A Sermon Series on Philippians: Servants Together for the Gospel

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From February 20, 2022 to July 3, 2022 (with breaks for holy days), I preached through Paul’s Epistle to the Phillippians, focusing on the theme of being “Servants Together for the Gospel.” Links to each sermon are followed by a few suggestions for preaching through the book.

Sermons

  1. God’s Providence and Power at Work in His Servants (Philippians 1:1–2; Acts 16)
  2. A Good Work Begun and Brought to Completion (Philippians 1:3–11)
  3. The Unstoppable Advance of the Gospel (Philippians 1:12–18)
  4. Christ Will Be Honored (Philippians 1:19–26)
  5. A Life Worthy of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27–30)
  6. Humble Servants Like Jesus (Philippians 2:1–11)
  7. Work Out Your Own Salvation (Philippians 2:12–18) — audio coming soon
  8. Two Examples of Christlike Servanthood (Philippians 2:19–30)
  9. Gaining Christ at Any Cost (Philippians 3:1–11) — audio coming soon
  10. Press on to Final Salvation (Philippians 3:12–21)
  11. How to Have Harmony in the Church (Philippians 4:1–9)
  12. Every Need Supplied (Philippians 4:10–23) — audio coming soon

Tips for Preaching through the Book

  1. It’s a great book for uniting the church around the mission of the gospel. “Gospel unity” is the phrase that I used most throughout the series.
  2. The Philippians Overview video by BibleProject illustrates how the book revolves around the Christ hymn of Chapter 2, which I referred back to in nearly every subsequent sermon.
  3. Keep your eye on the themes of partnership, sharing, friendship, rejoicing, servanthood, and future salvation.
  4. The book can easily be preached through in 9–12 weeks. If I ever preach through Philippians again, I would likely combine a few pericopes in the opening chapter (e.g., Php. 1:19–26 and Php. 1:27–30).
  5. My primary commentaries were Gordon Fee’s Paul’s Letter to the Philippians and Moisés Silva’s Philippians. See more commentaries on Philippians at bestcommentaries.com.
  6. As always, I recommend reading Wesley’s Notes on each passage. His notes are especially rich on Chapter 4.
  7. I provided handouts, but I might pass out ESV Scripture Journals for future sermon series. The ESV Philippians Scripture Journal includes the full text of Philippians and plenty of room for notetaking.
Johnathan Arnold
Johnathan Arnold
Johnathan Arnold is a husband, father, and aspiring pastor-theologian, as well as the founder and president of holyjoys.org. You can connect with him on Twitter @jsarnold7.