Philippians 1:1–11

[1] Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

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

Thanksgiving and Prayer

[3] I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, [4] always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, [5] because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. [6] And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [7] It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. [8] For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [9] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (ESV)

Everyone needs what we could call a “master narrative” or “master story” that is bigger than ourselves, one that provides a guiding force that, when conformed to, causes you to find purpose and meaning as you join with others in living out this grand story. This story gives an identity to its participants.

There is something innate, indeed, what we could call “religious impulses” that cause all human beings to do this. It is a mixture of out desire for meaning and also to understand exactly who we are. It is an outward expression of the inward reality that we are aware of: In and of ourselves, we are not enough. We need something bigger than us that tells us how we understand the world, and how we are to live in it.

Because this is human nature, and a part of the result of separation between us and God, humans throughout history have continually manifest for themselves these grand narratives that help make sense and order of life, often times apart from God. These grand stories full of religious aspects may vary, but often they are contain origin stories, founders and heroes and villains, good verses evil, objects of desire and purpose and sources of joy. Grand stories can also be in the negative, too, as we will see. As we begin the book of Philippians for the next nine weeks, I want to briefly look in our introduction to the master story of the ancient Romans and those in the city of Philippi, followed by looking at master stories in 21^st century America.

THE ROMAN MASTER STORY

Joseph Hellerman in his fantastic book on ancient Roman culture poses the question: What if you were driving by a billboard on 95 and you see a fill in the blank sign that says:

“By nature we yearn and hunger for __________, and once we have glimpsed… some part of its radiance, there is nothing we are not prepared to bear and suffer in order to secure it.”

What would that “blank” be? This is a great way to identify a master story in your life.

This is a quote from the famous Roman orator Cicero. The original quote is not fill in the blank, but rather reads “by nature we yearn and hunger for HONOR.” This was the Roman Master Story.

The Empire consisted of a “who’s who” division of class separation, and your class status was your honor or lack thereof, and that was EVERYTHING. It defined who you are, how you treated others, and what you lived for and how you lived.

Of the 50 million Roman Citizens of the Empire, 1,000,000 were the elite class consisting of Senators, Equestrions and Deucarions (prominent citizens), and then the Non-Elites, 49,000,000 - either Freeborn Citizens or Freeborn non-citizens, then Freemen (or former slave) citizens or non-citizens. Then you had slaves – conquered peoples who compromised somewhere between 4-20% of the Empire.

The Roman Master Story was rich and poor, elite and non-elite, Roman Citizen or non-Roman Citizen, Freeborn or Freeman or Slave – this was how they viewed and valued everyone and everything.

Luke refers to Philippi in Acts 16 as a “Roman Colony” – revealing just how much this city would have been steeped by this. It was a city of around 10 thousand people of primarily non-elite Roman citizens who were probably either freeborn or freemen, living a more blue collar lifestyle. From the end of the letter, we can surmise that this Philippian church was rather small – mostly consisting of women, and probably no larger than 30 members or so.

For this ancient peoples, honor was everything, and if you had any sort of advantage over someone else – say, you were a freeborn citizen and your neighbor was former slave now freeman, yet not a citizen – it was perfectly socially acceptable to leverage your social status and take advantage of your neighbor – in the name of honor.

As we will see, when Paul planted the Church in Philippi, the Good News of Jesus immediately challenged this Master Story of class division, and we will see how Paul dismantles it throughout the letter by a NEW Master Story – that is Christ.

So what about today? What Master Stories can dominate us in the 21^st century? In our complex world there is not just one or two, but there are many that are calling for our allegiance:

- Patriotism and nationalism. Although most nations have versions of this, in America this can be uniquely intense. The American story has along with it an origin story of valor and courage, national heroes, and also contain values specific to America, combined with music singing its story. Patriotism calls you to not just rejoice in this things, but also to conform to its values and its story as your “master” story, identifying who you are. And it calls not only for your participation, but also for your allegiance. Patriotism and nationalism can be something good and healthy and not wrong by any means. But in strong forms, it can become a form of religion and almost worship.

- Politics carries with it the same. In a rather new phenomenon, political parties today, left or right, carries with it a whole system of values, even ethics, and its own heroes and heroines. It also carries with it definitions of good and evil, and its own path to defeat the evil. Indeed, every presidential election in our modern times, whether left or right, candidates are becoming forced more and more to claim almost messianic abilities to “save” our country, and the only way to save it is to vote for them, up and against the other, showing how modern politics have digressed from a necessary civic and God-ordained system to one that has almost replaced systems of faith and belief for many Americans.

There are other Master Stories around, ones that need mentioning:

- Your vocation and accomplishments within it, and/or how much money you have made. Some people cannot think of themselves apart from their own story of their accomplishments, leading them to find their own value wrapped up in what they have done or havent done and how much is in their bank account. This was a big one for me in my early years. I lived a massively insecure life due to the inability to provide well for my family of the early years of my married life, and often times needed to work 2-3 jobs just to make ends meet.

- Another master story: FEAR. If you want something to be afraid of, turn on the news. According to our media, you need to live in fear, and need to continually stay glued to their stories to learn what you are to be afraid of next. If there is nothing to be afraid of, you’ll see stories of the 4 murder hornets that showed up somewhere to ensure you stay afraid.

We should also throw in buying and selling and materialism, the negative side of capitalism. I recently saw a Calvin and Hobbe’s cartoon where the husband went to grab the mail, and his wife asked if there was anything good. His response: “not really, but you got a “you’re not attractive enough” women’s magazine with with an article on swimsuits that minimize all your body flaws.” Here are some “you’re not stylish or ostentatious enough” catalogs and coincidentally an invitation to go deeper into debt from a credit card company, another magazine telling me about equipment I need that I don’t have, and more. Then the husband says, “Why do I get the feeling that society is trying to make us discontented with everything we do and insecure about who we are?”

His wife responded, “I suppose if people thought about real issues and needs instead of manufactured desires the economy would collapse and we’d have total anarchy.”

- There is one more section of Master Stories to mention: Often times people’s master story are their failures. What they haven’t done. The things that they have completely dropped the ball on. Some big sin that almost destroyed your marriage, that time you got fired because of a bad mistake you made. Also addictions can become your master story, trauma, someone who has been sinned against or abused at no fault of their own.

And on and on it goes. There are many ways in which we can be dominated by a master story outside of ourselves.

Alignment to a master story concerns our worldview, and our worldview brings into it the very loves of our heart, leading to our actions and how we live and treat others. This conversation, in my humble opinion, is one of the most important to have. As controversial as it may be to some ears this morning, and perhaps I’ll get lots of emails this week and more meetings and I would enjoy that – we have to do the deep heart work as we properly define what shapes us as Christians – what story is OUR master story? What truly defines WHO WE ARE?

The book of Philippians is ultimately one long explanation of our Master Story as Christians. None of the above are our Master Story. None of the above calls for the Christian’s ultimate allegiance. America could pass away overnight, and our Lord Jesus would not. The Republican or Democratic party could disappear overnight, and Jesus Christ and his work will not. You see, many of the things I mentioned above are not all bad things – patriotism, nationalism, our vocation and how much money you have made and your accomplishments – those are not bad things, unless they are ultimate in your heart and identity. The things I mentioned that belong to the fallen part of our world – addictions, trauma, those who were sinned against and the like – our master story as Christians provide healing for that. It provides an answer – it provides a way to find a new start, a fresh start to be a NEW creation apart from your successes and failures.

The truth of Christianity that is amazing is this: The Master Story of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, offers to every other broken master story in this world, in every nation, time period and culture, both healing and truth. It flips them all upside down, and shows us the true master story and its values for our human existence.

You see, the Roman Master story and the American ones of Patriotism and Nationalism, the other master stories mentioned of parenting and vocation and wealth and even the negative ones of trauma, addiction, and being sinned against – they all have the result of comparing ourselves to others, with the effect of who or what is greater and who is not. It creates rulers of comparison, and in those games, there is always a winner and a loser.

The Master Story of Jesus, as we are about to see, flips ALL of this upside down.

What is, then the Christian master story? We will be continually, all throughout this sermon series, revisiting these verses in Philippians chapter 2. I am going to read this now, as I will every week, and I am going to drill it deep into your psyche and your imagination, because THIS is YOUR master story. THIS story is where your identity is found, and THIS is how we are called to live. Everything else can be considered as RUBBISH apart from this master story, says Paul. Most scholars consider this as quite possibly the first Christian “hymn.” Let’s hear it:

Philippians 2:1–11

[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)

You see, when you become a Christian, by the filling of the Holy Spirit you become a living example of Jesus Christ to this world, a restored and renewed Human Being in his image. This is why we are called the “body” of Christ in 1 Corinthians. We are God’s Temple, housing his very Spirit – the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ story is the definitive story of the Second Adam, the one who showed the world once and for all what it means to live and to be a human being in this broken world. The themes that we find in this portion of Scripture that belong to this Master Story, belonging to Christians are, in no particular order:

- Unity, being of the same mind. No us vs. them mentality in God’s Church, but unity.

- Doing nothing from self ambition or conceit, but considering everyone as more important than yourselves in all humility. No one is greater or lesser among God’s people – treat everyone as more important then you.

- Do not look only to your own interests, but look to the interests of others. Yes, care for your interests, but care for other people’s interests as if they are your own.

These things and more, as we will see, should describe the very FAMILY of God. This is what we are INVITING people to join. But why these specific things? Because they are OURS in Christ Jesus. They are OURS in Christ Jesus because they perfectly describe how Jesus Christ lived, and all the heavenly values of his upside-down Kingdom.

Paul says he was in the very form of God, but didn’t count equality with God something to be grasped, or rather something to be exploited or used to his own advantage. Because he WAS God, he EMPTIED himself of his status and became a servant – the incarnation – he became a man. Love is self-emptying by nature, and God is love. And his humility even led to his death, his humiliating death for his own enemies. Because of his humility, God has highly exalted him, and the day will come when every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is LORD, that he is KING! To the glory of God.

This is what we will use as our Master Story to interpret Philippians. As we live as Christians, this is how we are to think of ourselves – as not just belonging to Jesus, but being “in Jesus” by his Spirit. His body. And the Church then in some ways become the Good News for this world. Our spiritual union to Jesus has empowered us to live in Jesus. And in our 21^st century world, actions are going to speak just as loud as words. We need churches LIVING out this master story – it will give color and strength to our evangelism. So let’s dive into our text this morning:

[1] Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: [2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

To begin with, Paul describes himself and Timothy as “servants” or dulous, slaves, of Christ Jesus. This is the only book where Paul refers to himself as a “slave” of Jesus Christ. Knowing our Roman Master Story we spoke of, we see how radical it would have been to read this as an ancient Roman – slaves were at the bottom of the ladder, and Paul claimed to be there – the Apostle Paul. Immediately Paul is at work to dismantle this ancient Roman Master story of class division and social stratification. To become a Christian, you rise to the status of a slave – a slave of Jesus. This would have been unthinkable as Romans – but for Paul, it revealed the values of the new Kingdom of Jesus that was inbreaking into the world. Let’s continue:

[3] I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, [4] always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, [5] because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. [6] And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [7] It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

From the beginning, we can see Paul’s deep affection with these Christians. He prays for them continually and he does so with deep joy, remembering their partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

How do we “partner” with the Gospel? How could the Philippian Church “partner” with the Gospel? Whenever you and I embody Jesus and our lives are filled with Jesus in and through our words and actions – we are participating in the Gospel. Because Jesus is the Gospel. He is the Good News. This church as we will see had been a huge financial support to Paul, and in supporting him they were “partnering” in the Gospel, because that is what Christians do. We support one another. We care for one another. And in doing so, we are partnering with the Gospel.

Then Paul says an extraordinarily encouraging statement to these faithful Christians: The Good Work that Jesus has begun in you, as exemplified in your care and support for me – God will carry through and bring it to completion at the day of Jesus.

Their good work as shown in their partnership with the Gospel will be brought to completion on that last day – God is going to be faithful to carry them through. The evidence of his work in their own life is only evidence that God has indeed not abandoned them – he is working, and will work, and will continue to work in their lives. With our Master Story in mind, Jesus’ story did not begin with the incarnation and end with his death – rather, it ends with his future exaltation before the WHOLE world where every knee will bow before him. God’s work in Jesus’ life will be brought to completion in that day – and if that is true for Jesus, and you are in Christ now, it is also true for you.

Immanuel, just this week I dug up a picture of a reverend George Folwell here in this building. He became pastor of a church called “Delaware Avenue Baptist Church” in 1866. This church was described in a book I found online recounting the history of Delaware Churches as follows from its first members when they launched their brand new church:

“A sister of the Second Baptist Church, from no other motive than to advance the cause of Christ and the interest of the denomination, and knowing the need of another church in a growing part of the city, induced fifteen members to unite and to form a new church under the name “Delaware Avenue Baptist Church.”

This Church turned into Immanuel Church many decades later, and today, 155 years later, here we are today.

Through a long history, as Paul said here, I can repeat: I thank God when I think of Immanuel because of your partnership of the Gospel from the first day until now.

And Immanuel, I am sure of this: because you all this morning have stuck it out through thick and thin, because you have partnered together in the Gospel for all these years, because you haven’t given up even when things are hard, when things were confusing, when things were traumatic – indeed, as we look to our Master Story, Jesus himself went through periods of intense suffering, loss and humiliation. Just as God will bring his work to completion in Jesus, he is going to bring this church’s work to completion. It is not finished here, Immanuel. God is not done with his place. He is still working. He has worked mightily. And he will continue to work until the day of Christ Jesus.

[7] It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. [8] For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [9] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (ESV)

The church in Philippi was not scared to join with Paul and carry the burdens he faced. Not all churches did so – Paul seemed to be arrested much more than the rest of the apostles. Imagine if your pastor continually was in jail when other pastors were not often in jail. After a while, you might think “Ok, so yea, what’s up Paul. Peter seems to be doing alright. Why are you always in jail?” Yet it was Paul’s lot to carry the Good News of Jesus to cities across the Roman Empire, and to be led to be misunderstood by many and thrown into jail continually. This church wasn’t embarrassed by this but they supported him, and become “partakers of grace” with Paul in his imprisonment and confirmation of the gospel.

All of this causes Paul to “yearn for them with the affection of Christ Jesus” – another reference to the Master Story – he loves them as Jesus loves him – he is sharing in the affection that Jesus has for them.

It could be said that they loved Paul and supported Paul because Jesus loved them and supported them – their love for one another, as Paul said, brought “confirmation” of the Gospel.

This is the Jesus-like, Cross-shaped family that this letter talks about. They were carrying Paul’s burdens with him. Love always drives us to suffer with one another. Love always will drive you to to the depths of humility, as you will learn not to love yourself first but to love God and others, yourself only being a vehicle for such love. Love will bring about you to sacrifice for someone else, for Jesus and for others. Therefore, it can be said that love is inherently cross shaped, as our Master Story of Jesus shows us.

Paul is far from acting like a selfish CEO of a business, speaking with his mere lowly employees to leverage them for his benefit. Rather, he is essentially speaking almost like a father would to his children, or like a brother would to his siblings and extended family. His welfare was their welfare, and their welfare was his. This is how they loved and cared for one another. And it is how God’s people are to care for one another in these four walls.

Let’s read Paul’s prayer for this church as we begin to close:

[9] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (ESV)

This Master Story that we live in beneath our faith and allegiance to Jesus Christ takes discernment to understand and to see. It is very difficult, because the other master stories that surround us are very powerful. And not all of them are bad or evil, or are to be entirely rejected.

Yet as Christians we are to have our first and foremost allegiance to Jesus Christ. How he lived defines who we are. We love as Christ loved, we live as Christ lived, we give to others as Christ gave to others – all that we ,may be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

Only in the embodying of Christ is righteousness found – what is truly right, good, holy and pure.

As we come to close, I want to ask a few questions:

1) Do you approve of Jesus’ Master Story? Paul wants the Church to know exactly what they should approve of, in order that on that final day we can be presented blameless in Christ Jesus. Often times in our human life there can be a “knowledge/action” gap from the things we know to be true, yet have not embodied in our practice. That gap usually exists because although you may know something to be true, your actions don’t quite line up with it because your heart has other loves that are up and against what you know to be true. Are you wrapped up in another Master Story this morning that is up and against the Master Story of Jesus?

2) Knowing that this question is a little contradictory – are you known as a person of humility? In one of those recent marvel movies one of the character’s said, jokingly of course, “Modesty, I like it. I, too, am extraordinarily humble.” I think we can avoid vanity in asking this question, but a good gauge on humility is the famous quote from CS Lewis – my paraphrase – “True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” How important are other people to you? How much do you like to talk about yourself and your own story? Are you willing to be wrong and corrected by others? Paul’s words in these introductory verses exudes with humility – in a way, you could say Paul was sharing in the humility of Jesus by the help of the Spirit. Are you?

3) Is there another master story in your life that you have attempted to mesh with Jesus’ Master Story? Is politics front and center in your own life? Have you allowed any American Master Story of Nationalism or political identity to take the attention and allegiance of your heart before that of Christ? Are you willing to be “strangely other,” not quite fitting into the ideologies and systems of this world, but being more concerned about your participation and identity in the Master Story of Jesus Christ, thus living the truly Human Life that God desires us to live, a life rich in the fullness of joy that is found in Christ?

4) Have you allowed your past sins and failures to brand a scarlet letter on you? Do you feel like Hester standing before the crowd with the letter “A” forever stitched into your shirt? Have you allowed those things to become who you are? How can you throw off that old self, and put on the new in Christ, knowing that in him the old man or woman is DEAD, and the NEW by the Spirit of God has risen you to a NEW LIFE?

5) New beginnings means the chance to forge new mission and new vision. I’ll show my cards early on: all that we’ve spoken of this morning is what I want Immanuel to be about – and much more than that, also to be known as. They will know us by our love for one another. They will know us as we embody Jesus together. The key to this is love – self-giving love, humility, and sharing in the affection of Christ Jesus for one another. 16

I can end on an encouraging note: Immanuel, you are a deeply loving and caring Church. You in many ways have indeed embodied these things. And the City of Wilmington in all of his brokeness and in all of its need is hungry to see churches caring for each other and carrying each other’s burdens. The city and surrounding areas needs this Church, they need you! And may God’s grace assist us in embodying this Master Story of Christ. Let us pray.