United in Jesus, United in Joy

Chapel is an important part of our life together at Union University, giving us an opportunity to gather twice a week as a community to hear from God in his Word and respond to him. These services remind us of our grounding in Scripture and of the centrality of Jesus Christ to our lives. For the last several years in the Spring semester we have dedicated certain chapel services to sermons working their way through a specific book of the Bible. In the Spring of 2024, we focused on Philippians. Our community has been blessed by these series over the years, so we thought there would be value in gathering this most recent series into written form for wider dissemination.

Philippians is commonly listed among people's favorite books of the Bible. Dr. Paul Caudill wrote, "The book of Philippians is one of the loveliest portions of the Bible." Indeed Dr. A. T. Robertson, that giant of New Testament scholarship, said, "Nowhere does Paul have more 'charm,' to use Ramsay's phrase, than in Philippians. Nowhere is he more vital and more powerful. Paul was not merely a man of supreme genius and high culture but one who let himself go completely in spiritual abandonment to the love and life of Jesus." It has been our pleasure to work through this letter together.

Two of the most consistent and significant themes in Philippians (and in these sermons) are unity and joy, both of which are clearly grounded in Jesus Christ. Therefore, our title for this book-United in Jesus, United in Joy-arises from that reality.

In preparing these sermons for publication, we have not sought to turn them into essays but have intentionally maintained the oral, sermonic form in all their particularity.

Our hope is that this work might encourage other Christians as they learn more about this particular book of the Bible, the truths it proclaims, and the Savior it exalts. We also hope it will be a resource for other preachers as they prepare to preach through Philippians.