Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In his book the Insanity of God, Nik Ripkin tells the story of a Russian pastor named Dmitri.

He was arrested for leading an illegal house church in communist Russia.

In prison, he was the only professing Christian among a prison population of more than 1500 inmates.

And for 17 years, every morning at daybreak, Dmitri would sing alone a hymn of praise to God with the other inmates banging metal pots on the bars and shouting in protest to his song.

One day, during his 17th year, Dmitri found a piece of scrap paper and a pencil in the prison yard.

He wrote down every Bible verse and song that he could think of, and he posted it on a damp pipe in his cell as an offering to God.

When the jailers discovered it, they began to beat him mercilessly.

They grabbed him by the arm and began to escort him out, presumably for execution, when suddenly all of the other inmates faced the east just as Dmitri had done every morning, and began to sing in unison a hymn to God.

His jailers were stunned and asked him who he was.

Dmitri answered, “I am the son of the Living God, and his name is Jesus.”

Soon, he was released back to his family.

When Paul was in Philippi, he has virtually the same experience.

He had cast a demon out of a slave girl, causing he and Silas to both be imprisoned.

And, at midnight, they were singing hymns of praise to God.

While singing, the miraculous happened, an earthquake shook the prison, unshackled them, and opened the door.

But, they did not escape.

They remained in the prison, though untied, and used it as an opportunity to testify to the power of Jesus to deliver this jailer from his sin. 10 years later, and now Paul is in a Roman prison.

And, though he is still in prison, he is still singing.

He is still praising God.

This morning, as we go deeper into Philippians, I want us to ask: How can a person sing in prison?

(headline) That’s what this book is really about.

How can a person sing with cancer or after a stillbirth or through bullying?

How can a person face the very worst of the world and still sing about the best of God?

God’s Word

Read

He Isn’t “Alone”

v. 3-4 “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all” So, how can a person sing while facing the hardest moments of his life?

How can a person sing during trials that have no apparent end and are in every way unjust?

The first thing that Paul knows is that He isn’t “alone”.

This is the main thrust of what Paul is really saying here.

You’ll notice how personally Paul refers to God in his thanksgiving here.

After all, thanksgiving assumes a giver in the first place.

So, he thanks ‘my God.’

He says, ‘God is my witness’.

It would be really easy to be overcome with loneliness laying on the floor of a prison and not for the first time, just like it’s easy for so many of us to be overcome when another year goes by unmarried or we still aren’t feeling better or our marriage still feels cold.

Loneliness is one of life’s most painful experiences, and nobody appears better positioned to bear its full weight than Paul.

But, he’s strangely, unnaturally, supernaturally accompanied.

And, it starts with the fact that Paul isn’t just talking to the ceiling or speaking into the air when he prays.

God is with him.

God is present.

He says, “I thank my God!” Rome had abandoned him.

The Jews had abandoned him.

But, God was with him, and God had given him reason to praise.

God was personal.

He says calls him ‘my God’ not so much because he possessed God, rather it was just the very best way he could describe how God possessed him.

Paul was not alone, and he knew it.

He had someone to talk to, someone to be with, someone that would sustain him every second of every day.

APPLICATION: You are not alone.

“One man with God is always a majority.”

(Martin Luther)

Partners in the Gospel

v. 5 “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” And, this gets to the why behind his thankfulness for the Church at Philippi.

They were his partners in the gospel.

He says virtually the same thing twice.

In verse 5, he calls them ‘partners in the gospel’, and in verse 7 he says, ‘you are all partakers with me of grace.’

Both words, ‘partners’ and ‘partakers’, are forms of the same root word, which means to be brought together in common with a common interest and a common goal.

Paul knew that God cared for him “personally” because they church cared for him “practically.”

When Paul was hungry, he prayed, and God answered his prayer through Philippi.

When Paul prayed for the money to sustain his missionary travels, God answered his prayer through Philippi.

When Paul prayed that God would encourage him and make himself known to him, God sent him Philippi.

The Philippians were the tangible proof to Paul that God was with him and God was hearing him and God was providing for him.

God used them to answer Paul’s prayers, and now, Paul praises God for using them as his partners in the gospel.

Called to the Impossible (Together)

This is the very essence of the who the church is.

We are to live together as the tangible proof of God’s kindness to each other.

God uses the church to answer the prayers of the church .

God often calls us to the impossible, doesn’t he?

I can think of examples of this around the room today.

And, there’s a part of us that wants to take the impossible call of God on in our lives completely alive so that we can show how much we love God.

But, God rarely accomplishes the impossible through isolation.

God has engineered his work to be accomplished through partnership in the gospel, partaking together of his grace.

Too often, we think of God calling us to the impossible so that we can show him how tough we are or how faithful we are.

But, what we see in Paul here is that God doesn’t call you to the impossible, call you the prison, call you to adoption, call you to missions so that you can show your goodness and your faithfulness.

God calls you to the “impossible” so that He can show you his “goodness” and his “faithfulness”, not yours.

And, the primary way that God supplies his people for the impossible is through his people.

God answers our prayers through Gospel partners.

Not all of you are called to adopt, and that’s okay.

But, all of you are called to God’s global mission of orphan-care.

As God raises up families to adopt and foster, He is at the same time raising us up to support them.

Not all of you are called to leave our church and plant another one.

But, as God raises up church planters and missionaries, He is at the same time raising us up to partner with them.

They’re praying that God will provide, and God is planning to use us as the answer to their prayers.

Can you even imagine a plan more wonderful?

For every man or woman of God that is raised up, God is, at the same time, raising up partners to support them and encourage them and supply them.

APPLICATION: Living out the gospel is “impossible” — alone.

Singing in prison is impossible — alone.

Facing an empty house with joy is impossible — alone.

Facing cancer with peace is impossible — alone.

Moving to another continent for the gospel is impossible — alone.

But, you are not alone.

God possesses you and has you and will supply you.

God isn’t just calling you to do the impossible; God is calling us all with you.

Living out the gospel requires partnership.

God is going to use us and his global Church to answer your prayers in ways that feel you with praise, no matter what it looks like around you.

What would change in your life today if you were certain that you weren’t alone?

His Case is “Airtight”

we’re never alone

v. 7 “you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.”

Not only does Paul know that he isn’t alone, but he’s also able to sing because he knows that His case is “airtight.”