Community and Joy: An Introduction to Paul's letter to the church in Philippi

Kids being brought up

Elder change announcement

Introduction

We are getting an introduction to our new series this week. We will be walking through Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi.

I haven’t completely figured out how long we will be here, but I imagine it will take us to the new year. Which is really exciting because the letter is filled with deep theological and spiritual truth that I hope we’ll just be feasting on this for some time.

I would encourage you take time over the next few weeks and read this letter over and over. Next week we will have our friend Dr. Gregory Coles come and share a good word with us. Greg will be sharing about belonging in the family of God at our youth conference next week (please keep that in prayer) but Greg will be speaking to us out of Colossians 3. After which we’ll be jumping right into Philippians. I’m thinking it’s going to tie in beautifully. God has a way of doing that.

We as humans will go through difficult things in this life. It is part and parcel to what it is to be human.

To be followers of Jesus does not excuse us from difficulty, but what being a follower of Jesus does mean is that as we go through life:

We have hope in those difficult times (hope in circumstance, hope in whatever the end, hope in who is in control of the situation).

We have an example of how to navigate difficult situations.

We have a community that serves us and that we are called to serve.

There is a real sense of joy (amongst other defining characteristics) that becomes a byproduct of our lives.

These are the themes that we find in Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi.

As the introduction this morning, we will be going through verses 1-2.

If you are willing and/or able, would you please stand with me as I read God’s word this morning.

Philippians 1:1–2 NIV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Amen (please be seated).

I’ve broken up our message this morning in three ways:

Paul and Timothy slaves of Christ Jesus

God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Jesus (including church leaders and deacons)

Grace and Peace from God through Jesus

Paul and Timothy

As we think about this letter it’s super important to know who is writing it and why is he writing it.

Paul … Paul was probably born in the same decade as Jesus, and most likely died between ad 62–64.

Born as Saul in Tarsus (on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey).

Schooled as a Pharisee under the Jerusalem religious leader Gamaliel. (Acts 22:2)

Became a traveling missionary and preacher for the early church; renamed Paul. (Gal 1:15-16)

Worked as an artisan who made tents. (Acts 18:3)

Was imprisoned multiple times by the Roman authorities for his religious agitation. There is some debate as to which prison Paul wrote this from, but many are comfortable saying that he wrote this from a prison cell (or house arrest) in Rome.

Wrote several theological letters (some of which are included in the New Testament).

Died sometime between AD 62–64; Paul may have been martyred in Rome.

We find a lot of what we know about Paul in the book of Acts written by a physician, a contemporary, by the name of Luke.

Timothy… A native of Lystra and a companion of Paul. A third-generation Christian. His name is the combination of two Greek words: τιμή (timē) meaning “honor, reverence,” and θεός (theos), meaning “God.” Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman and a Greek father (Acts 16:1–2).

Timothy’s mother is identified as Eunice and his grandmother as Lois—both believers—in 2 Tim 1:5. Timothy was Jewish due to the matrilineal principle of descent. He grew up knowing the sacred writings, but his uncircumcised state (compare Acts 16:3) implies that his upbringing was not characterized by a strict observance to the Law (2 Tim 3:15).

At Lystra, Paul chose Timothy to accompany him on his second missionary journey (MAP). He was likely selected due to his outstanding character (Acts 16:2). Because Paul and Timothy’s areas of ministry were heavily influenced by Jewish practices and beliefs and people would know Timothy’s father to be Greek, Paul could not present Timothy as a full Jew without having him circumcised (Acts 16:3). This required Timothy to complete the ritual.

Timothy became a vital member of Paul’s inner circle, as seen in the number of references to him in a number of Pauline prescripts (2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:1; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1; Phlm 1). Timothy is described as Paul’s:

• “Fellow worker” (Rom 16:21; 1 Thess 3:2)

• “Brother” (2 Cor 1:1; Col 1:1; 1 Thess 3:2)

• “Bond-servant” (Phil 1:1)

• “Beloved and faithful child in the Lord” (1 Cor 4:17)

• “Son” (1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2)

• Coequal in the Lord’s work (1 Cor 16:10; 1 Thess 3:2)

Paul would eventually leave Timothy to pastor and lead the church that was in Ephesus. We have two of the personal letters that Paul wrote to Timothy as he was learning to pastor this young church.

So we know a little about these two who are contributing to the letter to the church in Philippi… Paul refers to themselves as “slaves”. Some of your Bibles might translate this word δουλος as “servant” or “bondservant” of Christ. The English translators probably do to that because to our western ears when we hear slavery we may think of the 18th & 19th century chattel slave trade.

Under the influence of Roman law, a slave is usually considered to be a person (male or female) owned by another, without the same rights as a citizen, and—like any other form of personal property—to be used and disposed of in whatever way the owner may wish. In the ancient biblical East, however, slaves could and did acquire various rights before the law or by custom, and these included ownership (even of other slaves) and the power to conduct business while they were yet under their masters’ control. Slavery is attested from the earliest times throughout the ancient Near East, and owed its existence and perpetuation primarily to economic factors.

Slaves were acquired by capture (in wartime), purchase, birth, restitution, default on debts, and you could sell yourself under your own volition.

The treatment accorded to slaves depended directly on the personality of their masters. It could be a relationship of trust (cf. Gn. 24; 39:1–6) and affection (Dt. 15:16), but discipline might be harsh, even fatal (cf. Ex. 21:21), though to kill a slave outright carried a penalty (Ex. 21:20)

In my opinion it is a difficult and uncomfortable topic for me. What it is that makes me uncomfortable is that slavery by what we understand it to be, denigrates the image of God in the slave. They are not a person, they are property, they are means to and end and disregarded in that the end can not be achieved.

What is powerful in Paul and Timothy’s statement is that they are slaves of Christ. Slaves to Christ.

Completely dependent on Christ. Slaves would be considered to be the lowest of class/caste systems. Yet here we see that Paul and Timothy are walking in the likeness and footsteps of Jesus.

John 5:19 “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

It is this idea of service that Jesus talked about.

In the Codex Bezae (c. 400AD) there is an interesting variant reading of Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

It reads, “But seek to increase from that which is small, and to become less from that which is greater.” … it with that for a moment.

To become less in our culture is foolishness… especially in this competitive world. Jesus is not calling us to be underachievers, but in adopting his mind we undermine the world and free ourselves from that very thing that locks us into shame and spiritual poverty.

John 15:20 “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant (δουλος) is not greater than his master.’...” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”

Daniel T. Niles who was a Sri Lanken theologian and pastor said this of Jesus:

He was a true servant because He was at the mercy of those whom He came to serve. . . . This weakness of Jesus, we His disciples must share. To serve from a position of power is not true service but beneficence… The only way to build love between two people or two groups of people is to be so related to each other as to stand in need of each other. The Christian community must serve. It must also be in a position where it needs to be served. . . . Let me say it as an aside, that, in my view one of the biggest problems to be solved in the years that lie ahead is how, Inter-Church Aid can be given and received without destroying that weakness of the churches in which lies their inherent strength.”

Bailey, Kenneth E.. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (p. 203-204). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. ”

Jesus has chosen to give us a ministry, a calling, right where we are. He has given us a task. He chooses to depend on us to carry it out. He wants us to be His vessels in which He overfills and overflows out of and onto those we love, those at home, those at work, those at the grocery store, those that we see on the street, those we engage online…

We need him completely and fully. We need the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit to see any of it through. We need to seek obedience and dependance on thoroughly. In this dependance, in light of our weakness, this is strength. It translates to our relationship with one another.

Paul and Timothy model this relationship between them and Jesus and them and the church in Philippi.

God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Jesus (including church leaders and deacons)

The addressees are “all the saints/holy ones in Christ Jesus, those being in Philippi with the overseers and deacons.” The use of “all” here is interesting, and one wonders if it is meant to distinguish all the non-leaders in Philippi from the leaders, who are called “overseers and deacons.” The term 'holy people’ is used of Christians in general in this case and probably just carries the connotation of their being the “set apart ones”… not as if people have arrived. It’s people like you and me. Living life, seeking to honor God, love people, and be faithful until Jesus returns.

Philippi carried the name of Philip II, king of Macedon, since his fortification of the city in 356 B.C. (MAP) His patronage of Greek arts contributed to the ambition of his son, Alexander the Great, to make the world conform to Greek culture. Tutored by Aristotle, Alexander founded Greek cities across western Asia to be centers of Greek language and Greek entertainment (2 PICS). The conquests of Alexander made koinē Greek the means of communication in government and business throughout the Hellenized world.

Fast forward a couple hundred years, after Mark Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius, Julius Caesar’s assassins, on the plains near Philippi in 42 B.C., Philippi became a Roman colony and home for discharged Roman army veterans.

Since it was a Roman colony, the citizens of Philippi enjoyed all the privileges and rights of Roman citizens: they were exempt from taxes and governed under Roman law. (MAP) Philippi was modeled after the mother city, Rome. Roman arches, bath-houses, forums, and temples dominated Philippi at the time of Paul. The central worship of the city was Rome and it’s emperor. To withdrawal from emperor worship and what was called the imperial cult was subversive and at times considered traitorous.

Acts 16 chronicles their first arrival at Philippi after being beckoned in a dream by a man calling them to preach there.

When Paul arrived in Philippi after walking twelve miles with Silas, Timothy, and Luke from Neapolis he sought to begin his witness to Christ as usual in a Jewish place of worship. But apparently Philippi did not have a quorum of ten Jewish men necessary for the establishment of a synagogue. In this city the place he found to keep the Sabbath was not a synagogue within the city but a “place of prayer” by the river outside the city gate where some women gathered on the Sabbath (Acts 16:13). (SLIDE: From a GRK ODX Chapel) Lydia, Paul’s first convert in Philippi, was in this group of women (Acts 16:14). She was an immigrant from Thyatira, a merchant in the trade of purple cloth, and a Gentile follower of the Jewish religion (a “God-fearer”). When “the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message,” she opened her home for the church (Acts 16:14–15).

In Acts 16 there is also the account of Paul’s exorcism of a slave girl by Paul’s command in the name of Jesus Christ for the spirit to depart (16:16–18). (SLIDE) As a result of her deliverance from the spirit that gave her the ability to predict the future, her owners were enraged by their loss of income through the girl and dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates. The charge against Paul and Silas demonstrates a strong aversion to Jewish proselytizing in Roman Philippi: “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:20–21). Evidently, Luke frames the charge in this way to raise the question of the legitimacy of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

When the magistrates of Philippi were overwhelmed by the attack of the crowd against Paul and Silas, they stripped, beat, and imprisoned them (Acts 16:22–24). Paul’s letter to the Philippians reminds the Christians in Philippi that the suffering of the church in Philippi is the same as the suffering that Paul experienced when he was in Philippi: “you are going through the same struggle you saw I had” (1:30). This common experience of suffering for the sake of Christ forms the background for the theme suffering in the letter. Paul writes the letter to explain how the suffering of Christ and the suffering of the servants of Christ lead to ultimate vindication by God’s triumphant grace. By God’s intervention, Paul and Silas were set free from their chains. After they led the jailer and his family to faith in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:25–34), they went back to Lydia’s house to meet with the believers (Acts 16:40).

According to this account in Acts, the first members of the church founded by Paul in Philippi included Lydia (a God-fearing, Gentile businesswoman), the members of her household, a Roman jailer, the members of his household, and perhaps a slave girl. Given the lack of evidence for a Jewish presence in Philippi, we can assume that all the members of the church were Gentile Christians

Hansen, G. W. (2009). The Letter to the Philippians (pp. 1–5). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

It’s us… Business owner, government worker, provide a service to people, who have come out of addiction, demon oppression/possession, broken homes, upper class, middle class, lower class… its all of us.

Here’s the clincher… they all belong to Jesus! That’s what is beautiful and highlighted here.

There’s organization in the church with deacons and elders. Paul acknowledges them as they are seeking to faithfully live into being the church… but he addresses them all ...

Grace and Peace from God through Jesus

This greeting of Grace and Peace is deeply theological and has such rich, rich meaning.

It is worth noting that this is the invariable order of Paul’s words, not “grace and peace to you” as in most translations. Very likely there is significance to this order: the grace of God and Christ is what is given to God’s people; peace is what results from such a gift. Hence, “grace to you—and peace.” In a profound sense this greeting therefore nicely represents Paul’s larger theological perspective.

“The sum total of God’s activity toward his human creatures is found in the word “grace”; God has given himself to his people bountifully and mercifully in Christ. Nothing is deserved, nothing can be achieved. The sum total of those benefits as they are experienced by the recipients of God’s grace is “peace,” God’s eschatological shalom, both now and to come. The latter flows out of the former, and both together flow from “God our Father” and were made effective in our human history through our “Lord Jesus Christ.””

Fee, G. D. (1995). Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (pp. 70–71). Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

‌The grace of God… the kindness, the goodness, the undeserved favor, the unmerited benevolence is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

GOSPEL HERE

It is in this belief and understanding that we experience the peace of God in all circumstances. Not just peace but…

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Repeat Slide:

To be followers of Jesus does not excuse us from difficulty, but what being a follower of Jesus does mean is that as we go through life:

We have hope in those difficult times (hope in circumstance, hope in whatever the end, hope in who is in control of the situation).

We have an example of how to navigate difficult situations.

We have a community that serves us and that we are called to serve.

There is a real sense of joy (amongst other defining characteristics) that becomes a byproduct of our lives.

Paul, if writing this letter from his chains in Rome, puts this letter around 61-62AD… not long before he would be martyred.

It’s not super clear what the church in Philippi is going through, but Paul’s intent in writing them is clear and that its in the midst of your service to God and one another… may we look to the Grace of God in Jesus Christ and experience the fullness of God as we do so.

Would you stand with me and we will pray.