Family Chapel

As we come to the end of our series through the book of Philippians, we are brought again to the major theme of the entire letter: fellowship in the Gospel. As Paul gives his final greetings, we see three core realities of what fellowship in the Gospel looks like: (1) we share salvation in the Gospel, (2) we share a humble unity in the Gospel, and (3) we share a partnership to advance the Gospel. In other words, our fellowship in the Gospel means that we are saints, we are family, and we're on mission - all by grace.

As Paul wraps up his letter to the Philippians, he thanks his friends for their generous support and takes some time to encourage them to rightly handle money. In this passage, Paul gives two general guidelines of good stewardship: satisfaction in Jesus and sacrifice for Jesus. When we are satisfied in Christ, we will see that Jesus is enough in our need and enough in our abundance. And when we sacrifice for Jesus, we will see that generous giving is for Kingdom work, is for our own growth, is an act of worship, and is a response to God's generosity. May we be good stewards of God's gifts!

When it comes to sharing life together in the church, conflict is not a question of “if” but of “when”. But how are we to resolve conflict? Instead of faking peace or breaking peace, we are called to move towards making peace. And here, Paul gives us five steps of peace making: commence with adoration, check your attitude, combat your anxiety, center your attention, and commit to action. As those who have received peace from Christ, we are called to make peace with other Christians.

Christians find themselves living in a weird in-between time period, where on the one hand, they are saved in Christ, but on the other hand, they have not yet fully experienced salvation. Theologians call this in-between time period the "already-not yet". And in this time period, we may feel this tension that says: "I'm already in God's Kingdom, so why should I exert any effort?" And so, we may find ourselves not really pursuing after Christ. But in our passage, we'll see that in this already-not yet period, Christians should press into godly dissatisfaction and press on towards God’s Kingdom completion. They can press in and press on by running behind mentors and keeping their eyes on the prize. 

Our passage is on Philippians 3:1-11. Here, Paul begins a new section, and talks to the church about the issue of false Jewish teachers who are advocating circumcision of the flesh as a requirement to be accepted as God’s people. We will see through Paul that it is not anything in the flesh which determines who has access to God, but only those who place their full confidence in Christ and walk by the Spirit. There is nothing in ourselves worth boasting about; our greatest confidence in life comes from knowing Christ Jesus.

With this passage, we see what godly Christian leaders look like. They look like Jesus, in that godly leaders are selfless and godly leaders are sacrificial. And in response to the godly leaders we have in our lives, we are are to rejoice over them and we are to honor them.

With this passage, we see that as Christians, we are to pursue sanctification by our effort through God's power. And we pursue sanctification in order to brightly stand out before the world and to rightly stand up before Christ.