Reading Someone Elses Mail

Well, you know you can learn a lot by reading someone else's mail. You really can't. Have you ever tried that? You can learn a lot about who they are, what bills they have, read their bank statements. You can learn a lot about them that way. Learn what kind of magazines they order. You can learn a lot about reading other people's mail. When we lived here in the parsnage for a number of years, occasionally we would get a piece of mail that was supposed to be delivered to the next box, which at that time was David and Sandy Bolton. We learned a lot about David and Sandy. No, I'm just teasing. We never opened any of their mail. We try to get it to them. But what we're going to do today is we're going to read someone else's mail. We're going to open a letter addressed to someone else. So open your Bibles to the letter to the Philippians. We're Paul writes to a church in the town of Philippi and we're going to read what he wrote. We're not going to read the whole letter this morning. We're going to take several weeks to do that. In fact, we're going to go through the letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians. Maybe one of my, maybe my favorite of all of Paul's epistles is just this little letter to the Philippians. There are so many good things about all of them. I love Romans for its doctrinal strength and so forth. But I just love this little letter to the Philippians. It's a favorite of mine. Always has been. Many of our favorite expressions, Christian expressions, just come out of this letter. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This one thing I do for getting that which is behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Rejoice in the Lord again. I say rejoice. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. All of those common verses and phrases that we've learned in our Christian language come out of this one letter to the Philippians and many more like them. But I think we will see that they gain enrichment even by seeing them in their context. Within the flow of what Paul was instructing the Philippians about and talking with them about, we will find a deeper richness, I believe, to even those very common, well-known expressions of our faith. So this morning I would like for us to begin reading someone else's mail. In this case, it's okay because the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this book and in so doing, intended that it be included in his word, the Bible, so that we would have it today and we would be able to profit and learn as we read this letter to. So this morning I want us to do what we would do if we got someone's mail at our house and we recognize pretty quickly on it was not intended to come to us. There are a few things we might look at before we delivered it on. The first thing we would probably notice and would clue us into the fact that it was not intended for us is who the letters address to. And so I want us to look this morning at the destination of the letter and find out who this letter is addressed to. The letter to the Philippians. Verse 1 says Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. Now we read that today and it's easy to think, okay, Philippi, must have been some city Paul would travel to enter or visit or something and we read right on and think no other thoughts. But we really can't grasp the importance of this book unless we back up a little bit and look at that address on the envelope and discover who this letter is written to and why it was written. So let's think a little bit more carefully about the destination of this letter. Who are these people in Philippi? What is their story? Where do they come from? How did God start a church there? Now in order to talk about, in order to find out about the founding of the church in Philippi we need to travel back to the book of Acts chapter 16. We're not going to actually do that. I'm not going to have you turn there but I just want to kind of summarize the story of Acts chapter 16 and remind you of how this church got started, how it was founded and it would probably help us to visualize that if we could in Paul's travel. So let's look at this map and we'll visualize Paul's second missionary journey or at least a part of it. Paul in his first missionary journey had established several churches in this area right here. And so on his second journey he leaves from his home church in Antioch with a co-worker, Silas, and they decide to go back and check on those churches that he had started in his first missionary trip. And so they make their way up this way, come to this little place and finally make the way over to Derby where it was one of the churches that Paul had started. He checks on that church and strengthens them, spends a little time with them. Then he goes on up to Listera where the Bible says that a young man, a convert to the faith, would grown up in a Christian home by the name of Timothy, joined them. Timothy would become one of Paul's strongest, maybe his closest co-workers in the rest of his ministry. From Listera they go on to Eikonium and then they go to Antioch and then Paul is just seeking the Lord's will about where to go next. And so he starts traveling and he wants to go westward into this area of Asia from Antioch. But the Bible says the Holy Spirit would not allow him to do that. We don't know how that was communicated to Paul but for some reason the Holy Spirit just kept him from going that direction so Paul says, okay, that's not the way I'm supposed to go. The God has not given me clear guidance as to where to go. So he kind of diverts up this way and the Bible says that he intended to go up to Bethinia and maybe turn eastward. And again the Bible says the Holy Spirit would not let him do that. Just forbade him to do that. And so Paul is kind of wondering, okay God what do you have for me next? Where am I supposed to go next? And so Paul just decides I'm just going to, since I can't go east, can't go directly west, I'm going to kind of go northwest and he ends up in Troas. Still the Lord has not given him any clear direction. But while he is in Troas the Bible says that God gives him a vision and he saw a man in that vision from Macedonia. Here's Macedonia over here. It's a region, a Roman region of the world across the Aegean Sea. And this man from Macedonia is saying come over and help us. And so Paul takes that as God's leading and direction to go that way. And so he gets on board a ship, sails over to a little town called Apalonia, which is the coastal city, travels 10, 11 miles inward to the next major city. The first major city would come to in Macedonia and that is Philippi. A Philippi is a very important city in Paul's day. And as Paul often did he would focus on the major cities because that was the area that had the most influence and people would go out from there to minister to other areas. And so Paul focused his first attention in Macedonia on Philippi. It was a city that was at a major Roman intersection. There was a major road that went through Philippi called the Aegean Way. But it was also a very important political city because in 31 BC Caesar Augustus had won a great military victory there and decided to honor the city of Philippi in honor of that victory. And so he made the city of Philippi a Roman colony. That was kind of rare in that day for a city to be named a Roman colony. But basically it made all the residents, Roman citizens. They were relieved of many of their taxes. Which we could become Roman colony, don't you? That's beside the point. They were relieved of a lot of their taxes and then they were able to own land which was not possible in most other parts of the Roman Empire. So this was a very favored city by the Roman Empire and Paul started here. The Bible says that at least the indication of the Bible is that whenever Paul went to a new place he looked for a synagogue first. He always started his ministry in a Jewish synagogue. There was a good reason for that. He would find people who believed in God, people who knew the Old Testament and people who because they knew the Old Testament were ready for the next step. If they could be taught that the Old Testament was now fulfilled, promises of the prophets were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So he had a ready made audience familiar with the Old Testament scripture. He would often start there. But evidently in Philippi there was not a large enough Jewish population for there to be a synagogue. You had to have ten heads of households to be able to start a synagogue and evidently it didn't have enough. And so Paul said, well I'll go to the next place where if there is no synagogues Jews often would gather for worship and that's down by the river. So he went down by the river. Sure enough there's a group of Jews down there praying. And so Paul joins them and begins to explain to them as he often did that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the message of the prophets in the Old Testament. And a woman, a very influential business woman by the name of Lydia placed her faith in Jesus Christ and opened up her home for that new young church just getting going to meet in. And so Paul begins to meet there with other people who are coming to know Christ and he spends a little time in Philippi. As he's walking around the city and preaching in different places and witnessing and so forth, there's a woman who keeps following him. The Bible says she was demon possessed. She was a fortune teller who had a demon that would help her tell people's future. And there were businessmen in town who employed her services to get fortune telling done and they were making a pile of money off this woman. And so she's walking around behind Paul and Silas as they go throughout the city saying, these men are representatives of the most high god, the true god. And Paul's looking around saying, I don't need this kind of endorsement, not from a woman who's tied with the occult. So one day he turns around and in the name of Christ he casts the demon out of her and she becomes a believer. She comes to faith in Christ. Well, that infuriates the men who are making their living by her fortune telling and they trump up charges against Paul that he's teaching some kind of doctrine that should not be allowed in a Roman colony and they have him arrested and Paul and Silas are beaten with rods as was the Roman custom and then thrown in the prison there in Philippi. The next part of the story is one of the most familiar stories in all the New Testament, the story of the Philippian jailer. And you recall if you're familiar with the story how Paul and Silas even though they were beaten severely, bloody and bruised and broken, no doubt. And their hands and feet in shackles as a form of torture, they began to sing, praise to the Lord and begin to pray. Now, I just wonder if that's how most of us, including myself, would react to that kind of circumstance. But they began to pray and sing and praise God. And at about midnight there was a huge earthquake in Philippi. And it was so damaging that even the shackles that held the prisoners bound were loose. And the Philippian jailer who's responsible for those prisoners, if he loses one of them, he loses his own life, feels like all these guys are gone and he's ready to kill himself. He's ready to plunge a sword into his midsection when Paul comes into the room and says, no, no, wait, wait, we're all here. None of us is gone. And that jailer shows that he's been listening to Paul and Silas and he's under conviction because he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And your whole household indicating that if they too hear the message and believe they can be saved as well. And so the Philippian jailer trusts Christ. He takes Paul and Silas that very night to his home, washes their stripes and cleanses their wounds and provides them food. And that family also becomes a part of this young church. Paul is escorted out of town the next day by the Roman authorities who find out they have illegally beaten a Roman citizen. And so they want him out of town and evidently Luke stays in Philippi and continues to help the church as it grows. That's how the church got started. Just a marvelous story of God saving grace in the hearts and lives of people who came to know Jesus and bonded together in a church. What are the characteristics of this church? What does the church do from here on? How do they show themselves and prove themselves? What kind of church does this become? Well one of the things that is characteristic of the church at Philippi is the prominence of women in this church. The first convert was a woman by the name of Lydia. She opens up her home. The church begins there in that home. But there are in this letter two other women who evidently had some kind of prominent place in the church whether they were teachers or some kind of servants we don't know what they did. But their names are listed in Philippians 4, Eodia and Sintica. I can just imagine when the letter first arrived at Philippi and they're kind of passing around scanning through it. Eodia nudges Sintica and says, hey we got our name in the Bible. That's wonderful. We got our name in the Bible. And Sintica says, but did you read why? Paul is telling us to get our act together and stop fighting and become united in our work for Christ. But evidently they were women that had some kind of prominent position in the church and Paul addresses them in this letter. Prominence of women in this church. Second thing about this church and the thing that stands out most about it as you read this letter and other letters that Paul writes is they became a church of generous giving. This was a church that was very generous in their giving to the work of God, especially as they supported Paul. Paul himself would say, if you'll flip over to chapter 4, in thanking them for their gifts, Paul would say in verse 15, moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, even you except you only. When he left the province of Macedonia, he went to the next one, which was Okea, where he started the church at Corinth. So when he went to Corinth, he's saying in verse 15, you gave to my ministry. And Paul actually refers to this giving in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 9. Look at this verse on the screen. He's writing to the Corinthians and he says, when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I've kept myself from being a burden to you in any way and will continue to do so. So Paul says, when I went to Corinth, this Philippian church, the first church established in Macedonia, gave to my needs. And then he says in verse 16, for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. That's before even got to Corinth. Thessalonica was the next stop after Philippi. And so that's still in Macedonia. So even when he was there, next town over, they sent again and again to his needs. So this is a very giving church, a church that loved Paul, that loved his ministry and had a close relationship with him. You'll see this reflected in the letter, not only as he thanks him for their gifts, but just as he reflects upon his love and respect and admiration for this church. So this was a church that gave, a church that loved Paul and gave to him over and over and over again. Paul would refer to this church again and this group of Christians in 2 Corinthians 8 when he was talking to the Corinthians about, or 1 Corinthians 8, when he was talking to them about, I want you to become involved in this offering I'm taking, taking up an offering from churches to send to Jerusalem to help believers there that are suffering. And he says, here's your example, the believers in Macedonia, you ought to see how they give. He says they're willing to give their own lives for the cause of Christ. And they give over and above what they have the potential to give. I mean, if a tax advisor or a financial advisor were looking at their balance sheet, they would say, you've done way too much. You're kind of out of control on the giving side of the ledger. That's what probably they would say, but Paul was saying the Philippians were able to, out of their poverty, give more. So use them as an example. These people in Macedonia are wonderful givers of themselves and of what they have to the Lord's work. So that characteristic of this church, the characteristic that stands out above everything else is their warm, hearted giving to the work of God. What an example they are to us to be that kind of giver who give not out of compulsion as Paul talked to the Corinthians about, not because they feel necessity to or obligation to or pressure to, but because they love the Lord. Because they love the Lord, these people just gave and gave and gave to the ministry of the Apostle Paul over and over again. Well, that's the destination of the letter and we found out a little bit about these people to whom this letter is addressed. But let's move on. Let's scan the letter a little bit. We've opened the envelope. Uh-oh. Somebody else's mail, but we're going to scan the letter. We're going to see what it says. Let's find out why this letter was written, the purpose of this letter. Paul was in prison at Rome. He tells us in chapter two of this letter that the Philippians sent a messenger which may mean the pastor of the church, the Greek word can go either way like a messenger or a leader of the church. He may have been the pastor of the church in Philippi. They sent him to Rome. You know what he was sent for? To take more help. To take more offerings if you will to the Apostle Paul. The Bible says, to help me in my need, he came to Rome. While he was in prison, Paul received a gift, another gift from the church at Philippi. But while he was there, a Pafforditis got real sick. He got so sick that he almost died while he was in Rome. And the Philippian church was real concerned about him. They were here in reports and they weren't sure what always going on. And so when a Pafforditis gets well enough to go back home, Paul writes this letter and sends it back with him to the church at Philippi. Now what's it about? What's the purpose of it? Well it is not a doctrinal treatise. It's not like Romans where Paul just lays out the Christian faith almost step by step. Not like that. It's not like Ephesians where Paul really plumbs the depths of our riches, of our salvation in Christ. It's not the purpose of the book. It's not to really explain doctrine. It's not also to deal with problems like some of his epistles. I mean, he doesn't blister the Philippians like he did the Corinthians. The Corinthians had a whole list of problems that Paul dealt with in the first epistle to Corinth. It's not like Galatians where Paul was frightened that the church was swallowing false teaching. And so he writes urgently in his own handwriting with bad eyesight to correct this doctrinal error. It's not like that. It's not even like Colossi where Paul's a bit concerned that a false teaching may be threatening the church and so he writes to warn them about false doctrine. It's not like that. Philippians is not like that at all. It's not even primarily to thank the church, even though there is a thank you note at the end of this letter. It's not the primary purpose of the letter of Philippians. The letter to the church in Philippi basically is just a love letter. It's basically just a letter sharing with them, his warm affection for them, his love for them, his fondness for them, his concerns for them. He takes the opportunity to challenge them and exhort them to serve the Lord and so forth. But this is basically just a friendly letter of love and affirmation direction from the Apostle Paul. And so doing it takes the opportunity to share a lot of information. He shares information about a Paffer Dytus and explains what always going on with him. He explains what's going on with Paul as he's in prison. How the Lord's using that to get the gospel out in the Roman prison guard and Caesar's household. He talks about false teachers and warns a little bit about that. He challenges them to be unified and to serve the Lord faithfully. But it's basically just a Paffer Dytus is going back home. I'm going to take the opportunity to thank these believers and share with them how much I love them and care for them. That's kind of a letter it is. That's kind of tone it has. And so as we look at the letter to the Philippians, I want us to center our thoughts around what Paul really centered his thoughts around in this letter. So that brings me to the contents. We've kind of scanned it to gain its purpose. Now let's actually look at the contents of the letter. I want to give you kind of an outline of what he writes. We're not going to look at it all today, but just let you know what's coming over the next few weeks. When some people look at the letter to the Philippians, they center everything around the theme of joy. That's a wonderful major theme in the book. Sixteen to nineteen times, depending on a couple of the words that he uses, Paul uses a form of the word joy or rejoice. That's amazing in four chapters, especially when you think he's writing from prison. Although he's in his own kind of house arrest where he can entertain some guests, still he's limited as to what he can do. He can't get out and preach and so forth. And so that would be the cause for many people to be discouraged and depressed. But Paul just exudes joy. But there's something I think beyond that and behind that that leads to the theme of joy. There's another major theme in this book. The name Christ appears 51 times in these four short chapters. Eighteen times in chapter one, you can cut Philippians anywhere and it bleeds Christ. Christ oozes from almost every verse of this book. It's clear to me that what Paul is doing in this book is as he writes this letter of friendship and love for this church, he's just reflecting upon the bond they have in Christ and what means to know and love and serve Christ together. Christ is everything, as he says in the first chapter, to live is Christ and if I die, that's even better. I get to be with him. So the whole thing revolves around Jesus Christ. So let's center our thoughts as we begin our journey through this book on Christ himself and what he means to us and what a commitment to him will mean in our lives. First of all, chapter one, Paul talks about suffering for Christ. He describes his own suffering in a Roman prison and how really Christ is using that to glorify himself and get the gospel out to the Roman guard. So even suffering has a new perspective because of Christ and then he talks about, you know, if I die, which may happen, I just get to be with Christ. And no matter what happens, whether I die or whether I live, I want Christ to be magnified. So the whole thing is about Christ and how Christ dramatically changes our perspective on the sufferings we may go through and on the future we face. We saw those wonderful people on the screen this morning and they are with Christ now. And when we think about what Christ means to our lives, it changes everything. We recognize they are in that far better place that Paul talks about in Philippians 1. That's all about Christ. It's not about us, it's not about what we suffer or how we suffer or what we're going through or even about what we will face in the future. It's all about Christ. He changes everything. He changes our perspective on the present, on the future. And even our conduct, because in the last part of chapter one, Paul says, I want you to Philippians to be focused on Christ too. And even if it means suffering for him, want your focus to be on suffering for the cause of Christ for him. So suffering for Christ is the theme of chapter one. Chapter two, the theme seems to shift a little bit to serving Christ. And so he addresses the church in Philippine. He says, I want you to serve the Lord in unity. This way it begins, the first four verses, talking about serving together and serving one another in unity. And then he says, don't forget this. If you're going to serve in unity, you've got to serve in humility. So he gives that wonderful example of Christ. And how Christ gave up all the glories of heaven to come down and be a servant and even give his life for us. That's the way where to serve, Paul says. Let this add attitude be in you that was in Christ as you serve, serve with humility. And then he talks about serving as a lifestyle. He says, work out your own salvation. Work out the implications of what Christ has done for you because God works in you to do and of his own goodwill and pleasure. And so don't murmur and complain. Let your light shine. Serve him as a lifestyle. And then in the end of the chapter, he says, I want to lift up two examples, two models for your service. These two men, Timothy and Epaphroditus, serve as good models as to how you should serve the Lord. So chapter two is all about serving Christ. Chapter three, Paul seems to shift the emphasis a little bit more. The emphasis seems to be here on sharing Christ. Sharing Christ because Paul begins this chapter, verse 11, verses actually, by sharing his own personal testimony of how he came to Christ and what Christ means to him, that he's counted all things but loss for the cause of Christ. He wants to know him better, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, be made conformable to his death, his commitment to Christ is what that passage is all about. And then he shares with them his goal in life, which is to forget what's behind and not focus on that, but to reach forward to what's ahead knowing that Jesus Christ will reward me someday when I get to heaven. So he shares Christ being the goal of his life. And then he shares a little bit at the end of the chapter about the race. How to run the race well. How not to be trapped up, but to run the race well and to revel in that day when we will see Christ and he will change our bodies to be like his. So sharing Christ is all of what chapter 3 is about. Chapter 4, he talks about being satisfied in Christ, being satisfied in Christ. This chapter is all about peace and serenity and the contentment of knowing that if you're in Christ, he will take care of everything. He talks about some hindrances to that attitude in the first part of the chapter. Then he talks about the path to that kind of satisfaction. He's not worrying about stuff, but committing it in prayer to the Lord. And then as he talks about his own life and begins to thank the Philippians for their gift, he himself becomes a model of that kind of satisfaction and serenity and peace in Christ. He says, I've learned to be content no matter where I am. If I have a lot, I have nothing. I've learned to be content. Why? Because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And because you've given so generously to me, God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. You see, being satisfied in Christ is what chapter 4 is about. So the whole book is about Christ, 51 times. He talks about Jesus Christ and talks about how to suffer for Christ, serve Christ, how to share Christ and how to be satisfied in Christ. That's what the book of Philippians is all about. Now having seen the contents of the book, let's go back to the beginning. And we're going to pay a little bit more attention to the greetings of the letter than what you normally would to a letter you would receive in the mail. When you get a letter and it just says dear John or John or friend or whatever, you kind of skip that real quick and go on to the body of the letter. But Paul doesn't just say dear Philippians. Paul gives an extended greeting to this church which really opens our eyes into some very special insights and truths about Paul himself and also about the church. So for just a few moments, I'd like for us to reflect on this greeting and see what it tells us about this first century servant of God and this first century church. I see four things in these two verses that really give us insight into the early church. The first one is a proper attitude. Look at verse one. Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus. You know, we have a tendency to skip over these greetings so quickly and miss them. But a real interesting study would be to compare the greetings in Paul's 13 epistles. In most of them, he starts out by saying Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ. Almost all of them he does that. Now some of them, it's very necessary for him to do that. He has to establish and prove his credentials as an Apostle to deal with the issues in that church like at Corinth, all the messy problems in Corinth or in Galatia, the real serious problem where these false teachers were throwing doubt on Paul's character and ministry. So Paul has to establish the fact he is an Apostle through Jesus Christ. But there's none of that in Philippians. There's no need to establish his credentials as an Apostle. He just says, I want to let you know who I really am. Just a servant. I'm a servant. We both are servants of Jesus Christ. And yes, he was an Apostle and he had to be right to that title because that's who he was. God had called him to do that and to be that. But really in his heart, Paul was a servant of Jesus Christ. It's a great word that he uses. The Greek word do-loss means a bond slave. This was not just an ordinary household servant. This was a servant that was born in the household, grew up in the household. And when he became of age, had grown so to love the master of the household that he willingly, lovingly said, I will spend the rest of my life serving you. I love it here and I love you. That's the kind of servant Paul was. By the way, that's the kind of servant we ought to be. If you know Jesus as your Savior, we are bond slaves of Christ. We've been born into his household, been placed into his family through faith in Christ. And as we grow in Christ and grow into spiritual adulthood and maturity, it should be. It should be the desire of our heart to say, Lord, I love you so much for all that you've done for me. We're bondingly will serve you in any way I can. What an indictment on our hearts if we do not have a willingness to serve as slaves of Christ. Not for what we're going to get out of it, not for what it's going to benefit us, but because we love him and because we want to serve him. We would spend the rest of our lives in his household serving him. That's the heart of Paul. And that should be our heart as well as we serve Jesus. Paul says, I have the proper attitude. He wasn't boasting about that. He was just sharing his heart. I'm a servant. I'm a servant, a bond slave of Christ. That's the proper attitude. But he also opens some insight into the proper membership of a church, proper membership. In verse 1, he says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. Now he talks to these people as being saints. When we think of the word saint, at least in common use in the world today, typically a saint is a person who has done some great deed in their life for some organization or church. And at the end of their life, when they die, they are lifted up to an elevated position and properly recognized officially by that religious body as a saint. And that is not at all what the Bible means by the word. In fact, it's a misuse of the word. The word saint literally is a word which means to be set apart. It's really what it means. And he's talking about saints in Christ Jesus. So we are set apart in Christ Jesus. You know what he's talking about there? He's talking about people who are saved. People who have recognized their need of a savior who realize I'm a sinner. And I can't get to heaven by the good things I do, by nature and by choice, I'm a sinner. I cannot do enough to please God, to work my way into heaven. I'm a sinner. And I need a savior. I need someone and thank God I know. I've heard the message that Jesus Christ, God's son came to be my savior, to die and pay for my sins on the cross. And so a saint is a person who has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. And who has said, I'm not going to try to work my way to heaven or try to get to heaven because I'm a member of a church or anything like that. I want to trust Jesus as my savior. And when you do that, the Bible says God sets you apart. He takes you out of your former life, out of what the Bible calls the kingdom of darkness under the dominion of Satan and sets you apart, places you in his family. You're now a child of God. And you're now, you know, belong to Jesus Christ. You are a set apart one. You are a saint if you know Jesus as your savior. Now, I know what your wife is thinking. You sure don't act like one. And maybe your husband's thinking that too. You don't act like a saint. What has nothing to do with how you act? What has to do with God setting you apart in Christ and then certainly our lifestyle should reflect the fact that we now belong to Christ and we're his. But the whole point of a saint is someone who has trusted Christ as savior. If you know Jesus as your savior, you are a saint. You don't need to wait until you do something really spectacular in life and some official body recognizes you after you die. You're a saint if you know Jesus as your savior. So he's writing to saints a proper membership in the church. And you know the church is made up of saints. It's made up of believers. Now, anyone is welcome to attend church. Anyone is welcome to be here as a part of us and to attend our services. To hear the gospel, we welcome anyone to be here no matter what your lifestyle has been, your background has been, whether or not you would consider yourself the furthest thing away from a saint. That doesn't matter. But when you become a saint, when you trust Jesus as your savior, then the Bible says the next step is to actually become a fully functioning, serving part of a local body of believers. And most churches recognize that through some form of membership. Members are composed of saints who put their lives on the dotted line, if you will, and say, I am committing myself to the ministry and service of this church. I want to become identified with this church, a proper membership, saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. And then what he says next helps us to see a proper leadership in the church, a proper leadership. He says together with the overseers and deacons, two forms of leaders in the church. He's talked about the church as a whole, the saints, but he says you've got two groups of leaders in that church, overseers and deacons. Now overseer is the Greek word episcoposites, a word which some translations translate bishop. Because of the misuse of the term bishop, kind of in an unbiblical way, really the term overseer is better understood today. The Greek word literally means someone who takes oversight of the work of God. And so overseer is a good word. That's one of the words the Bible uses for pastors in a church. There are three words the Bible uses for pastors, bishops or overseers, elders and pastors or shepherds. All three of those terms are used interchangeably in Acts chapter 20 and 1 Peter 5, also Titus 1. And so it's very clear that the Bible refers all three of those terms to the same office, the same position in the church, what we call a pastor today. He is an overseer in the site that he, in the sense that he oversees, manages, leads the work of God. He is a pastor in the sense that he's a shepherd, cares for the flock and feeds the flock. He is an elder in the sense that he is to provide spiritually mature leadership, spiritual leadership for the church. So pastors are referred to here. The second office that's referred to here, and the only two officers in the New Testament, when Paul addresses them in 1 Timothy, he only addresses two pastors and deacons, deacons is the second office. Deacon comes from another Greek word for servant. Not the same word we saw earlier that Paul used of himself. It's not a do-loss. This is a deaconoss, a different kind of servant. This is a household servant. Not a bondslave, but a household servant whose responsibility is to manage and care for the needs of the household. A deacon in a church is responsible to care for the management, the household affairs, if you will, of the church of God. He is responsible to oversee very practical operations of the ministry to help the pastors in their work of leadership and so forth. That's the responsibility of a deacon. And so proper leadership in the church, Paul addresses as pastors or overseers and deacons. And then there is a proper emphasis in Paul's greeting to this church. I love the way he says this. This is very similar to what he says in most of his epistles, verse 2, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul wishes for the church. And every one of Paul's letters or most of them, Galatians is an exception because he launches right into the urgency of correcting a doctrinal error. But in most of his epistles, he wishes some kind of spiritual blessing for the church. It's interesting that Paul does not say, I hope you have 30% growth and attendance this year. It's not his desire for the church. That would be a wonderful thing. That would be wonderful. But that's not necessarily the most important thing. He doesn't say, I wish you to have X number of converts this year and baptisms this year in your church to meet your goal. Then say that. Paul says, what really is important is that you have the favor of God and that you know always right with God. Those two things are basically what he's talking about here. I wish you grace, the grace of God. God's favor which he bestows upon us. God wants the church at Philippi and he wants the church in Princeton, the church here at Johnson Chapel, another Bible-believing church is in this area. He wants us to experience his favor. Now we can only have the favor of God as we walk in obedience to him. And then we can experience his favor upon us. That's the kind of grace that seems to be referred to here. God's grace, his favor, his smile of blessing upon us. And then peace, interesting word. It has a very broad meaning, just a spiritual well-being and thus the tranquility that comes with that. It's not just a peace in the Bible, it's not just a feeling of, oh man, this feels good. It's not that. It's a spiritual well-being. Things are right with God. We know that we're right with him, we are right with each other, we understand his purpose for us. We're moving toward that. That's peace in a biblical sense. And that's what God wishes for the church. His grace, his favor to rest upon us and his peace to rest upon us. That's what God wants for this church. Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well we've opened somebody else's mail today, but you know what, we're not going to get in trouble for it. Nothing wrong with it. Because God intended this letter to be read by us and his word and the letter that he wrote to the Philippians, God intends for us to read as well. In closing, let me summarize two challenges that we've seen this morning and ask you about these two things. Number one, are you a saint? Have you ever trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? Have you come to the place where you realize you can't make it to heaven by your own merits, your own good deeds, or good life, or church? But you can only get to heaven through Jesus Christ and His death for you. Are you a saint? Secondly, if you are a saint, if you have made your commitment to Christ of your life in that way and trusted Him as your Savior, if you are a saint, is your life focused on Christ? Like Paul exhibits in this book and like he challenges in this book to focus our lives on Jesus Christ, is your life focused on Him? Or is this new year everything focused on you? You've got your goals set, your ambitions, what you want to accomplish this year and you haven't even prayed about them, you haven't sought the will of God and you haven't really desired to focus your life around Christ. It's all about me and what I want to accomplish, what I want to do, where I want to get to this year in my life. Is that what it's about for you? Is your life focused around Jesus Christ? And so focused on being a servant of His, doing whatever He wants you to do and living faithfully for Him that you can trust everything else to Him. Is that where you are?