God's Word comes to us this evening from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians. Our text is actually chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, but it's important for us to hear that text in some context. So I'm going to read a longer section to you, beginning in chapter 1, verse 12, and continuing on through chapter 2, verse 11. As I'll mention in a moment, I was preaching in another church this morning and preached The previous text, 127 to 30, to them, I threatened to read them the whole epistle. It's not that long, but they chuckled a bit when I offered that, so we won't read the whole. But a significant portion so that you can hear where in the flow of Paul's discussion, these important verses about the call to unity and the attitude that contributes to unity come. Here then God's word, Philippians chapter 1, verse 12. Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this, I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice. for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain If I'm to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet, what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me. 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 one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with 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 purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became 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 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is God's word. Let us ask his spirit to write it on our hearts this evening. O Lord, O Father, you breathed out these words through your Holy Spirit, through your servant, the Apostle Paul. Now by that same Holy Spirit, inscribe their truth and their call to humility and unity deeply into our hearts this evening. Only your grace can give us spiritual ears to hear, hearts tender to respond. But your grace certainly can do that. And so we ask you to do that in and among us this evening. For your glory, that indeed Jesus Christ might be acclaimed by all as Lord. Even in a sense now, as they see his work of grace in and among us. We pray in his name. Amen. It's my joy to preach to you this evening. This is part of an ongoing series on the Epistle to the Philippians, which puts you at a bit of a disadvantage because you haven't heard the earlier sermons that I've been able to preach to others. And that's why I wanted to read you a somewhat larger text. Each congregation, since I'm not a pastor who preaches every week in a single church, each congregation gets a teeny tiny slice of this rich, rich letter written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, a Christ-saturated letter, a joy-filled letter, a letter written by an inspired suffering apostle to suffering people. And I wanted you to hear the context in which we come to our text this evening, verses 1 through 4, so you get a sense of the flow of this letter. It was actually about three weeks ago that I was preaching in La Habra to a church and I got to expound this wonderful section in chapter 1, verses 12 through 26, where Paul describes how amazingly cheerful he is in prison. I've gotten occasionally postcards from people on vacation in Europe and fun places. And sometimes they say, everything is going beautifully, wish you were here. They don't always say that, but that's sort of the stereotypical. Paul writes from prison, and it's almost as if he says to the Philippians, Things are going great. Wish you were here. Well, not really. Not the outward circumstances, but things are going great, as you heard, because Paul says, everybody's getting the word. I'm in chains because of Jesus. The whole Praetorian Guard, the Imperial Guard, the crack troops, the Green Berets around Caesar's palace, they all know, and it's spreading to others as well. Christians, seeing me suffering, are getting bolder to preach because they see my suffering. That seems a little odd. See somebody who gets thrown into prison for preaching and you want to go preach yourself? But Paul says that's what's happening. And the gospel is spreading throughout Rome. And then as I mentioned this morning, I was able to preach on chapter 1, verses 27 through 30 to a church down in La Mesa. And we started with that section in verse 27 where Paul says, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. That command really controls our text as well. Because at that point, Paul takes a break from his normal way of speaking when he talks about Christian behavior. Very often, he'll use the Old Testament metaphor, the picture of walking. Walk according to the calling that you've received, he says to the Ephesians. Here he doesn't use that word walking. he uses another word that is actually politically charged. In fact, it has our word politics built into it because it's a word that talks about conduct befitting a citizen. Conduct befitting a citizen. And Paul says, if you're going to live with a conduct that befits a citizen, it entails confidence on the one hand. Don't be intimidated by your opponents. But it also entails unity. a deep unity and commitment to one another, and that's what we hear in our text. Now, Paul used that term strategically because Philippi, located in northern Macedonia, up north from Greece, was, in fact, a Roman colony, which meant that if you were a citizen of Philippi, you were also a citizen of the capital, Rome. And you had perks and you had privileges, but you also had responsibilities. Not everybody born in the Roman Empire was a Roman citizen, Unlike America, if you're born within the United States, you're automatically an American citizen. Not so in Rome. Some people had to save up money. Paul met a Roman army officer who said, I had to pay a pretty price to buy my Roman citizenship at one point. So it was a special privilege. And no doubt the Philippians were pretty proud of their Roman citizenship. You actually pick that up when you read about the planting of the church in Philippi over in Acts 16. Because when Paul and Silas have arrived there and begun to preach, and they are, forms a little core of a church, actually begins with some women out by the riverside, because there are not even enough Jewish men in that town to form a synagogue. But Lydia and some others come to faith. Then they're followed everywhere they go in the city by a demon-possessed girl who had a reputation for being clairvoyant. She yells out that these are men who are messengers of the Most High God, telling us how to be saved. Finally, they cast the demon out of her, and her owners, not pleased that they've lost her as a source of revenue, arrest Paul or bring Paul and Silas before the officials, and their accusation is these Jews, yes, there's some anti-Semitism in that term, these Jews are teaching customs that are not legal for us Romans to observe. We are Romans. A lot of pride there. But Paul says, now you belong to an even better city. He makes that very explicit at the end of the third chapter when he says to the believers in Philippi, our citizenship is in heaven, from which we are waiting for Jesus to come back, our great Savior. So Paul says, now, live as a citizen. Behave as a citizen. Because you don't belong here, really. You're living on earth, but ultimately your citizenship is in heaven. And how does that dignity, that high calling of being a citizen of heaven, how does it work its way out? In being humble. Not in being proud. Not in being arrogant. but in being humble. And our text here, verses 1 through 4, seems pretty down to earth, pretty mundane, when Paul is really urging us to get along with one another, to be like-minded, to have the same love, to not do things out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. I thought in a certain sense I feel bad for Escondido URC because I've gotten to preach on some of these mountaintop passages on either side of this text. Two weeks from now, I'll be in western Pennsylvania. I get to preach on that wonderful exposition of the person of Jesus in his humiliation, in his exaltation. And here you are with this passage that says, get along with one another. Not a fun passage. Not exciting. On the one hand, we've got that mountain peak. To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. On the other hand, we have that mountain peak. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And between them, your text. Get along with one another. Sort of like driving through the Tojon Pass on I-5. You come over there and you go down into the San Joaquin Valley. And you know that somewhere off in the haze to the west, there are the green forests of the coastal range. And somewhere off in the haze to the east are the snow-capped peak of the Sierra Nevadas. but you're driving along I-5 or 99 and all you see is flat farmland. Now farmland is beautiful. I know that. But it's not quite as exciting for driving long hours as the mountain peaks. Is that what this is about? Just a down-to-earth, flat farmland kind of passage? Well, I would propose to you that the mountain peaks on either side, what Paul has said in chapter 1 and we'll go on to say in chapter 2, are just as down-to-earth. Remember, Paul writes, to me to live is Christ and to die is gain from, if not a Roman prison cell, at least house arrest, where he is chained 24-7 to a Roman soldier, a Roman guard. He's not riding from the Sierra Nevadas. That's not his mountaintop experience. He's riding from the humidity of an Italian city in the midst of captivity. And, of course, he goes on to talk about Jesus, who could have enjoyed the glories of heaven forever, but instead took human nature and came down to this ugly, messy earth and became obedient even to the death of the cross. And you see, Paul is being very strategic here in placing this call to us to humble pursuit of unity right between his own experience of humdrum suffering in a Roman imprisonment situation and Jesus' experience of self-giving love on an ugly Roman cross. He's very strategic in doing that because he knows we need that kind of perspective if we're going to live for the glory of God. He's writing to a church that feels marginalized in its culture. Do you ever feel marginalized in American culture? You ever wonder whether things are falling apart? It feels to me like they are compared with when I was a child. You ever wonder questions like these? Does the West have the backbone, the self-discipline, and the courage to resist international terrorism, especially when the terrorists are driven by religious devotion and the West, by and large, isn't committed to anything except our own pleasure, right? our own toys and trinkets and new electronic gizmos to waste our time. We have no commitment. Is that where the West is going? You ever wonder about that? You ever wonder, will we ever have the will to say no to the escalating violence and explicit sexuality in all of our entertainment media, even as violence invades high schools and shopping malls and quiet suburbs and sexuality invades our homes by the internet. You ever wonder how many state supreme courts are going to follow California's lead in the next year or two defining marriage in line with the homosexual community's agenda rather than in terms of the creator's design for marriage? Begin to feel marginalized. Am I spoiling your evening by bringing all that messy stuff in the outside world into this oasis? But this oasis of worship is to fortify us to live in that world that is a world that is increasingly either indifferent or hostile to the gospel of grace and to the claims of the creator whom we know to be the only true and living God. Well, if you're getting a little discouraged, I have good news for you. This is not the first time in history that the church has felt a bit marginalized because the church at Philippi is in that very situation. In the text just before our text this evening, you heard Paul reference his call to stand firm for the gospel, not frightened by opponents. His reminder of how he had planted that church with Silas in Philippi in the midst of suffering. He says, you remember. You remember the suffering you saw. You know the suffering you hear I still have. and you're going through it too. You're being marginalized. And I want to call you to live life as citizens of heaven in an earthly city that is not friendly to your faith. And what that means is courage, fearlessness, that's what he emphasizes in chapter 1, verses 27 through 30, but also humility, selflessness. It's not hard to be courageous and a little arrogant. A lot of people are that way. It's not hard to be humble and kind of timid and fearful. A lot of people are that way. But Paul intends to show us that God puts together courage, boldness, and humility. Courage and humility. And Paul says, I'm calling you to be fearless in the face of your enemies and selfless, shoulder to shoulder with one another. And so he focuses on especially that call to unity of conviction and affection. You see it in verse 2 in particular. When he says, make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit, and one in purpose. That English translation is pretty good, pretty accurate. And it renders four distinct descriptions that Paul puts there. The first one and the last one actually in Greek even look more like one another than the NIV shows us. Paul really says, thinking the same thing. And then number four is, thinking the one thing. Almost identical. And it's about thought. It's about conviction. It's about what you believe and your attitude. And, as the NIV says here, about your purpose as well. In other words, he says, I want you to be on the same page in terms of what you believe, what you value, what you hold dear, what you are committed to. Doctrine unites believers. That's not what everybody thinks in the Christian world. It used to be an old motto, doctrine divides and service unites. Let's all get together and commit ourselves to some service project, and then we can ignore the fact that we don't agree on this or that aspect of what's revealed in the Bible. Paul's conviction is that doctrine, true doctrine, unites believers. That as we grow to understand the Bible more and more accurately, faithfully, fully, we will grow together, not apart. Paul says the great goal of Christ's gift to the church of apostles and prophets and shepherds and teachers is that we would grow in unity and the faith and knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ. As we learn more about God and his word, we get closer together. We see things more eye to eye. Paul says that needs to be your aim, to agree theologically, to think the same thing, to think the one thing, to understand the truth together so that you stand together for the truth. Very important, but not the only thing. Because between those two descriptions in verse 2, Paul tucks in two other descriptions. Having the same love and being one in spirit. Actually, being one in spirit is one single word in Greek, and it's sort of like the word soulmates. It's being soulmates. And there he's getting at not just what we believe intellectually, as important as that is, we need to think the same thing. We need to think the one thing. But he gets that affection. Not only conviction, but affection. Paul's a realist. He knows that it's possible even for believers who see things basically the same way in terms of doctrine, sometimes to not like each other. Can you imagine that? There may not be a hair's breadth of difference between them theologically, but for some other reason, some slight or offense or because they don't see quite the same priorities for where the church ought to go, they begin to get on each other's nerves. They begin to be aggravated with one another. They begin to do things, as Paul is going to warn the Philippians, out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. They don't love one another, even though theologically they're on the same page. And Paul says it's got to be unity of conviction and affection, both together. Now, Paul doesn't waste ink and parchment by telling people things they don't need to hear. He's telling the Philippian church this because they need to hear it. He loves his church. I would say if Paul played favorites with his spiritual children, Philippi might be the favorite child. He calls them his joy and his crown, his brothers and sisters whom he loves and longs for. This is a great church. He has such fond memories of them, but it's not a perfect church. And what he's heard about what's going on in their midst is showing him that there are some little tiny cracks that the pressure of being marginalized and persecuted could open up into bigger divisions. Over in the fourth chapter, he'll actually begin to name names. He'll call two of the women in the church, whom he treasures as partners in the work of Christ, who've helped him in some way in his preaching of the gospel. And he says, now, Euodia and Syntyche, you need to get along with one another. You need to see things in the same way as one another. He uses much of the terminology that he's using right here. He actually calls them by name because he says, I know you're in agreement with me on the gospel. There's no doctrine that he needs to correct in these two women, but there's something that is dividing them. And Paul says, it must not be. Unity of affection along with unity of conviction. Both have to go together. How does that happen? Well, Paul says, let me show you where the problem is when Christians start to get disunified, either with respect to our convictions and our beliefs or just with respect to our affections and relationship. The problem lies not in some outward opponent, not even in my brother or sister who offended me. The problem lies in me. And that's why Paul goes on in verse 3 to say, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Now Paul had used that term selfish ambition earlier. You heard it actually earlier as I was reading when he was describing what was going on at Rome. He says, everybody's preaching now because I can't get out to the streets to preach. And a lot of the people who are preaching are doing so because they love me and they know I've been put in prison for the gospel and they just want to extend the message of the gospel. But there are some who are actually preaching Christ. They're truly, faithfully preaching the gospel, but their motives are the worst possible motives. They want to make more converts than I've made. They want to add more spiritual scalps to their belt. They want to make me envious that they're free and out there preaching. They're preaching out of selfish ambition. Now, Paul says, I'm happy to have them preach because they are preaching the true gospel. And they're not really bothering me that I can't be where they are preaching. I'm sure that must have frustrated them a lot. Man, Paul's not even bothered. We want him to be bothered. But Paul says that's not a worthy motive, to preach Christ. And I'm sure when the Philippians heard about those preachers at Rome, they thought, shame on those people. How could they do that to our beloved Apostle Paul? And now Paul turns around and uses the same word and he says, what about you? What about the motive behind the way you serve one another? Or you preach. Or you do your work in the workplace. Or you relate to others in the family. What is your motive? For you too, I have to say, do nothing out of selfish ambition. Or vain conceit. Now there are lots of ways that selfish ambition could be manifested. It could be manifested by a kind of a stubbornness that refuses to listen to anybody else. It could be manifested by sheer greediness that wants more stuff. But it seems, because Paul is linking it with empty glory, vain conceit, that Paul is especially concerned about that kind of selfish ambition that wants to be noticed, that wants to be appreciated. It's more than happy to do good things for others, As long as credit comes to whom credit is due. Paul says, when those attitudes lie behind what you're doing in service to Christ or in service to others for the sake of Christ, that will breed division. That will undermine this unity of conviction and affection that I'm calling you to as fitting your dignity as citizens of heaven. Get it out of there. Get it out of your heart. That desire to be noticed. That desire to be appreciated. That sense of grievance when people don't thank you for all that you've done for them. That bitterness of resentment that what you've done is not appreciated and noticed by others. Paul says that needs to go. And what needs to replace it, well, you see it in the middle of verse 3 and on into verse 4. What needs to replace it is a humility that considers others more important than yourself. A humility that is as willing and ready to take a concern for others' concerns as you are naturally concerned about your own concerns. Now, we're not wired that way. That doesn't come naturally to us. Paul knows that. I'm writing to the Ephesians from generally the same imprisonment around the same time. Paul appeals to our inbred, hardwired, instinctive, self-centeredness when he says to us husbands, now husbands, you know very well that no one hates his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it. Now you need to start thinking about your wife that way and incorporate her in that natural sphere of protection that you instinctively give to your own body. We're not naturally wired to care as much about others, their pains, their griefs, their needs, certainly not to respect their opinions as much as we do our own. Paul is demanding something here that we just are not wired to do. Concern yourself for others. Consider others more important than yourself. give as much weight to their opinions as to yours, that's like turning our hearts inside out. How can that happen? What is powerful enough to transform our motives so that we love others the way we so naturally love ourselves? Why should I love like this? The apostle knew you would ask that question. And that's why he started this little paragraph with the answer to this question. Why should you love this way? Why should you seek the grace of the Holy Spirit to turn your heart inside out so that you think of others before you think of yourself and you honor them more than you honor yourself? Why should you do that? For love of those who love you and have met your deepest needs so you can also begin to learn to love others and meet their needs. Paul's thinking of himself partly as an example of somebody that they can look to who has turned his own heart inside out or had that heart turned inside out by Christ. So he loves them. He says, as you see in verse 2, Make my joy complete by being like-minded. Think about that for a minute. Doesn't that sound selfish? Make me happy. And he's going to call them to be selfless toward others? Ah, but remember how he's already begun to define his joy. His joy is when Christ is glorified in him, whether by life or by death. In fact, he's already said to the Philippians, you are my joy. And he will say it again in chapter 4. You are my joy. And he's already led them through that process of trying to figure out what he should ask Jesus for out of this imprisonment. Shall I ask for a quick execution by the sword from Caesar to depart, to be with Christ? Better for me by far. Then again, you need me on earth, Paul says. You need me released. You need me to come back to you and be able to preach to you again so that your joy will be full. And because you are my joy, I'm confident that the outcome of this imprisonment, at least, is going to be that I will be released and that I will come back to you and preach to you. Because Paul's motive, you see, is not about his own comfort. Not about what's best and comfortable for Paul, but about what's best for the glory of Christ and for Jesus' people. So Paul is not embarrassed to say, make my joy complete, because he needs them to know that his joy is all wrapped up with their becoming more like Jesus. And so he's saying, okay, sometimes you have trouble loving and forgiving each other. Sometimes you have trouble getting along with each other. Sometimes, because you're intimidated by the opponents and the persecutors from outside, you start nitpicking on one another. even if you don't feel affection for one another, think about me. Don't you love me, your pastor? You have pastors and elders who care for your soul, for their sake, because they love you, and they spend sleepless nights sometimes concerned for the lives of congregation members. Love each other deeply, sacrificially, selflessly. So Paul's not reluctant to say, if you love me, if you feel for me, make my joy complete by showing unity because my joy is found not in my personal comfort but in seeing you bring glory to Jesus through your unity. But of course, Paul only gets to himself as a kind of an afterthought because he opens our text with far stronger leverage, calling us to love one another because of the way the triune God has loved us. That's the point of verse 1. Now, the NIV is a good translation. It's added a few words because Paul's Greek is really terse. It's really concise. And to make it flow in English, you have to fit in a few words. But I need to tell you that the words you have, which you have in the NIV, have no counterpart in the Greek. Paul just starts, if any encouragement in Christ. if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit. Christ, love, and the Spirit. Almost sounds like the Trinity, doesn't it? Oh, God the Father is not mentioned. Okay, that's true. But two of the three persons of the Trinity are mentioned here, right? The encouragement that is ours because we belong to Christ, the fellowship that we have because his Holy Spirit has entered our lives to draw us to trust in Christ. Why doesn't Paul mention God the Father? Well, in a certain sense, he is alluding to the work of God the Father in that middle section, that middle phrase, if any comfort from love. Remember Paul's apostolic benediction? We'll hear at the end of our service this evening. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The love associated with the Father there. The three persons of the Trinity. Christ the encourager. To those who are suffering. Jesus who has come to suffer for us. As Paul will go on to say in verses 5 through 11. The Father who loved us and did not withhold his own son, but graciously gave him up for us all. the Spirit whose fellowship, whose partnership has brought the benefits of the Son planned by the Father into our experience as he's drawn us to trust in Jesus. There's the triune God committed to our unity at great cost, at the cost of the death of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us, who, though he was in very nature God, did not take his equality with God as something to be grasped and used for his own advantage, but poured out his life as the servant, and now has been exalted by the Father. Another letter from prison, Paul wrote, Ephesians, has a very similar structure in the fourth chapter, again where Paul is urging the Ephesians to unity. Paul says there is one body and one spirit, just as there is one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And he lists those things, the one spirit producing one body, the one Lord in whom we believe, in whose name we are baptized, the one God and Father of all, in order to emphasize our calling to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace through humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness. What's the point? Simply this. Despite our sinful self-centeredness, despite our preoccupation with our own ideas, our own preferences, our own reputations, our own convenience and comfort, despite what's so instinctive to us as fallen children of Adam, The triune God has come to encourage you in the incarnation of Jesus the Son. He has comforted and loved you in the love that the Father has shown in sending his Son for you. And he's established fellowship with you in the person of his Holy Spirit at such great cost. So Paul says, when you see how you've been loved, When you see how Christ encourages, when you see that the Spirit has taken up his residence in you to make you, as it were, living temples of the living God, you have both the reason and the hope that your hearts can be turned inside out by the power of the Spirit of Christ that he will mold you into the image of Christ. You have every reason to do it for gratitude, for this amazing grace. You've been loved by Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. Loved by the Father, who did not withhold his own Son, but graciously gave up for us all. Loved by the Spirit, who gives himself to us to draw us to trust in Christ, that we might find life in Christ and grow in Christ. When you see how you've been loved by the triune God, how can you do anything other than respond to him by laying down our selfish ambition, our vain conceit, our hurt feelings, our competitive urges, and begging the Savior by the Spirit to turn our hearts inside out so that our identity as citizens of heaven, in this ugly world, in a culture that is at best indifferent and at worst hostile to the gospel of grace, or maybe at worst indifferent and at best hostile. Sometimes the hostility brings us more into the reality of who we are in Christ. But so that we would have that sense that the culture sees in us something that can be explained in no other way than that the triune God has been at work transforming, redeeming, claiming us for himself, and making us people who love selflessly and who face suffering fearlessly for the glory of Christ. Amen.