Oxford Bible Church - Living in the Last Days (audio)

Paul compares our pursuit of Christ in this life to an athletic race where the runners give their whole concentration and effort to reaching their goal and receiving their prize. We discuss why the pursuit of Christ to know Him is also necessarily the pursuit of Christ-likeness - the more we are like Him, the more we can be one with Him.

Paul refutes the idea that sinless perfection is possible in this life, which means whatever level of spiritual maturity we have reached, we are not to settle on our laurels, and just coast along, but to keep pressing on to know Christ more and lay hold of Him and experience more of His grace, wisdom, life and power.

We discuss what it means to forget our past failures and successes, so that we can fully focus on Christ and give our all in the present moment to fulfilling His will and purpose for our lives, so that after completing our race, we may receive His reward, when we are called upward to stand before His Judgment Seat. This is the mature mindset that Paul tells us we need to have (v15).

Christ pursued us in love from Heaven to earth and accomplished our salvation through His death and resurrection (2:5-11), and now we must respond to His offer of salvation.

First, we must receive Him and His righteousness as a free-gift, which is the only firm foundation for our salvation and eternal life. Having received Christ's love and assurance, we should now return His love by pursuing Him in order to know and experience Him more. Possessing something legally is not the same as experiencing and enjoying it. Likewise, we possess every spiritual blessing of grace in Christ, but we can only appropriate His grace by drawing close to Him

In these verses, Paul describes His personal pursuit of Christ, and how he was willing to forsake all other things, in order to gain more of Christ, because of the surpassing excellence of knowing Him. In particular, Paul desired to continually experience the overcoming resurrection life of Christ empowering Him to overcome sin and walk in victory. This involves rejecting all idols - the covetous lusts of the flesh and eyes, and the self-idolatry of pride (1John 2:15) - an idol is anything we value more than Christ and His Presence in us.

Being a Christian means having a loving relationship with the Lord, rejoicing in Him and trusting in His grace, having no confidence in the flesh.

We discuss the dangers of legalism and why it is an evil counterfeit of the true Gospel. Christ alone and His righteousness is the only sure foundation for our salvation, but legalism causes people to look to themselves and trust in themselves and their own law-keeping to establish themselves before God, and in so doing they cut themselves off from the grace of God. Legalism also causes people to focus on outward performance (which we can control to an extent), at the expense of inward Christlike attitudes, which only Christ can produce in us by His grace.

Paul shares from his own experience, having come from a life of legalism, how he had a perfect pedigree and performance as a self-righteous law-keeping Pharisee. If any one had a basis to have confidence in the flesh, Paul did, and yet he came to realise that all his self-righteousness had no value before God, in fact it was a big negative.

A discussion between Howard Condor, Hugh Jackman and Derek Walker concerning the identity of the 2 witnesses. Pastor Derek makes the case that they are Moses and Elijah.

In these verses, Paul gives us 3 biographical illustrations of what it means to have the attitude of Christ, in His submission to God and thinking of others and serving them by putting them first.

(1) Paul, himself, who was willing to lay down his life in martyrdom as a drink offering, to deepen their faith by his example (v17-18).

(2) Timothy, who was most like Paul in sincerely caring for the Philippians, rather than seeking his own advancement (v19-24).

(3) Epaphroditus, who risked his own life for the work of Christ, in order to fulfil His God-given mission to bring aid to Paul in prison (v25-30).

An overview of Philippians shows that each chapter reveals who Christ is to us: (1) Christ, our Life, (2) Christ, our Mind (Attitude), (3) Christ, our Goal and (4) Christ, our Strength.

We see how the classic passage of Christ's humility (v5-11) is not just given to us as our example, but describes His loving pursuit of us, bringing about our salvation, so that we can become New Creations in Him, with Christ indwelling us, enabling us to have His mind and live like Him. Although we do not work FOR our salvation, we are to work OUT our salvation, in submission to His leadership and trusting in His grace.

We are Temples of the Holy Spirit, and God wants to work in and through us to His glory. He works in us to desire and will His good pleasure, and He empowers us to fulfil His purposes. The first earthly Temple, the Garden of Eden, gives a vivid illustration of how God's Spirit wants to flow through us. God calls us to shine as lights in a dark world, holding forth His Word, with purified hearts and blameless lives.

We take another look at this awesome passage, by comparing it to how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in John 13. We see how in John 13, Jesus acted out the whole drama of salvation, from beginning to end, revealing His humility, and that His motivation for humbling Himself was His love for us. We see how this foot-washing passage is an exact step by step parallel to Paul's great passage in Philippians, so much so, that it is likely that Paul was thinking of the foot-washing, when he wrote Philippians 2:5-11. By comparing Philippians 2:5-11 to John 13, much extra light is shed upon this awesome description of Christ's humility.

Finally, we study Christ's exaltation to the highest place in Philippians 2:9-11, when He received the Name above all names, the prime example of the principle that humility results in exaltation. When Jesus was exalted, the Father restored to Him the full manifestation of His eternal glory (John 17:5), and also His human nature was glorified, and this is the basis of our future glorification, since we are in union with Christ, through His human nature. The day is coming when every being in Heaven, earth and under the earth will bow their knee to Christ, and confess that He is Lord (which is another proof of His Deity - see Isaiah 45:22-23, Romans 14:10-12). What does this mean for those who have rejected Him? What will it be like for them in Hell?

The new revised and expanded edition of this book by Derek Walker is available from all Amazons internationally, and also from www.oxfordbiblechurch.co.uk. See also my 5-part Youtube Series: The Imminent Invasion of Israel

Russia's recent attack on Ukraine changes the world-situation and helps set the stage for the fulfilment of Ezekiel 38-39 - an amazing End-Time Prophecy about a massive Invasion of Israel from the far north, led by Russia and supported by a number of Islamic nations, including Iran. This massive invasion will result in one of the greatest ever Divine Interventions, as God moves in Judgement. The result will be great and world-wide political, religious and spiritual changes. Learn how everything has just now come perfectly into place for these dramatic events to happen. In other words, they are now imminent (they could happen at any time)! It is essential that believers are ready, for when the God of the Bible reveals His Mighty Power to all nations in obvious fulfilment of Prophecy, we will have a wonderful opportunity to lead many to Christ.

In order to inspire the Philippians to have an attitude of humility before God, serving others and putting their needs and interests before our own, Paul gives us the supreme example of our Lord Jesus. This awesome passage, a holy of holies of Scripture, reveals how Christ, who is fully God, humbled Himself completely in order to accomplish our salvation, revealing His inward attitude and motivation, resulting in His outward obedience.

We take a detailed look at the 7 sequential steps of His self-humbling, followed by His exaltation by God, the Father.

When the glory of Christ's infinite love and humility is revealed to our heart, it will kill all our pride and empty glory. This passage reveals the Gospel of Christ's amazing love for us. Knowing that our salvation was accomplished through His love and humility, in which He put our needs before His welfare, now that we have received Christ and His salvation, we are called to live worthy of this Gospel of Christ, knowing that the Spirit of Christ is now working within us to enable us to will and to do His good pleasure (2:12-13). In particular, we are to put away selfish ambition and instead walk in love, putting the needs and interests of others before our own.

Having emphasised the need for unity in the Church, in Philippians 2:1-4 the apostle Paul urges them to use the divine resources at their disposal to strengthen their unity through humility. He contrasts the 2 ways that we can relate to each other in the Body of Christ: (1) pride, selfish ambition and vain conceit (me first) - the way of satan, which brings strife, or (2) in humility considering others before ourselves - the way of Christ - which brings peace and unity. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.