Walking Through Fire

Chapter one. The passage in the
bulletin, as we’ll be considering it in places for notes, although
there’s no blanks. So if you fall asleep, I’m going
to come back and sit in the pew with you and jostle you. In verses 3-11 of Philippians,
Paul had spoken of the Philippians themselves. Paul mentioned his
gratitude to God for them. Their cooperation in his efforts
as the great apostle. His confidence in the genuineness
of God’s work in them. And then as we’ve been considering
for the last number of weeks, five or six weeks, Paul then,
in verses 12-26, turns his attention to his own personal circumstances,
because that was the concern of the Philippian church. Not
only to his circumstances, but their effect on the work of the
gospel. That was the focus of verses
12-26. And in this section, there’s
a rather abrupt turn and a turn again back to the Philippians. And it’s as if Paul says, look,
if the greater circumstances that I was enduring had no ill
effect, but rather, on the other hand, had a positive effect on
the work of the Gospel, then you. And he turns his focus on
them in that vein of thought. And you can almost hear where
Paul’s going almost immediately. That Paul says, you know what,
look, Earthly circumstances have been to me and should not be
to anyone a cause of the demise of gospel work, but rather they
should enhance it.” He’s spoken of himself long enough,
and now he turns to his beloved Philippian church. And as we’ve
seen before, I think he was confident that he would see them again,
but once again, he throws out this idea that either way, whether
he comes or not, that there was an expectation of the Philippians’
character and the standard by which they lived. Let’s read,
if you would, beginning in verse 27, where Paul says, only conduct
yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So that
whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may 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 hear to be in me.” For those of you
who were with us during those weeks or months or years of looking at 1 Peter,
You might have thought, okay, 1 Peter is a book about persecution
and now we can turn the page and maybe we’re done with the
whole concept and consideration of persecution for a season.
Well, that’s not the way it is. I can remember preaching and
candidating in one church early on and somebody asked me how
often I would preach on Calvinism. And I thought for a minute and
I said, well, no more often than Paul does and Peter. and Jesus and the rest of Scripture. If it’s there, I’m going to preach
it. And so, likewise, with regards to persecution, it’s here. And
let’s consider it for a moment. It’s entirely like the Apostle
Paul, this optimistic prisoner, chained, and yet, as we’ve seen
repeatedly, very hopeful, optimistic. He had come to the point in his
life where he didn’t really care one way or the other whether
God took him or whether God left him. Paul could see the glorious
benefits of going to heaven and enjoying Christ for the rest
of eternity. But he also saw the great and
glorious value of staying for the sake of the church, not just
the Philippian church, but the church in general, so that Paul
could continue to utilize his gifts in the service of Christ.
Those things were Great to Paul. But now Paul turns his attention
to the Philippians and he urges them to remain steadfast and
united and unafraid. And that they too should count
it a privilege that they are counted worthy to suffer for
Christ and for the sake of the gospel. Let’s go back to verse
27, if you would. When Paul starts this section,
and in the Greek that little word only is at the very start,
which is the place of emphasis. It’s as if Paul says, you know
what, this is a long letter. There’s a lot of commands in
Scripture. And I don’t believe that in any
way, shape or form he says, let’s set aside all the rest of it.
But I believe that when he issues this emphatic statement, I think
what Paul is saying here is that all is summed up. All of our
Christian duty is summed up in this little phrase when he says,
only. Only conduct yourselves in a
manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. It’s as if Paul says, If I said
not another word, this would be enough. And if you think of
it, everything else fits nicely under that umbrella for the Christian,
doesn’t it? All the other commands, all the
other duties, all of them take into account the great and glorious
Savior, His glorious message, and our great responsibility
as Christians. But he begins this section by
saying only conduct yourselves. It’s an interesting word. A lot
of times when Paul is issuing some command or especially if
it’s a more general command, he says that we are to walk in
a manner. He uses a completely different
word here. Conduct yourselves, which implies behaving properly
as citizens. That’s really what the word meant.
It’s really only used in a couple of different places in all of
Scripture. In Acts 23.1, Paul, looking intently
at the council, said, Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly
good conscience before God up to this day. That living your
life. And so, it has this nuance to
it that this life that you’re living, this walk that you’re
on, This citizenry in which every Christian is engaged is lived
in view of the public eye. That’s what’s implied here. Paul
there in Acts 23.1 was talking about his life, not just from
an individual standpoint. He wasn’t boasting. But he was
essentially saying that as a citizen of the heavenlies, as a citizen
of God’s nation, I have lived my life with a perfectly good
conscience.” Paul brings to mind, even by
the use of that word, the fact that the Philippians were in
a Roman colony. They were part of the greatest
country, the greatest nation in the world at that time. They
had great and incredible privileges as a people. And Paul, in using
this word, says, look, you have a citizenship that makes this
citizenship here on earth pale in comparison. And you ought
to live like it. Your citizenship in heaven ought
to be reflected in the way that you live. That’s what he says. The old King James, if you happen
to be reading that, says conversation. That’s the word that is translated
there. Instead of the exhortation to
conduct yourselves, it has conversation. And so we have this tendency
that for the last 400 years, people have this tendency to
think of this section as only referring to our speech. But
it’s so much more than our speech that is in view here. It’s the
whole course and conduct of life. It’s the whole way that you live.
Remembering at all times that you live as a citizen of heaven
in full view of those that aren’t. That’s the point. One pastor
summarized it this way when he said, it seems to carry the notion
of a common corporate course of life to public duties required
of people as a member of a body. He is about to speak emphatically
of the duty of common principles and action at Philippi. The primary
reference is to their membership in the church at Philippi, pointing
out their mutual duties as a local Christian community. He says,
look, you are you are part of a body as citizens of heaven,
you have a visible It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? What it implies is perfection,
but let’s be realistic. That whole issue of living worthily,
walking worthily, is a phrase that Paul repeats As you know,
in Colossians 1.10, another prison epistle, Paul said there, he
urged them that they walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Here, it’s that they conduct
themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, but
it’s really referring to the same thing. The great, glorious
gospel of Christ. The great, glorious Lord. In 1 Thessalonians 2.12, He urges
them, walk in a manner worthy of God. Still a third way, referring
to the same thing. That there is a standard. That
we are to consider that standard. That we are to set a value on
that standard. And we are to live accordingly.
That’s what that means. To live worthily. We’re to behave ourselves. We’re
to lead our Christian lives in such a way that it is in accordance
with what we have set our sights on. Essentially, in this great section. Paul says that there is this
great Gospel. There is this great Lord of the
Gospel. There is this great God who sent
the Redeemer. And that is the message of the
Gospel. And that the Christian is supposed to set a value for
that and live accordingly. That’s the basic message of that
sentence. But what he goes on to say is
that It really shouldn’t matter whether
somebody is looking over your shoulder. That alone, and that’s
why I said that little phrase at the start, acts like an umbrella
over almost all Christian duty. Only conduct yourselves in a
manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. He goes on and says,
so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear. We’ve put a premium, haven’t
we, on accountability. And there’s nothing wrong with
it. And every time I mention this, I think I get thoughts
or misunderstandings that I’m saying that accountability or
any accountability is bad. But human accountability only
goes so far. And you can escape it and evade
it if you want to. Paul says, whether I come and
see you, whether I remain absent, I want to hear of you that you
are committed and walking worthy of the gospel of Christ. It is
a high, incredibly high standard, Paul says, and it cannot possibly
be held in check by a little bit of human accountability.
Let’s look at the particulars of citizenship there in the rest
of verse 27. only conduct yourselves in a
manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come
and see you or remain absent, I may 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.” Paul lays out here three particulars
of what it means to walk worthy. And they are by no means exhaustive. It’s not like Paul says, look,
do these three little things and you have accomplished what
it means to walk worthy. As I said, this gospel umbrella
stands over almost every Christian duty, every command that Christ
has ever issued. Let’s look at these briefly. Paul says, only conduct yourselves
in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. How so? That I may
hear that you, first of all, are standing firm. It’s a simple
word. It literally means just to stand.
But in the context, it is implied that there is a steadfastness
to this standing. It’s not just a literal and plain
stance in front of people. In fact, every time it’s used
in the New Testament, it signifies a firm standing. Listen to some of the ways in
which it’s used in Scripture. In First Corinthians 16, Paul
urged there, and it’s a typically, though not exclusively, it’s
a word that typically Paul uses. It was one of his favorite words.
1 Corinthians 16, beyond the alert, stand firm in the faith,
act like men, be strong. Romans 14, four, who are you
to judge the servant of Another, to his own master, he stands
or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him
stand. And so you get there as well
in Romans 14, for this image of steadfastness. Not just of
stubbornness, but of a tenacity, God given grace that leads to
a tenacity that will not be moved. will not be pushed off your standard.
You will not be pushed out of the way in which God desires
you to live and to walk. It’s a steadfastness. Galatians
5.1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep
standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. If
you know the book of Galatians and the pernicious error that
Paul was exposing there, and that just to imbibe a little
of it led to this weak hearted and vacillating spirit that he
rebuked of the Galatian people. Standing firm. That’s what Paul
exhorts even there. 1 Thessalonians 3.8 Encouraging
the Thessalonians, he said, for now we really live if you stand
firm in the Lord. So that’s the meaning of this
word. But if you look again, He said
that we are to be standing firm in one spirit and there was much
ink spilled over to whether this is the Holy Spirit or whether
it is a spirit, if you will, an attitude. And I don’t take
it here to mean the Holy Spirit. There’s no doubt that we all
are in the same Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit is in all
of us. But what it seems to refer to
here is a spirit of unity, a spirit of insight, Spirit, if you will,
with a small s, not the large s, the Spirit of Christ. One described it as a disposition
which is communicated in Christ to believers. And we use it that
way all the time, you know, almost interchangeable with the word
attitude. Sometimes we say that somebody
has a spirit of indifference. That doesn’t mean that they have
the Holy Spirit, but they’re indifferent. It means that they,
generally speaking, have this attitude of indifference. This little word isn’t referring
to the Holy Spirit specifically. What Paul is urging upon us here
is that we all be of the same mind and one spirit. Be of this
unshakable and steadfast demeanor. Because like the Philippians,
we’re going to have to endure opponents. We’re going to have
to face opposition. We’re going to have to undergo
suffering. We’re going to experience conflict. So he urges them to
a commonness of spirit. I can remember this steadfastness. The image that comes to my mind
on that is a game that we used to play in our family where my dad would stand there
and he’d put his legs apart and put his arms up and all four
of us kids would come at him with everything we had just trying
to budge him. That’s kind of the image of steadfastness. Now, there were four of us and
the more we grew, eventually we were able to take my father
off of his feet. My children still are not able
to budge me. But that is that steadfastness
and steadfastness, that unity of spirit that comes to my mind
when I see that. Further on regarding the the
definition of the spirit there, that it refers to the character,
said one, manifestations or results of this disposition are often
defined by other qualifying descriptives. In other words, what he says
is you have this spirit of such and such. And you see that in
scripture all the time. You have the spirit of meekness,
you have the spirit of faith, the spirit of power, the spirit
of wisdom. And he’s just mentioning this in general terms as referring
to the overarching attitude of the Philippians, that they were
not to be budged. And Paul is encouraging him in
that. And there’s a second little characteristic
that he points out, too, that is very similar. Standing firm
with one spirit or in one spirit, with one mind, striving together
for the faith of the gospel. With one mind striving together
for the faith of the gospel. Now, if you are a student of
the Greek, you know there that the word there is soul, but it
often referred to the mental faculties. The mind as the seed
of thought. In other words, it involves a
conscious mental process by the church that says, look, we are
in this together. We are going to function together.
We are not going to be divided. There is a purposefulness to
this statement. One pastor described this this
way. He said believers must be bound
together in a unity which encompasses their inward disposition as well
as their outward action and makes them strive shoulder to shoulder
as comrades with the same motive to pursue the end, the fight
for victory. Now, a lot of times You know,
we have this what I would call a fellow feeling that we feel
like, you know, we really like each other. I enjoy being with
you all. You seem to enjoy each other.
But this goes so far above that, because if you look at the average
church, we are willing to divide over almost anything. I mean,
I say that tongue in cheek, what transpired in last week’s meeting,
but we’ve been in those meetings. And we’ve seen people absolutely
come apart at the seams over the most trivial things. This is an intentional mindset
that says, look, we are working together for something that is
so far beyond us, the faith of the gospel. We are all about
proclaiming Christ in this community so that others, too, may come
to know and believe in Jesus Christ, there is no higher calling,
people. There is no greater cause. There isn’t any other thing in
the world that is more important than that, and yet you look.
You watch how many churches split. How many churches struggle. How
many churches fight. How many churches lose sight
or lose thought of this point. They lose thought that with one
mind they are to be striving together for the faith of the
gospel. Again, I had an image that came
to my mind with regards to this point, with one mind striving
together for the faith of the gospel. I like documentaries and of them,
animal documentaries are among my favorites. Because you see
in the animal world, you pick up so many illustrations from
there. But of this, the image of these
water buffalo protecting their young came to mind. You know,
they’re out on the plains, and along comes the pack of lions,
or the herd, whatever, the group of lions, the lion friends, come
along looking for the little water buffalo, right? And he
is the most vulnerable one. And what do they do? What did
they do? They put the little water buffalo
in the middle and they all stand, heads facing out, backs to the
little baby water buffalo in the middle in a giant circle,
daring the lions to come near. Is that the image that you have
of the church? Standing shoulder to shoulder,
allowing nothing or anyone or anything or any issue to penetrate? The sad thing is here is that
in the church, in the modern day, we divide over almost anything
and everything. We’ll let anything come between
us. And that’s, in a sense, what
Paul is saying here is never break rank. Never talk down about
your brothers in Christ to others. Never put them down. Never side with the world against
a brother. Never let the world see that
you have a cause or an issue. That’s what Paul is addressing
there in First Corinthians when he talks about lawsuits, how
ludicrous that would be to go before the world and to say,
bring an accusation against a brother. On the contrary, we are to share
in each other’s joys. We are to share in each other’s
struggles. We are to have always before
us that the ultimate goal is the salvation of the lost. That’s
the bottom line. With one mind, striving together
for the faith of the Gospel. This word striving is an interesting
one. The root word here is athleto.
That’s the verb. And you heard it correctly. It
basically is the word from where we’ve gotten our word athletes,
athletic. And it talks about a vigorous
effort, a fight, if you will, an all out exertion of every
human faculty in order to get the task accomplished. And so
I would ask you, Is that the picture that comes to your mind
with regards to how you are engaged in this endeavor to advance the
faith of the gospel? Is it an all-out effort for you? Are you absolutely committed
to not be moved from your brothers and sisters in Christ no matter
what? Acts 4.32 spoke of a church I spoke of the early church.
Listen to how they functioned. The congregation of those who
believed were of one heart and soul. What an awesome thing. They were of one heart and soul.
If you asked one the opinion, they all had the same opinion.
If you asked one what his affections were, they all had the same affections.
They all desired the same thing and that was the salvation of
souls. Congregation of those who believed were of one heart
and one soul. Not one of them claimed anything
belonging to him was his own, that all things were common property
to them. That’s why I prayed what I prayed
this morning, that if God gives you something, it is purpose
to be shared. This word is also used in Second
Timothy. If anyone competes as an athlete,
he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the
rules. There Paul, just utilizing that imagery again. And it’s
fascinating if you look at Paul, that typically that’s where he
draws his illustrations. Jesus drew them from agriculture,
from the farm, from the garden, from the vineyard. Paul drew
them from the city. Paul drew them from the government
and from the armies and those kinds of things. That’s where
Paul had his illustrations and such is the case here. It signified, this word did, to
contend in the games and likely Paul had witnessed these original
Olympics. Paul had witnessed the races,
the battles, Often it was used of conflicts. Conflicts between
cities and countries. So Paul drew many metaphors from
the Olympic games. But here it indicates the most
vigorous battle. It’s almost face-to-face, hand-to-hand
combat, wrestling if you will. But it’s a fight to the finish. And note, it doesn’t mean that
they were to contend together with Paul. He isn’t asking for
volunteers. What he’s asking is that they,
in fellowship with one another, in intimate, deep, vigorous fellowship
with one another, that they get engaged in a fight. Because I
tell you, if one of those buffaloes wanders off, the little one is
dead. That’s the image. It’s not the
image that Paul uses, but that’s the illustration that he is portraying
here for us. The Christian fight, the Christian
wrestling match, if you will, this Christian athletic endeavor
isn’t against anybody or anything. Do you note that? It isn’t against anyone. He says,
standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for
something. They’re not fighting against
anyone necessarily. They’re fighting for the gospel,
which makes all this other peripheral stuff that comes in as wedges
between us so much more ridiculous. So much more petty to think that
other things come and get in the way of us striving together
for the sake of the gospel. No matter what the battle is, the battle is ultimately for
the faith of the Gospel. That’s what Paul’s message is.
And Christians are supposed to arrange themselves with that
purpose. The faith of the Gospel is the
ultimate goal. That is the ultimate battle for
which Christians are fighting. When Paul says, with one mind
striving together for the faith of the gospel, he points out
the emphasis here on the Christians cooperation with one another.
That’s what he says, that we are to strive together to promote
faith in the message about our Lord. There’s a third, a third descriptive
here that Paul uses. that together highlight what
it means to walk or to live or to conduct ourselves worthy of
the gospel of Christ. Not only that steadfastness that
he points out, not only that cooperation for the sake of the
gospel, that thirdly, there beginning in verse 28, and with this we’ll
close. In verse 28, he says, in no way
alarmed by your opponent’s courage, A word used only here in all
of the New Testament. Outside of the New Testament
was often used of animals. How spooky they are. A person
comes into the room like this cat that I now own. I don’t own. This cat that’s in our house.
But more often than not, it was used of a horse. That when a
snake was beside the road, lightning, some noise, the horse would be
startled, frightened. And that’s the image that Paul
uses of the Christians. That regardless of what’s going
on, regardless of any kind of persecution, we’re not even supposed
to jump or flinch. We’re not supposed to be surprised.
We’re supposed to have courage. It’s the same exhortation that
countless Old Testament saints received from God. David, Israel,
Peter, We are not supposed to fear. Psalm 56, verse 4 says,
what can mere man do to me? And what an appropriate exhortation
for this little flock in Philippi just trying to live their Christian
lives in this violent Roman colony. They had opponents of all kinds,
Jewish and pagan. They had opponents that didn’t
even know why they were their opponents. They just didn’t like
Christians. Several times in Paul’s epistles,
he revisits 1 Corinthians 16, 2 Corinthians 7, 5. He reminds
them of what great difficulties the Macedonian churches were
under. As one characterized it, he said it in these terms, the
firm stand of the church will always become manifest insofar
as believers are not frightened. They are not frightened, terrified
or intimidated by the action of adversaries. It is not stated
who the opponents are, though. If you look at this, Paul doesn’t
even indicate, not here, who the opponents are. He’s not pointing
out whether they’re false teachers in their midst or persecutors
from without. But no matter the case, they
are not to be frightened. They’re not to be spooked. And we kind of struggle with
that too, don’t we? In our own day and age, we’re
not unlike an unseasoned horse, are we? That when the church says we
cannot possibly survive unless we do this and such, when the world says we don’t
want you to preach about these things, the culture begins to run completely
counter to all that we hold dear We get spooked. Oftentimes we
do, don’t we? You know we do. Paul says, don’t
get spooked. Be steadfast. Be cooperative. Be fearless. Walk worthy of the Gospel. Let’s
pray. Father God, we thank You for
this passage, this great and deep passage. And Lord, we pray
that You would grant us the grace, not that in and of ourselves
we can live and walk and move worthily of who You are, but
certainly by Your grace, otherwise You would not have commanded
it of us, that we are to walk in a manner worthy. We are to
live our whole lives with that one great goal in view of enhancing
the Gospel. Father, grant that we would be
firm and steadfast in our convictions. Firm and steadfast in this cause
that we have been called to by Your grace. Firm and steadfast
in our love for one another. And Lord, we would heartily work
with one another, that we would not let any worldly, petty, silly
thing come between ourselves and another Christian brother,
that we would constantly remember that the gospel is in view of
those who are perishing and that our lives as such. God, grant
us the grace not to be shaken, not to be taken off course, but
to maintain this walk for Your glory. Lord, we thank You for
Your Word to us. We ask Your blessing on our day
together. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray, Amen.