Who Needs You Beside Them? Philippians 1:27-2:4
Notes
Transcript
Subject: Unity
Theme: United in Christ
Thesis: Because we belong to Christ together, we must get ourselves out of the way and strive together for the gospel.
Principle: We reflect Christ’s love when we count others as more significant than ourselves.
Introduction
Introduction
When you see a group picture that you are in, where do our eyes often go first.
Most of us try to find ourselves and then examine how we look.
Was I looking the right way, were my eyes even open, am I smiling?
Twenty other people might look wonderful, but if we don’t like how we look, we might say, “That’s not a very good picture.”
We make a judgment about the whole group based on how things turned out for us.
There’s nothing wrong with looking for yourself in a photograph.
But that habit of making ourselves the starting point follows us into every relationship we have.
How often do our thoughts run first to Did someone notice me? Did I get a chance to speak? Did things go the way I thought they should?
A question I would like to consider this morning -
If someone watched our church for a month, not just coming to church on Sunday, but the way we talk to each other in the parking lot, the way we handle a disagreement, the way we carry someone who's hurting, would they say, "Those people live like their gospel is true"?
That is a question about how the gospel has permeated our lives.
So far in this letter, Paul has been describing how Christ gives purpose to his circumstances, his future, and his service.
He's writing from prison and he is rejoicing.
Instead of complaining, he begins to write about his desire for the Philippians, he writes about their life together.
Background - Philippi is a Roman colony that was very proud of its status.
Extensive archaeological excavations at the Philippi site have uncovered an unusually high density of Latin inscriptions and Roman coinage.
These inscriptions explicitly detail families boasting of their Roman citizenship status, military ranks, and lineage traced back to the original veteran colonists. (World History Encyclopedia)
Many of its people were military veterans.
They knew that citizenship shapes how you live in public.
Paul takes that instinct and redirects it.
Your true citizenship is in Christ.
As such, your belonging to Him must shape your public life together.
So Paul is ultimately asking and answering for the Philippians What does belonging to Christ require of our life together?
Paul expresses in these verses that because we belong to Christ together, we must get ourselves out of the way and strive together for the gospel.
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 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.
1. Strive Together for the Gospel — 1:27
1. Strive Together for the Gospel — 1:27
Verse 27 picks up with the governing command of the verses.
Let your manner of life be worth of the gospel of Christ.
That phrase let your manner of life expresses the idea of living as a citizen.
The Philippians deeply understand citizenship.
Much like we do today.
We understand what it means to be American citizens and the rights that provides us.
But Paul brings the allegiance to something greater than a physical location, he points their to the citizenship in Christ.
The word worthy in this verse can make us feel a little uneasy.
It makes us think of earning and effort, have I done enough.
Paul is addressing people that already belong to Jesus.
Even when we know that though, we still have this feeling like we need to do something.
What Paul is doing here though is calling the church in Philippi to do is to live in a way that corresponds to the grace they have received.
He is not asking for a report about attendance or programs happening in the church.
What he wants hear is that they are standing firm in one, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
That striving is an athletic word, it pictures a team working together to earn the same prize.
The connection then is to how the church is to work together and treat one another, living in a way that matches the grace they have received.
Paul makes this a shared responsibility for them.
He wants to hear that they are standing firm and striving together.
Their strength and effort directed toward a common purpose: the faith of the Gospel.
We see why this matters later in the book when Paul specifically appeals to some women in the church who were apparently feuding - Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord.
These women had worked alongside him for the gospel.
They had shared meaningful ministry, yet their relationship now needed attention.
Past service did not make them immune to present division.
That is a fact that is true for us in the church as well.
Past service does not make us immune to present division.
We can share a history of serving Jesus and still need to learn how to serve together today.
Think about something as simple as cleaning up after a pot-luck.
People step in because they have helped that way before.
There’s room for one person to wash dishes, and someone steps up to the sink.
Another person had planned to do that job, but never said so. Now they feel pushed aside.
The person washing dishes may have no idea anything is wrong.
They saw something that needed doing and started helping. Meanwhile, the other person is thinking, “I wanted to do that. That’s usually my job.”
Neither person came into the kitchen intending to cause a problem.
Both wanted to serve.
But there’s a moment here when we have to ask ourselves: “Am I willing to help wherever I’m needed, even if someone else is doing the job I wanted?”
There are still tables to wipe, leftovers to put away, and trash to carry out.
We can be glad someone is washing the dishes and take our place beside them.
And if we’ve already spoken sharply or made an unfair assumption, we need to own that: “You didn’t know I wanted to do the dishes. I hadn’t told you. I’m sorry for how I responded.”
That is one ordinary way we get ourselves out of the way.
Our shared purpose becomes more important than having our preferred part in it.
The cleanup matters because people matter.
The people serving beside us are brothers and sisters with whom we are called to strive for the gospel.
The next time we serve together, ask: “What needs doing, and how can I help the people already doing it?”
Church life requires that kind of attention.
We bring different abilities, experiences, and concerns.
Our shared commitment to Christ gives those differences a common direction.
Living worthily doesn't purchase our place in Christ.
We're not earning anything here.
It means living consistently with what we've already received.
Our behavior doesn't save us. But it should resemble the Savior who did.
And this establishes what our unity is for.
Getting along isn't the goal in itself. Getting along serves a larger purpose.
Bearing faithful witness to Christ and participating together in His work.
We are not in control, but God is totally in control, and He has put us together for His purposes.
This verse is a reminder to see someone else in the church carrying a responsibility and ask “What is one thing I could do alongside you this week?”
Then do it.
Paul’s concern reaches beyond whether we approve of the gospel being proclaimed. He calls us to take our place beside one another in its work.
Who could serve with greater strength this week because you stepped alongside them?
Application question: Am I sharing in our church’s gospel work, or mainly evaluating whether church meets my expectations?
2. Face Opposition Together — 1:28–30
2. Face Opposition Together — 1:28–30
Knowing what Paul intends, he now moves on to show the circumstances in which they must practice that unity.
Their opponents and suffering are real; standing together will require courage.
The word Paul uses in verse 28 is the idea of being scared or intimidated.
He is saying that he hopes to hear that they are striving together, refusing to let opposition drive them away from Christ.
Standing together will require courage.
And Paul gives us three difficult statements here that each deserve their own space.
First, their steadfastness is a sign.
Some of your translations read this is a clear sign to them of their perdition.
That is a word that we don’t use much anymore.
But I think it’s 14th century definition gives us a fuller understanding of what Paul is trying to communicate.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) Perdition
a archaic: utter destruction
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) Perdition
a: eternal damnation
Paul is interpreting the Philippians persecution that they face in the light of God’s final judgment.
Those opposing Christ may seem to hold the advantage, but their opposition leads toward judgment. God will bring His people to salvation.
And when a believer holds firm under pressure, that endurance gives evidence of salvation.
It does not earn it.
God is the one at work in both.
This gives them confidence without giving them permission to despise their opponents.
This is a direct application of Jesus teaching at the Sermon on the Mount.
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Second, believing and suffering for Christ are both graciously granted.
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
That word "granted" means given graciously with favor, as a gift.
We don’t normally think of suffering as a gift, but Paul reminds the church in Philippi that it is a gift.
We readily thank God for faith. Suffering is harder to receive.
Paul tells them that suffering for Christ belongs within God’s gracious purposes.
Opposition does not mean God has abandoned them.
Their hardship does not mean He has lost control or withdrawn His love.
The same grace that lets you believe is the grace that lets you suffer for His name.
We see this in Acts 5.
After the apostles were beaten and ordered to stop speaking about Jesus, they rejoiced that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name.
Then they continued teaching about Him.
Their joy came from belonging to the Savior for whom they suffered.
Third, they share the same struggle as Paul.
He says, "the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have."
He's saying, you saw me contend for this.
Now it's your turn.
His experience helps them recognize their place in the gospel's ongoing advance.
Think of the setting again - a Roman town, very patriotic, very loyal to the emperor.
An allegiance to Jesus would put these believers at odds with their surrounding community.
We don’t know how they were being persecuted exactly, but the pressure was real.
The enemy's strategy in that pressure is always the same.
He wants us scattered. He wants one person discouraged, another offended, another quietly stepping back.
And suddenly a church that should be standing firm is standing alone.
A question we must ask ourselves is when faithfulness becomes costly for someone in our church, will they find us standing beside them?
Or will they be standing alone?
Paul wanted to see the Philippians, and us in turn standing together as an example of the salvation we share.
3. Live Out What We Share in Christ — 2:1–2
3. Live Out What We Share in Christ — 2:1–2
Chapter 2 takes everything Paul has just said and begins to show how the Philippians how they can do it.
Paul begins by reminding them of what hey already share.
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
That word so that begins the the chapter can also be translated therefore -
Paul goes on to stack realities that they ought to know and have experienced.
If you have experienced these blessings - and the implication is that they have - then let them shape the way you live together.
Encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy.
Paul stacks theses because he is saying, you have experienced these to some degree, now do so more.
If the gospel means anything to you. If Christ has encouraged you. If love has comforted you. If the Spirit has knit you together. If you've known affection and compassion among God's people.
Then complete my joy. Be of the same mind. Have the same love. Be in full accord.
The word participation in participation with spirit is the same Greek word - Koinonia - that Paul used and was translated partnership earlier in chapter 1.
The Spirit who lives in one believer also lives in the believer sitting across the room.
Their connection runs deeper than shared interests or years of attending the same church.
In Ephesians 2, Paul describes how Christ brought Jewish and Gentile believers near to God through His cross.
These were people separated by generations of hostility.
Yet through Christ, both have access to the Father by the same Spirit.
Paul calls them members of God’s household.
If we think about what that means for us.
Do we all have the same personality?
Do we have different opinions?
Do we have different histories that have brought us to where we are today?
Yet each of us approach the same Father through the same Savior.
Each of us depends on mercy we could never earn.
That shared belonging gives us reason to keep moving toward one another.
This is where the root and fruit idea comes in.
As a church, our belonging in Christ is our root.
Our striving together grows from it.
Unity is not manufactured by trying harder to get along.
If comes out of what we already share in Jesus.
A church doesn't accidentally grow in unity, any more than a marriage grows by accident.
A church grows in unity when over time, God's people give themselves to the means He's given.
A husband and wife can live under the same roof, keep up with their responsibilities, and still grow distant.
They have to listen, spend time together, and pay attention to what the other person is carrying.
Sometimes they have to return to a conversation they would rather leave unfinished.
We can attend the same church for years and know surprisingly little about one another. We recognize faces.
We know where people usually sit. But do we know what is weighing on them? What they are thankful for? Where they need encouragement?
Paul reminds us that we share life in Christ.
Growing in that unity means making room for that shared life in our actual schedules.
We gather around God’s Word and allow it to correct our attitudes.
We pray together and learn to carry concerns beyond our own.
We serve alongside one another, share meals, ask questions, and stay long enough to hear the answers.
Think about the difference between hearing that someone needs prayer and sitting beside them while they explain why.
Their concern becomes more personal to you.
You remember it on Tuesday. You ask about it the following Sunday.
Over time, that person learns that when you say you care, you mean it.
Those ordinary acts matter. Through them, the encouragement, love, and compassion Paul describes begin to shape our relationships.
We already see that happening among us.
The invitation is to keep giving ourselves to it—and to make room for people we haven’t yet come to know.
Here is one place to begin this week: before leaving today, speak with someone you don’t usually spend time with.
Ask what you could pray about, and then follow up during the week.
We cannot know everyone equally well.
But each of us can take responsibility for moving toward someone.
The unity Christ calls us to practice needs room in our calendars, our conversations, and our prayers.
Perhaps this week we might choose someone in our church who you don’t know well.
Ask, “What could I be praying about for you?”
Give them time to answer, and pray for that concern during the week.
It is a small way to begin taking your shared life in Christ seriously.
The person you struggle to connect with will have more in common with you in Christ than you have taken time to discover.
4. Count Others Above Yourselves — 2:3–4
4. Count Others Above Yourselves — 2:3–4
Paul shifts even more clearly to the how in verses 3-4.
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.
Three things have to happen for the unity Paul is describing to take shape.
Reject selfish ambition and conceit.
Regard one another with humility.
Give attention to others' interests.
The first is the thing that often poisons many relationships.
Selfish ambition and conceit.
Selfish ambition is the itch to promote yourself.
Conceit is the excessive appreciation of one’s own worth or virtue.
Both of them put me in the center.
And a church full of people with me in the center isn't of one mind.
If we think about it, what are we actually believing when we insist on our own way?
We are believing that our own preference matters more than anyone else.
Again Paul is speaking to a cultural setting.
In Philippi, honor, reputation, and standing were everything.
In Philippi, your standing in the community mattered deeply.
Your family, position, connections, and public reputation influenced how others treated you.
Honor was something people sought and guarded.
Being publicly humiliated—or imprisoned, as Paul was—could bring shame upon you and those associated with you.
Imagine hearing Paul’s instruction in that setting: willingly give others priority.
Take the lower place.
Let their interests carry weight in your decisions.
That challenged much of what their world taught them about getting ahead.
While not in an honor shame sense, our culture bears some similarity.
We may measure our importance through a job title, financial success, or how many people notice what we say online.
Even in church, we can become concerned about whether our contribution is recognized or our opinion carries enough weight.
Sometimes we discover how much recognition matters to us when someone else receives it.
Paul calls us to let Christ reshape what we consider honorable.
That is where he takes us next week.
In Philippians 2:5–11, we will see Jesus take the place of a servant and obey His Father all the way to a shameful death on a cross.
Then God exalts Him.
The One the world humiliated is the Lord before whom every knee will bow.
Paul grounds his call to humility in the Lord we belong to.
As we learn to honor Him, we must reconsider what we admire, what we pursue, and how we treat the people beside us.
After rejecting those, the call is to in humility count others as more significant than ourselves.
The Greek word translated “count” means to consider or regard.
He is asking them to make a deliberate judgment about how they will treat another person.
Their concerns deserve our attention.
Their welfare should carry weight in our decisions.
This doesn’t require pretending that everyone has greater abilities than we do.
Jesus helps us understand that.
In John 13, Jesus knows that the Father has given all things into His hands.
With that knowledge, He gets up from supper, takes a towel, and washes His disciples’ feet.
Afterward, He explains that their Lord and Teacher has given them an example to follow.
Jesus knew exactly who He was.
His greatness was expressed in serving people who could never claim to be greater than Him.
That gives us a way to understand Paul’s command.
We can recognize our responsibilities and abilities while willingly giving ourselves for someone else’s good.
Imagine you had a name tag that said "last." Not "least important", but last in line for my own way. That's the posture Paul is describing.
Verse 4 makes this practical.
Look to the interests of others, not only our own.
It is an intentional look, not a quick glance.
He's saying, reverse the default.
By instinct, I protect my interests first.
The gospel says, no. You have a Savior who "did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."
We will see more of that next week and that is the gospel connection we have to understand.
You can't manufacture this humility by trying harder.
It flows from a Savior who counted you more important than Himself.
When you actually believe that, that the Son of God looked at you and your interests and laid down His life, it changes how you treat the person next to you.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we close our time this morning, we must remember a gospel-worthy life is measured not by how we hold up against the world but by how we hold up one another.
Courage out there. Humility in here.
And they're not two separate lessons. They're one life, lived as citizens of Christ.
At the beginning I mentioned the group picture and I asked where do our eyes normally go.
Most of us try to find ourselves.
As we leave today, I want us to look around this room with a different question: Who needs me beside them?
Someone may be carrying a burden you know little about.
Someone may need your encouragement to remain faithful.
There may be a conversation you’ve been avoiding, an apology you need to make, or work you could help carry.
We can’t respond to every need today.
Take one person seriously enough to move toward them.
Learn what they’re carrying. Take responsibility for your part in a strained relationship.
Offer help you intend to follow through on.
And remember where this begins.
Jesus has already moved toward us in grace.
He gave Himself for our sins, rose again, and brought us into His people.
We approach one another as people who have received mercy and still depend upon it.
If you're here today and you've never turned to Christ, you can't live this way in your own strength.
You need a Savior who did this for you first.
Turn to Him today. Trust Him.
And for the rest of us, let's pray that God would grow us as people who stand firm together and bow low toward one another.
When we recognize selfishness in ourselves, we can confess it.
We can ask Him to change us. By His Spirit, we can learn to love the people He has placed beside us.
Because we belong to Christ together, we must get ourselves out of the way and strive together for the gospel.
Our community needs to hear the good news of Jesus.
And our life together should help people see the love we proclaim.
So give this passage a name—the name of someone you can move toward this week.
Then take that step.
Who needs you beside them—and what will you do about it?
