Jesus
in Philippians
The Epistle to the Philippians, along with
Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon are known as the Prison Epistles. This is
because they were written by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
during his first Roman imprisonment (see Acts 28:16-31), sometime between A.
D. 60-62. Philippians affirms not only Jesus' equality with God the
Father, but also the Father's exaltation of Christ. It presents Jesus Christ
as the supreme example of suffering, service, sacrifice, and humble obedience
to the will of God. The Letter clearly shows that Jesus Christ and Him alone
is the central focus of the Gospel. He is the One to be preached and
proclaimed. He is the past. He is the present. He is the future. He is the
believer's life. He has a Day on which He will return for His church and
reward them. His interests are what Christians are to pursue. He is the One in
whom the believer's joy is rooted. He is the One the believer must make every
effort to know, gain, and trust. He is the One in whom the believer's hope is
built. Jesus Christ is the believer's true object
of faith. It is therefore important for us to see Jesus
as He is revealed in Philippians. "Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus
as He really is, equal with God, exalted high, the ultimate example of
sacrifice and service! We want to know Jesus better and gain Him," is our prayer!
Jesus
in Philippians Chapter 1
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom the believer's will is
altogether consumed, and is therefore owned by Him body and soul [derived
from the meaning of doulos- Greek for bond-slave or
bond-servant: one who is in permanent relation of servitude to
another, his will altogether consumed in the will of another] (1:1).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom believers are united
and set apart. That is, the spiritual status of genuine Christians is
linked to Jesus Christ (1:2).
- Jesus Christ the Lord is equal to God the Father. In
other words, Jesus Christ is God (1:3).
- Jesus Christ the Lord and God the Father are the
believers' source of grace and peace (1:3).
- Jesus Christ has a Day on which He will return for His
church and review and reward their service. Obviously, the Day of Christ
Jesus is different from the Day of the Lord which describes God's final
judgment and wrath on those who reject Jesus Christ (1:6).
- Jesus Christ's affection, that is, genuine
compassionate love, is to characterize those called to serve in the true
church of Jesus Christ (1:8).
- Jesus Christ has a Day on which He will return for His
church and review and reward their service. Before then, it is God's
desire that believers' love abound still more and more in real knowledge
and all discernment resulting in their ability to approve the things that
are excellent (1:9-10).
- Jesus Christ is the One through or by whom believers
experience being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is simply
the transformation provided by Jesus and His ongoing work of power through
His Spirit in believers. (1:11).
- Jesus Christ is the source of all the Christian
qualities that make up a righteous life (1:11).
- Jesus Christ turns tragedy into triumph for the
progress of the Gospel (1:12-14).
- Jesus Christ is the Lord (1:14).
- Jesus Christ the Lord is the One in whom believers'
trust is rooted (1:14).
- Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Gospel (1:15).
- Jesus Christ alone is to be preached and proclaimed.
[It's sad that sometimes Jesus is preached out of wrong and selfish
motives. But thank God for those who proclaim Him with the right motive!]
(1:15-18).
- The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the same as the Holy
Spirit. This means the provision or supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
refers to the power of the Holy Spirit released to work on the believer's
behalf (1:19).
- Jesus Christ uses the prayers of God's people and the
power of the Holy Spirit to bring about a change in the circumstances of
His servant (1:19).
- Jesus Christ is the One who must always be exalted or
magnified in the believer's life. He is to be esteemed or praised by
others through our witness of Him, by life or by death (1:20).
- Jesus Christ is the believer's life. In other words,
Jesus Christ must be the believer's reason for living, not fame, money,
riches, wealth, or pleasure (1:21).
- Jesus Christ is the One the believer yearns to be with
after departing this world. [This clearly refutes the idea of
"soul-sleep." The Bible's teaching here is that the believer
goes to be with Jesus Christ at the time of death and that he is in
conscious enjoyment of the presence of the Glorified Lord.] (1:23).
- Jesus Christ is the believer's future, where he will
enjoy full and final communion with Christ (1:23).
- Jesus Christ's glorious presence is far better than
anything the believer would ever experience here on earth (1:23).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom the Christians' boast
is to be made (1:26).
- Christlikeness must govern Christians' conduct and
character (1:27).
- Christ's followers are not only called to believe in
Him, but also to suffer for His sake (1:29).
Jesus
in Philippians Chapter 2
- Jesus Christ is the One Christians must seek to be
like (2:1-5).
- Jesus
Christ is the believers' source of encouragement (2:1).
- Jesus Christ is the believers' source of consolation
or comfort. In other words, Jesus is the One who comes close and whispers
words of gentle cheer or tender counsel in a Christian's ear. ( 2:1).
- Christ's mind is what Christians are to have and seek
to direct their actions in life (2:2)
- Jesus Christ's life of selflessness and sacrifice is
to serve as an example for believers to follow (2:3-5).
- Jesus Christ's attitude must characterize Christians
(2:5).
- Jesus Christ has eternally been God. In other words,
Jesus Christ existed from all eternity as God (2:6).
- Jesus Christ is God in the truest sense of the word.
In other words, apart from His human nature, Christ possessed all the
qualities and characteristics belonging to God (2:6).
- Jesus Christ is equal to God. That is, Jesus was, is,
and will be equal with God as to His Person. In other words, Jesus Christ
is Deity (2:6).
- Jesus Christ, though having all the rights,
privileges, and honors of Deity, did not cling to those things but
willingly gave them up for a season to serve His Father's purpose of
saving lost sinners (2:6).
- Jesus Christ laid aside His privileges. In other
words, Jesus Christ willingly relinquished His positional equality with
God in order to come into this world to save wretched humanity ( (2:7).
- Jesus Christ is the supreme example of sacrifice
(2:7).
- Jesus Christ is the True Servant. The word
"form" [Greek: morphe] indicates exact essence. This
means that the expression "form of a bondservant" points to
Christ's true servanthood (2:7).
- Jesus Christ is the supreme example of service (2:7).
- Jesus Christ became the God-Man at His
Incarnation. That is, Jesus was fully God and fully Man when He entered
our world. In other words, the humanity of Jesus is as real as His Deity.
He is true God and True Man (2:7).
- Jesus Christ is the supreme example of humility (2:8).
- Jesus Christ is the supreme example of obedience
(2:8).
- Jesus Christ is the supreme example of suffering
(2:8).
- Jesus Christ is highly exalted by God the Father as a
result of His humility and selfless service and suffering in place of
sinners (2:9).
- Jesus Christ is the One to whom God the Father has
given the name that is above every name. This could mean that Jesus Christ
has a position of supremacy and dominion in the entire universe (2:9).
- Jesus' name is the name at which every knee will bow.
This does not mean everyone bowing the knee is saved. The redeemed will
bow willingly and joyfully, but the unredeemed will bow unwillingly and
fearfully (2:10).
- Jesus Christ is the Lord, having the right to rule and
possessing sovereign authority (2:11).
- Jesus Christ will receive universal worship and
universal acknowlegment of His Lordship. Again, the redeemed will do so
gladly, but the unredeemed, with great anguish and distress of heart
(2:11).
- Jesus Christ's universal worship as Lord will bring
glory to God the Father (2:11).
- Jesus Christ has a Day o which He will return for His
church and review and reward them. Reverently, we can say, Jesus Christ
the Bridegroom has a "future date" with His bride, the church
(2:16).
- Jesus Christ is the Lord (2:19).
- Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's hope
is anchored (2:19).
- Jesus Christ's interests are what believers should
seek after (2:21).
- Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's
trust is firmly placed (2:24).
- Jesus is the Lord, in whom the servant of God is to be
received with all joy (2:29).
- Jesus Christ's work is worth risking our lives for
(2:30).
Jesus
in Philippians
Chapter 3
- Jesus
is the Lord (3:1).
- Jesus, the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's
rejoicing is found. In other words, the sphere in which the Christians'
joy exists is Christ Himself, not their circumstances. Our joy as
believers is related to our unchanging relationship to Jesus Christ. We
can always find real joy in Jesus, no matter what our circumstances may be
in life (3:1).
-
Jesus Christ is the One in whom believers are to glory or boast,
not in themselves. In other words, Jesus alone is the ground of
Christians' boasting in life (3:3).
- Jesus Christ is the believer's true gain in life. He
is the Christian's true profit in this life and in the life soon to come
(3:7).
- Jesus Christ is to be known personally as the
believer's Lord (3:8).
- Jesus Christ is the One who the Christian must strive
to know intimately, experientially, or personally (3:8).
- Jesus Christ is the One the believer must suffer the
loss of all things to gain (3:8).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom believer's true
identity is found (3:9).
- Jesus Christ is the believer's true righteousness. In
other words, Jesus is the One through whom God's righteousness is imputed
to the Christian who expresses faith, that is, the confident, absolute
personal reliance, steadfast confession of total dependence on Christ
(3:9).
- Jesus Christ is the believer's true object of faith
(3:9)
- Jesus Christ is the One the believer must make every
effort to know intimately and personally. That is, the Christian's main
ambition in life should be gaining a deeper, rich, real, experiential
knowledge and intimacy with Jesus (3:10).
- Jesus' resurrection power is available for the
Christian to experience personally in his life and testimony (3:10).
- Jesus Christ suffered. As such, His followers must be
willing to share in His sufferings (3:10).
- Jesus Christ's death is what the believer is called to
conform to. In other words, as Jesus died for the purpose of redeeming
sinners, so the believer should be willing to die to reach the lost with
the Good News (3:10).
- Jesus' choice of the believer as His own possession
for the ultimate purpose of conforming him to His glorious image is the
basis of the believer's pursuit and goal of pressing on to become all that
Jesus wants him to be-Christlikeness (3:12).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom all the purposes of
God (such as, salvation, Christlikeness, joint-heirship with Him, etc.)
for the believer are found and ultimately fulfilled. That is, Jesus Christ
is the believer's goal and prize (3:14).
- Jesus' cross is not embraced by all. There are those
who reject its saving message to their own destruction and doom (3:18-19).
- Jesus Christ the Lord is the Savior believers are
eagerly waiting for to return from heaven, which is their true citizenship
(3:20).
- Jesus, the Lord and Savior, is the One who will change
Christians' lowly body into His glorious body by His power. This change or
transformation of the body of our present humble state will enable us to
enjoy the glorious presence of God without being consumed by the radiance
of His glory (3:21).
- Jesus has power to subject all things to Himself
(3:21).
Jesus
in Philippians Chapter 4
- Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom beloved believers
are to stand firm (4:1).
- Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom quarreling
Christians are to agree. In other words, believers who have disagreement
can submerge their petty, personal differences in Jesus Christ and live in
harmony in Him (4:2).
- Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom Christians are
always to rejoice. In other words, Christ, not circumstances, is the
believer's source of constant joy (4:4).
- Jesus the Lord's coming is near. Are you ready for the
soon coming of Jesus the Lord? ( 4:5).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom God guards believers'
hearts and minds in order for them to experience His peace in their lives (
4:7).
- Jesus Christ, not circumstances, is the source of
believers' great rejoicing (4:10).
- Jesus Christ is the One who empowers the believer to
face both hard and good times and do all things which are God's will for
him to do (4:12-13).
- Jesus Christ is the source and signature of God's
riches, which He generously supplies to meet all the needs of Christians,
who are faithful and devoted in their giving to Christ (4:15-19).
- Jesus Christ is the One in whom each and every single
believer is united and set apart (4:21).
- Jesus Christ is the Lord (4:23).
- Jesus Christ the Lord is the source of the abiding
grace Christians experience (4:23).
Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Bible. He is the
focus of all Scripture. To study the Bible without seeing Jesus as He is
revealed in the Word of God and knowing Him in a deeper and more intimate way,
is a failure of the purpose of true biblical study. We do not merely study the
Bible just to get answers or facts. We study the Bible in order to grow in the
grace and true, intimate, real, full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2
Peter 3:18). As you study the Word, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Person
of Jesus Christ to you. He will be so delighted to do that. This is because
His chief work is to glorify Jesus (John 16:14). And what better way to
glorify Christ our Lord than to reveal Him to us in our hearts!
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