Sermon Tone Analysis

The Saints in Christ Jesus

Philippians 1:1-11 – text 1:1,2 (6)

Intro and Background

Why Philippians?

My personal desire to become better acquainted with God’s message in the book.

Regular preaching themes … many special ‘favorite’ verses:

When Written?

Probably when Paul was imprisoned in Rome (prison epistles Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians and Philippians)

Why Written?

Gratitude for gift

Spiritual guidance

Encourage and demonstrate JOY

Promote Unity

Share about Epaphroditus

Promote Unity –Euodia and Syntyche

The Authors

“Paul and Timothy, servants … of Jesus Christ”

(dolos – a slave, bond servant)

Paul probably single author…

note use of pronoun “I” not “we”

Why was Timothy mentioned?

- He was part of the team that founded the church (Acts 16–18), Paul intended to send Timothy to the church not long after writing the letter (Phil 2:19),

The Readers

“To all the Saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with overseers and deacons” –

Saints – who or what is a saint?

Holy –‘set apart’

“The biblical word for saint refers to consecration.

This meaning is very evident in the Old Testament where the Bible speaks of the sanctification of objects.

In Exodus 40 Moses is instructed by God to sanctify the altar and the basin in the midst of the tabernacle.

Moses was to make saints of them.

Clearly, the chapter does not refer to any intrinsic change in the stones of the altar or the basin but to the fact that they have now been set apart for a special use by God.

Jesus prayed for the disciples in John 17, saying, “For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:19).

This does not mean that Jesus made himself more holy, for he was holy.

It does mean that he separated himself for a special task, the task of providing salvation for us by his death.

In the same way the Bible teaches that those who are Christians have been set apart by God.

These constitute “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” who should show forth the praises of him who has called them out of darkness “into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

If you are a Christian, God has set you apart in this way.

David was an adulterer, but before God he was a saint.

For God had set him apart unto himself.

Jeremiah was a rebellious prophet, but before God he was a saint.

For God had set him apart unto himself.

The church at Philippi had a woman who was a merchant, one who was a slave girl, and a man who was a violent soldier.

Yet these were saints in Christ.

Are you a Christian?

If so, you are a saint, and so am I—regardless of our station in life.

We are so, not because of what we have done, but because we have been separated unto God in Jesus.”

Boice-Philippians (pp.

20–21)

Overseers - bishops

And Deacons – ministering servants

Officers in the Church at Philippi

The Greeting / Blessing

“Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”

A Common Greeting

The words Paul used to greet the church at Philippi were actually quite common in Paul’s day.

The word translated “grace” was a normal gentile address that meant “greetings.”

We know this from the use of the word in the thousands of Greek papyri found in the Near East by archaeologists and in letters written by officials of the Roman Empire… The last word is like Paul’s word for grace.

Similarly, the common greeting among the Jewish people was “peace” (shalom).

One of the kings of Persia used this form of address to write to the people of Jerusalem under Ezra (Ezra 4:17).

This was also the common word of greeting in Jesus’ day.

At the same time, however, it is important to note that the words are transformed in Paul’s hands so that they carry Christian meanings.

The normal gentile greeting in Greek was cherein, a verb; but Paul uses the noun form of the same root, charis.

The difference is slight, but there is a great change in meaning.

For in Christian speech Paul’s word charis was always associated with the grace of God.

The emperor Claudius was merely sending greetings to the citizens of Alexandria.

Paul was saying, “God’s grace be with you.”

In a similar way, although the word itself is unchanged, peace cannot be understood merely as a common salutation.

In Paul’s mouth it must always have some reference to the fruits of justification, the result of the reconciliation of the Christian with God.

A great New Testament scholar Johannes Weiss wrote of these two words, “The fact that these terms connect themselves with the ordinary Greek and Hebrew greetings does not exclude the employment of ‘grace’ in its specifically Christian and Pauline sense in which it denotes the unmerited divine operations of love, which is the source and principle of all Christian salvation.

Similarly, ‘peace’ is not to be understood primarily in the technical sense of Romans 5:1, as the first-fruit of justification; but we may be sure that, in Paul’s mind, the whole state of tranquility and general well-being which was implied in ‘peace’ attached itself at the root to the fact of reconciliations with God.”

Boice-Philippians (pp.

24)

Paul’s Great affection for these believer no doubt relates to the origin of the church in Philippi.

Paul’s call into Macedonia – Acts 16

The Holy Spirit direct – Acts13:2,4 to send them on the missionary journey

The Holy Spirit closed the door “forbids them…” Acts 16:6,7

The Holy Spirit calls them vision of a man of Macedonia – Acts 16:9

Marvelous things happened in Philippi!

It was a Roman colony:

Wherever they were, these colonies were little fragments of Rome and their pride in their Roman citizenship was their dominating characteristic.

The Roman language was spoken; Roman dress was worn; Roman customs were observed; their magistrates had Roman titles, and carried out the same ceremonies as were carried out in Rome itself.

They were stubbornly and unalterably Roman and would never have dream of becoming assimilated to the people amidst whom they were set.

We can hear the Roman pride breathing through the charge against Paul and Silas in Acts 16:20, 21: “These men are Jews, and they are trying to teach and to introduce laws and customs which it is not right for us to observe—for we are Romans.”

“You are a colony of heaven” (A.V.), Paul wrote to the Philippian Church (3:20).

Barclay, W. - The letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (electronic ed., p. 4).

The circumstances of the organization of the Church in Philippi.

It was on the second missionary journey, about the year A.D. 52, that Paul first came to Philippi.

Urged on by the vision of the man of Macedonia with his appeal to come over and help us, Paul had sailed from Alexandrian Troas in Asia Minor.

He had landed at Neapolis in Europe, and thence made his way to Philippi.

The story of Paul’s stay in Philippi is told in Acts 16; and an interesting story it is.

It centres round three people—Lydia, the seller of purple; the demented slave-girl, used by her masters to tell fortunes; and the Roman gaoler.

It is an extraordinary cross-section of ancient life.

These three people were of different nationalities.

Lydia was an Asiatic, and her name may well be not a proper name at all but simply “the Lydia lady.”

The slave-girl was a native Greek.

The gaoler was a Roman citizen.

The whole Empire was being gathered into the Christian Church.

But not only were these three of different nationalities; they came from very different grades of society.

Lydia was a dealer in purple, one of the most costly substances in the ancient world, and was the equivalent of a merchant prince.

The girl was a slave, and, therefore, in the eyes of the law not a person at all, but a living tool.

The gaoler was a Roman citizen, member of the sturdy Roman middle-class from which the civil service was drawn.

In these three the top, the bottom and middle of society are all represented.