The Living Gospel
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Introduction
Introduction
Today will conclude our sermon series on the Gospel
My purpose in this series is to recalibrate our understanding of the Gospel
In our world, the Gospel has been presented as a series of things to affirm and you are a Christian.
But, as I saw Jesus present the Gospel, there are a lot of differences in what He did compared to what is presented in our world.
In our world, a big majority of people in the United States (I’m not going to quote a stat because they are always changing), call themselves Christians. Even a wider stat than that say that they are going to Heaven.
I ask myself “why?”
They have accepted some gospel, but the gospel they have received is not the Gospel that Jesus communicated.
The Gospel Jesus spoke about caused people to become angry. It caused people to walk away sad.
Jesus wasn’t out there handing out free “Get into Heaven” tickets, and everyone who took one got to have their eternity secured.
There are two huge elements of the Gospel that Jesus emphasized.
First, Jesus must be our savior
However, we cannot simply say, “Jesus is my savior”.
We must acknowledge that we are sinners. We must recognize the separation from God that has resulted from our sin.
This is why the Rich Young Ruler and Nicodemus were so confused. When they were brought face to face with their sin, both of them took a step back and said, “What sin?”.
Jesus will never be our savior unless we recognize our sin.
Second, Jesus must be Lord
Jesus never asked people to respond to their sin and in faith entrust their sin to Jesus without the corresponding act of making Jesus Lord
If Jesus is Lord, that means that I must surrender and submit to His authority in everything.
You cannot continue living your life, you cannot stay at the nets, and follow Jesus.
Either He is your Lord or He is not.
That doesn’t mean we are perfect. We will stumble. We will wander. But we return and repent and acknowledge our sin and lay down the old ways and surrender to His way.
This is a high calling
This will impact your life, your relationships, your path in life, absolutely everything.
If you are approaching Jesus for comfort in your life, or for security in Heaven, but do not surrender to His Lordship, then you have no place before Him.
Our whole lives are devoted to knowing Him and following Him. This is what we were created for. This is what He wants to restore.
We must count the cost.
We cannot earn our salvation. It is given by Jesus freely. We have nothing to offer Him.
As we close out this series, I want to talk through a topic that is a natural result of the Gospel
When we talked about the Parable of the Sower, we talked about how the sower cast the seed into the field.
The result of the cast seed was a plant. It was life
The soil was not the same after the seed took root. Something changed.
We have emphasized the relationship we have with God during this series on the Gospel
However, this relationship should change our lives.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel
Paul writes this passage to the Thessalonian church.
There are some personal things that he is writing to them. For example, Paul is going to visit them. He goes on to talk about the persecution they were suffering on behalf of the Gospel.
But Paul makes a tremendous point here in talking about the Gospel.
He says that they ought to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
What does this mean?
There is a way that we need to act or behave that directly relates to the Gospel.
Last week, as we brought up God’s plan and desire for relationship with us.
He deeply loves us, and He desires a love response. This is purely relational language.
We saw that God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son...
We understand God’s love for us.
In response, God calls us to love Him as well.
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
He loves us, He asks for love in return.
The result of that love for Him is a changed heart, a changed mind, and also a changed life.
It results in love for the world around us.
You see, sin did not only break relationship with God.
It broke relationship between mankind.
There is not a relationship you have in your life that is not in some way broken because of sin.
We struggle and battle to navigate this world as image bearers of the Almighty God. And one of the struggles we have is with the other image bearers of the Almighty God.
It’s not just that we can’t get along with God because of sin, we cannot get along with each other as well.
Discipleship is not just following Jesus
It is following Jesus while being in relationship with other disciples.
We walk alongside one another.
This passage is the directive and fuel for discipleship.
Paul calls us to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He then tells us what that looks like.
Our passage today is Philippians 2:1-11
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,
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Pray
Pray
This is a passage that is widely used as a text teaching us about the theology of Jesus. It is called the Kenosis.
It tells how Jesus, being God, became flesh and dwelt among us.
These are critical and important teachings for us that have life changing implications.
However, today, we are going to break this text down in another lens. Maybe a more contextually appropriate lens.
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,
Dipping back into Paul’s teaching, I love his logical progressions.
He gives a series of “if” statements.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ
If you have any comfort from His love
If you share in the Spirit
If you have tenderness and compassion
We can break these things down, but all of these are realities and hallmarks of the Gospel’s presence in our lives
Our unity and relationship with Jesus is a relational way of saying that we are walking with Him as His disciples
He is our Lord, we are His disciples
In this case, unity does not mean equality. However, it does mean that what once separated us has been removed (sin) and now we can approach God.
Comfort from His love
Again, this is a relational approach to God. We are aware of His love and we no longer live in separation, but we embrace the love of God as we surrender to Him.
Share in His Spirit
When we have relationship with God, He gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
God in us
The result of the Spirit living within us is the evidence of the Spirit within us.
We can look at Galatians to see the fruit of the Spirit, but Paul sums it up with two words, ‘tenderness and compassion’.
These ‘if’ statements are a whole. It isn’t like anyone would have unity with Christ, but not be comforted by His love.
We can’t have 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4.
These are all interconnected realities of a relationship with God through Christ Jesus.
These are the evidences of a person who has embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If statements are always followed by “then” statements.
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
If you have the relationship with God that is transforming your life, then let your life be transformed.
He calls for these disciples to be:
Be like-minded
Have the same love
Be in one spirit
Be of one mind
I find these “then” statements to be interesting
We don’t ask everyone to conform to us.
We have to humble ourselves.
Be like-minded
This doesn’t mean identical to one another.
What this means is that we have alignment and direction with one another. We are walking in the same direction.
Have the same love
The same love as what? As each other? I believe this isn’t comparing our love with one another. We ought to have the same love as Christ shows us with one another.
Have the same spirit
This is not the word for the Spirit (as in God). This is living out a harmonious attitude with one another.
Be of one mind
This is similar to being like-minded, except that this points more toward submitting and agreeing, not being conflict driven or divisive.
The bottom line of these first two verses is this:
Living in a manner worthy of the Gospel, means that we recognize the relationship God has given us, and this results in living a life of unity within the body of Christ.
If there is disunity within the Body of Christ, then we need to look at our salvation.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
These if-then ideas are summarized in this.
In humility, value others above yourselves.
Look to the interests of others.
These are very high sounding commands.
But I’ll tell you, last week was a hard sermon to preach
Imagine being tasked with telling the congregation that they ought to reject the way they have been loving their families and entrust their love of their family to Jesus. That is a tough one.
But today, I feel is an even tougher challenge
Look to the interests and needs of others above my own?
Value others higher than myself?
These commands sound insane. In my mind I go to quite a few places.
Fear
I worry that if I do this, I won’t be able to take care of my own needs
I worry that the things I have, I won’t be able to use for the future
My control, my comfort, and my safety are challenged when I put others in front of myself like this says.
Paul continues down this path...
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
My relationships with others should be the same as Jesus.
Ok, what does that look like? I mean, I cannot be Jesus, but Jesus loved His disciples and His disciples loved Him. That seems to be a good standard for what Biblical relationship looks like.
Now an important piece for us to understand here is that we are called to not do the same things as Jesus.
We are not God, so we cannot become flesh. We will not die on the cross for sins.
But this isn’t what this verse calls us to.
It says that our mindset should be the same as Jesus.
So as we work our way through this passage, we will ask ourselves, “What was Jesus mindset?” and “How does this apply to Christian relationship?”
This is often used as a theological text about the nature of Jesus. This contains that truth and we should embrace that truth.
The Scriptures teach us these things in this passage.
But first of all, this is a relational passage for us and a map for how our hearts ought to look with one another.
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
First off, we have to see the obvious here.
Jesus is God. There is no way around it.
He did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage.
He certainly could have! He is God.
But He didn’t.
Jesus is God
What that means is that He is above all else. He is sovereign. He is all of the omni’s. Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient.
But He did not use those things to His advantage.
Rather...
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
God became flesh and bone.
He became a man and humbled Himself becoming obedient to death
Remember that Jesus is God. He does not have to obey death. He is eternal.
But in making Himself human, He submitted Himself to death.
Not just any death, but death on a cross.
These are tremendous realities. We will not hide from these. But what is the purpose of this passage?
In our relationships, our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus
In this passage, what can we conclude about the attitude of Jesus?
Who was Jesus?
He was God. There is no greater or higher position in all of existence. He had it all.
From this high position, He gave it up. He lost it all.
He became human.
He gave up the omni’s
He became a servant
He gave up all authority and power
He humbled Himself before death
He gave up the very life he had
He gave up even His honor in death, death on a cross like a criminal
Jesus went from the highest of all high and lost it all in the most humiliating fashion. He became literally nothing. Not even alive.
At this point, I want to walk through the first part of our passage again today and ask, “Was Jesus a good example of this?”
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Did Jesus do this out of selfishness? Because He wanted something out of this?
No, He gave everything up and gained nothing.
Did Jesus act out of vanity or conceit?
No, He humbled Himself and emptied Himself of all pride
In humility did Jesus value others above Himself?
Yes, He died in the most sacrificial way. He died on the cross so we could have relationship with God.
Was Jesus looking to His own interests? Or was He looking to the interests of others?
Obviously to the interests of others.
Jesus acted in absolute sacrificial humility for the purpose and will of the Father.
We circle now back to the place where we ask, “What was Jesus attitude in all of this?”
Why did He do this?
This certainly is not because He wanted a change of pace for the weekend.
This goes back to our sermon last week, where we looked at the big picture of discipleship.
He stepped in to His creation to restore His creation to the heart of why God created it.
In love, He created humanity to know Him and love Him.
Sin separated us from Him.
Jesus came to His creation so that a separated and sinful world would have a path to know God.
Jesus was willing to sacrifice everything so that purpose could be accomplished.
How important is this to Jesus? This is the highest importance.
Nothing higher.
How do we fit in this?
The passage says, “Our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus.”
Now, certainly we are not God.
We cannot become flesh and die on the cross. But that isn’t what this passage says.
When we listen to these kinds of instructions, it is normal to take an inventory of our lives and say, “That is calling for a lot. I have so much to lose. I’ll only give a little, and trust God to multiply it. Think of the little kid who gave 5 loaves and 2 fish. Look what Jesus did!”
But the reality of that story is not that the small child gave a little bit. It was the the small child gave all.
We think in terms of how much we have to lose when we live our lives in obedience to Jesus and live our lives for the benefit of the Kingdom of God.
Did everyone follow Jesus? No. He didn’t take them by the collar and force them into relationship and growth. But He humbly served them and showed them the heart of God.
As we look at the fears we have of control, safety, and comfort, did Jesus strive for these things?
He left Himself in the hands of others
To beat Him and kill Him