Christian Joy and Thanksgiving

Introduction

As a child, one of the things that is often asked is, “What do you want to be whenever you grow up?” The answer to this question varies from child to child and many children change their mind often over their years. I think back to whenever this question was asked of me in 4th grade and I genuinely wanted to be a baseball player. In 6th grade it changed to being a general manager of a professional baseball team (the whole baseball player part didn’t exactly work out). In 9th grade it changed again to being a neurosurgeon and in 12th grade it changed to ministry after being humbled and called by God during a mission trip. While my “dream” changed throughout the years, I know that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing now. If you ask 100 pastors where their joy comes from, though, it does not come from the hours spent in sermon prep or doing pastoral care, it doesn’t come from amazing congregation members. It comes from the Lord!

You know this to be true as Christians. We have a countercultural view of joy. Our joy doesn’t come from life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As Solomon noted everything is vanity apart from God. Had I rejected God’s call and continued with my plan then I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would not have joy right now because that joy comes from God. Many people have experienced this dilemma. Alexander the Great had the greatest empire in the world during the climax of his rule and he is noted as having wept in his tent saying, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”

Maybe you have experienced this situation in your own life. Maybe you had a dream or passion that you thought would satisfy you and bring you lasting joy, but you discovered that it failed to do so. Again, true, lasting joy can only come from the Lord and doing His will. One of the early church fathers, Cyprian, wrote this in a letter to his friend Donatus in the 3rd century:

Exalting Jesus in Philippians The Happiest Man in Rome 1:3-8

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.

So, are you one of the people who have discovered the joy that is a thousand times better than what this world has to offer? Paul, when writing this letter, was in prison. He was in Rome, the city that had everything the world had to offer at this point in time! This city had the great coliseum, amphitheaters, markets, and temples, yet the most joyful person in Rome was not the emperor or the commander of the Roman army. The most joyful person was not the temple priest becoming wealthier and wealthier by the second. The most joyful person in Rome was in a prison cell in chains as he was writing this letter to some people who he genuinely loved and cared for.

Again, friends, joy is not found in a trouble-free life, joy is found in a person and that person is Jesus Christ. In , Paul demonstrates his joy with his love for this church. Paul doesn’t mentions the word joy in each of these verses, but you can’t help but read this passage without hearing a joyful tone throughout his message. Paul is joyful and we should be joyful today as well as Christians knowing what Christ has done for us. We need to know the joy of prayer, fellowship, sanctification and affection. We see all of these points from Paul in these verses.

Philippians 1:3–8 NASB95

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For 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. 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.

Joy in Prayer (3-4)

Paul begins this passage with a simple prayer. Paul thanks God for this church. This church was not a perfect church as we discussed last week. This was a church that was experiencing some division due to false teachers. Yet, Paul was grateful for all of them. A quick question for us today whenever we pray, “Do we thank God for others?” Do we thank God for our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we thank God for people who encourage us and challenge us to dig deeper in our faith? We should! Paul thanked God for people often, even the Corinthian church () that was incredibly confused. If Paul could set aside issues and genuinely thank God for people like the Philippians and Corinthians, this gives us hope and a goal as well. We should pray for others. Even if we are critical individuals, we must acknowledge this. If we only focus on what is wrong then we won’t be a grateful person. We should thank God for one another and for those in our life who help us in our faith. We also remember that sanctification, or being conformed into the image of Christ is a very slow process!

Notice how Paul says that he always offers prayer with joy for these people. Don’t misunderstand Paul here. He’s not saying that these people are perfect, he is simply saying that he makes it a point to thank God for their Christlike virtues. He doesn’t let the conflict or controversy overshadow his joy. If Paul’s joy was in his circumstances or in his comfort then he would not have joy. Paul’s joy was in the Gospel of Christ. So, have we expressed thanks to God lately? Do we thank Him for surrounding us with people in our lives that make us stronger in our faith? Do we intercede for others? This was something that Paul certainly did and a lesson that I and many of us can learn a great deal from.

A final point about Paul’s opening joy and prayer. If everything was taken away from you and all you had left is what you currently have with you, would that be enough? The American culture says that we just need more and more. You can have all the extra stuff: a bigger house, more vacation time, a bigger church building, more friends, but at the end of the day, joy is not in those things. If all you had was Jesus, would it be enough? It better be because He is all we need to have joy as Christians! We fight against what our culture says and we dig deep into the Word. We find joy in prayer.

Joy in Fellowship (5)

The Greek word for fellowship is “koinonia” and it appears throughout this book and throughout the New Testament. Paul notes in verse 5 that this church has supported Paul and they have worked alongside him from the beginning and as a result, Paul was filled with joy. The idea of koinonia in Philippians refers to a gospel-centered friendship and a goal of Gospel promotion. So as a church today we should ask ourselves this question: do we have fellowship (friendship) and are we faithful to carry out our mission which is to share the Gospel? By the grace of God, I think that those are two of the strengths of the people of this church. With that said, we must be careful because fellowship and friendship can be turned quickly into a special click where outsiders do not feel welcomed. On the same coin, our Gospel mission can be null and void if we direct all of our ministries and effort into ourselves rather than to the lost.

Gospel friendships are far deeper than normal friendships, right? They say that friends are the family that you choose along the way, but Gospel friendships are the people that God puts on your way to grow you to be more like His Son. We know that in a Gospel friendship we share a common savior, are united with the same Holy Spirit and we have the hope of eternal glory one day. We have much in common! Not only do we have much in common, but we also have conflict with one another in friendships. You know this to be true if you’re married, right? Your spouse is your best friend but with that friendship also comes times of conflict. You might say that me and my spouse haven’t had conflict in years, but most (even Christian marriages) would willingly admit that conflict is a natural part of marriage. 2 sinners living together leads to conflict. The church is no different! There will naturally be opposition and conflict even in the church because of sin. Yet, because of our friendship and unity in the Gospel we seek reconciliation, forgiveness, repentance and we maintain our relationships rather than leaving the moment things get difficult or a conflict arises. Praise God for Gospel-centered friendships!

The reason that Gospel friendships matter so much to Paul is because of the mission of the church. The mission of the church isn’t to sing songs. It isn’t to gather and have fellowship meals. It isn’t even us. The mission of the church is to share the message of the Gospel. As we do this, we recognize our differences but we celebrate our unity in the Gospel. The fact that we have fellowship with one another is great, but the best part of fellowship is to have brothers and sisters who share the Gospel. This gives us joy in the good and bad times. I pray that you have relationships with people like that in this church and that our church would grow in this regard in 2020.

Joy in Sanctification (6)

is one of the most well known verses in the entire book. We know that God doesn’t just stop something that He starts. Aren’t you thankful for this fact? If you are saved this evening and you are a new creation, your work is not yet over. Christ has just started His work in your life. This is also true in the life of the corporate church. Christ has begun this work but we will be continued to be conformed into the image of Christ as time goes on.

We know that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, not by works. With that in mind, we know that salvation is not just justification. Justification, the immediate act of being innocent in the eyes of God by having the blood of Jesus credit our accounts with righteousness is a part of salvation, but sanctification is also a part of salvation. Sanctification is difficult! It requires us to change our lives. Thankfully the Holy Spirit does the changing, all we must do is get out of the way. This is the picture of a baptism. Whenever you go under the water it is a picture of your old self being buried with Christ. It is no more. Whenever you are brought out of the water it is a picture of your new self. Baptism certainly does not save us, but it is a great picture to demonstrate outwardly what has changed internally inside of our hearts as we are under new ownership! God continues to do this work in us and He will complete this work in us whenever we are called home and whenever we experience glorification. It’s all about God, though. We can be confident in our salvation, as a result. Kent Hughes notes, “As I reflect on my fifty plus years in Christ it is indeed God who has kept me. It is not my grip on God that has made the difference, but his grip on me. I am not confident in my goodness. I am not confident in my character. I am not confident in my history. I am not confident in my “reverend” persona. I am not confident in my perseverance. But I am confident in God.”

As I reflect on my fifty plus years in Christ it is indeed God who has kept me. It is not my grip on God that has made the difference, but his grip on me. I am not confident in my goodness. I am not confident in my character. I am not confident in my history. I am not confident in my “reverend” persona. I am not confident in my perseverance. But I am confident in God.

We will all, unless the Lord comes back before our time is up, experience death and we will be called home. We have hope, even in death, that God’s work will continue until our very last day on this planet. That hope gives us assurance and confidence even in the bad times of life. This doesn’t give us an excuse to be lazy and not share. In fact, Paul has just gotten through exhorting the Philippian church for their fellowship and Gospel ministry. The hope and assurance of salvation should cause us to strap our boots on and get out onto the front lines and share the Gospel. This assurance should also cause us to come together and question how we can do this better as a church. Can we do things differently to ensure that we are fulfilling our Gospel mission? As Paul notes in , we live with a mindset that even death is gain. As a result, we live with the goal on making disciples on this planet.

Merida, T., Chan, F., Platt, D., & Akin, D. L. (2016). Exalting jesus in philippians. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

Only disciples make disciples, though. So, we have to ask ourselves if we are growing in our faith or if we are stagnant. We know that sanctification is a part of salvation and that we are to continue to grow and be led by God in this process.

Joy in Unity (7-8)

Verses 7-8 serve as a bit of a rabbit trail for Paul that we will pick up on in verse 9 next week. They show us that Paul genuinely cares for these people. He has deep affection for their wellbeing and he clearly appreciates them. Sometimes we read Paul and we think that he’s this brainiac theologian of sorts that we can only understand part of his message because he’s just too much of a teacher of sorts. There are times, like in verses 7-8, though, where we see his passion and his love.

Paul notes that he holds the Philippians in his heart. This isn’t simply a sentimental statement from Paul. This is action. Paul has been thrown into prison and he has given this church significant time in his life. Part of his affection is the relationship that has been forged over their time together. The reason that his heart is bent this way towards them is because this church was a partner with him in the Gospel ministry. Even though Paul has been in jail, this church continued to support him in prayer and with financial support. It would have been easy for them to forget about him and to ultimately turn their backs on him but they continued to support him and pray for him and even his captors. They helped display the power of the Gospel in a practical way that we can certainly apply to our lives.

Whenever something bad happens that we don’t deserve, it can be easy to say, “I didn’t deserve that but I can tell you who does.... so and so over there has been doing this for a long time and they could use some divine justice!” To Paul and the Philippians, though, this injustice (Paul’s imprisonment) served as a time to share the Gospel to places that they would otherwise not be able to share - prison guards and other prisoners. A good reminder for us here is this: the next time something bad happens to us (a sudden trip to the ER or a trip to the auto shop to deal with a tire problem) we should see that time as a divine opportunity to share the Gospel. God doesn’t make mistakes and He works in all sorts of mysterious ways, including ER trips and car repairs! God used a donkey and a burning bush in the Old Testament. We should understand that He will use all sorts of ways to get His Gospel message to the lost!

Paul continues in verse 8 to say that He has a deep love for this church. This is a deep love that goes beyond that of a simple relationship or business partnership in modern times. This was a Gospel partnership between Gospel partners. He loved this church. He loved these people. I relate with Paul in that I love you all and it is an honor to serve at Morgan Baptist. There is joy in serving and worshipping alongside each and every one of you. But, as verse 6 tell us, our works is not yet over. There is still work to be done and people to be evangelized! That gives me hope and joy for the days and years ahead. God, who began this work in our lives, will see it through. Our work is not yet over, we have a purpose.

Conclusion

Paul had every right to be upset about his current situation. Yet his Gospel joy gave him a different perspective on life in Rome. He was the happiest man in Rome and no one could take his happiness away from him. So I ask each and every one of you tonight in closing, what is robbing you of your Gospel joy? Do you have Gospel partnerships and friendships? If not, pray that God will put someone on your heart this year to build a relationship with. In all things, let us be quick to remember and look to the cross of Christ knowing that there is unity in the Gospel because Christ bore our sin and suffered the punishment that we all deserved. Let us share that message with others so that they can be reconciled to Christ and experience the joy that can only come from Him. Let’s pray.