WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520 Good morning, church. It's good to see you this morning. Our text for our sermon today is Philippians 00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:10.419 chapter 1, verses 27 through 30. Let me encourage you to follow along in the Pew Bible. It'll be 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:15.000 helpful to have the text in front of you as we look at it this morning. That's page 921 in the 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.800 Pew Bible, if you want to turn there. And let me pray as we come to God's Word today. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:27.600 Our Father in heaven, we thank you that as we gather before you this morning, we come as those 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:38.400 who are cleansed and forgiven and sanctified through the work of Jesus. Lord, that we come 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:45.640 as those who've been set free by your powerful grace. Lord, we also come as those who by your 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:51.400 Spirit are hungry to hear a word from you so that we might know more fully how to live in line 00:00:51.400 --> 00:00:56.760 with the glorious reality of you and all that you've done in Jesus. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.600 So give us ears to hear what you are saying to us this morning in this text, 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.700 and give us power by your Spirit to live it out this week that others might see your glory through 00:01:07.700 --> 00:01:15.760 us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Let me read Philippians 1, 27 through 30. Remember, 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:21.960 this is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in the Roman colony of Philippi. Verse 27. 00:01:21.959 --> 00:01:22.879 He says, 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:31.199 only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm 00:01:31.199 --> 00:01:39.179 absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by 00:01:39.179 --> 00:01:46.879 side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:54.579 to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you 00:01:54.579 --> 00:02:01.640 that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, 00:02:02.899 --> 00:02:10.019 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. 00:02:10.020 --> 00:02:20.960 Okay, so imagine. It's late in the fourth quarter. You and your teammates take the court. The score is 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:27.780 tied. The referee hands you the basketball. You give the inbounds pass, and suddenly it happens. 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:36.160 Your opponents move into a full court press. The pressure is on. The heat is up. The double team 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:45.939 locks in, and quickly you call a timeout. And you gather around your coach. And what do you imagine that he or she 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:57.460 says? Well, in that situation, the coach is probably going to say something like this. Don't panic. Play our 00:02:57.460 --> 00:03:05.579 game. Stay in system. Do what we trained to do. Keep your head high. Play with confidence. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:15.500 We got this. Play your game. Because the worst thing you can do when the pressure comes on, when the heat 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:23.019 gets turned up, is to suddenly freak out and forget everything and start scrambling around like mad, everyone 00:03:23.019 --> 00:03:31.639 for themselves, in fear and in disunity. The opposing team would love for the full court press to make your team 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:38.939 fractured and afraid. So you need to keep your head and play your game. 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:45.019 And that's basically what Paul is telling the Philippians at the end of chapter 1. 00:03:46.059 --> 00:03:52.779 Outside pressure will come. The heat will get turned up. And Paul says, keep your heads 00:03:52.780 --> 00:04:00.360 and play your game. Well, literally, he puts it like this. Stand firm in one spirit, with one mind 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:05.099 striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and don't be frightened in anything by your opponents. 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:13.639 Now, I think the church needs to hear this today. Because just like in the first century, in the 21st 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:22.620 century, as well, external pressure or opposition can lead to fear, and fear can lead to fracturing. 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:30.719 It's too easy for the church to be afraid and divided when we ought to be confident and united. 00:04:32.159 --> 00:04:36.379 Do you remember when Paul preached the gospel for the first time in Philippi? You read it in Acts 16. 00:04:36.779 --> 00:04:42.180 One of the first converts in the city of Philippi was a slave girl who was being used by her owners as a 00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:47.939 fortune teller and who made them a lot of money. But when the gospel of grace came to her, 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:53.920 and the Lord Jesus liberated her, which is what the gospel does, it sets us free, 00:04:54.360 --> 00:05:01.019 suddenly her owners weren't so happy anymore. Because this girl's spiritual liberation 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:04.100 meant that she wasn't going to be making them all that money anymore. 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:11.500 So you see, the gospel wasn't just liberating individuals. It was starting to shake up 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:18.079 economics and the way we do things around here. And so the slave owners drug Paul and 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:23.560 Silas before the Roman authorities, accused them of being bad for the city, and Paul gets thrown in 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:31.819 jail. So the gospel of grace, the liberating power of Jesus, is going to shake things up. 00:05:32.579 --> 00:05:38.139 It's going to unsettle the status quo, and not everyone is going to like that. 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:46.459 And that might make us afraid. And in fear, we might start dividing and turning against one another. 00:05:47.339 --> 00:05:55.300 But Paul says, stand firm in one spirit, with one mind. Now, stand firm is actually a military 00:05:55.300 --> 00:06:02.199 metaphor. It's sort of the picture of soldiers in close formation, in lockstep, moving as one. 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:08.659 And Paul also says, don't be frightened. That word means scared or intimidated. So Paul has this 00:06:08.659 --> 00:06:14.060 picture of unity and confidence. And at the center of his exhortation is this beautiful word, 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:22.379 striving side by side. Now, that is actually one word in the Greek, and it's an athletic word. 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:29.699 The picture is of a team operating with the same goal, pressing on for the same prize. 00:06:31.659 --> 00:06:38.879 You know, you can imagine a crew team out on the water, each member in the boat pulling in unison, 00:06:39.579 --> 00:06:47.120 in perfect harmony with one another, pulling and striving and co-competing towards the goal. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:54.000 And when they're doing that, it's a beautiful thing, right? It almost looks like it's effortless, 00:06:54.079 --> 00:07:01.819 the way they glide through the water. And that, Paul says, is what the church should be like. 00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:08.680 A team united by the same goal, the faith of the gospel, and operating without fear and without 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:17.100 division, regardless of what opposition comes. So our passage today is exhorting us to stand firm. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:25.959 To strive in unison for the gospel, to not be afraid, to stand firm. Now, the rest of our text 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:34.340 is Paul basically motivating us to do that. Because, as you know, it's not easy. It's not easy 00:07:34.340 --> 00:07:39.240 to keep your head and not lose your nerve, and for us to work together for the faith of the gospel. 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:46.439 So Paul, in this passage, motivates us to stand firm in three ways. He motivates us to strive 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:53.000 side by side for the faith of the gospel without fear in three ways. And the first one is in verse 27, 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:59.860 the beginning of verse 27. Paul basically says, we must stand firm because this is what it means 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:09.180 to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Stand firm because it's worthy of the gospel of Christ. 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:16.980 Now, the beginning of verse 27 is, in many ways, the kind of central exhortation of the whole book 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:22.079 of Philippians. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. And as we've said 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:26.579 over the past couple of weeks, and as the ESV footnote points out, that phrase, let your manner 00:08:26.579 --> 00:08:33.120 of life, literally means live as citizens. That is our public, our corporate identity, our allegiance 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:40.440 as the church is to Christ before anything else. At the end of chapter 3, Paul will call the church, 00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:47.659 we're citizens of heaven. Think about it. The church is the colony of God's new creation right 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:53.100 in the midst of the old. We are meant to be a signpost of God's future of eternity right here 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:58.200 and right now. And that means the primary exhortation, the goal of all Christian living, 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:09.100 is to be who we truly are, to be who God has made us to be already in Christ. Because when we forget 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:14.720 who we are, when we lose our bearing to what is true about us and the world in light of the gospel, 00:09:15.800 --> 00:09:22.780 it gets really hard to stand firm. Imagine walking into the corporate headquarters of a Fortune 500 00:09:22.780 --> 00:09:27.780 company, and rather than just sort of, you know, rather than checking in with the receptionist like you 00:09:27.779 --> 00:09:32.439 would normally do, you just sort of walk right past, make your way to the elevator, and you just start 00:09:32.439 --> 00:09:41.480 heading on down to the CEO's office. Well, pretty quickly, you find that two strong, uniformed security 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:49.639 guards grab you under each arm and escort you right back to where you came from. But who are you? 00:09:51.899 --> 00:09:56.559 If you're simply an intruder, then you might have good reason to be afraid. You might start weaving a 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:59.579 story, trying to lie your way out of it, or claiming ignorance. I just didn't know. 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:10.179 But who are you? If you are, in fact, not merely an intruder, but if you are the very son or daughter 00:10:10.179 --> 00:10:19.439 of the CEO, then you need not lose your nerve. You can stay confident, calm, probably make a simple 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:27.640 phone call and be on your way. What does a life worthy of a gospel of Christ look like? 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:37.840 It looks a little bit like that. Now, remember, the gospel is news. That's what the word means, 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:46.100 good news. The gospel is not advice on how you must perform or act in order to save yourself. The 00:10:46.100 --> 00:10:53.399 gospel is news about what God has done for you. It's news about Jesus, the Christ that is the king. 00:10:55.820 --> 00:11:01.300 Now, you know, there's a difference between living in light of good news and living in light of good 00:11:01.300 --> 00:11:08.860 advice, right? Living in light of good advice means paying your rent or your mortgage on time, 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:14.259 maybe even sort of adding a little extra to the principle each month so you can pay off your 00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:19.000 mortgage early, right? Make that 13th payment and suddenly all your financial dreams will come 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:24.460 true. That's good advice, right? And you can live by that good advice. But it's ultimately something 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:36.340 you have to do. But living in light of good news is very different. Living in light of good news means 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:43.960 getting a letter in the mail saying that some benefactor has paid your mortgage in full. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:52.700 And now you don't owe a single payment anymore. Now, that's not advice. That's news, right? 00:11:54.500 --> 00:12:01.160 And what do you do? How do you live in light of that? Well, you might be pretty excited. You might take 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:05.980 your family out to dinner, right? Just think of all the extra things you can do now. Just think of how 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:09.919 generous you can be towards others now that you don't have to pay your mortgage every month or pay 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:16.959 your rent. You see, there's a difference, right, between good advice and good news. And Christianity 00:12:16.959 --> 00:12:27.799 is good news. It's good news that the debt that you and I have been accumulating our whole lives, 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:34.079 the debt of sin because you haven't loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, 00:12:34.259 --> 00:12:38.339 and the debt that you've been accumulating because you haven't loved your neighbor as yourself, the debt 00:12:38.339 --> 00:12:44.979 that you owe to God because he made you and because he's infinitely good, the debt that requires really 00:12:44.979 --> 00:12:53.799 your whole life as a payment. Christianity is good news that the debt's been paid. Jesus lived a fully 00:12:53.799 --> 00:13:03.199 human life and died on the cross to pay your debt. What does it mean to live in a manner worthy of the 00:13:03.199 --> 00:13:10.679 gospel of Christ, this good news about Jesus? It looks like a deep internalized knowledge that the 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:15.839 God of heaven, the creator of all things seen and unseen, sent his son to die and rise again to forgive 00:13:15.839 --> 00:13:21.579 the sins of all who believe on him, to make us his beloved sons and daughters, to fill us with his spirit, 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:28.400 and to make us the heirs of the new creation. It means to be the people who know deep down in our bones 00:13:28.400 --> 00:13:37.900 that Jesus is king and will be forevermore, and that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will 00:13:37.900 --> 00:13:48.300 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And if you know that, if we know that, 00:13:48.299 --> 00:13:58.339 then we'll stand firm. Is there really anything to be afraid of if we really believe the news about 00:13:58.339 --> 00:14:05.399 Jesus? What if your allegiance to Jesus means losing friends as a result? What if your allegiance to 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:11.079 Jesus means taking a financial loss? What if it means social ridicule? What if it means, like it did for 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:21.720 Paul, imprisonment or even death? Remember who you are and remember who's on the throne. Live a life worthy 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:28.420 of the good news about Jesus. You're a child of the King, and one day, no matter what happens in this 00:14:28.420 --> 00:14:35.379 life, every knee will bow to Christ. I recently ran across this account from the life of Martin Luther 00:14:35.379 --> 00:14:42.279 King Jr. that brought this home for me. The story goes like this. Late one night in January of 1956, 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:49.399 Martin Luther King Jr. sat by himself in the kitchen, a cup of coffee by his side, and felt the darkness 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:55.759 of despair creeping towards him. A few weeks earlier, Rosa Parks had refused to move her seat on a public 00:14:55.759 --> 00:15:03.120 bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott. King, who had just turned 27 and served as 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:07.639 a minister at a Baptist church, was the leader of the boycott, and had received an endless stream of 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:13.860 death threats against himself and his family. He reached a point when the forces arrayed against 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:20.960 him seemed impossible to overcome. He wrote, I was ready to give up. In this state of exhaustion, 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:26.240 when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, 00:15:26.299 --> 00:15:31.700 I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. At that moment, I experienced the divine, 00:15:31.700 --> 00:15:36.780 the presence of the divine as I had never experienced him before. It seemed as though I could hear the 00:15:36.780 --> 00:15:45.740 quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for truth, and God will 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:54.840 be at your side forever. Almost at once, my fears began to go, my uncertainty disappeared, and I was ready 00:15:54.840 --> 00:16:01.240 to face anything. Later, King will mention that this experience was a big turning point in his life. 00:16:01.580 --> 00:16:08.280 He writes elsewhere, early on a sleepless morning in January 1956, rationality left me. Then almost out 00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:17.160 of nowhere, I heard a voice that morning saying to me, preach the gospel. Stand up for truth. Stand up for 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:27.839 righteousness. Since that morning, I can stand up without fear. Now, three days after this kitchen 00:16:27.839 --> 00:16:34.480 table experience, a bomb exploded at King's house thrown by an unknown attacker. Luckily, he and his 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:40.000 wife and child were unharmed. A group of his followers soon gathered at the house, armed and ready for 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:47.559 vengeance. And King spoke to the crowd and calmly diffused their rage and their anger. And he gave 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:53.340 them a living example of how to stay true to the principle of nonviolence, to the way of peace that 00:16:53.340 --> 00:17:02.120 Jesus leads us in, in the most challenging circumstances imaginable. Now, brothers and sisters, like Dr. King, 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:09.380 we too are citizens of the gospel. We too have a God who is near to us. And because of that, 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:18.380 we too can stand firm. But Paul goes on. At the end of verse 27, he gives another motivation to stand firm, 00:17:18.660 --> 00:17:25.220 not just because this is worthy of the gospel, but also because it's a sign to unbelievers. Paul says, 00:17:25.600 --> 00:17:32.720 stand firm because it will be a sign to unbelievers. After Paul says, strive side by side for the faith of the 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:38.220 gospel and don't be afraid of your opponents, he then says that such confident unity in the face of 00:17:38.220 --> 00:17:43.720 opposition, such calm, consistent witness, not giving way to anger or fear or violence, this will be, 00:17:43.779 --> 00:17:51.160 he says, a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:59.920 You see, when the world gives us its worst and we in turn give it our best, or as Paul will say in 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:06.620 Romans 12, when we are cursed, when we are cursed and instead of cursing back, we bless. Well, that says 00:18:06.620 --> 00:18:13.779 something, doesn't it? That will get people thinking. That will get people thinking, what do they have 00:18:13.779 --> 00:18:24.420 that I don't have? Why aren't my weapons of intimidation or fear or anger working? Why don't 00:18:24.420 --> 00:18:33.680 they play by the same rules? Could it be that there really is a God and that Jesus is who they say he 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:40.600 is, a king of grace, a Lord of love? And could it be that I need a relationship with that God more than 00:18:40.600 --> 00:18:49.700 anything else? A clear sign. Friends, Jesus said to pray for our enemies, to pray for those who persecute 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:56.380 us. You know, if you look closely at this passage, Paul does not say strive side by side against your 00:18:56.380 --> 00:19:05.000 opponents. No, he says strive side by side for the gospel. We are for the gospel and we pray for our 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:11.660 opponents. You see, when we don't buckle under pressure, it's proof that the world's way is 00:19:11.660 --> 00:19:22.400 eventually going to pass away. Paul uses the word destruction here. The world will be completely 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:28.220 judged and completely done away with. Those who play by the world's rules will go the way of the world. 00:19:29.360 --> 00:19:34.779 But those who count the cost and take up their cross and follow Jesus on the road of the cross, 00:19:34.779 --> 00:19:42.480 on the way of peace, the last word for them will be salvation. And all this comes not from us, 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:51.799 but from God. God alone is judge and God alone is the Savior. So you see, friends, our very witness 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:58.599 is at stake in how we respond to pressure. Will we react like the world reacts with fear and fracturing 00:19:58.599 --> 00:20:05.039 and hatred or in the power of the Spirit? Will we react the way Christ reacts? Not retreating from 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:09.619 the world, but not becoming like the world, but living in the midst of the world as salt and light. 00:20:11.719 --> 00:20:18.019 So we must stand firm then because it will be a sign, a witness to unbelievers that Jesus is King, 00:20:18.219 --> 00:20:23.619 that a new world is beginning and has begun, and that the threats of the old world just don't work 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:32.159 anymore. But last, in verses 29 through 30, Paul says that we must stand firm, not just because it's worthy 00:20:32.159 --> 00:20:39.099 of the gospel, and not just because it's a sign to unbelievers, but we must stand firm because suffering for 00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:50.699 the gospel is a gift. Stand firm because suffering for the gospel is God's gift to you. Now, I know that that 00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:57.039 sounds very strange on the surface, but look again at the passage. Paul has been saying, strive by side 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:02.759 for the gospel without fear. And then at the end of verse 28, almost as a kind of parenthetical kind 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:06.940 of aside, he says that's going to be a sign to unbelievers. Then he picks up the main argument in 00:21:06.940 --> 00:21:17.620 verse 29. Don't be afraid when you face opposition. Why? Because it has been granted to you. Now, that's what's 00:21:17.619 --> 00:21:24.819 sometimes called a divine passive. In other words, the implied subject of that verb is God. God granted 00:21:24.819 --> 00:21:33.959 to you. God has gifted to you. Well, granted what? That for the sake of Christ, you should not only 00:21:33.959 --> 00:21:40.879 believe in him. Now, pause there. Did you catch what Paul just said? He said that believing in Christ is a 00:21:40.879 --> 00:21:47.199 gift that comes to us for the sake of Christ. That is because of something Christ did for us. In other words, 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:53.539 faith itself is a gift that Jesus won for us through his person and work. It's a gift that God gives to 00:21:53.539 --> 00:22:01.180 us. Even faith comes to us by God's grace, not of ourselves, which means if you're here and you're 00:22:01.180 --> 00:22:08.319 searching for God, ask him to open your eyes. Ask him to grant you faith, to give you this gift, 00:22:08.819 --> 00:22:14.319 and trust that God is a loving heavenly father who knows how to give good gifts to his children. 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:20.200 But it's not just believing that God has granted to us. Pick up at the end of verse 29. 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:29.399 It says, but also to suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear 00:22:29.399 --> 00:22:36.079 that I still have. God grants us the privilege, the gift, not just to believe in Christ, 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:43.039 but also to suffer for Christ. Of course, not all suffering is suffering for Christ, is it? 00:22:43.699 --> 00:22:47.460 Sometimes we suffer because of our own foolishness or because of our own hard-heartedness. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.339 If I'm consistently rude to my co-workers and they don't want anything to do with me, 00:22:52.859 --> 00:22:58.159 that's not suffering for Christ. That's the natural result of being a jerk to my co-workers, right? 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:05.180 What Paul is talking about here is the kind of suffering we face out of allegiance to Christ 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:10.360 because we've taken up our cross and we've followed him. And the liberating power of the 00:23:10.360 --> 00:23:16.040 gospel of grace is shaping our lives, and it's shaping our lives together, making us a countercultural 00:23:16.040 --> 00:23:21.980 people. When we start asking how the gospel of grace and the lordship of Jesus and the loving 00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:29.299 authority of his word shape our approach to all of life, to money, to sex, to power, to race, to gender, 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:37.440 to class, when it starts to be transformed by the good news, all of it, then we'll inevitably find two 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:46.680 things happening at once. The world will be both attracted to that and repelled by it. It doesn't 00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:51.860 matter what culture we find ourselves in. Every culture is going to be attracted by some aspects 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:58.500 of the gospel and offended by others. Of course, it's not always the same things from place to place. 00:23:59.639 --> 00:24:05.699 Our culture loves what the gospel has to say about freedom, right? But is at times quite offended by 00:24:05.699 --> 00:24:11.279 what the gospel has to say about authority. More traditional cultures love all that authority 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:19.839 stuff, but they start to writhe at all this talk about freedom. Now, there will be times when those areas 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:30.740 of offense turn into areas of suffering, of real hardship, of conflict. But Paul wants to assure us that 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:41.019 when we suffer for Christ, we're not experiencing some failure in God's plan, some mistake. No, he says, 00:24:41.019 --> 00:24:49.819 this too is God's gift to us. His gift to draw us closer to himself, to make us more like Jesus, 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:57.700 to lead us into deeper levels of repentance and humility and courage in him. Paul wants to assure us 00:24:57.700 --> 00:25:05.059 that we're not alone. The word conflict in verse 30 was the word used for conflicts or contests in the 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:12.539 ancient arenas. So when we're forced into the arena, we can know that we're joining a great company of 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:18.419 saints, Paul and all the apostles, the church fathers and mothers, the missionaries and reformers, 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:24.220 the activists and evangelists. We're joining that great company as we get thrust into the arena. 00:25:25.399 --> 00:25:29.779 And at the head of them all is the Lord Jesus himself. 00:25:29.779 --> 00:25:37.220 At the end of Paul's life, imprisoned again, he will write in his second letter to Timothy, 00:25:37.339 --> 00:25:43.920 at my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:51.700 them, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:58.720 proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. In our suffering for the gospel, the Lord Jesus 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:06.339 draws near. And our lives become a testimony like never before. So friends, don't be frightened. 00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:16.400 Stand firm. Yes, it is the fourth quarter. Yes, the pressure is on. Expect the full court press. 00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:23.440 Expect a game down to the end. But Paul is saying, and God is saying to us, don't lose your nerve. 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:31.360 Let's keep striving side by side for the faith of the gospel without fear. Because friends, the reality 00:26:31.360 --> 00:26:42.640 is the score of this game isn't tied. The victory has already been won. Jesus is Lord. And when the 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:49.360 buzzer sounds, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:55.500 confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So stand firm. Let's pray. 00:26:58.339 --> 00:27:04.240 Oh, Lord Jesus, we reflect on a passage like this, and we realize that we need your Spirit. 00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:13.339 The Apostle tells us to stand firm in one Spirit, and we ask that by your Holy Spirit, 00:27:13.339 --> 00:27:22.139 we would be able to do just that, to stand and to strive. And God, we pray that through us, 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:31.220 you would be spreading your gospel of grace to many in our city. God, perhaps even this morning, 00:27:31.299 --> 00:27:40.019 there are some here for whom the gospel is new news. Lord, we ask that you would grant them faith, 00:27:40.019 --> 00:27:49.660 as this passage says. Grant them believing in Jesus so that they too might know this liberating power 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:53.799 of forgiveness and new life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.