Greeting the Philippians -- 9/20/09

Sunday, September 20, 2009

GREETING THE PHILIPPIANS
Phil. 1:1-2

Last week we listened to Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. I hope you sensed the love that Paul had for this church. Down through the centuries, different students of the Bible have suggested various themes for this letter. In reality, it is difficult to assign a single theme to it. One says the focus is simply Christ. Another points to the theme of joy, as the terms “joy” and “rejoice” occur 18 times in this brief letter. Still others point to the emphasis on unity. The truth is that all of these subjects receive a certain emphasis. No one can claim that he has the only key for studying the letter to the Philippians. But one thing is very clear – Paul loved these believers and had a close relationship with them.

During these next two or three weeks we are going to be looking at the first 11 verses of chapter 1. This is generally referred to as the introduction of the letter. I have broken it down like this…
The Make-up of the Church (1)
Paul’s Blessing for the Church (2)
Paul’s Thanksgiving for the Church (3-8)
Paul’s Prayer for the Church (9-11)

This morning, Lord willing, we are going to be looking at these first two verses, focusing on the make-up of the church and Paul’s blessing upon the church. Let’s begin by reading all of 1:1-11…
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. 8. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 9. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10. That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

By the way, it isn’t too late to memorize Philippians. You might think, “Well, I’ve wasted almost 9 months and I haven’t memorized much.” You could view it like this, “You know, I still have over three months of 2009 left. I want to see how much of Philippians I can memorize, as I trust the Lord.” I hear people tell me they are just too busy. Brothers and sisters, generally speaking, we will do what we want to do, what we really believe is important. Some of you aren’t sure how much you could memorize, because you haven’t yet given yourself to it. I don’t want to put you on a guilt trip, but I do want to encourage you to memorize the Word of God.

We aren’t going to spend much time talking about Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, because we have looked at them already. Just remember that Paul was the author, and his young associate Timothy was with him. In this letter Paul speaks in the first person continually, while he refers to Timothy in the third person. This makes it quite clear that we aren’t to think of Timothy as being the co-author. It seems pretty clear that Timothy had not only been with Paul on his first visit to Philippi, but he had been back to the Philippian church on at least two other occasions (Acts 19:22; 20:3-4). As we will see later in the letter, Paul is preparing to send Timothy to them again. It is no wonder that Paul includes Timothy’s name along with his own at the beginning of the letter.

I. The Make-up of the Philippian Church (1:1)

So this morning I want to speak to the holy people, to those who have been set apart. Is anyone ready to listen? Are there any holy people here this morning?

After revealing that he is writing the letter, Paul then follows the normal form of letters in that day; he identifies the people to whom he is writing. “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” Though the words are few, there is a great deal of information conveyed by those words. It is here that we find the make-up of the Philippian church.

The Saints…

Paul addresses his letter to all the saints who are at Philippi. By the way, of the nine letters that Paul wrote to churches, in seven of them he identifies the recipients at saints. The exceptions are Galatians and I Thessalonians, where he refers to them simply as churches. Notice that he is writing to all the saints at Philippi. Before we can determine who is included, we must understand the meaning of the term “saints.”

So who are the saints? What does the word mean? It means “the set apart ones.” There are other New Testament words which are related to the term “saints.” “Holy” and “sanctify” are forms of the exact same word. Saints are the holy ones. Would you feel a little strange if I addressed you as, “Holy ones”? You shouldn’t. The term simply speaks of people who have been set apart unto God.

But how does that take place? What makes a person a saint? How good do you have to be in order to be a saint? The key is in those words “in Christ Jesus.” Paul writes to all the saints in Christ Jesus. The only way to be a saint is to be in Christ Jesus. Every saint is in Christ Jesus. A person does not become a saint by being good or by doing some great deed. A person becomes a saint when He is set apart to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul became a saint when Jesus struck him down on the road to Damascus. When he became a saint, he had not done any great deed. He had been persecuting the very church of Jesus. Nevertheless, it was then and there that God set him apart for His own purposes, and it was through the death and resurrection of Jesus. God led Paul to repentance and faith in that same Jesus.

Remember why Jesus came into this world. He Himself tells us in Luke 19:10, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” “That which was lost” takes in every human being that has ever been born into this world. The Lord’s work is to convict lost people of their sin, to open their eyes to the fact that they have lived a life of rebellion against God. If you are here this morning and lost, you have indeed rebelled against your Creator. You may not have done what the world considered terrible deeds, but you have gone your own way; you have done your own thing. That is the essence of sin. And your sin has separated you from God. You are dead in your trespasses and sins, having no hope and without God in this world. Jesus came to seek and to save you. That is why He died on that cross. We deserved the punishment He received. He was cut off from His Father because He took our sins upon Himself. But don’t feel sorry for Jesus, because He didn’t remain in that grave. On the third day His Father raised Him up, demonstrating that Jesus had the victory over sin. And because He lives we can live also. Our part is to repent and believe. God calls on you to forsake your current path, to admit that you are a rebel against God. And when you see yourself and your sins clearly, then you can turn to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave Himself for you. When you do, you will become a saint in Christ Jesus.

Do you see? Every true Christian is a saint. Isn’t it wonderful that we are called saints. “Saint” is not a title to be showcased, but a name that is to remind us of why we are in this world. We have been set apart unto the purposes of God. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price, and now we are to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which belong to Him. That is the purpose to which we have been set apart.

Notice that this letter is to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. Every person who is a saint is a saint in Christ Jesus, because there is no other kind of saint. You can’t become a saint without being included in the life of Jesus. But that is only half the story. Every saint in Christ Jesus is somewhere. Those of us who are truly in Christ are the saints in Christ Jesus who are at La Luz. Saints are not put on display in a trophy case; they are put to work in this messed-up world. We are saints by virtue of the work of Jesus Christ, but now we are to progressively demonstrate that we are saints in our practical living. God set us apart through His Son Jesus, but more and more, as we are conformed to Jesus’ image, we live in such a way that the world can actually see we have been set apart unto God’s purposes.

Please hear me. If you are not a believer, if you are not in Christ, you will be looking at this letter as an outsider. In other words, this letter was not written to you. The commands in the letter were not addressed to you. The encouragement in the letter was not intended for you. When we get to 2:5-11 and begin to talk about how Jesus humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross, understand that the Holy Spirit did not address those words to you, but to all the saints who are in Christ Jesus. I am not saying that you should not listen. I am simply reminding you that you must let the Holy Spirit continually remind you that you are outside of Christ. You must not let the enemy fool you into thinking that because you listen to this letter week after week you are one of the Lord’s saints. The good news is that you can become one of His saints. I urge you to repent and believe. Instead of doing all the things you do, get alone with God. Fall on your face before Him and cry out to Him. Beg Him to reveal His Son to you in His fullness.

The Shepherds…

“To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” Don’t misunderstand; the bishops and deacons are part of the saints. They are not a separate class of Christians. Nevertheless, Paul singles them out. He writes to the saints, together with the bishops and deacons. I honestly don’t know why he singles them out. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only occasion where he does this at the beginning of his letter.

So who are these bishops? The term “bishop” is kind of difficult for us because it has certain connotations in our religious world. When most people think of a bishop, they think of some powerful religious figure who presides over many churches. For that reason, I think it is wise to use the term “overseer,” which is a far more literal translation of the original Greek. An overseer is one who oversees his brothers and sisters in the church. Notice, I said oversees his brothers and sisters. The overseer is not superior to other Christians in any way; he simply has a particular function in the local body of Christ.

In the New Testament there are three terms which speak of the same man in the local church. Here we have the word “overseer.” It is used five times in the New Testament. Two of those are in connection with the qualifications for this responsibility. The term was used in secular Greek to speak of a superintendent, one who oversees the work of others. Another term used for the same basic position is “elder.” This term speaks of the man himself, denoting a Christian of mature character. Paul uses this term when he speaks to spiritual leaders of the church in 1 Tim. 5:17, "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." The third term used to designate these spiritual leaders is “shepherd,” or “pastor.” It is interesting that this word is used to refer to human leaders in the church only once in the New Testament, and yet it is the word that is used most often in churches today. While “elder” speaks of the man, and “overseer” speaks of his function, “shepherd” (or “pastor”) points to the spirit or attitude of this leader. With the exception of that one reference in Eph. 4:11, this last term “shepherd” is used of Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10:11,14), the Shepherd of the sheep (Jn. 10:2), the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Heb. 13:20), the Chief Shepherd (I Pet. 5:4), and the Shepherd of our souls (I Pet. 2:25). Because Jesus is the real Shepherd, we often refer to human spiritual leaders as under-shepherds.

There are two passages that are most helpful concerning this area of spiritual leadership. Acts 20:28, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." We see from verse 17 that Paul spoke these words to the elders of the church at Ephesus. He says here that the Holy Spirit made them overseers of the Lord’s flock. And what were they supposed to do? There were to feed the church of God. That word translated “feed” is literally “shepherd” or “pastor.” So in this verse we see that these leaders are elders, overseers, pastors of the local church.

The other informative passage is I Pet. 5:1-4…
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Notice that he speaks to the elders and tells them to feed the flock. Again, this word translated feed is literally shepherd (or pastor). In shepherding the flock, the elders are to take the oversight of it. Literally, overseeing it. This is simply the verbal form of the word translated “overseer.” So again we have all three of these terms used to describe the spiritual leaders of the church. These instructions are extremely important. The shepherds are not to lord it over God’s people, but they are to lead primarily by example, as they live out of pure motives. And the great example for the shepherds is the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Himself.

The Servants…

And now we come to the deacons. While the terms overseer, elder, and pastor (shepherd) consistently point to men who are spiritual leaders within the local churches, the term “deacon” is different. Sometimes it points to a definite position within the church, but most of the time it is a general term which simply speaks of servants. The Greek word here translated “deacon” occurs at least 28 times in the New Testament, but it is translated “deacon” only five times. Phil. 1:1 is the only place it is translated “deacon” outside of I Tim. 3, where we find the qualifications for a deacon. Nevertheless, its inclusion here alongside the overseers makes it quite clear that Paul is referring to the official responsibilities of a deacon.

Most often this word “diakonos” (from which we get our word “deacon”) is translated “servant.” Opinions differ concerning the background of the word, but I personally find no problem with the idea that this word literally speaks of “raising dust by hastening” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). You can see how this suggests service. Basically, a deacon is one who is recognized by the church as a true servant, one who sets an example as a servant of the Lord and His church.

Though the word “deacon” is not used in Acts 6, forms of the Greek word for “deacon” are found three times in that passage. We won’t read it, but I will just remind you that it was the occasion where the responsibility for distributing food to the widows in the church became so overwhelming for the apostles that some of those widows were neglected. As a solution for the problem, seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom were selected to take charge of that particular responsibility of service. This allowed the apostles to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:1-7).

So all the members of the church were saints in Christ Jesus. Among them there were some who were shepherds (overseers) and some who were special servants, the deacons. This designation of two particular functions within the church was not to separate the believers in any way. Rather, the shepherds and the servants, the overseers and the deacons, were intended to further the glory of God in the church.

Let me just say a quick word about the modern application of this reference to overseers and deacons. As most of you know, we have just recently put deacons into place. Some of you expressed genuine concerns about doing so. Why? Because you had seen abuses in the past. Mainly, you had seen men who were put into this position become hungry for power and prestige. That is unfortunate, because that is totally foreign to the New Testament concept of deacon. Deacons are intended to be super servants, men who are willing to take the lowest place in order to serve their Lord and His church. While we want to be aware of dangers, we can’t let abuses dictate our practices. We must trust the Lord, who has given us His guidance in His Word.

It is interesting that while churches down through the years have preserved the plurality of deacons, that has not been the case with overseers, pastors, elders. For the most part, evangelical churches during the past hundred years have invested the primary spiritual leadership of the church in one man, who is generally called “pastor.” (That is changing somewhat today). In the New Testament, we don’t find one man pasturing the church, but a group of men. As a matter of fact, I would say that one reason for the problem with deacons in the church has been the lack of a group of pastor/elders. In order to try to bring accountability to “the pastor,” deacons have often taken on that role, creating a power struggle between deacons and pastor. May the Lord graciously deliver us from those abuses.

As we follow the Lord, we can trust Him to bless all the saints in Christ Jesus at La Luz, together with the overseers and the deacons. And that brings us to our verse 2…

II. Paul’s Blessing for the Church (1:2)

After making it very clear to whom he was addressing his letter, Paul then greets his readers. Verse 2, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is rather amazing that Paul uses this same basic greeting in every one of his letters. (In I and II Timothy and Titus it is “grace, mercy, and peace”). In doing so, he combines a Greek and a Hebrew greeting. “Grace” is a form of a Greek word that was used in the salutation of letters in the first century. “Peace” is simply the Greek translation of the Hebrew “shalom,” which was and is a common Hebrew greeting. While we might expect the Hebrew greeting to come before the Greek, it makes sense, when we remember that grace must come before peace. Of course, we know that the source of both grace and peace is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. Grace

The actual Greek word that was used (carein) meant “greeting.” Paul did not use that exact word. Instead he took a form of it (cariV), the word which we know as “grace.” Paul used this word over 90 times in his letters. Perhaps we know it best from Eph. 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith,” or from Rom. 6:14b, “For ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

Since this is such a key word, especially in Paul’s vocabulary (91 times, as opposed to 40 in the rest of the New Testament), let’s take time to review the meaning of “deacon.” So what does the term “grace” mean? Most of us grew up with the brief definition: Grace is unmerited favor. There is truth in that definition, but as I have suggested before, that definition is very incomplete. While we can certainly see the idea of unmerited favor in “For by grace are ye saved through faith,” there are other places where that definition does not fit. For example, 2 Cor. 12:9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." This is in the context of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Three times he had asked the Lord to remove it. This is the Lord’s response: “My grace is sufficient for you; because my strength is made perfect in weakness.” There is a strong parallel between “My grace is sufficient” and “my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul could have interchanged the words “grace” and “strength” and nothing would have been lost – “My strength is sufficient for you; for my grace is made perfect in weakness.” Then notice what Paul says: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” He could have just as easily said, “that the grace of Christ may rest upon me.”

John Piper puts it like this: ‘Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon” (The Pleasures of God, p. 244). Yes, grace is the undeserved favor of God, as seen in Eph. 1:7, "In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace,” but it is much more. There are a number of passages where the definition “unmerited favor” will not fit. For instance, we read in John 1:14 that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” And who is “the Word”? Yes, it is Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). That Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and He was full of grace and truth. When John tells us that Jesus was full of grace, is he speaking of unmerited favor? No. That is a concept for sinful men, but not for the Son of God. He was not in need of unmerited favor from His Father, because He was righteous and holy and perfect and had been in perfect fellowship with His Father from the beginning. On the other hand, Jesus was full of the grace which is power.

Consider a verse where the term “grace” is used three times. 1 Cor. 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." The first two occurrences of “grace” might carry the idea of unmerited favor. Certainly unmerited favor was bestowed upon Paul, but that isn’t all that God gave to him. Look at the last part of the verse: “But I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Paul connects the work he did with the grace of God which empowered him to do it. Again, you could substitute the word “power” for “grace” and you wouldn’t lose a thing. Grace comes to us as unmerited favor, but it becomes within us the power of God to live the life He desires us to live.

Now come back to Phil. 1:2, “Grace be unto you.” Paul desires that God’s brace be given to the Philippian believers, to these saints who are so dear to him. What does he mean? Is he talking about unmerited favor? Surely he is. In this life we will never get beyond the need for His favor, favor which we cannot earn. On the other hand, we know that God has already poured out His grace upon them. The same is true of us who are in Christ. That is the way we became saints; God saved us by His grace. He poured out His favor upon us and made us His children.

It is obvious that we can’t stop with Paul’s desire that they be the recipients of God’s favor. He also desires that they receive His powerful grace. He longs for them to know the same grace that was sufficient for him in his need, as we have read in II Cor. 12. Surely we can understand this. How desperately we need powerful grace for living the Christian life. We don’t deserve such power from God, but He freely gives it to us. He gives us His grace as favor, and He gives us His grace as power. Praise His name!

We are not apostles, but surely we can say to God’s people, “Grace be to you.” Surely we can pray this for our brothers and sisters, as well as for ourselves. What a rich blessing from Paul, when he said, “Grace be unto you.”

B. Peace

Coupled closely with the blessing of grace was the blessing of peace. “Grace be to you, and peace.” What is this peace of which Paul speaks? Be careful before you answer. You will be tempted to start with a sense of well being, a feeling of peace on the inside, but that is not the place to start. If we start there, we will simply be talking about a worldly peace.

Let me illustrate it for you. Suppose you have an enemy who is doing everything in his power to kill you. He has a gun and he has vowed to use it. For some time, you have been able to stay just out of his reach. You have been in hiding, not knowing if the next knock on the door will be this man who hates you and longs to kill you. To put it mildly, you have been a bit concerned. Now in that situation, you might seek peace. You might tell yourself, “It isn’t so bad. I’m still alive. I should be at peace within myself.” No, that’s crazy. What you need to do is find a way to come to peaceful terms with the man who is trying to shoot you.

Do you understand? There is a difference between peace with God and the peace of God. Last week we came across these words in Phil. 4:6-7, "Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The peace which God gives is so great that it is beyond our understanding, but not just anyone can have that peace. It is impossible to have the peace of God, if you are the enemy of God. And make no mistake about it, until a person comes to Christ, he is the enemy of God.

Come with me to II Cor. 5. Let’s read those familiar words in II Cor. 5:17-21…
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Did you notice that forms of the word “reconcile” were used five times in this brief passage. The first and most important need for every person in this world is to be reconciled to God. If some of you young ones don’t know what “reconcile” means, it means that enemies come to peace with one another. In terms of God and man, a man puts up the white flag and says, “I surrender.” Because Jesus took our sins upon Himself and paid the penalty, we can indeed be reconciled to God. We who were the enemies of God can become His sons and daughters. This is peace with God.

It is foolish to try to attain inward peace until we have peace with God. Of course, there are many non-Christians who will tell you they have peace. They seem very composed and will assure you they are not afraid to die. Well, I can assure you that is a false peace. They have been deceived into believing that they do not have an enemy who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28).

But here is the good news. The person who has been set at peace with God can have real inward peace. After all, he has the Prince of Peace living within him through the Holy Spirit. Because of the reconciliation that has come through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he is a child of God. Then no matter what comes, we are filled with the peace of God, which passes all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote: “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” He pronounced upon his dear brothers and sisters the blessing of peace. You say, “But they already had peace.” It was because they had peace with God that Paul could write, “And may you be filled with that inward peace that only God can give.”

Of course, we must understand that such peace is not automatic. While Paul longed for them to have this peace, he was not so naïve to believe that he could just zap them with it. The same Paul writes in Gal. 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” As the Holy Spirit works within the believer, peace is part of the fruit that grows. This is not a static quality that we grasp all at once. Rather, it is a fruit that grows and grows and grows. As we long to know the Prince of Peace even as Paul did, we will be blessed with more and more of this peace that passes all understanding.

Conclusion

We have only looked at the first two verses of this letter, but we see great blessing in these words. And there is no reason we can’t apply them to ourselves, if we are truly saints, set apart ones. That in itself is a great blessing. We are set apart unto the God who created us and redeemed us. We are in the service of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It isn’t because we were anything special; it is because we are in Christ Jesus.

As saints in Christ Jesus, we are blessed with grace and peace. We can expect God’s grace to be sufficient for our every need. We have found that to be true in the past, haven’t we? We were great sinners, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. 5:20). In the same way, when difficult and impossible situations arise, the grace of our Lord will always be sufficient. Though we don’t deserve it, He will pour out His power upon us in a way that will amaze us.

And what peace is ours. We who were the enemies of God have been reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ. And “if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32). One of the things He gives us in abundance is peace. Praise God! In a world that is in turmoil, we can say with David, “I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me” (Ps. 3:5).