Confidence in God's work

Okay, we're at Philippians chapter 1, verse 6 through 8, and it's titled, Confidence in God's Work. That's a good title for this study for today, this January 21st of 2024. Let me read where we've been with Bob, who opened up the book of Philippians to us two weeks ago. We have verse one of chapter one, Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, including 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 offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. And we'll want to remember verse five in today's study, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

That word participation is an important word for us in today's study, verses six through eight, and here are those. And I'll read those. This is the New American Standard version. If you have a different version, you can look on your own Bible and maybe call out some different words that might be better than the New American Standard. But here's verse 6.

For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me. For God is my witness, in verse 8, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. So that's our verses six through eight for today. Just wanted to throw up this from Bob's study in the last few weeks. Here's the Ignatian Way or the Ignatian Road. I don't know if he threw up a picture of this, but we talked about it, didn't we? Yeah, we did talk about it.

So there it goes. Starts in Byzantium, it looks like, and then it, well, I think it even extends further than that. And it goes, you can see it hitting Philippi right in the middle of your screen. And going down, it hits Thessaloniki. And that's where he went after Philippi. And it's interesting, I think Ephesus is way down south.

And A spirit or an angel, or the Holy Spirit told Paul, he could not go up to Byzantium. You see it in the right, the far right middle. He was not allowed to go up there in that region. So he wasn't allowed to go north, but he got the call, not the Berean call, but the Macedonian call to go. He could go up to Troas and then over to Philippi. So that's that. I just thought I'd throw that up.

Here's the Via Ignatia in Philippi. There's the ruins of Philippi, and there's the road. Looks like something CDOT should look into, right? Well, you think our roads will still be standing like this one? I don't know. It looks like back in the day in the 70s or 80s, you know, I-70 was downtown. But some of it is in really good shape, this Ignatian Road.

Oh, and I just thought I'd throw this up, opening up with a couple of pictures. To warm us up for today's lesson, this is Paul and Margaret, Bob and Margaret talking about this prison cell, this house arrest jail cell that Paul wrote his letters from.

And I think this is it. I mean. Wow. Right here. And he wrote, you know, he wrote this, the book of Philippians, right here, Ephesians, Colossians, and then Philemon. And they've made a church out of, you know, they meet there. But yeah, there it is.

Now- Not too coffee. No, no, and very rough. And cold, though. And I'm disappointed in Bob and Margaret, because they were there. They saw this place, right? Yeah. And they described it. And you have to go down this little kind of hole to get down there. And this is where his house arrested. And this is where he wrote this letter from. And I'm disappointed in them, because for years, all my life, House arrest I had in mind.

Yeah, you know, Paul, you can stay on this porch. Don't go past those gates. You'll get coffee in the morning and you can write, but don't go don't go out in the street unless you're got permission. You're right. Yeah. And I picture those all trees to just have a house with a. portico there and it looks comfy and that's what I thought a house arrest was. I had a similar thought too. I mean not that modern but I thought it would be a little nicer than that. There you go.

So let's begin with verse 6 here in chapter 1 of Philippians. For I am confident of this very thing that he who began good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So in context, Paul is thanking God in all remembrance of the Philippians, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of the participation in the gospel from the first day until now, that's three through five. And the word all is very important in the book of Philippians, which I think Bob pointed out. You know, it's just not a few, it's all these Philippians are important to him.

Now that here's this word participation, it's koinonia or koinonia. It's intimacy or fellowship or communion with Paul. communion that he had with Philippians, fellowship he had with the Philippians, but there's a different meaning to it too, and we'll look at that. Last week, Bob had that there were three types of fellowship, and this is from Macaulay's notes. The first is fellowship with Christ and his sufferings. That's one type of fellowship or koinonia you can have. There's the fellowship with one another, believers, in unity. That's the second type.

And then three, there's fellowship with Paul himself. And that's in the financial giving. So they sent up a gift to Paul in the ugly house prison, not that nice one. And they gave him that gift through Aphrodite. So he's writing them back. The Book of Philippians is a lot about this gift, this financial gift.

And he says in Philippians 4.16, for even in Thessalonica, Um, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Oh, so he sent them, he, they sent him, the Philippines sent him a gift while he was in Thessalonica as well. So, uh, they were really supporting Paul. Um, and he's very thankful for that.

And that's sort of the whole tenor of the book. Um, so I say here in this point that he's referring to these gifts that they sent, um, The alternate meaning for this word koinonia has a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution as exhibiting an embodiment and proof of fellowship from Strong's. So that's exactly the type. So koinonia has those meanings that can be just communion or fellowship or intimacy with, and then this Participation and giving too.

So, think of what all Paul was remembering about that. Now, this was some years ago that he's remembering these things. He goes to Philippi, he finds the river where he finds Lydia and the women meeting. And then he gets thrown into prison, and he saves the jailer and his whole family, and he has all these memories of the Philippians in all this. So, he opens the book, and he's still in this Thanksgiving mode for all that, for all his remembrance of them. So he says, and what it's basically saying here is, therefore, in light of all I remember of you, and in all my thanksgiving, my thankfulness for you all, I am confident of this very thing.

And the thing he's very confident of here in verse six is what I have highlighted here. He who began a good work in you were perfected until the day of Christ Jesus. And you can see I highlighted that, or I bolded that, the word that up there in verse six, because it's a purpose clause. He's confident for the purpose, because of the purpose, and the purpose is he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And the word, Paul is confident, and that's in the perfect tense. So he's perfect, perfectly, perfect tense, confident about this, this thing. A perfect tense is a point happening in the past, not needing to be repeated again in the present. So Macaulay says he has a settled, permanent conviction about this very thing.

And again, this very thing is he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Yeah. The carry it on to completion. I think that. That brings out the perfect tense. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good. No, right. Perfect tense, too, is a thing done in the past with abiding results in the present, right? That's how you describe it a lot, Roger, right? Yes, exactly.

So, I had this question in my mind. Is Paul confident about the ability of the Philippian believers to do and maintain works? No, no, it's all God's work. Oh, OK, you guys are quick, quicker than me. OK, Andrew, OK. No, the one, yeah, it is perfectly clear in verse 6 here, the one working is God himself in their lives.

And he has a completed goal in mind, and he even gives a timeline in which he'll bring about it to perfection or completion. And read that, your version again. You started a good work and you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus, okay? Yeah, okay, and that's I like that Even the ESV says you who? Began a good work, and you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, okay? So that also has a continuing idea of yeah What's the idea of abiding results, right?

Right. Yeah, right, right. So he will perfect it. That word is epiteleo. And Paul uses that word teleo, teleos, a lot. And again, there I am repeating it again. He will bring it to its end to complete it, to finish our good work. And here's the thing though, a good work, and it's clear in the New American Standard and in the English, it's a singular good work. So what singular good work is Paul referring to? And the key is the completion date of this singularly good work, and it's the day of Christ Jesus. So what is the work that God will complete? I think it's this, our glorification. the completion of the work of salvation, the cross work.

So, phase one of salvation, we have been saved from the penalty of sin in the past, Romans 5, 8 through 10. In the present, we are being saved from sin's power and even its wreckage. In the present, three, in the future will be saved from the presence of sin. And that's 1 Corinthians 15, and the last part of that, verses 50 through 57. And I say, what a wonderful day of glorification that will be, right? When you don't have the sin nature.

We've been looking at that wreckage in your study, Roger, about, you know. We're going to see more wreckage today. Yeah. Oh, wretched man that I am. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. All those W words. All those W words. Bad Ws. So that's going to be a wonderful day. So God will perfect it. It's a future tense, obviously. It's future active indicative. So it's he's going to do it. It's just a done thing.

I was struggling with this, not struggling, but I also had this thought while doing this study. There's an interesting twist when you take into account the context, verse 3 through 5. I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering. A prayer with joy in my every prayer for you in view of your participation gospel from the 1st day until now, and that that, of course, has a financial element to it. But.

He's speaking of good works in the present in three through five, is he not? And their participation in the furtherance of the gospel and Paul's financial means to do so, their active participation in it. So he's got that present tense and good works. I almost put in Ephesians 2 10, you know, where we are God's workmanship, uh, created for good works. And I was kind of thinking that, but then in my mind too, I had this, well, this is a singular good work in the future.

So that was, that was the sort of the, um, The interesting thing I thought, that little twist that I think I've figured out, but we can talk about it. So he ties the present, their participation with the end of it all, which is when he returns. And that's the believer's end goal, is when we get our new body and we meet him in the air, right? And we'll come back and look at that just a bit at the end here.

So here's the timeline that I regurgitated. That's not a pleasant term. How about brought forward? Yeah, repurposed. Repurposed, there we go. I like that. So now we're looking at, so you can kind of keep your eyes in the middle, the tribulation age there. We have the Church Age, followed by the Tribulation Age, followed by the Millennial Age. And if you keep your eyes in the brackets up top there, that's where we're gonna be focusing.

But the Tribulation is earthly, it's on earth. When Christ returns, he's gonna take us to heaven. The Bema Seat Judgment is heavenly, it's in heaven. So the tribulation is the day of the Lord that's down there on earth, and that's characterized by wrath, God's wrath. But the day of Christ Jesus, like the verse 6 says, the day of Christ Jesus is up there in heaven, right? So with the Bema Seat Judgment, and we're going to be up there for those seven years, you know, just being taken to heaven and then, you know, learning all about just getting our probably getting crammed with information.

I'm spending time with everybody. It'll be wonderful. It will be. Yeah. So that's the day of Christ Jesus. The two and. Constable points us out and so does I lose spare chafer that the day of Christ is up there The day of the Lord is down there, but that's it. That's a great contrast Yeah, and sometimes they they're used interchangeably, but there is a difference Yeah, they're happening at the same time, but ones above ones below is I guess so here's here we are and I guess women you are wearing a suit today and And when we're raptured, the good work, the singular good work is perfected and completed up there, right?

Our glorification is the reason I repurposed this very familiar timeline. just to illustrate verse six. Okay, on to verse seven. For it is only right to me, for me, to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of grace with me. So I'm gonna start at the end here in part C, you are all partakers of grace with me.

From verse 3, we have that word participation. It's joint... joint partnership, and it's the word koinonia. We've covered that a lot. And here, the word partaker is the same word, but add a soon to it, S-Y-N. Soon koinonos is the word, soon koinonos. And that's with fellowshippers or with participants. Soon is the word with. So you can see how many times he uses this word in these few verses. It's interesting to know that koinonia is both a giving and a getting and a receiving too, isn't it? getting back as well. And that's what partaking means. So they're not only giving, but they're getting back.

They are getting their partakers of God's grace, and that's God's unmerited, undeserved favor, together with Paul for their participation in his defense and confirmation of the gospel. By giving to his ministry, and the word grace is charis, they participate in his imprisonments, his sufferings, and his floggings. Paul gets the brute force physical end of all those things, right? But they get to share in the rewards that he will receive on the day of Christ up there.

And Constable says, in spirit, the Philippians were with him in spirit, in prison, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. And that word defense is a legal term. is what Constable points out. So now we'll go back to 7a and 7b, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. We'll double back and go back to the verse. I was wondering, they're going to participate in his blessings because they gave financially, but also would they participate if they prayed for him and supported him in that way?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think so, right? When you support a missionary's work, if you're involved in that way as well. Yeah, you You're part of the, it's a team thing, right? Any other thoughts about that from the group? No, I agree. It's financial support. But prayers, if Yeah, if a missionary is on your mind and you're on this prayer support team, that's being involved and participating in what they're doing.

Let me see. So this, it is only right for me to feel this way about you all. It's kind of a strange way he says this, but you can also say I'm more than justified to feel this way about you all, is the flavor of that in the Greek. Because you Philippians hold me fast in your hearts, and naturally I have you in my heart as well. Constable and Weiss bring this out, that it's a mutual, the Philippians have Paul in their hearts and he has the Philippians in his heart. And here's the Weiss translation that brings that out. Even as it is right for me to be constantly turning my mind in the direction of this very thing on your behalf. That's a, that's a Weiss translation.

Namely, the completion of God's work for you, work in you. Because you are holding me in your heart, there's the Philippians having Paul in their hearts, both in my bonds and the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You all being co-sharers, with me in this grace.

And yeah, weast leaves no stone unturned. And that's, and our sister Karen out down south, doesn't she? Yeah. I have you in my heart, that's Kardia. And it's the whole personality, including the mind, will, emotions and intellect. It's what Constable says. The word feel, this is, And this is can only be Paul, but this is the only time he uses this word. I, I feel this way. It's for now. And. Constable says it's a mindset that leads to proper and moral action.

It is used only here in this verse and then in 1st Timothy 5.5.

But in 1st Timothy 5.5, it's talking about young widows, you know, wanting a husband or having sensual desires. So you can substitute it for phreneo, but omens and desire, or it can be lust too. And that's interesting.

So Paul has this Strong desire for these Philippines to the point of a good, what would be a good lust right? And he develops this feeling for them, this word phreneo in the whole letter. You know, I have feelings of joy for you. I have you in my heart is another way to have feelings for someone. How about this? I long for you. I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus. And that's in the very next verse in verse 8.

So he's just, he's just, it's deeply, he's gushing here. It's a deeply personal letter for him. And I think he was so pleased to get that gift when he was in prison and he just, I think it caught him by surprise. He was like, wow. Well, Andrew, after seeing his surroundings, I can see why he was excited about people caring about him because that's kind of a downer place, right? Not a bright and cheery place. Yeah, Margaret, though, say last week or the week before that he was allowed, they kind of took him out because they wanted him to. Each some of the soldiers. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So, yeah, so that's interesting. So maybe. I don't know, maybe he was able to buy a. An area rug with that money. An end table. A rocking chair. Yeah.

So, yeah, case I say here case in point for I feel for you is how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And I, I don't, let me go back here. I don't think I, I was going to put this in the lesson, but that word affection, the word, the heart, the word for heart is cardio, which is the mind, will, emotions. And someone said, one commentator says that in the Greek, that is, When they thought about that, they thought about the stomach and the lungs, the heart, up here. But the word affection is that word splachnon, S-P-L-A-N-G-N-O-N. Yeah, splachnon. Splachnon, yeah. It kind of has a... Right.

And that's the bowels, that's the intestines, the lower intestines, so you have this And that's where feelings come from. Your gut feelings. Yeah, gut feelings. Or it can be love. But I think back then, too, when someone was super angry, that's a wrath that would come from that area, from the lower intestines. So I was going to put, I don't think I put this into this lesson, but that's the word affection.

Splachnam here. Ironside says that, Ironside says that, through the passing years Paul had kept them in his heart and presented them to God in prayer. They were a sweet, they were sweet and blessed memories too that filled him with gladness as he looked back on the time of ministry spent among them as he learned of their continuing in the grace of God. And here I wondered, when Paul is at the Bema seat, judgment will, you know, these Philippians be with him there, sharing in his crown, you know, Lydia, and Euodia, and Sudeke, you know, in the end of the book, these two women and the jailer and his family, you know, are they going to be there in support of him? And yeah, I just, I just kind of was thinking about that. Just something kind of interesting to think about in the future.

And here in Philippians 4.1, Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Look at those words of desiring in this Philippians. Well, you see so much affection that Paul had for the fellow believers.

Yeah. And he brings that out in other letters, but not to this extent, right? To this gushingness is what it is, really. And Epaphroditus, too, in 226, because Epaphroditus was longing for you all, and he was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. So that's the same thing. It's a desire for them. So he had it too.

So back to this, if we have time, this thought about verse six, circling back to verse six. Verse six, I'm confident in this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And that broadcast to me, The singular good work, as I pointed out, the perfection and the completion of the believer at the rapture and his glorification. God's work in saving the believer from the presence of the sin nature. is where I went with that. And we use that verse to kind of support that. We pull it out of context and we use it to support that thought. And Constable makes the same point and he develops it really well in his commentary.

However, Wiest He says this, the word translated confidence speaks of the fact that Paul had come to a settled persuasion concerning the fact that God, that the God who had begun In the work in the Philippians, the good work of giving to missions would bring it to a successful conclusion right up to the day of Christ Jesus. The word until assumes the nearness of the rapture in Paul's mind and outlook. But you see how That's how he, so he's relating to the, he's relating to the present and the good works, right? The work of giving to missions and their participation.

He doesn't see that what Constable sees, and I was just wondering, you know, what you all say about this. You know, did I and Constable sort of take this to the extreme or? Is it talking about this future glorification? You know, Andrew, I've been thinking that maybe the good work that is being done in us is progressive sanctification. It started at the beginning when we were saved, and we are completely sanctified right now, but it's a work in progress that God is progressing and is That's a good yeah, and I thought about that too. And Romans 6, 7, and 8, that's a progression, too. To learn it and then to go through the process of struggling with it and then failing in it. So that's good. I thought of that, too. Andrew? Is it that good work? Yeah.

I was thinking, too, it made me think of the saying, we were saved, and we're being saved, and we will be saved. So maybe it's the process of being saved. Yeah, so you two are right up with the constable way, and the way that it just speaks to me, because of this. He brings in the day of Christ Jesus, which is that future day of glorification.

But a lot of people have, a lot of commentators, and Macaulay doesn't go into that either. they just kind of focus on the temporal, the good works that you can, that the Philippians were doing to help Paul. So, interesting. So, Andrew? Yeah. Something that I get out of this is that with Paul's imprisonment, with him talking right into the Philippians, right up until the rapture, that includes us here in this room. I mean, we are benefiting from what happened back in the Philippian church. Oh, yeah. That's a good point. I didn't think of that. Yeah.

That's a way to look at it, too. And that's true. Isn't this a living word? And these words are living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it's still going on. Yeah. And the same type of work is going on today. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, that's a good point. Andrew? Yeah. I think it's both. Okay, both? Amen. Yeah. Okay, both? Yeah. And I had that in a few slides back. The twist is maybe it's both. A little twist on it.

I'm hesitant to say this, but in the activity of opening God's Word and seeking His mind about things that He wants us to see when we open it, we know that other people are praying along with us to support us in that process. What an encouragement that is. It was to Paul and probably to you, and I know Roger and Mike appreciate us praying for them, that as they open God's word to share a meal with us from it, that's God prepared. We're joining in the so-called fishing boat with him. In that process, I can't tell you the number of times that I was so thankful that people were praying for us in Guatemala and they answered the situations way beyond my thinking capacity were right there, right there at the right moment. And when I look back on it, I can see God's hand in it. When you're in the middle of it, you may not see that, but all you can say is, thank you, Lord, for giving me that thought.

You know, same thing when we open God's word, isn't it? As teachers, as listeners, when we're praying for one another and God, we're participating in God's word. Right. We're sharers. I don't know how to say that more clearly. I hope that that communicates. Oh, yeah. And that answers, that points to Kathy's point just perfectly. I mean, it's, yeah. You see how we're all sharing. Here we are in fellowship with each other. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And the word is right here. It's God doing that, isn't it? He makes us care for each other. Yeah, and with the same way that Paul did for the Philippians. Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? Boy, yeah, those are good points. Great, good discussion.

Well, one last slide. And it's this. I can assure you that what this verse 6 does not mean. We need to get to this goal. See that nice new building in the top right? That's our goal. So, I could see some churches using this version to get to there, right? It's a fundraising, like, put us past the finish line here. And we're here. So we need more prayer.

Because I've just heard this a few weeks ago. I feel for you. Yes. Oh boy. Because I kind of thought of that too. And I thought, boy, you could really hammer down on people, kind of these things. So it's kind of funny there, but that's our, that's our addendum for today.

Thanks guys. That's a good. Well, thanks Andrew. Thank you. Everybody else is really great. Yeah, and good to see you all, and I'll close up here. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for each other and our mutual fellowship with each other, and that we could come together multiple times a week and pray for each other and support each other. And we have the same type of Koinonia fellowship that Paul did with his Philippians believers, and it's Your word is truly living, and it's the same today as it was back then when it was written. And we find that out, and we thank you for it. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.