Introduction:
A. Once there was an old blacksmith who was nearing retirement and so he picked out a young man to train as his apprentice.
1. The old blacksmith was rather gruff and exacting – He said to the young man, “Don’t ask me a lot of questions, just do whatever I tell you to do.”
2. One day early in the training, the old blacksmith took a red-hot iron out of the fire and laid on the anvil.
3. He said to the young apprentice, “Get the hammer over there and when I nod my head, hit it real good and hard!”
4. The old man nodded his head, and the young man did as he was told, and now the town is looking for a new blacksmith.
B. Clear communication is critical – it can make us or break us, as the blacksmith painfully discovered.
1. The Proverb writer was right when he wrote: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Prov. 18:21)
C. Today, as we continue our new sermon series called “Joy for the Journey – A Study of Philippians,” I want us to spend some time looking at the opening verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
1. Last week we were reminded of Paul’s relationship with the Philippians and how it began with some painful trails, and we also pointed out that Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians during his Roman imprisonment.
a. Yet in spite of all of Paul’s persecutions and suffering, this letter and his life overflow with joy for the journey.
2. Today, I want to focus on Paul’s ability to communicate from the heart and how it is critical for maintaining healthy relationships.
a. As Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he set for us a wonderful example of how to express ourselves appropriately to those who are important to us.
b. My hope is that all of us can follow his example and develop a loving heart that expresses itself appropriately to those around us in our families, our church and in the world.
D. Before we get into Paul’s communication from the heart, I want to mention a few things about his opening greeting.
1. Every society has rules for behavior which extend to ordinary activities such as letter writing.
a. For instance, we often start our letters, “Dear So and So.”
2. There were also customs for letter writing at the time when the NT was written and so Paul followed those general customs in his letter writing, but even though Paul followed traditional customs, he used words and phrases from the heart that were rich in meaning.
3. Letters in Paul’s day began by identifying the writer rather than the recipient.
a. So, Paul’s letter to the Philippians began, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.”
b. Our New Testament contains 13 letters of Paul, or 14 if Paul wrote Hebrews, and the vast majority of those letters begin with a statement of his apostleship.
c. This letter to the Philippians is one of the 4 letters where Paul doesn’t begin with his apostleship, but rather simply calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus.
d. Perhaps Paul’s relationship with the Philippians was so close and the reason for his writing did not necessitate an appeal to his authority as an apostle.
4. Paul included Timothy in the greeting even though Timothy was not a co-author.
a. We know Timothy is not a co-author because Paul wrote in the first person singular throughout the letter, and he spoke of Timothy in the third person.
b. Perhaps Paul included Timothy in the greeting because Timothy was so well-known at Philippi and because Timothy was about to visit them again.
5. After stating who the letter was from, Paul then followed the custom and clarified to whom the letter was addressed.
a. Paul wrote: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons.” (vs. 1b)
b. Paul called them saints, which means they are set apart for and by God – Christians are God’s special people, bought at a price, and set apart for a wonderful purpose, and for an eternal destiny.
c. Paul points out that these Philippian saints are “in Christ Jesus,” which is one of Paul’s favorite phrases, and is central to Paul’s entire theology.
d. As believers in Jesus, we are baptized into Christ, and we are hidden in Christ, and clothed with Christ, and therefore we possess the life of Christ in us.
e. After first recognizing all the saints, Paul then gave specific recognition to the elders and deacons, because they play a special role together with all the saints.
6. The final part in the custom of ancient letter writing was the greeting.
a. Paul wrote to them: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (vs. 2)
b. Grace was the traditional greeting in Greek culture and peace (shalom) was the traditional greeting in Jewish culture.
c. So, we notice that Paul took the traditional greetings of two great cultures and molded them into one greeting.
d. True grace and peace only come from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. So, even though Paul employed the widely accepted form of letter writing, he made it his own and communicated so meaningfully through it.
…Now let’s see what Paul communicated straight from his heart…
I. An Expression of Thanks (1:3-6)
A. Paul wrote: “I thank my God every time I remember you.” (vs. 3)
1. First of all, note how personally Paul viewed his relationship with God – he thanks “his God.”
a. Of course, God is everyone’s God who chooses to follow God, and yet there is a need to recognize that each of us is God’s and that God is ours in a personal way.
b. So Paul said, “When I talk with my God, which I do often, I always am thankful for you.”
c. Paul continued: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (vs. 4-5)
2. Last week we explored why Paul was filled with joy and thanksgiving for the Philippians, so we don’t want to elaborate on it today.
3. Paul was thankful for their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
a. Their partnership denotes cooperation in the widest sense, but it also includes their generous financial support.
b. In chapter 4 of this letter, we learn that when Paul left Philippi in the early days, the Philippians were the only ones who sent him aid, again and again. (4:15-16)
c. Most recently, they sent him aid through Epaphroditus. (3:25)
4. So, we can see that the Philippians had been very good to Paul over the years, which is so wonderful, and the proper expression that Paul should offer in response is thanksgiving.
B. From Paul’s example, we learn that the expression of thanksgiving is the proper response that we should have toward those who have given to us.
1. Whether the things we have received from others are love, encouragement, and forgiveness, or some other kind of physical gift, our proper response is to express our appreciation.
2. I want to encourage us to consider how thankful we need to be for what others have done in our lives – whether they are our parents, our mates, our children, friends, bosses and co-workers, and spiritual leaders and fellow-Christians.
3. Do we thank God enough for these people and do we tell them that we thank God for them?
a. There are few ways to express our appreciation that are more powerful than to tell someone that we regularly thank God for them!
4. Let’s be sure we are appropriately thanking God for people in our lives and let’s be sure we are letting them know how much we appreciate them.
5. Let’s turn it around for a minute: Are we living in such a way that others are thankful for us? Are we giving others a reason to thank God for us? If not, then perhaps it is time to change!
6. The Philippians gave Paul many reasons to appreciate them, and Paul appropriately began his letter with an expression of thanksgiving – straight from the heart.
…A second thing that Paul communicated straight from his heart was…
II. An Expression of Love (1:7-8)
A. Paul wrote: 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. (1:7-8)
1. This expression of love is truly amazing to me because it is so public and sentimental.
2. I know that men in our culture are not encouraged to be that open with their emotions, but I wonder if that was not also the case in Paul’s time and culture.
3. Our culture teaches men to control their emotions, and if they want to communicate those emotions, then they should do so in action and not in word.
4. Yet, amazingly, here we see Paul expressing his love straight from the heart.
a. He told them that it was right for him to feel that way because he had them in his heart.
b. He told them that his feelings are the same for them no matter where he was or what he was doing.
c. Then he concluded with a vivid expression to express the depth of his feelings.
d. The literal translation of “I long for you with the affection of Christ” is “I yearn for you with the bowels of Jesus Christ.
e. I wouldn’t suggest that dating couples use that phrase to express their love.
f. Something gets lost from “I love you with all my heart” if we say, “I love you with all my bowels.”
g. The Greek word for bowels meant the upper intestines, the heart, liver and lungs - these were believed to be the seat of emotions.
h. We all know how deeply Jesus loves us and Paul was trying to say that he loved them just as much as Jesus did – with the love and affection of Christ himself.
B. Let’s ask ourselves a personal question: How good am I at expressing my love for others?
1. Do each of us feel for others what Paul felt for the Philippians – he loved them like Jesus did.
2. Do we feel that way about our mates, our children, relatives, friends, neighbors, Christian brothers and sisters?
3. If we love people that deeply, then let’s be sure to show it and tell it.
4. Actions are important and they do often speak louder than words, but that doesn’t mean that words are not important or aren’t needed.
5. Like the husband who responded to his wife’s question, “Why don’t you tell me you love me?” saying, “I told you 20 years ago that I love you, and if I change my mind, I’ll let you know.”
6. We learn from Paul’s example that expressing our love in words is a wonderful thing.
7. So let’s develop the art of expressing both the actions of love and the words of love – straight from the heart.
…A third thing that Paul communicated straight from the heart was…
III. An Expression of Encouragement (1:9-11)
A. Paul wrote: 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God. (1:9-11)
1. Isn’t it wonderful to know when someone is praying for you? It is such an encouragement!
2. Here we see that Paul let the Philippians know that he was praying that God would help them grow which would lead to God’s glory and to their reward.
3. We note that Paul often included a prayer in his letters to the churches and what Paul was praying for them often signaled what things Paul might be addressing in his letter to them.
4. Let’s look more closely at Paul’s prayer for them.
B. Of all the things that Paul could have prayed for the Philippians, I believe that it is significant that he prayed for their love to grow.
1. Love is so crucial to everything in our spiritual lives.
2. As I have often pointed out, Jesus has taught us that love is our primary response to God and our primary responsibility toward others (Love God and love your neighbor – Mt. 22:37-39).
3. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13:13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
4. Because love is so important it is something that we must keep developing and growing.
5. No matter how much love we have, our ability to love like God loves can always increase.
6. When Paul said that he prayed that their love would abound more and more – he was suggesting a super-abundance and a continuous growing.
C. Paul then described two guiding qualities which will keep our growing love on track.
1. The first guiding quality is knowledge.
a. Sometimes we say that love is blind, but God says that love needs clear vision.
b. Our love needs the guidance of knowledge or else we will end up loving in ways we ought not love or end up loving things that we ought not love.
c. Love must be guided by true knowledge and this true knowledge is found in God’s Word.
d. A responsible, growing love is one which is going through the constant process of education and evaluation in God’s Word.
2. The second guiding quality is depth of insight.
a. The purpose of growing in knowledge is not for knowledge sake, but for depth of insight.
b. We might call depth of insight wisdom and discernment – it is the ability to apply the knowledge we have to the life situation we need to apply it.
c. As we seek to know and live God’s Word, the Holy Spirit helps us to apply and activate God’s Word through God’s love.
D. Paul prayed that their growing love that is guided by knowledge and depth of insight would result in three things.
1. The first result is an ability to discern what is best.
a. The choice between right and wrong should be easy for us, but the ability to choose between what is good, better and best is much harder, yet necessary.
b. Other translations of this phrase “discern what is best” are insightful.
1. The Knox translation says: “that you may learn to prize what is of value.”
2. The NLT says: “I want you to understand what really matters.”
c. Paul prayed that the Philippians would have such love that they would continually make wise choices in life – prizing what is of highest value; what really matters.
d. He prayed that they would not be satisfied with the status quo or with spiritual mediocrity but would push on to true spiritual excellence.
e. This is certainly my prayer for all of us as well.
2. The second result of the growing love is a life that is pure and blameless.
a. “Pure” means holy, distinct or unmixed – literally “sun-tested” – which was a technical term used in the pottery business.
1. Wax was often used to hide cracks and mistakes, and if it was put in the sun the wax would melt revealing the impurity, imperfections or unsoundness of the vessel.
b. “Blameless” has to do with our relationship with others – it means not causing offense or stumbling, free from moral scandal.
3. All of this ends in a life that is filled with good works.
a. Paul calls this the “fruit of righteousness” which is an OT expression.
b. Jesus taught that we can only bear fruit when we remain in Christ who is the vine (Jn.15:4)
c. The NT also reveals that the fruit that God wants to produce in us takes several forms, including: the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), winning the lost (Rom. 1:13), holiness (Rom. 6:22), our worship (Heb. 13:15), and every good work (Col. 1:10).
4. Paul concluded the section pointing out that all of this comes through Christ for the glory and praise of God.
a. Our growing love, blameless lives, and fruit of righteousness are not meant to win credit for us, but to bring glory to God.
5. Let me draw your attention to one other important item in these verses – twice in this section, Paul alludes to the day of Christ (verses 6, and 10).
a. The day of Christ is the day when Christ returns and time will come to an end.
b. In both allusions to the day of Christ, Paul was expressing his confidence that God had the ability to continue His work in the Philippians until the day of Christ, and that their growing love will keep them pure and blameless until the day of Christ.
c. I want to encourage us to have the confidence that God is still doing just that – that He is still working in our lives to bring us to completeness and maturity – until the day of Christ.
d. And that if we stay spiritually growing and strong then we will be pure and blameless on the day of Christ.
e. So, the day of Christ is not something Christians should fear or dread, but something we should welcome and long for, because that is when we will receive our reward and be ushered into God’s presence forever.
6. Paul’s words of encouragement, that came straight from the heart, must have built up the Philippians and made them stronger and more confident.
E. Let’s apply this to our own lives by asking ourselves how good are we at encouraging others.
1. How much encouragement to most people need?
2. Most of us need a lot of encouragement, don’t we?
Conclusion:
A. I want to end with the amazing story of Stan Cottrell.
1. Stan Cottrell runs an uncommon event – UltraDistance – and has clocked over 200,000 running miles since 1955, has set world records, and has received innumerable awards.
2. In 1980, Stan broke the prior Guinness Trans-USA Record by 5 days when he ran from New York to San Francisco in just 48 days, averaging 66 miles each day (that’s over 2 marathons a day!).
3. Stan has conducted what are called “Friendship Runs” in 38 + different countries.
4. Through these Friendship Runs he has tried to bring nations together in friendship, and inspire others.
5. In one such run in China, for example, he covered 2,125 miles in 53 days, averaging 40 miles a day. That’s like running nearly two marathons every single day for two months!
a. Amazingly and agonizingly, Cottrell covered the last 1000 miles in severe pain, taped tightly with 2 broken vertebrae.
b. Not surprisingly, Stan faced numerous times when the pain got so bad that he knew he had to stop, but just when he was about to quit, someone would come running up and say, “There are many people waiting for you in the next village, and your coming will bring endless joy.”
c. Upon hearing that, Stan’s spirits would soar, and he would push on to that next village.
B. Oh the power of words of appreciation, words of love, and words of encouragement! We all need them!
1. Like Paul, let’s learn how to communicate straight from the heart and let it make a difference in the lives of others and bring joy for the journey.
Resources:
“How to Pray for Anyone about Anything,” Sermon by Ray Pritchard, KeepBelieving.com
