Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Sermon 2: Sharpen your Focus-Philippians 1.27-30

Introduction

Recap: Last week we introduced the series, “Unquestionably Christian.”

The series is from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church that he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit around AD60.

We learned that based on recent statistics and surveys, the reason so many people are leaving the church or the reason that the church is irrelevant to so many today is because they don’t see Christ being lived out by the people who claim to be His followers.

What we discover is that people are searching for the real thing and never can find anything to fulfill them completely.

There always seems to something more and something better.

So often people destroy their lives or simply waste their lives, chasing something they can never find on their own.

We have the answer, Jesus Christ.

The only thing that can truly satisfy and solve all problems is Jesus and the gospel or the good news that we can actually know God and have a relationship with Him that fill the void for all eternity.

We have the answer but people aren’t interested because they are not attracted to what they see in the church.

They say that The average Christian simply looks like everyone else in the world.

This is not a new problem.

The early church struggled too.

So, Paul wrote this letter that we call the book of Philippians to urge them to be unquestionably Christian and describes what it looks like.

We looked our key verse, .

Then we looked at .

We saw the first way Paul said to be unquestionably Christian is to remember who we are -citizens of heaven; and we also learned we need to remember what Jesus Christ did (namely dying on the cross to save us).

FOUR MORE WAYS PAUL GIVE TO BE UNQUESTIONABLY CHRISTIAN TO ATTRACT THE LOST TO THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST:

Now we want to continue with more ways found in .

1. Be laser-focused on the Gospel of Christ:

Paul stresses throughout chapter one that to be unquestionably Christian we must be all about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He uses the word Gospel 5 times and implies it 4 more times in the first 27 verses of chapter 1.

That is basically once for every three verses!

When studying the Bible, repeated words are a big clue as to what the writer wants to emphasize.

In one spirit or Spirit.

Some translation capitalize spirit some do not.

Is Paul talking about the Holy Spirit that baptizes all into the same body of Christ?

Or is he talking about a more general term of having a same mind set, the same spirit, the same goal, the same aim.

Either way works because both are true.

If we are all baptized by the Holy Spirit in the same body then we should all be focused on the same goals, with the same mind set.

The next words he uses is “one mind” so that further amplifies Paul’s point.

The spirit of unity among believers comes from the Holy Spirit.

We must be laser focused on our God given mission to evangelize the world.

This is our task, given by Christ.

We must never lose focus of that.

Both with our actions and our mouths.

It is so easy to get distracted with important things.

But we must be careful that we don’t let the important take the place of crucial.

It is easy to spend a lot of time and effort and money on very good things even great things.

But we must be careful, very careful that these good things don’t take the place of the best thing!

And that is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.

The world needs to hear about how they can have fresh start and all their sins forgiven.

How their life can have meaning.

About the one who can make them complete and satisfied etc. Give the gospel here!

But words don’t mean much without action.

You see words don’t mean a whole lot if your attitude and actions don’t line up with those words.

Bad actions or the lack of going good actions both hurt the Spread of the Gospel and the Church.

The bottom line is this: You can defend the gospel (And you should) and you can proclaim the gospel (and you should), but even if the words are right, if your conduct isn’t worthy of the Gospel of Christ, it is a VERY ugly thing indeed!

Let’s read verse again: Notice the focus is on the gospel and also the action.

2. Have Convincing Conduct

Stand firm.

This would have been understood clearly by the Philippians because it was a common military expression.

Remember Philippi was town full of retired military families so without a doubt military culture would have been common knowledge.

Soldiers on a battle field, they must not yield an inch of ground no matter how hard their adversaries press against them.

I have been reading about the revolutionary war, the battles were waged in a large field with each army facing off in long lines.

“hold the line” was a common call.

This meant “Stand firm.

The enemy is firing their muskets at you.

The cannon ball are screaming your direction.

Stand firm!

Hold the line.

Don’t back down, don’t run away.”

Church family: Here is a word for us today.

Hold the line!

Stand firm!

The enemies is firing flaming arrows at us.

The full arsenal of Satan and his legions of demons are screaming you direction.

Stand firm!

Hold the line.

Don’t back down, don’t run away, don’t give up.”

Striving Side by Side: (synathlountes)

Syn = together athlountes = athelete.

The language Paul is using in this part of the verse would have also been familiar to the Philippians because this was language used in sports.

The Greeks and Romans were sports maniacs.

The Olympic Games had already been going on for over 800 years in Greece about 200 miles a the crow flies from Philippi.

The games were so popular people would travel for weeks or longer, risking their life, just to attend.

About 70,000 people would cram into a stadium that holds 40,000 people.

Perrottet describes poor or non-existent sanitation, a lack of fresh drinking water, an unrelenting sun, and hordes of disease-carrying black flies.

And We think our culture is nuts about sports, you should have seen these people!

Their athletes were superstars and sometimes worshipped.

They were given highest honors, fame, and wealth.

Many of their competitions were to the death.

QUOTE: Epictetus pondered late in the first century A.D. He argued that visiting the Olympics was a metaphor for human existence itself.

Every day was filled with difficulties and tribulations: unbearable heat, pushy crowds, grime, noise and endless petty annoyances.

“But of course you put up with it all,” he said, “because it’s an unforgettable spectacle.”

Epictetus pondered late in the first century A.D. He argued that visiting the Olympics was a metaphor for human existence itself.

Every day was filled with difficulties and tribulations: unbearable heat, pushy crowds, grime, noise and endless petty annoyances.

© 2017 Biblical Archaeology Society 34

The Olympic Games: How They All Began

“But of course you put up with it all,” he said, “because it’s an unforgettable spectacle.”

The Olympic sports were mostly individual competitions, but Team sports were popular in other competitive venues.

Men, children and women participated in these games.

Ancient Greeks preferred sports played with balls (spheres), made by strings or leather.

The more popular ball games, which have many similarities with modern games with balls, were “phaininda”, which resembles the handball, “episkyros”, the ancient rugby, “keritizein”, the ancient Greek field hockey and “aporraxis”, which was the forerunner of modern basketball.

Well in Sports, say basketball for example.

We just ended the NBA finals and the WNBA is going strong now.

The players on the court need to be of one mind, striving side by side.

They must work closely together, anticipate each other’s movements, one mind, one spirit, heading for the same goals.