The Ultimate Choreographer - Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon Series: Partners in Christ

In the last 6-8 years it seems like ‘dance’ has taken on greater popularity in mainstream culture than it had enjoyed in the 20 or so years before. With just a handful of exceptions it seems like ‘dance’ was largely reserved for Broadway in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and early 2000’s. But in the last 6-8 years dance has taken a much more prominent place in our culture. About 6 years ago Disney Channel experimented with a made for television movie called High School Musical which was basically a Broadway musical starring young, high-school aged kids that was made into a movie rather than performed live. The movie included a lot of singing and a lot of fun, energetic, and visually stimulating dance performances. To everyone’s surprise this made for television movie had an enormous impact on children and teenagers. The excitement led Disney Channel to follow up with a sequel, High School Musical 2, which also originally aired on the Disney Channel, and the excitement around the singing and dance numbers continued to swell. A few years later, Disney decided to bring back the cast for a third movie, High School Musical 3, only this time they decided to invest even more into the movie and produced the movie as a full length feature film that was shown in theaters nation-wide. And just as the first two made for television movies had enjoyed great success, the full length feature film also enjoyed incredible success as the singing and dancing continued to thrill audiences around the United States.

Around the same time that the High School Musical movies were getting the attention of many of the young people in our nation, major network television also started to experiment with ‘dance’ on prime time television. Fox produced a reality TV competition called So You Think You Can Dance and ABC released one as well called Dancing with the Stars. While both television shows took a little time to gain some momentum, both television shows continue to be shown on major network television in primetime slots, and both continue to be incredibly popular with viewers around the nation.

I have no idea what has caused our country’s fascination with dance over the last few years. Dance is considered by most as a form of art, and as a form of art it is visually stimulating to the one watching. I think it becomes especially stimulating when you see a group of individuals dancing together. When a dance has more individuals involved the audience sees more movement, they see more shapes, and they see individuals partnering together in unison and harmony in ways in which they are not accustomed to seeing people move. I think it’s all of these things that cause us to turn our attention to dance. It just seems to have taken a few innovative people who dared to believe that dance could capture the hearts of our nation and who were willing to put it before the mainstream culture and give it some exposure.

For a dance to be the best it can be when more than one individual is involved it takes an impressive partnership. The individuals have to work together to showcase the ‘dance’ rather than showcasing themselves and their own individual performance. And as the church, we could learn a few lessons from this. Part of our purpose as the church is to showcase our God – to put Him on display. It’s a task that a group of individuals (the church) are called to do together. So much like a dance it requires that we work in harmony and unison so that Christ is seen more clearly and glorified by more people. As Paul was writing this particular letter to the church at Philippi he gave a lot of attention to the church working in partnership with one another for the sake of glorifying God.

Putting a Group Together in Motion (vs. 1-4)

Chapter 2 of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi begins, “So . . .” Paul is continuing to build off of the last two verses in chapter 1 which stated, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (1:29-30). Paul proclaimed to the church at Philippi that suffering was inevitable! That’s not news that anyone wants to hear! The news that trials, hardships, and suffering are coming is frightening and typically causes us to prepare for conflict. It’s also news that can cause us to focus our attention on things which are negative in hopes of pro-actively dealing with the suffering from the font side rather than waiting for it to set in entirely and then responding to it. For example, think about the response of many people when they find out that they have the early stages of a cancer like leukemia. At first the individual might not even know that they have the disease. A doctor performing blood work might discover it and then break the news to the individual. The individual knows that the cancer is going to get worse and that there is going to be physical suffering in the future. So in the weeks and months ahead the individual will probably start focusing on his or her body, trying to discern anything that feels wrong. Then as soon as they begin to feel tired, or begin to feel a little nauseous they’ll begin to think to themselves, “Is this the beginning of the physical suffering? Something feels a little ‘off’ today. This may be the beginning of even greater pain and discomfort to come.” But for the church at Philippi, the news of coming suffering that Paul warned them about, while serving an important service, was not worth focusing on. So while Paul wanted to prepare the church at Philippi he also wanted to encourage them to turn their focus and attention to something else.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy . . .” (vs. 1). The ‘if’s’ Paul uses in verse 1 of chapter 2 aren’t used as a reference to things that are possibilities. The ‘if’s’ Paul uses in verse 1 of chapter 2 actually point to certain realities. Paul is implying that all four of these statements are certain (“. . . if there is any encouragement in Christ [which there certainly is], any comfort from love [which there certainly is], any participation in the Spirit [which there certainly is], any affection and sympathy [which there certainly is] . . .”). The church at Philippi didn’t have good reason to turn their attention and focus to the negative suffering that was to come when there were good and certain present realities to which they could turn their focus and attention now. For the church at Philippi there was encouragement in Christ. Jesus had suffered a terrible death on the cross where He endured the full measure of God’s wrath for the sins of humanity. But after three days in the tomb God raised Jesus from death and granted to Him victory over both sin and Satan. Paul was certain that the church at Philippi, even though they would share in suffering like Jesus, would also share in comfort like Jesus. Listen to these words of Paul that he wrote in his second letter to the church at Corinth. “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:5-7). Paul had experienced great trouble and affliction because of his faith in Jesus, but even in those difficult times and seasons he had also experienced incomprehensible encouragement. While he should have been distressed he found encouragement in the salvation Jesus had made available to him. While he should have been frustrated he found encouragment in knowing that he was sharing in the same experiences that Jesus had. While he should have been worried about the future outcome of his predicaments, he found encouragement in knowing that he would one day be in the presence of Jesus, his Savior. These are all realities for those who have trusted in Jesus as their Savior and Lord and these are all reasons for us to remain encouraged in Christ (whatever our present circumstances may be).

For the church at Philippi there was comfort from love. This was a church that, according to Paul, was already excelling in loving one another and loving others (see 1:3-8). Additionally Paul had been praying that God would cause their love to abound more and more with knowledge and discernment (1:9). The church at Philippi was a church that loved well and that was continuing to advance in their ability to love. So as Paul was writing to the church and telling them about the suffering that was to come he was confident that they would also experience the comfort of love that was expressed for one another within the church. Paul also says that the church at Philippi had certain participation in the Spirit. Those who were genuine believers in Christ had the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. The church by definition is the collection of genuine believers in Christ. So Paul was certain that the individuals making up the church at Philippi each had the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. And if they each individually had participation in the Spirit, then Paul encourages the church collectively to focus on this common and shared experience. Their church would experience hardships and trials, but when they came they would all be able to look around at one another and in those moments still be encouraged that in the midst of those trials God the Holy Spirit was still present with them and had not departed from them. That’s good and exciting news worth focusing on! Not only does God remain faithfully present with us individually, but He remains faithfully present with the church. When the suffering came for the church at Philippi they could have confidence in God’s presence with them as a church. Paul lastly reminds the church at Philippi that there was certain affection and sympathy. Affection and sympathy were products of the love they had for one another and the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit that they each possessed. And affection and sympathy was another good and positive thing that those who made up the church at Philippi should focus on. There was no need to focus on the negative suffering that was to come when the reality was that in those seasons they would experience sincere and genuine affection and sympathy from the church. So Paul says to the Philippians, “Don’t dwell on the suffering that is to come. Instead, in the midst of those seasons focus on the encouragement you all have in Christ; focus on the comfort you all will experience in the love of Christ that you have for one another; focus on the certain presence of the Holy Spirit residing with you all; and focus on the affection and sympathy that will surely pour out from the church during those seasons of hardship.”

Paul continues on in verse 2 “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Suffering was certain, but more importantly so was the encouragement in Christ, the comfort from love, the participation in the Spirit, and affection and sympathy. By focusing on those positive certainties and realities the church would be drawn together in unity rather than being driven apart by dwelling on the negative suffering to come. And Paul knew that the church partnered in Christ and serving Him together would be a delight to his heart and reason for joy in his life. It’s like parents who have multiple children. Though I can’t exactly explain the ‘why,’ I can tell you that when our children are getting along and working and playing together that you look on as a parent and you experience great joy. On the other hand, when your children aren’t getting along and when it seems like all they are doing is arguing and fighting it troubles your heart as a parent. Paul says to the individuals who made up the church at Philippi, “You’ve got no good reason to be divided! You’ve got no reason to be striving against one another! So focus on those things that will draw you together and unite you. Then make me proud by being of the same mind in your pursuit to glorify God; by loving with the same selfless, Christ-like love; and by fully partnering together in one united effort for the mission that God’s given to us.”

In order for this to happen there was no room for selfish ambition among those who made up the church. Paul says in verses 3 and 4, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others [literally ‘one another’] more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Self-centeredness is one of the biggest threats and destroyers of unity and in Paul’s mind there was no room for selfish motives or ambitions among the church. The church was made up of individuals who had died to self and surrendered their lives completely and fully to Jesus. But because we still struggle and wrestle with the flesh, we often still fight to do things for our own sake and our own glory. If we are truly going to be a church and allow our manner of life as a church to be worthy of the gospel then each of us has to put aside our self-centeredness. G. Walter Hansen says, “As long as Christians have the attitude that what matters most is self-fulfillment and self-advancement, they will never experience the unity of one mind.” That was true for the church at Philippi, and it is true for the church today. Now allow me to make one important note in regards to these verses before we expound on them further. In verse 3 Paul says, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” The word translated ‘others’ is literally in the Greek the word for ‘one another.’ When Paul uses ‘one another’ language in his NT letters he does so almost always to describe those who make up the church. So in other words Paul is saying in verse 3, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count one another in the church as more significant than yourselves.” Unfortunately, we are still to busy looking after our own interests to fully partner with the others who are a part of the church to make Christ known with excellence. We don’t like to commit to things like serving one another by teaching, leading worship, or arriving early to help set-up because it conflicts with our own interests – in order to do that we’d have to commit to being at church each week, getting to church a little earlier, or miss out on the teaching time. We hesitate to commit to outreaches because we would rather be doing other things with our Friday nights. And we choose not to participate in mid-week Connection Points where we spend time in prayer with one another undergirding our ministry efforts because we think it’s just a continuation of Sunday morning and we’ve already gotten the point, or there’s something else going on that would be more enjoyable. What Paul says in verse 4 doesn’t tell us that we have to completely disregard our own self, but we are to have a greater regard for the interests of others – especially others who are a part of the church. Again G. Walter Hansen says, “Paul’s challenge to value others is really a call to think about the needs of the community. The health and welfare of the community become the focus of attention when members are considering one another in humility.”

Demonstrating the Dance (vs. 5-11)

Can you imagine what a church living this out well would look like? Try to imagine for just a moment what it would look like to see a church made up of such selfless individuals who were partnered together not for their own personal aspirations, but for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel. Try to imagine what a body of believers working together in such unison would look like. I imagine that it would capture our attention much like a visually stimulating group dance. In the same way that our attention is captured by a group dancing together, I imagine a church living in such unity would capture the attention of all those around it. But just as learning a complex dance is difficult, so is learning to live and minister together as a church. A group learning a complex dance needs a choreographer – someone who can teach them the steps and demonstrate the dance for them. In the same way, the church needs someone like a choreographer – someone who can teach us humility and model for us how to live it out. And the outstanding news is that Paul says the church has exactly that in the person of Jesus.

Paul writes in verses 5 through 7, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Paul tells the church at Philippi that as followers of Christ they should be striving after and asking God to help them possess the same mind and way of thinking as Jesus. Then Paul begins to help us catch a glimpse of what that mindset and way of thinking looks like. The Bible teaches us that there is one God and that He exists in three separate and distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. That means that Jesus is completely and fully God, that He is not a created being, and that He has existed from all eternity. We discover further evidence of Jesus’ deity when Paul teaches in his letter to the church at Colossae that Jesus played a vital and important part in creation, “For by Him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). So the biblical picture and understanding that we have of Jesus is that He is fully God, that He is enthroned and reigning over all things in heaven, that He is completely and perfectly righteous, and that He was enjoying unhindered, intimate fellowship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But in verse 6 Paul tells the church at Philippi that Jesus wasn’t a self-centered, self-seeking God, wanting only to maintain His status, position, and place of prominence. Jesus was fully and completely God, and yet Paul says He wasn’t so self-absorbed that He felt obligated to hold onto that title and position with everything that He had. Jesus wasn’t sitting on His throne in heaven holding on as tightly as He could so that there was no chance that He might be removed and His identity mistaken or lost. In fact, Paul tells us in verses 6 and 7 that instead He humbled Himself by coming off of his throne (where He was identified as a King) and instead took the form of a servant. That’s unbelievable! Jesus was enthroned on the most glorious of thrones, in the most unbelievable of Kingdoms, and surrounded by the most unimaginable treasures, but left it all. Paul then adds in verse 8¸ “And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Not only did this King humble Himself and take the form of a servant, this King humbled Himself by taking on death for the very ones that despised Him.

Let’s pause here briefly to make an important point that is often lost in the declaration of the Gospel today. There are many in our age who teach, and many others who believe, that Jesus’ main reason or purpose for dying on the cross was us. In other words, the sole reason that Jesus humbled Himself, left heaven, came to earth, and died on the cross was because He loved us so much and because we were so valuable to Him. While parts of that are true (i.e. God and Jesus do really love us), other parts aren’t exactly (i.e. we are so valuable to Him). The Bible teaches that when God created the world He did so perfectly – all of creation, including Adam & Eve, were without imperfection or blemish. And at the time of creation all of creation was declaring the magnificent splendor and glory of God. Every part of creation was pointing to God and declaring His praise. But the story in Genesis 3 tells us that Satan disguised Himself, that He entered the Garden of Eden with the intentions of deceiving Eve, and that after feeding his crafty lies to Eve, both she and Adam chose to rebel against God and to pursue that which looked good to them and which promised to make them like God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command sin entered the world and it spread throughout all of creation like a terrible virus – nothing was left unaffected. Now the creation that had once declared the magnificence and splendor of God was marred and was no longer able to fully reflect His majesty and glory. But right after Adam and Eve disobeyed and sin entered the world God made a promise that He would continue to build on and remind us of. He made a promise that He would one day rescue all of creation from the sin that was affecting it and that through this rescue He would one day restore creation to its original design. Then once again all of creation would declare His glory and all of creation would worship its Creator. As those who used our free will to rebel against God and worship other things, it was our sin that needed to be atoned for and our debt that needed to be settled. So God’s rescue plan was to send a substitute – He had to send One who could live the life we couldn’t live and to die the death that we deserved. No human had the ability to do this, so God wrapped His only Son, Jesus, in flesh and sent Him to earth to be that substitute. In His 33 years on earth Jesus lived perfectly (without any sin), an accomplishment we couldn’t do. Then in His death on the cross He endured the full measure of God’s wrath for all sin (past and future), and the blood that He shed fully atoned for every sin committed (both past and future). This is the good news of salvation through Jesus – that Jesus has made a way for us to receive complete forgiveness and reconciliation with God the Father. It’s good news for us because we can benefit directly from what Jesus has done. But Jesus’ wasn’t dying just for us. Jesus gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for sin so that God’s promise of rescue would be fulfilled. Jesus gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for sin so that creation could be made new. And when God’s promise was fulfilled and creation was made new, then God would once again be glorified and worshiped by all of creation! That is the ultimate reason and purpose for which Jesus gave His life – the glory of God the Father! Those of us who trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord benefit greatly from His coming, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. But to believe that His primary purpose for coming was us and not the glory of the Father is to ascribe to us an importance and a value that is far too high.

Jesus humbled Himself in the most unbelievable way. It’s hard to imagine that the sovereign God and King over all would leave His throne to take on the likeness of man and to subject Himself to a horrific death on the cross. However, that’s exactly what He did. But even death wasn’t powerful enough to hold Jesus down. Paul shares the rest of the good news in verses 9 through 11, “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.” Had Jesus remained in the grave, had death continued to reign over Him, then there would have been no reason for humanity to believe that He was indeed the Son of God. Had Jesus remained in the grave He would have been just another guy. There would have been no reason to hope in Him; no reason to put our faith in Him; and no reason to worship Him. But Paul reminds the church at Philippi that God highly exalted Jesus. When Jesus was raised to life in three days there was no other explanation than He must have been God. The body that had been torn to pieces by Roman flogging and crucifixion was made new. The life that had been taken was now present once again. Jesus must have been the promised Messiah; He must have been the Savior; He must have been Lord and King. Jesus’ resurrection proved that as God He possessed the name greater than every other name. And because of His resurrection there is sufficient evidence for everyone to worship Him by confessing Him as Lord – an act that ultimately brings great glory to God the Father.

Connection Point Questions for Discussion:

1. In our culture we tend to have individuals who we call "glass half-empty people" and individuals who we call "glass half-full people."  What does it mean when we say someone is a "glass half-empty person?"  What does it mean when we say someone is a "glass half-full person?"  Which do you think it's easier to be in our culture and why?  In Philippians 1:29-2:1 Paul tells us that there are some certain realities on which a church can become focused (sufferings that the church will experience or several positive realities that are true for believers in Christ).  Which does Paul tell the church at Phillipi that they should focus on and why is that significant?  How can we encourage one another to focus on these same things?

2. Paul encourages the church at Philippi to "in humility count othes [literally 'one another'] more signifcant than yourselves."  Why is counting others who are a part of our church as more significant than ourselves so difficult?  What are some ways that we can encourage humility in the  life of our church?  How can we continue to maintain a positive attitude and testimony when we become frustrated with the self-centeredness and self-interest of others in the church.

3. In verses 6 through 8 Paul recounts the humility of Jesus.  When you read those verses what stands out the most to you about Jesus' humility?  Why is understanding the humility of Jesus so important for our own discipleship as individuals?  Why is understanding the humility of Jesus so important for us collectively as the church?