We're calling the series, there's handouts in the back if you didn't get one, Surprised by Joy. And I borrowed that title from a book by C.S. Lewis where he tells the story of his conversion and he defines his conversion as this experience of joy. surprised by joy, and I think that's a good title for the book of Philippians. We noted last time that there's a real, when we look at the circumstances of Paul, the author, and the audience, the Philippians, and we understand their relationship, we see that the Lord was giving Paul Tremendous joy in the midst of really interesting circumstances. So the attitude the circumstances and the purpose of the Apostle really are Key themes in the book key concepts that we want to kind of frame our understanding with so we're gonna dig into that just a moment Let's begin with prayer Father we come to you tonight Lord rejoicing in you You've told us that we're to rejoice in the Lord always again. I say rejoice and We come tonight asking you, Lord, that you would give us by the Holy Spirit more of the fruit of the spirit of joy, that we would think biblically in the midst of a world that is very confused, that our lives would shine like lights in the midst of the darkness, and that our relationships and our community of faith, our culture as a church would be characterized more and more by true, deep, abiding joy. And use this time to that end, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So the attitude, the circumstance, the purpose of the apostle, there are four key words there. And we noted this last time, the first word is joy. It's a word that's used seven times, beginning in chapter one, verse four. 2, chapter 2, verse 2, verse 17, 18, 29, and then chapter 4. The second word is rejoice, the verb, form of joy in Greek. Kara is joy. Kairo is rejoice. And then another key term is the word imprisonment. That third blank is imprisonment. Paul four times in the first chapter refers to his imprisonment. And you know, we noted last time that just the repetition of that, why'd he keep saying my imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment? So they would know his circumstance and even more, it would be a backdrop Like a black backdrop, you put maybe beautiful diamonds to see the beauty and brilliance of the stone. Jewelers will lay out a black cloth and then lay the stones down on that black cloth and you see the glory of it. In the same way, his circumstances, the imprisonment, in a Roman dungeon, and yet the joy shining out, beauty of the gospel in Christ. And so imprisonment is the third key word. And it's used four times in the first chapter. The fourth word is gospel. It's used nine times in the book, the word gospel. And so we're gonna read the text in just a moment. We'll talk about each of these terms as we go through the first 11 verses. So we're gonna read Philippians 1, 1 to 11, and we're gonna Look at it now tonight. So Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including 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 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. For I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. We're going to move through this passage faster than I would on Sunday mornings. We're going to cover all 11 verses. I would never do that on Sunday mornings. You know that if you've been around a while, that's true. But I feel like we need to keep kind of a good pace through the book of Philippians. And there's benefit to... Getting the broad sweep sometimes some guys preach that way more and in you if you sit under that kind of preaching It's got its benefit. It really is In a different angle and it's very helpful. And so anyway, but we're gonna cover all 11 verses and I'm gonna try to resist the temptation to camp out in different places, but One thing I wanted to mention to you. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones has a a commentary on Philippians titled, The Life of Joy. And I wanna read you, I read you last week from R.C. Sproul talking about the glory of Philippians. I want you to hear what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a great British pastor of the 20th century said. He said, it is indeed from every standpoint an astonishing and remarkable letter. Its theme can be put like this. joy in Christ, or to put it another way, how to rejoice in the Lord. That's actually the blank there. The theme, how to rejoice in the Lord, is essentially what he's saying the purpose of the book of Ephesians is, is to show us how to rejoice in the Lord. It's a command that Paul says several times in the letter, actually commands us, rejoice in the Lord. I love how he says it in Philippians 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice. just like driving a nail in, you know, I want you to have joy. So I'll continue on with what Lloyd-Jones says. So he says, or to put it another way, how to rejoice in the Lord. As you go through the letter, you will observe that Paul keeps on saying this. For example, at the beginning of the third chapter, he says, rejoice in the Lord. And later in chapter four, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. That is the word that runs through the letter. You will notice even from a short portion of the first chapter that triumphing over circumstances is inevitably the central theme. The writer is in prison. In a sense, everything is against him. And yet, in spite of that, he writes this lyrical letter. It is a sheer triumph over circumstances and surroundings. Now, there are some people who dislike repetition and who speak scornfully of tautology. But if ever a man was guilty of tautology, it was the Apostle Paul. Rejoice, he says, and again I say, rejoice. Or you may prefer to look at this letter from another angle and say that this letter, perhaps more explicitly than any other, displays to us the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It shows us in a very concrete and practical manner what the gospel of Jesus Christ really can do in a life. This is not so much a theoretical treatise as a practical exposition of the gospel. In a way, Paul is more personal in this letter right the way through than he is in any other letter. And yet the writing about himself, he is giving this amazing exposition of what the gospel can do in a man's life. It really is, in a sense, more personal. We're going to see that tonight as we look at this first section. It's it's got some really unique Attributes this letter we we talked a little bit about that last time. We want to dig into it tonight So the salutation and opening remarks that's verses 1 chapter 1 1 to 11 At the beginning he's teaching us how to rejoice in the Lord Each of these sections if you look at this are gonna we're gonna see that there are three points we're gonna cover in the time we have left and the first is He wants us to understand our new identity in Christ. At the very beginning, Paul, as he always introduces his letters, he says, And he doesn't always include someone else. He does occasionally include someone else in the salutation like this. And some people say, did Timothy help him write it? Did Timothy, you know, was he the scribe? I don't think either one of these things is probably true. Timothy's with him, and Paul's sending Timothy, and so he mentions Timothy. But Paul's the one that writes it, and you're gonna see that right away because Paul immediately goes to the first person singular pronouns. Paul and Timothy writing, but it's I, I, me, I, I, me. You see what I'm saying? He's writing, Paul's writing. But a new identity in Christ. And the first thing is Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus. The word here is doulos, douloi actually, the plural, and it means slaves. A really correct translation of that word is slaves. I think we, in America and in England, they shied away from that terminology when they were translating the Bible. Actually, this is my personal opinion. Reformation happens in the 16th century. And then the translations are being produced there in the 17th century, King James. And slavery was a reality. And I think Christians knew that they were wrong in it. And in some sense, they just backed off the word slaves and called it bond servants. But literally in the Greek, it's slaves. Slaves of Jesus Christ. So Paul and Timothy identified themselves as slaves of Jesus Christ. to the saints in Christ Jesus, be to the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. Now these two words are very important. Slaves, Paul says that we're slaves, and this is something you see throughout the New Testament. You see this in Jesus' half-brothers that write two books of the Bible. James and Jude, they both identified themselves as slaves of Jesus Christ, though they're half-brothers. They could have commended themselves as half-brothers of Jesus, you know, writing, but no, they said, we're slaves of Jesus Christ. This is our credential. We're a slave of Jesus Christ. And that's what it is to be a Christian. Our identity is really, Paul is exhibiting for us what we should, how we should see ourselves. If you belong to Christ, if you come to Jesus, you are a slave of Jesus Christ. A slave has no will of his own, doesn't live for his own purposes. He lives to do the will of his master. And that's what we, when we sign up, when he redeems us from the curse of the law, he redeems us from, you know, a life of hopelessness and despair heading toward hell, he buys us off the slave market. That's the language of redemption. It's to buy someone off the slave market. He buys us for himself and we now belong to him. We're not our own. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 when he talks about flee immorality for every other sin a man commits is outside the body, but the man who commits immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that you were bought with a price? You were bought with a price, you were not your own, therefore glorify God in your body. We don't belong to ourselves. And so Paul is saying he doesn't belong to himself and he's modeling that for us. Okay, now the second thing is holy ones. He's writing to the holy ones. He doesn't say to the slaves in Christ. That's one aspect. He's saying you need to see yourself that way, but you also need to see yourself as holy ones. And this is the favorite designation of a Christian in the New Testament. They're not called Christians as much as they're called saints. This is how Paul introduces Romans to the saints. Corinthians to the saints in Corinth. Here to the saints in Christ Jesus in Philippi. What makes them a saint? Being in Christ. To be in union with Jesus Christ makes you a saint. What is a saint? This is where English, we kind of, we have, we borrow from some different languages that our words get mixed up. In the Greek, the verb for make holy is hagiotso. The word for holy is hagios. And the word for saint is hagioi. Saints. You see H-A-G-I-O-S or O-I-H, but in English we have holy, H-O-L-Y, and saint, S-A-I-N-T. No relationship in English. You see that? But in Hebrew and in Greek, it's the same word. Sanctify, saint, holy is all the same word. It means to be set apart unto God. We talked about this on Sunday. Saints are people who've been set apart. Remember, you're removed from the profane and the common, and you're set apart for sacred use. You're taken from the natural to the sacred sphere, the sphere of the sacred. And now something set apart just for God, just for worship, just for holy purposes. So he says, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, someone who has no will of his own, who belongs to his master, writing to those who have been set apart unto God for his holy use. So that's what we are, we're both of those things. We're slaves and we're saints. Now think about the implications if you think of yourself that way. If you really just move from it being theoretical to really applying that thought process to how you see yourself. Slave of Jesus Christ, I go where he tells me to go and do what he tells me to do. So, it changes your expectations. If you think about it, if you're a slave of Christ, it should change your expectations of what you think each day's gonna bring. We tend to think, I know this is the way that I tend to think, you know, like I said, driving down the road, I want every light to be green. And it just makes me happy if they are. Nine out of 10, yes. You know, who cares, really? But we just want things like that, right? We want, you know, whatever. But if the Lord is our shepherd and he's leading us, that's another metaphor scripture uses, the sheep don't go where they wanna go, they follow the shepherd. So wherever you find yourself is where the shepherd took you, right? If you're a slave, you go wherever he sends you. You don't have a choice and we're not on vacation. He's not trying to, I mean, he is actually blessing us with more blessings than we can ever imagine, but it's not the way we would want it. We would want ease and comfort, and God, that's not his agenda, and we're a slave. What slave thinks they're gonna have ease and comfort? See, it changes, our expectations need to change. And if we're set apart unto God, we don't belong to ourselves, we're not for common use anyway. We're for worship, we're for kingdom purposes. If you think like that, think about how that impacts your mental outlook and your attitudes. If you forget you're a slave, you forget you're holy, when things go wrong, you don't have any joy, because your purposes, your plans aren't happening. But when you realize that God's purposes and God's plans are happening, and you're not responsible for the outcomes, you're just responsible to be faithful, it changes in a fundamental way the way you interpret what's happening in your life. And Paul at the very beginning is saying, he's giving us a window into his heart. Why is he able in his imprisonment to be writing, as Lloyd-Jones said, a lyrical psalm of praise to God? This letter is a lyrical letter, like singing to God almost. It's because he thinks of himself rightly. He set his mind as a new identity in Christ. So that means how you see yourself impacts your joy. That's the bottom there under number one. How you see yourself impacts your joy. Do you see yourself rightly? We're finding ourselves depressed, discouraged. It's time to recalibrate and think about how do I see myself? What am I upset about? What am I discouraged about? Doesn't make everything change like that, but it does begin to turn the ship in a really profound way when we reset our thinking. Your feelings will follow eventually. It takes some time, but they will follow. Okay, number two. New relationships in Christ. new relationships in Christ. I mentioned that Paul's, and Lloyd-Jones mentioned, I mean, and I said that this is the most personal of Paul's letters. And you read the letters and you start observing carefully that it really is very, it's intensely personal language that he uses with the Philippians. And it's interesting, I mentioned that you can read the account of the, birth of the Philippian Church in Acts 16. And let's just, let's do that right now. I mentioned this on his second missionary trip last time. He was in Asia, that is the part of Turkey, modern Turkey now, that's still in Asia. And he was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the gospel. Had a dream in the middle of the night. Macedonian man appears to him, says, please come over here. He gets in a ship, goes to Macedonia. And the first real ministry he has in Macedonia is in the town of Philippi. He comes to Philippi and he looks as, what's his custom? When he goes to a new city, where does he go first? On the Sabbath, he goes to the synagogue, right? And so in Philippi, there is no synagogue. You have to have 10 Jewish men to form a synagogue in the cities. In those times, they wouldn't form one without that many men. And so there weren't apparently 10 Jewish men in Philippi. And so he goes to the river, which was the other place people would gather. If there wasn't a synagogue, they would gather down by the water and have worship on the Sabbath. And so he goes and he finds some Jews there and he begins to preach to them. And then that woman named Lydia, verse 14, a woman named Lydia. Well, let's start at verse 11 of 16. So, putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony, and we were staying in the city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went out to the gate, out the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. There's some ladies have assembled down there. A woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. It happened that as we were going to a place of prayer, a slave girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews and are proclaiming customs, which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe being Romans. Remember I mentioned last time they were very patriotic in their Roman identity in Philippi. The crowd rose up together against him, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do not harm yourself for we are all here. And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, Serves, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. Now when the day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, Release those men. And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now, and go in peace. But Paul said to them, They have beaten us in public without trial. men who are Romans and have thrown us into prison, and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed, but let them come themselves and bring us out." I love this. Paul is wise and he's using Roman law against his persecutors. It shows that there's a place for us to appeal to these kind of things. He's saying, no, they beat us without a trial, which is unlawful. And remember, these folks are very zealous in their Roman identity. And when they hear that they didn't check these guys for ID, do you have ID showing that you're a Roman? They knew they were Jews and they thought they can't be Romans, but they were Romans. They beat Roman citizens. And that is a crime punishable by law. They're in trouble. And so Paul wants them to come and face him. And so, this is what he, so, the policeman reported these things, this verse 38, reported these words to the chief magistrates, they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and appealed to them. And when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. They decided to go ahead and leave, but they were now on a different footing. And look what God had done in this brief time in Philippi. We don't know exactly how many weeks it was. It seems to be two, three weeks, probably a month at the most. It wasn't a long stay like he had at Corinth, 18 months, or Ephesus, three years. But it was a powerful ministry in Philippi. Lydia saved, her whole household comes to faith. The jailer saved, his whole household comes to faith. A miracle like this, these guys are so excited, so enthused, and the church begins to grow. We know Paul comes back through a few years later on his third missionary journey, and now about 11 years after the planting of that church, he's writing his letter to the Philippians. You got that? Probably planted around 50 AD. Now he's writing around 61 AD, the letter of the Philippians. Having been there probably at least twice, maybe three times, he might have hit two different visits on his third missionary journey. We don't know. He doesn't tell us those details in Acts. Now, so new relationships. Now back to Philippians. Paul's manner of speaking to them. You should observe his manner of speaking to them. This is, like I said, when you carefully look at various passages and you read over, this is what is really helpful, to read a text a number of times. And, you know, listen to yourself sometimes, read out loud, and you start hearing certain things kind of jump out at you. Like I said, when I read out loud, I hear my imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment, my imprisonment. You know, reading out loud makes it just jump out at you. Wow, he really emphasized that. He didn't have to say that four times. He said it so they would keep hearing that, right? Well, one of the things that you see here is he speaks in the first person singular pronouns, I and my. This is not Paul's normal way of addressing. Most of his epistles, he'll say something like his salutation will, you know, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, et cetera, to the church at Rome, We, he'll say we, first person plural. We are thankful to God for all he's done for us. It's we and us, we, us, we, us. Here it's I, me, you. It's a more personal, relational way of addressing them. In fact, the first thing that you even notice, Paul's normal self-designation, how does he normally begin his letter? Paul, what? an apostle of Jesus Christ. Here he doesn't even mention his apostleship. He says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. Part of that may be that they know he's an apostle. He already knows the relationship is so good and fond with them that he doesn't have to even remind them of his authority. The relationship is so close. So that's one thing that we see there. He's turning the page over. I mentioned Paul's personal pronouns, first person singular, I and me. You hear over and over and over again. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. Also, Paul sounds like he's a southerner. Did you hear that? It's four times he says you all. Anyway. Thank you, Sally, for laughing at that. But actually to all, you all, even he, it's like, he says, am I so thankful for you all? I'm praying for you all. This is not his normal way of speaking either. It's a little more affectionate. He's thinking like of every single one of the Philippians. There's a closeness here. It doesn't mean that he doesn't love the other churches. It just means that the relationship is unique and distinct. I mentioned last time, he's not correcting them with any major problem. There's not some sin issue. There's not some doctrinal issue. I mean, there are some things we're gonna see. He's concerned about unity. He knows you, Adean, Syntyche are having a problem in chapter four. He knows that there's some false teaching going around, but it's not like it's the way it is with Galatians. He starts off Galatians with I and you, but it's like, how have you so quickly departed the gospel? It's not like this. I love this how he says verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. He says, every time I remember you, Or if I think about my whole remembrance of you, if I think about all of my contact with you, you know what I have, what my thought is as I think about all of my contact with you? I am thankful. It is all thanksgiving. I mean, God has done a great work in this church and he is just thrilled with what the Lord has done. So now number two, B, I mean, Paul's love for them. His love for them comes out as you continue to read. I mentioned he's thankful for them. Verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. He is thankful for them. He is joyful on account of them. Verse four, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. Every time I pray for you all, I'm filled with joy in thinking about you as I take you before the throne of God. And look at verse seven, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, I feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. Look at this just deep affection. Have you in my heart. He loves all of the churches. And not saying that, it's just like God loves all of us, but there's just something beautiful about the Philippian relationship with Paul that we need to see here. He has him in his heart, and then verse eight, for God is my witness. I love that, God is my witness. He said, I'm gonna tell you how much I love you, but before I tell you how much I love you, I wanna tell you God is my witness to what I'm about to say. You see how that adds so much weight to what he's gonna say? God is my witness to how much I long for you with the affection of Christ. He longs for them with the affection of Christ. The word long is a strong word. It's a word which means long for, yearn for, and it's got a, in Greek, they'll put a preposition on the front of a word to intensify it. So it's like, he puts the preposition upon in front of it, epipatheo, and it means to long intensely upon something. That's, he said, I long intensely when I think about you. I want to see you, is what he's saying. And then he adds to that, it would be enough to say I long to see you. But he says, I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus. The word affection here is a word which literally means bowels, intestines. If you have the King James, it says the bowels of Jesus Christ. That's not the phrase we use, right? I long for you from my bowels. That's just not gonna go over well. But this is really intense love, honey. This is like writing a love letter, you know? No, that's not gonna work. But anyway, the idea is, the expression that they would use in ancient times was to say, it comes from the very deepest part of me, this longing. And it's the affection that Jesus Christ has given me for you. So his love for them is so great. Now think about that. We've seen that how you see yourself affects your ability to rejoice. You see yourself as a slave and as a saint, belonging to God. But what Paul is showing is, look, think about his circumstances. He's in prison, but he's writing. What does he lead in his letter with? Not, hey, I wanna tell you I need, this is my prayer request, pray for me here, I've got this malady, this is happening. It's not that we're, he does share some things to pray for later. He starts off with how much he loves them. He thinks about them and he loves them. This is one of the keys to joy. One of the most depressing characteristics we can, or things that makes us depressed is when we focus on ourselves. You stay focused on yourself, that is a roadmap to sadness and depression. Christ is the answer, but even beyond that, other people. And one of the best things you can do when you're depressed is go serve somebody. Just ask God for grace, Lord help me, fill me with love, I don't have anything, I have nothing to give, I'm empty, I don't know how I can even do this, but just go, talk to someone, ask how they're doing, listen to them, hear what they're saying, how can you serve them, and suddenly your mood is beginning to even lift in that. And Paul's telling us, he's giving an example, this is how you walk in joy. You really prioritize relationships and you love others. You love Christians, especially. You love all people, but especially those who are the household of faith. So how you see others impacts your joy. That's that last sentence there on number two. How you see others impacts your joy. How you see yourself impacts your joy. How you see others impacts your joy. I wanna say a word about something before we move on to the third point. You know, as he thinks about them, it's not just that he loves them, he's thinking about them in all that God has done in them. He's thinking back, and you can imagine, that had to be, it was one of the most wonderful evangelistic missions he's had in his ministry. I mean, yeah, he got beaten with rods and all that. That was rough. But then he was given grace by God to praise the Lord at midnight in the prison while he's chained up in the inner part of the prison. The Lord's filling him and Silas with joy and love. They're overflowing with gratitude to God that they were suffering for Christ, whatever. We don't know all that was going on in their minds. We know they're praising the Lord. They have grace to do that. And the prisoners are listening to them. And God then does a miracle, opens all the doors, sets them free. The guy's ready to kill himself. Paul knows it. Their spirit tells him, you cry out, don't hurt yourself. We're all here. He sees the doors opening and he's telling them that they've all gotta be gone. And then that guy gets saved, his whole family gets saved. You see that kind of movement of God, this place, these people were very dear, even just because of how God had worked in that. And that's one of the things that's awesome, when we serve the Lord and we minister to each other, what happens is, when God really uses us in somebody else's life, they become even more precious to us. That's what's happened. God used him in such a powerful way in this very brief window of time. And they felt it and he felt it, this deep, deep affection. So it tells you one of the ways that we can grow in joy and love is serve each other. Be willing to get into the hard situations that you especially don't know what to do. We really don't know what to do in most things if we're really honest about it. If somebody's really hurting and struggling, I find myself, Lord, what do I say? Help me. Give me something. Help me know how to minister this person, to listen to them, really compare, love them through me. That's what we all need to do. And when we do it, there's the opportunity for these deep, deep connections to happen that have happened here. Well, on top of that, so he started out with that, and part of his joy, when you really look at these words a little more carefully, is his joy is in the fact that they, what God has begun in them is gonna be completed. I love this. Look at verse five. Well, verse three, he's thankful And everything he thinks about them, all his remembrance of them, all of his interactions with them is thanksgiving. And when he's always offering prayer, he prays for the churches regularly, he prays for them, it's always with joy. And what is it that's giving him joy? What is it that's making him thankful? Verse five, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. We're gonna talk about the participation in just a moment, but from the first day until now, For I am confident of this thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So he says, your participation in the gospel from the first day until now, what's the first day? It's when he was there on his first missionary journey. And God saved Lydia, and God saved the Philippian jailer, and God saved a lot of other people we don't know about that must've got saved in the wake of all that was happening. And so this church is birthed, and he rejoices in that first day, and he knows that God's gonna take them from that first day to the day of Christ Jesus. In fact, he uses the word day again here, but later in the same passage, down verse 10. So that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. So Paul looks back at the day they were saved. He looks forward to the day that Jesus is coming back and gonna make all things new. And he knows that he's gonna take them, that they're going to be there in the end. And that fills his heart with joy. So looking at other believers and seeing their progress in the gospel is one of the most powerful sources of joy. Again, getting your focus off of yourself and trying to propel other people. I mean, yeah, not in a superior way, in a humble serving way, how can I encourage this brother or sister along toward Christ? And as you see you having some impact on them and you see them moving, we're to take joy from seeing how we're helping each other make progress. and to think about from the first day we knew this brother or sister until that day and to find that joy in that. So I just wanna say that, that's actually not in the outline. Number three, it's not just a new identity, it's not just new relationships, it's a new mission in Christ. A new mission or a new purpose in Christ. And the focus of the mission is the gospel. This is what really is the ultimate key to Paul's joy, is he has found a way to put his hope and to find his joy in the progress of the gospel. It's not about his agenda. It's not about his circumstances. It's about the gospel. And if the gospel is succeeding, he's happy. And that's the way we're supposed to be. We're supposed to live that way. As the gospel goes, so goes the heart of the believer who's being faithful, right? So the focus of the mission is the gospel. And now two key words. Verse five, remember he says, I'm praying for you all in view of your, this is the first key word, participation in the gospel. Verse five, your participation in the gospel. Some translations say partnership. If you have ESV or the NIV, it says partnership. King James says fellowship. NASB says participation. And then there's another key word in verse seven, which is the same word with a preposition on the front end of it. It's the same root Greek word. I'm gonna tell you the Greek word in a second. But in verse seven, it says, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. Partakers is the other key word. And that's, I'm reading the American Standard. I believe most of the other translations say partakers. Let's see. NASB, ESV say partakers, and King James says partakers. The NIV, if you have it, says all of you share in God's grace. So they translate with the word share, but partake and participation. And the Greek word here is the word koinonia. From one Greek word koinonia, K-O-I-N-O-N-I-A, K-O-I-N-O-N-I-A, koinonia. It's the Greek transliteration into English. Koinonia, koinos means common. That's, we got our English word coin from that. A quarter, dime, coin, it's common, common currency, a coin. So, koinos, in fact koine Greek, koinos. is the Greek of the New Testament is from the same word. Koine is a form of koinos, which means common. It's the common language of the everyday person. That's what God wrote the Bible in, New Testament. Not in classical Greek, the language of the elites. He wrote it in the language of the common everyday person. There's a lot in that. But anyway, koinonia is the root word of both places. So when he says in verse five, in view of your participation, in view of your koinonia in the gospel, in view of your fellowship in the gospel, it means sharing in. It means to have in common. Koinonia. In fact, the word to partake of, to have a share of, is the verb idea. So if you were sharing in something, in food, say we're sharing a meal together, you're having it in common. This is a key word used in Acts 2.42, where they're meeting together, sharing everything in common. It's Koinonia, fellowship. You're sharing together. It's like we all are seeing ourselves as having a part of one another. So he's saying that in view of the very first time you came to be a believer, he's saying to them, you became participants and sharers with me in the work of the gospel. You now, as receiving the gospel, you took ownership of it along with me. And this gives me great joy to think about our partnership or participation in the gospel. And partakers is actually the same word, it's actually sukononia, koinonia, with just the preposition meaning with, to share with, that's partakers. So the emphasis is, in both places, it's about sharing in the gospel, because he says, in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, verse seven, you all are partakers of grace with me. So he said, and they share the mission. And he knows they share the mission, and this is what thrills his heart as he thinks about them. They've embraced the gospel, it's their heartbeat as well, and that fills Paul's heart with joy. So this means that if you start seeing your purpose as the gospel, if I start seeing my purpose as the gospel, if I myself discourage or down, A lot of times because our circumstances, right? Circumstances aren't working out. Sometimes they're very painful circumstances that really are grievous and things that displease God. You could be having a broken relationship that displeases God, but we have to step back from it and put on scriptural glasses to look at our circumstances and wait a minute, God is sovereign. He's working in this situation for His glory and the good of everyone who loves Him. And He's working in this situation to further the gospel. I was talking to someone recently about just the outlook for America in the next few years or whatever, and he was sharing some stuff about it's bleak, it's bleak, it's bleak. And I don't really have an argument with that. I think it is. Yeah, if you look at it, the more closely you look at it, the worse it looks. And so if you're gonna attach your hope to that, just go ahead and be depressed. I really, I can't, I think you just have to be sort of like a Pollyanna kind of person to pretend it's gonna be okay. You know, it's all gonna work out. And this is how a lot of people even throw around Bible slogans that way. Well, you know, God calls all things, it's gonna all work out. No, no, it's not necessarily gonna work out. That's not how God works. But if you make, and I make, my purpose the gospel, the advance of the gospel's where my joy is, Then even if, remember we were talking about Isaiah? This was what Isaiah was learning when we were looking at this a few weeks back. Remember, things are gonna be really bad for them in Judah. The water's gonna come up to the neck, and it's gonna be terrible. It's gonna come in like a flood like this, and you don't fear the conspiracy, you don't fear what they fear, you fear me. What's happening? God's wrath is being poured out. His judgment is coming, but Isaiah's learning when God's judgment comes, cling to the Lord, point everybody to the Lord. Don't run away from God, run to Him, because when He comes in judgment, He comes in salvation. And so if the Lord is gonna do what He may do to America, I don't know for sure, we don't know. The Lord could do whatever He wants to do, right? But even if it does go from bad to worse, That means the gospel is gonna go forth. That means God's showing his glory, and he's gonna be with his people who cling to him. He's gonna show us his glory in the midst of it. So if I keep my eyes on the gospel, if my purpose is the kingdom, and the gospel is, remember, the good news, euangelion, it is the good message. Eu means good, like eulogy, good word. Euangelion, angelion is message, authoritative message. Angel comes from the same word, a messenger. That's where an angel is, a messenger. So that the good message is an authoritative message from the king. The king has sent out the gospel message. It's to be heralded. It's to be authoritatively proclaimed because the king has sent it and we're heralding his message and his message is there's good news. There is an opportunity to repent and to be saved. The King Jesus has made a way for all sinners in the midst of whatever God brings on the world to be saved. And so our message is to take that message out, the good news. And it's amazing how bad circumstances till up the hearts of people. They till up the soil of people's hearts. And then the seed of the kingdom takes root. And so, what we have to do is not focus on our circumstances, how they're gonna change. That's up to God. He's gonna take care of us anyway. He said, you know, we're not gonna have to, the believer, you look at the believer, I've never seen him have to beg bread, the psalmist says, right? No, God takes care of his own. He knows about every bird that's in the heavens. He knows when they fall. He'll take care of you and me. But we can rejoice that when he's tilling up the ground, his seed's gonna go forth. So Paul had learned the secret to joy is how you not only see yourself, how you not only see others, particularly Christians, but how you see your purpose impacts your joy. What is your purpose? Why are you here? We're not here to have a pleasant life. We're not here just to, I mean, we're here to build the kingdom, and that means raising children, and it does mean the things that we should pray for peace and well-being, like Philippians, I mean, 1 Timothy 2 says, pray for your leaders that you may lead quiet and tranquil lives so that the gospel can go forth. Pray, pray, pray, pray, yes. But if not, if God doesn't allow that, focus on the gospel. That's where our joy is. So anyway, that's I think what the Lord wants us to focus on tonight. We're gonna break for about 22 minutes of small group time. So let's break for small group time.