"A Life Worthy of the Gospel!" (part 1 of 2 on Philippians 1:27-30)

“A Life Worthy of the Gospel!" (part 1 of 2)

Captivated by Christ: An expositional sermon series on Paul's Letter to the Church in Philippi (message #10)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

June 20, 2010 -- Happy Father's Day!

The word of God from Philippians 1:27-30 (NIV): ²⁷Whatever 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 one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel ²⁸without 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. ²⁹For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, ³⁰since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. [Prayer]

Paul begins a new section in his letter to the Philippians that will go from 1:27 – 2:18. With verse 26 Paul has concluded a section describing his own situation and now he moves his letter to directly address the situation of the Christ-followers in Philippi and how they are to progress in their faith.

Paul knows what is going on with them even though he is in Rome under house arrest awaiting trial. He knows their situation because the Philippians sent a financial gift to him through Epaphroditus who gave Paul an update on the church in Philippi. Now Paul is giving them one clear set of instructions regardless of whether or not he actually returns to them himself. Paul’s purpose of writing is to teach and model for them how to make progress in their faith and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ when there is both internal dissension and external opposition!

Paul instructs his faithful friends, ‘live your lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ!’ The previous section (1:12-26) sheds light on what “a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” looks like. As we learned last week, Paul has asked the Philippians to model their walk with Christ after his life as he has imitated Christ (Philippians 3:17 & 4:9). Paul is teaching with not just his words, but with his actions. His classroom for discipleship is not simply a set curriculum in a classroom once or twice a week. Yes, there must be formal instruction on the gospel, but the best classroom for learning how to follow Jesus Christ is the laboratory of life. It is in life that we are confronted with the hard questions of faith: How do I partner with people when I don’t think their motives are pure? How do I live my life in the midst of uncertainty? How do I make hard decisions that give honor to God? How do I conduct myself when there is opposition or suffering?

These are the authentic questions of discipleship that come up in real life; at home, at work, at the park…and they can’t be compartmentalized to Sundays and Wednesday nights!

Life is the most important classroom in the organic biblical model of discipleship which I call ‘relational discipleship’!

Relational Discipleship mandates that we as individuals intentionally follow Jesus Christ in such a way that our lives and lifestyle choices (seen and unseen) are worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Relational Discipleship starts with how you and I live out our faith, but it expands to how we live together as a people in relationship to God, with one another, and the world around us. Friends, our lives teach louder than our words so let’s go through life together learning how to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ!

If you want to learn how to follow Christ then find someone who is farther along in their spiritual journey and ask if you can start sharing life with them. Ask them to open their home to you and get real! Discipleship is about money management and debt reduction, sexuality and dating, marriage and parenting, health and fitness, temptation and struggles, politics and philosophy, farming and fishing, and death and dieing. The curriculum for how to follow Jesus Christ MUST infiltrate into every area of your life! It must build a bridge between real life and Scripture.

If you feel a burden (call) to intentionally follow Jesus Christ by making disciples then start opening your home (whether it is clean or not!), your heart (and you need to be willing to be disappointed and hurt!), your calendar and pocketbook (ouch!) and your experiences (the good, the bad, and the ugly!) to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ or those who are younger in their Christian life than you.

In verse 27, Paul moves the conversation towards conduct because he knows that the church becomes ineffective in its mission to exalt Jesus Christ and make disciples if our life choices do not reflect the very heart of the gospel—love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, freedom, unity.

Let’s jump into Paul’s instruction and learn what Paul considered to be two key aspects of living your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. We will talk about the second one next week, but let’s look at the first one today: OUR LIVES ARE WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST WHEN WE STAND FIRM IN UNITY!

He starts in Philippians 1:27-28, “Whatever happens [monon], conduct yourselves [politeuesthe] 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 one spirit [pneuma], contending [synathlountes] as one man 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 [apoleias], but that you will be saved—and that by God.”

Whether the missionary apostle goes to see them because Caesar acquits him or he remains in Rome under house arrest his great instruction is for them to do this one thing. The original Koine Greek word that Paul penned was monon which literally means ‘only’ or ‘one thing’. Literally, Paul is stating, “There is only one thing you must do, exercise your citizenship in a worthy manner of the gospel of Christ.”

Paul uses a very specific word that has specific connotations behind it. This is dramatic and missed completely in the NIV translation. The Greek word politeuesthe has a connotation greater than simply how you conduct yourself, but points to conducting oneself as a citizen (the word polites is the Greek word for citizen). He uses this word only one other time in this letter and that is in Philippians 3:20 which states, “But our citizenship [politeuma] is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord [kurios] Jesus Christ.”

Paul was writing from Rome, the very center of the Roman Empire, to one of its prized colonies—Philippi. In the Roman Empire the title of kurios or Lord was reserved for the Emperor. All citizens and subjects had to call Caesar Lord which led to a significant discipleship issue for those early Christ-followers. Can a Christ-follower have more than one Lord? How does our loyalty to an empire or nation-state fit with our loyalty to the Kingdom of God? These were more than interesting questions to ponder, these became life and death choices for these early church Christ-followers and today in places throughout the world, the choice of loyalty to Christ as Lord can have severe implications.

The Philippians had to choose between Caesar and Jesus Christ. They could only call one Lord! Who do you call Lord in your life?

Paul, writing from the heart of Rome to a loyal Roman colony unapologetically calls Jesus Christ the Lord and he twice calls their citizenship to higher ground—from Rome to Heaven! This is a dangerous letter!

Here’s a quick history lesson: Philippi had a proud history and took its name from the father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon, who took the city in 360 BC. But, it was on a plain outside this city that a great military victory occurred in 42 BC (over 100 years prior to Paul writing this letter). Under the joint command of Octavian (later he became known as emperor Augustus) and Mark Antony, their army defeated the rebel forces of Brutus and Cassius (the assassins of Julius Caesar). It was in honor of this military victory that the emperor Augustus refounded Philippi as a Roman military colony giving this city an elite status and its people their citizenship. When he gave them the title of colony they in every way they became legally Roman and Roman citizens NEVER forgot that they were Romans; their citizenship gave them freedoms from arrest and scourging and allowed them to appeal to Caesar for justice. The Philippians were proud to be Roman citizens, they were proud of their military accomplishments, and their part in expanding the Roman way of life beyond Rome itself. And this pride reflected in their language, their dress, their way of life and political governance.

Here is what Paul is doing: he is evoking the well known concept of citizenship to the citizens of Rome in order to elevate the concept beyond a temporary kingdom (Rome, USA) to the eternal kingdom! He is getting them to see how much they already know how to talk, walk, dress, eat, govern, and do all things Roman, but now they should see their greater loyalty, responsibility, and privilege to conduct themselves in every way as citizens of Heaven according to the gospel of Christ!

The Holy Spirit is saying to us: you know how to conduct yourselves as loyal patriots of these United States of America. Take all of that pride you have in this nation, all our military history, all that conviction in our way of life, all that willingness to lay down your life for our American ideals and freedoms, all that you hold dear about being an American citizen… And now start living that same way, with that same conviction and passion for the Kingdom of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Though patriotism beats in my heart and courses through these veins in a big way, but I am challenged by this text to raise the standard from what it means to live as a citizen of these USA and to live my life in a worthy manner as a citizen of the Kingdom of God, to which I was given my citizenship through the greatest of all victories—not one found on the battle field of nation-states, but the victory of all battles. Philippi is our Gettysburg, but neither can stand in comparison to the victory of Golgotha! The Cross of Calvary was the divisive victory in the epic battle between good and evil!

Paul explains how we have become citizens in Colossians 1:13-14, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” It is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us that we are called citizens. We cannot live a worthy life to earn this citizenship. Rather it was won before us in a time of the past. This great victory—the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross of Calvary—is the motivation to live a worthy life! Paul is calling us to respond to grace by living a worthy life not so that we can earn it, but because it was lavished upon us! What does this life look like?

Paul tells us that a worthy life is when we have unity with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because that unity then becomes an omen or sign both to the unbelieving world of their destruction apart from the gospel and then to ourselves of the power of God to save us. Truly, it is the power of God for us to be unified!

Paul stated in our Scripture lesson that the worthy life is when we ”stand firm in one spirit [pneuma], contending [synathlountes] as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.” (1:27b).

Once again, Paul is very clear in his writing that just like our citizenship is not by our own making neither is our unity through our own power. It is by us standing firm in one spirit, the pneuma which is a word Paul frequently uses to reference the Holy Spirit.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 12:13 where Paul explains, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit [pneumati] into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

This is key: our unity is found in the one person that truly brings us together! That is the indwelling presence of God in our lives as Christ-followers. If we lose sight that the great Architect of salvation sent His Son to accomplish our salvation and then sent His Spirit to give us the benefits which He planned and the Son actualized, then we lose sight of how we can have unity! The gospel gives us unity and our unity witnesses to the gospel!

This unity then must manifest in our human relationships: We must stand firm in the Holy Spirit and because of this common citizenship we must be willing to go to battle together—arm and arm, like the Band of Brothers! This is the only way we can contend as one man (an image of unity!).

The Greek word synathlountes translated “contending” is rooted in the verb “athleo” which means to engage in an athletic contest. The preposition syn adds a depth of meaning that is to engage in an athletic contest side by side. We are to stand side by side together in the athletic arena. My imagination immediately goes to the ancient Roman gladiator arena where two gladiators fight off great opposition by guarding each other’s blind side. They are side by side, back to back against all the opposition without fear.

Paul states in verse 28, “This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed [apoleias], but that you will be saved—and that by God.” This kind of contending together where we do not manifest fear in the face of opposition, but rather we pull into a tight formation and do battle together is a sign to all who see us and how we work together for the common ambition of the gospel of Jesus Christ—that is the key, we have unity in the gospel through the Holy Spirit and it is visible in the way we live our lives together!

Jesus Christ prayed near the end of His earthly ministry, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20-21).

Standing firm in our Unity! Whether the enemy attacks from within the body or from without, we must stand together as one person in the one Spirit. This is the great exhortation of the missionary apostle and this is the call of the Holy Spirit to us as the church. Let us stand firm as one person for the gospel of Christ!

And this unity must begin by us accepting the gospel of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul states in 1 Corthinians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

We are powerless apart from the power of God! This morning, I invite you to admit your powerlessness and accept the power of God into your life by asking Jesus Christ into your life. This is the gift of God that leads to eternal life.

Prayer.