Title: The Nature of Christian Fellowship Scripture: Phil. 1:3-8
Type: Expository Where: GNBC
Intro: “A family went to the movies. On the way in, the young man of the family stopped at the refreshment stand to pick up some popcorn. By the time he got into the theater, the lights were already dim and he couldn’t find his family. He paced up and down the aisles in near darkness, peering down each row. Finally, in desperation, he stopped and asked out loud, “Does anyone here recognize me?” Even though it’s well-lit, there may be people who come into this church and feel like that young man--lost, isolated, disconnected from everyone. Deep down, they are silently crying out, “Does anyone here recognize me?” They’re longing for true Christian fellowship. The local church is not supposed to be like a theater, where you file in, find a seat next to folks that you don’t have any relationship with, watch the performance, and file out. Part of our problem is that we’ve come to think of the church as the building you go to for church services. That idea is foreign to the New Testament, which clearly presents the church as God’s people, a living body knit together by their union with Christ, the head.” (Steven Cole, Lesson 4, Phil. 1:3-8) One recurring theme I hear from visitors to GNBC is that we are a “friendly” church. Let’s keep that up, but let’s also go deeper in building relationships with one another. Always room for improvement.
Prop: Examining Phil. 1:3-8 we’ll see 4 Active Elements of Christian Fellowship.
BG:1. Philippi was an important city in eastern Macedon which flourished in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Periods. Situated between the Strymon and Nestos rivers, the city was valued in antiquity for its nearby gold mines
2. Paul came to Philippi on 2nd Miss. Journey. City was an urban center. The people there were both Romans and Greeks and spoke predominantly Greek even though Latin was the official language
3. Not just one theme in letter. Many. Fellowship, Hardship, humility, love, service, hope beyond suffering, God's glory.
Prop: Let’s examine Phil. 1:3-8 to understand 4 Active Elements of Christian Fellowship.
I. True Christian Fellowship Means Praying for Each Other vv. 3-4
A. Paul’s Prayers were Prayers of Gratitude
1. Paul Gave Thanks for the People God had Brought into his life.
a. “I thank” – main verb – from which we get the English word “Eucharist”- high church word for “communion”. Later this morning we will “take communion”. Will give thanks for Xst’s sacrifice as we participate together in receiving the elements. Here Paul is thanking God as he remembers his brothers and sisters who were at the church in Philippi. (Let me ask you, who did you thank this week? For what did you thank God? Maybe your problem.)
b. Ten yrs. prior to this letter, Paul was on his 2nd Miss. Journey, when had a dream and answered to the “Macedonian Call”. Was obedient and entered into and planted the first church in Europe. Certainly as he is penning this letter he remembers that day he met Lydia, the Philippian jailer and his family, the demonized slave girl. Maybe they all became members of the church at Philippi. Those memories from a decade before swirl in the aging apostle’s mind, bringing a smile to his face and a prayer to his lips.
2. We are to Actively Give Thanks as Christian today.
a. “give thanks” – present tense. Continually. Today! Are you? Am I? Do you know why Christians have falling outs with other Christians? Because we quit praying for other Christians. It is difficult to love other Christians if we are not giving thanks for other Christians.
b. “give thanks” is one of the most important phrases in the NT. Used 151x in the NT! That is important. We are supposed to be grateful for all things, even when life is not going as we would like. We don’t need to be happy, nor does life need to be perfect for us to be thankful. Start giving thanks today!
B. Paul’s Prayers were Prayers of Gratitude for People.
1. Paul was grateful for people.
a. Paul rarely expresses thankfulness for material things. Certainly he was thankful for the gifts and kindnesses he received, however, in the Bible, we often read of how he was thankful for people!
b. Now in this account, Paul is once again under arrest. As said previously, his mind goes back to his 2nd Missionary Journey. Besides Lydia and the Jailer and the demonized slave girl there was Euodia, Syntyche, Clement, and certainly others. Illust: Oct. 28-29, 2023 we’ll be having 50th Anniversary of GNBC (DV). There are people we want to see from the 70’s,80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 10’s, 20’s. Found memories of times of fellowship and worship.
2. Paul Chose to Believe the Best of God’s People.
a. Paul’s attitude of prayer demonstrated that he chose to believe the best about other Christians. Illust: Beware of social media, Christian. In last 3 months I have had 2 horrible reviews on social media. Both purported things about me that were simple libelous. One by a person who has never met me and never spoken a word in person to me in his life. Now, some of you have known me better part of 30 yrs. Why is it we even give a moment’s thought to entertain things about people we have known and trusted and worked with for decades? Why don’t we give the benefit of the doubt to our brother or sister? Two reasons: 1. I think the reason is we aren’t praying and giving thanks for one another consistently. 2. We are looking for bad instead of looking for good.
b. Illust: When vultures fly over a desert they find rotting corpses. When humming birds fly over the desert they find flowers. Both are birds. Both are flying over the same desert. They find different things because they are looking for different things. What are you and I looking for in other believers? Choose to be a hummingbird!
C. Applic: True fellowship begins with you and me giving thanks for you and me!
II. True Christian Fellowship Means Serving the Lord Together vv. 5&7
A. Paul Reflects on How Immediately the Philippians Joined him in the Work of the Gospel.
1. God’s Salvation is Always Accompanied by Evidence
a. The “good work” which God begins works its way out as a believer grows to maturity and is progressively conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). In other words, salvation is always accompanied and followed by sanctification, or growth in holiness. As Jonathan Edwards argued in his profound work, “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections” (in The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Banner of Truth], 1:236), “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.”
b. The evidence in the Philippian believers to which Paul calls attention was their “participation in the gospel from the first day until now” (1:5). “Participation” is the word “fellowship” (koinonia), means “sharing together in.” The Philippians had shared with Paul in the gospel, first by believing it and being saved, then by devoting themselves to it and all that it entails. Friend, if you are truly saved you don’t just dabble in the things of the Gospel, but like the apostle and the Philippians, you become engrosses in the great cause of Jesus Christ! Illust: The end of 2022 Carol and I made a big decision. Turned over our financial plans to a professional financial advisor. I had always resisted because of fees. I liked to dabble in the market. Read about a stock or a tip. Realized only had 10 yrs. left before retirement. Need to get serious. Found an individual with good character. Proven experience. In past 5 months up several $k. Why? Because it is this man’s life. Not a dabbler.
2. Salvation is Always Accompanied by fellowship with God.
a. To fellowship in the gospel is to fellowship with God Himself, who gave us the gospel. Christianity is not just believing a set of doctrines, as essential as doctrinal truth is. It is coming to know the living and true God, and that through His Son Jesus Christ. As Jesus prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
b. Fellowship with God means fellowshipping with God’s people.
B. True Christian Fellowship Means Partaking together of God’s Grace. V.7
1. The Philippians Served the Lord with Paul even through times of Persecution.
a. Christians have fellowship with one another because we have something in common with one another. We serve the Lord and fellowship with other believers because we have been “bought with a price”. I Cor. 6:20 – “You were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies.” What was that “price”? The precious blood of Jesus! Let me say this, if you call yourself a Christian and you have ANY loyalty that holds a higher position or a contradictory position with Jesus Christ you need to reexamine and repent from that position!
b. Serving in fellowship may sometimes lead to persecution. Look again at what Paul says here in v. 7 – He says that they were “partners with him in his imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel”
2. We Participate in God’s Grace in Times of Persecution.
a. Illust: When I was in seminary in the late 1980’s “Church Growth Movement” was sweeping the nation. I believe a lot of those leaders had good motives. However, in large part has proven disastrous to Western Church culture. That movement helped foster a change in America which viewed the church as consumers who were shopping for a place to meet their needs. Created a whole culture with no loyalty. Shopping here and shopping there and if have an unpleasant experience, change like would a restaurant or grocery store. When troubles or persecution come the sheep jump the fence and run t a different flock. Pathetic. (Two churches in our city. One has lost about 400 and other gained about 400. Not conversion growth. Just reshuffling the deck. By bunch of sheep who want the same type of programming.)
b. Can you imagine if the Church at Philippi had had this attitude? Never! In fact, look what Paul says to them in v. 29 (Read slowly!) Did you hear that? It has been granted to you and me to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake! Do you realize it is a GIFT to suffer for Christ’s sake. “Not sure I want that gift, Chris!” Illust – Yet, Paul saw it as a gift to suffer for Christ’s sake. Now, not sure that elders of church at Philippi would have taken out a full page ad in the Philippi Times: “Come join our church, you’ll love suffering with us. We have the best persecution program in town!”
C. Illust: Christians, we are involved in a war. A war for the souls of men and women, boys and girls. The truth of the Gospel is under attack from without and sometimes within. We need to actively confront error and heresy while at the same time positively putting forth the truth of the Gospel and the call to a radical new life in Christ.
III. True Christian Fellowship Means Trusting God is Working in One Another v.6
A. I Can Trust God to Actively Work in the Lives of My Brothers and Sisters in the Church.
1. Trust God to Not Only Work in Your Life, But to work in Others as well.
a. Look at v. 6. This is a beauty! Mediate on that verse. Paul says he is “confident”! What are you confident in my friend? Not a lot of things today inspire confidence. God does! Salvation is from start to finish a “God thing”. Because of that you can have confidence. What God begins, He finishes. If salvation is, even in part, the work of man, there is the chance that it won’t be finished. But if God has begun it, and we see evidences of it, then we can be confident, whether in ourselves or in others, that He “will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Guess what else? There is a 2nd Coming of Christ!
b. Illust: Back in 1991 I married a couple. The woman cut Carol’s hair. She and her boyfriend had been together for a couple of years. Weren’t Christians. Next year the wife became a Christian. Husband was a hard drinking ex-Marine. Had a lot of struggles. At one point had to help hide the wife. When left SC in 1997 assumed that marriage would break up. It didn’t. Husband got saved. Called us with exciting news. 26 yrs. later still together, been through some tough patches, including the death of a son. However, God has been at work in their lives.
2. God’s Active Work in My Life does Not Negate My Responsibility to Pursue Christ.
a. The fact that God does it does not imply that we are passive. God is at work, but we work with Him. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (2:12, 13). But our assurance and confidence is never in ourselves or in our working, but only in God and in the evidences we see of His faithful working in and through us. If there is evidence that God has begun the work of salvation in us, we can be confident that He will complete it as we continue to participate in the gospel.
b. Heb. 12:14 declares: “Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
B. It is God’s Responsibility and Not My Responsibility to Change Others.
1. Humans have the uncanny ability to see all the faults in others while seldom recognizing own.
a. God allows us to experience hardships and trials so as to cause us to be refined, pruned, and to come back more fruitful and more faithful, if we respond to His grace. However, we are also told in Heb. 12:15: “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” Struggles can either make you better or bitter. The choice is yours and mine.
b. Illust: Christians grow when they get pushed into deeper waters in life. I heard story of woman who used to teach swimming lessons at a community pool. She taught beginning students and there was a rope with floats separating the deeper section from the shallow section. After a couple of weeks of lessons and the children were swimming, she knew they were ready for the deeper level. To acclimate them to this, she would take down the line separating the two levels. Usually, this would make the students very nervous. One boy famously remarked: "Teacher, please put the rope back up...the deep water is getting into the shallow water!." We laugh at this, but are we no different? Our Father may challenge us to a newer level of growth by urging us out of our comfort zone. And we cry, "But Father, the deep water is getting into the shallow water!" (Credit: Bible.org)
2. Be careful to allow the Holy Spirit to change people.
a. You and I don’t need to be spiritual “Karens”! We understand what a “Karen” is today. Someone who complains usually at customer service people or sticks nose into what isn’t her business. We don’t have to be a spiritual Karen. Not our life goal to change everyone to our standard. However, let me be very clear about something. Having said what I just said, if you or I actively embrace, teach, or declare heresy, if we live lives that are incompatible with the Gospel, if we treat our brothers or sisters poorly, you will be confronted in this church. We love enough to confront. We love enough to encourage discipleship. We love enough to practice church discipline.
b. Remembering that regeneration is the beginning of the Christian life is important for our sanctification. The new life that comes when the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts does not eradicate sin’s presence from our lives. Even regenerate people still have great capacity for evil after their hearts have been redirected towards the Savior. The power of sin to compel us to do evil is broken, but our ability to sin remains (Rom. 7:4–25). Therefore, we must do all that we can to put to death the lusts of the flesh. If we remember that regeneration is only the beginning of our walk, we will be less surprised at our struggles with temptation and more vigilant in mortifying the flesh. (Ligionier, 6-5-2008)
C. Applic: We can trust the Holy Spirit to change the lives of true believers.
IV. True Christian Fellowship Means Having Genuine Affection for One Another v. 8
A. The Love of Christ Motivates us to Love Those Loved by Christ.
1. The love Paul had for the Philippians was a laudable affection, one arising from their fellow partaking of grace in the apostle’s imprisonment (v. 7). This grace moved the Philippians to share in their pastor’s sufferings as they prayed earnestly for him and even sacrificed some of their own financial well-being to help meet some of his needs (vv. 5, 19; 4:18). This sharing took place even as Paul was called upon to defend and confirm the gospel. Not only does the gospel bring us into an eternal union with Christ, it also unites us to other believers in Jesus, forming us into one body in which we are “members one of another” (Eph. 4:25). Practically speaking, this cannot help but create in us a deep affection for other Christians.
2. Illust: I have seen this played out in my life over the years. Not just this church family, but as result of several overseas trips: Most notably, Ireland, Haiti, Poland. What do I have in common with people in Ireland (Language, culture, heritage), or Haiti. or Poland, or Ukraine? Jesus Christ!
B. How can I Practically Demonstrate Affection for My Brother or Sister?
1. Offer Your Brother or Sister Encouragement in Christ! Illust: recently listened to a Chip Ingram message. He encouraged his audience to be awesome encouragers. He gave them 4 key principles: 1. Remember that people are hurting far more than you know and far more than they show. 2. Remember that you have far more to offer than you know, and far more than you show. (Mostly takes availability rather than ability!) 3. Encouragement is helping others to take the next step they couldn’t have taken on their own so they can become more like Christ. (We are a body! Can’t be done alone. We need the body of Christ.) 4. The key to encouragement is attitude. Certain attitudes are required if you and I are going to be an encourager. I Thes. 5:12-22 given a whole list of attitudes we can work on to develop becoming an awesome encourager.
2. Offer your brother or sister grace. How do I do that? Let me give us 6 practical ways in closing. Choose and apply one this week. 1. Meet regularly with brothers and sisters. (Heb. 10:25) 2. Tell them the truth. (Mt. 18:15) 3. Be compassionate. (I Cor. 12:26) 4. Forgive their offenses ( Mt. 6:12) 5. Seek their good. (I Thes. 5:15) 6. Pray for them. (James 5:16)
C. Applic: Let’s seek to build the fellowship of this local church as we seek the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
