Our Old Covenant reading this evening comes from Psalm 133, the words that we just sang. This is the word of God. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron. running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountain of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing. Life forevermore. Our new covenant reading this evening comes from the epistle to the Philippians. Philippians chapter 2. First four verses. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. The grass withers and the flowers of the field, they fade and they fall. But this, the word of our God from Psalm 133 and Philippians 2, it endures forever. Let's pray together. Our gracious God, we come this evening as those who have been called into your marvelous light by the gospel call and given the spirit of Christ. We know, Lord, that even as we have been given spiritual union with Jesus, we recognize that our hearts are still dull and dark. Sin still corrupts inside of us. And it is your word that corrects. It is your word that rebukes. It is your word that comes by the power of your spirit to expel darkness and shine forth your glorious light of truth. And so, Lord, we ask that as we come to your word, that you would send forth your spirit to give to us light and life, that we may know you, that we may love you. And Lord, that we may be more like you. By your power and your grace at work in us. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. The world now this is obvious. The world is marked. By divisions and conflicts. Is anybody surprised by that statement? I hope not. Because we need only look at the headlines to see that our own nation is extremely divided. Citizen against citizen on all kinds of fronts, right? Ideological fronts and political fronts and social fronts and moral fronts. And in many cases, these divisions are legitimate, needful divisions. Yet, this world is divided nonetheless. And the question perhaps that we need to ask ourselves, are citizens of heaven, that's what Paul calls us as Christians, are citizens of heaven, citizens of Christ's kingdom, any different than the world? Fortunately, we often see the seeds and the fruit of division within Christ's church as redeemed people carry the way of the world within them. But such sins as to breed disunity really run contrary to the upward call of life lived worthy of the gospel calling. At the end of Philippians chapter one, Paul gave instructions to the church about standing firm, striving side by side with one another, and even suffering with one another. And as chapter two here begins, Paul continues and presses the church towards a unity that is visible and a unity that is tangible. We'll look at this passage, these four verses, in three parts this evening. First, the presuppositions of Christian unity. Second, the joyful command of Christian unity. And then finally, the path to Christian unity. First, let's dive into the presuppositions of Christian unity. Paul here in verse 1 doesn't outline for us an in-depth theological treatise. He doesn't even set forth a set of doctrinal propositions. But rather, here in verse 1, the apostle delineates for us the relational and experiential presuppositions that ground the unity of the Church of Christ. so that each of the items listed designates an aspect of what the believer has received as those who are in Christ Jesus, as Paul said in the first verses of this epistle. Now, a number of scholars note something very significant with these presuppositions, and that is their Trinitarian focus. Look at verse one. Now, I don't want to get into the theological weeds so as to get lost here, but Paul seems to be grounding the unity of believers and the subsequent call to manifest that unity in the Trinitarian unity of God himself. His Trinitarian work of redemption to the end that the church would show forth and exhibit the unity that is shown in God. that we would be one even as Christ and the Father are one. The first three of the four conditional statements in verse one actually end up corresponding to the ordering of the apostolic benediction that Paul gives in 2 Corinthians 13, 14. You know that benediction because you hear it every week. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit. Now it may be obvious, but I like to say obvious things a lot. The obvious thing that we see here is that Christian unity is for Christians. We can't expect Christian unity in churches that aren't full of Christians. This is a calling for those who have been united to Jesus This is a calling for those who are citizens of heaven. Now let's look at these four presuppositions here. Christian unity presupposes first, consolation in Christ. That you have received the mercy and grace of Jesus, who has bought you with his blood. Christian unity secondly presupposes comfort from the love of God. That you have been loved of God who before the foundation of the world set his unconditional love upon you and from that love sent his own son to redeem you from sin and death that you would be counted as a child of God. Christian unity presupposes that. Christian unity presupposes, thirdly, communion in the Spirit. First and foremost, a communion, a union with Christ Himself. Together, Christ with His Father sent the Holy Spirit. And He sent the Holy Spirit to unite the elect to their Savior with an inseparable and an unbreakable and an everlasting bond. The Holy Spirit applies to the believer every single benefit of salvation that Christ by His life and death and resurrection and ascension has procured for them. And that unity of the Spirit goes further because that unity forges a union with fellow Christians who are likewise united to Christ. The bond between the saints is not common interest, or even common creed, but common life in Christ. They are united with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, which is a spirit-wrought union, not made or maintained merely by the will of man. So that finally, Christian unity presupposes that those who are recipients of God's work of salvation are those who actually are new creation. With new hearts, with new affections, and new emotions. They begin to manifest from that new heart, love and compassion, which is foreign to those who are not in Christ. Necessarily tied to all that the believer has received in God's Trinitarian work of redemption is a marked change within the believer themselves. We have through redemption been created anew. And therefore have a new creation heart, a heart after God's own heart. So here Paul is stirring the Philippians up to remember the foundational truths of God's own compassion. So that we with them are drawn to contemplate the riches of the mercy of our triune God towards us. In the redemption that he has purchased for us. In the redemption that he applies to us. And insofar as we can affirm the presuppositions of Christian unity, we are then finally primed in heart. Our hearts are ready to lay aside and lay down the barriers and the grievances that threaten to drive a wedge between God's people. So that without such presuppositions, there's no use appealing to Christian unity. Because there is no unity to appeal to. But with such presuppositions, there lies the grounds for a united church. A church joined together and maintaining the unity that is already theirs by their shared union. Now there's no indication, really, that the Philippians are a divided church. There's some indications that there's some conflict going on in the life of the church. There's indication that the danger is there, and that there's a need for a fuller expression of that visible unity. Which, of course, is the case for every single congregation, isn't it? That there's always need. There's always more that can be done to express the unity that we have together in Jesus. So that even churches that excel in such things always find that there can be an increasing display of unity this side of glory. Now having outlined the presuppositions of Christian unity, Paul then moves to the joyful command of Christian unity. He begins by saying, make my joy complete. It doesn't really sound like a normal command that you would give to somebody, does it? Make my joy complete. Now Paul has already expressed the joy that he has because of the Philippian church. His prayers are made with joy because of them. And here Paul puts the imperative of unity in the form of a personal plea. As an apostle, he could have just commanded them to be united. But he makes it personal. And that's really in keeping with his great affection of this church. Complete my joy. On the face of it, as one commentator says, Gordon Fee, he says, this may sound self-serving. It kind of sounds self-serving. Make my joy complete. But in reality, it speaks volumes about Paul's pastoral heart. And that's really what we see lying behind this appeal. Paul finds his joy outside of himself. Do you notice that? Not because the Philippians and their unity would be a testimony to Paul's success, or would give to him some glory, but because Paul finds his delight and his joy in Christ's delight and in Christ's joy. Was it not Jesus himself who prayed in the high priestly prayer in John 17, 20-23? He says to his father, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one just as you, father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me. that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me." And there we see that Christian unity is Jesus's prayer and joy. That we would be one as He is one with His Father. And Paul longs for their unity because Jesus delights in their unity. Jesus delights in a people who are united together. Because the unity of Christ's church declares that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. A church united declares the truthfulness of the Gospel. It shows that we are not of this world, even as our Lord is not of this world. And that's where Paul finds his joy. And not only Paul finds his joy there, I don't know that there's any greater joy for the minister or for the elder of a church than to see the unity of gospel life being lived out among the body of Christ. To see the body knit together in a common Lord and working together in love. Complete my joy. Now, how are they to fulfill his joy? Here we find the content of that joy in unity. So that the fourfold presuppositions of unity are met with a fourfold description of that unity to which the Apostle calls the Church of Christ. It goes on there in verse 2, right? Being of the same mind, the same love in full accord of one mind. Now you may notice immediately that this fourfold description of unity is not comprised of very distinct and discrete terms. In fact, Paul says, same mind, and then he says, be of one mind. Which clues us in to the fact that Paul is not so much concerned to describe the aspects of unity, we might say, but really to show the totality of unity. Let's take a look at the first and last together, being of the same mind and being of one mind. We've already seen in our time in this epistle that thinking and mindset are at the forefront of Paul's concern for the Philippian church. Thinking and mindset. Paul wanted them to know and to understand his present sufferings in light of his heavenly citizenship and the promise of gospel progress. He wanted them to know that in their suffering, God is at work to give them the fullness of their salvation. He wants their minds to be guarded by the peace of God, as we'll see later on in the epistle. And he wants their minds to be set upon the things that are good and true and beautiful. Now, when Scripture here is speaking about the unity of mind, what we need to understand is not that Christians are to think the exact same thing about everything. That's not what Paul's saying. As if Christians, every single one of them is supposed to have the same opinions, to have their cognition take the exact same mental pathways. that would obliterate distinctions among the saints. That would really be cult-like, wouldn't it? If that were the case. There'd be no room for disagreements, no room for growth as the saints sharpen one another and learn from one another. But Christians are not called to uniformity. They're called to unity. unity amid their individual diversity as different people. That the many are one and the one are many. God does not intend to collapse diversity, but to unite the diversity that he has called out from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Like a body with many members working together, controlled by one head. that Christian unity is expressed here, it's about having the same mindset. We'll find as we look at the Christ hymn that begins in verse six, that this is actually the mindset of Christ himself that Christians are supposed to have. But for now, we won't get into that now. But for now, the presuppositions of Christian unity, we find that It is a mindset, a way of thinking about the world, about God, about each other, about everything else that is informed and conformed to God's word. We might call that a Christian worldview. So that this unity of mind is manifested in our united disposition and purpose as citizens of heaven. where the gospel comes to pervade and to recalibrate our entire mindset corporately. That's part of what happens in the preaching of the word that we're reoriented towards God and his purposes and his truths. And we do that together. Unity in mind. Then Paul goes on to speak about unity in love. Those who have been loved by God, verse 1, who have comfort in love, are then those who exhibit that same love. 1 John 4, 19. Why do we love? We love because He first loved us. The wellspring of love exhibited by the saints is the very love that we have received from God, which overflows in us and out from us. Paul's not saying here that Christian unity is loving the same things, but that we love with the very love with which we have been loved. The love of God that was shown to the unlovable and the unlovely. Love that, as we'll see in a few minutes, that considers the interests of others above our own. That's the distinct character of Christian love, isn't it? That's what distinguishes Christian love from every other definition of love out there. Not a love directed to those who can do something for us or benefit us in some way, but a self-abasing, a self-denying love that is sourced from God and then in turn becomes mutually up-building among the saints. Being of one mind and the same mind and having the same love, Then Paul says that we need to be of full accord. This word in Greek is a compound word composed of simply with and soul. Which in the context comes to carry the meaning of being united in soul or together as one person. So that not only in mindset, not only in love, but also in being. The church is to think and to love and to live as one. Paul's pulling at the affections of the Philippians here. And so we need not miss the rhetorical effect of this call that is really nothing other than the church of Jesus being united together in their entire being. Everything about them, Their mindset, their affections, their wills united together in their one common and adored Savior. The entirety of ourselves united with one another. And that's a tall order, isn't it? Have you met each other? I've met most of you, if not all of you. And you've met me. It is a tall order. How do we get there? Well, Paul proceeds in verses three and four to the path of Christian unity. And the first thing we find on the path of Christian unity is actually it's obstacles. Paul begins by telling the church what not to do. Verse three, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Now in this letter, we've actually already seen and encountered selfish ambition. Do you remember? In chapter 1, verse 17, it was the motive of the pretentious preachers seeking to afflict Paul and to bring glory to themselves. They had selfish ambition. Yes, they preached the true gospel. But they were at risk of tearing the church apart. Doctrinally, they were sound. Relationally, they were utterly deformed. We're a church that loves sound doctrine. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, it's in our name! And that's good, and that is right. But we must make sure that we are also a church that lives in the vitality of relational union with Jesus, with sound doctrine. Because we know that Christ is not a subject to be studied, but he is a Savior that we are to savor, and we do it together. Selfish ambition and self-glory have no place in the life of the Christian, and will only fuel division, and will only bring schism. Now, if that's the obstacle to unity, here's the key. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. In humility. Because humility stands in antithetical contrast to selfish ambition and to conceit. Because humility's ambition is for others. Humility's glory is in others. So that the path of unity is the path of humility. Now in our day and really in the first century Roman Empire, humility was not and is not a virtue. And it was and is countercultural. Now I say countercultural, but that makes it sound cool. It's not cool. It was utterly foolish. Humility is disgraceful. From the perspective of the world, humility is an embarrassment. It's just not the way things work. How can you possibly get ahead? If you're laying yourself low, nobody's going to see you. You're not going to stand out in the crowd. How can you get the glory? Humility defies the logic of the world, but we see that it defines the logic of the church. And it defines the logic of the church because it is the very logic of the cross of Christ, isn't it? We'll see that next week. To illustrate, just think about the divergent conceptions of marriage between the world and the church. The world thinks of marriage as a contractual relationship of mutual self-interest. I love you. You love me. We give, we take. It's reciprocal, right? There's a continual balancing act. And then when the mutuality of it no longer benefits me, we end the contract and we go our separate ways. Maybe we have a divorce party. That's a thing. We have a party and we smile and we say, it was a mutual parting of ways. That's not marriage as the Bible describes it, is it? Marriage from the biblical perspective isn't a call to mutual reciprocity. Marriage is actually a call to come and die. I like to tell people that in premarital counseling. Because they're all excited about what's coming. Do you know that marriage is death? It's a call to pour yourself out for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we both shall live. And brothers and sisters, coming to Christ's church, Jesus bids us come and die. He doesn't ask us what programs we like best. He says, take up your cross daily and follow me. As Calvin says, you'll never attain true gentleness except by one path, a heart imbued with lowliness and with reverence for others. And that heart imbued with lowliness is the heart that Paul is appealing to here. Hearts that know and have known the grace, love, and fellowship poured out by Almighty God upon lowly sinners. When our hearts can say, Lord, why was I aghast? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room? And our hearts know that anything good in us is of our gracious Lord. That in every moment, we live in dependence and trust in our Savior. Then, those who have been counted righteous for Christ's sake, look out and count others more significant than themselves. Safe in the care of Christ, We no longer need to puff ourselves up. We no longer need to try and prove our worth. But in the safety and security of Christ, we can look outside of ourselves. Like Paul in chains. Paul's writing this in chains. He's looking out, seeing the execution is certainly on the horizon. He's filled with joy. And he says to the Philippians, complete my joy. He finds his joy in these dear saints, just like his Savior, Jesus, on the cross, praying, Father, forgive them. The path to unity in the church is humility. We can all agree, can't we? The path to unity is humility. The church needs to hear this. That's good for us to recognize. But verse four moves us from the general corporate concern that says, the church needs to hear this, to the individual heart that comes to own the task of unity itself. You can say, I need to hear this. It's not just the church that needs to hear this. I need to hear this. Look at verse four. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. When we think about unity, we often want to start pontificating about what can be done. Well, what needs to happen in the church? The manifestation of unity between brothers and sisters doesn't come from a top-down action, does it? It doesn't come from the top-down action of denominational unions. It actually doesn't come from interdenominational coalitions or ecumenical councils. It comes as each believer looks at their fellow saints and says, your concerns are my concerns. Your burdens are my burdens. Your interests are my interests. Your joy is my joy. Verse four is not telling us that we shouldn't have our own interests, right? We recognize that we have duties towards our families and in our vocations. But the unity of the saints demands that we no longer live looking only at ourselves, but that we set our gaze, our affections, our love, and our concern on one another. Now, we may look out at the fractures of the Christian church, and we may lament those divisions. We may lament the harsh discourse and the loveless tribalism But dear saints, with the Philippian church, we must begin with ourselves. Unity begins with each of us laying ourselves low for the sake of the other. Unity begins with ourselves. Joy of Christian unity begins between each of us as we bring to bear the love and the comfort and the grace that we have received from our God. Let's pray together. Our Lord, we thank you that you are a God who works wonders, Lord, in our sin, we were set against everyone. We were dead set against you. And in Christ, we have been reconciled to you, our God. And in Christ also, we are reconciled to one another. And so Lord, we ask that you would make us a people rooted, grounded in the gospel of Christ to the extent that we would manifest the unity that is ours in Jesus. Lord, this is only of your working that this can be done. Our natural hearts would rail against humility. For this, Lord, we ask that you would make us more like Jesus. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.