THE MIND OF CHRIST
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Philippians 2:1-13
Philippians 2:1-13
Hey guess what?! Its December!
Merry Christmas!
We have been talking about the Holy Spirit for the past couple of months and I feel like we are just getting started!
In January, we are going to start a new series that focused on the gifts of the Spirit and their application to our lives. We are going to be looking more into what I am seeing as one of the key verses. “Pursue love, earnestly desire the gifts.”
So, we will pick that back up in January.
But as we shift our focus on Advent and the Christmas season, the word the Lord has given me this year is Immanuel, meaning God with us.
It comes from a prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 7 verse 14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Gabriel quotes this passage to Joseph when he tells him about Mary being pregnant.
The name is used in songs all over this time of year. Its the name that attempts to describe the incredible fact that God came down in the flesh. God came to us!
There is a massive gap between God and that which is everything else, or NOT GOD.
We were in a helpless and hurting state and our great and loving God bridged the insurmountable gap between God and mankind created by sin.
I believe that one of the most abused gifts that God has ever given to mankind is the fact that we have access to God and God is with us.
We have been raised using phrases and lessons without being taught that insane gap and cost that it took to give it them to us.
We have been raised in the promised land of God’s presence and grace. We do not truly appreciate the incredible gift of God that we have in His presence. We have never been in the desert of distance from God’s loving embrace.
We complain about not having things that we want when all of our needs are met. We struggle with feeling unloved when we have access to the greatest love ever. We struggle to have a quite time when God stepped out of eternity and died so that we can have God with us daily. We can’t slow down long enough to read His Word or humble ourselves before Him in prayer.
Having access to the Father, through Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit indwelling us is one of the greatest gifts ever given while it is one of the most abused or neglected.
Jesus crossed the metaphysical, spiritual and moral barriers in a ways that we were hopeless to cross.
And He did so in a way that cost Him. In order for Immanuel, God to be with us, Jesus had to sacrifice and set aside some things. Jesus’ incarnation into the form of a human is something that man have argued about for centuries. I have do interest in those fights.
All I know is that Jesus, who is God, took on flesh and that He was 100% divine while He was 100% human.
Our verse today, talks about this. It talks about some of the things that Jesus had to sacrifice to become human. And He did these things to make His sacrifice acceptable on the cross, but He also sacrificed these things as an example for us to follow.
Jesus humbled Himself, so we should humble ourselves. Jesus became obedient, so we should as well. And Jesus set aside receiving glory, and we should also.
Let’s read the passage. Then we will slow it down some.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore 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.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Paul is writing this letter from jail to a church family that he deeply loves. Chapter 1 is full of him pouring out his love for this church.
Verse 1 and 2, He is telling them in verse one that it would encourage him, comfort him and his joy would be complete if this is the way their church would look. He is telling them, as a man in prison, if you were these things, it wouldn’t matter that I am in prison.
Paul desires that a church that he deeply loves would look like this.
ESV said,
being of the same mind
having the same love
being in full accord
of one mind
NASV (a more word for word translation says this)
being of the same mind
maintaining the same love
united in Spirit
intent on one purpose
It is a call by Paul for unity in the church. Unity in mindset, love, Spirit and purpose.
But I think one of the key points to this passage is Paul tells us to have the have the mind of Christ and to be unified in that mind.
Paul explains the mind of Christ and he uses the incarnation of Christ to show us the mindset that we should have with each other.
Jesus crossing that gap and His example of how He did it can serve as a point of gratitude for His sacrifice and a point of example for our mindset and how we should live in our pursuit of being Christ-like.
So, let’s look at these two difficult verse here in the middle that describe some of the sacrifices that Jesus made becoming Immanuel, God with us.
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
The word “form” in Greek is Morphe. Its nature, character, being.
This is saying that in Jesus becoming man, He did not lose or give up anything of His character or nature or being or divinity. He did not lose who He was. This is how we can say with confidence that He was still 100% divine God even in human form.
Verse 7 uses the same word morphe to say that Jesus also took on the nature, character and being of a human, of a servant.
So, He became two natures, characteristics, being at the same time.
But that is not to say that He didn’t voluntarily lay down some attributes or some things that He had access to or deserved.
I think there is 3 things that we can see in this passage that Jesus laid down or set aside to become man and how we should have this same mind.
Obedience to the Father’s will.
Obedience to the Father’s will.
Verse 6 says Jesus did not count equality with God something to be grasped.
We believe that the trinity is 3 equal persons in one being.
However, this verse shows us that Jesus set aside His equal standing with the Father for a period of time as a human.
He emptied Himself of His equality with the Father for a period of submission and obedience to the Father.
He surrendered His will and desires to the Father.
We see this reflected all throughout the Gospels.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
Verse 8 in our passage tells us the He became so obedient to the Father’s will to the point of death. Even death on a cross. There was nothing that the Father could ask that Jesus wouldn’t obey.
We see that conversation in Matthew. Jesus says,
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Jesus set aside His will, His desires, His wishes to obey the Father’s will. To lay aside His ambitions and desire to whatever the Father wanted!
Jesus set the example for us. Jesus had a throne and stepped down from it.
We have never had a throne and yet we attempt to set up new and puny thrones in the place of God’s throne. We attempt to rule and act like we know better than God. We try to claim authority pursue our selfish ambitions or our conceit.
We need to see how huge it was that Jesus, who was actually equal to the Father, laid down His equality with God for a time.
We need to see how foolish it is of us to attempt to set up our tiny little thrones and claim equality with God.
May we be unified in have this mindset, the mind of Christ.
SERVANT TO MANKIND
SERVANT TO MANKIND
The second thing that Jesus laid down or set aside with the absolute fact that as God, we should be falling all over ourselves to serve and grant His every wish. He is God and has absolute authority and with that should be the fact the world gravels at your feet and is ready to grant any command or wish that He has.
But we see that Jesus set that aside for a time to humble Himself to become a servant for all mankind.
It says that He took on the form or nature of a servant.
Verse 3-4 tells us how He did it.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
That is instructions for us but we see Jesus did that over and over again in His ministry through healing, feeding, loving, forgiving, and casting our demons.
But the biggest way that He came to look our for our best interest is the fact that we needed a Savior from our sins. We were lost without hope. But one of the greatest verses in the Bible tells us why Jesus came! What was His intention? What was the heart of why He came?
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
God sent His Son not to tells us all how we are messed us and going to hell. He did not send Him to condemn the world, in fact we were already condemned! He didn’t need to do that! But the heart of why Jesus came was to offer salvation from that condemnation that was already on us!
He did that by humbling Himself to our greatest need, our greatest interest, our eternal salvation from the separation from God.
Jesus did that in the greatest way possible for all of mankind. But we are instructed to have the same mindset.
A mindset that does nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but counts everyone else around us more significant than ourselves!
This is sooo counter cultural today. Our world says me, me me. Its all about me and what I want. My plans, my desires. my hopes. My dreams. Me, me, me.
Its so difficult to see how we can pull ourselves out of this selfishness deficit in the world but we CAN have this same mind. We can be united in this mind of Christ.
It says to take care of your needs, but also look after the needs of others.
How are you doing that in your life?
GLORY DUE HIM
GLORY DUE HIM
The 3rd thing that Jesus set side in becoming human is He set aside the glory of His radiance and the glory due to Him.
He is God! He dwells in unapproachable light! Sinful man falls death in His presence. Nothing can survive the glory of God without covering or removal of sin.
But Jesus volunteered to set that aside.
He could have come as a conquering King and established a kingdom that would reign forever. But He set that glory aside and came as a child in a manger.
We see a glimpse of His glory restored on the mount of transfiguration.
We also see Jesus pray in John 17:4-5 for the Father to restore His glory.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Jesus was rejected by many of the Jews of that day because He did not come as they had hoped the Messiah would come, as a conquering King. In the fullness of His glory.
He set the example of not pursuing to the glorified by mankind. Jesus did not come to win the approval of man or for them to glorify Him yet.
But He is glorified today!
Therefore 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.
He recieved the glory of the Father in the timing of His Father! He will receive the glory of mankind when every knee shall bow.
We get the incredible opportunity to do that now!
We get to praise Him and give Him glory!
Look, folks, can we just remember this fact, we desire zero glory. We deserve none. We are saved by grace and grace alone. And that grace is a gift from God!
And every good and perfect thing is a gift from God above!
We deserve nothing but death and eternal separation from God.
So, let us follow in the example of Christ and do not accept any of the glory that we think is due to us! Do not seek the glory of man.Seek this glory that comes from the only God.
Immanuel, God with us. Jesus crossed a great divide to come be with us. He made many great sacrifices to be with us. To provide a path for us to the Father.
He set an example for us in the process.
Jesus obeyed the will of the Father.
Jesus humbled Himself to the point of being a servant to mankind.
Jesus set aside the glory due Him.
Can we during this December, slow down and meditate on what Immanuel means and the incredible fact that God came down to us?
And can we also follow His example?