Brownwood Church

As a man thinks, so he is. The things we think about, dwell on, and consider, have an enormous impact on how we feel, what we do, and who we are. As Paul brings this letter to a close, he exhorts the believers in Philippi to think. In these two verses we find incredible insight into the connection between thinking and doing, between the mind, the heart, and the hands.

For many, the idea of peace is for problems to disappear. But the peace of God, which surpasses comprehension because it can remain in every circumstance of life, is increasingly realized as we let our requests be made known to Him in prayer. This peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we obey this command to be anxious about nothing.

As believers, our citizenship is not ultimately in the place we were born or where we live, but in a place we've not yet been. We're citizens of the country to which we're heading. Paul's earthly citizenship lie in one country that would be gone as he knew it within a decade (Israel), and in another that was being built up for its great fall (Rome). But his true citizenship lie in a better country...

The greatest hinderers of the gospel in the New Testament church were the Judaizers. Paul was so serious about warning the Philippians of them that he renounced every bit of his own Judaism according to the flesh. He even went so far as to count his whole resume as loss and consider all things rubbish for the sake of Christ, so that His identity was found in Christ alone.

To say you are a Christian is more than self-identification, but requires self-examination. The Apostle Paul gives the church at Philippi both a warning and assurance when he exhorts them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, remembering God is the One willing and working their salvation. This means that when we test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, we are really examin...

Unity requires more than equality. Unity requires humility. When Paul appeals to the church at Philippi to be unified, he does so with the example of Christ, who, being in nature God, did not consider equality with God something to grasp onto in His incarnated life. He emptied Himself, not by putting off His divine nature, but by taking on the nature of a slave, the lowest human in the Roman Empir...

For some, the decision to live or die comes from being torn apart by the despair of not feeling like your life has purpose, but also having no hope after death. But Paul was actually held together by the choice between the fruitful labor of continued ministry or the hope of paradise with Christ. He ultimately was right to believe that God would keep him around longer to visit or hear of the progre...

Life and death is a serious matter, but not an ultimate one. As the Apostle Paul sits under arrest, his situation has become known throughout the Roman empire. And although there are some believers with wrong motives who preach for the purpose of his demise, he rejoices that the gospel is proclaimed, because his life or death is not of ultimate importance. But what is, rather, is Christ being magn...

When Paul arrived in Philippi on his second missionary journey, he was taken in, cared for, bandaged up, and fed by the new believers in the Roman colony. Even being forced out of the city, the church provided for him with multiple offerings. So when he writes to them, he does so with great confidence in the genuineness of their salvation. And because Christ is not a savior who begins the process...

In Psalm Six David is in great distress and anguish, and he feels it in his body and soul. Though his circumstances are bleak, and his own sins apparent, he continues entrusting himself to God. His prayer is a worthy example for us to follow in trying times and points even beyond David to our greatest hope.

Jesus' response to Peter's question about how often we are to forgive a brother who sins against us goes beyond all human reason. We are called to forgive without measure because Christ forgave us all our sins. Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant is a warning to all who have been forgiven of their unpayable debt, yet cannot forgive others of comparatively small sins against them.

Knowing Jesus Christ is our blessed hope leads His followers to live the life He has set us apart (sanctified) us for. It is from His Word that we learn to know His will and ways.

Leaving the ninety-nine to go after the one is Jesus' context for what we call "church discipline," the purpose of which is to restore the brother or sister who has begun to wander away in sin. Jesus proves that discipline is loving, and that the process is not meant to publicly shame through a series of steps that involve the least amount of people necessary. Not until the final step of restorati...

Jesus responds to His disciples' question about who the greatest is in the kingdom by placing a small boy in front of them who wouldn't have yet been seeking status, rank, titles, or position. The disciples, who had begun to posture for those things would have to turn and become like this child if they wanted to enter into the kingdom, much less be great in it. Jesus teaches them how serious it is...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the end, heaven will come down to earth and we will dwell with God forever. In creation, God came down and walked with man in the garden. In redemption, God came down and walked with man in the incarnation. And in the restoration of all things, God will come down and dwell with man forever. This final state, when heaven and earth come tog...

It was not a coincidence that Jesus was raised in a garden at the same place He was crucified: Golgotha. What a divine irony that the first man to ever receive a body that would never die did so at the "Place of the Skull." Never was it more evident than at Golgotha that life comes through death. This was no longer just a place where men went to die, but a place where men went to live! The thief o...

Because there was sin in the garden, there had to be suffering. And God saw it fit for His Son to begin to suffer in the garden of Gethsemane: the "Olive Press." Jesus began to be pressed at the base of the Mount of Olives, as the sin of every believer from Adam to kingdom come would be laid on Him. The One who never had known the burden of a single sin was becoming a guilt offering, bearing sin i...

God had placed every type of tree in the garden to make it beautiful and give us a variety of food, and also had given us the tree of eternal life to eat and live forever in our present state. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was restricted, because in it we would acquire the knowledge to determine for ourselves the decisions we would make, rather than "becoming wise only by our obed...

When God made preparations for the garden of Eden, He formed Adam from the ground, where he derives his name. As God's image-bearer, he was to cultivate and keep the garden. As part of the God's creation, he was to grow, and bear fruit. When he is given a helper, God's command for them to obey as one flesh was gardening language. This first man was from the earth, and would not be the consummation...

When asked if Jesus pays the temple tax for the elements of the atonement ordinances, Peter tells the collectors He does. But then Jesus tells Peter that the sons are free, which will especially be true in the coming passover as Jesus' sacrifice will render all future atonement ordinances fulfilled. Yet Jesus tells Him to pay it, which God confirms as Peter would go fishing to find the exact coin...

Though Jesus' disciples had been given authority and power over demons, they were unable to cast one out of a boy who had been possessed from his infancy. After Jesus casts it out, He tells His disciples that if they had the living faith the size of a mere mustard seed, nothing would be impossible for them, even moving mountains. Mountains were the ultimate visible representation of that which cou...

Jesus gives Peter, James, and John a window into the invisible kingdom when He manifests in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses appears, but it's not his face shining this time. Elijah appears, but it's not him receiving glory and honor from the Father. Jesus is being lifted up and glorified in a glimpse of His fulfilling of the law and prophets in the New Covenant that would soon be enac...

Peter had just made his glorious confession, but now he makes his greatest error to date. In rebuking Jesus for His resolve to go to the cross, Peter proves to not yet have a theology of victory through suffering. Jesus doesn't need a bodyguard, and His glory won't be in God sparing Him from death. His mission is to die. And He calls his disciples to likewise deny themselves, take up their cross,...

Jesus promised to build His church with the living stones of those whose true confession, like Peter's, was upon Him, the foundation and cornerstone. Because the church was built on the Rock (πέτρα) rather than the rock (πέτρος), the gates of hades (death itself) would not be able to overcome it. This indestructible church is to be the visible, earthly manifestation of the invisible realities of t...