Worthy of the Gospel

Introduction

This morning, we are finishing up the first chapter of Philippians before moving onto the Advent season by examining what it means to live a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Philippians 1:27–30 ESV

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, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Body

One of the questions that every believer should really reflect on seriously is the question of what it means to live a life worthy of the gospel. In light of the fact that Jesus loved you enough to suffer and die for your sin on the cross, how should we then live? If you are a non-Christian this morning, I’m so glad that you are here with us and like myself, before I converted to Christianity, you might be asking yourself, “I never asked him to die for me.”

One Christian friend explained it to me this way while I was still very much a seeker. It’s like a lighthouse guard who sees that a passenger ship has begun to capsize in the middle of a turbulent storm. In order to rescue people, he risks his own life and leaves the safety of the lighthouse and then takes a ship large enough to rescue everyone who is in danger. Now whether or not certain individuals choose to accept being rescued is really irrelevent to the conversation of whether or not this is a heroic act. Regardless of the fact that some people may reject the salvation offered by Christ doesn’t minimize what He did for humanity. So if what we read in the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, it is a heroic act of monumental proportions that has not only transformed countless numbers of individual lives but it has changed the course of history. And for those of us who have accepted the fact that Jesus came to live the life that we should have lived, and died the death that we should have died, and was raised from the dead for our justification, well one of the pressing questions of our faith needs to be, “How can I now live in a manner that is worthy of this gospel?”

There are two main points I want to address in answering this question.

1. What living in a manner worthy of the gospel doesn’t mean.

2. What living for the gospel actually does mean biblically.

When the movie Saving Private Ryan, first came out, I was working as a youth pastor and there were a number of other pastors that used the ending of the movie as a way to motivate their students to become better Christians. If you haven’t seen the movie or have forgotten how it ends, it’s incredibly inspiring and it really appears to support this thesis of how you should live in light of someone sacrificing their life for you. The basic summary of the movie is there is a squadron of soldiers that are sent on a mission to save private Ryan who is stuck behind enemy lines. Sadly, although they were able to save private Ryan, many of the men along with their leader, Captain John Miller had to pay for his salvation with their lives. And the movies ends with this scene I want to show you.

If there is any movie that directly counters the message of the gospel, it’s probably this ending to Saving Private Ryan. If someone dies for you, the natural inclination is for you to feel guilty and then attempt to repay that debt by living a good moral life that justifies the price that was paid for saving you. But as you can tell by this closing scene, trying to pay back an unpayable debt through your personal morality leads to a life filled with guilt or relentless striving because of the constant burden of having to justify yourself. You see this phenomena all the time in both religious and non-religious situations. I’ve seen the children of immigrant families deal with the unspoken pressure of having to be successful because in their minds their parents gave everything for their education and their success is a tangible way of repaying that debt. For some of us, being a good son or daughter seems to be directly related to those familial expectations.

Now, most human relationships operate in this manner and this is why it can be difficult for us to realize that our relationship with God does not function in this way. When Jesus said that his burden is light and his yoke is easy, He absolutely meant it. Any heavy burden that you feel like you are carrying isn’t from the Lord, it’s something that you have placed on yourself based on an incomplete view of the gospel. As the apostle Paul, tells us in the book of Romans:

Romans 4:22–25 ESV

That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

The same apostle Paul that commends us to live a life that is worthy of the gospel, tells us that our righteousness is based on faith and the justification for our lives cannot be earned through good, moral living but it is simply a by-product of Christ’s resurrection. From the beginning to the end, we are saved by grace through faith alone. By the power of the gospel, the guilt of sin and the striving to earn our righteousness ceases. This is how our burden is made light and we need to be careful that we are not trying to pay back the sacrifice of Christ through our good living and personal piety. This is the root of legalism and it is actually an enemy to the gospel.

But at the very same time, we certainly cannot abuse the grace of God by living in whatever way we please. That would be unworthy of the gospel and so we need to wrestle with what Paul means when he calls believers to live in a manner worthy of Christ’s love? As you can see from this passage, the answer to this question seems to place personal piety and moral living, secondary to three other key factors:

Standing firm united in one Spirit and mind

Contending side by side for the faith of the gospel

Being courageous in the face of opposition to the gospel

It is not coincidence that all of these factors are related one way or another to the spread of the gospel and I think we would all agree that this is a very different answer to the question of what it means to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ but it makes perfect sense. In fact, the standard English translations that most of us have can throw us off from Paul’s true intentions. The literal translation of verse 27 should read “live as worthy citizens”. Here, Paul is alluding to a well known political situation in the Roman Empire. The city of Philippi was a Roman colony whose residents took great pride in the fact that they were conferred Roman citizenship by Caesar. This historic fact is described in the book ofActs.

Acts 16:11–12 ESV

So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

When Luke describes this as a voyage, he meant it literally. The distance from Rome to the city of Philippi was close to 5,000 miles and in a time before cars and planes, this was a long voyage and the only way the government of Rome could continue to maintain their political influence was to establish these colonies. So the essence of what Paul is saying to the Philippian church is the fact that they are a colony of God’s kingdom because through the gospel, they were now proud citizens of heaven. And very much like the political strategy of the Roman Empire, the believers in the church were meant to be a colony that spread the influence of Christ wherever they were located no matter how far away it is from heaven and no matter how much opposition they faced.

As you continue to read the account of Paul’s time in the city of Philippi, there is a string of extraordinary events that coincide to help spread the gospel in this region.

Acts 16:22–30 ESV

The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

This is the incident that Paul is alluding to in the last two verses of our passage and the point is that taking the gospel to people (across the street or across the ocean) requires sacrifice, contending for the faith requires the denial of self, and living out the gospel means courageously choosing suffering over comfort. This is the way Christ brings his salvation to the world. Suffering is God’s strategy for spreading the influence of the gospel throughout the world. Many new and young believers think that the Christian life is going to remove all the suffering and pain in their lives but in reality what Christ promises us is the strength to endure through all suffering, not the removal of them. So why do we need to suffer and what does it have to do with our relationship with Jesus?

And this passage teaches us that Suffering is a Gift from God. Paul’s choice of words is not accidental, “For to you, it has been grant to suffer for the sake of the gospel.” The word granted is only used of something that is given as a gift or a privilege. Dr. Paul Brand who was medical missionaries to lepers in India wrote a book called “The Gift of Pain”. In this book, he reveals the amazing discovery, that the horrible effects of leprosy, the losing of fingers, toes, noses, and other body parts is not due to the directs effects of the virus but rather indirectly due to the fact that these patients had lost their sense of pain. They would lose fingers while cooking because they couldn’t feel the heat. Rats would come and eat away at their toes while they slept and they would feel nothing. Pain and suffering is a reminder of our humanity and it makes us more human. When we fail to acknowledge pain and suffering in our lives and avoid it all costs, we can become monstrous distortions of what God intended us to be.

Francis Schaffer has written prophetically that Western culture has adopted two impoverished values over everything else: personal peace and affluence. He describes personal peace as the desire of wanting to be left alone so that we won’t be troubled by the problems of others and to live one’s life with the minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed. Affluence is described as an overwhelming and ever-increasing prosperity. When we live our lives based on these two values, it is impossible to have a right perspective on suffering because suffering is the enemy of personal peace and affluence. And if we live our lives based on these two values, we will no longer appreciate the gift of pain and in so doing, we will lose our humanity.

1. First, Suffering is the example that Christ left us with.

The book of James teaches us that we will encounter trials of many kinds in our lives and some of these trials are there to test our faith. Now our relationship with God is directly related to faith. When our faith in God deepens, this directly means that our relationship with him deepens as well. And as you all know, when you suffer together with someone, your friendship with that person automatically becomes stronger. A case in point, men who have gone through wars together like WWII or Vietnam, tend to have lifelong bonds with those they fought alongside. Even after decades, there is a special place in their hearts for those friends that suffered through the horrors of combat. You learn to trust people when they have gone through hard times with you. In fact the best friendships are the ones that have endured the test of suffering. A lot of times when people go through difficult times in their lives, they tend to think that they are going through it alone. Hebrews 4:15 tells us exactly the contrary. It says that we have a high priest in Jesus that endured every temptation that we face and he is able to sympathize with us. When we suffer, it is Christ that suffers along with us and gives us the strength to persevere. As we suffer along with Christ, we will experience a more intimate relationship with him.

1 Peter 2:21 ESV

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

2. Second, suffering causes us to mature in our character. The development of our character is important in establishing good relationships. For instance, have you ever tried to have a friendship with someone who is incredibly immature? Now I’ve done youth ministry, here at this church for about 3 years and because of their age, there is a great deal of immaturity. Building deep, meaningful relationships is one of the hardest things to do when you’re working with teenagers. What’s worse is when you’re trying to build a relationship with someone who is extremely immature for their age. It’s irritating and frustrating. Well this is the exact same principle when it comes to building a relationship with God. Those who are mature in their character tend to have the deepest relationships with God.

Romans 5:3–4 ESV

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

3. Third, suffering reveals our passions. People think that passion means doing something that you really like but the word passion is so much deeper than that. The root of the word comes from the Greek word “passio” which literally means suffering. Passion is loving someone or something to the point where you are willing to suffer. Musicians and artists are notorious for suffering for their passion. For the majority of artists there’s not a whole lot of money for the work that they do and so they suffer from paycheck to paycheck because they are passionate about their work.

God wants to know where our passions lie and the things that we are willing to suffer gives clear insight into what is of utmost importance in our lives.

Consider what Paul says in 1 Colossians 1:24 – “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction.” Clearly, this is not an argument against the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement on the cross that somehow there is something lacking in its completion but rather Paul is talking about how the cross and salvation is practically worked out in the real world. In this verse Paul sees a very close connection between his own suffering and the spread of the Gospel.

John Piper in a message entitled “The Purpose Driven Death” says that the suffering of Jesus are completed in our sufferings because in ours the world sees his, and it has its appointed effect. In other words, the suffering love of Christ for sinners is seen in the suffering love that we have for sinners. God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we offer the Christ of the cross to people, they see the Christ of the cross in us. We are to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience in offering him to them, and living the life of love he lived.

Paul's Joy

The road to Calvary is not a joyless road. It is a painful one, but it is a profoundly happy one. You can’t escape pain; why not make it meaningful? When we choose the fleeting pleasures of comfort and security over the sacrifices and sufferings of spreading the gospel, we choose against joy. God is calling us in this text to live for the sake of the gospel and to endure any suffering that may come through. Christ chose suffering, it didn't just happen to him. He chose it as the way to create and perfect the church. Now he calls us to choose suffering. That is, he calls us to take up our cross and follow him on the Calvary road and deny ourselves and make appropriate sacrifices for the sake of presenting his gospel to the world.

Beautiful, Blistered Feet

J. Oswald Sanders tells the story of an indigenous missionary in India who walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel. His hardships were many. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement, he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was driven out of town and rejected. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion.

When he awoke, people were hovering over him, and the whole town was gathered around to hear him speak. The head man of the village explained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man, and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message that he was willing to suffer so much to bring them.

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”