TPT The Book of Philippians E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 142

Beschreibung

The book of Philippians flows with joy, inspires gratitude, and imparts central doctrines of faith. Written by the apostle Paul while held captive in a prison cell, his letter to the Philippians celebrates victory, unity, and harmony, teaching us how to live together in the body of Christ. This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Philippians provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Philippians, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history. Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Philippians, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

Leseprobe

“BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT The Book of Philippians: 12-Lesson Study Guide

Copyright © 2022 BroadStreet Publishing Group

978-1-4245-6435-4 (softcover)

978-1-4245-6436-1 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. Scripture quotations marked NLV are taken from the New Life Version, copyright © 1969 and 2003. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc., Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked WYC are taken from the Wycliffe Bible, copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Dr. Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Karen Whiting

Design and typesetting by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Philippians

Lesson 1   The Apostle Paul, Philippians, and Choosing Joy

Lesson 2   Great Joy

Lesson 3   Opportunities and Warnings

Lesson 4   United in Love

Lesson 5   Shine for God

Lesson 6   Living Examples

Lesson 7   Joy, Hypocrisy, and Liberating Worship

Lesson 8   The Pursuit of Transformed Living

Lesson 9   Advancing Together with Passion

Lesson 10 Living in Harmony

Lesson 11 The Joy of Contentment

Lesson 12 The Fruit of Faithfulness

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as unlimited as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “unlock the passion of [God’s] heart.” It is “a heart-level translation, from the passion of God’s heart to the passion of your heart,” created to “kindle in you a burning desire for him and his heart, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding:

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word, to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on how the lesson relates to growing closer to others, to enriching your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means. You may also find maps and charts that will help you reimagine these groups, places, and activities. Finally, in this feature you will find references to additional Bible texts that will further illuminate the Scripture you are studying.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith; Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare; Irenaeus for his fight against heresy; Billy Graham for his work in evangelism; Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law; Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you into the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Philippians

So why do I love the book of Philippians? In one word: Joy!

Philippians is a book full of joy and rejoicing. In fact, the words joy and rejoice (rejoicing) are found nineteen times in this four-chapter book! There are nineteen reasons for joy tucked inside of Paul’s letter to the Philippian believers.

What makes this letter of joy stand out is that Paul wrote it from a prison cell. That’s right; he was a prisoner of the vast and powerful Roman Empire. If you were imprisoned, restricted, bound with shackles, placed in a dark dungeon cell, would you pen a letter about joy? Most of us would write an impassioned plea for prayer to relieve our suffering. Paul writes his treatise to remind every believer that “the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty” (Philippians 4:13).

I love the Philippians letter because it reminds me every time I open its pages to rejoice in the Lord. My momentary hardships pale in comparison to what Paul endured so that we could read this book.

Philippians is also a book of victory and overcoming hardship. The lyrics of a victory song are embedded into its four chapters. It promises to make you dance in victory to its joyful tune. Not one word of complaint is found here—only overcoming joy. Paul was misunderstood, even persecuted by other believers, yet he remained emotionally healthy enough to point us all to Jesus Christ. Paul had to endure many hardships, yet he kept his focus on Jesus Christ, the God-man of glory.

I love Philippians because great doctrines of our faith can be found in the book. We see the dual nature of Jesus as both man and God, the God-man who humbled himself and started the journey from the throne to the cross to the tomb but rose in victory to share the spoils of triumph with you and me (2:5–11).

I love Philippians because it is a book of unity and harmony, showing us how to live together in the body of Christ. Philippians teaches us how to be delivered from our unbelief and self-focus. Paul instructs us to rise above differences that would divide us as believers and to live in harmony with one another. He writes, “Be joined together in perfect unity—with one heart, one passion, and united in one love. Walk together with one harmonious purpose and you will fill my heart with unbounded joy” (2:2).

Did you know that one of the most popular verses in all the Bible is Philippians 4:6–8? Here it is:

Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.

Yes, I love this book because it points me away from life’s distractions and fastens my thoughts on what Jesus has done for me. Take the time to pour over this study guide and dig into the wealth of Philippians. You will find in its pages a joy unspeakable, one full of glory!

Dr. Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

The Apostle Paul, Philippians, and Choosing Joy

Welcome to the letter to the Philippians, an epistle that flows with joy, inspires gratitude, and shares many truths about Jesus. Writing while imprisoned, Paul expresses joy and gladness nineteen times in this short book. He sees his circumstances as nothing compared to the wonder of knowing Jesus.

Philippians provides examples of Christians to imitate, delights in opportunities that even imprisonment afforded for sharing the gospel, and expresses the apostle Paul’s gratitude for the support of his friends in Philippi. His perspective is not of a victim but of a thankful missionary who uses every opportunity to advance faith in Jesus and show appreciation to people who have supported him.

Ever mindful of the need for others to have faith in Jesus Christ, Paul shares a creed, also known as the kenosis passage or “Christ Hymn” (Philippians 2:9–11). It lays out basic facts about Christ from his preexistent glory to his sacrifice on the cross as our exalted Lord.

Paul encourages his dear friends in Philippi to live in harmony as the community of Christ. He urges these faithful followers to focus on living their faith and understanding that their true citizenship lies in heaven. This means choosing a positive attitude and finding contentment in all circumstances. Paul wants believers to look forward to the glory of God in eternity and to trust that God will strengthen them and satisfy their needs on earth. Paul also wants to inspire them to share their faith.

Authorship