Partnership in the Gospel

Philippians 1:1–11 ESV

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 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. 7 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. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AT PHILIPPI

Our study of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi begins in Acts, the book of his second missionary journey. Chapters 16 and 17 give us historical insight into how Paul and his companions came to start a church at Philippi. 

Philippi was located in ancient Greece on the eastern border of the Roman province of Macedonia, about 10 miles inland from the coast, directly northwest of its nearest port city, Neapolis. A strategic area in ancient times, Philippi sat on a fertile plain through which passed the Via Egnatia (Egnatian Way), a trade highway that linked the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. Many travelers passed through Philippi on their way to Rome.

Initially founded by immigrants from Thrace, Philippi was famous for its abundant gold mines and plenteous water springs. The town received its name Crenides from these springs, meaning “fountains” or “springs.” Later, around 359 BC, the city was renamed Philippi after Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. Under Alexander, the city rose to become the capital of the Greek Empire. By New Testament times, the city had come under Roman rule with a diverse population of native Thracians, Greeks, and Romans. A famous school of medicine existed in Philippi, where the gospel writer Luke may have studied.

While in Troas on his second missionary journey, Paul was called by God in a vision to go to Macedonia: “So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:8–10). Paul traveled to Philippi with Silas, Timothy, and Luke.

 It has been twenty years since Jesus' Crucifixion. In these twenty years, Jesus has been working out His redemption plan. He said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself,” and now this plan takes complete form in Philippi. 

Paul’s custom was to go to the synagogue whenever he first arrived in a new city, but in Philippi, there was no synagogue. He went to the river where he knew that Jews would be worshipping (Acts 16:13). There, Paul met Lydia, a Gentile who became the first Christian convert in Europe: “One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us” (Acts 16:14–15).

That’s what it means, incidentally, to be a Christian. Here was a religious lady who was interested in God and concerned about praying, yet when she woke up in the morning, she did not know Christ; when she went to her bed at night, she was a baptized follower of Jesus Christ.

Lydia’s conversion was the first of three significant events associated with the beginning of the church in Philippi. The second was the exorcism of demons from a slave girl, which resulted in Paul and Silas being thrown into prison (Acts 16:16–24). The third important event was the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his family (Acts 16:25–40).

INTRODUCTION

Paul kept in touch with this church. He went away and he came back on his third missionary journey; he showed up and was nice to them. By this time he’s now in the jail, as you know. They send Epaphroditus to him to say, “Here’s some stuff; we love you.” He sent Epaphroditus back to say, “Here’s a letter; I love you.” And the letter that he sent back is the letter that you have before you now, called Paul’s Letter to the Church at Philippi.

1. Gospel Partners Know Who They Are

Paul acknowledges his partnership with the Philippian church from the first day until now. What does gospel partnership mean? 

To answer this, we need to consider the word partnership from the Greek koinonia, a word that appears throughout Philippians (see 1:5, 7; 2:1; 3:10; 4:14, 15). We often translate it as “fellowship.” It connotes a variety of relationships “involving mutual interests and sharing.” A gospel centered friendship. 

I want to point out two qualifying statements in the introduction to the Philippians that are key markers for someone who is truly a partner in the Gospel of Christ.

*Gospel Partners are Servants of Christ

Threat #1 to Gospel Partnership

SENSATIONALISM

Christians don’t find life in the Christian community scintillating or exciting enough to participate in it. The Christian life is not about shock and awe but lowly acts of service.

Threat #2 to Gospel Partnership

IDEALISM

Idealist struggle in Christian community because they have in the words of Bonhoeffer a “wish dream” of what the church ought to be, and it never lives up to expectation.

Threat #3 to Gospel Partnership

INDIVIDUALISM

Individualists fall prey to the culture that only enjoys community online. Privatization, coupled with this technological video-game culture, kills people’s ability to relate to others. We have a culture of “busy loneliness”: people do a lot of stuff but remain incredibly lonesome. It doesn’t have to be this way.

The first word is “servants”—“servants.” “Paul and Timothy, who are you? What are you? Tell me about yourself.”

“We’re servants of Christ Jesus.” In other words, there is no long autobiographical introduction, no trumpeting of his creditable past or his peculiarities in the present, just simply, “Hey, it’s Paul and Timothy, the servants of Christ Jesus.”

This is a diversion from Paul’s typical introduction as an Apostle of Christ Jesus. 

Pastoral ministry is a lifetime ministry of Service

We serve Christ by serving people. Throughout his ministry, Jesus used many illustrations about the importance of selfless service. He said, “when you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me.” He told the story of the good Samaritan left for dead on the side of the road. After those who would be considered your religious church-going people ignored the man’s desperate position and kept walking down the road. However, an outsider from the religious community showed the true heart of a servant who stopped and showed the true heart of a servant. 

We have a man-centered emphasis in the church. We have man-centered theology that dominates evangelicalism, in which we talk about Jesus coming along as a kind of a buddy who loves you and wants to satisfy all your desires and give you everything you want. But that’s not what the New Testament teaches.

What the New Testament teaches is not that you’re lord and He’s your slave; it’s that He’s Lord and you’re His slave. That’s the center of all New Testament teaching. It is inherent in saying Jesus is Lord that you are a slave who understands that obedience is the necessary response.

Paul is writing from prison and identifies himself first and foremost as a Servant to Christ.

Servant-hood constitutes a dominant relational category in the narrative of Scripture. In the OT, the question, “Who is Israel serving?” directly impacts the nation’s prosperity. If Israel faithfully serves Yahweh, he will remain close to the country, blessing it with land and a position of prominence above other countries (see Deut 28:1–15).

In Romans 1:1 and Titus 1:1, the titles “slave” and “apostle” are combined and applied only to Paul. But in this letter, Paul does something quite unusual: he uses the same title for himself and Timothy. Their work together was that of “slaves,” the literal meaning of the term servants.

Paul even references later in the letter (2:7-8) of Christ's obedience as a slave, even obedience unto death on the cross. 

Paul’s use of the title of slaves for himself and Timothy points to their total subjection to the will of their master: they were not autonomous; they were subject to the claims of the one who owned them. Paul considered this calling the highest calling, it is a high calling to have the position of Christ when He took up the cross for you and me.

Are you living as a slave to Christ or a slave to this World?

Envy, rivalry, and selfish ambition are the enemies of relationships within the body of Christ. However, they will thrive when we humbly serve each other, looking not to our own interests but to what is best for others. 

*Gospel Partners are Saints in Christ

I have had people ask me before why certain religious groups pray to the saints, and does it work? Secondly, are these saints saints? Thirdly, what in the world is a saint? 

Saints are not a special group of super Christians who have done something piously peculiar to earn this right. Saint is the word in the New Testament that describes all Christians. 

The word in Greek is hagios (which does duty both as the noun ‘saint’ and as the adjective ‘holy’)—and indeed, behind its Hebrew counterpart, qoḏes—there is the idea of being ‘separate’ or ‘apart. 

This is the second part of your homework: to go home and work out this whole idea of being “ in  Christ Jesus,” to think out the distinction between being “in Adam” and “in Christ,” to ponder this whole concept, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ [shall all] be made alive,” in the resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians describes that by nature we are all in Adam which means we are dying in our sins. However, through the atoning death on the cross, people are brought from the experience in Adam to the new experience in Christ. 

2 Cor. 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ He is a new creation, the old has passed away and the new has come.”

Are You Living in Christ or Adam?

One of the richest features of this new order of things is that the individual seeks to live out the separated life in the fellowship of all the saints.

2. Gospel Partners Know True Joy

Notice that Paul responds that he is thankful in all of His remembrance of the church at Philippi making his prayer always with absolute Joy.

Christians have a Counter-Cultural view of Joy

We aren’t against pleasure and satisfaction. We have a source other than sex, money, power, career advancement, and entertainment. What do you think will give you joy? The quest for it is built into the fabric of the United States: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet many could take as their anthem, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

People look everywhere, and once they find something, they often end up saying like Solomon, “Vanity.” Others commit suicide when they realize their functional god won’t satisfy or when it gets taken away—as we’ve seen in recent years with the collapse of the economy.

Dissatisfaction is not new.

According to the ancient historian Plutarch, Alexander the Great wept in his tent saying, “There are no more worlds to conquer.” A modern example was seen in the honest confession of Tom Brady, who after three NFL championships, remarked, “Is this all there is?” Can you find joy? The answer is yes.

St. Cyprian wrote to his friend Donatus in the third century:

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see; thieves on the high road, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness. It really is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not.… These people, Donatus, are the Christians, and I am one of them. (Christensen, Heroes and Saints, 18)

Are You One of them?

Consider the apostle Paul sitting in a prison. The happiest man in Rome was in jail.

How could this be? Ancient Rome was a consumerist wonderland filled with games, sexual pleasures, lavish parties, theatre, and more; yet Paul had a joy a thousand times better. He writes a prayer of thanksgiving “with joy” (v. 4). This is the first mention of joy in Philippians, but it resounds through this section and throughout the book.

*The Joy of Prayer

vrs. 3-4

Do you give thanks to God in prayer for others?

“Paul rarely thanked God for things. Paul thanked God for people, who, despite whatever trouble they may have been to him, remained a source of joy and thanksgiving” (Philippians, 24). Paul even wrote a word of thanksgiving for the crazy Corinthians (1 Cor 1:4)! That’s impressive.

Paul shows gratitude despite internal conflict: Even though the church was not perfect and had it’s many problems, Paul was still thankful.

Do you allow conflict to crush your joy? Have you expressed thanks to God lately?

Paul has great memories despite hardships: Don’t allow a few stumbles, struggles, and conflicts to rob you of your joy.

Do you know the Great Joy of Prayer?

*The Joy of Anticipation

vrs. 6

Note: notice that Paul writes that He who began a good work in you WILL bring it to completion .....

While many of us apply this to individual salvation, we should remember that Paul is speaking of the koinonia, which is the work of God to form a people for himself. It seems best to apply this to both the individual and corporate. 

The Great Confidence

The great confidence builder is that he began the work.

He began the work! Lydia was a lovely lady, had a lovely house and interest in religion—and she got changed. God started the work. The Philippian jailer came off the night shift radically changed. He started the work. So when Lydia or the Philippian jailer were tempted to say, “I’m not sure that I can keep going,” the Word of God is, “You didn’t start it, and you aren’t gonna finish it, and you’re right that you can’t keep it going—but he did, and he will, and he can.”

God started the work, continues the work, and completes the work.

Sometimes when students fail to turn in their assignments before the term ends, they receive an “incomplete.” Perhaps you’ve had some incompletes. If not in school, what about incomplete projects around the house? I’ve started many things that I never finished! But God never receives an “incomplete.” God always finishes what He starts. The psalmist says, “You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me up in glory” (Ps 73:24).

Is there any better news than this? God will take us to glory if we’re in Christ! It’s a sure thing. You may not be sure of a lot of things in this life, but you can be sure of this if you’re a Christian. We can be sure of it because this is God’s Word, and this is God’s work of salvation.

The vision of the community in Christ on the future day of Christ inspires and guides the life of that community in the present. The hope of that future day of Christ gives strength to endure and persevere through all the trials, tensions, and disappointments of the present days.

*The Joy of Affection

vs. 7-8

Do you hear the depth of Paul’s feelings and affections for the church.

Paul’s Expression of Intense Affection

Paul uses the Greek word phronein

But this Greek word points to more than Paul’s emotional feelings; it also connotes thinking, being concerned, and having an opinion, or an attitude about something or someone. 

Paul informs the Philippians that one way of thinking and feeling leads to unity and partnership in the church, and another way of thinking and feeling leads to division in the church and hostility towards Christ.

Philippians 2:2 ESV

2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

*The Joy of Grace

Paul’s being in chains or defending and confirming the gospel may be interpreted in two ways. It may refer to his ministry of preaching.

In this case ‘defending the gospel’ means disarming prejudice and overcoming objections to the truth (for this sense see 2 Cor. 7:11), and ‘confirming’ means the positive declaration of the truth.

Paul could also be speaking of his imprisonment and his coming defense or apologia before the imperial court.

The pain of Paul’s separation had intensified by his imprisonment. The joy of grace is the deepest of all loves and affections we could ever possibly experience.

Paul’s basic petition is for growth in love that is informed by KNOWLEDGE and DISCERNMENT.

Biblical love is not mushy gushy. The Bible is not a hippie manual (“All you need is love!”). Biblical love is sacrificial (agapē) love. It involves action (1 John 3:11–18). For the Thessalonians’ love to have this type of reputation, it has to mean that their love was visible. Do you want your love to be known throughout the entire region? Their passion is known by others, and Paul says, “Come on, let’s love even more.” You have to admire his zeal for more impact!

vs. 9 “Prayer that love may abound more and more.....

4 Characteristics of this Kind of Love

1). The Object of Our Love

Paul does not precisely specify who is receiving their love. He prays that your love will keep growing. Some think that this neglected object is intentional. 

However, considering Paul’s letter is written to all the saints, which is occupied with the koinonia, then it makes sense that Paul wants the fellowship as a whole to grow in love. As believers, we are called to love one another, including our enemies. The longer we walk this Christian life, the more we grow in our love and affection for people.

John writes that this is one way that we know we have passed on from death to life, that we love our brothers. (1 John 3:14)

2). The Source of Our Love

Where do we get the power and strength to love people, especially for those who have wronged us in unthinkable ways? All of the fruit has the exact source of strength, which is in Jesus Christ alone. 

The more you dwell on Christ’s love for you, the more loving you will become. Apart from Christ, it is impossible to ever truly know what love really is. 

As believers, we’re called to love our neighbor, the least of these, our enemies, and one another. The one-another love is fundamental for the watching world to see. Jesus said that they would know we are His disciples because of how we love one another (John 13:34–35).

3). The Foundation of Our Love

We need not only the power to love, but also the knowledge and wisdom to know how to love. 

Love is not Blind; it is Biblically Informed. 

Paul uses this word for knowledge (epignosis) 15 times in his letters. It has to do with spiritual knowledge, a knowledge of the things of God—as in knowing God and His will or knowing His truth. 

Apart from the knowledge of God and His word, it is impossible for us to love in a way that glorifies God and blesses others. 

4). The Application of Our Love

In addition to knowledge Paul says that love should abound in the sphere of “every kind of discernment.”

Knowledge asks the question: “What is right?”

Discernment asks the question: “What is best?”

This term for “discernment” only appears here in the New Testament, but it is used 22 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint, aka LXX) in the book of Proverbs, where it refers to practical insights that inform choices and conduct.

So it is closely related to knowledge but is even more practical. What is the best way for me to love this person based on what I know about your word.

For example, my knowledge of Scripture teaches me to lay down my life for my bride. I’m to love in a sacrificial way. I’m also to remain with her in the covenant of marriage. I’m to avoid all forms of lust because of my devotion to her. That’s clear. You need to know these foundational things in marriage. But there may be several other ways for me to carefully and appropriately love her, and for that I need discernment.

CONCLUSION

Paul in Philippians 3:8 considers everything as loss or more specifically garbage compared with surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ.

Am I pursuing the Knowledge of Christ with a Passion?

Am I valuing knowing Christ above anything and everything else?

Am I doing what is best with my life, with my time, with my money, with my mind, with my kids, with my ministry, and in my relationships?

Am I doing good things or gospel things with my life?

By knowing Christ and pursuing a life that matters, you are living in view of “the day of Christ.” That’s a wise life. That’s a life like Jesus, who always did what pleased the Father. That’s a life worth living.

Being Pure And Blameless

Paul desires to see his people fit and prepared for the coming of the Lord. Prophet often prayed for other churches that they would be ready and prepared for the return of Christ. The fact that he is coming should change they way we think and live every moment of every day of our lives.

Fruits of Righteousness

As Paul reflected on the fruits of righteousness undoubtedly it brought to mind the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion: “I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.

From your Pastors Heart

“I thank my God in every 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.”

Journey the Gospel cannot be Stopped.......

Are you ready to be partners in the Gospel? Are you a true Slave to Christ? Are you a Saint in Christ? Are you full of the greater joy that only comes from Christ?

Join us today on this Gospel Journey! Will you be remembered when you are gone as true partners in the Gospel from the first day till you breath your last here on earth.

If not, what are you waiting for.