Philippians - Chapter 2 review

All righty, well, we're going to attempt to review chapter two. So what I've done is, you know, we had nine lessons that we covered. Actually, ten lessons, because we covered one section and it took us two times. So I just took the sections with the name that we assigned to it each time, and that's on your handout. And I've created some questions that will hopefully spark some conversation. So let's see.

Could someone read these first two verses for us? Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Thank you. Okay, so the first question I had, a lot of these questions are not rocket science here, basically I want you to just look at the verse and So basically, the first question is, and you might have an issue with whether it's four or five items. So in verse one, there are four items that are mentioned. And I'll just kind of give you some background. If you look at those, the way they're phrased, they're if statements. And actually, they're in what's called the first class condition, assumed to be true.

So he's not really saying, he's really talking about characteristics. of a Christian's life based upon the life of Christ. So basically there is encouragement in Christ, there is consolation of love, there is fellowship of the Spirit, and there is affection and compassion. And sometimes those words are kind of put together. A lot of times it's a heart of compassion that's translated sometimes in some verses.

So let's see here. So like the first one, encouragement Actually, I'm answering my own question here. That's what it's supposed to look like. The teacher asks a question, he answers his own question, you just go right on. The first one is encouragement in Christ.

Actually, let's just look at a verse here. Actually, it's better translated, Comfort in Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3, this word is used. And we're not going to dig this deep in all these situations, but just to kind of get going here. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3. And it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ I'm sorry.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. So that word comfort is actually our word encouragement. So it's translated either encouragement or comfort. So there is encouragement in Christ by God's very nature. We have encouragement in Christ because of what He accomplished on the cross and His total plan for us in salvation.

So then we go on to the next one. Any consolation of love This one, I didn't actually have a verse for, and if I look back a little more closely, Bob taught this lesson, but basically this consolation, what would you define consolation as? Comfort? Okay, okay, it could be, so you somewhat say, well it's almost like the first one, but it's actually the idea literally is to speak, it's near speech in the Greek, There's two parts to it, near and speech together. So it's consolation of love, speaking closely. So you think of our Savior and how He would speak to people. He would speak love to them. He would talk to them. He understood where they were at. He knew where they were at. So that's a characteristic of God and it's a characteristic of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Consolation of love or near speech. Near speech of love. The third one, fellowship with the Spirit. This is a pretty straightforward one. If you look in places in scripture, we'll see the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, by His very nature, is involved in fellowship with the believer. And then the last one, which is kind of the last if statement, any affection and compassion.

And let's just look at this one. This is the one I was mentioning. Colossians 3.12. We look at that.

Can someone read Colossians 3.12? Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Does someone else have a different reading of that one? Or the King James, if that's what you want. Go ahead. Read John. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, Humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Okay, good.

So that bowels of mercy, which is a little bit, we don't really use that term, probably at all, hardly ever, but that's bowels of mercy. Actually it's heart of compassion. So it's kind of those two words, affection and compassion combined. So that's a characteristic of compassion. of our Savior and of the believer.

So the statement starts out about these four things, and then Paul goes on and he says, make my joy complete, and now he's going to talk about unity here. So I kind of went through and said, what does it mean, what does each of the following mean? What does it mean to be of the same mind? So Paul's encouraging the Philippian believers to be of the same mind. So what do you think that's about? Well, what would you say the opposite of that would be?

Doing your own thing. Okay. Having the will of God is being of the same mind. Right. Same mind. And how would you say that's... How is that possible for believers? How can we be on the same page and same mind? Put aside your thoughts and pick up Christ's Word. Okay. Or better, you know, since it says that we have the mind of Christ, right? As we abide in Him, by faith, as we walk with Him, we will have His thoughts.

Actually, that literally is... You think the same. The same mind as you think this. You're thinking the same. And it's only possible. Actually, really, if you think about this, you know, this is an encouragement we see in business and all kinds of things. Well, you might be in the same page, right? Everybody, okay, we got to get the same. Let's go out and get the same page. And if you're up in the work situation, you find that's, is a difficult thing to get in the same page.

I was just thinking of the world situation. How about Congress? Anyway, there's plenty of not being on the same page. But Paul is saying he wants them to be the same mind and the only way they can be that is by being focused on the Lord and being in Christ. So the theme continues, maintaining the same love. Very similar idea, but this time it's...

If you think about as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is one of the fruits of the Spirit, right? So as we walk in the Lord Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. So this is one of the... So he's listing things that the believer has in Christ and he's encouraging them. That's what your life should look like as a believer. This is what the Philippian church should be about. And he goes on to united in spirit. Again, we have the very spirit of God. And then lastly, intent upon one purpose. The idea is one thing thinking. So, what do you think the intent upon one purpose, what should our one purpose be here, do you think?

And let's take the context of Philippians. What was the purpose that Paul talked about a lot in Philippians? What was kind of one of his passion, his passionate purpose in Philippians that he talked about? He talked about it in chapter 1. He started off in chapter 2. It wasn't about getting the good news out. It wasn't about, wasn't he excited about when he talked to Timothy and to Epaphroditus and talked to others about the gospel, right? And he commended the Philippians for being partakers in the gospel, getting the gospel message out, even though he was in chains, in a guard, in a prison in Rome. Okay, so I've been doing most of the talking here.

Let's see if we can try the next set of verses. Any questions on these two? So actually what I found, you look at this, these are kind of statements about what the Christian life is about. This describes what the Christian life is about. And he's not asking us to put these up on the wall and say, okay, one day I'm going to have the same love. I'm going to get out there, boy, I'm going to have the same love. No, he's saying this is characteristic of who you are in Christ. As you focus on Christ, as you walk with Christ, that love will be evident in your life. Not because you tried to make it so, but because it's really Christ's love and Christ's life. Alright.

So now, next is humility of mind. So the first question is, what is humility of mind? So I'm going to let you guys answer this one. Being humble. Okay. Give me a synonym. Not thinking that you know everything. Being willing to change or to be corrected. Okay. Alright.

Is it saying, is it, are you a Casper Milk Toast? Does that have any meaning to you guys? The older folks. Casper Milk Toast. That's an expression for somebody. I'm not sure how old that expression is. That's really old, Roger. That's really old. Okay. Alright. That's the kind of guy that you probably wouldn't, these days, would be a nerd. You know, he would not be your best bud. Yeah. Casper Moktos. Give me a definition of a Casper Moktos. I have no clue. Kind of like people walk all over you. Exactly. So it's humility. Like, are you a doormat? Being humble, are you a doormat? No. No. No, it's not. Okay. So the definition I have for humility is the state of mind which submits to the divine order. So you recognize who God is and who Christ is and you say, hey, you know, I believe who he is and I'm going to submit to his authority, who he is.

Now the context of some, let's see if I have a verse here, let's look at Ephesians chapter 4. So some of these verses I've chosen kind of, we'll use the same word, we'll use this word humility. So here's Paul in Ephesians talking about humility. Ephesians 4 verses 1 and 2. Can someone read that? Ephesians 4, 1 and 2.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the kind with which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another, and love. So here's Paul talking to the church in Ephesus. A very similar kind of thing. He's talking about a characteristic that church should have in all humility. So humility is a positive thing for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it was not a positive in the time of the writing of this epistle. It was a negative. Being humble was thought of as a negative. That was a character trait not to have. And humility isn't thought of much in today's society either, if you think about it. Humility isn't, you know, the humble person usually, you know, isn't elevated in today's world, unfortunately. It's thought of as a weakness.

Exactly. It's a weakness. In the corporate world. Exactly. If you're humble, If you're humble and you let, well I'll just let Joe over here, you go make the presentation to the boss, I'll just stay back here, I'll just support you. You know, you're not going to get ahead in the corporate world, you got to get ahead, you know, head of the pack there. Roger, it seems like humility in the word is usually in reference to an attitude toward oneself, like proper attitude that I am subordinate to my Lord, Right, exactly. Instead of thinking that I'm somebody, which very often occurs.

The Lord got a good deal, right? He got a good deal. I was already primed for it, and I was just waiting for the Lord to tap me on the shoulder. What we find is, after you come to know the Lord better, you think, How in the world, why did I ever say, I look at my family, my siblings, I don't have a sister.

She said no her whole life, vehemently, and I said yes. I don't know, how do I explain that? I'm an East warrior. The next one is, Actually, we didn't even read the verse. I apologize. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself. So the next question is, why are we to regard one another more important than ourselves? Why is that an important trait or characteristic of a believer? Why does he mention it there? And he doesn't just mention it here. If he mentioned it in other places, he mentions it consistently through his epistles.

We're to think of one another. And the other question is, who's one another? I don't have it on the list, but who's the one another? Is that unbeliever? Believer? I think there's a distinction here. I would think it'd be believers. Yeah. I would think so. In the context and how it's used, I would think it'd be believers. one another of a different kind. And here we have the word one another of the same kind. Excellent Roy. Thank you. And that helps you answer the question which I just asked right there by using the heterosyn. Thank you. That's great.

Okay, so we know it's another of the same kind, another believer of the same kind. Isn't this a definition of humility that he's giving us? Okay, that's a good point. So if you read, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important. That's a good point. That ties in very well with that. My last question is, some I had a lot of questions, some I had a few questions. If you think it's a question I missed on these, please chime in. How can we accomplish this? Well, actually it's passive.

It's transforming your thinking. I think Ephesians 4 mentions this. Right, the one we just read. It says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience showing forbearance to one another in love. There might be farther in there. There are other verses in there too. we have put off the old man, and we are being transformed in our thinking, and we have put on the new man.

And if you think about Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ live within me. So all these characteristics we look at, if we try to accomplish these of our own determination and our own, well I'm going to get to it here, we're going to find that we're going to fail. And we're going to miss what scripture talks about. It talks about focus on the Lord, walking with Him, and letting His life be our life and his life being lived through us.

So all this encouragement Paul gives, if you don't understand where he's coming from, you're going to think, boy, this list is getting longer and longer. I read Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Man, my list is getting long. I better get busy. I'm worn out. The worldly idea is it's in our best self-interest to help others. It's this idea of karma, this idea of paying it forward. It doesn't seem to be present here.

Certainly, Christ, I mean it was for the joy that was set before him. So he got joy out of the sacrifice and of giving it to us. Us being identified with Christ, when we're walking with him, there's going to be joy. But it's just so different than how the world looks. It's not like this is in your best interest, or you're going to have the best life if you do these things. It's because this is the character of Christ and we're examining it. There's tremendous joy attached with it, but it's so much higher than anything the world can talk about, or any measurement the world can put to.

This is why you want to help out others. Right. And it's not the view that, hey, I'll look out for him. I'll scratch his back and then he's going to scratch my back. It's like inviting people over for to enjoy, have a meal with you. If you're always looking well, okay, I invite you over now. It's your turn to invite me over, right?

Donna? Could you say it like, instead of being a call to action, it's more of a statement of reality. This is who we are. Exactly. And this is how it plays out. So it's interesting that Paul, if you're a casual reader of scripture and you read that, you say, boy, look at this list.

But if you step back and you think, well, wait a minute. I can't accomplish any of this. If you look at your heart and you say, I can't accomplish any of this. I can't be humble. I've been trained in the best school systems in America. I'm not going to be humble. I'm going to go out there and rise to the top. So you realize you can't do it. And that's a wonderful, wonderful revelation that you can't do it, that only Christ can do it. No, that's great. Good comments here.

So now this next section, starting in verses 5-11, has been called the most important set of verses in Philippians. And I think the reason it's talked about as being the most important is because it's going to talk about our Savior. It's going to talk about the God-man. This union between God and man. And it's going to give us details about that that we have no place else in Scripture.

And I, Jim went over the first part of this and I had the privilege to do it in the last section. It's an amazing section. And so I have a few questions here and we'll see, hopefully this will spark some thoughts here. Okay, so let's just, could someone read these three verses here? I kind of divided it into two sections, the way we covered it. There's a little bit of an overlap, but someone read these three verses here.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of man. Thanks, Gail.

Okay, the first question is, what was Christ's attitude? Does he have an attitude? It's popular. What was his attitude? humility okay that's good so what do you think about in the context here is and I'm going to kind of answer the question again do you think that maybe he answers that question starting in verse 6 and on he answers that question what his attitudes about that that seemed to me that he actually the question is answered and many times that happens when you look at you ask the question of some verses The question is answered in the verses. Not always, but many times it is. I think the question is answered about his attitude, but he's going to talk about how he's God and how he's man, and how that works. And how there's a mystery here that's just, you know, it's incredible. The God-man. Fully God, fully man. Roger?

Yeah, go ahead. It seems like there are things, and of course the plan of God, in this case, was probably the thing. But even for us, there are things that are more important than ourselves. And what God is doing, I think Christ considered more important than himself.

Okay, good, good. Retaining. Right. And we're going to get to that. He basically emptied himself. And that's one of the questions I'm going to have here shortly about that. Okay, that's good. That's good. OK? This is somewhat repetitive. He implores us here, have this attitude of yourself. He doesn't say, well, that's a neat attitude that Christ had. Think about sometimes in a quiet moment and just kind of float on by. No, he says, have this attitude. This is the attitude that you're to have.

So once again, we go back to how do we live the Christian life? Do we live it by a set of rules, by a set Laws? Or do we live by them? Well, we think it's even more than that. Certainly Christ is an example, but do you think it's more like a life? If we're in Christ, and he's in us, then that's our life. And that's who our character is too. His character is our character.

And even though we still have a sin nature, that rears its ugly head all the time, That is who we are positioned to be. When someone says, have this attitude, to me, just that in itself, taken with nothing else, is a really difficult thing, because, okay, so I'm just going to change my attitude, but based on what? Why? Because I'm commanded to? That in itself is something else.

It's more, this is who you are. If you're in Christ, that's who you are. So because that's who you are, you rest on that. And you reckon it as truth. Something that happens here, you're reckoning that as being true. It's also here. It's here. The heart and the mind are all the same thing. Really, this is the root of our being.

But we see in the first five verses, he mentions their mind three times. It's very important. And in Romans Paul gives us a really kind of a practical way of doing this, of how to live by the Spirit. He says, have your mind fixed on the things of the Spirit. So if someone says, have this attitude, that's one thing, but if they say, where's your mind? Have your mind fixed on the things of the Spirit.

That's a little more practical to me. Where's my mind, or is my mind fixed on the things of the flesh? Because if it is, I'm not going to have that attitude. That's right. Your focus has to be on the Lord. That's where we look all the time. We can't be looking at the world for figuring out where our mind's going to be.

It's got to be fixed on the Lord. But when we're fixed on the Lord, then we realize what His character is. The more we know Him, the more we know His character and realize that's our character. But if we don't know Him, We can't live like that. There's no way. That's right. We don't know him.

Good discussion. I learned a long time ago something about humility that maybe would fit to share here. Okay, go ahead. It was taught to me that humility is the correct use of knowledge and that knowledge has got to be the truth. It can't be knowledge that's error. And so we're given here in action. Not just facts, but facts that are in action. And that's what humility is. The correct use of truth. I don't know if that fits here or not, but it seems to me that here is Christ's attitude, which is really springing from who he is, in action.

Well, to kind of build on that, and build on what Margaret said too, We're the next step in that. We have the very life of Christ. So if we have that very life, His life is our life. We have the very mind of Christ. So Paul's not telling them something they can't achieve. He's saying, you can achieve this. Because you have Christ's very life, and you have his very mind. Now, as we've talked about, there's a struggle. We have two natures. We can be over-focused on our old nature, or our new nature in Christ. So we can be off the map. He wants us to be focused on him, focused on who we are in Christ.

And that's actually a whole other, we could spend lots of time, and actually we have a great class down, I'll give a plug for Mike's class. If you want to learn about who you are in Christ, and Mike does a fabulous job, I would, you know, I'm not proud, you can leave right now. Anyway, okay, so let's go on, we're never going to finish this, I know. Okay. OK, now this is a neat one.

What does it mean? It talks about here, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. So the first question is asked, what does it mean that he, Christ, exists in the form of God? So we're going to try to struggle here with the concept of the God-man. So if you feel like you're inadequate, you're in good company. He says he existed in the form of God. And then it's going to say later on, he took the form of Ansar, the same word. The word form in both cases is the same word. So one of the questions is how do we define that word form? It's pretty important how we define that word form.

So anybody want to weigh in here on what do you think about, what does that mean? Or what doesn't it mean? Maybe do the negative approach. It doesn't mean he was just spirit only with no body or something. It could be taken that way, but that's not what it means. Okay, that's good. That's what it doesn't mean. It means that in his essence he is God. Exactly. And it says that although he exists in the form of God, and then it's going to tell you something he did not exercise. He said he voluntarily did not exercise a part of his very nature. And how long has Christ been God? Trick question.

Ever. Right, right, right. He's been God forever. Did that change when he came to earth? Okay, so you've got to keep that in mind. That's where it gets tough here. So he's saying, you know, he exists in the form of God, and that's actually in the present tense, he continues to exist in the form of God.

That's not what I was saying. Exactly. The morph, it's the inside out. Exactly. It's not just the outside which is probably what you might end up with incorrectly. What Jim said when we taught that, that's key. Focus on the form as the inward aspect. Later on, we're going to see the outward. He had the outward appearance of a man. He covers both the inward and the outward, but this is the inward.

So it says, inwardly, he was still the God that he was from all eternity past. And he maintained that. But he did something. He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. So did I have a question about that? Yes, I did. Good. The word in and thee there are not there. It's in form God. So it reads a little bit more identification and essence He existed to inform God.

So why didn't he grasp at his deity? Why didn't he demand his deity? He had the right to. At one point he said I could call down twelve legions of angels and they're gone. He had his focus on God's overall plan. Remember we talked about something in Hebrews, in the eternity past there was an agreement made, actually it's called the eternal covenant, and Christ agreed that he would lay down his life and his father would take up his life. So he held true, he maintained that agreement. does he not do that?

That's what the rest of the whole chapter is about. Okay, good. We're not going to fully answer these questions. Did you get the definition for grass? Okay, I did not. I did not. Does anyone have a good definition for grass? Actually it's translated a little bit differently in other translations. It means something that means That's holding on to. Right, right.

He voluntarily did not exercise what he could have exercised. And when we see verses that indicate that, that he didn't exercise his deity, he could have, but he did not. He chose, and I think that was the plan. He was going to be the God man. So what two, this is actually answered in the verse, what two aspects are talked about in terms of emptying himself? So I think they're actually talked about in the verse. So what do you see there in verse 7? You see two things, right? So part of emptying himself were two things, right?

He took the form of a bondservant and he was made in the likeness of men. So that first one there, the bondservant, that's kind of a cool thing. So it's the same word form. You know, it's interesting, some people see these as those two statements, taking the form of God and taking the form of bondservant as being in conflict. But I think the more I looked at it, and I think it looks like to me, so one question is what's a bondservant?

I remember what that is. It's a word in scripture. I think it's doulos. It's a Greek word. What does that mean? Or what is that? Slave. Okay. I think sometimes, isn't there, Roy can help me, isn't there a super doulos? There's a slave and then there's a one who, I can't think, he goes the extra mile.

Right, exactly. Exactly. Because he loves the Master so much. I believe that's the word here. Christ willingly became a bondservant to the Father. And it's a willingness based on trust. It isn't a willingness just willy-nilly, but absolute trust that he has your best in mind. Exactly. And we see that.

Remember what Christ said? He said some remarkable things, like in John especially. He says, I do nothing I do nothing on my own initiative. He's fully deity. But this is part of his empathy. He said, I only do what I see the Father doing. I do nothing else. That's a remarkable statement. He said, I only do what the Father is doing. He says also, I speak just as the Father told me. He relinquished himself to the Father. He said, I do.

And he was a bondservant. I was just thinking, when was the last time we thought about bondservant actually being a characteristic of God? I know, isn't that cool? I mean, this is what really kind of, the lightbulb kind of went off. Wow, and I actually had thought about this in the wrong way. I kept thinking, I want to make Christ a bondservant of men, and that's not true. He's a bondservant. He has to be. And that's why, you make him a bondservant of men, then you have a conflict between those two statements. The form of God and the form of bondservant.

You think, well, wait a minute. Your circuit blows and you get formed, you define it two different ways in two different passages and you say, I can't do that. Kind of take that, and I'm seeing this for the first time actually, we're told to be bond servants as well.

Exactly. How do we subject our will to that of another and loving submission and so on. Well, in Christ means that you are a bond servant because that's who he is. Exactly. So that's a natural part of being in Christ. Well, that's the cool part. We see in this picture that he shows with his father, we see our part in that because we have his very life. We say, well, wait a minute.

I'm a bondservant of Christ. And he did that willingly, and I do it willingly because that's who I am. Why wouldn't I love the Lord? Why wouldn't I just be who I am? Why would I have a struggle with that? Christ had no struggle with that, and we're not to have a struggle either.

I mean, this is this is this is cool stuff. And we just you know, this is just one little, you know, go ahead. I think what helps me is I think of him as if he's the beginning of a new creation. And our minds keep thinking of the old creation. And when we think of new, of a different kind, it places you in a different frame of reference. In the King James it says of no reputation. He made himself of no reputation. And when you think of that, he took upon himself a no history position. He had no history as a man. He became a man with no history. I mean he had a history. But now he took on this newness.

I don't know where I'm going with that. That's a good thought. That's a great thought. Is that just for while he was on earth? Or is this permanent, this relationship to the Father always? That's a good question. That went through my mind a little bit and I didn't know. It's one of those things that you think about and you say, boy, I wasn't sure how I could... I don't know. You guys have a thought about that?

I think in the context, it's got to be a temporal thing that he did. when he became man, because of the action verb there in the beginning of verse 7, he emptied himself. Well, he couldn't have done that before eternity passed. It's a thing that happened at one point in time. That was kind of my gut feel, but I... What's that? If it started when he emptied himself physically.

Yeah, and then you see that we see in scripture that he has some marks of the crucifixion. And you think, well, does that make him a lower class God in heaven? I mean, I hate that. This is not irreverent. I mean, he will always have the marks of the creation. I see that as a wonderful testimony to what God's done. I don't see that as a negative. That's a positive. Yeah. If we think of this as being He didn't give it away. He poured it out. That's beautiful. And he'll always be the God-man. He'll always be the God-man.

Let's see if we can get to that in the next section. So this is the last section. Like I said, these verses are considered... And being found in the appearance of the man, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him a name, which is above every name. So at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

OK. So this is kind of an observation thing. And it's hard to see here, but in the original idea, Christ humbling himself has two aspects, even though it reads with humbling down farther on. So actually, the two aspects, if you read here, I'm myself confused here. So having been found, an appearance of man is one, and becoming obedient to the point of death. those two modify he humbled himself in verse 8. So here we have, and I was talking about this before, here we have, here's the humanity side, right? He was found in the appearance as a man and I believe that word, I lost it here, It's fashion, which means the external. So he found the appearance of man and he became obedient.

Here's the thing where God dies, right? And you think, well that's impossible. God can't die, right? But the man Christ Jesus died. But God says, if you read the passage about his being raised, it says it's impossible for the grave to hold him. So God and the full deity cannot die, but the God-man did die.

You have to put in separation and death. When you say separation, then it's a little easier to... Right. And I think that's why it says, became obedient to the point of death. It's actually unto death, actually King James is unto death. It's kind of pointing out, he didn't say dead. He died as a man. Okay, so let's go on here.

So basically I said, why did God the Father highly exalt him? I think basically that question is answered basically by looking back to 8, because he He was obedient. He was obedient to the point that he accomplished what God's plan was from eternity past. He would die for the sins of the world and the Father would raise him up. So that's why he was exalted. And then, what are the things that will happen at the name of Jesus? So that's the rest of this verse here. For this reason, God highly exalted him. So that, purpose that, at the name of Jesus.

So we're going to see Knees will bow and tongues will confess. Two things. It's just not enough. Think about our society. Think about people. Sometimes they'll say something, but there can be a mixed message. But this message is consistent. The knee of people in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow, and every tongue will confess. So both the knee, an action, and confession will happen at the name of Jesus. Go ahead.

To say or to imply that there comes a point where even those who don't believe will be saved. Saved you said? Yeah. that because they confess he's the Lord, is that why they're saying that everybody gets saved in the end? I don't think so. But it does say they acknowledge who God is. I think that's kind of taught in the scripture. If you look at, how about Lazarus? One of the few views we have into, not quite hell, but Hades, is a rich man Lazarus. And the rich man, it's interesting, he never says, I shouldn't be here. He says, tell my brothers, I want to tell my brothers not to come here, but he never says I shouldn't be here. He never disputes. He never argues with God about why he's there.

And I kind of think that's every tongue will confess. Man outside of Christ will know what his state is and will agree with God. I mean, based upon that and other passages. It doesn't indicate a change in a sense. It's just an outward, the knee and the tongue, but it doesn't say anything about the heart. I don't think this is talking about salvation.

This is talking about acknowledging who he is, who the person of Christ is. It's interesting, the passage from verse 1, we talked about the humility. You know, the church here in Philippi is told to be humble, considering others interests before their own and all this. And basically it comes down to if if you're not, if people are not. you will be made to be humbled.

And it's not a negative. He doesn't put it out there as a negative. He's putting it as a positive for Jesus. He's just stating the fact that this is the person you're dealing with. This is the very person of Christ. And this is who he is. And that's kind of neat.

You think, well, who's in heaven? Who's in heaven? Well, see, we've got believers absent from the body, present with the Lord. So believers are in heaven. angels are in heaven. And then on earth, who's on the earth? We have the living people, everybody's living. Then under the earth is sort of, I think, a picture made of Hades possibly. So they're all, you know, it covers all the bases, the whole realm, you know. It doesn't talk about other planets. So if you're, you know, I have people ask, is there life on other planets?

Look at your scriptures. I don't know. You're going to have a tough time proving that out of the scripture. Anyway, I don't know. Can I ask a question? In verse 9, God, that's referring to the Father. The Father highly exalted Him, Jesus, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. Jesus? I don't know. He did give him that name. If you come to the earlier classes... What's the name? I shouldn't have brought this up. That's just fine. Five minutes. You and a few other people have struggled with that.

So is the name Jesus? Is the name the Lord Jesus? I mean people... I started looking at... What is the name? Well, you look in the context here, verse 10 says, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. So looking at the context alone, but others have argued, no, it has to be the Lord Jesus. They have... They want to have his full name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Full of what we see in scripture.

That's not really a name, that's a title. And you're right, they're titled in their names. Jesus is a name, but there's also a name of God that we're given in scripture. He gives his personal name to Moses in Exodus chapter 3. And that's the name Yahweh. Is that the name that the father bestowed on him? Or did he have that name from eternity past? Because he is God, so how is he not Yahweh before this? Or is it a name that we don't even know yet? Is this something we can't move beyond? Are we moving into speculation?

Yeah, I don't know. I looked at that and I said, boy, I danced around that a little bit. I didn't ask a question about it. Yeah, you noticed that? Well, actually, I asked the question, but if you look back at my old notes, and if you have your old notes, I asked that question before, but I didn't necessarily answer it.

Then in 11, it talks about confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. So, it uses both things. Certainly, yeah. equivalent to Yahweh. Right, and that's a good point. So, I don't know. Roger, I'm thinking of a friend who tells us that we're arrogant because we believe that Jesus is the only way to God. And of all the ways to God that mankind tries to have, it will finally be shown that Jesus was indeed the one God designated. If we think of the name as being his reputation, his character, his essence, it's here in verse 7 he says he took upon himself a reputation of nothing and God exalted him and gave him a reputation of everything. That's a good one, that's cool, I like that. Yeah, you take it. Okay, that's good. All right. Well, there's a lot more to do.

Four more charts. Do you have any favorites? Anyway, that's what makes it, you know, Doing a review in one class is, you know, pretty. I thought we should do a review in the class just for this week to go back over. Well, let's go on. You know, one thing that I'm going to just skip past this next chart real quick. Let me just show you what I like here is that this is what I'm talking about. Okay, chart eight, chart eight, sorry.

So he says, but even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifices and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too I urge to rejoice the same way and share your joy with me. So this is a really cool section here. It talks about this idea of, and Jim did a great job of tracing through Christ's sacrifice, and then we have Paul talking about his sacrifice, and then we go through and look at Timothy and his part in the sacrifice, and then Epaphroditus. So this is really cool phraseology.

So what does it mean to be poured out as a drink offering? This looks back to the Old Testament. So what do you think, what's that about? So Paul's saying, you know, he's looking at a situation and he said, this is not a lot of fun. And I see myself being sacrificed in a sense. So what is that picture? What comes to mind there? And I'll just go for it.

Kind of combine it with, he says, and this being poured out as a drink offering is upon the sacrifices and services of your faith. Boy, that's just kind of neat. When you look at that, you think, wow, that's... The picture there is just, is really neat.

And if you look back, I'm answering these questions myself, but if you look back at the Old Testament, and you see, like look at Numbers and those places, and you see how they did the sacrifices, and you see they had the burnt offering, and they had other things, and the very last thing, they would have wine, and they would pour the wine, I'm not sure exactly on the offering, but next to the offering so the wine would vaporize or whatever. So it's being poured out as a drink offering. And what I did find is what it says on the sacrifices and services of your faith could be translated the sacrificial services of your faith. So the picture here is that Paul sees himself and his life is coming to an end, possibly, and he says, you know, my life is an offering to the Lord And it's upon, not like the bull and the goat and that kind of thing, it's upon your service to the Lord.

I mean, that's just neat. You serve the Lord in Philippi, and my life may come to an end, and I'm being poured out as a drinker. I mean, it's just neat. I don't know, I just, I'm not sure I totally understand it, but it's just marvelous to kind of contemplate that, that he saw his life that way.

And actually, Timothy saw his life somewhat that way too. It says in 2 Timothy 4, 6, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come." So Timothy saw himself as being poured out, seeing his life coming to an end, and he's being poured out as an offering. Seeing our life as an offering to the Lord.

This is something you don't think about often. You think, well, you know. Any thoughts on that? I urge you, sacrifice in faith in the same way, and if you report out an accompanying sacrifice like me, then do it with joy with me. So it goes back to just the result of all of this sacrifice and selflessness and humility equals joy. Coming from a guy who's chained in prison. I know, you think, how can there be any joy in that? How can there be joy being in prison, chained to a guard?

I mean, it's incredible. I think that was the second bell, I think. Any last thoughts or comments? It's been a great day. Chapter 2 is great. We're getting ready for Chapter 3. Actually, Jeremy is going to be teaching that next week. We're looking forward to that. Chapter 3, there's lots of goodies in Chapter 3. Wonderful truths there. Thanks for all your comments. It's been wonderful. Let's just close.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior, Lord. We thank you just for that God-man who came to earth and died on our behalf, Lord. We thank you for his sacrifice, and we thank you for the picture of Paul's sacrifice and Timothy, Epaphroditus, Lord. And we're thankful, Lord, that what you have in store for us, Lord. We praise you for that. In Christ's name, amen.