Philippians
“Living above the Clouds”
Main Teaching: 2:1-30 Joy in spite of people
2:1-11 “The example of Jesus”
Vs. 1-4 Two things to counter division
Vs. 5-11 Lessons on humility from our Lord
Intro.
Paul knew what some church workers today do not know, that there is a difference between unity and uniformity. True spiritual unity comes from within; it is a matter of the heart. Uniformity is the result of pressure from without. There can be no joy in the life of the Christian who puts himself above others. The humble person is not one who thinks less of himself; he simply does not think of himself at all! The beauty of this passage is that it asks us if we have the mind of Christ and if we do then we need to put it on display towards those that we disagree with as we practice renunciation and humiliation instead of insisting upon exaltation.
That is the “mind of Christ” and this mind of Christ will make it impossible for people to rob you of your joy because people can’t steal what you have willingly given away and no longer have! If you had a Lamborghini and you gave it away, and someone comes over and tells you your car was stolen, you can smile and say, “You’re mistaken, I gave that car away, it can’t be stolen.” We don’t have to fight with someone when we have willingly given our rights away!
Vs. 1-4 Two things to counter division
Vs. 1-2 As we move now to the 2nd thing that can rob us of joy “people” we see one of satan’s best weapons against the church “division”. Far too often the church has succumbed to this tactic of the devil by making what we differ on greater than what unites us. The real problem Paul says isn’t the person in whom you disagree; the real problem is that you don’t value them as much as you value yourself! There are four reasons given by Paul as to why the church ought to operate in unity each starts with the word IF in verse 1.
- Consolation in Christ: What Jesus has done for us should be all the incentive we need to live in peace and harmony with each other.
- Comfort of love: Since the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts comforting us we ought to have that for each other as well.
- Communion of the Spirit: We are all indwelt by the same Spirit and as such there should be nothing to divide us.
- Compassion and mercy: We ought to possess a wealth of compassion and mercy as we have received such from God.
Vs. 3-4 Furthermore we can see how Satan accomplishes division within the body in verse 3-4 as Paul warns against “Selfish ambition” and “conceit”. The recipe for division in the church always starts with these two ingredients. Get two folks in the flesh where they are selfishly ambitious and conceited and you will soon have a war. Saints, you will never see a fight where these two things aren’t present! Ah but Paul offers for us two things that if applied personally will counteract the effect of these two things.
- Lowliness of mind: That’s another way of saying humility but Paul doesn’t just stop there he tells us how to apply humility by “esteeming others better than our self”. I love this prescription of Paul’s because it doesn’t deal with the symptoms of division, it deals with the only real area you can change, “yourself”. Paul doesn’t say, “Well start with negotiations, then move to compromise.” Instead he says, “Skip all of that; don’t focus on how the person is different from you, focus on treating them better than you would treat yourself.” I suggest that when there is a division between you and someone else that you look them over real well and say to yourself, this person is better than me and I’m going to treat them that way no matter how they treat me.
- Look out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others: Did you notice that in Paul’s prescription for “selfish ambition” and “conceit” that he offered the pill of humility for conceit before dealing with selfish ambition? I believe the reason for this is that we need to have humility at work against conceit before we can deal with selfish ambitions. Having taken the humility pill you can ask yourself this question and get the truth: “How much time am I giving to my own interests and agenda and how much time am I giving to the interests of others?”
- Paul doesn’t say that it is wrong to look out for your own interests; he says that you have to also consider how that will affect someone else’s interests. In doing this you will no longer be only acting selfishly you will be acting with everyone in view in a way that betters everyone not just yourself.
As noted before: If I consider you above me, and you consider me above you, we will have a community where everyone is looked up to, and no one is looked down on!
Vs. 5-11 Lessons on humility from our Lord
Vs. 5-11 Impossible you say? No way I can do those two things! Paul is going to show you that no one had more to lose than Jesus. This amazing passage of how the eternal Son of God stepped out of eternity and into time is divided into three sections all with breathtaking views:
- Vs. 6 His renunciation
- Vs. 7-8 His humiliation
- Vs. 9-11 His exaltation
Paul’s view is to reveal to the Philippians that as far as humanity is concerned Jesus’ exaltation is made known through His humiliation. The temptation we face in a passage as grandiose as this is to wrestle it from the context of the letter. The context of these words are to use Jesus as the example of how to have joy in spite of people as the church in Philippi was dealing with division because of two ladies named Euodia (Fragrance) and Syntyche (Fortunate).
Paul gives to that attitude the attitude of Jesus who left the highest peak of eternal glory for the depths of human despair. Jesus didn’t achieve peace by passivity and compromise that led to a truce and then a cold war. His exaltation was made visible by His humiliation. Paul says that the key is having the same mindset as Jesus that you only win by willing to lose it all! We must adapt Jesus’ mindset if we are going to quench division in the body of Christ. There are three steps that are clear in the words and actions of Jesus in this passage:
- Vs. 6 RENUNCIATION: Jesus gave up His right to His rights: He didn’t give up His rights as He couldn’t not give up who He is, namely God the Son. Because he was also fully man He willing gave up His right to enjoy those rights. Those rights are described for us here as being: Existing in the form of God, equal with God the Father in nature and essence.
That is where humility begins, where we are ready to lay aside the right to enjoy our rights. Jesus poured out every right He had enjoyed in eternal life as God. Jesus in humanity didn’t come to behave as God; He came to show humanity how God would act through a man, how humanity was intended to behave. And in this He revealed the secret of a person’s life: Complete dependence upon God indwelling and empowering him. But that is only the first step: Of being the perfect example of humanity dependent upon God’s indwelling. With renunciation comes the willingness to bear injury, to put up with all the insults, to accept the cost of another’s wrong’s. If this was all Jesus did in His incarnation then it would be rather cruel as it would only provide the ideal without the possible to have it come to pass.
- Vs. 7-8 HUMILIATION: Jesus assumed all the hurt and rejection of the world, without complaint: He didn’t just give up His rights to His rights; He took up all of humanities wrongs, and did so without a word or action of complaint. Jesus was the only person who ever lived who didn’t have to die, He said so, “I lay down my life of myself, and I take it up again.” In fact no one could take His life, yet he became obedient unto death. His whole earthly existence He lived under the shadow of misunderstanding by His parents, friends, neighbors’ and countrymen.
We are told that “He came unto His own and His own knew Him not.” At the end of His ministry even His followers abandoned Him as one of His own followers betrayed Him turning Him over to the Romans to be stripped naked, nailed to a cross to die as the worst in society. Jesus didn’t stop at renunciation. He went to humiliation going to the lowest place for every person, death on the cross where we belonged.
- Vs. 9-11 EXALTATION: The third step inevitably follows the first two: Jesus was given the name which is above every name: Upon reading this verse every Jew would have known instantly what that name was. This name was so sacred it was never pronounced instead it was just referred to as the “NAME” or by the consonants after the vowels were removed YHWH. Just in case his readers weren’t getting his implication, Paul says that “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”, which is the translation of Jehovah into English. When someone is a Lord they have the right to everything they survey, they have sovereign authority and are the Master with everyone else at their beckon call. Paul says Jesus who had that position and willingly gave up the right to those rights has won those rights in front of humanity because of His humiliation. This is why we read in Revelation 5:12 “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Now the context of Paul’s words about Jesus’ renunciation, humiliation and exaltation is directed towards the division in Philippi and asking them if they subscribe to this in practice towards others they had a relationship with. Does your understanding if this with regards to Jesus translated into you “Having this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus?”
Philippians
“Living above the Clouds”
Main Teaching: 2:1-30 Joy in spite of people
2:12-18 Example of Paul
2:12-18 “The Danger of the Bible”
Vs. 12-13 Working out by letting God work
Vs. 14-15 Working without complaining
Vs. 16-18 Working at holding fast while being poured out
Intro.
Mark Twain once wrote, “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” Paul had given us a good example in the threefold view of Christ and told us that we ought to have the same mind as He did in dealing with people who try to steal our joy. Last week we took a glorious stroll, gazing out at the vistas of Paul’s words concerning the incarnation of Jesus. We stopped first at the cliff of “renunciation” and looked at the utter beauty of Jesus as He laid down in eternity His right to rights. We walked further and stopped at the seemingly bottomless canyon called His “humiliation” and there we saw the depths that Jesus willing went to without a word or action of complaint to reach the lowest person.
We finally climbed to the peak called “exaltation” where because we could look back over the canyon of “humiliation” and the cliff of “renunciation” we could experience the fullness of Jesus’ “exaltation”. In the wild the African impala can leap over ten feet in the air to hurdle brush while running at full speed.
Yet if you have ever gone to a zoo you will see these impressive animals behind a fence that is only four feet high. Why don’t they just take a run and jump over the fence as they could do so easily? Well it seems that the impala will never jump if it can’t see where it will land. Paul has shown us, “impala’s” that over the fences of “renunciation” and “humiliation” is the wonderful ground of “exaltation” so in this section he tells us we need to jump!
Vs. 12-13 Working out by letting God work
Vs. 12 I suppose the views would have been far more pleasant if Paul only had you and I just look at them but that was not Paul’s purpose. No, Paul’s purpose in showing us the view was so that we could jump into it ourselves as he prefaced our walk by first stating that we were to have this same mind of Christ. Friend that is the danger of the Bible, if we read it in context we will be required by the work and power of the Holy Spirit to become like it!
Paul having given us our example to follow minces no words as to why we are still continually being ripped off by people of our joy. They must now be willing to OBEY or apply the threefold example of Christ’s mind of “renunciation”, “humiliation” and “exaltation”. If someone is still able to rip you off of your joy the problem isn’t to be found in the example of Christ’s mind it is to be found in our unwillingness to continually apply those three examples. The word “obey” is not a word that suggests that God has a whip in His hand to beat you into submission. Instead it is a word of practical application.
Suppose you wanted to watch the Super Bowl after church so you picked up a pizza, got some soda, sat down in your favorite chair and waited for the game to come on. You waited 10 minutes and nothing, just a black screen; you weren’t in a panic as you knew they were just going to talk about the game. But then 30 minutes went by then 45 minutes and you just sat there eating pizza getting more and more frustrated.
You call the cable company, you ask others if they are watching the game and they say it’s the best one they have ever seen. Your joy is gone; you are angry until your wife walks into the room, takes the remote and turns the T.V. on. That’s the word Paul uses for obey here, it’s a practical word that means to apply the principle so you can enjoy what God has richly provided! Obedience is the key in maintaining joy in spite of people. Paul gives the Church in Philippi three truths about obedience as it relates to applying the threefold mind of Christ. I’m going to state them first then we will look at them together:
- Vs. 12-13 Working out by letting God work
- Vs. 14-15 Working without complaining
- Vs. 16-18 Working at holding fast while being poured out
If we are going to maintain joy in spite of people who are continually going to try to rip our joy away from us we are going to find that this is going to require obedience and obedience is WORK! So Paul describes what this WORK looks like:
- Vs. 12-13 Working out by letting God work: First of all, Paul isn’t saying that these Philippians need to work out their salvation by their own effort and power. Paul asks for a Christian work ethic not a works ethic to be promoted in his absence. We know this because of what Paul says in verse 13 that it is God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure. What Paul is saying is that they needed to begin to apply the principles that he had taught them as if he was still among them.
- They didn’t need Paul holding their hand any more, they needed to realize that they had the same God and the same power of the Holy Spirit enabling them to obey. They needed to start “cutting their own meat” to eat instead of relying on Paul to cut it for them. Ed showed me a video of a little Chinese’s boy who was no more than 4 years of age operating a big earth mover. Here was this little fellow operating this huge machine and he was so little he had to operate it standing up as he couldn’t reach the pedals.
- We sat there and watched and commented on our society where for the most part we have kept our youth from any application and obedience and have stunted their growth and maturity. I think the Western church has done the same thing with its members as we have made them spectators instead of participants. Paul, like a driving instructor, was moving out of the front seat of riding with the Philippian believers and by faith entrusting them to apply what they have learned. They must now “work that out in fear and trembling” as they are now driving solo. The word “salvation” doesn’t mean our “eternal destiny” here it means “rescue”. And the phrase “fear and trembling” doesn’t mean terror but rather “serious caution”.
It would be better to interpret this verse by saying that we are to work out our own rescue or solution with caution! We need to apply what we have learned in the confident expectation that in doping so God is at work through applying in His power what He has taught us! The life we “NOW LIVE” is by us no longer living for ourselves and by allowing Christ to live through us but it is nonetheless still a life we “NOW LIVE”. God is at work to WILL and DO for His good pleasure. In the context of applying the threefold principles of the example of Christ the first place we need to obey is the work of trusting in God’s work as we apply “renunciation” and “humiliation”. The principle Paul gives us is, “God must work in us before He can work through us.”
Vs. 14-15 Working without complaining
- Vs. 14-15 Working without complaining: There is a subtle truth in our obedience that I don’t think many of us understand: “If we are complaining about obedience then in truth we don’t believe in what we are doing!” The first truth about obedience is: It’s work to let God work! The second truth about obedience is:
- It’s not finished if it is not in faith!
- It’s not complete if we complain!
If our obedience is not in faith and we are complaining then we are demonstrating that we don’t really believe in what we are doing. We won’t have joy in spite of people if in our obedience we are murmuring and complaining that what we are doing will never work. Paul says that this kind of so called obedience is like a flashlight without the batteries. It looks like it should shine Joy upon our lives but there is no true light.
Ah but obedience in faith will not only light our path to joy it will shine God’s light upon the darkness in which the rest of our travelers in this life must walk. Life is a choice and so is our joy, we must choose to trust God that “exaltation” can only come about through our “renunciation” and “humiliation”.
Vs. 16-18 Working at holding fast while being poured out
- Vs. 16-18 Working at holding fast while being poured out: The last truth with regards to what true obedience looks like is that there is a persistence with it that doesn’t just do it for a while but keeps on doing it without complaining. Notice that Paul says that our persistence isn’t to a procedure but rather our persistence is to a Person known as the “Word of Life”. Dear ones with regards to our obedience we can: Work at letting God work and finish in faith but if we are not persistent in holding onto the Person of Christ we will soon let go! “The prize only goes to those that stay in the race”, Paul tells them. The only way we can forfeit the prize is by quitting the race. In 1:6 Paul had already told these Philippian believers that “He who had begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ.” The enemy’s tactic is to get us to quit, thus Paul says that our only position is to “hold fast”. In Matthew 9:20 we are introduced to women who had an issue of blood making her unclean and unable to enjoy being with people and temple life.
But as Jesus made His way through the crowd she saw her opportunity to be made whole and touched the hem of His garment. That is what obedience looks like, we reach out and grab a hold and hang onto Jesus. Paul doesn’t say that is going to be easy at times as there may be times when life is draining from you like wine poured upon a sacrifice before it was burnt. Dear ones, have you gone through seasons like that in your life?
There are two things you can do to maintain joy in spite of people when your joy is being poured out at the mid-day sacrifice upon those who seem to be indifferent?
- Well Paul has told us you keep a hold of the person of Christ and the more of you that is being poured out the harder you squeeze His hand!
- The other thing that you can do in obedience besides clinging to the hand of Christ is to look outside of your circumstances to see the joy your obedient faith is producing in others. In Hebrews we read of Jesus that, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”. What was the joy that was set before him? It was anticipating what His life would do in the lives of others that enabled them to experience joy through the cross.
Philippians
“Living above the Clouds”
Main Teaching: 2:1-30 Joy in spite of people
2:1-30 Examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus
2:19-30 “The tale of two men”
Vs. 19-24 Timothy
Vs. 25-30 Epaphroditus
Intro.
On Aug. 8, 2004, the Vietnamese community of Westminster, California, celebrated one of the kindest and bravest acts performed by a stranger 19 years earlier. On Nov. 13, 1985, ninety-six Vietnamese refugees despaired for their lives when the engine of the boat carrying them across the South China Sea went dead. Crammed onto the rickety boat with a tropical storm headed their way they waited for four days and watched as 50 ships passed them by ignoring their screams for rescue.
The 51st ship was a South Korean fishing ship that passed by but returned 10 minutes later to save them. The captain could see the desperation of the refugees and called the 25 sailors together as it was against company policy to pick up boat people, and told them he’d take responsibility. Only years later did the refugees know what had happened to the captain. The shipping company fired him for picking up the boat people and he couldn’t find another captain’s job surviving on his savings and odd jobs.
Saints we need to be like this Captain in our lives today so that what we speak will be on display. Paul has given us “How to maintain joy in spite of people” by revealing to us the “mind of Christ” which is that exaltation is only possible through renunciation and humiliation. Then in verses 12-18 Paul gave us the reason why we still get ripped off from joy by people. It’s because we fail to understand what obedience is, so he defined it for us as being:
- Work at letting God do the work
- Complete only if it is without complaining
- Persistence to a person not a procedure
Vs. 19-24 Timothy
Vs. 19-24 Timothy: According to the book of Acts, was a teenager when Paul and Barnabas met him on their first missionary trip. They had come to the city of Lystra and the city welcomed them as Greeks gods then quickly turned on Paul and stoned him and left him to die outside the city gates. But Paul got up and went back into the city and it was then that Timothy met Paul.
Timothy was half Jewish and had been raised by his mother and grandmother. Paul took him under his wing and he became a surrogate father to Timothy and Paul even calls him his son in the faith. In verses 19-24 Paul identifies three qualities about Timothy in Jesus Christ that help us see what obeying the mindset of Christ will look like.
- Vs. 20-21 Extraordinary: Paul says that in Timothy that he had a man who was “One of a kind” as he was like minded. Apparently Timothy had been mentored not only in “what to do” but also in the “way to do it”. He had a heart that was seen in selfless care for others. He was willing to undergo injury without resentment and praise without pride. Timothy wasn’t a volunteer, he was a servant! To illustrate this Paul says of Timothy in verse 21 that in comparison “he didn’t seek his own; he sought the things which are of Christ.” Jesus’ business was Timothy’s business as he was “ready, willing and available” the trifecta of true Christian service! That’s what the Church ought to be like, “full of folks that are ready, willing and available”. I’m so thankful to be a part of just such a church here. Timothy was a man that didn’t head up the “Recognize the Need Committee” He went with sympathy to personally meet the need. Timothy was “boots on the ground” with a heart for Christ and His people.
- Vs. 22 Experienced: Paul says that Timothy didn’t just possess talent he had experience as well. He was a man of “proven character” as a “son with his father”. What a great illustration there are three things they shared together.
- Same life: They shared the same blood of Christ and because of this they had the same resource. That is a true definition of family as Jesus’ “blood is thicker than water.”
- Same love: Next like a father and a son they shared a mutual love for each other that is made up of “respect, affection and trust”.
- Same labor: Finally because they shared the same life and love they also shared the same labor. They worked well together sharing responsibilities and difficulties. Timothy had proven himself many times having gone through the rollercoaster with Paul as he knew what he was getting with Timothy.
- Vs. 23-24 Encouraging: The last quality Timothy possessed was that he was an encouragement to everyone. Paul says, “I’m going to send him to you as soon as I see how it goes with me.” Paul didn’t want to let him go yet as he still needed him around as he was an encouragement to him. I find that there are two types of people: those you can’t wait till they go and those you can’t wait until they come! Or if you will “Those that are a comfort and those that you got to confront. After this letter we believe that Paul was released and later rearrested and it was during this time that Paul wrote letters to Timothy where he says, “Do your best to come to me before winter.” Timothy was the kind of man that you wanted to have around especially when you were down.
Vs. 25-30 Epaphroditus
Vs. 25-30 Epaphroditus: Was a member of the church in Philippi but it is unlikely that he was saved under Paul’s ministry as Paul never mentions that he was. Most likely he was led to Christ by someone else in that fellowship. We know very little of this man other than the fact that he was handpicked to go to Rome bearing a gift from the church to Paul while he was under house arrest awaiting his trial. Paul lists two primary characteristics of obedience in the mind of Christ that Epaphroditus possessed:
- Vs. 25-26 Helpful: Here we note in the 25th verse 5 ways in which Paul described this characteristic in Epaphroditus:
- Brother: This speaks of that family life that Timothy also possessed with Paul as they shared a mutual source of life in Christ.
- Fellow worker: This is a description of how they labored together in full fellowship and with a common interest.
- Fellow soldier: This describes a person who shares a common loyalty and adherence to the same cause as the apostle.
- Messenger: The word really is “apostle” and it means an ambassador, a representative of someone else.
- Minister: This word is used for the word for “priest” and means, a sacred servant.
All these wonderful titles add up to one who is a marvelous helper, a faithful laborer with selfless concern. As an illustration of Epaphroditus’ helpfulness Paul offers the recent testimony of how word had gotten back to Philippi concerning Epaphroditus sickness, and his concern was that they be anxious about him. His stress was not over his illness but rather that his illness may trouble them. That’s a far cry from most of us who expect pity when we are under the weather and are a bit put out when we don’t get special treatment.
- Vs. 27-30 Reckless: In most cases the use of this word would not indicate a spiritual trait but as we read here it fits perfectly as Epaphroditus was willing to live “recklessly” for Christ. He was willing to lay his life on the line living a holy recklessness for the cause of Christ and others. Too many in the body of Christ don’t want to be inconvenienced let alone risk anything. Here was a fellow that almost died in service to Christ and his people and was more concerned how they would respond than his own welfare.
A reckless person for Christ is one that “Has said goodbye to themselves! A person who is no longer burdened with their own burdens and cares nothing for their own cares. A person who will not serve their money or their time, because they no longer possess those things as they belong to Jesus. This person is a daredevil for souls!” Epaphroditus had made up his mind that the need must be met and if there was no one in sight who would tackle it then he would do so himself.
He was divorced from the take-it-easy, go-slow, take-care-of-yourself, attitude. Instead he had become a gambler and was ready to gamble away his life in anything that had Jesus at the beginning and at the end of it. He had a holy disregard for obstacles and difficulties, a holy contempt for loneliness, hardship and pain. His great pleasure in life was to sacrifice. He had been taught from the time he was born again that the only way to save his life was by losing it. The world could not hold a person like him and the devil was frightened by him. He treated his little pains with contempt and was not afraid he would turn up in heaven by unexpected arrival. On his calendar and agenda there were no words that said tomorrow, later or around to it. He kept no receipts for all the injustice he had received and so lived as if he owed everyone everything!
When Jesus Christ comes into our lives, He doesn’t come to destroy our personality He comes to destroy our ego, our independent self-seeking, always must be the center of attention self. He will wage war against it, and the weapon He uses is the cross. Those hardships, trials and humiliating experiences he brings us through bring the end to our ego. He does not destroy the essential man; He indwells it, He enhances it, He glorifies it. The result is true manhood, true womanhood, attractive and beautiful and easy to live with. Man as God intended man to become manifest in the world.