Questions 4:2-9 Week 9

Philippians 4:2-9

Questions Week 9

1.   What were some of the factors causing stress in the Philippian church?

2.   In verse 2 Paul pleads with Euodia and Syntyche “to agree with each other in the Lord.” What effect do you think their broken relationship was having on the rest of the church?

3.   What might a “loyal yokefellow” do to help these women?

4.   What should be your response to disagreements within your church or fellowship group?

5.   How can rejoicing help to defuse a stressful situation?

6.   How can gentleness be made “evident to all”(v.5)?

7.   What should be the role of prayer in our lives (vv. 6-7)?

8.   What results of prayer does Paul promise?

9.   How can true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy thoughts help cleanse our minds and restore our tranquility?

                              

                              

10.                What helps you control your thoughts?

11.                In verse 9 Paul tells us that the God of peace will be with us as we practice what we have learned. What have you learned in this passage that you need to put into practice?

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Philippians 3:7–11

⁷ But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. ^[1]

So Paul expresses that he has 5 goals:

Goal #1:

To know Christ

~to know him personally

Goal #2:

To know the power of the resurrection

~the power of the resurrected Christ that can be found in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit once we become believers. Paul wants a resurrected life.

Goal #3:

Share in His suffering

In order to share in Christ’s life and in His power we must share in His sufferings.

Goal #4:

Become like Him

Not only does Paul want to become like Him (die to sin) but he wants to daily be willing to die for Him.

Goal #5:

Attain resurrection

Dr. Tom Hale has this to say about this subject in his excellent commentary.

“If we have died with Christ (to sin) we will also rise with Him to live a new life. Just as Christ had to die to be resurrected we must die to sin in order to rise to new life in Him. In order to live a new life, our old sinful self must first be put to death, it must be put off (Ephesians 4:22-24). Then in place of the old self, we need a new mind and heart, a new spiritual self. To be united with Christ in His death means to die with Christ. To die is surely a painful and difficult experience. To give up one’s old life is not easy. Yet Paul makes this promise: If we die with Christ, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Many people acknowledge that Jesus is a great teacher, and the want to live a new life with Him. But they have no interest whatever in dying with Him! We say easily, “I’m a Christian”; but we need to ask ourselves: “Have I died with Christ?” Because if we have not died with Him-that is, if our old sinful self has not been put to death-we cannot receive new life in Him. And if we have not received new life in Him, how can we then say we are Christians?”

How then to die to self and pursue the holiness of Christ?

Paul likens the Christian life to a race. In my Bible the next section verses 12 and following is subtitled, “Pressing on toward the Goal.”

If our goals are to know Christ, know His power, share in His suffering, become like Him and attain resurrection, we need to go into training. Not that attaining resurrection can be earned or worked for. It is the consequence of a life surrendered to Jesus and lived for Him

So how does one train for a race?

Read 12-14.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Warren Wiersbe has given 5 “d”s to emphasize this section of scripture. The first “D” is:

1.   Dissatisfaction:

Paul recognizes that he isn’t there yet. He isn’t satisfied spiritually, he isn’t complacent, not resting on past accomplishments or conversions or persecutions or imprisonments. He doesn’t compare himself with others, he compares himself with Christ and because of that he knows that he has further to go.

The mature Christian knows that the Holy Spirit is faithful to point out areas where growth is needed. But in order for that to happen you must stay in the Word.

The second “D” necessary for training is devotion.

2.   Devotion:

“This one thing I do”

He recognizes the need to focus in on what is important in his own particular race….this one thing I do. Paul has learned the importance of specializing. He is very intentional about where and how he spends his time and effort.

In an athlete’s life they specialize. They aren’t concerned with being well rounded.

Tiger Woods is concerned with his golf game, not how good he is from the foul line in basketball.

A cellist is focused on her instrument, not whether or not she can play a violin concerto,

A teacher of history becomes proficient in history and forgets what math she may have learned.

The believer must focus on running the Christian race. Like Nehemiah when they were rebuilding the wall said, I am rebuilding the wall, I cannot come down.

And James 1:8 says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Hebrews 12:1-3

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

In these passages we hear words like throw off and run with perseverance, we hear Paul say straining toward what is ahead. He presses on…

Dr. Hale has this to say,

“Paul is not a passive Christian; he is actively-strenuously-pursuing the goal of becoming like Christ. Many Christians are confused about this point. They say: “Everything is by God’s grace. Not only is our justification by God’s grace, but also our sanctification. Just as fruit ripens on a tree, so will we become like Christ. We don’t need to strive and struggle.” In saying this, Christians are in part correct. It is indeed correct to say that all is by grace, and that we do not need to strive and struggle on our own strength. However, there is another side to the truth-a side which Paul presents in these verses. Men are not quite like fruit on a tree. Fruits submit naturally to the ripening process; men do not. Men must actively submit to God and obey Him; they must actively throw off everything that hinders…and run with perseverance the race marked for them. The Christian life is a race and we must run it. No one ever won a race by sitting on the sideline.”

The third necessity of training is:

3.   Direction:

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”

The unsaved person could be controlled by the past, but the Christian running the race looks toward the future. How many a race has been lost when the athlete/runner looks back to see how he/she is doing.

This is one of the reasons blinders are put on racehorses; so that they maintain their direction.

The word, “forget” here does not mean, fail to remember. To forget in the Bible means “no longer influenced by or affected by.”

When God promises,

“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more (Hebrews 10:17),

 He is not suggesting that He will conveniently have a bad memory; He is saying that I will no longer hold their sins against them. Their sins can no longer affect their standing with me or influence my attitude toward them.

So forgetting what is behind means that we break the power of the past by living for the future.

We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning of the past.

You know there were things in Paul’s past that could have disabled him but he didn’t allow that to happen.

Too many Christians are shackled with regrets of the past. They are trying to run the race by looking backward! No wonder they stumble and fall. Some Christian runners are even distracted by past successes and live on the laurels of the past. The danger is that they stop running the race in the present.

It is possible to have dissatisfaction, devotion and direction and still lose the race and the reward. The fourth is essential.

4.   Determination:

“straining toward what is ahead” I press on”

                                                           I

I press on, the same verb is translated “I follow after”

It gives the idea of intense endeavor.

No one wins a race by reading about running or watching training videos. No one wins a race by reading books of others that have run successful races and gone onto victory. The only way you win a race is by training with determination and focus and then:

Get into the race.

5.   Discipline:

Every athlete knows that you need to go into strict training before competition. There are rules that must be followed. We have all heard of athletes that win competitions but then are disqualified for the prize because some rules of the game have been broken.

We also have game rules to follow. We also could be disqualified for the prize. Not to lose our salvation, but to lose the prizes that will be awarded in heaven for the life lived in this body.

I just want to make a few comments about the remainder of this chapter:

¹⁷ Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! ^[2]

                          

We are to remember that we are examples to those around us. Just as Paul was an example to the Philippians, so we are examples to a watching world. (Saved and Unsaved)

Paul is so connected to Christ that he is broken hearted for the lost; “the enemies of the cross of Christ.”

He goes on to describe what that looks like:

Destiny is destruction~

        ~not just eternal destruction but earthly destruction as well.

God is their stomach

        ~they are concerned with pleasing their senses, not just with food but with anything else that pleases them: sensual pleasures, they serve their own desires and appetites.

“If it feels good do it.”

Glory is in their shame

Bragging about their sinful exploits

“I got so wasted last night”

Bragging about sexual exploits

Their mind is on earthly things

If they have no hope for heaven then they are trying to make this heaven on earth and that is what they are pursuing.

Summary:

What are you pursuing?

          ~is your mind set on things of God or things of this world?

Have you entered the race or are you sitting on the sidelines?

          ~reading books about the Christian life or focused on knowing God?

Have you gone into training or waiting until you have more time?

(Today is the day of salvation)

Are you willing to surrender it all?

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

Have you died with Christ so that you can live fully with Him?

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Questions Week 8 Philippians 3:12-4:1

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Week 8

1. What have been your 2 or 3 primary goals and what have you done to achieve them?

2. Paul compares his quest for heaven to a race. What are the similarities?

3. How can looking back distract us from running the Christian race?

4. What is behind you that you need to forget in order to strain toward the things ahead?

5. What are you presently doing that could be described as “straining toward heaven”?

6. Why is Paul so confident about his views?

7. In verse 17 Paul is like a coach calling his team to follow his example. Summarize the tips the coach has given us in this passage.

8. Read Matthew 13:44-46. Why are the people in these parables so willing to sell all that they have?

9. What might you have to sell in order to gain the pearl?

10.In what specific ways can you begin to follow Paul’s example more fully?

Prayer Requests:

Philippians 3:1-11

On what basis do people believe they will go to heaven?

~church attendance

~baptism

~ministry/service

~history

~Bible knowledge

~good works

Read verses 1-6:

“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh-though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

Paul has so much concern for the church at Philippi that he wants to make sure that they are on their guard against false teaching.

One of the problems facing the church of that day were Jews that had accepted Jesus teaching but that felt that they were somehow more complete because they had been circumcised as God had commanded according to the Abrahamic covenant. So they were encouraging other gentile believers to be circumcised as well.

Paul uses an interesting turn of phrase here. He refers to false teachers as dogs and that is what Jews would commonly refer to Gentiles as, gentile dogs, but here he turns the table and calls false teachers dogs to make a point. He also calls them mutilators of the flesh. A colorful phrase to describe circumcision.

Paul attacks this thinking head-on.

He describes 4 attributes that should be exhibited by all believers.

1. “We who are the circumcision”

What does he mean by this?

The Jewish nation began with Abraham when God chose Abraham to start a dynasty of a chosen nation. When God entered into covenant with Abraham the proof of the relationship was that on the eighth day after birth a Jewish male was to be circumcised. The significance of this was that this life was being set apart for God. When Jesus came He said He didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Therefore circumcision was no longer necessary. Jesus began a new covenant with believers. He says that during the last supper. That he has established a new covenant.

So what circumcision is Paul referring to if not to the Old Testament circumcision?

Let’s take a look at Romans 2:25-29

^“25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. ²⁶ So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? ²⁷ The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the^[a] written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

 ²⁸ A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”

What Paul is trying to get them to see is that the act of circumcision alone had little to do with true relationship with God, it was an outward sign of relationship but unless they were evidencing their heart relationship with God with their actions, their circumcision was of no real value.

Man looks on the outside but God looks on the heart. Just as a circumcised Jew is only a real Jew if he is one from the heart so is a Christian a real Christian if he is one from the heart.

What is a circumcised heart?

A circumcision of the heart is done through the power of the Holy Spirit and it is a cutting away of the sin and evil in our hearts.

So the first attribute that should be present in all believers is:

1. A circumcised heart.

A heart that has accepted the gift of salvation and a heart that is fully yielded to God, His will and His way.

The second attribute of a believer is those who:

2. Worship by the Spirit.

1Peter 2:9 says it this way:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

3. Glory in Christ Jesus.

4.  Put no confidence in the flesh.

Hebrews 4:15 says: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name.”

Do you know how rare it is for someone to give credit to someone else when they are praised? Our sin nature would like to take all that praise and glory for ourselves. But our circumcised heart recognizes that all that needs to go to God. For it is God who wills in us to work for His good pleasure.

I think this whole section can be summarized by Galatians 6:12-15:

“Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”

What counts is a new creation.

Those are weighty words.

A Circumcised heart, worship by the Spirit, glory in Christ Jesus and no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in our own righteousness. No confidence in our works, our church attendance, our heritage, our history, our baptism, our walking forward during an altar call.

Paul goes on to talk about if anyone could have confidence in the flesh it would be him. He had it all, Jewishly speaking. But he recognizes that it was of no value.

He willingly gave up his position for Christ. He goes on to say that he gives up everything for Christ.

Let’s read together.

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

“Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law…”

What is the difference of a righteousness that comes from the law and a righteousness that comes from God?

Law: depends on me

        I get the glory

        Insecure reward

God: depends on Him

        He gets the glory

        Secure reward

There is nothing on this earth more valuable than knowing Jesus Christ personally. Nothing else can give a person salvation and eternal life. Only by knowing and accepting Christ as our personal Savior can we obtain salvation.

I heard an illustration that may help you picture this.

Imagine a boat. The boat is loaded with valuable goods. The boat is crossing the sea when a great storm comes up. The boat begins to sink. What must the sailors in the boat do to be saved? They must throw all those valuable goods overboard. Yes, the goods are valuable; but because of the weight of the goods, the boat is sinking and the men are about to drown. In the same way, Paul has had to “throw overboard” all his old religious goods so that He might gain Christ.

What are you hanging onto?

What are you afraid to throw out of the boat?

Paul is so single-minded in his desire that he says in verses 10,11:

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead.”

Paul’s desire is to so know Jesus that he is willing to even share in His suffering. He is not only willing to outwardly suffer trouble and persecution but also willing to die to self, die to the sin nature. That is what he means about attaining the resurrection of the dead.

How does one become this single-minded?

Application:

See if you can identify things/people/circumstances/dreams/desires that you are hanging onto that may be interfering with single-minded pursuit of Jesus.

What are some ways that you can be more intentional in your relationship with Him?

Challenge Questions:
What steals your joy? As you find yourself "losing it" try to determine what is stealing your joy and start a Joy Stealers List.
What are you hanging onto that is interfering with your relationship with Christ?
How can you become more intentional in your relationship with Him?

Let it snow, but maybe not on Tuesdays!

Hi Ladies,
Another snowy Tuesday! We did have Bible Study today for the brave (or crazy) women who made it. There were about 20 of us there, a small more intimate time. It was actually quite peaceful once we got started and then we broke into 2 discussion groups. Please take some time to look at my notes, particularly at the end because I have some challenge questions for you to consider. Lord willing (and I mean that) we will be together again to study the Word next time. Please pray for Kristen Allen as she prepares the teaching for us. I will be there but am excited to hear what God puts on paper for Kristen to share!
Cindy

Philippians 3:1-11 Week 7 Questions

Philippians 3:1-11

Week 7 Questions

Read Philippians 3:1-11

1.   What factors under your control prevent your days from being joyful?

2.   What has Paul found that brings joy and what has he found that destroys joy?

3.   What would the old Paul have been like as a friend? (vv. 4-6)

4.   In verse 6 Paul speaks of legalistic “righteousness.” What legalisms are today’s Christians pressured to keep?

5.   What is the danger of legalism as far as knowing Christ and having joy?

6.   What are Paul’s goals in life?

7.   How are suffering and death involved in helping us know Christ? (v. 10).

8.   How has following Christ been costly for you?

9.   Philippians 3:7-11 seems to characterize Paul’s life and could be seen as his life purpose. If you were to sum up your life purpose, what would you say?

10.                 If you haven’t already done so, prayerfully consider adopting a life verse. Commit it to memory. Share with your small group.

Prayer Requests: