August 23, 2009 - Contending for the Faith Philippians 1:27-30
‘Whatever happens…’ How many times have you heard that phrase before? In what kind of circumstance was it? When you’re walking across a narrow bridge or ledge, what do people say? ‘Whatever happens…don’t look down.’ A movie perhaps; in Shrek, Puss is watching Fiona & Shrek and he says, ‘whatever happens, I must not cry…’ Or how about “Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.” Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, on December 4, 1941. Or my favourite….whatever happens, happens.
Today we’re going to look at what we should when ‘whatever’ happens; 3 verses in Philippians 1, 27-30. And there are 3 points I would like to convey to you from these verses.
Let’s read what Paul has to say to the church in Philippi:
27Whatever 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 28without 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. 29For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, 30since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. (New International Version)
Pray
Whatever happens…conduct yourself worthy of the gospel. If we believe on the Name of Jesus as the Son of God, the Creator of the universe come to earth as the Saviour of the earth; if we have His Name as part of who we are by calling ourselves ‘CHRISTians’, if we believe that Jesus lives among us as the God/man, God with us, Emmanuel, that he allowed himself to be tied, beaten, wrongly accused, nailed to a cross, killed, buried and then raised from the dead three days later; all for the purpose of having your sins and mine forgiven through the shedding of His blood, if we truly believe that, then we ought to conduct ourselves like it actually makes a difference in our lives…whatever happens.
Are we willing to stand up for Jesus Christ in and through any circumstance we may find ourselves in, at whatever cost? What could that mean? Perhaps it’s friends teasing you for believing in ‘some higher power’. Maybe it’s co-workers avoiding you at the office because they think you think you’re somehow better than they are now that you’re ‘saved’. Maybe it’s a friend who feels God does not exist, and so you must be off your rocker to have faith in an invisible nothingness. Maybe it’s going to get tougher than that. Maybe someday believing in Jesus Christ will be punishable by imprisonment, public trial and execution like has happened in countries like Somalia, and other Islamic nations. Perhaps it will mean that family members disown us as if we had died, even having funerals for us to ‘mourn’ our faith in Christ. Whatever happens…if that were to happen, here, would we hold true to our faith? I hope so! I pray so!
Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation, He died! What am I willing to sacrifice for such an inexpressible gift of love? What price are we willing to pay?
We have the gift of the gospel, the Good News about Jesus, to share with a community that so desperately needs Him. For without faith Him…the truth is that people will die in their sin, and be separated form God for eternity. That ought to drive us to deliver the News to every doorstep around our homes, to every person in our neighbourhood, to each and every person we can.
Imagine if we someone found the cure to some ‘incurable’ disease, and then kept that discovery all to themselves. What selfishness, what greed, and what a tragedy we would think. It would be such a tragedy not to share the gospel with everyone we can. I think we would be amazed to find that so many people have no idea what the gospel even is. People think they know the Bible, but believe it to be simply a book of rules; do’s and don’ts. Some may think the church is corrupt and full of hypocrites, so why go? Some may feel they’re not quite ready to give their life to God today…maybe tomorrow. Well what if tomorrow never comes for them?
In 2 Thess. 6: Paul says this,
1As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.
And he continues in regard to the cost of sharing the grace of God…
3We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Are you and I willing to go that far…or farther… for the sake of bringing the Good News to a world full of bad news? I pray we are!
I hope we are willing to contend for the faith as it says in verse 27 of our passage. I pray we will stand firm, with one purpose, in one spirit, and as one voice we will proclaim that Jesus is Lord…over this church, over this congregation, over this community, over this city and this nation. I pray that we will not be timid about sharing about our faith in Christ in front of anyone who would ask, ‘What’s different about you?’ I pray we would take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and read it, learn it, love it, obey it, live it and preach it from Langford to Colwood to the Highlands and the lowlands of this city. And all of this with NO FEAR!
We spent two weeks during our vacation bible school learning 5 bible points about how we should FEAR NOT! Can you still name them? (God is with us, God is powerful, God does what He says he’ll do, God give us life, and God cares for us) What better reasons do we need to not fear those who would oppose us?
But not fearing opposition does not mean that opposition will not exist. Paul, as we know, went through a lot of suffering during his ministry. The apostles were almost all martyred for their preaching about Jesus. And of course, Jesus was crucified for his work here on earth, for that WAS his work, and he finished it.
Look at verses 29 & 30 with me again. (Read). The gift of grace comes with another gift…suffering; struggles, persecution, pain, loss, all the things that Paul went through, the church in Philippi was now going through. All the things we see Christians suffering in other parts of the world may one day be in this part of the world. But all that is to bring glory to God. For we are not the ones who deserve any great recognition when we do something in the name of Jesus… ‘Look who I saved!’, ‘Look what I did!’, ‘Look at me, look at me!’ NO!
It is to the glory of God that a person is drawn into the Kingdom of God, It is God’s Name that we lift high when our prayers are answered. Do you know the great hymn, to God be the glory, great things He has done! So loved he the world that he gave us his son. Not…to me be the glory great things I have done….
The key is, to finish the work we have to do on this earth until Jesus returns one day. And if he does not come back today, we work again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, until one day…he’s BACK!
We just need to keep on keeping on. Enjoy the triumphs, endure the trials. God is with us through them all. You can trust Him for each and every situation you may find yourself in. You can trust Him to keep His Word…always! You can trust Him to forgive you for anything that you may have done to hurt Him, others, or yourself. You can trust God to love you unconditionally, no matter where you come from, the colour of your skin, boy or girl, man or woman, young or old, rich or poor…anyone can put their trust in God, their faith in God, and their lives in God and He will lift us up. He will forgive our sin, He will restore our souls.
God does wonderful restorations. After all, He has the master plan for each of us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. We will call upon Him, and pray to Him and He will listen to us. We will seek Him and find Him when we do so with all of our heart.
Are you seeking? Are you searching for answers that you need? Find THE Answer in Jesus Christ, the creator and saviour of your soul. The only answer you will ever need.
