Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In this section of his letter Paul instructs his readers in the church in Philippi about important areas of their spiritual lives in light of the fact that the King is coming. He had reminded them at the close of chapter 3 of this great future reality, that Jesus would return and change their humiliated bodies and make them like his glorious body. In a way similar to how a resident in Philippi would prepare for the coming of the Emperor, so the believers should prepare for the arrival of Jesus.  Perhaps preparation in the city would involve tidying up the streets and removing unsightly objects. The believers should also remove unsightly features and develop beautiful replacements. Paul has already mentioned one unsightly element (the disharmony between Euodia and Syntyche) which they had had to remove, both individually as far as the two ladies were concerned and corporately as far as the ones who were to help them. Unity is essential as preparation for the coming of the Ki...

George Muller said on one occasion about Jesus, ‘I, by His grace, know Him, and find in Him such satisfaction and I know there is in Him such love to me that my soul is satisfied with Him.’ Obviously, that is a comment that describes profound Christian experience. Yet it also describes normal Christian experience. The difference between knowing Jesus and knowing others has been explained in different ways. It is possible to know about someone and not know them. When we get to know them, we discover their imperfections. In contrast, when we get to know Jesus, we discover his perfections. And the more that we know him, the greater our awareness of his perfections. The first reason is because eternal life means to know Jesus as well as the Father. We are familiar with what Jesus said in his prayer recorded in John 17:2: ‘And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’ This statement tells us of the dignity of Jesus as...

This famous passage is often called The Great Commission, which in some ways is an unusual title because Jesus also gave other commissions to his disciples during the period between his resurrection and ascension that run along similar lines. It is also obvious that Jesus is not speaking initially to all his followers here, but only to his eleven disciples who went into all the world with special authority from Jesus. Matthew does not tell us when this event took place. It could not have been the day of his ascension because he ascended from a place in Judea and not from Galilee. Matthew does not mention the ascension of Jesus here, although elsewhere in his Gospel he refers to Jesus leaving his disciples, going to heaven, and returning from there. All that can be said is that at some stage during the forty days Jesus went to Galilee and that there his disciples met him. It has often been pointed out that there are four ‘alls’ in this closing statement of Jesus. He has all aut...

This verse closes the previous set of verses as Paul encourages his readers to stand fast in the Lord. Yet the verse also serves as an introduction to what follows the verse because he provides guidance on how they should stand fast. In the previous verses he reminded his readers in Philippi that they already belonged to the heavenly city, and were waiting for their King to come and bless them with glorified bodies. An earthly illustration would be the citizens of Philippi waiting for a visit from the Roman Emperor and expecting to receive from him a great favour. If they had known he was coming, they would have made preparations for his arrival. So Paul tells his readers how they should prepare for the arrival of the King, their Saviour Jesus Christ. Happy family We cannot help but notice the strong contrast between how Paul regards the Philippian believers and how he regards the false teachers that he has just described. Both descriptions are very graphic: the false teache...

We all know that there are significant days, whether in the lives of individuals, or in the progress of companies, or in the situation of countries. Getting married brings many changes to the persons involved, acquisitions bring alterations to the ways that companies promote themselves, and treaties affect how countries move ahead. There can be significant days in the life of the church which have had their consequences. We come in this service to think about an event that has had global consequences as far as time is concerned and cosmic consequences as far as eternity is concerned. The event is the resurrection of Jesus. The only place where we can discover the significance of the resurrection is in the Bible and different aspects of it are mentioned in the four Gospels. Each account highlights different features of what took place on that significant occasion. Matthew’s approach seems to connect the resurrection of Jesus with a later gathering in Galilee because both the angel ...

In this set of verses, Paul calls on his readers in Philippi to a consistent lifestyle. He wants those Christians to express unity and he mentions how they can maintain and develop it. First, they must have the same standard (the same rule); secondly, they must have the same attitude (humility); and thirdly, they must have the same examples to imitate. The rule that they must live by is to do everything for Christ, the attitude they are to have is Christ’s humility, and the examples they are to follow are Christ’s people, particularly the apostles. We are not to think that Paul was being proud when he said that he was an example to follow. The reality is that each of us is an example: we are either an example to follow or an example to avoid. Every Christian should be an example to follow. They should not allow themselves to become bad examples. While they will never be perfect examples of grace in action, they should be credible examples in all areas of what Jesus has done in the...