Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon: FCC Afton 9-25-2022

The Attitude of Christ

Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

This week, we are celebrating the Feast of Trumpets.

Tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah, marking the Jewish New Year and the act of casting off the burdens of the last year and looking forward to the peace and blessings of the next year.

Historically, in Israel, the Jewish people would throw stones in a body of water to symbolize the casting off their sins.

Recap:

Last week, we wrapped up Chapter One of the letter to the Philippians.

We examined the culmination of Paul's posture as a slave for Christ and how it became the inspiration for his life: that he desired to live in such a way that his life would completely honorable to Christ, that Jesus would have nothing about Paul's life to be ashamed about.

We talked about how striking that was, because of who Paul was before: Paul went from being Saul, persecutor and murderer of Christians, to Paul, missionary and church leader, sitting in chains for his faith- and then making this declaration: "Nothing about my life will be like it was before," not even his attitude in approaching execution.

He says this, of course, for our benefit, because Christ has already seen several decades of life change out of Paul- but we get to see the amazing glimpse of the Gospel's amazing redemptive power in Paul.

We also covered the importance of the Barnabas/ Timothy relationship in the Believer's life- and how important it was for Paul, that it is likely that he would not become the missionary and church leader without Barnabas vouching for him and taking him along on a missionary journey.

It is vital that we do not try to do this life alone; that we have mentors pouring into our lives, helping to keep us focused in our Christian walk, and watching out for dangers or pitfalls that we might not see.

And as important as it is to have a spiritual mentor in your life, it is just as important for you to be a spiritual mentor for someone else.

We cannot do this Christian walk alone- we must have the fellowship that comes from a Barnabas/ Timothy relationship.

We ended our time last week with Paul's exhortation on how we should live our lives.

Paul reminds us: "Live your lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ!

Live your lives in a manner that thanks God for the grace He poured out on you when you didn't deserve it.

Live in a way that makes others want to come to know Jesus- want to know what you've got and how you got it!"

This week, we move into Paul's explanation of how we should live- with the attitude of Christ, with the mind of Christ.

Living with the attitude of Christ will ensure that we are living in a way that honors Him.

Read Philippians 2:1-11 Pray here!

-Paul begins this portion of the letter by going deeper into the idea of our fellowship in Christ.

He tells us this: 'If all of you live for Christ, you all have the attitude and mind of Christ, then your fellowship will be obvious- it will be effective in reaching the world.

If we could attain this, if we could look like the early church, then we would be effective and unstoppable in sharing Jesus, in making people want to know what it is we have and how they can get it.

-Main Idea: There is a standard for Christian life and fellowship that reflects our level of surrender and our ability to honor the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

-Paul says, I need to see these things out of your fellowship to know that you are all working toward honoring Christ and to know that you will be effective for the Kingdom of God: encouragement, consolation of love, fellowship with the Spirit, affection, and mercy.

If you have these things, then I will know that you have one mind and that we are on the same page.

There should be no division among you, church!

I'm not talking about disagreements about carpet color here, but in issues of doctrine, Gospel issues, we should have one love and be focused on the same goal: making disciples and telling people about Jesus.

This, of course, was not a huge, ground-breaking statement for the early church.

There were divisions, especially ethnic ones in their time, but for the most part, the Church had unity and had this deep fellowship growing.

In fact, it is because of the spread of Christianity that you saw the spread of unity and a decrease in discrimination because of ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic boundaries- you saw the leveling of the playing field.

In Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us "But among you, there is no Jew or Greek, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Now, one thing, some people try to use this as evidence for the transgender movement, for all the woke stuff.

But Paul is not saying there are no differences anymore- he even tells Christian slaves to serve their masters well and with joy- but that we are all now equal because of Jesus and because of his grace.

Because of Christianity, woman gained rights that they had never had before; no longer would they be treated just as the property of their husbands or fathers.

Because of Christ, the ethnic division between Jew and Gentile were erased; the same is true today- there should not be black churches and white churches; we could add in here, there is no Jew or Gentile, no black or white- you are all one in Christ Jesus.

As Followers of Jesus, we are supposed to put aside our differences because we are all covered by the same grace, a grace that none of us deserved.

The early church was effective in fulfilling Christ's commission because showed people a new way to live and people wanted it- and they honored Christ greatly while they did it.

But look at us now... Chaotic, divided, disunified.

We've gone from the biggest, most influential, most effective at changing lives religion to, at least in the west, almost a side note.

Less than 40% of Americans even attend church regularly; only 25% of Believers have a Biblical worldview and know how to approach this life in the way that honors Jesus.

Most people, at this point, are more willing to believe nothing than want to come hear what we have to say.

And who can blame them?

We are disjointed; we don't have a unified message; we've got "churches" preaching a false gospel and discipling people in a feel good message.

We have fractured ourselves because of the fights over differences to the point where we are no longer fishers of men, nor do we honor the Gospel of Christ with how we fellowship.

And it is because we, even those who consider themselves holy Followers of Jesus yet who refuse to fellowship with those "other" Believers over minor differences, no longer are living, let alone doing church, with the attitude of Christ.

Paul moves on here from this examination of what the church SHOULD look like and brings it back to the individual Believer: if the church does not look the way that it should, if it is not unified, if it is not effective in fishing for men the way that it should be, then it is because the individual Christian is not focused on Jesus and maintaining the attitude of Christ- so it is with the individual Believer that we must begin.

Paul begins first with the negative: do not do these things, and then moves on to the positive: do these things, maintain this attitude, reflect Jesus to the world.

It is only then, when individual Christians learn this and begin to make it the focus of their lives, that the Body of Believers will begin to look like the early church again, that the Body of Christ will really honor the Gospel of Christ, and will give Him nothing to be ashamed about.

Truth #1: Avoid these behaviors and attitudes if you want to develop the attitude of Christ and be an effective disciple-maker.

"Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.

Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

-There are four separate aspects of this passage that we are going to look at, but they all boil down to the same point: stop focusing on yourself and your own will!

You cannot have a posture of surrender before the Master if you are focused on yourself!

It's why the author of Hebrews says in 12:2, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author perfector of your faith!" Paul echoes that sentiment here:

1. Do nothing out of rivalry!

Other translations use the words selfish ambition, but the meaning is the same: it is a desire to elevate yourself over another.

We see this a lot in our culture: sibling rivalry, rival schools, the idea of an arch-nemesis- we laugh about it, accept it, endorse it, enable it, in a kind of "boys will be boys" type of way, as if rivalry and selfish ambition are okay as long as its done in a harmless context.

But we not called to have rivalries, but to be servants!

We are not to take part in the division that comes from rivalry, harmless as it may seem, but to build unity through brotherhood!

We cannot bring Christ to the world if they see us behaving in selfishness rather than selflessness!

2. Do nothing out of conceit!

Vanity and conceit are the roots of selfishness and leads to rivalry.

This is the idea of preoccupation with self, of seeking to bring glory to self rather than God.

Far too often the world looks at the church and sees people seeking glory for themselves, and they want no part of it.

3. Be humble- Consider others more important than yourself.

This statement is made from the positive, but we can pull the negative inference out of it: stop putting yourself first.

This is more than just the idea of someone elbowing his way to the front of the buffet line; this is the mentality of bragging on yourself, considering yourself as best, most important thing in this world.

The world cannot revolve around you and you be focused on Christ and the work that He desires you to do!

4. Don't look out only for yourself, but also for others!

This is one that is often looked at with some confusion, especially by Americans.

We have a long history of keeping our noses out of others' business.

Paul is not instructing us to be nosy or to insert ourselves where we don't belong, but rather that we should maintain an attitude that cares about the well-being of others and then being able, willing, and available to help selflessly when someone needs help.

-You cannot have an attitude that is focused on yourself and have the mind and attitude of Christ.

Therefore, the church cannot be effective in bringing Christ to the world if the people within the church are focused on themselves rather than on Jesus and others.

Truth #2: Paul instead gives us the example of Jesus for how we should live if we are to be effective for Jesus in this world.

-Paul says: in order to be effective as the church and to focus on the same goal of fulfilling the Great Commission, being fishers of men, and making disciples of all nations, we must put aside all of the ambition, conceit, and focusing on self, and instead, develop within ourselves the attitude of Christ.

So, what does the attitude of Christ look like?

Paul breaks down some of the characteristics of the attitude of Christ and what it looks like to model our lives after Jesus.

1. Jesus did not use His deity for His own advantage.

"Make your attitude like that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage."

What does that mean?

It means that things could have looked a whole lot differently had Jesus not come with the purpose of being our salvation, a salvation that we would need to humble ourselves and choose to love.

-Jesus is God- He had all the same power that created the universe with just a word.

He could have come and liberated His people as a conqueror, with all of the might and supernatural power at his disposal to lay to waste the Roman Empire and everyone living in rebellion against God.

-Jesus surrendered His right to manifest Himself visibly in all the splendor and glory of His divine nature, only doing so slightly during the transfiguration in Mark 9.

He could have manipulated some human wills by busting out His divine glory for all to see, but He chose to be shrouded; He didn't want anyone to love Him or surrender their lives to the salvation He came to bring under false pretenses.

-Jesus gave up His divine knowledge of God's timing and ultimate planning.

In Mark 13, Jesus said that "only the Father knows the day and the hour."

In John 15, He says that "a servant does not know the Master's business."

He surrendered His divine will to the Father's.

-He showed restraint in Luke 4, while starving in the wilderness, to not give in to the devil's temptation to turn stones into bread, when He could have easily done so.

In fact, He never once uses any miraculous ability for His own immediate, personal benefit, but only for the benefit of those around Him or as a teaching tool.

-Jesus says in Matthew 26 that the Father had 12 legions of angels waiting at His need, should the mission of the cross be too much.

These angels were waiting to come and rescue Him from suffering and crucifixion.

This means that Jesus had, at minimum, 72,000 angels at the ready to respond to His call; and I can't imagine that God would have 72,000 angels ready to simply come airlift Jesus to safety when simply one angel would have sufficed- in Isaiah 37, we read how a single angel came and killed 185,000 in one night.

I imagine what God had at the ready was a mission failsafe- 72,000 angels ready to come and rescue Jesus by putting an end to the humanity problem.

If one angel could handle 185,000, then with a conservative estimate of 72,000 angels, and a conservative estimate of 185,000 deaths per angel per night, then those 12 legions of angels could have taken out nearly 13.5 billion people!