Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ
Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with
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 in every prayer of mine for you all making my
prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he
who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this
way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are
all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in
the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my
witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ
Jesus, and it is my prayer that your love abound more and more
with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what
is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of
Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through
Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Now, I'll tell
you what, church, there's a lot there. And as I said last week,
there's a ridiculous level of exposition where we take two
or three hundred weeks to preach this text, and then there's a
ridiculously lazy level of exposition which we could do in about a
month. And I think we'll probably do it in about four, maybe five,
to get through Philippians, maybe longer. Because I think it's
thorough enough in that regard. If we spent how many weeks? Seventeen
weeks in Jude, we should spend a little more in Philippians.
And I want you to see what Paul is writing. I want you to understand,
just to reassure, something that I've sort of come to realize
in the last few weeks is that I don't reinvest what I take
for granted that you understand or that you remember. And as
Paul said, in my remembrance of you, and I think about that
for a moment just as a way of introduction, in my remembrance
of you, that means Paul is thinking about the fruit of the ministry
in Philippi. Paul is remembering. Can he forget? Do you know what
it cost him to plant the church in Philippi? It cost him his
freedom. It cost him the skin on his back. His bones were exposed from the
beatings. He was in prison several times. We saw the miraculous
where he and Silas began to pray and sing praises to God and that
God threw the chains off not only them but all the prisoners
and that the doors were opened but that God through that saved
the jailer and saved his whole household. And there and there
alone is the planting of the church in Philippi. Paul remembers
these things as now he is in prison in Rome. fearful of his
life in one sense, but expectant that God would take him home
and it would be a joy for him. This is the text where he says,
I do not know which I choose, to go home to be with Christ
or to stay here, but for your sake, it is better I stay here.
So to live is Christ and to die is even better, he says. And
so, though he may have the loom of death over him, he is rejoicing
in that. And something that we need to
understand about Paul here is that he remembers the ministry
of the Philippian Christians. He doesn't remember their programs,
he doesn't remember the things that they did and the sense of
how their community was built, because their community wasn't
built. There wasn't anything to invite anyone to when the
planting of the church cost you your life. There wasn't anything
for you to really get excited about, post on Facebook, when
if you posted that you were a follower of Jesus Christ, your head flew
off your body. See there? And he's remembering
them and their partnership in the gospel as we'll look at today. And in that remembering, I started
to think about the remembering of just the planting of Grace
True Church. In the early days, in my living room, in those early
days, three years ago. Can you believe it's already
been three years? Has it been? Yeah, three years. October, excuse
me, September will be four years. What in the world? We're going
to be old and gone before we know it. But three years ago,
I began just as an informational meeting, and I began to talk
with people and share the vision of the church of Jesus Christ.
Not just grace truth, but what Jesus said, what Paul taught
from the mouth of God in Ephesians about what the church should
be. And sometimes I take for granted that everybody just remembers
that. And so part of the reason we
preach the way we do, if you look in our church documents,
the reason we believe in what we believe, we believe in sola
scriptura. Where is it? It's over there
on the wall. By the Word of God alone does all things come to
us, all truth. I'm not talking about the truth
of DNA, it's not in there, but all necessary truth about God
and His revealed self. All necessary truth about salvation.
All necessary truth about holiness. All necessary truth about everything
that matters in this life has a context within the Word of
God. And therefore there is no revelation apart from the written
testimony of Scripture. that is necessary to know God.
And the Scripture even teaches that any revelation apart from
Scripture is an abomination and is blasphemous to say we have
experienced God in any way apart from His written Word. No matter
how fantastic it may be, no matter how amazing it may be, no matter
how enthusiastic it may create us to be, If we are knowing God
apart from His Word, if we're excited about Jesus Christ apart
from Scripture, if we're in love with the grace of God apart from
the Bible, we are in love with a false God, a false Christ,
a false Gospel. Why do we preach the way we do
as Grace True Church? Because we believe the exposition
of Scripture is the only biblical model of learning the Bible. We do not preach pretext. We
do not preach two, three points out of this scripture, that scripture,
this scripture. Now there's times when we have to deal with topics
and we have to show different texts. But in the context of
feeding the church as a whole, we need to do exposition. We need to expose the fullness
of the Bible, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. Because you can't grasp the argument
of Paul to the Philippian church if you don't study the argument
of Paul to the Philippian church. And if I take a small piece out
of this letter and I give it to you even correctly, you're
still going to miss it. So we believe in expositional
preaching as one of our core values as a church. We believe
that it takes more than 20 minutes to actually get an argument out.
If I ask you, just by a show of hands, how many people watched
the Super Bowl this past year? Let me see. Anybody? So we got
a couple of folks. And if I ask you to run down
a recap of that entire game, could you do it in five minutes?
No! And if you can't recap a, well,
how long did they actually play? If you can't recap a 60-minute
ball game in five minutes, how can you recap a 2,000-year-old
argument? that displays the glory of God
in the face of Christ for the sake of the salvation of God's
people. How can you expose that in 20
minutes? You can't. You can talk forever
about the ball game. You can talk forever about your
favorite food. You can talk forever about the stories about grandpa
and grandma and mom and dad. One of my family members back
when we were younger, 10, 11 years old, found some pictures and
then got my mom started digging for pictures. They posted some
pictures up and I started looking at them. Oh, I remember that.
I remember that. I remember that dog. I remember
those boots. And my mother found a picture of one of my first
guns. It was a cap gun, all metal,
it weighed, it was heavy, it was nice, about that big. And
I'm like, yeah, that's where it all started, wasn't it? And then all of a sudden, all
the remembrance of that toy came back to me. And I began to remember
then even circumstances and people that I played with. And if I
were to share that in a conversation, we'd talk about things and then
you'd talk about some stuff that you remember in your childhood.
We'd compare notes and the next thing would, two or three hours
would go by and we wouldn't think anything of it. And we'd leave
our time together and we'd say, man, we had a great time. Would
we not? Then why is it so, I don't know,
frustrating in the world that we live in that people who call
themselves Christians, who have been transformed by the power
of the Gospel through the Holy Spirit of God in their hearts
and minds, why is it so frustrating to sit for an hour and listen
to the Word of God? You know what heaven's going
to be like? An eternity of listening to the Word of God. Nothing else.
There ain't no baseball. There ain't no football. There
ain't no checkers. There ain't no chess. There's nothing. All
that's boring. Why would I take, why would I
throw gold in the garbage so I could eat dirt? Why would I cast diamonds to
the bird so that I could go collect acorns? I wouldn't. The unbelieving world looks at
the Word of God in that way. I'd rather do something else.
It's boring. You know what's boring? Everything is boring
compared to Christ. And I pray that you're saying,
oh, I want that zeal. I want that life. The only way
you'll ever get it is to hear the Word of God continually.
The only way you'll have success in you being a lover of Christ
is if God gives you affection for Him. We sang it. Lord, You
love my love You own. That means you are not only the
person who I love for all things, you own all of my love, but you
own the love that I have because you gave it to me, 1 John would
say. We love because God first loved
us. And so I want you to remember
that. I want you to remember that it's part of our core values
as a church because we believe it is the only biblical way of
feeding the sheep of Christ. If I convince you in any other
means to believe what I'm saying, I have bitten the devil's temptation. If I try to convince you with
evidence... I was called arrogant this past week by a very, very
astute person. Indirectly. He said, you know,
that type of thinking that I just said is arrogance. Because there are people who
give their lives for the sake of proving God apart from the
Bible. to undergird Scripture. One of
my favorite things to do as a pastor is to have open question and
answer. When I first started doing it, I did it in such a
way that it was a little bit arrogant, but I did it in such
a way that I offered the church $20 for any question that they
could stump me on. I never paid. You can't beat me in that game,
not because I'm so wise, because there is an answer. There is
no answer. But they tried. And that birthed
the idea of doing open question and answer. We've had some good
seasons of Q&A in this congregation. And we'll have some more seasons
of Q&A in this congregation. But those questions, even if
they're necessary, and even if the discussion is necessary,
you know, how do we know that the Bible is truth? Good questions.
But the answers to those questions in the context of the evidence
of this world, and the theories of this world, and the philosophies
of this world, have no bearing on you believing the truth of
the Bible. Only the Scripture alone by the Holy Spirit preaching
to your ears, giving you ears to hear. Romans 10, 17 will bring
you to life and help you see and believe it. And then you
believe it and you can say, I believe. Not I choose to believe or I
want to believe. Knowing that the gospel is true is not salvation,
friends. The demons believe and they tremble
for they will stand in the judgment of God for all eternity. The
smoke of their torment will go up and God will be just and loving
in their destruction. Because he's holy, he's a right
judge. So now back to this. As we remember
these things, we see what Paul is saying. Verses 3, 4, and 5
is where we'll be today. He says, I thank my God in all
my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for
you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership
in the gospel from the first day until now. So, remember. And as Paul has already said,
we need to remember what we talked about last week. We need to remember
that the push of this text is about Paul's position as a slave,
not an apostle. Timothy as not a protege of Paul,
but as a fellow slave with Christ. And Paul and Timothy do not esteem
their apostleship, but their slavery to Jesus. Their continued
service to the body of Christ. Their over-joyful gratitude for
being a slave. I didn't spend a lot of time
on this last week, but how do we serve as the slave to Jesus? We serve the body of Jesus the
way the Bible teaches us to serve. as God has equipped and called
each of us to serve. Not all of us are going to serve
in the same way. Not all of us are going to be the same way.
Not all of us can counsel. Not all of us can serve. Not
all of us will be gifted in hospitality, though we will in all venues
be hospitable and give good counsel. Not everybody is called as the
gift of prophet to teach the Word of God to the church. Not
everybody is called in discernment and gifted in discernment, though
we all should be discerning. So if everybody has the same
gifts, then everybody is worthless to one another. So we are service, we are slaves
to each other, and therefore we are slaves to Christ. Now
think about it, the Bible teaches that the church is the body of
Jesus. Do you brush your teeth and not wash your body? Do you
wash your hair and let your body rot? To serve the body of Jesus
Christ is to serve Jesus Christ. And something we need to understand
about slavery, I talked about this briefly last week, but I
want to refresh our minds with a little bit more ways of thinking.
What does it mean to be a slave? Slavery in our world is a negative
thing. Someone being a piece of property
owned by another human being is terrible. It's negative. Though good has come out of things
because God is gracious and sovereign, it has never been good for someone
to be a piece of property owned by another. It's not good. Well, we know
that. Well, I know you know that, especially
you young people. There's a generation that has
a constituency that are continuing to purvey this type of thinking
that I'm going to express here. The type of thinking that says
that slavery is biblical, so we should have it. That's evil. Polygamy was evidence in the
Bible too, but it was wrong. It's wrong. Just because history
shows the narrative doesn't mean that it's a command to do it.
Anybody that wants to look at the gospel accounts in the Old
Testament and say, here's an example of how we should live,
you better look at Jesus alone. If you look at anybody else,
Paul even says, follow me as I follow Christ. So who are you
following? Christ. The writer of Hebrews says, to
look what? We've got many witnesses, but who are we looking at? To
Jesus who has gone before us. So being a slave in the context
of Christianity, especially in the first century in this Roman
city, this Roman province of Philippi, it was not a positive
thing. I'm not talking about a servant
who made good money and had a great place to stay. I'm not talking
about a servant of a governor or even in the White House. I'm
not talking about somebody who does lawn care and then is free
to do what they want to do when they're off work. I'm talking
about somebody who had no freedom. who was just as much owned as
the blender in the kitchen, who was worth just as much as the
mule outside. So a slave is not free in many
ways. They're not free, and this is
going to blow your mind, no pun intended, they're not free in
their thinking. They're not free to think. You're
not. If you're a slave, you're not
free to think. Don't think that way. Don't think that way. What do we do if we're a slave? We start thinking
about stuff. We start looking at things in
such a way that they're... We start thinking we're entitled
to stuff. And what happens? That's squelched. If we're a
slave, even to a popular belief system, we're not a free thinker. If we're a slave to even something
that is true, that is right, that is pure, that someone else
has taught us, we're not a free thinker. If you believe in the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and you believe it because I told you
to, you're a slave to my thinking. But even in the reality of the
world, a slave did not have the freedom to think for themselves.
No matter what they thought, they still could not what? Act
on those things. So they were not free in their
choices. They were not free in their choices on where they went,
what they did, what they wore. They weren't free. Slaves were
not free. Slaves are not free in their
directions. They didn't get up and order their own day. They
got up when their master told them to get up. They went to
bed when their master told them to go to bed. And I'll give you
this illustration that Jesus uses in the Gospels when He talks
about the slave in the field working the crops. And He's talking
to people who feel a little good about themselves because they've
done such a good job on their job. They've done such a good
job doing the things that they were supposed to do, like living
a holy life, doing religious stuff. And Jesus uses this example.
He says, what do you say to the slave after he's worked a full
day in the field? Do you say, you've done such
a good job, put your feet up and recline and sup with me?
No. He doesn't say that at all. He says, where's my dinner, slave? Well, that's cruel of Jesus.
Jesus didn't say He did that. He's using it as an example.
That's what a slave is. And that we don't get kudos and
attaboys and whack-on-the-backs and high-fives and thumbs-up
and likes because we are walking in obedience to Christ. We're
supposed to, and we are going to be judged accordingly when
we don't. The same thing is true about
the slaves of Paul's day. We don't have freedom in our
directions. We don't do what we want to do.
We're not earning anything. We're doing that until we're
exhausted and used up and then we're thrown away. Where is this
going, pastor? I'm telling you where it's going.
It's the crux of Paul's entire letter to the Philippian church.
Because in just a few verses he's going to say, have this
mind among you which is yours in Christ Jesus, though he was
equal with God, did not take equality with God, something
to be grasped, but made himself nothing, made himself a slave,
obedient, even obedient unto death on a cross. So if the God of the universe
made Himself a slave to humanity, made Himself a slave to the Father,
so that He could save and enslave people who were slaves to their
sin, and their flesh, and their selfishness, and their self-desires,
and their internal hunger, and their physical hunger, and their
lust, and everything else, then when He saves His own people,
He owns them by the same standard which He gave His own life. Thus
we are free, but we are slaves to Christ. And if being a slave
to the God of heaven is a problem with us, we are not His children. Slaves are not free even in their
understanding. Many times throughout history,
slaves were not allowed to learn. Matter of fact, I know that certain
portions and certain colonies in this country or in this part
of the world, there were criminal consequences for teaching a slave
to read. Some governors, some colonies. They didn't want educated slaves
because educated slaves begin to think different. They don't
just accept, this is life, this is how it goes. They begin to
express themselves in a way, when you sit down, you ponder
the things of life. They're not even free in their
understanding. Paul says for the human mind, without the gospel
being transformed by the gospel, the human mind is a slave to
itself. And that it is blind and foolish
and unable to concentrate on spiritual things, unable to see,
unable to grasp the things of God, so therefore it does that
which it does. It does that which it understands
to do, which is vile and evil and wicked. Paul says to the
Roman church in chapter 1 of Romans that those who reject
the gospel of Jesus willingly are turned over to a reprobate
mind. They do that which is unnatural.
And the world and the culture says it's natural. What the world
says is good, God says is not. And when the world continues
to do all that it does, it is not a license to say, well, this
is great. You know how your parents used
to tell us, well, if so and so would jump in a fire, would you
go with him? And we'd always say, no, but we would. Maybe
not end the fire, but we'd definitely take the dare to jump over it.
Or at least throw some gas in it. Or some firecrackers or whatever
else we illegally obtained to put in there as kids. And then
wonder when the barn bird's down, I don't know why. Slaves are not free in their
opinion. They're not free. Slaves are
not free in their opinion. They don't get to go to their
masters and say, you know, the work conditions around here are a little strange.
I think we need more air condition in the barracks. I think we need
to, you know, I want Nikes, not these flat bottom Toms. I want some better shoes if you
don't mind. Well, you know, I really think if you did this with your
crops, it'd be a little bit better for you and you could put your
money here. Do you really think a master of a slave wants to
hear that? No, they're not entitled to their opinion, because they
don't have freedom for their opinion. Friends, the same way
for us who are slaves to Christ, we don't have entitlement to
our opinion. For all wisdom and knowledge comes from Christ.
Paul of the Corinthian church says this, that the stupidness,
and I'm paraphrasing now, it doesn't mean that God has stupidity.
But that the stupidity of God is greater than the wisdom of
men, and the weakness of God is greater than the strength
of men. For God chose the nothings, the weak things, the lowly things
of this world, to confound the wise. He chose the nothings of
this world to bring to nothing the things that are. Do you see
that? So we're not even entitled to
our own opinion about who God is. About what the Bible says
about things. Friends, this is where we get
in trouble. This is why we have a confession of faith that has
been historically sound. for 400 plus years that we hold
to as our confession, which is what the Bible, what we say we
think the Bible teaches on these matters. Because you say, well,
I believe what the Bible says about justification. Well, then
you expose that to me. Write it down. It will take you
about 600 pages to thoroughly get started. So why don't we
just go with what others have already said if we agree with
it. We're not entitled to it a bit. Well, I just don't like
that God. I don't like the fact that God
is a judgmental God. Who gave Him the right to be?
He's God. He created everything. When I teach that to first graders
and kindergartners, I do a chapel every now and then. And one time
I did a chapel at a Christian school and the elementary kids
were all there. And I took a crayon in my hand
and I said, I am the artist and I'm going to draw a cat. And I turned the stand around
with a piece of paper, and I started to draw a cat. And what came
on the paper with a lot of resistance is a kite. Close. Sounds similar. Just a little vowel distinction. And everybody laughed. I said,
let's try it again. I threw it away. I started another
one. Let's draw a cat. And I tried to draw a cat, but
a kite comes out. And I said, this crayon keeps drawing a kite,
but I want to draw a cat. What do I do with the crayon?
I broke it into a bunch of pieces and threw it. Because what artist is going
to allow the crayon to tell him what to draw? What creator is
going to allow his creation to tell him what to do? Oh, I don't like that Godwin.
You don't know the God of the Bible then. That is the God of
the Bible. Who knows His ways? His ways are higher than our
ways. Our God is in the heavens. He does as He pleases. God raised Pharaoh up that He
may destroy him as a vessel and object of destruction so that
He may show His power to be absolute. God's power is absolute. And
Paul says that when we stand before Him, all mouths will be
shut. And that God will measure and
judge each individual as the standard of His Son. He will
measure me by Jesus Christ and He will say, well done my faithful
servant. That's a tall... Buddy, you are
playing with fire now. You are saying that you are like
Christ. You better believe I am. Because
Christ has bought me and I am His. And He will say, well done,
my good and faithful servant, because my Son has paid for your
sin. Not well done, James, because
you got it. Not well done, James, because you got the right thinking.
Not well done, James, because you chose correctly. Not well
done, James, because you are so holy the world should have
looked at you. Well done, James, because my son paid your debt. Slaves are not free of their
own opinion. They're told what to do. They're told where to
go. They're told what to wear. They're told when to speak and
what to say. They're told what their vision is, what their purpose
is, what their future is, what their focus is, what their affections
are, and they do it well as one who desires to please their master. Historically, when we think of
slavery, the slave dared not disobey the master for he would
be beaten for it, or worse. But as a slave of Christ, we're
not beaten. For Paul says in Romans 8 chapter 1 of that letter,
he says, Therefore now there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. So God doesn't beat His children.
As a matter of fact, Hebrews tells us that God doesn't punish
us, but He disciplines us to prune us, to bring us into a
place of understanding the boundary which is a loving gift. Because
sin is not joyful. I've never met a person in my
19 years of ministry who has ever sat across my desk and said,
you know, I've been an alcoholic my whole life and I love it.
My life is so good, I just wanted to come and share the testimony
of how great liquor has treated me. I've never had anybody tell
me that methamphetamines and crack and all these other things,
pills, no one has ever told me. And I've had a blast. No one
has ever said, my anger is so great, I control everything and
I'm the God of my own domain and everybody walks and cowers
before me and I feel so good about it. They say, I hate my
anger. I'm angry about my anger. No one's ever said, I'm so elated
that I'm so self-centered and selfish that I'm able just to
get everything I want. All this stuff about me, it's
all about me. I wrote a song, you want to hear it? It's all
about me. Me, me, me, me. Nobody's ever said that stuff
because even in the moment of pleasure, it is always costly. Even for the unbelievers of the
world. A slave is not entitled. He has
no rights. We have the right as human beings
to be judged by God and have hell to pay for all of eternity.
That's our right. That's what is due us. That is
the wage. The wage of sin is death and
justice. By a holy God who is God, therefore
He is right and all that He says is right. He's not contradictory.
He doesn't have a double standard. God is God and God alone is God. What God is it? There are many
gods. The God of the Bible. Well, I don't believe the Bible.
You do. You just refuse to submit to
it. Because if you don't believe
it, you wouldn't be trying to figure it out. If you don't believe
it, you wouldn't be worried about not believing it. It would be
like somebody handed you Charlotte's Web and said, man, we've got
to take care of the rats and spiders. There's a Templeton somewhere.
Oh, Charlotte's going to perish. Who cares about that? I mean,
it's a neat story, it's interesting, but who cares? Because in the
end, what happens? It's just a story. I've never
seen anybody debating whether or not Charlotte's Web is true. You know why they don't debate
it? Because they don't care, because it has no bearing on their lives. But the Bible bears in our lives. It bears down. Because when God
speaks through His written Word, our conscience bears witness
to the fact that it is God speaking. That's why it drives us to anger,
to refute it. So what? Do you like broccoli?
Do you like black beans? Do you like asparagus? Some people
say, I hate asparagus. Do you ever get in fisticuffs
over stuff like that? Don't you dare talk bad about
asparagus and start punching people. Asparagus is good! Pow! Start wing-chunging somebody
over your mama's lasagna? That's their opinion. But why
is it the opposite when it comes to the Word of God? Because people
cannot deny its power. Paul is a slave of Jesus Christ. And here in this text, it says,
I thank my God. in all my remembrance of you."
Do you see that? I want you to see this. This
is huge. Okay, so he's thankful. Yay,
Philippians are nice people. That's not it. Oh, wow, the Philippians
will give me some money. That's not it either. Yippee-yi-yay. The Philippians
care for me. I feel so loved. It has nothing
to do with it. They're sending me food, medicine, and blankets.
Not even close. I thank my God, who's getting
the praise, God, in all my remembrance of You. Always in every prayer of mine
for You, making my prayer with joy. Let's read that again. Always in every prayer of mine
for You all, making my prayer with joy. What's he saying? He's saying
Paul, or he's saying he, Paul is saying, verse 5, because of
your partnership in the gospel with me, partnership, you're
working with me, I'm thankful to God every time
I remember you and I pray for you and that gives me joy. You bring me joy. when I remember
you." That's what he's saying. Now let's unpack it for a minute.
What's it look like? He's thankful to God because
of the Philippians' partnership with him in the gospel. And he
didn't even say, in with me, did he? He says, your partnership
in the gospel. So Paul doesn't even see these
people as partnering with him. He sees them as partners in the
gospel as he is a partner in the gospel. It's not about Paul. Paul is not the pivot of this
praise. The gospel is. See that? So this partnership, what does
it look like? See, here's where I get in trouble.
This is where people start to say that that's uncalled for.
But friends, if I want to shepherd your thinking, I've got to pose,
I've got to set up some things. And these aren't straw men that
I'm doing on purpose, but it's just the reality of where we
are as a culture and what we do. We think partnership of the
gospel, and what comes to mind? I mean, be honest. Activities,
ministries, and the noun. Things that we can see tangibly.
This thing that we do. This thing that we've created.
This administrated thing that we did. This parachurch organization. This mission project. This is
the partnership. It has nothing to do with it
at all. Nothing. The church doesn't need
para, means along with. The church doesn't need things
to come alongside it. The church in itself is self-sustaining
together with the power of God and the Word. So partnering in the Gospel,
I think it looks like something, and we might ask ourselves, what
does it look like for us to be in it? Are we partnering in the
Gospel together? What does it look like? I think
it's foundationally this. It is being the part of the body
that God has called you to be. Are you in Christ? Then you have
a role in Christ. There is no such thing as an
orphan Christian or a long-ranger Christian or a maverick Christian.
God has never called anybody separately out of the body of
Christ that the body of Christ has not sufficiently said, we
agree with that. If God calls me to do something
and to lead you to it and you all go, I don't see that being
biblical, then I'm wrong. And if I do it anyway, I'm in
sin. Being part of the body that God
has created you to be. What is your role in the body of Christ?
What is your ministry to the body of Christ? What is your
gift for the body of Christ? Working together is what it is.
So that the church is built up. Partnering in ministry is for
the sake of the building of the church. From conception to maturity. Conception being those that are
lost without hope in the world. Hearing the gospel through the
ministry of the church. Each and every one of us. Not
just us evangelists. But all of us. and then growing
when our neighbor and our brother and our sister start to be fleshly,
selfish, pity. You know pity is a sin? You feel bad for you because
somebody did you wrong? Repent and believe in Jesus Christ and
get off that pot. If you can't forgive them and
move on, chances are they didn't even sin against you, you just
imposed it on them. Serve somebody instead of waiting
with your hands out. See the point? We've got a job and it's for
the service of the body. Why? So that the body is built
up. So that the body endures trials. What happens when calamity strikes
our life? What happens? You know what happens? We either
tuck our tails and hide and woe is me, or we rise to the occasion
and the body of Christ comes and does what? Gives us the gospel that we may
endure. Partners in the gospel, which is the power of God. We partner in the gospel so that
the grace of God gives strength to the weak. So that the body
of Christ learns to love each other. So that the gospel rights
wrongs. So that the body is forgiven.
So that the body is prayerful. So that the body is encouraged.
So that the body is equipped for the work of the ministry. What does it look like? So partnership,
we know what it is in the context of things, but what does it look
like? What is Paul really saying here when he says partnership?
Well you know the Greek word koinonia, it's thrown around
like a ping pong ball. Koinonia, fellowship, fellowship,
fellowship. Let's get a casserole a couple
of times, we'll get together, barbecue, fellowship. Let's enjoy
each other's time, fellowship, game night, fellowship. Really,
if my relationship with you is just about what we do at work
or what we do for fun or what we look at on TV or what we eat,
just leave now. That's superficial. I can do
that with a total stranger in seven minutes and feel like I
know the guy. What is koinonia? What is true
biblical fellowship? Biblical fellowship in the context,
and when Paul says partnership, it is directly related to the
idea of biblical fellowship, koinonia. And this is important
because it holds the whole letter together. Jesus Christ, slavery,
and fellowship, true biblical fellowship, is the central theme
of this letter. So, what does it look like? All things in common. We are partnered so that we are
all things in common. What did it look like in the
first church? Everybody gave up everything they had. Because
when you confessed Christ, when you were born of God, when you
stood in the public square and people started seeing you go
to somebody else's house, your life became very difficult. People talk bad about you. People
told the authorities about you. People stopped selling you stuff.
People stopped buying from you. So to follow Christ in the world
is always costly. My question is, where are the
costs today for so many people sitting in the pews of so many
churches this very hour? What's the cost? Well, it doesn't
cost me a dime. Then leave. Because where you
are and what is being taught to you is worthless. And I think
that's probably the first time I've said that in a long time.
Friends, you want to counsel your friends who are struggling
in their faith, ask them if it cost them something to worship
with the saints. Did it cost you something? Is
it costing you something in your heart today? Is there other places
you'd rather be just because of the burden you have? Are there
friends and neighbors and old church friends and old Christian
friends who don't even speak to you anymore because you're
in fellowship with the saints? See, now it sounds like cult
talk. It's not cult talk, it's Christ talk. And that sounds
like a cult stick. Well, take it for what it is.
You judge me by the Bible. Koinonia. What's that look like?
Mutual interests. See, you just said it. What about
casseroles and games? Is that all your interests? Is
that what's going to be on your tombstone? Halo expert. Football. Daddy. Golf. Guns. Me. Sad, wasted lives. What is a mutual interest? That
means we are concerned and care and are invested in the souls
of each other. Even when we cannot supply the
physical need, we have a vested interest in the soul. We have all things in common
through our service. Mutual service. Mutual purpose. And specifically, all things
for the sake of the gospel, for the glory of God. All things. Why do we do this? For the glory
of God. Why do we minister to the saints? For the glory of
God. Why do we teach the Bible? Why do we learn? Why do we pray?
For the glory of God. But in the end, what happens?
What's the purpose of it all? What's the outcome of the partnership
in the gospel in the first place? Praise to God. I thank my God. Now we're back there. I thank
my God, because you're partnered with me, because you've given
your life and the investment of the gospel with me, as I have
done with you, we are producing worship and thanksgiving to God.
Is that not the outcome? Why did Paul tell the Ephesians
church that the church exists? To display the manifold wisdom
of God, which is revealed in what way? To the praise of His
glorious grace. Of course, with love, and building,
and equipping, and rebuking, and teaching, and training, and
all these things combined, the outcome of even all that stuff
is to the praise of His glorious grace. Thank You, God. You are
worthy. Praise Your name. Holy are You. Oh, our God, we thank You for
who You are alone. This is the purpose of God's
salvation for His people. This is what heaven is to be
like. That all the culmination of this life for the rest of
eternity is filled up and overflowing with thanksgiving to God as we
stand before Jesus face to face and hear His words. Beautiful. So Paul is saying,
I am thankful because God has given you to me and God has equipped
you and I am thankful the grace of God has reached you. He says
the same thing similar as a way of showing when the grace of
God reaches more and more people in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Oh,
it's his favorite text. Okay. For it is all for your
sake. So what is? You know the context
of 2 Corinthians 4? All his suffering and beating
and near-death experiences. It's all for your sake so that
as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase
thanksgiving to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4. So, Paul is right now in a place
where he has reason not to have joy. Has reason not to rejoice. What
do you mean? He's in prison. He's in prison and he appealed
to Caesar so he stays in prison two years after he was acquitted
of a crime because he appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen. They told him, we see you've
done no wrong, you would be free to go, but since you appealed
to Caesar, you have to wait until you're on the docket. We're going
to put you on a boat and take you to Rome. And you're going
to have to stay in prison until you see Him. Two years. You think Paul's got a reason
to have a pity party? Dude, he can blow up balloons,
light fires, tiki tape, whatever it's called, tiki torches. and say, look at me, man, I was
free and I, like a dummy, appealed to Caesar. But why did God permit
that? Because God wanted Caesar to
hear the Gospel. It's like King Agrippa. Hear
the Gospel. What is Paul's Gospel? Paul's Gospel is that Jesus died
according to the Scriptures. And He was buried according to
the Scriptures. On the third day, according to the Scriptures,
He was raised to life. And this same God, Jesus the
Christ who was raised to life, raised me to life on the road
to Damascus. I was murderous. I was hateful. I wanted all Christians to die. And I had zeal for the law of
God. And God Himself, who is Jesus
Christ, saved me without my consent, without my concern, without my
permission. He saved me. He stopped me. He
grew me. He built me. And immediately,
though I was blind in my eyes, I could see. That's the gospel of Paul. That's
the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why Paul stayed in prison
for two years and he says that his imprisonment is for the sake
of the church, that the gospel may go out. You know when you
don't have time to write? When you're busy. When you're busy. You cannot
write a book. Pastoring a church. Raising a
family. Cleaning a yard. Changing out
the intake manifold on a car. You can't do it. So if you want to write a book,
you've got to be put in prison. Paul was put in prison for the
sake of the grace of God extending to more and more people. And to show those through Paul,
those who the gospel had reached, to show them that though, what
does he say, though I am bound, the gospel is free. Also, that
it is not about me being free that you should grow in Christ.
I am yet just a vessel to be used up. And what does Paul say
to Timothy? Pour it out like a drink offering.
You know the significance of that? How long does it take to
pour out a cup? That's it. It's over. I've finished the race. I've
won the prize. which is the crown of life, Jesus
Christ. Paul's joy was toward God. Paul's joy was because God had
created a people in Philippi for his glory who were partnered
in the gospel. Paul, though he had reason for
pity, was joyful. Joyful. You want some application? You've got a reason for pity?
God created you in His image, in His Son's image, and saved
you through the Gospel? You've got a reason for joy.
Are there people in your life, around you, in your body, who
are partnered with you in prayer, in the Gospel? Then you have
a reason for joy. You believe in the sovereignty
of God? You believe in the foundations of our doctrines? Then you've
got a reason for joy for all that God does, all that you experience
is for your good, to the praise of His grace. Paul's joy is not that they care
for him. You see the point? The Philippian
church wanted to send Paul some more money so that he could have
something in his time of imprisonment. And what does Paul say over in
chapter 4? He says, I've had much and I've
had little and I've learned to be content with little. For I can do all things with
Christ who strengthens me. That's Philippians 4. That's
the context in which Paul wrote those words. Philippian church
trying to say, we'll send you money. Paul says, keep it. Your
heart is in the right place. Please don't send me your money
for God's grace is better in my life when I have nothing.
It's greater for me in my worship when I have little. It's greater
for me in my faith when I have less. What? And I have joy You
know what temporal happiness is? Having everything you need
right now. And the more you depend upon
that for happiness, when that slides into the toilet and it
will, it will. If nothing more than when you're
on your deathbed, you will think, oh, woe is me. Versus, wow, I'm
almost free. Paul was not joyful that they
cared for him, though he was. It was because they were in Christ
with Him. That's what gave Him joy. Evidence
by the fact that they cared for Him. See? So Paul was joyful
because God had created a people in Philippi that proved their
creation, their new birth, because they cared for Paul. And they
cared for the ministry of Paul. This is the fruit of the gospel.
And this is the cause of Paul's joy. What does the world say
that we should be grateful for? What does it look like when the
world... You know, in contrast to what the world... And the
world is in the church, y'all. The world is in the church. The
world... would say that gratitude is you've
got to love what people do for you. Oh, I loved it when you
raked my yard. I'm so thankful my yard is clean.
Well, that's not wrong to have gratitude for that. But what
is that worth when the wind blows? Leaves are back. We spent three
hours in the fall blowing and raking leaves into the street.
The next morning they were back in my yard. I was so grateful to look at
my yard and say, look at all this great yard. Next morning,
all that worked for nothing. It was a good work, it was a
good deed, I was glad to see it happen, but it was not where
my joy lay. Because if it was, it was gone. Some people think that you should
be grateful because they have gratitude and thankfulness and
joy. Oh, I love the thought. You know the card you get? It
was a good thought. Thank you for thinking of me. Is thought the flatulence of
the mind? Sorry, I just messed your mind
up, didn't I? I mean, really, in the context
of thinking, I was thinking of you. I wonder what she's up to.
I wonder if he's doing any better. Oh well, let me rake my yard. Is that really good? How about there's some action
to those thoughts? How about prayer? So that our joy can come from
knowing that God's got it. I'm thinking of you. You ever
hear that? We say it. It's nothing malicious.
But what does it mean? The world says be grateful. Love the thought. It's the thought
that counts. Is it? What about the old cliche
in contrast to that, that the road to hell is paid with good
intentions? The thought's counted. We stand before Christ. It's
not going to be. We know I was thinking about it. I had good
intentions. You know my heart. Yes. It's
exceptionally wicked and deceitful. The world says you've got to
love the gift. Just be thankful for the gift. Love the gift.
Love the idea that these people thought of you and were going
to send you money. That's why Paul is joyful. Paul says no.
Paul says no. Paul says his joy came from knowing
that God had created a people in Corinth who were in the body
with him. and whether he lives or dies. But for their sake, Paul says,
as we'll see in weeks to come, it is better that I stay in prison
and live so that you may grow into a holy people. And I'm joyful for that. Hallelujah. I'm kicking my heels. I'm praising
my Father. I am grateful that I am suffering
so that you can grow. The world says, love the people.
It's about the people. You know, I love my church because
it's got such good people. Well, what about when those people
aren't so good? Well, that just doesn't happen. Oh, yes it does. If you think you can depend on
people for your joy, just go ahead and, I don't know, buy
you something. Go find something else. Buy you
a mannequin and talk to it because it will do you better than the
people will. Now, Christ's body will minister and meet your needs.
Christ's body will bring you to the remembrance of joy, which
is the gospel. But there is going to be pain
in the church. If there's not, it's not healthy.
If there's not weak people in the church, it's not even the
church. It's a joke. If everybody's agreeing on everything,
if every doctrine's right, if everything the preacher says
is just hallelujah, we're just going to write on a sign and put it
on a t-shirt. We go down. That means we don't even like people
who don't think the way we do. And it's not a church. It's a
cult. If there's no dissension among
the people of God so that the power of the gospel can be seen
to overcome those things, then there's no church. There's no
body. That's why when you're offended,
and you don't try to reconcile, you're just as guilty of sin
as the one who's offending you. You do what you can, and if you
can't, then you've done all you could. See, Paul is in love with Christ,
and therefore Paul is in love with Christ's body. And Paul is full of joy because
of that. And Paul is in love with Christ
because of his overwhelming grace toward him and toward the people
of Philippi. And so the gratitude of the church
looks more like this in comparison to the world. The gratitude of
the church looks more like, thank you God for your work in these
people. I read an article this morning
that was on some site. It just popped up in one of my
feeds. It says, your preaching is not in vain. You know, as
a pastor, you preach sometimes, you think nobody's nodding their
head. Nobody's saying, Amen. Half the people are asleep. Nobody's listening. Nobody cares. You see where this is going?
Pity, pity, pity. It's not about me. If God can speak through Balaam's
ass, He can surely speak through me. The church is thankful because
of the work of God in us. In me and in you. And when I
see you struggle, I'm thankful. Oh, you know what? God's going
to bring them through this. And I weep with them. And I pray
with them. But I'm thankful. I can rejoice
because God's going to see us through it. It's not going to
destroy. We're not going to be struck
down. We're not going to live with hopelessness. We live with
hope. The gratitude of the church is
for God's glory. We know that even all the suffering
that we did is not wasted. It's for a purpose. It's for
the glory of God that we can look at the end of this rope
as the next one comes and probably has a noose on it and catches
us. At the end of this rope, we can
look up and say, wow, God is praised. I'm not going to write
a book on how we overcome this stuff. We're just going to have
to sing praises to God. He is glorified in this outcome. The church is grateful for the
grace of God. Thank You, Lord, that even this
suffering is a part of Your grace. Though You have grace in it,
it's part of Your grace that You grow us to be like You in
the pressing. I made the comment yesterday,
I use Twitter as a personal reference guide for things that pop into
my head. Some people think I'm talking to them. I promise you,
I'm not thinking of you when I do these things. They just
pop in there, and I'm like, I want to save this so I put it on my
Twitter account. I can go back and look. And I
thought to myself yesterday that any preaching that does not cut,
and we talk about, we ought not to be cutting on people. Well,
the Bible says in Hebrews 4, verse 12, that the Word of God
is living, listen to this, and breathing, and is sharper than
any two-edged sword. Cutting what? Flesh, bone, marrow. You know where the marrow is?
Look at the flesh on the outside, the bones on the inside, the
marrow is in the middle of the bones. We cut through the bone and into
the soul. So if the Word of God is being
taught and it doesn't cut, it's worthless. But I don't think we're supposed
to be chopped down. No, we're pruned. And how are we encouraged? When
we are being pruned and pressed by the preaching of God's Word,
by the study of God's Word, by the remembrance of God's Word,
we come out and we go, wow, that was painful, that surgery was
painful, but God has made me better. God has made me stronger. What surgery? The surgery of
God's grace through the Word of God. And the church is thankful for
that because that is the good news. That is the gospel of Christ. That His Word transforms us. And we are thankful to God for
His salvation of the lost. There is no one so hopeless that
God cannot save them. But it is not in our hands. We
pray for salvation because God is the author of it. We pray
for God to bring people to life because He is the giver of life. We pray. We pray. And we praise Him because
His glory is revealed in the saving and the growing of His
people. Remember last week we said that
Paul was honored to be a slave of Jesus. And we see that based
on the fullness of this letter, but most importantly in the introduction.
Instead of saying, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, he even removes
that from his introduction and says, I am a slave. And very soon he will show us
that it is the same thing that Jesus, God the Son, has done.
Made Himself a slave. Look at verse 6. We'll pick up here next week,
but I want you to see this for a minute. Paul is suffering as a slave
for Jesus Christ, but Paul is thankful to God with joy as he
prays for the Philippian church. You see what's happened here?
They want to minister to him, and in turn he ministers to them. There's a lot there. Paul prays
for them. It's like the story of my grandmother's
pastor after she passed away 10 years ago, January. When she first had cancer, 22
years before that, he went to her house and he sat by her bed
and he began to talk with her and he started to pray with her,
but he broke out into tears and pain. over the fact that this
woman whom he loved was sick. And she grabbed his hand and
prayed for him to have strength. He shared that at her funeral.
That when he had gone to serve her and minister to her, it was
he who received the ministry. That's what Paul's doing. That's
what we do when we're pressed. That's what we do when we're
grateful, full of joy. Paul's joy came from the work
of God, not only in the Philippian church, but in the work of God
in him, that in the midst of terrible need, Paul ministered
to them. Not just prayed for them all
the time, but prayed with them, and that prayer gave him joy
to pray for God's blessing on them. And he says in verse 6, and I
am certain of this, I am sure of this, that He, God, Christ,
who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at
the day of Jesus Christ. He is talking about the sufficiency
of Christ even in the ministry of the Philippians. In the ministry
of His imprisonment. In the ministry of His writing
this epistle to them. God will keep them until the
last day. Friends, God will keep you. If you are His, God will
keep you. You will not fall away. And as you sit here as the body
of Christ, understand, understand that your joy will only come
from praising God for what He's done. And the greatest joy of God's
grace comes even when we need ministry, we give it. And there's
so much more sermons to preach out of these few texts. The ministry
of prayer. You see, there's so much here.
And we'll see it in the context of the rest of this letter. But
what if you find yourself in here today and you're not in
the ministry of the church? You're not born of God. Your
only hope to have the full satisfaction of the joy of Christ is to see
Him as God. See Him as the Lamb. See Him
who came to this earth to become a slave, to suffer your judgment,
satisfy your wrath, and be raised from the dead to give you life.
Your only hope is to believe fully every moment of your life,
trusting in Jesus Christ. Faith is not a one-time event. It is a continual reality in
the life of the Christian. And when you look at your life,
you don't look on the day that you believed. You look on the
moment now that you are believing. I am believing, though I cannot
see it, God, that Jesus has saved me. and that You will finish
the work You started. Let's pray. Father, it is with great joy
that we see You, that we hear You, that we grasp
the reality of Your love for us. so much more every day. Father, Your Word does not fail. We trust that You have planted
in the hearts of all of us today and that there will be fruit
in those hearts. God, we pray with all earnestness that You will bring life through
the sending of Your Word. Lord, we pray that you would
overcome obstinance and pride and pity and unbelief in any
heart who hears the gospel. We pray that the transformation
of their lives and affections would be the key proof, one of
the foundational realities of your creation in their heart. Lord, help us to see all that
we're going to learn in these months to come as it applies
to us individually and in our homes and in our lives, but most
importantly, as it applies to us as a people who are the family
of Grace Truth. And Father, many who are orphans
with no covenant commitment, no real home, thus they leave
never knowing where they will turn, would You press into them
to find a church home or to covenant with us. As we grow deep, as
we grow worshipful, as we praise You for all Your grace, for the
sake of Your glory, in Jesus' name, Amen.