Sermon Tone Analysis

SERMON WORKSHEET

Text: (HCSB)

5  Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,

6  who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.

7  Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men.

And when He had come as a man in His external form,

8  He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

9  For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name,

10  so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—

11  and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Context Investigation

Numerous resources are available to assist you with discovering the contextual issues in a biblical text.

These resources include Bible dictionaries, handbooks, surveys, theology texts, and commentaries.

It is often helpful to select one excellent commentary set and then supplement it with individual commentaries as necessary.

When studying a text, a collection of four to five good commentaries is the irreducible minimum.

With these resources in hand, the interpreter can begin tackling the contextual issues in a text.

In chapter 8, we identified the contextual questions to ask of every biblical text.

The investigation stage is the time to ask and answer those questions.

We will continue to use as our example.

The contextual notes for this text might look like these.

2—Who?

Author: Paul (There was unanimous consensus in the early church that Paul wrote this letter).

Actors: N/A (This text is not a historical narrative.)

Audience: Church at Philippi

2—When?

Time:

AD 60-63: Paul wrote the letter during his first imprisonment in Rome.

(The references "imperial guard" [] and the "saints in Caesar's household" [4:22] both suggest Rome.)

Option 2: Paul wrote the letter during his two-year captivity in Caesarea.

(However, the items listed above are not consistent with his Caesarean captivity.)

Option 3: Paul wrote the letter from Ephesus.

(This option is a minority position and does not meet the test of Option 1 or 2.)

NOTE: We believe that Rome is the best option as the location.

Political Climate:

Nero was Caesar from AD 54-68.

Nero was noted for being tyrannical and paranoid.

Ancient records suggest he killed his mother and stepbrother and killed Christians as punishment for burning Rome (historians lay that at Nero's feet).

Facing assassination, Nero committed suicide at the age of 31.

Rome's relationship with the Jews and Christians was tenuous during this time.

Religious Climate:

In Rome: While the Jews were allowed to practice their religion in Israel (specifically within the Temple area), Christianity was outlawed in the Roman Empire.

In order to avoid a death sentence in Jerusalem, Paul used his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his legal case to Caesar.

During his imprisonment (), Paul was able to receive guests and continue his ministry, primarily through his writing.

A number of people in Nero's household had been converted to Christianity, ostensibly through Paul.

Although it cannot be proved, many scholars believe that Paul was beheaded during the latter reign of Nero, after a fourth missionary journey and second Roman imprisonment, presumably during the persecution that followed the burning of Rome in AD 64.

In Philippi: The city of Philippi appeared to have a very small Jewish population, as they did not have enough Jewish men to have a synagogue (since 10 men were required) at the time that Paul arrived ().

Some devout women worshipped by the river, where on his second missionary journey Paul saw Lydia converted.

Paul was unjustly beaten and imprisoned in Philippi (where as a Roman citizen he was entitled to due process).

The Philippian jailer and his family were converted during that event.

2—Where?

City:

Philippi was named for Philip II of Macedon, who was the father of Alexander the Great.

Philippi became a part of the Roman Empire in the second century BC.

Philippi gained fame as a result of perhaps the most famous Roman battle, which pitted the forces of Antony and Octavian against Brutus and Cassius.

Antony and Octavian were victorious, and their victory ended the republic and initiated the Empire.

As a Roman colony, Philippi had all of the rights and privileges as Rome itself.

Region:

Philippi was located near the end of the Via Egnatia between Thessalonica and the coastal region of Neapolis.

This region was well known for its gold and silver mines.

Country:

Philippi was located in the Roman province of Macedonia along the Via Egnatia, a pivotal trade route between Rome and the East.

When Paul was trying to head to the East with the gospel, he was prevented by the Holy Spirit in a vision, where a man from Macedonia called to Paul for help ().

On his second missionary journey, once he arrived in Macedonia, Paul visited Philippi first.

Philippi is the first city in Europe to hear the gospel from Paul.

2—Why?

Co-equal deity of God the Son with God the Father

"form [morphe] of God"; "The idea is that, before the Incarnation, from all eternity past, Jesus preexisted in the divine form of God, equal with God the Father in every way.

By His very nature and innate being, Jesus Christ is, always has been, and will forever be fully divine."

"equality (isos) with God"; "In the word isos teaches that Jesus is God's equal."

Council of Nicaea (AD 325):homoousios; Christ exists as God "from all eternity," and He is "of one substance with the Father."

Incarnation of Jesus:

"form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men"; "Although He continued to fully exist as God, during His incarnation He refused to hold on to His divine rights and prerogatives."

"He emptied himself of all of its prerogatives… completely of every vestige of advantage and privilege, refusing to assert any divine right on His own behalf."

hamoiomati anthropon; "refers to that which is made to be like something else, not just in appearance but in reality.

Jesus was not a clone, a disguised alien, or merely some reasonable facsimile of a man.

He became exactly like all other human beings, having all the attributes of humanity, a genuine man among men."

"Paul writes that the one who was in the form of God and was God's equal from all eternity took the form of a man at a particular moment in history.

He took upon himself the nature of a servant; he was made in human likeness" (cf.

).

"The witness of the New Testament is that God indeed became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament promised that he would come, and the New Testament testifies that he came.

The New Testament records a varied and complementary witness to the God who took on humanity, the Word who became flesh" ().

A quintessential quartet stands out in what they teach concerning both the deity and humanity of Jesus.

The texts are ; ; ; ; and .

Substitutionary, atoning death of Jesus on the cross:

"In His stepping downward, Jesus was willing to suffer humiliation and degradation even to becoming obedient to the point of death… The Father did not force death upon the Son.

It was the Father's will, but it was the Son's will always to perfectly obey the Father.

He had a free choice.

Had He not had a choice, He could not have been obedient."

"Jesus submitted even to death on a cross.

There were many ways by which He could have been killed.

He could have been beheaded, such as John the Baptist was, or stoned or hanged.

But He was destined not for just any kind of death but for death on a cross."

"In God's infinite wisdom, death on a cross was the only way of redemption for fallen, sinful, and condemned mankind."

"The cross is the central figure of the New Testament… the cross of Christ is in a real sense the central theme of the Old Testament… The cross stands as the focal point of the Christian faith."

"This is what Jesus Christ came to do.

He came to remove our sin, bearing it in his own person.

Sin separates men from God, but Jesus removes that sin.

He was made sin for us… The second reason for Christ's death is that he died to satisfy divine justice.

The justice of God calls for the punishment of sin, and the punishment of sin is death.