we believe God's word is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It's inerrant.
Man is not more wise than God's word.
We don't find mistakes in it.
It's infallible.
The word of God accomplishes what he intends for it every time.
And we believe that it's clear that with the Holy Spirit dwelling in every believer,
as we hear God's word, we'll understand what he means.
And that's my prayer as I read this to you.
And to give you some context, the book of Philippians is a letter.
You'll find out a little bit more about the author in the audience.
But the city is in Philippi.
Philippi is an ancient city.
Even before it was part of the Roman Empire, it was refounded by Philip II.
You actually know Philip II.
He's Alexander the Great's dad, the king of Macedon.
And the location of Philippi is between Europe and Asia.
So it's in northeastern part of Greece.
As the Romans expanded their kingdom, Philippi became a very strategic trade city
to connect the trade from Asia with Europe.
And so the Roman Empire invested much in this little city of Philippi.
They built a theater, a temple with terraces, a great forum, and a basilica.
All of these Roman pieces of architecture.
And for that reason, it was called Little Rome, a very influential city.
So our sermon text is verses 1 through 5.
Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi,
with the bishops and deacons.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine,
making request for you all with joy,
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
Thank you.
Father, I ask once again that you will please speak through your word.
May your truth prevail over unbelief.
And may you renew our minds.
We pray that your Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Jesus Christ himself,
the Good Shepherd,
will speak to his people.
We pray that you'll accomplish your purposes
with your law and gospel as it's proclaimed.
I pray that you'll guard my lips,
that everything I say would be pleasing in your sight with your help.
I also pray that you will guard the ears of your people.
Help anything, Lord, that I say that is falling short of your glory
and your standard to be rejected by their minds.
We pray, Lord, that as we receive your word,
that you will work into us your good pleasure,
that you will truly shape your church.
For your glory we ask.
Amen.
There in the living room of a wealthy businesswoman
sits a girl that everyone thought was crazy.
Also in this living room is the porter of the city's jailhouse,
along with his family and servants.
One of the men, with gray in his beard,
opens up the parchment that arrived on a ship that week.
He reads the first line and then pauses.
Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Jesus Christ.
The memories of everyone present fly back to the year
they first saw that small group of travelers,
two of whom they could still picture with blood on their backs.
A dozen eyes in this living room puddle up.
The reader is one of them and he swallows hard
and then continues to all the saints in Christ Jesus
who are in Philippi.
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I want to encourage you today
with this example of a small church in Philippi,
how God himself shapes his church.
How God himself shapes his church.
First, God makes desperate sinners
into orderly saints.
God makes desperate sinners
into orderly saints.
Verse 1, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus.
That's how Paul introduces himself
as author of this letter to this congregation.
To appreciate how drastic this is,
you need to hear an example from this same time period.
Here's how another letter began,
an official letter to a people
in a city called Alexandria.
Tiberius, Claudius, Caesar, Augustus, Germanicus,
Imperator, Pontifex Maximus,
holder of the tribunition power,
consul designate to the city of the Alexandrians.
Well, here Paul calls himself simply a slave,
a bondservant of Jesus Christ.
In other epistles, he states,
I am an apostle.
I have this authority.
In this letter, he doesn't need to,
most likely because the sweet congregation in Philippi,
they know this.
They love Paul.
They accept his authority.
That's not what they need to hear.
Paul introduces himself along with Timothy.
Timothy, we're told in Acts 16,
was a young believer, verse 2,
who was well spoken of by the brethren,
traveling along with Paul in this small company.
Paul, Silas, young Timothy,
most likely to be discipled and an assistant to learn.
And then in Acts, we read it in the first person plural.
So Luke is most likely there as well
as an accompanying doctor.
So we learn even from this simple introduction,
Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus,
that ministry is shared.
Ministry is shared by those who consider Jesus their Lord.
He introduces themselves with the word slave
or bondservant.
The Greek, it's douloim.
It's one who gives himself up for another's will,
devoted to another,
to the disregard of their own interests.
That's what a bondservant is.
Jesus used this word in Matthew 20, 27.
He said,
Whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your slave, your servant.
Jesus Christ himself took the posture of a slave
when he washed his disciples' feet.
So what a wonderful thing now to claim as your title.
You are one who is now a slave of Christ.
One who Christ will use to advance his kingdom
in the souls and the lives of believers.
Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ.
I mentioned that these saints,
he says to all the saints,
there's an orderliness in how he views the church.
All the saints, the word saint,
it means consecrated, set apart, devoted.
In the Old Testament,
what was consecrated or set apart
were the instruments used in the ceremonial law.
These were common utensils,
but they were consecrated, set apart,
not to be used for lesser purposes.
These belong to the ministry of the Lord.
And he says,
Now you are all the people of God who are set apart.
You are the vessels God will use
for his special consecrated purposes.
You're a consecrated body.
And with you are the officers.
From among you are elders and deacons.
The word here is bishop or overseer.
For us, it's a synonymous,
well, it's the same office
described in several different terms.
Under shepherds of Christ,
pastors, overseers, elders.
That's one office.
And the other office is deacons.
Servants who are with the congregation,
but also set apart to hold a special office.
Well, who is it that's included
in this description of all the saints?
All the saints,
they're gathered in this church.
One of these saints,
we read in Acts 16, verse 16.
If you still have your marker there,
you want to follow along.
Acts 16, verse 16.
In the same city of Philippi,
Paul's second missionary journey,
the first time that he would meet
these beloved believers.
We read this description,
starting in Acts, verse 16.
A certain slave girl,
possessed with a spirit of divination.
This means that this young girl
was a slave to human masters.
They possessed her.
They owned her.
And she had to work for them as a slave.
But on top of that,
she had a double bondage.
She was possessed by a spirit of divination
or a demon from the fallen angel,
from the depths of hell,
possessing her body
and manipulating the truth
and the words in such a way
that people were willing
to pay her master's money
for the words that she would say
about their future
as if she could foresee the future.
Well, this slave girl met them.
And she brought her masters much profit
by fortune telling,
we read in verse 16.
In verse 17, we read that
this girl followed Paul and us,
wrote Luke,
and she cried out, saying,
these men are the servants
of the Most High God
who proclaim to us
the way of salvation.
Verse 18,
for many days she continued to do this.
Verse 19, we read that
Paul became greatly annoyed
and he turned and said to the demon
that was possessing the slave girl,
I command you in the name of Jesus Christ
to come out of her.
This was a desperate sinner.
This young slave girl
knew that these men
are speaking a message of salvation.
The demons speaking through this little girl,
they revealed the reality,
the spiritual way
that the kingdom of God
is going to advance
into the city of Philippi.
And it's a way of salvation
as a demonstration of God's power
in his advancing kingdom.
This girl herself
experienced such salvation.
She was delivered
from that bondage
of this evil spirit.
And Paul says,
no matter what your background was,
no matter what you were a slave to,
in Christ,
you are a saint.
Do you see how God makes
desperate sinners
into orderly saints
within his church?
The encouragement for us
is that
every church
can be well-ordered
in this way.
We're well-ordered
as we remember
and we remind ourselves,
I'm first of all
a slave to Christ.
That's who I am.
I don't need to hold on
to anything else
in my identity.
I'm a slave to Jesus Christ
because he became
a servant
to save me.
And as a church
of those who God
has saved
from our desperate sin
and the bondage
that he's brought
each one of us out of,
as we gather
in his name,
he guides his church
to raise up
and set apart
church officers
through whom
he will minister
and serve
his body.
God makes
desperate sinners
into orderly
saints.
How else does
God shape his church?
Number two,
God makes Christians
remember
the basis
of their blessing.
God makes Christians
remember the basis
of their blessing.
Look at verse two.
His greeting is
grace to you
and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace to you
and peace.
In the example
I read a moment ago,
Tiberius Claudius,
Caesar Augustus,
the next words
in this historic document
are this,
to the city
of the Alexandrians,
greetings.
And the word
he uses for greetings
is in Greek.
The word is
kareem.
Kareem is a general
salutation,
just means greetings.
Well,
Paul does a play
on words.
He uses the word
grace.
Instead of greetings,
he says
karees.
So it sounds
very similar
to this common
Greek greeting,
but he instead
uses the specific
theological doctrine,
grace.
grace and peace.
Grace is God's
favor
to those
who are ill-deserving.
We deserve ill.
We deserve
wrath of God
for our sin,
but instead
we get God's
wonderful favor.
That's what grace is.
It's only through
Jesus Christ
because he took
the ill we deserve
in our place
and he accomplished
for us
the blessings
that we could never
merit
for ourselves.
That's the meeting
point for all
true Christians.
Grace to you,
church.
And anyone who
knows of God's
grace meets
Paul right there.
You don't need
to say anything
else.
We're on the
same footing.
Why did Paul
know grace?
Well,
remember,
Paul had hunted
down Christians
himself.
He had been
the one going
into peaceful
worship gatherings
maybe like this.
dragging Christians
out in chains,
casting them
into the prisons,
hauling them away
to Jerusalem
to be punished.
Could you imagine
what that would be
like?
I'll ask you
children,
what if someone
were to come
through those doors
and command the
soldiers to arrest
your mom,
your dad,
your grandpa,
your grandma?
Put them in chains
and you see them
drug away.
Well,
Paul was the one
standing there
ordering the
soldiers to do
just that.
Paul said
this himself
to the church
in Acts 22.4.
He said,
I persecuted
this way,
referring to
followers of Christ.
I persecuted
them to the death,
binding and
delivering them
into prisons,
both men and
women,
bringing them
in chains
to Jerusalem
to be punished.
In 1 Timothy 1.15,
he says,
but Jesus Christ
came into the world
to save sinners
of whom I am
the chief.
Paul knew grace.
Romans 5.20,
where sin abounded
and Paul's sin
abounded so.
He wrote,
their grace
abounded much more.
So when Paul
greets the church
with grace,
he does it as one
who knows
God's grace himself.
He says,
grace to you
and peace.
Well,
if grace is
a reference
to the Greek greeting,
common greeting
among the Greeks,
he pulls in
Greek and Jew
together.
The Jews greet
one another
with shalom.
Shalom.
Holistic,
relational rest.
That's what shalom
means.
It means you enjoy
a settled
communion together.
You are at home.
You are comfortable.
And he says,
this is only possible
from God
through Jesus Christ.
Isn't that true
for our fellowship?
As part of the
membership process,
one of the questions
is describe some
of the best experiences
you've had in church.
And many have shared
it's been among
brothers and sisters
who know God's grace,
who know this peace.
And it's a time
of wonderful rest
where it truly feels
like I'm with family.
And God ministers
to me over and over
through that.
We've also been
in different relationships,
maybe at work
or even with relatives
or sadly in the church
as well,
where there's no peace.
And it's one of the
hardest things we can
go through as Christians,
isn't it?
To have no peace.
I believe this principle
is true that
where there is no grace,
there can be
no peace.
The solution,
if you want more peace
in those relationships,
is God's grace
at a heart level.
The more church
that we understand
God's grace,
the more peaceful
will be our fellowship.
Amen?
See how preaching
the gospel
and gospeling one another
through the hardest
things we go through,
that is how God
shapes us together.
It's the most practical
thing we can do
is to remind ourselves
of God's grace
toward us.
God is to remind us
of God's grace
toward us.
So,
God makes Christians
remember
the basis
of their blessing.
Number three,
God makes Christians
remember one another
with thankfulness.
God makes Christians
remember one another
with thankfulness.
That's how he shapes us
as well.
Verse three,
we read,
I thank my God
upon every remembrance
of you.
Upon every remembrance
of you,
I thank my God.
every remembrance
of this church
at Philippi.
Look in Acts 16
once again,
you still have your marker there.
Starting at verse 13,
let's go back
and put ourselves
in Paul's shoes.
What would have been
these early remembrances
of the church
at Philippi?
Acts 16,
verse 13.
We read that it was
the Sabbath day.
There's Paul and Silas
and Timothy and Luke.
They went out of the city
to the riverside.
where prayer
was customarily made.
He says,
they sat down
and they began to speak.
It's through the preaching,
through the spoken word
of God
that God carries
the gospel
into the ears,
the minds,
and the hearts
of believers.
They preached
and as he preached
the word,
he gave the gift
of faith
to Lydia.
He remembers that.
He said,
a certain woman
named Lydia
heard us
and she was
a seller
of purple
who worshipped
the Lord.
Now look at the next
words there
in verse 14.
The Lord
opened her heart
to heed
the things
spoken by Paul.
They had to do
their part.
They're going
into the open air.
They're ministering
the word of God
for whoever has
an ear to hear.
But it's the Lord
who opens
the heart
and causes you
to pay attention
and hear
and receive
the gospel.
We read in verse 15
that she
and her household
were baptized
and then she
hosted them.
Well,
after Paul
commanded the demon
to leave
that little slave
girl alone,
he and Silas
were accused
of disturbing
the peace.
We read in Acts
16, 20
that the whole city
became exceedingly
troubled
because her masters
saw that their hope
of profit
was now gone.
So they seized
Paul and Silas
and they dragged
them into the marketplace
and to the authorities.
We read in Acts
16, 22
Then the multitude
rose up together
against them.
The whole city
of Philippi
greatly disturbed
against Paul
and Silas
who were the preachers.
The magistrates
tore off their clothes
and commanded them
to be beaten
with rods
and they laid
many stripes
on them.
That means
they whipped them
so the skin
is torn away
of their backs.
And yet,
Paul writes
in verse 3
of our sermon text,
I thank my God
upon every
remembrance
of you.
Paul thanks God
for the memory
of the church
at Philippi.
He thanks God
for causing Lydia
and her household
to believe
for saving
that slave girl
and for bringing
these most unlikely
believers together
and planting them
as a church.
Does the Lord
ever do this
for you?
Does he bring
to mind
the remembrance
of other believers?
When he does that,
we should thank the Lord
for these memories.
Thank you, Lord,
for reminding me
of that conversation
I had with this brother.
Thank you, Lord,
for this wonderful memory
of that hard time
that this family was in,
but you were faithful
to them.
When the Lord
brings one another
to mind,
we pray for one another
and we thank the Lord
for his grace
on all of us
because God
makes Christians
remember one another
with thankfulness.
In business
and in other dealings,
it's mostly hard memories
and you're constantly
on the defensive,
but our thoughts
of one another
should be grace
and peace
and thank you, Lord,
for this body
you've given.
Number four,
God makes the afflicted
pray with joy.
How does God
shape his church?
He makes the afflicted
pray with joy.
Look at verse four.
Paul writes,
always in every prayer
of mine,
making requests
for you all
with joy.
You notice how urgent
Paul's language is?
It's personal.
It's persistent.
He says,
in every remembrance
of you,
always,
in every prayer
of mine for you,
making requests
for you all.
You see,
each one in the church
is on Paul's mind
and on his heart.
Each one is precious
in God's sight
and he puts the names
of these precious souls
forward before God
and he asks God,
he makes requests
of God
on their behalf.
He prays.
Does the Lord
bring fellow believers
to your mind?
Does he stir you up
to specifically name
those he wants you
to intercede for?
The beautiful thing
is this,
the Lord Jesus
is interceding
on our behalf
right now
and his spirit
causes you to know
what you're supposed
to join your prayers to.
He's already praying.
When he stirs your heart
and puts other believers
in your mind,
he has the name
of that believer
in his mind.
So you're joining
your prayers
to those of Christ.
He's inviting you
to participate
in his ministry.
What a blessing.
Well,
let's try to figure out
now from scripture,
where is Paul
as he's praying
for all the saints
in Philippi
with joy?
Where is he?
There's this little church
far away
and Paul's praying
with so much fervency.
We know that
he is in house arrest
in Rome
being watched
by the Praetorian Guard.
Who's the Praetorian Guard?
It's an elite unit
of the Imperial Roman Army
that served
as personal bodyguards
and intelligence agents
for the emperor himself.
Paul is a big deal
and he's being watched
in Rome
by the elite
Praetorian Guard.
If I could give you
a comparison,
this would be
the best of the FBI,
the intelligence agents,
who are keeping tabs
on every potential threat
within the empire,
mixed with army rangers,
the toughest of the tough.
That's who's keeping watch
on Paul.
Well, now we have to ask,
how did Paul get there
to be writing
this prison epistle?
We know that he spent
two years
approximately
in jail
in Caesarea,
another city,
without a trial.
And we know that
when he arrived at Rome,
he was greeted
as if he were a celebrity.
Picture someone
really famous
arriving at the
Denver International Airport
and the church
wanting to go out there
and greet them
with signs and cheering
and welcome them.
That's how the church
in Rome greeted Paul
initially.
However,
we learn that Paul
was then envied,
most likely by the elders
of this church in Rome.
Look in Philippians chapter 1.
Now look at verse 15.
He warns them
from this seat
that he's in now
that some preach Christ
out of envy
and rivalry.
We can fill in the blanks
with some historical,
you know,
guessing,
I guess we can call it.
What happened was this.
As Paul arrived in Rome,
and this is the church
to which maybe
the most theological letter,
the letter to the Romans,
is written.
They didn't continue
eagerly submitting
to his teaching.
When Paul got arrested,
he was considered
an embarrassment.
They were interested
in their own glory.
They saw Paul
as a rival
to their own fame,
to their own flesh.
And Paul says
in Romans 1.16,
I am not ashamed
of the gospel.
That's his state of mind,
thinking of the church
in Rome.
This was new to me
as I studied for today.
Paul had become
so neglected in Rome
from that celebrity status.
While he was under
house arrest,
another believer
came to travel
and he had to search
to even find Paul.
In other words,
you go to the churches,
that's where you would expect
they'll know exactly
where Paul is.
They didn't know
where Paul had been.
That's how badly
they neglected him.
In 2 Timothy 1.16,
Paul wrote,
Onesiphorus
often refreshed me
in prison
and was not ashamed
of my chain.
But when he arrived
in Rome,
he sought me out
very zealously
and found me.
He had to go find him,
go on a hunt
to see where he is
even Paul being kept.
You see,
the church
had a very clear command
from Jesus
to minister to one another
when you get arrested.
It's going to happen, church.
Jesus said in Matthew 25.43,
It's as if I were naked,
Jesus says,
and you did not clothe me
to neglect a brother in prison.
It's as if I, Jesus,
was sick and in prison
and you did not visit me.
That's how neglected
Paul had become
by the church in Rome.
So that's where he was.
And from this house arrest,
from these chains,
Paul says,
I make requests
to God for you
in every prayer of mine,
church,
with joy.
I make requests
for you with joy.
How?
How can that be?
James Montgomery Boyce
help point this out to me.
The human mind
can really only concentrate
on one thing at a time.
And in the first chapter
of Philippians,
the name,
Jesus Christ,
is mentioned 18 times
in 30 verses.
More than every other verse
is Jesus Christ.
How can Paul make requests
for the church
in joy
from Rome
where he had been abandoned,
neglected?
It's because his mind
is full
of Jesus Christ.
That's what he wants
to tell them about.
You see how God
is so gracious
to shape his church,
to make those
who are afflicted
pray with joy.
God uses
your affliction
and Paul's affliction
and my affliction
to make us
meditate
more
on Jesus Christ.
Doesn't he do that?
And as you meditate
on Jesus Christ,
he fills your mind
with joy.
And full of the joy,
thinking of Jesus,
you pray.
Full of his joy
in you.
Well, the fifth way,
final one for today,
that I see God
shaping his church
is that he makes
all of his people
partners
in his mission.
God makes
all of his people
partners
in his mission.
Verse 5,
Philippians 1.5,
I thank my God
with joy
for your fellowship
in the gospel
from the first day
until now.
Your fellowship
in the gospel.
fellowship
is your
joint participation
in the gospel.
Your fellowship
is your communion
that you share
in Christ's salvation.
It's from the first day,
that very first day,
Acts 16.25,
when Paul and Silas
were praying
and singing
hymns to God
and the other prisoners
were listening
to them.
They're declaring
Jesus Christ.
this is the fellowship
we share.
Even when our feet
are in stocks,
we can't stand up
and our backs
are bleeding
and opened.
We pray with joy
because we have
a communion,
a shared participation
in the gospel
of Jesus.
They pray joyfully,
singing gospel truths,
having taken a public
beating with rods.
They're still
bearing witness
in the word
and the life
of these prisoners
so that all
the other prisoners
hear this gospel
as they proclaim it.
This isn't normal.
People in that shape
don't sing
with joy
like this
of Jesus.
And there's the jailer.
He's hearing this as well.
We don't know
the lyrics
to these songs
that they're singing
in prison
but our songs
reflect God's good news.
They reflect
the good news
that we are created
by a loving,
good,
holy God
that he saves sinners
who believe
in the work
of his son,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
That first day
when they got
to preach the gospel
to the jailer,
we read in Acts 16
verse 29
that the jailer
fell down
trembling
before Paul
and Silas.
That's the power
of God's gospel
and the Holy Spirit
applying it
to this man.
In verse 30
we read that
he brought them out
and said,
Sirs,
what must I do
to be saved?
And they said,
believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ
and you will be saved
you and your household.
That jailer
he must have
quite an experience,
quite a resume.
How do you get
to be the jailer
of this little Rome,
the great city
of Philippi?
Position of power
and authority.
It's also dealing
with things
that no one else
wants to have
to deal with.
Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound
that saved
a wretch like me.
Jailer falls down
trembling,
what must I do
to be saved?
Well now this jailer
and his household,
they are partners
in the fellowship
of the gospel,
partners in the ministry,
even from a great distance
now from Rome
to Philippi,
you're partners
with Paul
and Timothy.
You see how God
shapes his church?
There in the living room
of the wealthy
business woman,
that's Lydia,
sat a girl
that everyone
thought was crazy,
most likely
the keeper
of the city's jailhouse
along with his family
and servants,
and that's
the beautiful church.
These are sinners
that have been
set apart
and declared
by God
to be saints.
the Philippian church
shared a fellowship,
a communion,
and a common
participation
in the good news.
They shared this
across the Mediterranean
sea with the churches
in all of the other cities
that God
had planted.
Brothers and sisters,
I want to encourage you,
if you are in Christ,
you share the same
fellowship
with them.
it's the church
in heaven
and on earth
from the earliest
generation
to this day.
And you who believe
in Jesus Christ
today,
maybe for the first
time truly,
you too
will be declared
a saint.
King Jesus
will make you
willing.
You will choose
him.
You will gladly
follow
King Jesus,
trusting him
by faith.
He's good.
And you will be
filled with joy
unspeakable
like Paul,
full of his glory.
Because each
one of you
whom God
calls and draws
in and makes
part of his body,
you are an
important partner
in his mission.
The mission
he carries out
through his people,
the church.
So this
is how
God shapes you,
his beloved church,
for his purpose.
Jesus.
Let's pray
and ask
that God
will work
this truth
into our lives
for his glory.
Amen.