The Unifying Messiah

Hello from the Butterfield Family

I’m really sad that I’m not able to be here with you guys this morning.

But, here we are.

This is how we love well, if we think we may be carrying, we stay home.

I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving and were able to really think about all that you have to be thankful for.

I was sharing with the kids on Thursday a thought that came to me while I was getting the smoker going for our turkey.

Normally, when I want to go smoke something, I go scavenge in the yard for whatever limbs have fallen recently and I’m limited to that.

Not this year, I had a massive woodpile to choose from and had my pick of red or white oak and even a large amount of hickory.

As I was getting the fire going, I was reflecting on this year and all the work that my family has put into cleaning up from these storms.

It was because of those storms that I had all this great wood available though.

I shared with the kids that God reminded me once again that He uses the difficult to make great things.

We used that wood to make an amazing turkey and pork loin.

I have no doubt that God will also use this time in the life of our body.

As I said yesterday in my Facebook post, how ironic it is that the first week that Glen is gone, I have to quarantine?

So, it is up to you guys to be the people that God intends for you to be.

All of us are the church, together, obeying God.

I’m also excited to begin this study along with our brothers and sisters at TGP Wardville and TGP Kolin.

I want to begin today by reading our passage together.

Because you are watching me on the screen, we won’t have the verses up here.

So go ahead and open up your bible or app and join me as we look at Philippians 2:1-11.

There is also an interactive outline that is available in the FaithLife App which will also have the scriptures if you would like to follow along that way.

As you are getting that ready, I will remind you that Paul is writing this letter from a prison in Rome.

Paul writes this letter to the church in Philippi to encourage them and to give them evidence of what a healthy, Christ-centered church looks like.

There are warmth and gentleness in his words and it is my hope that you experience the same today.

Our goal in this study is to see that there are none that compare to Christ.

He is like no other and deserves all glory and praise from His people.

Let’s look at Paul’s words together this morning.

Philippians 2:1–11 CSB

1 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. 5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Let’s start with the first four verses this morning.

Over the last few years, we have studied the many years' worth of the history of God’s people.

We have been reminded over and over, that the goal of God has been to restore His relationship with His people.

What we also know is that the key to that restoration has come.

Christ's birth is what we are celebrating, but in celebrating His birth, I want us to also understand His life and purpose.

Since the entrance of sin, people have been separated from God, and we have struggled in how we live in relation with each other.

There is a very specific reason that Paul writes these first four verses to the church at Philippi.

He wants them to understand something that is key to our faith.

Unity has been brought to the world through Christ.

Prior to Christ coming, there was no unity among God’s people.

Christ did what no prophet or priest could ever do, He unified his people through love.

Look at these verses again with me as if Paul wrote this to us here at TGP.

Philippians 2:1–4 CSB

1 If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

In verse one, he is telling the church that if we have or experience any of these then we are capable of the following things.

It is the Spirit that does the work, but we have to obey His leading.

This leading and following are how we were created to live in a relationship with God and one another.

I’ll be honest with you guys, I was a bit panicked when I realized that I was going to miss these first two Sundays.

The reason is that I don’t allow myself to trust others with the responsibility of our church.

Yes, I am responsible for certain aspects, but because of my pride and various other things, I fear that it won’t happen if I’m not here.

Obviously, this is an issue, because God doesn’t need me to accomplish anything.

It is Him working through me and he is capable of working through anyone.

It has been so sweet for me these last few days to be reminded of the amazing, loving, people that we have.

There is no logical reason for me to panic.

The same Holy Spirit that lives in me also lives in you.

My pride gets in the way of me letting the church be the church.

I believe that God has provided TGP West with an opportunity to experience a reliance on Him instead of what we bring to the table.

There may be some areas of responsibility that God is getting me out of the way.

I don’t know what those areas are right now, but the Holy Spirit will reveal those things in His timing.

What I do know is that there is no need that exists that God cannot use our membership to meet.

When we all understand that, we can move forward into what God has for us.

This church is not about Will and it isn’t about you individually.

God has called us to be a people that pursue and obey Him.

We see Paul telling the church in Philippi the same thing.

Paul is reminding the church that they must continue on with the same mind as Christ, love like Christ, united in the Spirit, with one purpose.

We will get to that one purpose in a minute.

I want us to see the importance of living, not for ourselves, but for others.

This is the example of Christ.

This is what people see when they read the word.

This is what we see when we look at the new testament church.

If we are going to be a church that leads others to know God, we must live as Christ lived.

Any part of us that gets in the way of that, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse from us.

Christ uses our lives to show the world just how amazing He is.

Christ revealed the heart of God by humbling Himself.

Our example is Christ, not some Americanized version of Christ.

Look with me again at Paul’s words.

Philippians 2:5–8 CSB

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

It’s Christmas time and the whole world knows it.

What does the world really know of the Christmas story?

They know that Christ was born.

In a manger?

With shepherds and farm animals?

No room in an inn?

Angels sang?

Wise men brought gifts?

These are things we typically focus on, but what does that tell the world about this Messiah that came to save all of humanity?

This is not what Christmas is about!

Christmas is about God sending a savior to free us from slavery to sin and death.

Yes, it is a celebration of Christ's birth, but not just that He was born.

We celebrate what Jesus sacrificed for the sake of his beloved!

Now that is not a word we used often.

Beloved - to love something dearly.

He loved us so dearly that he was willing to give up His station of God, to be humbled down to the level of His creation, so that he could serve us, be like us, and ultimately give His life to save ours.

This is what we are celebrating!

God loved us enough to give up everything to save us.

You guys know the saying, Christ is the reason for the season?

I really don’t like that phrase.

It makes me feel nauseated.

I never really knew why until I was thinking about this passage.

It is an attempt to plaster Christ name onto a commercialized holiday.

It bothers me because it is degrading the name of Christ in order to make us feel better about how we culturally celebrate Christmas.

The problem isn’t the gifts, the trees, or the lights.

The problem is us.

We have lost the awe and wonder that is due to this miracle that God came to save us.

When we think about Christmas and read of it in scripture, we should be left speechless because of the love that God has for us.

When we read this story, the first miracle we see shouldn’t be a virgin birth, angels in the sky, or wise men following a star.

This first miracle we should see is that God chooses to save us!

Philippians 2:8 CSB

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

This!!! This is what we are celebrating.

We were dead in our transgressions and Christ came to save us!

Romans 5:12–17 CSB

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the Christmas story we should be telling.

The gift that we are all given is eternal life.

We have been given this gift through the birth of our Messiah.

A few years ago, Bethany, the kids, and I were doing a family devotion that Glen sent to the families.

We read the Christmas story, but it didn’t stop there, it continued on through the gospel revealing to the kids, the reason that Jesus came.

In reading that devotion and discussing it, Luke realized that he needed Jesus.

He realized that he was a sinner in need of a savior.

We talked through it and he decided that he wanted to pray to receive Christ as his savior!

There is no better Christmas present than to enter into a relationship with a God that loves you.

This is the purpose of Christmas.

Christmas is an opportunity to share the truth about who God is and how much He loves us.

Christ died to be the sacrifice for us.

He gave His life in our place by taking the punishment and death that we earned.

We should magnify and glorify the name of Christ for that reason first.

I’ll be honest, those other miracles that we typically focus on pale in comparison to the love that Christ has for a broken people.

If those miracles are as far as we ever go with the Christmas story, we have missed the point.

We need to dig into why God sent Jesus the way that He did.

In coming as a human, Christ made a way for us to made whole with God again.

The love of Christ brings together what sin had separated.

It brings us to God.

It also brings us to one another.

Even God exalted Christ because of what He did.

If God, who is his equal exalted him, how much more should we!

Philippians 2:9–11 CSB

9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As united believers, we profess, in word and action, the glory of God.

And why did God exalt Him, because He obeyed the Father?

Because of Christ's obedience and love, we are made into His likeness when we give our lives to Him.

We are made like Christ and brought into unity by a singular focus to obey the father.

This is the purpose that I mentioned earlier.

Philippians 2:2 CSB

2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

What is that one purpose?

John 11:52 CSB

52 and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God.

The singular purpose of Christ is that every man, woman, and child would be brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Romans 10:9 CSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Christmas is about the greatest gift that has ever been given, Jesus, our savior.

As a body of believers that KNOW (genosko) the father, we have a unique message to share.

We know God in a way that most people don’t.

We know God by experience that comes through obedience.

We know God as Immanuel.

Matthew 1:23 CSB

23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

God IS with us. Not, God was with us.

During Christmas, we can share, by experience that God is with us.

We can share this because we know Him.

Ephesians 3:8–12 CSB

8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ, 9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. 10 This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. 11 This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.

We have a message to spread this Christmas season.

God is with us.

This is a message that the world needs right now.

God has chosen to use us, the “least of all”, to share this message of hope.

Christ has come, He is here with us, He loves us, and He desires to live in a relationship with us.

It is God’s desire that every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This means that God wants everyone to know Jesus as their personal savior.

If we profess this message with our words and our actions the world will begin to see what we see and know what we know.

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

As we spend time with the father this Christmas, reflecting on the incredible gift we have been given, we will be transformed into the image of Christ.

If we allow this message to infiltrate every area of our being, and change our hearts, our words and actions will follow.

We will no longer be living for ourselves.

We will love as Christ loves.

We will see the needs around us and be compelled by that love to meet those needs, no matter the cost.

We will sacrifice, as Christ did, because of love.

Pray:

LG Questions:

Remember that these questions are meant to be a jumping off point. If the conversation is progressing in beneficial way, let it progress. However, if it is getting off track and is a distraction, bring it back to the questions. Thanks and I love you guys!!

Read Philippians 2:1-11 and Matthew 1:18-25

What are the typical things that we tend to emphasis about Christmas?

How will a focus on the whole gospel message change the way we celebrate Christmas?

How can you communicate the heart of God as you talk about Christmas with friends and family?

How can you profess the “one purpose” through actions this Christmas season?

Why is it important that we help others understand God as “Immanuel” (God with us)?

What personal stories can you tell that will help people understand that God is with us?

Take prayer request and then pray.