Christ Centered From the Start
Philippians 1:1-2
Philippians 1:1-2
This is the second message in a series from the book of Philippians. It started last week in Acts 16, where Luke wrote about the founding of the Philippian church by Paul and Silas.
Tonight we begin to delve into the actual letter to the church. It is four chapters and it is incredible. I am praying that as we go through this letter over the next several weeks, that it we will each allow the Letter of Philippians to pour into us.
And, God willing and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray that this letter would be an encourager to the faithful and a divine prompt to those of you who still might be on the fence in your walk with God.
Let's pray...
Philippians 1:1-2
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I title most of the sermons in my head, just to keep the big idea in mind while I preach. The title of this message, from this text would be “Christ Centered From the Start”, or “Christ, Christ, God and Christ”
If you noticed, I only read two verses.
But this is important, look how many times Paul goes back to Jesus. Three times in two verses.
That's either mindless redundancy, or vital and necessary reminders to himself, to the church in Philippi and to us today, some 2,000 years later.
Let’s unpack this. In this text we see that:
I. Christ Jesus is whom we serve
II. Christ Jesus is our identity and
III. God the Father and Jesus Christ are our source of grace and peace.
This isn’t just rattling off words for Paul, he’s not just filling space. Each of these mentions of our Lord is VITAL to where we are going in the book of Philippians and where we are going in our faith walk with God.
In these three verses, Paul tells the church in Philippi, don’t try to “get” any of this if you don’t “get” Jesus Christ. It won’t work.
Jesus has to be central. Jesus has to be the filter through which we see. It is Christ, Christ, God and Christ!
We are only tackling these two verses tonight because they are a foundation that we would be fools not to build upon.
I would ask you, Is He your foundation? When you come to the Scriptures to learn, when you come to the Bible to be encouraged, are you first coming to Jesus?
Above all else are you praying, “Holy Spirit, show me Jesus in these verses”?
And this isn’t just important here in Philippians 1:1-2, it is key to ALL SCRIPTURES!
In John 5:39-40, Jesus tells the religious leaders:
39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
If we study God’s word together each week and all you come away with is more head knowledge about doctrine and no deeper, more passionate love for Jesus, than there is a disconnect.
Don’t just search the Scriptures for head knowledge. Don’t read the Bible like you are in a race.
Read it — all of it. Yes! Do not neglect the Word. But, read to come into a closer relationship with Jesus — to have LIFE. Let it bring you closer to Him, or you miss EVERYTHING!
In another of his letters, in Romans 11:36, Paul writes:
36 For from him (Jesus) and through him (Jesus) and to him (Jesus) are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
It is all from Jesus, through Jesus and back to Jesus. EVERYTHING. Most importantly, He is our hope for salvation and the resurrection from the dead.
Listen to Acts 4:12 where Peter answers persecutors during an interrogation by the Jewish leaders.
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Now, back to Our Passage in Philippians 1:1-2:
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have your own Bible with you I would underline "servants of Christ...saints in Christ...grace and peace...from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"
Now, Let’s break this down.
Christ Jesus is whom we serve (v. 1a) Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus
Paul often wrote in a way that reiterated, restated his position as an Apostle called by Jesus because there were naysayers in most churches that he wrote to.
They would come along after he left to plant churches in other cities and these naysayers would try to twist the Gospel and they would undermine Paul’s authority. But Paul didn’t see a need to remind the people of Philippi. They didn’t have the same problems that many churches did.
So what does Paul do instead? He reminds them that, even though there are leaders who are called to guide a church, we are all ultimately standing on level ground, humbly serving Christ.
I am a preacher here, but I preach to serve Christ. And listen if your service to Christ ends at the church door, or the church parking lot, you don’t get this concept yet. I pray that you would get it tonight.
We, as Christ followers, as His servants are to do EVERYTHING as onto the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24)
So then the question comes up, how do we serve Him? First, by knowing Him, by knowing Him intimately. We don’t serve Him by working for ourselves, as though our security depends on us, or our efforts.
If you are working and striving and living day-to-day to simply find food for your bellies, if that is your concern: “Where am I going to find my next meal; How am I going to pay the rent: How’s my son going to get into college; And, how am I going to pay for it?
If those are the thoughts that own your waking hours, you are going to serve yourself, not Jesus.
You are going to serve yourself in your physical labor, in your emotional and mental occupation. It will be worry and struggle and doubt and fear and resentment and it will lead to a death by a thousand cuts to your soul. So instead please serve Him by knowing Him and trusting Him!
If you know Him, if you believe Jesus when He tells you and I to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added onto you (Matthew 6:33).
And if you believe Jesus when He reminds us that God takes care of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and He will surely care more for you because He loves you infinitely more than birds and flowers.
If you know Christ in that way, in a way of trust and surrender to His PERFECT will for your life, than you can begin working, doing EVERYTHING for Him
And why will you do it? To glorify His name to be an example of Christ, a servant of Christ in every situation and every environment that He places you into. But you have to KNOW Him first. The work before any other work is belief.
John 6:25-29 says:
25 When they (the crowd) found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"
26 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
Now if you have struggles here, if you are like me and you still panic sometimes when you add up your paycheck and your pile of bills, if you still keep trying to fend for yourself instead of trusting God, than first and foremost you and I need to know Him.
Know Him as the Bread of Life, the one who satisfies and sustains us. We are to get to know Him, through His word, through prayer and meditation, through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and through dialogue and study with other believers.
And listen; if you haven’t trusted Him with the things that worry you, the things that make you anxious, the concerns that keep you up at night, then you probably don’t believe that He can help you there.
You say to yourself — maybe not in these words — but you say, “Jesus, I trust you with my salvation, I trust you with my eternal soul. But stand back and give me some space because I need to take care of this on my own.
If that’s where you are, I understand, but we need to get past that, otherwise we cannot truly be His servants. What did Jesus tell us in the Sermon on the Mount? You cannot serve two masters. For you it may not be God and Money, for you it may be God and worry.
If we don’t TRUST Jesus, we will never truly Serve Jesus. Moving On…
Christ Jesus is our identity.
(v.1b) To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
Now this is easier to understand if you were here last week or if you are familiar with Acts 16. That’s where we see Jesus transforming the lives of an aristocratic, independent woman; a demon possessed woman who is having her fortunetelling skills prostituted out by her slave master; and a blue-collar worker who runs the Philippian jail.
You see before we come into a real and thriving relationship with Jesus, we are defined by our economic status — rich or poor; or by our moral choices — good our bad; or by our job — workers or supervisors, retired or unemployed.
We are defined by where we are from Indiana or Kentucky, downtown or the hilltop, America or Mexico…
We are defined by our political affiliation, by our age, by our race, by our gender, by our family, by our favorite sports team, or NASCAR driver, or what high school we graduated from, or what college we went to, or what kind of music we listen to…And the list goes on.
The point Paul makes here is that regardless of who the believers in Philippi were, they are now saints in Christ. And that is true for us.
No matter how you used to define yourself or identify yourself and no matter how other people tried to categorize you or label you, the only label that fits now is a saint in Christ.
Paul reminds us of this in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
We see this again and again in the Gospels. Fisherman, tax collectors, activists, prostitutes, centurions, and even the occasional religious leader — all TRANSFORMED by Christ!
Dead man, dead boy and dead girl, all restored to life — all TRANSFORMED by Christ!
And just look at Paul, the founder of the Philippian church, writer of a majority of the New Testament. He used to be a persecutor, a religious terrorist bent on crushing The Way. But what happened, He had a powerful encounter with the Resurrected Christ, and Jesus changed his life, changed his identity and set the framework for his future.
And it didn’t stop there. The Roman Empire, at one time hostile toward Christians — they crucified our Lord, Nero burnt Christians at the steak as human candles in his gardens.
But within a few centuries, this small band of Christ followers transformed the identity of Rome. And from there God has continued to TRANSFORM the world through powerful, undeniable, unstoppable Christ encounters, Praise God!
And is doesn’t happen — in most instances — in mass conversions does it? He is still capturing us one heart at a time. He got me. He transformed me. How about you? Has he gotten to you?
If so, if you are in Christ, don’t let the world, or your friends or your family or you, yourself define who you are or identify you with anything from your past or anything so trivial as your nationality, political affiliation or employment.
No, from the time of regeneration, from the time you said yes to Jesus and put all of your trust for salvation in Christ and His work on the cross, you took on the new identity. You are a saint in Christ! Amen?
And if you aren’t there yet, if you haven’t turned to Jesus, if you are not in Christ this can be the night that defines your eternity. What commonly divides all of history? By the distinction of B.C. and A.D. History is divided by history’s own Jesus encounter.
Your history, your life can be divided tonight, everything leading up to this point all of the futility and the self-induced suffering, and the attempts at a “better life” that have fallen short again and again. All of that can be your B.C. and tonight can start your A.D.
If you are ready for that, ready to accept Christ, then please don’t leave here before you see me or Andy, or Ryan or Monica, we can talk with you pray with you and celebrate with you. That’s is our greatest joy, Amen!
Now to the last point that Paul leads us to:
God the Father and Jesus Christ are our source of grace and peace.
(v.2) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, the tragedy if ever a Thanksgiving would pass without our gratitude being expressed for the gifts of grace and peace given by God.
But why show gratitude only once in a while, why only on Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter? Why do we lose sight of this, even for a day? Why do we take this for granted?
Do we realize what an incredible and undeserved gift His grace is? Preach this gospel to yourself everyday:
That God created the heavens and the Earth and
He created a people in His own image to live and enjoy the creation AND THE CREATOR.
And His people turned against Him, and
Even though He promised death for disobedience, He instead covered their sins with the blood of an animal and promised the eventual coming of a Savior who would fix what His people broke through Sin. (That’s Grace, the gift from God) and
The Gospel continues: We see the fulfillment of His promise in Christ Jesus who, as Paul writes later in Philippians (2:6-8):
6 …Being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Why? For us. God sent His Son, so that by His grace, we might be given the faith to believe in Jesus as the one who took our sins — ALL of our sins — with Him to the cross and gave us His righteousness, His purity in return.
That’s reconciliation. The gift of grace is from God the Father. He makes it possible that you and I can believe. And then the gift of Peace, peace with God, peace in our own skin, peace in our own minds, peace in our families — or at least in the family of God — is possible by the blood of Jesus. Thanks be to God, FOREVER!
In closing, let me ask you three questions. You don’t have to raise your hand and answer aloud. You don’t even need to answer me directly.
But dwell on these questions this evening. On your way home, while you settle down. Maybe you will just keep the noise off and stop yourself from yielding to the distractions of Facebook, or the television or a book, or the concerns of tomorrow or anything else. I pray that you would answer these questions in your own life. It’s between you and the Holy Spirit.
Here are the questions.
1. Are you serving Christ in this stage of your life?
Not, have you served Christ; not, do you intend to serve Him someday. No, are you serving Christ?
2. Do you see yourself as a saint in Christ? That is, how do you identify yourself? Is it by what you do, or the color of your skin or your position in the family unit, or your role in the community, or is it as a new creation — a part of a separate race, a separate people — as part of the family of people from every tribe and tongue and nation in Christ?
3. Last question. When was the last time you thanked God for His grace and peace to you for the saving work of Christ on the cross and the grace filled gift of peace that God has put into your heart?
Don’t just fly through these questions. Don’t put them off till tomorrow. If we don’t serve Christ, find our identity in Christ and preach the gospel to ourselves over and again so that we never lose sight of the gratitude that fills us to overflowing, than we will quickly be adrift, in the aimless wanderings of this world.
Let’s pray…
