That being said, reading out of the book of Philippians, the theme for this series is:
"1Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
Amen. Let's backtrack now. Have you ever received a letter? Not a note in class, not an invitation through the mail, but a handwritten letter that was written solely so someone could communicate with you?
I have a dear friend that moved to Scotland after we graduated from college together last June. She is also an English major so she writes to me regularly.
Now when I get one of her letters, I am SO excited. I mean, I love this girl to pieces and she sat down and took the time to write to me. I show whoever is in my house, I tell whoever is texting me at that moment that I just got a letter! I will precede to read the letter under my breath and laugh aloud at her jokes and if anyone within earshot asks, "What's so funny?" I begin to read them this letter, though I'm sure it can't matter as much to them as it does to me.
I am to my letter from my friend what Paul is to his letter to his church in Philippi. He loves his church in Phillip. Paul is in jail and upon receiving any gift, any financial help, any visitors, any letters from the Philippian church he planted, he rejoices. I'm sure talks to everyone, every cellmate, every guard in the jail about how much he loves his Philippian brothers and sisters.
And yet, Paul is jail. Paul is in jail for proclaiming the truth about Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. More specifically, Paul is in jail in Rome for said crime, and here he is writing a letter to his faithful church in Philippi that he may never see again, depending on how his death sentence turns out.
Finding joy in Christ.
Paul had it! Darn right Paul had it. You can read it all throughout this opening passage, how much Paul prays for this church and how strongly he believes that God will be faithful to finish the work that God started when Paul brought the Good News of the Gospel to the Philippians.
"6being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace."
Paul had confidence. Was it in himself? Or in the Philippians ability to live righteous and holy lives after God? Paul had confidence in Christ. In Christ's faithfulness to complete the work that He started in this church body.
And Paul went even further to say that it is right for him to believe this over the church of Philippi. The translation of this word "right" from the Greek means Paul's thoughts toward them were perfect in accordance to God's will.
We can feel this right heart towards the Philippians as we read on.
8 For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
The Greek word for "approve" here has the same meaning as someone testing gold for its purity or someone inspecting an ox for their usefulness. It is literally giving something the thumbs up, the go ahead. Paul is telling his church that he puts all his faith in God for to be careful of what they approve in life (partying? lying? hating?) that they may be sincere and without offense until the day Christ returns.
There is sound wisdom for us in what Paul prays over the Philippians.
The Greek word for "sincere" here literally means "judged by sunlight". When you are at the Thriftstore and you find a shirt that you want and it's marked way down, sometimes just to check you hold it up to the light to make sure that it isn't stained in a way you didn't see at first. This is what it means to be judged by sunlight. So Paul is praying social discernment over this Christ-centered community, so that they can be found sincere and without offence in how they loved God's people. (Will we find joy in Christ as readily if we have no discernment for how to love His people? Probably not.)
12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
This is our stopping point and consequentially our first "ah-hah" moment in discovering how Paul found joy in Christ despite his present circumstances.
Have you ever asked yourself the question: Why did God put me here? Honestly! The question comes in varying forms but if you've taken the time to ponder I'm sure you've come across it:
- Why did God put me in this family?
- Why did God put me in this school?
- Why did God put me with the classmates He did? With the teachers He did? With the principal He did?
Did you know Paul's imprisonment got him access to Roman soldiers that he otherwise would not have had? Did you know that the Praetorian guard consisted of several thousands of highly trained soldiers of the Roman Empire?
Prison + Paul = 1,000's of Roman military = maybe even the royal house?
Have you ever given it a thought that MAYBE the God of the universe placed you where you're at for a reason? I am in no way saying that it is okay to put up with an abusive environment at home or anywhere else, what I am just though is if God could use Paul in a Christian-hostile prison, do you think MAYBE God could use you in the family you're in? in the school you're in? with the classmates you're with? with the teachers you have? with the principal you have?
I think Paul began asking the right questions. Instead of why God, why me? I believe he asked, full of faith, God why did you put me in this prison with these jailmates with these guards? In other words: God, how can you use me where I am currently at?
Yes, we are on the trek to discover how Paul found joy in Christ, and here's my first week's tip: Ask God that very same question and you may find a similar excitement in the unknown that Paul found.
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