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Philippians 1:27-30

May 24, 2026 (Pentecost/Aldersgate Day) • Mount Pleasant UMC

Fifty days ago, the tomb had been found empty and the savior had been found alive. Ten days ago, that same savior, after teaching them for forty days, had gone back to heaven. And while he had promised to return one day, he also promised a comforter, an advocate, someone called the Holy Spirit, to come and be with them, to teach them and remind them what he had said (cf. John 14:25-26). That promise of the Holy Spirit was also tied to a prayer he had prayed on the last night before the crucifixion: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20-21). So now, on the fiftieth day after the resurrection, on the agricultural festival called Pentecost, they were all gathered in a room in Jerusalem, waiting just as Jesus had told them to do, hoping and praying for the arrival of this “promise of the Father.” Just before he left, Jesus had told them, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5).

We always say or imagine that the disciples were deep in prayer on the day of Pentecost, and that that’s all they had been doing for these ten days, but actually the text of Acts 2 doesn’t say that. Here’s what it says: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:1-2). They were all together. In one place. Just like Jesus told them to do. Waiting like Jesus told them to do. And that’s when the Holy Spirit came. When they were together.

Today is Pentecost, when we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the day many call the birthday of the Church. Later on in the day, after Peter preaches to a crowd that has gathered, Luke tells us that three thousand people were “added to their number” (Acts 2:41) in one day. After one sermon! Talk about church growth! And then, Luke gives a brief description of what those early believers did from that day on: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). To me, that’s a description of what the church in every age should be about. Teaching, eating, praying…and fellowshipping. As we continue our trip through the New Testament, exploring these “Words of Life,” we come today to a word that we have very much watered down from its Biblical meaning: fellowship. And to understand what it should mean to us, we’re going to jump from this story in the book of Acts to a city in Asia Minor (modern-day Greece) called Philippi.

Philippi was a beautiful city and a Roman colony, and Paul himself had founded the church here. In Acts 16, Paul visits the city in response to a vision he had of a man from Macedonia (the area where Philippi was) calling him to come and help them and so they became the first people in Europe to hear the good news (cf. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, pg. 84). Paul, Timothy and Silas went there and “stayed several days” (Acts 16:12). There doesn’t seem to have been a Jewish synagogue there, which is where Paul usually went first, so he went to the river and there found “a place of prayer” (Acts 16:13). A woman named Lydia welcomed the message about Jesus, and she gave them a place to stay. Now Lydia, we are told, was “a dealer in purple cloth,” which means she was selling products to wealthy persons as purple was the color of kings. It was very expensive to produce and so it’s also possible, since she had room in her home to take Paul and Silas in, that Lydia herself was well off (cf. Fee, Philippians [IVPNTC], pg 26). So Paul and Silas worked for a while in Philippi, got themselves arrested and spent some time in jail. Philippi was a memorable place, but also a special place to Paul. “As Paul looked at all the churches he had founded, the people of Philippi were the ones who gave him the most joy” (Wright 84).

Because of that, Paul sends them a “letter of friendship,” which is not just exchanging pleasantries. This was a category of Roman letter writing. Friendship was a serious matter for Romans, rooted in goodwill, loyalty and trust. It was not something taken lightly, nor was it something that you abandoned easily. Friendships were especially vital when it came to facing opposition because in times like that you needed people by your side. It meant you shared a common life, common goals and common ideals (Fee 13-18). Paul is writing to these friends, these folks for whom he had “deep affection” (Fee 27), not only to express his friendship and his thanks for the money they sent him, but also because he’s heard that they are undergoing some opposition and suffering. He cares about them and, even though he himself is probably in jail at this point (cf. Fee 33), he wants to encourage and strengthen them the only way he knows how: with words of friendship from Jesus to them.

In the original language, Greek, these verses, all four of them, are one long, convoluted sentence that forms the core message of the whole letter (cf. McKnight 35). Paul focuses here, and really throughout the whole letter, on what is translated “fellowship” but might better be translated as “partnership” (Wright 84) or “common life” (cf. McKnight, Philippians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians, pg. 4). When someone mentions “fellowship” today, we think of maybe a potluck meal or a time to chat with others before or after the service. To us, “fellowship” means donuts and coffee or a board game night or a themed dinner or forcing people to stand up and talk to one another for a few seconds in the service (which new people and introverts absolutely hate). It’s about “having fun times and creating ‘bonding moments’” (cf. Gupta, 15 New Testament Words of Life, pgs. 97-98). But that’s not what Paul had in mind, because that’s not what the Bible means by “fellowship.”

Paul also talks about fellowship in his letter to the Corinthians, reminding them that “God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). In that simple sentence, Paul reminds his readers that there are two dimensions to fellowship. There is the horizontal dimension—you to me and me to you and each other to each other. But that kind of fellowship has been damaged at best and actually broken by sin, by the ways we hurt others with our actions and our words. The only real way that fellowship can be healed, restored and reconciled is when we include God in the equation—the vertical dimension. And not just a nodding acknowledgment of God’s presence; “we can only know genuine fellowship with each other when we are restored to proper fellowship with God” (Gupta 101). Sin leads us to push each other away; God knits us back together because the gospel (remember that word from a few weeks ago?) “forms us into one body and life” (Gupta 102). That’s why “fellowship” really should be translated as “common life.” It’s not about eating cookies and drinking coffee. It’s about the life we share as believers, as the church, as the people of God. And that’s what Paul is trying to help the Philippians move toward.

We don’t know exactly what was happening in Philippi, but it seems there were also conflicts inside the church as well as with those outside the church. Near the end of the letter, Paul mentions two women—Euodia and Syntyche, possibly women he knew from that worship at the river bank?—who are in conflict with each other. He asks them to “be of the same mind in the Lord” (4:2) and then asks others to help them come together and work things out for “the cause of the gospel” (4:3). It’s true: “nothing can frustrate the advance of the gospel more…than internal unrest among believers…[so Paul] urges them to get their corporate act together” (Fee 75). And that is right in the same spirit of what he says here near the beginning of the letter: “Whatever happens…” Did you get that? Whatever happens. Good or bad, happy or sad, in life’s ups and downs—whatever happens, “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:27). Sometimes parents will tell teenaged children who are headed out for an evening of fun, “Don’t do anything that will embarrass the family!” That’s kind of what Paul is saying here: don’t do anything that will bring shame to the name of Jesus. Honestly, when I read the news, I think we need that reminder today. Every single day there are news stories about pastors and former pastors who are arrested or convicted or charged with crimes like stealing from the church or sexual assault or some other form of indecency. “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ—whatever happens!” Don’t embarrass the family!

Paul then explains this two-fold common life, fellowship with God and fellowship with each other—or we might say, loving God and loving others, horizontal and vertical. It’s found in standing "firm in the one Spirit and striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (1:27). Paul calls the Philippian church to a “solid unity of spirit and intention, working together like members of the same sports team all equally intent on winning the game” (Wright 95). He puts the first focus on the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the comforter or advocate that Jesus promised he would send (cf. John 14:16; 16:7) and did in fact send on that first Christian Pentecost in Acts 2. He is the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), the one who comes alongside, the one who reminds us what Jesus taught and who always is pointing toward Jesus (cf. John 14:26; 16:14). “The ‘one’ Spirit is the Spirit that brings us into a common life, a united front in a divided world” (McKnight 36), and we need that one Spirit to bring us together now more than ever.

We’re all aware we live in a divided world—politically, economically, socially, racially. Think of a way that people could be divided and we probably are. And I’m not certain that it’s, as some say, “the worst it’s ever been.” I’m more convinced that recent events over the last few years have just brought what was already there out in the open, brought to the forefront the things we kept hidden before. And no, I don’t expect that things are going to change in the world right away, if ever. I do believe there are forces of evil that are intent on keeping us apart, dividing people into smaller camps and more adversarial groups. But I do have hope and pray often for at least the body of Christ to come back to being one, to stand firm in the one Spirit. To the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Today, Paul would have to write that differently: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 49,000 denominations.” 49,000 different groups that claim the one Lord, one faith and one baptism, each in some unique way. Some have fewer than a hundred members and others have millions of members, but the point is still the same: we are not one. Some groups won’t talk to other groups who follow the one Lord, one faith and one baptism—and baptism is only one of the things we disagree on! That’s why I refer to John 17 as the great unanswered prayer of Jesus—because we’re not even close to being one as he desired. We’ve got churches and pastors right here in Vigo County who won’t have anything to do with others. I always think about that old story of a man who was rescued from a shipwreck on a desert island, and when the rescuers took him on board, they asked him about the three huts on the island. “Well,” the man said, “the middle hut is where I lived. And the hut on the right is my church.” “Okay,” the rescuers asked, “what about the other one?” “Oh, that’s where I used to go to church.” And the world keeps turning away from the gospel because the body of Christ can’t “stand firm in the one Spirit.”

The Spirit not only brings us together but he also brings us power to do what God has called us to do. Until the Spirit came, the disciples were huddled in an upper room. Jesus had told them to stay together until the Spirit came, but once he came, the disciples went out into the streets and preached to the crowds empowered by the Spirit. And they would spend the rest of their lives doing the same thing—telling people about Jesus. Without the Spirit’s power, they might still be huddled in that room and the Christian faith would never have grown. But the Spirit enabled them to testify to their faith, just as Jesus said he would (cf. John 15:26-27). Centuries later, the Spirit did the same thing at a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. Many of you know the story, how a discouraged Anglican priest was invited to a prayer meeting on the evening of May 24, 1738. That priest’s name was John Wesley, and he was at a point in his life where he was doubting if he even had any faith at all. That evening, he went to “quite unwillingly” to this prayer meeting and the Holy Spirit showed up during, of all things, a time when someone was reading from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans. Proof positive that the Spirit can show up anywhere! Even during one of my sermons! We don’t know what was being read at the time, but we do know that the Spirit empowered Wesley in that moment to do what God had called him to do, to start a movement called Methodism that continues today. Wesley described his experience this way in a passage from his journal that just has to be read every year on this date: “About a quarter before nine, while he [the reader] was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sin, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death” (Jackson, ed., The Works of John Wesley, Third Edition, Vol. 1, pg. 103). John Wesley was never the same and the world was turned upside down after that night because of the work of the Spirit in one man’s life, empowering him to share Christ from that moment on wherever he went.

But it’s not just you and you and you individually witnessing; it’s the witness of all of us together that makes a difference. One. Paul tells the Philippians they should be “striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (1:27). Part of that is found in the way we live, but here Paul is talking about the church speaking up about their faith, being united in their commitment to change their city, their community, even their nation by their witness. One commitment: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world—together. It’s not the pastor’s job to witness. It’s not the Leadership Council’s job to change the community. It’s not the staff’s job to make sure people become disciples. It’s all of us, together, as one, for the sake of the gospel. I’m sorry, none of us have an excused absence from making disciples of Jesus. If you follow Jesus, helping other people become followers is not optional. That’s why, for instance, I volunteer every year at Vacation Bible School—because a woman named Noel volunteered many years ago to serve in our community VBS and helped me find Jesus. Who will you be “Noel” to? We need you individually to strive together with the whole church for the sake of the gospel. And maybe VBS isn’t your thing; maybe working with kids is not a place where you can successfully strive for the sake of the gospel. That’s fine, but it begs the question: where will you participate in the fellowship of the church’s one mission? Where is the Spirit empowering you to serve as part of our unity?

Paul tells the Philippians one other thing because he knows what’s happening not only in their community but in the larger world where the church is growing. He recognizes that their stance for the gospel has brought opposition and even suffering and that was true of the other disciples who went throughout the world. Most of them ended up losing their lives because of their preaching; tradition says all but John were martyred—killed for their faith. And that also may be true of the Philippians. Biblical scholar Scot McKnight says it’s the natural result of standing up for righteousness in an evil world. He calls it the “backhand of evil and injustice” (McKnight 37). And it could become true of us as well. Faithfulness in this calling will bring suffering, but Paul said that should not bring fear. That’s one of the points of the fellowship, the common life: standing together allows us to more easily endure times when suffering comes. The old saying that “suffering shared is suffering halved” is true and has its roots in Christian fellowship, in the common life Jesus and Paul expected us to have.

Paul goes on in the next chapter (and remember there were no chapter breaks or verses when he wrote this letter) to give us some very practical ideas for how the church at Philippi and elsewhere can live out this fellowship, this common life. I’m going to just read what he wrote because I can’t really say it better: “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:1-4). Be one in spirit and love—unity is not the same as uniformity, by the way. It’s not that we all think alike; in the words of John Wesley, it’s that we all love alike, centered around a common goal. Love God, love others, love life, perhaps. All of you—be one. Put your selfishness aside and commit yourself to the common life. Don’t put yourself first; put Christ first, and look out for others. That’s what fellowship is about; that’s the common life we are called to have. Not cookies and coffee and game nights. It’s about striving together toward the day when the name of Jesus Christ is lifted up by all people (cf. 2:11). Toward that end, let’s strive to be one and let’s pray.