Philippians 1:27 - 28: Why Bethlehem Bible Church Exists

The Main Thing Bethlehem Bible Church Exists For

Why does Bethlehem Bible Church exist?

What are we here for?

Why does Bethlehem Bible Church exist? Community? Fellowship? Friendship? Sense of belonging? Teach our children good morals? Civic lessons? Tax write-off? Why do we exist? Certainly many of those are wonderful byproducts, but are they the main thing?

Might I suggest this morning from the Scriptures that there's one reason why, and one reason alone, that Bethlehem Bible Church exists. And by the way, who determines why we exist? The denomination?

The government? The elders?

Me?

You?

Evangelical celebrities? Christianity Today? Of course, we know that the Word of God is sufficient and authoritative and final when it comes to this issue. This morning, I want to have us be reminded to keep the main thing the main thing.

Every week before I preach, I reboot my iPad because I don't want this thing to go blank out before I preach. And so this morning, it's almost like a good reboot for us to be reminded that the main thing about Bethlehem Bible Church needs no detours.

You're probably asking, what is that main thing? I'm happy you're asking. Please turn your Bibles to the book of Philippians. We're normally going through the book of Luke, the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, but I wanted to make a small detour today that will help us be reminded for the purpose and existence of Bethlehem Bible Church.

Keeping the main thing the main thing as we recalibrate, if necessary, or remind us for certain. Now, when you turn to the book of Philippians, you're probably thinking, oh yes, the theme is joy. The theme is unity.

And of course, those are two good themes,.

But are they the theme?

Is it the issue? So what I'd like to do to start before we get into the message, I'd like to have you follow along as I'm going to read several passages in Philippians and see if you can see a recurring word that will help us with the theme of Philippians and help us with the purpose and mission of Bethlehem Bible Church.

Philippians chapter one, let's start in verse five. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Verse seven, it is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

Verse 12, same chapter, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Verse 16, the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

Verse 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.

Chapter two, verse 22, but you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel. And then two more verses, chapter four, verse three, and verse 15. Chapter four, verse three, yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

Verse 15, and you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. In those eight verses, nine times, obviously, you see the word gospel or good news.

That's the recurring theme, and of course, in chapter one, it's about the proclamation of Christ Jesus. In chapter two, in the center of everything, if you look with me in chapter two, verses seven through 11, when I say gospel, I mean the Lord Jesus sent by the Father.

We have the Lord Jesus front and center in this book. It's all about Jesus, it's about the gospel, it's about good news, that Jesus saves sinners. Verse seven of chapter two, but emptied himself, talking about the Lord Jesus, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

It should not surprise any of us that Paul the apostle is talking about the Lord Jesus. Apostle means sent one, and so Paul is sent by Jesus. Jesus sends Paul to the church to talk about himself, that is, the Lord Jesus.

So what I'd like to do today is I'd like to look at chapter one, verses 27, 28, 29, and 30, and ask and answer the question, why does Bethlehem Bible Church exist? Because that will help us in many areas as we focus in on the one thing, the main thing, the great thing, the Lord Jesus.

So let me read verses 27 through 30. I'll tell you what my sermon is in a nutshell, and then we'll kinda dissect it a little bit. Chapter one, verses 27 through 30. This is our passage for the day. 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, 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 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. The theme essentially of Philippians and the theme of this sermon is that the main thing that this church exists for is the proclamation of the gospel, the good news about the Lord Jesus.

And therefore, everything else isn't the main thing, and needs to be subsumed under, or absorbed into that main calling. Like, to telegraph my sermon, you know in basketball, if you look at someone, you pass to them, you're not supposed to do it because someone could intercept that pass, so you're supposed to look over here and then pass that way.

But I'm going to telegraph the pass to you now, and say that if the main thing is the Lord Jesus and the proclamation of the gospel, everything else is lesser. So therefore, even in chapter four, verse two, Paul is going to say, ladies, you're not getting along, but remember, the main goal is the gospel, it's not friendships.

Ladies, you're not getting along, but remember, you need to get along for the proclamation of the gospel. And we'll talk about this more in the sermon today, but I just want you to know, and I hope it's freeing to you, that since the main thing about Bethlehem Bible Church is the proclamation of the gospel to unbelievers, and to believers, that you don't even have to like everybody here at the church.

You have to love them.

You have to realize, do you know what? I should get along with these other people because the church is bigger than my relationship. If the number one goal in the church is friendship, then that's one thing.

If the number one goal is community, that's another thing. But if the number one goal is the proclamation of the gospel, everything else, which missionary to support, where to spend the money, everything comes underneath that banner of the proclamation and the advance of the good news of the Lord Jesus.

That's the sermon today. If the one goal is to win the Super Bowl, do you really think everybody in the New England Patriots for those six Super Bowls liked each other? I don't think they did, but they had one goal.

They were striving together with one mind, standing firm. I don't know if it's true or not, but the disaster could happen, like with Bill Belichick, who has a personal beef against Malcolm Butler, and it cost you the Super Bowl.

Am I right?

I could be, in my opinion. If you don't want to get sued on the radio, you just say, in my opinion, and then it's fine. But the point is, if we're together for the gospel and the proclamation of who Jesus is, that's our theme, then everything else tucks itself underneath that.

We say, okay, we better get along. We better shore these things up because there's something bigger than ourselves. Doesn't take very long to look around the gospels and the epistles in the New Testament, and Paul is saying the same thing, not just to Philippi, but in Colossians, right?

The theme verse of Bethlehem Bible Church found in your bulletin. Chapter one, verse 28, him we proclaim. What does he say to the Corinthians? When I get to you, I already know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna talk about who Jesus is.

I already know my message before I arrive. I've determined there are nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. To the churches around Galatia, he talks about this great Jesus who is raised from the dead and delivers from this evil world.

In Romans, he says, I'm gonna talk to you about who Jesus is. So Paul, in jail, writing to the church of Philippi, wants to make sure they know that the most important thing about them and why they exist is the proclamation of the Lord Jesus and the advance of his kingdom.

Everything else is secondary. There aren't two great commissions, there's one. Matter of fact, if you go back to chapter one, verse 12, to give us a little context before we get into our main passage, you can see how Paul, in an autobiographical way, shows by example what the most important thing is.

In chapter one, verse 27, he's going to tell the church at Philippi and us what to do and how to do it and how to think through it. But Paul first, like a good teacher does, I will exemplify it by example first, then I'll tell you what to do.

In chapter one, verse 12, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, verse 13, to all the rest, that my imprisonment is not for being a criminal, it's for Christ.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. The goal of my life is not I want to be free and I want to be living a life just of luxury.

My goal is I want the gospel to go forward, to talk about the Lord Jesus and His great work, to advance. And by the way, I don't want you to be discouraged, Philippi, because I'm in jail, and you think somehow I'm now squashed in my proclamation of the gospel, but every four hours, every six hours, when a new guard is chained up to me, I have a captive audience, and I'm preaching the gospel, and it's going forward.

It's infiltrating even into the White House, as it were. Verse 15, you see the preach Christ 15, 17, proclaim Christ, 18, proclaim Christ. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill.

The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And since that's the main thing, and that I will rejoice, yes, I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers, help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

And he goes on to say, whether I die or not, it doesn't matter, the gospel is going forward. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. I'm after verse 25, listen to what Paul says. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with me, continue with you all, rather, 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.

What's the main thing for Paul? To make sure the gospel goes forward to unbelievers and to believers. To unbelievers, of course, like the Philippian jailer, because he needs to be saved from his sins.

The biggest problem that we all have, we're gonna stand before a holy God and we're sinful. So of course, the gospel goes out to unbelievers, but it goes out to believers too. Paul said to the Church of Rome, I'm eager to get there to preach the gospel to you, to Christians.

So we come to our passage today that some call the thesis of Philippians. Others call it the main appeal of Philippians. And it's almost hidden in plain sight. So here's our outline for this morning. Four essential questions every church and every church member must ask and answer.

Four essential questions every church and every church member must ask and answer. I'll give you the four ahead of time and then we'll see how far we get. Translation, it's probably gonna be a two-parter.

We'll see. I said to myself, Lord, help me preach well. And today, don't rush. We don't need to rush through this. Question one, why does Bethlehem Bible Church exist? Question two, what is the gospel that we must advance?

Question three, what does the gospel do as we advance it? And question four, how do we live in light of the gospel? So question one, the first essential question, I want you to ask and answer, is what is the main thing Bethlehem Bible Church is all about?

What should Bethlehem Bible Church be all about? You already know the answer because I telegraphed it early, but there in verse 27, he talks about letting your life be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that, here's the purpose statement, we want to live in a godly way in light of the gospel and who Jesus is.

Paul says, whether I come to you or not, that you're striving, standing, side by side, look at the very end of the verse, for the faith of the gospel. In chapter one, verse 12, he said, I will give you an example.

I am all about the advance of the gospel. Now, I want you to do the same thing. I want you to practice what I'm preaching. Now, interestingly, the first word in verse 27 is the word what. No, it's not the word what.

It's the word only. That's kind of a weird way to start off. Only? You'd think there'd be some kind of link. And literally, in the Greek, it's only worthy of the gospel of Christ. He's saying, this is the only thing.

This is the essential thing. This is the main thing. This is the top of the list thing. One translation says, make this one thing your care. Another word study book said, this one thing I urge only is needful.

There's 1 ,000 things competing for our attention, but there's one that rises to the top. What's the most important thing, Church at Philippi and Bethlehem Bible Church? And if you get this right, then you say, well, all the other deviations and distractions and everything else from social justice to politics to civic things, certainly you can do things as private citizens, but the church, what is the church about?

When you open up the church and you say, what is going on behind the scenes? What drives them? This one thing and this one thing only, Paul says, this is what I'm after. All these commands are related to and underneath the gospel of who Jesus is for the faith of the gospel, showing believers who Jesus is, showing unbelievers who Jesus is.

Paul has said elsewhere about the faith of the gospel, the content of the good news. He calls it in 1 Timothy 6, the deposit entrusted to you. Oh, Timothy, guard the deposit. We just sang the Jude doxology and earlier in Jude, it says, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Faith and the object, faith has an object and that object is the Lord Jesus. And when we talk about Jesus, we say that's good news. It's the gospel. The most important thing about Bethlehem Bible Church is the gospel of Jesus and its advance in the hearts of believers and the hearts of unbelievers.

It should dominate our curriculum for Sunday school. It should dominate our VBS curriculum It should dominate our getting along with each other. And you say, well, we already know the gospel. We got that down, we hear it every week.

Do you know when you start to assume the gospel and not hear it, the next generation will lose the gospel? So we keep reminding people every single week of who Jesus is, week in and week out. Oh yeah, but we hear sermons about Jesus every week.

I know.

But the world's disintegrating.

I know.

But America is lawless.

I know.

The subject matter is redundant.

I know.

Remember Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma. He didn't start off going to Burma. And by the way, he was sent by churches around Boston and along where 90 would be. Notice I didn't call it the 90, 90.

You call it the Pike. Why do you call it the Pike and not the 90? He started off, by the way, as a Presbyterian, but he studied the Bible on the way there and he became a Baptist. That's for the pierces.

Anyway, when you meet a missionary, you ask him all kinds of questions. And you know, when my kids were little, and what's the weirdest thing you ate as a missionary? And tell me the stories about how the people came and tried to burn down your hut and other kinds of things that would happen.

And so Judson goes to Burma and he comes home to Massachusetts 30 years later. Let's say you're gonna have him preach. What do you think he'd talk about? There's a large audience. He had 15 minutes to talk.

He talked about the Lord Jesus and Christ's sufferings, Christ's exaltation, Christ's soon return, how great Jesus is. His friends said on the way home that people were very much disappointed and they wonder why you didn't speak of something else.

What did they want? I presented to the best of my ability the most interesting subject in the entire world. Well, I think they wanted something different, maybe a story. Judson, well, I sure gave them the story, the most thrilling one that can be conceived of.

Yes, but they've heard that before, the friend said. They wanted something new. Judson, then I'm glad they have it to say that a man coming from Burma had nothing better to tell them than the wondrous story of the dying love of Jesus.

My business is to preach the gospel of Christ Jesus. And when I can speak of it, I dare not trifle with my commission. When I looked upon those people today, remembering where I should next meet them, and how could I stand up and furnish food for vain curiosity and tickle fancy with amusing stories?

That is not what Christ meant by preaching the gospel. And then how could I hereafter meet the fearful charge from the Lord? I gave you opportunity to tell them of me. You spent it describing your own adventures.

And so the church is to preach the gospel. As you know, I'm just reminding you, this is not scolding, this is not lecturing, this is just a simple reminder and a reboot. Remember, the gospel isn't in our hearts.

Law is written on our hearts. What to do is written on our hearts. Love God and love neighbor is written on our hearts. The 10 commandments of the moral love of God are written on our hearts. But what is not written on our hearts is the good news that comes from outside of us, the Lord Jesus.

And that's why week in and week out, whether it's monthly with the Lord's Supper here, or from the pulpit, we need to be reminded of who Jesus Christ is. That's why Paul said to the church of Rome, I can't wait to get there to tell you.

I can't wait to get up and say something new about Jesus. Say, well, I want something deeper than Jesus.

Really?

A few weeks ago, someone said to me, or said to someone else about my preaching, they said, they're looking for something more at a postgraduate level. That's kind of stuck in my craw. I'm not trying to preach at a postgraduate level.

I'm preaching for people like you. Preaching for people like you. Not you two, the one behind you, jail. But I'm preaching for you too. I want you to understand this truth over and over to be reminded of who Jesus is.

Because what we do is we're supposed to be walking by faith and not by sight. But we live in this world and we can't see who God is. And before you know it, instead of, as Grandma Evie would say, gazing upon the Lord, we're gazing on our problems and just glancing at the Lord.

Instead of glancing at the problems, gazing on the Lord. Paul knew better, this is the one thing I do. Paul knew better, my citizenship's in heaven. And so everything about it for Paul was, it was the proclamation of who Jesus is.

You don't go deeper than the gospel, you don't go past the gospel, because the center of the gospel, when I say gospel, it's shorthand for Jesus. That's why Paul can say in chapter four, I want you ladies to get along.

And if there are men in the church that don't get along, they need to get along as well. The mission statement for every church, and this church is the advance of the gospel. So let's say you have a ministry here at the church, and most of you do, thank you.

You say, well, my ministry is taking care of the children in the nursery. How does that advance the gospel? Answer, you probably pray for those little ones when you're changing their diapers and other things.

Two, you're doing things behind the scenes so that the gospel can go advance here, right? Say, well, I'm doing parking lot control. Well, it all comes underneath that proclamation of the gospel. And therefore, since that's true, if there's someone here at the church that you don't really get along with, you know, you don't have to be friends with everybody, but you have to be friendly.

You don't have to like everyone here, but you have to love them, because you're underneath that idea of there's something bigger than each of us, and that is the proclamation of the gospel. We don't want to hurt our witness and cause us to deal with interpersonal problems, because we have a bigger fish to fry, as it were.

Not trying to be irreverent. Say, well, I have a home group. What's my mission statement? I think Philippians 1, 27 answers it. I like to teach my children the Bible around the dinner table. What's my goal?

What's my mission statement? What's my MO? I think you know the answer. First essential question that needs to be asked and answered is, what is Bethlehem Bible Church all about?

Secondly, probably would be good.

To ask this question and answer it. If our existence is the gospel proclamation, then what's the gospel? Second question, what is the gospel? I know you know the answer, but I'm just gonna repeat it anyway.

By the way, the gospel that I'm talking about isn't a type of music, gospel music. It's not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, although I love Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Six times, even in chapter one, as we saw earlier, the word gospel is used.

As you know, my wife, Kim, she works at Lowe's a couple days a week in the paint department. And some of the funniest things, I mean, I'll come home and she'll say,.

What happened at work today?

And I'll say to her, what happened at Lowe's today? And did you meet anybody there that we know or whatever? And so I like it when she tells me this story. Some of the nuns or some of the Catholic priests down the street come in with their garb and their habit and their collars and all that.

And I like to say to them, what's the good news? And the stories are pretty funny now. They're few and far between because they avoid her. Somehow they don't need paint anymore. She just looked at me like, no.

You know how hard it is to preach.

With your wife on the front row? You ever thought about that? I remember I had her preach Ephesians five once. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Kim's on the front row. Much more self-righteous in those days than I am now.

But I think what I did was,.

Let's see, how can I preach without being a total hypocrite? I'll do something that Kim wants to do.

That I would hate to do.

So that's when I first bought her, this was 10, 15 years ago, 10 classes on ballroom dancing because I thought she'd love it and I'd hate it. So we're still doing the rock step. If I ask you the question, what's the good news?

You have 15 seconds to give me the good news. And sometimes in evangelism class, we would do this very thing, hand out a piece of paper and say, what's the gospel? You think it's so simple because I hear it all the time.

Do you know the amount of people that get that question wrong? And maybe it's because it's, you know, they're put on the spot. Or if I ask people, what's your testimony? You know how many people don't give me the gospel in their testimony?

And again, they may be nervous, they may be put on the spot, they might really know it. But if I ask you the question, you got 15 seconds, the plane is going down. Southwest 382 is going down. You have 15 seconds.

What would you say?

Love God and love neighbor. God helps those who help themselves. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Be nice, be good. Have purpose in your life. Have your best life now. Be good to others. The word gospel was a general word used, and it just meant good news of any kind in secular uses.

It kind of got hijacked when Caesar came along, and it was talking about how Caesar was the good news incarnate, Caesar's son was good news. So it kind of got hijacked, but then Paul re-hijacks it to talk about the good news of Jesus Christ sent by the Father.

Now, by the way, when I talk about Jesus a lot, you might be saying, isn't God triune? Why is he not talking? Why is the pastor not talking about the Father and the Spirit as much? Remember, when I talk about one member of the Trinity, I'm meaning all.

If I say Jesus, he's the one sent by the Father. He's the unbegotten Father sending the begotten Son, and the Father and the Son together from them proceed the Spirit. So when I say one, I mean all. So I'm not somehow denigrating the Holy Spirit and the Father when I talk about Jesus a lot, because it's the Father who sent the Son, and it's the Spirit's the one who's saying, look at the Son.

But this good news is all about the triune God's work. It means good news, and it's talking about the Lord Jesus. We are enslaved to sin. We are standing before a holy God one day, and we've got a very serious problem.

And so that's the bad news is we don't live up to God's standards and who God is and his law. But the good news is there's someone who does. But you see, law isn't good news unless you can perfectly keep the law.

If you could perfectly love God and love neighbor, the law would be good news. But since we can't, the law is not good news. The law is like a mirror that shows us we need a Savior. And so the good news isn't what we do, isn't what we've done, isn't what we could do.

The good news is in spite of what we haven't done, that is obey God perfectly, the Lord Jesus has been sent by the Father to rescue sinners not if they keep the law, not because they've done the law, but because they haven't, and he sends the Son to rescue anyway.

While the law says you're a sinner and you're damned, the gospel says Christ Jesus comes into the world to save sinners. It says in Philippians, excuse me, in Acts chapter 16, believe on the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved.

That's the response to the gospel is just to believe. The gospel strictly speaking about the Lord Jesus, no demands, no conditions, simply promises and gifts. That's why it's a joyful message. That's why S. Lewis Johnson used to say, men, when you proclaim the gospel, you ought to stand on tiptoes because it's so exciting.

You wanna let the congregation know. You say, well, what would be another illustration of the gospel or something good news? I don't know what it is about Bethlehem Bible Church. I think it might be the West Boston water, but we have a lot of children around here, a lot.

That means more and more of our congregation is technically unregenerate, but that's another story. We're happy for them. When your baby's born, what do you do? It's a girl, it's a boy. I can't believe I have another mouth to feed.

At least I get a tax write-off.

What do you do? It's a girl.

I remember calling my friends when Haley was born, and then when Luke and Maddie and Gracie, it's a boy, it's a girl. It's so exciting. No wonder Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the gospel's good news, but the way I talk about it is good news as well.

I gospeled the gospel. I have something good news. I have good news to tell people. John Cahoon, a Scottish man, said, no tidings were ever so joyful as those which are announced in the gospel. Free grace to sinners, sovereign grace to sinners at the cost of Himself, God, freely given to us, received by faith.

Here's some gospel truth. For unto you this day is born in the city of David as Savior Christ the Lord. Has nothing to do with what we've done. It's just a proclamation. This is the promise that He promised us.

Even eternal life. That's the proclamation of good news. There's a great theologian, his name's Caspar Olivianus. When I think of Caspar as a kid, I thought of someone else, but this is, I'm gonna redeem that from your mind for all you people that used to watch cartoons in the 60s and 70s.

Caspar the Olivianus. Quote, in the gospel, God does not demand, but He offers, and He gives the righteousness that the law requires. This righteousness is the perfect obedience of the suffering and death of Jesus, through which all sin and damnation made manifest in the law is pardoned and washed away.

Furthermore, God does not give us forgiveness of sins in the gospel on the condition that we keep the law. He goes on to say, and I want you to realize this, dear Christians, so let me just change it to some personal pronouns.

Dear Christian, did you know that all your sins have been washed away? Did you know that you have been pardoned, not for just the rest of your lives, but forever? Did you know, Christian, that all of this, God freely offers and gives to you in the gospel without regard to your past?

Or I might add, skeletons in your closet.

Who loves like that?

That's good news to talk about. No wonder Paul says, I delivered you as of first importance. This is the most important thing, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. Everything's important in the Bible, but this reigns supreme.