A Life Worthy of the Gospel

0:46Well, his father became a Christian that year that C.T. turned 17 and began earnestly seeking the salvation of his sons. He talked to them often about spiritual things and about Christ, but C.T. and his brothers were largely just annoyed by his dad's change of life. About a year later, C.T. was leaving the home to play cricket when a visiting preacher stopped by the house to talk to his father, and he stopped C.T. to have a conversation with him, and he asked him if he thought that he would obtain eternal life when he died.

1:18And C.T. could give no answer. And so the visiting preacher presented the gospel to him and extended the offer of salvation through faith in Christ. And he repented and believed in Jesus. But over the next six years, into his early 20s, his life didn't change very much. It wasn't until one of his brothers became seriously ill that he began to ask some of the deeper questions about life and its meaning, about God, and began to really live seriously for Christ. Short time after that, he heard the missionary Hudson Taylor speaking, and he heard about the plight of the lost in China.

1:57And so he decided then and there that he would become a missionary and move to China. He spent years there before returning to England, and then he spent years in India before moving to Africa, and he died serving Christ in Africa at 71 years old in 1931. This was a man who gave his life to serve Christ and others. And before he died, he penned a very famous poem. It's called Only One Life. And it repeats this refrain that we have hanging in our home, and maybe you do as well. Only one life, till soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

2:37Well, friends, today we return to Philippians chapter 1, where Paul is going to share how he views living and dying for Christ as a citizen of God's kingdom. And it's a powerful passage that I pray God will use to help us live our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. So what we're going to learn today is that kingdom citizens View life as service and death as gain. Let's pick up here in the second half of verse 18.

3:10Paul continues in this verse, rejoicing as he ended the previous section, where he celebrated the faithfulness of these preachers in Philippi who were going out and in Rome as well, proclaiming the gospel, whether by false motives or true. He was just glad that Christ was being proclaimed. And here he continues to rejoice because he firmly believed that he would be delivered from prison through their prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit. I mean, I want you to think about that for just a minute here. Paul is saying that he believes he's going to be released from prison in Rome in part due to the prayers of the Philippians.

3:53Now, I think that many believers struggle to pray regularly. And a big part of the reason that a lot of us struggle to pray regularly is that if we're honest, we're not really sure that it does much good. It just doesn't seem like a good use of time to pray, to talk to God. But Paul was convinced of the efficacy of prayer. He wasn't a fatalist. He wasn't one who believed that prayer had no effect on outcomes. He firmly believed that God heard and answered prayer.

4:27So he subtly encourages the Philippians to keep prayer. Praying for his release by saying, I think that it's through your prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit that I'm going to be delivered. So Paul believes that he's going to be released, but even if he's not released from prison, take a look at what he writes in verse 20. He says, It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed. Now, what does Paul mean when he uses the word ashamed? Well, the rest of the verse makes his meaning plain.

5:01He would be ashamed if he shrank back from the bold proclamation of the gospel while he was in prison for Christ. He would be ashamed if he didn't courageously honor Christ in his body no matter what happened to him, whether by life or by death, as he says. You see, the greatest tragedy for Paul isn't that he would be stuck in prison for years to come. It isn't that he might lose his life in the service of Christ.

5:34The greatest tragedy for him is that he would deny Christ, the one who had given his life for him, because of the fear of man. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 10. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both souls. Soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

6:09But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who is in heaven. What a challenging word to us. Do we fear those who can kill the body more than we fear the one who can destroy the body in hell?

6:46Do we think that the greatest tragedy in this life is that we might lose our freedom or that we might lose our lives? Or do we believe, along with Paul, that the greatest tragedy would be to deny the sovereign Lord who bought us with his precious blood? But Paul is confident that he's not going to be ashamed. He's not going to shrink back from bold proclamation of the gospel even while he's in prison. He says it's his eager expectation and hope that he is not going to be ashamed.

7:27Now, the word hope in the Bible. Has a very different meaning than the way that we use the word hope today. See, think about the way that we use hope today. What do we mean when we say hope? We mean I wish. I wish that this very unlikely thing would come to pass. But see, friends, in Scripture, the word hope means something very different. When you read the word hope in the New Testament, what it's referring to is something that is definitely going to happen at a time that you don't know.

8:05So, for example, when the New Testament authors are talking about the second coming of Christ, they'll often call it the hope, the hope that Christ is going to return. And what they don't mean is, we really hope, we wish that Jesus would come back and he would fulfill all of his promises to us to give us resurrection bodies and to glorify us and to take us to be in the new heavens and the new earth with him. It's unlikely, but it's possible that that could happen. They don't mean that. They mean when they say the hope of Christ's second coming, Jesus is definitely coming back.

8:38It's just we don't know when he's going to come back. Paul didn't know when he might be courageously called upon to stand firm for Christ. But he was confident that he would do so now as always. And why did he have that kind of confidence? Look at verse 21, this famous. Verse, for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. See, for as long as he lived his life, Paul was wholeheartedly dedicated to Christ.

9:16Paul viewed himself as a servant of Christ. So his life was all about putting in work for him, laboring for the kingdom. Last year, me and Kendra watched the Downton Abbey series together. And if you haven't seen that series, it's about this family who lives in this huge house. And the storyline follows the family upstairs and then the servants downstairs. And one of the things that you see again and again in that storyline is that the servants, they've got some free time. They can hang out and read and talk to each other and play games and stuff like that. But when those bells ring, when one of the bells from one of the rooms upstairs rings because a family member has pulled the cord, well, they run upstairs to serve. Why? It's because they understood their role. They understood that they were servants whose role was to serve the family. And that's how Paul looked at his life. He was able to say that death is gain. Not only is it not a bad thing, it's a good thing because it meant departing this world to be with Christ. Departing this world with all of its trials and suffering and Sin and brokenness to be with Christ for eternity, and that was better to him by far.

10:37Now, let's have a little heart-to-heart, you and I. I have known this verse for 20 years, and I think, at least in my head, I have believed this verse for 20 years. But if I can be perfectly honest with you, I'm not sure that my heart has ever caught up to my head in that regard. Because 20 years ago, I would have said to live as Christ and to die as game. I would have said that and I would have intended to mean it.

11:12But if I'm being completely honest with you, I wasn't ready to die for Christ 20 years ago. I wanted to graduate. I wanted to get married. I wanted to have a family. I wanted to see some of the world and have some experiences and make my mark. I wasn't ready to die for Christ. And today, if I'm being completely honest with you, I'm still not always ready to die for Christ. Because now I want to see my kids graduate. I want to see them get married and start their own families. I want to celebrate 50 years of marriage with Kendra. I want to help raise up the man who will replace me here at New Life one day. I want to do those things. I don't always feel ready to die. For Christ.

12:02And I think 20 years ago, maybe even a few years ago, I would have been very hesitant to admit that to you because I didn't want to set a bad example. But you know what? Peter was 100% sure that he was ready to die for Christ. And yet, when a little servant girl challenged him, just asked if he even knew Jesus, he denied him three times. See, what I've learned is that you're only ready to die for Christ when you have truly learned to live for him.

12:48You're ready to die with Christ when you can say, along with Paul, to me, to live is Christ. Because only when you are truly living for Christ are you ready to die for Christ. Now, I want to get there, and I believe that most, if not all, of you want to get there also. But friends, we're not going to get there alone. We're not going to get there without one another's prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit. If we're going to get to the place where we can really say to live is Christ and to die is gain, that's what it's going to take. Paul understood that.

13:27He could confidently say that he was ready. Ready, though. He could confidently say that to depart and be with Christ, that's far better. But he believed that God still had work for him to do. And so, in verses 24 through 26, he says that he knows that he's still going to remain for the Philippians' progress and joy in the faith. Remember what we talked about? Paul saw himself as a servant, just like the folks in Downton Abbey.

13:58He knew that he served a king, and when the king calls, you answer. You go right away without delay and without complaint. So Paul wanted to depart. He wanted to be with Christ because, friends, the world didn't hold a whole lot for Paul at this point. Remember, in Judaism, he had already ascended to the heights. He was already successful and powerful and influential and probably wealthy. He'd already experienced all that. And since he came to faith in Christ, 39, or five different times, rather, he received 39 lashes. Just imagine what this man's back looked like after being whipped 195 times. He was beaten with rods three times. Another time, he was stoned and left for dead. He was shipwrecked multiple times, went for weeks without food. What did it take for this guy to even get out of bed in the morning?

14:59So if it were. Up to Paul, he's just being straight up honest with all the readers and with us today. He would rather depart and be with Christ. What did the world hold for him at this point? But he saw himself as a servant. And because he saw himself as a servant, he was willing to stay and endure more suffering if it meant the Philippians' progress and joy in the faith. So, friends, I want to ask you today: do you view yourself in that same way?

15:30Do you see yourself as a servant of Christ? Do you ask yourself, what is best for me? Or do you ask yourself, what is best for others? You can certainly take serving others too far. Some people struggle to keep boundaries in their life. Anytime anybody asks them to do something, everybody else's agenda is their agenda. They drop everything. That's not healthy. But, friends, for most of us, that's not the problem. The problem isn't that we have no boundaries and we're just so quick to serve everyone at any point. We have the opposite problem. We have boundaries that are way too tight. And we say, I'll give this much money, this much time, this much energy, this much effort, but no more. That's the most I'm willing to do.

16:28But that's not the attitude. Of a servant. So we need a holy push in a different direction as far as service is concerned. I want you to remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. He said, look, if someone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. And remember, in the context, he's probably talking about Jewish people being conscripted into service by the occupying Roman army. So you are walking along going to HEB to pick up the groceries, and a soldier going the opposite direction is like, you carry my stuff right now. I'm going that way. You've got to drop everything that you're doing. You've got to pick up his stuff, and you've got to go wherever he's going.

17:11Jesus said, this is how we should think about serving our enemies. That if they force us to go one mile, we should go two. So how should we think about the family of God? How should we think about our spiritual brothers and sisters when it comes to serving them? Surely we've got to adopt the attitude of a servant. And so Paul knew that he would remain, not to pursue his own agenda, but to serve them, to become a cause of joy and rejoicing for the Philippians. And so he knew he would remain.

17:44But until he returned, he had a very specific challenge for them. He wanted them to conduct their lives in a very specific way. Let's pick up in verse 27. He writes, Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, a lot of you guys know that's one of my favorite phrases in the New Testament. I'll often use that language when I'm praying at the end of the Lord's Supper or at other times. That's my hope, that's my prayer, is that our thoughts, our words, our actions would be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

18:27Now, what's interesting is when you look at this phrase in the Greek, it could be rendered more literally. Only behave as citizens worthy of the gospel. Behave as citizens worthy of the gospel. Now, why is that significant? Well, it's significant because, as you may remember from the introduction to the series, Philippi was one of just a handful of Roman colonies. It became a Roman colony when this decisive battle was won by the Roman army over the rebellion forces led by Brutus and Cassius. And so it was given status as a Roman colony. That meant that everybody who lived there had the rights and privileges of citizenship as a Roman citizen. And so what is Paul doing? He's capitalizing on this. He's saying, in effect, it's great to be a Roman citizen.

19:20But don't forget that your primary allegiance is to heaven. You are a citizen of heaven. That's your primitive. Primary allegiance. What a crucial message for us today when our country is so bitterly divided and the divisions seem to carry over into every area of life. And Christians are not exempt from this. So many Christians, especially in America, they identify far more with their political party or their sports team or their cultural or ethnic heritage than they do with Christ and his body, the church.

20:05Friends, there's nothing wrong with holding political views. Nothing wrong with rooting for a sports team. Nothing wrong with being proud of your cultural heritage. That's all great. But we have to remember that those things are secondary. Our primary allegiance as Christians is to Christ and His kingdom because we are citizens of heaven. And because that's true, we have to conduct ourselves like citizens of heaven. So what does that mean? What does it mean to conduct your life in a manner worthy of the gospel?

20:38Well, in verses 27 through 30, Paul is going to outline that. He's going to say that there are three characteristics of citizens who are living lives worthy of the gospel: unity, mission, and courage. Unity, mission, and courage. First, kingdom citizens. Are characterized by unity. So, if we are walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, Paul says that we will be standing firm in one spirit. Our lives simply cannot honor God as Christians if we are not walking in unity together. And as we noted just a moment ago, our country is so bitterly divided, and things seem to be getting to the point where we just accept division in all areas of life, including the church, as normal.

21:32We view those who disagree with us not as people with different perspectives, different opinions based on their understanding of the facts of a particular situation, but as enemies, as obstacles to be overcome. And if we're being discipled by cable news networks and social media and worldly thinking, wherever it's found, we can't be surprised at all when that same divisive spirit, that angry yelling and that cancel culture mentality, when all of that stuff finds its way into the church. Of course, it's going to, because we're being discipled in that way. But, friends, kingdom citizens have to live differently. We have to unite around the gospel of Jesus Christ and the primary issues of faith and practice. We can't allow secondary issues or tertiary issues, we can't allow opinions about things that don't really matter in the end. Divide us as the church.

22:34Remember, the world expects one of two things from the church. The world expects the church to be divided, just like it is, or it expects the church to have a monolithic culture where everybody looks the same as far as skin color and how we dress, where everybody talks and acts the same, where everybody does the same stuff. Friends, the beauty of the church is that we aren't divided and that we aren't monolithic. We are united around the things that really matter, the gospel and the primary issues of faith. So, the first characteristic is unity.

23:14Second, kingdom citizens are characterized by mission. If we're walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, Paul says that we'll be striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Now, this is another really interesting phrase in the Greek. Paul may have chosen this language, striving side by side, to bring to mind the Greek phalanx. It was this military battle formation that was used with deadly precision by Alexander the Great, whose father founded Philippi. So, in a Greek phalanx, you have columns of soldiers marching very close together. They have these spears that are 16 to 20 feet long, they march in unison. And then they run together, and then they put up the shields in the front and on the sides and on the top. So you've got this like porcupine thing coming right at you. That doesn't sound fun, does it? Coming right at you. Paul says, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. He was never shy about using military analogies to describe the Christian life. And you may remember that earlier in chapter one, he said that his job and our job as Christians is to defend and confirm the gospel. Or as we would say at New Life, to preserve and proclaim the gospel.

24:37That mission, as we talked about last week, wasn't given just to people with the gift of evangelism. It wasn't given just to people who are going into vocational ministry. That mission was given to every single believer. So listen to what Alec Motyer wrote on the screen. He said, The church, which is experiencing unity, must be a church without passengers. Isn't that a great word picture? There's nobody that's just sitting on the bus cruising along in the same direction. He says, Is there unity where there is the tacit or spoken attitude, I agree with you, but I will not do anything for you? Or I agree with your aims, but I will not go with you to fulfill them. Acquiescence is not unity. Consent.

25:30Is not cooperation. Approval is not partnership. We are all called to be on mission together. Third, kingdom citizens are characterized by courage. If we're walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, Paul says that we won't be frightened by anything from our opponents. See, we don't have to fear man as we talked about before because the worst thing the man can do to us is kill the body. But Jesus said, don't fear those who can kill the body but can't kill the soul, because death is not the end for the believer. Remember, to die is gain, Paul says. Those who are left behind will feel the loss. But for the believer who has died, he or she has gained.

26:27So we're called to have courage in the face of our opponents and opposition. And Paul writes in verses 28 through 30 that our courage is like a two-way sign. One side is pointing to the non-believer, and one side is pointing to the believer. First, our courage is a sign of warning to non-believers. Paul says that it's a clear sign to them, our courage is a clear sign to them of their destruction. So I want you to imagine if it's your job to destroy the destruction To imprison Christians or to torture them or to execute them, what would you expect to find? In your day-to-day job, if your job is to imprison, torture, or execute Christians, what would you expect to be dealing with? You'd expect to be dealing with people who are beside themselves, crying, screaming, pleading for their lives, going crazy. And yet, time and time again, what we find in both scripture and Christian history is that people who were imprisoned and tortured and martyred for their faith did so with peace and joy and hope and faith to the degree that their imprisoners, their torturers, their executioners, many of them came to faith in Christ. Because they had to ask the question: how can you face the prospect of the end of your life, which is all that there is in their view? How can you face the prospect of the end of your life with such peace and hope and joy and faith? That makes no sense.

28:00It was a sign to them of their destruction. And many of them were convicted and led to repentance and faith in the Christ that they believed in. And so Paul says, first of all, that it's a warning to non-believers. Remember what we talked about last week? God uses our suffering to advance the gospel. But secondly, he says, our courage is a sign to believers. It's a sign of assurance. Let's read this last section together. Verse 28 starts. In the middle. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 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 here I still have.

28:53I'm not real sure what you're supposed to do with those verses if you have believed in the prosperity gospel that says Christians are promised a healthy, wealthy life. Paul says very clearly right here: it's been granted to you not just to believe in Jesus, but also to suffer for him. And Paul is saying that when we suffer, it's a sign that we are being saved. I want to remind you of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Take a look: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

29:41You see, friends, our suffering far from being a sign that God has forgotten us or that He's angry with us or He's disappointed with some area of our life, it's actually confirmation, Paul says, that God is saving us. The whole reason that we are experiencing suffering is because we are going through the same thing that Jesus went through. And because we're going through the same thing that Jesus went through for the same reasons that Jesus went through it, we can expect the same reward.

30:08So our suffering is actually a sign of assurance to Christians. So we see that kingdom citizens are called to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. And what that means is that our lives are going to be marked by unity and mission and courage. But friends, none of those characteristics come naturally to us. When we become citizens of God's kingdom, it's an even bigger change than if we were to move overseas to a new country and pursue citizenship there. They're going to have different beliefs and different values and different laws than we have in our country. And even if you got there and right away you started applying for citizenship and it was your intention to internalize those beliefs and values, it was your intention to understand the law and know how to apply it in your life, it would still take time for you to internalize those beliefs and values. It would still take time for you to understand the laws and how they're supposed to be applied to everyday life. So how much more is that going to be true for people like many of us who through faith in Christ have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light? That's a much bigger change.

31:31Many of us have had that experience where through faith in Christ we have become citizens of heaven. But maybe we're in this place where our beliefs and our values haven't fully been internalized. Where the law of Christ is still not fully internalized. We're still learning to live as citizens of heaven. Well, friends, if that's your experience, then it's the same as every other Christian's. And I want to encourage you today that sanctification is a lifelong process. Your entire life is going to be spent internalizing the values and beliefs that come out of God's Word instead of the values and beliefs of this world. Your entire life is a practice of understanding the law of Christ and living it out in everyday life. So don't despair when your life right now doesn't match up to everything that you see and read and hear from God's Word. Instead, press on, knowing that through the power of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of other believers, you are becoming more and more like Christ. You are displaying more and more the characteristics of a citizen of heaven.

32:44And there are likely some of us here today, or some watching online, who know that you can't honestly say, for to me, to live as Christ and to die is gain. You may have considered yourself a Christian for years, even for decades. But when you honestly assess your life, you know that you are not truly living for Christ in every area. You've believed maybe the facts up here in your head, but there's never been a time where from your heart you have trusted in Christ. The Holy Spirit has filled you, and you are now living your life as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Friends, I want to tell you today that if that's you, there's no shame in admitting that. C.T. Studd, this famous athlete from the 19th century, as a 17-year-old at the height of his fame going into professional athletics, he had to come to that realization. He knew the facts about Jesus. He had the head knowledge, but his heart and his life had not been transformed. But as soon as he repented of his sin and trusted in Christ by faith, his life began to change to the point that he gave his life in service to God and his gospel, dying on the mission field at 71 years of age.

34:10Friends, that can be true for you as well. That you can begin living like a kingdom citizen today, where you view life as service and death as gain. But that won't happen for you until you've been transformed in the same way that C.T. Studd was. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks for your word to us and the challenge that we have received from Paul today. A man who really sought to be your servant in every area of his life.

35:23He didn't want there to be these hidden corners, these pockets where he was serving himself. He wanted to serve you and your people. And so he could say that for him to live as Christ and to die is gain. But God, for a lot of us, we're just not there yet where we can honestly say that. And so we pray that you would renew our hearts and minds, transform us, so that we are genuinely and truly living for you in every way, so that we can say death is gain because all of my life is about Christ already.

35:59We thank you for. For the examples, not just of Paul, but of people that we have known in our lives who are sold out for Christ, who are living all of their life for Him and His glory. And we pray that that would be our testimony as well. That people could look at us and see what a kingdom citizen and a kingdom citizen's life look like. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.