To All the Saints...

Series: Breakout
June 1, 2008

All of our messages here at Connections can be viewed on the spectrum of a cross. When we look at a cross we see three things- the vertical, the horizontal, and the intersection. We’re either talking about our vertical relationship with God. Who is God, what has he done, what is he like, what does he desire? We start with looking at God and our relationship with him. Second, we look at our relationships horizontally, with our neighbors. This may be people very close to us- family, friends, actual neighbors- or it might reach out pretty far to people around the world. Third, we will really zero in on that intersection, that place where we meet God, where we really look at ourselves. This comes from the greatest commandment that Jesus gave to us- love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

What I didn’t say before was how we’d approach this. Over the past few months we’ve developed series that we hope answer real questions and meet real needs in your life. Usually they are topical in nature, but always you have learned, if you’ve been here before, that we bring the bible into the picture. We want everyone to know that we really believe that the bible is the word of God to us, it gives us the history of God’s work and revelation in our world, tells us where our world is going, and teaches us what we do with God and for God in our world right now. It is one of our “Signs of Belonging” at Connections, that we study and apply God’s word.

But I will tell you this- there is an inherent danger in starting with topics and series. Sometimes you get an idea in your head, a topic you want to talk about, but because the starting point is the topic, you then have to work back and bring scripture into it, and whenever you do that you run the risk of reading into the bible what is not there. You run this risk of manipulating or forcing the text into your preconceived ideas. I can say that most all the ministers I know are great folks who love God and who believe in the bible and want to preach really good, inspiring, helpful messages. But sometimes I’ve heard good people just slaughter a bible text, trying to get something out of it that isn’t there. And that’s just wrong.

But there is an antidote, and we want it to be part of our rhythm and routine here at Connections. It’s simple- just go to the bible with no agenda except an openness to God’s revelation. Just go to the bible, and go where it leads you. And that is what we are going to do. We are just going to go to the letter to the church in Philippi, often just called Philippians, and go where it leads us. When you go all the way through a letter like Philippians you’re forced to examine parts you might other wise gloss over. And when you get into those parts, it’s amazing what you discover. And I hope and pray that that builds confidence in all of us to just go to God’s word and let it speak. To let is guide us and read us. I know that sound crazy, but that’s what happens so often- we actually feel like the bible is reading us and our lives. That’s because it is God’s revelations to us.

Now let me begin by making no assumptions. Philippians is part of the New Testament in the bible. The NT starts with the four books telling about Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Then we have the book of ACTS, the story of the birth of the church. Then we get into a bunch of letters that were written to the churches and to individuals to help guide them, instruct them, encourage them, or even rebuke them. Many of these letter were written by a man named Paul, who it will suffice to say now, started out trying to destroy the message of Jesus and His followers, encountered the resurrected Jesus, and was transformed in the leader of the church. He spent his life traveling the known world planting churches everywhere he went.

Now as we get into Philippians we know enough about it know some of the big things that are going to come out. We know two main things that will keep coming up over and over. First is the context in which Paul, the author, wrote this letter, and is from a prison in Rome. Second is the overall tone of this letter, and that is joy. It’ soften called the letter of joy because of it’s wonderfully uplifting and inspiring tone. So we know that this letter is about breaking out of the traps of this world, and breaking into the joy of the Christian life. We know that we will hit some amazing themes, of knowing joy despite our circumstances, of discovering what real fellowship; real partnership in Christ is all about.

I want to read the first part to you now.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s all the further we can get today, because there is so much there. Several years earlier, we’re not exactly sure, but probably a little more than a decade now, Paul was out on his second church-planting mission. The story is told in Acts, and we pick up the story in chapter 16. Paul and his posse wanted to go into Asia to tell people about Jesus. Strangely, God wouldn’t let them. I don’t understand it, I don’t know how it happened, they wanted to go, they intended to go, but the Spirit wouldn’t let them go. Later, Paul had a dream that they were supposed to go into Macedonia.

This gives us the assurance that God is sovereign. It assures of us two things- God won’t let us go where he doesn’t want to go, and he will get us to where we are supposed to go. I talk to a lot of Christians who spend a lot of time worrying about God’s will, which is crazy, be we know God’s will is sovereign, God’s will will be done. But they worry that they might have missed the boat of God’s plan for their life. Somehow they have messed up their life and God’s plan. Let me tell you this- you can mess up your life. You can make bad decisions. You might make foolish moves that cause you and others and the world damage. That’s the price we pay for having free will- the dumb things we do. But God’s plan, God’s will for the world can’t not be messed up by you or me. If there is somewhere you should not go, because it is an integral part of God’s plan, God is going to stop you. If there is somewhere you absolutely have to go, God will get you there.

If God wants you out of Asia, and into Macedonia, because it’s part of His plan, it’s gonna happen. If God has something that specific in store for you, it’s gonna happen. So we also have this assurance- if nothing bizarre happens to stop you from what you’re doing, and you are faithfully trying to follow God’s path, it would appear that you are on the right path. The point is this- God’s plans can’t get messed up, and that’s a great assurance. If God wants you to do something very specific, you are going to do it. If you are faithful to God, your really are genuinely serving him, and nothing dramatic happens to change your course, you’re on the right course! So stop worry, rejoice, and press on!

Back to the plan god had for Paul- he and his posse end up in Philippi, because God had a very specific plan and purpose for the church in Philippi. They arrived and immediately started talking to people about Jesus. A woman named Lydia came to believe in Jesus as the Lord, she and her whole household were baptized, and the church begins. Paul keeps preaching. A demon possessed girl started following them around. She was a slave girl, and the demon gave her the ability to predict the future, and this gave her own the ability to make a whole lot of money off of people like a carnival side show. The girl kept saying that Paul and the posse are servants of the most high, and they are telling people the way to be saved. That was actually the complete truth. Paul casts out the demon, rather un-dramatically, just saying in the name of Jesus come out. The owner is furious because he’s now lost one of his major streams of income, he stirs up trouble for Paul, and get them stripped, beaten and locked up in jail.

That night, at midnight, Paul and the guys are praying, singing, and actually having a good old time in jail, when an earthquake strikes. The doors break open, their shackles break loose, and they are free to breakout. The jailer sees what has happened, sees the doors opened, and without even going in is about to kill himself. Better to take his own life quickly than endure capital punishment from Rome. Paul shouts out, don’t do it. We’re all still here.

The jailer went in, saw Paul and everyone there, and his response is what I suspect any rational, thinking persons response would be- he fell before them and asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Their simple response- “Believe in the lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved- you and your whole household!”

He simply believed. He believed and he was saved, he believed, and he broke out, he believed, and he was free. And it’s still that simple folks. Believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you will be free, you will breakout of the jail and the chains that hold you.

That’s what we are talking about this whole series- believe, and be saved. Believe, and breakout. Believe and breakout of the bars that hold you back. Believe and breakout of the shackles that chain you down. Believe and break free from the prisons of your own design, the prisons that others have built around you, the prisons that the world has placed you in. Believe and be saved and breakout and know that God’s plan is going to work itse;f out in and through your life!

Now fast forward some 10 or more years. Paul’s in prison again, but there is no earthquake. He’s in prison, and God doesn’t move the doors to set him free. I’m reminded from the scene in Prince Caspian, I just saw it this week witih my kids, where Lucy is talking to Aslan, and she so worried because Aslan hasn’t doen the same thigns he did last time the children were in Narnia. She wants him to work in the saem comfortable ways. Aslan says to her that he doesn’t work in the same way twice. Which tell sus that God is still at work, but it’s going to look different.

Paul knows that God is still at work, he’s just not working in the same way. Paul is still serving God, Paul is still advancing the gospel, and Paul is still sharing the story of Jesus to anyone and everyone he can. And when Paul finds himself back in the same circumstances he was in back in Philippi, but now in Rome, he writes to his favorite church. He writes to his dearest friends, he writes to his partners I ministry in Philippi.

What does he say, “From Paul and Timothy, servants of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” In fact, the word in the Greek is Doulos, slave. He is self-described, self identified as a slave of Jesus Christ. He’s not a slave of Rome, though he’s in a Roman prison. He’s a slave of Jesus. He’s a slave of Jesus and he is thus free. You see, the thing about begin a slave is that you can only have one owner. A slave by definition belongs to someone, he or she belongs to his master. Paul belongs to God, and he knows his life is in God’s hands alone. He knows who his master is. And no matter what might happen to him, no matter what they would do to him, he belonged to God for he is a slave of Jesus Christ. And folks, that’s a good place to be no matter who we are, where we are, what our circumstances are- to be slaves of Jesus and Jesus alone.

Who are you a slave to? God, or man? God, or the world? I don’t care who you’re a slave to if it’s not God, because if it’s not God, it’s not worth being a slave. If it’s not God, it’s not worth your life. If it’s not God, it will cost you your life. But if it is God, and this is the crazy thing, you’re free, no matter what the world throws at you.

Paul, the slave, writes to the saints in Philippi. It’s an intentional juxtaposition. Paul the slave, writes to the Philippians the saints. Paul their pastor, their leader, their friend and brother, calls himself a slave, but them saints. And that is want we can call ourselves. When we make ourselves slaves to God, we because the saints of God. How does that make you feel? You are a saint. How cool is that! I’m changing my business card- Saint George the Dragon Slayer. I get to be a saint in the eyes of God.

You know what you have to do to become a saint in the eyes of the world? This is fascinating. First, you have to die, that’s a real downer right there. Years later people have to remember you and start saying you may have been a saint. If this goes on long enough, and gains enough momentum, a bishop will come to investigate the possibility that you might have been a saint. He writes a dissertation on you that is sent to the Vatican for review by a panel. After a panel of cardinals clears you, you go on to the pope who has to declare you venerable. The next step is to you beautification, which is really tough because it requires a post-mortem miracle, and let me tell you, miracles are hard enough to perform when you’re alive! If that is proved, you can be declared blessed and a group of people has to start treating you sort of saint like, but just like you might test-drive a car. After another miracle, you are declared a saint, but the whole thing can be withdrawn if you end up not being a very effective saint. This, by the way, is the much simpler process initiated in 1983 by pope John Paul; you don’t even want to know the old process.

You know what you have to do to be a saint according to the bible- believe. When you believe you are saved, when you are saved you are in Jesus and His spirit lives in you, and you are a saint. I like that. Turn to the person next to you, say hey, if you believe, you’re a saint. That’s pretty cool. Put it on your resume. Put it on your University application. Put it on your facebook status. I know it probably makes you cringe. You don’t want to think so highly of yourself. Well that doesn’t matter, because the bible tells us that God thinks that highly of us. When we believe, when we belong to God, when the Spirit lives in us, we are saints!

So from Paul the slave, to all of us now, the saints, he begins with the first and last best word. “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace and peace are the gifts of God to all who believe, to all who call upon the name of Jesus to be saved. Grace and peace is what’s offered to all who are ready to breakout and break free. When Paul says grace and peace to you what he is saying is that he wants us to experience what he has experienced, to know what he knows, to have what he has. He wants all of us who feel like slaves to the world and slaves to sin to take the gift of grace, to be set free.

There’s an old anachronism that we teach kids in Sunday school about grace, it so simple a kid can memorize it. Grace means “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” We get the riches of God through what Christ has done for us. We get to live because he died. We get eternity because he rose from the grave. We get to pray because he sits at God’s right hand. We get to call God Father, because he calls us his brothers and sisters. We get to live with the Spirit because he sends him to us. We get to serve him, because he sends us out. We get to be ambassadors, because he believes in us. We get to advance the kingdom of God, because God chooses us. We get it all, we get it all, because of Christ. We have grace, we have peace, we are free, we can breakout.

Today, I invite you to believe and be saved. Believe and become a slave to God. Believe and become a saint of God. Believe and breakout, break free, break into the life that God has called you to. Believe.