Let us Have the Mind of Christ

Welcome to the final week of our series, Called to Serve. Over the past three weeks, I’ve emphasized that every believer is called to serve. You see, God has uniquely designed each of us with abilities and talents that can be used in service to Him. In fact, last week, we learned from 1 Peter that each one of us has received a spiritual gift from God, and that we are to use those gifts to minister to or serve one another. The verse I’m talking about comes from 1 Peter chapter 4. Let’s take another look at it for the sake of review.

1 Peter 4:10 NKJV

10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Let me point out a couple of things we learned last week. First notice Peter says, “As each one has received a gift”. That means every believer has received a gift from God. What kind of gift? It is a spiritual gift. Now, I don’t want to dive into all the various forms of spirituals gifts that the Bible mentions, but for now just know this. God designed you with a special ability to serve within the body of Christ. That is what Peter says, “each of you have received a gift, minister it to one another”. And as we also learned last week, the word minister in this verse means serve. So, Peter is saying, “use your gift to serve one another”. And his final point is that when we use our gifts to serve one another we are being good stewards of the grace of God. Let me paraphrase this verse and address it to you.

Legacy, each one of you have received a spiritual gift from God. Use that gift to serve one another. Because when you do, you being a good manager of the grace of God that has been entrusted to you.

Here is a summary point that I shared last week.

When believers properly use their spiritual gift, they become channels for the grace of God to flow into the lives of others.

Here is what this means. When we serve one another using the abilities that God has given us, we become grace highways. We become avenues for the grace of God to flow through us into the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And for us to become a grace highway, we must serve one another. And let me add a testimonial comment to this.

Watching the grace of God flow into the lives of our brothers and sisters is one of the most rewarding experiences a Christian can have. When God works through us and touches another person, we sometimes get to witness the fruit it produces. What a blessing it is to hear someone share that a sermon or Sunday school lesson changed their life. What encouragement it brings to see someone making progress in our recovery ministry. And what joy it is to watch a person who was on the verge of losing everything—family, health, job—turn back to God and become a servant of the King.

You see, we get the privilege of taking part in God’s work, but to truly experience this we have to develop the mindset of a servant. This means that we have to stop making everything in our lives about us, our wants, our desires, or our need to call the shots. Let me say it again, we need the mindset of a servant. Let me put it to you this way.

A servant’s mindset starts where self-centeredness ends.

You see, it is only when we begin to put the needs of our brothers and sister’s before our own that our lives begin to look like Jesus’ life. The Lord was the only truly selfless person that ever lived. The Lord Himself said the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ramson for many.

Here is the point, as we begin to mature as Christians, as we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, the more our lives will reflect Christ’s life, and the less our lives will reflect our own selfish desires. In short, the more we develop the mind of Christ the more we are willing to give our lives away for our brothers. Let me paraphrase this idea the way the Apostle John does in 1 John.

Christ gave His life for us. So let us give our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16)

I don’t know about you, but when I read that statement, my first thought is: that sounds extreme. Are we really supposed to live our lives completely for the good of our brothers and sisters? What about me? What about my goals, my hopes, my dreams? What about all the things that I’ve worked so hard to achieve in my life?

And those are valid questions, but when we wrestle with these questions honestly, we need to consider the words of Jesus to His disciples in Mark 8. In this chapter, Jesus begins to explain that He would suffer and die at the hands of the religious authorities. But that was not His only lesson. In this same section of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that following Him would cost His disciples dearly. And he says to them in verse 34,

Mark 8:34 NKJV

34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Notice the first thing Jesus says here. “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself”. Well, what does it mean to deny ourselves? As we try and answer this question let’s try to determine what this meant for the twelve disciples first, and then we will see how this truth applies to our own lives.

Now remember what the disciples were expecting from life at this point. They thought they were headed to glory. They thought Jesus was ushering in His kingdom. They had dreams of power, honor, and glory. The disciples had a vision and an expectation for their lives. We might say that the were expecting all of their wildest dreams to come true.

But, now Jesus is teaching them that they were going to have to give up this dream. He says if you want to follow me, you must deny yourself. In other words, Jesus is teaching them that they needed to abandon all of these desires of glory and honor.

I might paraphrase this by saying, “you have all of these desires, hopes, dreams, and ambitions for your life, but if you want to follow Me you must give them up. You must abandon what you thought your life was going to look like because following Me is going to be the opposite of what you were hoping for. You thought this life was going to be filled with glory, power, honor, and riches, but instead your life will be filled with trials, suffering, shame, and even death.

So this is the best way I can define “deny ourselves”. It is the willingness to take all of our hopes, dreams, ambitions, goals and give them up to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, just like the disciples, we have to come to the place in our Christian walk where we say, “I thought my life was going to include all of these things I’ve dreamed off since I was young, but now I’m willing to turn my back on these to follow in the Lord’s footsteps.”

And to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ we must live to serve, not to be served. Think about it this way. The purpose of a servant is to put the good of others above the glory of self. And our purpose as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ is to make the Master’s will our mission. And our master’s will is that we love one another the way that Christ loved us. How did He love us? He gave HIs life for us, so we in turn should be willing to give our lives for the brethren. And this is exactly what the Apostle John writes in His first letter.

1 John 3:16 NKJV

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Now, very few, if any of us, are going to literally die for our brothers, but we can demonstrate this principle in our lives everyday. We can use our time, our talents, our resources, and our spiritual gifts to serve our brothers. You see, we can choose to live our lives as servants seeking to give ourselves away from the good of the body of Christ. This is the model Christ showed us in HIs everyday life, so we should seek to imitate Him in our everyday lives.

Here is the point. Don’t live this life for yourself. Don’t make everyday about you. Make it about your brothers and sisters in Christ. Live your life as a servant, and Christ will reward you in the life to come.

Ok, with all being said I think we are ready to jump into our text for today. Let’s go to the Lord and prayer and ask for Him to give us understanding. Let’s pray.

Let’s jump in and tackle our first few verses. Starting at verse 5 in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2:5–7 NKJV

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

During my prep time this week I read a commentary that considers this section of Philippians (2:5-11) to be the centerpiece of the entire New Testament. I bring that to you attention because I want you to realize that in studying this passage we are truly beholding the Glory and selfless nature of our Savior. In this passage we get a glimpse of the humility, the grace, and the love of God that our minds can barely comprehend.

In this text we get the supreme and perfect model of what it means to love perfectly, and to truly give oneself away for the benefit of others. This passage defines what it means to be the servant of others, and this is the example we are to follow.

Ok, let’s dig in starting with verse 5. Paul begins by saying, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. Now, I want to start by talking about the word you. Paul starts by saying let this mind be in you, and when we read the “you” there we automatically apply it to ourselves as individuals. But the word you here in the original Greek language is a plural pronoun. Which means what Paul is saying, he is saying to the church. In other words, Paul is saying Let this mind be in you all (y’all) which was also in Christ Jesus. And so you are probably thinking, ok William that is an interesting little detail, but so what.

Well, let me tell you why I think it is important. It is important because the emphasis is on the group as a whole. In other words, Paul is saying I want Christ’s mindset to become a reality among all of you. In other words, I want the mind of Christ to be experienced among you all in your community relationships. Simply put, Paul is urging the church as a whole to have the mind of Christ so that it plays out in how they treat one another. How were they to treat one another? The were to serve one another.

Now let’s talk about this word mind. Paul says let this mind be in you all which was also in Christ Jesus. When Paul says let this mind be in you, The word translated mind carries the sense of an attitude, a way of thinking, or a settled mindset. One Greek dictionary i used explains it this way: “Let the same kind of thinking dominate you as dominated Christ Jesus.”

Simply put, verse 5 is a command: we are to adopt the very mindset of Christ Himself. And what kind of mindset did He have? In Philippians 2:5–8, three defining characteristics stand out:

The selfless mind - He did not cling to His rights but laid them aside for our sake.

2. The serving mind - He took the form of a servant, living to meet the needs of others.

3. The sacrificial mind - He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross.

Legacy, this is the mind of Christ. It is a selfless mind. It is a serving mind, and it is a sacrificial mind. And these are the characteristics that should define our mindset.

Let’s take a closer look the mindset of Christ that is detailed for us starting in verse 6.

Philippians 2:6–7 NKJV

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Verse 6 stands as the supreme example of what it means to have a selfless mind. Paul declares that Christ, before He took on flesh, was in the very form of God. What does this mean? It means that Jesus Christ was fully equal with God the Father—by His very nature, He was God. Jesus sat upon the throne of the universe, receiving the worship of angels.

And then Paul goes on to say who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. This leads us right into another question. What on earth does it mean that Christ didn’t consider it robbery to be equal with God?

To figure this out we need to zero in on this word “robbery” for a min. Here is the word translated robbery in the original language.

Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament ἁρπαγμός

ἁρπαγμός (harpagmos)

So, in the context of our passage, the word robbery means something like this: the Lord Jesus Christ did not regard His equality with God as something to be seized upon or something to be held on to for His own advantage. Instead, He was willing to lay aside the glory He shared with the Father from eternity past for you and for me.

In other words, Jesus did not treat His equality with the Father as something He had to preserve at all costs. We willing gave it up for the benefit of others. You see, this is what it means to have a selfless mindset. And this, by itself, reveals the very nature of the God we serve. He is not a God who clung tightly to His glory for personal gain, but a God who gave it up, took on flesh, and became a servant to all mankind.

This is the standard Christ has set for us. To have a selfless mind means that whatever advantages, privileges, or positions of authority we may have, we do not cling to them for our own benefit. Instead, we willingly lay them down and use them for the good of others. I stumbled across a quote this week that deeply convicted me. Here it is:

Love begins when someone else’s needs become more important than our own.

Legacy, this is the essence of true love. This is what it means to cultivate a selfless mindset. This is what it means to lay down your life for the brethren. It means that the needs of others take priority over our own.

You see, love is not measured by words or feelings, but by the willingness to spend our time, our resources, and our energy for the sake of others. It is the daily choice to put aside our pleasures and comfort in order to meet each other’s needs. This is the pattern Christ Himself set for us. He did not cling to His own glory but laid it aside to meet our greatest need.

Ok, we need to keep moving. So, we have seen Christ demonstrate a selfless mindset in verse 6. Now let’s talk about verse 7 which says,

Philippians 2:7 NKJV

7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

In this verse we see the serving aspect of the mind of Christ. Not only did He set aside the glory He shared with the Father from eternity past, but He also stepped into His own creation, humbling Himself by taking the form of a bondservant. The word bondservant literally means slave. The One who was exalted above all became the servant of all. He laid everything aside and fully embraced the role of a servant.

Now, since this whole series is about being called to serve, let’s dig a little deeper into what it truly means to be a servant. And I’ll be honest with you—this is going to sting a little.

Because if we’re honest, most of us treat service as an optional thing. We serve when it’s convenient. We serve when we feel like it. We serve when we like the people we’re serving. We serve when the task is enjoyable and we get satisfaction from it. But that’s not the definition of true service.

True service means serving others even when it’s inconvenient.

True service means serving people you may not like.

True service will stretch you, cost you, and even exhaust you.

True service means serving even when you don’t want to.

That’s the example Christ gave us. He didn’t come to serve because it was easy or comfortable. He came to serve even when it meant laying aside His glory, humbling Himself, and even going to the cross. That’s the standard He set—and that’s the call we’ve been given. If we only serve when we want to, or when it convenient, we aren’t truly demonstrating the mind of Christ.

Moving on to verse 8.

Philippians 2:8 NKJV

8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Here in verse 8 is where we see the sacrificial mind of Christ. And here is one of the biggest takeaways about serving like the Lord Jesus Christ. Serving means being obedience even if it costs us our life! You see, the ultimate act of obedience is being “obedient to the point of death”.

Let me give you a quick story to illustrate this. Imagine I came to you and said, “I’ve got an incredible ministry opportunity for you—but it’s going to require some sacrifice.” You’re intrigued, even excited, and you ask what the opportunity is. I explain that you’ll have the chance to serve as a missionary overseas.

You take time to think about it. You pray. You talk it over with your family. And after careful consideration, you come back and say, “I’m in. I want to be obedient to the Lord, and I’m willing to go.”

I respond, “That’s wonderful. But you need to know—the area you’re going to is hostile to Christians. You’ll likely face persecution, insults, and rejection. You may not see many visible successes. But here’s the promise: a few will come to faith. A few lives will be eternally changed because of your obedience.”

Well, that kind of knocks the wind out of your sails. The excitement fades as the reality of sacrifice sets in. Yet after prayer and reflection, you ultimately decide to take on the mission. Why? Because you remember that countless Christians before you have endured hardship, persecution, and even death for the sake of the gospel. So, you decide to be obedient and go on the mission trip.

But then you ask the question: “How long will I be gone?” And my reply is sobering: “Well, that’s the thing. I don’t know exactly how long you’ll last—but you won’t be coming home. This mission will require your very life.”

Man, that’s put a completely different spin on obedience doesn’t it. Obedience is one thing, but obedience to the point of death is a whole other ballgame. Amen. That is the obedience of Christ to the Father’s will. That is the sacrificial mind of Christ.

But I’m not quite done. Let me go back to our example for a min. But let’s say your still considering going, and then I tell you this. And by the way, it isn’t going to be a quick death. It is going to be a slow, painful, excruciating form of death. In fact, it is going to be the most painful death that a person can experience.

That’s mind boggling to think about isn’t it. But this is what Christ did for you, and this is what Christ did for me. This is what Christ did for the whole world.

And this is what Paul lays out in verse 8. “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Legacy, during our study this morning, we have beheld the mind of Christ. It is a selfless mind, it is a serving mind, and it is a sacrificial mind. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us, and this is the model that He gave us to follow. Remember, what Paul said back in verse 5

Philippians 2:5 NKJV

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

It is absolutely critical that we reflect on the word of God so they our minds are being renewed and transformed. Without beholding the Lord Jesus Christ on the pages of scripture, we cannot have the “mind of Christ”. But as we diligently study and learn from the Master, the more our mindset begins to look like His mindset, and the more we are willing to follow His example and lay down our lives for the brethren. And that is what we transform this Church. You see, we won’t have any fighting within this church if we begin to adopt the mind of Christ. You know why? People who are willing to die for others don’t generally fight with them over small insignificant details.

Here is the final point and we are done. We are to follow Christ’s example of being humble, selfless, and sacrificial servants in this life so that we can reign with Him in the next. You see, Jesus came as a suffering servant the first time. But when He returns it will be as an eternal King who will reign forevermore. That is exactly how Paul finishing this passage. He says,

Philippians 2:9–11 NKJV

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You see, our Servant-King, the Lord Jesus Christ, is coming back to rule and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus will rule an eternal Kingdom because of His obedience to the Father’s will. He came first as a suffering servant, and now the Father will give Him an eternal kingdom.

And if we follow Jesus example and give up this life to become suffering servants He will allow us to rule alongside Him in eternity. That is our mission Church. We humble ourselves. We serve. We lay down our lives for the brethren so that we may reign alongside Christ in His kingdom to come. Legacy, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let’s pray.