Philippians 2:1-11 - Gospel Ministry is Shaped by Christ’s Humility

Dismiss the children if you haven’t already

GREETINGS

Good afternoon! As we continue in our worship through the preaching of God’s Word, please grab your Bibles...

…we are in The Letter of Philippians chapter 2 this afternoon, verses 1-11—Philippians 2:1-11

As you make your way there, let me just say that we are glad that you are here. If you are visiting or are new to the church, we encourage you to observe, watch, and listen. If you have any questions about the church, about the Bible, about the gospel—feel free to pull me or one of the elders aside after church to talk about any of those things.

We’re in Philippians 2:1-11. I will read verses 5-7 to start us off and then pray.

Philippians 2:5–7 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

The title of our sermon this afternoon is “Gospel Ministry is Shaped by Christ’s Humility”

PRAY

Introduction

In Philippians 1:5 Paul identifies the Philippians as partners in the gospel to which he adds in verse 7 that they are all fellow partakers of grace as well.

It’s kind of like that old Hair Club for Men commercial from the 80s and 90s where the CEO would say, “I’m not only the hair club president, but I’m also a client.” He not only spreads the message for Hair Club for Men, he’s also a client … he’s a fellow partaker of it as well. The very product that he sells, is the very product that he uses.

Now, we wouldn’t look at the gospel like a product to sell because it’s not, but it is a message to be preached and to be enjoyed. This gospel message that Paul and the church at Philippi were committed to spreading, is in fact the very life that they are also enjoying. I believe that when Paul says that “for me to live is Christ” in verse 21, that he is talking about both partnering in the gospel (v. 5) and partaking of grace (v. 7). He is not only a preacher of the gospel, but he is also a receiver of it as well.

And as we saw last time, the gospel provides for us the very meaning of our life. Again for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And so this is what we get with the gospel:

We get partners in the gospel

We are partakers of grace

We have purpose in life

As we go further into this book, the gospel ministry that we all enjoy begins to take shape and form … and as we will see here, it will look very much like Christ in His humility. For Paul, the way we get there is joy because he is a partaker of grace. Gospel ministry is not only that which you preach, but also that which you enjoy.

Ministering the Gospel with Humble Unity

We Need Encouragement (v. 1)

You will have opponents (1:28). You will endure hardship and suffer (1:29). And you will have conflict in this world (1:30). You need God’s help to keep on keeping on in a fallen world that is in contention with your life in Christ.

Philippians 2:1 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,

God will minister his help in and through Christ and the Spirit by way of (1) encouragement, (2) comfort, (3) fellowship which is that word participation, and (4) all that embodies affection and sympathy.

Encouragement in Christ: The word for encouragement is the word for help. When you think of that word in light of the suffering at the end of chapter 1, then it comes across as more like comfort or consolation.

Encouragement in Christ in the midst of suffering would look something like Philippians 3:9-11 where Paul talks about being “found in Christ…”

Philippians 3:9–11 ESV

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

It’s in knowing Christ that Paul can experience resurrection power to endure his sufferings. Well that’s encouraging!

“You can get through this.”

“God’s strength, not your strength, will help you through this storm.”

Comfort from love: This has to do with cheering you up. It acts as a synonym to encouragement, but is a more intense form of consolation; consoling someone. Some have suggested that this is in reference to the Father which would give this encouragement a trinitarian structure. The Father is suggested because He’s the God of all comforts (2 Corinthians 1:3) and in our suffering Romans 5:3-5

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

And so there you see a comfort from love in the context of suffering. So it could be comfort from the Father’s love, but because the source of love is not clear, this could very well be Christ as well.

Earlier this week I was deeply troubled. I gave Ryan a call and after him hearing me lay my burdens, he just said, “hey bro, God is taking care of you.” He reminded me of things that God was doing … things that I was forgetting and then said, “God has you bro.” We started talking about how God’s plan and God’s ways are better than ours. How God uses trouble and hardship many times to make us better husbands, better fathers, and better pastors. He’s a faithful God, a loving Father, who knows what’s best for us. In that moment, God’s love was a comfort to me.

Participation or Fellowship in the Spirit: The same word for participation or fellowship here is the same word for partnership in 1:5. The Spirit unites us as brothers and sisters in the Lord so that we are partners in the gospel as we strive side by side in the faith (1:27). The unity in the faith that the Spirit works in us is great encouragement because we are not struggling alone.

Affections and compassions: This is more encouragement that acknowledges that God sees you. What you are going through in your suffering does not escape His attention. He is moved by your plight. He has mercy on all His children.

We Need Unity (v. 2)

Philippians 2:2 ESV

2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Paul is directing their attention to their lack of unity. Even though Paul has true joy, it is at best partial joy. If you look at what is lacking in Paul’s joy in verse 2, it is that unity of mind and of love that the church must have; their unity is not yet fully realized … otherwise he wouldn’t be saying this. That’s why he’s telling them the need to get there … because they’re not there. I think the reason why he talks about humility following these verses is because pride might be getting in the way of that unity. We also know later in 4:2 that there is a case where two specific individuals in the church are not getting along.

And so Paul’s complete joy will be experienced through the unity of faith amongst God's people

Being of the same mind: What this speaks to is friendship … same mindedness takes place in friendship. Friends usually have something in common like hobbies, interests, family, etc. If they don’t have anything in common, there’s hardly a friendship there. This same mindedness I’m referring to is not a uniformity of mind, but a unity of mind. It is not thinking the same exact thoughts and letting someone else’s thoughts be your thoughts. There is actually a diversity in thinking here that finds its unity in Christ, in the gospel of Christ and in the mission of Christ that contends with enemies of God, not the people of God.

He goes from the mind to the heart, “have the same love.”

And then he goes from heart to soul. To be in “full accord” is to be united in soul. Mark Keown says, “It has the sense of a marriage, the believers of Philippi coming together as one ‘flesh’ to work for the cause of the gospel.”

And then to double down and further reinforce what has already been stated, “Be of one mind.”

We Need Humility

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

What I’m about to say here is going to be foreign to secular Bay Area lifestyle. In a high-powered, high-perks, and high-paying work culture like we have around here in the Bay Area, selfish ambition is the name of the game. With fancy resume’s and skills to back it up, there’s going to be a lot of conceit there.

Gospel ministry cannot be anything like that! We must put others first. Verses 3-4 is how the Philippian church can make Paul’s joy complete which in the context is to have unity. This is how we do it:

First by…

Esteeming others (v. 3)

“In humility count others as more significant than yourselves.”

What needs to be driven out from among us is selfishness and an elevated opinion of oneself because when we do that we make ourselves first, we make ourselves more significant, we make ourselves the priority. We think that serving others is beneath us … in fact you should be serving me.

To be humble is to be humble towards God. We must never forget that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). 1 Peter 5:6 says,

1 Peter 5:6 ESV

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

Humility doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be lifted up. It just means don’t lift yourself up. Trust God that He’ll do that. Which meeeans … that when you lift yourself up, you’re actually taking matters into your own hands. Leave it to God to do that, not you. When you actually do that, you disrupt the unity.

Second, we preserve the unity by…

Considering others (v. 4)

This is in the plural, referring to the church not just the individual. Accomplishing this is going to actually take unity. And because it’s others to the church community, I think it very much involves considering they community you live in outside your church walls. Without neglecting ourselves, let us not also neglect our community.

We actually have to be united in this. We can’t have some of us saying “let’s minister to Benicia” and then others saying “forget Benicia”. That’s going to disrupt our unity. We must be on mission together.

Let us move on to our next major point, which is to…

Ministering the Gospel with Christ’s Humility

Our ministry must cater to and ultimately model after Christ!!

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Referring back to 1:27, “…let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…”, Paul is tying it all together here as he deals with the sufferings the church faces and the unity the church must embrace, you can actually do all of it by emulating Christ. I’m not talking about doing lots of things and avoid getting burned out, so much as I am talking about doing the necessary things and honoring God in the process.

We come back to the mind here in verse 5, which speaks of the unity we have on a friendship level with each other in the church. We must be on the same page of modeling our lives after Jesus Christ. It’s going to mean, of course, that you know Him, and in knowing Him can you begin to emulate Him.

Lesson #1, We must learn from His Deity: He was in the form of God meaning that He is God (v. 6) and here we see that He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

Even before Jesus became human, He was already humble. The NIV translates it this way, “[He] did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

As the Son of God, Jesus uses His deity to give, not take. ESV says, “a thing to be grasped”, grabbing for Himself. Certainly as the King of kings He could have, but He doesn’t.

Do you have a hard time letting go of your possessions? Do you struggle with wanting other people’s possessions? And how about your rights; what’s due you. Are you willing to relinquish your rights in order to preserve and maintain a relationship?

If you had the mind of Christ here, what would happen to your family? What would happen to you church? What would happen to your community?

Lesson #2, We must learn from His Humanity: He took the form of a servant meaning that He became a man (v. 7) and here we see He “emptied Himself.”

Even though He was a man, He was still God. Emptying Himself does not mean that He rid Himself of His deity. It means that He set aside His privileges, His rights and even His glory.

By doing that He took on the form of a slave. Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In the Greco-Roman world slaves didn’t even have many basic rights.

Lesson #3, We must learn from His Death: He humbled himself by dying on a cross (v. 8) and here we see “obedient to the point of death.”

That points to his entire life; He was obedient throughout. It wasn’t the Jewish leaders, the Roman officials, Judas or anybody who humbled Jesus. Jesus humbled Jesus. It means He willingly died for me. He chose it. No one forced it. This is how you know humility is strength, not weakness. You don’t need to look at the cross and feel sorry for Jesus; He wanted to do that. If you’re going to be moved, be moved by the love that is a sincere love, a sacrificial love … a saving love.

Lesson #4, We must learn from His Exaltation: The Father exalts Him, every knee bows to Him and every tongue confesses Him (v. 9-11) and even though we are not Jesus and ought never get worshipped at all, we must learn to NOT exalt ourself and leave that to God.

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Conclusion

Communion

5 Minutes

Right now we will enter into a time of Communion. If you are a baptized believer in good standing with your church, we invite you to please join us as we partake of the bread and juice.

——-

Remember Christ in His humility.

What is the distance between you and an ant? The distance between is relatively small, you can measure it in centimeters or millimeters. Would you watch that ant and tend to that ant day in and day out? Would you give up everything that you have for that ant? Would you give up your best possession to save that ant? Would you die for that ant?

What is the spiritual distance between you and Jesus compared to the physical distance you and an ant? It doesn’t even compare. An ant is worth more to you than you are to God. That distance, whatever it is, does not even compare. God is infinitely more glorious than whatever glory you have for an ant. And while you would never lift a finger for that ant…

Jesus set aside His glory for you

Jesus became a man for you

Jesus died on the cross for you

——-

John 10:14–18 ESV

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Christian, eat and drink, knowing Christ forgives our sins by His body and His blood.