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Good Wednesday morning my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends,
May I begin with a question? What’s the difference between “happiness” and “joy”?
Today we begin one of my favorite books in the Bible, Paul’s letter to his dear friends in the Macedonian town of Philippi. Many times, in these four short chapters, Paul uses the word “joy” or “rejoice”, yet please remember Paul is writing from Rome, and he’s under house arrest! We see that in Acts 28:30,31. So how can he be ‘joyful’?
Unlike Paul’s letter to the Christians in Colosse or Ephesus or Rome, this letter to the Christians in Philippi is very personal and was not intended for wide distribution, although we’ll see many powerful themes that apply to all of us as Christians, even 2000 years later.
Do you remember Paul’s first experience in this town of Philippi? You’ll find the story in Acts 16. Paul was on his second missionary journey. He was accompanied by Silas, and then Timothy joined them in Lystra and Dr. Luke joined them in Troas, a seaport on the far western side of modern day Turkey. Then a strange thing happened.
Even though Paul was passionate about taking the Gospel of Jesus to places it had never been proclaimed, Acts 16:7-10 says “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him to ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Have you ever encountered road blocks in life? Your have what you think is a good, maybe even a God honoring, plan, but as you try to move forward, doors don’t open. You seem to encounter things that stop your progress, prevent you from accomplishing that which you really have your heart set on? This interesting experience with Paul shows us that sometimes it’s actually GOD who puts up the ‘road closed’ sign!
Do you see what benefit came from this ‘road block’ from God, for Paul? They were diverted from Bithynia to Troas, and it was in Troas that Dr. Luke, a Greek physician joined Paul’s traveling troop. Dr. Luke became Paul’s personal doctor, tending to his wounds suffered too often in beatings, shipwreck and even stonings. But more important, Luke became a passionate follower of Jesus, and wrote for us both the book of Acts, and the Gospel of Luke!!
Also, Bithynia might have been a good place for Paul to preach the Gospel, but Jesus wanted Europe to hear the Gospel, and in Troas Paul had a vision that took them across the Agean Sea and they came to Philippi, and there, my friends, the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to penetrate Europe! So the next time you and I face ‘road blocks’ in our plans, let’s give careful consideration to the possibility God may have an even bigger, more exciting plan, and if we’ll be patient and watch for His detour, there may be great things ahead!
The rest of Acts 16 is the remarkable story of what happened in Philppi. If you haven’t read it lately, may I urge you to do so? It’s a wonderful, powerful, miraculous story. Lydia is the first person in Europe to trust in Jesus, as she hears the Gospel from Paul. A little church begins in her home. But not everyone is pleased with this new Gospel and soon Paul and Silas find themselves arrested under false charges, and beaten and thrown in the town dungeon!
At midnight, rather than complaining, they are actually singing praises to God! An earthquake rattles Philippi and bursts the iron gates on the prison open! The jailer, thinking all the prisoners have fled into the night, takes his sword and is about to kill himself, when Paul and Silas call for a light and the jailer finds them in their prison cell thanking God! The jailer is so moved by their integrity, he asks them to help him become a Christian, and he takes them to his home to clean up their wounds, and his whole family trusts Christ and are baptized!!(Acts 16:31)
Evidently now, years later, as Paul is under house arrest in Rome, the Christians in Philippi send a messenger named Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25) to visit Paul and encourage him with gifts from his friends in Philippi. Paul is so overwhelmed by this gesture of love, that he writes this letter simply overflowing with joy, and some powerful words of encouragement and teaching. My friends, this will be a wonderful journey, over the next several days, as we consider Paul’s letter to his dear friends in Philippi. Perhaps you’ll learn to love it as I do.
Today let’s just look at the first few verses, OK? You see Paul again refers to himself as a servant of Jesus and that Timothy is with him. It’s a statement of choice. Paul wants us to know he has chosen, as his primary life ambition, to be a servant of Jesus, fully obedient to anything Jesus wants him to do, anytime, anywhere! Can we say that my friends?
Paul is writing to the Christians in Philippi, reminding them they are declared by God to be a holy people, thus the word “saints”, and Paul identifies two groups of leaders in that church, “overseers” and “deacons”. You’ll remember that distinction came in Acts 6 when the Apostles couldn’t handle all the work of caring for more than 5000 new Christians, plus keep bringing the Gospel to others, so they identified men ‘full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom’ to help them, and here they are called ‘Deacons’. (Acts 6:1-7).
Can’t you just see Paul, with a big smile on his face, dictating verse 3-6? “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.” Oh my, what a great statement!
My dear friends, Dawn and I feel that way about many of you! From way back in the early 1980’s, some of you have been prayer partners on the journey with us to Quebec City, Haiti, Montvale, Fargo, Wms Bay, Maryville and now Florida. Oh how we’ve seen God do amazing things in these more than 30 years, and it’s true… whenever we think of you a big smile comes to our face, and we thank God for you with great joy!
I hope all of you hearing my voice or reading this, have some special friends like that!
Do you see how Paul celebrates a special partnership that has existed between these Christians in Philippi and him, for more than 20 years? Do you notice he describes it as a “partnership in the Gospel”! What do you imagine Paul is saying here? That’s what missionaries have… folks who stand with them in prayer and financial support. It’s what Pastors should have with their congregations. But what about you and me?
Oh yes my friends, this is a great privilege of Christians who pray for each other, encourage each other, care for each other, and spur each other on, to accomplishing the assignments God entrusts to them! Many of you are those kind of friends with Dawn and me and we praise God for you. I hope you each have some trusted friends, who pray for you and help you see and accomplish, God’s purposes for you.
Please notice verse 6, it’s very powerful! “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.” My friends, do you celebrate the refining work God is doing in your life as a ‘new creation in Christ’?
It’s called ‘sanctification’, and by the power of His Holy Spirit, God is renewing your mind (Rom. 12:1,2) and purifying your heart (Psalm 51:10) and teaching you the things of Jesus (John 14:16, 26) and cleansing you from the stain of your past sin (1 John 1:9). More and more God is refining you and me to be God honoring, followers of Jesus Christ, whom He can commission, as Ambassadors of Jesus, as God makes His appeal to the world through us! (2 Cor. 5:20)
Now friends, this ongoing, spiritual refining, work of the Holy Spirit is best accomplished with our full cooperation and participation. As we fill our hearts and minds with God’s truth, as we frequently have conversations with God, like Paul described here, praying and listening to God as He speaks to us. As we spend time nourishing our Spiritual lives… we are changing, and HE is doing His good work of refining us, into the people He designed us to be for His honor and glory!
OR, of course, we can resist the refining work of God, maybe even reject it. And if we do that, we’ll find a bitterness grows in our hearts and rather than becoming better people who honor God with our lives, we become bitter, sarcastic, critical, grouchy people who are actually dishonoring to God and even repel people from Jesus, rather than attracting people to Jesus! Can we each look closely to see how we have responded to God’s refining work in us? Can we see what God is trying the accomplish in us, and through us, for His glory? Are we joyfully participating or resisting with resentment?
Oh my friends, these first 6 verses are so wonderful, so powerful, I think I’ll stop here and invite all of us to just soak in them for the rest of this day and I urge you to thank God for the refining work He is accomplishing in you as He refines you! Please consider road blocks to your plans may in fact be God working to accomplish something even more exciting than you might have imagined!
As you can see, this is going to be a very exciting journey together through Philippians, my friends.
Oh thank you Jesus…
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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