Introduction:
This morning, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, the Apostle Paul, and to the letter he wrote to the Philippian Church. The Apostle Paul was one who knew the transforming power of forgiveness, unconditional love, salvation and calling from Jesus Christ.
Some of you might remember, before he was Paul, his name was Saul. He was a zealous Jew who persecuted Christians, tearing Christian families apart by imprisonment and even execution. Then he met Christ on the road to Damascus. He got forgiven and loved by the very people, Christians, whom he persecuted and imprisoned. He then worked out his salvation with Christ working in him, and he responded to Christ’s call for him to bring the same good news he discovered to everyone else.
And so the persecutor, Saul, became the persecuted, Paul, and the hunter became hunted, and was caught and imprisoned. From his prison cell comes one of the most powerful short letters included in the New Testament, the letter to the Church at Philippi, in your Bibles, titled, "Philippians."
Paul was not writing this letter behind an executive desk sitting on a leather executive chair. He wrote this letter, and three others, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon, while chained to Roman soldiers behind house imprisonment. He was imprisoned for telling others about the favor God has upon people to grant forgiveness through the receiving of Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for our sins. This good news conflicted with the teachings of the day, creating enough public disturbance that Paul had to be imprisoned.
Letters from prison are not unique, except this short letter contains more than 14 references to the word "joy" or "rejoice," and one does not normally associate joy with prisons.
Philippians 1:1-2
This greeting is a traditional greeting of the apostles found in many of the other letters in the Bible. Timothy was Paul’s partner in ministry, his protégé. This morning, we will only look at these two verses, because great truths are not necessarily expressed with many words. We will make one side-observation and define three life-changing identities from how Paul identifies himself, Timothy and those he is addressing. The three identities Paul presents will unlock one secret to why joy can exist even inside a prison cell.
How we identify ourselves to others in our greeting says a great deal about how we perceive ourselves.
"Hi, I’m Doug, and I’m retired."
A coworker in the biotech company where I used to work introduced himself, "Hi, I’m Bob, (and that’s not his name), and I’m homosexual."
Or, "Hi, I’m Paul, and I’m a servant of Christ Jesus."
How we identify ourselves to others in our greetings says a great deal about how we perceive ourselves. Not only do we try to communicate what we feel is important and acceptable to others, we also reveal where we find our worth as a person.
Sometime ago, I was introduced to the I.R. theory. "I" stands for identity and "R" stands for role. We reduce our worth when we confuse our identity with our role. That was a much as I heard about the I.R. theory; everything else I have to say this morning may not be related to that original theory.
Let’s look at side-observation from this morning’s text. When I was reminded about the I.R. theory, I was curious to find out whether Paul was introducing himself with a role or with an actual identity.
I define role as something temporary and is performance-oriented, while identity as something permanent, only God can give or change, and is grace-oriented.
For instance, all of us have many different roles: husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, salesperson, teacher, accountant, engineer, executive assistant, pastor, elder, and retired.
Roles are all temporary. A husband can get divorced (I’m not advocating that, I’m just saying I observe this), a mother can lose her daughter either to a death or to a gorilla you now call a son-in-law. A teacher can change career. A pastor can retire, and a retired person can become a pastor. These are temporary.
Roles are also performance-oriented. If you base your self-worth or identity on your role, you can really do some harm to yourself and to others. Something that is performance oriented will measure high sometimes and measure low at other times.
For instance, if your work requires that you meet a quota, and you continuously fall short by five or ten, your boss will eventually get on you about that. Your job security is threatened, and if your identity comes from your role at work, what happens to your worth as a person? We reduce our worth when we confuse our identity with our role.
Or if you are a mother, and your child has gone off the deep end, and your identity comes from your role as a mom, what happens to your worth as a person? We reduce our worth when we confuse our identity with our role.
Some of us are walking around thinking we are failures in life because we have failed in our roles. What happens to folks who feel like failures?
Aren’t they the people who are most likely to get drunk or seek pleasure from inappropriate sources to cover the pain on the way home from work or school? Aren’t they the people who are most likely to go home and take it out on their wives or on their children?
Not only do they see themselves as a failure at work or school; this failure picture can contaminate the home life. Soon, they begin to greet others with, "Hi, I’m Richard, and I’m failure." We don’t say this out loud, but if we confuse our identity with our roles, we can do harm to ourselves and to others.
True identity, however, has a God-given permanence and is grace-oriented. God is the only one who has the right standard to measure the identity He gives to us, and if we have received Christ as our substitute payment for sin, we measure an A+ in God’s book. That’s a loose translation of the good news from the Bible. We can’t earn God’s favor. It’s given to us as a gift, and we simply receive the gift with gratitude.
Furthermore, no one can take our true identity away. You can take away my job. You can take away my role as a father. You can take away my possessions. Technological advances beyond my training can take away my adequacy at work. The marriage of your son or daughter can take away your role as Mom or Dad, and you need to let go. And being inside a prison may take away my physical freedom, but no one and no circumstance can take away my identity that God has given to me by His grace.
"Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus."
We read in Ephesians 2:8-10: "For it is by grace (God’s offer of favor upon people) you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Do you see it? We who are saved by God’s grace (the unearned goodness to us), we are saved and remade to do good works, to serve God. That’s our identity.
"Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus."
"Dana and Susan, parents of Esther." No. That’s not our identity. That’s our role.
"Dana, pastor of Marin Community Christian Church." No. That’s not my identity. That’s my role.
"Dana and Susan, servants of Christ Jesus." Yes.
"Joseph and Elizabeth, servants of Christ Jesus." Yes.
The FIRST identity Paul points to is that of a SERVANT:
No one can take that away from me or from you. Our boss cannot, our failures cannot, our inadequacy cannot; even our retirement from our employment cannot take away our identity as a servant of God.
To be a servant of God is not an office or a role. It’s an identity. A church volunteer is a role. Being a servant of God means that we don’t volunteer for a service because it’s popular or because it’s comfortable. Being a servant of God also means that we are not the source of the power to accomplish the Master’s task. Servants do what they are told by the Master and the Master provides the resources to the servants to fulfill the task.
Fred Smith notes, "When God selects our service, He sends the power. When we volunteer, we keep control, even while attempting worthwhile work."
So I encourage you to discover how God wants to use you in your life and allow Him to have His way. When people ask me to do what I’m not good at or don’t like to do, I get fearful and resentful. When God calls me to do something, even if I’m not good at it or don’t like to do it, I don’t have to wonder if I can do it or if I will do it. He will send the power to enable me, and I have to do what He has selected for me to do. After all, He is God and I am His servant.
Dana, a servant of Christ Jesus. I can have joy as a servant because I know what my Master expects me to do can be done despite chains and prison cells.
The SECOND identity Paul points to is that of a SAINT:
The second part of verse 1 reads: To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons." The overseers and deacons are offices of the church, but a saint is an identity, not an office nor a role.
Saints, contrary to popular belief or the Catholic churches’ practice of qualifying someone into sainthood, biblically refers to those set apart for God. In the Greek, saint is the noun form of the adjective, holy. Therefore, to be a saint, you must be holy, and to be holy, you are set apart for God.
Holiness has to do with goodness only because as we are set apart for God, God’s goodness rubs off on us. Good company leads to good character. Holiness is not a guarantee of goodness, but a reason for goodness. When you are set apart for God, you have a reason to be able to be good. When you are set apart for God, you are a saint.
Again, identity has a God-given permanence and is grace-oriented. We are not saints by performance but by association with God.
So it would not be inappropriate for you to call me Saint Dana. And I would be biblical to address Kevin as Saint Kevin or to address Judy as Saint Judy, provided you are set apart for God, regardless of your performance at your work or at home.
Dana, a saint at Marin Community Christian Church. I can have joy as a saint because my God has already set me apart and as I associate with Him, I become more like Him in character, despite any character flaws or struggles I have currently.
FINALLY, the third identity Paul points to is that of SAVED:
He doesn’t say this, but he gives us the results of such an identity. Verse 2 reads, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." When we are saved, we have experienced the unmeritted favor or grace of God, and the peace with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
People are not at peace with God. Everyday in many ways, we argue with God. God in his Word, the Bible, told us what to do, but we chose to do it our way. The sinner’s own effort can never make peace with God. Only by accepting the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross can men and women experience peace with God.
There is no greater joy than to know you enjoy peace with the Almighty. Dana, saved by grace and at peace with God. I can have joy as one who is sure that my entrance into Heaven depends not on my own effort but on the unmeritted favor of God in my life. Religion is man’s attempt to find God; Christianity is God’s solution to religion.
We can see the application of a correct identity in everyday life.
The power of a biblical identity not only brings joy but also empowers life-change, even to effect our roles in life. A false identify can produce an opposite example. When asked of Dr. Martin Luther King whether it’s true that black people are lazy, over-sexed and got rhythm. Dr. King replied, "Yes, it’s true. If you tell people that for two hundred years that they are lazy, over-sexed, and got rhythm, sooner or later you’ll produce a generation of them that meet these standards."
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to intern at Choate Rosemery Boarding School. During that summer session, the school invited kids from 20 country and 30 states to come and study.
I remember playing basketball one day with an African American boy. He was from Wilson High School in San Francisco. He was failing his biology class at Choate Rosemery. Although I was teaching biology and human anatomy at Choate, I didn’t offer to tutor him because he had no interest in study. He felt he was dumb and didn’t have a chance.
I showed him a book with a page telling the truth about African Americans in the United States, that those blacks who are in America today are generally genetically superior in the physical and mental realm. After all, they are the offspring from those who survived the harsh treatment of the slave trade journey and slave treatment in America. To survive slavery, they had to be among the brightest and strongest.
When the boy realized he had the survivors’ genes in him, his identity changed immediately. He began to believe the truth that he had what it took to learn and understand biology. Several days later, he came running into a faculty meeting and yelled, "Dana, I got an ’A’ in my biology test!" All the other teachers were quite surprised.
If the truth of that boy’s identity could improve his performance in his role as a student, how much more, the truth of our identity as one saved by the grace of God and set apart to be used in His wonderful plan?
Conclusion:
We who are servants only receive the Master’s resources for the Master’s assigned task, not our own agenda. We who are saints only grow in holiness in the presence of the God’s company, not in sinful company. And we who are saved only experience continuous grace and peace when we remember that even these are given by God, and not earned from our own effort.
The joy comes when we realize that no matter how difficult our circumstances are or how we’ve failed in our roles, God provides for our adequacy in what He wants us to do, in what He wants us to become and in the relationship He wants to have with us. After all, our biggest failure -- our failure to live out God’s intention for our lives -- has already been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. All other failures in life, even our repeated sins, are minor in comparison, and the blood of Christ is sufficient for those also.
Someone defined joy as the assurance of adequacy, and this morning, Paul has reminded us that we can never be inadequate in God’s eyes, because He provides the adequacy in what He expects from us, as servant, saint and saved.
