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! “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel”
This morning we will continue our series in the book of Philippians.
The Church in Philippi was a church that had a lot of good qualities about it.
It was a church known to be full of joy filled Christians.
As a matter of fact, when Pastor Tony was explaining to some of us who would assist him in preaching through the book of Philippians he mentioned that he felt GCF-Batangas was in many ways similar to the church in Philippi and therefore wanted us to study the book so as to bolster the joy that characterizes our church.
Sure, we as a church have our problems!
I have even been told that in our early history we had some issues that could have destroyed the church.
Yet by-and-large we do not currently have major problems that are tearing apart our church, and for this we should be thankful.
We are a church where the body of believers can live out our Christian lives with a sense of normalcy and we find it easy to be joyous in our Christian faith.
Let us not be proud because of this reality but rather let us praise God our savior.
This would have been very similar to the environment that the believers in Philippi were experiencing.
In the book of Philippians Paul does not have to address specific sins that had a death grip on the church such as he had to address with the church in Corinth.
Paul felt no sense of urgency regarding the salvation of the individuals within the church such as he felt with the churches in the Galatian region of Asia Minor or the church that was in Rome.
The believers weren’t fearful of events such as those in Thessalonica.
The situation was at ease for the church in Philippi.
Yes, there was some persecution when the church was first founded; remember it was here where Paul was jailed, yet when an opportunity to escape presented itself he did not do so and this resulted in the salvation of the jailer and his family.
The persecution did not continue and they became known as a giving church.
They helped Paul in his ministry, they helped the church in Jerusalem, and they helped Paul a second time during his imprisonment.
I would imagine that the biggest prayer requests they had were for the health concerns of their church members.
Does this not sound similar to GCF Batangas?
We are a church that wants to give, give ourselves and allow ourselves and this building to be a central leadership hub for the Southern Tagalog region.
With all of this said, when Paul ministered to the church in Philippi with this letter he had only two areas of concern that he wanted to address before any problems developed.
One was the possibility of false doctrine creeping in and influencing the church, and we will look at this issue later this month and in November.
The first area of concern is found in our passage of study this morning and that is the unity of the church.
Though the church was unified at the time Paul wrote the letter he realized that disunity would destroy the effectiveness of the church.
This Paul did not want to happen!
So before any problems arose Paul brings the issues to light so as to equip the church to handle any possible pitfalls that they may encounter.
Paul does so by admonishing the church to remain unified, and we will see this in [[Bible:Philippians 1:27-30]].
This is the “WHAT” of this morning’s passage.
Then in Philippians 2:1-2 we will see Paul instructing the church both “WHY” they should respond to his letter as well as “HOW” they must respond corporately so as to remain unified.
Then last of all we will look at Philippians 2:3-4 and discover “HOW” the Philippian believers must apply what Paul is admonishing them to do.
As we begin to look at our first point I want to set the stage for all three points that we will look at today.
In Philippians 1:27 Paul tells us to “conduct your selves in a manner worthy of the gospel.”
Our unity is actually the outcome of the Gospel in our lives.
Evangelist Bhoie spoke on this issue several weeks ago so I will not go very deep into it now but I do want to say that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ the outcome of your faith should be unity; for we are one body.
Let us move on to our first point for this morning.
!! “You are standing firm in one spirit”
Contrary to what many people think this statement is not referring to the Holy Spirit but rather that we should have a common goal.
The word “spirit” does often mean “spirit” or “wind.”
You can even say “ghost” and be correct.
But the word in the original language also means “an attitude or disposition reflecting the way in which a person thinks about or deals with some matter.”
To simplify that pneuma can mean the way you think; and that is what it means here in this context.
How do I know?
Read the following statement found in the text: “with one mind.”
We will look closer at this later this morning in the second point but for now let us discover what it means to be of one mind for us here at GCF Batangas.
For GCF Batangas the common mindset, or the common goal, is to “Make Disciples” – evangelizing non-believers, teaching believers.
So when we stand firm as individual believers and corporately as a body we stand together in the process of “Making Disciples.”
Now this may seem rather obvious as it is Jesus’ great commission to the Church yet many believers and many churches are not engaged in the disciple making process.
There is a lot of confusion as to what it means to make disciples.
Some churches feel that the commission was for the early church alone and that their church is not required to apply the commission.
Others think that disciple making is a specific method or style of ministry and that they as an individual believer are not gifted to make disciples.
Let’s say that ‘if I were’ to state that the best or only means to make disciples is for you to find one or two other people and teach them the teachings of Christ – how many of you would feel gifted in making disciples?
Many of you may feel that the task is overwhelming and you are inadequate in the skills and abilities to actually make disciples.
Let me now ask ‘what if’ I were to be dogmatic in my insistence that you must find one or two others and make disciples of them.
If I press you hard enough it would likely produce disruption and disunity in the church.
The outcome would actually be counterproductive to the desired outcome of this message.
For us to remain unified we need to understand that the common goal for us as a church is to Make Disciples.
It is as simple as that.
It is not the way or method or even the ministry style that is important but rather the task.
Now in Philippians 1:27 Paul includes the notion that we need to be “striving together.”
The word that Paul uses, and that our translators translate as “striving” in the NASB or “contending” in the NIV, is a very intense word that carries the idea of fighting.
We are not fighting each other but rather fighting together against a common enemy.
An example of intensely fighting together against a common enemy can be seen in terrorism and organized crime that is devastating our world today.
Crime and terrorism is on the increase and when people or organizations are not unified it is easy for terrorists to attack.
All we need to do is look at pictures of the New York skyline and see what is missing to recall how the intelligence community prior to the 9/11 attacks of 2001 were not communicating with each other and be reminded as to how easy it is to be attacked.
Enough intelligence was gathered prior to the attacks that the US government should have understood that something was going to happen.
The government was not unified, the terrorists attacked, and the world trade center buildings collapsed.
But since then governments have started working together trying to disrupt the evil activities of others.
Some terrorists’ strikes have been successful, but many more have been disrupted because of the unified and intense efforts of governments and law enforcement agencies.
Several weeks ago the US Embassy in Manila issued a Warning of Possible Attacks on Americans in Manila.
When the embassy issued the warning I told Gloria my wife that this is good news because it demonstrates that the governments know about the pending attack and are working towards disrupting it.
As of now no attacks have occurred and this is possibly because of the fact that law enforcement agencies are working hard and together in unity to thwart the attack.
Apparently it was to be a kidnapping, and the kidnappers may still succeed, but I personally feel comfortable that they will not.
Yet the government must remain diligent.
If the governments were to downplay the situation bad things will likely happen.
About a month ago an American Embassy in Libya was attacked and prior to the attack the outpost was requesting additional security as they sensed a real and present threat.
The politicians in the US decided not to increase the security and as a result when the embassy was attacked the ambassador was killed and his body drug through the streets.
Coming back to our text, when we engage in discipleship as a church we need to be of one goal, and then with this one goal we need to strive to make a wholehearted effort to engage in discipleship.
Now if you note in the text (Philippians 1:28-29) when we engage in discipleship as a local church, so as to be unified, we will be opposed in what we are doing.
This opposition comes from various sources and will attack us on different fronts.
The more common and obvious forms of opposition will be when we engage in evangelism we will often be rejected; rejected by our family members and friends, rejected in business and our place of work, and sometimes even rejected by our own Christian brethren who may feel uncomfortable with evangelism.
Then in our process of teaching believers the truths of scriptures we will be opposed by the wisdom of the world and political correctness.
If you want to test what I just mentioned then you only need to tell the science community that you believe that the universe is only six to eight thousand years old; if you do so, you will learn ridicule.
We will also be opposed by church growth experts who are advocating styles of worship that deemphasize truth and doctrine and who elevate entertainment in worship.
Another group that possibly may oppose you are elements within the church who may agree with the purpose but disagree with the means by which we strive to achieve our end.
The passage mentions that when we are opposed it is a sign of the proof of our salvation and also a sign of destruction for those who oppose us.
Yet I just mentioned that we may receive opposition in both our evangelism and teaching ministries from within the church.
So does this mean that Christians will be destroyed?
Let us recall what the judgments will be like.
Non-Christians will be judged for their sins and punished accordingly.
As for Christians we will not be judged for our sins as Christ already took on that form of judgment at the Cross.
Nevertheless our works will be judged and then we will be rewarded accordingly.
Whatever works that we do for Christ that is not of gold, silver and precious stone will be tested by fire and likely burn up.
The opposition, or the works of the oppressor, is what will be destroyed in the case of Christians.
Now how do we know if we are the persecutor or the persecuted ones with in the church?
That is, if we are the ones inside the church that are breeding disunity by opposing the works of others?
A number of years ago I was a member of a Baptist church that was led by a senior Pastor, and the senior Pastor alone.
At a business meeting I asked the question “shouldn’t we be applying Church Discipline.”
It created an awkward situation for the Pastor and he answered that the church did practice Church Discipline in the past but that it did not work therefore we do not practice it now.
To be sure at the time I was a cocky young man and my question was seen as a form of opposition, and it did as well amplify a rift that existed in the church.
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