Unifying Grace
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
My name is Austin if we haven’t met and my wife and I have moved back home to Sanford with the goal of one day in the near future planting a church. What brings us here to freeway though is the opportunity to serve others in the community and create and foster community for the sake of the Gospel in Sanford. We don’t want to come into Sanford and just land here and start as if there aren’t already great churches doing great things for the Gospel here already and so we want to come alongside and partner with what is happening in the city to be unified in the mission of sharing the Gospel and equipping the believers in our communities to go out and spread the love of Christ. This is why I am so excited to preach this text today, the Title of my message if your taking notes is Unifying Grace… Unifying Grace…
GIVE SOME PAUSE
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
This week, I want you to see 3 truths about Grace that serve to unify you and strengthen you for the mission. These things are:
Grace is Relational
Grace is Unbiased
Grace is Sustaining
Background
Background
We have been in the book of Philippians for a little while now and although I haven’t been here for the entire study, the short time I have been here has been a blessing. The thing I love about this book is that it is one of the Letters from Paul that don’t serve the purpose of primarily rebuking a church. There was a church believe it or not that didn’t need a slap in the face from Paul to get in line. So far we have seen Paul thank the Philippian church for their partnership with him as he spreads the gospel as well as the continued advance of that Gospel. We saw what it was like to not be ashamed of Christ and standing firm together for the cause of faith. We saw what true humility looks like in the example of Christ who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. We learned that we should do all things without grumbling being a light in the world. Paul showed us that although he has much to boast of he counts it all as loss for the sake of Christ. We learn what it means to strive for the gospel that we don’t strive for worldly glory but our citizenship is in heaven to come. We have learned that in all things we should rejoice in the Lord and let our minds be filled with anything that is worthy of praise. And finally, we learned last week what it looks like to live a open handed life that gives not a specific amount but gives sacrificially for the sake of Christ and knowing that he supplies all of our needs because there is nothing that is too much for him.
This week, we have reached the end of our series, the Final Greetings as some of your bibles would say as Paul closes out this letter to a church whom he loved dearly. I only have 3 verses for you today but I feel these verses serve not just as a bookend to the letter as simple formalities but as a true closing of the book that helps to encompass the desire Paul has for this church to live Unified in the Grace of Christ.
Unity is essential in order to fulfil the mission of sharing the Gospel and living a life that Glorifies God. Christ Grace allows us to live that out fully and one aspect of that grace that unifies and strengthens us is that Grace is Relational… Grace is Relational…
Point 1: Grace is Relational
Point 1: Grace is Relational
Our first verse today starts with “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus”. This to some may come across as insignificant, just a simple greeting, but when you see the patterns of Paul in his final words in his letters, you see 1 thing is missing that stands out. He doesn’t name any names. Most of the time when Paul ends his letters he asks the reader to greet specific individuals on his behalf like in Colossians 4:15 says:
Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.
Ok Austin so he left out some names what does that matter? Well, Paul is instructing the leaders of the church to Greet EVERY saint in Christ Jesus. Paul wants the leaders to address each individual member of the church with a personal greeting of blessing from Paul. These people were not just any church that Paul has heard about before and has heard some good things and so feels inclined to write to a group of people who have been working alongside him for the sake of the gospel really since the beginning of his Ministry like we see in chapter 1. These are people whom Paul personally reached out to with thanksgiving and encouragement and warning.
Paul has time and time again in this letter informed the believers to rely on Christ and to put their full trust in Christ and the grace that he has supplied through his perfect sacrifice. Out of that perfect grace we are to live in relational community with other believers. This gospel was never meant to be a lonely Gospel. The reason we gather the reason we come here on Thursday nights and the reason Restoration church is out every Sunday morning picking people up is because the grace of Christ is a Relational Grace, a communal grace. Paul tells us the joy that has come from the partnership of the Philippian church and also how their partnership in his suffering brings fruit that increases to their credit. Paul could not do what he needed to do alone, Yes God could sustain anyone without the help of anyone else but that is not the way God works, God uses those around us in community to bless us and to sustain us for the mission of sharing the truth of his death, burial, and resurrection to all nations. So when Paul in our text says to greet every saint in Christ Jesus and that all the saints greet you he is reminding the Philippian believers as well as us today that the church is a unified body and you are not alone in the walk but have many saints all around who share in the same grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the pattern of the Gospel. We were meant to live out our faith in community with other believers. Paul emphasizes this multiple times to the Philippian church calling them to be of the same mind in Philippians 2:2-4
complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Paul believed and taught that unity is essential to the mission of a believer, in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Paul tells more about the relational design of the church.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
When we are together working in harmony we get to glorify God as one voice that is pleasing to the Lord and allows us to lift each other up and help each other sustain till the end.
This relational grace unifies us and that unity strengthens us to go out on mission sharing the grace of Jesus with those around us. But grace is not just relational, Grace is Unbiased… Grace is Unbiased…
Point 2: Grace is Unbiased
Point 2: Grace is Unbiased
The Passage today continues back in verse 21 and 22:
English Standard Version Chapter 4
The brothers who are with me greet you. 22 All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.
Paul first wants to greet every member of the church in Philippi personally but then he continues with saying that the brothers who are with him greet you. This is another place where again Paul choses not to name specific people who are with him like he does in other letters but choses to keep it more general for the sake of communicating a unified greeting from all no matter who it is. He continues by saying that All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household. So now Paul has stepped out of the general encouragement of all the saints greet the Philippians but now narrows it down to Caesar’s household.
Now if I said that those of the Darrow household greet you, you would assume that I was speaking about my wife and my kids, maybe even my parents possibly but Caesar was not just an ordinary person with a family but the Emperor of Rome. The household of Caesar was much larger than what your household might be today and includes even those of the imperial guard which are the Roman soldiers. We know back in chapter 1 that the imperial guard heard the Gospel from Paul while being imprisoned and so Paul brings this back to light here because it stands as a reminder for the church.
The reminder is that the grace we have in Christ Jesus is not a grace for just certain individuals but extends beyond into those who you may not assume could ever get converted. Paul is making the claim here that not only have those of Caesar’s household heard the gospel but that they are indeed now saints along side the church. This would have stood as an encouragement for the church in Philippi because they were apart of a Roman colony and dealt with opposition by Rome as Rome did not deal kindly with those who professed Jesus. So to hear that those in Caesar’s household are believers encourages the believers to continue to stand firm because why? The gospel is spreading, the mission is progressing. Their striving is working! All that they have given to Paul’s ministry is showing fruit.
What does this text tell us today? It goes to show that the grace that is found in Christ is not determined by who you are, where you are from, or household you come from. Roman soldiers were used for the persecution of Christians yet his grace is still sufficient for them. Acts 10:34–35 says
So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Perfect unity in Christ looks like communities of people who are rich and poor, young and old, all kinds of ethnicities. If we are going to strive on the mission of spreading the gospel to those around us we need community and that community is it’s strongest when it is made up of different people. The scripture tells us that the church is the Body of Christ. A body has many different parts and if you had a church made of only heads or only right arms then we wouldn’t have a body at all. Where ever you are, whether that be a job you work or the place you are living or the places you go to regularly like school, God wants to use you to reach those people with the grace that is found in Christ. You don’t need to have a microphone and a stage to share the gospel with someone, it could start by simply telling them how the grace of Christ has changed your life.
The point here is that grace is unbiased and it has to be if the church is to have perfect unity and the strength to press on through life. We are going to and have already gone through hard times but when we have a grace community around us, we are able to press on just as Paul has been able to through all he has been through.
[story about Bowan in the hospital this last week]
We can not forget though that this grace I am speaking about is only found in relationship with Christ Jesus. Jesus came into the world with the purpose of saving his people and redeeming them. When he lived a perfect life, died on the Cross as an innocent man, and rose from the dead he opened the door for his people to have eternal community with him and the father. This is the nature of saints here in our text, it is not that we are saints because we did enough good things to earn that status, it is because Christ died on our behalf and we put our faith in him and now walk with Christ.
Unity alone is not sufficient, that unity must be grounded on the grace of Christ and him crucified. Those who have put their faith in Christ and have died to sin and have been born again in the spirit are apart of this Unified Church. Without Christ, without the spirit giving us new life, we will fail to have the unity that Paul speaks of having one mind in one spirit thinking not of ourselves only but of others.
Paul ends this letter with a beautiful benediction in Philippians 4:23
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Which brings us to the last truth about Grace that will serve to unify you and strengthen you for the mission and that is Grace is Sustaining… Grace is Sustaining…
GIVE SOME MORE PAUSE
Point 3: Grace is Sustaining
Point 3: Grace is Sustaining
This final benediction brings closes out the letter in the same way that he opened it in Philippians 1:2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the same grace that changed Paul from a persecutor of the church to the missionary he is known for. This same grace that made Paul an Apostle of Christ is the same grace that will sustain us to the end. No matter what we go through no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, the power of Christ and the grace he has given us is what will carry us to the end. Philippians 3:20-21 says:
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
We have been bought with a price, Christ died on the cross to take us out of death into life and we were given citizenship to the kingdom of God. Christ grace is perfect in that it will bring us to that kingdom at the end of our life, and there is nothing that we can do along the way that will prevent God from accomplishing his purposes. Jesus says in John 10:28–29:
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
This means even you, we are going to fall short in life. PAUSE
Maybe this week you didn’t keep up with a commitment you made to someone. Maybe you lied to your spouse or your even your kids this week. Or maybe your struggling with addiction right now. Paul is not telling us we need to be perfect, Christ doesn’t tell us we need to be perfect; he calls us to put our faith in him and let him be the one that sustains us. Philippians 4:6-7 says:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Ps 55:22 says:
Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
PAUSE
Paul put this benediction at the end this letter to remind the church that the grace only found in Christ is with them always in their spirit or their inner being. You are not alone church, I am not saying to be unified for unity sake but by the power of Christ, we can be unified and live in community with one another and have the strength we need to not only repent and turn from sin, but to go out and share the gospel, and to partner with others on mission for that same goal like Freeway or your local church.
To close this book out I want to share a quote from A.W Tozer. He says:
Unity in Christ is not something to be achieved: it is something to be recognized.
A. W. Tozer
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Saints in Christ Jesus. The grace of Christ is the unifier. This grace is relational, it is unbiased, and it sustains us through all of life until the day the Lord brings us home to where our true citizenship is in heaven. We must strive to be like Christ in every way. To be humble, as he was humble. To love one another as he loved us. To turn from Sin because he has made it possible through the spirit that we can daily turn from sin and live righteous because we have Christ’s righteousness given to us. You will not be perfect in these things, even Paul says he was not perfect in them, but that is why we have Christ. He is our advocate. Pray regularly, be in your word daily and turn to Christ and he will sustain you till the end. Let me leave you with Pauls final benediction:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Let us pray…
