A Church Held Together by Grace
Notes
Transcript
Philippians 4:21–23
Introduction
Introduction
We’ve come to the very end of Philippians.
And at first glance, these verses can feel almost disappointing - and potentially too short to preach on.
No big doctrinal climax.
No soaring call to action.
No memorable one-liner like “to live is Christ.”
Just greetings.
And a simple benediction.
Three short verses that many of us would skim straight past on the way to the next book.
But Paul doesn’t waste ink.
And the Holy Spirit doesn’t inspire pointless words.
These final words are not throwaway lines.
They are Paul gathering up everything he has been teaching throughout the letter — and placing it into the hands of this young church.
They show us:
who we are
what Christ is doing
and what sustains us
Or to put it simply:
This is a picture of a church held together by grace.
Let’s walk through it.
1. A Gospel Family (v21–22a)
1. A Gospel Family (v21–22a)
Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus. The brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All God’s people here send you greetings, …
Notice the repetition.
Greet.
Greetings.
Greetings again.
Brothers and sisters.
All God’s people.
again, All God’s people.
Paul is deliberately piling up relational language.
This is not polite formality - like you might write an email to your kids school teachers to thank them for their hard work and care for your chidls education this year.
This is family language.
Relational, real, loving.
Paul isn;t finishing his letter with ideas.
He finishes with people.
And so the heart of this senatcene:
“God’s people in Christ Jesus.”
That is the foundation of everything.
They are not united by shared hobbies.
Not by similar personalities.
Not by efficiency or usefulness.
Or skill sets.
Not by gifting
Not by race or background.
They are united as God’s people in Christ Jesus.
That little phrase “in Christ Jesus” is doing an enormous amount of theological work.
That tiny phrase has , will and always will, make people who have no rights to one another - Family.
And no ordinary family!
The Family of God.
It takes us right back to the heart of the gospel.
in Christ Jesus.
We were once outside God’s family
— strangers to grace, dead in sin, .
separated from God and from one another.
But through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been brought near.
We are forgiven, adopted, and united to Christ by faith.
And because we are united to Christ, we are united to one another.
This has been one of the dominant themes of Philippians:
Paul thanks God for their partnership in the gospel (1:5).
He urges them to stand firm in one spirit, striving together (1:27).
He calls them to be of the same mind, having the same love (2:2).
He reminds them that they share both suffering and joy in Christ. Chapt 3_
That CHurch, and our church is not a project.
It is a family created by grace.
Achieve in Christ Jesus.
We are Jesus people.
We are all about Christ Jesus.
Without him
We’re just another social club that tries to look out for one another.
Sadly social clubs may help a little in life,
BUt before a Holy God that will acheive nothing.
And when push comes to shove - we have nothing to hold onto.
Sadly even many churches have forgotten that we are only family, brothers and sisters, God’s people - if we are In Christ Jesus.
One with him. Baptised into death and risen to new life through Him, on the cross.
Now made Right with our heavenly father through him.
Eternity to look forward to becasue of his work.
Forget Jesus - then you can forget life itself.
Church is not something we merely attend.
It is where we belong to each other in Christ.
You don’t belong because you serve enough.
You don’t belong because you give enough.
You don’t belong because you’re spiritually impressive.
You belong because you are in Christ.
So we praise Christ,
Worship Christ,
Obey Christ in His word.
And don’t ever let us be tempted away by anything,
anyone, or any group
that does not proclaim Christ as the only way, truth and life.
Jesus said it well himself - not being dismissive about his flesh and blood family, but encouraging us to see where we truly belong:
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting round him, and they told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.’ ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle round him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!
A Gospel Family.
2. A Gospel That Reaches Everywhere (v22)
2. A Gospel That Reaches Everywhere (v22)
Then Paul adds something unexpected:
All God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.
This is the subtle shock of the passage - blink and you miss it.
Paul is writing as a prisoner almost certainly in Rome.
Rome is the centre of imperial enemy power.
Caesar and his title, represents authority, control, and opposition to Christ.
Ceasar demanded God like worship of the title and position.
And yet Paul says: there are believers inside Caesar’s household.
Not on the fringes of the empire.
Inside it.
Servants.
Officials.
Members of the imperial staff.
Possibly even guards who had chained Paul himself.
The gospel has reached into the very heart of Roman power.
How?
Not through political influence.
Not through military strength.
Not through organised campaigns.
They are the impressive tools of Ceaser and the world.
Rather
Through faithful witness.
Through suffering.
Through ordinary obedience.
Earlier in the letter Paul explained what was happening:
Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.
Paul looks weak.
But Jesus is building his kingdom.
Paul is confined.
But the gospel is not.
Chains have become channels.
What feels like setback has become advance.
God’s kingdom does not grow the way earthly kingdoms grow.
It grows quietly where you might not expect.
Like a mustard seed that eventually you realise has become the biggest of all the garden trees.
Like a little yeast in dough,
Like light creeping into dark places.
God works through apparent weakness to display ‘real’ power.
That’s even the pattern of the cross.
Christ conquers not by crushing his enemies, but by dying for them. For you and me.
The least likely salvation plan for a king!
And yet his death, leads to the mightiest glory of God.
When Christ ‘will’ return to crush those who rejected his first offer of grace.
It starts in suffering and weakness and ends in majestic glory.
And that same pattern shapes gospel mission.
UNexpected,
in suffering,
apparently slow,
But completely unstoppable.
Keep living for and speaking for Jesus,
becasue the most unlikely of people may well yet be saved.
Christ is at work in places you cannot see.
Through people you may never meet.
In ways you could never organise.
That collegue who you got nowhere with, but years later, unbeknown to you is saved, and credits your witness.
The child who goes away from the church, but returns years later.
That mission partner you supported that never seemed to have any fruit - somehow leaves a quiet legacy of the gospel that saves some.
So our quiet faithfulness matters.
our integrity at work matters.
our conversations matter.
our prayers matter.
our suffering is not wasted.
The Philippians probably felt small.
Paul was imprisoned.
Rome looked unbeatable and that they might squash the gospel once and for all.
.
And yet Christ was building his church inside Caesar’s very household.
The gospel family we were talking about earlier reaches very, very far..
We are not alone.
And just as the Philippinas must have been encouraged to hear of believers within the very household of Ceaser!
So we can be encouraged by stories and reports of the Gsopel reaching those we’d never imagine possible.
tens of thousands of Iranians turning to Christ - joining the family.
Saudi Arabians coverting in droves,
North Africans,
Pakistanis,
The Chinese Church millions strong where there once where non.
The Gospel will never stop.
It can reach everywhere - Praise God.
Everywhere you look you may see obstacles and boundires to sharing the gospel,
but your stubborn, persistent obedince and prayers will be used by God’s big picture plan to rescue all those he is calling to himself.
Geography wont stop him
prison walls wont stop Him
Different cultures wont stop him.
His gospel reaches everywhere and turns all nations and peoples to himself.
“Greet all God’s people… the brothers and sisters with me… all God’s people here…”
.
especially those who belong to Caesar’s household
Union in Christ is stronger than geography, blood, traditions, race.
And the Gospel will not stop until Jesus has finished his work,
and every one of our brothers and sisters around the world are called home.
Just as the Apostle John writes about as he recalls his vision of Christ’s future return:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ All the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying: ‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’
So thirdly:
3. A Grace That Sustains Everything (v23)
3. A Grace That Sustains Everything (v23)
Paul ends with a benediction:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
A benediction is a spoken blessing
The word comes from Latin literally meaning:
“to speak good.”
And it’s not a prayer we say to God - It’s God speaking good to us - typically through a prophet of the OT or a NT apostle.
God speaks good to us - that is extraordinary enough!
What a privilege to be in God’s family as God’s people.
And it’s important Paul ends like this,
He doesn’t finish with instruction.
He finishes with God’s grace.
Because grace is the engine of everything he has written.
Grace saved them.
Grace united them.
Grace strengthened them.
Grace enabled their generosity.
Grace sustained their joy.
Everything Paul has called them to in this letter:
unity
humility
perseverance
contentment
courage
generosity
depends on this:
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And notice how personal it is:
Not just with you.
But with your spirit. Meaning your whole self..
This is inward strengthening.
Daily bread.
Ongoing dependence.
You need the grace of Jesus for all - and you have it in Him.
Perhaps Paul envisages that they will read this letter and like us after the service today,
walk back into our chaotic lives and worlds.
Tensions.
Strain.
Opposition.
Personal weakness.
Battles with sin,
So he places the Philippians where they belong:
under grace. - In Christ Jesus.
The Christian life does not run on willpower.
It runs on the grace of Jesus.
We don’t graduate from grace.
We start our faith in Jesus by Grace, and we We live in it always.
We wake up needing it.
We serve through it.
We persevere by it.
We finish by it.
We repent becasue of it/
But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
So what is grace?
I mean we talk about it all the time, and we know what it means
- that we recieve what we don’t deserve.
The free forgiveness of our sins and an inheritnace of glory with God our Father.
BUt how do we live in it?
Well at the top level we know I trust.
It is the slavation we receiev in Christ Jesus, through repentance and faith.
And that reality in and of itself is the great encouragement to keep living for Christ, in his grace.
It is what frames us each day
- and allows us to - in our weakness - stay faithful and reliant on the power of Jesus who saves us.
So how do we help ourselves stay in that grace each day?
Well you’ll be pleased to hear - the means of grace are - as the theologians call it - ordinary.
Christ doesn’t drip grace into us directly from heaven like a magic trick.
He gives it through ordinary means —
Primarily we remain in the grace of Christ Jesus,
by remaining in his revealed Word - the bible - which is illuminated by God’s Spirit for his people.
Just as the Philippians relied on Pauls letters and teaching to keep them rejoicing in Christ and enjoying his grace - so do we.
And what a privilege to live in this age where we have bibles in our own languages and easily accesible in our own homes.
You can do nothing better to enjoy the grace of Jesus than to keep reading and reminding ourseves of his grace in his word.
‘Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Honestly, we do ourselevs a great harm when we neglect the Bible.
If you love Jesus - you need to know who he is, and what he wants for you and from you - Read of Him!
pause
I’ve been reading this book this week - and I highly recommend it to anyone who struggles a bit to read their bibles well and regularaly.
So I guess that’s all of us!
Read excert from Book
This is why we preach the bible, and encourage everyone to join mid-week bible study groups - becasue Jesus is in here!
Not literally of course - but it is the way God has chosen to reveal himself by ordinary means - in his written word.
It is the tool that God uses by His HS, to reveal himself to us.
It is how we enjoy his grace.
What a treasure - don’t bury it on a book shelf.
Have it open everyday.
So if you want to live in the grace of Jesus,
We must live by the Word of Jesus.
Read, study and hear it preached as we learn and grow in the grace of Jesus as a family..
Conclusion
Conclusion
So Paul leaves them — and us — with three quiet but powerful realities.
You belong to God, you are in Christ - we are family..
Christ is building his kingdom - and nothing will stop him - keep serving..
Christ’s grace is with your spirit by His Spirit and Word.
Not spectacular Christianity.
Faithful Christianity.
Ordinary believers, sustained by ordinary means in extra-ordinary grace.
And that is enough.
Grace brought you in.
Grace keeps you going.
Grace will carry you home.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
