Philippians 1…

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Sunday April 27th of 2025.  We have a cool, crisp morning today with a high of 69 forecast.  It’s supposed to be sunny and breezy today.

The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We are to preach the Word.  We are to be ready in season and out of season.  We are to be hearers of the Word, to desire the pure milk of the Word with sincerity and then we are to be doers of the work.  We are to add to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge.  To knowledge patience and to patience perseverance.  These are all things one can consider and work on while chained in a jail cell.  Like Paul was while writing the letter to the Philippians.

Paul, for preaching the Word and being faithful to Jesus, had been put in prison.  We can read more about it in Acts 16.  Today, however, we’re going to be starting to take a look at Paul’s letter to the Philippians and we’re going to be doing it a little differently than we usually do.  We’re going to go through the text verse by verse and consider it as we do.  If we have not read through the entire letter yet, I encourage you to do so.

Without further ado…

Philippians 1: 1-11

“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace.  For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.  And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Paul begins his letter by identifying himself and Timothy as the authors.  He identifies himself as a bondservant.  The Greek word used is…

Doulos: (Greek)

- a slave (literally or figuratively, involuntarily or voluntarily; frequently therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency)

Before we go any further, let’s consider this a moment.  Do we identify ourselves as slaves to Jesus?

Something to think about.

Paul and Timothy are writing the letter to all the saints in Christ Jesus and Paul identifies the bishops and deacons as well.  Now the word used for bishop is…

Episkopos: (Greek)

- a superintendent, a Christian officer in general charge of a church.

And the word used for deacon is….

Diakonos: (Greek)

- a waiter, an attendant, specifically a Christian teacher and pastor, a deacon, minister, servant

Paul is thoroughly listing everyone who is in the church of Philippi from the lowest of the lowly saints to the overseers of the church which lets us know that they church was grown enough to the point that they had organized and had structure and were working together for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus.  And after he has listed all who are in the church, Paul greets them with Grace and Peace, not from himself, but instead he speaks on behalf of Jesus.  Paul is not afraid to speak on behalf of his Master.

Paul is a teacher of the Philippians, he is a founder of their church.  From the beginning of their fellowship to the current time where he is writing, he has been intimately involved in the founding, growing, building and equipping of the church and its members.  He gives thanks to God for the people of the church and he does so at every remembrance of them.  He prays for them.  He intercedes with Jesus for them.  He makes requests for them.

So.

Here comes our first question of the day.

How are we doing with praying for our church?

Do we give thanks for our church family every time we remember them?

Do we spend the time to remember our church family when we are not at church?

Paul and Timothy did.

It is specifically the fellowship of the church in the Gospel of Jesus that Paul gives thanks for.  And it is through this fellowship that Paul is comfortable stating that he is confident that Jesus had begun a good Work in the church of Philippi, in each of the faithful individually and as a church as a whole and that Jesus would continue to Work in them until the day of Jesus Christ.

It is the fellowship of his church members that give Paul comfort in his heart as he is chained for doing nothing other than preaching the Gospel.  Jesus will take our love, a fruit of The Spirit and a fruit of abiding in the Word of God, of following Jesus’ command to love one another, He will take that fruit and use it in ways that we may not even know as shown here by Paul.

Paul’s greeting continues with prayers and requests for the Philippians.  And they are specific prayers.  Paul prays for the love of the church at Philippi.  He prays for their love to abound even more.  He prays that their love will abound in knowledge and all discernment, that they would be able to approve things that are excellent.  That their faith would be sincere and without offense until Jesus returns.  Paul is talking about the knowledge of Jesus.  The word used for discernment is…

Aisthesis: (Greek)

- discernment or judgment

The word in English means…

Discernment: (noun)

- The quality of being able to comprehend what is obscure: skill in discerning

- An act of perceiving or discerning something

Love of Jesus leads to knowledge.  Knowledge leads to discernment.  Discernment leads to understanding.  And we are to take this love, we are to take this knowledge and we are to discern and approve, or bring attention to Jesus through them.  This was Paul’s prayer for the church.

Pretty big opening!

1 Peter 2: 1-5

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Paul lays the foundation of Jesus, His Grace, the joy of being in Christ and builds upon this foundation the fellowship of the church.  Paul’s confidence is found in Jesus and it is not found through a vague picture of a Savior, but instead of an intimate knowledge, and everyday knowledge, an understanding of Jesus.  Through His Word and through practice of the faith.

Ephesians 3: 1-7

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles- if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ, through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.”

Paul starts with who he is.  He anchors himself in Jesus.  He gives thanks and then he prays for the blessings of the church.  The next step Paul takes in our text is to inform the church at Philippi what has happened to him.

Philippians 1: 12-18

“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear.  Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.  What then?  Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”

Whatever we do we are to do in the Name of Jesus so that whatever we do furthers the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Even when we are imprisoned.  Sometimes when we are going through a difficult time and I think it’s fair to say that Paul’s imprisonment could be considered a difficult time, we never know how God is going to use that situation to glorify Himself.  Jesus took the chains of Paul, chains that were put on him wrongly, chains that were given to him because of faithfulness to Jesus and he used that situation to glorify His Name.  The whole palace guard were confronted with Jesus.  The prisoners with Paul were confronted with Jesus.  Because of Paul’s example even more brethren were confident to stand up and begin to preach Jesus and the Word.

Proverbs 3: 1-6

“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.  Let not mercy ad truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

So.

For today we’ve got a lot to think about.

Do we consider ourselves slaves to Jesus?  Have we considered what that means in our lives?

How are we doing in prayer?

Are we praying for our church and for the fellowship of our church family?

The good Work that Jesus has begun in us we can have confidence through our Scripture today that He will continue and complete.  What are we working on with Jesus today?

Do we have it planned out?

Are we praying about it?

And let’s not forget…

James 1: 2-8

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Rejoice!

Pray without cease.

In everything give thanks!

I think that’s a good place to start for the day.