Paul seems to recognize instinctively that people don’t naturally look at suffering as a cause for rejoicing. Although he states decisively that seeing Christ proclaimed causes him to rejoice regardless of his personal suffering in prison or having rivals preaching against him in Philippians 1:18, he spends the rest of the first chapter of Philippians giving a fuller glimpse into his perspective. So, he begins Philippians 1:19 with with word “for,” a preposition which gives the cause or the reason behind what he has just said about rejoicing in the midst of deep suffering.

Again, Paul here reiterates his radical perspective on life. He is not seeking peace, security, and comfort, but simply for Christ to be glorified in and through his life. It isn’t that Paul enjoys suffering, since he would far rather depart from his suffering to be with Christ (Phil 1:23)! Instead, it is that Paul recognizes the critical role that suffering plays in the life of the believer by confirming the share that we have in Christ. To Paul, suffering does not represent evidence against God’s favor toward us, but rather of proof that God is bringing us to glory by the same path that Jesus himself walked.

We open up today to Philippians chapter one, we continue our sermon series that we've been in for the past couple of weeks. We're going to finish the first chapter of Philippians here, looking at verses nineteen through thirty, we'll pick up the very end of verse eighteen just to give a little context.

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
27 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, 28 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. 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, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Phillippians 1:18b-30, ESV

This is the word of the Lord. When I was in middle school and early on in high school, I had a friend of mine that I really looked up to. I mean, he was awesome. He always had the newest latest, greatest gadgets. I thought he was hilarious. I hung out with him all the time when I was a freshman in high school, he was a sophomore and he had a car, which was amazing and drove us around and we did all kinds of fun things. I really looked up to this guy quite a bit.

The summer after my freshman year, I believe I went to a youth conference with many other people from my church. At the time there was a young woman in whom I had some interest at the time. I talked about that with my friend and had a great time at this conference until the day when, see for those of you who were young, you may not know there was a day before cell phones so phones didn't always exist, but when we were in these the dorm rooms at the college university, where we were, there were phones where we could call between the rooms while we were at this conference.

So we called around, as young adolescents do, and we called and my friend was on the line with this young woman and whom I had some interest and he started talking to her about this. I was mortified, not merely because the interest was not reciprocated, although that was not inconsequential at the time, but because this man totally betrayed my trust. I was burned so badly, and I mean, we continued on as friends after this, But it was never the same. I could never trust this guy again. I was burned And that fundamentally affected every one of my interactions with him after that.

Have you ever been burned in life? It's the kind of thing where you come across something that totally changes your ability to trust, not just the person who burned you, but all of a sudden it shapes your mindset, so you start constantly scanning the horizon to find threats. Who might hurt me? Is it safe to share this part of myself with this person, or could they use this against me? Will I be exposed by this person? You suddenly become much less able to trust when you are burned.

Well, let me ask a follow up question. Do you ever feel burned by God? Do you ever feel like your lot in life, the hand that you are dealt, the place that God brings you, is a place of such suffering that you look at all of these things that God is bringing into your life as reasons that maybe you can't trust him. Maybe God isn't safe. Maybe God, my goodness, Is God just waiting to smash me?

This is the kind of suffering That Paul is actually in the middle of, neck deep in. What's fascinating about this perspective, what Paul's perspective is that he doesn't see the fact that he is imprisoned or the fact that he has rivals preaching against him as a reason to distrust God. Actually the very opposite, Paul says, as he's scanning the horizon, seeing all of these threats to his security and his well-being. In verse 18, which we looked at last week, he says, "What then? What should I make of this terrible situation I find myself in? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice". That is a strange, strange kind of a mindset.

So as we come in verse 19, it's interesting that Paul begins verse 19 with the word for. Now, for is a conjunction, and I don't know if you ever saw Schoolhouse Rock, but if you're at Conjunction Junction, what's the question you're supposed to ask? What's your function? Oh, so glad so many of you know that that can't be too old of a song! Conjunction junction, what's your function? The word for is a conjunction that takes us to give the reason or the cause or the ground of what Paul has just said. It's almost like Paul says, I get it, this is a really weird mindset. I get that this isn't natural, that no one normal looks at their life and their suffering and said, fantastic, that's a cause to rejoice. So let me explain to you the reason that I can say this.

So Paul gives at the very beginning of this passage his belief that his salvation is secure and certain. Then he tells us the nature of his salvation. Finally, he talks to us about the nature of his circumstances. So those are kind of the three areas, and I'll show you kind of how Paul works through this.

In verse 19, Paul begins talking about the certainty of his salvation. He says, "For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." Now, stop there for just a moment that we're deliverance. There is the Greek word for our word soteriology, the theology of salvation comes from this. It's the word for salvation. It's the exact same word in Greek that we're going to see later on in this passage in verse twenty-eight, "This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God."

So Paul's saying, I know that all of this is going to work for my salvation, my deliverance. It's how it's translated here in verse 19. Then he says, "as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death." He says this is my eager expectation and hope. Now to us, the idea of hope carries the carries the mindset of some doubt. Maybe Paul is saying something along the lines where I say I hope the Cornhuskers will be a better football team this year instead of going six and seven or worse again. That's not certain. I have no guarantee of that. I hope it'll be the case. I hope we're going to win the national championship, but I have no confirmation of that thing.

Well, Paul, when he talks about hope here, he's not talking about something that's in doubt, he's saying, this is the thing I can put my confidence in. This is sure, this is my hope. The reason we know that is he's clarifying it by talking about his eager expectations. This is a word of vivid word that conveys the idea of a head craned forward, with eyes looking intently on the future, expecting something to happen.

When I was in seminary, I lived in Alabama. By the way, when I talk about my wife or things about my life, I do clear them with her. I think that's important to know. At the time, my wife and I were dating and we were long distance dating, which is a horrible, horrible time, even if on the other side of the rainbow, you get a wonderful woman like my wife. Though at the time we were doing the best we could, which was to talk a lot on the phone and to visit each other. I would go to Chicago and she would come to Birmingham about once every semester, each way.

I remember so well what it was like to go to the Birmingham airport when she was coming to me where I lived and I would go on the computer before I went and make sure that the flight was still on time. I would go down if it was still on time and get to the airport and park and find my way and check the screens to see whether her flight had arrived yet. Then I saw that it would arrive and I would get a text message from her saying she was on the ground and headed my way. So I knew that she wasn't diverted. I knew that she had, in fact, landed. I knew that God forbid she hadn't had a heart attack or something on the plane. I knew that she was on her way. The way the Birmingham airport is structured is, is you can't obviously go past security, but you can see a long way down the terminal. There's not all the twists and turns like there are in some airport, and so I was able to crane my neck, looking forward, waiting for her, this beautiful creature to come down the terminal toward me.

That's the idea of eager expectation. It's not, well, I didn't show up at the airport thinking, huh, wouldn't it be nice if Allison showed up today? I knew she was there and I was eagerly looking forward to her. That's the idea that Paul is getting out here. He knows his salvation is secured. This isn't a hope so kind of a thing. This is absolutely sure and solid. It's going to come.

What's fascinating about this comes at the end of verse 20. He knows his salvation is certain, but then he adds this little phrase, no big deal, "whether by life or by death." Ok, so his salvation is certain, but in no way predictable. This may go toward life, this may go toward death. Why not? Whichever direction, whatever. That's not my perspective. Paul is saying his salvation is certain, but then he adds this uncertainty and unpredictability of his circumstances. Salvation, secure circumstances, unpredictable. That's what he starts here and he's going to define through the rest of this the nature of his salvation and the nature of his circumstances. He starts with what we see to be a paradox. How can you say, Paul, that your salvation is secure if you might die? How is that deliverance? How is that salvation?

Well, thankfully, once again, in verse twenty one, as he goes on to the next section, we find ourselves once again at Conjunction Junction and we have this "for" here. So Paul is again going to give us the reason of what he has just said. Salvation secure, circumstances unpredictable. Let me explain to you what I mean by that. So he says one of perhaps the most memorable things that Paul says ever. He says, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." To live as Christ to die is gain.

Paul is through this passage through those two possibilities living or dying, laying out the nature of salvation. He says to live is Christ, and what he means by that is he says it in verse twenty-two. If he lives, that means fruitful labor for me. I will continue to serve Christ and it will not be throwaway, wasted effort. It's going to be fruitful labor. It's going to bear fruit. He says in verse twenty-four, "But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again."

Now that almost sounds like he's saying that he has some kind of insight that he is going to be released from prison and go to be with them. The force of this sentence is really more like if I am released, I am so convinced that the reason God will release me, give me life is so that I can come to you, be in your midst and labor in your midst for the sake of the gospel fruitfully so that your salvation will be established and you will have ample progress and joy in the faith. A cause to glory in Christ Jesus by my coming if God grants that. To live is Christ, but he says, to die is gain.

Well, in verse twenty-three, he explains that. He says my desire, what I what I prefer is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better. We had a funeral yesterday and it was a good time in the sense that we knew that the man, Loren Boyer, was a believer. We know that he had departed to be with Christ, and that is far better. That is a joyous occasion, even through the tears of mourning the loss of a very dear man to us.

That's what Paul's talking about. My desire is to go be with Christ. So he says, here's salvation; salvation is that if I live, I have Christ, I live for him, I love him, I worship him, I serve him. If I die, I get more Christ, I get to be with him, I get to see him face to face. The good news of the gospel is not ultimately, simply that our sins are forgiven, although it's not less than that. The gospel is not ultimately that we are declared righteous in Christ, although it's not less than that. The gospel is that if we come to Christ through faith, if we acknowledge that we are sinners, that's why we confess our sin week after week. This is why we look to Christ in faith remembering the promise of the gospel so that we can be forgiven of our sins so that we can be declared righteous in Christ for the purpose, ultimately, of spending an eternity with Jesus.

You were created for that, to whatever degree you have Christ, you have life, you have joy, you have salvation. To whatever degree you are separated from Christ, you do not have life, you do not have joy, you do not have salvation. The gospel is not just a goal for people to be of the same mind about theology. The gospel is that you can have Christ if you renounce your sin, confess it, acknowledge it and plead the blood of Jesus so that you can have Christ in this life and forever perfectly in the next. Amen. The gospel is Jesus. Salvation is Jesus. What's the nature of this certain unshakeable salvation? It's Christ. That's why it can't be taken away, because you and I can't be plucked out of Christ's hand, because we can't slip through his fingers. Because Jesus Christ has already lived, already died and he is reigning at the right hand of the father and nothing can prevent that. Neither death nor life nor anything in this world can keep us from Jesus. That's why our salvation is certain, even if our circumstances are totally unpredictable.

So where does that leave us then? What can we expect from life? That's what Paul turns his attention to in versus twenty seven through thirty. He says "only" in verse twenty-seven. It's kind of an awkward word. It's kind of just hangs out there at the beginning of the sentence in Greek, only or this one thing in other words, you might say. I'm not going to give you a list of things you need to do. I'm going to tell you one thing, and it's that you live your life worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

Now that's a very good translation that gets at the idea of what Paul is talking about there, but it's hard to bring out the nuance in Greek that this word carries. It's the idea of living as becomes a citizen of something. If you if you flip the page over to Philippians 3:20, Paul says there, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The word there for citizenship is the noun form of the verb that Paul uses here in verse twenty-seven. "Only let the way you conduct yourself be worthy of your citizenship in the gospel."

What's interesting important for our understanding of this letter is that the city of Philippi was in the region of Macedonia. Yet the Philippians were not considered Macedonians. They were not just one more group of people who were conquered by and ruled over by the Romans. Octavius, who later became Caesar Augustus, actually won a victory a great military victory for the glory of Rome near Philippi and as a celebration of that victory, he just called declared that the city of Philippi would be considered a Roman colony. Their identities were changed from being Macedonian citizens under the rule of Rome to being Romans who lived in a colony in Macedonia.

Their citizenship was in Rome and they were very proud of that, that was very important. It carried a lot of benefits, but also the responsibilities of conducting yourself as becomes a citizen of Rome. Paul says as important as that is, as valuable as that is, let me tell you something, your more important citizenship is not in Rome, but in the gospel, in heaven, in Christ. That's the citizenship you need to be thinking about. That's how you need to live your life worthy of. He defines that in terms of unity. He says whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I want to hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit. Now that's a lowercase s in the ESV one spirit. I think it's probably the Holy Spirit that's in view there, and there are some reasons for that that other people have brought up, but he's talking about the idea of standing first firm united in the Spirit of God. Then he goes to talk about like mindedness with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. The word, therefore striving, is the word that we get our word athlete from. It's the image of gladiators standing side by side fighting for the sake of the gospel.

Now, I don't recommend the movie Gladiators because it is very violent and not very pleasant to watch, however, this is the image that Paul is invoking. In that movie, there is a scene where Russell Crowe is talking to the other gladiators who are basically being thrown to the wolves, saying whatever comes out of that door, if we just scatter and fight independently, we're all going to die. So he says instead, let's fight together, lock your shields and stand together. So they take their shields and they all form a circle and all of these people come out and chariots and try to kill them. Because they are united striving together with like mindedness, they're able to stand unified and they win the battle.

That's the image here, standing in one spirit, in one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, not frightened into anything by your opponents for this is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation in that from God. So he's talking about a spiritual, supernatural unity that the Philippians enjoy. That this is in the spirit. They're like-minded, they're striving for the same purpose in the gospel. He says, the fact that you are united in this way, it should shock you. It is a sign God gives you to demonstrate that you're not doing this in vain, that you have, in fact, a share, a part, a lot in the gospel. That's yours. Your unity is one thing that demonstrates and proves that.

That's a critical, critical part of understanding what he's talking about in terms of what our circumstances will look like, but that's not all he says. He clarifies this in verse twenty-nine and thirty. He 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."

"For again", let me explain to you what, I'm what I just said. The nature of your unity is not rah rah, we're all going to go from one victory to another. For here's the nature of what your unity is going to look like. "It has been granted to you" and that word, by the way, is grace. It has been grace to you. It's a gift of God's free grace. It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe, well, that sounds good. God graciously gives us faith. Not only that, you should believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Oh, that's where it gets personal. As we're scanning with our burned mindsets, the horizon, here's a risk. Here's a deep risk. Paul says, in fact, the nature of what you are going to do in your unity together is, again, you aren't the bad news bears you want the Mighty Ducks, who are misfit group of individuals that are going to rise up to win the championship in this life. You're going to suffer in this life, the way that your Lord Jesus suffered in this life. That's your lot.

What he says that OK, so your unity, its suffering, but look at what he says, "It's been granted to you that you should suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have." Their suffering is the same suffering that Paul entered into. He's going back to the theme of the partnership that the Philippines have with him. He's saying we are partners in the gospel. That's what he said in verse five, all the way back in verse five. We have a partnership in the gospel. Some of that means financial support, they've given financially to Paul to support his ministry. Some of that means they are praying for him. Up in verse 19, "For I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, my salvation." They're supporting him. They are praying for him. But what he says is the suffering that we share, this is the realest, deepest fellowship, partnership that we have together. The word partnership is not used right here, but it's the idea he's getting at the same idea that he's been building from the very beginning of this, of this chapter of his letter.

This shared unity, not just in our likemindness, not just in the way we circle our wagons, lock our shields and stand together, but the suffering we share, that is not evidence against our inclusion in the gospel, our inclusion in the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ. That's evidence for our inclusion.

When I was in high school, I had I had a band teacher. You may think that I was too cool to be a band geek, but I mean, that looks are deceiving today. I was very much a band geek and I loved it. We had a teacher, our band teacher was named Dale Dunson, and he was a legend. I mean, this guy had been there for thirty some years. His son was in my class, and he retired after his son graduated. So I got to kind of be there for the very tail end of his career. He was a legend. I mean, literally, this man was the director of the band who won the largest parade in history, which means that his name or his school was in the Guinness Book of World Records. At least at the time, I don't know about now. He was a legend. He was so good. Hastings was amazing in marching band because of Dale Dunson.

Well, here's what happened, if you would have come and visited our marching band rehearsals, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend, it's 6:30 in the morning in late October. We could barely march for being so cold, much less play our instruments. Mr. Dunson didn't care. If we were at all out of step, if we weren't crisp in our movements, if we weren't playing the right notes, oh, he would ream us. Oh, he would lay into us. But you know how sometimes you have leaders or teachers or bosses that remind you and you can tell it's from contempt or bitterness, and you don't necessarily feel warm, fuzzy, happy thoughts about the person. Well, for this guy, we did. I don't know how he did it. Somehow, when he yelled at us, told us to get our stuff together in words that I can't repeat from up here. When he would do this, we would just look at him and realize this is a man who is doing this, not because he's just a cranky old guy, but because of love.

First of all, we knew that he loved marching band. I mean, I remember one night I came in very late at night to the school. I must have been doing something else, but I came by the band room at 11 o'clock at night and he's there repairing a xylophone or something. I mean, he just he was so passionate about this. He was always working for the good of the band and he loved us. We saw through a thousand interactions that he cared about us and wanted us to be great. So when he reamed us, we saw that the reason was for love. It wasn't what it might have looked like from the outside.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews talks about discipline, suffering, that we suffer at the hand of the Lord under the sovereignty of the Lord. He says, you know, you possibly could look at this and say, boy, that's a threat that that means that that maybe God doesn't love me, that maybe God is out to get me. I don't know if I can trust God. I feel burned in this situation. Yet the author of Hebrews says something totally different in Hebrews 12:7. He says, "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there, whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

What he's saying here and what Paul is saying here is that, you know, we think of security as being on the opposite spectrum of unpredictability. I mean, think of what if you go to invest money, you can have on one end the high risk high reward options. You may lose everything, but you have a chance to gain a lot. Or we have the very slow moving, predictable, safe options. What Paul is saying is that unpredictability in your circumstances is not the same thing as high risk, high security to your salvation. Those are different, in fact, they are together, but in a different way than we might expect. When suffering comes into our life, God uses it as a sign of our salvation. The evidence is not against God's love for us, but in fact, it's the opposite. If you didn't see the suffering that you were going through now, that should raise a red flag of whether in fact Christ is yours. Salvation is Christ and if you want it, God will lead you through suffering. That's not to make light of it or to say it's a good thing, but that God uses it as the father uses to discipline their own children.

Are you burned this morning? Are you wondering if you can trust God with your life? The answer is not to sort of weigh your circumstances and the risk they're in, but to begin to look to Jesus and say, Jesus, you are sure you are unshakable. You are absolutely certain and I know that whatever you were doing, you were doing it in love to bring me to the glory and holiness that you want for me.

Pray with me.

Heavenly Father, this is a perspective in a word that you have given us that doesn't feel loving, it feels jarring to us. We feel allergic to this kind of a thing. We want comfort and safety and security and you tell us that the certainty of our salvation in Jesus means that you will bring us to share in your sufferings. In the sufferings of one another as we are united, as a sign of our share in you, in your kingdom, of our portion and our lot in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who also suffered for us and our salvation. I can't piece through this, I can't figure out, I can't gaze deeply into the deep recesses of your wisdom. I pray, father, that your Spirit who knows you who searched your deep things, who knows your mind because he has your mind, Father, I pray that he would enlighten us to see the suffering and the persecution and the uncertainty of our circumstances, not as a cause to fear and become anxious and despair but of hope as you discipline us and make us conformed to the image of your son, Jesus. That's a message that I, the preacher cannot make, but you buy your supernatural, omnipotent hand can. And so, Father, I put today the reading and the preaching of your word in the power of your Spirit. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.