An Ode To Unity

Please turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1.

Sorry. You'll see. And please stand for the reading of God's word if you're able. We'll actually begin at verse 27 for a little bit of context.

But the pastor will be preaching from the first four verses of chapter 2. So we'll read from verse 27 of chapter 1 through verse 4 of chapter 2.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to you and see you or am absent,

I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and are not frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw that I had, and now hear that I still have.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is 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 a full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you for this reminder of your will for us in this place.

Thank you for the great example that you have put before us of our Savior, who didn't just come and save us from sin.

He came in humility of mind. He came thinking of us as more important than himself.

He being God in the flesh, and yet he saw us as more important and worthy of our suffering for his plan.

We thank you, Father, for his great love, how right it is that we should love others more than ourselves when you have loved us far greater.

Help us, please, in this day, and by this word that is preached to us, to love one another more important than ourselves.

And that you'd be with us here, Father, by your spirit, convicting us of sin where we have sinned, encouraging us to righteousness and holding out our great example before us to follow, our

Captain who has gone before us, even your Son, Jesus Christ. And in his name we pray.

Amen. Please be seated. So I'd ask you this morning to begin.

What quality do you, as an individual Christian in this place, bring that you think is most important to this fellowship?

What is the Christian character that you must have that should be your number one contribution, if you will, in this place?

I would argue from the book of Philippians that it is unity.

That it's unity. You remember two weeks ago we preached from chapter 1, verses 27 to 30?

And Paul used the metaphor of a Roman legion of soldiers shoulder to shoulder, shields locked together in an impregnable defensive wall, working as one.

And he says, therefore, stand firm in the faith. That's the military metaphor. Not being frightened in anything by your opponents.

Again, military. Not being scared off by the attacks that you see or that you will experience.

Unity. And now in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 2,

Paul hits this theme again of unity. And I ask you, having this now the second sermon on this theme, of unity.

What do you bring? What quality do you bring to this place, you as an individual, that is the most important of qualities?

Unity. Unity. It is unity. It is being of one accord with each other.

The military metaphor of chapter 1, verses 27 to 30. And now Paul, as Moises Silva calls it, not logical theological arguments, but impassioned pleading that we be unified.

That the church be in unity together. And if this isn't enough, the next sermon is on the famous, what we call, great parabola of Christ Jesus who went from his glory in heaven to come to earth where he was humbled as a man and suffered for our sins and died and rose again and is now exalted in heaven.

And that great example of the mind of Christ as the paradigm, if you will, for the unity that you,

Christian, should bring to this place. Unity is so important.

I will say, also in introductory matters, that as I've read through Philippians and studied the commentaries on this and preparing to preach through it, there is no real consensus on what the doctrinal core of this book is.

It's this letter of Paul to these friends, if you will, these people he was so close to.

But as I read it, as I've studied, as I've prayed my way through it to prepare these messages, it's dawned on me that Philippi had more trouble than we at first realized in a cursory reading through the book.

The idea towards the end of the letter where he says, work with Euodia and Synecdoche and bring these two women together because they've been working together for the gospel and they're important and they need to be unified.

I didn't quote it, I kind of paraphrased that issue. And throughout this letter to the

Philippians, Paul, to these friends, to these people he was so warmly attached to, pleads with them, he exhorts them, he begs them, he tells them, be like soldiers, be unified.

And now, this impassioned pleading, and again I ask you, what is your most important Christian quality that you bring to this fellowship?

Oh, it's unity. It's to be at one in humility with other believers.

You must be in unity with each other to properly play your part in this production, if you will, of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before we begin, I want to tell you that when I talked about it as a doctrine or as a drama, that relates back to a book

I read some time ago by Kevin Van Hooser called The Drama of Doctrine. And he frames biblical doctrine as a sort of play, as a drama that plays out

Sunday in and Sunday out at the church. And if it's a play, then we have a script that is given to us, which is the scripture.

We have a director who is the Holy Spirit. And we have players of this gospel, which is we together, the church.

And to make this have any sense, out of it, we have to be unified. We have to be on the same page, both literally and metaphorically.

All of us together, you, church, we, pastors, we have two pastors here who lead this congregation.

And week in, week out, we put forth this drama, this greatest drama ever devised.

A drama that is either too good to be believed or too convicting to be followed.

But week in, week out, this is what we do. And if we are not unified, if we are not together, if we're not on the same page literally and spiritually, it won't play out.

It is outside the will of God. You must be in unity with each other to properly play your part in this great drama.

The verses here in Philippians 2, 1 through 5 are going to help us here. Verse 1 is going to tell us of the grounds of our unity.

The grounds of unity that you have with everyone sitting around you. Verse 2 is going to tell you of the joy of your unity.

The joy you should have in this unity. And then verses 3 and 4, the look of this unity.

What does it look like? How does it play out? What does it mean in our day -to -day life as Christians together?

And more particularly, as Christians together and we who are committed together to each other in this place because of our commitment together in Jesus Christ.

What are the grounds of our unity? What is Paul telling you that you have in order to bring to effect this unity that he's been focusing on since chapter 1, verse 27 and we'll go through chapter 2 in verse 11.

The ground of our unity is right there in verse 1. The ground of your unity, the basis you have for it is there in verse 1.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy.

Now stop there. It's really not a sentence of its own. It's a very long sentence in the original language.

We'll stop there at the end of verse 1. And what Paul's saying is if you are in Christ and if you are in His Spirit, then these are yours.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, comfort from love, participation in the

Spirit, affection and sympathy, if you are in Christ, if you have

His Spirit, this is the ground. This is the basis of your unity with others.

If you have encouragement in Christ, if you have participation in the Spirit, then you've been qualified by God to take your part in what

I would call the greatest drama ever known beyond the imaginings of men, a fabulous drama in which you must take your part in unity with others from the encouragement of Christ and from the participation in the

Spirit. I've seen documentaries before of tryouts for great ballet shows or Broadway shows and things like that.

You ever think of these ballerinas who stand on their toes? Literally, they're two big toes and they can stand up and stretch their legs straight like that.

I've known one person, one of my wife's older sisters who studied ballet for a while and was explaining to me how much that hurt that she couldn't even do it.

And these people work so hard just to get an audition, just to get a chance at taking a part.

The pain is incredible. They have to stretch ligaments that I didn't even know existed all to get a chance just to have a chance at getting a part just for the audition.

And if we think of the church as a stage on which the gospel drama is played out, this isn't a crass thing to think of because week in, week out, we do play out this gospel.

Every Sunday afternoon before the end of our service or at the end of our service, we take the Lord's table.

And there the gospel is again played out the drama that God affected in Christ Jesus to bring sinners to himself.

Played out in the bread and the wine. Week in and week out. But if that is the case, if Van Hooser's idea works, and I think it works very well, then

I will take it just a little bit further and I will speak about the audition. How would you then be qualified to take your part in unity with others in this great drama that God has designed?

Not some human producer or director or screenwriter, but God Almighty. When you see for you, if you're in Christ Jesus, there is no audition.

There is no qualification for you in that sense. If you're in Christ, the audition, if we can call it that with some reverence, the audition was accomplished by another.

It was accomplished for you by Christ Jesus. It was accomplished for you when

Christ Jesus died for your sins and was buried and on the third day rose again.

To have improved, he accomplished your salvation. It is he who did the heavy lifting.

It is he who did the work. His perfect life qualified him as a perfect man. His suffering on the cross qualified him as our

Savior. And now by faith you have in him for what he has done for you, you take your role in the body, which is his church.

You don't have to work for this, nor do you have to exercise your body or practice for the audition. You've passed from audience to participant by faith and by faith alone.

So I'd ask you, do you have the encouragement of Christ?

Do you have his comfort from love? And these are aspects of what he imparts to you to take your part in this week in, week out, lifelong drama.

Encouragement. If there's any encouragement in Christ, the word encouragement is related to the word for comfort, but that comes up in the next clause, so we can leave it there and just work on encouragement for a moment.

Now the apostle Paul is not really very specific about exactly what encouragement he means, so we can take it in a general sense.

If there's any encouragement in Christ. Encouragement in Christ for what he's done for you to bring you to the

Father. Encouragement in having been justified by faith and having peace with God as an undying, as an unfading possession.

Encouragement in a salvation to which you cannot, indeed to which you must not try to add anything.

Encouragement in knowing the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Is there any encouragement in Christ?

It's going to lead to unity. Do you have this encouragement in Christ? Any comfort from love?

What could Paul mean here? What could the apostle be driving at? Comforted by a love that will never leave you or forsake you.

Comforted by a Jesus who loved his disciples to the end as we read in John chapter 13, where when he washed the disciples' feet, the apostle says, he loved them to the end.

To the end. To the end of his life? Yes. To the end of extent?

Yes, that means to the greatest degree. Both are true. Is that not a comfort to you?

If there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from that kind of love. Certainly you must be encouraged in a

Christ Jesus who would obey his Father's will and bring you from the world into citizenship in heaven.

To bring you from sinner to saint. To give you a hope that Jesus Christ, who never sinned, would accomplish that on behalf of sinners in accordance with his

Father's will. Here's the great love with which he loved us. Is that not a comfort to you?

Any participation in the Spirit. The word participation is common in this book of Philippians. Koinonia.

Participation, fellowship, partnership. It could mean all of those. But koinonia, any participation in the

Spirit, any fellowship with him. What participation is he speaking of?

Well, first and foremost, it is Christ. That is to say, if God by his Spirit has renewed your soul, if he has given you new birth in Christ, if he has made you a new creation and placed you in Jesus Christ, then you are a full participant in that salvation.

It's yours. You have participation.

You have koinonia in the road of sanctification that he's laid out in the script of the Bible. You have participation in the church with the rest of us who have also been purchased by our

Savior's blood. Any affection and sympathy.

What could Paul mean there? What does this have to do with unity? In this impassioned plea that he makes to this church, to us today, to be unified, to have unity, to have humility with each other that leads to unity.

Any affection and sympathy. Those are the deep -seated emotions that are buried in your soul by God's Holy Spirit.

The kind of affection that God had for you before the foundation of the world. The kind of sympathy that looked to helpless and wayward sinners with pity.

The kind of sympathy that Jesus spoke of in one of the most famous parables, the parable of the good

Samaritan, where the Samaritan had pity on the man who was beaten and wounded and laying dying on the side of the road.

Any participation in the Spirit? Any affection and sympathy?

We're speaking of divine qualities here, imparted to the believer when they come to Christ Jesus by faith.

And Paul says, if there is any. If there is any. I haven't even gotten to the command part yet.

And what we're to do with that, if there is any. And so I left this off intentionally.

I want to circle back to the beginning of verse 1 for a moment. He says, so if.

So if there is any. And that word if is terribly important with the rest of the clause, but the word if itself is so important.

We need to take a moment and explain this. In the original, the word if and the rest of the clause that follows it is not a form of possibility.

It's not as though Paul was saying, if only you had a spattering of encouragement, if only you were a bit part participant in the

Spirit. Maybe you had a twinkling of that. It's not saying that.

And it is not a negation of possibility as though Paul was saying, if only you did have this, but alas, you don't, so never mind.

Off the stage, next audition. No, the apostles language is saying something very, very different from that.

And we need to understand this before we go through the rest of this passage. The word if and the clause that follows assumes that what

Paul says after the if is true. So we could paraphrase it and put it this way.

Seeing that you do, in fact, have the encouragement in Christ and comfort from love.

Seeing that you are, in fact, participants in the Spirit and therefore do, indeed, have affection and sympathy.

These things are true of you because you are in Christ. You do have

His encouragement. Because you are in Christ, you do have His comfort from love. Because you are in the

Spirit, you do have participation in God Himself by the Spirit. You do have

His affection. You do have His sympathy. You are, by God's grace, qualified to join in this drama of the gospel in unity with the rest of us.

Christ has won your part for you. And you do have these qualities. The if doesn't say maybe or if only.

It says, in fact, you do. Seeing that these things are true.

So one question we need to ask in terms of our unity, which we really haven't even gotten to in detail yet, and Lord willing we will, but one question we need to ask is will you take your part?

Will you take your part? Now many people say, well, I can't because I don't have the skill set for it.

But you can't claim a lack of skill unless you will also say that Jesus Christ was not skilled when

He chose you before creation. You cannot claim that you need another month of practice unless you can also say that what

Jesus did wasn't adequate for you. And you can't claim to have no role in the local fellowship unless you can also claim that, for example, in 1

Corinthians 12, 11, where it says that God placed each member, meaning we have ears and eyes and mouth and hands and feet and all the rest of the body parts that we need, unless in 1

Corinthians 12, 11, where it says that God placed each one of you where it pleased Him to place you, where it was

God's will for you to be and contribute, unless that is mistaken that we can't claim to have no role.

Unless the Holy Spirit in you is inadequate, you cannot claim that you're unable unless it's

God who's unable to work in you, for it's God who works in you to will and to do for His good pleasure.

In Van Hooser's frame, a troupe of actors or a chorus line has to work together.

It has to be unified in purpose. Each part is different and each part is important. The grounds of this unity in the church is your encouragement in Christ, your participation in the

Spirit. I say again, do you know Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sin and fled to the cross upon which

He suffered for your sin? And in sorrow confessed your sin to Him, sought

His forgiveness, and known by His Spirit that you are indeed forgiven and now are able to come to the

Father? Do you know these things? Then you have the encouragement.

Then you have the participation. Then it is Christ who qualified you.

And we can't go back into the corner and sort of hide ourselves away so that nobody will notice and pull us forward and say, you just volunteered to take this part in this place.

We can't because it is Christ Jesus who is the qualifier. It is

Christ Jesus who took, again if we can say it reverently, the audition for you.

It is Christ Jesus who won your place for you before God. It's Christ Jesus who receives the glory when we all together in unity take our part, whatever that part may be.

So take your part with joy. Take your part with enthusiasm. A joy that is the

Apostle's joy in seeing a church that he founded working together in unity and in harmony.

It's a joyful thing. It's a joyful thing to the Apostle remembering that he was inspired by the

Holy Spirit to say, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Complete my joy, the joy of our unity. Do you know this joy? Can you even imagine what it would be like to have this joy of participating and finding yourself incorporated into this great chorus line that week in and week out as part of this gospel drama that we play out.

It's Apostolic joy. So if there's any, he says, if there's any of these things, and remember, assuming you do, so seeing that you have this encouragement, seeing that you do have this participation, he goes on, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

A question might be asked, how is a bunch of sinners supposed to come together in unity and think this way?

Must we all be alike? Is this not conformity?

Well, a couple of answers to that. One answer is really from this morning at Sunday school where we began a biblical review of Genesis chapter 1, to Genesis chapter 2, verse 3.

That God is a God of order, that God is a God of creation, that it is God who has recreated you and given you a new heart and given you a new spirit.

It is God who in Christ is building this church. It is God who said, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

And so how do a bunch of sinners come together and think the same way and in unity work towards this gospel in our life?

Because God's bigger than our sin. God's bigger than your independence. God's bigger than your desire to do things your own way.

Is this not conformity? Now, when I put that out there, I say that because as soon as I say something like being in full accord, being of one mind, being of the same mind, having the same love, the same one, compliance, conformity,

I can almost see the angry little thought bubbles coming up. Say, I will not conform.

I have my own skills. I have my own desires. I have my own agenda. This is what I will do. No, it's not conformity.

Conformity is a flag that gets raised and waved around a lot. It's a red flag, and you know what's on it?

The same color herring. That's not what we're saying at all. It's a diversion from what we're saying.

1 Corinthians 12 speaks of the diversity that God intends. Hear this, that God intends in the church.

Conformity is not even the word. That gets imposed upon what we're saying. No, it's not conformity.

Unity is not that. The church depends on diversity. The church depends on diversity, and we don't say, well, we need so many of this skill set, so many of this type, so many of that gender, or anything like that.

It's God who places here. It's God who gives the design of diversity in diversity there's unity, not conformity.

The various gifts that we have. Do you have encouragement in Christ? Do you have participation in the Spirit? That means that you're in Christ.

And I do believe that God uses your gifts in two ways, or I should say there are two kinds of gifts that we each have.

One is your latent gifts. Some of us are more musical. Some of us more artistic. Some of us more logical.

Some of us better speakers. Some of us better at different things. Latently in our native selves, and God uses those.

God uses those to his glory and to the good of the church. And then there are the special gifting that God gives to each one, that each one has a spiritual gift to be shared with others.

This is the diversity, not conformity, diversity. So where's the unity? How do a bunch of sinners come together in unity the way the apostle would have us?

Well, first, it's a work of God. It's a work of God to make us humble and submissive to one another.

But the other way to answer that is by asking the question, well, whose mind, whose love, whose accord are we to have?

Now think about this for a moment. If Paul says, complete my joy, seeing that you have these things, you are able to complete my joy.

And if it's not assumed that you have those things and are able to complete his joy, then I would argue that this makes no sense.

So seeing that you have these things, do complete my joy as you are able by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Again, I ask, what mind? That little clause begins and ends with mind, so it's the way we think.

And then it's the same love and one accord. Which mind?

Which thought process? Which theses do we then follow and have our unity around?

Well, maybe it's the pastors. We have two pastors here. So maybe Pastor Owens and I are supposed to sit down and write out the way we think and the thought processes we have and put it into a few theses for you and say, all you think like this.

Well, no, that wouldn't make sense. I don't think that would be biblical for a couple of sinners to come together and tell a bunch of sinners how to think.

I don't think a committee in the church coming together with the same sort of thing would make any sense.

The answer is really very simple. When Paul says the same mind, same love, full accord and one mind, what's he referring to?

Well, it's back to verse 1. It's the encouragement in Christ. It's participation in the Spirit. He's speaking of the mind of Christ.

Now, we're saving it for the next message, which is Philippians 2, 5 through 11, but 2, 5 begins with what?

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

That's the mind. That's the love. That's the one accord.

And by the way, one accord literally says one soul together, S -O -U -L, one soul together.

This is very close. This is very tight. This is something you and I cannot manufacture. This is a work of God that He does in this place because of your encouragement in Christ, because of your participation in the

Spirit, because of the new creation work that God does in the church, that we can come together and have the mind of Christ, being of the same mind, being of one mind, and we can have

His love for one another, a divine love, a pure love, a good love, a not sensual love, a love that is based upon the love of God that was poured into our hearts by the

Holy Spirit, Romans 5, 5. So it's not conformity.

It's not hammering you into a mold that your pastor looked at the Scripture and says, okay, here's how everybody must look and think and talk.

No, the diversity is a wonderful gift of God, but diversity without unity is chaos because the unity that is spoken of here is unity in Christ, unity by participation in His Spirit.

Nor are we told, nor are we allowed to put any kind of trust in men to come up with this.

The ground of our joy is Christ Jesus. The apostolic joy is completed when

Christ Jesus is the basis of our unity, His death, His burial, His resurrection,

His ascension back to God, and His impending return. That's the basis of it.

His mind, His love, His one accord. So now the impact of that if really comes to bear, does it not?

As we ask ourselves, what should I be doing in the church or should I be doing in the church?

What is this quality I bring? The impact of that if, seeing that it is true that you have this encouragement, seeing that you do, in fact, have

His comfort from love, and you do participate in the Spirit and thus have

His affection and sympathy, a Christ -like affection and sympathy for each other, you will indeed complete my joy, complete the apostolic joy in your unity together.

Well, verse 2 begins and ends with the mind, so thinking right is the key. Here and in more parts of this book, thinking comes up again and again.

The mind of Christ, though. We have the mind of Christ as the apostle referring to the

Scriptures. Unity, not conformity.

If your little thought bubble rose up and said, no, I'm not going to be a conformist, pop that bubble now because that's not what we're saying.

That's not what we're saying at all. It doesn't mean that I think just the way you do or exactly like the guy next to you or anything like that.

It means that we all think in terms of Jesus Christ and His Word. It means that your pastors interpret how this script that we have in the

Scriptures plays out in this church. And the congregation keeping the pastors true to the

Word as we assess what the Word says and how it relates to our context, our times, our place, what we're doing here as we play out this gospel.

Staying true to what the Holy Spirit would have us, which is the Word that He Himself inspired. That's the unity.

That's what we gather around. That's what you're responsible to do, to be a part of.

And that's how apostolic joy is completed. There's a terrible thing that happens when this joyful unity is abandoned or is never stepped into.

It grieves the Holy Spirit. It grieves the Spirit whose script is so often followed so poorly, if not completely ignored.

It turns the drama that we are a part of into more of a comedy or a parody.

It removes the basis that we should have for our joy. Have you ever been in a group that must be in unison?

If you served in the military and your drill practices, you need to march and march and march until you can march in lockstep together in perfect unison.

When I was in the Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, we would work and work and work on this because we had all the different parts playing for this pretty sophisticated music.

And you had to march while you're doing it. And different parts of the corps were marching at different places in the field. You had color guard, you had rifle guard, and all these things happening.

Different parts. And even with the same part of the horn line, you had first, second, and third part.

And yet all together for one purpose. In 1972, the

Santa Clara Vanguard, which I was a part of then, won the Drum Corps International World Championship.

And when the drum major, when we were on the front of the line ready to begin the show, he said, mark time, hut, our left leg came up and then came down.

You could tell before the left foot came near the right knee. You could tell we were together.

There was nothing more exciting than that. Everything we did was precision and right and in unison as everyone took their different part.

And of course we won. And we won by the biggest score the DCI had ever awarded any drum corps up to that time.

It's since been beat several times. But at the time, it was great. And there's a feeling you have, this emotive feeling that when you come off the field and you're finally off and you can relax for just a moment, it's like, we did it.

We were in unison together. Everyone doing their different part. Different rhythms that played together to give the drama of the show.

Have you ever known something like that? We should have that each week we come together here.

We should have this joy in the Spirit exuding from us as we all take our part.

Listen, when the pastor prays at the beginning of the service and I ask God to be with His people again.

And I do have to admit that I can be a little repetitive because I think the same thoughts each week. And it's not some rote prayer

I wrote down. But this is what comes to me as I pray for God to be with His people. The invocation.

What do you do as we together in unity worship

Christ? Was it just time to bow head and put eyes to floor? No.

Not if we have the kind of unity that completes the apostolic joy. You're praying with me.

And if you're not, what I'm doing is of no use whatsoever. I trust you to be praying with me.

When we sing together, some of us are self -conscious. Some of us don't like to sing.

We don't all have the same skill set. No matter. And we don't have to be silly and say make a joyful noise to the

Lord and today I like to play the kazoo or something like that. We don't have to get ridiculous about it. No, we sing because we have the encouragement in the good music that we put on here.

No, I think it's really good but that's not it. The encouragement's in Christ Jesus. We participate with each other.

Why? Because we have to know because of the participation we have in the Spirit. And this brings about the apostolic joy.

Which is the joy Paul would have 2 ,000 years after his times if he were here today and saw this church in Sunnyvale unified in that way.

Worshiping together and working together for the gospel in unity would be the apostolic joy.

How does this play out? How do you do your part? If you are indeed in Christ and you have His Spirit then you do in fact have the comfort and the love and the affection and the sympathy.

You have all that you need to be of one mind, one love, one accord and the same mind.

Not my mind with your mind and your mind with the person next to you. Christ's mind. How does that look?

What does that unity look like? It looks like verse 3. The look of that unity is do nothing from rivalry or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Now most of us would say right away well

I don't have any rivalry with anyone here. I work in a different place Monday through Friday and we do different functions at the church.

I don't have rivalry. And certainly I'm not a conceited person. I'm very humble. Like the man with the quiffed hair and the turtleneck and the sophisticated jacket and holding the pipe on the back of his book cover.

It says humility and how I achieved it. That's a little silly and nobody would actually say that.

I don't think. Before we say

I'm not a person who has rivalries with others or is conceited we need to think of how low we often set the bar.

He says do nothing from rivalry or conceit. Does he mean with each other? Well yes he means against each other.

That's certainly what he means. What's the standard of rivalry? What's the standard of conceit? I would take us back up to verse 1.

I would take us back up to Christ and his Spirit. Do they have competition with each other?

How would we be saved if they ever did? If Jesus Christ said to the Spirit well I'll save this one. I'm going to save this one better than you save that one.

That would be silly. That would be ridiculous. What's the standard for rivalry? What's the standard for conceit?

I would argue it's Christ Jesus and his Spirit. You know how

Lancelot introduced himself in the Broadway show for Camelot?

Have you ever heard this? I won't sing it for you. Semois, Semois, I'm forced to admit tis

I. I humbly reply that mortal who does, that mortal who these marvels can do.

Semois, Semois, tis I. I've never lost in battle or game. I'm simply the best by far.

When swords are crossed, tis always the same. One blow, one blow and au revoir. That's not you, right?

That's not me. But we really need to think of where the bar is.

What the standard is. Rivalry and conceit come far too easily.

You may not think so but that's because of the standards that we set. We set this bar low and say, see

I got over that, therefore I'm okay. But let's have the mind, let's have the love, let's have the accord that we have in Christ and let that be the standard.

So what is that standard? It's the way Christ and the Holy Spirit work for your salvation. So I need to ask, do you and I not often sin against each other and against the

Spirit in our rivalries, in our conceitedness? I could do that better.

Like Absalom, we say, oh that I were judge in the land, then there would be true justice.

Rivalry and conceit are just two sides of one corn. I could do it better because I am better. If we can stand it, we need to consider something else.

We read here that you must look out for your own interests and then the interests of others.

Now when I read something like that, I often picture, again, kind of a sigh of relief from everyone.

But what did the apostles say? In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Okay, let's go on to the next verse.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but the interests of others. And we say, okay, I'll look out for the interests of others, but thank you,

Lord, that my interests came first. I get to look for mine, and then

I'll look to yours. And it's kind of this, ah, isn't that nice?

The priorities are correct. But there's something here to consider. The word interests was added by the translators.

The word interests is not in the original. Now it makes some sense, and I admit that, but it's really not there.

It says something more like, not himself each look to, but also the other look to.

Now think. Imagine with me, keeping in mind how low the bar is for rivalry and conceit when we said it, just imagine if what the apostle means is not their interests, whatever interests are, not their interests, but the very person.

Let each of you consider himself and also others. And so if you tie that into more significant than yourselves, you're looking at that person next to you as more important than yourself, more significant than yourself.

He means that now, by the working of Christ and within his spirit, that we esteem others as better than me.

Chapter 2, verse 3, says something like this. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

By looking to them as ahead of you, by looking not to what their interests are or what they might need, now this doesn't mean that we don't help each other out, that we only in our minds say, okay, you're better than me, now go and be clothed and well fed.

Benevolence and charity and helping one another out in that sense, in a physical, temporal, here and now sense, is all over the scripture.

But I'm being very focused, I'm being a bit myopic right here. We take away the word interests, and what it means is, consider others more important, more significant, as higher than yourself, as someone who you're going to look at in that way that Christ looks at.

Again, Moises Silva, he writes here, the true obstacle to unity is not the presence of legitimate difference of opinion, but self -centeredness.

Self -centeredness, thoughts of myself that are higher than they ought to be. Thoughts of myself that are higher than what the apostle would take joy in.

Thoughts of myself that are not based upon my encouragement that I have in Christ, or my participation in his spirit.

So what does it look like in Christ's church? What does our unity look like?

Isn't a complete abandonment of rivalry and conceit. It's setting the bar for that so high that our repentance will come so easily that when we look to Christ and look to his spirit and think about the rivalry and conceit they have for and against each other in accomplishing our salvation, when we look to that and see none, perhaps we'll see more in ourself, and perhaps some barriers will be broken down, and unity and apostolic joy in that unity will rise up to the fore more and more even in this place to the glory of God.

Are you in Christ? Have you repented of your sin? Have you gone to the cross of Jesus Christ where your sins were answered by him in his suffering?

Are you in him? Because if you are, then you have the grounds, you have the basis for the unity that is here by the apostle demanded, and the grounds and the basis for the unity that brings forth this apostolic divine joy.

What would this place be like? I'm not saying anything wrong with it now, but what would it be like if all of us focused in this way because of Christ and the encouragement we have in him, giving each other that comfort from love, our participation in the spirit, being shared because of the affection and sympathy that that brings out, and being of one mind and one love and the same love and one accord and the one mind again.

We're able to do this. We need to repent of not grasping onto what the apostle says

God has given you. You're able to do this because the apostle Paul says, seeing that you do have these things, you can complete my joy by being of the same mind, of the same love and one accord and one mind.

Let us be that church. Let us be those who repent where we have failed in this, where we have not trusted

God to work this in us. And let this church become a place where in unison together, as we show forth the world this wonderful drama of the gospel of Jesus Christ, where sinners will come to repentance as they see

Christ lifted up and glorified in this place, as they see our unity together. Amen. Grace to the

Holy Father, we thank you again for the day that you've given us. And we, Father, we pray your forgiveness for the times that we have failed to grasp onto the promises of your word and to follow the dictates that he gives to us and to trust you,

Father, to work these things in and through us. We pray that you would, by your Spirit, work us together into a unified body that would bring much glory to Christ's name, bring sinners to repentance and us closer to Jesus' image, for we ask it in his name.