“The Exploring Philippians” event with N.T. Wright was organized by Admirato.org.
“What can we learn from the way Paul preached vs. how we preach today?”
For Paul the Gospel is an announcement to be made publicly. He started in the synagogue and moved to the marketplace.
Too often we allow our worldview to be shaped too much by the political parties. Paul was centered on Jesus and the Kingdom.
What does Paul mean by “complete it” in Phil. 1:6?
God will bring individuals to maturity and will bring the church into the new creation community.
We are becoming who we already are.
We should be aiming at “teleos” – maturity, Christlikeness.
What would Pauls prayer looked like?
You can buy a Jewish prayer book for a glimpse.
The Shema and Psalms were certainly part of how Paul prayed.
We can also read several of his prayers in his letters to the churches he started and the pastors he mentored.
In Corinth (Acts 18), Paul was accused of teaching people to pray differently than the Jews in his time did because he prayed the Shema and included Jesus.
For Paul, joy was seen in the cross and the return of Christ. Too often the Church is more Epicurean – trying to avoid all suffering. How do we right-size this in the Church?
First, pastors need to be empathetic listeners and comforters. We should never promise a quick fix or a disregard for their pain.
It’s easier to be Epicurean when you are wealthy because you aren’t suffering like those in poverty suffer.
Jesus in the midst of the poverty and in the midst of the mess.
What about spiritual warfare?
When we get closer to Jesus and the cross, the more we get closer to Jesus and the cross. In other words, the more we experience what Jesus experienced at the cross as He took on the cosmic powers of darkness.
When the Church is doing its Kingdom work we should be doing so by feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and so on so that people want to know why we are doing these things. This may be considered “soft power” but “hard power” is often brittle.
What does vocation really mean in light of Phil. 2:6-11?
We are the royal priesthood in Christ! We are the image bearers representing Him to the world and bringing praise to Him from the world! That is our vocation! When you pray for guidance you will get it but often later than you want it.
We need to slow down to catch up with God.
How are we to understand being in relationship with God?
We are linked to the Trinity through the death, resurrection, and ascension. He is where life is!
We can go right into the throne room saying: “Father, it’s me again.”
We can go to the Father in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit.
The only way we can begin to lead God’s people in worship is if the Holy Spirit is with me and can move in and through me freely.
Discuss the role of beauty in the Gospel.
The focal point of beauty in the Hebrew Scriptures was the tabernacle and later the Temple. Both were incredible works of art!
God intends to make this already beautiful world a 1000 times more beautiful!
Now, we are the Temple of the Living God operating as signs of His coming Kingdom.
Art, music, dance, and drama should be a part of how we live our life in worship to him.
We need to let go of being rationalists like our culture. God is the Creator and we are creative!
The higher our Christology the more powerful our political witness. Explain this more.
In 9 B.C. there was an inscription in stone in Turkey marking “the good news” of Caesar’s birthday.
The early Christian language was opposed to Caesar being Lord.
Every generation needs to wrestle with how to engage with the power structures of our world.
This is not easy, but it is possible with the guidance of the Spirit.
Caesar claimed to be divine, but Jesus actually is divine!
“Work out your salvation” means “figure out how to live this out in your context.”
What can we understand more the context of Paul’s ministry in Philippi?
Paul was brought before Gallio in Corinth because of the charges of the Jewish leaders. When Gallio dismissed the charges as a Jewish issue then it legitimized Christianity. Sadly, this did not end up helping the move of Jesus. The letter to the Corinthians shows that they didn’t have an understanding of the resurrection or morality. Persecution actually purifies the church like it was doing in Philippi. Paul was happy to take money from the Philippians and not from the Corinthians because they had strings attached.
Could you give us a definition of thinking Messianically?
This is most clear in Phil. 2:6-11. We are to soak ourselves in the full story of Jesus. Jesus is not just a great teacher or a prophet but God among us willing to die as a slave. He wept at the tomb of his friend and willingly went to the Christ. The more we look at Jesus the more we will get this. We are to live with humility and give up status if it is getting in the way. God come to us. Jesus was the incarnation.
What is the New Perspective on Paul?
Christians in the East and West thought of the Jews in Jesus’ day as striving to do good works to get God’s approval.
As a result, people have seen the Jews as an example of the wrong way of relating to God and this has even been a source of anti-semitism throughout the century.
They have seen the law as the way to help people know what they need to achieve.
The New Perspective looks at the actual ways Jewish people thought and wrote in that time.
The real question is actually: “Is Jesus the Messiah of the Jews or not?”
By “the works of the Law” meant circumcision, sacrifices, etc. They do not earn relationship with God but demonstrate relationship with God.
Too often “the works of the Law” has been seen as living up to a certain moral code.
Is pistis more like allegiance or trust?
It is both and more!
See Teresa Morgan’s book Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches.
