Shepherding the Church

Introduction

We’re getting near the end of our time in Philippians. There are only two messages left. And as Paul is writing with the end in mind he wants to end by shepherding the Philippians, people that he loves.

Our passage today is Philippians 4:1-9.

And the main idea of our passage today is that Paul shepherds the church by urging them to be united, to rejoice in the Lord always, to be gentle, to fight anxiety by looking to God’s peace through prayer, and to set their minds on things that are worthy of praise.

What Paul gives us here are guiding principles for contributing to the health of the body of Christ.

Paul is talking to a good church in Philippi, filled with faithful believers. But where people are there will be hardships that are brought on by sin and the flesh.

Here in our passage, in the context of the Philippian church, Paul addresses disputes among believers, joylessness, a lack of graciousness, anxiety, and impure thoughts.

Does any of that sound familiar to you?

Those who claim that the Bible is an ancient book detached from modern life don’t know what they are talking about. I wonder if they’ve ever read it. The Bible will always be relevant—even if Jesus tarries for another 10,000 years—because it’s two largest topics are God and the human heart. God has always been the same perfect God in need of no change and the human heart—regardless of how much technology you surround it with will always long for God and struggle in sin.

So this morning there is a lot for you and to consider and apply to our lives.

Let’s pray.

I. Shepherdly Love (1)

Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”

You don’t have to search for Paul’s love here. “Those I long for” “my joy and crown” “my beloved”.

This is a transitional verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians but it is filled with geniune expressions of Paul’s love for his brothers and sisters in Christ.

Many scholars believe that of all the churches that Paul planted this was his favorite.

You’re not supposed to have favorites.

Sometimes Rebekah will ask me in front of Noah, Levi, and Nehemiah if she is my favorite. And I loudly say, “No. I donn’t have a favorite child—I love you all the same.”

And then obviously, knowing that the others are watching, “I’ll wink to Rebekah and mouth, “You’re my favorite.”

And obviously It’s all a game. I love all my children the same. (Mouth to Rebekah, “No I don’t. It’s you.”)

But many Bible students have pointed out that Paul only calls one of his church plants “his joy and crown”.

Paul is proud of his disciples becasue they are the most obvious proof that God has been using him for God’s glory. In the Philippians Paul sees lasting fruit. Paul poured out his life for this.

App: I hope that you and I will take this as a challenge this morning. There is great temptation to find all our energy and time and interest going to things that will pass away quickly.

My question for you and I this morning is how much of your life are you spending on planting and tending lasting fruit? If you haven’t in a while I would urge you this morning to take a survey of your life and see how much of it is built on your own preferences, comforts, fears, and desires. And how much of it is rooted in your love for God and your desire to be about his work.

In Paul’s shepherding the Philippians you and I are reminded this morning that our loving God likewise shepherds us—where did Paul learn his shepherding?—He is imitating Christ.

In this verse, not only do we see Paul’s love, but also tucked in the words is Paul’s exhortation to endure.

Paul says, “stand firm thus in the Lord.”

D.A. Carson comments here that Paul especially has in mind the words of Philippians 3:17-21. The therefore this passage starts with clues us in that Paul is saying in light of all that we have just discussed stand firm.

It’s an appeal to stand firm in light of our heavenly citizenship and the Lord Jesus’ climactic return. Because our citizenship is in heaven don’t give up on this Christian walk.

Imitate those who imitate Christ. Don’t adopt the pattern of those who glory in their shame and celebrate sin. Don’t set your mind on earthly things.

To err in these ways would be to fall down under the pressure of the world rather than to stand firm in Jesus.

Friends, is this any less applicable to you and I today?

No, we too need to apply this faithful counsel to our own souls. In our marriages, our relationships, our parenting and finances. We need this reminder as we struggle against the temptation to sin.

Paul is calling us to never give up the Christian walk. And so you and I are determined to follow Christ— I know that is true, but let us remember that falling into wayward ways doesn’t happen in leaps and bounds—it happens in steps and shuffles.

It is in the small details of our lives that faithlessness grows. So let us submit all things to God, amen?

Transition: And toward that point as we continue in our passage Paul gives us some specific areas to look into in verses 2-9 And gives us 5 challenges.

1. Pursue Unity with Each Other (2-3)

Philippians 4:2-3 “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

The problem here is an episode of disunity in the body of Christ. Euodia and Syntyche aren’t agreeing about something.

And I don’t want us to miss the seriousness here. This disagreement wasn’t a friendly disagreement about who sold the best spices in the market. Or something like that.

We know this is serious because Paul uses their names. Up to this point calls for unity have been general without involving people’s names.

Remember—or maybe learn for the first time—that these letters were delivered to congregations. The church would gather and someone would read the letter aloud for everyone to hear.

Paul’s directness clues us in to how seriously we should take arguments in the body of Christ.

Imagine if you are one of these ladies and then the person reading from the Apostle Paul says, I entreat Vickery and Mary to agree in the Lord.” That’s an awkward moment. But certainly it got the church’s attention and it should grab our attention too.

This is a serious issue for Paul so much so that he can’t speak vaguely, but must speak directly. Paul loves these ladies and the church and knows the danger that their argument really is.

I have someone from my past that I love—I can’t call him a friend becasue we aren’t friends anymore. I grew up with him and we lived down the street from each other. My friend was a big guy and was used to solving his frustrations with his physicality.

We never had any issues, except for one time. One time when we were kids we disagreed on whether or not pigs are smarter than dogs. They are I was right, but in the process of his vehement disagreement I made him feel stupid (on purpose) and so he pushed me to the ground and kicked me into a corner yelling at me in overflowing anger.

I am the oldest brother and I had never felt unable to defend myself before and that experience of helplessness didn’t leave me for years. We never addressed the incident and I never really let it go—long story short it poisoned our friendship. He was a groomsmen in my wedding and I declined to even go to his.

Years ago I confessed about the sin of my unforgiveness and apologized and sought forgiveness but the damage was done. Our childish argument left unattended poisoned our friendship and ultimately killed our relationship.

Paul is right to be concerned and when it comes to our relationships within our local body of Christ and the larger universal body of Christ we, as a modern people, are far too quick to throw away our relationships instead of doing the harder work of reconciling them.

Paul doesn’t just reveal the problem but also in these two verses he provides the solution.

When we find ourselves in this situation we must work to have the “same mind”

Paul urges these sisters to “agree in the Lord.”

The Greek here is helpful the phrase is “autos phroneo” and it means to have the same mind, to share the same thoughts.

The call is not to agree on absolutely everything or to not have an opinion that differs, but like Christ to have a spirit of humility that defers to one another and honors the person looking across from you as an image bearer of God.

Philippians 2:1-11 should be in our mind here.

Specifically Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Paul is encouraging here a common attitude of Christ and a gospel centeredness.

If these two ladies, and if we, can center on the gospel and pursue the attitude of Christ, then they and we will be able to go on with the work of the gospel.

But when our focus remains on ourselves, just like my broken friendship, the gospel work can be mightily derailed in the personal lives of those arguing, but also in the broader life of the church.

As we continue in our text we see that Paul shepherds us to

2. Rejoice in the Lord (4)

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

If you ever feel that you are alone in struggling with a lack of joy—or with depression—know that you are not alone.

King David wrote many psalms dripping with his despair and lack of joy.

George Muller who built and cared for over 10,000 orphans did so completely on faith. I encourage you to read his biography. He never asked anyone for help in this endeavor, but only every prayed to God for the things he needed to care for the children and God mightily provided over and over again.

George Muller had great faith and he wrote, “The first and great primary business…everyday was to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

Rejoice is a verb. It’s something we decide to do.

I think one of the lies the enemy tells us is that joy just comes to those who are truly in the Lord. “If i was a better Christian, if God was really happy with me—then I would be joyful, but I’m not I’m an imposter, etc.etc.etc.

Rejoicing in the Lord is a moment by moment endeavor. It’s something that Paul repeated to believers a lot. Here in this verse he says, “I’ll say it and then I’ll say it again, rejoice!”

Why does it need to be repeated so much? Because life is full of numerous difficulties and full of turns that we weren’t expecting. And our joy can be fleeting in these moments.

Again, Paul doesn’t just give us the problem—a lack of joy. But he also gives the solution. Look again at the text.

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

Friends, if we want to know the solution for finding our joy we need to focus in on the word always.

Paul doesn’t say rejoice when things are going well, but he says always rejoice.

I often need an adjustment when it comes to my joy and maybe you do too.

I often need to be reminded that my joy comes from my relationship with Christ and not from my circumstances.

Remember, Paul is not writing this letter to the Philippians from a sweet beach house on the Sea of Galilee. He’s in a prison. And yet he has joy in Christ and is reminding to likewise have joy in Christ.

True joy does not come when we get the “stuff” we want. When we get respect or money or peace and quiet. That’s not where joy comes from.

Friends, joy, gospel joy, comes from reminding yourself of the gospel everyday. It comes from meditating, not on what you want, but what you deserve.

Joy comes when we remember that we deserved judgment from God but instead we were given salvation in God.

My Dad used to say this annoying thing all the time. Anytime something bad happened he woudl say, ‘It’s better than a sharp stick in your eye.’ His point was, “hey it could be worse. Take heart that it’s not as bad as it could be.

But the gospel does one better. It reminds us that we deserved the sharp stick but instead we have only gotten glorious gospel grace.

How could Paul and Silas sing hymns of praise in a Philippians jail? Because even if they were imprisoned and faced death—no one could take their salvation in Jesus. They were joyful facing the possible end of their lives because their joy was not based on their earthly freedom but based on their eternal freedom.

When you are finding joy hard to come by it is probably because you are focused on the bad circumstances before you instead of Christ and his glorious gospel by which you have been irreversibly and abundantly blessed.

Paul in describing Christians in 2 Corinthians 6:8-10 says that Christians are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”.

Always, we can rejoice friends, because never can anyone remove us from the love of God. Amen?

Continuing we see that Paul Shepherds us to

3. Be Known for Graciousness (5)

Philippians 4:5 “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;”

Pastor, should your point be—Be Known for Reasonableness.

HCSB, “Let your graciousness be known to everyone.”

ESV, says “reasonableness”

NLT, “Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.”

NASB, “Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.”

NIV, “Let your gentleness be evident to all”

These different translations let us know that the Greek word is hard to translate exactly but the idea is that we would have a gentle forbearance with each other.

Gentle forbearance requires reasonableness, graciousness, consideration, and a gentle spirit. I think gracious is as good a word as any here.

Jesus was gracious in his ministry. He was gentle and considerate with the hard headed disciples and he was gracious in how he dealt with the hard hearted Pharisees. Jesus could have made more than a fig tree wither.

In Jesus we even see a graciousness toward his enemy’s as he washes the feet of Judas the betrayer.

In the pastoral epistles Paul tells Timothy that gracious, gentleness is a qualification of a pastor.

If we are to reconcile with one another when disputes arise—graciousness is absolutely necessary for us.

At the heart of gracisousness is gospel-ness.

Again, we find our strength for extending grace to others by rejoicing over the grace extended to us in Christ.

This is especially true when it comes to how we disagree with the world. Friends you need to be bold as you stand on the unerring word of God. As Christians we cannot give ground to the world and accept sin and normal. We must always say to a disapproving world, what you call good, God calls sin.

But we must do this with speech filled with grace. Too often Christians make the mistake that truth gives them a licenses to stop loving the lost we engage with.

Is graciousness a quality you desire?

Friends, let’s be known for our graciousness. It honors Jesus, imitates him, and loves those in the church and those outside of the church.

So Paul says be reasonable, be gracious. And then he says, “The Lord is at hand.”

It’s not clear whether Paul’s reference is to temporal closeness or spatial closeness.

Paul could be saying, “Jesus return is soon, don’t let him find you being ungracious.”

Or Paul could be saying, “God is close to you and not far away—He will help you be gracious with others.”

Both are theologically accurate and supported by the scriptures so I think it’s best that we apply both.

Jesus’ soon arrival should cause us to live differently in this present time and God’s very presence within us should cause us to call out to him frequently to imitate Christ in how we deal with others.

So let us desire to be a people full of grace.

As ou text continues Paul shepherds us to...

4. Fight Anxiety with Prayer (6-7)

Proverbs 12:25 “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

Can anyone relate? What does our text say?

Philippians 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Anxiety is like carrying a heavy pack on your back for miles. It makes every step harder.

I think often we don’t really even know what anxiety is, we just know that we are anxious. I think John Piper gives us a really good definition for anxiety. Piper says, “Anxiety seems to be an intense desire for something, accompanied by a fear of the consequences of not receiving it.”

For instance, I really want to pay my rent and anxiety is living in the fear that I won’t be able to.

Or I really want my child to be healthy and happy and living in the fear of knowing that I can’t ensure that.

The first thing we need to do with our anxiety is realize that it is sin. It’s “functional atheism” because living in anxiety is living as though God doesn’t exist, as if He’s not the all sovereign, good God of the universe who calls you son or daughter.

And if you struggle with anxiety that may offend you—you may feel like the victim and feel like I’m trying to make you feel bad for something you can’t help. I promise I love you and I’m those feelings, if you are having them, are false—as our feelings often are. But they can feeel so real.

Anxiety jumps to worst case scenarios and cripples us in a world that doesn’t exist—we are wounded by what could be.

But Paul tells us to do something different here.

We need God’s Word to know God’s peace—so let us look to His word—it is sufficient for all of life and godliness. All of life—including our anxiety. Look at verses 6-7 again...

Philippians 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Number one step toward overcoming our anxiety is first to realize that it is sin. It is rooted in rejecting that God is sovereign or good or that He cares about us.

Two our text tells us that in everything, that is in all circumstances, in all hardships, even when life seems impossible we pray. Everything also means in the little things. When we are anxious about driving on the highway, about talking to strangers, and about how others perceive us.

In everything—what does God instruct us to do?

The most basic remedy for your anxiety friends is to pray. Martin Luther said, “Pray and let God worry.”

And D.A. Carson said, “I have yet to meet a chronic worrier who enjoys an excellent prayer life.”

Let your Father know your requests and then let them go. Trusting God’s care over you.

Jesus in Matthew 6 says, “Look at how he cares for the birds, and look at how he clothes the flowers of the fields. Don’t you know that you are more important than birds and flowers?”

God didn’t die for you so that he could ignore you. Trust in God and prayer to God is your number one way to fight your anxiety.

So let us train ourselves to pray, and pray, and pray when anxiety tries to rob us of our confidence in God.

So far God’s word has shepherded our souls by encouraging us to unity, reminding us to rejoice in God always, pushing us to be gracious, showing us how to kill anxiety, and lastly our text reminds us...

5. Think On Praise Worthy Things (8-9)

Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

In talking about anxiety we kind of teed up our last point. Paul is addressing the Christian’s thought life. What we place our minds on effects our hearts and actions.

There is a famous study done by psychologist Curt Richter, it was done in the 1950’s with rats. He placed a rat in a bucket of water where the rat could not get out. The rat would start swimming and if nothing was done to help the rat would drown in a manner of 20 minutes or so.

But if they rescued the rat out of the water as they were beginning to tire something unexpected happened. When that same rat who experienced rescue was put back in the bucket on a different occasion it swam for over 60 hours.

I personally find this experiment to be a bit cruel—I can’t help but empathize with the rat, but the principle is fascinating. That rat that placed his mind on the possibility of rescue could swim far past what it could otherwise.

What we think about effects how we behave.

And Paul’s exhortation to us is clear. Think about excellent things, like the gospel. Think about praiseworthy things like the character of God. Think about honorable things like the stories of missionaries. Think about commendable things.

We are to take an active role in filling our minds and hearts with good, praise worthy things.

And the reverse of this obvious—we are to clear out and bar from entry things that are worldly and shallow and not praiseworthy.

And this is not a call to asceticism—I’m not calling you to come join my secret commune in the forest where we reject any interaction with the world.

God is the author of all good things and there are many praiseworthy, excellent, commendable reflections of God in art, poetry, food, but we must have the courage to sift everything we would consume through the sieve of scripture. And where we see that scripture prohibits something we must have the courage to let it go.

Because whether we like it or not—what we consume effects us outwardly.

And we want to act outwardly in excellent and praiseworthy ways. Amen?

Conclusion

Paul shepherds the church lovingly urging us to be united, to rejoice in the Lord, to be gracious, to replace our anxiety with prayer and trust, and to think on praise worthy things.

And as we seek to do this, let us end with it fixed firmly in our mind that God’s word is commanding us to do these things and God’s power is empowering us to carry them out.

Christ is the reconciler. Christ is the gracious savior. Christ has removed our greatest fear and relieves our deepest anxiety through his victorious death and resurrection.

Christ paid the penalty for those who have sinned with their thoughts and God grants us new minds and new hearts that are no longer under the bondage of sin.

Let us look to our Lord for our righteousness, our daily renewal and for the ultimate example for our imitation.

In this way God’s promised peace will be in abundant supply to us and will bless our own lives and the lives of all those we encounter in the church and in the world. Let’s pray.