Well, good morning.
This morning we're going to start a new series in the book of Philippians.
And I'm going to begin by talking a little bit about the city of Philippi.
It was founded in the 4th century BC and in the 1st century BC it became a Roman colony.
In the middle of Macedonia, the Greek-speaking part of the world,
it became an outpost for the Roman Empire in important ways.
It was named after Philip, the father of Alexander the Great.
But when the Romans took over, they made it a Roman city in some very unique ways.
Legally, they were free from certain forms of taxation.
The benefit of being a Roman colony was they were under Roman law rather than being under local law.
If you think through some of the tricky things that Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees had to navigate in Palestine,
none of that was true because it was direct Roman law.
And it was settled by many soldiers who were given land grants to own property
after the fall of Julius Caesar and the shakeout in the Roman Empire.
It was a very Roman city.
And of all the Greek temples and all the other forms of worship,
the worship of the emperor of Rome was the greatest thing.
The temples that were there was the most prominent form of religion in Philippi in the 1st century.
And it's to this city that Paul came during his second missionary journey.
You can read about it in Acts 16.
He came and though there was no synagogue, so no major Jewish presence,
he found a group of people who were God-fearers, probably Gentiles,
who were within the Jewish circle who were worshiping and gathering for prayer.
And he came and he shared the good news of Jesus.
We hear the conversion of Lydia as a part of that,
a prominent woman in the city who hosted then the early church.
But as Paul came, as happened in lots of places,
he not only came and saw some response, but he also saw opposition.
After healing a woman possessed by a demon, there was conflict.
And hear how strong the Roman theme is in this.
They brought accusation against Paul in Acts 16.20.
He said, these men are Jews.
They're disturbing our city.
They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
And the rest of the story, Paul was thrown into jail with his companions.
Then there was a grand earthquake.
Paul and Silas were singing hymns.
The jailers converted the famous interaction.
The jailer says, sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
And this is the foundation of the church in Philippi
that probably happened about 12 or 13 years before this letter was written.
This letter was written at the end of Paul's life.
He was probably imprisoned in Rome.
That seems to be the most likely thing about 62 A.D.
And he was writing to this church that he had seen founded so many years ago,
writing to them as they faced the Roman culture that they lived in.
It was a place of great privilege.
It was also a place of great pressure.
Because conforming to this value that Rome is everything was very high.
Roman citizenship was a point of pride.
Roman connection was a point of identity.
including even their participation in the cult of the emperor.
And if they went along with this tide, if they followed along with this,
being citizens of Rome and all that, they would have great privilege.
But the Christians there and the churches found that following Christ would provoke persecution instead.
It would be costly for them.
And they were facing pressures from without.
They were facing fractures from within because of these tensions.
And so Paul writes the book of Philippians to this church in this Roman colony with this theme verse.
Verse 127.
Live a life worthy of Christ.
Standing firm in one spirit with one mind.
Striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
Paul wrote this as a pastor to a church that he loves saying,
Stand firm though the tide of the culture is flowing against you.
Stand firm.
Be citizens of the new kingdom that you are a part of because of Christ.
Count as more worthy than the most great privilege of being a citizen of a Rome.
Count being a citizen of heaven your greatest privilege.
And friends, this is partly why we think this is a really useful book for us to be studying today.
Because I don't know about you, but I feel and see that our church faces similar pressures today.
We live in a world where there are strong pressures to be conformed to the world around us.
Our media culture, our political culture, the prevailing moral code and ethics of this world that we live in.
They run contrary to a life faithful to Christ.
And we see this on both the right and the left.
There are other visions of a better society.
Other offers of an easier salvation.
Other programs on how to live a better life.
And all of them are fueled by worldviews that do not know Christ.
That do not heed God's word.
And do not seek to honor and glorify God.
And this pressure is on from both sides.
And here in New Haven, we feel both of those things acutely.
Friends, Paul is saying, reminding us, that the church should be neither left nor right.
But to be the citizens of heaven is to be something altogether different.
And there will certainly be places where we will find agreement with one side or the other
as they reflect kingdom values.
But we are never beholden to them.
And we never become citizens of following these systems, these groups, these worldviews
that our world is promoting.
We are called to love a world that we will constantly find we will need to nuance our response to.
We will need to find ways to love without agreement.
We will need to find ways to serve without buying in.
And Paul is writing this letter to a church to say, stand firm in the gospel.
Hold on to the word of life in the midst of the pressures that you are facing.
Be gospel citizens is what he's saying in this overall book.
And so we're going to start by looking at the first section, verses 1 through 11.
That's at page 980 in the Pew Bible.
If you want to look there with us, we're going to be looking at Philippians 1, 1 through 11.
We're going to be answering the question, what does a community of gospel citizens look like?
So if you want to turn with me, we're going to read this passage together and then pray.
Philippians chapter 1.
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,
with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all,
making my prayer with joy.
Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart,
for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense
and confirmation of the gospel.
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may prove what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
Let's ask for God's help as we listen to his word this morning.
Lord, we pray that you would help us, Lord, to sit under your word,
that our hearts, Lord, would be ready to hear and to heed what you have to say to us,
that your Holy Spirit would be working in our hearts to convict us of ways
that we have not followed your word.
Lord, I pray for minds to be alert, to listen and understand,
and Lord, for hands and wills to be ready to obey.
Lord, I pray for your help this morning, that you would help me to speak clearly,
that you would help me to speak your word, truthfully and faithfully,
for all of our good.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So in this section, and I'm going to focus on verses 3 through 11 as we look at it this morning,
in this section we see three things about the characteristics of a gospel community.
A gospel community is thankful for gospel partnership,
expressive of gospel love, and prayerful for gospel fruit.
So if you're taking notes, there's your outline.
First thing then, Paul says, is that a gospel community is thankful for gospel partnership.
This is what I see in verses 3 through 8.
This idea of the gospel is central, not only here but throughout the book.
What does he mean in the gospel?
He uses it seven different times in this short book,
and he never ever defines it.
Because by this time at the end of his life, in the Christian church,
gospel was shorthand that everybody knew what it meant.
It talks about the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ
to accomplish for us our salvation,
so that by faith in him we might be brought out of darkness into light,
out of death into life,
out of alienation and into a life-giving relationship with God.
That's what the gospel is.
And what Paul starts with is,
I am so thankful for gospel partnership with you.
What did this look like?
Well, it looked like a couple of things.
First of all, he remembers the story back that we talked about briefly,
and you can read about in Acts 16,
how they participated in the founding of the church,
how Lydia hosted the home,
how the jailer, after he was converted,
took Paul and his companions into his home,
and how we'll see in chapter 4,
this church was regularly contributing to the ongoing ministry that Paul had.
Even as he moved on from Philippi to other churches,
to Thessalonica and to Corinth and to Rome,
the church at Philippi was continuing to financially support Paul's ministry.
So there was a partnership in that sense.
Secondly, there was a partnership because they shared this commitment to live a life worthy of the gospel.
That phrase that we read in verses 127.
Their partnership was not just in a mission,
but in a shared belief system,
in a shared world that they lived in.
Because of the gospel, we share together.
We are partners in our faithfulness to believing and continuing to believe
and live out in obedience our life according to the gospel.
But thirdly, and also clearly from this,
we see that they were participating in the proclamation of the gospel.
Paul came and he was all about the gospel.
And they not only supported him by doing this,
but they would actively share.
Look at verse 7.
This is partly where I see this.
Paul writes,
Not only was Paul doing this,
explaining and defending the gospel,
but so were the Philippians.
They were standing with him and doing the same thing
in whatever context they lived in.
They too were sharing this good news,
defending and confirming.
This is the best thing that you have ever heard.
Come and see who Jesus is.
Come behold what God has done.
And come believe.
This was a mission of Paul.
This was a mission of the early church.
And Paul was so thankful for this Philippian church
that was a partner with them.
And it was not an easy partnership.
As we read in that verse,
not only did they participate with him in the ministry,
but they participated with him in the suffering.
Paul writes to them later in chapter 1,
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.
Paul knows that this partnership
was going to be costly for them.
It would mean them identifying with Christ
against the culture that they lived in
and potentially facing the opposition and persecution
that Paul faced as well.
So the first thing that Paul says about a gospel citizenship
is that there is a gospel partnership.
We are in this together.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ,
God has called you to be a part of the church.
And the church is here on earth
in this in-between time,
between the ascension of Christ and his return
to bring final judgment and the end of all things
and the remaking of all things
in a glorious new world.
We have a mission that God has given us all
to share in together,
to make Jesus known.
And that happens through our faithfulness,
and it happens through our ministry to one another.
For those of you who are new,
and to remind those of you who have been here
for a long time,
this is why we're moving to two services.
The church right now is not full.
You might be thinking,
why did we go to two services?
It's not that full.
We're going to two services
because over the last five years,
we've seen God slowly bring more and more people.
We're not wanting to be big just to be big,
but we do want more and more people
to hear the gospel.
And so we're going through this growth pain right now.
If you're new,
we're going through a growth pain
of moving from one to two services
so that more people can come
and be a part of our church community
and hear the preaching of the gospel.
It's also why we do children's ministry,
by the way,
because we believe that children need to hear the gospel
contextualized for their developmental stage.
And so that's why we do it.
It's also why we have missions partnerships
with places like Bridges of Hope
and the 180 Center
and other ministries in the city,
because we believe that the gospel should go out
to all people,
to this whole community,
to the big old university behind us,
to the homeless people who live on the green,
to the various communities in Fairhaven
and Newhallville and the Hill
and Prospect Street
and Cozy Beach
and so on and so forth.
Because God has called us
to bear witness to Jesus Christ
in this city
and around the world,
which is why we partner with our missionaries
who serve in Southeast Asia
and in Europe
and in other places
so that we can be a part of what God is doing.
This is the mission
and the gospel partnership
that God calls us into.
And the question for you this morning
is that if you're here
and you're wondering,
as a believer in Christ,
why am I here?
Well, because God has called you here as a mission.
If you're here starting your time here at university,
you're here, yes, to get an education,
yes, to get a degree,
but even more than that,
you are here to be a part of God's mission
in this city while you are here.
who has God put around you
to be a part of this gospel mission
by bearing witness to?
Who has God put around you in this room
that you can partner with to do that?
So there's an active gospel mission for sure,
but we're not meant to be lone rangers in it
as we've seen.
This gospel partnership is a shared task
and in that relationship,
we see the second characteristic.
In three through eight,
we also see that Paul says,
gospel citizens show an expression
of gospel love for one another.
Verse seven, again,
it is right for me to feel this way about you all
because I hold you in my heart.
Now, when we read something,
how you feel this way,
we usually think,
oh, feelings, this is sentimentality,
this is the moment when I have this rush of emotion.
But for Paul,
he actually means something a little bit different.
By how I feel about you,
he means this is my disposition towards you.
This is how I view you.
This is not a natural affection of,
I like you because you're funny
or because we share interests
or those sorts of things,
but I have an affection for you.
I care about you
and I view you in a certain way
because of the gospel.
Verse eight says,
I yearn for you
with the affection of Jesus Christ.
That is, I see you the way Christ sees you
as a fellow citizen of God's family.
I see you as someone who, like Christ,
longs for your spiritual well-being.
This word yearning has,
it actually,
its roots is from our gut,
not from our heart.
It's from our gut.
I have this gut longing
for you
to be steadfast in the gospel.
He calls them at the beginning of the letter,
you are saints.
And to be in relationship with them
brings him great joy.
He has them in his heart.
And as he writes this,
he says,
and I am so jazzed
about what God is doing in you.
This is what verse six is about.
This is a wonderful verse.
Look with me at it.
I'm sure of this,
that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion
at the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul writes with this affection saying,
I have seen God at work in you.
I know God is there.
I know that he has started something.
Not only has he started it,
but I am so confident
because I've seen God at work in you,
he is going to finish it.
He is going to take this home.
God has got you.
God has got this.
This is based on his understanding
of the sufficiency of Christ's work,
that Christ has done
all that we need for our salvation.
It's not up to our ongoing obedience
to achieve this end,
but we're called to obedience
out of the security
that we have in Christ.
And Paul says,
I yearn for you
as one who will be
my forever gospel family.
And I love you
because of Christ
and because of what God
is doing in you.
Paul saw them
as fellow gospel citizens
and to model how we ought
to see one another
in the church.
It's easy today
in our culture
to call love
something
very sentimental
and very easy.
It's how we mesh.
It's how we get along.
We have shared interests.
We come from the same backgrounds.
We feel strong passions
or emotions.
And this is what love is
in our culture.
But Paul says
there's actually
a greater culture
or greater love
than that.
A love that is based
on commitment.
A love that is based
on viewing people
the way God sees them.
A love that sees
I see you
and I value you
and I treasure you
not because
of some
passing human affection
but because of
what God
has made you to be
and what God
has saved you to be
and the value
that God puts on you
as both a created person
and a redeemed member
of the gospel community.
And friends
this is part of
what I love
about our Trinity community
is that I see this.
We don't gather together
because we share
common interests.
We don't share age
and stage of life.
We don't share race
or socioeconomic
or educational status.
We certainly don't share
political affiliations
or allegiances
across the board
but we do share
in the gospel.
And we come together
and worship
with one another
and love one another
well because of it.
One of the examples
throughout the pandemic
this has become
even more true.
It happened before so
but I've seen
there's a bunch of people
in our church
who go out to lunch
after service.
I think this will probably
happen after the second service now
so I don't know
how you all are going
to navigate that.
Maybe you want to come back
at 1230
to join the lunch bunch.
But it's this wonderfully
diverse group of people
who just say
hey we're here
with one another
brothers and sisters
let's go have fellowship
together and eat.
And they eat good food
and it's a cross section
of our church.
It's a wonderful group
of people
that just spontaneously said
let's spend time together.
And just one example
of many that I could give
of the places
where I see this happening
already at Trinity.
And Paul says to us
as he said
to the Philippians
do still more.
Finally
if gospel partnership
is something
Paul is thankful for
if gospel love
is something
that he's encouraged by
engaged in
the last thing
is that he is prayerful
for gospel fruit.
What does he mean by this?
Look with me
at verses 9 through 11.
My prayer is that
your love may abound
more and more
with knowledge
and all discernment
so that you may approve
what is excellent
and so be pure
and blameless
for the day of Christ
filled with the fruit
of righteousness
that comes through
Jesus Christ
to the glory
and praise of God.
Paul prays
his engagement
with the gospel communities
that he prays for them
but what he prays for them
is not for Aunt Millie's
you know
hammer toe
to get healed
although it's okay
to pray for those things.
It's not praying
that they get good jobs
although it's okay
to pray for those things.
What he prays for
is their spiritual growth
in the gospel
and particularly
in the context
that they're in
that they would grow
in love
and that this love
for God
for their world
and for one another
would be increasingly
characterized
by knowledge
and discernment
that leads
to pure living.
Paul prays
that they would not
just be loving
in the sort of
tolerant sense of
hey it's okay
you can do whatever
you want
that our world
tends to embrace
but to love
with a knowledge
of what is right
and wrong
what is good
and what is evil
what is life giving
and what is destructive
in this world
according to God
and his word
and Paul prays
that this church
would know that
more and more
because they know
the pull
he knows the pull
of the Roman culture
saying there are other
things you should value
more than the gospel
there are other things
that you should value
more than God's word
there are other things
that should be
higher priority
than this mission
that God has called you on
Paul says
I pray that you would love
with knowledge
and discernment
so that you would understand
from God's perspective
this world
and how to navigate it
with grace
and truth
and that as you understand
these things
more and more
that you would live
a life that is pure
and blameless
this doesn't mean
perfection
but it means
people who live
knowing what is right
and wrong
knowing who God
is in the world
and living
not as a Roman citizen
but as a citizen
of heaven
and Paul prays
that these things
would abound
more and more
and as he prays
for them
he points to the foundation
the fruit of the righteousness
that comes from Christ Jesus
this is the key
to the gospel
we're going to preach on it again
when we get to chapter 3
but let me just rephrase it
Paul says
all of this flows
right
your growth
as a Christian community
this prayer
being fulfilled
in us
to live
counter-culturally
his prayer for them
is rooted
and grounded
in this gospel
not that we
are going to be righteous
by knowing more
and getting things
more and more right
but that we are righteous
because we have a righteousness
that comes from Christ
this is what Paul will see
in chapter 3
verse 9
not my own righteousness
because my own righteousness
will never get me there
I am not smart enough
I am not faithful enough
I am not strong enough
to get there
on my own
but Christ
has given me
a righteousness
outside of myself
that is all I need
to be brought
into this
citizenship
of heaven
into this family
with God
and this righteousness
is Christ's righteousness
given to us
it covers us
and makes us right
with God
we trust that Jesus' death
is sufficient
for our forgiveness
we believe that Jesus
rose from the dead
to give us life
and we lean on this
gift of righteousness
so that we can be gods
so that what he has
given to us
then becomes
the fountain
of this life
that we now live
for him
the gospel
that is bearing fruit
in the Philippians
and in us
the gospel
that is the focus
of their gospel partnership
it is the fountain
of their gospel love
and it is the focus
of his prayers
that we would know
this gospel
more and more
that we might know
Christ
more and more
the initiator
the sustainer
and the finisher
of our faith
and so Paul prays
do still more
if you want to grow
in your prayers
for one another
D.A. Carson
Nick mentioned him earlier
he's got another
great book
called
Praying with Paul
the priority of Paul
in his prayers
goes through all
the letters of Paul
and just says
what did Paul pray for
maybe these are things
we should pray for
for one another
and for ourselves
as well
there's a copy of it
in the book
stall downstairs
and if you need more
let me know
we'll get some
but friends
as we think about this
as Paul prays
for gospel fruit
in the Philippians
we think about this
for ourselves
how do we pray?
do we pray
for gospel fruit
in our lives?
do we pray
for our love
to abound
in discernment?
do we pray
for one another
to be steadfast
in the stream
of a culture
that flows
the other way
against us?
do we pray
that we would be
ultimately caught
up with
the vision
that Paul
ends his prayer with
that we would live
to the praise
and glory of God
so that God
would be seen
to be great
so that God
would be seen
to be an awesome God
worthy
worthy of our
proclamation of him
worthy of our suffering
worthy of our attention
worthy of our fellowship
with one another
let's go ahead and pray
and ask the Lord
to do that for us
Lord we thank you
this morning
for this word
and we pray
that you would help us
to be gospel citizens
Lord to live
not according
to the world
but to live
according to the good news
of what you've done
in Jesus
I pray Lord
that you would encourage
us this morning
to pursue you
I pray as well
that you would help us
Lord
to pursue one another
to encourage one another
as we have opportunity
to stand fast
and to press on
in this journey
and this mission
that you've called us
and we pray these things
in Jesus name
Amen