Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Into the Word: Philippians" by Neal Pollard - Part 1

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"Into the Word: Philippians" by Neal Pollard - Part 1 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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first time they tried songbooks, there was probably this kind of awkward adjustment to
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it, but you did very well, I think. If you want to think of it
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this way, it is a very, very brief worship service and
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a regular-sized Bible class all smushed into 1
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hour. And we're going to be looking into the book of Philippians.
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If you want to go ahead and turn in that. I also have worksheets.
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I made 100. I don't know how many short will be of
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that. We may limit it to 1 per family. I had no idea.
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What we would expect. But we did Into the Word several times over
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at Lehman Avenue, and we wanted to provide an opportunity for us to look a
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little deeper into a Bible book and to be able to grow together.
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Yes, I know we have children of all ages in this class,
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but this is— the only difference between this and a regular Sunday night
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is you can make comments along the way as well.
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If you are interested in having one of those sheets, I don't know who's helping
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Wayne, I think Dale was, or— okay. Just raise
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your hand and he will make sure that you have that. What you're going to
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see on the screen is typically or basically what is
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going to be in the handout
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there. So it'll help you to kind of move along through the class if you'd
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like there. I figure while these are being
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handed out that the place for me to begin, because we do have a
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lot— we have one week to cover each of these chapters of Philippians.
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I might give you a little bit of the background of the book of Philippians
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as you grab these.
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First of all, when we look at the history of the city of
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Philippi, it gives you some kind of a help. If you were
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here this morning in class, in Macedonia where Paul
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goes to take the gospel, that's where Philippi is. It's up
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above modern-day Turkey. It is in that— the area that's called the Balkan
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region today. If you go back and you try to trace
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some of the history of the city of Philippi,
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then you have to go to the Thracian
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culture. And there is a little village known as
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Crenides. And the name Crenides means springs.
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The history of this village goes back before the 8th century BC.
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And as we begin to look at the folks, the Thracian
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people, we don't know much about them at all. We don't know about their customs.
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We don't know about their culture. We don't know about the people.
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Some say that they are some mixture of those that we would know as Iranians
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today and folks who are from Croatia. So a very interesting ethnicity
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of folks that are brought together in this particular place
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and time. Now, as you begin to examine the people that are in Crenides,
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that is the village before it's Philippi, then they
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talk about the folks that are the primitive
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folks, the warlike folks live in the mountains. Inland from Philippi.
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Philippi being a coastal city, the more civilized and the more peaceful folks are
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living there at the edges on the coast of Cretades.
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And they continue as a people, though we don't know a lot archaeologically about
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them, until about the 4th century BC. If you
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think about Daniel's writing and he talks about the world powers that are going to
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come, and after the Babylonians are going to come the Medes and the Persians,
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and after the Medes and Persians, the Greek culture is going to ascend
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and the Greek Empire is going to dominate the world. We often
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think about the— who— when you think about the Greek Empire, who do you think
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about? Alexander the Great. Anybody know who his father is?
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Philip. Philip of Macedon. Does that sound
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like anything that's important in the Bible? Macedonia.
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Okay, so Philip II is going to come along, but before him, there is
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a man who is exiled from Greece. By the name of Callistratus.
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Callistratus and some Greek settlers are going to come in and
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they're going to take over that village.
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Philip is surveying that entire region. And as he does,
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he looks out across Philippi, there's a fertile plain. And on the
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other side of that plain, there is an area known as Paegea.
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And there's a lot of silver and there's a lot of gold there. And so
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just to make sure that he has control of all of that, he annexes the
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entire region. And when he does that, he, as is often the case
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in especially Greek and Roman culture, the city is named
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for himself. And so it's named Philippi after Philip II of
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Macedon. In about 342,
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by that period of time, he comes in and
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he begins to colonize all of that area. It's one
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of the areas because there's riches there. You think about the Congo today and how
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there are countries that are fighting over that. There's a lot of strife over
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that particular area because of the minerals and because of
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the precious metals. And so they fight and they contest over that
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for a couple of hundred years until about 188 BC. And in 188
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BC, you have the local people who sue the Romans for peace,
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and they allow the Romans to rule them.
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And so that's going to bring us closer to the time in which Paul is
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going to be writing the letter to the Philippians.
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In that 188 BC
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period on up to about the 31 BC, you have the
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Romans coming in and they're taking over. There's some names for us to know
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that maybe you remember from school. You remember Mark Antony? You ever hear about him
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and Octavian? This is in the time of the Roman Republic before the Roman
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Empire is born. And there's Brutus and Cassius. Anybody remember
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hearing about them, what they're known for? They— who
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did they kill? Et tu, Brute? All right, stabbed him in
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the back according to legend. And so they assassinate Julius Caesar,
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but Mark Antony and Octavian come in and they defeat
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their forces and they love Philippi
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and a lot of the features of it. And so it becomes a very important
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city in the Roman Empire. It becomes a little,
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a tiny, Rome. And the folks who settled there
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in Philippi have the full rights of the Roman Empire. This is
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what that means. In a time in which few people were able to
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own land, they're able to come in and they're able to buy it,
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to possess it, and to sell it. They're able to engage in civil
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lawsuits. And so the peace
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of Rome comes to them. The city itself is
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patterned after the city of Rome. And again, that's about 100
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years before Paul is writing.
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What do we think about the religion? What do you think the religion in Philippi
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would have been like before Paul comes? It being the
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Greco-Roman world, it's very pagan.
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So it's surprisingly mixed. There's a lot of mythology.
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There's the Greek gods. There are the Roman gods.
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There's pagan rituals. There's pagan gods. There's the worship
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of the empire, imperial religion, and there's a lot of syncretism.
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All that means is the combining of religions.
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What there's not a lot of is there's not a lot of Jews.
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And so without a Jewish population there, there's not much of a local problem
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with Judaism. And so this is the place that Paul comes
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to. So when we begin to think about the history of the
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city, There are some questions that we need to ask anytime we come
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to a Bible book to be able to understand what is its context,
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how does— what's happening there and what does it mean for us? And so there
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are some questions we've got to ask. Who is the author of Philippians?
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Okay, it's not ever been contested seriously. He is mentioned
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at the very beginning of the book in Philippians 1:1. He identifies himself.
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We'll talk more about that in just a moment. Who is Paul? Well,
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we have the New Testament to tell us, 2/3 of the New Testament that gives
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us insight into Paul, but he defines himself in Philippians 3:5-6.
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He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. He is second to none. He is
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a Benjamite. He is a Pharisee. He is a persecutor
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of Christians in his background, and this is the man who is writing.
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All right, so we try to figure out a date. You may
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have in your Bible— do any of you have at the top of your Bible
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a date ascribed to the book of Philippians? Maybe you
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have a little bit different date. Does anybody have a different date than 63 AD?
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Okay, 60 to 62, 61.
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There's some imprecision in all of this, but this
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is one of the so-called prison epistles. And why are they called that?
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Okay, Paul's in prison. Anybody remember the other prison epistles? Chris,
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this will be a test of your teaching that not long ago we had these.
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Colossians. That's the first one y'all both came up with. Colossians,
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Philemon, and Ephesians. All right, there are some characters that
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seem to appear earlier that don't appear
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later on. In Colossians and in Philemon,
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we have individuals who have gone with Paul.
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We have Tychicus and Onesimus. They're mentioned in the other 3 epistles,
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but they're not mentioned here. Epaphroditus is mentioned,
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and he appears to be the one who brings the letter to them, chapter 1
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and chapter 2. Now, Paul expects to be released
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from this imprisonment. So this seems to be a first imprisonment.
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If you look at chapter 1 and verse 25 and chapter 2 and verse 24,
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Paul expects that he's going to be freed from this.
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There's a second imprisonment that happens later, and this is when 2
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Timothy is written. We also know that Luke and Aristarchus
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are with Paul when he is on that shipwreck in Acts chapter 27.
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And they're there in the time of Colossians and Philemon, but they're not mentioned at
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this time. So besides 1 and 2 Timothy, this is probably
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one of the very last letters that Paul wrote. So there's our date.
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We could spend a lot more time on any of this, but we've got all
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of chapter 1 to get. But let's talk about the recipients in Acts chapter
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16. That's the background. To this.
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Luke is a very precise writer.
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And so the reason why those who give dates to things give
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the date of about 63 AD is because of the approximate date
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of the establishment of the church. Remember we said this morning we observed the
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Passover on Acts chapter 16 because we're going to come back to that tonight?
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Remember this morning we did see that Paul is standing at Troas and
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he hears the Macedonian call, and so he goes over And
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what does Paul do whenever he goes anywhere?
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All right, he's looking for a synagogue. He's looking for worshipers
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of God that he can go and he can share the Word with because they're
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going to be closer to the message of Christianity than say the folks in a
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place like Athens. Is there a synagogue in Philippi?
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There's not. If you look in Acts 16:10-13, you don't
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find one. So where does Paul wind up?
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All right, so he goes by the riverside and there are some women there
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who are engaged in prayer and he begins to teach. And you'll see
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it on the board in front of you that Lydia and her household are taught
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the gospel. The Lord opens her heart and she hears, she believes the message of
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Paul. After that, there's a young woman with a spirit of divination
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who is trying to take from God's hands
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the control of how the message is going to be spread by Paul and
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the others. And so Paul cast that spirit out of her.
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And you remember that they're sent to prison. And there in the
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midst of the jail, Paul and Silas teach the
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Philippian jailer and his household. So we're thinking about the
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foundation of that church. And there's some unnamed brethren. We don't
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know who they are in verse 40, but they make up the church. The church
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exists now in Philippi. And in Acts 20:6,
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on the 3rd missionary journey, the Apostle Paul is going to be back through
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there. He's going to work on that congregation some more. We don't
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know who all has planted the seed and who all has been converted,
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but when you get to the book of Philippians, there are names mentioned
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that aren't mentioned in Acts chapter 16. So the church is growing there.
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I find it interesting that about 50 years later— anybody ever heard the name
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Polycarp? He was a disciple of John the apostle, and he
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writes a letter to the Philippians 50 years after Paul does,
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And he writes to this church and he tells them about how he sees that
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their faith is— they're still standing firm in
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their faith and they're growing in their love. So whatever Paul does,
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whatever he says seems to have a positive impact on
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the church there. And then we have the letter itself.
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So when you think about a letter,
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what does somebody put in a letter today,
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any letter? What are the component parts
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of a letter? You got a greeting,
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um, depending on who it is, what you say.
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And it's funny, I thought about this. This is very important. There are, um,
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there are 21 in the New Testament, but we
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don't write letters today. Uh, it dawned on me,
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it maybe that's going to be one of those trends. You know, we've been digitized
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and maybe we're going to go back to old school and maybe we'll start writing
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some letters. So it may be hard for us to think about what's an English
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letter and to realize how that connects to the Bible. So we have a
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greeting. Okay, so any of y'all remember taking
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that in school? Did you take that? You had the— it sounds like what y'all
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are reciting is that. You have the greetings, you have the body,
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salutation,
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closing. All right, so that's kind of the pieces
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that make up the letter. You're going to see some of that in Paul's letter.
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What else do you think of in a letter? What's the purpose? What are you
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trying to accomplish in a letter? Yeah, conveying information.
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And depending on who's on the other end of that letter, that affects
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what kind of information. If it's somebody you don't know very well, and if it's
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more of a business purpose, then it's going to be more formal,
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and maybe some personal things are left out. You think
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about a letter that you write to a family member, or— and
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I guess it's just generational. Cathy and I, when we went to school,
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we had a mailroom.
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And so, I mean, I could have seen her anytime. I don't know why we
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did it this way, but we just wrote letters and we put it in their
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box, and they went and they picked that up. We had a landline phone in
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the room that we dialed as well. So, it was, you know, but the letter
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was conducted in that way. Now, when we think about the
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letter of Philippians, it is a letter. And so,
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when you think about the different kinds of literature that are in the Bible,
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There are different characteristics. So some of the books of the Bible
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are apocalyptic in their nature, extreme language to talk
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about coming events perhaps that are intense.
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There's going to be suffering. The destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus employs a lot
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of apocalyptic language. Prophetic literature has specific
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characteristics about it. And then when you think about the Gospels, the Gospels are—
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have a structure all their own. And so the epistles are the same way.
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When you hear epistle, Think letter. That's what this
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involves. And so in epistles,
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here's some important information to consider. The author,
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who's the one writing? The recipients.
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What is the relationship between the two of them?
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And what are the circumstances of each of them? So we'll think about that in
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greater detail as we walk through Philippians. But Paul is
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writing. Who is he writing to? He's writing to the Philippians.
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These Philippians are going to be characterized in some very specific
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ways. What's the relationship between Paul and the Philippians?
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Okay, we could use words to describe it as we think we see it in
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Acts and in Philippians, that it's loving. Definitely is.
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But what else? It is encouraging,
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right? He's going to— the entire letter is written in
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a tone of encouragement for sure. Very personal. And why
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is it personal?
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Because he knows them. He was the first one there.
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He established the church.
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All right, and so there's the relationship that Bill mentions that they had with him,
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that they supported him. They were the first to support him. And we'll say some
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more about the support that they provided and how Paul acknowledges that. And so these
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aren't strangers writing each other. These are people who had spent
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time together, that Paul had taught the gospel to them. He had come back to
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encourage them. Now he is writing
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them. There's been some time between his having been there because
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he's been imprisoned, and now he's wanting to write to them and to
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reestablish contact. And what are the circumstances
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with them? Well, I think we've already mentioned what Paul's circumstances
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are. Is there any indication what the circumstances
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are with the Philippians? What's going on with them?
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There's strife. Now, how do you reconcile
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that with the loving tone and the encouraging that Paul is doing and the fact
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that there might be some kind of strife there? So there's strife. If we go
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to chapter 3, maybe there's another problem, and that's the problem of some that
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Paul calls dogs, the concision, who are coming in and trying to disturb their faith.
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In a lot of your New Testament letters, you're going to have a crisis
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that needs to be addressed. There's a problem in the church. And even
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in Philippi, a church that Paul is going to speak in glowing terms
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about, there's— there are issues that have to be dealt with. That doesn't surprise
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us, does it? I don't know that
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I have ever been a part of a congregation that has so much upside
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and so many positives, but do we have problems?
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Have we got it all figured out? Are we there yet? And so
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that being the case, we've— if an inspired apostle
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were to write to us, He would no doubt commend us for a lot of
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good things. But being guided by God, he would also tell us there are some
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things that we need to work on. And so, as we look
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at this letter, there are some things that we need to notice, but there's
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also the purpose of the letter. Why is this letter written? And I just want
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to give you this for the sake of time. There are some theological considerations
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to make. Find the central concern of
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the letter. As we walk through, I think that you will see that there is
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a central concern. That the Apostle Paul has. There are historical
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considerations. We've got to put ourselves back in Paul's time.
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So, what we're going to try to do as we walk through is to make
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application to today. There's a book called Grasping God's
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Word that talks about building a bridge from the Bible times to our times.
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And so, we want to take the Bible into our times, but it's good for
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us to go back and to think about what was happening in the Bible's times
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so that we can build that bridge and make that application. You think
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about what's going on in Paul's life. He is suffering personally
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for preaching the gospel. In Acts 21, he's been arrested,
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he's been taken prisoner, and this is according to God's plan that he can take
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the gospel to the dignitaries all around the world in the Roman Empire.
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What's the circumstances historically for the church in the first century?
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Well, if this is 63 AD, Anybody know who's on the
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throne? Nero. Now, so far so
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good, but you know what's about to happen with Nero?
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Serious localized persecution that we believe is going
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to take the life of Peter and Paul before it's all over with. And so
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Paul is writing this letter in relatively peaceful times because
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it's not going to be much longer before some of the tone of the writing
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is warning them about some suffering that's to come. Think about 1
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Peter. And so now Paul is writing and he's wanting to equip them.
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If there is an internal problem in the church, it's not just about
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resolving that problem. It's about resolving that problem so
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they'll have unity, so they'll be strong in the face of adversity
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that's about to come in their lives. Do you think
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that adversity in your life as a Christian is harder when
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you don't have a strong relationship with the church family? And if
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so, and obvious, that's an obvious question, why is it harder to handle
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adversity from external places when you don't
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have a harmonious and a good relationship with the church family?
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Okay, so back to that word again, we encourage each other.
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We feel isolated if we don't have support.
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Somebody passes away. And I hear this
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in the funeral home all the time when we're going by and we're shaking hands.
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It's hard to go to a brother or sister in Christ's
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family without hearing this. I don't know what,
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what people do who aren't Christians. Well, what do Christians
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do when they're fussing and feuding with other Christians
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and they feel themselves isolated and separated
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from the church family? And so this letter has
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to be looked at in its historical considerations. There's also some
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exegetical considerations. All that means is we're going into the text and we're finding out
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what's in the text that can help us to appreciate and understand it better.
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Why was it written? What are some of the major themes? So we won't
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dig into these now, we'll look at these later. Paul's verdict,
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life or death. What's going to happen?
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Suffering for Christ. What's involved in that and
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how do you respond to that? Attitudes.
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Do attitudes matter? If you're preaching the truth and you're teaching the truth,
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does it matter about your attitude? Can the church do harm
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if it's filled with people who have poor attitudes?
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Unity. Is unity important? Is it important to Christ?
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John 17:20-23. Is it important to Paul in the writing
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of this letter? Chapter 4, verse 1, chapter 2, verse 1 through 4.
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And then knowing Christ. This is one of the major themes or subjects
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of the epistle. And I want you just to think about a couple of passages
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that sets this up. In Paul giving an example in Philippians
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2:5, it's one of the most recognizable verses in the letter.
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He says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
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Jesus. And then he lays out the example of Christ. And then in the next
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chapter, in chapter 3, verse 8 and following, he says, I want
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to know Christ. Christ. Do you know Christ?
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How do you know Christ? How do you know that
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you know Christ? And so we see these major themes, and then we would say
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major themes in the, the sense of, are there words that
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recur? This is not an exhaustive list. I'm not giving you a
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list of keywords, but there are some words that you would think
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that, that would, uh, you would find repeatedly, they must be
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important to the book. And one of those, when you think of Philippians, what word
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comes top of mind? Joy and rejoicing, found 16 times
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in the letter. Any other words that you can think of
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that you might associate with Philippians?
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Okay, unity is definitely conceptually an important word.
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And Paul uses not the word unity as much, but the word one.
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Which is conveying unity. Any other words?
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Okay, it's certainly a good descriptive word, unselfish.
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It's going to factor in. And the way unselfishness is really laid out
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is with a word that Paul uses. It's only found 26 times
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in the New Testament, and he uses it 10 times. And it's the word translated
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mind, phronein. And so what kind of mind
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do you have? And the mind that he encourages you to have is
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the mind that is unselfish, among other things. Then there's
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the word fellowship. It's going to occur in every chapter of the book.
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How does this epistle address 21st century
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concerns? What— if we walk across the bridge
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to our town today, what are some things that it could help
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us with? Well, let me ask you, do you struggle with death?
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Do you struggle with the uncertainty of death? Are you
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in a health situation where you don't know how much time
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that you have, or maybe it seems more imminent?
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Or perhaps you would find yourself in a situation where it
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strikes without any kind of warning. How do you cope? How do you respond to
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that? Do you have trouble with division and disharmony?
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Even if the church is united in one, what about in the other relationships in
25:12
your life? Is there harmony that characterizes your work relationships?
25:16
What about in your home? What about in your marriage? And if you
25:20
deal with division and disharmony in one of those other places in your
25:24
life, can Philippians help you to iron that out with
25:28
the mindset that you're— that you are called to have, the fellowship
25:32
that God wants to exist in the marriage relationship, and the way he wants you
25:36
to be in the workplace, Ephesians 4:25-32?
25:40
Do you know Christ? Is he someone that
25:45
you are personally close to, and are you cultivating that relationship?
25:49
Even some practical things. What's the financial relationship between churches and
25:53
preachers? I'm not saying anything about it except that it's covered in the book of
25:57
Philippians. How do you have a positive mental attitude? Isn't that
26:01
important to how we succeed in life and how we see life and the enjoyment,
26:04
the contentment, the fulfillment that we have in life? How do you deal with false
26:08
teachers? There are Judaizers here, and they seem to be a problem throughout
26:12
the first-century church, and how do you deal with them? There are 4
26:17
words that are important in the book of Philippians
26:21
in my mind, and let me just give those to you real quick. The first
26:25
is the word gratitude. It's not— it's— I don't know if it's in your notes
26:28
or not. It's not there on the screen. Paul expresses his gratitude
26:32
to this church through an epistle. We're going to look at it here in a
26:35
few moments in chapter 1, verse 3 through 11, the glowing,
26:39
loving words that he says. And then in chapter 4 and verse 10,
26:42
he says, there were no other churches to help me, but you supplied the
26:46
help that was needed. A second word is the word guidance.
26:50
They had internal problems that needed solving.
26:53
We're going to see that in Philippians, chapter 4, and verse 2. Third word
26:58
is the word gladness. How could this church have the joy that
27:02
God wanted it to have. The word joy
27:06
or rejoicing occurs those 16 times. And then the word goodness.
27:10
Paul calls on them to have the goodness of heart that he illustrates
27:15
with various examples throughout the book of Philippians. Now I realize
27:19
that I have not left myself a lot of time for Philippians chapter 1,
27:23
but I wanted to set the background of this to kind of— to set
27:27
the table for the things that we're going to see this week and the weeks
27:30
to come. I think with Philippians 1:12-26, we really
27:33
have one thing being said and it's illustrated in a lot of different ways.
27:37
So we'll make up some time there. But I want us to get to the
27:40
salutation. Let's look at it. Philippians 1:1-2.
27:45
And I know in the letter writing, the salutation normally comes at the end,
27:48
but in an epistolary letter, it comes at the beginning.
27:53
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in
27:56
Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and
28:00
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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All right, are there any important words that seem to be
28:08
flashing at you in those first 2 verses?
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Bondservant. All right, we'll build that list in just a second here.
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Bondservant. Saints.
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Okay, overseers and deacons. I'm going to deal with those together. Anything else that
28:24
you see? Anybody else? Grace and peace.
28:27
All right, grace and peace. Now grace, certainly, I want us to focus on
28:32
peace in that. One other.
28:35
All right, servant or bondservant. We'll deal with that in just a moment.
28:40
How about Christ Jesus? 3 times in 2 verses, he's going to refer
28:44
to him. The saints, overseers, and deacons, and peace. So let's talk about that for
28:48
just a moment, about servants. Now to Paul, A doulos,
28:53
bondslave, was one who ministered with gladness
28:57
and joy for his master. Now, when he introduces
29:02
the letter by calling himself a servant, he is urging a mindset,
29:07
a lifestyle on the folks that he's writing to that it's going to
29:10
unfold in the rest of the book. So, because when you think about a true
29:14
servant, a faithful servant, What do they
29:18
know? What do they do?
29:22
What is a faithful servant? How would you describe them?
29:27
All right, they're obedient, submissive.
29:32
Okay, there's total commitment with them. I heard
29:36
something over here. Humble. All right, now I
29:40
want you to think about how Paul develops the servant in the book of Philippians.
29:44
True servants know their master.
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What does he say in chapter 3, verse 8 and 10? Not that I know
29:51
him or have yet obtained, but I keep pressing so that I can know him
29:55
more. I want to know Christ. A true slave or
29:58
servant of Christ wants to know him more and better. And the beautiful thing
30:02
about a master like Jesus is the more you know him, the closer you are
30:05
to him. Man, the better it gets. True servants
30:09
know their place. Well, what's Paul's place? Philippians 1:18,
30:14
21-27, wherever Christ wants
30:18
him to be. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
30:20
I'm ready to do whatever he wants me to do. And true servants know their
30:24
work. He's going to talk about the work that, that we have
30:28
as, as servants or slaves of Jesus Christ. I'm, I'm for whatever
30:33
he wants me to do. Chapter 1, verse 22, and you, for your sake,
30:36
Philippians, For your sake, members of the Cumberland Trace Church of Christ,
30:40
put the interests of others above yourself.
30:44
So in focusing on Christ Jesus, he's taking the focus
30:49
off of himself and off of the others that he's
30:53
writing alongside of Timothy, and he's putting the focus on
30:58
Jesus, but he's also putting the focus on his heavenly master,
31:02
and not on the Romans. He's not worried about the Romans
31:07
because he's got a higher and a better master than that. And then this word
31:10
saint, what does the word saint mean?
31:14
Say it a little bit louder.
31:17
Okay, it is, it is an analogy. It's a,
31:20
it's a like word for a believer, but what is the word
31:24
itself? Be called out?
31:28
Holy ones be set apart.
31:31
Okay? So when Paul says to the saints at Philippi,
31:35
he's reminding them that they're set apart. So you think
31:39
about what that means for them in this book. They can't view themselves as just
31:43
another religious group among the religious groups. When you think about
31:46
the Bible and covenant, in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 7:6, God says,
31:50
I didn't set my love on you because you were the greatest of nations,
31:52
because you were the least of all nations, but because he set his love on
31:56
them. In fulfillment to a promise to Abraham, he sets them apart. And what is
32:00
the church referred to? 1 Peter 2:9, we are a people
32:04
for God's own possession. We are a holy nation. And so
32:08
in the book of Philippians, you're going to find that they are set apart.
32:12
There are 3 ways that they are set apart in the book of Philippians.
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They are set apart in their attitude.
32:19
Christians have a different attitude from the world.
32:23
It's in every chapter of Philippians. We'll see it every single time.
32:27
They're also separate in their conduct. Christians are different
32:31
from the world in conduct. You see that only conduct yourselves,
32:35
chapter 1 and verse 27. Chapter 2, verse 1 through 4,
32:38
if there's any of these blessings, if there's anything that's to be found in Christ
32:42
that's worthwhile, then fulfill my joy.
32:45
And then by being separate in doctrine.
32:49
Their doctrine, their teaching is different from
32:53
the world. Now, here's a question really quickly. Why does Paul
32:56
refer to the overseers and the deacons? In no
33:00
other letter does Paul begin by saying,
33:03
with the elders and the deacons.
33:07
Why would you do something like that? Because they're
33:11
there. The church is mature. They're there. It does point to maturity. Do we
33:15
not have elders in other places? If Ephesus has elders,
33:19
why doesn't he say to the elders and the deacons who are at Ephesus?
33:25
Perhaps there's something significant here. What is an
33:28
elder in function? What does he do?
33:32
All right, he's a shepherd. He leads. He oversees,
33:35
superintends. What— deacons don't
33:39
have authority over the congregation, but when we look at deacons, what do we
33:43
see them as? They are servants. They're servants
33:47
who lead in some particular form of service. And so Paul
33:51
is validating the role, the work that they do,
33:54
and he has given them the stamp of authenticity that maybe what's going
33:57
to be said is going to be hard in some places for them to accept.
34:01
And so they can have confidence and they have a responsibility
34:05
in leadership to handle that. And then the word
34:09
peace. It's only found 3 times in the letter. It's right here, and it's in
34:13
chapter 4, verse 7 and verse 9. And the situation
34:17
is such that there are at least some who lack
34:21
some peace in this congregation. And he wants the peace that passes all understanding
34:26
to guard their hearts and mind and the God of peace to be with
34:29
them. All right, so in 10 minutes, let's look at the bulk of this chapter,
34:33
verse 3 through 11. I'm going to read it really quickly. I thank
34:37
my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine,
34:40
for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel
34:44
from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who began
34:47
a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
34:51
Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I
34:54
hold you in my heart, for you're all partakers with me of grace, both in
34:58
my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
35:01
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you, all of you,
35:05
with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may
35:08
abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may
35:12
approve what is excellent, so to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
35:15
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory
35:20
and praise of God. Now, this is what is often referred
35:24
to as an epistolary prayer.
35:28
It is a prayer and it follows, and I won't
35:31
bore you with the details of this, but in the Hellenistic world,
35:35
they had letters that had 3 component parts in which
35:39
they would give a thanksgiving to the gods. They would assure
35:44
the readers that they were being prayed for to the
35:47
gods, and they would give thanks to the gods
35:51
for being, saved, either the writer
35:54
or the readers. Now, why would Paul conform to this format
36:00
being a believer in the true God and being a teacher
36:03
of Jesus Christ? To reach his audience.
36:07
It's how they knew that letters were conducted. And so
36:11
that's what's taking place right here. Now, the thing I will
36:15
tell you about the prayers really quickly in this paragraph,
36:19
is we see how Paul prayed. He prays with thanksgiving and he prays
36:23
with joy. We see why the Apostle Paul prays,
36:28
because there is a need that exists, and we'll see that. And we see when
36:33
Paul prays, and that is always. In verses 5 through
36:36
8, he is prepping them for the words that he's going to give them in
36:39
verses 9 through 11. Prayers are not just, hey,
36:43
I just want you to know I'm thinking about you and I'm praying for you.
36:47
It is one of the ways that we know what a letter is all about.
36:51
We know what a letter is all about by the words, the things that he's
36:55
saying that he's praying for. It's going to be significant in the rest of the
36:58
letter. And so we see him as he walks through that prayer that
37:02
he says, you were united in the past. You have done this in the past.
37:07
We know that you're capable of doing that again.
37:10
He expresses a hope in verse 6 that they would keep what they had.
37:14
This church began in such a great way. They were doing great things.
37:17
They were, mission-minded. They were generous with their funds.
37:21
This is the church that Paul has in mind in 2 Corinthians when he says,
37:24
you had abundance of poverty and affliction, and yet out of that you
37:28
gave the wealth of your generosity, and you did more than we expected you to
37:31
do, and so you're to be commended for that.
37:34
And so he says, this is who you are. Keep this going.
37:39
I know that you're serious about your Christianity. And then he says, God is my
37:42
witness. Now, God is my witness is not how we use that sometimes
37:47
as an oath, saying, God is my witness. He's saying, I can't see you.
37:50
I don't know you. I don't see you in front of me now,
37:54
but I want you to know that only God can see in my heart,
37:57
and he knows how I feel about you and that I care about you.
38:00
Don't let the distance and the time make you think that I'm cold
38:04
and I'm disinterested with regard to you. I would suggest that the
38:07
theme of Philippians is fleshed out for us Philippians 1:9-11.
38:13
And there are 3 words of importance here, and that is prayers.
38:16
These are petitions that are made because of a deep need that exists.
38:21
Paul is saying, you have a need, and I'm praying to God.
38:25
He talks about joy, but he says,
38:28
I want you to make my joy complete. If he says, I want you to
38:31
make it complete, what does that imply for us?
38:34
It's not complete. And so there's something you got to do in
38:38
order to make it complete. And so that's how he's going to talk about joy.
38:41
And then that word mind that we mentioned. What I want to do
38:45
is to handle the bulk of this chapter, and I was
38:49
going to mention this to Hiram. I didn't get a chance to, but I believe
38:51
there's a poor chapter break in Philippians.
38:56
Philippians 1:27 goes all the way to chapter 2 and verse 4.
39:00
And what it does is it serves as how you apply An example.
39:04
Here's something that's going to happen throughout Philippians. We'll notice this through
39:08
the weeks that this class meets.
39:12
Paul is going to give an example of putting others above
39:16
self. It's going to happen throughout, and whenever there's something that's
39:19
repeated throughout, it's something that we call a motif. All that means
39:23
is it recurs. It's a theme that you see it over and over again,
39:27
and this theme is going to be set up with examples.
39:31
Paul throughout Philippians is going to give examples of people who
39:34
are putting others above self. I want you to think
39:39
about how that is going to help every family, every marriage,
39:44
every church, every community to
39:47
the extent that we buy into, I'm going to put you above
39:51
me. Now, so often when we think about that, and maybe we can think in
39:55
recent past and some events that took place in our world, and what we thought
39:59
that meant was you conform to what I want. You need to, to consider my
40:02
needs above yourself. That is not the thrust or the direction at which Paul is
40:06
writing this letter. He reaches into the hearts of everybody present and
40:10
he says, each one of you, you put the interests of others
40:14
above yourself. It's kind of like when Paul writes to the husband and wife and
40:19
he gives instructions to the wife that she is to submit and respect
40:23
her husband and he is to love his wife. We are such good policemen at
40:28
the other person and what they're supposed to be doing, but Paul speaks to our
40:31
hearts. And so as we walk through Philippians,
40:34
Paul says, here are the examples and here's
40:38
what I'm exemplifying. Here's what I'm illustrating. What does it look
40:42
like to put others above self? And so with that being the
40:46
case, I don't have time to read verse 12 through 26. I want you to
40:50
see who all Paul says that he puts above himself.
40:54
Now I do want to point this out at the very beginning of verse 12,
40:56
he says, if everybody's with me in verse 12, I want
41:00
you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has
41:04
really served to advance the gospel.
41:09
I personally think that's the most important thing in this entire paragraph. What's Paul talking
41:13
about? Being in prison.
41:17
All right, so if you can keep that in your mind, everything else
41:21
that happens in this chapter is set up by that fact. And is Paul
41:25
concerned about being in prison? Is he
41:29
upset? Is it, woe is me? Is it,
41:33
this isn't fair, I need to be let out of here? In fact, he says
41:36
nothing of the kind. What he says is, there are things that
41:40
I put before my freedom, my preservation,
41:45
even my life. And he walks through that in the rest of the
41:48
chapter. He understands that his imprisonment
41:52
affects the guards. He puts the guards above himself. What's really cool,
41:55
I wish we had time to drill in on this, Would that make them think
41:58
of anybody? The Philippian jailer?
42:02
I wonder, is he still alive? Is he still faithful? And as
42:06
Paul is writing about this, they would know that he would not allow even prison
42:10
to keep him from reaching out even to his captors. And so he says,
42:13
it's okay that I'm in prison because it gives me access to
42:18
more Philippian jailers and I can reach them. So I'm going to put them above
42:22
myself. And then he says, everybody else. Who do you think everybody else is in
42:26
verse 13? He says there's the Praetorian Guard and
42:30
everyone else. Okay,
42:35
perhaps the prisoners.
42:38
Okay, perhaps the guards will be by themselves, but who else
42:41
besides the prisoners? Who do you think
42:45
everyone is? We don't have to think that too deeply.
42:49
It's all, it's everybody. You think about how it would impact
42:53
the magistrates and the officials and the citizens.
42:56
In Rome and in Philippi. Why, Paul, why are
43:00
you in jail? What's going on with you? And so he says, I put
43:04
everybody else above my freedom because they're hearing.
43:08
They're hearing the fact of Jesus. His imprisonment affects the
43:12
brethren. I know it affects the brethren in Rome. It affects— he wants it to
43:15
affect the Philippians. How easy would it have been to
43:20
be a Christian in Rome and to stand by Paul? They don't know
43:23
yet how it's going to turn out. They don't know if he's going to live
43:26
or he's going to die. And so Paul says, I want
43:30
you to be courageous. And this is— the brethren are bold to speak the word.
43:34
And so if that's what happens, that's what— if I have to be in
43:38
prison for that to happen, then so be it. And then there are 2 sets
43:41
of preachers, and I'll deal with them together. He puts loving preachers
43:45
above himself, and that's, I think, most preachers.
43:48
They just love the Lord. They love his church. They love lost souls.
43:53
And Paul says, I'm putting them above my
43:57
freedom. But some are poorly motivated. And,
44:02
you know, if the truth is being preached, it doesn't matter their motivation.
44:05
Folks are going to be in heaven because of them. I'd hate to be a
44:07
preacher who preached with bad motivation. But as far as the gospel going forward,
44:11
Paul says, hey, even if I don't have liberty, I know
44:14
that there are some who, even though they're wanting to add affliction to my bonds,
44:18
the gospel is still being preached. And then his imprisonment
44:22
affects Paul himself. Paul puts the gospel above his own
44:26
freedom. And so, that being the case,
44:30
Paul's going to make some conclusions.
44:33
And I'll leave that here for you. And I want to close with this.
44:37
When we think about what happens as we go through the letter,
44:40
Will you keep in mind that we need to consider the example
44:44
that we're setting? Paul is going to give example
44:47
after example, several of them in the book, and the example that they
44:51
set is of one who is a true slave of Jesus Christ
44:55
who is putting others above self. Consider the sacrifices that
45:00
we're making. It's one thing to, uh, to, to have a
45:04
life of comfort and ease, but what are we sacrificing for the cause of Christ?
45:07
Consider the priorities that we're setting. Paul is causing them to aim
45:12
higher, and then consider the relationships in the body that
45:16
we're maintaining. Paul's letter is, if you want
45:20
to have joy as the people of God, then do— the relationships that
45:24
you have with one another have got to be healthy and whole. Let's pray.
45:29
Father, thank you for the interest in your Word
45:33
that is very obvious in this room. We're thankful for each and every one present
45:36
here. We're thankful for your Holy Word in Philippians. We're grateful
45:40
for the great truth that it contains. We're thankful,
45:43
Father, for the message it has for our lives today.
45:46
Father, for a church that is so great and that is doing
45:50
so much, we pray that you'll help us to take to heart the
45:53
central message of Philippians and that we'll live it out in our lives
45:57
each and every day. Help us, Father, to know you, to know your Son
46:01
better each and every day. Help us to never stop at anything.
46:05
Until we know him more. In Jesus' name, amen.
46:09
We're dismissed.