The Epistle of Joy
Philippians 1:1-2
This morning we embark upon a wonderful new experience
spiritually as the Lord speaks to us through Paul's letter to the Philippians. I trust that you have your Bible with you and that you will open it to the first chapter. And this morning it's my desire to introduce to you this marvelous marvelous epistle.
Let me read you verses 1 and 2 just as a starting point as we endeavor to introduce Paul's letter. "Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
As we approach this epistle which I've entitled the "Epistle of Joy," I trust and I pray that God is going to shape our hearts and our lives and our attitudes through this experience. Four brief chapters, the theme of these chapters is joy, Paul mentions it at least 16 times in these four chapters. He also mentions Christ 50 times. And that is because his joy is found in Christ and so is our joy.
We live in a somewhat sad world, a world that knows despair, depression, unfulfillment, dissatisfaction, longing for things that never come to pass. It's kind of a sad reality with an even sadder future because we have a world of sadness with no hope that anything should necessarily change. The long years of life inevitably become long years of sorrow punctuated by moments of happiness which moments become less and less frequent as aging takes place. And that's probably why the highest percentage rate of suicide is among those who are over 65, as the length of years and the decreasing moments of happiness bring about a morbid sadness and lack of satisfaction with life.
Men talk about happiness and perhaps we ought to define happiness, at least in a very simple way, happiness is an attitude of satisfaction or delight based upon some present circumstance. Happiness is related to happenings. Happiness is related to happenstance. Happiness is related to hap which is a word that basically conveys the idea of chance. Happiness is that which you really can't plan and program, it may happen, it may not happen and it seems so elusive. But it is related to the delight or the satisfaction that is tied to an occasional happening, a chance circumstance. And that's the best that men can do.
On the other hand, when we talk about joy we're not talking about something that's related to chance at all. We're not talking about something that's related to circumstances at all. We're talking about a deep down confidence that all is well, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what the difficulty, no matter what the problem. And that's very different from happiness. Joy, to be understood in a biblical sense, must be understood to be related to God. It must be understood to be that which becomes yours in Christ. It must be understood to be a permanent possession of every believer, not some whimsical delight that comes and goes as chance may offer it opportunity. We're talking about joy, much much different than happiness.
My favorite definition of joy is this...joy is the flag that flies on the castle of the heart when the King is in residence there. Joy is the flag that flies on the castle of the heart when the King is in residence there. I love that and that's really it. And I believe that only Christians know true and lasting joy. The verb "to rejoice" appears 74 times in the New Testament. The noun "joy" appears 59 times in the New Testament. It's part and parcel of Christian experience.
If I may in a few moments I would like to give you a theology of joy. I'm going to start with a sentence and and keep adding to that sentence until it becomes a composite theology of joy. First of all, Joy comes from God. It is a gift of God. In Psalm 4 verses 7 and 8 it says, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart for Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me dwell in safety." And the psalmist is saying, "You give me gladness, You give me joy because of my relationship of security with You." And that we read in Psalm 16:11 should be added to that in Psalm 4, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy." God is the source of joy. So we begin our theology of joy by saying, "Joy is a gift from God."
Now let me add to that. Joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel. Joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel. On that marvelous day in the Galilean countryside when the angel appeared to announce the arrival of the birth of a Savior, the angel said, "Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people, for today in the city of David there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord." It is the gospel that brings that joy or that conveys that joy to the human heart. Joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John's wonderful gospel record in chapter 15 he says in verse 11, "These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full." Christ came to proclaim a gospel that would give men joy.
So, joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel. Let me add another part to that sentence. Joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel being produced in them by the Holy Spirit...being produced in them by the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 14 there's a wonderful little phrase that I think perhaps you have read but maybe not grasped. It says in verse 17 of Romans 14 that the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And Galatians 5:22 says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy..." So joy is a gift from God to those who believe being produced in them by the Holy Spirit. The resident Spirit brings to the heart righteousness, peace and joy.
Let me add a further element to our sentence. True joy is a gift from God that comes to those who believe the gospel being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as the believer receives and obeys the Word...as the believer receives and obeys the Word. Jeremiah 15:16, "Thy words were found and I did eat them and Thy word was in me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart." And on the road to Emmaus the disciples with Jesus said to themselves, "Did not our hearts burn within us an expression of joy while He talked with us, giving us His Word, teaching of us Himself out of the scriptures." And 1 John 1:4 says, "These things I write unto you that your joy may be full. "When you receive this word and apply this word, you experience full joy.
So the true joy that the believer knows is a gift from God to those who believe, being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Word. Let me add another thought. True joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they believe and receive the Word, or receive and apply it, and it is mixed with trials...being mixed with trials. A very important element, very important. You will never experience the reality of true joy unless it is made very clear by contrast to trials. It is, in a very real sense, known only by its contrast, sadness, sorrow, difficulty. First Thessalonians 1:6 says, "You also became imitators of us and of the Lord...listen to this...having received the Word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit." That sums it all up. The Holy Spirit, the Tribulation, the Word, the joy.
In 2 Corinthians, you remember chapter 6 and verse 10, "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing." In other words, you're going through sorrowful circumstances but always rejoicing. Do you remember the words of James in chapter 1 verse 2, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." And the words of Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, "In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.
True joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Scripture being mixed with various trials. And one final thought in our little theology. True joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Word, mixed with trials and set their hope on future glory...and set their hope on future glory.
We are, according to Romans 12:12, to be rejoicing in hope. First Peter chapter 4 and verse 13 says, "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation." In other words, endure with joy now because you know the joy that is to come. And Jude 24 says, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy." That's the believer's joy. That's the theology of joy. It is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel being produced in the them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Scripture being mixed with trails and set their hope and their heart on future glory. That's the theology of joy in a sentence.
Peter sums it up rather magnificently, I think, in 1 Peter 1:8, "And though you have not seen Him...that is Christ...you love Him, and though you do not see Him now but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." And Peter is writing to persecuted Christians, as we shall see tonight. But you rejoice with joy inexpressible because your joy is a gift from God being produced by the Spirit as you respond to the Word, mixed with trials and set your affection on future glory.
This is the theme of this marvelous little letter...the believer's joy. It is the epistle of joy. Paul is writing it to the Philippians. He loves the Philippians and they love him. In fact, it's my personal conviction that the love bond between Paul and the Philippians exceeded the love bond between he and any other of the churches. There was something so deep and so special about their love relationship that in the situation he is in as a prisoner, and he mentions his imprisonment four times in chapter 1, he is basically writing to the Philippians because he's concerned about their sorrow. There are other things he's concerned about. He's concerned about their unity. He's concerned about their faithfulness. He's concerned about a lot of things that come through the letter. But from the relational viewpoint, his deep concern is that these people who love him so much will be sad because he's a prisoner. They will be sad because of his circumstances. They will be sad because of his deprivation. They will be sad because of the portend of the loss of his life. And he writes to say to them, in effect, "Look, I rejoice so don't you do any less." And thus the epistle is intended to convey the joy of its author.
Let's begin by just looking at that introduction and we're not going to dig deeply and profoundly into the text itself, it's such a simple text. But I would like to give you some background that I think will make this beautiful epistle so real to you. Three things to notice in the first two verses: the servants, the saints and the salutation. The servants and the saints are in verse 1, the salutation in verse 2. Let's start with the servants. "Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus."
We hardly need to say anything about that. We all know Paul. We all know Timothy. We all understand what it is to be a bond servant of Christ Jesus. But let me just touch lightly on the servants. Paul, the beloved Apostle, Paul converted on the Damascus Road, Paul the most noble servant of Christ the world has ever known, Paul that remarkable man that God's Spirit has used to write 13 of the epistles of the New Testament, Paul who becomes the model and the example for every Christian, he is the author.
Perhaps the most concise description of Paul anywhere is given right in this letter. If you look at chapter 3 for a moment, I draw your attention to verse 4. In verse 4, "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh...he says, relating himself to some whose confidence is strictly in the flesh and not in the Lord, he says...if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more." If you're going to compare fleshly credentials, if you're going to put your confidence in your humanness, in your human credentials, he says, here are mine, verse 5, "I was circumcised the eighth day," that is the prescribed pattern for a Jewish boy, "of the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the noble tribes, a Hebrew of Hebrews." In other words, among my own peers I was esteemed as the epitome of what a Hebrew was and is. "As to the law, a Pharisee." Now those are some credentials. He had jumped through all of the hoops in Judaism...circumcised the eighth day, belonging to the nation of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, among the Hebrews esteemed to be a true Hebrew, a noble Hebrew, an exemplary Hebrew. As regards the law, he took that tack which was most zealous for the law and became a Pharisee.
Verse 6, "As to zeal, so zealous was I that I became a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless." His own peers, not God...his own peers found him blameless. They found him a man who lived according to the law, a man of tremendous integrity religiously, in his own system. "But...verse 7...whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." In those verses you have Paul...that's him...that's him.
He was a Jew. He was a zealous Jew. He was a legalistic Jew. He was a Pharisee. He kept the law as any man could keep the law. He was blameless among his peers. And he trashed all of those human credentials, counting them rubbish in order that he might gain Christ because in verse 9 he wanted to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. And so he gave himself to Christ. That's Paul. And then he spent the rest of his life proclaiming that. That's Paul.
What about Timothy? Timothy was Paul's son in the faith, introduced to him as recorded in Acts chapter 16 when Paul visited Derbe and Lystra in the area around Galatia. He found this young man, took him as his protege, trained him, taught him. He became a real son to Paul. Timothy was his dear companion, the one to whom he would really give the legacy of future ministry when he left this world. We know Timothy. We have spent three years with him in 1 and 2 Timothy, so we won't belabor the issue. By the way, those two letters we have just studied were written only a couple of years after Philippians. This was written during Paul's first Roman imprisonment. First Timothy was written after his release and 2 Timothy was written during his second and last imprisonment, just a few years after this.
but again, if we want just a brief introduction of Timothy, we find a very wonderful one in this very epistle, chapter 2 verse 19. Here Paul introduces us to Timothy in a concise way. We find out really all we need to know about him. "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition." Timothy's going to come and he's going to find out what's going on with you and he's going to encourage me when he tells me. Timothy's my messenger. And the reason I'm sending him, and here we find a little about Timothy, verse 20, "I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare." He's a clone. There's no one like him. His heart beats with my heart. His blood flows with my blood. And I'm sending him because he's of kindred spirit with me. Not only that, he's genuinely concerned about you. He's compassionately concerned about you. And that is because obviously he was there when the church in Philippi was begun. He was there. He was on that second missionary journey. And he had made a couple of other visits back. And there was a bond between himself and them as well. He said in verse 21, "They all seek after their own interest, not those of Christ Jesus." What a tragic thought that is. Here's the Apostle Paul saying I don't have anybody to send but Timothy because all the other people around me seek their own interests. Timothy's the only one who has my heart...what a treasure. I'm sending him.
And I hope, he says in verse 23, to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me. And I trust in the Lord that I myself also shall be coming shortly. All you need to know about Timothy is that when Paul looked around and saw who was around him, he said he's the only one who is of kindred spirit. He's the only one whose heart beats with my heart. He's the only one like me. He's the only one I can send. That will tell you about Timothy.
Did Timothy co-author Philippians? No. The implication here is not Paul and Timothy as writers, but Paul and Timothy as bond servants in Christ Jesus who are together while Paul is writing. You say, "How do you know that?" Because starting in verse 3 all the pronouns are first person singular. It's never "we," it's always "I." I...my...my...in verse 3, my in verse 4, I in verse 12...it's that way all the way through. Paul is the author, Timothy is the companion.
Well why does he add Timothy's name? Is it important that he add the name of Timothy? Yes. It's important because of several things. One, Timothy was well known to the Philippians and well beloved by the Philippians. As I said, he was there when the church was started in Acts 16, it was the same chapter of Timothy's coming with Paul. Timothy comes with him in verses 1 to 3 and by the time you're in to verse 11 they're at Philippi and the church is born. So Philip...the Philippian Christians knew Timothy from the very very beginning.
Furthermore, since Paul was going to send Timothy and wanted Timothy to receive the best reception, he includes Timothy as a true co-worker by including him in the opening greeting. He is a true co-worker of the Apostle. And later on he expands it even more when he says he's the only one who has a kindred spirit with me.
And thirdly, it is very possible as well that Timothy is the secretary to whom Paul dictated Philippians. We know that Paul dictated his letters. Oh, there were occasions when he wrote but many of the letters we know were dictated. For example, I don't know if you remember reading in Romans chapter 16, right at the very end of the chapter, verse 22 it says, "I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord." That doesn't mean Tertius was the author. Verse 1 of Romans chapter 1 says Paul was the author, Tertius was the secretary, the amanuensis who wrote it down. In 1 Corinthians 16:21, Paul closes out by saying, "This greeting is in my own hand...Paul." In other words, somebody else wrote all this as I dictated it, but I'm signing my own name at the end. He does the same thing in Colossians 4:18, in Galatians 6:11 and in 2 Thessalonians 3:17. So it was customary for Paul to dictate. It may well have been that Timothy was the secretary.
He was his companion. He wanted them in Philippi to know he was esteemed as a co-worker so that when he came they would accept him as such. And surely they would because of the love bond that already existed but this just reinforces that. And perhaps he was the one who wrote down what Paul dictated. Timothy had become a vital part of Paul's life, serving alongside of him for years. And now he is available to Paul. Paul is a prisoner. He is in prison. He mentions it four times in chapter 1. Timothy is not a prisoner, as far as we know. But Timothy is able to come and see Paul, work alongside and help Paul. The nature of his imprisonment allowed him that privilege.
Notice the title that Paul chooses for the two of them. "Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus." That title, by the way, is used by James, James 1:1; by Peter, 2 Peter 1:1; and by Jude in verse 1. So the writers of Scripture love to call themselves bond slaves of Christ. The term doulos conveys the idea of ownership, possession, allegiance, a dependence, subjection, loyalty, all that we think a bond slave would convey. It emphasizes, however, something you might not grasp and that is willing service. Can you grab that thought? Willing service. We think of slave in the English language, we think of forced behavior, unwilling duty, abusive subjection, but that's not the idea. A bond slave was a slave bonded to the individual. And it was often the case that that bonding was out of affection and love and a sense of esteem, not some kind of abject fear. For example, do you remember in Exodus chapter 21 verse 5 that the law of God provided for a slave who wanted to permanently bond himself to his master? Many of the slaves in the ancient nation of Israel loved their masters deeply and dearly. And as a result, they wanted to serve their master for life. If a slave so desired he would go to his master and say, "I want to serve you for life." And the master would then follow the law of God which said, "Take your slave to the door, pull his ear lobe and drive a spike or an awl through his ear. And the piercing of the ear and the hole in the ear will be the signal and symbol to all who see him that this man is a slave out of love, this is a servant of love who has chosen a life-long bonding to some he longs to serve."
Notice, please, bond servants of Christ Jesus...that was always Paul's focus. His service was always to Christ...always to Christ. He was not a bond servant of the church. He was not a bond servant of the leaders of the church. He was not a bond servant of Rome, even though he was a prisoner of Rome, he was a bond servant of Christ Jesus...always connecting his life to Christ. And that is a ministerial perception that is absolutely necessary for anyone who serves the Lord. If you attach yourself to people, they will disappoint you. If you attach yourself to the church, they will disappoint you in the church. If you attach yourself to the Lord, you will never be disappointed. If you decide to evaluate your ministry on the basis of the opinion of people, you will go astray. On the basis of the opinion or success of the church, you will go astray. But if you choose to evaluate your life and ministry between you and the Lord, you will never go astray because you will always know where you stand. Service to Christ is the perfect freedom. Service to Christ is the perfect freedom. Paul says in verse 7, "In my imprisonment," he says in verse 13, "my imprisonment," verse 14, "my imprisonment," verse 17, "my imprisonment," or my chains, or my bonds.
But in spite of all of this he was not the slave of Rome. He was the servant of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ who would meet all his needs. It was Jesus Christ who would choose all his duties, like 2 Samuel 15:15 where it says so beautifully, "Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my Lord the King shall appoint." It was Jesus Christ who would provide all his needs, who said, "My grace is sufficient for you," he served Jesus Christ.
Now he was a prisoner at this time. And during this imprisonment he wrote four epistles. We know them as the "prison epistles." They're called that because obviously they were written from prison. They are Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, that little letter. If you read Philippians he says he's in prison. If you read Ephesians he says he's in prison. If you read Colossians he says he's in prison. If you read Philemon he says he's in prison. We have no difficulty discerning where he is when he writes...four letters.
Now some have suggested that he may have been in prison in Ephesus, that really doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Others say he may have been in prison in Caesarea. That doesn't stand up to scrutiny, I don't think, as well. It is best to see him as in prison in Rome when he writes all four of these. Why Rome? Chapter 1 verse 13 mentions the whole praetorian guard which would best be suited to the situation in Rome rather than Ephesus or Caesarea. And then in chapter 4 verse 22, "All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household," would also best be sui