A Letter of Joy
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Philippians. It's also there in your worship guide. And once again, can I just say how impressed I am that you guys would come here? You didn't even wait till the 11 o'clock service, but that's to see so many of you here in the freezing cold at 9. I mean, some of you were even raising your ungloved hands in worship.
Jeffrey Heine:And, I thought about it and I'm like, I'm just not that righteous. So I I really do admire you. We are beginning a new series this morning. It's gonna be on Paul's letter or his epistle to the Philippians. This study should take us all the way to Easter.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm really excited that we're gonna be walking through this, for a number of reasons. First, reading through Philippians is like reading through Paul's greatest hits. I mean, I know you're not supposed to have favorites, and I know that all Scripture is God breathed, all Scripture is true, all Scripture is powerful, but there is a reason that Tim Tebow puts, you know, Philippians 4:13 on his face and not verses like Genesis 11:3. If you're wondering what Genesis 11:3 is, it's come let us make bricks and bake them in the sun thoroughly. It's just kind of the verse I've always memorized and kept tucked, you know, in my memory for if I'm in a theological debate and I'm losing, I usually pull out Genesis 11:3 and just say, just think about that.
Jeffrey Heine:And people are puzzled. But there's a reason that, you know, people go to Philippians time and time again to to find strength and to find encouragement. There are so many powerful and memorable verses in this letter. Let me just walk through a few of these and see if these sound familiar to you. Philippians 1:6, we'll read this in just a second, but I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it into the day of Christ Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. 23, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. 212, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 37, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I counted all things as 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, that I may gain Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And we'll look at that word, rubbish. It's actually a a swear word in Greek. Paul cusses there. We get to get to that in a few weeks. 44, rejoice in the lord always, and again, I say rejoice.
Jeffrey Heine:46, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And of course, Paul ends his letter with that great doxology or benediction, and my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory. Any of those words sound familiar to you? Some of you might even have large portions of Philippians memorized. If you don't, it'd be a great time to start.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm horrible, horrible at memorization. You could just ask my kids because I get their names wrong almost every day. Yet when I was a junior in high school, I actually was able to memorize the entire letter to the Philippians. It took a little work, but I was able to memorize it and it served me well to this day. Things are a little fuzzy now, but those words are still anchored in my heart.
Jeffrey Heine:So I'm excited about us just because of all the powerful texts and verses we'll be coming to, but I'm also excited about us walking through Philippians because this letter is the perfect letter to learn how to listen to God through his word. This letter is not complicated. It's direct, yet it's profound. It's remarkable, and and it's encouragement to us, and it is a letter that you can understand. If you want to learn how to read and to understand the Bible on your own, Philippians is a great place to start.
Jeffrey Heine:Or for some of us, it's a great place to reengage with scripture. Because I know for many of you, because you've confessed this to me, that, this past year has been a difficult one for you and that you've let your Bible reading fall. And although that might not be excusable, it is understandable. When our Sunday services got disrupted, one of the fallouts that, that I that I didn't just see, but pastors all across the country saw was that people began losing their appetite for God's word. Because there's just something about us gathering together closely in God's as God's church and hearing God's word proclaimed and explained to us that literally it wets our appetite for something more.
Jeffrey Heine:But the pandemic, you know, it came and it disrupted our normal rhythms of church life. And as a result, many of us honestly have just resorted to eating junk food. Whatever junk food we could find on social media or on the news. And we've lost our appetite. And you know, some of us, we've been opening Netflix like you would open a, you know, your refrigerator door and you're just kind of looking around, you know, just staring at it a while and you're like, I wonder if this is still good.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, 4th season of The Office, you know, why not? You know, Tiger King, I've always wanted to know more about tigers in Florida. I'll try that. You know, you're, we're there, we've been consuming this junk food for so long, we've lost our appetite for real food. And I just want to encourage you once again to come and to feast and to eat.
Jeffrey Heine:It's time to listen to the Lord. Now I know some of you are intimidated about reading your Bibles and you don't even know where to start. Maybe it's something you've never done. And And so I wanna say before we even open up Philippians for the first time here, I wanna give you just a few helps, a few guides as to how to read your Bible. First, find a time to read your Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:Find an uninterrupted time. For me, this is early in the morning. I get up with my cup of coffee, which is my incense to the Lord. You know, it has the aroma rises and it wakes up my senses too, then I sit down, I open my Bible, I pray, and then I begin to slowly read. I use a 2 year Bible reading plan.
Jeffrey Heine:Something that will take me through the Bible every 2 years. If you don't have a plan, I would encourage you to find a plan that will guide you through scripture. And then my goal is simple. I want to hear from God. That's my goal.
Jeffrey Heine:I want to hear God. I want to get a glimpse into his heart. I want to be changed by His Spirit. I want to be led into worship. And in order to do that, I typically look at 4 things, 4 things when I open my Bible, and and this is just a little, pneumatic device I use.
Jeffrey Heine:It's something I came up with many years ago. There's other pneumatic devices as to how to read your Bible. Mine just happens to start with all i's. Alright? So 4 eyes.
Jeffrey Heine:If you want to be a 4 eyed person, this is it. Alright. Four eyes. First is this, identify. This is just so basic, but I identify the subject.
Jeffrey Heine:What is the author talking about? Is he talking about forgiveness? Is he talking about money? Is he is he talking about sex? Is he talking about serving?
Jeffrey Heine:What is the author talking about? 2nd eye is this, insight. What is the author's insight into whatever he's talking about? What is he actually saying about this topic? This is the teaching moment there.
Jeffrey Heine:3rd, 3rd eye is this, instruction. Is there an instruction for me to follow? Am I being told to live a certain way? Is there a command here, whether it's explicit or implicit? Am I being commanded to be generous or to forgive my neighbor, or to not gossip, or to not have sex outside of marriage?
Jeffrey Heine:Are there any instructions here for me? And it's important when we're when we get to this instruction part that we remember that we don't have to agree with God in this. A matter of fact, often we won't agree with God and what He is asking us to do. God is not asking us to agree with him. He's asking us to obey him.
Jeffrey Heine:And there's a pretty big difference. If if you only obey the parts of the Bible that you want to obey, then the truth is you don't believe in the Bible, you only believe in yourself. And we live in a culture that believes in itself as the final word. We live in a culture that is happy to obey the Bible and the parts that it happens to agree with. But you discard the parts you disagree with.
Jeffrey Heine:But Jesus did not give us this option when he says the scripture is the word of God. Now I've I've shared this illustration in the past, but Caroline, my my oldest, when she was little, she for some reason used to love picking up insect repellent, mosquito repellent off and she would just suck on it. All the time I'd find her and she would just suck on it. She liked the way it made her tongue feel numb. And, and so I'd say, Caroline, don't put the off that you can't suck on the off.
Jeffrey Heine:And then I'd find her doing again. I'd be like, Carolyn, you cannot do this. And finally, once she's holding it and she goes, Why not? And so I explained to her. I said, well, it's got some harmful chemicals in it.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, it, you know, sure, it makes your tongue feel kind of numb, but it's actually not a good thing that your tongue goes numb. It can make you really sick, we might have to take you to the hospital, you drink that whole thing, who knows, you might die. And she looks at it and then she puts it down. Now did she obey me? No.
Jeffrey Heine:She disagreed with me. She didn't obey me. She just looked and she's like, okay. Well, I don't die. I I get your point.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna I'm gonna put that down. But what happens when we don't agree with God? We gotta trust that he is a father who is actually looking out for our good. He does know things better than we know them, and we just need to trust him even when we don't agree. Obedience to him could mean our very life.
Jeffrey Heine:So we need to obey these instructions. The the final eye is the most important, and it's also the one that's most overlooked, and it's this. I love it. The chimes come out right as I'm getting to the most important point, and it's invitation. Jesus is inviting us to Himself when we read the scriptures.
Jeffrey Heine:All scripture leads to Him. It's the point of it all. Jesus actually rebuked the religious leaders of His day for only following the first three i's. They could identify the subjects. They knew what the scripture said.
Jeffrey Heine:They could follow the insight. They knew the instructions, and they tried to obey it, but they didn't come to Jesus in the midst of that. And he rebukes them in John chapter 5 when he says, you search the scriptures because you think in them they have life, but these are the scriptures that testify about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life. So we read and then we come to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:We ask how is Jesus inviting me to himself in this passage? Is he inviting me to come to him for forgiveness, for strength, for guidance? Then I'll take time to pray and come to Jesus. So if you haven't been in the word ever before, if you're just getting reengaged this week, I would encourage you to to read through Philippians. Go through those 4 eyes, and you do this and you will come to hear and to know God through his word.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. So let's actually dig into Philippians. Don't worry. I know it was a 15 minute introduction, and that I won't have you sitting here terribly long in the cold. We're just gonna put a toe in, to Philippians.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay? Just a toe in, just kinda wet your appetite and we'll really begin digging in next week. And so Philippians, I wanna read those first seven verses. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi and the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, for you are making my prayer with joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Because of your partnership in the gospel from the 1st day until now, 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. 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 both in my imprisonment and the in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. This is the word of the Lord. Lord, and I pray that you would open up your word to us. May my words fall to the ground and blow away.
Jeffrey Heine:May your words remain and change us, Jesus. May we hear from you. Amen. Alright. So Paul is writing this letter from prison.
Jeffrey Heine:He's currently in prison and he's writing to the church at Philippi, which he had founded about 10 years earlier during his 2nd missionary journey. You can read about how he founded the church in Acts chapter 16. There his first convert is a woman named Lydia, a wealthy businesswoman, and then we see a demon possessed girl come to know the Lord, and then a jailer comes to know the Lord. And together these are 3 of the most racially, socially, and religiously diverse people you can find, yet they all come to know Jesus and they form the first church at Philippi. And Paul has a deep affection for them, and they with him.
Jeffrey Heine:And when they hear that Paul has been thrown into prison, they immediately get out their checkbooks and they begin writing him some some large checks in order to help him out because in this day when you were thrown in prison, you actually had to pay for everything. You had to pay for even the food that you ate. And so these Philippians, they they provided for him. Even though they were, most of them, immensely poor, they were undergoing severe persecution at this time, yet they still gave to Paul. And when Paul gets their financial support, he is deeply moved.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he writes them this letter in order to, to show his gratitude. It's a thank you letter in many ways, and he wants to also encourage them and to let them know how he's doing because he knows that they are worried about him. And and you could just tell his affection for them throughout this letter because he just gushes about them. I I don't know what view you have of Paul, but he could get pretty touchy feely at times and you certainly see that here. Right at the start, I mean, he's like, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, it's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart. Verse 8, he says, I yearn for you all. I mean, guys, honestly, does that make you just a little bit uncomfortable, like, to hear to hear another guy talking that way? Any of you guys ever pin that, you know, in a word or a letter to somebody? I yearn for you.
Jeffrey Heine:You ever taken somebody to lunch, you know, a coworker, you're at lunch together and you just say in the middle of it, I just want you to know I've been yearning for you this week. I mean, it's a little awkward, but can we agree that Paul is one tough dude? I mean, he has been beaten countless times. He's writing this letter while in prison. He's literally chained times.
Jeffrey Heine:He's writing this letter while in prison. He's literally chained to another guard. I mean, just think that poor guard, that guard is likely watching what he's writing. He's like, really? Really?
Jeffrey Heine:Yet Paul doesn't care. He loves his brothers and sisters in Christ. And here we see the type of relationships that the Lord forms, He forges with other believers. We're given this deep deep affection for one another. And can I just say that in the midst of this pandemic, my wife and I, and we haven't been able to see many of you or to spend time with many of you?
Jeffrey Heine:And can I just say that my heart yearns for you? It yearns to be with you. And Paul says, it's right for me to feel this way so don't give me a hard time about that. It's right for Christians. This is a love we have for one another that the world simply does not understand.
Jeffrey Heine:And then Paul, he moves on. In in verse 4, Paul introduces this major theme that's gonna pulsate throughout this entire letter, and it is the theme of joy. Paul says this when he's thinking about them, he's making his prayers with joy. And he's gonna go on to mention joy 15 more times in this letter. It's one of the reasons that this letter is often called the epistle of joy.
Jeffrey Heine:I want you to think of it. Paul chained up, hurting in a dark prison and he is filled with joy. Joy despite being in chains. Joy despite his enemies rejoicing over him. Joy despite being far removed from the people he knows and loves.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, it's incredible. Paul might be in prison here, but his heart is more joyful and more free than the Roman soldier he is chained to. He's bursting with joy because his joy has been chained to Christ. It's not chained to any circumstance. So we have to ask ourselves our quest this question, what is our joy chained to?
Jeffrey Heine:This pandemic has exposed a lot of things in us as to exactly what our joy has been chained to. If your joy rises or falls with your political party, then you are chained to it. And that's not freedom, that's idolatry. If your joy rises or falls with your bank account, well, it's because you've chained your joy to that bank account, and that is not freedom, that is idolatry. Paul is not chained to any circumstance.
Jeffrey Heine:And this is why he can be filled with joy in any even in prison here. Paul is chained to the gospel. In verse 3 and 4, he says that he makes his prayer with joy because of his partnership with in the gospel with this church. That word partnership in there, it's a rich word. We've looked at it in the past as a church.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the word koinonia and which is often translated as fellowship. But when Paul uses the word koinonia or fellowship, he's he's not talking about pizza and volleyball. He's not talking about potluck suppers. He's talking about something so much deeper than that, and that cheesy illustration I gave you a couple years ago still holds true. When you think of fellowship, think of fellows in a ship.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the best definition for it. Fellowship is fellows in the same ship. Fellowship is a group of people tightly united together moving in the same direction. And Paul says this is where his joy comes from. When I think of you, Philippians, I think how the Spirit of God has united us together and that no matter what circumstance comes, no matter what hits us, even my imprisonment, God's gospel stands true and he is moving us forward.
Jeffrey Heine:God is at work. And when Paul says, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it or perfect it on the day of Christ Jesus. What he is saying is this, Jesus got us all into the same boat, and he didn't put us in the boat to drown. He will safely carry us to wherever he is going to carry us until he returns. We are safe in his hand.
Jeffrey Heine:Despite everything I see, I know he is moving us forward. That's where Paul's joy came from. That's our joy as a church. It's not on what we see. It's it's despite every circumstance, we know that God has a hold on us.
Jeffrey Heine:He has put us all to be fellows in the same ship and he is advancing us forward. His kingdom is advancing no matter what we see or hear, and there's great joy and confidence in that. And so the invitation is simply this, will you come to Jesus for that joy? Because it's being offered to us as a church. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Our father, we ask that through your spirit, you would wet our appetites to hear more and more of your word, to have it sink deeply into our hearts, to have it transform and to change us. May this year, the thing it it would be defined by is that we hear your voice. We hear and obey. We love you, Jesus, and we pray this in your name. Amen.
