Title: A Shepherd's Heart for the Flock
Scripture: Philippians 1:7-8
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, in John 10, which is probably one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ addressed a mixed group of disciples and Pharisees. He told the crowd through a use of symbols and metaphors, He says, I am the good shepherd who loves the sheep and lays down His life for them. Of course, this concept of the Lord as shepherd was not a new one.
The Old Testament conveys this concept as well. We think back to David in Psalm 23, confess the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Psalm 80 calls God the shepherd of Israel who leads them like a flock.
The prophets called out the wicked leaders of Israel, referring to them as false shepherds, and yet in Ezekiel 34, God promises to set over the people one shepherd, then He names them, My servant David, talking about a future David, and He will feed them and be their shepherd. And so, when Christ comes, He claims that title, He claims the title of the good shepherd. Hebrews 13.20 calls Him the great shepherd, 1 Peter 5.4 honors Him as the chief shepherd.
Of course, you might ask the question, in what ways is the Lord our shepherd? When we think about that analogy, if any of you, and this is a growing trend these days, especially up in this region, those who have animals and have sheep and tend to sheep and care for sheep, what is that like? How does shepherding look in the natural world, but certainly how does it look in the spiritual world? Well, for starters, our shepherd, He leads us, Psalm 23.2. He feeds us spiritually and physically, John 10.9. He protects us, again, Psalm 23.4. He defends us. He cares for us, Ezekiel 34.16. He gives life to us, John 10.11. All of this flows out of His abundant love for us, His heartbeat of affection for us as His flock. This is the heart of our good shepherd.
But what's even more amazing about that is that even after Jesus rose from the dead and before He ascended back to heaven, Jesus, in caring for His flock, His church, He appointed disciples to the loving task of caring for His flock in His physical absence. At Peter's restoration in John 21, three times Jesus asks Peter, He says, do you love me? And each time Peter responds, He says, yes, Lord, you know that I love you, to which He responded with this charge. Three times He says, tend my lambs, shepherd my sheep, tend my sheep.
This is more than just the Lord's calling of Peter into ministry. It's more than simply His forgiveness of his previous sin. This is a stewardship entrusted to him.
This is an entrustment of responsibility to Peter and all those who follow in his footsteps. Essentially, He's saying, Peter, if you love me, then I want you to care for those whom I love deeply. This is the essence of pastoral ministry.
That word pastoral is a shepherding role, a loving, a caring, a nurturing role, caring for those whom Christ loves dearly. And nobody did that more faithfully than the Apostle Paul. So, if you have your copy of Scripture, turn to Philippians chapter 1. Now, it is not fair to say that Philippi was Paul's favorite church.
I think you could make a case for perhaps Ephesus or Thessalonica being in that top tier of Paul's favorite churches. Of course, if you were to ask Paul, hey, Paul, which is your favorite church? It's like naming your kids, which kid is your favorite? I don't think Paul would have had a favorite church. But there were certainly churches that he interacted with that had a very special place in his heart, and he loved the believers there.
And even in chapter 4, verse 15 of this current letter that we're in, Paul recounts how the Philippians had cared for him while he was in Macedonia, while he was struggling, at a time when nobody else did. Again, this is a region of the world that was relatively new, certainly new to Paul and the other disciples. Nobody else would have even known about them and their needs.
They wouldn't have had friendly welcomings from lots of cities. But Philippi, when Paul and his companions went to Philippi, there was just a connection there, and they loved him deeply. Later on, when Paul is languishing in a Roman prison, he remembers their compassion fondly.
But that wasn't the only reason for his love for them. They were a godly church. They were a gospel-proclaiming church.
They were a fellowshipping church, as we're all going to see throughout the course of the letter. But they were a ministering church as well. When people had needs, they met them, of which Paul is now the recipient of this when Epaphroditus comes from Philippi, and he travels 800 miles, and he brings this gift to the apostle Paul on behalf of the Philippian church.
And so when he returns, Epaphroditus carries with him this very letter offered to the Philippian church from their dear friend and spiritual father, the apostle Paul. And so we began looking at this a couple of weeks ago, but I want to jump back into the introduction here to Philippians chapter 1, starting right at the beginning, verse 1. This is how Paul opens his letter. And so Paul, who's joined by Timothy and likely others, greets the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, and he's expressing his abundant joy here.
Again, joy becomes a repeated theme throughout the course of the letter. But this joy is bound up in his thanksgiving to God. He's thankful to God because he remembers the goodness that was shown to him by the church here.
He remembers their partnership in the gospel. He expresses joy in thanksgiving because of their participation in the gospel. Joy in thanksgiving because he's confident that God will preserve them until the very end because He has redeemed them, all because of the faithfulness of Christ.
In other words, he's thankful because they're all genuine believers. There was no cultural Christianity in Philippi. There couldn't be.
And so every single person who was there, to Paul's knowledge, was a believer and was beloved. How do we know that that's what Paul thought? Because he says that when he remembers them in prayer, he says, I'm thankful and I remember all of you. All of you.
I love all of you, he's saying. But he's not done here. He's not quite finished his expression of thanksgiving and joy, because in verses seven and eight, he's also going to express his love and his affection for them.
In other words, he's going to share his heart. And so we read, continuing in his introduction here, verses seven and eight, Paul says, For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. Since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Now, I think it's important to say that Paul was not a stoic, passionless guy. I think oftentimes when we think about the people in the Bible, we tend to sort of put them in this place where they're sort of one-dimensional or plastic or sort of archaic.
And if you watch old movies about the Bible, there is always these very stately, they're But that's not how these people really are, because we're not like that either. Human beings are energized with feelings and emotions. Paul was energetic, he was brilliant, he was emotional, he was passionate, he was warm and generous.
We even read about this in his introduction to the church in Rome. I'm just going to read these verses to you from Romans chapter 1. Paul says to the Roman church, First, I thank my God through Christ Jesus for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his Son, is my witness, notice he says the same thing here, as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers, making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
Listen to this, for I long to see you, so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you might be established, that is, that I might be encouraged together with you, while among you, each of us by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Paul tells the Romans, he says, I can't wait to see you, I'm eager to see you. I want to preach the gospel to you, but not just so that I can bring you a gift, I want you to give me a gift too.
I want you to share with me in the proclamation of your testimony, I want you to bless me with your spiritual gifts as I bless you, I want both of our faith to grow. That's how Paul thought about ministry. He didn't come marching into a church saying, I'm the apostle, he says, no, I'm one of you, and I want to be with you, and I long to see you.
That's how he thought about these churches. And so Paul was warm, he was generous, but Paul could also experience heartbreak. He was selfless, and even when he considered Israel's rejection of Christ in Romans 9-2, Romans 10-1, he says things like this, Romans 9-2, I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart, unceasing grief in my heart.
Romans 10-1, brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them, for Israel, is for their salvation. He says elsewhere in the letter, he says, I would wish myself accursed. My heart would rather go to hell and be condemned if I thought that it would mean your salvation, even though we know that's not possible.
But that's the expression of emotion here. Or when we think about him considering the error of the Corinthians, he writes in 2 Corinthians 2-4, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears. First Corinthians was not just him just smacking them around with a high hand.
No, he says this was affliction, this was anguish in my heart, I wrote this with tears, not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. He says in my letter, I'm bawling you out for your sin because I love you and I want you to repent and I want you to walk well and love the Lord. And I'm writing this with tears dripping onto the page.
It was out of his fatherly love for them that he rebuked them in their sin. Let me tell you, no pastor gets joy, no pastor worth his salt, gets joy rebuking sinning church people. It's awful.
But you love somebody enough to be honest with them, but not just for them. He says in 2 Corinthians 11-28 that he shares, he writes, the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. Paul says I feel the weight, not just of the churches that are struggling in sin, he says I feel the daily pressure of all of them.
I carry them around with me. That's what Paul says. His letter to the Galatians demonstrates his almost mind-numbing frustration over their foolishness in compromising their understanding of the gospel.
In fact, in Galatians 4-19, he tells the Galatians, he says, my children, I am in the pains of labor until Christ is formed in you. My heart is in such agony, such turmoil, such labor pains, because I want you to be more like Christ, it's killing me. Hardly a stoic or unfeeling person.
But the Philippian church, they didn't drive him crazy. Quite the opposite, in fact. When you read Philippians, it's a very different tone than 1st or 2nd Corinthians, or even some of the other letters where he has other kinds of rebukes here.
No, this is a very different kind of letter altogether. He considers his confidence about their eternal salvation, and then he says in verse 7, for it is only right for me to feel this way about you all. Paul's word choice is deliberate here.
He doesn't use this as a throwaway sentence. I think sometimes that I'm not throwing us under the bus, believers, because I do it too, but we read parts of the Bible, we read verses, and we kind of skim the verse and we say, eh, there's not much in here, I'll go to the next verse I know. And we miss the content that's embedded in the verses themselves here.
But when Paul says it's only right for me to feel this way about you, he says it's right, this word for right is dikaios in the Greek. We could also maybe translate it just or justified. It's the same root word.
But he's not saying that he means that he's feeling this way just because it's appropriate or logically conclusive. He doesn't say I feel this way for you and it's right just like mathematically, rather he's convinced, there's a sense of conviction behind this word. It's spiritually and morally justifiable as truth.
Why am I making this point? Because he doesn't feel this way about the Philippian salvation because he's arrived at some kind of logical conclusion. He says it's morally justifiable, it is biblically true that you're Christians because of doctrinal truth. He says it's justifiable, it's right that I feel this way because of what I know of your salvation.
What he feels is doctrinally correct. Now this word for feel is phroneo in the Greek. It actually means more than feelings or emotions.
Phroneo refers to a mental disposition or discernment. It's an important point because as a culture I think we're far too driven by our feelings, our gut reactions. And we do this all the time.
We'll say things like, or we'll express things like, well I love you because I feel it deep inside. It's based on our feelings or there was an old 1980s song by Huey Lewis and the News called The Power of Love, right? And that was this anthem, at least for my generation, right? But this idea that love is some kind of a squishy force and it's this thing that just takes you over and you just get swept up and you feel this way and all of a sudden you're smitten and you're in love and then as soon as that power kind of wanes and the feeling wears off, well I don't love them anymore. And we're very sort of back and forth about our feelings and it's only gotten worse.
I mean we are a culture that is driven by emotionalism. But that is not the essence of a sound mind that's based on discernible truth. Because that other thing I was describing, this power of love stuff, that's a fleshly rash impulse.
But that's not what Paul's saying. He doesn't say I feel this way because of something squishy in me. My feelings for you are built on a settled, convictional, mental disposition.
It's based on truth. Because on some level, Paul loves them because he understands, number one, what biblical love is. Biblical love is not just this wishy-washy feeling.
No, biblical love is based on generosity. It's based on selflessness. It's based on compassion.
You can love somebody without all the tingly feelings but have genuine love, believe it or not. Again, culture knows nothing of this. But love, true biblical love belongs to Christ's church.
We understand what love is. And how do we know love? Because God first loved us. We understand God's love.
So Paul understands what love is. He understands how God commands love and he's obedient to that command. Jesus says, love one another.
Paul says, yes, Lord. And so he's going to work at figuring out how to do that in a very tangible, practical way. But he also chooses to see what is truly lovable about the believers in Philippi.
Now, does that mean that there were no sinners in Philippi? Nope, all of them were sinners. Every church is full of sinners, from the pastorate all the way down. We are all sinners, objectively, in the eyes of God, absolutely.
But Paul's not focusing on that because we're going to deal with some sins in here. I mean, Euodia and Syntyche, they have their own problems as well. But Paul is not focusing that.
He's focusing on all the things that he's thankful for and all the things that he loves about them. He sees what's best in this church. Again, these aren't erratic feelings.
Rather, this is a mature, settled, convictional, obedient love. But he elaborates. He says, again, it is only right for me to feel this way about you all.
And then he gives this, because I have you in my heart. Now, again, to our cultural sensibilities, this feels very much like emotionalism. There's all kinds of songs about the person you love being in your heart, and it's sentimental and all those things.
But what is this? What is Paul saying? He uses this word. The Greek word is kardia, kardia. It's where we get our English word cardiac.
Same thing. Heart. It's used 150 times in the New Testament, almost exclusively to refer to the core of one's own innermost being.
It's the seed of who you are. The heart is virtually synonymous with the mind. I think sometimes we think that our mind and our heart are different.
This is where I think, this is where I feel, but that's not really it. Because your mind and your heart, your emotions, what you think, all these things are wrapped up together. Your mind affects your emotions, which affects your will.
There's a direct connection between all those. And so, in essence, your heart is what you think. It's what you believe.
It's your moral convictions, your moral center. It's your conscience. It's your relational affinities.
It's all that a person is encapsulated in the heart. Which is why Proverbs 4.23 says, to watch over, to guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Jesus also said, it is out of the heart that the mouth speaks.
You say what is inside your heart. This is why speech is so important. Our speech has to be tempered and seasoned with salt.
I know one of my personal sins is I don't often think before I speak. I have very stream-of-consciousness kind of speaking, which is why I manuscript my sermons. You're welcome.
Because otherwise, I'll go everywhere, I'll be all over the place. Anybody in my men's theology group knows that it's dangerous. And I'm doing it right now.
But it's out of the heart that the mouth speaks. And so, Jesus essentially is saying, if you're flooding your eyes and your ears and your mind with things that are futile and immoral and profane, fleshliness, deceit, lies, godlessness, then your heart is going to be shaped by those influences. There's an old saying, garbage in, garbage out.
That's true. But if you let your mind dwell, Philippians 4, 8, on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, lovely, of good repute, of excellence, anything worthy of praise, the Bible says that God's peace will be with you. More specifically, the God of peace will be with you.
But there's a sense in which our hearts are shaped by what we put into them. Yes, we have a sinful core. Yes, our hearts are deceitful, desperately wicked, desperately sinful, needing of repentance, needing of restoration, regeneration.
We need God to perform divine heart surgery to remove the old one and put a new one in. But once you have a new heart in Christ, and that heart is now beating for God, you've got to be careful what you do with it, because a lot of believers, well, they'll have a regenerated heart and they somehow think they can still dip back into the old life and put the same influences into it, and you're going to ruin yourself. We have to guard our hearts.
Our heart must be focused Godward. Again, it is out of the heart that you live your life. Well, how does this relate to our engagement with other people? Well, in Christ, there is an inextricable link between us and God, as well as us and other believers.
Read John chapter 17, where you see Jesus' high priestly prayer, how he prays that the unity that he has with the Father he desires to have with his people, that his people would have this unity with the Father just because I am in you and you're in me. It's a marvelous treatise and prayer on union with Christ and union with other believers. The Bible teaches that we, beloved, we are one in Christ, one.
We are woven together in a spiritual union. Remember, we talked about this last week, regeneration is a work of God to recreate us from the inside out, specifically to remake our hearts. And it is from this renewed heart that we can believe that we love God, and it produces a genuine Christ-like love for other people.
One of the evidences that you know that you're a Christian, again, one of the evidences is whether or not you have love for other believers. If you say you're a Christian and you don't love other Christians, 1 John says you're not a Christian. You can't say that you love God and hate his people.
If you say that, then the love of God is not in you. But what happens is that when a person comes to faith in Christ and their heart is transformed, all of a sudden, they start to love the people of God. They love to be together with other believers, they want to have fellowship, they want to know them, they want to love them, they want to spend time with them.
Sunday mornings, any time we can gather, this is a good time, a good place to be, not for the entertainment value, but for the fellowship and the encouragement value here. We're one together in Christ. That's not an accident.
And so from this renewed heart, we have new desires, new beliefs, new convictions, new compassion, new longings for holiness and for righteousness. The Bible says that in Christ we are new creations, 2 Corinthians 5.17. The old person, the old man is gone. We're new in Christ.
And so as our relationship with Christ has changed, whereby we love him and he loves us, we also have a new relationship with the body of Christ as well, the church. 1 Peter 1.22 puts it this way. He talks to believers here.
He says, Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, Peter says, for you have been born again not of perishable seed, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding Word of God. He connects all those realities together. You've been born again because you've heard and believed and been transformed by the living and abiding Word of God.
You have this new imperishable quality to your soul, and from your heart you have a sincere love for the brethren. You love each other. And so because our hearts have been transformed, our love has been transformed as well.
Now, are we able to love others with our own personal, self-willed love? Well, the Bible actually says that the reason we can love other people, Romans 5.5, is because the love of God has been poured out on our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And so God gives us the love that we need to love him, and he gives us the love that we need to love others with as well. All of our love originates, comes from, finds its source in God.
And this new reality places our relationships with others into a different space altogether. No longer are people outside of us. When you're in the world, everybody feels like they're over there and out there.
We get very nervous, especially these days, we get very nervous about anybody. I used to pick up hitchhikers when I was a lot younger. I don't do that as much anymore.
Probably for good reason, I hope. But there is a sense in which the world is out there. Those people's needs are over there.
But in Christ, other believers, they become part of us. Now, it's not that your stuff is my stuff, but don't we feel each other's pain? Don't we experience each other's joy? When you're doing well, I feel good as well. When you're hurting, I'm hurting.
There's a communal sense of our shared heart together in Christ. Paul told the Corinthians, whom he loved, even in the rebellion, he says, we don't need letters of recommendation to you. That was a common thing.
They would get a letter and they would read that letter to the church and they would accept you based on the letter of recommendation. But Paul says, no, we don't need that. You, church, you are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 3, verses 2 and 3, I don't need to go and give you my credentials for why I can be accepted by you. What are my credentials? Paul says, my credentials are that I love you and you love me. My credentials are written on your heart because I care for you.
In other words, our deep spiritual fellowship together in Christ, it binds us together. We are one in Christ. Our spiritual union weaves and knits our hearts together.
See, true Christian fellowship is more than simply saying, oh, we go to the same church or we believe some of the same things. That's not the basis of our unity. First Timothy 3.15 says that we are spiritual family.
He uses the phrase, the household of God. We're brothers and sisters. That's why brother, sister in the Bible, that's how we refer to each other, right? Now again, the unbelieving world doesn't know what we're talking about.
Brother, that sounds like a cult. No, it's spiritual family. I love you like siblings, like spiritual siblings.
Brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and we're all together as a family in Christ. Why? Well, because we share the same Father, God Almighty. He's the Father of us all.
And so when Paul remembers the Philippians and prays earnestly for them, he's drawn to them in that way. They're more than his friends. They're more than just a common bond that he has.
They're more than just co-belligerence in a cause. You're family. And because of that, I have you in my heart.
You're part of me. He believed this as a Christian. He believed this as a pastor.
And brothers and sisters, I can testify to this. You all are not churchgoers to me. I carry you with me in my heart for better or for worse, all of your joys, your struggles, your sins, your trials, your victories.
I carry all of you. You live in my heart. You live in my mind.
Even on vacation, there is no such thing as a pastor. Even when I'm gone, you're with me. I have you in my heart.
But for Paul, this is not an unfounded statement. Again, not just mere sentimentality. He gives reasons.
Again, look at verse 7. Verse 7, it is only right for me to feel this way about you all because I have you in my heart. Then he says this, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. Now he gets into his current situation.
He's talking about where he is. He's under house arrest in Rome. He's chained to a Roman guard, part of the Praetorian guard.
And he notes the connection to the Philippians and he uses these three words here. He talks about imprisonment, defense, and confirmation. All three of these are legal terms.
Legal terms. Imprisonment, defense, and confirmation. Well, why is he imprisoned? Why is he in Rome chained to a guard? Well, the book of Acts tells us that he's essentially been accused of stirring up an insurrection.
That's essentially what happened. Because each time he stood before the Roman magistrates, which we read about in Acts as Felix and Festus and Agrippa, whenever he stands before them, ultimately they can't find anything wrong with him. They ask him questions, they're trying to figure out his crimes, and they're like, we don't really have anything against you.
In fact, Agrippa says, well, you're actually almost convincing me to become a Christian. So they just pass the buck on to the next guy. And Paul is saying, I want to go to Rome.
I want to appeal to Caesar. I want to bring my case all the way to Caesar, not just to prove my innocence. He's got a gospel motive as well, as we're going to read more about.
He wants to bring the gospel right to Caesar's household. Again, what's his big crime? His big crime is that he angered the Jews by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what his crime was.
And so now he's awaiting an audience before Caesar, and in doing so, he's going to go and he's going to make his defense, his word is apologia in the Greek, apologia, defense, and he's also going to have the subsequent confirmation of the gospel. And Paul says that in this imprisonment and in his defense and confirmation of the gospel, somehow, somehow the Philippian church are all partakers of grace with him. And you might ask the question, well, how so? How are they all partakers of grace in this situation? Because certainly none of the Philippians are in Rome with Paul, maybe with the exception of Paproditus who comes and visits him, but he leaves again.
So how is it that he can connect those dots? Well, some have understood that Paul's statement is about the church being partakers of grace, referring to the gift that they sent. And in some way, absolutely. They sent a very generous gift, we don't know what that gift was, but they sent some kind of a gift, and by doing so, they're essentially saying, brother, we're with you, we're with you in your imprisonment, in your defense, in your confirmation, by sending this gift, we're just telling you we're on your side.
I want you to know that I'm here for you. Now in this way, they are partakers of God's grace that was extended to the Apostle Paul. But I think there's actually even a broader sense in which this can be read.
Because like the Apostle Paul, the Philippians, they themselves had been opposed and persecuted for their faith. Maybe they weren't imprisoned in the same way Paul was, but there was a certain level of persecution that they encountered. They also had to defend the gospel, because again, they're in an adverse culture that does not believe and want to accept the gospel.
Philippi was full of sorcery and witchcraft and paganism, and it was pretty bad. And so they had to defend the gospel also. And they also experienced God's confirmation of the gospel through the effects that it had on saving sinners.
And so as the Philippian church is growing, and more and more people are coming to Christ and being born again, they're seeing the confirmation of Paul's gospel that was preached to them. And they have accepted that gospel. They have also proclaimed that gospel, and it's been confirmed.
And so Paul knows this. Back in verse 5, Paul mentions that from the very first day until now, the Philippians have been participating in the gospel with him. He says, you guys have always been there, participating in the gospel.
We read about this even in chapter 1 verse 27. Just dart your eyes over the next page there. He says in Philippians 1 27, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God.
For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. Listen to this, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. Paul's essentially saying, listen, you're going through what I'm going through.
I mean, his is pretty intense. He might have his head cut off at the end of this whole thing. Now, this imprisonment did not result in his death, the next one did.
But Paul's not thinking that way. Even though they're separated by hundreds of miles, they are joined together through a common love and by the same spirit. They're one.
They've joined Paul as a partaker of God's grace in standing for the gospel, and Paul knew this. And this was a source, a key source of his joy. Even while I'm gone, I know that you're standing for the gospel.
I know it doesn't matter how much I suffer for Christ, it doesn't matter what they do to me, I know the Philippians are also with me because they're with God. And this fact intensified his love for them. In verse 8, he says, for God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
In the most general sense, Paul, he's expressing the seriousness of his statement, certainly, God is my witness. He does this elsewhere in places like Romans 1.9, 2 Corinthians 1.23, 1 Thessalonians 2.5. He's basically saying, I'm opening my heart. God knows, God knows exactly what I'm thinking and feeling.
God knows my heart. He knows my intentions. God is my witness.
But he knows not just my intentions and my truthfulness and my integrity and all that, but God also knows and God also sees how I long for you all with the affection of Christ. God knows how much I love you. He sees.
This word long, epipotheo, expresses a deep desire, like a yearning. It's like you're hungry or thirsty. It's like you're longing and yearning and eager for something.
Paul used the same word in his last letter sent to Timothy, 2 Timothy 1.4, when he says, I'm longing to see you, Timothy. Longing to see you, even as I recall your tears so that I might be filled with joy. There's an earnestness here.
Paul, the apostle, Paul, the shepherd, he longs to see all of the believers in Philippi. All of them. And in his longing for them, he says that he is manifesting the affection of Christ Jesus.
This word for affection is very interesting. There's a lot of derivatives of it, but it's splanchnon. Sounds like a kind of not a great word, splanchnon.
But in the Greek, it denotes a person's intestines, their bowels, their guts, again, still not great imagery. But what does this word mean? What does it signify? The term is used to convey the deepest sense of emotion. It's the raw, the most raw part of a person's feeling.
It's variously translated in other places in the New Testament as tenderness, affections, heart. It's closely associated with this concept of compassion, which is the word splanchnidzo, compassion. It's as though Paul is channeling Christ's own compassion for the church through his own love and compassion.
He understands Jesus's love, his desire, his longing, his compassion, his tender mercies. Twelve times in the Gospels, we read of such compassion from Jesus. We're reminded of the affections and the compassions of Christ.
Matthew 9.36 is just one example. Jesus is ministering. If you know the story, we went through this a couple of years ago when we were going through the Gospel of Matthew.
But Jesus is ministering, and he sees all these crowds of people. And they're all suffering. They're all sorrowful, and they're all in pain.
They're all sick. They're all diseased. They're weighed down with guilt and shame and sin, and this whole crowd of people, they're just a mess.
And Jesus, he's ministering, and he's healing them, and he's teaching, and he's trying to help them. And the Bible says that as he looked out at the crowds, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus saw the people coming to him, and his heart just melted in his chest.
And it went down to the deepest part of his guts, his tenderness, and his heart was breaking. These people, they're so hurt. They're struggling so bad, and they're so lost, like wandering sheep.
And he wanted to just grab them and bring them in. He says as much to the Jews in Matthew 23, he says, how I long for you like a hen longs to gather her chicks under her wings. And then in a heartbroken sentiment, he says, but you're not willing.
You don't want it. Broke his heart. Jesus loved his people so much, he exhausted himself daily to minister to them.
Every day was a 12, 14, 16-hour day for Jesus. It didn't stop for him to care for them, to feed them, to teach them, to heal them. And ultimately, saints, to die for them.
To die for them. Christ is the chief shepherd over the flock. He died on the cross to pay for the sins of his people.
To remove the guilt and the shame and condemnation from them. To lift their burdens and place them on himself. He died on the cross, and then he rose again to open the door for eternal life.
He opened the door to the pastor. He says, I am the door to the pastor. And by his spirit, he regenerates.
He gives new life, and he produces faith. He affects repentance, and the Bible says he actually causes us to follow him. And in doing so, he also appoints under-shepherds, pastors and elders and overseers, to care for his flock in his place.
And while the Lord's flock does not belong to us, you don't belong to me or Mike or Scott. You're not ours. We're together in the same flock.
And yet in pastoral ministry, we are called to feed, to love, to care for and to shepherd the flock of God with the affection of Christ Jesus. Again, where does this love come from? Do pastors just drum it up? You get up in the morning, have coffee and say, I gotta go love the church today. Where does it come from? No, it's given to us by Christ.
Pastors are able to love the flock. Paul was able to love the flock because he loved the shepherd. He told Peter, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, yes, Lord, you know I love you, then shepherd my flock.
Do it not because they're so lovable, but because you love me and you know I love you. That's how we can do it. We love the shepherd, why? Because he first loved us.
If he so loved us and gave up his life for us, then how could we not love each other, right? Yeah, we, you know, there are times, beloved, when there is tension, there is bickering, there is infighting. You don't like that person, they rub you the wrong way, they hurt your feelings, they do whatever. But I got to tell you, all of that is so small in comparison to the grandeur of the love of God which has been poured out on your heart.
The love that he showed to deliver you from the pains of death and to bring you into himself, into the union with the triune God, to rescue you and to rescue me. When we consider the size and the power, the strength and the scope of God's love, how could we not love one another with the love that we have from Christ? I think we forget that sometimes. We get focused on our little tiny issues and our own little struggles, our own little view of how it is.
We forget the love of God. And we ought to remember. Why? Because he is the shepherd of the flock.
It is his tender affection with which he has loved you. And so the question for you, do you know the shepherd? Maybe you're sitting here and you don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know all of you.
But maybe there are some who say, you know, I know that I have not lived in a way that's pleasing to God. I've never talked to him. I haven't ever cared what he's thought about my life.
I've done whatever I've wanted to do. And frankly, I recognize it's not going well. If you've never trusted in Jesus Christ, let today be the day that you turn away from your sins, that you stop wandering out into the crabgrass and come back.
Hear the voice of the shepherd calling you back. Tell him what you've done. Repent of your sins.
And place your life in his hands. Because he is a good shepherd. And he knows how to care for you.
More than anybody else could. And for those of you who have placed your hope, your faith, your life into his hands, you know, you can testify. You're partakers of grace with me as well.
You know the goodness of God. You know the love of the shepherd. Trust him.
Love him. Because he loves you with compassion and with the affection that we so desperately need. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you that you love us. The Bible says you loved us so much that you sent your only begotten son.
That whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. A life that is free from sin and guilt and shame. A life that is free from sorrow and grief in heaven.
A life that is free from condemnation. Life eternal. And Lord, we feel the pains of the fallen world and even of our sinful flesh here and now, but we know that there is coming a day when you will reconcile all things to yourself.
That you'll make the wrongs right. That you will rescue and redeem us once and for all. And you'll perfect our mind, body, heart, and soul.
And we will dwell together with you in green pastures forevermore. But you are the good shepherd. And I pray, Lord, even though this passage is about Paul as a shepherd, as a pastor, loving the flock, ultimately, Lord, we know, we see with clear eyes that this is ultimately about your love for us.
That you love us with affection. That you have us in your heart. Help us to know the love that surpasses all comprehension.
And let it bathe our minds and our hearts with comfort and relief and joy. To know that you are God. And we belong to you.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.