The Motives for Spiritual Unity B

You think the Holy Spirit wants unity?

Sure, the unity of the church is called the unity Let me ask you a question. Do you love your job? I mean, really love it. Hopefully you have a job that ignites your passion, gives you a sense of purpose. Nobody wants a job that's boring. That gives you no real joy.

Well, as bad as a tedious, lifeless, dull job can be, something far worse is this. A stale, humdrum church, a place where people come and sit going through the motions but there's just no life. How can your church avoid that? How can your church enjoy the unity of the Holy Spirit and experience God's blessings? Those are the three points we're going to focus on. Look with me at those four verses. Let's look first of all at the motives.

Why? Why is it important for us to be of one mind? Why is it important for us to maintain unity in the church? Why is it important for us to have one Spirit, to be striving together, to eliminate conflict, discord, disunity.

Why is it important? Here are four motives in verse 1 and then an additional one in verse 2. Four motives in verse 1 to start with. First one is encouragement in Christ. That should be our first motive.

If there is any consolation of love is the second one. Then thirdly, he moves to the Holy Spirit in the third motive. He says, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, koinonia, partnership, communion, sharing, because, to put it in the first class conditional and give it the right word, because you have experienced the fellowship of the Spirit.

Now he moves to the Holy Spirit. You think the Holy Spirit wants unity? Sure, the unity of the church is called the unity of the Spirit. We have all been baptized by the Spirit into one body and we've been all made to drink the self-same Spirit.

First Corinthians 12, 13. We've all been made of one Spirit. We are all the temple of the Spirit of God, the habitation of the Spirit. We are one in the Spirit. The Spirit desires unity. The Spirit is the source of unity. And Paul is saying, you've fellowship with the Spirit. What do you mean by that, Paul? You've received all that a union with the Holy Spirit could provide.

Think about it. You have the indwelling Spirit. You're the temple of the Holy Spirit, First Corinthians 6 says.

You have received all his benefits. You've been sealed by the Spirit. He has become the guarantor of your eternal inheritance. You're filled with the Spirit. You are empowered and enabled for service by the Spirit. You've been gifted by the Spirit. You are continually being cleansed by the Spirit. The Spirit is always praying for you with groanings which cannot be uttered in which he prays unceasingly for you according to the will of God, which you don't know. And that's why you know not what to pray for as you ought, the Spirit therefore makes intercession for you. The Spirit has done everything for you.

Think about it. Paul says, because the Holy Spirit has affected your regeneration, because the Holy Spirit is affecting your sanctification, because the Holy Spirit is guaranteeing your eternal glory, because the Holy Spirit is unceasingly praying for you with groanings that can't find human words, because the Holy Spirit is gifting you, filling you, producing fruit in you, because he is teaching you, because he is enabling you to resist temptation, because the Holy Spirit has given you the Word, because he is filling you with holy impulses, because he has given you everything pertaining to life and godliness. Will you disrupt that which is most dear to his heart? The unity of the church, see it for what it is.

It is a violation of a relationship. It is quenching the blessed Holy Spirit. It is a form of doing despite to the Spirit of grace. You are saying, I take all the Spirit gives, I give nothing back. May I say to you, sin, sin in the life of a Christian in its simplest definition is a tragic act of ingratitude and a violation of a relationship.

That's what it is. It says, I take all you give, but don't expect me to give you back what you desire. It says, I want grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy. I want encouragement.

I want consolation. I want all the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but I also will defy your will and do exactly what I want. Sin is ingratitude in action.

So he says, look at your discord for what it is. It is a defiance against Christ. It is a defiance against the Holy Spirit. Then he says, fourthly, the fourth motive, if any, affection and compassion. He plunges deeper into the Holy Spirit's ministry here, just as the second one reflected on Christ. This fourth one reflects on the Spirit. He says, the Spirit has given you both affection and compassion. What does he mean by affection just that? The word in the Greek is splanchnon. It means gut viscera, bowels, it's translated, but it has really to do metaphorically with affection.

Did you ever think about that? Did you know the Holy Spirit has affection for you? You say, well, what does it mean? Well, it's more than love. Love is sort of a cognitive thing. Affection is a feeling. It's a longing.

It's more than a cognitive appreciation. It's a longing. And I sense here that what he is saying is you have, you have received the longings of the Spirit, deeply felt affections. The bowels were seen by the Jews as the seat of emotions.

It's where you felt things. And so, we as believers, think of it, have received the longings of the Spirit. What he longs for us, we have received. As part of his prayer ministry, Romans 8, 26 and 27, he's making intercession for us constantly, according to the will of God. And God is hearing and answering him because he's always praying according to God's will and we're receiving the things the Spirit is asking for us to receive. What we're seeing then is that what he longs for us to have, he gives. So, he says, since you have received the affections of the Spirit.

What a thought. It's not that, I think we don't understand this relational aspect. It's not that just God is this cold, hard, indifferent deity who functions like a machine. And if you happen to be a Christian, the machine spits out good things.

No. It is a relationship. And Christ is there encouraging and exhorting and ministering and giving grace upon grace and comfort and encouragement and cheer and blessing. And when you fall, he picks you up. And when you sin, he forgives you. And when you need strength, he infuses it. And when you need wisdom, he grants it.

And it's that personal thing because he loves you. And when you sin, you violate that relationship, that intimacy. Same with the Spirit. The Spirit is not a floating fog that sort of mystically makes things happen. The Spirit is a person who lives in you. And the Spirit longs for your good and your blessing. The Spirit longs to pour out benedictions upon you. And it is the longings of the Spirit that you have received through the grace of God. Then he adds the word compassion.

Beautiful word, oiktirmoi. It's used four times by Paul. Two of those times it's translated really the mercies of God. The tender mercies of God.

And here I think it means the same thing. You've received the longings of the Spirit for you and the tender, compassionate sympathy of God through the Spirit. God has been sympathetic to you. Hey, let's face it. God gives us way, way more than we deserve.

Is that not so? Pours out grace upon grace, mercy upon mercy. He has a heart of pity toward us, a heart of tenderness toward us. So here is the Holy Spirit.

We are fellowshipping. We share the life of the Spirit in us. It's His life in us. He regenerated us. He sanctifies us. He gives us the gifts and the power and the resources and the fruit to do everything we do, everything we do that turns out to be an honor to God is the product of the Spirit. And then he shows to us compassion, tenderness, mercy, sympathy, pity, tremendous care. Paul says, because you've received all this, shouldn't you be of the same mind? See your discord for what it is, a violation of this intimate relationship and a gross act of ingratitude.

You come into the church and divide the church and you have been terribly disloyal to a loving Christ and a loving Spirit who long for the unity of the church. So see your agenda for what it is. You say, well, boy, I'm going to get my pound of flesh. I think this is the way we need to go and I'm going to do this and so forth and so forth. Just see it for what it is.

And as I said, Paul's approach here isn't threatening. It would be like this. Let's say you, you wanted your son. I'll take it as a father. I'll approach this thing from a father's view. You wanted your son to conduct himself in a certain way. You could call him in and you could say, all right, son, you got two hours to change your conduct or you're out of this house for good.

Out of here. And I'm serious. Or you could say to your son, look, you've been doing the wrong thing. I want you to learn a lesson to do the right thing. So bend over. I'm going to wail on you within an inch of your life. But Paul's approach is different here. There's no threats.

There's no rod like he wanted to pull out with the Corinthians. It's very tender. It would be like this father sitting down with his son and saying, son, have you been loved in this family? Have your mother and father loved you faithfully? Have we encouraged you when you were down and sad? Have we come alongside to offer you compassion and care and sympathy when you were hungry? Have we provided food for you? Have we clothed you? Have we nurtured you as you grew from a little child?

Have we provided all the medical care you needed to live a healthy life? Have we given you a warm environment in which to live? A bed to sleep?

A room to dwell in? Son, have we shown you deep affection? Have we been gracious to you in the times when you were disobedient and rebellious, gracious to forgive you and love you and restore you? Son, have we shown you sympathy? Have we shown you mercy? Have we been patient with you while you were learning how to do things right and often did them wrong? Have you known our affectionate compassion? Have you experienced our goodness to you? Son, since all those things are true, isn't it reasonable that we ask you to live in such a way that would bring us joy? It's pretty reasonable, isn't it?

It'd be pretty hard for a child to deal with that, given that all those things were true. And that's the whole point of Paul's plea, you see. It's all based on the goodness of the Lord. And he can take that approach with the Philippians because they're good people. It's a good church. So he doesn't want to blast them from pillar to post. This was such a good church.

And the bond between the church and Paul was so close and they understood relationships. And so that's the approach he takes. And it's the highest approach. And you can't always take the highest approach because some people aren't willing to live on the highest plane. But what he says is this, all our present experiences with Christ and the Holy Spirit should motivate us to the same mind.

Why? Because that's the Spirit's longing. That's the Lord's longing. Then he adds one more.

This is so good. Verse 2. He says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind.

You say, now what is this? Well, he's saying, look, if you can't get in touch with your intimate relationship with Christ and you can't quite get in touch with this idea of your intimate relationship to the Holy Spirit, if you can't do it for Christ's sake and you can't do it for the Spirit's sake, do it for what? My sake. That's condescension. I mean, he's come a long way down.

But there's something warm about that. He's talking to them as a pastor and he's saying what I would say to you. Look, beloved, do it for Christ's sake, for the sake of the relationship that he longs to have with you to which he has been so faithful. Don't be unfaithful to that relationship. Do it for the Spirit's sake to which he has been so faithful to you.

Don't be unfaithful to him. And then do it for my sake, will you? Do it for my sake.

I understand why he said that. Make my joy complete. My greatest fear for the church is disunity. Make my joy complete, beloved, will you, by being of the same mind? Hebrews 13, 17, very important verse along this same line. It says this, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, let them do this with joy and not with grief. Make your leaders happy.

That's legitimate. Paul's appeal, again, is very personal. It's very relational. They knew him. They loved him. He loved them. They had an incredible bond.

He says in verse 8 of chapter 1, I long for you all with the bowels of Jesus Christ. I have those same longings for you. I love you. I cherish you. I have this profound affection for you. So he says, will you do it for my sake so that I don't have to have a ministry of grief? And he tugs at their heart in all these cases. And everything is relational.

Keep the unity of the church because your relationship with Christ calls for it, your relationship with the Spirit calls for it, your relationship with the pastor calls for it. It's a pastoral plea. There's a lot of pathos here. Paul, when writing, was a prisoner, first imprisonment in Rome. He didn't know whether he was going to live or die. The Philippians heard about him being in prison and their hearts were broken. And the whole occasion of this letter was for Paul to write the Philippians and say don't worry about me.

I'm happy. That's why he talks about joy from front to back. They thought he'd be sad. They were worried about him being broken hearted and despondent and sad. And so they sent Epaphroditus, who was mentioned in chapter 2, who was one of their members, and they said, Epaphroditus, you go and be with Paul and take care of him. And with Epaphroditus they sent a lot of money, an offering.

And they said buy him whatever he needs and make him satisfied and bring joy to his heart. And Epaphroditus did that. He came with a gift and Paul thanks them for the gift in chapter 4, which was obviously very generous. And he thanks them in chapter 2 for sending Epaphroditus. And Epaphroditus was such a faithful ambassador of the Philippian church that he almost died in his service to Christ.

He was so busy trying to help Paul it almost killed him, Paul said I'm sending him back before he dies. And when he sends Epaphroditus back, he sends back this letter and the whole tenor of the letter is don't worry about me, I rejoice. He starts out in the very beginning, joy, joy, joy, rejoicing. He ends up in chapter 4, rejoice always and again I say rejoice. I'm happy, don't worry about me. But, he says, if you want to make my joy complete, then maintain this unity. Maintain this unity. This is a very, very significant statement he's made.

This is the pinnacle of the epistle. I'm happy, but I could be happier. I'm rejoicing, but I could rejoice more if you just maintain the same mind. That'll really fill my heart with joy. You see, I believe, as I said earlier, that that's the compelling thing that the pastor carries in his heart, this fear of disunity in the church, trying to keep the flock together.

Why? Why are we motivated? I'm motivated because that's the desire of Christ and that's the desire of the blessed Holy Spirit. So beloved, I submit to you that what the Apostle Paul says here is very practical. Know this, that we who have received the encouragement of Christ, the consolation of His love, the fellowship of His Spirit, the deep longings and affection and compassionate sympathy of His Holy Spirit, should in reciprocation for such unending grace and kindness do everything in our power to give back to Christ and back to the Spirit that which is the deepest longing of their heart, namely the unity of the church.

And then Paul says, and after all your concern about my joy, if you really care about me, then for my full joy, you'll maintain the unity of the church. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, help us to see our sin for what it is, violent acts of ingratitude, the violation of an intimate relationship with our dear Christ and the blessed Spirit of God. Help us to see our sin for what it really is.

Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. And Father, protect our church from discord. We who have received so much encouragement in Christ, we have received so much comfort of love, so much gentle cheering, so much goodness. We who have received so much in the intimate communion and partnership of the Holy Spirit and through His longings and His sympathetic compassion save us from the unthinkable ingratitude of the disunity that is born out of selfish desire. And may we go to all extent to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace and to be of the same mind that the dear Savior and the Spirit may be pleased. And for the sake of those who shepherd us, that they may do it with joy. Lord, help us to live in the light of the relationship, not a creed, not a system, not a code, not an organization, but a relationship.

To see that we are loyal to the relationship in our purity and disloyal to the relationship in our sin. And may we not be those who take everything you give but refuse to give back what you desire. May we be faithful in this area of unity. Protect us, Lord, and give us a heart that longs to honor the One who has so blessed us and do nothing that would be ungrateful or in any way abuse such a loving relationship. Work your work in every life, we pray, for Christ's sake.

Amen. Now, John, this issue of unity in the church is such an important theme. In fact, it's me respond first of all by saying unity in the church is at the very heart of our Lord's desire. And while that unity prayer was answered in the spiritual sense, it isn't always obvious in the practical sense. The unity of the church is at the heart of the effectiveness of the church's testimony, and all of us are pretty aware of the fact that the church struggles greatly to really express and demonstrate unity in Christ.

It's one of the great tragedies, one of the great failures of church life in the world. So we are very, very excited about this series on church unity, spiritual unity. And along with that, as Phil was saying, we are thrilled to be able to offer to you a study guide, the newest of our study guide, over 250 pages long, titled Complete in Christ. That's going to go along with the series Complete in Christ in about a month, and you would benefit by listening to the series and following the study guide. And the best part, if you're new to Grace to You, if you have never contacted us before, we'll send you a free copy of this new study guide, and all you have to do is get in touch today and just ask for it. And by the way, if you currently receive my monthly letters, we offered you the Complete in Christ study guide in January. We've now distributed thousands of free copies through the mail, and we're grateful to be able to put this biblical resource into your hands.

So Complete in Christ is a series from Colossians 1 and 2, looking at Paul's great love for the believers he ministered to and his desire they would live and thrive in the knowledge of the spiritual blessings they have in Christ, and thus they would express unity. By requesting the study guide, now you can receive it in time to use it as you listen to the series next month. Again, the study guide is yours free. If you've never contacted us before, ask for your complimentary copy when you call or email us today. Yes, friend, this study guide can help you clearly see the amazing resources God gives you for living a life of victory and joy and obedience. To pick up the Complete in Christ study guide, it's free if it's your first time contacting us.

Get in touch today. You can call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. The Complete in Christ study guide lays out powerful biblical truth that can energize your worship and strengthen your zeal for our Lord and His church. For a fresh understanding of all that you have in Christ, contact us and request this brand new resource, the Complete in Christ study guide.

It's yours free if you've never contacted us before. Just call us at 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And when you visit gty.org, make sure to take advantage of the thousands of free resources available, including Grace Stream. That's a continuous loop of John MacArthur's sermons going from Matthew through Revelation. It takes a couple of months to get through all of the cycle, and then the sermons repeat. So whether you have 15 minutes to listen or a couple of hours, jump into the Grace Stream today and anytime for verse-by-verse encouragement, you'll find Grace Stream at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson inviting you back tomorrow when John continues his Plea for Unity series with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.