SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning and welcome to Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: So glad to invite you this morning to open your Bibles with me to the New Testament book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you suggested that we take up the book of Romans next, which I considered for quite some time.
SPEAKER_01: I was leaning in that direction, but about five or six weeks ago, the Lord led me to Philippians instead.
SPEAKER_01: So for the next few months, we'll be in this short New Testament book.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll shift to Romans after that.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians is one of those New Testament books that we sometimes refer to as a prison letter, because the Apostle Paul wrote this letter while he was in prison in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: That alone reveals that suffering, hardship, difficulties of all kinds are in the background of this letter all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever we read it, we need to understand Paul is writing from a host of unknown difficulties that he was facing to a church you likely hadn't seen in some time.
SPEAKER_01: Now the church has often latched onto the teaching of joy in this book as a result of those difficult circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And that makes sense because it's naturally difficult for us as human beings to find joy in difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: So we latch on to that and we're drawn to those instructions to rejoice always in all circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: But there are other prominent themes as well.
SPEAKER_01: One of those is unity in the church.
SPEAKER_01: When we get to chapter 4, we'll find that one of the primary reasons for the Apostle Paul writing a letter to the church at Philippi was because there were two women in the church who were having difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: Making disciples of Christ by proclaiming the gospel is another theme, as is partnership in that work.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, partnership in the work of the gospel is the reason this letter exists today.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 4, verses 15 through 18, we discover that the church in Philippi sent a financial gift to Paul to help support himself while he was in prison.
SPEAKER_01: A man by the name of Ephroditus.
SPEAKER_01: I challenge our young parents to name one of your sons Epaphroditus.
SPEAKER_01: The church sent Ephryditus from Philippi to Rome with this financial gift as an encouragement and a support for Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in a sense, this letter is a long thank you note to the church for that gift.
SPEAKER_01: But the more I study, think, and pray about this letter, I am convinced that none of those, none of those themes, joy, unity, the gospel, ministry, partnership and ministry, none of those are the primary points of this book.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, I'm convinced that the primary theme is the Lordship of Jesus Christ, particularly as it relates to how we live out our faith in a fallen and broken world that so desperately needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just the unsaved, unbelieving world that needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: His church needs him too.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to be challenged to live transformed lives that display our calling to be like Christ as we work our way through this short letter to an ancient church.
SPEAKER_01: And that challenge hits us right from the start.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 1 with me, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read the first 11 verses if you'd like to follow along with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to focus on the first six this morning, but we'll read all the way through verse 11 to get the context of it.
SPEAKER_01: Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints who are in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.
SPEAKER_01: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's 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.
SPEAKER_01: For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it's my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you as your people this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Not as people of the church of an ancient Roman city, but in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: We are your people and you are the God we love.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that through this letter you would speak to our hearts, that you would open up our eyes to see our Lord Jesus with greater clarity, that you would challenge our hearts to follow him more diligently, with greater obedience, to the praise of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So this letter begins like most letters in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: Backwards.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it begins.
SPEAKER_01: We are used to writing our letters with putting the recipient at the front, dear so-and-so, and putting our names at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Ancient letters were with the reverse of that.
SPEAKER_01: They most often started with the writer, so Paul and Timothy together writing to the church in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: As we examine the details of this introduction to Paul's letter, we're confronted with the concept of Christ-like transformation.
SPEAKER_01: As we look closely, we see that possessing an identity in Christ must transform our outlook on life.
SPEAKER_01: The details in verses one and two, for example, reveal truths about a believer's identity in Christ that must shape our mindset.
SPEAKER_01: It must shape how we think, how we view the world, how we view people, how we view circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: We see this at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: We see the mindset of Christ having transformed Paul and Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Paul cites Timothy together writing this letter.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if Timothy helped him compose it, if he was writing it down, or if they thought about what they wanted to say.
SPEAKER_01: What it refers to is all the way back in Acts chapter 16, where Paul and Timothy were together in ministering to this church.
SPEAKER_01: So Timothy has a longtime relationship with this church, just like Paul does.
SPEAKER_01: And together they are servants of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That word servants is literally slaves in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we soften this term in our modern world by an Old Testament reference to the concept of a bond slave.
SPEAKER_01: If you're familiar with that, you've probably heard the story about a slave in the Old Testament times saying in the Jubilee when they could be let go, be free.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't want to be free.
SPEAKER_01: I want to stay with my master.
SPEAKER_01: I love him, I want to serve him forever.
SPEAKER_01: So they would take that slave to a doorway and put his ear up against the door and drive an awl through it to pierce his ear.
SPEAKER_01: Because of his love and his devotion for his master.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we read that into a New Testament term of slave.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that might be appropriate, but most often it's not.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Philippi was a Roman city, not a Jewish city.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that in Acts chapter 16, there weren't even enough Jewish people to have a synagogue there.
SPEAKER_01: So they're going to understand the terminology from a Greco-Roman perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And what must undoubtedly have been foremost in Paul and Timothy's minds, even above whatever the Philippians would have perceived with that term, was a link to chapter 2, verses 6, 7, and 8.
SPEAKER_01: Look over there with me.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks in verse 5 of having a mind like that of Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave.
SPEAKER_01: Same word.
SPEAKER_01: Being born in the likeness of men.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's thought process here is most likely tied to imitating Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The example of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We learned last week when we went on a historical road trip to the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_01: We learned that the Lord Jesus Christ is God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same substance.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the Father is made of is the same thing that Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: He is God from God.
SPEAKER_01: There is no distinction.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he was not so arrogant and proud in his divinity that he demanded to hold tightly unto all of his prerogatives as the divine being over the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He made himself nothing, which is to say, the only begotten Son of God, light from light, that true God from true God, took off his robe of light and wrapped himself in the flesh of a slave.
SPEAKER_01: The lowest rung of the social ladder.
SPEAKER_01: Exhibiting himself not as someone who had any kind of prerogatives, any kind of status, but as having no status of being there to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: Even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes to defend his apostleship, sometimes to assert his authority.
SPEAKER_01: He apparently has no need to do either of those here, and instead he says Paul and Timothy slaves of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he does it to identify himself with the mindset of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Slave language is culturally unacceptable in our country.
SPEAKER_01: So calling yourself a slave might turn you off.
SPEAKER_01: If that's your perspective, it would be helpful to remember that the idea behind using that term is to point to first and foremost belonging to another.
SPEAKER_01: You're not your own.
SPEAKER_01: Which brings you to a point of humility and lowliness.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the ones through whom God works.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul told the church in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the foolishness of God, if that's such a thing, is wiser than men.
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, God's weakness, if there is such a thing, is stronger than men.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God chose what is low and what is despised and what is weak and even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: So you see what's happening already in the book of Philippians?
SPEAKER_01: From the very onset, the Apostle Paul is challenging how we think.
SPEAKER_01: What is our mindset?
SPEAKER_01: Is it one of accomplishment?
SPEAKER_01: Is it one of prerogative?
SPEAKER_01: Is it one of position?
SPEAKER_01: Is it one of status?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it one of humility and submission to Christ the Lord in imitation of who he is and what he's done?
SPEAKER_01: It takes us back, doesn't it, to the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this God we love?
SPEAKER_01: It is the God who in the incarnation wrapped himself in flesh, taking the form of a slave, so that he might die.
SPEAKER_01: The old biblical commentator William Hendrickson said the duty as well as the destiny of believers is to be conformed to the image of God's Son.
SPEAKER_01: God is making us like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Our mindset, then, ought to mirror that of Paul and Timothy's, because they are mirroring the mindset of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To have the mind of Christ in us such that we do not proudly or arrogantly demand to hold on to our status or our prerogatives, but to willingly humble ourselves as Jesus did in becoming man.
SPEAKER_01: That mindset is then grounded in our identity with and consecration to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So he humbles himself while elevating everyone else to all the saints in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So all the saints refers to that church in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: It would be an oversimplification, but the idea would be similar to saying, dear church in Philippi, or dear Christians in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: It's an oversimplification, though, because the letter is not merely sent to the church, but to a kind of people who compose the church.
SPEAKER_01: He says they are saints.
SPEAKER_01: That's a word that simply means holy ones.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how does that help us?
SPEAKER_01: Saints are holy ones.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we don't feel real holy, so does that mean when we're not feeling holy, we're not a saint?
SPEAKER_01: What is a saint?
SPEAKER_01: What is a holy one?
SPEAKER_01: This pulls in a long biblical tradition of consecration.
SPEAKER_01: To be a saint or to be a holy one means that you were over here.
SPEAKER_01: And God now takes you and sets you apart for him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what saint means.
SPEAKER_01: It means you have been set apart.
SPEAKER_01: You're distinct, you're separate, you're holy.
SPEAKER_01: And every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is set apart in that way.
SPEAKER_01: They are set apart in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: See, believing in Jesus isn't something we merely do.
SPEAKER_01: That is true.
SPEAKER_01: We do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's an act of joining him, of belonging to and being in him.
SPEAKER_01: You are no longer in this situation, you are now in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You have been taken from here and set apart to being in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul and Timothy were transformed by the mindset of Christ, humbling themselves to be his slaves, because they understood that they had been taken from one place and set apart for Christ being in him, consecrated to him.
SPEAKER_01: Their identity is now in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in that position, they wanted the Philippians to experience the grace and peace that comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Again, you should hear hints there of the Nicene Creed and the song that we sang that represents that.
SPEAKER_01: Think back to that concept of joy with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: There's a good reason that so many believe that Philippians is about joy.
SPEAKER_01: Because the root word from which we get our word joy is used 23 times in this short letter.
SPEAKER_01: It's there a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And we often don't realize the different different combination of meanings that come with those different forms.
SPEAKER_01: For example, it's the same basic root word that we get the word thank in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: I thank my God.
SPEAKER_01: Same root word is joy.
SPEAKER_01: Or the word joy in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Is that verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: So it's verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: In that I rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Same root word.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: I rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: No, verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: It has been granted.
SPEAKER_01: That word granted is from the root word joy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: Granted.
SPEAKER_01: The word grace in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The word grace in verse 7 is all from the word, root word joy.
SPEAKER_01: Let me go through those quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Thank, thanksgiving, joy, rejoice, granted, grace, and gracious.
SPEAKER_01: Those all are in a circle of meanings that come from the same word.
SPEAKER_01: And that's found twenty-some times, twenty-three times throughout the whole letter.
SPEAKER_01: So it makes sense why we feel so drawn to that concept of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in a typical Greek or Roman letter from the time, the standard greeting would be a similar word.
SPEAKER_01: Not the same, but a similar word meaning greetings.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: In Greek, it's the Greek word Kahrain.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul could say to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, Karain.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: He says.
SPEAKER_01: Not Karain, but peace and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Linking a typical Greco-Roman concept of joy with a Jewish concept of shalom, bringing them together to say, here's what we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need to merely say, hey, nice to talk to you again via letter.
SPEAKER_01: Greetings, hello.
SPEAKER_01: No, I want you to participate with me in my connection to Christ as his slave, because we have been set apart for Christ to rejoice in him and to have peace in him.
SPEAKER_01: By changing just a few letters, the word greetings becomes grace, adding to that the Jewish greeting of Shalom.
SPEAKER_01: Both concepts are identified as gifts from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_01: So this mindset shift, then, is grounding our identity in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's first recognizing constantly who we are.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a mindset that then transforms the way we think about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Where we humble ourselves to the lowest position and live out that humility in ways that looks like Christ's humility.
SPEAKER_01: We see ourselves as set apart for him because we are in him.
SPEAKER_01: We are not our own.
SPEAKER_01: Our identity in Christ must shape our mindset.
SPEAKER_01: We must remind ourselves that we are in Christ and that we must think like him.
SPEAKER_01: This letter calls us to think humbly about ourselves because of God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, secondly, that possessing an identity in Christ must shape our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: So first, he says, I want you to think differently.
SPEAKER_01: Your mindset needs to be transformed so that you see yourself like Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: Then you need to understand that being in Christ means that your heart begins to be reshaped.
SPEAKER_01: And it can be reshaped now, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The hearts of stone that we had before believing in Him have been replaced with hearts of flesh that can now be molded and shaped according to God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I'd suggest to you that we see three ways that our hearts are to be shaped here.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, the first one is in verse 3 that we need to have a thankful shape.
SPEAKER_01: A thankful shape.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is astounding when we consider this in light of the background.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's being attended to by Timothy, apparently.
SPEAKER_01: He's dependent on others for his support.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows all of the difficulties, all of the hardships and the agonies that he he experienced there?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But in the midst of that background, we see that his circumstances did not detract from a heart of thankfulness under hardship.
SPEAKER_01: Paul here is living what he preached.
SPEAKER_01: You're familiar, I'm sure, with 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18, where he says, give thanks under some circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Give thanks under all circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is God's will.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have been set apart and you are now in Christ, that means your heart must be shaped to be thankful in all circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 3 is the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you do, whether it's in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
SPEAKER_01: Here in his thank you letter for their financial support, the Apostle Paul demonstrates a thankful heart in the midst of his trying situations.
SPEAKER_01: Possessing an identity in Christ must shape our hearts, be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: That's not all, though.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 4, we see that we are to be joyfully prayerful.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts are to be molded and shaped in such a way that what comes out of that is prayer that is joyful.
SPEAKER_01: Paul gave thanks every time he thought about the church in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
SPEAKER_01: Always in every prayer of mine when I pray for you, making my prayer with joy.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to be our goal.
SPEAKER_01: To be able to thank God for his people and his church every time they are brought to mind.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to labor to shape our hearts so that they're given to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But here, prayer isn't alone.
SPEAKER_01: It's accompanied by joy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, making my prayer with joy.
SPEAKER_01: It might surprise you to know that with joy is not a very common biblical phrase.
SPEAKER_01: It's only found ten times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Three times it's found in the Gospels, in the parable about the seed, the word of God being sown and it being received with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Once in Luke, it refers to the 72 disciples returning from their mission trip around Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And it says they returned with joy because of the success of their ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Another time in Luke, it refers to the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus and ended up walking along with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then they get to Emmaus, they sit down and have lunch together, Jesus prays, and boom, they recognize Jesus and he's gone.
SPEAKER_01: Luke says they came back to Jerusalem talking about the whole situation with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Those are five times right there, just in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_01: Of the other five times we find with joy, twice it's in Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: Once about accepting the plundering of your property with joy.
SPEAKER_01: So when the government or unbelievers come and plunder your property, take your things, because you are a Christian, accept it with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: The other one in Hebrews is about letting our leaders shepherd us with joy by obeying and submitting to their leadership.
SPEAKER_01: But most significant for this morning, that takes us to seven times, there are three more times that we find with joy, and they're all in Paul's letters.
SPEAKER_01: One is here in Philippians, one is in Colossians 1, verse 11, about enduring for Christ with patience and joy.
SPEAKER_01: And once in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 6, about receiving the word of God with joy amid affliction.
SPEAKER_01: And here the Apostle Paul uses the phrase with joy in the context of his praying for believers amid affliction, suffering, and difficult circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts, friends, ought to have a joyful, prayerful shape because we possess the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to face whatever circumstances come and offer prayerful, joyful offerings to Him because we've been caused to be in Him, to receive His grace and peace, so that we can give thanks and offer joyful prayers even amid difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts ought to be transformed into the shape of Christ's heart, a thankful heart, a joyful, prayerful shape.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a third shape as well in verse 5, and that is a gospel shape.
SPEAKER_01: A gospel shape.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I thank my God always with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_01: So we see this gospel shape here is the reason for Paul's thankful, prayerful, joyful heart.
SPEAKER_01: He says, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_01: What's that first day?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that takes us all the way back to our walk through Acts in Acts chapter 16 when Paul first arrived in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: He arrived there and there was no synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: There weren't enough Jewish men to have a synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: He met a woman named Lydia, who was a seller of purple, who wasn't even a native to that region.
SPEAKER_01: He met her at a place of prayer outside the city by a small stream, and she became the first convert to Christ in Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: Potentially the second convert was a demon-possessed girl who was being used as a prophet machine, whom God delivered from that evil spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe she came to Christ, maybe she didn't, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We do know for sure, though, that another convert was that Philippian jailer.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that because Paul released that young girl from her imprisonment to the spirit, that made the men who owned her all angry because they couldn't bring in money anymore through her.
SPEAKER_01: And so they threw Paul into prison.
SPEAKER_01: God caused an earthquake.
SPEAKER_01: Prison doors opened.
SPEAKER_01: All the prisoners are ready and able to walk free, and the prisoner or the jailer is about to take his own life.
SPEAKER_01: He'll lose it anyway if he loses his prisoners.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, we're all here.
SPEAKER_01: And his response is to be so awestruck that he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_01: And he and his family came to saving faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first days.
SPEAKER_01: Until now.
SPEAKER_01: This letter is likely at least five years later.
SPEAKER_01: And here the church is now sending Epaphroditus with a gift of financial support.
SPEAKER_01: And he says later in chapter 4 that no other church in that region of the world, no other church in Macedonia partnered with him in such a way.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I thank my God because of your partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That word partnership is the word fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: It's another common theme in this letter.
SPEAKER_01: We have fellowship with the church here, partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 2, verse 1, we have fellowship with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 1, we have fellowship in Christ's sufferings.
SPEAKER_01: We have fellowshipping as a verb in giving and receiving in chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: So this is another common theme.
SPEAKER_01: Fellowship by itself refers to sharing, giving and receiving, sharing in kind, or holding something in common.
SPEAKER_01: I like the way that Roger Ellsworth comments on this concept.
SPEAKER_01: He says, we have a tendency to use the word fellowship very loosely these days.
SPEAKER_01: Any gathering of Christians in which there is a feeling of happiness and camaraderie is called fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: We almost use the word synonymous with good food and a few laughs.
SPEAKER_01: I would argue that's not necessarily a bad thing, but he says, listen, but that of course makes Christian fellowship no different from what unbelievers often enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Christian fellowship is a marvel.
SPEAKER_01: People who by nature have nothing in common find a common life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's the key to Christian fellowship, to Christian partnership.
SPEAKER_01: That is in part why we call our smaller gatherings that take place after our main service fellowship groups.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that we are fellowshipping as a verb, as something that we're doing, but that we are partnering together around a common life and a common purpose to learn and to grow together through the teaching of God's word because everyone present is in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Here, Paul's partnership with the church was in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The believers in Philippi had hearts that were shaped by the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And that gospel shape was then evident, was displayed in their partnership in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: That surely occurred through prayer, encouragement, and as we know, even financial support.
SPEAKER_01: And it's because of that fellowship in the gospel, that partnership in the gospel, that Paul was concerned about their joy, their endurance, their humility, their unity.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's people must pursue those things because the pursuit of joy, endurance, humility, unity, and other Christian Christ-like characteristics reveal that God is at work in us.
SPEAKER_01: Our identity in Christ must shape our mindset, it must shape our hearts, and thirdly, it must shape our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me with me at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: I am sure of this.
SPEAKER_01: That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's step back and get the complete picture for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The church in Philippi, who knows how big it is?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's still meeting in Lydia's home, but we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: The church in Philippi sent Epaphroditus to Rome with a financial gift for Paul.
SPEAKER_01: That gift was evidence to Paul of their partnership, their fellowship with him in the gospel ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Their partnership in the gospel ministry was evidence to Paul that God had begun a good work in them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we tend to get bent out of shape about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: We get upset sometimes if it sounds like someone is emphasizing one over the other.
SPEAKER_01: We should really strive to be more like the Apostle Paul, who holds both positions simultaneously.
SPEAKER_01: It's obvious later in the letter in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, where believers are told to work out their own salvation while at the same time God is at work in them to do his own will and purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Both sovereignty and responsibility are in the same sentence.
SPEAKER_01: That pattern is displayed here at the beginning of the letter.
SPEAKER_01: The Philippians are working out their salvation.
SPEAKER_01: They're showing evidence of God's good work in them through their partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, God is the one who began that good work in them, and he is the one who will bring it to completion.
SPEAKER_01: He says to them, the day of Christ is coming when God will complete his work.
SPEAKER_01: It's a day you need to be prepared for, even though you have no idea when it will arrive.
SPEAKER_01: We can, though, like the apostle, be sure, be certain, be convinced that God will finish what he started.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of time, God will have no uncompleted projects.
SPEAKER_01: The coming winter will not interrupt God's plan to finish his work.
SPEAKER_01: Like it will with me.
SPEAKER_01: God will finish what he started.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, when the day of Christ comes, his work will be finished.
SPEAKER_01: But it won't be finished until that day of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So we must endure with the knowledge of our identity in Christ, with hearts shaped by the mind of Christ, having the heart of the Lord and having our hope in his coming when he will finish everything.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord's coming will bring the completion of our formation into the image of Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Now the context for that hope, for that certainty, is in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: But that's next Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: He says, It is right for me to feel this way about you all.
SPEAKER_01: Because I hold you in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: For you are all partakers with me of that grace.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Listen, I'm in prison.
SPEAKER_01: And you have partnered with me in my imprisonment, in the defense of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And in those trying times, Paul could be humble as he served a humble Lord, thankful and joyful in prayer, as he opposed those who opposed the gospel, and as he encouraged others in the participation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: As he's responding to the Philippian church, he's saying, Dear church, remember and hold on to your identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let that flow out of you.
SPEAKER_01: Let that flow out of you in hearts shaped into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And when you have that, your hope will endure with certainty, not because it's in your circumstances, whether you're in prison or not, whether the gospel is received or not, whether you're happy or sad, but because Christ's coming and he will fulfill his work.
SPEAKER_01: So we too must have hearts shaped by the sure hope of God's work in us.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, it may feel like there's not much progress being made in your life.
SPEAKER_01: However, if you are in Christ, you can be certain that he has begun a good work in you.
SPEAKER_01: And if he's begun a good work, will it ever be unfinished?
SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, until he finishes it.
SPEAKER_01: But he will finish the good work he's begun in you.
SPEAKER_01: That work then should be displayed in transformed lives more and more until God brings his work to completion.
SPEAKER_01: In another letter, the apostle Paul says to put on Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says to the Colossian church, to set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's a focus issue, right?
SPEAKER_01: It means when you're at work, you need to pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: But do all things for the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure that everything that you do is focused on the things that are above.
SPEAKER_01: For you've died.
SPEAKER_01: And your life is hidden with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_01: There's that being in Christ element.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Christ, who is your life, appears, because he will come back, then you also will appear with him in glory.
SPEAKER_01: That only happens because his work is complete.
SPEAKER_01: C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis said that putting on Christ is not one among many jobs that a Christian has to do.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a sort of special exercise for the top class.
SPEAKER_01: He says it is the whole of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: That's the essence of the beginning of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: He starts his thank you letter by pointing to the Lordship of Christ over his people and saying, Be conformed to who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds us then that we possess an identity in Christ, and that our identity must transform our outlook.
SPEAKER_01: It needs to transform how we think, how our hearts are shaped, and in our hope and the certainty of Christ's work.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, grant us this transformation.
SPEAKER_01: We desire it.
SPEAKER_01: As your people, we want to be made like you.
SPEAKER_01: We want to bring ourselves into obedience to your word.
SPEAKER_01: Humble us.
SPEAKER_01: Shape us.
SPEAKER_01: Give us certain hope in you above all things.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to look to you.
SPEAKER_01: Not just for the needs that we have in our daily life.
SPEAKER_01: Not only when it's easy to do.
SPEAKER_01: Not only when our lives are hard and we're crying out to you.
SPEAKER_01: But because we recognize who we are in you.
SPEAKER_01: Do a work in us, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That good work.
SPEAKER_01: Grant us the certain hope that you will not forsake us, you will not leave us, but that you will finish your work in due time.
SPEAKER_01: So we pray, Lord, come.
SPEAKER_01: Come and finish your work.
SPEAKER_01: Until then, draw our eyes heavenward to have that hope established firmly in who you are and the certainty of your coming.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.