It is good to have you back for this final episode in Series 2 in our Collection on the book of Philippians. 

I have really enjoyed studying this book because it is one of my favourite books in the New Testament, and particularly in Paul's writings, because of the positive attitude and situation, and the encouragement that come from it. We see a church in Philippi that is steady, secure and prospering in the gospel and Paul in a wonderful relationship with that church. There are many positive things to take from this book, and I hope that many of you will have been with me during the previous eight episodes. 

Recap and Background 

I entitled Series 1 'A Life of Faithful Service', but Series 2, I entitled 'Warnings and Encouragements'. There was a warning in the last episode when Paul spoke to two women in conflict with one another, and he didn't want a division to develop in the church in Philippi. Previously, in chapter 3, he had warned about the issue of Jewish legalism coming into the church.  So, there have been some warnings in Series 2 in the second half of this book, but most of it is encouragement. This final episode is filled with encouragement. Paul had known the Philippians for 10 years. He didn't know everybody in the church because some of the people had become believers since he last visited, eight years before he wrote this letter, but it was a very warm relationship that he had with them. The focus is on fellowship in the gospel - the fellowship that Christians have as they work together to advance the Kingdom even when they live in different places, which is the situation that we see here. 

In the last episode, in Philippians 4 verse 6 and following, Paul spoke about the importance of not being anxious, rejoicing in the Lord, being thankful in all circumstances, and committing all our life to God in prayer. 

Content in All Circumstances 

Paul talks quite deeply about his own emotions and feelings and the way he deals with the difficulties of life. Something that was really remarkable about Paul is that he was able to be at peace and content, whatever was going on around him. This is truly astonishing, how could this possibly be? 

First, let us think about what sort of things is Paul talking about. He says whether ‘in need or having plenty’. Over the last few years, before Paul wrote these words from his house arrest in Rome to the Philippians, Paul had been through some extremely dramatic and traumatic circumstances. He had been planting churches in Greece and Asia Minor, which we call Turkey, for many years, travelling around very successfully. He made the dramatic decision to go back to Jerusalem, the city that he had been working in before he had become a Christian, and that decision caused him unbelievable suffering over a five-year period. When he got to Jerusalem, the Jewish people there were very hostile to him. He went to the Temple to worship and there was a riot, and they tried to kill him there. He was taken into the Roman fortress under the guard of Roman soldiers. They kept him in prison in Judea for two years. For Paul to be in prison was very hard because he was a man who loved to travel, and he wanted to stay connected to people; he had connections with people all over the eastern Mediterranean and he had a mission. While he was in Judea, not only was he in prison, but there was also an assassination plot amongst the Jews, where 40 men gathered together and made an oath to each other that they would kill Paul. Fortunately, somebody found out about it, and it never actually happened.  After that, he made an appeal to the Roman authorities and asked to be transferred to Rome, the capital city, to have a trial there because he still was waiting for a trial. It was decided that Paul would travel to Rome by sea. If you have studied 'The Spreading Flame’ Collection, you will know the dramatic story of Paul's journey, which took many weeks and was extraordinarily difficult. There were hostile conditions at sea - storms, and even a hurricane lasting several days. The ship he was in, nearly sank and the sailors were so worried about the ship that they began to throw all sorts of things overboard in order to lighten the weight of the ship. So severe was the storm that the ship eventually ended up being shipwrecked on the island of Malta. During the shipwreck, Paul could have lost his life at sea, but he survived. Now, he was under house arrest in Rome where he was not able to travel; he was not able to see people. 

When Paul talks about being content in every circumstance, these are the sort of circumstances that he had in mind - some extremely difficult personal circumstances. He faced some very hard issues even as he was writing these words because he was still awaiting a trial by the Imperial Court in Rome and a possible outcome was execution for his faith in Jesus Christ. Yet Paul says, 'I have learned to be content whatever the circumstance'. How can he be content in such difficult circumstances? Some people deal with emotional and practical difficulty by trying to cut themselves off from their emotions - not feeling those difficult emotions, trying to detach themselves from them. In the ancient world, where Paul was writing, there was a group of thinkers called the Stoics who encouraged people to detach themselves from their emotions and their circumstances to try and find some peace. Modern day Buddhists do something similar, but Paul did the opposite. He expressed his emotions at the difficulties he was facing but the key to Paul was that underlying everything, he trusted in God;he believed that God was sovereign over every circumstance that he faced. He trusted God as his Father to help him whatever the situation was. That is why he says, 'I can do all this through him who gives me strength.' Paul prayed a lot and committed his circumstances to God and found contentment. We find contentment very difficult because we want to have control over the circumstances of our life.Paul had let go of that control and was able to face extreme difficulty with inner peace. 

An example from my own experience of somebody I know who demonstrated the same ability is a lady who lived in a town not far from where I live and I preached in the church where she and her husband were members. They were aged about 60 at the time when her husband died through a tragic accident – he had fallen out of a tree and was killed instantly. She was right there when he died - a terrible circumstance. I always wondered how she coped with this circumstance. They had plans of what they were going to do in their life, in their sixties and seventies, and all those plans disappeared because of this tragic circumstance. Sometime later, I met the lady again and she said she had found peace with God. She was grievingbut had asked God what he wanted her to do with her life. He showed her that he wanted her to go to another country to help with a church plant, and to support a particular family she was close to that was planting the church. She smiled at meand said she had found her contentment in God's will. That is something very similar to what Paul was talking about here. She had tremendous suffering to deal with, but she trusted God and knew that he was sovereign over the circumstances. Even when her husband died tragically, and suddenly, she found a new path and has been very effective in everything she has done since. 'I can do all this through him who gives me strength.' 

 A Generous Church 

Paul speaks here of a very profound friendship that he had with the Philippian church; a friendship that had lasted for 10 years since he planted the church all those years ago. One thing that is noticeable is that the Philippian church, as we see from the text here, kept sending Paul financial gifts. Paul was totally dependenton financial gifts because his apostolic ministry needed finance to support him and his companions - their travelling and living costs. He didn't have a salary from anybody; he was dependent on gifts. It appears that the Philippians realised his financial needs and kept sending him gifts. When he was in Thessalonica - a nearby city where he went after he had been in Philippi - they sent some money over to him to help him and also when he was in Athens and Corinth on the same trip. They sent some money to Rome, with a member of their church called Epaphroditus who was the key person they had sent to him with the money to help Paul with his financial costs. Paul was very appreciative of this. 

The book of Acts also tells us that when Paul came to Philippi in his second missionary journey, he told them that there was a financial need of the churches in Judea, in Jerusalem and that area that were very poor at the time; they collected money to help those churches as well. The Philippians were a generous church. The first convert in Philippi was a lady called Lydia, who was a wealthy tradeswoman, trading in cloth and high-quality fabrics. She probably put quite a lot of money in herself. The Philippian jailer would have been on a good salary; he was the second known convert, with his family and he would have been giving financially. Many of the Philippians were very generous financially and they were generous to Paul on many occasions. 

Philippi is an example of a church that gave to mission. That is God's plan for your church, and my church, and for us as individuals - to give to the mission of the gospel and advancing the Kingdom in other places - apart from where we are. Paul encouraged all his churches to share with him, to help resource his ministry in other places. When he wrote to the church in Rome, he said 
he was looking forward to coming to Rome because he would like them to give him some finance because he wanted to go from there to Spain. He was always on the move and always asking for finance. One of the things that we can learn from this passage is that every church, whether it is small or large, should take collections and gather money to help world mission, to help people preach the gospel in other places. It might be the next town or village in your nation; it might be in another country. In this case, in Philippi, it was in a different country; it wasn't in Macedonia; it was in Rome, in Italy. God blesses churches which commit themselves to advancing the Kingdom in other places. 

Paul was so confident of this that he says, 'My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.' This is a famous verse, but the context is giving, and the particular type of giving is giving to mission. As you give to mission, as the Holy Spirit leads, so God will meet all your needs. It brings about a special blessing from God. This is something for us to think about. You might be in a very small house church with maybe 10 or 20 people. The same principle applies. You might be in a church of a few hundred people that meets publicly. The same principle applies. You might be in a church of several thousand people. The same principle applies. The Holy Spirit will lead you as an individual, as a family, and as a church to support the mission of God in other places - in your nation and in other nations of the world. As we do this, we bring God's blessing upon ourselves because the church is designed to be a mission agency - not just sending people but sending financial resources to help establish and plant new churches and reach new people for Christ. 

Final Greetings 

 
There are four greetings here. Paul greets them himself and then he describes the brothers and sisters who are with him at the time. Who were they? Epaphroditus was there because he was going to be given the letter ashe was going to go back to Philippi. Timothy has been mentioned, and we discussed him in an earlier episode. Paul wrote to the Colossians at a similar time to this letter, and in it we see quite a number of people named who were with Paul in Rome and they may have been around at this time. They include Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus who was also in prison, John Mark - the author of Mark's gospel - and Luke - the author of the book of Luke and the book of Acts. We know that all these people were in Rome with Paul at about this time. He had a whole series of key co-workers with him. 

Then he says the greetings come from all God's people – that was the Roman church. Verse 22 mentions, 'Greetings come from believers in Caesar's household'. What does Paul mean by that? We discovered earlier in our studies something very interesting: Paul was under house arrest in Rome and was guarded by soldiers who rotated on shifts, coming and going, day and night. Those soldiers were part of the Imperial Guard, the Praetorian Guard, which was an elite military unit that operated from the Emperor's Palace. Paul had been speaking about Christ to some of the soldiers and probably some other administrators as well. They told people in the imperial households about Paul and the gospel. The emperor’s official name was Caesar, which means roughly 'king.' Paul was now saying that, as a result of his witness, there were believers in the imperial household; some people who had come to Christ who were either soldiers, administrators or courtiers in the emperor's palace. That is extraordinary. The emperor at this time was the Emperor Nero, who we know at a later stage persecuted the church severely and killed and martyred a number of Christian leaders. But there were some believers in Caesar's household. It is interesting that the gospel keeps on spreading in unlikely places and that is as true today as it was then. If you sow the seed of the gospel, you never know who is going to believe; it could be some very unlikely people. It was very unlikely that people in Caesar's household would become believers in Jesus Christ but they obviously had by this time and Paul knew who they were. Paul gives his final, and his warm greetings to the Philippian church. 

Reflections 

First of all, this is a very positive and encouraging letter, and we should use it. We should read it regularly; it will build up our faith. There are some key verses. 
 
This is a well-known verse and worth memorising. We can do everything that God calls us to do through his strength - not everything we want to do necessarily, but everything he calls us to do. 

Philippians 4: 19 is another key verse which I would encourage you to memorise if you haven't already. 
 
As you give to the work of the Kingdom, think of this verse. This is a promise to people who give to the work of the Kingdom. My God will meet all your needs if you give according to what the Holy Spirit leads you to give. You can literally reachout to God and ask him to meet all your needs. It is a matter of faith, and we can enter into that faith through this verse. 

My final reflection would be to say this is a very encouraging passage for people who are facing difficult circumstances in life. Some of you listening to this episode will be facing tremendous difficulties in your own life, tremendous suffering. It might be suffering for the gospel, in your family, financial or health problems, or civil unrest in your country. All sorts of issues may be going on in your life, but this passage is for you if you are facing difficulties because Paul writes it as someone who faced similar severe difficulties and he found faith and trust in God, and most wonderful of all, peace in God. He gave up trying to control his life; he trusted that God would direct him even if the circumstances were very difficult. He will do exactly the same for you as you reach out to him and trust him, and as you commit everything to him in prayer and overcome anxiety by prayer. 

Thank you for listening. We have had nine wonderful episodes together in two series in our studies in the Collection on the book of Philippians for Word Online. 

I hope you will join us for other books of the New Testament and come back and join us in Word Online sometime soon.