Contending for the Gospel

The aliens in Toy Story are “eternally grateful”

Sometimes it feels less like being “eternally grateful” and more like “what do I owe you?” Like God is holding our sin over our heads like a mob boss saying “I did all this for you, now you better give back to me”.

This IS NOT the Gospel.

Paul uses an important term here that we need to focus on here… WORTHY.

What does this mean? That we are to live “worthy” of the Gospel.

Revelation 5:11–13 “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing! I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

I think what this passage teaches us is that...Believers are to walk worthy of the Gospel because God is worthy of all praise

The Gospel is not asking “who am I obligated to?”…the Gospel is asking “who is worthy to serve”? Who deserves out eternal gratitude?

It is our deep understanding of the Gospel that leads us to worship, to service of God rather than feeling like our sin is held over us.

In fact, the good news of the Gospel is that we have been FREED from our sin. It is Satan that tries to hold our sin over us. He is the great deceiver and accuser.

“You will never be good enough…you remember that terrible thing that you did”

“You haven’t gone to church in a year…they won’t accept you anymore”

“That sin that you can’t shake…God could never love you because of it. So why even bother trying?”

“yeah you have plenty of things…but what do people really think of you? You need to prove that your successful…prove your a good parent…prove you are better than that other person”

Sin is so good at making us feel guilt, making us feeling less than who God has made us to be. Why? Because we ARE broken.

Every person in the world understands there is something WRONG in the world. That sin has corrupted everything. Sin wants us to believe that IT will win in the end. That God can’t win the battle that wars in our souls.

But then we see the empty cross…the empty grave. And we KNOW that Jesus rose again from the grave so we can now say “where, o death, is your sting? Where, o hell, is your victory?”

So we run the race not as one who has to win the prize on our own but as one who knows that someone has already won the prize FOR US.

We just sang a song called “For the Cause” that tells us that our goal is to proclaim to all people the salvation that comes through Christ. That we are called to GO, not just sit. To show our eternal gratitude to Christ through our actions.

But yet…we can still live our lives looking for delight in things other than God. We can live our lives as those who SAY we believe in Jesus, but act in ways very contrary to that truth.

You can go ask many people on the streets if they believe in Jesus who aren’t really believers. Who may even seem like “good people”, who try and “do the right things”, and even people who do things very contrary to the Gospel yet say, “yeah, I’m a Christian”. Just look at how many people where cross necklaces…

So why do I say all this? Because I want you to know, as Paul does, that Jesus is worthy.

To believe Jesus is worthy means that we believe the promises that God has given us are good and true and that the power that we receive through Christ and in the Spirit is real.

-We go not because we forced to but because our hearts find joy in it.

This is why Paul tells them “just one thing” that of all the things he is telling them, that this should be what they hear. This is central to everything he says, like a parent getting a child’s attention before telling them something important. He says… “walk worthy of the Gospel of Christ”

-Paul has already shown us that this is His goal, “to live is Christ, to die is gain”. And we know that Paul has lived it. That every since the scales were removed from his eyes in Damascus, like the scales of the serpent in the Garden, his eyes now see with great color what His purpose was to be. Paul saw all that he had before and it became nothing for the cause of Christ, to live worthy of the Gospel

-He wants to make sure that whether they live or die that nothing distracts them from their purpose as believers and as the church. That everything they do should be for this purpose…to walk worthy of the Gospel.

-Their whole lives. Their words, actions, and thoughts. That the Gospel should transform their lives.

He tells them to live as citizens of heaven.

-This means that they act with the values of the heavenly kingdom here on earth. That people get a glimpse of God’s goodness through their lives. The Gospel becomes real to others because of how real the Gospel is to our own lives.

Paul gives two important indicators of us “walking worthy of the Gospel

We walk in unity

We walk with conviction for the Gospel

We walk in unity

Paul uses two different metaphors at the end of v. 27. “Standing firm” and “contending” .

The first is a term used for soldiers, like a line of soldiers preparing for their enemy before them. Each solider must be beside the next, with no space between the soldiers. They must also be firm, if fear begins to creep into a soldiers mind he may try to run away from the danger that is before him.

The second is an athletic term, describing a team that needs to work together for the same goal in order to receive the prize. What happens if each member of a team is working towards a different goal? Each must be looking towards to the good of the team, otherwise they are not contending together.

Both of these illustrates tell us that the Gospel is urgent and that we have to fight for unity. It doesn’t just happen without us attempting to build it.

I think in these illustrations show us two important points for walking in unity:

Love for one another

This includes care for others...

This means humility...

Unity means that we know each other deeply, not superficially. This is what allows us to be of “one mind in the Spirit” so when the challenges come we can “stand firm” together rather than trying to stand on our own.

-We invite to lunch not just the people we know in the church but those we don’t know so we can learn about them!

-We gather together in prayer for those who are hurting.

-We resolve disputes by remembering that just as God forgave us we are to give one another. That we are to pray for our enemies and that to hate someone is murder of the heart.

We have to remember Christ and His work on the cross. His forgiveness, His love, His power. We have to know we can only have unity if Christ is at the center.

Joy in Gospel community

Paul at the end of the book will talk about two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who he urges to “agree in the Lord”. That at one point they were “true partners” who “contended for the Gospel” but at some point became distracted about their purpose.

-This reminds us that each one of us can be faithful one day and allow for things to distract us the next. We need to “walk worthy of the Gospel” each and every day.

-But sometimes we can hold our previous efforts in the Gospel as proof of our current faithfulness.

We can’t let yesterday’s faithfulness blind us from today’s temptations. The spiritual war never steps.

-This can make for unity like a cold marriage where neither spouse can agree on anything.

Sometimes it can be easy for the goal of our community to get confused.

“It is to find some friends who agree with me”

”It’s to have a place to serve”

“It’s to hear some lessons on how to be a good person”

“It’s so that my kids can be raised the right way”.

All of them have kernels of truth to them

But Gospel community means that we lay down our own plans and all share for the common good of the Gospel.

We should excited to gather with the body of Christ, with brothers and sisters.

Our unity must be in the Spirit

This verse would probably be best translated “in one accord in the Spirit”.

Through Christ the Spirit gives us new life and indwells in us, it is what allows us to stay in unity. We must seek through prayer, through the Word, through worship for God to help us in our unity. We can’t do it on our own.

We walk with conviction for the Gospel

Paul doesn’t just say that they have to “stand firm in the Gospel”, but that they shouldn’t be afraid!

-This word “frightened” is like that of a startled horse.

-But Paul tells them they shouldn’t be surprised when others challenge the Gospel, nor should they be intimidated by it.

Paul says the suffering is on “Christ’s behalf”

Specifically those in Philippi would know full-well this truth. It was there that an enslaved demon-possess girl was freed from her bondage, but this led to riots as people were concerned that this truth of the Gospel was going to hurt their businesses. so they stripped of their clothes and beat Paul with a rod severely and threw him in jail. What did Paul and Silas do in prison? Pray and sing hymns to God. And as they were signing hymns they were released from prison, but instead of taking the easy escape they stayed so that the jailer would not kill himself, and they brought the jailer and his whole family to Christ.

And here Paul makes three important points about the walk of these Christians he is talking to.

1. Their struggle is of the same kind of his own

Paul has been imprisoned, he has been beaten, he has been accused

2. They had witnessed his struggles

In this congregation are the Philippians jailer and the young slave girl who they set free from satan

Paul would be pushed out of the town because of the Gospel in Philippi

3. Their struggle will continue in the future just as Paul’s had

Our wrestling against flesh and blood will not stop until we pass on to eternity

Why will this happen?

The Gospel is offensive to the world

There were many reasons for the believers to be frightened. What if their own faith was so counter-cultural that world started to hate them? But we must be cautious about why the world hates us.

-Fear of man can often pose as trying to “guard” ourselves against persecution.

-Fear of man can sometimes be speaking with hatred to those who deny the Gospel or even find the Gospel offensive to their own beliefs.

-Fear of man can be lying to protect ourselves

But Paul says our suffering is a sign of our salvation, while our suffering is a sign of judgment to those who oppose the Gospel.

-We also do not need to fear our bodily death

Matthew 10:28 “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Do you want to know the surefire way to face persecution? Live worthy of the Gospel.

You know how I know? Jesus, Peter, Paul and many other believers.

-Our persecution should be because our purposes don’t align with the world even when we show love to others.

There are many reasons we can be afraid to walk worthy of the Gospel and to proclaim it.

-Loss of personal relationships

-Loss of our own goals and desires that we have

-Social rejection

-Pain and death

We should be cautious of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain

The devil can challenges us with seduction and deception, trying to lead us down a path to enjoy the pleasures of this world, convincing us that the things we most want align with God wants for us.

But then he can also bring against us accusation and persecution. Make us run away from our sin rather than confess it to the one who can save us. Make us be fearful of the pain we have to go through, rather than understand that God disciplines those he loves.

My kids like the story “we’re going on a bear hunt” where it says “we can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, we’ve got to go through it!” That is the Christian life. There is no Gospel shortcut!

We all recognize salvation as a gift…but it can be harder for us to see the joy in suffering, that it is a gift! It isn’t a broken feature of the Christian walk, in fact it’s a privilege. It affirms we are citizens of heaven

-The apostle Peter had a hard time with this as well. He didn’t believe that Jesus should die on the cross…as I read this week “Peter’s Gospel didn’t have a cross in it”

-But Jesus would tell Peter that he would die on a cross as well, that the symbol of all of His followers would be a cross

-Not a recliner, or a big house, or golf clubs, or first class tickets…a cross

The story of Dmitri

There is a story about a Christian named Dmitri who lived in the Soviet Union. He knew what happened to those who were Christians there, churches burned down, pastors jailed or killed. But he felt convicted that his family needed to gather to worship, to read from the Bible, and to pray together. Some in their village heard their singing through the thin walls of their house and wanted to learn more. Soon there were 25 people meeting at his house.

The authorities soon came and told him to shut down this church. But he didn’t stop and this little church in Dmitri’s house grew from 25 to 75. Soon he was fired from his factory job, his wife was fired from her job at the school, and his boys were expelled. Then the authorities came back, they abused Dmitri in front of the church and told him that worse would happen unless he stopped. A tiny old grandma stood to her feet and waved her finger at the officer’s face. “You have laid hands on a man of God, and you will not survive!” she said. Three days later, the officer died of a heart attack. The fear of God swept through the village, and at the next meeting, 150 people showed up. The officers couldn’t let this go, and Dmitri went to prison for 17 years.

His prison cell was one step in every direction. He was tortured regularly. And he was in a prison with 1500 hardened criminals. Every morning at sunrise Dmitri would rise from his bed, face the east, and start worshipping Jesus. Many of the criminals would throw things at his cell: food, cups, waste. Speaking many other vile things at him. But this never stopped him.

He would also try to find any scrap of paper he could to write down Scripture verses he had to memory. He would use a piece of coal, or a pencil stub…anything he could find. Every time the guards would find his scrap of paper they would rip it up and beat him.

One day the guards told him that they had sent his wife and children to prison as well, and that they would release him if he renounced his faith. Dmitri finally gave in, he said that he would renounce. Outside of the jail Dmitri’s wife sensed something was wrong and she gathered her family to pray for him that night. The next morning, when the officers brought the document for him to sign, he was a renewed man. “I know that you lied to me,” he told them. “My wife and sons are still alive, and they’re still in Christ. I will not sign your paper.”

One day, after the guards had found another one of his Scripture papers, they decided they had enough. They were going to bring him to execution. But as they dragged him down the corridor they then heard something. 1500 criminals stood up, faced the east, and starting to sing in worship to God.

The officers dropped Dmitri in terror. “Who are you?” one of them asked.

“I am a son of the living God,” Dmitri told them. “And Jesus is his name.”

Recognizing that Dmitri would never stop and that his faith had in fact increased belief in the jail, they released him.

Dmitri had one purpose in life, to live a life worthy of the Gospel. His joy in the Lord never ceased, and the encouragement from the whole church encouraged him in his faith.

We have this encouragement as well!

Hebrews 12:1–3 “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.”

Points of application

1. Stand firm in the Spirit - Don’t fear what the world can’t take away

2. Be of one mind with Christ’s church

3. The Gospel is worth it