Your Account, Philippians, 4:15-17

Good morning. I'd like to cover a few things before we move into the Philippians passage here. I know we've tried to broadcast this in several languages, but I'll do this just in English. As many of you are probably aware, Saddam has been captured alive apparently. And if that's news to you, here's the news. But as I was looking at this, I was thinking, you know, this isn't the first time that an Iraqi has been toppled from power.

It made me think, here's Nebuchadnezzar's palace. Does that look like a palace to you? Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4 was just miles from where Saddam Hussein was captured. Daniel 4 describes how he was degraded after being the emperor of Babylon. He fell into what we term now lycanthropy, an animal-like state. It kind of reminds you of that picture. Belshazzar loses his empire in Daniel 5. did not he lose his empire as well. So real real interesting Saddam had tried to rebuild ancient Babylon as a part of a kind of a symbol of the success of his empire and now it's been well toppled.

Let's also take a look at what's going on around here. Okay, we brought this up a couple weeks back and we want to remind you again here. At the end of this month, And at the end of this quarter, we'll be finishing up the electives that we're currently involved in and starting new ones in January.

And these are the three trials and suffering that Hal is teaching. And again, if you're signing up for that, don't forget to ask for the free samples. And in Hebrews, Mike Doyle will be going through a book of Hebrews, January through June, and then I'll be teaching one in January through March on the book of Titus. So you'll have those three to pick from.

The New Testament Greek class, I understand, will be continuing. Continuing to move along on Saturday. Oh, one more thing. See that little wiggly arrow there? To remind you, just as you exit here, and immediately as you go out the door onto the left, there are three little kind of golden rod sheets of paper there. Sign on one of those, okay?

By your signing up ahead of time as to which one you're going to be choosing from, that allows us to get any materials we need to get ahead of time and make sure we have enough. It also allows us to plan appropriately for the space. We all like to have a place to sit when we go into the room to join an elective. You can help us in a big way by doing that. Yes? If you haven't ever taken a degree class before, can you start it or not?

No, it's continuing. It's continuing. Yeah, it's continuing as to when they'd start again. I have no idea. Hal, any insights on that? As you said, it's continuing. We're going to reassess in March as to what we're going to do from there. That'll be one year. Okay. Will have been a year in March. Okay, all right. Okay, all right. So any questions about they should come and see you then. Right. Okay. Good.

So anyway, I just reminder that does immediately as you exit on the left is sign up in the lobby. The other thing is next week, we'll be finishing up Philippians. about that. So we will have spent the better part of the year on it, and we'll be beginning the very last Sunday, two weeks from now, in a parallel study of Ephesians and Colossians. I'm going to call that the Tale of Two Cities.

I think it's really special and unique. It's been observed a number of times that there are similarities between the books. I've rarely heard of a parallel study where someone's actually gone side-by-side with them, and we'll be doing that. I think the idea is fascinating, and I've wanted to do that for years, and just now is the opportunity. So I think I'm excited about it, and I think you will be too.

All right, now let's move on to our Philippians passage 4, 15 through 17, and we will do it in English. One of the things to bring out here just at the outset, it's real clear from what Paul has written. He wanted to be real careful about the support from the Philippians. He wanted to be careful how he dealt with it. First of all, he wanted to make sure that he gracefully acknowledged what he'd received there. They had been very generous with their gifts.

There's no question about it. From the very outset, after he gets through saying, you know, Hi, I'm Paul, and greetings, you know, I thank my God for you. He wants from start to finish to extend his gratefulness and thanks to the Lord for their provision for Paul. He did not, however, as Helmut was making allusion to, he didn't want to come across as begging, pleading, threatening, or badgering them. This wasn't a time for coming and saying, boy, I better get it, or please, please get it to me. None of that.

Yes, this is not to be done as so many churches have fallen into. The Philippian church also, he makes it clear from this passage, seems to have a unique relationship with them. If you look at it carefully, one of the unique things about the Philippian church, they were the first church on the European continent. If you were to kind of think through that, I mean, it's really, this is the direction that they went that launched the gospel onto the European continent, and eventually we have the gospel because of that missionary effort. There was another reason why Paul wanted to be careful about how he was dealing with the support issue. Very careful.

Traveling hucksters. Now, we may not have hucksters quite like that in the New Testament times, but you get the idea. Not quite like that either. But what they did have, and it shows up in Paul's writing to the Corinthians, shows up like this. This is for we are not like many peddling the Word of God. Not going about selling it.

But then he gives this contrast and says, farther on, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Like some of these hucksters coming along with, here's my qualifications. Flaunting their own qualifications and excellence. Or do we need as some letters of accommodation to you or from you?

Going to those people that that these hucksters had worked with, asking for letters of commendation, and then taking those to the next people. He goes on there in chapter 4, 1 and 2, he talks about, in the middle of 4, 1 and 2, in verse 2, the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the Word of God, amending it, doctoring it up.

One of the other things that was a big part of the background here, there were itinerant sophists, people that would travel around. And the way these sophists would work, they would come in with very fine clothing, the very best, and they would charge a nice fee for teaching people how to be successful in life, how to speak well, and speak philosophy and things of that sort. But the problem is that some of these guys who went around, these travelling sophists, these itinerant philosophers, some of them were known as just being plain hucksters. They would come in and they would say, you know, I'm a sophist.

And they'd come in with fine clothing and they would propose, I'm going to give you this course, this tutoring. You can be my pupil. And then they would charge the fee and leave town. So Paul most certainly didn't want to be characterized as being one of these. He didn't want to be seen as sort of like the music man musical. Come into town, charge a bunch of money, and then ditch. He did not, most certainly did not want to be seen as that.

If you look at these passages we looked at in 2 Corinthians, peddling the word of God. They're out to sell something. Out to sell something. Going from one place to the next is a way of just earning money. Commending ourselves again. Plaunting what they claim to be qualifications. Look how great I am. As some letters of commendation coming with long lists of, look at all these qualifications I've got. See how great these other people say I am. The things hidden because of shame. The things that they don't want you to know about. walking in craftiness, adulterating the Word of God. Probably in our culture, the door-to-door element is largely lost, except for some cult groups that seem bound to that. It comes through the TV tube, doesn't it? We've got the same guys doing this nonsense through the TV tube.

Hucksters selling the Word of God, peddling it, and all of these characteristics even though Paul wrote this over 19 centuries ago, all of these characteristics still fit. So Paul wanted to distance himself from anything that even looked like that. These were common among the New Testament itinerant hucksters. There's also something else in this passage to look at, a little cultural surprise.

It goes like this. We work hard to train our kids to say please and thank you in our culture, right? We do that. And that's as it should be. We should be doing that. But there's a little bit of a surprise, and the surprise goes like this. In the Greek and Roman world in the New Testament times, it was not the cultural norm to say thank you about that. Doesn't that seem like a shock? It was not the cultural norm to say thank you.

We find an example in the New Testament. If you look up thank you, the only place it shows up is a few places in the Gospels and the thanks are directed to God. If you look up similar things like giving thanks or I thank, it's directed to God. It was not the cultural norm for people to say thank you or direct thanks directly to other people. Isn't that interesting? You simply do not find it in the New Testament because it was absent from the culture.

Now, having said that, Paul still felt appreciative. So how do you say thanks in a culture that doesn't understand it? How do you say thanks when to have said thanks would have been considered rather bizarre and shocking? So now you understand why the way Paul comes across, he repeatedly expresses his thanks without saying thank you, because the culture wouldn't have understood it.

At the same time, while he wants to say thanks, he also wants to avoid what I've spelled out before, and he doesn't want to look like one of these hucksters at all. So, a couple of cultural insights here. That is why, in the beginning of the book of Philippians, he starts with, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. You see that? It's okay for him to thank God, and they would understand that, so he thanks the Lord for them. That's the way he puts it. It fits with the culture of the times and what would be accepted.

Now, if we look at this passage specifically here, you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, this is where we need to say, what does he mean by first preaching of the gospel? The first preaching of the gospel obviously happened quite a ways back, even before Paul became a believer, right? But what he's referring to here, I think, if you look at it, Paul became a believer here, He took his first missionary journey here just around 40 AD, and about 10 years later the church at Philippi was founded. And now he's writing this letter over a decade after that. So it had been a decade plus since he had first preached the gospel in Philippi. That's what he's referring to there. At the first preaching of the gospel, that is, when he had first preached the gospel there at Philippi. Now, there's another little surprise in this verse, and that is what he calls them.

It may not seem shocking or interesting to us, but think about it. How do we refer to particular people? Somebody from New York, we'll call them a New Yorker. Or Guatemalans, Germans, Koreans, or Greeks. Or how about Iraqis? We have different ways of calling different groups of people, whatever national or ethnic or city background they might be from.

The interesting thing was that Paul writes this letter here. He writes, even though he's writing this letter in Greek, he knows that these people are Roman through and through. So what does he do? He Latinizes it. He uses a form, the typical form would have been Philippeus, But instead, Philip Hesioi. And so what he does is he takes the Latin form there and molds it with the Greek. And kind of coins his own term that has a Latinized form. Why? He knows they're Roman through and through. And so he's appealing to them right where they're at. Right where they're at. They would very well understand what he's doing here.

The other thing to take a look at here, he talks about leaving Macedonia. And here's Macedonia on the upper part. Philippi is right here, and Macedonia would have been in this area. Thessalonica, still within Macedonia. Greece, technically, is down here, where he eventually went to Corinth and Athens.

OK. Something else here that comes out, he talks about sharing. The Greek word translated shared here is koinoneo. We've talked about a related word before here. This is often translated to have fellowship, and the noun form of this word we've already seen twice in the book of Philippians.

Philippians 2.1, for example, if there's any, fellowship of the spirit, and the fellowship of his sufferings. This word fellowship was often used in the world of the Apostle Paul in a kind of a business sense, but what Paul frequently does is he adapts the word and uses it for spiritual intimacy. Something else that Paul does here, he talks about this phrase translated giving and receiving, and it was an accounting term used during the New Testament era.

That same phrase that he uses here was used frequently in secular documents of the time where they would talk about business transactions. They would use the same words. He's actually used accounting terms before. We saw in Chapter 4 and in Chapter 3.

So this is not unlike Paul. Now, financially speaking, if you look at it here, the Philippians were doing the giving, right? And Paul was doing the receiving. so that Paul could do his giving and the other people he was ministering to could do their receiving.

But there's something else about this term, and this phrase that translated giving and receiving was not just used in an accounting sense. It was also used metaphorically to talk about having a friendship. Isn't that interesting? When they would talk about, you know, we're good friends, we're close friends, we have a good, close, intimate relationship, they would use the same term.

It may very well be, and I think so, the way Paul has been speaking to them. He's already told them, you're dear to me. What Paul is saying is not a distance arm-length accounting term. More specifically, he's saying we have an intimate relationship with one another. So it appears he's implying this as he communicates with the Philippians. Okay, something else.

The culture didn't accommodate thank yous. They wouldn't have known how to say it or what it meant if it was said. There's no question in what Paul writes that he is very thankful to the Lord and to them for their support for his ministry. And interesting, he was thankful for that whether he was in prison or free.

Either one. The Philippians had been supporting Paul as he went on to other places, but you notice that they were uniquely doing it. You see that in the verse? You alone have been the ones doing it. There was a special and unique relationship that Paul had with these Philippian believers.

Thinking about that in terms of us here, though the Lord has in mind that we'd be involved with the church body as a whole, is it not fitting that there will be some with whom we'll have particularly close relationships? And that's okay. Paul certainly had relationships with a great many churches and a great many believers, and yet he singled out her.

He says, the relationship I have with you is a unique one. And it may well be. Even in a church that's smaller like this one is, and to me that's a wonderful thing, because it allows a contact that you couldn't have in a large, massive church, Even in this case, though, there will be those with whom we'll have closer relationships, and that's okay. That's a good thing. It was okay for Paul to have a close relationship and a special relationship with certain ones, and that's fine. No problem with that at all.

The Philippians also were very faithful, and you notice that's a characteristic of Jesus Christ himself. I give one reference here in 1911, but there's actually several places in Revelation and elsewhere where Jesus Christ himself is called faithful. And we'll see more about the faithfulness of the Philippians here shortly. The relationship that Paul had with these believers wasn't just a business and funding relationship.

It was a fellowship. It was personal. There was spiritual intimacy, even with the distance. Have you ever experienced that yourself? Had a spiritual intimacy with somebody, even though they were some distance away? You may have been through that yourself and seen that. Somebody that you only get to see once in a while, face-to-face, but there's a spiritual intimacy that maintains and stays there all along.

One of the things that we looked at when we were looking at God's intent for the Church, and it came out frequently, Ephesians 4, 11-16 spells out that the relationship among believers is not intended to be primarily an organization, but rather an organism. Do you see that? Christ is the head. We are called the body. As you look in Ephesians 4, 11-16, you see that intimacy. You see that connection between believers. We are primarily an organism, the body of Christ, not just an organization.

And Paul makes that clear as he spells his relationship out with them here. Let's look at verse 16. He says, For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Think this through here. The Greek text actually comes across like this. A lot of our translations, they're trying to figure out how do I bring this figure of speech across into English. It says in the Greek it has this sense. For even in Thessalonica, both once and twice you sent even unto the need of me. That's kind of the literal way that the Greek comes across. And we would use kind of an English vernacular, time and again. Time and again you met my need.

That's what he's saying. He's not just counting, he's communicating, you gave again and again and again. That's the expression that he's using, the colloquialism, if you will. So the Philippians supported Paul with gifts repeatedly, is the idea. You did it again and again. Time and again you sent me gifts. It's almost like I've lost count. you helped. And I needed support and you helped out. Time and again, I'm not going to count, you just repeatedly helped. Something else, the Greek here has a definite article. They didn't just meet Paul's need, he puts the definite article, you have THE need, you have met THE need.

In Philippians 2.25 he also makes reference to that, uses the same Greek word, And the same thing there, he says, THE need.

Specific. Paul has mentioned this need that he has before. And one of the things that, this is where he brings it up, where Epaphroditus is the one he's talking about. And he talks about the ministering to my need. Same word, same definite article that he brings up there. In both these passages he uses the same word, same definite article, but I think the thing for us to take a look at there, the need is specific and definite.

He's not laying something out there saying, boy, I wonder what I can haul out of these people. He's not just fishing for money. The need is specific and definite. It's real. This is something in contrast with the hucksters that are out there. Same thing with today, right? The Hucksters are just saying, what can I reel in out of these people's pockets? This says the need is real and genuine.

One of the things you might notice in the background, this is a little hard to see for the lettering, but this is the Mamertine prison in Rome. And the prisons in those days Unlike today where they would give people basic needs, you know, here's some clothing and here's some food and things of that sort, you're on your own in the prisons of those days. If somebody from the outside didn't bring things to you, you're going to be in serious trouble, even surviving. And so the need was real, the need was genuine. Paul wasn't talking about vague needs or even desires and wants. It was a real and genuine need that affected his survival.

Now, something else that becomes clear in this passage. Paul wants them fruity. Not like this. Not like this either. He wants them fruity. Literally, Paul comes out and says, not because I desire the gift, but in sharp contrast, I desire the fruit that abounds to your account. The fruit that abounds to your account.

He realizes here that he's got a need, but it's a temporal need, isn't it? He says, if I get the money from you and it ends there, yes, you've met a need, and that's nice. But he says, I am far more concerned about what's eternal. Thank you for meeting my need, if he could only say that. Thank you for meeting my need. It was a real and genuine need. But I'm not just concerned that you meet my need. as real as it is, as specific as the need is. And it is real and specific. But he was looking for something eternal, not just here and now. Their gain is eternal, and this is a key point.

They're not buying heaven. He's not speaking this way to say, look, you can buy heaven. That's not his point. Elsewhere, there are various places in scripture where we can look at and see that People can't buy their way into heaven or buy something spiritual per se. He's not trying to get across that idea at all.

But what you do see, this is because the giving that they are doing results from the life of Christ in and through them. He is looking for the life of Christ expressed through them, not for them to buy their way into some heavenly status or reward. Let's take a look here at verse 17. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. The profit is, in other translations, fruit, and that's actually literally what it is. It's real important, I think, to see here that Paul is no gold digger.

The need is real and genuine. He avoids even appearing like the various traveling hucksters of his day. He does not want to come across as one of these guys who's just out peddling and selling the gospel. One of the things that's very clear is that he makes tents for his own support where possible.

He's writing to other churches, letting them know, look, I'm not going around just trying to make money with this. That's not my point. I want to make that abundantly clear. He makes that clear to them as well. He doesn't go around beating people up for support. He doesn't do the huckster shuffle and come at people with different means of trying to sell things. This is no marketing gimmick.

And then one of the things we see most of all, he applies to himself what he's told them already. He's not being hypocritical here. A couple of chapters back, he said, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. He is grateful that they have seen that by providing for his need, and he is asking them also to look out for needs of others, and he is also telling them, that's what I'm doing as well. I'm not asking you to do anything that I'm not doing. I'm out here ministering the gospel, he says, because I'm looking out for others' interests, not because I'm trying to make a quick... I was going to say buck, but that's not the right word. They wouldn't know what that was. But make some quick money.

He says, I seek for the profit which increases to your account. You see, look at what Paul's focus is. I think that's what's critical here. Paul isn't asking, gee, what's in this for me? What can I get out of this arrangement? Instead, he's asking, what's in it for you? Now, one of the things we've got to make clear here, he uses a phrase that actually refers to compound interest. But when we bring out these questions, I think one of the things to look at, he's focusing on a perspective, isn't he?

A lot of people will come into families or churches, and the question that they're asking, the perspective that they have, is what's in it for me? What's in it for me? People will come into a church and they're instantly assessing, what's in it for me? Apparently one survey was done and most people when they come into a church and it's new to them, they decide within the first 11 seconds whether or not they're going to come back. It's interesting. People are assessing, what's in it for me?

That's the question that a great many are asking. But the life of Christ and the believer has this view. It's a question of perspective. What will build my family up spiritually? What will build up the body of Christ? One of the points that we covered in some of the electives is what's the purpose of the church? The building up of the body of Christ. The perspective that the believer has is what will build up the body of Christ, biblically. What's going to build up the body, not what's in it for me? What will be the spiritual and eternal benefit for those with whom God has placed me?

Now, this is not the same as asking, what would Jesus do? Why not? It isn't a matter of saying, okay, here's a list of good things to do, and sure, I can do that. It's all too easy for the flesh to ask this question and come up with the answer and the solution.

Instead, this question comes from the mind of Christ. This perspective comes from the mind of Christ. That's what he's spelling out. The very life of Christ is what brings this perspective, not just asking these questions and trying to externally fulfill them. These questions are not asking us to just simply imitate Christ. They flow from His life. They flow from His life through and in us, because we're beholding Him.

You've heard, remember the Alamo, and a few other things you're supposed to remember. And the older I get, the harder it is. But, remember Freneo. Remember our citizenship. That's what He's been telling them all the way along. He's, in every chapter, brought up this word Freneo. He has, from the first chapter, talked about their citizenship. He's talked about their citizenship in the third chapter. You're citizens of heaven. He's brought it up again in the Book of Life, which is the list of citizens in the fourth chapter. He keeps coming back to these points.

Why? The real issue here isn't asking what would Jesus do, or even what would Paul do? Somebody else has written a book, what would Buddha do? Who cares? The point is it's not who's going to do what. He wants the believers in Philippi and you and I here at Holly Hills to have a mindedness that comes from recognizing the position that we have in Christ in the heavenlies. That's the bottom line. That's what this account issue is all about. That's what the fruit is all about. Not buying heaven. Not buying heaven. But it's the mindedness. That's what he is going for, the perspective that comes from recognizing what our position is, and beyond that, who our position is with. We are in Christ, in the heavenlies. Let's look at this expanded and explained section here. You have it on page 2 on your handout.

You yourselves also are in fact well aware of Philippians of Rome. that at the first preaching of the Gospel in Philippi after I left Macedonia, where Philippi is located, no church shared as a fellowship with me in the friendly interactions of giving and receiving but you Philippians, your relationship with me being so special. For even while we were in Thessalonica, not even having left Macedonia yet, You sent multiple gifts that precisely met my specific and genuine need." Isn't that neat? Precisely met my specific and genuine need.

Verse 17, Please understand that I am not in the habit of seeking the gift that you send as an end in itself, but in sharp contrast. Those of you who are taking the Greek class, Allah. Allah means sharp contrast. But in sharp contrast, I habitually seek for the spiritual fruit which increases to your spiritual account, so that you may grow spiritually and be eternally rewarded for being used of the Lord by virtue of His life in you and being expressed through you."

You see, Paul, as you look at this thing, the things that our world looks at and gets disgusted by, they see the telemarketers and they see them as hucksters. They'd say, you know, this guy's crazy. My son Randy was watching one of these guys and he watched them for an hour and kept track. Every 11 minutes the guy rolled out with another appeal for money was the average that he came up with. Sounds like about the frequency of commercials, doesn't it? So the guy's asking for money, asking for money, asking for money.

Paul is standing well apart from that. Instead he says, that's not the issue. He says, ultimately, bottom line, I am grateful for the gifts you have given, but more than that, I long to see you grow spiritually. I long to see you grow in the Lord. I long to see you stand in your position. I long to see you recognize your blessings in the heavenlies, 100%. That's what he's telling them. That's what I long for. Even while I'm here in prison, I can't go anywhere, I'm chained to a Praetorian guard. That's what I long for. That's what I seek more than anything else.

So as we look at this passage here, next week we'll wrap up the last verses of Philippians and see the very end of it. I think it's marvelous to see what Paul is communicating to these people. The book is so full of rejoicing. The book is so full of conveying his thankfulness to them, even though the culture won't let him say thank you. Even though the culture doesn't understand it or allow it. Paul is giving his appreciation to the Lord and to them. And as he continues to talk to them, he says, I am so appreciative of your gift.

I need it. It's real. The need is real. And yet, he says, my heart all along is I long for your spiritual growth. I long for you to know where your citizenship is. I long for you to know the one who humbled himself that you would see him not just as an example to follow in a fleshly mode, but to see his humility and have that life of humility flow through you. His life, not yours.

Let's pray. Lord, what a marvelous thing you've done here. Paul could have dealt with this matter of money very superficially. He could have just hit upon it and mentioned it, even spelled out the amount, the dollar amount, as we would say. And yet he does not do that.

He sees instead the special relationship that he had established with the Philippians and that you had put upon the Philippians' heart. He sees instead, Lord, the opportunity for them to grow spiritually as he maintained his relationship with them. We thank you for the truth pouring out of this passage. We thank you for the lessons of heart and lessons of mind that are there for us. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.