Happy and You Know It 1 | In Pursuit Of...

Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ... (Philippians 1:1–11)

In the letter of joy, Paul reveals a happiness that prison bars, beatings, and changed plans cannot touch.

Beginning the Letter of Joy

We all have our favorites, and most of the time we're excited to share them. If you have a favorite food, restaurant, ice cream flavor, or sports team, you generally want to tell people about it. We become pretty good evangelists for our favorite things. Of course, there are times we're more reluctant—if you're a Chargers fan at a Raiders game in Oakland, you might keep that to yourself.

Philippians stands out to me as my favorite book of the Bible. I realize I may have said that about other books, but in just about every passage of this small, four-chapter book there are verses that have shaped my life. In chapter 1, Paul writes, "being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." In Philippians 1:20–21 he says, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Philippians 2:13 is probably my most favorite verse in the entire Bible: "it is God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure." In chapter 3, verses 7 through 15, Paul counts all things as loss that he might gain Christ, that he might know Him and the power of His resurrection. And in Philippians 4:6–8 he tells us, "be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God," directing us to set our minds on the things that maintain peace.

Pursuing Happiness in the Wrong Place

For several years here at Cross Connection we've been moving through the New Testament chronologically, following the history of Acts and the letters written during that period. So I've known for some time we would arrive at Philippians, and we'll spend about nine weeks here. Many call it the Epistle of Joy—an epistle is simply a letter—because nearly twenty times in these four chapters the author writes about joy, rejoicing, and peace.

Happiness is an essential value in American culture. The pursuit of happiness was considered by our founding fathers to be among the unalienable rights given by God, and for over 230 years people have come from all over the world to pursue it. You would think that after nearly 250 years of pursuing happiness, we'd be the happiest nation in the world.

Sadly, that's not what the statistics show. As of just a couple of days ago, Gallup—which surveys the mood of America daily—found that 47% of Americans said they were not too happy in the last 24 hours. Here we are, a nation pursuing happiness, and in many ways still singing, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." For many, seeking happiness is like snipe hunting—they come up short. It makes me wonder if we're pursuing it in the wrong way, or looking for it in the wrong things.

Paul's First Journey to Philippi

The church at Philippi seems to have been one of Paul's favorite churches. Something about that congregation endeared them to him. His first meeting with the people is recorded in Acts 16, during his second missionary journey. Paul had been sent out by the church in Antioch of Syria with Silas, and along the way they picked up a young man named Timothy.

Paul's plan seems to have been to head to Ephesus. But look at Acts 16:6: "Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia." We don't know exactly what happened; we just know the Spirit forbade them. Maybe they came to a fork in the road, and the Lord wouldn't let them go left.

Verse 7 continues: they came to Mysia and tried to go to Bithynia, "but the Spirit did not permit them." So they couldn't go left to Ephesus and couldn't go right to Bithynia. They came to Troas, a coastal town, with the Aegean Sea in front of them—a roadblock. Then a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia pleading, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Luke, now writing as one of the four (Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke), says they immediately concluded the Lord had called them to preach the gospel there. They sailed to Samothrace, then Neapolis, and finally to Philippi, the foremost city of Macedonia.

Joy in Joining Jesus on Mission

There is joy in joining Jesus on mission. One reason so many pursuers of happiness in our day are unhappy is that they're engaged in the wrong mission. Jesus said, "I came to give life, and life more abundantly," and in John's Gospel He prayed that His joy would be experienced in full in His followers. When you become a Christian, you join His mission—to go into all the world, preach the gospel, and make disciples of all nations.

When someone like me says we should join Jesus on mission, red flags go up. We immediately wonder what He'll make us do. As a sixteen-year-old in this church's youth group, I sat at a camp in Big Bear as a short, balding man with red cheeks told four hundred high schoolers to follow Jesus wherever He calls. I remember thinking, "I don't want to do that—He's going to send me to Africa." We assume joining Jesus means doing something weird.

Joining Jesus on mission does not necessarily mean you quit your job, sell your house, and move to another country. Some people do that, but that's not the point. It does mean your plans may change, and we don't like that. There may be times of uncertainty. Paul had a plan—Ephesus, then Bithynia—and God said no to both.

It also means your view of your life, time, talents, and money changes. You may stay right here in North County and keep your job, but you'll see everything you have differently. Those on mission with Jesus understand they are not owners but stewards of all they have. And your motivations change, because you become His servant.

"Lord, What Do You Want Me to Do?"

Paul wasn't always the Apostle Paul. His name was Saul, a staunch religious Pharisee who not only refused to follow Jesus but wanted to destroy His followers. On his way to imprison Christians, a bright light shone before him, and he heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? Is it hard for you to kick against the goads?" Saul asked, "Who are you, Lord?" and heard the worst words he'd ever heard: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."

In that moment Saul asked one of the most important questions any of us can ask, in Acts 9:6: "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Before that, Saul was on his own mission—a plan, a method, authority and power to destroy Christians—and I'd suggest he wasn't happy. He was frustrated and angry because his mission wasn't being fulfilled. He relinquished his mission and surrendered to the Lord's. Jesus told him he would be an apostle to the Gentiles, sent to people not like him.

In Philippi there was no Jewish synagogue, so Paul went looking for God-seekers. On a Sabbath he found a group of Gentile women praying by the river, and a businesswoman named Lydia heard the gospel. Acts 16 says her heart was opened by God; she believed and was baptized along with her household, and she invited Paul and his companions to stay with her. There the first church in Europe was established. We, two thousand years later, are the fruit of that first move of the gospel into the Western world.

Joy Is Not Dependent on Circumstances

Things took a turn. A young slave girl, possessed by a demon that gave her power to tell fortunes, was earning money for her masters. When Paul cast the demon out of her, her employers were furious. They dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates, who had them beaten with rods—no trial, no hearing—and thrown into the deepest part of the prison, their feet in stocks. A bad day.

But look at Acts 16:25: "But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." After being beaten and chained, they were praising God. This makes very little sense by modern standards, and it teaches us a vital point: joy is not dependent upon circumstances.

Our culture believes happiness is found only in good happenings—that real joy comes only when good things happen to us. But the Bible shows that the joy God desires for us does not depend on our circumstances. The next day Paul was simply kicked out of the city. You'd expect his memory of Philippi to be bitter.

Yet in Philippians 1:3 Paul writes, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you... always in every prayer making request for you all with joy." That seems counterintuitive for a place where he was beaten, jailed, and expelled. And this very letter, the letter of joy, was written from prison in Rome, where Paul faced execution, unsure whether he would live or die—and still he wrote, "for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

This is the kind of joy you and I should pursue: a joy not dependent on circumstances, a joy that brings peace and rejoicing even when plans suddenly change. It was never in Paul's plans to be beaten and imprisoned or to await execution in Rome, yet through it all he had peace and joy. Over these nine weeks I want us to consider what Paul encourages Christians to do so we might experience that same joy, peace, and contentment in Christ.

Happiness Is Found in Service to Christ

Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament—thirteen letters—and in many of them he identifies himself the same way he does here: "Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ." A bondservant was a slave by choice. It's hard to imagine a slave being happy, but here is the third point: happiness is found in service to Christ.

Paul taught this, and so did every New Testament writer. Peter introduces himself as "a bondservant of Jesus" (2 Peter 1:1), Jude as "a bondservant of Jesus Christ," John speaks of himself as a doulos, a slave, and James writes, "James, a bondservant of Jesus Christ." That great twentieth-century philosopher Bob Dylan said you're going to serve somebody—either the devil or the Lord. He's right, and happiness in servitude depends on which master you have.

In twenty-first century America, we're told happiness is found in having the liberty to do whatever we want, with whomever, whenever, wherever, and however we want. But Scripture shows that living that way makes you a slave of sin. Jesus came to set us free from sin, to redeem us—to purchase us back out of slavery. That's exactly what He did on the cross, giving His life to buy us out of our servitude to sin.

Lasting Joy Only by Grace Through Christ

That redemption came through grace. Look at Philippians 1:2: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." There is lasting joy only by grace through Christ. What He did on the cross is God's gracious gift, so that we could experience lasting joy in Christ forever. Psalm 16:11 says, "In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore."

As we prepare for communion, we take the bread—representative of the body of Jesus given for us—and the cup, remembering His broken body and shed blood, that we might come out of slavery to sin, enjoy happiness by serving Him, and have lasting joy because of His gracious gift.

Closing Prayer

Father, give us insight as we over the next nine weeks consider this book. Teach us; help us to learn from You how You instruct us to experience joy, peace, rejoicing, and contentment, because these are most certainly the things people in our nation and all over the world are seeking. And Lord Jesus, two thousand years ago You started this thing we're doing now—partaking of bread and the cup to remember Your body broken for us and Your blood shed for us, that we might come out of our slavery to sin, that we might enjoy happiness by serving You and have lasting joy because of Your gracious gift. Remind us of these things as we now prepare for communion. In Jesus' name, amen.