Philippians Overview
Philippians 1:1–4:23
Philippians Lesson #002
April 21, 2022
Dr. Robert L. Dean, Jr
www.deanbibleministries.org
Opening Prayer
“Father, again, we’re thankful that we can come together this evening to focus on Your Word, to reflect upon what Paul has written in this letter to the Philippian church. So many important statements in here, so much important teaching and instruction.
“Father, we pray that you would help us this evening to think about this whole letter as one whole, that we can begin to see how it all fits together.
“Father, we continue to pray for our missionaries. A lot of decisions a lot of people are having to make. We just pray that you would guide, direct them, and they would be responsive to that.
“We pray for us tonight that you would open our eyes to the truth of Your Word. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Slide 2
Open your Bibles with me to Philippians 1. Tonight we’re going to do an overview-fly-over of these four chapters, and get an understanding, at least, of what the forest looks like, before we start looking at the individual trees, and the limbs on the trees, and the leaves, and drill down to the different cell structures of all the molecules on every leaf that’s on the tree.
We have to always keep going back and forth from the overview and the context to understand that, and to put that together in terms of what we study.
Last time, we looked at the background: how the church was established in Acts 16.
Slide 3
We looked at the fact that this was on Paul’s second missionary journey. He left Antioch, which is down here in the lower right. Then they walked up through Cilicia, through Tarsus, then going across and checking in on the churches in southern Galatia, going to Derbe and Lystra and Iconium.
It was there that he picked up Timothy. That’s important because he has Timothy with him when he goes across to Philippi. When he goes over there, they establish the church. Then many years later, when Paul is writing to the Philippians, he has Timothy with him. So, he includes Timothy in the opening greeting and that salutation. That helps us to orient to where we’re talking about.
The other thing that’s really important with Philippi is that this is a Roman colony. It’s been a Roman colony for over a hundred years, which means the people who live there for the most part are retired military veterans, and they have Roman citizenship. They are treated as citizens of Rome back in Italy. That whole background—this idea of citizenship—is only referenced by Paul in this particular Epistle. He relates that, by analogy, to our citizenship in Heaven.
I talked a little bit about that last week. This sets us up for a little bit of background.
Slide 4
Now, if we’re going to outline Philippians … When I start off at the beginning of a book it’s sort of a well-educated guess as to what the outline is. It’s only when I finish that I really have an understanding. I’ve gone through and done all the technical exegetical work, although I’ve done a little more work over the years in Philippians than some other books. So, this is sort of taking a good stab at it.
If you talk to any of the pastors that you know, they will tell you that they’re not really prepared to start teaching the book that they’re teaching until they have finished it. Then they have figured it out, and they’re ready to teach it.
1. We have an introduction in Philippians 1:1–11.
2. The next section is Paul’s expression of joy at the expansion of the gospel. This is in Philippians 1:12–26.
3. The third section is going to introduce the main theme for the rest of Philippians 1 and Philippians 2 (Philippians 1:27–2:30): that is, a worthy walk.
Philippians 1:27: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ …” That idea is going to be picked up several times in Philippians 2, and it goes into Philippians 3. (I was looking at that right before I came and thinking that may need to expand through all of Philippians 3.)
4. In Philippians 3, he’s talking about joy again, which is a major theme in the Epistle, referring to a mental attitude that is not based on circumstances.
He’s dealing with some rather unusual circumstances in Philippians 3. He deals with those who are in opposition to the gospel. On the one hand, you have those who are legalistic, those who come out of the legalistic, pharisaical background as he had been in. Then there are others who are Gentiles who are in opposition to the gospel. And that our mental attitude is not to be shaped by circumstances. Our mental attitude is to be shaped by our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s Philippians 3:1–4:1.
5. The fifth section is most of chapter 4 (Philippians 4:2–20). He begins with the command, “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice!” The focus is on how we have this kind of joy in the midst of bad circumstances.
Philippians 4 focuses on that because Paul certainly was in a lot of bad and unpleasant circumstances. He’s in prison when he is writing this Epistle. He is talking about that which is necessary to have this kind of stable joyful mental attitude of contentment and tranquility. That’s Philippians 4 for the most part.
6. Then concluding greetings in the last three verses (Philippians 4:21–23).
That gives us a broad outline.
Now, what I want to do is just kind of talk our way through this, so we get an idea of what this Epistle is all about.
Slide 5
It starts off with your salutation in the first part of the introduction. This is typical of any letter in the ancient world. But there are a few little twists in the way that Paul wrote things.
Here (Philippians 1:1) he introduces himself along with Timothy and identifies themselves as slaves or servants of Jesus Christ. He addresses it to the saints, which is a term for believers, “… to the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, [along] with—that’s the idea in the phrase ‘with’—along with the bishops and deacons.”
We’ll have to spend a little time talking about church leadership and church organization, which we’ve done some in Ephesians 4 recently. Still working on finishing that up, as we will in the next few Sundays.
The bishops are the overseers. The old King James translated it as “bishops.” The term is EPISKOPOS in the Greek, and it refers to an overseer. Then you have the deacons. There are these two categories of leadership. We need to talk about that.
Then the greeting itself is “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” He combines a Greek greeting, CHARIN, which basically means grace, with a Jewish greeting, shalom. He ties them together as having their ultimate source in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Slide 6
He introduces Timothy. We saw this last time that in Acts 16, he came to Derbe and Lystra on that second missionary journey. There he picked up Timothy, so Timothy was with him.
Slide 7
He’s going to say a number of things about Timothy in Philippians 2, and it just emphasizes the quality of Timothy’s spiritual maturity.
Slide 8
We look at these verses. It emphasizes that he’s writing to all the believers along with the leadership in the congregation.
Slide 9
Then in the second part of this introduction, we have his introductory prayer in Philippians 1:3–8. That’s his thanksgiving. He says, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy.” That’s the first time he uses one of the forms of the word for joy or rejoicing, something of that nature.
He is joyful because of their partnership in the gospel from the very first day. We saw that the first day was when he went down to the river on a Sabbath expecting there to be some Jewish men there, and there weren’t any. There he was with Lydia, who was a dealer, a businesswoman, a dealer in dyes. So, he begins with having prayer with them and teaching the gospel.
The key in this is in Philippians 1:6–7. He says he’s confident—and this is probably a causal participle. “… [because I’m] confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
That’s a very important verse. It’s a great verse for comfort—that God began the good work with our regeneration, and He is going to continue to work in our lives until He takes us home—either under the sin unto death if you’re disobedient, God’s still going to be working to bring you back to a walk with Him—or if you are continuing to walk with Him, it’s positive. So God is not going to abandon us no matter what our response may be to the spiritual life.
Then in Philippians 1:7 he says, “... just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart.” The thing I wanted to point out there is, this is the first use of a verb “to think” from a Greek word PHRONEŌ. We’ll spend a lot of time on that. It means to think, to reflect with your mind upon something. It’s used ten times in this Epistle.
You have a collection of words. One is “to think.” You have another word, the word for “knowledge.” You have also the word for “discernment,” which we’ll see in just a minute when we get down to Philippians 1:9.
This shows that there is just as much of an emphasis in this Epistle on the importance of knowledge, and the importance of learning the Word, and the importance of growing and maturing as a believer so that you’re applying the Word. That’s where discernment comes in.
There’s this emphasis not just on joy but on thinking. They go together because joy is not an ephemeral emotion that is based upon some sort of positive stimulation. Joy is something that is apart from circumstances.
It’s not dependent upon how people respond to us. It’s not dependent upon external factors. It’s not dependent upon how you look or how you think you look when you look in the mirror. It’s not dependent upon your education or any of these other factors.
It’s dependent upon our relationship with the Lord. We keep our focus and attention upon Him because everything else in life is going to change. Because we live in the devil’s world, a lot of times that change is not in the direction we want it to go, especially when it comes to aging or it comes to health or things of that nature.
This is what Paul is dealing with as a prisoner in Rome. At the end (Philippians 4:12–13) he concludes, “I know how to abound.” In other words, “I know how to pass the prosperity test and I know how to do without. I know how to pass the test of adversity. I can do all things,” which is usually taken out of context.
The “all things” is defined in context in chapter 4 as either in prosperity or in adversity. I can handle whatever the situation is in Christ. So, I’m not going to be tossed to and fro by every emotion and every feeling, everything that comes my way. I can have a stable life and a stable mental attitude because it’s focused on the unchanging character of God.
But when we put our hopes and our happiness and everything on things that change—and everything else in life changes—then we’re going to be deeply distressed and disappointed and unhappy because we’re not putting our attention on the right thing.
Everything else is going to change. People are going to fail us. Events are going to occur that just absolutely distress us. But we have to learn that we’re walking with the Lord. Our focus is on serving Him and glorifying Him. That’s our ultimate purpose in life, is to glorify God. And no one can keep you from doing that.
But if your goal is to be happy, if your goal is to have things, if your goal is to be in a certain social position—all these details of life—then you’re going to have trouble, because those things can all change.
But when your focus is on Jesus Christ and your role to glorify Him, that’s all dependent on your volition. It’s not dependent on anybody else’s volition. It’s just our volition.
We can get up every day, and it doesn’t matter what party is in power in Washington, D.C. It doesn’t matter what’s happened on Wall Street. It doesn’t matter what’s happened to our retirement fund.
It doesn’t matter what happens with our kids or grandkids because what we’re focused on is, we’re going to glorify the Lord in whatever comes our way. So, it’s all about mental attitude.
Slide 10
In the heart of the prayer part, which is Philippians 1:9–11, this is a very important section. Paul says, “… I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge ...” That is instrumental. Your love abounds by means of knowledge. Knowledge of who? Knowledge of the Word. By knowledge and discernment.
We live in a culture that does not have a clue what love is all about. Love is all emotion and how you are emotionally stimulated by somebody. It doesn’t have anything to do with knowledge.
But what the Bible says is that biblical love is by means of knowledge, knowledge of the Word. That is what increases our capacity for love and our understanding of what love is. So that love is by means of knowledge and by means of discernment. Knowledge and discernment are very important.
That comes on the basis of study and application, not just study. Study gets us information. We live in the information age, and there’s so much information out there now. We’re just flooded with it, and we don’t know what to do with any of it anymore. What’s true and what’s not true?
But information isn’t the same as knowledge. And knowledge isn’t the same as wisdom. Information is just the accumulation of facts and data. Information is knowing that a tomato and an avocado are fruits. Don’t ever forget this. That’s information. Knowledge is not putting them in a fruit salad. Wisdom is putting them together and making guacamole. That’s the key.
Wisdom has to do with application to create something that is better than the sum of the parts. That’s what discernment is.
In Proverbs and in wisdom literature, discernment is one side of the wisdom coin. Wisdom is the skillful application of the Word, but you have to have discernment. You have to be able to decide wisely between options. That’s what we see in Philippians 1:10, “that you may approve the things that are excellent.”
A lot of times in life, the big test is not choosing between that which is right and that which is wrong. It’s a choice between that which is better and that which is not, and that which is excellent and that which is better. We are to pursue excellence in our Christian life and in the way in which we relate to people.
That’s what Paul is praying for: that knowledge of the Word leads to discernment—discernment so that you can approve that which is excellent. And what’s the result? The result is that you’re “filled with the fruit of righteousness.”
Where have we seen a phrase like that before? You have it in Ephesians 5 when it’s talking about our walk before the Lord, walking in truth, walking in the light. A little later it’ll talk about being filled by the Spirit.
It’s also similar to the phrase “the fruit of the Spirit.” A lot of the context of Ephesians 5 is talking about things related to walking by the Spirit. You see the same process here.
We have to learn God’s Word. We assimilate it. Over time it develops maturity and discernment. And the Holy Spirit produces the fruits of righteousness for us.
Slide 11
Then we come out of the introduction to Philippians 1:12 where Paul is expressing his joy for the expansion of the gospel.
Slide 12
He says, “I want you to know that the things that happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.” Well, what happened to you, Paul?
What happened is, you got arrested in Jerusalem, and then you spent two years under arrest in Caesarea by the Sea. After that you had to appeal your case to Caesar, so you were shipped off to Rome. Halfway to Rome, you went through a shipwreck, and then you finally made it to Italy. Now you’re in house arrest in Italy waiting for your trial to be heard by Nero.
That’s what’s been going on with Paul. Instead of focusing on the fact that somehow his ministry has been stalled out—we saw this in the second half of Ephesians 2 and also in Ephesians 3—(he says) that it hasn’t been stalled out. In fact, it’s led to the furtherance of the gospel.
So just because bad circumstances happen—and this is hard for a lot of us, something happens that’s not what we planned—immediately we react negatively. What we need to do is teach ourselves to pause and say, “Well, obviously God wants this instead of what I planned. I need to relax and see what’s going to happen because His plan is better.”
Over 98% of the time, God’s plan is better. We just have to learn that.
It’s like waking up in the morning, and you’ve got 24 hours left and then your flight out of Kiev is going to get you out of the potential war zone. You wake up at 4:30 in the morning to explosions, and you’re going, “Oh, no. Okay, you just have to relax and see what God’s plan is. He’s got a purpose.”
He talks about the impact of his imprisonment, and then he’s going to talk about the impact on his mental attitude and his focus in life.
Part of what happened with the gospel is, he is under house arrest, and he’s under a guard from the Praetorian Guard. Every time the guard changes and new guys come, he gets to give them the gospel. What a great opportunity to infiltrate the house of Caesar with the gospel—which is exactly what happens.
He says in Philippians 1:14, “… most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak …” As he handles the situation by trusting God and going about his mission to give the gospel, the other believers are encouraged and strengthened, and they see a living example of how to do that.
Slide 13
Not all of them quite get it right. There are some who are going to preach Christ from envy and strife. They’ve got the wrong motives. They’re immature, and they want to make a name for themselves.
But Paul’s response is, “As long as they’re preaching the gospel, I’m excited about that because the gospel is getting out there.”
Three times in this section he talks about his chains. So, he’s fully aware of the adversity that’s there. His conclusion is Philippians 1:18, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
Sometimes we get upset with some of the people who are preaching the gospel, but at least they’re getting the gospel out there, and people are being saved.
Slide 14
Then we come to the second part, which is in Philippians 1:19–26, which will finish out this section.
Paul’s joy for the expansion of the gospel, Philippians 1:12–26. His focus is on Christ. That’s how we have joy, is to keep our focus on Christ.
He starts in Philippians 1:19, “For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus.” He’s focused on the source of joy.
He says, “[it’s] according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”
When you think, “What is the purpose of my life? What’s the goal of my life?” Everything else comes under that. Everything else, from your career, your education, your marriage, your kids, your grandkids, everything is subsumed under this. What is my purpose in life? What’s my goal?
My goal is right here: that Christ will be magnified in my life whether it involves death or whether it involves life.
Then Paul says, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” So, death isn’t a negative for the believer. Death is our opportunity where God is taking us home, and we go through promotion, and we’re face-to-face with the Lord. It may be a problem for some people who are family members who are left behind, but that’s part of their test in their spiritual life.
Slide 15
Then we come to the third section which starts in Philippians 1:27—very similar to what Paul did in Ephesians 4:1—“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” That’s the command, is to be worthy. “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent—that you’re going to be doing the right thing. And I’ll hear of your affairs and that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.”
This is very important to understand what he is saying: “Whether I’m there or not …”
I don’t know if you remember back when you were a kid, your parents would tell you something like that. “We’re going to leave you at home alone. So even though we’re not here, you still have to be obedient to everything. We’re going to trust you while we’re gone to take care of everything.”
That’s what Paul is saying, that “you’re going to continue with your right priorities, even if I’m not there.”
When I was a kid, I noticed that when the pastor was out of town on a Sunday, a lot of people didn’t go to church. We’ve all seen that. I see it in my ministry. “Well, Robby’s not going to be there this Sunday, so we can take the Sunday off.”
No, you can’t. You’re not taking off your spiritual life. Whether I’m here or whether I’m gone, you need to still focus on the same priorities. That’s part of stability.
What Paul says is, the purpose here is to stand fast in unity in one spirit and with one mind. There is a unity there which becomes a major theme in Philippians, and that they are striving together for the faith of the gospel.
What’s happened is, some divisions are occurring, some personal conflicts are occurring within the congregation. Nitpicking and problems are developing, and some hypersensitivity.
We hear about two women later in Philippians 4. This is a problem. They’re not in unity because their focus is off of Christ and serving Christ, and it’s on their own personal circumstances and own personal problems.
When we get down to this section leading into Philippians 2, it’s one of the most important sections in the Scripture. What it’s emphasizing is that this worthy walk or this worthy conduct of Philippians 1:27 is going to be dependent upon the fact that they are walking in humility. If there’s arrogance there at all, then that is what breaks up the unity, breaks up the dependency.
Slide 16
Paul sets up an argument at the beginning of Philippians 2, and you can translate the “if” clauses here with the word “since.” You don’t normally do that even with a first-class condition, but in this case, it would be permissible because he’s saying that these things he lists in Philippians 2:1 are all ours in Christ.
On the basis of the fact that “there is consolation in Christ, there’s the comfort of love, there’s fellowship of the Spirit, and there is affection and mercy.” He says, because all of that is true, then the command to “fulfill my joy by being” what? “Like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”
It’s also [that] you have to have the same mental attitude. Unity is there, as we studied in Ephesians 4. Unity is there from the beginning, but we can lose that unity because of sin and because we get away from the Word.
We are to recover through confession of sin and quit focusing on ourselves, quit being self-absorbed and self-indulgent because the result of that, as we’re going to see when we get to Philippians 3, is self-deification. and self-destruction. The solution for the Christian who’s biblical is to learn to walk in humility.
Slide 17
We get our first example coming up in Philippians 2:5–11. The standard is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to have the same mental attitude as the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The illustration is: Christ is in the form of God, He’s fully God in eternity past, and He didn’t consider it—we’ll see the translation is awkward in the King James translation—He didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped after. In other words, He is God, but He’s not going to hold on to those divine prerogatives; he’s going to humble himself by being obedient to the point of death.
In contrast to Adam, who is taking the fruit on the temptation that he’ll become like God. Adam yields to the temptation and is disobedient because he wants to grasp after deity. But Jesus, who is God, doesn’t grasp after deity. He is willing to submit Himself in obedience to God.
This whole section is very important theologically because the word that is translated there is KENOSIS. In Philippians 2:7 “Taking the form of a bondservant” has the idea of giving up something.
Liberals especially took the idea that He gave up His deity. No, He didn’t. He doesn’t give up His deity.
The typical definition that you’ve always heard is that Jesus restricts the independent use of His deity, independent from the authority of the Father. Really? Some of you who have been around awhile know I’ve corrected that.
That standard (definition) comes right out of John Walvoord’s book Jesus Christ [Our Lord], and many, many, many others. They all say that Jesus restricts the independent use of His deity. Well, my question is, “When did Jesus ever use His deity independently of the Father?” Never. So, “independent” should not be there. He’s never independent of the Father. There’s always a mutual dependency and submissiveness within the triune Godhead.
Jesus is God, and He takes on the form of a man, meaning He’s true humanity and He is perfect deity. He is going to go to the Cross in humble submission to the Father, even the death on the cross. The result of that is, God exalts Him. God is the One Who elevates Him.
Slide 18
This is an extremely important passage for a number of reasons. We’ll have to take our time going through it because it deals with the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ: Who He was before He was incarnate and what He was when He became incarnate.
Slide 19
Then we go to the next section in Philippians 2:12–18, where the focus is on spiritual growth. Ultimately, spiritual growth is going to be by holding fast to the Word of Life. If you look at this section in Philippians 2:12–18, Paul reaches a conclusion on the basis of the example of Christ.
He said, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed—obedience is related to humility—not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation …”
This isn’t talking about a works salvation. This isn’t phase-one salvation where you are getting justified. This is your spiritual life and your spiritual growth: what we refer to as stage two or phase-two salvation, where we are being saved from the power of our sin nature.
“… work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Why? Ultimately—the explanation in Philippians 2:13—“… it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.” That doesn’t mean He overrides our volition—we’ll look at that when we get there—because immediately you have another command.
You have two commands here that are both addressed to your volition. “Work out your own salvation.” Then Philippians 2:14 is the verse that most people want to cut out of their Bible. Anybody that has a razor blade, we can just slice this verse right out of the Bible. “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” That gets too convicting, so we’ll go to the next verse in Philippians 2:15.
Slide 20
The reason you’re to do all things without complaining and disputing is “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” When Christians sit around and complain and groan about all the circumstances and how bad things are, that doesn’t distinguish you from the unbelievers who are doing the same thing.
So, the focus is on recognizing that God has me in these negative circumstances for a reason. Since my hope is focused on Him, and my mental attitude and stability are focused on Him, I don’t have anything to complain about. I don’t have anything to grumble about.
As a result of that, we can focus on Him, and that’s the basis for being able to shine as lights in the midst of the devil’s world—lights in the midst of darkness.
And how do we do that? That’s where we get into that instrumental participle at the beginning of Philippians 2:16, “by holding fast.” That’s usually not translated. It’s translated like a gerund or participle “holding fast.” But it’s instrumental. It’s “by holding fast.”
How are we able to do all things without grumbling and disputing? How are we able to shine as lights in the world? It’s because we hold fast to the Word of life.
The Bible has got to be the center of our life, the center of our thinking, so that as a result of that, we can rejoice in the Day of Christ. That is, at the Rapture when the Lord comes back for us, and that will show that we haven’t run the race in vain or labored in vain.
That doesn’t mean you lose your salvation or you weren’t saved. It has to do with rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ. A lot of people have a problem with that thinking, “Oh, why does God want to motivate us by rewards? I’ll just be happy if I’m in a slum in Heaven because I’ll be in Heaven.”
Oh, no, you won’t. Because if you end up in the slum in Heaven, it’s because you lost everything at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and there’ll be shame at His appearing. And you’re going to know that you had a lot of lost opportunities. But if we are holding fast to the Word of Truth, the Word of life, then our lives will be run with purpose.
Slide 21
Then we come to Philippians 2:17–18 where Paul talks about his own life: that it’s not all about Paul, it’s all about the Lord. His life is being poured out as a sacrifice in relation to their service. The maturity of the Philippians is his priority. He’s there to serve the Lord by serving them so that, as a result, “we may all rejoice.” “For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.”
Slide 22
At that point we come to the fifth example in this section where he’s talking about Timothy, and he talks about all that Timothy means to him. Timothy has the same mindset as Paul. He cares for the spiritual welfare of the Philippian church.
Timothy doesn’t seek his own desires but the priorities of Jesus Christ. Paul says everybody else has their own agenda but not Timothy, so “I can trust him.” He has proven character, and he’s been serving with Paul.
Slide 23
Then in the next section, Philippians 2:25–30, he says he’s also going to send Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus was apparently a leader in the Philippian church. We don’t know exactly what that position was. But he was sent as a messenger to take this financial gift from the Philippian church to Paul, and to check on Paul, and to help Paul with anything he needed.
He was so focused on doing that that he made himself sick apparently. And he was sick almost to the point where he died. But Paul says, “God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.” So he tells the Philippian church in Philippians 2:29, “Receive him—that is Epaphroditus—therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem.”
So his point is that when you’re serving the Lord, and the Lord is first, then that will cost you something. When Jesus talked about discipleship, He said you need to count the cost. Not to be saved, but the cost of being a disciple and really serving the Lord—that it may cost you.
For some people, it’s cost their life. For other people, it’s cost their health. We so often get into situations where we say, “Oh, you shouldn’t be in any kind of position where you can’t take care of yourself. Don’t do all that.”
Do you know how much we wouldn’t have today if we had had people like the Apostle Paul sit back and say, “Well, I just need to get my 10 hours of sleep every night, and I need to relax, and I need to be doing these other things so that I can have a well-rounded, healthy life. And then we’ll just tack on a little service and it’ll be okay”?
Not to be critical of people, but when I was going to go to Ukraine, deciding whether or not I should go, people would say, “You shouldn’t go.”
Why? The underlying thing was “You have to be safe. God would not expect you to go put your life in danger.”
Let’s talk to the Apostle Paul about that. What about Peter? What about so many hundreds of thousands of pastors and missionaries down through the centuries for whom serving the Lord meant exactly that? They would be putting their life in jeopardy.
It was up to God to take care of them and provide for them. So the focus is that people who are that way—and we can think of pastors that we know, who have served the Lord in that way with complete devotion—that we are to hold such men in high esteem, “because for the work of Christ he—that is Epaphroditus—came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.”
Slide 24
That brings us to the end of Philippians 2, and we come to Philippians 3. Philippians 3 is a tremendous chapter. Again, he starts off, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” Then when we get over to Philippians 4:4, he says “Rejoice in the Lord” again. So this is a key theme, having that stable mentality of joy, of contentment.
Joy isn’t happiness. Joy is that focus of contentment and tranquility that is based on the unchangeableness of God. He’s immutable. And because God is immutable, He never changes, and so our mental attitude can be stable.
Slide 25
Philippians 3:1: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.”
Then he warns them about false teachers. These false teachers are going to come along, and as a result, there’s going to be opposition and persecution. (Philippians 3:2) He says, “beware of evildoers, and beware of the mutilation!”
From that he is talking about the Jewish legalists: those who come from the background of the Pharisees, who think you had to be circumcised in order to be saved or in order to have spiritual life. That’s the whole issue in Galatians.
He says we, as Christians, are the circumcision, a spiritual circumcision which was first talked about in Deuteronomy. It’s not a New Testament concept. It’s an Old Testament concept. (Philippians 3:3) “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
The whole argument through here is that in our natural ability we can do nothing. We’re not to have any confidence in our own ability, in our own capacity to solve our problems and to bring happiness into our life. We are to rejoice in Christ and not in our accomplishments, not in our circumstances, not in our prosperity, not in anything that we have done.
Then he uses himself as an illustration. If anybody had a right to boast about everything they’ve done, he would. He was probably—if we’re right in thinking that this unnamed person mentioned in the Talmud, who is someone who had great potential and then left Judaism, if that’s the Apostle Paul—he was the most brilliant of all of the rabbis.
They had more hope in him. He knew more than anybody else, and he had accomplished everything under the Law. And he thought that as far as the Law—that is the interpretation of the Law that the Pharisees had that he was missing nothing.
As a matter of fact, it led him to be a persecutor of the church. He concludes at the end of Philippians 3:6 saying, “the righteousness which is in the law, [that he is] blameless.” We’re not to have any confidence whatsoever in human ability.
Slide 26
When he comes to Philippians 3:7, he says, “But what things were gain to me—all the things I accomplished in my own efforts, my own energy, my own intellect, my own ability—these I have counted loss for Christ.”
“I may have had all of the accolades that I could possibly get as a Pharisee, but it’s nothing.” In fact, it’s not only something he counts as loss. At the end of Philippians 3:8, he calls it “rubbish,” which is a poor translation. The Greek word is SKYBALA, which has to do with dung, or manure, or whatever your favorite word is for that.
That’s what he considers to be the equivalent of all that he had accomplished in his own ability, that it had nothing to do with spirituality whatsoever. He counts it all as loss that he may gain Christ. It’s either Christ or your own efforts, one or the other. It’s not a little bit of both.
Then in Philippians 3:9 he says, “to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness.” This is such a great passage on understanding the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. It’s not having my own righteousness, which comes from the law—from obeying not only the 613 commandments of the Mosaic Law, but also all of the secondary laws, which were part of the oral law that the rabbis had developed over the years after the exile. And then there was a third.
They had one group of rabbis that said, “We don’t want to break any of the 613 commandments, so we’ll set up all these extra commandments, and that will be like a fence to keep us away from breaking the primary 613 commandments.”
Then there was another group that came along, and they erected a second fence around the Law. Those were the traditions of the rabbis. When Jesus says, “you have heard this was taught by men,” or “this is the tradition of men,” that’s what He’s talking about.
What Paul refers to here is, it has nothing to do with the Law or any of the oral law or the written law, but that which is through faith in Christ: the righteousness which is from God by means of faith. That is such a clear passage, that we get righteousness only by faith in Christ.
Slide 27
Paul concludes that the focal point for him is “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” That is, to be identified with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Romans 6:3.
“… if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” There’s a lot of discussion on that. But is this talking about the Rapture? Possibly. Or is this talking about resurrection at some other time in terms of being saved?
Is he doubting his salvation: “that I might attain to the resurrection”? Is there any doubt in Paul’s mind? There’s no doubt in his mind, so we have to really take that apart.
Slide 28
Then he goes on to talk about the process of maturity starting in Philippians 3:12. “Not that I have already attained …” because we never attain perfection. We never attain absolute maturity in the Christian life. There’s always more [room] to grow because we always have a sin nature.
He says, “Not that I have already attained or am already matured; but I press on.” Every morning, we have to decide, “Are we going to press on in our Christian life or not?”
“… I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.” What is it that Christ has laid hold of us for? He says (Philippians 3:13), “Brethren, I don’t count myself to have apprehended—or to have arrived—but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”
That’s a great verse for us to learn because many of us sin. I bet there’s not one person here who hasn’t sinned at least once today. Sometimes we sin, and we’re just shocked at what we did. And sometimes it causes us to stumble because, oh, we’re such a failure. This happens, and people stumble over that.
But what Paul says is, you confess the sin, forget about it, and move forward. You forget the things that are behind, and you press on to those things which are ahead. “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)
So if we put Philippians 3:12 together—“that I may lay hold of that which Christ has also laid hold of me”—with Philippians 3:14, what He’s laid hold of us for is to be a winner at the Judgment Seat of Christ. To excel in terms of the rewards that we get because that’s the result of not being arrogant and serving the Lord.
Slide 29
Philippians 3:17–19 comes back with a contrast to these false teachers. There are those who walk, but they are enemies of the Christ. They walk contrary to the Scripture.
And what’s the result? “They are enemies of the cross: their end is destruction, their god is their belly—self-absorption—their glory is in their shame, and they set their mind on earthly things.”
Their focus is not on living for the Lord for eternity and heavenly things. Their focus is on all of the comforts of life, all of the achievements of life today, where other people can recognize them for what they have rather than that which counts for eternity, which is laying hold of the prize for the upper call of Christ.
Slide 30
And then this reminds us of what he said back in the beginning of the Epistle in Philippians 1:27. “Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel, so that ... you stand fast in one spirit.”
When we come to Philippians 4:1, he repeats that. “Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord.” That is how we walk with the Lord. How we live for the Lord is to stand fast in the Lord.
Slide 31
We come to the last division in the Epistle, Philippians 4:2–20, which begins with the command to “rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice!”
Then what we have is a series of seven commands that start with Philippians 4:4. The first two are the same: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!”
Slide 32
Then you have a command (Philippians 4:5), “Let your gentleness be known to all men.”
Fourth command (Philippians 4:6), “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” That’s the fifth command.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts.” That’s the result.
Slide 33
Then in Philippians 4:8, the last phrase, think or “meditate on these things.” That’s the last command.
You have all of these commands in Philippians 4:4–8. What’s the purpose of the commands? The purpose of the commands is that if you don’t do these things, you will not be able to rejoice. That’s how you get to the point where you have this kind of joy, where the Lord told the disciples in John 16, “My joy I give to you.”
The kind of joy He had as He’s anticipating the cross. That didn’t mean He wasn’t bothered by it. That doesn’t mean that He wasn’t emotionally disturbed by it, but He had stability in spite of these external negative circumstances.
Slide 32
The whole point in Philippians 4:5–7 is directed towards the fact that if you do these things, then “the peace of God ... will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Slide 34
When we get down to Philippians 4:9 Paul begins to talk about himself as an example.
Slide 35
He said, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity” (Philippians 4:10). They didn’t have an opportunity to support him.
He says, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11). Now, what are the states that you’re in? Don’t answer out loud.
What are the states that you’re in where you’re not content? What makes you discontent? Well, Paul says we have to learn that our contentment is based upon our relationship with Christ and our focus upon Him.
“In whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased …” I know how to have nothing. I know how to go through adversity. “And I know how to abound.” I know how to have prosperity. I know how to handle it when everything is going great.
Then he says, “Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12).
Then you have the verse that everybody takes out of context. (Philippians 4:13) “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The “all things” are what he’s described: whether he is abased or whether he abounds, whether he is hungry or whether he is full, “I can do all things.”
I can handle any circumstance in life without it ruffling my feathers, without it getting me out of fellowship, without it getting my focus off the Lord, without it disturbing my joy and peace and tranquility, because my focus and happiness is in serving the Lord, not in all of the details of life. When we put our focus on the details of life, the end result is, we’re going to be unhappy in our soul.
Slide 36
Then we come to the point where it begins to wrap up, and he thanks the Philippians for the fact that they have sent a sizable contribution to him in order to defray his financial costs. He says, “Even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift,” (Philippians 4:16–17) but this is spiritual fruit, and it will bring rewards on your behalf.
He says, “Indeed, I have all and abound. I’m full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you.”
Slide 37
Then one of my favorite verses, a great promise: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). God will take care of us.
We have to learn to trust Him and that He may not take care of us the way we think He ought to take care of us, but He’s going to [take care of us]. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He’s going to take care of us the way that we should be taken care of.
Slide 38
Then we come to the closing comments where He has a closing benediction: “Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever” (Philippians 4:20).
Then some closing greetings: “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:21). Those are the believers in the congregation in Philippi. “The brethren here who are with me greet you.”
“All the saints greet you, but especially those of Caesar’s household” (Philippians 4:22). That tells us that the gospel has penetrated the household of Caesar. Whether that’s slaves or whoever it might be—we don’t know. But by this time there were a number of believers inside the household of Caesar.
Then he closes, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Philippians 4:23).
So there we have our four chapters of Philippians. And it’s going to take us ... who wants to bet? We ought to have a lottery sometime. Pick a month, pick a date, pick a year.
What? Five years? We have one. We’ll see how it goes.
There’s such great material here. I haven’t taught Philippians in about 35 years. I’m looking forward to getting into it again.
Closing Prayer
“Father, we thank You for this opportunity to look at this Epistle, to be reminded that our happiness, our joy, our stability is not based on our circumstances.
“It’s not based on our emotions. It’s not based on how we feel about things. It’s not based on what happens in politics. It’s not based on what happens with the economy. It’s based upon Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
“That as long as we focus on Him, then the details of life are just going to be what they are, but our focus is to serve You and walk by means of the Spirit, and we can do that.
“We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”