Transcript
We get to look at the final words of the Apostle Paul to that church. You know, as far as we know, this is the last letter Paul ever wrote to a church. Following this, we believe he wrote 2 Timothy, that's a letter to a young man that he cared a great deal about, a man who'd been like, almost like a son to him. But as far as a letter to a church, these would be the final
words of the Apostle Paul. And they are, words that are like a valedictory. And I want us to look at those as we do our exposition today. Look at verse 10, we'll start there in chapter 4. These are marvelous sentences and whimsical and exciting. Listen to Paul. I rejoice in the Lord greatly, now at length, that you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. What he's referring
to there is that Paul is now in Rome, in the Roman prison, but for two years he was in Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, in the basement prison area of the Roman governor that stayed, who rented that Mediterranean home from Herod, the house of Herod. And there was a prison there, and Paul was kept in that prison. And he was there incommunicado. You can read about it in the book of Acts. And then he made his
appeal to Rome, and they sent him by prison ship. Remember the great ship incidents that occurred as Paul was taken to Rome, and then the Philippians found out where he was, and they sent Epaphroditus to help him. That's what he's referring to. But then that triggers a wonderful thought from Paul. Look at this. Not that I complain of want, for I have learned, and the word learn here means literally I've learned by practice, or I've learned
by experience. I have learned from experience. That's the way you could translate that word here. For I have learned from experience. In whatever state I am to be content, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Paul, in other words, says I can eat lobster, and I don't feel guilty about it, and on the other hand, I can have this gruel there serving me here in the prison, and well, it's not that
bad. In other words, he says I can take both. That's what he means. That's a mark of a healthy person. I can eat lobster, or I can eat gruel. In other words, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret. Now, the little word he uses here is only in this spot in the whole New Testament, nowhere else in the New Testament, and he's
using a phrase that every first century reader would understand, but I need to interpret to you a little bit. The phrase he's using is a phrase that was commonly used in the Greek problem of mystery cult religions to refer to initiation rite. So what he's saying is I have learned the initiation rite. I have learned the religious rite or the religious secrets. That's the phrase he's using. It's sort of like some of you in this room
may belong to secret orders in which you have initiation rites or you have some secret password that has association with your movement. Both of my grandfathers were 32nd degree masons. I'm not a mason myself, but I know they had secrets in the masons, and I never learned what those secrets are. My mother was Eastern Star. She would never even tell me Eastern Star secrets, so they were. They were secret codes. My son joined a fraternity, went
to college, and I knew because I watched him and I knew he had a secret handshake because he would meet those other SAE friends and they would have this secret handshake, but I never learned it, and naturally being a perfect father would never try to invade his privacy. No, I did my best to try to learn that secret handshake, but he would not show me that secret handshake. Maybe someday when he becomes cynical about fraternities he
will, but he isn't now. No, he wouldn't do it because that's his secret rite, and that's the little phrase Paul uses, and every first century reader would understand it, that there are secret rites, and he says, I learned the secret rite, the secret handshake. I learned the secret to facing plenty and hunger. Would you like to know that secret, by the way? Not bad to know. I've learned the secret of facing plenty, hunger, abundance, and want,
and here comes his great line, I can do all things in him who strengthens me, and the hymn here refers to Jesus Christ, who is, of course, governing this whole passage. By the way, the word do here could be translated, I can take in stride all things. That's his secret. I can take in stride all things through Jesus Christ, who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble, and you Philippians yourselves
know that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church, hey, think of this, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. You know, that's astounding. The Apostle Paul, how many churches did Paul start? In Galatia, in Macedonia, in all these Roman provinces, at least 20 that the Apostle Paul had a hand in starting. And some were huge and prosperous, like Corinth and Ephesus. And do you realize,
according to what Paul's saying here, only one church remembered him and sought him out when he was in prison? Some track record. And yet he's writing like a man who's full and rich, not a man who's impoverished with lousy friends who let him down. Because he had one friend. Look at your own list of friends. Did you bat that well, one out of 20? Are you grateful for one out of 20? Paul is. What an amazing
guy. There's no bitterness here at all to the 19 who forgot all about him, like the Corinthians and the Ephesians. They forgot about him, but not the Philippians. He's just grateful that they didn't. I love his point of view. And you Philippians yourselves know the beginning of the Gospel, and I left Macedonia. No church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. For even in Thessalonica, that's the capital of Macedonian province, you
sent me help once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. Something about their gift has a multiplying effect. For I have received... Now listen to this line. Watch this line, folks. It's very interesting. I have received full payment and more. I am filled. Notice, he doesn't say half filled. He doesn't say I have a half cup. By the way, notice no fishing here for more aid
from the Philippians. Paul is, in a sense, setting the Philippians free. He isn't saying... Notice what he doesn't say here. He doesn't say, thanks for all you've given. And by the way, in the next shipment, would you please include a few more things? And a more healthy missionary to come, too, by the way. Won't get sick on me. Notice there's none of that. There's no fishing here for more. Isn't it marvelous when somebody actually says a
nice, clean thank you to you and there's no and by the way or something like that? Just a nice, clean thanks. And that's what he does with the Philippians. He says, not that I seek a gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I've received full payment and more. I am filled. Not half filled. I'm filled. Having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
In other words, you have done enough. And Paul sets him free. And then comes one of the most famous of all Paul's lines. And I'm glad it's here in this place. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Last week I was so touched when Bruce Walker shared in the Sharing Time that he made a discovery, he and Judy made a discovery that you cannot out give
God. And Paul here is saying the same thing to the Philippians. You cannot out give God. That's true. My God supplies every need. And he does it by surprise. And then he says, to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. And now we have the amen which closes the book. Except that it was Paul's tradition to take the pen in his own hand. He tells us this in two different places in the New Testament
writings of his. That it was his policy to take the pen and write a final greeting. In fact, in the Galatian letter, he says, see with what large letters I write this final greeting. He had bad eyesight, so Paul had a huge scroll. Someday, wouldn't it be great if we found a manuscript that has a large final greeting? Maybe we would have an original Pauline, then we'd have the original document. But anyway, he takes the pen,
he writes a final greeting. So now we get Paul himself writing this final greeting. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you. Especially those of Caesar's household. Little clue there, folks. Some scholars think that Paul is deliberately giving a clue to the Philippians as to where he is. There are five prisons, we know, in Rome. Five prisons for political prisoners and other kinds of
prisoners that Rome kept. And one of the Roman prisons was actually in the basement of the Via Villa where Nero himself lived on the edge of the Forum. And is Paul giving a clue that that's the prison he's in? Because he says, Caesar's household. Send greetings. Think of it. In the basement of Nero's palace, while Nero is cavorting and doing horrible things in the upper floors and in that city, Paul is one by one winning Roman
soldiers to Christ. So that there are saints in Caesar's household sending a greeting to the Philippians. What a guy. So he says, especially those of Caesar's household. Send a greeting. And then the last line of the book of Philippians, maybe the last line Paul ever wrote to a church. The grace, that means a surprise gift love, of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your wind. The word spirit, numa, means wind, your spirit. Be with you. All
right. Paul in this passage has shared a secret with us. And I want us to explore that secret for our final study of the book of Philippians. Paul is unflappable. We saw that when he gave advice to the Philippians. In the very beginning of the book, he told the Philippians not to be startled, to be unflappable. Remember when I mentioned that way in the beginning of the series? By the way, that next week in my office,
someone came up and put this little, this is a European road sign. You know how the road signs have the diagonal line, which means no, like no parking, no turning, no nothing. And someone took a red sign and wrote flappable and then put a no diagonal on it. And this I had posted in my wall for a long time in my office to try to keep me peaceful. And because there was something about Paul, there's something
about Paul that makes him unflappable. We see it here in this passage. He said, I can be abased, I can abound. I've learned the secret to handle all these things. Earlier in this very fourth chapter, he advocated to the Philippians that they'd be gentle. Remember that word? We did a word study of it last week, and I pointed out that the word gentle that he uses there, let all men know your forbearance, your gentleness, is the
same word that would be used for relaxation in Greek or to use two modern words, mellow or cool. He says, let everybody know you're cool. Be cool. This is not, you know, chill. This is not a time to go around hysterically panicking, like Lord Ronald who leaped on his horse and rode madly off in all directions. We don't need that. Our country doesn't need it either. The inner cities don't need it. We need some unflappable people.
We need people that can take things in stride. And Paul is the person that can do this. There's no question about it. Otherwise, he'd be sitting in Nero's prison just fretting and fuming, and still he keeps his sanity. Terry Waite kept his sanity in prison. And Sutherland, they kept their sanity. It's amazing how they do it. How do you keep unflappable? And the Apostle Paul does it. And he has a secret. Now, what is the secret
that keeps him mellow? What is the secret that enables him to take life in stride? I see four clues in this fourth chapter. There are probably more, but let's just reflect on the four. The first one appeared right at the beginning of the fourth chapter after he told the Philippians to be cool, to be mellow. The Lord is at hand. And then he said, Have no anxiety about anything, but with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known to God, and then the peace of God will keep you. And that was his first clue. Paul stays unflappable because he prays a lot. Do you? Do I? Well, Paul does. And I'll tell you, that's how he keeps cool. There's something about prayer. Notice the way he puts it. With prayer, supplication. By the way, the word supplication means thinking things through with God. And thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Which is just another word for
happiness. Thanksgiving. Supplication, prayer. That's how Paul keeps unflappable. He prays a lot. There is something about prayer that keeps us mellow. There's something about prayer that keeps us alert. These are just the rewards we have. From turning our eyes upon Jesus Christ, praying, being thankful to him. And that is the first clue we have. Paul prayed for a lot of people. He begins every single letter he writes by telling the people that he's writing to that
he prays for them. He ends every letter with prayer. He ends the letter to the Romans. The last chapter of Romans is like the New York phone directory with 37 names of people he's praying for. All these people he knows very well because he's praying for them. And that's one of the ways Paul keeps unflappable is that he keeps asking for God's help. He keeps praising God, opening himself up to God. Okay? Secondly, the second thing
came in the second paragraph of the fourth chapter. We looked at it last week where he says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, remember this paragraph from last week, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And then the God of peace will keep you. Again, he brings up the God of peace. Do you
know the second way Paul keeps unflappable is that he focuses. He focuses deliberately. He deliberately decides to focus his attention on great truths in the face of hostile and dangerous truths. And that's how you keep yourself in perspective. That's how you... This is the great Biblical meditation tradition we have. When I did my seven weeks on the Psalms of the Old Testament on Wednesday nights, I pointed out to the Wednesday night group here that we have
a meditation tradition in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's not the tradition of emptying your mind, which I realize a lot of people that think meditation means you empty your mind with some sort of mantra and you kind of try to have an empty head. And then great ideas are supposed to come into your head. Listen, that's how demons come into your head sometimes too. An empty head, that's not our tradition. That's good if you want to
be hypnotized, but not if you want to keep your head clear. We don't have an empty meditation tradition. We have a focusing meditation tradition. We focus our brain. We focus our thoughts on the great facts about God. God's faithfulness and his goodness, those are the two great facts in the Old Testament that we are to focus our brain on. And it keeps us in the dark hours. Our Dr. Munger used to say, don't forget in the
dark what you saw in the light. And the focusing tradition we have is to remember in the darkness what we saw in the light. And to focus your brain on what you know to be true. And that's our, that's how Paul keeps unflappable. It's how a surgeon can keep doing surgery when there are a bunch of students watching over his or her shoulder. By focusing on the job and on what that person knows and what needs
to be done in that situation. It's how an auto mechanic at five o'clock in the afternoon can concentrate on fixing your car when about seven tourists are saying, is it about done, is it about done, I got to get to a meeting. Have you ever wondered how a mechanic can keep his eye on the job and do it? It's focusing. And that's the tradition that Paul now once again reminds the Philippians of. He keeps his
mind focused. Third, the third is this wonderful line we had here where he says, I have learned. I have learned in route the faithfulness and the goodness of God by experience. There is simply no substitute for learning by experience. By learning in your discipleship journey with ups and downs to learn about God's faithfulness. To learn what you need to know that keeps you again balanced. You know, we have a Christian faith in which we must practice
and in which we must do what we know. And when we do what we know, one of the great benefits we get is we learn, we learn a kind of confidence in ourselves. You know, this is the principle in all athletics. The principle in every single art form is you get confidence in what you're doing. You become unflappable by experience. That's why actors and singers rehearse and rehearse and rehearse. They do it until finally, I remember
once I was in a show and the director said to me, my lines were not coming out fast enough. He says, I want your lines to come so fast that if I stand here and throw a chair at you, you come right out with your lines. It doesn't even stop your lines. You've got to know your lines so well by practice, practice, practice. And it's an amazing thing that when you do that and when you put
into practice what you know, you then begin to get more confidence and it's also true that by the discipleship journey of the Apostle Paul, he says, I've learned how to be abased and I've learned how to abound. You know, the worst thing about any abasement experience is worrying about it. Once you're actually in it, it's usually not as bad as you thought it was going to be. It's fantasizing about rattlesnakes are worse than actually facing rattlesnakes.
I know it's true. When you face something that you're frightened of, it's not as hard actually to face it as what goes through your brain when you're thinking about what it might be like before you face it. And that's what Paul is trying to help the Philippians to know. When I actually got into my journey, I made the discovery of God's faithfulness and it wasn't as bad. It wasn't as bad to be abased as I thought
it was going to be when I thought about it. And then when I actually experienced it, I became unflappable. By the way, that's one of the strong arguments in favor of actually putting yourself at risk and teaching a Sunday school class. Putting yourself at risk and getting involved in one of the inner-city ministries of this church. Putting yourself at risk and actually tithing. You know what you discover? That when you actually do it, you begin
to develop self-confidence and you become unflappable by doing. Now, the fourth. God has blessed Paul through people and for that he's grateful. And it's that gratitude that is the biggest reason that Paul can relax. Notice what he said. It was kind of you to share in my trouble and through Epaphroditus I received all these wonderful gifts you gave me. And it's this that he says, I receive full payment and more. I am filled. And because
of that, I am unflappable. He experienced God's goodness through these friends. And that's the biggest reason why Paul can relax. Have you had that experience in your life where you've experienced something good through a gift that God gives you through someone else and it enables you then to relax? Can I tell you a true story? In 1976, my wife and I took our three children and we went on a big trip. I've written a lot of
books and my philosophy has been to do study leaves and go away and write these books. And when our kids were growing up, we always took our kids with us. And one of the big adventures we had was to go on this study leave in 1976. And we went to the Philippines and then we ended up in Australia where I wrote my commentary on the Gospel of John. And we wanted to go on this trip especially
so that our children could go back to Manila where they were born. Because it had been six years and we left Manila in 1970 so they had never seen Manila. So we went to Tokyo and then to Manila and then to Australia where we ended up doing the main part of the study leave. And just as we left Berkeley to go, we have some friends that are down the street that are kids the same age as
our kids and I can tell you their name because I actually used this illustration of them in a book I wrote because it made such an impact on me. And their names are Louise and George Spani. They're our age exactly and their three children are exactly the same age as our three children. So our kids have grown up together in the same schools and everything. And as we were leaving to go, Louise Spani, who's one of
my wife's prayer partners, came over to our house and said as we left, oh here surely is $100. She gave us a check for $100. Just use it on your trip somewhere. And that was amazing, $100. So we incorporated that into our travelers checks and we were just so grateful for that. And we left and went on our trip. Didn't think much more about it. We went to first stop was Tokyo. And then we went to
Kyoto. And in Kyoto there was a Japanese family that were friends of friends of ours in Berkeley that we connected with. And they were just wonderful man and his wife and two children. And they took us to the zoo. And we had this wonderful time in the zoo. And then after we came back to the hotel we were staying, and I very generously said, let's all have tea in the lobby. So we had four, but this
is going to be our first experience of Japanese inflation. And this is 1976. We had four cups of tea. I'm not kidding you. This is exactly the truth. Four cups of tea and four Coca-Colas. Or five for the children. Our three children and two of theirs. And we sat there in the lobby and that's all we had. No cookies. No nothing. Just we didn't want to spoil anybody's appetite for dinner. And so we just had
four cups of tea and five Coca-Colas. And then they said goodbye. I got the bill. I didn't look at it, you know particularly. And then I looked at the bill after they left and it was seventy-five dollars. And I was, this is our first day in Japan and we've already used up most of our money on our trip. And I we're going to be absolutely broke. And I was so shocked. But then I, we
were talking about it afterward. We said to our, my Shuri and I said to each other, oh yeah but that's right. The Spani's gave us a hundred dollars. That we didn't even count on. That was extra. So, we felt better. We relaxed. Notice it makes you relax. And we didn't even worry about that. Then we went on to Manila. And in Manila we ran into some people that we knew and some old friends and we discovered
a family that had some hard times. And we wanted to give them a gift. So then Shuri and I were thinking, well what can we give them? What gift should we give them? And so we said, well I'd kind of like to give them a hundred dollars. Well, yeah. But then we thought, oh just a second. We still had the Spani money. Because the Spani's gave us that money and we would have had to take these
friends to tea anyway. And that seventy five dollars we would have had to spend anyway. So we still have the hundred dollars the Spani's gave us. And so we spent it. And we felt really good about it. Well, you know, that became a kind of, it is a Palmer legend to this day for my children. For the rest of that trip, we gave out that Spani money about twenty more times. Because we could always figure it
out. We would have to spend it. And if they hadn't given us that gift, we would have had it anyway. So now we still have it. And do you know, do you know to this day, my children are using the Spani money too. And it's, I think it's one reason, my kids are generous, is because we still have the Spani money. And do you know something? I think that's what Paul's talking about here. He says, not
that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases. When they gave a gift, it started to multiply. And when you give a gift to someone, when you send a letter to someone and put in a little money, or you put in something of yourself to someone, it has a multiplying effect. It makes them generous. It makes them relax. Because they realize that now somebody cares about them. And it loosens them up. And that's
a secret to generosity as I see it. It's a Thanksgiving lifestyle. It's to know that God has blessed us. And now we can let the nations know. Did you hear that Psalm, Psalm 67? That's what the Psalm said today. God is generous to us. He has blessed us. Now let the nations know. Start spreading it around. And that's what we learn. And oh by the way, there's one P.S. in the book of Philippians that we
can't end the book without. I love it. Paul says, oh by the way, blessings on all of you and those in Caesar's household send blessings too. What's the matter Nero? Can't you keep Paul under control? Here you have this guy that you can hardly see. Cataracts in his eyes probably. They said that he didn't look very good. He wrote weighty letters, but when you see him you won't be impressed. That's what the Philippians said, that's what
the Corinthians said about Paul. And there he is in jail. Imprisoned. And right under Nero's nose, he's winning Nero's soldiers to Christ. Why can't Nero keep him under control? There are two reasons why. Because Jesus Christ is alive. And because Paul is unflappable. Heavenly Father, thank you for this text. Thank you for this book. Thank you that the Apostle Paul has turned our eyes toward Jesus Christ. It's been so exciting to realize how good Jesus Christ
is. And to realize that we can share that goodness with the world. Lord help us to do it. May we share your goodness with our generation. All these things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.