Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Mark Finley

HopeLives365

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

Welcome to a new series of Sabbath School Lessons.

We're studying this quarter, Philippians and Colossians.

The title of our Sabbath School Lessons is Uniting Heaven and Earth, Christ in these epistles.

These lessons have been written by a dear friend, Clinton Walleen.

Clinton Walleen works with me at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

He works for the Biblical Research Institute.

In these lessons, we're going to be focusing particularly on Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus, the Son of Man, the Christ that redeems us, the Christ that intercedes for us, and the Christ that's coming again for us.

You're gonna be uplifted and inspired as we study them.

So with that background, let's just jump right into lesson 1.

The title is Persecuted but Not Forsaken.

The apostle Paul wrote Philippians someplace between 60 and 62 AD.

He had visited Philippians earlier and raised up a small Christian congregation there.

That Christian congregation became a thriving congregation and continued to grow.

But when Paul wrote Philippians, he wrote it from a prison cell in Rome.

There are 4 chapters in Philippians, and the great theme of each of these chapters is joy.

In fact, the Apostle Paul mentions joy someplace between 26 and 28 times, either joy or rejoicing.

Memory text is, rejoice in the Lord always.

Notice our text does not say rejoice in the Lord in all things.

There are many things that we can't rejoice in.

A young man, 17 years old, driving home from school gets hit by a tractor-trailer truck and is killed instantly.

A terrible war takes place in Russia and Ukraine, and thousands of young people are dead.

We don't rejoice in the death on either side.

We don't rejoice in oppression, in justice.

We don't rejoice when an alcoholic comes home, hits his wife in the face, and blackens her eyes and breaks her nose.

He rather says rejoice in the Lord always.

We can rejoice even in the hardship, difficulty, challenges, sufferings of life.

We can rejoice even in the tears because God is our creator.

He is the 1 that saved us from the penalty, the condemnation of sin, and he is our coming King.

So we rejoice not in the circumstance, but we rejoice in spite of the circumstance that God is still in control, that God will guide our lives, he'll strengthen us, he will give us the hope, the courage, the faith to deal with whatever we have to deal with.

This is why Paul could rejoice in prison, because he knew that God was ultimately in control.

So you look at Sunday's lesson, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, here in Ephesians 3, chapter 1.

Notice, see, there are 4 lessons actually that Paul wrote, 4 books that he wrote, 4 epistles that he wrote from prison.

Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon.

So they were all written from that Roman prison.

But look what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 1 and 2, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, faithful in Christ Jesus.

So Paul says he is an apostle by the will of God.

If indeed he ends up in prison because of God's will, Because God wants him to be a witness there.

He's open for that opportunity in Ephesians 3 verse 1 It says for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles in other words I'm not a prisoner of Rome.

Jesus has allowed me to be in this circumstance, even if Jesus didn't actively cause it.

There's a purpose that overrides my immediate circumstance.

And we see that with Paul witnessing there to the Roman guards.

We see that with Paul witnessing in that society.

And some even of Caesar's household become Christians.

In Philemon chapter 1, Philemon is a little book.

It's the story of a runaway slave by the name of Onesimus.

And here Paul meets him, leads Onesimus to Christ and sends him back to Philemon.

Philemon is a book written, just 1 chapter, telling Philemon to treat Onesimus not as a slave, but as a brother.

But you look here at Philippians chapter 1 and verse 1, again, Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother.

So again, Paul says, the Roman government may think that they have me as a prisoner, But I know that there is a divine will of God.

I'm here on an assignment from God." It reminds me of a story I heard in a very closed country where an Adventist pastor and elder were giving out literature, and in this particular country it was against the law to do that.

They were sharing literature with a small band of Adventist believers.

As he was in prison, when other prisoners heard that he was a Christian, they beat him.

And every night he would get beaten, pummeled, sometimes knocked unconscious.

There was a man that was watching all that, another prisoner, and he would lift him up, bathe his wounds after others had gone.

And eventually, the 2 studied the Bible together.

And eventually, this second man, this prisoner, watching the beatings and the love on the face and the kindness of his words, even to his tormentors, this second prisoner, unbeliever, accepts Christ.

He eventually leaves prison and our elder left prison, they join the same Adventist church, and this second prisoner who helped our Adventist brother eventually becomes an Adventist pastor.

Once you know that God is ultimately in control of your life, you then look at every opportunity in life, whether it's good or bad, whether there are tears of sorrow or there is joy, whether the mountain is high and you're on the mountain peak looking out over the valleys and just this euphoric joy, or whether you're down in the valley in darkness, whatever circumstance you are, you can rejoice in the Lord.

Not because of what happened to you, but because God is bigger than our problems, greater than our difficulties and larger than our challenges.

Here, there's an interesting note that the author gives about Paul.

He says, Paul has given his life in service to Jesus Christ.

If that service includes being a prisoner, he's ready.

Paul describes himself as an ambassador in chains.

The first time that we read about Paul in prison is found in Acts chapter 16.

Paul's in Philippi, raises up a new congregation.

There he's in the process of raising it up.

Lydia has been baptized, the cellar purple, the sharp business woman.

Then there's a slave girl that follows Paul through the streets of Philippi.

She is shouting out, and Paul gets annoyed with all of this, and he ultimately casts the demonic forces out of her.

As a result of that, the inhabitants who employed her for fortune telling and soothsaying, they lose their lucrative business because now this woman is not being possessed, this girl, by the demons.

So Paul and Silas are beaten, they are bruised, they're bloody, their hands are chained, they're put in stocks, which are menacles to chain their feet or to contract or keep their feet from moving in their hands.

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Eric Flickinger

Clinton Wahlen

It Is Written

Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

13 lessons, 13 weeks, where we look at how God wants to unite heaven and earth.

We're looking at Christ In the books of Philippians and Colossians, a powerful picture of Christ and the gospel and what God desires to do in my heart and your heart so that our lives, by the grace of God, can be used by Him to change the world.

We're going to begin with prayer and we'll dive right in.

Father, we thank you for drawing us together today.

We ask that you will bless our time together and that as a result of our studies, you will work in our hearts to make us more like Christ.

We ask your blessing on us today and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Well, we're grateful that you are here, but we are also grateful to have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us.

Waleen is an Associate Director of the Biblical Research Institute, and he has an area of expertise in New Testament and in hermeneutics.

It's a delight to be here with you, Eric.

So this is going to be an exciting quarter, but before we delve right into week number 1, you're an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute.

Now that sounds like a really fancy place full of all sorts of great ideas and theological depth and so forth.

I assume it's more than just people sitting around and thinking a lot.

Well, we do spend a lot of time thinking, but also studying the Bible.

What a wonderful opportunity we have to research and study the Bible.

Though it is a book of many ages ago written, there are many new things.

And archaeological discoveries all the time enlighten it further.

We have a newsletter we publish 4 times a year called Reflections.

In fact, Elder John Bradshaw, in a recent article, has the lead for our Reflections issue recently, navigating differences of opinion in the last day church.

And we'll get into that as we study the books of Philippians and Colossians, there were differences in the church of that time too.

And there are lots of materials on our website, adventistbiblicalresearch.org, free, some books free to download.

Also our bookshop where we have additional books.

We've published recently on a couple of volumes on the Trinity, on ethics and technology, on what it means to be a human being.

So you all produce a great deal of material for us to be able to benefit from as we look at these different themes from a biblical perspective, which is fantastic.

Now, this quarter, we're looking at uniting heaven and Earth, as we mentioned, going into the books of Philippians and Colossians.

How did this quarter's lesson, how did what we're studying right now, kind of come into being?

How did it get to where we're holding it in our hands right now?

Well, it's a process, as you might imagine.

So about 5 years ago now, I was asked specifically to write this series of lessons on Philippians and Colossians.

And I have to say, it wasn't something I thought about doing myself.

But as I got into it, as we do sometimes when we study the Bible, it became more and more exciting, and I realized there is a lot here to share.

And I had a wonderful time writing the series of lessons and the companion volume, Uniting Heaven and Earth.

This was a wonderful study of how God wants to draw heaven near to us.

What a wonderful idea it is to think heaven is very near.

And so we have the study lesson that we're going to be going through.

There's the companion book that you just mentioned.

We're watching the program, we're making the programs right now.

So there's a lot to study to get out of this quarter.

Lesson number 1 is called persecuted but not forsaken.

We think of Paul as this great in Christendom.

He made so much of a difference, he wrote so much of the New Testament, but he didn't always do that from a place of freedom.

He didn't always do that able to go as he wished and say what he pleased and so forth.

And you think it must have been difficult for him.

It would be difficult for, I think, any of us.

But how did Paul relate to his imprisonment?

Well, it brings now right down to earth the idea of uniting heaven and earth, doesn't it?

Because even in the prison cell, Paul sensed the presence of Jesus.

And we start here because he wrote 4 epistles while he was a prisoner in Rome during this period.

Philippians and Colossians are 2 of them, and the other 2 are Ephesians and Philemon.

And he wrote them while he was not under, not in this dark dungeon-like prison we sometimes imagine, that came later, but he was under house arrest.

And he was free, actually, to receive visitors.

We will look at that probably in Acts shortly.

Because as you said, we've got 4 books in the Bible in the New Testament that were written from that type of situation that he found himself in.

We're looking specifically this quarter at the book of Philippians and Colossians.

So Paul had different relationships with those 2 churches, with those 2 cities.

Break down the relationship that he had with Philippi and with Colossae.

Well, with Philippians, he established this.

You might remember that they wanted to go further into Asia and the Holy Spirit said no and they then you know had to shift gears and Paul had a vision in the night that people were calling, come to Macedonia and help us.

And this is what led them to cross into Europe from Asia to Troas, the port there, and then they didn't stop there, but they went to the chief city of that area, which was Philippi, a very special city, actually.

If you were born in that city, you were automatically a Roman citizen.

They spoke the official languages, Latin.

They didn't have the taxes that other places had imposed on them.

And because Paul personally established it, he had a very close connection with the people in Philippi.

Now, when we come to Colossia, this is different.

This is hundreds of miles away, further to the east, what is today Turkey, present day Turkey.

It hasn't really been excavated, just started, is now starting to be excavated, but we don't really know that much about the city from excavations.

Most of what we know about it is from this letter in Colossians.

And so we can actually learn quite a bit about this interesting city from what Paul wrote to them.

He established it through other coworkers, but he had this connection.

So the church in Philippi, he started, and As you said, he chose this city.

Talking Points 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

I'm Cameron DeVasher and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

Pastor Howard, we are embarking on a new lesson series today.

A whole beginning of the year, a whole set of new lessons, and this 1 is titled Uniting Heaven and Earth, Christ in Philippians and Colossians.

This is a really interesting, You know, we've been on the Old Testament for a while there, you know, going through the history of ancient Israel.

Now we're headed to the New Testament and 1 of the...

I just can't tell you how excited I am about this upcoming study series.

We're looking at the Apostle Paul and his work for these, specifically these 2 churches, but really principles we can take and apply to the church today.

And I really am excited about this lesson series.

So, well, you are the 1 who is launching this with the Talking Points.

You put them together this week, so let me pray and then you can tell us what we're getting into here.

Gracious Father in heaven, we are thankful for your word.

We're thankful that we can study together, not just here as we prepare this Talking Points, but Lord, around the world, that as Seventh-day Adventists we can be studying your word together as it were and we pray your spirit would guide us into an understanding of your truth and an application of that truth in such a way that would finish the work you've given us to do in this earth for we ask and pray it in Jesus name amen amen well the lessons for this week is entitled Persecuted but Not Forsaken and it's really looking at the Apostle Paul and of course the Apostle Paul wrote these letters to Philippians and the Colossian churches, but he wrote them from prison and so we're going to be looking at, or at least from an imprisonment, you know.

So what was the context for these lessons?

So we're not, this week's lesson is not a chapter by chapter study of the content necessarily, but it's giving a context for what, for these upcoming lessons we're going to be studying.

And how does the church operate with him in this condition?

Well, in my notes I put, this week's lesson looks at Paul's commitment to missionary service, even under persecution, and his strategic approach to evangelistic labor.

So, we've drawn out 3 talking points, as is our custom.

Talking point number 1, for Paul, even prison was a pulpit.

He did not let his circumstances dictate his ministry.

That comes primarily from Sunday and Monday's lesson.

Talk point number 2, successful evangelism requires wise strategy.

If there's anyone who needed to think through how he was going to do stuff, it was Paul with all the different things he was facing, how could he make this work go forward?

Again, this is from Wednesday and Thursdays, but that's exactly how Paul was able to make things successful.

Of course, page 9, the great opening line of that great book.

The New Testament of course was primarily written by the Apostle Paul and they're mostly letters to either individuals or churches who he had helped raise up.

But what we sometimes forget is that of those letters, many of them are written from a jail cell or from a house arrest situation, right?

In fact, they're kind of colloquially known as the prison epistles, Philippians, Colossians, as well as Ephesians and Philemon.

They all talk about him being in prison or mentions his chains or how he's restricted from visiting them, how he'd long to go see them.

It mentions, but none of them mentioned where he was imprisoned, which in and of itself I think is curiously interesting.

He doesn't make his imprisonment Or the location or his struggles the real heart of the work.

He wasn't like here's my condition He just mentions I'm an ambassador, but he keeps talking to them about the work out there and we're gonna see that but anyway But the evidence points he never mentions where he's imprisoned but this is 1 of the first things that we have to address is where's where's he writing from?

There's a lot to be said about that but it is interesting that when we when we suffer today as little as it is in comparison We want everybody to know just how much that's right how hard it was for me to go to that place and They served me food that was cold and there were a couple flies on whatever the case may be So yeah, that's an interesting point where he was in some really nasty situations and never does he describe his jail cells or we can read in Acts of the Apostles when Paul and Silas were in prison and some of what he had with it They were singing in prison and their feet in the stocks.

She gives more detail but he doesn't give that detail.

That's right and it's interesting and what he's always doing is rejoicing and he's thinking of others and he's writing letters to encourage them and plan his next visit and he's just all about that work, right?

Well again, it doesn't mention where he's in prison, but evidence strongly indicates that it's Rome, and the lesson goes through kind of the different suggestions that are out there, but Rome seems to be the landing place for 2 particular reasons.

First of all, Paul mentions the Praetorium in Philippians, chapter 1, verse 13, and he mentions it in terms of quote the whole palace guard right now it could be a reference to a residence of an official in some outpost but this gives them more of the credibility that he's talking about the thousands of Roman soldiers who were in that city and that city of course would be Rome.

Another thing Paul mentions is the believers quote in Caesar's household.

Again, strongly implying a personal connection with people serving in the imperial headquarters in Rome.

So most likely Paul is writing these letters from some type of imprisonment, whether it's an actual jail cell in some cases, whether it's house arrest.

But the lesson brought out that even in house arrest, you'd be chained to a guard.

So it's not like you're just going to the market and you're stuck in this town.

No, you're stuck in this house next to this guy and you're severely restricted in your mobility.

You're not in the house, you're chained to somebody.

Whether you want to eat or use the restroom or whatever else and you're coming with me and it not just a somebody I think the lesson pointed this out that the jar that many of these guards were just very crass and you ever and that you're And that's you're not getting away Can you imagine the type of person it would be like your job is to be chained to the prisoner.

It's like you don't want that to be the soft easygoing guy.

You got it's got to be the tough hard-nosed just and this is what Paul would wake up and there's this guy this is always around you know.

But for him his imprisonment was not seen as honestly didn't even really seem as a setback to ministry it just seemed like well this is where we are today let's go work.

In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 20 Paul describes himself as an ambassador in chains so he just recognized I'm still an ambassador I'm still a minister I just happen to be chained up right now.

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