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The Fellowship of the King

Sunday, February 5, 2023
Pastor Jojo Ma

Weekly Bulletin | Worship Lyrics

Philippians 1:3-6

 

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul, writing from a prison cell in Rome, reminds the Philippians that their physical separation can’t dissolve their common passion and pursuit of knowing Christ and making him known. And as believers today, we share this same cause and this same fellowship, the fellowship in the gospel.

I.          A joyful remembrance [vv3-4]
II.        A joyful prayer [v4]
III.       A joyful partnership [v5]
IV.       A joyful confidence [v6]

I.         A joyful remembrance [vv3-4]
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.

One of the things I especially love about the apostle Paul is how he mostly gave thanks for people. You don’t find him in the New Testament often thanking God for his life circumstances or for material things. We mostly find him thanking God for believers, for people. He was a people-first person.

Tim Keller: “The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself.”

Would you ask God to make our hearts burn and yearn for one another more and more with praise, thanksgiving, and joy? Would you ask God to help you to think more about the people of this church and grow in your appreciation of them and affection for them? Would you petition the Lord for more self-forgetfulness like the apostle Paul?

II.        A joyful prayer [v4]
4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.

The apostle Paul joyfully prayed for all the saints at Philippi, the easy to love ones and the not so easy to love ones too. He knew they were all loved by God in Christ. This is the transforming power of the gospel.

Paul didn’t fiddle around much with “Who am I?” He asked something so much better: “Whose am I?” 

Biblical joy is not primarily an emotion or a mood or a feeling. Biblical joy is primarily an attitude and that is why the Bible can command you to be joyful.

III.      A joyful partnership [v5]
5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Phil 1:7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace.

Phil 2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit.

Phil 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

Phil 4:14-15 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.

5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

The truest form of Christian fellowship is one that involves a banding together for a glorious cause (the gospel) and sharing in troubles and sufferings on the journey. The “koinon” word group in Philippians is always associated with sacrifice and suffering, sticking together no matter what for the glory of Christ and his Kingdom.

Plant yourself and stay and love for as long as you can. You won’t find that by hopping around looking for good fellowship.

IV.       A joyful confidence [v6]
6 And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Rom 8:30 And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.

XVIII. Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints
All those whom God has regenerated, justified by faith and ingrafted into Christ through the Gospel, will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but will certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall into various instances of sin through neglect and temptation, and grieve the Holy Spirit, impair their fellowship with God and their sense of assurance, bring reproach on the church, and temporal correction on themselves, they will be renewed again unto repentance, restored into fellowship with God, and be kept by His preserving power unto salvation.

6 And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.