Praying for the Fellowship - Philippians 1:3-11

Introduction

last week we began looking at this book by simply looking at Paul’s introduction to the church and his particular identity to the church at Philippi as a servant or slave. He is setting the stage for how we need to see ourselves in relation to both Christ and to others within the fellowship.

now Paul is going to offer a prayer for the philippian church and the fellowship there.

What is fellowship?

Typically, when we talk about fellowship, we talk about simply enjoying a shared interest between two or more people.

But the biblical idea of fellowship is the idea of not simply the sharing of interests, but of sharing in something that is bigger than the people who make up the fellowship and bigger than the activity of that given moment.

James Montgomery Boice - “It meant a sharing in something, participating in something greater than the people involved and more lasting than the activity of any given moment. When the Bible uses the word, it means being caught up into a communion created by God”

Philippians: An Expositional Commentary (Fellowship in the Gospel)

British universities are not organized in the same way as American universities, with a central admissions office and various dormitories. Instead, the British university is organized by colleges within the university. Each college has its own structure, its own admission policy, and its own distinctive traits. It governs its own students, and it has the final say about the running of the college. The affairs of the various colleges are conducted by the professors associated with it. They are called fellows, because they are men who fellowship together in the work of the college.

Philippians: An Expositional Commentary (Fellowship in the Gospel)

They are called fellows because there are also times when they gather for meetings that will direct the affairs of the college. In these meetings they share not what is of interest merely to two or more of them, but what is held in common by them all. Their fellowship consists in their mutual interest in the college and the share they have in it.

An example of true fellowship was also demonstrated in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” where nine companions of differing backgrounds and interests came together for a common purpose and goal.

In that novel, an evil and powerful sorcerer created a magic ring to subdue and enslave all the other peoples of the earth. This ring has been lost by him and now the only hope for freedom and life is in the hope of destroying this ring in the fires of the mountain by which it was made. It requires a mission into the heart of enemy territory.

The question is, who is to take the ring into the enemy territory and how are they going to get it there and successfully destroy it?

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These men, dwarf, elf, and hobbits form a diverse team which are finding their unity not in any common background or interests, but in the common purpose of seeking the good of the world in the destruction of the ring.

The church, likewise, is a group of people who are diverse in their backgrounds, interests, and desires, but are unified by the Gospel of Christ And in our mission to take that good news to the lost!

As we look at the fellowship, we must first start where Paul starts and that is in praying for the fellowship.

Read Philippians 1:3-11

Philippians 1:3–11 (ESV)

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Thanking God for Our Fellowship (vv. 3-6)

Because we are a fellowship of people from diverse backgrounds, it can be very easy for something to disrupt and divide the fellowship.

Prayer is essential for each and every fellowship of believers as we seek to grow in unity with one another and as we seek to glorify Christ in all that we do.

Prayer, however, is more than just asking God for things, even though that is what takes up the majority of our prayers. Prayer is our coming to God to communicate our love and praise for who He is. Prayer should start with recognizing who God is and the goodness He has shown to us in all of life.

This prayer of Paul starts with thanking and praising God for the believers at Philippi, and it should be where our prayers start for each other as well.

Thank God for the Presence of our Fellow Brothers and Sisters (v.3)

First, we want to thank God for the presence of our brothers and sisters. Thank God for allowing them to be a part of the fellowship.

We are all here, first and foremost, because Christ has saved us and has changed our hearts or perhaps some of us are here this morning because Christ is in the process of saving us. We thank God for the gift of Christ’s sacrifice, not just for myself, but for each other.

And then, we want to recognize that our church and fellowship would be hurting and lacking something special if any of us were missing from this fellowship.

Our joy comes from the fact that God has uniquely formed this local fellowship of believers with His people who have been gifted by the power of the Spirit in such a way as to be a blessing to each of us. We all would be hurting and lacking in our fellowship and blessing if any of us were missing.

How often do you stop and just thank God for the people in our church that you sit next to, or in front of or behind in these seats? Do you thank Him for the blessings they are to you in your relationship with God?

Thank God for the Partnership with our Brothers and Sisters (v. 4)

We also want to thank God for the partnership we share with those around us. God has called us as a church for a specific ministry and purpose to our community, and that purpose is bigger than any one of us can accomplish on our own.

We are not called to simply come and be a spectator in what God is doing through the pastor and the deacons. We are called to be partners in the ministry, to work together to share in the work of the Gospel to those around us and to help each other grow in maturity in the Gospel.

As you spend time in prayer for the fellowship, spend some time thanking God for how other people in this church are helping us as a body to accomplish the work of the ministry together. Thank Him for those who teach the children and the youth. Thank Him for those who are going into the jail to share His good news. Thank Him for those who help serve the Lord’s supper or for those who give to help fund and support the work of the church. Thank HIm for those who faithfully pray for the ministry and for all those involved. And then either thank Him for the role He has given to you in the life of the fellowship, or ask Him where He wants you to serve in the life of the fellowship and how you can be used to help our church declare the good news of the gospel to our community!

Thank God for His Work of Salvation and Sanctification for our Brothers and Sisters (v. 5)

And then we can thank God that He will accomplish His good and perfect work among our brothers and sisters in Christ.

As Paul was praying this prayer, no doubt he had in mind Lydia, the business woman who opened her home to the church, the slave girl who had been possessed by demons, and the Philippian jailor who worked hard to ensure the safety of the Roman citizens living in Philippi.

Paul is convinced that the work that Christ began in these people and others, Christ was going to bring to completion.

This prayer of thanksgiving can help remind us to be gracious and merciful to one another in our fellowship. We are reminded that we are all works in progress, but that because of Christ, we will one day get there. This kind of prayer, as we thank God for the work He is doing in others, will remind us that while others might frustrate us and even sometimes hurt us, God is still working on them as He is working on us. We are reminded that others, whom God is still working in, need grace from me just as much as I need and want grace from others as Christ is still working in me. And it reminds me to be optimistic that God will accomplish that work of sanctification (for both myself and my brothers and sisters) in His own perfect timing!

Growing in Love for Our Fellowship (vv. 7-9)

Next, Paul’s prayer includes how he loves the Philippians with the love of Christ.

Paul is emphasizing and defining what kind of love he has. We live in a culture that does not know what love truly is and defines it in ways that is foreign to the kind of love that God has shown to His people.

So Paul is saying that he loves the Philippians with the love of Christ. A love that is not self-serving, but rather self-sacrificing. He is experiencing joy in prison, not because prison itself is a joyful experience, but because God is using this experience as a way to help encourage and mature others in the gospel. So Paul is willing to endure hardship because it is working out for the good of other believers, like those here at Philippi.

And because of his love for the church, his prayer is that their love for one another would abound more and more.

He is asking God that the members of the church would grow in their self-sacrificing love for one another.

Going back to the Tolkien’s story of the Lord of the Rings, the individuals who became a part of that fellowship started on rocky ground because many of them had competing interests and values. However, by the end of the story, they grew to love and sacrifice for one another because of their common bond in the mission of destroying the ring. The elf and the dwarf, whose people did not like each other, ended up becoming life long friends. One of the men, who was self-serving and thinking only of his own kingdom and glory, ended up sacrificing his life to save the lives of the hobbits.

This may be fictional, but Tolkien, who was a Christian himself, took his Christian experience of what biblical fellowship looks like and allowed it to influence his writing.

This is the kind of fellowship Paul is praying for the church and its the kind of fellowship we are called to pray for as well.

Join us in praying that God would develop within us a heart to love our fellow believers the way He loves them. Now, it will be a constant daily growing in that love because Christ’s love is infinite. While we cannot give an infinite love, we can grow in our love, so each day we should be growing in our love for one another. So pray that God would increase your love for the fellowship. Imagine what might happen if, instead of praying for God to change someone else’s heart, we would pray that God would change my heart for others. That kind of prayer would change a church from the inside out.

Asking for Righteousness for Our Fellowship (vv. 10-11)

Finally, Paul ends his prayer for the Philippian church with the plea that they would be pure and blameless and filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

Jesus did not die on the cross to give us “fire insurance.” He did not die to make us secure in our sins. He died to set us free from sin so that our lives would begin to look more like His. We are called to be images of Jesus on this earth so that when others see us, they see who is the true King of all Creation in us as we live lives that are pure and blameless.

Now, when we come to Jesus in faith and repentance, He does justify us and make us righteous before God in an instant.

However, He is also seeking not just to give us a positional righteousness, but also a physical righteousness, and this takes effort. It takes the kind of effort that as we experience the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives, we are moved to discipline ourselves to fight against our sin and to know God and His Word even more.

This is the kind of effort that requires a daily intervention from God and His Spirit, which means, we ought to pray and ask God for His grace and strength for us to become what He has made us to be.

But in the realm of the fellowship, we should not just be praying for ourselves. If we love our brothers and sisters, we are called to pray for each other and to lift each other up in our fight against sin.

Now, not everyone needs to know what specific sins you are fighting. But you should have a couple people you can trust where you can share what specific sins and temptations you struggle with so they can pray with you for your sanctification. People who will not gossip and betray you. And people who you trust will speak hard truths in love to you about sins that you may not even see in your life. Be willing to be humble enough to listen to them. Also be courageous enough to share with them any sin you might see in them.

This is an area that is sensitive because we have become so anti-judgmental that we are afraid of saying anything that might seem judgmental. But there is a love that comes from helping each other fight against sin and praying for righteousness for each other.

As a fellowship, we are called to watch each other’s backs so that we all can live to the glory and praise of God.

So let us each pray for one another that God would help us fight against sin in our lives and that He would continue to produce the fruit of righteousness in our lives that will lead to the glory and praise of God!

Conclusion

Christ has died for us to set us free from sin and to create a new kind of fellowship that is centered on Him.

As people saved by the blood of Christ, we are not called to live on our own, but to live in community with one another and as such, we are called to pray for one another, to thank God for each other, to love and serve with one another, and to help each other fight for righteousness.

Let me close by quoting the lyrics to this song by Ross King, “Community”

Chorus

Teach us to be community Jesus Teach us to be community Unify our hearts as one Unify our hearts as one

Verse 1

One church one family Sharing with all to each as they need One goal one purpose Glory to God in this we agree

Verse 2

One Spirit one counsel Move in Your church To teach it and heal it One hope one vision Open Your Word This is where You reveal it

Bridge

One part suffers all parts suffer together One part honored all parts rejoice