conduct of the church

Philippians 1:27- 30

Well, as I prepared today’s message this week, like many of you I’m sure, I was still affected to some degree over the recent presidential election.  And I think that in many ways today’s passage is a response to that despondency that many Christians felt in the aftermath.  I spoke about this somewhat last Wednesday night and I’ll briefly repeat the gist of my introduction to that lesson in 1 Timothy  again this morning.  And the main point that I made last Wednesday was that while I am frustrated, I am not surprised by the outcome of the election.

However, my frustration is not with the liberals, or the homosexual community, or the abortion rights activists, or any of the other special interests groups that helped reelect this president.  My frustration is with the church.  According to some data I saw the other day, 78% of Americans consider themselves to be Christians.  And yet we have an election which is basically a referendum on abortion rights, homosexual marriage, legalizing marijuana, and legalizing certain forms of gambling, and all the above win the day.  Obviously the results show that the Christian community, the church, has become corrupted by the culture, rather than winning the culture.

Jesus said in Mat 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”  The church is supposed to be the salt, the preservative, against the corruption that is in the world.  But instead, we have become so much like the culture, we have accepted so much of the world’s corruption into the church, that we are no longer salty.  We are just part of the corruption.  It has infiltrated the church.

For instance, homosexuality is now being debated whether or not it is a sin.  It’s being treated like something less than sinful.  And once you cross that line of taking something that God calls evil and you call it good, then there is a hard heartedness that follows that will not be forgiven.  Because forgiveness only  comes after repentance.  And where there is no repentance then there is no forgiveness. If homosexuality is not a sin, then the next step is to put it in the pulpit.  And in many mainline denominations across America that has already happened.

As a church we have stopped calling sin, sin.  We have grown cold.  We have lost our saltiness.  We are no longer the light to a dark world.  Our light has gone out in the church in America.  Jesus warned the seven churches in Revelation that if they did not repent and do the works that they did at first, He would remove their lampstand out of their place.  One of those churches was the church at Ephesus.  The very church Timothy was the pastor of.  And sure enough, a few years later Timothy was martyred, and within another century the church at Ephesus was history.

I believe the church in America has lost it’s saltiness.  And it is about ready to be thrown out and trampled under foot.  If something doesn’t change, God is going to remove our lampstand.  We didn’t exist 400 years ago, and we won’t be here much longer if we continue down this path.  We have lost our way, we have strayed from the truth.  We have replaced the absolute authority of God’s word with a watered down secular relativism that has damned the church and robbed our country of it’s moral compass.

The Old Testament counterpart to the church is the nation of Israel.  There are many, many corollaries and parallels between Israel and the church.  They were the nation of God, we are the kingdom of God.  They were God’s chosen people, we are chosen to become sons and daughters of God.  In the OT temple, Christ dwelled in the Holy of Holies.  In the NT Temple, Christ dwells in us, that we might be holy.  In the OT, the priests offered gifts and sacrifices, in the NT we are priests offering ourselves as living sacrifices to God.

But when the nation of Israel turned back to pagan gods and pagan practices, God sent prophet after prophet to warn them to turn back to God.  Instead, they hardened their hearts. God called them a stiff necked people and warned them that if they did not repent that he would send a nation to war against them and take away their lands, slaughter their armies, and take them into captivity.  Eventually that happened.  And though the judgment of God seems severe, God said it was actually for their salvation, that a remnant might be saved.  That they might turn back to the worship of the one true God and his law. By the time Christ appeared on the scene, there were only two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, left out of the original 12.  And even then most of them rejected their Messiah and so the gospel was given to the Gentiles.

Now 2000 years later I believe that today the church is in a similar place as the nation of Israel was in the days of the minor prophets.  The false prophets are going around proclaiming peace and safety and prosperity for the children of God.  That nothing bad is going to happen, that God doesn’t really care about sin and God has nothing but blessings in store for us.  And the few prophets like myself that are warning of God’s impending judgment, are ridiculed and scorned, and our message is rejected.  People don’t want to hear the truth, and they certainly don’t want to repent from all the pleasures that they enjoy in the world.  But I believe the church is living like Lot in the midst of Sodom and Gomorra and God’s judgment is inevitable.  And the Bible teaches that judgment will begin with the house of God.

Now as Paul writes to the church in Philippi it is important to understand the similarities between the Roman Empire of Paul’s day and our present day.  Philippi was a Roman colony.  It operated as a microcosm of Roman culture and society.  They worshipped many gods.  They were immoral.  They had every immoral sin in practice that we have today.  The citizens had a dependence upon the bread and circuses that were used by the emperors to curry favor from the masses. They prided themselves on belonging to the most powerful, influential empire in the world.  Rome was very comparable to America today in many ways.

But Paul’s message to the church at Philippi is a reminder that they are not citizens of Rome, but citizens of heaven.  And Paul’s message to us today is to remind us that our hope is in heaven and not in the kingdoms of this world. The word Paul uses in verse 27 is interpreted conduct in the NASB, or conversation in the KJV.  But it has as it’s root in the Greek the word polis, from which we get the word political, a city state, a free state.  You might recognize it in the word metropolis.  And he is using this word to say that they are to conduct themselves in a manner that would be proper behavior for a citizen. And he's not talking about a citizen of earth, he's talking about a citizen of heaven, a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Phil. 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  A good example of that kind of citizen is Abraham. Hebrews 11:9 “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” They were strangers and exiles on the earth. They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Paul says I want your life, I want your behavior as a church, as a Christian community in a pagan culture, to be worthy of the gospel that you believe and the gospel that you proclaim. In Phil. 2:15 “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” You are to conduct yourselves in a worthy way.

Now how does a citizen of heaven conduct himself? Follow verse 27, "In a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ."  In other words, consistent with what we know, consistent with what we teach, consistent with what we preach, consistent with what we believe. That is the integrity of the church.  We have to practice what we preach, and what we preach is the transforming power of the gospel of salvation.  That is the issue in the church today. The church is impotent to have any affect on society, because the church has lost it’s integrity.

When he mentions the gospel of Christ here, what he refers to is the good news of salvation, the good news of eternal life which God has sent into the world, that men can be saved from sin unto holiness. And the church has to live that out, our lives evidence that we have been delivered from darkness to light, from death to life, from sin to righteousness.  As I said last Wednesday night, only half of the gospel story is being taught today at best.  IF they even tell you about salvation in most churches they leave out the second half of salvation.   And the second half is vital.  For instance, when we studied Romans, we learned in the first half of Christ’s sacrifice for us.  But in the second half we learned that we were to become a sacrifice for Christ.  But most of the church today stops at the first half.  We are more than happy to accept God’s grace, but unwilling to sacrifice anything in response.  We have the mentality that we can come to Christ just as we are and stay just as we are.  We don’t have to sacrifice anything for Christ.  But that’s not the truth of the gospel is that salvation and sanctification are inseparable in real Christianity.

Paul said in Romans 12: 1,   “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Salvation results in a transformation.  And that transformation we call sanctification.  That is when we allow the Holy Spirit to live through us as Christ would live, becoming a light to a dark world.  But our self centeredness is keeping us from the life of sanctification that God requires. Hebrews 12:14  talks about “the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”  We are to be transformed.

And then Paul adds, "So that whether I come to see you or remain absent, I may hear about you."  This reminds me of  a definition of character that I heard once.  It said character is defined by what you do when no one is looking.  Not whether you can get away with it or not, whether or not you think anyone cares, but doing right, doing it as unto the Lord, regardless.  Because whether you realize it or not, someone is always looking.  For one, God is watching.  And Hebrews says in 12:1, “since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, [the saints who have gone on before us] let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Now what are the characteristics of a church that is acting worthy of the gospel? How am I understand it? Paul gives us four characteristics of a church that is conducting itself worthy of the gospel:  they are standing, sharing, striving and suffering.

First of all, a church that is behaving itself is standing, verse 27, "I want to hear of you that you are standing firm.” The Greek word is used to refer to a soldier who will not budge from his post, that you will be at your post and not move...no compromise with error, no compromise with sin, an unyielding testimony for the Word of God and the Christ of God. Stand firm, don't move doctrinally, don't move in terms of conduct from where you are to stand.  Don’t abandon your post in defense of the gospel.  Don’t stray from the truth of the word.  Don’t move to the left or right in response to the culture in regards to doctrine.  And stand firm in your personal life, your life of holiness, set apart for a sacrificial life to God.  Satan will try to ruin you doctrinally, try to ruin you financially, try to ruin you in terms of sexual purity, in terms of sobriety, whatever way he can undermine or destroy your testimony.  Stand firm.  Having done everything, stand firm.

A second word that Paul brings up is implied in the next section, that's the word sharing. In our standing firm there must be a sharing.  So he says, "I want to hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind."  God calls individuals to salvation, but he wants to bind individuals together into a unit called the church.  A single soldier can be overrun at his post, but a battalion of soldiers can hold the fort. And the church is the weapon he has formed that will prevail over Satan.  Christ said to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”   God wants us to work together in this battle.  You might think you can worship God sitting on your surfboard, or sitting on your fishing boat, or laying out on the beach and you don’t need anyone else.  But God defines worship as service.  And our service is done together through fellowship and serving one another as unto the Lord.  Eccl. 4:12 says, “And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”  We need each other, and God needs us to work with each other to be effective.

But the only way to unity is through purity.  That’s why Paul’s order here is so important.  You never sacrifice doctrinal purity for the sake of unity.  God devised the body of Christ to have many parts, and many functions. But for the body of Christ to function properly, they all have to be under the headship of Jesus Christ.  An example is an orchestra.  The only way to have unity in an orchestra, is if everyone is tuned to the same key. And the only key to unity is being conformed to Jesus Christ and His gospel.  I cannot have unity with those that do not hold to the truth of the gospel of salvation just for the purpose of getting along.

Thirdly, Paul says, the purpose of this unity is not just to get along but to “strive together for the faith of the gospel." The term he uses here is synathleō. We get the word "athletics" from it, athlete. It means to struggle along with someone. It's talking about team sports. To struggle along with someone as a team of athletes battling against the opposition to win the victory.   So the church is to operate in community to defend the gospel.  To contend for the faith. Jude1:3 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.  For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” We need each other to fight the battle.

And the last word, suffering. What does he say? Expect it. If a church is doing what it ought to it won't be easy. It has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake, it is a gift of grace. He uses the word granted here related to charis; grace, God has chosen you not only for salvation, He's chosen you for suffering and He's chosen you to experience, Paul says, the very same conflict which you saw in me. You saw it when I was at Philippi, Acts 16, and you now hear about it in me here in Rome. It goes with the territory...suffering.

But unfortunately suffering is a foreign concept to evangelical thinking today.  Rather than prophesying suffering, these false prophets are prophesying prosperity and blessing. Jeremiah 14:14  “Then the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.”  Why do they preach this message?  Because it is what people want to hear.  It may be the popular message and it may be what builds congregations, but it’s not from God.

No, Paul says in Phil. 3:10 that  when we are tuned to Jesus Christ, then it is going to mean that we are going to participate in “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Listen, the only way that the church is going to be really relevant as salt and light in this culture, is when we can say with Paul in Gal.  2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  That means we are willing to give up our lives for Christ, even as He gave Himself up for us.  And when our families see us living like that, as men and women who don’t just claim to be followers of Christ but actually do follow the example of Christ, when our neighbors and coworkers see us living like that, then the world will be drawn to our testimony rather than repelled by it.  When our walk matches our talk.

If we live like that, we can expect some suffering to go along with it.  It happened to Paul, it happened to Christ, and we should expect it to happen to us.  But if it results in the furtherance of the gospel, if it results in the furtherance of the kingdom, if it results in the furtherance of Christ’s church, then we should say with Paul, bring it on!   For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  Everything I once counted as gain in this world, I now count as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

This is the triumph of the church.  This is the victory of the church.  Not to see a conservative politician in the White House for a few more years, though that might be nice.  Not to see some laws overturned in this country, though that might be nice.  But to see men’s and women’s hearts changed by the power of the gospel.  To see men and women transformed from citizens of the kingdom of darkness into citizens of the kingdom of heaven.  That is the purpose of this church that Christ has built upon the rock of the gospel, and this church the gates of hell will not overpower.