Grace And Peace

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 3rd May service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Php 1:1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

Php 1:2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace And Peace

When Paul wrote his epistle to the church at Philippi it was perhaps ten years since he and his companions had first visited the city during the Apostle’s second missionary journey. On that occasion Paul had been instrumental in leading Lydia of Thyatira, a businesswoman, to Christ. Then an unnamed jailer, charged with guarding Paul and Silas in the city prison, was brought under conviction of sin and trusted the Lord Jesus during an earthquake. We read in Acts 16 that these two converts and their households were baptised and it seems likely they formed the first Christian congregation in Philippi and in Europe.

An organised church

It is possible that when Paul and Silas moved on to another city – they went from Philippi to Thessalonica, that Luke was left behind to assist the young believers. At this point in Luke’s narrative in Acts 16 the first person is dropped until Acts 20:6 when Luke rejoins the group of missionaries as Paul again passes through Macedonia. We don’t know how often Paul visited Philippi, other possible visits are hinted at in 2 Corinthians 2:13 and 1 Timothy 1:3. We do know that during those ten years the church flourished and the believers continued to hold the Apostle in great affection.

Joy and crown

That affection was mutual. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians is full of personal warmth and concern for his dear friends. The congregation was not without its peculiar challenges and strong personalities, especially amongst the women. However, these believers were a great encouragement to Paul. In chapter 2 he calls his friends, ‘lights in the world’ and in chapter 4 describes them as his ‘joy and crown’.

Practical support

Paul’s letter seems to have been written from Rome and carried by Epaphroditus who had come bearing a gift from the church to assist the Apostle in prison. In his introduction Paul calls himself a servant of the Lord Jesus, a description that would have resonated with the church members for whom he had laboured and suffered. He includes Timothy in his greeting, not because the letter was co-authored but because Timothy was known to them from their first visit ten years earlier, and because Paul was about to send him to them again.

Members together

Paul greets all the church members and specifies the bishops and deacons. This shows the church had been organised according to the apostolic pattern. Bishop is another word for overseer, or elder, and by this we may assume numbers in the congregation had grown sufficiently large as to require several designated workers. Paul mentions these co-labourers in the work of ministry to register his personal approval and to encourage the respect of the larger church congregation for the important and useful roles these men fulfilled.

Sainthood of all believers

He calls the church members ‘saints’. Saint is not the title of an exclusive category of super-Christian. It describes all who are born-again by the Spirit of God, set apart in the eternal covenant of grace and sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is writing to ordinary believers, like you and me, men and women, boys and girls, who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. As always, it is important for us to remember Paul is writing to believers as we read his epistle and apply its message.

Grace and peace

The salutation recorded in verse two is the usual greeting employed by the Apostle in all his epistles. This frequency of use is significant. Clearly, Paul’s words were considered and purposeful. His top priority was to convey an immediate sense of the wonder and importance of the divine grace and divine peace that flows to sinners from God the Father and God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This message of grace and peace with God by Christ is the heart of the gospel. Paul is at once setting out his main reason for writing to the church at Philippi, as he did with all the other churches who received his epistles.

The gospel of Jesus Christ

In this way the Apostle focuses all our attention upon the great subject of God’s grace towards sinners. Whatever else he has to say, the gospel comes first. He preaches peace and reconciliation by the shed blood and atoning death of Jesus Christ, according to the eternal purpose of God in the covenant of grace and peace. Though the Apostle wrote to many churches, all of whom had many problems, his priority was always the same. He would not be distracted or diverted from his central message of grace and peace. May the Apostle’s first love of Christ and His gospel be ours, too.

Amen

Hymn 1105

“But one thing is needful.” Luke 10. 42; Ps. 73. 25

S. Medley   L.M.

1
Jesus, engrave it on my heart,
That thou the one thing needful art;
I could from all things parted be,
But never, never, Lord, from thee.

2
Needful art thou to make me live;
Needful art thou all grace to give;
Needful to guide me, lest I stray;
Needful to help me every day.

3
Needful is thy most precious blood;
Needful is thy correcting rod;
Needful is thy indulgent care;
Needful thy all-prevailing prayer.

4
Needful thy presence, dearest Lord,
True peace and comfort to afford;
Needful thy promise to impart
Fresh life and vigour to my heart.

5
Needful art thou, my soul can say,
Through all life’s dark and thorny way;
In death thou wilt most needful be,
When I yield up my soul to thee.

6
Needful art thou, to raise my dust
In shining glory with the just;
Needful when I in heaven appear,
To crown and to present me there.

Hymn 1109

“Come unto me.” Matt. 11. 28, 29; Isa. 55. 1-3

A. Steele   L.M.

1
Come, weary souls, with sin distressed,
Come and accept the promised rest;
The gospel’s gracious call obey,
And cast your gloomy fears away.

2
Oppressed with guilt (a painful load),
O come and spread your woes abroad,
Divine compassion, mighty love,
Will all the painful load remove.

3
Here mercy’s boundless ocean flows,
To cleanse your guilt, and heal your woes;
Pardon, and life, and endless peace;
How rich the gift, how free the grace!

4
Dear Saviour, let thy powerful love
Confirm our faith, our fears remove;
Forgiveness shed through every breast,
And guide us to eternal rest.

The Apostle Paul’s epistle to the church at Philippi teaches us the importance of grace and peace in the preaching of the gospel. Grace is God’s free gift and peace with God has been obtained for all who believe by the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.