Philippians (Program #23) – Gaining Christ by Pursuing Him

“I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3:12 and in it the apostle Paul tells us that Christ Jesus has lay hold of us for a purpose, a specific purpose and that purpose is that we may lay hold of or gain Him.

Focus on Philippians 3:12-14 and this conveys a picture of the apostle Paul pursuing after Christ to gain Him. But this happened only after Paul had been gained by Christ. This is a wonderful picture of the Christian life, Christ gaining us beginning with our salvation for a purpose and then our life becomes fills with meaning as that purpose become for us to gain Him. This is marvelous. These three verses just crystallized the whole feeling of the apostle’s Paul’s life…

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Philippians (Program #22) – Conformed to Christ’s Death to Attain the Out-Resurrection from the Dead

“To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, If perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.”  Those were the words of apostle Paul in Philippians 3:10-11 and also the subject of our life study today.

Philippians 3, on the heart of the experience of Christ. These are very deep yet practical experiential points and on being conformed Christ death so that we may attain to a spiritual reality called the Out-Resurrection from among the dead.

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Philippians (Program #21) – Seeking to Know Christ, the Power of His Resurrection, and the Fellowship of His Sufferings

Philippians 3:8-11 for those who love the Lord Jesus and the Word of God this has to be the cherished portion of the Word.  “But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.  And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith, To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This portion of the Word is altogether in the realm of experience and enjoyment and certainly not one of any doctrine. This is marvelous.

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Philippians (Program #20) – To be Found in Christ

When someone comes to our home to visit us where might they find us?  Well maybe they find us preoccupied with normal daily human life, may be they find us in good pleasant behavior.  Probably they would find us in neither of these cases we would be happy, nothing sinful here, nothing immoral. But the apostle Paul was not so easily satisfied. He was desperate in earnest in his desire and aspiration to be found in Christ. And not just in the doctrinal, objective way, but that he would be found fully occupied and filled with this One, Whom he love and pursue and to lay hold of.

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Philippians (Program #19) – The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ

The apostle Paul was one who was very knowledgeable about the law of the Old Testament. He had years of first hand experience with the law and what it was to live under the law. Yet he also became fully acquainted with Christ. The book of Philippians gives us a unique comparison of these two levels of spiritual experience from one who is fully qualified to make such a comparison.

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Philippians (Program #18) – Counting All Things Loss on Account of Christ

“I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.”  What a blessing for a believer in Christ to reach a point the apostle did in Philippians 3:7-8 where the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus caused him to count all things as dung.

Before Paul was converted to Christ he was not one who had a problem loving the material things, the material world. Quite the contrary he was a person who was fully given to the Jewish religion, to philosophy and to the culture of his time. His whole being was for Judaism and for everything that’s included in it.  So, we read these verses in Philippians 3, how Paul, the apostle counted all things loss on account of Christ, we have to realize he is talking about here giving up his Jewish religion, his philosophy and his culture, that were all referred to in earlier verses and not the aspect of the material world. more…

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Philippians (Program #17) – The Three Positive Aspects of the Believers vs the Three Negative Aspects of the Religious Judaizers

“Bewares of the dogs.” No, we are not talking about the warning sign on your neighbour’s gate.  We are talking about the apostle Paul’s warning at the beginning of Philippians chapter 3. Paul was warning the Philippians of the Judaizers, the Jewish leaders who were troubling the believers in Christ.  We are in for an enlightening message today.

We are at the beginning of chapter 3 in our life study in Philippians.  There is a background to this chapter, the Epistle to the Philippians was written when Paul received material supply from the believers in Philippi. Through Epaphroditus they had sent the supply to take care of Paul’s need during his imprisonment.  After receiving their gift, Paul wrote them this Epistle.

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Philippians (Program #16) – Being Like-Soul and Risking Our Soul

What causes divisions among Christians today?  Virtually every division in the Body of Christ comes from Christians who truly love the Lord and desire to do something for Him.  In this life study of Philippians program today we want to examine the source of division.  This is a fascinating life study and very much related to the experience of Christ.

Because our experience of Christ is affected by the matter of division. The basis for fellowship is the apostle Paul’s comment in Philippians 2:20 about Timothy been like-souled with him.  Paul says “I have no one like-souled who would genuinely care for what concerns you.”

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Philippians (Program #15) – The Apostle’s Concern for the Believers

“Ministering to the House or to God”  Watchman Nee gave a message with this title once.  Hope our listeners can stay to grasp the depth that are contained in this thought. Are we too busy taking care of the Church, God’s house, that we’re not taking care of God?   Or are we too busy taking care of God that we forget about caring for the Church, His Body?

We are going to see in our program today from the book of Philippians chapter 2, that these two aspects of our experience and our service cannot be separated.

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Philippians (Program #14) – A Drink Offering Poured Out Upon the Sacrifice of the Believer’s Faith

Philippians 2:17 says “But if i am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and priestly service of your faith, I rejoice together with you all.” What is this drink offering that the apostle said he was poured out at?  If our experience of Christ has not come to the point where we have been constituted as a drink offering we have not yet experienced Christ to the uttermost. The drink offering is our topic today on this life study of the Bible from the book of Philippians.

We touched the drink offering back in the life study of Genesis, it was a remarkable program at that time, and we had several calls from people who have some inkling of what it was but really had an experience of being brought into a vision of it for the first time. more…

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