Philippians 1:3-11
- David Fairchild
- Apr 18, 2004
- Series: Philippians
Verse 3- I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Paul is saying; every time I remember you I thank my God for you.
Each time I think of you I am thankful to God for each of you who come to Kaleo and call it home. Drew and I are honored and humbled that you allow us to be your Pastors.
There are some people, and certain times when you think of someone and it doesn’t give you joy, but grief. This is not the case with Paul when he thinks of the Philippians, and it isn’t the case when I think of you.
In Philippi, Paul was beaten, he was tossed in prison, but when he thinks of the Philippians he doesn’t think of the pain and suffering he went through, he thinks of the work of God through him as he watched those that were far off from God, those that didn’t know God, become God’s children as they were adopted in the God’s family. This thought causes Paul to forget about his pains and troubles at Philippi, and at Rome as he sits in Roman custody for 4 years. His sights are set upon God’s kingdom, and the work that has and will be done for the glory of God. He is consumed with that thought, and it shapes how he deals with past troubles and present difficulties.
It is hard for us at times to be thankful to God when we think of certain people. We see their sin, we hear their complaints, we watch as they don’t seem to be quite perfect in our eyes and it frustrates us.
Are we as a community thankful for one another?
Do we remember one another and tell each other we appreciate them and we see what God is doing in them.
Do we encourage each other to press on when it seems as if things aren’t going our way?
This is so important for God’s family because we have been knit together in Christ. We have all been saved by the same God, through the same grace, and are called by the same family name.
Our hearts should be thankful for the diversity in personalities, yet the unity in Christ. We should be happy that not everyone is as aggressive and bombastic as I am. We should be happy that not everyone is just a great listener but won’t give any advice. We should be happy that some are outgoing, some are introverts, some are doers and some are contemplative. God has joined us together in adoption with one another for eternity.
This is not a Jerry Springer family from the sticks in Louisiana, where we have to fight off our moms from stealing our boyfriends, our dad’s from sniffing glue, our uncles for being the kind of uncles that are on Jerry Springer, and our kids that try to imitate WWF moves with animals in the back yard.
Our family is a healthy family! Not because we have stunning looks and personalities that are irresistible, but because we are one in Christ. We now have the same Father. He’s a good Father. He’s the best Father. Our Father is God, and God loves His family.
How do we develop a thankful attitude for one another?
Verse 4- always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
Paul then says; every time I pray you’re in my prayers, and I pray for every one of you with joy.
Paul isn’t just moved to thank them when a random thought comes to his mind. He prays to God and comes to the throne of grace to make request for them to God.
Paul is saying that he is thinking of them as he makes joyful prayers to God! He is praying prayers of joy for those he loves.
Do you know that when I pray for you, I pray for many things? One of them is that God would grow you in Him so that everyone sees Him in you, and the other is a prayer of thanking God for you.
Scott and Kendall do you know that when I pray for you my heart is moved with joy when I think of you two. I thank my God for you in prayer because you have been so instrumental to our family. Drew and Heather, do you know that when I pray for your that I do so because I love you and because I have been honored to know you two, and I get to know your son and help him grow, and when I think of you three I am grateful and joyful. Chris, do you know that I am grateful for all that you have done since you have come to us from Seattle, that I pray for you in my prayers and since you have come to know us through living with us that almost since the day you moved in I have asked God to grow you in Him and I have thanked Him for you with joy.
Luke and Kathleen, Luke and Julia, Mark, Thomas and Suzanne, Paul and Vanessa, and everyone one of you that I have prayed for since you came to our family, I am praying for you with joy and at times in tears for your pain and suffering, for you loss, for your struggles. Do you realize how much you all mean to my family, and how grateful I am to know you this side of heaven? You are a blessing to us.
It’s hard to accept at times that we would know someone that is joyfully praying for our growth in Christ because we don’t want to seem like we don’t have it all together, and the idea that others are praying for us immediately makes us assume that people think something is wrong that needs praying for! Sometimes that is true, and sometimes we should just pray for one another in a heart of joy as we thank God for your family. Much as you would thank God for your children, and your parents, your wife, and your husband, we should pray each other, and we should have an attitude of thanksgiving and joy.
When we take on this posture of praying with thankfulness and joy for each other, what happens? We start being thankful for one another and joyful when we see each other.
I am convinced that how we pray for one another will determine how we treat one another. If we don’t pray, or at best only pray when the person you are praying for is having problems, what will be the outcome of how you view that person when you see them? We will think they always have problems, and they become a burden and not a blessing to us.
Paul moves to something specific that he is thinking of when he has thankful, joyful prayers to God.
Why is Paul thanking God with Joy?
Verse 5- for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
The Greek word used for “fellowship” is koinonia. The word is interesting because it doesn’t just mean that they have the gospel in common, it means they each participate in the gospel. Their fellowship is a fellowship that is actively participating in the work of the gospel.
This gives Paul a sense of joy and it makes him thankful that they have fellowship in the gospel.
Without it, we are nothing more than a social club that happens to meet on Sunday.
The gospel that Paul is referring to is neither to a body of teaching nor to a proclamation. The gospel that Paul is speaking of has to do with Christ, who He is and what He has done.
To preach Christ is to preach the gospel, which is all about Christ; to preach the gospel is to proclaim God’s good news of salvation that he has brought in Christ.
The Philippians furthered the Gospel for Paul in two ways: first by their generosity in sharing their material means as he was imprisoned for the sake of the gospel; second by their proclaiming, and living in response to the gospel in Philippi, where they were urged to “strive together for the faith of the gospel (verse 27),” and to “hold fast the word of life (2:16).”
Some of you don’t see how you have that kind of participation in the spread of the gospel. It sounds foreign to you because you don’t see how you can participate the same way the Philippians did.
What are the ways people are participating in the gospel, and ways we can participate more fully in the gospel?
Why it is important that we participate in the gospel together?
Christ brings fellowship out of those who were once enemies of God and enemies of each other. This is the reconciling affect of who Christ is and what He has accomplished. He has brought us into fellowship by His blood. His Kingship brings all of those in His Kingdom together in peace with Him and with each other.
This gospel that Paul speaks of is a gospel that is everlasting, but it is not just facts. The center of the gospel is Christ. It’s good news because of who Christ is, not who we are. It’s good news because of what Christ has done, not what we have done.
Paul then talks about the Philippians future. He tells them that he is…
Verse 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;
In other words, he is sure of what is to come.
Some of you hearing that statement might think that this idea of God keeping us safe until that day isn’t very important. You might even think the entire argument over whether you can lose or not loose your salvation is silly and it doesn’t matter.
But Paul gains confidence in a God that begins our faith, keeps our faith and ultimately completes it till the day we come to Christ.
We live in response to that awareness of our safety and it brings us joy and peace and boldness and confidence, much like Paul has in this letter. Having confidence in what God has started, and what God will complete changes how we respond to things in this life.
Are we taking confidence in our abilities or God’s?
This matters because how you view God’s faithfulness to you, and how you view God’s grace upon you is going to determine how you live.
If you live with a view that you are earning God’s favor, or that you have to maintain a level of performance, your motivation for following Christ is going to be short lived. Your confidence, like Paul’s, should never be in yourself but in Christ.
The way you will live if you have confidence in God is so radically different than how this world lives that you will actually find yourself having confidence when it makes no human sense to have confidence.
I have confidence as your pastor that God will bring you safely into eternity with Him and his family.
Verse 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.
It’s right for Paul to this of the church at Philippi, and it is right that I feel this way about you at the Church of Kaleo.
We all share of the same grace as Paul. We all share in the chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel with Paul.
Verse 8- For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection (in the bowels) of Jesus Christ.
Paul says that he longs for them affectionately in the gut of Christ. His love for the church and those in the church is so deep that he can’t even reach the depths of his own soul to satisfy what he feels.
He goes to Christ to be able to demonstrate his affection. He longs for them deeply in the depths of the gut of Christ.
Then Paul moves on to teach them what he desires for each of them.
This is the same that I desire for each of you.
Verse 9- And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more…
That your love for one another will superabound, that it is so much that it has enough to spare, that it is in excess.
And this love is rooted in…
… in knowledge and all discernment,
Paul is saying he wants this abounding love to be intelligent love that isn’t merely based upon emotional whims. He wants this love to have discernment so that….
Verse 10- that you may approve the things that are excellent,
The word approve is used in ancient metalworking and it means to test a metal to see if it has any value, to see if it is real, to test its strength.
In loving in knowledge and discernment, we will approve things that are best. We will know how to love the things that are excellent.
We will know how to tell the real Christian from the sheep in wolf’s clothes. This knowledge and discernment comes from knowing what the Bible says about what is real and what is false.
Paul then says it’s because he wants them and he wants us to be..
…that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
We will be able to be sincere before God. We will be found real we will not be ashamed. We will be found truthful and without offense to God and to each other.
This is all with a view to the day of Jesus who is coming again. He will come this next time not as a humble Galilean peasant, but as a victorious King who is going to judge each person to declare whether they are real and without offense.
How does Christ take us and make us sincere and without offense?
All of this results in a fellowship that is…
Verse 11- being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
We will be being filled constantly with the fruits of righteousness.
The word “filled” is pleroo in the Greek and it means full to the rim, as if the branches on the fruit tree are about to break from the weight of the fruit.
This results is all to the glory and praise of God. Our designed purpose being met.
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