True Joy is in Real Fellowship

The little book we’ve been talking about that has so much teaching for our time is the book of Philippians, and we’re going to start in Philippians chapter one, verse one: “Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.”

Right away we see a verse that is very needed today because it talks about the saints, that is, the Christians who are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. In the New Testament, there are two offices in the church: bishops and deacons. Those are the only two offices in the New Testament church.

The bishops are the overseers. That’s another word for bishop. A bishop means one who oversees the flock. And when it talks about these bishops, remember that that is a word that means the same thing and refers to the same office as elders. We know that because of Titus chapter one verses five and seven, because there Paul talks about the elders and the bishops in the same breath and in the same sense.

We find the same relationship in Acts chapter 20. The Bible says in Acts 20 verse 17 that Paul called for the elders of the church at Ephesus, and then in verse 28 he said that the Holy Spirit had made them overseers. So who are the elders? They are called overseers. Who are the overseers? They’re the ones who are called elders.

The third word, which is greatly misunderstood and often misapplied, is the word pastor. The word pastor means a shepherd. Most of the time, when you find that original word translated, it is translated a shepherd. Well, when we talk about shepherds in the church, we need to ask a question. Who are the ones the Bible specifically says feed, that is, shepherd the flock?

The answer is in First Peter chapter five, verses one through four. That’s where Peter said that he was an elder and he was exhorting those elders that he was writing to, to shepherd the flock. So who are the shepherds of the flock? Those are elders. Those are the bishops; those are the pastors or the shepherds.

So this goes against hundreds of years of denominational traditions. We might say that those denominational traditions go against this almost 2000-year-old teaching of the Apostle Paul. The Bible nowhere gives one man the authority to be over a church. You don’t find that in the Bible. You never find a priest being over a congregation.

You never find a bishop being over a congregation or a group of congregations, and you certainly don’t find a pope being over the universal church. You never find in the New Testament where any writer referred to the pastor of a church. That’s not there. What you do find in Acts chapter 14 verse 23 is that the Bible says that they “ordained elders in every church.”

So there were a group of men, a plurality of men who oversaw a single congregation. The whole idea of having a big government in the church is unscriptural. It’s unbiblical because there’s no direct statement in the Bible that would authorize that kind of church government. There is no example in the New Testament of that kind of church government, and there is no implication in the Bible anywhere that man has the right to govern His church in that way.

There were small pockets, there were lone voices, even in the dark ages and in the Reformation period, which disagreed with these forms of church government. John Wycliffe in 1384 said that there are only two offices in the church—bishops and deacons, just like the apostle Paul says here in Philippians chapter one, verse one.

Now, Paul doesn’t go into all the details about these offices. He doesn’t give the qualifications. You read the qualifications for elders and deacons in First Timothy three, and again, you find the qualifications for elders or bishops in Titus chapter one. Here, he simply alludes to this. So this is just one more reference to the fact that the Lord’s Church has this kind of organization in it, and that is that it has elders and deacons.

Ideally, when men meet these qualifications, and even though that is not the main point of this letter, it does show that this is consistent with, this harmonizes with, what we find in the rest of the New Testament.

Now, let’s continue to read in verse two: “Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you all with joy.” Paul said in verse three that he thanked God every time he thought of these Christians. And when he thought of them, he not only thanked God for them, but he prayed that God would bless them and their work for the Lord.

And notice in verse four that he did this with joy. That’s something Paul talks about often in this book of Philippians. Many preachers have pointed this out in sermons over the years, and if you read the whole book, you can’t miss it. And if you think about what he’s been through and where he is when he writes this book, it will help you to appreciate his attitude even more.

When Paul was in the city of Philippi in Act 16, he and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison. But even when they were in prison and shackles, they prayed and sang praises to God. They didn’t grumble and complain. They didn’t whine and cry about how they’d been treated. They praised God. They baptized several people in spite of how they’d been persecuted.

That’s how the church began in Philippi. Paul is writing to the people in that very city who obeyed the gospel and became members of the church. And it’s interesting that he tells them in the last verse of Philippians chapter one that they saw what he had been through. Paul taught them by example and not just by word.

So many times we think about what Paul said. And we should, because he wrote all these letters that we have in the New Testament. But if you think about it, Paul taught many Christians many lessons with his life, not just his words. That’s what he did in Acts chapter 16 when he was preaching in the city of Philippi.

Now it’s years later, and he’s writing this letter to the church in that city. Do you remember where Paul is when he writes this book? He’s a prisoner again, years later. This time he’s in Rome. He’s not in a prison like a jail cell or a dungeon. This time he’s under house arrest. You can read about that in Acts chapter 28, verse 30 and 31.

He was allowed to have visitors and even taught people the gospel, but still he was not a free man. He couldn’t go out and preach at different places like he used to. He was confined to his own quarters. And do you remember what he said about his health condition? He had some kind of illness that he called a thorn in the flesh.

Whatever it was, it was so uncomfortable and unpleasant that he asked God three times to take it away, but the Lord didn’t. So think about everything that Paul went through. The isolation and loneliness, the persecution and incarceration, the chronic illness he suffered with, and all this is just a small part of all the trials he endured, and yet one of the first things he talks about in this letter is the joy he had.

You see, that joy didn’t come from earthly pleasures. Paul didn’t even have the freedom to go outside and roam like you and I do, to go where he wanted to go. And on top of that, his health wasn’t good and he didn’t feel good sometimes. So what brought him joy in life? It’s simple. The Christian people he loved and cared about, that’s what brought him joy.

He said in Philippians one, verse seven, “I have you in my heart.” In verse eight, he said, “For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.” In chapter four verse one, he said these Philippian Christians were his “joy and crown.” True happiness comes from people, not things, and it comes from the right kind of people.

Paul wasn’t happy being around just anybody. He was human just like the rest of us. And his Christian convictions wouldn’t allow him to enjoy being around ungodly people. And sometimes people attacked him personally. In Second Timothy, chapter four, verse 14, Paul said that Alexander the Coppersmith had done him much evil.

And there were times when Paul was aggravated and upset with Christian people who were not doing what was right. He loved the Christians at Corinth, but he didn’t always feel the same way about them as he felt about these Christians at Philippi. Whenever Paul thought about these Christians, he thanked God and prayed for them, and he did it with joy.

These Christian people gave him peace of mind, and they gave him peace inside, even though they weren’t with him. He was in Rome and they were in Philippi, and they couldn’t use the internet to see and talk with each other. They had a closeness that goes far beyond modern technology. They had a bond that couldn’t be severed.

Paul, thanked God, he said, “for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” in verse five. The word fellowship means sharing. It means joint participation. The church at Philippi supported the preaching of the gospel. They helped Paul time and again in his work, and Paul never forgot that he appreciated it.

Toward the end of this book, in chapter four, verses 14 through 16, Paul said, “Nevertheless, you have done well, that you shared in my distress. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only; for even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities.”

It’s sad today that when Christian people hear the word fellowship, the only thing they think about is getting together and associating and having a meal together and so forth. But fellowship is much more than that. It’s not just sharing each other’s company. It’s sharing each other’s troubles. It’s sharing our money and our food and our clothing with each other when we’re in need.

When Paul thought about all that they had done for him, it touched his heart when he was under house arrest being guarded by Roman soldiers. It moved him even more to know that they did this all for the Lord. They didn’t just give because they love Paul. They gave because they loved God and believed in the work that Paul was doing and they wanted to help.

That is true fellowship. That’s real genuine happiness. That’s true. Peace of mind. That’s a life with meaning. And remember Paul is talking about praying. He said in verse three that he thanked God for these Christians. He asked God to be with them in verse four. What I’m saying is this. Paul begins this book talking about how much he prayed. He put his trust in God, and then in the last chapter, Philippians four, he tells us not to worry. Instead, he tells us to pray and be thankful. Then and only then can we have the peace that passes understanding. That’s Philippians four, verses six and seven.

Look at how Paul trusted in God in Philippians one, verse six. He said he was “confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Paul had confidence that God would bless the work of these people. He said God had begun a good work in them. The Lord did that when he sent Paul and Silas to preach there.

They preached the gospel. They baptized Lydia and her household. They baptized the jail keeper and his household. That’s how God started this good work in Philippi. They followed the same pattern. We see when the church began on Pentecost Day in Acts two, 3000 people in Acts two were baptized for the remission of their sins (Acts two verse 38). And then God added these saved people to his church (Acts two, verse 47). Now Paul is writing to the church at Philippi years after the congregation started. He’s telling them that God blessed them in the beginning and that God will bless them to the end. That’s confidence. That’s peace of mind.

That’s the only real and lasting reason to rejoice if anybody realizes that his life was in the hands of God. Paul did. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verse one, that the righteous, the wise, and their works are “in the hand of God.” Paul understood that. He didn’t just talk about God being in control. He knew it. He believed it, and he lived by it. Do you remember him saying that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain? That’s in the same chapter in Philippians chapter one, verse 21. Paul said he was confident that God would bless these Christians to the very end in their work that they were doing for him.

They had their part to do, they had to do the work, but all that depended on God, just as it does with us. Paul reminds them later in chapter two, verse 13, that it is “God who works in you both to do and to will for his good pleasure.” Does that remind you of something he told the Corinthians? Paul said, “I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase” (First Corinthians chapter three, verse six).

Paul and these Christians worked together. They supported him. They prayed for him. He taught them and prayed for them. He taught many people and helped many other churches, and they helped him do all that. That is sharing in the work. That’s the idea of fellowship.

But there’s something else Paul said that they did. They stood up for the truth with him. They stood with him as he preached the gospel. That wasn’t easy. It certainly wasn’t popular in some places, but they had the courage, the faith, and the love to stand strong. Paul said in verse seven, “Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.” Why were these Christians so dear to Paul? Because of their fellowship with him! Notice that he says that they were partakers with him. The word partaker is from the same root word for fellowship.

And what were they partaking of with him? What were they participating in or fellowshiping Paul with? Three things. He said that they were partakers in his chains. He was a prisoner. When he had to be taken to a trial, he was chained and escorted by soldiers. So these Christians shared or fellowshipped in this trial of Paul; they sympathized with him.

They prayed for him. They sent aid to help him. They did what the Bible tells us we should do in Hebrews 13 verse three. That is, remember people who are in prison as if we are in prison with them. But the next thing Paul said they fellowshiped him in might be a little surprising to some Bible readers.

Paul said that they were partakers with him in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Think about those two words. Paul said the work of the gospel is not just about proclaiming the gospel. He said, we must defend the gospel. Paul defended the gospel against false teaching. In verse 17, he said, “I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.” And all you have to do is to turn to the Book of Acts to see Paul defending the truth.

In Acts chapter nine, verse 22, Paul “confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus proving that this Jesus is the Christ.” In Acts chapter 13, verse 45 and 46, he rebuked the jealous Jewish leaders at Antioch. In Acts chapter 14, he stood against a crowd of people who thought he was some kind of God. In Acts chapter 15, he and Barnabas had a major argument with some Jewish men in the church who were telling the Gentile Christians they had to keep the law of Moses to be saved.

In Acts chapter 16, we see his share of opposition in the very city where these readers lived. Philippi. In Acts chapter 17, he defended the gospel to the Jews in several cities. In Thessalonica, he went into their synagogue and “reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead” (Acts 17 verses two and three). And when he went to the city of Athens in Acts chapter 17, he definitely put on the whole armor of God and took the sword of the Spirit in his hand. That’s where he encountered Greek philosophers who challenged his beliefs. Paul stood up in the midst of them, and he defended the true God and the gospel of his son.

Athens was hostile territory. It was full of idolatry. It had a long reputation for being the intellectual center of Greece. So how did Paul defend the gospel in a situation like this? The first thing he did was to talk about God being the creator. He didn’t use a lot of big words or complex logical arguments.

He simply taught what David wrote in Psalm 19 verse one. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.” Paul told these unbelievers right away that God made the world and everything in it. In verse 24, he showed them that idolatry was ridiculous. He even quoted some of their Greek writers who recognized the supreme being.

He proved logically that God exists. We find him defending the faith again in Acts chapter 18. This time he is in the city of Corinth. The Bible says in verse four that he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks, but the Jews in that city didn’t like what he was doing. So Paul again found himself on the defensive, but none of that discouraged Paul. He stayed there for a year and a half teaching these people the gospel in the city of Corinth.

Acts Chapter 19. Paul is in the city of Ephesus and in the city of Ephesus, he was attacked and challenged on all directions. There were people there who had not been baptized properly. There were Jews that opposed him. There were fake miracle workers, and there were all kinds of people that made their living by making and selling idols. There was a huge uproar, and according to what Paul says in two Corinthians chapter one, his life was in danger. God delivered him.

And what about the letters Paul wrote? Time and again, you see him defending the faith and telling Christians to do the same. When he wrote the book of First Corinthians, he defended marriage, worship, and the resurrection of the dead. In the Book of Galatians, he exposed Jewish men in the church who were binding the law of Moses on the Gentiles. You also see in that same book in Galatians chapter two, that Paul didn’t play any favorites.

He wasn’t partial when he defended the gospel. The apostle Peter himself had gone along with how these false teachers treated the Gentile members of the church, and Paul confronted him in front of everybody. We see him defending the faith in the Book of Colossians in chapter two, and especially when he writes to Timothy. In the book of First Timothy and Second Timothy, he tells Timothy to preach the word and to defend it against false doctrine. When he wrote to Titus in chapter one verses nine through 11, he said that elders in the church must be ready to disprove false teaching. And in the verse we’re looking at, in Philippians chapter one, verse seven, Paul said that these Christians shared in his defense of the gospel. They didn’t turn their back on him.

They weren’t afraid to stand with him. They were partners with him in the defense of the gospel. Not everybody stood with Paul. As a matter of fact, in his last letter, the book of second Timothy, Paul said, “At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all men forsook me” (Second Timothy, chapter four, verse 16). He’s not talking specifically there about defending the gospel.

He’s talking about his first trial or defense in court, but still this shows that some were afraid to have anything to do with him. Not the Philippians though. They stood firm with him in hard times as well as good times.

Do Christians today understand that we are to defend the truth? The Bible says in First Peter chapter three, verse 15 to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” The Bible also says in the book of Jude verse three, that we are to “earnestly contend for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Jesus Christ certainly defended the truth. How many times do you see Him arguing with the Pharisees and yet some Christians today say, “I don’t argue with people. I tell them what I believe if they ask me, but I don’t disagree with their beliefs.” Is that what Jesus did? Is that what Paul did? Is that what John the Baptist did? Is that what the early disciples did?

Is that what the prophets of God in the Old Testament did? And yet the book of Philippians teaches us that Paul, the great defender of the faith, was not sour and bitter and angry all the time. He had great peace and joy. He was very content. It’s true that he lost friends because of his stand for the truth.

He didn’t get along with his relatives because he was a Christian. He even said in Romans chapter nine verses one through three that he was very sad and heartbroken because his relatives were lost. But he always found peace in God. That’s one of the tremendous lessons that you and I need to learn from the book of Philippians. But Paul also talked about the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

The word confirmation comes from a word, which means to make something sure. He’s talking about the confirmation of the gospel. That confirmation came from God. God confirmed the gospel. He made it sure how, first of all, through the miracles Jesus and the early disciples did. In Mark 16, verse 20, the Bible says, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” The miracles they worked proved that the message they preached was from God. In Hebrews chapter two verses three and four, the Bible says the Gospel was “confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.”

These Philippian Christians shared in that work. This means that they had received miraculous gifts of the spirit, and that is at least part of what he means in Philippians chapter two verse one, where he talks about their fellowship of the Spirit. But there’s another way in which God confirmed the message.

The prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus, the new covenant and the church confirmed and were an essential part of the gospel. These prophecies were made hundreds of years before they were fulfilled in the New Testament. That could not have happened by accident. It could not have been coincidence because those prophecies were too detailed to be that.

This is why you find the apostles and disciples using Old Testament prophecy to prove that is to confirm the gospel in Acts chapter two. Peter quoted from the book of Joel and the Book of Psalms to show and prove that Jesus was the Christ. In Acts chapter eight, Philip showed the Ethiopian eunuch that the section in Isaiah he was reading from was fulfilled in Jesus.

That section was Isaiah chapter 53. In Acts 18, verse 28, Apollos vigorously “refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.” The Philippian Christians took part in this work. They pointed people to the proof of the New Testament from the Old Testament. They encouraged and supported Paul as he proved the gospel to many souls, and what a wonderful feeling it is to know that we have been honored by God to teach people those same truths today.

Beginning in verse nine, he talks more about what he prayed for them. In the verses before this, Paul talked about his feelings, his joy in verse four, his confidence in verse six, having them in his heart in verse seven, and how deeply his heart longed to see and be with them in verse eight. Then in verses nine through 11, he says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.”

Now he’s praying for them even more. He prayed that their love would grow more and more. He’s not talking about a love like many people would define it today. The word love to a lot of people today means how they feel and what they want, but the love Jesus teaches us to have is not simply a feeling. It means doing what is right.

It means knowing his will and obeying him. It means using the good judgment that he gives us through the study of his word. Notice what he says in verse nine. He prays that their love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. True love is based on true knowledge, the knowledge of God and his will.

It involves discernment. Love doesn’t approve of anything and everything. The love God wants us to have means that we love good and we hate evil. That’s the kind of love God shows in the Old Testament through all the examples we read there. And we are to have the same kind of love today. Paul is praying that these Christians will grow in that kind of love in which Christians know the difference between right and wrong.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. He prays that they may approve the things that are excellent in verse 10. As they grow in their love, they grow in their understanding, and as they grow in their understanding, they grow in their ability to discern things.

The same is true with us. We need more love. Most people agree with that, but the Bible qualifies that love. It says that that love must have knowledge to go with it. It says that love must be discriminating or discerning, not simple and gullible. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter five, verse 14, that we are to have our senses, that is, our spiritual senses, “exercised to discern both good and evil.” But this verse in Philippians chapter one, verse nine involves more than just telling the difference between right and wrong. It means that we are to discriminate between the good, the better, and the best. It means that we’re not to be satisfied with something just because we say, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

When we grow as Christians, we learn to look for the highest good in our choices. And Paul also prays for their hearts when he says that he’s praying for them to be sincere. Are you noticing in Paul’s prayer for these Christians that he doesn’t just pray about what they do? He doesn’t just pray for what people see on the outside in the work they’re doing.

He prays for their inside. He prays for their love, their knowledge, their discernment, and now he prays for their sincerity. He also prayed that these Christians would be “without offense” and that they would be “filled with the fruits of righteousness to the glory and praise of God.” He prayed that their life would be so pure and holy that they wouldn’t cause other people to stumble with their words and actions.

He prayed that their whole life would be full of these good fruits. These people were already good and faithful Christians, but Paul prays that they will be even better Christians, and that needs to be the prayer of every Christian today.

Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever refined podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.