AGAIN I SAY REJOICE
FINISHING HIS WORK
PHILIPPIANS 1:1-6
INTRODUCTION
- Today we are going to begin a study of the book of Philippians. If you turn in your Bible to Philippians chapter 1 you will be in the right place. We are calling our study Again I Say Rejoice. This, of course, is taken from chapter 4, verse 4. And it is an appropriate title for a look into this New Testament letter because, as we will discover over the course of our study, joy is a key theme in Philippians.
- Before we begin at v.1 let’s get our background information in order, so that we can have an idea of who is writing, why he is writing, who he is writing to, and what he is writing about. The author of the letter to the Philippians is the Apostle Paul. He identifies himself at the very beginning of the letter, as usual; and there are no serious objections to his authorship.
- Philippians is known as a “Prison Epistle” because Paul likely authored the letter while he was confined by house arrest in Rome. He wrote three other New Testament letters around this same time: Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. These are known as “Prison Epistles” as well. He wrote these four “Prison Epistles” around 61 A.D.
- Paul’s reason for writing was to thank the church in Philippi for their support of his ministry. In particular, he wrote to thank them for a gift that he received from the church delivered by Epaphroditus – who we will look at in a few weeks. However, as we well know, there is more than just a thank you note here. Philippians contains some rich doctrinal truth that will develop and grow our knowledge of God and how he works in our lives.
- The city of Philippi was located to the northwest of Israel in the Roman province of Macedonia. It was a Roman colony, so its residents enjoyed much the same benefits as citizens of Italy enjoyed. And the church in this city would have been very important to the Apostle Paul, because it is believed that this is the first church he started in what is now modern day Europe. So he probably had very close relationships with some of the members there.
- As I briefly mentioned one of the main themes in this letter is joy, or rejoicing. Paul’s exuberance despite his being in prison permeates all that he writes here. He had learned, as chapter 4 verse 11 states, to be content no matter his situation. The word “joy” in its various forms occurs over a dozen times in this short letter. So this theme will influence the many topics we will discuss.
- As we begin to read what Paul writes to his partners in ministry then, let’s look very briefly at vv.1- 2. This is Paul’s introductory greeting or salutation.
Read Philippians 1:1-2
- There is nothing out of the ordinary here. Paul identifies himself as writing alongside Timothy, his “son in the faith”, and addresses the letter to the saints (the believers) in Philippi and specifies the overseers (or elders) and deacons (or servants).
- Then he says “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He’s extending his blessing on behalf of God. “Grace and peace to you.” was a common greeting during this time period.
- Our text this morning follows this usual greeting. Look at Philippians 1:3-6.
Read Philippians 1:3-6
- Even this first statement has much for us to learn and apply. Paul mentions that he thanks God every time he remembers them in his prayers; because of their support, and because he has seen what God is doing in their lives.
- Let’s start with what he says first. Paul had:
JOY IN REMEMBERING THE SAINTS IN PRAYER
- He writes in v.3: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy...
- Paul has a very intimate relationship with two parties here. First he says “I thank my God...” Paul’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ was the ultimate source of his joy. But he also has another reason for joy: his close relationship with the Philippians. Remember this church had a special place in the Apostle’s heart. Whenever he remembered them, he thanked his God for them.
- The Bible actually tells us some of the things Paul would have had in mind here as memories of his brothers and sister in Philippi. In the book of Acts we find some of Paul’s experiences in Philippi. Acts chapter 16 records what is known as the Macedonian Call. Paul sees a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading for him to come help them. Macedonia remember was the Roman province where Philippi was located.
- On one of the Sabbath days, Paul and his companions went down to a riverside because they had heard that there was a prayer meeting going on there. And they met Lydia, who was a merchant from the nearby city of Thyatira. The Lord opened her heart and Paul shared the gospel with her and she was baptized along with her household. There is no doubt that as Paul remembered the church in Philippi he recalled the conversion of Lydia.
- Not long after that Paul was confronted with a demon possessed slave girl as he was heading to that same prayer meeting. After becoming annoyed with her constant cries against the Most High God, he cast the demon out of her. He surely remembered this incident when he prayed for them.
- Because he cast this demon out, the owners of the slave girl through Paul and Silas in prison. There they were bound by having stocks fastened to their feet. But even in jail God was working through Paul and the jailer who was guarding them, after an earthquake, asked Paul what he must do to be saved. To which Paul responded “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
- These are just a few of the things Paul had in mind when he writes “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.”
- Notice, though, that he doesn’t just say that he thanks God when he remembers them; as if he simply constantly engages in some sort of useless nostalgia – but upon his remembering them he prays for them. And he not only prays for them, but he prays for them with joy. Here is the first of several occurrences of that word “joy”.
- We can glean some important things here. One thing is, it is important for us to use our memories properly. What do I mean by that? Paul remembered the Philippians for the specific purpose of praising God for them and praying for them. Sometimes we have a tendency to use memories for the wrong reasons.
- We dwell on things that we cannot change. We replay past situations that hurt us and caused us pain. Or we remember good times for the purpose of longing for them when times are bad. And we do these things not to enhance our understanding of God and what he is doing in our lives but in order to pout and complain.
- See there are ways to use our memories that produce spiritual pitfalls and immaturity, and there are ways to use our memories to produce spiritual progress and maturity. Let me give you a quick example of using memories to produce spiritual growth.
- In 1 Chronicles 16 the ark of the covenant has just been brought to Jerusalem and placed in a tent that David had set up for it. And David writes a song of thanks that Asaph and his brothers were to sing. In it he tells Israel to remember the wondrous works God has done for them; and remember the covenant that he has made with them. And when they remembered how God made them a great nation they were to sing to him, declare his glory, praise him, and worship him.
- Remembering what God had done for them would cause them to praise him; and it would keep them from wandering into the worship of other gods. That’s the kind of remembering that’s going on here with Paul. He is remembering all that God has done in the city, and all of the lives that have been changed, and he’s using those memories to ignite his worship of God and his prayer for the saints.
- One person reported that scientists tell us that the human mind can store as many as six hundred memories a second in a lifetime of seventy-five years while only straining itself in the slightest. That adds up to 1.4 trillion memories. Now obviously we don’t take in six hundred memories a second and it would be impossible to recall all those memories, but our minds have a tremendous capacity to remember things. It is our responsibility to sift through those things and use them to produce spiritual growth.
- That’s what Paul is doing. Using his recollections to fan the flame of worship and prayer. Doing this of course, produced prayers that were filled with joy – joy over what God had done and was doing in the lives of his friends.
- He goes on then to explain in more detail the reason for his prayers of thanks for them. He says that it is because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Paul is expressing:
GRATITUDE FOR PARTNERSHIP IN GOSPEL MINISTRY
- Let’s break this down for a moment – starting with partnership. The word “partnership” is κοινωνίᾳ; and it means fellowship, communion, participation, or to share in something. There are benefits to fellowship or participation in general. Christians have sort of coined that word fellowship, but there are all kinds of fellowship.
- Being a part of a larger group has its intrinsic benefits. There are things that can be done, goals that can be accomplished, and lessons that can be learned when we share in something with a group of people that cannot be done, accomplished or learned in isolation.
- But Paul has a particular kind of κοινωνίᾳ, of fellowship, in mind here. It is partnership in the gospel. The fellowship he is grateful for is not just a sharing of some common earthly cause, but a sharing in the cause of the gospel. He thanks God for their participation in the gospel ministry.
- This means, first of all, that he is grateful for their salvation. He praises God whenever he remembers them because God has saved them through the gospel. He was there personally when some of the Philippian saints were saved and baptized. And he had heard how God continued to work in the city.
- This is the first requirement for participation in gospel ministry: you believe the gospel. If you want to participate in what the Lord is doing through his church, the first thing you must do is believe that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead is the only way your sins will ever be forgiven; and trust him alone for your salvation from sin.
- Those in the Philippian church had done that. And Paul thanked God for it.
- How often do we thank God for the salvation of people we know? We must never take for granted that salvation is a gift that not everyone receives; and when those who we know and love are shown grace and mercy by God we ought to be exceedingly grateful for that.
- But there’s more to this partnership in the gospel. Not only was Paul grateful that they were saved; but he was grateful that once saved, they joined him in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. He was grateful that from the first day he visited them, they joined him in the cause of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
- Could you imagine if Paul was the only one spreading, preaching, and teaching the word? One man can only do so much. How much more of an impact did the gospel have on the world when all of the members of the body were active in its propagation?
- The application for us practically jumps off the page here. Our impact on the world around us is directly affected by our commitment or lack thereof to work together for the progress of the gospel. Now on the divine side, God will move when and where he chooses to move. But from our point of view, the greater the cooperation, the greater the impact. “Lone Ranger” Christians can never do as much as a group of believers committed to the sharing in the work of the kingdom.
- The tentacles of Paul’s ministry, reached so far because of the Philippians’ willingness to participate with him in his work. That’s why he’s grateful. Because he could have never done some of the things he did without their support.
- And as he is remembering them, thanking God for their fellowship in the gospel, he is encouraged even more by the certainty that God will finish the work he started in them. He will continue to complete the saving work he began in them. Paul had:
CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S PERFECTING WORK
- He writes in v.6: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
- Now in the ESV that I am reading out of, v.6 starts a new sentence. In the original, this verse starts with a participle. It says, “Being sure of this...” or “Being confident of this...” In other words, he’s not beginning a new thought here by saying “Oh yeah, by the way, I’m also sure of this...” No, he is continuing his reasoning from his statement about their partnership in the gospel.
- First he remembers them, and thanks God for them. Then he recalls what God is doing in them through the gospel and prays for them. Now he is building on that by saying that he is completely confident that God will carry out that partnership to completion.
- So he is saying this: I have many great memories of you; and thank God when I recall them. I am grateful that God has enabled you to fellowship with me in ministry, first and foremost because he has saved you through the gospel. And I know, that the gospel work he started in you will be completed. Now let’s talk about what is to be drawn from this.
- I want to ask three brief questions about this verse. What is the good work? Who started the good work? Who will complete the good work?
- So let’s start with: What is the good work? This one has the shortest answer. What good work is Paul talking about here in v.6? It is the good work of their salvation. It is the work that allowed them to participate in gospel ministry.
- It is not the things they were doing to help Paul in ministry. It does not mean what we normally mean when we say “good works”. Paul is not talking about things the Philippians were doing. Look carefully: he says “a good work in you...” This was something going on inside of his readers. It is an internal work, not an external one.
- So put simply, the good work here is salvation – being saved from sin through the gospel.
- Now who started the good work? Who started the work of salvation in the lives of the Philippians? It was God. When he writes “he who began” he’s talking about God. So we might say it this way: I am confident that the work of salvation God began in you will be brought to completion.
- Please don’t miss this: the salvation of the Philippian saints; and by way of application, the salvation of all believers, including you and me, is a work of God and God alone. It’s not “he who began a good work with you” but “he who began a good work in you”.
- I want to spend a moment on this, because more and more people today, even in the church, think that being saved from sin is something that we accomplish; or something that we do. In religions and philosophies outside of Christianity the prevailing thought is that if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds then we will earn heaven. Or that salvation is some sort of inner enlightenment or inner self-produced transformation. Well, we know that this does not square with biblical truth.
- But more troubling in my mind, is the lack of clarity concerning what salvation is within the proverbial four walls of the church. And I really want us to understand this; because I care deeply about your spiritual maturity and understanding of Scripture. So I’m going to make a statement that may sound absurd at first, but hear me out. The work of salvation in you has nothing to do with you.
- What on earth could I mean by that? You don’t do anything to save yourself. Your salvation is a work of the Spirit of God from beginning to end. God commences the work, he continues the work, and he completes the work. Everything about it is a gift of the grace of God.
- I’m sure many of you know Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
- What is the gift of God? The grace? The faith? The being saved? All of it! The grace is not your own doing, the faith is not your own doing, and the salvation that results from the grace and faith is not your own doing.
- You say, “Even my faith in Christ was a gift from God?” Absolutely. Because you couldn’t have produced that faith on your own. Jesus said in John 6 that no one can come to him unless the Father draws them. And why is that? Because of what Romans 3 says:
- None is righteous, no, not one; no understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
- Don’t be so foolish as to think that you brought anything to the table when you were saved. Before the Holy Spirit regenerated you; meaning before the Holy Spirit gave you a new heart, you had no true, godly desire for Jesus. Any desire you think you had for God was false.
- Some of you have probably memorized 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. But do you know what it says right after that in v.18? All this is from God. Every part of you being a new creation, if you are a Christian, is from God.
- So if you sought after God it was because he first sought after you. If you have faith in Jesus Christ it is because God gave you that gift. Because it certainly was not something you would have produced on your own. On your own you were dead in sin, blind to the truth of the gospel, without hope and without God in the world.
- Why is this so important? Look again at v.6: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Because God started the work, God will finish the work. So who will complete the good work? The same one who started it...God.
- Paul was confident that God would complete the salvation of the Philippians. And we can be confident that God will complete our salvation. We’re not going to get lost along the way.
- 1 Peter 1 tells us that we are kept by the power of God. And John 10 that nothing can pluck us out of the Father’s hand. See if our salvation was something we started, God is under no obligation to finish it. If we produced our faith he is under no obligation to perfect it. But these things are not the case.
- God began our salvation, and he produced our faith; so he will complete it and perfect it. Now we’re not saying that we have no responsibility in the matter; but that we can only live up to those responsibilities because of the graciousness of God.
- So much could be said about this perfecting work. God will continue this saving work until the day of Jesus Christ – until Christ’s return. So for us, the encouragement is this: once we are truly saved, once we are genuine believers in Christ, we cannot lose that salvation. God finishes what he starts.
CONCLUSION
- What do we see here from vv.3-6 then? First, that Paul rejoiced when he remembered the Philippians. Second, that he rejoiced in their partnership with him in the gospel. And third, that he rejoiced in knowing that God would complete their salvation.
- The question for us is: how much are we like Paul in these areas? How much joy do we have in remembering what God has done in our lives and in the lives of those we know? Does it cause us to rejoice when we think about the salvation of others, and about the work God is doing in them? And how much joy does it bring us to think that God always finishes the work he starts?
- Because as we will see next time, it is right for us to feel joy because of these things. So as we leave this place, let us pray that God would give us the grace to praise him for what we remember that he has done; to rejoice in the fact that we get to participate in the ministry of the gospel, because God began a gospel work in us; and to be confident in the fact that God finishes his saving work.
