Rejoice
in the Lord always!
An Introduction to Philippians
Hi there and welcome to the first
post of a brand new study on the book of Philippians. In today’s post we’ll take a look at the
Who? What? When?
Where? and Why? of this great
letter. I’m sure most of you already
know this but I think it’s important to be reminded of the basics before we
dive into the content of this book. As
we get started I’d like to say thank you for checking out this new blog. If you are new to Bob’s Bible Blog then I’d
like to let you know that this blog began on January 1st, 2016 with
the New Testament book of James. That
was followed by a study of the very familiar 23rd Psalm. If you are interested in checking out either
of those two studies they are listed on the left side of the blog page. So this will be the third study. We will slowly work through the entire book
of Philippians. I was writing to one of
this blog’s readers recently and I said “Philippians is one of my favorite
books.” Just today I was talking with my
pastor and told him that I was seriously considering Philippians as my next
blog subject. I was surprised when he
said, “Philippians is one of my favorite books.” I thought that was pretty funny. I wonder if any of you feel the same way. It is a great letter with lots of everyday
life application for us today even though it was written a long, long time
ago.
Before we begin with the content of
today’s blog I’d like to remind you of a couple things and make one request of
you. First, please begin each blog by
taking a moment to pray and ask God to reveal to you something specific from
the days Bible passage and lesson. I
always find that the scripture speaks to me much more often and more clearly
when I ask the Holy Spirit to help me see what I might learn from it that
day. Second, please read the scriptures
that I give you from your own Bible as well as this post. I encourage you to make notes in the margin
of your Bible, underline or highlight things that God shows to be important and
write down accompanying scripture references somewhere so you will be able to
refer to them for additional reading later on.
Thirdly, I’d like to ask you to invite others to join us on this
blogsite. Maybe there are people from
your circle of friends, co-worshippers from your church or Facebook folks whom
you think might like to look a little deeper into the Word. Everyone is welcome. Oh yes, and I love to hear from readers so
please feel free to use the “comment” link which appears below every blog. It will come to me for approval and then be
published at the bottom of that blog. If
you would rather write to me directly simply post or send me an IM on our
Facebook page. Yes, you heard (read)
right. There is a brand new Facebook
page newly created to serve as a sounding board for all those who wish to
participate. It is directly related to
these blogspot posts and will include photos, inspirational or even humorous
memes, and places for you to post or even have a discussion with others who
share your interest in God’s Word. This
is meant to be a positive place where you can find inspiration, explanation and
even fellowship with other Bible readers.
Since the sight was just launched on 2/17/16 there isn’t much content
there yet but that will change as friends start to get added and begin to add
their own comments to the conversation. I hope you’ll join us there. You will find our new Facebook group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/459484807586302/. It is titled ‘Bob’s Bible Blog Discussion
Group’. Thank you in advance for getting
the word out about the Word. (I know,
it’s kinda corny but still makes sense, don’t you think?) So, here we go again!! I’m starting to get excited already. How about you?
Who wrote Philippians?
I am guessing that you are all
pretty familiar with the author of Philippians but just in case you aren’t I’d
like to introduce you to the Apostle Paul.
He is the author of this book of the Bible and he’s a pretty unique character. His life is an amazing testimony to the life
changing power of Jesus Christ. Paul
used to have another name. From his
birth he was known as Saul and he was a native of Tarsus. I guess that’s why he is so often referred to
as, are you ready for this…Saul of Tarsus.
Who could have guessed it?
Anyhow, Saul’s father was a Roman citizen and that meant Saul was a
freeborn citizen of Rome as well even though he was a Jew. As a young Jewish boy Saul received strict
religious training including the memorization of scripture and Jewish history. He even studied under the leading philosopher
of his time named Gamaliel. Saul was
familiar with Greek philosophy and literature and was highly respected by Jewish
leadership. Saul was so zealous for his
Jewish faith that he took it upon himself to seek out members of a new sect
known as “the Way” which he and many other Jewish leader felt were a threat to
the Jewish faith. “The Way”, by the way,
was the name given to those who followed the teachings of Jesus of
Nazareth. Later on they were called the more
familiar label of “Christians”. Saul went
so far in his desire to destroy this new group that he obtained written
authorization to seek out anyone, man or woman, who were members of this group and
have them imprisoned or even killed to stop the spread of this “radical” new
religion. Scripture records one such
occasion when Saul was a party to the execution of one of the young leaders of
this new faith known as “the Way” named Stephen. I like to say it this way, Saul was the
original ‘007’. He was licensed to
kill! Take a few minutes and read Acts
7:54 – Acts 8:4 to get a better picture of what I’m talking about.
After this event Saul was on a roll
and travelled the country seeking out members of this supposedly dangerous new
sect called The Way. It was on one of these
journeys when Saul had a “come to Jesus” moment…literally. I’d like you to read a bit more in the book
of Acts to help you learn or maybe just refresh your memory as to how Saul
became known to everyone as Paul. When
you read Acts 9:1-22 you will see that a Saul, or now Paul, experienced a whole
lot more than a name change on that road to Damascus. Go ahead and read through this amazing story
of Saul’s transformation from a persecutor of Christians to a champion of the
Christian faith and the most important Christian missionary to have ever lived. Paul (that’s what we’ll call him now) was on
fire to spread the word of salvation through Jesus Christ to the whole
world. He travelled great distances and
experienced all sorts of hazards and life threatening struggles but nothing
deterred him from his mission of telling the world about Jesus. Paul undertook 3 missionary journeys and was
a powerful preacher and writer. God used
him in mighty ways to help establish churches throughout the known world and
Paul’s words still turn hearts toward Jesus Christ.
What is it?
The book we are beginning with
today, Philippians, was one of 14 books that Paul wrote which are a part of the
New Testament. This book is often
entitled “The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Church at Philippi”. Wow! So, what does that mean? It’s simple really. Paul wrote this letter, which is exactly what
the word “epistle” means, to the new church at Philippi located in
Macedonia. Paul and others with him
started this church or “planted” this church (if you like “church speak”) and
wrote this letter to thank them for a gifts which the church had collected and
sent to Paul. Like many of Paul’s
letters it was written to a specific church but was then shared with other
churches as was often the case. This
letter, epistle, was written as a personal letter to strengthen this new church
in its fledgling faith and emphasizes the theme of thankfulness and ‘joy
through Jesus Christ’ as its main theme.
Funny thing is, it still does that exact same thing with great power
even today.
When was it
written?
This book is dated as being written
around A.D. 61
Where was it
written?
This is where things begin to get
really interesting. Paul was nowhere
near Philippi when he penned this letter to the church at Philippi or as we
often say, to the Philippians. The
letter was written from Rome. Now some
of you who aren’t real familiar with this story may be thinking that Paul must
have been resting up back in Rome from his second missionary journey. You know, sitting there in the morning
sunlight, drinking his latte and reading the morning paper and then jotting
down this letter to those nice folks over there in Philippi where he had helped
start a new church. Not hardly! Paul had been arrested and was in a Roman
prison in chains when he wrote this encouraging letter. It always amazes me to read through this
letter and read all the encouragement and Paul’s words about joy when, at the
time he was writing it, he was a prisoner with a very uncertain future. As we work through the first chapter of this
letter you will see where Paul repeatedly refers to himself as “in chains” and
that’s exactly where he was…in Rome, in prison and in chains.
Why was it
written?
I wrote above that Paul penned this
letter, in part, to thank the Philippian church for a gift which he had
received from them. What had happened
was that they had gathered money to get to Paul while he was in prison and they
had sent it via one of their members named Epaphroditus. (If any of you are trying to think of a good
name for your next child there’s one you don’t hear too often…Epaphroditus!) In writing such a joy filled letter Paul is
helping the church understand that our joy as Christians should not be linked
to our present situation for that is constantly changing. Paul demonstrates in word and in his actions
that our joy comes from something much more stable that our moods or reactions
to moment by moment situations. We’ll
get into that soon as we begin the study but I think I’ll share a key verse
from this book today. Paul writes in
Chapter 4 and Verse 4, “Rejoice in the
Lord always. I will say it again’
Rejoice!” That sure sounds like an
order to me. Paul not only states it but
he reiterates it as well. “Rejoice in the Lord always!” That’s a great theme to carry through our
lives don’t you think? We’ll use that as
an overall title for this study. “Rejoice in the Lord Always!” Yup, it’s got a great ring to it!
Thank you for joining us on this new
study. Don’t forget that you now have a
way to share with each other and read each other’s thoughts regarding the
scriptures we’ll be working through. To
hook up with our new Facebook page go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/459484807586302/ I look forward to interacting with y’all on
this page as we take our walk through Philippians together. God bless and watch for the next post. If you want to cheat, go ahead and read
Philippians Chapter One. We’ll be back
together before you know it and digging into “the Book”! God bless.
Bob
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