-Our Purpose is to live for Christ-

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Christians experience paradoxical responses to life’s trials because Jesus told us it would be so.

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Luke 6:22 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Luke 6:23 “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.

Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

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Note: Jesus said we should be glad when the world attacks us because of our faith in Jesus. Conversely, Jesus said woe to us when we are loved by the world. It’s paradoxical, and yet it’s easily explainable when you see things from Jesus’ perspective. What is His perspective? It means adopting an eternal perspective, recognizing we’re just passing through this life; it’s our next one that truly counts. We want to put everything in this world to work for the sake of the next, including our trials. Everything that happens to us and around us can be useful to God and to us for the sake of the Kingdom. Therefore, our mission is to respond to life’s twists and turns in ways that maximize our obedience and God’s glory.

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Phil. 1:1- Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.

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The author of this letter is, of course, the Apostle Paul. We all know that name, and many of us know Paul’s history. Paul, otherwise known as Saul, began his ministry career as a zealous, law keeping Pharisee. In Acts 7, Luke tells us that while the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was dying for his faith, Paul watched and approved. Watching Stephen dying for his faith triggered something inside self-righteous Paul and he became obsessed with wiping out Christianity. For the next several years, Paul embarked on a ruthless campaign to hunt down and eliminate believers in Jesus. He traveled far and wide arresting professing Christians, resulting in many being stoned to death. His name was feared among Christians throughout the empire, but Jewish leaders heartily approved his efforts.

Then during one such journey to arrest Christians in Damascus, Jesus Himself appeared to Paul on the road and arrested him, so to speak. From that day onward, Jesus insisted Paul serve a different cause. Paul flipped from seeking to wipe out Christianity to working tirelessly to advance the movement of the Gospel into the world. Paul’s transition was such an abrupt change that many in the Church debated whether Paul could truly be trusted. Years later, Paul was still defending his apostleship to believers in the face of false accusations and unfounded suspicions.

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Paul’s first experience in Philippi taught him how to see his present circumstances in Rome from a better perspective. God made Paul and Silas to suffer for a time in the Philippian jail so they could be in a position to reach the jailer with the Gospel, and because Paul was able to convert the jailer and his family, Paul was able to found the Philippian church. Paul began the church and the saints were now in a position to provide support and encouragement to Paul in Rome. God used trial and suffering in Paul’s life to further the Kingdom mission, and nowhere was that better illustrated than in Philippi. Understanding that connection between Paul’s confinement in Philippi with his arrest in Rome is key to following this letter; which leads us into Paul’s supplication for the church.

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Phil. 1:2- Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The central idea of the letter is simply, Christ is everything……..

Note:  Every reason we have to live, to strive, to suffer and to excel, is for the purpose of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Christ is everything in life. Apart from our Kingdom mission, our lives have no meaning and no purpose. Without Christ at the center of our life, nothing we achieve or become will last or mean anything in the end. When we make our life a tool in God’s hands to bring many sons and daughters to glory, then we find meaning, joy and peace. The letter’s main idea is that Christ is everything in life, and Paul breaks this truth down into four parts:

Chapter 1: Our purpose is to live for Christ.

Chapter 2: Our attitude is thinking like Christ.

Chapter 3: Our rewards are coming from Christ.

Chapter 4: Our satisfaction is in serving Christ.

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Let’s take a few steps toward understanding every Christian’s goal: living for Christ, which Paul begins very simply:

Phil. 1:3- I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

Phil. 1:4- always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,

Phil. 1:5- in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.