Believers are called to stand fast in the Lord, maintaining unity and a humble mind like Christ. This is exemplified by figures like Shama, who stood firm against overwhelming odds, and by the Apostle Paul's own willingness to endure hardship for the sake of the gospel. The sermon highlights Christ's selfless giving, as seen in the distribution of his garments at the crucifixion, as the ultimate motivation for this steadfastness and love. Ultimately, believers are urged to rejoice always, remembering that their true citizenship is in heaven, which provides an eternal perspective and hope that constrains them to live for Christ.
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Let's turn again in our Bibles to Philippians chapter four in verse one. We read, therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech you odious and beseech that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, along with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
There are some fascinating names in Scripture. I now have some sisters who are having children and they're searching the Scriptures. to see whether these things are so as well, but also to find some good names. And we came across a few that we thought were sort of trendy and nice. And one was Nakota in the Old Testament. One of them likes that sort of a Western type style name, but it turns out that the meaning is really all that good. So they didn't decide on that one. But it's fun to study in Scripture the names, what they mean. These two, They're not in the top forty of naming your children these days, Eudias and Sintakey. Maybe there's a reason for that. They're not that easy to say. I remember being and working in the South, and since none of us are from the South, we're not going to make fun of them, but there are certain things that occur down there that I was not used to.
In the South, I was introduced, first of all, in fact, I knew the gentleman quite well. He was a fairly good friend of mine. His name was Randy. His wife's name I came to find out was Sugar. Now that's not an odd thing to say, but when you're talking to a good friend of yours wife, to call her sugar, it's not an easy thing to do. Another lady that I knew, her name was Babes. Her last name was Abo. Babes Abo. That's another tricky one. I always called her Mrs. Abo. There was one more. And her name, this was an older lady. She was probably in her fifties. And her name was Lovey. Now these aren't necessarily nicknames. Some of these are given names. Lovey, and that is a tricky one too.
Coming up and just introducing yourself, talking to her, lovely to see you this morning, Lovey, and you're not exactly sure how to pronounce it or how to say it or where to put the emphasis, but after a while you get used to these things. In fact, you probably will catch me on occasion saying, y'all, and that's just a leftover vestige of those years. If you catch me out in Iowa, you can stop me short. I'll try to get over it. I did learn one thing, though, that is that y'all is singular. I wasn't taught that in high school, but it is. It's very true. You sit down at a restaurant down in the South, you're all by yourself. Someone will walk up and say, how are y'all doing today? You take a look around and you don't see anybody else sitting in your booth.
Of course, you answer appropriately, well, we're just fine. We're doing very well. Thank you. I finally learned the trick to it after an extended time, and that is that the plural of y'all is all y'all. You can hear it. Listen closely for it. You'll hear it a lot. When it's all y'all, that means two or more. When it's all y'all, it just means one. That's a little secret in the South in case you ever head down there and need to understand what they're saying. We have these two ladies that the apostle beseeches individually to be of the same mind in the Lord, the humble mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this apostle has been exhorting these saints to stand fast in the Lord, letting them know that they're longed for, that they're loved.
He's been exhorting them in these things to stand fast and true. Set your feet down deep into the knowledge of Scripture and don't budge an inch. Now, he doesn't say stand still. We know in earlier portions of this passage that he says you need to reach on for the mark. We're going on, thankfully, going on to glory. We pray increasing more and more maturity and in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ each day. but we are called to stand fast in the good things of the Lord. Another one of my very favorite characters in the Old Testament from Second Samuel twenty-three, another one of those good names is nameless Shama. And Shama was a man that was a mighty man called of David.
And he decided one day that in spite of everybody else's retreat, if all the armies of Israel fell back, he was not going to move one inch. And he stood, it says, on a patch of wintels. You remember that? We say things like it's not worth a hill of beans, but he thought that it was. And he stood right there. And he stood firm. And he stood fast. And the Lord wrought a mighty victory that day. That's the nice thing about standing fast for the Lord. It doesn't matter who else is around. It doesn't matter how other people feel. If you could have asked, dear Shama, by the way, one of the meanings of his name is a waste. And you can see the retreating army saying, very appropriate. What a waste.
Stand there all by yourself. But he stood firm. And if you would have asked him the next day, would you have rather stood with all the armies of Israel and Judah together, just the Lord? What would be your choice? Just the Lord. And he stood first. And he wrought a mighty and glorious victory that day in the Lord. He was willing to stand fast for the Lord. What is it that make men and women like that, like Stephen, like Paul, that are willing to stand fast and stand firm and have a mind that is likened to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's a verse in Scripture, I believe every word of it. It says, the love of Christ constrains us, moves us along, almost as though we can't help it.
I was walking into the city of Jerusalem at one point, I guess probably the only point I ever had to be truthful. It was on the last evening of Ramadan, and we were trying to get in the Damascus Gate when all the hordes, I think, of just about all of the Arabs in all of Israel, were coming out of the very same gate. And we were not very successful. We would try, we'd get over to the side, back in the eddies, as it were, of people as they're going by, and suddenly someone would come along on the outside, clip you off from the wall, and you'd literally be taken right off your feet, out the gate you'd go again. Then you'd go around, look for a little slow spot, try to get back in. And I thought of the love of Christ. Not necessarily in these people, but constraining us, moving us along as though we almost can't help it because we're so in love with the Lord.
We're moved by it, moved by what He does, by who He is, by the examples that He gives in Scripture. I wanted to take a few minutes to look, first of all, at chapter one again, beginning to read in verse twenty. And then to look back at one short passage of Scripture that I've been doing just recently some meditation on regarding the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What was it in him that people like Stephen and Paul and the saints at Philippi and people like you and I causes us to love to be obedient to the Lord? It says in verse twenty, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ.
shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I know not. For I am in a straight betwixt to having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Esteeming the needs of others and the others better than yourself, esteeming the will of the Lord, better than my own mind, and following the Lord. If we turn back to John chapter We will see, we'll use that word from verse twenty in chapter one of Philippians magnification, a little magnification on the Lord Jesus Christ, his love and how he loves to give himself for us.
John chapter nineteen and verse twenty three. There are four times over in this chapter where it's made very clear that there was a writing that was to be fulfilled. And the Lord Jesus, as the Messiah, was going to fulfill to the T, each one of these things. We read in verse twenty three, then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be.
that the scripture might be fulfilled, which sayeth they parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things, I love this last phrase. These things, therefore the soldiers did. Notice this little phrase in verse twenty three. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart. It was the Lord's nature and love to give to His people, to give to those that He loved, that He longed for. Two times before this, at least, we read of the garments of the Lord Jesus Christ being given.
In chapter thirteen, you remember that the Lord Himself laid aside His garments and in humility washed the disciples' feet. A little bit later on, there's something quite on the contrary, where people take His garments. and they speak against him and they revile him and they do things that we don't like to talk about in good company. But in this last instance, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to willingly, to every Gentile, heathen Roman soldier, give a part of probably the very last thing on earth that maybe you could say, we know all things are his, says Scripture, but the last earthly things that he had, he was going to give right up to the very end of all things.
to every soldier apart. Now, it's oftentimes in Scripture that we find four soldiers working together. An example is in Acts chapter twelve, where Herod says, take care of Peter, make sure he's held fast, and he sent out four quaternions or fours of soldiers to keep him fast. And here we have that same type of an idea. We have four soldiers and a centurion, as far as we know. They're all responsible at least in the literal physical sense of crucifying the Lord of glory. There were a lot of things that they didn't know. Because had they known, says scripture, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory.
They didn't know that this was heaven's lamb, the one who's going to be the theme of worship not only for times past, times present, but also for times eternal. But they didn't know. But the Lord Jesus Christ is going to one by one share as he has all throughout Scripture something eternal regarding his love by the use of garments. It's curious to see how the Holy Spirit does this. You remember back in the very beginning of this book where there were two people that decided that a covering could be good enough made out of leaves. And it wasn't so much that they didn't cover, but there was something that wasn't quite right about that covering. It didn't display, it didn't reveal anything.
about the nature of their sin and what it was that could wash that sin away. And so the Lord got some skins at the shedding of blood, and he provided them to them for a covering. And on through Scripture we go, whether we study the high priest, we come to Ephesians chapter six, you'll find in many cases where the Lord himself uses the elements of clothing to teach heavenly things, heavenly realities. And once again in this passage, he brings it up to give us an example of what changed the lives of men like Stephen and of Paul and of people like you and I and causes the love of Christ to constrain us to do things that we never would otherwise do, like stand fast and have the mind, the humble mind and giving, loving mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you remember in Matthew chapter six? And that is also, by the way, such a wonderful study to take chapters five, six, and seven and study them in light of the crucifixion. If they ask for your coat, give them their cloak also. And the Lord Jesus bore it out right here. One cheek, well, then you give them the other. This was a man whose visage was more marred than any man. Study those passages sometimes in light of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are some verses there that say, if the Lord closed the grass of the field, which one day is and the next day is cast into the fire and disappears, how much more will He close you?
Those that are unfaithful, He'll close. But what about those that are faithful? This is the one who is faithful and true. Is His name? You can imagine that the garments that He must have worn must have been impeccable. They probably were not cotton and woolen and linen and different cross things like that. Leviticus twenty two and other passages in the Old Testament say that the garments that they wore were very pure. And I believe the garments that the Lord wore just like his person were very pure. And he kept them probably impeccably. And these four Roman soldiers were more than happy to get something like this. Did you know that it was accord with Roman law that they became, and we'll use this terminology because it fits into the scripture.
They became the heirs of whatever it was that that crucified person had. It was their right, in a sense, to take whatever was left over as they were raising this person up on the cross. But don't for a moment think that it was just their right. It was the Lord's mind and in this heart to give some things that are pictures of heavenly things like few others in Scripture. Now, we don't want to go outside of Scripture and conjecture on some things, but I think it's very clear. that the Lord and His love has us to magnify a couple things like this. There were four soldiers, four parts, and also His coat, and He gave to each one a part. The Lord has never shy in His giving to any person that's ever walked the face of this earth.
He gives exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, expect. You can read commentaries on a passage like this or other passages. Commentators usually disagree, but this is one where they don't tend to. Most of them feel that there were probably four parts to the garments of the Lord Jesus Christ. That which He wore on His feet, that which He wore on His head, His coat, His cloak, and then that inner garment, or rather the belt, I'm sorry, and then the inner garment, which Scripture says was without seam. I'd like you to think about this for a minute. There was a soldier that day that walked away.
with what the Lord Jesus Christ wore on his lovely feet. In chapter ten of the Book of Romans, the Spirit tells us how beautiful are the feet of them that bring the good tidings of the gospel. There was no gospel or quite like this. This was the one whose feet that the angels looked after lest at any time he should dash his foot against anything. This was the one about whom the greatest prophet that has ever been born amongst men, a man who saw people raised from the dead and lives changed and people healed, there was never a man like this man.
The greatest prophet born among women, says the inspired word. And this man walking along one day speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as the person of whose shoes latch it. He is not worthy to unloose or to touch. That's essentially what Mark and what Luke say, but Matthew says something quite different. He says that this was the man whose feet were inside of what he would not even, not unloose, but not even carry. This holy righteous man born amongst women, John the Baptist, was very much that way. This greatest of all prophets. He saw in the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, something that he merely wore on his feet, and he said, I am not even worthy to carry these.
And there was an old heathen Roman soldier that day that by the grace of the Lord walked away with something that our Lord Jesus Christ had given him. There was a coat that shined gloriously at the Mount of Transfiguration. It was a coat that may be in accord with the Old Testament also had the fringes of blue. It was a coat that at least on four occasions we know that the Lord Jesus Christ healed people simply because they came up and they touched it. Now he reminds them that it was their faith that made them whole. It was quite a coat, quite a coat. And the Lord Jesus gave that to some lonely Roman soldier that day.
And he walked away with something very special, I think in a certain sense. He may not have realized what it was, but he carried away something which once glistened brighter than the sun. You know, it's a good thing that that hasn't ended up in the church probably. Or by the third or fourth century, like everything else, we would have built a big church about it and started sending it in the mail and doing other things like that. It wasn't that that garment had any special powers in and of itself, but it draped the precious and holy body of the Lord Jesus Christ that he gave it to him. There was a belt that was worn in the Old Testament by the priest. And the high priest had a very different belt because within his was many strands or were many strands of gold.
And Josephus says it was a belt that was about four fingers in width and it had many different colors to it. But the high priests was differentiated because it had these strips of gold interwoven throughout it. There are certain scriptures that just seem to be repeated over and over in the book. I don't know if you can say that the Lord has favorite verses or not. I have some favorite verses. There is one that's repeated at least six times over. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. There's one that's repeated at least seven times over, more as far as I know than any other. And it's this, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
And I really believe that the Apostle John, when he was writing in the beginning of Revelation, When he looked at the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew the fullness of this thought, that here was a man who was girt about the paths or about the middle with a belt or a girdle that was, what does scripture say? Was all of gold. Because this is the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And this little representation of that, was it leather or whatever it was, that was given to a Roman soldier. He took it home. It was a gift. from the Lord of glory, one of the last things that he had. There was something that the Lord Jesus Christ would have worn on his head. And don't you just wonder if that Roman soldier that took that away that day said, you know, that smells like something very costly, more costly than any perfume I've ever been able to buy for my wife.
Three hundred days worth of labor at least were poured out upon the head in love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe there was still a vestige of that. And there would have been a man that walked away with that which wrapped up the head of all things. The glory of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ. And he gave it to a heathen Roman soldier to walk away with that day. Isn't that an amazing thing really? The giving nature and the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was another one, another portion, a garment that was not to be read. Of course, the high priest signifying perhaps the end of the Aaronic priesthood, some of these others, he rends it at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But that the scripture might be fulfilled, it was not rent, and therefore they cast loss for it. And another walked away with the symbol of the eternal priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord gave it to him. Until we finally come to the end when it seems as though there's very little left to give. He's given this. He's given everything. He's going to give his life. But there were certain things, thank the Lord, praise the Lord that he kept for himself. It says in this very same chapter in John chapter nineteen that our dear Lord Jesus Christ, as he was going to Calvary, bore, here's the possessive, bore his cross.
That was something that he was not going to give. Something that he could not give if all of the saints throughout the ages were ever going to be redeemed by blood. It had to be through the person and the death and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how many times that we read that in Scripture. The possessive nature of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's found at least twice over in Colossians. Taking that handwriting and ordinances that were against us. And he nailed it to his... cross. He gave everything. And then finally, in the end, he took one thing that only he could take, and he bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
And you wonder if it wasn't things like this that made Stephen say, Lord, I'm willing to stand up for you in love no matter what it takes. And if I have to give my life, I will be willing, with your grace, to do it. What would it take to be a martyr? I have no concept, to be honest, of what it would take. We have such an easy life in this country. We very rarely have to stand up for the Lord. We might say a little statement at a restaurant. Something else has said. Somebody looks cross-eyed at us, says a word. Can you imagine how little that really is to be able to stand up for the Lord in a way like that? But to be a martyr, to give your life for another. You have to have experienced the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself in a very special way.
Stephen was willing to do that. Paul, he says, in his love and his longing for these people, he is willing to do that because you are my crown, you are my joy. And Paul was going to be like a savior in that. I don't think we'd make very good martyrs these days. There was one gentleman, in fact, I believe it's Charles Spurgeon that writes that he would disagree. He says, I think we would make very good martyrs. We are so dry, he says. Maybe that's one way to look at it. But these are people that were willing to give their life to the Lord and to stand firm and to stand fast. Come what may for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's turn back to Philippians chapter four.
And we'll read again verses one and two. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech you odious and beseech synecdoche that they be of the same mind in the Lord, personally beseeching two people that were not of the same mind in the Lord. Now, it leaves us a few fascinating things here in verse three. He says, I entreat thee also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and with other my fellow labors whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice to the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. When you read about who this yoke fellow might be, you just about span every name in the New Testament, barring the Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus, and Judas, it seems like. You just about hit them all. Timothy is referred to in like manner in chapter two as a yoke fellow or Paphroditus would be another one. We don't fully know who it is. But the apostle is saying there's something so important here that you need to lend a hand and take care of a certain situation which is going on here in this local assembly. Now don't for a minute believe that they were going outside of Matthew chapter eighteen where these things were to be taken care of in quietness in a back room.
to where it wasn't in front of the whole assembly, but evidently these things hadn't worked. And so it was going to be made very vivid and very clear that something needed to be done regarding unity amongst the saints. I don't know if you can imagine this or not, but this was a letter that was written by Paul to a local assembly at Philippi, and there came a day when probably an elder stood up, and he was going to read in front of every person who was there this letter from their beloved and respected Apostle Paul. Can you imagine having your name in this?
I thought the fan might get me eventually. Can you imagine having your name read in a circumstance like this, written by the Apostle Paul publicly, and he says, I beseech Eudias, and I beseech Syntaki. Thank you, brother. That's fine. That ye be of the same mind. Thank you very much. In the Lord. It must have been a shock. It must have been a shock. The Lord loves unity. We read it from Psalm. One, I guess.
Well, we start in Genesis chapter one. The unity of the saints. And the Lord loves that. And there are those, unfortunately, that are not of the same mind and love and in care for one another. Now, these were two people that had worked with Clement and with others in the gospel, shoulder to shoulder with the Apostle Paul. Strong people. They knew what it was to pray, to bear witness for the Lord, to be in big gospel campaigns, to labor hard and to be tired for the gospel. And whether we don't know for sure what it was, the Apostle Paul doesn't alliterate it for us. Whether it was envy, perhaps some of the things that were talked about in chapter two, whether it was just the position that they had been given to labor alongside the Apostle Paul and somehow in pride, they had carried that out.
And now these two people were at odds. We don't know what it was. But the Apostle Paul, in a sense, gets down on his knees and he beseeches them for the testimony of the saints. For the unity of the Spirit, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. It's a good thing to bear witness to today. And we certainly know that there are occasions where things like this have to come out, and when they do, it's never easy. And the Apostle Paul mentions names. He's not fearful of doing that. He says, I beseech you, Eudias. I beseech you, Sintake, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
Has he suddenly switched gears now in verse four? Rejoice in the Lord all way. And again, I say rejoice. There is back in Luke chapter ten, and I'd just like to turn there for a short moment to read a couple of verses. A passage that speaks about people just like this who had labored exceedingly with the Lord. Now I'm trying to find it.
I'll tell you, it's a terrible thing when you don't write down the proper scripture and you don't have it in your mind. And you can't find exactly where it is. Thank you, brother, very much. Verse seventeen. We read in the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
Saints whose names were written in heaven. Paul did not want them to forget that. They had perhaps been proud in their service in some way. It may be very thankful for the things the Lord had done, but there was envy that had arisen. And the Lord says, there's one thing that you must remember through all of your labors together, and that is that ultimately you rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In spite of the wonderful things that you can do to the power of the Lord, there is a danger. I don't know what it is. There is a danger when people are lifted up and doing wonderful things for the Lord, powerful things for the Lord. that these same sorts of things happen because of the pride that is inerrant in each one of our lives, every last one of us.
And he says again, I beseech you, you Odea, and I beseech you, Sintakee, that you be of the same mind in the Lord and rejoice, rejoice in the Lord. I've heard, and I've never read it, I'm not too good with my Greek, I've taken just enough to be very dangerous, but I have heard that the shortest words The shortest verse, rather, in all of Scripture is not John, eleven, thirty-five. It comes from Thessalonians. It's rejoice evermore. Less letters in the original, less words in the original. The shortest Scripture in the Scripture, the shortest Scripture in the Scripture, rejoice evermore. We begin to look somewhat into that in chapter three regarding the rejoicing of the Lord, regarding the rejoicing of the saints.
And at the end of chapter three, it's a very appropriate beginning to this specific subject of the unity of the saints, the things that they need to rejoice in. We read these two verses, verses twenty and twenty one. And it says for our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven. From once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Our citizenship is in heaven.
It's the fact that the citizens of Rome had their names written somewhere in Rome and they were known to be citizens. And it's much more sure that we have as citizens of glory, our names are written in the land's book of life. if we know the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. The Apostle Paul had an interesting perspective and background, I believe, on this. You remember the different citizenship that this man had, at least four distinct citizenship that we know of in Scripture. How many of you all have ever flown out of the country before? Probably quite a few. And you come back, I don't remember exactly what color it is, I think it's a blue slip of some sort, and they ask you to fill out this blue slip and to write down your citizenship.
And you check in a certain box or you write down you essay. And you do so with a little bit of pride. Because we love this country. And we thank the Lord for the freedoms that we have in this country. And if Paul had been flying back from anywhere, he probably would not have known exactly what to write there. But he would have known what to write because there was one that was special to him. Do you remember back in the book of Acts, with this same Apostle Paul, having been in realms beyond, seeing thousands saved, beautiful things done in the gospel, he's brought back to Jerusalem. And James and those others that are there are saying, now we have heard, I know it's by word of mouth, but we have heard that, Paul, you are saying to some of these Jewish believers that certain things that they should have respect for as regards the law and other things, that you have encouraged them strongly to just discard them and just throw them away.
Well, that was not the case. And James came up with an idea and he said, we have some here that are in accord with Jewish law and things that would be respected by the Jews. Going in to take a vow. Would you like to join them and thereby, in a sense, show to the saints here in Jerusalem. Of course, Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. There's no question about his love for the Jewish people and the law that the Lord had given. And he said he would be willing to do that. But you remember that he was in the temple one day. Trophimus also was in town. He was from Asia. It was so that other Jews who also were from Asia knew Paul, knew Trophimus, that he was a Gentile.
And they put two and two together and they got eighty four, ninety six or a hundred and ten or something like that. And they said that Paul has brought a Gentile into the temple and the whole city is in an uproar. And as they're about ready to tear Paul limb from limb, there's a man that comes out a Roman. with some of his army, some of his soldiers. We don't know exactly again how many. They come down and they literally retrieve Paul probably from certain death. And they begin to take him out of the crowd. And Paul says, may I speak to the people? And he speaks to him in Greek. And he said, I didn't know that you could speak Greek. He says, well, yes, I guess I can speak Greek actually.
Paul could speak a lot of languages. He must have been quite a man with an incredible mind. And he went on to tell him how he had been brought up in Tarsus. It was a university city. And that he knew a lot about Greek customs. He knew a lot about the things of that ancient world. And he wasn't, in fact, as that man had assumed, some sort of an Egyptian that had been doing things that he shouldn't have been doing. You remember that there was Egyptian Josephus says that had led about three thousand people. He was not very happy with the government and the government was not very happy with him. And Felix got fed up one day. And they went down and flew about two hundred of them. Took, or I believe they, I don't recall which number is which. Two hundred casted, flew four hundred, something like that.
The Egyptian, the leader of the band got away. And this man assumed that this was that Egyptian, but he came to found out he was not. In fact, he was a citizen of Tarsus. And if you would have asked Paul that day, where are you a citizen of? He could have said that. But he asked that man, he said, Do you mind if I turn around and speak to the people? He doesn't address them in Greek now. He addresses them in Hebrew. And of course, this person probably cannot understand anymore. We don't know what he could understand. But he goes on to tell them of his background. And in many ways, he brings the Jewishness of it together. When we read the book of Ephesians, we know very clearly that Paul was a Jew. Back in chapter three, rather, of this book.
He explains clearly that he was a Benjamin. He was a Jew of Jews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He could have said, I am a citizen of Israel, and he would have been right. Again, he gets to the end of his story as he's speaking to these people. It's interesting that they will stand there and listen to his conversion and how the Lord Jesus himself with a bright light arrests Paul. And they listen to that. But when he got to the point of going to other areas and speaking to Gentiles and bringing to them the God of the Jews, they didn't like that very much. And an uproar began again. And this same Roman comes down, takes Paul, takes him inside of the fortress, and he says he's going to examine him with scourging.
What a way to examine someone. And as maybe he's about ready to be wrapped up, Paul just makes a statement and he says, is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman? when there's been no charge brought against him. And it was not a little thing to say that. Because Paul is a Roman citizen, his name was written in Rome and he had certain rights. You know something, you didn't just say you were a Roman citizen flippantly, because if you said it, and it was not true, the penalty was death. And this soldier listens to him and he goes up to his higher end command. And he says, do you know that this man is a Roman citizen? And he comes out and does the Roman and he says, are you a Roman citizen?
Paul with rare brevity basically says, yes. And he says, you know, I bought my citizenship at great expense, said this man. Paul says, I was born that way. I was freeborn. And Paul being a citizen of Rome and Paul being a citizen of the Greek world, Paul being a citizen of the Jewish nation, there was one citizenship which he held so much further above every other citizenship. And it's this one that he talks about at the end of chapter three of this book of Philippians. And he includes all of these people from Philippi. We know that this was a little outpost. It was a little microcosm, a little picture of Rome itself.
It was way out somewhere in the empire. But they prided themselves in the fact that their government was like the Roman government. And they treated things that way. And they were just like Rome. Paul says that's a wonderful thing, I suppose. But he says there's something that's more important. And he says, for our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for the one who loved us and gave his life for us. He's our Savior, he says. You know, these people that were sitting there in Philippi, again way out somewhere in the outer reaches of the Roman Empire. Probably if they had armies come against them, they would have sat there pretty firm because they had a big wall and they would have said, you know, If we have any problems, the Lord will come for us, speaking of Nero.
He'll take care of things. We don't need to worry about it. I'll tell you, Nero was an ungodly man. He was a blasphemous man. He coined a word that had never been used before on the face of this earth. He coined it. The word was it stood for the world's Savior, and he plastered the Roman Empire with it. He took other names to himself, one of which others would not precedent to him would not touch, not Tiberius, not others. It was the name Lord. And Nero took it. And you can find, for instance, in AD. And I forget the place where it was found, but it says Nero, Lord and Savior. Can you imagine that?
What a blasphemous thing to write and to say. And a common Philippian could have said, if we have problems, I guess we can look to Rome. From once also our Lord would come and he'd save us out of this trouble. But here's an apostle that says maybe you can say something like that if you'd like to. But let's lift up our eyes above the horizons of this earth and realize that as we labor and we live and we love for the Lord, we will rejoice in the Lord because our citizenship is in heaven. From once also we look not for a man. Well, he was fully maned. But we look for someone infinitely more than that.
We look for the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, who shall transform our vile bodies, change our vile bodies, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. What a citizenship we have in glory. I pray that it makes each one of us, at least in a little way, long for the saints, long to stand up for the Lord, to rejoice in the citizenship that we do have with Him and in glory. We did some work down in the islands. It's been five, six, seven years ago.
We did some work in St. Croix, St. Thomas. In these islands, they used to have sugar plantations. There are still plaques. that bear witness to many Europeans that came in and did many nice things from infrastructure to setting up roads to setting up governments and to teaching them how to farm and other things like that. But we know of some Christians, they were Moravians, that for some reason had on their heart the black slaves in these islands. And they had them so much on their heart that they wanted to go be with them, to kneel to their level, to be able to share the blessedness of the Lord Jesus Christ with them. You know what they did? They sold everything that they had just to obtain passage to get across to these islands.
And after selling, removing everything that they had that was a value on this earth, they ended up in a little place like this. And I'll tell you, it's neat to be there for the first week, but after the first week, let's head home. It's just kind of hot and there isn't really a whole lot down there. But here were these dear saints that had a heart for these people. They sold everything that they had just to obtain passage here. And when they appeared on the island, they walked themselves up on the slave blocks next to those that were being sold into slavery, and they sold themselves into slavery that they might bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to those that they had a heart for. That's the love of Christ that constrained them, that made them willing to long for and to love and to count other saints, their joy, and to give themselves for them.
You can see what a wrench it must have been to the Apostle Paul when he sees this lovely group of believers in love with the Lord, the Lord in love with them, and Paul in love with them. And there were some that were desiring to split it apart. And Paul says as he gets on his knees, I beseech you that you be of the same mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our dear Heavenly Father.