‘Are you glad to serve God together?’ (Philippians 1:1-11)

I love the description that someone gave the early Christians of the second-century: ‘They marry, like everybody else, and they have children, but they do not destroy their offspring [in that culture people left unwanted babies out in the cold to die or be eaten by wild animals].  They share a common meal, but not a common bed … They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.  They love all men and are persecuted by all … yet those who hate them are unable to give any reasons for their hatred’ (The Epistle to Diognetus).  They shone like stars in a crooked and depraved generation (2:15).

Philippi was a cosmopolitan city in what is now northern Greece.  We can read of Paul’s visit there in Acts 16.  It was there that himself and Silas sang in prison, experienced an earthquake and the jailer asked, ‘what must I do to be saved?’  It was there that we read of a merchant called Lydia, and how the Lord opened her heart that she could believe.  They had left a fledgling church behind them.

Ten years have passed.  Paul is now under house-arrest in Rome.  But when he thinks about those Christians in Philippi his heart is warmed.  This church brought him more joy than any other church we know of.  They are so generous towards the famine-stricken believers in Jerusalem that Paul holds up their example of giving.  They also have sought to care for him in prison.  But there is a problem, for two of their leading ladies have fallen out with each other.

As we look at this letter we are going to be thinking about how we can shine like stars in our crooked and depraved culture.  This passage teaches us how we can serve God together in away that brings glory and praise to God.

We need each other

I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now (3-5).

The word for ‘partnership’ (5) is often translated ‘fellowship’.  This word has everything to do with practical, coats-off, sleeves-rolled-up, tiring work.  Paul is glad to serve God with them.

Notice that they had different roles to play.  The Philippians partnered with Paul in their giving—both to the poor Christians in Jerusalem and to the mission of the apostle (4:10).  Paul partnered with them through his prayers and teaching.  I am sure that they did many other valuable works, but their partnership with Paul shows how their generosity was a key part of his mission.  They served together as different links in a chain.  I hope that is what we do!

The writer to the Hebrews tells us to encourage one another daily (3:12).  We are to help each other shine like stars in our crooked and depraved setting.  We need each other.  The person who is living for Jesus in a home with an argumentative spouse needs to know that he is held before God in our prayer.  The person nursing a sick child, needs to know that we genuinely care.  The person who has been given the privilege of speaking to their neighbour about Jesus, needs people to rejoice with.  We shine like stars as we partner together to live lives that bring praise and glory to God.  One of the key parts of this partnership is holding each other before God in prayer!

We need God (who does not need us)

Of course, not only do we need each other, we need God.  We need to encourage each other with the fact that ‘he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ (6).  As one person explains, ‘if you have given your life to him, then you can be cast-iron guaranteed that he won’t dump you along the way.’

In the second-century, the bishop of Smyrna (which in now in modern Turkey), a man called Polycarp, was executed because of he refused to worship the emperor.  As they travelled to the place of execution the officer pleaded with him to recant.  ‘What harm can it do to sacrifice to the emperor?’  But Polycarp refused.  Again, when he was brought before the proconsul in the amphitheatre he was urged to recant his faith.  

Polycarp, who was a very old man, replied, ‘For eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?’  Polycarp was then placed by a stake, and he prayed, ‘O Lord … I thank you for counting me worthy of this day …’  The wind was blowing in the wrong direction, driving the flames away and prolonging his suffering, until a soldier put an end to his suffering by stabbing him with a sword.

Under house-arrest in Rome, Paul remembered that God is faithful.  Facing the flames of martyrdom, Polycarp knew that God was faithful.  As we seek to shine like stars in our crooked generation, we must remember that God is faithful. 

But while we need him, he does not need us.  David knew this.  As he faced Goliath he proclaimed, ‘the battle belongs to the Lord.’  Jesus knew this.  He said, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.  He doesn’t need us, but he delights to use us.  He is not a desperate boss, who need a hand.  He is a generous father who wants us to have a sense of privilege and purpose doing the works he prepared in advance for us to do.  This week pray that he would give you the opportunity to tell someone why you are a Christian.  Pray that God would enable you to live a life that reflects his transforming and forgiving grace.  Pray that God would help us love and be patient with Christians who are very different with us.  

As we grow in knowledge of the gospel our lives will be changed

The apostle Paul seems to pray more for people’s spiritual needs than their physical needs.  It is not wrong to pray for each other’s physical needs—we should cast our anxieties on God because he cares for us.  But the most important desire for our Christian friends should be that they should grow in faith and love.  ‘And this is my prayer: that your love may grow 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 praise of God’ (9-11).

Do you see that there seems to be a relationship between what we know (knowledge and insight), how we feel (love) and how we live (pure and blameless)?  The apostle John, in his first letter, expounds the same idea.  John writes, ‘The is what we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down life for us (1 John 3:16a). ‘We love because he first loves us’ (1 John 4:19).  ‘Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God (1 John 4:7).  The key to living a loving life is seeing the love of God, the love of God is seen in the cross of Christ.

Our greatest problem is not that we don’t love God enough—although none of us love him as we ought—but that we don’t realise how much he loves us.  Carefully contemplate the gospel of Christ on his cross.  That will lead to a life of love.  Then we will rejoice to shine like stars together and we will be assured that our God will be faithful to us to the end.  

Conclusion

This letter begins and ends with grace, so I want to tell you a story of a partnership founded in grace.

I was reading a book about the Guinness family.  One of the many missionary Guinnesses was in China when a burglar broke into his house.  Henry, the missionary, greeted him in his pyjamas.  He invited the burglar to sit down and read him John’s Gospel.  Within a short time, the thief had decided to become a Christian.  Henry prayed with him and the next morning left him in charge of the house with instructions to prepare lunch.  When he returned home later that day, the house was immaculate, and the meal was waiting on him on the table.  Henry invited the former thief to become his co-worker and he never regretted it.  Gospel partnerships are forged in grace!