What We Want to Hear | Philippians 1:27-30 (2-18-2024: Jordan Stone)

The speaker, Pastor Jordan Stone, is addressing the congregation at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church. He brings greetings from Redeemer Presbyterian Church and discusses the significance of installing the first officers and senior pastor. He then reads a passage from Philippians chapter 1 and emphasizes the importance of living a life worthy of the gospel. He talks about the reputation of a church and how it should strive to have a good reputation according to God's word. He explains that the church in Philippi was planted by Paul and gives some background on the book of Philippians. He mentions that Paul loved the church in Philippi and wanted them to live worthy of the gospel in different ways. The first way is by standing in Christ. Well, as you remain standing you can turn in your bibles to the book of philippians chapter one is where we're going to find ourselves this morning and I know Many of you but i'm sure there are some of you. I haven't seen before and even introduced Myself to before my name is jordan stone and I am the pastor at redeeming redeemer presbyterian church over in mckinney Your mother church and I do bring to you this morning Greetings from the officers and the congregation at redeemer as we are here on this day to celebrate with you and even Rejoice in the lord's providence as you come to what is a significant place at least in our presbyterian polity as it relates to the installation of your first officers and mark evans as senior pastor and so it belongs to me this morning to Take a text from god's word that I trust is suitable For this wonderful occasion and what I want to look at with you is philippians chapter 1 verse 27 through 30 So let me read that text for us And then i'll pray for our blessing from god's word and then we'll begin together. So listen once again as The lord does speak to you through his perfect word Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of christ so that whether I come And see you or i'm 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 and not frightened in anything by your opponents This is a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from god For it has been granted to you That you would suffer for the sake of christ not only to believe in him but suffer for his sake engaged in the same conflict That you saw I had And now here that I still have The grass withers and the flower fades But the word of the lord stands forever. Let's pray once again Amen Father we thank you that your word is truth and pray even this day that you would sanctify us in that truth We pray that you would do that. So our love might abound more and more with all knowledge and all discernment That our hearts before you would know what it means by your spirit to approve what is excellent That we might be pure and blameless for the day of christ filled with the fruit of his righteousness All to your glory and praise and we ask it in jesus name Amen Now you may be seated My oldest son hudson was with me all day down in downtown dallas two weeks ago Which was an unusual event at least in our family's rhythm He had a soccer game way in west dallas late at night on that monday And since I teach down in downtown dallas at the seminary all monday morning We just decided he was going to come down and spend the day with me And so he spent his time at seminary during the morning. We had a lunch lecture after that was done and since we had a few hours between when we were done with seminary duties and when he needed to be on the field for warm-ups, we Moseyed around the corner and visited my grandparents and one of the chief blessings, I think that the lord has Given me and given no doubt by extension our family as well Is that I have two sets of grandparents maternal and paternal? That have lived well into their 90s And have fought the good fight even into their 90s trusting in the lord. And so it's a wonderful blessing not only to continue to Interact and relate to them but have the ability to where I of course have singular memories of them as my grandparents but now my children have Memories of their great grandparents and so as hudson and I were at my grandparents house a few weeks ago sitting on the couch talking with My grandma and grandpa his great grandma and great grandpa Eventually the conversation turned to how it tends to turn when family gets together if your family is anything like mine which is After we kind of talked about current events how things are going what lunch they had that day What dinner they hoped to have that night, you know, we talked about what was going on in the extended family Or grandpa would say hey, did you hear what's happening with uncle? So-and-so or do you know what's going on with your cousin? So-and-so we were sharing what we had heard About each other throughout our extended family and it was the kind of interest That we had in that conversation That has some mirroring reality to the kind of apostolic interest that paul has with the philippians Here in our text this morning Because this was a church that he had planted. He's now in prison in rome And if you glance down again at verse 27, you'll see that he simply is writing to them So that he might hear certain things about them If he comes and sees them if he's absent from them, he wants to hear that things are true about them and the reason that I want to turn our attention this morning to This passage is because it wouldn't surprise you would it Cornerstone presbyterian church to know that we at redeemer and mckinney hear certain things about you And all I want to do is encourage you from god's word with the apostolic ideals Of what we hope to hear about you Because every church and we know this is true. Don't we has a reputation? Now the question that doesn't belong to local churches and our place and time is do we have a reputation? But what kind of reputation do we actually have? reputation according To god's word is quite important. Isn't it as in just a few minutes? We're going to install officers It's a qualification for elders that they have a good reputation with outsiders If you turn to the book of revelation chapter 3, you see jesus very concerned with one particular church's reputation Actually being true and sincere So it's one of the good things that of course you can Ask yourself in your life together what you want your pastor and elders deacons to Consistently be asking in their life together is what kind of reputation does god want us to have? What kind of reputation do we long for and labor for for this church? to have And so simply what I want to put before you as the theme in our Meditation today is what we want to hear about you And paul's driving concern with the philippians if you look again at verse 27 As kind of a masthead thesis of sorts for their life together is that their life would be worthy of christ's gospel That's the driving heartbeat Of what he wants to be true about the church at philippi But what I have to show you is from the next few verses How he's going to go on to tell us that a life worthy of the gospel what he wants to hear about this church It's a church that is standing in a particular way striving for something in particular and suffering in a particular way As well, and so we're going to look at those along the way But before we do it's probably helpful, isn't it as you haven't been in philippians anytime soon in your normal Lord's day service in your sermon series. Let's get a bearing of sorts on the book of philippians As a whole. This is a church that paul planted You could see the story if you wanted to turn later on today to acts chapter 16 It was rather remarkable the planting of the church there at philippi because paul and his associates according to acts 16 at the beginning They were wanting to get to bithynia And the holy spirit said no You're not going to go there And then one night in a dream this man appeared to paul and said come to us this man from macedonia Come over here and help us So paul and his associates they got down to philippi. It's a leading city in roman colony In the district of macedonia and they began to do gospel work And as these things often went with paul and his associates Wild things just begin to happen Rich merchants are converted Demons are exercised And because of that paul and silas are thrown into prison an earthquake opens it up and lets him loose It's actually quite true to say literally the gospel ministry in philippi that planted this church was earth shaking And as best we can tell about 12 years after the church was planted paul writes this letter. He's in prison in rome And he begins the letter really the first 26 verses of philippians chapter 1 It's all about a missionary's report if you just kind of glance through it what you would see and really the first 11 verses paul's prayer For the philippians and then he turns to what he's been up to in his ministry the progress of the gospel through his imprisonment God's providences in his life Even his prospects for the future as you might know He famously says he he thinks he's getting ready to die in all likelihood And he says well that's far better because to live is christ and to die is gain And then right after that he says immediately preceding our verse in 27 you look at Chapter 1 verse 25 of philippians. He says convinced of this that he's actually going to remain Alive for the furtherance of his gospel ministry. He says I know that I will remain and continue with you For your progress enjoying the faith. So he's given his missionary report first 26 verses And now In verse 27 of chapter 1. He really turns his attention to the church itself And with a a few breaks here and there along the way in the remaining part of this book It's just this constant instruction to what kind of church the church at philippi ought to be And you need to know as we walk into our text this morning that paul loved this church And loved him to such a degree you would notice in chapter 4 verse 1 he calls them his joy in his crown So what kind of a church? Might an apostle speak of as a joy And a crown well, he's going to tell us it's a church That lives worthy of the gospel in a few distinct ways. The first of which is this standing in christ Because notice again how our passage begins in verse 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of christ's gospel The word there for worthy. It's one paul loves he uses it all throughout his letters Did this concern even that the church be worthy in their living of christ's gospel? It shows up in multiple letters. You can see it in letter to the romans letter to the ephesians colossians Thessalonians here to the philippians children this idea of worthy It speaks of of equal values so if you thought about a weight And you think about one weight on a side of a scale matching the weight on the other side of the scale That's what he means by by worthy And what he's saying is that your life as a church Must be worthy its weight Be equal to the gospel of jesus christ In its significance and its eternal focus and its devotion And to help them understand what that would look like you'll notice how the text continues He he begins by saying well whether I come and see you or an absent I may hear of you and this is the first thing to notice that you are standing firm in one spirit Standing in christ is what we want to hear about you Standing it was this word taken from ancient armies in the roman empire It speaks about this idea of a soldier digging in and standing firm for the fight And what he's saying here is that you must stand firm in one spirit with one Mind even one mind you could literally translate as one soul It's the idea that the church is so knit together in unity So knit together in love so knit together in the spirit That they're standing together firm and entrenched in their work of the gospel And it's quite clear if you know philippians well that the church there at philippi evidently had some struggles and unity Just the next paragraph down first part of chapter two. He's going to return to this idea the importance of unity Later on in chapter four He's going to address some problems that evidently were going on with these two women in the church and how that was affecting the unity of the church Even as we read from earlier this morning psalm 133 pictures the glory and the beauty that belong to unity among god's people You know, there's been this pattern throughout church history That shifts and morphs through various centuries Where there often is a particular kind of person in the church that's understood to be the elite christian And you might know for a majority of church history Centuries and centuries worth of church history since jesus ascended to heaven Most people have thought the monks and the nuns represented the true spiritual elite of christianity But you might not know about the monks and the nuns certainly for many of them what they saw in their life and ministry were Abuses in the church Division and dissension in the church. They saw the church as a place void of unity So what they would do is they would go out to desolate desert places build these monastery-like Establishments believing it was there That they could actually reach this christ-like goal of unity And we live in a time don't we that many people have grown up in the church? I've seen difficulty experience division dissension such that they think they need to leave the church to find some sort of relational unity But let that not of course be true of you of all places in the world Or people who look different Who've experienced different? work different Families different yet together in christ are one It's here in the church So it's why it's even this urge that paul has for the philippians that they would stand firm in one spirit with one mind consider the way in which you Have over the course of the last 15 plus months. Some of you may be a little longer Some of you may be a little bit less I've contributed to the unity of this body Are you in encouragement and edification growing the unity of this church? Or if you're honest and examine yourself is the impulse much easier to be one of grumbling complaining unintentionally tearing down the unity of the church he wants to know That if he remains apart from them that he would hear that they are Standing firm number two that they're striving For jesus christ because you notice how the passage continues He says that I might hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel And that verb they're standing is taken from the world of armies the word for striving. It's taken from the world of athletics I was thinking about this not long ago when the kids and I were watching a soccer game on tv and one of the commentators was Remarking how one of the teams on the field looked altogether listless You know, there was no Urgency, there's no intensity about their striving And paul is saying using this kind of ancient athletic metaphor that it should belong to the church that you are striving earnestly engaging In your life in jesus christ, but for what the content's really important, isn't it? striving for notice how verse 27 ends for the faith of the gospel It's a phrase that paul actually doesn't use in many of his letters the faith Of the gospel such that many commentators wonder exactly what he means by the faith Of the gospel, you know students you could think about it perhaps in this way is paul talking about striving for people to trust In the gospel the faith of the gospel Or as paul's saying striving for people to know the truth of the gospel Maybe you're like me. I read these commentators and I think why can't it be both? Because it is both It is both To strive for people to trust in the gospel means you have to give them the truth of the gospel To strive for the truth of the gospel means you're trying to win people to trust in it there's no divorcing these glorious realities And of course what I want you to see is that As you're thinking about your life your ministry Here at cornerstone presbyterian church that what we want to hear about you is that you are striving For the faith of the gospel because understand many of you know this We intentionally placed you in allen we being your mother church at redeemer Your presbytery too Intentionally has placed you here Some of you may not know it's about 15 years ago that a pca church was planted in allen It came and went quickly We don't want that to be true about you It won't be true about you as you're striving for the faith of the gospel. We placed you here That souls would be saved here Near here neighborhoods communities here striving for people to learn the truth here Striving for people here to trust in that truth It's of course a word of warning to all of us as we want to think about our life and ministry together to make sure That what we're striving for is what christ wants us to strive for What we're fighting for is what the spirit wants us to fight for what we're laboring for is what the lord commands us to labor for So what do we want to hear about you that you're striving? Earnestly that you're standing firmly. There's a third thing that paul mentions which relates to suffering I want to see you also suffering For jesus christ because you'll notice it really comes in verse 28 where he says and so this is the third thing He's mentioning by way of worthy living and not frightened in anything by your opponents You know these word pictures that paul uses sometimes are just glorious, you know children this word picture for frightened It was used of war horses being startled in the midst of a battle So you can think of like a sudden sound and they just rear up like this That's kind of true. Isn't it what fright and terror might do to us? We just think whoa What's that? And what is paul saying? Don't be frightened in anything By your opponents He doesn't tell us who the opponents are No doubt if you know the story of the church is planting there has to be opponents there in the city of philippi Even from chapter three, we know these false teachers Threatening them with error. That's opponents too Seems to be true at the end of chapter three. He talks about people with other kinds of error and falsehood Threatening this church. He says don't be frightened in anything By your opponents you see what he says in verse 28 as he continues this you not being frightened There's a clear sign to them of their destruction but of your salvation and that from god There's something majestic He even says it almost has preaching like power in standing in a comprehensive Desire to see the gospel grow in a courageous Spirit to see it protected and proclaimed Perhaps maybe a way that you could illustrate. This is actually paul's own experience in planting the church at philippi How is it that fearlessly standing for the gospel preaches a sermon? Judgment upon the enemies salvation to the children of god Well, you might remember he's cast into prison acts chapter 16 because he's exercised these demons This earthquake comes do you remember prison opens He's standing there. He and silas had been singing hymns along the way. And do you remember what the philippian jailer does? As he sees the fearless stance of paul And silas for the gospel What does he ask? What must we do? What must I do to be saved? It's a fearless stand that preaches that proclaims Of course our opponents in this day and age in north texas in 2024. They look quite different don't they? From what the apostle paul named the philippians would have been facing in the first century, but that doesn't mean however that there isn't intimidation That there isn't opposition That there isn't difficulty that there isn't distress that there might not be persecution that comes He says don't be frightened in anything through that suffering Because you'll notice what he says as he continues on in the passage about that kind of suffering he says look verse 29 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 That underscores doesn't it the sovereignty of god and all of this in the verse 28 says this is all from god It's been granted to you from god that you should not only believe and suffer For some of you the question might not be actually are you suffering for jesus christ? The first and foremost question is do you believe? in jesus christ And what paul is saying? Alongside what jesus would say throughout the gospels is that for those who believe in me? They will suffer Do you remember the commission that paul himself even received in acts chapter 9? Who's blinded on this road to damascus seeing the beauty and glory of jesus christ and christ commissions the servant To go to paul basically and have these scales drop from his eyes and he says doesn't he? You must go tell him all that he must suffer for my sake And the verb in verse 29 is so important. It has been granted to you that you suffer You Know in christmas years past I was thinking about this even with grandma and grandpa and we were with them recently our families extended families practice when it came to christmas gifts might be somewhat like yours where there's so many people in the family so many nieces and nephews along the way that names were drawn and each Niece and nephew had just one set of an aunt or an uncle that would give them a christmas present And one of my cousins the one i'm actually closest to on my dad's side of the family was always desperate not to be drawn into Uncle so-and-so and aunt so-and-so's list of christmas gifts Because uncle so-and-so and aunt so-and-so were well known for not giving What the child wanted But giving what the child needed And so I remember vividly I can even remember the gift vividly that he opened one year And the groan that came out from him And what that gift was because that's not what he wanted But according to his parents it was what he needed Now the lord and his sovereign grace doesn't he often give us things that we don't want? But we need The word there for grant is actually not the normal one that paul uses in his letters It's actually a word that we would probably better translate. It has been graced to you That you suffer for his sake Again i'm not so sure the analogs are always immediate as it belongs to the original context of Philippi and us where we find ourselves today. Nevertheless, I think we can say at least at its most basic level When suffering for the sake of the gospel comes Count it all joy It is a grace that you are opposed It is a grace that you are intimidated It is a grace that brothers and sisters around the world how hard it is are facing martyrdom that we don't face They have a grace that we don't even have It's a grace of god. You see verse 30 engaged in the same conflict as the apostle paul That you saw I had and now hear that I still have What do we want to hear about you? Let's make it simple That you're standing firm That you're striving fearlessly That you're suffering Humbly Living worthy of the gospel of jesus christ If I recall correctly it'd be interesting to actually ask mark this after the sermon today the first conversation I ever had with Mark, evans came almost 16 years ago I just preached a sermon It was the first sermon at the church where I was serving at that time as an associate pastor where mark and britney were members And after the service was over mark was back in the sound booth doing some things related to his volunteer work in the church At the time and again if I recall correctly The first words that mr. Evans ever shared with me was a question Jordan, where did you go to seminary? And I thought to myself. Well, I know the sermon wasn't that great But was it that obvious that I hadn't been to seminary yet and that conversation And generated 16 years of conversations Mark was a small group leader at the time then he became a deacon at that church Eventually, he went and became a bi-vocational pastor in salina in time He became an elder at a church where I previously served as senior pastor the conversations continued when we made our near Simultaneous journey into the pca the conversations have continued as the lord has expelled him out into the work of church planting and if you were a fly on the wall in those conversations that Happened over the last 15 plus years. I think it would be genuinely true that you would notice a very central part of our conversations belonged to the life of preaching and ministry, but within those categories there was a And has been and still is a very clear theme that we often talk about which is keeping first things first Because we often talk about how you in this context of north texas and it's so applicable to a young church You can grow still You can still grow a church in this area on secondary matters and personal preferences You can grow a church In this area quite rapidly on things other than christ who is the cornerstone and foundation? You know just this week I was having lunch with a minister in mckinney that i've walked with for the last 18 months or so His church exploded with growth during the pandemic Because his church positioned themselves as a we don't care about covid people They were united around something other than the lord jesus christ It did not surprise me about 18 months later that church imploded from within A pastor was fired. A church was ripped apart 50 50 split down the middle. Why? Well, their new pastor and I he's a good brother faithful preacher loves it. He knows that they were united around something other than jesus And all I want to do is we begin to close is help you keep first things first Because that's what paul says isn't it Only this let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. That means two final exhortations for you The first is I want you to pay attention to the politics of living worthy of the gospel Because if you glance again at verse 27, he uses a phrase that's actually rather unique to paul when he says only let your manner of life Be worthy of the gospel that phrase in the greek is manner of life Other translations would render his conduct other translations would more in an ancient form render it as conversation It's actually probably best rendered as citizenship It's just the phrase language from which we get our english words of politics and polis city states these kind of things He's saying let your politics Be worthy of the gospel of jesus christ And what he's saying is to a roman colony this People of philipi Who love their cherished status as a colony? Who love the protection and privilege that belong to being under rome? He's saying brothers and sisters at the church of philip. I know that your citizenship is different He's going to say that in chapter three You are citizens of a different kingdom You're citizens of heaven Your allegiance belongs to to a different king And just yesterday one of our kids was learning a lesson in allegiance Some of you know that we're um A soccer family that means we watch and play soccer and my one of my son's favorite player comes from the nation of uruguay And he knows later on this summer In a very important competition the united states of america will play uruguay in soccer And he was telling me how he was going to root for uruguay against the united states of america And I said not in this house I mean it you will be out of the house You have an allegiance to a people You philippians have an allegiance to a king Whose rights and rituals rules regulations and rhythms are completely different than the world The politics of living worthy of the gospel they look different And perhaps the most basic and glorious thing we must say is that the priority Is living worthy of the gospel Because that word that starts the passage Is one that you want to circle and underline only Let your manner of life Be worthy of the gospel of jesus christ We hear things about you And you can't control everything that we hear about you What I want you to know is what we long to hear about you Is only this It has the force this word only this and only this Living worthy of the gospel of jesus christ this only this Standing united In the gospel of jesus christ this and only this striving earnestly for the faith of jesus christ this only this Suffering fearlessly for the gospel of jesus christ Let that be What we hear about you Let's pray together Father we are grateful that in your mercy Hey your tender love and grace. You have brought us to your son. Jesus christ and we thank you for your work here at cornerstone presbyterian church everything That you have done in the intervening year plus that this congregation has gathered we trust as long as the lord tarry's That the witness for jesus christ in this place and from this people will be one that is pure and bright zealous and loving Humble and holy As we want to see christ lit up This congregation will be as a city on a hill Set up for the purposes of your great name And we do pray these things in the name of our precious and most beloved savior jesus christ amen