Philippians 1:7-11 | A Pastor's Heart

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Take your Bible with me now to the book of Philippians and chapter 1.

Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

A couple of weeks ago we started a study in this book, just getting the first part of the introduction.

This morning I want to invite you to join me in looking at the second part of the introduction.

It's Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

Our focus is going to be on verses 7 through 11.

But since it's been a couple of weeks, why don't we read from the first verse so we can get the whole context of the introduction?

So we'll read from verse 1 of Philippians 1 through verse 11 if you'd like to follow along.

Says Paul and Timothy, servants or slaves 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 in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine 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's 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 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.

Amen.

The way different cultures express ideas can be amusing at times.

For example, we have a phrase about feeling nervous.

You have butterflies in your stomach.

Never quite understood that, but that's the phrase.

The Japanese version of that, however, as I understand it, translates something more like your stomach is churning or twisting.

So one concept suggests this light, fluttery kind of feeling, while the other describes a gut-wrenching experience.

Sometimes cultures use different parts of the body to express the same idea.

For example, in the first century world of the Philippians, the word affection in verse 8 is a visceral idea.

Ancient thinking believed that your feelings came from your guts, from your intestines.

Your innards were the source of your feelings.

While today we usually associate the heart with our feelings.

So while we might yearn for someone with the affection, the feelings, the heart of Christ Jesus, Paul said he yearned for the people in Philippi with the guts of Jesus Christ.

The point, though, remains the same.

No matter which part of the body we associate with feelings, there's something inside of us that connects with others, and that connection pulls us toward them in a special way.

That was the relationship between the Apostle Paul and the church in Philippi.

Now, today, Philippi is located in what we know as northeastern Greece.

During New Testament times, it was a hub of many, many cultures, groups of people.

But even though it had different groups of people, it was primarily a Roman city.

In fact, it was often called Little Rome because the Romans rebuilt the town and repopulated it with retiring Roman soldiers.

The religion in Philippi was polytheistic, meaning they worshipped many, many gods, including the Roman Emperor.

Every Roman citizen was required to offer sacrifices and offerings to Lord Caesar.

Then enters what we think of as a short little man, maybe with a limp, named Paul, arguing that Caesar is not Lord.

But that a humble, slave-like person named Jesus, who died and was raised from the dead, that he is Lord of all.

It was a message that sent Paul to a Roman prison from which he wrote this letter back to that small gathering of humble, subversive Christians in Philippi.

That they weren't subverting Caesar's political status or his right to rule over earthly realms.

They were proclaiming their allegiance to a greater Lord who rules the universe, to a Jesus whom God the Father declares Lord, and at whose name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

The text before us this morning, beginning in verse 7, takes us deeper into the pastoral heart residing in the Apostle Paul.

We get a peek into the deep recesses of his guts, his heart, toward those believers living out their allegiance to Christ in Little Rome.

In this second portion of the introduction to his letter, the imprisoned apostle reveals his inner desire and ultimate goal as a shepherd for those under his care.

Last time, when we looked at the first six verses, we saw that possessing an identity in Christ must transform our outlook on life.

In this second part of the introduction, we see that a relationship in Christ should drive the fellowship, the goals, and the motivation of a local church.

We see that in verse 5 and verse 6.

Verse 7 builds on that reality by explaining that Paul's feelings toward the church are grounded in that fellowship.

Because it's here that we see, first of all, that the fellowship of a local church is grounded in a relationship that they have in Christ.

So as a church, they come together and their fellowship, because they are in Christ, drives them to live out their allegiance.

Verses 3, 4, and 5 that we looked at last time, express the Apostle Paul's thankfulness for the church's partnership in the gospel from the very beginning.

We saw that chapter 4 reminds us that that partnership or that fellowship in the gospel is a response to a financial gift the church sent to Paul while he was in house arrest in Rome.

Fellowship, as we've noted before, has the basic sense of sharing something.

But it's more than sharing food or coffee together or being in the same space together.

In the New Testament, fellowship is grounded in a shared identity.

It's coming together because of a shared sense of identity and purpose.

But it's used here in the sense of partnering together.

This small group of believers in Philippi partnered with Paul in his gospel ministry.

They prayed for him, they supported him financially.

That's why we read in verse 5 that Paul is thankful for their partnership in the gospel.

That partnering, that fellowshipping in the gospel returns now in verse 7.

It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.

Why?

For you are all partakers with me of grace.

So notice the shift from partnering in the gospel to now partnering in grace.

That word partakers or share, as some translations have it, comes from the word fellowship.

But that word fellowship has a prefix added onto it that means together with.

So altogether it means I hold you in my heart because you all share together with me in grace.

You fellowship together with me in grace.

So this relationship between the Apostle Paul and these early believers reveals why a deep connection exists between this church leader and the rest of the body.

We share together in grace.

We partake together in God's grace to us.

Now it's likely, maybe even probable, that not everyone in Philippi felt the same about Paul.

There were likely some in Philippi who liked Paul a little less than others.

But this isn't about how we feel about one another.

It's about a relationship that exists because of our shared identity.

We have to return to verse 1.

To all the saints in Christ Jesus.

We are in Christ, verse 1, looking for the day of Christ, verse 6, partaking together of the grace of Christ in verse 7 and 10, all to the praise of God.

In our modern churches, we tend to elevate how we feel about one another over the relationship that exists because we are in Christ.

See, these believers weren't so much friends or Philippians or Greeks or Romans or North Africans from the other side of the Mediterranean, but they were much more Christians.

They are in Christ.

It is this relationship in Christ that drove the fellowship Paul had with them.

He was imprisoned for Christ in Rome while the Philippians were living out their allegiance to Christ in the little Rome.

But God's grace is enabling both situations.

They're partaking together of God's grace to live out their allegiance to Christ before the Roman Empire.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our identity in Christ forms our relationship.

That identity is foundational.

That's why the primary element our elders look for when we interview prospective members is as much assurance as we can that we share the same identity through faith in Christ.

That's foundational.

Once we share that foundation, we share in God's grace.

And that grace should generate a deeper kind of unity.

That's what he says in verse 7.

It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart.

For Paul, as with many church leaders, that more profound sense of connection was developed through three unique elements.

One, sharing in earthly things.

They shared their finances with Paul, prayer for one another, and difficulties.

The Philippians shared their money so that Paul could sustain himself while imprisoned.

You see that in chapter 4, verse 18.

Paul prayed for the Philippians every time he thought about them in verse 4.

And through support and prayer, Paul and the Philippians share together in his imprisonment, in his trial, and in the work of the gospel.

When Paul spoke of his defense there in the defense and confirmation, that word defense is one you've probably heard of.

It's from the word from which we get our English word, apology.

It means in Roman world, a legal defense.

So Paul is likely referring to his actual trial.

He's getting ready, preparing to have his trial before Caesar.

And the Philippians, through their prayer and financial support, are participating, fellowshipping with him in that.

So through support and prayer, the Philippians are part of Paul's gospel ministry while he's imprisoned in Rome.

That sharing unites them in a closeness that built on the foundation they possessed in Christ.

That's why Paul can say, I yearn for you all with the guts of Jesus Christ.

I think Psalm 119 helps us with the meaning of yearn.

Because the Greek translation of the Old Testament uses the same word that Paul uses here.

Psalm 119, verse 131 says, I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments.

Psalms 119:131

Long in Psalm 119, 131, is the same word as yearn in Philippians 1.

But notice the visual image the psalmist puts.

The picture is of a dog on a hot day trying to cool off and wanting a drink of water, and his tongue is just hanging out the side of his mouth and he's panting.

Or you or me on a hot summer day when we're working outside and we're just drained and tired and exhausted, and all you want to do is quit and have a cool drink.

It's a desire that comes through that, that you're longing for refreshment.

They share, Paul and the Philippians, an identity in Christ, fueled by fellowship and earthly things, fueled by prayer, fueled by fellowship in Paul's difficulties, and he can't wait to see them.

He yearns for them.

This is the Apostle Paul's pastoral heart for his children in the faith.

And it's the heart that develops in every true leader of a local church for the people they're given to Shepherd.

It's critical, though, in our modern emphasis on feelings that we notice the description of this affection between the pastoral apostle Paul and this local church.

The feelings Paul has are not lovey dovey, happy, happy, joy, joy.

He longs for them with the guts of Jesus Christ.

You see, this goes far deeper.

And it's far richer than human feelings that come and go and are often fickle.

A genuine pastoral heart possesses the affection, the desire for another that Christ has for them.

It's an affection that isn't based on how Paul or others can benefit.

All he can do is pray for them from his house imprisonment.

No, it's an affection that is based on fellowship in Christ, on partnership in the gospel and enduring hardship together for the cause of Christ.

It's an affection that desires to see those under his care brought to spiritual maturity.

We find this in another of Paul's letters, Ephesians chapter 4, where it says that Christ gave apostles and prophets and evangelists, the shepherd teachers, to equip the people, equip the church for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the Spirit, unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God to maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

So he says, listen, we're all in this together.

We're growing, and the goal is maturity in faith, that we measure up to the fullness of being like Christ.

That kind of maturity is what we find next in the Apostle Paul's prayer for those Philippian believers.

He builds on their relationship in Christ as the driving force for their fellowship by next asserting that being in Christ should drive the goals of the local church as they live out their allegiance to Christ.

Now we've already seen that the Apostle Paul prays for these folks whenever he thinks of them.

Now we see some specific ways that he prays.

In verse 9, he says, It is my prayer that, here's what he's praying, right?

We can learn here not only how to think about praying for one another, but what we should pray for one another as we share in God's grace together.

You see, Paul from his pastoral heart reveals that prayers, his prayers for the Philippian believers, focus on one key element: their love.

He prays for their love.

Now that's pretty broad, and that's how we often pray.

It's common to hear someone say in a prayer, please be with so-and-so.

That's a general prayer.

However, our prayers become more focused when we learn to pray as Scripture instructs.

Take a look at how we we see this here.

First, although we see in verse 9, or although we see his prayer for love in verse 9, that love has no object.

Do you see that?

Their spiritual father doesn't pray that they would love God more.

He doesn't pray that they would love one another more or love him more.

It's intentionally undirected.

He prays for all of their love.

They will demonstrate the love of Christ in many ways as they live out their lives in allegiance to Christ.

So by not specifying a direct object, he shows us that all of our love is in view.

Our love has changed from a selfish love to an others-centered love in Christ.

That's what he details in the first few verses of chapter two.

Our love has shifted from a self-benefiting love to a uniting love in Christ.

A Christian's love is continually shaped, molded to mirror Christ's love so that we show the affection of Christ Jesus through our love.

That means self dies as Christ is formed in us.

Now the prayer for love becomes more specific here.

He doesn't just leave it as a general prayer for love.

A shepherd prays for his love, people's love, and he shows us now what that looks like.

Love is grounded in an identity in Christ, it's fueled by fellowship in that identity, and it abounds.

It abounds more and more.

So this is a local church's first goal.

We should be driven to abound in love.

To abound means to have more than enough.

The first characteristic of this pastoral prayer for a believer's love is that.

It would never be insufficient, that it would never be less than enough, that it would never be unsatisfactory.

A Christian's love, wherever it's directed, whenever it's directed, should always be more than enough, because your Lord's love is more than abundant and overflowing.

The Apostle Paul shows us that a shepherd's heart is a prayerful heart that seeks to see the good shepherd's love for his sheep formed in his sheep, so that their love abounds.

And it's not merely a love that abounds, but it's a love that abounds more and more.

This is like winning the love lottery.

So you have abundant love, and that abundant love is abounding more and more and more.

It's continually overflowing.

That means, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we know that we have not reached the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ in our Christian maturity if our love is not abounding more and more.

If our love is not overflowing as the affection of Christ Jesus is for us, then self is still clinging on for dear life, and you need to kill it so that Christ may fill you all in all.

Now that abounding love, though, is qualified yet further.

We are shown some guardrails that help guide that overflowing love.

Because if we just have love that's overflowing, it's going to be like a flood racing down a canyon that's going to wipe out everything.

So we provide some guardrails here.

And the first guardrail is knowledge.

It is my prayer, verse 9, that your love may abound more and more with knowledge.

And we aren't told here what knowledge is to guide our love.

I think some other statements from the Apostle Paul might help us understand what he's getting at.

First, consider Colossians chapter 1, verse 9.

Colossians 1:9

Colossians and Philippi are relatively close to one another, so they're going to be sharing their letters.

Paul told the Colossian church, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you be filled with the knowledge, notice, of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

So, in the context of the pastoral epistles here, the Pauline epistles, growing in love with knowledge means knowing what God's will is.

How does he want us to live out our allegiance?

What does that look like?

What does he want us to do later on in Colossians in chapter 3?

He says to put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge, in knowledge, after the image of its creator.

So this is showing us that our knowledge is coming to know more and more about who Christ is, what he is like, how he functions, and all about his glory.

So that through that we then are renewed and made to be like him.

I'll give you one more.

Philemon chapter, or verse 6.

There's only one chapter in Philemon.

It says, I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing.

Knowing, knowing in your love what is good that is in us for the sake of Christ.

So this isn't a knowledge that makes us proud and arrogant, as 1 Corinthians 8 1 warns against.

But it's a knowledge of Christ that makes us more like Him.

Remember, that's what this whole section is about.

We are in Christ.

That identity is who we are.

It forms everything that we are and everything about our love.

So knowing Christ, knowing his will, being transformed into his image is the first guardrail.

The second guardrail in verse 9 is all discernment.

A shepherd's heart prays for his people's discernment.

Now this isn't a prayer for a critical spirit, but for one that can test things.

Discernment is the ability to distinguish between one thing and another.

You're looking at two things that look similar and you're able to distinguish how they're different.

That's discernment.

A Christ-like love, then, guarded by knowledge and shaped by the mind of Christ, is not a love that accepts everything indiscriminately.

Instead, a Christ-like love distinguishes between things.

It's discerning.

But it's critical to know what to distinguish, isn't it?

Which leads to the second goal that should be formed by a relationship in Christ within a local church.

And that is that we should be driven to approve what is excellent.

This is our second goal.

That discernment is the ability to distinguish between things.

And that's confirmed by what follows.

We are then to be able to approve, verse 10, what is excellent.

So being in Christ, that's our identity, and fellowshipping in the gospel and fellowshipping in the grace of Jesus should be coupled, linked with an abundant love, a growing love, guarded by genuine knowledge of all Christ-like things, so that love, our love, approves what is excellent.

It's our natural human tendency to approve what is not excellent.

Right?

Isn't that what our sin is?

Our sin looks at something and says, hey, that looks good.

I'm going to approve of that.

And it may not be genuinely excellent.

Our world is filled with an ungodly perception that love approves of everything.

If you love me, you'll just accept me as I am.

Or if you love me, you'll just fill in the blank.

What we find here is that Christ-like love approves of what is excellent.

So what exactly is excellent?

Well, this word refers to value, to worth, that something has value to it.

Something excellent then is worth more.

It is more valuable than something else.

Let me give you a couple of really helpful examples.

Jesus uses the same word several times in Matthew.

One of them is Matthew chapter 6, where he says, look at the birds of the air.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

They don't sow seed, they don't reap it, they don't gather it into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

So it's a comparative, right?

He's saying, listen, the birds are of value.

They're so valuable that your heavenly father feeds them.

But you are of more value.

Very, very much in the same vein, a little bit later in Matthew 10, Jesus says, Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

Isn't it great to know that you're worth more than one sparrow?

So encouraging.

No, that's not the point.

The point is that you are of great value, right?

That's the same word as excellent in Philippians 1.

To approve what is more valuable.

In this context, then in Philippians, an abundant love can recognize the difference between good, better, and best, and then approve of what is best.

It doesn't mean there isn't value in other things necessarily, but it does mean that our love recognizes and approves of what is truly best.

That's why we hear at the end of the book of Philippians, in chapter 4, it says, Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

That's our second goal.

To approve what is excellent.

Our third goal is to be filled with the fruit of righteousness.

So that, verse 10, 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.

We could restate, or maybe the better word is paraphrase this goal to help us see what's going on here.

Your love, my love, our love as fellowship in Christ, should show the fruit of Christ that's already in you.

You see, this filling is a work of God that has already been accomplished in you.

If you are in Christ, verse one, and you are fellowshipping in the gospel and in the grace of Christ, all of your identity is in Christ, then this is a work that God is doing in you to put his fruit in you so that it grows and develops and is displayed through your love.

It has effects because you are in Christ.

So Paul, as a shepherd here, has a desire that God's work in his spiritual children would be evident.

His prayer is that their love would overflow in abundance, and that overflowing would display the fruit of the spirit that is already in you.

So much of the Christian life is recognizing what is already true.

And this is a reality when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit in us.

Let me give you an example.

How many of you have ever prayed for patience?

You don't have to raise your hand, I don't won't embarrass you.

It's an improper prayer.

Because you already have patience if you are in Christ.

Because Galatians 5 tells us that patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you are in Christ, that Spirit is already in you, and his fruit is already in you.

It just needs to get out, to display itself.

You already have those fruits.

And so our prayer should be that God would cause his patience that is already in us to have effect and bear fruit in our love, in our lives, instead of the selfish impatience that our sinful nature wants to exert.

Think about the fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

If you are genuinely in Christ, then his spirit is in you, producing fruit.

And the only thing then hindering that fruit is not that that fruit is not in you, but the remaining sinful nature that wants not that fruit to be displayed, but my sinful nature, the works of the flesh to be displayed.

The Apostle Paul's prayer then is that our love would be shaped by the Spirit that is already in us.

It's a prayer that our love would not be influenced by our selfish, self-centered, sinful nature, but by the fruit of God's Holy Spirit.

Paul's pastoral heart, then, is grounded in the relationship that we have in Christ.

That relationship should drive our fellowship, our partnership in the gospel, our partnership in God's grace.

But finally, we can't leave out the motivation that should come from that relationship.

The motivation of that relationship is the glory and praise of God.

Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

If these things are true of us, that is, we are in Christ, we are partnering in the gospel, we are partnering in God's grace, fellowshipping together in that way.

Our love is abounding more and more with knowledge and with all discernment, so that we are filled with the fruit of righteousness, and these things are overflowing in us.

The natural result of that is going to be that our God and Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the whole Trinity, are going to be praised and honored and glorified.

Do you see how the Apostle Paul has this heart and it's on display?

Let me walk through it real quick.

First, he sees everything through an identity of belonging to Christ.

He doesn't see everything through his shackles and chains of imprisonment.

He doesn't see everything through his own lens of his health or his well-being.

He sees everything through the identity of belonging to Christ.

He sees everything through a participation or a fellowship in the gospel.

He sees everything through a fellowship or sharing in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And his prayer for those under his care is that the realities of being in Christ would be developed in them, would bear fruit in them and be seen as they live out their allegiance to Christ alone before the eyes of watching little Rome.

And his motivation for all of that.

Or even for their own good.

But that God would be glorified and praised as we look to Christ our Lord and live out that identity in him.

Even if it means declaring in Little Rome that Caesar is not Lord.

But Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Let's pray together.

We need to have a clear vision of who you are and of who we are in you.

That we are not our own.

We are now yours.

We belong to you and our identity and our being.

Our lives are in you.

Lord, we ask for the power of your spirit to be evident in us, that through your spirit we would be able to put to death all that is natural and evil and sinful in us.

And that we would put on our real identity in you and set our minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are below.

Cause us to be more like Jesus day after day, moment by moment, to bring us to the fullness of maturity to be like Jesus.

This is our prayer.

Bring it about, we ask, for your praise and your glory.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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