Philippians 2:5-11
If you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered why there isn’t more detail in scripture about Jesus. Why don’t we get more on His childhood, or relationships, or even more detail on what it was like during the ministry years? I do enjoy a good character study; it’s so fulfilling to dive down deep into a character to reveal the real deep understandings of their motivations and actions. I find the same issue with the Reacher character by Lee Child; as enjoyable as those stories are, you are always left wanting to know more about the depth of the character, but all you ever get is the mission he’s on. Outside of what the mission explains, there is nothing else. It can feel frustrating at times.
In our time discussing the vision and values of our church, we’ve talked about fully reflecting the light of Christ by DEPENDENCY, DELIGHT, and DEDICATION. As I’ve been working on this 4th sermon on being DRIVEN by mission, I’ve been asking myself, what does that truly mean? And that’s when it hit me: Lee Child got it right – the point isn’t getting to know someone so you can follow them on the mission. It is to experience the mission with them to realize that’s who they are—the mission is their life! I suggest to you today that idea—the mission is all that truly matters in life. We can see that in the way Paul explains Jesus to the Philippian church.
Missing Details Tell a Deep Truth
One of the first questions I ask when I am studying a passage of scripture is “Why is this in scripture?” It often leads me down a path to trying to find the importance of the information given in the passage. I have also asked myself more than a few times the question of why something is not in the Bible. Have you ever wondered that? Like why doesn’t God go into detail about how He created the world? Why not some info on what happened between the expulsion from the garden to the societies already in existence by the time Cain murdered Abel?
Scripture is God’s revelation of Himself to us and there are certain things He shares with us so that we can know Him better, but also some details that He left out; we trust that those are details aren’t pertinent to us understanding the larger story. While they would be interesting to learn, God—in His infinite wisdom—chose to leave those out. Instead, we get a focused, driven narrative that profoundly drives the story throughout the entirety of human history, culminating in the most important piece: the death and resurrection of Christ and the birth of the church, His body.
The Mission is Most Important
Our Philippians 2 passage beautifully exemplifies this idea that the mission is life. In Paul’s recounting of the gospel for the church in Philippi, he condensed the life of Christ down into a few key statements—the most important things they needed to know about Jesus. In those, Paul shows us that the mission really is life. And nothing else matters at all. Read Philippians 2:5-11. This is it – the LOGOS from John 1. Everything that God wants to communicate—to reveal to us is found in Christ. And Christ is the mission! Hear this: Christ is the message and what we need to know about the message is that Christ came to us so that we could be reunited with Him. Look through the gospels – this is all Jesus ever talked about!
Nita has asked me a few times why we stopped hanging out with one of my closest friends in Cape Coral over the years. No, we didn’t have a falling out (in fact, I talked with him last week). It’s that our life was wrapped up in our mission together and became focused on that. Our conversation became more important than just goofing around. Paul is reminding the Philippians that because of Christ, we are to give our lives to the mission. The mission is life. Jesus gave His life for the mission and Paul poured out his life as an offering to the mission. What will you do?
Next Steps
The vision and values of the church drive us to accomplish the mission; disciples who make disciples who make disciples (and so on). Our harvest field does not stop at the city limits, but fully circumvents the globe. Since we can’t be everywhere at once, we work as a team. We will meet some teammates who serve in other parts of the world and be challenged on how to accomplish the mission in front of us. They made the mission their life. Today, you can do the same:
- Engage scripture. You can’t live it if you don’t know it.
- Offer your life to God as an offering and do what He calls you to do.
- Invest in the work of God through your finances.
Old 90s t-shirts said that “baseball is life; the rest are just details” (plus other sports). Jesus lived 33 years on this earth for the purpose fulfilled in one weekend. That was His Father’s work – His mission. Nothing else mattered. What matters to you?
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