Gospel realities

Intro: John Harper was a Pastor and evangelist from Glassco Scottland. He was invited to spend 3 months in Chicago at Moody Church. He spoke, taught, shared the Gospel. His wife had died, so after 3 months, he goes home to care for his daughter. Moody invited him to come back! So, John, his sister, and his six-year-old daughter found themselves on ship, heading back to the US, a ship named the Titanic. On a cold Sunday night in April 1912, the world’s most famous ship struck an iceberg. But amidst the chaos, a story emerged that redefines how we view "worth" and "citizenship". John had every reason to seek his own comfort—he was a widower and a father with a first-class ticket that guaranteed him a seat on a lifeboat. Instead, he gave up his place to ensure his daughter and others were safe. As the ship lurched into the icy Atlantic, Harper didn't scramble for self-preservation. Harper ran along the decks pleading with people to turn to Christ, and with the ship sinking, he called upon the Titanic’s orchestra to play, "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Gathering people around him on deck, he then knelt down, and "with holy joy in his face" raised his arms in prayer. As the ship began to lurch, he jumped into the icy waters and swam frantically to all he could reach, telling ALL- turn to the Lord Jesus and be saved. Four years later, a young Scotsman by the name of Aguilla Webb stood up in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and gave the following testimony: I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’ The waves bore him away; but, strange to say the waves brought him back a little later, and he said, ‘Are you saved now?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I cannot honestly say that I am.’ He said again, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ Shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.

Why would a man do this? When every instinct screams for self-preservation, would someone choose a "path of most resistance"? The answer lies in understanding what we were made for.  We were not made for ourselves, You were made for God—to know Him and enjoy His glory. Without that connection, we all carry an "infinite glory vacuum" in our souls. When we turn away from God, we become: Cosmically Insecure: Always starving for purpose and validation. We argue, and fight, because we all want our own significance. John Harper could face the icy waters with "holy joy in his face" because his glory vacuum had been filled by the "infinite, blazing beauty of God". He was living as a citizen of a different kingdom. Today, we ask a simple question- Is Jesus everything?

Paul has made it clear. the normal Christian life involves dying continually to comfort, ease, worldly success, cynicism, and despair, and finding true life in repentance, love, humility. The church at Philippi was living sacrificially, living generously, and it cost then. But it revealed their grasp of perspective. FAITH PRODUCES COURAGE, AND COURAGE DISPLAYS YOUR DESTINY.  What if you knew that you were about to suffer like Paul, would you stick around?If you knew the ship was sinking, how would you act? Well…is Jesus everything? . Its gift that God moves us out of comfort and complacency and into growth. It’s a GRACE to suffer like Jesus. God suffered on your account as the greatest expression of love. Its then a privilege, a gift, an expression of undeserved kindness, that I, in my life, can do the same for sake of CHRIST. If our Christianity is comfortable, we should question our Christianity." But we are in this together, and community is forged from shared suffering. Suffering for Christ, with His people transforms us. Chains do not decide the story. Jesus does. Every millisecond of our pain from fallen nature—is producing  glory that you GET as a GIFT….and that’s hard to see, which is why the most first gift—IS FAITH. Its faith that changes how you respond in pain. Paul wants to encourage this rag tag church, and the rag tag Romans living in province of the Roman kingdom, under the rule of the Roman emperor. And Paul is urging them to live Gospel Lives. He wants them to strive together and experience what they were created for.

1.V1-2: The "if" in Philippians isn’t a question of doubt; it is a declaration of certainty. Since we have received the Gospel, everything changes.The Gospel is the "Good News" of Jesus in our place: He was treated as a rebel so that we could be treated as royalty. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your performance; He sees the perfect life of Jesus. This is the restoration of the peace that was lost—the bridge connecting the Creator back to His creation. While the world measures success by "radical comfort," the Gospel defines worth through the supremacy of Christ. This perspective is fueled by Faith, the first and most vital gift. Faith Produces Courage: It is faith that allows us to stand firm when comfort is stripped away. Courage Displays Destiny: that Christ is more valuable than our circumstance, and we are citizens of another KINGDOM. UNITED- one spirit, one mind, one accord. We are not a contractual club, but a conventional community! This supernatural unity is the ultimate demonstration of the Gospel’s worth. In light of ALL OF THIS TRUTH—it brings me joy to see you walking in these Gospel wrought incentives. Encouragement in Christ: FULLNESS from His finished work. IN CHRIST- transformative state of literally being surrendered TO Jesus in every facet. IN CHRIST- is our wisdom, discernment, defense, protection. IN CHRIST- a spiritual covering for all of life’s necessities. Christ has made us right again. Our sins are forgiven. In Christ means all that He is and all that He did is credited to us. YOU ARE SAVED BY GRACE, THROUGH FAITH- this is an encouragement… that illicit-  Comfort from Love: Solace, peace found in His grace. Participation in the Spirit:“participation”: koinonia. This bond is not by association: It isn’t just saying, "We attend that church. “It is not consumption. Real koinonia is a locked-arm, intentional devotion. It is "mutual in-Christness", where everything is sacrificed for the sake of the Gospel. Shared life in the SPIRIT. Affection: Deep-seated care for one another. Sympathy: A heart that moves toward others. LOVES THAT seeks nothing in return.  These are GOSPEL realities of a Gospel Life. Each of these remove our bent toward individualism. Each reality removes our desire to satisfy our desires with anything other than the good that God has promised. Each one removes our desire for self made glory. It calls out of the silos and into circles. Notice, the unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Lydia, the demon girl, and jailer were unique, different individuals, different experiences. "What holds a community together is a centered on the same Gospel realities. Its why I don’t hold the world to Gospel standards, instead, I RAN AROUND screaming- are you saved?!!! I give them my lifejacket. Paul is saying that what holds the community together is not personality or preference or position. It is shared allegiance to an orientation towards King Jesus. But what’s our bend?

V3-4: What’s our bend- selfish ambition, WHY vain conceit. The What- selfish ambition. RIVARLY.  (eritheia in the Greek) is this idea -"What's in it for me?" Selfish ambition puts me at the center of I see and perceive everything! If we have done an honest introspection, this is not an uncommon sin. In the end, selfish ambition and conceit come from the idolatrous belief that we are due more than we have received and that we’re worthy of more honor than we’re getting. This is the original sin. When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve, he did it ultimately with self-exaltation: “You will be like God,” he said. And every moment we operate out of selfish ambition and conceit, every time we think of ourselves as better than others or look only to our interests, we are essentially saying, “I am God. Human beings are hungry for glory; weight; worth. WE WANT TO BE KNOWN, HAVE GLORY. Our greatest fear isn’t being hated or opposed, it’s being ignored. We feel small; we act big. We feel marginalized; we push to the center. We feel really temporary, so we try to make ourselves last. Things go wrong or people mistreat us and we take it personally. If someone snubs us, we go totally ballistic, because deep down- it’s dented our glory. We instinctively long for the glory we once had in The Garden. There’s now an instability in our hearts. We feel small & insignificant; so we manufacture glory… SIN IS rejecting and replacing GOD. We reject and replace God, with ourselves. we’ve put ourselves on the throne. We self-protect from this by watering down the confession of PRIDE. We were not created for our own sake, We were crafted for God—to know Him intimately and to find our joy in His glory. Our “glory vacuum" can only be filled by infinite beauty of God. We talk about the glory of God, and I think its sometimes hard to connect the dots. What is about Gods glory that draws us in and causes us to conquer our sins and makes us radiant people? I want to challenge us- seeing Gods greatness is not our deepest need. Its seeing His goodness.

In Gods GREATNESS, —We might fear Him, Fear of a powerful Judge can force a person to comply, but it can never force a person to love.despite knowing God is big; we see the Judge, but we haven't seen the Savior. The "covenant" life of worth happens when we move from seeing God’s power to seeing His beauty. One glimpse of the moral and spiritual glory of God does what logic and fear cannot. Everything changes when we get a glimpse of the "supreme worth of Jesus Christ" When this beauty fills the "glory vacuum," our need for validation and self exhalation dies.

Because we are fully approved in Christ, we no longer need to fight others for external value / respect. Our worth is redefined—IN CHRIST. We stop seeing discomfort as a metric of failure and start seeing it as a platform to exalt the One who is truly supreme. Like John Harper on the Titanic, we can face the "icy waters" of life with holy joy because we aren't starving for earthly praise; we are feasting on heavenly glory.

Once the heart is inclined toward Christ by His beauty, the five incentives Paul mentions—encouragement, comfort, participation, affection, and sympathy—are no longer chores to perform. They are the natural overflow of a soul that is no longer "cosmically insecure". We can finally love others with the "same mind and same love" because our own "glory vacuum" has been filled to the brim by the Spirit.If Christ is our supreme worth, then our focus shifts from "Me" to "Him" and "Them"…and its pride that prevents this reality. PRIDE- Pride is the first sin that ever entered the universe and the last sin to be rooted out.” It’s the sin that made the devil the devil.  Its become easy for us to say – I struggle with pride, because we don’t know the next step of accountability. That confession is empty because its met with – yeah, we all do… NEXT. But living WITH CHRIST AS SUPREME WORTH. Is saying this isn’t about ME!!! We asked last week- If your prayers were answered, who would benefit? If you're the only one who benefits from your actions, you've lost your purpose. SO HOW do we fight? The question, is found in the word Paul uses- count. The point was not what others are. The point is what you count others to be. Will you count them as worthy of your help and encouragement? Not are they worthy? But will you count them as worthy? Will I serve their needs above mine?

Illustration: Anyone go to Walmart this week? How do we do with this?!! IN HUMILITY- were others seen more significant than ourselves? Judging by the in fighting I witnessed at Walmart, I would say no. Paul challenges us not just to ask if others are "worthy" of our help, but to count them as worthy regardless. We fight our pride and entitlement through lowliness and humility. The word “interests” is a filler, it’s open-ended. Let each of you look not only to: YOUR OWN: financial affairs, property, family, health, reputation, education, or your own success, happiness — die to those desires, BUT LOOK  to the financial affairs,property,family,health, reputation, education, success, and happiness of others.” In other words, verse 4 is a way of saying the words of Jesus, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39). That is, make the good of others the focus of your interest, strategy and work. Find your joy in making others joyful, that is the preservation, and demonstration of GODS beauty. The next section is one of the clearest, purest for of the Gospel.

V5-8: You don’t have conjure up this mindset. Its yours IN CHRIST. This is the hinge of the entire letter. IN CHRIST YOU HAVE THIS MINDSET… Think about this. There's no other place in the Bible where you can get insight into the mind of Christ. Everywhere else in the Bible we have the actions of Jesus described and depicted, but what Paul says here is actually giving you insight into the why behind what Jesus did. We have that same mind.

Think about this for a second. What if Christ had pursued a life of ascent and not descent? If Christ had considered His own personal desires, His own selfish ambitions, operated in vain conceit. We would be in our sins without any hope. BUT HE descended to us. Our nature is bent towards self exaltation, our desire is to be like God.  Though we were not equal with God, we counted equality with God something to be grasped. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, and stepped out from under God’s ultimate authority in their life, they wanted to be counted equal with God. BUT now, incarnate God, Jesus, who IS GOD, does we could not, and did not do. He came to be the perfect Adam. Though Jesus was equal, He let go of equality with God. He became a servant. He took a lower position. What were grasping for in the Garden, He let go of it. He emptied HIMSELF, so we could be filled. “[he] made himself nothing” His divine nature never left him, but he added to his divine nature his humanity. He did not use his deity for his own benefit. That's what the word grasped means. It means he didn't utilize it. He didn't assert his deity ever in order to escape the troubles of the human condition. NOW- He did not give up the qualities and attributes of His deity: Jesus made himself nothing not by subtraction but by addition.

He made himself nothing—not by the subtraction of His divinity but by the addition of His humanity. his passage, you also see what's known as kenosis, the Greek word kenoó, the emptying of Himself. Jesus, who was fully God, pushed aside His powers. The most powerful King did not use what was available to Him to free himself, but rather He used it to serve. For the eternal God to come and walk the streets of Judea, to be spat upon by humanity, in the making of Himself nothing, it was not that He was giving up divinity, but it was that He was taking to Himself humanity. B. B. Warfield, the great theologian, says, “The Lord of the world became a servant in the world; He whose right it was to rule took obedience as His life-characteristic.He would take upon our suffering, our powerlessness, our humiliation, our small stature. He then would live in humble obedience, obedience even to the point of death. His emptying of Himself, not an emptying of divine attributes, but an emptying of privilege or comfort . Jesus’s emptying here, Paul says, was not a losing but a taking: “taking the form of a servant.” He humbled HIMSELF- What did Jesus’s self-humbling involve? Obedience. What we could not. Jesus, as man, obeyed God. This humanity of Jesus, wanted to avoid death, avoid bearing our sin (having none of his own), and feeling forsaken by His Father, He prayed in the garden, “not my will, but yours, be done” He was obedient. He endured. He didn’t hit eject when obedience got hard. Adam grasped for God’s glory; Jesus relinquished God’s glory...trusting God to give it to Him again. Can you imagine how hard that must have been? I Can’t even surrender the rights I THINK I have (& really don’t). We were owed hell, but we got heaven. Jesus found His name by losing it. Jesus got up by going low. Jesus got is identity through service. He came and lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should’ve died. He came and took and showed us what it means to be a human being.  He relates in every way that you have. He knows how hard it is to trust the Father, but here's the thing: Jesus knew the truth. He knew the song of the goodness of the Father…so good that he, in his perfect eternal state, loved people so much he would humble himself this way to redeem them. Christ is the Great High Priest who embraced humiliation and powerlessness so that when we embrace humiliation and powerlessness He meets us there. He knows hurt, betrayal, death, sadness. HE FELT ALL THAT YOU FEEL., BUT NOT IN selfish ambition and conceit, RATHER IN LOVE, in service, in humility, HE COUNTED others more important than Himself.

He did not utilize His own rights, He did not assert His own power—instead- Here is my life jacket. The readers of this letter would be astonished at this wording. Philippi is largely ex soldiers- patriotic nationalist. Roman zealots. Ceasar was worth dying for. Rome was the kingdom. Paul says- it’s a fleeting kingdom, There's a King of Kings who died for ME.T his King saved me. His name is Jesus, If it is true that Christ is God and he did that for me, then no response to that is ridiculous.

V9-11: This isa all actually a worship song that would be sung during this time. In that first section, there's this low, He lowered Himself, and then this next section it's high. The exaltation of Christ. Paul is throwing back to Scriptures he knows, like Isaiah 52:13: "See, my servant will be raised and lifted high and highly exalted." Isaiah 45:23: "By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone are deliverance and strength.'"Paul  looking back and saying, "See. Jesus was this. Fulfillment. This GOD in indescribable love became a man and let man who He created, who He had power and sovereignty over, spit at Him, reject Him, mock Him, call Him a lunatic, call Him a demon, and nail Him to a cross like He had no power, because He knew that in letting them do that He would die a sinner's death so He could pay a sinner's debt and sinners set free.Everyone will acknowledge this GOSPEL reality at some point.  Sometimes we call people nonbelievers, and that is not a biblically accurate term. There is no such thing as a nonbeliever. What we should call people is a "not yet" believer. The whole world is brought into submission to the Son. Not universal salvation, but every personal being will ultimately confess Christ’s lordship, either with joyful faith or with resentment and despair. If that’s true… THEN EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIFE, EVERY GOSEPL REALITY OF LIFE IS SCREAMING OUT-- Man,’ ‘Are you saved?’…living with the proof of Gods love in JESUS, and a purpose of Gods love, In Jesus. We were dead in a icy waters of sin and death, and our Savior, TOOK off His robe of righteousness, and gave it to us… not to make us better, but to MAKE US NEW. If Jesus hasn't changed your everything, you don't know Jesus.

CLOSING: What is this passage teaching us? It's teaching us that the cross comes before the crown. Suffering comes before glory. God's relentless pursuit to meet us in the grave and raise us to new life in Christ. One of the greatest dangers to your discipleship, I'm absolutely convinced, is expecting the crown before the cross. One of the greatest dangers to your discipleship is to expect glory before glory is here. That's exactly what Jesus' disciples were expecting. "We just want to reign and rule with you at your right and your left. We're expecting glory now." But Jesus says, "You have no idea what kingdom citizenship is…. You cant graps YET, what is about to happen. That’s why Im going to a place you cant go. Stepping into our death, He takes off His royal robe, places it on your body, takes off His crown and places it on your head… SO THAT YOU MAY LIVE!! THAT POWER LIVES IN YOU. THAT’S NOT WEAKNESS…BUT STRENGTH. In this mind of humility, we embrace suffering, powerlessness, and humiliation because we’re citizens of another kingdom. We are raised up out of the grave, with new life, exalted, but the cross comes before the crown. Christ used ALL HE HAD TO SERVE, and GET TO DO THE SAME. The application of humility is service. If we're the only ones who benefit from all we have, we've missed out on our purpose. Freely you have been served, freely serve. IS JESUS YOUR EVERYTHING? The world had 3 reactions. Hated him and tried to kill him, afraid and ran, OR GAVE their life to Him. There has never been a neutral/ moderate reaction to Jesus.