Philippians 2:1-4 (Audio only)

The following sermon is by Nathan Hargrave, the teaching pastor at Twelve Five Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your knowledge of God so that you might be equipped for every good work.

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Opening Exposition in Philippians 2:1-4

Finally made it to chapter two of our study through the book of Philippians. So go ahead and turn with me to chapter two of Philippians. We're going to be looking at verses one through four this morning.

Starting there in verse one, it 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 of one mind.

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. Let's go to the Lord in prayer again. Dearly father, Lord, we thank you for bringing us back together again today.

And God, we thank you for your grace in our lives as we have just sung these songs, these truths about you. I pray that you would have been honored in our worship through song and through prayer. God, I pray right now as we open up your word that you would illuminate our minds and hearts.

God, I pray that you would guard me from error. I pray that as I speak this morning, that it would be in alignment with your word and your truth. And in particular, these four verses here in the letter to the church at Philippi, God, I pray that I would be true to this text.

God, I pray that you guard me and speak through me in this text. Lord, I pray that you would allow this truth to penetrate our minds, renew our minds, and work its way out through our hearts, that we would go out from this place after hearing your word, being doers of the word and not just hearers only.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. September 11th, 2001. I mean, all I have to do is say that date and those of us that are old enough, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? As a matter of fact, you're probably being taken back to that space now, that wherever it was that you were when this tragic day happened, you probably remember it well.

And for those of you that are younger, maybe the kids in here that don't know what I'm talking about by just saying a date, that was the day that the terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, killing, I believe it was 2 ,974 people and injuring more than 6 ,000 more people.

But those of us that are old enough to remember this, you probably remember the fear and the heartbreak of the whole process when you were watching it on TV and even the aftermath, the few days afterwards, just seeing the devastation of what had happened, this fear that was all throughout the country.

Everyone felt it. We all felt it. But you also probably sensed over those few days unity, the fact that this country, America, had began to unify, and it really didn't matter who was in office. If you remember, George W. Bush stands at ground zero, speaks to the American people, and it didn't matter if you were Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever that might be, you were unified because you had one purpose.

There was one purpose, and that purpose and that common goal was to, one, rebuild, and two, to bring justice. And everyone was together, and it seemed as though, for a moment, that America was finally one nation because we were all unified under one cause.

But you also probably recall that that unity didn't last long. We seemed so unified in the moment, but that unity started to slip away as differing opinions and different perspectives and all of this infighting and partisan politics came back into the scene, and we started to have disunity with our neighbors again, and that unity just kind of slipped away.

And now here, right around 20 years later, we're more divided as a country than we ever.

Were.

So why is that? Why can America, under such dire circumstances and something as catastrophic and large as 9 -11 happen, but yet unity can't maintain? Why can't we maintain it? It doesn't last long. Well, first of all, it's because the sinful entities of this world will always be in derision,.

Won't they?

They'll always be in derision. There's only one kingdom that will stand, and it will stand in unity, and we're going.

To see that today.

But secondly, and more specifically, the governments and the rulers of this world will, they have no foundation. They have no foundation. They are on sinking sand. They're on sinking sand, and they cannot and will not maintain because all men do whatever is right in their own eyes, and that's all this is, is just a group of people doing whatever is right in their own eyes.

They can't maintain. They can't have unity. The only common bond that the people of this world have is that of love of self, and that can't unify. You can't be unified with others when you are isolated on an island of self, and that's what the world is.

But unfortunately, the church often finds itself in this conundrum of disunity also, doesn't it? We see it in the church. We see Christians unify for a moment. We see ministries unify for a moment. We see churches unify for a moment only to watch it drift away.

It's kind of like holding water in your hands. No matter how badly you want to hang on to it, it slips through your fingertips, and that unity always seems to go away, doesn't it? It always seems to slip away from us, and I would say that this disunity is more often than not blamed on doctrine.

You've heard the statement, doctrine divides. Doctrine divides, and while I agree with that statement, doctrine does divide. It divides truth from error, but that's not what they're meaning when they say that doctrine divides.

What they're saying is that if we would just get rid of this divisive doctrine, these hard stances that you're taking, then we will finally be able to achieve this utopian Christian world and life and church and unity.

We'll be like the church in Acts, won't we? If we were like the church in Acts, we'd be suffering persecution and losing our jobs and being fed to lions, but that's okay. But we will finally be like the church in Acts.

We will be unified in this utopian perspective, and this perspective, I would argue, is no different than America after September 11th, because they seem unified for a moment, but it will always be short-lived, always, because there's no foundation.

There's no unity. There's no like-mindedness. Remember last week, verse 27, the end part of verse 27, where Paul says, standing firm in one spirit, in one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel?

That's true unity that Paul's calling for there, but it requires something, and we're going to talk about that today. This unity that Paul calls for in this letter is not some abstract ideology. It's not this idea out there that is vague or can be perceived in a different way, and everyone can kind of come around, and there's this idea of unity outside of something concrete and foundational.

This unity that Paul calls for is one of oneness. It's one of oneness in spirit. If you recall last week talking about the Holy Spirit, we are all indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and we have oneness in spirit because of that unity.

That's a foundation, but then also oneness in mind. It requires us to be connected to something bigger than ourselves. We get a glimpse of that a little bit right after September 11th with America. America was unified because of something bigger than themselves, but it wasn't big enough to sustain, but ours is big enough to sustain because it's Christ.

It's more than sufficient, and to think the same thing is important, and that's doctrine. Doctrine is important because to think the same thing is of utmost importance. That's what Paul has called us to do.

This, I would say, is the only thing in the entire universe that is capable of bringing.

Lasting unity.

This is the only thing. It's Christ. It's the only thing that can unify. So, with that being said, some of you might have this looming question because of previous experience. What about the churches who have both of these?

They claim to be one in Christ, have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they also love their doctrine. They're all in unity with their statement of faith. This important statement of faith, don't get me wrong, vitally important.

I'm talking about these churches that do this, but yet unity, disunity still.

Creeps in.

It still creeps in, doesn't it? We've seen it over and over again where even these churches that seem to have both disunity comes back, and this seems to be the precise situation that the church at Philippi are in as Paul is writing this letter.

So, let's look here. Chapter 2, starting in verse 1. So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy. Some of your translations are going to say, therefore.

I like that word there, therefore, because when you see the word therefore, what is it? Therefore, right? It's basically just saying, hey, what Paul is about to say is grounded in the previous chapter.

So, what is the overarching theme of chapter 1? If you had to narrow it down, what would be the overarching theme of chapter.

1?

I would say it's to live as Christ. It's to live as Christ, because as I said earlier, the undercurrent of unity is woven throughout chapter 1. Paul is constantly, he has this woven throughout. And to live for Christ is to seek to be like Christ.

Isn't it? To live for Christ is to seek to be like Christ. We're little Christians, little Christ. We're seeking to be like our Savior. And to be like Christ, you must be in unity with Christ. And we're going to talk about that in greater depth.

And to be in unity with Christ, you will be in unity with those who are also in Christ. So, turn with me, actually. I want us to look at John chapter 17. We're going to be looking at the high priestly prayer, or at least a small portion of it.

John chapter 17. We're going to be looking at verse 20 and a couple verses on here. So, he writes, I do not ask for these only. Who's he talking about? He's talking about the disciples and the believers that are present as he's praying this prayer.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Jesus is talking about us here, isn't he? He's talking about every saint that's ever to come and ever to be. He's talking about 12 .5 church in 2020 in America today.

That's who he's praying for. In verse 21, he says, that they may all be one. Just as, underline that word, just as,.

Both words,.

You,.

Father,.

Are in me, and I in you. You see the connection that Jesus is making here? He's saying that all believers, from this point on throughout eternity, that they are to share in the unity that he shares with the Father, which is one of perfect unity and perfect communion from eternity past.

That we are to share in that same unity. He goes on, he says, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The entirety of the New Testament is calling for unity, but not just so that everyone can just get along.

It's not so that everyone can get along and everyone can look in and say, oh, look at those Christians, they're just good. Everybody is unified. How can they unify? No, this unity is based on, feeds from, and points to the triune God.

That's its purpose. That's what it's doing here. And Jesus, Jesus is not the Christ because of what he does and what he did. He's the Christ because of who he is. So if we're going to imitate Christ, it can't be through mere action.

It can't be through trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and say, I'm going to be unified. It requires us to be in Christ because Christ is the Christ because of who he is. It's in his nature and we must be one with him.

It must be through this oneness with Christ. And this oneness is seen here in verse 22. Keep reading with me. The glory that you have given me. Think about that for a second. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.

He who knew no sin became sin for us. We obtained his righteousness.

That's,.

That's what Jesus is talking about here.

He says,.

I have given it to them that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

This unity isn't for us. It's not so that the world can look at us and say, look at those Christians. They're so good. Everything is great. We don't want to, we don't want to give them this bad impression.

So we kind of put this false unity out there and we try and cover it all up because that's what our focus is.

Oftentimes.

So what the world sees is unity, but it's meant to point to and bring glory to the almighty triune God and the great love that that great God has bestowed upon us. And that's what he says right there at the end, isn't it?

So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. That's beautiful. There's so much in that. I'm not even going to dive into that because there's so much there that we could be looking at and saying, God loves me the way he loves his own son, Christ, because of his son's righteousness that has been put on me, that has been given to me.

That's beautiful. But we're going to move on from there. It's founded and rooted in this oneness with Christ. Without this foundation, the battle for unity is already lost. We can't, we can't be unified.

Not without this oneness with Christ. There is zero unity without it. It's all fake. It's all man-made. It's all conjured up. And it's all momentary. We can't unify apart from that. With this oneness, we have some guaranteed things, though.

Some guaranteed things. And so go back to our passage in Philippians. I want us to see some of these guaranteed things here in verse 1.

He says,.

So, or therefore, if. We stop there. This word, if, is from a Greek word that the Apostle Paul actually uses four times in verse 1. If you see, I have it up here, you can see he has it before each one of these four things that he lists out here.

He says,.

If there any encouragement in Christ, if comfort from love, if participation in the Spirit, if affection and sympathy. Paul puts that in there all four times to drive emphasis. And I think it's hard for us to understand because this word, if, and I'm not going to go into the grammatical aspect of this, but just know that I believe a better translation for this word, if, is the word sense.

The word sense allows our minds to see what the Apostle Paul was originally meaning in his writing. And this word sense is, J .D., bring us to the next one. I've rewritten this for us to really better understand what Paul is saying.

This is a better translation, I think.

It says,.

Therefore, since there is encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy. Do you see the difference there? These are not abstract theological ideas here.

These are not, Paul's not saying, hey, if these are present in your life, Christians at Philippi, if these are present in your life, if you have them, no, he's saying, and he's affirming, they are absolutely present in your life.

These are obviously present, and not only are they present, they're very personal, and they're guaranteed. They're absolute. Paul is saying here, if you have oneness in Christ, then all four of these things will absolutely be present.

Think about that for a second. That should give us unbelievable encouragement and motivation so that we can rest on these things knowing that they are certain. So what are these four things? Let's identify them.

Let's look at them briefly. I want to skim through them so that we can kind of align our minds knowing what is this that is guaranteed in the Christian life since we have these. Well, the first one is encouragement in Christ.

Encouragement in Christ. Now, again, we're going to be talking about that pretty extensively next week in verses 5 through 11,.

But what I believe.

Paul is talking about here is the fact that our Savior is one of example. Our Savior is one of example. Think about over in Hebrews 4, verse 15,.

He says,.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. There is encouragement in Christ because of who He is and what He has done.

All other religions have a God and a quote-unquote Savior for themselves that is altogether separate and can't sympathize with their plight, can't sympathize with their need, but we serve a Savior that He Himself has placed Him.

He has lowered Himself to be in the position.

That we're in.

And He can sympathize with us. And that's beautiful. And there's encouragement in that, isn't there? There's great encouragement in Christ because of who He is, because of who our Savior is and what He has done.

We have encouragement.

The second thing that Paul brings up is comfort from love. Paul has expressed comfort from the love that the church at Philippi has been showing him,.

Hasn't he?

That's probably why he added this into this absolute certainty. I see this present in your life. Since this is present, that this comfort from love, he has received a ton of help from this church. I mean, this church has put themselves in a position of vulnerability to help Paul.

They've suffered with Paul and they've brought Paul comfort from it, haven't they? They've brought him a tremendous amount of comfort. So that comfort from love, if you're a believer, love will comfort those around you.

The love that comes from you and your oneness with Christ will comfort those around you because the love of Christ comforts those around Him, don't they? Anything and anyone around Christ is comforted from love.

Not only that, but you will receive comfort because of your oneness in Christ from other believers. That comfort from love is going to be present in your life.

You will be.

Encouraged in Christ. You will be encouraged knowing who your Savior is and being certain in the life that He lived and the resurrection that He defeated death and that certainty and that encouragement and now that comfort.

From love.

Because of that oneness in Christ is going to be present. It's going to be present in your life and it's going to be present in those lives that are around you that are one in Christ. That love can't help.

But show.

And that comfort from love will be there. The third thing that Paul brings up is participation in the Spirit. Man, we've talked about that over the past couple of weeks quite a bit. I mean, the people at Philippi have, again, put themselves into a vulnerable situation to participate in the Spirit.

And Paul says, again, in verse 27 that we mentioned earlier, He's standing firm in one Spirit. The Holy Spirit's work.

Will be evident.

In your life. It's going to be evident in your life and it's going to be evident in the lives of those around you both through that encouragement in Christ through the comfort.

And love.

But this participation and this was obviously present in the Church of Philippi and Paul is affirming it. And fourthly,.

He says affection.

And sympathy. You can jot this down. I think I have 2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4.

Up here.

You can see it. But Paul says to his second letter to the Church.

At Corinth,.

He says,.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort.

With which.

We ourselves are comforted by God. And this ties into all of those things,.

Doesn't it?

Ties into.

That encouragement.

In Christ and that comfort from love and this participation.

In the Spirit.

And this affection and sympathy.

When we are.

One with the Triune God, just like we saw a minute ago.

Over in.

The High Priestly Prayer,.

When we are made.

One with the Triune God with Christ,.

We will emulate.

His affection and sympathy. It's gonna be present. It will be absolute in your life. There is no question.

I mean,.

Think about churches that don't have this.

I mean,.

I think of an extreme example.

What are the.

Westboro Baptist Church? That hateful group?

They have.

No affection.

And sympathy. It's obvious.

That they have.

No oneness in Christ because that affection.

And sympathy.

Is not present.

In their lives.

You ever seen that ornery church member? That old guy who serves as a deacon and he's just unhappy and there's no affection and sympathy? He doesn't sympathize.

With anyone?

It's probably proof.

That there's.

No oneness in Christ because when there is oneness in Christ, that affection and sympathy will be present.

It will be.

And that's what.

Paul is saying here. He's telling them that this is going to be present in your life and he's affirming it in the church at Philippi as he's writing this letter. He's saying, I see these things. These things are absolute.

The Call to Unity in Mind, Love, and Purpose

So then he goes on into verse 2.

He says,.

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. This is very similar to verse 27, isn't it? He's reaffirming this but in a slightly different perspective.

So now that he said all of these things in verse 1 that are foundational, they're concrete, they're absolute, Paul's affirming it in their lives. This is for sure. He's saying, you are in Christ. There is oneness in Christ.

I see the evidence of it. Now how can they possibly complete his joy? Wouldn't that be enough? Wouldn't all of those other four things have been enough? But now he's saying, complete my joy. All of these things are already present.

What can I possibly bring to the table? What can the church at Philippi possibly be bringing to the table? Here's where Paul admonishes them. This right here is where Paul admonishes them to actively pursue unity within and out of the power of these guarantees.

I'm going to say that again. This is where Paul admonishes them to actively pursue unity within and out of the power of these guarantees. He's saying, now that we see the fruit of oneness with Christ.

In your lives,.

You have the ability.

To achieve unity.

You now have a foundation. You now stand on a foundation that is secure and absolute and guaranteed. So how do they achieve this unity after that? Shouldn't that unity just be present? Shouldn't that unity just automatically.

Be there?

Well, obviously not because Paul continues to admonish them.

He says,.

By being of the same mind.

I mean, this really.

Just simply means to think the same thing.

I don't know if.

All of you are familiar where we got the name for our church but Romans 12 .5, hence 12 .5 church. Romans 12 .5 says, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

We've talked about it over the past few weeks. We're a body. The body has a head. That head is Christ, isn't it?

How would a body.

Function with two minds? That's what Paul is saying simply here. Be of the same mind. We see this devastating divide in this country because of opposing worldviews. They're unable to unify because they think differently.

They think different things and their thoughts and beliefs are opposed to each other. Yet, we're called to have one mind. The same mind. Now, I spoke about it last week how we're to have the same mind of Christ again because He is the head of the body.

So, how does this work? How do we have the mind of Christ? Does this just mystically get implanted into our heads the moment that we're made one with Christ? The moment that we come to faith? Is that how it works?

Is the mind of Christ just implanted into our brains? Is having the mind of Christ.

Through wearing.

Our WWJD bracelet?

I don't even know.

If that's a thing anymore. I'm aging myself there. Or what would Jesus do. Bracelet so that we can look and say,.

Well, what would Jesus do? Hmm, I wonder.

This abstract idea. Is that what it's like to have the mind of Christ? Is that how we have the mind of Christ? Having the mind of Christ only comes through a knowledge of Christ. And a knowledge of Christ only comes through doctrine.

That evil word.

Doctrine divides.

The knowledge of Christ only comes through doctrine. Doctrine is just the knowledge of God. How are we to know what Christ would think and know what Christ.

Would do.

If we're not.

Getting it from here? If we're not getting it from His Word, how are we supposed.

To know it?

That's just doctrine.

But,.

Simple knowledge is not enough though,.

Is it?

We probably all know a whole lot of people.

Who have a lot.

Of doctrinal knowledge, but some of these other things don't seem to be present in their life. And they can't unify with others. I would say knowing the right thing doesn't necessarily.

Lead to unity.

It doesn't.

Knowing the right thing doesn't lead to unity. But I would say that unity requires knowing the right thing. You get that? Knowing the right thing doesn't necessarily lead to unity, but unity does require knowing the right thing.

There's no way.

To get around it.

Because, unifying knowledge must be grounded.

In truth.

It must be grounded in something foundational. In that oneness of Christ,.

But then even.

Just knowing who Christ is and knowing who God is. So, I think that leads us to a question. Did Paul agree with everyone in the church? About everything? Were all his doctrines, every single one of them, in line with everyone else?

I mean,.

Was it Barnabas.

That he had.

A sharp disagreement with? They even had to go minister separately in different ways because of this disagreement? So, what kind of thinking, what kind of knowledge is Paul talking.

About here?

I would say basic fundamental orthodox truth. What do I mean.

By that?

I mean that.

There are things.

About.

And from the Word of God that we can have disagreement on.

I mean,.

I think of two.

Of the men.

That probably every one of us in this room.

Admire greatly.

John MacArthur and R .C. Sproul.

Right?

They disagree.

On baptism. They disagree on quite a few things. But, one of the major things is baptism. The form of baptism. The mode of baptism.

Yet, those men.

Had great love.

For each other.

Before R .C. Sproul passed and were very good friends and were united for the sake of the Gospel. There was unity between those two men.

Even though.

They didn't think all the same things. Because we can disagree on a few things and maintain unity. And I don't want to talk too much about it because I think most of us.

Already know.

Doctrines from the Word of God are really categorized.

By.

Theologians and scholars in three sections. We call it like the three tiers of doctrine.

You have the.

First tier issues. First tier issues affect the Gospel. We would say that the virgin birth isn't a first tier issue. If you don't believe in the virgin birth.

You cannot land.

Within the realm.

Of Christianity.

There are things.

That we believe.

Are first tier issues and the things that affect the clarity and the truth of the Gospel itself. But then there are secondary issues. Things like baptism. What is the mode of baptism?

How should it be done?

When should it be done? We think with our Baptist leaning we're pretty sure where that leads and we have a concrete stance but we don't lose fellowship with our brothers who land differently.