Transcript

uncomMen · HBCWestminster

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So we are going to be looking at Philippians 2, which David got us kind of introduced to last week. Tonight we're going to really dive into that, and we're going to be looking at what Paul has to say to us through Jesus. So your notes are pretty basic. I'll let you know when we get to each point. There's only five of them total.
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But I want to start by saying that if I'm completely honest, getting up here and talking in this group is a little intimidating. I'm still in my 20s. You know, I certainly have not been around for that long. And, you know, if I'm completely honest, in the summers that I've sat in this group, I've been pretty blessed to be among a lot of the guys that have sat in here with me.
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You know, there's a lot of guys in here who I look up to as mentors and role models for my life. And so, you know, standing here and talking about what it means to, you know, be a man or what that looks like is a little intimidating. So tonight, instead of speaking from my experience and my knowledge, instead we're going to look at Paul and what Paul would have us to hear through the example of Jesus.
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Paul, who we're looking at in Philippians 2, was certainly a man who had been radically changed by the power of the gospel. We're all familiar with the story. He was a Pharisee among Pharisees, persecuting the church, and one day his life was radically changed when he met Jesus on that famous road. And in that moment, everything was turned around, and Jesus gave him this...
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kind of prophecy that he was going to go and proclaim good news to the Gentiles, but also that he was going to suffer for the sake of Christ. And so before we get into Philippians 2, we kind of have to set up some backstory to this chapter, because in understanding the backstory, it'll shed more light on the words that we're going to read in chapter 2. So going back to chapter 1, and then even the life of Paul leading up to this moment, because Philippians was written
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most likely later on in Paul's ministry. So leading up to this point, Paul certainly had suffered for Christ. I took some time to kind of compile a list of just some of the different trials that he went through, and so I'm going to read through these one at a time, but I want to kind of take time to actually think through what this would have been like, right? Because I'm sure we're familiar with these sufferings that Paul went through, but...
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to really think of what this would be like if we were the ones who had lived through this, if we were the ones who were writing this letter to the Philippians. So five times Paul had suffered what they called 40 lashes minus one. And the reason for 40 minus one is it was a common held kind of belief that once you got to 40, that was where you got to a level where it was possible that a man could die from...
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the extent of the beating, and so they would do 40 minus 1. That happened to Paul five times. Three times, he was beaten with rods. One time, he was stoned, and the only reason the stoning stopped was because he was so badly marred that people assumed he was dead. Three times, he was shipwrecked, and he tells us that one of those times, he spent a full day and a full night on the open sea.
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Not sure if rescue was going to come. Just a drift holding on to, I would assume, some sort of something had been thrown overboard before the ship went down. A full day out at sea. In addition to these physical sufferings and the constant threat that he had from the Jews who were looking to take his life, he also talks about this great anxiety that he had for the church. You can imagine Paul, he's planting all these churches.
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And as he's doing that, they're constantly under threat, right? There's this threat from the Jews. There's this threat from the Romans. There's this threat from Satan himself. There's even threat from people who on the outside appear to be Christians, but really they're false teachers who are coming in behind Paul and trying to cause trouble, right? And so Paul was just, you know, filled with this anxiety about what was going to go on with the church and trying to trust God to take control of it all. Things are going to get so bad for Paul.
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At one point in 2 Corinthians, he's going to say that he even despaired of life itself. So I don't want to make light of this. Paul went through some pretty hard things. But I think the worst thing he experienced was not in the physical suffering. It wasn't even that anxiety he felt. If I were Paul, perhaps the worst pain I would have felt is what he was feeling at the time that he wrote this letter to the Philippians. Now, Paul had been jailed, and he'd been jailed unjustly.
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But I think the worst part is that when he was in jail, fellow leaders, or at least men who proclaimed to be leaders in the church, these probably were in reality false teachers, but people who Paul at one point maybe trusted were going around and they were using this as an opportunity to bring Paul down and diminish his ministry and to raise their own ministries up.
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They were showing their true colors. They were not friends with Paul, but instead they were bitter rivals. And so I imagine Paul, as he's writing this letter, is feeling just immense betrayal by guys who he thought were his brothers, right? But now that he sits in jail and he's gone through all this persecution, even some of his own brethren are turning against him. And so you can imagine Paul's in a pretty tough spot, right? He's been through a lot.
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To kind of take this one step farther and kind of drive this point home, I want us to imagine for a second if one of our own wrote a letter like this to Highland Baptist. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Isaiah DiLorenzo. He is one of our missionaries to Peru. And so, you know, imagine for a second if we received a letter from Isaiah saying, hey, you know, I'm here. I'm, you know, the Lord is doing amazing things, but not going to lie, it's hard, right? I've been beaten.
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fearful for my life. The government is coming after me. I've been wrongly put in prison. Some of these fellow missionaries who I thought were on my side are now attacking my character and trying to pull me down. I'm in a tough spot. When I think of the reaction that this church would have to that letter, I think initially there'd be some righteous anger. But once that kind of subsided, I would envision the men of Highland, the families of Highland, rising up.
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and saying, what can we do? We'll do anything. We will send you money. We will send you resources. We will buy tickets and send you reinforcements. Whatever you need, Isaiah, whatever you need, we will be there for you. And so as Paul steps into Philippians 2, he, in chapter 1, kind of reminded them or told them about some of the things he had been through. And you would imagine that Paul could have asked for any of those things, but he doesn't.
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So starting in Philippians 2, verse 1, we're going to see what Paul does ask for. So starting in verse 1. 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.
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Right? So what does he ask for? In the midst of everything that's going on to him, all the persecution, all the trials, all the suffering, Paul tells them, if there's one thing you guys can do for me, one thing that will help me as I sit here in prison, be unified. Have unity amongst yourselves. Have this fellowship of believers. Right? That is what Paul asked for. And so that's your first blank in the note. Paul asks for unity.
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Now, when Paul could have asked for probably anything, his decision to ask for unity, I think, should show us just how important unity is among a body of believers. And tonight, I'm going to make it a little more specific, among this body of men, right, for us to be unified. Now, Paul is going to begin to kind of, I think, follow a logical progression.
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And so in these first few verses, he calls upon them to have this spirit of unity amongst themselves. And with his very next words, he's going to help them by telling them what they need to do to ensure that this unity can take place. And so starting in verse 3, he says,
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So Paul tells them to be unified, and then immediately he tells them the key to having that unity. And he says that this key is humility. Sorry.
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So starting off in the next verse, we're going to continue on. So I imagine as Paul tells them to be humble, he's also going to anticipate what the biggest threat to that is. So starting in verse 4, he says, having this mind, verse 5, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not call to equality with... I'm really sorry. We're going to take a step back. Let's see, where are we? All right, so...
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He tells them to be humble. All right, the problem is pridefulness. And so that is the second blank in your notes. Why are the men so prone to be prideful? Why are the men so prone to be prideful? Now, how applicable is this to, you know, not just the church body as a whole, right? I mean, I think everyone to a certain level struggles with pride. But as men, like, is this not so true of us, pride?
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being an issue that we struggle with. What is it about us that causes this to be the case? Because you see it all around. It doesn't matter your age. It doesn't matter what you do for a hobby. It doesn't matter your social status. It may come in different forms, but all of us as men, we struggle with pride.
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whether it's, you know, something kind of trivial and funny, like not asking for directions or, you know, going to the gym and, you know, you start doing your sets, but you look over and the guy next to you is doing more. And even though you're not as strong and you're probably going to hurt yourself, there's this feeling like I have to put on more plates and I have to keep up with this other guy, right? You know, the fishing stories, you know, the fish starts with this big and by the end of it, you know, you've got to keep up with everyone else and pretty soon you're catching a whale, right?
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I don't know what it is as men, but we just, naturally, we're just prideful, right? When we don't receive respect, we tend to lash out. It's this universal struggle that we have. Now, Paul is going to see this as being a big threat to this unity, right? He's commanded them to be unified. They need to be humble to do that, and pride is what is going to be a threat to that humility taking place, which is going to allow that unity.
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I had a friend who served in the Army, and he told me this story about a fellow soldier that served with him who really gained his respect. So my friend, after going through his training, he went to a unit that was average at best. This is not the super soldier unit. It's the pretty lowly unit.
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You know, a pretty humble unit. But one day they got a new soldier. And he was an older guy, not super old, but probably in his 30s. And he had had prior service, so he had come from a different unit. But no one really knew where he came from. And so this guy, though, from day one, he really took an interest in mentoring and helping the younger soldiers amongst the unit. He was constantly talking to kind of lowly privates.
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kind of helping them out when they went astray, building them up. And he was always about giving, never about taking. And he never bragged about anything. Even the way he kind of carried himself, he was confident, but he wasn't arrogant. And this went on for a few months until they had their military ball. So for the military ball, it's this big kind of banquet thing, and you would go to it in your dress uniform. So you'd put on this big fancy uniform, and you'd have all your ribbons and medals.
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It was at this moment that they realized what this guy had actually done before coming to the unit. He walked in with his uniform on, and my friend told me that he basically looked like a walking Christmas tree. He had ribbons and medals and badges just covering him from head to toe, right? This guy had won all sorts of impressive medals for heroism and accomplishments, but the most impressive thing was what was on his head. He was wearing a green beret.
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Which, if you know anything about that, it meant that he had been with Special Forces before coming to this unit. And it was in that moment that these people who already looked up to him had just that much more respect for him, right? Because he didn't go around with this pridefulness, meaning to convince everyone that he was awesome, right? That he was the guy. Deep down, he already knew what he had accomplished, right? He knew what he had done. And so he didn't feel that need to tell everyone, right?
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And the crazy thing is it just made people look up to him that much more. And so when I sit down, you guys get into your group discussions, one of the first questions is going to be, what would it look like for us to speak softly but carry a big stick in a spiritual sense? So that quote comes from Theodore Roosevelt.
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And he had this as an idea for American foreign policy, this idea that you would speak softly, you'd be respectful, you'd be kind of humble as a country, but you always had a big stick with you. So as we talk about this idea of humility, I want to keep in mind the idea that this is not an excuse for being passive. With this idea of humility that we're going to get into more,
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There is still a responsibility as men to be protectors, both here at the church and in our homes and wherever God has placed us in a position of authority. So as you get into your discussions after this, what would it mean from a spiritual sense to be humble, to walk softly, but to carry a big stick for when it's time to take out some wolves that might come into the flock? All right. So, so far we have Paul's asking of unity.
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We have this possible pride that could arise among the Philippians that would be a threat to this. And we're going to see Paul respond to this with what I'm going to call the trump card. So what is the trump card? Going to verse 5. Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who?
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Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
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and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So I can imagine Paul writing this and telling the people to be unified and warning them against pride. But as he warns them about pride, I can imagine a little bit of pushback against this. If Paul was there saying, well, are you prideful? Someone might respond, well, no, I'm not prideful for the most part. I'm not prideful with so-and-so.
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With, you know, Jimmy over here, who's just, you know, whatever, and I can't stand him, right? Yeah, like, you know, I'm not always nice to him and I'm not always kind to him. I don't always have this spirit of unity with him, but it's because he deserves it, right? Or he hasn't earned it from me, right? He hasn't earned my respect, right? I can imagine Paul hearing all the excuses for them not to be fully unified. And so Paul, instead of making a large argument about how they need to be unified and it's for their own good or whatever else, right? He just kind of cuts to the chase and he says, all right, well, here's Jesus.
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It's the trump card. Jesus took on the likeness of men, and he lived the life that he lived, and he died on a cross. So if Jesus did this for us, how much more should you do it for your fellow man? And so we're going to break apart kind of three parts that Paul points out with Jesus' life and death. First, Paul is going to say that Jesus was the ultimate example for us in that he surrendered his rights.
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Jesus, he starts by saying, Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He wouldn't have to say anything else. That alone is an amazing statement. God took on the form of man. Even if he took on a form of...
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you know, a man, a baby who was born into a rich family, right, with a good background, who lived a life of luxury, right? He was born into this nobility. Even if that was the case, the idea of God taking on the form of a man, right, the incarnation itself, that alone is, you know, this high sign of humility. But it doesn't stop there, right? Jesus did not just take on the form of human flesh.
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But beyond that, Paul's going to continue, but he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. So he wasn't just born a man, but a step further, he was born, when you go and you look at the Gospels, he was born into poverty. He did not come from this influential family. He was born...
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Bethlehem, but eventually moved to Nazareth, which in ancient Israel was kind of like the ghetto of Israel. It was not a good city. The Pharisees will actually mock him for being from there. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but if we take this a step further, the gossip that Jesus would have had to grow up with, if you imagine his mother and the whole story surrounding that, an angel comes
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to marry and says, hey, you've been made pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Right now, we know that to be true, but can you imagine the things that were said about his family among his friends, among other families in the community? I mean, again, not to be disrespectful in any way to our Lord, but the comments would have been along the lines of, your mom is a promiscuous woman, to say it nicely, and your dad's a fool for believing her, right?
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And so Jesus was not just born a man, right? Which again, that alone is a sign of humility, right? God becoming man. But to take a step further, he wasn't born a man up here, right? He was born a man down here in poverty, in, you know, surrounded by these rumors, right? If it wasn't for him being who he was, he would have died in obscurity and we would have known nothing about him, right? If he was just another person. And then Paul,
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He's going to take it to the third step. So not only did he come in this great humility, but he's going to show the ultimate humility through his obedience in dying on the cross. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So Paul is going to hold up Jesus as this ultimate example of humility for us. And I imagine the Philippians, if they had any excuses before this,
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They would have had no Jesus after this. If Jesus did all of this, if he was this humble, of course I am to be humble. Of course I am to live in unity among my fellow believers, even when it's hard, even when maybe they don't deserve it, because Jesus did it for me. And a crazy thing happens when we do this. Paul is going to say here that Jesus, through being humbled, was eventually glorified.
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Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus' resurrection, we always say this on Easter, Sunday morning is that much more glorious because of what happened Friday night. The resurrection of Christ is that much greater because of his death.
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You know, and in the same way, even though we're not owed this, I think a strange thing happens oftentimes. When we humble ourselves, in the end, we are eventually exalted, right? My friend who had this, you know, who had this soldier walk in, and he was wearing this green beret with all the ribbons and decorations, right? He didn't go out looking for people's respect and admiration.
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But I tell you, the guy ended up becoming a legend among those guys, right? They looked up to him as a mentor, as someone who was almost like an idol to them, right? Even though he wasn't speaking it. So in the same way that Christ is exalted and glorified through his humility, right, I think God extends the same to us. All right, so the first section of Philippians 2 is talking through this.
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this call for us to have unity through humility, looking to Jesus as an example. The second portion from verses 12 to 18 is going to, I think, kind of be an application of this, right? What does this look like? And so Paul, beginning in verse 12, says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence,
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Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may become blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be poured
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I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering among a sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Alright, so Paul, Paul's next charge for them is going to be to work out their salvation. Now, this idea of working out salvation with fear and trembling,
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I want to take a moment and talk through kind of what that looks like to work out our salvation. Just this past year, about a year ago, we celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Now, the Protestant Reformation historically was a breaking away from the Catholic Church and trying to get away from a lot of the doctrinal theologies that had gone astray and had deviated from the truth of Scripture.
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And one of those was this idea that salvation came through works, right? So Martin Luther and other prominent leaders of the Reformation, they came along and they coined this phrase, among others, you have sola scriptura, sola fide, but also, yeah, sola fide, this idea of by faith alone, right? That you were saved not by your works,
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Not by what you did, but you were saved by grace through faith in Jesus. This became one of the rallying cries of the Reformation. You're saved by faith, not by works. Now that is absolutely true. I want to be very careful in how I say this. However, I want to pose a question for us. Have we, in affirming that truth, gone so far that we have neglected the importance of works and the importance of righteous living?
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So what I mean by that is this, right? The Catholic Church had brought down the importance of grace, right? And the Protestant leaders meant to push back up grace, but in doing so, did they accidentally perhaps pull down a little bit the importance of righteous living, of works?
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And so my goal here would not to pull down grace, but to elevate the importance of righteous living and at the same time push up grace that much farther. So what I mean by that, or by all of this, is yeah, just perhaps this push too far to emphasize grace while diminishing the importance for righteous living in our lives. To illustrate this point, I want to read
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I want to read another portion of scripture that was written by Paul. So this is in Colossians 1. And Paul says in Colossians 1 verse 21, And you, who were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present
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You're holy and blameless, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Now, I think we would be okay putting a period at the end of that and stopping there, but Paul doesn't. He puts a comma, and then he says this, right? If, right? So he just shared the gospel, right? He said, you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, right? So enemies of God.
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Have now been reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. Right? So the cross. In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach for him. Right? So, you know, one day in heaven being, you know, made perfect. Right? So he's just presented the gospel. He says this is all true. But he doesn't stop there. He says if. If indeed you continue in faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting.
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from the hope of the gospel that you had, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, in which I, Paul, became a minister. Right? So he doesn't stop there. He says this will all be true if you live it out. Another place in scripture where we see this idea is James 2, which says faith without works is dead. Right? Now again, I want to emphasize, works do not save us. However,
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They are evidence of our salvation. Scripture often uses this analogy of a tree and fruit that is being produced by the tree. So Jesus in Matthew 7 said, You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every heavenly tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
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A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Right? So there's this idea that, you know, you see this in other places in Scripture, right? We're all trees, right? And we're made into a different type of tree by the grace of God. But the fruit that we produce in our life, right, the works, the righteous living that we have,
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will be evidence of what kind of a tree we have been made by Jesus, right? And so certainly there is a moment in time where we have been saved, right? There's a moment in time where we give ourselves to the Lord. However, salvation I don't think is necessarily limited to this moment. What encompasses this idea of sanctification, right? So this idea of salvation begins at a moment where we give ourselves to God, right?
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But then begins this process of sanctification, where over time we begin to work out ourselves becoming more and more like Jesus, and one day we will be like him, right? No longer sinning. We will be made perfect. Now that day will not be here on earth, right? That day is going to come when we're in heaven seeing him face to face. But there should be this evidence here in this life that we are moving towards that. And so when Paul tells the Philippians to work out,
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I think that's what he's talking about. He's not telling them, you know, work and do all these good things so that you're saved, but he's saying, be reassured that you in fact are saved by continuing along this process of sanctification, of becoming more and more like Christ. Alright, he then continues. He says,
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among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be poured out, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon this sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. So this, I think,
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In concluding, to wrap this all together, the fourth point in your notes was work out your salvation. And the last one is what this all leads us to. So far, Paul has given us the charge of living in unity, of having this fellowship amongst our fellow believers, by being careful to avoid pride, but instead be humble, using Jesus.
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as the ultimate example for us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And to do that, I think, with the unity that he's already established for us. And that is really the whole idea behind us meeting here on a Wednesday night. It's the reason why we meet on Sunday mornings. It's the reason the Bible says not to neglect meeting together. It's because we need this. I think sometimes as guys, there's this temptation to do it alone.
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This lone wolf mentality. But Paul, as he gives this list of charges, and he ends with telling them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling so that they can become light in the world. I think it's interesting that he starts by telling them to be unified because he knows that for this working out of their salvation to take place, for them to be the brightest light they can be, that is only going to be possible if they're unified.
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And that is why we meet together. That's why we do this. That's why we come together and we encourage each other and at times are gentle with each other and other times when we have to we admonish one another. We act like men. It's because we're working towards this idea of being light in a world that if we're honest is pretty dark. And scripture says that it's only going to get darker before the Lord comes back. And so let us continue to
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strive for this unity, to work our salvations so that we can be licensed in this world. The last part of Philippians 2, Paul talks, kind of gives a little bit of history about kind of men that he has in his lives. And so, the second part of the group discussion is going to be to read those verses, verses 19 through 30. And to ask the question or answer the question,
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What example do we see in Paul's own life of having this unity among the people that he's working with? How do they show respect and unity amongst themselves? Both Timothy, who he kind of saw as a son, and this other guy who he maybe saw more as a brother or like a peer. So how do we see this idea of Philippians worked out in the lives of these men? We'll take a second to talk about...
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this idea of working out your salvation with fear and trembling, this idea of works versus grace and how you put those two together without diminishing one or the other.