Final Thoughts
Notes
Transcript
Notes:
Notes:
Major themes:
Introduction: Fundraising:
CARD WRITING:
Tough work! One thing I never did was this:
“I’m glad you supported me, although I really didn’t have need for it...”
In fact, I wasn’t even asking for gift!
It really wouldn’t matter if you supported this ministry or not. I’ll be happy either way.”
Signed, with Love,
Mark
Lymeyer: “A thankless thanks.”
NOT because he’s not thankful, but HOW he describes his thanks is just remarkable… Beautiful, even.
Hanson: “intriguing passage”
Gordon Fee: “Exquisite verses”
Proper ending to his letter, and all these these themes come together that show his deep affection for these Christian starting a church in Macedonia, and also his deep affection for the unity they have together in Christ.
The word ‘thank’ may not be in this passage, but it spews with thanksgiving!
What we’re going to… FOCUS ON THREE THEMES FROM THIS PASSAGE THAT SUMMARIZE THIS ENTIRE BOOK:
Joy in the Ups and Downs
1. Joy through the Ups and Downs
I rejoiced greatly
Purpose of Suffering
it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him (1:29).
How do we have joy in these circumstance? IT’S A LEARNED SKILL WITHIN SANCTIFICATION!
Content in ALL circumstances
vv. 11-13 “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content...I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all this through him who strengthens me.” Christ is enough!
Joy wasn’t that he received payment so much was that he was able to be joyful with or without it!
“Things” is not in the text”
Lit: “I can do all this through him who strengthens me.” NIV nails it!
“ALL”=All this is just as legitimate and makes a whole lot more sense.
“All this” Looks back to ‘to be content with whatever the circumstances.’ v.11
Learning=Process!
Learning the Secret Sauce
How could you learn the secret of contentment?
We are filled to the fill regardless of how much stuff we have or how much stuff we don’t have.
Story of Showing Moses Lowes
Trying to build their own house.
Payment for daily workers is $4. Pay for cooks. Pay to feed workers. Pay for guards.
Can’t just go and buy a 2x4. Pick up the wood, then go to the local sawyer to get the wood cut.
Took him to Costco: Salmon: This is what we’ll be looking at in heaven.
Looking at the meat: “This is how Americans buy their meat.”
So much abundance. “I hope you know how blessed you are!” Also, “I hope they know how much temptation is around them.”
“You have given to me, and with your needs, God will cover it all!”
“Bursts into doxology” Fee
“My God’ is now ‘our God and Father’; and the living God, the everlasting one, who belongs to the ‘ages of ages.’” Fee
Hansen: “His contentment in prosperity did not lead him to self-indulgence or self-aggrandizement: having material things did not become his reason for joy; acquiring material things did not make him greedy; protecting material things did not make him anxious.”
Theme from Fee: “Very often the application takes a form exactly the opposite of Paul’s—with a bit of v. 19 thrown into the mix, “when in want I shall receive plenty” because of my relationship with Christ. Paul’s point is that he has learned to live in either want or plenty through the enabling of Christ. Being in Christ, not being self-sufficient, has rendered both want and weal of little or no significance. Experience in the church should teach one what the Stoics themselves recognized, that either “want” or “wealth” can have deleterious affect on one’s life, those in “want” because their “want” consumes them, those in “wealth” because their “wealth” does the same. The net result is a tragically small person. On the other hand, the Pauline perspective—life as cruciform, being “conformed to his death so as to attain the resurrection”—raises God’s people above the dictates of either. Those in “want” learn patience and trust in suffering; those in “wealth” learn humility and dependence in prospering, not to mention the joy of giving without strings attached!”
2. Partnership in Ministry
10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.
Joy is in the love they showed him, not in what they gave!
“you have revived”= “blossom again.” Time of “‘dormancy’ in the matter of ‘giving and receiving.” Fee
We’re friends:
v.11: “NOT because I was in need and we’re friends just based on you helping me...”
v.17: “NOT that I seek the gift, because I don’t want you to think I’m writing this to get something back from you.”
Genuine love and reciprocated relationship.
We have focused on this before:
1:3: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you… 5 because of your partnership in the gospel
1:7: I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace
Calls out how valuable they are to Paul:
They supported him when no one else did.
You helped me time and time again...
Purpose of Partnership was not that there was a give and take relationship, “I’ll be the evangelist and you support me.” No, there’s mutuality in this relationship.
Partnership in Ministry with the Giving of Resources:
Giving to the church is not about helping our family financially, it’s something about your faith!
v. 16: “Send me help”
Your help of me was proof of your faith!
Language of v. 17: “the fruit that increase to your credit”: “Paul speaks in the language of an investments manager: he desires continuously increasing profits, daily compounding interest, and accumulating dividends for the Philippians’ account.” Hansen
Not about the money, it’s about the relationship. It’s about the partnership.
They are partners in the Gospel. Partakers of Grace
They are giving because of the Kingdom Advancement, not because Paul’s needy.
Reason to Give: Evidence of the Gospel. In their giving to Paul, Paul is seeking the fruit that increases to their credit. Their giving helps Paul, not that he needs it, but because it’s evidence of their FRUIT!
Fee: “Their gift, which serves his “physical health,” serves more significantly as evidence of their “spiritual health.”
3. Union with Christ
v.10: In the Lord
vs. 13: “Through him.”
v. 19: “In Christ Jesus”
v. 21: “In Christ Jesus”
v.10: Rejoiced ‘in the Lord’
They reside there?
Three-way chord, who can break?
“Greatly”=only time in NT
Being United with Christ means we learn how to BE like Christ:
v. 12: I have how to be brough low (HUMBLED!), and I know how to abound (exulted).
Look up: Humbled
Humbled=Philippians 2:8 “8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Brought Low=”to lose prestige or status.”
To be found in Christ (3:9) is worth far more to Paul than anything else. All his activities, all his emotions, and all his thoughts are within the sphere of Christ’s presence: For to me, to live is Christ (1:21); I am confident in the Lord (2:24); I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings (3:10); I rejoiced greatly in the Lord (4:10). This intimate communion with Christ is the source of Paul’s strength. Hansen
All to God’s Glory:
vv.18-20: “All together it is an altogether exquisite passage.”
Fee re. v.20f: Belongs to vv. 14-17
The recipient is ultimately GOD HIMSELF!
v. 18, lit: “I have been filled to the full”=“I have received full payment, and more.”
v.19, lit: “God will ‘fill to the full’”
Being in Christ=Filled to the full!
Philippians 4:19 “19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
- “This sentence is a master stroke.” Fee
- “my God,” will assume responsibility for reciprocity.” Fee
v. 16, “my need’, v. 18 “fill to the full”, “he promises them that ‘my God will fill up everything need of yours.” Fee