Okay.
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. You’re awake at this point, right?
I’d just like to see, by show of hands, how many people are here for the first time this year.
That’s quite a group. I suppose 25% or more are here for the first time. Well, it’s a delight to be here together with you and to share in this wonderful matter of spiritual fullness.
I want us to look at several scriptures, so please take a Bible. We want to go back to the place where our brother left off this morning: John Chapter 1, verses 14 through 16.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth.John testified about Him, and cried out, saying,
“This was He of whom I said,
‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I,
for He existed before me.’”For of His fullness we have all received,
and grace upon grace.
And then in 2 Timothy Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
Then we want to read a few portions of Scripture from Philippians, beginning in Philippians Chapter 1, verse 12.
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,
so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else,
and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;
the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,
for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;
yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,
so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
Then in Philippians Chapter 2, those famous verses our brother referred to this morning, beginning in verse 5.
Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Then one last section in Philippians Chapter 3. We pick up in the middle of an argument in verse 4.
Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:
circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;
as to the law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;
as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Lord, as we come to You this afternoon, still the questions are upon our minds as to the large, comprehensive matter of spiritual fullness. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will give us some instruction and some help, that we may walk more completely in that position in which we found ourselves from the moment we became Christians and found You to be our completion.
O Lord, by Your Spirit, teach us. Do soften our hearts and speak to us today. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We begin at this place, as we read John Chapter 1, where we all must begin. It is by the grace of God that we touch His life and begin to enter into His fullness. John testifies, “Of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”
Perhaps you’re here for the first time. Maybe you’re here and you’re a young Christian. These high thoughts of spiritual fullness that we’ve heard expressed already, with more to come—your first response may be one of fear and unbelief.
The only way that we can know anything of this spiritual fullness is by faith, through grace. We have to start there. It is all by grace. By grace we have been saved.
John testifies to a fullness that he has received—not the perfect fullness, but a fullness that he has known—and he calls it grace upon grace. I would like to begin this afternoon simply by encouraging us, as brothers and sisters together, not to be satisfied with grace until we know grace upon grace.
We can all testify. I mean, the song “Amazing Grace” is the undercurrent theme song in all of our lives. I think of that fragment of the verse which says:
His grace hath brought us safe thus far,
And grace will lead us home.
Thank God for His love. When we hear of His fullness, we would back away in trembling and fear—and indeed we do. But then, because of His grace and love, we feel ourselves drawn to the Lord Jesus, and we come back to Him.
Oh, how wonderful is His grace, His acceptance of us, and also that gracious enabling. I know everybody here would testify, in some measure, how God has enabled you to do things that you never could have done naturally.
But you found the grace of God—even the grace of God which says, “My grace is sufficient.” We have known the Lord’s grace to be sufficient in times of danger and in times of trial. Indeed, His grace is a full grace.
But I want to encourage us to take hold of more of this grace, to come into the fullness that this grace allows. Because in the last days, we know there will be a great unsettling. The enemy will try his best to keep us all off balance.
As we know from the Word of God, one of his strategies is clearly to wear down the saints.
Now, we as Christians sometimes, rather than pursuing after the maximum, settle for the minimum. Sometimes we live by the grace of God sort of by the seat of our pants, one day at a time.
The Lord exhorted us that we should not worry, because sufficient are the evils of today to take care of themselves. You need not go on in endless worry. But there needs to be a greater fullness of the grace of God in our lives. We cannot just live one day at a time.
I know that many of you, and perhaps some younger Christians, are just trying to find God’s grace for today. We get up, try to read our Bible, and pray. We try to take His grace; then we have to go off to that horrid school, go to that job, or face some situation, and we just want grace for today: “Just get me through today, Lord.”
But in the last days, we need more than just that grace. We need a fullness. As our brother shared so beautifully with us last night, spiritual fullness is not an option in the last days; it is a matter of survival.
If I might put it this way—I know it is slightly incorrect, but you get the idea—we need to move on from just free grace to that costly grace that the Lord enables us to enter into.
There is built up in us a spiritual fullness that can face today, the future, and all those things that the enemy places in our path.
It is not very many prayer meetings that we attend where we do not hear of somebody who has become unsettled by the loss of a job, an illness that has come to the family, or these kinds of things. Some saints, having lived only by daily grace, are wrecked upon such circumstances. But we need to learn how to soar above these things by the grace of God.
So we desire this equilibrium. You know, routine is a wonderful thing. It is. You do not realize it until you have become unsettled out of a routine. Then you realize how beautiful it was in those times when you got up in the morning, read the Word, listened to a devotion on the radio, went off to work, everything went fine, came home, and the kids were all well. Ah, it was wonderful—routine.
But we need to be able to move beyond this routine by this fullness of which we are speaking.
Some of you may have taught children on Sundays, led a Bible study occasionally, or shared the Word of God. We can all testify to those times when, by the grace of God, He gave us something to share even in the eleventh hour.
You know, the saints have called on you to share on a Sunday morning, and now it is ten o’clock Saturday night. You are still knocking on the door, saying, “Lord, I have nothing. I have nothing.”
We have all known that. Somehow, by the Lord’s grace, He gives us a word, something comes together, and we jot it down and share it. Then some saint even comes up afterward and says, “Oh, thank you for that. Thank you.”
But we do minister by the grace of God, and unless He gives us something, we have nothing to share. I remember in my early days—I was a Baptist minister a long time ago—and it was quite an exercise.
As a Baptist minister, there were three things you had to do: you had to preach three times every week, whether you had something or not. That was not really important.
You had to share Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. You had to take up most of the time in the prayer meeting, since people did not pray very long.
So you found yourself resorting to books of sermon outlines, basically copying C. H. Spurgeon on a given Wednesday night or something, because you did not have anything of your own.
It put me under a lot more pressure when I realized that if you do not have something of life from the Lord, you should not share—because you are still called on to share. There takes a further fullness in order to do that.
We might use Gideon as an example—Gideon’s fleece. It is a wonderful thing when your fleece is wet, when you have received something from the Lord and can minister to people who are dry around you.
It takes some spiritual reserves to be going through something yourself with the Lord, to be quite dry inside, and still find something to make moist those around you.
This is overcoming ministry. This is ministry out of a spiritual reserve and a fullness.
I am just trying to give you some pictures of what we are talking about here. We are talking about more than merely being filled with the Spirit. “Oh, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit.” That is a wonderful experience.
We are talking about a spiritual fullness that can take us right through to the end. You know the story of the ten virgins. They were all Christians. They all had oil. They all had oil enough for today.
The problem was that the coming of the Bridegroom had been delayed. Five of them did not have the reserve flask, that fullness preparing them even for the end.
I feel that the Spirit is speaking to us all today—to all the assemblies represented here. I know that the Holy Spirit is pressing upon us that now is the time when, in the wisdom of Joseph, in the fat years, we need to lay up, store up, and come to spiritual fullness.
In fact, the enemy will make it almost impossible in the end days, in his unsettling things, if you do not have those reserves. If we are not stored up, then when the lean years come, we find many spiritual casualties. Now is the time to take hold, to find this kind of fullness that the Lord has.
We are not talking about storing up money for the rough days. We are talking about storing up treasures—spiritual treasures, spiritual capacity, spiritual experience. Those treasures that Paul tells Timothy to guard: “Guard those treasures by the Holy Spirit within you.”
I mentioned this verse in 2 Timothy Chapter 2. I remember that I was in the Philippines with our brother Hosea and Ellen. I was studying and reading some Greek commentaries.
It was the first time that I saw—or had explained to me; I am not a Greek scholar—that this verse which we read in 2 Timothy Chapter 2, verse 1, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” has a particular sense.
My translation says it that way and interprets it as though it were an imperative: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
But I read Lightfoot, and Lightfoot said that “be strong” is actually a reflexive verb, if you know what that means. Basically, it means this:
Timothy, my son, strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
That reflexive translation means that we have to lay hold of grace. There is a further grace. It is not just a free ride.
Strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
I can picture Paul writing this letter, aware that his departure from this earth is soon to come. As he says, “Pass on to others what I have told you,” I see between the lines Paul saying something like this:
“Timothy, you have been a faithful servant. You followed my direction. I told you to go here and there. You have shared in my burden as I have shared the gospel and shared with the various churches.
“But, Timothy, I am about to go. I need you to step up and receive that prophetic burden yourself. It is not enough just to go by what I tell you to do. I will not be around.
“Then who is going to know what the need is in such-and-such a church? Who is going to have that vision to understand the supply for a given situation, what needs to be ministered, or where to go?”
You see, this kind of ministry which Paul had takes a certain spiritual fullness that Timothy did not have until he would strengthen himself in the grace of God.
“Timothy, suffer hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. There are so many things that can entangle you in everyday life—so many things that are good but unnecessary, so many things that are bandits of time, so many things that distract you from the one thing you need to be doing.
“Timothy, be a good soldier. Your one goal now is to please the one who enlisted you as a soldier. Do not be distracted by the many entanglements of everyday life.”
That is a very strong exhortation that Paul makes. The Holy Spirit is speaking to the church today as well, because He wants the church corporately to come into a spiritual fullness.
It is not enough just to fly in on Sunday morning by the seat of our pants and expect the Lord to meet us in richness and fullness. There need to be those who spend time praying, being before the Lord, and coming with hearts full.
Praise God for the dear saints who are always ready in an open meeting to give some praise to God. But the Lord is looking for a spiritual fullness that involves every brother and sister saying something, praising in some way.
There is a greater dimension of fullness that we have yet to enter into in body life. The Holy Spirit is stirring our assembly life not to be satisfied with whatever level we are at. We are not satisfied until everyone is sharing, young and old.
Some are waiting back timidly. No, no, no—it is time to come forward and exercise your praise unto the Lord. The Lord is looking for that.
In our meetings, the Lord is trying to cut away those things that are unnecessary, those things built merely on human things, and to bring us to the place where our meetings truly have spiritual value.
We waste so much time in our meetings. You can sense that there are unnecessary things going on: too much talking, too many irrelevant things. The Lord says we need to take those away and move up to a fullness in our meetings.
Isn’t it a wonderful thing when you go to a meeting that has been full of the presence of the Lord? You know there has been a cost there. Someone has been faithful, and some people have been praying.
But the Lord wants us all to enter into something of that nature and His fullness.
Well, I want to speak this afternoon on spiritual fullness from this letter to the Philippians. As our brother shared, it was while Paul was in prison that he came to a greater awareness—or ability to express—something of this fullness of Christ.
He wrote not only Ephesians and Colossians, but also this personal testimony in Philippians. I want to do this in the two times that I am with you this weekend.
Today, I want to share on individual spiritual fullness as knowing the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That comes from Philippians Chapter 1, verse 19:
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
I want to talk and share with you Paul’s testimony of spiritual fullness as laying hold of that supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That is the individual matter.
Then, Lord willing, tomorrow afternoon I want to share from another fragment in Philippians: that we would have the mind of Christ corporately. That is key to our expressing and experiencing fullness together.
Now, notice Paul’s disclaimer, which we should immediately turn to in Philippians Chapter 3. Our brother shared this morning: who can preach on spiritual fullness? Who can say, “Hey, I’ve got it. You come get it”? Who can do such a thing?
Not even Paul would dare to say such a thing. We read in Philippians Chapter 3, verse 12:
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do.
Then he moves on in his beautiful biography of his pursuit of Christ. Paul would not dare to say, “Oh yes, you want spiritual fullness? Look at me.” No. He says, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect.”
In that, we all identify with Paul. Who can, in the light of the truth regarding the fullness that is in Christ, possibly say that we have spiritual fullness?
But Paul may be different from some of us in this regard. Having said, “Not that I have already attained,” for he certainly did not feel he had come to this spiritual fullness, he had come to the point where he could say, “This one thing I do.”
In fact, by the grace of God, that is the key to entering into any taste and reality of spiritual fullness. Paul does not say, “I have reached spiritual fullness,” but he says, “I have reached an essential motivation in my life. There is one thing I now do.”
In order for us to come to spiritual fullness, there must also be this testimony in our lives: “This one thing I do.”
In this Philippian letter, in a very wonderful and unself-conscious way, Paul manifests spiritual fullness. I want us to look at that this afternoon, just to encourage you. I want to encourage you to believe that you can enter into spiritual fullness as well.
It is not a self-conscious awareness: “I know I have spiritual fullness.” No. But there is that pursuit which guarantees that there will be some expression of spiritual fullness in your life and mine.
Let us look at Paul’s life. We have to look in some very broad statements to see this matter of spiritual fullness, but I want to mention three things in which we can evidently see spiritual fullness in Paul’s life.
The first thing is this: Christ is central to Paul’s thinking. Indeed, he has the mind of Christ, if you want to put it that way.
I remember reading a commentary on Philippians. I have these big, thick commentaries that speak about Philippians being about joy, rejoicing, and many different themes.
But I will never forget reading this little, thin commentary by a Brethren writer back in the nineteenth century. His outline of Philippians just opened up the book for me.
I want to give you that outline, so that you can get some sense of how much Christ is in Paul’s mind—forming his thoughts and interpreting the events around him. His life is full of Christ. This is spiritual fullness.
Chapter 1 is Philippians Chapter 1, verse 21:
For to me, to live is Christ.
Christ, my life.
Chapter 2, verse 5:
Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.
Christ, my mind.
Chapter 3, verse 14:
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Christ, my goal.
Chapter 4, verse 13:
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Christ, my strength.
What a simple outline, but what a Christ-focused outline.
Indeed, the letter of Paul to the Philippians is not a doctrinal treatise. There is a problem he is trying to work on there, but primarily it is a testimony he gives to encourage the Philippians, who know that he is in jail, are praying for him, helping to support him, and are a bit worried about him.
So he sends this letter as encouragement to them. In the midst of it, you see how Christ is so much a part of his life—Christ central to his thinking.
When he says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” if you said to him, “Now, Paul, do you mean you are full of Christ?” he would say, “No, no, no, no. I do not mean that. I have not arrived there yet.”
“But Christ has become my motive. Christ has become my goal. Christ has become my one thing. I know I am alive by the very life of Christ. Otherwise, I would be dead by now.”
“I have been shipwrecked, thrown around in jail, and stoned. Why, I would not be alive if Christ were not my life. I am not even living out of the resources of my own pluck. Christ is my life. For me to live is Christ.”
“Okay, Paul, what do you see as your future?” “Oh, it is Christ. I am out to gain Christ.” That is his answer.
It sounds like a super-spiritual answer, but it is not. For us, it might be. We know those answers, but is our mind always thinking of Christ? Do we always have these kinds of things in our minds?
To Paul, there is this desire: Christ is my Master, and I am living for Him.
In 2 Corinthians, he says at one point, “I have come to a conclusion: Christ died for all; therefore all died, including me. Now those who live should live for Him.” That is it: Christ, my life. “For me to live is Christ; to die is gain.”
The centrality of Christ in his thinking is remarkable. In Philippians Chapter 1 alone, Christ is mentioned eighteen times.
“Servants of Jesus Christ.” “I love you with the compassion of Jesus Christ.” “The gospel of Jesus Christ.” “For me to live is Christ.” It is Christ, Christ, Christ at every turn as he encourages these Philippians.
“It is Christ. He is wonderful. You should see Him. He is my life. I want to share Him with you.” He is preoccupied—preoccupied with Christ.
As a result of that, we come to the second evidence of this spiritual fullness. Because Christ is his life, and because there has been a surrender to that—which we will talk about in a few minutes—there is, secondly, full confidence in the sovereign supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
There is a full confidence in the sovereign supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Look again at Philippians Chapter 1, verse 19:
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Then Paul goes on to spell out the argument that although he would like to go and be with Christ, it is probably more important for him to stay on this earth. Because of that, he is resting and waiting for his release, so he can go back to the Philippians and minister more life to them.
How is that for confidence? He is not confident that his life is of any particular value. In one sense, he is ready to go home. But he is confident of this: “If God still needs to use me, I will be getting out of jail.”
He is so confident that he is making preparations even now to come visit them shortly.
Where does he base that confidence? Are the guards telling him, “Paul, they are going to let you out any day”? No.
His confidence is based on recognizing that his whole life is laid in the hands of a sovereign God. He has confidence that whatever God wants him to do is what he wants to do.
He does not want to be ashamed or ashamed of the Lord in any way, whether by life or by death. That is all he cares about. The rest is up to the Lord.
“Now it is out of my hands. I am in jail. It is in His hands. I think He wants me to come minister to you, so I will see you soon. I trust in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, along with your prayers, to get me out of this thing.”
What a wonderful and sovereign sense of the Lord.
Notice throughout Philippians some of your favorite passages. In Philippians Chapter 1, verse 6:
I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Where does that confidence come from? Paul cannot minister there in Philippi, but he knows something based on his own experience and on seeing how the Philippian church began as a whole: what God begins, He finishes.
God has begun a work there, and He will complete it so that when Christ comes back, they will be ready. Paul has that confidence. He has that rest, and he assures these young believers that this indeed will happen.
In Philippians Chapter 1, verse 12, we read this portion because I wanted you to see the confidence Paul has in the going forth of the gospel:
Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.
How many of you would think your circumstances—that is, being thrown in jail—are working out for the better?
But Paul sees behind the scenes as the Holy Spirit opens up and interprets his way. Let us not make Paul non-human. Paul spent many days in jail, I am sure, restless, wishing he were out serving, wishing he could see the saints who were going through problems.
It is not as though Paul did not have to struggle, but he always came back into this rest.
“You know, I am behind bars, but it has had three interesting effects regarding the gospel. Number one: everybody around me here in Rome knows about Jesus now, because that is all I talk about.”
So even the Praetorian Guard says, “Ah, it is the Jesus freak over there in jail five.” They all know about the gospel.
“Number two: because of my imprisonment, other people have decided that they need to preach the gospel and be faithful. If Paul should be so faithful, we need to be faithful.” Now some new brothers have stepped up to preach the gospel. How wonderful.
Then there are those fellows preaching to try to drive Paul crazy—preaching the gospel, and perhaps also advocating circumcision or something like that. They think to annoy Paul. They are even doing it on purpose.
Paul says, “You know, it is in God’s hands. Praise God, Jesus is being preached.”
Do you see somebody there who is resting in the providential hand of God, who is his supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ?
We notice in Philippians Chapter 2, after sharing his marvelous insight into Jesus and His coming to earth, Paul says in verses 12 and 13:
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
He sees these saints desiring to be perfected in Christ, and he says, “Keep laying hold of the Lord, because it is God in you. He is willing, and He is doing.”
Oh, what a rest in the greatness and sovereignty of God.
Even in the matter of his provisions, in Philippians Chapter 4, verse 11:
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
I know how to get along with humble means; I also know how to live in prosperity.
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Here is absolute security in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
“My needs—it is settled. The Lord has always met my needs, and He will always meet my needs. It is settled.”
“Thank you, dear brothers from Philippi, for sending me the support. Thank you so much. It was a sweet odor, an aroma of love unto God.”
“I just want you to know that you need to learn the secret too. We should not always be worrying about our money, our finances, our situation, and everything. It should be settled. Our needs are supplied by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
There is some large thinking there, some spiritual-mindedness. There is some spiritual fullness there.
The third reason that we see Paul tasting and testifying to spiritual fullness in this book is that his letter is full of self-sacrificing love for the Philippians.
Now, I ask you the obvious question: who should be writing whom? Who is in the greater need?
We do not know at what stage Paul was in during this Roman imprisonment—whether these were the tough times, when he was perhaps even in stocks with rats crawling over him, or whether he was at liberty in a little apartment, as it were, to write and do what he needed to do.
But whatever the situation was, Paul was thinking about them. Isn’t that amazing?
He says, “When I hear of your faith and participation in the gospel, I just thank God always for you. I have confidence that the Lord will finish what He has started.”
He says, “Even when you go through suffering, you are participating in the gospel along with me, and for this I rejoice.”
Paul is full of thoughts for his brethren. He is always thinking of them. He says, “I have you in my heart.” That is why he longs for them so much.
“I long for you with the very affections of Jesus.” The Greek speaks of the inward parts of Jesus. In other words, Paul has entered into something of the Lord where he feels such compassion for them that it is beyond himself.
Paul, as a natural man, was all for “me, me, me.” You and I are all for “me, me, me.” But look what has happened in Paul’s life.
“I think about you, Philippians, and it is as if the inward affections of Christ press forward with a compassion for you that I feel.”
What a tremendous expression of love.
Paul says, “The reason I am writing this letter is that I have to send Epaphroditus back to you. I know you have been worried about him. I am sending him back so that you can see that he is fine.”
“I am so glad he pulled through, or I would have been wrecked. I am going to send Timothy too. As soon as I find out how things are going, I am going to send Timothy.”
What is Paul doing? He is giving away his best people. Paul will probably have to suffer somewhat because these brothers have gone. But it simply is not about him anymore, is it?
He sends his best servants back to Philippi just to refresh them and help them understand where he is at.
When he hears about the little spat between Euodia and Syntyche, he says in Philippians Chapter 4, verse 1:
Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.
Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
He says, “Oh, listen, can I make this request of you? In the affections of Christ Jesus, I feel like perhaps there has been a loss of the recognition of the value of dear Euodia and dear Syntyche.”
“They have forgotten how precious they are as my co-workers. Will you remind them? Will you remind them that they work together in harmony? Would you remind them, Clement, and help them get back into that oneness that we need there?”
“Oh, Philippians, you are such a church of love. We cannot have this little spat going on.”
Paul is so full of this love for his brothers and sisters.
We can provisionally begin to define spiritual fullness by saying these things. First, spiritual fullness is when Christ has become the stack pole around which our whole life is integrated.
Paul does not say, “For me to live is Christ,” because he has nothing else. He is not married; he does not have a job, so he can think all day about Christ.
We often get that idea: “Oh, if I were single, free of indebtedness, and did not have a job, then I could say Christ is my life.” But no, no.
Paul had many concerns and worries. He was drafting many letters, receiving many reports, praying, and doing battle. Whether he was free or in prison, his ministry was full of events, activities, and things to do.
But his life had found this stack pole. Now, maybe we do not know what a stack pole is. Back in the old days—when I was a farmer… I never was a farmer, but I lived near some farms once.
Today they bale hay and wrap wires around it, but in the old days they stuck a pole in the ground and threw the hay around it. That pole would keep the hay together, and they could build up a stack around the pole.
Spiritual fullness, to some degree, is when Christ has become the stack pole that integrates the rest of your life.
You say, “But wait, I want Christ to be my life, but I have to get married first.” Oh, no. Christ can be your life in marriage.
“Oh, but I have a job right now. My life is my job.” Oh no, this should not be. Christ, my life, even with a job.
Even with responsibilities, financial problems, and romance. “Oh, my life is romance right now.” It should not be. Christ, my life.
All these things take shape. All these things are interpreted. All these things are allowed. All these things are brought into the sphere of His lordship.
This is what Paul means by “Christ is my life.” It does not mean that he is perfect. But even when a difficult situation comes, such as those brothers preaching the gospel out of wrong motives, Paul might get upset about it. Then he would go to the Lord about it.
The Lord would say, “You know what? I am one step ahead of them. I am going to use it to further the gospel.” Paul could rest.
You see, he always went back to Christ. Christ was the very centre of his life.
Spiritual fullness: Christ is the stack pole around which all of your life is integrated. Unless Christ is the centre of your life, you do not have a stack pole in your life; it is all divided into pockets.
Christ, my life. Stack pole. Everything finds its place around Christ.
The second thing we see is that we begin to understand fullness a little bit more. This is more than being filled with the Spirit as we know that phrase. It is very important to be filled with the Spirit, but this is not exactly the same as merely being full of the Spirit.
This matter of spiritual fullness is something very large in concept. Listen to where we have been going. In 2002, the theme was spiritual ascendancy. In 2003, we went up to spiritual mindedness. Last year, spiritual perfection.
How could spiritual fullness be beyond that? Ah, but it is.
Our concept of fullness, unfortunately, is always, “I am a tank that needs to be filled up with a certain supply. Oh Lord, increase my capacity so I can be filled up with more stuff.”
Fullness does have to do with capacity, and fullness has to do with filling. But there is a secret that we are discovering in Paul’s life. Here it is:
Spiritual fullness comes by an act of emptying.
The divine response to our emptying is a rushing fullness of life.
I use this illustration at my own peril, because I realize I am getting older. My mom used to have a vacuum cleaner called an Electrolux. It was a big tubular vacuum cleaner like this.
The one thing it had going for it that made it a little different from the vacuums we see mostly today was that you could stick the hose on either end.
Of course, you usually wanted to put it on the sucking end. You had a bag, turned it on, and used the thing; all the dirt came into the bag. That is our view of fullness.
Maybe we even came this weekend saying, “Oh Lord, I am just a bag of dirt. Fill me, fill me, fill me with Your love. Fill me with Your grace, fill me with Your grace.”
Now, the interesting thing about the Electrolux is that if you wanted to do a paint job, you could take the hose, put it around on the other end, turn it on, and it blew out.
You could attach the special paint attachment and spray the walls with it, because it was all blowing out.
This whole matter of spiritual fullness, as we see in Paul’s life, was inspired by the mind of Christ. We need to explain that for just a minute.
Paul found that as he was poured out—as he put the hose on the blowing-out end—that fullness was an overflow. Fullness was an outpouring.
Fullness is not the containment of something, some kind of static containment. Fullness is a pouring out of something, something fully expressed.
As that was poured out, air had to rush in. That rush of life that comes in from behind when we are poured out at the command and call of God is what spiritual fullness is all about.
So it is not a sense of, “Ah, praise God, I am now a hundred-gallon drum.” The issue becomes this: what you have freely been given, have you now poured out?
Then something can be expected from behind. What is that called? The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
You can be so confident of that supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ if you are pouring out.
“What if you do not feel like it?” You see, here is the deal. In ministry, we all love this kind of ideal thing.
The ideal ministry is this: I go into my room, chase my wife away, get down on my knees, and say, “Oh God, fill me with Your Spirit. Oh, fill me with knowledge of Yourself. Oh, fill me with Christ.”
Then suddenly I hear, “Five gallons, ten gallons, fifteen gallons, twenty gallons. Now I am ready.” I run into the meeting and say, “I am the Lord’s fifteen-gallon man.”
Oh, how wonderful to be fifteen gallons, all poured out. So wonderful to be full and poured out.
Usually, ministry is that you do not even feel you have a tank. But the Lord says, “Now I want you to go and give yourself to this situation.”
You have such confidence in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that you are willing to go and be expended.
That is spiritual fullness, because it is not your fullness. It is not that you say, “Oh, I feel so good—fifteen gallons.” Oh no.
Spiritual fullness is an expression of what is being expressed through you, as people see Christ pouring out of your life. This is what Paul had become, as we see by this letter.
How did Paul come to this place? How do any of us come to this place? This is a mighty position, truth to say. How do we possibly get there?
Here is where the Spirit is so faithful. Of course, do I need to say it more than once? By the great power of the cross emptying us, His fullness becomes expressed.
We have these little chapter headings and numbers. I forget when the chapters were put into the Bible—into the Middle Ages, was it not? It is an invention of man to try to keep things in order.
But in this instance, there is one thought we need to understand that transcends the chapters.
In Philippians Chapter 2, Paul says, “I saw Christ, the Son of God, empty Himself and become a man, lose everything, die on the cross, and now be glorified.”
Then Paul, who had all of this gain in Philippians Chapter 3, saw that he had to lose it. It had to be stripped away.
What is gain? In Philippians Chapter 3, Paul says:
Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
What is he saying there? What is gain? Gains are those things that make me full of me.
When Paul came to the Lord on the road to Damascus, do you think this whole transaction of Philippians Chapter 3 was made then? No.
The main transaction made on the road to Damascus was twofold. First, the lordship of his life changed from himself to Jesus. Second, he saw that his righteousness was as filthy rags and that he was saved by grace, not by works.
But he was still a Pharisee. He still strove and had great energy. He still had great biblical knowledge. He still had his pedigree as of the tribe of Benjamin.
He still had all of that, which God one by one stripped away from him.
Can you imagine the stripping process of the cross, where the Lord said this to Paul? “Paul, I am making you an Electrolux vacuum cleaner to the Gentiles.”
“The only time this button is going to work is when you pour yourself out to the Gentiles. But do not try pouring yourself out to the Jews; you will just get yourself in trouble.”
How Paul might have wished to save some shred of Jewish pride if he had been made an apostle to the Jews. But the Lord says, “Strip it away, Paul. Gentiles are not interested in your Jewish background.”
“What? All those things I have learned, all that righteousness, all that cleanliness?” All those things were gain to him. All those things made him him. “I was a Pharisee. Now I am just a sinner.”
God said, “Yes, Paul, empty yourself for the Gentiles, and I will fill you with fullness.” What a stripping.
If you said to Paul, “Paul, how were you made so full?” Paul would say, “Because the cross disallowed me from being involved in anything that touched my background in Judaism. I just went out to the Gentiles.”
The Jews would laugh at him: “Ha, ha, ha. That was Paul. He used to be a great man. He used to be a great Pharisee. What has he become now? Look at him. He is living with the Gentiles.”
Can you imagine what the schoolmates from Pharisee school thought, what Gamaliel thought? He was crucified to that world. The Jewish world hated him.
He had no more life with that. He was constrained. He could not even follow that road anymore.
But how was Paul willing to take everything that was gain and make it loss? I feel that as he talks about this, he is not only talking about his pre-conversion status, but also his status as an apostle and the status of a spiritual father when certain churches disregarded him.
“All things I count as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ.” How could he be stripped away and stripped away and stripped away? That is how he came to this peace.
Oh, the faithful work of the cross by the Holy Spirit, taking one issue at a time and showing Paul, “That is not the way to go.”
Paul says, “What do You mean, that is not the way to go?” Then the Holy Spirit gave him a revelation which became one of the most outstanding revelations in the whole New Testament: Philippians Chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.
Paul saw Jesus emptying Himself. How can you resist an emptying when Jesus emptied all?
He saw that his own stripping in life was some small shadow of the great, stupendous stripping of Jesus when He came down from sonship to manhood, took the form of a servant, and came down from servanthood to a cruel death on the cross.
Paul saw that at the end of that was glory. Paul understood: when we pour ourselves out, then we are full; and when we give all, then we are rich.
At any time, we may be called upon to be stripped—not only of bad things and evil things, but natural things and lovely things. When they are stripped from us, more life pours into our life, more life, more life.
Paul experienced this many times in his ministry as he felt the Lord doing this emptying in his life.
What happened when he heard about those evangelists preaching the gospel out of strife and envy? If there was anything in Paul that was jealous, anything to say, “What right have they got to…?” all that self-interest was gone.
Perhaps the Lord had to deal with him for a night. Certainly by the next morning he could say, “You know what? It is working out for the good. The gospel is being broadcast, and in this I rejoice.”
“I will not allow these men to wrest peace from me. It is in the hands of God.”
Or how about the ultimate sting? We see Paul’s emptiness and therefore his fullness in this thought of him being in jail for all those years. He was in for years.
Where is the sting of jail? The sense of abandonment, the sense of discouragement. Do you not think Paul had to wrestle with those things at times? I am sure.
But in the end he said, “My life—I believe in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is in His hands.”
“He has given me grace for the day. He will give me grace for tomorrow. I believe. I have found the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
Being full is not a matter of some static dimension to which we come. Being full is being confident of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing that will come into our lives for which there is not a supply to meet the situation. That is fullness.
You say, “No, no, no, just give me ten gallons in case God does not show up tomorrow.” No, here is true fullness: God shows up tomorrow, so I expend all today.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are storing up things, but I wonder if we are storing up by giving out.
Are we this example of spiritual fullness? Of course, we look at Paul, and who can compare to this? Who would dare challenge anybody? We all have so far to go.
Yet the call of God is upon us: to take hold of His grace, to be strengthened in the grace of the Lord Jesus, and to be willing to suffer.
When we do, we experience that life behind us and that confidence which keeps us even through the time of jail.
At least, could we say that what the Lord is trying to strip away and bring us down to in our own spiritual lives is this: “This one thing I do.”
There is the door to spiritual fullness.
This one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind,
and looking ahead to the things which are before,
I press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul is looking forward to reigning. He is looking forward to that throne. He is going to press right up into that throne. This one thing he does.
He is not checking his tank. He is not checking the fuel gauge. He is not looking self-consciously at himself: “How full am I? How full am I?”
No, he is pressing on toward something greater than his own fullness. Indeed, it is the fullness of Christ, and that fullness is expressed in his life. We are all blessed because he poured out.
In these last days, the Lord is looking for those who have one thing as the stack pole of their lives.
We have many different brothers and sisters here—many different backgrounds, jobs, states of health, schooling, and situations. But none of that, in the end, should really be our stack pole.
Spiritual fullness is finally to see: “Lord, all of these dealings in my life, all of these strippings in my life, it has just been You after me to get me down to the one thing.”
“Forgive me, Lord, for the childish way I have held on to this and that—unnecessary things, time-consuming things, things that make no difference. Oh Lord, I want to press on to one thing.”
We cannot say that we know spiritual fullness. But do we have that desire after one thing?
Is the Lord transforming our minds? So much of spiritual fullness, I think, in the end, has to be defined as that which is renewed in our minds.
Is our mind being renewed to understand what God is really after? Are we beyond the simple understanding that grace is just a free ride?
He cares for us, loves us, forgives us, feeds us, and all those things are true. We come back to this Lord who has given us all these things for free, and we say, “Lord, I want to press into Your fullness, that I might know grace upon grace.”
“I may know what it means and experience what it means to know You.”
Paul had very little, I suppose, at the end of his life. When he finally died, he had some books, some scrolls, a coat, and a few things.
But when he died, he had fullness.
Paul could say to the Philippians, “I am very confident of this thing: He who began a good work in you will complete it also against the day of Christ.”
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Oh Lord, we sometimes pray, “Oh God, give us fullness, fullness. It is fullness we need,” and yet we hesitate when You call us to empty ourselves.
Oh Lord, may our prayer be, “Oh Lord, pour forth, pour forth, pour forth,” as we rely on the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
How we want to pray that You would bring Christ to such a prominent place in our lives that He is our motive, He is our stack pole, He is the One to whom we go, He is the answer, and He is our very power to live.
Oh, we thank You for Him. We thank You for this promise: not only does all Your fullness dwell in Him, but we have been made complete in Him.
Oh, we pray, Lord, bring us to a belief in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Bring us to the mind of Christ, who laid down everything and thus gained everything.
Oh Lord, help us. Lord, if the Spirit is stripping away things in our lives by the power of the cross, help us have done with these things, that we might have one thing before us.
If we are in a place of serving and we pour ourselves out thanklessly, perhaps on the human level, oh, fill us, fill us with Your love.
We thank You, Lord, that You want to make us entirely other. We see that transformation can only come by the resident life of Christ within us.
Oh, help us, Lord. Make the transaction in us, Lord. We pray for Jesus’ sake. Amen.