Letter to the Philippians

Letter to the Philippians

Good Job, but Keep Going

Intro: April 23rd 1945, the the United States Army liberated the Nazi Prison camp at Flossenburg. Unfortunately for many prisoners, SS commander Heinrich Himmler started to move, many of them by forced marching to other camps. About 7000 prisoners did not make the marches. But a few weeks before this happened, on April 9th 1945, by Himmler’s special order one of those prisoners, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death and executed. Bonhoeffer was a pastor and professor in Germany.

But while Bonhoeffer was in prison he was able to preach to others in the same predicament and lead them to Christ. Good things can happen in bad places.

Likewise, Paul was most likely in prison when he wrote the next several letters to Philippi, Ephesus, and Colossae.

1st century prisons were not great or never good. But Paul’s joyful attitude comes through in his letter to the church. Partly because that is how he is and partly because he gets good news about the church.

Read verses: Philippians 1:3-11

Main Point: Look for the wins in your Christian Life, but Keep Striving Toward Christ

If you want a key verse to underline or circle in your Bible for what Paul is telling the Philippians it is 1:27 Just one thing: as citizens of Heaven live your life worthy of the Gospel of Christ I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit in one accord contending together for the faith of the gospel.

I. Keep Striving toward Christ with Joy

Paul is overjoyed to share the gospel with others and he wants the church to understand what Christ did. He wants everyone one the same page. And what Paul wants the church to know is that they way to true Joy is through humility. Philippians 2:5-11 explains what Christ did for his people.

It is something to see a person give up their life for others, but it is easy to forget the life they are giving up.

Paul explains that Christ emptied himself of all that he had possessed and instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Jesus knew what the plan was. He knew what the plan always was. To pay for the sins of the world. One man dies to right the sin of one other man. Adam.

Athanasius explains that the Son is and always is equal to the Father. the exaltation is the humanity or the flesh. This the word who is immortal and the image of the father has taken the form of a slave and suffered death. He did this in order to present himself as an offering to the Father. Jesus has been exalted for our sake. Hence all of us die In Christ and through his death may again be exalted in Christ.

It was a joy for Jesus to go to the cross for us even though it was hard and he paid with his life.

Bonhoeffer also paid the price. But he didn’t necessarily have to. When wwii broke out, he was teaching in America and could have stayed here, safe during it all. But instead, he went back to Europe to see how he could help against the Nazis.

He knew he had to suffer with his people.

II. Keep Striving toward Christ through Suffering

Church father Tertullian said the ‘blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Paul was in jail and he wasn’t sure that he would live and so he says in chapter 1:21 for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Suffering in Christ or dying in Christ is the gain. One church father Marius Victorinus says the one who has hope in him is always alive both now and forever. Therefore persecutors achieve nothing whether they hand me over to death or to tortures in life neither alternative harms me. Now for many of the Christina’s I the first 2 and a half centuries, death for your belief was a very real thing. But like paul they saw this as a gain either way.

Now, we are not under that much pressure to be believers. We suffer in our own way but we have realized and understand that this is all for Christ.

When we have Christ we can endure all. Because he is the one that strengthens you to endure that is the real meaning of that verse. Not to get you to win a game, but to get you to understand that no matter if you are rich or poor hungry or full, contentment in Christ is the little secret that Paul talks about in chapter 4:11-13

III. Keep Striving Toward Christ Against False Teachings

Pauline his enemies going around visiting churches and telling the false stories or adding to what God requires of

You to be a Christ follower. Paul’s says watch out for the dogs and the ones who mutilate the flesh, the cutters. Paul want the church that has worked so diligently to preach and live the Gospel Life

Paul wants the people to know that our goal is to know Him, God the Son and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings because the sufferings are sometimes felt because of these false teachers trying to convince you otherwise. Any loss of the worldly is to be considered a gain in Christ. Paul was imprisoned for various reasons, usually crimes against the Romans or inciting riots.

And so Bonhoeffer was also fighting against false narratives and to protect the ability to openly and freely preach the Gospel. And what the message really means.

So how bad was it in as the Nazi machine was spinning up? Surely it is all jst overblown because we weren't there. This is from an article in the New York Times in 2002 about the released documents about how the Nazis felt about the christian church in Europe in general and in Germany in particular.

The article is titled The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity by Joe Sharkey.

Among a bunch of documents compiled for the trials was this outline titled, ''The Persecution of the Christian Churches,'' which summarizes the Nazi plan to subvert and destroy German Christianity, which it calls ''an integral part of the National Socialist scheme of world conquest.'' This Was because Hitler knew that although they were conservative, the Church would never get on board with racial geniocide, a foreign policy of unlimited aggressive warfare, or with a domestic policy involving the complete subservience of Church to State.'' So it had to be eradicated. How to do this?

Well, “According to Baldur von Schirach, the Nazi leader of the German youth corps that would later be known as the Hitler Youth, ''the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist movement'' from the beginning, though ''considerations of expedience made it impossible'' for the movement to adopt this radical stance officially until it had consolidated power, the outline says.

Attracted by the strategic value inherent in the churches' ''historic mission of conservative social discipline,'' the Nazis simply lied and made deals with the churches while planning a ''slow and cautious policy of gradual encroachment'' to eliminate Christianity.”

Hitler’s regime essentially took control of the largely government funded protestant churches and then also made a deal with the Catholic church, which was run out of Rome, and gave them what sounded like a sweet deal. All They had to do was All Hitler seemed to demand in return was ''a pledge of loyalty by the clergy to the Reich government and a promise that Catholic religious instruction would emphasize the patriotic duties of the Christian citizen.''

No big deal right, Romans 13 says obey and support your government and they will let you keep on living your life. But go against them, and you would be arrested, stoned and or imprisoned. 700 protestant pastors were taken into protective custody, which is the polite term for the concentration camps like Flossenburg, Dachau, or Buchenwald that Bonhoeffer ended up in.

So the churches went along with Hitlers to get money or be supposedly left alone

Burt the God we serve is bigger than just our immediate needs and we should strive to ensure that we are serving God and then the Government even though e deal sounds good to us so we can just do out thing.

As we vote this election there is much more at stake here. There are some who think the church was complicit in allowing Hitler to come to power. Either sin of commission and agreeing to his wishes or omission and being passive and turning a blind eye. But all in all, we trust God and his providence that the ruler is placed where he or she is by His hand.

These pastors, both Catholic and protestant were defending the same Christ, despite theological differences. And we must also keep proclaiming and defending our rights to worship as God commands us.

IV. Keep Striving Toward Christ In Spite of Disagreements

Paul got word of people fighting or having disagreements and he urged them to reconcile and work together for the Fight and more importantly, for God’s Glory.

In this letter and others, he constantly refers to the people he writes to as brothers and sisters. He is not related, these are people from different continents and other religions that are now all part of the same family because we Are in Christ All of us are Saved by God’s Grace alone through Faith alone, In Christ alone. He is our Saviour. He has freed us from our invisible chains of sin and bridged the chasm between us and God.

Because we are to Rejoice in the Lord Always.

And we rejoice together as the family of God, the children of the Living God. creator of the universe. And we can lean on each other. Psalm 133:1 says Behold how good and how pleasant is it for brethren to dwell together in unity.

God provides you with internal peace Paul tells the church in 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

How happy are you when those certain times of the day are just peaceful. Maybe it is early in the morning when it's just you and a cup of coffee or tea on the porch or the couch and there is no noise from dogs, or cats, or kids because no one else is up yet. Or maybe that happens at night.

We rejoice because we are saved from our sins, that Paul explains in Romans 1-3.

And That gives us our eternal peace.

Application

1. The church exists for the Advance of the Gospel

2. It takes the whole church body

3. God Grows and We water. We are tending the garden as Adam and Eve were intended to do. But God makes the people grow. We water by spraying the Gospel around.

4. Forget what was behind and strive for what is forward. (3:13)

5. The reward is God’s call on your life. (v 3:14)

Conclusion

What happened to Bonhoeffer? He was sentenced to death by the Gestapo because of his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler, in the Valkyrie Plot

Listen to what one English officer wrote about Him.

Read Life Together page 13 indented section

Paul and Bonhoeffer understood what it was like in prison and both men eventually died while in prison. But they had the joy of Christ and knowing who they served and where they were going. And they encouraged others to view their joys, sorrows, struggles, and their new family in light of their life in Christ.

What lens do you view these things through? Is it all good when you are happy, but must think God hates you when you face a struggle or are you mature in your faith and look to understand what the lesson is and how you can Glorify God and rejoice in him always?