Homily                                                                               Pastor Dan Neary

Joy in Humility

 

This is an extraordinary passage of Scripture!

 

We cannot deny the power and theological implications of the hymn-styled-verse in verses 6-11. This is a well worn passage because it teaches us so much about the very nature of Jesus Christ.

 

Christian painted a picture for me earlier in the week that I hadn’t really considered before. Evidently, linguists who have studied this passage have reason to believe that Paul didn’t write it. It is uncharacteristic of his writing style… and it seems like the kind of thing that was written in Aramaic… not Greek like Paul always wrote. And that causes them some consternation.

 

I think it is cool. Think of it:

·     Paul is writing and breaks out into song

·     The early Church (c. 61) had powerful theology

·     It happens today: How Great Thou Art – Amazing Grace

·        The early Church had good music  J

 

There are a couple of ways to look at this chapter.

 

You are probably familiar with this image of the Christian life.

It starts with our relationship with God. This vertical component.

Then moves to our relationship among Christians. This horizontal component.

And then finally includes our relationship outward… to the world, in evangelism

 

We can apply this lens and find that each of these components are evident in Philippians 2.

 

The chapter starts with the vertical relationship (v.1) – Unity with Christ

 

It returns to this vertical relationship (vs.12,13) when Paul uses this interesting phrase “work out your salvation”

 

Then it moves to the horizontal relationships in a couple of dimensions

  1. Making Paul’s joy complete by the church following his teaching (v.2)
  2. Acting humbly and selflessly (vs.3,4)
  3. Taking Christ as our example (vs.5,11)

 

Then the passage seals the idea by addressing our relationship with the world when Paul describes the Church (vs.15,16) as “stars” as we “hold out the word of life.”

 

It is all here! And that is one lens.

 

But we’ve committed ourselves to look at Philippians through a lens of Joy.

 

Christian started last week in Chapter 1 with “Joy in all Circumstances”

 

We’ll get to “Joy in the Lord” and “Joy in Christian Unity” over the next two weeks.


So what about Joy in Chapter 2?

 

Looking through the Joy lens, I’m immediately struck by what deteriorates or destroys joy.

 

 

Selfish Ambition (v.3)

Vain Conceit (v.3)

Complaining (v.14)

Arguing (v.14)

 


It is as if these attitudes, these ways of life, are joy vacuums.

I thought about bringing a DustBuster along to demonstrate a vacuuming action… just some picture to seal in your mind how these attitudes work…

but a DustBuster wouldn’t do…

 

This was meant to make you laugh… and it really is funny

Funny ha-ha and funny strange

 

The world thinks that joy is merely happiness

And furthermore… the world thinks that the way to happiness is to


But God’s Word indicates just the opposite.

 

Work Out Salvation… Not Figure Out your own Salvation

 

Humility does not come naturally… it is work, but

 

There are really two choices

 

Both of these choices are reflected in the hymn that Paul inserts in Chapter 2

 

Joy, both joy in this life and eternal joy, is found in Christ-like humility.

 


As a point of decision, I’d like us all to reconsider this diagram again.

 

If we’re convinced that joy is our goal, and humility is the means to that goal, maybe we should consider each of these three dimensions again.

 

Vertically, have we bowed our knee?

 

Horizontally, are we serving our fellow believers? Humbly putting aside all complaining and arguing? Working out our salvation?

 

Are we reaching our world by demonstrating true joy through humility?