Grace & Peace, Philippians, 1:2
Philippians 1:2 · Vern Peterman · Mar 2, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262253314035

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning, Saints. Let's see, we've actually got a couple of preliminaries that are important preliminaries, though, we need to bring on board here. Here's one of them. We have Luke William here this morning, is that correct? Okay. All right. So this is just a sampling. If you want a close up look, you'll have to check into that afterwards. Okay. Yes, yes, this is in keeping, no, I think this is actually hunting garb. So it's not desert camo or anything. So anyway, that's one announcement.

The next one here, Hal and Lindsay are still with the grandkids up until about Wednesday, I think. But anyway, we did get an email from them and I thought you might want to take a look at it. Hal apparently is having a great time. with the grandkids there. Oh, yes, with Katie too, but with the grandkids. And he taught a Sunday school class of 25 children. Wow, that's great.

And so at any rate, and then you see he's also playing games. But aside from that, he's also wanted to encourage those who are planning on taking the Greek course that's going to be offered later on this month. We are in March, by the way. later on this month, starting this Greek course. And so Hal will kind of refresh folks' memory if you're interested in taking that in. So at any rate, apparently these grandkids of his are taking in Latin and learning it well. So he's giving that as encouragement to those who might take on this Greek course. Anyway, Hal will be with us next week. One of the questions that's been asked me, and I wanted to take a little bit to go through it.

When we study a passage of the Bible, why do we go into all the details about language and history and culture? Why do we ask all those questions? You might be thinking, good heavens Vern, you're showing us all these archaeological pictures and telling us stories about the religion and Philippi and that sort of thing. Why do we do all that?

Well, there is a reason. It starts with this. This is kind of the rough outline of a handout that we distributed several weeks back. Basically, to go about understanding scripture, we first observe, and then we interpret it, and then apply. That's important.

We're not just stuffing our heads full of facts and information. But particularly, take a look at this first step, observe. That's the reason why we don't just read something and say, how does it make you feel? but instead we look at it and we say, okay, what are all the things that we can tell about this passage? And so one of the things we look at first is the language and literary context. We're actually reading the words, looking carefully at it, and we go beyond that. That's why we understand the original meaning of the words in context. We'll actually look at it and say, what does that mean, not just in general, but right in this verse? What does it mean in context? We look at the grammar and sentence structure. That, by the way, is one of the things that Hal will be zeroing in on in this Greek class that's to take place later on this month. We read the verses before and after.

One of the things that folks can get kind of misled on is if they just grab Scripture passage, right out of the passage, and then forget what's the context. One of them, to give you an example, we'll see later on in Philippians. People will say, well, you know, I can do anything in Christ. But if you look at the context, he's talking about enduring hardship, not just, you know, I can lift 2,000 pounds or all the other applications that people try to make to it.

We read other related verses. Just this morning, for example, Craig read a related verse that gives us a better understanding about peace and about grace, what those mean. Next thing, we look at the historical and sequential context. That's one of the reasons why, from time to time, we'll put up a timeline.

We get the sequence, and the sequence matters, doesn't it? It matters that Christ comes after Abraham. It matters that you have Christ and then us, okay? And not out of sequence. The sequence does matter, and so we take a look at that. We look at the timeline. So that's why we look for the historical sequence of these events.

We look at, okay, when did this happen and when did that happen? We look for the key events in Scripture that change things that follow after those events. One of the things that we were noting this morning in the elective is the event of the cross was a pivotal time in spiritual history, right? That caused a bunch of other things to take place afterwards, okay? Cause and effect. One of the reasons we do take a look at these things is because history matters. History does matter. One way of bringing this truth forward is His story, okay? It's His story. It's what God is doing in history that counts.

The last thing we look at, and as I've talked with some folks, this is one where it's kind of been interesting, enlightening, and whatnot, and that's this cultural context. That's why we look at the culture of the nations, regions, and communities in the Bible. Once we understand the cultural context, then it makes more sense. We look for the cultural insights into the meanings of particular words. When we understand, for example, that justification is a legal term, that helps us understand things.

The other thing, we consider applications to our own lives, not just, okay, here's some nice information, but what does that mean to me? How does it apply to my own life? So we look at these three things, language and literary context, the historical and sequential context, and the cultural context. Those three things. Can you keep three in mind? Those three things we use.

We observe those, and then we go to the place of interpretation. One of the questions that I get asked is, now how come there's all these different interpretations of the Bible? One reason is because people don't look at these three areas. do that, if they miss that step, then they're going to end up with a bunch of different conclusions. You've got to start with the right information first. Key. Together, those provide the observations needed to arrive at the true and full meaning of what's in a particular passage.

Now, let's turn to Philippians 1-2 here, and as we head there, yes, we're going to actually move beyond verse 1. Can you believe it? After seven weeks in verse 1, We're going to move beyond it. Now, this is a typical introductory sentence in Paul's writings, but both the similarities to and deviations from the typical greetings of New Testament times, and I mean the New Testament times, not just the New Testament, indicates that we should take the time to examine what Paul is saying to them. What I'm saying here is Paul had this nice introductory greeting, and as we saw in the opening screen, he used that a number of times, but it wasn't just eyewash. As we'll see here this morning, there's particular value and importance in the words that he chose.

Now, so we'll be flying through Philippians, okay? And as we're flying through Philippians here, boy, second verse after the eighth week, As we're flying through Philippians, let's take a look at these first couple of verses and read it in context. Here's Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus, and we've talked about those words, right? Who are to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's this second verse we want to zero in on here this morning. And as we do that, this is the opening that we have there. And one of the points to make is this introductory phrase we just read here in Philippians 1-2 also shows up in several other passages as an introduction.

I mean, the exact same words. He basically carries out those same words. And as he would write to these different churches, and these churches are in different places, and Philemon is an individual, okay? As he writes to these people, he uses the same phrase.

And what we find as we go through it is that he uses similar phrases in those others where he doesn't use that phrase. There's some connection between them. This is not accidental or just sort of incidental. But there's a reason why he draws from these related sets of words that he's using to communicate. And we'll look at that here as we go along.

Now, one thing to kind of get some background, when we greet one another, we have a typical way of interacting, don't we? People will use some variety, but as they greet one another, we're accustomed. Hi, how are you doing? How's it going? I'm doing fine. That kind of interaction is sort of normal, isn't it? And what's interesting is if we go into a letter, although we have a different way of greeting one another and signing off on a letter, it also kind of tends to follow certain patterns.

It's funny, we call people deer in a letter that aren't deer, but that's the way we say it, right? And so they had typical ways of saying things during the New Testament era too. And one of the ways that the Greeks would introduce both their personal greetings, as well as their letters, They would either use this word kara, which means joy, or kyraine, and this second one here, that's the way James starts off his letter.

He uses that word. So that would be the typical Greek way of starting. Now, let's suppose if you were Roman, instead you would use this Latin, salus. Good health. I remember when I was taking Spanish class, they would say, okay, one of the ways of starting off, for example, a meal, you'd say salud, okay? Health. Good health to you, okay? And so the Latin, among the Romans, they would greet one another with that. Good health to you. Among the Jews, they would say peace. In the Greek form, it's irene, and that's what we see here in Philippians and the other passages. Or in the Hebrew, shalom. and we'll talk about that more in a minute. Okay, let's back up here. Here is a typical Greek letter from 70 AD. This is less than a decade after the Book of Philippians was written, this particular letter. Now, it's interesting. Why would I pick this letter? There are several reasons. Just to give you a little background, by the way, this is deteriorated, but I'd probably be deteriorated if I was 1900 years old, too. Anyway, it's deteriorated, but there's enough to be read.

What's going on? This son is writing home to his father from college. And as he's writing, he's trying to explain how he got in trouble in the theater, and he blames it on somebody else. Doesn't that sound typical? And he also wants money. How about that? Okay. Now, that's all very typical. The other thing that's typical is the way he introduces himself. Nail us to Theon, his lord and father, Very many greetings. Now, let's take a look at this little greeting to this letter. We'll shrink the letter a little bit to get the words up there. Here's Naelus.

There's his introductory, who it's from, right? And what does Paul do? Same thing. Who is it from? But what does he do? He expands on it, right? Now, who is it to? You see that? To Thaon. And we get this. Here's this same, who is it to? See that pattern? Now, after that little introductory greeting, it says, His Lord and Father. And what happens? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that interesting? He has taken the pattern that is very typical of that time, but he's applied it in ways that don't just say, Hi, I'm Paul. He teaches with it. Isn't that neat?

Now, look at this. that is translated grace. Grace to you, and then he adds another greeting, which we'll see more about in a bit, this word peace. So he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it neat how Paul takes the standard introduction that was just sort of, dear so-and-so, and he adapts it to teach with it. And he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. because he doesn't want to just say hi.

He wants you to understand who he is because of what the Lord's done, and who you are because of what the Lord's done, and the marvelous blessings that we have because of what the Lord's done. Isn't that a neat thing? I think it's marvelous. Let's take a look a little further.

This word grace is translated from the Greek word charis. Remember when we talked about saints, that word hagios was used among the pagans, and what happened is the Christians adopted the word and kind of built into it more meaning. Same thing here. This word charis was used among the people of the pagan Greek culture.

They had an idea of what it meant. But the idea was that you do something that's a favor freely given without any expectation of return. the norm. It was typically done for a friend or a relative, and it was something above and beyond what was called for, but it would be done for somebody who was a friend. Now, here's the amazing thing. Catch hold of this.

The Christians took that word charis, just like the word saint, and they adapted it. They took it, and I'll use the word light years ahead, because instead of just being a favor for a friend or relative, they adapted it because, as Scripture tells us, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. So they took this word that already had an understanding among the people of the pagan Greek culture, and they just expanded it to include an immensity that the Greeks originally didn't have.

Isn't that just phenomenal to look at that? Let's take a further look. So in Paul's letters, in context, it means grace, favor, and goodwill, and he always defined it, preceding God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, directed specifically towards those whom he's greeting. And he says this grace is not just grace because you're friends of God, because you weren't at the time, but this grace is extended to those who were now enemies and are now made friends because of this grace. Marvelous, isn't it?

Okay, let's take a further look. Now, this word charis, we're going to be revisiting this again because it is at the head of a family of words in this book of Philippians. There are actually other words that are related to it, too, that don't occur in Philippians, and I haven't listed those, so we'll keep it simple. Let's take a look at those one at a time.

This one we've talked about, charis, grace and gifting is the idea. Eucharistio, that one is to give thanks. That's one that shows up and we're going to see that very shortly as we go through Philippians, flying through Philippians if you will, with a paraglider of course. Eucharistia, a related word obviously, giving thanks.

That's another one that shows up in Philippians. Kara is joy. That's part of that family of words. And kairo, rejoice. It's another word we're going to see going through Philippians. And karitsomai, to give graciously. It's a family of words that, in the English, it doesn't jump out at you, other than to say, well, those are all kind of positive words.

But in the Greek, there are a family of words As Paul is writing this letter, he is continuing to use this family of words all throughout the book. Every single chapter is salted with these words. He just comes again and again and again and again and again with that. It's a marvelous thing. It's kind of like a thread, a golden thread that is woven through the book. Here's the other thing.

He says grace and peace. Now one of the things that we've noted before is that this word grace is the Greek greeting. Kharis was the way the Greeks would greet one another or they would say greetings. Kharin. So they would use that as a typical way of greeting one another or in a letter. Among the Jews they would say Shalom in the Hebrew. Or Irenaeus, where we get our women's name, Irene, from the same word, and that was peace.

So what did Paul typically do? He put those together. He put those together in the greeting, and you also find that he puts those at the end of a number of New Testament writings, and, as Craig read for us in Romans chapter 5, he puts them together with explanation as to what each of those means. So, by including both those greetings in one, he accomplished a couple of different goals.

Let's take a look at those. Neither Jews or Gentiles would be excluded. Both of them would feel greeted, wouldn't they? They would both have a sense, okay, I've been greeted the way I'm accustomed, but with some additional meaning behind it. Now, not just that. It wouldn't be just a matter of not offending them, but would also be a matter of including them as one.

Because after all, one of the things that Scripture makes clear, and let's look at this Galatians 3.26-29 to get the point across, Scripture makes clear is that this division between Jews and Gentiles has come to an end. And He explains it this way to the church at Galatia. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized, that means placed into, into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek. Now, are there still Jews? Yes. Are there Greeks? Yes. What's his point here? In Christ, and that's what he says later, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. So let's complete the verse. There is neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female, And he was not trying to wipe out the distinction there, but he was pointing out to them the oneness that they had in Christ. And by starting off with his introduction, grace and peace to you, he's communicating that very fact.

It's consistent with the rest of Paul's teaching elsewhere, and we see the same message come across in Colossians 3.11. The Jews and the Gentiles were made as one body in Christ. There isn't a Jewish church, and a Gentile church, they are one in Christ. In terms of their position in Christ, that distinction has been eliminated. Now, and here's the thing, in fact, Jews, if they didn't understand this, this would actually be offensive to them. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Grace and peace, both the Greek and the Jewish greetings would draw the Jews and the Gentiles together. And at the very start of these letters, he would essentially teach that truth in the way that he would greet them.

There's more. Okay, here's this typical Jewish greeting. And this is the menorah from a synagogue in Galilee, okay? They would greet one another and they would say, peace be, you know, peace be to you, peace be upon your house, that kind of thing. You'll find that if you look it up, for example, scattered throughout the Gospels. Peace be to you. But we have a good Old Testament example, because this is a long-standing tradition among the Jews at this point in time. Here's this Old Testament example. David's greeting delivered to Nabal.

Now, 1 Samuel 25.6, here's what's happening. David is instructing his representatives to go to Nabal, and to greet Nepal in a certain way. He wants to make sure that the introduction is friendly. So here's how he comes across. He says, Have a long life.

Peace to you. Shalom. Shalom to you. Peace be to your house. Shalom to your house. And peace to all that you have. All the flocks and all the land and everything. Shalom. So in that one verse, Shalom, shalom, shalom. And he's carrying on this greeting and making sure that Nibal understands that this is a wishing of well. It goes beyond, when we say peace, we might think, well, that just means absence of war. No. It goes far beyond that. The idea is to wish somebody health and wholeness, well-being. May all these do well. That's his intent.

The next thing to take a look at here is when Paul greets, he doesn't say, Grace and peace to you, and then just stop. Notice where he says it comes from. And this is different from the standard greeting of the time, as we saw earlier. Grace and peace to you is from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of grace and peace. You don't have grace and peace without it. Grace and peace, notice here, have a personal source.

People can try to find grace and peace in lots of things, in circumstances, and one of the things Paul teaches here clearly, I mean, you could just pass your eyes over it and just say, well, he's just saying hi. No, he's not just saying hi, is he? He is telling them that grace and peace have a personal source, and it's in the Lord Himself. from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes beyond that.

Grace and peace have to do with the expression of God's character. See, grace and peace are not something that God just sort of had an afterthought, hey, we made people, boy, they might appreciate this, don't you think? No, grace and peace are extended from God's very person and character. yet not just is, but always was, inherent and innate in who God is. Grace and peace are expressions of God's character.

So when Paul is wishing these people grace and peace, it is not just something he's wanting to sprinkle on them, or words he's wanting to throw at them, or empty words he's just wanting to say as an introduction to butter them up. Not the point. He's saying this because these are expressions of who God is. Grace and peace, because that's who God is.

Grace and peace have to do, rather, with the consequences of God's grace expressed in our life. You see the cause and effect there? Peace is there, peace with God, peace in hearts, peace between brothers and sisters in the Lord, because of God's grace. There's a cause and effect that's evident in these two words.

Now, one of the questions you might have is, well, wait a minute. He goes on repeatedly, all these letters. It's God the Father, and He's obviously referring to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where's the Holy Spirit in this whole thing? Isn't something missing here? Well, not really. How about the Holy Spirit?

The Father and the Son are both mentioned here directly in Philippians 1.1 and 1.2, and in similar greetings. but the Holy Spirit is connected with the expression of peace in the heart of the believer. Is that true? And where do we get that? Where does that come from?

Galatians 5.22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace.

Other things too, but we'll stop there just to get the point. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to express peace in the life of the believer with the Father and the Son as its source. Does that make sense? It takes all of God to express the grace and the peace in all of you. That's the message that Paul has here. It isn't just an incidental, and it's not, hey, we've got a little bit of what God's doing here is related to it. is the very character of God, therefore all of God, involved in expressing these in you, the believer. In Paul's greetings, grace and peace are not just for here and now.

I think that's something to get fixed in our minds, too. There might be a sense of, boy, I'm sure glad of it that I've got this thing called grace, Peace is nice because, boy, I've got all kinds of things I need peace for. The perspective, however, of Scripture is that this grace and peace is something that the Lord has already begun to express in the past and will continue on into the future. And let's see how that plays itself out.

First of all, we know from Ephesians 2.7 Ephesians 2.6, as you remember, says we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 2.7 says it will take the unfolding ages of eternity for God to reveal all the riches of His grace. Grace was not just shown at the cross, yes it was, but we will continue to be awestruck over the extent of His grace. We will continue to be amazed.

And he doesn't say it'll take an age. He says ages, plural. Ages and ages and ages, and we'll continue to go, ah! at His grace. A hundred thousand, give it a million years, a billion, I don't care. We'll still be going, ah! at His grace. It's that awesome and marvelous, and it is that It is that inherent in what God is doing and who He is. It is not something that, okay, I understand what God's grace is, let's get on to something else. We're going to be awestruck for centuries and eons and ages without end at God's grace. Amazing, astounded. Ever been bored? I don't think we're going to get bored You don't get that impression. You don't get that impression when you're finding out about God's grace. You just don't get that impression.

Now, the next part, peace. Now, one of the passages that's frequently brought up around Christmastime, for unto us a child is born, a son is given, and then it talks about what's going to be happening in the future, but notice Christ is the Prince of Peace. on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore." Okay? So grace and peace are not just something, boy, it's sure nice to have right now. But instead, grace and peace are integral to God's eternal plan. Both. That's quite an introduction that Paul has, isn't it? Grace and peace to you. He didn't say, eventually. Right now.

Right along with that is the New Jerusalem. Remember when we went through Revelation, the last two chapters kept returning to this theme, the New Jerusalem. Well, one of the things that comes out, Jerusalem means the habitation of peace. Yerushalom. The habitation of peace. Now right now, you and I know very well that Jerusalem It's almost as bad as the freeways in L.A. Unlike the present earthly Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem will be the place where Christ, the Prince of Peace, dwells with the saints forever. It will indeed be the habitation of peace, because Christ Himself is the Prince of Peace.

Now, I want to talk a little bit more about this. Now, if we look at... Here's Paul and he's writing to this church at Philippi. It is so much like his other letters. And one of the reasons I kept thinking, here's Paul, he's got this introduction that has so much depth and meaning to it.

Why does he keep saying the same thing? Why does he say the same thing to the church at Rome and the same thing to the church at Corinth? Why does he say the same thing again and again? And I think because of that, there's a temptation to just kind of gloss over it as a sort of standard words. And I think one of the reasons why he keeps returning to it is that you just couldn't say it any better.

These words communicated exactly what he intended to say, not what he had to say by obligation. This was exactly what the Lord had in mind for him to convey to them and to us. Grace and peace, because they are all about who God is and what God's plan is for us.

Let's pray. Lord, we do give you thanks as we look at these words, this charis, this shalom. As we look at these words, and we notice that those words were very costly to you. They're free to us, but costly to you. And we give you thanks for that price that comes from your heart of love, that price that you paid, and the marvelous things that you accomplished in your son. We thank you for our being unified in him, and your having done that, and made grace and peace, not just now, but eternally, not just available to us, Lord, but promised an integral part of what you're doing. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.