How to Find Peace When Your World Is Shaken: Philippians 1:1-2
Episode: How to Find Peace When Your World Is Shaken
Scripture: Philippians 1:1-2
Series: Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ
How do we find peace when our external world is in chaos? Join us for a new season of Timeless Truth as Pastor Jim Thomas begins a verse-by-verse study through the book of Philippians. In this opening episode of our series, Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ, we look at Philippians 1:1-2 and the deep, resilient joy Paul experienced even while in a Roman prison.
“The exclusive place which the Lord Jesus Christ occupies in relation to the Christian has three aspects, which Paul indicates here by the words in, of, and from: a saint in Christ Jesus, a servant of Christ Jesus, and grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Alec Motyer, The Message of Philippians, p. 26
- Authors: Paul and Timothy (coauthored six New Testament letters)
- Title: bond-servants, or doulos in Greek — literally “slaves of Christ.”
- Recipients: “All the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons.”
Paul will show that
- Unshakable joy in Christ is greater than autonomous freedom.
- Unshakable joy in Christ is greater than a famous reputation.
- Unshakable joy in Christ is greater than every pleasure this world offers.
- Unshakable joy is the abiding sense of a good that transcends circumstances and outlasts emotion.
Ironically, we only discover this kind of joy when we stop chasing it for its own sake and learn instead to rest in Christ, trusting the faithfulness of God.
Joy is the present offspring of past gratitude and future hope.
Because we are in Christ, we look back with gratitude — forgiven and free from our past sins. We live in the present with peace and purpose. And we look forward into the future with confidence in the promise of eternal life.
That’s what gave Paul his unshakable joy — past, present, and future — all rooted in Christ.
“Most prisoners are preoccupied with how they can escape. Paul was preoccupied with how Christ could be exalted through his imprisonment.”
John Stott, Philippians
“We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon Him — to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting in, and resembling him.”
Tim Keller, The Reason for God
Here’s the beginning of unshakable joy
- Once we realize who we are in Christ and to whom we belong, we become truly free.
- We don’t belong to our pain or our past.
- We don’t belong to our careers.
- We don’t belong to the despair of this fallen world or the present cultural confusion.
- We belong to Almighty God — Creator of all things, ruler of heaven and earth — and He holds us fast.
