Philippians 1:1-11 - Confident Joy

Introduction

(Scripture Reading Acts 16:16-31)

This morning we are beginning a new sermon series in the book of Philippians (p. 980 in the pew Bible). And as we spend time in this letter, we’re going to find ourselves covering some very familiar ground, since this book is home to some of the most cherished passages of Scripture in all the New Testament:

Philippians 4:13 ESV

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:6–7 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:14 ESV

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:5–6 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Philippians 1:21 ESV

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

And, of course, the verse that is part of our text this morning:

Philippians 1:6 ESV

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.

And as we move through this book, one of the themes we will see over and over again is the joy that we have in our salvation in Jesus—over a dozen times in four chapters. And right in the first few verses, Paul has already started talking about joy:

Philippians 1:3–4 ESV

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,

So my prayer for us is that we will draw from this joyful little book the joy and hope that we have in Jesus Christ as we journey through the unknown days ahead. It’s a quick book to read—it takes about fifteen minutes or so to read through the entire book. So one of the things I would like us to do as we move through this study is to find time once a week to sit down and read the entire book through in one sitting. Our Bible reading should combine reading for distance and reading for depth. We’ll go in-depth on Sunday mornings together, and then read for distance during the week.

A few moments ago, we read the story out of Acts 16 about how this church in Philippi came into existence. Paul came to Philippi because he had been trying to get into other cities in Asia Minor, but God was preventing them. In a dream one night, Paul was called to go into Macedonia—modern-day Europe. In Acts 16:12 we read about Paul and Silas’ arrival in Philippi. The city was founded in 42 B.C. on the site of a major battlefield of the Roman Civil Wars that arose after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony (and later Caesar Augustus) established Philippi as a Roman colony and a home for veterans who had faithfully served in the wars.

So Philippi was a thoroughly Roman city in culture, language, religion and philosophy (it is one of the only places where Paul does not get chased out of town by rulers of the local Jewish synagogue—there was no synagogue there, because it was a thoroughly Roman population!) In Acts 16 we read about three Gospel-encounters that Paul and Silas had in Philippi—three people who came to faith in Jesus Christ. In Acts 16:14 we read

Acts 16:14 ESV

14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Then in verses 16-18 we read about Paul’s encounter with a demon-possessed slave girl who he delivers from her demonic possession. Her owners are infuriated that their source of income is gone (they sold her services as a fortune-teller), and had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison (vv. 19-24). In verses 25 and following, Paul and Silas are singing praises to God in prison when He sends an earthquake that breaks open their prison and sets them free. In the aftermath of the earthquake the jailer and his family come to faith in Christ:

Acts 16:29–31 ESV

29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

The next morning Paul threatens legal action against the Philippian magistrates because they had illegally detained him (a Roman citizen) without due process, and so they leave the city after meeting with Lydia and the rest of the believers.

That’s how the First Church of Philippi got its start! A traveling evangelist gets into trouble with the law, and in the process plants a new church comprised of a business woman, a Satanist and a cop! And then he leaves the region, while they try to fend for themselves in a Roman culture that says that

Acts 16:21 ESV

21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

Now, if you belonged to that church, how much hope would you have that you would be able to make a go of it? How confident would you be that you would be able to survive as a church? You all come from radically different lives, and you live in a city that does not recognize anything valid in your faith.

And this is what makes Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi such an encouragement to them—Paul says he is confident that God will finish what He started in them!

Philippians 1:6 ESV

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.

Let’s take a look at why Paul has such joyful confidence that God will finish what He started in the Philippian church—and see how we can take that same confidence that God will finish what He started in us as well.

We can have CONFIDENCE that God will FINISH what He STARTED in us

The first reason Paul is confident that God will finish what He started in the Philippians is because of the way they are committed to the Gospel. We can have confidence that God will finish what He started in us

I. When we are STANDING for the Gospel (Philippians 1:7)

Paul says in verse 7 that he has good reason to be confident that God will finish what He started in the Philippians:

Philippians 1:7 ESV

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.

Paul says, “I know God is at work in you because you are experiencing God’s grace right along with me!” And there are two ways Paul sees them standing for the Gospel with him. First, they are standing

With Paul in his IMPRISONMENT for the Gospel (Philippians 1:15ff)

As Paul was writing this letter, he was being held prisoner in Rome. We see further down in Chapter 1 (verses 15 and following) that not everyone was standing with Paul—some people were taking the opportunity to “kick him while he was down”, “proclaiming Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment” (v. 17).

But the Philippian church was standing with Paul—we learn in Chapter 2 that they sent one of their members, Epaphroditus, on a journey from Philippi to Rome (about a thousand miles away!) with money and provisions for Paul in his captivity—they were willing to pay a price in order to stand with Paul. And surely they were willing not only to stand with Paul in his imprisonment, but they would have been willing to go to prison themselves for the Gospel—after all, the first time they met Paul he had gone to jail for preaching the Gospel (and was singing his heart out!)

They stood for the Gospel with Paul in his imprisonment, and we see also that they stood

With Paul to DEFEND and CONFIRM the Gospel

Philippians 1:7 ESV

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.

Paul was confident that God would finish what He started in the Philippian church because they had God’s grace to defend and confirm the Gospel. God had given them grace to defend the Gospel, to hold it out as true and trustworthy. They weren’t “going along to get along” in a Roman culture that despised and disregarded their faith, they weren’t making excuses for their faith or trying to demonstrate that they “really all believe the same things” as the culture around them. They were standing up for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—Paul saw that, and that’s why he was confident that God was at work in them, because only through God’s grace would the Philippians stand to defend the Gospel.

But along with the defend the truth of the Gospel, Paul says, the Philippians were partaking of God’s grace to confirm the truth of the Gospel—they weren’t just saying that it was true, they were proving it was true. The greatest proof of the truth of the Gospel is its power to change lives—and they were wonderful examples of that power. A former Satan worshipper, a Roman corrections officer, a Thyatiran businesswoman—all of whom had been transformed by the New Birth in Christ into new creations! The Roman society around them could argue all they wanted about their defense of the Gospel—but it’s a lot harder to argue against the reality of a changed life! Paul could see how they were standing in the grace of God for the Gospel, and so he could be confident that God would finish what He started in them!

We have confidence that God will finish what He started in us when we are standing for the Gospel—and in verses 8-9 we see that we can be confident

II. When we are ABOUNDING in our LOVE (Philippians 1:8-10)

Look at the way Paul goes on in verses 8-9 of our passage:

Philippians 1:8–9 ESV

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,

Paul’s love and affection for them was a reflection of the way Jesus Himself loved them and longed for them (v. 8)—and he goes on to pray that the Philippians love in Christ would continue to grow. Verse 9 seems to indicate that their love was already growing—Paul’s prayer was that their love would increase “more and more”.

And see here that there were two specific ways that Paul was praying for their love to abound. First, he was praying that their love would be

Growing in KNOWLEDGE (cp. Prov. 19:2)

What does it mean that our love grows "with all knowledge”? Surely if Paul is praying that their love would grow with all knowledge, that it must then be possible for love to grow without knowledge—an ignorant love, if you will. We see something similar to this in the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 19:2 ESV

2 Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

If “desire” or “zeal” without knowledge is not good, then certainly we can say the same thing about “love without knowledge”. We see this all around us today, don’t we? The world has lots of ideas of what it means to be “loving”—particularly when it comes to being accepting and nonjudgmental of others. Accepting and celebrating and affirming someone in their behavior is considered “loving”, while warning someone that their behavior is wicked in the sight of God, and that they need to repent before He brings judgment on them is “hateful” and “bigoted”.

But—and this goes directly to Paul’s point here—we must always define what “love” is according to what God says, and not according to what the world says. If the love of the Philippian believers was to be worth anything, it had to grow in the knowledge of God and what He has revealed about the nature of love. Love is defined by what Jesus Christ has done for us—not leaving us in our sinful condition, but coming and declaring the forgiveness of sins through His death and resurrection:

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Paul prays that the Philippian believers abound in love—growing in knowledge and

Growing in DISCERNMENT

He goes on in verse 10 to say that as the believers grow in love with knowledge, they will also grow with discernment,

Philippians 1:10 ESV

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

What does it mean to “approve what is excellent” or “approve those things which are best” when it comes to our discernment in love? As we’ve already noted, Christian love must be grounded in the knowledge of God—we need to understand how God defines what is loving, and not what the world around us says “love” is.

But having done that, there are still many times in our lives when we don’t know how to manifest that love in someone’s life. How do you show the love of Christ, for instance, to someone who doesn’t want your help, or who refuses to accept the help you offer, or who scorns your love or takes advantage of it or doesn’t recognize it as being love?

Surely part of what Paul is saying here is that as we grow in our love with all knowledge and discernment, we will grow into understanding of what to do in those bewildering situations where there are no easy answers—we will “recognize what is excellent”, what is the best and most loving thing to do for that person.

And as a general rule, our growing in the knowledge of God and His love is our most reliable guide in discerning what is an “excellent” display of love for someone. The nature of love as God has revealed it to us is a sacrificial love, isn’t it? After all

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And

1 John 4:9 ESV

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

And so here is the rule of thumb when you are trying to discern a way to show the love of Christ to someone who is (for one reason or another) “hard to love”—ask yourself, “Is there any way in this loving act that I am doing what Jesus did—trading my comfort for their pain, taking on their anxiety so that they can have peace, giving up my leisure for the sake of their difficulty?” If you are loving them with the love of Christ, it will be a sacrificial love—and surely you cannot go too far wrong if you love them that way!

(Only make sure, beloved, that you do not take those sacrifices as an opportunity for complaining and selfishness— “Oh, I get so sick of always having to put up with him!” “This is such an inconvenience to me, why doesn’t she understand this!?” “You know, some people would be appreciative of all the sacrifices I am making for them, but not him...” At that point, you’re not loving them anymore, you’re using them to fuel your own sinful self-centered bitterness. God is calling you into the sacrificial love of Christ for that hard-to-love person. Don’t poison that call with the venom of self-absorbed complaints and self-pity.)

Paul was confident that God would finish what He started in the Philippians’ lives because he saw them standing for the Gospel, he saw them abounding in love. And we can have confidence that God will finish what He started in us

III. When we are BEARING FRUIT (Philippians 1:10-11)

Look at verses 10-11 again:

Philippians 1:10–11 ESV

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.

As we abound in love more and more with all knowledge and discernment, Paul says, we will be “pure and blameless for the Day of Christ”--

Christ’s RIGHTEOUSNESS grows in us

The Greek word for “pure” here is a fascinating one—it combines the word for “judgment” with the word for “sunlight”. You know what a “sunshine law” is, right? Laws that state that certain procedures of government agencies must be open or available to the public. That’s the picture here—and what a wonderful picture it is, Christian! As the righteousness of Christ bears fruit in you, it means that your whole life can be lived out “in the sunshine”! Nothing hidden, no “dark corners” of your life where you don’t want anyone snooping around—just an open and unhidden life for all to see!

Christ’s righteousness bears the fruit of purity in your life, and blamelessness (v. 10). The word there literally means there is nothing in your life that will make anyone “stumble”—there is nothing “scandalous” in your life—you are an open book, you will lift others up, not drag them down. Paul saw the righteousness of Christ growing more and more in the Philippians’ lives, and so he was confident that God would finish the work He started in them, conforming them perfectly into the image of His Son,

Philippians 1:11 ESV

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

And there at the end of verse 11 we see the result of our being filled with the fruit of righteousness in Christ—the glory and praise of God:

God’s GLORY grows because of us (Gal. 5:22-23; John 15:8)

Jesus Himself told us in John’s Gospel:

John 15:8 ESV

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

His glory grows in us as we bear the fruit of His Spirit in our lives—as we grow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, “love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).

And beloved, the glory of God grows in us when we bear the fruit of seeing people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ—when we lift up our eyes and see the harvest-fields around us, with people who are hurting and afraid and weighed down with their guilt and shame, people who know that they have come to the end of their rope, and don’t know where to turn—when we share the Gospel with people like that and they hear the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for the penalty of their sin and place all their trust in Him for their salvation—then God’s glory is magnified as they come to see Him as their greatest treasure and the highest joy in their lives!

Beloved, God is going to complete the good work He has started here at Bethel Baptist Church—He is going to complete the good work He has started in your life, conforming you more and more into the image of your Savior Jesus Christ every day. So stand for the Gospel in the grace of Christ to uphold you through whatever threats or opposition or scorn comes your way. Lean on the grace of Christ to give you the knowledge and the courage to defend this Gospel, to stand for it, and to demonstrate the power of this Gospel by the way it has transformed (and continues to transform) your life!

God is going to complete what He started in you—so that means that He will cause you to continue to abound in love for those around you. Immerse yourself in seeing and savoring the love of God revealed to you in Jesus Christ—His sacrificial love that took on your sin and gave you His righteousness, took on your filthy rags and gave you His robes of purity, took on your shame and guilt and gave you His joy and blamelessness before His Father. And as you grow in the knowledge of that love you can discern more and more how to demonstrate that sacrificial love to the “hard to love” around you, loving them with the love of Jesus.

God is going to complete what He started in you—He is going to continue to purify and cleanse and renew and restore your life so that there will be no dark corners, no “off-limits” parts of your life you wouldn’t want others to see, nothing scandalous in you to make someone else stumble—He is working by His Spirit day by day to bear the fruit of righteousness in your life, and He will use you to reap a great harvest of salvation for those around you as you share the Good News of salvation through your Savior Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Read through Acts 16 again. Aside from their shared faith in Christ, what would Lydia, the slave-girl and the jailer have had in common? How does a group of people “with nothing in common but Christ” demonstrate the glory of God to a watching world?

How did the Philippian believers “stand with the Apostle Paul” in his imprisonment for the Gospel? Read Hebrews 10:32-34. How might you be called to “stand with” those who are suffering for the sake of standing up for the Gospel in our nation today?

What does it mean to “abound more and more in love with all knowledge and discernment” (Philippians 1:9)? How does growing in the knowledge of how God defines “love” help us to recognize the harmful ways the world around us defines it?

In what ways has God changed your life for the better since you came to saving faith in Jesus Christ? How do the changes in your life demonstrate the power of the Gospel? If someone were to ask you how you were able to make such a transformation in your life, how could you answer in a way that would glorify God?