©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

11-27-05

Grace And Peace

11/27/05 Grace And Peace

No, I have not abandoned our study

of the last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians,

but we have taken a two-week detour

into the first few verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

And we’ve done this

mostly because those few verses

contain some truths

that I have found it necessary to remind myself of recently,

and I’m going to allow you to listen in as I do so.

This letter

was written while Paul was in prison in Rome

waiting for his trial before Caesar

on charges stemming from the uproar

his presence in Jerusalem had generated among the Jews.

Paul had been in prison for about two years prior to the writing of this letter.

When I read the words Paul wrote in this letter,

it helps me to keep in mind

what was going on in his own life at the time.

This man whose life had been

one massive explosion of energy

and activity

for most of his Christian life

had been forced to sit under house arrest

for two very long years.

After receiving word of his situation,

His friends at Philippi

and had taken up a collection for him

and sent it by Epaphroditus,

one of the leaders of the Philippian church.

Epaphroditus apparently reached Rome

in good shape,

but then became extremely sick.

He recovered from his illness

and Paul wrote this short letter

for Epaphroditus to take back with him

when he returned to Philippi.

On the surface it is simply a note

written by Paul to his friends

thanking them for their gift

and giving them news of his situation.

But there is something else

going on in this letter as well,

something that has application for all Christians.

Through this letter Paul reveals to us

the principles that equip us

to survive the prisons in our lives,

and not just to survive them,

but actually to thrive in them.

Paul’s prison had physical bars,

and locks,

and Roman guards.

Ours may be prisons of the mind

and spirit,

but the effect is the same -

they leave us feeling caged,

and helpless,

and powerless to control our own future.

Prisons come from our being forced

to deal with circumstances

we would never have chosen,

and circumstances

that are beyond our control.

And in our study last week,

as we looked at the first 6 verses

of Philippians chapter 1,

we saw in those verses

the beginning of Paul’s keys

to prison survival.

Paul begins his letter with these words:

PHI 1:1-6 Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And we saw last week

that, rather than beginning by talking about his prison,

Paul begins by affirming 4 truths.

He talks about WHO we are,

he talks about WHERE we are,

he talks about WHAT to expect,

and he talks about WHO is in control.

In verse 1 he reminds us WHO we are -

SAINTS!

God’s holy ones,

made holy and absolutely pure in heart

not through improved performance

or greater obedience,

but through the transforming work of God Himself within us

as a result of our faith in Christ’s death

as total payment for our sins.

Then he reminds us WHERE we are -

...to all the saints IN CHRIST JESUS...

We do not just live with Him,

or for Him,

we live IN Him -

completely immersed in His love and His care.

Then in verse 2 Paul went on to tell us

WHAT TO EXPECT from this Christ:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prisons have a way of confusing

the real issues in our lives.

It is almost impossible to be in prison

without asking ourselves the question

“Why?”

And given our fundamentally religious minds

one of the answers we often come up with is,

“Maybe God is ticked at me!

Maybe this is some sort of punishment

for my sins.”

And Paul addresses this kind of foolishness right up front.

As he sits in prison,

chained to his Roman guard,

not knowing whether he will live another month,

he tells us what we can expect from our Creator.

Grace and Peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then finally Paul reminds us of WHO IS IN CONTROL...

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Paul begins his survival manual

for the prisons in our lives

by telling us right up front

that no prison ever has

or ever will in any way

at any time short-circuit

God’s commitment

or God’s ability to complete and perfect

the good work He has begun in our lives.

Now, having sprinted our way through

those first 6 verses

I want to go back this morning

and look more closely

at one of the items on that list.

I want us to spend a little more time on this GRACE and PEACE business.

There is something going on with these two words in verse 2

that I want us to look at a little more closely.

I know what we do with phrases like this -

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ...

We tend to relate to them

in the same way we relate to the word “DEAR”

at the beginning of a letter

we receive in the mail.

“DEAR LARRY”...

When I read that in a letter

I don’t think

that the person writing

really thinks I’m DEAR to them.

Most of the time they’ve never even met me.

I just look at it

as a sort of meaningless letter etiquette.

But there is no meaningless letter etiquette

in the New Testament Epistles.

There is only real,

meaningful communication taking place

between us and our Creator.

And there is something crucial going on

with this second verse of Philippians

that I want us to see.

And to appreciate what’s happening here

I want to read you

the introductory verses

from some of the other New Testament letters.

Rom. 1:7 ...to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Cor. 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Cor. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gal. 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Eph. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Col. 1:2 to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

1 Thess. 1:1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

2 Thess. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Tim. 1:2 to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Tim. 1:2 to Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Titus 1:4 to Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Philem. 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Pet. 1:2... May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

2 Pet. 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

2 John 1:3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Every New Testament letter written by Paul

begins with the promise of grace and peace from God the Father.

Every New Testament letter written by Peter

begins with the promise of grace and peace from God the Father.

And one of the three letters written by John

begins with the same promise.

Sixteen of the twenty-one New Testament Epistles

open with the assurance of grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHY?

First of all let me assure you that it was NOT because this was

the early Christian’s form of “Have a nice day!”

It was not simply a pleasant greeting

passed around between believers.

The New Testament Epistles were written for a crucial and specific purpose.

They were written EXCLUSIVELY to believers,

to those who had already joined themselves to God

through faith in the death of Christ as payment for their sins.

And they were written in order to reveal to us the principles

that govern the Christian’s walk with God,

and to reveal to us how to think

like the new Creations we have already become.

Paul says it better than that in Rom. 12:2.

...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The New Testament Epistles

make that mental renewal process possible.

And whenever we find repetition in the Epistles

it is there for at least one of two reasons.

Either the concept is so crucial to our survival

that it demands repetition.

Or it is a concept that is so foreign to our thinking

that we are in danger of missing it

or forgetting it without constant repetition.

This grace and peace thing

is repeated for both reasons.

Maybe I could help us understand

what I see going on with this phrase

found at the beginning of nearly every New Testament letter

by putting it into a little different context for just a minute.

Do you see this door over here to my right?

Well, I’d like you to imagine for just a minute

that God is waiting for you

just on the other side of that door.

(Yes, I know this illustration has major

theological and doctrinal problems with it,

but just set all that aside for a minute.)

God is on the other side of that door,

and He has asked you to come through the door and talk with Him.

Now, how would you approach that door?

Would you try to peak through some crack along the edge,

or underneath,

before opening it wide open?

Would you open it up just a tiny crack

and peak through?

Would you fling it open?

Would you take your Bible along?

Would you change your clothes first?

Would you try to get a friend to come with you?

When you and I reached out to Jesus Christ

we were accepting His invitation

to stop running from Him

and start building a friendship with Him.

But, having never met Him personally,

none of us have any accurate idea

what He is really like.

We are standing on this side of the door,

hearing His invitation

to come in and know Him better,

but we bring to that door

all of our preconceived ideas

about who He is,

and how He acts,

and what He expects,

along with our own pockets full of

personal shame,

and feelings of failure,

and inadequacy,

and unworthiness.

To be honest, I think most of us

would probably open the door

just a crack

and peek through.

The entire Bible was written

to share with us God’s dealings with man throughout human history,

but the New Testament Epistles,

those books beginning with Romans

and continuing through Jude,

were given by God

to a unique group of individuals

for a highly specialized purpose.

If we were to take the time

to read the opening lines

of each of the 21 letters

we would see that all of them

were addressed exclusively to true Christians -

God’s holy ones,

made holy through their faith in Christ.

And the fact is

that these letters were given to us by God primarily to explain to the believer

what it means to live with God

on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

These letters are the equivalent to that doorway,

that entrance into the presence of God.

And God knows that we bring to this doorway

all of our God-baggage,

all of our concerns about what we can really expect from Him,

what He thinks of us,

how He relates to us in Christ.

How about all of those unresolved issues

that still shred our lives?

How about all of those fears

or tender places

that we keep telling ourselves should have been resolved years ago?

How about those times when already

we, like Peter, have denied Him,

or refused to trust Him,

or grumbled about the way He has handled our life?

What kind of expression

will we see on His face

when we open that door?

I believe the New Testament writers

begin their writings with the words,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ...”

in order to answer that question.

It is a sentence carefully designed by God

to serve as the Christian’s introduction

to every conversation

we will ever have with our Lord.

When we peak through the crack in the door

it is His way of assuring us

that we need have no fear of flinging the door wide open.

He is not standing there, arms folded,

with a scowl on His face,

and a list in His hands

of all the errors and omissions in our life

since the day we entered the kingdom.

In this single sentence

Paul and Peter and John single out

the two most crucial ingredients in our union with God through Christ,

the two things we need most desperately,

and the two things we find it the most difficult to accept

or believe

or remember - grace and peace.

Paul said it best in Rom. 5:1-2

ROM 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;

Peace with God - the battle is over forever.

No longer enemies.

No more hiding, or running, or playing games.

The Creator of the universe has personally chosen us

to be on His team,

and nothing can ever alter that fact.

And we have also received our introduction by faith into this GRACE in which we stand.

The rules really have changed -

we do not stand before our God

on the basis of our ability to do it all right.

We stand before Him on the basis of His grace,

His commitment to show us kindness,

His kindness for eternity

not because we have earned it,

but simply because He loves us

and the barriers to His expressing that love

have been removed forever in Christ.

Now its true that when our Lord sits down with us in these Epistles

there are at times some hard issues

He talks over with us.

But that is all the more reason why

He has chosen to begin with that assurance

of His grace and our peace with Him,

just so there will never again

be any misunderstanding

about our position with Him.