Philippians 1:1-2 - Saying Hello to the Church

I'll invite you to take your Bible and go to the book of Philippians.

Philippians.

We've just completed our Amalgo Day series.

And we're now entering into a study of the book of Philippians.

And alongside Micah and me will be several other men who'll be handling God's word as we go through this book.

I'm looking very much to hearing their contributions as we do so.

When you hear the word joy, what comes to your mind?

For me, what comes to mind is being with uh my grandfather and grandmother and my uncles and aunts uh in a big farmhouse in Indiana after a long day, and uh a good meal's just been cooked, and everybody's around.

I'm with my cousins and my mom and dad are with their siblings and my mother's uh father and father and mother, and laughter around the table, um, someone telling a joke, somebody telling a story, and the whole place is warm with with the light of laughter.

It's a delightful uh memory of mine many, many times with family like that, and that's joyful.

That's what comes to mind.

And perhaps you might have another type of joy that comes to your mind.

Uh thinking about my sons when they were playing basketball, they weren't the best basketball players, and the team that they were on wasn't the best.

And you know, losing game after game after game isn't is a pretty hard thing to do for a child and for their parents.

Um, but when that final shot goes and it goes in and the buzzers, the buzzer cries out and breaks, breaks it, and you're all like excited they finally won a game, you know, and you're you're full of joy and all of that.

I don't know what your mind might have brought to your to your attention and remembrance, but those are joyful things.

We enter into those kind of moments, and it's a it's a great joy to have.

But there's a commonality to at least the two that I mentioned.

The circumstances were good.

Family together, family having a good time, laughter and stories all around, uh, relatives with one another.

A game won, but you change the circumstances, fight around the table, or the buzzer goes off and they lost another one.

What happens to the joy?

Well, this is one of the questions that presses in on us when we look at the book of Philippians.

Is there a different kind of joy?

And Philippians is going to show us that absolutely there is.

There is a deeper kind of joy.

There's a joy that is available that doesn't rise and fall with your circumstances, because it's rooted in something your circumstances can't touch.

And when you find that joy, you've got a joy that takes you through the rest of your life.

What's particularly compelling about this book, it's written by a man who's in prison.

Paul is in prison under Roman house arrest.

He is chained to a guard, he's facing trial, and it's quite possible that he will be facing even his execution.

The churches that he started, they're circulating around in some of those churches that Paul's imprisonment is a sign of his insincerity of being a messenger of Christ, that he's actually not legitimate.

And so some of them, for envy's sake, are actually preaching all the more, thinking that it'll press more upon Paul himself while he's in prison.

Nice church members, that one.

Those are bad circumstances.

And yet, in the middle of all that, Philippians is one of the most joyful documents that we could read.

The words joy or rejoicing are mentioned some 16 times in four chapters.

So we learn a lot about joy from this man.

And what radiates from this is this triumphant confidence of joy that can only be explained one way.

It can't be explained by the circumstances because they're all troubling and they're all circumstances of loss.

But Paul has found something that his chains cannot take away.

And that's why I want us to go to the book of Philippians, not only this evening, but for the next few months.

Because as we go through life, all of us will be facing circumstances that will be tugging at our life.

And if we put our joy in those good circumstances and they leave, so will our joy.

But if we have our joy in things that the circumstances can't touch, then we have found something far richer than any good day that we might have.

So let's begin to look.

And I want us to read the first couple verses, because what we're going to discover this evening is just that, whether there's a joy available to us in the midst of our hard times.

Let's look at verses one and two.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now notice how Paul addresses the church here.

He calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus.

And that word in the Greek means a slave.

And Paul's not simply being modest here.

Paul's offering a theological argument of his identity.

He doesn't open this letter by talking about his apostolic authority.

He doesn't talk about his credentials.

He opens up with a word about his servanthood.

Now, in many of his letters, he actually does establish his apostolic authority, but not here, not in this place, not to these people.

He wants them to understand the posture of his heart in the middle of his situation.

I am a servant of Christ Jesus.

Just hold on to that because we'll revisit that in just a second.

But notice what else he says to them: Grace and peace to you.

Two words, one of them with a Greek origin, one with a Hebrew origin.

Grace, unearned gift.

Peace, a comprehensive wholeness, not just an end of cessation of hostilities, but a wholeness of life that flows from being at peace with God.

And these two words, as we'll discover later, are a compression of the gospel.

And notice the source of them from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, hold on to that because we'll revisit this introduction in just a moment.

And this evening, I want us to go through this whole letter.

I want us to be able to see the argument that's found here in all four chapters.

And as the weeks unfold and as the men begin to present the Word of God to us as we go more slowly through the book of Philippians, I want to give you sort of a framework from which you'll be able to understand all the pieces that come week by week.

The question that stands over this is what does it mean to be in Christ?

And what difference does that make when my life is hard?

Hang on to those questions.

What does it mean to be in Christ?

And what difference does it make when my life is hard?

And Paul answers this chapter by chapter with four words.

That Christ is a believer's life.

That's a good title for chapter one.

That secondly, Christ is a believer's pattern, and that's a good title for chapter two.

Third, Christ is a believer's treasure in chapter three.

And then chapter four, Christ is the believer's supply.

So think about those four words: a believer's life, a believer's pattern, a believer's treasure, and a believer's supply.

And when you've when you have life, a pattern, a treasure, and a supply from Christ, you have everything that you need for joy, no matter what the circumstances are.

Even if you're in chains, like Paul.

So let's look at those.

Let's break those down.

First of all, chapter one, Christ, a believer's life.

Verse 21 says it quite clearly.

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Now it's one of the most compressed and one of the most dramatic statements in Scripture.

Because it comes from a man who's about to face possible execution.

For me to live as Christ and to die is gain.

I've never been in the place where execution is a real possibility for me.

But he was.

And he's not looking at that with dread.

He's actually saying, if I do die, that's gain.

So what he's saying is that in order to be there, the first part of that has to be a living reality.

For me to live is Christ.

Christ isn't just a part of his life, or even a significant part of his life, or perhaps even the most important part of his life.

It is.

And by saying that, nothing can diminish that.

Nothing can diminish his joy because Christ is his life.

He might be chained, but Christ isn't.

He might be restricted from movement, but Christ isn't.

And he's able even to look at his circumstances and to realize that God is with him even in the hardest of things.

The reason why he was in prison, the reason why he was in chains was because he was proclaiming the gospel.

And the people thought by getting him arrested and bringing him into this sort of place of restriction, they would put him away.

And that the message he was proclaiming would be shut down.

But the apostle Paul says all of this has happened for the furtherance of the gospel.

That the very reason why they wanted him imprisoned is the very means God has used to advance the gospel.

So even his enemies can't do any harm to him.

And so he says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And that tells us if Christ is your life, you cannot be reduced by the things that happen to you.

You cannot be reduced in your identity because of your sicknesses.

You cannot be reduced in your identity because of hard financial circumstances.

You cannot be reduced in your identity even if you fail if you're in Christ.

If your life is hidden in Christ, your life is hidden where no one can put their hands and no one can seize you.

Now notice how Paul again started this letter.

A doulos, a servant, a slave.

What is he saying when he says that?

Again, it's not just a kind, customary greeting.

It's actually quite a startling one.

He's saying, My life is not my own.

I am my master's.

And when he says that Christ is his life, he says, My master owns me.

And he will direct me.

And because of that, he has nothing he has to feel like he has to protect, because he's given it all to Christ.

And Christ is the one responsible for it all.

And therefore, as he looks to Christ, he receives instead of trying to manage his life.

And so this is where Philippians begins with this chapter.

We'll break this down more and more as we go through it, but just wanted to give you that nice overarching perspective.

The second is that Christ is a believer's pattern.

And this takes us into chapter two.

And Philippians 2 contains one of the most magnificent passages of all of Scripture.

Paul is dealing with a church that has to be brought into an understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel, toward unity, toward genuine humility, toward deference and preferment of one another, as they would look to one another and place each other as better than themselves.

Should have flown out of the gospel that they'd received, but they had been sidetracked.

They had been brought into disunity and pride, and they were preferring themselves over one another.

But Paul doesn't give them a principle to change all of that.

He doesn't give them three steps to having better humility.

What he does is he gives them a person, Jesus Christ Himself.

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, verse 5, chapter 2.

Who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity, and when he had come as a man.

I want you to notice a key word in there taking the form of a servant.

And also to mention here of what the master himself did.

The one who was fully God, co-equal with the Father in every way, took the form of a slave, that he was worshipped by the angels, was glad to take in a basin and a towel and wash dirty feet.

That he who had commanded the cosmos and brought them all into existence was willing to be obedient to death.

Here is Christ, humbled and later exalted.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him, it says in verse 9.

So here's this pattern, this pattern of descent, and then exaltation.

We're in the book of Acts in the morning, and we're seeing the exaltation part of it.

But you might remember when we were back in Isaiah in chapter 52 and 53, and looking at one of the servant songs, and we saw the servant highly exalted, and yet taking the steps of humility and suffering and death and later becoming exalted.

Paul is pulling from that servant song of Isaiah to speak about the Savior here.

And he's impressing that upon us by saying to us, Christ is our pattern.

It is for us to go down the steps of humility and love for others, just as Christ himself has.

No need to try to protect or to project ourselves, because our master himself became a slave.

So to call yourself a slave of Jesus is to take the form that the master himself took.

Now, what is the significance of that for us?

Well, what it does, if you really grab hold of it and understand it, it dismantles every temptation to stand for your rights.

It tears apart every feeling that you have to protect yourself, that it ruins your ability to manage your reputation.

And that's a good thing.

Because here we see what the master did with his own rights, he relinquished them in love.

And in that is freedom, and in that is joy.

Because a person who is a servant doesn't have to try to be anxious about his status, right?

You don't have one anyway.

So Christ is our life, Christ is our pattern.

Thirdly, we're going to see in chapter three that Christ is a believer's treasure.

A believer's treasure.

Take a look at verse eight.

More than that, he said, I also consider everything to be loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

And because of him I've suffered the loss of all things, and have considered them as done, so that I may gain Christ.

Here in chapter three, Paul does something very audacious.

He takes out the leisure, ledger, rather, of his religious resume, of all of his cultural credentials, and all of his spiritual achievements, and he throws it out.

Every bit of it.

Circumcise the eighth day, throw it out.

The tribe of Benjamin, throw it out.

Hebrew of the Hebrews, throw it out.

A Pharisee, throw it out.

Zealous, throw it out.

As for the law, blameless, throw it out.

I just bought some plane tickets with points that I've been saving up for years so Royal and I could go see our grandchildren at Christmas time.

Our sons too, but our grandchildren mostly.

And when I when I emptied those points to get the ticket, you would have thought I was excited because I saved some money.

I looked at the points and went, I got to start over again.

The Apostle Paul takes all of this that's been built up and he says, just throw it out.

Throw it out.

By every external measure, Paul was at the top of the spiritual list.

He says, Let's move it away from the acid column and let's put it in the waste basket, every bit of it.

Why?

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

And he counted it not only as a loss, but as a worthless thing to throw away.

Something that you wouldn't want to keep at all.

And what he's saying is all of those credentials, perhaps not worthless in and of themselves, but certainly worthless in comparison to Christ.

The surpassing value is the key there.

And what does he gain?

He says, My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

What he gained wasn't just knowledge about Christ, it was actually knowing Christ.

Knowing Christ in his death and suffering, knowing Christ in his resurrection, and knowing the gift of righteousness that would come, that he didn't have to try to build.

This intimacy of relationship, that is even a fellowship and shared experiences of suffering, and a growing conformity to Christ, that is a conformity even to death that paradoxically produces life as only God could do in the ironies of this existence.

What he's doing here in chapter three is telling us where the profoundest, deepest joy is had.

It's found in Christ.

You've heard me say this before, but in a very dark, hard, difficult season I was in, in which I had a number of people who would be glad to see the back of me.

Someone asked me why I was still serving at the church I was at.

And I answered by saying this, I'm learning something about Jesus I don't think I could find anywhere else.

In the middle of that suffering, there was an intimacy of fellowship that I didn't know I needed, and I certainly wasn't looking for, but came upon me in a way that was very deep and very profound.

And the sufferings, well, they were worth it.

And so he's telling them here that this is a joy that's not a joy of good circumstances, and it's not a joy of achieved goals.

It's a joy despite death, despite failure, despite loss, despite time, despite restrictions.

There's a joy there, and it comes from Christ.

And this helps us to be able to look at the things that bombard us, that tried to seduce us, to go after them and claim them as gods, and to realize just how actually worthless they are.

When you see the surpassing greatness of Christ, even in suffering with Him, there are things thrown at you that you don't have an interest in anymore.

Because you see them for what they are.

You're not adversely affected either by the loss that comes to you.

You're not immune to trouble and you're not immune to temptation, but you're able to account whatever those things are just as they actually are.

Lesser things, not worth supplanting and replacing Christ for.

And that leads us to our last point.

Not only is Christ a believer's life and a believer's pattern and a believer's treasure, but Christ is also a believer's supply.

And chapter four is, you know, Micah asked for those verses that we treasure out of the book of Philippians.

And I think a lot of them would come to chapter four from chapter four.

Ones like, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice.

Again, appointing to our place of rejoicing, not in our circumstances, but rejoice in the Lord.

Find your joy there, not achievements, not even in the good gifts that God gives, but in the Lord Himself.

Or maybe Philippians 4, 6 and 7 might be your favorite.

Don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

Present your request to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

What is the remedy for anxiety?

Managing your situation.

No, not at all.

It's about Christ.

It's not about gaining the right perspective or the right mindset through the discipline that you might give to your mind and your thinking.

It comes through prayer, through being honest and open with God about the weaknesses of yourself.

But in trust, giving those things and casting the weight of your cares upon him, and thankful that he can handle it when you can't.

And the result?

Well, it's not a solution to the problem.

The result is peace.

A peace that doesn't make any logical sense because the circumstances that you're in would not be peaceful.

But the peace comes despite the circumstances.

The peace that passes all understanding is the peace that can't be explained because your circumstances are still hard.

How about this one as a favorite?

I know how to make do with a little.

I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I've learned the secret of being content, whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.

That may not be a favorite of everybody's, because it shows both sides.

I think we would like to say, I've learned to be content, well-fed, and I've learned to be content in abundance.

But Paul doesn't just do that, does he?

Whether I'm hungry or in need, I can be content.

But notice what he says.

He learned to be content.

Paul is being transparent here.

Because what Paul is saying in that word is that there were there was perhaps many times when he was discontented.

There were times when the situations aggravated him.

There were times when the circumstances weighed too heavily upon him.

And so what he's offering to us in the book of Philippians, that Christ is our supply, is not just some spiritual principle that he throws out there, detached from the circumstances of his life.

These things he himself wrestled with and entered into.

And he's saying, I've learned, as I've gone through life in its abundance and in its want, as I've gone into moments where I've been full and times when I've had to be hungry, I've learned to be content.

And in the repetition of submission and pouring himself out in prayer and finding God the supply in those moments as they repeat themselves, he says, I've learned, I've learned to be content.

And then one of the great promises of the New Testament, verse 19, My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Now look at that word, according to his riches, not out of his riches, as though he's diminishing the bank account and drawing from it as he's offering things to you, but according to his riches, in proportion to his riches.

And what are his riches?

They're vast and infinite.

So according to the vastness and the infinite supply of God's riches, you are being cared for.

And God will supply you all that you need.

So let's go back to the first couple words.

We've seen Christ as our life, Christ as our pattern, Christ as our treasure, and Christ as our supply.

Remember what Paul opened up with?

Grace and peace to you.

Again, not a polite reading, but two words that sum up the gospel.

Grace, unearned, undeserved, unreciprocal gift granted by God to people that have no claim on Him.

Grace.

Peace.

A comprehensive wholeness that flows from that grace.

The end of hostility between the God who created us, the settling of the war that's been raging inside our heart against him.

And in its place, a sense of wholeness and fullness.

That kind of peace.

And where does it come from?

From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not our circumstances.

Not from our spiritual performance.

Not from our resolve to be less anxious.

From God.

And if you're in Christ, these words are yours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So whatever's happening in your life right now, whatever circumstances that you've seen in the past few months, whatever you've been carrying that's made it hard for you to believe, these are your words.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The promise to you is not that your circumstances will change.

The promise to you is that despite your circumstances, just as Paul's, you will find room to rejoice and to be joyful because of who Christ is to you.

Your life, your pattern, your treasure, your supply.

And if you're here this evening and you don't know Christ as your Savior, these things are not offered as an exchange for how well you perform.

These things are offered freely from a God who gives to those who don't deserve it.

And finding the grace of God and the peace of God comes by bringing yourself empty to Him.

I know that sounds scary.

To be before the living God with nothing to offer seems like the most foolish thing on earth to do.

But the scriptures tell us that is exactly what we should do.

Because we were designed to live in utter dependence on him anyway, no matter how good life was.

Even in Eden, when everything was perfect, we should live with a posture of dependence from his supply and his care and his love.

And so here in this moment, when you have nothing to bring, bring yourself just as you are, and find just as many have the overwhelming sense of God's mercy and love and grace in Christ.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this glorious book that shares so much of the wondrous wealth and treasure that you are, to be able to see ourselves enveloped in you, to be brought into life out of spiritual death, to be shown how to live when sin would have taught us a different way, to count Christ as our treasure when we would have been trying to stockpile our own reserves, and to know that your supply is for us.

We can do all things through you when we realize that our resources are meager and limited.

And that all of us with receptive hearts will hear the message that you have for us here.

And that, Father, we will be filled with an abundant sense of joy and rejoicing in you with thankful hearts, despite what we may face, today, tomorrow, or years to come.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.