daily News anymore. And he, he lost his job, for taking a moral stand. A couple months later, um, Moody Bible Institute and Moody Press was looking for, uh, an editor and somebody that could help them in a position that was open.
They found about this guy like, hey, that’s the kind of guy we’re looking for, you know, somebody that’s got morals and standards. And so, he ended up working for Moody Publishing, but he lost his job because he, he took a, took a stand. Our suffering in this part of the world, in America is very mild, but what we need to realize this morning is that there are places worldwide where to become a Christian is extreme, um, opposition and suffering.
So Open Doors Ministry every year publishes a world watch list. And these are the, these are the top countries in the world where persecution for Christians is the most intense. I made a copy of it to just, they list 50 countries, but here’s, here’s the top 10.
North Korea, thousands of Christians in North Korea that are in prison as we sit here this morning. Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, Maldives, Iraq, Syria, the list goes on and on where to be a follower of Jesus means you’re, you’re putting your life in your hands. Here’s what that might look like.
Again, just doing some research on Christian persecution, defining Christian persecution. While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ. From Sudan to Afghanistan, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith.
In what ways are Christians being persecuted? They are attacked. They are discriminated against at work and at school. They risk sexual violence, torture, arrest, and much more.
Examples, a woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead. A man in North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious.
Then the beatings begin again. A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram who kidnapped her.
She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby. A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast.
It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka. And so, worldwide, in many places, it costs everything to be a follower of Jesus. And Paul’s writing to these Philippian believers and he’s reminding them that it’s not easy to be a Christian.
Part of our calling might be to suffer for Christ. Paul gives us a job description here in Philippians 1:27, how should we then live? He encourages us to be one in the Spirit, unity of position. We’re all part of the same body, the body of Christ.
He encourages us to be reminded that we’re all working toward the same goal, unity of purpose. It’s what? The advancement of the gospel. And by the way, don’t be afraid of opposition you might face.
Don’t be frightened, but be like Paul who says, for I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it’s the power of God. And then fourthly, he says, I want you to recognize that part of our calling may be to suffer for the cause of Christ. The story is told of the great conqueror, Alexander the Great, who conquered the world at a young age and actually died at the age of 32.
The story is told that Alexander the Great amongst his army was a young soldier who was skilled in fighting, but during one particular fierce battle, he became frightened and afraid, and he hid in a cave rather than fighting. And when he was found, he was brought before Alexander the Great, the great warrior and conqueror, and Alexander the Great asked him, soldier, what is your name? He said kind of sheepishly, Alexander. And Alexander the Great asked him again, this time with a little more force and he says, what is your name? What did you say? And the young soldier said, Alexander.
And Alexander the Great looked at him and he said, change your name or change your conduct because you’re being a bad reflection on a name that is my name, the name Alexander. And in one sense, that’s the message of the New Testament that those of us that call ourselves Christians must live a life worthy of what God has called us to. After all, he gave his one and only son to die for us.
So, he says, stand firm in the spirit, strive together for the advancement of the gospel, don’t be afraid to share the gospel even when there’s opposition and recognize that you might suffer and therefore, we suffer well for the cause of Christ.