Phil. 1:1-11
Listen Link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
Do have any letters, written years ago, that you’re still hanging onto? Many people do, or used to anyway. Greeting cards? Thank you notes? Love letters? Are there letters that you have kept in a drawer or filing cabinet, or even in a shoe box on the closet shelf because they mean a lot to you, sent by someone you love? The letter to the Philippians is sort of like that. You’ll see what I mean in a moment.
As we begin this series, looking at Philippians, the first thing we should notice is that this is a thank you letter from Paul the missionary to a supporting church. The church loved this letter, and kept it, and even shared it with other churches! That’s why it’s still around today. I bet Paul would be amazed to visit earth today and find his personal letter included in the Bible. What a high honor! The Church, that is, the world-wide body of Christ Church, has discerned that this personal letter was also more than that. It was inspired by God! And God himself saw fit to make sure this letter was not lost. It was preserved, cherished by the early church and faithfully copied many times over because the material in here is SO good for us.
You can be sure Paul did not tell anyone to call this a piece of inspired Scripture. He didn’t tell his scribes to make sure a copy of this letter got sent to Jerusalem so that it would be put in the Bible. He was just using his gifts of intellect and understanding of the gospel, led by the Spirit, to say “thank you” to a church that was very supportive of his ministry. They had financially and substantially helped him carry on, and go further, after he left them. He cared about them. He loved them. And he had heard some things about how they were doing, and he wanted to be helpful and instructive, as long as he was writing.
I would not be surprised at all if this were not the only letter Paul ever wrote to the Philippians. After all, the dating on this one suggests that he wrote it about ten years after his first visit with them. Why would he wait so long, and/or, send only one thank you letter to his supporters in ten years? In fact, we have proof that not everything Paul wrote is in the Bible. In the letter we now call first Corinthians, we read in chapter 5, verse 9, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.” That means there was another letter before first Corinthians that has not been preserved for us as Scripture.
We also don’t have any other letters to the Philippians, or any mention of any others he may have written to that church. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t write any. It only means we don’t have those letters anymore. They were not as carefully preserved as this one. Maybe they were just “thank you” letters. I hesitate to say, just, thank you letters because I’m sure Paul also wrote any others with the same loving concern and the same use of his intellectual gifts. But this one, the one we can read today, is special, truly inspired.
God said that it was good! That’s why it got saved and ended up in the Bible once the church decided which documents from the New Church of Christ needed to be collected up into what we would soon be called the New Testament, to be added to the earlier inspired scrolls we call the Old Testament. And that’s why we should highly prize the words here. Its history and its preservation as part of the inspired word of God tells you that there is valuable truth here that will bless us if we take it to heart.
Let’s read the address. “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:” Paul called them holy people because that is what believers are. In the Greek he called them hagios, which has traditionally been translated “saints.” People become saints, or holy, by being in Christ, not by being super Christians. If you’re a believer, you are a saint. It’s not about your behavior so much as it is about your position in Christ.
The letter starts with these addresses because in those days, there were no envelopes. The scroll was just rolled up and handed to the person who was going to deliver it. So, the return address and the address, the “from” and “to” lines, were the first lines you would read when you unrolled the scroll. There was a postal service, but often in those days a letter writer would send a letter by way of a friend who was personally taking it to hand it to the recipient. That was the surest way to guarantee a safe and timely delivery. So, there didn’t have to be anything written on the outside of the scroll, because the currier knew where it was going.
This letter to the Philippians was apparently carried and delivered by Epaphroditus. We believe this because Philippians 2:25 says, “But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.” Incidentally, since the Philippians sent Epaphroditus to Paul as a messenger, he probably brought with him a letter from the Philippians to Paul. In the letter we’re reading, Paul was writing back.
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” A lot of Paul’s letters start this way. It was a pretty typical greeting, and it’s way better than, Dear Philippians.”
Now we get into what Paul really wanted to say. He starts with giving thanks for them. 3 “I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Those verses are often quoted by modern missionaries when they write “thank you notes” to their supporters. They’re good expression of gratitude, well written, and besides, they’re in the Bible now, so that really make them legit. But Paul came up with that before there was a Bible for him to quote! He was inspired. Paul didn’t exactly say “thanks for the money.” He called it partnership. It’s tactful and many have followed his example. Besides, when we support missionaries it really is a way of partnering with them in the work they are trying to accomplish. But the Philippians did not just send money. They sent Epaphroditus, who literally became Paul’s partner in ministry while he was with him. Later in this letter, Paul will say, Epaphroditus “worked hard.”
When the Lord blesses our ministry so that we can resume financial support of foreign missionaries, it would be really wonderful if we didn’t just send money, but actually sent a representative from among us from time to time. If we could actually send one or more of us to literally partner with our missionary friends and work hard wherever they are working. Then we would have a deeply personal investment in the mission work, and wonderful, meaningful stories and prayers to share.
Until then, you and I are partners in ministry right here. It would be wrong for a congregation to believe that they “hire” a pastor to take care of their needs. It would be wrong for a congregation to believe that they “hire” a pastor to do the ministry. Pastors are called to live in community with the people and share the hard work of ministry with the congregation whose greatest concern is to reach the lost.
That’s why I am so delighted when for example, I organized the National Day of Prayer observance by the courthouse last May, and I saw some of you there! That’s supportive and partnering in the gospel. It’s not just an encouragement to me. It’s the others there in the community seeing it and saying, that’s a good church! And the best and easiest-for-you form of evangelism is not when you’re going around like salespeople, trying to get other people to buy in. The best form of evangelism is when people in the community see you as a satisfied customer giving rave reviews because you really like and enjoy the church you’re in!
That is why I again must say how thrilled I am about your partnership in the ministry of the food pantry. Connecting with our neighbors in community is the best tool we have right now to help people believe in the value of Church, which will lead them to the Truth of Scripture. For most of the people around us who don’t go to church, it isn’t because they have never heard of church, it is because of what they have heard about church or experienced for themselves, painful experiences of judgmentalism and unfriendliness. And even if those experiences were interpreted mostly by their own skewed perception and not what really happened, the only way to bridge that gap now is for us to be as hospitable, caring and kind as we can be.
Another group of people who do not attend church think they don’t need it. A lot of those people call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” They either see church as the place of moral instruction and think they don’t need to learn anymore, or they see church as irrelevant to modern life, a relic of the ancient past. And again, the way to bridge the gap is to help people get involved in something bigger than themselves. People want to be involved in something significant and important. A lot of people Mike and I met while we were placing collection jars around town said how much they appreciate what we’re doing and how important it is. They can partner with us in the food pantry ministry and slowly grow closer to the core and heart of life in Christ. I got at least one phone call from a person last Monday, specifically because she wanted to volunteer!
One more thing about partnership in the gospel. This is why we pray for and seek to work with the other congregations that exist to promote the gospel in our community. They are our partners in the gospel ministry and the more we work together in that common mission, shared mission, the more God will be glorified, and people will be blessed to see how much we love one another, because that’s different from what they think about why there are so many churches. In the past they have seen competition. That hurts the church. What they really need to see is our cooperation. Your partnership in the gospel is the key to a fruitful ministry and a bright future for the Church that meets in Lake City.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes next. It is a real treasure of assurance and promise. Paul says, 6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s confidence is in Christ and ours should be too. We may not have much confidence in ourselves that we can persevere as good saints should. In a very humbling honesty, we know our weaknesses. But so does Jesus, and He graciously and patiently keeps working in our hearts to form and shape us into the masterpieces he originally designed us to be.
The “he” in “he who began a good work” must be God, as in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I know that my good works don’t get me anywhere. But Jesus did the great work of coming to life in earth in a human body so that we could see and hear how much God love us. The gospel is not just “God loves you.” The whole gospel is, you were dead in sin and could not do anything at all about that. But Jesus, the Word of God, the Son of God, second person in the Trinity loved you so much that he was willing to live a perfect life in a human body so that he could offer himself as the perfect sacrifice. He died on the cross to demonstrate the horrors of sin, and take the punishment we all deserve, and in his great love for us he was willing to do that so that we would see how much he loves us and be moved to love him back.
When Jesus, dying on the cross said it is finished, he meant that he had faithfully and perfectly finished what he came to do FOR us. But then, his resurrection represents first, the proof that he really is God, and second, the beginning of the work that he means to do in us! The same power, the mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, is the power that is at work in us to carry on to completion what He started on the day you became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 7, Paul says to the Philippians, “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Let’s summarize those feelings again. He is thankful, or grateful, in verse 3 for their partnership in the gospel and in verse 6 he is confident that they will keep on going well.
Those are good positive feelings. They are based on Paul’s actual experience of their partnership, and having seen that, he has no reason to fear that they might change their minds any time soon. But again, it’s because Jesus is in them. That’s what keeps them going. Consequently, he misses their company too. He will soon mention that he is in chains, and that can be a very lonely business, as we may remember from Andrew Brunson’s plight.
But he’s not thinking only of himself. In these opening paragraphs, Paul says much about his concern for them and ends up praying for them. Verse 9 says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
There are five separate requests Paul asks God to grant them. And I believe Paul put them in a logical order of development. First, comes abounding love. All relationships are grounded in godly love, and it is because of love that we come to know the person we love. You might think it’s the other way around, that the more you know someone, the more you will love them, so that knowledge must come first. But really when two people fall in love, there’s a reason why they call it “falling.” And all married couples are surely aware that there were definitely things you didn’t know about your future spouse before you married. But once you married, then you start to learn things you were seemingly blind to before! So, now it’s obvious, love comes first, then knowledge.
The same is true when you fall in love with God. Every knew believer is a babe in Christ. There is much more to know about God than the bit we know about his loving sacrifice that causes us to give Him our hearts. Fortunately, knowing God is different from knowing humans. The more you learn about God the more you will love him! He will never disappoint. There is nothing about him that is unlovable.
With God, the more you know of him, the more your love abounds, and knowledge and depth of insight also increase. And as knowledge and insight increase, you become better able to discern what is best, which is Paul third request of God for them and the result of all that will satisfy Paul’s fourth request, that this Philippian brothers and sisters may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, and finally, to top it off like a beautiful icing on the cake, Paul prayed that they would end up filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
It all comes through Christ. It is all to the glory and praise of God. It is forgiveness that gets us to want to work for God. We do not work in order to be forgiven, but because we has been forgiven, and the consciousness of our sins being pardoned makes us long for its entire removal, more than ever he did before. An unforgiven person cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah. "Let my people go, that they may serve Me." was God's message to Pharaoh (exodus 8:1) first liberty, then service.
That’s the gospel, a free gift of grace from God just because he loves you. When you receive his gift of forgiveness you begin to become the person you really want to be. When Paul thanked God for the Philippians’ partnership. He was really thanking God, the Savior and Lord, who made their partnership possible and joyful. And this particular thank you note, as we will see in weeks to come, is not just a thank you note. It is a masterpiece of spiritual psychology, genuine encouragement, and Christian theology. Amen.
Listen Link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
Do have any letters, written years ago, that you’re still hanging onto? Many people do, or used to anyway. Greeting cards? Thank you notes? Love letters? Are there letters that you have kept in a drawer or filing cabinet, or even in a shoe box on the closet shelf because they mean a lot to you, sent by someone you love? The letter to the Philippians is sort of like that. You’ll see what I mean in a moment.
As we begin this series, looking at Philippians, the first thing we should notice is that this is a thank you letter from Paul the missionary to a supporting church. The church loved this letter, and kept it, and even shared it with other churches! That’s why it’s still around today. I bet Paul would be amazed to visit earth today and find his personal letter included in the Bible. What a high honor! The Church, that is, the world-wide body of Christ Church, has discerned that this personal letter was also more than that. It was inspired by God! And God himself saw fit to make sure this letter was not lost. It was preserved, cherished by the early church and faithfully copied many times over because the material in here is SO good for us.
You can be sure Paul did not tell anyone to call this a piece of inspired Scripture. He didn’t tell his scribes to make sure a copy of this letter got sent to Jerusalem so that it would be put in the Bible. He was just using his gifts of intellect and understanding of the gospel, led by the Spirit, to say “thank you” to a church that was very supportive of his ministry. They had financially and substantially helped him carry on, and go further, after he left them. He cared about them. He loved them. And he had heard some things about how they were doing, and he wanted to be helpful and instructive, as long as he was writing.
I would not be surprised at all if this were not the only letter Paul ever wrote to the Philippians. After all, the dating on this one suggests that he wrote it about ten years after his first visit with them. Why would he wait so long, and/or, send only one thank you letter to his supporters in ten years? In fact, we have proof that not everything Paul wrote is in the Bible. In the letter we now call first Corinthians, we read in chapter 5, verse 9, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.” That means there was another letter before first Corinthians that has not been preserved for us as Scripture.
We also don’t have any other letters to the Philippians, or any mention of any others he may have written to that church. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t write any. It only means we don’t have those letters anymore. They were not as carefully preserved as this one. Maybe they were just “thank you” letters. I hesitate to say, just, thank you letters because I’m sure Paul also wrote any others with the same loving concern and the same use of his intellectual gifts. But this one, the one we can read today, is special, truly inspired.
God said that it was good! That’s why it got saved and ended up in the Bible once the church decided which documents from the New Church of Christ needed to be collected up into what we would soon be called the New Testament, to be added to the earlier inspired scrolls we call the Old Testament. And that’s why we should highly prize the words here. Its history and its preservation as part of the inspired word of God tells you that there is valuable truth here that will bless us if we take it to heart.
Let’s read the address. “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:” Paul called them holy people because that is what believers are. In the Greek he called them hagios, which has traditionally been translated “saints.” People become saints, or holy, by being in Christ, not by being super Christians. If you’re a believer, you are a saint. It’s not about your behavior so much as it is about your position in Christ.
The letter starts with these addresses because in those days, there were no envelopes. The scroll was just rolled up and handed to the person who was going to deliver it. So, the return address and the address, the “from” and “to” lines, were the first lines you would read when you unrolled the scroll. There was a postal service, but often in those days a letter writer would send a letter by way of a friend who was personally taking it to hand it to the recipient. That was the surest way to guarantee a safe and timely delivery. So, there didn’t have to be anything written on the outside of the scroll, because the currier knew where it was going.
This letter to the Philippians was apparently carried and delivered by Epaphroditus. We believe this because Philippians 2:25 says, “But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.” Incidentally, since the Philippians sent Epaphroditus to Paul as a messenger, he probably brought with him a letter from the Philippians to Paul. In the letter we’re reading, Paul was writing back.
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” A lot of Paul’s letters start this way. It was a pretty typical greeting, and it’s way better than, Dear Philippians.”
Now we get into what Paul really wanted to say. He starts with giving thanks for them. 3 “I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
Those verses are often quoted by modern missionaries when they write “thank you notes” to their supporters. They’re good expression of gratitude, well written, and besides, they’re in the Bible now, so that really make them legit. But Paul came up with that before there was a Bible for him to quote! He was inspired. Paul didn’t exactly say “thanks for the money.” He called it partnership. It’s tactful and many have followed his example. Besides, when we support missionaries it really is a way of partnering with them in the work they are trying to accomplish. But the Philippians did not just send money. They sent Epaphroditus, who literally became Paul’s partner in ministry while he was with him. Later in this letter, Paul will say, Epaphroditus “worked hard.”
When the Lord blesses our ministry so that we can resume financial support of foreign missionaries, it would be really wonderful if we didn’t just send money, but actually sent a representative from among us from time to time. If we could actually send one or more of us to literally partner with our missionary friends and work hard wherever they are working. Then we would have a deeply personal investment in the mission work, and wonderful, meaningful stories and prayers to share.
Until then, you and I are partners in ministry right here. It would be wrong for a congregation to believe that they “hire” a pastor to take care of their needs. It would be wrong for a congregation to believe that they “hire” a pastor to do the ministry. Pastors are called to live in community with the people and share the hard work of ministry with the congregation whose greatest concern is to reach the lost.
That’s why I am so delighted when for example, I organized the National Day of Prayer observance by the courthouse last May, and I saw some of you there! That’s supportive and partnering in the gospel. It’s not just an encouragement to me. It’s the others there in the community seeing it and saying, that’s a good church! And the best and easiest-for-you form of evangelism is not when you’re going around like salespeople, trying to get other people to buy in. The best form of evangelism is when people in the community see you as a satisfied customer giving rave reviews because you really like and enjoy the church you’re in!
That is why I again must say how thrilled I am about your partnership in the ministry of the food pantry. Connecting with our neighbors in community is the best tool we have right now to help people believe in the value of Church, which will lead them to the Truth of Scripture. For most of the people around us who don’t go to church, it isn’t because they have never heard of church, it is because of what they have heard about church or experienced for themselves, painful experiences of judgmentalism and unfriendliness. And even if those experiences were interpreted mostly by their own skewed perception and not what really happened, the only way to bridge that gap now is for us to be as hospitable, caring and kind as we can be.
Another group of people who do not attend church think they don’t need it. A lot of those people call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” They either see church as the place of moral instruction and think they don’t need to learn anymore, or they see church as irrelevant to modern life, a relic of the ancient past. And again, the way to bridge the gap is to help people get involved in something bigger than themselves. People want to be involved in something significant and important. A lot of people Mike and I met while we were placing collection jars around town said how much they appreciate what we’re doing and how important it is. They can partner with us in the food pantry ministry and slowly grow closer to the core and heart of life in Christ. I got at least one phone call from a person last Monday, specifically because she wanted to volunteer!
One more thing about partnership in the gospel. This is why we pray for and seek to work with the other congregations that exist to promote the gospel in our community. They are our partners in the gospel ministry and the more we work together in that common mission, shared mission, the more God will be glorified, and people will be blessed to see how much we love one another, because that’s different from what they think about why there are so many churches. In the past they have seen competition. That hurts the church. What they really need to see is our cooperation. Your partnership in the gospel is the key to a fruitful ministry and a bright future for the Church that meets in Lake City.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes next. It is a real treasure of assurance and promise. Paul says, 6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s confidence is in Christ and ours should be too. We may not have much confidence in ourselves that we can persevere as good saints should. In a very humbling honesty, we know our weaknesses. But so does Jesus, and He graciously and patiently keeps working in our hearts to form and shape us into the masterpieces he originally designed us to be.
The “he” in “he who began a good work” must be God, as in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I know that my good works don’t get me anywhere. But Jesus did the great work of coming to life in earth in a human body so that we could see and hear how much God love us. The gospel is not just “God loves you.” The whole gospel is, you were dead in sin and could not do anything at all about that. But Jesus, the Word of God, the Son of God, second person in the Trinity loved you so much that he was willing to live a perfect life in a human body so that he could offer himself as the perfect sacrifice. He died on the cross to demonstrate the horrors of sin, and take the punishment we all deserve, and in his great love for us he was willing to do that so that we would see how much he loves us and be moved to love him back.
When Jesus, dying on the cross said it is finished, he meant that he had faithfully and perfectly finished what he came to do FOR us. But then, his resurrection represents first, the proof that he really is God, and second, the beginning of the work that he means to do in us! The same power, the mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, is the power that is at work in us to carry on to completion what He started on the day you became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 7, Paul says to the Philippians, “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Let’s summarize those feelings again. He is thankful, or grateful, in verse 3 for their partnership in the gospel and in verse 6 he is confident that they will keep on going well.
Those are good positive feelings. They are based on Paul’s actual experience of their partnership, and having seen that, he has no reason to fear that they might change their minds any time soon. But again, it’s because Jesus is in them. That’s what keeps them going. Consequently, he misses their company too. He will soon mention that he is in chains, and that can be a very lonely business, as we may remember from Andrew Brunson’s plight.
But he’s not thinking only of himself. In these opening paragraphs, Paul says much about his concern for them and ends up praying for them. Verse 9 says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
There are five separate requests Paul asks God to grant them. And I believe Paul put them in a logical order of development. First, comes abounding love. All relationships are grounded in godly love, and it is because of love that we come to know the person we love. You might think it’s the other way around, that the more you know someone, the more you will love them, so that knowledge must come first. But really when two people fall in love, there’s a reason why they call it “falling.” And all married couples are surely aware that there were definitely things you didn’t know about your future spouse before you married. But once you married, then you start to learn things you were seemingly blind to before! So, now it’s obvious, love comes first, then knowledge.
The same is true when you fall in love with God. Every knew believer is a babe in Christ. There is much more to know about God than the bit we know about his loving sacrifice that causes us to give Him our hearts. Fortunately, knowing God is different from knowing humans. The more you learn about God the more you will love him! He will never disappoint. There is nothing about him that is unlovable.
With God, the more you know of him, the more your love abounds, and knowledge and depth of insight also increase. And as knowledge and insight increase, you become better able to discern what is best, which is Paul third request of God for them and the result of all that will satisfy Paul’s fourth request, that this Philippian brothers and sisters may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, and finally, to top it off like a beautiful icing on the cake, Paul prayed that they would end up filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
It all comes through Christ. It is all to the glory and praise of God. It is forgiveness that gets us to want to work for God. We do not work in order to be forgiven, but because we has been forgiven, and the consciousness of our sins being pardoned makes us long for its entire removal, more than ever he did before. An unforgiven person cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah. "Let my people go, that they may serve Me." was God's message to Pharaoh (exodus 8:1) first liberty, then service.
That’s the gospel, a free gift of grace from God just because he loves you. When you receive his gift of forgiveness you begin to become the person you really want to be. When Paul thanked God for the Philippians’ partnership. He was really thanking God, the Savior and Lord, who made their partnership possible and joyful. And this particular thank you note, as we will see in weeks to come, is not just a thank you note. It is a masterpiece of spiritual psychology, genuine encouragement, and Christian theology. Amen.
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