1 Rose Hill Presbyterian Philippians 2:1-11 Rev. Brian North May 26 th, 2013 Philippians: The Pursuit of Joy Kirkland, WA Unity As we continue our series on pursuing joy and going through the book of Philippians, this morning s passage gives some great wisdom on experiencing joy in life, and it is this: A lack of unity kills joy. Show me a marriage where there is a lack of unity, and I will show you a marriage that lacks joy. Show me a work group in a company that lacks unity and I will show you a work group that lacks joy. Show me a team that lacks unity and I will show you a team that lacks joy. Show me a church that lacks unity, and I will show you a church that lacks joy. Now, unity is not the only factor in experiencing joy but when it comes to the joy we experience in relationships with family, co-workers, church members, and so forth when it comes to the joy we experience in those relationships, our sense of unity can make or break our joy. And so if you re experiencing a lack of joy in life, and if that lack of joy is in the context of some relationships, then this message is for you. If you re experiencing joy in your relationships, then this will affirm what you already know and are experiencing. We see this connection between unity and joy quite explicitly in this morning s passage in the first two verses: 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 (Philippians 2:1-2). Paul makes a bunch of if statements that are rhetorical; Jesus has done these things in these people s lives to whom he writes, and we could sum up the statements by if Christ has touched and transformed your life What Paul is saying to the church in Philippi is that if that has happened, then, he writes: Make my joy complete. It s an odd phrase in some ways. But what he means is, fill me up with joy. Or Help me to know complete and true joy in my life right now. So if they ve been touched by the grace of Jesus if they ve benefited and grown in any way because of what Christ has done, if they ve known they are loved by God through faith in Jesus, then
2 fill me up with joy, he writes. And then he tells them how to do that. Here s what will bring him joy: be like-minded; have the same love; be one in spirit and in purpose (verse 2). In other words, be unified. Each of these phrases is describing unity in some way: in their thinking, in their loving, in their spirit and in their purpose. If they will do that, then his joy will be complete; it will be fulfilled. There is a distinct and undeniable connection between unity and joy here. And I would suggest to you that not only will joy be his, but joy would be theirs, too. When we experience unity in our relationships, we are much more likely to experience joy as well. It s not a fool-proof guarantee, because other stuff can steal our joy even when there is unity but without unity joy in our relationships is impossible. There was once a man and his ever-nagging wife who went on vacation to Jerusalem. While they were there, the wife passed away. The funeral home director told the husband, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here, in the Holy Land, for $150." The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home. The funeral home director asked, "Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your wife home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would spend only $150?" The man replied, "Long ago a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can t take that chance." Even though it s humorous you can just sense in that story that there s a lack of unity in the marriage and a lack of joy. So the key to experiencing joy in our relationships is a sense of unity, which we see in these first couple verses. The question then, is this: Question: How do we attain unity in our relationships? How can we be like-minded, have the same love, and be one in spirit and in purpose with the people in our lives? Answer: By approaching life and people with humility. Paul puts it like this in verses 3 and 4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
3 consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. And then Paul points us to Jesus as the preeminent example of humility, of simply serving as needed, and putting others needs before his own. He writes in verse five that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And then he goes on in the next few verses to describe how Jesus models humility for us: He humbled himself to become human, he became nothing, became a servant he was obedient even unto death on the cross. And so Jesus is our model for humility, because he didn t use his divinity as something to be used for his own personal agenda. He didn t grasp on to it for his own benefit. Instead, he humbled himself and became a human being. And the reality is, in coming to dwell on earth for a few years, He didn't exactly get a promotion. Can you imagine the heavenly conversation? My Son, I need you to do something for me. Sure, Father, whatever your will is. I need you to go down to earth. Sure, Father, no problem, I'll just beam myself down right now. No, my Son...I need you to be born as a baby, and live there as a man and serve the people of the earth. Oh, no, Father...anything but becoming a human and serving them. Can't you send me to Mars or Venus or somewhere else? Anything but as a human being on earth! But that's what he did. Then, while he was here, he served people, which is a position of humility in itself. So he didn't lower himself just a little, from the heavenly realms to wealthy human royalty. He lowered himself all the way down. Jesus himself says, The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve - Jesus; Mt. 20:28. On top of that, his final act of humility and final act of service was that he died on a cross so that he might save people through faith in Him. His serving had nothing to do with himself, and everything to do with everyone else. That is true humility. And when we truly submit ourselves to Christ as Lord, and not just Savior, then how we serve, and what we do is governed by Him, and not by our own wishes. Verse five is the key verse in understanding that: Your attitude,
4 and that word is phroneo and means to have understanding, to think, to be wise So more literally, it would read, Your mind, or your wisdom, should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. How Jesus thinks, is how we are to think. Jesus wisdom: our wisdom. Jesus attitude: our attitude. And that in and of itself takes humility. Allowing Jesus to be Savior is easy. Who wouldn t want Jesus to die in their place so their sins are forgiven? But allowing Jesus to be Lord, to govern our lives that takes humility. Jesus is who governs us, and when that happens, we experience unity, and when that happens we experience joy. Let s look at a couple applications of this. Practically speaking, to live with humility, and to live with others first in our lives means not just asking someone else how we can serve them or what they want to do, or what their opinions are on something, and so forth. That s a common tactic we all employ when we want to be selfless in a relationship and serve another person. But it s a problematic tactic in a relationship if both people decide they re going to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, because no one is ever going to share what they want to do, or how they could be served, even when asked. There would just be this constant battle back and forth of making efforts to find out how to serve one another, with no one ever wanting to say how they want to be served because that would violate the very principle of these verses. Living like that would be kind of silly, and unproductive. In fact, it probably would lead to a lack of unity. So: This means that serving others, and looking out for the interests of others means not putting the burden on the ones we re serving by asking them how we can serve them, but rather: simply doing what you know will bless them. For instance, if I ask Gwen, Sweetie, would you like flowers on Mother s Day? my intentions might be good: I want to know her desires, and selflessly bless her. But I m putting her in a very awkward position by doing that, because now she is put in a position that makes it hard for her to have humility. She wants to say yes but that isn t a humble answer. So, if she takes the route of humility she ll say, No, I don t want flowers. And so on Mother s Day, I would then not get her flowers because she told me she
5 didn t want them. Then what happens on Mother s Day? I m in the doghouse because I didn t get her flowers! She s hurt, I m confused and humility seems to have gotten us nowhere. You ll have to guess as to what degree this is autobiographical, by the way. Looking out for others and considering others better than yourself and not having selfish ambition as Paul writes means knowing the other person so well that you know what would bless them and you just do it. So, I go and buy flowers without asking her if she would like them. A marriage like that has unity in it, and a lot more joy. For those of you who are married, this is maybe the best marriage advice you ll ever get from me. Don t ask your spouse what they want, because you re leading them into violating this very passage. Instead, out of humility, simply do what will bless your spouse. That is true humility, and it will bring unity and joy to the relationship. Now, not everyone is married, so let s apply this more broadly. Let s apply it to the church. In fact, let s apply it to this church. Let s take, for example, this conversation and exploration we ve recently begun about a second service. It is clear to me, in the conversations I ve had, that the forgone conclusion for most people is that if we start a second service, it will be different in style from the current service; More of a modern worship experience. And every single one of us in this room has an opinion about that idea. Some people can t wait for a service with a full band, including drums. They re clamoring for it. They want newer contemporary worship songs, and contemporary instrumentation on older hymns in church because that s what they re downloading onto their ipods and listening to on the radio during the week, and simply because that is a style that would allow them to be more fully engaged with God on Sundays and worship Him. Other people don t want anything to do with that. They don t want a drum kit in here, even if it s never played at the service they attend. It s very presence is repulsive to some people. They want the hymns the way they ve always sung them. They want the organ, a traditional choir, and so forth, because that s familiar. It is what they identify as worship, and that is a style that
6 allows them to be more fully engaged with God on Sundays and worship Him. So the question becomes: Who has the humility to allow the other style of worship whichever style you don t prefer who has the humility to allow that style to exist at Rose Hill Presbyterian Church? And then there are all sorts of other questions, such as what about the Sunday morning schedule with classes, and people serving in various ways, and everything else that gets impacted by having two services? Everyone here as their thoughts on that, too. Churches get into wars over this kind of stuff. Usually the war is because everyone wants their views to win out: They want their service, at the time they prefer, with the whole Sunday morning schedule just the way they want it. Unfortunately, that s the way most church have this kind of conversation. But that is completely contradictory to this passage and others, too. It s not how we re called to live. What if the conversation we had was one that was rooted in humility, and the conversation was about how we want the other style of service to be the priority because we want to serve others? What if we all took the attitude of serving each other, and blessing others and their worship style preferences, and their preference for worship times and Sunday school and fellowship rather than advocating for our own? That would be a whole different conversation than what most churches experience. And yet that would still lead to a point of frustration as we tried to out-do each other in humility. It s like when two people are standing at an open door insisting that the other person go first, with no one wanting to take the first step. Fortunately, there s a third way. What if we come to Jesus in humility, and say, Lord, what is your will? How can we worship and schedule Sunday mornings and schedule the rest of the life of the church in such a way that what you want, and what your will is, is what governs our church? Show us your will, oh Lord. It takes humility to say that and mean it it takes the kind of humility that Jesus had. But if we can do that if we can let Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lead us and show us what it means to be a church in this time and in this place, then not only will we
7 have the wisdom/attitude/mind of Christ, but we will also be one in mind, one in heart, and one in spirit and purpose with each other. And I don t know about you, but that sounds like a lot of fun! That sounds invigorating, energizing, life-giving, and it sounds unifying. That would bring us together and unify us like nothing else ever can as we all follow Jesus together and let Him lead our church. And nothing would bring any of us more joy than that. It would be a very fulfilling and complete sense of joy. So in our church, in our marriages wherever we find ourselves in relationship with other people, let s have the mind and the attitude of Christ: an attitude of humility. Let s come to Jesus in humility, let him be Lord of our lives and Lord of our church, and let Him lead us to serve as he would serve. And that will draw us together in our minds, our hearts, our spirits and in our purpose. And the fruit of that will be a sense of unity with each other and with the Lord, and a true and complete sense of joy. Let s pray Amen.