The Paradox of Joy

English Standard Version Chapter 1

27 Only vlet your manner of life be wworthy8 of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you xthat you are standing firm in one spirit, with yone mind zstriving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is aa clear sign to them of their destruction, but bof your salvation, and that from God. 29 For cit has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also bsuffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same dconflict that eyou saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Christ’s Example of Humility

2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from flove, any gparticipation in the Spirit, any haffection and sympathy, 2 icomplete my joy by being jof the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from kselfish ambition or lconceit, but in mhumility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you nlook not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

INTRO:

Take your Bibles and open them to Philippians. We’ve been studying this letter now for about a month, and the theme of joy is beginning to emerge.

I rejoice when people preach Christ even if it’s to cause me pain

I rejoice in my imprisonment because Christ will be honored either in life or death

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain

This theme of joy is there if we’re paying attention, but it’s not what we might expect from a letter about joy. In fact, it’s somewhat paradoxical.

It’s about to get more paradoxical as, for the next few weeks, we learn about the paradoxical path to joy in the body of Christ. And we begin tonight by looking at Paul’s call for our fully committed, gospel-driven devotion to Jesus Christ.

BODY:

Philippians 1:27a “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ...”

What is the gospel?

Jesus died on the cross so that we can be forgiven of our sins.

Jesus rose from the dead so that we will live with him forever.

Jesus has given us his Spirit so we can follow him as our king.

Paul wants you and me to “live worthy of this...”

Live as a gospel citizen

Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven...”

The gospel has changed our identity so that we are now individually part of the community of the people of God.

1 Corinthians 12:13 “baptized into one body”

Ephesians 2:14-22

And this community is recognized and realized most tangibly in the expression that is the local church.

Church comes from a Greek word that means “to be called out”

So the church of God is made up of the people of God who have been individually called out of their allegiance to the world and into a family that is marked by a shared allegiance to him.

As Paul puts it, our citizenship has changed.

Mark Dever: When a person becomes a Christian, he doesn’t just join a local church because it’s a good habit for growing in spiritual maturity. He joins a local church because it’s the expression of what Christ has made him–a member of the body of Christ. Being united to Christ means being united to every Christian, but that universal union must be given a living, breathing existence in a local church. (What is a Healthy Church, 26)

All of this is important foundation material for where Paul is going from 1:27 all the way down to 2:18. His focus is shifting from giving them an update on how he’s doing to a call for the Philippians to demonstrate their allegiance to Jesus through the way they conduct themselves as the church.

P1: Love the Church in Response to the Gospel (1:27-30)

I say “love the church” because that’s what is necessary if we’re going to live out what follows.

Philippians 1:27-30 27 that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 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. 29 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, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Writing from prison, Paul was well-acquainted with the reality of this opposition that he speaks of here in this passage. And if the world had opposed him, it wouldn’t be long before the Philippians experienced the same opposition.

1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

John 17:14 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

If we are the “called out” ones, if we are no longer citizens of this world (Philippians 3:20), then we’re going to find ourselves drawing the ire of her powers and authorities.

What does Peter call us?

1 Peter 2:11 “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

Heb 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

This is why Paul wants us to be committed, to be all-in to the church because we’re going to need each other.

standing firm in one spirit = firm in conviction and resolve

with one mind striving side by side = struggling alongside one another

not frightened in anything by your opponents = not intimidated or startled (1 Peter 4:12)

It’s only a love for the Church that will give you this kind of committed resolve.

But what would instill in you that kind of love?

The gospel.

“for the faith of the gospel”

“a clear sign...of their destruction”

Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Colossians 2:15 “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Romans 8:38-39 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“your salvation, and that from God”

Philippians 1:29 “For it has been granted to you...suffer for his sake”

Acts 14:22 “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

1 Peter 2:21 “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.”

Because this has been granted to us, we need the church. Jesus has given us the church, and our commitment to the church is one of the clearer signs that the gospel has taken hold on our lives.

END P1

Philippians 2:1 “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy...”

AKA: Paul - “So if the gospel is true and you’ve experienced it...”

Philippians 2:2 “complete by joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

Paul must have had the thesaurus out as he was writing verse 2 to come up with so many different ways of saying that we need to be united. But as our love for the church is a response to the gospel, so to is our pursuit of her unity.

P2: Worship Jesus through Pursuing Unity (2:1-2)

Encouragement in Christ

Comfort in Love

Participation in the Spirit

We already looked at Ephesians 2:14-22, but what about 1 Peter 2:4-10?

This unity that the gospel produces in the church is a single-minded focus on exalting Jesus.

We live in comfortable times as the church in American presently.

We have the luxury of arguing over some pretty trivial things that 100 years from now won’t matter to any of us.

And it’s hurting our effectiveness and our witness.

Imagine the work that could be done for the good of Jesus and the expansion of the gospel if we were more united as the Church!

“Being of the same mind”

Majoring on the majors

Philippians 4:3 “agree in the Lord”

2 Corinthians 13:11 “agree with one another”

Romans 15:5 “live in harmony together”

“having the same love”

Christ’s example is the ultimate paradigm of this love

Love experienced from God produces a love for God that yields this love toward one another

“being in full accord and of one mind”

Be all-in with one another

Not one foot in and one foot out; full-send

This type of full-send unity doesn’t come from using a sanctified Bible translation, or having a group of pastors who all went to the same seminary, or wearing some doctrinal label to identify yourself with some dead guy.

This unity comes only from a church united around and fully impacted by the gospel.

Thabiti Anyabwile: “The greatest need in the church today is the gospel. The gospel is not only news for a perishing world, it is the message that forms, sustains, and animates the church. Apart from the gospel, the church has nothing to say–that is, nothing to say that cannot be said by some other human agency. The gospel distinguishes the church from the world, defines her message and mission in the world, and steels her people against the fiery darts of the evil one and the false allurements of sin. The gospel is absolutely vital to a vibrant, joyous, persevering, hopeful, and healthy Christian in a Christian church. So essential is the gospel to the Christian life that we need to be saturated in it in order to be healthy church members.”

The gospel is the over-arching, universal mission of God’s people on earth. The gospel is what unites and unifies us from every difference we might otherwise have.

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel...”

END P2

Think about the negative lists we so often find from Paul:

2 Corinthians 12:20 “For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.”

Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”

Did you ever notice that so many of these anti-gospel traits and characteristics are really anti-unity?

Take the passage in Colossians 3. Turn there with me in your Bibles.

Or listen to this passage from Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:1–6 1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

In both of these texts the key threat to the unity of the body can be summed up in one 4 letter word SELF.

That’s a threat to the gospel unity Paul has been addressing back in our passage as well.

Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

The gospel kills the SELF

Romans 6:6 “We know that old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing...”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”

There is little more antithetical to the gospel than a Christian who seeks his own advancement through the church.

P3: Kill Selfish Ambition with the Gospel (2:3-4)

Paul’s corrective to self-centeredness is humility that he describes this way:

Philippians 2:3b-4. “but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.”

This is a selflessness that will take center stage next week as we look at Jesus’ example in the following verses.

This is a selflessness that is contrary to our fallen nature, and that’s why it takes the gospel for us to embody this.

This is a selflessness that is...

Willing to be inconvenienced to serve someone else

Willing to sacrifice time to help a brother or sister

Willing to sacrifice money to help a brother or sister

Willing to follow-up with a prayer request that was made during small group

Willing to lovingly confront a brother or sister who might be in sin

Willing to serve the church body

Willing to say no to liberties for the good of a brother or sister

Willing to put the needs of others before your own

Remember the way Paul began this letter?

Philippians 1:1 “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus...”

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

CJ Mahaney: “Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness.”

Humility doesn’t look at the gospel and simply say “Thank you!”

Humility looks at the gospel and asks “How?!”

When we understand the greatness of the gospel it changes how we think about ourselves and others.

It guards us against selfish ambition and conceit, and it gives us a mind to count others more significant than ourselves.

CONCLUSION:

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel.”

This wasn’t really a sermon about the church even though we talked about the church quite a bit

This wasn’t really a sermon about humility even though we talked about humility as well

This was a sermon about the gospel, a sermon about Jesus. Everything else we covered tonight, everything else that Paul wrote about in this passage, is only significant, is only important, if we know the gospel.

The gospel calls us out from this world and offers us a joy the world won’t understand. Because it’s a joy marked by suffering and trial and tribulation here and now as we live this called-out life. But it’s a joy that has placed us into this community with one another, given us a common objective and purpose, and helped us understand who we really are before a holy gracious and merciful God.