When we think about people like the apostle Paul and Jesus Christ, we are intimidated by their example. However there are plenty of normal, average, people in the Bible. One of those people is the sidekick of the apostle Paul, Timothy. Turns out Timothy was a great asset to Paul. In spite of some limitations which I will share in the upcoming sermon, Timothy turns out to be one of the most important people in the New Testament. One of Timothy's chief characteristics was he was ready for anything. At a moment's notice the apostle Timothy traveled all over the Roman empire at the bidding of the apostle Paul. But Paul didn't consider Timothy his servant but rather he considered him a coworker. Timothy was ready to be equipped by Paul. Timothy encouraged people. Timothy helped Paul expand Christ's footprint in the Roman empire. This Sunday we will see how normal people can have a great impact if they are ready for anything.
Being selfless and serving others can be a very humbling and sometimes hard thing. It’s not easy to want to volunteer your time and serve when so many things demand our time and attention. Yet we are called numerous times throughout scripture to serve. Philippians 2 is a great passage, not just about serving, but about the joy that is found in serving. Paul gives a remarkable example of what serving can look like, and also encourages all believers to serve without complaining or grumbling, but with joy. This Sunday we will look at that passage and be challenged together to serve with joy.
Most of us recognize some of our behavior/thinking needs to change. It could be as simple as stop eating too much, or a much more complex issue such as wanting to end your life. To change our thinking/behavior with biblical principles will ultimately change our lives for the better, but how do we change our thinking? If our relationship with Christ is vibrant, things will change. To get there, by faith, we need to understand who He is and His authority. We need to recognize we have a responsibility to follow Christ. "Follow me" is Christ's most frequent command in the New Testament. How do we do it? As we look at Philippians 2, we find a balance between our responsibility and God's promises. The benefits we have from our relationship with Christ are life changing. This relationship with Christ allows us to live out our salvation: past, present and future. He has saved us by His cross from the penalty of sin. He saves us from the power of sin if we identify with Him (John 15, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 2:13, Romans 6:11, Romans 5–8). Someday when we go to heaven He will forever save us from the presence of sin. Our responsibility to identify with Christ describes the direction where we're headed this Sunday.
In the USA people have always given some recognition to Jesus Christ. Depending upon the poll taker and the generation, Jesus is a great moral teacher. This is the most common identification people ascribe to Jesus. Although this is true it is not the central identity that the Bible gives to him. What would Jesus do is certainly an important ethical standard, but who Jesus is and why he came is of eternal significance. In Philippians 2:5-8, Christ’s biblical identity is clear. Incarnation and crucifixion are truths we need to follow Christ. The attitudes of selflessness, submission, and sacrifice are essential for Christ-like living. Humility is the preeminent characteristic of God who allows himself to be a servant on our behalf. It was/is his death on the cross that allows us to be forever related to God due to his sacrifice on our behalf.
In Paul’s letters he refers to himself as a servant much more often than he refers to himself as an apostle. Do we treat our fellow Christians as people we need to serve? Let’s take a step towards being more like Christ as we discover principles from God’s word this Sunday.
When the apostle Paul wrote to Philippi, he was not in a good place (physically) yet his letter to this church was filled with optimism. By being less self-centered, he could focus on Christ and the needs of the Philippians. I remember working among nationals in a third world country and how their optimism and joy often exceeded my own. Physical advantages and benefits do not mean you will be happy. The media constantly talks about unhappy rich people, unhappy marriages of rich people and unhappy children of rich people. It’s not riches that make us happy, then what is it? Since Paul was in a difficult situation (jail) and his readers were better off, the attitudes that Paul embraces and advocates that other Christians follow, give us some life principles. We’ve heard it before - keep the main thing the main thing. But our pride wants us to major on the minors because often we have a better understanding/perspective of a particular minor issue that the person we are speaking with doesn’t have. You hear it every day in conversations: one-upmanship. You tell a story and then I tell a better story so it looks like I am smarter, more experienced, more savvy, more powerful, etc.
If we could embrace Paul’s attitudes in Philippians 2:1–4 it would put us on the way to becoming the church that Christ prayed for in John 17. How do we follow Jesus? How do we find a basis for our unity? How do we discover God’s purpose for ourselves and for our church? How do we regard others as more important than ourselves?
As we have been studying the book of Philippians the past couple months, I have personally been challenged and encouraged. In this letter to the church of Philippi, there is no shortage of incredible verses that dive right to the point. In Philippians 1:21 the Apostle Paul writes, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”. This is one of those incredible passages which is both challenging and encouraging. On Sunday, we will spend the majority of our time focusing on this one verse and diving into how we can pursue Christ in life, and glorify Christ even in our death.
Several years ago I was witnessing to a graduate student at Sacramento State University. He told me his Ancient Near Eastern History professor often made fun of Christianity as being unhistorical. My seeker friend invited me to the class to get my opinion of what the professor was saying. After hearing the prof for a few minutes on a diatribe about the mythology of Christianity, I asked my seeker friend to ask the professor what was the criteria for a credible historical document from the ancient near east. The prof gave in summary the following criteria: the document must be written by non-relatives, it must be found in several languages after the event, the information has to have crossed international borders, the ancient manuscripts must have been discovered in several geographically unrelated locations, and finally the eyewitness recorded testimony must have both pro and con witnesses. Guess what? The New Testament meets the above criteria. Unfortunately my seeker friend avoided me from that time forward. He didn't want to talk history anymore. This Sunday I will give an apologetic on the evidence for the resurrection. The message will be appropriate for both believers and unbelievers.
Pressure/suffering. We all experience it to some degree. Some deserved and some not deserved. How do we sort it out? What can we change? What can’t we change? What Paul says in Philippians 1 is a game plan for Christians struggling against a culture that was not open to Christ. As we think of Palm Sunday, we think about the triumphal entry, we think about the palm leaves and the cheering crowds but if you look at Luke 19:39, we find the Pharisees asking Jesus to rebuke his disciples. This is in spite of the fact that Christ has been doing good miracles from the standpoint of a righteous God. Christ finds that old saying to be true: no good deed goes on punished. So instead of feeling sorry for ourselves let’s listen to the apostle Paul who gave instruction from prison (which he didn’t deserve) to Christians who were suffering under the hand of Roman authorities. Pressure and suffering can do some good things. Let’s learn how to apply God‘s word so that those good things happen in bad conditions.
Prayer. Everyone talks about it, not everyone participates in it. One of the things that strikes me about the ministry of the apostle Paul, is how often he appealed for people to pray for him. Many would agree that Paul is probably the most dynamic Christian in the New Testament. Yet time and time again he appeals for the prayer of God‘s people. When Paul was in jail he could have sat, soaked, and soured, but he was intent on serving Christ wherever he was. Self pity is common when punished for doing good. It is a temptation we all face. But God knows our problem, no matter what it is. How do we gain confidence in difficult circumstances? We have to pray and ask those around us to pray. And we focus our prayers on the priority that Christ would be exalted in our lives. As our prayers go up the life of Christ comes down to be in us. Another way Paul puts it “Christ in you the hope of glory.“ So this week we will look at prayer. We will consider the barriers to prayer. We will look at the focus of our prayer life. And we’ll see how effective Paul’s ministry was in spite of being in jail. If Paul could have a dynamic ministry from prison, then maybe we could use our freedom to minister for Christ.
Author and Pastor Tony Evans once wrote “either you are in a trial now, you’ve just come out of a trial, or you’re getting ready to go into a trial." Every one of us has faced, is facing, or will face soon, something difficult in our life. While some trials are more challenging than others, the fact remains: trials and difficulties are an inevitable part of life. Even though it may not seem like it or feel like it at the time, there are actually some potential benefits to trials. There are some good things that can come out of the challenges we face. Join us this Sunday as we explore three scriptural benefits of trials as found in the first chapter of Philippians.
When someone asks me what my favorite book of the Bible is, I always say every one of the 66 books. But which book do I enjoy preaching the most? Philippians. So I hope you will join me every week for a paragraph by paragraph exposition of Philippians. Written from jail, Paul has some very critical teaching about how to thrive and not just survive. Covid has put us in a position of thinking about survival, but we should be thinking about revival. One of the first keys to overcoming Covid based depression/anxiety is to first think about others and act on their needs. Paul does this orientation so well in this book. We learn Paul has a love for people rather than pitying himself. Do we live, pray and serve with an awareness that one day “how we have lived our Christian life” will be evaluated by Christ himself? Do we have a servant attitude? Are we thankful for the ministry that God has given us? Is our confidence in Christ and not in ourselves? We will address these and other questions on this series in the great book of Philippians.
When we think of great New Testament Christians, the apostle Paul certainly comes to mind. In Acts 13 Paul’s experiences on the mission field in a way parallel our own lives. There were bumps and bruises for the apostle Paul and there were blessings and benefits. Paul would have some victories and then he would have some defeats. He would have some blessings and then he would have more bumps. We tend to have rather high expectations of a carefree life and want to live without being hassled. And if we avoid all responsibility it may seem we will be “happier.” If you don’t witness to people you won’t get put down by them. But some of the greatest joys come from seeing a person come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. You’ll never have that privilege if you don’t have a few bumps along the way talking to unbelievers about Christ. If the greatest Christian, in my opinion the apostle Paul, experienced difficulty in Sharing Christ, we may expect the same. But what a joy it will be to see people come into a relationship with Christ as well as meet with them in heaven. And really the responsibility for success belongs to the Holy Spirit and that relieves a lot of the pressure. Our responsibility is to share the claims of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God. See you Sunday.
We all want our church to be on mission. Mission includes local. Mission also includes global. In Acts 13 we find the first inklings of modern missions. But in order to be biblical we have to see how scripture qualifies and sends missionaries. Several things become obvious: local leadership is sent into global leadership; and missionaries are called to a work more than to a location. Prayer, financial support, and international connections (usually provided by a formal mission agency) are the foundations for successful missions. But just because missionaries are good people, doesn’t mean they won’t face opposition. Also how will we know whether or not our missionaries are successful? Three or four principles stand out in Acts 13. Do we have a process by which we select missionaries? What minimum qualifications should a missionary have? The health of the local church, spirit filled, biblically-based, praying, fasting, worshiping, and evangelism creates the environment that produces great missionaries. How are we doing?
I love the Olympics. I love seeing athletes from all over the world competing at the highest level in their respective sports. But more than that, I love the storylines that inevitably emerge from each Olympics. Last week, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics officially ended and brought with it numerous stories of athletes doing extraordinary things. In Acts 11, we see the early church doing extraordinary things. Using illustrations and analogies from these Winter Olympics, we will dive into Acts 11 and see how we, like the early church, can live with extraordinary purpose.
Finding God’s will. In Acts 11:1, Peter says "I was praying." A good start. But we need to also take into account other aspects of finding God's will. Science. All truth is God's truth. 2+3 equals 5 in all cultures regardless of language or religion. However a lot goes under the name of science that is more speculation than irrefutable truth. Experience plays a big part in our decision making. Tradition has sometimes a good and sometimes a detrimental impact on our lives depending upon what the tradition is based upon. If it is a life-changing decision, we better look to the Bible. Of course that assumes we have a correct method of interpretation. Generally speaking that means a literal grammatical historical contextual understanding of the word of God. The word of God is without error. So when it comes to major change, we need God's instruction. Let’s pretend we are going to make baptism an optional requirement for membership or switch from grape juice to real wine in communion or accept polygamous marriages. Now none of those events are going to happen in our lifetime, however if those things were on the table how would you approach them? Peter correctly finds God‘s will in Acts 11. This Sunday we will consider several aspects of how to find God‘s will. So why should we change anything? Spiritual motivations guided by the word of God in anticipation of biblical results is our modus operandi. But how do we get there? This Sunday will make an attempt.