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Guest (Male): In scripture, we often read references to the saints. Who are they? Here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: You are. Every one of you, the Bible says, are a saint. In multiple places, Paul refers to believers as saints. In Greek, the word for saints is *Hagios*. Listen, this is what the Bible says about you being a saint. Positionally, you are physically pure, morally blameless. You're consecrated.

Guest (Male): Pastor Thom Keller of Calvary Chapel Lebanon continues in the opening study in the book of Philippians today on Study the Word. Paul originally preached the gospel in the town of Philippi, but now he finds himself in prison.

We as Christians often find ourselves at odds with society. This is nothing new as we read about Paul's suffering for the sake of the gospel. You may recall Jesus himself told us that the world hated him and would also hate his followers. So what does Paul do in the face of persecution? What will you do? Let's join Pastor Thom and find out as we continue in our study in Philippians chapter one.

Pastor Thom Keller: The Roman loyalists helps explain why Paul and Barnabas were so quickly thrown in jail in Philippi because the charges leveled against Paul would have infuriated these Roman loyalists to the core. Here's what they were charged with in Acts 16.

When they went to Philippi, it says the whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews, they shouted to the city officials. Being Roman loyalists, they are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice. Now that in another city, maybe that wouldn't have had that great effect. In a colony city, that was treasonous. And this sets up Paul's final days in Philippi on his second missionary journey, which took place in jail.

Acts 16:22, the very next verse to what we just read. A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. How do you like that? Stripped, beaten with rods, and at midnight they're singing hymns to God. And the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off. Then down in verse 35, it continues to this.

The next morning, the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, "Let those men go." So the jailer told Paul, "The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace." But Paul replied, "They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison, and we are Roman citizens. So now they want us to leave secretly? Certainly not. Let them come themselves to release us."

When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. So they came to the jail and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city. When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia, which was in Philippi. There they met with the believers, encouraged them once more, then they left town.

Something parenthetically I love about Paul: whenever he got beat up, thrown in jail, manhandled, and let go, he'd always go back into the city one more time. He never high-tailed it. He'd go back one more time. That's just who Paul was.

So this is how Paul's first missionary stay in Philippi ended. Barclay says, "Paul left in a storm of persecution, illegal beating, and imprisonment." That's his recollection of Philippi. And remember, Paul wrote this letter while he was a prisoner in Rome, awaiting his trial.

At the point Paul wrote this, his last prison letter, his first court hearing in Rome would have taken place and apparently had gone well. Because of that, he was confident that he was soon going to be released from prison in Rome. In fact, he was set free in 63 AD. And this might help explain how Paul could muster up these words to write such a positive letter with such joy while imprisoned: in that he felt that he was soon going to be set free.

Seventeen times in this short letter, Paul mentions the words joy and rejoice while in chains. One other important distinction about Paul's letter to the Philippians is that in it, Paul does not address any grave concerns as he does in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, or Galatians, or Colossians. So you do not sense Paul's typical strategic word-crafting designed to get to a point and take on his detractors or to settle some theological dispute. That was not taking place in Philippi.

However, because of Paul's remembrances of how his time in Philippi ended, he wrote of that experience. Many years ago, I wrote in my Bible above the title "Philippians" these words. I wrote, "Before reading Philippians, read 1 Thessalonians 2:2." So let's do that.

1 Thessalonians 2:2 says, "We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition." We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi. ESV says, "suffered and been treated shamefully in Philippi." And this was all due to an exorcism that Paul performed on a fortune-telling slave girl.

So we see that Paul maintained clear recollection of his suffering and the outrageous shame that he suffered in Philippi. And just one last point of background: whenever Paul visited a new city, the first place that he would go to preach was a Jewish synagogue. And so in any book of the Bible, in any of his travels, when you find Paul entering a city and not going to a synagogue to preach, most biblical scholars believe that it was because that city did not have a synagogue.

Now that's significant. Why? Because Jewish law dictated that any town or city that had at least ten male Jews... this is the synagogue in Capernaum... any city or town that had a minimum of ten male Jews was required to build a synagogue. And apparently, Paul did not find a synagogue in Philippi. So what does that say? Well, let's look at chapter 16 verse 12.

From there we reached Philippi, the major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath, we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank. Now, on a Sabbath, he would typically go to a synagogue. He did not. He went to a riverbank where we thought people would be meeting for prayer. And we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.

One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth who worshipped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. So because of this, we know that this letter to the Philippians would have been a letter primarily to Gentiles, not to Jews, because there weren't ten male Jews in Philippi.

Now with that background, let's dig in. Philippians 1:1-2. "This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and deacons. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace."

First thing we notice is that this letter is from Paul and Timothy. Now, if we've read Paul's letters, what is obvious in its absence is Paul's usual claiming of apostolic authority in writing the letter. Now this proves to us at the very opening of this letter that Paul is not dealing with any controversy in the church driven by false teachers who normally deny Paul's right of apostleship or to exert authority in the church.

This is how most of Paul's letters begin. These are all chapter one verse one. Every one, chapter one verse one. Colossians 1:1: "This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus." 1 Corinthians 1:1: "This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus." Next, 2 Corinthians: "This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus."

Titus 1:1: "This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Christ Jesus." And then Romans 1:1: "This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach the good news." But here in Philippians, he just says he's a slave of Jesus Christ. Doesn't mention his apostleship. Again, making the point he was not needing to assert his authority over those who might have been detractors in the church in Philippi.

He just says, "a slave of Jesus Christ." In Greek, the word is *doulos*, which means bondservant. Strong's Concordance says, "devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests." Devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests. And isn't that who we are to be? That we are to be devoted to Christ to the disregard of our own interests. We are a slave to Christ.

Again, Philippians 1:1 New King James: "Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons." Now, it says that it is from Paul and Timothy, and I always think that it speaks to Paul's humility. I know that he had other reasons for doing that, probably for lifting up Timothy to the people of Philippi. But it's interesting when you say this letter is from A and B, you're kind of giving equal billing. It puts both of them on equal footing with his audience, and I think that speaks volumes of Paul.

And then Paul writes here, "to the saints, the bishops, and the deacons at Philippi." Who are the saints that Paul is referring to? Well, he's speaking to the individual members of the church in Philippi. So who are the saints here at Calvary Chapel? You are. Every one of you, the Bible says, are a saint. In multiple places, Paul refers to believers as saints.

And do you know what's amazing about that? In Greek, the word for saints is *Hagios*. Listen, this is what the Bible says about you being a saint. You are physically pure, you are morally blameless, you're consecrated. You're physically pure, morally blameless, consecrated. And positionally, ladies and gentlemen, this is true. All of you, positionally, you are physically pure, you are morally blameless, you're consecrated.

You say, "But I'm not really morally blameless. My actions, my words, my thoughts are not always pure and blameless." Well, a verse that speaks to this is Hebrews 10:14. Speaking of Christ, it says, "For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

I've mentioned this before: I love this verse because it makes so clear where we stand positionally relative to sanctification. That when God sees you positionally, he sees you perfect forever. Now, forever means from now and tomorrow and the next day and next week and next month and next year and the next ten years. He sees you perfect forever. He's not surprised by what's going to happen in a week or two weeks from now. He sees you, knowing all of that, he sees you perfect forever.

And yet at the same time, he is making you holy. Now, you don't need to be made holy if you're perfect, right? But that's the sanctification process. That's a cleaning process. But how he sees you right now is forever perfect. That's how he sees you. And the genius of that is the relationship that that then gives us with God because it takes away any fear of what he might do because of our still needing sanctification, because positionally he sees us as perfect.

Philippians 1:1. "This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and the deacons." Some translations say "to the elders," some say "bishops and deacons." Both words bishop and deacons are used here for the very first time as a title in the church, as an office in the church.

Bishop is the Greek word *episkopos*; it means an overseer. A deacon is *diakonos*, and it means one who runs errands or one who serves. And so the church is filled with everyone as one in one of those two categories. Some oversee in different settings, and some serve.

Then Philippians 1:2 says, "May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace." Now this is Paul's standard greeting. We find it in Romans, in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Grace and peace.

And the word for grace in Greek is *charis*. It's used 156 times in the New Testament. And many if you listen to people speak on this, they'll say that it means God's unmerited favor, which is really the same definition as mercy. God's unmerited favor. And it can mean that. It can mean God's unmerited favor.

But out of the 156 times, 155 times this is actually the meaning: Strong's, "divine influence upon the heart and the response of the heart thus influenced." Listen again: God's divine influence upon the heart and the response of the heart thus influenced. So we're saved by grace. We're saved by God's divine influence upon your heart and your response to his call to you.

You're saved by grace, by his divine influence acting upon you. We minister by grace. We serve by grace. By God's divine influence acting upon your heart, and then you responding to that influence in service. We love by grace. We love because God's divine influence comes upon our heart to love someone, to love the unlovely, and then the response of that heart thus influenced is then to love them.

This concept of grace is a powerful concept. I suspect of all of the significant principles that God has in the Bible, the one that we, or one of the ones that we really don't quite connect with is the significance of grace. And to me that's evidenced by almost every letter in the New Testament, Paul and other writers either begins with or ends with grace and peace be with you.

Grace was a huge word to the early church because they understood its significance. We can't come to Christ without grace. We can't serve without grace. We can't love without grace. Grace and peace. And peace, the word in Greek, the word for peace is *eirene*. And again Strong's says this: "the tranquil state, which means the quietness, of a soul certain of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God, and content with his or her earthly lot, whatever that may be."

Listen again: the tranquil state of a soul certain of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God, and content with his or her earthly lot, whatever that may be. Grace and peace, Paul's standard greeting and ending. Chuck Smith calls grace and peace the Siamese twins of Paul's greetings. And they are always listed in that order. Always grace first and then peace. Always.

Because you will never know the peace of God, you will never truly know the peace of God until you have first experienced the grace of God. Ephesians 2:8 makes this point: "For by grace you have been saved through faith." By God's divine influence acting upon you and the response of your heart thus influenced. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

It's a gift. You will never experience true peace, the tranquil state of your soul certain of your salvation through Christ, fearing nothing from God until you are fully convinced that your salvation is by grace alone, a free gift, and not conditional based upon your works or your performance.

Why is it impossible to have true peace with God apart from depending fully on God's grace? Because until then, God's love for you will always feel conditional based upon your behavior, your performance. Because without learning to lean fully on grace, you are making God's love conditional. He is not. That doesn't come from him; that comes from you, thinking that my relationship with him, his love for me, is conditional upon my performance. He doesn't put that on you; you put that on you.

And accepting God's grace as unconditional love for you is the key in the final step, which is you extending grace, you extending unconditional love, you extending love without requiring performance or conditions to others. And a large part of being grace-filled is developing a very sensitive spirit toward judgmental thoughts that you have toward others, making them feel judged and making them feel unsafe in this church.

And this is why I dressed this way today. This outfit is today's application. Many of you when you saw me this morning coming in, you smiled, some of you laughed, some of you made comments, and that's okay, you know me. But what if someone else would have come into church today dressed in this same outfit? Someone who's never been here before, and you don't recognize them. Would they have seen you laugh or snicker or comment to the person next to you, "Look at that guy over there. Look at that outfit"?

Well, let me paint a picture for you of that man and that outfit to make my point. Here's the backstory for this gentleman wearing this coat. At the age of 19, he was involved in a bank robbery that went very wrong, and a policeman was killed. As a result, he spent his last 40 years in prison. And while in prison, he got radically saved, and God used him to lead hundreds of inmates to Christ and lead weekly Bible studies.

And now after 40 years, he's released at the age of 59 on a Saturday. He goes home to his mother and tells him that the first thing he wants to do tomorrow morning is go to church. He's heard about Calvary Chapel in prison on the radio, and long ago he decided that that's the place he wants to go his first Sunday out.

So, Sunday morning, he goes upstairs to his closet and takes out the best suit he has and puts it on. And with a huge smile and keen anticipation of what he's going to experience, he walks down Willow Street, up those steps, through those doors. And the question is: how will he be received? Will this church be a safe place for him today?

How would you respond to seeing him? Would you go up to him and greet him? Well, what would Jesus do? You all know what Jesus would do. He'd just run up and wrap his arms around that man and love him and welcome him, right? With a huge smile. Would we pass that test?

Or consider the woman at the well. I wonder if this additional conversation could have taken place with Jesus that never made it into John's narrative. I picture after all the people from Sychar come out and hear Jesus and they say, "Now we believe what you told us because we've heard him ourselves," and they go back to the city.

And as Jesus is making his plans to leave, she comes up to him and says, "Jesus, I just have one question. I really want to go to church on Sunday. Where can I go? Because they all know me. They all know my background. And I hope, I so hope, that when Jesus gives her a list of churches that she can go to, that Calvary Chapel made that list."

If everyone in this church treats that man in this suit or that woman at the well like Jesus would treat them, that's the objective. And the question for us is: would Calvary Chapel make the list of churches that God would send that man in the suit to, that woman at the well to?

Because again, this is day two, this is day four, three or four in Sychar of Jesus being there. She hasn't cleaned her life up yet. She has children probably, she's still living with this guy, and she says, "Jesus, it's going to take me a little time to get all this thing settled out of here, but they all know me. Who would accept me when I walk in those doors? I'm a new person in Christ, but they all know me." I pray that we would be that church.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Thom Keller on Study the Word, and he's in a study of Philippians right now. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon, and there you can watch our services live or on demand. That includes this series in Philippians.

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