Thank You Jesus

Well, It is finally time. The holiday season is upon us. I know Christmas decorations have been in stores since before Halloween and it feels like Thanksgiving is so easily overlooked, but it is still such a very important holiday. It really kicks off the holiday season for me even though Hallmark started playing Christmas movies at the end of October. Thanksgiving is all about pausing. It calls us to slow down just enough to give thanks to God for everything he has provided in the previous year. The reality is we should be thankful every day, but we take one day every year to do this as the body of Christ and as a nation. It gets overlooked and overshadowed by Christmas, but let us not get too caught up in Christmas to focus on Thanksgiving.

Paul had a word of thanksgiving to his brothers and sisters over in Philippi in his letter to the Philippian church. He had started the church back in Acts 16 at the conversion of Lydia, the seller of fine purple fabrics, and the Philippian jailer. His experience seemed to be a positive one until he and Silas were arrested for allegedly stirring up trouble in the city. The Philippian church also sent a man named Epaphroditus to minister to Paul during his imprisonment. This church, compared to many of the other churches Paul wrote to, had the marks of being healthy. So after giving a brief introduction, he offers his word of thanksgiving.

Technology has greatly aided overcoming all sorts of communication barriers. Today we can communicate with people on the other side of the globe in real time. Imagine being alive in the first century. There is no internet, no Amazon.com, no automobiles or airplanes. Things traveled much slower back then. Paul’s letter would not reach Philippi for possibly months after it was written. Imagine traveling to a city you had never been to, started a church, these people become family to you, and then it is time to pack up and move on. How different their prayers must have been. We get from these verses that Paul missed his fellow brothers and sisters in Philippi very much.

There are a few principles we can glean from these nine verses that we should apply as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

As often as the Lord brings someone to mind, we should stop and pray for them.

This is exactly what Paul is doing in verses 3-5.

Philippians 1:3–5 NASB95

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

He says he gives thanks for them in all his remembrance of them. It looks like as he had left to continue the Lord’s work, he remembered his time in Philippi and offered up prayers for them as those moments arose. Even though the unbelieving crowd got him locked up, he looked back on his time in Philippi with fondness. How do we know? Because in verse 4 he is offering up prayers for them with joy.

We are not in the habit of offering up prayers for people we don’t remember fondly. If someone hurt us or we had some bad experience, we may recognize the need to pray for that person, but we don’t usually pray for them with joy. Paul is praying for the Philippian church with joy because of the positive impact they had on each other.

He is also remembering that they are participants in sharing the gospel message from the first day, that is the day they heard it, until now. The gospel message still spreads from the Philippian church as Paul writes this letter. He is pleased to know that his departure did not result in the halting of the movement of God in Philippi. It has advanced and he is grateful, which then fuels his prayers as prayer is the response to his remembering the church in Philippi.

How often does the Lord bring someone to mind and we say, “I really ought to call that person” and then we never do it? How often do we intend to check in on someone only for life to keep us busy and then we forget? It happens more often than I care to admit. But in the last week or so I was sitting at my desk getting some work done and the Lord brought Keron Jackson to my mind. I decided that rather than try to promise myself I would call him later, I paused what I was doing, picked up the phone and called him. We had a good conversation and he was just grateful that I was thinking of him and thanked me for calling. That call lasted twenty minutes and resulted in a lifting of both our spirits.

Every time Paul remembered his brothers and sisters in Philippi, he committed to pray for them joyfully as he looked back on their time together and on their commitment to the gospel.

Whatever God begins, God finishes.

God began a work in the people of Philippi as he sent Paul to bring the message of salvation through Jesus to them. Knowing that God would continue the work, he wrote verse 6.

Philippians 1:6 NASB95

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

It should be a great comfort knowing that whatever God begins, he finishes. God has never quit anything. Everything he has begun, he either has finished or will finish it some time in the future. This is exciting news for us. God began a work in Three Rivers 109 years ago when the charter members of this church met for the first time. By God’s grace, through the ups and downs, he has sustained the church and kept it going. By his grace and our faithfulness to the call, he will continue the work until Christ returns or long after all of us are gone.

When God called you to place your faith in his Son for salvation he began a good work in you. That work will go on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus when his work of salvation will be complete. You will stand before him in bodily perfection free of any sin or disease to the glory and praise of God the Father. Hallelujah! What God has begun in you will be completed. God doesn’t quit on anybody.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are fellow partakers of the grace of God.

Having laid the foundation for his remembrance of the church and his response in lifting them up in prayer before God, Paul gives a sort of justification for why he responds this way.

Philippians 1:7–8 NASB95

For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul’s affection for the church stems from their common experience of God’s grace. It is by God’s grace that we are saved. This is not something we deserved, but a gift freely given. By God’s grace we enter into fellowship with one another, we bear one another’s burdens, we magnify the name of Jesus together, serve alongside one another, and extend the love of Christ to one another.

As brothers and sisters, we must love each other with the love of Christ.

Commit to praying for your fellow church members as often as God prompts you.

In the final three verses, we now see what Paul is praying for on behalf of the church. Until now, he is grateful in their partnership in the gospel mission and in their fellow partaking in the grace of God. Now he spells out for them in more detail what he is asking God for on their behalf.

Philippians 1:9–11 NASB95

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

First, Paul prays that their love would grow in proportion to their knowledge and discernment. As they grow in the knowledge of Christ, and that knowledge works itself out among the people, the product should be a deeper love for each other. With knowledge comes discernment, which is the ability to approve the things that are excellent and right for themselves and discarding that which is not right, wise, or true. As they discern what is right and excellent and do those things, they will remain sincere and blameless. Paul is praying that this would continue until the day of Christ’s return.

He is also praying for the filling of the fruit of righteousness in them, which comes from Christ. As the Holy Spirit brings the knowledge of God to the people of God, and that knowledge is applied to their lives, the people grow in their ability to discern what is right or excellent or the things that are more valuable, producing the fruit of righteousness in the lives of the people, resulting in conformity to the image of Christ. We look the most like Christ when we commit ourselves to doing what He says.

As we think of one another or brothers and sisters in other churches, may we listen to the Lord and lean into that moment by praying for them, sending a text, or an email, or picking up the phone and calling them so we may better reflect the love of Christ to one another.

So now comes the part where you get to take this home. Your assignment is to make personal contact with someone in this church and someone outside this church whom you may not know very well or haven’t spoken to in a while and simply tell them thank you for whatever the Lord might prompt you to say. Send it in the mail, email, text, or whatever other method of communication suits you best. But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank someone within this church and outside this church for what they mean to you.