"Into the Word: Philippians" by Neal Pollard - Part 1

first time they tried songbooks, there was probably this kind of awkward adjustment to

it, but you did very well, I think. If you want to think of it

this way, it is a very, very brief worship service and

a regular-sized Bible class all smushed into 1

hour. And we're going to be looking into the book of Philippians.

If you want to go ahead and turn in that. I also have worksheets.

I made 100. I don't know how many short will be of

that. We may limit it to 1 per family. I had no idea.

What we would expect. But we did Into the Word several times over

at Lehman Avenue, and we wanted to provide an opportunity for us to look a

little deeper into a Bible book and to be able to grow together.

Yes, I know we have children of all ages in this class,

but this is— the only difference between this and a regular Sunday night

is you can make comments along the way as well.

If you are interested in having one of those sheets, I don't know who's helping

Wayne, I think Dale was, or— okay. Just raise

your hand and he will make sure that you have that. What you're going to

see on the screen is typically or basically what is

going to be in the handout

there. So it'll help you to kind of move along through the class if you'd

like there. I figure while these are being

handed out that the place for me to begin, because we do have a

lot— we have one week to cover each of these chapters of Philippians.

I might give you a little bit of the background of the book of Philippians

as you grab these.

First of all, when we look at the history of the city of

Philippi, it gives you some kind of a help. If you were

here this morning in class, in Macedonia where Paul

goes to take the gospel, that's where Philippi is. It's up

above modern-day Turkey. It is in that— the area that's called the Balkan

region today. If you go back and you try to trace

some of the history of the city of Philippi,

then you have to go to the Thracian

culture. And there is a little village known as

Crenides. And the name Crenides means springs.

The history of this village goes back before the 8th century BC.

And as we begin to look at the folks, the Thracian

people, we don't know much about them at all. We don't know about their customs.

We don't know about their culture. We don't know about the people.

Some say that they are some mixture of those that we would know as Iranians

today and folks who are from Croatia. So a very interesting ethnicity

of folks that are brought together in this particular place

and time. Now, as you begin to examine the people that are in Crenides,

that is the village before it's Philippi, then they

talk about the folks that are the primitive

folks, the warlike folks live in the mountains. Inland from Philippi.

Philippi being a coastal city, the more civilized and the more peaceful folks are

living there at the edges on the coast of Cretades.

And they continue as a people, though we don't know a lot archaeologically about

them, until about the 4th century BC. If you

think about Daniel's writing and he talks about the world powers that are going to

come, and after the Babylonians are going to come the Medes and the Persians,

and after the Medes and Persians, the Greek culture is going to ascend

and the Greek Empire is going to dominate the world. We often

think about the— who— when you think about the Greek Empire, who do you think

about? Alexander the Great. Anybody know who his father is?

Philip. Philip of Macedon. Does that sound

like anything that's important in the Bible? Macedonia.

Okay, so Philip II is going to come along, but before him, there is

a man who is exiled from Greece. By the name of Callistratus.

Callistratus and some Greek settlers are going to come in and

they're going to take over that village.

Philip is surveying that entire region. And as he does,

he looks out across Philippi, there's a fertile plain. And on the

other side of that plain, there is an area known as Paegea.

And there's a lot of silver and there's a lot of gold there. And so

just to make sure that he has control of all of that, he annexes the

entire region. And when he does that, he, as is often the case

in especially Greek and Roman culture, the city is named

for himself. And so it's named Philippi after Philip II of

Macedon. In about 342,

by that period of time, he comes in and

he begins to colonize all of that area. It's one

of the areas because there's riches there. You think about the Congo today and how

there are countries that are fighting over that. There's a lot of strife over

that particular area because of the minerals and because of

the precious metals. And so they fight and they contest over that

for a couple of hundred years until about 188 BC. And in 188

BC, you have the local people who sue the Romans for peace,

and they allow the Romans to rule them.

And so that's going to bring us closer to the time in which Paul is

going to be writing the letter to the Philippians.

In that 188 BC

period on up to about the 31 BC, you have the

Romans coming in and they're taking over. There's some names for us to know

that maybe you remember from school. You remember Mark Antony? You ever hear about him

and Octavian? This is in the time of the Roman Republic before the Roman

Empire is born. And there's Brutus and Cassius. Anybody remember

hearing about them, what they're known for? They— who

did they kill? Et tu, Brute? All right, stabbed him in

the back according to legend. And so they assassinate Julius Caesar,

but Mark Antony and Octavian come in and they defeat

their forces and they love Philippi

and a lot of the features of it. And so it becomes a very important

city in the Roman Empire. It becomes a little,

a tiny, Rome. And the folks who settled there

in Philippi have the full rights of the Roman Empire. This is

what that means. In a time in which few people were able to

own land, they're able to come in and they're able to buy it,

to possess it, and to sell it. They're able to engage in civil

lawsuits. And so the peace

of Rome comes to them. The city itself is

patterned after the city of Rome. And again, that's about 100

years before Paul is writing.

What do we think about the religion? What do you think the religion in Philippi

would have been like before Paul comes? It being the

Greco-Roman world, it's very pagan.

So it's surprisingly mixed. There's a lot of mythology.

There's the Greek gods. There are the Roman gods.

There's pagan rituals. There's pagan gods. There's the worship

of the empire, imperial religion, and there's a lot of syncretism.

All that means is the combining of religions.

What there's not a lot of is there's not a lot of Jews.

And so without a Jewish population there, there's not much of a local problem

with Judaism. And so this is the place that Paul comes

to. So when we begin to think about the history of the

city, There are some questions that we need to ask anytime we come

to a Bible book to be able to understand what is its context,

how does— what's happening there and what does it mean for us? And so there

are some questions we've got to ask. Who is the author of Philippians?

Okay, it's not ever been contested seriously. He is mentioned

at the very beginning of the book in Philippians 1:1. He identifies himself.

Philippians 1:1

We'll talk more about that in just a moment. Who is Paul? Well,

we have the New Testament to tell us, 2/3 of the New Testament that gives

us insight into Paul, but he defines himself in Philippians 3:5-6.

Philippians 3:5–6

He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. He is second to none. He is

a Benjamite. He is a Pharisee. He is a persecutor

of Christians in his background, and this is the man who is writing.

All right, so we try to figure out a date. You may

have in your Bible— do any of you have at the top of your Bible

a date ascribed to the book of Philippians? Maybe you

have a little bit different date. Does anybody have a different date than 63 AD?

Okay, 60 to 62, 61.

There's some imprecision in all of this, but this

is one of the so-called prison epistles. And why are they called that?

Okay, Paul's in prison. Anybody remember the other prison epistles? Chris,

this will be a test of your teaching that not long ago we had these.

Colossians. That's the first one y'all both came up with. Colossians,

Philemon, and Ephesians. All right, there are some characters that

seem to appear earlier that don't appear

later on. In Colossians and in Philemon,

we have individuals who have gone with Paul.

We have Tychicus and Onesimus. They're mentioned in the other 3 epistles,

but they're not mentioned here. Epaphroditus is mentioned,

and he appears to be the one who brings the letter to them, chapter 1

and chapter 2. Now, Paul expects to be released

from this imprisonment. So this seems to be a first imprisonment.

If you look at chapter 1 and verse 25 and chapter 2 and verse 24,

Paul expects that he's going to be freed from this.

There's a second imprisonment that happens later, and this is when 2

Timothy is written. We also know that Luke and Aristarchus

are with Paul when he is on that shipwreck in Acts chapter 27.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

And they're there in the time of Colossians and Philemon, but they're not mentioned at

this time. So besides 1 and 2 Timothy, this is probably

one of the very last letters that Paul wrote. So there's our date.

We could spend a lot more time on any of this, but we've got all

of chapter 1 to get. But let's talk about the recipients in Acts chapter

Acts 16 · chapter mention

16. That's the background. To this.

Luke is a very precise writer.

And so the reason why those who give dates to things give

the date of about 63 AD is because of the approximate date

of the establishment of the church. Remember we said this morning we observed the

Passover on Acts chapter 16 because we're going to come back to that tonight?

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Remember this morning we did see that Paul is standing at Troas and

he hears the Macedonian call, and so he goes over And

what does Paul do whenever he goes anywhere?

All right, he's looking for a synagogue. He's looking for worshipers

of God that he can go and he can share the Word with because they're

going to be closer to the message of Christianity than say the folks in a

place like Athens. Is there a synagogue in Philippi?

There's not. If you look in Acts 16:10-13, you don't

Acts 16:10–13

find one. So where does Paul wind up?

All right, so he goes by the riverside and there are some women there

who are engaged in prayer and he begins to teach. And you'll see

it on the board in front of you that Lydia and her household are taught

the gospel. The Lord opens her heart and she hears, she believes the message of

Paul. After that, there's a young woman with a spirit of divination

who is trying to take from God's hands

the control of how the message is going to be spread by Paul and

the others. And so Paul cast that spirit out of her.

And you remember that they're sent to prison. And there in the

midst of the jail, Paul and Silas teach the

Philippian jailer and his household. So we're thinking about the

foundation of that church. And there's some unnamed brethren. We don't

know who they are in verse 40, but they make up the church. The church

exists now in Philippi. And in Acts 20:6,

Acts 20:6

on the 3rd missionary journey, the Apostle Paul is going to be back through

there. He's going to work on that congregation some more. We don't

know who all has planted the seed and who all has been converted,

but when you get to the book of Philippians, there are names mentioned

that aren't mentioned in Acts chapter 16. So the church is growing there.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

I find it interesting that about 50 years later— anybody ever heard the name

Polycarp? He was a disciple of John the apostle, and he

writes a letter to the Philippians 50 years after Paul does,

And he writes to this church and he tells them about how he sees that

their faith is— they're still standing firm in

their faith and they're growing in their love. So whatever Paul does,

whatever he says seems to have a positive impact on

the church there. And then we have the letter itself.

So when you think about a letter,

what does somebody put in a letter today,

any letter? What are the component parts

of a letter? You got a greeting,

um, depending on who it is, what you say.

And it's funny, I thought about this. This is very important. There are, um,

there are 21 in the New Testament, but we

don't write letters today. Uh, it dawned on me,

it maybe that's going to be one of those trends. You know, we've been digitized

and maybe we're going to go back to old school and maybe we'll start writing

some letters. So it may be hard for us to think about what's an English

letter and to realize how that connects to the Bible. So we have a

greeting. Okay, so any of y'all remember taking

that in school? Did you take that? You had the— it sounds like what y'all

are reciting is that. You have the greetings, you have the body,

salutation,

closing. All right, so that's kind of the pieces

that make up the letter. You're going to see some of that in Paul's letter.

What else do you think of in a letter? What's the purpose? What are you

trying to accomplish in a letter? Yeah, conveying information.

And depending on who's on the other end of that letter, that affects

what kind of information. If it's somebody you don't know very well, and if it's

more of a business purpose, then it's going to be more formal,

and maybe some personal things are left out. You think

about a letter that you write to a family member, or— and

I guess it's just generational. Cathy and I, when we went to school,

we had a mailroom.

And so, I mean, I could have seen her anytime. I don't know why we

did it this way, but we just wrote letters and we put it in their

box, and they went and they picked that up. We had a landline phone in

the room that we dialed as well. So, it was, you know, but the letter

was conducted in that way. Now, when we think about the

letter of Philippians, it is a letter. And so,

when you think about the different kinds of literature that are in the Bible,

There are different characteristics. So some of the books of the Bible

are apocalyptic in their nature, extreme language to talk

about coming events perhaps that are intense.

There's going to be suffering. The destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus employs a lot

of apocalyptic language. Prophetic literature has specific

characteristics about it. And then when you think about the Gospels, the Gospels are—

have a structure all their own. And so the epistles are the same way.

When you hear epistle, Think letter. That's what this

involves. And so in epistles,

here's some important information to consider. The author,

who's the one writing? The recipients.

What is the relationship between the two of them?

And what are the circumstances of each of them? So we'll think about that in

greater detail as we walk through Philippians. But Paul is

writing. Who is he writing to? He's writing to the Philippians.

These Philippians are going to be characterized in some very specific

ways. What's the relationship between Paul and the Philippians?

Okay, we could use words to describe it as we think we see it in

Acts and in Philippians, that it's loving. Definitely is.

But what else? It is encouraging,

right? He's going to— the entire letter is written in

a tone of encouragement for sure. Very personal. And why

is it personal?

Because he knows them. He was the first one there.

He established the church.

All right, and so there's the relationship that Bill mentions that they had with him,

that they supported him. They were the first to support him. And we'll say some

more about the support that they provided and how Paul acknowledges that. And so these

aren't strangers writing each other. These are people who had spent

time together, that Paul had taught the gospel to them. He had come back to

encourage them. Now he is writing

them. There's been some time between his having been there because

he's been imprisoned, and now he's wanting to write to them and to

reestablish contact. And what are the circumstances

with them? Well, I think we've already mentioned what Paul's circumstances

are. Is there any indication what the circumstances

are with the Philippians? What's going on with them?

There's strife. Now, how do you reconcile

that with the loving tone and the encouraging that Paul is doing and the fact

that there might be some kind of strife there? So there's strife. If we go

to chapter 3, maybe there's another problem, and that's the problem of some that

Paul calls dogs, the concision, who are coming in and trying to disturb their faith.

In a lot of your New Testament letters, you're going to have a crisis

that needs to be addressed. There's a problem in the church. And even

in Philippi, a church that Paul is going to speak in glowing terms

about, there's— there are issues that have to be dealt with. That doesn't surprise

us, does it? I don't know that

I have ever been a part of a congregation that has so much upside

and so many positives, but do we have problems?

Have we got it all figured out? Are we there yet? And so

that being the case, we've— if an inspired apostle

were to write to us, He would no doubt commend us for a lot of

good things. But being guided by God, he would also tell us there are some

things that we need to work on. And so, as we look

at this letter, there are some things that we need to notice, but there's

also the purpose of the letter. Why is this letter written? And I just want

to give you this for the sake of time. There are some theological considerations

to make. Find the central concern of

the letter. As we walk through, I think that you will see that there is

a central concern. That the Apostle Paul has. There are historical

considerations. We've got to put ourselves back in Paul's time.

So, what we're going to try to do as we walk through is to make

application to today. There's a book called Grasping God's

Word that talks about building a bridge from the Bible times to our times.

And so, we want to take the Bible into our times, but it's good for

us to go back and to think about what was happening in the Bible's times

so that we can build that bridge and make that application. You think

about what's going on in Paul's life. He is suffering personally

for preaching the gospel. In Acts 21, he's been arrested,

he's been taken prisoner, and this is according to God's plan that he can take

the gospel to the dignitaries all around the world in the Roman Empire.

What's the circumstances historically for the church in the first century?

Well, if this is 63 AD, Anybody know who's on the

throne? Nero. Now, so far so

good, but you know what's about to happen with Nero?

Serious localized persecution that we believe is going

to take the life of Peter and Paul before it's all over with. And so

Paul is writing this letter in relatively peaceful times because

it's not going to be much longer before some of the tone of the writing

is warning them about some suffering that's to come. Think about 1

Peter. And so now Paul is writing and he's wanting to equip them.

If there is an internal problem in the church, it's not just about

resolving that problem. It's about resolving that problem so

they'll have unity, so they'll be strong in the face of adversity

that's about to come in their lives. Do you think

that adversity in your life as a Christian is harder when

you don't have a strong relationship with the church family? And if

so, and obvious, that's an obvious question, why is it harder to handle

adversity from external places when you don't

have a harmonious and a good relationship with the church family?

Okay, so back to that word again, we encourage each other.

We feel isolated if we don't have support.

Somebody passes away. And I hear this

in the funeral home all the time when we're going by and we're shaking hands.

It's hard to go to a brother or sister in Christ's

family without hearing this. I don't know what,

what people do who aren't Christians. Well, what do Christians

do when they're fussing and feuding with other Christians

and they feel themselves isolated and separated

from the church family? And so this letter has

to be looked at in its historical considerations. There's also some

exegetical considerations. All that means is we're going into the text and we're finding out

what's in the text that can help us to appreciate and understand it better.

Why was it written? What are some of the major themes? So we won't

dig into these now, we'll look at these later. Paul's verdict,

life or death. What's going to happen?

Suffering for Christ. What's involved in that and

how do you respond to that? Attitudes.

Do attitudes matter? If you're preaching the truth and you're teaching the truth,

does it matter about your attitude? Can the church do harm

if it's filled with people who have poor attitudes?

Unity. Is unity important? Is it important to Christ?

John 17:20-23. Is it important to Paul in the writing

John 17:20–23

of this letter? Chapter 4, verse 1, chapter 2, verse 1 through 4.

And then knowing Christ. This is one of the major themes or subjects

of the epistle. And I want you just to think about a couple of passages

that sets this up. In Paul giving an example in Philippians

Philippians 2:5

2:5, it's one of the most recognizable verses in the letter.

He says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ

Jesus. And then he lays out the example of Christ. And then in the next

chapter, in chapter 3, verse 8 and following, he says, I want

to know Christ. Christ. Do you know Christ?

How do you know Christ? How do you know that

you know Christ? And so we see these major themes, and then we would say

major themes in the, the sense of, are there words that

recur? This is not an exhaustive list. I'm not giving you a

list of keywords, but there are some words that you would think

that, that would, uh, you would find repeatedly, they must be

important to the book. And one of those, when you think of Philippians, what word

comes top of mind? Joy and rejoicing, found 16 times

in the letter. Any other words that you can think of

that you might associate with Philippians?

Okay, unity is definitely conceptually an important word.

And Paul uses not the word unity as much, but the word one.

Which is conveying unity. Any other words?

Okay, it's certainly a good descriptive word, unselfish.

It's going to factor in. And the way unselfishness is really laid out

is with a word that Paul uses. It's only found 26 times

in the New Testament, and he uses it 10 times. And it's the word translated

mind, phronein. And so what kind of mind

do you have? And the mind that he encourages you to have is

the mind that is unselfish, among other things. Then there's

the word fellowship. It's going to occur in every chapter of the book.

How does this epistle address 21st century

concerns? What— if we walk across the bridge

to our town today, what are some things that it could help

us with? Well, let me ask you, do you struggle with death?

Do you struggle with the uncertainty of death? Are you

in a health situation where you don't know how much time

that you have, or maybe it seems more imminent?

Or perhaps you would find yourself in a situation where it

strikes without any kind of warning. How do you cope? How do you respond to

that? Do you have trouble with division and disharmony?

Even if the church is united in one, what about in the other relationships in

your life? Is there harmony that characterizes your work relationships?

What about in your home? What about in your marriage? And if you

deal with division and disharmony in one of those other places in your

life, can Philippians help you to iron that out with

the mindset that you're— that you are called to have, the fellowship

that God wants to exist in the marriage relationship, and the way he wants you

to be in the workplace, Ephesians 4:25-32?

Ephesians 4:25–32

Do you know Christ? Is he someone that

you are personally close to, and are you cultivating that relationship?

Even some practical things. What's the financial relationship between churches and

preachers? I'm not saying anything about it except that it's covered in the book of

Philippians. How do you have a positive mental attitude? Isn't that

important to how we succeed in life and how we see life and the enjoyment,

the contentment, the fulfillment that we have in life? How do you deal with false

teachers? There are Judaizers here, and they seem to be a problem throughout

the first-century church, and how do you deal with them? There are 4

words that are important in the book of Philippians

in my mind, and let me just give those to you real quick. The first

is the word gratitude. It's not— it's— I don't know if it's in your notes

or not. It's not there on the screen. Paul expresses his gratitude

to this church through an epistle. We're going to look at it here in a

few moments in chapter 1, verse 3 through 11, the glowing,

loving words that he says. And then in chapter 4 and verse 10,

he says, there were no other churches to help me, but you supplied the

help that was needed. A second word is the word guidance.

They had internal problems that needed solving.

We're going to see that in Philippians, chapter 4, and verse 2. Third word

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

is the word gladness. How could this church have the joy that

God wanted it to have. The word joy

or rejoicing occurs those 16 times. And then the word goodness.

Paul calls on them to have the goodness of heart that he illustrates

with various examples throughout the book of Philippians. Now I realize

that I have not left myself a lot of time for Philippians chapter 1,

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

but I wanted to set the background of this to kind of— to set

the table for the things that we're going to see this week and the weeks

to come. I think with Philippians 1:12-26, we really

Philippians 1:12–26

have one thing being said and it's illustrated in a lot of different ways.

So we'll make up some time there. But I want us to get to the

salutation. Let's look at it. Philippians 1:1-2.

Philippians 1:1–2

And I know in the letter writing, the salutation normally comes at the end,

but in an epistolary letter, it comes at the beginning.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in

Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and

peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right, are there any important words that seem to be

flashing at you in those first 2 verses?

Bondservant. All right, we'll build that list in just a second here.

Bondservant. Saints.

Okay, overseers and deacons. I'm going to deal with those together. Anything else that

you see? Anybody else? Grace and peace.

All right, grace and peace. Now grace, certainly, I want us to focus on

peace in that. One other.

All right, servant or bondservant. We'll deal with that in just a moment.

How about Christ Jesus? 3 times in 2 verses, he's going to refer

to him. The saints, overseers, and deacons, and peace. So let's talk about that for

just a moment, about servants. Now to Paul, A doulos,

bondslave, was one who ministered with gladness

and joy for his master. Now, when he introduces

the letter by calling himself a servant, he is urging a mindset,

a lifestyle on the folks that he's writing to that it's going to

unfold in the rest of the book. So, because when you think about a true

servant, a faithful servant, What do they

know? What do they do?

What is a faithful servant? How would you describe them?

All right, they're obedient, submissive.

Okay, there's total commitment with them. I heard

something over here. Humble. All right, now I

want you to think about how Paul develops the servant in the book of Philippians.

True servants know their master.

What does he say in chapter 3, verse 8 and 10? Not that I know

him or have yet obtained, but I keep pressing so that I can know him

more. I want to know Christ. A true slave or

servant of Christ wants to know him more and better. And the beautiful thing

about a master like Jesus is the more you know him, the closer you are

to him. Man, the better it gets. True servants

know their place. Well, what's Paul's place? Philippians 1:18,

Philippians 1:18

21-27, wherever Christ wants

him to be. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I'm ready to do whatever he wants me to do. And true servants know their

work. He's going to talk about the work that, that we have

as, as servants or slaves of Jesus Christ. I'm, I'm for whatever

he wants me to do. Chapter 1, verse 22, and you, for your sake,

Philippians, For your sake, members of the Cumberland Trace Church of Christ,

put the interests of others above yourself.

So in focusing on Christ Jesus, he's taking the focus

off of himself and off of the others that he's

writing alongside of Timothy, and he's putting the focus on

Jesus, but he's also putting the focus on his heavenly master,

and not on the Romans. He's not worried about the Romans

because he's got a higher and a better master than that. And then this word

saint, what does the word saint mean?

Say it a little bit louder.

Okay, it is, it is an analogy. It's a,

it's a like word for a believer, but what is the word

itself? Be called out?

Holy ones be set apart.

Okay? So when Paul says to the saints at Philippi,

he's reminding them that they're set apart. So you think

about what that means for them in this book. They can't view themselves as just

another religious group among the religious groups. When you think about

the Bible and covenant, in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 7:6, God says,

Deuteronomy 7:6

I didn't set my love on you because you were the greatest of nations,

because you were the least of all nations, but because he set his love on

them. In fulfillment to a promise to Abraham, he sets them apart. And what is

the church referred to? 1 Peter 2:9, we are a people

1 Peter 2:9

for God's own possession. We are a holy nation. And so

in the book of Philippians, you're going to find that they are set apart.

There are 3 ways that they are set apart in the book of Philippians.

They are set apart in their attitude.

Christians have a different attitude from the world.

It's in every chapter of Philippians. We'll see it every single time.

They're also separate in their conduct. Christians are different

from the world in conduct. You see that only conduct yourselves,

chapter 1 and verse 27. Chapter 2, verse 1 through 4,

if there's any of these blessings, if there's anything that's to be found in Christ

that's worthwhile, then fulfill my joy.

And then by being separate in doctrine.

Their doctrine, their teaching is different from

the world. Now, here's a question really quickly. Why does Paul

refer to the overseers and the deacons? In no

other letter does Paul begin by saying,

with the elders and the deacons.

Why would you do something like that? Because they're

there. The church is mature. They're there. It does point to maturity. Do we

not have elders in other places? If Ephesus has elders,

why doesn't he say to the elders and the deacons who are at Ephesus?

Perhaps there's something significant here. What is an

elder in function? What does he do?

All right, he's a shepherd. He leads. He oversees,

superintends. What— deacons don't

have authority over the congregation, but when we look at deacons, what do we

see them as? They are servants. They're servants

who lead in some particular form of service. And so Paul

is validating the role, the work that they do,

and he has given them the stamp of authenticity that maybe what's going

to be said is going to be hard in some places for them to accept.

And so they can have confidence and they have a responsibility

in leadership to handle that. And then the word

peace. It's only found 3 times in the letter. It's right here, and it's in

chapter 4, verse 7 and verse 9. And the situation

is such that there are at least some who lack

some peace in this congregation. And he wants the peace that passes all understanding

to guard their hearts and mind and the God of peace to be with

them. All right, so in 10 minutes, let's look at the bulk of this chapter,

verse 3 through 11. I'm going to read it really quickly. I thank

my God in all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine,

for you all making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel

from the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that he who began

a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus

Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I

hold you in my heart, for you're all partakers with me of grace, both in

my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you, all of you,

with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may

abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may

approve what is excellent, so to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory

and praise of God. Now, this is what is often referred

to as an epistolary prayer.

It is a prayer and it follows, and I won't

bore you with the details of this, but in the Hellenistic world,

they had letters that had 3 component parts in which

they would give a thanksgiving to the gods. They would assure

the readers that they were being prayed for to the

gods, and they would give thanks to the gods

for being, saved, either the writer

or the readers. Now, why would Paul conform to this format

being a believer in the true God and being a teacher

of Jesus Christ? To reach his audience.

It's how they knew that letters were conducted. And so

that's what's taking place right here. Now, the thing I will

tell you about the prayers really quickly in this paragraph,

is we see how Paul prayed. He prays with thanksgiving and he prays

with joy. We see why the Apostle Paul prays,

because there is a need that exists, and we'll see that. And we see when

Paul prays, and that is always. In verses 5 through

8, he is prepping them for the words that he's going to give them in

verses 9 through 11. Prayers are not just, hey,

I just want you to know I'm thinking about you and I'm praying for you.

It is one of the ways that we know what a letter is all about.

We know what a letter is all about by the words, the things that he's

saying that he's praying for. It's going to be significant in the rest of the

letter. And so we see him as he walks through that prayer that

he says, you were united in the past. You have done this in the past.

We know that you're capable of doing that again.

He expresses a hope in verse 6 that they would keep what they had.

This church began in such a great way. They were doing great things.

They were, mission-minded. They were generous with their funds.

This is the church that Paul has in mind in 2 Corinthians when he says,

you had abundance of poverty and affliction, and yet out of that you

gave the wealth of your generosity, and you did more than we expected you to

do, and so you're to be commended for that.

And so he says, this is who you are. Keep this going.

I know that you're serious about your Christianity. And then he says, God is my

witness. Now, God is my witness is not how we use that sometimes

as an oath, saying, God is my witness. He's saying, I can't see you.

I don't know you. I don't see you in front of me now,

but I want you to know that only God can see in my heart,

and he knows how I feel about you and that I care about you.

Don't let the distance and the time make you think that I'm cold

and I'm disinterested with regard to you. I would suggest that the

theme of Philippians is fleshed out for us Philippians 1:9-11.

Philippians 1:9–11

And there are 3 words of importance here, and that is prayers.

These are petitions that are made because of a deep need that exists.

Paul is saying, you have a need, and I'm praying to God.

He talks about joy, but he says,

I want you to make my joy complete. If he says, I want you to

make it complete, what does that imply for us?

It's not complete. And so there's something you got to do in

order to make it complete. And so that's how he's going to talk about joy.

And then that word mind that we mentioned. What I want to do

is to handle the bulk of this chapter, and I was

going to mention this to Hiram. I didn't get a chance to, but I believe

there's a poor chapter break in Philippians.

Philippians 1:27 goes all the way to chapter 2 and verse 4.

Philippians 1:27

And what it does is it serves as how you apply An example.

Here's something that's going to happen throughout Philippians. We'll notice this through

the weeks that this class meets.

Paul is going to give an example of putting others above

self. It's going to happen throughout, and whenever there's something that's

repeated throughout, it's something that we call a motif. All that means

is it recurs. It's a theme that you see it over and over again,

and this theme is going to be set up with examples.

Paul throughout Philippians is going to give examples of people who

are putting others above self. I want you to think

about how that is going to help every family, every marriage,

every church, every community to

the extent that we buy into, I'm going to put you above

me. Now, so often when we think about that, and maybe we can think in

recent past and some events that took place in our world, and what we thought

that meant was you conform to what I want. You need to, to consider my

needs above yourself. That is not the thrust or the direction at which Paul is

writing this letter. He reaches into the hearts of everybody present and

he says, each one of you, you put the interests of others

above yourself. It's kind of like when Paul writes to the husband and wife and

he gives instructions to the wife that she is to submit and respect

her husband and he is to love his wife. We are such good policemen at

the other person and what they're supposed to be doing, but Paul speaks to our

hearts. And so as we walk through Philippians,

Paul says, here are the examples and here's

what I'm exemplifying. Here's what I'm illustrating. What does it look

like to put others above self? And so with that being the

case, I don't have time to read verse 12 through 26. I want you to

see who all Paul says that he puts above himself.

Now I do want to point this out at the very beginning of verse 12,

he says, if everybody's with me in verse 12, I want

you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has

really served to advance the gospel.

I personally think that's the most important thing in this entire paragraph. What's Paul talking

about? Being in prison.

All right, so if you can keep that in your mind, everything else

that happens in this chapter is set up by that fact. And is Paul

concerned about being in prison? Is he

upset? Is it, woe is me? Is it,

this isn't fair, I need to be let out of here? In fact, he says

nothing of the kind. What he says is, there are things that

I put before my freedom, my preservation,

even my life. And he walks through that in the rest of the

chapter. He understands that his imprisonment

affects the guards. He puts the guards above himself. What's really cool,

I wish we had time to drill in on this, Would that make them think

of anybody? The Philippian jailer?

I wonder, is he still alive? Is he still faithful? And as

Paul is writing about this, they would know that he would not allow even prison

to keep him from reaching out even to his captors. And so he says,

it's okay that I'm in prison because it gives me access to

more Philippian jailers and I can reach them. So I'm going to put them above

myself. And then he says, everybody else. Who do you think everybody else is in

verse 13? He says there's the Praetorian Guard and

everyone else. Okay,

perhaps the prisoners.

Okay, perhaps the guards will be by themselves, but who else

besides the prisoners? Who do you think

everyone is? We don't have to think that too deeply.

It's all, it's everybody. You think about how it would impact

the magistrates and the officials and the citizens.

In Rome and in Philippi. Why, Paul, why are

you in jail? What's going on with you? And so he says, I put

everybody else above my freedom because they're hearing.

They're hearing the fact of Jesus. His imprisonment affects the

brethren. I know it affects the brethren in Rome. It affects— he wants it to

affect the Philippians. How easy would it have been to

be a Christian in Rome and to stand by Paul? They don't know

yet how it's going to turn out. They don't know if he's going to live

or he's going to die. And so Paul says, I want

you to be courageous. And this is— the brethren are bold to speak the word.

And so if that's what happens, that's what— if I have to be in

prison for that to happen, then so be it. And then there are 2 sets

of preachers, and I'll deal with them together. He puts loving preachers

above himself, and that's, I think, most preachers.

They just love the Lord. They love his church. They love lost souls.

And Paul says, I'm putting them above my

freedom. But some are poorly motivated. And,

you know, if the truth is being preached, it doesn't matter their motivation.

Folks are going to be in heaven because of them. I'd hate to be a

preacher who preached with bad motivation. But as far as the gospel going forward,

Paul says, hey, even if I don't have liberty, I know

that there are some who, even though they're wanting to add affliction to my bonds,

the gospel is still being preached. And then his imprisonment

affects Paul himself. Paul puts the gospel above his own

freedom. And so, that being the case,

Paul's going to make some conclusions.

And I'll leave that here for you. And I want to close with this.

When we think about what happens as we go through the letter,

Will you keep in mind that we need to consider the example

that we're setting? Paul is going to give example

after example, several of them in the book, and the example that they

set is of one who is a true slave of Jesus Christ

who is putting others above self. Consider the sacrifices that

we're making. It's one thing to, uh, to, to have a

life of comfort and ease, but what are we sacrificing for the cause of Christ?

Consider the priorities that we're setting. Paul is causing them to aim

higher, and then consider the relationships in the body that

we're maintaining. Paul's letter is, if you want

to have joy as the people of God, then do— the relationships that

you have with one another have got to be healthy and whole. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the interest in your Word

that is very obvious in this room. We're thankful for each and every one present

here. We're thankful for your Holy Word in Philippians. We're grateful

for the great truth that it contains. We're thankful,

Father, for the message it has for our lives today.

Father, for a church that is so great and that is doing

so much, we pray that you'll help us to take to heart the

central message of Philippians and that we'll live it out in our lives

each and every day. Help us, Father, to know you, to know your Son

better each and every day. Help us to never stop at anything.

Until we know him more. In Jesus' name, amen.

We're dismissed.