Naeane Church Sunday Message — The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Sunday Message — The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Holy Spirit Turns Our Craving for Recognition Into the Mind of Christ
Text: Philippians 2:1–11
Today I want to preach on this: the Holy Spirit turns our craving for recognition into the mind of Christ.
Last week was the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and I preached about enemies — how, with people we've already made enemies of, and people we'll surely make enemies of yet, we resolve it in Christ, by the help of the Spirit.
But when we say enemy, we're talking about a relationship between person and person. So today I want to look inside that enmity. In the end, making an enemy of someone comes from this: inside me there's a desire to be recognized, to be given glory — and when it isn't filled, an enemy-like feeling arises. And when it isn't filled, what forms in the heart is hurt, disappointment, a suffocating frustration. And then, to fill it, we reach for yet another method.
So — that hurt and disappointment and frustration in people's hearts, how do we dissolve it? And how does the Spirit within us change this heart? That's the angle I want to preach from today.
As always, five questions.
One. How Did I Fight the Spiritual Battle This Week?
Last week we spoke intensively about enemies. Honestly, I do carry enemy-like feelings, and having lived sixty years, there are surely a few people in my heart I still hold a knot against.
But as time passes — if I'd met those people every week, this would have kept growing, but since we parted long ago and the years have gone by, like a rock slowly worn down by the wind, I find I have little of that feeling left. And yet, if I met that person again, it would surely rise up. So last week I began fighting hard again, asking how to cut this off with Jesus is the Christ.
But this week, looking closely, I found there's one place where the enemy-like feeling keeps firing off. This is genuinely embarrassing to tell you — but when I listen to other pastors preach, it just comes surging up. In the old days I didn't even perceive it surging, and when it did surge, I actually took a kind of pride in it — in feeling somehow superior, in that critical, faultfinding, nitpicking impulse.
But now, this week too, when I keep listening to someone's sermon, I'm not even sure why, but anger rises up, and I'm the one who's got it right surges up hard. In the old days it would have ended right there — well, still, that's impressive. But now I see that if this keeps going, person gets divided from person, and I'll end up worshiping myself as a god — so I started fighting it.
But I can't just not listen to sermons. You might say, then don't listen to other people's sermons — but I don't not listen either. I keep listening, and I see myself, inside, endlessly at war. Irritated, thinking, ah, I could just not listen, and yet listening, and inside, still at war. But even while at war, when I come to a conclusion I don't drift toward the I'm-impressive side either — I keep calling Jesus is the Christ, and I see myself fighting against that impulse to be great, to worship myself as a god.
Perhaps this is a thing among people in the same line of work, and it'll be the same for you and me anytime. You all have jobs, you have your fields of expertise. And in that, it's all competition. Through competition we grow, and on the other hand there's a love-hate dynamic too — I'm the same. But I'm carrying a resolve to keep breaking this, and I see myself not staying stuck there.
When will this ever end, I wonder — and having carried it for sixty-some years, it won't break easily. But because I'm facing it head-on, all the more, in the midst of the tightest tension, the most stress, the most extreme irritation, I see myself listening — and I see myself praying.
You too, this week, as that word gets applied to you, will be in ongoing conflict. And because I preach this way, in your hearts you may think, well, if he'd just listen and receive grace… That's your view of me — and you too, in your own way, surely have your own fierce struggles. And if someone says I have no enemies at all, that's not normal either. So examine your own inner life well, and fight the spiritual battle.
I kept calling that name and fighting. Let's confess it together. Jesus is the Christ. This always has to be the base. I hope you'll remember that until the day I die, I'm calling this name around the clock, doing that work.
Two. How Deeply Did I Come to Know Genesis 3:1–5 and 3:15 This Week?
This week, looking at Genesis 3, I came to see how truly serious the human being's root problem is.
We usually live thinking: a little money will do, doing church life a bit well will do, a happy home will do, my children doing well will do — running our lives on a simple okay or not okay. But when you come to Genesis 3:1–5, the human being is not at that level.
Go deeper, and what's there? First, the problem is that the human being has no Spirit of God. Because the Spirit of God has departed, when God comes, the human being is dead. So there's no thinking about God, no remembering Him, at all. And because of that, the human being has made himself god. So he barely thinks about death either — isn't it fine if I'm reborn some other way rather than it ending at death? — and he thinks he can control everything in this world.
The bigger problem is that, driven by that thinking, he goes on living while deceiving the very self that's living. And so idolatry is a matter of course, and living on I'm-somebody, he ends up in sickness and finally dies. And after death, he most certainly faces judgment. And it doesn't end at being judged — he passes that sinful nature down to his descendants. That is the human being's root problem.
So from Genesis 3 to the last chapter of Revelation, under everything you and I live, that root problem is laid down, and only now and then does a little something-going-well show on the surface. So because we can never solve our root problem ourselves, God gave the answer: the name of the Christ, the offspring of the woman, in Genesis 3:15.
So you and I, living in this present age, became children of God by receiving that Jesus the Christ, as in John 1:12. And that's not because we're somebody — it's because we received Jesus is the Christ.
And then what? It doesn't end at being a child of God. From there, every blessing and authority was given to us. And there's a secret to enjoying it. Let's confess it together. Jesus is the Christ.
Keep calling that name, and you come to know it more and more. When you pray, God answers; He protects through angels; the Spirit dwells within me; I've become God's people and am set to enter heaven; and I have authority to break the satan in the name of Christ. All of this is already given — and how much it shows up depends on how much I call, and internalize, Jesus the Christ.
So this week, in Genesis 3:1–5, it was a time of coming to know more deeply how serious the human root problem is, that it's in me, and that it's something I cannot solve on my own.
Three. Explaining Today's Text on the Foundation of Genesis 3:15
Today's text is Philippians 2:1–11. The most important thing in Scripture is Genesis 3:15.
When the human being was utterly ruined, caught in a fate bound only for hell, God gave an immediate answer: the offspring of the woman, the Christ, in Genesis 3:15. And from then on, running underneath everything, is the Christ is coming, is coming.
But after that, many people came. So many kings came, so many prophets, so many priests, countless famous figures. And when you look at them, disappointing things happen; too much weakness shows; nothing truly great appears. Even David — the very peak of the Old Testament era, as we think of him — fails in the end. He uses the power God gave him entirely for his own bodily desire. There's no king who keeps his wits about him to the very end.
So watching David's story, we ask: is there really no true King? They say the true King is coming — when does He come? Waiting for this is the Old Testament. And then, in Matthew 1 of the New Testament, comes the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of Abraham, son of David. What is that? It's that the One who meant to come in Genesis 3:15 has, at last, in Matthew 1, come through Abraham and David.
So in the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John — He has come, and who is He? He is Jesus. So we confess it. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ.
He came and, by His death, in John 19:30 settled the human being's root problem — everyone's, mine included — and restored us as children of God to every blessing and authority. And it didn't end there: He died, rose, ascended, and from the right hand of God sent the Spirit. So the Christ who was in the body in the Gospels ascended to heaven, and now comes into every person's heart as the Spirit, the same Spirit. The One who has come in here is the Spirit.
So from Acts 2 the Spirit comes and it flows on. Acts is the whole process by which the Spirit who came in here at last evangelizes the world — the process of expanding out to the world. And the representative figure in it is Paul. The one who wrote Acts was Luke, and the person Luke mainly traced was Paul. So the figure who appears from Acts 13 is Paul, and Paul goes on his first missionary journey and his second.
But today's church is the church at Philippi. Philippians 2 is a letter Paul wrote to the Philippian church. How does this come about? From Acts 13 Paul is out evangelizing, and in Acts 16 he takes the second journey. Paul was mainly in Asia — in today's terms, the region of Turkey (Türkiye). Cross Turkey and you're in Europe. Turkey is a curious country — this side is Asia, that side is Europe. Just a little way over.
So Paul meant to stay only in Asia, but in Acts, wandering, a vision appeared: a man across the way, in Europe, asking him to come and preach the gospel. So Paul took that as an answer and crossed over. And crossing over, the first city in Europe — it's right here in today's text, in Philippians — is Philippi.
There, preaching the gospel, he preached to a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. I've been to Greece — in today's national terms, it's Greece — I went there. I stayed two weeks, and I visited Philippi. Where did he preach to Lydia? By a stream. I walked all the way to that stream, and there was a Lydia memorial church. I saw that too.
He preached the gospel around AD 49 to 50. The church was founded, and through the jailer and Lydia it was established and flowed on for ten years. But then Paul, in Acts 27 and 28, is imprisoned in Rome. That was around AD 60. And into that prison came word about the Philippian church.
In that word, the story of Lydia who founded it doesn't appear; instead two women, Euodia and Syntyche, come up. And these were important workers in the church. There was conflict between them. And the reason the conflict was so big is that this one had a following and that one had a following. These weren't people who came to church once or twice — they were key leaders of that church. So it was a crisis where the church could split, and as factions kept forming, the church was drifting the wrong way.
So Paul heard that story and wrote the letter — Philippians. And today especially it's Philippians 2, where he gives a word of admonition toward those two. Be united in Christ, he says — you two are taking your own glory with empty glory and vanity, but Christ lowered and lowered Himself, and later God lifted Him up. So you, in vanity, try to lift yourselves up — but if you lower and lower, later God lifts you. Experience, from now, that true lifting-up. That is the content of today's Philippians 2.
Four. The Part I Want to Explain in Detail
The Philippian church was founded around AD 49 to 50, and ten years passed to AD 60. Over those ten years the church was going along solidly. The level of the Philippian church was probably far higher than the level of our church, where you and I are. Why? Because it was founded by Paul, the greatest evangelist of the age. That church already had its conflict, but it also already had a basic belief system in place.
Let's confess it together. Jesus is the Christ. I am a child of God. Every problem is finished. Satan, go. Filled with the Spirit. World evangelization.
Why do we have to call Jesus is the Christ? Because even though the root problem is solved, the habit of sin keeps coming out from within, and only by calling the name Jesus is the Christ can we push it away. The Philippian church, too, had these six basics firmly in place.
And the Philippian church already knew, in detail, about the Spirit — the very thing our church has been going through for sixteen weeks after Pentecost. The Spirit is not some wandering spirit, but the Spirit whom God sent, guaranteeing Jesus the Christ; the Spirit who dwells within me; who speaks within me; who never leaves; who keeps bringing the word to mind so that I draw nearer to God; and who, between person and person, keeps easing our enmities. The Philippian church had that too.
Yet knowing all that, as they lived on, in the end it split into two factions. Today let's look a little more closely at this splitting into two.
Euodia and Syntyche — the conflict between these two was so severe that it reached even Paul. It wasn't only the two of them who felt it; the whole church community felt it. In today's terms you'd just separate, but back then, when the church was only ten years old, separating was another problem. Separate, and it doesn't end there — human beings separate, and separate again.
Here let me open it a little deeper. What does Paul say? He says, cast off vanity. Now — do you only know that word, vanity? Getting some help with this today, here's what comes up.
Vanity, in Greek, is kenodoxia. What is it? A person seeks glory — but seeks empty glory. So first we have to understand glory. Looking it up in a dictionary, glory means this: a person has an inner worth, an inner potential, an inner excellence, and it shows outward — not forced, but naturally. So when he himself, or others, look at him, that person's own excellence is seen, and since it benefits others too, they say, wow, that person's impressive, and acknowledge it. That's glory. So the word glory and being acknowledged connect to each other.
But the negative word opposite to it is vanity. What is vanity? Not excellence within, showing naturally — but no excellence within, filled up by something and deliberately put on display. Since he displays it with that intention, it becomes negative, and when others see it, they don't acknowledge it. So in others' eyes, jealousy arises, aversion arises. That's vanity.
So the vanity inside this person, put more simply, is the desire to be recognized. But this word isn't a standalone, independent word — it's a word tied to relationship between people. A person has, within, a desire to be recognized, and before being recognized, there's the relationship. God didn't set the human being up alone. When He made Adam, it wasn't good for him to be alone, so He made Eve. So the human being basically has a desire to be recognized, to be given glory, and lives with that somewhat filled.
But Euodia and Syntyche — what of them? This isn't a normal state; it's gone into a negative state. Taking empty glory, playing at vanity. Not one's excellence showing naturally, but overdoing the display through something else. And what is that display? In the relationship with that other person — to fill an inferiority, to fill the sting of being compared, to fill a relative superiority — overdoing the display again and again. That's vanity. Because Euodia and Syntyche in the Philippian church are in that state, Paul is speaking to it.
So what does Paul say? You're taking empty glory — so in your hearts, take up the mind of Christ. Why? Because Christ, the triune God equal with God the Father and God the Spirit, lowered Himself to the point of death. And in that lowering and lowering, in the end God lifted Him up. So if you overdisplay yourselves to be recognized by people, and keep overshowing I'm better than that person, then the people who follow you become that way, and the atmosphere in the church becomes that way, and even when outsiders look at the church, that's what they see. So take up the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is to keep your heart set on God until God lifts you. Whether He lifts or lowers, you do your part with humility; and whether He later lifts you or not is God's doing, so don't set your own standard of this or that over it. And in the end, if God lifts you, then you can receive glory, then you can be recognized.
Five. How Will We Apply This Word to Our Lives?
Now let's talk about the real thing.
First — we said the Philippian church, with Euodia and Syntyche, had conflict. But even with conflict, that church is still fundamentally a church. As a church flows along, problems arise and it looks like it'll all fall apart — but it's not over. Our church is the same.
Let's you and I first acknowledge the basics. Confess it together. Jesus is the Christ. I am a child of God. Every problem is finished. Satan, go. Filled with the Spirit. World evangelization. Basically, you and I too are children of God; through Jesus is the Christ we've escaped the human root problem, and we're moving toward world evangelization.
In that, let's apply today's word to ourselves. Is there vanity in your heart and mine, or not? Is there a desire to be recognized, or not? There's plenty.
First, let's think about this. Even though we call Jesus is the Christ, the desire to be recognized is clearly there inside me. And that is not a sin. I want to be recognized by people — wanting to be recognized is natural. You must not think of this as sin. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. We must throw away the desire to be recognized — then you're not human, you're a robot. Wanting to be recognized is normal.
But the problem is what comes next. I did something at church. I did something at home. And when I do something, I don't do it alone — it happens in relationship with people. So the human being basically has, because I did it, a desire to be recognized, to be praised. That's not a sin.
But after I've done it, if someone acknowledges it — you're impressive, thank you for doing what we couldn't — then it just passes with an okay. The problem is when that return doesn't come. When I worked hard and did a lot, but what comes back is only a little, or almost nothing, or not even the due I should've gotten — that's when it's a problem.
At that point something comes, from within. A whisper comes rolling in. Hey, you did all that and people don't even acknowledge it. Hey, you worked hard. Why don't people know to recognize you? Why doesn't the pastor even look at you? Why doesn't even that much return come? At home, at work, at church — how much of this there is. At church especially, most of it is volunteer service. Hey, you worked hard — someone should say, Deacon, that was truly impressive — but when that's scarce, or doesn't come as much as you'd hoped, of course the disappointment comes rolling in.
Disappointment rolling in means a whisper rolling in. Hey, you stayed up all night doing that, and what comes back is barely anything. Some people even say, thank you — but this part didn't quite work out. Then it hits, inside: that person — I worked so hard, and all that comes back is a jab. Ugh, next time I'm not doing it. Those words keep coming.
At home it's the same. I did something hard for my child, and the child says nothing, and the disappointment comes rolling in. Hey, I did that much, and what comes back? Nothing. From now on I'm never doing that. That's exactly when it's a problem. It's not when things go well.
And it doesn't end there. That other person didn't acknowledge you — but why do they acknowledge that person more? And you compare. That deacon, that person, they get acknowledged, and I get acknowledged even less — and I worked harder than them. What's that? Isn't that person weird? Isn't this church rotten? And the thought keeps growing. That's the problem. That inner structure, where one small button makes the thought swell — that's the problem.
Again. Jesus is the Christ. When the thought is about to swell out like that, you have to call the name. Why call the name? Because in the work you and I do, that person gets recognized and you don't; you did it, so why aren't you recognized, why aren't you praised — this is a spirit. A spirit of envy. A spirit of jealousy.
I feel that this jealousy is something we're born with. Because sometimes at home I watch an eight-year-old, a three-year-old, a two-year-old. Give one thing to one, and the three-year-old stares — why don't I get one? The two-year-old, in the middle of something, grabs his own. With only two apples left, they eye each other. Watching that, I thought, ah, this jealousy is inborn — it's the Genesis 3 problem.
So this jealousy and comparison inside us — it's a spirit. You might think, I'll just press the feeling down. But what I'm saying is, it's not fixed by pressing it down. Wanting recognition is natural, and I'm not saying to press that down. It's naturally received — but when it isn't, what rises up swells huge. This jealousy is fearsome. So the standard of when I do something I must be recognized, I did this much so I must be recognized at least this much — you and I have to keep shrinking that, in the name Jesus is the Christ. Keep shrinking its influence and its power, again and again.
Second, examine yourself. In the life you've lived, do you crave being recognized too much, or not? Some crave recognition very strongly, some little — it varies. Look at whether I crave recognition too much, and analyze yourself. If you're desperate for recognition to the point of madness, that's a bit of a problem.
How do you handle it? Again — Jesus is the Christ isn't a matter of just knowing it and being done. I'm gripped by that spirit. Even though I have this existence as a child of God, I need first to perceive that much of my spirit is held by that spirit of envy, jealousy, and vanity. So what must I do? Hand it over to Jesus is the Christ. Do you know the "nice-person complex"? The straining to look good to others — that too is a spirit tied to vanity.
Third, a person's worth as a child of God has to keep deepening. Filling yourself with luxury goods, holding up your spouse, filling up with credentials, with money, to keep raising your worth — what is that? It's another way of expressing that your own worth feels like very little. As you keep calling the name Jesus is the Christ, and your worth as a child of God keeps showing, the worth you'd been filling with vanity can keep shrinking.
So in the end, what happens? Whether others recognize me or not, whether others are more impressive or not, the more I'm lifted up by the name Jesus is the Christ and the worth of being a child of God, the more the influence of other people's words keeps shrinking.
Let me conclude. Even if you forget all of this, remember this one thing, piece by piece. Confess it with me. Jesus is the Christ. I am a child of God. Keep confessing just this, and even when it's hard, confessing and meditating on it — may you be one in whom the vanity inside, the filling-with-other-things, keeps shrinking, and the worth of being a child of God shows all the more.
Closing Prayer
Let me pray.
God, thank You. Through today's word, we confess that we live in an age where the self is filled — and its worth acknowledged — by money, honor, power, and material things, and that I too was a human being who couldn't escape it.
But today the Spirit has shown us that, as we call Jesus is the Christ, the Spirit is with us and keeps shrinking the influence of the spirit of jealousy and vanity inside us, and that in the end, through this, our own worth shows all the more.
This week too, let us experience the Spirit's presence as we call the name of Christ.
In the name of Jesus, who is the Christ, we pray. Amen.
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