Our Life Together
Series: Life In a Great Community
June 1, 2008 Pastor Bill Bump
Paul wants us to understand that as participants in the gospel with the purpose of spreading the gospel, we are to experience unity.
TRUTHS ABOUT UNITY
1. Unity enables us to live in a manner worthy of the gospel.
Philippians 1:27,28 (NLT)
But whatever happens to me, you must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News.
This phrase “worthy of the gospel” is common in Paul’s letters indicating that it is important for those of us who are participants.
Ephesians 4:1 (NLT)
Therefore I, as a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
Colossians 1:10 (NIV)
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…
I Thessalonians 2:12 (NIV)
...encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory.
Unity is so important for participants in the gospel that it is what Jesus prayed for us the night before His crucifixion.
John 17:21-23 (NIV)
“...that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me. I have given them the glory that you gave Me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent Me and have loved them even as you have loved Me.”
2. Unity comes into our life as we develop a spirit of unity.
Philippians 2:1 (NIV)
If 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…
Paul shares four incentives that should cause us as participants to practice unity:
A. Encouragement from being united with Jesus
B. Comfort from being loved by Jesus
C. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit living in us
D. Tenderness and compassion shown us by Jesus
There is a direct ratio between the degree we experience these incentives and the contagious, warm, inclusiveness of our church.
3. Some appropriate responses to these incentives will lead us to unity.
Philippians 2:2-4 (NLT)
Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
The four responses:
A. Because of the incentives we receive as participants in the gospel, we should be like-minded in what is essential.
B. Because of the incentives we receive as participants in the gospel, we should love one another.
C. Because of the incentives we receive as participants in the gospel, we should be in one spirit and purpose.
D. Because of the incentives we receive as participants in the gospel, we should avoid selfish ambition and conceit.
When Jesus is our Lord, we do not need to lord-it-over others.
4. The greatest possible incentive to unity is the example of Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.
Our attitude is the outer manifestation of our inner experience with Jesus.
