Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Unity of Community – Part 1

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Philippians 2:1–4

Philippians 2:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, 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 full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition 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.

(Philippians 2:1–4)

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the privilege of gathering with the saints today to sing your praises, to worship you, to be instructed by your Word. Help us, Lord, to have hearts to receive now. We pray, God, for our children, that you would give them instruction in your Word, that you would help [audio unclear] knowing you, to see the riches that are abundant in Christ. Lord, we pray for—Father, we pray that you would turn it back to you, that the hearts of people would be inclined to you, from the common man all the way up to the president. And Lord, we do pray for the president who expressed concern this past week for the condition of his soul. We pray, God, that you’d be gracious. You know the condition of his soul. We pray that you’d be gracious to save him. We pray for godly men to be influential, to be willing to speak truth to him. We pray for men like Pete Hegseth, [audio unclear] You’d make us difference-makers in the positions that you’ve given us. Whether it’s at home, it’s at work, in the society, Lord, that we would use the influence and the positions that you’ve given us to be salt and light. We want to be salt and light for you, Lord. So make us saltier and make us brighter. And we pray this for your glory. Amen.

One Command: Complete My Joy

[audio unclear] in the New Testament or the Old Testament, because those were put there actually hundreds of years later. So what we have going on here is, notice in verse 2, my version says “so”—your version might say “therefore” or something along those lines—but the very first word, “therefore,” well, he’s continuing his thoughts from the end of chapter 1, and he’s going to make some conclusions for us. So I want you to notice, we’re going to probably camp on verse 1 here, but I want you to notice in this entire passage of the four verses that we’ve looked at, there is actually only one specific command for us. There’s actually only one specific command. Now, I’m going to put before you that there’s other commands there, but they’re not given in the command form to us. Now the English brings it out more, but really the only command, the only imperative in the Greek there is in verse 2, where we’re commanded, and Paul says, “complete my joy.” That’s the only command there. The rest are really participles, which can be made commands, and I would say they are, but if we use the main clause there, “complete my joy,” to try to understand the passage, we could potentially end up thinking that the passage was about joy. The book of Philippians is definitely a book about joy and rejoicing and all those things. But everything leading up from the last few verses of chapter 1 and now heading into chapter 2, really the focus is on unity. In fact, all those verses we just read really do have—you can see it when you think about it—the idea of unity: being of the same mind, verse 2; you’re participating in the Spirit, verse 1; you’re having the same love, full accord. I mean, all those things have the idea of unity.

The Certainty of the Ifs

Something that’s important to point out. Look back at verse 1. Most versions, actually except for the ESV, but most versions use the word “if” four times there. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from love, if any participation of the Spirit, if any affection and sympathy.” Well, here’s the question. Is Paul expressing certainty or uncertainty? Now a lot of times in English we just hear “if” and we’re like, okay, well, that seems like uncertainty. But there’s actually different clauses and different ways to use the word “if” in Greek. This is actually expressing certainty. So there’s no doubt. Paul’s not saying, if there’s encouragement in Christ, and I actually hope you might have some. No, that’s not what he’s saying. He’s not saying, if there’s any comfort from love, and hopefully it’s present; if there’s any participation of the Spirit, and I hope you might be. No, he’s actually saying, if there is any encouragement in Christ, and there is; if there’s any comfort from love, and there is; if there’s any participation of the Spirit, and there is; if there’s any affection and sympathy, and there is. So there’s certainty. He’s just using a conditional statement to set it up rhetorically. In fact, in the Greek it rolls off the tongue pretty nicely. So there’s almost like a rhetorical aid or device, if you want to say, going on. But these are four ifs that you can be sure are true. And here’s the thing, we’re going to get into some commands later, but these aren’t commands for us to do, but rather statements. Listen to me. These are statements of truth and reality. Statements of truth and reality.

Indicatives Before Imperatives

And they end up being the foundation for the imperatives that follow. I like to say the indicatives come before the imperatives, or the indicatives precede the imperatives. Meaning, God wants us to know who we are before he tells us what to do. He wants us to have a foundation from which we’re operating before the commands come. A lot of times people talk about, oh, Christianity is about a bunch of dos and don’ts, and understood maybe one way that could be true in that. But it’s also about a lot of be’s, like what we are, who we are, a lot of beings. God establishes who we are first, like to be, and then from that tells us, now here’s what you should do. So the beings come before the doings.

A Trinitarian Framework

Notice also here in verse 1, and this is important, notice the Trinitarian framework. Now Jesus and the Spirit are mentioned explicitly. Christ is mentioned first, “if there is any encouragement in Christ,” and then the Spirit comes later, “any participation of the Spirit.” Most theologians think the “any comfort from love,” it’s implied that that love—we hear about God’s love over and over again in the New Testament—it’s the love from the Father. Most theologians believe that the Father is implied there. So we have this Trinitarian framework being set for us. All three members, all three members of the Trinity are active in our lives. Not just one, not just two, but all three. And we see it in verses like this one. There’s other verses we could look at. We’re not going to today. I want to focus on this. All three members of the Trinity are active in our lives. And the Son is working in your life and the Spirit is working in your life.

Well, what does that mean? Well, one, I think many of us have a tendency to have a framework where we identify our relationship with God with really one member of the Trinity. I mean, if you just think about your own language that you use if you’re talking to other people, typically people will either talk about Jesus a whole lot—oh, Jesus saved me, Jesus did this, Jesus did that—and there’s nothing wrong with that. Other people will talk about the Father a whole lot, the Father did this, the Father did this for me. That’s okay. And other people will talk about the Spirit a whole lot, and that’s kind of the word that they’ll use. The Spirit did this, the Spirit did that. Well, again, nothing wrong with those things. All those statements are accurate. But it’s important for us to realize that the triune God is the one who’s actively working in our lives. Just pause for a moment. Here, keep your place in Philippians, and we’ll just look at John real clearly. 1 John chapter 1. 1 John 1 verse 3, it says this:

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

(1 John 1:3)

I mean, so right there, plain as day, that word fellowship, you all know it, koinonia, [audio unclear] with the Spirit. So make sure to realize there’s more than just one member of the Trinity working in your life actively, actively, actively, actively.

It Doesn’t Take Much

Also notice this. It doesn’t take much. It doesn’t take much. Look back at verse 1. If you have any encouragement, any encouragement. He could have just said, if you have encouragement, or if you have comfort. I mean, God realizes our frailty. He realizes our fallenness, and he’s like, if you have any—listen, it doesn’t take much. If you’re a believer, you have these things. Now you might not have the feelings of those things, but these things are true. If there’s any encouragement in Christ—you have encouragement in Christ. You might not feel like it. You might feel like it’s in a small quantity, but you have it. So it’s good for us to see growth in these areas. I mean, the encouragement comes in Christ. But if you’re not experiencing it, the Lord wants you to grow in that and to experience more the encouragement in Christ. He wants you to be comforted from his love. You can’t change the fact that there’s comfort from his love. You have a fellowship with the Spirit. That’s a fact. But maybe your experience of it isn’t—you’re not feeling that. You’re not experiencing the fullness of it. Well, you can grow in those areas. But the point is, Paul’s like, simply, even if you just have the slightest little bit, the slightest little bit, we can go on to the next verse, then complete my joy. You can have unity. So it’s good for us to seek growth in these areas. But it’s important to remember, this comes from Christ. This comes from the Father. This comes from the Spirit. And really Paul’s point is, if you have these in the bare minimum, which every believer has, even if you just have the bare minimum amount, then unity is possible. That’s why you can have someone who’s a baby Christian and they get saved and they can just be a couple days old as a baby Christian and they can have fellowship with others. These things are true of them. They have encouragement, they have comfort, they have participation, they have affection and sympathy. Why? Because those things come from God. And because of that, they can come right into the body of Christ and have fellowship. Not just with us, which is true, but they can have fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But because of that, there can be a unity present. God gives us the foundation for unity to be possible. So the triune God is active in your life. He’s constantly working overtime on most of us. He’s constantly working. He’s got work to do. But notice this. He has an initial work of salvation. Yes? Initial work. And I think sometimes people have maybe not the greatest theology and they’re just like, oh, the work is done. Well, the finished work of Jesus Christ is done. Yes. But the ongoing work for us is not yet complete. It’s back to the already, not yet.

Already and Not Yet

Has your salvation been secured? Absolutely. In fact, the Bible talks—Romans 8—it talks about in the past tense sometimes about us having been sanctified, having been glorified, like it’s a sealed deal. It’s done. It’s going to happen. If you have Christ, yes, your salvation is secure. Yes, you are justified. You are sanctified and you are glorified. Why? Because God knows when he starts to work, he completes the work. So there’s that aspect, but there’s also the aspect of this ongoing work. Hopefully what you were when you first got saved is not what you are today. Why? Because God’s been doing the work in you, right? And too often, too often, some of us get five, ten, fifteen years down the road in our walk, and it’s like we’re growing and we’re growing and we kind of flatline. We think, oh, well, I’ve been about as sanctified as I can be. No, that’s not true. That’s not true. Like, hopefully, God is continuing to round off the rough edges. He’s continuing to bring dross up in your heart so that he can skim it away. Don’t think that you’ve arrived. Don’t think there’s not more work for Christ to do in your life. So I mean, don’t flatline. Don’t flatline. You have the encouragement of Christ to continue it on. You have the comfort from God’s love to continue it on. You have the participation in the Spirit to continue it on. So he’s active in your life. He does the initial work, but there’s an ongoing work.

So what are the things needed for unity among God’s people? We want unity, yes? What happens if you don’t have unity? You have disunity. Okay, yeah. Okay, I get it. Well, but what happens when there’s disunity? There’s division, there’s strife, there’s quarreling, and what happens then? Well, we get inward focused and we don’t get focused on the mission. We get inward focused and we’re not doing really what God calls us to do. We get inward focused and we’re more concerned about ourselves and our rights and our positions. No, that’s contrary to God. He wants us outward focused, ministering to others, using our gifts to minister to one another, and outward focused, looking forward to take the gospel out to the nations. So yes, we want unity. Well, these items lay the foundation for unity to occur. God has given us what we need for unity. So if unity doesn’t happen, guess what that means? We can’t blame God. I mean, he’s given us the foundation for it to occur. So if it doesn’t happen, we can’t point the finger at him. It’s not like he left us on our own and was like, be unified and I hope it works out. Brothers and sisters, we have the Spirit of God living inside of us. And that Spirit in me, right, speaks to the Spirit, the Spirit in you, which is the same Spirit, right, and there is a unity there. Sometimes, if you ever met someone for the first time, you’re like, man, I’m pretty sure this person’s a believer, right? Yeah, because it’s the Spirit in you testifying to the Spirit in them. So unity is possible because God has already given us the foundation for that. And the question for us is, how are we going to walk in this? How are we going to walk this out? We’ve been given a foundation of the indicatives. We have the truths set before us. And then we get the imperatives to now, hey, be unified. Well, we need to be grounded in the truth. This is important for us to take in. Drink it in deeply. Listen, brothers and sisters, God gives us more than just a hell-free card. He gives us more than that. He gives us not just life even. He gives us abundant life. And we’re on that vine growing, right? And if we’re connected with him, what happens? Fruit. What happens if we’re disconnected from the vine? John 15. And we wither, we die, right? We’re connected to the vine, great things happen. Apart from the vine, we don’t have any fruit. So everything coming is because we’re connected to Christ. We’re connected to the vine. So we’ve got to spend time and make sure we have the foundation secure. Foundations are important. So when we talk about doing, yes, but it has to be grounded in being. You think about skyscrapers—they’ll lay a foundation of about five to ten stories deep. All right, so you’re looking at that skyscraper, it’s got 20 to 40 stories. Below that, there’s like 50 to 100 feet foundation. They make sure that’s just mid skyscrapers. You talk about high-rise skyscrapers, you’re looking at usually 10 to 20 stories deep that they go with the foundation. And then those crazy tall ones that break all the records every time a new one’s built, even more so. Like 150 to 300 feet in the ground for the foundation. Why? Well, foundations are important. What happens if you don’t have a firm foundation? You’re on the sand, right? I mean, that’s the illustration given, right? I mean, Jesus is like, where are you going to build? Where are you going to build? You want to build on the sand? You want to build on the rock? Well, I don’t know about you, it makes sense to build on the rock. Not too many skyscrapers built on beaches, right? If they do, they better go down really deep. So Paul grounds them in the truth before telling them what to do. He gives us the foundation from which to build. But it’s not just grounded in any truth. It’s grounded in the truth of the triune God, right? It’s Christ who’s doing it. It’s the Father who’s doing it. It’s the Spirit who’s doing it. And it’s built [audio unclear]

The Foundation

What does he tell us? Verse 9:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 3:9–11)

Christ has to be the foundation, and we see it right there in the very first verse there in chapter 2 for us. “If there’s any encouragement in Christ.” In Christ. He is our foundation, and we can have these characteristics, why? Because we’re in Christ. This is what God gives to his children. Now, again, we don’t necessarily need a lot to have unity. The slightest sliver will do. So we can’t say, well, I can’t have unity because I don’t have much affection, or I can’t have unity because I don’t have much sympathy. All right, I can’t have unity because I don’t really have much encouragement in Christ. Well, one, that’s probably not true. But sometimes we’re tempted to believe things wrongly. But “any” is what he says. “Any” is all you need. “Any.” Which implies a bare amount. So God takes the five loaves and the two fish, and it is more than enough. It always is. God takes what little we have and he transforms it into something beautiful.

Five Loaves and Two Fish

So whatever your giftings, whatever your talents, and some people, you know, I talk to people sometimes, they’re like, I don’t really feel like I’m that much. More people think that than you realize. But listen, God’s not expecting you to be some great super-Christian. What he wants you to do is offer him the five loaves and the two fish. That’s what he wants you to do. Offer him something that looks like it really can’t do much. And then what does he do? He takes that little and does an amazing work. Why does he do it that way? So that you realize it’s not about you. It’s about him. That you can’t pat yourself on the back. Even if you’ve been gifted with great intellect. You should fight against—you know, you’ve been gifted with great athleticism, whatever it might be. You should never pat yourself on the back thinking, look. God could have taken away 50 or 100 IQ points from you if he wanted to. He could have made you half as athletic as you are. So when you’re playing games with people, don’t put any hope in your athleticism. Don’t put any hope in your intellect. Like, those are things from God that he’s blessed you with. Even Deuteronomy talks about it. “Is it not I who make a person mute or deaf?” Like he is the one that does that. So whatever we have comes from Christ. So the five loaves and two fish, we offer it up to him. We say, here it is, Lord. How do you want me to use it? Here it is, Lord. You take it. You point me in the right direction. We want to display these things in our lives. The encouragement in Christ, the comfort from love, the participation in the Spirit, the affection and sympathy—I mean, not for show.

Pastor David Smith

You want to know someone who I think did a good job of participating and really displaying this well in their life? It was Pastor David Smith. Pastor Smith, if you don’t know, was one of the pastors that we partnered with in the country of Belize, went on many mission trips there and partnered with him for many years. But not everyone got where I got a chance to—some of you never had the chance to meet him, which is unfortunate. Even people who’d never been to Belize before. And even if he didn’t know your name, this goes back a few years, but one time he was like, you know that lady, the coffee every week? [audio unclear] on my heart and I’m praying for her. Didn’t even know her name. Had only met her a couple of times. Never went to Belize, but he loved people. And he cared about people. And anywhere you went, if you were with Pastor Smith, and a lot of times, again, on the mission trip, because he was so focused really on ministering to us, he did a great job of the fellowship of the Spirit. Very much an evangelist, very good at building relationships. I was talking to one of the members of his church when we were down there for his funeral. I was asking, hey, how did [audio unclear] would come in and I would just be standing there. My job is to be the guard, right? And so I really just didn’t do much except stand there and keep an eye on people, and week after week this person would come in and they would talk with me and ask me how I’m doing and we talked for just a couple minutes, and week after week, and they would invite me to church, and okay, I’ll come visit church. And he did. And I actually don’t know if he was saved at the time or not. [audio unclear] I’ve known him for about a decade, and in times where we were dealing with difficult situations and working through stuff, never heard him speak ill of anyone. And though he had 20 years on me and 30 years on Justus, he was willing to receive from us and learn from us and even be challenged by us. He is really the embodiment of these things that we’re seeing here, of walking out the Christian life.

A Seat at the Table

I even think that someone is embodying this to President Trump. I think there’s people that are near him and they are using the opportunity to speak truth to him, such that, publicly this past week, this is what he said: “I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I hear I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.” And then he goes on and he’s like, and I think if I do this particular thing, that’s going to score me some points in heaven. Well, not true, right? But obviously I find something from someone to realize, hey, I do want to get to heaven, and I’m not doing well. And a lot of people made the point online, a lot of believers, hey, guess what? We’re all at the bottom of the totem pole. Right? Like, there’s no working our way up. Apart from Christ, yeah, we’re all at the bottom. And we desperately need a Savior. And it doesn’t matter whatever great work we might possibly do, it won’t get us to heaven. It won’t work. Why? Because Christ did everything needed for us for salvation. There’s not some extra work that—you’d be insulting Christ to suggest that you have to do something, if you really think about it. Like, oh, thanks for dying on the cross, and let me do my part now. No, I mean, Christ earned everything possible for you. Your salvation, your sanctification, your justification, your glorification, he earned it all. When he said “it is finished,” he meant it. That’s why we call it the finished work of Christ. There’s no more work for him to do. It’s done. So whatever sins you’ve committed, past, present, future, Christ has taken care of it. That is why, brothers and sisters, we can have encouragement. We’re not going to hell. But we also have a relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And we can walk in hope. In hope of what? That one day, the groom will come back for the bride. The groom’s coming back. Revelation talks about the wedding feast of the Lamb. If you’re a believer, you ever go to those, I mean, not even fancy weddings, but most weddings, sometimes, nowadays they have your name on a board and you’ve got to look at the board for 15 minutes to figure out what table you’re at and where your name’s at. I’m like, just put the name tag on the table, it’ll be so much easier. But anyway, they got name tags, right, at those weddings. Well, there’s a wedding coming, and there’s a seat already reserved, and there’s a little name tag there, and it’s got your name there. It’s got your name, right? And it’s only a matter of time. It’s only a matter of time before you take your seat at the table. And it’s going to be a glorious feast. Hey, I’ve been to some good weddings on this earth. But this is going to be like the wedding of weddings. It’s going to blow any of these earthly weddings out of the water. And every believer has a seat at the table. And we’re going to feast. We’re going to feast like never before. It’s going to be a celebration of celebrations. Do you have a spot at the table? You should want one. God in Christ did so much for you. So much. Forgive you of your sins, but also offers you the righteousness of Christ. It’s the gift of God, eternal life offered to you. If you take the gift offered to you, Romans 3, Romans 6, it’s offered. It’s freely offered. [audio unclear] if you respond in [audio unclear] The day of Christ, that’s the due date. That’s when it comes to full fruition. That’s for every single one of us. So yes, justified, yes, sanctified, and yes, glorified. Make sure you have a seat at the table, brothers and sisters. It’s offered freely. How do you get it? Respond in faith, repent of your sins, and trust in Christ. That you have, you’re reconciled with the Father. Some people don’t even realize there’s this brokenness. Some people don’t even realize you need to be reconciled with the Father. Well, guess what? You can sin against someone and not realize it. That’s possible. So yeah, you’ve sinned against the mighty God. So there’s brokenness there. And what does Christ do? He brings back the relationship to the way it should be. He reconciles us to the Father, the one made whole in Christ. Well, as John talks about, he’s convicting, he’s condemning the world, but calling people to truth and to life. All of that for God’s glory. All of that for his name. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, will one day return, to reign supreme. That’s why Paul says, what, Maranatha? Come, Lord Jesus. So I encourage you today, trust in Christ. You have these things if you have trusted. You have an encouragement in Christ. We used to sing this really silly song years ago in the junior high. It was, “Down with discouragement, I’m making up my mind to turn to Christ and see him.” Something like that. But yeah, down with discouragement. Why? Because we have an encouragement in Christ. Even in the midst of whatever might be going on. We’ve already talked about suffering for a couple weeks. But even in the midst of whatever we have going on, if you are in Christ, you should have so much encouragement. Why? Because you are his. You are his. So what else do you need? He’s going to provide for everything that you need. You are his. You have the comfort of none other than the Creator of the universe, who you get to call your heavenly Father. A privilege reserved only for his children. You get to refer to him as Abba, Father. And then the Spirit is there working in you and through you, willing to work to his good pleasure. God’s good pleasure is being worked through you. So what are you supposed to be? Well, that’s the foundation, brothers and sisters, and then you’re like, here’s my five loaves and two fish. Here it is, Lord, point me in the right direction. Well, what’s the direction? Well, for here, it’s going to be unity, as we look at in the coming weeks. Walk in unity. Many, many churches, there’s not unity.

A United Church

But a united church, a church that’s unified, it’s like a beacon to the world. Because you’re taking people from all different social backgrounds, economic backgrounds, demographic, age backgrounds, right? You bring them together, and that is a beautiful thing in God’s sight, and he sees that. That’s only possible through Christ, to walk with one another from all sorts of different backgrounds. And the 80-year-old can be friends with the 20-year-old. And the rich can be friends with the poor. And there’s a commonality. Why? Because we have Christ. We have more in common with my sister, Glenda Smith, who’s Belizean and she’s black, than I do my next-door neighbor who’s white, in his 40s, and doesn’t know Christ. It’s true. More in common and more unity. Why? Because that’s what God does at the foot of the cross. That’s what he does for us. So yes, there’s no male, no female, nor Greek, nor Jew. Why? He sees that, and those distinctions in Christ, when we walk in our equality, are the same. There’s not one, you know, males aren’t higher than the females or vice versa, blacks aren’t higher than whites or vice versa, like that’s all wiped out. That’s all wiped out. So what do we see? Well, we see it the way God sees it, in his economy, so to speak. And so yeah, he sees us, and ontologically he’s looking at us, in our being there’s worth, in our being there’s equality. How does he do that? Through his Son, through the power of the Spirit, by his grace and for his glory. Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you that we have a commonality through your Son Jesus, that we have you, we [audio unclear] have your Son, we have your Spirit. And it’s because you’ve given us, in great measure, your Spirit and your Son and yourself. And we thank you, Lord, for the riches that we have in Christ, that you are abundantly gracious to us, abundantly merciful to us, that you show great compassion and mercy to your children. Lord, help us to walk in the encouragement in Christ, in the comfort of your love, in the participation of the Spirit, in the sympathy and affection, Lord, to display it to others, to walk in the fullness that you have placed before us, God, in your glory and in your grace. We pray that you would do this, in Jesus’ name, amen.