Servants of Christ — Philippians 2-3

0:00 Morning. Morning. Wonderful to be here. March came in like a lamb. It's going out like a lion.

0:07 I mean, first week of March, was sitting in my backyard with shorts on and a t shirt. And I knew, I knew then when I drive to Cleveland on the twenty seventh it's going to be another blizzard like there was back in February where I had to go 15 miles an hour. No, It wasn't bad driving, visibility maybe, but not bad. But yeah, it'll probably snow next month in Erie. You're right about that.

0:39 Erie's notoriously long winter, but we get used to it, don't we? Just to open in prayer then, Father, we're thanking you for a time that we could be gathered together. We do so in the name of your son, our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We recognize him as our head. We recognize your word for what it is that which you've breathed out for all generations.

1:04 We open it now trusting you to open our minds, our hearts to what you have for us. And trust, Lord, that you would speak to each one of us. You would speak as a whole to this assembly here. Your people gathered us to continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So, we commit our time into your hands in Christ's precious name.

1:46 Well, I could be real tempted just to go right on to that right now. And maybe it will. Maybe it'll morph into that, Alright? You never know. Because as he said and these brothers, they're they do a wonderful job.

2:02 I'm just adjusting the hearing aids. They do a wonderful job gathering all these invited speakers to come like a month earlier, right? So, I'm invited to Zoom prayer meeting with these brothers who are going to share plus the teaching team. Wonderful idea. Definitely, kudos, right?

2:23 For thinking like that. Alright? And they lay out a theme. Now, I listen to all the messages, right? Every week and I call Ray and say, Ray, are you on theme?

2:37 And Ray says, yeah, brother, brother, we're on theme. The lord's leading and we got everybody's attention. They're paying attention. We're coming together as assembly. So, just keep going.

2:45 Alright? Well, I can do that. You know, because let me just remind you, John Woodhams introduced a series out of Philippians two. Remember? I know we're going back into February now.

2:58 And he used that wonderful description of Christ being found in the fashion of man. He humbled himself and became obedient. But all those wonderful words about the Lord Jesus that are so precious to us were written basically as corrective comments for division, for the lack of people really being in sync together. At a church in Philippi where there was a little bit of disruptiveness due to people not getting along. So we have this huge passage in the second chapter that's just a beautiful, wonderful, quoted, useful demonstration, declaration of the lord Jesus Christ but it's really was said for the purpose of getting people on the same track.

4:06 Consider others more important than yourself as something you practice. You just don't say it. You find a way to communicate that and not that you're lifting people up putting them on a pedestal, but their needs. Well, they don't tell us their needs. No, you assume other people's needs.

4:28 They need to be loved. They need to be wanted. They need to feel needed. Love needed wanted. I heard years ago from a brother.

4:39 Loved, needed, and wanted. You can be loved but not needed. You can be needed, not loved. You can be both not wanted. You gotta have all three.

4:53 And so when you have it in your mind that others are more important than you than what you wanna communicate just in your presence to begin with, just in your acknowledgement of brothers and sisters that you're gathered to is that you're loved, you're needed, you're wanted by me. I don't care about the rest of the assembly. I'm not speaking on behalf of the elders or deacons. As you get to them. Just you as a Christian.

5:20 I love you. I need you. I want you in the meeting. Every week, every meeting. Of course, there's going to be absence.

5:32 Believe it or not, the head of the church is well aware of absenteeism rates. Alright? He keeps attendance. You don't think he does. You wait.

5:42 You wait. When you see him face to face and he gets out the attendance book and says, let's just start with attendance. When I was gathered and I gathered you to me, where were you? And just dealing with that in itself. Alright?

5:59 I don't even want to go down that street because that's that's too hard of a question to get people to deal with. Andy and his message on the authority of Jesus Christ and his word asked the question, why is the meeting always the first thing to go out of people's schedules? It everything trumps the meeting. It was his words. Everything in our calendar trumps whatever we think we should be doing when we're gathered.

6:32 Trust me, Jesus Christ don't feel the same way. He didn't feel the same way. You you might think he tolerates it because he doesn't really care. Sorry. He does care and he doesn't tolerate it.

6:46 Why does he let you get away with it is the question. Alright? That's between you and him. He's so gracious, isn't he? Understanding our frailty, our weakness that we're but dust.

7:00 Yeah, I get that. I understand that. But Andy on the authority of Christ is such a tremendous and then you he even dealt with the fact that he he doesn't insist on you being in constant authority under his authority. He allows us to be disobedient sometimes. He allows us to be ignorant, to to to refuse his known declared will for our lives.

7:26 He allows us to refuse to obey. They were to disobey. And yet still be in authority. Those are hard concepts for especially young people to get. Right?

7:40 And even some of us old, older, delinquent, rebellious types, alright? It's hard to deal with. Why do you let me get away with my own will sometimes when I know it's a constant battle to surrender but he does. He does. And of course Ray shown Christ as just a wonderful...

8:19 He's come to heal. He's come to revive. He's come to give us strength. And that of course brings us to Bob's last week. Now, here comes Bob just just a right royal slap in the face for all of us.

8:34 It was good. It was necessary, you know? What are you doing here? What are you doing here? You've heard that before in the Bible, haven't you?

8:44 When Elijah got all gummed up with Jezebel, went and hid and god brought him to the cave, got his attention with the fire and the wind and then finally, it's still small voice and then finally, he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? What doest thou hear? Great question. I wish the spirit of god would ask everybody when they walked in the room every meeting day. That question, why'd you come today?

9:12 Not because there's a right answer. Of course, there is a right answer but he's not asking you that question to see if you know the right answer. He would ask that question to see if you can be honest. He would be checking your genuineness with yourself. You don't have to worry about being honest with him.

9:35 Trust me, you can't fool He's not tricked by anybody. He doesn't need anybody to testify what's in man. As declared by John in the chapter of his gospel. I'll need you to tell me what's in you, Jesus says. I know what's in you.

9:52 Do you know what's in you? Could you admit why you came today? That's a great question. What are you doing here? And big picture, not only in the meeting, just on the planet, just super questions.

10:09 The harder questions we ask force people to hear, whether you answer them to yourself or before the Lord, up to you. But the harder the questions, the healthier the assembly. Trust me, we need to ask the hard questions of each other, not in a judgmental way, not in literally go, I'm going to go knock on your door and ask you why. No, that's not the point but allow for the fact that we really do have general expectations of each other. So, that when those expectations, we fail in em, there's some accountability because there's going to be a question asked.

10:53 Jesus Christ is going to ask you. The judgment seat of Christ is a real location. You will stand there. You will give an account. From the day that you were saved until that day.

11:08 He will open your life in video form. I don't know. Book form, I don't know. You will give an answer. Even if it's I'm sorry lord.

11:18 Oh, I'm sorry again. Oh, I'm sorry again. I missed it. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention.

11:24 I didn't get it. I didn't think it was that serious to you. I thought you were just on a path to get me with you. I didn't realize you really wanted me to do something while I was down there. He trust me.

11:38 You're going to stand before him. It won't be about sin It'll be about the quality of the life that you lived in his name. What are you doing here? Now, let me follow-up with Bob using Paul. I told Bob already about this.

12:40 Doesn't he? Let me ask a question real quick. How many of you know where you're going to be at two today? 02:00 today? Who knows where they're going to be?

12:48 How about three? You know where you're going be at three? Anybody else? 03:00 today, where you're going to be? Four?

12:57 How about five? Six? One? How about 11:45? He'll be here still.

13:16 We'll come back to that. Would you agree with me that Paul's conversion was really best described by the word he used in Philippians three where he says this testimony. And I thought for sure Bob was gonna get this and maybe he's going to. I might be still in his future tender, but I'm gonna still grab it. Alright?

13:48 I am running hard chasing after like in a foot race to apprehend the reason Jesus Christ apprehended me. John Woodhams not here? He's a great of his Greek words, isn't I gave you some of the loose Greek word translations of that Philippians three passage. Paul says, I'm in a foot race chasing after an apprehension of my own. I'm trying to apprehend the purpose for why Jesus Christ apprehended me.

14:42 Now, some of us who are delinquents some of us who are delinquents, not that you two guys were. We know what the word apprehend means in the police world. Unfortunately, there may or may not have been times when there we were in a foot race because somebody wanted to apprehend us. You see? And Christ really wasn't chasing Paul.

15:13 He wasn't behind him, was he? He was right in front of him. That's the kind of apprehension where you're coming up and boom. You stop dead. You can't go any farther and Christ saved him and he wouldn't let him budge until he dealt with him.

15:25 How many of you would describe your conversion as an apprehension? There might be some. It it it it I don't need to see your hands but I want you to think in terms. Would you just describe your in your testimony that you are apprehended? A strong word.

15:47 By Jesus Christ. Very very few people do. Some do, very few people. And I I make that point because all through Paul's life, he describes himself and it's part of his experience and as we know, missionary journey, come back. Missionary journey, come back.

16:13 Missionary journey, come back and then suddenly be charged with violating contaminating the temple by taking Gentiles into which he didn't do and therefore under death threat by the Sanhedrin. In order to prevent the Jews from killing another man, they had already killed Stephen years before which was illegal. They didn't have the right to stone Stephen. Alright? But they did as we read this morning and they got away with it.

16:48 The Roman authority stepped in and Paul then is captured and taken in and protected and and eventually makes a plea to go to Caesar and all this part of his life, he describes as being in chains. I'm a prisoner. Five times he says, I'm a prisoner. Four times in Philippians one, he refers to his chains. Once in Ephesians, he says, I'm an ambassador in chains and it was quite literal but never once did he say, I'm a prisoner of Rome.

17:20 Never once did he say, I'm a prisoner of the Jews. Never once did he say I'm a prisoner of Caesar. Each time he said, I'm a prisoner, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. There's a man who felt apprehended. Now, his circumstances were such as god used him.

17:39 He found himself increasingly in harm's way. Harm's way. You can go through the list of all the things that he experienced in Corinthians. The point being that he sensed himself a prisoner for the lord. How many of you would describe your walk with the lord as being a prisoner?

17:58 In America, we don't use the word. Only criminals use it. We're free. We're free people. This is the land of the free.

18:10 Okay. I got it. I'm with you. I understand the red, white, and blue. Alright?

18:19 But I'm asking you, Have you ever had a sense that he apprehended you for a purpose? Even though you don't describe your testimony that way, your testimony is more like a conversion type where like, let's say, John. Fishing with his father and his brother. Come follow me. Three years later, still following, still trying to make sense out of it all but following.

18:51 Well, without a lot of clarity. Course, till the day of Pentecost but that was the intent, wasn't it? And some of us, that's our more descriptive of our personal conversions. We heard em and we started falling but we didn't really get why. But it was blessed to be with him.

19:11 We watched the miracles. We're up on the mountain tops. We've had tremendous time with you, lord. It's been great. Absolutely great.

20:08 That's atheist. You're an atheist. In the Roman Empire, if you didn't worship the emperors and the mission was the first emperor who said, you're not only right that I'm lord and god, you address me as lord and god. Alright? And John says, I'm not buying any of it and the mission said, well, I have three islands out in the Mediterranean.

20:30 That's where I put all my political prisoners from the Eastern Med. You're going to one of em. And John's out on the Island Of Patmos. Now, he's just a follower of Christ. He wasn't apprehended.

20:42 Now, he's apprehended. Now, he's apprehended. So, turn with me to the Revelation please. Chapter one. The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.

21:06 He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw that this, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. I want to stop there for a second and just suggest to you as many, how many love reading Revelation? Now, nobody loves it. How about a favorite verse out of Revelation? Anybody?

21:34 At least one? Come on, you got at least one. Behold, I come quickly. Behold, I come quickly. The blessing promised to all the readers.

21:45 Yeah. Revelation. You know, why don't we like it? It's too frightening and we don't get it and we can't explain it. We can't teach it with any type of authority other than the background to it which is what I'm doing.

22:13 I'm not a believer only. I don't even stop on the word disciple. Am I a servant of the lord Jesus Christ? Why do I say that? Because this book seems exclusive to begin with and why don't people get revelation?

22:33 Why don't people read it? Why don't we preach it? Why don't we pound it out as we do the god? Maybe because it frightens us. Yeah, maybe it's all that but this is the reality.

22:44 This is the revelation that god gave Jesus Christ to give to his servant. If you're not a servant, you probably don't want it. Sorry? It seems exclusive to me. It's for servants only.

23:06 It's for a servant. Oh, blessed is anybody who reads and keeps. Yeah, I get that but is there going to be any understanding to it if you are not in a servile position to the Lord Jesus? If you don't really sense that He has apprehended you for a person, you belong to Him, you are His prisoner. And we were thankful that we have a god who never let us fall.

23:27 Hands that hold us firm. Nobody can grasp out of my hand. That same hand also is the one who chained the tether of a to your foot and said, hold it. You're my prisoner. I'm not letting you go.

23:38 You belong to me. We're prisoners of the lord Jesus Christ. I know, foreign language and maybe you should never really copy this because I know it can be misunderstood by anybody who's really gonna listen to it with the intent to cut it up and make sure I said things I didn't really intend to say but that was something to keep saying. Because I'm gonna ask the hard questions. I'm gonna.

24:07 God gave his son a revelation of him to give to his servants. Blessed, verse three, is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. Blessed are those whose hear it and take it to heart what is written because the time is near. Then you have this wonderful greeting. And you have this verse six, he's made us a kingdom and priest to serve his god and father.

24:36 Look, he's coming with the clouds, verse seven says, every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples on earth will mourn because of him, so shall it be, amen. I'm the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord, who he is, who was, and who is to come Almighty. Verse nine, I John, your brother and companion in the suffering and the kingdom of patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the Island Of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Now we have the location and we have the reason, John's explanation of why he was there. Domitian had his own explanation why he was there.

25:12 He was there because he was a political prisoner. He's a political prisoner because he spoke out against my temple that I had built in Ephesus. Still there by the way. You can still see the ruins of the Missions Temple in the city of Ephesus. If you care to go.

25:30 This is John's reason why he's there. I was there for the word of god and for the gospel's sake. For the word of God and for the gospel. Now understand Patmos, not very far off the coast, not very big, but self catering type prison. Once you're there, you're there, you're not getting off.

25:49 Maybe as long as the mission's alive, of course, he would, after he was dead, Nerva, Emperor Nerva released John. John went back to Ephesus where he continued writing but the point is it was self catering in that. There was no food, there was no light, there was no cafeteria, there was none of that. You're gonna live, you gotta survive. You grow your own, old man.

26:13 You find your own way to live. The Christians in Ephesus had to send them daily food supplies. Otherwise, you're not going to live and nobody cared if he died. So, he's there and he's not only there because of the word of god preaching against the mission. He's there for the gospel's sake.

26:34 What does that mean? He's preaching the gospel to the other prisoners. Like Paul, at the end of Acts says, for two years, he stayed in the whole house and he preached Christ whoever came to him. He was a prisoner of Christ stationed in Rome. John's a prisoner of Christ stationed on Patmos, right?

26:55 Because he would following Christ to the point where he was finally put here by the lord Jesus. He's on Patmos for a reason. The word of god and for the gospel. I would just ask this question. Would that be on anybody's lips if I asked you what Bob asked you?

27:17 Why are you here? We'll start in the world and we'll move to Cleveland and we'll get smaller to Westlake and we'll get to Willard Hilliard Avenue. Is it for the word of god? For the gospel's sake? Are you here for the word of god and for the gospel's sake?

27:39 That's the first question. Is that why you're here? Now, this wonderful description of which most of my entire Christian life, I waited for the right moment to preach this message. On the lord's day, I was in the spirit on the lord's day Well, stop, John. Tell me.

28:16 What about the other six days? Don't want to talk about the other six days. Why? Those are the days I took care of myself. Where I worked to meet my own needs.

28:29 Where I met people in rowboats bringing me food. Where I had opportunity maybe with my co prisoners to talk and to share in the gospel and to show them the love of Christ. Maybe providing them with an extra morsel that somebody didn't bring them that day. But I'm intermingling with the rest of us on this island because we're all prisoners and we all have the same fate in front of us except for I'm a servant of Jesus Christ which nobody knows but me. Now, that six days of my life I've committed, it seems like part of the curse from the garden.

29:11 You shall work for your bread by the sweat of your face. Yeah? Can't mitigate it. Well, we'll find a way. Four day weeks, air conditioning, take away the sweat.

29:25 We'll find all different ways to mitigate the curse. It doesn't matter. The point is, I have to believe this phrase being introduced. Unlike in the book of Acts where he describes on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. On the first day of the week, when you're gathered, set aside your offering.

29:55 Why are you talking about the Sabbath? No. I'm not talking about the Sabbath. That's Jewish. That's Saturday.

30:02 This is the lord's day. The day he rose from the dead. It's the first day of the week and John says, on the lord's day, I responded to the fact that this is the first day of the week. I'll do anything I want for six days under the leading of the spirit but on the first day of the week, on the lord's day, this is the description. I was in the spirit.

30:32 You say that about you today? That your description, what you're doing here? Today is the lord's day. Are you in the spirit? And what that possibly might mean to a local assembly to have people living their life for six days, doing whatever they can do, energized by as much, and maybe all these other fine certain things that are part of you walked in the spirit, right?

31:04 Because you don't want to be overcome by the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. So, you need to walk in the spirit. Yes? You're filled with the spirit because you know you're supposed to be filled and every day, I want to be filled with the spirit. So, I have enough spiritual energy to meet the obligation of what I think I should be doing because I love, I need, and I want other people around me.

31:26 Yes, you be filled with the spirit. And I want to be led by the spirit because I only want to talk to those people that spirit of god has opened the door for me to go to and present Christ to them because that's the heart he's plowed up and he wants to use me. Lead me by the spirit. And by all means, I want to be empowered by the holy spirit. I don't want to count on the flesh.

31:45 I don't want to trust in myself. I don't want it to be my own energy or boldness. I want the holy spirit of god to empower me with boldness. Lord, grant your servants boldness that we may preach was the prayer. Acts chapter four.

32:01 It's still not in the spirit on the lord's day. A whole different experience. A whole different experience. How many come into a meeting and be spiritually minded while we're singing one song that you particularly like and then check out mentally and think about whatever you want? Come into the spirit.

32:22 Come into the meeting and be led by the spirit to be part of something that well, hopefully, it will go fast so I can get to the refreshments. We've lost it. Can say, today is the lord's day I was in the spirit because the minute you do, guess what? To win. Where you going to be at one?

32:53 Out of the spirit? You gotta plan to be somewhere else? Anyway, as Christians, we don't have that testimony especially Americans. We want drive thru church. We don't want to be inconvenienced.

33:08 What? You think John was being inconvenienced? Personally dedicated a day, the first day and called it, well, not the first day, the lord's day and I'm going to tune myself so far out of the world that I'm going to be considered on that day in the spirit. Not slain by the spirit, not all that goofy Pentecostal stuff, alright? In the spirit, total spiritual ecstasy because it's the lord's day and I could be there by myself.

33:45 But the lord's there. It's a day. It's a day surrendered to his purpose, to him. We don't have it. Sorry.

34:01 We don't have In Hong Kong, Chinese Christians come for meetings, then eat together, then a meeting just to sing and have fun. Maybe by five go home. Because it's a day away from the world. It's a day away from the world. It's the lord's day and they occupied in the spirit.

34:47 First place you have to respond because I heard something. Right? Verse 12, so I turned. I heard, I turned. I turned.

35:00 And it's amazing that the voice had to be turned to see the voice. It doesn't make sense to me. But when he did turn, he saw. And verse 17, and when I saw, I fell. And once I fell, I was told to write.

35:25 All these consecutive responses to a very simple thing. I determined one day was the lord's day and on that day, nothing but spirit. I was in the spirit on the lord's day and you ask me, I mean, people ask me, well, how what can we do to make the assembly better? You know, I go, I don't get anything. I mean, Only no one answer.

35:53 It ain't change the speaker. Let's get somebody more gifted. Let's add five deacons. That'll help. Sorry.

36:04 Didn't mean that to be, you know. Do what you gotta do. People are always not going to be on the spirit on the lord's day and those are the people who are going to always say, how come I didn't? How come I didn't? It's a fundamental practice.

36:25 Do you have a day in your week you call the lord's day? Or you gotta narrow down the lord's hour. Or the lord's forty five minutes. I go to the first meeting only. Why did he apprehend you?

36:47 If that's your answer, because he wanted to see me for forty five minutes every Sunday, when I sit in back and don't participate. That's why he apprehended me. No, he apprehended me because he wants me in heaven. If that was the case, you'd be there already. You'd be there already.

37:05 He would have taken you right then. Come on. That's all I'm going to give for you. I'll take you now. If you're sitting here and you're breathing and you know Jesus Christ as your savior, he's apprehended you for a purpose.

37:20 One of those purposes is the lord's day. To be in the spirit, to function under his headship, to love, need, and want, expressed to everybody around you at all times. Don't worry about what you get. When you hear the voice, you'll turn. When you turn, you'll see.

37:42 And when you see, you'll fall. When you fall, he'll say, right, give it to other people. Yeah? It's very simple. Very simple.

37:54 I'll leave the rest, Jen, brother. I won't even go into deacons. I'll save that. That sounds fun. That sounds delicious, but praise the Lord for all of you, being here today and enduring such.

38:12 Closing prayer. Father, we thank you for your son. Thank you for a time around him. Our desire is to follow after with our whole heart, so we trust your word will be aught operation in our hearts and our minds, Lord, to bring us to where you would have us to be. Especially in how we treat each other, how we serve each other, how we love, need, and want each other, Lord.

38:36 May that be foremost in our energy that we give from you. We commit ourselves to you for that purpose. In ongoing weeks, Lord, to this topic of raising up and recognizing deacons, we commit to you and pray, Lord, that you would make your will known. Exercise those whose hearts you've plowed up for that purpose. We pray in Christ's name, amen.