Choosing To Follow Christ In Humility
Philippians 2:1-4 1993
We are going to continue going through the book of Philippi
ans this morning. The apostle Paul is in prison and one of the
burdens upon his heart was the unity of the church. He appeals
to them and to us to remember one of Jesus’s last prayers which
was John 17:20-21 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also
for those who will believe in me through their message, {21} that
all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in
you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that
you have sent me." The most important evangelism tool a church
has is the way in which the members treat each other.
Turn with me to Philippians 2:1 and we are going to go
through this verse taking our time looking at each segment to
discover what God is saying to us today. The apostle recognizes
that there is an encouragement not from being around Christ, or
near Christ, but in being united with Christ. God desires an
intimate relationship with everyone who claims to know Christ.
The motivating factor of Paul’s faith is his desire to become all
that Jesus wants him to be. He is encouraged because despite his
temporary problems, he knows He is on the winning side.
This expression "united with Christ" suggests being tied
together. Our fate is tied up in the fate of Jesus Christ. We
know that everything else is going to pass, but Jesus is going to
endure forever. Do you want to be united with Christ, or do you
want to keep him at a distance. Far too many Christians treat
Christ like a fire alarm, that’s to be broken only in times of
emergencies. Paul’s saying no, now is the time to be encouraged.
Don’t live for that one day when you will get to know Christ, go ahead get to know Him right now.
The word says "If is any comfort from His love." God’s
love for us should overwhelm us. Who do you know, that if they
knew everything about you, including those things we have kept
completely to ourselves, would say, yes beyond a shadow of a
doubt I will die for you?. God sees all the ugliness, and the
unloving sides of us, and yet still wants to claim us as His own.
If Jesus had not loved us, there would have been no Calvary.
Since Jesus does love us, that opens the doors for all kinds of
possibilities for our lives. Jesus would not love us unless He
cared about us. If Jesus cares about us, then we are never in
anything alone. There is always hope if we are willing to take
it God’s way. We all know that we live in a broken and often
times cruel and unjust world. It’s not because God is angry at
us and gave us this place as punishment. It’s because God loved
us, that He was willing to let us make our own decisions. We are
the ones that have made the world what it is.
There’s a comfort in knowing that God loves us. He shows us
His love in Jesus Christ and in the plans He has for our lives.
He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for
you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future. There’s not a pain or a
hurt that comes into our lives that God does not feel.
The word says "if any fellowship with the Spirit." Fellow
ship is more than being good friends or having a good time to
gether. Fellowship involves a recognition that we serve a common
Lord and Savior. It doesn’t come by us singing songs, or get
ting all worked up. Fellowship comes as a result of day to day
living for Jesus Christ.
This is what God calls us to do. Fellowship is one of the
reasons God called us. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:9 says God,
who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our
Lord, is faithful. Although this is what we are called to, many
of us are missing out on this unity and fellowship because we
won’t let go and let God direct the way we live. Sin will always
lead to depression for a Christian if the sin is not repented of.
It is so easy for us to deceive ourselves in regards to our
relationship to Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:6-7 If we claim to have fellowship with Christ yet
walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. {7}
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin. Fellowship becomes possible, only as
we allow Jesus to become Lord.
The word says "if any tenderness and compassion." Jesus was
one of the toughest people on earth. He had no problem taking on
a fight with a whole group of men who were selling in the temple.
He stood up to the religious leaders of his time and to their
faces called them hypocrites on their way to hell. He told the
Roman governor who was surrounded by his soldiers, you have no
authority over me.
But there was a tender and compassionate side of Jesus.
Jesus had time to stop a service in order to encourage and wel
come the little children. He publicly cried over the people in
the city of Jerusalem and even shed a tear for a friend by the
name of Lazarus in public. His heart was moved by the people
around Him be it a father and mother with a sick little girl, a
widow whose only son had died, a blind man on the roadside, a
woman caught in adultery and even a rich man who loved his riches
more than he loved God. In each of those situations Jesus took
the time to try to reach out and touch the pain of others.
God is telling us, "look , if you know what its like to have
encouragement from Christ, comfort from his love, fellowship with
the Spirit and tenderness and compassion then please do this,
"make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love,
being one in spirit and purpose.
Being likeminded like who. Like Jesus of course. Having the
same love as who. Having the same love as Jesus. Before you say
oh, nobody can do that, keep in mind that Jesus already commanded
it on our part John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. It’s
not enough to simply love one another, we have to ask how would
Christ show love in this situation. That would certainly change
the way that we go about arguing, fighting and disagreeing with
those around us.
When we get in the middle of an argument, how often do you
ask ourselves, what would the love of Jesus want me to do right
now. Most of the problem we have isn’t not knowing what to do,
most of the time its not wanting to do what we ought to do. God
has made this Christian walk difficult by not giving self the
opportunity to display itself. You see there is but one task
for us to do. That task is to do the will of God wherever we
find ourselves.
We don’t become elders or ministers to serve God. These
are merely different offices or callings to serve God in. We’re
serving God right now wherever we are. There may be a question as
to how committed we are to serving in the place we are currently
are. Every morning we get up, somebody’s recording how well
we’re serving God. Every time we interact with someone in our
family, we’re serving God. Every time we turn on the TV or go to
a movie we’re serving God. The issue is going to be, how well
pleased is God being with the service that we are giving to him.
God says "being one in spirit and purpose". We don’t one
for the sake of being one, but rather one in the Spirit of
Christ. Not every spirit that wants us to join in with it is of
God. Before we give our support let us ask what spirit we are
uniting ourselves to. We find in 1 John 4:1 "Dear friends, do
not believe every spirit, but test the [spirits] to see whether
they are from God". Before we say I do, I’ll join in, find out
what the purpose is behind the spirit you are about to join.
Jesus’s purpose was to glorify the Father and to do His
will. Before you throw in your hat ask, is the purpose of this
to glorify God and to do His will. If not, we are on shaky
grounds to give ourselves wholeheartedly to it.
On the other hand, the apostle is pleading for a willingness
to be able to work together. We are not ever going to always
agree on everything. The Bible is full of compromises over
issues from eating meats or not eating, to getting married or
staying single, to choosing a special worship day to esteeming
all days alike. and to drinking or not drinking. The point it
makes is that we are to not let things, thwart us in building the
kingdom of God. There is a time to discuss and disagree, but
after decisions have been made, there is a time to move beyond
fighting for the sake of fighting. The kingdom of God is not to
become a battleground for personalities of for groups. The
kingdom is for bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ.
In Luke 9 Once two disciples, James and John wanted to wipe
out an entire city, because the city refused to accept Jesus into
it. Lord just say the word and we will call fired down from
heaven upon them and wipe them out. Jesus rebuked them both and
let them know that their spirit was not of God even though they
thought they were about to do this thing for God.
Verse 3 begins "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit." Ambition can be dangerous but selfish ambition is
always deadly in the kingdom of God. The apostle is saying, leave
all personal agendas outside the kingdom of God. The kingdom is
not looking for people trying to put themselves forward. It
needs those who are willing to be meek.
Meek comes from the word that means "power under control."
This is far different from weakness as some understand meekness
to mean. In fact power under control is just about the greatest
kind of power there is and the only kind that can be trusted.
Power of out control is responsible for much of the grief in the
world today. Political power out of control infringes on human
rights. Parental power out of control abuses children. Personal
power of out control runs over other people. Physical power out
of control produces a bully on the playground or a thug in the
streets. Anyone who lacks the inner strength to control that
power becomes a threat to others. Selfish ambition is power
seeking its will ahead of what’s the will of God for this situa
tion.
There’s is no greater liberation than when Christ reveals to
us, that our own selfish nature is our own worse enemy. The
devil does not even come close to it. Because of our selfish
nature, if the devil did not do a thing to us, we still would not
choose to serve God on our own initiative. That is why Jesus
said, "no one comes to me, except the Father draws him." Even
when we are sure that we are right, and we’re doing this project
or this thing, or this relationship for God, we need to examine
ourselves. Self crops up so quickly and so undetected that its
really kind of scary. It ought to keep us humble before our God
Now for every negative we have in Scripture telling us what
not to do, there is a positive which shows us a better way of
behaving. It’s never enough to stop doing something for God,
without starting to do something else for God. The Scriptures
tell us, "but in humility." That’s enough to get some of us down
already. We associate humility with humiliation and defeat. God
sees humility as something every Christian should possess.
Humility is not walking around with your head hung low, and
softness in you voice, and pious look on your face. Humility
begins with the realization that God is God, and we are but dust.
If God could stoop low enough to humble Himself and become human,
then surely we ought to be able to humble ourselves and realize
that we are nothing more than human beings with frailties, faults
and sins. Humility is having a modest opinion of one’s self. We
all have to come to the same cross to have our sins forgiven.
Romans puts it this way in verse 12:3 "For by the grace given me
I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly
than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."
Tow many people think that because they hold a certain posi
tion they are entitled to more than others. A true story illus-trates this point rather well. Christian Herter was running hard
for reelection as governor of Mass., and one day he arrived late
at a barbecue. He’d had no breakfast or lunch and was very
hungry. As he moved down the serving line, he held out his plate
and received one piece of chicken. The governor said to the
serving lady, "Excuse me, do you mind if I get another piece of
chicken. I’m very hungry." The woman replied, "Sorry, I’m sup
posed to give one piece to each person." He repeated, But I’m
starved," and again she said, "only one to a customer." Herterr
was normally a a modest man, but he decided this was the time to
use the weight of his office and said, "Madam do you know who I
am? I am the governor of this state. "She answered, "Do you know
who I am? I’m the lady in charge of chicken. Move along mister."
Once we allow the spirit of humility to take control of us,
God says to "consider other better than yourselves." This is not
something that comes natural. As a matter of fact, the whole
American dream is wrapped up in becoming better than everyone
else, making more money than everyone else, winning more games
than everyone else. Beginning to consider others better than
ourselves is a step in a whole new direction.
Don’t get the opinion the word of God is telling you to start putting yourself
down or to feel like you’re a nobody. No you are special because
you have been created in the image of God. What’s being said is
this, realize that other people have needs and that perhaps those
needs may be greater than our own. We may have to put their
needs ahead of our own at times. It goes back to the verse in 2
Corinthians 8:13-15 "Our desire is not that others might be re
lieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equal
ity. {14} At the present time your plenty will supply what they
need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.
Then there will be equality, {15} as it is written: "He who
gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little
did not have too little."
Genuine humility will promote unity in the church and in
our homes. The attitude binds believers together in mutual inter
est, respect, and appreciation. The world knows what it is to
look out for number one, and to be concerned with number one.
Unfortunately many Christians have learned the lesson very well
also. But that’s not what we are called to do.
Look at verse 4, Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others. Now the Bible
does not teach that everyone is to be a martyr giving away all so
as to help somebody else. No, God clearly implies here that we
are to look after our own interests. If we don’t we are just
going to be a burden to someone else. God is saying, make sure
you have enough to take care of your needs, but don’t stop there,
restructure your life so that you can also be concerned about
others. Have a heart that’s big enough to include the best
interest of other people. Now sometimes when we look after the
interests of others, its going to cost us something. Be it our
time or our energy or our money. There is no way to serve God
without having to spend one, two or all three of these things.
What a difference it would make if everyone in the home stop
just thinking about what he or she wants, and concerns him or
herself with doing something to please the other members. It’s
going to affect the attitudes in our voices in which we talk to
each other. It’s going to affect how we spend our money and our
time with each other. It’s going to cause us to volunteer to do
things that we don’t even have to do. It will change our outlook
on what needs to be done.
Men will be picking up after themselves, brothers and sisters
will be sneaking and doing chores for the other person. Mothers
will take time to answer that question the little kid keeps
asking. All of us would begin to realize that the people around
us, are more important that the things we have.
It’s not always easy to look out for the interests of others.
Sometimes people are going to take advantage of your Christ
likeness, be like Christ anyways. Some people will criticize the
size of your heart, have a big heart anyways. Some will say
you’re a fool to spend your money like you do, everybody is going
to be somebody’s fool so go ahead and be a fool for Christ. One
of the best example of someone who looked out for the interest of
another to his own hurt was Jonathan. Jonathan’ was the king’s
oldest son and next in line to become King. The only problem was
that the people all loved David and wanted him as king. Jona
than’s father knew that as long as David lived, his son’s throne
would be in jeopardy. He did all that he could to kill David,
and the main reason he failed was that Jonathan was on David’s
side. Jonathan didn’t just look out for his own interest. He
was big enough to look out for a person that in the natural
should have been an enemy. God can transform a person’s heart so
that the person does not have to be so self occupied that he may
miss a door of opportunity that God might open.
How much do you want to be made like Jesus Christ today. I
invite you to join Him in a new relationship of encouragement,
comfort, love, and fellowship all in the spirit of humility. Your
life may never be the same again.
