Passage: Philippians 2:1-6 | Message By: Josh Bondoc | Series: PhilippiansFor those of you who are new or visiting and don’t know me, my name is Josh—I’m one of the members of this church, and I serve as one of the pastors here as well. And today, I get to serve you by starting a two-part sermon series from Philippians 2. Every summer, we take a few weeks (usually in the back end of August) to focus on specific topics or themes that would be helpful for us as we continue to pursue life together as a church. And a few months ago, one of our pastors suggested that we do a series on serving one another. Then another one suggested focusing on loving one another. Then, we all looked at each other and quickly realized, “why don’t we hit two birds with one stone?!” So for the next two weeks, we will be looking at the book of Philippians (and there will be a lot more application points than usual, so feel free to take notes). Specifically, we will look at chp. 2 and doing verses 1-6 today, And next week, we will look at verses 7-11, which Josh will preach for us—the other Josh (L, which stands for lighter skin tone, to give you a helpful distinction). And the reason why we broke up the text this way is because there are actually two big ideas in this passage. While this text exhorts Christians to serve others like Jesus served them, it doesn’t start with the acts of service. Instead, this chapter starts by calling for a certain way of thinking that drives the doing. Thinking, then Doing If you look at verse 2, the apostle Paul says “complete my joy by being of the same mind.” Then, in verse 5, he says: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” He commands a way of Thinking Like Jesus (which is what I titled this sermon). In fact, this was Paul’s train of thought leading up to chapter 2. In 1:27, Paul tells the Philippians to stand firm in one spirit and one mind as they strive side by side together for the faith of the gospel. He’s talking about having a unified mindset in the faith and thinking in line with their togetherness in the gospel that is able to overcome any hardship or opposition (1:28-30), like Paul was doing from his prison cell while writing this letter. In other words, Paul is telling Christians here to have a Christian mindset. But where does this start? By first finding our common ground in Christ. Look at chapter 2 starting with verses 1 and 2, which is an “if-then” statement: I. Finding Our Common Ground in Christ (2:1-2) “So if there is any encouragement in Christ… comfort from love… participation in the Spirit… affection and sympathy, [then] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (2:1). So here, Paul states the obvious and asks rhetorical questions to make them think and evaluate! Are you Christians? Do you find any encouragement or comfort or love from being in Christ? Is the Spirit of God in your hearts that stirs you towards affection and sympathy towards others? If there’s any of that in you, then be of the same mind. Have the same love you’ve received from Christ with each other, since his Spirit is in each one of you. Be in full accord and one mind. Paul basically says the same thing in four different ways. If you experienced these realities vertically, then it only makes sense to experience these horizontally with one another. But Paul isn’t assuming that this is happening yet. He tells the Philippians to “complete my joy” by doing this. As in, don’t let me lack any of this or miss out on fullness of joy because nothing else would me happier than to see you loving one another in Christ. Make my imprisonment worth it by being of one mind. But what does being of the same mind look like? This phrase is repeated in chapter 4 when Paul entreats two Christian women in Philippi who are in conflict with each other to “agree in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2). This is what was likely happening with Christians in Philippi. They were in tension over their disagreements. A bunch of them weren’t on the same page. In the NASB, “agree" is also translated as “live in harmony with one another.” Think of a choir singing a harmony line together—different people singing different notes, yet together to make a more beautiful sound than what they could produce individually apart from one another. So Paul, back in chp. 2, is calling for a like-mindedness that unites them through their disagreements or differences! But why is Paul emphasizing like-mindedness? Well, think of who he’s talking to. People. You might think, “well duh, Josh, he’s not talking to animals.” But think about it: He’s talking to a whole room of people—with different looks, tastes, backgrounds, opinions, personalities, preferences, you name it. I mean, didn’t I just describe this whole room this morning? And Paul tells Christians, in Philippi and here today, that being...
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2026/09/0139 分