Philippians

Philippians 1:1-8

By: Samuel Sorenson

6/18/2022

Introduction

In seeking the Lord’s face in where to begin teaching and preaching His word, there were several thoughts that came to mind. I will share a few of them with you. One, I know that you all have been seeking out a Pastor for almost a year now, and two I have been seeking for a place that the Lord has for me to serve for about the same amount of time. Third I was thinking about what does a Pastor’s heart look like and how does he respond to God and to God’s people? As much as you have been praying and seeking me out, I have been praying and seeking you out.

I am excited and hopeful for what the Lord is going to do with you all and what He is going to do with me in the process of building His kingdom. You see the amazing thing about having a relationship with God is that we get to be partakers in His glory. What I mean by partakers is that we get to be actively involved in God’s work. We get to see the fruit of prayer, the fruit of obedience to Him. We get to see the hearts and minds of people changed from a state of sinfulness and selfishness to a state of peace with God and with His people, and an obedience that asks the question, “What would God have me do? That is something to be excited about!!!

One of the biggest encouragements that I have seen among the Baptist church is that it’s not just a feel-good church, but that there is growth among the believer in Christ. One begins to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the believer’s life.

Like God the believer takes sin seriously, like God they are compassionate towards those who are less fortunate than them, like God they seek to continually grow in relationship with Him and with their fellow believers, and finally like Him they have a heart for the lost. The Fathers heart cares about those who are lost, and we as a church are to cultivate a heart for the lost. The key thing is to have that personal one on one relationship with Jesus, and then to have that relationship overflow into our relationships with others.

I wanted to break new ground today, and like any of you who have started a huge construction project or logging project, or business opportunity, there is always that mystery of not knowing what you’re getting into until you dig into it. There is the fun and excitement of breaking new ground as well as the frustration and growth it takes to accomplish the task at hand. In going into the book of Philippians I know that I need the Holy Spirit to guide me and direct me. I realize that God has the power to transform the hearts and minds of people, and so I am going into the book of Philippians with lot’s of prayer and study.

With that being said let’s began.

Text

Today’s text is found in Philippians 1:1-8. Please turn with me there now.

1Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

Thesis:

My purpose in speaking to you today is for you to understand that even when you look at all of the bad things going on in the world the one good thing that will bring you joy is Jesus and the finished work He did on the cross.

Context:

A history of what is happening right now is the Apostle Paul is in prison in Rome. He is chained to a guard. The guards take shifts being chained to Paul and because the jailers like him, he is allowed to send and receive letters to different churches that he has planted. The church in Philippi was a church that was producing spiritual fruit.

It didn’t start out easily for Paul if you look back in Acts 16 he met Lydia who had received the gospel and was saved. After that Paul and Silas cast out a demon from a possessed girl who was a fortune teller. Her handlers became angry with Paul and Silas because after the demon was gone, they no longer could make a profit off of her. So, they had whipped Paul and Silas and placed them in stocks.

Even with the persecution going on all around Paul He obeyed God’s call to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the gentiles. He is now towards the end of his ministry being around the year 60 AD and he is hearing from his fellow workers in Christ about the spiritual fruit that has been happening.

More than that the Apostle Paul is experiencing his prayers being answered by God.

Body

Today I want to look at two benefits of choosing to see joy in your life.

1. The joy of being in Christ Jesus.

a) To all the Saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi (1b)

b) The joy of being in fellowship with other believers (4)

2. The joy of knowing that the work that Christ begun in you will be completed (6)

a) Paul’s love and joy for the Philippians despite him being in prison. (7)

b) Paul’s affection for the Philippians (8)

Let’s look at the first benefit of choosing to see the joy in your life.

1. The joy of being in Christ Jesus.

Look with me again at the text. Verse 1. 1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to point something out that is important for every believer to understand. To be in Christ is a significant statement. If we look at the word in, it is a preposition which means two things. One it shows location so where you are located at.

For example, if I say I am in Thompson Falls that means I am located in Thompson Falls.

The second thing a preposition does it demonstrates relationship to something. For example, if I say I am in a courtship with Susie that means I am in relationship to her.

Both are true, if we are in Christ we are located spiritually in heaven and we are in relationship to Him and therefore we are partakers of His kingdom.

For the believer this is something to be joyful about because we are now located and seated with Christ. Meaning when our earthly bodies give out, we are present with the Lord of lords and King of kings.

Let’s look at one of the most beautiful promises that God gives us in Revelation 21:3-5, 3And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

5Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

No more death, nor sorrow nor crying, no more pain, for the former things have passed away. That is something to be joyful about!!!

The Apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

In this world we do experience the consequences of living in a fallen world. It is painful and difficult when a spouse dies, or a child dies, or we go through bad health issues. And many of us wonder why, well scripture is pretty clear that this is not our home.

2 Corinthians 5:2 states, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.”

So today brothers and sisters I want to challenge you and spur you on to choose the joy of being in Christ and knowing that you will one day be in heaven with Christ and the saints.

Now let’s look at the second benefit of choosing to see joy in your life.

2. The joy of knowing that the work that Christ begun in you will be completed.

These next two verses are some of my favorite verses in all of scripture. Look with me now at verse 5 and 6. 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

If there is any promise worth grabbing onto in all of scripture this is the promise to grab onto. That if you are in Christ, He is doing a work in you from the day you were born again into His kingdom until the day that you are home with Him.

He is preparing you for heaven. All of your decisions both bad ones and good ones, are being worked out for your good. This verse has been used by one of my mentors with me several times when I wanted to give up and do something easier.

Dr. Yamamoto would say Sam, He who has began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

You see brothers and sisters God is sovereign and He has a plan and purpose for your life. More than that He loves you. Now a lot of times we do not understand at the moment why we must go through trials and tribulations, but if we can take our emotions out of it for a moment and began to see with God’s eyes, we can begin to see how He has ordained every step and that it is for our good.

That is what trust looks like.

You see the Apostle Paul understood his purpose and once he began to see that his sufferings were producing spiritual fruit in the Philippians lives, he focused only on the best and forgot the rest.

Say that with me, focus on the best and forget the rest.

Look with me again at verse 8. 8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.

Paul had been earnestly praying that God would do a work through him to reach the Philippians and God delivered. Paul was grateful to God and was rejoicing because his purpose was being fulfilled.

How many of you parents are overflowing with gratitude when you see your kids reach their potential, your prayers of them coming to the Lord have been answered. How many times have you heard a testimony that my grandmother was a godly woman who prayed for me?

And then you see that person serving in the church to bring about the kingdom of God. What a joy that is!!

I have to tell you all today that I have been earnestly praying to the Lord that He would bring me to the place and to the people He wanted me to minister to, and I believe He has delivered on that prayer.

I know that this church has been earnestly seeking out the Lord for who would come and be your Pastor and I believe He has answered your prayers.

Conclusion:

Application:

So, what do we do with this? Let me tell you friends, if anyone needed encouragement it was Paul!!!

Paul could have easily got on his poor me soap box, but that is not what he did. What did he do? At a time when Paul needed encouragement the most, he was giving encouragement and praying thoughtful prayers for the Philippians.

Despite Paul’s circumstances he was grateful for the work God had done through him at Philippi.

Paul was seeing the fruit of sharing the good news.

I know many of you here today who may have lost loved ones recently and have seen people come and go. I know it can be discouraging when bad things happen.

Let me encourage you and challenge you to see the joy in your suffering for by suffering comes the kingdom of God. Christ suffered more than anyone and by His sufferings He brought about the kingdom of God. He brought about eternal life for those who trusted in Him, and that is something we cannot fully wrap our heads around.

There is a mystery that will be discovered when we will stand before Him on that final day.

Illustration:

But let me give you an illustration, If you were to make a list of all the bad things that have happened over the last couple of years and compare it to the one good thing, what would that one good thing be?

Is it Jesus?

For the Apostle Paul it was Jesus. He knew that Jesus had used him mightily.

When we become heavenly minded like Paul we began to look for the spiritual fruit that has been done throughout our life and we began to have joy over how God has used us.

When we began to focus on the best than we forget the rest.

Motivation:

Today Christian let me challenge you to look for the opportunity to speak into someone’s life about Jesus. That person who randomly texts you that you may have done business with months or years ago, that friend that small talks with you but the conversation never turns to a spiritual conversation. There is a reason why that person is reaching out to you. Sometimes just asking them a question like, do you go to church? Or have you ever read the Bible? Do you pray? Would you like to come to a bible study or come to church is all that person needs to hear in order say yes to Jesus.

Today if you are not experiencing joy in your life, please raise your hand and say quietly to yourself please pray for me pastor.

Today if you are here and you do not know if you died and would go to heaven, please raise your hand, and say quietly to yourself please pray for me pastor.

Let’s close in a word of prayer.