Rejoice | Part 4 | Philippians 1:27-30 | Striving Together
We are there in Philippians and of course on Sunday mornings we’ve been making our way through the book of Philippians and we are going verse by verse taking our time with this great book. We’re dissecting every verse and passage in it and this morning we are in our fourth sermon in this series called “Rejoice”. We will be finishing up chapter one today. This book is about joy and rejoicing. The word “rejoice” comes up over & over again. In this book, the Apostle Paul is in prison. He’s under house arrest and he’s writing to the Church at Philippi and he’s writing to them about how to have joy, how to rejoice. He’s teaching them about joy and he’s teaching them about Jesus and he’s actually teaching them about the joy that can be found in Jesus. We will pick up where we left off a few weeks ago with verse 27.
Philippians 1:27 “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. The Apostle Paul begins here by speaking about the lifestyle of the Church at Philippi. If you remember, we’ve talked about this over the last several weeks that the purpose of the Apostle Paul, his drive was the gospel. We see him talk about the furtherance of the gospel, the defense of the gospel, the confirmation of the gospel. He eats breathes and thinks about the gospel. And here he says “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ:”. I want you to notice that word “conversation” there. The word conversation is an older word in our King James Bible that means something different than what it means to you and I today. Today when we use the word conversation we mean that two individuals are talking to each other. But the word conversation in our King James Bible means your conduct or your manner of life or your lifestyle. He says “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ:”. Go Matthew 5.
Let me just begin by giving some introductory statements on this idea of lifestyle and evangelism. Now we obviously do not believe in lifestyle evangelism. Lifestyle evangelism is this idea that we do not go on the offensive with the gospel, we do not go and confront people with the gospel, we do not go and bring the gospel to them. It teaches that instead, people will see our lives and decide that they want what we have and ask us about this. This is what liberal Christianity does today as they don’t go and preach the gospel to anybody. They just try to live a good life and treat their neighbor as themselves and think people are going to see that and want what we have. Then they will come and ask us how to be saved. Now obviously we want you to live a good life. We want you to be a good neighbor. We want you to work hard and all those things. But lifestyle evangelism is not a concept found in the Bible. The Bible teaches that we are to go in fact.
Whenever you study the passages regarding evangelism, the underlying word that is often used in the Bible is this word “go”. We are to go and preach the gospel. We are to go and knock on doors. We are to go and bring the gospel to them. This idea of lifestyle evangelism is a lie. The truth of the matter is that you can’t live your life in such a different want that people will be in awe of Christianity. This idea that you’re going to be out there mowing your lawn or taking the trash out and people will walk up to you trembling and ask how to be saved is ridiculous. That’s never going to happen. The way that we preach the gospel according to the Bible is opening our mouth boldly and making known the mystery of the gospel. We must bring the gospel to people. Lifestyle evangelism is a lie. It doesn’t work. It’s ineffective. However, with that said though, although we don’t believe in lifestyle evangelism, we do believe that your lifestyle should match your evangelism. We believe in knocking doors and getting people saved via confronting them with the gospel. However, we do believe that your lifestyle should not hinder or deter the message of the gospel.
Matthew 5:16 “16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”. Your testimony matters. Your lifestyle matters. Do you realize that you are the only Bible that some people will read? I’m all for soul winning and getting people saved but if you’re getting drunk one night and soulwinning the next, you won’t have the same power of God upon your life. There is a connection between our evangelism and the way we live our lives. Let me ask you, did you read your Bible this morning? Did you pray this morning? What did you watch on YouTube last night? See, our lifestyle needs to match our evangelism because our evangelism is powered by the way you live your life, the way you walk with God, the way that you are connected to the Holy Spirit of God.
Soul winning is something that often can be motivated by the wrong things. It becomes this competition of who can do the most and comparing yourself against other people. Now we are all for soulwinning. We wrote a manual on soulwinning. I’ve led this Church to be a soul winning Church for years and years and years and years and years. But let me tell you something, you need to make sure your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. You young people are very zealous about soul winning and I’m happy for it. But make sure you’re also zealous about having purity with your girlfriend and not kissing and holding hands and hugging before you’re married. The Bible says “only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ”. I’m impressed with a holy life. God is impressed with righteous living. “16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”.
Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”. See, I’m supposed to be impressed that you go soul winning. But then you dating couples are holding hands even though the Bible says that a man should not touch woman when not married to her. And I’m supposed to be impressed with that like you’re some sort of a Godly Christian? Well, you’re missing something. The Bible says let your conversation or your lifestyle or your conduct be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. So yes I’m for soul winning but I’m also for righteous living. I’m also for making sure that your lifestyle matches the Bible that you’re supposedly preaching.
See, one of the best ways and one of the most effective ways to reach people with the gospel and to develop disciples is for Christians to reach not just the stranger. See, it’s easy to impress a stranger. If you are dressed nicely and you have some verses memorized then it is easy to impress a stranger. But the people that are less easy to impress are your neighbors, co-workers, personal friends and family. You say “How can I reach those around me?”. For those that you have a close relationship with, it will require you to live out the gospel in your life. So let’s not miss this important aspect of soul winning that our conversation matters. Our conduct matters. Our lifestyle matters. The way we live our lives matters. “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ”. Do we believe in lifestyle evangelism? No. Do we believe that your lifestyle should match your evangelism? Yes. We should live godly and holy and separated lives.
See, Paul begins with the idea of your lifestyle. Then for the rest of this chapter, he talks about this Church family and he’s speaking to the Church at Philippi. And this is a great sermon for our Church because we’re a Church just like the Church of Philippi. He talks to them about unity, about standing together and striving together. Notice what he says in verse 27. “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. When he talks about standing together, he talks about being united. We are supposed to be a united Church. What unites us is our Christian bond.
Notice what he says “that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. “one spirit” is a reference to unity. The word spirit there speaks of not just the Holy Spirit but our spirit. The fact that we are spiritual people. He says I want you to stand fast in one spirit. Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that believers from diverse countries, cultures, economic classes, all sorts of backgrounds, all over the world can unite over one thing: the Lord Jesus Christ? Maybe you haven’t experienced that and it’s not your fault if you haven’t. But it’s this interesting idea that people that believe on Christ from all over the world, different cultures, different backgrounds, different ways they were raised can unite based on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God. What we believe about Jesus.
Ephesians 4:3 “3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”. By the way, unity is not something that happens if it’s not done on purpose. You must endeavor to keep the unity. You must put in energy, effort or purpose to do it. Now notice what he says and what he highlights. Why should we have unity? Why should we stand together? He says that there is 1 spirit and the idea is this Christian bond. And here’s the idea, you and I should embrace what unites us. Notice verse four. “4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;”. 1 body is referring to the Church. This is not teaching the concept of a Universal Church. Church is a called-out assembly. A Church must be local. He is speaking to the Church of Ephesus but the same truths would apply to our Church. He says, “4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”.
You say why should we unite as a Church? We should embrace that which unites us. You say “What unites us?”. The fact that there’s one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God above all through all and in you all. The fact that there is one Savior. The fact that there is a common faith. The Apostle Paul often in his writings would talk about the common faith. Jude spoke about the fact that he wrote about the common faith. The truth is this, everyone who is saved shares a common faith. In Church, we should embrace that which unites us. We live in a society and in a culture where the Devil wants to divide us. Just watch the news. They are constantly trying to divide us based on economic status, skin color, Republican or Democrat, etc…But the Bible says that there is unity within Christianity. When we are united in Christ, the Bible says there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female, there is neither bond nor free for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. We are united together by our beliefs.
Revelation 5:9 “9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;”. You know that in heaven you’re going to be around all sorts of people that aren’t like you. But they will have something in common with you. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me just explain something to you. We want you to get connected into our Church but that means you don’t walk in through these doors and bring in your racism. Don’t walk in through these doors and bring in your respecter of persons that you make more money than other people. Don’t walk in through these doors with all your issues and all your problems and all your baggage and all your different things as to why you don’t like someone. We are to stand together and be united. You say, how can I unite with other people that are so different than me? If you’re saved then you have a common belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. What can unite us is our common faith – 1 body, 1 spirit, 1 hope, 1 faith, 1 baptism, 1 God above all through all and in you all. So we should embrace that which unites us. What unites us is our Christian bond. Not only should we embrace that which unites us but we should avoid being divided.
See, standing together means that we must embrace that which unites us but if you remember Ephesians 4:3, it says “endeavoring to keep the unity”. It’s going to require work. It’s going to require purpose. We’re going to have to endeavor to keep the unity. You say well what does that mean? Well we should avoid being divided. You say why or how? By avoiding conflict. 1st Corinthians 1:10 “10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”. Throughout this verse, we see unity.
“11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.”. You know unfortunately this is bound to happen in Church. You cannot spend as much time as we do together and completely avoid conflict. From time to time there are going to be issues. There are going to be contentions. There are going to be people that get upset with each other and fight with each other and all those things. But to the best of your ability, the Bible says if it be possible as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. You say “Pastor, I’d like to help Verity Baptist Church. How can I help?”. Here’s how. You can help avoid conflict. The Bible says blessed are the peacemakers. One of the biggest things that my wife and I spend most of our time with is dealing with conflict. It seems like we can’t go a few days, we can’t go out of town without having to deal with six or seven different conflicts. You say “How can I help Pastor?”. How about this. Be a peacemaker. How about this. Avoid conflict. How about this. Realize that maybe you need to esteem others better than yourself. Maybe you need to suffer yourself to be defrauded. Maybe you don’t need to make a big deal about it.
It’s been said before that an immature Christian takes a small problem and makes it big and a mature Christian takes a big problem and makes it small. Which one are you? You should avoid conflicts. Now obviously sometimes there’s conflicts that are unavoidable and have to be dealt with. That’s why there are issues like Matthew 18 where we are to go to a brother that has offended us and bring witnesses. And those things obviously can’t be avoided. We understand that. But to the best of your ability, you ought to try to avoid conflicts if it be possible. Now sometimes it’s not possible. But if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peacefully with all men. You ought to avoid conflicts.
Notice secondly here in 1st Corinthians 1, we should avoid cliques. 1st Corinthians 1 “12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.”. Here the Apostle Paul is dealing with these immature Christians at Corinth. He says some of you are in conflict and some of you are in cliques. Some of you are saying “I am of Pastor Jimenez. I am of Pastor Anderson. I am of Christ”. Notice what he says in verse 13. “13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”. By the way, there’s no new thing under the sun.
In Church life today, you have to avoid cliques. This is why we don’t allow you to partner yourself up. We make you get partnered with people. You say why? Because we’re supposed to stand together. Because we’re a family. We’re supposed to love each other. We’re supposed to be friends with each other. And one of the main reasons we don’t create this clique mentality is so that we aren’t divided. We don’t want to develop this attitude where you only want to hang out with certain people or be around certain people. You don’t have to be friends with everybody in the Church. But you do need to be friendly. You say what does that mean? It means that we can partner you to be soul winners and you can go out and knock doors for an hour and be cordial. You say why? I’m not going to sit here and tell the soul winning captains don’t partner so-and-so and so-and-so cause they got in a fight over a parking spot or sitting in a certain chair. You need to be mature enough to be able to go soulwinning with anybody. I don’t think you need to be friends with everybody but you do need to be friendly. Make big problems small. The problem with division is this will make our Church ineffective. It’ll ruin what we’re trying to do.
Mark 3:24 “24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”. This is a good lesson for some of you parents. Quit taking sides with your kids. If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Paul said to stand together. He said I want you to stand fast in one spirit. But here’s what Jesus said. If a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand. So if we are to stand together then we must avoid conflict. We must avoid cliques. We must avoid divisions. We must embrace that which unites us. Our common faith. And we must avoid that which divides us.
Go to Philippians 1:27. Here Paul talks about standing together and being united in our Christian bond. But then he gives another thought. “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit,”. That’s our Christian bond. But then he says this “with one mind”. That’s our Christian beliefs. “striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. See, we are to be united over doctrine. We should unite based on doctrine. Go to Philippians 2.
Philippians 2:1 “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”. He says I want you to be like-minded. And by the way, later on in this chapter, he’s going to tell us which mind. He says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He said I want you to be like-minded having the same love being of one accord. The word accord there is a musical term. It is the idea that different parts come together and they harmonize together. “being of one accord, of one mind.”.
Philippians 3:16 “16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”. You say, “What should rule us?”. It’s the Bible. It’s the King James Bible. So what should we think about? We should mind the same rule. We should walk by the same rule. We should mind the same thing. We need to be united over doctrine. Now obviously no one is going to agree 100% on everything. Obviously you’re never going to find a Church that is perfect. If it is then you will ruin it when you start going there. As Christians, sometimes we can have beliefs or positions slightly different from one another. Sometimes we take positions and reconsider them and change what we believe. But here is the thing, we should agree on the major things and try to get along. Someone said that when you 3 Baptists together, you have 4 opinions. Baptists tend to be very opinionated. We won’t agree on everything but we should agree on the major things or major doctrines. By the way, that’s why we spent several weeks on Sunday night going through a series called declaring doctrine. And we’ve been talking about the major doctrines of the Bible. You say why? Because we should agree on those things.
Let me just say this. Some of you come from a different culture and that’s ok. I’m not mad at you but let me just help you out. Verity Baptist Church is a Church that actually believes what we say. See, sometimes people will come to Churches and try to teach something different. We’ve had people come here who said “Ya that’s what the Pastor says but I’m going to teach what I want.”. We’ve had people come in here trying to teach that there’s no literal hell, that Jesus didn’t physically resurrect from the grave, that the King James Bible is not the word of God, that you can lose your salvation. Look, those are things that are non-negotiables. You say “What do you do when you have people come in here bringing false doctrines?”. We tell them to pack up and go. Now look, somebody can come in here and not believe everything we believe and that’s okay. But when they come in here and they’re trying to bring their doctrine, they’re trying to bring their teachings, they’re trying to tell everybody what’s wrong with our teaching, then they will have to go. See, a Church must be united on doctrine. 1st Corinthians 1:10 “10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”.
See, we should be united based on doctrine. And by the way, we should divide based on doctrine. Go back to Romans 16. Look, our Church believes certain things and has believed them since the day the Church started. It’s believed them since before any of you got here. And you showing up with your little arguments, your little cute doctrinal ideas is not going to change that. We will change you before you change us. We will get rid of you before you get rid of us. People that are trying to cause divisions are not allowed to come back. Romans 16:17 “17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”. Let me tell you something, especially young people, don’t always be this contrarian or debater trying to go against everything just for the sake of going against everything. Young people want to earn the right to lead or be listened to and they often come up with these strange, new doctrines and ideas to impress people. Instead of that, just go and work hard and read the Bible and be faithful and love the Lord. Be a good Church member. And then you can earn the right to do all those things you want to do. Don’t just be this person who’s always trying to go against everything and debate everything and think that everything is wrong. We must unite on doctrine. Let’s unite on the word of God. We must be like-minded. We must mind the same things and walk by the same rule.
Sometimes I think people think that I’m joking. Sometimes I think people think I’m joking. I get up here and preach things like obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. I get up here and preach things like the fact that this is a pastor-led Church. This is not a deacon-led Church. It’s not an elder lead Church. It’s not a bunch of women running this Church. I preach these things about how we must be united and strive together and some people think I’m joking. I preach against fornication, drunkenness, swimming with half naked people at the river and people think I’m joking. You say “Pastor, didn’t you just come from a Missions Trip in Hawaii?”. Yes, but you know what we did in Hawaii? We drove 1.5 hours to the other side of the island where nobody’s at and we got up at six in the morning and went to the beach before anybody was there. We weren’t at some river with a bunch of naked people.
I get up here and preach these things and apparently I’m just up here for my own entertainment. No, I believe what I’m preaching. You may not take me seriously but you’ll take me seriously when I come down on you young people. I don’t want to hear of you holding hands, hugging, kissing, petting. We’re not for that here. The Bible says that if you can’t contain then get married. And I’m not going to sit here and give you some nice big marriage celebration. You go down there to the courthouse and get married if you can’t control your flesh. But you’re looking at a man that actually believes what he says, that actually believes what he preaches. We’re going to stand together. If you’re going to fight me on it then one of us is going to go and it’s probably not going to be me. We have to be standing together. We’re united by our Christian bond and we should be united by our Christian beliefs.
You say “Pastor, are you preaching this sermon because you’re upset?”. I don’t know if you noticed but I’m just preaching through Philippians. It’s not my fault that some of you decided to act up at the wrong time. Philippians 1:27 “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. The Apostle Paul says we ought to be standing together. Then he says we ought to be striving together. We must strive together. He says for the faith. What does that mean? It means we should all have a common goal and we should all put in a common effort. Did you know that Church work and the work of god is a team sport? It’s not a 1 man show. It’s not just a few people. It’s something that we’re supposed to do together. The word strive is this idea of putting energy or effort. The idea literally is this idea of a sports team coming together and they’re playing together and they’re working together towards a common goal.
You say “How can I be a good Church member?”. Here’s how you can be a good Church member. Be a good team player. You say what does it mean to be a team player? Here’s what it means. It means you understand your role. The Bible says that we’re all members of one body. It means that we’re all different body parts that come together and we all play a role in what’s being accomplished. You say “I’d like to strive together for the faith.”. Here’s how you do it. You understand your role. You understand your part.
You say how do you be a team player? First of all you understand your role. Secondly you welcome collaboration. This idea is against conflict, against cliques. You welcome the fact that we want to work together. We want to strive together. We want to stand together. How about this You hold yourself accountable. You know team players don’t just go out there and do whatever they want. Team players realize that they are accountable to each other. They’re accountable to the team. How about this? Be flexible. We’ve said it this way. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. How about this? Keep a positive attitude. Negative people make everything difficult. Negative people make everything difficult and they make everything unenjoyable. You need to keep a positive attitude. You say how can I be a team player? How about this? You commit to the team, to Verity Baptist Church. Be committed to what the Church is doing. Get on board with the Church. Don’t just be off on the side with your own agenda. Get involved with what the people of God are doing. How about this? You carry your own weight. You do your part. You realize that you have a part to play and should volunteer and get involved. Church life is not a spectator sport. Nobody wants to be on the bench on a team and never play and watch everyone. So look, we must strive together.
I’d like you to notice that we must not only strive together for the faith but we must strive together against our foes. Verse 28 “28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.”. He just got done telling us in verse 27 that we must strive together for the faith. But then he says I want you to strive together against your foes. I want you to realize that he says “in nothing terrified by your adversaries.”. Did you know that you have an adversary? The Bible says “Be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”. Paul has been encouraging the Church at Philippi with this idea that they have a common faith. They have a common bond. They have a common purpose. They have a common belief.
But now he brings to their attention that they also have a common enemy. You know the devil would want nothing more than to destroy your life. He wants nothing more than to destroy this Church. He want nothing more than to destroy your marriage, destroy your relationship with your children, etc… And you know what the devil would love? The devil would love for us to be busy fighting each other instead of fighting him. As long as we’re fighting each other, as long as we’re calling each other names, as long as we’re upset with each other, as long as we’re angry with each other, he’s happy. Because as long as we’re fighting each other, we’re not fighting him. He’d want nothing more than for us to spend our lives spinning our wheels angry at each other, mad at each other, unforgiving each other when we’re supposed to be fighting him. Paul says “28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.”.
Then Paul says not only is there an opposition of your adversary. Whenever there’s great opportunity, there’s great opposition. You say “I’ve got a great opportunity to raise my children for God.”. Well just realize there’s going to be great opposition that comes your way. Look, you can’t live in this culture today and think you’re going to raise children that are pure for the glory of God and just think it’s going to happen automatically. At some point you’re going to have to put the stinking cell phone down and turn off Facebook and turn off YouTube and actually begin to endeavor to raise your children for the cause of Christ. With great opportunity comes great opposition. The opposition of our adversaries.
Look at verse 29. This verse is worded very interestingly. “29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;”. Now remember the context is “in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God.”. The context is that the opposition of our adversaries is very real. Then Paul talks about the opportunity in our adversity. He says for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sakes. You say what is given to us? What opportunity do we have? He says unto you it is given. Yes to believe on him but he also says you also have this great opportunity to suffer for his sake. He tells the opportunity to suffer for Christ. “30 Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”.
You say “I don’t understand how suffering for Christ is an opportunity.”. Well go to Philippians 3:10. Suffering for Christ is a great opportunity. You say why? Here’s why. Because you will never be closer to Jesus than when you’re suffering for Jesus. Philippians 3:10 says “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,”. That sounds good doesn’t it? To have the power of the resurrection of God. The same power, the same Holy Spirit that resurrected Christ from the grave. How do you have that power upon your life? Wouldn’t you want that power in your preaching or in your soulwinning? Wouldn’t you want that in your marriage or your parenting?
He says “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”. See, there was no resurrection without first a death. The Bible says that the only way to be fruitful is to first die. The Bible says in John 12:24 “24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”. See, Paul said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Here’s the truth, you will never be closer to Jesus than when you are suffering for Jesus.
By the way, you can still rejoice in Jesus while suffering for Jesus. What’s the purpose of the book of Philippians? The number 1 word brought up over and over is “rejoice”. The sermon series is called “Rejoice” and is a verse-by-verse study through this book. Paul is teaching us from a prison cell how to rejoice. Then he says you’ve got this adversary, this opposition. But then he says you have an opportunity in the adversity. You say what opportunity? Well, you can never be more like Jesus than when you are suffering for Jesus.
Matthew 5:11-12 “11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice,”. He says to rejoice. But he doesn’t say because you have a nice house, nice car, nice gift. He said “11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”. Then he says this “12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”.
The book of Philippians is teaching us this idea that you’ve got this concept of rejoicing, being glad, having joy, being content. People think they can rejoice once things settle around them, when all of their ducks are in a row. They think that only then they can be happy and rejoice. But Paul says, “No, you can rejoice in any circumstance.”. And by the way, if you think that your happiness is going to come from the outside, you will never be happy. You will always be chasing that happiness. But the Bible says that we can have the peace that passeth all understanding. I can rejoice in my heart even though the outward man perish. Paul says yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
1st Peter 4:12 “12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:”. Don’t miss it. “13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. 16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”.
He says rejoice. Why? You will never be closer to Jesus than when you’re suffering for Jesus. Think about the 3 Hebrew children Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were thrown into the fiery furnace. They got thrown into the fiery furnace and who showed up? Jesus. They were the closest they’d ever been to Jesus when they were suffering for Jesus. They earn rewards. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. In 1st Peter the Bible tells us that we can have rejoice while suffering in Jesus and being reproaching for the name of Christ. See, if you’re all sad and depressed because you’re suffering because of your own sin, that’s understandable.
The idea is so often we waste the opportunity to suffer for Jesus. If we were honest, that doesn’t come very often because most of the time that you’re suffering is for your own stupidity. Most of the time that you suffer is because you got out of control. It’s because you did something stupid. It’s because you said something you shouldn’t have said. Because you went somewhere you shouldn’t have gone. Most of the time that we suffer is because of us. It’s actually very rare when we’re suffering and we can honestly say that we didn’t do anything wrong. Suffering for the cause of Christ is very rare. It’s a very rare opportunity to suffer for Christ. And you know what we often do? We waste those opportunities by getting bitter and angry and complaining when Paul says don’t waste it. You don’t get much of them. Most of the stupid things you do are your own fault. Don’t waste it. When you’re actually suffering for Jesus, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. He says rejoice. He says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. Because when I’m suffering for Jesus, I can never be closer to Jesus.
Philippians 1:27 “27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”. You know the Church at Philippi had a reputation. Paul said “I may hear of your affairs”. In Romans, the Apostle Paul talked to the Church of Rome about how their testimony, their reputation had been spread throughout the whole world. Whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not, Verity Baptist Church has a reputation. And whether I like it or not, we get to partake in our reputation. So let’s stand together. Let’s strive together. Let’s embrace that which unites us. Our common Christian bond. And let’s unite over our beliefs and our doctrine. Let us work together. Let us strive together and let us fight together. Not fight against each other but against our common foe. Paul says that I may hear of your affairs. Paul says I don’t know if I’m going to make it out of this prison, whether I come and see you or else be absent. He isn’t sure. But he said that he wants to “hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”.
Let’s pray.