Suffering By Grace - Philippians 1:28-30 Series

Philippians 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer on behalf of him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Introduction

Fear God Alone

All cowards go to hell. Does that strike you as a provocative statement? Who would say something like that? God would. Revelation 21:8 gives a list of all the types of people who, if they don’t repent, will be sent to the lake of fire, and guess what the very first thing in the list is?

Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, … their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Why is cowardice such a big deal to God? Cowardice is evil because just as all of our love belongs to God, so all of our fear belongs to God, and to God alone.

Isaiah 51:12 Who are you that you fear mortal men

Fearing men is just as much unfaithfulness to God as loving the world is. And it’s important because you will bend the direction of your life in order to satisfy the demands of the one you fear. That’s why it is so dangerous to be afraid of suffering. If I fear suffering more than I fear God, Satan can steer my life pretty much anywhere he wants just by using threats of suffering. So in today’s passage, Paul is going to do two things: first he is going to tell us not to be cowards, and then he is going to show us how to properly interpret suffering so that we are not afraid of it.

Review

We left off last week in midsentence, so let’s take a moment to refresh our memory on the beginning of the sentence in verse 27. The main point of the sentence is that Paul is calling us to stand firm in unity.

Philippians 1:27 Whatever happens, live as citizens in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, … I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel

That’s what Paul is after. He wants us to stand firm in unity. But we are not going to be able to do that if we are afraid of opposition. So he says:

28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.

Fear of opposition will destroy our unity, because we will be more concerned about avoiding conflict than we will about real peacemaking. Cowards are always peace fakers, never peacemakers.

The Effects of Fear

Some people are so terrified of opposition that they are pretty much paralyzed. They can’t stand the thought of anyone opposing them even in the slightest degree, so they never do anything or talk about anything of any consequence for fear that someone might disagree with them. There are pastors who will never preach anything controversial from the pulpit, because they are afraid of how people might react. And all of us have passed up opportunities to share the gospel because of this kind of fear. Fear of opposition is a very real problem even for the most courageous among us.

But what does it say about our God when we are afraid of what man might do to us? Someone we don’t like wins an election, or some immoral or unjust law gets passed, and there are people in the church who literally lose sleep over it. They are scared to death that the government is going to come in and spy on their privacy or take their money or confiscate their property or whatever. If we are afraid of those things, what does that say about the God who has promised to take care of us? We might as well put a flashing neon sign out front that says, “The Lord Jesus Christ is powerless.” But on the other hand, if we stand firm without being frightened in any way, that sends a different message. It sends a message about their destiny and about our destiny.

The Testimony of Courage

28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.