Episode 1: Philippians: Exalting Christ
Philippians here we go! We’re looking forward to getting stuck into Paul’s familiar letter to the church in Philippi, and hope you’ll join us for our online Bible study as we do so. Today is all about introductions - to us, to the letter, and to how to get stuck into it for ourselves.
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Grab a pencil/pen, read through Philippians twice and highlight or underline all the repeated themes and words in the letter.
What stands out from reading slowly through this letter so far?
Spend time praying in 1v9-11 as you begin to study Philippians.
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Sarah: You're listening to the two sisters and a cup of tea podcast, a 20 minutes burst of Bible chats over a cup of tea and an English style biscuit as we make our way through a Bible book over the course of the season and drive it to our hearts. Whether you've been listening for a while or have just found us, we are so pleased you're here this season. We're really thankful to be partnering with Christian Focus to bring you some book recommendations that we've enjoyed over the last little while. Memorable loss by Karen Martin is a moving account of a beautiful friendship between two women, generations apart, as the elder journeys through dementia to her death. Peppered with poignant insight and rigorous research, and combined with a depth of emotion, Martin writes of their friendship journey rooted in what it is to love our neighbour. It was a profoundly moving read and one I found myself talking of to many others. Pick up a copy wherever you get your books.
Felicity: Welcome to two sisters and a cup of tea. My name is Felicity and I'm here in the States. I'm here with my sister Sarah. She's in the UK and we are excited to be kicking off season eleven as we get into the book of Philippians. Sarah, great to be back. A question. How many cups of tea do you think you consume in a day?
Sarah: Oh, it's lovely to be back. I think I'm a one to two cup kind of person, my preference being that cup you share with someone else. How about you?
Felicity: I would be similar. I would definitely. I do value the cup with someone else. I mean, if someone asks to have a cup of tea, I mean, that's just a given that I would say.
Sarah: You're not going to say no, never going to.
Felicity: Don't put the kettle on. No, no, no. I'll always say yes. I do. I do appreciate my solitary cup of tea. I don't know whether you have this, I don't know whether you do do this, actually, that before anyone else is awake, I make myself a cup of tea and sit down with my Bible and I just. It's a sweet joy to be on my own with my cup of tea.
Sarah: Nice. Well, speaking of sharing with others, Felicity, tell we are thinking about the idea of partnership and partnering, particularly in the gospel. What have you enjoyed about partnership through this podcast so far?
Felicity: Partnering Sarah with you as we sit in the word together. That is a sweet partnership, but also the partnership with so many listeners. And it's a funny thing, isn't it? Because there's definitely the. We do know that people are listening, just we can check downloads and all that kind of stuff. So there is a kind of silent partnership there, which is encouraging, but there's a sweetness in when people engage with us and when people are in touch, whether they email or message or whatever. I love that. I really enjoy partnering with the people who are sponsoring us, actually. We've been recommending books and I love the conversations that we have with them and knowing that we're kind of pulling in the same direction with those people. What about you?
Sarah: Yeah, all of that. I think it's been really sweet hearing from, particularly from people who've been really encouraged to open the Bible with friends and they've not done it before. And seeing the value of kind of partnering to enable women to do that has been really exciting. Groups of women at churches around the world, not just in our two different countries, and that's just been thrilling as well. Partnering with missionaries. It's been really, really exciting and really encouraging to hear how much people have been using our podcast abroad. It's just been a wonderful gift, hasn't it, to see the way the Lord has used the podcast over the last three years and the real joy of partnering with others.
Felicity: It's a beautiful thing, this partnering, and actually we are all about partnering with our listeners at the moment. We have a partnership pack that we're going to be talking about at the end of the episode. So do hang with us until we get there because we're going to tell you more about a partnering opportunity that we would love you to get involved with. But talking about partnering, let us get into the Book of Philippians, which has partnership as one of the kind of overarching themes going on here. But this is just a kind of introductory episode, really. We're going to be getting our bearings in the text as a whole. And what we've done is we've picked out four words which pleasingly all start with p in order to help us get our bearings in this letter. It's always good to try and get a kind of a feel for the whole letter before we get into the nitty gritty of different passages. So we're this episode, we're going to talk about people, place, picture and prayer. They're going to kind of help us work our way through the letter. So, Sarah, could you help us think about people in Philippians? Who have we got in this letter?
Sarah: I would love to. Well, the primary person we see first and foremost is Paul. He's writing the letter and he actually features through the letter because he kind of uses his testimony and his example as a real model to this church in Philippi, and I think that's really striking. But actually, we do find out a lot about Paul through the course of his letter and his experience. So we're going to see a lot about Paul, and we see something about Timothy and Epaphroditus. These are two of Paul's kind of co-workers, and again, we see them modelling themes of the letter and Paul kind of lifting them up as examples to follow in how they are serving Jesus. It's written to the Philippean church. Philippean or Philippian? How do you say it?
Felicity: Interesting. Yes, I've noticed a slight, funny intonation over there. I would be for a Philippian church. I feel like you're for the Philippian church.
Sarah: I know. That's funny, isn't it? Well, this church in Philippi, who this is letter is directed towards. You can find out about the beginnings of this church in acts chapter 16, where we meet a slave girl, we meet a wealthy businesswoman, and we meet a jailer, a kind of real motley crew gathered together through the gospel. And that's the beginnings of a church that forms. And that's just really exciting to think of those kind of that group of people who will be receiving this letter. And there's also news of this church in two Corinthians. They are known for generously loving and serving Paul and giving with the mindset of Christ. So there's an excitement over this group of people. They seem to love Jesus. They're not a problem church. It seems Paul is seeking to encourage them. But at the heart of the letter, the person who is exalted most of all is Christ. He's mentioned 36 times through the letter. I mean, that is a lot of times. And it's been thrilling to kind of just. Yeah. Our view of Jesus is growing and growing as we get stuck into this letter, isn't it?
Felicity: Absolutely, it is. And it's all happening in Philippi. Well, actually, it's not all happening in Philippi. Paul is writing to a crowd of people in Philippi. There's likelihood that he's writing from prison in Rome, and he's kind of writing back to this church that he has visited. It seems more than once. He's passed through Macedonia a number of times, and Philippi itself, it's a roman colony. It's the leading city of its district in Macedonia, and in many ways, it was described as Rome away from Rome. So this is a place that is very happy to be roman. Roman laws, roman customs, roman dress, like the city is kind of sitting in line with being part of the empire, part of the Roman Empire. It's the first city in Europe evangelized by Paul and to be roman citizens. It seems like from the way that scholars write and historians write, this was a matter of pride. So Caesar is regarded to be lord and king. So it's into this place that Paul, with the gospel back in acts 16, kind of landed. And as you can imagine, that then means there's. There's quite a conflict between gospel things and this kind of worship of Caesar, really, which is kind of like what the roman way was quite a challenging place. I think what we're going to see as we go through the letter, it's not the easiest place to be as a Christian.
Sarah: We see it back in Acts and.
Felicity: We see the evidence of that. Just as Paul writes with encouragement to the Philippians, to basically stand firm, the very fact he has to keep telling them, you can stand firm, suggest that it's not quite. Yeah, you're going to have to work hard to stand in that sense. So, Sarah, give us a bit more of that kind of the context. The picture.
Sarah: The picture, yes, that's how I've labelled the word context. Let's get in with our P's. So we've done people, we've done place onto the picture. What's the picture of this situation, the context they're facing? And I think as you read through the letter, and we really would just recommend just sitting down and reading the letter for yourselves, listening to it being read out loud as well. And you cannot miss the context of suffering, both for Paul, who's in prison, for Epaphroditus, who nearly died for the work of Christ, and for the Philippians, who are living among really strong opposition, as well as just the everyday hardships of living in a fallen world. And yet I think what's really striking about this picture of life there and this picture that Paul presents is that there isn't self pity or wallowing in this suffering. Instead there's commands to rejoice and they pepper the letter in every direction. Yeah, I think that's just really striking, isn't it? So we've got this kind of suffering, we've got rejoicing. There are so many themes, it feels like in this letter, and you could read the letter through any of these themes, but I do think the kind of standout themes of suffering and rejoicing, but actually standing firm in the suffering seems to be something that kind of undergirds quite a lot of the letter. Standing firm and rejoicing, even in the midst of suffering seems to be the context and the encouragement that Paul is giving to these people standing in this situation and the reason that he can do that, the kind of hinge point that he can say that hinges on Christ, who, as I mentioned, is mentioned 36 times in the letter, and knowing Christ, exalting Christ, lifting Christ up in every situation, seems to be the pivot point that the way that he can encourage this group of believers to stand firm and rejoice in suffering.
Felicity: I think that's right. And we're not going to get into the detail of the text today, but it's worth just drawing attention to that kind of hinge point that we have sort of towards the end of the first chapter, don't we? We get this very well known phrase, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And so that kind of gives us this insight into, well, what is it that Paul is seeking to communicate to the Philippians and this idea of rejoicing? I mean, it's just really helpful to go through with a highlighter, isn't it? And just all the repeated words because that, and it's surprising because we see that there's suffering. Paul himself is writing from prison and we've got joy, joy, joy, joy. It's not where our minds and hearts naturally go, so it's perfect.
Sarah: I mean, out of all the Bible books, this is a crucial one for the highlighter, if there ever was. Get them out, crack them open and enjoy highlighting the repeated themes and words in this letter and you really will start to see what Paul is driving towards. But what's really striking, Felicity, in the first nine verses is that we get this massive prayer, isn't it, from Paul, and we're going to be talking more on that in our next episode. But actually, as we think about our fourth p prayer, I wonder how this has started to impact your prayers as you've got into the letter for yourself and how it should be impacting our prayers as we go forward from here.
Felicity: Well, I think, first of all, Philippians, I don't know, our listeners are going to be in numerous different places in terms of where they're at in reading the Bible, but the likelihood is that a large number of people will have come across Philippians before. And so there's a familiarity, possibly even with some particular verses that might be plastered over walls and whatnot. But. So a first prayer for me, I found, is just that I would get beyond familiarity that there would be a freshness as I come to this with my eyes and heart, be open to what God is saying to me through this now, rather than what I maybe have heard before, or I assume before. So that's a kind of first step, is just praying that we would be in this book with eyes and ears open to what the Lord is saying. And I think then in the prayer Paul prays for, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. And that has been really fundamental to how I've been praying, that my love for Christ and in fact, for other people. I think that's one of the big things that comes through this letter, that my love for Christ and others would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I would have the lens through which Paul is seeing life. As we're in the book of Philippians, I think what we have here is a kind of insight into how Paul's heart and mind are programmed and calibrated. And I want that to be the way that I see and do life. And so that'd be my prayer, that my love would abound more and more and that my knowledge and depth of insight would abandon in those ways. What about you? Where is it?
Sarah: Yeah, but I think on that kind of link to that, I've been praying that the Lord would give us eyes to really see life in view of this letter. And I guess that is kind of praying for discernment, isn't it, and insight. So what do I mean by that? Kind of, are we ready to see where I might be stuck in self pity rather than being able to rejoice? Am I ready to be challenged on my joy and where I find it? Am I willing to see where I'm boasting in things that aren't Christ? And I think just that kind of simple prayer, Lord, shine light on my heart and shine light on how I see the world and my circumstances and so that I may see it, as you say, with the mindset that Paul kind of elevates in this letter, I think that's been a really been a kind of constant prayer for me. I've been studying this with the women in our Bible study group over the last few months as well, and it's been wonderful just to kind of sit in this letter for a while and see the way that it actually has. The Lord has been answering those prayers for my mind and the way that I pray, I think, to be changing, but I think also praying for a heart and a will to encourage others. As we engage in this letter, how can we kind of press into the partnership we have with others in the gospel? How can we use this letter to help others to rejoice in the midst of tough times? I know that Philippines is full of verses that you might find on a wall or a post it note or a kind of nice, pretty verse, but actually, in the context, a lot of these verses of are to do with how do you sustain being in a tough situation and still manage to hold Christ highly and rejoice in him? And so just praying that the Lord would give me eyes to see where I can particularly encourage people in my local church family. And what does that kind of practically look like? Yeah, it's been good to pray in that vein.
Felicity: I think that's been a big. A big factor for me has been the way in which I see other people, that Paul's affection and love for the Philippians is just amazing and that I would even just to some degree feel that way about others and be willing to pour myself out for others for this partnership in the gospel, that we're going to see that kind of outwork throughout the whole letter. We don't want to. We don't want to spoil things too.
Sarah: Soon here by going, no, come back next time. Come back next time.
Felicity: Time. Absolutely. But Sarah. Well, shall I pray for us as we get into this letter?
Sarah: Yeah.
Felicity: Heavenly Father, we praise you so much for your word. Thank you for this letter to the Philippians. Thank you. That even though it was written so long ago, it is living and active now in our lives, that it is used by you to give us this mindset to shape us and that we would be more and more inclined to exalt Christianity. And so, Father, we pray that you would grow us in our love and knowledge of Jesus, that our depth of insight and knowledge might grow, might abound more and more so that we might love to follow Jesus, love, to exalt Jesus, love to partner with others. In that. Father, we pray that as we're in this letter, please, would you shape us and change us, make us more like Jesus as we're in these words, and we pray this in your name. Amen.
Sarah: Amen. Well, as we were talking about earlier, we want to tell you about this opportunity to partner with us in the gospel. Felicity, we've got a partnership pack offer going on at the moment. Can you tell us what's included in it and how for people to go about getting a partnership pack?
Felicity: Yes. Now, we are really eager to partner with you as our listeners as we go on this kind of gospel endeavor of this podcast. And one way in which we're doing that is inviting you to financially support us as you do that, we are offering a partnership pack to anyone who donates, whatever the amount you donate. And what you get in that pack is a really beautiful customized totes bag. Two sisters tote bag. You get a luxury journaling Bible from Zondervan. You get, which is of particular joy to Sarah. You get a set of Bible highlighters. I mean, they're specifically designed for highlighting letters such as Philippians from Mister Penn. You get undated devotions from ten of those and you get a pack of two sisters postcards. I mean, it is a bumper goodie bag. We have 75 partnership packs which we just want to give to the first 75 people who donate to two sisters and a cup of tea. So Sarah, how do we do it? How do they donate?
Sarah: Head to our website, twosistersandacupoftea.com. Partner with us. Press on that tab and you'll see all the details there. Or click the link in the show notes and it'll take you straight there as well. We so appreciate any and every donation that enables us to keep doing what we're doing. And we so value the partnership in the gospel with you, our listeners. And we really look forward to getting stuck into Philippians. Next week we'll be in chapter one, verses one to eleven. Do join us back here next week, Friday, and we look forward to seeing you then.
Felicity: See you then. Bye bye.
Sarah: We're really thankful for the sponsorship of Christian Focus this season.
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