Together as one

Intro

So, I’ve never told the story of what happened on my last day of 5th grade. First time I’m sharing it and the first time I’ve put in a message. Last day of 5th grade and I’m excited for many reasons. No school for a couple of months, no homework and I can just have fun all summer. Unfortunately, I have to say bye to some of my friends because I may not see them again but it’s okay because it’s the last day of school. I’ve always heard of a food fight in movies, shows, or books on the last day of school. So, I’m like let’s do it. I go to the cafeteria and see that there’s pizza, so it is even better. Now, I eat my pizza because pizza at school is surprisingly good. But then my friend didn’t eat his pizza and it’s game on now. I tell him what I plan to do and ask if I can use his pizza to start the fight. He says, “Only if I can be on your team.” I say, “Let’s do it.” I get his pizza and throw it at someone. He gets someone’s food and throws it at someone and it’s on. Every student is up and throwing food and every teacher is standing there mad and trying to stop it. Our clothes are dirty but it’s okay because it’s the last day of school. It was the best last day of school ever. Now, here’s the catch, none of that happened. It would be cool if it did.

But I told this made-up story because if there’s anything that can mess up unity, it is fighting. Now, I know it was just a food fight and it didn’t happen, but real fights can mess up unity. Drama can mess up unity. Disagreements because you think differently than someone else can mess up unity. There can be many causes for not having unity on a team, with someone else, in class, or wherever. Now, why do I want to talk about unity tonight? One, because I’m subbing in for Pastor Chris and teaching the Bible study on Wednesday night, doing the same thing helps me. But also, something is happening on Tuesday. What’s happening? Election day, which means voting is taking place for those who haven’t already voted. And no matter who wins, and we probably won’t figure it out on Tuesday but whoever wins, there will be so much division and no unity. Family members may not talk again. Friends won’t hang out again. Co-workers will look at each differently. Simply because you didn’t vote for the same person. Now, I know y’all can’t vote, only we leaders can. But I would say y’all contribute to unity just as much as adults. At your school, you guys are the center of unity. On your sports team or band, unity starts with you. I would also argue if we wanted to see change in certain areas in our country, it starts with the youth. You guys are the future.

But how do we have unity within each other? How do we accomplish unity? How do we strive for unity? What do we do? It’s one thing to say we want unity, but another to accomplish it. Can we only have unity if we all think the same way, act the same way, and have everything in common with the person next to us? Yea, possibly but that’s impossible. What does scripture say about unity? The Bible takes this on head-on, specifically in Philippians chapter two.

MIT: The Apostle Paul gave the church at Philippi practical tips and reminded them of the perfect example of Christ to have unity.

MIM: Today, we can have unity because of the example Jesus set.

Go with me to Philippians 2:1-11. We haven’t been in this book in a while and maybe you’re not too familiar with it. The book of Philippians is written by Paul with the help of Timothy, his young protege. There is a positive attitude in this book with words such as “joy” and “encouragement” standing out. It’s uplifting, encouraging, and positive. It’s easy to read as it is practical. Paul wrote this letter to his close friends, the Church in Philippi, from his Roman house arrest described at the end of Acts as he waited for his court appearance before Caesar. The church in Philippi was founded by Paul so, this letter was pretty personal to Paul. This was a special letter to a group of Christians who were especially close to the heart of Paul. When Paul remembered what they did for him back in chapter one, he was extremely thankful. He was grateful for them, but more so to God who had worked such kindness through them. They were extremely giving towards Paul, both when he was with them and when he was apart from them. They partnered with Paul in his spreading of the gospel through their friendship and financial support. They didn’t wait to see if Paul was a “winner” before they supported him. They got behind Paul and his ministry early. Some scholars have said that when Paul prayed for these people, he became happy. From the time it was established, the church at Philippi was healthy, strong, and generous, becoming a model church for us. But here’s the trick, at times, this church still struggled with disunity. So, one of the reasons Paul is writing this book is to remind them of being together and being one.

Now, that we’re all caught up, let us read the text…

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 2

If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

CHRIST’S HUMILITY AND EXALTATION

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

7 Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

9 For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow—

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth—

11 and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

So, I don’t often tell you my points when preaching, when I first started, I did but not as much but tonight I’m just going to directly say them. The first one is…

1. Motivated to be together (v. 1-2)

Does anyone like washing dishes by hand? I hate it, I will do any other chore in the house but that one. I will clean the kitchen, and not do the dishes. It’s bad I know, but I don’t like washing dishes and I’m glad I’m not alone. I remember one time my mom asked me to do these dishes and so I knew I needed to do the dishes. The only problem is I forgot to do the dishes. So, she got home, and she saw the dishes and she said, “Thanks for doing the dishes”, you know she had that look that moms give. And I’m like “You’re welcome” but then the alarm goes off in my head that I never did the dishes, so I go do them. But she made this rhetorical statement about me doing the dishes.

Paul starts in chapter two, and he just makes some rhetorical statements. He makes some statements he knows the answers to. All through verse 1 he uses the word “If.” He asks 4 rhetorical questions saying, “If then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.” The word “If” in English brings some doubt to our mind, but in this context is more of assuming something. Paul mentioned these things in a manner that suggests to us that they should all be obvious parts of the Christian’s experience. Then in verse 2, Paul gets to the unity part. He starts by saying “Make my joy complete”. He’s making a personal request here to them. Remember Paul had a great relationship with this church and sometimes it made him joyful so he’s saying do these things to make me joyful. He goes on and says, “By thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” These together all speak of the same idea: a deep, abiding, unity among them. This unity is the goal. It is not found in the same lifestyle or personality. It is found when people have the same values and love. Paul sought that in this church. He was motivated to be one.

Are we motivated to be together? Do we desire to be 1? We can’t have unity when we look at each other as separate but instead when we realize we’re 1, we can get to unity. We’re not meant to be divided, but together.

Paul goes on and shifts a little bit to descriptions of how to achieve and practice unity in verses 3-5. He shows how unity is a mindset, that’s the second point…

2. Unity is a mindset (v.. 3-4)

In verse 3 he says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit.” Both of these attitudes stem from a self-centered mindset. “Selfish ambition” was first used in Philippians 1:17, when Paul describes preachers who opposed him. It means when a person is willing to divide the group over a selfish personal agenda. Paul then uses the term “Conceit”. Now, I had to do some research on this term because I didn’t know what it meant. It describes a worthless or empty desire for glory, a mindset that cares only to enhance an inflated view of self. It is self-promotion and ends up with a meaningless self-glorification that ends up helping no one and accomplishing nothing beyond satisfying ourselves. This relates so much to today. We’ve all seen this in others, attention seekers who want to be in the spotlight. Then we’ve all dealt with this at some point in our lives when we want something so bad. We look at others as rivals because we want to do better than them. We strive for that attention and glory for ourselves. But what does Paul tell us what to do with these motives? At the end of verse 3 and verse 4 he says, “But in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” Humility is how we deal with our selfish motives. Now, this doesn’t mean looking at yourself poorly, but it means that we value ourselves more than others. To value others above yourself does not mean to look down on yourself but rather means to look up to those around you, not to hate yourself but to love and serve others even more. You do not reject yourself but place your brothers and sisters on a pedestal above yourself. We have this servant mentality. Paul means that we are to focus on helping others more than on helping ourselves; the people around us are to get the share of our attention. A way to unity is to look out for others and not just us. It’s a mindset that we must have.

Think of a time when you have to focus on something to do well. Focus on a test, a game, to do well. Kobe Bryant, a former NBA player was known for his mentality. In 2009, when they made it to the championship game, they had to win 4 games to be the champions. They were up 2-0 on their opponent but Kobe wasn’t happy yet. After the game, reporters asked him about it, he had a serious look on his face, and said “Job’s not finished, what’s there to be happy about?” They just laughed but he had a point. They haven’t won it all yet.

What if we had a mentality of unity? What if we had a mentality of serving others? What if we didn’t care so much about ourselves and cared more about others? What if we helped a classmate who’s been struggling in class? What if we sat with that one person who doesn’t have many friends at lunch? What if we were just nicer to people? What if? Our schools would change, the world would change, and more.

Paul then shifts and relates this to our greatest example, Jesus. The third point is…

3. Jesus sets the example of humility (v. 5-11)

Paul had just spoken of the issues of selfish ambition and conceit and then to deal with them takes humility. So, in verses 5-11, Paul uses Christ as the ultimate example of humility that we should follow. He will describe the attitude of Christ in verses 6-11 but first, he tells them what to do with the information in verse 5. It’s easy to read about the description of Jesus and admire it from a distance but God wants us to be awed by it and to imitate it. So, in verse 5, Paul uses the word “Adopt” and says, “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.” They were to imitate him because, in so doing, the problems of disunity would be solved. When we imitate Christ, we’re showing the love of Jesus to others. We can have unity when we all have the same attitude as Christ.

In verses 6-11, Paul speaks on the deity of Christ. Paul in these verses means that Christ, with the Father, and the Spirit, was an eternal being and that, Jesus was God. Jesus had no beginning and no end. He was not created, but he was the creator. Jesus did not begin His existence in the manger at Bethlehem but is eternal. Notice in verse 6 where it says, “Who existing in the form of God.” This can be hard for us to understand because when we use the word “Form” we think of the shape of something; but in this context, it wasn’t like that. It is more the idea of a mode or an essence, it is the essential nature of God, without a physical shape or image. God has a form, and Jesus exists in this form of God. Paul goes on in verse 6 by saying, “Did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.” What does this mean? It means that Jesus did not cling to the privileges of who he was, as God. It wasn’t that Jesus was trying to achieve equality with the Father. He had it and chose not to cling to it. He didn’t have this prideful mentality, instead, he humbled himself. Paul says another interesting phrase in verse 7, he says, “Instead he emptied himself.” Now, what does this mean? He didn’t become a less God or less holy. Jesus did not empty himself of his character, any of his attributes, or his equality with God. As the end of the verse tells us “By assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man.” This describes how Jesus emptied himself. The emptying is that God became human, the Lord became a servant, and obedience took him to death. He left his position, rank, and privilege for us.

How did he do this? Verse 8 says how, “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.” It’s simple but powerful, Jesus seeks humility, refuses glory, and takes the lowest place for us on the cross. And what happened because of his humility in going to the cross and dying for our sins? Verse 9 says, “For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.” Jesus did not crown himself, but his Father crowned him. He did not elevate himself to the throne, but his Father lifted him there and placed him there. His humiliation led directly to his exaltation. Now, in the last 2 verses, we see why. Verse 10, “Every knee will bow” and in verse 11, “Every tongue will confess that Jesus Chris is Lord.” This should be our response to what Jesus did on the cross. These 2 verses should make us just want to praise Him for who He is.

But what does all this have to do with unity? Why did Paul want to write this part? Paul did not give this description of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11 simply for theology. Theology is important but it’s not the only reason he said this. He gave this to help them practice real unity at any time of their life. This picture has equipped them to act in a way towards each other that will promote unity in the body of Christ. When we have that humility mindset like Christ, we can have humility.

I remember my senior year in high school when I took a weightlifting class, and it was leg day. By the way, still to this day, I don’t like leg day, I’m the type to skip leg day. But then I remember I do not my legs to look like a toothpick. But this specific day in class, it was maxing out on squatting. I was already dreading the day. But we started out doing some warm-up sets and then it’s time to max out. Now, typically when we max out you do it in a group and then tell the teacher your number to see if you made any improvement. But, when I had to max out my teacher wanted to spot me, and I did not like that one bit. But I got the ball, got in position and I went down and then came up and put the bar back. My teacher was like “Dylan, you did not go enough, you need to go lower.” In my head, I was like “Wow, it felt like I went far enough.” I felt something.

But most of the time, we don’t go low enough. We’re not growing stronger because we’re not willing to bend and let Jesus be in control. Often, unity doesn't take place because we’re not willing to be low enough and put others higher. What is keeping you from going low enough to put others first? What is holding you back from having unity with others? Is there something you need to change within yourself?

Closing

So, unity can be hard. Unity can be challenging. But if we have a different approach and maybe look at ourselves differently, we can take steps to unity. You guys are the future. You guys are the ones who help steer the change. You guys have more than a voice. You have people supporting you. What if your generation can be the change?

Pray