I mentioned that this is one of the only letters Paul writes to a specific church that is not sent on bad terms. He is not correcting false doctrine or calling out sin. He is writing to thank them for their support, update them on his condition and encourage their faith. This allows his greeting to be less severe as well.

Look at his greetings to other churches.

“Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)” (Galatians 1:1)

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother.” (Colossians 1:1)

“Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother.” (1 Corinthians 1:1)

Now look back at our text.

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” (Philippians 1:1)

Do you notice he doesn’t approach them as an apostle? When there are problems he speaks to them with authority as an apostle of Christ but here we don’t see that. It’s missing in Philemon as well where he approached him as a friend, and father in the faith. In Philemon he is not demanding anything but requesting something.

In this letter Paul calls himself and Timothy servants of Jesus Christ. This is the first word I want to look at. The word servant in our Bible means literally slave. This is a willful slavery.

Those who come to Christ willfully surrender their lives to His control. There are a great many who claim to be Christians they claim slavery to Christ but live as though they are free,

This is probably an indication that they are not truly servants of Christ. I don’t believe it’s possible to take Jesus as Saviour without taking Him as Lord as well. Any saved person is a servant or slave of Christ. If they are not then they are not saved.

It may be possible to be a disobedient slave for a time and even a rebellious one but not forever. People who are self willed are most likely not truly saved.

We are slaves by virtue not only of our will but out of thanksgiving. We need to understand that everyone is a slave. We are either slaves of sin or of righteousness.

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)

The lost rail against the law of God and submission to Christ but they are every bit the slave that I am only they serve sin. Is the drug addict free? How about the alcoholic? The porn addict?

They serve their own sinful passions, they serve society norms, they serve their desire for fame or their desire to be seen and heard. That’s what most of social media is. It’s people serving their desire for attention. They try to fit in to ever changing standards and trends.

Those who have come to Christ have said no more. We want to serve righteousness. We want to be servants of the most High God and to Him alone do we pledge our allegiance. He has set us free from the awful master that sin was to us and in our thanksgiving we pledge ourselves to serve Him for eternity.

“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” (Vs. 18)

We are freed from the bondage of our sin and as a result we willingly serve righteousness. The other aspect of this slavery is debt. We have been purchased by Christ therefore we belong to Him.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

We have been purchased which means we are His property. There goes self will. There goes being yourself or living by your own desires. The seeks personal empowerment the servant of Christ says I must decrease and He must increase. We belong to Christ. If you need me to repeat that, we are His.

Paul never saw life as being under his own control.

“And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house,Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:18-24)

Paul accepted this life because he never saw his own life as something to take ownership of. It was God’s life now purchased by the blood of Christ. Having looked at the word servants I want to focus on another aspect of the greeting.

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” (Vs. 1)

In verse 1 he sends greeting to the bishops and deacons after the saints in Philippi. Notice the order. To the saints and also the bishops and deacons. I feel this is important.

This shows us that the church was well established at this point with leadership in place. While there is God appointed leadership in the church this is not a hierarchical leadership like we see in the business world.

I’ve said before the pastor is not the CEO of the church. A pastor is equal in his standing in the church. He has a leadership role but that role does not invest him with control or power. Listen to Peter as he gives command to elders.

“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3)

I have had pastors who believe the pastor is the default head of every ministry in the church. This is simply not the way church should be run. Listen to Jesus.

“And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.” (Luke 22:24-26)

This destroys any idea that Peter was made chief among the apostles. It definitely destroys the notion that there is a church head seated on a golden throne where people bow and kiss his ring.

Servant leadership. Leadership from among equals is what the Bible teaches. That’s why I hate church meals where the pastor and his family have a head table and only select invited guests can join them. Believe me I’ve seen that in church.

Notice he greets the church first then says with the bishops and deacons as if they are an after thought? He put them behind the congregation. I feel we need a return to this in the church today.

There is another word that catches my eye in this greeting. I want to call your attention to the word saints. If you were raised in a religion like the Roman Catholic church this verse may present a problem. I remember many years ago witnessing door to door I spoke to a Roman Catholic lady who thought she was going to heaven because she was pretty good but no saint.

I mentioned that if she were saved then she would be a saint. She laughed at me saying she had never met a saint and neither had I. I told her that I actually was a saint which made her immediately angry.

How dare I call myself a saint when so many good Catholics have died and not been canonized. What pope declared me a saint she asked. I said someone better actually did it. Who is better than the pope she asked. I said Jesus Himself. She rolled her eyes and said “whatever.”

I showed her right here in the Bible that saints are not certain dead people in heaven the church deems worthy but living people on earth who belong to Christ. She said in essence, you keep your Bible I’ll keep the church.

Paul is not writing to dead people. The Bible calls living people saints. We are never told that sainthood is achieved after death, nor are we told the church decides who is a saint and who is not. We are never given any idea from the Bible that saints can hear our prayers.

The word saint in Scripture and specifically this verse means “set apart by God, holy.” Every true Christian is declared holy in the sight of God. They are set apart from this world to be used by God.

These were not people that were trying to figure things out or work for their salvation. These people were holy in the sight of God based on the merits of Christ. If you are saved this morning then you are a saint.

There is nothing you need to add to the work of Christ. There is nothing you can add to the work of Christ what He has done our our behalf is perfect and complete lacking nothing. That woman I talked to saw sainthood as something to be achieved through good works, miracles and the authority of the church.

What sainthood is Biblically is something given to us by the righteousness of Jesus, through the miracle of the new birth under the authority of God Himself.

There are a few more words I want us to see this morning. Look at verse 2.

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Vs. 2)

In his greeting to the church he mentions two things. One of course leads to the other. The first is grace. This means unmerited favor. Not earned but given, undeserved and yet offered freely and by God.

In Rome sainthood is earned but in Christianity it’s given freely by grace. Salvation is not a process by which we cooperate with God to be become more and more holy thus making ourselves acceptable.

Salvation is an instantaneous act by which God by grace declares us righteous. There is no cooperation there is only unmerited favor bestowed on us by the kindness of God. We are saints by the gracious will of God. I get tired of the old pious prayers I often hear.

“I’m a wretched, undeserving sinner.” I was but today I’m a saint. If you are saved you’re a saint. Act like it. We tend to pray like we are wallowing before God when we told to barge right in with boldness to the throne of grace.

Stop identifying with your old life and live for what God has declared you to be. We are children of God, heirs to the promises made to the fathers. We are not step-children. We have received of the grace of God and that grace has brought the second thing he says in his greeting. Peace.

Peace with God from God. This is the foundational truth that sets Christianity apart from everyone else. No other religion offers peace with God. For salvation in the Mormon church or the JW organization you must meet continual requirements in order to maintain your salvation.

Islam, and Judaism don’t bring you to a place of complete peace with God. In fact no none Christian religion promises complete peace with the deity they worship.

The Roman Catholic Church surely doesn’t as they teach that after you die you must still go to purgatory to be finally cleansed of sin. In the Bible we are promised peace with God. Turn.

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:20)

Here we have a fundamental truth of Christianity. God doesn’t require us to make peace with Him. He made peace for us. We simply accept that peace as a free gift.

We don’t earn it or work for it. When we were at the Long Beach PP earlier this month the lady attacking us accused us of being out there so we could go to heaven. She also claimed to be a Christian.

Her lack of an understanding of how salvation works was evidence her claim was false. We don’t do anything to be saved. You say but we have to repent. Yes that’s true and even that is a gift of God.

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. (2 Timothy 2:25)

God gives us repentance. This is part of the gift of salvation. God doesn’t give us salvation as a reward for responding to Him. Even the very response itself is a gift.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

The faith that brings salvation comes as a gift of the grace of God. God has done everything that needs to be done and given everything that needs to be given for His elect to be saved.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

The peace spoken of here is spiritual reconciliation. We were sinners and therefore separated from God by our sin. Christ took on Himself our sin and suffered in our place canceling the sin debt we owed.

God now welcomes us home. We have peace with God through Christ by faith. By trusting that Christ took away our sin and by believing the promises of God in Christ we no longer have to hide as Adam did in the garden.

Theologian William Newell the author of the hymn At Calvary puts it this way.

“Our peace with God is not as between two nations before at war; but as between a king and rebellious and guilty subjects.”

Conclusion:

A few things to take away from the text this morning.

1. Church is not a business.

2. We are slaves of Jesus Christ. We need to live like this.

3. Grace has been extended to us. This was undeserved. It can’t by definition be earned.

4. This grace brought to us a peace with God. Are you at peace with God? Have you come to Him in faith.