So often a church is known by its pastor's reputation. And I suppose that that's very normal and it's very natural. Oftentimes a large corporation is well known by its chief spokesman whenever you watch the advertising in the marketplace, such as perhaps a Chrysler Corporation, you think of a Lee Iacocca. And I suppose, as I said, that's very natural and normal. Once in a while, though, something unusual happens, and that is that you'll hear of a congregation or a church that's really better known from its congregational life rather than from the particular individual that will be at the head of this congregation. And whereas it's very natural to have a reputation based on the church's pastor, it's supernatural, I think. to have a reputation based on the congregation's life. Connie and I had an interesting experience when we were living in Dallas, Texas. We had been in the city of Dallas for about, oh, maybe a little less than a year. We were attending a Bible church in the city of Dallas. We bumped into a fellow Penn State graduate in that church. And, of course, we had been ministering with Lou at Penn State in Campus Crusade ministry for a while. And when we bumped into Lou, it was exciting because, of course, we had those old ties that we could renew. And after we'd been going to this church for a number of months, we had an interesting experience with Lou. He came up to us after church one day, and he said, Dean, Connie, How would you like to drive to Oklahoma with me next Sunday afternoon and go to the evening worship service of a church up in Oklahoma? Well, of course, anybody who's been in graduate school knows that time is precious, especially if you're new at your graduate studies. And you're usually trying to do two things at the same time. So to take an excursion of two to three hours one way to attend a worship service of a church made us respond with, well, why? Why should we do that? How would you have responded? And it was interesting because Lou's response, I think, sort of caught me off guard because I've never forgotten it. Because he said to me and to Connie, well, The reason why you should go is because you really have to see how these people love one another. And I don't know whether it's unfortunate for us or not, but we never had the occasion where we were able to take Lou up on his offer and take that six hour Sunday afternoon excursion. But you know, it's always kind of been in my back burner here, curiosity. I wonder what it would have been like. And I've never forgotten that. And my prayer and desire is that we will be a congregation that has a reputation based on how we minister and care for one another. Am I doing that? If you'll turn with me to Philippians chapter 1, I believe we have a passage here where the Apostle Paul particularly addresses the issue of congregational life. And I'd like you to turn with me to, as I say, Philippians chapter 1, and I'd like to read this passage that we'll be looking at this morning, verses 27 to 30. Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 to 30. Here in this passage, Paul says, 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 not 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. Here in this passage, Paul specifies two actions that he expects this church, in response to his letter, to take in order for them to qualify as a gospel church. And you notice he says, to be worthy, in verse 27, of the gospel. And in the same way, I think that this applies to us if we desire to be worthy of the name and evangelical. church, not just an evangelical pre-church, but an evangelical church that represents Jesus Christ. And as I say in this passage, Paul does not so much spend time talking about what the believers there in Philippi must be like, he's not so much concerned about their personal character in this passage, but he's more specifically concerned here with what they must do as a congregation, how they must act. And in order to kind of bring us up to speed with why Paul is addressing this at this moment, let me just give you a quick review. If you were to look back at Philippians chapter 1 and recall that in verses 1 through 11, we looked at Paul's expression to the Philippians of his love and affection for them. And then in combination with that affection and their relationship that he describes, he also speaks of the things that are on his heart that he prays for them regularly about. And then in verses 12 through 20, Paul takes time to describe his situation there in Rome under house arrest. And he acknowledges that he's in a situation that is not ideal from outward appearances. He is in house arrest. He is not free to roam around and to do the kind of apostolic ministry he was accustomed to. And not only that. He's in a situation where other Christians are taking pot shots at his character. And there are some who are preaching Christ, yes, preaching the gospel from jealousy and envy and strife. And so that is Paul's circumstances. But what's interesting is if you recall, Paul says, despite my circumstances, the gospel is still penetrating the culture of this city. It's even penetrating the Praetorian guard and even into Caesar's household. And it's spreading out and making the other believers who are in harmony with me bolder. And so he rejoices. In verses 21 through 26, Paul speaks of his perspective on the future. Because you see, he does not know precisely what's going to take place. He has, I believe, a hunch that there will probably be a release take place. It seems that he has no indication necessarily that he will face condemnation. but he argues or he expresses to the Philippians in this passage of verse 21 to 26 that regardless of whether he experiences acquittal and freedom or whether his sentence comes down condemnation and death he is determined to rejoice because either way for the Apostle Paul it is a good result and in fact he says to die is gain because that means immediately He would be translated into the presence of his Lord. And so, based on Paul's resolve to remain available and active for the Philippians, he turns the tables on them and he says, you reciprocate with me. I am available. I am going to maintain a steadfast endurance for you. I admonish you, I challenge you to remain available or to reciprocate in your own spiritual conduct. And he expects them to represent Jesus Christ in a way that conforms to the teachings of Jesus. As he says, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. Conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now I'd like to give you sort of a sense of the orientation of this passage. Am I still doing that? This is new, so don't jump too often. Anyhow, there is an orientation that's very important for you to discern in this passage, and that is that Paul is not so much, remember, he's not so much talking about the individual believers in Philippi, the stress of this passage is on the congregational life. And that's very important for you to appreciate what he says when he admonishes them in the two major areas that we'll see. When Paul, I say, speaks of the public life, I realize that because he uses a very interesting term when he says in verse 27, Whatever happens, conduct yourselves. And that little word, conduct yourselves, comes from a Greek word, polituomai, which says, be a citizen, in the original sense. Be a citizen. So it's stressing the public life of this group of believers and how one would conduct themselves as a citizen of whatever political jurisdiction, whatever town, whatever country you might be in. It was natural for the Philippian believers to take a certain measure of pride in being Roman citizens. And certainly that was a status that not everyone around the Roman Empire had. And so for Paul to refer to their citizenly behavior would be something that would immediately have their receptors up because they had a certain natural pride in being Roman citizens. And so what Paul does here is he says, knowing that you have a certain sense of self-esteem due to your Roman citizenship, I want you to conduct yourselves as good patriots of Jesus Christ. In other words, I want you to be loyal to your governor, Jesus Christ. I want you to be fully and faithfully supportive of your constitution, which is the gospel. So therefore, this is an admonition that emphasizes the public aspect of the life of this congregation. You know, the Lord Jesus had a very similar exhortation to his disciples as he was getting ready to leave. He said, be ready. Be ready, because I'm coming again. And almost in the same manner, Paul says to his disciples in Philippi, Be ready, because I'm coming over to Philippi once I get out of here. But if I don't, be ready, because I'm sending one of my apostolic delegates. And when they arrive, I pray and I hope you'll be conducting yourself in such a manner that it will be obvious that there is no question of your dedication to Christ and your devotion to one another. And so the Apostle joins them in their public responsibility. In these verses the Apostle points out two areas of practical emphasis needed within the Philippian Church. And he points these out in particular because as we can pick up little senses from the book they must have been in a situation or a condition in which they were facing opposition and as a consequence of that opposition they were facing persecution or suffering. And so these two areas represent patterns of practical emphasis essential for the church there to be growing and stable. And what I'd like to do is first of all look at the first practical emphasis, and that is the necessity of them standing united. Standing, maintaining a united front. You find this as you look at verse 27. He says, 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. And here, of course, is the stress on the unity, the joint unity of this congregation. And I think there are two points that Paul makes as he speaks about this unity. He speaks, first of all, about what it is. And when he speaks of what it is, he speaks of standing together by being committed to a common purpose. When Paul exhorts the Philippians to stand firm, he uses a word that the Philippians would recognize again. It would have familiar meaning to them. Because as you see, they were living in a Roman military colony. And of course, those soldiers that they rubbed shoulders with day in and day out were very familiar with the Roman fighting tactic of the phalanx. A phalanx was a system by which the soldiers with shields and spears would rank up shoulder to shoulder with the spears outward when they were going into battle so that they could move forward together and overwhelm any oncoming enemy in hand-to-hand combat because the enemy would be impaled on these spears that were down in the fighting position before they could even reach or breach the first line. And so the citizens of Philippi hearing this hearing this comment that they are to stand firm would be sensitive to what Paul was talking about, speaking of this kind of fighting tactic called the phalanx. And they would also recognize that it would be absolutely essential in this kind of fighting tactic that no one break out of rank, because the moment you broke out of rank, you lessened the strength of the fighting capability of those next to you and also once you broke out of rank you were probably very likely to get killed in a hurry. And so they would recognize that Paul was using this term to prompt them to remember the criticalness of standing united, standing together against opposition rather than running off and fighting these battles on a solo basis there in Philippi. So he directed the believers in Philippi to make sure that they faced their city and its culture united. They needed to have a united front. They couldn't run off in solo combat. And this means that if one of the brothers or the sisters there in Philippi were in a line of combat there in the city, not militarily, but perhaps personally or socially, that their fellow brothers and sisters couldn't abandon them on the front line. If the artillery was coming hot and heavy, maybe economic boycott or maybe being socially ostracized there in the city of Philippi, or maybe just simply being religiously persecuted, They were to stand with one another and not leave the persecuted one off alone to get shot or to get knocked down and injured. You stand in the fire with them, even if it risked you getting wounded. That's what Paul means when he employs this term of standing united in one spirit. He emphasizes the fact that this is a joint standing together in one spirit And when he refers to, in this comment, the spirit, it's a little bit difficult to understand because is he talking about the Holy Spirit or is he talking about the human spirit? It seems to me what Paul is emphasizing here is not standing together in the Holy Spirit, but he's emphasizing standing together in a spirit, like team spirit, we call it today. Have a unified team spirit. And of course, we know anybody who's been in athletics realizes that team spirit depends on having the whole team committed to a goal, whether it's winning a game or whether it's having an excellent practice session, whatever it is, team spirit is dependent upon having a common commitment and a common goal. For the church to have a healthy team spirit, there must be an overall unity of purpose. And this is what the elders here in our congregation are seeking to accomplish practically. For any organism, and we are not an organization, we are an organism because we are a living group of people, not just a system of people being managed. But for any organization, and indeed organism, there has to be a common purpose. And so we are working on developing a clear understandable purpose statement for our congregation's ministry so that we can all understand where we're headed, where we're going, why, and how. And so that everything we do will submit itself and support that purpose and goal and direction. So that if you wonder, why are we doing a certain program? Well, it's because it supports the common goal. You might ask, how do we develop our plans for facilities. It must support our goal. We want to establish this church on a priority that is directed by our Lord Jesus Christ's command to make disciples. The Great Commission in Matthew 28. And we want to pursue it effectively. And to do that effectively, we must all have a clear idea, a simple understanding of what our purpose and what our goal is so that we can be united. And as I say, the elders have been working on this and intend to present it to you and we have that coming up, so stay tuned. Now, Paul not only tells them what it means to stand together, but he also suggests something very clearly in verse 27 as to how they were to accomplish this standing together. And if you notice with me, in verse 27, he says, you are to, I want to hear that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man. And this contending as one man is a translation of what in the new American standard might mean, standing together in one mind or as one person. And really it's the word here containing as one man is the word for soul. So he says, I want you to all have one soul, one mind. And in saying that, he changes his whole figure of speech from a military metaphor to the metaphor of the Roman arena. And if you can imagine what he is talking about here is the struggling together of condemned prisoners in an arena against wild beasts, because that was part of the sport that took place in the ancient Roman amphitheaters. Toward the end of every day's combats in the amphitheaters, the highlight was to take condemned prisoners and thrust them out half-dressed, without any armor or any weaponry, into this arena. and let them see how they could defend themselves against the wild beasts. It must have been horrible, but that was what was the idea here behind this word, contending together, struggling together. It would have been very vivid in the minds of the Philippians as they thought about what they were aware took place in their city and throughout the Roman Empire. Practically speaking, in the life of any congregation, I am sure that there is always going to be one person or maybe two people, hopefully not too many, that you don't particularly or personally get along with. Chemistry isn't always perfect in any group of people. But what Paul was saying here is that we have an obligation That is, we may not be in love emotionally with every single person, but we have an obligation to support one another. That is not an option that you can choose or reject. It is an obligation which God has given to you and which Paul declared to the Philippians here. was their obligation to stand together, support one another. It has nothing to do with personality. It has everything to do with your obligation to loving and supporting the Church of Jesus Christ. Some may say, well, what happens if you're in a situation where the whole flow of the Church, the purpose of the Church seems to be off? Stay tuned. We'll talk about that next week. But the day may come when you need someone to trust you. The day may come when you need someone to support you. The day may come when you need someone to encourage you. But if you've never been an encourager, if you've never been a supporter, I suggest that you may find yourself struggling all by yourself. Because supportive people have supported others. Encouraged people have encouraged others. And this is one of the key reasons why we at this church are so, well we want to encourage you so much to be part of a small group. So that you become part of a group of people that you know more than just on a hi, how are you basis. And so that's why we are working as part of our pursuit of our purpose to establish small groups. where you can cultivate those kinds of dynamic relationships. You know, I was going to make some comments about contemporary evangelicalism. Well, maybe I will. It seems like today, two of the major disabilities that the American church faces, number one, there's like a famine of the hearing of the scriptures preached systematically. But second to that, there seems to be a war within the church of nitpicking inside churches, of preferences being boasted upon other people within the church. And I am convinced that the major reason for that is because we are backing out of the battle, rather than being engaged in the battle, which is out there. We're not trying to kill anybody out there. We're trying to get ourselves in a position with the world where we can have an impact. But if we have drawn back from the battle lines, if we have given up pursuing, witnessing to people, setting ourselves forward as an example, as a model, saying, I believe in Jesus Christ. He is my personal Lord and Savior. I have trusted him with my life. I have received him. He's changing my life. Now watch me. If you're not comfortable with that, it's like the person who said, I don't want that Jesus bumper sticker on my car. I might cut somebody off and then it'll just be famed the name of Jesus. Well, my challenge to you is go in and better to be trying and making mistakes than not try at all. But the point is, So often, when people disengage from the battle, what happens? Well, they start fighting one another, instead of being out there where the real battle is. And I think you even see this in the experience of the Apostle Paul, because if you looked over in chapter 1, what was his problem? Well, his problem was that other preachers of the word, and he didn't call them false prophets, but in Philippi, other preachers were taking pot shots at Paul. Well, what did he do? He didn't take his gun and lift it up away from the Roman praetorium and Caesar's household and take his sights off of the real people he wanted to target for the gospel and pivot over and start blasting away at these brothers. He said, hey, God's in charge. He's in control. Whatever happens is his responsibility. I'm going to keep praying for them and rejoicing what Jesus Christ is going to accomplish. So I think you right there set an example for us of that. Let's not be pot-shooters at one another. Let's get in the battle. There's a second practical emphasis that Paul makes as he proceeds down through the last three verses of this passage. And as I've shared with you in your notes, what I believe Paul is telling me and telling you is that As our congregation resists the fears that come with opposition, we will be pleasing to God. And this is the stress that he has in verses 28 through 30. And he starts off by talking about what happens when we resist fear. First of all, I think you need to know what, you need to ask yourself, what kinds of fears would Paul be discussing as he tries to encourage the Philippian believers to resist these fears. We don't actually know that specific opposition that the Philippians were faced with. This is so common in ancient literature when somebody is writing a letter, they know the situation, but for us readers centuries later, we don't get all the details about what was going on. We have to sort of look into archaeology and try to discover what might have been the purpose or the motivation for writing this. But we do know from archaeology that Philippi was a very religious city. And of course, as Romans, they would have worshipped Caesar as a god. They would have had multitudes of idols that they would worship. And then comes to their city, and we read about it in the Book of Acts weeks ago. Then comes to the city this Apostle Paul who says, Worshipping Caesar is out, and idols, no good. What? Who is this guy coming into our town, telling us what's right and what's wrong? Well, that's what Paul was doing, and his disciples there in Philippi, I believe, would have been doing the same thing. they would have been in their practice no longer bowing down to Caesar, no longer taking their tribute to the city idols. And I can see the godfathers of Philippi saying to themselves, what happens if this pattern starts to spread through our city? We have a major problem. In fact, Paul ran into the same problem in Ephesus, where they beat him up for it. turning their silver trade and idle trade into a decline. So what Paul is dealing with here is a city of people who are probably under some kind of religious persecution because they don't fit in any longer and I am quite sure that there were economic pressures that went along with that and social ostracism and those are the kinds of pressures and threats and intimidations that they very naturally would have faced. Just think today. Imagine what it must have been like maybe two, three years ago in the Soviet Union. One small misstep, one exposure of yourself as a believer, you're off in Siberia. Think what it must be like for a believer in Saudi Arabia or in Libya. where Islam is the rule of life. I understand that if you become public in those countries, you're in great jeopardy economically, certainly socially, and definitely would not want to be too outspoken about your witness for Christ. It could be very threatening. So I would say, what about us? Well, that's too convicting. Let's move on. or what makes you hesitate as you seek to live out your convictions of what God is telling you to do in this world. What Paul refers to as he moves on in this passage when he talks about this, he says in verse 28, don't be frightened in any way by those who oppose you. So withstand this fear. We're going to talk about his recommendation for how this can be accomplished. But he says this is a sign to them that they will be destroyed but that you will be saved. What is going to be a sign to them? Paul is telling the Philippians as you stand together without being afraid, you maintain courage and calm despite this opposition, your lives are going to be very disturbing to these Philippian pagans. Because you see, their religions are superstition. Their religions do not have authority and absolute truth behind them. They are religions developed out of their own minds. And when you stand in persecution and under threat of life, social ostracism, whatever, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, you make your opponents very concerned and disturbed. Because they think of putting themselves in your place and saying to themselves, what would I do? And because their religion is superstition, they probably have a great degree of doubt. But the sign of the Philippians' calm demeanor was also a sign to them of salvation. And what it basically was doing for the Philippians, as Paul tells them, is it would create within them more and more confidence as they stood firm that God is faithful. And as God manifests his faithfulness, to the person who stands in the fight they have greater and greater degree of assurance that they really are God's children and so this was going to be a sign to them and also a sign to their enemies. Paul moves on in his discussion here of this need to resist becoming intimidated and fearful in the city of Philippi And he stresses for them two convictions that they need to have in their hearts in order to successfully withstand the kinds of opposition that they would be facing. And first of all, he speaks of the fact that they need to come to the conviction and understanding that this opposition is not unusual. In fact, it is normal. It is not something they should be surprised about. It is something quite normal. We must accept it as normal, the suffering we experience in the Christian faith. The Apostle Peter, as we read in our scripture passage this morning in 1 Peter chapter 4, made mention of it with respect to the churches that he was writing to. And he says in 1 Peter chapter 4, dear friends, don't be surprised. at that painful or fiery trial you were suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. He wanted to emphasize to the people that he was writing to, this is normal. And so they ought not to be thrown off track by it. In fact, Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verses 10 to 12, that for an individual even, suffering should be viewed as normal and natural. He says, indeed, anyone who wishes to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Paul also alludes to a reason why God does not automatically remove suffering and stress from our lives. He says that the opposition is actually something, notice what he says, the opposition is actually something that is granted, given to them. Look at this in verse 29. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. And you might want to respond by saying, well, thanks a lot. I'll pass on that gift. But you can't, because notice he combines it not only to believe in him, but with the believing comes the gift of suffering. And some might say, well, that's not the kind of gift that I'm interested in. But cultivating steadfast endurance is something that God wants to establish in your life. It seems that it's not an optional gauntlet that we have to go through in order to mature and to become solid and strong in the kinds of battles that God may want to bring into our lives. This is precisely what James argues in the first chapter of James when he says, my brethren, when all kinds of trials and tribulations come crowding into your life, don't resist them as enemies. Welcome them as friends. And that's a very interesting way that he starts his letter. It's almost like a shock therapy. So all through the New Testament are these warnings to understand that it's natural, it's normal, And as you understand and accept that, it becomes much more easy to endure the conflicts that come to us. I remember when Connie was ready to deliver our first child, Richard, we went down to Baylor Hospital and we had gone through all of the Lamaze classes. We were ready to go. And she was practiced and ready to to work our way through the labor process. And I don't want to upset anybody that's on the way, but nevertheless, we were ready to go. So we got into Baylor Hospital there and things were going very good. And then all of a sudden, the painful part started to come. Well, she had been told that, you know, you'll have to work with the labor. You'll have to endure through the hard work of the labor. But she had never, I guess, really grasped the idea that there would be pain involved in this. Well, labor was going very well, but I think what happened was she was caught off guard. feeling fully prepared but then caught off guard and so the delivery was completed with medication. And that's okay. The point of the illustration is that when Peter came along, the next one, she understood by experience that it was going to be work, but that there would be pain. And then when it came, she wasn't as surprised. It was much easier to manage the process. And as a result, there was an unmedicated birth that time. Well, just a point to make is that to understand in your head is the first step, but then to endure through the experience is the second step that gives you that solid stability when the trials come. In the same way Paul is telling us that when we expect to suffer, Not that you go around with a melancholy attitude and a jaundiced spirit towards life, but when you're alert, when you understand, hey, it could happen. It's going to be normal. I'm going to be ready. I'm going to be prepped up. Then you're much more likely to respond correctly. And then finally, in verse 30, Paul says, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had and now here that I still have. What he's talking about here is that other believers, he's telling the Philippians, you're not the only ones. Other believers are going through struggles too. And so he reminds them of himself in the example of his experience in Philippi, where he was beaten and thrown in jail, but he kept rejoicing. There in Rome, he's in jail, but he's still rejoicing. He's saying, Philippians, I understand what you're going through. I sympathize with you, but I'm not going to let you off the hook. Keep rejoicing. Stand together. Don't be afraid. Hang in there and support one another. And you should never presume that you're all alone and what you're feeling as opposition is unique and nobody else has gone through it. That's a trap. Be careful. There is somebody else. In fact, how you respond to it may be very important for how they respond to it. And that's why knowing one another and being together, you can actually hear how others have endured through it and been faithful and avoid that poor me syndrome. It's very easy to slip into, but you know, it never helps. It only drives you into despair. Well, let me conclude. Our subject has been two patterns of practical emphasis essential for us to be a growing church. And Paul has told us that we need to be a congregation that sticks together. We need to have a common purpose. And when other people around us are getting shot at, we need to hang in there and be ready to take the flak with them. But the fights out there, it's not in here, folks. Let's not have any fighting in here. And we talked about a congregation that has the courage of conviction. That is, remains calm despite the threats. And I know that each one of you, if you really stand on what you believe Christ has called you to stand for, there are those daily threats that you feel. The intimidation. What will happen? My reputation. My income. My social standing. What will happen? Those are the areas where you need to not allow yourself to be intimidated. You need to remember that it's natural and remember other people are enduring through it. And I believe if we practice these two patterns as a congregation, God will bless. I'm convinced that we will learn to be a people that are dependent upon Jesus Christ and that we will be a people that God will use mightily. Let's pray. Our Father, we entrust ourselves to you and this word to you. Touch hearts that are hurting, touch hearts that are challenged, and teach us to endure faithfully together. For Jesus' sake, amen.