For a year, we have had the privilege of going through step by step, doctrine by doctrine, teaching by teaching, exhortation by exhortation of Paul's letter to his beloved congregation in Philippi. It's been a great privilege. I have I have been incredibly blessed to be able to study and to teach and to preach through this letter. I really love this letter to the Philippians. It's such a rich letter. showing Paul's intimate love for the brethren, showing the themes of the unity that we are to have in Christ, the harmony we're to have in a local congregation because of humility and seeking to see others is more important than ourselves. Seeing the theme also of joy, joy in Christ Jesus that would make us be content and know peace no matter what the circumstance. But we've also seen the overarching theme of the letter, which is Christ Jesus. Nothing and no one is mentioned even close to as much as Christ Jesus is mentioned in this letter. It's all our unity, our joy and everything else. It's all because our union with Christ Jesus. He is our life. He's our purpose. But like Lincoln Duncan mentioned when he was preaching through these very same verses, verses 21, 22 and 23, the last three verses of the letter in chapter four, He asked the question, how do you close a letter like this? How do you close a letter that is so rich with doctrine, with memorable phrases as Paul has penned here? How do you close this? And to remind you of some of those memorable phrases in verse six of chapter one, he who has began a good work and you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. A little bit later. After Paul says, whether I live or I die, all I care about is that Christ is magnified and proclaimed. And he says, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And he closes chapter one of the encouragement for to you, it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. Then in chapter two, that great hymn of Christ, of his humiliation and exaltation. And he begins by saying, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. He closes that hymn by saying that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then he sums up the Christian's life and sanctification by saying, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Do you remember chapter three and verses eight through 11, where really the whole gospel is summarized from justification to glorification? And verse eight, Paul writes, I count all things loss for the excellence of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. He goes on to say, I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And Paul ends chapter three by saying, oh, we are citizens in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And just recently, we've gone through chapter 4. In verse 7, Paul says, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And then finally, last week we saw, and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. How do you close a letter like this? It's so rich and full of these pronouncements and encouragements according to Christ Jesus. Well, Paul finishes the letter in much the same way he begins the letter with greetings and grace in Christ Jesus. With greetings and grace in Christ Jesus. The very first two verses of this letter, Paul wrote, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the bishops and deacons, the pastors and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we're going to find out today that in verses 21 through 23, he ends the letter in much the same way with greetings and grace in Christ Jesus. And I'm going to outline these verses very simply. We will see four greetings and one grace and all given in the Lord Jesus Christ. Four greetings and one grace and all in Christ Jesus. Please look with me to verses 21 through 23 in Philippians 4 as I read the word of God. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. This is God's holy, inspired and inerrant word. May he add his blessing to it and write its eternal truth upon our hearts. So in these three short verses, we see four greetings and one grace and all according to Christ Jesus. So let's look at the four greetings in verses 21 through 22. First of all, we see in the first part of verse 21, Paul's greeting to the Philippians. The first greeting is Paul's greetings to the Philippians. Paul writes, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. That seems pretty simple. We shouldn't have to spend much time on that. But in these six small words, there's a lot of truth packed into them. And I want us to pick apart these words. And I think it gives us a help to understand all the rest of the greetings as well. First of all, when Paul says, greet every saint, that word for greet, you might think it means, hey, how are you doing? Yo, brother. Or maybe, I don't know, what do you hip kids say these days? Sapton. It's not merely high. When Paul says greet, this word for greet means greet with fondness. And yes, Mike, affection. It means to enfold one's arms. And so to welcome and embrace one another. Even a holy hug. I noticed I didn't say a holy kiss, but a holy hug. Greet with affection and fondness. And Paul is giving us as a command, greet all the saints in Christ Jesus. Well, then he says greet every saint. Notice he doesn't say greet all the saints like I just did. I messed up. Paul says greet every saint. It's a small little word in Greek, but it means not just all of you at once, but in particular, each member, greet every individual saint, without exception. It might seem trivial, but it's actually pretty important. Paul is commanding us, not just to greet the whole congregation, but every saint, and to command us to greet warmly and to embrace warmly each other, each and every one. Now, it seems like it might be too early to break off and make an application, but I'm going to do it anyway. And that what Paul is doing here is commanding us as a duty to greet each and every saint in the congregation. We need to mimic and to obey Paul's command here to go out of our way to greet each and every saint. Are there those in the congregation that at the end of the service that you think, boy, I hope he doesn't come over and say something to me, because I really don't want to talk to him. I don't really know what to say to that one. So I think I'll go over here instead. Do we do that? Perhaps we don't do it so much in our congregation. If we don't, it's commendable. But the idea is that if there's anything whatsoever that keeps you from greeting another brother or sister in the congregation, or that keeps you from allowing them to come and greet you, deal with it. Get it out of the way. And greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Are there those here that maybe rush out after the service and run to the coffee machine, or maybe run to their cars? Well, that's not right. Paul is saying, greet every member, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Stay put long enough to wait for a greeting. And by the way, if nobody comes to greet you, you go and you greet them. Even if you don't feel you're one of those who can mingle with other people. Maybe you're an introvert. Maybe you prefer this to be left to yourself. It's not an option. Paul commands us to greet every saint in Christ Jesus. It's our duty to go out of our way to greet all the brethren, all the saints, and we are to greet one another. Related to this, Spurgeon once said, the religion of Christ is full of courtesy and it is full of generous thoughtfulness. I do not think that he can be a Christian who has no knowledge nor care about his fellow church members. This is one of the things we can do, and we should do, is we can greet one another. Well, as Paul goes on, he says, And perhaps this will help you to greet one another, even when you don't feel like it, because your brother or your sister is a saint in Christ Jesus. The word for saint doesn't merely mean someone who's done some stupendously spiritual act and they're really holy. And so we call them a saint. Maybe there's a list of a checklist of things that we can say, OK, now this person is a saint. That's not at all what the biblical meaning of saint is. All who are in Christ Jesus are saints. They are set apart, which is what saint means. It means holy, set apart, sanctified. They're set apart from sin and set apart to Christ. And so you can greet them freely because they're just like you, they're sinners saved by grace under Christ Jesus. And Paul says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Now, I don't know, and I'm not sure we can tell. Does this mean Paul is saying, when you greet, greet them in Christ Jesus? Or does he mean they are a saint in Christ Jesus, so greet them? I don't know. It really doesn't matter, though, because they're both true. You and your brother or sister, you have been set apart in Christ Jesus. And so you are to go out of your way to greet them, to embrace them, to welcome them in Christ Jesus. And so William Hendrickson summarizes this six word sentence with a much longer sentence by saying, Paul could have been saying, and he's probably writing this with his own hand at the end of the letter. The rest of it perhaps was dictated. But here at the end, he writes in his own hand and he says to every member of the Church of Philippi, who by virtue of union with Christ Jesus has been set apart to a life of consecration to the Lord. I send my greetings as a token of brotherly love. And so we're commanded to greet every saint in Christ Jesus. That's the first greeting. But I think that gives you the flavor of all the rest of the greetings. So the second greeting. First, we've seen Paul's greeting to the Philippians. Now we see, in the second part of verse 21, the greetings of those who are with Paul. His fellow workers. His brethren. Those who are with him. Paul says, the brethren who are with me greet you. The same loving greeting, by the way. Now, who are these brethren? Well, again, these are probably the ones that are working with Paul, that are following along with Paul, that are working side-by-side with Paul. We know of Timothy. Epaphroditus was one of them. It's a good guess that Luke is there with him. Perhaps even Mark. These are pretty impressive brethren, aren't they? Wow, Timothy, Luke, Mark. The brethren greet you! But notice Paul. He doesn't name them by name. He just calls them brethren. My beloved ones, they greet you too. They send their greetings. Usually at the end of Paul's letters, you have a list of names, don't you? People are set apart and commended, and their names are mentioned by name. But here, Paul, for some reason, at the end of his letter to the Philippians, he doesn't name any names. He just says, the brethren greet you. That's kind of how he starts off the letter when he says, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi together with the pastors and deacons. He mentions the pastors and the deacons as a separate office, but he says all the saints. You're all this together. You're all the same. And it seems like it's the same thing here. They're just my brethren. And as Paul goes on in this whole letter to exhort humility, to consider others as better than yourselves, to not show partiality, he seems to be doing that very same thing here by saying, the brethren who are with me greet you as well." They're no different than you, but they greet you. The third greeting is the beginning of verse 22. Greetings now from the whole congregation of Christians in Rome. We have Paul's greetings. We have those who are with him who are greeting them. And now, it's almost as if those Roman Christians, those Christians from the congregation in Rome are saying, hey, you're writing to the Philippians? Give them our greetings as well. And so now we have all those Christians who are Rome. Now we're really talking about nobodies, aren't we? Who are these people? We don't know. But the Christians from the congregation in Rome give their greetings as well. And this may include some brothers or sisters that you may want to avoid. You may not feel like greeting on a Sunday morning. Remember in the beginning, Philippians chapter one, when Paul says, because of my change, there are those who are trying to stir up trouble for me. Yet he is grateful because they're preaching Christ and that's all that matters to him. And perhaps this greeting from those who are in Rome or including even some of those who are stirring up trouble. And Paul includes them and say they give their greetings as well. So this is. This is really important what Paul is doing here in these first three greetings. He's really exemplifying for us, modeling for us the communion of the saints. We just sang about that with him number 270. But he's modeling the communion of the saints for us that all saints are set apart in and to Christ and thus they deserve greetings and they give greetings without partiality. And Paul is also encouraging the unity across congregational lines. According to those things in Christ that unite us, the Roman brethren say, give my greetings to the Philippians and the Philippians should return those greetings as well. Last week, we mentioned as an aside that. It seems biblical and best when it can be done, that churches send out missionaries and churches support individual missionaries that they know. Because there's accountability. There's responsibility. We can know them. We can communicate with them. There's a personal relationship there. And so then when we give out of our poverty to share in their afflictions, we're actually sharing in their afflictions. But we can also share in the fruit. I think it's the same sort of thing here that Paul is saying. This is similar. Paul is making a point to say, Romans, Philippians, unite. Greet one another. There's a bond in Christ together. I think we do attempt to do that here at RBCKC, but this is one of the biblical reasons for it to be keeping in touch and knowing about certain churches that we are like minded with and working together with them within our association, whether they be church plants, which is more of a missionary effort or they'll be established churches. It's an important and biblical command and duty for us to follow. And Paul exemplifies these things here in these first three greetings. That brings us to the fourth greeting. At the end of verse 22, Paul says, and this is wonderful, Paul says, especially those who are of Caesar's household. Especially those who are of Caesar's household. We now have the fourth greeting, which is the greeting from those of Caesar's household. Now maybe that doesn't strike you as being incredible, but this had to be a great encouragement to the Philippians. Do you remember in Philippians 1, verses 12 and 13, when Paul said, I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ. Don't despair, he says, Philippians, but because I'm in chains, the gospel is going out. And even in the whole palace guard, they know why I'm here. It's because of Christ. The Philippians may have been worried that, well, we're giving of our poverty to help him in his time of need. And we want to help Paul, but we also want to see the gospel go forth. And if Paul's in prison, how does the gospel go out? And Paul is saying, well, even the whole palace guard knows I'm here. in chains because of Christ. And now here at the very end of the letter, I don't think it's a coincidence, at the very end of the letter, at the very last line of the letter, he says, greetings from those of Caesar's household. Which it means that most probably that because of Paul's imprisonment, You think of those guards that are chained to him, and they have shifts every so hours. A new one comes, a new one comes, a new one comes. And you know Paul's going to be witnessing to them. And you know Paul's going to be speaking about the gospel to everybody who comes and visits him. And there has to be then, by the power of the gospel, those of these soldiers then, that are then saved through the power of the gospel. And they go back into the household of Caesar. What an encouragement for the Philippians to read. Another encouragement is a great reminder then that the gospel of Christ is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The light of the gospel of Christ can even light up the darkness of the household of Nero, who is currently the Caesar of the day. Do you remember who Nero is? Do you remember what Nero's reputation was? That Nero hated Christians, and he fancied himself as a god himself. He demanded to be worshipped as Lord. Pagan, that mad, maniacal, godless, pagan Caesar. If there's any place that was dark, In comparison to the Light of Christ, it had to be in Nero's household. And Nero's household is not merely his family members. Understand the household represents all who are employed in the work under Nero. Caesar's household ranged from the high-ranking important officials of the day to the lowest of the slaves working under Nero. And so we don't know for sure who were saved within Nero's household. But we can assume that, yes, there's soldiers. Yes, there's some slaves. Yes, there are all types of people that now the gospel has reached in Nero's household. Jerome even reports that Nero's wife eventually professed Christ. We can't verify it. It'd be wonderful if it happened. And so what special joy must have come to the face of the Philippians as they read this, as they hear this very last line, especially from the household of Caesar, that in the very bowels of the darkness of Nero's household, that even there in that darkness, there are sinners that were saved by the power of the Holy Spirit to the light of Christ. Sinners who are no longer bowing before Nero, but now bowing before the Lord Jesus Christ. And so for eternity. Let me make an aside note. Brother and sister, do not give up on your friends, your family members, your neighbors, your co-workers, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the darkness may be and where these people may be in or where you live. Even as our country falls farther and farther into the darkness of godlessness, materialism, immorality, the gospel of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can and will penetrate any darkness, even the darkness of a loved one's stone-cold heart who refuses to bow before Christ in repentance and faith. Do not give up. Be encouraged, as the Philippians had to have been encouraged by hearing this. It's the power of the gospel of Christ that saves souls. The same power of the gospel that saved you in your dark, cold, stone-cold heart. Do not give up. And so those are the four greetings. The greetings of Paul, the greetings of those who are with him, the greetings of the Romans, and the greetings even from the household of Caesar. So now we look to verse 23 and we see the one grace For greetings, and now the one grace. Look at verse 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. As some versions say, be with you all. I think the better rendering is, contrary to the New King James, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Oh, that word for grace. God's unmerited favor and supernatural enablement for salvation, but for sanctification as well. Often we think of the grace of God in Christ as providing salvation only, and I hesitate to say only, but the grace of God in Christ is also necessary for a sanctification. When the grace of God saves us, that's only the beginning of grace. We need God's unmerited, undeserved favor for salvation and sanctification in Christ. Yes, sinner, if you are outside of Christ, you indeed need grace. You need grace. Ephesians chapter 2 says you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you walk. If you are a sinner outside of Christ, you are a zombie. You're dead to God, but you're alive to your sin, walking around, looking for more sin in your life. But God says in Ephesians 2 that by His mercy and by His grace, He raises you from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through Christ Jesus redeems you from sinner to saint. And it's all by grace. If you're a sinner outside of Christ, you need the grace of God in Jesus Christ. You must flee to it for salvation. But Christians, we need grace as well. The undeserved, unmerited favor and blessing and strength of God in Christ Jesus. Some have said grace is God's love and action. as you grow and serve in Christ Jesus. We need God's love and action to empower us. And so when Paul says, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Paul is calling upon the blessing of grace upon the Philippians that they would stand in the grace of Christ and remain standing there. It reminds us of Romans chapter 5, the first two verses, where Paul says that we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith. Access into what? Into this grace in which we stand. We are saved by grace, but then we stand in it, and Paul is calling upon that grace upon the Philippian listeners, and therefore upon us as well. Every single epistle that Paul writes ends with what? With this calling of grace upon his readers. Why? Because when the letters is finished being read, when the scroll is rolled back up, life goes on. And the hearers of the word of God need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to continue. The undeserved love, blessing, favor, strength from God to the sinner. John Eady has said about grace, he says, this grace is that goodwill on God's part, which not only provides and applies salvation, but blesses, cheers, and assists believers, that many-sided favor that comes in the form of hope to saints in despondency, of joy to them in sorrow, of patience to them in suffering, of victory to them under assault, and of final triumph to them in the hour of death. And so the writer to the Hebrews can say in Hebrews 4.16, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We need the grace of Christ Jesus. Now quickly, that little phrase, with your spirit, I think it's important that that's how it should be rendered, with your spirit. It's only given here and at the end of the letter to Philemon and the letter to the Galatians. It's a bit rare that he ends with grace, be with your spirit. What he is saying is, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be poured out in and through you until it permeates the very core of your being, your spirit. May it penetrate you and then flow out from you. May it strengthen and transform you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Jeremiah Burroughs has said, grace makes the soul steady. I like that. Grace makes the soul steady. And we need the grace of Christ to consecrate and to strengthen us, to make our souls steady, so that we might endure and serve together in harmony, with joy, and in Christ Jesus until He comes. And so Paul says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. And so we have four greetings and one grace. I said the last part, which is all important, and it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the greetings were given in Jesus Christ, in Christ Jesus, so this grace is bestowed in Christ Jesus. It's all of Christ. Just like the entire letter to the Philippians is the main theme. And so as we close this letter, and I hate to put it to bed, as we close this letter, do you see even in these final three verses, even the seemingly boring afterthought closing, which is not at all, do you see the three great themes of the letter, even here of unity, harmony and Christ Jesus in it? Well, certainly we see the unity and the harmony that Paul calls upon the Philippians and therefore us to pursue. Don't you see that in the warm, embracing greetings from each saint, each and every saint, to each and every saint, with no respecter of persons? Whether you're an important saint, whatever that means, or an unimportant saint, even if you're one of those undesirable ones who's stirring up trouble, even those of Caesar's household, We are to love the brethren as saints set apart from sin and unto Christ Jesus for the glory of Christ. And so we see that very theme still here in the ending of the letter. What about the theme of joy? Well, the word joy or rejoices used throughout the letter, but you don't see it here in these final three verses. But as I said earlier, I can just imagine the smile that creeps upon, creeps across the Philippians faces as they hear this being read that greetings, especially from the household of Caesar. Even in Nero's household, salvation, the power of the gospel has gone forth into the household of Nero. Praise God. Christians rejoice just like the angels in heaven when even one sinner turns from sin and turns to Christ by the power of the gospel. Those who are transformed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light in Christ Jesus. Those who were once dead in their sins but are now made alive in Christ Jesus. Christians rejoice upon hearing of that. But we're to share in the afflictions of those who we support on the mission field or as a church planter. But we're also to be sharing in the fruit that comes from that as well. And Christians rejoice in hearing the salvation of souls who are lost in their sin. So we see joy here as well. But the main theme of this entire letter is our union and the importance of Christ Jesus. He is all our life. And we see that again here, as Paul ends just like he began, in Christ Jesus. Our unity, our joy, our peace, our life, our purpose is in Christ Jesus. You remember all those memorable verses that I quoted at the very beginning of the sermon? I won't go through all of them again for you. But did you notice that almost every single one of them were centered on the Lord Jesus Christ? And I left several out that I wanted to say. So may we learn from this letter That our entire life is to be centered on Christ Jesus. Our life is in Christ Jesus. And if we die, who cares as long as Christ is being magnified? Our greetings are to be in Christ. We're to experience the grace in Christ. We're to strive to proclaim Christ. We're to see that Christ is magnified. We're to echo what Paul says, to live as Christ. We're to count all loss compared to the riches of Christ Jesus, pressing on for Christ while awaiting His glorious return, when we will see Christ, when our sin will be completely eradicated and we will be made like Him. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, what a wonderful letter that we've had the privilege to read and to study and experience over this past year. Lord, all is because of grace. Our salvation is because of grace. We are adopted as sons and daughters because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation, our eternity is all because of grace. We don't merit any of it. And we have the grace then of studying this scripture, studying this book, I pray, Lord, that after spending this long of a time going through this letter, that the truths and the encouragements, the exhortations, the richness of this letter would be engraved upon our heart and our mind. Lord, that we would seek the unity of the brethren in Christ Jesus and for his glory. We would seek the joy and the peace and the contentment in Christ Jesus and for His glory. And above all and for all, we would seek Christ Jesus Himself, that we would recognize as Paul did, and we would know in our lives and experience in our lives that to live is Christ and to die is gain. So what have I to fear? And you enable us by the grace of Christ Jesus to live for Him, to love Him, to rest in Him and to serve Him in harmony and with great joy. Oh, Lord, may it be so in the congregation of Reformed Baptist Church of Kansas City. May it be so. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.