Talks on Philippians
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Talks on Philippians

Joy In Your Life || Stand Firm in the Lord || Philippians 4:1-23

The final section of Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi packs a whole bunch of great points into a pretty short section. Tim manages to squish seven talks worth of tips from Paul into just one! Paul gives us seven things to help us “stand firm” in Jesus. Both Paul and Jesus knew of the challenge that many people go through, with the burden of worry and anxiety. Paul speaks to this in his letter, and Tim lends his thoughts and experiences to the reality of anxiety in our lives.  If you or someone you know struggles with anxiety to an extreme, reach out to someone for help. You can always call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Joy In Your Life || It’s All Rubbish || Philippians 3:1-11

If you’ve done enough “good things” in your life, you get to go to the Good Place, right? And if you haven’t done enough “good things”, then you’ll go to the Bad Place, right? God says no! The only right way to be right with God is through a relationship with Jesus. It’s not about the things that you do in your life, it’s all about Jesus. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians even says it’s not about Jesus PLUS anything. It isn’t about Jesus plus these few key things, or traditions; it’s just about putting your faith in Jesus. If you think you’ve done too many bad things, so many that God can’t love you, to put it plainly: you are wrong. Anyone who puts their faith in Jesus can receive God’s love and forgiveness.

Joy In Your Life || Work Out Your Salvation || Philippians 2:12-30

Our journey through Paul’s first-century letter to the church in Philippi continues this week, exploring a slightly unusual phrase: “…work out your salvation…”. Tim looks at what this phrase doesn’t mean, to try to understand what it does mean.  What do we do in our lives to ‘work out our salvation’? Tim offers a framework in his talk, which you can find here.

Joy In Your Life || Humility || Philippians 2:1-11

UPDATED: Apologies, as we originally used the wrong audio for this episode. Call it a lesson in humility. Continuing our series through Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi, Tim explores what Paul says about humility. Paul makes it clear that if you’re a Christian, you’ve received love and acceptance through Jesus, before you’ve done anything at all. Our reaction to that, though, our response to God for uniting himself with us, it to be united with others. If it’s true that we’re loved by God, we should be loving others. If we have the Spirit of God within us, we should be united with others through that same Spirit.  In response to Jesus, we necessarily need to live differently. 

Joy In Your Life || All about Jesus || Philippians 1:12-30

Do you have a mate (or maybe yourself), who is fully devoted to something? Do they use every spare moment to work on their cricket skills? Are they like a sheepdog, focused on herding the flock?   Paul, the author of this letter to the church in Philippi, was fully devoted to persecuting Christians, throwing them in jail, and giving them a hard time. That was until he had an encounter with Jesus, and turned his devotion to the spreading of the good news of Jesus. Paul laid his life bare for Jesus, willing to give up his freedom (he’s writing this letter from prison), and willing to give up his reputation – Paul says that he’d be happy for people to be preaching the Gospel even if they do it in a way that brings Paul harm; as l […]

Know Jesus, Make Jesus Known

This week at our annual St John’s Training Day, senior minister Tim Johnson explores how we should consider our priorities, in the context of St John’s Vision 2022, when compared to knowing Jesus and making him known. In an example of this from the New Testament, Paul writes to the church in Philippi telling them of a choice he has come to make. A choice between knowing Jesus and everything else in his life. This week’s Bible reading is from Philippians 3:7-11.