Wednesday, November 8, 2023 PM

Philippians 1:1-2 and the Saints in Christ

Let's begin in verse one so we can hear Paul's addressing the church. Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you, making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 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.

Let's pay attention to verses three through five, but you can hear the context of Paul's thankfulness to God in his prayers for this church. He identifies them as the saints, those who have been made holy in Christ, and he addresses them in two ways.

They are both in Christ and they are in Philippi. Every Christian has a double address. No matter where we are, we are located in Christ, and then we are located in various places. And this is the way that Paul would often address those to whom he was writing.

They may be in Philippi, but they are also in Christ Jesus. Now concerning the church in Philippi, Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. And then this is qualified by a few statements.

He says, always, in every prayer of mine, making requests for you with all joy. Why? He says, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. That's a long run-on sentence, which is common for Paul.

Thanksgiving to God for Divine Intervention

But if you wanted to break it down into something very simple, he says, I thank God. Then everything else just qualifies and modifies and clarifies his giving thanks to God. He says, I thank God. Now, very often, when we thank God, we reflect upon, perhaps, the recent past, maybe go on farther back, and we may have a list of blessings in mind that have particularly impacted us in our situation.

I was going through a tough time, and God answered my prayers, sustained me, gave me what I needed, answered me, and I thank God. And it's very appropriate to thank God for the many blessings, as the hymn says, to count our blessings and name them one by one to see what God has done.

But when we read Paul's thankfulness for the Philippian church, I think it's interesting to note how he gives thanks and for what he gives thanks. First of all, he's thankful for divine intervention. He's thankful for divine intervention.

He's not writing to thank the Philippians, I thank you for being such a supportive church, and they were. I thank you for being a good example to all the other churches in Macedonia, and they were. But he says, I thank God.

God is the sole aim of his thankfulness. What do unbelievers have to give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day? They may be able to make a list, but then the heading at top probably is going to stump them. To whom are they thankful for all of these things?

Will they go ahead and bite the bullet and thank themselves for being so good to me? I thank myself for being so good to me. What else do they have? Perhaps they'll be thankful to others, but they cannot give an accounting for all of the things in their life that they enjoy, just making a list of other people, because God sends his rain on the just and the unjust.

He makes his sun to shine upon the just and the unjust. There are so many things in every person's life that they cannot give an accounting for other than the grace of God. And Paul here gives thanks to God.

He says, my God, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. That may sound like Paul is giving credence to everybody has their own God, but of course that's not what he's saying. When he says, my God, he's being very personal.

He's being very personal. God is not just the God, and he is. He certainly is not a God among many, but he is the God. But it's not simply that there's an abstract reality and truth that there is the God, but that Paul knows God personally.

He is my God. I thank my God. This does not mean that Paul has somehow personalized God to fit his desires, to fit his preferences. He has not ordered a assemble yourself God from Ikea and put him together piece by piece.

He has not ordered a custom-made God to fit Paul's desires and preferences, but he is the God. We're having some sort of argument in the lobby. I don't know what's going on. I was teaching one time, I think I was all of 23 years old, and I was teaching weekly at a retirement village in Memphis, Tennessee.

And I was trying to get through the book of Esther, and it was a difficult task, to say the least, because I had no idea what was going on. And I was trying to explain the book of Esther to a group of 85-year-olds, and all of them were asleep.

However, just outside the room, they began to rip up and install new carpet, which woke everybody up. So that was a positive, but they were all looking off that direction while I was trying to teach Esther.

It was the only time I seriously considered just throwing in the towel. There was a wasp in Tennessee one time, too, but I won't get into that. So Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

So not only is he personal, but he's persistent. When he thinks about the Philippians, he thanks God for what is going on in their lives. Very commonly, we thank God for what's going on in our lives. How interesting that when we pray for others, we often think about their burdens, we often think about their needs, and that's good, because we love one another and care for one another, and we want to see the Lord bless others and help them in their time of need.

But it's interesting to just note that when Paul is praying for the Philippian church, he is thanking God for what God is doing in other people's lives. What a neat way to pray, to think of others, to think of how God is working in their lives, and to thank God for what He's doing in them.

And we can do that because we are in Christ together. What happens in their lives matters to me, and I can rejoice with those who rejoice. Yes, we weep with those who weep, but we also are to rejoice with those who rejoice.

So Paul is thankful for divine intervention, and he gives God the sole credit, all the glory, he gives Him all the thanks. Why? Because God is the sovereign actor. He's the one who's doing the work, so he gets the thanks.

He gets the credit because it's God who's doing it. And notice, what is God doing? In verse 5, we see, He thanks God for what? Verse 5, for your fellowship in the gospel, for your fellowship in the gospel.

So I thank God, that's the main sentence structure, and then everything else just modifies that. Why is He thanking God? For the Philippians, why? For their fellowship in the gospel. Thank you, God, that I have fellowship with these believers in the gospel.

You brought them in to this fellowship. You brought them in to share in this life that we have together in Christ. I thank God for our fellowship in the gospel. God saved sinners. He saved all kinds of people in the city of Philippi.

There were women who were meeting out by the river, because there were not enough devout Jewish men to even have a synagogue. And these women would meet out by the river to pray. I think there's a whole spiritual about that.

And God saved Lydia and others. There was a young girl who was possessed by a demon, and she was a slave girl and owned by wretched owners who used her for divination. And God delivered her from her demon.

She was one of the church members, I think. There was a jailer whose job was to keep prisoners, to make sure that they were beaten properly, chained up properly, and executed properly. God saved him and his whole household.

All manner of people there in Philippi had come into the fellowship together. They would never have met each other, never have known each other, except now they're in fellowship in communion together in the gospel, in the good news of Jesus Christ.

The word gospel that Paul was using was a word that a lot of people used in that time. A lot of people knew it, and very often it was tied to politics. The Roman emperor, whether it was Caligula or Claudius or Nero or whichever one it was, was very fond of telling everybody about how he was going to save them.

In fact, one of the titles of the Roman emperor was Savior. Savior. Well, that's the promises of politicians still today. Here's how we're going to save you from all your problems. And just like politicians of today, politicians back then would come out with a new announcement, a new policy, a new way of doing things, and here's the good news.

And the gospel, the euangelion, the good news would come from Rome very often, and it was always different. Here's the new way we're going to save you. That old way didn't work so well. Still your Savior, by the way.

The thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it didn't come from Rome, it came from heaven, and it was long attested to, and it never changed, and it always bore fruit. And so Paul was very thankful for the fellowship that they had in the gospel.

God is a sovereign actor in saving sinners and in sustaining saints. Not only does he save sinners, he sustains saints. You see that in verse 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

So he saved you on the first day, and he saved you on the second day, and he saved you on the third day, and every day until now. It wasn't a single day from the beginning until now, not a single day in your first day of salvation until now, wherein you carried you through.

It's God who sustains us. It's God who sustains us, like the new hymn says, he will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. And so Paul gives thanks to God. God is his sole aim in the thanksgiving because God is the sovereign actor.

He's the one who saves the sinners, and he's the one who sustains the saints. And so when Paul reflects upon the Philippian congregation, every time he thinks about them, he gives thanks to God for what happened there.

And you can read about what happened there in Acts 16, quite a story. The way in which God divinely directed Paul and his missionary troop to Philippi when that was not anywhere near on their agenda. How God brought them there, the things that God did for them there, and even though Paul and Silas suffered in the prison, God made a way, gave victory.

Intercession, Supplication, and Joy in Prayer

Now, let's think about how Paul phrases this. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

And so Paul is saying, I am thanking my God as I remember you. Every time I do, I thank my God for you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you. So Paul is making a request for these Philippian saints.

I think my dad has a list of people he prays for and lasts a week, and there is just a big old long list every day of the week that he prays for. When we pray for people, we are interceding for them. That's a very Christ-like thing to do.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. It is a loving act that he does. Because he loves us, he intercedes for us. And we never have to fear that any prayer or need of ours would ever come before the Father's attention without being presented by the Son in all of the grace of the Spirit.

And we pray for others, we are interceding for them. Not praying for ourselves, that's fine to do. Pray for yourself. Make supplication, ask God. We are actually instructed to do that later on in Philippians.

Be anxious for nothing, right? But pray about all that stuff you'd be anxious about if you didn't pray about it. So, this is an example of intercession. He's interceding, but he's being thankful while he does that.

And he remembers, in verse 3, God's providence to the saints. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. There's always a connection to Paul's mind when he thinks about the Philippians, about what God did for them.

And then he requests God's plenty, or his plentitude for the saints in verse 4. He, notice, always, he always, in every prayer of mine, making request for you all with joy. He's making request for them.

What does he know about their needs? Probably knows quite a bit. Epaphroditus has lately traveled from Philippi and even grew very ill, nigh unto death, trying to make it to where Paul was imprisoned in Rome.

But Epaphroditus made it by the grace of God. And he has filled Paul in on all the needs that goes on there amongst the Philippians. The brethren, amongst the saints at Philippi. And so Paul is making request for these needs.

He's making a request for them, like we've been doing for one another tonight. Making request for the needs and asking God to meet those needs. And we should have every confidence to do so because God...

What does James tell us? We are to ask in faith, not doubting. God gives stingily. God gives reluctantly. James says that God gives how? Liberally, generously, above and beyond. Oh, my, that's too much.

If you've ever had somebody in your life who kept on giving to you and giving to you and giving to you, and you begin to think, that's a little bit too much. You know, well, God gives generously. And so we can ask, knowing that not only does he own the cattle on a thousand hills, he owns the thousand and first hill, the cattle there, and so forth.

And so Paul, in his being thankful, notice he also is making requests, interceding with joy. So he's rejoicing, giving praise to God as he prays for the saints. This phrase, with joy, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you all with joy.

With joy. And he remembers what God has done for them. He knows what they need God to do for them. He knows who they are in Christ. And so in his praying for them, as he's thanking God for all that God has done for them, he's making requests for what God will do for them.

And he undertakes this entire way of praying with joy. All right. So what is joy? Have any handy dandy definitions of joy? Peaceful excitement, really happy, but maybe not because of your situation. Joy is something that doesn't, it's not dependent on our circumstances.

Faith, Hope, Love, and Joy in the Christian Life

Yeah. There are things that he knows that changes the way he lives. And we think about the triad of Christian virtues that Paul sometimes will talk about in terms of faith, hope, and love. And you know, my favorite illustration for that is a river.

That faith is what gives our Christian life our shape, just like the banks of a river wherever they may go gives the shape to the river. And, well, of course, Paul says that the most important out of the three, faith, hope, and love is love, because what is Christianity without love?

He uses a few illustrations, doesn't he, of the pointlessness of it all if we don't have love. And that's like the water in the river, isn't it? Some of the rivers around here in Oklahoma are just not so much rivers, are they?

They're just big, ugly, muddy ditches, you know. And I feel a little slighted as I see the sign. Oh, I'm coming up to the Arkansas River. Oh, no, that's not much of a river. That's a ravine, the Arkansas Ravine.

But just like a river is not much of a river without water, Christianity is not much of anything without love. And so in the sense of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love, faith is like the shape of the river.

Love is like the water that fills up that river. And what about hope? You know, if you have a hole in the ground and water in it, but it's not going anywhere, do you know what you have? That's right, a mosquito breeding ground.

That's what you have. You've got a pond or you've got a lake, but you don't have a river. River's on the move, going someplace. And that's like hope in the Christian life. That we're defined by faith, we're filled up with love, and we're heading somewhere.

That's our hope. And now, you know, imagine with me that we're with the mounts at this moment. And my son, Emmett. And we're standing there by the river in southeast Oklahoma, where they're hiking. What do you hear?

Yeah, you hear that sound? Yeah. That's joy. You know, when our lives are moving at the speed of our hope in Christ, with the fullness of the love of Christ, according to the shape of Christ and our faith, you know, what do we experience?

It's joy. And all of these graces are something that is given to us. It's extrinsic from us. It's something that is given to us. You know, our faith, our hope, and our love. These are not things that we, you know, muster up from, you know.

That's something that comes from the Lord. And so is the joy, that bright and burbling sound of a good Christian life. Well, also, Paul is thankful, and he relates by God's purpose to the saints in verse 5, interceding for them because they have a fellowship in the very same gospel.

He's far away from them. It's been 10 years since he planted the church there. He's very far away from them. And he really does want to see them again, as he says in the letter. But even though he's very far away from them, they can still have fellowship together in the gospel because of who Christ is.

Continual, Comprehensive, and Considered Thanksgiving in Prayer

And the last thing we see is that Paul is thankful, not only for divine intervention and thankful in offering intercession, but he's also thankful while making supplication. And he does so continually.

The always and the every stand out there in verse 3, don't they? I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy. So it's continual, and he makes requests for them all with joy.

So it's comprehensive. He doesn't leave people out in his prayers for them. He even prays for that little girl that annoyed him so much, that he cast the demon out of her. She probably was much more pleasant afterwards, though.

And it's a considered thankfulness. He prays. He says, I pray for you, making a request for you. You know, not everybody is the same. Not all our brothers and sisters in Christ are exactly the same. They don't all need the exact same thing.

And so as we're praying for one another, the Lord has arranged matters to such a degree that we may reflect in love and in consideration about each other and our particular needs. All right. We don't have a standard toss-up prayer for everybody.

You know, a Christian type of love is to consider each person who they are, what they need, and to make that thankful intercession, he says, for you in particular. And this will only enrich our prayer time, only enrich our prayer lives as we add thankfulness to our intercession.

We will undoubtedly be confronted with a plethora of needs this November. There's just going to be needs. There will be needs among our family members, amongst our friends, amongst those who we hope to sit down together with at a Thanksgiving table.

And there will be needs amongst us as a body in Christ. And we will be asked time and again and compelled time and again to pray for one another. We just will. I need to pray for so-and-so. I shouldn't be anxious and afraid and worry.

I should pray. Now, when we do, we can marry thankfulness to that intercession. What a thought. I can begin by thanking God for his work in this person's life, for his many blessings in this person's life.

And, you know, as I thank God, you know how it is. When you begin your prayers with Thanksgiving and you thank God for all the ways in which he's been faithful to you over all of the years, when you finally get around to asking God to meet the needs that are presently in front of you, don't you have a lot of confidence he's going to answer and do well?

That's the same thing that will build our faith when we pray for one another, as we consider all the ways in which God has been at work in this person's life to sustain them and to provide for them and to help them to grow up into Christ.

And we can thank God for all those graces that are evident in their life before we ever ask God to meet their needs. But are we not more confident at that point? Doesn't that build our faith as we intercede and ask God to do something for this person?

I'll repeat myself on this story. Sunday, maybe, if I remember the story. I never know what I'm going to do on Sunday morning sometimes. But I remember when I was an intern at Southwoods Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, we started to have a prayer time before the morning service.

I can't remember if it was before Sunday school or in between the two. But a couple of us and later on, about four or five of us got together in the conference room in one of the office areas, and we began to have prayer before the service.

And we weren't there very long, less than two years total. But during that time, two of the families had infants who died very, very shortly after birth. One right after the other. And in the life of a church, to walk through that, to live through that, in the course of less than eight months, there were two little white coffins down at the front.

And there was a third situation that was ongoing. And it was looking bad. It was almost like, again, there was another young mother, and things were just not going well. And I remember praying, and I got a huge kick in the pants about prayer at that point.

Because all of us gathering there were very conscientious about our theology, about how we ought to pray. Careful not to step on God's toes about asking him to do too much that he may not be interested in doing, if you catch my drift.

If we were to pray, only thy will be done, that's basically all we ever prayed and never asked him for anything. Not really. I got so tired of praying like that. Praying like a theologian. And the Lord began to teach us to pray like little children.

You know, the little child, if he were there, or if she were there at that same conference table, they wouldn't hesitate at all, jump right in and say, dear God, please keep that baby safe, and bring that baby safely to its mommy's arms.

Amen. And that would be the kind of prayer that I think would please the Lord. And as I reflect on this passage, to add thankfulness to that. To add thankfulness to that, to build faith, and to pray with joy.

Closing Prayer and Thanksgiving

Okay, so questions or thoughts? Well, let's pray, and it will be dismissed. Father, we thank you so much for helping us tonight to think about your word. Thank you for the gift of prayer, how vital it is, how rich it is, what a comfort it is to know that you hear us favorably because of your son.

Even if we don't know how to pray, Lord, your spirit brings our groanings to you in a way that you understand. And we give you praise that you are a good and generous Father. There's always things that we can thank you for, and we ask that you would bring those to mind.

Give us eyes to see your goodness. Give us ears to hear your praises. May they be on our lips this Thanksgiving season, we pray.