I want you put yourself in Paul’s shoes for a moment. Here he is, travelling around the Mediterranean, visiting exotic places; going on sea voyages; meeting interesting people. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, perhaps not so great when you think about the way he met some of those interesting people, the opposition he faced, the suffering he had to go through. Perhaps it wasn’t the dream holiday of the first century after all. And then think about how he had to manage. Now I don’t know what the exchange rate was between the Jewish Denarius and the Lira or the Drachma in those days, but in any case, I imagine what money he had when he set out on his missionary journeys, soon went in paying for food and accommodation and travel. How did he manage?
We don’t read all that much about these sorts of details in the pages of the New Testament do we? If we didn’t know better we could easily think that Paul’s missionary journeys just happened and he didn’t need to worry about money. But of course that isn’t how the world works. Even in the first century money made the world go round. If you had money you could travel. If you didn’t, you couldn’t. The sort of ministry that Paul was called to required funding from somewhere. As much as he may have depended on hospitality from people like Lydia in Philippi, he still needed cash to get to the places he was going (at least up until the stage where the Roman government took over and sent him to Rome). So how did Paul fund his work? We know that on at least one occasion he worked as a tentmaker but what about the rest of the time?
Well, we get hints of how he managed from time to time as we read through Paul’s writings and one of the clearest instances is here in Phil 4. Paul has just finished exhorting them to rejoice in the Lord always, trusting God to look after them. In fact the theme of rejoicing has run all the way through the letter. And now he gives them a final example of his own joy in the Lord, joy that bears out what he’s said about asking the Lord to provide what you need.
He says: "I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me." What does that mean? Is he saying that there was a time when they didn’t really care about what was happening to him? No, he isn’t talking about their emotional concern for him. He’s talking about their practical concern. He’s talking about the way they’ve again sent him material aid, presumably money. He knows that they’ve always been emotionally concerned for him, but it’s only now that they’ve again had the practical opportunity to help him out. And that in itself gives him joy.
What do you think it is about this gift that gives him this joy? It probably isn’t the money itself is it? We’ll see that in a moment. No, I think it’s the fact that by this gift they’ve identified with him in his ministry. They’ve become partners with him. Look at what he says in v14: "In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress." They may not be able to be there to join him in his prison cell, but they can share with him by this act of financial support. As well as that he rejoices because their gift is a sign of maturity, of their growth in service to God. He says in v18, "the gifts you sent, [are] a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." This act of giving is something that God is pleased with. So Paul rejoices because he can see these people with whom he’s shared the gospel growing in their faithfulness to God, not just in their allegiance to himself.
Mind you, he doesn’t want them to misunderstand. What he said earlier about the peace of God guarding their hearts and minds is true for him as much as for anyone else. He doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s in need or asking for more aid. On the contrary he’s learnt an important lesson in his missionary journeys. That’s to be content. Whatever he has! Whether he has little or plenty, whether he’s well-fed or hungry. It doesn’t matter in the end. Why? Because Christ gives him the strength. "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
It seems to me that there’s an important and incredibly difficult lesson for us here. We live in an age where we’re increasingly urged to be discontented; where covetousness is the given, where greed is good. The big department store in Canada is The Bay (short for the Hudson Bay Company) and when we were over there all their stores had this motto emblazoned across the shop fronts: "Shopping is Good!" That’s the age we live in isn’t it? We live to shop. Shopping is retail therapy. And so contentment is a rare commodity.
Let me ask those who’ve been Christians for a long time, was this one of those Scripture verses you learnt as you were growing up? "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I wonder what you thought that meant when you first heard it, or when you repeated it later on. Did you think of facing lions in Africa, or of standing up for the gospel before your friends, or of being a faithful servant of Jesus Christ? Or did you think of being content with poverty, or with being hungry, with being overlooked for promotion because your Christian values didn’t fit the organisation you worked with? My guess is that few of us thought about contentment being to do with being in financial need. Well, not unless we became missionaries or maybe clergy because they’re supposed to be poor. But not for the rest. Yet that’s what this verse is about isn’t it? And as we’ll see in a moment, this is an important issue when it comes to the question of Christian giving. What do you need to be content? Remember what Rockefeller said when he was asked how much is enough? He said: "A little more than you have." And if you still need a little more than you have, what’s your attitude to giving going to be? Well, we’ll see in a little while how our faith in God helps us to remain content as we give generously to support his work.
But right now, let’s think about the Philippians. Paul says he remembers the way they supported him from the start. Even when he’d just ducked down to Thessalonica they sent him aid over and over again. Still, that’s fair enough. They were probably well enough off to support him, do you think?. Well, were they?
Do you remember what we discovered about the first Christians in the Philippian Church? Who were they? Lydia, a merchant woman from Thyatira. She would have been well enough off to support him if indeed she stayed in Philippi and didn’t go back to Thyatira. Then there was the jailor, probably not high in the earnings stakes, and the slave girl who was way down the bottom. In fact this wasn’t a rich Church. Yet as so often happens their lack of riches resulted in a wealth of generosity.
Paul actually tells us a bit more abut these Philippian Christians in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians. Would you like to turn back to 2 Cor 8. Here’s what we discover there: (2 Cor 8:1-5 NRSV) "We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; [Philippi & Thessalonica] 2for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints-- 5and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us,"
Isn’t that amazing. Here are these Philippians, and possibly also the Thessalonians, being persecuted to the point, I guess, where their livelihoods are taken away, leaving them in extreme poverty, and yet they voluntarily give, not just according to their means, but beyond them. What’s more they beg for the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the saints. They don’t just see their giving as charity. It isn’t just good works that God will be pleased with, though it is that as well. No, this is a way for them to share in Paul’s ministry and that of those that he’s helping with these gifts. It’s like they see it as buying into a partnership with Paul.
Now it seems to me that this is an important principle for us to come to terms with. (Not the bit about us being poor. There are actually few of us who can claim that.) But we all live busy lives, we have varying responsibilities and calls on our time that limit us in how we can minister. Not that we don’t all have our own ministries mind you. I don’t care where you are or what you do, you will have opportunities for ministry presented to you, or available for you to discover, but the reality is that the amount of gospel ministry you can do is limited by the time available to you and the other responsibilities you have to employers, family, friends, yourself. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in a wider range of gospel ministries. The people of Philippi couldn’t go with Paul on his missionary journeys, but they could become partners, shareholders, in his ministry by their financial support. Not many of us may be able to help Doug and Mary with the outreach to our young people, because of work or family or other commitments (though some may be able to), but we can become partners with them by our financial support of that ministry. The same goes for support of Graeme and Jane Peters or Hugh and Dorothy Prentice. You may not be able to go and work with them. You may not have the right sort of personality to handle living and working in a foreign culture, or you may not be the right age, but you can be partners with them by your financial support.
But notice what he says about the order in which their giving came. He says "it wasn’t what we expected: they gave themselves first to the Lord and then, by the will of God, to us." Here’s a major clue in understanding how they could give so generously out of their poverty. As I said before they weren’t just giving out of charity. They didn’t have someone come to the door collecting for the St Paul Foundation, so they looked in their purse and pulled out whatever was there. No, they first gave themselves to the Lord. Perhaps Paul’s motto from Phil 1:21 had rubbed off on them: "For me to live is Christ but to die is gain." They’d handed all they had, their entire lives over to Christ. Nothing they had belonged to them any more. Do you know, it’s always easier to give away someone else’s money than your own. If it’s not yours in the first place you don’t miss it, do you? Well, that’s what had happened. They’d handed over everything to Christ so what they were giving to Paul for God’s work, was God’s anyway. They didn’t hold any claim to it anymore.
Is that your attitude to your worldly goods? Is that your attitude to your wealth, to your riches, as meagre or great as the may be? That they really belong to Christ? To God? For him to use as he sees fit? Or does God only control that part that you put in the plate each week and the rest is yours to do with as you see fit?
"During a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." Will your obituary read like that, or will it read "During a life of comparative comfort and security, their concern for their comfort and their future security limited their ability to share in the ministry of the saints." You see, I think that often it’s our desire for comfort, and our fear for the future, our desire for security that stops us from being more generous with our giving.
But what does Paul tell us about the Philippians and their future security. Look back to Phil 4:19: "And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." What sort of security are you looking for? The sort of security that Kerry Packer has? I remember Kerry Packer giving a large donation a few years ago for the purchase of a number of MICA ambulances, after he almost died of a heart attack on a polo field. That doesn’t sound very secure does it? Not compared with this: "God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Fully satisfy, every need, according to his riches. Not Kerry Packers riches, or even Bill Gates’ riches, But God’s riches in glory in Jesus Christ. What more could we want?
But first we have to give ourselves completely to Jesus Christ. If you haven’t ever done that, then now is the time. If you’ve been a follower of Jesus Christ, but never really given over everything to him, then why not do it now. Recommit your life and everything you have to God. Offer him your whole life, body soul and spirit, as a living sacrifice. That’s the sort of language Paul uses to describe their gift: a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Secondly ask him to help you to be content with what he’s given you; to help to drive out the fear for the future that we all feel from time to time. And out of that sense of contentment with whatever God places before you, think about how you can share in the ministry of the saints both here at St Theo’s and in the wider ministry of the church through the various missions we support.
As I look back over the past few years, since I’ve been here, I’m encouraged by the way our ministry has grown and blossomed. Every year something new seems to happen. I guess it’s most obvious in the area of youth ministry. The first year I was here we had Andrew Ettles working for about 4 hours a week. Then Doug came and he was here for 12 hours a week, then that went up to 18 hours a week. Then Mary came along. We started with Friday night social activities, then short devotionals, then a Monday night Bible study, then 2 and now we have a regular evening service as well. And all in less than four years. But it only happened because a few people in the first instance pledged a weekly amount to cover the cost of that ministry. It’s only grown to where it is now because a few more people decided to join in that partnership in the gospel with Doug and Mary. And it’ll only continue to grow, if people (you and I) continue to support its growth. And of course that’s true for every area of paid ministry that we do here at St Theodore’s. Let the Philippian Church be both an example and a challenge to us. Let us be willing to trust God to provide all our needs, let us be content with what we have, and let us be generous in the way we share financially in the ministry of the gospel both here and in the wider world.
