Philippians 1:1-11 | Richard Wardman | The Five O'Clock |
Notes
Transcript
Philippians is all about the joy of truly gospel relationships. It’s a letter where we will learn about Jesus’ incredible humility, about the importance of working together as a united community of God’s people, about what life looks like as a group of people transformed by grace.
In this passage, we can hear Paul’s great love for the Philippian church, which flows out of his joyful confidence in Christ and his perfect work. Firstly we see that…
Gospel partnership produces…
Gospel Thanksgiving
Gospel Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving not only for what is received from partners, but for the fruit that result from the partnership.
Paul is thankful for…
The benefits of the partnership
The benefits of the partnership
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy
Paul is so grateful for their partnership, and so full of joy because of the Philippians, that he thanks God for them every time he remembers them. And Paul isn’t just thankful for the general partnership from the church. He is thankful for every member of the Philippian church – in ALL my prayers for ALL of you.
Why is he thankful?
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,
The ‘first day’ takes us back to Acts 16 (TURN) when Paul first came to Philippi and preached the gospel to some God-fearing Gentile women by the river…
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
This is the ‘first day’ that Paul is speaking about in his letter. And notice what happened immediately after Lydia’s heart was opened to the gospel…
When she and the members of her household were baptised, 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.
She offered her home to Paul and his companions because she wanted to become gospel partners with them. It wasn’t enough to say ‘thank you’ for bringing the gospel; she now wanted to work with them so that they could continue to bring the gospel to rest of the city.
A similar thing happens with the Philippian jailer who comes to faith and then takes care of Paul and Timothy by washing their wounds, bringing them into his home and giving them a meal.
The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
Clearly there are benefits to gospel partnership. Needs are met. Joy is shared. Why? Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves. And greater joy is shared when the work of the gospel is done in partnership with others.
We’ve been the beneficiaries of such partnership. And we have the joy of partnering with others now. And we hope that there will be many ‘Lydia’s and many ‘jailers’ coming to faith as a result.
Because we are not only to be thankful for the benefits of the partnership, but we’re also to be thankful for…
The fruits of the partnership
The fruits of the partnership
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The most obvious fruit of gospel partnership, and the one we all hope for, is that many more people would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the work doesn’t simply end there.
We don’t only want the short-term fruit of people professing faith and being baptised. We want the long-term fruit of disciples being grown and strengthened so that they endure to the end.
Paul has this long-term fruit in mind as he writes of his confidence in God’s power to finish the work he started. And it is all part of his thankfulness to the Lord, that what he began he will complete.
Paul is expressing his thankfulness for the benefits and fruits of the gospel partnership that he shares with the Philippian church. It’s natural, then, that Paul would speak of his great joy that comes from the relationship he has with his gospel partners, because gospel partnership also produces…
Gospel Relationships
Gospel Relationships
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul’s view of partnership runs much deeper than money.
For Paul it was the relationship that he had with the Philippian believers that meant the world to him. He talks of holding them in his heart, of sharing in God’s grace with them, of how he longs for all of them with Christ’s affection.
Paul has a deep love for the Philippian disciples, and we sense that they equally love him. What a privilege, and what a source of joy to Paul that must have been, particularly in his present circumstances.
You see Paul was in jail, most likely in Rome (‘whether I am in chains’). It would have been easy for the Philippians to disown him and cut off their partnership because of the precarious position he was in.
After all, if they were known to be supporters and friends of a Roman prisoner they might suffer themselves.
But they persisted in their relationship with Paul, even to the point of sending a special envoy to provide for him in his imprisonment.
The gospel produces partnerships, and gospel partnerships produce gospel relationships that bring great joy.
It is not the sharing of money that makes a difference in our partnership; it is our sharing in the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
That’s where our joy comes from, and that joy will grow as our relationships grow.
Relationships founded on the gospel bring about great joy! that are founded on the good news about Jesus.
But gospel relationships also mean that we take time to pray for each other to grow in the gospel as those who love and follow Jesus. Gospel partnerships produce…
Gospel Prayer
Gospel Prayer
Paul’s prayer for his gospel partners isn’t that they’ll be able to keep giving financially; nor does he pray for Great Aunt Mavis’s dodgy hip; he doesn’t even ask the Lord to make the church grow to a great size (although all these prayers would be valid).
But Paul’s prayer for his gospel partners, these brothers and sisters for whom he has a deep affection, is that they would grow with gospel maturity. He prays that they would be…
Growing in love
Growing in love
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
He wants them to have the richest kind of love both for God and for each other. A mark of their love for God will be a greater knowledge of God.
As a husband, the love I have for my wife increases as I learn more about her. As I study her words, her actions, her personality, her strengths, my love for her deepens and grows.
So we need to be growing in love for God in the same way. Could I ask those from our partner churches to pray this prayer for us at BG? Ask God to give us a deeper love for him as we grow together in our understanding of him, learning of his promises, his trustworthiness, his power, and his grace. We need his word to be feeding our hearts and enriching our lives. Ask God to do that work through his Spirit.
Paul prays for the Philippians to be growing in love, and also…
Growing in wisdom
so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
A mark of their love for each other will be the depth of insight they have in living together as believers. Paul wants them to have wisdom in making godly decisions and living godly lives.
I need wisdom as a husband to know how to love my wife, and how to live alongside her. That’s a hard job as any husband will know!
Please also pray for us, that we would grow in love for each other and that we would have a deeper insight into how we are to share our lives as followers and witnesses of Jesus, because we also want to be...
Growing in righteousness
Growing in righteousness
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ
Paul’s prayer isn’t just that they would be filled with righteousness, but the fruit of righteousness. The result of a right relationship with God, and a deep love for God, is a desire to be obedient to God. The fruit of righteousness is seen in lives that are given over to Jesus in everything.
The fruit of my love for Amy isn’t only seen in how well I know her; it’s seen in how I demonstrate my love for her with actions.
As a church we need to grow in fruitfulness as those who are righteous in Christ. Pray that our love for Him would be seen in our living for him. In our relationships together, in our service in the community, in our passion to reach out with the gospel to those we live, work and play with. And we want to do all this…
To the glory and praise of God
To the glory and praise of God
...to the glory and praise of God.
That’s our chief aim, isn’t it? We want to see God glorified through the proclamation of His Son. We want to see God praised through the salvation of many in MK and beyond. In all our praying, let’s ask God to glorify his name through us as a church.
Joyful gospel relationships. God’s way of making the gospel work, as his people join together in growing as disciples to make more disciples. May he do his work through us in the years to come.
