Sermonic Scriblings

Philippians – Partnership in the Gospel

Introduction

Series introduction:

• Looking at things which will grow your faith
• Last time, looked at prayer

Struggle to figure out what to preach tonight – genuinely planned to look at the role of Scripture in shaping and directing the lives of God’s people.   But over the last week, that didn’t seem right – it would be like pouring salt on a very raw wound.   So, I’ve been wondering all week, what will grow our faith in times like this?   What will bless all of us, as we seek to come together around God’s word, at a time when the whole of the Church in Scotland has been left reeling, as our God has been mocked, his word scorned, and his people rejected?

I want you to turn with me just now to Philippians 1, first of all.   Philippians is very much a letter about fellowship.   The word Paul uses to describe this fellowship is the Greek word “koinonia”.   The Greek word has a very simple meaning, and usage.   It means to have in common; a shared purpose or experience.   It’s quite an appropriate word really, given the nature of things – right in the beginning, God determined it was not good for Adam to work along in Eden – he gave him a helper to partner with him in the work.   The human race is designed for partnership.

That design actually cuts to the heart of our structure and purpose as God’s image bearers.   God himself is a triune God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit operating in partnership in creation, in revelation, in salvation, in the atonement, in the great plan to bring all things into subjection to Christ, in the glorification of God’s Great Name!   God the Trinity work in koinonia; they work in partnership – and so it is little surprise that his creatures also share that need for, and capacity to achieve great things in partnership together.

Now, let’s not miss the danger here – that capacity to work in partnership has great potential for evil.   We see it often in the Bible – in Babel for example, when the sinful descendents of Noah thought it would be a good idea to build a tower to bring God down to their level.   We see it in the city of our own day – where the mass of humanity pressed together tend towards worsening depravity and exploitation.   But we are also given the hopeful scenes of the New Testament – where God’s people will one day occupy the New Jerusalem, this new city, built by God, as the eternal home for his fellowshipping, people – where they will eternally be in koinonia with him.

Paul uses the word koinonia three times in Philippians.   I want to examine these three passages, and listen to what God has to say to us about fellowship, as we contend together for the Gospel in our day.

Point 1 – Partnership in witness (1:5)

Text: I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

The first use in Paul’s motivation to prayer in chapter one.   He says that he joyfully thanks God whenever he remembers the Philippians, because of their participation in the Gospel.   The word participation there is this koinonia – their kononia in the gospel is a cause for joy.   This is the starting point, or common denominator in all Christian fellowship, or partnerships.   Are we united in the Gospel?   That’s a strange question to ask – but I think we can agree, not everyone who calls themselves Christian is united in the same Gospel.   For example, we have very little partnership with the Roman Catholic Church, because their gospel has been so displaced – Christ is no longer the sole object of worship, nor is he the sole mediator between God and fallen humanity.   Christ alone does not receive the glory.

So, partnership is in the Gospel.   I’ve been thinking about the Gospel a lot this week.   We’ve just launched a new congregational website this week, and one of the things I’d like to include is a clear, easy to follow, straight forward presentation of the Gospel.   What is it?   I’m thinking the Gospel is Good News – but for it to be good news, you need to know why it’s good news.   Is it good news that the butcher’s has a sale?   Only if you need to buy meat – otherwise, it’s just news.   If you are in the business of trying to sell other meat, the sale at butcher’s down the road is actually bad news.   So what makes the Gospel Good News?   It’s good news because it speaks to our need – the need for forgiveness, for acceptance, for healing, for a fresh start.   The good news, in that context, is that Christ Jesus has taken away our guilt, that he has taken away the terror of death, and offers us eternal life, and purpose in the Kingdom of God.

And Paul says, you Philippians, I am thankful that you have partnered with us in this.   They had certainly been helping pay for Paul’s missionary work – but is that all he really means?   I don’t think so – you see the phrase in verse five “from the first day until now”?   Calvin said:

We know how rare an excellence it is, to follow God immediately upon his calling us, and also to persevere steadfastly unto the end.   For many are slow and backward to obey, while there are still more that fall short through fickleness and inconstancy.

The Philippians had been unstinting in their partnership in the Gospel – since the day of Lydia’s conversion by the riverside, it had been a church committed to witnessing to the power of Jesus to save.   They were a congregation who could have joined with Paul in saying, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to save…”

I have no doubt that tonight we can say this – we are in koinonia in the Gospel, and that is something to praise God for.

Point 2 – Partnership in the Spirit (2:1)

Text: So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Moving on to chapter two, Paul goes on to use koinonia again.   This time it is partnership in the Holy Spirit that he has in mind – all in the context of developing a Christ-like character.   Look at verse 1 and 2, then jump down to verse 5 – the “one mind” he is talking about is not “one mind” that comes from what we think is best – or even what the majority view might be – the “one mind” he wants the Philippians to strive for, is the mind of Christ Jesus.

Now, this is an astonishing directive – he is telling them that the goal of their fellowship is to have the mind of Christ, not as we would suppose him to be, as Lord of all, but as he was in the incarnation, emptying himself by taking on the form of a servant.   Paul wants the Philippians to share a self-emptying attitude to advancement in this world, for the sake of the church.   He longs for them to be mindful of the interests of one another.

Now, I’m not really a huge pessimist, but to be honest, I know that doesn’t come naturally to anyone.   Paul is very clear about how this happens – it is through koinonia with the Holy Spirit.   He’s saying that just as the Philippians have partnered with him in the work of the Gospel, they need to have the same close involvement with the Holy Spirit in the work of sanctification (big word alert – sanctification is the progressive work of making us holy like Jesus).   There’s a barrel load of teaching in this one phrase:

• It tells us that the Spirit is a person we need to work with – not a force that God uses to inject us with power.
• The person of the Spirit is someone we must work with, but can just as equally offend, and work against.
• The person of the Spirit is someone we need to partner in working with – this is one of these annoying conundrum’s of Christian theology, the tension between how passive and active we are in our salvation.   The point of using the phrase koinonia here is that sanctification is something we work at with the Holy Spirit – like two jets, flying wingman, to achieve the same goal.
• This koinonia is not something restricted to individuals, but to the entire congregation.   If some of the congregation refuse to koinonia with the Spirit, they will not have the mind of Christ – and the whole will suffer.   That’s why Paul talks elsewhere of not being yoked with unbelievers – if you have the Spirit, you cannot be committed to the same work as unbelievers.

I want to encourage you to examine yourselves tonight – are you in partnership with the Holy Spirit, when it comes to your sanctification?

Point 3 – Partnership in Christ’s Sufferings (3:10)

Text: For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Finally, Paul’s third use of koinonia is this letter is in chapter 3.   There he has this great statement of how justification works – the great exchange, wherein we receive the righteousness of Christ, but also share in his sufferings, and death.

This is a deep and mysterious passage, but thankful God hasn’t left us ignorant, through the whole teaching of the Bible to understand what it means.   Paul’s teaching in verse 10 can be simply expressed thus:

No gain without the pain – no glory without the cross.

When Paul talks about the Christian somehow participating in the death of Jesus, he talks about two different processes – one inward, the other outward.   The inward process is discussed in Romans 6 – where Paul writes these words: “If we have been united with him in his death, we shall also be united with him in his resurrection.”   That’s talking about the definitive moment when as a believer, we have turned away from sin, seeking to commit it to death.   That is through our dying with Christ.   At the cross, our sinful self is put to death with Christ, in order that we might be set free from sin.   That’s the inward level of participation.

But here, in Philippians, it is really the outer level of participation that is in mind.   Suffering is necessary in the way God has chosen to order our lives – in order to bring us to the fullness of the restored image of God, and again, that image bearing involves koinonia.   You remember what Paul had been saying in chapter 2 – Jesus didn’t think equality with God was a thing to be grasped, but himself he emptied, taking the form of a servant, being humiliated, even to the point of not just any death, but the curses death of rejection at the cross.

The koinonia we have with Christ is one where yes, we are infused with his new life, but there is a sense in which we continue to bear the death of our Lord.   In all the struggles to live righteous lives in this present age, we will meet with bitter disappointment.   As we contend for the salvation of others, we will face hostility and rejection – some suffering even to the point of death.   Moisés Silva puts it so clearly, “The stinging reality of Christian suffering is our reminder that we have been united with Christ.   More than that, it is the very means God uses to transform us into the image of his Son.”

Without this koinonia in the sufferings of Jesus, we have no way of access to the crown of glory that will be ours on the last day.

Conclusion

So what can we say in conclusion?   Philippians is a letter all about fellowship – but fellowship is not merely expressed in financial terms, or merely an uplifting time in prayer and singing together.   Fellowship is a nothing less than a shared struggle for the truth of the gospel to be presented to all men.   It is a shared experience of working with the Holy Spirit to bring about a sanctified church.   And it is a daily participation in the mortal combat of this sin-drenched world – as we are conformed to the image of Jesus.

That is why we stand together, seeking to bind up the wounded, and give courage to the faltering.   Let’s pray.