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The first four verses of chapter 2 are one sentence in the Greek. You can see how we have added full stops and commas to make it into something we can read — but in the original Greek, these first four verses were just a single sentence. That's a whole mouthful.
"Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others."
Some of you just went, "Consolation in Christ? He's already lost me." Just change the word to encouragement.
We start with verse one. "Therefore" — that word simply connects us to the previous chapter. Remember, in the Bible there were no chapters and verses originally; we've added them to make things easier over time. So when Paul says "therefore," he's referring to what has just taken place at the end of chapter one — talking about struggles.
He's saying, "Look, there are going to be internal struggles, there are going to be problems." And now he gives us four rhetorical questions to help us:
That first phrase is actually a title of Jesus spoken elsewhere in the Bible.
"And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him." (Luke 2:25)
He's speaking of Jesus.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort." (2 Corinthians 1:3)
He is the God of all comfort.
This is the Greek word koinonia — participation in the Spirit, or joint enterprise. We're joined together. We participate together.
The King James Version said "bowels and mercies." They used to believe that the seat of the emotions was your bowels. This is where we get "I feel it in my gut" — because they believed your emotions were right there.
When we go through troubled times and struggles, ask yourself these four questions. Is there any encouragement in Christ? Yes. Is there any comfort of love? Of course — He is the God of comfort. Is there any fellowship of the Spirit? Yes, because when we gave our lives to Christ, the Holy Spirit made his home inside of us.
These battles, these fights, we're not doing on our own. We're doing them with the greatest counselor, with the greatest power of all. The Godhead lives inside of each one of us who have given our lives to him.
We can't be victorious most of the time in our flesh. The flesh can never defeat the flesh — with the flesh, we always lose eventually. But the Spirit can defeat the flesh. That's who we need to lean on: the Spirit of God, the power of God, the comfort of God, the love of God. It's always pointing back to him.
We are on the winning team. Amen.
He says, "Fulfill my joy by being likeminded." Don't forget — Paul is in prison while he's writing this. Never forget the context. Whenever you read a book, never forget the context, the culture, the historical setting. It gives you a much greater picture of what you're reading.
It's easy to talk about joy. It's easy to say, "There's great encouragement in God. He's full of love. He's full of comfort. He's affectionate and merciful" — when you're walking in the park and the flowers look great and the birds are tweeting. But when you're stuck in a prison, chained up, and life isn't too good for you, is it so easy to say those things then?
Too many people do this. You can have people who come to church when times are tough, but when the flowers are nice and the birds are tweeting, they're outside the church, doing life, and everything's okay. Then a tough season comes and they come back.
I remember a family who always sticks in my head. They would come to church — a lovely family. When things were going good for them, the moment it got difficult in their life, they disappeared for six months. Then it got tough, and they'd come back in.
That can be our kind of Christianity here in the West. We don't feel we need God. Why? Because what we're after is security — a good job, a career, money, a nice car, a home, a family. We put our trust and our comfort in those things.
There's nothing wrong with wanting family, a career, a nice house, a nice car. Those things are absolutely fine to desire. But when they become your security and your trust, that's when the issues come.
When Paul is in prison, he's not thinking about the wealth he once had, or the nice clothes, or the holiday home. He's thinking about what is central. He's thinking about God. He's clinging to the Holy Spirit. He's saying, "My trust and my security is in him."
He goes on later in Philippians:
"I've learned to be content, whether in much or whether in lack."
That is a precious word. "I've had a lot of resources, a lot of wealth — I was content. And now I've experienced having absolutely nothing, and I'm still content." That's where we need to be. Whether you've got much or little, learn to be content — and not just financially. In life, in all things.
When we're not content, things start taking over. Have you ever seen someone hungry to make money? It consumes them and becomes their idol.
Even this whole LBC business we do — I've got to make sure I myself don't get like that, because it's so easy. "This is for the mission. This is for the kingdom. This is to make churches from here to the coast, into Europe, into the world." But it can't become a new idol. It can't become a god. It's there to help further the mission. You start off innocent — "I didn't mean it in that way" — but it evolves. And all the time, if we'd just started with these four rhetorical questions, it's always pointing to him.
Don't take your eyes off him.
"Fulfill my joy by being likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Paul is talking about a deep unity. How do we get that? He tells us in verses three and four.
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit." The King James Version says, "with strife or vainglory" — an empty pride.
"But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves." In Greek thinking, that lowliness of mind was a negative. For them: "You insert your will onto another. If you don't, then you're weak." So humility was a negative thing — they would never have promoted it.
Paul is telling people: "Humble yourselves." Why? Because God exalts the humble. Pride goes before a fall.
Don't forget what caused Satan, who was an angel of light, to fall from heaven. It was pride. We look at sin and think straight away of Adam and Eve in the garden. But every time someone talks about sin, the first thing I think of is Satan, when he rose up to try and take on God. He wanted to replace.
We have that so often — in church, in the business world — people scrambling on top of each other to pull someone down so they can step up. We're always putting ourselves first. Why? Because we are wired as self-centered people. And that's the opposite of what God is calling his church to be.
By the flesh, I'll probably try and promote myself. I'll probably try and nudge someone out of the way. That's who we are wired to be. And that's why we need the Holy Spirit.
When you say, "I can't do it. Hands up. I fail. I make mistakes" — the moment I say, "Jesus, over to you. You take the steering wheel" — I may end up in prison on the way. I may end up in struggles. But when my trust is in him, it doesn't matter where the path takes me.
And I don't mean a blind faith, like the blind leading the blind. We need assurance: he's a good God. He's never failed me yet. He's not going to start now.
You only get that assurance by building relationship with him. You only build relationship with him by taking time out to be with him.
When we say, "Come on guys, let's get into the engine room. Let's go to church. Let's do things together" — it's not about numbers or good photos. It's about the building of relationship. The kingdom of God is built on relationships. You only build a relationship when you put into it.
That's why you're encouraged to read the Bible. That's why you're encouraged to pray together. That's why you're encouraged to come to church. Not because you can't be a Christian without those — you can still be a Christian and not step foot in a church. But it will be so much harder to stay planted, to be genuine in your commitment to Christ.
Always remember the fiery coals of a barbecue. All those red-hot embers together — burning, nice and bright. That's the church when they're together.
Take one of those embers, put it on the side on its own. What happens? The others stay hot, flaming, burning. But this one cools down. That's what happens when we leave the church and go into the world — the world cools us down and we lose that fire.
Is it useful for the barbecue in that state? No. But when you pick yourself back up and put yourself back, it doesn't take long. You're useful straight away. Why? Because you're part of the coals. You're part of the body of Christ.
People say, "No one can take me out of the Father's hand." I don't want to go into whether you can lose your salvation — that's not the intention. No one can take you out of the Father's hand. No one can take you out of the barbecue, if you like. Terrible example, I know. But can you jump out of the Father's hand?
You can start well, but it doesn't mean that you're going to finish well. You can easily take yourself out, go sit on the side, get cooled down by the world.
My job for the church is to try and keep everybody in the barbecue — to keep all the hot coals burning bright. I'm not questioning whether you're lost or saved. It's simply about your fruit, your continual commitment to Christ on a daily basis.
Even if you go to church, read your Bible, worship God, pray every morning — it's still difficult. But every time you find yourself in a prison cell, every time you find yourself in a difficult situation, you'll go back to those four rhetorical questions, and you'll be looking straight at Christ. Why? Because he's the center of your life. Because you're always living in that barbecue.
Surround yourself with wise people, you become wise. The Bible says if you hang about with drunkards, you become a drunk. Live by the sword, die by the sword. All these sayings come from the Bible — because it's the heavenly wisdom.
Humility — we do need the help. Don't think you can do it alone. There is no lone wolf in the church. There is no "I" in team. I know there's an eminent "e," but there's no "I" in team.
We keep going together. We keep strong. We don't peel off saying, "I'll do this journey on my own. I don't need them." No — you do need them, and they need you. Together we're stronger.
I need Lee in my life. Believe it or not, I need Lee in my life. But Lee needs me too. It's not that Lee needs me more than I need him. I need Lee just as much as he needs me. And that's what it should be for every relationship.
With the body of Christ, the nose cannot say to the ear, "I don't need you." Where would the sense of smell be? The ear cannot say to the eye, "I don't need you." Where would the sense of sight be? That's why we all need one another.
"Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."
When we start living our lives saying, "I want you to win also," that's totally different. I want to win, but I want Charlie to win also. That's a totally different way of thinking.
The world says, "I want to win, and because Charlie's a good friend of mine, I want him to come a close second." That's the world. Ultimately, from worldly terms, I want Charlie to lose — I've just put it in a nice way. "I want Charlie to come second, really close, but I just nip you to the finish line. I'm still the winner." That's how the world works. But the church is different.
"Not only" is an important phrase. "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests." It's okay to look out for your own interests. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just saying: don't do it at the expense of others. Don't trample on someone to get what you need.
So when I race, I want to win, but I want Charlie to win as well. Well, you can't both win. So let the best man win. But if Charlie gets to the finish line before me, let me celebrate that victory. Let me cheer that victory on.
That's what we lack too much at times. That's what the enemy comes to take from the universal church. I hope we are a church cheering each other on. We need to be a church that says, "I want you to succeed. I want you to become successful. I want you to win."
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." It's a choice, isn't it? Do you want this mind?
"Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:16)
It's a choice if you want to continue. It's a choice if you want to add to it on a daily basis. It's a choice if you want to choose Christ.
I pray every day, but this particular prayer most nights: "Lord, let tomorrow be full of you." That's all I pray. What does full of him look like? However he decides, however he wants.
In verses 5 to 11, we see that Jesus left his pre-existent divine glory to become a human. And he didn't do it for himself — he did it for us. He didn't die on the cross to forgive his own sin; he died on the cross for our sin. He was without sin.
"Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." Paul is saying: "You know what? Jesus is Lord. Jesus is God. He really is the way, the truth, and the life. Don't get it mistaken. He's not just a prophet. He's not just a good man. This is the big G. This is the Lord."
"He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men." Other translations say he emptied himself. Yes — he emptied himself of certain facets, certain privileges — but he did not empty himself of his divinity. He was fully God all the way through. Fully human in this form, and fully God.
That's where we hit the issue when people come to faith and we start talking about the Trinity, the Godhead, the three in one. It just freezes them. And you can't fix it with analogies, though they're nice:
These are nice little analogies, but they won't hold me strong when I get questioned about how the Son can pray to the Father and yet they're the same. Why did Jesus say the Father is greater than he is? That just throws me.
You need to be in the Scripture. The more you read it, the more you study it, the more your confidence grows. There are some things a human mind cannot fully grasp or put into words. But when you stay in the Scripture, you're confident in it.
It's not brainwashing. You just cannot disprove the Bible. Things spoken there way before their time come true. You look at Hezekiah's tunnel — spoken of thousands of years ago. The water cycle — scientists only figured it out in the last 50 to 100 years, but the Bible told us thousands of years ago that God draws vapor up from the rivers, puts it in clouds, and sends it back down. Everything's already there.
So when the Bible says Jesus is God as well — why would that bit not be right? When you have relationship with Jesus, it's not about the knowledge you have or the analogy you use. It's about an assurance that I know he's Lord.
"He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant." Christ came from heaven. He didn't need to come. But he went, "I'm coming on a rescue mission for those people because they need me."
If our Lord would come to serve, then that truly is what we're called to do. We're called to serve. We like to be the boss, but God likes us to be the servant first. He makes the last first, and the first last. He has a way of turning things upside down.
Paul, a mighty man of God, calls himself a slave of Christ. He's not worried about terminology. He's not worried about being the main man. If it were us, every letter would start: "Hi, my name's Aaron. Yes, before you ask, yes, it was me that met Jesus on the road to Damascus." Even when we give glory to God in testimony, we always mention ourselves, don't we? There's always a little bit of us that wants it. That's why I don't think we get the fullness of God's glory — we always want to put a bit of us in.
Jesus didn't empty himself of his divinity. He simply laid down some heavenly privileges, veiling his glory to a degree, and taking on the form of a bondservant. The ancient word for "took on the form" doesn't mean he exchanged it — it's more of an addition. He didn't lose his place as divine God and swap it for the role of a servant. It was added to who he already is.
When I saw "he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant" — this veiling of his glory — I remembered what Moses asked in Exodus 33:
"Please show me your glory."
And God said:
"I will make all my goodness pass before you... But you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. While my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."
If you were doing a word study, that "back" would actually be his backside. "You will see my backside, but you will not see my face."
Why did I think of that? Because Moses missed out on two things. He wanted to see God's glory — and God said, "I can't show you my glory." And he wanted to go into the promised land — but he never got to.
Then we jump into the New Testament:
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
And at the transfiguration:
"And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him." (Matthew 17:2–3)
Moses had asked, "Can I see your glory?" and God said, "You can't." He was rejected from the promised land because he struck the rock twice. Then we jump into the New Testament, and Moses is standing there seeing the glory of God — and the mountain he was on was in the promised land.
Through Jesus — and only through Jesus — Moses was able to see both God's glory and enter the promised land. The very things he didn't have those privileges for in the Old Testament.
That's the God we serve today. That's the one who will show us his glory. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory of God is all around us. The glory of God lives within us through the Holy Spirit.
And the promised land — there's a promised land for us too. When we breathe our last, we enter paradise. We enter heaven. That ultimately is the end goal for the Christian.
But until we get there, we go through the wilderness. This world is like the wilderness to the Christian. This world is difficult at times. But if Jesus made sure that Moses saw the promised land and saw his glory, he's not failed us so far. He's not going to start now.
So we move forward with confidence. Whether we're deep in the wilderness right now, or feel like we're already dancing in the promised land — trust me, nothing we've experienced here on earth will be what we experience when we close our eyes and reopen them and behold his glory right in front of us, dancing on the streets of gold. That day will come for each believer.
"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name."
Another pointing towards his divinity. Yahweh is the name above every name. So for God to be saying Jesus is the name above every name, that is to be saying that he is God.
Notice the pattern:
We must move in the same way. We come as a servant. We humble ourselves. And it will be God who exalts us. Allow God to do the exalting. We don't need to exalt ourselves.
"That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
"Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." The Greek word is kyrios. When you translate kyrios, it is standing in for the word God. There is no other way. Every time we see "Jesus is Lord" in the Greek, it is saying Jesus is God. There is no hesitation. There is no "he might be Lord." He is God.
In Revelation, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. The Old Testament tells us we cannot worship another — but Jesus accepts and allows worship to take place.
Stephen, in the book of Acts, was a man who knew the law, knew the Old Testament. He grew up in it. And in his final breaths, he cries out to the Lord Jesus. That would be blasphemy he would never have risked — unless he was assured that Jesus was God.
The disciples suffered so much — not for a lie, but for a certainty. They saw Jesus die on a cross, rise again three days later. They walked with him. They were in that barbecue for three years with him, burning bright. Even when Jesus went to be at the right hand of the Father, they didn't sway. Why? Because they waited for the Holy Spirit. They planted themselves for the gift of the counselor. God doesn't leave us as orphans. He continues to walk with us.
Are you in the fire? Are you in that barbecue? Or have you taken yourself out and allowed the world to start cooling you down? Have you let desires and dreams take your eye off the game?
Remember the parable of the sower — four seeds sown into four soils. Three of them produce no fruit:
That's why we see many people come into church. We see many make a decision to follow Jesus, put their foot on the start line — and then the bird comes down and steals the seed instantly. Or as time goes on, the things in this world choke it. That's why more people come into church than stay in church.
I'm not saying that's the rule — one in four bears fruit, three of you are lost. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that's why you'll see people come and think, "Why don't they stay? Why does someone give their life to Jesus and two weeks later they're not there?" It's in the Word. It speaks to us.
Most of you in this room haven't received Jesus in the last two weeks, so we can rule out bird number one. But other things come — the weeds that choke it: the worries of life, financial struggles. We all go through the same stuff. But not all of us become the fourth soil that bears fruit.
Make sure you're not in the first three. Make sure you're the one that bears 60, 80, 100 fold.
How do you do that? Stay in the barbecue. Stay in the fire. Keep adding. Only you can do that. It's your choice. Nobody can make you. But the truth is, if you don't stay in the fire, you definitely will be one of the other three.
Paul's in prison, and he's able to write a letter of encouragement. We can take encouragement from it. If you're a follower, a believer in this room today, just keep that picture of the barbecue, those coals. When they're together, they burn brighter. When you take one out and single it out, it's a lot harder — and ultimately, that one on its own is of no use.
We weren't put here just to respond to the gospel. We weren't put here just to get our ticket to heaven. We were put here to bear fruit. Amen.
So as a church, let's continue to grow together, and let's continue to bear fruit together for the sake of his kingdom. Why? Because there are many people out there who don't know Jesus, and they are dying in their sin and they do not know it.
But we know that Jesus is God. Amen.
