References

Story of Antipas of Pergamum

.

Helpful Resources:

Bible Hub: use this resource site to discover the original Greek and Hebrew for the words in the Bible.

PrayerMate App: this is a fantastic app to keep yourself organized and faithful in prayer, and it also has free downloadable devotionals.

Episode Transcript:

You are listening to Grace and Mercy podcast, the podcast for people who want to know the grace of God. I’m your host, author Darlene Bocek. And in this 30th episode, we are going to finish hearing what Philippians has to say about grace.

 

Chapter two… We have seven times that it’s mentioned there. Chapter two, verse two, starting at verse one. “So if there’s any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians two is famous for this passage about Christ, isn’t it?

 

And so it says, “make my joy complete”, “complete my joy.”

 

So why would Paul say “complete his joy” by “being of one accord”? Because he recognizes joy in God’s working in them. For him, it brings some great joy to see this functioning of grace in their life.

 

Then we have verse nine, which is the word charizomai. Again, “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”

 

And where’s the word grace in there? Do you hear? The bestow to give that’s the giving word? Charizomai. “Has given him the name that is above every name.” So this we see is God; it’s extending favor. God freely, giving himself. Gracious, showing himself gracious, kind and benevolent. “God has highly exalted Him and graced on him, the name that is above every name.” So God gives grace to Christ here, gives that favor or that gift to him.

 

Recall in the Old Testament, we see the word grace is used kind of as a space between please and thank you, right? So this is a gift that’s given to Christ.

 

Remember there’s that verse in Daniel where he sees the Ancient of Days and. One comes to him and to him is given all glory and honor and power. And this is that. This is a reference to that event. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.” We also see that in Revelation.

 

Next verse 17 and 18. “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

 

So the word there is sharing his joy. “Rejoice and share my joy.” “Rejoice and share your joy.” And this word is, the rejoice, is the chairo. And ‘share my joy’ is that word sunchairo, ‘sung’ which is S-U-G–the sung is ‘with together,’ ‘with together’ the “with together of joy.” Sharing God’s grace with another person so that you both rejoice together, mutually participate in God’s favor of grace. I mean, sunchairo is essentially churching, right? It’s gracing each other, gracing with each other, sharing this joy, sharing the recognition of the grace of God together.

 

And so here he is, he’s talking about being poured out as a drink offering. He’s talking about the end of his ministry. And he’s saying that “even if I’m going to be poured out on the sacrificial offering of your faith, I’m glad and rejoice with you. So you should be glad and rejoice with me,” right? So this, even this, is a cause for joy because it’s the grace of God.

 

I mean, honestly, Paul’s great service and suffering is related to my faith and your faith as well. If he hadn’t gone through what he did, if he hadn’t risked what he had, we wouldn’t have the Bible and. We wouldn’t have the teaching and we wouldn’t have… The Gospel, wouldn’t have gone.

 

This is God’s perfect way to bring the Gospel to us. And, you know, in another indirect way, people don’t die for a lie that they know is a lie. So the manner in which he suffered is a message to us about that… he didn’t make this up.

 

Right? I mean, people will die for a lie that they believe is true, but people don’t suffer the way that he suffered for a lie that they know is a lie.

 

So this is another… It’s a “sacrifice and service for our faith.”

 

In verse 28, chapter two, verse 28 has the word chairo. Here it is: “I am the more eager to send him therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that. I may be less anxious.”

 

Continuing, “So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men. For he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” So we have rejoice there and we have joy. “Receive him in the Lord with all joy” and “you rejoice at seeing Him again.”

 

So there is the relational aspect of people who are bringing the gospel of grace. The relational aspect also brings us joy. Because we’re actually receiving them as that gift from God.

 

Chapter three, one time that the word grace is used just in the first verse: “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” And then, he enters on a section of warnings and exhortation, but it starts with the exhortation to rejoice in the Lord. And I encourage you to take a look at chapter three because he is talking about this. In chapter three of Philippians he’s talking about this difficult journey that is Christianity. And how we need to be pushing and being strong in those difficulties, keeping our minds on spiritual things.

 

Because in the context of this word joy and rejoice and grace, in that context we see that sometimes alongside of the joy come the difficulties which aren’t necessarily joyful, but we’re supposed to rejoice in our sufferings because we know it’s part of this BIGGER thing.

 

I think that’s the key. Knowing it’s part of the bigger, the BIGGER thing.

 

Okay. Chapter four is the last. We have five occurrences of the word grace in Philippians four, starting with verse one. “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”

 

So, like I said, chapter three was about standing firm. And he calls these people “whom I love and long for my joy and crown.” And crown. In the context of joy, how are we… Or how are the Philippians the joy?

 

Remember it’s grace recognized as a minister of Christ. He saw them as the evidence of the grace of God, and he rejoiced. He directly saw them as the evidence of God using him in his life and their changed lives.

 

And they’re participating in rejoicing together with him in the receiving grace and sending grace out with thanksgiving and joy, and rejoicing together with other Christians, the functioning of grace in the world.

 

Like, I’ve shown the analogy of like a water cycle. It’s coming down, it’s going out, and it’s going back up, right? So the grace, he sees that, and they are his joy because they are now part of that. They are entering into this functioning of grace in the world.

 

Chapter four, verse four, two times it’s mentioned. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.” Okay? And it says, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

And here we have… It says rejoicing. Don’t be anxious. We bring our requests, our prayer and supplication. We’re bringing our requests to God. And what happens is the peace of God –you remember what we said at the beginning? –The peace of God, the shalom of God will guard our hearts. We’re coming with supplication and with thanksgiving, there’s a eucharisteo, and the peace of God will come. So grace and peace to us is this participating in this thing that God is doing in the world.

 

Verse ten. “I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.”

 

So he rejoices that they were concerned for him. So you see, he got joy from seeing their concern. He was suffering, right? So he is rejoicing that their hearts are moved for him. Our compassion for other people gives them relief in their difficulties.

 

Then we have the last one, the last occurrence in Philippians, verse 23. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”

 

And which one is that? It is the noun form of charis, which is the Lord’s favor freely extended to giving himself away to people because he’s leaning toward them.

 

So “the grace of the Lord be with you.” May God’s leaning, may God’s favor be with you. So as we see, the essence, the heart of the Book of Philippians just carries with it this functioning of grace.

 

And we learned about it from Paul…his using the word conjugates of grace in his writing. He developed by practical experience. He understood how grace works, and he taught that we are saved by grace through faith.

 

Well, that’s it for this episode 30. I know it’s been several, quite some weeks since I had the previous episode 28. We’ve been inundated with wonderful guests. And my daughter got married, my son dropped him off in college, and we are.

 

Now getting back to normal life.

 

So now I can get back to my podcast. I really missed I missed this podcast. I missed doing this investigative Bible study together with you

 

On my trip around America, I did come across several people that were telling me that they really enjoyed the podcast. And I wanted to encourage you that if you’re listening to the podcast, it’s really helpful for me to know that you are listening.

 

So there’s one big thing that you can do for me with you. Would you just click on to the source wherever you hearing this podcast, if it’s Apple or if it’s on iTunes or if it’s on Spotify. Just give it a star rating and make a short little comment so other people will see it.

 

Right now I have no comments because…as a lot of the listeners said to me, they’re kind of a little shy and hesitant to write anything or to review anything.

 

So why don’t you just do that for me? That would be a wonderful service and a help and encouragement. And I would rejoice in your comments because that lets me know that you appreciate that we are studying the Scriptures together and studying the word grace together.

 

Well, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the book of Philippians. Thank you that we could learn how to rejoice in our suffering and how to encourage one another. And how encouraging people who are suffering brings joy to them.

 

I pray that you would bless us in all that we do, that we would be active participants in this Grace Machine, that you have made the church to be: receiving grace, first of all, that you gave yourself, and that we receive that great gift of the ‘Word become flesh.’ And we rejoice, and we thank you for all of your kindnesses. And then we reach out to bring that joy to others and to share joy with others and to rejoice together with others in the grace that you’ve given. And we send that back up to you in thanksgiving and gratefulness.

 

Thank you that you have made us to be partners in this. And keep using us in this world to bring light into sorrow, into darkness. That we could bring your light and your joy. In Jesus name. Amen.

 

Okay, that’s it for this time. Thank you for listening to Grace and Mercy podcast, episode 30 with Darlene Bocek. Don’t forget to write your reviews. I look forward to reading them. All right. Take care, guys. Bye-bye.