...from being united with Christ

Philippians 2:1–13 NIV

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

If there is any encouragement

So what were the Philippians looking for when they gathered? Is church mainly a gathering to be affirmed? Is it a place to get attention? Is it a place to sit back and be critical? Is it a place to be right? How did they view each other? Another question might be: how do they view EVERYONE in the church? It’s common for human beings to have a few favorite people. These people can do no wrong in our eyes. We have decided they are essential in our lives. We want to affirm them and we want to be affirmed by them. But it can be for entirely selfish reasons. Anyone else is just furniture in the room. Notice them sometimes. Say hi if it seems socially like you have to. But there’s no chance you will let them into your life. You will keep them at arms length and feel free to criticize. In fact, by criticizing them you give yourself a reason not to know or love them. They aren’t worthy.

Folks, that’s not the church. That’s a bunko group or a golf league. These are humanistic, maybe even selfish reasons for gathering. The church is called to be more than this. And the church is for everyone who has confessed their sins and committed to following Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:16 NIV

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

So when Paul writes:

Philippians 2:1 NRSV

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,

He’s giving us clues what Christian community is supposed to be about. It’s not about complimenting someone because you think they’re cute. It’s about giving proper encouragement in Christ to anyone. It’s consoling those dealing with loss. It’s about realizing any spiritual presence in my life comes from God who is active in the lives of others also. Even some I don’t think about that way very often. Compassion and sympathy are not what we offer to our favorites. That’s something else entirely. It’s not compassion or sympathy unless we are out of our comfort zone. So let these words mess with you a little this morning, especially if church has just become a comfortable old blanket for you.

Make my joy complete

Spiritual leaders long to see people flourishing together in God. It gives them joy to see people pulling for each other and blessing and serving each other. I could sense this growing up and reflected on it a lot when I was a student in college. One of my first sermons was in Chapel at Mid America Nazarene University.

It was on this Psalm:

Psalm 133 NIV

A song of ascents. Of David. 1 How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. 3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

I realized that the psalmist was telling us to Do the Dew, which was a Mountain Dew Soda commercial at the time, lol. After that sermon, Do the Dew meant to live together in unity. We even had some spontaneous praise gatherings and prayer meetings on campus. The bond of love held many of us together in wonderful way. Those were great days.

I’m glad that i have those experiences from college and some similar ones from the church I grew up in. So I know this kind of unity and humility when I see it. And things seem out of tune when I don’t see it.

It’s so easy to lose sight of this and settle into patterns that can spoil relationships in the church family.

"Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?" John Wesley

You might have an opinion about something. There is a time and a place for opinions. But part of coming together as the body of Christ is celebrating how God is working in each of our lives. Are there any boundaries? Sure, if someone is celebrating the suffering of others, we shouldn’t tolerate that.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit

This is practical instruction by Paul. We are wise to take it to heart. But another thing that happens a lot at church is we hear something and it sounds really good. It makes us feel better just to think these profound thoughts. But it’s really hard to change human behavior. The best among us are challenged if we are completely honest. So we need to check our motives. We need to really consider that we may need to change patterns. Trade old worn out ways of relating to others. Give things a fresh start while we still can.

Philippians 2:3–4 NIV

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In humility, value others above yourselves. That’s really hard to do. Sometimes it involves accepting things that aren’t your favorite. Sometimes it just involves zipping your lips. But it’s not just a nice sounding set of words. This is what the Word of God calls us to do and to live out. It always involves looking for the good in others and affirming their efforts for good.

The FIRST Christian hit song?

In this next section, Paul appears to be quoting an early Christian hymn. There are those who try to say the idea of Jesus dying on the Cross being important was added decades or hundreds of years later. That’s hogwash and this proves it. Just a few years after the resurrection this song had been written and passed around and sang enough that people would recall it when he quoted it.

But this also proves that just singing a song doesn’t mean we get the truth deeply embedded in our lives. Here he quotes it in the midst of talking to a loving and caring church that had begun to disagree about things. It was threatening to undermine God’s work among them. People were thinking about themselves and forgetting about the mission they had been given.

Philippians 2:5–9 NIV

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

Here is a hymn that describes the great self-emptying of Jesus. And the great benefit that flowed to us as a result! Jesus showed us an example that we just can miss. Remember last week when I talked about looking to Jesus on the Cross and trusting in him? That we could learn so much about the terrible cost of sin and about the love of God for us?

Yeah? Well this week we take that same beautiful image and we rotate it a few degrees. Now we can see the full beautiful arc of all that it cost Jesus to be in that position.

He begins in the full glory of the throne of God. But he sees the great need and doesn’t hold on to his glory. He lets it go. Isn’t that beautiful? He becomes a servant. There was a task to do. Now how does the trinity fully operate in detailed way? Only God knows. Father, Son and Holy Spirit make up the full complexity of God. The Son sees the need and says: I’ll go. So even as he is part of the godhead, becomes a servant to the mission the trinity could see was necessary. To anyone else it would seem like mission: impossible.

Go into a world full of complexities and brokenness where no one will fully appreciate what you are doing. Give your life in service and in teaching. Then give your life literally on the cross. And Jesus says: sure, I’ll do it. Don’t you love him for it?

And although he knew how it was supposed to work out there were going to be moments where he would wonder if it would work. I mean he was certainly doing his part, but would any of his followers get it? Would they help or hinder him? These were risks he took. But Jesus knew his Old Testament. We were reading through 1 Kings in the TLC prayer group that meets by zoom and phone on Wednesday nights. This week we read about old Elijah that great prophet of God’s people. At one point he was sure he was the only one trying and he was ready to give up and die. But God said, no, keep it up. You’re not the only one. Lot’s of good people are holding on to faith and obedience.

So Jesus saw it all the way through. He came in human form. Now it’s important to point out that this is not saying that Jesus only appeared to be human. He’s referring more to the life of being in a human body. Others could see him and would see him only as a man. So there would not be the automatic respect and authority among others. And we know now that it did work out that way. The very religious leaders who should have embraced him kept him at arms length or worse supported the idea of putting him to death to get him out of the way. What a savior. What humility.

Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters The Mind of the Messiah (Philippians 2:5–11)

This is a God who is known most clearly when he abandons his rights for the sake of the world. Yes, says Paul; and that’s ‘the mind of Christ’, the pattern of thinking that belongs to you because you belong to the Messiah (verse 5). And if you are truly living in him and by his kind of life, the exhortations of verses 1–4 may suddenly make a lot more sense.

But let’s not lose track. He was before, was while on earth, and is now still God. He’s the Lord Jesus. So these aren’t suggestions Paul is making. We can choose to bow to Jesus now. We can choose to confess that he is Lord. It’s a great way to live. One day we will have to and we don’t want that to be a painful day. Because after he emptied himself God the Father lifted him up again to his former glory. Only now his glory has love written all over it. A Glory that is born of humility and humble service.

Philippians 2:10–11 NRSV

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So let’s go back where we started.

Philippians 2:1–4 NRSV

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be 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 regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Is this how we are thinking about others in the church lately? Is this the pattern of our lives? Don’t be thinking about anyone else but how you’ve been doing and what the Holy Spirit might have to say today.

Do you want to know a secret to a happier life in the end? Be willing to be uncomfortable in God’s presence and in your life in the church. I’m going to say that again: Be willing to be uncomfortable in God’s presence and in your life in the church. If you’re praying and it’s uncomfortable, that doesn’t mean it’s not God. In fact, it means that you are getting closer to God and sometimes now he trusts you with guidance that says: it’s time to change. It’s time to live closer to God. It’s time to love others more. It’s time to step up your game in Jesus. It’s time to move into maturity.

So many people run from a challenge or any discomfort. They seeking a false sense of peace and continue to lack wisdom across the years of life. Sometimes we have to realize “they” is actually “me”. As hard as it may be, it’s the gateway to new growth and new life in Jesus. He showed us the way. Will we let him guide us in walking in that way? The Way of Jesus.

Let’s pray.