Suffering for Christs Sake

All right, so I think what we're going to do today is we're going to go back to 121. we're going to read down for the end of the chapter. I think next week I'm challenged to look at the entire book. Yes, you are. Okay, good. Miles, Andrew, are you going to take the song from me? Anyway, all right. Number 21, a favorite verse for me, and I'm sure I'll come back to this, and Andrew did a great job a couple of weeks ago with this incredible verse in terms of dissecting it down.

For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor, yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I'm hard pressed between the two. having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you and all of your progress and joy of faith that you're rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Verse 27, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit and one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that is from God.

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here is in me." Now, the reason I started with verse 21, I said, for me to live with Christ relates to all of this that we're going to be covering today. All right, so as we usually do, let's review Andrew's lesson from last week. It's not always Andrew's lesson, but whomever preceded this week's lesson. So I'm going to be succinct here.

Paul, in verses 25 to 27, will continue to know of their progress at the church in Philippi, and the joy in their faith. So, I mean, he bonds with them to let them know that he's concerned about what's going on there. and who's going to be joyful learning about their faith as they go through the various circumstances and trials and things. Secondly, he will experience even more joy if the Lord Jesus Christ sends him back in person to be with them.

Okay, that's reasonable, right? We all sometimes have a desire to go back to some place at some time, and Margaret mentioned coming down today that we we need to get back to Scarborough, England, where her maiden name comes from, her whole family's Scarborough. So anyway, going back to someplace is something Paul has a very more important purpose, perhaps, than going back to Scarborough. But anyway, that was Paul. And then the third is that Paul encourages the church there to conduct themselves to be worthy of the gospel of Christ and stand firm in one spirit and one mind. Boyd, isn't that what we're called to here today?

I think there's no real difference between the church in 2024 and what Paul is asking the church in Philippi to do. All right, verse 28. This is a continuation of verse 27. So, for whatever reason, Roger is going to say, we're okay with that, but let's make sure we understand that, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of tradition, but to you of your salvation and that from God, and again, is basically a continuation of verse 27.

I'm going to read this entirely, so we put this in due context. Oh, we let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So whether I come and see you, or I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, as succinctly reviewed in the sections I mentioned above.

So, all right, let's go ahead now. Let's focus in initially on the first part of the verse, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries. To the class. What terrifies us or you, and who are our adversaries? I expect answers. Oh, well, maybe we need to define. Jim, go ahead. The future terrifies us. What's that? The future terrifies us. You know, what will happen? We got to speculate and stuff like that. God tells us not to worry about the future. but that's what terrifies. All says for me, whether surprise and bias gain. So the future for us is not so uncertain. The future of the world system around us can't terrify, I guess.

What other thoughts? Bob, you've got your hand kind of in the way there. When you consider all of us today, anyone who isn't a believer, is actually opposed to us. And even today, it's getting worse, and it's terrible in other countries. We're very fortunate, but we are really going downhill today in the United States. And when you come to adversaries, I think of Satan in the demon world. They're definitely our adversaries. Okay, so you're hitting on a couple of key points.

We'll come back to that in a second. I thought maybe to pause here just for a second to make sure we're on the same page is to be terrified is to be frightened. It's a passive participle, and it's a term used only once in the whole Bible. It's only used once in the New Testament. and ultimately it is as it relates to kind of a horse being startled and by the way multiple commentators I must have found four or five that claims this as the history of this this term in the agreement.

Welcome back everybody out there. I think everybody's been distracted and to allow yourself to fall into those can be somewhat of an adversary, but that typically has a physical form through a spiritual form by Satan, right? I mean, okay, you know, he's, well, Satan's active, there's no question. All right, then the next question is related to some of the comments here. You're gonna need them. Yeah, okay, there you go.

Adversaries, what are they? So according to Strong, it's any one or any force that is opposed to or adverse to what we or who we are in Christ. It's the whole antithesis of Christianity and everything we stand for and we are. Okay, so that comes up with, I think, three kinds of principles, and Bob, to some extent, has touched on this. What is the flesh? I could give multiple verses for each one of those, but the flesh, Galatians 5, 17, for the flesh lusts against the spirit. and a spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, same word, to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Okay, so one of the major adversaries is our sin nature. And ultimately, when we get terrified or frightened, don't we rely on the flesh to have that emotional response? The Lord Jesus Christ could have been terrified and frightened about much of everything in terms of his walk here in the earthly shoes. And of course, the cross was a whole different scenario. We'll not go there. But the flesh is an adversary to our day-to-day existence.

Satan himself, Bob alluded to this, 2nd Thessalonians 2.4, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. He opposes everything that is representative in Christianity.

And he continues to do that, sometimes apparently and many times very subtly. And finally, and part of the limits of this, but to any opposition to sound doctrine, which I define really as the world system. So we're talking here about fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars. you know, preparers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. I mean, the world system is subtle at times in misleading you and directing us in ways that seem right to the world, but from us biblically, the truth of the gospel is being violated day in and day out.

And I'm going to leave that out of the political sphere, but nevertheless, I think these are the three main adversaries, and they're the ones we know well here at Holly Hills. So when we're thinking of how we're frightened and terrified, I'm gonna suggest that that's the world system operating on us, or perhaps saying at times, I don't think we can distinguish that, but the flesh is what responds. And ultimately this verse says a lot about not responding to what a tremendous witness that is. Other thoughts about being frightened and our adversaries?

All right, let's go on and just summarize here. I think in context, the adversaries in Philippi were those that opposed the gospel. It's that simple. I think that we could wrap all of those up with components of being terrified as adversaries causing terror, but ultimately the terror is coming from people who are not part of the body of Christ in Philippi.

So the second part of this verse is, which is to them a proof, or an evident token is an interesting translation, but some translations use that, of perdition. So what's that mean? Which is to them a proof or evident token. Actually, ours has sign, or an ASV has sign. Sign of destruction.

Well, perdition. What's perdition? Yeah, there's an end to destruction, yeah. Okay, so perdition is not a good thing, right? True. And in context, it really relates to destruction and ultimately the loss of eternal life and eternal security, and really has directed the individual to misery. Scripture has a lot to say about Tradition directly or indirectly, but you need to define it as it is.

So what the verse says is which is to them a proof of perdition Okay, who's them? Is that the ones that are trying to alarm you? Well, yeah, these are the adversaries, right? Earlier, Bob, we kind of identified those possibly as Judaizers. Okay. likely in Philippi, more of a Gentile area, but nevertheless could be Judaizers.

And just an example, this Romans 9.22, what if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction or perdition? In other words, this is just one kind of verse that indicates that God's wrath will ultimately be poured out in a form of perdition implemented in terms of separation, destruction, and ultimately misery.

All right. So we sense that the failure on your part or our part to be frightened is an indication of such a nature as to present clear evidence to them of utter destruction. Okay. Interesting. And I think under these circumstances, meaning whatever, these that the church was going through or whatever circumstances, while we are not terrified but rest above, what a witness that is to all, including the vessels of wrath prepared in your provision. I mean, Yeah.

Well, Christ, they kind of, they accuse that of Christ. Why aren't you, don't you realize we have the right to, when he was on trial, don't you realize we have the right to basically kill you or take you? And he didn't, he answered nothing. You know, Christ was an example or instance of where he was not terrified by the world system, what they could do to him. Okay. Perfect example of that. So how do we avoid this response? Is this something you work on? Is this behavior modification? What's that? Avoid what response? Be frightened or terrified.

I think Miles has a comment. I was going to say, I think it goes back to verse 27, that only conduct yourselves, and it's related to the word citizenship, is conduct, live as citizens, which is, of course, connected with your favorite verse later in chapter three, citizenship is in heaven. I think when we know when we know where we are from or where we are seated, you know, nothing can alarm us. Well, let's think of circumstances that come up where in fact we might be frightened or terrified.

There are two ways to deal with that. Can the flesh deal with that? No. I think it can. Well, it can, but not well. You know, when the flesh responds to being terrified or frightened and says, I'm not going to be frightened or terrified, ultimately, you know, where's the power coming from? And what is the result of that behavior change?

Think of any sin for the believer. What are the consequences of falling short of God's glory in our day-to-day walk? It's the consequences of the sin. We lost the fellowship for the believer. All right, okay. So the consequences of the flesh, not giving in to the temptation to be terrified or frightened, is one in which you take glory to yourself.

I'm working on this. I can solve this problem. I can help. My psychologist can help. Let me give her or him a call. I mean, but the idea of the flesh can respond to a lot of things that we face in our day to day walk. But when the spirit responds to this, what do we call that?

Rest. I'm sorry? Rest. Okay. How about a life? For me to live. I think that's one thing here at Holly is we need to continue to emphasize we live a life in a new nature and that life where it shows up is it that's a power above The flesh trying to groom itself to have better behavior. Bob, you mentioned psychiatrists. My psychologist, psychologist, my psychologist or psychiatrist is the word of God.

If you're in the Word of God, there are so many promises God has given us, unconditional promises, that we don't, no matter where we're at, we don't have to worry about it. My brother asked me right after 9-11, he said, what about that believer that's laying underneath the tower, knowing that nobody's going to save him, that believer should be able to just lay back and say, I'm in God's hands and be happy there. He may pass away, he may die, but it doesn't make any difference because of God's promises in his word. And he can rest in his faith. All right. So I think the life shows up by only one means. What's that? It's our faith, is it not? We live by faith. I mean, the principle of faith, as Schofield says, is so simple.

Believing what God has revealed. And for Adam and Eve, God gave all they needed to believe. And for the entire Jewish nation through the Old Testament, God gave them all they needed to believe. And for us today, everything is Jesus Christ. In fact, for the whole history of scripture, it's all Jesus Christ. In fact, I also believe that many people in the Jewish nation did not appreciate what the prophecy was all about.

But anyway, all that aside, I'm just saying the flesh often can conquer a circumstance in which we're called on spiritually to have a life show up. And that's an act of faith. And by the way, we're all being groomed day in and day out to have our faith mature. All right, a little bit of an aside there.

Bob, you could argue that that's why the Lord allows trials, because without the trials, we would depend more upon self and not upon Him. When trials come, many times we realize that we can't handle it. Paul's going to say something about that in the next verse, actually. All right, let's go ahead and see what maybe Trying to get on the right page here, mouse, where's the mouse?

There you go, there we go. Okay, but to you of your salvation, this is the end of this verse and that from God, how does this relate to our salvation? How does this not being terrified by adversaries relate to our salvation? Well, wouldn't we say, you know, we think about the three aspects of salvation, You're probably already going to get it.

Yeah, this is phase two. This is phase two. You're right. All right. So, first of all, in 1st 27 that Miles turned his back to, we stand firm only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so the concept is the three, you know, first of all, McCulloch says the fearlessness proves that the opponents are lost and also proves the Philippians are saved. So, okay, that's true.

And I think Whitefoot gives us another kind of view of this and many people quote him, so I'm going to read what he said. Whitefoot finds here an illusion in accord with striving together to the sign of life or death given by the populace in the amphitheater when a gladiator was vanquished by turning the thumbs up or down. The Christian gladiator does not anxiously await the signal of life or death from the fickle crowd, but the great director of the contest himself has given him a sure token of deliverance.

I think that's kind of profound, actually. We could spend a lot of time looking at this. But you're absolutely right. I think I ultimately referred to this in a section going forward. in terms of the three phases of salvation. But anyway, I've been saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved.

So that very much relates to how we respond as believers to the adversaries that exist all around us. Okay. on to verse 29, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. All right, let's look at the first part of that verse. How should we interpret granted or been given, do you think? Well, while I'm holding up my Bible, I've made some grace given. Okay, I think you've hit that on the head. Here the Greek term relates to charisma. So it implies to give ultimately graciously, to give freely, and to bestow. So you may not like it, but this is a gracious gift of the Lord for us to have, in fact, the ability to suffer for his sake.

Only right now we're dealing with the first part of the verse. So, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. And so, I'm going to say this, some of this seems pretty easy to believe on him, right? But the other part is often not so easy as to suffer for him.

And that relates to the worship proceeding. So believing in him also is to suffer for his sake, takes on the second verb, that's here's where I had it, of being saved. I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. So this idea of salvation being implemented in us is a process of conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, it's easy to talk about this, to teach this, to preach this, but to live this is a whole different ballgame, and it really is dependent on our faith. Hey, Bob? Yes, Jim? When he says, for you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, does that imply that we don't really have a choice?

Well, I think in context, we're talking about this second tense of the term salvation. We still have a free choice, do we not? Well, we do. So what's given to us is an opportunity to allow the Spirit to lead us to make choices that are consistent with His glory, right? So it's been granted to us. We have every opportunity to respond. in the nature of our new creation in Christ Jesus.

Is that okay, Bob? There's a lot of theologians who use this verse for high five-point Calvinism, saying that there's no choice. But if you look at the whole verse, and notice the second part of the verse, but also to suffer for his sake, that implies a free will and choice. So I don't think we can interpret this verse as high Calvinism. But remember the previous verse says it's for our salvation.

So ultimately, I think this is part of our growth in grace through trials and tribulations. But the believing in him, isn't that I don't like the term choice, because as a believer, there's no choice. I mean, the Spirit leads us to be confirmatory about everything Scripture says. But ultimately, in the human intellect and spirit, we have an opportunity to maybe make a right choice from the flesh perspective.

I shared that earlier. But ultimately, there's no victory there. And, you know, if you think of First Corinthians 3, where Wood, Hay, and Stubble is a lot of our own choices that were not consistent with God's glory being manifested. So I think the idea here is not a fifth point Calvinism. Boy, if we put that here, we're dead in the city, I think. Other thoughts?

So we definitely don't have a choice as to what trials we're known to suffer. No, no. And we have a choice of how to react when their right mind would choose to suffer, right? Well, that's, that's, but in the hand of Christ, we're called to believe in Him, and that means a continual belief, and also to undergo trials. Yes, and trials strengthen you. And we're going to come back to trials in a second. We'll make sure that time doesn't get away from us. Bob, did you have a final comment? Okay.

All right, so 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7, it could have gone to James 1, 3, and 4, but just, I mean, Scripture, you guys all know this, and this you recently did rejoice. Though now for a little while, if need be with you, you have been grieved by various trials, that the gentleness of your fate be much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Boy, how strong. Of a versus that, I mean, and I think, you know, James 1, 3 and 4, you can turn there and there are many other areas where we're called to in fact.

Yeah, we had a drop out bill. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah, I didn't I didn't pick it up at the time, but the screen sharing. Oh, okay. It says we're not getting the notes. Did I do something wrong? Oh, it just dropped out again. Digital agent notes. Oh, you moved it? Okay. Computers are great. Well, the great one that work. Looks good, Bill. Thanks, Bill.

All right, I turn to So I thought Myra said something kind of profound here and I'm going to quote him. This is an added honor conferred on us by our Lord. The king gives us the opportunity of lying in the stocks with him, of standing at the same pillory, and of being crucified on the same calvary. So back to what you were saying, Ross, this is all about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those who have drunk of his cup shall share his throne. When earth and heaven shall pass away, his fellow sufferers shall be his chosen bodyguard and attendance in a world where all shall love and honor him."

Pretty profound. So ultimately I think to paraphrase something that's much more profound than I can ever give it is the idea that when we suffer on his behalf that is related to kind of the crowns ultimately that relate to our relationship to Christ. Everybody's going to be satisfied when we're out of this earthly body. I think the crowns and rewards we don't work for We live by faith, and ultimately God will decide, you know, that in the future when we're in heavenly places. So, Nate Meyers, I think, hits it on the head.

Polypius 3.10, that we're gonna come to this, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.

I mean, Paul doesn't, he just showed us in verse, or chapter one here, that he's gonna be coming back to this. And Peter deals with this, James deals with this, everybody deals with this. Okay, the last verse of this particular section, having the same conflict which you saw in the beginning and now here is in me. Is Paul saying that they will have the same conflict that they're witnessing in him? Same kind of conflict. Tell me more.

I mean, Paul's imprisoned in Rome, is he not? Does that mean these people are going to be imprisoned in Philadelphia? No, but it's the same kind of sufferings, persecutions. It has the same effect on everybody as Paul's imprisonment did. These trials and the opportunity to suffer on his behalf comes in a wide variety of flavors, doesn't it? We all experience this. They all have the same kind of effect on everybody. It's just not the exact same trials, you know?

Yeah, well, the Lord desires they have the same effect in terms of, I hate to say forcing, but encouraging or keeping our focus on Him. That's a desired result. Whether you're in prison like Paul, or whatever it might be, But we've got to remember the goal of our condition to being conformed is related to the security of our position.

And again, I often go here, but it's a verse that really is so incredible. 2 Corinthians 5 21, for he had made him who knew no sin, to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Everyone here is seen as righteous. Isn't that incredible?

And as that positional truth really resounds in us, our condition increasingly gets conformed over time by the experiences that God gives us day in and day out. All right, what should we make of the fact that saw is imperative mood, whereas here is indicative? Is that important at all?

Andrew would probably, Miles would probably throw down and do a better job than I would here. Having the same conflict which you saw in me, that imperative, what's imperative? In other words, remember what you saw in me. I'm telling you, you need to remember what you saw in me. And now here is indicative. Indicative mood is what? Reality? Well, facts. Facts, yeah. OK, so kind of interesting that these moods are different for these two verbs. OK, Wyss, the word conflict here is the translation of a Greek word used for an athletic contest. Our word, agony, comes from it.

And Wyss goes on to say, life is in reality an Olympic festival. We are God's athletes, is everybody training by the way? To whom he's given an opportunity of showing what stuff we're made of. The word was used in later Greek of an inward struggle and Paul uses it to describe his own life in the midst of this uniting work for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're all part of the Olympics, like it or not.

Our training is entirely spiritual and spiritual, not physical. Well, actually, it's kind of cool. I mean, we know we're training ourselves. You know, we have a daily discipline in God's word, hopefully. I mean, think of the incredible efforts that, in the human flesh, athletes go through. They just subject themselves to incredible training to win a prize.

So, I mean, there's some interesting parallels there. Yeah, we saw, I think, Princely yesterday on television. Remember the young lady who had a bike injury and she went over the edge and fractured about every bone in her body and doesn't have totally recovered. She's in Colorado and she's competing for the Olympics.

I know. I mean, think of the training that all the athletes. five, seven hours a day. I know. And we're being trained 24-7, aren't we? That's good. Our training doesn't stop over here to bed at night. We sometimes wake up in a dream and think the Lord's working at us. Anyway, too much information there.

By the way, as one of us suffers, we all do, don't we? So Paul's kind of asking us to kind of enter into his circumstances, understanding what he's going through. And he's a prototype of what we're called to do as believers. So don't we, if Heidi's suffering from something, don't we kind of suffer with her? Carolyn, pick anybody around. Don't we suffer with them, too? I think if we know them well enough, we probably suffer more. And Dave and Terry are people we know extremely well. We were concerned about things. We learned about them.

So anyway, I think we all do suffer when someone else suffers. Say, Bob? Yes. This goes back to verse 27, which is one of the major points of the whole book, I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit. And one mind. And one mind, striving together as a group. We're unity, working together. What's that I didn't hear? We're unity, working together. Okay, good. All right. That kind of relates to this comment, doesn't it? When one suffers, we all do.

Darby has a huge section of them, as he does in every area of Scripture, but I quoted him here. They had a further and a precious portion in suffering with Christ, and even for Christ, in communion with his faithful servant and suffering for his sake. united them more closely in him. So, I mean, Darby just thinks the Philippian church was pretty special in their relationship to Paul because of his previous presence with him and also the Epaphrodites and everything. We're going to learn about him, too, in terms of his ministry there.

And the benefit, we're going to close with this. What's the benefit of all this suffering? Well, I think Paul says it well. in First Sessile Lives, but after we have suffered before, and were spitefully treated at Philippi, this relates to the church.

As you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. So, I mean, the circumstances that God gives us really is an opportunity to learn from those circumstances, bringing glory to the Lord and opportunity to share the Lord with others. And that could be with believers or could be with the unsaved. I can't tell you how often I've been privileged to deal with somebody who's lost a spouse, having lost a wife at age 45.

And, you know, we'll only let God, you know, the seeds planted, but it's, you know, we all go through major trials in our life, and the opportunity to have that be manifested by the Spirit going forward is something we don't know when it'll occur, but can occur, so.

Any closing thoughts, remarks here for today's lesson? Okay, the challenge I'll have next week is something to pray about, to take on this whole first chapter and review it with you. So let's close in prayer. Jim, would you close us, please? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for everything you've given us, even the trials. You told us to rejoice in trials. But we thank you that you love us so much that you would give us all these things. We thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.