A Theology of Unity

Series: Breakout
June 22, 2008

The first week I tried to get everyone excited about our Breakout series, which is really a study taking us all the way through the letter to the church in Philippi. The second week I tried to get everyone even more excited by talking about the major theme of the letter: the joy-filled Christian life. Then last week I dropped the bomb and talked the whole service about suffering.

I thought if ever there was a service that was going to drive people away in droves it was going to be last Sunday. Basically, we invited you to embrace suffering as a major component not just of life, but specifically as part of the Christian life. You can expect to suffer as a Christian, and you can expect to suffer even because you are a Christian. But, that you can use that suffering as an opportunity- an opportunity to glorify God and grow in Him. You can run away, you can throw up you fists and shake them at the world and at God, and really you can, and all of us probably will at some point in our lives. Or you can turn to God, to glorify God and to grow in God. That’s what Paul, the author of the letter to Philippi, did. He turned his imprisonment to God. He used it as a platform for ministry. He used it to go deeper into God, deeper into his relationship with Jesus, deeper into complete submission, dependence into service.

There are many of you who simply said this is my experience. I have suffered, but it’s made me go deeper. I have suffered, but through it I glorify God. I have suffered, but I have grown in faith, in hope, in love. Folks, I commend you because I have heard stories of suffering that far surpass anything I’ve experienced in my life. I commend you because you have suffered, but you have not wasted it. You have taken it, you have owned it, you have used it. And you know what- that’s not normal. That’s a God thing. That is God working in your life, to turn your suffering into glory and growth.

Now like I said last week, we aren’t supposed to avoid suffering at all costs, but neither are we supposed to pursue it. It’s a reality of this life that we use to glorify God and grow in him. But there is another way to glory and growth. Let me tell you a prayer I learned a long time ago. It’s a prayer I started praying regularly since some difficult times in my youth. It’s a prayer that goes something like this-

God, if I can learn the easy way, please teach me the easy way.

Folks, I’m just going to confess to you that I’m not a strong man. I run, I bike, I swim, I bench press 350 pounds, ok, 300, ok maybe 250 on a good day. I may try to look tough, act tough, talk tough, but I’m not. I don’t like to suffer. I don’t like pain. I don’t like hunger. I don’t like thirst. I don’t like to have my heart broken. I don’t like to see people I love suffer. I don’t think I’d last a minute in prison. I like hot meals and a warm bed. I like to hold my woman in my arms. I like to play with my kids. I like to be healthy. I like healthy relationships.

I don’t like to learn the hard way. Now given the choice between learning, and not learning, between growth, and stagnating, I’m going to take growth, I’m going to take learning. But if I can learn and grow the easy way, instead of the hard way, I’m going to take the easy way. But some people spend a lifetime learning the hard way. Every lesson has to come with a price. They can’t simply take good and wise words and apply them to their life. They have to test every limit. They have to experience the consequences before they apply the truth. I’m no masochist people. I’m far from it. I’m a hedonist. I’m all about maximizing pleasure. I’m all about enjoying God, enjoying people, enjoying life.

And the great thing is- so is Paul. So this is what Paul then goes into for the rest of Philippians. God doesn’t want us to suffer forever, and so He is righting the wrong and suffering in the world. God doesn’t want an eternity of pain and sorrow and tears, so he is coming again, the bible tells us, to put to right all the wrongs, to bring justice, righteousness and peace. Perfect Shalom, to use the Hebrew word- the perfect state of harmony between God, people, and all of creation- both heaven and earth. He gets into this in chapter 2, but I want to go back and preface this with Paul’s prayer in chapter one. It’s too good to miss:

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

Look at that prayer. Let’s break it down into its three parts:

First, “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” Have you ever known a young couple in love? That stage where they ask, “What do you want to do tonight?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” “I know, we can just sit on this couch and look at each other all evening long.” “Oh there’s nothing I’d love more.” “Oh I love you.” “The world has never before known a love like this.” We have at least three engaged couples here at Connections now, and let me be the first to tell you, this as the minister that will officiate your wedding- you are pathetic. WE see you looking at each other and batting your eyes. One says, “I have to use the rest room,” and the other says, “Hurry back, I’ll miss you.” You have no idea how much comic relief you provide the rest of us.

But it’s a great stage, a stage not to be missed or cut short. Because you are making the emotional tie that is going to take you into the next stages of your life together, and that’s a love that abounds more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Robin and I don’t really have the time now to sit on the couch and bat our eyes at each other, but I love Robin better now heading into our 12th year of marriage because I have a depth of knowledge and insight about her only surpassed by God. I know what she’s like in good times and bad, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health. And I will continue to learn to love her better, to know her better, to know how to encourage her, support her, challenge her.

Paul wants the same for us in Jesus. When we first believe in Jesus, when His Spirit comes into our lives, when we go from being spiritually dead in sin to alive in Christ, it’s often like first love. Everything is great, cup cakes and sprinkles. And that’s a great stage. But we can’t sit on the couch with Jesus forever saying how much we love each other. We go and we grow. We grow in knowledge and depth of insight.

Here’s why, the second part of that prayer: so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ Jesus. This is an encouragement couched in a promise. He is encouraging them to grow in this love so they can discern what is best. Some of you here love Jesus. You have come to put your belief in Him, you are now alive in him and in love with him, but folks, now you need to learn some discernment. It’s time to grow up a bit and learn to discern.

This is actually quite a passion of mine, and thus, if I’m not completely weird and different from everyone else in the world, something that is deeply desired by many of us. I long for discernment. I pray for discernment. I want to be able to discern rightly what to do with my life, how to live in this world, where to invest my time and talents and resources, how to launch this church, how to lead this church, how to be a husband, how to be a father, how to love my neighbors. I want discernment, but it’s a confusing world, with competing values, and controversial beliefs. I want to be like the men of Issachar! What does that mean? 2 Chronicles 12:32, when the tribes of Israel, the nation of God, were being listed counted, tells us the men of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do. I have always, always longed for that spirit of discernment, that I might understand the times and know what to do, that the church today might understand the times and know what to do, that right here, right now, Connections would be the kind of church that would understand the times here in London, and know what to do. To know how to grow God’s kingdom and this church, to reach out to our city, to bring them into worship and go with them into mission. We need discernment.

The encouragement is this- to be discerning so we may be pure and blameless. You know what it’s like to feel dirty and guilty. It doesn’t feel good. But to be pure and blameless, not in any smut or condescending way, but to just know we stand pure and blameless before God, before our spouse, before our children, before the world, that is golden! If you’re stuck in the dirt and guilt, ask forgiveness. Be forgiven. Then get discerning.

Because there is a promise here for the believer- pure and blames until the day of Christ Jesus. I elude to this a lot, because the bible alludes to this a lot, and someday soon I’ll really develop the promise in a sermon. But the Christ-follower has the giant, huge, guiding promise that stands out in front of us helping us to learn discernment, helping us in our suffering, offering us joy and hope, and it’s that Jesus Christ is coming again. That is the path of redemption that this world is on: Jesus came, Jesus ascended back to Heaven, Jesus send the Holy Spirit, and Jesus will return. Then all who put their faith in Him will be pure and blameless for all eternity in the new heavens and earth. Many of you believe that already, some of you are still learning about it. It is central to our faith and relationship with God, and I’ll tell you all about it sometime.

Paul prays one, that your love may abound, two, that you will be able to discern, and finally, three, that you will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God. Filled with the fruit of righteousness. Fruit that grows only through life in Jesus and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Whole passages of the bible are dedicated to teaching us about the fruits of the Spirit. Here Paul squeezes them all into one word- righteousness. The fruit of a life set right with God.

This doesn’t come naturally, this is something that must come from God and grow from God within us. My son Justin has entered the fighting 4’s you’ve heard of the terrible 2’s- they have nothing on the fighting 4’s). Justin is genuinely a sweet boy, but all the sweetness in the world can’t defeat the reality of a sinful nature. Lately that nature has been rearing it’s ugly head. He’s been fighting with everyone, especially his sisters. Robin intervened the other day when he was pulling his sister’s hair on the trampoline. She took him aside and started lecturing, “Justin, we do not hit, kick bite or fight or pull our sisters hair. You need to love you sisters.” Justin then, with all sincerity Robin said, hit knocked himself on the head in frustration saying, “I keep forgetting that!”

And that’s the simple truth and reality of our lives- we keep forgetting these simple truths, we keep forgetting so we keep praying- we pray to abound in love with depth and insight, to learn to discern through the filling of the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the fruits of righteousness.

Now I want to jump over to chapter 2 because in these first few verses we have an amazing description of what a life of righteousness looks like.

Philippians 2:1-4. 1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

This is one of those passages that’s so good I’m afraid to preach on it because I don’t want to mess it up. But let me reflect on it with you just a bit. Paul makes a personal plea here. It’s an interesting move. He asks them to make his joy complete. It’s kind of crazy, but the fact is, Paul can say this and have it mean something. Paul planted and pastured this church. He came to Philippi and the church started with a purple cloth maker, a formerly demon possessed girl, and a roman jailer and his household. He loved the church and people of Philippi. He earned their loved and respect and admiration. So he can say, hey, make my joy complete, because they know what is going to bring him joy is going to be for their own good. What will bring him more joy than anything else in all the world? Being free from prison? No. Riches? No. Fame, popularity, power, prestige? No, no, no! There is only one thing in all the world that has the power to make his joy complete…Unity in love and spirit and purpose! Nothing would bring him more joy, more pleasure, than to know that the church stands together in unity.

The only way this is going to happen is if we are all praying to abound in love; if we are all growing in spiritual discernment, looking forward to the day of Christ’s return; if we are all living lives filled with the fruit of righteousness. This is only going to happen if everyone gets past his or her own dumb personal platforms and gets on with doing and being what is best for everyone. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but consider others better than yourselves.

I think what Paul is asking them to do is perhaps the hardest thing in the world for any of us humans to do, but is the one most necessary and needed thing in the world for all of us to do- to humble ourselves and truly put other people and their needs ahead of ours. Do we really know what effect this would have on our lives and on our world if we were completely unified, as the church, putting everyone else’s needs ahead of ours? Putting everyone else’s interests ahead of ours? What if more folks like Kathryn took six months to service in a developing country? What if more folks like Ben and Jen took students to share the gospel on university and college campuses across Canada and around the world? What if more folks like John, and Mike and Thea raised thousands and thousands of dollars to end the cycle of poverty in our world, and biked across the continent to raise awareness and education?

• Today, if this would happen, every man, woman and child in London would be fed, and housed, and would hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Today, if all the churches, if all the believers did this, this would happen in every city on every continent in the world!
• Tomorrow, everyone in every far reaching town and village would likewise be fed and clothed and housed.
• Tuesday everyone would have access to fresh drinking water.
• Wednesday every spear and every tool of war would be melted down into turned into plows to till the ground.
• Thursday medical care would make it every sick and wounded and hurting person.
• Friday everyone would have all their basic needs met and would have meaningful work.
• Saturday everyone in the world would know what the love of Jesus Christ truly looks like when the church comes together and puts everyone needs ahead their own.
• Then, by next Sunday, Jesus would just have to come back again because the only thing that would be missing would be the final defeat over all sin and death in the coming Kingdom of God.

I can picture it, I can imagine it, I can pray for it, but none of it is going to happen until I get past my own selfish desires and start to put other interests ahead of mine. None of it is going to happen until I can just love my own wife a little more than myself. Until I can just walk across the street and introduce myself to my neighbor and say, I just want you to know that you can ask me for anything, anytime, because I’m a Christian, and Jesus commands me to love my neighbor. None of this is going to happen until I willing to say this is going to cost me some time, some energy, some emotion, some stability, some financial gain. It’s also going to cost me some selfish ambition, some vain conceit, some pride, some personal interest. But you know, maybe that’s not a bad price to pay to see lives changed and the entire world changed because all of us, all Christ followers in all churches on all the continents started putting everyone else’s interests and needs above their own.

This is my prayer for you: that your love may abound, that you will learn to discern, that you will be filled with the fruit of righteousness. Then that you will make my joy complete, as your pastor, by being one in spirit and purpose, putting everyone’s interest above your own.