Philippians 1:6: God Won’t Give Up on You.

INTRODUCTION

My favorite of all St. Paul’s letters that are included in our Bible is his letter to the church at Philippi.

Philippi was one of the first cities in Europe that Paul visited. Philippi is in Greece.

During Paul’s first visit, he and his missionary partner Silas were arrested, stripped, whipped with rods, and thrown into prison.

How they got out of that prison is an exciting story. I will tell you about that another time. But if you don’t want to wait, you can read all about it in Acts, chapter 16.

After Paul and Silas were released from prison they left Philippi, but the believers in Philippi never forgot them.

The Philippian Christians were some of Paul’s greatest supporters. They prayed for him and sent him gifts of money to help him with his work for God.

His letter to the Philippians was written to thank them for their generosity.

At the beginning of his letter he says, “I thank God every time I think of you.” Here’s  the way he begins his letter:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,

with the overseers and deacons:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you,

constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you,

because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Wouldn’t you like to be on St. Paul’s daily prayer list?

Paul was a great man of prayer and in his prayers he named people—lots of people—including some of his friends at Philippi.

When he writes, “…because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now,” he is thanking them for their prayers and their financial support of his work from the first day that church met and in the ten or so years after he had left.

But then comes the part I want to talk about this afternoon. He writes, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

I. Paul had hundreds of friends in many, many cities in which he had preached and founded churches. Paul often thought about his friends who were far away—friends whom he hadn’t seen for years. Most of them he would never see again on this earth.

A. Paul was often anxious about his new converts. Sometimes they disappointed him.

Some of the new Christians would go on well for a time and then drift away from the Lord.

It was difficult to live for Jesus. There were many hardships and temptations for new believers. Some of the friends, whom he had won to Jesus, disappointed him.

He wrote in a letter to another church: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are still living in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

To some Christian believers who had disappointed him, he wrote: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6).

B. But others of his spiritual children were friends to the end. Paul wasn’t anxious about his friends in Philippi.

He committed them to God, confident that they would keep on in the faith to the end of the road. That is why he wrote that he was confident that God, who had begun a good work in them, would bring it to completion.

There are two ways to look at Paul’s words:

1. He was telling them that as a church he was persuaded that they would continue faithful to Jesus, even until they meet Jesus in glory.

2. But his words can also be taken as assurance to the individual believers in that church fellowship, that they will continue faithful to Christ until they meet him in glory.

Today we will take it in the second sense and see in it a promise to each of us. We may desert God, but God will never desert us.

II. It is not automatic that everyone who responds to God’s call in the gospel will continue on the path of obedience and faith.

A. Jesus told a parable about this. He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a sower who went into his field to sow seed. Some fell on the path and was eaten by birds. Some fell on stony ground, and sprouted but withered and died. Some fell among thorny weeds and, although it germinated and grew, was finally choked out by the weeds. And some fell on good soil and made an abundant harvest.

Some of the new believers were like the seed that fell on stony ground, and germinated quickly and just as quickly died. Others were like seed that fell on ground among weed seeds that germinated and finally choked out the new plants. Jesus said that the weeds were like the pleasures, and cares, and riches of the world that sometimes choke out the Word of God in our hearts.

By this Jesus taught his disciples that there would be many disappointments.

Some seemingly promising believers drop out along the way.

I have seen this several times in my life. Friends who loved Jesus have lost interest in the things of God and their faith has withered. They have forsaken Christ.

B. So when I read these words, “ I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” I take it as a promise that God will never let me go, but will hold me in his grip, all the way, even to the very end

Sometimes older believers worry: “What if I become forgetful?” “What if I become confused?” “What if the pain becomes so great I can’t even pray?”

A Norwegian pastor named Ole Hallesby wrote this in his book on prayer:

“When I stand at the bedside of friends who are struggling with death, it is blessed to be able to say to them, ‘Do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at this moment. All that is within you cries out to him. And he hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to him with groanings which cannot be uttered. But if you should have an occasional restful moment, thank God that you already have been reconciled to him, and that you are now resting in the everlasting arms.’” (Ole Hallesby, Prayer, p149)

When you are discouraged, try, as you are able, to think of yourself resting in the powerful arms of Jesus.

He is with you, even if you do not feel him to be with you.

When you become anxious, try to remember that when you pass through that door that leads from this world to the world to come, you will fall into the arms of your Lord Jesus.

III. So what is the work that God will bring to completion at the day of Jesus Christ?

A. We will become like Jesus—not, of course, that we will be able to work miracles or walk on water—but that we will be good—through and through—like Jesus is.

Paul wrote to some of his friends: “I am in pain until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

When Christ is formed in us—we will have tender hearts…humble minds…generous souls…

We will have unwearied forbearance toward the faults of others.

We will be quick to help and slow to criticize.

We will rejoice in our hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12).

You are thinking: “I have been working on all these things all my long life and I still fall short.”

That is where “the day of Jesus Christ” comes in.

B. Our text says, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The “Day of Jesus Christ” is the day of your resurrection in glory.

God doesn’t expect us to become suddenly perfect; he only expects that we will keep making progress.

This verse teaches us that God will complete our sanctification and make us fit to live in glory with the saints and angels.

Someday our remaking will be complete.

We will love others as they ought to be loved.

We will love our Lord Jesus as we always wished we could.

We will trust him completely.

C. The story is told of a monk who lived in a monastery high on a mountain. One day he descended to the village below, and a peasant ran up to him and said, “Oh, Father, surely yours must be the best of all lives, living so close to God. Tell me, what do you do up there?”

After a thoughtful pause, the monk replied, “What do we do? Well, I’ll tell you. We fall down and we get up. We fall down and we get up.”

CONCLUSION

I have told you about my friend Jim, the ex-convict I became acquainted with when I conducted a Bible study in the Mt. Pleasant prison back in the 1970s.

Jim and his wife Ginny are still dear friends of ours. We talked to Jim and Ginny on the phone just last Sunday.

Jim was a hard-core professional criminal. He was good at what he did, but he was also a drunk. So he kept getting caught.

He had been arrested something over 40 times. He had been locked up nine times.

Jim finally became so discouraged about his failures and the sorrow he had brought into so many lives that he tried to kill himself—twice.

But he failed, and finally, in his despair, he turned to Christ.

During his last months in prison Jim was an outstanding Christian. I met him about three months after his conversion.

When he was finally released from prison—about 1979, we baptized him in the lake in a park in Mt. Pleasant.

Jim had a bright testimony. He had a great story, and many wanted to hear it. So he traveled around telling his story about how God had saved him from sin and despair.

He tells about how one day, when he was on his way to a church to speak, the thought entered his mind: “The Lord is really lucky to have me!”

That thought was the beginning of his downfall.

He began to get proud—and careless. Saddest of all, he began to drink again.

In a drunken rage, he attacked a man, and came close to killing him.

So he was arrested again and locked up for the tenth time—this time in the state prison in Minnesota at Stillwater.

He sat in his prison cell in deep depression. It was now the 10th time he had been locked up. He had broken his wife’s heart. He had broken his son’s heart.

His life was in ruins. He was so despondent he couldn’t pray.

He told me that every day the book cart would come into the tank in the county jail.

Jim would look at those Gideon Bibles at the end of the cart.

“Every day,” he said, “those Bibles would stare at me, and every day I would turn away because I was so convicted and depressed. I thought God had given up on me.”

But one day the book cart came in and he knew he had to look at those Bibles.

He pulled out one of those Bibles from the book cart.

Jim  says,

“I’ll never forget that moment. I went and picked up a Bible and just opened it—I don’t recommend that as a practice, but that time that’s what I did—I just opened the Bible and put my hand down and it was Philippians 1:6: ‘I am sure of this one thing, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.’ I took that as a message from God. God seemed to say, ‘Hey, you screwed up. That’s exactly right. Everything you feel about yourself is legitimate and valid, but, hey, you don’t know me very well. I started something with you and I’m going to finish it. I’m going to carry it on until Jesus comes back.’” 

Although Jim took it to heart that God wasn’t deserting him, he couldn’t overcome his shame.

He was back in prison and knew he was facing a long prison term. He knew he was going to have to start over. It wasn’t easy.

He prayed over and over again the prayer of confession—Psalm 51. That’s the one that begins:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

And gradually Jim came to the assurance that God had forgiven him.

That was over 35 years ago.

I know this story is true because I knew Jim. And I knew people who knew him before he met Christ.

When I talked to Jim last Sunday, I laughed and told him, “I still use you as a sermon illustration.”

Jim was finally released about 35 years ago and has lived for God ever since.

He has worked steadily, been a good husband and father.

He was active in his union and in the neighborhood association.

He is an elder in his church.

He has a ministry helping ex-convicts.

He and his wife Ginny brought homeless ex-convicts into their home to help them get back on their feet.

A woman ex-convict he and Ginny helped, whose parents have died, calls Jim and Ginny “Mother” and “Dad.” Her children call Jim and Ginny their grandpa and grandma.

Jim and Ginny are old now. They live in a facility like Village Place. They attend a Bible study there.

Life has been good for Jim—because God didn’t give up on him.

And God won’t give up on you or me either.

He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.

When you are discouraged, don’t give up. God is with you. He’ll never let you go.