Grace and Peace, Always
First B Jackson
2026-06-21

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Van mentioned it very briefly, but, you know, Philip and Amy Jordan are our children's directors. They kinda co lead husband and wife team, and their 17 year old son, John. They have an older son, James, maybe here today. But John is having issues with his he was recently diagnosed with Crohn's disease and he had an abscess this week and they are down in Salt Lake City. So specific prayer.

When I was talking about the reconstituting of bodies, we know that there are several among us who are suffering from various forms of cancer and things but this is a very new diagnosis and it's at a time where it's pretty high level stress but that's where they are. I want to pray for them and then we'll get started. Lord God almighty for Philip and Amy and for John. Lord God almighty, would you heal his body? Use whatever means necessary, lord but pray that you would get him up to speed and back to work and that Amy and Philip would be absolutely absolutely comfortable in your peace.

So, in Jesus name, lord, we thank you for the Jordans and we ask your blessing on today. Amen. Amen. So, here we are. If you were here, if you're here last week, is that the first slide, Josh?

Visual aids. That's the first slide. Alright. Well, Ephesians is where we are. That's where we've been.

We've been there since March 8. You sure that's the first slide? Gracious. This might be fun for y'all. I'll I'll just go whatever it is.

Ephesians, we're at the very end. We've got four verses left. We started this March 8 is when we started. 03/08/2026, we started our study. I did like seven or eight sermons but we had Palm Sunday in there.

We had Easter in there. We had lots of other diversions but we have been studying Ephesians together and now, just four verses remain and you might just think, oh, this is the end. This is where he starts talking about. Oh, say hi to you so and so and blah blah blah and that is kind of the end of it but that's not all. We need to look at every verse.

We savor this stuff, right? This is good. So, we're saying goodbye to Ephesians today and then we're going to say hello to Philippians today. Those are probably written one after the other whether it was Philippians first. Ephesians first is hard to say but I think Ephesians is a really good foundation for understanding Philippians.

I think that that's the order they were written in. From the same place, at the same time, sent with the same dude. So, here we go. Here we go. Now, so that you also may know about my circumstances.

Now, last week, we did the full armor of God, you know, and that's as far as a stand alone sermon goes, I mean, hey, that's wonderful. It gets to the heart of the faith of the matter But then Paul who has been, you know what? Who has been discussing theology for three chapters and then he's going into application for three chapters. I may need to come up there, Josh. I'm confused.

Let's go back here. Hey. Yeah. No. This is good.

Keep on going. Let it go backwards from there. Y'all see the whole sermon in reverse right here. Can y'all I am still clicking. Do want me to leave it alone?

Visual aids. Here we go. So, the first three chapters really are about this, either we're in sins or we're in Christ. It's a binary function. Either we're in the kingdom of darkness or we're in the kingdom of light.

So, that's a binary function. That's our position in Christ and you might call it lost and saved. That's what I grew up with, right? There are folks who are in the kingdom and there are folks who are not yet in the kingdom and I'd rather you think of em as folks who are not yet in the kingdom not because I'm a universalist because if you tend to think us and them, you don't care about them. You just care about us, okay?

So, I don't want you to do that. Our position is either we're in sins or we're in Christ or in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light but a non binary function is in our practice. How we walk it out? Now, when you first get saved or come to know the truth and accept it, you don't know the way yet. Right?

There's a reason that it says for a qualification for leaders is somebody who is not a recent convert because they don't know yet. Right? So we're learning and we're surrendering our will a little at a time, and we are walking away from what we have always known and we're walking towards Christ who are we are getting to know. So it looks more like this. Okay?

And if we had to put that on a graph or a continuum, I've used this a lot of times but it's been a long time. We look at it like this. God has chosen from the beginning. He is completely other. He is completely holy, holy, holy, and he is different from all else.

And the creation is good, is good, is good, is good, is good, and we chose to rebel. But the way to get out of our selfishness and our sin, God chose from the beginning that he would take the initiative, and he would work by leaning towards. And so Christ worked all his work, his birth, his life, his ministry, his sacrificial and voluntary death on a cruel cross with a perfect record, having no sin. He does voluntarily and sacrificially for anyone who would come to believe. And then he was raised from the dead and proved to be Messiah.

Now that gospel witness goes forward from that time. Right? All of those quivering disciples who ran at the cross, all died proclaiming the resurrection, all of them throughout the rest of their lives. So the gospel witness goes forward and for you or for anybody else, one is saved by trusting in Jesus. The gospel witness goes forth and you accept that that is true not just that it's true, that it's true for me, that I needed it, that I have a not a perfect record and I need that.

Christ is the way, the truth, the life. It is exclusive. That's just the way that it is. Christ is the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the father except through him.

So, here we are, gospel witness and belief and then, once you have believed, you begin the process of learning and understanding the way by following Jesus who is the way. And as you walk towards the truth, you have these hills and valleys. As it says, I asked Jimmy Barts, the pastor over at Saint John's one day a while back. I said, how's it going, Jimmy? He goes, hills and valleys.

What a great response. What a great response. Hills and valleys. It's not all easy. It's worthwhile to be walking, right?

God uses everything, everything. We know. He uses everything to those who love God. Can I get an amen? Do y'all love God?

Amen. Are you called according to his purpose? Yes. Then, everything is going to work out for the good and for the glory of God. Now, in the in between time, it's going be up and down, hills and valleys and that's the way sanctification is.

This is sanctification and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot by brute force just go and grow yourself spiritually. You can humble yourself and that helps because God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble and so God works through this process of sanctification in this life and then there will be that time when we're ultimately safe whether it is at the moment of our death or at that great and mighty day of the Lord, there is glorification to come. Right? So that's what we're working on.

This is the continuum. This is the chronology of how things go. But our practice again is more like that. It's not just out of there and you're all of a sudden now. You are immediately a saint.

Immediately. You're called to be holy, and you are given the power that you don't even know how to use yet. Immediately when you believe. So here we are in Ephesians. Thank you.

Twenty one and twenty four. I had two parallel things open on my computer, and I probably fixed one of them and didn't fix the other. And then I replaced one with the other like I was cutting or burning the ship so I couldn't go back. The closing is this. Now, so that y'all may also know about my circumstances as to what I'm doing.

Now, what is he doing? He's in jail. He could have said that. He's already said prisoner of the Lord a couple of different times. But so that y'all may know about my circumstances as to what I'm doing, Tichicus, my buddy, he's a beloved brother and he's a faithful servant and servant Tichicus, let me just say this first.

He's the letter carrier. So, Paul is not free to move about the world. He's stuck where he's stuck and he's writing these letters. He writes Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians probably within the space of a little time. He may have, well, he wrote Colossians and Philippians together because he sent him with the same guy, right?

I mean, sorry, Ephesians and Philippians. Tichicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant. Servant there is Diaconoise. Diaconoise actually it's it's singular at this place. It's a deacon, a minister, or a servant.

He's a faithful deacon, minister, servant in the Lord and he will make everything known to you. I'm sending the letter. This is what I want you to know. But if you have questions, ask Tichicus. Okay?

He'll let you know. I have sent him to you for this very purpose so that you know may know about us and that he may comfort your hearts. Now Paul's really alright. He really is. He's finally slowed down long enough that he can write a letter.

You would you should see what's happening to the guys who are in prison around him. You should see what's happening to the jailers. He's taken this as something that the Lord has done and so, I've sent him to you for this very purpose so that you may know about us and that he may comfort your heart. If you look in Philippians, it says that that one was carried by Epaphroditus. Excuse me.

I keep on getting Colossians and and they're all written at the same time and I get them confused sometimes. We're talking about start Philippians though, and it was carried by Epaphroditus. I thought it necessary to send you Epaphroditus. He's my brother and my fellow worker and my fellow soldier who is also your messenger and minister to my needs. So they sent him Epaphroditus and he sent a letter back with them.

But I've received everything in full, everything. I'm fine. Really, I'm alright. If you read Philippians, it says, know how to get by on little and I get know how to get by on lot. I'm fine.

Okay. I'm amply supplied, haven't received from Epaphroditus what you've sent. That's the letter carrier system. My mom was a postmaster for a full career. My dad was a letter carrier for like eighteen years.

Yeah. I think this is cool. I think it's cool. Now, the post office doesn't read your letters. They don't have them open.

Right? That's that's not what they do. But these guys did and they knew Paul, and they knew what he was saying, which is great. Other letter carriers, Phoebe. Phoebe is a deacon of church in century, delivered in the book of Romans.

Onesimus who was a runaway slave. This is a varied group. Epaphroditus, we already mentioned. Stephanus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus Achaicus were a group of believers who came to him and he sent a letter to the Corinthians with them and then Titus. So there it is.

That's all my fears. Tichicus, he knows. Tichicus knows and he's coming with Onesimus. I bet Onesimus was scared to death. A slave going back to his situation which was difficult.

But Paul in Colossians, he calls out to the church. This is the way that it should be for slaves and masters and then he sends a letter personally to Philemon and says, hey, Philemon, treat him like a brother. Romans, Phoebe, she's a servant of the church, which is at Centre that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saint. Servant there is. Excuse me.

Switch languages and switch languages. Golly. Sorry. Has nothing to do with Spanish. Wow.

How the brain works or doesn't. She's a deacon of the church and where she is and she's been sent to Rome to carry the letter. Stephanus, Fortunatus, Achaicus. Titus, second Corinthians, it mentions a couple of times that he's a partner and a coworker. In Philippians, we'll see Euodia and Centichi are coworkers, it says.

Here we go. Last two verses. Peace be to the brothers and the sisters. Peace be to the brothers. Now, I told you whenever you see the italics, it it is added.

It's inferred in the original but in Greek and in Spanish and a lot of language when it says brothers, it could be brothers or it could be brothers and sisters. If it's not by context limited to just men, we'll add brothers and sisters. That's what they did right there. So peace be to brothers and sisters and love with faith, which is so important. The shield of faith he just mentioned, the shield of faith is what extinguishes all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

And he's saying, I want for you to have agape love and that shield of faith. And this is his final greeting. Peace be to all the brothers and sisters and agape love with this faith that is the shield. From God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came at the will of the father.

He carried it out and Paul has been telling them that we are to continue this mission that Jesus started. Go forward in peace. Jesus gave peace not as the world gives. He gave peace to all of those who would trust in him. So, peace be to the brothers and sisters.

Love with faith from God the father and Lord Jesus Christ and grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. So grace. Peace is the absence of war is one definition for it, but is complete rest. It is the absence of inner or outer conflict, and that's what God is wishing on us is shalom. Irena in Greek, but Shalom in Hebrew.

The concept is at rest in God, confident and not at war. No turmoil inside, Not worried about the outside. Being connected to goddess peace. And then grace, the reason we can have peace is because God has unmerited favor. And if you begin to think because you've been walking this path for a while, if you begin to think, well, now I deserve it.

Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is what God has for us. It is unmerited and so, I'll just say a little application point right here. The beginning of Ephesians starts off with grace and peace to the saints. Sinners saved by grace are saints.

That's everyone who's put their faith in Christ. Right? And if you think about it, it's everyone else too because it's unmerited favor. There are those who just have not received him yet. And I'm praying for a lot of folks.

Right? And y'all are praying for a lot of folks who have not received him yet. So unmerited favor, the grace of God is what we should be proclaiming because if you tell somebody that you deserve to be in a club, they might wanna also deserve to be in that club. But if you say, I didn't deserve to be in this club, and it's amazing. It's it's the love of almighty God.

It's the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the power that raised Jesus from the dead is available, and the requirements are just accepting it. Grace. Grace. God's grace.

Grace that is greater than all my sin. Grace is unmerited favor, and that's what he's saying. No matter what's going on in Ephesus, no matter what's going on in Philippi, no matter what's going on in Jackson, grace is what's required. This is the last verse of Ephesians. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and John would say, we love because he first loved us.

So for those who reciprocate the self serving others focused kind of love that God loves us with, for those folks, we give back to God that very same love, and we give that with all we are loving God and loving people through Christ. That's the way. So that's the close of the book of Ephesians. Close the book. Nope.

Here we go. Philippians. Here it is. Philippians starts off Paul and Timothy. Philippi knew Timothy.

He had been through there with Paul. Right? We know that they knew them. So the beginning of the letter or the return address sort of part of this letter is Paul and Timothy. Bond servants of Christ Jesus, that's doulas, slaves is a good translation.

Bond servants. You know, I like slaves better, honestly, because bond servants feels like you're bonded until you get the debt paid off. Slaves is your slaves. Right? So both of them are fine.

They're both within the range of meaning. Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus. I I started to say there's a freebie application point, and I and I didn't say it. So here it is. Always start with grace and peace.

Always. So many of the New Testament epistles start with grace and peace and then, when you look at the clothes, it's either peace and grace or grace and peace or grace and peace and love, grace with faith, pay peace with faith, grace. It's always. It's all over everything that Paul did and it ought to be all over everything that we do. Paul and Timothy, bond servants with Christ Jesus to all of the saints.

Again, holy ones in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi. I love that. If it's just the ones who are in Philippi, this is who the letter is to because you you know, we're still reading it. Philippi spread a long way, right? But he's saying, I'm sending this to the church at.

You know why? Because Paul believes in church unity as much as God does and he doesn't send it saying, oh yeah, this is to the one that meets on the corner of this and that. He's saying to all the saints who are in this area, you all need to know this. So we read this. It's like we're reading somebody else's mail in a way, but we're not.

He's saying that if this applies in Philippi, it applies to you. Now if the shoe fits, wear it. Shoe fits though. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers, the word there for overseers is Episcopas or Episcopoist because it is plural. So that's overseers.

Literally, epi is over and skapas is seers. Right? So those who see over things. So it is alright to have leadership in a church. It's it's expected.

Co superintendents who are entrusted with the well-being of a local assembly or of assemblies that might be bigger than that within a city or location, literally or figuratively. So those who are looking over. There's the trust but verify. Y'all remember that. We trust that everybody's doing the right thing, but occasionally, somebody gets out of bounds, and there should be those who are paying attention to the text illumined by the spirit and checking in on proper order.

So, overseers and then deacons. That's the same word that was used earlier for Tichicus. It's the same word that was used earlier for Phoebe. It's the same word that's used throughout including overseers and deacons. Now, this is it.

Deacons, ministers, servants. I love the word when we went to this is a sideline, but we went to Costa Rica years ago, and we missed our flight from Columbia to Atlanta, which was a great flight at a great time. And then we went and I'm not joking, from Columbia to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Memphis, Memphis to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City to LA, and then we took the red eye to Guatemala. We get to Guatemala. I'm supposed to preach that morning.

It's taking us all night to get there. I'm not even there when I'm supposed to start preaching. And I get in and we got there and they said, well, just preach the night service. I don't sleep on planes. Oh.

Hot as blue blazes. And when we got there, I came in and it's my turn to preach. I'm sweating like crazy, and I'm about to get up there and share the word that I had prepared, but goodness gracious. And Pascal was walking dead, falling asleep, and just could barely make it. She doesn't sleep well on planes either.

And there was a guy that came up with a mechanic shirt on, and he had right here a you know, where you stitch your name or you have a little pad with your name, and it said, Diacono. He was a deacon. Dude, I was so happy to see that guy. He had a little mat and he laid it out in between the chairs and he said, let that little girl sleep. Oh, what a blessing that dude was.

He looked for what needed to be done and he did it. He's an attendant. He's a servant and it was cool that he had the little name tag that said, I thought it was it's not his name. That's who that's who he is. Yeah.

He's an attendant. He's a servant. If it's in the genitive for those of you who care, it's a waiter at a table or whatever other menial duties. It's taking care of the little stuff that needs to be done, and specifically, it's a Christian serving in a specific function or post. Our board of tree our board of trees, our board of trustees, our board of trustees acts as a deacon board.

They are ministering servants who look to the temporal matters of the church and look around and see what needs doing and then they take care of doing that. So, tending to the widows and the poor, teaching and pastoring and whatnot. So, here's a little more on the word from a help. This is the helps word studies which is always great. It's on biblehub.com.

If you're ever looking for something confused by something, you can look there. Thoroughly dust. Everybody's kinda guessing at where the word came from. Properly, to thoroughly raise up dust by moving about in a hurry so as to minister. Sacred service.

Isn't that good? Diaconis ministry in the New Testament refers to the Lord inspiring his servants to carry out his plan for his people. AT Robertson, great preacher, great pastor too, which is not always the same thing but he was both. Properly, he mean he says it means to kick up dust, to get it going. So as one running an errand in the root is probably connected with someone who's hastening after in such a way that they stir up a little dust, Perhaps, originally set up a runner.

Anyway, that's to this letter is to all of the Philippians, all of the saints, but it it includes the overseers and the ones who are kicking up dust ministering. Okay? And he starts off how? Grace to you and peace. Always start with grace and peace.

You are not at war. You're a child of God for crying out loud. Okay? I know you can use battle metaphor for kinds of other stuff, but if you meet someone with war in mind, war is what you will get. Okay?

Grace and peace. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Typically, that's the order because Christ, although he's equal in the Godhead, absolutely, he voluntarily submitted himself to the will of the father and carried it out by the spirit, and may we be doing the same. Do I have anything else in this? Major themes of Philippians.

Here we go. Thank you, Connor. Joy. Oh, Philippians. Chuck Swindoll's commentary on Philippians is laugh again.

It's okay to laugh again. It's alright to have fun. Joy is in there. Unity. Oh my goodness.

It's in there. And it's it's about having unity in the midst of difficulty. Okay? So, it's the very next thing. I like to go chronologically.

It's the next thing we get to. Joy. Joy. Joy. Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say rejoice.

Unity make my joy complete, Paul said, by being of like mind. Right? Come together. Humility, you're not gonna be unified if you're not humble. You will be divided if you're proud.

If my way is the only way, my way or the highway gets to be the way that it is, then we are going to part company. Humility is absolutely essential in order to have unity, and I'd say in order to have joy, unless you just want limited joy with just your friends who agree with you, which I'd say is not really joy. More than anything else, Philippians is about Jesus Christ. It has the some of the highest Christology in the whole New Testament, so does Ephesians. It's wonderful.

Paul is sitting there in that arrest whether it's house arrest or literal jail. He's sitting there and he's having time to contemplate the goodness of God and he's listening to what the spirit is saying and he is writing it down and thank God he was stuck in that jail. I agree with him when he says, it turns out to be for your benefit. Right? Is that all I have?

One more benediction. We'll do that after the song. Would you stand with us? Thank you, y'all. Thank you for what you're doing for the Lord.

If there's something that you're already doing, some ministry that you're already doing that nobody else knows about, I'd love to know about it And not because I wanna list it on a list of all the things first b is doing. I just wanna pray with you through it. You know what I'm saying? I think it's awesome. And I know a lot of you who are active in all parts of the world and you are just doing it and kinda nobody knows.

There is an impact on the world that is happening when people humble themselves and pray. There's an impact that's happening through this church when we unify. There's joy unspeakable, full of glory. I'm so glad to be here. I'm so glad y'all let me do this.

Would you sing along? Oh, it's Father's Day. Happy Father's Day. Dog on. I knew I'd forget it, but that helped me remember.

Happy Father's Day to everybody.