You’ve been out all day. You left the house about 8:30 and now, at 5:45, you finally get back home. You’ve been working hard all that time, running here and there, and actually accomplishing quite a bit. You are feeling good about the day, but you are returning tired and hungry. You are hoping for a good meal. You are expecting a good meal, because Mom texted hours ago that she was preparing something special
Stepping in the door, how do you know that this meal is going to be delicious? The first bit of evidence is the wonderful aroma wafting from the kitchen. Even though there is a hint of something new in it, there is a lot of old familiarity to it as well. Besides the smell, experience tells you that mom has done it again, as she has a thousand other times. You have confidence in her cooking. Perhaps she says, as she has a hundred times, “I hope this is good,” you reply that you’re sure it will be. Furthermore, the dining room table has been set with the good china – this is unusual; this is special. And to top it all off, two of your friends are already there. This is going to be a good meal and a great evening.
In verse 6, Paul gives the Philippians one of his great stand-alone statements: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” God’s good work is the meal. It is hard to say that there has ever been a better meal. Paul was convinced that his friends in Philippi were going to feast on God’s blessings for eternity. He had reason to believe that these people were children of God. He was sure that the Lord would bless and preserve them until the day of Jesus Christ.
My interest this evening is not in that eternal meal or in the Lord’s preparation and preservation. I am going to save this verse for next Sunday, when, Lord willing, we’ll study it in our morning service. Tonight, I am more interested in the evidence that those brethren are going to enjoy this meal. It smells delicious; it promises to be special. The divine cook has been working hard to prepare it. He has gone to prepare a place for us. And He has never failed before to take care of His family members. But how did Paul KNOW these Philippians had been invited to the meal?
He says, “I am justified in believing that we are going to dine together on God’s eternal meal.” “It is ‘MEET’ for me… I am JUSTIFIED in expecting us to dine together.” But what EVIDENCE is there which gives the Apostle that eternal expectation? And turning that in our direction: what should be found in us that would give us confidence in being invited to this meal? Paul tells us that these Philippians filled his heart, especially when he considered three things about them.
First, they were PARTAKERS of his GRACE.
When Paul first came up and over the hill from Neapolis, he was carrying a precious cargo – the gospel of grace. He had a message to share with the nations, and this was a nation which had not heard it as yet. Without a synagogue in which to find some Jews, he heard about a prayer meeting down by river. After finding them, he shared with the women there that their Messiah had come. But it was not yet time to establish His Millennial kingdom… Christ, the Messiah had come to give His life as a ransom for their souls. He was at this point the Passover sacrifice; the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Since the Holy Spirit had already prepared the heart of one of those ladies, she joyfully responded to God’s invitation, humbly receiving the Saviour by faith. She and several others over the next few days became “partakers” of the same grace Paul had received.
The Greek word “partaker” is only used four times in the Bible. Beside “partaker” the only other way it is translated is “companion,” and that is in Revelation 1. “I John, who also am your brother, and COMPANION in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” It is probably only coincidental, but I think it is curious that when John uses this word he was in a similar situation to that of Paul. Paul had been in jail just before the revival erupted which produced the church in Philippi. And he was again incarcerated when he wrote this letter and spoke of “partakers” of this grace. When John used the word, he too was a prisoner, exiled to the Greek island of Patmos, because society didn’t like his preaching of God’s sovereign grace. “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.”
Even though Paul spoke of “MY grace,” it was not his by ownership or creation. It was his as a gift, just as it was the gift Lydia and the other Philippian believers had received. Grace is the unmerited gift of God, and Paul was certainly not worthy of that gift. None of us are. Paul recognized that his friends in Philippi had received God’s saving grace.
I believe God gives some people the blessing of special discernment. You probably know David’s son, Solomon, for several things. One of them was the wisdom with which the Lord blessed him. Early in his reign God visited him in a dream, and the Lord said, “Ask what I shall give thee.” Solomon acknowledged his inability to pastor the huge church (I mean nation) over which God placed him. “I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in.” “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” “And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.” “Behold, I have done according to thy words; lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart…”
I won’t say that every pastor has this same gift, and I can’t say that I have it to any great degree… But I will say that the Apostle Paul had it. He was convinced that those members in Philippi, whom he knew personally… He was sure that they were partakers and companions with him in the grace of God. He could sense through the ministry of the Spirit that these people were children of God as he was. And with that conviction, he was sure that the God who “had begun a good work in them would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
He was sure these people would feast on God’s eternal meal, because…
They were COMPANIONS in his BONDS.
“Companions with him in his prison cell?” Were they chained to prison walls as he had been in Philippi? Of course not.
I won’t try to tell you that Paul wasn’t thinking about his 6 by 10 room or the guards around him. He most definitely was, and he was probably praying and looking forward to the day of his release. And with every communication he received from Philippi, he was probably being told that the brethren there were praying as incessantly as he was for that day of freedom. And then as he tells us elsewhere, they were communicating once and again with financial and physical support. They were tied into Paul’s bonds even without the actual chains. And then there was that church member who had been the prison warden when Paul was there. More than any other member at Philippi, that man thought he knew what Paul was experiencing. And his heart ached for his friend and evangelist, even if his body didn’t.
But there were other ways in which those people identified with his bonds. Paul knew that he had been in the Philippian jail because it was God’s will that he and Silas be there. And their stay in that penitentiary palace resulted in the salvation of a family of idolaters. And once again, Paul knew that he was then in Rome because it was God’s will. Because he was “bound in the Spirit,” he was arrested in Jerusalem and sent in chains to Rome – Acts 20:22. Again there were people lead to Christ who humanly speaking would never have heard the gospel if he had not been there.
Paul called himself a “bond-slave of Christ;” and even a “prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.” In almost the same kind of language as here in Philippians, he wrote to the Ephesians: “For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye had heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is give to me to you-ward… that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs… of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” Paul describes himself as a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the ministry. Several times he said something like, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called…” – Ephesians 4:1 And to Philemon, he began his letter, “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ…” He wasn’t a prisoner of Rome. He was God’s prisoner.
This is something which shouldn’t be confined to apostles, or to this apostle in particular. When Paul referred to the Philippians’ fellowship and partaking in his bonds, wasn’t he was referring to the sense in which they were bond slaves to the Lord as well? I Corinthians 6 – “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
I know that it is difficult to grasp and even more difficult to live. But those Christians who are of most service to God, consider themselves to be His property. They are bound to God. They are like Barnabas, who sold all so he could be free to obey the Lord. True disciples are those people who have left all, taken up their cross and followed the Lord even into lion’s dens, fiery furnaces and prisons. As Eliezer was to Abraham, they are willing to do whatever the Lord would have them to do.
When Paul saw that his friends in Philippi were much like he was – a prisoner of Christ – he was confident they were going to be invited to the feast of God’s good work. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
To the mind of Paul, the third and fourth evidences that God was going to eternally bless these people was…
In the DEFENSE and CONFIRMATION of the gospel.
They were not of those Christians who accepted God’s forgiveness for their sins, then went on in on their way. They were partakers of the defense and propagation of the gospel. The word “defense” is “apologia,” which has been transliterated into English as “apology.” Sadly, today that word means: to regretfully admit to a mistake with a hint of a plea for forgiveness. But that was not the meaning when it was used in the Bible. In Paul’s day it meant the clearing away of confusion, objections and arguments. To him it was basis of “apologetics” – the systematic work of defending the truth of God, by way of a wise use of that truth.
When their Macedonian neighbors said that there was future-telling oracle down in Delphi, these brethren were quick to point out that only God’s prophets ever spoke with 100% accuracy. When the Asians cried out, “Great is the Goddess Diana,” these Christians took them to Jehovah the Creator. When they pointed to their philosophers, Paul’s friends pointed to God’s prophets: Moses, Abraham and David. When the secularists laughed at the idea of resurrection, they took them to the resurrection of Christ. They may not have had an answer for every false doctrine, but they shared what they knew. They were apologists, and it gave evidence of their new life in Christ.
And furthermore, the Philippian saints were busy in the work of confirming the gospel. They weren’t just its defenders, they were its proponents. They weren’t just tearing down the foolishness of the unbelievers, they were positive in their evangelism.
There are many differences between American football and what the world knows as “football.” One of those differences is that American players have to become proficient in either scoring or keeping their opponents from scoring. American football stars are good at either the offensive or defensive game. In soccer every player must work both sides of the ball. The same is true in just about every other sport – basketball, baseball, ping pong and chess. (Golf, of course, is not a sport).
These Philippians, as examples to us, were busy not only defending but dispensing the gospel. As I look around modern Christianity, I see that many popular leaders are proficient in only one of the two. We cannot afford to be evangelists alone. And we must not become entirely Pharisaical in our condemnation of heresy and the heretics. God wants us to be apologists AND evangelists.
Conclusion:
As Paul walked into the house of the Philippians, so to speak, he could smell the wonderful divine meal. By God’s grace he knew who he was before the Lord – a servant of Jesus Christ. And he knew with whom he was going to share that meal. He was “confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” He had that confidence because he could see the characteristics of true discipleship among the believers in Philippi.