Philippians

By N. T. Wright, Dale Larsen and Sandy Larsen

Things don't always go the way we intend. It's easy to feel discouraged because what we hope for is badly thwarted, or because people make life difficult. Paul, writing to the Philippians from prison, certainly knew what it was like to have plans interrupted. But he maintains robust confidence in God's overruling power, even when everything seems to be going wrong. These eight studies will help us learn from Paul the art of seeing God's purposes working out through problems and difficulties, and will deepen our own confidence in God's power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP Bible Studies
• Release date: Sep 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9780830869213

N. T. Wright

N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He serves as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews as well as Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. Wright is the award-winning author of many books, including Paul: A Biography, Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, The Day the Revolution Began, Simply Jesus, After You Believe, and Scripture and the Authority of God.

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Couverture : N. T. WRIGHT, Philippians (8 STUDIES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS)Illustration

PHILIPPIANS

8 STUDIES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS

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N. T. WRIGHT

WITH DALE & SANDY LARSEN

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Contents

Getting the Most Out of Philippians

Suggestions for Individual Study

Suggestions for Group Members

1Philippians 1:1-11

Paul’s Reasons for Thanks

2Philippians 1:12-26

Full of Hope

3Philippians 1:27—2:4

Unity in Christ

4Philippians 2:5-18

The Mind of the Messiah

5Philippians 2:19-30

Timothy and Epaphroditus

6Philippians 3:1-16

The Worth of the King

7Philippians 3:17—4:9

Citizens of Heaven

8Philippians 4:10-23

Contentment in All Circumstances

Guidelines for Leaders

Praise for Philippians

About the Authors

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF PHILIPPIANS

Philippi, in northern Greece, was the first place in Europe that heard the news that there was a new king, the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth. You can read the story of Paul’s first visit there in Acts 16. This letter makes it clear that as Paul looked at all the churches he had founded, the people of Philippi were the ones who gave him the most joy. He loved them all, but this letter breathes a confident trust and enjoyment which we don’t always find elsewhere.

For Paul, bringing the gospel to Greece (described in Acts 16:9-12) was like a completely new beginning (see Philippians 4:15). Although he had been preaching and planting churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) for some while, he seems to have had a sense that when he came in to Europe he really was in new territory, and that if the gospel took root here it would prove in a further sense just how powerful it was. These, after all, were the Macedonians and Greeks, who had given the world one of its greatest cultures to date! And the Philippian church was the first of those churches on Greek soil.

Philippi was a Roman colony. In 42 B.C., about a hundred years before Paul came to that area, Philippi was the setting for one of the great battles in the Roman civil war that had broken out after the death of Julius Caesar. The two victorious generals, Antony and Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus), had found themselves with a lot of soldiers in northern Greece with nothing more to do. They certainly didn’t want to bring them all back to Rome, or even to Italy. It would be dangerous to have thousands of soldiers suddenly arriving in the capital. So they gave them land in and around Philippi, making it a colony of Rome.

Once the colony was established, other veterans from other battles joined them. By the time Paul went there, Philippi contained quite a