Praying Joy: Philippians 1:1-11

Praying Joy: Philippians 1:1-11

Our Scripture reading this morning comes from Philippians 1:1-11. It says:

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 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. 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. 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, 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.

May God bless the reading of his Word. 

You know it never ceases to amaze me how much we tend to stress about temporal things, things that often resolve themselves easily enough in the end whether we stressed about it or not.  I think we sometimes easily confuse our tendency to have anxiety for something, with our need for doing something about it, as if the two proved mutually exclusive.  Sometimes, we believe we need to stress about it, or it will not get done.  For instance, I will often spend whole days at my work, working a particular issue, getting little to no resolution, going home, going to bed, lying awake in the wee hours of the morning, fretting about it, only to completely forget the issue a week later when it got resolved.  I will often go back and clean out my inbox, laughing that a particular issue proved so stressful in the first place.  I can recall the stress many here went through getting this building renovated.  Some of us continue to stress about the parking lot expansion we hope to accomplish.  But in the end, much of the anxiety we experience proves needless.  While prayerful effort always helps—because prayer reminds us of who can solve our issues—stressful fretting rarely helps.  

As we come to our text this morning in Philippians, Paul reminds us that God, who began a good work in each of us, will bring that work to completion.  So, why fret?  Why stress?  Why not spend our time and energy on some better purpose?  In fact, Paul spends most of his time and energy in these opening verses, doing that very thing.  In sentence after sentence, he pours out his heart in gratitude to God and in love for his fellow believers for their gospel partnership.  Though Paul, writing from prison, could have easily sunk into discouragement, anxiety, and depression because of his dire circumstance, he instead gives thanks to God for the fruit bore in the Philippian church.  Which begs the question, when discouraged, where does your mind tend to turn?  Do you see your circumstance as opportunity for growth, praise, and joy?  Do you abound in love for both God and those around you or do you languish in despair?

Which leads us to the main idea of our text today: God’s people must abound in love out of gratitude for God’s work in them and for the gospel partnership they share with one another.

Paul, along with his beloved Timothy, writes to the church at Philippi, who—if you recall—began with Lydia, the seller of purple goods, and later the Philippian jailer and his family in Acts 16.  Paul writes to thank them for the gift he received from them, sent from a member of their congregation, Epaphroditus, who, in turn, delivers this letter to the Philippian church.  Paul begins his letter, stating, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers”—in other words, the pastors or elders—“and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Typically, we tend to read through these introductions in the epistles with such rapidity that we often miss the depth they convey.  If you read a typical work e-mail, you will find some similarities, but also great differences.  Both biblical epistles, or letters, and work e-mails include: the identity of the writer, the recipient, and the subject the writer wishes to convey.  But they differ widely from there.  For instance, I never receive a blessing, or even such an exalted title as we see here in this letter in my work e-mails.  I never receive the blessing of “grace and peace” and neither does anyone bother to call me a “saint” in any official correspondence.  While many of us receive an occasional letter of appreciation from our work for a job well done, I would guess that none of us tend to receive the blessing this letter conveys.

Servants, or slaves, of Christ Jesus, here in this letter, offer saints in Christ Jesus—in other words, every person who puts their faith and trust in Jesus as their Savior and Lord, not just the pastors, not just the deacons, and certainly, not just the saints we read about in church history—all Christians have grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I dare not gloss over the magnitude of such a salutation.  Paul, in fact, changes the typical Greek salutation of chairein which means ‘greetings’ to charis—similar sounding words in Greek—which means ‘grace.’  He switches from greetings to grace.  And then offers the typical Hebrew salutation of shalom, or peace.  In other words, Paul offers more than standard greeting.  He offers invocation and blessing.  He offers what only God can give.

Which prompts the question: do you have this blessing of God’s grace, of unmerited favor, and God’s peace despite circumstance, offered to you in the finished work of Christ, who purchased that grace and peace for you by his death, burial, and resurrection?  And do you, likewise, offer that same grace and peace to others?  If you have the grace and peace Jesus offers, would others characterize you as gracious and peaceful?  Do you exhibit grace?  Or do you exhibit a critical, judgmental spirit?  Do you go around inspecting, observing, and criticizing, all in the name of trying to improve others around you, forgetting the log in your own eye?  Or do you realize how gracious God has been to you, seeking to extend that grace to others?  Do you resemble that servant in the Bible, who when forgiven a debt, attempts to choke out another servant who owes much less, forgetting all God forgave of you?  And do you exhibit peace?  Or do you exude disagreement, distress, and disharmony?  Do others gulp when they see you coming?  “Oh no.  What is he or she going to say or do now?”  Do you like keeping people off balance, never knowing how you will respond?  And if so, where does such dissatisfaction and factionalism come from?  The Bible is clear on this: wickedness.  “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” But in the mercy of God, he offers grace and peace.  And we should, in turn, offer the same to each other.

I. Show Gratitude for Gospel Partnerships, 3-8

A. Remember these gospel partnerships, resulting in intercessory joy, 3-5

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer”—my intercession—“with joy.”  Now a cynic might chalk Paul’s remembrance up to pure nostalgia, of a fond and forgetful reminiscence, where he idealizes their past dealings with one another.  But he operates under no such allusion.  Paul, writes from prison, recalling a time in prison there in Philippi.  Now the natural man, for the most part, would not consider that a fond memory.  But Paul, super-naturally transformed by Christ, filled with the grace and peace of Christ, looks back with joy.  But notice that Paul’s joyful remembrance results in something.  It results in intercessory prayer.  Dare I say that thinking of other believers should always result in praying for other believers.  I should not merely have good thoughts of you throughout our time apart, but pray for you, and you for me.  

And why does Paul count it joy to pray for these Philippian Christians?  He says, “Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”  What a comfort for Paul to know that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, what he had staked his whole life on, continued to go forth because of their ministry, because of their partnership.  While his chains confine him to preaching the gospel to the imperial guard as he states later in v13, and to the writing of letters to churches, Paul takes joy in their continued gospel partnership.  And what should that teach us?  It teaches us that Christian ministry requires all of us.  Not just the person in the pulpit, but the person in the pew.  You are the salt and light of Pittsburgh, and your respective communities.  If they have seen you, hopefully they have seen the Father, or at least they should, for you will be his witnesses it says in Acts 1:8 from here to the ends of the earth.

B. Anticipate a day of completed work, resulting in thankful affection, 6-8

“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.”  Paul can take joy in his brothers and sisters in Philippi, not necessarily because of his confidence in them, per se, but because of his confidence in God.  God not only began a good work in you.  God will bring that work to completion on the last day, the day of Jesus Christ.  Please do not miss the significance of this.  You did not choose God; he began that good work in you.  And neither will God require your own momentum to get you to persevere to the end.  With absolute certitude, Paul can—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—declare that God authored your salvation from beginning to end.  We like to talk about team synergy, or cooperation in our workplaces.  But this is not a synergistic work, of two or more making it happen, but a monergistic work, of one God—through the power of the Holy Spirit—accomplishing his work in and through you from beginning to end.  

Should that not, in turn, produce confidence in God?  What joy.  Because a perfect God cannot get it wrong.  Now please do not hear me suggest that you have no responsibility here.  We have work to do between now and when Christ returns.  But we do not work to attain or even maintain our position in Christ.  We work because Christ attained our position in Christ, by his finished work.  Philippians 2:12-13 will make that abundantly clear, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  So, please rest in the grace and peace God offers, in certitude that he goes with you every step of the way.

Paul has confidence that God both has and will do this for his fellow believers.  In fact, he says,  “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.  For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”  Because of the work God accomplished in the hearts of his people, Paul has deep, heartfelt feelings for them.  Like the vows taken by a married couple, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, believers share a deep and abiding bond with one another.  Or at least we should.  

And if you have not experienced this sort of deep, heartfelt feeling from fellow believers, then I can only imagine two possible realities: (1) Either the church you attend fails to live out this sort of heartfelt assurance that we can share in this wonderful grace of Jesus.  Or (2) You do not invest deeply enough in a church where believers do live out this sort of heartfelt assurance that we can share.  And I pray that this church would exhibit that.  But if you only give us five minutes before the service starts and five minutes after the service ends, you will be hard-pressed to experience the sort of depth Paul speaks of here.  In a day and age where community lacks, we can have familial bonds in Christ, partaking in: (1) the goodness of his grace, (2) the hardship of trials—in Paul’s case, imprisonment—and (3) the furtherance of both defending and confirming the gospel.  In other words, the church provides a support network, or sorts, that God intends for each of us.  God knows that we neither have all the gifts, nor all the courage required to operate on our own.  We need this in the 21st century as much as they needed it in the 1st.  Though these Philippian Christians do not physically abide in prison with Paul, they choose to share his burden all the same.  We can go and do likewise, bearing one another’s burdens, sharing in one another’s joys, and encouraging one another’s faith.

Do you have this same kind of depth of feeling for your fellow believers?  Do you realize the magnitude of what we share?  It runs deeper than anything we share with unbelievers, or at least, it should.  Many of you know that feeling of yearning that Paul speaks of when physically separated from a loved one.  Perhaps you have endured the death of—or the physical separation of—a loved one.  Most who live long enough will.  But this, perhaps, goes beyond mere human affection to godly affection, the affection of Christ Jesus.  Our bond in Christ means we have more in common with believers in Mississippi and Mumbai than with unbelievers next door, more in common with believers in a different age demographic than with unbelievers our own age, more in common with New Orleans Saints fans who happen to be saints in the Lord, than with unsaved Pittsburgh Steelers fans, for you Steelers fans.

Do you know the joy of Christian community?  A recent study, called the U. S. Loneliness Index, reports that nearly half of Americans state that they sometimes or always feel alone, with Generation Z—or those born between 1997 and 2012—considered as the loneliest, or most socially isolated, generation yet.  Additionally, a Chamber of Commerce report released in February of this year, ranked Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as one of the loneliest cities in America, with forty-six percent of households in Pittsburgh have people living alone.  The findings prove more disturbing than you might otherwise think.  For feelings of extended loneliness have the same effect on health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.  Meaning, chronic loneliness increases the risk of mortality by 30 to 40%.  Coincidentally, this rise in loneliness just so happens to occur at the same time that church attendance wanes.  Let that sink in for a moment.  Perhaps, the lonely should come to church.

Now, I must state my point clearly here.  We do not come together as Christians to avoid loneliness.  We come together as partakers in the historic reality that Jesus, our Savior and Lord, has saved us and made us his own.  Psalm 95:7, “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”  In his book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests that despite our own imperfections, a Christian serves as a great help to his or her brothers and sisters in Christ, as they mutually act as “bringers of the message of salvation,” the goal of all Christian community, he says.  Our partnership in the gospel, even when we cannot come together physically—as Paul cannot do in his imprisonment to experience the physical presence of his brothers and sisters at Philippi—our partnership should insulate us to some degree from this communal lack because we, as the church, have each other.  In vv3-8, Paul calls us to show gratitude for gospel partnerships.  Which leads us to…

II. Abound in Love with Knowledge, 9-11

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.”  What a righteous, helpful prayer.  Of this passage, 20th century, Welsh pastor, Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “Where there is no love there is no life, and there must be life before you can impart knowledge.  Paul is afraid of knowledge that is not based upon love, and in the same way he is afraid of love that cannot be controlled and checked by knowledge.”  In other words, you cannot love rightly without knowledge, and you cannot truly know someone until you love them.  For instance, I love my wife.  Loving her requires that I know her.  Otherwise, I merely love my own sentimental guesses and projections, my idealistic distortions, of who I think she is, or whom I want her to be, if I do not truly know her.  I must know to love.  Likewise, I must love to truly know.  Meaning that if I do not open my heart to others, I will not truly know others.  I will hold them at a distance, studying them in a clinical or mechanical sort of way, rather than experiencing them fully, both the good and the bad.

But, why this need?  Why this prayer?  Why should your love abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment?  Well, he tells us in v10.  “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.”  So, love that abounds more and more, firmly linked, and fully informed with knowledge and discernment, results in the ability to approve excellence, particularly the excellencies of Christ.  In other words, to discern what really matters, to focus on the truly important.  We can do a lot of good things with our lives.  Abounding in love with knowledge, that comes through knowing and being known by, loving and being loved by Jesus Christ, helps us to do the best thing with our lives.  

Again, Lloyd-Jones proves helpful here.  He says, “The whole art of life, I sometimes think, is the art of knowing what to leave out.”  So, I ask you this morning, what do you need to leave out?  What wastes your time?  How do you waste the time and energy of others?  What keeps you from purity and blamelessness for that last day when Christ returns?  Do you have in your mind that Christ watches everything you do?  And do you build with gold and silver, or wood, hay, and straw as we read in 1 Corinthians 3:12?  In other words, do you build your life around that which will last for eternity, or that which will burn on the day of judgment?  Even if Christ saves you from the flames, will he see your life as well spent, resulting in reward, or wasted, resulting in sorrow and loss, even if you get to heaven with the flames of hell licking at your heels?  My friends, God does not want to barely save you.  He wants to transform you.  He wants to fill you, it says, with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.  

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly on one of our C-17 aircraft out at the base.  During the mission, our pilots conducted several inflight refueling runs.  Now I had flown other inflight refueling missions before.  But never had I done so from the cockpit.  And let me just say that I experienced both exhilaration and terror simultaneously.  Exhilaration, for just the sheer awesomeness of such an experience, praising God for giving people smarter than I the know-how to have two aircraft flying at the speed of 265 knots, or 300 miles an hour, link up in the air for refueling.  I know I say, “Awesome” too often.  But I cannot think of another word for this.  Awesome.  Sheer Exhilaration.  But also, sheer terror.  Terror, for the very real fear that two aircraft flying at the speed of 265 knots, or 300 miles an hour, the first of which has a long stick-like boom coming off the back of it, hovering just above our windshield, could at any moment go right through it.  This sort of maneuver requires extreme precision to fly in such exacting formation for the safe download of fuel.  I believe we can learn from this example as we walk in step together in the Christian life.  Now thankfully, we walk—we remain on the ground, not in the air—going at much lower speeds.  If we bump into each other in our sin, hopefully we can more easily rectify the damage, then two aircraft flying at 265 knots, or 300 miles an hour.  Does this make sense?  If it does not make sense, perhaps a more familiar analogy might help.  Children that consistently spurn their parent’s advice, who often live contrary to their parent’s will, remain their parent’s children.  But they walk out of step with their parents.  I know some of you know this only too well.  We often pray for many of your adult children.  We often pray for many of your young children.  Now if parents live evil lives, it behooves children to walk out of step.  But if parents live righteous lives, then it behooves children—adult or actual—to walk in step.  

Because we serve a righteous father, it behooves us to walk in step, in his will, filled with the righteousness of his son, resulting in God’s glory and praise.  Therefore, we can abound in love with knowledge: with both love for God and for one another, with both knowledge of God and of his word, and knowledge of our fellow believers.  

Wouldn’t that serve as time better spent than all the fretting we do?  God’s people must abound in love out of gratitude for God’s work in them and for the gospel partnership they share with one another.  Honestly, nothing less will prepare us for the rigors of life than this gospel-focus of gratitude, that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment…to the praise and glory of God.