Well, welcome everybody. I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the letter of Paul to the Philippians. We're in chapter one of this letter to the Philippians and we'll begin in verse three. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always and 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 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. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful to be in Your house. We are grateful for this time of year and the celebration of what it means for not only the death of Christ, through His blood provided atonement for sin, provided a sacrifice for sin that we might be saved, but also that He was raised again on the third day, that He now lives. He lives always to make intercession for those who trust in Him and hope in Him. And He is able to save us to the uttermost, how grateful we are, for we know that we cannot save ourselves. We ask that You would help by the power of Your Spirit, help us to live in light of this wonderful, glorious reality of our resurrected Savior. In all this we ask in His name, Amen. Continuing in our study through Philippians, and we're looking at this morning and in the next couple of weeks, what Paul has to say to this church in Philippi specifically. You remember the circumstances of Paul, even as we consider the joy with which he writes this epistle, according to Acts chapter 28, Paul is under Roman guard. Apparently, not only was he under Roman guard, he was under house arrest, but apparently the soldiers were even perhaps chained to him. He was under lock and key. and yet he was still free to move about, free to preach, free to, of course, write his letters that he writes while he is under imprisonment there. Yet even in the midst of these types of circumstances and persecution and suffering, we are seeing the joy of the Apostle Paul for this church in Philippi. Just to connect quickly to the cantata that we just heard from the choir and the celebration of our resurrected Savior, This joy that Paul has as he writes this letter under his circumstances is the difference that the resurrection of Jesus makes in the life of a believer. What does it matter that Jesus not only died, but was raised on the third day? He takes up that argument in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul does. when he's battling against those who are teaching that there is no resurrection from the dead. And he says this, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." And then he adds this capstone, "...if in Christ we have hoped only for this life, we are of all men most to be pitied." You can see the direct practical application that Paul makes for the importance of the resurrection of Christ. He says, if Christ hasn't been raised, then we as Christians should be of all men most to be pitied. Why? Why would Paul say such a thing about himself? Because in the service of Jesus, and for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of his witness to the lost, he has chosen a life of suffering. And he has done it on the basis that Jesus is who He said He is, and did what He said He did. That is how Paul lived his life. And so Paul comes to the conclusion that if it is true that Christ has not been raised, I am of all men most to be pitied, for I have hoped in Him only for this life. And his life, as you know, is a life of suffering. Chosen suffering. for the sake of Christ. We'll see later in chapter 3 of Philippians that he considered all that he had once held as gain as loss for the sake of Christ. He considers it all rubbish in order that he might gain Christ. That's how important Christ was to Paul. He has suffered the loss of all things. That's the importance of the resurrection, and that's the immediate practical nature of the resurrection. It's true. Jesus is alive, and because He's alive, we can live this life without fear of death. We can make hard choices in this life for the sake of the gospel and for the good of the church without fear of death. For our Savior has risen and defeated and conquered death, the devil, and the grave. The first mark that we see of his joy is his joy in the church at Philippi. Paul started many of his letters this way. You know this, his joy with the church. He even tells the Thessalonians that they are his hope, his joy, his crown of boasting before the Lord in the day of the Lord. It's a wonderful mark of high praise. And this church in Philippi, although not perfect, is a mark of joy for Paul. So what does Paul rejoice about over them? Just to outline these eight or nine verses, we won't get to all of them today, but just to give you a quick outline of them, he has joy over their common partnership, joy over their common salvation, joy over their common affection, joy over their common sanctification, and ultimately joy over their common glorification. Those are the marks that he points out as he thinks about them. Like I said, we won't get to all of these marks this week. We'll take them bit by bit because as we look at these, we will see the marks, the characteristics of joy for the believer, true joy in the Lord. What does it produce? So first we see His joy over their common partnership. I thank my God in all my remembrance of You, always in every prayer of mine for You, making my prayer with joy because of Your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. He says first that He remembers them in their partnership. He remembers them in their partnership. In all my remembrance, what do you think He remembers as He thinks about this church in Philippi? We looked at the history of the founding of the church in Philippi last week as we introduced this letter. Perhaps as he thought back about this church in Philippi, he thought about Lydia who he had met at the riverbed. You remember when he went out there because there wasn't a synagogue. Apparently there wasn't enough Jews to create a synagogue. And so he goes out there on the day of prayer and he meets Lydia. Preaches the Gospel to her. She becomes converted in Acts chapter 16. Maybe he thought about Lydia. In his mind was the slave girl who had a demon whom he had forced out, removed from her. That caused the whole uproar in the town that caused him to be arrested and mistreated. Maybe in his mind were the events while he and Silas were put into prison. And you remember the miracle that happened and the ground shaking and then the Philippian jailer thought that he was going to die and almost ran himself through because he knew that the prisoners had escaped. And he goes in there and they're all still there. And he preaches the gospel to the Philippian jailer and he is converted. All these extraordinary circumstances surrounding the founding of that church. And what's not on his mind as he thinks about this church in Philippi? Apparently, as he thinks about his joy in this church, what's not on his mind is his gross mistreatment he received while he was in the city. Once again, Acts 16, he's illegally arrested, he is beaten, he is thrown into prison, he is locked in chains, he is humiliated in front of the whole town because of what happened with the slave girl. You remember they suddenly lost their trade when she's converted. At the same time, he writes this letter. Once again, he's in chains. He's under lock and key. But when he thinks about Philippi, those aren't the kinds of things that he dwells on and lingers over. What comes to his mind are the believers in this church and in this town. That's what he thinks about. That's what he finds joy in. It's such a selfless and wonderful testimony to what true joy in the Lord produces. So Paul said, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Who does he thank? He thanks God. He doesn't say, oh wonderful Philippians, I'm so thankful that you are what you are, and I'm so thankful that you do what you do, and you live like you live. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. What's at the bottom of the joy for Paul as he thinks about the church and the churches that he writes to? The foundation of his joy is his joy in the Lord. Paul doesn't find the source of his joy in people, necessarily. And he doesn't find the source of his joy in his circumstances or in their circumstances. The source of his joy is in God Himself. People can change. Circumstances can change. If you find your joy in people as the source of your happiness and your joy, or if you find circumstances in life as the source of your happiness and your joy, they will let you down. This world cannot hold up the weight of your desire for happiness. It will eventually fall. It will eventually buckle. and it will eventually come crashing down. And then you will find out what your true treasure is, what your true joy is. For Paul, the source of his joy was God and God alone. And so he thanks God for them. In fact, this brings up another point. You remember the miraculous way in which Paul even wound up in Philippi back in Acts chapter 16? They went through the region of Galatia because they were forbidden by the Spirit to speak the Word in Asia. And they attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. And so they went down to Troas, verse 8 and verse 9. Paul has a vision. A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. Once he saw the vision, they left. They went to Macedonia. And they wind up in verse 12 in Philippi, leading city of the district of Macedonia. Even Paul's arrival in Philippi is an amazing act of supernatural providence and guidance from the Spirit of God Himself. Paul had no plans to go to Macedonia. He had no plans to wind up in Philippi, and yet he was led to go there. And so he remembers all of them at that church, and he remembers all of the circumstances surrounding his arrival in Philippi, and he remembers all of the circumstances surrounding what happened once he got there. And he says, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you. I wonder how much we remember to thank God for our church, for the fellowship that we have here. It is an immense grace that we are here together. He has brought us together by His own sovereign will and for His own sovereign purposes. You know, too many times, many in the church, not necessarily this church, but you hear people talk, you know, and they look out and they see this over here, that over there, they see churches elsewhere, perhaps in the United States, and we tend to wish, right? The grass is always greener on the other side, and we wish we had this, or we wish we had that. We wish we had this aspect or that aspect. It is an immense mercy and privilege and grace that we have what we have here. Don't ever look down upon your church family, your church. Just be thankful to God that we have each other. So He remembers them in their partnership. What else does He say? Not only does He remember them in their partnership, He says, "...always in every prayer of Mine for you all, making My prayer with joy." His joy in God for them and His thankfulness to God for them not only increases in prayers of gratitude to God for them, it increases in prayers of intercession for them. He not only thanks God for them, He prays for them. He not only expresses gratitude for them, He intercedes for them. He remembers them in their partnership and He prays for them in their partnership with Him in the Gospel. It is one of the great privileges, duties, responsibilities, mercies, blessings that we have, one of the great joys that we have as believers to pray for each other. He's going to tell them later in chapter 3 verse 13, "...brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." You know, part of imitating Paul would be to be a person who prays for the church. Paul talks about his prayers for the church everywhere. It is amazing to me how much Paul talks about his prayers for the churches. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he says, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 1, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Colossians 1.3, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you. 1 Thessalonians 1.2, we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers. Ephesians 1.16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. He even expresses personal gratitude in his prayers for his co-workers Philemon and Timothy in his letters to and about them. He's always talking about his prayer. If we're honest, we struggle to remember to pray. in general, and we struggle to remember to pray for our friends and the people in our church family, those right here in this congregation. But Paul's ministry is one that is saturated in prayer, not just for one fellowship of believers, mind you, but it's saturated in prayer for an entire list of them. In fact, at the long list of his sufferings that he records in Corinthians chapter 11, And he says, on top of all this, there is my constant struggle for the churches. On top of all that he has dealt with in his long list of struggles, he says, there is my constant anxiety for the churches. It really boggles my mind when I think about how much Paul must have prayed. to pray like this for all of these churches all the time. And that's what he says, making my prayer for you all, all the time. Every time I pray, I pray this. How long were this man's prayers? And how much did he pray? He prayed for the church and so should we. You know, your joy in God is directly connected to your prayer life. They are proportional to each other. As one wanes, so does the other, and vice versa. That's how Jesus talked about prayer. In John 16, verse 23, He said, In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Asking things of the Father in the name of Christ is directly connected to the fullness of your joy. Your prayer life is directly connected to your joy in God. True joy in the Lord produces prayerfulness toward Him, and prayerfulness toward Him increases our joy. Which is why a lack of prayerfulness is a sign of pride. or envy, or malice, or selfishness. Because at the bottom, prayer is a selfless act, not a selfish act. You say, well, what about when we pray for ourselves? Well, in a very real sense, if you're doing it right, it's still a selfless act because to go to God with your own cares and worries and prayers and supplications is to admit that you don't have control over them. and to admit your dependency upon God. That is what we do in prayer. We go to Him. We pray to Him. We bring the cares of this world, the cares in our minds, the cares in our bodies, the cares in our hearts, our families to Him. We relinquish control to Him. So He remembers them in their partnership and He is filled with joyful gratitude. He prays for them in their partnership as He is filled with joyful gratitude. And finally, and this is sort of implied in that word for partnership, he joyfully participates in their partnership. He remembers them in their partnership, he prays for them in their partnership, and he participates with them in their partnership as he is filled with joyful gratitude for them. Because, verse five, of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Partnership is literally a participation. It's a communion. It's a fellowship in the Gospel. The blood of Christ binds all of us together in the harmony of the Gospel. That's the point. What does this partnership look like? What does this coming together and communing and fellowshipping together look like? Well, you don't have to go far out of Philippians to find the answer. He's going to say in chapter 2, verses 3-5, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. and came in the form of a servant. Literally, it's made Himself of nothing and came in the form of a servant. And Jesus has told His disciples what? I did not come to be served, but to serve. He did not come to demand, He came to do for you. He came to be your atoning work. He came to serve us as sinners. The blood of Christ binds us together in the harmony of the gospel. It binds us together in brotherly love. It is that which unifies us. 1 John 1.7, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. In the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. We have fellowship with one another and His blood cleanses us from all sin. Ephesians 2, 19 and 20. Since then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also were being knit together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Hebrews 3.14, for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. We are one, united together as we are united with Christ. One church in unity and love. What a joyful thought it is for me to remember that we are not in this thing alone, we stand together. We are not struggling through life alone. We are not struggling through the Christian life alone. We are not battling through our war with sin alone. We have each other to lean on, to edify each other, to build each other up, to cry with each other, and to laugh with each other, to celebrate with each other, and to mourn with each other. The church isn't just something that happens here on Sundays. The church happens on Mondays, and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. as we live life together in the fellowship of the Gospel. How many times has this been made manifest in this church? More times than I can count. And may that continue on until Christ returns and takes us home. And I keep saying, in the Gospel, in Christ. What is it that unifies us? What is it that unites us? It's the Gospel. It's the truth. You know, one of the prevailing philosophies of our day is unity for the sake of unity. Unification for the sake of unification. Be united at all costs. But that is not the demand of Christ. The church is to be united, but it is to be united in the truth of Christ. Jesus prayed this for us, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in the truth. I do not ask for these only, that's the apostles, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. so that the world may believe that You have sent Me, the glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them, You in Me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me." You see what He's saying? The same unity that binds the Son and the Spirit and the Father together in the Trinity is the unity that He calls us for. And they are not unified for the sake of unity. They are unified for the sake of their truth. And so too are we. in His church. He had just told the Jews, by the way, in John 8, if you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples and you will know what? The truth. And the truth will set you free. And I am the way and the truth and the life. John 14, 6. So we partner together, we participate together in the Gospel. In the truth. partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, he says. He's thankful that God began this work, both in his acts of providence for Paul to wind up in Philippi. He's thankful to God for the miraculous circumstances surrounding the founding of the church at Philippi. He began this work, and he's thankful that God is completing this work from the first day until now. And as I already read, He goes on to say in verse 6, I'm sure of this, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. They're keeping the faith. They're persevering. They're continuing to fight. You remember the situation Paul left the church in. It's not like when Paul left town, suddenly everything was A-OK at the church. You know, it's easy to forget that because the focus of the book of Acts is on the apostles and their journeys. But you know, when they would leave town under persecution, it's not like the church that got left there was all of a sudden in pristine circumstances. They're still in a town that had persecuted the apostles that founded the church. There's still animosity toward Christianity. Christianity at this time is being marginalized and persecuted and it on top of that. It's a fledgling movement. It's a new movement It's just beginning But it's beginning in the power and in the joy of the spirit and they are remaining steadfast even in the midst of it We're talking in Sunday school this morning about the fact that Even amongst the massive persecution in the early church and what the early Christians went through under the Roman government, the church continued to flourish. The church continued to grow. The church continued to remain strong. Even in a situation where to identify with the church and to identify with Christ meant laying your life on the line. Not just in some theoretical way, but in a very real way. And it still flourished. Why? Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not the power of men. So He's joyful for them as He thinks of their partnership with Him. And as He thinks of their partnership, He remembers them in their partnership. He prays for them in their partnership, and He participates with them in their partnership. This is wonderful to me, the thought of remembering each other, praying for each other, and participating together in this partnership in the gospel. Such wonderful truths and reminders to us of what joy in the Lord produces among the people of God. So we got through verse five, and we'll pick up there next week as we continue to look at these marks, these characteristics of true joy in the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we pray that You would make us this kind of people. We pray that we would be a people that work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. We know that we can't do this alone. This is not a work of the flesh, but a work of the Spirit. So would You move in power in our hearts, in our minds. Make us people of the Word. Make us people under the Lordship of Christ. Help us to see what it means to be joyful in the Lord. And find our joy only in Christ. In all this we ask in His precious name, Amen.