“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,”
– Philippians 1:29
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know what it means that a good work has begun in you? Do you know what it means that because of the increase of your knowledge and depth of insight, that your love is abounding more and more? Do you know what it means that your actions are representing the teaching of Jesus Christ? Paul began a letter that he wrote with these assertions. Paul sent this letter to the guys and gals who were devotees in the fellowship of Christ-followers that was in the city of Philippi in the country of Macedonia. Paul spent time on his second missionary journey in the city of Philippi. The city of Philippi was a proud, prosperous Roman colony and a prominent political center. By the time that Paul visited the city of Philippi, the city of Philippi because of having a theater, acropolis, forum and baths was already a dignified, privileged city to reside in. Paul took his entourage on one of the Sabbath days that he was in the city of Philippi to a nearby river outside the city of Philippi’s gates where he found some gals worshipping. One of the gals – after hearing Paul explain the new gospel paradigm that is centered on Jesus Christ’s teachings and His sacrificial death, was led to become a believer in Jesus Christ. Lydia – who was a royal purple clothes saleslady from the city of Thyatira, then had each member of her family become a believer in Jesus Christ. After everyone in Lydia’s family was baptized, Lydia opened up her house to be the gathering center for the Christ-follower guys and gals who lived in the city of Philippi. While Paul was still in the city of Philippi, a demon possessed slave gal began to harass Paul and his entourage. After several days of being hassled, Paul in the name of Jesus Christ ordered the demon to leave the slave gal – which the demon did not have any choice but to do. Because the slave gal’s owners were making a lot of money off the slave gal’s demon’s ability to do fortunetelling or predicting the future, the guys were so mad at Paul and Silas that they hauled them off to a magistrate who had them stripped, flogged and jailed. While Paul and Silas about midnight that night were praying and singing in their inner jail cell, a violent earthquake caused their shackles to fall off them and the jail’s cells to open. Instead of escaping from their cell, Paul and Silas remained in their cell. When Paul saw that the jailer was going to kill himself with his sword, Paul hollered out to the guy to let him know that he and Silas were still in their jail cell. Instead of killing himself, the jailer cleaned the slashes that Paul and Silas incurred while they were being viciously whipped and then he took Paul and Silas to his house where his entire family was led to become believers in Jesus Christ. Your grandpaa thinks that as Paul was writing the letter that he sent to the guys and gals who were in the Christ-follow fellowship in the city of Philippi that Paul had to have been thinking of Lydia’s family, the slave gal and the jailer and his family.
Your grandpaa may never have thought of looking at the Philippians Letter in the context of who Paul sent his Philippians Letter to if it were not for a devotional that Hunter Norwood gave which your grandmaa and grandpaa heard shortly after they were accepted as missionaries in July of 1976 by South America Mission. Hunter Norwood was South America Mission’s President. Hunter Norwood was a very godly man who before he died suffered for three years with a degenerative nerve disease that first took away his ability to walk, then his ability to write, then his ability to teach and then his ability to take care of himself in anyway. But per Philip Yancey – who was one of Hunter Norwood’s son-in-laws and a well-known author, his father-in-law never stopped praying for the names on a list that filled thirty pages of a notebook. A possible reason for Paul deciding to send a letter to the guys and gals who were Christ-followers who were living in the city of Philippi may have been because of a joy issue. Paul – in Philippians 1, broaches the topic of joy in the mindset or with the viewpoint that a guy or gal should always have reason to rejoice. Paul used his own life predicament as an example of why he had reason to rejoice. Even though Paul was a prisoner in a Roman prison, Paul said that he had reason to rejoice because he had a captive audience of at least a couple thousand soldiers who had been ordered to guard him.
Have your lives ever lacked joy? Your grandpaa believes that after a guy, gal or kid becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, that he or she will have joy in his or her life, that he or she will have a good work begun in his or her life and that he or she will have knowledge lead him or her to love others more. You have a dad and ma along with extended family members who are daily modeling for you what it is to be a worthy Christ-follower. Your grandmaa and grandpaa yesterday went to a church that they had not gone to before. A guy at Adventures in Missions – which is the mission agency where your grandpaa works, is an active member at Sugar Hill Community Church. Derrell had been encouraging your grandmaa and grandpaa to attend a service at his large church which is about 45 minutes away from the house where your grandmaa and grandpaa live. Derrell’s pastor began a sermon series yesterday on the Philippians Letter. Instead of focusing on what verse 29 says, “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,” which Hunter Norwood did, Derrell’s pastor’s sermon focus was on having joy by having partnerships in a mission context. Wrong. Knowing Jesus Christ leads to knowing joy.
Philippians 1 (1139)