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HopeLives365

Philippians

Mark Finley

Real Christianity 1: Philippians

Welcome to a brand new series of Bible studies from the book of Philippians titled, Real Christianity or Living the Christian Life at its Best.

The book of Philippians summarizes the great themes of Christian living.

It points out that in Christ, there is joy.

And in chapter 4, there's joy when we have a grateful heart.

But before we jump right into our study of the book of Philippians, and I hope you won't miss 1 of these studies, they will enhance your Christian life, give you a deeper experience with God.

They'll encourage you in the trials of life.

They will challenge you and lead you deeper into an experience with our Lord.

But before we jump right into Philippians, we need a little background.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity of studying your Word.

As we study your word, open our hearts, open our minds, give to us a sense of your presence, speak to us, lead us to greater faith, to a deeper experience with you.

There are some experiences in life that you never forget.

I was flying back from Brazil to Washington, D.C.

And just before the plane had to land, the pilot came on, as he often does, and says, we're gonna be landing in about 30 minutes.

And if anybody needs to get up, use the bathroom, walk around.

This is the time to do that, because very soon, I'll put the seat belt on.

And I knew something was wrong, because when I shut the door behind me in the bathroom, the lights went out, it was dark, and the door locked and I couldn't open it.

Well, you know, I'm about 6 foot 1, and in those small bathrooms, I'm always crowded anyway, And I just thought to myself, it's dark, the plane's landing, I got to get out of here.

So I tried to push the lock and jam the lock open, couldn't do it.

So I thought, man, I'll just sit and put the top down on the commode and I'll sit here and put my feet against the door.

Pilot came on with an announcement, we'll be landing soon.

And all I could imagine was landing, no seatbelt on, hitting a bump, hitting my head on that ceiling and breaking my neck.

So I just kept pounding on the door, pounding on the door, and finally, finally I put my feet on the door and got it open a crack and a flight attendant was passing by and I said, I'm locked in here, help me.

She said, no, no problem, sir, no problem.

And you know there's a little key they have on the outside of the top of the door that they can open.

When you're locked in the dark, it is no fun.

You know, the apostle Paul experienced in his life some shut doors.

God never shuts a door in your life without opening a larger door.

In it, we get the background of Philippi.

Now, Philippi was a very wealthy city because they had discovered gold in the Pagonian hills.

The city was named after Alexander the Great's father, Philip, and it had been conquered later by the Romans.

When Julius Caesar was assassinated, Mark Antony and Octavian came to Philippi and fought Brutus, conquered that city.

It eventually became a very important city in that part of the Roman Empire.

It was connected by the Ignatian Way from Rome to Philippi.

Philippi is about 7 miles from the beautiful seacoast city of Kavala, Neapolis today in those days.

It's there in the little valley, the mountains surround it, the sea breeze is blow through.

It had a population of about 2, 000 people.

Because it was so wealthy, it was designated as a retirement center for Roman soldiers.

The apostle Paul ministered there, but let's get back to that shut door.

The Bible says, Acts 16, verse 6, "'Now when they had gone through Pergia "'in the region of Galatia, "'they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit "'to preach the word in Asia.'" Now here's Paul.

Said, God, I know what you want me to do.

Lord, you want me to preach the word of God in Galatia.

The Bible says the Holy spirit forbids him.

So then Paul says, verse 7, after they had come to Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia.

Lord, maybe it's not Galatia, but maybe it's Bithynia.

So here Paul believes he's doing God's will, believes he is in the very center of what God wants him to do, but yet the door is shut in his face once, shut in his face twice.

Now if you were Paul, how would you have felt?

Would you have said, God, look, I'm trying to do your will and everything I try to do, the door shut right in my face.

Have you ever had doors shut in your face?

Maybe there was a job that you wanted that you needed to support your family, and you applied and the door was shut right in your face and you didn't get it.

Maybe there was a home that you wanted to buy and you dreamed about it, you drove by it, it was ideal for your family, but the door was shut in your face.

Somebody else bought it a day before you were gonna put in your offer.

Maybe there was a relationship that you cherished, someone you loved, and the door was shut in your face.

Either there was a divorce or that person did not desire the relationship.

So we all experience in our life shut doors.

We all experience in our life things that we think that the Lord wants us, but the door is shut.

1 of the things we learn about Philippi in Acts 16 is that if God shuts a door in our face, he's going to open a larger door.

Acts 16, looking there at verse 9, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord called us to preach the gospel to them.

He has a dream and he looks across the bay to Macedonia, northern Greece, and he sees the vision of the possibility of reaching Europe with the gospel.

God shut a door on a city so called Paul could reach a continent.

God shut a door on a province so Paul could reach the entire nation of Greece and also the continent of Europe.

You may be going through a trial right now.

You may be going through real difficulty.

You may be going through a heartache There may be shut doors all around you things you wanted to do, but you cannot do you're confined with Sickness or suffering or some other heartache, but God's gonna open a door for you God's gonna open a door for you, you know in the book of Revelation Chapter 3 it talks about the God of the open door.

He's not the God of the shut door look Verse Revelation 3 last part of verse 7 these things say he who is holy Who is true he was the king of David, you know when I was locked in that restroom on that airplane, I was thankful somebody had the key to open the door.

I was thankful to get out of there, that situation.

But here is 1, the divine Christ, who has the key of David, the messianic promise, he who opens and no 1 shuts and shuts and no 1 opens.

God has opened a door of salvation for you.

And with that door of salvation, forgiveness in Christ, freedom from guilt in Christ, no more condemnation in Christ, new power in Christ, new strength in Christ, strength for our weakness, Wisdom for our ignorance.

Real Christianity 2: Philippians

Welcome to our studies in the book of Philippians.

In our first program in the series we talked about the fact that God is the God of the open door.

When doors seem shut in your life, God opens doors.

He is the God that meets us where we are.

And he is the God that speaks to us in surprising ways in the moments of our life that At times we have not seen or known Him.

God is the God that longs to draw us close to Him.

We now launch right into the book of Philippians.

Thank you for joining us for these devotional thoughts.

In the book of Philippians, as we mentioned last time, it has 4 chapters.

It was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison in Rome to the church at Philippi.

And he writes about joy, joy in trial, joy in humility, joy in surrender, and joy in gratitude.

Over the next few weeks we'll take 1 chapter a week, And if you have your Bible and a notebook, please get it out.

These devotionals are designed especially to lead you to deeper faith, closer relationship to God, and to live life to the fullest as God wants you to live it.

As we study the Word of God, God speaks to our hearts, touches our lives, and changes us.

Father in heaven, Thank you so much for the opportunity to study the book of Philippians.

I pray that you would open our hearts and open our minds, help us to have a sense of your divine presence as we study this book together.

Have you ever had trials in your own life and you've said, you know what, I don't know if I can handle this anymore.

Have you ever felt like somebody had just kicked you in the stomach and your spiritual breath was just out of you and you're about ready to collapse?

Have you ever felt like a life was just too overwhelming for you?

I'm sure Paul could have felt that way, but he didn't.

When we study the book of Philippians, we study a book that mentions joy or rejoicing more than any other book in the New Testament.

But yet the surprising thing is that Paul is in prison in Rome.

Let's see if we can discover what this man rejoiced about while he was in prison and see if we can apply the principles of the book of Philippians to our own lives.

Paul says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ.

First he could rejoice because he, you know, uses this word servants, which is the word in the Greek language, doulos, which could mean slaves.

And so Paul is saying, hey, you may put me in prison.

You may separate me from my family and friends.

You may think I'm your slave, but I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.

To all the saints, that is the believers in Jesus Christ, or in Philippi, with their elders and deacons, Paul says, look, my heart is bound, bounded with my friends in Philippi.

Then he says, grace, verse 2, and peace from our Lord, from God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see the word grace, it's the word charis.

And in peace, It's the word shalom, and that's a Jewish term.

So what is Paul saying here when he says, grace and peace to you, karas and shalom?

He's really saying, whoever you are, whether you're Jew, whether you're Gentile, the grace of Christ, the peace of Christ embraces you.

Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, God's grace reaches you.

Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, God's shalom, His peace can touch your life.

Paul's in prison, but his heart is filled with grace.

He is 1 who's facing trials, but the grace of God, the peace of God touches his life.

Then he goes on to say, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

Paul was not looking at the circumstances of his life.

He was not looking at all the difficulties that he faced in prison, poverty stricken, Diet that is meager, in prison, cold, damp, shaking in prison, I have climbed down the stairs of the Mamertine prison in Rome, that dark corridor way to go down that they've now built into the Mamertine prison where we believe Paul was in prison.

In Paul's day, it was sealed off with no light, no stairway down in those days.

There was a hole in the ceiling where the prisoner was let down and grate over it, food passed through it.

And Paul, in dark, damp, dingy dungeon, still says, still says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.

Paul was not thinking about all the hardships he had in the past, beaten with rods, whipped with the flagellation of whip, a shipwrecked, stoned 3 days and 3 nights in the deep.

Paul wasn't thinking about all the hardships of his life.

There's something about it that lifts us above the discouragement of our life and that's when we think about others.

You know, there's an old Chinese story that tells about an old Chinese man that came to a 1 of the sages of China and he said to him I have nothing I have nothing I have nothing I have 7 or 8 kids living in my house with my wife.

What should I do?" And the wise man said, "'Go find a goat and bring it into the room with you and come back with me in 2 weeks.

So the man goes, finds a goat, brings it in the room, comes back in 2 weeks, says, it's terrible.

Take the goat out of your room and come back in 2 weeks.

Man takes the goat out of the room, comes back in 2 weeks, counselor says, wise man says, how's things now?

They're wonderful, I don't have the goat in the room.

In other words, don't worry about what you don't have.

There's always somebody worse than you in life.

Don't be incirculated with your problems and difficulties.

Try to reach out and bless somebody else.

Try to touch somebody else with the grace of Christ.

Paul is in prison, but yet he's thanking God for the love he has for the Philippi, the church at Philippi.

Then he says, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy.

Paul doesn't say, oh I'm praying prayers like, oh pity me, pity me, pity me.

No, Paul is not in some pity party, but Paul rather is thinking about others even in his prayers.

Then he says, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Real Christianity 3: Philippians

Welcome back to another Bible study on the book of Philippians.

We're studying Philippians chapter by chapter.

I'm so delighted that you've joined us In the book of Philippians we find the source of true joy in chapter 1 We found that the Apostle Paul had true joy in the middle of his trials because he focused not on the trials but on Christ who was shaping him, molding his character through those trials.

And also he could look ahead in hope So the trials didn't overwhelm him because he was looking beyond the trials to the hope in Christ and the hope in Jesus coming.

In chapter 2, we're going to look at joy in humility.

Father in heaven, how we thank you for the opportunity to open the word of God.

We thank you that in every phrase of the Bible, and particularly in this book of Philippians, we find Christ and Christ anew, Christ afresh.

Teach us as we study together how to be more like him we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Have you ever thought to yourself, who is the greatest person I've ever met?

If you were asked of all the people you've met in your life, who is the greatest?

Or of all the people you've ever seen in media, whether it's television, you've heard them on radio, you have read about them, who do you think is the greatest person that has come, you've come in contact with?

Some people would choose sports stars for their greatness.

Other people would choose Hollywood stars for their ability to attract crowds to Hollywood.

You know, you've got the Golden Globe Awards, the Red Carpet Awards, there's Music Awards, there are Fashion Awards, there's the Most Valuable player in sports, there's political awards, some people might choose politicians.

You know power, prestige, and money don't really impress me very much at all.

Let me tell you about a person that I know that really impresses me.

She's a little Indian woman living in the city of Chennai in India, South India, who is blind.

And this blind woman asked her daughter, she said, daughter take me by the hand and take me home to home so I can study the Bible with people.

Mother, how are you gonna study the Bible with them?

And so as the daughter knocked on the door, she said, my mother is blind and would like to study the Bible with you.

The lady on the other end of the door, the people on the other end were amazed.

And the blind lady said, you know I have my Bible, I can't read it.

Who could refuse a humble, godly, blind woman?

And the blind woman would say, I want to study about Jesus.

What does the Bible say about Jesus forgiving our sins?

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just.

And what does the Bible say about eternal life?

So the bind lady had memorized all these texts, and she would ask the person to read them to her.

Then she'd talk about the second coming of Christ on another visit.

She'd say at the end of the first visit, well, can I come back next week and ask more questions about the Bible and have you read me?

What did Jesus say about his coming back?

John 14, verse 1 to 3, let not your heart be troubled.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

What will happen when he comes to the dead?

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16 and 17.

Do you know, scores of people came to Christ because of that godly, humble, blind woman going into their homes.

She directed them to the particular text, and the Holy Spirit has changed their life.

There is something powerful about humility.

There's something powerful about putting others first in your life.

We start there with Paul's instruction for believers to be at peace and harmony with 1 another and to put others first.

Philippians chapter 2, therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy being like-minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord, of 1 mind.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or to conceit but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." What an amazing passage.

Paul says look if you are united with Christ, if you are comforted by the love of Christ, if you have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, if your life is filled with affection and mercy, then show it in your life.

Don't be a cantankerous, critical, sad sack, bitter Christian.

He and his mother were driving down the road and they went by a field and the little boy looked out and he said, mama mama those cows must be Christians.

Mother looked at the little boy and said, what did you say?

Long faced Christians are not an advertisement for the gospel of Jesus Christ at all.

So here Paul is urging us to be kind, to be compassionate, that the Christian Church should be a place of love, acceptance.

It should be a place where we invite people to come to meet the Christ that we love.

It should be a place of self-sacrificial service, not a place where we elbow each other for position or prestige.

The Christian church is a place of self-sacrificial service and humility.

And then Paul goes into, I believe, 1 of the most magnificent sections in all of Scripture.

You find it in Philippians 2, verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The word let is implying that we have the power of choice.

God has created each of us with the capacity to choose, the ability to make positive moral and ethical choices.

He wants to enable us to think his thoughts.

He wants to enable us to bring every thought, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, into captivity to Christ.

Let this mind, allow this mind, don't battle against the Holy Spirit, but let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What characteristic did Christ have that Paul's speaking about?

Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of man.

Now notice he was in the form of God, didn't think it was robbery to be equal with God, but took the form of a servant.

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