Philippians 1:1-11 "Thanks and Joy"

Prayer

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD.

Joke

There's this guy who had been lost and walking in the desert for about 2 weeks. One hot day, he sees the home of a missionary.
Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary finds him and nurses him back to health.
Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town. On his way out the backdoor, he sees this horse.
He goes back into the house and asks the missionary, "Could I borrow your horse and give it back when I reach the town?"
The missionary says, "Sure but there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say 'Thank God' to make it go and 'Amen' to make it stop."
Not paying much attention, the man says, "Sure, OK."
So he gets on the horse and says, "Thank God" and the horse starts walking. Then he says, "Thank God, thank God, " and the horse starts trotting.
Feeling really brave, the man says, "Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God" and the horse just takes off.
Pretty soon he sees this cliff coming up and he's doing everything he can to make the horse stop.
"Whoa, stop, hold on!!!!"
Finally he remembers, "Amen!!"
The horse stops 4 inches from the cliff. The man leans back in the saddle and says, "Thank God!"

Introduction

Not perhaps the right time, or certainly the best way to give thanks to God!

This morning we are going to look at just two element of this incredibly rich passage. We will first look at the thanks that Paul is giving, and the consider what he has to say about joy.

Paul probably wrote – or more likely dictated – this letter while he was in prison in Rome.

What do we give thanks for? (ASK)

Things

Friends

What does Paul give thanks for?

There was lots to be thankful for:

• Epaphroditus had been sent with a gift, and a brief to look after Paul (2:25, 4:18)

2 Cor 8:1-5

¹And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.² Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³ For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴ they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. ⁵ And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.

Missionary support starts very early in the life of the church! The Phil's had adopted Paul as their supported missionary as he spread the gospel. They followed his progress, and sent him money, and help as was required. They were not a rich church.

• Here was the first European Church – possibly the first truly gentile church (Lydia was a convert to Judaism). Maybe Paul was specially pleased with this church, he was the 'apostle to the gentiles', and this would have marked a significant step forward.

• The slave girl who had identified them, and got them thrown into prison in the first place.

Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved. ¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned round and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her! At that moment the spirit left her.

And then when her owners found out, things started to get ugly. Paul and Silas end up in jail after a beating which led to ...

• There was the conversion of the Jailer (Acts 16), who was impressed by the way the apostle and his followers behaved, after the earthquake had apparently set them free.

• They had become good friends to Paul and he longed to see them again.

That was definitely NOT what he was giving thanks for

The thanks he gave was because of their Life in Christ, because of what they were – those who had dedicated their life to Christ, not because of the things they had done. This is the source of Joy for Paul. He says it later on in the letter:

3:8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

... and if its true for him, it will be true for those he becomes friends with.

What gives Paul his joy?

Now lets go on to look at what it is that give Pauls his joy. There are two things to look at here – his partnership with the Phil's , and his confidence in God.

Partnership

The word used for partnership is “koinonia”, it is sometimes translates fellowship, but has a sense of having a task to do, as in the fellowship of the ring, the first book of Lord of the rings, in which a group set out to destroy the ring.

The Phil's have shared in his work in a very real way. Not only have they supported him in his ministry and mission, but they are also doing the same things themselves. Pauls joy here is not the activities involved in the common task, but the fact that all are involved and are together in the task they are facing.

Confidence

In verse 6 Paul says “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God has begun a work of salvation, as the slave girl had said “these men ... are telling you the way to be saved” It is not us that starts the process, any more than it was the Phil's or even Paul. Nothing that any of us do can save us from death. It is God who starts the process because of his Grace and love for us.

John 6:⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.⁶⁴Yet there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵He went on to say, This is why I told you that no-one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. ⁶⁶From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Its as if God says “I've started so I will finish”. How many of us say that, and never do even the next thing. Paul's confidence is not based on his own, or the Phil's perseverance. His confidence is based on God and his promises. God will do the next thing, God will provide for those he has saved, God will give you a better close relationship with Jesus and the Christians around you, so that you will be able to say with Paul 3:8 “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

God will finish. Wherever you end up, whatever you have to go through God will be there:

Ro 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This means that we can be:

• bold rather than tentative

• confident rather than nervous

• grateful rather than uncertain

• rejoicing rather than be afraid

Mark was saying last week that we should live in the authority of God, and not be afraid to exercise that authority. The same theme is picked up here, that we can have confidence in God, that we can follow the promptings of His spirit, and rejoice in all that He is doing amongst us.

What is Joy like?

Bryn Howarth said the other night that he loves the look of Joy on a winners face. He mentioned Kelly Holmes, “the Eyes”.

That's great, but that's not the type of Joy that we have as Christians – not all the time. We may certainly experience that type of joy, after a time of praise and worship, or after we've experienced a miracle, but not all the time. We're looking for something a lot less fleeting. That expression had left Kelly's face in a couple of days, or even sooner. No, what we want is more like Pauls joy. Joy that you can keep even while you're in chains.

How about this guy? Cartoon

That's NOT Bryn Howarth.

Does he really have any joy at all – he doesn't look or sound that different, he does have one thing right though – Pauls joy is certainly deep in his heart.

Here's a definition by John MacAuthur that I thought fitted the bill: “Joy savours thoughts of another's goodness, kindness, love, compassion, gentleness, sacrifice, and care. It forgives the rest “ It reminded me very much of something that Fran said at the AGM, as part of her church wardens report. She spoke about keeping your eyes on the cross, and not on each others weaknesses, and quoted Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

Compare the list above with the list of the fruits of the Spirit in Gal 5:22-23 “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control“

How do I get joy?

Perhaps the Americans have it right, perhaps its “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as the Declaration of Independence says – will that bring joy? Judging by the debate on the internet the pursuit of happiness actually leads to the exact opposite – there is a lot of anger out there that one man's' idea of happiness is very different from another's. Joy is not happiness, but it is like it in that the pursuit of it will never get you there!

To understand how we get joy, lets look at another of the phrases that Paul uses in this passage.

“The fruit of righteousness”.

The fruit of righteousness is evident in a person because of who they have become in Christ. You are dead to sin and alive to God, you have died that your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Romans 6:11 & Colossians 3:3) ... the fruit of righteousness may be cultivated by meditating on the Word of God, speaking the Word, praying in the spirit and worshipping in the relationship that has been established between you and God in Christ. (Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord 2 Peter 3:18)

The fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the spirit, whatever you choose to call it grows in you, all you have to do is cultivate it. Sometimes it will grow and you will be able to see the blooms open, like a rose on a summers day. Sometimes there will appear to be nothing happening, like the trees in garden with bare branches because of the late spring, but the growth had begun ....

Another way of looking at this is the work of building a house. At times you see great progress - such as when the walls are going up. At other times progress seems slow or non-existent - such as when the work is going on inside – the plastering and painting but its all an essential part of the process. The Christian life consists of both. There are times when you will see rapid growth and dramatic change in your life. There are other times you may feel that God has stopped working in your life. That will never happen . . . He may be doing some work inside - on some areas of your character before He begins in another area of your life.

The important thing is that you are growing in Christ, more like Christ, closer to His ideal for your character and your life, as Paul recognises later on in Philippians 4:11-14

¹¹ ... for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do everything through him who gives me strength. ¹⁴ Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

Only once the worries and concerns that we spend all our energies on become less important, and we have learnt to truly have confidence in God can we find perfect contentment, then we can appreciate the joys around us – those that God gives us: the Joy of our salvation, the Joy of the salvation of others, the Joy of praising God, the Joy of loving others, and so on..

We've seen what Paul had to be thankful for – the Philippians had been good to him, but more importantly they had trusted in the Lord Jesus. It was Pauls confidence in God, and his partnership with the Philippians, in Christ that gave him such Joy.

So to end, I'd like each of us to join in Pauls prayer at the end of this passage. Use the prayer to pray for everyone in Christ Church, for all the other disciples of Christ that you know, for those brothers and sisters that are currently close to you, and for those who are now distant for whatever reason.

“that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.