This morning I invite you to turn to Philippians chapter 1 once again as we read together the first 11 verses, the text for our consideration being verses 3 through 8. We mentioned last week that Paul writes in the style of his day, only yet he conforms it to himself, to his faith. And the same is true with the text before us this morning, whereas a normal letter, the style of that day, there would normally then, after the greeting and the address, be some sort of wish for them. Paul replaces something like we would probably say, I hope this letter finds you well, I hope this letter finds you doing such and such. Paul replaces that well wish, as it were, with thanks to God for his friends in Christ Jesus and telling them exactly that this is what he's doing. He tells them he's thankful for what God has done for them, what he is doing, and their response to it. And that's the part we consider today. And then at a later time, verses 9 through 11, then he tells them specifically what it is he prays for them. Verses 1 through 11, as we hear now the Word of God. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. For whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. Let's bow together, asking God's blessing upon His Word. Indeed, Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word. And we confess, Lord, that we are blind in and of ourselves to understand it, Even the most clear things are not clear to us apart from the working of Your Holy Spirit. And we pray, Father, that indeed You would work in us this morning at this very hour. Work in our hearts in such a powerful way, Father, that we might see wonderful truths of Your Word as we have read and as will be preached. Bless the preaching of Your Word, O Lord. May it be clear to us. May it be understandable. And may it be, O Lord, that You would apply it our hearts and lives by the power of your Holy Spirit. And for this, we give you thanks. In Jesus' name alone we pray, Amen. A beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to begin this morning, I ask you this question. When you look around you this morning, when you look around in this church building at your brothers and sisters in Christ sitting around you, in front, behind, completely across the room, what do you think of each other? What do you think of each other? How do you feel about those who, with you, profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? What is your relationship with them? What is your attitude toward them? See, and I'm not just asking you about this with regard to those with whom you socialize on a regular basis. Those with whom you might get along quite well. Those whose company you enjoy a little more than others. but I'm asking these questions with regard to all those around you, even those you may only see on the Lord's Day, even those you may not always get along with. And let's press it beyond these walls. What about all true believers? How do you feel about all those who profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? See, I ask that in the context of this powerful lesson that Paul has to teach us here this morning with this text, And this powerful lesson is how saints, those who find their identity in Christ Jesus, how are saints to consider each other? And what is the greatest thing that we can do on behalf of one another? In 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16-18, Paul writes, Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And now as a servant of Christ Jesus, Paul is as good as his word. He is filled with joy even in the midst of imprisonment, possibly leading to death. He gives thanks to God and he prays continually. He prayed for all his brothers and sisters in Christ. He makes that clear in this text. He says three times, for all of you, all of you, all of you. And by doing so, he teaches indirectly that Christian brotherhood has no barriers. Now, we know that the barriers of race and wealth and education and culture and popularity and athletic ability and any other group that we can place ourselves into the exclusion of others, we know that these barriers are alive and well in the world and in the society in which we live. But these barriers are erased in Christ Jesus. They are erased because we have a common bond, a common fellowship in Christ Jesus. We are all one in Him. We often pray, sometimes exclusively, for the physical needs of others. And those for whom prayer is offered up are always grateful for the prayers of God's people. We hear them say that. They're grateful that we pray for them. but often our prayers then are for their physical needs and thanking God for healing and for sparing and for providing. But you see, Paul makes it clear here that he recognized something far more important, something that gave meaning to this physical life, and that was of God's spiritual blessing. Of God's blessing of grace poured out and the evidence of that grace poured out in the hearts and lives of the congregation and that was true for the believers in Philippi. And that evidence filled Paul with thanks. And he would have agreed with our Heidelberg Catechism answer 116 when it says prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. Because prayer is the means by which we express thankfulness to God. The only one who hears prayer and answers prayer. And especially for one another. You see, beloved, it's easy to criticize each other. It's easy to find fault with each other. It's easy to make fun of each other. But we are called to be thankful for one another and to express that thanksgiving to God. And therefore, Paul prays gratefully for the Philippian Christians. And he does so here with sincere joy. He does so with complete confidence. And he does so with heartfelt longing. First of all, he does so with sincere joy. Verses 3-5, I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. He prays with sincere joy and he makes it clear that the source of his joy is God Himself. I thank my God. He doesn't say as many people today, I thank my lucky stars. He doesn't even say, I thank you, the Philippian believers. Because he knew that God is the source of joy, even as he says in chapter 2.13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. God was the source of Paul's personal joy. Even though he was a prisoner, he says he was in chains, and it is believed that he was literally chained to a Roman guard. Even though he was a prisoner, Paul had been rescued from the greatest danger. He had been rescued from the eternal prison of hell by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Who had transformed Paul's hatred for Christ and his hatred for the church and his hatred for Christians. He transformed that to love for Christ and the church and for fellow believers. Paul had the joy of salvation. And beloved, only one who has that true joy can also then have joy for others who are also saved. And that also comes from God, who was the source of Paul's joy for the Philippian believers. God was the reason that they were saints in Christ Jesus because of what Jesus Christ Himself had done. Paul recognized that this congregation belonged to God, not to Him. Oftentimes we hear preachers say, well, my congregation this, my congregation that. This isn't my congregation. This is not Pastor Donovan's congregation. You are God's congregation. You belong to Him. Yet Paul knew that the Philippian congregation was God's gift to Paul to found her, to begin her, to pastor her, to see the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in her. And that fruit then pointed to the basis of Paul's sincere joy. The source was God, but the basis is what God was doing. The evidence of Gospel power in the Philippian church. What was that evidence? He says His joy was because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. Your partnership in the Gospel. Now we know, I trust we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paul's passion was the Gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ. Preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Of the person of Jesus Christ. That He is God. And of the work of Jesus Christ. That He gave Himself in a perfectly righteous life all the way to death on the cross. Suffering the eternal wrath of God for the sins of His elect. He ascended into heaven. Or He rose again. He ascended into heaven. He reigns and rules today. And that He works in. And he works through his redeemed people and he will until he comes again. Paul's passion was the gospel of Jesus Christ for which Paul was in prison. Why? Because, as he says in verse 16, for defending the gospel. And it was that gospel which Paul continued to defend and confirm even as a prisoner as he makes clear in verse 7. He defended, he continued to defend the gospel from error and from abuse and from lies. And he worked hard to confirm the Gospel by teaching the bold truth of the Gospel with his mouth and with his life. He was a living example of the truth of the power of the Gospel of Christ. You see, beloved, Paul was more concerned about the defense of the Gospel than he was about his own personal defense and his own personal freedom. He would not ever compromise the truth of the Gospel, especially for his own freedom. He would never try to gain freedom at the expense of the Gospel. To put it in our terms today, he would never ever compromise his faith for a better position or a higher paying job or any sort of advancement in any arena of this life. Why? Because his faith in Jesus Christ was so very precious to him. His passion was the Gospel. That very same gospel which the Philippian Christians joined with him in partnership. He says that they shared the grace of God with him. He speaks of that partnership, and the Greek word that that word partnership comes from is the word koinonia. You've probably heard that word before. It can also be translated fellowship, and often is taken to mean fellowship with regard to something that we have in common. But that's really not strong enough. We need to understand it's deeper than that. The meaning of that word partnership or fellowship is not like today. For us, fellowship is virtually any social gathering that includes food, a cup of coffee and a ham bun with Dutch cheese and a piece of cake, and conversation about anything we might have in common. We call that fellowship. But that's not the idea that Paul has here. The idea is active participation in a common commitment that binds us together. Spiritually speaking, Christian fellowship revolves around the gospel of Jesus Christ and active participation in some way in that gospel. That gospel which united Paul and all believers, not simply socially, his fellowship to him was not simply two believers getting together, well, we believe the same thing, but we're going to talk about sports. That wasn't fellowship for Paul. Not simply something social, but it was commitment to the truths of the Gospel. And because of their interest together in the things of God and their desire with one another for the progress of the Gospel and their work together toward that end. And to the Philippian Christians, Paul makes it clear that their partnership was from the first day until now. from the very beginning when Paul set foot in Philippi and the conversions of Lydia and the Philippian jailer when they were brought to faith. Moving on to Lydia, inviting them to her house and her house becoming, we might say, the church building for a time in Philippi. The offerings, the contributions that they made on behalf of Paul and sent to him throughout the years until the present day. They continued to partner with him in the Gospel. And we might say that they participated with him, that they partnered narrowly only with Paul on the one hand, in the narrow sense, that gift again. In chapter 4, Paul speaks of that gift, and that gift was one of the reasons that Paul wrote this letter, to thank them for that gift, to thank God for their partnership with him in the gospel through that gift. They continued to support and defend him with their tangible gifts, with their material means. Throughout the years, but especially in prison, they provided for him while he was in prison on trial. They took care of his needs. But they also partnered with him through their prayers. They prayed for courage. They prayed for strength for Paul. They knew that his cause before Caesar was also their cause. They knew that they too would be affected by the outcome of his trial. But they also partnered with the Gospel, more broadly speaking, not just with Paul. But as those who shared God's grace with Paul, they defended and confirmed the Gospel. They protected and promoted the Gospel in their own context of life in Philippi. In their own city, they worked for the progress of the Gospel through every word spoken, through every deed done. In verse 27, Paul says, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Chapter 2, he says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And he says, Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe. They were already shining like stars in the universe. Paul's not telling them to begin. But they were to continue. They were partnering with the Gospel by shining like stars in their own context of life. And notice the result of Paul's joy because of their partnership. He says again, I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. I thank God for you. I pray with joy on your account. The Philippian Christians and God's grace poured out upon them And their response to the grace of God, very simply, at the very least, brought a smile to Paul's face. But even more, it brought the warmth of love for them in his heart. As he remembers the fellowship, their partnership in the gospel, which includes a fellowship of grace and faith and prayer and thanksgiving and love for fellow brothers and sisters and contributing to the needs of others and promoting the work of the gospel. and it includes separating from the world and engaging in spiritual warfare as he remembers their partnership. Paul responded with thanksgiving to God through prayer. And he prayed for them regularly. He prayed for them often. And this is not insignificant, beloved, because God alone is the one who hears prayer. God alone is the one who pours out His blessing upon us. God alone is the one whom we are to thank and to give praise. Beloved, those who love the Lord and who understand the greatness of salvation will be and cannot help but to be sincerely filled with joy, not only for themselves, but also on behalf of other Christians, those who have also received the same grace. And those who understand such a great salvation will constantly thank God for those whom He has saved. Those with whom we participate in the progress of the Gospel. But that means, too, that we must actively and we must consciously participate in that Gospel. Oh, we do in many ways. We are at this very moment as we gather together for worship. We are, as we participate in the life of this congregation throughout the week in any way, We are as we pray for one another in the privacy of our homes. We are as we help each other with our hands. As we give witness and testimony to others. As we give of our gifts. But do we always do so consciously? For example, think about the gifts that we give. Our missionaries. Paul was a missionary. Our missionaries, beloved, thank God for us. You can be sure about that. in more ways than we can ever imagine. We probably don't even think about it. They thank God for us. We, sadly, often put our dollars and our checks in the offering plate without thinking. Maybe not even knowing where it goes. But we can be sure that when they receive our gift, as Paul did, it means the world to them. And the same is true of our deacons, no doubt. As they have been entrusted with the care of the gifts that you, God's people, give. They place before you a budget. And they place before you in the bulletin the needs and the shortfall or the overage. And no doubt when there is sufficient to cover the needs, they are filled with joy because of your participation, your partnership in the Gospel. Yet, we must remember, beloved, that even as we give of our gifts and offerings, we must remember that we participate with them, with our deacons, with our missionaries in the progress of the Gospel. And more than our day-to-day lives, this is to be so extremely exciting for us that God has chosen to use us to partner together, to use us as a means to bring some to salvation, whether with the work of our hands done in the name of the Lord or the giving of our gifts. The Philippian Christians' participation in the Gospel gave Paul great joy for which he prayed gratefully. And that partnership also led him to pray with complete confidence. He prayed with joy, and then verse 6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. You see, Paul had complete confidence in what God had already done. There was no doubt in Paul's mind that God had begun, that he had performed a good work in the hearts and lives of the Philippian believers. It was evidenced by their faith, by their partnership in the gospel. It was evidenced in their love for the Lord and for his servant Paul. And it was evidenced in their living under the lordship of Jesus Christ in a city where Caesar was considered to be Lord. He was completely confident because he knew that that transformation from spiritual death to spiritual life, as these believers' evidence, was something only God can do. And therefore, for Paul, this was also an assurance for what was yet to come. He was completely confident in what God will do. He will carry it, that is what he has begun, he will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Now this is one of the most powerful verses in Scripture for the perseverance of the saints, and we do not have time this morning to do it justice. It's one of those verses we must come back to and consider all by itself. And I hope to do that next week, the Lord willing. But very simply, very broadly, Paul's confidence was not in the believer's perseverance by their own strength. But his confidence was in the believer's perseverance because of God's preserving power. He knew that God does not do a half a job like we often do. How many projects do you have around the house that you've begun? But not finished. How many times have you said, I will do this, and then you don't? I'm guilty. But God has said, no one will snatch my people from me. He has said, no one, nothing shall separate you from my love in Christ Jesus. He has said instead, those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. we are already glorified in a manner of speaking. And that points, of course, to future salvation. We sometimes talk about the fact that we live with the already and the not yet. We have salvation already today. We have that salvation completely. And though we live, though, in the context of this life yet, that salvation comes to you and me with a guarantee that we will be delivered from this life of sin and shame. we will be brought into His glorious presence. Our faith will become sight. And therefore, we look forward to the day of Christ Jesus, that day when He comes again in all of His glory. When our bodies are raised, those who have died in Christ, our bodies are raised and made like an His glorified body. Those who believe in Him when He comes are transformed in the twinkling of an eye. And those who die in Him already today have a taste of that as their souls or in the very presence of God. But we look forward to that day which Christ Himself promised in John 14. He says, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. It was a day that Christ requested of His Father in John 17. Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am and to see My glory. And it is a day, beloved, for which we are to strive and look forward to. Paul says in chapter 3, not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Though we have this guarantee, beloved, that doesn't mean we sit around and do nothing. Paul says we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as God works in us. We are to run the race of faith with all perseverance. We are to strive for that goal. We are to be active partners in the Gospel. This complete confidence is the confidence in which we are able to live today. You see, God has already kept His promise to send a Redeemer. And that is proof that He will not leave His saving work incomplete. He will bring to glory all for whom Jesus died. He will bring to glory those in whom He has already begun His saving work. Do you live and work today with that future confidence? As you wake up every morning and prepare to go to the office or to the job site or wherever it is you might go, do you live and work with that very confidence? Is that what gives you strength for the day? Do you have the confidence of God's work of salvation already begun in you? Well, God gives us evidence of that in many ways, but one way you can know is back to how I started. How do you view your relationship with other professing Christians? Are you jealous of them for any reason? Maybe something in this life? Or maybe something in their spiritual life because they have such contentment and peace even in the most difficult of situations? Are you jealous of them? Or are you filled with sincere joy because of what God has done in their life? And you have confidence for them in their eternal well-being. Paul's confidence was for himself. It was for the Philippian Christians. It was for all who believe and it caused him to pray gratefully to the author and the finisher of salvation. And also he prayed gratefully Finally, with heartfelt longing. Verses 7 and 8, It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, that is, to thank God and to be filled with joy since I have you in my heart. For whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the Gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Paul's heartfelt longing for them was a result of the grace of God that they shared together. That Gospel bond is strong. It is unbreakable. And beloved, that points to the longing that you and I are to have for each other and the fellowship that we are desired to have with each other and to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ and not with the world. You see, Paul points here to the intimate spiritual love and devotion that believers are to have one for another. As recipients of the same grace of God. As recipients of the same saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As those who have the very same heavenly citizenship. As those who have the same goal of glorifying God, of the progress of the Gospel, and of eternal life. This is all that we have in common. We have none of that in common with the world. And Paul's longing for them, no doubt, was to be with them face to face. He often said that. But as well, his longing for the Philippian church was for his beloved friends to remain true to the gospel to which they had committed themselves, to which they were partners with him, to remain true to the very end. And his longing for them is confirmed by God's testimony. You see, Paul acknowledges their love for him in this letter. And just so there is no doubt in their minds about his love toward them, So that they can never say, well, we are out of Paul's sight and therefore we might be out of Paul's mind. Paul calls upon God as the one and only witness of His longing affection for them. And that's a powerful statement because God is the only true and accurate searcher of hearts. The psalmist says, you have searched me, you have known me, you know my thoughts before I think them, you know my words before I say them, you know everything about me. And Paul says, as God is my witness, you can be sure that I am your partner in the Gospel. And he makes it clear that his affection for them was patterned after Christ's affection. Now that's a little bit hard to understand. But you see, beloved, it's only possible to love our fellow believers if we ourselves are recipients of Christ's love. And Paul confesses in another place that it is Christ who lives in him. And Christ's love for them, Paul is saying, was also at work in Paul toward them. As John says in 1 John 4, we love because He first loved us. Brothers and sisters, whom do you love? Whom do you love? John says in 1 John chapter 2, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Whom do you love? But John also says that those who love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ have been born of God. If you love your brothers and sisters in Christ, be comforted that that is evidence that you have been born of God. And if you have been transformed by the grace of God, If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you will be drawn to and you will desire Christian fellowship with those who share with you God's amazing grace. Well, not perfectly, sadly, but more and more every day as you grow in the Spirit. This will be your desire to fellowship with fellow Christians, to partner in the Gospel, because there's no greater thing to have in common and to participate with each other in than the grace of God. Beloved, our Christian love for one another is to be demonstrated in faithful, grateful prayer on behalf of one another. Thanking God for beginning that great work in each other. Thanking Him for evidence of that work in each other and trusting Him to complete that work. But you know, we must also pray for our enemies. Jesus says that. But not in a pharisaical way. We are not to pray, Thank you, Lord, that I'm not like them. But we are to pray for the very same mercy of God upon them that you and I have enjoyed. Brothers and sisters, one of the greatest blessings, great blessings of the family of God is that we have family members that pray for you, encourage you, help you, and partner with you. And those with whom you can do the same. That is one of God's great blessings for those who turn to Jesus Christ. Apart from faith in Him, you are alone. Desperately alone. Darkly alone. And you will be for eternity. But for those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, we have God as our Father. His Son, Jesus Christ, as our brother. And He surrounds us with a family of God. that loves and cares for us, that share the same goals, that have the same things in common. So I ask you again, how do you feel about those gathered around you this morning? What's your attitude toward them? What is your relationship with them? Are you grateful for your partnership in the gospel with them? Do you see them as a part of the cherished family of God and do you thank God for them, for His work in them and for the evidence of that work that they give? Beloved, may we express our love for God and each other by faithfully thanking God for each other and not being afraid to tell each other so. You see, we are not allowed to go out on a street corner and say indiscriminately to anyone, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life because we don't know. But we may say, and we must say with confidence to each other, I love you in the Lord. And I thank God for what He has done in your life through Jesus Christ. And I pray that He will continue to bless you as you live and walk before Him in faith, in hope, and in love. Let's pray together. Father, as we bow before You at the close of this sermon, we must confess that sometimes these things seem so otherworldly to us. These things in many ways seem to be at such a distance from our normal course of life in this world as we engage in our normal daily activities and as we struggle with the difficulties of life or as we rejoice in the great things of life. But help us to truly understand, O Lord, that none of these things has any meaning apart from Your blessings, the blessings of Your grace poured out upon us. And may we have that joy in our own hearts for the salvation You've given to us. But may we also, Father, be filled with joy and thanks for what You have done in the hearts and lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank You, Father, that You have surrounded us with support, with those who are like-minded in the faith, separate from the world, those who desire that the Gospel continue to go forward, those who indeed are soldiers in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. And together, O Lord, may we be faithful to You. May we be faithful on behalf of each other. And indeed, may we give You thanksgiving and praise as we demonstrate our godly love for one another. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.