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Living Letters
Philippians 1:27-30
If you would, please take out your Bibles, and I want you to turn in your Bibles today, before we get to Philippians, to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3. If you don’t have a Bible, there is one under a chair in front of you. You can turn in that Bible to page 141 and you will be at 2 Corinthians 3. We’re continuing our series on Spiritual Essentials for a Joy-Full Life in the book of Philippians. Before we go to Philippians today, I want to look at an intriguing analogy Paul makes of your life and mine. It’s found in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, in the first three verses.
Paul says to those believers, “You are our letter.” It says that in verse 2. Then in verse 3, he says, “You are our letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” He’s really saying to the believers, “You are living letters.” Then he says something very intriguing to me in verse 2. He says, “…known and read by all men.” Do you ever think of yourself that way that you’re a living letter known and read by all men?
How we live our lives, men and women, speaks volumes to the people around us. The only way they can really see Christ in this world is as Christ is shining through us. So your life and my life ought to be distinctive. It ought to be different. We should stand out in some ways. Our personal conduct as followers of Jesus is of paramount importance. Our attitude, our purpose, our joy should point people back to Christ. So, we are living letters, which means, I think, we should be a worthy read when people read us during the week. We should stand out as different and stand out as authentic.
So with that little analogy in your mind, I want you to go with me now to the book of Philippians, which is to the right on page 154 on that Bible underneath the chair, if you have that. To Philippians, chapter 1, verses 27-30. I want you to be thinking about that analogy as we read these verses. So I’m going to read from chapter 1, verses 27-30. I invite you to follow along in your Bible as I’m reading what Paul writes to these followers of Jesus.
He writes in verse 27, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents–which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”
I’ve titled our message today Living Letters. As we examine these verses, we’re really going to see two things in them. The first thing we’re going to see is a call to live worthy. We see that in chapter 1, verse 27, at the beginning of that verse. Then the second thing we’re going to see is not only this call to live worthy, but he’s going to share with us, I believe, two distinctives of living worthy. What does living worthy really look like? We’re going to see those distinctives in the rest of verse 27 down through verse 30. So that’s really our plan for today. We’re going to look at this call to live worthy and then we’re going to look at these two distinctives of living worthy. Pretty simple. Well let’s get started.
It all starts with a call to live worthy. Notice again verse 27. He says, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” This idea of living worthy or conducting yourselves worthy is a recurring theme in the New Testament. We don’t need to turn there, but you might jot down the references. If you go to the left of the book of Philippians to Ephesians 4:1-3, we see there as Paul wrote those believers, he said this to them, “I implore you to walk or to live in a manner worthy of your calling.”
Then in Colossians 1, if you go to the right of Philippians, in verses 10-12, he says to those believers, “Walk, or really live in a manner worthy of the Lord.” As you live your life, live in a manner worthy of Him. Then in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 12, he says to those believers there, “Walk…live in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” This is a theme in the New Testament. We see it recurring over and over again. He says to these believers, but he’s also talking to you, and he is talking to me when he says, “You need to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
When we’re talking about the gospel of Christ and conducting ourselves or living in a way that is worthy of it, I think it’s important to remember what the gospel is all about. We do know that, but maybe we’re not really sensing that in our life. Ray Pritchard does a great job of reminding us from Isaiah 53:6 really what the gospel is all about for you and me. He says, “Isaiah 53:6 says, ‘The Lord has laid on Him [that is on Christ] the iniquity of us all.'”
So he proposes this. He says, “Let’s suppose that all your sins have been written in one massive book. That book is heavy because it records every rotten thing you’ve ever said, every unkind word you’ve ever spoken, every mean thought, every lustful fantasy, every evil imagination, and all your bad attitudes from the day of your birth to the day of your death.” So you have that big book pictured in your mind.
Then he says, “Try to picture that massive book being held in your hands. Now picture Jesus standing next to you. He is holy, perfect, pure, and good. He has no book in His hands because He never sinned. You want to be rid of the book, but you can’t seem to find a place to put it down. What will you do?
Now picture Christ on the Cross with the weight of millions of books on His bleeding back. He bears that crushing weight and then He dies. Look closely and you will see that each of these books is a personal record of someone who lived on the earth. If you look closely, your book is there, too. He took your sins, the record of all your evil, and all your failings, and all your shortcomings, He took it all upon Himself when He died on the Cross. ‘Truly, the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'”
Now when that becomes a little more fresh in your mind, then we begin to see how much verse 27 and the call to conduct ourselves in a worthy way makes sense, how our conduct and how our choices ought to be worthy of such great love. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Now that little phrase you see there in verse 27, conduct yourselves, is very picturesque language in the original. Literally, he says this, “Live as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Now it’s important to just give a little bit of background on why he would choose that wording. You might remember from when we introduced this book that Philippi was a very special place. It prided itself on being a Roman colony. Not everything in the Roman Empire was considered to be a Roman colony. It was a very high thing to be a colony.
In fact, in Acts 16:12 when Luke is telling the story of Philippi, he describes Philippi as a leading city of Macedonia, a Roman colony. They took, at Philippi, tremendous pride that they were a Roman colony. They liked to think of themselves as a mini-Rome. They were so proud of it and it’s because, when you were a colony, you were under the tremendous protection of the Roman Empire. You were in a position of great privilege because you were a colony.
You know what’s really interesting is some historians have told us one of the phrases that they used to trade back and forth in Philippi was this phrase, “Live worthy. Live worthy of being Romans and the privilege and the protection that comes to you because you are part of that and you are citizens of Rome.” He seems to pick up on this language here, language they would know. He says, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live as citizens.”
But he is talking, as it says in chapter 3, verse 20, of us as being citizens of heaven. Really what he is saying is, “While you’re on the planet, here’s what we need to be doing. We need to live as citizens worthy of the gospel of Christ. He took your giant book and put it on Himself and therefore we need to live in a worthy manner. We need to live as citizens of heaven worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
That’s why, men and women, our lives in this planet where we have people running around who do not know God, nor do they care to honor God. Our lives ought to be distinctive. Our lives ought to be different. Our lives ought to be consistent with being citizens of heaven. They ought to be authentic heaven-like lives. One of the ramifications of that is that we just shouldn’t look like the pagan world. Everyone agree? We shouldn’t.
You know the divorce rate among Christians should not mirror the culture. But guess what? It does! That’s not living worthy of the gospel of Christ. That’s not living in a distinctive way. Those who are followers of Christ should not be getting involved in sex before marriage whether it is intercourse or oral sex just like the world does because we’re to be distinctive. We’re to be living like we are citizens of heaven. Followers of Jesus shouldn’t be going out and getting drunk and high [intoxicated] just like everyone else their age. We’re to be different. We are to be distinctive, you see, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If I could just sort of flip this upside down, this is part of what I believe he’s saying, “Don’t smear the name of Christ by your life choices. Don’t do that. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” What do people see when they read the letter of your life? It’s a question I have to ask myself. What do they see? Is it worthy of the gospel of Christ…the way I’m choosing to live? See it goes back to His grace and His mercy toward us and His grace and His mercy is our motivation.
You know if you went out of your door every week and you were thinking about that big book you deserved to have to take account for, which really ultimately would mean death not only in this life but for eternity and that was put on Him, then how differently should I live now in light of that? That’s the call we have…a call to live worthy. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Now that’s sort of a general idea. It’s a general call, but there are two distinctives to living worthy He has in mind for us. I want to look at those two. The first one is spiritual steadfastness…that we stand strong and firm, spiritually speaking. Notice he says in verse 27, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent…” Remember he is in prison. He is chained to a Roman guard. Whether I get to see you or whether I just hear about you, here is what I want you to do when it comes to conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. I want to hear that you are, “Standing firm.”
Standing firm…it’s a soldiering term. You know when we live in this world there is a tremendous current. It’s sort of like being in a fast-moving stream and the world wants to take us downstream, but what we need to do, if we’re going to live worthy, is we need to stand firm. I think he has a couple of ideas involved here in spiritual steadfastness. One of the things we need to focus on when it comes to spiritual steadfastness is a consistent reliance upon the Holy Spirit. This is a personal dimension. Then we’re going to see a corporate dimension of standing firm. Part of standing firm means a consistent reliance upon the Holy Spirit.
You notice he says there, “I want to hear you are standing firm in one spirit.” Now that word spirit could be little ‘s,’ but it also could be big “S” referring to the Spirit of God. I just would feel, even though it’s a little hard to know for sure, but I think the best interpretation of this is to see spirit here as being a big Spirit, referring to the Holy Spirit and His ministry.
Just stop for a minute. If the call is, and part of living worthy is that we stand firm, what’s the secret to that? I get really tough and rough, and I crank this out [give a strong flesh effort] and I say, “I’m not moving. I’m not budging. It’s going to be the strength of Bruce.” No, it’s not at all. I think he is talking about standing firm…this is what it looks like…and that means we are very clearly dependent and reliant on the Holy Spirit.
You see when it comes to being who we’ve been called to be, it’s not dependent on our power and our resources. It’s just not something we crank out. You can depend on me, Jesus. I will do it. I will do it on my own. No! Do you remember what Jesus told the disciples when He was meeting with them, and as He was getting really ready to go to the Cross? He made this statement to them. He said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” What did He mean by that? Well He didn’t mean we can’t do anything because we can do things, but He said, “When it comes to accomplishing spiritual goals I have laid for you, apart from your reliance on Me, you can really do nothing. You need Me and My power in your life.”
Men and women, the spiritual life is a supernatural one. It’s a supernatural life. Jesus said, “When I go away, I will send another Helper,” who would be the Holy Spirit who gives us the power and gives us the ability to stand fast. So if we’re going to be spiritually steadfast, what He is trying to say to them is, “You cannot be self-reliant.” What it takes, if we’re going to be steadfast is reliance on the Spirit of God, daily dependence on the Holy Spirit.
I want to be honest with you. My number one struggle, top of the list, my number one failure in living the spiritual life… It’s not even a debate. I know exactly what it is. It comes when I try to do this on my own. I cannot accomplish it. When I think I can, that’s just before it’s proven that I can’t. How many times does it happen to us when we know we ought to make certain choices and we begin to think, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. And Jesus’ words come back, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” We need consistent reliance upon the Holy Spirit.
Recently I’ve asked this question before and I’ll ask it again…How often are you aware of your need of reliance on the Holy Spirit? See if you have no awareness of your need that tells a lot. That tells you are cranking it out. You’re doing it on your own. He is the Helper who has been called alongside to give us the aid we need. He is a key to spiritual steadfastness.
So, one of the distinctives of living in a worthy manner, conducting ourselves worthy is spiritual steadfastness…that we stand firm. Part of that is a personal thing that we have consistent reliance upon the Holy Spirit, but part of it is a corporate thing if we’re going to stand fast and stand firm. That involves teaming together for the gospel’s sake. Notice again verse 27. He said, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent [chained to this guard], I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” I like the New Living Translation here. It says, “Standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News.”
This is the corporate nature of spiritual steadfastness. There is a personal part to this where I need to be reliant upon the Holy Spirit, but then there is a corporate part of how staying spiritually and standing firm happens. With one mind, striving together… Those little words striving together are the words in the original athleo. Look a little bit familiar? We get our word athlete from it. This is an athletic term…striving together. It emphasizes teamwork, being a team together.
That’s what a church family is to be. A church family is to be a team. That’s why nowhere in the Bible is there to be some sort of a lone ranger thing going on. I’m a follower of Jesus, but I really don’t need other people. I don’t really need the church. There are no Lone Rangers [American cowboy series where the cowboy did things single-handedly] in the Kingdom of God. We need one another. I’ve used this analogy before, and this is, I think, part of a reflection of the New Testament teaching. That is, there is power in the pack. There is power in the pack.
Have you ever watched some of those animal kingdom deals? Particularly coming out of Africa and you see all these various animals in a pack. They’re in a herd. As long as they’re in the herd, they have a level of protection from the predators. What are the predators looking for? You’ve seen some of those things. They’re looking for the animal that sort of wanders off from the herd and the pack a little bit and gets separated from them. When that happens, what happens? The predator goes right after them.
The same thing is true in the church. The same thing is true of Satan because he is a predator, and when you have believers who wander off from the pack, you know, decide, “I’m going to separate myself and go off over here and sort of do my own thing.” They’ve just become vulnerable to the spiritual predator who wants to take you out. Striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel. In other words, the central goal of why we get together…we’re not here to be some kind of a club. We’re not like the Y [YMCA (Christian athletic club)]. We don’t just hang out to have fun, although we do have fun. The central goal is the advancing of the Good News of Jesus Christ. That’s what He gave His life for. That’s why we do what we do.
The enemy… Now I want you to stop for a moment. You might say, “I know all this stuff.” Listen, if you think churches are alert to this, by in large they are not. The enemy is out in churches to divide and conquer. What the enemy wants to do is he wants to disrupt the team. He wants to, inside of a church environment, he wants to breed conflict and in that conflict cause resentment. When you have conflict and resentment, your team breaks down. In fact, we did a whole series of messages on this that we entitled Spiritual Counterintelligence. Counterintelligence seeks to understand the way the enemy operates and this is one of the ways the enemy operates.
You know this happens every week. In fact, even as a pastoral staff and a leadership team we’re watching it happen. The enemy is trying to get the people on the team to bicker. He is trying to get people on the team to become critical of one another. He is trying to begin to find ways to polarize the team into factions. He is trying to introduce into the team, grudges. He is trying to introduce into the team, strife. He did that with the Philippian Church. In fact, in chapter 4, verse 2, he has to name a couple of people who need to get their act together and remember they are to be a team. We are to be a team together for the gospel’s sake.
Most of you know Andrew Jackson was a president of the United States. He was the seventh president, but before he became president, he was a military leader. For a while, he was a Major General in the Tennessee Militia. This actually happened in the War of 1812, his troops in the battle who were a team together were at an all-time low in morale. What had happened is a critical spirit had actually arisen in the ranks. They argued and they bickered and they actually fought among themselves. It is reported that Andrew Jackson who was called Old Hickory called them all together on one occasion when the tensions were at their worst. Here is what he told them, “Gentlemen, let’s remember this. The enemy is over there. The enemy is not us with one another. The enemy is over there.”
At times, the Church needs to remember that. In fact, it’s very important when it comes to standing firm as part of a worthy life. See he is the enemy. We are teammates and there needs to be in the team a one for all and all for one mentality. We need to be overlooking faults. Hey listen, I have them. You can interview my wife if you’re wondering about what they might be. We need to overlook our differences. We need to bear with one another. We need to forgive one another.
In fact, that is emphasized in these same letters. Turn to the left of Philippians to Ephesians 4, and we see these same ideas. Remember he talks to them, “You need to conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Live in a worthy manner.” He says to those believers in chapter 4, verses 2-3, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent [working hard] to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” See this is what it’s about that we stay as a team together and we give one another a break and we do that with humility and gentleness and patience.
Then I want you to turn with me to the right of Philippians to Colossians and the third chapter, another book where he talks about this idea of living in a worthy manner. I want you to see part of what’s involved in that, as we are a team together. He says in verse 12 of chapter 3. He says, “So as those who have been chosen of God…” You’ve been picked out for the team, holy and beloved. Here is the way we’re to relate to one another. Not relate to God. This is the way we relate to one another. “Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
The enemy is over there. We are teammates, you see. It’s important to have that understanding if we’re going to stand firm. Live worthy of the gospel of Christ. That involves spiritual steadfastness. That’s one distinctive. What does it mean to live worthy? That you’re spiritually steadfast. That I’m spiritually steadfast. That means a consistent reliance on the Holy Spirit. That’s the personal part of this. We don’t pull this whole thing off without His empowerment, but it also involved a spiritual steadfastness, teaming together for the gospel’s sake. That’s the corporate element.
So let me just ask…Are you a spiritual lone ranger? Do you spend most of your time disconnected from the team, sort of out here doing your own little thing? Dangerous place to be because there is power in the pack. There is protection. Could it be today…I don’t really know what all is going on in everyone’s life, but could it be that you’re even holding a grudge against somebody else on the team? Maybe something they said or something they did and it just didn’t set well with you. That’s something that needs to be dealt with if we are going to be spiritually steadfast.
Is there an unresolved issue between you and somebody else, something that has been hanging fire [left hanging] for a while and you’ve been thinking, Well, I’m waiting for them to do something about that. I’m waiting for them. I want them… When really God is saying, “How about you?” Let’s deal with that. Are you granting grace to other members of the team? I am so grateful that you extend some grace to me because I’m just not a perfect person and I make my own set of mistakes. I have my own set of flaws, my own set of weaknesses, but so do you. We need to extend grace to each other because see we’re called to be spiritually steadfast. Part of that means that we team together for the gospel’s sake.
So that’s the first distinctive as he says to us, back in Philippians, “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” The first distinctive is spiritual steadfastness. There is a second one, I think, that he shares with us and that is settled confidence in the face of rejection and suffering. We see that in verses 28-30. “In no way alarmed by your opponents–which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”
Settled confidence in the face of rejection and suffering… I find it kind of interesting the mentality that we develop as followers of Jesus in this world. Here is the mentality that we have. As I’m sort of riding out my life, I’m on a cruise ship just sort of cruising through life and then things happen and I say, “Why am I taking hits on this cruise to heaven? Why am I taking shots? Why is there difficulty in my life?”
The problem has to do with our mentality. See the reality is we’re not on a cruise ship cruising to heaven. We are on a battleship. We’re involved with a spiritual war in this culture. Now if you have a mentality you’re on a battleship, you would expect some volleys to come your way. Right? You’re on a cruise ship and you’re thinking, Why did that shell come flying over here smacking into the wall with a loud boom? Why did they take some shrapnel? Well when you’re on a cruise ship, it doesn’t make any sense. When you’re on a battleship you say, “Yeah, that’s what happens. That’s what happens in a real spiritual war.” Life, men and women, is a battlefield.
Second verse, I have it memorized, 11 years old, “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” There is a spiritual fight going on. It is a battlefield. We are on a battleship not a cruise ship. So he says to us, when these kinds of things begin to happen to us, he says, “In no way be alarmed by your opponents.” Very interesting verb here in verse 28, it’s what’s called in technical circles a hapax.
A hapax means it’s the only time it appears in the New Testament, the only time this verb is ever used anywhere in the New Testament. It’s just used once. “In no way be alarmed.” It’s a verb that means to be frightened, to be startled. It was used of a horse that would sort of shy away from the battle. A horse that would be on the verge of panicking and stampeding off in the other direction.
What he is really saying to us is if we’re going to live worthy, we need to not run scared. We should not have a panicked reaction when things happen, when we have to face being ostracized or being ridiculed for our faith in Christ, for being called stupid maybe for following Christ or being called weak or someone just saying, “What a worthless thing you’re into. I can’t even believe you go to church on a regular basis. Why do you do something so stupid?” When people are opposing your faith, don’t run scared. Don’t shy away from that.
Notice, their opposing of your faith in Christ, your personal faith in Christ is a sign, he says, of destruction for them. I want you to keep your finger here. Turn with me a little bit to the right to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. This is an amazing set of verses in chapter 1, verses 6-12. Those who oppose your faith, it’s a sign of destruction for them because this is what’s going to happen in the future. The Bible doesn’t mince words [fail to be clear].
He says in verse 6, “After all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed–for our testimony to you was believed. To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
When people oppose your faith and my faith, it’s a sign of destruction for them. But he says back in Philippians it’s a sign of salvation for you and that too from God. I think when he says that too from God, he’s stressing that God is in control. Whatever happens in our life, our destiny is sure. Basically, what he is really saying is, “Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be intimidated.”
Then he makes an amazing statement in verse 29. He says, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” It has been granted to you and to me, it’s been graced to us to even suffer. By the way, suffering comes in different flavors in the Bible. Particularly, he’s talking about suffering that comes our way because we are a Christ follower and life is a battlefield. There will be persecution and there will be hardship. There will be depravation.
Joni Eareckson does a great job of giving some perspective on suffering. She was one who, in a diving accident, became paralyzed from the neck down, but she says this, “Every personal life fits somewhere onto a scale of suffering that ranges from little to much. However, much suffering we have to endure, there are always those below us who suffer less and those who are above who suffer more. The problem is we usually like to compare ourselves only with those who suffer less. That way we can pity ourselves and pretend we’re at the top of the scale, but when we face reality and stand beside those who suffer more, our purple heart medals [medal for being wounded] don’t shine so brightly.”
He says, “To you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.” You know that’s part of what Paul was experiencing. That’s part of what some of the Philippians were experiencing. That’s part of what people experience to this day. This isn’t something just back in New Testament times.
I want to tell you the story of a young woman who grew up in North Africa in a Muslim home. Her father was a much decorated [many positive citations] policeman. This is a very current story. Her dad, even though they were Muslim, was more moderate Muslim. Her brother, though, because he went to college in the south part of the nation, which is very radical, he was very much a fundamentalist Muslim. Through her intersection with The Church of Jesus Christ, she was introduced to the gospel message of who Christ is and why He came to die for her. She chose to turn to Him and trust in Him.
She didn’t want to tell her family. She was afraid of their reaction, but eventually she finally did and boy oh boy, did it hit the fan [serious trouble started]. Her father would vacillate between being very passive about it and then being extremely furious about it. When he got angry, he would kick her out of the house and yell at her. He would say things like, “I wish you had just gotten pregnant. If you’d gotten pregnant, I could kill the baby and it would be over. Instead now you’re a Christian and I really don’t know what to do.”
When her brother found out, he was a lot more violent and he went about to beating her up…I mean beating her up, and her father just watched and didn’t intervene. One time her father locked her in her room for 10 days telling her it would take that long for the brainwashing to wear off. When she came out of that little imprisonment, she still maintained her faith in Christ. Because she lives many hours and time zones ahead of us, she spent her day today honoring the person of Jesus Christ.
These verses mean something to her when she reads, “It has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.” People suffer at different levels. You know most of us in the States aren’t being imprisoned because of our faith. We’re not being beaten up because we’ve chosen to trust in Christ. Yet we can get so, Oh, it’s so hard. Maybe you’re a young person and you’ve chosen that you want to go to your marriage time as a virgin and you have a lot of people who probably say to you, “That’s pretty un-cool [not cool]. That’s pretty un-cool. That’s unhip [not popular].”
Or maybe people would look at us… This is happening more and more, and men and women, this is going to happen more and more. I’m here to tell you right now. People are going to say, “You are backward. You are barbaric when you do not embrace same-sex marriage.” Or people might say, “Why do you live simpler like you do and give so much money to God? That’s just a stupid thing to do.” See these kinds of things come our way. Now they are different than a young woman out of a Muslim family in North Africa, but there are still issues that will come our way.
In fact, I’ve always been intrigued by the passage in 1 Peter 4:4 where it talks about those who are involved in carousing [wild partying] and drinking parties and sensuality and they look at people who’ve come to Christ and they’re surprised you don’t run with them anymore. You have a new path. It goes on to say there, “And they malign you for it.” Life is a battlefield, men and women. He says to the Philippians in verse 30, “You are experiencing the same kind of thing I have experienced.” The New Living Translation says in verse 30, “We are in this fight together.” Here’s what God is saying to you and to me, “Don’t be intimidated.” You see God is going to trouble those who trouble His people.
When we went to Latvia that was a big, big issue there. If you’re struggling with unjust people who seem to get away with things, you need to go visit Psalm 73 for a while. I remember preaching that in Latvia. We are living letters…living letters. We need to live worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have an interesting experience being the pastor of the church because here is what happens. I go out, and I might meet somebody new in the community and when I do, and they maybe ask me what I do and I tell them, I get three different responses from people. Here is one of the responses, “I never heard of Wildwood.” Okay, so then now I am the living letter they’re going to have. Another response I get this when they find out who I am and what I do, they’ll say, “Oh! I know such and such. Wow, they’re real people.” They’ll say things to me, “I wish I had more employees like they are.” Then a third response I get from time to time goes something like this, “Oh, Wildwood, huh? I know such and such who goes to your church and they’re really hard to get along with.” Whoa. People are reading us, men and women.
That brings us to the life response that we’re going to have today. I want to read you a little quote. It’s from a very well-known author. We’ve all heard about this author. His name is, or her name, I’m not sure, is anonymous. Anyone ever heard of anonymous? Yeah. This is what anonymous wrote, “You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day by the deeds that you do and the words that you say. Men read what you write whether faith or true, just what is the gospel according to you?”
So here is the life response to you and me…How does your life letter read? How does it read at school? How does it read at the workplace? How does it read before your family? May my letter and your letter be a worthy read.
Let’s pray together: Father, we thank You for the Word. We thank You for the challenge of it. We thank You for the fact that we need to be reminded we are living letters and that we need to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. May you call us up to that not that we would do it perfectly, but that we might do it consistently for the glory of Jesus Christ who bled and died for us. Thank You God for how great You are. Thank You that the success of me conducting myself in a worthy manner doesn’t rely upon myself, but upon You. Oh, we thank You for that. We thank You in Jesus’ name, Amen.