One Supreme Example (2:5-11)

One Supreme Example: Philippians 2:5-11 Pray & Intro: Read 1:27-2:5 • After discussing his own pursuit of advancing the gospel and a character of Christ-like service, whether by life or by death, Paul turned to challenge the church to be a team standing together and striving together and suffering together as citizens worthy of the gospel (despite external opposition). • He then describes the team mindset needed to guard against internal divisiveness—humility. Humility, put simply, is to view yourself rightly before God and to put others first for their good and God’s glory. • Paul urges them to unity through humility, now motivating them to Christ-like conformity by displaying Christ as the supreme model of a spirit of humility in obedience to the will of God for the glory of God. Read vv. 6-11 (by descending and ascending tall ladder), and Discuss: I. The Setup, v. 5: A. Have this mind 1. What will it take for you to live your life like this? With one single purpose: to live Christ? With a single passion and single pursuit: the character and the glory of Jesus, to know him and make him known, to progress in the faith and to advance the gospel. To stand and strive and suffer side by side with us, saying, and believing, and living, “There is nothing more important to me anymore.” 2. You must have the mind of Christ. a. To see clearly and believe wholly in Jesus and what has done for you. b. To daily submit to the Spirit in order to be controlled by the mind of Christ. 3. So, adopt towards one another, in your mutual interactions/relationships, the same attitude that was found in Christ Jesus. B. Which was in Christ Jesus OR which is yours in Christ Jesus – both true. (I prefer the first.) C. The hymn/song/poem/piece of exalted prose – whether Paul used or adapted it or penned it (original to him)  simple outline II. What did Jesus do? A. Beautiful theological truth, but theological treatise or debate is not the purpose of it. Worship of Jesus as Lord and Savior, and modeling our lives after his humility IS the purpose of it. (So if I mention theological issues about this text this morning, they will be brief, to keep us focused on the main point.) B. The second person of the Godhead, as creator and sustainer of the universe, lowered himself to the likeness of man (his creatures) to be man’s Messiah. He followed through with his mission even to the point of death on a cross. 1. The eternal Creator of the universe, who breathed the world into existence with the word of his mouth, who is part and parcel with the infinite perfect nature and essence of God, left the glories of heaven to dwell down here with his creatures, to live and die on behalf of those same ones who had rejected him. a. Form, likeness, appearance words in this text. (How could this get so botched up?)  form (morphe) - the expression of something that reflects or manifests fully and truly the essence of what something is. (both 6 and 7a)  human likeness (homoioma) – the quality of being similar (to something); in this case, in form, flesh and blood. (7b)  human appearance (schema) – form (appearance), the visual appearance of something or someone, especially physically. (8a) b. Though he existed (state of being) as God in essence… didn’t count that identical equality as a thing to be grasped. “Precisely because he was in the form of God, he did not regard this divine equality as something to be used for his own advantage.” (O’Brien) – not a gain to be exploited c. How many of us think of an exalted position as a way to give rather than a way to get?  Are you important? Good—all the more reason for you to serve. Does your status make you too good for certain tasks? Backwards. The higher the status, the more reason to reflect the heart of Jesus in humble service. C. He made himself nothing, he emptied himself 1. Theologically (kenosis – Christ limiting himself when he became a man) – Not that he emptied himself of deity to take on humanity, but laid aside the esteem and full privileges of God as well as the independent exercise of divine authority and attributes. 2. But he poured himself out, made himself nothing – the real point of this is his humility and self-sacrifice a. By taking the essence of a slave, a bondservant b. And Being born (becoming) in the likeness of men (like other humans beings) 3. Jesus emptied himself. By his will, in obedience to the Father’s sovereign will, he emptied himself. – Although you and I are not Jesus. And we cannot empty ourselves by trying to empty ourselves, we do have the mind of Christ if we are his and we abide in him. III. How did he do it? A. Now with a recognizable nature (appearance) as a man (though not a sinful nature) – “Jesus Christ appeared to other people just as any other man. This was another mark of His humility. There were no visual clues in His appearance that He was sinless or divine.” (Constable)  Christ humbled himself 1. By becoming obedient to the point of death  the extent to which he was willing to go in humble submissiveness to obey God’s will – And why does obedience get such a bad rap (dishonor from false accusations and trumped up charges.) – Jesus did it. Not only that, but the primary event in all of history, the central show of God’s love and glory and power and majesty, He displayed in the obedience of the Son of God to the will of the Father. WHAT! Obedience is beautiful. Obedience is desirable. Obedience is paramount. 2. Even death on a cross – What was intended by the punishers to be more painful and more degrading? Nothing.  The eternal Son of God, who knew no beginning, no sin, no lack of anything, no weakness, no pain; gave up perfect bliss, perfect fellowship with God the Father and Spirit, his perfect and infinitely deserved divine status; to be born as a man, to take on a human body, with human blood pumping through his veins, knowing full well that he would have hunger and pain, knowing perfectly that he would undeservedly suffer incomparable physical, emotional, and spiritual pain to the point of death—death on a cross! What unfathomable love is this! What beauty of truest humility and service! God of the universe did that for me! For you! B. With full (complete, perfect) knowledge of why he came and how it would go down, and while literally sustaining the universe by His power, Jesus gave up his life on a cross. While sustaining the world by the power of his hand, he allowed his hands to be nailed to a cross to die for the redemption of that world. C. By so doing Christ became the culminating message of God’s love. He became the means of salvation and restoration to God. And he served as a model for us to follow Him in the gospel, to show us that the method is to submit and serve. D. As suffering precedes glory (Peter), so humiliation precedes exaltation.  To share with Christ in glory and exaltation as sons and daughters of the most high God… is to be like Christ in suffering, in humiliation.  (Deny, take up cross, follow me) – You can’t follow Jesus and take away the cross part. That’s the central demonstration Jesus gave of how we are to follow him. It is what we believe and it is the way we follow. IV. What did God then do? A. B/c of what Jesus did, that is why God… B. Exalted him to the highest place – God super-exalted Him: the highest measure of honor in degree and magnitude, an unmatched position C. And bestowed on him the name above all names – his own name: LORD! V. Why did he do it?  In order that… A. In honor and highest esteem of Jesus 1. Every knee should bow and every tongue confess – every existing being with the intelligent capacity to do so. 2. Is today the day you will bow and confess, acknowledging Christ Jesus as your Savior and Lord? 3. What makes someone do this?…. And IN what way/how do you bow your knee and agree with your tongue?  The obedient mind, the submissive mind, the believing mind displays itself outwardly, symbolically with physical action and verbal declaration. 4. Don’t imitate Jesus out of guilt. Conform to Jesus out of love. Never follow Jesus out of mere compulsion; follow Him out of submission and inspiration because of admiration. – The beauty (attractiveness) of Christ person, humility, and sacrifice. B. God be glorified in Christ Jesus – The beginning and end of all things in existence is the glory of God. If you don’t see that and live that, then you are wasting your life.  Jesus’ purpose is, always has been, and always will be to glorify God. God’s purpose for Christians then, is to purpose their lives in Christ for Christ, b/c he is the message, and the means, and the model for glorifying God. As we together take communion today, let us, with one mind, worship the beauty of our Savior, WHO…