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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Notice what it says in verse 1: who are in Philippi. In other words, On this earth, you happen to be citizens of the Roman Empire in the Roman colony called the city of Philippi.
So We are residents of two realms. In this case, if we were in Philippi, where In Christ, but in Philippi.
So, because we're residents of two realms, we should live responsible. In both realms, be responsible citizens in Christ and in Philippi. Jesus I prayed this. My prayer, praying to his father in John 17, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world. but that you keep them from the evil one.
Please understand his heart cry. Father, don't take them out of this world. Just keep them from the evil one while they're in this world. In other words, Jesus never intended for you to live in a cave. or a monastery is a hermit.
And to be uninvolved and disassociated from your world and your society. In fact, Jesus said this, and it must have startled his disciples. Jesus said, Behold, I am sending you out. Like sheep. in the midst of wolves.
If I heard that, I would have said. Why? You don't love me very much if you want to send me your sheep in the midst of wolves. You must be cruel. No, he's kind.
He loves wolves so much that sending his sheep out in the midst of them may turn some of those wolves into some of his sheep. That's the purpose of it. But this then becomes a struggle to us. Part of our struggle is Knowing how to balance. Both passports.
I'm in Christ, but I'm in Albuquerque. I'm in Christ, but I'm in Philippi.
So, we have responsibilities to both. How do we balance that? One of the ways we balance it. is make sure that you are talking to Christ. about your syllopi.
And talking to Philippi about your Christ. When you talk to Jesus, when you pray to him, tell him about your neighbors, your neighborhood, your city, the problems in your city. Pray about where you live. And then tell your Philippi about your Christ. Tell people who don't know the Lord about what following Jesus is like.
That will keep you and I in the balance of carrying responsibly. Two passports in this dual citizenship in which we live. We're responsible to him, but we're responsible in our culture. Back in the days of what is called the Jesus movement, I always feel like I need to explain that nowadays because that's so old. From Memory.
The Jesus movement was a phenomenon in the 60s and 70s, whereby thousands upon thousands of young people were coming to Christ in droves, especially on the west coast. It was a phenomenon. But we all believe that Jesus was coming soon. I still believe that. But we believe what that meant is he's coming so soon, might as well just do nothing, just sit around and wait for him.
Just enjoy yourself because he'll be here well any minute.
So it created a lot of people who were irresponsible. And I remember when I announced to some of my friends that I was going to go to college. They go, college? Jesus will come back before you graduate from college. I say, well, if he does, he'll find me a college.
And last time I checked, colleges need to hear about Jesus. They're not like the bastion of righteousness and goodness. I feel colleges need a good witness.
So that's where I'm going to be. If he comes back before I am done. Bye. Jesus said he was coming, but he also said, occupy until I come. Stay responsible, stay busy, stay involved, stay engaged.
So we are in Christ, but we are in Philippi. A saint belongs to two spheres. Yeah. There's a A second quality of a saint, a New Testament saint, a saint behaves. Submissively.
In other words, a saint is a servant. Again, notice in verse 1, I know I touched on it last week. But there's always more in a verse, you know.
So I did one verse last week, I'm doing verse one and two this week. But just look at that word: Paul and Timothy, bond servants. of Jesus Christ. Don't you love How Paul introduces himself. He didn't say, Paul and Timothy.
Bigwigs. Or Dr. Paul and Dr. Timothy, eminent theologians writing to you, low lifers in Philippi. who really don't know theology like I do.
He came as low as you can get. We are bond slaves. Of Jesus Christ.
Now, Paul is writing as a slave, as a servant. Two Saints But look at it this way: he's writing as a servant to servants. You see, throughout this book, he's going to encourage them to become like him. Chapter 2, he's going to say, Let this mind be in you, which was also even in Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God did not think it robbery to be the same on the same par as God, but he emptied himself and became a bond servant.
So be servants like Jesus was a servant and like I am a servant.
So he's riding as a servant. Two servants.
Now, when they heard the term bond slave or bondservant. It sounded different to their ears than it does to our ears. We have eradicated slavery in our culture. In the Roman Empire, slavery was 40% of the population still. 40% of people in the Roman Empire were owned by other human beings.
at that time. But it was a enforced kind of a slavery. They were often despised and slaves were regarded as simply a piece of property.
Now, there was a slavery even in Judaism in the religious sector. But if you know your Old Testament, you know that You could have a slave for six years. You had to treat them very kindly. And then on the seventh year, you released them. But if the slave loved the master, Do you remember there was a ceremony?
The slave could say, No, no, no, I want to serve my master for the rest of my life. The ceremony was: you take your slave to the doorpost and you run a spike through his earlobe or an awl, like you'd get an earring, you pierce it. And you would designate that person as a servant. Voluntarily for life. That's the idea of a New Testament bondservant.
I'm a bondservant of Jesus, not because I have to. I signed up for this. I want to. A voluntary bondservant bound willfully to Christ.
Now, this is important terminology because there's another New Testament term that you hear a lot or read a lot in the New Testament, is the word redeem. Christians are fond of saying, I'm redeemed. We don't always. Understand what it means. Redeem, used 20 times in the New Testament, means to go to the slave market.
And pay a price for that slave, releasing that slave from the slave market. to be your slave.
So here's what redeemed means. When you say I'm redeemed by Jesus, it doesn't mean I'm set free to be me. I'm set free so I can do whatever I want. No, you are redeemed from the slave market to be a slave. Of Jesus.
You're called to a higher slavery. That's what it means. Romans chapter 6. Paul says, once you were slaves of sin.
Now you have obeyed with all your heart, The new teaching that God has given you.
Now you are free from sin, your old master. And have become slaves to your New master Righteousness.
So being a believer means you've defected. You ran away from your old master. Sin used by Satan to keep you bound, keep you in fetters. You ran from that. to a higher form of slavery.
To willingly obey him. That's what surrendering your life to Jesus means. You are free to be his slave. Bondservants of Jesus Christ. I've always loved the story about the husband and wife.
They were talking about. Going to the Holy Land on a tour. And the husband got all amped, got so excited. He said, I can't wait. Let's go.
Come on, let's go to Israel. Let's go to the Holy Land. And he said, Can you imagine standing on Mount Sinai and just shouting the Ten Commandments? And his wife, not so excited to go and wanting to save a little bit of money, she goes, I think it would be better if we just stayed home and kept. The Ten Commandments.
Now, I don't want to give that little illustration to dissuade you if you want to sign up for our tour to Israel. No, I think you can do both. I think you can. obey them at home, but then go see it and shout it from That mountain.
So being a saint then is not having an emotional goose bump. Being a saint is having a submissive heart. That's part of sainthood. It's a living, breathing person who lives in two spheres in Christ, in Philippi. But is submissive to the commands of Christ.
Jesus said, if you love me, you'll. Keep my commandments. You know, one of the things I love about you is your excitement in worship.
Some of you are very, very excited and emotional in worship, and I always think that God is the most worthy being in the universe and should be told so, and our expression shouldn't be lackluster, it should be all-in.
However, It's not how high you jump. It's how straight you walk when you hit the ground. It's wonderful to get all excited about worship, but it's better when you get more excited about doing what he said to do. That's a saint. The saint behaves submissively.
There's a third quality I want you to notice. A saint believes. in the scriptures. A saint believes in the scriptures. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heidzig.
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Now let's get back to today's teaching.
Now I'm not going to refer to a particular verse in verse 1 and 2 or word. I want you to step back for a moment. From these two verses, and consider the whole book of Philippians for just a moment, the whole book, a letter. Paul wrote four chapters, one hundred and four verses to be exact in our Bibles. And that is the letter to the Philippian church.
It's a short letter or a moderately sized letter. Piece of correspondence.
Now, when they received the letter, you know what they did? They read it. Ah, but they didn't just read it. Obeyed it. And then they did something else.
They circulated it to other congregations. You know why they did that? It wasn't just because Paul wrote it. They actually believed that what Paul was writing was from God. That it was the scripture, that we apply it and we share it and we use it in discipleship because we believe that the writings of Paul.
They believed from an early stage on was directly from the Lord.
So, when Peter writes his letter in Second Peter, he refers to Paul's writings as scripture. The Thessalonian church. Paul noted to them: When you receive my teaching, you received it not just as human words, but as it is, in fact, the very word of God. And Paul believed, he was confident that he wrote with God's authority.
Now, look at verse 2: grace and peace to you. Notice the authority base behind him. From God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now all of that to say this. Saints are not people who glow in the dark. Saints are not people who live perfect lives. Saints are not people who go through an elaborate canonization process over years. Saints Are people who believe that God has no problem superintending the writing of a book?
God has no problem making sure that human authors like Paul and Peter and John wrote what the divine author intended.
So that the words of these authors Can at the same time be the very word of God. Because that's how the early church took this, it is God's word to us. A saint believes The scriptures.
Now I know there are no patron saints. But if there were I'd want to be the patron saint of Bible readers. I love people who love their Bibles. I love people who ask Bible questions. I love people who are always immersed in the things of God and the scriptures.
I've been reading the Bible now for 44 years. And every single time I open my Bible, I find something to wow over. I didn't notice that. Look at that. or trying to reorient myself to understand how it all fits together.
I did a funeral.
sometime back of a former staff member. He was a former member of our pastoral staff. He was a leader of a great group for years, a leader of the Navigators, a great, great discipleship ministry, and he memorized. Whole portions of scripture. I was always amazed sitting and talking to George and having him counsel or just how well he knew the scriptures and it was a part of his everyday life and he spent so much daily time not only memorizing but being able to communicate them.
So I did his funeral, and after I was done with the funeral, his family walked up to me and handed me this. His Bible. His Bible. I thought, oh man, this is, you sure you want me to have it? He goes, oh, George would want you to have it.
So I have his Bible, and as I received it with humility, I thought, how much of this? Book. was stored in that man's heart. It was just a part of the fabric of his life, which leads me to ask us all a question: What is your attitude? Yeah.
The book. Does The book. Occupy a prominent position in your life. Is it the book or is it a book? How important is it?
Now, I will say this: your love for the Bible is directly proportional to your relationship to its author. Your love for the Bible is directly proportional to your relationship to its author, to God. Here's an example. There was a woman who bought a book. From her bookstore, local bookstore.
She started reading a few pages. Then a chapter. She couldn't make it past a chapter or two. She put the book down because she said it was dull. It was boring.
She was done with it. Until she met the author. She met the author, A Friendship. Struck up. Then a romantic relationship developed.
They were both unattached.
Now they're romantically attached suddenly. She was looking for that book. And when she read that book, it was a different book. She wanted to turn over every phrase and every sentence and wonder: what did he mean by that? And what's that experience about?
What made the difference? Love, a love relationship. Love was now the interpreter. of that book. And so let me just say this.
What if from now on You saw the Bible. as a love letter. From God to you. If you started seeing the Bible as a love letter from God to you, I dare say we would all read it differently. We wouldn't just read in the Bible, we would feed on.
the Bible. What did he mean by that? What is that phrase all about? What's this experience?
So a saint believes in the scriptures. And here's a fourth and final quality: a saint benefits. spiritually. That's the second verse. Paul writes, Grace to you and peace.
From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's wishing that they will experience God's grace and enjoy God's peace.
Now I know. I know this is a typical salutation. It's a typical ancient salutation. You could look up Thousands of letters from antiquity, thousands of papyri fragments, and you will find a very similar. Orientation, which by the way, I like the way old letters were written like this.
And here's why. It's going to sound kind of dumb, but they put their name, the author puts the name at the beginning. You know, when we write a letter, we say, dear so-and-so, we write the letter, and at the very end, we go signed and we put our name.
So what I do whenever I get a letter, what's the first thing I do? I turn it over to find out who it's from.
So it's just awfully nice that we begin Paul and Timothy.
Okay, now I know who wrote it. To the saints at Philippi.
Okay, now I know who it's addressed to. It's all there in one little sentence. But what Paul does is Paul combines greetings from the Western world. And greetings from the Middle Eastern world and combines them into one greeting. And then he tweaks it a little bit.
Let me explain that. The common Greek greeting two thousand years ago in the Greek-speaking world. Was the word rejoice? Rejoice Kyré, they would say in Greek. Kyre, you'd see somebody, Kyrie, rejoice.
In the Middle East, in Israel, when you saw somebody, you'd say, peace, shalom. Hello and goodbye. Shalom, shalom.
So, what Paul does is he combines the Western Kairai and Shalom. Puts them together. But he changes the word rejoice, Kairai, into a very similar word. Caris which is grace. Not just rejoice, but grace and peace.
These are called the Siamese twins of the New Testament because you always find them together. You always find grace and peace together. And the order is never reversed. You'll never find peace and grace. You know why that is?
Because it's grace. that produces peace. God's grace produces peace. When you have experienced the grace of God, you start experiencing the peace of God. Grace is the fountain.
Peace is the stream that flows from The fountain of grace.
So let me ask you: do you have peace today? Is there peace in your heart? Because if there is not peace in your heart, could it be that you've not experienced? The grace of God. Did you know that Caesar Augustus?
The Emperor of Rome once heard that there was a man in that city of Rome, who, though he had many problems in life, and was sky-high in debt. slept like a baby every night. And that intrigued. The Caesar.
So he demanded that that man be brought before him, and when he did, Caesar offered to buy that man's bed. He thought that was the answer to a good night's sleep. It's a tempur-pedic mattress. It's the right sleep number. But that is not the answer.
The ability to sleep with a clear conscience and a heart at ease comes from understanding the grace. of God. And that settles the peace. Romans 5. Verse 1: Therefore, we have been justified through faith.
That's God's grace. And so we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace. And then peace.
So News flash. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, if you belong to Christ, you are a. Saint. You can nudge your wife to go, I'm a saint. Remember that.
Husband, I'm a saint.
So It's perfectly appropriate if you want to call me Saint Skip from now on. Just saying, it's got a ring to it. Biblical.
Somebody asked a little boy if he knew what a saint was, and the little boy was raised in a traditional church, and all he knew were stained glass windows. He goes, I know what a saint is. It's a person the light shines through. He's on to something, isn't he? The light of the gospel, the light of Christ shines through you.
Imperfect, perhaps, certainly. But the light shines through.
So, you and I, we are saints in Christ Jesus in Philippi or Albuquerque or wherever we might live.
Now the word saint means holy. or the most holy thing. Hagias. And I know you're going, yeah, man, I don't feel that way. And your wife's going, and you don't act that way.
But I want you to know God sees you that way. And the reason God sees you that way is because you are in. Christ.
So You might want to think of it this way: God sees you through rose-colored glasses. God sees you through blood-stained glasses. Because of what Jesus did for you on the cross, he sees you in Christ and He sees you as righteous. Not because of what you've done, but because of what he's done. He sees you.
through rose coloured. Glasses. And he says, you're a saint.
So, when you think about it, then there's really only two kinds of people in the world. Saints And eight. You're either a saint or you ain't. And I hope he is. Yeah.
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