The Gospel in Philippians

One interesting thing you may not know about me is that I have an interest in learning about prison. My wife and I have watched some of the world’s toughest prison type stuff. Shawshank redemption is one of my favorite movies. We have watched some other documentaries on prison life and prison reform. I enjoy one particular podcast that is hosted by a convict in a particular prison. And honestly why it fascinates me is multifaceted. I think it would be incredibly difficult and at times I’m filled with fear at the thought of the lifestyle. Also the prisoners themselves are just like us. They have regrets, pains. They long to have a sense of purpose. I hate to see and hear how lonely it can be. Sometimes they can be forgotten. It taps into how complex justice can be. Many of them go on to do amazing things. So many layers. It’s just fascinating. And sometimes I just wonder to myself, what would I be like in a prison setting? What you may not know about the Christian faith is that the author of 13 of the 66 books of the Bible spent several years in some sort of prison, house arrest or otherwise. And today’s book, Philippians is one of the books he wrote from prison. Paul writes to the church of the city of Philipi around AD 62 as you can see on the timeline of his life we provided. He helped start the church back in AD 49. The story of how it got started is when Paul was used by God to cast out a demon from a woman, and her owners got so mad that their hope of making money off of her was gone, and they had a crowd stirred up to get Paul thrown in prison. Once in prison, Paul and his partner Silas were so full of joy that they were singing songs in the middle of the night. They’re praying and singing. God breaks them out of jail with an earthquake, and they stay in the prison and lead the jailer to Christ. So fastforward 13 years and Paul is locked up to a Roman guard writing this letter. And what fills Paul’s heart as he writes is joy. So we are going to get a masterclass today in the gospel from a man who loved God so much he went to prison for it, and then you couldn’t stop him from spreading the gospel even once in prison. I want that kind of joy for us here today. Irregardless of our circumstances, we can have a joy so deep in God and a unity so deep with one another displaying the gospel, that even prison itself couldn’t touch our joy with God and each other. We are going to see how the gospel aims us, the gospel aligns us, the gospel animates us, and the gospel advances through us. If you’re ready, let me hear you say, I’m ready.

The gospel aims us (1:6, 3:20-21, 1:21-25, 4:6-7)

Somebody say aim. Aim gets at the idea of having a target. We all have a target. We are all squinting and looking at a target. In the letter to the Philippians Paul gives us 3 ingredients of a well aimed life.

Our aim begins with the end (with Jesus) in mind (1:6, 3:20-21)

You may have heard the addage, begin with the end in mind. If a teacher knows the kids need to be able to add and multiply on the test, they backwards plan all the way back to lessons on adding and multiplying. Paul could not agree more. And in the end, we will be with Jesus.

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

The day of Jesus Christ. Each day is kind of a day. But a day is coming that will be the day. And on the day, it’s the day of Jesus Christ. And on that day, He will begin the end. Making all things right. Justice will be served. No more pain. No more tears. And people who walk with God now by the Spirit will be overjoyed to see Jesus. Because on the day of Jesus, we enter into fully embodied life with Jesus forever. So, the end, for believers, is not an arbitrary happy place where we eat good and play sports. A resurrected life with Jesus, is ultimately a great place, because we get to be with our King. Jesus. We love Him. So we don’t begin with the end in mind meaning, we begin with our entrance to heaven in mind. No, we begin with Jesus making all things right in mind. King Jesus. My King. Our King. The King of the world. The resurrected King waiting to return. That day is coming.

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Notice Paul views himself as a citizen of heaven. Is he formerly Jewish? Yes. Is he a roman citizen? Yes. But even more than those he is a citizen of heaven, and as such, he looks to and lives for His King and the day when he will transform his body. Paul knows that the Paul he now is will one day be transformed by His King. His citizenship will be transformed.

So Christians begin with the end in mind. The end with King Jesus. So what is the end you are living for friend? Is it life with King Jesus? Or is the end you’re living for merely retirement? Some money? Kids down the street. A retirement party where your coworkers toast to you? Trip to Hawaii? Not a bad thing friends. But what if we lived with our transformed heavenly citizen status end in mind?

Our aim is life with God now (1:21-25)

In addition to beginning with the end in mind with Jesus, a well aimed life is living with God now. As Paul tells us in 1:21-25.

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,

Paul tells this church he loves that to die would be gain. Dying is better. I get to the end. With Jesus. But, he says, what you need is me to stay. You need growth and maturity. I can help. So, I know I will stay on your account. To help your progress and joy in the faith. So Paul is showing us that our beginning with the end in mind doesn’t mean we are waiting to live with God one day, but he lives with God now for the good of others. He says to live is Christ, to die is gain. To live is Christ. My life is Christ. I live with Him. He lives through me. I want us to be able to say this phrase like Paul. Whether we’re chained up in prison for Jesus, or we are a dentist doing a filling, or a student taking a test, or a parent feeling misunderstood by our teenagers. To live is Christ. He’s right here. In me. Through me.

Our aim results in peace (4:6-7)

So Paul is describing a life aiming for the end with Jesus, living with Jesus now, and what is this life marked by? Peace. Unending peace.

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Peace of God. His peace. Can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And of course we know that peace doesn’t mean ease, right? He is in jail chained up to a Roman guard after all. Following Jesus isn’t always an easy life, but it can always be a peaceful life. A life free of anxiety is possible. Where we give our burdens to God. Our hearts are full of gratitude. And the very peace of God guards. Fighting all invading thoughts to derail our peace off. What an amazing picture. Don’t we long for a well aimed life friends?

It has been said that even the slightest wrong aim can result in getting largely off course.

Back in 1979, 257 people left New Zealand for a sightseeing flight to Antarctica.  Unknown to the pilots, there was a 2-degree error in the flight coordinates.  Most people hearing that would think that’s “close enough”- but that 2-degree error in fact it placed the aircraft 28 miles to the east of what was the planned route.   As the pilots approached what they thought was their intended destination, to give the sightseers a better look of the beautiful landscapes they descended to a lower altitude.   Although the pilots had years of experience, they had never made this particular flight before. So they had no way of knowing that the incorrect coordinates had placed them directly in the path of Mount Erebus, an active volcano that rises from the frozen landscape to a height of more than 12,000 feet.  Sadly, the plane crashed into the side of the volcano, killing everyone on board.  It is hard to imagine how this tragedy of epic proportions was brought on by a minor error—a matter of only a few degrees.

So Port City family, I just want to ask us; where are our coordinates slightly off? We can all get pulled into thinking selfish living will give us the greatest joy. Paul says I’m staying for your benefit. His end was life with God, his now was life with God, and his life was full of peace even in prison. I want that for us. So where is there anxiety unending? Where do you feel pulled in a million directions? Where has a dream of a future of comfort captured your imagination and pulled you off course from living with God? There is time to course correct.

The gospel aligns us (1:1-2, 4:2, 1:27, 2:3-8, 2:19-20, 2:25)

Not only does the gospel aim us, it aligns us. From the beginning of Paul’s letter, there is a clear issue in Philippi he is trying to address.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice how Paul refers to himself and Timothy as what in verse 1? Servants. He is using a word about himself to show them who they are to be. If I, the apostle who taught you this gospel, am a servant, what are you to be with one another. And notice, unlike other letters, Paul isn’t just writing to the whole church, but in some kind of way he shouts out the leadership; “overseers and decons” in verse 1. And then later in chapter 4, Paul names a specific disunity issue in the church.

2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

To be named as having an issue in a Pauline letter is a big deal. He doesn’t do it often. So clearly something was going on in the leadership, and these two women in particular, sides must have been taken to some degree. And Paul isn’t just hitting them with some sort of “can’t we all just get along” message. No, he goes to the very heart of what the gospel is to appeal to them to get aligned on the same page.

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,

Live worthy of the gospel. And by that Paul means be unified together with one mind, one spirit. Standing side by side. Strive together. Many Christians view themselves as an individual who loves God. I want to grow in my love for God. I listen to sermons to grow my love for God. I read books or the Bible so I can love God more. And this is good and to be encouraged. But can we also see how Paul thinks of the Christian? He views them as not only bound to God, but to one another. He is assuming that the church has a corporate identity togehter, and not just a bunch of individual identities next to each other. Hear this Port City Chruch. We are not a set of isolated Christians who sit next to one antoher. We aren’t committed to a brand that is Port City. Port City is a people. The Church is a people. We are bound to one another. To live with God is to live with one mind under God with other believers in Jesus. And we get to live worthy of the gospel together. Did you know you can live worthy or unworthy of the gospel? Paul doesn’t waste words. If we couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t call us to it. But apparently, their lack of unity was itself unowrthy of the gospel. Which doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you Philippians until you get unified. No, no. To live worthy of the gospel is to see what God’s free love is available to you now and wants to produce in you and through you. Right now. So we don’t live worthy of the gospel through our effort alone, but striving with our effort to let God’s Spirit work through us.

4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Uh-oh. Paul went Jesus on us. He said be unified. Be humble. Have this mind. Share this mind. Enter this mind. All of you. It’s yours in Christ Jesus. I don’t know who needs to hear this today. There is much that is yours in Christ Jesus. You can’t earn it, but you do have to learn it. We give effort to learn what only Jesus could ever earn. My effort doesn’t earn me God’s favor. My effort is a response to Gods’ free favor given in Jesus, and it helps me enter God’s favor more deeply. Let us make this our mantra; nothing to earn, much to learn. And specifically, he wants them to learn the mind of Christ as shown on the cross. The eternal Son of God took on flesh. Our God is 1 God in 3 persons. The Son of God became a man. He is equal with the Father and Spirit and took on flesh. And then in the flesh obeyed. Served. Suffered. To the point of dying an unjust death from people He created. That’s humility. And it’s available to the Philippians. It’s available to us. It’s a humility that does not put ourselves down. But a humility that keeps its eyes locked on Jesus. Not even considering ourselves.

20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.

25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need,

Paul’s like look at Jesus, then look at the guys I’ve been sending you. I’ve got nobody else like Timothy. He will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. In a transactional world, don’t we agree it’s hard to feel sometimes like people are genuinely concerned for our welfare? It’s possible through the gospel to be genuinely concerned for others. Epaphroditus is the one being the runner between Paul and the Philippians. So it’s as if he is standing in on their behalf to love on Paul while in prison. And he reports back to both the church and to Paul. Traveling many miles. And he almost dies. You can see Paul almost making a circular loop from Jesus to Timothy to Epaphroditus. Jesus emptied himself to the point of death. Timothy is concerned for you genuinely. Epaphroditus almost died to minister to me on your behalf. And then it’s like a loop that ends back on Jesus again who didn’t almost die on your behalf. He fully died. And was raised. So when we die in service to others and being aligned with them, we experience some sort of resurrection. Resurrection is ultimately the gift of God’s grace that we receive in the end. But it’s also the natural result of consistent death with Jesus is to again and again in small and big ways experience a resurrection life with Jesus.

So church, are we aligned today? Are we considering others in this room more significant than ourselves? Do we look not only to our interests but to others? Is there rivalry in our hearts towards someone else in this room. Let us look to Jesus and empty ourselves in humility.

3. The gospel animates us (3:7-10)

So Paul is describing a well aimed and aligned life. Right target. All as one mind. Striving together. And then he goes on a rant like a giddy kid about what Jesus has done in his life.

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

So make no mistake. Paul isn’t envisioning a drudgery in serving others. He isn’t forced to do what he otherwise wouldn’t want to do. Paul is ecstatic still as if it is the first day of his salvation. Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss. Paul was elite before knowing Jesus. He was considered at the top of the Jewish class. Religious elite. Teacher. Zealous. Pureblood. But he counts whatever he had as rubbish in comparison with gaining Christ. Knowing Jesus as a gift. And let’s look at verse 9. Paul wants to be found in him. Through faith. Verse 10. Know him. Share his sufferings. becoming like him. Do you notice how much Paul views life with Jesus as a sharing, a participating in the same kind of life Jesus lived? He wants to get in the game. He wants more of Jesus. He’s the kid who gets to stay home and eat ice cream and play video games at the thought of his life becoming just like Jesus’. Not just not being in trouble. Friend, can I tell you something? Paul doesn’t just want us to know God is real. Or even to know that Jesus is the only way. He wants to be exploding with joy at knowing Him. To go from those who yawn at being told God loves us to wait what, God loves me? How could that be?

Paul is in prison when he writes, but he may as well be in paradise. Oh the joy. The giddyness with which Paul writes. Rejoice. Rejoice. 11 uses of that word. Rejoice. Friend can you say right now you are rejoicing in Jesus? Rejoice. God loves you. Rejoice. God wants to live with you. Rejoice. Sin isn’t your boss anymore. Rejoice. You can share in life with God. Become like Him Rejoice.

I wonder what brings you effortless joy today? For me, it’s being told I have uninterupted sleep followed by a slow morning with coffee, books, and catching up on NBA. Oh, that sounds amazing! What is it for you today? Just an eruption of joy. May it be that you have gained Christ. Been found in Him. Knowing Him. His power. His grace. If you don’t know Jesus today. The path to unending and explosive joy, is through faith in Jesus Christ. What He has done for you. It’s a gift. Receive it by repenting of your sin. Break up with your sin. Grab hold of your Savior. By faith. Trust Him.

4. The gospel advances through us (1:12-14)

So the gospel aims us on the right target, aligns us together, fills us with joy, and then we go! I almost envision those wind up toys or cars, you pick them up, vmmm, vmmm, vmmm, now go! It’s aimed at the right target. Aligned within itself, which is the church community in humble service. We are all exploding with joy that God saved us. Ready to go. And then God the Father through His Son Jesus to whom we all cling, by the Spirit of God in power unleashes us and we take off. And what happens in us and through us is similar to what happened to Paul. The gospel advances.

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

So at this time Paul is imprisoned under the imperial guard. The imperial guard was the guard set aside for high class prisoners and high class security detail for important Roman officials and even all the way up to the Emperor himself. So imagine going onto the 1st century version of romansecurity.com and your a guard and you see on a Monday you’re watching guard during a Senators party. Caesar is attending. They’re paying time and a half. You stand guard. See men and women and glamarous gifts and animals and extravagance for a few hours. To be powerful in Rome means you seek pleasure in your free time. Then on Friday you’re scheduled to be locked up to some religious criminal for a 4 hour shift. His name is Paul. You clock in. The dude turns to you with a big old smile and says, hey. I’m Paul. I’m going to tell you about Jesus. And he commences to tell the guard why he’s in prison. I’m in prison for King Jesus. Jesus is King. He’s the King of the world. Not Caesar. Jesus. Rome isn’t my ultimate citizenship, by the way, heaven is. And this guard is like yo, this guy is wild. He’s so happy though. He has more joy in prison following Jesus than the senators do with all their power under Caesar. And Paul did that day after day after day. 1 guard at a time. Until they all knew why He was there. Do we see what Paul is emulating for them? A well-aimed, well-aligned, well-animated life in the gospel is a life that will advance the gospel. We have an opportunity to advance the gospel. Want to know why? Because God, not us, is the ultimate advancer of the gospel. He’s winding us up in joy and aiming us and aligning us to one another, and He launches us onto our streets and workplaces and kids schools and our sports teams and colleges. God advances the gospel through His aimed, aligned, animated people. So if you want to be used by God, you don’t need skill, you just need to live worthy of the gospel; aimed, aligned, and animated. God does the rest.

Port City, can I tell you something? Our friends and neighbor and bosses seem so happy and like they don’t need Jesus. At one point so did we. We thought we were good to go. Happy and nice people. Like the guards chained up to Paul probably too. But either through the parties getting old, or comfort going stale, or suffering hitting us, we began to see we were empty. Sin is a dead end. Life trying to be god runs dry. We fail. Our friends need us to tell them Caesar isn’t in charge. Joy is possible in prison. Show them your giddiness. They’ll think you’re crazy at times, but you know what? Once the party stops or the comfort goes stale or the suffering hits them, they’ll remember that person with joy untouchable even when life was miserable. And they’ll call. They’ll come. So keep being giddy. Keep singing in prison. Keep sharing. Keep inviting. Christ died for our sins and we receive it by faith.

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

Once you know Jesus, nothing is the same.

We get to be God’s partner in life, isn’t that crazy?

And even though it’s a gift, that doesn’t make us lazy.

In our battle to become who we are, we have much to learn.

But we do it in the power of the Spirit, we have nothing to earn.

So now let us humble ourselves like Epaphroditus, Timothy, or ultimately Jesus.

Be on guard for pride, consider others first, we tend to drift towards being conceited.

I’m praying for us all a joy that goes deeper than our circumstances.

Let us live worthy of the gospel, and in Jesus, even though it’s not inevitable, I like our chances.

So rejoice in the Lord, again I will say, rejoice.

We are citizens of heaven, let us lift our united voice.