Philippians 1:1-7 – Partakers Of My Grace

Text: Philippians 1:1-7
Title: Partakers Of My Grace
Date: November 13th, 2022
Location: Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, Washington

1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: ² Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, ⁵ For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; ⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: ⁷ Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the Apostle Paul. We thank you for the example of the Philippian church, and how you promise to finish what you started, that You who began a good work in Galilee, in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, 2000 years ago, have caused that same message of salvation to reach us here in Centralia, Washington, in 2022, the Year of Our Lord. And so we ask now that you would bless the preaching of your Word, now and for many years to come. In Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction

It is one of the great joys and privileges of my life to preach God’s Word to you this morning, and not as a guest preacher, but as your pastor in sworn covenant fellowship with you. And so, I thank you for your prayers, your hospitality, your calling me here, I look forward to seeing God work among us.

• As I considered what book to begin preaching to you, I found myself drawn to Philippians, and the reasons for this may become more evident as we work through the book, but the simple reason I chose to start here is because…
• Philippians is Paul’s happiest letter. It is full of prayers and joy and thanksgiving. There is a sweetness here that you do not find in Paul’s other letters (say to the Galatians, or Corinthians, or Romans), and the reason for this is that the Philippians had given Paul unwavering spiritual and financial support, as he says in verse 5, “from the first day until now.”
• Paul and the Philippians had had fellowship in the gospel for 12 years, ever since he had planted that church on his second missionary journey, which we can read about in Acts 16.
• If you remember what happens there, the year is 49 AD (19 years after Christ’s ascension), and Paul sees a vision in the night.
  • He is ministering in Troas (near the ancient and famous city of Troy), Timothy has just joined him, Silas and Luke are with him, and Paul sees in a vision, a man asking him to “Come over into Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9).
  • Luke says in Acts 16:10-12, “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. ¹¹ Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia (an island), and the next day to Neapolis (port in Greece); ¹² And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.”
• So according to this vision, there were already God-fearing men and women in Philippi, who desired someone to preach the gospel to them. We see something similar with Cornelius and Peter in Acts 10. So the gospel is getting out, it is starting to spread from Jerusalem, to the ends of the earth, and Paul is going to be the one who plants the first church in Philippi.
  • If we were to read on in Acts 16, we would see that Lydia, a merchant from Thyatira already worshipped God, and she is baptized along with her household after hearing Paul speak.
  • While in Philippi, Paul casts out a spirit of a divination from young damsel, and as a result he and Silas are brought up on charges for “troubling the city,” they are then are beaten and thrown into prison, and then miraculously delivered while singing the psalms.
• So Paul’s time in Philippi was eventful and short lived. But the bond with the church there took root and grew strong. Luke and Timothy stay behind to minister while Paul and Silas continue on to Thessalonica. And Lydia (who was likely a very wealthy woman), along with others in the church, give generously to support this gospel work.
  • Paul says in Philippians 4:15-16, “Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. ¹⁶ For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.”
  • The Philippians were Paul’s first big supporters, when no other church would. And so you can see why there is a certain sweetness in this letter that is not in the others. Churches, like people, are not all the same. There are trouble churches like there are trouble people, and there are delightful and generous churches, like there are delightful and generous saints. Not all churches are created equal.
  • And so Philippians is actually a thank you letter from Paul, for the gift he has just received from them while imprisoned in Rome.
    • So when Paul says that he thanks God for their “fellowship in the gospel,” this is what he is talking about. Generous love and support of his work, wherever he’s at.
• So that is some of the background and context for this letter and we’ll touch on this more in future sermons, but this morning let us just walk through these first 7 verses together, and make a few points of application.

Exposition of Philippians 1:1-7

Verse 1 says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.

• Paul’s name in Greek is Παῦλος and it means “small/humble.” And Timothy or Τιμόθεος, means “honor God.” These men are servants of Jesus Christ.
  • And whereas usually Paul mentions that he is an Apostle to remind them of his authority, here has no need to do so. Paul and the Philippians are on a sort of first name basis. That’s the kind of intimacy they have.
• What is a servant of Jesus Christ? Some translations read slave or bondservant (Gk. δοῦλοι).
• The idea here is that Paul and Timothy have become adopted sons in the household of God. That is what a bondslave or a servant can be under the Mosaic Law.
• In Exodus 21, we are given some of the laws for servitude, and the rule was, a Hebrew servant could serve for a maximum of 6 years, and in the seventh year he goes free. But, it says, “If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: ⁶ Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.”
  • This is a ritual circumcision of the ear, and it signified a change in status wherein you go from a debt-slave to an adopted son of the house. The ear was bored through, which signified that the ear is now permanently open to the words of the master.
  • And this is what happens to all of us when we are converted to Christ. God opens our ear to His voice, He calls us into His House, and we are to serve him as adopted sons forever.
  • In Isaiah, Jesus is portrayed as the servant of the Lord or the suffering servant, and that is the kind of servant we are to be.Jesus is  a servant who is the son of God by nature, we are servants who are sons of God by adoption.
  • So when Paul calls himself a servant or slave of Jesus Christ, don’t think Civil War American slavery, think adopted son whose ear has been opened to the master whom He loves, who serve the Lord not out of fear of punishment, but out of love for His glory.
• So these servants in God’s house (Paul and Timothy) are writing to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with a special mention of the bishops and deacons.
• Paul addresses this letter to everyone, but it is the leadership who is going to be responsible for enforcing unity and purity in the church: they must drive away dogs and false teachers (Phil. 3:2), they must see that the women who helped Paul are taken care of (Phil. 4:2), and they must make sure that Timothy is warmly received when he arrives (Phil. 2:19).
• So vs 1 gives us the To and From for this letter, and then verse 2 moves into Paul’s greeting….

Verse 2, Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

• This is the standard apostolic greeting, and although Grace and Peace can sound like tired Christian platitudes, they do not have to if we understand what is contained within them.
• Grace and Peace are two goods that encompass everything. And that is because they signify Christ.
  • John 1:17 says, “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
  • Ephesians 2:14 says, “Christ us our peace…”
• So when we say Grace and Peace to one another, and certainly when the Apostle Paul says it, He really means that He wishes unto you, all the good in the world which is found in Jesus Christ.
• Having given this greeting, Paul then begins to offer thanksgiving to God…

Verses 3-4 say, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

• Do you know what it’s like to have just the thought of someone put a smile on your face?
• Or when you are falling in love, it’s as if you levitate, it doesn’t really matter what else is going on in the world, when you think about that special someone, joy springs forth from your heart, and with it, thanksgiving for them.
• That is what Paul is experiencing for the Philippians. He loves this church, they are dear to him, and they are constantly in his thoughts and prayers and memory.
  • You can imagine Lydia and her household tending to Paul and Silas’s wounds after they are released from prison.
  • You can imagine the Philippian jailer and his children telling stories about how when Paul and Silas sang praise the doors of the prison flew open and everyone’s shackles fell off. Imagine the psalm sings in Philippi after that!
  • You can imagine the story being told of how Paul wasn’t even planning on going to Philippi, He was headed the opposite direction, East to Bithynia, and yet God gave him a vision, and so Paul sailed West to Greece.
  • This is the origin story for the Philippian church. And it’s a good one. And God has seen fit to give this history to us in Scripture for our encouragement and example.
    • Q. So in what ways should we as a church remember and thank God for how this church was started, and how it has grown?
    • For those of you who have been a part of this from the beginning and still now, we need to hear those stories and retell them as God adds to our number. Because the planting and growth of a church is something that God does, and therefore the history of a church is a testimony to God’s love and power to save.
      • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? ⁶ I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
    • From what I know of the history, I think I can say that humanly speaking, Joe Stout (along with a handful of others) planted this church. It was in Joe’s heart to do way back in 2012, and ten years later, here we are. And there have been many people along the way to help water and pull weeds and add fertilizer, and each one of them worthy of mention, but ultimately God gave the increase.
    • And so we should remember and honor those who God used to get us here as a way of praising God. Every Christian should have some story to tell: 1) First, of how God worked in your life to save you, and 2) And also how He brought you here.
    • And we should practice telling those stories in such a way that God is magnified! Do you know how to do that? If not, I would encourage you to take some to write out your testimony. As I and the elders begin to visit your homes, I want to hear those stories. I want to hear God saved you that both of us might have our faith built up. This is what remembering and recalling God’s work is for:
    • It kindles love and joy and thanksgiving in our hearts, so we can say with Paul, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.”
• Continuing in verses 5-6, Paul tells us the reason for his thanksgiving and making request to God with joy, and that is….

Verses 5-6, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; ⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

• We already saw that this fellowship in the gospel was a generous sharing of spiritual and material gifts.
  • Paul ministers the Word and preaches to them, he prays for them, and He sends workers like Luke and Timothy and Epaphroditus to establish them in the faith.
  • And the Philippians likewise pray for Paul, and more than that, they financially support his apostolic work. That might have looked like paying for his travel expenses, getting him a coat for the winter, buying parchment and other materials for writing letters.
  • At the end of Paul’s life, he writes to Timothy saying, “The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Tim. 4:13).
  • It’s possible that some of those things were gifts from the Philippian church. As he knows that execution is coming soon, he requests those gifts be brought to him in prison. That is what fellowship in the gospel looks like.
• Now in verse 6, Paul tells them of his confidence, “that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ…”
• This means that what God has started inside of you, He will bring to completion.
• If you have been born again, given a new nature, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, then you can be confident that although you may stray and stumble at times, the Chief Shepherd will not let you go.
  • As Jesus says in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸ And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
•  So Paul is confident that these Philippian Christians will be kept and preserved by the power of God, and in our final verse this morning, verse 7, he tells them why…

Verse 7: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all,

• (That is to say, it is appropriate and right for me to think this about you.)

because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

• Q. So why is Paul so confident about the spiritual state of these Philippians?
  • And we should note here that he does not say this about all the churches. For example, in Galatians, he says, “I am fearful lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” (Gal. 4:11). So Paul knew that apostasy and falling away was a real possibility. He had seen it firsthand, some of his own companions will abandon the faith (think of Demas who fell in love with the world). And so apostasy is not a hypothetical sin.
    • Jesus says in the parable of the soils (Matthew 13), that there are people who receive the word with joy, endure for awhile, but when tribulation and hard times come, they fall away.
    • There are also some who hear the word, go to church for a time, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and they become unfruitful, whither and die.
  • So what makes Paul so confident that the Philippians are good soil and genuine Christians who will perservere unto the end?
• Well the answer he gives is that, “ye are all partakers of my grace.”
  • Notice it does not say God’s grace, but “my grace.” What does this mean?
  • All grace comes from God of course, but the focus here is on how the Philippians have demonstrated to Paul their true and genuine love for the LORD by how they have supported the gospel in hard times, in tribulation, for the last 12 years.
  • He says, “inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.”
  • Philippi is 800 miles from Rome. It’s about the same distance from here to Salt Like City, and they had no cars or airplanes. It would have taken Epaphroditus a month or more to bring that gift to Paul.
  • And so when Paul receives this gift, and knows what it took for the Philippians to get it to him, and this is just one of the many gifts they have sent him over the years, he can be confident that the Holy Spirit is at work among them. Only a spiritually healthy congregation shows that kind of sustained generosity amidst adversity. And because they have supported him, they are partakers of Paul’s grace. They will share in his eternal rewards.

Conclusion

And so I’ll close with a question of application for all of us:

• What kind of church do we want to be?
• If Paul had planted this church, what kind of letter would he write to us?
• Would he be able to say about us, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you?”
  • Or would he say, “I am fearful for you, that my labor was in vain?”
• The choice is ours, and my prayer is that as we continue through this letter, God will teach us to imitate the Philippians in many ways: that he which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.