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Philippians 1:1-5 Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
How many of you parents have loaded the vehicle, you’re headed out on vacation, the kids are in the back all excited, but very shortly you hear griping, complaining, fighting, even arguing? Dad says, “Hey, let’s everybody get happy, right now! Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!!!” Now, imagine you are in the back seat, you are on a long journey through life, and God is driving. What’s He hearing back there? Grumbling and griping, or joy and gratitude? Are you a joyful Christian?
The Bible clearly indicates that the people who know their God will by a joyful people. In fact, God expects it. Deuteronomy 28:47 says He would send punishment on the people, “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things.” You have it all over the Psalms. Psalm 32:11 says, “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart.” Nehemiah told the people to quit weeping, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). The angel announced to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy.” Jesus promised in John 15:11, “These things I’ve spoken to you that My joy may be in you and your joy may be made full.” Peter wrote In 1 Peter 1:8, “Though you have not seen Him you love Him, and thought you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory!” Joy and rejoicing characterized the new converts in Acts. When the Eunuch got saved “he went on his way rejoicing!” Acts 13:48 says, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord; and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Jesus told His men to rejoice because their names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
R. C. Sproul wrote a great little booklet entitled, Can I Have Joy In My Life? He says, “The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he is saved and will live forever with Christ.”
Philippians is an inspired little letter of 104 verses, and it is marinated with joy. James Boice wrote, “Any Christian who is feeling down or discouraged about anything should study Paul’s great letter to the Philippians.” There was Paul in a Roman prison writing this letter that has one major theme, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!” And we can add, regardless of your circumstances.
ACTS 16 – THE FIRST CHURCH IN EUROPE.
Let’s get a quick background to Philippians. You remember Alexander the Great who in his 13-year reign created the vast Greek Empire that stretched from Macedonia to Egypt and from Greece to part of India. His father, Philip II of Macedonia, named this area Philippi in 356 BC. He was interested in the gold mines nearby. In 42 BC the Romans fought a civil war with two huge battles in this area of Philippi with possibly 200,000 soldiers. Brutus and Cassius, both Roman politicians and conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar, committed suicide after losing these battles.
Several hundred years later around AD 50, Paul was on his second missionary journey in Acts 16. He had picked up Timothy and was intending to go east into northern Asia Minor when God gave him a vision of a man in Macedonia, a territory north and west of the Aegean Sea. The man in the God’s vision called Paul to come over to Macedonia. So, off they went and the first city they entered was Philippi.
Acts 16:12-15, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
So, there we see Paul’s first convert in Europe. Paul kept preaching in the city and came upon a demon possessed girl who was making money for her masters. Paul cast out the demon. Her masters didn’t like their source of income taken from them, so they beat Paul and Silas with rods, threw them into jail, and fastened their feet in stocks. You and I would probably be concerned about what might happen next. However, Paul and Silas responded with praise to God and sang with great joy making that jailhouse rock loud enough for other prisoners to hear. Then at midnight an earthquake shook the jail, the chains dropped off all the prisoners, and all the doors flew open. This was not a good scene for the jailer. As he whips out his sword to kill himself, Paul yells out in the confusion, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here.” The jailor rushed in, brought Paul and Silas out, and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” What a great question. Wouldn’t you love to have someone ask you that this week? What would you say? “Well, first you must come to church. Then you must start reading your Bible and obeying the law of God. Plus, you’ll need to give a tenth of your income to Jesus.” No, no, no. Let’s not muck up the gospel. In the simplest terms Paul says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and that’s true for your whole house, also.” They probably had already told him about Christ, the cross, the resurrection. God gave this jailor a new heart to believe, and then love and obey Christ. What joy there was in the jailor’s house that night. In the morning Paul and his men went over to Lydia’s house to say goodbye and left.
Now, here we are ten years later, and Paul is imprisoned in Rome. Epaphroditus, Paul’s coworker and fellow soldier, had traveled the 800 miles from Philippi to Rome to bring Paul a gift from the Philippians believers (about the distance from New York City to Chicago). That wasn’t the first gift of money they had sent Paul for his ministry. Paul’s heart is so full of love and joy for these believers that he writes this wonderful epistle thanking them and teaching them much about the gospel and Christ. Someone said, “From beginning to end the letter is bathed in this sunshine of joy.” In chapter one Paul shows them how to have joy during adverse circumstances, even when you’re chained to guards. In chapter two Paul describes the joy of humility and serving with the mind of Christ, injecting one of the greatest doctrinal passages on Christ in the entire Bible (Philippians 2:5-11). Chapter three focuses on the secret to all this joy – knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. Then Paul tells us in chapter four to rejoice in the Lord always, and includes those great passages dealing with anxiety, worry, and contentment. It is in this chapter where Paul makes that great assertion, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Now Paul introduces us to these people and immediately sets the tone of joyful prayer.
GOD’S JOYFUL PEOPLE.
Philippians 1:1, Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:
First you have two joyful slaves, and one of them is a prisoner. The word bond-servant is that Greek word doulos or slave. Often slaves are forced to obey their master, but these slaves found their greatest delight in doing Jesus’ will. Christ had purchased them with His blood, they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and they were thankful Christ had released them from slavery to sin and made them slaves of righteousness, slaves of God, slaves of Jesus Christ.
Paul is writing to all the saints in Christ Jesus there in Philippi. Wait. How did they already become saints? Haven’t you heard that sainthood requires a life of virtue, obeying the teaching of the church, two miracles attached to your name, and you had to be dead for five years? That’s the false teaching of Roman Catholicism. But here Paul calls them all saints because their position is in Christ Jesus. The word saint means simply set apart. They are saints because their identity is in Christ Jesus, and they were united to Christ Jesus the moment they were saved. They aren’t saints because they are monks or holy people. They are pursuing holiness because they are saints! Harry Ironside tells of befriending some nuns on a train ride west from Chicago. They enjoyed Ironside’s knowledge of the Scripture. At one point he asked them if they had ever seen a saint. They all said they had not, could not, but would love to see one. Dr. Ironside astonished them, “I am a saint. I am Saint Harry.” Then he showed them verses like this that say whoever believes in Christ is a saint. Are you a genuine believer? Then you are a saint. God has set you apart from the world and united you to Christ. You are a saint forever set apart to God, so we really need to start calling each other saint Aleks and saint Kate and saint Tom.
Among the saints Paul mentions are these two special servants, overseers and deacons. These are specially set apart men serving in the church. Overseers are elders, responsible to shepherd the flock and give leadership. And someone must fix stuff when it breaks. That’s what deacons do, plus a ton of other physical things. How grateful we are and how much we appreciate our elders, deacons, and everyone else who serves with a joyful spirit in our body! There are many of you! Thank you!
THE FOUNDATION FOR ALL THIS JOY.
Philippians 1:2, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is all God does for us in Christ. We’re saved by grace, kept by grace, empowered by grace, live in the sufficiency of grace, and the only reason we are here is by the sovereign grace of God. This grace flows from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news of the grace of God in and through Jesus Christ.
Notice grace, then peace. Peace is the fruit of grace. It’s never peace and grace; always grace and peace. What is Paul saying? May God’s grace fill your hearts and bring the inner assurance that you are pardoned, accepted by God with no condemnation, adopted into God’s family, never to be separated from God’s love. That’s the foundation of our peace and that’s why we rejoice. Even when all the circumstances and people in your life turn on you, grace and peace flow like a river. “Whatever my lot, God has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.” Can you say that?
EXPRESSING YOUR JOY IN PRAYER.
Philippians 1:3-5, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
Notice how all-inclusive Paul’s praying is – all remembrance, always and every prayer, you all. What a model of gratitude Paul is for all of us! Can you say you thank God every time you remember other believers in our body? Can you go through the directory and say, “Dear Father, thank you for those Smiths, those Browns, those Taylors, that Schulties lady?” Paul thinks about that lady down by the riverside whose heart God opened, that jailor who almost committed suicide that night when God rocked the jail house. In every prayer Paul has a thankful and joyful heart. There were certainly difficult issues back there in Philippi. Those two ladies in chapter four were having a tough time getting along. And surely not everyone was happy. “I don’t see why we don’t have BBQ at the picnic instead of fried chicken.” Regardless of the problems in the churches and cares he carried in his heart, joy and gratitude dominated his attitude before his God. “I thank my God.”
In verse 4 he says he always offers prayer with joy, thankful for God’s sovereign grace that reached down and converted Lydia and the jailor and others. Remember the people God has brought into your life; the people God has brought your way to become your friend in Christ. I recently corresponded with a couple from our first church. What a blessing they were, with great attitudes, always ready to serve. And God has given us friends like that right here. We are thankful for each one.
In verse 5 Paul directs our attention to the gospel, that powerful, life-transforming message that he preached and that brought profound change in the lives of people. God’s sovereign grace brought all these people to the knowledge of Christ; they were drawn together in the church. And because of the gospel, because of Christ, they are now friends. They wouldn’t know each other if it wasn’t for Christ. It wasn’t a social club or feel-good society, or just traditions and cozy friendships like many people enjoy. No, it was much more. And here today, like the Philippians, you’ve participated, fellowshipped in the gospel, from the first day when God gave you a new heart, from the day when you trusted Christ. Participating includes representing Christ, spreading the message directly, or like Matthew, inviting old friends to meet Christ. This is evangelism.
Think of the jailor and Lydia. Two completely different people with two different settings – a jail and a prayer meeting by a river – but in both settings (and many more settings), God sent His arrow of conviction. God opened their hearts; they turned to Christ as their Lord and Savior. They trusted that He had been crucified for them and bore God’s wrath for them. Now they participate in the gospel and spread the message wherever they can. That is so good. These people were participating in the gospel. I wonder how many in this room are participating in the gospel. Everyone in Philippi knew they were followers of Christ. They had not lost their first love from the beginning until now. Remember, King Philip settled this area of Macedonia because of those gold mines. These Philippian believers were God’s gold bringing glory to Him. They loved Jesus Christ. They were anchored to the cross, grateful for forgiveness, hungering and thirsting after godliness, mourning over sin, teachable, obedient, submissive – God was evident in their lives. That’s the fellowship, the koinonia in the gospel. And God is filling their hearts with the same joy Paul knew, and the joy we want to know here in our church. Do the people in your life see you as a joyful person? Are you joyful especially when you are facing tough times? If you know Christ, like that Ethiopian Eunuch, you’ll go on your way rejoicing!