“Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including 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 offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
It is noteworthy, especially for anyone who either for business or personal purposes composes an above average amount of written correspondence, that the opening words of a letter will set the mood of the whole.
It can color the recipient’s reception of the message even if the rest of the letter is on a different topic and composed of a different nature than the opening lines might suggest.
I can still remember, back in the 1960’s friends and acquaintances of mine being immediately sent into an emotional downward spiral when they received a letter from Washington D.C. that began, “Greetings, from the President…” It meant that they were being drafted into military service, and during those years it meant almost certainly that they were going to Southeast Asia.
While I was in Viet Nam several of the guys I was stationed with received ‘Dear John’ letters. Of course, being from different individuals they all had different things to say. Some were very brief, some started with seemingly idle chat about home and family and then, ‘oh, by the way, I’ve met a guy named Chuck and we’re dating now…’
So although the opening lines might have been an encouragement, as is just the receipt of mail of any kind when a young man is in a war zone, before long the contents of the correspondence would take on a very different and darker light.
When we come to this letter of Paul’s to the church in Philippi we find that he sets a mood that is maintained through the course of the rest, and it is a good mood. It is a great mood. It is a mood of rejoicing that he maintains and even encourages along the way.
That will be our primary focus today, and we’ll be coming back to it often as we study through this small but powerful book of the New Testament.
PRISON AND PRAISES
You have heard it said, I hope not only by me but also by others whose teaching you have sat under, that Bible Study, if it is to be effectual, must begin as much as possible with learning the historical context in which things were written. In order to be helped to any significant degree we need to know what was going on in the life of the writer and the life of the people to whom he wrote, so that we may compare those details to our own life’s circumstances and have a real sense of the significance the words have to our present day world and apply them.
This is one of the so-called, prison epistles. That means it is one of the letters to the churches that Paul wrote while in chains.
The letter to the Philippians was written around 63 A.D. from Rome, where Paul had been taken as a prisoner.
Acts chapters 21 through 28 tell the story of how he came to be there. Following his third missionary journey Paul returned to Jerusalem where it wasn’t long before he was falsely accused by the Jews of teaching things contrary to the Law.
In the course of a ruckus that might have ended up in Paul’s death by a mob, he was rescued by Roman soldiers who kept him in custody for his protection.
No one really knew what to do with Paul. He wasn’t really guilty of any wrongdoing, either against the Jews or the Romans, but the Romans didn’t want to let him go and the Jews didn’t want to let him live.
So he eventually goes before hearings by the Governors Festus and Felix, and finally before King Agrippa, some great reading and meditating for your benefit if you want to go read those chapters later; anyway, in the end Paul ends up in custody in Caesarea for two years until he finally appeals to Caesar and is sent to Rome.
On the way there he is shipwrecked, washed up with the other passengers and crew of the foundered vessel onto the isle of Malta where he is bitten by a deadly poisonous viper, yet he is not affected, which amazes the inhabitants of the island… and do you get the feeling there was a spiritual battle going on here for the life of the one who would in the coming couple of years write these important portions of the New Testament and in the meantime see large numbers come to Christ by his preaching of the gospel?
So at the end of Acts 28 we’re told that he is placed in a rented house where he is chained to a Roman guard but allowed to have visitors, so the house is daily filled up with people wanting to hear what he has to say and when they leave he turns to his papyrus and writes these letters, and in the meantime these Roman soldiers are watching and listening to everything.
The Romans thought they had Paul a prisoner in chains, but in truth God had the Romans held captive and forced to hear the gospel over and over again, with the result that many even of Caesar’s household were saved.
Verses 12-13 of chapter 1
“Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian
guard and to everyone else”
Paul didn’t see himself as the prisoner of Rome. He saw himself as a prisoner of Christ for the cause of Christ, and the praetorian guard held prisoner to him for the gospel’s sake!
Now here is an application I think we should make for ourselves before we go further.
How many of us, if we were arrested, held without the proper exercise of jurisprudence for over two years, placed aboard a ship that foundered at sea during a great storm, were bitten by a viper, taken to a major city and not only held prisoner but chained 24 hours a day to a hairy, smelly, scratching, belching soldier, would say, “This must all be for the greater progress of the gospel”?
Wouldn’t most of us more likely be yelling at the ceiling, ‘Why me?!?”
Aren’t we often tempted to react that badly to circumstances much less imposing and uncomfortable than these described here?
What is the difference, do you think? Actually, I think we are shown what the difference is, right here in this letter; indeed, in these opening verses.
Because Paul is in these circumstances, Roman soldiers chained to him for 6 hour shifts, meaning they came and went at the rate of 4 per day and they got their breaks but he didn’t. Unable to move about freely, always with someone looking literally over his shoulder at what he’s writing and breathing down his neck when he’s preaching, not knowing when Nero is going to finally get around to deciding what to do with him and knowing that when that moment comes it more than likely will include decapitation…
…and Paul isn’t thinking about anything but the furtherance of the gospel. He’s not thinking about Paul at all. He’s thinking about Christ, and he’s thinking about the people around him who need to know Christ, and yes, he is thinking of these hairy, smelly, scratching Roman soldiers to whom he is chained.
The same kindness and gentleness and goodness and self-control that marked his entire ministry and to which he encouraged the rest of us, continued to be manifest in this man even in the worst of human circumstances, because he knew that he was exactly where God wanted him, and he was sustained by the same faith that caused him to write to Timothy, “…I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him” 2 Tim 1:12
And Christians, people who know that you name Jesus as your Savior will observe how you respond to the events and conditions of life, and they will judge your gospel according to what they see.
Commentator F.B. Meyer wrote this about Paul, "At times the hired room would be thronged with people, to whom the Apostle spoke words of life; and after they withdrew the sentry would sit beside him, filled with many questionings as to the meaning of the words which this strange prisoner spoke. At other times, when all had gone, and especially at night ... soldier and Apostle would be left to talk, and in those dark, lonely hours the Apostle would tell soldier after soldier the story of his own proud career in early life, of his opposition to Christ, and his ultimate conversion, and would make it clear that he was there as a prisoner, not for any crime, not because he had raised rebellion or revolt, but because he believed that He whom the Roman soldiers had crucified, under Pilate, was the Son of God and the Savior of men. As these tidings spread, and the soldiers talked them over with one another, the whole guard would become influenced in sympathy with the meek and gentle Apostle, who always showed himself so kindly to the men as they shared, however involuntarily, his imprisonment....
"If there had been the least divergence, day or night, from the high standard which he upheld, his soldier-companion would have caught at it and passed it, and passed it on to others. The fact that so many became earnest Christians, and that the Word of Jesus was known far and wide throughout the praetorian guard, indicates how absolutely consistent the Apostle’s life was" (The Epistle to the Philippians F.B. Meyer,[Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952], pp. 36-37).
Fellow Christ-followers, take this home today and meditate on it in the quiet of your own place. You are a Holy Spirit born child of God. You are what Paul was even in his chains. You’re a Christian, if you meet the Biblical definition of a Christian. If that is so about you, then you need to be acutely aware that whatever is going on in your life right now, today, is God-ordained.
He has you right where He wants you to minister in His name. If you stop thinking as much about you and a lot more about Christ and the furtherance of the gospel and a whole lot more about the people who are coming and going in your circumstances that need to hear the gospel, what greatness for the Kingdom might God work through you…and how full might be your joy?
What exactly was the basis for the joy expressed by Paul? Let’s look closer…
JOY
First we need to reiterate something I’ve already talked about. Paul’s contentment was not subject to his immediate circumstances. From the time Paul got up out of the dirt on the Damascus road knowing that he had been confronted and commissioned by the risen Savior, he knew that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth all the issues of life for Paul were settled, for time and eternity.
I have read somewhere that famed talk show host Larry King once said that if he could ask one question of one person from history he would ask Jesus if He was virgin born. “The answer to that question,” declared King, “would define history for me”.
Isn’t it ironic, that if Mr. King believed the gospel, he would know Jesus is alive and could indeed be asked? And that if he believed the gospel he would not need to ask?
Paul believed the Bible. He believed the prophets and with all of Israel he longed for the coming of Messiah. When his spiritual eyes were opened to the truth on that day outside of Damascus, he had no further need for answers to convince him who Jesus is. The One he had persecuted became the one true Savior and Lord of his life and from that moment on the Apostle Paul lived in eternity.
Whatever his present circumstances, nothing could compare, whether good or bad, easy or difficult, to the eternity for which he had now been set.
I use those words ‘good’ and ‘easy’ for balance; in truth, we don’t exactly have any record of Paul partying, do we?
“Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”
Thus the Apostle defends himself against the accusations of the false teachers. But the point is, in all these things he suffered, they never slowed him down; never discouraged him from his message. In all these things in fact, his joy never diminished. Why? Because he knew he served a King who had overcome and who promised that those who overcame in His name would receive a reward laid up elsewhere.
That’s why he could talk about a ‘crown of life’ awaiting him, and call his present circumstances ‘momentary light affliction’.
So here he is, chained to soldiers, under house arrest, uncertain of his immediate future, filled with joy.
What do these Roman guards have to do with the multitudes who have been brought into the Kingdom across the regions of Asia? What do these temporary chains have to do with the progress of the gospel taking place all around the known world? After all, Paul already knew, didn’t he, that chains and cell doors were no hindrance to his Master.
So if he was presently basking in the sun on a Cypress beach or sipping a cool drink on the portico of some Roman palace, would it change what God was doing in the regeneration of men and women? No, Paul would just be missing out on being a part of it. So why would these prison circumstances be seen by him as something to which to surrender his joy?
No, they were a part of what made him joyful! We already saw why, when we jumped ahead and glanced at verse 12. “I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel”
So I’m joyful. And when I pray for you, I’m joyful. And in the quiet of the evening when there’s only me and these soldiers and I talk with them and tell them about Jesus who died and rose from the dead, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and I see the light shine in their eyes and they too find the joy of knowing Christ, I’m joyful.
Is there joy in ministry? Yes! Joy in what? The mechanics? Going to the conferences? Enjoying the title of ‘minister’? No. Often, in spite of those things. The joy is that no matter what present circumstances may come, the minister of Christ serves an eternal Master, with an eternal purpose, preaching an eternal message and seeing people ushered into eternal life.
Therefore nothing temporal can interfere with a joy that is eternity born and based.
“Therefore, since we have received this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart”. Why?
Because we “…look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal”. 2 Cor 4:1 & 18
CONFIDENCE
Well I called this Joy and Confidence in gospel ministry, and there cannot really be a separation of the two. It is the source and foundation of his confidence that makes his joy abound.
When Paul says ‘in view of’ in verse 5, which in other translations reads, ‘because of’, he is giving the reason for the joy he experiences in his praying for them all.
It is because of, he says, their participation in the gospel, and get this, from the first day until now.
It has been about ten years at the time of this writing, since the Apostle first ministered among them. It must have been a great encouragement for those especially who were with him from the very first, to have him write these words from jail after so long a time; to think that they were still so precious to his heart that it would give him joy to think about them.
When Paul and Silas and Timothy first came to Philippi the beginnings of ministry there were quiet and unknown to the general public. On the Sabbath they went outside the city to a quiet place by the river to pray, since there was no place for worship within the city, and there they found Lydia and some other women.
Luke tells us in Acts 16 that the Lord opened her heart to understand and believe Paul’s message, and she was baptized and became their first convert there.
They were apparently there and ministering for quite a while, when Paul cast a demon out of a girl who had been following them around and troubling them, and all of a sudden they were very much in the public eye.
Hey, folks, in case you haven’t noticed, people will either accept you or ignore you while your worship is private and it doesn’t seem to concern them. But as soon as it becomes clear that the Spirit in you is going to challenge their world view – call for some decision to be made – shed light on their darkness – things are going to liven up quick. It won’t necessarily be a pleasant sort of enlivening for you; you will have opposition, and you will probably face intimidation, and chances are you will find yourself dealing even with misrepresentation. But at least things will be happening, one way or another.
The church took root there in a very real and powerful way, the evidence of which we will see as we work our way through this letter.
Anyway, here he is, 10 years later, writing to them and ensuring them that at the remembrance of those days of ministry among them, watching the gospel take root, watching them grow and begin to plant and water in their own areas of ministry, it makes him smile, which probably makes the soldier next to him scratch his head in wonder.
Then he goes on in verse six to say, “For I am confident”, and I’d like you to note that again he says, ‘for’. So verse 5 starts with ‘in view of’, or ‘because’, linking what he is about to say to the source of his joy as he thinks and prays about them, but the line of thought is not finished, but is continuing as he goes on. ‘For’.
I have joy in my every prayer for you, because of your on-going participation in the gospel, and also now, because of the confidence I have – the settled conviction that I have – that this good work will continue.
We’ll talk about that work and finish up. But first let’s not miss this one thing.
Paul doesn’t say, ‘I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it unless He is thwarted by Rome” Or “…unless hard times come to Philippi and the church has to go underground”. He doesn’t even say, “…will perfect it unless you mess up and He has to scrap the whole thing and start with another core group”.
Paul’s confidence is not in the people, and his confidence is not dependent on the continuance of freedom to minister. How could it be? He himself was a prisoner. Only a blind fool would not understand that circumstances change, and only a rookie to the ministry would think that things are going to get better and easier.
No, Paul’s confidence is in the One who began a good work in them; indeed, the One who would continue to perfect His work until the great day of Christ Jesus, when the Lord will call His people to meet Him in the air.
So what is this work Christ began and will continue and perfect to completion?
Wiersbe helped me greatly with this so I’ll just use a simple outline he jotted down.
He said the work God does in us is threefold:
It is the work God does for us – salvation
It is the work God does in us – sanctification
It is the work God does through us - service
Paul was rejoicing for the ongoing evidence he was aware of in all three of these areas in the Philippians, and his confidence in Christ gave him assurance it would continue until that time John talked about, when we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.
I’m going to stop here and with this very simple reminder; something I know you have all heard and understood but always bears repeating.
Believers in Christ, God saved you for Himself and for His glory. When He did so He set you apart for His own special possession and He began to do the work in you that continues to conform you to the image of His Son.
Now like I said, that is pretty basic information and each one of you could articulate those truths to me and say, ‘Yes, we all know that preacher’.
But I say it again to you today, not just because it is intrinsic in our text, but because I think we often have difficulty really internalizing the truth of it and having it take root in our very life and living.
God, whether you can recognize the signs in yourself or not, is in the process of making you more like Jesus. He began a good work in you and He will continue it until the day He calls you home and instantly glorifies you.
Do you really understand that? Please get your eyes and attention off your present circumstances, whatever they may be, because they are temporary, and the only thing they have to do with anything is inasmuch as they are being used by God to continue His purpose and process.
You may have joy in the inner man that brings a shout of ‘Glory!’ from way down inside you somewhere, because the eternal Father is accomplishing in you, His eternal child, His eternal purpose and His eternal pleasure, and you can know with the confidence of the Apostle that nothing can stop that process; nothing can keep Him from finishing your salvation.
Is that enough for today? It should be, I think. Some great stuff to mull over and let fill you up.
But there was a third thing, wasn’t there? I hope you didn’t think I had forgotten.
His work is also through you – for service.
Christian, His Spirit in you for salvation and sanctification is also there for service. It is service to God, service to the brethren in the context of the church, and service to those outside the church of Christ, who may, as God brings them across your path, need some physical help or emotional encouragement that you are able to provide. But most of all they need you to serve them in telling them about Jesus.
As Paul and the others were ready and willing to do that day down by the river outside of Philippi, look for opportunities – look for people who are ready to chat – and serve them with the gospel.
Let them see in you, joy and confidence that your Master desires to begin and accomplish to its completion in them, a work that transcends time and their present circumstances and ushers them into eternity.
That is the source of joy and confidence in gospel ministry.
