Philippians 1

Introduction: The Philippians church was started by Paul.

Philippians was known as “Little Rome”.   

The theme of Philippians is joy, the happiness and peace of knowing Christ as Savior.

Paul was imprisoned during this time and he was happy.

Prison in those days was not like it is today.

He is concerned that pride and quarreling are spoiling the fellowship at the church.

Paul reminds the believers that Christ was our example to follow.

Christ was a servant and a slave for us and died for us as well.

The Jew were looking for Christ the king to come back and take all their problems away and is that not what many people are looking for today?

Paul warns them about false teachers teaching the law and not Grace.

I.       Paul greets the Philippians. Verses 1-11.

A.    Timothy is with Paul and they both see themselves as servants and slaves for Christ.

B.    He writes to both the leaders and members calling them Saints.

1.     Which means = set apart to live holy life’s for Christ.

2.     “They do this by living ‘in Christ’ — their whole lives caught up in his holiness.”[1]

3.      Paul greets them with Grace and Peace.

a)     Grace means = God’s overwhelming goodness towards us.

(1)   There is nothing we can do to get Grace, it is from God simply because He loves us.

b)     Peace means = the harmony God gives to our lives and relationships.[2]

(1)   As I have been teaching you, we can have a joyess life here on earth with all our problems.

II.     Thanksgiving and prayer (verses 3-11)

A.    Verse 3; Every time Paul thinks of the church at Philippians he would start to rejoice.

1.     Paul was happy in what was going on there.

2.     People growing in the Lord.

3.     People there were growing and having a relationship with Christ.

B.    Verse 4; Paul is always praying for them.

1.     Every time Paul prays he remembers the Philippians’ church and everyone in it.

2.     The sum of this Epistle is joy in Christ.

a)     The word joy appears 19 time in this book.

b)     The name of Jesus Christ appears 40 times in this book.

c)     I want you to think about something here, churches today have all kinds of program to keep us happy. When all our happiness should come from our relationship with Christ.

C.    Verse 5; Here Paul takes about fellowship.

1.     Fellowship means = that which believers can share of the things of Christ.[3]

2.     There is 3 elements that come into play to have fellowship.

a)     Sharing the things of Christ. That is what we are doing right now.

(1)   Testimonies which we did two Sundays ago.

(2)   Anything we do that centers around Christ is fellowship.

b)     Working together for Christ.

(1)   Bible studies, Sunday services, a time of learning together.

c)     All this results in sweet fellowship together in Christ.

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III.    Verse 6

A.    Paul was convinced that God can perform what He started out to do.

1.     Paul saw what God had done in his life.

B.    We are in God’s hand and we can be happy even though we don’t know where the money is going to come from with whatever financial problem we have.

1.     Galatians 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

2.     We must never forget how we begun by faith, must continue by faith.

3.     This is where must Christians lose it and their live becomes miserable.

IV.    Verse 7

A.    Paul and the Philippians church had a close relationship.

1.     They prayed for each other and helped each other with money and send help when needed.

2.     Just like each of you praying for my wife and I, that God will not let the devil get to us and our financial needs.

V.     Verse 8

A.    Most of what takes place in us does not necessarily take place from the brain, but from the bowls.

1.     When you first saw your spouse, did the feeling come from your brain?

2.     When we feel we feel from our inter most being not our brain.

B.    Paul longs for the people in the Philippians church.

1.     He had a special place in his heart for them.

VI.    Verse 9

A.    Our love should always be overflowing.

1.     A perpetual flood.

B.    Always with Godly knowledge to back it up.

1.     We are not to do stupid things.

2.     Example; some people down at the missions.

VII.  Verse 10

A.    We do what it says in verse 9 so that we will recognize what is important in our lives.

1.     Our relationship with Christ and not our jobs.

2.     Like getting a good night sleep Sat. night as to be at church on Sunday.

3.     Giving to God more than other things.

4.     Distinguish between good and evil. This is not always black and white.

a)     In the Greek it says, “ to test the things that differ”.

B.    Always remembering that what we do, others see and that can cause them to stumble or to come to Christ.

1.     1 Corinthians 10:32, Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:

C.    We may have several options in our lives as we serve the Lord. Which one is right?

1.     Example; say we have two directions in our lives and we don’t know which one to take.

a)     We are to pray and test each one, which one seems best in God’s will and take it.

b)     We find out that it is not working and than we are to try the other way and it starts to work for us.

D.    The word “sincere” means without wax.

1.     The Roman used to destroy everything until they realized the importance of national treasure.

2.     After this happened, they would have art treasures that were broken and they would put wax in the broken cracks to make them look perfect.

3.     Sincere means without wax and is telling the people that what you are getting is a perfect piece.

E.     God is telling us here not to be a phony Christian, be the real thing. People around you will know the differents.

F.     We are to be blameless.

1.     We will never be without offence to people.

a)     The Gospel it self will offend people.

b)     People might be offended and some rumors will start, we should make sure that none of them are true.

c)     If it came down to a court hearing about the offence, they could not prove it.

VIII.         Verse 11

A.    Fruits of the Spirit.

1.     Where have we heard this before.

2.     Why is God talking so much about this in the Bible?

3.     Gal. 5:22–23 Fruits of the Spirit.

IX.   Verse 12

A.    Paul is in prison and the people back at Philippi are worried and so sorry that the ministry has stop.

1.     Paul tell them that is not so. Even in prison the Gospel will go out.

2.     This is teaching us that wherever we are, we can be a testimony for Christ.

B.    Now Paul is going to make it clear in the next verses.

X.     Verse 13

A.    Paul was chained to a guard and every four hours a new guard was replaced.

1.     This gave Paul opportunities to witness.

2.     Paul was chained to a member of the Praetorian Guard, and these men were the Roman members of Caesar’s household.

a)     They were members of Caesar’s household, hand picked guards.

XI.   Verse 14

A.    Other Christian were afraid to speak because they were not as good as Paul in knowledge and the way they speaked.

XII. Verse 15

A.    There was envy and rivalry at the time of Paul.

1.     Paul started a lot of churches and many came to know Christ because of him.

2.     Each of us has different gifts from God and we need to use them to their fullest.

a)     We should not worry what other have as gifts, but use your to it fullest.

3.     Envy says, “I don’t think much of you,” and pride says, “What do you think of me?”[4]

XIII. Verse 16

A.    There was enough a problem that God had to deal with it here.

B.    People preaching not because they had a calling or a burden for the lost, but because they wanted to be a Paul.

C.    Now that Paul was in prison, they could go out and copy Paul and even talk against him.

XIV.         Verse 17

A.    Again Paul talks about those going out to copy him and talk about him.

B.    Read this from the AMP.

XV. Verse 18

A.    Put does it bother Paul, no?

B.    As long as the Gospel is going out, he knows that people will be saved.

C.    I am now rejoicing that Christ is being preached in the worst churches and even the wrong people are preaching the some of the Bible.

1.     People will get saved in these situations.

XVI.         Verse 19

A.    Paul knows that if enough people are praying for him, he will get out of prison.

XVII.       Verse 20

A.    Paul is saying he did not want to be ashamed to preach the Gospel anywhere.

B.    Plus he did not want to go to heaven and be ashamed before Christ for what he did on earth.

C.    In 1 John 2:28, God tells us it is possible for people to be ashamed of Christ’s coming.

1.     You ask, how is this possible? People will be found not doing anything for Christ.

2.     They meant to, put never took the time to do any of it.

a)     I was going to do this, I was going to do that. You add what you where going to do to the list.

3.     These verses are telling us not to get caught  doing nothing, what we meant to do.

XVIII.     Verse 21

A.    Paul now comes to this conclusion.

B.    This was Paul’s philosophy as he lived and should be ours.

C.    To live is to be Christ like and when we died is to be with Him, which is the perfect place to end up.

D.    How can you hurt someone who has a  relationship with Christ?

1.     When in full fellowship, you will have complete faith that all things will work out.

2.     Nothing can come at you; no problem will surprise you, because you trust God to work everything out.

a)     Philippians 4:11,11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

E.     This is why Paul was so happy where he was. (Prison)

XIX.         Verse 22

A.    This is the conclusion of my life ”I want of nothing”

B.    Paul relationship brought him to the point that he wanted nothing more than what God gives which he know is more than enough.

C.    He was in prison, that fine I am in the will of God and that all that matters.

XX.       Verse 23-24

A.    Paul says he was torn between wanting to go to be with the Lord, which is the better of the two, or staying with the Philippian believers because they needed him.[5]

B.    It reminds me of a story of an incident that took place in my southland in a black church. The preacher asked one night, “How many of you want to go to heaven?” Everyone put up his hand except one little boy. The preacher asked him, “Don’t you want to go to heaven?” He answered, “I sure do, but I thought you were getting up a load for tonight.”[6]

XXI.         Verse 25-26

A.    Paul wants to go to heaven and be with Christ, but he is practical and knows he needs to help the Philippians’ church to grow closer to Christ. The work was not done.

XXII.       Verse 27

A.    The word conversation mean “way of life”

B.    Not just our speech, but everything in our life’s.

C.    The word “strive” means = to agonize.

1.     We are to agonize together for the faith, to grow.

2.     This is more than just doing it.

XXIII.      Verse 28-29

A.    When you get to the place where He lets you suffer for Him, you have arrived—that is the high calling of Christ Jesus.[7]

XXIV.     Verse 30

A.    Paul knew what it was like to suffer for Christ.

B.    When we suffer and we are doing everything to have a relationship with God, this can be a blessing and not to be looked at as God turning from us.

C.    We have finished chapter one and have seen the philosophy of Christian living.

D.    The whole chapter can be summed up in saying “For to me to live Christ, and to die gain.”

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[1]Knowles, A. 2001. The Bible guide. Includes index. (1st Augsburg books ed.) . Augsburg: Minneapolis, MN

[2]Knowles, A. 2001. The Bible guide. Includes index. (1st Augsburg books ed.) . Augsburg: Minneapolis, MN

[3]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[4]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[5]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[6]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[7]McGee, J. V. 1997, c1981. Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) . Thomas Nelson: Nashville