What are YOU Praying for?

Philippians 1:3-11

I’m not really a collector or a saver – moving as often as we do, I know better than to try to save too much stuff. But one thing I do save – this I keep in a drawer in my desk, usually down to the left where it’s easy to access. It is a stack of letters, each of them encouraging. I am so encouraged when I see someone move from being a skeptic to a believer. I am so encouraged when I see someone who is a “pew sitter” become involved in ministry, sharing Jesus with others in real ways. As a pastor, part of the pain of moving is not getting to see the progress continue.

We are in our second week looking at Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, a letter most of us have come to know simply as “Philippians.” The church in Philippi was very special to Paul. It was during Paul’s second missionary journey when he met Timothy and invited him to come along with him. In Acts 16, we read that while they travelled, Paul had a vision in which a man from Macedonia begged him to come and help them. So Paul and his companions, including Timothy, Luke, and Silas, headed to Macedonia. Philippi was their second stop in the region of Macedonia. Acts 16:12 calls Philippi a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. This was an important city, a city where there was little to no Jewish presence. So Paul and his traveling companions met outside the city gate, down by the river, where some people gathered. This gathering proved to be the beginning of the Philippian church. So Paul had every reason to care deeply for the success of this church.

So when Paul writes to them, he is not just writing to address a problem. He is writing to encourage his friends. After the greeting, Paul continues with his prayer and thanksgiving.

I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

While Paul is writing to encourage the Philippian church, he makes it clear that they inspire and encourage him as well. The Philippians are not merely recipients of Paul’s ministry, but they are true partners in the gospel.

This partnership brings up the question: what is the gospel? Without a doubt, this is the most important question that you’ll ever be asked. What is the gospel?*

When Paul articulated the Gospel, he said, Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3). When we say “according to the scriptures,” this is significant, because it affirms that God had a plan. God set it up before it happened. It didn’t happen randomly or by chance; it was completely by God’s design. The Gospel starts out as a plan.

But the Gospel is also an event in history. Christ died for our sins. What happened on Easter is the Gospel. Jesus died for us. There was one actual event where this happened once and for all. The Gospel is also an achievement. Something significant happened when Jesus died for us, something was achieved for us that we could not do on our own, namely that our sins were paid for, that our punishment was cancelled and our guilt was wiped away.

Furthermore the gospel is extended to us in an offer that is free. If the offer isn’t free, then there is no gospel. If we have to work for it or if we have to pay for it, or, even if we can work for it or pay for it, it is not gospel. To add to that, if the gospel doesn’t change the recipient, it’s not gospel, either. We are forgiven and justified – made just as if I haven’t sinned. But this isn’t the whole gospel. We can have all of this – God has a plan, Jesus comes and dies for us, once and for all, and we receive the free offer of reconciliation, we’re forgiven, we escape Hell – but the final conclusion of the gospel is that all of this happens for a reason; it happens so we can have God. My forgiveness is not the goal. Justification is not the goal. Going to Heaven isn’t even the goal of the gospel. The end, the goal, is God Himself.

So the true joy that Paul is experiencing that he is so thankful for in the Philippian church is that they are true partners in the gospel – that they are doing their part to help others get to God. This is a good time to remind you that if you want to call yourself a Christian, you are involved in ministry. Period. There shouldn’t be people who week-in-week-out sit in the pews and get and never give. The word for someone like that is parasite. We are never called to be parasites; we are called to be “partners in the gospel.” If you’re not into that, I would suggest you reconsider what you’re calling yourself. Don’t get me wrong – salvation is free. It doesn’t depend on you or on what you’ve done or how hard you’re working. But if you call yourself a Christian and you’re not willing to share God with others, it makes me question how much you really love God. Jesus even says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

Now does this mean that you have to be the evangelism expert? No. But it means that you are doing your part. But guess what – it doesn’t depend on you. Because God’s got your back.  He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. This means that it is God who began the good work in you, and it is God who you can count on to carry it on to completion, and God will not let you down.

As Paul continues with his prayer and thanksgiving, he gives us the first indication of his own situation. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

When Paul says whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel he’s letting us know what he’s up to. He is in prison. Yet no matter what, he has the Philippian church in his heart – they are a constant encouragement to him.

In every church I’ve been in, there is a small group of people who are an encouragement to me. This week the other pastors in the ministerial association were teasing me about the Community Good Friday service; they joked that everything went well except for the preacher. I told them that the preacher had to deal with three rows of grumps right in the front row. Then I said, “No, really, it was very encouraging to have them up there, tracking with my message, nodding in agreement.” To which one joker said, “Are you sure that was agreement? It looked like nodding off to sleep to me!”

But the reality is that in every church I’ve served, I’ve had a few people who have been so encouraging to me, sometimes by offering response to the sermon – I usually know where I can look in the sanctuary to find that encouragement – but the best encouragement I get is when I see someone growing in Christ. When I see someone stepping out in faith, when I see people gathering together to study the Bible, when I see someone starting to take God’s Word seriously, when I see that spiritual growth that extends past spoon feeding and even after I leave. I am encouraged when people understand that my sermons are more than just me standing up and filling the rest of the church hour, but are designed to make us think about the Bible and about what God might be doing in our lives or where God might be challenging us or sanctifying us. That is what gives me encouragement.

And Paul is encouraged because the church in Philippi shares in God’s grace with him. If you’ve read ahead, you will find the “bookend” to this praise – in Philippians 4:18 and the verses around it, we find that one of Paul’s reasons for writing this letter was to thank the Philippians for the financial gift they sent him. If you know anything about prisons at that time, the prison wasn’t “three hots and a cot;” if you wanted to eat, you had to provide the food. If you ran out of money, you didn’t get fed. And so the gift from Philippi literally meant life to him.

So now we get to Paul’s prayer for the Philippian church: And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

Here is the format of his prayer: first we see the “what”: Paul prays for 1. their increasing love; 2. That their increasing love would be accompanied by knowledge and depth of insight; 3. Which would manifest itself in discernment; 4. That they will be filled with righteousness. The “why” is so they may be pure and blameless until Jesus returns. The “how” is that it will come through Jesus Christ, and the end result is that it will bring glory and praise to God.

When I was an associate pastor, our church had a cool partnership with a large African-American church in Columbus. We would do a pulpit switch during the evening, where we would have a combined service at one church or the other, and whoever was not hosting would preach. I never heard our preacher preach better than when he preached there! But when they were hosting, their pastor would get up before the offering and “say a few words.” Who are we kidding – he would preach a 15-20 minute sermon before the offering. Paul seems to be that kind of Apostle – he doesn’t just pray. This guy never wastes a word or a thought; he is always preaching. And you’ll find that every piece of this prayer gets repeated and filled out and explained later through this letter.

Paul sees their love for one another – he doesn’t have to admonish them to love; they already are – and he prays that their love will abound, more and more. This is God’s love he is talking about, not merely affection for one another, not just “we like the people here” but that God’s love will flourish. One reason the church is so important is because God invites into His church all kinds of people. You can probably find someone you don’t like right here in the church! Don’t look at them, they’ll know! But in this environment, you can learn to love.

Along with the ever increasing love, Paul prays that they will experience ever-increasing knowledge and wisdom. This isn’t just about getting more information; our culture gets so much information, like a blue whale eating. While a blue whale is the world’s largest mammal, it eats tiny little krill. The way they eat is to open their mouths, which can open up almost ten feet, and they suck in water. It can apparently take in up to 1100 pounds of food in a gulp. Now, there isn’t a blue whale in the entire ocean that says, “I only like certain krill. Some of them are too chewy or too hard or whatever.” Nope. They just suck them in and eat what gets caught.

Our culture is like that when it comes to information. And I know this because I read it on the internet, so it must be true. So this “knowledge gathering” comes with wisdom, and it’s specifically knowledge of God himself. Not just knowing about God, but knowing God personally, intimately. The reason God wants us to know him intimately is so we can discern what is best. As a Christian, there are things that matter and others do not, and there are good things that distract us from the best thing.

We’ll look in the upcoming weeks at what Paul was getting at for the Philippian church, but here, I wonder, what are some good things that can distract from the best thing? To ask that, we have to know what the best thing is, and to know that, we have to know God intimately. Now do you see what Paul is doing and why he is praying the way he is praying?

The reality is that Paul is praying that the Philippian church will be kept blameless and pure – in the face of struggles and persecution, even – until the day of Christ. That they will be filled with the fruit of righteousness, being in right relationship with God and bearing the fruit that comes from being in that relationship, and all to the glory of God.

This is the ultimate goal of everything; to bring God more praise and more glory. Just as Paul reminded the Philippians that the good work that God began in them was God’s doing and that God would complete it, now he prays for them, that the fruit of righteousness that comes from them loving more and knowing Him more intimately – that it would bring God glory.

This is my prayer for all of us as well. That we may abound in ever increasing love. This won’t happen just by trying harder to love the unlovely, but by allowing God to love them through us. That we may know Jesus more and more in knowledge and wisdom, so we can discern what is best – not just what is good – and so that God will keep us pure and blameless and in right relationship with Him, and that everything we do will bring glory and praise to God!

*The "what is the gospel" section of this message was inspired and adapted slightly from John Piper's message What is the Gospel.