Gathering For Strength Series

[INTRODUCTION AND RECAP]

We’re doing a series on ‘why Christians gather together.’ We’re emerging from the Covid pandemic and the various lockdowns and we’ve started to meet together in person so it seems a good time to ask why we gather together.

I am loosely following a sermon series I found on a website called SermonCentral. The series is called ‘We are gathered here.’

The first reason the series suggested for Christians to gather together is for ENCOURAGEMENT. In the first talk I focused on a verse in Hebrews which urges us to ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us.’ We need encouragement because the Christian life is like an endurance race. It’s tough and testing. We may feel like giving up at some points. It’s possible to give up but it’s absolutely worth keeping going. But we need encouragement – and because we need encouragement we need to meet together. We can’t encourage people if we don’t meet them – and we won’t get much encouragement either!

The second reason the series suggested for Christians to gather together is for rhythm. I was a bit surprised by this idea! The word rhythm doesn’t come once in most Bibles! But as I looked into it, I saw that God is very interested in rhythm. For example, God established the rhythm of day and night and the rhythm of the seasons. God also established the rhythm of a week by making the seventh day holy. Meeting on Sundays helps us establish that God-ordained rhythm in our lives. Giving this talk helped me to recognize that I haven’t been very good at observing this rhythm and Priscilla [my wife] and I have decided to make some changes.

The third reason that the series suggested for Christians to gather together is for strength. That’s what we’re going to look at today. Almost everyone agrees that people are ‘stronger together’. It’s a Biblical idea too. Paul describes the church as a body. An eye or an ear on its own can’t do much but when they combine with the hand and leg and other parts of the body then the body can do a great deal. The parts of a body are stronger together and that’s true for the church too.

I read SermonCentral’s outline for the talk on ‘gathering for strength’. It makes a number of good points. It observes that working together can be difficult and even messy but it brings great reward. It also notes that if we’re on our own we’re more vulnerable to attack. These things are certainly true.

However I’ve decided to take a different approach in my talk. I’m going to focus on something which Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians. We find it in Philippians 1:27 – my text for today. Paul wrote:

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel…”

Paul doesn’t use words like ‘strong’ or ‘strength’ but he talks about ‘standing firm’ and ‘striving’. Both of those things demand strength. He also says ‘in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side’. There’s clearly the idea here of unity. So this verse is talking about strength based on unity. It fits with the theme of ‘gathering for strength’. But how does it work?

[THE CONTEXT]

As always, it’s a good idea to zoom out, to set our verse in context. So let’s do that and see what’s going on. After that, we’ll come back to our text.

In chapter 1 Paul mentions four times that he is in prison. The traditional view is that Paul was in prison in Ephesus. A popular view now is that he was in Rome. But the significant fact from our point of view is that Paul wasn't in Philippi. It means that the church in Philippi was reaching out to help someone IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.

Look at verses 29-30. Paul says:

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 HEAR THAT I STILL HAVE.

Paul is in prison. I have no doubt that prison was unpleasant and Paul was suffering. But in these verses Paul doesn’t mention his own suffering. He only mentions the Philippians’ suffering and the fact that they’re in the same conflict as he is.

So the context – or at least part of it – is suffering and conflict. That’s important to notice! In a situation of suffering and conflict God’s people will certainly need strength.