About this series
What makes a follower of Jesus? How do we learn to be like Him? We want to imitate Jesus, and obey what He commanded, but how does that actually happen? That’s where Paul’s letter to the Philippians can help us.
Philippians is a wonderful letter from which to learn about discipleship. It isn’t written to correct behaviour or doctrine (like many of Paul’s letters), but simply to express friendship, thank the church in Philippi for a gift, and talk about how Jesus shapes the ordinary Christian life. This makes it a happy letter, and a very practical one. It also includes a wide range of experiences – success and failure, hardship and victory, past and future, abundance and poverty – and considers how to find joy in Jesus in each of them.
About this talk
We’ve looked at our partnership together in the Gospel, and suffering for the sake of the Gospel. This week we’ll be exploring the Lordship of Christ. In the light of who Jesus is and all he has done for us, how then should we live?
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Listen here
In the final section of the letter, Paul gives thanks for the financial gift which the Philippians have given him.
As Paul closes his letter to the Philippians, he has some very clear lessons that he wants them to learn.
Paul focuses on our true citizenship and reveals to the Church how it should influence their very goals, expectations and lives in the here and now.
Paul urges the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord amidst the challenges. The knowledge that our righteousness comes through faith in Christ, for Paul, far outweighs any attempt to hold onto human privileges or achievements.
The relationships between Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus illustrate the way they lived sacrificially so that others might hear the good news.
This week we’ll be exploring the Lordship of Christ. In the light of who Jesus is and all he has done for us, how then should we live?
This week’s section of the letter focuses on suffering and hardship, as Paul reflects on the possibility of his own death, as well as on the opposition that the Philippians face, and the most powerful response to it.
As Paul opens the letter to the Philippians, he thanks God for them, encourages them, and begins to tell them how his imprisonment has been a good thing.