Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from Chapel Services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. Today, we're beginning a study in the book of Philippians called The Mind of Christ. In today's sermon, Dr. Alan Benson will help us understand perspectives.
Think about the words that we just sang. Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of Philippians. Praise the Lord for the ministry that God has allowed Willie Parton to have with us from the Word. His presentation of the gospel in our opening service was clear and direct. It was simply presented and yet deeply profound.
I hope it did two things. I hope, one, if you do not know Jesus Christ, that you at least had a presentation of God's only way of salvation and why it is you so desperately need it, your greatest need. But secondly, I hope if you are, that it was a reminder to you how sure of a rock we have in the gospel and the crosswork of Jesus Christ and what He did to find us in our complete need and meet us in that need and give us a super abundant supply for the redemption of our souls. And I hope that that steadies you when you stop and think about all the things that can shift and change and move in life that you can settle in your heart, but I belong to Christ. That issue of identity is incredibly important for us.
His message last night, I hope, was a real help and encouragement to you and that was His point. We are broken people. We are fallen people. We live in a fallen world and we face failure all too often. And His point and the point of the passage was this, we can have victory and we can have it as God supplies us with grace and we live longing for it and living in it.
And I hope in and of that you find an invitation in your failure to run to Christ. I've been praying earnestly as I've been thinking through, God clearly leading me to be in the book of Philippians with you on Mondays throughout this semester. As we talked about, as we studied through Nehemiah last semester, we kind of had a unique lens. It was the lens of life on mission.
This wasn't the whole of this man's life. It was a chapter, if you will, of his life. A mission God had called him to and there were things that he was thinking and doing in light of accomplishing that mission. And so I've been praying and thinking and studying and reading and looking at Philippians and thinking through God.
What is the lens for us? Two things that I think are incredibly important when it comes to effectively preaching the Word of God. The first, the greater priority is to rightly handle the Word of Truth or to exegete or to cut rightly God's Word.
That has a number of factors that are involved in it. Some of them are what we refer to as hermeneutical. We need to rightly interpret the passage and I want you to know that I am a massive, a massive proponent of the truth of authorial intent. When we come to the Bible, I really take an approach that's five steps to get to applying the Word.
Others take other ways. But I think we should come to the Word of God and we should ask who wrote it? And yes, if it's there in the Word, it's inspired. God wrote it, but he used a human author. Who wrote it? What was it about this author?
Because it's going to give me indications stylistically of how he writes particular things, but who wrote it? Then who did he write it to? Who was that audience? Who were they? Where did they live?
What were their circumstances? What was going on in their lives? Then thirdly, why did he write it to them? Is there something in the immediate, a context in which there's a discussion or a question or a problem that frames why he wrote what we have? So why did he write it to them? Then fourthly, what did that mean to them?
The things that he actually said to them. Is there a means of me understanding how they would understand the words that we have? Because of their context or because of the problem or because of the question. Because of their life experience, their cultures or a cultural setting that I read words and to me, they might actually appear to mean something different than they did to them. Words have things like semantic range.
A particular word like love has a pretty broad semantic range. Which one of those was it actually meaning to them? So who wrote it? Who did he write it to? Why did he write it to them? What did it mean to them? Now what does that mean to me?
And that's the point of application. And so rightly coming and saying what words are here? Exegeting the actual scripture because as we preach, we preach here's another word for you.
Expositionally. What does that mean? Well, it means a lot of things but by and large it means this. The job of the preacher is simply to expose the meaning of the text. There's a meaning here. The author had meaning and words can never come to mean what they never meant. And words in any one given context can only mean one thing lest they mean nothing. And that's why things like hyperbole work.
Because there's a law about language, the univocal nature of language or one voice. So our job is to expose the meaning that's in the text. Not superimpose it.
Not read into it. But actually what does this mean? And then find a right way to apply it. And so we have to exegete the scriptures. The other side of that is we're told in the command to Timothy when he was told preach the word.
Be instant in season, out of season. Then reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering. At some point to do those things effectively, you've got to exegete your audience.
What does it mean to reprove, rebuke, exhort? Who are you supposed to do that to? How do you do that so that you're effective? And part of this is I've got to understand my audience. Much of my praying has been over these last week, two weeks or so specifically been, God help me know my audience. I want to preach in these chapels on Monday truth that matters, it does matter, in a way that matters to your life. And so I'm asking you as a student body, as a campus community, help me do that.
I'm inviting you to communicate with me. As we work through this book, as you work through this book, and I'm inviting you to do that, it's four short chapters. I want to encourage you, read it, read it, read it, read it, read it. Read it, read it in a different translation.
Read it, get tools to help you read it and understand it. But let's ask God to help us understand this book for us as we apply it to our lives. And I want to get feedback from you. I want to get questions from you.
I want to hear your life circumstances. I'm struggling with this. How does Philippians speak to that? Because I really want us in these chapels to take truth that matters and apply it to our lives in a way that matters. Philippians is a very, very, very familiar book. That can be something that's harmful to us studying it together because you can sit here and say, got that down and go to sleep.
Or it can be really, really helpful to us because we know this truth. I hope it's the helpful side. I want to encourage you particularly in chapel, but in Monday Chapel as we do this together because of the familiarity. Work really hard at engaging.
Work really hard at staying connected to what is being said and the ideas and the thoughts. So I'm going to ask you to do something with me right now. Just humor me. I know for some of you I'm at a really bad angle. Some of you I'm really far away. You see me on the screen. Obviously I'm thankful I don't see myself on the screen. My wife tells me that when I preach you see the top of my head way too much.
Because I am sorry for that. I forget that the camera is up there so if I want to look at you I have to look up there. I'm going to work on that this semester. So I want to make eye contact with most of you. I have to do it up there. So I'm going to work on that. But I want you as well to work on your role in our chapel.
So what do I want you to do? Right now everybody take your finger. And whatever angle you got to get it at to get your finger between you and me I want you to do that. Put your finger up in front of your face. Okay? Simple.
Right? So right now I want you to look at your finger. In doing that look at your finger. In doing that how does Alan look? Somebody tell me.
Blurry. Okay now don't move your finger. Leave it right there.
Okay? But while your finger is in the same place look at Alan. The good looking one. And how does your finger look? Okay now look back at your finger. How does Alan look?
Look at Alan. How does your finger look? Okay you've probably done that before. If you haven't you're welcome. It's just a whole new game you can play without any toys.
It's awesome. There's all kinds of things involved in that. Human eye is unbelievable in how it does that. Human brain is remarkable in how it does that. But one of the things that we would use to describe what you just did is a matter of perspective. There are people here that are in photography and people that are here in art and that word perspective is a massive word. It has semantic range and I don't want to get into all the semantics but it's a matter of perspective.
And maybe even a conversation with somebody and you had this huge disagreement and they said something to you. Well that's a matter of perspective. Or well that's not how I see it. The reality is our perspective affects how we see things. How we understand things. How we think about things.
And one of the things that I want us to do in coming to the book of Philippians as we study it throughout this semester is to keep in mind the idea of perspective. There's a lot that has been written about this little book. These four little chapters.
I'm not going to do a typical introduction if you will in a technical sense to the book. Paul wrote it. We know approximately the years that he wrote it. We know the audience he wrote it to.
We know the relationships that he had with him. We'll explore some of that as we come to the particular context. But part of coming to a book is okay what is this really all about? You get a letter from somebody. And you read that letter.
It's two, three, four pages. And the word as we heard Willie rehearse for us last night. Love appears in it. Like every third word. You would call that a love letter.
That's right. There's a pronounced theme. And one of the pronounced themes if I asked you I probably wouldn't take too long to get the answer about the book of Philippians is this whole idea of joy and rejoicing. 27 times he uses a word joy or rejoicing. And it's easy to I think fall prey to the idea that this is a really simple little letter that is a self-help manual about having joy or being happy.
And I think that is a trite idea that actually has damaged people valuing this book the way they should. Do I think it's there? It's inescapable. Do I think we should live with joy?
I do. Is joy really important? We saw in Nehemiah the joy of the Lord is your strength. There's no escaping that.
But why? And how do I get there? And what is it that matters if I'm really going to have a life that actually has lived with joy? And so there's another theme that I think pulses throughout this book that I actually think is the underlying theme that actually drives us to a mindset and behaviors that result in a life of joy. I think this is a book, if you will, about perspective. About God's perspective. About gospel perspective. Or if you will, about having the mind of Christ. Only not in some ethereal, mystical sense, okay I've got the mind of Christ, but actually thinking about real life circumstances in light of the thinking of Christ. There's a lot of talk today about the gospel.
I think that's awesome. And one of the things that has happened is we have a gospel everything. We have the gospel this and the gospel that and the gospel this and the gospel that and I think that's wonderful as long as we understand it. When we talk about having a gospel perspective or having a gospel mind, understand as we look at it in this book, it's going to be because there's a direct statement in chapter 2 that says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And it describes the mind of Christ particularly in light of his gospel work. And so rather than a gospel mind, there's actually words that need to be supplied there. I need to live with a gospel transformed mind. It's not a gospel, what's a gospel mind? It's a mind that has been transformed by the gospel. My perspective on the circumstances of life must be shaped by the gospel. With the illustration that I gave us by holding up your finger, friends, there are all kinds of things in life that whether we realize it or not, they do shape our perspective.
We are living in a day where we are blitzed with information all the time. And our brain is designed that in one way, shape or form, it does process that information. And when it does, it informs or it transforms our perspective. I say those two things intentionally.
Why? Because holding your finger up in front of me and you look at me and I'm clear, your finger is still there and it's blurry. It is informing your perspective. And when it takes your focus and you move your focus to the finger and now I'm blurry, it is transforming your perspective. And I am here to challenge us today throughout this semester that there are things in life that we need to at least understand whether my perspective on those things is informed or transformed.
And then I need to ask, what should it be? What does it look like, for example, in the opening section of this book, to have the mind of Christ or a gospel transformed perspective on relationships? So, go to the opening section of Philippians with me. Paul and Timotheus. The servants of Jesus Christ.
Stop. What did Paul not say? I think it's important. I think it's part of understanding who wrote it, who did he write it to, what did he write it to them, what did it mean to them. He's writing to a particular audience which we find in Acts 16 which we don't have time to deal with today. But there's a very, very important relationship between these people and Paul and Timothy.
Not just in the gospel account of when they came to faith as the first, if you will, church in Europe, but later. This is the only group that has communicated with him or supplied or supported him in his ongoing gospel work. There's a real, vibrant, vital, personal relationship between Paul and these people. And so he doesn't write to them and say, Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they know him.
They're not questioning who he is or his authority. He's writing out of a very personal relationship and so I think in doing so he identifies himself to them in terms that would help them understand, but also expresses his actual heart. And he says, I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. I think that we can safely look at this and what he will say next about them. That the first part in having gospel framed or a gospel transformed thinking about relationships is Paul had a solid grasp of who his own identity was.
We move on from there. To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. He frames who they are and thus he writes to them, grace be unto you and peace. We might say, yeah, let me get through the introduction to the letter you said, all those frilly things, but tell me what you're writing for. This is what he's writing for. We can't miss this. What he wants them primarily to understand is grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now he's going to frame the relationship. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even it's me for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You all are partakers of my grace for God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment or discernment that you may approve things that are excellent. Yet you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
Paul writes to them and he frames his relationships in light of having this transformed thinking and having this gospel informed and transformed perspective. And he says you know what I want you to know that I have you on my mind. You're in every remembrance of mine. I have you in my prayers.
I earnestly pray and I specifically pray specific things for you and I have you in my heart. I love you. Friends we're living in a world where relationships are devastated by the wrong perspectives. I think as we open this book we're going to see what God says about what we should actually be thinking about right relationships. So perspective. How does our perspective impact the way we live? The choices we make. The values we carry. The relationships we form. Should I pursue a change in perspective? Have I thought about why I have the perspectives on things that I have? What has informed them?
Bad circumstances? Misinformation? Lack of information?
Because I don't know the scriptures the way I can and should. How does a change in perspective take place? Has mine, if I'm honest, has mine changed? Why has it changed? What informed it? Have I gone from living with a certain perspective on things that now actually I'm more focused on the informed perspective than the transformed perspective or vice versa? I believe this is the goal of this book.
Why would I say that? Because eleven times throughout this book, Paul is going to speak directly to things like know, understand, think. And I find in those contexts that when he uses phrases like rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice that it is actually a phrase that is about a perspective. Something has to happen in my mind. There's truth that has to inform my thinking. And when I follow the process of that, the end result then is me being able to live with a mind that moves me above the mundane and my circumstances. To living with a heavenly or a gospel informed perspective that now lets me live in such a way that I can actually rejoice in the Lord always. I think it's more a result rather than it being the focus, okay, I just got to rejoice.
How do you do that? And I think God has a transformative process. So why would I say that? Notice a few things. Look at verse seven of chapter one. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, Paul is saying there's a right way for me to think about you.
Well what is that right way? It's right for me to think about you this way. Paul is thinking that way. Notice then what he prays. Look in verse nine, and this I pray what? That your love may abound yet more and more in what? In knowledge and in all judgment or all discernment that you may through that approve things that are excellent and result in you being sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
Paul actually is saying to them, I want you to know at the outset of this letter as I frame our relationships that there's a particular thing that I'm praying for and that is that your love, and that's incredibly important, is a love that is doing something or something is being done to it. And that thing is that you're growing in knowledge and in discretion, discernment, wisdom, judgment. And I believe this is what he's going to write about throughout the book then. And I believe this is what we should be looking for in this book.
As we look at the issues that he addresses, the challenges that he points out. Paul will say things I want you to know in verse 12, chapter two, verses four and five, he will say have this mind among your self. He does some personal accounting in chapter three when he says I count everything as loss.
Why? Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. Verse 15 he says let those of us who are mature think this way. Turn with me then to chapter four and verse five and I want to show you one other verse as we wrap this up today. We all know chapter four very well. We know verse four, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
We know verses six through eight very well. Be careful. Be overcome with care. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep or garrison or fortify your mind or your hearts in Christ Jesus through Christ Jesus. And then finally brethren he gives us this list of things and at the end of it he says think, think intentional, purposeful, think on these things. We know those verses. Look at verse five. He says this, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Other translations say let your reasonableness be known to all men. There's another translation that says let your gentleness be known to all men. So what does this word mean?
It's really important because this is some form of an external display. There's something that is going to impact those around me and it's whatever this moderation is. As I've studied and poured over this word, I actually think it's more active than passive. I think this is actually a call to go through the processes that he's going to lay out in this book with regard to a transformed perspective and he actually is saying then live in such an intentionally reasoned, reasonable moderation, reasoned way that this is what people see. I think this verse is a call for us to do the thinking, have the transformed mind, do the changed thinking, have the altered gospel informed and transformed perspective that it impacts the way that we live so that people see that. And so I believe in this book as we study it together, we're going to see key areas of life that we need to stop and say, okay, wait a minute, what's my perspective on that? What is God saying should be my perspective on that?
And if I make the change from one to the other, will it result in me living a life that is marked by a peaceful, settled joy in God? We will pursue the mind of Christ on our lives this semester in the book of Philippians. Come along for the journey. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Open it to us. Open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things. Help us to open ourselves to it, to submit our hearts. Lord, how we see life matters. Help us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Alan Benson from the study series in the book of Philippians called The Mind of Christ. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel platform.
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