Joyful Thanks to God

As is somewhat custom for Paul, he begins by giving thanks. But this thanksgiving is unusual. He goes over the top in his feeling and affection for the Philippians by accumulating words of friendly heartfelt love to them. We know what this is like. We text or email or write letters to people in which an ordinary thanks is not fitting. A normal thank you might read something like. Thank you for….fill in the blank. But if we want to communicate more sincerely, we add things like. Thank you so much, what an amazing blessing it was. I can’t thank you enough, etc. In Pakala terms it would be, thank you my dear, precious, buddies. And thats good. It communicates that there is deeper feeling in the relation to that other. If Owen gives grandpa Lyle help with some project around the house and after grandpa embraces him and says thank you dear precious little buddie, its not weird. However, if an employee from Menards helps him locate the part he’s looking for, and lyle were to use the same affectionate language it would be a bit strange.

That’s what we have with Paul in this letter. His fond feeling of affection is at the front here and will carry throughout the letter.

When we were making the transition here and had some difficulty with the sale of our house, I had a couple of pastor friends who let me know at several points that they prayed for me and the church at their corporate gathering. And that was so encouraging to me, and I wanted to express that in my response to them. One of the things that’s difficult about communicating in this way is that we’ve sort of made every form of communication extra. Everything is awesome, amazing, super. Superlative upon superlative. We need to take this into account. I don’t think we need to be curmudgeon about it, but it is important, because communication matters. What we say and the way we say things matters. And it especially mattered for Paul as he communicates to the Philippians with this unique affection.

Verse 3.

“Thanks”

Now he is thankful to them for reasons we’ll explore, but who does he direct his thanks to? It’s to God. Thanks giving is always in order in our approach to God, because all we have comes from him. Everything he was glad and thankful about on their account was due to God’s work. Give us this day our daily bread should include a petition, a request to God, but certainly implies an acknowledgment that God is the giver, God is the one who can, does, and has provided. And not just an acknowledgment but a thankful acknowledgement. We are very prone to giving recognition to second causes, but a bit slow to recognize the first cause in all things(which is God). Most common is the weather. We talk about the weather as if it’s an animate creature. “If the weather cooperates”. Every gust of wind, drop of rain, beam of sunlight upon the earth is at the beck and call of our triune God.

Look at 2 LCF 3.1,5.1

Note at the end how it doesn’t take away 2nd causes. It acknowledges and heightens the glory of his wisdom, power, and faithfulness.

And to the contrary. Unthankfulness is at the heart of ungodliness as we’ll see in next weeks Scripture reading. The digression of God giving over godless image bearers to their own lusts is a pattern of unthankfulness. Of refusing to acknowledge God and instead attributing to the creature what is owed to God.

The posture of our hearts and our conversations ought to be marked with a regular thankful acknowledgment of His sovereign and good providence in the entirety of our lives.

“Praying”

In order to do so, we need to be marked by prayer.

Do we pray? Are we marked by prayer? Do we need to pray? Are we ever in such peril that we would need to pray? Absolutely. We have need to pray. Great need. Daily. Hourly. Unless we think we are stronger than our Lord Jesus. He prayed with sighs and tears. He prayed as we learned earlier for his people, for his reward, and for his possession.

What is prayer? Is it Paul just thinking happy thoughts about these folks? Is he on his evening walk and then thinks about them and so mutters some things up about them? I don’t think so, that’s more like meditation.

Prayer is a communion with God. It is means of showing gratitude to God. Showing our dependance. Expressing our sole allegiance to God. It is a means of grace that God uses to change us and those for whom we pray. God uses prayer to change things. It is a plea, a petition, supplication, request, a begging. Prayer is work. Prayer takes time. This is not something done in passing or casually. Can you imagine someone wanting to petition a king. And as he is summoned to bring his request, he goes forward and walks by the king while submitting his request. He doesn’t pause or acknowledge the king, he just submits his petition quickly while passing by. He would probably be struck down before leaving.

But the idea is that of devoted time to prayer. It could be that Paul makes reference to his regular times of prayer. He may have maintained the custom of praying for an hour three separate times a day.

Now I say this in no way to steer us away from conversing with God or praying to God in the middle of our day or while doing duties and tasks. I think there is a sense in which we offer up short prayers in our heart to God. But that is not the sense here, it’s not the sense in the Lords prayer, and it’s not the sense of the prayer closet.

We ought to devote time to pray. It is hard work. The Lord grant us a supplicating spirit, and to delight in it at that because of its nature of conversation with the triune God.

Verse 4.

“Always”

As often as he prayed, he prayed for them.

Any time he petitions the throne, they are in His mind and on his lips. He doesn’t say this about other churches. It’s the Philippians that have his heart this way. Do other churches and individuals get our hearts this way. Maybe it’s an individual or struggling church that comes up every time you petition the Lord in a specific season. We ought to. Or like Paul, maybe it’s a church that blessed you in such a way that you can’t help but thank God for them and pray for further blessing upon them.

“for you all”

Paul will not recognize any division amongst the Philippians. Whatever the division is amongst the two ladies, my prayer is for you all together as a unified body. I want you to be unified, I want selfless unity amongst you, and that’s how I am beginning my letter to you.

How? In what manner did Paul pray?

“With joy”

This note of joy with which Paul begins will ring throughout the whole of the Letter.

And this is huge. This is so important for us to grab hold of. Why is Paul such a strange creature in terms of wordly standards. Why is he joyful when he is in prison and seemingly on his way to a martyrs death? It’s because his joy is not determined by his circumstances. And it’s a joy that is present, and its a joy that looks in both directions. It looks behind him to the work God had done at the cross, at Pentecost, and at the birth of the Philippian church. It looks at the current work of gospel advancement in his imprisonment, and it looks eschatologically ahead to what is to come. God’s continued work of advancing his cause in them, and in the future glorified state that is guaranteed to Paul and all believers. Even death to Paul is much more better to Paul because it is to be present with Christ.

1. What is joy? Is it just an inward disposition? Could someone be very stoic and yet be joyful? Or is it all outward, where Joy is just the expression on your face and the vibe you give off around others? Even if you’re miserable inside?? You all know the answer it’s both. And they don’t have to be together. You can be joyful inside and express that joy in an outward manner. You can also be in the midst of a trail and still be joyful because you know what awaits you and what it’s producing. And I think it is the eschatological nature of joy that is being expressed here. Whatever circumstance you’re in you can be joyful, because that’s not the end. Something better awaits your sighs and tears and struggle and sin. A world without all that. A glorified state of existence in perfect conformity to Christ. It’s a joy in Christ, because Christ is our life both here and the life to come. Whether we live or die.

This joy expressed in Pauls current situation looks like what a theologian of the cross was to Luther. For Luther, there are two types of theologian. A theologian of glory and a theologian of the cross.

A simple way to illustrate this is how you view reality. Do you call something what it looks like. Or do you call it what it really is. The prime example for Luther is the cross. What does the cross look like to the average onlooker. A man dying, a criminal dying, a man cursed of God. It looks like weakness, defeat, failure. That is the theology of glory, because it prefers strength over weakness, glory over suffering, apparent wisdom over the foolishness of the cross.

But the theologian of the cross sees it for what it really is. As the Savior is dying on the cross, the one whose eyes have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, he sees the power, wisdom, and salvation of God hidden in the cross, hidden from the eyes of unbelief. Rather than defeat, the cross brings deliverance, rather than a man dying, through death, the cross brings life, in the cross we see a great exchange, the imputation of our sins to Christ, and his spotless life imputed to us. The theologian of glory sees works as a means to his right standing before God, while the theologian of the cross sees God’s free provision in justification as his only means of standing rightly before him.

Why do I go on about this? Because Paul is a theologian of the cross, to use the anachronism. He doesn’t see his situation for what it looks like but what it really is. What it looks like: Here is a criminal in jail and on his way to die a shameful death. What it really is: His imprisonment has lead to greater faithfulness of God’s people, greater affection for one another, the advancement of the gospel, and impending death might actually be preferred because it means presence with the Lord(which is much better).

It has all served rather to magnify Christ and bring glory to God. In affliction, in weakness, in suffering.

We see this thought in Luther’s hymn

“The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.”

We see both the present and eschatological aspect in this wonderful hymn.

Verse 5.

Now we’ve seen his thankful prayer God. We’ve seen the manner of his prayer is with joy. Now what are the grounds of his joyful thanks with regard to the Philippians?

“Fellowship”

What is fellowship?

1)community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience.

2)friendly association, especially with people who share one's interests.

What is Christian fellowship?

Some saw Paul as rightly imprisoned and used it as an opportunity to preach Christ out of spite( which Paul rejoiced in). But the Philippians did not. They saw Pauls situation and used it as an opportunity to support him in the exercising of their God given gifts. Rather, they saw Pauls situation as their own. They took it as a member of their own body was in this straight. They shared with Him in his sufferings, imprisonment, love for the gospel, and love for the Christ of the gospel. And this was demonstrated both in financial gifts but also in gifts of service. That’s Christian fellowship. We want to cultivate that here more and more. We’re different folks from different walks, different generations. But we’re united under the same Lord, purchased by the same blood, indwelt by the same Spirit. And we live for the cause of advancing the same gospel that saved us in the same community and surrounding communities. So we look for ways to bring that about, and encourage and exercise our gifts. We keep each other in our minds and hearts and prayers.

And we’ll do it with the same confident expectation of perseverance of these things that Paul had for Philippi. God had begun it and had preserved his work in them up until now. God won’t leave unfinished His work in them. Corporately, first and foremost, but individually as well. God the Father, in Christ and by his Spirit, will bring his church and his people to perfection. What ever work he has to do in Tama, he is going to do it. He will do it through us in this local body, he will do it through other faithful churches and christians here. And whatever work he is going to do in you. Whatever sanctifying work he will work in you, he will do it. For contributing to the body and for your own holiness and sanctification he will work it. God is an artist. He is The artist, The all-Wise Creator. He works and fashions things for his own glory. He does it in wisdom, in power, with kindness, mercy and grace. And he will do it. In the old and new creation. He is not walking to and fro about the earth looking for something lovely for himself- though he is searching everyone of us by his omniscience-but he is not out on the look for something to please him or that he finds lovely. Far from it. God is creating the lovely in us. He is making us lovely to himself (collectively and individually). Which is an expression of his own eternal loving union as our triune God. He is and will bring us into that loving unity. That perfect state. Whether at death or when Christ come again.

Even so come Lord Jesus.

Lord soften our hearts to receive your word and will for our lives. Bless us and conform us to Christ as we go into the rest of this week.