Gospel Example

Introduction

Well, good morning! It feels so good to be back with you guys. Thank you, Kyler, for filling in for me last week while I was away doing a wedding...Listen, he did a good job didn’t he? Guys, to be 18 years old and to have the confidence to get up here and to deliver a message…that’s impressive and it’s awesome to just see how God’s working in his life. And listen, I don’t about you but I’m excited to see what God has in store for him in the future…and I’m so grateful that God’s using FBC as a training ground for him to make that happen.

Alrighty....if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, go ahead and turn with me to Philippians chapter 2…Philippians chapter 2. Last week, Kyler walked you guys through the opening section to this chapter and Paul’s charge to the church of Philippi, it was for them to complete his joy by unifying themselves in the same mind, having the same love, and being in full accord with one another, right? And the theme that really popped out was that idea of humility. Paul was talking about looking past our own interests…he was talking about looking towards the interest of others. And as we come to our text today, Paul gives his readers an example of what that unity and humility should really look like. In fact, our passage this morning is one of the most amazing passages in all of Scripture. I mean, if there was any passage that was holy ground, we’re standing on it today. There’s so much here about the person and work of Jesus, that we could literally write a whole book on just these verses alone. Listen, this passage is the most majestic peak in all of Scripture because it gives us one of the clearest descriptions of who Jesus is and what exactly He did.

And what most scholars believe about this passage is that it was some kind of early hymn or creed of some sort. There’s a unified structure to these verses, starting with God in eternity and ending in the same way…But the whole thing kind of hinges on verse 8. I mean just think about a V shape for a second, with verse 8 being the bottom angle - “even death of a cross,” Paul writes. Jesus came down, He was crucified, and then He’s exalted. But listen, this text, as we’ll see this morning, it can be doctrinal and ethical in nature. It emphasizes the stunning humility of Jesus, who became a servant and died on behalf of sinners to the glory of God…And as a result of His cross-work and resurrection, He’s now exalted as the true King. He’s our Savior and our example. And that’s why Paul gives us this passage at this point in his letter to the Philippians…to be an example but to remind us of exactly who and what it is that unites us.

And so, if you’re there with me this morning, let’s stand together as I read verses 5 through 11. Paul writes, “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Did you catch the key word there? It’s humility…If you wanna know in one word what we’re going after today and what we’re trying to develop, it’s humility. And I get it…some of you are sitting there thinking, “Wait a minute Pastor Steven, you’re gonna talk to us about humility? Like, are you really qualified for that? What’s next, the youth are gonna come up here and give us a class on parenting?” Hey listen, point taken…anyone that knows me knows that’s an area I struggle in. I mean you guys heard about our corn hole tournament, I don’t like losing and I don’t like admitting when someone’s better than me. And in the few moments where I really begin getting this humility thing figured out, I’ll typically look over at my wife and start bragging about that progress. I struggle with it. But here’s the good news....you can relax this morning because we’re not gonna be talking about me or using me an example. Our passage is all about Jesus and the humility He demonstrated....He’s our example of what it looks like to be filled with His Spirit and changed by the gospel.

Now you guys know it wouldn’t be a good sermon without a good ole nerdy illustration, right? Lord of the Rings, I love the books…I love the movies…and if you guys haven’t been watching the new TV shows, I’m really not sure you’re even human…but in the Fellowship of the Ring…after Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin…all leave the Shire....there very first stop on the way to Rivendell is this place called the Prancing Pony…It’s an inn and while they’re all there, they come across this very suspicious character that everyone calls Strider. And listen, over the course of the three books, these hobbits would eventually learn not only was Strider a friend and an ally…but he’s also the rightful king of Gondor, removed from his throne…And listen, in the last book, Strider or Aragon, he takes up his rightful place and he leads the people against an impossible enemy.

Here’s my point…during his time in exile, while people called him Strider…no one had a clue who he really was, that they were in the present of a king…And all during that time, even when his people rejected a king on the throne, he served them in the background. This is really a definition of humility…Aragon deserved to be on the throne and he deserved all the riches his position bestowed on him but he humbled himself and became like his people, serving them, until it was time for him to serve them in a different way. And honestly, it was his humble position prior to his rule that gave him the trust of his people later.

And listen, all throughout Scripture, it shows time and time again where ordinary people encounter the Creator-King only to be shocked later by the discovery that the stranger whom they had hosted or that they resisted or rebuked was in fact the Lord of glory. I think about Abraham or Jacob wresting with God…I think about Simon as he cast out the net…or Mary…or so many others…But guys, to understand the mindset of Christ as Paul suggests here, we have to understand the humility with which Christ came.

And so, if you’re there with me…let’s dig into these verses together this morning.

1. The Mindset of Christ (v. 5)

The first point I want you to see is the mindset of Christ. Look back at verse 5 again…Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”

Listen, D.A. Carson points out that the cross, it can be viewed from five different perspectives…1.) From God’s perspective, 2.) Jesus’s perspective, 3.) Satan’s perspective, 4.) Sin’s perspective, 5.) Our perspective…In God’s perspective, Jesus died as a substitute for our sins. He absorbed God’s wrath and anger...In Jesus’s perspective, He obeyed His Father perfectly, saying, “Not My will, but Yours,” right? In Satan’s perspective, the cross means his own defeat. Sin’s perspective, the cross is a means by which our debt is paid. And listen, in our perspective, while we acknowledge all these truths, the cross serves as an example as the supreme standard of behavior. Jesus says to carry our own crosses.

But notice, as we come to this group of verses, where it’s positioned in this letter. It looks back to the previous verses that Kyler talked about last week…but it also looks forward to the verses to come. In last week’s message, Paul told the Philippians to avoid rivalry and conceit…he said to pursue humility and selflessness…to care for the needs of others, right? And then in verse 5, Paul draws their attention to the attitude and actions of Jesus…the supreme example.

And depending on your translation, there’s a couple of ways this verse is actually translated. In the HCSB it says, “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus.” The NLT, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” NASB, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” In the NIV, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mind-set as Christ Jesus.”

Listen, regardless of what your translation might say…there’s two things we see come out of this verse…a command and then an example. Whether we translate it “this mind,” or “mind-set,” “frame of mind,” “attitude,” they’re all saying the same thing. The main exegetical question we see is which verb should be supplied after that first phrase: “Have this mind among yourselves,” as the ESV puts it. Is the verb active or passive…that’s and main question. And where the translations tend to differ is how they choose to render the latter clause to that statement. The ESV says, “which is yours in Christ Jesus,” but they give a footnote that says, “Or which was also in Christ Jesus.” And I know you’re thinking, what in the heck does this all mean? Listen, there’s a huge difference in “is yours” and “was in Christ.” One gives us a theological interpretation, which emphasizes our position in Christ…and the other gives us an ethical interpretation that emphasizes our need to emulate Jesus’s example.

And while “is yours in Christ Jesus” makes sense theologically, I support other scholars that suggest it more in a ethical sense. Meaning, Paul’s purpose for including this verse is to give a command and to show us an example. He’s commanding his reader to follow the example of Jesus.

This word “mind,” “have this mind,” it’s the verb phroneo (Pro-ne-o). And it’s a word that carries the idea of having a mentality, having an attitude or a mindset, a disposition. It’s a frame of mind, it’s a way of thinking. We might call it the gospel mindset or the gospel way of thinking. Paul’s urging the Philippian church to embrace this mindset.

It could be read, “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” or it could read, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” So it either means that we are to have this internal mindset, the focus being on what’s internally true of us, or that we are to have this mindset in the community among the members of the community. Listen, at the end of the day, both are really true. We can only have the mindset in the community if we have it internally in ourselves. I think the NIV puts it well: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” So we’re to embrace a certain way of thinking. That’s what Paul’s saying. And this way of thinking, it’s kind of the DNA that makes us who we are as believers....it’s the mindset of Christ…the mentality of Christ…That’s the command, to emulate Jesus.

And immediately following verse 5, Paul gives us an example of that command…or an illustration of that command…which moves us into our second point this morning…the humility of Christ. That’s the mindset that he’s command us to have…to have the humility of Christ.

2. The Humility of Christ (vv. 6-8)

And these verses here are really meant to demonstrate that humility. Look back at verse 6, Paul writes, “who (talking about Jesus here), though he was in the form of God.” Now let’s stop right there because we have to understand this statement here to understand the rest of this passage. This is one of those areas that’s impossible for our English language to translate accurately. And honestly, it’s really misleading here if you don’t catch it. The Greek word used here is the word Morphe, and the word, Morphe, it implies internal consistency. But listen, the word “form” that’s used here…in English that word actually implies external similarity or consistency. Meaning, when I say the word “formed,” most of you think of shape, almost as if Christ was just in the shape of God…that He’s not really God Himself. And listen, this is important because you misinterpret this and you completely misunderstand who Jesus is.

Listen, there’s just no word in English to describe an internal form of something…it’s just the same word for both…and it’s confusing. And we know Paul’s talking about an internal form because of the word he chose to use. In the Greek language there’s a whole separate word that’s used to describe the external consistency of something…But listen, Paul chose to use the word Morphe…and he chose to use it because it was the best word to describe exactly who Jesus was. Jesus wasn’t just acting like God...He didn’t just look like God…Jesus didn’t just do God like things....What Paul’s saying here is that in His very nature, Jesus is God.

How is it that Jesus, being truly God, became truly man? I love the way Augustine put it. He said, “Christ emptied himself, not by losing what he was, but by taking to him what he was not.” In other words, we could think of it this way. The incarnation wasn’t a subtraction, where Jesus quit being God and became a man. The incarnation was an addition, where the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, took to himself a human nature. He assumed a human nature.

And guys, the reason that’s important is because it reminds us that Jesus is 100% God and He became 100% man…And listen, the center piece of Christianity is that this God-man, He died a tortured death in our place…and that message has massive implications for us today. And listen, the reason that matters to you this morning…the fact that Jesus is God and not just some great moral teacher or some prophet…Guys, it means you can change. Paul makes this point about who Jesus is because this command to follow Jesus’s example…we’re only able to follow it because of Jesus being God. You understanding what I’m saying? What makes the message of Jesus so much different than any other religion out there is that He doesn’t announce how we should live our life to find acceptance....no instead, He announces what He’s already done for you and for me and that all we have to do is believe and repent…That truth makes us acceptable to God and it’s that truth that changes us. We can be unified in humility because of who Jesus is. He’s God Himself who’s come down to His own creation to redeem us from our sin.

But look at how Paul finishes verse 6…He says, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” I love how the CSB puts it, He “did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.”

Now take that passage and apply it to last week’s. Verse 2, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Verse 3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.” You guys remember when I told you the church of Philippi had problems too? Paul’s identifying those right here. What’s the problem? Listen…they’re not getting along. You guys ever see that happen in a church before or was that just a problem for the church 2,000 years ago? And remember, Philippi was one of Paul’s favorite churches, right? Even they had problems. And guys here’s my point, even in good, healthy churches, what we find is people that’ll act out of ego, and they begin to have rivalry with other believers, and they show conceit. There’s always this kind of conflict, even within healthy churches. And I think it’s helpful to realize that we’ll all a bunch of nasty sinners, right?

But guys, look at this again…Paul’s identifying their source of conflict. Look at verse 3 again. The Greek word used there is kenodoxian (kain-o-doxary). Listen, who here this morning has a good ol King Jimmy Bible? That translation is the best possible way to translate that word. It translates it into vainglory. What Paul’s saying to the church at Philippi is that your competition and your rivalry, it’s all rooted in your pursuit of useless glory.

What’s that mean? Well, conflict, it typically comes from the fact that at the deepest parts of man, our motivation is almost always rooted in some type of glory for ourselves. The word “glory” in both the Greek and Hebrew, they both literally mean “weight.” We want to have some kind of weight in our lives. In other words, we wanna matter. We wanna have some kind of significance. And so the way we do that is we compete with each other with the purposes of lifting ourselves above other people. We naturally wanna be elevated above the normal standard of humanity.

And so, what’s Paul saying here? What’s he do to address their problem? He takes us to the greatest piece of theology there is, to Jesus! Listen, this is short but it has so much weight. If Jesus is God and He became a servant and died on a cross for you and I, then guys, you matter and if you matter to the One who’s opinion is the only One who really matters, then why would you be needing to seek glory from other people?

Listen, a lot of us can’t really serve others because the reality is we’re still struggling to get along with everyone else. So many of us are constantly in competition with other people, trying our hardest to get some kind of glory for ourselves and we miss the mark entirely. Guys, it’s only when we find our significance in Jesus, the only One who has glory, it’s only when we understand that He cares about us and went to those lengths for us, it’s only then that we can be released from that need to constantly compete for glory. Paul’s telling us to model Jesus’s example in verse 6, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Church, look at me…glory is not ours to seek or to grasp.

Jesus didn’t even count equality with God a thing to be exploited. In fact, He did the complete opposite…Look at verse 7, “but [He] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” And verse 8, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Look at that again…Jesus made Himself nothing and then He took it a step further and humbled Himself. He didn’t just come in the form of any man…He could’ve been a rich man, or a powerful man…no, He came as a servant and then went to a cross to die. The cross was one of the most embarrassing ways to die. He would’ve died naked and exposed. I think especially the emphasis here on “death, even death on a cross,” for those original Philippian readers, citizens of Rome—because they were Roman citizens, they couldn’t have been crucified. This was a death that they couldn’t have experienced. Even Paul himself couldn’t have been crucified, because he was a Roman citizen. Crucifixion was reserved for slaves. Crucifixion was reserved for criminals. Crucifixion was reserved for the scum of the earth. Only the worst sorts of criminals could be crucified on a cross, and yet Jesus descended all the way there, so that he was treated like the scum of the earth, he was treated like a criminal, as he was nailed to that cruel tree, becoming disfigured before the eyes of his disciples, before the eyes of the world, and as they said, “Behold the man,”...what were they seeing? They were seeing a man who was being disfigured beyond all semblance. People could barely recognize that he was even a man.

Just reflect for a moment on the beauty of this and the mystery of this, the mystery of the incarnation, that He who is characterized by eternal glory accepted the obscurity of becoming a man. He stooped from majesty to meekness. He went from power to weakness, from invincible might to suffering and pain. He who was life and light himself descended into darkness and into death. He did that without ceasing to be God for even one millisecond, so that in a very real sense there was a moment in time where the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, was at one and the same time upholding the universe by the word of his power, even as He was just a pinprick of an embryo conceived in the womb of his mother, Mary. I mean just think about that…it’s amazing!

He made Himself nothing and then humbled Himself in that nothingness. That’s the example that Paul says we’re to follow. That’s the example that Paul says happens in us when the gospel impacts our lives. The incarnation of Christ, the humility of the incarnation, it should strike our hearts with wonder, and it should cause us to wanna humble ourselves as well. Remember the context here. Paul’s saying, “Jesus did these things and this is to be our example.” If we have privilege, or power, or influence…we have rights…we can’t exploit those things, we can’t claim the rights, or seize those rights…instead we make ourselves servants to others and we take the place of humility and servanthood.

While Jesus was God in every way, He didn’t count that equality with God a thing to be exploited…He didn’t come seeking more glory…it was His actions that brought Him glory…and that’s what we see in the latter parts of this passage.

3. The Exaltation of Christ (vv. 9-11)

Our final point this morning is the exaltation of Christ. Notice, Christ didn’t come for the purpose of glory, it was His actions that brought Him glory. Look at what Paul writes, “Therefore…(because Jesus did these things)…God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should 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 said, “Therefore God has highly exalted him.” As a result of Jesus’s work, the Father has “highly exalted Him.” That phrase “highly exalted,” it means to “super-elevate.” No one else is exalted like this. He’s in a class all by Himself. He reentered the glory that He enjoyed with the Father before the world ever existed. And for all eternity, we’ll join the millions and billions in giving Him praise and honor because of the work He did. And that phrase at the end of verse 9, “and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,” it really raises the question of what that name is? Was it Jesus? I don’t know but most commentators actually think Paul’s referring to the name of Lord or Yahweh. There’s a ton of deep theology here in this passage that really links to Isaiah 42 and 45 but we just don’t have the time to cover it all this morning. But Paul’s referring to the verse where God says, “I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another,” and “Every knee will bow to Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.” Both of these are found in Isaiah.

Listen, over and over again in His teaching ministry, Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” What Paul’s showing us in this passage is that Jesus’s life was the transcript to His own teaching. Jesus said, “If you humble yourself, you’ll be exalted.” Listen, that’s exactly what happened…Jesus humbled Himself, and God exalted Him.

Listen, there’s a significant change of verbs here…In verses 6 through 8, it was all about Jesus. Jesus was the one doing the action, right? He emptied Himself. He made Himself nothing. He became obedient to the point of death. But in verse 9, Jesus isn’t the one that exalted Himself. God did! The Father did! There’s a new subject to the verb here.

And again, the point of all this is simple…Paul’s pulling from Isaiah to show that only Yahweh can save. That’s the whole point of Isaiah 45…but because Jesus is the incarnate one, because Jesus is the crucified one, because He’s the one that died on the cross…Paul says, God exalted Him and gave Him the name that’s above every name....He’s showing that Jesus Himself is God exalted in the flesh. And listen, He takes it a step further by making all things submit to this One that’s name is above all names. That’s exactly what it means for “every knee to bow,” right? The Son of God is given complete and total authority over all creation because it belonged to Him to begin with. Notice the extent of that creation…there’s a universal scope to it, right? Paul says, “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and [even] under the earth.” You realize what that means? It means every angelic being in heaven, every human being on earth, every demonic creature beneath the earth…every signal intelligent being ever created will bow the knee to Jesus, the Lord of all…every knee will bow to Jesus, the humble servant, whom God the Father has exalted.

Going back to my nerdy Lord of the Rings illustrations…one of my favorite scenes in the last movie…it’s just after the Ring of Power’s been destroyed and everyone’s at the ceremony where Aragon’s being crowned King of Gondor…and there’s this scene where the hobbits are seen bowing down to the new king. Aragon approaches them, he drops down to his knee, and he says, “No, my friends…You bow to no one.” Guys, they were the most insignificant creatures in all of Middle Earth. They were weak…they were half the size of any man or elf. But ultimately they were the one’s that destroyed the ring. And in that moment, they were humble in their exaltation.

Listen, that’s a picture of the pattern of the gospel…where the humble are exalted, supremely Jesus Christ. Church, there will come a day where every single person who’s ever existed, who’s ever lived, will bend their knees before the crucified Messiah…the Lord of the world…and guys, they’ll say, “You are Lord.” And listen, it’s our greatest privilege, as people who’ve been brought faith, it’s our greatest privilege to bend the knee now and say, “Christ is Lord.” If we don’t do it now, there will come a day when we will.

And guys, we have to remember the context of Paul’s letter here. He’s writing to a Roman colony, and in a colony of Rome the watchword of Roman people was “Caesar is Lord.” Paul’s reminding them that Caesar is in fact not lord....Jesus Chris is Lord.

Closing

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

Church, we live in a world where everybody just wants to assert their own rights. Everyone wants to exalt themselves. We live in a world where we have political parties on opposite extremes seeking their agendas, and we have these candidates and presidents and kings and rulers and senators, we need the reminder, there’s only one Lord…and guys, His name’s Jesus. He’s the humble servant. He’s our example of what our life is supposed to resemble. The gospel transforms us and it patterns our lives after His. We’re given the mindset and humility of Christ and we care about His exaltation above all other things.

Church, are you humble in your life? The only way we can authentically hold the truth of the gospel is in our humility. Guys, what do you think of yourself? Do you see yourself more highly than you ought think? Paul says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or vainglory.”

What about your view of others? Do you look past your interests and to the interests of others? Have you taken the place of a servant?

And guys, do you care more about the glory of Jesus over everything else? Those are signs of a changed life. That’s what Paul’s saying here to these Philippians.

How’s God working in your heart right now? What’s He telling you to do? Listen, whatever it is…will you be obedient? Will you step out and let Him lead you? Whatever it is…you respond as I pray.