back to indexWed Bible Study Philippians Lesson 10
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What I'm going to do is read Philippians 3 starting from verse 7, okay? 00:00:10.440 |
Just so that we review the previous passage and portion, and also because reading it in 00:00:17.360 |
its kind of like broader context will help us get a better feel of the tone, okay? 00:00:25.300 |
Because I realize sometimes, you know, when I read the passage, I've got this very kind 00:00:31.960 |
But, you know, you guys know this passage is so powerful, right? 00:00:45.680 |
But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake 00:00:52.000 |
More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing 00:00:57.240 |
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but 00:01:03.440 |
rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness 00:01:08.980 |
of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness 00:01:17.680 |
Not that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering 00:01:24.120 |
being conformed to His death, nor that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 00:01:29.320 |
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so 00:01:34.640 |
that I may lay hold of that for which also I was hold of by Christ Jesus. 00:01:40.720 |
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. 00:01:45.740 |
One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I 00:01:51.480 |
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 00:01:56.480 |
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if anything you have 00:02:01.640 |
a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. 00:02:05.040 |
However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. 00:02:09.920 |
Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern 00:02:16.720 |
For many walk of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies 00:02:22.600 |
of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory 00:02:28.380 |
is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 00:02:32.540 |
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await for a Savior, the Lord 00:02:38.180 |
Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the 00:02:43.880 |
body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things 00:02:53.480 |
Lord, we want to thank you, God, so much for the exhortation in your scripture, and we 00:03:00.880 |
also hear just the encouragement that we find from God for people to have confidence in 00:03:08.600 |
you, for us to have great trust in your power, and just to know, Father God, that you have 00:03:15.000 |
caused us to be something entirely different than we were before. 00:03:19.640 |
God, we want to thank you and pray that knowing these things would not be intellectual truths, 00:03:25.920 |
but rather, God, that they would be things that we carry both in our minds and in our 00:03:30.920 |
hearts, affecting, Father God, even our attitudes, affecting our decisions in every way that 00:03:39.760 |
God, we want to thank you for this study, and pray, God, that you'd be with us. 00:03:45.960 |
Okay, so I wanted to give some various introductory remarks, okay? 00:03:54.840 |
And number one is that this is a very strong exhortation to follow His example, and part 00:04:02.080 |
of the reason why I read the whole section was because the whole tone just before was 00:04:09.400 |
I lay aside everything, forgetting what is behind. 00:04:12.560 |
I'm straining towards the upward call that He's given me, and then He says, "Follow 00:04:19.880 |
So to say that this is a strong exhortation is kind of an understatement. 00:04:23.520 |
I mean, man, if there was ever kind of an epic speech, so to speak, right? 00:04:29.600 |
If there was ever a coach's like monologue, this would be one of those, yeah? 00:04:35.760 |
This would be one of those moments, and what He gives is this strong, strong exhortation 00:04:40.840 |
for everything that He's set up in terms of His mentality, everything that He's set up 00:04:45.760 |
in terms of His perspective on life, the faith that He practices, and He says, "Join me," 00:04:53.560 |
So there's a huge exhortational flavor to this entire passage. 00:04:58.160 |
What's more, what I wanted to say is in verse 17 to 21, I'm sure one of the things that 00:05:02.680 |
you guys saw was a massive comparison, right? 00:05:06.880 |
Kind of literary structure is that He was comparing, and then in His comparison, there 00:05:11.360 |
are the enemies of the cross, and He lists one, two, three, four, five different things. 00:05:17.400 |
And then He says, "But for us," and then He lists, "Da, da, da, da, da, these are true 00:05:22.320 |
And so whenever you do that, it's a great moment in your Bible study to say, "Okay, 00:05:26.400 |
I need to understand this comparison in its whole, and then what is the thrust of that 00:05:34.680 |
If He's going to give this comparison, there's also a point to be made. 00:05:41.200 |
And so that's one of the introductory comments that I wanted to make. 00:05:45.120 |
But one of the connection of that is if you review verses 1 through 16, that comparison 00:05:55.120 |
Even in the previous section, even before that. 00:05:57.840 |
But again, the literary structure-wise, there was a big comparison and contrast between 00:06:04.320 |
Okay, what I'd like to do is give you a basic outline of the way that I divided up this 00:06:10.720 |
And the way I did it was verse 17 was clear, a very obvious commandment to follow and observe, 00:06:18.680 |
And then in verse 19 are the warnings about the enemies, and then in verse 20 and 21 is 00:06:23.400 |
the contrast about us as citizens, okay, us as citizens. 00:06:28.120 |
So that's just a brief outline that I've created there for you guys. 00:06:32.880 |
Let's jump into that first section then, the command to follow, okay? 00:06:37.560 |
Because we had a nice short section this round, notice how I took some extra time to divide 00:06:46.080 |
And what I have here is He has the address brethren, which is just a sweet, again, He's 00:06:51.280 |
kind of mentioned it multiple times to them, He called them brethren multiple times. 00:06:55.240 |
But the commands are very clear, there's two there, join in following my example and observe 00:07:02.000 |
Now what I'm going to say to you is I believe both are very important, okay? 00:07:08.920 |
But first, let's talk a little bit about how He is calling them to join in following His 00:07:16.400 |
And what's really interesting is in many other areas of the Scriptures, Paul has exhorted 00:07:24.000 |
I want to give you a couple of these passages. 00:07:26.800 |
For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, he says this, "I exhort you, be imitators of 00:07:35.560 |
For this reason, I send to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, 00:07:40.240 |
and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every 00:07:46.760 |
Now what's really interesting then is Apostle Paul had a pattern church to church. 00:07:53.040 |
Here to the church in Corinth, and again, what we're studying in here in the book of 00:07:57.120 |
Philippians, he has taught the Scriptures day in, day out. 00:08:02.760 |
He has then modeled and said, "Follow me," and then he even sent other individuals to 00:08:07.960 |
make sure that they're following through in the instruction. 00:08:11.480 |
Here's another passage for you, 2 Thessalonians 3. 00:08:14.800 |
"For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act 00:08:19.760 |
in an undisciplined manner among you, nor do we eat anyone's bread without paying for 00:08:24.120 |
it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden 00:08:30.560 |
So not only just the spiritual sacrifice of teaching gospel, Apostle Paul exemplified 00:08:37.960 |
Verse 9, "Not because we do not have the right to do this, but in order to offer ourselves 00:08:42.600 |
as a model for you so that you would follow our example." 00:08:50.200 |
"Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings 00:08:55.080 |
of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock 00:08:59.760 |
of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily according 00:09:05.560 |
to the will of God and not for sore gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it 00:09:10.840 |
over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock." 00:09:18.400 |
I just want to make a quick side comment there, which is, you know, whenever like I think 00:09:25.160 |
about, oh yeah, you know, placing people in leadership, or whenever I think about even 00:09:30.160 |
the general topic of leadership, there's a lot to say. 00:09:34.560 |
I sometimes read articles that say, you know what leadership is? 00:09:38.440 |
When you can speak, vision cast, let people see, all that kind of stuff, okay. 00:09:46.960 |
It's when you just keep going, like people have so many different definitions of leadership. 00:09:52.160 |
Well here's one that is very clear from the Bible, right? 00:09:57.400 |
When an individual can model a pattern of faith, when an individual is exemplary, when 00:10:05.960 |
an individual is already shown to look at the scriptures and apply, and they are setting 00:10:11.840 |
forth then a kind of standard for Christian behavior, because what they're doing is they're 00:10:19.760 |
That's a pretty simple definition of leadership, right? 00:10:23.320 |
And then here's my very, very free dating advice. 00:10:26.240 |
A lot of times I get dating like questions about, you know, should I make a decision 00:10:31.640 |
Like that guy has a potential to be a decent leader. 00:10:38.720 |
Listen, I got to see actual exemplary in action kind of behavior where I can say, oh, I already 00:10:53.400 |
I already see a pattern of being considerate, a pattern of consistency, and a pattern of 00:11:01.200 |
If everything is potential and not yet a pattern, then all we're going to say is, hmm, right? 00:11:08.080 |
There's my free dating advice to you guys, okay? 00:11:13.320 |
Apostle Paul sets forth a very interesting exhortation to follow his example, but in 00:11:19.680 |
him doing that, he says, you've already seen the pattern, right? 00:11:26.000 |
Now what's really interesting is I asked you guys in your Bible study questions to take 00:11:30.560 |
a moment to just kind of deeply meditate about that. 00:11:34.600 |
Because if you are thinking about it, then immediately you should be thinking like, whoa, 00:11:41.280 |
Because this whole time remembering like Apostle Paul is saying, I am willing to count everything 00:11:47.280 |
as loss, as a matter of fact, I've already experienced the loss of X, Y, and Z for the 00:11:56.720 |
I want to so in such a devoted fashion pursue after Christ, I will forsake every earthly 00:12:04.720 |
And then when he says, join me, immediately I'm thinking, but I don't want to be in jail, 00:12:13.800 |
That's why I asked the question, like if you just meditate upon that what Apostle Paul 00:12:16.880 |
is saying, that is a incredibly high calling. 00:12:21.720 |
And there should be immediately in us kind of like, wow, am I willing to follow both 00:12:28.640 |
the perspective, the willingness, the hard attitude? 00:12:32.360 |
Am I willing to follow in the pattern that these apostles and the early saints have laid 00:12:38.640 |
That is actually a pretty incredible calling for us. 00:12:41.880 |
And by way of review, by way of review, we remember the calling of following example 00:12:48.640 |
is not just, I want you to be gung-ho Christians that are radical. 00:12:53.720 |
Get out there and sell all your stuff, right? 00:12:59.240 |
Because in the immediate context, the whole attitude was really at the core of what he 00:13:07.440 |
And so by way of review, we read it, but remember that it embodies everything from the attitude 00:13:13.000 |
of valuing Christ, spiritually being able to see that Jesus is worth it all. 00:13:19.320 |
That's one of the first things we should embody or model after, right? 00:13:24.760 |
The desire, the desire to seek righteousness by faith and not of your flesh, to seek righteousness 00:13:31.200 |
in the person of Christ and not just because you have accomplished something in your life, 00:13:37.240 |
to be willing to take certain experiences of your life of suffering and persecution 00:13:43.360 |
and respond in godliness and joy, model after that, right? 00:13:49.380 |
So again, this exhortation to model and follow after his example is so big and I think we 00:13:58.520 |
Now one of the interesting things I kind of posed to you guys was, should we ever say 00:14:05.440 |
Some of you guys are small group, every table has a small group leader. 00:14:09.120 |
Should you look at your table and say, "You follow me." 00:14:15.840 |
Now the thing about it is some of you guys are like, "Oh, of course. 00:14:19.800 |
All I'm saying is if I'm studying, then you study. 00:14:26.280 |
But I think some people in knee-jerk reaction have like an issue with that. 00:14:29.760 |
It's like, "Isn't that kind of prideful, arrogant? 00:14:38.080 |
As a matter of fact, I mean, if I put metrics on your performance and I started to survey 00:14:43.520 |
people and I started to see, right, like exactly what you do in a given month, how many times 00:14:48.360 |
did you sin, how many times did you not uphold a good example? 00:14:52.960 |
I mean, imagine if I did that and then I said, "Follow him," right? 00:14:59.180 |
Now one of the things I wanted to highlight to you is very interestingly, I don't think 00:15:03.200 |
Apostle Paul is saying, "You better listen to what I say because I'm the apostle," right? 00:15:08.200 |
Now his apostleship comes with a lot of authority, but you know that this is no arrogant vibe 00:15:18.480 |
This is more so Apostle Paul's desire, "You should observe and see the Christ-like pattern. 00:15:26.880 |
You should observe and see the pattern that we've set for you." 00:15:30.120 |
So he's not more so pointing the finger at himself. 00:15:34.600 |
The belief, the faith, the principles of the Christian faith that we live by, right? 00:15:41.720 |
Likewise for every single one of you, may I say all of you are older brothers and sisters 00:15:49.400 |
All of you have a great potential to guide and direct. 00:15:53.960 |
You are going to be what God uses to edify and teach and lay the example. 00:16:02.320 |
Don't be so afraid like, "I'm an imperfect person." 00:16:04.880 |
Yeah, there's something to be said about that, sure. 00:16:08.560 |
But know that even the way that you react to your own imperfections, the way that you 00:16:13.320 |
react to your fatigue, the way that you react to your struggle and frustration, "How come 00:16:21.560 |
How you react to you having setbacks and major moments of suffering in your life. 00:16:27.640 |
Please understand that you are setting a pattern, right? 00:16:33.920 |
The Apostle Paul is pointing to that pattern. 00:16:37.200 |
His, you know, confidants and fellow laborers are setting a pattern. 00:16:42.360 |
And you know that we too are setting a pattern as well. 00:16:46.640 |
So that being said, let's move on to section two. 00:16:55.720 |
In section two is the warning about the enemies of the cross. 00:17:04.480 |
It says here, "For many walk, of whom I often told you." 00:17:12.920 |
"And now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, 00:17:19.200 |
whose God is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, and who set their minds on 00:17:26.960 |
I want to highlight a few observations for you guys and ask this question, right? 00:17:32.040 |
It's very interesting that he kind of, I put it in parentheses because he's saying like, 00:17:38.160 |
The many, he already is thinking about those enemies, right? 00:17:41.640 |
But then he says like, "And I already told you a bunch of times and I'm telling you crying." 00:17:49.360 |
So we have to ask the question, why is he so intense? 00:17:52.800 |
What's causing him to have this weeping emotion and this kind of urgency where it's frequent, 00:18:05.560 |
I don't want to necessarily spend too much time on it, but there are a lot of things 00:18:10.160 |
we can say, but this is one thing that I think, I think may answer that question. 00:18:16.080 |
Well, because one of the things is very clearly in the book of Philippians, a group of people 00:18:21.080 |
that he had this frustration and yet very interesting kind of emotional reaction to 00:18:29.360 |
The people who took confidence in the flesh, right? 00:18:32.500 |
The people who took confidence in their rituals, the people who took confidence in Sabbath 00:18:41.220 |
And what's really interesting is his general perspective towards them is revealed in Romans 00:18:50.280 |
My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing 00:18:55.880 |
grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ 00:19:00.920 |
for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." 00:19:07.560 |
That's pretty incredible stuff to say he has this unceasing grief in his heart. 00:19:13.740 |
Could it be that he has such polar opposite emotions to one people? 00:19:21.840 |
Very clearly because of their false doctrine, because they constantly try to attack and 00:19:27.260 |
persecute the church, he's got this frustration and anger and he tells it like it is, "You're 00:19:33.680 |
But on the flip side, there is this deep anguish. 00:19:37.920 |
"Oh, but I wish that they would be saved," right? 00:19:42.840 |
Now other commentators have said, "Well, here is another thought. 00:19:47.200 |
What's really interesting is he is talking to the church and very clearly the church 00:19:52.360 |
people know who he's talking about because he's mentioned them frequently. 00:20:00.840 |
And so some commentators wonder, they just pose this thought, "Could it be that like 00:20:06.440 |
many other churches, there are people who initially were close, perhaps they were involved 00:20:12.920 |
in the building of the church initially, perhaps they were part of the action and part of the 00:20:17.760 |
life of the participants of the life of the church and yet only later revealed themselves 00:20:23.760 |
to be distant, to be false gospel preachers or just individuals in the church who are 00:20:32.800 |
For example, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 12 to 15, "What I am doing I will continue to do 00:20:38.840 |
so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded as 00:20:44.720 |
just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. 00:20:48.460 |
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles 00:20:54.120 |
No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 00:20:58.280 |
Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, 00:21:12.920 |
Talking about their end, their nature, their character. 00:21:16.840 |
All I want to do is take a moment to speak about this and say, "Man, it is such a grieving 00:21:27.440 |
When Apostle Paul is pointing out enemies of the cross, that is a really emphatic statement 00:21:32.800 |
and it is a statement of judgment to be an enemy of the cross. 00:21:37.320 |
But it's very interesting his attitude, right? 00:21:45.600 |
And if it ever so happens, because I'm guessing that even at a church where I feel like, "Man, 00:21:51.440 |
we try to get to know every person who's becoming a member. 00:21:57.560 |
And could it be that there's a sad state of affairs where even after years, people leave 00:22:16.240 |
"I knew all along we should have kicked him out long time ago!" 00:22:22.560 |
I just wanted to make a brief mention of that. 00:22:25.120 |
Now, here as we think about Apostle Paul's evaluation and judgment and the contrast and 00:22:32.320 |
the comparisons, what I like to do sometimes when I study the Bible is if I start seeing 00:22:37.400 |
a list, I like listing them all out this way. 00:22:42.240 |
And what's really interesting is, man, how intense that kind of evaluation is, right? 00:22:54.600 |
If it just so happened that there were people in the church that, let's say, denied certain 00:23:00.120 |
Let's say there were certain people in the church that denied the apostles' leadership, 00:23:08.560 |
And there's such a kind of polarizing effect on that then. 00:23:13.680 |
And all I want to say about that is, man, what you'll see is our enemy is going to use 00:23:20.680 |
Is there clear, just like head-on persecution from the enemies? 00:23:25.560 |
Does it always have to be head-on persecution? 00:23:28.920 |
As a matter of fact, we know that it's not going to be like burning crosses and burning 00:23:32.800 |
churches and incarcerating Christians sometimes. 00:23:38.760 |
It's going to be the falsehood of a flesh-based righteousness. 00:23:42.600 |
It's going to be the falsehood of like an intellectual-based righteousness. 00:23:46.120 |
You know, feeling safe because I know some facts. 00:23:50.040 |
I have no desire to grow, but because I know this stuff, I'm good. 00:23:53.760 |
Even that, even that can be very, very contrary to the cause of Christ. 00:23:59.880 |
A couple of these things I'm going to mention, and a couple of them, for the sake of time, 00:24:06.080 |
Remember here that Apostle Paul, it's very important that he's going to call every Christian 00:24:11.600 |
to remember the path, the faith and destiny of the people who are enemies of the cross. 00:24:18.560 |
And he describes them, I'm going to move on to this next thing. 00:24:22.000 |
He describes them as those whose God is their appetite, whose glory is their shame, and 00:24:30.080 |
And for your discussion, I don't have the question in there, but you should describe 00:24:33.160 |
like what are some kind of, you know, common tendencies, tail signs of people who are false 00:24:41.120 |
Christians or people who are against the gospel. 00:24:44.960 |
Clearly we're supposed to be able to identify them. 00:24:47.280 |
Clearly we're supposed to be warned about them. 00:24:49.680 |
But again, I want to share with you guys this idea that Scripture calls us to keep our eyes 00:24:59.240 |
Romans chapter 16, verse 17 through 18 says this, "I urge you, brethren, keep your eye 00:25:04.920 |
on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learn and 00:25:10.880 |
For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites. 00:25:16.420 |
And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." 00:25:22.000 |
What's very interesting is the description of the enemies of Christ, he describes as 00:25:25.760 |
those who do not have a control of their desires. 00:25:31.520 |
Whatever it is they're set on, they're stubborn. 00:25:34.040 |
Whatever it is they latch onto, they feel like they have to have it, right? 00:25:41.200 |
And what's more, there is this flattering, deceptive speech that comes upon them. 00:25:45.200 |
Jude 4, "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand 00:25:49.800 |
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into 00:25:55.600 |
licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." 00:26:01.160 |
One thing I want to share with you guys, over the years of doing ministry and talking to 00:26:05.720 |
people, what I found is it just comes back to a simple thing. 00:26:11.000 |
Whatever teaching you hear, don't feel like you have to know every single fact, you have 00:26:15.560 |
to go take courses on different cults and religions. 00:26:20.600 |
But what you'll find is whatever religion it is, it'll always make Jesus the person 00:26:27.520 |
It'll establish human leaders, it'll establish, you know, if I just say this, I'm good. 00:26:33.320 |
It'll establish some kind of benchmark, if I just do this, I'm good. 00:26:37.080 |
But it'll always make Christ the person obsolete. 00:26:45.440 |
Anything that takes away from the significance of the person of Jesus, not just like, "Oh, 00:26:51.920 |
But we're talking about the need to abide in Christ, okay? 00:26:58.000 |
So in that section was the warnings about those who are enemies of the cross. 00:27:04.000 |
In the next section, then here now is the big contrast. 00:27:07.080 |
I asked you, "What is this flow of thought here?" 00:27:09.000 |
And again, I wanted you to see that there is this big contrast. 00:27:13.920 |
Here and now, I kind of reflect on this, and I'm going to read it and say this. 00:27:17.040 |
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord 00:27:22.200 |
Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the 00:27:28.040 |
body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things 00:27:38.680 |
For those who are enemies of the cross, you are going to quickly see that their worldview 00:27:48.160 |
When you try to evaluate individuals who are like enemies of the cross or this categorically 00:27:53.280 |
bad, you will realize that their worldview is this small. 00:28:01.480 |
Therefore, little offenses are not, "How dare you offend me?" 00:28:06.320 |
Everything is blown out of proportion in this life. 00:28:13.280 |
All the other things they value, the treasures of the world, it's huge. 00:28:18.480 |
When your world is small and you have a house and you have your career and you have a mansion, 00:28:23.900 |
you have your bank account, whatever it is, now all of a sudden, all those things have 00:28:29.840 |
Because to your small world, proportionately, it's massive. 00:28:34.600 |
But when you have heaven, all of that becomes just a speck. 00:28:39.600 |
What Apostle Paul is doing is giving this contrast. 00:28:43.360 |
The enemies of the cross, all they have in their mind is the world. 00:28:53.600 |
And from heaven, we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:29:03.480 |
Here there's so much to talk about this and I just want to present to you some questions 00:29:10.160 |
And then give you maybe like a more personal thought about this. 00:29:14.160 |
Man, I definitely want you guys to discuss how is this idea of citizenship, having a 00:29:22.000 |
certain right and privilege in a kingdom supposed to affect us, right? 00:29:28.200 |
And I'm just going to say, I mean, obviously there are various things that it should. 00:29:32.080 |
How were the people who were originally listening to this, how would they have received it? 00:29:37.040 |
And I understand a lot of them took pride in their Roman and citizenship. 00:29:44.900 |
And especially to a people who are being persecuted, in what way is it going to encourage them, 00:29:51.560 |
Now, my personal reflection about this is this. 00:29:54.960 |
As I read this passage, there's so much to say. 00:29:56.640 |
I mean, I get it like this passage is supposed to wow me. 00:30:02.520 |
I mean, he's talking about your citizenship is in heaven, right? 00:30:07.720 |
You belong there and your savior is going to come from there. 00:30:12.280 |
And I started like envisioning like the way I should feel is like if I'm in prison in 00:30:15.560 |
like Afghanistan or something and my country, like the seals are going to come and get me, 00:30:21.320 |
Like I should have that kind of like, yeah, don't worry, they're going to come. 00:30:29.040 |
Now, what I realized was there's so much more to that. 00:30:32.960 |
This savior is going to come and he's going to transform the body of our humble state 00:30:40.000 |
So in your notes, I have these two major points. 00:30:42.600 |
We should definitely understand what it means to have citizenship in heaven, how that's 00:30:54.280 |
And what's crazy about it is if I was in the pit of hell because of my sins and I was 00:30:59.720 |
destined to decay in eternal damnation and he raised me from that, wow. 00:31:06.800 |
But then now he's saying he's going to conform me to the glorified body of Christ. 00:31:12.800 |
Like I'm not even sure what that looks like, right? 00:31:19.380 |
He is going to transform me and perfect me in conformity to the perfections of Christ's 00:31:31.360 |
This passage, if you just read it cursory, I mean, you should force yourself to stop 00:31:43.380 |
Because I think there's a train of thought here. 00:31:48.540 |
He says that whole transformation is going to be amazing, but it's going to be accomplished 00:31:59.700 |
The power that Jesus has, the authority that Christ has, where he is going to command in 00:32:05.060 |
the moment's notice and all the world is going to lay at his feet. 00:32:11.580 |
Whether Christian or non-Christian, even those who are going to be condemned to hell, they 00:32:21.860 |
That power that Jesus has, he's going to exert and he's going to change us. 00:32:30.740 |
It's like, oh my goodness, we can just dwell on that for hours. 00:32:34.860 |
And I want you to think, in the moments that the church is hearing this, I think there 00:32:40.260 |
are times, there are in a time where they're going to feel powerless. 00:32:45.100 |
If you operate by your sight, they're going to feel like, oh my goodness, our beloved 00:32:50.380 |
There are these wicked guys constantly trying to preach to us. 00:32:53.220 |
There are people in our church who are jettisoning the faith and leaving. 00:33:02.700 |
We are very, very unsure about the government, if they're going to hate us, if they're going 00:33:09.460 |
And I feel like Apostle Paul is saying, look, do you see the power that your Savior is going 00:33:21.500 |
And what I have for you in your notes is there is this amazing paradox that every Christian 00:33:27.740 |
You are supposed to have this reality that you see, you see in better eyes, the kind 00:33:35.180 |
of depravity that exists in this world, right? 00:33:40.280 |
You are supposed to see with better eyes the kind of finality of death that's coming. 00:33:45.580 |
You're supposed to see with better eyes the reality that this world is doomed. 00:33:50.900 |
You know because God has told you, this earth cries out in groaning and everybody stands 00:34:03.380 |
But the paradox is, the theme of this book, you're supposed to find joy. 00:34:10.220 |
Have you ever met somebody who is just this like happy-go-lucky person, just happy and 00:34:17.420 |
They have no reason to be, but they're just always like, "Ha ha, yeah, I'm good." 00:34:20.660 |
You know like, and part of it is just like, that's so annoying, like it's irritating, 00:34:26.420 |
Because you almost feel like, stop being fake. 00:34:28.800 |
You don't have to laugh like that all the time, you know? 00:34:31.940 |
Now, you know that's just the judgmental side of me coming out, but the fact of the matter 00:34:38.140 |
is actually when I see the world, the fallen world, try their best feeble attempt to find 00:34:46.900 |
little joys and stuff, now that I've been, you know, now that we've been like digging 00:34:51.900 |
into Scripture and I've been living the faith, I do get not just simply annoyed by that, 00:35:00.540 |
They're trying to grab onto little pieces of hope and in silver linings, little pieces 00:35:06.540 |
of hope and like, it's in the small things, man. 00:35:09.340 |
Like you guys heard those cliche terms, right? 00:35:14.020 |
Where for us, we have this incredible hope that the power of Christ is going to transform 00:35:25.660 |
There would be no more frustration of temptations and weakness. 00:35:29.340 |
It's not so much that, "Oh, there's just not going to be any tears anymore." 00:35:36.340 |
It's going to be the perfect presence of God and the perfect presence of Christ dwelling 00:35:47.740 |
We have so much more than just lighthearted, giddy, pithy statements. 00:35:53.660 |
We have so much more than nice sunsets and trees. 00:35:59.260 |
We're going to have the very presence of Christ exerting His power, conforming us to His image. 00:36:08.300 |
When I said this was one epic speech, I really believe it. 00:36:12.820 |
I always try to like imagine it if I'm sitting there hearing it, right? 00:36:19.900 |
For us, our greatest motivation lies nowhere in this world. 00:36:24.260 |
It is absolutely in heaven and Scripture calls us that if we have been raised with Christ, 00:36:29.420 |
we should keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 00:36:34.940 |
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have 00:36:39.100 |
died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:36:43.140 |
When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 00:36:55.660 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much and pray, God, that you would grant to us deep 00:37:01.820 |
conviction of your work, of your presence, and what's more, your plans for us for the 00:37:10.380 |
God, help us to know and believe that there is so much more than what we see with our 00:37:16.380 |
God, I pray that we would not operate by sight, but Lord, that we would live life by 00:37:22.860 |
All the things that we learn here, help it not to just pass by us as mystical and paradoxical 00:37:29.900 |
statements, but God, I pray that you would cast for us a great vision of heaven. 00:37:35.660 |
And Lord, that would motivate us, that will help us to persevere through every single 00:37:40.220 |
hurdle, every single hardship, and whatever hurtment and pain may come our way, I pray, 00:37:46.180 |
God, that we would exercise our trust in the power of Christ. 00:37:50.260 |
We thank you, it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.