What Is Gospel Community?

In Philippians 1:3-5, Paul is thankful for his friends:

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now."

Paul is appreciative of the Philippians for their partnering with him in the mission of Jesus, and as we see a few verses down, for loving and serving him well during his imprisonment. These were people who Paul could depend on. They loved him and he loved them.

Why did they love one another so well? Is it because they were all just really nice people who felt really good about serving and got a lot of satisfaction out of it? No. The simple answer is the gospel itself.

Jesus calls us to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34-35). This is the element that makes the church different. We love one another not to feel good, not to earn a righteousness of our own, but because of how God has first loved us while we were his enemies. Our motivation is not simply to do good, to feel good or to advance a cause. Our motivation is genuine gratitude and love for God which spills into our relationships with each other. When the gospel penetrates out hearts, we simply cannot help but extend to others what God has extended to us. The natural by-product of our having encountered the God who loves us well is to love others well, and thereby show others what he is like. Life in the body of believers should be a continuous encounter with the love of God through each other.

This is what is happening between Paul and the Philippians. The grace of God experienced by Paul and this community bound them together because they all found their identity in Christ - "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..." (verse 7) - and it should bind us together as well. To have a common knowledge of the unimaginable grace God has offered us should move us toward each other in love.

But it should not end there. This love of God seen in the life of the Christian church is meant to be extended to those outside of it, who will see it and be softened to embrace Jesus. When we care for one another as God cares for us, the world sees what God is like, and many are drawn to him.

Pray that this would be our experience in Proxy this year.

Identity In Christ - An Intro To Philippians

We all tend to get our identity from sources outside of Christ. Many of us identify ourselves by our position or vocation ("I am a Pastor"), or from a God-given gift ("I am really good at..."), or from a person ("I am important because I'm going out with..."), or even from religion ("I am important because I serve in these ministries").

The problem is that any identity apart from one rooted in Christ is a false identity - it can be ripped from us and eventually will be. If I identify myself as a husband, a pastor, a good basketball player, a great singer, etc, what then becomes of me if I lose my wife, lose my position as pastor, tear my ACL and can't get that basketball scholarship or get throat cancer? If my identity is rooted in Christ and who he says I am, I will press through knowing that though I may lose everything, Christ is with me always and I am his no matter what. However, if these kinds of things are my idol, my life come apart and I will fall into despair.

Not so for the apostle Paul. In the beginning of Philippians, he shows us how he identifies himself and us:

"Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul identifies himself as a servant of Christ Jesus, an identity given to him by God which can never be taken from him, an identity which God has graciously given to all who love Jesus and trust in him alone.

Paul then refers to his readers as "saints." To be a saint means to be covered by Christ's atoning sacrifice and so have his perfect righteousness given as a gift, to be adopted into God's family through Jesus. This is an unshakable identity. We are now defined not by what we do, or how well we behave, but we are loved unconditionally as God's children. Our Father loves his kids. Period.

Don't settle for any identity other than God's son or daughter.

In the following weeks and months, we will continue to unpack this as we make our way through Philippians. See you on Wednesday.

What This Blog Is All About

This year, we are going to be stepping up our game at Proxy in a number of ways. One of those ways will be providing more content for our students, parents and anyone interested in Proxy through this blog.

The vision is to convert all of our sermons and messages into blog posts so that students can see what they may have missed the week before, study the theology they're learning on Wednesdays or review what the sermon covered. Those interested can get at least a taste of what we are all about.

Up to this point we've been in the book of Acts learning about what it means to follow Jesus faithfully, to be a radical witness for him. We've seen that following Christ means...

-That we are saved by Christ's work on the cross - by God's grace alone

-That everything, even our very lives, are to be worthless next to Jesus - he is our reward

-That we are called to share the gospel with our friends and enemies and live lives that honor God out of gratitude to him for sending his Son to die for us - an unimaginable gift

-That following Christ will often mean being a rebel, going against the grain of human nature and that it could cost us our lives

-That God gives us the boldness required to follow Jesus and not cop out

-That only by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit can we be this kind of man or woman

We hope you all have learned and been changed and that you are excited about what God is doing and going to do in your lives.

We will now be starting a new series in Philippians where we will explore what it means to live out the Christian life. What does it really mean to know Jesus? What does it really mean to belong to him? The answers will be revolutionary, as the gospel always is.

Our first message will be an overview of the book of Philippians and will focus on identity in Christ.

See you guys on Wednesday night...