Philippians 4:21-23
Please turn in your copy of the
scriptures to the book of Philippians to the last three verses. We end our study that we began,
I believe, back in February. We took a break or two over Easter
and the summer. But we’ve now made our way to
the very end of the book of Philippians. And we’re grateful for God’s
word and the verse-by-verse explanation of it. It helps us better glorify
God. It helps us better serve one
another as our neighbor. But it also helps us grow in
grace. After Philippians, we’ll spend
five weeks looking at the five solas of the Reformation. Sola
meaning the word alone. We’ll look at scripture alone,
faith alone, Christ alone, the glory of God alone. And there’s
one other one that’s slipping my mind, but we’ll look at five.
I’ll figure out what the other one is before that Sunday. Don’t
worry. But we’ll make our way through there. And then in the
Christmas season for Advent, as we prepare for the coming
of the Lord, we’ll study the book of Ruth. And you’ll see
how at the end of the book of Ruth, God was raising up for
his people a greater kinsman redeemer than Boaz. And the genealogy
at the end shows us the life of King David. Let’s give our
attention now to God’s word to the end of Philippians chapter
four, beginning at verse 21. The apostle Paul from a Roman
prison says these words, greet every saint in Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet
you, especially those of Caesar’s household. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Pray with me. Our God,
we pray now that the Holy Spirit would shine his light into our
hearts, make them tender, shine his light into our minds so that
we can see and think clearly. And we pray that your word would
be a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, that it would help
us to bring glory to your name. It would show us how to serve
our neighbors and it would show us how we can grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and learn to serve you
and to be holy as Christ is holy. Help us in this we do ask and
pray in the name of Christ. Amen. How does a good letter
end? Does it end with words like more
about this later or right again soon? Can’t wait to see you.
Hugs and kisses. Or does a good letter end like
the Apostle Paul’s letter with greetings and grace? How does a good letter end? How does a letter like the Philippians,
the epistle of joy end? How do you end a letter to a
congregation that is 800 miles away? They’ve been under tribulation
and trouble. You’ve spoken to them in your
writings about being more like Christ. being more humble, having
unity in the church, being obedient to God’s holy word, being content
in hard circumstances. How does one end a letter like
that? Well, after preaching through
this letter to the Philippians and Paul has spoken to them and
to us about unity, about enduring hardship. He’s given them a tall
order about holiness and obedience to Christ. He’s called them his
joy, his crown, and he holds them in his heart. How would
be a fitting way to end such a letter? Well, this is a great
example of how to end a wonderful letter like this. You give greetings,
and there’s a lot in the greetings, but you give grace. You give
the grace of Christ in order that the people may do all that
is written in the letter. First, let’s look at the greetings
of the letter. Verses 21 and 22 give us those
greetings. There are four in there. Greet
every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me
greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s
household. There are four greetings from
the Apostle Paul to the saints. And the question comes up, it
ought to come up in our minds, how does one become a saint?
You say, I’m a sinner. How can God call me a saint?
The Philippians were sinners. How can the apostle Paul call
them saints? Well, there’s this wonderful
saying in our theology that we are at the same time justified
and sinners. We are still sinners. But God
has justified us. He has purified us in Christ
and he is taking away our sin. We have a just standing before
the righteous throne of God. We just sang bold. I approach
approach the eternal throne in Christ. But how does a sinner
become a saint? What a wonderful question. Well,
let’s think about how three sinners became saints in Philippians.
Remember the Philippian jailer. Paul and his companions were
in prison. They were praying and the place shook and they became free.
And the Philippian jailer was about to take his life. And Paul
said, no, do not do such a thing. We find later in the story of
the Philippians, we find it in Acts chapter 16, that there was
Lydia, a wealthy merchant, a dealer in purple cloth. How is it that
she became a saint and no longer a sinner? And then there was
that strange slave girl who was a diviner. How is it that she
became a saint and not a sinner? Well, in each of those three
stories, the book of Acts is very specific. In the case of
the jailer, he found himself in a great crisis. His prisoners
were about to escape, so he thought. He was about to put a knife into
his own body and take his own life for if he lost his prisoners,
his life would be taken by the Caesar or those under him. And
so he was in a crisis and he said to Paul and his companions,
what must I do to be saved? And we know the rest of the story.
They were to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus. They were
to be baptized. He and his whole household would come to faith.
The beginnings of the Philippian church. Or how about Lydia, the
wealthy merchant? The book of Acts tells us. that
she became a saint was no longer a sinner because the Lord opened
the eyes of her heart to pay attention. How about this strange
slave girl, this soothsaying slave girl who brought her owners
much wealth because she predicted things and they came true and
people paid great money. Well, the apostles said nothing
to her, but the words come out of her. and that wicked spirit
left and she was no longer useful to her owners, but she became
useful to the cause of the gospel. So how does a sinner become a
saint? Well, we understand it’s not through some Roman Catholic
process where after someone’s death, we look at the list of
all their achievements in life and we say, wow, what a great
person, they now have sainthood. No, every Christian, every person
who comes to faith in Jesus becomes a saint. Every person who comes
to faith in Jesus, believing that he obeyed God perfectly,
that he suffered under the wrath and curses of this world and
the wrath and curses of God, that he died a death that atoned
for our sin. Every person that lays hold of
that It’s by faith in Jesus washed clean, made new, made whole and
set apart or made holy by God. So how is it that each of us
becomes a saint? It is through not our own work. But the precious work of the
Lord Jesus, his obedience, his death, his suffering, his work
on our behalf. And we simply lay hold of it
by faith. And Jesus makes us clean. He washes us. He cleanses us. He sets us apart. He makes us
into a new creation. The old is gone. The new has
come. And then he places us in his
new covenant community, his church, where we might grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, where we might love what
is good and hate what is evil, where we might put to death our
sins and what in us is fleshly and of our old nature and where
we might grow in grace. And so in this greeting, This
little two or three verse ending to the Apostle Paul’s letter,
we find a lot of meat. We find a lot of good food for
our souls. And in these four greetings,
the Apostle Paul greets every saint in Philippi. He sends greetings
from his entourage who is with him. It’s Paul and his Roman
imprisonment, probably Timothy, Epaphroditus. Some say that Luke
is with him and others. They send their greetings. There’s
a third greeting. All saints in Rome, the gospel
has made its way to Rome and there is springing up in that
great city, that metropolis of the world, the center of the
universe at that time, there is springing up a church. of
people who have been called out of darkness and into the marvelous
light of the Lord Jesus. They send their greetings as
well. And then there’s a mysterious little phrase, an interesting
phrase, and also those of Caesar’s household. And so in this greeting,
where the apostle Paul greets the saints at Philippi, sends
others greetings along with, he calls them saints. those who
have been set apart and made holy by God. And we see that
there are saints all over the world. They’re in Rome. They’re
in Paul’s little prison cell. They’re in Philippi. They’re
here today. And they have even reached the
household of Caesar. with the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
And so we see in this greeting many wonderful and good and precious
things. The gospel has been proclaimed. The church has been established.
The church is growing and thriving. And this greeting reminds us
of a couple of things. It reminds us of how far the
gospel can go when we faithfully preach it. It reminds us that
we have been changed from sinners into saints. But it also reminds
us that we are connected to other people. Now we’re good Presbyterians. We are connected to the other
churches of our Presbytery in the state of North Carolina.
We’re good Presbyterians. We are connected to the Senate
of the Associate Reform Presbyterian Church in North America. We’re
good Presbyterians. We are connected to the Associate
Reform Presbyterian Senate in Mexico and the one over in the
country of Pakistan. We are connected to other reformed
churches in which we find ourselves in fraternal or brotherly relations. The Presbyterian Church in America,
the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and other reformed denominations.
But even greater than that, we are connected to all who have
professed faith in the Lord Jesus. and who call on his name and
worship at his footstool. It reaches across denominational
lines. It reaches across gender. It reaches across nationality.
It reaches across socioeconomic conditions. Remember that Paul
has done a little bit of fussing in this book. He’s told Euodia
and Syntyche to get along, yet he greets them as saints in Christ
Jesus. Maybe a few verses back, they
weren’t really saints, they were more sinners. He greets the congregation
who he’s had to fuss at because they’ve allowed a little bit
of false doctrine in. He greets all in Christ Jesus
because Jesus has brought them peace and they are saints together. Now, there’s an interesting little
factoid about this passage. In the language of the New Testament,
when he says, greetings to you, greet every saint in Jesus Christ,
there in verse 21, he’s literally saying, whoever’s gonna read
this letter, as he says, greet all the saints, he looks at them
one by one, and he goes along the line to Ed and to James and
down the row and down this row and back this row. It kind of
reminds me of, Oh, what’s that wonderful movie? I was talking
with my kids about it yesterday. The Sound of Music. When the
Von Trapp children are trained by their new governess to sing
a little goodnight song, the father’s hosting a dinner party
and it’s time for the children to go to bed. And so they stand
on the rails overlooking the great crowd below and they sing
goodbye, farewell to you and you and you. And throughout that
whole song, you hear that little refrain to you and you and you,
and you can hear that echo through the apostle Paul’s greeting greetings
to every saint in Christ Jesus. He names them by name. He names
them specifically because that is what Christ has done as he
saves each and every one of us through his precious blood. And
so we are connected to others. We are greeted personally. We
need to remember that, that we are connected. We are connected
to the saints who have gone before us in heaven. Maybe you have
a loved one who’s gone before you in death and you feel disconnected
to them, but no, you are connected in Christ to them. Today as we
worship, today as we worship, we’re connected to those around
the world and those who are before the throne in Christ Jesus, worshiping
in heaven. It’s interesting, isn’t it? As
you make your way around the world, sometimes you find another Christian.
Just yesterday, my wife was passing through a security check at a
ball game and the worker said to her, isn’t it a shame we have
to do all this? This is supposed to be a family
friendly event and we have to do all this. And she said, yes,
but we get to trust the Lord. These are strange times. We get
to trust the Lord. And he spoke back to her quoting Bible verses.
And there in the midst of a crowd of 30,000 or so people, there
was a little conversation between two saints and Christ Jesus.
We never know when we will run into someone. And so we give
greetings. We speak to our loved ones in
Christ. You know, we were all taught
when we were young and if we’ve been raised right, we’re taught
it’s rude not to speak to people. You know, sometimes you’re in
Walmart and you see so-and-so on the medicine aisle and you’re
headed this way to get your coffee. grinds or filters or whatever.
And you say, if maybe I don’t look that way, I won’t see them.
And you know how we are in the South, bless her heart. She’s
so rude or he’s so rude. We’re supposed to speak to one
another. We’re supposed to hello, give greetings. And especially
so in the household of faith. Let me ask you something. Have
you been greeted by Christ? Has he come to you? And spoken
his word directly into your face. And you know, in your mind, in
your heart, that it is no other person than Jesus speaking. Has
he greeted you? and said, come to me, all who
are weary, I will give you rest. Has he said that specifically
to you? You see the Christian faith, the Christian community,
the way Jesus works, the way the gospel works is it is a greeting
gospel. It is a gospel of grace that
changes sinners into saints. Have you had a crisis like the
Philippian jailer and you are nearly at death And you say,
what must I do to be saved? Or are you like the slave girl,
the soothsaying slave girl who is possessed by evil and you’re
making great gain for others who are exploiting you? Has Jesus
come and said to that spirit, come out of you and rescued you.
Or how about Lydia, a prosperous woman, a woman by all accounts
who didn’t really need God. She had all she needed. Thank
you very much. She was wealthy. She was prosperous. She was able
to provide for others. What need did she have for someone
to provide for her? But as God come into your heart
and opened your eyes to see the glories of the gospel, you see
these last verses of this letter, these greetings and this grace,
they’re not to be read over and skipped over. I had maybe a dozen
commentaries to read as I studied for this passage. Do you know
that about eight of the 12 just blew right over these verses?
They blew right past them and said, yeah, Paul’s given his
usual ending, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But only about four
took it seriously and said, do you see the wonderful eternal
truths that are in these passages? And so in the greetings, we read
these wonderful truths. How about the last verse, the
grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We need a little lesson in grace.
There’s a story that a teacher tells about a class, and at the
outset of the class, he tells his students, you’ll write two
papers during the course of the term, and at the end of the term,
you’ll have a final examination. One paper is due one-third of
the way through, the second is due two-thirds of the way through,
and then at the end, you’ll have your final exam. Well, wouldn’t
you know it, the first paper was due one-third of the way
through the class. 90% of the class brought their papers and
handed them in. 10% said, oh, please, dear teacher, as they
placed an apple on his desk, can we have an extension? The
dog ate my homework, or my pencil wasn’t sharp, or the bears were
on TV, or something like that. And the professor said, oh, sure,
turn it in to me next day, and I’ll give you your grade. Well,
wouldn’t you know it, second paper was due. And not just 10%
of the class failed to bring their paper, but 20%. And so,
oh, dear professor, putting an apple on the desk, you know,
times have gotten tough and school is hard and I’ve got five other
classes and I couldn’t get my paper in on time. And the professor
looks at the one who’s first in line and says, you forgot
your paper last time, didn’t you? And he pulls out his book
and he marks an F. You flunked, you failed this
paper. And of course, living in the times we do, that teacher,
that professor tells the story and says, that student cries
out the eternal cry of the day. That’s not fair. Oh, it’s fairness you want, the
professor says. He pulls out his record book and he goes back
to that first paper, which was late, and he writes F. in the
blank. If it’s fairness you want, I’ll
give you fairness. You see, I gave you grace and
you took advantage of my grace and now my mercy is over. You see, friends, we need a dose
of an understanding of grace. You see, grace, grace is, grace
is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting something that
we could never accomplish, never pay for, never earn, never achieve.
You see, we deserve to get what is coming to us. We deserve the
wrath of God for our sin. We deserve the curse of God for
our sin. We deserve the alienation that
we experience relationally from God for our sin. We deserve the
eternal punishment of God in hell for our sin. But God who
is rich in mercy comes to us in grace. And because he made
an oath, a covenant long ago to love a people with an everlasting
love, to give a people to Abraham that would outnumber the sand
on the seashore and the stars of the heaven, God’s eternal
promise and covenant, it comes true in Jesus. And we see grace
on display in Christ. And God gives us His favor. It’s unmerited. It’s undeserved. We are freely given what we could
never earn. We need to remember that we,
because we’re born in Adam, our first parent, we are born in
sin. We are born with original sin.
And from that original sin, from that rotten heart that is within
us, actual sins do proceed. and we are born guilty, and we
continue to heap that guilt upon ourselves, and it piles up to
the heaven of heavens, to the judgment of God, and if he gave
us what we deserved, we could not stand it. But by his grace,
he gave Jesus on the cross what he did not deserve, and that
was his wrath and his curse, and Jesus made atonement for
our sins. God, who is rich in mercy, has
saved us. Or as Paul writes in Ephesians,
but it’s by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not
of your own works so that no man can boast. It is the free
gift of almighty God. And so in this last little verse,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you or be with your spirit.
It’s a benediction. It’s a good word. All right,
you Philippians, I’ve told you to be holy, to be obedient, to
get along, to be humble, to be like Jesus. to agree in the Lord,
to have the same mind as the mind of Christ. I’ve told you
all these things. Now I’m going to bless you so
that you can do it. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
be with your spirit. We just sang the wonderful hymn,
amazing grace. Tis grace has brought me safe thus far is tis
grace. that will lead me home. Friends,
we need grace all the time. We need grace in that Jesus died
in our place and saved us. But we need grace day by day,
moment by moment, night by night, new mercies each day until we
get safely home to heaven. And so you see what the apostle
Paul is saying to the Philippians. It’s a hard life. There’s persecution. There’s trouble in the church.
but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And so the grace of Christ, which
saves us, it also empowers us and it carries us day by day
until we get to heaven’s shores. So how does a good letter end? Grace to you, or the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Pray with
me. Our Lord and God, we thank you
for this letter’s ending. We thank you for what it teaches
us about ourselves and about our great God. We thank you for
King Jesus who rules us from his throne by his grace, for
his glory, for our good. And we pray that as we walk from
this place, Sunday after Sunday, that our hearts would beat for
Jesus, that our hearts would be filled full of joy. and that
we can, by your grace and by your power, live lives that are
pleasing in your sight, but also lives that are bright spots to
the watching world. And we pray that more men and
women and boys and girls may come to faith in Jesus as they
ask us who we are and what has changed us and made us into the
people we are. May we be quick to give an account
of the hope that is within us. May we be quick to speak of Jesus
and the transforming power of the gospel in us and found in
the holy word and make more people worship you because we live faithfully
out of your grace. And we ask for your help in this
in Jesus name. Amen. Let us stand together and
respond to God’s word as we sing number 283. We are God’s people.