It's Life No.4 A life that pleases God

Philippians 1, 27. Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Just listen to the melody, and as we do so, let's pray that the experience of which we sing shall be ours.

We are clay in the potter's hands, but sometimes that clay can get hardened, lacking moisture, and the net result is we're stiff and resistant to what the Lord wants to do with us. The consequence of that is that we break and we're brittle, and sometimes we know spiritual frustration. Now one of the antidotes to that is to move into the presence of God, to go beyond the veil where the Lord will make his presence known and restore us by his grace.

The old Hebrews used to go at least one of their number once a year behind the curtain of the shield of the holy place from the rest of the temple. Through our Lord Jesus, the veil has been torn, and it's possible for us to have immediate access and encounter with God. Let's sing beyond the veil.

Beyond the veil, into the holy place, to go upon the face. I see such beauty there, no other can compare. I worship thee, my Lord, within the veil, unaccompanied within the veil.

Into the holy place, to go upon the face. I see such beauty there, no other as should be, my Lord, within the veil. Let's do that right now, not lengthy pieces of... Well, a number of things of significance caught my attention this week in the press.

There was, of course, that French footballer to which reference has already been made. Not that the French alone can be identified as sometimes behaving in a less than sportsman-like fashion, but to be provoked, admittedly, by one of the crowd, and then to go to the barrier and to take off with your boots in the air, trained at the person who's ridiculing you, is certainly to give football a very bad name. It's to act less honorably than what one would expect from a sportsman.

No more a disgrace to his profession than the farmer who, in mid-Sussex, sheared his sheep in these cold conditions in order to be able to pack more of the sheep on board the lorry that was taking them to the abattoir. Conduct not in keeping with the ethics of most farmers. And, of course, the newspapers yesterday were filled, and rightly so, with the reminder that 50 years ago the most dastardly crime in history at the human level was identified and news of it released throughout the world, though many knew at that time but didn't want to recognize it.

I refer to the liberation of Auschwitz, where 1.5 million people were burned to death, and along with other similar concentration camps, the Jewish race had a crime perpetrated on them that is still mind-blowing to any one of sensitive emotions. A disgrace to human history, and we need to remember such iniquitous conduct. Now, it seems to me that the Apostle Paul has in mind this concept of bad conduct and also paradoxically good conduct as he starts to argue with the Philippians as to how they should live their lives as those people who have come to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So, I want to address you this morning on living in a manner worthy of the gospel. Living in a manner worthy of the gospel. Let me remind you that before you get to the 27th verse of Philippians 1, the Apostle has engaged in a piece of autobiography.

This was well gone into by Pastor Tim and also Dr. Ray in the two addresses preceding this one in this particular series. Paul, you see, is on trial for his life. He's got some idea that there's a possibility he will be allowed to go free and as a result return to the Philippians.

On the other hand, there's the possibility that Caesar will bring in the death penalty, that Paul will have been considered someone who's worked against the Pax Romana. The Peace of Rome has violated the legislature of Rome and as a result should be killed. And pay the supreme price for faith in Jesus.

Well, says the Apostle in the 27th verse, whatever happens, whether I die and that doesn't fill him with melancholia, or whether I live and meet up with you again, this is my request to you. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. You see, one of the aspects of the Christian faith that the world needs to see involves you.

What I mean is this. The Scriptures have their own inner authentication, the Old Testament and the New Testament. They do, I believe, bear witness to their inspiration, to their infallibility.

But then you've got to have an interest in the Scriptures first of all before they can convince you of their truthfulness. What very often brings a man or woman to consider the Scriptures in the Islamic world as well as in the Western world is the persons of Christians who live lives that are different from the ordinary person in our communities. As one person put it very beautifully, For me, it was not the truth you taught, to you so clear, to me so dim.

But when you came to me, you brought a sense of Him. And this is really what is bugging the Apostle Paul. You see, though the Philippians be ever so well educated theologically, if they do not pragmatically work out in terms of their day-by-day experience the difference that being Christians has made in their lives, then their living in Philippi will be in vain.

And so the Apostle Paul says, you know something? Give me one last wish. Let me assume that the verdict of guilt comes in on the part of Caesar. Whatever happens, this is what I want more than anything else.

You conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit. And you know, brothers and sisters, that heart cry from Paul is one that is re-echoed down the centuries and it comes through to us today.

The credibility of the gospel is worked out in a secular society by the consistent lives of Christian people. Whether you like it or not, they judge you before they judge the Scriptures. So, let's have a look at the Apostle Paul as in verse 26 I've got there.

That must be an error. As in verse 27, he argues the case in terms of what he wants the Christians in Philippi to be and what he wants the Christians in Philippi to do. Follow through from my overhead.

First of all, there is unity in action. Paul wants the Christians to stand firm in one spirit. Then if you go through the second part of that verse, he wants them to contend as one man.

And then thirdly, he wants them to secure the faith of the gospel as they broadcast it around. You know, that's exactly the same requirement that the Apostle places upon us and that God places upon us today. To stand firm.

Unity in our action. Unity in our activity. The body of Christ working together to achieve the common goal.

One of the things that our world most desperately needs is a sense of unity and united action. Now, here is Paul, you see, and this is the reason why this particular burden is breaking in upon him. He, as Ray demonstrated so clearly in the first address from this epistle, he has had the opportunity of proclaiming the gospel to all those members of the Praetorium Guard who regularly changed duty as they surveyed and were responsible for the security of Paul.

He's grateful and he tells us earlier on how he has been unable to testify to the Roman soldiers about Jesus. But, because he's a chained man, these Roman soldiers have also been privy to people coming to Paul to describe some of the problems that there are amongst the churches that he has founded. What is more, Paul is aware that in Philippi there is dissension in that church.

Later on, when he gets to the fourth chapter, he will refer specifically to two ladies who are in difficulty and in the third chapter he will refer to those whose teaching is not working for the advantage of the church. In other words, the danger is this, that the Christian church in Philippi and indeed the early emerging churches around the Roman Empire lack solidarity. They need to be united in their action.

So the apostle engages them in conversation and asks them to stand firm in one spirit. And you can capitalize that spirit word if you like, as though it refers to the Holy Spirit or maybe it's just referring to the spirit of individual Christians. In one sense it doesn't really matter.

There is a oneness, there is a unity in the faith which is to be evident as Christian people live for Jesus Christ. And it is by one spirit, one Holy Spirit, that they've all been baptized into one body. And it's the Holy Spirit who of course is the harbinger of the unity that Christian people like you and I should enjoy.

So the apostle tells us he wants us standing firm before the Lord. Do you remember how he took up exactly the same sort of injunction when writing to the Ephesians in the previous chapter? Conveniently if you go to Ephesians, the book in front of Philippians and the last chapter there, he enjoins the Christians to take on the armor of salvation and he's very concerned that having done everything in order to stave off the attacks of the evil one, they may stand firm. Therefore, verse 13, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.

And after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled round your waist and so forth. So here, stand firm in one spirit.

Be so united that you contend against the powers of evil as though you were one man. Do you know the Latin word phalanx? It's actually a military word. When the Romans were engaged in battle, they would have their shields.

And sometimes if they were particularly vulnerable, they would come together in their legions and they would form a square or a rectangle. The men in the center would lift their shields so they made, if you like, a roof. The men at the edge of the rectangle would lift their spears to their shoulder height.

And as a result of that, you had an impenetrable movement of men in a square or a rectangle. And together, they would approach the city wall, the weakest part of the place that they were attacking. They moved as one man.

And Rome's military might, to a large extent, was linked to its ability to act in unity. Now here's Paul with the gripping illustration of Roman soldiers coming in and out of his cell. Here's Paul having moved around Asia Minor, often seeing the Roman legions also moving from one place to another.

And Paul is concerned that Christians too learn the lesson of the phalanx. For where men dwell together in unity, there God commands the blessing. Your mission can be ever so minuscule.

Numbers never did really matter. The important thing is one brother, one sister. One brother, another brother.

One sister, another sister. One church member, another church member. Linking together in a unity which is invulnerable to the attack of the enemy, whose strategy is always to splinter and then destroy.

I know that you'll stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. Philippi is an interesting place, or at least it was in Paul's day. You see, Philippi was in effect a miniature Rome.

The way Philippi was established as a city, well, it was founded by Philip, thus the name Philippi, who happened to be the father of Alexander the Great. What the Romans did to Romanize Philippi was they sent detachments of retired soldiers with their wives and their families. And there along you got a community of Romans at Philippi.

They used the Roman language. They used the Roman currency. They acknowledged the authority of Caesar.

What you had at Philippi was a colony of Rome. Now, Rome is notorious in the best sense of the word, not only for its ability to control the then known world, but also for one of the reasons behind that control, and that was the building of the Roman roads. Wherever you got a center, a Roman colony, there you would get the intersection of the roads.

Here were Romans at Philippi living as Romans. Here are Christians in Philippi living as Christians, or so they should. For you see, the Christian church at Philippi is conceived by the Apostle Paul to be a little colony of heaven.

So why did we start with the Lord's Prayer? Simply because I love that prayer and that tune, and because it swells into a great doxology, yes, but more than that. Your kingdom come, your will be done. How? In heaven, or rather on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, how does God's kingdom come on earth? It comes as you colonize earth. It comes as you bring a bit of heaven on earth. How can that be? Through Christian people whose lives are muddled on that of Jesus, infilled by the Spirit, living differently, claiming territory for Jesus Christ.

And that is what the Apostle is referring to here, you see. Contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. The idea is this phalanx of Christians getting an anchorage, if I can move to nautical terms away from military terms, getting an anchorage for the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

Let's go to the second part. Paul is arguing for unity in action and also bravery in adversity. The Christian church has always been opposed.

Of that, there can be no doubt. I mean, Jesus said this, didn't he? That's why he dissuaded some people from following him. If you put mother and father, if you put human relationships before me, even though they seem to be honorable at one level, if you don't recognize the cost, then go away.

I'm not just feeding you with little food, with fish and so forth. The day will come when you might have to hazard your life for me. And sometimes when our beloved Lord is on earth, large crowds of people attracted to him at the physical and human level, they evaporated in terms of their discipleship.

It was like the dew of Palestine. There momentarily, but when the heat comes, absorbed into the atmosphere. Jesus said that to be my disciple, you would have to take up your cross and follow me.

Christianity has always known adversity. But you see, here is Paul's argument. These Christians in Philippi, like the apostle himself, more of that in a moment, they are beginning to experience opposition.

Do you know, I have got the world record for riding a horse in Pakistan. I was in Pakistan just a couple of years ago, and I'd never ridden anything with four legs since I was a kid at Cleethorpes. As a boy, Cleethorpes for the Americans is a beautiful, exotic... There is cynicism out in this congregation.

It's a resort that, as far as my brother and I were concerned, was like the Costa Brava. It's the only place my dad could take us to when we were kids just after the war, and Cleethorpes had its donkeys, and I used to be a donkey rider. Well, the years went by, and here I am in Pakistan.

And like an idiot, I accept the invitation of one missionary, who I believe had a malevolent spirit towards me, to exploit the bargain, the opportunity of riding a horse in the hills of North Pakistan for an afternoon. Do you know that horse wouldn't shift? I got on that thing, and it would not move. I looked for the accelerator, and it was impossible.

Then the owner of the horse came along, and he made some sort of noise at the back of his throat, and that horse took off. Now, I had the same sort of experience as the rockets from Cape Canaveral must have had when they were going out into orbit. I squeezed that horse's ears so tight his eyes nearly came out.

And then the horse reared up. When a horse rears up and you're on top, I tell you, you believe in signs and wonders. Mercifully, it came down, and I got off, and I have never been on a horse from that day to this.

It says the apostle Paul, without being frightened, like a horse that rears up when it is expressing its fear and its reluctance to go anywhere else. This is how you Christians are to behave in Philippi. Abandon fear when received on the part of those who oppose you.

For the sign of your salvation is that you do no opposition. It is a token of honor. It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.

One of the most precious Christmas gifts I received of this last festive season was from a very thoughtful member of the tab who had a local printer print out for me Mihaj Dibajer's testimony before the Islamic court in Tehran, six months or so before he died. That testimony, you remember, caught the attention of the Western world, and one of the famous journalists on the Times staff in London actually gave his column over to it, Bernard Levin. And that testimony, which contains one of the most brilliant summaries of the gospel that I have ever read, and I believe is a document that will be hallowed even in eternity as people look back upon the bravery and the inspiration that this Christian man had in Tehran, it makes reference to his willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ.

Do you remember how the apostles put it towards the end of Acts and chapter 5? They've been in jail. They've known what it's been to have had some skin removed from their backs. And they come and they give report, as the early Christians always did, and modern Christians ought to also.

They gave report to the church as to how they'd been treated and what they'd been doing. Acts 5 verse 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace. For the name to suffer for Christ is a token of honor.

What's more, it's a common denominator that they have with the apostle. Here is Paul, and he's a pastor before he's a leader. I mean by that he's not just an authoritative person.

He's a man who feels for the sheep. He's a man who has got great discretion, like our beloved Lord. He places himself alongside these Christians in Philippi, and he says, hey, you who've got me on so high a pedestal, listen to this.

You are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. See, Paul identifying his lot with a lot of those ordinary Philippians because Paul is sketching out what? Well, he's sketching out principles by which they are to live as he tries to live, as you and I are to live, so that we might be worthy of the gospel. Because I tell you, the world is full of words.

The world is full of philosophies. The world is sick of theologies. What the world wants is a demonstration that the life that you live is in tandem with the creed that you proclaim.

Your belief and your behavior, so close they are some in substance. For our mission friends here, let me give you an illustration. You know of Burma, and of Judson, the apostle to Burma, this great man, colleague, younger colleague of William Carey.

He's been in jail for some months, for some years, and they shackled him, and when he's released, he's got the scars. He's got the evidences of his incarceration on his hands and also on his legs. Now on occasion, Judson goes to the king and he says, I'd like to go to a further part of Burma to preach the gospel, and the king refuses him permission, and Judson says, Sir, why not? You've allowed other missionaries to go.

And the king gave a memorable answer. Judson, my people are not so foolish as to believe what you have to say, but when they see the evidence of your commitment to your belief, the scars of your body, you will make an impact. The king was right.

So the apostle encourages these Christians, bravery in adversity. But there's one other thing. Let's just move to the last part of my address.

In the first four verses of the second chapter, when I say there's one other thing, there's a lot more that the apostle has to say, but just one more thing for us to concentrate on this morning. And that is for our credibility as Christians, we have to show charity in community. Now, basically, the apostle has touched on this before.

His argument is not watertight. He'll repeat himself. He'll go back a few verses, pull out again something that he's already said, but that is the art of teaching.

Our Lord was always engaging in repetition. So here is the apostle now binding things together in these first four verses of this next chapter. And in one sense, he uses a very wonderful way of argument.

He uses the hypothetical if. If you have any encouragement from being united in Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion. Now, anyone would think that this is just a case that the apostle Paul is fancifully imagining, but it's not.

What the apostle is doing is he's plundering the experiences of the Christians. This is indeed what they have gone through. These are the benefits that they have received.

They've been united with Christ. They've known great comfort as a result of his love. They have known the baptism of the Spirit.

They have been dealt with tenderly and compassionately. So instead of if, read in since, right? Since you have encouragement from being united with Christ, since you have known the comfort of his love, since you have had fellowship with his Spirit, since you have known tenderness and compassion poured upon you, then since you have known this, then let all these other things follow. Bring my desire for you to completion.

Make my joy complete. What is it, Paul, that you want? You're asking not for a lease necessarily. You're not asking for an improvement in your circumstances.

Paul, if one thing could be granted you on our behalf, what would it be? He says, Paul, I've already told you. I want you to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Here's the pastor again, verse 2. Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. You see, he's arguing it again. He's already said it, but he's saying it again because it's so important.

Brothers and sisters, when will we realize that the spiritual strategy of the phalanx is the one the New Testament puts in front of Christian folk like ourselves? Rome was great because it knew how to engage in a military strategy that its enemies could not confound. And here is the apostle Paul arguing exactly the same. Let's break it open.

He wants the Christians to show a togetherness, like-minded, the same love, one in spirit and purpose. Easier to preach it than to practice it. But that's what we're asked to be and to do.

Lowliness? Well, esteeming others greater than yourself. Here, if you like, the apostle has in the background the idea of the beloved Christ who, to the amazement of the disciples when they refused to wash each other's feet, he gets the bowl and he gets the towel. Before you're called to be a missionary, you're called to be a foot washer.

Jesus Christ is the royal president of the Society of Foot Washers, and he's more interested in your foot-washing ability than what he is in any other area of your Christian department and testimony. Helpfulness, each one of you, looking not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. Now, I don't want to steal on Tim's agenda for next week, but he's got a brilliant passage of scripture to preach on.

And what the apostle Paul is doing here is showing you all those virtues and all the blessings that the Christians have received in some degree. He's used the argument, if you've had this, since you've received this, then do that. Then he's taking them back again to our Lord Jesus.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. You can switch that off. You see, the apostle has come full circle.

What is concerned for you and for me is that our conduct should be becoming. What was allowed for the Jewish nation really was a disgrace. The story of man could never be long enough for that violence of one nation ever to be remedied by some sort of corrective action.

The inhumanity of some people in the way they treat those who share our world with us makes us question sometimes what we really mean by being human. The inability at some levels to enjoy sport and to become almost murderous, certainly vindictive in attitude, is actually to destroy the very spirit that sport was supposed to cultivate. Conduct unacceptable.

You find it in so many areas in modern civilization witnessed. But there's a conduct that's unacceptable for Christians. When we fall short of what the apostle Paul is here arguing, then we are in difficulty.

You say, but there are times when I have broken his teachings. Join the club. Sometimes I think that I'm the least person qualified to speak about sanctification.

But the apostle has given his advice, he's given these words of corrective to the Philippians so that they can become a strong, impregnable testimony for Jesus in the Roman world. So they had to make their correctives, as you and I have to make ours. And our model is none other than our beloved Lord.

Let this mind be in you. One who walked worthily. One who so honored the Father that he said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Let's pray. Just a moment for your own quiet response to what I've tried to share. And our further response is in Hymn 463.

May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day. By his love and power controlling all I do and say. 463.

May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day. By his love and power in the world of others. So that all may see I try, that I may be counted with sin.

In exultation I pray to Christ above. Glory, glory unto Jesus. Father, for the benefits of the Gospel we praise you.

Some who have here physically been called to suffer for the Gospel. We acknowledge that this is part of your grace. Some from this audience who might one day have to pay the supreme price for belonging to Jesus Christ.

In that hour grant them your strength and your courage. For those for whom yesterday particularly brought back harrowing memories. We bring them to you.

For a Jewish race which largely still is blinded to the claims of Christ we pray. And for a world which fails to respond to the tragic mistakes of history. And in some measure repeats them in every generation if not in always the same degree.

Lord forgive. And grant that in the years to come within your grace. Or by the return of our Lord Jesus for which we would plead.

You will enable humankind to size up to its responsibilities. And to see its needs of a Savior. Bless the Islamic world particularly.

Focus their eyes. Turning them away from Mohammed. To the greatest revelation of God.

The person of Jesus Christ. Help us to be worthy of the Gospel. Amen.