March 4, 2025 -- Philippians 2:17-18 -- How do suffering and rejoicing mix?

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Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:17-18
 
The word rejoice is frequently used in Philippians. Though Paul is in prison, suffering, he rejoices, and he called on the Philippians to rejoice also. Though he is facing the prospect of death again he rejoices. He uses a strange expression, being poured out upon the sacrificial offering of your faith. In imitation of Christ, Paul was prepared for the possibility that his life would be poured out in his service to the Philippians (and others). He does so willingly. He does so knowing that his death is not the end of the story but places him in the presence of Jesus Christ for all eternity, which he has described as far better (1:23).
 
In a very real sense his self-sacrifice is placed alongside of the sacrifice of the Philippians as well. They had sent Epaphroditus to Paul. They’d sent him gifts of financial support. They prayed for him. Each act of self sacrifice is offered in view of Christ and His love. Each act of self-sacrifice though for the benefit of others, is offered in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the gathering of the people who belong to Jesus and this to the glory of God. Before the creation of the world, the Father declared He would choose sons and daughters in love through the sacrifice of Jesus. Whenever that promise of gathering in His people is fulfilled, in Paul, in Timothy, in Epaphroditus, in the life of the Philippian church, God is honoured and praised. He is doing precisely what He promised, through whatever means necessary.
 
No wonder Paul rejoices. Even at the point of hard service, at times when his life is being poured out and it costs all his strength to look past himself and serve others. The greatest sacrifice he might have to make, that of his own life in martyrdom, is honourable service to the Father in heaven. No sacrifice, no pouring out of himself would ever even touch the lowest rung of the heights of Jesus’s own self-sacrifice and His obedient love. Even so, Paul knew that walking in step with Jesus, being prepared to suffer for the Name of Jesus, that is the path of glory and greatest joy. All of us will die. The question at the end of life must be, for what did you die? Was it for your own glory, for yourself, to guard and hoard possessions you can’t take with you into eternity? Or, at the end of your life, can you survey the peaks and valleys of your life and declare, it is all for Jesus? Then what you have done goes with you to eternity to the honour and praise of God. No wonder Paul rejoices and calls on the Philippians to rejoice with him also.
 
Glorious Father in heaven, help me to count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Spirit of God, for the sake of Jesus, strengthen me in my inner being so that at every instance where I suffer loss, even to the loss of all things, let me count it as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Amen.
Prayer based on Philippians 3:8-10
 
https://youtu.be/9zGbdg1YCYY?si=XiZt3jySKAk9z9Dr Afflicted Saint, to Christ Draw Near
 

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