Philippians - Session #4 - review notes

Good morning Bible study group,

When you study a book of the Bible there are basic principles that should guide in your study. The basic reason these principles are important is so we can first of all learn what the author meant by what he wrote. We should not come to the Bible with a "what I think" mentality, instead we need a mindset of "what does God say" in order to find the true meaning.
I learned early on this particular way but please know that it is a way and not "the" way. Basically all good methods of Bible study include these steps although the language and arrangement may vary. The point here is I want each of you to find a method that works for your personality, temperament and gifting as you come to God's word. As Kelly Bartlett says let's not try to put a square peg into a round hole. However in these guidelines that I am giving you there does remain flexibility for you to study using the principles that fit into your style. Let me give a quick illustration. Howard Hendricks is a great Bible teacher and has been a professor for years at Dallas Theological Seminary. A number of years ago he wrote a book titled "Living by the Book." It is a very simple straightforward book on studying the word of God. He lists in the book three main steps in good Bible study, they are:
1. Observation
2. Interpretation
3. Application
If you boiled our study in Philippians down to 3 basic steps this would cover it. Once again this is a variation in method but the principles of accurate Bible study remain basically the same.

To date we have look at:
1. Background of the author, location, occasion, reason for the epistle, how the church originally started and etc. By the way I was impressed the way each of you contributed when asked about the background last week. I can tell by the way you answered that question that you do have this firmly implanted in your minds as we are moving forward in Philippians.
2. Theme - We have spent a good bit of time on the word joy and the theology behind this word in the New Testament. I like to following saying "Joy is the flag that flies over the castle of ones heart with the King is in residence there."
3. Plan - This is what we discussed in our last study session together. Again there is not a hard and fast rule for the plan. It should give us some structure if possible in regard to the author's flow of thought. It may help at this point to think about a house plan and compare that with a book plan. You come into the home and notice the flow from room to room and that is what we are trying to do in Philippians.

Here is a suggested plan:

I. Prescription for joy - "Making the gospel a priority"
Philippians 1:1-26

II. Prerequisite for joy - "Focusing on the Cross"
Philippians 1:27-2:18a

III. Principle for joy - "Imitating Christian leaders"
Philippians 2:18b-3:21

IV. Perseverance for joy - "Never, never, never give up"
Philippians 4:1-4:21

Obviously if we were to have a topic sentence for every paragraph then the outline would be much longer. This is basic and I think covers the flow of thought but please don't take this as the ultimate plan for this book. You feel free to add to or subtract from but remember to keep flow and theme in you mind as you may do so for your plan. I am teaching you with the hope that you will share with others in your sphere of influence. Isn't that what you sense here with Paul and the Philippians. They have bonded at an unusual level and that kind of bonding takes place when the gospel is at the center of life.

Last week was for me a real breakthrough in how I have come to see and explain the gospel. In the last few years this subject has been part of my ongoing study. I have been captivated that in Romans 1:16 the apostle Paul writes "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Just read the sentence and ask a few basic questions. In the phrase "for it is..." what is the "it"? Based on the structure of the sentence the "it" refers to the gospel. So based on what Paul writes the gospel is the power of God! Think back in the Old and come forward into the New Testament and think of all the power of God you are shown throughout the Scriptures. Now keep going into the sentence this is a power for what? According to Paul it is a power unto salvation - do we know what salvation means here? You have heard me teach on this before but for a quick refresher I think he is referring to a salvation in the past (justification), a salvation in the present (sanctification) and a salvation for the future (glorification). But this is restricted to certain people and who are these people according to this verse? Those who believe (present tense verb) which means continue to, constantly and live their lives habitually this way. One of the key words in this sentence is believe and that is something we must do each and every day. Do you remember what the noun is for the verb believe in the New Testament? The noun is faith. Are you ready to put it all together?

Romans 14:23 - "...anything that is not of faith is sin"
Hebrews 11:6 - "And without faith it is impossible to please Him..."
Galatians 3:5 - "So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
In other words Christian how does the Spirit miraculously work among you? Answer - only when you hear with faith. And how does faith come to you?
Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
So how are you being saved everyday? The word of God that you hear! Or I think you could say the gospel that you hear everyday!

As you remember we went into a practical discussion of the gospel last Tuesday morning. This is such an important subject for us to consider as we study the book of Philippians. Let me ask you this question - What are you really living for? By this I mean what is the thing that if you lost it then it would make you lose the desire to live?
Because all meaning in life would be gone and you desire to keep on going would gone.

Whatever the answer to that question is and only you can answer it, then that thing or those things are you idols. In other words it becomes the very thing that justifies why you get up in the morning and do the things that you do. Another way to ask the question is what has become your "functional savior."

There are plenty of professing Christians that know the language "I'm a sinner that is saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone." And yet there is something else that has become their "functional savior" in life. I heard the story of a pastor who had two different women come to him about problems with a child rebelling due to the dad being away from the home so much. In the first case the woman was a young Christian whose husband was gone way too much and there was a significant problem with their child. In the second case there was a very seasoned Christian who had a situation that was not near as bad as the first woman. When this pastor counseled the first woman she was able to forgive her husband and the whole family ended up working through it and becoming very close. However in the second situation the woman in that marriage could not forgive and this ended up with the destruction of the family. As this pastor related the story here is what he said happened. Each of these women were concerned about the rebellion of their child and that was good to be concerned. But for the second mother the good for her became the ultimate. She was unable to forgive her husband because there was a sin that was underneath the sin. This mother could and would only be happy if her child was happy and successful. In her desire for a good thing she had made it an ultimate thing which became her idol. If her son was happy then she was happy and if he wasn't then her desire to live was removed. Do you see what the problem is in this case? The happiness and success of the child had become this woman's "functional savior." Even though she had been a Christian for years and knew that Christ died for her sins, even though that was clear to her it still was not real to her.

Hey guys what about us? We know the language of the gospel but is the gospel real to us? Are we in danger of having something else as our "functional savior?"
We need to remember daily:
Our job did not die on the cross for us
Our money did not die on the cross for us
Our lifestyle did not die on the cross for us
Our family did not die on the cross for us
Our physical appearance did not die on the cross for us

It was the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us and He and only He is and can be our savior!!!

Martin Luther said that of the 10 commandments - Commandment #1 is the key because all the other commandments are based on this one.

For example look at the commandment that says "Do not bear false witness."
Why do we lie? Answer - because we are sinners - well technically that is the right answer. But when we look deeper why do we lie? Because at the moment we tell the lie something else has become more of a "functional savior" for us than Jesus Christ.
It could be fear from the loss of human approval of pride in the fact we don't want to be caught in the wrong. But whatever the case we are placing that thing ahead of the Lord Jesus.

Luther went on to say that "under the behavioral sin there is idolatry and every act of idolatry is a disbelief in the gospel."

If someone is angry enough to die because of:
- weight gain
- job opportunity that goes away
- a relationship doesn't work out
Then we can identify those things as idols that have replaced Christ.

We could say that we are justified by how our children perform in school, or how successful we are in our jobs, or the way people view us in the church. Even though we say we are sinners saved by grace we behave like sinners who think we are saved by our works.

Do you remember the illustration I gave on Tuesday about the Coke machine.
You walk up to it and put quarters in and push the button but no coke comes out. So you pound on the side of the coke machine until you hear the quarters drop and then you push the button and the coke comes out.

This is what we must do in terms of the gospel. It must be pounded, pounded and pounded into our heads until one day, finally and completely it drops into the heart. In that day not only will it be clear to us in language but it will become real to us in our experience.

Blessings,