Philippians 4:10-23

Philippians 4:10–23 “I have great joy in the Lord because now at last you have again expressed your concern for me. (Now I know you were concerned before but had no opportunity to do anything.) I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance. I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing. I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you did well to share with me in my trouble. And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving and receiving except you alone. For even in Thessalonica on more than one occasion you sent something for my need. I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account. For I have received everything, and I have plenty. I have all…”

INTRODUCTION TBD

Philippians 4:10 NET 2nd ed.

I have great joy in the Lord because now at last you have again expressed your concern for me. (Now I know you were concerned before but had no opportunity to do anything.)

Another inside baseball conversation. Apparently the church wanted to help paul in prison some how, but was unable to do so

Limited Resources most likely?

Calls back to ch 1

Philippians 2:29–30 NET 2nd ed.

So welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, since it was because of the work of Christ that he almost died. He risked his life so that he could make up for your inability to serve me.

Looking back at the beginning of ch 4, this seems like a likely reason why the church was fighting (Euodia and Syntyche)

When you only have so much to go around you have to make tough decisions about where you spend your money. Do you spend it on missionary efforts? do you spend it on efforts here at home? It can absolutely be a source of contention in the church

Regardless, they were for whatever reason unable to help paul out financially before, but now they’ve managed to scrape up enough money to send him some help

It could have been financial help for paul’s legal defense while he was in prison

It could have been food or money for food. You don’t really eat very well in a first century prison.

It could even have been something as simple as sending ink and parchment. We don’t think about it today, but having the ability to write a letter, and even having the papyrus needed, and the ink needed to write could be a bit of a luxury at times.

Whatever it was, paul is letting the church know that he received the gift, and that he’s grateful.

Philippians 4:11 NET 2nd ed.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance.

This is an interesting couple of verses Paul uses.

He basically says “thanks for the gift, but I didn’t need it”

We have to understand is the fact that Paul is kind of walking a tight rope.

We’re going to read in a few verses, that the church in philippi is extremely generous

Paul wants to express his grattitude, but he knows that if he says “thank you for the gift, it was so helpful” He knows that they’re going to say “Oh, it was helpful, we should send more.

They’re already in a tight spot. He knows that if he lets them they’ll send him every penny they have, and wouldn’t blink an eye about it.

So he needs to express to them, please, don’t send me anything else. You guys are already so generous.

But then you run the risk of coming off as ungrateful

If he just says “hey I got your gift, I’m good, please don’t send any thing else, I’m perfectly content

Then the church is going to get this letter and think that he’s not grateful for the gift.

That’s not good either.

Socially, this is a bit of a tightrope situation. Paul wants to teach contentment, and this virtue of not needing material things, and being content in his situation, but also he wants to teach grattitude,

My guess is that the gift or money they sent was probably extremely helpful. It was probably a life-saver for paul

But he knows that they’re so generous that they’ll just give themselves into the ground.

Philippians 4:12 NET 2nd ed.

I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing.

Paul is describing the ups and downs of life here.

We all recognize that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Some-times you have plenty and sometimes you have little

You can’t just limit your contentment, your happiness, you can’t tie your happiness to how much stuff you have or how comfortable you are.

And this “secret” of contentment here, is describing contentment in the face of the fact that sometimes bad situations happen to good people

No matter how much you try to mitigate your situation. Life’s just like that sometimes

You think paul was like “I really want to get thrown in prison today”

Paul was doing the right thing and ended up in prison

But the secret to contentment, he says in verse 13

Philippians 4:13 NET 2nd ed.

I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.

Notice he doesn’t say “Everything is better” he doesn’t say “God’s going to give me everything I want, God’s going to allow me to do anything I want”

The idea here is that Jesus Christ will give him the strength to endure anything

Philippians 4:14 NET 2nd ed.

Nevertheless, you did well to share with me in my trouble.

Again with the tightrope.

He’s diplaying both 1)I’m ok. I don’t need any help, I’ve been through worse, don’t worry about sending me anything. And also 2) Thank you so much. This means more to me than you’ll ever know

Because you all are so generous

Philippians 4:15–16 NET 2nd ed.

And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving and receiving except you alone. For even in Thessalonica on more than one occasion you sent something for my need.

Again, paul is commending the church for the fact that they were incredibly generous.

He says at the beginning of his gospel ministry, it was always the church in philippi who came through.

Whatever it was about this church, they always seemed to be the ones who were there to give generously

Philippians 4:17 NET 2nd ed.

I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account.

Are you guys getting the feel yet that paul is really concerned about them not sending him anything else

This is like 3 times now paul has basically said “Thank you, but I don’t need it, but also thank you, but also, I don’t need it.

I want to show you something cool about this verse.

I am seeking the abounding fruit for your word

A lot of these old manuscripts they find in archeological sites

A lot of them, they’ve determined were literally ancient landfills

One of the largest finds they have, they found in an ancient landfill in egypt

With over a half a million individual writings, pieces of paper

Ranging in size from full sheets like this one, to a little scrap about the size of a quarter with half a word on it.

And so far they’ve gone through and catalogued maybe 5000 in the last hundred years.

And so some of these finds are priceless manuscripts of the earliest copies of the bible.

Verifying the trustworthyness of the scriptures.

But it’s a trash dump

so for every bible manuscript they find, there’s like 100 that are just random stuff.

Imagine, you’re cataloging through all this, and you may or may not have a hat like indiana jones, but you pull out one of these scraps of papyrus

and you delicately take it into the manuscript room, and you’ve got a sterile environment and you’re wearing gloves and looking at this thing under a magnifying glass

This could be the most inmportant document discovery of all time, and then you translate it and it’s like

April 3, received one shipment of grain from regional distributor. quality checks were conducted, payment made in the form of 6 denarii. paid in full.

Because most of the stuff they find is just like old receipts for grain and wool and stuff.

But the reason I bring this up is because this language paul is using here

“The credit to your account” Literally “the abounding fruit to your word”

Which is such an odd phrase.

But it’s the exact same type of language that they find on those old receipts for grain and wool.

This “your fruit has abounded to your word” is financial language. It’s an accounting term. It’s a way of saying “you’ve paid the balance on your account.

and in verse 18 here pauls says

Philippians 4:18 NET 2nd ed.

For I have received everything, and I have plenty. I have all I need because I received from Epaphroditus what you sent—a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, very pleasing to God.

this is a “paid in full” statement.

I can’t help but wonder what prompted this.

From what I can gather, just hearing the one half of the phone call conversation.

they wanted to give, they were givers from the beginning

they were an extremely generous group of people

And either a financial hardship, or maybe the leadership crisis from euodia and syntyche played a part, where they were unable to be as generous as they wanted to be.

I can almost imagine the gift showing up to paul and maybe there was a note attached to it that was like.

We know it’s not much, it’s all we could afford right now. But don’t worry we’re fundraising and we’re going to send more as soon as we can

Keep this letter as a promisory note that we still owe you a little bit more, for all the work you’ve done in starting the church and visiting us, and preaching to us.

And paul’s like stop.

This is more than enough.

You’re good, you don’t owe me a thing.

I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re in debt to me somehow.

You’re paid in full.

You’re generosity, your willingness to be generous, Paul says in my eyes, in god’s eyes. Your ledger balance, there’s a credit on your account. above and beyond

You can relax now.

This is a fragrant offering, a pleasing aroma to god.

Philippians 4:19–20 NET 2nd ed.

And my God will supply your every need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. May glory be given to God our Father forever and ever. Amen.

And then he finishes up the letter on that note

Philippians 4:21–23 NET 2nd ed.

Give greetings to all the saints in Christ Jesus. The brothers with me here send greetings. All the saints greet you, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

This passage is the type of passage that makes a good giving sermon.

This is the kind of passage that you pull out after you’ve had the budget meeting and you’re looking at the giving and the church expenses

And you say “well, looks like we’re starting to go into the negative.

We better pull out Philippians chapter 4 and talk about generosity, and encourage our church to be more generous.

I’m not saying it’s very ethical to do it that way, but that is definitely a thing that happens from the pulpit.

We’re needing money for this or that, so we need to preach giving from the pulpit, so that hopefully the flock will be encouraged to be more generous.

Right wrong or indifferent, that’s definitley a thing that happens.

The giving sermon goes like:

Look how generous the church in philippi was

We should be like them

And if we’re as generous as they are God’s going to supply for our needs.

I look at this passage, and I think about ACC,

And here I see a church that is already going above and beyond when it comes to generosity.

We have meetings from time to time, I see the monthly giving reports

I do that simple math in my head where I see the amount you all give and I divide it by the number of people we have

and I’m like woah.

In a lot of ways, I feel like paul

You all are some of the most generous people I think I’ve ever met.

In that regard, I won’t preach a giving sermon.

Not in this church.

I read this passage and I look at ACC and I feel a lot like Paul

Because you guys just give and give and give

We don’t really have a giving problem at this church

And we don’t really have a spending problem either

Full disclosure, and reva can correct me if I’m wrong on this

But our top three expenses, from the last time I remember when we had a meeting

Me. and my salary. I’m the biggest expense here. Just for sake of transparency

Funding missions and missionaries

If I remember right is keeping the heat on in the winter time.

And the rest is mundane daily operating expenses. office supplies, cleaning supplies, utilities.

That’s it.

So if at all possible, I want to express the exact same grattitude that paul is expressing here.

We’re a pretty lean church, we don’t need much, we try to be as frugal as we possibly can. We can get through good times and hard times with a faith that Jesus Christ will strengthen us.

And also. Thank you. Thank you for your generosity, thank you all for your willingness to give and serve, and to set up for events, and everything you do.

If you’re new here, I want you to know that these are some good people. They won’t ever brag about themselves, so I’ll do it on their behalf. This is an amazing family to be a part of. And if you stick around you’ll find that out.

Before we wrap up our series, I want to pick up a couple of little housekeeping items on the letter to the Philippians and our study that we’ve done over the past several weeks.

Obviously the theme we’ve been hitting on throughout this series is “looking at the text with a microscope”

You’ve heard me mention it numerous times.

And what we’ve done over the past several weeks is we have examined the text verse by verse. We’ve been making sure to understand the context. We’ve been making sure to pick up on all the little nuances that come out from the original language, and the historical context. We’ve looked at how the letter fits into the larger biblical context, and how it relates to what we read in the book of acts.

We’ve tried to look at the historical context, the literary context.

All the little details that go into studying this letter.

One thing that we’ve tried to avoid is reading any one verse out of its context. We’ve really tried to get the intent of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, and then apply it to our 21st century lives.

And I truly believe that this is a wonderful method of studying the bible.

But I want to put a little asterisk next to that. Here’s why.

2 Weeks ago we read the “whatevers” as stew likes to call them. And we looked at them in their context, and we came away with the idea that these are primarily instructions for the life of the church, the community of believers. Rather than instructions to a particular individual.

We talked about the difference between the plural and the singular.

Today we read Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through the one who strengthens me.

and again, we read it in it’s context, and we tried to understand exactly what it was that Paul was saying.

And when we do this, what we find is that a lot of verses in the bible take on a different flavor, a different point of view. When we read it in context.

I think that’s a good thing.

But here is the danger in this hyper-academic, context driven microscope lens of looking at scripture.

Tim Tebow, Quarterback for the denver broncos. 2007 Heisman trophy winner with the florida gators, outspoken Christian athlete.

He was famous because he would put scripture on his eye strips.

And one of the verses he would put on his eye strips was Phil 4:13.

And you would not believe the number of pastors, and bible college professors, and news articles…you name it...

Who came out and said something to the effect of,

“You know that verse isn’t about football. He’s reading that out of context. he really shouldn’t be using that verse. That’s out of context.”

Give me a break. I mean seriously. Are we really going to lambast an outspoken Christian with a massive platform who is encouraging millions of young people to dig out their Bible or download the Bible app to read this verse?

And we’re going to criticize?

I’m saying this as an academic, as someone who studies the text very closely in the original context and the original language.

I think it’s important. And also, I think us academics have a tendancy to want to be the smartest person in the room. and that’s a dangerous road to go down.

so feel free, those of you who are involved in kids sports. Baseball teams, whatnot. Feel free to use Philippians 4:13 with your kids. And don’t let some ivory tower elitist bible snob tell you differently—even me.

Because I think that kind of Bible snobbery is harmful.

That’s my soapbox there. And

The other little housekeeping thing I wanted to talk about is I wanted us to take just a few minutes, since we’ve been so up close to the text, and just zoom out and see if we can get a takeaway from the entire letter.

One of the things that stands out in this letter is joy. Paul talks about Joy again and again and again.

And as you start to peel back the layers you’ll find that this joy is is a symptom. It’s an end result.

It comes from our unity in Christ.

Philippians 2:2 NET 2nd ed.

complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose.

And as we peel back the layers on unity, we find out that our unity is accomplished through humility.

He talks about Timothy and Epaphroditus and their humility. He talks about Christ’s extreme humility as an example to follow.

He encourages Euodia and syntyche to act with humility toward one another. In a bid for unity.

But then as we peel back the layers on the humility theme we realize that our humility comes from immitating Jesus, chasing after Jesus.

Who was in the form of God, but humbled himself, emptied himself and took on the form of a slave.

and finally as we peel back this layer of imitating Christ and his humility and his sacrifice we get down to the heart of the issue.

The reason we run after Christ, imitate Christ, is because He is king.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is lord.

And we are citizens of his kingdom.

Our citizenship is in heaven.

That’s where our joy comes from.