partnership in ministry

Philippians 1:1-6

Well, today is an exciting day.  We are beginning  new books in both our Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services.  Last time I tried something different and studied Romans on Sundays as well as Wednesdays.  But after some deliberation I have decided to study this small book of Philippians on Sunday morning and I anticipate completing this book around Christmas time.  And then we might begin the book of Luke, which begins with the Christmas story.  And in our Wednesday evening Bible study I plan on beginning the book of 1Timothy starting this coming Wednesday.  I have chosen that book because in it Paul presents the Biblical standards for church organization.  And as we go forward, I think it’s important to understand  God’s design for the church and how He wants it to operate.  So I’m excited about these new directions in our studies and I hope you are too, and hope you will make sure you don’t miss any of these essential teachings.

One interesting thing about the book of Philippians is that it was most likely written when Paul was in prison in Rome.  When we finished up Romans, if you remember, Paul was telling the Christians there that he was looking forward to coming to see them.  And yet I doubt that he had anticipated that God would bring him to Rome in chains.  Yet while he was in prison there, it’s believed that he wrote 4 of his epistles; Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon.

Yet if you look at most of the commentaries on Philippians you will notice that almost all of them say that the overriding theme of this book is joy.  And that is almost ironic, isn’t it?  That Paul is bound in chains by Rome, more than likely actually chained to a Roman guard, and yet he writes a book the theme of which is joy.  And quite simply, the reason that Paul is able to write a book about joy, is because true joy is not connected to circumstances.

That’s not necessarily true about happiness, by the way.  Happiness is related to happenstance; something happens whereby you become happy.  Then that circumstance passes and the happiness fades.   That’s one of the unfortunate phrases I think in the Declaration of Independence; “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  The pursuit of happiness can easily become an excuse for hedonism.  And I think that hedonism is the hallmark of American society today.  Yet I doubt that was the idea intended by the founding fathers.

Switchfoot has a song in which they say that happy is a yuppie word.  And I guess what they were trying to say was happiness is about self gratification.  Self serving.  And I suppose yuppies are essentially trying to find happiness in self gratifying materialism, the same way that hippies were trying to find happiness by rebellion against commercialism.  Some of you may have seen a movie a few years ago with Will Smith called The Pursuit of Happiness, a true story about a man who lived on the street in order to become a stockbroker at a prestigious firm so that he could make a lot of money.  And eventually through great sacrifice he did became a stockbroker and he made a lot of money.  But what was never really made clear through the movie was whether or not he ever really became happy.  He sacrificed everything for money, but I’m doubtful that it ever brought anything other than momentary happiness at best.

Joy, however, does not produce hedonism, and it is not necessarily tied to circumstances.  Joy is a state of being that Paul shows is tied to hope in Christ, in spite of adverse circumstances.  Even though he was in prison, Paul had joy in knowing that Jesus was using him for the furtherance of the kingdom of heaven.  He had the attitude that first and foremost, whatever circumstances he found himself in, God was in control and God would use it for good to them that love God and keep his commandments.  Romans 8:28  Joy comes from knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.  Joy is believing that there is a future and a hope laid up for you that will endure forever.  Joy is knowing that Christ is in you, He has saved you, and nothing on earth can separate us from God’s love.

Now if you aren’t familiar with the history of Philippi, then I suggest you do some reading on your own starting in Acts chapter 16.  Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia.  You probably remember the story of Paul and Silas on their missionary journey there and how they were looking for any God fearing people and they found a small group of Jewish women praying on the Sabbath day by the river.  And the church was really started there when Paul converted these women and baptized them and Paul stayed in the home of Lydia.  And then Acts tells us how Paul and Silas were followed around by a demon possessed girl and she constantly was crying out “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." And she annoyed Paul and when he finally had enough he commanded the demons to come out of this girl.  Certain men of the town had been making money off of this girl’s fortune telling, and so they weren’t happy about that and they had Paul and Silas arrested, beaten and thrown in jail.  And you will remember that in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas are chained in stocks, bleeding and beat up and they start singing hymns, and God sends an earthquake and the jail is shaken and the chains fall off and the doors opened.  And the jailor comes and sees this and thinks that the prisoners have certainly escaped and takes his sword to commit suicide, rather than face execution by the authorities.  And Paul cries out, “don’t do any harm to yourself, for we are all here.” Long story short, this jailor and his whole family becomes saved, baptized and are joined to this new church there in Philippi.  That was the dramatic beginning of this ministry and you can read more about it starting in Acts 16.

So now 20 years later, Paul is writing to the church at Philippi from yet another prison, this time in Rome.  And if we learn nothing else here this morning, it’s that God’s ways are not our ways.  God can even use something like prison to bring about His purposes.  Some of Paul’s greatest achievements for the kingdom of heaven came through incarceration.  So when you are facing whatever difficult circumstances that you may encounter, perhaps debilitating, maybe limiting your freedom, maybe painful, maybe causing you to be separated from what you might want to do, in whatever adverse circumstances you may find yourself, if you belong to Christ, then God can use you there in ways that you could never imagine, if you will only trust Him.  And you can have joy in knowing that God sees, and God knows, that nothing can separate you from the love of God, and God will reward your faithfulness.

My message today is found in these first six verses, and I have titled it “Partnership in Ministry.” Ministry is the calling of everyone here that has been saved.  It is what we were saved for;  to serve as Christ’s ambassadors or ministers to the world.  To serve the kingdom of heaven.  Ministry is not supposed to be just the profession of a select few, but it’s supposed to be the occupation of every believer.  And as we look at this passage, I want to invite you to partner in ministry, by showing you the Privilege of ministry, the Participation in ministry, and the Plan of ministry.

Now it was typical in letter writing of that day to start off a letter with your name rather than the way we do it today, signing off at the end.  And so Paul opens this letter with a greeting in verse 1, “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.”  And I think it’s noteworthy that Paul includes Timothy in this greeting.  Timothy is Paul’s understudy.  He says in chapter 2 that he hopes to send Timothy to them soon, and that no one else shares his concern for them like Timothy.  He said everyone else is seeking after their own interests, and not those of Christ.   So Paul selected Timothy because he had the right perspective; he was concerned about Christ’s interests not his own.  Contrast that with chapter 3:18.

Phl. 3:18 “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”  To set your mind on earthly things is to be in opposition to the gospel of Christ.  Timothy was working for the gospel.  He was more concerned about Godly things than earthly things.  He knew his citizenship was in heaven. 3:20

Timothy understood the privilege of ministry.  He wasn’t grudgingly being obedient to God’s mandate to go out into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples, but he was willingly, even eagerly fulfilling his mission.  And Paul gives us some more insight into that motivation for the both of them.  He describes them as bond servants of Jesus Christ.  And a bond servant captures the idea of willing service.  Not obligatory, not under compulsion.  But willing service.

The concept of a bond slave comes from the OT passage in Exodus  21:5, where a slave was to be released after seven years of service.  And yet there was this provision in the law for that slave who did not wish to go free, but wanted to stay and serve his master because he loved him.  And for that slave, the master was to take an awl and punch his earlobe and place a ring signifying that he was a bond slave, and would now serve him forever.

So what that means is, Paul and Timothy considered it a privilege to serve Christ in ministry.  They had been given their freedom in Christ, but their response was to renounce man’s interests in favor of something far greater, something far more desirable, and that was the privilege of serving Christ.  There is no greater honor, no greater calling, nothing else that will bring joy like serving Christ.

God has called you to be His ambassadors.  Imagine getting a call from the President of the United States, and he asks you to consider becoming an ambassador to a foreign country.  Regardless of our present political situation, what a privilege to be considered worthy of representing the United States government to a foreign power. Though we may live in France or some other country, yet we are citizens of the USA.  We represent our nation.  That’s why in Romans 12 we were urged to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service of worship.  Considering all that Christ has done for us, we should be eager to serve Him as His ministers of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And then secondly, Paul addresses his letter to the saints and overseers and deacons of Philippi.  In 1 Timothy we’re going to be looking at the offices of overseers and deacons.  But what we should understand for now is that Paul puts the saints, that is the born again, saved members of the church at Philippi in the same category as the overseers and deacons.  An overseer can just be interpreted pastor, or pastors.  Paul is not making a distinction here between the clergy or the layman.  They are all involved in this ministry.  Everyone is to be included in the participation of this ministry.  There are no spectators in the ministry of the gospel.  We all have a part to play.

Then he says starting in vs. 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.”  And I would like to make mention of a couple of side notes here.  He says grace and peace, and the order there is significant.  This familiar blessing he bestows on them always follows this order;  first grace, then peace.  Without the grace of God, there can be no peace with God.  And another note, this is a very typical Jewish blessing that was used in greetings.  But Paul inserts the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in there on the same level as God.  For a Jew, this would have been shocking.  Paul was stating the divinity of Jesus Christ by making Him on par with God.  John 1 says the Word became flesh.  God dwelt among us as one of us.  When the jailor asked “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”  To believe God became flesh and died to take away our sins.  That’s what it means to be saved.  To know that God became flesh to take our place in death on the cross, that we might have life everlasting in Him.

So Paul is commending these Philippians for their participation in the gospel.  He’s saying I thank God for you, praying with joy for you all for your participation in the gospel.  You know, one of the mysteries of the gospel is that God wants us to participate with Him.  God could do it all by Himself.  But He has chosen us to participate with Him in presenting the gospel of the kingdom and making Him known to the world.  It’s a privilege to participate with God.

And what does it mean to participate?  How do we do this?  Well, first of all, the example of Paul is that prayer is participation in ministry.  Praying for one another is commanded throughout the NT.  It is essential for the ministry.  It is essential for the other parts of the body. 1Ti 2:1 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Pray for one another and for the ministry.  This is another mystery.  We don’t know how it works or why it works, but we know God works through prayer.  So we participate through prayer.

And then another way we participate according to the example of the saints in Philippi is through provision.  Particularly, Paul is speaking of the many gifts that they had sent to him for the furthering of the gospel. Look at chapter 4:15 “You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.”

Their participation that filled Paul with joy was their giving and sharing financially, their provision for the furtherance of the gospel.  Listen to what Paul has to say about these Philippians over in 2Cr 8:1 “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.”

I want you to notice a couple of things about this giving and sharing.  First of all, it wasn’t because the Philippians had a bunch of extra cash laying around and wanted to get rid of some.  Rather Paul says it was out of the deepest poverty that they gave.  It reminds me of the widow Jesus spoke of in Luke 21:2 “And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them;  for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on."  God doesn’t need millionaires to participate in ministry. God uses everyday, ordinary, obedient people who will give even in their poverty, trusting in God to provide even beyond their physical ability.

These Philippians, Paul said, looked at participation through giving as a privilege.  They eagerly participated.  The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.  You know, we deliberately don’t talk much about money here because we want to avoid looking like that is all we care about.  Far too many churches make too big a deal out of giving.  We’re not going to pass an offering plate in front of your nose and watch  you to see what you do. We don’t want to lay a guilt trip on you. We would rather suffer than to make you feel like you’re obligated to give.  But let me tell you something;  it should be an honor to give.  The Bible says it is better to give than to receive. You should be looking for ways to participate.  And to the degree that you do, it is an indication of your spiritual worship.  Look at what Paul said in chapter 4, their gift was an acceptable sacrifice.  Yeah, it cost them something.  But God was pleased.  It’s the same language Paul uses in Romans 12; present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable act of worship.  Same idea.  Giving is a form of participation in the gospel.

And then finally, consider God’s plan for your partnership in ministry.  Vs. 6; “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Many of you may consider Jeremiah 29:11 your favorite verse.  It says, 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

God has a plan for your partnership with Him.  And He plans to bring it to completion.  That is what perfect means in vs. 6.  Not that we are going to be walking around as perfect Christians here on earth.  But that we are going to be completed according to the plan of God.  That as we are obedient to the call of God on our lives, as we are obedient to this ministry that He has chosen us for, He will conform us to His image.  As it says in Jude 1:24 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”

That’s when our joy will be full.  When we stand before God and Jesus says, “I paid for this one Father with my blood.  He has been a faithful and true servant.  Welcome to the joy of your Master.  Enter into all that the Father has prepared for those that love Him.”  That’s going to be joy that will never fade away.  It will be worth it all, all life’s trials and disappointments.  All the sacrifices of the world’s kingdom  will be forgotten when we see the rewards in the kingdom of heaven.

This promise gives us joy right now as we labor for the Lord in His kingdom.  We participate in ministry as partners with Christ.  What a privilege!  What an honor!  God will use my obedience and my service to Him to complete me, to sanctify me.  To mold me into the image of Jesus Christ.  And so I should eagerly seek participation in this ministry of the gospel.  The zeal for God’s house should consume me.  All that I counted as significant in my life here on earth, Paul said, I now count it as loss, count it but rubbish, that I might gain Christ.

Yes, happiness may be a yuppie word.  But joy is a godly word.  And there is no greater joy than serving Jesus.  I urge you to follow the example of Paul and Timothy and serve the Lord as a bond slave for the rest of your days here on earth, praying for the ministry, concerned for the saints,  joyful in the privilege of serving the Lord.  And I urge you to follow the example of the Philippians, as they begged for an opportunity to participate with the furtherance of the gospel, giving out of even extreme poverty and difficulties.  I urge you to yield yourself to the plan of God, fully and completely giving yourself as a living sacrifice in partnership with God’s ministry, knowing that God will complete you, perfect you, and establish you in His kingdom and in the day of Jesus Christ, present you faultless with great joy before God.  Amen.