This evening, H.H. Pope Tawadros II held the weekly Wednesday meeting from the papal residence in Cairo. The sermon was broadcast virtually on Christian satellite channels including the COC Channel of the Church’s Media Center, and without the attendance of the public.
Today’s sermon titled “The Epistle of Joy,” centred around the first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians. H.H. noted at the beginning of the sermon that in the coming weeks he will deal with themes of joy throughout the remaining chapters of the Epistle to the Philippians, that which is also known as “The Epistle of Joy,” and mentioned the current need for people to feel joy and reassurance after they had gone through painful periods due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, now that number of people infected begins to decrease.
H.H. returned to his Wednesday weekly meeting coinciding with the arrival of Fast of the Apostles which started this past Monday.
The past Wednesday April 21 at the end of the Holy Lent, H.H. had announced the discontinuance of the “Wednesday Meeting” throughout the period of the Holy Fifty Days, which ended last Sunday with the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians: A Message of Joy
H.H. Pope Tawadros II Wednesday June 23, 2021
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and mercy rest upon us, from now and forevermore. Amen.
Main points of this talk:
~ There are gifts of the Holy Spirit and there are fruit of the Holy Spirit. Different gifts are given to different people, but everyone can manifest all the fruit of the Spirit.
~ 4 things that stand in the way between us and joy: People, material possessions, Life circumstances, a personality that is anxious or worries
~ St. Paul often said the words: “walk worthy of”. We have the three sides of this triangle: our calling, the Gospel of Christ, and contentment, and the inside of the triangle is filled with love, knowing that “All things work together for good to those who love God.”
Let us read the first Chapter of St. Paul the apostle’s Letter to the people of the city of Philippians.
Greeting
1Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thankfulness and Prayer
3I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 7just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. 8For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.
9And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Christ is Preached
12But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
To Live Is Christ
19For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
Striving and Suffering for Christ
27Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. 29For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.
The grace of God the Father be with us all. Amen. I congratulate you on the Fast of the Apostles, which we began last Monday, after our celebrations of the glorious Resurrection, Ascension, Holy 50 days of Pentecost, and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost.
Today, and for the next several weeks, we will begin a study and contemplation of the Letter to the Philippians in a series we will call “A Letter of Joy.” After the difficult period of Corona that we have all gone through, people taking extra precautions and now that people are beginning to take the vaccine, we thank God that the number of reported cases infections and deaths from Corona have started to decrease.
The Lord protect us all, I would like to speak to you about the state of joy and some of the principles that will aid us to live in this state continually, and that we may also enjoy this Epistle which St. Paul the apostle wrote to the people of Philippi – the Epistle (or the Letter) to the Philippians.
St. Paul wrote this Letter while he was in prison, and here we are confronted with a huge question mark: how can a person who is in prison write about joy and being joyful? We would have understood if, being in prison, he would have written about suffering or pain or trouble or the loneliness of solitude, but to write about joy?! This is the last thing we would have expected.
After a long ministry of preaching, St. Paul the apostle was imprisoned in the city of Rome, which was the capital of the Roman Empire, and while he was in prison for more than two years, he wrote 4 Letters:
A personal letter to Philemon, which is just one chapter long,
the Letter to the Ephesians,
the Letter to the Philippians,
and the Letter to the Colossians
These four are commonly referred to as “the Prison Epistles,” but this Letter to the Philippians has its own unique flavor because the people of Philippi held a special place in St. Paul’s heart. I will not go into many details because what I am most concerned with today is that we find a few Scripture verses that we can take into our daily lives, to practice them and thus be able to enjoy the state of joy that St. Paul enjoyed.
As we all know, St. Paul wrote 14 Letters, containing nearly 100 chapters. They cover teachings on work, ministry care, preaching and evangelism, service, how to face problems – both internal and external [to the Church and ministry], and every Letter has its own beauty, nature, and spirit. But throughout this entire Letter, the spirit of joy is especially radiant.
And I plead with you that as you read, study, contemplate, and meditate upon this Letter, that you not forget that it was written from inside prison; that St. Paul wrote this Letter while he was in prison, while in a place and during a time of suffering. And this should tell us that joy can fill a person regardless of the circumstances that may be surrounding him or her; there can be joy within us no matter what is going on around us.
There is a verse most of us have memorized, Philippians 4:4, which says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” And notice that this goal or message to rejoice is aimed at the group; that as a group we ought to rejoice, and to rejoice at all times. And this word “always” is the same one used elsewhere, when we are told to “pray always” and to “give thanks always.”
And so the relationship between praying always, giving thanks always, and rejoicing always is like a braid; a threefold cord (“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” Eccl 4:12). And this is what forms the value or the foundation of a person’s life: prayer, thankfulness, and joy.
And you can organize them any way you like, whether you start with joy and say that joy leads to thankfulness and then thankfulness leads you to pray, and then prayer leads you to joy, and so on. A message of joy.
As I’ve told you, each of St. Paul the apostle’s letters are distinguished by something particular, but this letter is particularly distinguished for its spirit of joy, which I hope will continue to be our theme of contemplation throughout this Fast of the Apostles, until we celebrate the Feast of the Apostles on the 12th of July, the 5th of Abib, if by the grace of Christ the Lord wills and we live.
The significance of the city of Philippians.
A long time ago they would build ports along the seacoast, and then move inland approximately 7 or 8 kilometers and build a city for living, that way when the waves would get high or storms would arise, the cities and their inhabitants would not be affected. And so on its portside it was called Neapolis, and on its inland it was called Philippi, but it was considered to be one city.
This city was named after the father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedonia, and its significance was that it was the first city in Europe to attain the honor of coming to faith in Christ, just as we have Alexandria here in Egypt; it was the first city in Africa to attain the honor of coming to faith in Christ. And so the city of Philippi was the firstborn, as it were, or the seed of the faith of Christ, which extended outwards to all four corners of the European continent.
The Church of Philippi was being served by a Church servant, Epaphroditus, who was very well loved by the people of Philippi, and it was through Epaphroditus that the Philippians heard that St. Paul the apostle was in prison in Rome. And so the good people of Philippi said of Paul, “He is under house arrest so he must not be working, then how will he pay for his expenses?” He was actually under some form of house arrest as he awaited his trial.
And so despite their humble means, the people of Philippi began to take up a financial collection for Paul. They gave this collection to Epaphroditus and asked him, “Please take this gift and travel to Rome, and give it as a gift of brotherly love to our great servant, St. Paul the apostle, who served us so lovingly and is now himself in need of those who will help him and visit him.”
Epaphroditus took on this mission but along the way he became ill, even to the point of nearly dying, but the Lord had mercy on him and we thank God that he was healed. In the meantime, both the people of Philippi and St. Paul the apostle were extremely worried about him, but as we will read together in some verses later on in Chapter 2 of this letter, the Lord healed Epaphroditus and he was made well, and St. Paul also praised Epaphroditus with some very beautiful statements.
And St. Paul made an absolutely beautiful statement about the people of Philippi saying, “You are my joy and my crown.” You know that when a person wears a crown on their head or around their neck, it is a symbol for being proud. And in many other statements St. Paul makes in this Letter, you get the sense of his very strong emotions toward the people of Philippi, like when he talks about, “How I long for you (miss you), how I pray for you, how every time a time of prayer comes, I always mention you.” And he may have even prayed for them one by one, by name; maybe that is how well he knew them. And so there was an emotional bond between St. Paul the apostle and the people of Philippi, and between them and their local servant minister, Epaphroditus.
I want you to also imagine and keep in mind how St. Paul was guarded by different shifts of prison guards, and so it appears that there were opportunities during which he spoke with them and communicated his faith in Christ to them. And because these guards were under constant rotation, they would return to their homes or sometimes go serve as guards in the home of Caesar, and there they would begin to speak the things they had heard from the apostle Paul. And so the preaching of Christ had reached even to the home of Caesar, the leader of the nation.
Some history books tell us that some of those who heard him speak attained the faith and some came to know Christ, and some historical records even tell us that the emperor’s wife came to faith in Christ. And so the Spirit of God was working powerfully, and we will see and feel this in the verses which we will put before us in our study and contemplation on the subject of joy, to help us persevere in our effort to discover and experience the spirit of joy which St. Paul the apostle spoke about.
I want you to know that joy is the Biblical goal behind every spiritual practice we undertake. For example, we pray in order that we may become joyful, we praise, we fast, we observe the Church Sacraments – all these we do for the sake of joy. And so joy is the target or the goal or the final intention for which we are all striving to reach, and of course do not forget that the very word “gospel” means “good news.”
But there is a contradiction here placed before our human minds: this is a letter about joy, but it is written from inside a prison! We can compare this to our most recent experience of having to stay at home due to the recent spread of the pandemic (Corona); everyone was staying at home, as if imprisoned. The general motto and warning was “stay at home, stay at home, limit your going out,” and this may have bothered some people at times because they were not used to staying at home all the time, and they did not know what to do with themselves, but in this Letter, the apostle Paul transmits the state of joy to us, despite his being in uncomfortable external circumstances.
And I want to ask you a question: why do people not feel joy? Why is joy absent from some people? Why? But before I answer this question I want to tell you that as we celebrate the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit there are two things for us to consider: gifts and fruit.
There are gifts of the Holy Spirit and there are fruit of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are for some people. God grants some people a particular gift for a particular work for the purpose of service and for the building up of the Church of God – a gift, not for everyone, but the fruit of the Spirit is for everyone – old and young, male and female.
In Galatians 5:22-23 we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” – nine fruit of the Holy Spirit, but notice that the first fruit is love. Love is as the ground, the very field from which the other fruit grow upon. The first fruit is joy, the second fruit is peace, the third fruit is patience, and so on, [but the ground of it all is love. This love is the love of Christ, and all the other fruit are the result of this love that has been poured forth from the cross by the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and this is joyous.
In the Agpeya Prayer of the 6th Hour, which is the prayer of the hour of the cross, we pray saying, “We thank You O Lord for You have filled us all with joy, O Savior, when You came to help the world. Glory be to You, O Lord.” Notice the word “filled” – this means to the full. And so it as if each one of us goes to the foot of the cross, stands there and prays, “Lord, here is my heart, fill it,” and the Lord fills the heart with the love of the Lord.
I then take this love and transform it into active energy – energy for work, energy for service, energy for prayer, energy for preaching. I then return and get recharged with this love and my heart becomes filled and I say to Him, “I thank You Lord for You have filled us all with love, when You came to help the world. Glory be to You, O Lord.”
And so joy, which is the subject of our contemplation in this Epistle, is the very first fruit of the Spirit. Now let us return to our question: why do people often not feel joy? I will give you a few reasons for this.
4 reasons why people do not feel joy
Other people
Material possessions
Life circumstances
Worry; an anxious personality
1-Other people
Sometimes there are people around us – whether at home or outside the home, friends or relatives, and so on – sometimes joy is absent from them and their tongue is in the habit of only relaying grievous matters, or they may have not experienced joy and their speech is always full of sadness, anxiety, pain, and bad news. Yes, there are some people that when you sit with them, all they tell you about is bad news and painful stories. Avoid such people.
There are other people who see everything through a dark lens. They don’t see anything positively. This person’s life has no light, no enlightenment. He cannot see the cup as “half empty and half full,” no, he only sees the empty half.
You may remember the story I told you about a teacher who wanted to teach his students a lesson so he brought a white board and made a very small black mark on one of its corners and asked them, “What do you see?” They said, “We see a black dot.”
The teacher said, “See, this is your problem. You see the small black dot but you do not see the very large white space.” There are people who are like this. Avoid such people as much as possible, whether in face to face interactions or by telephone or in online chats. Avoid people who cause frustration, people who discourage, people who do not have hope, people who always have a negative perspective on things, and people who, to a large degree, are full of fear. Avoid such people.
2-Material possessions
Material things can get in the way of a person’s joy, why? Oh, because he clings to it, he wants to own it, he wants to sell it, he wants to buy it but can’t, he wants the better or next version of it that he has just seen on television, and so on. This reminds me of the philosopher who said, “There was a day I desired to own a watch and the day I finally did (and he gripped the watch tightly in his hand as he said this), I discovered a truth: that yes, I had indeed come to possess a watch, but I had lost my hand.” This was before they had invented wrist watches and so every time the man held the watch in his hand, he “lost his hand” because it was now holding the watch and it was no longer free to do anything else he wished to do with it.
Another parable I’m sure you have heard before: “I used to murmur and complain to God because I had no shoes, until the day I saw someone who had no feet. It was then that I thanked God.” And this is the perfect illustration with which to conclude this point, is that sometimes a person’s great ambitions or desire for more can cause them anxiety or restlessness, and this can prevent them from feeling joy.
3-Life circumstances
A third reason for a person’s inability to experience joy is – and may the Lord protect us all – circumstances of physical illness or failure. It could be failure at work or at one’s studies or in the making of a family, or, or, or, there are many [challenging] human circumstances, and when a person focuses on any of these circumstances, they lose sight of the spirit of joy.
Do not forget that our Christ is Ruler over all and that He manages all the matters of our human life, day by day, and that He is drawing out a beautiful plan and is doing good to all, and that “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). What is important is that you have confidence in this, and what is in your capacity to do, this you must do. In studies? Persevere in your studies. In work? Be faithful in your work. At home? Be faithful in your home and in serving your family. At Church? Be faithful in your Church ministry and service work, and so on; that you seek to be a person who walks uprightly, because living this way helps a person to see the circumstances of their life in a different way, to see that all circumstances are from God and they are for good, and that all things are pleasant and agreeable.
4-Worry; an anxious personality
A fourth reason that gets in the way of a person’s ability to feel joy or to not feel consistently joyful is worry, or rather, one who has an anxious or worrying personality. I remember reading a foreign story about a woman who lived on the outskirts of a town, and so a lot of wind could be heard. In addition, the train tracks ran close to her home and so she would hear the sound of the trains all the time as well as the chiming of the clock from the train station.
And so all these sounds put together – the train, the wind, the clock’s pendulum – this noise formed a sort of fear and anxiety within her and the result was that she became very ill from this anxiety. They say that anxiety is the illness of this age, but why worry when you know that your life is in God’s hand?
Here’s another beautiful story to illustrate this point. There were two birds up in a tree, on a branch, and they were so happy – chirping, singing, happy, rejoicing, and they were looking at the people walking down below, on the street. They saw how the people were walking around frowning and anxious, and so one bird asked the other, “Why are people walking around anxious and afraid, upset and not smiling? Don’t they have a God like our God, Who takes care of us and provides us with food and water and everything we need?”
And so please, keep this knowing with you at all times. And I hope that you will read the Letter to the Philippians over and over again, many times, and that every time you read it you will experience more and more joy, and I want you to always remember that he wrote it while he was in prison.
Remember I told you that the three Letters – Ephesus, Philippians, and Colossians – were all written from inside the prison and that each one has a unique flavor and emphasis, but there is a certain expression that is common throughout all three: “that you walk worthy of.” I would like to review the Scriptures where St. Paul makes this statement with you.
In Ephesians 4:1 he says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”
In Philippians 1:27 he tells us, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
In Colossians 1:10 he says, “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him.”
Now let us put these three side by side: the first way we are to walk is worthy of the calling, then worthy of the Gospel, then worthy of the Lord. Now let us consider them together, that we may gain a very important understanding from them.
First of all: “To walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” God has called each one of us to a particular work. When the Lord created each one of us He created us with a purpose; the Lord does not just create people without a purpose and a mission. You have a purpose, you have a mission, you have a work to do, and this mission is ongoing over the entire course of your life. And so do not ever think to yourself, “I don’t have a purpose … there’s nothing for me to do … my presence here is useless … my presence makes no difference.” No, do not ever say such things, for as St. Paul explained in his Letters, we, the believers, are as different members in the Body of Christ (Romans 12:5 – “So we, being many, are one body in Christ”), and this is true; we are indeed parts in the Body of Christ, and each part has its own work to do, its own function.
Every member of a body has its own unique work to do. The eye has a function, to see; the hand has a function, the foot has a function, the internal organs, each one has its own [unique] work to do. But someone may ask, “Yes, but what about the eyebrow? I can see that the eye has a function and the eyelid has a purpose, but what is the purpose or the job of the eyebrow?” Well, the purpose of the eyebrow is to give beauty to the eye! Without the eyebrow the eye would not be beautiful … it would be ugly! And so it is with us, that sometimes God creates a person to make another person’s life more beautiful – to help another person, to strengthen them, to encourage them, to protect them. This is a role [all its own], a function, a purpose! We are not all like one other and without exception, we all need each other.
“To walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” You were called. You are called and invited forth for a Divine purpose, in the name of Christ; you were called for a purpose. And in his very beautiful way St. Paul the apostle tells us, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.” This reminds us of when an employer posts a job description, where the required qualifications of a job are given, and what the expectations and responsibilities of someone who takes on this job would be. This is what the apostle Paul gives us here; a “job description,” so to speak, of what is “worthy of the calling” … with which you were called.
You were called to be a Church-servant, you were called to be a doctor, you were called to be a teacher, you were called to be a factory worker, you were called to be a stay at home mother, you were called to be a student, and so on – each one of us is called to do a different work but we are all expected to “walk worthy of the calling with which we were called.” And so this is the first point: we have a calling, this calling has specific qualifications, and for me to rightly fulfill my calling, I must walk worthily according to it.
Number two: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ,” and this is the only verse in the Gospel that begins with the word “only”. To let our conduct be “worthy of the gospel of Christ” is to live our lives according to the Commandments, to keep our Bibles (the Word of God) before us at all times, to live our lives rightly and truly, that we may be, as St. Paul says elsewhere, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men” (2 Cor 3:2). We are to be gospels read of all men – walking Bibles! Let the Word of God be so incarnated in you and then you will become a Bible that all people can read. It is a very important thing that the Word of God fill you and become alive in you.
The prophet David tells us, “To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are [very] boundless” (Ps 119:96 NIV). Every law has a limitation, a ceiling, so to speak, but as for the Commandments of Christ, they are very broad, for all of us; for all of us to work with, to experience, and to enjoy, “only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” And I personally call and invite you to give special importance to God’s Commandments and to reading your Bible daily, every day.
On to the third statement made by St. Paul about “walking worthy,” Colossians 1:10 – “That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing (desire to please) Him.” You have been given a calling, you have been given a Gospel, and now you are now only missing one thing: to be pleased, that you be a person who is content and satisfied.
The life of a person who is a complainer or a murmurer lacks blessings; blessings pass him by, just like that. He does not get the benefit of blessings and they do not even stop by when they pass before him! A complainer wastes his own opportunities to be blessed, and that is why he tells us to be “fully pleasing” – to be fully pleased with your life, and don’t forget, he wrote these words when he was in prison! How is it possible Paul? How is it possible that you are speaking and teaching about contentment when you yourself are in prison? He would say, “Yes, because these are the characteristics of the Christian life: the calling, the Gospel of Christ, and contentment [no matter what the circumstances may be.]”
And so the three sides of the triangle are made complete: our calling, our Gospel of Christ, and our contentment. Each one of us has a calling, each one of us has the opportunity to know and practice the Commandments of Christ, and this all culminates in the life of satisfaction, the life of acceptance and contentment, the life in which a person sees that the Lord is leading all their steps and so they have the attitude of, “Lord, everything and all You do is good. All that You give me is good and it is all for my benefit,” as the apostle Paul said, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).
And so we have the three sides of the triangle – our calling, the Gospel of Christ, and contentment – and the inside of the triangle is filled with love, knowing that “All things work together for good to those who love God.” I place this triangle before you as an introduction to our study of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, the letter of joy, which he wrote from inside prison, inviting us all not just to an experience of joy, but to living in a state of continual joy throughout our lives.
I consider today to be an introduction to our study of this Book. Your part is to read it, over and over and over again; read it several times, continually. Read it, memorize it, learn from it, and if the Lord wills and we live, we will continue our contemplations on this Letter next week.
To our God be all the glory and honor, from now and forevermore. Amen.
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