O Give Thanks to the Lord

And turn back to the book of
Philippians or if you’re utilizing the booklets with the passage in it or your
bulletin, which has the passage in it as well. And you’ll immediately
notice if you’re focusing on those little booklets that even
the diagram is a little bit different in the passage this morning,
such as the case when you begin to study the word and really
Focus on it. You’ll see one little adjustment
there, somewhat inconsequential for the morning message. We’d
begun last week in the opening of this letter, and in a sense,
the verses before us today, verses three through eight, remain as
part of Paul’s opening thought. Paul really doesn’t get into
the heart of any deep instruction or exhortation
to the Philippians. He still is expressing himself
to them in gratitude. So what I want to do, I want
to pick up those first two verses and then flow right into what
follows. We learned last week who the
who the letter was from, from Paul and Timothy. We learned
who it was to, to the saints in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi,
including the overseers and deacons. But what we gathered from that
passage last week was that there was some depth there that perhaps
many of us didn’t notice initially. Most notably, that Christ is
paramount throughout that passage. Christ is in focus by Paul’s
design. We saw that Jesus was the master
of the workmen. The workmen being Paul and Timothy
here in this case, but the principle has not changed. We saw that
Jesus is the harbor of the saints. When Paul mentions, just as we
just sang about, in Christ alone, When Paul says that he’s writing
to the saints who are in Christ Jesus, he reminds them that Christ
alone is the harbor for saints. And finally, that Christ is the
fountain of all blessing. Grace and peace come from God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 1 and 2
again, if you would. Paul and Timothy, bondservants
of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi,
including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all
my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my
every prayer for you all. in view of your participation
in the gospel from the first day until now. 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. For it is only right for
me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my
heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me. For God is
my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ
Jesus.” Paul was a thankful man. Paul
had much for which to be thankful. He was, as you know, one of the
early apostles. His salvation was remarkable. His placement into ministry was
almost immediate. Paul was greatly instructed and
greatly privileged, greatly tasked with the spread of the Gospel. And so it’s not too surprising
that we find thankfulness emanating from the heart of Paul in nearly
every letter that he writes. In Romans 1, verse 8, Paul says,
First, I thank my God. It was almost like Paul couldn’t
even get around to any of the great theology that he unfolds
there in Romans until he dealt with first things first. And
he says it as much. First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all. Because your faith is being proclaimed
throughout the whole world. In 1 Corinthians 1.4, Paul said
it this way, he said, I thank my God always concerning you
for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. Paul acknowledged God’s goodness
in the grace that the Corinthians were enjoying. Paul acknowledged
the faith that the Romans, the Roman Christians had, which was
leading to further spread of the gospel. In the book of Colossians,
Paul wrote in the opening there, we give thanks to God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for
all the saints. In other words, when Paul began
to see a movement of God, a work of God in people’s hearts, the
most natural thing for him to do was to fall on his knees and
thank the giver of that grace. 1 Thessalonians 1-2, we give
thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you
in our prayers. Constantly bearing in mind your
work of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness of hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of God our Father.
He was thankful as well for the Thessalonians. Paul was a thankful
man. Thankfulness or really simply
the expression of gratitude was a regular feature in Paul’s greetings
to churches as we see. For the Romans, their faith,
for the Corinthians, the grace that they received, the Ephesians
and Colossians, faith and love. And that pattern of thankful
recognition of what God was doing in other people’s lives laid
a foundation for Paul to be able to exhort others to thankfulness. Paul practiced what he preached,
in essence. Let me take you to a couple of
passages, if I may, in your mind’s eye. In Ephesians 5.20, Paul urged
that we are to be always giving thanks for all things. In Colossians
3.17, he said, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks. Paul began, not only
having laid hold of this great principle of thanking God for
what God is doing, Paul began to urge his followers to do likewise. And not just to fall in some
kind of general thanksgiving, but to literally lay out, he
says, in whatever you do, specifically noting God’s work of grace. To the Thessalonians later on,
I told you at the outset of that epistle, he thanked God for them. And then he urges them, for this
reason also, we constantly thank God that when you receive from
us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word
of men, but for what it really is, the word of God.” In his
later epistles, he would go on in nearly every epistle to urge
a pattern of thanksgiving, a habit, if you will, a practice. In Colossians 4.2, He summarized it. Perhaps the
summary statement of all of the New Testament practice on the
matter. This summarizes it nicely. Devote yourselves to prayer,
keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. The bottom line was that Paul
realized that God deserves our gratitude. That’s why we’re here
this morning, right? That’s why we’ve come to worship.
Praise and worship is built on a heart that is thankful in recognition
of what it has received through no desert of our own. We don’t deserve what God gives. And because of that, our hearts
are the more thankful. In fact, I want to take you on
a brief tour. One of the distinguishing characteristics
of an unbeliever is their lack of thanksgiving. Turn, if you
would, to Matthew 5.45. In Matthew 5.45, we see one of
the distinguishing marks of an unbeliever, thanklessness. Pick it up in verse 43. You’ve
heard it said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who
is in heaven. For he causes his son to rise
on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous. The point being there, similar
to his point in Acts chapter 14, is that God is actively giving to all
the world. We call it in theology, common
grace, right? They enjoy the same beautiful
snowfall that we enjoy this morning. They enjoy the refreshment of
the earth because of the water that came from it. They enjoy
the food that comes from it. They enjoy the beautiful, crisp
air that we breathe. The difference is the godless
never pause to thank the giver of the gifts. That’s exactly
what he intimates there in Acts chapter 14. Turn over to Acts
14. We looked at it a couple of weeks
ago in a different context, just really briefly. We’ll just look at the one verse.
Look at verse 16. We’ll pick it up there. In the
generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own
ways, yet he did not leave himself without a witness. Paul is basically communicating
to these heathen that they don’t know God, but God knows them. And God has allowed the nations
to kind of drift and do their own thing. But he did not leave
himself without a witness. And what is this great witness? did not leave himself without
a witness in that he did good. And he gave you rains from heaven
and fruitful season, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness
and the intimation there is. And did you ever once pause to
thank him? A brother, Kevin, when he opened
the service, said that, you know, that thanklessness is rooted
in pride, and that’s exactly what Paul is addressing there. Romans 1. Turn over to Romans
1.21. In Romans 1.21, remember, as
we’ve said before, knowledge of God is basic. You don’t have
to go and start with, let me prove God exists before I can
share the gospel with you. Knowledge of God is part of the
foundation from which we can operate. We can presume a knowledge
of God. It’s exactly what Paul does.
Let me start in verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about
God is evident within them. They don’t need external proof.
They don’t need you to go through your apology list. They don’t
need you to argue them into a knowledge of God. It’s evident within them.
Why? Because God made it evident to
them at the end of verse 19. And then he goes on to tell how
God made it plainly evident to them. For since the creation
of the world, his invisible attributes and eternal power and divine
nature have been clearly seen, unmistakable. being understood through what
has been made so that they are without excuse.” And then Paul
issues this indictment. For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. Thanklessness
is a mark of the unbelievers. So, conversely, Christians, believers
in God, Those who do know of God’s goodness and providence,
those who do know that all that we receive is by grace, undeserved
favor, we ought to be all the more thankful. We ought to be
the most thankful. For Paul, thanklessness is a
moral problem. And that moral problem for Paul
degenerates into other sinful attitudes. Most notably, cynicism. Paul knew that hearts that aren’t
focused on God and all that God is doing and expressing gratitude
for that soon degenerate into a cynical, bitter, critical attitude
where a spirit of a critical spirit, if you will, takes over
and consumes all around them. But thankfully, there’s a therapy
for that particular condition, even for Christians who have
stumbled into it. A.W. Tozer said it well when
he said this, As a cure for the sour, fault-finding attitude,
I recommend the cultivation of a habit of thankfulness. Thanksgiving has great curative
power. The heart constantly overflowing
with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness
and gloom that bothers so many. A thankful heart cannot be cynical. Thankfulness calls us to an awareness. It teaches us to observe and
acknowledge God’s grace at work. not only in our lives, but in
the lives of others. We need to cultivate thankful
hearts. Scripture tells us almost from
its opening pages that that is so. Remember the book of Deuteronomy. I would even subtitle it the
book of remembrance, where God urges us to remember his deeds. to recall them not only to our
own minds, but even to our children and to remind us and one another
what God has done and to do that for His glory, to remember, to
be thankful. We’ve all been on both sides
of this equation, haven’t we? Where maybe you did a kind deed,
a great deed, did somebody a favor or a blessing, And the person on the receiving
end never expressed any gratitude. And we scratch our head and we
kind of wince at the thought. Perhaps, though, there probably
are even more occasions where we have been the recipient of
some great kindness, some deed, some blessing. And we don’t respond
with any kind of expression of thanks. And you know, from a
human perspective, how rude we consider that to be, don’t we?
It’s even cause for us to repent and we get all embarrassed, we
end up writing a note even long after the fact and thank you
and let me take you to lunch and I’m so sorry. If we count it rude when we do
it to one another, when we’re not thankful, imagine what God
who has given us infinitely more than we ever deserve. what God
considers thanklessness. We need to be thankful. We need
to cultivate thankful hearts. And that’s exactly what Paul
urges the Philippians to do in this passage. To cultivate thankfulness
so that the church doesn’t degenerate. And what I want to begin to look
at this Lord’s Day is four qualities of a Christian’s thankful recognition. And I said it that way because,
as I’ve already indicated, I think that only a Christian can truly
see spiritual graces at work. Only a Christian is going to
be able to recognize the work of God. And so I call it four qualities
of a Christian’s thankful recognition. First of all, Thankful recognition
is built on a comprehensive memory. Look again at verse three. Paul
said, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Paul thanks God, not the Philippians. He doesn’t start his letter by
saying, Philippians, thank you so much for this gift that you’ve
sent to me. Paul says, first and foremost, thank you, God.
Thank you, God, for the Philippians. Thank you for what you’ve done
in them. Thank you for your grace at work in their life. I mean,
it’s stunningly different than how most of us express our own
gratitude, isn’t it? It’s a stunningly different thought
pattern. Paul thanks God, not the Philippians,
knowing that God was the source. of the change in their lives.
God was at work in their lives. It was God’s grace that needed
to be acknowledged. And when he says all my remembrance,
he’s talking about the totality of his memory bank of the Philippian
church. This is where I would contend,
I appreciate the NIV to the degree that I can, but the NIV has it
all wrong here. He says, NIV says every time
I remember you, that’s not at all what it’s talking about.
One commentator paraphrased it this way, he said, my whole memory
of you. And I want you to pause on that
for a minute, because we spent a few weeks really remembering
how this church was planted. And I believe what Paul means
to say to them is that everything, The time that I met you by the
river. Remember the time when I was in the jail? Remember the
time when the jail after the earthquake flung open? That’s
what he wants them to be mindful of, is everything. Another one said, the whole of
my remembrance of you. I thank God for everything that
I remember about you. I remember when you were without
Christ. I remember how far you’ve come in Christ. Remember, Paul
had visited that church on numerous occasions since the planting.
And now, 12 years later, Paul doesn’t look back and say, hey,
thanks for the potluck when I was there in town last time. Paul
goes all the way back to the very beginning of this church,
to the earliest moments And he says, for everything, I look
back and I express my gratitude to God. Not only how far they
had come in Christ, not only the fact that they were in Christ,
but the current direction of their lives, Paul was watching
them grow in Christ. He noted by doing that their
past areas of weakness. He doesn’t throw up their lives
to them in order to make them feel bad. But he says, I remember
everything about you. One of the most striking things
that I remember about a friend of mine who came to Christ is
how he used to treat policemen, how he used to speak with disdain
about them. And upon talking about it one
day, I just mentioned that to him, not to make him feel bad
about how he used to be, but how far God had taken him. Those victories over sin, Paul
said, I remember those, too. I remember your faithfulness. I remember those distinctive
marks of God’s grace. I remember your giftedness. That’s one reason that I practice
and advocate keeping little prayer lists, just little. I do it a
lot of times on a three by five card. I’ve got little notes in
my Bible so that you can go back to those and you can actually
watch people grow through grace. You can watch people grow through
the prayer lists and you watch your prayer lists get outdated.
As God works, you watch your prayer lists become obsolete. The other thing, from a practical
standpoint, I would urge here is what I would just say, a prayerful
observation of your brothers and sisters in Christ. And when
I say a prayerful observation, as you begin to pray about them,
just think about them. Think about their lives. Think
about how they are. Think about how they’re growing.
Think about how they’re serving. Think about what they’ve struggled
with, how you’ve prayed for them in the past. and that if currently
they’re not struggling, how God’s grace is equipping them for that
battle. Just pray through the saints. Take the phone book someday. And I don’t care how far you
make it as long as you pick up there next time. Pray for those
saints and then pray for a few more. Meditate on what God is
doing, a prayerful observation. That’s exactly what Paul is urging
here. is that this is how he practiced
it. And as he practiced it, this is what he’s commending to the
Philippian believers to look on one another and to recognize
and acknowledge God’s grace in their lives. One clarified this, and he said,
it isn’t the meaning is not as often as I remember you, but
on my whole remembrance of you. There was no disturbing element.
There was no sharp or sudden recollection which suggested
any other exercise than Thanksgiving. There weren’t mass departures
in the Philippian church. There wasn’t this apostasy and
godlessness. His entrance into that city,
the conversion by the riverside, the conversations with Lydia
and the jailer, his entire connection with them filled his memory with
delight. Some of you we’ve known for mere
months. Others we’ve known for years.
And I can say that in every life, there’s something, at least some
glimmer of hope, of grace for which I personally can be thankful
that I see God at work in your lives, even when we struggle
and fall. Remember, I’ve told you this
before, when a college person or a young person comes and confesses
something, to me, I try to encourage them that that is at least a
sign of life. That you’re convicted about it. And for that, I’m thankful. I’m
thankful to God for His Spirit at work in your life. said that his entire memory bank
on behalf of the Philippian church filled him with gratitude. As
he looked back to the very beginning, he could think of no other response but gratitude. You know what? This is really
akin to recognizing God’s handiwork in any other sphere To look,
to drive down the street today and see that beautiful white layer on all the trees
and see it glisten and how beautiful it is. To acknowledge God for
that. To acknowledge God for the beauty
of His creation. For the beauty of His creation
of people and the diversity that they are and the giftedness that
they have. That’s just, that’s the same
thing. In fact, to recognize nature
and not to recognize what God’s done in people is absurd. And note, I want you to know
this isn’t just thinking the best of others. It’s not just
thinking about them as they are not. We all have flaws and there’s
a lot of times where those flaws come to the forefront, don’t
they? When you close your eyes, that’s what you think about when
you see this person. Is there flaws? What Paul is
urging here is get beyond the flaws. Look for the work of grace. Look for how God is working in
them. Look for how God is changing them. Watch. Observe. Thinking the best of others as
if thinking is going to make it so is silly. What God wants us to do is look
for some tangible, objective observance of a real good and
then thank Him for it. Some divine awakening in their
life, in the life of another. And that’s why I say, if you
want something practical, what do you do with this verse? What
do you do with this exhortation, this comprehensive memory? Go to your knees on behalf of
the saints of this church and meditate on God’s work in the
people in your midst and thank him for it. Secondly, the second
quality of a Christian’s thankful recognition is that a thankful
recognition produces a constant petitioning. Not only a comprehensive
memory, but a constant petitioning. Look at verse four and verse
four is a troubling verse here. Here I’m trying to, you know,
both educate and maybe stretch some of you into beginning this
whole thought process of diagramming. And of course, I take you into
probably one of the most difficult verses in all the New Testament
to diagram. Verse four. Always offering prayer
with joy in my every prayer for you all.” Essentially, what you have to
consider verse 4, it’s almost a parenthetical thought. It’s
not the main thought in the whole passage. It’s as if Paul says, I thank
my God, offering prayer. That’s the simple thought here.
This is the means of his expression of gratitude. Offering prayer. And what he basically does by
this is define and explain a little more completely what happens
when these thanks take place, these thanksgivings that he was
offering on behalf of the Philippians. Now, he literally says that every
occasion that he prayed for them and that this thanks that he
was offering on their behalf was completely inseparable from
the memory that he had of them. literally he says here, instead
of offering prayer as what some of the translations do, it’s
making a request. He constantly goes before God
making a request, which is an interesting transition. Because
he’s already said, I thank my God. And he immediately says
after that, and I come making a request. I told you that verse 4 presents
a fascinating, even a difficult study. This is how some of the
translations lay it out. Philippians 1.4, in the New American,
always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all.
King James, always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests
with joy. Always, ASV, in every supplication
of mine on behalf of you making my supplication. and the NIV,
in all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.
And so you end up with kind of this superlative soup, right? Always, every, all. And what’s
being superlatized? Well, I can invent words. Essentially, what Paul says is
that he is making this request and that in all my prayers for
all of you, I always pray. The bottom line is that this
making a request or offering prayer is the main thought and
everything else modifies it. Everything else gives color to
that thought. Always, all my requests, the
joy, all of it modifies that statement. Here, thankfulness
is coupled with this request of God. In other words, having
seen God’s grace at work, because he’s already said that he’s thankful
for them and for what God’s doing in and through them. Having seen
thank worthy grace in other people’s lives, it is motivation for Paul
to ask for more favors from God. And you say, is he greedy? In
a very real sense, this is kind of a sanctified greed. Paul sees that there is this
infinite storehouse, this great God of grace who is completely
unlimited. And he’s already given to his
people. And Paul can’t help but notice
it. And he gives God thanks for it. And he immediately turns
and asks for more. I mean, it’s a beautiful thought
if you consider it. It’s motivation for Paul to ask
for more from God. Basically, because of all that
God has already done, Paul was graciously encouraged to ask
for more. That’s exactly what he’s doing
in verse four, making requests. As I go thanking God immediately,
I bring more requests with me. I can’t help it. Were there needs
in the Philippian church? I mean, the Philippians were
a godly bunch. God was at work in the lives of the Philippian
believers, but we know that there was kind of a lingering disunity
among them. There was a lack of discernment,
likely a lack of maturity, perhaps even a lack of joy. Why else
would Paul in this letter repeatedly urge them to rejoice? Maybe they were becoming like
the morose theologians that often carry themselves in such a sour
and dour mood. One Puritan said it this way,
the best remembrance of our friends is to remember them at the throne
of grace. You not only go and thank God
for what he’s doing in others lives, but as you thank him,
you immediately pray for them. That’s what Paul did. Paul was
much in prayer for his friends, for all his friends, for these
particularly. It should seem that by this manner
of expression that he mentioned at the throne of grace, the several
churches he was interested in and concerned for particularly
and by name. He had seasons of prayer for
the church of Philippi. To me, this is astounding. When
Paul says, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for
you all, he takes the Philippian believers to the throne of grace.
And he just happens to mention it to the church of Philippi.
Look, I’m praying for you. I prayed for you by name, Lydia.
I prayed for the Philippian jailer. I prayed for your households
and praying for you. But I told you that everything
else. Sits underneath there. To color, if you will, that making
requests. He says, first of all, he prayed
continually, always. What’s the difference between
this constant petitioning and making requests continually or
always? One of those words speaks of
perpetuation. In other words, Paul never quit. Paul kept them in his mind. The
other one speaks of ceaselessness. He always was praying for them
every time he paused. Not only did he pray for them
over a long period of time, during those years, he was constantly
returning to their thoughts of them and to pray for them. As Paul exhorted the Thessalonians,
pray without ceasing. Now, granted, from a practical
standpoint, you couldn’t converse, you couldn’t carry on a conversation
if you were actively engaged in prayer. But what Paul says
is constantly return to those thoughts that there are some
prayers that constantly need to be returned and revisited.
and expressed again and anew to God, don’t they? He says, not only continually,
but comprehensively. Two ways. First, regarding His
request, He says, all requests, all My requests. The word implies here an expression
of need. In other words, what Paul says,
every occasion of his praying, he makes requests for them. He
constantly is thinking of new ways to pray for them. Literally
every time he prayed. Now, there are some that are
constantly in our prayers, aren’t there? I mean, there are some
people that you pray for on a regular basis. Is Paul saying that literally
every time he bowed his head in prayer, he prayed in extensive
fashion for the Philippian church? Perhaps not, but there are some
prayer requests that need to be regularly brought before the
Lord. And what Paul’s saying is that
he was constantly about that. The image that comes to my mind
is Christ’s instruction on prayer where He tells us to ask, seek
and knock. There are some prayer requests
that God doesn’t want us to let go of. We persevere in a lot of things
in our lives. Sadly, prayer and specific prayer
for specific things for specific people is one of those things
that we too easily let go of. He also prayed for all of them,
literally on behalf of you all, said one translation. The apostle told them that they
were included in every prayer that he prayed, not for some
of them, but for all of them, and that he did this not periodically,
but always. The recurrence of the superlative
always, every and all shows the exuberant feeling of the writer,
said one. Paul was so enthused. Paul was
so excited about what God was doing in the Philippian church
that he tells them, look, I’ve got you all on my prayer list
and I’m praying all the time for all of you. And he did so. And he couldn’t
help it. He did so with joy. Cheerfully,
always offering prayer with joy. His prayer for them was the outflowing,
the overflowing of a joyful heart. Paul was already joyful, but
he prayed for so many. He prayed for his Jewish brethren,
remember, with grief and tears. They were a heartache to him
because of their disbelief. But for the churches of Macedonia,
of which Philippians was a part, he prayed for them with joy.
He rejoiced as he bowed in prayer for them. Paul was genuinely
spiritually overjoyed to see the fruit of the Spirit ripening
in God’s people. And that’s a question for us.
Does it really cause us joy? Do we really express it to God?
As we go before God in prayer, do we really offer more prayer
on their behalf, asking for more things for them? First Thessalonians 5.16 kind
of echoed this thought when it says, Rejoice always, pray without
ceasing in everything, give thanks for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus. We are to be always offering
prayer with joy in our every prayer for anyone we pray for. Thirdly, and we’ll close with
this. I said there were four qualities
of a Christian’s thankful recognition because only a Christian can
do so. Thankful recognition is built on a comprehensive memory.
It produces a constant petitioning. And thirdly, it recognizes a
cooperation in God’s plan. A cooperation in God’s plan.
Look at verse 5. Paul says, I thank my God in
all my remembrance of you offering prayer, verse five, in view of
your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. We know that the Philippian church
had long supported the apostle. We know from the very first day,
even as he intimates in this very passage, from the first
day until now, Lydia would have been there on the first day that
the Philippian church was founded, Lydia immediately had Paul into
her home to show him and his companions Christian hospitality. We know that the Philippian jailer
did likewise, but I want you to see how the pattern continued. Turn to Second Corinthians, if
you would. Second Corinthians, chapter eight,
we’ve looked at the verse before in different contexts. I don’t like preaching stewardship
messages, but on the rare occasion that I have preached a stewardship
message, this is where I’ve gone. I want you to look at chapter
8, verse 1, if you would. Paul’s writing to the Corinthian
church, but he can’t help speaking about the Macedonian churches
of which Philippi was a part. Now, brethren, we wish to make
known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches
of Macedonia. Paul is doing exactly what he
just practiced and urged us to do. Recognize God’s grace at
work in the lives of others. We wish to make known to you
the grace of God, which has been given to the churches of Macedonia,
that in great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy, their
deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. In
other words, Paul is saying they couldn’t even afford to give
and they still gave. For I testify that according
to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own
accord. In other words, no one pressured
them, no one talked them into it, begging us with the begging
us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support
of the saints. Come back to that thought in
a minute. But this started from day one and it continued, Paul
says, until now. On at least this other occasion,
he had occasion to speak of the Philippians and of the work of
God’s grace in their lives because of it. Paul says, in view of your participation
in the gospel, what does he mean participation in the gospel? Paul recognized the participation
in others in the spreading of good news. Certainly, they’re
coming to Christ, they’re proclaiming Christ, their baptism was a means
of doing that, their salvation. But Paul goes on on various occasions
to point out the faithfulness of other workers and their preaching
of the word, their teaching. But here he speaks of the Philippian
church and their participation in the gospel. How? This word
participation or fellowship comes from the Greek word koinonia,
indicating a wholehearted partnership. All of me and all of you working
together for a common purpose. That’s kind of the idea of koinonia. And it’s a theme in the Philippian
epistle. We’ll see it repeatedly. We think
of fellowship in completely different terms than what the biblical
word intimates. When we think of fellowship,
we think of an ice cream social. In fact, it amazes me all that
kind of falls under the heading of fellowship. We’re going to
go have fellowship. Oh, really? Paul says that the Philippians
fellowship was a fellowship in the gospel. That is, in the furtherance
of it, and if you think of it, that is the whole purpose of
a Christian’s existence. Is the spread of the gospel,
the fellowship in the gospel for the furtherance of it. The
Philippians cooperation toward the spread of the gospel. has
several times taken the form of providing the apostle with
funds, and I believe that’s exactly what’s in his heart. He is already
beginning to acknowledge, remember, the main purpose of this writing
was Epaphroditus’ gift. And Paul says, in view of your
participation in the gospel from the first day until now, it has
never stopped. The tap never got turned off.
It never turned to a trickle. You have always given generously
and here you do it again. Fellowship of the church in the
gospel will reveal itself, as one pointed out, in different
aspects from time to time. not only in the acceptance of
the gospel and faith and our identification with its aims,
our cooperation in preaching it and spreading it, our expression
of sympathy with others in their afflictions, missionaries, but
also by sending monetary contributions for the relief of their needs. There’s a fourth point, and we’ll
pick that up next Lord’s Day. But the point that I want to
revisit is that Paul literally calls this a privileged partnership. In Second Corinthians, when he
was writing to them, he said that the Philippians or the Macedonian
churches were literally begging us. With much urging for the
favor of participation, that’s how the Philippians looked at
this great endeavor. As a privileged partnership.
Of which they were now part that even by the the mere giving of
their means to support Paul and the work of the ministry. Was
a very real in a very real way, a participation. In the spread
of the gospel, do we look at it that way? I don’t like preaching
stewardship messages, period. But I’m curious what’s in our
heart. I’m curious because this is here before us. Do we look
at our participation in the gospel as a privileged partnership?
Or is it drudgery or is it just going through the motions? Is
it something I’m supposed to do? Not for the Philippians. Paul
goes on to tell them that they gave with a joyful heart, hilarity. They couldn’t wait to support
the great apostle in his work and the spread of the gospel. To examine our own hearts. Our gracious God. We thank you
for. The overwhelming depth of this
letter that. As Paul began to open his heart
to the Philippians and. Even open his prayer closet to
them, to allow them to know how he prayed for them, what he prayed
for, how thankful he was for the work of God’s grace, how
eager he was to plead for more, how humbly he acknowledged their
monetary gifts to him and thereby their participation in the great
work of the spread of the gospel. Lord, we thank You for the depth
of Your Word. We thank You for the clarity
of it. We thank You for the convicting nature of it. We ask Your blessing
as we continue to meditate on it in the days and weeks to come.
Be glorified, Lord, in changing our lives as well. It’s in Jesus’
name that we pray. Amen.