Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Philippi

November 14, 2022 Mark Roberts Season 2 Episode 38
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Philippi
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.

Speaker 1:

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Speaker 3:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday November the 14th. I've got my Bible open, I have some notes from yesterday's sermon. I've got my Bible reading skid and I do have a cup of coffee. This is a flat white that I'm working from the Green Mermaid Coffee Company. Yes, I can go to the Green Mermaid Coffee Company and flat white is my coffee of choice when I am there. And that's what I'm working as I talk with you about Philippians because yesterday in the pulpit it was Philippi daily Bible reading, it's Philippians, the letter two Philippi. Let's talk about Philippi and the Philippians and the epistle. We're reading this week, let's get started. So yesterday I continued the preaching theme for the year, which is New Testament churches and that has just fit like a hand in a glove with this year's Bible reading as we visited the churches that Paul is writing to. And so yesterday we spent some time talking about Philippi and the kind of city that was, or really maybe almost the kind of town that was. Cuz it's not a monster huge metropolis, like maybe we think of New Testament cities in some ways. And I did I I said a lot about all of that and and if you didn't listen to that sermon, if you weren't able to be there yesterday, then you just need to listen to that because that will get you ready for the reading that we're doing this week in Philippians. But I made particular emphasis on the idea of citizenship. There are two passages in Philippians where Paul talks about citizenship and Philippians 1 27 he says, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel. That is the term for being a citizen he means there or is using a term that would be thought of, or most Roman citizens would think of it as live as a citizen. And then in chapter three and verse 20, Paul Flat says, Our citizenship is in heaven. And it's the same word there again. Our citizenship is in heaven flipping three 20. And from it we await to savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Their allegiance now Paul says is to a new king, to a new Lord where everyone in Philippi is bowing the need to Caesar and proudly doing so because it is a mini version of Rome. Paul is telling the Philippians, you are citizens of a different kingdom, of a greater kingdom and your allegiance has to be to Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven, live as a citizen of Jesus Christ kingdom. And I just think that's something that we need to think about more particularly because as Americans we are very proud of our country and there's lots to be proud of without any question about that. And God has used this country in an amazing way, I think of our liberties and so forth, but sometimes we can get a little fuzzy and our citizenship might start to slide over into political ideology or into various American ways of doing things. It's not just a call for the Philippians to say, Hey, I'm not a Roman, I am a Christian. It's a call for all of us as we read the book of Philippians to make certain that our citizenship is in heaven and that our Lord is Jesus Christ. And so we are living in a way Philippians 1 27 worthy of the gospel of Christ. Just keep thinking about that as we read through the book of Philippians and think about it in your own life as well. Let's do a little daily Bible reading. Let's turn our attention to what we're reading this week in this great book. In our reading today we're reading Philippians 1 21 to 30. We are completing chapter one and the division here is difficult. I'm not always happy with how we divided things up. There's a lot of agony when Dean and I do all of that trying to figure all of this out, make it fit the calendar and the number of readings that we need. Kind of cutting right in the middle of the thought here. But I do want you to see that Paul is referencing his own, his own example. This is what I'm doing. I am giving myself up for you. I would rather go on and be with the Lord. He says, for me to live as Christ and to die as game Philippians 1 21, I would rather go and be with Jesus, but it's better for you. Verse 23, verse 24, If I stay and help you, that's going to be important. Paul will cite in chapter two the same idea. Jesus giving himself up to serve and then he will cite a paphitis, giving himself up to serve. And then Paul will cite himself even one more time how he gave himself up in chapter three to serve. That's a big idea in the book of Philippians, the idea of modeling. Paul is modeling the very thing that he is calling the Philippians to do. I'll give you a note or two as well from our reading. My desire, verse 23 is to depart. That's a colorful term. It is the term for a ship weighing anchor. Think about how that works here. And then of course verse 27 is the key verse. It's the verse from which we've got our summary statement. I love you so don't waiver, work together and imitate Christ. Finally, I would say that there is this business of citizenship. Verse 27, Only let your manner of life. And I talked about that a lot at the beginning of the podcast. But really Paul has the idea here of dual citizenship and the idea that Philippi, as one scholar said, is a colony of heaven. It's not just a colony of Rome, now it's a colony of heaven and they need to live as citizens of heaven. Finally, look at verse 30, engaged in the same conflict and then drop down and look at our reading tomorrow. Two, two complete my joy by being of the same mind and the same love. So hold on to the idea of same that plays tomorrow. I'll see you in our reading tomorrow from Philippians chapter two. It is Tuesday and today we're reading Philippians chapter two verses one to 11. This is an unbelievably powerful and incredible section of scripture, one of the most famous passages in all of the New Testament. And it is vast and wide and deep. It it, we could talk about it from now till the Lord comes and certainly not ever plum all that is being said here, particularly as it begins in verse five. What is important however is that we connect this to what's happening in Philippians. I do think sometimes this verse is so awe inspiring and so wonderful that we just examined it outside of the context of Philippians. We forget that this is here to call the Philippian brethren to unity. This must be attached to 1 27. I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. How can we do that? Give us an example of what that looks like. Here's that modeling idea again. Jesus did this. Jesus gave himself up. That's how. That's how we achieve unity. Unity comes when we are of the same mind and the same love. Two, two because we're involved in the same conflict. One 30, remember I asked you to hold onto that from yesterday. And so we do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, two, three, we count others more significant than yourselves. That's a tall order. Paul, tell me what that looks like. It looks like it looks like Jesus. And that's where this amazing section about Jesus and what he gave up to come here and die for us comes from. And that's what it's about. It's an illustration. It's an example of what Paul wants the Philippians and us to do so that we can be united. Pride and selfishness will destroy church unity faster than anything else. Jesus is the very opposite of that. And I guess I should say this probably this is a quotation from a hymn that the New Testament church was singing the style of Greek here and the rhythm is very different from Paul's ordinary writing. There is widespread agreement among scholars that this is some sort of hymn. And of course there's been lots of discussion about the particulars of it. For example, what did Jesus empty himself of? Verse seven, Of course we don't know because, because we can't even begin to understand what it is for deity to come here and take on a robo flash and live like verse seven, the likeness of men. Jesus wasn't a man but he was like a man. He looked like a man and he gave up whatever got in the way of omnipotent deity, the awesome God, whatever would get in the way of Jesus being able to come here and do that. That's what he gave up. And he, when he did that, he then was obedient. Obedient to who. I think that's obedient. Verse eight to the Father. And so verse nine, there's a shift in different field here as well. God has highly exalted him. The key again is for the Philippians to see what Jesus did is what I need to do. I need to give myself up. I need to be a servant of others. Jesus is the model that's a big part of Philippians. And I want to model myself after Jesus. So don't just read today's Bible reading and stand in awe of Jesus while that's I okay you. You're gonna stand in awe of Jesus. There's there's no way we're gonna read this and we're not just gonna fall on our face and worship the Lord so incredible that he would give up heaven and come here in the likeness of men to this dirty planet and live amongst us and not only live amongst us, but die for us. We are going to stand in awe of Jesus here, but then that has to drive us to different behavior. Let each of you look after not only his own interest, two, four, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus. Two, five. Be like Jesus, Give yourself up. Be a servant. That's what our Bible reading is pressing us for today. And that's where we need to go with our Bible reading in Philippians two as we start the chapter tomorrow. It's hump day Philippians chapter two versus 12 to 18. I'll see you on Wednesday. It is Wednesday and today we're reading Philippians chapter two verses 12 to 18. Not a long reading but a challenging reading because of what it calls for the Philippians and for us to do. Notice the emphasis on obedience as you have always obeyed. Verse 12, that needs to be tied to verse eight. Jesus obeyed. We need to obey. And part of that obedience here is going to be working out our own salvation. Now let's not get this all wrinkled up. We never can earn our salvation. The idea of working to merit or deserve. Hey God, look at all the good stuff that I did. Now you have to give me uh, eternity with you. You have to give me salvation. No, no, no, no, no. Don't go there can't happen. Won't happen. No way. We earn our salvation. But work here has the idea of bringing to completion. The idea is that we cannot save ourselves of course, but that we can and must live lives that show God's saving power at work in our lives as we respond to his great grace and mercy. CS Lewis, I'll share a quote with you here. CS Lewis has observed how these verses tie human effort and divine empowering together. In one text, the words warn against the view that says salvation comes solely of human effort. But they also warn against holding that divine grace is so overwhelming that humans need not exert the greatest effort in God's service. Amen and amen. And part of that working out then is spelled out. And the verses that follow don't grumble or dispute. We want to be blameless and innocent. We want to have the right kind of influence holding fast to the word of life. And then verse 17, Paul uses an expression for drink offering that we'll read again when we get over in second Timothy chapter four, where Paul feels very close to the end of his life. And I like verse 18. Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me. Paul, once again sounds an optimistic note of joy. This is the happiest of all of Paul's epistles. But here the joy comes from, from serving, from obedience. Christians need to be happy that they are in Christ and that they are serving the Lord. And if you're not, you need to be reading the book of Philippians and look at all the things that make us happy. I would suggest to you that Christians that are unhappy are Christians that won't last very long. Too many pressures, too many temptations, too many things going in our going wrong in our lives that will challenge our faith. If you're not glad to be a Christian, start in Philippians again and just start underlying all the places that say rejoice or something about joy or all the things that should make a Christian happy. Get to happiness. And by happiness here, I do mean that deep inner joy, that contentment. Be glad you are a Christian. You should be glad Paul says verse 18 And rejoice with me. See you tomorrow. We'll keep reading in this wonderful epistle. Welcome to Thursday. Today we read Philippians chapter two verses 19 to 30. We are completing Philippians two. It is easy to let our reading today sound like or become little more than a bunch of biographical details in Paul's life. That's a terrible mistake and it's one of the reasons why I'm so glad that we have this podcast so that we can read the Bible together because I want to relate this to the overall theme of Philippians. Paul continues to talk about not wavering in your faith and working together in unity and imitating Jesus. And what he sets forward here is two more examples of modeling Timothy models selflessness. Verse 21. They all seek their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not sure about this verse because we know from what we read later and from what we've read in Colossians and Philman that Mark AARs, Dimus and Luke are all with Paul. So how Paul says, I don't have anybody except Timothy who is selfless I, I can't exactly make head or tail out of that. Maybe all of those fellows were going somewhere else at the moment that Paul wrote this and he really didn't have anybody else but Timothy beside him. But the point is Timothy is modeling selfless service. The thing that he is calling on the Philippians to do and did call on them in yesterday's reading. And that Jesus, the great example and pattern is has shown us. Then of course he talks about a paphitis. What did a paphitis do? Well, he came to see Paul and he got really sick on that trip. In fact, he nearly died. He nearly did what Jesus did. Jesus died for us. A paphitis nearly died for us. And there's some language here that ties a paphitis to Jesus in verse 26. He's been longing for you all and was distressed because you heard that he was ill. The word distressed is a very strong word. It's only used in the New Testament of Jesus's distress and anguish in death. Seny. So here is a paphitis being like Jesus selfless service. Wow. The book of Philippians is incredible, particularly when viewed against the idea of selfless service being like Christ. That's what this book is about. Love seeing the book through that idea. Love this major theme. I love you. So don't waiver work together and imitate Jesus. I think that really helps us instead of reading this as some random fragments that are pretty famous. And you may have heard in a sermon from time to time, we are seeing the book as a whole, well nearly to chapter three. Let's try that tomorrow. I'll see you on Friday. It is Friday, you made it to the end of the week and we're reading Philippians 3, 1, 2 11. There is a enormous shift in tone here. This letter has been very warm and very friendly. And now suddenly we hear about verse two, Look out for the dogs. There are some problems here at Philippi. There is some false teaching going on. It is clearly judaizing teachers who are trying to bind the law of Moses on these new Christians trying to make them become part of Judaism. Instead of seeing Christianity as something new a a new way of relating to God that is open to both Jew and Gentile. Paul then will talk about of course, selflessness and giving self up. And he wants them to model that. Wow, how much have we talked about that already this week? He wants them to model that. So he talks about how verse four, he has given up so much. These false teachers want to talk about their accomplishments and flash their resume and talk about their credentials and look how impressive I am. And I've been to this school and I studied with this rabbi and aren't I somebody? And Paul says, if you wanna get in that game, I can get in that game. I've got some credentials, but I gave that op, if you wanna talk about human accomplishments and distinguishing yourself in the Jewish religion, nobody can match. The Apostle Paul. He gave that up. In fact, in verses eight to 11, that's a single sentence in the Greek. You can just hear Paul going 60 to miles an hour. He's dictating this and he is emphatic here. The term for rubbish in verse eight is a strong term that can refer to human waste or to unwanted food, to garbage. And he says all of that stuff doesn't amount to anything. All this human accomplishment, business showing your pedigree, showing your diploma, that doesn't amount to anything. What matters is that you know Jesus Christ. That is what counts. And I have given up all that. These false teachers are parading around putting so much stock in because I want to have a relationship with Christ. Philippians, you need to have relationship with Christ. So he's modeling how he emptied himself of status like Jesus did in chapter two versus five to nine. What Timothy has done, what a paphitis has done, he has done that because he wants to attain the resurrection of the dead. And I don't think by any means, verse 11, by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection. Don't read that as if Paul has doubts of out salvation. Absolutely not. It's just Paul being humble. It is not an expression of doubt. Well, there you go. That's a week's worth of reading in Philippians. And I am not certain I can remember any of our podcasts this year that were as important as this one because Philippians has all of this really famous stuff that gets isolated from the the overall message of the book of Philippians. And we read all that and we nod our head and say, Yeah, that's really cool. But we may not have put it all together. And I hope the podcast this week has helped you do precisely and exactly that. So thank you for listening. If you love the Monday Morning Coffee podcast, we certainly would like for you to subscribe or follow rate and give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening on. Mostly we would like for you to tell a friend about the show. That is what gets the podcast to more people. So until next week, I'm at the bottom of this cup of coffee. Now, I hope that your coffee today is delightful and that your Friday is wonderful and that the Lord will be with you today all day. I will see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP, B E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a company coffee, of course, on next Monday,

Sermon Notes
Monday Phil 1:21-30
Tuesday Phil 2:1-11
Wednesday Phil 2:12-18
Thursday Phil 2:19-30
Friday Phil 3:1-11