We Are Doing A Great Work! - Philippians 1:4-8 Series

Philippians 1:3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 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. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Introduction

The Fellowship of the Ring

If you have the same attention span problems I have, you may not have sat all the way through the movie The Fellowship of the Ring or read the book, so for those who don’t know the story, it’s a fellowship of nine characters who band together to protect a special ring, because that ring is the key to defeating the forces of evil. And it is an interesting band of characters to be the ones to save the world. Two men, a wizard, an elf, a dwarf, and four little hobbits. An unlikely fellowship. The wizard had a lot of powers, but he typically operated alone. And the best you can say about the elves and dwarfs was they were like the English and the French – kind of a mutual attitude of superiority. Definitely no love lost between them. And the hobbits didn’t have much of anything going for them other than loyalty. Basically children with giant feet. And when they were first thrown together there was more than a little animosity and distain and suspicion within the group. But once they all realize the importance of the task, and they start their journey together, their disdain gives way to friendship, and before long they are willing to lay down their lives if need be for the progress of the group. In fact, before it’s all over, two of them do sacrifice their lives for the others. This unlikely little brotherhood goes up against impossible odds as they fight against armies of monsters and orcs and trolls and balrogs and every kind of evil being in a valiant quest to guard that ring.

The Fellowship of the Ring Gospel

The reason I bring all that up is because last Sunday we began a study through the book of Philippians and in this opening section of the book, Paul talks about how much joy he gets from his partnership in the gospel with the Philippians. That word translated partnership is the Greek word koinonia, which is normally translated fellowship. A strengthened form of that same word appears again down in verse 7, (depending on your translation) where it says they are partners or partakers or sharers in Paul’s ministry. That is the same word, koinonia. They were fellowshippers with Paul in the work of the gospel. I brought up the Fellowship of the Ring story because that is a perfect example of this use of the word fellowship. When we labor side by side in the work of the ministry in the church, we are the fellowship, not of the ring, but of the King. Or to use the words of Philippians, we are the Fellowship of the Gospel. Just as the nine devoted themselves to guarding the ring and using it to fight evil, so we are a fellowship devoted to guarding the gospel and using it to fight evil. And just as the importance of their task brought them to the point of deep friendship and willingness to lay down their lives for success of the group, so it must be with us. That is exactly the kind of relationship you see between Paul and the Philippians. Paul put his life on the line, and the guy the Philippians sent to help Paul (Ephaphroditus) also almost died for the work of the gospel.

So when I talk about fellowship in this sermon, I’m not talking about standing in the hallway with coffee and a cookie. I am using the word fellowship the way Paul used it here – a Fellowship-of-the-Ring type brotherhood in which we are laying down our lives with courage and valor and brotherhood and devotion in an eternally important task.

The Grateful Joy of This Fellowship

One big difference between the Fellowship of the Ring and the Fellowship of the Gospel is that the success of the Fellowship of the Ring didn’t really depend on their joy or their gratitude to God. But for the Fellowship of the Gospel to have success, joy is essential. And the way to get the joy is through gratitude to God. One of the biggest joy-killers is self-pity, and self-pity and gratitude are like fire and water – they cannot coexist. Where one exists the other will not, and so as soon as you feel the fire of self-pity in your suffering, just pour on the water of gratitude to God, and your joy will return.