We are at an interesting point in what we are studying on Sundays and Wednesdays, for we are going through the book of Philippians on Sunday morning while tonight we are going to read of the start of the church at Philippi. With that being the case, it has opened my eyes to something in this text.
For after having seen the fellowship that the Philippians and Paul had in the gospel from Philippians 1:1-11, I was curious as to how this relationship developed. Now, however, I am convinced that it developed as the Philippian believers simply saw Paul living out his passion and mission, and they imitated him.
I am sure that in saying that, I am risking an oversimplification of the events. However, Sunday I had so many people tell me that God had spoken to them that they need to get back to the simple, yet lofty, task of making God their passion that I want to emphasize much the same thing in what we can learn from Paul. Therefore, let us look to Paul tonight to learn the simple, yet lofty, task of discipleship. And let our application be to imitate his work in our own lives.
For a quick synopsis, what happens in our passage tonight is that Paul and Silas continue on their missionary journey, being forbade to go to two other places, they receive instruction through a vision to go to Macedonia. There they see a woman named Lydia, most likely a young girl who had been demon possessed (Most likely, Luke does not say that she was converted. However, in most similar cases in the Scripture, we are to infer that the individual was converted.), and a jailor who had been guarding Paul and Silas as they were in prison be converted. So what do we see from Paul’s life that we need to imitate? Well, first let’s rehearse what we have been reminded of recently and then answer this question from there.
Making God your passion and joy is the most important task that you can be about. That is what we assured ourselves of on Sunday. You are to find yourself consumed with and happy in God. That is your goal.
However, if that is the case, then why is it that the Christian life is to be lived out with people risking suffering, living differently than the world, and sharing Christ with others instead of just sitting out in the middle of a field every day, striving to grow in our happiness in God?
That is a crucial question. It is one that we must ask. And the answer, I believe, is simply that when one finds himself happy in God, it automatically compels one to let that joy overflow into the lives of others.
For example, if you are like me, then when you find yourself truly enjoying and enthralled in a book, then automatically you find yourself letting your joy overflow into the lives of others. You tell your neighbor that he should read this book. You tell everyone, “Man, have I got a book that you need to read.” Your joy overflows.
A great sign that you are passionate about God is when you find yourself so obsessed with how great he is that your joy in him overflows into wanting others to have that same joy in him.
Why do I say that in relation to our passage tonight? I say it, and use these exact words because I know that is what Paul was thinking in visiting Macedonia and is something we need to imitate from his life. He was itching to let his joy in God overflow to others. He had set out for Asia when the Spirit forbade them to go that way. He then longed for Bithynia when the Spirit again forbade them to go that way. And finally, as they were shown in a vision to go to Macedonia, Paul was ready and longing to go. His joy was spilling over right out of him.
Now, you might say, “How can you be so sure that you can say that?” The answer is in 2 Corinthians 7:4-5. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Great is my confidence in you, great is my boasting on your behalf; I am filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side; conflicts without, fears within.” Paul wanted the Corinthians to know that though they were afflicted in Macedonia, it was happening because of his overflow in joy.
If you want to be someone who is loving toward others and longs to love them the way that Jesus Christ has loved you, then make God your passion and joy; and soon your joy will overflow into loving others. You will want to bring them into it—like you want others to know the joy of that great book you just read.
But if you are following my intent, you are thinking to yourself, “But I thought that he was talking about the work of discipleship. So how does this relate to discipleship?” And if you are, there are two answers. The first is that unless joy overflows, you will never long to make disciples. The second is that by allowing your joy in Christ to be seen and overflow, you will draw others to want to imitate you even as you are imitating Christ.
Paul goes on in talking to the Corinthians about his experience with the Macedonian believers. For at some point later (after the events we read tonight in Acts 16), the Macedonian believers find out a need that some saints have. And what do you think they do having seen Paul live out this overflow of joy in front of them? Paul writes, “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction and their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:1-2). Their joy in God overflowed in love toward these saints in providing for their need.
Thus, probably the greatest work of discipleship that Paul did among these believers in Macedonia was to display what it looks like to let your joy in God overflow to others.
And it is in this that we move from making God our joy and passion to going to a distant country and risking our lives to advance the gospel. It occurs from an overflow of joy. Thus we should imitate Paul in longing for our joy to overflow to others.
Secondly, within that, we need to be sensitive to God’s Spirit. I am not sure how the Spirit stopped Paul from going to two other places before he led him to Macedonia, but I doubt that there was a loud audible voice from heaven. Rather, probably Paul recognized the voice of the Spirit’s leading.
Now, this may not be as “supernatural” as we might think, but it is crucial. We must direct our mind and thoughts toward God and be sensitive as he might speak and direct us. It might be that he is restraining us from doing something (as He did Paul concerning Asia and Bithynia) or compelling us to something (as He with Paul concerning Macedonia), but we must seek his will and try to hear his voice. For this is crucial in being directed as to how God is working.
Let me give you a personal example that I have remembered lately because of some events. I guess it was this summer—I looked, but I hadn’t written in my journal—that I had taken a couple of days and prayed that God would give me someone with whom I could share the gospel. He had, each day. It was great. Then one day Preston and I were eating at O’Charley’s when we stopped to pray for our food. Right before I prayed, I stopped to think on God and see if he would direct me in anything to pray. At that point, the thought came to my head that I needed to pray today as I had prayed the previous two days. Therefore, as we prayed over our meal, I asked God to give me someone with whom I could share the gospel.
Soon after that, our waitress, named Michelle came to us, sat down, spoke to us, and opened a big door for us to share the gospel as she said she had seen us praying and wanted to know if we would pray for her. Months later, I sit at my computer smiling as I assure myself, “Yes, Lee, this is the same Michelle who is now a believer and is letting her joy in Christ overflow to others as well.”
All of that happened for me to see because God burdened me to stop and be sensitive to His voice and desires. Be sensitive to the Spirit even as Paul was and was led to the Macedonians. And one final word on that note, be careful about pushing through and doing things when you have reservations about them in your heart. Instead, wait and seek to see if those reservations are from God. Be sensitive to the Spirit.
Also, in this cause of spreading a passion and joy for Christ, labor while trusting that God will do the work.
I know this is a difficult statement, but this is a difficult concept. But the truth is this. God ultimately must be the one to move others to delight in him, but he does it through us. We see this example with Paul. Paul went to Macedonia, Paul went to the people, Paul prayed for the work, Paul spoke the gospel to a woman named Lydia, but God “opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul” (16:14). Labor and trust God to work.
John Stott writes of this, “We note that, although the message was Paul’s, the saving initiative was God’s. Paul’s preaching was not effective in itself; the Lord worked through it. And the Lord’s work was not itself direct; he chose to work through Paul’s preaching. It is always the same” (see note 1).
This is the mystery of the working of God. He sovereignly works, but he works indirectly through our lives. Again, for an example, my parents took me to church beginning when I was eight days old. They taught me the gospel. I knew the content of the gospel when I was five years old. They told me that God would use me in life. They spoke of God in my home. I believed on Christ when I was nine years old. Why did I believe? I believed ultimately because God opened my heart to believe (as he did Lydia’s) and called me to himself. How did God draw my heart to him and enable me to taste the power of salvation? It happened through the labor of my parents. So, just because God is the ultimate cause in salvation, do not assume that that means that he doesn’t work through our labors. He ultimately works through our labors.
So, as you are striving in the work of discipleship, I encourage you to labor. But at the same time, don’t let yourself fall under the bondage of thinking that you must be the one to make so and so believe, for that work must be done by God. God works through us, but the results are his.
And let me end with three practical notes in imitating Paul in the work of discipleship.
1) Live like Christ that people may associate you with him. I cannot teach this passage without pointing to that because we read that Paul and Silas were “dragged … into the marketplace to face the authorities” (v. 19), “stripped” (v. 22), “severely flogged, and thrown into prison” (v. 23) without a trial (v. 37) and yet were singing praises and praying at midnight (v. 25). That is holiness. And when the earthquake happens (v. 26) and the jailer is scared, he knows exactly to whom he should go to talk about eternal matter.
2) Teach baptism as a public display of God’s glorious work in their lives. They baptize the Philippian jailer afterwards as a display that God had done the miraculous work of salvation in his life, and it served as a testimony to those around.
3) Encourage unity among one another as fellow disciples of Christ. The church at Philippi, after Paul’s journey to Macedonia, is made up of a businesswoman, a slave girl, and a jailer. You cannot be more diverse than that. But they had fellowship in the gospel. And as Paul would later write to them, he would remind them, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.” Disciples will be diverse, but by nature will all have the same Father and be about the same purpose.
So let us imitate Paul in overflowing joy, being sensitive to the Spirit, laboring and trusting God to work, striving for holiness, displaying God’s glory in baptism, and encouraging unity among those whom God calls to himself.
May we long for the work of discipleship that is simple in nature, and yet so lofty that God must do it through us. His grace will be with us. Amen.