August 02, 2015 | Bob Bartlett
Passage: Philippians 3:1-21
Philippians Series
“Seizing the Joy of the Lord” Chapter 3:1-21
Joy: ‘a calm, content and confident state of inner assurance in the goodness of God’
Jesus Christ: John 15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Seizing the Joy of the Lord
Vs 1-3: “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God,
we who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.”
- Our confidence is in the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:5-6 “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
- Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
- This is what the believer rejoices in:
- Revelation 19:16 “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Vs 4-9 “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
- Our confidence is in the surety of knowing Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus”
- Faultless, spotless, blameless, shameless Hebrews 10: 4, 10, 14, 17, 22.
Vs 10-14 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
- Our confidence is in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
- 1Peter 4:13 “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
- The great oxymoron of the Christian faith: what we are inclined to resist the most is what brings the most good.
- 1Peter 4:19 1Peter 5:10
Vs 20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
- Our confidence is in the security of the eternal Christ.
- Ephesians 1:17-20 “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
- What is it Paul (God) wants us to know? (18-22)
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
Placing my confidence in only this one thing, Jesus Christ, will ensure I seize the joy of the Lord.