In this sermon Pastor Tim looks at Paul’s encouragement to the Philippians to live worthy of the gospel of Christ.
So we are in a series in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
- A church Paul planted about 10 years prior to writing this letter which you can read about in Acts chapter 16.
- It is a city in northern Greece and was the first church planted in what is now Europe.
- It is a world heritage site today and for many centuries after Paul’s arrival, was a hub of Christian faith.
- And its an amazing story where, as he preaches the good news of Jesus, he is accused of causing an uproar in the city.
- Wouldn’t it be great for Christians to be accused of that more often!
- And the uproar relates to light coming into the city, pushing out the darkness…
Mainly because the owners of a slave girl who can for tell the future is delivered and they are furious at losing their revenue stream…
- And there is this crazy scene where Paul and Silas are thrown into jail for preaching and demonstrating the gospel.
- And as they sing hymns and pray… there is an earthquake, their jailer gets saved and Paul walks free.
- And so the first church is Philippi is made up of Lydia the businesswoman, who’d we met earlier in Acts 16, the jailer and their families!
So we have had a few weeks in Philippians…
- And it is clear there is great affection between Paul and the church in Philippi.
- Paul had received a gift from them while in prison…
- He doesn’t hold back his feelings… and it is so good for us to make sure those who have helped us in our faith know our gratitude.
Verse 3 “I thank my God every time I remember you… I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel.”
- And he reminds them that the God who started a good work in them will bring it to completion.
- That’s one of the things I love about having the story of the birth of the church in Acts 16 in Philippi and then Paul’s letter 10 years later.
- It was not a flash in the pan religious experience. The gospel had taken root in their lives and their city!
- And that is what we want in our lives and churches… deep, meaningful, lasting faith!
- So he is really grateful for the church in Philippi that he had planted… that was still going strong and partnering with him.
So today’s passage… Philippians 1:27-30
27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel28 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. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
Let me just read those first few verses again in The Message Version
Meanwhile, live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ. Let nothing in your conduct hang on whether I come or not. Your conduct must be the same whether I show up to see things for myself or hear of it from a distance. Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against.
So a recent highlight of my week: My son’s basketball game…
- He started playing this year and is in the school under 9’s comp.
- Kind of thought as under 9’s, playing on a 10ft ring and full court the scores would be like 2-0 or 4-2… but they actually score quite a bit, often getting well into the double figures…
- And I am a bit new to the game… but I am learning…
- Times when you are playing offense and times when you are playing defence…
- I love the runs forward… points scored…
- But also amazed at how they play defence as a team… they get right in the face of the other attacking team and make it hard to be scored against…
Christian faith can be a bit like that…
- Times where we are playing offence and times of playing defence against the opposition we face…
- Times of offence – where the light pushes out the darkness…
- This might be when we share the gospel… Alpha Course… Dean…
- Or I think of One Body… move going on…
- Churches being renewed…
- Hear of remarkable coming to faith stories like Russell Brand… that seem to buck ever secularising trends…
But there are also times when we are taking some hits for what we believe and how we live.
- For Paul it meant he spent time in jail for preaching and demonstrating the gospel
- That is the context of the letter Paul is writing…
- Amazing things have happened through his ministry and mission journeys, but the reality is that the preaching of Jesus as Lord ruffled a lot of feathers.
- He is in jail, but he writes this letter to strengthen them in the face of opposition and potential suffering.
- Verse 29 talks about being granted to you on behalf of Christ to suffer for him.
- That might seem like a strange verse… but it is basically saying, the one we now revere as Lord who suffered….
- Well what an honour to suffer like him, on behalf of his Kingdom moving forward.
And when we face opposition or are on the defence…
- Our temptation is to withdraw, or stay quiet or just try and fit in the world around us.
- Right? Ever you?
- Why risk your neck on this crucified messiah?
- But Paul wants them to respond as we will see by living lives worthy of gospel, standing firm and being united!
- This will all be signs to an unbelieving and hostile world, that Christ lives in us…
- Signs that the final victory is assured over the forces of darkness and opposition.
And just before we move on… opposition to Christian faith was very real for the early Christians, around the world today, and even in parts in the culture we find ourselves in.
- For Paul the risks of beatings and imprisonment was constant in his ministry
- Tradition tells us he was beheaded in the 60’s, possibly under Nero’s persecution of Christians which he blamed falsely for the great fire of Rome in 64AD.
- And early Christians often faced serious downward social status for turning from the pagan beliefs around them and towards Christ.
- And many of you will know about the persecution of the early church to the point of death in the first 300 years of the faith.
- And then of course around the world today it is basically illegal to be a Christians in many parts of the world.
- I am still haunted by those Egyptians Christians in their orange jump suits who were beheaded by ISIS a few years ago.
And then what about us?
- Well, in light of what I have just talked about, I certainly want to rejoice in the many freedoms we have in Australia today…
- I think it is really important we don’t get a persecution complex just because the Christian faith is moving from the centre to the margins of our culture.
- But we do face opposition…
- Marginalisation… (council carols) not in the public space… tell story… Dep Mayor…
- Corrosion of ability to live according to our faith’s precepts… schools not being able to hire staff, or what’s called anti-conversion laws that limit how we talk and counsel our kids around issues of sexuality…
- Mocking… it is nothing for public figures to openly disparage believers…
Now that is not the full story and I don’t want us having a persecution complex…
- Free to meet…
- Have our people in all spheres (Sydney prayer breakfast)
- And wonderful things are happening in many parts of the church!
But I think it is worth saying… if we feel no rub… we are probably not being all that faithful in our following of Christ.
- The message and application for us that a new Lord is King and to whom we give our allegiance… subverts the Lords of this age…
- That should cause opposition.
- If we oppose war and violence… there will be opposition…
- If we uphold a biblical ideal around sexuality… there will be opposition
- If we stand up against the gambling industry that ruins so many lives… you get the idea…
So that is the context of Paul writing and he wants them to respond in 3 magnificent ways…
- In the face of opposition, it isn’t even really being defensive…
- It is actually to get on the front foot as Christians…
- It talks about their unity and their standing firm…
- But I want to focus in on that first charge – to live lives worthy of the wonderful gospel of Christ
So Paul asks them to live a life worthy of the Gospel
Verse 27: Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
- So Paul, somewhat unconcerned whether he stays stuck in jail or gets to visit the Philippians
- Says, with all of this suffering and opposition, I want to urge you to live a life worthy of Christ.
- Right?
- One of the greatest defences against the opposition we face is to live remarkable, flourishing, peace filled lives that demonstrate the one we follow!
- When we act and love and speak like Jesus… there is not much that can be said against that.
So having written already about them “sharing in God’s grace with me” (verse 7)
- Paul makes the connection between what they have received and how they will now live.
- Right?
- Because of God’s grace lavished upon us… now conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Paul wants us to know that being a Christian is not merely a way of believing… but a way of living…
- Knowing the truth will lead to living the truth!
- Your justification (getting right with God) will lead to your sanctification (being transformed by God)… two stage process…
- We get saved and then we get transformed.
- Grace leads to new conduct.
So it’s really important when we hear something like live worthy of the gospel, that we frame it right…
- In the Christian faith it is not… “shape up, and then you will be forgiven and receive grace”
- It is, “you have received God’s lavish grace and peace, so now in response to my love and grace, here is how we live.”
- Note what comes first… it is not conditional… God’s love and blessings are not dependent on getting your act together first…
- It is not shape up… and the grace of Christ will be yours… it is the grace of Christ are yours, so now be shaped in new ways of living for Jesus.
- Right?
- And I think that is so important… grace leads to our transformation…
So here is what Paul charges the Philippians with – conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
- Or as it says in the Message “live in such a way that you are a credit to the Message of Christ.”
- In other words the practical, day to day living that will begin to set us apart from those who don’t live in light of the Gospel.
- Our relationships, our hospitality, our faithfulness and fidelity, our mercifulness, our speech…
- Everything will be empowered and transformed as we are encouraged to live a life worthy of the one we follow…
Now the word worthy in the Greek is axios. And it simply refers to having the corresponding weight of another thing of like value.
- So Paul is saying live befitting or corresponding to the gospel of Christ.
- So to live worthily means to bring your life into balance or to match or to be appropriate to what we have received.
- Are you with me?
- Scales: So good news of the gospel – up here… and we start down here…
- So as you work out your faith… bring your life into balance
- Does that make sense? Live worthy… live axios…
I am a pretty casual dresser… my usual attire is jeans and a t-shirt… in fact I have about 6 white t-shirts and 6 black t-shirts…. And that is my wardrobe.
- But I have the privilege of taking a lot of weddings… often I must say quite glamorous looking people…
- Here is a photo from Jimmy and Mon’s wedding in the Hunter Valley 2 months ago…
- Now it would not have gone down well if I’d turned up in jeans and a t-shirt…
- It was imperative that I dressed for the occasion… I dressed worthy… correspondingly for the occasion.
- I was in balance with my setting….
- I was dressed fittingly with the occasion…
Paul will say in Colossians…
- “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved (right – that is who you now are… that is your life is to come into balance with… be corresponding with)
- “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
- So that is how we conduct ourselves…
- So this is who you are… this is how you live… (repeat)
- It is just Jesus like… we clothe ourselves in the virtues of the one we follow..
- We dress appropriately…
And I think this is not just Paul, or an invention of the early church.
- Jesus says in Matthew 3 “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
- Right… in turning to God and away from sin, we should produce new fruit in our lives…
- To the woman caught in adultery Jesus says “neither do I condemn you, now go, leave your life of sin.”
- Right – there is the incredible grace, but then the charge to live a new type of life.
- When Jesus seeks and saves the lost Zacchaeus the tax collector, we hear him talk about repaying those he has wronged fourfold and giving away half his wealth to the poor.
- So the goal of an encounter with the grace and love of Jesus, is the transformed life.
So I wonder where has your life come into balance or begun to correspond with the gospel of Christ?
Hear Paul “conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
Where have you started living worthy of this life you’ve been called into?
And then where is there still things out of balance… that fall short of the conduct worthy of the name of Jesus?
That is a challenge to me…
That is a challenge for all of us…
Maybe it is your temper or how you use your money…
Maybe it is holding on to unforgiveness… or having no concern for the poor of marginalized…