Well, we’re finally here; the final verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I have greatly enjoyed our look at every word, every letter, and every punctuation mark of this particular epistle, and I hope you have too, but there are still a few more words that need to be covered. Last week, we said that Paul’s parting words to the Philippian Christians were of such depth and length that it would take us a couple of weeks to deal with them all. We looked at his encouragement for us to be content despite our situation. We said that this contentment comes from Christ and that because of our having Christ within us that there is nothing that we cannot do. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And so we come to our text this week; Paul’s final words to this congregation, and we find even more encouragement. We see a clear statement that God will provide; followed by Paul’s explicit command for how we are to respond to all that he has told us.
Verse 19 reads, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Notice the word before God: my. You see, Paul knew who the only one who could supply all that the Christian needed was. He doesn’t say “a god” or “whatever god you happen to believe in at the time”, he says “my God”. He means the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I understand the sentiment within our world today that God is pretty much the same in all religions, we just worship him in different ways. Well, maybe I should back up a bit. I understand that that idea exists, but I don’t understand it at all. I don’t agree with it in any way. To say that my God, the Creator of the Heavens and the earth is the same as any other god is quite simply not true. My God, who called everything into being and did so solely for his own glory, is not the same as any other god that people may worship. My God, is the One True God that Jesus lifted the High Priestly Prayer of John 17 up to.
Throughout Scripture, God makes promises to his children. Whether it is the promises specifically made to people such as Abraham or David, or a general promise made to a larger body of people like those made to Israel and to Christians everywhere, not one of them has failed. All of the promises that God made with those in the Old Testament about the coming Messiah came true; they were fulfilled. We know that, but think about some of the ones that are made in Scripture about the Christian life; specifically some of those within the New Testament. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” is a promise of everlasting salvation. Romans 8:28, “and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” John 10:9 says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” Later on in that very same chapter in verses 27 & 28 we find, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Why, even in this very same letter that we have been looking at over the last 4 months, there are promises. Do you remember a few weeks ago when we looked at 4:6 & 7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let you requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
And these are just some of the many promises made throughout Scripture. Well, today, we come to perhaps the greatest promise in the Bible because it includes all of these other promises. We’re told in verse 19 that our every need will be supplied. Do you need salvation? Of course you do, and God will supply it. Do you need strength during trials? God will supply it. Do you need comfort, strength, compassion, or someone to meet you in your loneliness? God will provide for all of these needs. He will supply all that we need in our various situations.
This week has been a particularly trying week at our house. We spent Sunday afternoon and all day Monday at Amy’s grandparent’s farm since we couldn’t be there to eat with everyone for a Mother’s Day gathering on Saturday. We had a great time getting together with them and there not being everyone else there. Instead of the full 20 of us being present, it was just Amy and I, her grandparents, and our kids. We got to sit and visit with them instead of worrying about taking care of everyone else or at least making sure that a majority was still pleasant and content. As Amy’s grandpa said, “It’s nice to just have y’all all to ourselves.” It was truly a good time getting to catch up with them. Well, when we went to leave early Tuesday morning there was a problem: our dog Beau was nowhere to be found. The other 2 dogs that live there were where they were supposed to be, but our dog wasn’t. It was odd, because he was always there. He was never one to venture too far from the house. He always wanted to stay as close to the house as he could so that he could get to us quickly when we came outside.
Well, after looking for him for a couple of hours, we decided that we would go ahead and leave and hope that he showed up later. So, we all loaded up and left. We got maybe 10 minutes down the road and decided that we needed to go back and look some more. So we turned around and proceeded to walk through poison ivy, thorn bushes, blackberries, and pine tree saplings for another 2 hours in hopes that we mind find him. It would be just like the movies you know? We couldn’t leave him alone, we return back and because of our determination we would be rewarded. Well, that didn’t happen. We didn’t find him. After determining that we simply weren’t going to find him, we were faced with the task of breaking the news to our kids. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but in our family it is a difficult thing. You see, they have never known a time without him. For that matter, Amy and I have never known what it’s like to be married without him. We have always referred to our dog when talking to Ashby and Thomas as, “your brother.” Ashby has even been known to call Beau her favorite brother on occasion.
And we told them that he was missing, but that they might not see him again. Ashby told Amy, “That’s okay momma. It’ll be ok.” Not wanting to let them know how bad things were, we quickly told them we knew and loaded them back into the truck to head back home. About halfway back, Amy and I were talking and she began to cry a little. Well, Ashby asks Amy, “Why are you upset momma? What’s wrong?” I told her that her momma just missed Beau and was a little sad about it. Ashby responded, “Yeah, I miss him too, but maybe we’ll find him when we get home. Maybe he’s at our house.” Well, realizing that our earlier attempts had not quite done the job, once again we had to tell her the news. We told her that her dog had gone to heaven. Now this isn’t the place to insert an argument for canines entering into heaven. If you would like my opinions on that matter, you can come and ask me some other day. But after hearing me tell her that her dog was now in heaven, Ashby responded with, “Oh, like Jesus.” Tears began to well up in our eyes as we heard the words “like Jesus” come from our daughter’s mouth. It was in that moment where I thought back to the words of last week “all things.” Just knowing the fact that my daughter has already begun to piece together the notion that death isn’t something to fear or to run from because there is Jesus Christ was enough to put both Amy and I over the edge. For a brief moment, the pain of losing a beloved member of our family without any warning or really any idea what happened was overcome by the words of a child.
Now it may not seem like much and we know that in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal that we lost our dog. Part of owning a pet is that they quite simply don’t live as long as we do, and I’m very thankful for that fact. But it is tough dealing with loss, no matter what shape or form it may take. And we still hold out some hope that maybe one day we will find him or that we will at least find out what happened to him, but it’s just not the same around our house today as it was a week ago. You see, our house has been filled with a lot of stress lately. We’ve had some bad luck in numerous areas of our life as of late. To say that some things could have gone better for us lately would be a bit of an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still blessed, but there are days that it takes a lot of reminding for us to remember how blessed we truly are. As I was sitting outside our house this week watching the kids play in the yard, I was thinking about all that has gone on in the life of our family as of late and that statement and sentiment that I hate more than anything in this world crept into my mind, “This isn’t fair.” Because you see it isn’t fair, we all really deserve something much worse than we have received.
As I continued thinking along this same line, I start to think about this weeks’ text dealing with God’s promises never failing. In 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul writes, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability…” This is the verse where we get the popular saying, “God won’t give us more than we can handle.” (And all this time you thought that was in the Bible) As I began to ponder that verse, I was reminded that this verse in 1 Corinthians 10 highlights that God will not allow a Christian to be tempted beyond what he can bear, but it does not say that he is the source of the temptation or trial. James 1:13 says, “When under trial, let no one say: ‘I am being tried by God.’ For with evil things God cannot be tried nor does he himself try anyone.” So God does not bring problems on us. He is not the source of the trials we may face, but he does allow us to be tried, and as Scripture tells us, he will help us, if we rely on him. He will provide for us and supply for our every need.
The final part of verse 19 says that His supplying for our needs will be “according to his riches in glory.” Now, it’s a little lost on many of us when we see something spectacular. When you think about it, the mere concept of typing a message on a computer screen, clicking a button, and someone halfway across the world being able to read it almost instantly is quite spectacular. However, most of us don’t give this a second thought because it is commonplace in today’s world. It’s something that many of us can experience on a regular basis. For us to assume that something is spectacular, it has to be something that not everyone can experience. Think about a person going into space. This is definitely something that many more people won’t experience than will. What if someone who would never go into space wanted to experience space? Well, this would be a quite difficult task. Suppose that an astronaut decided that he was going to take a canister of some sort and open it up while he was in space. Theoretically, he could close the lid and seal space inside of it. He could then bring it back to earth and present it as a gift to another person. In one sense, this canister would contain a sample of space, but it really wouldn’t give a person here on earth an idea of what space is like. It would not even begin to capture the immensity and grandeur of space. No matter the size of the container, it’s not going to be big enough to contain the vastness of space.
In a one sense, this promise that God makes to fill our every need in Jesus Christ out of his glory, is like that of the example given about space. We are given some of the glory of God. Even as we grow as Christians and are able to experience even more of the glory of God, it’s never going to come close to the full magnitude of God’s glory. There will always be infinite glory beyond that which we experience. We can’t exhaust the riches of God. Our needs are never too great for God to provide for. Think about it, the finite cannot exhaust the infinite. It isn’t possible. God can and will provide for our every need. Paul makes that promise very clear here in our text today. He will provide for our every need through his Son Jesus Christ. And just as the words of my daughter in a moment of pain reminded me of the joy that exists within Christ, Paul’s words here should remind us of the joy in Christ that we should have every day. Because Christ has given us the ultimate gift, he has provided for our greatest need with his saving death and resurrection. That, salvation, paying the price that is owed for our sins, is something that none of us can do, but Christ has done it for us.
And all of this leads us to Paul’s benediction as it’s found in the final 3 verses. Now, this is pretty much a signature ending to a letter, but I want us to look at something quickly before leaving this letter. In verses 21 and 22 Paul writes, “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus,” and “All the saints great you.” These two words, every and all, are great reminders to us. All of the calls to Christian living that Paul has made to us throughout this letter; all of the talk about being content in Christ, trusting in God to provide, praying for all we need, and all of the other calls made by Paul during this letter culminate with one simple notion. That simple notion is that we are to take the message of the gospel to everyone. We are to witness to all those who we come in contact with. Friends, the grace that God gives to each and every one of us is amazing and much more than we deserve. How could we possibly want to keep such great and wonderful news a secret? How could we want to keep this to ourselves? We must take the good news of the gospel and proclaim it until such time as we can no longer do so; for we have been purchased at a great price. Let’s take up the task of proclaiming the joy that we find in Jesus Christ to all those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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