Title: Together for the Gospel
Scripture: Philippians 1:27-30
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
This morning we want to talk about our study here in Philippians chapter 1. I was reading a little bit online this week, there was a study that came across my feed and I had forgotten about it from quite a while ago. But according to this study, this was done by the George Barnard Research Group, and according to this study they surveyed a number of Americans and they've determined that only 4% of Americans possess a biblical worldview, 4%. That includes professing Christians, non-Christians, conservatives, everyone, 4%.
The survey covered about eight broad categories of belief including things like what is our purpose in calling, the Bible, truth in general, morality, salvation, marriage and family, creation, and so on. The categories of the lowest alignment to biblical truth were in the areas, believe it or not, of marriage and family, abortion and sanctity of life, which again is why Genesis I think is so important for us, as well as lowest alignment regarding the doctrine of God, creation, and history. Once again, study of Genesis.
The percentages were only slightly higher for matters pertaining to the gospel, but overall the picture is pretty bleak. 4% of Americans have a mindset that aligns with the Word of God. However, when I was doing research for my first book, Reviving New England, the data I encountered for the number of biblically-minded believers in the Northeast alone, so not the entire country, just the Northeast, just New England, hovered around 1-2%, 1-2%.
That means in New Hampshire, a population of 1.4 million, there may be only as many as 28,000 Christians in the whole state and perhaps even as few as 14,000 Christians. In a very real way, you could be in a room of 100 people and be the only Christian there, the only person who believes in Jesus Christ. It's hard to escape the overwhelming feeling that our present culture is consumed in darkness.
But what is to be our response? We hear those stats, we read surveys like that, what is the response? Because our temptation would be to hide our faith to blend in. It might be to cave in to the pressure, to be silent, or even to capitulate. Our temptation may also be to cower in fear out of the concern over persecution by a culture that hates Jesus Christ.
But what does the Bible tell us to do? Well, we're going to explore that today as we work together at the end of Philippians chapter 1. So if you haven't already turned to Philippians 1, we're going to look at the last four verses of Philippians 1. As bleak as our picture of our nation seems to be, we need to remember that there exists both a present and a historical remnant of the Christian faith in our country. But in Paul's missionary journeys, that was certainly not the case. When Paul and his traveling companions arrived on the European continent, they were the only Christians ever to set foot there.
They were the tip of the spear. The culture they were walking into in the Macedonian region and beyond was 100% pagan. And yet, in time, churches began to spring up in cities like Thessalonica, and Berea, Corinth, and Philippi.
In fact, the Philippian church was the first one established on this journey under intense opposition and persecution. But now, several years later, the Apostle Paul, he's now imprisoned for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he is set to stand trial for his faith, which could cost him his life. And yet, Paul was unflinching.
More than that, Paul was even rejoicing. Why? Well, because despite all of this, the gospel was continuing to spread, and actually, not just despite his imprisonment, but even because of his imprisonment. Furthermore, the Christians in Rome were emboldened by the tenacity of Paul, and they began to proclaim the gospel as well.
And so ultimately, whether he lived or whether he died, Paul believed that Christ would be exalted. And we see these verses from last week, verse 21, Paul says, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Then he continues on, verse 22, but if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which one to choose.
But I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. And so Paul was confident, he wasn't afraid, he wasn't worried, the whole Roman world stood against him, and yet he rejoiced because in the midst of that, he had a stage on which to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ.
But what about the church in Philippi? What about those who are reading the letter? What are they to do? Well, starting in verse 27 here, Paul pivots a little bit, we noticed a change in direction back in verse 18, now there's another sort of change in direction in his thought. In chapter 1, verse 27, Paul offers the first of several directives to the church for them to follow. And here, as we'll see, he is calling on them to stand together for the gospel.
Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 through 30 will be focused on today. Paul tells the church, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and that too from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me.
Now, there's a lot happening in these verses. Paul begins verse 27 with the Greek word monon, which is translated here only. We have a similar word mono, it's, you know, singular, but it's the same kind of an idea here.
In a sense, Paul, what he's about to say here is of the utmost importance. There's a singular focus to his statement here. It's almost like telling somebody, out of all the things that I care about, there's just one thing I want you to focus on.
A lot of times we'll say things like that, knowing there's other things that exist in the scope of our conversation, but there's the most important thing. If you do nothing else, do this, that's the idea, okay? So he's emphasizing something that's about to come. What is Paul's one big thing he's pointing to? What is the only thing he really ultimately wants to focus on? He says this, to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
The driving force behind all of this is there's actually one word that is rendered conduct yourselves. Now, normally, when Paul wants to direct believers toward the way that they are to be living, he tells them to walk in a worthy manner. That word walk is repeating all the time in the epistles here.
The Greek word for walk is peripeteo, and in Ephesians 4.1, for example, we read that we are to walk, peripeteo, walk in a manner worthy of our calling, Colossians 1.10, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, or 1 Thessalonians 2.12, to walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His kingdom and glory. But he doesn't use this word here, walk, peripeteo, as regarding how they are to live their lives. Instead, he uses a different word.
He uses the word polituo, which is where we get our word politic or political. It's the root of that. But remember that Paul is speaking to those who are citizens of Roman society.
The province that they're in is a Roman province. In this word, polituo refers to those who live as citizens of a commonwealth here. In fact, even in our own history, when we look at American history, the very first settlers to sign what we know to be the Mayflower Compact in 1620, there is some verbiage in that contract that they agreed to live together as a civil body politic.
Same root there. They are covenanted members of a new society. And Paul is seizing here on this very notion, this word to speak of believers as conducting themselves as citizens of a different kind of commonwealth.
They were to live not only as earthly citizens conducting their lives, but they were to be living as heavenly citizens, living their lives in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. We say this very same idea in Philippians 3.20 where Paul tells them, he says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, if you consider your identity to be as a citizen of this world only, then you're going to live and act and make decisions to that end.
And a lot of people, people even in the church, have a mindset where they see themselves only having a life here, citizens here, and their worldview and their focus and their endeavors are only here. But if you consider yourself to be a citizen of heaven while living on earth, then you'll conduct your life in a way that is worthy of the gospel. You'll see yourselves as a, the Geneva Bible calls this pilgrims, you'll be strangers and aliens living in this world.
This concept of living worthy, the Greek word is axios, it refers to their living in a way that is consistent with or upholding the gospel. In other words, you're living your life in light of the fact that God is God, in light of the fact that sin is evil, that Christ is glorious, that salvation is by faith and eternity is secure. You live a Christ-like, Christ-centered life.
You live a life of repentance, a life of trusting in God. You live a life standing for truth. Or to say it another way, you'll live in the hope of Paul's prayer for them back in chapter 1, verse 9. He tells them, this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in the real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
Those concepts, those spiritual realities will be present and active in your life. But to be very specific, you're living a life that is geared toward the gospel of Christ. But what is the gospel of Christ? We know this word gospel, euangelion in the Greek, refers to good news.
It's the good news of Jesus Christ. This good news that He came to earth as a man, God in human flesh, and He gave up that life. He gave His perfect, righteous life, dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
And then after being buried, resurrecting the third day to bring new life. We know that at the cross, Jesus paid for our sins. He satisfied God's justice and righteousness.
He earned our forgiveness. He facilitated a reconciliation with the Father, and He blessed us with eternal life. That's good news for people who are living in a hopeless world.
Again, when we say things like only 4% of Americans have a biblical worldview, it's intimating that 96% are living in a way or believing in a way that is contrary to the gospel. They deny the truths about God. They deny the truths about sin, about justice, about gospel, about Christ.
They do not contain in their minds and hearts a biblical worldview. And they plunge themselves into spiritual darkness. But again, the good news is they can be delivered.
The unbelieving world is not our enemy. The forces of wickedness certainly is the enemy, but unbelievers, that's the mission. We want to reach them with the good news of Christ.
That's why Paul was so excited. He's in prison, but he's like, I have a captive audience. I get to preach the gospel to soldiers and visitors and politicians.
I want to preach the gospel. He wasn't for social reform. That wasn't Paul's agenda.
He was for spiritual reform. I want them to know Jesus Christ. He says other places, I profess to them nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That doesn't mean he knows nothing. It just means that compared to everything else, Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected, Christ is the only ultimate thing that I really care about. But Jesus Christ, He gave His life for sinners by which we receive the gift of salvation by faith.
See, Christians aren't perfect people. We're not perfect. But we are forgiven people.
We are called to live our lives in light of being forgiven and being redeemed by God. Furthermore, we are to live this way regardless of who's looking. Don't just be a Christian because somebody's watching you.
Quite the opposite. Be a Christian because we know that God is always watching. We live our lives for Him.
But that's Paul's confidence as well. Look at verse 28, or excuse me, verse 27. He says, we're standing firm together in one gospel.
He says, so whether I hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. He says, I know that whether I'm there or whether I remain in prison, you're going to be faithful in your walk. It doesn't matter if I come and see you or if I'm still absent, I know that you're going to do this.
And he's confident he's going to hear of their faithfulness. He says, I will hear that you're standing firm. I'm going to hear about this.
This word for standing firm, stēko in the Greek is standing firm or standing fast. It's that you have your feet planted. You're not moving.
You're not easily pushed and falling backwards. You're planted. You're standing strong.
Part of our responsibility as Christians is to stand for the truth of the gospel. We have to be holding the line. We remember the exhortation to the Ephesians in Paul's famous passage that we know to be the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6, but just listen to these words here.
Paul tells the Ephesian church, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Then he says in verse 14, stand firm, therefore having girded your loins with the truth, breastplate of righteousness, and he continues on. But the key imperative several times in that passage is for us to be standing firm and resisting.
To stand firm means we don't waffle on the message. To stand firm means we don't smooth out the details. We don't soften the language.
We don't gloss over. We don't compromise on truth. Paul repeats this in Philippians 4.1, he says, stand firm in the Lord.
Stand firm. Paul was already doing this in Rome, but he wanted others in the churches to do the same. He told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16.13, he says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Take courage. Don't be scared. Don't feel like you have to do this dance.
We play this game and we do dance with culture. Culture shoots us that way and we say, well, we could probably accommodate that language. Maybe I could grab some of those, I could redeem those concepts, redeem that truth, redeem that language, and sort of make it a gospel thing.
We play these games, why? Why are we dealing on the world's terms when the Bible's very clear on what God wants us to say, to hold, to believe, to stand firm on? Here's the thing, standing firm is not the job of just one Christian. It's the job of every Christian, every believer. He tells them that they are to stand firm, look at that, in one spirit, in one spirit.
Now, some have believed that verse 27 here, that phrase, standing firm in one spirit, is speaking of believers are sharing together of the same Holy Spirit. Now, that's certainly true. We all have the same Spirit of God indwelling in us as believers.
Ephesians 4, 3 reminds us that there is one body and one spirit. So again, as members of the body of Christ, His hands and His feet, we are partakers of the same Holy Spirit. We don't have a different spirit indwelling each of us.
It isn't like this half of the room has this Holy Spirit, the other half has the other Holy Spirit. There is one Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, one Spirit for all time for all believers. Again, this is what Paul is referring to, certainly in passages like that.
But here, in this context, Paul is likely referring to their unity and their togetherness. Because not only were they of one Spirit, he says in the very next phrase that they are with one mind, with one mind. The Greek is miasouke, which is literally with one soul, with one soul.
Soul and mind are oftentimes synonymous. This is the way we refer to our unity in the body of Christ. In fact, Acts 4.32 speaks similarly of the congregation in Acts 4. He says, of those who believed and were of one heart and soul.
The body of Christ is of one heart and one soul. Philippians 2.2, it's being of the same mind, as we're going to talk about. It's when we think and believe in the same way, it's we are together in what we uphold.
And so this is not just the church standing firm in one Spirit, with one mind. Paul adds that they're also to be striving together for the faith of the gospel. Whereas before, they're simply standing firm together, now they are striving together.
Sunathleo, meaning contending or struggling or striving. Later on in Philippians 4.3, the same word refers to a shared struggle, a shared struggle. What is this? Well, essentially, it's gospel labor, gospel labor.
It's a joint effort on behalf of the body to, as Jude 3 says, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. The faith here, this phrase, the faith, is shorthand for the collective body of doctrine and teaching pertaining to the gospel. And the more we rehearse this and proclaim it and defend it and obey it, we are striving together for the faith of the gospel.
We should never grow tired of Christian doctrine. I don't know how many times I've talked through systematic theology over and over again to different groups of men and believers, and my wife and I have conversations about systematic theology. I mean, this is part of life, and I'll tell you, I never get tired of it.
Because every time that you rehearse in the truths of the gospel, every time you're rereading the Bible, more and more of this divine truth is being nailed down into the precepts of your mind, of the consciousness of your mind, that you're growing, you're becoming more convinced. But a person who lets their Bible collect dust on the shelf, you're going to get led away. Your mind and your heart will be twisted and become like the world.
It is inevitable. If I listen to Christian radio, that's great. Christian radio is fine, usually.
But are you bathing your mind in the Word of God? Do you know His truth? Are you rehearsing the gospel to yourself? We have to remember, I don't just preach the gospel for my health, and I don't just preach it to those who already know it and just want to hear it again just for fun. Not only do we preach the gospel for those who are not saved, but I need to hear these things over and over again. I need to say these things over and over again to remind ourselves of what is true, to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
But again, this is not the job of one person. It's not just Paul's job. It's not just the preacher's job.
We all have to strive together to believe and share and defend and guard the gospel. Because if we don't, believers, it can be lost in a generation. New England is evidence of that.
Gilmanton is evidence of that. When the churches in Gilmanton stopped preaching the gospel, you know what happened? Apostasy. And by all historical records that I can find, there was apostasy for probably about 75 to 100 years here.
There were glimmers once in a while, but I remember, I've already told you this story probably before, but I remember preaching down the street at the Lower Gilmanton Baptist Church. I just preached a very simple, simple gospel message. I had a man from town, I've known him forever.
He came up to me and he says, I haven't heard that in 30 years. I'm thinking, praise the Lord that you heard it today. But it's a sad state of affairs when you have to find some new guy to come and preach to you because you haven't heard it, it hasn't been here.
We can lose the gospel in a generation if we're not careful. It happens all the time. And so it is incumbent upon us to defend and to strive to hold on to these gospel truths.
And Paul adds in their standing and striving, verse 28, he says, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you and that too from God. Here Paul makes mention of the church's opponents in Philippi. Well, who are the Philippian opponents? Well, it's actually hard to say.
We don't really know. Now there is a point in chapter 3, verse 2, where Paul makes reference to what he calls the dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision. Now some believe this might have been the Judaizers who were sort of creeping in and they were focused on ceremonialism as part of the gospel.
They were focused on legalism. They were focused on law keeping. That's the Judaizers.
But we actually don't know if that's who Paul's talking about here. We don't know the context of who the opponents were. They could have been the Judaizers.
That could have been the pagans. It could have been political rivals in Philippi whose allegiance was to Caesar as Lord and not to Christ. We don't know.
But we do know that they had opponents. We do know that they had gospel enemies. And whoever they were, Paul intimated that the church was to be no way alarmed.
Some translations render this phrase, not letting your opponents intimidate you. Because normally that's what they try to do. That is the modus operandi of false gospel, of anti-gospel.
The unbelieving world, their method is to try to scare us and frighten us. Once in a while they overplay their hand and they persecute us. And you know what happens when a government or a regime persecutes the church? It expands and explodes and spreads.
Look at communist China. Look at Russia. Look at any place there's been heavy persecution and we see the underground church spreading.
And so when they realize this, they go, oh boy. See in the American anti-Christian regime, they don't go that far because they don't want to overplay their hand. So what do they do? They try to intimidate us.
They try to silence us, try to get us to mute our language and soft pedal the gospel. They call us names, they lie about us, they accuse us, they threaten us with legal action. Financial ruin.
Sometimes jail time, happens in Canada recently. Sometimes violence. But we should be expecting this kind of behavior.
When people oppose you because of your Christian faith, it shouldn't be surprising to you. In fact, you should grow to expect it, that it's going to happen. After all, Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you.
What did they do to Jesus? They killed him, they murdered him. What can we expect for ourselves? Persecution. And so Paul says, we are not alarmed by this, we're not intimidated by this.
And I'll tell you, they call us all kinds of names. Racists, bigots, whatever they're going to call us. Unloving.
Oh, you're unloving. You don't know what love means. The Bible tells us that we do.
We know what love is. But Paul adds here that there are certain signs that we can see when we are opposed. The first has to do with the opponents themselves.
When they slander us and they blaspheme Christ, Paul says, it is a sign of destruction for them. Not for us. For them.
It's like Haman's gallows. They think they're destroying us, but in actuality their attacks against God's people are a sign that God is going to judge them. When you set yourself up against the purposes of God, what do you think is going to happen? When people attack us, it's like they don't understand.
They don't know whose God we're serving. They don't understand what He's capable of. They don't understand that He protects His own and avenges and vindicates the righteous.
And so when they oppose the church and they show themselves to be opposition to the body of Christ, they're standing against the truth of the gospel. In fact, the fact that we're opposed for our stance of the gospel means, he says, that there's salvation for us. Salvation for you.
In other words, by upholding the gospel and being persecuted for the gospel, it's an evidence that we belong to Christ. Because non-Christians won't endure persecution for the gospel. When a person says they're a Christian, and it's only their profession alone, there's no fruit, there's no root, there's no nothing.
They say they're a Christian, but they're truly not. When persecution comes, they stop talking about Christ. All of a sudden, they're not Christians anymore.
This happens all the time. All the time. And you've got to mark it, too.
And I'm thankful for when anyone comes to Christ, but whenever you see a big celebrity say, Oh, I'm a Christian now. You've got to be a little bit careful. Because as soon as it's out of vogue, time will tell whether they hold on to their faith or not.
When persecution comes, what do you hold to? Do you double down? Because this is who you are? Or do you pull away? Jesus says in Matthew 10.33, Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever confesses me before men, especially in light of persecution and opposition, He says, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. And so if you're afraid to say, I love Christ, I belong to Christ, Christ is saying, well, I'm not going to say that of you then to the Father.
I'm not going to say that they're mine, that they're coming to heaven with me. I'm not going to say that. But if you profess before men that you love Christ, He will confess you to the Father.
But to be very clear, defending the gospel is not the thing that saves you. But those who have been saved, who do belong to Christ, Those are the ones that stand for the gospel. Because they have everything to lose and heaven to gain.
And so they stand firm. They stand firm for Christ. And yet Paul is quick to add, he says, and that too from God.
Now, some grammar here. Scholars have questioned what Paul means when he uses the word that. What is the that referring to? Many have concluded that he's referring to everything before it.
That standing in the gospel is a blessing given from God. That striving together is from God. That opposition is providentially ordained from God.
And that our salvation is also from God. So when he says that and that too from God, He says everything that we've received up to this point, all of that is from God. I believe it's the correct interpretation because of what he says in verse 29.
He says, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, Not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. See, the Lord gives gifts. Paul talks about gifts that are given.
Now, the reason I say gift here is because Paul uses this Greek word charizomai. When he says it has been granted to you, the word translated granted is charizomai, which refers to a gracious offering, even a favor of kindness, a gift. But the first gift given by God is that of faith, he says.
He says it has been granted, charizomai, it's been given to you as a gift. It's been granted to you to believe in Him. And so our faith in Jesus Christ is a gracious gift given to us by God.
If you have saving faith in Christ, it's because God gave it to you. He enabled you to believe, Ephesians 2.8, For by grace, charis, it's the root word of charizomai, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And he adds later, it's not of works.
You can't claim anything to boast about with this. You can't brag because you're a Christian. Faith is not something you work up from within yourselves.
It's an ability to see Christ for who He is. It's an ability to understand what He's done. It's an ability to accept and appropriate these things to ourselves because God has granted it.
It has been granted to us. And so if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, you have believed the gospel. It is because God has granted to you the ability to believe in Him.
Again, all for Christ's sake. It's for Jesus that we believe. Christ is glorified when we believe in Him and we stand firm for the gospel.
But there's another gift here as well. And this one seems odd to us at the first reading. Not only has it been granted to believe in Him, but also, he adds, to suffer for His sake.
Now that strikes a weird chord with us, doesn't it? What do you mean it's a gift that we suffer for His sake? This Greek word is pasko, means to be acted upon or to experience suffering. It's used 39 times in the New Testament, oftentimes to speak of Christ's own sufferings. But here it refers to the sufferings of believers who endure such a thing for Christ's sake.
In other words, they're not suffering because of some kind of sin or transgression that they have committed. And furthermore, they're not even suffering simply because of the fallenness of the world. They're specifically suffering for Jesus.
And Paul says it's that kind of suffering that is granted by God and even regarded by Him as a gift, a gift to us. Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 5, 12, 11, and 12. He says, blessed are you, happy are you, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say falsely all kinds of evil against you because of me.
He says you're blessed when that happens. And you might scratch your head and say, well, I don't feel very blessed. That hurts when people do that.
But he says you're blessed. And then he says in verse 12, rejoice and be glad. Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, suffering for Christ places you within a fellowship of other faithful saints who have suffered for Him.
Our suffering for Christ in this life is the same suffering as all those who have believed on Him in the past. We are counted with every single other faithful believer, notorious or not, notable or not, famous or not, doesn't make a difference. Every single believer who has stood for Christ and suffered for it, we are counted with those.
And then we read of the apostles who were tortured for Christ. I'm always shocked at Acts 5.41 that says that they went on their way. This is the apostles.
They went on their way after being persecuted and whipped and flogged, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. Now, clearly, they're not rejoicing because the flesh has been ripped off their back. That's not the thing that makes them rejoice.
Rather, they're rejoicing because their suffering aligned them with Jesus Christ. It was an outward proof that they belonged to Him. And everyone around could see that they weren't suffering for some other reason.
They were suffering solely because they professed love and faith in Christ. It gives us perspective. 1 Peter 1. Just listen to these words.
This is from Peter 1 3-9. And then he adds this. That's us.
We haven't seen Him with our own human eyes. That's why persecution, that's why suffering for Christ is so valuable. I'll tell you, if you're struggling with assurance of faith, and you stand for Christ, and you're opposed for it, you know what that does for you? It doesn't shake your faith even worse.
Gee whiz, I hope I still am a Christian. How can you think that when someone is opposing you and condemning you purely because you do love Christ? And you stand for truth. It emboldens your faith.
It emboldens your witness. It emboldens those around you. That's what's happening with Paul.
That's what's happening in Rome. That's what's happening in Philippi. And even today it happens for Christians all around the world.
Suffering for Christ proves our faith and aligns us with Him. Furthermore, when you consider what Paul says at the very beginning of his letter here, he says, specifically, because of his imprisonment, because of his imprisonment, the church was emboldened to action. They took courage.
He says, many of you have been able to speak the Word of God without fear. You weren't afraid anymore. Persecution motivates the church to action.
Not to mention, we haven't even talked about the sanctifying effect of these kinds of trials in James 1, verses 3 and 4 that produces endurance and produces maturity. We don't tend to grow when we're doing well. Ever notice that? We get very lazy in our faith.
Everything's comfortable. But as soon as trials come and you go, oh no, and your life falls apart, and everything collapses on you, where do you go if you're in Christ? You go to Him. Lord, help me.
Lord, sustain me. And you draw near. And it grows you in Him.
And then on the other side of the trial, you're thankful, aren't you? You're rejoicing at what the trial has produced in you. Man, it is hard to grow. Amen to that? It is hard to be sanctified.
I hate it. I love it, but man, it is so hard, isn't it? We've been singing the same song for three weeks. I'm glad we are.
I asked the Lord that I might grow. And what did He do? He stuck my sin in my face. And He showed me my need for Him.
Right? That's how He does it. And persecution does the same thing. It brings you to the end of yourself.
When people hate you for Christ, it brings you to that very tender place where you're like, oh Lord, I'm in pain right now. I'm scared. I'm scared.
They're going to take my family. They're going to take my money. They're going to take my home.
They're going to take my freedom. I'm scared, Lord. But it draws you into Him.
And now you're blessed. And so here, God is granting both faith in Christ and He's granting suffering for Christ. And He tells the Philippians that in their own suffering, verse 30, they are experiencing the same conflict that they saw in Paul and now here to be in Him.
Now, we know that they're clearly not experiencing the same exact circumstances. They're not prisoners also with Paul in Rome. How could they be experiencing the same conflict? Well, this word conflict is agon, struggle or fight.
It's where we get the word agony. It's not the same circumstances, but it is the same struggle. It's the same agony.
It's the same difficulty. That is, suffering for the cause of Christ. Because regarding the conflict here, He says, this is the thing that you saw in me, which is likely referring to the time that the Philippians actually witnessed Paul and Silas be violently attacked in the public square and they were arrested and they were thrown in prison in Acts chapter 16.
Acts 16 chronicles the whole thing. All these Philippian believers, they watched this happen in real time. He says, so you saw this in me.
You saw what happened when I was arrested. Of course, they haven't seen him in a couple of years at this point, but they had certainly heard about his struggling that he was experiencing in Rome. They heard about it.
They heard that that was in him. And yet, there's a sense in which we are all sharers together in suffering for Christ. I was reminded this week of 1 Corinthians 12 26.
It says, even if one member of Christ's body, even if one member suffers, all members suffer with it. And we've experienced that at harvest many, many, many times. When one of you is hurting, the other people gather around and we hurt together, right? We recognize this person's in pain.
Yes, I feel it and I want to draw near to them. You don't see someone in pain and go, well, and just smile and move on. Well, I'll pray for you.
No, we draw near. We feel that, don't we? We bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And Christians around the world are persecuted for Christ.
We all feel it. We all feel it. Even here, when one of us is maligned, we're all maligned because we are one body in Christ.
We are together here on earth. We will be together in heaven. This is just a temporal, temporary meeting place.
We will be together again in heaven. And so when opposition comes, don't worry. Don't be afraid.
You have Christ in your corner. And as we are all His hands and feet, you have the family of God in your corner. That's why we need each other.
That's why you can't do the Christian life alone. We are together for Christ. We are together in contending for the gospel of Christ.
And we are together as citizens of heaven and yet strangers in pilgrims while on earth. We are together for the gospel, aren't we? Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word.
We thank you for the truth of this passage, Lord. We thank you that you continuously apply these truths by the ministry of your spirit, one spirit that we all share. And you bring us into understanding.
And Lord, there is so much in this world that we feel the opposition. We feel the world against the truth, against us. And yet Lord, just personally, I'm very thankful that we live in a corner of the nation, a small little town where we are relatively unconstrained.
That you have protected this assembly that I know of other believers and I know the rest of us know of other believers and other churches that have experienced intense persecution, intense opposition. And Lord, you've given us peace here. I'm thankful for that.
I don't say that proudly or boastfully, Lord. We know that troubled times will come. We will endure persecution again.
We will be opposed. We will be attacked. But Lord, when those times come, will you please help us to stand firm, to strive together, to hold the line, to stand strong for you.
And not be intimidated by those who are against us. But rather with one mind, with one heart, with one soul, to be together in this ministry. Lord, help us to keep the common goal in line.
That ultimately we want to reach Christ in heaven. And we want other people as well to know Him, to be saved by Him, and to see Him face to face. Lord, let us not become so myopic that we don't see the mission in front of us.
This is not about being comfortable here. This is about striving and grabbing as many people left and right of us, preaching the gospel to them, living in a life that is worthy of this gospel, to lead them to you. Let us not forget the mission, O Lord.
Be gracious to us. Help us, O Lord. We are feeble people.
And yet we have such a great God. Thank you for your loving kindness. Thank you for your mercy and care for this assembly.
We love you, O Lord. And we thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.