 You're welcome everyone. Before we begin with someone open us in prayer, if anyone can open us in prayer. Okay, I'll pray. Father, we thank you Lord for this time. Thank you that you are here with us, that you are the one who teaches us, you are the one who enables us to understand, to grow in our knowledge of who you are. Lord, we pray that you would lead this class Lord, you would open our eyes to see more of who you are. We pray that as we look into your word Lord that we would draw closer to you. We pray our blessings over everyone gathered here in today's class and in our other classes as well Lord. We thank you Lord for this time together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, so today we're just gonna look at the letters of Paul to the Philippians and to the church in Colossae. So the letter of Philippians and Colossians. So the letter to the Philippians is written by Paul himself. We see in the first verse of the first chapter Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. So both these letters Paul also includes Timothy's name as one of the contributors to the letter. But we recognize that more as an inclusion of Timothy who is learning and being mentored by Paul. But understand that these Paul's letters were written by Paul himself. We also see in chapter three of Philippians where Paul is talking about himself and so these are two indications that the letter was written by him. In chapter three he's talking more about his qualifications as a Jew. Okay, and so if someone can read that three, chapter three versus four B to six either from the slide or from your Bible. Philippians chapter three was four. If someone else thinks they have a reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more circumcised on the eight day at the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew in regard to the Jew, a regard to the law, a Pharisee as the seal, a persecuting the church as for righteousness based on the law. Paul is talking about some of his qualifications. So these are two reasons why we say that the letter is written by Paul. And in the beginning of the letter, he also writes who he's addressing the letter to, which is the church at Philippi. And here, this is unique to the letter in Philippines, where he actually names bishops and deacons. So where he's naming church offices, which we don't see in the other letters. So here, not only to the church, but especially to the leaders in the church, the this letter is addressed. The date of writing, we, it most probably was around AD 61. This is when Paul was under house arrest. So we read at the end of acts that Paul was arrested, and he was in Rome. But he continued to minister from there. And this is when he wrote a lot of his prison episodes. So Philippians is one of those letters that he wrote. And it's thought that it was towards the end of his time there, because he writes a lot in this letter about looking forward to being released from prison or being confident of being released from prison. So maybe towards the end of his time in under house arrest. So the main theme of the letter of Philippians, it doesn't have a lot of correction, like we saw in the other letters, where he's addressing issues in the church, he's telling he's addressing sin in the church, he's correcting people, he's rebuking people. We don't see that in Philippians. Philippians is much more a letter of friendship and gratitude to the church. So the church has sent him a financial gift. And they've sent it through one of their church members. And so Paul writes back to them to say thank you. And so the whole letter is more of one of gratitude and friendship. We'll just read this quotation here from four, chapter four, verses 15 and 16, if someone can read that for us, please. You can read from your Bibles as well. One of the great sister? Yes, sister. Chapter four, verses 15 and 16. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only for even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. So this just captures the what Paul is talking about in the letter in general. We also seen second Corinthians eight to again, where he mentions about the church supporting him. So why does Paul write this letter? One is to encourage the Philippines. If someone can read one, chapter one, verses 28 to 30. Philippians chapter one, verse 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof for nation, but to you of salvation and that from God was 29. But to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake was 30, having the same conflict, which you saw in me and now here is in me. So the first is the church was experiencing suffering. And so Paul is writing to them to to stand firm in the midst of that suffering. So he's saying, remember how I suffered when I was with you when Paul took the gospel to the church. He had experienced suffering. And so he's saying, remember that and continue to stand firm even in the midst of the suffering that you are experiencing. The second reason for writing is because of disunity in the church. If we can read chapter two, verses one to two, someone read that for us, please. Chapter two, verse one, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy was to fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind. Okay, so he's encouraging them to unity. And he then uses the example of Christ, how Christ humbled himself. So that is that famous passage, which we won't read, but will come up in the rest of this discussion. And then the last part is to to thank them for the gift that they had sent. So we see that in chapter four verse 18. Some background on the city of Philippi. So we talked about in the inter-testamental period, right, between Malachi and Matthew that there were many different groups of people that were ruling over this area in which Israel was. And one of the groups of people were the Greeks. We talked about how Alexander the Great came and conquered large parts of large parts of Asia. So Alexander the Great's father was Philip, and Philip was the one who established the city of Philippi. Okay, and after the Greek empire ruled over this region, the Romans came in and they began to rule. So it became a Roman province. But it was quite a unique city in that they had a lot of freedom under the Roman Empire. It was they were given a lot of free land to Roman military. And so the people there was it was a mixture of Romans and Greeks. About one third of the population was Roman. And the rest of it was Greek. So there were a lot of Roman citizens as well in Philippi. The church at Philippi. So we first read about this church being established. If you remember, Paul and Silas go on their second missionary journey. Okay, and then while they're going on their journey, they take Timothy with them. This is when Timothy starts to join them in their missions work. As they are trying to go into Asia, they feel that the Holy Spirit is not letting them go into Asia to minister. And then Paul has a vision of someone from Macedonia, inviting him over to come and minister. So this is when Paul and Silas and Timothy, along with Luke, go over to Macedonia. And they establish the church, the first place that they stop at is Philippi. So part of Paul's first missionary journey, he lands in Philippi. And that's where they begin to minister. If someone can just read Acts 16 12 for us. Acts chapter 16 verse 12. And from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, colony and we were staying in that city for some day. So that's where they landed in Macedonia and began ministry. So here we read about Paul meeting Lydia at the marketplace. So there were not a lot of Jews in this place. There was no synagogue. They were meeting at the Riverside on the Sabbath. And this is why Paul goes to the Riverside. And that's where he meets Lydia. So there were some Jews, some Gentiles who had become Jews or who believed in Jewish faith. And one of those people is Lydia, who he ministers to. So some of the just a little recap of what happened when he went to Philippi. He meets Lydia, she and her whole household come to faith. And they begin to start the first fellowship, the church fellowship. We also have the story of the female slave who was freed from demonic possession. And then that causes trouble because her masters are no longer earning money from her. So that is part of the suffering that Paul is talking about. I you saw the suffering that I had, right, so that he's imprisoned Paul and Silas. I'm present and flogged at that time. And it is during his time in prison that he's able to minister to the jailer and his family and they also come to faith. So those are some of the things that happened at Philippi. And like we said, it was a primary Gentile church. There were more Greeks than Romans in the church and not a lot of Jews. Okay, so characteristics joy is something that is talked a lot about in Philippians we see rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice. So all of that comes in Philippians. There are no Old Testament quotations again, probably because he's addressing a Gentile audience. And then we see that passage on Christ emptying himself and becoming a servant that is on in Philippians two five to 11. The theme of Philippians is rejoice in the Lord, the joyful Christian experience. And we have a few of those verses here. We won't go into them. We'll just do a quick outline. So this is not in your textbooks, the outline. But I just wanted us to go through what the book of Philippians talks about. So we start with as regular letters start with an opening, a greeting to the church, thanksgiving and prayer. So thanking God for the church and praying for the church. He then goes into this important we know all of us know this verse to live is Christ to die is gain. So he talks about how in his chains as a prisoner of Christ, he's seen the gospel progressing forward that people have seen his chains and they've been encouraged and they've started to go and share Christ because they've seen his chains. So some do it out of false motives. Some do it because of their love for Paul. But his whole goal is that Christ is preached. So let's just read chapter one verse 18 from that section. Philippians chapter one verse 18 what what then only that in every way whether in present tense or in truth Christ is preached and in this I rejoice yes and I and will rejoice. Okay so that is he says the his main goal and then he goes into to live is Christ whether he continues to live or he's put to death after he's in prison. His whole goal is that Christ is preached. He then goes on to encourage them to stand firm. We read that passage in the midst of suffering stand firm in your faith. He then talks about unity through humility. So that is following the example of Christ who emptied himself and became obedient even to death on the cross. And then the last part of chapter two is to walk blamelessly. So put away all sinfulness and walk in holiness as as believers in Christ. He then commends Timothy and Epaphroditus who he'll be sending with this letter. After that he talks about righteousness through faith. So it it seemed like there were some Jewish people who had come in and who were again preaching about circumcision. And so he is talking about righteousness through faith and not through the law. If we can read verses seven to nine of chapter three. Someone can read that for us please. My people came to again to me then I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. And we found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith. Thank you. So here he's saying if you are giving up on Christ to follow the law again you're losing out on that gift of Christ himself. And so he says I'd rather know Christ than have anything else. So even though he mentions all of his qualifications we read about that right. He's a Jew. He was circumcised on the eighth day. He was a Pharisee, zealous for the law. But all of those things now he considers as rubbish compared to knowing Christ himself. And so that's why he's encouraging the church to not go back to the law. Then 3 17 to 21 he calls them to follow his example as someone who is not relying on his flesh but is living in the hope of Christ's return. So living in the hope of the glory that will be as when Christ comes back. He concludes chapter four with this instruction finally stand firm in unity rejoice and then he we know those verses on think about such things right. Whatever is pure whatever is noble whatever is lovely whatever is admirable think about such things. He then says thanks them for the support that they've sent and sends his final greetings. So with that we come to the end of Philippines. Colossians any thoughts on Philippines before we move into Colossians. Anything that you all want to share passages that you all think are an important part of Philippines that have ministered to you all. Okay again pointing back to chapter two versus five to eleven that is an important and a very well-known passage from Philippines about Christ right the Christology of Christ emptying himself and coming in human form. That is something that all of us have heard a lot and that comes from this letter in Philippines. We'll move on to Colossians the background of Colossians. We see in chapter one verse seven mention of someone named Epaphrys if someone can just read that for us Colossians one verse seven Colossians chapter one verse seven as you also learn from Epaphrys our dear fellow servant who is faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. So here he's talking about the gospel being preached to them verse six is saying this is the gospel that you heard and then verse seven he says that Epaphrys is the one who brought the gospel to you. So this church was not founded by Paul himself and we see as we read the letter that he actually doesn't know the church he hasn't actually traveled there or met the people that he's writing to. Again in 412 to 13 he also mentions Epaphrys but how Paul is related to this church is that Paul stayed in Ephesus and from Ephesus a lot of his work spread into Asia Minor. So it's believed that Epaphrys was one of the people who heard the gospel in Ephesus and then went from there to Colossae. So if you look at where Ephesus is on the map and Colossae it's about a hundred miles apart it's not very far from each other. So from Ephesus there was a lot of ministry that happened in all of these cities. Again Paul is writing around the same time he wrote Philippians when he was in house arrest in Rome. We see the author Paul again so if someone can read Colossians 1 1 and 1 23 just to see how Paul introduces himself. So why are we reading these verses because Paul uses unique ways to introduce himself in each letter depending on what he wants to talk about in the letter. So we'll just read this 1 1 and 1 23. Colossians chapter 1 verse 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother was 27 23 sorry ma'am 23 if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and seat fast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you hear which was preached to every creature under heaven of which I Paul became a minister. Okay so Paul again in this letter we see that Paul is including Timothy as one of the co-writers of the letter. He addresses this letter to the Christians in Colossae. So two people are mentioned Nympha and it's also believed that Philemon had a church here in Colossae because we see two people who are mentioned both in this letter and in Philemon that is Archipis and Onesimus. Both of them are mentioned in both letters. So the fact that they are both mentioned in connection with Philemon probably means that Philemon lived in Colossae and so one of the churches met in his house. So this letter is written to Colossae and we'll see later on in this letter that Paul asked them to send the letter to Laodicea. So you can see Laodicea is right here and he asked them to take the letter that he had written to the Laodician church and to read it for themselves. So the letter was meant to be a circular letter that went from there to another church. Yes, written like we said about the same time he wrote the Ephesians and Philippians. A little bit about the city of Colossae. So it was not a very big city like we've read about some of the work that Paul was doing in other big cities. Colossae was not a big city at all. In fact, it was a city that was slowly dying out in importance. At the same time, it was on a main highway between Ephesus and the Euphrates River and so because of that, there was some travel that happened on that highway. The sad thing is that the city disappeared a few years after Paul writes this letter. So there was an earthquake and a lot of the city was destroyed after Paul wrote the letter and in later years it was also captured by the Turks and so there's no record after that of the city itself. We don't know what happened to the church there. But at this time, this city was in the region of Phrygia. So last week we talked about Phrygia, Galatia being a province in Asia Minor. So this was in Phrygia and here religion was very, very important. There were Jews as early as the 6th century and all the religions that were there seemed to have been influenced by the culture. So the culture was a little bit, we'll see in the letter as we're talking about it, but there was a lot of this spirituality, asceticism that was in the culture and that starts to come into the church. It started to affect Judaism. So a lot of that religion that was practiced there was also influencing the culture within the church. So why Paul writes this letter is because there was a lot of wrong teaching that was coming into the church. One was that they were being kind of led astray from recognizing that Christ is most important. Christ is first, he's the head of the church. So we see Paul addressing that a lot in this letter. The second is against Jewish ceremony. So he talks against circumcision, against Sabbath, against religious festivals, things that the Jews were kind of bringing into the church. He talks against asceticism and then he also talks against philosophy and vain deceit. We'll read a few of these passages as we look at the outline. So the main theme of Colossians is the preeminence of Christ that Christ is most important. He is the center of the church, the head of the church. We see the keyword head used three times and the key verses 118 and 210, if someone can read those two verses for us please. 118 and 210. Colossians chapter 1 verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church who is beginning, first born from the dead, that in all things he may have the preminence. Thank you. 2.10. Chapter 2 verse 10, and you are complete in him who is the head of the all-principality and power. So both these places and emphasis on Christ being the head of the church. So with that we'll just go through the outline of Colossians and we'll close with this. The first part of Colossians focuses on the person and work of Christ. So it begins with the usual salutation, thanksgiving for the Colossians, prayer for the Colossians. Then it goes into what is the gospel itself and presents the gospel as Christ being supreme. Christ being all in all and it is this Christ who has reconciled us through God. So it is through Christ that we are reconciled to God and then he ends that chapter with talking about his own suffering for the sake of Christ. Maybe we can just look at chapter 1 verses 27 B to 28. So Colossians 1, 27, the end of chapter verse 27 to 28. To them God willed to make known what are the, sorry, chapter 1, 27, right? Yes, 27 and 28. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory. Him we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. So this is Paul talking about why he is suffering, right? So his goal is to make Christ known among the Gentiles to make this mystery known. What is that mystery? That is Christ in you the hope of glory. He is the one we preach. He is the one we teach about so that everyone will have that wisdom and everyone will grow in maturity in Christ. From there he goes into comparing Christ to all of these different heresies that he wants to address. So the first one is the heresy or the wrong teaching of philosophy that was coming into the church. We'll just read chapter 2 verse 10 just to give us an idea of what Paul addresses. Let's just read verse 8 to 10 sorry, Colossians 2, 8 to 10. Beware least anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ for him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power not legalism but Christ. So Christ here is better than any philosophy teaching that can come into the church. The second is better than any legalism. So here he is talking about the Judaic teachings on circumcision Sabbath festivals. Christ is better than all of those things. Then verses 18 to 19 Christ is better than mysticism. 20 to 23 Christ is better than asceticism. So we'll just read chapter 2 verse 23 and then chapter 3 verses 1 to 4. 2 verses 23. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in prompting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Thank you. So asceticism is basically causing suffering to your own body to overcome the desires of the flesh. So he's saying that is not going to really help you. It's only Christ who gives you victory over the flesh and then we'll just read chapter 3 verses 1 to 4. I think this is like the center of all Paul's teaching in this letter. Chapter 3 verses 1 onwards. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with the Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory. Amen. So just calling the church back to focus on Christ himself and to live their lives with that knowledge that Christ is coming back and we are going to share in his glory. So the way we live here on earth is in anticipation of the glory that is to come. That is to be us when Christ comes back. He ends the letter with practicing the life of Christ. So he talks about this is actually very very similar to the book of Ephesians. If you look at Ephesians chapter 4 to 6, the things he's talking about here are quite similar to those things and we talked about that last week where a lot of what is in Colossians is also in Ephesians. So he talks about in our personal lives in the church practicing the life of Christ. So walking in holiness, walking in unity, he talks about how households should function wives and husbands, slaves and masters. He talks about being a witness. So how are we being a witness to the outside world of the faith that we're living? So this is where he says that we should be like salt, our conversation should be seasoned with salt. This is where he says that in Colossians and then closes with final instructions and greetings to other people within the church. So this actually has a long section of greetings at the end of the letter. So with that we come to the end of Colossians. We'll stop here and continue. I will post a video on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians for us and then we'll continue on Monday from there onward. Any thoughts, anything you would like to share from these two letters? Sister, can you tell something about the pre-eminence of Christ? Okay. So why Paul is bringing this up is because there were other things that had that were kind of drawing the church away from Christ. So like we looked about all of those different teachings, one of mysticism that is where they were going into all of like spirituality, right? That was something that was in the culture and was starting to influence the church. So they were practicing this form of spirituality where they're just sort of like meditation, that kind of practice rather than recognizing that their salvation was in Christ. So Paul is really here emphasizing that Christ himself is essential to the church. He is the one who is at the center of what we believe and if we let go of him, then all that is ours in the gospel is being lost. So he is calling them back to recognize that we have to hold on to Christ. Christ is the head of the church and he is over every power, over every authority, over every other form of teaching, whether it's from the law of the Jews or from the mystics or from asceticism. So asceticism is like what I said, where we are kind of punishing our bodies, trying to get rid of our desires that we have, right? So removing all those physical fleshly desires that we have and trying to do that through sacrifice, like punishing our bodies or making huge physical sacrifices for the sake of getting rid of those desires. So all of those things he's saying will not work, Christ himself is our hope. So that's the main thing that he is trying to teach the church about in this letter. Yeah, thank you sister. No problem. Any other things you want to share? Anyone wants to share? Okay, so I had encouraged us in the beginning of this course to be reading each book as we are discussing it in class. I know initially we were doing longer books that would have been harder, but all of these books are very, very short. So I would encourage you to read whatever like we're going to do first Thessalonians, second Thessalonians, first Timothy, second Timothy. So read those letters in advance before we come into class, because then when we're talking about it in class, you will be able to connect it to what you've already read. It won't be just information that I'm giving you, but it'll be something that you have yourself read and you're able to understand why Paul wrote those things. So yes, next week we'll do first and second Timothy after we finish with first and second Thessalonians. I think we can close. So I'll see you all on Monday and also I'll keep you all posted on the other class video. I'll let you all know on Google Classroom. Thank you.