For Christ's Sake, Philippians, 1:29-30
Philippians 1:29-30 · Vern Peterman · Jun 1, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262255582723

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

As you look at the passage here this morning, one of the things we want to do just before is make you aware this evening we're going to be having the Lord's Table and a baptism. Starting off with a baptism in here, and that's tonight at 6 o'clock, just so you're aware of that and can keep it in mind. And so what we'll do is we'll begin in here and then move into the red carpet room for the Lord's Table time, just so you can keep that in mind here. There will also be a fellowship time afterwards so feel free to stick around and enjoy time with the others.

One thing I wanted to let you know. The reason this is here. We're not going to Lake Tahoe tonight. I thought it was interesting, I was kind of pondering. Nancy and I were in Carson City. We used to take folks to Lake Tahoe to baptize them because then we knew they were really serious. Okay? We won't do that tonight. Okay.

We do have the privilege of moving into our study of God's Word here this morning and looking at the last two verses of the first chapter. And as we look at that, it's short, but just like we've seen before, there's this power of packed meaning and significance in just each word and each verse.

As I've gone through it, I've just been amazed and impressed and astounded at the depth of God's Word here. So as Wayne read for us, and we'll read it again just to make sure we have it foremost in our minds, starting in verse 29, For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me. Paul has been going through, as he's writing this really relatively brief letter to the church at Philippi, as he's been going through this, he's been sharing with them, here's how the ministry is going, and he's writing from a prison cell. And as he's doing that, he is giving them deep spiritual insights as he's also thanking the Lord for their participation in the ministry. And now he comes upon a very important aspect of what he has to tell them. So let's take a look at it here. We have some key words, and typically we kind of hold those off a little bit. We want to start right into them here, and there's a reason why. We'll see in a bit.

On the first side of your handout, the first key word that pops out there is the word that's translated granted or given in the King James there. And it's karitsomai. It's freely given as a gift. And this word, It's here written in the Aorist tense and in the passive voice.

So what this means, Paul's telling them, this granting was already done, okay? It's not something that's in process or going to happen. It's already done. It's in the past, and the granting was done by the Lord. That's the communicated intent here of the passive voice. It's not something the saints at Philippi deserved, earned, or had some part in developing.

It wasn't something they came up with on their own. Here's another example of the use of this word so that we kind of get a sense of what this means. I think as we start to weigh this, this is an amazing revelation. This is not something that as human beings we would arrive at on our own. That's why we need revelation, isn't it? We need to have truths revealed to us from God because we couldn't figure it out of our own doing.

All right, here's what he has in 1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.

That word freely given is the same word, charizomai. Something else we pointed out back in January, and I just want to bring it out in front of us here. There is a family of words, and charizomai is part of that family. In this family of words, this charis is kind of the head of that family, and it's the idea of grace gifting, and it is woven throughout this book.

Here's this brief book that Paul has written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Timothy is with him, assisting in the writing of it. Perhaps it's because Paul's got one hand chained to a Praetorian guard, he doesn't dare try to write, too. But nonetheless, he's here with Timothy, and as he's writing, he picks this word charisomai here at the end of chapter 1, and he's continuing to convey to them this thread of words related to one another, all having this idea of grace gifting.

Now, something that we brought out back in January, I want to revisit here, because I want to keep it fresh in our minds. Charis and the pagan Greek culture met a favor freely given without expectation of return, but it was always done for a friend or a relative or somebody you had a friendly relationship with, okay? And the difference here is as Christians use the word, and as you see it quite consistently used in Scripture, as Christians use the word, it went way, way beyond the meaning of the pagan term. because it was extended not just to those who were friends and relatives, but even to those who were enemies. So the Christians used the word with a scope that redefined it much bigger than the pagan use of the word. And so here in the context of Paul's letters, and we've been reading through this here in Philippians, and we'll continue to see the word, this family of words, Paul's letter, he means grace, favor, and goodwill proceeding from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ, directed specifically to the ones Paul's writing to.

Okay, let's see what that looks like. Here is this word, and actually, I have to tell you, I just was reading through it, and when I previously put this list up here, I hadn't caught it before. So as I was going through here, I was going to say, well, wait a minute. Here's one, because of its form, I had missed it, okay? So I need to bring it to your attention, and I made sure you got it in your handout, so you got it in front of you. So here's this word that shows up again. As a matter of fact, it's going to show up again in chapter 2.

And it's again part of this family, this charis family of words, where Paul is consistently and persistently wanting to communicate this grace-giving to these people at Philippi. Let's look at a key phrase that jumps out of this passage here. This is this one, for Christ's sake, or in the King James, the behalf of Christ. This Greek here, and we're continuing the pattern, by the way, of presenting both the Greek, because we have a number of people who are taking a Greek class here with Hal on Saturday mornings, and also the transliterated form, so those who aren't so familiar with the Greek lettering aren't totally bewildered. And anyway, this phrase here comes across, it means because of, or on account of, or for the sake of, or even regarding.

Now, verse 29 actually has the same phrase twice, but does this. The first time it talks about Christ, and the second time it uses a pronoun. But it's basically the same phrase. By using Christ in the first one, you know that the second one with the pronoun is referring also to Christ as well. What he does, he basically says, I've got something to tell you, and I'm bookending it so that you know. It's Christ and Christ at both ends of this thing. This is all about Christ. That's why he inserts it there twice. Now, the key thrust of verse 29 is he's telling them, he says, for to you it has been granted as a gift.

That's that grace word, charizomai. For you, it's been granted as a gift. Okay, you're ready for your gift? Okay, you got it? Here we go. To believe in Him and to suffer. How do you like your gift? It's free. It's a grace gift. Here's this gift, and he says, it's been granted to you as a grace gift.

To believe in Him, alright, that's good, I like that. And to suffer, oh no. He puts them together, and He makes no distinction. It's been granted both. And what does He say? For Christ's sake. Regarding Christ, it is because of Christ, because of who He is, and what He has done, and what He is doing, and what He will continue to do, that's why you've been given these.

Here's another word that shows up in there. We just looked at it as part of the gift. Believe. This Greek word pestuo, it's a believing which rests and depends upon the object of belief, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's important that we understand it that way.

It's not a believing that is hypothetical or academic. Somebody might ask you, do you believe this and that? And it's just an academic thing. If somebody gave you the diameter of the planet Mars, you might say, that's fine, but my life really doesn't count on it, does it?

However, this word is talking about a personal dependence upon that kind of belief. You are believing in the pews you are sitting on. Why? You are not simply mentally assenting to the, yes, there are pews and I believe it's possible for a person to sit on them, but you are actually personally depending upon those pews. In some parallel sense, that kind of a belief, it's a belief that relies upon the fact, not simply mentally assents to it as hypothesis.

Something else to make note of here is we have these different words that we use Sometimes with different shades of meaning in English, to believe, to trust, to have faith, and we a lot of times use those somewhat interchangeably, but also put shades of meaning. This word here is used for all three, and you will find those, as you read through the New Testament, translated into the different English words, and the word behind it is the same. So something to take note of. Be careful we don't put our English shades of meaning on it when underneath it, it doesn't necessarily have that.

Something else, and this is drawing from an illustration we brought out a month and a half or so ago on our Resurrection Sunday, and that is just to recognize here when we talk about believing or having faith or trusting that we are believing upon spiritual facts based upon reality. of Christian belief. It is the nature of biblical belief. Feelings are not the basis of belief. They may well be a by-product of, and scripture does not ignore feelings, but our faith is founded in spiritual facts, founded in reality.

Another key word here, to suffer. The Greek word posko, to suffer, it means to be subjected to external influences that cause the suffering. So he's using a particular word, he's picking that word to use with him, because there are actually several words he could have chosen. He's picking that word because while believers may go through suffering of different kinds, what they are going through at this particular time is one that's subject to external influences, and we'll take a look at that in a bit.

Now, the suffering of the Philippians, as we've seen from verse 28, I remember that was last week, came from the believers' spiritual opponents at Philippi. We looked at the fact that it may have been some Jewish opponents, it may also have been, and I think probably more likely and more evident, would have been just simply Roman opponents. The Romans had already made themselves clear in Acts 16 that they were not going to stand for anything that conflicted with their being Roman. And that very present and ongoing opposition may well have gotten their attention and may well be the thing that he's referring to here. But this suffering for the Philippian believers was coming from without.

Okay. There's something else that comes out here. This is a present tense verb. And that means the suffering wasn't something, oh, it happened back there. It's going on right now. You're suffering now. It's continuing. It's happening at the moment. This is a present issue, not something that happened a while back, and remember that. This is an ongoing suffering, okay?

Now, I want to take a look at... This is what I call concise Greek of this, verse 29, and what we mean by that is we're looking at just what the Greek says, not trying to expand on it per se, and not trying to smooth out the words so that it's smooth in the English. A lot of times in our translations what the translators do is they will kind of smooth the words out so that the English is smooth. Here we want to translate it even if it may sound a little rough so that you get the full sense of just exactly what is he saying here without things massaged or smoothed around. Okay, so let's take a look at that.

For unto you it is grace given for the sake of Christ, not only the into him believing, but also for the sake of him suffering." You get the sense there? It is the believing is going on, and the suffering is going on. Both of those are for his sake, for Christ's sake. If we look at both believing and suffering, our present active infinitives, And so, continuing to believe, believing is the Lord's grace-given gift. Continuing to believe is His. And that's important to note. The Lord's the one that's holding you.

When the Lord is talking in John 10.28, it's interesting, He starts off this potent verse, and what He says is, I am constantly giving life to my sheep. He is the one who is giving life. are continuing to believe that's actually His doing. It's His doing. He is the one who is constantly giving life. He is the one who is grace-giving to us.

And continuing to suffer is also the Lord's grace-given gift. Those two points come out in this passage. Well, I suffered back then a few years ago, and boy, it was tough, but I'm sure glad it's over, and I'm never going to go there again, right? No. He's saying that your continuing to suffer, even now, is a grace-given gift. Wow. Okay. Now, let's look at the next verse here, verse 30. "...experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me." It's really a continuation. He's carrying on the same thought.

The key word that jumps out there It's experiencing in the New American Standard, having in the King James. The Greek word is echo, and months ago we actually went over this word in the book of Revelation, because the Greek word sense of this word echo is to have by personal possession. Have by personal possession. Grasping in one's hand. It's yours. It's yours.

Now, it's amazing how he applies this. So what he's saying, since the word is written in the present tense, what they're having is in the present and ongoing. It's a right now continuing thing that he's conveying to them. So, then we need to continue on to get the full sense of what's continuing. What are they having? What are they experiencing? And he uses the word that's translated conflict. The Greek word is agon, and we have agony, agonized. Those are words in English that are derived from this same word.

It's an athletic contest, and especially in the culture at Philippi, it would be thought of as athletics and military competitions were thought of as side-by-side. That would be the perspective that they would understand Paul's writing in. Because to them you would have, you know, a running competition, a wrestling competition, even, you know, racing chariots, having a competition like a military demonstration at the amphitheater. All those things would be falling under that category.

So that's how Paul's using this. Paul pictures his ongoing conflict, okay, this is, remember, his, as one grace-gifted with ongoing belief and ongoing suffering as an athletic contest. And you notice that he draws upon that as he writes not only to this church, but to others as well. He pictures their, not just his now, he pictures their ongoing conflict in the same athletic contest as being like his own. That's the way he's writing this here.

He says, you've been participating with me in ministry, you saints at Philippi, you've been participating with me in this ministry, and you've been supporting me financially, you have been ongoing concerned about how things are happening, you've been praying with me and for me about things, and guess what? You're also joining me in this. In the believing, and particularly in the suffering. Alright, now, here's a way that Paul uses the same word, because I think it's helpful to have us look at other verses that help convey the idea so that we get a sense of what is this telling us.

He says, and this is one that's frequently quoted, but it helps us to see what's going on, I have fought the good fight. And as we look at that, the verb form of agon is agonizomai, and that's what he uses here is I have fought. He just uses the verb form of the same thing. The good fight and fight is agon. So he's using both those together.

I have fought the good fight. I have conducted this athletic slash military competition. And I've come to the end of it, is what he's telling him. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And by the way, this Second Timothy is Paul's last letter.

In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing." Okay? So this word that he uses that is frequently translated, you know, fighting the good fight, that's the same word, that there is an intensity about it.

Something else. Have you ever, you know, gone to an athletic competition? or especially seen some people in the Olympic events, they're going all out, aren't they? They're really pushing. Some of you have either participated with some of those events, you're in them, or have family and friends that have been involved in that. If you've seen what it's like, there's an all-out playing of this event, whatever it is.

This is an intensity that he's communicating to them. Both the athletic and military teams would have an agoni or agon in the amphitheater of Philippi. They would have this same kind of a contest, same kind of a competition, conflict. So that's the kind of word that he's using with them. They would easily picture what would happen in this very amphitheater in Philippi as they saw this.

Just to get a sense of what this was like time-wise, because Paul is really using something that is time sensitive, okay? As we look back there early and looking at kind of the sequence of events that led up to his involvement with the church at Philippi and then writing to them, what we find is there back in Acts 16, that's where the initial event took place, okay? And remember what happened back then?

Here was Paul and Silas, and they were falsely accused, and then they were taken by the Roman lictor, and they gave them both a whipping, and then the jailer was told, hold them securely. So the jailer put them in stocks in the jail, so they were double bound. In that environment, with that kind of a treatment, that's why Paul was saying, you have seen in me past tense. You saw in me.

He's referring back to that event. You were there, you saw it, you know about it. And now, at this point in time, it's now here to be in me. Now, you're not here, you're in Philippi, I'm in Rome, but you're hearing it in my letter and you may well have heard it before. I'm telling you now, I'm going through the struggle here as I'm chained to a Praetorian guard. And so in both instances, what you saw and what you hear, both those cases, I'm going through a conflict, a struggle, a contest.

And you're sharing it with me. You think about this, here's this, he saw in me, this was, here was the forum and what they would do is, this forum right there is where they would whip Paul and Silas. So here in this forum you see right in front of you. They just clear an area and they want to make sure everybody saw. They want to make an example of them. They just clear an area and they just say, OK, you're there. Give it to them right there.

And the Philippian believers saw it, whether they were believers at the time or not. They saw it. And then they put him in prison. And we know that the Philippian jailer and his family became believers. And obviously the jailer was there, so he saw it. And others may have seen it as well.

He says, now here to be in me. What's happening now? He's being chained to a Praetorian guard. Constantly. Day in, day out. Weekends off, no. None of that. He is constantly being chained to a Praetorian guard, just in shifts. And they have no obligation to be nice to him in the process.

And then finally, he is writing to them about this very account, giving them the full insight. What you saw in me, and what you hear now. Both of those are involved here. You saw suffering, you're hearing about it now. Then, it's real interesting, you kind of get a perspective. This suffering is not something that Paul just did occasionally. Something is made particular note of in the book of Acts. Paul in Acts chapter 9 becomes a believer, and this is one of those places in the book of Acts where you actually see a quote from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And here is one in Acts 9.16. The Lord says, For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. Paul didn't know then, but he would find out, wouldn't he? He would find out. And this is in Damascus on Straight Street where Ananias found Paul.

Alright, let's turn back to the Greek here. This is the concise Greek of verse 30. If you reduce it down to what's the Greek itself convey and not try to smooth it out. Yourselves having the same athletic contest which you saw in me and now you are hearing in me. That's the concise idea there. You're having it as a personal possession. the idea that the Greeks conveying this athletic contest throw in military aspects if you like that was that also fit the word so it's saying the sharing and ministry that the Philippians had done with Paul also meant sharing in the sufferings with Paul that came with it that was part of the grace giving Let's look at this, this is the expanded and explained version which you have on the back side of your handout on side 2 or page 2 there.

It says, For to you, the church at Philippi, and this is given in plural form, it has been given out of undeserved grace regarding Christ. How about that? This is undeserved, okay? You didn't earn it? You didn't work for it? this is entirely undeserved, this is entirely by grace, regarding Christ, not only the continually believing in Him, but also the continually suffering regarding Him. Right now, continually having in your personal possession the same athletic-like conflict which you saw in me while I was at Philippi with you, and now hear about me, now that I am in Rome, being continually chained to a Praetorian guard.

There are a few places in Scripture where this same truth just jumps out at you. And I think it's valuable and important for us to take a look at it, because some of the same words we've been looking at come out as well, even though this is not about Paul. Here's an instance. Paul wasn't even a believer yet. But look at what happens. Here's Acts 5, starting partway into verse 40, and continuing into verse 41.

After calling the apostles in, and this is the Sanhedrin, okay? They had called the apostles in, they flogged them, and I would say there was a temple guard, and the temple guard had the latitude to flog under command. They flogged them, and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. This was the apostles except Paul. So they went on their way from the presence of the council, that's the Sanhedrin, rejoicing...

Here's this word Cairo. One of the grace family of words, the charis family of words. Rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. What's interesting, this word worthy means of equal weight or equal value. rejoicing that they had been worthy, been of value or weight such as to suffer in Christ's name. Now that is amazing. The in His name is also similar in structure to that Philippians 129 passage we're looking at there. It is amazing. Here are these guys.

Paul's not a believer. They haven't talked to Paul, and Paul doesn't understand this principle yet. And yet, the words that come out, even the structure that comes out, is very similar to what Paul's writing here, decades later, in Philippians 129. To me, that's just a hidden evidence of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is communicating consistently a message to us. Let's take a look at another one. Romans 5. Now here's Paul. Paul is a believer. He's writing to the church at Rome. And this is at a time prior to the time when he goes to Rome, when he writes the book of Philippians, okay? So here's what he writes to the Roman Christians.

In chapter 5, 3 through 5, and not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and that perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts, through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

This word, exult, we looked at previously in Philippians 1.26. This is the one that's often translated glory, glorying. We glory in our tribulations, Paul says. Now that is amazing. That is incredible. It's also completely unnatural. Have you noticed that? It's completely unnatural. It is not the natural response.

Now, one of the things I think is important to make a distinction about here, Paul is not saying that we rejoice simply in the trial in and of itself. We're not masochists. We're not saying, whoopee, I just broke my leg. That's not the point. What he is saying here is he's saying, I'm not looking at the trial itself I am looking instead at what the Lord is doing in my life and heart that is going to have value way far beyond the time frame of this trial.

That's what he's looking at, and that's what he spells out here, isn't it? He's saying, down the road, there's an end product that the Lord is working for that makes this trial a grace gift. Aside from that, it doesn't make any sense, does it? The world's perspective on these trials Get them over and get out of them. For the believer, the Lord has a specific intent. Now, let's take a look at another one here.

Here's Romans 8.18.

He says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, there's that word worthy again, to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Notice here the scale that we have in front of us here. The glory to be revealed in us far outweighs the sufferings of this present time.

One way to look at it is, the Lord says, does that suffering have a price? Yes. But the payoff is so great that it's a bargain. And that's what He's asking us to do. He's asking us to say, are you really happy about the suffering? Not directly about the suffering itself, but the payoff is so, so far out of comparison, all out of proportion to the suffering itself, the Lord says, it's worth it. And not only that, I want the church to know, I want individual believers and believers together to know that this suffering is my grace gift to them. Isn't that amazing? That is amazing.

The world just does not understand that. The world cannot comprehend that. You know as well as I, the world is looking at, you know, from the cradle to the grave, trying to make it all make sense right within that period of time. And you know what? This just doesn't fit in that period of time.

And that's why we have the different perspective. That's why we have an entirely different view of the believing and the suffering. That's why this gift, remember that gift that we had kind of dropping out of the sky there? That's why this gift to the world is incomprehensible. They don't understand the believing and they really don't understand the suffering part. And how those could be grace gifts are beyond them. One of the things I think it's critical for believers to keep in mind is that what the Lord is doing is not just giving us an experience.

The world is going to sell you experience, okay? Oh, you've got to have this experience or that one. And boy, this is a great thing and that one. I have even heard believers tell somebody, oh, if you become a believer, you'll just be on a smooth highway. No. And that is not at all what Paul is telling them here, is he?

Instead, the Lord is going to take everything, everything, including these sufferings, to conform us to the image of His Son. That's the process that's going on. Because as believers, we're looking way beyond what this life has to offer and the rewards that this life has to offer. We're looking at the scale and saying, look, compared to what is ultimately going to be the Lord's giving in this, what we are getting now is nothing in comparison. And those sufferings are indeed the grace gift because of what the Lord makes of it, what the Lord turns it into. So as we look at this chapter, here's Paul and he's been talking about grace gifting all the way along.

And now he comes after and he drops the big one on them. You know what this Keres family of words is all about. This stuff you get for free and that all sounds good. This suffering is a grace gift. And it's the first time he's really come out straight out and told them that. It's a grace gift. Because the Lord intends for us to have this kind of a scale, a glory to be the person of Jesus Christ formed in us that far outweighs the suffering now.

I can remember about 11 years ago I came down with Lyme disease and boy it just was nasty from an earthly standpoint and various sphincter dropped out, parts of my body I couldn't feel, other parts felt like somebody ran over with a truck. But I can remember one day just kind of laying on the couch you know, all I could do, much else. And thinking, you know, I'm pretty useless, and yet you, the Lord, died for me, you know? And the things that, you know, you can't see it on the outside, okay? There's parts of my body I can't feel, and there are other parts that feel at various times like somebody plugged them into the wall socket.

Hopefully I don't do that too often when I'm here in front. There are times when that pain just hits me. It is not something I look at and say, oh boy, I sure wish it would go away. No. Over the last 11 years, the Lord has repeatedly brought home lessons and things that he's doing, and he is performing a process that I can't always see.

And he's in the process of using that to conform me to the image of the Son. Each of us as believers here in this room have that marvelous grace gift. The Lord is using those sufferings, whatever those be, and they will come. to conform us to the image of a son.

Paul calls it a grace gift and ties it to the saints that have to do with rejoicing and joy. Isn't that neat? Marvelous. Thanks. Lord, as we look at this grace gift that you have given us to not only be believing, but to be suffering for your sake, we thank you that we too join with the saints and realize that you are in the process of doing something this world does not understand and cannot comprehend. You are using these sufferings in the various forms and frequencies that they come. We thank you that you are using those forms to form the very person of Christ within us. And we thank you, Lord, that you have a value and a glory that is far beyond the measure of the suffering itself. We give you thanks for that. We give you thanks because we know we can count upon you as our faithful Lord. Amen.