Sermon Dan Neary

The Fellowship of the Gospel

We’re starting a new series that will take us right up to the Advent Season at the end of the year. I’ll be partnering up with Theresa, Blaine Charette, and Darrell Hobson.

One of the reasons I’ve been looking forward to this particular series is that I have put the outline together so that we ought to be able to take our time. Philippians is one of the short, prison epistles; in my Bible it only covers three pages… so fifteen weeks on three pages will allow us to go at a more contemplative pace than we may have grown accustomed to.

I could spend some time introducing the Epistle to the Philippians… but it turns out that the Apostle Paul handled his own introductions… so let’s get into the text. It is only about 30 lines of text in my Bible, so we’ll go line by line. If you don’t have a Bible with you, use one of the pew Bible’s and turn to page ______.

Paul & Timothy

The early church and scholars throughout the ages agree that the author of this letter to the Philippians is the Apostle Paul.

· Prison Epistle – probably from Rome under house arrest (c. 61).

· Timothy was there as an aid and friend. There is no reason to give Timothy co-author status

· Both Paul and Timothy were happy to wear the title “servants of Christ Jesus.”

To all the saints – does that strike you as a funny word? Saints. We spent a little bit of time with the saints on our trip back from Denver… the Latter Day Saints that is in Salt Lake City. I don’t know as much about the Mormons as maybe I ought… but just the hour or so we spent looking at the exhibits in the visitor’s center made it clear to me that Mormons are seriously wrong. Their pursuit of “sainthood” seems to have everything to do with human effort… whether it is there own discipline and clean living, or a baptism that some relative might take-on for a departed loved one… the Mormons make it clear that being a saint is a great deal of work.

Paul, here, makes it clear and simple… we saints are only saints because we are in Christ Jesus. Devotion, discipline, clean living, all of this is good and can be offered as worship that glorifies God… but the only thing that earns any of us the title “saint” is that we have turned from our ways, renouncing our sin AND renouncing any reliance we might have on our good works for our salvation… and instead of trusting in anything we might come-up with, we put all of our trust and faith in Christ Jesus… trusting only in His grace and mercy… trusting in His sacrifice that purchased our salvation. These are the saints to whom Paul originally wrote.

The saints at Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony and an important city in Macedonia. Paul first visited Philippi after hearing the Macedonian call and sailing from Troas. Philippi was a center of commerce in the gold-producing region of Macedonia. Its citizens were considered Romans; many of the prominent citizens were former officers in the Roman army. It was a proud, prosperous, secular city that had been impacted with the power of the Gospel.

Here Paul wrapped up the typical way a letter would get started in his day. He identified himself, he identified his audience, and he brings a greeting… the best kind of greeting.

Thank you. First and foremost, this letter was a thank you letter… a missionary thank you letter. The Philippian church was not only made up of Paul’s converts, it was made up of Paul’s partners. They supported him financially, as well as with prayer and friendship. This letter was in response to the Philippians’ generous support. Beyond saying thank you… Paul would take this opportunity to:

· Report on his own circumstances

· Encourage the Philippians

· Exhort the Philippians to stand firm, even in the face of persecution

· To teach about humility and unity

· To commend Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippian church, and

· To warn the Philippians against the Judaizers

But all of these other purposes follow Paul’s first purpose to say thank you… and more than just thanking these dear friends, but thanking Him who motivated their care and generosity… God Himself.

Many commentators label Philippians the Book of Joy. In this short letter, the word joy in its various forms occurs 16 times. Remember, Paul is in chains, being treated like a criminal, but he is consumed with joy when he remembers his friends and prays for them.

He refers to his friends as “partners in the Gospel” because of the way they have supported him in his work.

Paul’s real joy doesn’t come from mere partnership or friendship; his joy is founded in knowing that it is God who is working in and through his friends. Paul knows better than to be confident in mere mortals… his confidence is in Christ. His confidence is in knowing that God changed everything for his friends and what God started, God will carry into eternity.

These bonds, which were forged in bringing the Gospel to the Philippians, were deep. Paul had a heart-connection with these dear friends.

In good times or bad, the low times of being in chains or the high times of preaching the Gospel… Paul is attributing part of the credit to his supporters.

This is a good reminder on this Missions Sunday. When we support those who have devoted their lives to missionary service, we have a real part in the work.

We also see in this passage the power of Christ working in a sort of supernatural bonding of hearts. There was nothing natural about the affection that Paul felt for the Philippians. They were not his people. There were likely very few Jews, if any, in Philippi. There was no synagogue, and uncharacteristically for Paul, he uses no OT references. Paul had great affection for these new friends because of a work of Christ Jesus. This affection that Paul has for these brothers and sisters was a demonstration of Christ’s transforming power on Paul as well as the Philippians.

Here in verse nine, Paul concludes with prayer.

Do you want to know how to pray for your friends? Maybe this would be a good place to learn.

First he prays that love would abound. He starts with love and wraps knowledge and insight into the mix. Knowledge and insight are good… but they are made all the more meaningful when wrapped in and infused by love.

Then he prays for discernment. As we get more into this epistle, we’ll see more specifically just how discerning the Philippians would need to be. Paul knew that his friends were facing trials. There were those who would try to undo what God started through Paul’s ministry.

Finally he prays for fruit. Paul was already the beneficiary of the fruit, the good works, from the Philippians, and he prayed that there would be more fruit. Not for his own gain or the mere prosperity of his friends. All of this was to bring glory and praise to God.

I’m wondering if you picked up on the theme here in Paul’s prayer… did you see it? I go back to this simple theme over and over again… and we can see it here again. Heart, head and hand… it is Carry the Call. Paul is praying that God would continue His work on

· Hearts in love

· Heads in discernment

· Hands demonstrating fruit

So what, then?

Thank you for your patience with me... enduring this habit I have of asking so what. It is more for me than it is for you. I’m afraid that if I didn’t purposefully ask so what I would be satisfied by just saying a few clever things up here. And that would be a waste of our time.

What we are after here is an encounter with God through His Word… and that encounter should change us. That is why I ask so what.

I think we should learn something about a progression that is demonstrated in this text. I think this is a normative pattern on how we deal with God.

Our first inclination is to think in terms of what God does for us. We heard it in the words that Ted read from Psalm 138 (we read the first five verses of the Psalm together as our call to worship, then Ted read the remaining verses). I asked Ted to read this passage because Psalm 138:8 sounds so much like Philippians 1:6.

In the Psalm David is clearly looking to God to do something for him. It is natural that we look to God for stuff, especially in the beginning of our walk with Him. It seems to me, though, that there are lots of us Christians that never get beyond what God can do for us. People look to God, and look to Churches and Pastors and even Christian Friends, searching for what they can get out of it… help, salvation, personal satisfaction, pity, goose bumps, entertainment… you name it, we’re often looking for something.

I said Psalm 138:8 and Philippians 1:6 sounded a lot alike… but not precisely. I think the difference might be in these simple little words.

Philippians 1:6 doesn’t say “that He who began a good work for you” it says “He who began a good work in you.”

It is a significant mark of Christian maturity when we begin to realize that the real work that God does isn’t the external stuff for us… it is the transforming stuff in us.

It is clear that God is happy to protect and prosper His people… but what He is really after is to change us.

The ultimate then is when we come to a point of realizing that it isn’t merely God’s work for us, and it goes beyond God’s work in us… the ultimate is when God works through us. And again, Paul affirms from the very beginning how God is working through Paul as well as the Philippians.

When we get through this progression… then the whole thing gets turned on its end.

God works through us in people. He’s not working through us to earn some sort of extra credit in heaven. He’s not working through us to build temples and such merely for the sake of some religious exercise or some faceless institution. God works through us to impact people… and that is all for the glory of God.

Paul’s epistle to the Philippians reminds us, right here at the beginning, that we Christians are the body of Christ. The church is the Body of Christ. None of us, not even the Apostle Paul, are meant to be some sort of Lone Ranger. We aren’t meant to go it alone; we’re meant to act in fellowship, with people, for the good of people… all to glorify God.

Hence the Fellowship of the Gospel. We’re all in this together, and it is to that end I would like to lead us in prayer this morning.