NT Survey - Philippians, Jesus, Others, You
As we have looked at the books of the New Testament so far, we have seen some of the great doctrinal books. Romans and justification by faith, Galatians and how salvation cannot depend on our work and cannot be lost by our sin, Colossians and the supremacy of Christ, Hebrews and the fulfillment of Judaism, 1 John and the love of God. We have also examined some great books for our Christian attitude and practice such as 1 Peter and the nature of suffering, 2 Peter and false teachers, 2 John and our Christian inheritance, 3 John dealing with criticism, 1 and 2 Corinthians dealing with Christian maturity, 1 Timothy and our Christian battle, 2 Timothy and staying faithful, Titus and establishing the order and purpose of the church...
Philippians is another great book dealing with our Christian experience. Although it has some great doctrinal statements, which I love to preach individually, it is more known for something everyone wishes they could have in this life. It is most known for being about being a joyful Christian.
1. The difference between happiness and joy.
Paul sprinkled his letter to the Philippians with joy. He had good reason to remember them joyfully. Philippi was the first mission effort that reached Europe. Although Paul was thrown in prison there for preaching the Gospel, he had had a wonderful witnessing moment there. While they were singing in prison with joy, God sent a great earthquake that shook sense into the prison keeper who got saved with all his house.
Phil 1:3-4 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,
Phil 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Phil 1:23-26 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
26That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
Phil 2:1-2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Phil 2:17-18 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
18For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
Phil 2:28 I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, that I may be the less sorrowful.
Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
I am reminded of Fiddler on the Roof and the constant search for some sense of contentment and happiness.
Mordcha: If the rich could hire others to die for them, we, the poor, would all make a nice living.
Motel Kamzoil: Even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness!
I am also reminded of a lot of people who use the pursuit of happiness to excuse their sin. "I deserve to be happy." No, we deserve to be in Hell. If we got what we truly deserved as sinners. One of my favorite quotes is from Joe Theismann, the former quarterback and later ESPN commentator. In divorce court his wife said she asked him why he had had an affair and he explained, "God wants Joe Theismann to be happy." (http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/joe-theismann)
However, Philippians is about joy, not happiness. There is a difference. A search on the internet you will find that even the world understands the difference.
Meaning:
Happiness is an emotion in which one experiences feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense pleasure.
Joy is a "state of being"..it could be connected to great or calm delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation. More permanent than happiness.
Causes:
External sources: Events, Feelings
Inward sources: Spiritual presence
Emotion:
outward expression of elation
inward peace and contentment
Time frame:
Momentary
Always
— http://www.diffen.com/difference/Happiness_vs_Joy
Example:
You would feel happy, for a while, if you had a new car.
You could have joy even while in a Nazi death camp.
Happiness depends on what happens to you. Joy is a well of life springing up from within.
2. Paul had plenty of reasons to not be happy, but he had joy anyway.
Philippians was written while Paul was in prison. He knew joy, even though what was happening to him was no cause for happiness.
a. People were trash-talking about him.
Phil 1:12-21 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
13So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
14And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
19For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
b. He would have like to gone to heaven right away.
Phil 1:22-26 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
26That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
c. There were false prophets to contend with.
Phil 3:1-7 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
2Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
d. He had been in poverty.
Phil 4:10-12 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.
11Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
12I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
3. How Paul achieved Joy.
There is a lot of advice that can be given about how to get joy, but I am going to look at the things that Paul mentions in Philippians.
While joy is probably the most often perspective people have on Philippians, when I teach from Philippians, I usually like to approach it from the perspective of unity. His joy was closely attached to the sense of unity in Christ he had with them and saw in them.
You can regularly find references in Christian writing to our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with God. The vertical is knowing God in us, the horizontal is knowing God in others. I always found that concept a little off somehow. Nancy and I were talking about it and she reminded me of something we learned one time about marriage. Married people sometimes have difficulty with reconciling their differences and getting close to each other. The problem is that they are trying too hard to get close to each other. Instead, they should be trying to get closer to God. As you get closer to God and converge on Him, you automatically get closer to each other. I had to laugh when my kids suggested that Nancy and I are so different from each other. I suppose we are, but my joy with Nancy is in being close to her in Christ.
a. Paul first had joy because of his unity with Christ.
Phil 3:4-10 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Phil 3:12-15 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
b. Paul had joy in the unity of his mission with the Philippians.
Phil 1:14-18 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Phil 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
c. Paul had joy in the unity of humility with the Philippians.
Phil 2:2-7 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
This list is not exhaustive, but you should be able to see that you cannot have joy by yourself. You might be alone in solitary confinement and have joy, but it only comes from your unity with Jesus Christ. We are blessed with Christ in our brothers and sisters around us, we need to pursue Christ in them if we want to maximize our joy.
We need unity, not union:
There can be union without unity: tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline.
— Source Unknown
There are two ways of being united -- one is by being frozen together, and the other is by being melted together. What Christians need is to be united in brotherly love, and then they may expect to have power.
— Moody's Anecdotes
We need unity, not stereotype by uniformity
Big hair, plastered smile, Stepford wives, always in church, not making a move without the permission of the cult leader, Kool aid drinking, stereotypes, denying anything fun, frumpy women, anti-science, Bible thumping, jargon spewing, booorn again.
We need the unity of harmony:
Harmony in music is a collection of melodies that work together.
We need the unity of mission:
The year was 1630. The place was the Massachusetts Bay along the Atlantic coast near the place known as Plymouth Rock. On board the ship the Arabella John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company challenged the Puritan settlers to establish a new kind of Christian community. Winthrop said: We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection. . ., we must delight in each other, make others’ condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. . ., our community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us. Winthrop knew that they were in this thing together; no one could go it alone.
1. The difference between happiness and joy. Phil 1:3-4, Phil 1:18, Phil 1:23-26, Phil 2:1-2, Phil 2:17-18, Phil 2:28, Phil 4:4
2. Paul had plenty of reasons to not be happy, but he had joy anyway. Phil 1:12-21, Phil 1:22-26, Phil 3:1-7, Phil 4:10-12
3. How Paul achieved Joy. Phil 3:4-10, Phil 3:12-15, Phil 1:14-18, Phil 2:2-7
