fulfill my joy by thinking the same way
Notes
Transcript
You ever have someone tell you they don’t believe something but it isn’t an opinion but a fact.
They are telling you they just don’t believe that but it’s easily and completely provable, not does this taste good but is it real.
Like, Ocean water is clear and not actually blue. They are like, “I don’t believe that.” You could be like, look when you put your hand in the ocean and pull the water out is it blue? And they say something like, but the ocean is blue, I don’t believe you.
You might know people like this, I do.
Then we come to church and say our church vision, which is taken from
Philippians 2:1-2 and we come upon the first part of verse 2
Philippians 2:2 (HCSB)
2 fulfill my joy by thinking the same way
In a world this side of the Covid pandemic, incredibly divided politics, where people sometimes state their individual belief is more important than facts, saying together that we should be “thinking the same way” is perhaps the scariest part of our worship on Sundays.
I wonder if you’ve ever brought a friend who heard us say that and told one of you, I’m not going back to the church that says everyone has to think the same way!
If we are saying such a crazy thing every week at church shouldn’t we look closer at why we are saying it, what matters to it, and what difference should it make in our life her in church and every day in our lives?
So let’s do it!
Philippians 2:2 (NA26)
2 πληρώσατε μου τὴν χαρὰν ἵνα τὸ αὐτὸ φρονῆτε
fulfill my joy by thinking the same way.
A reminder that this part of the Bible that we read, at first, when it was written was a letter, which as my daughter Deborah told me back when she was in elementary school, a letter is really old way of texting.
This letter was written from a special leader, named Paul, who was called and taught by Jesus to lead the churches. He wrote this letter to the church in the city of Philippi,
This ancient city was renamed by the father of Alexander the Great, King Philip of Macedon after he helped to protect it in a battle and became it’s ruler.
Today it is located in modern day Greece. It’s close to Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Turkey. I just clicked on a restaurant there and zoomed out so you can see it. This sermon is not a recommendation of the restaurant in case anyone was planning to fly there after church.
This is a really famous historical battle site. Hundred’s of years after Alexander the Great it was the cite of the decisive battle between Mark Antony, Octavius and the senators who murdered Julius Caesar. Then when Mark Antony and Octavius went to war over Cleopatra and the rest of the empire, Octavius won. He refused to let Mark Antony’s losing soldiers back in Rome because they rebelled against him but wanting to win over his enemies he gave many land in Philippi to retire too.
This place of immense historical battles became the site of an amazing spiritual battle as well.
Just approximately 60 plus years after that, Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, shared about Jesus to a woman named Lydia in this area. Here lets read about it in the Bible.
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis,
12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days.
13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there.
14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.
15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
The Lord opened her heart. She accepted Jesus and her household was baptized. Forgiven. Evil Defeated. Welcomed into the family of God.
Philippi, This was the place where the first Europeans are described as being baptized. There might have been others in other parts of Europe from Christians who traveled there but these are the first recorded in the Bible.
What does all this nerdy stuff have to do with your life?
I’m not there yet. Hold on!
You see Lydia, her family, and others Paul met then later became a gathering of people who followed Jesus and this is what made them a church.
This letter of Paul, the one we read when we say our church vision, was written to these people, much later, as a way to give them instructions in how to run the church, how to do life as followers of Jesus.
The letter to this church reveals that the church needed to be reminded to be united.
2 I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
Yep, people were fighting in church way back then like people can do today, but the whole idea that fighting between people of church is wrong comes straight out of the Bible and its addressed by the verse we say every week.
In a city with a history of the most important battles in ancient European history, of struggle and fighting and the great victory of Jesus over darkness, on this side of following Jesus they had to learn that fighting is a sign of evil, the church is not to be a place of battle against each other.
14 Do everything without complaining and arguing,
15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.
Live as Bright lights, people who fight to get their way, complaining about each other, not people who keep fighting leadership, describing how much better they are. Instead live so no one can criticize you.
If you re used to pushing to get our way or the opposite backing down to everyone else so they can get their way. It might be the first time we see this as a problem or focus on God to strengthen on us to do it.
You see one way to fix the problem would be to think that verse we are looking at today,
Philippians 2:2 (CSB)
2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way
A simple read would think this means everybody should think like you, exactly like you or exactly like me.
I enjoy football, everyone must enjoy football.
I hate popsicle sticks, they must be banned.
But when we read the Bible we need to remember that the rest of the Bible helps us to figure out what each individual part of the Bible is saying.
I can promise you God is not calling all of you to hate Popsicle sticks even though I think that’s the best way to go.
In
27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.
God creates two different types of humans out of his one image. Diversity is wired into the way that God creates. The manifold beauty of God’s creation happens when the two became one as genetically we who come from our parents became stronger, more diverse. It’s great for biology but we also come with different ideas.
The same writer who told us to think the same way pointed out in another letter in the Bible that the church is made up of people of all kinds of different jobs like a human body.
12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.
19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part!
20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen,
24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.
26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
Your body is incredibly different. Your hands and feet may be similar with little things at the end but widely different. Different perspectives, different jobs, and these differences make the body powerful. Each part of the body bringing input and output.
We are all different. We can have differences but every healthy body is moved by it’s head. The head of the church is Christ. If we allow Jesus Christ to lead us and the Holy Spirit to speaks to us, than we will think in the same way.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Henry Blackaby in a great study which everyone should take part in called Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God, talked about churches running themselves on the democratic process. He showed that no church should make it’s decisions based on a vote of majority rule. Imagine a church making a decision where 51% of the people say they should do something and 49% of the people saying they should do something else. Technically, the 51% should win, but there is no way that this church is “thinking the same way.” There is a significant problem. The whole church is not in agreement as to the leadership of God.
Maybe some of the members have not yet heard God to speak to them. And it’s not just the 49 side or the 51 side. Because we can pray that God opens the minds of others to hear him. If we believe that God works than we can wait, we can wait for those who need to hear or those who need to obey for the church to act in an incredibly strong unity. God can tell someone else the direction to go just like He told you or me. Yes there are times where sin has entered and a person is just fighting for themselves and not for what God wants.
Even then a division shows whatever is being voted on, decided, isn’t near as important as dealing with the need for a person to repent, for some one to humble themselves before God and ask for forgiveness.
A very smart man once said,
Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes (Someone Once Said …)
If Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise as to have perfect knowledge of all things? Therefore trust not too much to (your) own opinion, but be ready also to hear the opinions of others.—Thomas à Kempis
And this is the key of
Philippians 2:2 (CSB)
2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way
It is the ability to humble yourself to the direction of God. To humble yourself if most are not convinced and to wait and seek out when God makes clarity available. To put aside desires and leisure for the sake of what God desires so that you can be united with others.
This is why the church is not a place but a group of believers who are united together to follow Jesus. That is why a church that fights is a place not a chuch. But there is another kind of place called a church too. It is a place, not a real church body where no one fights. It appears peaceful but really no one is united because they don’t understand that they are parts of the body.
Look around each one of you are vital. If we are a body, and you had parts of your actual body that didn’t participate in the rest of the body. Like your eye just felt unimportant and didn’t do anything. That would be a serious problem! Any part of the body that doesn’t do what its supposed to do so it stops working, stops involving itself so as to not be a bother, is dead. When things die on our actual bodies that can cause disability, disease or maybe even require amputation.
Some of you might say I don’t think I matter. It’s like the blood is cut off to you from the church body. You know what happens in your own body if the blood gets cut off to your leg? Your leg “falls asleep.” It stops working and then with a little move the leg starts getting blood flow. What’s it like when your leg that fell asleep starts getting a little bit of blood flow? It hurts!
If you know that Jesus died for you, you asked his forgiveness of your sin and understand that his death on the cross paid the price for your sin, that he rose again and that since you believe him you have eternal life you are a follower of Jesus Chirst, you are a Christian and if you call this New Day home, your church, than you are an extremely valued part of this body of Christ. You matter. What God says to you matters. We are to love you as you love each of us. We are to be united in growing in what Jesus would have us do. We are to be united in what we do.
Practical Illustrations: 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude 12-224: Supporting One Another (Unity)
Having one mind, the mind of Christ, is the only way to achieve peace and unity. It is also the only way to carry out the ministry of Christ.
You are essential to this family of believers in Jesus Christ operating as a church.
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