Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

(Get mail out of the mailbox)

How many of you like to go out and get the mail?

On nice days like today it gives us a great excuse to get outside and take a little walk to the mailbox.

Of course it is less fun in a polar vortex when you just grab it on the way by.

My father was a career postman, some 30 years or so and I remember how on Federal holidays when my Dad would have the day off my Mother would love to ask him to go out and get the mail.

He fell for it over and over again and my mom would just laugh.

Dorothy and I discovered that our families have something in common.

Dorothy was nurse and her late husband was a mail carrier just like my mom was a nurse and my father was a mail carrier.

I don’t know if you ever did this Dorothy, but on Federal holidays when my Dad would have the day off my Mother would love to ask him to go out and get the mail.

He fell for it over and over again and my mom would just laugh.

Most of us

Most of us, however, either like or dislike getting the mail based on what is inside.

It is a little bit of a mystery because you never know what is behind that door.

The Church in Philippi is an example of a mature Church

It might be a stack of advertisements or what we commonly call “Junk Mail” - Yuck

It might be a stack of advertisements or what we commonly call “Junk Mail” - Yuck

It might be a stack of advertisements.

Yuck

It might be a stack of bills that we know we have to pay but still don’t really want to see in our mailbox - Double Yuck

But occasionally you go to your mailbox and find a personal letter - and that could just make your day.

There is something about someone stopping to take time to write a letter in their own handwriting that is just a very speacial gesture.

- Yes!

For those of you young people a “personal letter” is a piece of paper called “stationary” that someone wrote a note on with a pen or pencil, folded it up, stuck it in an envelope and paid the U.S. government 55 cents to deliver it to someone else.

I know texting, twittering and face-chatting is quicker today, but there is something special about a personal letter (Ok, I can’t really pick on the “young people” because I had to google the cost of a stamp - I had no idea how much a stamp costs these days)

Tension

My points is that a letter is something that is personal.

The fact that this person stopped to take the time to write in their own handwriting a note to you makes it something very special.

My points is that a letter is something that is personal.

Even in the handwriting you can see the personal touch of the person who is sending this letter.

Even the “junk mail” people know this don’t they.

Have you ever gotten the plain white envelope with just your name and address on it in what looks like someones handwriting.

You open it up thinking it might be a personal letter and then “Bam” they got you lookinf at their add for hair plugs or time shares or whatever.

Because there is just something intriguing, something inviting, something special, something personal about a letter.

Tension

The reason that I bring up the idea of personal letters today is that we are beginning our summer series today on the book of Philippians.

Philippians is one of the books of the Bible that is actually a letter.

We call these letters epistles.

We are going to find as we go through the book of Philippians that it was a very personal letter.

It was a letter addressed to particular people in a particular Church that the author, the Apostle Paul had great affection for.

, yes, but more specifically it is what we call an “epistle”.

This means that it is a letter.

We are going to find as we go through the book of Philippians that it was a very personal letter.

It was a letter addressed to particular people in a particular Church that Paul had great affection for.

Listen to how the Apostle begins the letter to the Church in Philippi:

Philippians 1:1-

Today if we were going to write a letter we would probably start out by say saying who the letter is for and then ending with who it was from.

For example I might start out one of my letters by saying “Dear Rachel,” and then I would end it with “Love Dan”.

Well in the ancient world they began each letter by mentioning the sender first and then right after that they would mention the recipient.

This is common in the many letters of “epistles” in the New Testament and this is how it sounds here in our book of Philippians:

Can you feel the closeness?

It is clear that Paul knows and loves this Church at Philippi.

In fact, unlike the many other letters of Paul, Philippians is the only letter that does not include a confrontational tone.

In each of Paul’s other epistles he writes them to correct something that they are doing wrong, but not this letter.

The Church of Philippi appears to be doing well, so well that theologians typically point to the Philippian Church as an example of what a mature and healthy Christian Church looks like.

This personal letter is coming from Paul and his ministry partner Timothy and it is written to the “saints in Christ Jesus” and their Overseers and Deacons.

Which tells us that it was written to the established and organized Church.

But what I really want you to see this week is how much Paul loves the people in this Church.

It is so clear in how he writes this letter that this is not “junk mail”.

This is not a form letter that he send out to all the churches he planted.

He is personally knows these people and he genuinely loves them.

Listen to how this comes through in his language as he begins this letter:

Philippians 1:2-

Can you feel the love?

It is clear that Paul knows and loves this Church at Philippi.

In fact, unlike the many other letters of Paul, Philippians is the only letter that does not include a confrontational tone.

In every other letter, Paul says that he is writing to address something that the Church is doing wrong, but not Philippians.

The Church of Philippians was doing well, so well that theologians typically point to the letter of Philippians when they want to identify what a mature and healthy Christian Church looks like.

Paul loved the Church in Philippi

Don’t get me wrong, it is not that the Church was perfect.

Paul actually does mention a couple of women who were having trouble getting along, but all in all the Church was a healthy Church.

That is such a great gift for us isn’t it?

To have a picture of a healthy Church.

Isn’t that what we want to be here at Friendship Church?

A healthy Church?

So it leads us to ask the question: What makes a Church a healthy Church?

So it leads us to ask the question: What makes a Church a healthy Church?

What did it take to become such a healthy Church?

Did they go out and get the very best “super Christians” to lead them?

Highly educated religious type people who could tell you what the Bible had to say on any topic?

Did they start out with the “best of the best” the “elite”.

A perfect blend of people who were like minded in all things so there was never any conflict or differences of opinion.

--- Nope.

None of that.

This healthy Church in Philippi began with one of the most diverse team of individuals that you could even imagine and yet it stands out among all of his other Churches as the Church that appears to be the most healthy.

How did this happen?

Nope.

None of that.

In fact, this healthy Church in Philippi began with one of the most diverse team of individuals that you could even imagine.

As a church planter, Paul broke all the unwritten “rules” when he planted this Church, and yet it stands out among all of his other Churches as the Church that is the most healthy.

Philippians 1:1

Sometimes you hear people say that they are having a hard time finding a Church because they can’t find one where they feel like they fit it, but what if the reason that so many Churches are struggling to be healthy is because they are full of people who actually have too many things in common.

The people in that church “fit in” too well with each other.

The share so many things in common, that they have a hard time staying focused on the one thing that they are supposed to be gathering themselves around.

That does not seem to be an issue for the Church in Philippi.

As we introduce the book of Philippians this morning we want to get to the story of how this unique Church began and we find that story in the book of Acts Chapter 16.

So open your Bibles withme to the book of (p.

924) I’ll pray and we will dive into the story of the beginnings of this healthy Church.

s with so many churches is that we have too many things in common.

At times I have heard people say that they don’t go to Church because they just haven’t found a Church where they feel like they fit it, but maybe having too many things “in common” with other.