Unity through humility
Philippians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Communion today
Potluck following our service today
Members meeting next week after the worship service. If you are a member please stay afterwards.
INTRODUCTION:
We are going to pick up in chapter 2 in the book of Philippians today and be speaking about unity in the church. Unity is not just God’s will for the church, but it is a great testimony to the world that the church is a supernatural entity.
Church unity is more valuable than a sanctuary full of people, or the greatest preaching, or the best singing, or the most beautiful building in the county. Unity trumps all of these things BECAUSE a wretched sinful bunch of people can have great singers, or great speakers, or beautiful buildings…but only the church can haver the unity that the Bible speaks of.
What is church unity? Unity just means oneness. It means the whole church is on the same page. They are together in all the essential matters of this Christian life, they live by the same principles, they agree on the truths of the Bible, they follow THE one true God….they live as though they were one.
I am thankful for the unity that has been preserved in this church. And that is not to say that we have not had issues at times where division could have occurred. But I am thankful that when those times come, this church chooses to stand upon the Word of God and allow its authority to steer us through those times.
Three things I want us to see about unity in this passage today:
Unity belongs to the Church
Unity belongs to the Church
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Explanation:
Paul begins chapter 2 with 4 questions. What is the meaning of these questions he is asking? Well, he is not casting doubt that these things are present in the Philippian church, He is saying that since these 4 things are present in this church (as they are in every regenerate church) then unity is absolutely possible. What he is doing is appealing to the Philippian’s relationship with God to call them to unity.
These 4 statements that begin with “if” are just part of the reality of the Christian life. Let’s go down through each one briefly.
“If there is any encouragement in Christ”
That is being encouraged because we belong to Jesus, because we are “in Christ”.
Life changes drastically when one realizes he has passed from death to life. When we realize that our sins are forgiven. That we realize God is for us and with us. Nothing is the same as it used to be:
death has lost its sting
life is no longer pointless
The encouragement knowing all our needs will be met
The privilege to pray and seek God
And all of this produces encouragement for the believer.
“if there is any consolation of love”
The NIV adds “his love” into this phrase which brings out the idea that Paul was expressing. “If there is comfort from HIS love”.
This is speaking of the love from Jesus to His followers.
If you are in Christ, you know of that love because you have experienced it first hand. “We love because He first loved us.”
God loves all the people of this world. That is demonstrated in many ways especially in His mercy and compassion.
BUT God has a special kind of love for those who have given their lives to Him. It is like a father who loves children, but especially loves his own. That love provides great encouragement to us despite living in this fallen world.
“if there is any fellowship of the Spirit”
This is the communion with the Holy Spirit of God that is shared among believers.
What makes the church a church, is not the fact that people gather together weekly and say the same things or agree on what the Bible says. What makes a church become a fellowship is the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us.
You can take two complete strangers and put them in a room together who both have the Holy Spirit and do you know they will no longer be strangers? That is because they both share in the same Christian life.
“if any affection and compassion”
This is just another way of saying that we have a heart. That we care about other people and show mercy to them.
And why do Christians have a heart? Because God gives them one, when they hand over their lives to Jesus.
Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
That’s where the affection and compassion come from
HERE’S THE POINT:
Those who possess these things that come from God through salvation can live in absolute unity within the church.
Let me say it to you like this: Unity belongs to believers because they have been divinely gifted with the ability to live in unity.
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Jesus said I will live in them just and the Father lives in Christ so that they may be in perfect unity! If the Spirit of Christ lives in you, then perfect unity is not impossible it is our choice!
SECOND POINT: Unity does not come without effort
make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
What Paul is implying here is first that there was not unity in the Philippian church. There were personal conflicts between two women in church in chapter 4. This is one of the reasons Paul wrote this letter, to call this church to oneness. But they were not there at that time.
The point is this, we can be a church full of genuine Christians and still have disunity in the church. And church, we can have the Spirit of God and all four of those things we just talked about present in our lives and still not have unity in the church is we do not put in the effort to be unified.
What is the key to unity? He will tell us in the next few verses:
Unity comes through an attitude of humility
Unity comes through an attitude of humility
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Explanation:
There is not much need to explain what these verses teach because they are pretty straight forward. But I do want to point out one phrase here, “regard one another as more important than yourself”
What an incredibly hard thing to do for us isn’t it? Just imagine coming in here next Sunday (and btw some of you do this) and you are not thinking about yourself at all. Your not thinking about whether or not your going to like the topic preached about, or if this service is going to be to your liking, or whose going to keep the children, or even that one thing that has been on your hear and want comfort from it…you are only thinking about what is best for the others you will worship with.
This is how we have unity in church. It is an attitude that the people around em are more important than myself. It is thinking about the well being of others over my own.
Here is a big one and possibly the cause of the Philippians disunity: When someone sins against you in some way or another. And you let it go instead of going to tell someone else or spread rumors against them, or turn others against them. You just overlook it and move on for the sake of peace and unity in the church.
Or if we do not get things the way we think they should be. Part of putting others over ourselves is to consider that they may have a better way or an idea than we do. And we are not always right.
It is human nature to put ourselves over other people. We do not have to be taught this, we are born with it. The world does this all the time and more we hang around the world, the more we think there is nothing wrong with it.
But Scripture reminds us we are citizens of heaven passing through this world. And as Christians, we are not to live like this world lives. We follow the example of Christ, be the very fragrance of Christ to a lost and dying world.
James Montgomery Boice said, “the unbeliever puts himself first, others second, and God last….but we should reverse that order and put God first, others second, and WE MUST COME LAST”
What a challenge to this church, to each of us today. Husbands, put your wives over yourself. Wives your husbands over your selves. Church family put other people in front of you and I think we would be amazed at what God would do in this place and in our own lives.
I think the reason we struggle with this is because we forget that in the end, God is the one who is going to take care of us. The people of this world live for themselves because in the end that is all they have. They don’t believe that when they follow this principle that God will supernaturally take care of them.
Jesus gave us the perfect example of humility
Jesus gave us the perfect example of humility
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Explanation: Now Paul gives us the perfect example of someone who practiced humility and was exalted in the end.
Let’s take it verse by verse:
(v 6) “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped”
Jesus existed in the form of God. That is what is is Jesus is the very nature of God. His power, His wisdom, His omniscience….ALL THAT GOD IS, JESUS IS.
Jesus of Nazareth was not some man who lived a good life, walked upon the earth and was killed and no longer exists. The biblical and extra biblical evidence is clear that all that God is existed in the person of Jesus Christ.
And even though Jesus is perfectly equal with the Father, He did not use this equality to His advantage. When it says that His equality with God was not a thing to be grasped, that means it was utilized.
Jesus had every right just like God the Father had the right to stay in heaven just like God the Father. Yet He did not even consider His equality with God.
(v 7) “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being make in the likeness of men”
Have you ever wondered how a puny, finite man could kill the Almighty God? Or how the Scripture could say of an omniscient being could grow in wisdom as Luke tells us. That is because Jesus emptied Himself, gave up some of His attributes so that He could incarnate into human flesh and become a man.
Now you talk about a downgrade. To go from outside of time, outside of the realm of this world where there is absolute perfect peace and harmony, onto this fallen earth to be criticized, and hated, and spit on, and beaten, and killed by the very ones you came to save.
(v 8) “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death”
Now Paul makes it clear that this is what humility looks like. This obedience to God to the point of death….BUT not just death, but death on a cross. The most cruel and agonizing form of death known to mankind at that time.
Jesus didn't have to come, nor did He have to become a man, nor did He have to suffer, nor did He have to die a cruel death. But He did because He is the humble servant of God.
(v 9) “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name”
For this reason, that is because Jesus was the perfect humble servant, God exalted Him above every name.
Jesus’s own life lived out the very same principles that he taught His followers.
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
The Point: Those who will humble themselves in the way that Jesus did, following the Lord as the perfect example will also experience God’s exaltation on that final day.
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is Coming a day when the whole world will bow at the name of Jesus. Some will do it on this side of heaven, resulting in salvation and eventually our glorification.
And then there is the rest of the world who refuse to bow the knee to Jesus in this life, but will absolutely bow the knee to Jesus in the after life.
The difference is that those who bow today will be glorified then and those who refuse to bow WILL BOW in the after life will and be humbled.
CONCLUSION:
CONCLUSION:
Not only is humility essential for church unity, humility is essential for salvation. You cannot come to Christ without swallowing your pride and humbling yourself. Realizing your desperate need if God every single day and that without you have no hope!
Have an accurate view of yourself. We are not nearly as wonderful as we think we are. And if the teaching in Scripture offends you when it says, “there are none good, no not one” then your heart is prideful.
Become a bond servant. No one wants to think of themselves as a servant. That’s a demeaning word to us upright people. You don’t want to be a servant, you will never become a child of God.
Become obedient to the point of death. We cannot obey our way into heaven, but obedience is an essential characteristic of a believer. And it is an obedient heart that God wants, even to the point of death.
It’s ironic that is was Jesus’ obedience that led to His death, which led to His resurrection, and His glorification and our willing obedience that leads to our death to self which leads to new life in Christ. That’s the hard human side of salvation.
If you haven’t don’t that.
Maybe trying to save yourself, YOU CAN’T.
Maybe you think you don’t really need God, at least not right now: YOU DO
Come today and give your life to Jesus Christ…He will save you and God will exalt you in due time.
~PRAYER~
COMMUNION
***This communion is open to all who who are in a right standing with God through faith in Christ. You do not have to be a church member, but we do have to be a Christian.***
Invite those to take a piece of bread
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
This bread we are about to eat is not the body of Jesus. It is nothing more than a piece of bread, just like Jesus used on that night at in the Upper Room before His death. It symbolizes His body. Not just that he became a man, but that He became a man to die. His body was bruised and broken for us.
Pray:
Say: Jesus said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me”
Eat the bread
Invite those to come receive a cup
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
This cup represents the shed blood upon the cross. That Jesus humbled Himself to such a point that he shed His own blood to save us. Its this blood that unites us to Christ. Its this blood that unites us together
Pray
Drink the cup
CLOSING PRAYER
