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Phil 1 – Just One Thing (pt2 of 3)

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If the priority is right, v21 – living is Christ, then you can talk about v27.

Phil 1
27 Just one thing: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

If I were to combine v21 and v27, my paraphrase would be this. Living is Christ, now that you got the main point, just one thing, live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Living is Christ, now live for Christ. Living in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ presupposes that you already understand part 1 (v21). It assumes you understand the gospel and you’ve seen the beauty and supremacy of Christ. You can’t live in a manner worthy of the gospel until you first understand the gospel. You can’t live FOR Christ until you first KNOW Christ. Not just know Christ, but believe deeply from your heart that nothing in the universe compares to knowing Jesus.

What does living in a manner of the gospel of Christ or what does living for Christ look like practically? Another way to put it, if your life is all about the gospel of Christ and living is Christ, then what changes? What does your life look like to others?

Someone who has encountered the risen and living Christ, someone who understands the gospel will be changed. I want to talk about 3 changes. The gospel leads to 3 concrete changes. One, there is FREEDOM. Spiritual chains are broken. There is freedom in Christ. Two, a new FELLOWSHIP is created where there was only division and isolation before. Three, the person who believes in their heart, my life is Christ, nothing, no one is more important to me than Jesus, then, that person becomes FEARLESS in proclaiming Christ. Three F’s: Freedom, Fellowship, Fearlessness.

Sin actually leads to the opposite. Sin leads to 1) slavery, 2) division and 3) fear. The gospel leads to freedom, fellowship and fearlessness and sin leads to the complete opposite.

Let’s revisit the first 3 converts at Philippi and see how these gospel principles play out in their lives. Last week, we started our journey through the book of Philippians. To understand the background of the church, we went back to Acts 16 and studied how this church was established. If you recall, Paul had his missionary strategy in place. God was fulfilling his Great Commission through Paul and the gospel was spreading from Jerusalem, then to the broader region of Judea, then the region to the north, Samaria. And then the gospel was spreading to the northwest throughout Asia. And suddenly, in the midst of the gospel work expanding in Asia, Paul receives a vision known as the Macedonian call. Through this vision, God reroutes Paul from Asia to Europe.

Acts 16 describes the first converts of Europe who were part of the core group of the first church in Europe at Philippi. Three are mentioned in Acts 16. First you have a rich business woman in the fashion industry with a home in Thyatira and a home in Philippi named Lydia. Next, on the other end of the spectrum, you have a impoverished slave girl who was demon possessed. Third, you have a middle class, blue collar, retired ex-military soldier from Rome who is serving in the local jailhouse–the Roman jailer.

1) The gospel leads to Freedom

When you look at the three and you consider who needs freedom the most, of the three, which one comes to mind? Well, I think obviously, the demon-possessed slave girl comes to mind first. She’s got a demon inside of her. She can’t control her body. She has zero control over her own tongue. Words of negativity and hatred are spewing out of our own mouth and she can’t do anything about it. She is literally in chains, bound, enslaved internally in her spirit and it is obvious to the world that she is not free. Because her bondage is manifest externally.

What about Lydia and the Roman jailer? One is a successful business woman and the other is a blue collar security guard. Before Lydia or the Roman jailer met Christ, I think intellectually we know that they are slaves to sin. They have yet to be freed from sin by Jesus. We know this in our head. But emotionally, I think we give them a pass compared to the slave girl. The slave girl, she’s the one who has the real issue. She’s a slave on the outside AND she’s a slave on the inside. There is no question in anyone’s mind that she is spiritually enslaved.

But on the sliding scale of slavery to sin, we believe in our modern, Westernized minds that the slave girl is in a far worse condition compared to the other two, don’t we? We don’t think of Lydia as being enslaved. She may have some hang-ups or quirks or bad habits, but who doesn’t? The Roman jailer may have some character flaws and a few addictions, but don’t we all? We rationalize sin. We put sin into categories. The slave girl has some serious sin problems. Lydia and the jailer are sinners, too, but their problem is not as serious. Put the slave girl at the front of the line to meet Jesus. She ought to be desperate to meet Jesus. The other two, not so much.

If you think this way, then you are seriously underestimating the deceitfulness of the human heart. Sin manifests itself in so many ways. From God’s perspective, there is no differentiation between the more heinous, egregious, shockingly terrible sins from the more “respectable” sins. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous, not even one.

Many think, I’m not that bad. My sin problem is not that serious. I don’t have a demon in me controlling my every thought and speech and action. I’m not as bad as the slave girl or that person who is addicted to drugs, or alcohol, or pornography. My sins of gossip and greed are not as bad as demon possession. My career isn’t an idol. I’m just trying to be a good steward of the talents God has given to me. I have to reach my full potential. Ever heard that one?

Or, money is not my Master. God, He’s the one who blessed me financially. What’s wrong with enjoying a good life? Someone has to reach out to the rich and the elites of society. They won’t be able to identify with me unless I wear the same designer clothes and drive the same luxury cars.

Lydia, before she was saved, was a slave to sin in a spiritual sense just as much as the slave girl was enslaved to the demon. But that sin in Lydia manifested itself very differently than it did in the life of slave girl. For Lydia, sin manifested itself, not through the shrieks of someone possessed by a demon, but through her enslavement to her career, to money, her possessions, her greed.

What about the Roman jailer? What was he enslaved to? He was probably a former soldier in the Roman military. He lived for the glory of Rome. He was a patriot. He lived for honor. That’s why, when God miraculously opened the prison doors and the criminals fled except for Paul and Silas, the Roman jailer pulled out his sword to end his life. He could have fled like everyone else. Most jailers in his situation would have fled. But he was a man bound by honor because Roman law demanded his life if anyone under his watch escaped. So he was ready to carry out the law on himself. Living for the honor of a nation like Rome, or the nation of Israel for the Jews, or the honor of your family name, or even the honor of your culture or the honor of your church, these are powerful masters.

If you think you are not enslaved because you’re not a drug addict or an alcoholic and you have a sane mind, think again. If you think you are not enslaved because you are a respectable member of society, think again. In some ways, the demon-possessed slave girl is far better off than Lydia or the jailer because at least for the slave girl, her bondage on the inside was visible on the outside. Without realizing it, we could be utterly bound on the inside while appearing free on the outside. You and I can still go to church and pay our taxes and tithe and play the part of a Christian for 2 hours on a Sunday while living the rest of the 166 hours of the week enslaved to sin.

All 3–Lydia, the slave girl and the Roman jailer–were enslaved. Their sin was manifested differently, but all 3 were slaves. What’s the solution? Verse 21. Living is Christ. All 3 were equally in need of the gospel of Jesus to set them free.

2 Corinthians – Teaching #1: Repentance and the Reality of Spiritual Battle (pt2 of 3)

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There was a happy ending, but there were 6-7 years of a rocky relationship between Paul and the Corinthian church. And much of time, Paul was not there. Either because of missions or because he wasn’t welcome. You can see how false apostles could easily turn the Corinthians against Paul. Not only does he not receive a salary from church, he is asking the church there to help meet the needs of brothers and sisters at another church, the church in Jerusalem. You can almost hear the attributing of false motives to Paul. Paul, that guy acts like he doesn’t want your money, but it’s all a ploy because he wants to steal a bigger percentage and use it for another “church” or for “missions.”

And Paul is not even man enough to show up himself. He sends Titus to collect the money. How do we know that this money is going to be used at Jerusalem or for missions. How do we know that Paul is not pocketing the money.

You could see these Judaizers picking out people from the congregation who were very steeped in their Jewish culture and who were not fully on board with Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles. Are we so sure God spoke to him? I mean, I wasn’t there. There were no witnesses. Why would God abandon his chosen people of Israel and bring a message of salvation to those who don’t deserve it? We need to remember the old covenant, Moses, the 10 commandments, Mt. Sinai, circumcision, the various feasts of the Old Testament. I’m not sure about this Paul guy.

We don’t even have an opportunity to get to know him. He’s never around. He says he loves us, but how can you love someone when you’re never around. Paul says he is delayed because of “suffering” or “missions” but there is no Iphone app or GPS to track him so who knows? You see how things could spiral out of control rather quickly when Paul is not there to defend himself. Into this mess, Paul writes 2 Corinthians.

I’ve organized the next 8 sermons through 2 Corinthians under the heading: “Eight Important Teachings for Christian Life.” For the pastor, these are 8 key things that need to be preached. For the congregation, these are 8 things to keep in mind always. 8 important teachings for Christian life. Keep these 8 teachings in mind and you will be more discerning when it comes to false teachers, and with God’s help, you will be victorious over sin and be equipped to thrive spiritually. Those are some lofty goals. I pray that God in his grace would help us get there.

Teaching #1: Repentance and the Reality of Spiritual Battle
Teaching #2: New Covenant
Teaching #3: The Gospel of Christ
Teaching #4: Eternity
Teaching #5: The New Creation and the Ministry of Reconciliation
Teaching #6: The Kingdom and Proper Stewardship
Teaching #7: Suffering and Grace
Teaching #8: Maturity and Unity

In this Pastoral Epistle par excellence, Paul writes about these 8 teachings. Remember the overarching goal. 2 Cor 11–Paul’s pastoral heart for the Corinthian is to present every believer entrusted under his care to Christ as a pure virgin. Loving Jesus and none other. Having no besetting sins. Having no competing pursuits. Having no idols. Having only a pure, unadulterated love for Jesus. The local church and the institution of marriage are two tools in God’s hands to chip away the jagged edges of our character and break the bonds of sin so that we will be the kind of pure, spotless bride that Jesus expects.

Before we get into Teaching #1–Repentance and the Reality of Spiritual Battle–we need to define what an apostle and who qualifies to be an apostle? And related to this, are there modern day apostles and what is our role today as pastors and teachers and ministers?

Some use the word “apostle” in a broad sense today to mean someone with an apostolic giftedness. Paul never wanted to preach Christ where Christ had already been preached. He never want to build up a pre-existing ministry. He wanted to go where there was no ministry. He wanted to start fresh. So modern day church planters, you could argue, have to have an apostolic gifting. To start new works. To create something out of nothing. To raise homegrown leaders and send them out.

I qualify as a church planter, but please, don’t ever call me Apostle Ray. Why? Because I don’t believe there are apostles today like there was an Apostle Paul or an Apostle Peter. These were special, hand picked eyewitnesses of Jesus while he ministered on earth. Apostle Paul was an exception in the sense that he wasn’t one of the 12 disciples, but Christ appeared to him in a vision on the road to Damascus. I believe Paul was the last apostle. He and the rest of the New Testament apostles received the full revelation–the gospel of Jesus, which begins the New Testament, and it ends with Apostle John’s final vision in Revelation about the Second Coming of Jesus and the end of the world.

That’s it. There is no more new revelation. God still speaks today. God still gives dreams and visions and prophecies to his people today. But, there will be nothing new. Everything that originates from God will point back to something in Scripture.

The authority comes from the Word of God. Therefore, my role, every Christian leader’s role is to preach what is in this book. It’s not my stories, not my testimonies, not my personality which gives me authority. My authority comes from God as I faithfully preach what is in the Word of God. Paul is unique in that his very personal letter to the Corinthian church became the authoritative Word of God. If you take even the most spiritual giant of our generation and suppose he writes a very powerful letter to a Christian friend or he might write a commentary about some spiritual truth, but no matter how spiritual they are, not a single word from their mouth or their pen will ever rise to the level of Scripture. Nothing they can ever say would ever become authoritative for all believers for all generations. There have been no apostles since the close of the canon in Scripture. Therefore, my role as a preacher is simple. I just need to be faithful to the text.

You should never hear a teaching from someone that is special revelation, or something unique to their exclusive group. If God is one and there is one body, then what I say should have been said by countless other faithful preachers of the Word today and throughout the centuries. Because we have the same God and we have the same Word of God. Nothing has changed for a couple of millenium.

Be careful of those who claim to be apostles or claim to have special revelation from God and you cannot trace what their saying back to the Word of God.

The false apostles had spread all kinds of mistrust against Paul. Trust is such a fragile thing. Trust takes years to build, but it can crumble in an instant. Once mistrust enters, it doesn’t matter how godly or anointed a person is, you won’t be hear a thing he or she says. As soon as a tiny trace of mistrust enters, the walls up go, the defenses are up, your guards is up and you don’t hear 99 good things, and instead, you get stuck on the 1 thing that in your head that confirms why you mistrust in the first place.

So Paul has to defend his apostleship over and against the opposition and the mistrust that is being spread by false apostles that had infiltrated Corinth. Now that you see the context, it makes sense why Paul has to spend so much of this letter defending himself as an apostle commended and approved by God. 2 Cor 1:1 – the first verse begins,

2 Cor 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will…

Corinthians, you might doubt me, but let me remind you, I am an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. In other chapters like ch 10, Paul makes the point, anyone can commend himself. Anyone can commend himself when comparing with another person. Anyone can show a letter of recommendation from a respected leader, but these are not evidence that one is approved by God.

Read 1 Cor 3:1-3.

2 Cor 3
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. 3 It is clear that you are Christ’s letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

The fact that the Corinthians were born again spiritually through Paul’s ministry is proof #1 that Paul is the real deal. Not only that, 2 Cor 6:4-10–

2 Cor 6
4 But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardship, by difficulties, 5 by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger, 6 by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 7 by the message of truth, by the power of God; through weapons of righteousness on the right hand and the left, 8 through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report; as deceivers yet true; 9 as unknown yet recognized; as dying and look—we live; as being disciplined yet not killed; 10 as grieving yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing yet possessing everything.

Beside the genuine conversions, Paul points to his suffering. He uses the same logic in 2 Cor 11:16-29.

2 Cor 11
16 I repeat: No one should consider me a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, so I too may boast a little. 17 What I say in this matter of boasting, I don’t speak as the Lord would, but foolishly. 18 Since many boast in an unspiritual way, I will also boast. 19 For you, being so wise, gladly put up with fools! 20 In fact, you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone captures you, if someone dominates you, or if someone hits you in the face. 21 I say this to our shame: We have been weak. But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am talking foolishly—I also dare: 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman—I’m a better one: with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, near death many times. 24 Five times I received 39 lashes from Jews. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods by the Romans. Once I was stoned by my enemies. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26 On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the open country, dangers on the sea, and dangers among false brothers; 27 labor and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and lacking clothing. 28 Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

His point is, why would anyone endure such suffering unless he or she were living for the approval of God. You would not suffer if you want approval from men. False apostles don’t want to suffer. In fact, they make people under them suffer. They enslave, they devour, they capture, they dominate, I guess in Corinth, they even hit people in the face. There is freedom in Christ. People under a godly leader should experience freedom. Not bondage. We are saved in order to be freed from sin. Not to be bound by legalistic rules and regulations. Some churches make you want to be unborn again, if that were possible. Because the yoke and burden of religious is often worse than godless, secular hedonism.

Matt 24 – End Times: Missions, Faithful Service, Perseverance, and Watchful Readiness (pt3 of 3)

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Here are some Tier 1 applications. Two are public applications (how we treat others) and two are personal (how we prepare ourselves to meet the coming Christ).

1) The Importance of Evangelism and Missions

14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.

Jesus left us with the Great Commission and he expects us to go to all nations preaching the good news of the kingdom. And it sounds almost like, once every nation has heard the good news, then the end will come. The question is, how many people groups are left who have never heard the gospel? If you define people groups to be ethnic, linguistic peoples without reference to country boundaries, then there’s about 10,000 remaining. If all Christians and all churches got serious about the Great Commission, we could reach every last group in our lifetime. In light of the imminent day of the Lord, we at the Hill have to do our part to reach those who haven’t been reached.

This relates to our next public application–

2) Faithful Service

45 “Who then is a faithful and sensible slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time? 46 That slave whose master finds him working when he comes will be rewarded. 47 I assure you: He will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked slave says in his heart, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and starts to beat his fellow slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 that slave’s master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

A wicked slave thinks, my master is delayed. He won’t be back for a while. It’s like at work, your boss is out of the office so you relax a bit. This wicked slave relaxes a bit too much. Not only does he eat and drink with drunkards, he just wants to enjoy life and have a good time, but also, this wicked slave mistreats and even beats the other slaves.

Then, the master suddenly appears at the door. He sees the drunkenness and he sees the pain inflicted on the other slaves and the master takes the slave whom he entrusted and throws him into a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. In light of the imminent day of the Lord, let’s serve our master faithfully and treat each other lovingly.

Now we get to the personal applications.

3) The Importance of Perseverance

Tribulation is a general term referring to the hardships and sufferings that God’s people will always have to pass through. Tribulation is a rite of passage for the believer.

Matt 24
21 For at that time there will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again! 22 Unless those days were limited, no one would survive. But those days will be limited because of the elect.

Acts 14
22 …“It is necessary to pass through many troubles (or tribulations) on our way into the kingdom of God.”

2 Thess 1
3 We must always thank God for you, brothers. This is right, since your faith is flourishing and the love each one of you has for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches—about your endurance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you endure. 5 It is a clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, 6 since it is righteous for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you 7 and to reward with rest you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His powerful angels, 8 taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Tribulation is necessary for us to fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and tribulation is necessary for our personal sanctification. And it is expected that true believers will survive whatever tribulations come our way and endure to the end.

Matt 24
13 But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.

Examine your life. What trips you up? What derails your faith? Not sleeping enough. Getting a bad grade. Getting yelled at by your boss. Having indigestion? What trips you up? We need to toughen up because harder times are coming and if little things trip us up now, we won’t make it when difficult tribulation comes.

4) Watchful Readiness

I want to end with a story. When I was a kid, I loved it when my parents went to Bible study. No, it wasn’t because I was concerned about their spiritual lives. It was because my brother and I stayed home alone. My parents expected that we would be studying I guess for the entire evening but when the cat is away, the mice come out to play. We watched TV several hours straight. It was the 80s and back then, we had one of those gargantuan Zenith TV boxes which weigh about 100 pounds and the screen was like 20 inches. Not only was the TV huge, but it got really hot.

So around 11pm to midnight, I’d be watching but I’d have one ear listening for the car door slam. When I heard it, I knew I had roughly 15 seconds to wipe down the TV with a damp cloth to cool it off. I was watchful and ready.

The whole point of my watchfulness was to avoid punishment. And there is a sense in which we are watchful for the Lord’s coming because we don’t want to get into trouble, but it’s more than that. Even being watchful in order to avoid punishment as a motivation is better than nothing. Most people are not watchful at all because hey, nobody can predict when Jesus will return so why bother? We are not watchful. Quite the opposite, we live carelessly.

For the true believer, we are watchful and responsible and faithful in our service in part because we don’t want to get in trouble in the same way that an employee might have relaxed at work for a few days while the boss was away but the day before the boss returns, you better get everything in order.

Avoidance of punishment is not the sole motivator for our watchfulness. We are watchful because we are waiting for him.

Heb 9
27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Are you waiting for Jesus? Do you long for his appearing? If so, you will be watchful and ready, no matter when he comes.