Christ Church Leavenworth
Philippians 1:1-11
September 20, 2026
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OT READING: Daniel 2:31-45
NT READING: Acts 16
Intro to Philippians
READING OF THE TEXT
Our text this morning is Philippians 1:1-11, these are the words of God
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with 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 all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first 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 in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.
PRAYER
Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your Word. Help us to hold it in high esteem, persuaded that by it we live and not by bread alone. Fill us now with Your Spirit that we might hear Your Word for what it is and apply it like our lives depend upon it. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
INTRODUCTION
Good morning! Today we are beginning our study of Paul’s epistle to the church at Philippi, commonly referred to as Philippians. Our study will take us up to the first Sunday of Advent where we will begin a four week walk through the Chalcedonian Creed. And in between, of course, we will have a break, as is our tradition at CCL, for Reformation Sunday, where Steve Wilkins will be our guest speaker. So, that’s a preview of what’s to come. This morning, we will be reviewing the background of the book of Philippians and then diving into the first eleven verses of chapter one.
CONTEXT: WHO, WHOM, WHERE, WHEN, AND WHY?
Let’s begin with the who, what, when, where, and why. The author, as already mentioned, was the apostle Paul and his partner in crime, Timothy. The original recipient, as the name implies, was the church at Philippi, which was a Roman colony located in Macedonia, or modern day Greece. Philippi was established as a retirement community for Roman soldiers. So, while it was geographically part of the old Greek order, it was culturally nearer to the Roman order of its day, and due to its demographics, that meant the militaristic part of Roman culture. Philippi had more in common with Mars, the Roman God of War, than it did with Mars Hill, the place where Greeks argued about the gods. This letter is one of the four often referred to as “the prison epistles,” the others being Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, all of which were penned while Paul was in the pen. While he does not directly identify the prison from which he wrote this particular letter, there is good reason to believe that it was written from a jail cell in Rome around the year 62 AD, roughly five years before his beheading at the hands of Nero in 67 AD. Take note: beheaded, not crucified – crucifixion was for foreigners, and Paul, as you may recall, was a citizen, which is why he was in a Roman prison to begin with – he, as a citizen of Rome, had appealed to Caesar.
Paul’s mention of the imperial guard in 1:13 and Caesar’s household in 4:22 provide additional support of the idea that this letter was written from Rome. So, putting all of that together, the book of Philippians is a letter written from Rome by a Roman to a community of retired Roman soldiers. That makes this, perhaps, the most Roman letter in the NT, which is really saying something, considering there is a letter in the NT literally called Romans.
That said, consider the themes that dominate this letter: glory, honor, death, and duty. Paul appeals to the very best of what Roman culture had to offer; and then he reveals how it, even in all its glory, is no better than a hot pile of something a dog does on the sidewalk when compared with the glory of Christ. It is not a sin to aim at glory, it is a sin to fall short of it. All have sinned in striving for glory? No. All have sinned in wanting glory? No. All have sinned, how? By falling short of the glory of God. The glory of Rome, even when it rose to its full height, could not reach Heaven, even on tippy toes. Rome was not wrong to seek glory and honor, it was wrong for settling for its own glory. It was wrong for not reaching beyond its own grasp. Rome was too low of a target. If modern men reportedly think about the glory of Rome at least once a day, the Philippians thought about it even more. They lived in the midst of its glory and were themselves retired soldiers which means they saw and survived glorious battles. If anyone had something to boast about, it was these men. And if those men were convinced that Christ was better than what they had, how much more must we, who daydream about Rome, confess that Christ is better than the glory of our American dreams?
Consider our OT reading from this morning. In it we saw that Nebuchadnezzar was given a vision and that Daniel was given its interpretation. The Babylonians would give way to the Persians who would be overcome by the Greeks who would be conquered by the Romans. And during the reign of Rome, the Messiah would be carved out from the mountain of God and He would smash Rome into pieces. He would be like the stone David used to slay Goliath, but unlike that rock, He would not stay buried in a dead giant’s skull. This Rock would rise from the place of the skull and then grow into a mountain that filled the entire earth. The remains of the giant would blow away like dust in the wind, but the Rock of God would go on to break all the kingdoms of men into pieces and bring every last one of them to an end. Dead giants make for great compost; and Jesus is a giant killer. Daniel 2:44 puts it like this, “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.”
Back to Philippi. It was named after Philip II of Macedon who conquered it in 356 BC. That same year he had a son. He named him Alexander and that son would go on to conquer most of the known world when he grew up. In addition to giving birth to one of the greatest conquerors of all time, Philipp II also gave birth to one of the greatest burns of all time, although he was on the business end of it. He is the one who sent word to Sparta saying, “If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city,” to which the Spartans famously responded with a single word, “If.” So, Philippi, while being a city many outside of the Christian faith have long since forgotten, had a very unique historical perspective. It had the unique privilege of being a witness to the death of the last two great kingdoms of man, Greece and Rome, and having a front row seat to the birth of the eternal kingdom of Christ.
So, that is the who, whom, what, when, and where, but what about the why? The reason for this letter is unlike many others. Paul did not write this letter to correct a doctrinal error like his letter to the Galatians, nor did he write it to answer any practical questions like his letters to the Corinthians, no, he wrote this letter simply to say, “Thank you.” The Philippians had heard of Paul’s imprisonment and decided to send him some financial support. Prisoners were not paid for by the state back then and so you needed family or friends to meet your needs or else you would perish in prison. Epaphroditus, a member of the Philippian church, was entrusted with their gift and given the task of delivering it. Paul had received it with gratitude and wrote this letter to send back with him to thank the Philippians for their kindness in remembering him and to encourage them in their Christlike concern and care for all the saints. So, this letter, in many ways, is a thank you note and as such it is one of Paul’s most friendly letters. It is filled with rejoicing for the goodness of God and His gift of good friends.
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
With that, let’s take a closer look at the first eleven verses of chapter one.
:1-2 “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul was arrested many times. Some of those times he was chained up with friends as we saw in our NT reading when he was sent to the slammer with Silas and other times his friends were free to come and visit him as we see here in this letter. Silas and Paul may have sang together, but Timothy and Paul wrote together. This letter represents their shared sentiments regarding the church in Philippi. Timothy, as you also may recall from our NT reading, was there when the church in Philippi was founded. So, they knew him and he knew them, so it makes sense for Paul to bring him up. “Hey guys! You’ll never guess who’s here!”
Consider how Paul introduces himself: “a servant of Christ Jesus.” Paul is in prison for the sake of Christ and Timothy is with Paul for his love of Paul and their shared love of Christ. They are both serving the Lord: Paul in his way, Timothy in his. We all have a part to play in the body of Christ. Paul was called to preach, and as a result, he was arrested; Timothy was called to shadow Paul, and as a result, he was with him in prison. You do not have to be the one in jail in order to be faithful, but you do have to be willing to go to jail in order to be faithful. You may be the one called to be behind bars or you may be the one called to visit the one behind bars. Both require obedience and both are easier to talk yourself out of. But faithful servants do not sass their masters, they do what they are told and they go where they are sent. The body has many members. The eyes see on behalf of the whole and the kidneys flush toxins out of the entire system and both are needed for the body to thrive. If the eyes refuse to see, the whole body is blind. If the kidneys refuse to take out the trash, the whole body is poisoned.
Consider 1 Corinthians 12:14-18 “The body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.”
So, we serve each other by serving Christ where He has placed us. He has determined the time and place of our habitation and the talents we have. We offer them to Him by offering them to the body. A body is a bunch of parts working together, but a bunch of parts disconnected from one another is a crime scene. If you came across a hand here and foot there, you would not call it a body, you would call the police. The body needs different parts working together. Everyone cannot do the same things, but everyone must do the thing God made them to do. Everybody may not be called to be arrested, but some might be, and some of us are certainly more likely to be, but the rest of us must be prepared to visit them. (Hebrews 13:3)
Paul and Timothy addressed this letter to “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.” Note the word “saint” here is not being used in the Roman Catholic sense. You cannot, strictly speaking, write a letter to a Catholic saint because in order to be “sainted” by Rome you have to be dead, and these saints were still very much alive. So, what does Paul mean by referring to them as “saints.” The word is hágios which literally means “different,” or “other,” and carries with it the figurative meaning of being “set apart.” Thus, temples and places of worship were described this way, as in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. A church is a building, but it is not just a building, it is set apart as a house of worship. The same can be said of saints. They are people, but they are not just people, they are people set apart by God. So, the term, “saint,” is unique to Christians, but not among them. In other words, all saints are Christians and all Christians are saints.
Consider 1 Peter 2:4-9 “As you come to Christ, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do… But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
So, we see the imagery of a building or body here again employed to describe the church and the title of “chosen” or “set apart ones” being applied to those who are in Christ Jesus. So, hear the Word of the Lord. Those who are in Christ are saints. What else could they be? And this isn’t just for officers in the church, this is the case for all Christians. Back to Philippians 1. Note that Paul applied the status of “saint” to the whole congregation. He adds the phrase, “overseers and deacons,” almost as an afterthought. The word for overseer here is “episcopos.” It can also be rendered as bishop. It is often used synonymously with the word “presbyteros” which is rendered elder. Note that it is plural. The church in Philippi was not governed by a monarchical bishop, not from within and not from without. It was governed locally by a session of elders and served by a band of deacons. A key takeaway here is that plurality of leadership, distribution of power, and limited government are all Christian concepts and they were present and in practice in all the churches from the very beginning. No one elder ruled his church and no one church ruled the others. In short, there were no popes in the Bible.
This principle, as it relates to the chain of command, was likely of particular interest to a community of retired soldiers where rank was a tangible reality. The rank of saint is the highest to which a man can rise and everyone enlisted in the army of the Lord receives it. As we march behind the Lord, we become more like Him, and when God looks at us, He sees Christ. And how does the Father see Him? Is there any doubt in your mind that the Father loves Him? Honors Him? Accepts Him? Is proud of Him? No. So, why is there a doubt in your mind as to how He sees you, Christian? “Because you don’t deserve that kind of praise from anyone, let alone God?” Duh! Of course you don’t. That’s why He had to die ya ding dong. Consider Galatians 2:21, “If righteousness could be gained without grace, Christ died for no purpose.” If there was any other way, do you not think God would have done it? Jesus prayed and asked His Father if there was another way. But there wasn’t. And so, He got up and He drank the cup. He submitted Himself to the cross and He surrendered His Spirit on it. But three days later, He rose from the dead and forty days after that, He ascended to the Father’s right hand. And from that place this morning, He is looking down on those who have called upon Him and what does He call them? Saints. Who are you to argue with Him?
Listen to these words from Oswald Chamber from My Utmost for His Highest, “To say ‘Oh, I’m no saint,’ is acceptable to human pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. It literally means that you defy God to make you a saint. ‘I am much too weak and hopeless, I am outside the reach of the Atonement.’ Humility before men may be unconscious blasphemy before God. Why are you not a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe God can make you one… The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us. Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.’ Say that before God; and it means – ‘No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me.’ That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.”
So, are you a saint? Yes, Christian. You are! Stop arguing with God. Stop trying to change your name. Your Father has called you to Himself through Christ, He has called you a Christian, He has called you a saint. Receive it as a gift and then get on with it! Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. (Eph 4:1) Go, in the words of Philippians 1:2, in the “grace and peace that you have from God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is Paul’s standard salutation. We see some version of it in each of his letters: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and here in Philippians. “Grace and Peace to you” is how Paul greets others in salutation. Note that the word “salutation” carries with it the idea of saluting. We tend to think of a salutation as a nice way of greeting someone, usually in a letter, whereas we think of a salute as a formal way of acknowledging someone’s rank, usually in person. In this case, it functions as both. We greet the saints and we salute them. We are all fellow soldiers in the army of God and our common marching orders are “All of Christ for all of life.” That means working out our theology wherever we are and whatever we happen to be doing while also remembering where it comes from and what fuels it. We need fresh grace every day and we have peace with God every day, because of Christ. Grace and peace are proof of the Spirit’s presence, of His ongoing work, and of His promise to continue working until the work is completed. More on that in a bit.
:3-5 “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.”
Are there people in your life that when you think of them, your first thought is gratitude to God for them? If there are, let them know. Yes, pray to God and thank Him for them, but then reach out to that person from time to time and let them know that you thank God for them. We run into some people more than others and it is easy to forget about those you don’t see very often and it is easy to overlook those you see all of the time. So, if something reminds you of someone you haven’t seen or talked to in a while, send them a short message letting them know that you thank God for them. And if you have people that you see all of the time, do not take them for granted. Let them know how much you appreciate their consistency. As Chesterton once observed, “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” This is especially true of those who partner with us in the most important things. The Philippians partnered with Paul to help him spread the Gospel. That was his calling. What are you called to and who is helping you do it? Don’t forget to thank God for both the calling He put on your heart and the help He put in your life to pursue it, and then make sure you say, “Thank you” to those who help you do what you value most.
:6-8 “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 in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
God is not like you. He does not have a long list of abandoned projects. He does not begin things that He does not finish. He does not overpromise or underdeliver. He does not get in over His head and then get discouraged. He always knows what He is getting Himself into before He gets into it, and that includes you. He was not unaware of how hard you were going to be to work with. He knew exactly what a pain in the rear you were going to be, and then He took you on anyway.
So, rest assured, He who has begun a good work in you will finish it. He will not leave you half-baked. He will not abandon you or forsake you. He is not done with you. Like a good dad, He is easily pleased and impossible to satisfy. A good dad rejoices when his two year old puts a few words together, but he wants more from him when he is twenty-two. How much more so is God like that? He is easily pleased with our first attempts to walk and talk, but He keeps pushing us to go further up and further in. He doesn’t want us to toddle around our entire Christian lives, He wants us to grow up and mature in Christ. So, you do not have to be a completed work to get into Christ, but if you are in Christ, you are a work in progress, and more to our point here, that is enough for God, for now, but He will not leave you buffering forever. He will not stop working until the work is done.
And that was true for the Philippians, it was true for Paul, it was true for Timothy, it’s true for me, and it’s true for you. We are all partakers of the same grace. Grace always does what it does best: it saves sinners, it continues to save them, and it will save them in the end. As Paul here puts it, as God is my witness, as much as you want yourself to be more like Jesus, God wants it more. By the grace of God, those who delight themselves in the LORD will have the desire of their heart. And just in case this is beginning to sound a bit sappy, Paul goes on to explain that love is not a mindless feeling in your gut, it is an intelligent decision of the will
:9-11 “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
As we already noted, God is easy to please and impossible to satisfy. So, if you have a love for God and His church and His Word, that is great. Keep it up, keep going, and keep growing. Don’t settle for yesterday’s love and do not lean upon yesterday’s faithfulness. Do not put your confidence in a decision you made five years ago, put your faith in God today. Paul is not disappointed in the Philippians’ love. He is not praying for them because they are that kind of prayer request. No, he is praying for them to grow in what they already have. He wants him to grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and others, not because they have no wisdom or stature or favor, but because he wants him to have more.
So, how does love abound? Do the feelings need to be stronger? No, the knowledge and discernment of what is excellent needs to grow. Love is not a function of emotional capacity per se as much as it is a function of discerning the mind of God. Not only in being able to discern the difference between what is excellent and what is subpar, but in being able to better appreciate that which you know to be excellent. Simply put, Biblical love has a brain. True love is disciplined.
Consider, Hebrews 5:14, “Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Discernment is a muscle. It can get stronger, but it can also atrophy. So, just as an athlete does not depend on last year’s sit-ups, so a Christian should not depend on last year’s Bible reading. Stay in shape. Did you hear the admonition? This requires constant practice. God does not want you to eat baby food your whole life. You need to learn the difference between black and white, but growing up is learning the difference between white and off white. It is more subtle and requires more knowledge, but it can be learned. That is good news. Greater discernment is a product of more practice. Did you hear that? The thing about the need to practice is that it implies that you haven’t arrived, but it also implies that you are working your way there. So, take heart if you’re not there yet, it’s ok, but take up your cross again and keep going, for in Christ, your labors are not in vain.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, thank You for taking us from where we are and not from where we should have been. We have all fallen short of the glory You deserve and yet You have loved us. While we were still Your enemies, You extended terms of peace to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son. Send Your Spirit now to help us appreciate that gift more and more and to walk in a manner that manifests an increasing dependence upon You and a cheerful obedience to Your Law.
We ask all of these things in Jesus’ name and we now offer up the words of the
prayer He taught us to pray singing…
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