Rejoice in the Lord and the Peace of God #1

Philippians 4, 4 through 7, our topic is rejoicing the Lord and then the peace of God. This is part one of two. Next week we'll get to the peace of God. So today we're not going to be at peace quite yet. And I thought I'd get to verses 6 and 7 today, you know, be anxious for nothing. In putting the lesson, I just couldn't get there because I only have 23 words to do today. Very short, little two verses, and I couldn't get there. There's a lot there.

So let me read Philippians 4, 1 through 7, because we need this in context this morning. Verse 1, Paul begins by telling the Philippians, Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

I urge Iodia and I urge Suntuche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement and also the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

Here's our two verses for today, four and five. Rejoice in the Lord always, I say again, rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Then for next week, we go to verse six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension or understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So that's what we have for the Sunday next. Briefly as an overview, I like this iron-side thematic outline of Philippians. And he titles the book of Philippians, Christ is All. And then chapter 1, it's just simply Christ as our life. Chapter 1, verse 21.

Chapter 2 sets forth Christ as our example. And he uses chapter 2, verse 5 through 8 for that. and the lowly mind or humble spirit of those who follow Christ as their example. He also goes into the example of himself and Epaphroditus and Timothy in that. In chapter 3, which we just got out of, is Christ as our object. And in chapter 3, 7 through 10, the verses are the kind of key verses there. And in chapter 4, where we just started now, is sets forth Christ as our strength and supply for living. And that will come up in verses 11 through 13 coming up. So that's a brief outline which I find helpful and brevity is the, what's that saying? Yes. There's some smart people who could quote that.

When I started studying Philippians, this is just my statement, I found it is an expression of deep joy that Paul is expressing. for the Philippians' close fellowship and for their expression of concern for Paul. And then their financial gifts, their sharing in Paul's ministry. And joy occurs throughout. It's used seven times, the word joy. Rejoice is used eight times in the letter.

Andrew? Yeah. Revenue is the soul of wit. Thank you. Oh, there you go. Oh, so I'm witty. I'm witty this morning. I'll have to live up to that. Thanks. Is that Kathy up there? Yeah. Yeah. OK. Well, that's me. They're smarter than us on the East Coast. So that's how she got that. But thank you. OK. So Paul just used rejoice in the Lord in 3.1. And he said, to write the same things for you is no trouble for me.

It's a safeguard for you. And that issue of being a safeguard for you is an important aspect we'll look at later. And this is from a study you did, Bob. Oh, in 2012, was it? Yeah. So last time we taught it, actually. Yeah. It's been 10 years since we taught this. 10 years.

So Bob brought out at 3-1, he brought up this Macaulay statement that it's a safeguard to legalism. So Macaulay says the exhortation to rejoice in the Lord is an antidote to legalism. Because he was talking about that, right? The incision and the circumcision in that section. Legalism rejoices in the accomplishments of man, but true joy flows from a focus on the Lord.

And that's from your June of, oh, I say 2024, but that's actually 2012, I think. Yeah, I should change that. Yeah, right. Okay, so we'll, they'll figure it out. So it's a safeguard to legalism back in three. And today it's a safeguard for this division within the church between these two women rejoicing in the Lord.

So Constable says, we have noticed the consistent emphasis on joy and rejoicing that has marked this letter so far, this prevailing mood of the epistle. And here's a statement I want to make is in 4.4, Rejoicing is an antidote to this division between Eoria and Suntuke. And really, that would extend to any rift in believer-to-believer relationships. And looking out, I don't see any rifts between any people in this fellowship, so that's good. But if it were to happen, this is the cure to rejoice in the Lord.

These two sisters, it occurs here in Chapter 4 and it sort of gets read and then kind of passed over because, you know, I want to get on to 4, 6, and 7, right? Everyone wants to do that. But I think this division between these two sisters is very important. And it was, I was thinking about this from the last time I was teaching that this, he sort of is building up to the statement that he makes, I urge Euodia and I urge, and he says, I urge Euodia and I urge Suntukai.

So he gives two urgings, two parakletos to them individually to get along and to settle and to have the same mind in the Lord. If you think about, he sets up, the whole letter is sort of leading up to that statement. And Wiest says it much better than me. And this is what he says. Paul begs them to be of the same mind of the Lord. However, this was no abrupt request.

Paul had prepared these women for this exhortation. In chapter 1, 27 through 30, he exhorts the Philippian saints to stand fast in one spirit. And in 2, 1 through 4, he exhorts them in all lowliness of mind to esteem others as better than themselves and to be like-minded. In chapter 2, 5 through 8, And then he brings their attention to the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember that section. And in 2, 19 through 30, he speaks of the selflessness of Timothy and Epaphroditus. And when I read that from Wiesner, I said, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. And I had been seeing it, but I wasn't able to say it as he does. So I thought, wow, Uist is brilliant. And that makes me...

Brilliant too, right? Yeah, assistant brilliant. But it's kind of cool when you have a thought that you have to... and a commentator comes up with the same thing. What also helps, I find, looking at other people, especially how the Uist translation helps me If I look at the definition of the word, I look at the verb tense, then I look, I say, well, this is how it should be translated, then I look at we's, and it uses all the things that I kind of, it makes it really neat. And you say, wow, it works. But you do it organically, and that sums up, yeah. Yeah, but when we look at commentators, we need to appreciate who's doctrinally sound to begin with.

Oh, I agree, I agree. That's where you have to be careful, because you can be led astray. I'm not saying people purposely do that, but No, I'm not, Scott. You know, even, not to criticize the iron side, but you know, Christ is our example. I mean, that's not what I think about. I'm not walking in his shoes, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, that second point, I don't think we're playing that up. I mean, the idea of really testing doctrine and Scripture together, making sure that...

Yeah, or following Christ, which, as you say, often, early and often, you say that it's a life, right? Christ is our life. You're not necessarily following, but living the life. By the way, that's so critically important, isn't it? I mean, isn't that critically important? We are transformations in Christ Jesus. I mean, it's paramount to think of Christ as my example, makes me back in Sunday school as a 12-year-old.

Yeah, and I guess he could have I had a different way of saying that. Because, yeah, if you have an example and you're trying to follow it, you're going to be attaching left or right, and you're going to... Right. Yeah, your focus is going to be on the wrong thing. Yeah, there's multiple ways of this, but the final point is, Paul said, I'm an example of the life of Christ.

And that's important because Paul is fully human. Yeah. We're fully human. But we're born again and we have new lives. And he says that to follow me as an example. And yeah, and it was kind of his job to be very much in line with Christ, you can say. And it's easy to see that from Paul's life. Yeah. Have you read the least translation of that version? Which one? Least translations? Yeah, yeah.

Do you have it? I have it right here, yeah. It's interesting, you said, Yudhya, I absorb, please. And Siddhi, I absorb, please. Yeah. He's really pleading with you. Right. Yeah, it's a begging and it's pleading, it's parakaleo, I think it's the word, and it's coming alongside of them, and very, very gentle, but very... Deliberate. Deliberate, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, the Philippines, this whole thing started when Paul found them by the riverside praying. And I'm making the assumption that it was a women's prayer group that he came upon with Lydia, right? And I'm sure Yodia and Suntuke were there. And Paul says that there very important members of this assembly.

I read somewhere, I can't remember where, but in Macedonia, where this is, women had a lot of civil and public prominence in this time, in the first century. They could own property, maybe have a job. They had statues honoring them, the prominent women. Whereas in other regions of the world back then, that wasn't the case.

So if you think about these three women, Lydia, Yuri, and Suntuke, it kind of brings it in focus. And in 4.3, you can see that they both are very critical members of Paul's ministry to the Philippians. And that's why he's urging them and he's trying, the true comrade, they say is Epaphroditus, and he's trying to get him to, when he goes back, to come between them and settle this rift. And Epaphroditus is maybe unable to, or doesn't have the wisdom to do it yet, so he asks Paul to, I think, write this letter. So this is sort of, not the main thrust of Philippians, but it's a very important part, I think.

So if you can get these two sisters to focus on Christ and his life and his person with thanksgiving and supplications and joyous worship, that's going to take their attention away from each other, won't it? So verse four, very short, rejoicing the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice, repeated for emphasis. Let me bring up these, here's the word rejoice at the bottom, it's Cairo. But notice grace, which charis, and then joy in the middle there, which is hara.

And notice, look at the Greek letters and the Greek words. And you see how similar? The same family of words. I'm not the Greek guy. But is that because there's the same stem or the same root, right? Is it stem or I think it's root. So you can see the same way you see the same Chi followed by an alpha. So and then the P looking thing is an R, right? Yeah, that's an R. So They're the same words.

And when we look at the word grace and we go back to Macaulay, back in the Old Testament, it came from a stem that meant to give pleasure in its verb form. In the noun form, charis, or grace, had the quality of something that was pleasurable. Anything charming or beautiful or attractive is what Macaulay said in that four-part series of grace that he did.

So then when you get to kara or joy, it's cheerfulness and calm delight. I like that, calm delight. And gladness. And also rejoicing is the expression of cheerfulness or gladness. Calm delight. In the Gospels, rejoicing is a lot about gladness. So there you have it, and you can see how gladness and something charming and beautiful, calm, pleasurable, they're sort of all the same kind of realm, aren't they?

So I just found that interesting, that they're the same kind of things, these three words. When you rejoice in the Lord, you express your cheerfulness and your gladness or your calm delight in his goodness and his mercy, his kindness, his power, his willingness, his knowledge, his love, his sovereignty, justice and righteousness. Yeah.

I'm just remembering back to the movie Pollyanna from 8 million years ago. The pastor is very stern and he's very fire and brimstone. And she kind of pulls him aside at one point and she tells him how many times in the Bible it talks about gladness. And it's like 600 or 700 times that God talks about gladness.

Right. I think I saw that. It just kind of made me think of that. So that's rejoicing. Cairo is the word. And then if Miles, he could tell us, I think I have that right, but it's the CH is the root of these three words. So Andrew, if you think of race instead In a sense, the root word really extends into our lives. And in verb form, it's rejoice. I don't have that up here, but it's thankfulness, for grace, for terrace. One of the things that we're leading up to is verse 8 in this chapter. is a final aid.

And it's interesting, Edmund, from his grace perspective, this thinking of God's blessings. Yeah. Right. I was thinking about that. Right after that prayer section, 6 and 7, he's going to come back to that and say, put your mind on the things that are you know, it'd be beautiful and lovely. That's certainly an encouragement to these two ladies. Yeah. Yeah. See, and I always kept in mind, it's for all of us, but the very start of it was these two women, and in context, you know, that's what he's sort of addressing.

Well, Andrew, it kind of strikes me, I hadn't thought this before, but Paul, the Lord, or Paul takes a letter to solve human problems and he expounds that into teaching us about our relationship in Christ with one another. He uses that, a very human interaction. We have problems with one another, even believers, but he uses that to expand it into teaching us about so many wonderful things about our interaction with him and with one another. Kind of interesting. Yeah, he makes a whole treatise on Christ, like Christ is all. And now that's good, Bob, right? Christ is all. You're a guardian, Bob.

So we're to rejoice in his essence, right? And when meditating on the Lord and rejoicing, where is your mind focused? Well, it's focused on Him. And then, so that makes it, to your point, Roy, I think too, is if Paul can get these two sisters rejoicing and focused on him, what will happen to that rest?

It will dissolve and the Holy Spirit will work it out. So in verse five now, let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. We have four imperative commands. Rejoice in the Lord. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. Be anxious for nothing. Coming up. Let your requests be known to God. And you can see that they're all four imperatives. And some are present tense, three of them. And then that let your gentle spirit be known to all men is up. Aorist tense, so it's just not present tense, but it just is what it is. And it's passive.

You see that? Letting your gentle spirit be known to all men. It's his life, right? Yeah. And then, who gives this then? Right. All these spirit beds. Yeah. We've done that over in Galatians, didn't we? Yeah. Yeah. That's only part of the whole picture he gives us. let your gentle spirit be known to all men, and let your request be known to God, are going to be sourced out from the Holy Spirit. But you could say rejoicing in the Lord is directed at us, the active voice.

You know, an interesting thing here, the King James, the original, says let your moderation be known. I know, I know. Talk about the world using something to their defense, no matter what their behavior is. The gentleness is a greater attraction. Yeah, that's literally what it means, it's genuineness. So I asked this question, is your gentle spirit, or moderation from the King James, or forbearance, is a word for that, is a fruit spirit.

How many say yes? Love, joy. Well, gentleness is on the list, but I'm not sure it's the same Greek word. Let's find out. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. So moderation is not, or gentleness is not on there. Because then it ends up still in jail, so it rhymes up. The next verse.

No, 23. Go to 23. Oh, it's 23? Yeah, it's 23. It's in there. Yes,

23. What is 23? Those are off the tape. I don't care about that. You mean I just stopped at 23? That's embarrassing. I thought that was funny. Well, never mind. Okay, well, you guys have a nice week. Andrew, it makes you feel better. I've been studying sometimes and I'll... What's the answer? The next person answers this. I've done it so many times. The next person answers my question. Look at me. Anyway, sorry.

Let me go on here. The interesting thing is that at the end of that verse, the Lord is in hand is really the life. Isn't that the Christ life? the fruit of the spirit comes from. It's the light. Yeah. So this word, moderate or gentle spirit or gentleness is F-E-I case.

And there's a word I had to spell it out for myself to pronounce it correctly. I can't believe that I left out half of the Well, those fruits aren't very important. I'm trying to protect the guy's reputation up here. So, and there's moderation in the team names, Bob. And when you did it, you kind of went through this lesson, Bob. You went on moderation and, you know, use moderation.

Let's forget what I said. In moderation. And you said, well, that's not very true or something. Then Marga typed up and she said, you say that every day. It was a good. It was a good passing. So if you have moderation, the better or more clear is gentleness, forbearance, sweet reasonableness, and mildness, is this character. Epi, a case, is the word. And it's this what Paul has in mind.

He says in 1 Timothy 3.2, An elder or overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, there's the word, may be a case, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. So we get the really good idea of what Paul has in mind here when he briefly says, let your gentle spirit be known to all men.

By reading that in Titus 3.1, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. And James, here's what James says, "...but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."

In James 3.17. Macaulay, the opposite of etia case is if one strictly claims their own rights. How often do we see that in the world today? Or if you say, I am in the right on this or I'm sticking to my guts. That's the opposite of the case.

So that's a. So you see how these two verses kind of blossomed out and I couldn't get on to There's a lot here. It's very... It's very beautiful, these few words. One of the things, too, that I noticed here, is that that word carries the idea that you have right now on the screen.

Patience. Long-suffering. Yeah. It has that idea behind it, that when somebody's accusing you of something falsely. You're patient. You endure under that. Yeah. That's forbearing. Forbearing. I like that. And leniency, when someone, you know they're in the wrong, but you're not going to say anything. The idea there is that God's going to make that choice. Exactly. That God's in charge of me. Boy, yeah.

And He is the one if necessary, to bring judgment on somebody else as well. Yeah, and that's the... And think of how tough it is. Sometimes tough, because the old man wants to step up and step in. But see, that's what we're thinking, God's love. We're not thinking our own. Yeah. How about magnanimity? Magnanimity. But yieldingness, it's all that, this lift your gentles through.

And it is an imperative, but it's to be made passively, because it's from the life within. And to make it known or manifest to believers and unbelievers alike. Someone said that, I think it was some colleague, you can't really sit out to do it. It just has to come out from the Holy Spirit, you know. So discuss the verb voice a little bit.

I mean, this is passive. So this is something you're not working on, right? Right, no. It seems that in the flesh we don't ever compensate. for our inadequacy. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, and that ties into the Spirit. It does... it tries to compensate. Yeah, but it can't. How often, I mean, all of a sudden at times when we are defending something that we're going against. Anyway, the application in the new life, the Spirit lets you quit. Absolutely, you know. I'm sorry. Just reflecting on it, just like that.

One example of that that our Lord gave us before the Pilate, He answered non-authoritatively, you know, when He gave forth the truth. I mean, what did Pilate's response? What is truth? I mean, when he was forced to see it. It was in front of them. The person was there, you know, the person who is truth was face to face with them.

Right. Yeah. What about that? Or maybe I added that malleable to malleability is kind of a nice twist on our addition to that for this yielding or gentle spirit. So he ends with, let your gentle spirit be known to all men. And then he wraps that up by saying the Lord is near. So very simple.

But is it nearness in position? Physical space or distance? So if you think of the Lord, you can say that. He's in your heart, He's in your mind, He's in your spirit. So He's near in that way. Is that what Paul means by when he says the Lord is near? Or does he mean near in time?

One thing I noticed is that the is is supplied. It really reads the Lord near. The Lord near. Is is supplied. Not smart enough to I'm not smart enough to know when you can supply it and when you can't, but basically it's the Lord is near. The Lord is near. The Lord near, I'm sorry. Near. Near to us is the Lord.

Well, that's both position and condition, is it not? Yeah, and is it both? As I ask, can it be both? Andrew, on the Greek language terminology, it says passive, the subject receives the action of the verb, and this is the voice of grace. Okay. For the Lord is near? That was the passive. Okay. For gentle, the subject receives. Gentle spirit. The key here is there's really no verb here. You have to supply it in English. And then to make it look down to me. There's no verb here.

And one way you could translate it literally would be the Lord here. Oh yeah, you could actually translate it that way. That's good. I like that. The Lord here. Right. Here. Okay. And it flows with the context. So, and points for that. I made some points in support of the Lord here, or the Lord near. He's present in our hearts. He's dwelling through us in the Holy Spirit. We're abiding in Him as a branch. He's divine. So that's nearness, right? He's right here. He's the source of our life, so that He must be here for that, or near. So do we believe that? That's the question.

And Psalm 34 18, the Lord is near to the broken hearted. So there you have that same thought. If you're broken hearted, the Lord's right there to assuage that situation. Psalm 145 18, the Lord is near to all who call upon him. So, those are the points for it. Yeah. The Lord neared.

Isn't this an introduction to what we're going to talk about next week as far as prayer is concerned? Is eagle afraid of somebody that's a million miles away? People say, does your prayer get past the ceiling? It doesn't matter. The Lord's right there. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a good point. And so that's I'll have to remember that for next week. As you can say, I see I. I only stop at half a thing and I don't consider it as we found out in the latest. So, yeah.

Don't be hard on yourself. I might have to go down to the remedial class. But the other thing is, the Lord is near, it can be near in time or near to the rapture, right? That's a very good interpretation too. Here are the points for those. Turn on the news. The imminency of the rapture is set forth in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18. How about James in 5, 8, 9? You too be patient, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near right at the doors. But that doesn't really help us. And you all like the first position, the Lord is near in His face. He's in our hearts and He's our life.

But there is a context that we have to remember and that's from 3 chapter 320 and 21, for our citizenship is in heaven, Paul had just gotten finished saying, from which we also eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has given the subject all things to himself. So he just said that. That's a rapture verse, right? That's our being transformed physically. So in five, the Lord is near. In context, could you add in the Lord's coming is near?

That's the outer context. The inner context is that you're moderation is known now. It's almost like the rapture's a non-separator, although I think you could interpret it that way. We're talking about a circumstance where the gentleness of the Spirit really is inactive, and still again, we're dealing with the issue. And the rapture, I mean, even though it's possible to interpret that, it seems like the Lord is, Lord, dear, it could be, I mean, it doesn't seem in context that that's the best interpretation.

There's an overview, and there's an immediate view. Yeah, I keep that in mind. If we take the overview, what's he rejoicing about? Here's the first church formed, that the Lord did through his ministry. What an encouragement that was to God. Wow. Yeah, and to think of them with rejoicing, how would it be like?

So this class has changed I'm going with both. Both are, because I was leaning towards number two there. Nearer to the rapture. And he's sticking with that. Either way you look at that, it's positional truth. And either way, you're right. Right? And either way you win. Either way you win. Good. Yeah, that's a great point. So there it is.

How are we doing on time? We're a little over. I'll let you read this at home. It's just a brief statement. And it's what we've covered. A nice statement from William Kelly on this subject for today. But I want to give you a preview of next week. Be anxious for nothing is what we'll cover. And we can summarize that in one picture. You're dating yourself by a lot. You showed us we could have read the other thing, but no, we're taking time for this. But that came to my mind when I, you know, But a lot of people today wouldn't even know who that is. Right. I thought it was just from our childhood. I didn't think anyone would get that. So yeah.

Selena, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and all it does for us and just pray that it comes into our hearts and seeps down deeply so that we can express what you want to be expressed in a life through your son and that's a gentle spirit and that we're always rejoicing. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.