Philippians 1:1–11
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Well, good morning. My name is Mike Carnicella. I'm one of the pastors here at 3rd. It's a joy to be with you this morning. If you looked in your bulletin this morning and saw the sermon title, you might be wondering if I'm going to be making a singing appearance this morning. I'm not going to sing. I want to know what love is. Because it might take a little time. A little time to think things over.
I'd better read between the lines in case I need it when I'm older. We need to know what love is, and I think Paul can show us. Okay, I changed that last line. Classic song by Foreigner. Ten of you got that reference. I've dated myself now as a child of the 80s. That's right, I'm in my 30s, not my 50s. As some of you might assume. I used to have dark hair and a dark beard.
If you're preparing for pastoral ministry, maybe think twice about that. Well, we're going to be looking at Philippians 1 today. So go ahead and turn in your Bibles. This passage today has a lot to say about love, about joy, about humility, and many of the fruits of the Spirit. So go ahead and turn there. And as you're turning there, just in terms of background of this letter that Paul wrote to the Philippian church, he wrote this in sometime around AD 60.
Paul was nowhere near Rhodes, Greece, where Brandon and Alex are right now. Rhodes is an island down south. It's further south than Turkey even in the Mediterranean Sea, east of Crete. And Philippi was not there. it's all the way up in northern Greece, close to Macedonia. And this town used to be a Roman colony in the time of Paul. It's in northern Greece, as I said, and the father of Alexander the Great, whose name was Philip, Philip made this town the launching point for his empire, and hence why the town is called Philippi to this day. Alexander the Great went on to build one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. And then a little bit later, maybe a few hundred years later, after Caesar was assassinated, Brutus and Cassius were defeated in the Battle of Philippi right outside of this town. And Mark Antony and Octavian were the ones who defeated them, and
Octavian, who became Caesar Augustus, made this town, Philippi, a Roman colony, and he gave all of the citizens Roman citizenship. They became part of the Roman Empire, and this is the place where Paul and Timothy showed up sometime around A.D. 50, so about 20 years after Christ died, and Paul first met Lydia, who was a businesswoman down by the river, and she believed the gospel that Paul proclaimed. Shortly after that, a demon-possessed slave girl was converted when Paul preached the gospel to her and cast out the demon. But unfortunately, the owner of that slave girl, who was profiting off of her ability to see into the future, this owner was unhappy and he complained to the magistrates, and Paul and Timothy end up in jail. Well, then God miraculously rescued Paul and Timothy from the prison, and when the jailer had thought they escaped, he was about to kill
himself. He drew his sword. He's about to stab himself. But Paul and Timothy yell out. They say, we're still here. Don't kill yourself. And they preach the gospel to him, and he's converted as well. And that's the start of this small church in Philippi, these three miraculous conversions. And like I said earlier, Paul's writing to this church now about 10 years after the church was started, around 50, so he's writing around 60, and this time Paul's in jail again, only this time he's likely in Rome, and there are a number of reasons why Paul wanted to write to the church at Philippi. One of them was the fact that they had sent him a financial gift, right? He's in prison in Rome, he can't support himself, and so he's relying on the support of others, and the Philippians send him a financial gift. And so Paul is going to write back to them. He's also concerned though because he's heard about some false teachers who are preaching false gospels near the church in
Philippi. And so Paul wants to warn them about that as well. And then thirdly, there's a threat from within. There's disunity inside the church in Philippi. And so Paul wrote to thank them, to counter heresy and to remind them of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who humbled himself by taking on human flesh.
Humility in the ancient world at the time of the writing of this letter was not a virtue. To be humble was not a good thing. It meant you couldn't rely on yourself. You had to rely on others. You were weak. Well, what about today? Is it any different today? I don't think so. It's really not different at all. No one wants to rely on someone else. We don't want to have to rely on other people. No, we want to be strong, not weak. Well, what about you? What do you think of humility? Well, as Christians, we know we're supposed to be humble, right? We read about humility. Our Lord was humble. But what is it? What is humility? Well, it's not just thinking less of yourself, but it's about thinking less about yourself. Thinking about yourself less often. Thinking about others more often. That's what Paul talks about throughout this
letter. Thinking of others' needs and not just your own. Paul himself was in difficult circumstances. as we mentioned. He's in prison. Paul had been humiliated. He can't support himself. He's weak. He's old. And anyone who associated themselves with Paul would be humiliated as well. But the Philippians did not abandon Paul. They renewed their concern for him, and they sent him aid. The overarching message of this letter is a message of joy in the gospel in the midst of difficult circumstances. You see, it was the gospel that brought Paul and the Philippian church together. It was the gospel that united them. And it is the gospel that informs and motivates their daily lives. And it's the gospel that gives them hope for the future. So Paul urges the Philippians to unite for the sake of the gospel. Rejoice in the things that matter most.
And that's a message we need to hear today. So let's read our text this morning. Philippians 1, 1 through 11. You can find it on page 980. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were 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 Jesus Christ. 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 may 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.
I think the main idea of this passage is this. Rejoice at the work that God is doing here in us and pray that God would continue that work. Rejoice at the work that God is doing here in us and pray that God would continue that work. We'll break this down into two points. So point one, rejoice at the work that God is doing here in us, each and every one of us.
Paul introduces himself and Timothy in verse one. They're the authors of this letter. Why is Timothy included? Well, we mentioned earlier, Timothy was there at the founding of the church and Paul mentions later in chapter two that he plans to send Timothy to the church as well. And Paul addresses the letter to the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. So who is Paul writing to? Some special class of Christians? The super spiritual? Those who are sinless? Can perform miracles?
No, this is how Paul refers to all Christians. They're saints. They're holy ones. They've been sanctified, set aside for God's purpose. Paul also mentions the overseers and the deacons there and these are the officers of the church the word overseer is the same word as bishop and we see in the new testament that this word overseer is used interchangeably with terms like elder and shepherd and so these are the these are the biblical offices as an aside this is this is why at third avenue baptist church we have elders and deacons. It goes all the way back, right, to the very beginning of the church.
Verses three through five, Paul gets into the substance of this letter. 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. Paul is thankful. He received a gift from this church, right? Remember, he's in prison. But notice, it's God whom he thanks and not them directly. Interesting point there.
Paul thanks God because ultimately God is the one who supplies his need. Well, this church has supported Paul physically and financially from day one, right? From the beginning until now. And Paul rejoices at God's ongoing work in their life. We've got many gospel partnerships here at Third Avenue. Do you know who some of those gospel partners are? Do you pray for them regularly? Have you thought about sending a text message or an email to one of our gospel partners who are not here with us right now to encourage them? Have you maybe even contemplated visiting one of our gospel partners. Our gospel partners went out from us, and now they're out on the mission field. And it can be tempting to feel like you're alone out there. If you're a member of Third Avenue, you'll know that Stephen Shaw sends out the church directory every month after
our members meeting. And in the back of that directory, if you've ever made it all the way to the bottom, you'll see a list of all of our gospel partnerships. We've also tried to make a practice of spotlighting our gospel partners when they come to visit us. So we have special meetings on Sunday afternoon or after the evening service, or we highlight them in the evening service. We have a lot going on on Sunday, I get it, but come to these meetings. Come and hear from our gospel partners, hear about what's going on in Asia and all over the world. We have brothers and sisters who have gone out from us, and they're laboring so that people will come to know Christ.
Come and hear about that. Stephanie Stiles, our deaconess of missionary care, is regularly thinking of ways that we can be supporting our gospel partners. If you want to know more about who they are or what they do. You can talk to an elder. You can talk to Stephanie. We'd love for you to get to know them and be praying for them regularly. And here we come to one of the most famous verses in Philippians and maybe the New Testament itself, right? Philippians 1, 6. It's what we talked about from our statement of faith. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Well, before we start talking about perseverance, let's remind ourselves of the real reason why this verse is encouraging. It's encouraging not just because it talks about you or me, it's encouraging because it talks about him, God.
he began a good work, the creator of the universe, the one who made everything, the stars and the galaxies, the mountains and the oceans and everything in them, and you, he did make you. And at some point, if you're a Christian, he began a good work in you. That is the God who will bring this work to completion. The one who shuts the mouths of kings. He counts the nations as nothing.
Nothing can stop him. That is the one who will finish the good work in you that he started. And Paul is certain that God will persevere each and every Christian at Philippi until the end. they're going to make it. They're not going to fall away. They will persevere to the end, not because they are so great or good or holy, but because God is great and God is good.
Jesus promised that not one of whom the Father gave him could be snatched out of his hand. This is a comfort, isn't it? We can find joy in this. This promise helps us to press on. If you're a Christian, there's nothing you can do to lose your salvation. There's no unforgivable sin that you can commit that will separate you from God. Listen, if you're a Christian and you think you've offended God so much that he won't forgive you, that is a lie.
brother. That is a lie, sister. The Lord will forgive, return to him. He will never leave you or forsake you. This is what Paul is sure of. But there is a catch. Read verses 5 and 7 again with me real quick. Because of your joy, sorry, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 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. So those are the verses that bracket verse 6. Did you catch it? Paul is absolutely confident that God will persevere every Christian to the end. God will not abandon one person for whom Christ died. And Paul is certain that God will persevere every member of the church at Philippi, and every Christian who's ever lived, including you and me, because of our ongoing faith in Jesus Christ. Did you see that? Paul knows that God will never lose
anyone who is truly his, and the Philippians have demonstrated that they are saints by their ongoing reliance on the Lord, and he is confident that God will continue that work to the end. but there's the problem, a problem that some of you may be facing in your own life, or you've faced in the life of a loved one. What happens to those who once professed faith and have now abandoned Christ? What happens to those who walk away from him? What happens to those who do not persevere to the end? You see, there's a flip side of the coin to the doctrine of perseverance that we confessed earlier. That's in our statement of faith. Every true Christian will persevere. God will persevere them. But if you don't persevere until the end, does that mean that God didn't hold up his end of the bargain? No. That means you were never a true Christian in the first place.
If God has promised to persevere every true Christian, and you do not persevere, it doesn't mean that God failed. It means you were never a Christian in the first place. Does that make sense? Therefore, you must persevere, right? That's the point. Yes, God will persevere you, but you have to persevere. You can't walk away from Christ and then claim that I did this thing when I was younger and God saved me, but now I don't follow him, but he's still gonna save me, that doesn't work.
You must continue to press on. Yes, it is God and the grace of God that will persevere you to the end, but that does not negate your need to persevere. Look at Philippians 2, 12 and 13. therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure so yes it is God who is willing in you to persevere you to the end, but you still must work out your own salvation. You must persevere to the end.
This does away with the idea of once saved, always saved. Have you ever heard that? Has someone ever told you that, you know, I was saved and therefore I can't lose my salvation? That idea doesn't make sense, okay, because the person who's walked away from the faith and claiming that they were once saved, is proving that they were not saved. It doesn't matter if you said a prayer, or walked an aisle, or got baptized, or joined a church. You're still going to church. None of those things save you. The blood of Jesus Christ saves you, and it is by faith in Him that His righteousness is applied to you. But you have to persevere.
So are you persevering? Are you continuing to believe in the gospel? Do you need to repent of sin right now and turn back to him? Please, we beg you, turn back. God will forgive. There is hope for the worst sinner. Return to him. He will welcome you with open arms. We'll skip back up to verse 1. Verse 1 in chapter 1. We skipped over it earlier, but there's an important point here. Paul refers to himself and Timothy, notice what he calls them, servants of Christ. Now that is not how Paul normally identified himself. If you read his other letters to the churches in the New Testament, Paul usually referred to himself as an apostle.
But here, Paul chose to identify himself and Timothy as servants, in part because one of the main themes of this letter is humility. And Paul wants to make that absolutely clear from verse 1 in chapter 1. And if you've been here the last couple of months, and especially last week, you'll know the significance of this term servant, right? We talked about it last week in Isaiah 53. The background of this word in the Old Testament is not lost on Paul.
Look at chapter 2, verse 7. This is talking about Christ. He made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in likeness of men. This is Jesus. Jesus took on the form of a servant. And Paul even goes on to quote Isaiah in verse 10 of chapter 2. Paul isn't trying to say that he's the suffering servant when he calls himself a servant.
But he is identifying himself with Jesus. Paul is saying, this one, this Jesus, this is what we want to be like. I can't save you, Paul. I can't save you, but Jesus can. And his life that he lived, his perfect life of humility and self-sacrifice, only that can save you, but that is still worth imitating. We can imitate Jesus in his humility.
Matthew 20, 25 through 28. Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Only Jesus can give his life as a ransom for many. Hear me clearly on that. That's not what we're talking about.
What we are talking about is following Jesus in his example of humility and being a servant. Paul points to that and says that's what we're striving to be. Not only do we imitate Jesus, but we imitate others who imitate Jesus, and we imitate others who imitate Paul. Read Philippians 3.17, turn there, 3.17. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
This is the Christian life. This is discipleship. This is what it ought to look like. So, who are you imitating? Who are you imitating? You know you're imitating something or somebody. We're all being conformed to something. Are you imitating Jesus? Or are you imitating the world, which is perishing?
There's a particularly humble lesson to be learned when you become a parent, because your kids will naturally imitate you and become like you. And of course, they will imitate the good things that they see in you, but they will also imitate the bad things. This happens regularly with my kids. They're watching. They're always watching and learning. Learning what it's life like to live as a Christian. Kids are so impressionable. And as parents, you are the primary model for them.
So don't take that lightly. And it continues when you get older, right? in a lesser way, but it's still there. We imitate others. They imitate us, your friends, your co-workers, people at church. This is the essence of discipleship, and if you want to grow as a disciple of Christ, obviously you need to be reading about Christ's life so that we can follow in his life, but you can also read about the early church. You can read about Early Christians, you can read biographies of our brothers and sisters who lived in ages before us.
Read good biographies. Follow them as they follow Christ. Paul wanted the Philippians to follow his example of servanthood so that they would continue to grow as Christians. And Paul thanked God for these believers, and he loved them with the affections of Jesus. But that's not all he did. Point two, point two. We need to pray that God would continue working in and among us.
We need to pray that God would continue working in and among us. So this is verses nine through 11. Paul prays for the Philippians. Why does he do this? They're already saved. They're already Christians. They're saints. They've been made holy by the blood of Jesus. So what more is there? Well, there's a lot more. Read verses 9 through 11 with me. And it is my prayer that your love may 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.
Paul prays for them. Before we look at the content of that prayer, though, let's follow a quick rabbit trail. Thankfully, we have many of Paul's prayers recorded in Scripture. We can see these prayers, we can read them, and they become a model for our prayer life. We can pray the words of Scripture. These prayers are a model for us. Now, I mentioned the church directory earlier, so you're already tuning out again, but don't tune out.
The church directory. You can see our gospel partners, but up above that, you see all of our members, the members of Third Avenue Baptist Church. Now, we don't just send out the directory every month so that you can get the contact info of the person that you need something from. No, we want you to be praying through this directory regularly. pray through the directory, and it's okay if you don't know them, because you can pray prayers like this for your brothers and sisters, and you'll know that God will hear it and answer it.
When do you usually pray for other people, especially other church members? Usually it's when something has gone wrong, right? You get the email or the text or the phone call, and it's great to pray at those times, but you can also pray when you don't get that text, right? You can take this directory and be praying for people regularly. People need prayer whether they know it or not, right? We all need prayer regularly. Take that directory and pray through it in your regular prayer life. Pray through it once a year. That's just two members a day. Pray through it together with your home group. If you don't know the person, it's okay. Still pray for them.
What will this do? It will unify us as a church. You'll get to know your brothers and sisters. It will bind us together in love. You'll come to love the church more. Are you in conflict with a fellow church member right now? Pray for them. Pray this prayer for them. I can't promise that it will resolve that conflict immediately, but it can't hurt. Pray for them. It's hard to be angry and to bear a grudge against someone while you're praying for them. So pray for your brothers and sisters.
Paul may have even had this in mind as well, given the fact that in chapter 4, Paul calls out two members of this church. Publicly calls them out. Iodia and Syntyche. I urge you to agree in the Lord. Pray for them. Pray for the unity of the church. Disunity in the church tells a lie about the gospel. Paul prays for other believers.
And his prayers are a model for how we can pray for other believers as well. but let's get to the content of Paul's prayer. Paul prays that their love may abound more and more. I want to talk about what that means, but first, Paul qualifies it, so let's look at his qualifier. He wants love to abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. That's qualifying the love. Yes, he wants your love to grow and grow, But this isn't just a feeling.
It's not a sentiment. It is a real informed love. A love that causes you to know what is right and what is wrong. So that you can approve what is good. Paul has this kind of love for the Philippians. And he says that this is the same love that Jesus has for his people. And Paul wants you to have this knowledgeable and discerning kind of love so that you will love what should be loved and not love the lesser things.
He wants you to love the most lovable thing. What is that? It's the gospel, right? The gospel of Jesus Christ. He wants us to approve that which is excellent. What is more excellent than the gospel of our Lord? What is the gospel? This gospel that they are partakers of together. Well, if you've never heard it, the gospel is the good news of Jesus. God created everything, all of us, to be good.
And yet we rebelled against God. We separated ourselves from him by sin. And so God had a plan from eternity past to save those for whom Christ ended up dying. God sent his only son to live a perfect life, the life that we have not lived. We all know it. Jesus lived a perfect life, and yet he was sent to the cross to die the death that we deserve for our sin.
But that wasn't the end. God raised him from the dead three days later. And if you put your faith and trust and reliance on him in humility, saying, I am weak. I need salvation. If you do that, God will save you. You will be redeemed and you will become a saint. That's the gospel. That's this gospel that unites the Philippian church with Paul.
That's why we're here. We want to be united as a church so that the message can go forward. But we can't do that if we're disunified as a church. Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Our love for one another is a testament to the watching world about Jesus and the gospel.
We cannot take this lightly. This type of love that Paul wants to abound more and more is marked by humility and self-sacrifice, which Paul demonstrates and which Jesus demonstrated perfectly by laying down his life for us. It's also a matter of our own discipleship to the Lord. Paul encourages the Philippians to love more and more in order that we may be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
Paul wants each individual Christian to continue growing in their discipleship to the Lord so that they may be presented mature on that day. Well, it's worth mentioning here that when Paul says pure and blameless, he's not talking about sinless perfection. You know, we didn't, the persevering until the end is not some kind of staircase that you ascend and then when you reach the top in this life, then it's over.
No, no one will become perfect in this life. Paul even mentions that himself in chapter 3. Verse 12, not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, right? Paul is near the end of his life here. If Paul couldn't reach perfection, I promise you, you cannot either. Paul is not expecting perfection when he says pure and blameless. He's talking about someone who can stand before God with the righteousness of Christ and say, Yes, my life shows evidence that I believe in Jesus.
That's what he's talking about here. A Christian who has persevered until the end. And this fruit of righteousness that Paul talks about, it's the same fruit that he talks about elsewhere in the New Testament. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. the fruits of the Spirit. No one will achieve perfection or be able to live without sinning, but we will be able to bear these fruits more and more.
Of course, when you are bearing these fruits, it's the catch-22 of the Christian life, isn't it? The more humble you are, the more you become aware of your sin and your need for a Savior. The longer you live, the more you realize how much of a sinner you are. And that's why I would plea to you to involve yourself in the life of the church. Why? Because along this journey, you can become discouraged.
You can't see the fruit that's, maybe it's back here. I can't see any fruit in my life. But my brother or sister over here can see that fruit and say, I see God working in your life. We need that encouragement to press on until the end sometimes when we are discouraged in our faith. What's the result of all this? It's in verse 11, isn't it? Are we just in this for ourselves to get to heaven? No, of course not. All of this is about the glory and praise of God.
A unified church, non-Christians looking at us and saying, what is this? What brings these people together? How can a CEO and a recent college grad go get coffee? Why are they doing that? What brings this diverse group of people together? Well, it's the gospel. That's our opportunity to share. Our love and care for one another displays the glory of God, and the day is drawing nearer.
With each passing day, we're one day closer to seeing our Lord Jesus face to face. Don't lose sight of that day. Stay focused on the gospel and love one another more and more, all the more as the day draws near. Let's pray to our God. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for sending your Son, for beginning a good work in our life.
Lord, we pray that our love for one another and for our neighbors and for the nations would abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. God, we pray that we would bear fruit, the fruit of righteousness. God, we pray that your spirit would work in us and cause us to be more like Jesus. God, we pray that you would do all of this for the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.