Philippians 2:1-11 | The Tool That Built the Church

We are continuing in the book of Philippians today

We are in Philippians 2:1-11

We have been looking at this letter that Paul has been writing to the church at Philippi.

Today we are moving into chapter 2 where the theme of the message will shift slightly.

This church building was built in 1890.

In the 1930’s there was a remodel completed that added the woodwork you see today. And I want to share a few excerpts from a book that was written about the history of the church as to the meaning behind much of this.

An immense amount of detail was put into the design of this auditorium. Every corner of the this auditorium was designed to symbolize something.

And it was on October 6th, 1935 that they held the first service in the newly renovated auditorium, which would have been exactly 90 years ago to the date, just a couple weeks ago.

Read the section

Now why am I sharing this. Because this building has been held together and has stood since it was built in 1890, and even the very pulpits, and baptismal, and doors we walk through every Sunday have been used for nearly 100 years.

And the question I want to ask is how.

Now I am not talking about physically how this auditorium has been kept up over the years, because thats easy.

Anyone can take a hammer and put up some new boards or straighten up a door or repair a pulpit.

But it takes something much more significant and strong than just physical repairs to hold a church together for 100 years.

And the tool that's used to do this is what we see described in Philippians 1:1-11

Follow along with me in Philippians 2:1-2

Philippians 2:1–2 NKJV

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy...

Paul starts off by clarifying that there is a divide that is present between the beenfits of unity in christ in the church and in christ himself.

A group of believers who believe the same thing do not make up a church.

You could have 1000 people in a town that beleive the same thing, they all believe in Christ, they all have a desire to live for Christ, but that doesn’t make them a church.

You see within scripture there are what we call conditional and unconditional promises.

Unconditional promises mean that what God says he will do will be done no matter what.

One of the most prominent unconditional promises that we see in scripture is what we could call the Abrahamic covenant

This is the promise that God gave to Abraham in Genesis

Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

Genesis 15:4–6 “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

Genesis 15:18 “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—”

Genesis 17:1–8 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.””

We see with this covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants that there is nothing that could ever be done to change God’s promise.

But then in the book of Exodus we have one of the the most prominent conditional promises in scripture

As the descendents of Abraham have multiplied, they have just left slavery in Egypt and God would give them the law for them to follow.

Exodus 19:5–6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.””

So what do we see here, God makes a conditional promise here that they would not just be his people identity but that they would be made a special treasure above all people, blessed and elevated among others. But this is only dependent on their obedience, which we know they would not beleive.

I share this because there are still certain conditional and unconditional promises that apply to us today in the church.

SOme of these are explicitly stated and some are implied

And on of these implied conditional promises is that the local church whill not just naturally have consolation in christ, and comfot of love, and fellowship of the spirit, and affection and mercy.

Like we unconditionally become part of the family of God when we beleive in christ, but that does not mean we are immediately added to a healthy loving local body of Christ.

But we are promised that the local body of Christ can provide consolation and comfort and love and fellowship, and affection and mercy.

so what is the condition, what do we have to do?

Philippians 2:2 NKJV

fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

So here is the condition, if we want all of these things in a local church, they will not come naturally, we have to do something in return. What do we have to do?

Be Like Minded

Have the Same Love

Be of One accord

Be of One Mind

Now I could go through each of these and explain what they mean but that isn’t really the focus of the passage.

Instead of honing in on each of these specifically instead Paul shift to focusing on the one tool that all of these make up together.

And I think this is important becasue we can overcomplicate the thigns of God and what is required of us to the point that we miss the whole idea.

Living a God honoring life and being part of a God honoring church does not mean learning a massive list of things to do and then checking them off.

That is the mistake that the Israelites made. When they recieved the conditional covenant of the law, instead of seeing the meaning behind it, they focused on the laws themselves, and it ended up drawing them further away from God.

But when Jesus came how did he fix this.

Matthew 22:36–40 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””

Jesus showed how they had missed the whole purpose of the law, and in an effort to keep the law actually ended up breaking it.

And we can make the same mistake today. We can look at scripture and find all of the things we are supposed to do, and maybe we do them, but in the process we end up still disobeying because we miss the whole point.

And instead of narrowing in on each of these specific aspects of unity in the church, Paul under the inspiration of the spirit just clearly narrows it down to one specific tool that all of the make up.

Philippians 2:3–4 NKJV

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Thats’s it?

All we have to do is just put others above ourselves in the church and we will have comfort and fellowship and affection and mercy and all of that, is just put others above ourselves?

Well yeah.

It is really that simple.

And to prove it think through this with me.

Lets look at the list that we have, the results we are looking for.

Consolation (encouragement) in Christ

Comfort coming from the Love of Others

Fellowship with Others in the Spirit

Affection from Others

Mercy from Others

I want you to try and think of thing that could be required to make any of these things present in a church if everyone put each other first above themselves.

If a local church consisted on a group fo beleivers, who each one viewed everyone else in the church obive themselves.

they did nothing through selfish ambition or deceit, they esteemed others better than themselves, and they look out for the interested of everyone else just like they did their own.

If that is the case in a church.....

would you have one another encouraging in Christ

would you have comfort coming from the love of others in the church

would you have fellowship with other beleivers in the spirit

would you recieve affection

would you receive mercy

You see we can focus in all of the specifics of how we get to this place as a church, but in reality we really need to focus on one tool, humility.

Now I want to really emphasize one verse here.

Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit

So if humility is the hammer, this is like the handle. This is the specific way you are using the tool, what you are holding on to to ensure you can do this.

To just say be humble, it can be daunting, so scripture gives us a very clear means of using the tool of humility to make sure we are using the tool to build up instead of tear down.

It’s really simple.

Every time you do something, you say something, you think something, in anything you do ask yourself this question before you do it.

Am i doing this for selfish ambition or conceit

Or an easier way to view it, am I doing this thing to build up myself

When I compliment this person am I doing it only because I want to build them up, or so that people see me or think better of me for doing it.

When I give that money am I doing it only to help out the person or so that people see me do it.

When I raise my hands in worship am I doing it because I am only serving God, or is there a part of me thats wants others to see me.

When I give someone a birthday present am I doing it because I want them to be happy or becasue it makes me feel better?

These are the questions you need to be asking before every single thing do, think, or say.

And its very simple, if the church could hypothetically get to a point where every person did this all of the time, we would have church that is completely united in Christ, comforted in love, fellowshipping in the spirit, affectionate, and offering mercy.

But we know thats impossible right?

I mean there is no way anyone could actually live a life where they used that tool of humility perfectly throughout their entire life?

Well actually there was, and it is only because of that example that we can even comprehend what this looks like.

Philippians 2:5 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

You know as christians we can sometimes just accept defeat.

We can say oh well I am a sinner so its pointless for me to even try to obey.

If thats the case then why do we have a command like we do in Philippians 2:5 that tells us to have the same mind of humility that Jesus had if it wasn’t possible.

You see here is the interesting paradox for the beleiver.

We will never have the same mind that Christ had in his humilty, but it is possible that we could.

How do I know that, becasue nobody is forcing us to be sinners.

Nobody forces us to sin and disobey.

Now we won’t obey, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.

So when we see commands like this that we know will not happen, that we could actually have the same humility that christ has, that shouldn’t mean we see it as being impossible.

But even this can be a little vague. Like what does that mean to have the mind of humility that Christ has?

Well he tells us...

Philippians 2:6–8 NKJV

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

This is the gospel.

If you have every been confused as to what the gospel is, here it is.

Jesus, who was God, came to earth as a man, and humbled himself of the expressions of his deity. He takes on the from of a servant, while still being God and never ceasing to be God, he comes 100% as a man, and becomes a servant to man.

And then he shows the ultimate expression of humility by lowering himself below the worst sins ever commited against God, and he dies for those sins, even though he was without sin.

That is what the humble mind of Christ looks like

And you say Zach there is no way I could have that mind, that level of humility, let alone every person in the church have that level of humility.

Actually there is a way, but its not through us.

You see the believer is never expected to just become holy.

We can’t. We are incapable.

God is so holy and we are so unholy, that we will never be able to be seperated from sin enough on our own to even be worthy to be in his presence.

So do we just give up?

Well you see there is a level of humilty that God has that is rarely looked at.

Did you know the very nature of God himself is humility.

How so?

God is three in one.

The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit

The very nature of the purpose of the Son and Holy Spirit is humility.

Without humility there is no purpose for a son, one who comes to mankind to serve as the intercessor between God and man.

Without humility there is no purpose for the spirit, the one who dwells within believers to actually give us the ability to live more and more like Christ and live more and more with his humility.

And what purpose is there for a father with no children.

The entire fabric of who God is, is humility.

And that should be a humbling thought.

God did not just decide one day he is going to try and become more humble

We do not have a God who being greater than everyone and everythign else, eventually decides to love more.

We have a God who before the foundations of the earth we even set, and mankind had even been created, before time itself even existed.....

portrayed humility even in the very fabric of his being

A father, a sacrifical son, and an indwelling spirit, made up God, before there was even anyone else to offer humility to. Why?

Becasue God doesn’t just show love. He is love.

Humility isn’t something God shows, it is who he is.

And you say well why? For what reason would God be humble?

And the answer to that is..… we don’t know, or more accurately we couldn’t understand it if we did.

It’s kinda like asking the question why are trees made of wood. Becasue thats just what they are. Nothing made the tree become wood, thats just what trees are.

But then we end this section with what I think is the clearest picture of the results of humility we could get.

Philippians 2:9–11 NKJV

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You see showing humility does not mean that the person is actually lower than the other, in just one case.

Because as sinful man, nobody is greater than another.

We may offer honor for a position or something someone has done, but when it comes before their standing in Christ, we are all the same.

So when it tells us to to esteem others better than ourselves, that is becasue nobody is better than another.

Except for one.

The one who we are supposed to have the same mind of humility as, he was the only one who actually was greater than the rest, and he showed he greatest humility.

And I think it would do us good to remember this as we look at others and think well its hard to show them humility becasue I am just so much better than them.

Well just be thankful Jesus didn’t look at you the same way.

And then strive to have his mindset instead of yours.

Because you will stand before the one who gave himself for you, in complete humility, and you will confess that he is Lord.

And you will one day finally have that mind of Christ, and you will realize just how great he is, and how much he loved others, and just how little we are when we stand before him and finally see what that mind looks like in person.

And what that mind looks like is a lamb of God, killed for sins he did not commit, ruling over all mankind.

You see this church building has lasted 90 years and nearly every one of those serving as a church, not becasue of a physical tool, but becasue of a strong use of the tool of humility.

Yes physical tools and service, and learning about God can keep the walls up for a little while, but the only tool that will build a church and keep it as strong as it has always been, is when the tool of humility is put to use. But not some weak tool of our own strenght, but the tool of humility that Jesus used.

Because he being God, the one who was most worthy chose to become the least—and in doing so, showed us how to build and be a part of something so much greater than ourselves.