Tag: persecution

Living Worthy of the Gospel – Philippians 1:27-30

June 21, 2022 / Matthew Wilson

This blog is based on a sermon from Philippians. You can listen to the sermon here.

Sermon Text: Philippians 1:27-30

So far in Philippians 1, Paul has reminded the Philippians that he is grateful for them and that they are a source of joy to him even in prison. He has informed them that the gospel continues to go forth even in his imprisonment. He has told them about his situation and that he hopes to visit them again.

In Phil 1:27-30, he begins to give some instructions to the Philippian church.

BIG IDEA: Our manner of life should be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (ESV)

Some translations say, “as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

We should probably start with an explanation of the gospel. The gospel starts with God. God is holy, perfect, and righteous. He created us in His image, but we have all fallen short of His perfect standard. Therefore, we deserve His just wrath. But in His love and mercy, God sent His perfect Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins in our place. Because of Jesus, we can be reconciled with God and spend eternity enjoying His presence rather than separated from Him in hell.

Paul is not saying that we could ever be worthy of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. He is saying that because Jesus has died for our sins, that we should live in a way that reflects our gratitude. As the hymn says, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.”

Salvation is not a one-time decision. Salvation affects our whole lives. Someone that is truly saved will be truly changed.

Look at Romans 6:1-4:

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-4

Elsewhere, in Ephesians 4:1, Paul writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

What Paul is saying in verse 27 is that “our manner of life” (the way we live) should be worthy of the gospel. We should live in a way that is consistent with the truth of the gospel.

When we live in a way that is inconsistent or contrary to the gospel we claim to believe, the world rightly sees us as hypocrites. Listen to these words from John MacArthur:

“When the unsaved look at the church and do not see holiness, purity, and virtue, there appears to be no reason to believe the gospel it proclaims. When pastors commit gross sins and are later restored to positions of leadership in the church; when church members lie, steal, cheat, gossip, and quarrel; and when congregations seem to care little about such sin and hypocrisy in their midst, the world is understandably repulsed by their claims to love and serve God. And the name of Christ is sullied and dishonored.”
John Macarthur

My hope is that all of us desire to live in a way that is worthy of the gospel. In our text, we see at least three ways we can live worthy of the gospel:

First, we should be unified around the gospel (27).

“Standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

Many churches spend more time fighting one another than they do the real enemy. When Paul speaks of “standing firm,” he is using military language. Remember, many of the citizens of Philippi are retired Roman soldiers. Paul is saying to stand firm in the face of intimidation and external opposition.

Paul also says that he wants to find the Philippians “striving side by side.” This is sports language. Just as a team must be unified to win the game, as Christians and as church members, we must be unified around the gospel.

“When you get the gospel, you get joy. When you focus on the gospel, you get unity.”
Tony merida

In the church, our unity should not come from our financial status, our geographical location, our family ties, our skin color, or our worship style. Our unity comes from a shared understanding of the gospel and God’s Word.

When our unity comes from a right understanding of the gospel, our church can be a place where we have rich and poor people, people of all ethnicities, people of all ages, broken families, cowboys, and bikers.

We don’t have to have a church for only certain kinds of people because it’s the gospel that unites, not these other cheaper things.

We are to be unified around the gospel, but please don’t misunderstand me – we must never seek unity at the expense of truth. This is why I preach through books of the Bible and explain the gospel in every sermon.

Second, we should not be afraid of those who oppose the gospel (28).

“And not frightened in anything by your opponents”

Paul tells the Philippians that they are not to be frightened by their opponents.

Who are these opponents? Perhaps Paul is speaking of the Judaizers mentioned in chapter three, but more likely he is referring to pagans living in Philippi, maybe even civil authorities. Remember, Paul was arrested in Acts 16 because he was “advocating customs” that were not Roman in nature.

The fact is that we are not living worthy of the gospel when we fear men and refuse to stand up for the truth.

Listen to Jesus in Matt 10:28:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.“
Jesus, Matthew 10:28

“this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.”

Paul says that the church’s unity and boldness is a sure sign that these saints have indeed experienced salvation. When people are willing to endure great hardship for the sake of the gospel, it indicates that they truly believe and have been changed by it.

We live worthy of the gospel when we’re unified around the gospel and when we stand up to those who oppose the gospel. A third way we can live worthy of the gospel is to be willing to endure suffering for the sake of the gospel.

We should be willing to endure suffering for the sake of Christ and the gospel (29-30).

“It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (29)

We should not just believe in Christ, but be willing to live for Christ, even when it costs us. We saw this clearly in our Scripture reading from Luke 14.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.“
jesus, luke 14:26-27

Paul writes, “It has been granted to you.” Suffering is a gift in the sense that it helps us to see if we really belong to Christ. Many young adults make a profession of faith early in their childhood, but go to college and “abandon” the faith. In most cases, they were never Christians to begin with (1 John 2:19). Most never had their faith tested before leaving home. This is why it can be dangerous to baptize young children.^[1]See here and here.

Saving faith is faith that is willing to suffer for Christ. Again, hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 10:

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.“
Jesus, matthew 10:32-33

When we suffer for the sake of the gospel, we identify with Christ, who suffered on the cross for us.

Paul’s words are a much-needed corrective for us in the American church. So few of us have really had to count the cost of following Jesus and even fewer are prepared to suffer for Christ.

Most people want the benefits of the gospel without the cost of discipleship:

We are glad to have Jesus as our Savior. We don’t want him as Lord.
We want to go to heaven, but we don’t want to deny ourselves and forsake our sins.

Paul says that we should be willing to suffer for Christ, but many people can’t even make it to church more than once or twice a month.

Many give little or no money to the kingdom of God.
We would rather scroll through social media than the pages of God’s Word.
We think suffering is attending church instead of being on the lake or in the duck blind.
We think we’re suffering if we the worship service lasts more than an hour.

It’s no wonder that many church buildings are more than half empty most of the time. If we’re honest, most of the time, we don’t live lives that are worthy of the gospel.

I’m not trying to beat you up this morning, but rather I’m trying to challenge us to action.

30 – “engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have”

Paul was on the frontlines of gospel advancement and the Philippians were engaged in the same conflict that Paul was – spiritual war.

In Ephesians 6:11-13, Paul told the Ephesians to put on the armor of God. You only put on armor if you’re going to war. Friends, the devil is scheming against us! There are cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil that want to destroy us. We are in a spiritual war!

We are crazy if we think that reaching people with the gospel will be easy. Paul was trying to spread the gospel message and he was imprisoned, awaiting trial. Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy people! Peter wrote that the devil is like a prowling lion, seeking who he may devour (1 Pet 5:8).

We cannot expect to win the spiritual war if we’re not ready to be engaged in battle and to be willing to suffer losses for the kingdom of God.

For us to win people to Christ:

It’s going to take more than letting the pastor do it.
It’s going to take prayer.
It’s going to require us to commit to Christ and the church and to not treat Sundays as an optional event in our schedules.
It’s going to take boldness.
It’s going to take us being willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel.
It’s going to take committing ourselves to the truth of the Word when it conflicts with our church’s traditions.

Church, we should live our lives in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Jesus died for us. Let us live for him!

Let’s be unified around the gospel.

Let’s not fear those who oppose the gospel.

Let’s be willing to endure true suffering for Christ and the gospel.

If we are willing to do those things, then we will indeed be living in a way that is worthy of the gospel!

References[+]

References
↑1	See here and here.

A Gospel Focus Leads to Joy – Philippians 1:12-18a

May 25, 2022 / Matthew Wilson

This blog is based on a sermon from Philippians. You can listen to the sermon here.

We are living in interesting times. Our culture is becoming increasingly secular and antagonistic to the Christian faith. Many people in our culture consider us to be narrow-minded because of our beliefs on sexuality, abortion, and other issues.

You may not have heard about it, but in January, the Canadian government passed Bill C-4, which effectively made it illegal to give biblical counsel with regard to sexual immorality and gender.

This bill could be used to make it illegal to evangelize the lost in Canada or to encourage someone to repent of homosexuality, transgenderism, and other sexual immorality.

Brothers and sisters, there may come a time when pastors may be imprisoned for simply preaching the Word of God. There may come a time when you lose your job because of something you posted on Facebook.

How should we respond if we have been wronged because of our commitment to Christ? What if we are persecuted, hated, or even imprisoned because of our Christian faith?

Today, in our text in Philippians 1, we see how Paul responded to being imprisoned and maligned for his commitment to Christ.

Paul was writing to the church in Philippi, a church he had founded 10 years earlier. This church had partnered with Paul through prayer and financial support in order to spread the gospel.

Paul loved this church and they were a great source of joy to him as he was imprisoned for his faith. In verses 12-18, Paul wants to update the church about how the gospel continues to spread.

Phil 1:12-18 (click for text)

BIG IDEA: We should care more about proclaiming Christ and the gospel than our own reputation.

We should trust God as we proclaim the gospel without fear (12-14)

The church at Philippi is concerned:

They have a personal concern about Pauls’ well-being, because they love him.
They have a kingdom concern about the advance of the gospel. Paul is in prison—how will the gospel go forth?

Paul wants to let the Philippians know that despite his imprisonment, the gospel is advancing (12-14).

Paul spent quite a bit of time in jail. Remember, in Acts 16, one of the founding members of the church was the Philippian jailer and his family.

Now, Paul says that his imprisonment for Christ “has become known throughout the whole imperial guard” (13). The imperial guard were elite Roman soldiers (around 10,000 of them) under the direct command of Caesar. Probably the best modern-day equivalent would be the secret service. In God’s sovereignty, Paul is in prison so that the gospel would be able to infiltrate a group of people who would presumably be hostile to the gospel.

Paul is essentially under house arrest. He was allowed to write letters and to speak with visitors, but he was chained to a Roman guard at all times. Every 4-6 hours, a shift change would occur and another guard would come in to guard Paul. So, Paul was sharing the gospel with every guard he came into contact with.

As Paul shared the gospel, others became emboldened to preach the gospel because of Paul’s faithfulness (v. 14).

In verses 12-14, we see that Paul is much more concerned with the advancement of the gospel than he is with his personal circumstances. In fact, rather than telling the Philippians how he was doing, Paul talks about how the gospel is doing.

The glory of God and the spread of the gospel was Paul’s passion.

The glory of God and the spread of the gospel was Paul’s passion.

What are some things we can learn from Paul in these verses? Three things:

(1) Trust in God’s sovereignty during your trials (12-13).

Paul was imprisoned for the sake of Christ (13). This should not be surprising. If we follow Christ, we will be hated. Remember Jesus’ words:

John 15:20a – Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

The Romans thought that by imprisoning Paul, they would keep him quiet and Christianity would eventually dissipate. Instead, they gave him a captive audience that he wouldn’t have otherwise had.

How do you respond when you have a trial? You have two options:

The first is that you can throw a pity party and feel sorry for yourself.

The second is that you can trust God and be a steward of the situation for His glory.

When we throw a pity party, we are really proclaiming that life is about us. We think that life isn’t fair and God doesn’t care about us.

However, when we see tough situations as something that God uses to make us more like Christ, then our whole perspective changes. We are to be more concerned about God’s glory than our own comfort!

Rather than being sad about what God has not done for you, rejoice at what God will do in you and through you as you submit to his sovereign plan!

There are people that God has placed in your life to help you grow in your faith or for you to share your faith with (family, neighbors, co-workers, and others). What if your chronic health condition is God’s way for the doctors and nursing staff to hear the gospel? God can use you for His glory if you will be faithful!

If you are focused on Christ and the gospel, then your problems and your pain can become your pulpit.

If you are focused on Christ and the gospel, then your problems and your pain can become your pulpit.

See your circumstances as opportunities to speak the gospel. God doesn’t just work in spite of your circumstances, but God works through your circumstances.

Consider the fact that the church at Rome had no doubt prayed that the Lord would open a way to witness to the elite and influential imperial guard. In God’s wisdom, He answered that prayer by making members of that guard captive to Paul for two years.

(2) Trust in the power of the gospel. (12-13; Rom 1:16)

Rom 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The gospel penetrated the toughest of the tough. These Roman soldiers were probably the manliest men and the toughest men on the planet at that time. And yet, the gospel was the power of God for salvation.

It is likely that Paul was a special prisoner of the emperor (Phil 4:22). The fact that he closes the letter with a greeting from “Caesar’s household” testifies to the power of the gospel over the most powerful family in the world.

Maybe you’re not in prison for the gospel, but do you ever feel chained to circumstances? Maybe you’re a woman who stays at home with her children. You can reach them with the gospel. Maybe you have a spouse who is an unbeliever or children or grandchildren who are living in sin. Never quit praying for them. Never quit sharing the gospel with them. The gospel is powerful!

(3) Trust that God will use your example to help others (14).

Paul’s example has helped other brothers be bold for Christ. When we take a stand for Christ, it helps others do the same.

We should love the glory of Christ more than our own (15-18)

There are two groups present in vv. 15-18.

There were the envious evangelists who preached because of envy and rivalry. They saw Paul’s imprisonment as an opportunity to tear him down and stir up trouble. They sought to elevate their ministries and to “afflict Paul in his imprisonment” (17).

Second, there were the empathetic evangelists who preached out of goodwill. They cared about Paul and continued his mission care about Paul’s mission to advance the gospel. They served with goodwill and love towards Paul.

What motives do we have as a church?

Is it possible that at times we are like these envious evangelists?

Do we tear down other churches that are preaching the gospel?

Their preacher is a Calvinist (or a non-Calvinist).
Their music is too loud and too repetitive.
They sit in chairs instead of pews.
They use a different Bible version.

Do we elevate our ministries and think we’re a better church because we do this or that?

When another church is held in high esteem, how do we react?

When another person is honored, are you jealous, or can you thank God for their ministry?

Remember, the envious evangelists were guilty of rivalry (17). But…sServing Jesus out of envy or rivalry is a warped motivation.

Notice Paul’s response in v. 18:

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Paul is so focused on the glory of Christ, that his only concern is that “Christ is proclaimed.”

Do you care more about Christ’s glory or getting recognition for yourself?

The gospel is so glorious. We deserve nothing but God’s wrath, but God adopts us as His own children. There is no room for envy and rivalry in the kingdom of God.

The glory of God and the spread of the gospel was Paul’s passion.

I hope the glory of God and the spread of the gospel is the passion of our church. For that to happen, we need to focus on Jesus, proclaim the gospel and love the glory of Christ more than our own.

As we live an attractive and joyful lives before people and share the gospel with them, then we will see people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Tag: persecution

Living Worthy of the Gospel – Philippians 1:27-30

A Gospel Focus Leads to Joy – Philippians 1:12-18a

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