Grateful for God’s Work

Reading:

INTRODUCTION

Please turn your Bibles to the book of would like to spend some time during our first sermon period each week going through this epistle of Paul. This epistle is, in my judgment, the hardest epistle of Paul, not in that it is difficult to understand, but in the sense that it’s teachings take a lot of work to apply. Paul challenges us to in every aspect of our lives to think and act differently, in a way that shows that we are citizens, not of a kingdom here, but of the kingdom of Heaven. He shows this not just in commands within the epistle, but in his own example. Before we get into the first 11 verses of this epistle, I would like us to go to chapter 4. I would like to look at verse 9 with you. As I preach through books of the Bible, I like to focus on one central idea or one verse in the epistle that shows us what the author wants to get through to those they are writing to. For the book of Philippians, I believe 4:9 sums up what Paul wants to get through to the Philippians. Let’s read 4:9.

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

In this one verse, Paul says to the Philippians, “Remember my example and my teachings…go and do likewise. Remember my example you have seen while I was with you in person, and remember what I have taught you in person and by this epistle, and be changed by it!” And if we do this, we can have great peace because we have the God of peace with us.

As we get into the first section of , we see that this section follows Paul’s normal outline for the introductions of his books. He offers a salutation/greeting to the church in verses 1-2, then follows it with a section of thanksgiving and prayer in verses 3-11. The content of this section not only shows us the relationship that Paul has with these brethren, but it also shows us Paul’s trust in the Lord regarding the Philippians. We see, as the title of my lesson portrays, that Paul was very grateful for the work that God had done and still is doing amongst the brethren in Philippi.

PAUL: THANKFUL FOR THE PHILIPPIANS (3-5)

Let’s read verses 3-5…

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now -5Paul’s relationship with these brethren shines in this letter, especially in this first section of the epistle. There are a couple things in this section that shows that Paul cared deeply about these brethren. He thought about them often, and he prayed for them as he thought about them. Let’s think about these for a few moments. First, Paul thought about these brethren. I believe it is safe to say that he thought about them often. The churches that Paul worked with were often on his mind. He was concerned about their welfare spiritually. In , Paul says that he had a daily concern for all of the churches. The Philippian brethren surely would have been on Paul’s mind often because of the support they were sending him along with other reasons we will talk about in a moment. But of course, when Paul remembered these brethren, his memory of them encouraged him and filled him with gratitude for them. Paul’s thoughts of these brethren were positive in nature. He remembered the good things that these brethren were doing that were a blessing and encouragement to him, and of course, he is not afraid to tell these brothers and sisters about his gratitude for them. He gives us a good example in these things. First, how often do we think about our brothers and sisters in Christ? May it be the case that we do not think about them enough because we are not making the kind of impact in each other’s lives that we should be, or that we are not investing enough time with them? I think this should also challenge each one of us to think about exactly what may come to the mind of my brothers and sisters when they remember me or my family. Have I given them reasons to be thankful for our relationship? Have I made any kind of impact on them? Have I helped them spiritually? Also, how often do you tell your brothers and sisters about the things that they do that you are thankful for them about? Just think about how encouraging it would have been to these brethren to hear from the Apostle Paul that he was thankful for their relationship? Although none of us are of the stature of the Apostle Paul, it is still very encouraging when someone says that they are thankful for the impact a brother or sister has made in their life. I would encourage you to think about writing down a list of the things that you are thankful for regarding your brothers and sisters in this congregation, and try to make it a habit to share some of these things with them. Second, Paul’s thoughts about these brethren led him to pray for these brethren often. Just think about this for a moment: how often could you say to a brother or sister in Christ, let alone a whole congregation; that you pray for them upon every remembrance of them? Whenever Paul thought about his brethren in Philippi, he was moved to prayer; to thanksgiving to God for the relationship he had with the Philippians in Christ. Paul thanked God specifically for their “participation/fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now” (v5). This would include in general the spiritual relationship that they have in Christ, but even more specifically the fellowship that they had with Paul in supporting His work. These brethren had shown their love for Paul and his work from the very beginning of his work in Philippi. Both Lydia and the Philippian jailor opened up their homes to Paul in , and the brethren there continued to show their support for Paul’s work by sending him financial support time and again (4:16). GOD’S WORK AMONG THE PHILIPPIANS (v6)Of course Paul could have thanked the Philippians for the relationship that he has with them, but Paul does not do that here because he understands the One who is ultimately at work in and through the Philippians: God. This is the point that Paul makes in verse 6:6 I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. :6God and His Spirit have been working mightily amongst these brethren. This is who Paul gives credit for what has been happening amongst the Philippians. God began the work. From the beginning, it was the Lord sent Paul to preach in Phillipi. It was the Lord who convicted Lydia as Paul spoke with her and taught her the Gospel. It is the Lord who gave them new life in Christ and cleansed them. And God continues to work in and through His people. I think there is a lesson here for us. Who is the one who should ultimately get the thanksgiving and praise whenever someone obeys the Gospel, or if we do some kind of good deed? It is the Lord. What He has done and is doing should be the emphasis in the things that we say. And what God will do in us as we grow and mature needs to be what we put our confidence in. This is what we see in Paul here. He had seen what God had already done with the Philippians in the past and what he was currently doing in them, and this left no doubt in his mind that God was going to keep working in them and see His work through to the end. Paul had no reason to think that God was, or would ever just give up and walk away from them. He doesn’t do that! He sees His work through to the end. This is the main reason why we all can have confidence in our salvation. If God was willing to show such love for us while we were His enemies, why do we think that God is not going to continue to work in us and finish the job? God does not just give up on His children, even when they sin. He knows that each one of us is a “work in progress” as we mature in Christ. One of Paul’s points in is that if God was willing to show such love for us in sending His Son to this earth to die for us while were helpless sinners and enemies of His, what is He going to be willing to do for us as His children? Will He not continue to work in us, mold us into the image of Christ, and give us the salvation He promises to us? We can have confidence because God is at work within us. Our confidence is ultimately in God, not in ourselves. THE CLOSENESS THAT PAUL HAD WITH THE PHILIPPIANS (1:7-8)In verses 7-8, Paul continues to give reasons as to why he feels as he does about these brethren; why he is confident that God is going to keep working through them: 7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul says that they are “in his heart”. It seems that he is saying that he knows that they are always with him in spirit, praying for him, supporting him, and concerned about him. This helped strengthen Paul as he worked and even suffered for Christ. At this point, Paul was in custody, either in a prison cell or on house arrest, and no matter how far these brethren were from him, he knew that not only were they supporting him in his preaching of the Gospel, but that they were willing to go through the same kind of things for the Lord. The Philippians are kindred spirits with Paul. They have, just as Paul, been saved by the grace of God. They, just as Paul, love seeing the work of God being done, which was shown in their support of him. Also, they were willing to suffer for the gospel’s sake just as Paul was. When they supported Paul, loved the souls of others, and were willing to suffer for Christ, which we see in 1:29-30:“For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”All of these things led Paul to feel a close tie to these brethren. Their mutual faith and suffering for Christ led Paul to have a great affection for them. He says in verse 8, “I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Paul loved these brethren so much and just wanted to see them so much! This is the kind of relationship that we need to work on having with one another; this kind of affection; the affection of Jesus! Could you say that you have this kind of affection with your brothers and sisters here? PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THESE BRETHREN (1:9-11)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.Paul’s prayer: “may God keep working in you. May you continue to grow and be more fruitful for Christ.” There is just something about Paul’s prayers that make mine look just pathetic! Paul emphasizes in his prayers for the churches what is really important. They are so spiritual in nature. He gives us a great example of the kinds of things that we need to be petitioning the throne of God about. Once again, his prayer is that they would not be content with the love and fruitfulness that they have already been displaying. Their love was already great, but Paul prayed that it would still continue to abound more and more. At the end of verse 9, Paul tells them how this growth happens: in knowledge and discernment. They needed to continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ and to grow to be more like Him in their love for one another. This is the standard that we need to be aiming for. Also, while we grow in our knowledge of Christ and His teachings, we will also grow in our wisdom. God will help us to be able to grow in our ability to test everything that comes our way in regards to teaching, moral questions, and even in deciding between what is good, better, or best in showing our love for God and one another. Without true knowledge and discernment, it will not be possible to become what Paul prays for these brethren: “to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” Paul wants these brethren to be ready for the coming day of Christ; ready for the Lord’s return; pure and without any falsehood; blameless in their works AND their motives for their works.CONCLUSION9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (NKJV)Paul’s example should challenge us to be more mindful of, more thankful for, and more prayerful for one another. I think it is safe to say that we all have work to do in building the kind of relationships that Paul had with these brethren in Philippi. I know I need to grow a lot more in this area. May each one of us be challenged to get to work and to allow God to continue to work in us to be more like Paul and the Philippians.

Grateful for God’s Work

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