SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met a couple who's been married for a long time?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you have.
SPEAKER_01: But they the thing I think I want to ask you about is have you ever noticed how they they not only speak like each other, but over time they start to think like each other, and sometimes even humorously they can they can even look like each other.
SPEAKER_01: We laugh about it, and it's funny.
SPEAKER_01: But really and truly, friends, that's a that's a glorious thing, godly thing.
SPEAKER_01: For that's how God designed marriage, right?
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures teach us that when a man leaves his father and his mother to be united to his wife, the two become one flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And a well-married man can find Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: And a well-married man is a better version of himself and a wife likewise as they become more and more like each other.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's how God made things.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells us then that marriage is a picture of Christ in the church.
SPEAKER_01: And so you and I have the best husband ever to be married to and to become more like over time.
SPEAKER_01: It's just interesting to me how people change slowly over time as life shapes them.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage and sanctification both have that effect, right?
SPEAKER_01: But so do other things.
SPEAKER_01: So do other things.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard it said that you are what you eat.
SPEAKER_01: We get that one.
SPEAKER_01: But I recently read they become what they worship.
SPEAKER_01: They become what they worship.
SPEAKER_01: All the peoples of the nations with false gods become more and more like the gods they make in their own image.
SPEAKER_01: And so who you think God is, and specifically what you worship Him for over time shapes you.
SPEAKER_01: It shapes you in so many ways.
SPEAKER_01: But the flip slight is also true that how you live, how you speak, or even how you think reveals something deep down of what you truly worship on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: And we're complex people.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always that simple.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just go from point A to therefore point B.
SPEAKER_01: If you're bald, it doesn't mean you worship a bald God, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's complicated.
SPEAKER_01: But I think there's wisdom to be gleaned from this truth that we become what we worship, we grow into who we spend time with, that I think the Apostle Paul is leveraging, maybe even working with on purpose, in our text to Philippians this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds the Philippians of the character of their God because he wants to see them change and grow and be transformed and become more like Jesus in the process.
SPEAKER_01: So take your Bibles with me.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: We'll start briefly in chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: I found it.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: So in Philippians chapter 1, remember that the occasion for Paul's letter to the Philippians really, in some total, was a thank you letter for a gift they sent him when they heard of his imprisonment in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells them all about his imprisonment, saying, This has really served to advance the gospel in chapter 1, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Even if some in Rome are preaching Christ out of selfish ambition in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says that he knows that Christ will be glorified even if he dies at the end of this thing, because for Christ for Paul to live as Christ, to die is gain.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: I just think it's incredible that Paul sees in his imprisonment not something to complain about, but something to strengthen the Philippians with as they come to face opposition.
SPEAKER_01: So look at the end of chapter 1 and verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, only, only.
SPEAKER_01: It's the one thing he wants from the Philippians as he sits in chains.
SPEAKER_01: They had sent him a gift, because they heard he'd had a hard day, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like Paul is saying, Thank you for your gift.
SPEAKER_01: It means a lot, but you know what means the most to me?
SPEAKER_01: What would mean the most to me?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul just wants things to go well with them.
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: He says, stand firm together in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side, arm in arm, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he wants for them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he wants.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good lesson for us.
SPEAKER_01: When the going gets tough, we should stand firm together for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul continues to tell them that he knows it's hard, he knows they'll suffer for the sake of Christ, but that because Jesus conquered death, because Jesus was persecuted, and so was Paul for that matter, because of those things, then suffering, the Christians' endurance of suffering for the gospel, becomes a sign of their salvation in verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And here in chapter 2, verse 1, Paul picks up on that idea that Jesus and all that he's done for us gives us great encouragement when we face trials of various kinds.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read these first two verses of chapter 2, if you'd look at your Bibles with me.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful text.
SPEAKER_01: One commentator I read this week said that Paul's theological argumentation is brilliant in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: And another says that this passage speaks the language of the soaring, unanswerable language of a Bach cantata.
SPEAKER_01: If you know what that is, it's pretty.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful, glorious, rich, complex thing, and it's a beautiful, glorious, rich passage.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my best take of what the lesson is that it teaches us.
SPEAKER_01: It teaches us that because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that will bring us together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that will bring us together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at each one of those phrases one at a time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think you can see as we look at it that verse 1 is a list of things, a list of four things.
SPEAKER_01: The ESB does a pretty good job of showing us how parallel they are, how much they match.
SPEAKER_01: We could take that if there is any and put it on each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: If there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any comfort from love, if there is any participation in the Spirit, if there is any affection and sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, the answer, the implication is just, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Those things exist.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, if there is any encouragement in Christ, and there is, right?
SPEAKER_01: And you can just feel this giant then coming.
SPEAKER_01: If, if, if, if, then.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's laying the groundwork here in verse 1 for his appeal in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: So all these if things, all these ifs, should make us want to complete Paul's joy, be of the same mind, same level, full of cord, and in one mind.
SPEAKER_01: That's what all this is pushing towards.
SPEAKER_01: And so then we have to ask, is there any encouragement in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: That little phrase, encouragement in Christ, it refers to the union that believers have with the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's Paul's favorite way to describe what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: It's the opposite of being in sin or in Adam, like in the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes, Behold, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the stuff, this being in Christ is the stuff of being born again, being saved from the wrath to come, adopted into the family of God, raised from spiritual death to everlasting life, and there is so much encouragement there.
SPEAKER_01: Is there not?
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
SPEAKER_01: More than enough.
SPEAKER_01: Christians, therefore, those who are in Christ ought to be the most courage-filled people there are.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's encouragement in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: John Newton, the pastor and hymn writer, he wrote Amazing Grace.
SPEAKER_01: He says this if the Lord be with us, we have no cause for fear.
SPEAKER_01: His eye is upon us, his arm over us, his ear open to our prayer, his grace sufficient, his promise unchangeable.
SPEAKER_01: Under his protection, though the path of duty should lie through fire and water, we may cheerfully and confidently pursue it.
SPEAKER_01: You can do the right thing because Christ is with you.
SPEAKER_01: And you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great comfort.
SPEAKER_01: It's great encouragement to be in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear because we are swallowed up.
SPEAKER_01: We are baptized into Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit through faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to be in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But this whole thing isn't about that, is it?
SPEAKER_01: Something in here is a call to unity, a call to sticking together.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see more in verse 2, but you can already feel it, can't you?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you already knew something.
SPEAKER_01: I've been learning recently, but one of the things that drives a lot of division in local churches is panic.
SPEAKER_01: Is panic about the consequences of a decision.
SPEAKER_01: Not the decision itself, but panic about the success or fallout of it, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to avoid it, trying to mitigate it, or even trying to make it work in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that was gonna happen if you did that, we say.
SPEAKER_01: Or even I knew that was never going to work.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a comment flowing from the fear of man, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And you can imagine, if you think about the Philippians, they're just nervously getting after each other, picking at each other about how different members of their congregation may choose to interact with their hostile pagan neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Nervous about, in Philippi, Paul got beaten with rods, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Nervous about setting that firestorm off again, or nervous about being too nervous about it and somebody wants to be bold.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel how easy it is to get after each other when you lack courage?
SPEAKER_01: Just getting it from the context at the end of chapter one, guys.
SPEAKER_01: And so chapter two, verse one, essentially implies this.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why then are you so worried about all of that?
unknown: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Is there not encouragement from being in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Of course there is.
SPEAKER_01: And so then the implication is that we ought to encourage one another in the face of difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't nitpick at each other over the best way to share the gospel or who to share with next or how often or where or whether or not we should be shopping at certain stores or whatever, how how cool the music is, what time the service should start.
SPEAKER_01: Whether that works or not works, we should encourage each other.
SPEAKER_01: Should encourage each other.
SPEAKER_01: Because regardless of the consequences, or success or failure, good or bad or just not good enough, I felt that one.
SPEAKER_01: We're all in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01: So find a way to have each other's backs, like Jesus has yours.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort from love.
SPEAKER_01: Besides that.
SPEAKER_01: Besides encouragement in Christ, there is also comfort from love, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: Some commentators I've read think that Paul is alluding to God the Father here.
SPEAKER_01: And he's forming this Trinitarian sort of pattern with the next phrase, participation in the Spirit, right?
SPEAKER_01: Christ, love, Father, Spirit, Son, Father, Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He might be, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: He does something similar at the end of 2 Corinthians with this benediction.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the love of God, and the fellowship, that's our same word here for participation of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us see that's a Trinitarian phrase, right?
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians, though, the love of God stands in for God the Father, who's characterized by love.
SPEAKER_01: So comfort from love here in Philippians might be a Trinitarian phrasing pointing to the God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: But what I do think is really clear here is that Paul is not primarily talking about the love he has for the Philippians or the love the Philippians have for one another.
SPEAKER_01: But what Paul is talking about is the love of God for them.
SPEAKER_01: That comes first.
SPEAKER_01: The rest flows from that.
SPEAKER_01: That much is clear.
SPEAKER_01: So there is great comfort, great comfort in God's love for us.
SPEAKER_01: And that word comfort is almost synonymous with the word encouragement, right?
SPEAKER_01: Both in English and in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: The word encouragement literally means to put courage into somebody, and the word comfort means with strength, to strengthen.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a fort is, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's a strong place.
SPEAKER_01: So to comfort somebody is to make them strong, like a fortress with strength.
SPEAKER_01: And the comfort that Paul's talking about comes from agape love.
SPEAKER_01: That perfect, divine love of God, unconditional desire for another's well-being.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says that agape love is comforting.
SPEAKER_01: It makes you stronger because you know that God is working things together, not just for his own master plan, but that his master plan is good for you because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what.
SPEAKER_01: God wants what's best for you.
SPEAKER_01: What comfort is it then, friends, to know that our sins have been forgiven, our debt has been erased, we have a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Have you felt the relief?
SPEAKER_01: The relief that comes, the comfort that comes when you can lay down the burden of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: The comfort, the encouragement, the freedom, maybe from knowing that your sins have been removed, and by grace you stand before God clothed in Christ's righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That's comfort, right?
SPEAKER_01: The implication, of course, is that Paul is calling the Philippians to the same sort of love, the same kind of love, free love, love regardless of merit, for one another, between themselves, love each other so that you can be comforted like that, so they can live in the same freedom and the same relief and the same strength from each other's love that we've all found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That promotes unity, right?
SPEAKER_01: If God can love sinners such that he sends his son to be born in a manger and die on a cross for them, then surely the Philippians and we can find a way to put each other's interests before our own, without any conditions, without any strings.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's great comfort from love.
SPEAKER_01: This word participation is a great translation of the Greek words, but some of your translations might say fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Might say fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's already used the word in Philippians back in chapter 1 when he thanked the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Fellowship, participation, partnership.
SPEAKER_01: Another word could be commonality.
SPEAKER_01: Describes having something in common, but it's it's more than just having something in common.
SPEAKER_01: It's being something so in common you become part of a group and even bound together such that if one part suffers, the other suffer with it.
SPEAKER_01: Participation.
SPEAKER_01: And the indwelling spirit of God has participation with us in two ways.
SPEAKER_01: The first way is that he's near to us, he knows what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, he brings us near to God so that we now in Christ have the mind of Christ, and we can have the same perspective of Christ, same perspective as Christ on all manner of things by his word.
SPEAKER_01: He's near to us and we're near to him because we have partnership in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, by the Spirit of God, have things in common with Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit has revealed him and revealed his heart to us.
SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely astounding if you stop and think about who we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about a carpenter only.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the God who thought of mountains, who thought of butterflies, who thought of, name it, thermodynamics.
SPEAKER_01: That God, the one who can speak and nations disperse and fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: We have things in common with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And even more than that, this means that we're on Christ's side.
SPEAKER_01: We're on Jesus' team because of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that drives the unity point even harder, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Even clearer.
SPEAKER_01: If the Holy Spirit of God, perfect from before time itself, has united himself to a believer like you and me, who's just as ever as much a sinner and child of wrath as anybody, if the Holy Spirit can remain committed to us, how can we separate from one another?
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's what this text says, right?
SPEAKER_01: That to break fellowship, to break participation, to break community, to break partnership with people that we still hold to be genuine believers, is to break a fellowship that the Holy Spirit has not yet broken.
SPEAKER_01: So think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it with me.
SPEAKER_01: Who ever, who could ever, in the history of the world, in the history of your life, have greater reason to give up on you than the Holy Spirit of God, who is grieved by every sinful twitch of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He has every reason to give up on you, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_01: How then can we separate from the ones that the Spirit of God holds fast?
SPEAKER_01: That's the point of the text.
SPEAKER_01: But now let me be gentle as well.
SPEAKER_01: Let me be gentle as well.
SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't have to be ultimate best friends with every believer.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of unity Paul's calling for.
SPEAKER_01: For example, I don't think you if if you can't find a way to agree about how to share the gospel, even though you know you love the same gospel, and if that disagreement is so severe, so difficult that you can't handle listening to the other guy present the gospel on a missions trip, then maybe don't go on missions trips together.
SPEAKER_01: Do other stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Even in that situation, we ought to be able to still break bread.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And we hope, we pray, I pray, that fellowship like that, partnership like that is still possible, even with believers we don't worship with together every week.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I think the command of this text is, and here's my counsel to my own heart and to yours, no matter how difficult it gets, no matter how hard it gets, fight.
SPEAKER_01: Fight to keep that right hand of fellowship open.
SPEAKER_01: For there is still participation in the spirit and in Time.
SPEAKER_01: If we stick with sticking together, stick with sticking together.
SPEAKER_01: That fellowship of the Spirit is surely stronger than all of our hurts and hang-ups, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: I mean sincerely.
SPEAKER_01: Sincerely, if God in Christ can reconcile his enemies to himself by the power of this same Holy Spirit, then this same Holy Spirit can bring the people of God together no matter what.
SPEAKER_01: In this age or the one to come, we will all be one in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because there is fellowship in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Next then.
SPEAKER_01: If there is any affection and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: While I understand the translation, sympathy, I just I think it's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: This word sympathy is used in some pretty important places in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek word for sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I can show you just one example, and I can make my case that I wish we translated it mercy instead.
SPEAKER_01: Affection and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Back in the book of Exodus, Moses is on Mount Sinai, and he says to the Lord, please show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy, on whom I will show mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced that back in Philippians chapter 2, Paul wants you to think of God's mercy towards sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Not just a feeling of sympathy towards one another.
SPEAKER_01: Affection is a heart thing.
SPEAKER_01: The word literally means guts or kidneys, or spleens, even.
SPEAKER_01: It's an internal thing.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul has already said that word affection to the Philippians back in chapter 1 when he said that God is his witness, how he yearns for them with all of the affection of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So affection.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you feel.
SPEAKER_01: It's that sinking feeling in your gut when you really want something good for somebody else, like a parent watching their kid from the sidelines, just hoping, praying, longing that they'll do a good enough job just so they don't feel too discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: Just so they don't get sad or heartbroken.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: No parent wants to see their kids heartbreaking.
SPEAKER_01: So we long that those things would go well.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word for affection.
SPEAKER_01: It describes all those sorts of emotions that go along with when somebody is very dear to you.
SPEAKER_01: Affection.
SPEAKER_01: And while mercy and affection are similar, several commentators agree with me that Paul is describing two different things.
SPEAKER_01: Not the same thing, two different things.
SPEAKER_01: One feels affection or love for somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: One feels affection, and the result then is mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Mercifully compassionate, sympathetic action.
SPEAKER_01: You love somebody and it hurts you to see them in pain, and so you do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: You write, you call, you pray, you weep, you squeeze their shoulder on the way by because there aren't any words to say.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Several British commentators called this the root and the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Affection produces mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Affection produces merciful action.
SPEAKER_01: God in Christ Jesus didn't have mercy on you because of anything about you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of what you bring to the table for the kingdom, not because you're so smart, because you figured it all out, or not because you're so disciplined and diligent that you've lived a holy enough life.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing positive in you or me motivated the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_01: No, it was the affection of God, the pity of God upon us in our fallen and sinful state because of his love.
SPEAKER_01: He loved you with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_01: And when he saw us, you in your sins and its consequences and sorrows, he sent forth his son to be born to save you, to rescue you, to redeem you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because we earned it, right?
SPEAKER_01: But because so great and so free is his love, so wide his affections, even upon his enemies, that he reached out to us in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And there, right there, friends, comes the clearest and brightest and most glorious call to unity in this text.
SPEAKER_01: It's the soaring crescendo to Paul's masterpiece, right?
SPEAKER_01: Ask the question: Does Jesus love you?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Has Jesus been merciful upon you?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves you just because that's who he is and who he always has been.
SPEAKER_01: But you and I have hated him in return because of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And he demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: That God sent his only son into the world.
SPEAKER_01: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
SPEAKER_01: In this is love.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the atonement for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And then John says this beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
SPEAKER_01: We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: So how?
SPEAKER_01: How could we ever justify withholding our love, quenching our affections, or turning our backs on a brother or sister in need of mercy?
SPEAKER_01: Oh be affectionate and be merciful towards one another.
SPEAKER_01: Because God in Christ Jesus was merciful to you.
SPEAKER_01: There's no getting around that.
SPEAKER_01: He was.
SPEAKER_01: And he was merciful to you out of the superabundance of his affection.
SPEAKER_01: Because of the great love, which is just who he is.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to have big hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because of his encouragement, because of the comforting love of God, because of the participation in the Holy Spirit, because of Christ's affection and Christ's mercy, because God in Christ has shown those things to you, then we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And we can feel the punchline of all those ifs coming, right?
SPEAKER_01: If God is like that, then we should be too.
SPEAKER_01: And he says it as much in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All of those ifs in verse 1 imply a giant then right here at the beginning of verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Then complete my joy.
SPEAKER_01: And we can flip if-then statements into because statements pretty simply, right?
SPEAKER_01: If it is raining, then bring an umbrella is the same kind of logic as bring an umbrella because it's raining.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see?
SPEAKER_01: So why, if we ask the question, why does Paul say complete my joy by being of the same mind?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is because.
SPEAKER_01: Complete my joy by being of the same mind, because there is encouragement in Christ, because there is comfort from God's love, because there is participation in the Spirit, because there is affection and mercy, because of Christ, we should be of the same mind and the same love.
SPEAKER_01: And right there, being of the same mind and having the same love, we find two incredible, incredible details.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, whole of verse 2, two incredible details in this text.
SPEAKER_01: First, remember that Paul is still in chains in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: He's bracing himself for the death sentence.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Complete my joy by being of the same mind.
SPEAKER_01: By chapter four, Paul will tell us he's learned that in whatever situation he is to be content, he has the secret of being in need or in plenty.
SPEAKER_01: But here in chapter two, he says his joy lacks something.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And he's more concerned that the Philippians stick together as a fellowship than he is about his own predicament.
SPEAKER_01: He'd be fine sitting in chains with a death sentence, so long as the Philippians were okay.
SPEAKER_01: John Calvin comments on this verse better than I ever could.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Here again we may see how little anxiety Paul had as to himself, provided only it went well with the Church of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was kept shut up in prison and bound with chains.
SPEAKER_01: He was reckoned worthy of capital punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Before his view were tortures, near at hand was the executioner.
SPEAKER_01: Yet all these things do not prevent Paul from experiencing unmingled joy, provided that he sees the churches are in a good condition.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but that would be hard for me.
SPEAKER_01: Not sure I could be as serenely content in prison as Paul seems to be.
SPEAKER_01: But I do know something of how unsettling it can be when our churches are facing difficulty and strife.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first detail.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how important it is to Paul that things go well with the church.
SPEAKER_01: It should be that important to us too.
SPEAKER_01: Complete my joy, Paul says, with chains around his ankles and be of the same mind.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the whole letter of Philippians right there.
SPEAKER_01: Opens up.
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul indicates that they are not currently of the same mind.
SPEAKER_01: Or at least they could be more same-minded.
SPEAKER_01: But whose mind is Paul talking about?
SPEAKER_01: That's my second detail for that matter.
SPEAKER_01: Whose love is this?
SPEAKER_01: I think many of us read this verse and we think Paul wants the Philippians to have the same mind as each other, to have the same love as one another.
SPEAKER_01: Which is true, he does want that.
SPEAKER_01: That's the next half of the verse.
SPEAKER_01: But this part, this is the second incredible little detail.
SPEAKER_01: I think Paul is talking about having the same mind as Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the same love as God.
SPEAKER_01: That's back in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The same mindset, the same heart set of God.
SPEAKER_01: Encouragement, comfort, fellowship, affection, and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what Paul is saying here is have the same mind as Christ and encourage one another as God in Christ has encouraged you.
SPEAKER_01: Have the same heart as Jesus and comfort one another as God in Christ has comforted you.
SPEAKER_01: Second Corinthians says something similar, right?
SPEAKER_01: God the Father of mercies comforts us so that we can comfort each other.
SPEAKER_01: Have the same heart set as the Holy Spirit to maintain fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_01: Have the same heart as God and be stirred up with affection for one another.
SPEAKER_01: Have the same mind as God and be merciful to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Have the same mind as that.
SPEAKER_01: And have the same love as that.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Simply incredible.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing new, I'm telling you, there, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Christian faith, for all of its depth of wonder and riches and complexity, we can we can summarize it in the shortest and simplest phrases.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason that Jesus loves me, this I know, and what would Jesus do became so popular.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, Jesus loves me, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that will bring us together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the rest of verse 2 with me.
SPEAKER_01: Being in full accord and of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, have your very souls stitched together, being in full accord, such a great phrase.
SPEAKER_01: It's like how Paul tells the Colossians he wants their hearts to be encouraged and he wants them to be knit together in love.
SPEAKER_01: Knit together, being in full accord and of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: And when we say mind, even in English, we mean something like mindset most of the time, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: That's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: For mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a famous word in Greek thought.
SPEAKER_01: Homer uses it over a hundred times.
SPEAKER_01: Plato and all the philosophers love it too.
SPEAKER_01: It's all over the Greek translation of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: And the mind here is more than just being smart.
SPEAKER_01: Not just about your cognition.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's not calling the Philippians to just agree on the same doctrinal statement.
SPEAKER_01: This is not simply a command to make sure you agree about every point of theology or interpretation.
SPEAKER_01: Far from it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a low bar for Paul, it seems, in this text.
SPEAKER_01: No, the idea here is of a whole person's mind.
SPEAKER_01: In English, we say things like, his mind is made up, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we praise people saying, a man who knows his own mind, and that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: And that's because the mind in English is more than just logical propositions about what's true or false.
SPEAKER_01: This is also about your will, your volition, your choosing.
SPEAKER_01: It's about decision making.
SPEAKER_01: The mind is made up, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's about decision making based on the way you see reality.
SPEAKER_01: The mind makes thoughtful decisions.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Paul is commanding the churches to do, especially Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: The example of God in Christ from verse 1 tells us that you can decide to encourage.
SPEAKER_01: You can choose to comfort.
SPEAKER_01: You can determine to have fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: You can resolve yourself to be merciful and commit yourself to being affectionate.
SPEAKER_01: It takes a little bit of work.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what Jesus did for you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Having the same mind as Christ takes effort.
SPEAKER_01: It involves a decision in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Just as well as you can make up your mind to discourage or make up your mind to leave a church, you can make up your mind to stay.
SPEAKER_01: That making of your mind is a decision that is entirely within your control.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you always have a choice.
SPEAKER_01: And praise God that Jesus chose encouragement, that Jesus chose comfort, fellowship, affection, and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And if we have the same mind as Christ, then we will all have one mind together.
SPEAKER_01: Before I conclude, let me make, try to bring this down to one focused application for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the only application from this text.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even the most important application you should take away from this sermon, but it is a specific application that I don't think we can afford to miss right now.
SPEAKER_01: Since Paul commands us to seek unity and strive for fellowship with one another, and that's not a burdensome command, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's good and pleasant when brothers dwell together in unity, but since we're commanded to unity, and this passage teaches us that because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If we have the same mind of Christ, we will be of one mind.
SPEAKER_01: That will bring us together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if we have the same mind as Jesus and we all have the same mind as Jesus, then we will be of one mind together.
SPEAKER_01: You see?
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced because of that that it's looking at Jesus that brings us together.
SPEAKER_01: The most important part then of pursuing unity in a local church is a focus not on one another, but on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's the application I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: To promote unity in a local church, talk about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If our conversations over unity or disagreement or whatever are too man-centered, and we focus on trying to move each other into agreement with ourselves or to move ourselves into agreement with one another depending upon your temperament.
SPEAKER_01: If that's what we're doing, the unity we produce there will be clumsy and it will be fragile compared to the unity that comes when we spend more time focusing on being as encouraging, as comforting, as committed to one another as Jesus is to us.
SPEAKER_01: That's real unity.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Since we want to be a more united church, we never make it.
SPEAKER_01: We always want more.
SPEAKER_01: Then, then, what we need to do is spend more effort individually into being more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to spend less time trying to make each other like me or you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, we should be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And if we focus on Jesus, that thing above and outside of us, that He will bring us together in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And unity will flow from there.
SPEAKER_01: So if we want to be a united congregation, we should sing of Jesus more than we've rehearsed the differences between us.
SPEAKER_01: We should think about the cross more than we think about how to convince somebody that they're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: We should gaze at the hands and feet that died to reconcile us rather than dwell on the words that offend, perseverate on the decisions that hurt, or even the sins that drive wedges.
SPEAKER_01: We should think about Jesus more, guys, because nobody, nobody brings people together better than Jesus, who made peace by the blood of his cross, and we should learn to imitate him if we want to be partners.
SPEAKER_01: We should learn to imitate him if we want to be fellow soldiers, and we should we should aim to please the one who enlisted us.
SPEAKER_01: If we want to be a family, then we should give thanks for adoption.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If we want to be friends, we should remember that Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't ashamed to call us friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way forward.
SPEAKER_01: The way of the cross is the only way to go.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, remember, Jesus didn't demand that you apologize for your sins before he laid his life down for you.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: He died while you were still sinning against him.
SPEAKER_01: And it was that glorious, marvelous, astounding, unfathomable, unsearchable display of mercy, of grace, and love.
SPEAKER_01: It was the love of Christ that melted your hard heart in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel, friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And it's Christ's proclamation of good news.
SPEAKER_01: It's his preaching of peace that brought us together in the first place and keeps us together to the end.
SPEAKER_01: Remember.
SPEAKER_01: You are what you eat.
SPEAKER_01: And you become like the content you consume.
SPEAKER_01: So my point then is dwell on Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to his sermon podcasts in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_01: Learn to think like he thinks.
SPEAKER_01: And because of Christ, be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Old married couples start to speak the same way because they've become one flesh and live their lives together, and we are the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So live your life, live your whole life in the light of his love.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to him, speak with him.
SPEAKER_01: And because of his love, love others the same way.
SPEAKER_01: And because of Christ, be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because after all, people become like what they worship.
SPEAKER_01: So worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.
SPEAKER_01: For He has done incredible things none of us could do.
SPEAKER_01: And as you gaze upon Christ and transformed the renewing of your mind because of Christ, be like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way, God will bring us together in Him.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody ever has worked a greater unity among people than the crucified Lord of Glory.
SPEAKER_01: It was his love for God and His love for mankind that holds you fast.
SPEAKER_01: And he has brought us together in one body.
SPEAKER_01: And his love will never let us go.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be more like Jesus, Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Take his yoke upon you and learn from him.
SPEAKER_01: For he is gentle and lowly in heart.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, we pray that you would make us more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let us not become conceited and provoking one another and envying one another.
SPEAKER_01: But make us more like Christ so that we should have his love to bind us together.
SPEAKER_01: We should have his joy to complete our own.
SPEAKER_01: Make us like Jesus so that his peace rules in our hearts and in our fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Give us his patience to endure offenses.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the fruit of kindness to turn away wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Make us more like Jesus so that his goodness keeps us from stumbling, his faithfulness strengthens us to never give up.
SPEAKER_01: Give us his gentleness to bear with one another in love and his self-control to safeguard us from foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: Because Lord, against such things there is no law.
SPEAKER_01: So Father, be our Father.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us to encourage and teach us to comfort.
SPEAKER_01: Set us an example to follow and fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: And oh Father, thank you for your affection and your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Come again soon, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Return.
SPEAKER_01: Tarry not and complete our joy, please.
SPEAKER_01: Complete our joy, even as you complete the Apostle Paul's joy.
SPEAKER_01: And make us one.
SPEAKER_01: And make us all of one mind and one soul.
SPEAKER_01: Stitch us together, please.
SPEAKER_01: And come soon.
SPEAKER_01: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.