The Case for Joy: Philippians 1:1-11 • Geoff Bradford

We're reading this morning from Philippians chapter one verses one through 11. If you want to follow along with me as I read out loud.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, 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 in every prayer of mine for you, for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent. And so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. This is the word of God. Thanks be to Him. — Philippians 1:1-11

You ever heard the parable of the umbrella salesman? There's two umbrella salesmen having a conversation about how work is going. They're selling them on the street. And the first one is complaining. He says, "You know, it's just so hard to do this job. I hate this job. There's so many days when I can't even go out because of the rain. And when I do go out, when the rain finally clears, it just seems like nobody wants to buy anything I have to sell."

And the second one looks at him and says, "Are you kidding? This is the best place in the world to sell umbrellas. It rains practically every day. People always need our product."

Now what's the difference between the two salesmen? It's obviously their perspective on the circumstances that they're in.

Joy in Philippians

Today, we're beginning a preaching series this spring that'll take us into the summer in the book of Philippians. Philippians is the joy book of the New Testament. It is the book about joy. Fourteen times in this letter, Paul speaks of joy. He talks about calling them to joy. He tells them to rejoice. And I think, man, can we use some joy right now?

But joy, let's be honest, it's one of those Christianese words. It's one of those words that we sing about and we read about, but I'm not sure we know much about. I mean, fun we get, happiness we get, but joy—it's much more elusive.

I think that most of the time when we use that word, we use the word "enjoy," and you think about the word enjoy, it's in two parts. Joy in something. Joy in a great meal. Joy in a vacation. Joy in relationships. Joy in our circumstances or experiences. But we know that can't be what Paul is talking about. He can't be talking about joy in circumstances when he wrote this letter to the people at Philippi. And here's how I know that.

Because Paul finds himself in the worst of circumstances. He has been arrested. He's in prison in Rome. Many of his closest friends have deserted him at this point. He faces a very uncertain future. This is how it worked for Paul. We know that he was chained to a Roman guard. Every time the guard had to go to the bathroom, Paul went with him. Every time Paul had to go to the bathroom, the guard went with him. There are lots of reasons for Paul to find to not rejoice in his circumstances.

So it's clear that this can't be joy because of circumstances. This can't be joy in. It's really more like joy despite circumstances. Despite the relationships and circumstances and events that are around Paul.

So I want to jump into today the intro, the first part of this letter, this joy letter of the New Testament and learn from Paul what it means to be people whose lives are marked by joy.

I only have two points this morning. Let's look at this one first.

Discover How God Sets His Joy on His People

If you want to discover joy despite circumstances, then discover how God sets His joy on His people. Now notice I didn't say enjoys His people—not deriving joy in them or from them. God doesn't simply enjoy us because that would mean His feelings, if God derived joy from us, His feelings would be based on our performance as His people. Like how good we did as Christians, whether we're performing well or not. But God delights in His people. That's what we're saying. God locates His joy in His people. He sets His joy on His people.

Here's what I mean. We start this book, you'll notice like lots of the epistles in the New Testament, it has a "to" and "from." Right? This is from Paul and Timothy. This is to all the saints there in Philippi. Now what's interesting about this is that word "saints." That's a word that means a great deal in the New Testament that's very different from how we use that word.

If you grew up in the Catholic church, for example, you know the word saint. And we apply that particularly to very, very good people. It has a moral quality to that. But the New Testament uses that word in a very, very different way. When Paul writes to the saints at Philippi, he's writing to a group of people who are by no means morally perfect or really, really good. We'll come to a section in chapter four, in fact, where Paul calls out two women in the church for fighting with each other. This is not the perfect church. These are not really, really good people.

When the word saint as it's used in the Bible is not a moral term, it's a relational term. It has to do with our relationship with God. That's why when Paul writes to the Christians there as saints, he talks about them being saints in Christ Jesus. And this points us that sainthood has to do with what God has done for us, not what we do for God. It's not about us being really, really good. It's that we are saints, only saints, because we are in Christ.

In Christ: A Central New Testament Theme

Now that phrase "in Christ" is one of the most important technical and easy to miss phrases in your New Testament. It's easy just to stumble past it. But if you listen to our speech as we talk, modern Christians about what it means to have a relationship with God, our language is different from much of the New Testament in this way.

So most of the time, American Christians, if you say, "How do you have a relationship with God?" Most Christians talk about Jesus inside of us. Right? "I asked Jesus into my heart." Or even in our discipleship, "I asked God into this part of my life. Like, I'm inviting God into me." And of course, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you are joined to Him, the Spirit of God does indwell your life.

But do you know that there's only one instance in all the New Testament that speaks of Jesus being in you? Instead, over 160 times, the New Testament talks about me in Jesus, not Jesus and me. "In Christ"—this phrase that Paul has—"in Christ." And it's so common in the New Testament. I mean, this is all over Paul's letters. You read the book of Ephesians, it's almost in every phrase. It's almost like Paul, "Do you have anything else that you like to talk about besides being in Christ?" And he's like, "No, not really. This is my favorite thing to talk about."

Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to be in Christ? That's a weird idea. I would just say it this way: What does it not mean? It doesn't mean you're in Christ like a person's in love. We use that phrase, and that means a temporary emotional state. You're not in Christ like a person is in debt. That's a temporary state of owing money. You're not in Christ like a mother is in labor, right? Like that's a temporary exertion. In fact, if we could flip-flop that one, maybe it's more like you're the baby in that illustration. You're in the mother. You're protected by the mother. You are nurtured by the mother. You are in the mother's body.

But even that—even that—doesn't capture all of what it means to be in Christ, union with Christ. In the New Testament, being in Christ means that all that is Jesus' is yours. It's credited to you. It's applied to you. It's counted as if it is yours. All of His—if we are in Christ, we have everything worth having.

That's why Paul says in verse seven here: "you are partakers of grace." Think about that—being partaker. You're taking part. You're partakers in what Jesus has done for you. You know, what has Jesus done for you? Jesus represents us in the same way we talk about our sports teams. Now this is going to stretch—this will be a stretch for us. Okay?

So we never talk about being in the Carolina Hurricanes or in the Panthers or in the Wolfpack or in the Tar Heels, but you're going to have to bear with me in this. Because when our team is in the playoffs, the fans talk about the team as if they're on the team. Have you ever noticed this? If you miss a game, for example, what do you ask your friend? "Did we win?" Now, neither you nor your friend were on the court or on the field. Neither of you had anything to do with the outcome of the game, and yet you're using "we" language because you're counting yourself in that team. Whatever happens to that team, you're saying, is what happens to me. If the team won, we won. If the team lost, we lost.

See, that's a weak parallel, but in this way—in Christ—not only His death, but His entire life, His resurrection, His ascension, all of this is yours, applied to you. We won. That's what this means. We won because Christ won. That's what we celebrated last week at Easter.

And now, this means that God deals with you. He sees you. He approaches you on the basis of what Jesus has done, not on the basis of what you do. In Christ. And how? How does God the Father see Jesus, the Son?

Well, if you remember back to Jesus' baptism, God the Father tells us what He thinks of Jesus the Son. Jesus coming up out of the water of the Jordan River, suddenly there's an audible voice. And those around all hear this. This is what God the Father says from heaven:

This is my son, whom I love with him, I am well pleased.

Now, some of you have heard that before. And those are good words, but I want you to hear it again in a different way. In Eugene Peterson's paraphrase The Message, he paraphrases it this way:

This is my son, chosen and marked with my love.

I love how Eugene Peterson puts this in his paraphrase in The Message where he says, "This is my son chosen and marked by my love, the delight of my life." That is God the Father's unfiltered joy over his Son. And if you're in Christ, if all of this is yours, then that means these words are yours as well. This is how God the Father speaks over you:

This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, the delight of my life.

Or:

This is my daughter, chosen and marked by my love, the delight of my life.

I can't think of better words I would ever want to hear. Many of us ache to hear those from parents and hearing them from our heavenly father over us. This kind of delight and joy, it almost takes your breath away.

Now, I can almost hear some of you saying, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. This sounds too good to be true." I mean, isn't God angry with us when we sin? Or don't our sins separate us from God? What about that? And I gotta answer this.

No. Union with Christ is an irrevocable work of His Spirit in us. Once united to Christ, nothing can separate you from Christ ever again. Nothing can make us a little more or a little less united with Him. Not your sin, not your unbelief, not your doubts, not your fears. Union with Christ is unalterable. In fact, it's so secure that Paul writes about it here in verse six this way:

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

I mean, here's what that means. Your daily failures to follow Him? Jesus will finish the job. He's going to perfect you. Your daily failures to trust God? He is going to finish the job. He will perfect you. Your daily struggles with sin, besetting sins? He is going to finish the job. He will perfect you.

Imagine it this way. It's like a little boy who puts on his father's dress shirt. I used to do this with my granddaddy, go into his closet when I was a little kid and dress up in his dress shirt. And you can look at the child and the child is fully clothed. And yet the clothes don't fit yet. He has to grow up into them. In the same way, you are completely in Christ. You are clothed in him and of course, the work of sanctification in your life is growing up into all of what that means and that coming to completion. But listen to what Jesus says:

He who began a good work, He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

You know, it's this confidence, it's this kind of grace and this joy, this is what propels Christian growth. You want to grow as a Christian? Tap into this joy. I mean, don't we read in scripture that it's God's patience that leads us to repentance, his kindness that leads us to repentance? It's not the other way around. It's not our repentance that makes him kind toward us. He's been unfathomably so in his Son, Jesus. And that is all yours. And God the Father rejoices in that in your life.

Union vs. Communion

Union with Christ is different from communion with Christ. Now I'm not talking about communion like we celebrate here with bread and wine, although the word comes from the same root and means two different things here. The concepts are related. What I'm talking about is that experience, that feeling of being connected to Christ. And of course, your daily sense of communion with Christ—that can change. That can change with sin and hardness of heart, unresponsiveness to God's grace, neglect of His Word and being with His people and worshiping. You can have a sense of distance in your relationship with the Lord. You can have the sense where the communion doesn't feel great. But the union doesn't change.

Somebody says it this way: It's like a marriage. You can't be more married or less married. You're just married. That's union. But you can have a stronger or a weaker marriage. That's communion.

You know, if you want to discover joy, if you want to tap into this, then even in all the places where you feel most weak right now, I want to encourage you to tap into all it means that you are saints in Christ Jesus. And that nothing can change that. That the statement—"This is my son chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life. This is my daughter chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."—this is on you. And nothing can take that away.

Nothing can take that away. And that's where we begin to taste joy despite circumstances. So you have cause to rejoice today. You have something to find joy in. Even if it's hard to be here in worship, you have great cause to rejoice.

Build Joy Into God's People

Second, if you want to find joy, build joy into God's people. There's a TED Talk from 2015 that covers a sociological study from Harvard University. And this is one of the longest running sociological studies. It was begun in 1937 and studied the lives of 268 men over the course of their lifetime. So 83 years this study's been going on. It's called the Harvard Study of Adult Development. And it simply asks one question: What is it that makes people happy?

In 2008, someone interviewed Doctor George Valiant, who's now in charge of the program, to give a summary of what has been the outcome, what have been the findings so far over all those years. And you'd think it would be something really complex, but here's what he said: "The thing that matters in life are your relationships with other people." I mean, that's it. So profoundly simple and yet profound.

And I think it echoes a concept that's repeated over and over here in the first chapter of Philippians. Do you hear what Paul says of these people? Listen again to his joy welling up as he talks about these people, in spite of his suffering, in spite of his imprisonment:

I thank my God in remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy. — Philippians 1:3-4

And then verse seven:

It is so right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart. — Philippians 1:7

And verse eight:

God is my witness. How I yearn for you with all the affections of Jesus Christ. — Philippians 1:8

I mean, do you hear all that? There's a whole lot of loving going on in this passage and deep joy in God's people.

I think one of the things we're going to discover at the end of all this shelter at home, all this coronavirus, is that one of the gifts that we've received in this time—one of the silver linings—has been a rediscovery of the value of relationships, specifically within the Christian community. Many of you have already expressed how much you miss fellowship, relationship, being with one another. You miss the experience of being together for worship.

And so you think maybe that's what Paul's expressing here—that he's missing this church. He must have spent a lot of time with them. He must have deep relationships with these people. But here's the odd thing about Paul's statements: Paul wasn't necessarily like these people. He hadn't spent much time with them. And we can read a lot about Paul's initial visit to Philippi in Acts 16. You can read there about Lydia, the woman who sold purple cloth, the Philippian jailer, the slave girl. But we know about Paul—he is not one of them. He is a Jew. These are Gentiles. He didn't look like them. He didn't sound like them.

Paul's joy has nothing to do with being similar. It also doesn't have much to do with how much time that he spent with them. I mean, he's not fondly remembering all the backyard barbecues that they had by the river there in Philippi. He's not bringing to mind all the time that he spent there like he did in Ephesus. Paul barely knew these people. He spent very little time there. In fact, he only visited them twice. So it has nothing to do with affinity. It has nothing to do with proximity. It comes from somewhere else.

And I hope this is encouraging to you—to tell you that love for God's people doesn't just happen. Deep fellowship and relationship with one another, joy in relationships, even as a community, doesn't just happen. It only happens when the gospel is not just shared, not just the commonality between them, but it's unleashed.

And what we see Paul doing here is building joy in the church, building his joy in God's people. It's very active. It's not passive at all. It's very active. See, this is what we see: it's all about his praying. His praying is the gas on his joy fire for those people.

Look at this. In verse eight, he says:

God is my witness. How I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:8

There's the love. There's the joy. But that is connected to what comes together in the next verse. Right? Verses nine through 11. This is one of the most powerful prayers in all of the New Testament. This is TNT dynamite explosive prayer. Listen to what he says:

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with all knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. — Philippians 1:9-11

Man, I wish people were praying that for me.

That is a powerful prayer. If there is a second gift that comes from this time, this time of coronavirus, I hope it is this one: that we get more and more in touch with our weakness, that we begin to pray. That weak Christians like me, weak Christians like you, we find out that actually all we can do—maybe the best thing that we could do—is pray.

I was talking with a friend from our church this past week who was struggling because she wished she could be someplace else and helping out in very practical ways. And she said to me very honestly, "It feels like the only thing I can do is what feels like the most impractical thing I can do, which is to pray." It doesn't feel like a practical thing that we can do. And that may be the best thing for us that happens right now.

For those of us like me—doers, accomplishers—we like to help. We like to know what to do. And now everything is taken out of our hands. The only thing we can do right now really is go before the Lord in prayer for each other. And you know, that is no small thing. That's a tremendous gift.

Do you realize what happens when you regularly and specifically pray for another person? It changes you on the inside. If you get creative about how you're praying for them, if you pray for them in very specific ways, you can't help but your affections grow for them. Your care for them grows. It's almost impossible to pray for someone you're bitter toward. It's almost impossible to pray for someone you're angry with. As you pray for others, your heart softens toward them. It brings joy to you to pray.

Prayer ignites your imagination for what God might do in the life of another person. It forces you to be specific about what you want God to do in their life. Not just, "Hey, God bless them," but "Lord, here is exactly what I'm asking you to do."

Listen to Paul's prayer. His imagination for them is so specific. He prays that their love will flourish. He prays that they will not only love much but love well. He prays that they will learn to love appropriately, to use their heads and test their feelings so their love is both sincere and intelligent and not just sentimental. He prays that they would live a lover's life—circumspect, exemplary, a life that Jesus would be proud of. He prays that they would be bountiful in making Jesus Christ beautiful to the world, that attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

See, prayer changes us, but it also unleashes the power of God and connects us to the heart of God.

Being the Church

I want to say this by way of closing. Our language about church is very confusing at times. There are a lot of voices right now on the internet who are upset that we can't worship right now, that we can't have church. I've probably used that phrase, "have church." I probably use that about what we do in this room—you know, at 9 and 11, West Street, Sunday mornings, we're having church.

But you know, "having church" is not a phrase that anybody in the New Testament would ever recognize. Rather, they would talk about being the church. This is a great time to learn how to be the church. It's a great time for us to unlearn sloppy language and the sloppy implications of sloppy language.

This time of isolation and fear and suffering and tears—my prayer is that we would get lean and fit. This would be like Rocky Four, Rocky training in Siberia, where he doesn't have anything around him and it's just him getting into fighting shape. I know I just missed everybody who are watching under 35 years old, but hang in with me. But that we would put on spiritual muscle during this season. That this time would make us do our reps and begin to grow.

This is my call for you this morning, and this is a call right from my heart: that you would learn to be the church, that you would remember the joy of God over you, that all that Christ is yours as you are in Him, and that you would be the church in beginning to discover joy in praying for one another. It's not a time to shrink back. This is not a time for us to pull back and to give in to self-pity. This is a time for us to persevere and to grow.

You know the difference between a good church and a great church? Let me give you a hint. It has nothing to do with programs, preaching or pastors, or bulletins and buildings and budgets and bands. It has everything to do with relationships. Programs and preaching and pastors, bulletins and bands and buildings and budgets—those things may attract people to a church. But do you know what keeps people in church? It's relationships.

It's deep and impacting relationships where the gospel is not just something we share, but it's unleashed in power in our relationships. It's unleashed. What could God do with that in us? In us.

If you're with me this morning, and if you've watched all the way to the end of this worship service and this sermon, I am calling you to action. Here's my challenge to you.

Three people. Three people. I'm asking you to get in touch this week with three people. And I'm asking you not to email, but to pull out a piece of paper and write an old fashioned letter, or use your phone for something besides scrolling. And I'm asking you to pull out this passage and pray verses nine through 11 for three other people and let them know.

Philippians 1:9-11

Write that letter. Call them up. Even if you may not like praying out loud, that may be really uncomfortable for you, but you can read. You can read these words and just say, "I'm me, you. I'm doing this for you."

But this is my call for you. Would you do this? Pray for each other because your joy and the reality of Jesus' work in His church depends on it.

You ready? One, two, three, go.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.