Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

This is how the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians begins. Remember again the Paul is not writing to one person, but he is writing to a church and this letter will not only be read by the Philippians but by other churches, and not only those in existence at the time, but the body of Christ over the ages has read these words that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi.
We could rephrase the above paragraph like this: Since there is encouragement from belonging to Christ; since there is comfort from His love; since there is fellowship together in the Spirit; since your hearts are tender and compassionate…what are we to do? This is a picture of the body of Christ. The body of Christ should be a place of encouragement, comfort, fellowship, tenderness and compassion. Paul says, since you already have these things, then let’s go one step further; make my joy complete by agreeing with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Wow! What a picture of the body of Christ in action. What does it mean to agree with each other? Does that mean blind acceptance of whatever the pastor says? Or is it something else. In another translation, it says, being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose. Some would say that this means that we can’t disagree as brothers and sisters in Christ. This sentence emphasizes the unity that should exist among Christians. Now, does that mean that we will all think alike? Does it mean that we will all think the same? No, it is the common disposition to work together and serve one another.

Just this week my blog was nominated as an “under appreciated, missional” blog. I’m not sure I like being labeled under appreciated, but I did enjoy being nominated. I asked myself the question, “What does it mean to be missional?” What is the purpose of the body of Christ? Paul said that we should work together with one mind and purpose. What is that purpose? To make it real simple on us this morning, it is this. Jesus gave it to us in some of the last words He spoke to us, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching these new disciples to obey all the commandments I have given to you.” This is our mission. This is our purpose. Each church should be missional. There is no other option. The church does not exist for itself, it exists for the purpose of making disciples of the whole world.

So what mindset should a missional church take on? Paul gives us a short list. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. In other words, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” If I could sum up the messages of the past few weeks, it would go like this. Each one of us is called from being dead in our sins to new life in Christ. Each one of us will receive that call at sometime in our life. We may only get one chance. What will you do with it? In moving from our old life of sin to new life in Christ there is a change, a transformation. The old needs to go and we need to put on Christ. Our journey then becomes one of becoming like Christ. As we look back on these first 4 verses, this is exactly what Paul is trying to get at. The body of Christ must imitate its head. The church must imitate Christ. Christ came to sacrifice Himself for us. He willing laid down His life. This is a picture of the missional church. You will be hearing more about this in the days to come. The missional church is not centered on itself but on doing the things Christ has commanded us to do. It aligns itself with Christ’s mission.

So what? What does that mean to us? If we are to align ourselves with Christ’s mission then we need to align ourselves with His attitude. Paul writes, “We must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” What attitude is that? Let’s take a look at perhaps one of the oldest hymns of the Christian faith.

Though He (Jesus) was God,
He did not think of equality with God
As something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
He took the humble position of a slave
And was born as a human being.
When He appeared in human form,
He humbled himself in obedience to God
And died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor
And gave him the name above all other names,
That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,
In heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father.

Paul affirms to us that Jesus is God. His very nature is God. And he did not forcible retain that nature that He had every right to have being that He was God. How many of us could do that? So many times we like to say, I have rights. I don’t have to do such and such because I have rights. I have a say in the church, because I have rights as a member. Jesus had every right of being God and yet, He gave them up. He laid aside His godness and became a man. He gave up His divine privileges. He took the lowest human position on earth, a slave. Again, is this something that we model as Christians? As a slave He was submissive to the will of the Father. Can you say that about your life? Here is the great irony. When Jesus came to earth, He came in the form of His creation. He was obedient and submissive to the will of the Father all the way to His death. He died the worst death. He died a criminal’s death and to make it all worse, He was subservient to the very creatures that He made. How would you like to be God and be subservient to those you made? And yet this is what God did. Christ was crucified by His own creation and yet that is what makes all the difference in our lives. Because of Christ’s obedient death on the cross, the penalty for sin has been paid.

Notice what happened. Christ humbled himself and became obedient to God. Then God lifted Christ up to the highest place. Christ has the place of highest honor. The attitude that Christ had should be our attitude.

It’s not of ourselves that we can do anything. It’s only through Christ and His work on the cross. As we prepare ourselves for communion this morning, I want us to remember the attitude that Christ had. It’s an attitude that makes us missional. The church should be a place of encouragement, comfort, love, fellowship, tender hearts, and compassion. It should be a place where we love each other and we work toward one purpose…to make disciples of all nations and teach them the things Christ taught us…It is a place where we don’t think of ourselves but put others above us, a place where we humble ourselves.

God’s design is that all people everywhere should worship and serve Jesus as Lord. It’s our job to get the message out there. We are his followers. We follow the way of the cross. We are the body of Christ. We follow the head. What was Christ’s attitude? It should be ours as well.