Unity (The Next Chapter Series)

Many of you are familiar with Tom Rayner. Tom Rayner has written several books. He was a former pastor, preached many sermons. His pastoral days are behind him, but he's burying himself in research, and he's doing some consulting work and working with churches around all kinds of things, several years ago, he put a post out on social media where he was asking people to share with him a real incident that happened, a real situation that happened in their church that led to kind of a a bad situation in their church, or maybe even caused a church split, and he had a number of people respond to his question, his his request for more incidents around this kind of thing. Let me just share a few of them with you. There was one church who said that there was a deacon in their church who accused another deacon of sending an anonymous letter, and they got into such a huge argument about it that they decided to settle the matter. Get this, in the parking lot. Can you picture and imagine two deacons in their suits after church, if you will, and they're just going at it in the parking lot as people drive by in front of the church. What a sad picture! There was another church. A person responded and said that they simply moved to a stronger blend of coffee that they were serving, and some members of the church actually left the church because they change the blend of the coffee that they were serving. In another response, there was an argument they said that broke out because someone in the church had brought deviled eggs to the church meal, and you cannot bring the devil's eggs to a church function, there was a church dispute over whether or not to install restroom dividers in the women's restroom. Another church member was chastised because she brought vanilla syrup to the coffee server, which looked a little bit too much like liquor. An argument broke out over the appropriate length of the worship pastor's beard. One church said that there was a fight over which picture of Jesus to put in the foyer. Another one had a dispute in the church because the Lord's Supper was serving cran grape juice instead of grape juice, and then yet another one. There were some church members who actually left their church because one church member hid the church vacuum cleaner from them. These are, of course, actually kind of funny. You know, they're things that make us laugh on one hand, but the incredibly sad thing about all of these is that they were actual disputes. They were actual situations, Actual circumstances that occurred in real churches and gave room for Satan to divide these churches and keep them focused on these petty things instead of the eternal life-changing things that Jesus wanted to do in them and through them as His Church, I'm so grateful to be a part of a church where we don't get caught up in these kinds of petty arguments, in these kinds of divisive things. But I also want to say that as we begin this transition from doing two different worship services to only doing one service on October the 11th. That guys, these are the very kinds of things that our enemy is looking to use to steal and to kill and to destroy. I think it's the reason that Peter wrote in First Peter five eight for us to be alert, because our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. He says that our enemy is always lurking just behind the scenes, looking for a way in, looking to devour the church of Jesus Christ. And so we must stay alert. We must stay alert at all times, especially in the middle of a transition where He's leading us into something new, because we know this is where the enemy looks for a way in to divide and to make the church completely ineffective on its mission. But honestly, it goes even further than not. That not only must we be alert, but we must keep our attention focused on how Jesus is leading us as the head of the church. We talked earlier about how we are the body of the church. He is the head. He is the one who is guiding us in leading us on this mission.

And where he wants to take us, and so we must keep our eyes fixed on him and how he is working in and through us in our relationships together. One of the places that we see how Jesus works in us and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit to engage with each other as the church is where I asked you to turn just a little bit earlier. Philippians chapter two. Again, this is the letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. He was writing this letter from jail. We finished our Acts sermon series not very long ago, just a few weeks ago, and when we ended, Paul was in jail, and we said that he wrote four different letters in the New Testament of our Bibles while he was in prison there in Rome, and this is one of those prison epistles. When we look at chapter two, verse one, we notice that the very first word that we come across is the word "therefore. And you and I know, if we're good Bible students, that any time that we come across the word "therefore, we have to stop and we have to ask, "What is it there for? Because what the writer is going to say after this is tied into something that he has said before this, and so this is the very start of chapter two, as you can see, which means if he's using the word therefore in the opening sentence, that he is referring back to something that he said in chapter one. And while we don't have time to cover all of it, let me just show you what he says right there near the very end of chapter one, so that we can have some context for what we're about to read. In Philippians 127, the apostle Paul says, "Whatever happens. Now, remember, he's writing this from prison. He doesn't know whether he's going to get out and going to get to come see them, or whether he's going to stay in prison. And so he says, "Whatever happens, regardless of whether I get to come see you in person or I stay in prison, here's what you do: conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Do not take arguments outside in the front parking lot if you are deacons. Do not leave your church over the blend of coffee or because someone took the vacuum cleaner. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, okay, if that happens, then when I come and see you, or if I only hear about you because I wasn't able to come in my absence, I will know that two things happen. Number one, that you stand firm in the one Spirit, in number two, that you are striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. You will notice that when Paul says that he will find them standing firm in the one Spirit, that it is capitalized, meaning that he's talking about the Holy Spirit. Here, we already kind of talked about this a little bit earlier in the service, but through the finished work of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, after we've put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, the Spirit unites us not only in that spiritual union with Jesus, but to each other. And so again, He becomes our head; we become His body, and so we are already united together in Christ in one way. But He will notice that when we are conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, then that means that Christ, as our head, is working in us and through us. So we're standing firm in unity in the one spirit that we're united in, and number two, that we're striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. That's a little bit of a different phrase to say that we're striving as one for the faith of the gospel. Most commentators just believe that the apostle Paul is talking about for the advancement of the gospel, and so Paul's saying, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in the manner worthy of Christ.

Him, the head, you making yourself available as the body, standing firm in the one spirit, striving together not just for yourselves, not just because it's good for you, but for the advancement of the gospel, in order to reach the people in your community, outside of the church, this is the reason that we're doing things is to reach more and more people. And so this is what Paul had just said. And so now keep that in mind as we go back to Philippians chapter two, and now he says, therefore, okay. So, so he's already talked about standing firm in the one spirit and striving together as one, and he's going to give more details about what that looks like. So he says, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort. From His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. In other words, the Apostle Paul is making an appeal to them to live in unity, to live in the unity, to experience the unity that they already have that Christ has done through His finished work to unite them together. This is His appeal. This is His plea to them as the church to be like-minded, have the same love, one in spirit and of one mind, and we're going to talk about those more in depth. But first, let's go back and notice how he sets up this appeal, because there is a basis for the appeal that he makes for them to live in unity, and that's what we see in the first verse. You see all of these little if statements. In other words, these are conditional statements, and so there's these if statements. And if they're true, then this is the way that you are to respond if those things are true. They're conditional statements. The thing is, though, these statements are really not questionable things. It's not like the Apostle Paul is writing them and saying, you know, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, and I'm I'm not real sure if that's happened in your life or or not, but if it just so maybe happens to be true, like like these are realities. These are things that he knows to be true about them, based on their relationship with Christ as individuals, and based on their relationship with Christ as His body, and so since is really a better word. Since these things are true, then respond in this way. Notice the things that he says. First of all, if or since you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, we we talked last week as we entered into week one of this next chapter message series, and we talked about one of the core values-the core value that we have at the very top of the list-is life being found in Christ. That our life does not come from situations or circumstances or getting to a certain spot in our career or in a relationship that we have or where we're at in in a certain position or title. It comes from Jesus. Our life is found in a person because He is the resurrection and the life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And John says, if we have the Son, we have life, and so he who has the Son has life. So I don't know-is anybody else encouraged? If you're united to Christ and He is the abundant life, and you have abundant life all the time, regardless of what your situations and circumstances are, I mean, it's encouraging to me. I'm sure it's encouraging to you as well, and to us collectively as a church, and so he says, since you've got encouragement from being united with Christ and you're united to Him, then be like-minded and have the same love and be one in spirit and of one mind. The second thing he says is is if you have any comfort from His love, we talked earlier already today about the the great links that Jesus came to rescue you from the sins that you were in. I mean, think about how far Jesus stooped. I mean, in one sense, in in in one setting, he's in heaven, this perfect place.

Angels are flying around him, just declaring, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and in the next second, he squeezed himself into a human body, and he's experiencing everything that you and I experience on this planet. Then he's hanging on a cross; he's got nails in his hands and on his feet, and he's he's he's bleeding, and he's in pain and he's hanging there for hours suffering, naked in front of other people. I mean, think of how high and exalted he was and how low he stooped. Why? Because of his love for you. He didn't have to, but because of his love for you, because of his love for me, and so when you start to ponder and dwell on the love of Jesus and the great links, how far he stooped for you, you're going. Is that comforting? Oh my gosh, it's the most comforting truth that we can remind ourselves and renew our minds too, and so yes, we've got encouragement from being united to Christ, and we're we're in a relationship with Him, and and we're comforted from His His love. And then third, He said of any common sharing in the Spirit. We've touched on this a number of times. The one thing I'll point out here is that the Greek word that's trans. Sharing there is koinonia, and you've heard me bring that up probably in our Act series if you were here, and it's the word that the Apostle Paul and the writers of the New Testament use to describe this unique relationship that you and I have as brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no deeper bond than the spiritual bond of friendship, of union, of being family that you and I share through the Holy Spirit. There's there's nothing deeper. I mean, at the very core of our being, we're united to Christ and we're united to each other, and so we are in koinonia with each other, and so because we're sharing the spirit in this unique relationship that we have, then that's his basis for doing unity, being like-minded, having the same love, one in spirit. And then finally, the last part of it is if any tenderness and compassion. The word for tenderness here sometimes is translated affection, and it's a word that is talking about deep-seated emotions, and so yeah, I mean this this this emotional relationship that we get to experience with Jesus, experiencing His compassion in our lives, and so again, since all of these things are true, since we're united to Christ, and the encouragement that we get from that, and comforted by His love, and we're sharing this unique koinonia together in a relationship that we have, and we experience His tenderness and affection and compassion. Then here's our response: This is the way that we live based on those things, by being like-minded is the very first thing that Paul says, and so again we have already said that he's making this appeal for unity, but in his plea for us to be like-minded, he's not talking about sharing all the same opinions. I mean, he's not saying you guys need to have the exact same opinion about everything that there is to have an opinion on. He's talking about having the same goal, like like the same purpose of what you are doing in the church together. Can you imagine if every single one of us had a different goal for Colonial Hills Baptist Church. We all had this dream, and our one main goal is something completely different from everyone else in this room. And we're trying to go out and accomplish things as a church on this mission that He has for us. But we all have different goals. How effective are we going to be? We're certainly not going to be very effective, and so he says to be like-minded, have the same goal, have the same purpose in mind together. The second thing that he says is to have the same love. Now we we share the same love. We're all in union with Jesus Christ. We've already established that up here. The one who is love, the one who demonstrated a sacrificial love, so we're in union with the one who is love and who is sacrificial love, and His expression of love through us will also be a sacrificial love.

And so, if we're going to live in unity together, it will look like us pursuing the same goal together, making sure that is the main thing that's on all of our minds-that we are sacrificially loving each other as Jesus, the one who is sacrificial love, is leading us and guiding us and empowering us to do so. And then the third and fourth thing he says is being one, to be one in spirit, and to be of one mind. You'll notice here when he says to be one in spirit that it is a lowercase s that is there. Earlier there was a capital s, but this one is a lowercase. So he's not referring to the Holy Spirit here. He's really this the Greek word that's used here means souls together. That's that's the direct literal meaning of it. Meaning souls together. And when we think about souls together, you probably think of living in harmony with one another. You're you're a soul that's bonded together as as one, if you will, the unity of believers empowers the believers to work together, literally as like one person. Like although we're a bunch of groups of people, we're all members, individual members who are united as a body, where we can move together as one person, with Jesus being the head-that's that's one image you can get of what he's saying here, being souls together and united in a way with Jesus being the head. It made me think when I was studying this week, back to when I was teaching and coaching, and I was I was working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and and and we had some some students who were. Leaders and we were trying to help them get this idea of unity and how we we are united together as a church and the way the Spirit works in and through us and so we came up with a game and and it was called Link Tag. Maybe you've played Link Tag before you've seen it played, but the idea was that we would get two people and we would link them together. They would just link arms like this, and and they had to stay together no matter what. They were in union with each other, and they had to work together to go chase everyone else down and tag them. And so when they would run and they would tag another person together, then that person would be united to them, and now they would be a group of three. And if those three went and tagged someone, they would be linking arms and united, and now they'd be a group of four and five and six and so on. Well, at some point you can imagine as the game goes on that there's going to be a line of people who are linked together, and they're all going to be running forward at some point. And then there's going to be two people that split and they're chasing, and one's going to be going that way, and one's going to be going that way, and this side is going to catch their attention on that one, and this side's going to catch it, and they're going to break right in the middle, and both be pursuing two completely different people. And the rules of the game are that you had to stay together in order to put the next person and accomplish your goal of getting everyone to be part of that thing. When I thought of that thing, that's the same picture I get as as the church, right? When you and I are linked together and we're on mission together, and He's leading us, then we'll accomplish what it is that He set out for us. What you would eventually see in the game is that someone in the line would take charge, and they go, "Okay, okay, this isn't working. Let's do this. Let's all huddle up and let's all look to see who's left. Okay. We pick John. All right. John hasn't been tagged. We're all focusing on John. We're all like-minded on John. We're all pursuing John as one soul together. Don't be distracted by anyone or anything else. All of us are going after John, right?

And everybody in the line would then run after John and then get him and move him in, and then they would huddle up and they would go, "Okay, now it's Stephen, right? And then they would go single-minded, single-focused was the only way it would work. And this is the same vision, the same mission that we need to think about when we are the body, Jesus is our head. When we are like-minded and pursuing this in union together, we're going to be way more effective through that unity. Remember, in chapter 127, what did he say this was all about? All so that you guys can just live and love together. No, no, he said for the faith of the gospel, for the advancement of the gospel. In order to reach other people out there, you're going to have to live in unity in here. You're going to have to be united around the same things and loving each other and being souls together. And then I'll be working powerfully in and through you to accomplish that goal and that mission of making disciples, going and making disciples. Okay, so so this is what Paul says. The basis of the appeal, the appeal is unity in all these specific ways, and he says the same thing to us today. And now he just calls out what we can't see, what the fleshly, what the opposite things are of what it is that he's mentioned, and so in verse three, he says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. If we are acting in selfish ambition or vain conceit, then this will lead us away from the unity of accomplishing the mission of advancing the gospel for the faith of the gospel, as he had said particularly earlier. When you think of selfish ambition, I mean that's kind of a duh, right? I mean this is just us focusing on ourselves, focusing on our desires, what we want to happen over and above everything else in the church. That's the thing that we're making it all about. Vain conceit. This word right here in the original Greek can literally be translated empty glory. So Paul is saying, do nothing out of empty glory. It's this idea of reaching for for our own glory, reaching for our own ambitions, and when we when we get there, even if we capture the glory, even if we get the thing that we were pursuing and that we wanted to happen in our church, Paul's saying it's all in vain. It's all empty glory. You may feel satisfied in the moment. You may feel good now, but we are not celebrating this in heaven one day. It is nothing of eternal value. Whereas the things that I accomplished in and through you, where you were of one mind and of one purpose, and I was the one pursuing those things, then that's the kind of glory. Glory that gets talked about in heaven because Jesus is the one doing those things in us and through us and receiving the glory for the things that He is accomplishing. After He makes sure that we know this is not the way, this is a fleshly behavior to watch out for, he gives the contrast to it as he kind of finishes up. He says, "Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of others. And so we we humble ourselves. We don't make it all about us, and we do that through valuing others above ourselves and looking out to the interest of others. That's the opposite of the selfish ambition and the vain conceit chasing the the empty glory in that way. I gave you this example when we met together, and we were talking about going to one service and the times that we were going to be doing it at, and and the things that were going to be happening. And we, of course, mentioned that whenever we blend the two services together, that we know that not all of the songs that we are going to sing are going to be your favorite songs. Some of them you are not going to be familiar with.

Some of them you are not going to recognize, and we talked about how I even referenced Philippians too, if you remember, on that day saying that one of the signs of the Holy Spirit, one of the signs of His activity working in and through us, will be to value others above ourselves in looking out for the interest of others, and so there's an expression of the Holy Spirit when we gather for worship, and maybe we're singing a song that you don't really know that well, and that you're not really feeling necessarily in the moment, but the Holy Spirit captures your attention through the way He's working in someone else's life through that particular song, and He's going to move you in joy for your brother and sister in Christ to be so excited that God is working in their lives, and your response is going to be not, "Gosh, I wish we could get past this song and get to something that I'm familiar with and that I like, but you go, "Keep going, God, keep working in that person's life right now. That is my brother. That is my sister, and you are clearly capturing their attention with your grace and your love and your mercy. I'm so fired up right now that you're doing that in them, and I don't even know this song. So keep going, Lord. Like that's going to be the thing that we recognize the Holy Spirit's doing, rather than you know what-that's three hymns that we've done in only one contemporary. I'm keeping a spreadsheet. You know what I mean? Like, like, like we're focused on our own attention and our own things and what we're going. Or I'm, I'm looking for the interest of others, even if it's not my thing. What's he doing in and through that? The other thing that I think the Holy Spirit will do in this is to lead us in in a way where we're open to learning about the things that are unfamiliar to us, fleshly behavior again will be going. Can we not do this? How many times are we do this thing? I don't know it. I'm not familiar with it. Those things, but we see someone else that is again really resonating with it, they really love hymns, and you're going. I don't even understand hymns. I don't even know what the language is in them. Why do you love them so much? And actually, open us up to having a conversation, to learning about how the Lord used that hymn to capture them with their love, with His love and His grace and His mercy, and to go, oh, I've never even thought about it like that. I see it in a different light now, and so I've learned that, and now I'm engaging with it the next time from a different perspective than I had, rather than just having a closed mind to it. And so, valuing other people's interest is not just getting excited when it's doing something in their lives and going, "It's never going to do that in mine, but I'm so glad it's doing it in them, and to open us up to learning about those things in other people's interest in the way He moves in and through us together. As we think about what Paul has done here, he starts off at the end of that chapter again, mentioning this idea of conducting ourselves in a manner that's worthy of Christ, in order to strive together as one for the advancement of the gospel. How do you do that? Through being like-minded, he says, having the same purpose, having the same love, sharing that same sacrificial love-the way that you're making sacrifices for the other people in this room, your other brothers and sisters in Christ, and and through being one in spirit, these souls in harmony, souls together. And so, when we have the same goal, when we're sacrificially loving each other in here, when we're united in harmony together and focused on the same thing, then the. Gospel will advance.

God will be at work in and through those things to reach more people to experience the things that we are experiencing, and so that is why when we think about the next chapter, this transition that the Lord is moving us in, we've been using the phrase, and this is all over everything that we're putting one church, one service, one mission. Why? To emphasize the oneness, to emphasize the unity, to emphasize the finished work of Jesus, to unite us together. That that's already happened. And so, what are we going to do as a response to that? We're actually going to worship together since we're in union together, we're going to pursue one mission of going and making disciples together, and we're going to be like-minded, and we're going to truly love each other, and we're going to be in harmony together of where Jesus is leading us, and then, then we know that people will be drawn to what Jesus is doing in and through us as we go through this together. I don't know if there's anybody else in the room that's like me. We're about to find out, but when I read verses like chapter two, verses one through four, that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, my mind goes to movies. My mind goes to stories of where I've seen that kind of thing play out. For example, there were three that came to my mind as I was preparing this week and even reading through this. The first one was "Remember the Titans. Many of you have seen "Remember the Titans, and you know the story, and it's a true story of how a black school was being integrated with a white school, and it's the picture of the football team and these black individuals and these white individuals who didn't know each other and didn't have anything in common, and they're they're coming together, but they're a bunch of individuals, and they don't really care each other, they don't know each other, they don't even like each other, and they're certainly not united around accomplishing anything together. And their coaches are pushing them and working them. And above and beyond that, though, they're making sure that they put them in situations where they actually get to know each other, where they actually had to hear each other's stories, and then they begin to not just know each other, but they begin to like each other, and all of a sudden they began to be focused on the same goals. And then not only were they focused on the same goals because they knew each other and they liked each other and they had deep, strong friendships, and they were fighting for each other as they were moving. And as a result of all that work that was happening behind the scenes to bring that together. They begin to win. They begin to advance. Paul says, "For the faith of the gospel, for the advancement of the gospel, become like-minded and together, and be in it, and have strong emotions and friendships, and all those kind of things to be advancing it. And I'm thinking that's that's a picture of what happens in real life when this kind of thing happens, because God's ways work, right? I I thought of of Braveheart and and Mel Gibson playing William Wallace and standing before this crowd before this scene and a bunch of weak know nothing individuals who were whining and they were complaining and William Wallace was going, "Will you fight with me? And they're like, "No, I'm not fighting with you. I'm going home, and I'm going to live, and I'm at it for this reason, and you're in it for this reason, and we're all moving in different directions. And he stands up and gives this impassioned plea to think about other people more than themselves, and the reason that they would fight together, and who your brothers and your family and you are in this moment, and all of a sudden, they're standing shoulder to shoulder, and they're ready to go to battle for each other to lose their lives and say, "I will die today, so that other people can live today for the advancement of the cause that we're fighting in. And they destroyed and routed their opponents so much more than they should have ever been able to do.

I think of movies like Apollo 13, where where Mission Control, NASA was having to work together to to find a way to bring home these astronauts who were in space and were were trapped and they couldn't get home, and and they had all these individual jobs. I mean, so many different things that they each had to do, but they came together and said, "Your one mission is to find a way to bring these men home. That is it. That is our sole task right now. Everybody, find a way and work together to make it happen. And the whole movie is about them uniting together to make sure that they can bring these guys home. And I will never forget that scene in the movie where this mission control leader stands up and they have been working to come up with a plan and they're about to to enter the the Earth's atmosphere and he stands up and says, "Guys, this this could be the worst disaster that NASA has ever experienced, and right in that. Moment, Gene Cran stands up and he looks that guy right in the eye, and he says, "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour. I have no doubt that our enemy is looking at Colonial Hills Baptist Church as we prepare for this transition on October the 11th, and that He is saying, "Guys, this could be. I am hoping for. I am longing for this to be the worst disaster that Colonial Hills Baptist Church has ever experienced in their history. And it is my hope and prayer that you will unite with me together and say, with no due respect to you, sir, I believe that this transition is going to be our finest hour. So, as we unite together as one church, and as we look to worship in one service together and be joined together, let's declare before a lost and a dying world that this is going to be our finest hour because we have our eyes locked on Jesus and where He's leading us and what He's doing in and through us.