Episode 2: Joyfully partnering for Christ (1:1-11)
An astounding start to the letter, as Paul shares his heart and prayers with the Philippians. Come and listen in as we chat through the start of Philippians in our online Bible study for women.
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Why is Paul encouraged by the Philippian church?
How would it feel to receive this first part of the letter?
How does this challenge the way we view and pray for one another?
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Felicity: You're listening to the Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea podcast, a 20 minutes burst of Bible chat over a cup of tea and English style biscuit as we make our way through a Bible book over the course of the season and drive it to our hearts. Whether you've been listening for a while or have just found us, we're so pleased you're here. We're thankful for the sponsorship of Christian Focus this season. It can sometimes feel like being a 21st century woman who reads and lives by the Bible is an impossible reality for our current society to accept. In Karen Soole's book Liberated, she challenges misconceptions about how the Bible talks about women and demonstrates, through Biblically evident sound argument, that there is in fact more freedom, liberation and value for women in God's eyes than the world is ever able to give. I love the way she writes and would highly recommend this book. Grab a copy wherever you get your books.
Sarah: Welcome to Two Sisters and a Cup of Tea. My name is Sarah. I live in the UK. This is my sister Felicity. She lives in the States and we are really looking forward to getting into the first kind of chunk of Paul's letter to the Philippines today. Chapter one, verses one to eleven. But before we get there, Felicity, I know you do love a biscuit called the chocolate hobnob. We were chatting over lunch the other day, actually, with our brother who came around the other day. You weren't here, but he was. And we were talking about the verb to hobnob. Wondering what your thoughts are on the activity of hobnobbing with someone.
Felicity: Wow.
Sarah: Yes.
Felicity: I mean, I had forgotten about the use of that word. I guess I've been a bit consumed by the biscuit variety.
Sarah: Wow. I didn't even know it was a verb. Tell us, what does it mean if.
Felicity: You're hobnobbing with someone, you are socializing with them often. It might be that you're someone who's hobnobbing with someone who's maybe of a higher class than you, who's kind of like you're hobnobbing with the well to do people who you don't actually belong with.
Sarah: Interesting.
Felicity: I wonder what the connection is with the hobnob biscuit. Well, there's a whole word exploration to go down there.
Sarah: I'm quite impressed that you could just reel off that meaning without even having to pause on that, though. Probably not used it for, well, ever a while. I don't know.
Felicity: You're right. But now I think I'm going to.
Sarah: Try and re you?
Felicity: Yeah, I'm going to try and use it this week. My youngest son is very into using unusual words. I'm going to introduce that one to him. Hobnobbing. He'll find it hilarious. So, talking about hobbies, we're not really talking about hobnobbing so much, are we? We're talking more about partnership, and we're hoping that you've come across, heard us maybe seen on social media. We are seeking to raise funds for the coming year of podcast making, and we I hope that you've heard about this kind of partnership pack that we've been promoting to give away to those who are donating to us. It's full of goodies. Check out our link in the show notes for more information on that. But maybe it's worth asking why we're raising funds. What is it that goes into making a podcast? That means that we actually have to think about how to make this financially sustainable. Sarah, do you want to just give us a little flavour of what it is to make a podcast?
Sarah: Sure. What we're raising funds for is everything from the kind of editing and production of what you're listening to right now. So what it takes to kind of put the episodes together and to get the sound quality right and to take that through to production. We raise funds for things like the communications, the marketing and development that's associated with making the podcast happen. Particularly as it's
grown over the years, these needs just become greater. And for us to be able to focus on the deep work of Bible study, creating high content episodes, we have needed others to jump on board to help us. And so part of what we're raising funds for is to be able to pay Helen and Hayley, who are on our team at the moment, to help us make the podcast happen. We've got a website that incurs costs as the kind of growing catalogue of episodes sits there. So there's loads of different ways that a podcast
incurs costs, but it all drives towards making sure that we can get the best resource out to you, our listeners. And so every fund, every penny raised will go towards making it happen and continuing to make it happen. And so we're just super thankful for anyone who chooses to partner with us and see the value of doing that. So if anyone has benefited from what we're doing in any way, we would love you to consider making a donation to enable us to keep doing what we're doing.
Felicity: Yes. Thank you, Sarah. We are so grateful for any donation that we receive. So thank you. In advance. But let's get into the letter of Philippians. As ever, we are reading from the NIV, and we know and believe that we need God's help as we get into his word. And what we do is we pray before we press record. But we would encourage you to pray before you get into his word every time. Here we go. We're going to read verses one through to eleven. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together 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 in all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and whether I'm in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you can share in God's grace with me, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
Sarah: Thank you so much. I love reading this beginning of the letter because I love just how enthused Paul is for all the church. Like, you can't miss it, can you? That all of God's holy people, in all my prayers for all of you. I always like just really making sure you know, this is a kind of heartfelt letter, and it's to all of you. Not one person has missed off his list here.
Felicity: Yeah, brilliant, all encompassing. And I love, actually, that from the very start, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, which already points us forwards to what we see of Jesus in the letter. And Paul positions himself, even from this very early point, that he is there to serve the Philippians. That mindset is just really helpful to begin to get a hold of even within the first few words of the letter.
Sarah: And it's a mindset of real joy for this church family, isn't it? I thank my God every time I remember you in all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy. That's quite some statement, isn't it, to say, I always pray with joy as I think about you and I dwell on who you are in Jesus and your partnership in the gospel. That's just amazing. But even more than that, the kind of affection that we then get where he says God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. Felicity: Yeah.
Sarah: Wow.
Felicity: It's really huge, isn't it? His heart for them is so big. I love just, even just, you know, going back to that verse four there, because of your partnership in the gospel. Just the very fact that you are following Jesus gives me joy, and I love you so much that I'm so delighted that you are following Jesus that I am. He seems to be bubbling over with joy. I love what we get in verse six, that confidence in the work that God is doing. So being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And that's just so what we need to hear. I need to hear that every day when it feels like it's kind of an up and down kind of situation, my life, as I follow Jesus. But God has started it and he will complete it. And so I can trust that he is working about his purposes in that way.
Sarah: Yeah. And I think that's a really kind of helpful pointer because actually, twice in these first kind of opening verses, we get him signposting towards the future, towards the day when Jesus will come back. And it kind of just helps you. And it helps, he kind of directs the letter towards that theme that actually, yes, there's a situation you're in now, but actually, our minds and my prayers are directed toward that future day when Jesus will return and we will be with him. And I think that's just really helpful. Literally, in the first few verses, he kind of helps kind of drive. Drive the reader forward. And it's just. Yeah, there's a perspective there, isn't there? That exactly is bought in, even as these first few verses. And I think we need to hear that. It is a wonderful, encouraging start to a letter, isn't it? If I was to receive this letter, you think, wow. Yeah, cool. The apostle Paul thinks about us in this way.
Felicity: I think that's. I think it's resoundingly encouraging. And we know that Paul doesn't hold back when he thinks that things are going wrong. So I think we can be sure that the Philippians are running
well. I think we can take it as it seems that they are going well and we're going to see later in the letter that there are some things going on in the philippian church, but fundamentally, God has got a hold of them. He is going to complete what he started. And everything that Paul sees is giving him great joy because they're running with Jesus. And we get a really clear picture of where Paul is at at this point, don't we, in verse seven, whether I'm in chains or depending on confirming that, and we know for a fact he is in chains, and yet he's all about the gospel. And as you've said, that really helpful future perspective. That's where the shape of life is such that we're heading for eternity. And in the light of that, the fact that he's in chains actually is not the big deal. The big deal is this. Confirming the gospel is going out, this kind of mindset that it's all about that rather than about anything else.
Sarah: Yeah. Well, let's dig into his prayer then, because quite often, well, very often at the beginning of Paul's letters, he does kind of start with a prayer, and quite often the prayer then kind of dictates the direction of the letter, doesn't it? And it kind of introduces the themes of what he's praying for and then what he chooses to kind of write about after it. And let me just read this prayer for us again. And it says this, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with a fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
Felicity: I love that at the start of the prayer, as you've just read there, we get this description of, well, the fuel for everything is that their love for Jesus and for others, I think, would abound more and more, and that would be the means by which then they would grow in knowledge and depth of insight. So as they know Jesus better, as they love him more, their discernment as to what it is to live for him, to
love for him, to rejoice in him, just grows and grows. I love that it's Jesus. That's the kind of the driver for it all.
Sarah: Yeah, I think that's really striking, isn't it? And it's a kind of relational knowing of God's character the more that they kind of know Jesus. And Paul will elaborate on that later on in the letter, but that kind of. Yeah, growing in depth of understanding about who Jesus is and what he's done. But as you say, also growing in love for one another as gospel partners. And he's just kind of exhibited that, hasn't he? As he's saying, he longs for them with the affection of Christ Jesus. He has them in his heart and he's kind of showing them what gospel bound love looks like. And he's saying, actually, as you grow in this, this gospel fueled love, you will be able to discern what is best. You will be able to live in a way that is honouring and pleasing to the Lord. You will be pure and blameless for that day. There's a promise there, isn't there? That out of the overflow of that well, of the love of Christ, actually righteousness, the fruit of righteousness will abound. And again, that comes through Jesus Christ. That's not separate. That's not a kind of work that happens on the side. It is all through Jesus so that the glory and the praise goes to God. And again, just that kind of understanding that the thread of Christ already kind of weaving its way through every single sentence of this letter and enabling everything to happen. And we're going to see that as the letter kind of unpacks how, how Christ is essential for that love to grow and that he is the kind of foundation and root of their love growing.
Felicity: Yeah, I was. I've been challenged, as I've been sitting in this prayer, I've been challenged that this idea of. So that you may be able to discern what is best and maybe if you're in blame, it's like this. The best is intrinsically linked to Jesus, isn't it? So as we're seeking to choose the best way, we're really seeking to choose the Jesus way. And as I've been thinking about that, I've been challenged as to whether I always believe that the Jesus way is the best way. Yeah. Like, I look around and I've, you know, people running in different directions, society saying a bunch of different things, often it can seem like the best way is actually over there and not here in the, in the Jesus way. And it's been a real challenge to my heart that I would then pray. I think that my love for Jesus would abound more and more so that I would be more persuaded that this is the best way. I think that it all kind of comes back to that same thing of seeing Jesus more clearly and seeing the future perspective, as you say, drawing our attention to that day of Christ when he does return. That is true for the world. That is true for everyone. So this is the best way. But I've been, yeah, challenged in my heart to pray that I would be persuaded of that consistently.
Sarah: Yeah, I don't know. I think also just the challenge of, am I praying like this for people in my church family, in home groups, our Bible study groups, just generally across the church family, am I choosing to pray this kind of prayer? And what if I did? What if I committed to praying this prayer every day for different people in our church family? Like that level of commitment and commitment of, to joy, commitment to rejoicing in church family? And I just think that that is a real challenge here, isn't it? Throughout these whole kind of opening verses, am I willing to pray like this? Lord, help me to pray like this where I don't feel this joy or where I struggle to pray in this way for those around us, whatever
it is that might be the challenge on our hearts there just, you know, asking the Lord to help to pray in this way and then, Lord, help me to see the fruit that comes from that. Do you know, help us to kind of see the answered prayers maybe as well.
Felicity: Yeah, absolutely. And to be thrilled by that, to desire that, to like, oh, imagine that. Imagine if I and my, you know, my church family were abundantly brute of righteousness people.
Sarah: What I love about Paul is that he always tells them what he's writing and what he, he always tells them what he's praying. And it's such an encouragement, isn't it, when someone texts you, when someone writes you a little card and says, this is what I'm praying for you this week, or I had a message back from someone yesterday saying, wow, that prayer was spot on. Thank you so much for praying that prayer. And I was like, oh, wow, that's really kind of, the Lord really led me to pray in that way for that person. And it's super encouraging, isn't it? Paul is in the ministry of encouragement to this church family here, and I wonder if we can have committed to sharing how we're praying for others in a kind of more intentional way, how much we would be bolstered to keep standing firm. Felicity: Yeah, that's so true. And it's so simple that, isn't it? It's really simple. So simple but profound. Let's do it. I'm going to, I'm resolved this week. I'm going to do it.
Sarah: Okay, I'll ask you next week.
Felicity: Well, Sarah, why don't you pray for us as we, and kind of bring this to an end.
Sarah: I'd love to. Our heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for the joy found in this first part of this letter. We thank you for Paul's example, for how he prays for this church family and, Lord, for how he encourages them. And we do pray for our own hearts, Lord, we pray that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that we may be able to discern what is best and that we may be pure and blameless for that day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. And we pray that for those around us. And we pray, Lord, please, would you help us to be an encouragement to those around us as we head into the next few days or even the next week or so. Father, for your glory and to the praise of your name, we pray. Amen.
Felicity: Amen. Well, thank you, Sarah. We are. Again, this is the last chance for the partnership pack that we were talking about earlier that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks. We would love to partner with you in this way. Come and join us on this ride. But next time we will crack on with chapter one of Philippians. And we're delighted that you're here with us for this journey.
Sarah: Look forward to seeing you next week. Bye bye.
Felicity: Bye bye. This season is sponsored by Christian Focus.
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