The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Grace and Peace

Episode Date: February 5, 2023

You don’t get peace without grace and you don’t get God the Father without knowing Jesus as Lord. 

Amen and amen. Church, if you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, begin to make your way to Philippians. We are beginning this brand new series in the book of Philippians. We are going to study two verses in our time together today. Do about an hour on each verse, and then we'll get right out of here. Y'all would stay, wouldn't you? Ain't no doubt about it.

All right. Hey, would you join me in all of our campuses welcoming our brand new campus? We launched a campus while you were doing. I don't know what you were doing this week. We were launching a brand new campus. Would you please welcome? our brand new campus at Columbia Correctional Institution. Amen. Welcome, men. We are glad that you were here. We love you. We are so glad that you are a part of this church and grabbed your

Bibles too, and we're going to dig in. Now, what we're going to study here, the reason that we're studying the Book of Olympians is because this year is the year of life abundantly. We don't want to buy into the lie that this world sells us. We want to live what Christ has for us, and what he has for us is this life and this life abundantly, which means an abundance of him. And so the reason that we are studying the book of Philippians, it's not very big, it's that big in my Bible, and I use the EOP version. You know what that means? Extra large print. Don't worry about it. Don't judge me. Oh, you have 20-year-olds. Enjoy your flexibility in eyesight, all right, and sleeping all the way through the night and things like that. It's gone, all right? So, this is, there's nine weeks than this

right here. And there is more joy packed into these few pages than any other book of the Bible. And you need to know that Paul writes this from prison. There's no whining, there's no complaining. This is the book of joy. And I don't know about you, but I think our world needs a little joy, don't you? It's way better and happy. The best thing our world can sell us right now is happy. Happy goes away real quick. Joy is found in Jesus and he never, ever changes. Now, All we're going to study is the greeting. Do you study the greeting in the Bible? Don't pass over any word, okay?

All, in fact, Paul's going to write this to Timothy. All scripture is God breathed. All scripture is Theos Nustas. There's only two things in all of creation that are Theos Nustas. His word and his image bearers. It's the only thing he's either breed his spirit into. So don't skip a word. Every single word, every single letter in this word is authoritative and from God.

I know there's some people moving away from it, but to move away from his word is to move away from him. And so in this greeting, it starts out this way. Paul. So we've got to stop and study this, Paul. I mean, if you just got a letter and you didn't know who wrote you the letter, then the letter wouldn't mean as much as if you know who wrote you the letter, right? Paul changed the name. Originally, he was named Saul. About six years or so after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a little baby was born in this place called Tarsus. Tarsus is a couple hundred miles north of Jerusalem, and Jesus is the most important man who has ever lived because he was fully man and fully God. And he lived out the most important story. ever experienced or told, which is the gospel. Now, the Apostle Paul is not the most important man, but he told the most important story,

which was the story of what the most important man ever did. He was named Saul, probably after King Saul. And he was born in Tarsus. Tarsus was a pretty big place. It was a metropolis. It was really known for its academic excellence. It's one of the greatest universities in all of the known world that was probably only rivaled by Athens

was this law school in Tarsis. And his grandparents were landowners. So he was born Jewish. His dad was a Pharisee, which was a really, really big deal. Which means no matter where little Saul went all the days in his life, everybody knew who he was and everybody knew who his daddy was. I can relate.

When I was in Dylan, my daddy drew. drove the lance truck, like where you get potato chips and crackers. So guess what? Everybody knew to Cracker and I was his done, all right? So when I would go into Walmart, I had to be on my best behavior. Why? Because I lived in that day where strangers that you didn't even know but my daddy was in Kiwanas with, they would wear you out if they saw you acting a fool. That's how Saul grew up. And he grew up with it. He grew up and his father was a Pharisee. His parents were devoutly Jewish. And yet they were also Roman citizens. This is a really big deal. and he was of the tribe of Benjamin, the same tribe as King Saul.

And he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. This means he really was into the Hebrew thing. Not the language, but the people. He was zealous. He loved his people. He loved his tradition. He loved the temple, and he loved the law. And as his dad taught him the law, taught him what we would call the Old Testament,

He just had a knack for it. Young Saul had this ability to read the scriptures and understand the scriptures and wrestle with the scriptures. And some said maybe he even had like a photographic memory because he could remember everything and he could get in conversations. And he also had this little inner lawyer in him that wanted to argue about everything.

And he was the smartest kid in his class. Like when the teacher in his high school would walk in and say, all the gifted kids come with me, Saul was the first one to stand up and go. And then can you imagine how excited his parents were when he said, you know what, I think I'm going to apply to go to Tarsus. I mean, his mom was bragging to everybody at the hair salon. Guess where my boy's going? Not only did he get in, he went in on scholarship because he was that smart.

And so he graduates with a law degree. And when we study law, it's not like he was just studying Roman law. He was studying the law of God. And he was so good at it. He probably was like the captain of the debate team. that when he got out, he comes to his parents and it says, I'm not done yet. Dad, I want to be just like you. I don't be a Pharisee.

Now, when we hear Pharisee because we've seen enough veggie tales, we think bad. Don't think bad, man. Pharisee in that day was like one of the highest callings that you could have. They were much nicer than the Sadducees. The Sadducees was like the mean group. The Pharisees was supposed to be like the nice group. Pharisee means separated one. And what they would do was they would dedicate themselves to the study of the Torah.

Torah literally is the first five books of the Bible, but they would use that to mean the whole Old Testament. And they would memorize every single verse from Genesis to Malacca. They had to know it forward and backwards and backwards and forward. And little Saul, who's now probably a teenager, he begins to study the Torah and memorize the Torah every single word. And the idea of being a Pharisee, it means separated, that he would be separated from, this evil, cruel, and nasty world, so that when the Messiah showed up on the scene and he knew the word better than anybody else, that he would be the first to recognize him. And he graduates from law school, and he graduates from Pharisees school, and he is a Pharisee

of Pharisees. That means, like, of all the Bible nerds, he's the best. He's got the best theology. He's got the best biblical memorization. And when you were a lawyer in the first century, you didn't. just talk about the Bible, you also fought for it. And you were also the one that could point out when everybody else was getting it wrong. And so then he says, this isn't enough. I need to do a little post-grad work. And so he applies to study under the most famous Pharisee in the first century,

a guy named Gamaliel. And this was virtually impossible to get accepted into Gamal's program. I mean, people have tutors, and they're taking the ACT and the SAT and the Pharisee test, all the things, and you had to do extracurricular activities, and all the things. I mean, you think it's hard to get into school now. It was virtually impossible. And of all the people that Gamaliel, this master teacher, could choose, he chooses young Saul. So Saul would come to Jerusalem from Tarsus. And typically, they would sit on the southern steps of the temple, and that's where Gamalio would hold class. and they would quote scripture back and forth.

And he's learning and he's learning, he's learning. But the problem is that Saul had been to Jerusalem before. It goes to Tarsus for a while. But when he comes back to Jerusalem years later, something very significant has changed. You see, he had been invited back as a student of Gamalio to be a part of the Sanhedron, which is a really, really big deal

because only 10 Pharisees got to sit in one of the 70 seats. It's a really big deal. That means he was like top 10 chosen by Gamaliel. But when he gets back, a lot has happened. There's this uprising. There's this sect. And he didn't like it. Because they didn't love his traditions.

And they didn't love his temple. And they didn't love his law. In fact, in fact, they were claiming that the Messiah had shown up. And Saul would be like, there's no way the Messiah could have shown up. Because I would have noticed. I would have seen him, and they're not washing their hands right, and they're not sitting in the right seats, and they're hanging out with the wrong people,

and some of them eating bacon. Can you believe this? So surely it has to stop. And so he had a pejorative turn for these people. He called them the Nazarenes. Why? Because this is where their Messiah came from, Nazareth. And everybody knows, can anything good come from Nazareth?

That would be like if somebody was from Palakian. And you'd be like, can anything good? I just say that because one of my buddies is here right now from Palacca, okay? So again, he's zealous. So when he graduates from law school in Pharisee school in Studies under Gamaliel, when you thought Paul, you thought, I mean, when you thought Saul, you thought law. That's what you thought. When you thought Saul, you thought law.

And if anybody's going to keep the law of God, it's going to be this man. And so he is zealous for his tradition. in his people, in his temple, and particularly God's law. And so he figures out who the players are of this new little uprising. These people that claim that a man showed up and walked around here for three years and claimed to be God, it was crucified, and then, crazy enough, on the third day, was resurrected, and has ascended to the right hand of God, the Father, and then sent the Spirit of God to live on the inside of these crazy people

that claimed to follow this Messiah. There's no way this is blasphemy, thinks Saul, And so he figures out who the players are. Peter, James, John, guys like that. And so one day on the southern steps, after Peter heals a guy, they say, get him. Because he did it on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to do that on the Sabbath. It's very clear in the law that Saul is defending.

You can't do that on the Sabbath. And so they arrest him. And Saul was surely a part of the group of people that Peter is given his testimony to. We're in about like Acts 5 right now. And can you imagine how angry Saul is when Peter says, you decide whatever you need to decide, but I can't stop talking about what I have seen and heard. And what he had seen and heard is a man that claimed to be God,

die on a cross and be resurrected on the third day. And so they told him to shut up and they beat him. And then they said, you leave here, but you quit talking about Jesus. And they're like, nope. And so then to make things worse, when they have a meeting, when all the religious leaders have a meeting on what to do with these guys. Peter, and what are we going to do with him? Saul's mentor, Gamalio, comes in, and he says, guys, hold on, hold on, hold on.

We should just let them go. And Saul's like, what do you mean to let him go? And he's like, listen, listen, listen. People time after time after time claim to be messengers of God. It's happened multiple times here in Jerusalem. them. And so if it's not from God, then it'll just fizzle out. We don't have to worry about it. But if they are from God, do you want to be fighting against God? I like to call this Gamaliel's advice, and he lets them go. And Saul's like, not on my watch. So he puts together a couple of people. He figures out

who the real leaders are. At this point, the apostles have begun to assign some positions. And there's a man named Stephen, who is a servant of the way. And so they catch him, they catch him, they capture him. Saul gets a mob. It's not that hard to get a bunch of religious people all fired up, give everybody a stone and all they need is something to throw at, right? And he gives this Stephen a chance to say that he doesn't know who Jesus is, and he says that Jesus is Lord. Saul says that's blasphemy, and they began to throw rocks until Stephen is dead, the very first Christian martyr. And Saul orchestrates the whole thing. And here's what's crazy.

And he thinks his God is proud of him for that. Saul, keeper of the law. And then, to make it worse, when Stephen is martyr, all the other Christians are like, uh-oh, we're out of here. And so they begin to flee all over the place. A bunch of them go north to Antioch. The only reason you should ever move north is to flee something, right? And so they all go up to, hey, and all you Yankees, don't laugh, you all moved here.

Okay, welcome, super glad you're here. Please don't feed the seagulls. We love you. But he wants to shut this thing down once and for all. Because the beating's not going to do it. Because they've been beating the Nazarenes and they keep talking and keep talking and keep talking. So the only thing we can do is take them out. And so he goes to his leaders and he gets a law pass that none of the Jewish people in any of the synagogues,

anywhere can follow after this Jesus, this Yeshua. And so he gets some papers together. And they think, well, Saul, you're probably the best one to go because you used to live in Tarsus and you need to go to Antioch. Antioch's on the way to Tarsus. And so he gets his stuff together and he is on his way to terrorize anybody that's following after Jesus. In fact, he is such a terror that he doesn't just arrest and beat men. But he locks up men and women.

and their families. He is a religious terrorist. So up into this point in human history, when you thought about Saul, you thought about two things, law and terror. Terror and law. That's who he is.

He had a reputation, and when he walked into a town, everybody trembled, and he liked it. That's Saul. And so he gets this, stuff together, he gets his little band of people to come with him, and they are on their way to Antioch, but you can't get to Antioch without going through Damascus, and he is on his horse, on the

road to Damascus, and then out of nowhere, boom, he is confronted by this bright light, this blinding light that knocks him off of his horse. And it says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus. Why do you kill him? against the goads. You don't know what that means, but here's what this means. They would put these sharp sticks on the chariot thing behind the horse, so when they kick it, it would hurt them. And here's what he's saying, you think what you're doing is good, and it's only killing you. And what's very interesting here is Jesus does not say to Saul, why are you persecuting my people? He says, why are you persecuting me? Why? Because his people, we are the body.

body of Christ. And to persecute the body is to persecute him. And in that very moment, in that very moment, being confronted by the resurrected Lord and Savior face to face, he surrenders his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He gives up and says, not me, but you. And he gets, and here's what happens, man. From that moment on, everything is changed about this guy. Everything is changed. The reality is when you get run over by the grace train of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no thing in your life that can stay the same anymore. And so, so he's blinded. Jesus says, going to the city, we'll figure it out from there.

People have to walk him into the city. They know something has happened. They don't know exactly what it is. He gets into the city, and then the spirit of God comes to this guy, Anias, and says, I want you to go pay for Saul. And the guy talks back. The guy that's trying to kill us? go pray for him.

I just ask you to bless my food, and you ask me to go pray for the terrorists. What are we doing here? Trustments is going to be fine. So he does what God says. He shows up. He finds Saul. How am I going to know who he is?

You know, kind of like looking up on Facebook or whatever anymore? He said, he will be the one praying. He's praying. He lays his hands on him. Something like scales fall off of his eyes. Then the Bible says, immediately the next thing he does is rolls into the synagogue to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the son of God. In an instant, he goes from killing Christians trying to make people into him.

them. Well, that doesn't go over so good. The Bible says that he gets disciples for some days in Damascus. He immediately preaches that Jesus is the son of God. And then the Jewish leaders find out that the predator has become the prey and now they're going after him. So he's got to go on the run. Which is pretty incredible because I don't think Saul realized that as Paul, as Saul was chasing after the Christians, ultimately what God was teaching him is how to run from the run. the people that are chasing after you. He was an expert. And so he goes to Arabia

for some unknown amount of time. But what we know here is when he comes back from that time, something's different. So now when he is studying his Bible, he's not just memorizing text to show off that he's the smartest. Now every page, it wasn't in pages, it was on scrolls, but every word

of that old covenant was pointing to a new and better covenant. Every word in that old testament. was looking forward to the serpent crusher, and he had shown up on the planet, and his name was Jesus. And it was like a fire on the inside of Paul, and he just had to tell everybody.

And so, once he gets back from Arabia, he goes to Damascus, and they plan to kill him. So then he goes to Jerusalem. Imagine him showing to your church in Jerusalem. All the disciples are super nervous. We're still not sure about it. We saw his testimony video, but can we give it a minute to make sure he doesn't go back?

So then he has to run back to Tarsus where he grew up. Can you imagine what he came back to? I mean, when he left Tarsus years ago, he was this hardcore Uper, uber, Orthodox, religious Pharisee, anti-Gentile. And now he's walking in the house with a breaking rat filet in the gospel. And his parents are like, no way.

They find out that in Arabia that he was hanging out with a gentile, and eating with them and reading from their philosophy so that he can understand their culture better. And so he's a man without a place. He's got nowhere to go. He can't go to any Jewish city because the Jewish leaders are trying to kill him.

He can't go to any Roman city because the Roman people are trying to get after him too. And so he goes on his very first missionary journey. And the reason he goes on this missionary journey is because in his salvation, Jesus told him that he would suffer and take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so he goes.

And he goes to all these different places. He puts together a little team. He's got John Mark and he's got Barabbas. I mean, Barnabas. About halfway through it. John Mark leaves, because he's a quitter. Barnabas kind of makes it through. They get back home.

Paul takes a little while. Saul takes a little while. By the way, he has changed his name to Paul at this point. Part of the reason he changed his name to Paul is because he wanted to identify with the people that he was trying to share the gospel with. and Saul was a super Hebrew name, and Paul was a super Gentile name,

so he took the name Paul so that he could connect. And so he's getting ready for round two. Because round one went pretty good. He shared the gospel. He did get beaten. He did get stone. That means like with rocks. But nothing was going to stop him.

And so John Mark wanted to go again. He's like, you ain't going to me. I got time for you, you'll quit her. I ain't time for quitters. I'll see you in heaven, all right? Peace. And then Barnabas is like, come on, man. You've got to forgive him.

You forgive me. You ever meet people to get offended on the behalf of somebody else? That's Barnabas, okay? He was like, listen, you pray about it, okay, you're going to be offended. I'm taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so on the second missionary journey, of all people, he meets this young man named Timothy, a place called Leicstra, comes across this man, Timothy.

Timothy's got some dad issues, doesn't know who his dad is, or maybe he does. The Bible never talks about his dad by name, it only talks about his ethnicity. He's raised by his mama and his grandmama. but the young Timothy loves the Lord and they connect and Paul looks at Timothy and he's like son I see things in you you you don't see in you I know you're young I know you don't think you talk good I know you get nervous when you talk in front of people okay and I know sometimes you're overruled by fear but God did not give you a spirit of fear boy he gave you the spirit of power and of love and a sound mind so come on And won't you come with me?

He started taking him on his journeys with him. So they decided to travel by land the second time. Paul didn't do good in boats. He wouldn't live good here in Jacksonville. He'd end up in the water a lot. And so they go to Macedonia at first, and at night he gets this vision that somebody on the other side of the G&C is calling him, would you come over here with us? He wakes up in the morning.

He runs it by his disciple group and thinks, I think the Lord is calling us to scoot over there. They all agree. They hop in a boat. they go over to a place called Philippi. The first place they walk in in Philippi, they're looking for some believers. You've got to have 10 righteous men to start a synagogue in a city.

And in the city of Philippi, they did not have enough godly men to even start a synagogue. So there's this lady, this boss lady, seller of purple goods named Lydia. And she's running this little like Bethmore Bible study down by the Riverside.

And so he goes there to this little prayer meeting with Lydia. And he shares the gospel with Lydia. And Lydia is a woman of means. She's got it going on, man. She's a CFO, C-O-O-C-O-C-E-O, all wrapped up into one lady. And so she persuades them. Why don't we start a church unless start it in my house,

which also means like she was living in the right zip code, had plenty of rooms to do large group and small group all in one house. That's what happens. And Lydia is the first convert in this place of Philippa. And so, while Paul would wake up every day, and he kept bumping into this little girl,

this slave girl. The problem is that slave girl was, she was being trafficked by these guys. And what they were using her for is she had this spirit of divination. She would do his fortune-telling. And so they would use her as a commodity to put some coin in her pocket.

Human trafficking has been happening for a long time. But the problem is, every day they would get up to go to the prayer meeting at Lydia's house and get this church plant going in Philippi, this slave girl would call them out and say, these men work for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that Paul, not filled with compassion, he was greatly aggravated by her. I love that that's in the Bible. We're in Acts 16 right now, by the way. And so he cast out the demon. And the demon goes, and the slave girl is set free. Well, the guy's an owner got ticked off because they can't use her to make money anymore. And so

they get, they get Paul and Timothy arrested. When they go to jail, they don't complain about it, they don't whine about it, they pray about it. But their prayer is not, dear God, get us out here. Their prayer is sovereign Lord filled us with boldness, and they sing Psalms and hymns in the middle of the night, to the point where the jailhouse is shaken and the doors open up. Now be careful if somebody tells you, if a door opens, it's the Lord. for you to walk through. Uh-uh.

He doesn't say walk through every door open. He says, we do what he tells us to do. And so Paul and Timothy Silas, they're just chilling out, waiting to the jailer's about to kill himself. Because in Roman law, if you let the prisoners go, we're going to do to you what we were supposed to do

to the prisoners. And so he's about to hurt himself, and Paul says, do not hurt yourself, look around, we are still here. Which, by the way, that is a word for somebody. If you're thinking about hurting yourself, listen to me. do not hurt yourself, look around. We are still here. We will walk with you through whatever it is.

And then the jailer says, what must I do to be saved? Which, that question comes from the right place. It's just the wrong question. The right question is, what must be done for a wretch like me to be saved? And Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that moment, that jailer is saved. Now here's the prayer that Paul, a good Orthodox Jewish man, would have prayed every day of his life. Now it's very offensive, so just hang in there. I didn't pray. Email Paul, all right? I don't pray this.

He's prayed. God, I thank you that I'm not a woman, I'm not a slave, and I'm not a Gentile. That's what they would pray. God, I thank you that I'm not a woman, I'm not a slave, and I'm not a Gentile. And the Spirit of God takes the Apostle Paul into Philippi, and the first three people that were saved in order is a woman, a slave, and a Gentile. because this is a movement for all people to discover a deep in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so Paul, the Apostle Paul, writes this letter to the Philippians about 10 years after his very first visit to Philippi. And I imagine, he writes it from a Roman jail cell, by the way.

And I just imagine that the Apostle Paul, after he's gone through a whole bunch of stuff and he finds himself in Rome and they say this is where you're staying. And he's in prison once again. He's in shackles once again. And he sits down in his jail cell and he begins to think, hmm, I remember being in jail one time before. I wonder how my friends down in Philippi are doing. And then the spirit of God inspires Paul to write this letter. This is who's writing this letter.

Paul. and Timothy, servants. Oh, this is a big deal, servant. That Paul would describe himself as a servant. This kind of messes us up in America right now. He does, it does. Some translations will use the word slave. You can't think about slave like transatlantic slavery.

That's not what this is. The word is doulas. Bond servant is a pretty good translation. Servants in the first century had nothing to do with race. It was often you could pay off a debt that you owed by working for somebody. You could buy yourself out of it. It was that kind of thing. It's where we get the word doula from. You know what a dula is? I did until I met some people here. A dula is somebody that helps a mama give birth, period. And here's the deal. What the dula is there to do is just serve. It ain't about the dula. It's

about mama and it's about the baby. And then they do whatever it takes for mama to give birth to the baby. What Paul is saying is that Timothy and I are here to just be doulas. It ain't about me. It's all about Jesus and I am just here to serve. What Paul is saying is I am no longer a slave to sin or fear. That's not what I'm a slave to. Now I am a servant to Christ. I am no longer defined by my previous titles which used to mean everything to me. You got to understand this or chapter two or three won't make any sense to you. You see, he used to make sure everybody knew that he was a Pharisee and he was a scholar and he was a lawyer and he was successful.

And now he's saying none of those things define me. But I am a servant. And not only that, not only do my successes not define me, but my failures don't define me either. You see, because some could rightfully accuse him and say, but you're a murderer and you're a religious terrorist. But Paul would say, I'm not those things. And Paul would say, from this day forward, I don't have to do the things I used to do, because I'm not the person that I used to be.

Saul of Tarsus, he gone. Paul, servant of Jesus, that's who's talking to you right now. And I'm just telling you, one of the tricks of the enemy is try to get you to identify yourself with either your successes or your failures. And both of them are traps. Both of them are traps. You see, one of the biggest tricks that the enemy wants you to buy into is that you are what you do. And if your identity is all wrapped up and what do you do, then who are you if you don't do those things anymore? And I'm talking to every guy, 50, 60, whatever years old, you're about to retire and you don't know who you are anymore. Let me tell you who you are.

You are a servant in Christ, period. Everything else is what you do. But his other trick is to try to make you define yourself for the rest of your life by the things that you have done. I mean, every time you begin to step out in faith, in boldness, to serve the kingdom of God, the enemy wants to remind you of some scar. Hey, you see that scar? And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is we are defined by scars, just not ours. We are defined by the scars of Jesus.

Man, I don't know exactly how it's going to work, but the book of Revelation says, when we get to heaven, he's going to wipe away every tear. And Jesus Christ is going to be the only one in heaven with scars on his hands. and in his feet. And so if he was going to wipe away your tear, what's the thing that you would see more than anything else? When he put those thumbs up there to wipe those tears away, you would see those nail-pierced hands reaching out to wipe your tears away.

We're not defined by our past and our scars. We're defined by the scars of Jesus. And so Paul says, that's how I'm defined now. Now, what's incredible in the first century about this word, Dulas, after you had served your time in Exodus, I think it's seven, Pastor St. to figure it out if I'm wrong or not, and he'll send you a tweet. So I think it's Exodus 7.

But when God was setting up the law for his people, once Adulos had served their time, if they wanted to continue to serve the master because the master loved them, but the master protected them and their boss provided such a good life for them, then they could willfully choose to become a forever bond servant of that master. Paul is saying, my master's name is Jesus Christ, and I will forever be indebted to him for what he has done for me. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. That's who's writing.

Then it says, to all the saints. To all the saints. Now listen, I know we've got a bunch of people that were raised in Catholic churches here, because you tell me all the time. and we're going to do communion tonight, so we're going to out you. We'll tell who's Catholic and who's not. So there's a couple of ways that you can be a saint. There's the Catholic way.

We'll talk about that a little bit. Just save your emails too, okay? And then there's another way. Now we have these idea of what saints are. Very few people claim to be saints. Most people use it in the negative. I ain't no saint. You know, they'll say that kind of thing.

So I looked up the requirements in the Catholic Church to be a saint. All right, it's a four-step process. It's pretty incredible. Case any of you who are trying to be a saint, this is how you do it. Number one, there has to be a cause for the beatification and candidization, and it begins with somebody else nominating you. Now, one of the requirements that you must meet is you've got to be dead for five years. So you don't even know if you got to be one or not, but that's one.

Then step two is there's a case created, and then they bring a documentation of your heroic virtue and they bring it to a panel and they vote on it. And they look deep into your life. They interview witnesses. They do a deep dive on you. And if you pass the vote, then you become the venerable servant of God. And then step three is that you have to do a miracle. And then they study this hard. They put a group of people together, kind of like Mythbusters. You ever seen that show? It's like the Catholic Mythbusters. And if there's a saint, like if you were like, no, seriously, I did, my boy did a miracle. See, I'm telling you, I'm not kidding.

One time he was skiing with no water skis. I saw it. And then, so then they interview people and they track it all down. And then there's a process. There's another vote. There's lots of votes. There's lots of groups and cardinals and all this stuff, and they vote on it. And then, and then there's a fourth step.

And the fourth step is you have to do a second miracle. Imagine if you did a miracle. Like if today, right now, it's like, I'm pretty sure I'm a saint. Watch this. And I just floated up. I mean, like six feet. who camera guys, like, whoa, ready to go, you know, and everybody saw it.

But I couldn't pull off a second one. Like, no matter how hard I did, is that it? That didn't count. What am I? You know, one more married, and I couldn't do it. You don't get in. But if you get two miracles and you're a pretty good guy, been dead five years,

the Pope can perform a ceremony of canonization, and you become a saint. And when you become a saint, then they are positive that you were in heaven. And a part of the role of the saint is to help people that are still alive and this is why Catholic people will pray two saints because they're supposed to go there on your behalf to help

because, you know, maybe the Lord's busy, so you go to a different saint to get some help. And there are patron saints so you know who to pray to in case you need something specific. I'm not making this up. There is the patriot saint of accountants. Accountants, this is your season right now, right?

So they're helping? There is the patron saint of abdominal pains, right? Remember we talked about Taco Bell a couple weeks ago, so you need to say that you're afraid of that. This one's funny. Hey man, if this makes you mad, you're going to hate this place. Let me just warn you. There's a patriot saint of bachelors. Bachelors.

Guess what? There's ten of them. There are ten saints, brothers, trying to help you get a date. All right? That's what they're doing. All right? There's the patron saint of breastfeeding. Incredible, beautiful, lovely, incredible.

There's the patron saint of clowns. I don't know why. Patriotate of Dennis of gallstones. There's the patron saint of hangovers. I'll get an amen Sunday at 9. I swear to be like, oh, God, amen. This is my favorite one. There's a patriot saint of unattractive people.

He's looking out for more people than they realize, oh, that's just what's happening there. There's the patron saint of spas. The funny thing here is the patriot of spas. It's John the Baptist, the least spa guy. He ate locust and honey and didn't shave. Okay. There's the patron saint of anything that goes boom,

the patron saint of disappointing children. I love this one, man. There's the patron saint of girls from rural areas. There's a saint for country girls. Now, if that saint could just get together with the bachelor saint, they could work all this out, you know what I'm saying? Right. So anyway.

So you can become a saint that way, or there's a shortcut. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. and you were imputed with the righteousness of Christ, the perfect life that he lived, and he died on the cross. And whoever believes that when Christ died on the cross it counted for me, then what happens is God made him

who was without sin to be sin for us that we would become the righteousness of God. And therefore, when Paul and Timothy are addressing this to the saints, it means any and everybody who has ever put your faith in Jesus. Not because of your works, because of Christ's finished work on the cross. So to all the sons,

saints in Christ Jesus who were at Philippi. Did you know every saint, every believer in Jesus has two addresses? You've got your temporary address here on earth, and you've got your eternal address with him. And a part of what the saints, the followers of Jesus, are supposed to do, is that we are supposed to be active agents in Jesus' prayer that we are going to ask heaven to come down here on earth. So we are to be in Christ and at Jacksonville or at Columbia or at Jessup. Here's the problem. Most of us are in Jacksonville and just at church. Fundamentally different.

So many folks, particularly in America and particularly in the last three or four years, identify first and foremost with the temporary, and then secondarily with the eternal. And what the Bible would have us do is identify first and foremost as brothers and sisters under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and then everything else is just a secondary

and non-permanent address. So he says to the saints, in Christ Jesus who were at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, And this is a really big deal. With the overseers and elders are the same word, with the elders and deacons. Here at our church, we have overseers and we have deacons, and the reason we have that is because this is what the Bible says we were to have.

Here's what's crazy. Do you ever think that the apostle Paul had any idea in his mind when he walked up on that riverbank one day and was introduced to a lady named Lydia, who was the seller of purple goods and began to share the gospel with her? And when he cast the demon out of that servant girl, and when he found himself in prison and he shared the gospel with the jailer that night, and he and his whole family came to Christ, do you think he had any idea at all that sharing the gospel with just three people in a few days would lead to 10 years from that day? There would be an incredible, there would be a body of believers that had organized themselves in such a way, and the Spirit of God had gifted them such a way that there were overseers and there were deacons. and if you grew up Baptist, let me just mess with you a little bit. Deacon does not mean position of power.

It means dirty foot washer. Don't tell you a deacon bored that. You're getting trouble, okay? You see, here's the thing, man. When you're a servant of Christ and you were just obedient to do whatever he tells you to do, I'm telling you, you have no idea what hangs in the balance. You share the gospel with just that one, what you think is a random person, And little do you know that the God of the universe is working all things together for his glory

and to the advancement of his kingdom to the ends of the earth. Paul shares the gospel with three people in Acts 16 in this city. And then 10 years later, there is an entire church with leaders and pastors and deacons and saints. So that's who he's writing to. And then this is what he wants for his friends in Philippa. He says, grace to you. and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul wants for his people.

He wants grace to you and peace from God. 1122, that's what I want for you. That's what the abundant life is. The abundant life is grace and peace. Now think about this for a second. when Saul was on his way to Damascus there were two things that he was known for law and terror

and then he is run over by the grace train of Jesus Christ and almost every one of the letters that he writes to his friends and these churches that God used him to plant the thing that he brings every single time is not law and terror it's grace and peace It's the exact opposite. That God completely transformed this man from a man of law and terror to a man of grace and peace. See, in fact, some of you got the whole church thing wrong.

And I'm not beating up on you. It may have been from some previous church experience that you've had. But if you think about God in the words that come to your mind are law and terror, you're thinking about a different God. The God that we serve, what he wants for you, is grace. and peace. And what's crazy is this, though, you'll never get peace without grace.

And you'll never get God the Father without knowing Jesus' Lord. It's all one package. And the world that we live in right now, every single person, Christian and non-Christian, quite honestly, every single person is essentially on this peace mission.

The word peace in Hebrew is Shalom. A great translation is just whole. I mean, Jesus offers a peace that transcends understanding. Isn't that what you want? Can you imagine? We're going to get to a part in a few weeks where Paul says that he has learned the secret of being content in every situation. Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine right now, no matter your situation, like you're sitting in a prison cell in Rome, and you could breathe in and you could breathe out, and be content in every situation. Jesus offers rest for our soul. That's what peace is. You see, and we live in a world, though, that is on a peace mission, but they're trying to find peace without grace

and without God the Father and without Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it is a futile, futile journey. Because at the end of it, all you will find is you, is you. Ultimately, what the Apostle Paul and his son in the ministry, Timothy, won't for all the saints in the Church of Philippi,

is that they would know peace because of grace and that they would be in a right relationship with God, the Father, because of Jesus Christ, who is Lord. And you say, how do you find that? You find it through the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The way we're going to close our service tonight is we're going to celebrate Holy Communion. We have some volunteers that are going to begin to pass trays around, okay?

And so be kind and help them. We're not good at this. We don't do this a lot, okay? We just got new trays. We're trying it out. So if our ushers, do we have ushers, whatever we call our people? We're more bad with someone I thought. Okay, if the ushers would start passing out the trays, Michael.

And as you're doing this, Paul's heart for his people. Paul's heart for his people is grace and peace. When we celebrate Holy Communion, Jesus told us that we ought to do this. And I believe that part of the reason that we do this is because Jesus knows, I mean, he is fully God, he knows all things. He knows for 1,500-plus years of church history, you don't just get a Bible in your back pocket on your phone

that you can just scroll through the Gospels and remind yourself of the gospel over and over and over. And our God is a tactile God. He is a creative God. He's a scratch-and-sniff kind of God. And he took this thing from the Old Covenant, from the Old Testament, and he gave us a new and better covenant.

You see, every single year, the Jewish people would gather together at Passover and they would celebrate this dinner. And this dinner was to remind them of the Exodus when the Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. And after nine plagues, God said there's going to be a tenth plague, and it's called the plague of the firstborn. So Moses, what I want you to do is I want you to go tell all of my people, find a perfect spotless lamb, and I want you to slaughter that lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house.

And the angel of death is going to come through, and he's going to pass over whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house. And so he did, and it did. and finally Pharaoh comes and says, get out of here. And God liberates his people. And then God tells Moses, every single year on the day of Passover, I want you to celebrate this meal so that you never, ever forget that God hears the cries of his people and whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of their house,

the angel of death will pass over. Well, in the night Jesus was betrayed, he gets together with his disciples. these 12 guys. He sits down and they're going to celebrate this Passover, which they had done every year of their life. And they know this, man. They know this. Think about whatever your deepest annual tradition is.

This is Christmas Eve for your family. This is Easter Sunday for your family. Whatever it is. And that night, he takes the bread. And he's supposed to say rabbi stuff. He's supposed to, like there's certain set of words that he is supposed to use that point back to Exodus and point to the Pharaoh and point to the liberation of God's people. And the reason that they ate flat bread in that time is because God told Moses, tell the people, you don't have time to let the bread rise because I don't know it, you don't know exactly when you're going to be set free. So not only do you not have time to do this, like sleep with your tennis shoes on because the moment this thing's happened, you've got to run towards the Red Sea.

And so this was to be in remembrance. of that. And Jesus is reminding these guys of that. He takes the bread and he breaks it. And he says, this is my body broken for you. Everybody's like, what? Essentially what he's saying is this, yeah, man. You know that whole Exodus thing?

That whole blood of the lamb thing on the doorpost? It actually wasn't about that. All of that is so that you could understand that I am the lamb that is slain. for the forgiveness of sin and for the freedom of my people. What Paul wants for his people in Philippi is peace. Peace. The Hebrew word shalom.

A loose translation of that is whole or put together or right with God. It's not just a lack of conflict. It means that you are whole, like love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You are complete. Do you want that for your life? your life. And you go, well, how? Because I'm so broken. How could I be put together? How could be, how can I be whole if I am so broken? And Jesus says, because I'm going to be broken,

that you may be whole. And as often as you eat of this bread, you do so and remember. Then the Bible says at the end of the meal. And here's what you have to understand. I know this is a holy and reverent moment, but the disciples, the cross and resurrection hasn't happened yet. They have no idea what the Messiah is going to say at this point. And he holds up the cup. And he says, this is, this cup is my blood. This cup is my blood. And he says, this represents the new covenant. Covenant and testament mean the same thing. And what he is saying is there was a covenant that was rooted in the law. now there is a covenant rooted in grace. And just like Paul wants grace and peace for his people,

you will not know peace without the grace of Jesus Christ. And so when he's pointing back to that, when he's pointing back to the Exodus, to the Passover, Jesus is saying, that lamb represents me. And there is an angel of death that will pass over every single one of us and whoever has the blood of the perfect lamb slain for them on the doorpost of your heart, you will be spared that judgment and you will receive right relationship with God. Because of his grace, you will receive peace.

And he holds the cup of the new covenant. And he says, this blood is poured out for you. As often as you drink of it, you do so in remembrance of me. And the Bible says they prayed and they sang songs. So we're going to pray. And then in just a minute when we get finished praying, we're going to do what we do. We're going to sing, we're going to pray, and we're going to bring. So let me pray for you.

Our good and gracious Heavenly Father. God, I thank you and I praise you that your will towards us is good. God, that your desire towards us is grace and peace. and God, I praise you that that transcends our circumstances. God, it transcends our feelings. It transcends our culture. And God, may we be once again reminded that we'll never find peace without the grace of Jesus and that will never know God the Father without knowing Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

Lord, I thank you for the testimony of Saul, whose name was changed to Paul. I thank you and I praise you that. no matter how good a person thinks they are religiously, that they still need to be saved by the blood of Jesus. And Lord, I thank you that no matter how bad a person is, no matter how evil the things they've done are. Like even being a religious terrorist, they're not too far gone for your love and grace.

Lord, I pray that as we continue to study this book in Philippians, that you would lead us into a deep and abiding knowledge of you through grace that we might know your peace. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? If you'll just hold on to the cups that you have with you to the best of your ability, and we're going to sing. The Bible says in the New Testament that after the church

would celebrate Holy Communion, that they would sing together. And maybe if you believe in Jesus, if you're a saint, you need to sing like a saint. Okay? And then we're going to bring our ties and our offerings like we do to honor God and we're going to pray. And just like Paul and Silas prayed in jail to the point where it shook the place and shook the doors open, may we sing Psalms of praise and may we come and bow before our king and maker. And may we pray with such intensity that this place is shaken.

So let us sing, let us bring, let us pray. Let's respond.