You will now turn to your Bibles. We will read from Philippians. That is page 1798. Page 1798. This is the letter of Paul, the apostle to the Philippians. This morning we will do verses one and two and then second service three to 11. So I will just read one to 11 all the way. So let us all, with our voices, read Philippians chapter one, verses one to 11 together. Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. And as much as both in my chains and in the events and confirmation of the gospel, You all are partakers with me of grace for God is my witness. How greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. That is the word of our Lord. Let us pray before we continue. Father, we have read your word. May this word and its truth be manifested in us. May we see Jesus Christ for who He is. May we know Him and see His work amidst us, even in us. And may we go out from this place, continuing His work as He's working in us mightily. And in the church, we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. I feel like someone else talking this low. But I thank God for Karthik. He is one, I preach in churches. Karthik is one of the best sound men out there. So we are blessed with many gifts in the church, right? So you will see that in the sermon today, how we are blessed with so many different gifts. Each one of us have that to share. But before I go there, let me remind you, today we have Christina's parents visiting, well, not just today, but for the whole month, I heard, so welcome to our church. And you all feel this, a lot of you probably are not from this area, from Scarborough, right, or maybe not from the province, Ontario, or maybe not from the country, so our loved ones are from far, far away back home, and we can't see them as often as we want to, But thank God for technology, we can do FaceTime, like you can see the face at least. But not, back in Paul's time, you have to, situation, you long to see them, you long to hear about. But in post time, you have to rely with what we call now snail mail. Even back then, there's no UPS, there's no post Canada post. So somebody literally brought that letter to the destination. So it takes a while for the letter to arrive. It's expensive in that sense. to send a letter. So Paul's letter is a bit longer, longer than our text messages. He has to make it worth it, make the most out of it. So our text today, the Book of Philippians, we often call it, is actually one of Paul's letters. Epistle, if you want to use that word, written by Paul. This one is specifically to the church at Philippi. There's a city. If you look at your Bibles, there are two parts, Old Testament, New Testament. The New Testament begins with four Gospels and then Acts. And then after that, we have Paul's letters. Just for you who are new, there are 13 of them. And the letters are arranged by size. So it's not chronologically, but it's by size. So it's Romans, Corinthians, and then so on. And here we have Philippians. Philippians was written when Paul was in prison. That's toward the end of his ministry. So imagine the relationship. Paul is in prison. He's longing to know, to hear, to update about himself and to hear about the spiritual children he has, right? One of them being the Philippians. The Philippians, Paul planted this church in Philippi during his second mission trip. You can read that in Acts, Acts 16, 11. You don't have to turn there, but check it out once you have time. We'll go through Philippians this couple months, so it's worth it to read Acts 16 at home. But long story short, Paul founded this church and then he left to continue planting churches. But he got to come back to Philippi a couple of times. And then during that time, he raised funds because the church in Jerusalem was struggling, was persecuted badly by the Jews and the government as well. So then Paul raised funds. So you can see the Philippians, out of love, they gave a lot. So this church supported Paul, prayed for Paul, loved Paul, financially supporting him as well. But now, Paul is in prison, in Rome. He misses these people to be in contact, to see them in person. Yes, we read earlier, long to see them, but then he can't, so he writes. He writes this letter, right, to update his situation, updates them about his plan, and encourage and teach them as well. Now, I want you to know, as we go through the letter, each of Paul's letters have themes. to the situation of that he writes to and the problems that Paul is addressing. So when we read the Bible, every book has a situation, has a context we need to understand. In case of the Philippians, one of the main themes is partnership in the gospel. Partnership in the gospel. And with that, he also addresses the issue of unity, partnership again, fellowship among the saints there. So as we go through the letter, we will see other themes as well, but this is the most protruding theme throughout. So we will just focus on verse one and verse two, this first service. Let's look at that. My goal as we look at these two verses is to impress upon you that every one of us, every saint, Who is that? Everyone that God redeemed and put in Christ's body, the church, is Paul's partner in the gospel, in the advancement of the gospel. Yes, every single one of us, of you and of me, all of us. So we will see that how we are all equal partners in Christ. how we also have different callings, different roles in the church, but all that for one purpose in this world. So let's begin with verse one. When Paul introduces himself, he put himself and Timothy as the senders, and then he identifies himself with Timothy as what? Bondservant of Jesus Christ. Now let me bring you some fun facts. If you scroll through his letters, in most of the letters, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and so on, Colossians, Paul introduces himself as the apostle. If you have question of what that is, we will look at that in point. But not here in the Philippians, he introduces himself just as the bond servant. What is that? The Greek word is doulos. You might have heard of that. It basically means slave, bond servant, slave. In the early church, which Paul founded, there were both slaves and masters. So slavery was an integral part of every aspect of life. 85, 90% of people in Rome and Italy were slaves, or at least of slave origin. And then the people initially became slaves through war and kidnapping, sadly. But by the time of Paul, most people were already born into slavery. So it's like generation after generation. Or some of them sold into slavery, either voluntarily because it's easier to serve someone, you have your life with them. Or some were sold to relieve debts. And slaves were the property of the owners. Think about it. So their living conditions really depended on the character, on the mood of the owner, of the masters. So Paul's slave metaphor is very relevant to his audience. It's common, it's understandable immediately. Now, that's why in many of Paul's letters, Paul speaks of Christians as those free, free from the slavery of sin. In Christ, the inequality of master and slave is overthrown. So every Christian, regardless of their social status, if you're a master, if you're a slave, if you are a Christ, you are the only prey. Slaves of Christ. Wait, Leo, did you say that Christians are freed from slavery? Yes. And then you ask, wait, Leo, but then we're slaves of Jesus Christ. Yes. How does that work? Isn't this just going out from the frying pan into fire? No. Only those who are slaves of Christ are those who are truly free. Perplexed? Confused? Think about this, brothers and sisters. If you are not in Christ, you are a slave of something else or someone else. It can be your appetite. It can be your laziness. It can be your misery or sadness, depression. Or you may be a slave of your desires. Desire to be respected, desire to be liked, desire to be accepted, desire to be okay, just to get by. There's a desire that enslaves people. Or maybe we're a slave of those who we put higher than God. can be family, can be loved ones, can be good things. And yet, we become enslaved to that. How so? Just look at what we say, what we do, what we think, how we think. They're not only influenced by these things, by the desires, by the people that we put up there. We're enslaved. Because we can turn anything into our God. than God himself. That is our God's idols, and that is our master. So if you're not in Christ, that something else, that someone else will be your master. It can be so simple that you might not realize it. Or you might realize it, but you know you can't break free from it. Willpower is not enough. It's like an addiction problem. Willpower just doesn't cut it. Sin is a ruthless master. And as a servant of sin, we will eventually die in misery. Eternal fire waits for us because of our sin. And we serve sin rather than God, our creator and true master. So if you're not in Christ, this is our reality. You will always put something else because we're created to worship. We will put something else if not God. So I ask you today, if you have not known Jesus Christ, if you have not put Him as your Lord and Savior in your life, this is the time. You hear this message today. He's calling you. Come to Him and put Him in your heart as the Lord. And He saves you from all that slavery. Those who believe in Him. How? By His blood. He purchased us, says the Bible, from our sin, the ruthless master. So He's our new master. Transfer owner, from that slave of the sin, now the slave of Christ. But guess what? Jesus, after purchasing us, doesn't even call us servants. He calls us His friends, John, even fellow heirs with Him. What does that mean? Those who are saved are adopted into Christ as family, as children of God. The children of the Father Almighty. Isn't this the best master you can ever ask for? So come if you're not. of salvation. And as the slaves of Christ, you don't have to be disabled for anything anymore. Your desire can be put under Christ. Everything that you love comes following Christ. Let Christ be the first love, the only one you serve in this world. And as the slaves of Christ, let me remind you, be able to do the things that are good for you. Worship is good for you. Pray is good for you. Eat healthy is good for you. Rest is good for you. Work is good for you. All the things God ordained for us to do is good for us. So as you start living, let Him be your master. Serve Him only. Now, look back to Paul. Paul is also called as an apostle, which we'll look at later, a special calling. But he identifies himself as a born servant of Christ, equal partner with Timothy, with the Philippians, with all of us here who are purchased by Christ's blood. Paul and us, equal standing, same. And then Paul addresses the Philippians as what? Look at your Bibles, 1. Saints in Christ Jesus. Saints. You might ask, what does the word saints mean? Now, let me give you the wrong example. In Roman Catholic Church, saints are those the Pope pronounces or declares to be saints. The Pope declared Mother Teresa to be a saint, canonized in 2016, recent. Pope John Paul II, by the way, he was declared a saint as well by the pope after that, canonized in 2014. And then you know what's next? Roman Catholics pray to them. Not they're dead. To them. I found a prayer on www.catholic.org. Oh, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing. Bless the church that you loved and served and guided. Disclaimer, that is blasphemy. That is not biblical. How can a pope, mere man, declare someone who died as saints, and then people, Roman Catholic people, as a church, praise a dead person? We only pray to God. We pray for people, but to God and only God. We do not pray to any creature, let alone dead ones. To do so is idolatry, having other gods. So now you ask, what is the correct view? What are the saints? Who are the saints? Well, we can learn from the Bible, saints are the holy ones. Holy means set apart from the common, from the world. World's common? You're set apart from that. Saints are those who are set apart by God, called to holy living, called to live a life that is different from the rest of the world. So, if you are in Jesus Christ, you are saints. You are holy ones. You're called to live a life worth this calling of your new identity. What identity? The children of God, fellow heirs with Christ, slaves of Christ. You have the name of Christ attached to you. That's your last name, if you will. Leo of Christ. How do we become saints? Not by the Pope's decision, not by church's vote, but by the power of God in Jesus Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit. God the Father called you. God the Son died for you. The Holy Spirit applies that work to you so that you are saved. You are taken out from the common, from the world. And you are now His, holy ones. living holy life by His Spirit. That's who you are, brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ. So if you profess to be the servants of Jesus Christ, you are saints, holy ones. So I ask you, using the Holy Bible, the standard, evaluate your daily conduct. Do you live worthy of your calling, of your identity? I picked some from Ephesians. Let's read together. This is Paul in Ephesians 5, 15 to 16 on the second page. Let's read it together. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. And then this is the question. Is this your life? Is your life different from all in the world? The way you talk, the words that come out from your mouth, the topics that you talk about, the concern you have in your mind, do they reflect Jesus Christ? Do they reflect your new identity as a saint? Look at Ephesians 5, 4, read it together. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place. And we have to admit, oftentimes, we are still like the world. Instead of giving thanks, we grumble, we murmur. Instead of peace, we worry about things of the world. Instead of praising God, we curse, we slander. Isn't God so patient? Meeting us still here, loving us, pouring His blessing. bearing with us disobedient servants. So may we repent, be thankful, and walk each day according to our new identity. As Paul says in Ephesians 5, let's read verses 8 and 10 together. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Each one of us In the church, it's called for this. Every single one here. Yes, you. Yes, David. Everyone. The youngest to the oldest. Everyone. He just mentioned his name. Every saint who is redeemed by Jesus' blood are equally precious. We are equally called for this task, for this work that God has prepared us. Now, the word that we are called to varies. On to the second point. We who are equal partners in Jesus Christ, we're equal partners of the gospel, we're called to different roles, different tasks in the church. Now, let's look at Paul first. I mentioned the apostle, right? He doesn't mention it in Philippians, but let me just go through it briefly because there are some churches out there claiming they have apostles. So, what is apostle? From the New Testament, we can gather apostles are official representatives. There are men who are directly commissioned by Jesus Christ, like government officials who bear the authority of the country that sent them. Apostles bear the official authority of Jesus who sent them. Therefore, their teaching is foundational, that's a key word, in establishing the New Testament church and doctrines. You can see in 1 Corinthians 9, 1, we learn from Paul that the apostles were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ. By this standard alone, there are no more apostles today. Easy? In fact, there's no more apostle after Paul. How do I know? 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, last of all, Jesus appeared to me. Last of all. And there's no more apostles after that. Believe what the Bible teaches us. The Bible is completed, Old Testament, New Testament. So the office of apostle ceased. The foundation has been laid, the Bible. To have an apostle is contradiction to sola scriptura. Today, God gives the church pastors, elders, to teach and care for the church. If you look at our Bibles, our translation in KJV, elders are translated as bishops. We read that earlier. In ESV, it's overseers. It's just language, different words. So, look at our Bible verse Philippians 1.1, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops, there you have the word, and deacons. And I want to highlight the plural, bishops. The leadership of the church is originally in the plurality of the elders. Not a single bishop, not a single pope or single pastor. And the word bishop comes from the Greek word episkopos. This is the word Paul uses in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, passages that talk about the qualifications of the elders. In Titus, bishop interchanges. So elder comes from the Greek word presbyteros. So you have presbyteros, episkopos, used interchangeably. So if you hear English word presbyter or presbyterian, same meaning, presbyter is the elder. In this way, the church is governed by the elders, presbyters. So it's a system of government. So what do elders or bishops or overseers, same position, what do they do? Oversee the church. Simple, from the name. Overseers do what? Oversee the church. How do they do that? How do elders oversee the church? Now, the word appears only four times in the Bible, and this is one unique passage I want to put attention to. So look at 1 Peter 2.25 in your handout. Let's read that together. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Jesus is the chief shepherd and chief overseer of our souls. So pastors are under overseers, if you will, reporting directly to Jesus Christ, doing exactly what Jesus does, overseeing the souls of the church. So in our church, in a true New Testament church, there's no hierarchy, like in Roman Catholic Church, for example. We only have elders directly reporting to our shepherd and overseer, Jesus. And what is the duty to oversee the church's spiritual being as Jesus does, even as he himself works in and through the elders? Paul himself charges the overseers of the church in Acts 20, 28. Let's read that together. Pay careful attention to yourself and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood. Think about it. It's no small business to take care of the church of God, God's very own beloved, the apple of God's eye, the people whom Jesus purchased with His own blood. His own bride. Precious, precious souls, trusted to elders. So please pray for your pastors, for your elders. And do notice the difference between the apostle and the elders. Apostle, I said, was foundational in their role in the church. Their teaching, as written in the Bible, in the New Testament, is authoritative. It's unique to set the foundation. They were the ones who commissioned Christ. They were the ones who were directly commissioned by Christ. Now the elders, their roles are not foundational, but ministerial. We minister to you the foundation that they have set, the Bible. Our authority as elders is derived from the Bible, not ourselves. So that is the two offices that we have. Apostle, we don't have it today. But we have the elders in the church, the New Testament church today. What other offices do we have? The pastor I mentioned, so there are two. Number one, you can see that in our text, to the bishops and deacons. So not only elders, but Paul also addresses the deacons in Philippi. This is another office beside pastors and elders. I would just briefly, to save the time and my voice, Deacon Max, not here today, Deacon Tim, ask them questions. What do they do as deacons? What is your responsibility? But in general, they are to pray. They are to supervise the work of mercy. If elders deal with spiritual matters, mostly, deacon deals with physical, practical matters. So see how the church is so rich in many different gifts. Every saint, you and I, slaves of Christ, equally precious, equally called for the gospel, as partners of the gospel. And we are all given different gifts for different roles in the church. We have Karthick who does the voice, the sound, so that I don't have to labor today. The mic does it, and he adjusts it well. We have those who serve the table downstairs for fellowship. We have so many people who greet one another so that everybody feels welcome, and they know the love of Christ. Some people have a task. One is called to be an elder. The other one's called to be a pastor, deacon. partners in Christ. So do your task faithfully. The world is very confused. Now they're emphasizing equality, right? And they collapse diversity of tasks and callings. And then if you go back, that's the other end of the spectrum. The world used to emphasize importance of roles, positions, tasks, different duties. And they forget the reality that all human beings are equal, regardless of their positions. So they swing from one side to the other side. They confuse the two, equality and diversity. Only in Jesus Christ you have that. Male and female, we are created equal. Both are created in image of God, Genesis 8. And yet, both have different duties. There's an order, there's a line of authority, but that doesn't mean one is less than another. Just do this. The world can't solve this problem. But as Christians, we understand. How? Why? Because we see that in the triune God. Don't ever give up doctrine. You think Trinity is not important? That is the very foundation of everything else. Even with this thing, for example. Look at Christ. Equally God with the Father. Of the very same substance with the Father. equal with Him in power and glory, Westminster Confession. But Christ willingly submits Himself to the will of the Father. Does that mean He's less? No. And look at the beauty of this relationship. Wherever Christ goes, He preaches, He speaks about the Father, His love, His justice, the salvation, the Father, The kindness of the Father, the faithfulness, I can go on. And then look at the other side, the Father exalts Christ. called His name above all names, giving authority in heaven, on earth, and in the Philippines too, giving the names above all names. So look, even in our text of verses, how many times do you see Christ mentioned there? You have one Timothy, you have one Paul, but in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, we're all bondservant and saints. In Christ, we have elders and deacons. In Christ, we may call God our Father. We may have grace and peace. So Christ becomes the center. Can you see the beauty of the relation? Submission, different tasks that father and son assume, and yet they're equal. God, God. And the world can't understand this. They always swing one side or the other. Equality means everybody has to be same. No. In this world, the triune God rules. We can have equality in diversity. The world dreams of that. We are here with that reality, bringing that to the world. So, bring this news. Preach the triune God. Now, what is this partnership about? We do have different roles, but why? As equal partners in Christ, we have different roles in the church for one purpose in this world. What is that? You know that. The gospel. The advancement of the gospel. Look at verse two. Paul greets the church in Philippi. He says, This greeting is not just lip service. Hey, good morning. Common in Canada. Not just that, he means it. Every word that he says is inspired by the Holy Spirit, grace. We are reminded that we are here as saints, all by grace. This is a prayer of Paul for King Jesus to reign in the church, in every heart, so that grace and peace abound and overflow, so that the world may see this grace and peace. What is grace? It can be common grace that we share with the world and unbelievers, but it can also be special grace, saving grace. And for us all who are in Jesus Christ, that is true of you. Grace to you. So when we offer, believe in Christ, that is grace to you. Take heed. What is peace? It's not just superficial. It's not just, I just want to feel and focus on my feelings and the peace. No. It's reality that you have peace with God. so that everything else flows from there. Your life goes well or goes wrong, seems like it, but you know, you have peace with the most powerful and most just being in the world. And you can have peace. So brothers and sisters, you will ask me, how does that relate to our mission in the world? This is our mission. Our duty as partners in the gospel is to bring peace, to bring grace to our brothers and sisters here, but also to the world out there. The duty of every saint, every slave of Christ. We're called to encourage and build one another. We're called to be witnesses of the laws out there. Both tasks are equally important. I have to emphasize that. Going out doing evangelism is not more noble than lending an ear and comforting another Christian. Both are important. Do the job. Do your task. Do not neglect one for another. Bringing God's grace and peace to whoever we interact with, that's how we bring it. You ask me, how can we apply this? Look at the Philippians, how do they do it? They share the grace of God in the gospel with Paul, Philippians 1-7. They share in Paul's suffering as he's imprisoned. They live as citizens of heaven, as ambassadors. They defend the truth of the gospel, they pray for Paul, they support financially, and so on. Every saint, That's why the letters address to the saints in the church, not just the elders. So that's how we can learn new horizon. How can you be the partners of the gospel? Step one, greet the saints with grace and peace. Make it genuine. Make it sincere. Pick up your phone. Make that phone call. Don't let the love in the church grow cold. Matthew 24. Look around you. This is your family. As parents long to see their children, look around you. Do you long to see each one of these people? Do you long to pray for them, care for them, to hear from them? We are children of the same Father. Blood of Jesus Christ. Serve one another, look around, and these are your first task, to minister to one another, the most immediate. And you can take part also by greeting one another, praying for one another. Join our prayer meetings. By giving your time, help us to set up before service. There's so many things to do. Set up the chairs, set up the microphones, set up the food downstairs, or clean up after. Extra 10 minutes that is serving the church so that everybody can share and it's not too heavy of a load anymore. Encourage one another. Come to the meetings. This Tuesday we had a meeting with the Muslims. Support that. Pray for that. Witness. how the gospel is shared, and so on. There's so many different ways. But together as a church, we go out and bring grace and peace. Before we close, let me just press on this issue. Everyone is a member, a body part of a local church. Each saint is redeemed from slavery of sin into Christ's body, the church. That is the context in which God gives us to serve. So church membership is not just for our stats to look good. It's not for the elders to have more people to boss around. This is commitment. Acknowledging that we are one body in Christ. That I am placed here by God to grow to be looked after and to serve. How do I know that? Well, Paul addresses the saints in Philippi, in the church, with the bishops and deacons under the overseeing authority. So these saints are under oversight of the elders and bishops, pastors, led in their service by the deacon. move together as one body. If you just float around, you will never know about this letter because it's addressed to the church. You will never know about the Bible more. You will never grow in your love about God, to God, for God, and his people if you're not part of the local church. So I encourage you to obey God's commandments and consider membership. We here welcome you, New Horizon. We will be happy to grow and serve with you all. But we do not claim that we are the only true church. We do not force you to join just here and here only. So I just ask you to pray. Look into it. If this is the church that obeys the word of Jesus Christ, if God puts you here, then join so that you may be an obedient and effective servant of Christ. Equal partners in Christ with different roles in the church for one purpose in the world. the advancement of the gospel for the glory of our God and our King. Each one of you matters. Let us all serve together. So hello, partners. Let's serve. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for redeeming us into your body, that we are not lonesome ranger out there, floating around, doing whatever we wanna do, but we are here, gathered as one flock, with Jesus as our shepherd and overseer of our souls. Father, we ask for forgiveness when we do not obey you and honor you as our God and savior. Father, may you grow us, Remind us who we are, that we've not lived life pointless for our own momentary, temporary joy or purposes. But may we know that we are slaves of Jesus Christ, and yet adopted as children. May we not bring shame to your name. May we bring honor to our Savior. May we work labor for the kingdom, so that we may see the kingdom come, and your will be done. as it is in heaven. May it start today in our hearts and in our church. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.