This morning, we're gonna be taking a look at Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 through 11. So if you're have your Bible, you can go ahead and turn there or it is also printed in your worship guide. Listen closely for these are the very words of the Lord. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
Speaker 1:Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god the father.
Speaker 1:This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god. Let's pray. Our father, the very last thing that any person gathered here this morning needs is to hear the words of a mere man. We are here to hear from you because your name and your renown, that's the desire of our hearts.
Speaker 1:And so we beg you to speak to us this morning and we come to you like Simon Peter did to Jesus declaring that you have the words of eternal life, so where else would we go? Because even though the the the grass withers and we know that the flower fades, we know that your word abides forever. So we pray this morning that by your grace and through your spirit, you would use your words to turn our attention and our affection upon Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, that wonderful, blessed man of sorrows. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Now, a few days ago, at President Biden's inauguration, there was a 22 year old woman named Amanda Gorman who recited a poem that she had just written entitled, The Hill We Climb. And in that poem, Gorman earnestly spoke of her hope that we would quote, see that our nation isn't broken, but simply unfinished. She wanted to assure a hurting people that together we are quote, striving to forge a union with purpose and to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so Gorman said, we lift our gazes, not to what stands between us, but to what stands before us. And whether you found Gorman's poem inspirational, whether you hadn't heard anything about it until this very moment, or whether you thought it was a partisan poem full of a lot of tired truisms.
Speaker 1:There is something in the language that Gorman used that resonates with us. This longing for community. This longing to be a part of a unified community where each and every one of us are really known as we are. Where we're really deeply loved and where we are striving together for one another's good and full accord. We all want that.
Speaker 1:We all long for this kind of community because as Jeff Heine has reminded us throughout the years, God created us for this kind of community. In the beginning, when there was nothing, God created everything that is. And he declared that it was good, and yet even in God's perfect world, it was still not good for man to be alone. We need one another. So no matter what your friends, or your family members, or your coworkers think, Their longing for that kind of unified community, one that exists across all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
Speaker 1:It's an echo of Eden. It is meant to point them and us to a world beyond this one. And while Amanda Gordon called Americans to place their faith in the redemptive power of democracy, Together here this morning, we know that democracy, as great as it is, it's not enough to create that kind of world. It's not enough to create that kind of unified, loving community that we know we were created for and that we long for. It is only in the gospel that we find the resources we need to stand firm in 1 spirit, striving side by side.
Speaker 1:Now if you've been with us over the last couple weeks, we have looked at chapter 1 of Philippians and we saw all of the great encouragements that Paul gave the Philippian church. He told them of his great joy in them because they were partakers with him in this gospel of grace. He saw them as partners. But as we'll see in later chapters, by the time we get to chapter 4, we learn that not all is well with the church at Philippi. There's tension amongst some of the members.
Speaker 1:It seems that there's some infighting going on. And before Paul directly addresses that, here in chapter 2, it's almost as if he is preemptively speaking to them about how they might have a unified community. Here in chapter 2, Paul shows us that true unity is only possible through true humility. And true humility is only possible when we lift our gaze beyond what stands between us to see Jesus stood before us in His humility. So let's take a look back at verses 1 and 2.
Speaker 1:Paul says, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Now remember, all of the positive things that Paul has said about this church. So he's not actually doubting here that these are realities that they have experienced. Instead, what Paul is basically saying is, you guys know what it is like to be loved by God. It's the most incredible thing in the universe.
Speaker 1:And since you have tasted God's love, how do you think that should shape the way that you relate to one another? How should that affect the way that you treat one another? And guys, you know that I'm I'm bursting at the seams with joy in you. But do you know what would make me even more joyful in you? If you guys were 1.
Speaker 1:If you were so 1 that it was almost like you had the same mind and the same heart. But this kinda unity that Paul is talking about here, it's not a uniform flatness. Right? It is not as though Paul is saying that you come into church with all of your different backgrounds and cultures and experiences, and then you hop on the assembly line of the church and at the end, you all end up as carbon copies of one another. No.
Speaker 1:What Paul is saying here is that when we come together, our differences are put in their proper place. Let's think back for a minute at just some of the people that Paul is writing to. So Paul founded this church about 10 years earlier. And in Acts 16, Luke gives us a picture of at least 3 members of this church. We know about Lydia.
Speaker 1:Lydia is a wealthy, prominent businesswoman from Asia Minor. She had been seeking God for a long time. We know about a Greek slave girl who was possessed by a spirit that led her to predict the future. She was as low as she could possibly get on the socioeconomic ladder. We know about the Philippian jailer, who was most likely a Roman, a Roman, civil servant.
Speaker 1:These 3 were as different as different could be in all of their backgrounds and experiences. And yet, as Joel reminded us last week, they locked arms together in common allegiance to Jesus as lord. Their allegiance to Jesus didn't eliminate their differences, but it put them in their proper place. Now I hate to break this to you guys or at least to some of you guys, but some of the people that are around you that you just heard singing how great thou art, they voted a couple of months ago for Joe Biden. To others of you, I I hate to break it to you this way this morning, but some of the people around you who love Jesus, who just sang out to the man of sorrows, they voted for Donald Trump.
Speaker 1:Others voted for somebody else, or maybe didn't even vote at all. And in the world's mind, we all should hate each other. Right? We cannot have common ground. We should be enemies.
Speaker 1:And naturally, we are enemies. But the beauty and glory of the gospel is that it gives birth to the beauty and the glory of the church that we who would be, who are natural enemies, were transformed by the gospel into a joyful family, a family of exiles. And while we may sharply disagree on any number of issues, we remain united together and for one another because we are united together in common allegiance to Jesus, our lord, that we can recognize together that we have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ's finished work alone. And it is this common allegiance that is meant to give birth to a supernatural unity. And that unity is meant to serve as a witness to the world.
Speaker 1:That the world would look on at the church and be left in awe without explanation. That they would be made to wonder what kind of God must that be that would create a people like that. This kind of supernatural unity is not always the reality that we experience. Right? Maybe even especially over this past year.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Paul begins to give us part of the answer in verse 3. Says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. In his book, Mere Christianity, c s Lewis wrote that there is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.
Speaker 1:And this word translated conceit in verse 3, it actually means empty glory or groundless pride. So do you wanna know what the greatest barrier is between you and having that kind of unified community that you know that you were created for? Or better still, do you wanna know the greatest hindrance between you and the intimacy with your spouse that you long for or with your friend, or with your neighbor? Do you wanna know what the greatest hindrance is between you and real intimacy with God? It's your pride.
Speaker 1:It is your groundless pride and mine. And I think most of us, if if we've been around Christian circles for long enough, we know that we're supposed to say, right, that we struggle with pride. But have you ever actually had anyone point out your pride? It is the worst. Right?
Speaker 1:And maybe you guys are more mature than me, but I feel like this happens to me a lot. And maybe I lack a lot of maturity, or maybe God just gave me a very gracious and direct spouse who loves me enough to point these things out to me. But if you're anything like me, when someone points out a specific instance of your pride, I immediately begin to bow up. And I may not say anything externally, but in my mind, my inner lawyer is taking notes as fast as he possibly can, trying to prove every reason why that person is wrong. And all of my sentences, they start exactly the same way.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But yeah. But, you don't know how she talked to me. Yeah. But you don't know the back story here or how this person has treated me.
Speaker 1:Or even better, yeah. But who do you think you are to talk to me? And the problem is is that you and I, we like to think that we're pretty good people, that we're better than most, and that the world would really be a better place if more people were just like us. Because all the time, we are sizing ourselves up against other people, how they look, how they act, how their kids act, the kind of recognition that they may receive. And it is this comparison game that is at the very heart of selfish ambition.
Speaker 1:This comparison is the main thing that stands between us and unified community, that your selfish ambition is in constant competition with mine. And the worst part is we can even size up other people based on how quote unquote good of Christians we think that they are or we are. We can excuse some of the things that we do while we judge very harshly some of the things that other people do. We can judge ourselves by our best intentions and other people by their worst actions. A is that degree is just how proud we are.
Speaker 1:That is how deep our pride really runs. And the bible could not be any more clear. God opposes the proud, And he gives grace to the humble. In contrast, the hallmark of a Christian, of someone who has actually had a real encounter with a real and living God, is not primarily that they know the right things or even do the right things as important as those things may be, but that they are humble. What does humility really look like?
Speaker 1:Well, Paul tells us here that a a truly humble man or woman does nothing, not a single thing at any time or any place from selfish ambition or vain conceit. Humble people can praise God when other people receive blessing instead of them, or when other people are praised and they are totally forgotten. Why? Because they don't feel any jealousy or envy. Because they've actually forgotten about all of their selfish ambition.
Speaker 1:Because they're preoccupied in the interests of others. As Joel pointed out last week, Paul's grammar would drive just about any English teacher up the wall. The word interests that you may have in your translation, it's not actually in the original Greek. What Paul writes is not looking out for your own, but also others. And I think Paul leaves this phrase open ended on purpose, so that you and I would have to fill in the blanks.
Speaker 1:Do you want a unified community? Do you wanna know what humility really looks like? Then look not only for your own education, for your own, financial well-being, for your own health, for your own reputation. Don't just think about those things. Don't just pray about those things.
Speaker 1:Don't just work hard for those things. But as you do those things for yourself, do them for other people. Maybe you're wondering at this point, okay, Paul, how far does this run? What about to those people who who've been terrible to me? Or that don't deserve it or won't know how to make use of it or will use it poorly.
Speaker 1:And you can almost imagine Paul saying here, I mean any person, anywhere, at any time, in any place. You are to treat them as though they were more significant, more important, more deserving than you are, regardless of whether or not you think that they actually are. If I had wanted to write qualifiers, I already had the pen in my hand. You see, humility requires that each of us looks to every single person who's made in God's image, even the weakest and most unworthy, and honors him not as he or she deserves, but as God himself deserves. I don't know about you, but that sounds like an impossible hill to climb.
Speaker 1:And maybe you're thinking like me, I don't know anyone like that. But Paul's saying we do. Turn back. Verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. In order to dismantle the divisions that stand between us, Paul stands before us, the humility of Jesus, reminding the Philippians and us that already we have all we need.
Speaker 1:Since we are in Christ, we have the mind of Christ. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Most theologians think that these last few verses, they're actually the words of an early hymn that the church sang. Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1:So there's infighting going on in the church. And instead of laying out a practical solution and then basically telling the Philippian believers, hey, just do this and listen to me because I'm an apostle. Paul first invites them to worship. What's the antidote to selfish ambition and groundless pride? It's worship.
Speaker 1:It's lifting up our gaze to truly see who Jesus is and what he's done. And just what did Jesus do? Paul tells us that this Jesus, this Jesus who existed from all eternity and all glory and all honor and perfect love with the father and the holy spirit. The one who created the entire universe by his mighty word. This one who is equal to God in every single way.
Speaker 1:He didn't count that equality with God. His power and privilege as God is something to be held onto at absolutely any cost. He didn't hold onto it as something to be exploited for his own personal gain and benefit as a means of self-service. But in self sacrifice, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. The all powerful creator became an utterly helpless creature.
Speaker 1:The infinite son of God took on a finite human body as he became the son of man. And the one who upholds the entire universe with the word of his power was born in a manger surrounded by animals to a poor carpenter's wife, unable to speak a word. And then he grows up, and the and the very one whose voice the wind and the waves would obey, he obeys the voice of his sinful parents. He toils faithfully in obscurity for 30 plus years, veiling his glory until his time has come. And when His time comes, He doesn't call an army to Himself.
Speaker 1:He calls the lowest of the low. He calls tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes and fishermen and little children to himself. He doesn't march into a palace and demand everything that rightfully belongs to him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Instead, he borrows. He borrows a boat to preach from.
Speaker 1:He borrows a place to lay his head every night. He borrows a donkey to ride into Jerusalem on. And ultimately, he borrows a tomb to be buried in. If there was anyone on the in the history of this planet who ever had the right to say, I deserve or I am being treated unfairly, it was Jesus. But He never opened His mouth.
Speaker 1:Even in the midst of His oppression and affliction, He went like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, he opened not his mouth. Why would he do it? Because in incomprehensible humility, the God who made us, to whom we owe everything, he counted us as though we were more important than himself. He looked to our interests, our greatest interest. The fact that you and I were separated from God and we had no hope of being reconciled to God.
Speaker 1:He looked at that interest and he knew that the only way that he could rescue us would be by humbling himself and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Even though each and every single one of us had counted ourselves more important than him. Even though each and every one of us had looked to our own interests instead of God's interests, even though all of us, like sheep, had gone astray, God laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. You see, Jesus was born in flesh in that manger so that 30 something years later, that flesh could be pierced with nails. That by his punishment, we might have peace.
Speaker 1:By his stripes, you and I might be healed. That we will be comforted in love, participate in the spirit, and by God's grace, become 1 even as the father, the son, and the spirit are 1. So how can we possibly heal that which stands between us? It's by keeping this cross before us. It's not by rightly reckoning the hill we climb, but by rightly seeing the hill that Jesus climbed, where love itself was covered over in flesh and bore our sins and our sorrows and made them our his very own.
Speaker 1:Because in those moments, when we survey that wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, we can't help but count our richest gains as loss. And as we're made in awe of the incredible humility of Jesus, we can't help but pour contempt on all of our groundless pride. We lose track of our selfish ambition. In light of what he's done, we're led from self-service and self protection into self sacrifice for the interests of others. And as we do those things together, we're led into a true union with a purpose that across every culture, every color, every character, and every condition of man, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father because he is worthy of that.
Speaker 1:Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would unify us. I pray that you would make us one even as the father and you and the spirit are 1.
Speaker 1:I pray that as we fix our gaze on the humility of Jesus, that he would be willing to die for us, that you would make us into a humble people, and that out of our humility, your name might be exalted. We pray these things in your great name, Jesus. Amen.