Part 05

Philippians 2 vs 1-11

The passage deals with attitude. There’s a lot of talk nowadays about attitude. Eg. Sports team wanting to do well, needs to have specific attitude. Talking to a parent whose child was playing a certain sport. If he played any sport, he just wanted to win. This parent was a bit concerned about that. He wanted his child to enjoy sport. He didn’t want it to just be about winning. So he chatted to the coach. But the coach said to him. Every team needs people on the team who are like that. They need that fight.

Eg. Cricket World Cup & Big Match Temperament. They need to get experts in to help them with their psychological game.

This series is called ‘a church with vitality’, looking at the book of Philippians. Now if we want to be a church with vitality. We need to some expert advice. If we want to be a church with vitality, we need some help on what our attitude needs to be. Particularly our attitude on the team. Particularly our attitude toward one another. And in this passage that we’re looking at this morning, Paul uses the word attitude but some translations use the word  ‘mindset’.

Now there were reasons why Paul had to address this issue back then. Later on in Philippians he addresses specific issues of disunity. He even mentions names of people who are having disputes with one another. So there was some disunity in the church among the fellow believers. But they were also facing persecution. So there were issues from outside the church and inside the church. Pressure from outside and inside. So with the wrong attitude / mindset towards one another,  they would be ineffective for the gospel. So this was an issue that needed to be addressed.

It’s also an issue that needs to be addressed today in 2019. I’m not sure if ever in history there has been a time when our culture has been more individualistic than it is now. You have more rights than you have ever had before, we’re a culture that has become more about our rights than our responsibilities. We are more entitled than we’ve ever been. We are more about ourselves as individuals than we’ve ever been.

When you hold a smartphone in your hand. You are holding a device that you can use to promote yourself and broadcast yourself to the world. You have an Instagram account or Facebook account, or even if you’re on a Whatsapp group. There’s an opportunity right there for self promotion. Now I’m not saying it’s wrong, but 15 years ago we didn’t have that. Unless maybe you had a myspace account. But we’re in a culture nowadays where we have these platforms where we can promote ourselves.

If ever there was a time, when this issue of our attitudes towards one another within the church needs to be addressed, it’s now. We need a mindset that shifts itself from self promotion, from my agenda, and from me being made great, from being about me. And a have a mindset / attitude that is all about the gospel and all about what Jesus has done for us.

So here in chapter 2 of Philippians Paul addresses this issue. And he starts chapter 2 by saying: 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, (2) then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. He starts by talking about motivation for this attitude towards one another. basically he’s saying that our attitude needs to be motivated by something. And if you read closely, you’ll see that it’s motivated by what God has done for us.

According the Greek, a better way of reading it would say, “if therefore you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any tenderness & compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

What Paul is saying, is that if the gospel means anything to you. If you being united with Christ means anything to you. If the comfort of his love means anything to you, if the fellowship of the spirit means anything to you, if any tenderness and compassion, then please be unified. Please be humble. One Bible scholar said it’s better actually for us to replace the word ‘If’ with ‘since’. So, ‘since you have encouragement from being united with Christ, since you have comfort from his love, since you have fellowship with the spirit, since you have received his tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  

Remember chapter 1 of Philippians, how he commends them for their partnership in the gospel. This church that he had planted all those years ago. still so faithful to the gospel. still doing gospel work. Remember how he thanks God for them. He prays with joy because of them. and he knows that God will bring that work to completion. He expresses his affection for them as Christian brothers and sisters. Remember how he has them in his heart. How he longs for them with the affection of Christ Jesus. He wants them to abound in love. to grow in love and knowledge and grow in depth of insight.He prays that they'll produce the fruit of righteousness.

He talks about his suffering for the gospel / he is in chains for the gospel. remember he was writing this from prison. In other words, he knew what it meant to suffer. He knew what it meant to be persecuted for his faith. He hopes that he will have sufficient courage to keep exalting Christ. the famous passage 'for to me to live is Christ / to die is gain'. That expresses Paul's attitude towards his own life /his perspective on life. To live is Christ. If I live I get to serve Jesus / it's for the sake of the gospel / God use me for his glory / to point people to Jesus. To Die is gain. If I die I get to be with Jesus / I get to experience the joys of eternity / I leave this world behind. with all it's struggle, with all it's pain.

MercyMe sing a song called Homesick. all about longing for eternity. this world with all the struggles. with all of the heartache. This world is not our home. we should be homesick for heaven. and even the good things that I experience in this world. I am going to something much greater. 

Paul also Encourages them to live a life worthy of the gospel. It shows that they are united . It shows that they stand firm in one spirit. also means them being willing to suffer.

So there’s this gospel emphasis. Living for the gospel. Suffering for the gospel, being partners in the gospel. All about what Jesus has done for us. Now since you have this. Since you’re a recipient of this. Since you have encouragement from being united with Christ. What could be more encouraging? You are united with Christ. The fact that he has loved you the way that he has, should be such comfort to you and I. Our salvation through Christ is secured, there’s not greater comfort than that. You have fellowship with the Spirit. In other words the Spirit is at work in your life. That is a great privilege to have as Christians. The Holy Spirit is one of God’s gracious gifts to you and I as Christians.

Tenderness and compassion. If you’re a Christian, hopefully you’ll know the compassion that God has shown you, and you’ll show that to others.  He’s shown compassion to save us as sinners. You’re a Christian because God has had compassion on you. He is merciful, he is tender he is compassionate. “great is thy faithfulness”. There’s that line, “Thou changest not, thou compassions they fail not”.

This is all part and parcel of the Christian experience. So Paul is saying, in the light of you experiencing this, make my joy complete, by being like minded, having the same love. In other words, this love that you’ve received from God / you’ve received through the Lord Jesus Christ / that has provided you with such comfort. You have the same love for one another. a love where you are gracious towards one another. because that’s the love that has been shown to you.

We need to remember whenever somebody offends us, to the point that we think, “How dare they even think about treating us like that?” Remember how you’ve treated God. Remember how you’ve offended God. Remember that the worst offence against you, doesn’t even come close to how you’ve offended God. But yet God forgives you. God loves you. God has reached out to you. How is that for compassion? Can you have that same attitude towards others?

verse 2: Then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (3) 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.

Paul is asking for 2 things. Unity and humility. You can’t have unity without humility. If unity is going to happen to us as a church, we need to be willing to be humble. We need to be willing to put others before ourselves, we need to put our ego’s aside. No one must feel that they’re greater than anybody else. If you do, then you need to repent of that. We’re all here, serving the same purpose. Well at least we should be. We should all be here of one mind, being one in spirit and purpose.

There’s no room for selfish ambition, or vain conceit. But in humility consider others better than yourselves. Vs 4 – each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Obviously you have needs that you need to take care of. You do need to survive. So take care of your interests by all means, but also take care of the interests of others. In other words, stop just thinking of yourself.

So what does that look like? It’s an attitude that is driven by God’s love which we’ve looked at, but it is also modelled by Jesus. Verses 5-11 show us how Jesus modelled this attitude for us. Paul says in verse 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

So what did that attitude look like? It was the ultimate example of humility. Jesus left glory to come to earth. Vs 6: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on 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!

Jesus gave up the glories of heaven. he humbled himself by coming to earth to serve us. He took on the nature of a servant. Not only did he give up the glories of heaven, and humble himself to becoming a servant. He became obedient to the point of death. Not just any death, but death on a cross. That is what Jesus did. That is the attitude that we are supposed to emulate. That is the attitude, the mindset that was modelled for us. That is the model that we should follow.

Now there’s a temptation at this point to look at other people. to think, “if only so and so would get this right. . .” but you need to do some soul searching at this point. You need to think about how you’re doing at following the model of Jesus. Is your attitude the same as that of Jesus. It’s not about you aspiring to greatness. It’s not about your self promotion in this church context. It’s about putting God first. It’s about not only thinking of yourself, but thinking of others too. It’s about humility, it’s about considering others better than yourselves.

It’s very sad when gospel ministry suffers, because someone was worried about their ego/ we have to pander to people’s ego’s / someone wants to force their agenda / because they’re not humble. Our attitude needs to be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

As a group of people, who have experienced God’s love. We’re united with Christ. We have comfort from his love. We have fellowship with the spirit. If we have this great God in common, that should naturally create a unity among us. If we have this great mercy in common that should create a unity among us. We’re all in this together as recipients of the mercy of God.

When conscription was still a thing. I was sent on a train off to Heidelberg for basic training. I ended up in a bungalow with about 30 other guys. But they were from all over the place / all over the country, we all had our differences. There were lots of reasons to not get along. But we ended up being quite unified. Because we went through quite a lot together. We had a common enemy / his name was corporal Van der Byl.

But we were forced to work together. Because there were consequences if we didn’t. We had to run and fetch leaves from trees etc etc. If we didn’t work together when they had those ridiculous inspections. But despite our differences, we had to unite. We had to work together. Otherwise Corporal Van der Byl would try and inflict suffering on us. The point is that we were united. We had to be on the same page. We may have disagreed on many things. But we were united around the things that could get us into trouble if we weren’t.

We need to be united. We need to be consider others better than ourselves. We need to respond to what God has done for us by the way we treat each other and work with each other here in Gospel ministry. That is the winning attitude. That’s the big match temperament of Gospel work. And we do it by following the model of Christ. Who humbled himself to become a servant. To death on a cross.

Great section to read as we prepare our hearts for communion, how he humbled himself. And not only did he humble himself. But that humility was necessary so that God would exalt him to the highest place, where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Vs 5: 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 other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father.

Home Group Questions:

Read Philippians 2 vs 1-11

1. What attitude should we have towards our fellow brothers and sisters in the church? Vs 2-4
2. What should motivate this attitude/ mindset? Vs 1
3. Try and describe Jesus’ attitude / mindset in your own words? Vs 5-8
4. If we are to emulate Jesus’ attitude, what would that look like in our local church context?
5. What did God do as a result of Jesus’ humility? Vs 9-11