Learning Your Letters
This morning we’re going to be starting a new sermon series. Over the next few months, I want to take time to walk with you through a part of the Bible called Philippians. Philippians is in the New Testament. And it was written by a man named Paul, who was hand-selected by Jesus Christ to have an important role in spreading Christianity and establishing churches. Paul originally sent this letter to a church in the Roman city of Philippi – to the Philippians – which is where the letter gets its name.

And the Spirit of God provided letters like this in the New Testament, not just for the sake of the church in Philippi, but also for us. This letter continues to have great relevance and authority for guiding churches today – including our church here in Mount Pleasant. And I’m confident this will become evident as we start to work through the text together.

Yet among Paul’s various letters, Philippians has an interesting flavor to it. Many of Paul’s other letters focus on making arguments or describing ideas. Sometimes the letters are geared toward correcting certain errors, or clarifying ideas that people are confused about.

But in this letter to the Philippians, more than many of his other letters, Paul writes in a way that’s more personal and tangible. He doesn’t spend so much of his time setting out a complex argument for what we should believe or how we should live. Instead, Paul shows us how Christ has impacted his life – the way he feels, the way he thinks, the way he speaks and spends his time – everything is affected. And I’m excited, over the next few months, to explore what this means for us – to see how Christ affects us more and more over the next several weeks.

So if you have your Bibles with you, please turn with me to Philippians, Chapter 1. Philippians Chapter 1. I’ll just be reading the first two verses. But before I read the text, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]
A Greeting Focused on Jesus Christ
You’ll notice that these first two verses function as a greeting to the letter. These verses tell us who the letter is from, who the letter is to, and then pronounces some sort of kind-sounding words upon the Philippian church. These first two verses likely don’t seem all that interesting or remarkable, especially since other letters in the New Testament begin with similar types of greetings.

But if you look at the other letters in the New Testament – if you look at the greetings to each of those letters – you’ll notice that they aren’t all cookie-cutter repeats of one another. There are meaningful differences. These greetings were crafted, individually and intentionally, to draw our attention to specific things.

And in this greeting, here, Paul draws our attention to Jesus. The name of Jesus is repeated three times in these two verses – either as Christ Jesus in verse 1, or the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 2. From the very beginning of the letter, Paul is signaling to us that this letter’s aim is to draw attention to Jesus. It’s all about Jesus Christ.

It’s worth pointing out – sometimes it’s easy to think of the word Christ as being part of Jesus’s name. First name, last name: Jesus Christ. But Christ isn’t his name as much as it is Jesus’s title. Whenever we hear Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus – this word, Christ is supposed to give us an idea of who Jesus is, and where he ranks relative to other people.

Just think of the board game Clue. Some of the characters in the game have titles. And just as Colonel Mustard’s title tells us that he’s a high-profile military commander, and Professor Plum’s title tells us he’s an accomplished academic, so it is with Jesus’s title as Christ. Being Christ means that Jesus is God’s chosen one – the one who has been anointed to exercise divine authority and power. That’s what this word Christ means.

And here in his greeting, Paul specifically identifies three key things that are connected to Jesus’s authority and that flow from what he has accomplished. First, Paul introduces himself and Timothy with the Credentials of Christian Servants – these are credentials that come from Christ. And then Paul identifies the church in Philippi as the Community of Christian saints, established in Christ. And finally Paul pronounces the blessing of God on his church, which comes to us through Christ.

So these will be my three points this morning: The Credentials of Christian Servants, The Community of Christian Saints, and The Blessing of God on His Church.
The Credentials of Christian Servants
So first, The Credentials of Christian Servants. The opening of the letter, here in verse 1, explains who is sending the letter: Paul and Timothy.

The interesting thing you’ll notice, though, is that even though Timothy is mentioned as a co-sender of this letter, this letter is primarily from the apostle Paul. Verse 3 doesn’t say, “We thank our God in all our remembrance of you,” but instead says, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” And the rest of the letter is consistent this way. There’s one primary author of the letter, and later on it becomes obvious that it’s Paul. But there was good reason for Paul to include Timothy in the greeting of this letter.

See, Timothy was known to the church in Philippi. When Paul first came on his missionary journey to Philippi, Timothy was with him. And now Paul’s plan is to send Timothy back to encourage and strengthen them, which he says later on in verse 19 of Chapter 2. So Paul wants to remind the Philippian church about Timothy, and to help confirm his credentials prior to sending Timothy back to them. Because he wants the church there to rightly receive Timothy, and to listen to his instructions.

This raises the question, though – What credentials do Paul and Timothy have? Why should the church of Philippi listen to them? Paul says it’s because he and Timothy are servants of Christ Jesus.

In most of his other letters, Paul introduces himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus – as a special ambassador sent out with an important message. Paul introduces himself as a servant in two other letters – Romans and Titus – but in both of those cases he also mentions that he’s an apostle. So Philippians is unique. This is the only letter where being a servant is listed as Paul’s only credential.

And as you can imagine, being a servant – or a slave, is maybe a better translation of the word here – being a servant wasn’t a flashy, impressive position. Paul’s essentially saying here that he has no individual rights. For all hours of the day, seven days a week, Paul is on call to do the business of his master. He’s under the absolute authority of someone else to tell him what to do, where to go, what to say.

And in light of all this, it would almost sound like Paul’s calling himself a nobody. Because in one sense that is what he’s doing. In every way possible, Paul deflecting attention from himself. And it’s pretty remarkable that Paul’s doing this, because by worldly standards, he was a pretty impressive guy. Paul had a five-page, single-spaced laundry list of credentials he could have pointed to. Paul’s the sort of guy who probably had a trophy from winning the National 8th-grade Boys Bible-memory contest. If he were around today, he’s the sort of guy you’d expect to get a full-ride scholarship to Central Michigan University, here. He was well-connected. He was ambitious. He was multi-lingual. He had the cultural credentials of being a Roman citizen, the pedigree credentials of being a Jew, the academic credentials of being a Pharisee.

But none of those things are mentioned. They aren’t even hinted at. Instead, Paul wants to underscore here that his biggest claim to fame – the greatest and most impressive thing about him – is that He’s a servant of Christ. And Paul wants to encourage the Philippians to lay aside their stubborn, proud attitudes, and their competitions for influence and whatever else in the church – and to see themselves as servants of Christ, too.

We often fail to fully appreciate that having this title – being a servant of Christ – it really is better than any other earthly name we could take for ourselves. It’s better than being an MVP in the NFL – better than being named the Provost of a University, or the Governor of Michigan. Even if you were crowned the absolute monarch over an empire that covered the whole earth, and that extended trillions of miles into outer space – it would still be a lower position than being a servant of Christ Jesus. Because positions of earthly glory are limited. They last about as long as a melting snowflake. These are positions we can’t hold on to, and eventually we’ll end up losing everything.

But having a place in Jesus’s kingdom is something that’s substantial. It’s enduring. Even as we speak, Christ Jesus is bearing a mantle of divine glory, holding a scepter of supernatural power. Angels, demons, and universes are subjected to Him. He’s enthroned in the sacred halls of the heavenly places, to rule forever. His kingdom will never end. His strength will never diminish. His goodness will never be overcome by evil. And to be employed in the service of this Jesus is a great honor and privilege, that far exceeds anything we deserve.

So there’s a simple point here. Being a cabin boy on a luxury cruise liner is much better than being the captain of a sinking rowboat. Being a servant of Christ is far better than any other position that the world has to offer. We shouldn’t be ashamed to be associated with Jesus. We shouldn’t be reluctant or half-hearted in our service to him. Because serving Christ is the greatest thing we could ever hope to do. These are the best credentials we could ever hope to have.

Not every servant has the same job or function. Christ gave Paul and Timothy a specific role for service and responsibility that not every Christian in the Philippian church was called to. But Paul wants to drive home the point that regardless of what roles we have, we’re still simply servants. Comparisons and competitions shouldn’t have a place in the Philippian church. Instead, Paul wants them to follow his example, to embrace the humility and the dignity that comes from serving Christ Jesus.
The Community of Christian Saints
But Paul also draws our attention to another reality that flows out of Jesus’s person and work. The community of Christian saints. This is my second point – the community of Christian saints. In the second half of verse 1, Paul addresses this letter “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.”

Now, this word saints can be a bit confusing – especially if you’ve spent any significant amount of time around Roman Catholicism. Because in the Roman Catholic church, being a saint is some sort of super-extra-spiritual position that people are granted if they had an exemplary life of piety or mercy.

But when the Bible uses the word saints, it isn’t referring to a narrow subset of people within the church. Instead, it’s referring to the church itself. Because the word saints literally means holy ones. It describes people who are set apart for a sacred purpose – particularly, people who have been set apart to offer worship to God.

And ultimately, the thing that makes someone a saint isn’t how long they starve themselves in the desert on top of a pole, or how well they endure being burned at the stake, or any other personal qualification. Instead, in the text here, Paul speaks of those who are saints in Christ Jesus. Being in Christ Jesus – explains how ordinary sinners like these Christians in Philippi could be introduced to us as saints.

So notice here – Paul is reminding the church that the reason the Philippian church exists isn’t because Paul was really good at gathering people or planning events. The reason the Philippian church exists isn’t because a group of really noble people teamed up and decided they wanted to do great things for God. Instead, the Philippian church exists because Christ Jesus has made a distinction between them and the rest of the world, and he has set them apart to offer worship each week to a Holy God.

Everywhere you find a faithful church, it isn’t a monument to human achievement. Instead, every church, even Fellowship Reformed Church in Mount Pleasant, is a visible indicator of Christ’s power. Without Christ stooping down to earth, bearing our sins at the cross, and gaining forgiveness, resurrection, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and all the rest for us – there would be no holy ones, no saints, no true worship.

But in Christ Jesus, people all around the world are set apart from the ordinary course of the world – this is what it means to be saints – and we’re gathered together into churches, just as they were in Philippi. This is where we have the opportunity to meet together with the God who saved us, week after week, to revere His divine majesty, to rejoice in special mercies toward us, to be reminded of His grace and truth, and to renew our commitment to live for him.

There are some people who imagine that involvement in a church like this is an inconvenience. They don’t see why it’s such a big deal. But they miss that being set apart from the world, to belong together, visibly and tangibly, is a key part of our new identity in Christ. And when the church functions properly, it’s a huge gift to us. We’re brought into a community with mutual commitment and shared purpose and palpable love. And the church is intended to be a tangible, formal body, that has real definition and order to it. Even in this little verse, we can see that the church in Philippi had something of an official structure.

Because you’ll see that the letter isn’t just to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, but it’s also explicitly written to a group of people in the church referred to as the overseers and deacons. Paul identifies two official roles that were functioning in the church in Philippi – and these are the same two roles that receive attention in Paul’s other letters. There’s the office of overseer (which is used interchangeably with elder or pastor in passages like Titus 1:5-7 and 1 Peter 5:1-2) and the office of deacon. And the overseers and deacons weren’t in an adversarial relationship against the rest of the church. The saints at Philippi are with the overseers and deacons. The people who had these offices were an important part of the community of the church.

I just want to point out, too, as a bit of a sidenote that the Philippian church had multiple overseers involved in leading the church. This is how Paul set up churches at that time. And there’s good reason to believe that this is the Biblical expectation for how churches should be set up today, too. Having multiple overseers or elders is important for wise leadership and mutual accountability. And this is how we function as a Presbyterian church – with multiple overseers.

Of course, this also implies that the Philippian church had some way of clarifying who these overseers were overseeing. The reason why we practice church membership here at Fellowship Reformed Church is to define the relationship and to help bring clarity, both to elders and to church members, about who is responsible for who and how we can live out our commitment to one another as members of one body.

But even though Paul’s reference, here, to the elders and deacons gives us a window into how the church functioned, his main point here probably wasn’t to give us a flow chart of a church’s organizational structure. Instead, Paul seems to have a specific reason for drawing in the attention of the overseers and deacons here at the beginning of his letter. And we should recognize that this detail is significant, because Paul doesn’t outright address the elders or deacons of the church in the greeting of any of his other letters.

So why would he do that here? Of course, we want to be careful about going too far into speculation. But it seems like the topics and issues Paul addresses here in his letter – he doesn’t just seem them as issues that the congregation should deal with. But Paul seems to recognize that the elders and deacons have an important role to play in leading the church in the right direction. It’s not entirely clear how faithful the elders and deacons have been up to this point. Maybe they’re caught up in the same problems as everyone else, and they need to lead the way in repentance and humility. Or perhaps the elders and deacons have faithfully avoided the quibbles and tussles that are going on in the church, and Paul wants to help them see how they can encourage peacemaking in the church. The text just doesn’t tell us.

But by calling out the overseers and deacons, Paul makes it clear that the conduct and activity of these men are really important. As we consider the church community that Christ is forming here in Mount Pleasant, we want be praying that God raises up humble, faithful men who can serve as overseers and deacons in the early days of our church, and in the decades ahead.
The Blessing of God on His Church
But there’s one more thing Paul draws our attention to here, in this greeting. In addition to Christ granting credentials to his Christian Servants and a community for the Christian Saints, it’s also from Christ that we receive the Blessing of God on His Church. And this is my third and final point: the blessing of God on his church.

In verse 2, Paul proclaims something of a blessing on the church in Philippi. And though it was common for greetings to include some sort of blessing like this in Paul’s day, the words Paul used in his greeting were different from standard practice.

There are parts of the blessing that Paul pronounces on the church. He pronounces both grace and peace. The word grace here is actually closely connected to the English word charity – and they convey approximately the same idea. When we receive grace from God, we’re receiving charity. It doesn’t matter what our socio-economic status is like from a worldly perspective. When it comes to our spiritual condition, we’re all naturally beggars – worse off than beggars, actually. We’re orphans without a Father, we’re illegal aliens without citizenship – we’re dirty, we’re homeless, we’re dead in our sins and trespasses.

But everything is different with Jesus. Because of him, Paul can confidently affirm that there is charity for us, from God – not just a couple dollars that God throws out his car window at us while he drives past us – but a truckload of amazing things. He breathes new life in us, he gives us living water, he feeds our souls, he cleans away our filth, he patiently rehabilitates us, he gives us a home in the kingdom of heaven, he adopts us to be his children, he crowns us with honor, he loves us! And it’s all grace. It’s all a gift, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

But also, in connection with this grace, we’re invited into peace. For Paul, who came from a Hebrew upbringing, the idea of peace was much bigger than just absence of conflict. But the Hebrew word for peace, shalom, envisioned a world where everything is set right. No more need to lock doors at night. No more doctor visits. No more waiting in line at the Secretary of State office. Peace – prosperity – rightness. And peace was part of the blessing that the Israelites of the Old Testament looked to God for – grace was, too. The priestly blessing for God’s people is recorded in Numbers 6: (24-26) “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Of course, you can see here what Paul has done. Paul has latched upon the grace and peace that were pronounced over the people of God in the Old Testament, and he’s reiterating now how that blessing comes to us. It comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul’s point here isn’t to say that God the Father has a little package of grace and peace that’s from him, and then Jesus has a separate little present of grace and peace – and they both happen to be giving us the same thing. No, there’s just one ultimate gift of grace and peace. And God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are co-providers of this gift. They’re united in bringing this divine blessing to us, which is just one more thing that helps to confirm the divinity of Christ. The same Lord who supplied his blessing to Old Testament saints in the wilderness, is the same Lord who now supplies His blessing of grace and peace to the church.
Real Blessedness in Jesus Christ
And let me just mention three quick applications of how to live in light of this blessing that we who are Christians have in Christ.

First, if it’s true that we have God’s blessing, we can be content in all kinds of life circumstances. Paul develops this idea throughout his letter, here, and it’s important for us to keep in mind. Do you really appreciate how well off you are in Christ? Do you ever take time to think about how eternally secure you are, even if your house burns down, or your bank account vanishes, or you lose your sight, your hearing, or the use of your limbs? Please understand, you are blessed! And nothing can strip it away from you, if you belong to Jesus.

Second, if we understand that we, in the church, have received God’s blessing, then you and I shouldn’t curse our brothers and sisters. We shouldn’t hate the people God loves. We shouldn’t distance ourselves from the people that God has brought close. God has blessed us in order to be a blessing – so let’s seek to encourage and further bless whoever comes across our path.

Third and finally, if we understand that we have received God’s blessing, we should rejoice and give thanks and honor to God. Throughout the letter, here, Paul’s demeanor is marked by joy and gratitude to God. He’s quick to point people to how much God has done for him. And as we consider the blessedness which is ours in Christ, my hope is that we’d be a church that does this, too, more and more.

So let’s pray for the Lord’s continued blessing, as he presses this word deeper into our hearts.