Sermon — September 27, 2026

Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. We finally have made it through the first chapter. Incredible joy, as always, to study the Word of God together.

Father, we thank you for the church of Jesus Christ, that great instrument, that living body that you have set us in so that you might grow us in the faith, so that we might have the privilege to gather and worship you corporately, so that we might know real love and demonstrate real love, so that we might also come and hear from heaven each and every week. Lord, I pray this morning the Spirit of God would work in each and every heart and conform us to the image of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus. For it's in His name we pray. Amen.

The Problem of Disunity

Early in my Christian life, I became very leery of church business meetings. Over and over again, I saw my home church, which normally was so blessed and so warm and so encouraging, turned into something entirely different during church business meetings. I watched as those who were looked upon as some of the most mature men in the church—men who had discipled me early in my Christian life—turned stubborn and angry and unreasonable once a business meeting started.

In fact, it became so bad in my home church that they would do their business meetings during the Sunday night service. They put a moratorium on business meetings at twelve midnight. Some issues were never going to be resolved by some people.

For some reason, in my Christian life, I thought this was unique to my home church. Then I arrived at Bible College, and I started to hear similar stories from others. There was one I've shared with you before: a church business meeting where they were deciding what kind of roof they were going to put on the church sanctuary. They had already allocated the money for the roof, so they were going to put one on. The problem came in deciding what color shingles were going to go on the roof. As the story goes, the church was split right down the middle. After much debate on both sides and several votes, nothing changed—it was an equal vote between two colors. No one would budge on the matter of the color of the shingles. So there was no hope of any progress.

After several hours of debating and voting a few times, the church simply decided this: they would put one color shingle on one side of the sanctuary and a different color shingle on the other side. But that is not the end of the story. Once the roof was done, the division was so strong in the church that those who voted for this color sat on this side of the sanctuary, and those who voted for that color ended up sitting on that side of the sanctuary.

Who would have ever imagined that the issue of the color of shingles could be such a flash point for disunity among the people of God?

The truth of the matter is almost always the issue is not the real issue. Any number of issues could bring that kind of disunity to a church. But here's the point: anything that destroys unity in the church is to be feared like a deadly cancer that could consume the congregation.

Disunity was so deadly in the church that after all that he'd been through, it still was one of the apostle Paul's greatest fears. Listen to 2 Corinthians 12:20. The apostle Paul says, "I am afraid. I am afraid that when I come to visit you, I am going to find what I don't want to find. Perhaps I may find strife, jealousy, anger, tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disunity, and even more."

Paul was deeply concerned about what was going on in the church at Corinth. He was concerned that the infighting didn't degenerate into division and disunity. Division is always the deadly danger in the church.

The Example of Corinth

Turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let me remind you of the situation there in Corinth. This was a church that in many ways was absolutely filled with the blessing of God. Look at what Paul says in verse 7: "You are not lacking in any gift." This was a gifted church. They had all of the spiritual giftedness, all the bells and whistles. But there were deep-seated problems in the church at Corinth.

They were actually tolerating open sexual immorality in the church, and the elders were doing nothing about it. There was drunkenness and fighting at the Lord's table. They would have these love luncheons, much like what we do, and those who had would bring in a feast of food. Those who didn't have could hardly bring anything, but those who had would refuse to share with those who hadn't. There were people in the church suing one another. So many problems.

If you read the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul is going to deal with those problems one by one by one. But you want to know where he begins? He doesn't begin with the immorality. He'll get there. He doesn't begin with Christians suing other Christians in the church. He'll get there. He doesn't begin with drunkenness and fighting at the Lord's table. He begins with the issue of disunity.

Notice that after some introductory matters, Paul says in verse 10: "Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same discernment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this: that each one of you is saying, 'Oh, I am of Paul.' 'Oh, I am of Apollos.' 'Oh, I'm a follower of Cephas, Peter.' 'Oh, I'm a follower of Christ.' Has Christ been divided? Paul wasn't crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"

Paul was deeply concerned about the issue of disunity in the church.

The Source of Disunity

Where does this kind of division and disunity come from? The answer always is Satan. Satan would like nothing better than to thwart the unity in the church of Jesus Christ. But if you would ask on a human level where this disunity comes from, it always grows in the soil of sinful, fleshly hearts.

Look at 1 Corinthians 3. Paul comes back to this issue of unity. In verse 1, he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as men of flesh—in other words, sinful inclinations. You are infants still in Christ. I've given you milk to drink, not solid food, for you are not yet ready to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able. In other words, I can't even teach you the deep things of God. Why? You are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men—in other words, like unbelievers?"

Here you have an immature, sinfully inclined church filled with disunity. But here's what I want you to get: it's not merely an immature, fleshly church that faces the danger of disunity.

Turn back to Philippians chapter 1. Consider what a writer wrote concerning the church at Philippi, a mature church: "The one danger which threatened the Philippian church was the danger of disunity. There is a sense in which the danger of every healthy church is disunity. It's when people who are really earnest about what they believe, when their beliefs really matter to them, that they are apt to get up against each other. The greater the enthusiasm, the greater the danger that they may collide."

It's against that danger that Paul wished to safeguard his friends at Philippi. You see, beloved, the bottom line is this: for those who love Christ, for those who love the beauty and the wonder of the church of Jesus Christ, there is always a concern that that kind of fervency, that kind of devotion could create disunity because we're unwilling to let go of what we believe in our personal preferences.

God's Hatred of Division

God says He will absolutely not tolerate those who seek to divide the brethren. There are so many frightening passages. I'll give you one from the Old Testament. You're familiar with Proverbs 6:16-19. Solomon writes, "There are six things that the Lord hates. Yay, there are seven—kind of a shorthand way of saying, I'm not going to give you an exhaustive list of the things the Lord hates, but let me give you seven towards the top of His list. Number seven: the one who spreads strife among the brothers."

God hates that. Solomon writes, it is an abomination in the presence of God for those who cause division among His people.

Now understand me, and I'm going to get into this in weeks to come: I am not saying that in the interest of preserving unity, we should ignore sin or we should ignore serious doctrinal disagreements on significant issues. But that's not the issue in the church at Philippi. And honestly, it's not the issue in most churches. In most churches, it's the color of the shingles or the like.

John MacArthur writes this in his commentary: "Paul's concern here is not about doctrines or ideas or practices that are clearly unbiblical. It's about personal interests and preferences and the like that are largely matters of personal choice. Such issues should never be allowed to incite controversy within the body of Christ. To insist on one's own way in such things is sinful because it senselessly divides believers. It is a prideful desire to promote one's personal views, style, or agenda."

He goes on to say this: "Obviously, we can't compromise on clear doctrinal biblical issues, but to humbly defer to one another on secondary issues—now get this—is not a matter of weakness, but a matter of maturity."

To humbly defer to one another on secondary issues is not a matter of weakness, but a matter of maturity.

When there are people in the church who are either strongly for something or strongly against something—and again, we're talking about personal issues, the color of the curtains, what time we're going to meet for a church dinner, what we're going to serve, where we're going to put different classes—when it comes to issues of personal preference, those things do not matter. And if those people seek in a subtle way to gain a following, to turn others against the church, against the elders, against fellow believers, then they are not, according to Paul, spiritual people. They may come across as spiritual people, and usually they try to, but they are fleshly.

The way spiritual people handle disagreements over secondary issues, over personal preference issues, is always in a way that protects the unity of the church. There's always concern not to be the source of division because division destroys the church of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord illustrated the tragic end of division. Matthew 12:25 says, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Any city or house divided against itself will not stand."

That's true of a church as well. A house divided against itself cannot stand. That's the tragic end of division in the church. It starts small, but it grows greatly.

The Text Before Us

It's this issue of disunity that Paul is going to bring to our table as we enter the second chapter of the book of Philippians. Let me read to you the next section, which is the first five verses.

Paul says: "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Who in the world would ever do that? Right? Verse 5: Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus."

The theme of this passage is spiritual unity. These verses may be the most concise, the most direct, practical instruction on unity that you find anywhere in all of Scripture.

You may remember back in chapter 1, verse 27—which is really the beginning of a much longer section—Paul begins to teach us how we can live in light of our heavenly citizenship. Part of living in light of our heavenly citizenship, he says in verse 27, is standing firm in one spirit with one mind. So we live in light of our heavenly citizenship by pursuing unity with one another. In verses 28 and 30, he gets off on a detour about persecution, which we saw last time. But now we come to chapter 2, and Paul comes back to the issue of unity. He begins with the word "therefore."

Chapter 1, verse 27: If you want to live in a way that reflects your heavenly citizenship, then you must live seeking spiritual unity in the church. So he's not done with the issue. Therefore—in other words, let me develop this matter of unity in a deeper and greater way. That's what he sets out to do here.

These verses are so rich with practical instruction that they will help you in every area of your life if you can get your mind around them. We're going to take a few weeks to make our way through these verses.

Overview of the Passage

Let me give you an overview or a road map of where we're going:

• Verse 1: The foundation of unity—what are the realities that draw us together and unite us?
• Verse 2: The heart of unity—Paul is going to define what unity is for us.
• Beginning of verse 3: The opponents of unity—there are some very specific attitudes that become the enemies of unity in the church.
• Middle of verse 3 to verse 5: The attitude of unity—just as there are negative attitudes that destroy unity, there are specific positive attitudes that help build unity in the church, promote unity, encourage unity.

This morning, I just want to deal with the first one: the foundation of our unity.

Four Glorious Spiritual Truths

This first verse, beloved, is so profound. It is so rich. What Paul's going to give us here are four glorious spiritual truths that serve as a basis or a foundation for the unity that we have as brothers and sisters in Christ. These are the things that unite us. Look at verse one. Paul says, "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if there is any affection and compassion, then make my joy complete by being of the same mind."

Four glorious spiritual truths that become the foundation of our unity. Now, if you notice, there is something I want to clear up. Each of those phrases begins with the word "if." Now, in the English language, we look at the word "if" and we say, well, it seems like Paul's not really certain about these realities that he's presenting to us. But in the Greek language, they have what's called conditional sentences. A conditional sentence normally, when it's given to us in English, when you see the word "if," you ought to translate it as "since." In other words, Paul is not saying "if these realities are true." He is claiming "since these realities are true, then this ought to be the result."

So the four statements are supernatural objective realities that every Christian has already experienced. Paul's arguing on the basis of your Christian experience. He's saying if you are in Christ, you enjoy these four foundational truths. And because we as believers are united in these realities, we should then strive for unity. In other words, we must be united, and not only that, we must be pursuing unity because of these realities.

Number One: Personal Comfort in Christ

We've experienced personal comfort in Christ. Therefore, if there is any encouragement—whenever you see this Greek word "encouragement" in the New Testament, it's almost always translated "comfort." You remember in John chapter 14:15, Jesus is talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and he uses this word and he calls him the comforter who will come, the encourager who will come. So the word speaks of comfort. Each one of us who is in Christ has experienced the comfort of being in Christ.

Now the question is, what is this comfort? And when did it happen? Well, Paul's referring to our salvation. He brings us up in a similar way in 2 Thessalonians 2:16. He says this: "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has given us eternal comfort by his grace."

Now, you think about that amazing reality. We have been comforted—believers eternally—by God's grace through Jesus Christ. So here's what Paul is saying. He's taken us back to the time when we first trusted in Christ. And it was at that moment—I realize not everybody is sure when they got saved, but when it began to dawn on you—Paul is saying that each of us experienced this amazing comfort of heart, that our sins were forgiven, that we became children of God, that we have an eternal home in heaven. I only ask you, do you remember that? You heard Richard's testimony. Do you remember that? Do you remember that overwhelming sense of comfort and peace that just flooded your soul? In Christ, at the time of our salvation, we experience comfort of our soul then, now, and forever.

It reminds us of Isaiah 12:1. The Lord says this to the Jewish people, the rebellious Jewish people: "One day, you will give thanks to me. For though you are angry with me, one day your anger will be turned away and I will comfort your souls."

Do you remember when you first trusted in Christ? Maybe you heard the gospel many times. Maybe you didn't understand it. Maybe you just flat out rejected it. But when the Spirit of God opened your eyes, he revealed the depth of your sinfulness to you. You understood for the first time that Christ died for you personally, and this amazing grace overcame you. You understood your sins were forgiven, and there was this incredible comfort in your heart. Amazing. All of us who've repented of our sins and embraced Jesus as our Lord and Savior have come to enjoy this comfort of our souls.

Listen to the way the ancient great theologian Augustine put it. He says, "We were made for you, and our souls are restless until we find our rest in you." We are comforted. And the fact that we all share in that—that's a common experience for all of us that are in Christ—Paul said, serves as a foundation to be pursuing unity all the time within the body because we've all had that same experience.

So, the first spiritual reality that not only makes unity possible but incites us to greater unity is the eternal comfort that we once experienced in our souls that continues to this day.

Number Two: Encouragement in the Father's Love

A second glorious reality is we've experienced encouragement in the Father's love. We've experienced encouragement in the Father's love. Look again at verse one. "If there is any consolation of love." Now the Greek word for "consolation" simply means to come alongside of someone in a warm and kind and friendly way and seek to encourage them as they have experienced some difficulties in their lives. And that we get our English word "to console" from this word. That's the sense in which it's used here—to console those who are hurting.

This word is used in John chapter 11 when Mary and Martha, they were hurting over the death of their brother and Jesus comes to the village there at Bethany and he consoles them. It's to console someone in the midst of trouble. Kind of to come along, put your arm alongside them, and say, "I'm here. I'm with you. I will be with you. It's going to be okay."

Now notice this because this is a picture of the triune God here. The phrase before refers to Christ. The phrase after refers to the Spirit of God. So, the best educated guess here is this is referring to God the Father. In fact, in the New Testament, almost always when you see the term "God," it refers to the Father. Almost always when you see the term "Lord," it refers to Jesus.

Paul uses a similar statement by the way in 2 Corinthians 13:13. He says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then he says, and the love of God, and then he says, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you all." Same idea here—the Son, the Spirit, in the middle, the Father.

But what does Paul actually mean here? He means that we who are in Christ have been consoled in the midst of life's sufferings, life's trials by our heavenly Father's great love for us. Now, if you're in Christ, you've experienced this. You've gone through some dark times in your life. You've gone through some difficult times but there is this one constant. There is this one north star in the midst of the storms of life and that is the reality of your heavenly Father's love for you.

Paul makes the same point in Romans 8:35. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword?" Now, listen, all of those are awful things. All of those were things that ultimately brought death and yet Paul is saying the one constant that takes us through all of those, if you're a believer, is your heavenly Father's love for you. It never changes. He goes on to say in verse 37: "In all those things, we are overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing—nothing will be able to separate us and" now he changes it—"from the love of God the Father who is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

You see, what comforted Paul in the midst of all of the difficulties, read 2 Corinthians chapter 11, all of the trials, all of the imprisonments, all of the beatings, what comforted Paul was his heavenly Father's love for him never wavered. And you and I who've experienced dark moments, if you were in Christ, in the middle of those dark moments, it's like the Spirit of God comes. He puts his arm around you and he reminds you in the depths of your soul that the love of your heavenly Father is with you, that he is in control, and his love is not wavering.

So, if we have come to benefit from God's love, if we've been consoled by God's love, Paul is making the argument here that we need to show that same love and be united to others who also experience that same love.

John says this, 1 John 3:16: "We know love by this, that Christ laid down his life for us. Therefore, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." By the way, notice—all of a sudden because of the cross of Jesus Christ, we have that in common. Paul, John says, you're brethren. You're in the family. We're united by God's love for us.

He goes on to say in verse 17: "Therefore, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God dwell in him? It doesn't. It can't. Because if God has shown us love, then he has united us together with others whom he has shown the same love, those he has loved as well. And if we have come to benefit from God's love, if we have been comforted and consoled by God in the darkest times of our lives, then we are responsible to show that love and be united with others who experience that same love from the heavenly Father as well."

So the basis of our unity, number one, is we've experienced eternal comfort in Christ. Number two, that we've experienced consolation from the Father's love.

Number Three: Fellowship of the Spirit

Number three, we've experienced the fellowship of the Spirit. Notice again verse one. "If there is any fellowship of the spirit." Now, we're familiar with this Greek word "fellowship." It's the word *koinonia*. Paul loves this word. He uses it in pretty much all of his epistles. He uses it six times here in the book of Philippians. Here's what it is. It refers to people who share something in common. In other words, they participate together in something in common. They are partners. And the word includes two ideas: association and participation.

You remember back in chapter one in verse five, he called it "the fellowship of the gospel." We are united together in the gospel, and we participate together in the advancement of the gospel.

1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul says, "By one spirit, the Holy Spirit, we were all baptized into Christ's body, one body, whether Jew or Greek, all kind of different people from different backgrounds, slave or free, but we've been all made to drink of one spirit." Listen, if you are in Christ, that is the work of the Spirit of God in your life and he has joined you into the fellowship of the company of believers.

Who are we linked to? John tells us, 1 John 1:3. John says, "What we, the apostles, have seen. What we, the apostles, have heard"—he's talking about their following Christ for three and a half years—"we proclaim to you also so that you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son." So, listen, if you're in the fellowship, guess who you're partners with? Number one, the Father and the Son. You enjoy rich communion with the Father, rich communion with his Son. And because of that, John writes, "Then, we must also have fellowship with one another. We have fellowship with each other."

You say, "I come to this church. I haven't experienced that." Now, the answer might be that you're not in the fellowship, that you have yet to turn from your sin and turn in faith to follow Jesus Christ. You see, the fact that we have this vertical relationship with God, that we've been joined together in the fellowship of the Spirit, means not only are we connected to God but we're connected with each other and that's the basis for our unity.

Paul writes this in Ephesians 1: "I want you to walk worthy of the calling with which you've been called. How do we do that, Paul? By treating one another with all humility, all gentleness, all patience, by showing tolerance for one another in love."

So we are united. Listen, like it or not, if you're a believer, we are united. I mean, think about those around you right now. Think about all those who would be around you if we weren't having this kind of semi tropical storm. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are connected to them in association with them and you participate with them in the advancement of the kingdom.

Number Four: God's Tender Forgiveness

Number four, finally, we've experienced God's tender forgiveness. Look at the end of verse one. "If any affection and compassion." Affection and compassion. Two words. The word "affection" is used in New Testament times to describe a mother's love for her infant child—kind of the tender affection a mother would have for a little child.

Jesus, by the way, uses the word "affection" to describe God's response to repentant sinners. You remember the story of the prodigal son. The prodigal is coming back to the Father. He is repentant. The Father sees him a long way off. He runs to the son. He kisses the son. He falls over the son. He hugs the son. That's the word "affection." The Father's heart is moved with tender, loving affection to his repentant son.

The word "compassion," it's used pretty much exclusively for God in Scripture. It's almost always translated "mercy." You're familiar with it in Romans 12:2. Paul says, "I urge you brethren by the mercies of God." In other words, the mercy that God showed in saving you. And he's referring back, by the way, to Romans 1–11, that entire section on salvation—God's saving mercies.

So, when you put these two words together, affection and compassion, they focus on divine mercy and affection that we enjoy at the time of our salvation and then as a constant stream ever since. Paul is saying, if you've ever experienced God's affection, if you are experiencing God's tender mercies, especially demonstrated in the forgiveness of your sins, then you need to be united with others who have experienced the same thing.

You see Paul's point here? You see, you and I enjoy some incredible spiritual realities. These are the things that make us the richest people we know, and we share them together. The comfort that comes with belonging to Christ. The consolation knowing the Father is with us and loves us even in the darkest times we endure. The fellowship that the Spirit brings us with God the Father and God the Son and with each other. All of that and then on top of it, the full forgiveness of our sins that comes to the affections and the mercies of God. Now, to be eager to receive and enjoy all those blessings and to turn around and pursue disunity with others whom God has showed those blessings to.

Solomon says that is an abomination. Think about this. If the Lord Jesus Christ threw a great feast for his people right here in Huntington, and by grace you received an invitation—you wouldn't miss it for anything. It would be the feast of all feasts. Now think about someone who showed up and started going around spreading disunity, speaking against their Lord or against others who'd been invited to the festival. That would be unthinkable. And that's what Paul is saying. If all of these realities are true—and they are conditional sentences—then you must pursue unity with all of your might.

Now I want you to get one more thing here. Notice all these spiritual realities in verse one were made possible by one event: the death of our Lord on the cross. You see, in the end, it's the cross that really unites us. It really becomes the basis for our unity. What Jesus accomplished on my behalf and on your behalf on the cross should be our greatest motivation for unity.

Because we are all very different. We come from many different backgrounds, and there is a sense where we're pursuing many different things in life. But there is a magnet—a powerful, powerful magnet—that keeps drawing us together. And that's the cross of Jesus Christ and all of the blessings that we have in him.

By the way, just as a side note, this is one reason—if you were ever thinking otherwise—this is one reason that the Lord's table, which is the memorial for our Lord's death, is always celebrated corporately in Scripture. It's always celebrated among the church body because it's a sign of our oneness, of our corporateness. Paul says in First Corinthians 10:17: "Since there is one bread, Christ, and we who are many are one body, for we all partake in that one bread, which is Christ."

So we are united. The challenge in the next few weeks is going to be this: let's behave like it.

Let's pray. Father, we marvel at how rich we are in Christ. We could never on our own have purchased those riches. We certainly don't deserve them, and we are thankful. We could never lose them. And Lord Jesus, you tell us through your representative, the apostle Paul, that they are to incite us to unity—greater unity. Lord, help us not to be ungrateful for the riches you've given us, but help us to pursue the means for which you gave them, the end for which you gave them, and that's unity in your Son, in your church. We thank you for that privilege. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Please stand.