Sermon series: A love letter from jail
Sunday's message: To be able to do all things
Philippians is a love letter from jail. Paul writes and speaks of his “imprisonment and… the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” Yet it is not by any means and embittered letter. It is steeped in a conspicuous love of a pastor for his congregation.
Come join us, and let Paul’s love letter flow into your soul.
This week's passage is a self-contained passage, to the point that some have though it's a separate letter attached later to our Philippians.
It's an odd kind of a thank-you note. Paul acknowledges gifts sent to him via Epaphroditus. He almost says, finally you got around to it! Then he says they really had no earlier opportunity. Then he says he didn't really need the gift anyway. Then he calls them kind for sending it. How would you feel if you received such a thank-you note?
Next comes a real compliment. When he left Macedonia, only the church at Philippi was supporting him and his ministry. And they have seen to his needs more than once. Then once again Paul almost pulls the compliment back by saying that he really didn't ask for the help. But they did help him, and the gift did accomplish something that really does matter to him: the "profit" of the spread of the gospel, a profit which accumulates to the "account" of the Philippians. Finally he says that he has been paid in full — a commercial phrase, odd in the context of a thank-you note — and that he now has more than enough and is fully satisfied. (Gee, that's nice!) But then: "the gifts you sent [are] a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." Finally, that sounds like a real compliment. And it is followed by a blessing: "And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
The well-known phrases from this passage are parenthetical to the thanks which Paul is stumbling through:
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.We will spend some time Sunday on those verses. Often our obiter dicta, what we write and say "between the lines", are as important as the point we're trying to make. So here with what Paul says on his stumbling way through his thank-you note. "I can do all things..." Really? Are you not in jail? Possibly on death row?
More about all that on Sunday morning. I'll see you there.
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