This famous poem by W.B Yeats sets the stage for our study in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians – a study we’re calling “life together”. Throughout history, Philippians has been many, many people’s favorite book in the Bible – containing many of the most memorized and cherished verses in Scripture. Most say it is a very personal letter to Paul’s most beloved church. That church, founded through Paul’s witness in Acts 16 and established in spite of struggles and persecution, had become Paul’s generous and loyal base – supporting him when no one else did. They stood with him even when he was in prison. The Philippians were not rich people – but they were generous. Paul had them in his heart and he was in theirs (1:3-11). But still… there was a real possibility of things falling apart. Paul perceived that the “center was not holding”. Why?

1) External persecution –Philippi was a fiercely patriotic Roman colony populated by discharged Roman soldiers – very proud of their Roman citizenship and rejecting anything non-Roman (like this Jewish-based religion brought to town by Paul). Paul had been stripped, beaten, and imprisoned because of his witness to Jesus in Philippi (Acts 16). Still, people had come to Jesus there. And, Paul’s letter indicates that the church people were experiencing the same kinds of suffering in their city that he had. There seemed to be no end to those who were causing trouble for the small group of believers in Philippi. The government authorities persecuted them. Some who claimed to be Christians were preachers out to gain their own followings. Others were trying to shackle them with legalistic rules. Paul himself was in prison at the time, probably in Rome, and while Paul there, these Philippian friends were also suffering in their city. In other words, it was hard to be a follower of Jesus at that time in Philippi.

2) Infighting – As is often the case, this was probably a bigger problem than the external persecution. We’ll read about it throughout the letter. Selfish ambition and self-interest had set in among some. People were grumbling and complaining – probably about a variety of things. In his short letter, Paul keeps giving passionate appeals for the people to be united. Sadly, two of the leading women of the church simply could not get along – with their personal problems apparently spilling out into the public arena. As is always the case in the New Testament, Paul declares that unity in a church is not an option but a necessity – loving unity declares the truth of the gospel to the world: 2:14-15.

Paul knew that Jesus had said that the way the world would know that the gospel is true when the world sees we love one another. He knew that division among God’s people would do great damage to the work of God in the world so he writes this beautiful and passionate letter about doing life together. The opening 11 verses summarize it all. I think there are few passages in the Bible more important for keeping a church family focused on the most important things than Philippians 1:1-11. I think it’s good for us to lock into the teaching while we’re experiencing good times at LAC and to make sure what the Bible says is the center is truly our center.

You may not be surprised at the three words that summarize it all: Jesus – Gospel – Prayer.

#1: Faith: We must always be sure the very center of our church is… Jesus (1:1-2)

This point of believing in something if we will accomplish things is not foreign to our world. Politically, we can rally people with slogans like, “Yes, we can.” Probably, the most common call to people struggling to hold life together is, “Believe in yourself.” The notion is that you and I can do anything if we believe enough. So, people in general know that faith is a big key for our lives. We know that what we believe affects our whole lives. We know that when we stop believing positively, we give up hope.

But, what do we believe in? That’s the big question. We know ourselves. We surely can do more than we might usually imagine – but we know our failures and weaknesses. There must be something more to believe in than ourselves! And, the Bible continuously declares – from beginning to end – the only one worthy of our ultimate faith is God himself. We have been created to have God at the center of our lives as people made in his image. And, the church is God’s creation – established by Jesus and held together only when Jesus is the Lord it. He is the head of the body! We can only come together when we are all committed fully by faith to Jesus. Our deepest longing must be to know him and our deepest fear to displease him.

This is crystal clear in the way Paul starts his letter. Have you noticed the threefold and varied repetition in vv. 1-2 about Jesus –

1) Paul and Timothy are servants of Christ Jesus in v. 1. Different from other letters, Paul doesn’t begin, “I am an apostle – I founded this church, you know…” Instead, Paul says, “All that I am and all that I do is because I am a slave to the one who had to die for me.” Paul knows that this is the grateful spirit that gets rid of the pride that leads to division. He knew that if there would be unity in the church, each person had to see himself as a servant of Jesus.

2) Paul calls all the followers of Jesus in the church in Philippi “saints” in v. 2. The word “saints” is not used the way it’s used in our day, i.e., for people who are “super-holy” and therefore unlike the normal people in the church. It’s used for people who together are set apart to be in one group distinct from the rest of the world. And, the thing that makes us distinct is that we are “in Christ Jesus.” We all belong to him. (Do you? Do you belong to him? Then you belong to me too? We together are in him.)

3) The grace we have all found (for we are sinners and not deserving to belong to God’s people) and shalom available to us all (in spite of what we know about ourselves and have owned up to) comes from only one source: from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus – Jesus – Jesus!

Now – don’t give up on this sermon yet. I can imagine you might be thinking, “Of course, this is a sermon about Jesus. What else is new?” I’ve told you before about the old preacher’s story. A pastor had decided to introduce children’s sermons in the services but he wasn’t used to speaking to children. His wife told him, “You’ve got to use illustrations and get them engaged with you.” So, he decided to try it: “Children, what’s gray or brown, loves nuts, and jumps around in trees.” For a long time no one answered. Finally, one little boy said, “Well, preacher, we’re in church so we know the answer is Jesus. But, it sure sounds like a squirrel.”

But, this is more than just a platitude. Focusing on Jesus has always been, is still, and always will be the key in keeping a church together when all sorts of things could pull us apart. The Philippians were dealing with 1) being persecuted for their faith, and 2) fighting among themselves. Paul says, “Where we must start is by fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

But, how do I want us to do this? From my side, I have made a commitment never to go a year at LAC without taking some of the Sundays to look specifically and the life, work and teaching of Jesus. And I urge you never to cease to be what Paul calls a learner of Jesus. Read the gospels. Think about his life – his way of dealing with people and problems. Let his ways fill your mind. Prayerfully ask what would please him in your business dealings, your family situations, and your relationships. Let’s learn to talk about issues by asking, “What do you think would honor Jesus in a matter like the one we are facing?” Ask daily what you might apply from the life of Jesus to your own life.

When Chris, Brandon and I were in Seoul, Korea a long time ago, we were walking together through a packed crowd to get to a restaurant. Brandon was ahead of us with our Korean friend, John Song, and we fell behind. We held on to one another but thought the crowd might even separate us. Brandon was already about 6’1” then and taller than most folks. Chris and I decided we would just keep our eyes on his head. We didn’t know where we were going but Brandon and John did – so we knew that, even if we got separated, we’d get there together if we kept our eyes on him.

That’s exactly what Paul does throughout the letter to the Philippians. He says, “All sorts of things might be trying to tear us apart but let’s keep our eyes on the person, the attitude, and the work of Jesus, and we’ll get it together. We will end up where he wants us to be.”

#2: Mission: We should align all our energies toward fulfilling God’s mission (1:3-8)

A tug of war is one of the best illustrations of how a shared mission unites people. I was a camp director years ago and on “Olympics Day, we always had a tug of war at the end of the competition. It’s a great community builder. We would line up teams of boys and girls on either side of a muddy pool of water. Then the two were to tug on the rope to see who would drag the other into the mud. That shared mission united us wonderfully. We didn’t complain about the other person’s clothes or sounds or anything!! We used all our strength and energy to beat the enemy and stay out of the mud!

And the Bible tells us we are united – we are partnered in a tug of war against some pretty formidable foes. We are in a gospel-partnership. To help us grasp this, I to define a few words here. The first is koinonia (fellowship or partnership)? This is one of the most misunderstood words in the church. We think of koinonia simply as having a doughnut in the plaza with church people. Or, we think of singing great songs together – “that’s fellowship if they are Christian songs!” But, usually the word had to do with doing business together. It’s like Forrest Gump and Bubba planning to be in a shrimp business together. Forrest and Bubba had a close and trust-filled relationship with one another. They then put their lives together to build a business that would succeed. That was a real koinonia – a close partnership in which the partners were yoked together and pursued the same end with all their might.

So, koinonia had to do with a common mission bringing people into a relationship that had to be based on trust and shared values and hard work together. Fellowship was a self-sacrificial commitment to a shared vision. In Philippians, Paul would say our mission is “to know Christ and make him known so that all people can be saved and become like him”.

And, that mission is summarized by the word “gospel”. That’s the good news that God has come in Christ, lived the life we should have lived but have not, died the death we should have to die but do not have to, defeated death by his resurrection, and now is Lord of the universe promising to make all things news to the glory of God the Father. It’s the good news that God loves the world – even a sinful world. And God is ready to forgive, rescue, and remake all who will trust in him. Paul says, “Our commitment to that mission and investment in that mission will hold us together.

All our efforts in the life of our church are to be targeted on this goal of furthering the gospel in each life – in our community – and in the world.

How it plays out –

For our family away from us: Remembering and thanking God for those away from us in gospel-mission (like Paul was). Inv. 3, Paul speaks about how each remembrance draws them together. The way he wrote his letter, he wrote it so that it could mean “each time I remember you” or “each time you remember me”. Our remembrances of sharing the gospel and sharing life hold us together.

What does that look like? The Nelsons are in Thailand furthering the gospel but we are here in CA. Sometimes, we may be together. When we are, we seek to further the gospel. When we are not, we remember each other, thank God for each other, pray for one another and always know we are striving together toward the same end, i.e., the furtherance of the gospel.

For our church ministries: Focusing on each one becoming complete in Christ – 1:6

This is the goal of all gospel-ministry – that each one becomes like Jesus. This is what is in Paul’s heart (1:7). And, he’s seeing growth in Christlikeness happening in them. He longs for it for and with them. This is what we are after. It’s like John – “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” We can do 1,000 things in a church like LAC (and we do!). But, this good news that in the church, we all are to become like Jesus should guide our priorities. For our children, students and adults, THE question we must ask constantly is, “What must happen here so that each one who becomes a part of our church becomes more like Jesus.

For our out of the Worship Center ministries: calling others to trust Jesus as we show them his love, justice, and compassion. We become his “ambassadors” to the world.

When we are focused on mission in these ways, we simply don’t have time to battle with one another. We’re talking about Jesus – we’re seeking to live for Jesus. We’re longing to have others know the love and beauty of Jesus. And… we pray together for one another and for our world.

#3: Spiritual Practice: We should pray diligently for love to grow among us (1:9-11)

In v. 3, Paul says he is going to pray. Now we see what he prays for. He prays for the same thing Jesus prayed for just before going to the cross: that a church like this one in Philippi and like ours will abound in love. Hmm. Love for whom?” What do you think? He doesn’t tell us the object – but it’s pretty clear to me from the context that he’s praying for the way people in a church community relate to one another. He wants us to hold together.

Notice what he says – Paul longs for us to have a relationship of ever growing love for one another – “abound more and more,” he says. The word he uses is “agape” love. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “This agape love is not just friendship with people we like but a commitment of love to stick together, to support one another, and to do life together.” Paul knew that, although the Philippian believers were good people doing many good things, they were missing the most important thing: they were not growing in their love for one another. What is this “agape” love Paul talks about? In ch. 2, it is the opposite of living with self-interest and conceit. It is living in a way in which we long for the best of for those we love. It is sacrificially acting in ways that provide what is best for the one loved.

For that to happen, Paul prays for something very specific, i.e., that we will grow in knowledge and insight. He’s urging the church people to spend time together – to get to know how the others think, where they hurt and what they need. He prays this so we can do the best thing (v. 10) – not for ourselves but for those we love. To these people whose greatest struggle seems to have been getting along with one another, Paul prayed for them to love in ways that can only be demonstrated fully when we know others well enough to do what is best for them.

You see, the church isn’t to be a place where we simply come to get something out of it. We come as a part of a loving commitment to engage in life and mission together. When we love, that love should motivate us to get to know the one loved better. Then we’ll know what that other person needs and likes. We’ll know when the other person is failing, hurting, or struggling. We’ll know when those we love need a word of encouragement or a word of correction. We’ll know how to please them -- and we’ll want to please them because we love them! Paul is praying that the church will be a place where each one is looking at the interests of others as being greater than our own (2:1-4). The prayer is that we will know one another well enough that we will know what’s best for the other person and that we will love one another enough that we’ll do what’s best for that person.

THREE COMMITMENTS

1. I will seek to know Jesus better so that I might live with him at the center of all my attitudes, thoughts, and actions.
2. I will seek to further the mission of Jesus Christ by:
   • Joining with others at LAC to build a community that reflects the values and ways of Christ.
   • Finding ways daily to point an unbelieving world to Christ
3. I will seek to pray daily in the name of Christ for my church family – that we will grow to know and understand one another and know the best way to show love to one another. And may it begin – with me. To God’s glory alone.