Yesuli International Ministries

The Epistle to the Philippians, along with Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon are known as the Prison Epistles. This is because they were written by Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit during his first Roman imprisonment (see Acts 28:16-31), sometime between A. D. 60-62. Philippians affirms not only Jesus' equality with God the Father, but also the Father's exaltation of Christ. It presents Jesus Christ as the supreme example of suffering, service, sacrifice, and humble obedience to the will of God. The Letter clearly shows that Jesus Christ and Him alone is the central focus of the Gospel. He is the One to be preached and proclaimed. He is the past. He is the present. He is the future. He is the believer's life. He has a Day on which He will return for His church and reward them. His interests are what Christians are to pursue. He is the One in whom the believer's joy is rooted. He is the One the believer must make every effort to know, gain, and trust. He is the One in whom the believer's hope is built. Jesus Christ is the believer's true object of faith. It is therefore important for us to see Jesus as He is revealed in Philippians. "Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus as He really is, equal with God, exalted high, the ultimate example of sacrifice and service! We want to know Jesus better and gain Him," is our prayer!

Jesus in Philippians Chapter 1

1. Jesus Christ is the One in whom the believer's will is altogether consumed, and is therefore owned by Him body and soul [derived from the meaning of doulos- Greek for bond-slave or bond-servant: one who is in permanent relation of servitude to another, his will altogether consumed in the will of another] (1:1).
2. Jesus Christ is the One in whom believers are united and set apart. That is, the spiritual status of genuine Christians is linked to Jesus Christ (1:2).
3. Jesus Christ the Lord is equal to God the Father. In other words, Jesus Christ is God (1:3).
4. Jesus Christ the Lord and God the Father are the believers' source of grace and peace (1:3).
5. Jesus Christ has a Day on which He will return for His church and review and reward their service. Obviously, the Day of Christ Jesus is different from the Day of the Lord which describes God's final judgment and wrath on those who reject Jesus Christ (1:6).
6. Jesus Christ's affection, that is, genuine compassionate love, is to characterize those called to serve in the true church of Jesus Christ (1:8).
7. Jesus Christ has a Day on which He will return for His church and review and reward their service. Before then, it is God's desire that believers' love abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment resulting in their ability to approve the things that are excellent (1:9-10).
8. Jesus Christ is the One through or by whom believers experience being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which is simply the transformation provided by Jesus and His ongoing work of power through His Spirit in believers. (1:11).
9. Jesus Christ is the source of all the Christian qualities that make up a righteous life (1:11).
10. Jesus Christ turns tragedy into triumph for the progress of the Gospel (1:12-14).
11. Jesus Christ is the Lord (1:14).
12. Jesus Christ the Lord is the One in whom believers' trust is rooted (1:14).
13. Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Gospel (1:15).
14. Jesus Christ alone is to be preached and proclaimed. [It's sad that sometimes Jesus is preached out of wrong and selfish motives. But thank God for those who proclaim Him with the right motive!] (1:15-18).
15. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the same as the Holy Spirit. This means the provision or supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ refers to the power of the Holy Spirit released to work on the believer's behalf (1:19).
16. Jesus Christ uses the prayers of God's people and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about a change in the circumstances of His servant (1:19).
17. Jesus Christ is the One who must always be exalted or magnified in the believer's life. He is to be esteemed or praised by others through our witness of Him, by life or by death (1:20).
18. Jesus Christ is the believer's life. In other words, Jesus Christ must be the believer's reason for living, not fame, money, riches, wealth, or pleasure (1:21).
19. Jesus Christ is the One the believer yearns to be with after departing this world. [This clearly refutes the idea of "soul-sleep." The Bible's teaching here is that the believer goes to be with Jesus Christ at the time of death and that he is in conscious enjoyment of the presence of the Glorified Lord.] (1:23).
20. Jesus Christ is the believer's future, where he will enjoy full and final communion with Christ (1:23).
21. Jesus Christ's glorious presence is far better than anything the believer would ever experience here on earth (1:23).
22. Jesus Christ is the One in whom the Christians' boast is to be made (1:26).
23. Christlikeness must govern Christians' conduct and character (1:27).
24. Christ's followers are not only called to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (1:29).

Jesus in Philippians  Chapter 2

1. Jesus Christ is the One Christians must seek to be like  (2:1-5).
2. Jesus Christ is the believers' source of encouragement (2:1).
3. Jesus Christ is the believers' source of consolation or comfort. In other words, Jesus is the One who comes close and whispers words of gentle cheer or tender counsel in a Christian's ear. ( 2:1).
4. Christ's mind is what Christians are to have and seek to direct their actions in life (2:2)
5. Jesus Christ's life of selflessness and sacrifice is to serve as an example for believers to follow (2:3-5).
6. Jesus Christ's attitude must characterize Christians (2:5).
7. Jesus Christ has eternally been God. In other words, Jesus Christ existed from all eternity as God (2:6).
8. Jesus Christ is God in the truest sense of the word. In other words, apart from His human nature, Christ possessed all the qualities and characteristics belonging to God (2:6).
9. Jesus Christ is equal to God. That is, Jesus was, is, and will be equal with God as to His Person. In other words, Jesus Christ is Deity (2:6).
10. Jesus Christ, though having all the rights, privileges, and honors of Deity, did not cling to those things but willingly gave them up for a season to serve His Father's purpose of saving lost sinners (2:6).
11. Jesus Christ laid aside His privileges. In other words, Jesus Christ willingly relinquished His positional equality with God in order to come into this world to save wretched humanity ( (2:7).
12. Jesus Christ is the supreme example of sacrifice (2:7).
13. Jesus Christ is the True Servant. The word "form" [Greek: morphe] indicates exact essence. This means that the expression "form of a bondservant" points to Christ's true servanthood (2:7).
14. Jesus Christ is the supreme example of service (2:7).
15. Jesus Christ became the God-Man at His Incarnation. That is, Jesus was fully God and fully Man when He entered our world. In other words, the humanity of Jesus is as real as His Deity. He is true God and True Man (2:7).
16. Jesus Christ is the supreme example of humility (2:8).
17. Jesus Christ is the supreme example of obedience (2:8).
18. Jesus Christ is the supreme example of suffering (2:8).
19. Jesus Christ is highly exalted by God the Father as a result of His humility and selfless service and suffering in place of sinners (2:9).
20. Jesus Christ is the One to whom God the Father has given the name that is above every name. This could mean that Jesus Christ has a position of supremacy and dominion in the entire universe (2:9).
21. Jesus' name is the name at which every knee will bow. This does not mean everyone bowing the knee is saved. The redeemed will bow willingly and joyfully, but the unredeemed will bow unwillingly and fearfully (2:10).
22. Jesus Christ is the Lord, having the right to rule and possessing sovereign authority (2:11).
23. Jesus Christ will receive universal worship and universal acknowlegment of His Lordship. Again, the redeemed will do so gladly, but the unredeemed, with great anguish and distress of heart (2:11).
24. Jesus Christ's universal worship as Lord will bring glory to God the Father (2:11).
25. Jesus Christ has a Day o which He will return for His church and review and reward them. Reverently, we can say, Jesus Christ the Bridegroom has a "future date" with His bride, the church (2:16).
26. Jesus Christ is the Lord (2:19).
27. Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's hope is anchored (2:19).
28. Jesus Christ's interests are what believers should seek after (2:21).
29. Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's trust is firmly placed (2:24).
30. Jesus is the Lord, in whom the servant of God is to be received with all joy (2:29).
31. Jesus Christ's work is worth risking our lives for (2:30).

Jesus in Philippians  Chapter 3

1. Jesus is the Lord (3:1).
2. Jesus, the Lord, is the One in whom the believer's rejoicing is found. In other words, the sphere in which the Christians' joy exists is Christ Himself, not their circumstances. Our joy as believers is related to our unchanging relationship to Jesus Christ. We can always find real joy in Jesus, no matter what our circumstances may be in life (3:1).
3.  Jesus Christ is the One in whom believers are to glory or boast, not in themselves. In other words, Jesus alone is the ground of Christians' boasting in life (3:3).
4. Jesus Christ is the believer's true gain in life. He is the Christian's true profit in this life and in the life soon to come (3:7).
5. Jesus Christ is to be known personally as the believer's Lord (3:8).
6. Jesus Christ is the One who the Christian must strive to know intimately, experientially, or personally (3:8).
7. Jesus Christ is the One the believer must suffer the loss of all things to gain (3:8).
8. Jesus Christ is the One in whom believer's true identity is found (3:9).
9. Jesus Christ is the believer's true righteousness. In other words, Jesus is the One through whom God's righteousness is imputed to the Christian who expresses faith, that is, the confident, absolute personal reliance, steadfast confession of total dependence on Christ (3:9).
10. Jesus Christ is the believer's true object of faith (3:9)
11. Jesus Christ is the One the believer must make every effort to know intimately and personally. That is, the Christian's main ambition in life should be gaining a deeper, rich, real, experiential knowledge and intimacy with Jesus (3:10).
12. Jesus' resurrection power is available for the Christian to experience personally in his life and testimony (3:10).
13. Jesus Christ suffered. As such, His followers must be willing to share in His sufferings (3:10).
14. Jesus Christ's death is what the believer is called to conform to. In other words, as Jesus died for the purpose of redeeming sinners, so the believer should be willing to die to reach the lost with the Good News (3:10).
15. Jesus' choice of the believer as His own possession for the ultimate purpose of conforming him to His glorious image is the basis of the believer's pursuit and goal of pressing on to become all that Jesus wants him to be-Christlikeness (3:12).
16. Jesus Christ is the One in whom all the purposes of God (such as, salvation, Christlikeness, joint-heirship with Him, etc.) for the believer are found and ultimately fulfilled. That is, Jesus Christ is the believer's goal and prize (3:14).
17. Jesus' cross is not embraced by all. There are those who reject its saving message to their own destruction and doom (3:18-19).
18. Jesus Christ the Lord is the Savior believers are eagerly waiting for to return from heaven, which is their true citizenship (3:20).
19. Jesus, the Lord and Savior, is the One who will change Christians' lowly body into His glorious body by His power. This change or transformation of the body of our present humble state will enable us to enjoy the glorious presence of God without being consumed by the radiance of His glory (3:21).
20. Jesus has power to subject all things to Himself (3:21).

Jesus in Philippians  Chapter 4

1. Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom beloved believers are to stand firm  (4:1).
2. Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom quarreling Christians are to agree. In other words, believers who have disagreement can submerge their petty, personal differences in Jesus Christ and live in harmony in Him (4:2).
3. Jesus the Lord, is the One in whom Christians are always to rejoice. In other words, Christ, not circumstances, is the believer's source of constant joy  (4:4).
4. Jesus the Lord's coming is near. Are you ready for the soon coming of Jesus the Lord? ( 4:5).
5. Jesus Christ is the One in whom God guards believers' hearts and minds in order for them to experience His peace in their lives ( 4:7).
6. Jesus Christ, not circumstances, is the source of believers' great rejoicing (4:10).
7. Jesus Christ is the One who empowers the believer to face both hard and good times and do all things which are God's will for him to do (4:12-13).
8. Jesus Christ is the source and signature of God's riches, which He generously supplies to meet all the needs of Christians, who are faithful and devoted in their giving to Christ (4:15-19).
9. Jesus Christ is the One in whom each and every single believer is united and set apart (4:21).
10. Jesus Christ is the Lord (4:23).
11. Jesus Christ the Lord is the source of the abiding grace Christians experience (4:23).

Jesus Christ is the central figure in the Bible. He is the focus of all Scripture. To study the Bible without seeing Jesus as He is revealed in the Word of God and knowing Him in a deeper and more intimate way, is a failure of the purpose of true biblical study. We do not merely study the Bible just to get answers or facts. We study the Bible in order to grow in the grace and true, intimate, real, full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18). As you study the Word, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Person of Jesus Christ to you. He will be so delighted to do that. This is because His chief work is to glorify Jesus (John 16:14). And what better way to glorify Christ our Lord than to reveal Him to us in our hearts!