The Mind of Christ

Introduction

Have you ever given much thought as to why your church hasn’t grown much? I tend to think this happens in a number of churches in this day in age, but let’s use Calvary as an example. For those who have come to our church and some of the ministries that our church has to offer, one of Calvary’s greatest strengths has always been the friendliness and the love that is experienced here. I have heard many visitors on their way out of a service say, “this is the friendliest church that I have ever been to”, or “this is the friendliest church I have attended in a long time.” Praise God! I am so glad that when people come to Calvary they experience the love of God in tangible ways.

As a Pastor who thinks about our church and its growth regularly, I have to ask another question… If we do indeed show the love of Christ in tangible ways to those who come here, what is the problem? Now, I know that the problem doesn’t have to be us, it could be the people who come. Perhaps people have been offended by the Gospel. Maybe the people are a bit consumeristic and didn’t find the exact flavor of church they were looking for, but the truth is, there could be something else that drives visitors, attenders, and even members away.

The Philippian church perhaps had a similar issue in their congregation and our text this morning will shed some light on what was happening in Philippi and perhaps give us a glimpse of what could be happening here at Calvary and other like churches in our community and surely many others around the world.

Before we look at our text in , would like you to take a peak at one verse in . Look at . In verse 9, Paul prays that the Philippians’ love will abound more and more. You see, Paul has commended the Philippian church on their love. Love was not the problem in Philippi. Paul prayed that it would increase, but it was certainly being experienced by Paul in their sending of gifts and sending an encourager in Epaphroditus.

Gordon Fee says in his commentary on Philippians, “Love, therefore, is not lacking in this community. At issue is the danger of its being eroded by internal friction, by their not "having the same disposition" about what it means to be God's people in Philippi.”

Perhaps this is the issue here at Calvary. Perhaps love is not the issue, but rather there is a danger of that love eroding because of internal friction, by people in our church not “having the same disposition” about what it means to be God’s people in Ludington. I believe our text today will shine some light on whether or not this assertion is true or false and it will also tell us what to do about it if it is indeed true. So please turn now to . We will spend the remainder of our time in this great chapter, particularly the first eleven verses. This morning we are going to see that God wants us to possess the mind of Christ! We are going to look at how we develop the same disposition of what it means to be God’s people in Ludington. We are going to see 2 characteristics of someone who lives out the mind of Christ and then we will trace those 2 characteristics in the one perfect example of Jesus Christ.

Love, therefore, is not lacking in this community. At issue is the danger of its being eroded by internal friction, by their not "having the same disposition" about what it means to be God's people in Philippi.

Just before we look at How we can possess this mind. Paul gives us four reasons why we should possess this mind as believers. They are listed in verse 1.

If there is any encouragement in Christ.

If there is any comfort from love.

If there is any participation in the Spirit.

If there is any affection and mercy.

All of these if statements are not supplied with an answer but Paul makes it pretty clear that the answer to all of these questions is “yes” Of course Jesus gives us encouragement and the love from the Father and the love that we share as believers brings encouragement. We all have participation in the same Spirit and the believers in Philippi had a great love, sympathy, and mercy for Paul in his particular situation. All of these things are true, so Paul gives a command for the believers in Philippi to complete his joy (2) or fulfill his joy by having the mind of Christ. Paul’s pastoral ministry with these people was one that was very close to his heart. He is being open and honest with them and he is telling them that if they wanted to complete his joy, they would need to possess the mind of Christ. There is something to seeing the spiritual growth that you teach people come to fruition. I have been privileged to see students and even some adults practice some of the things that I have taught and preached and when I see that, it completes my joy so I can relate to what Paul says here. He gives them four good reasons to have the mind of Christ and then he exhorts them to do it.

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In verses 3-4 we find the two characteristics of someone who possesses the mind of Christ.

Do Not Glory Grab (3)

Paul identifies the first characteristic. He states it negatively. He says not to do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. The KJV renders it as strife and vain glory. The meaning here is this. For the believer, it is never okay to be selfish. It is never okay to muscle your way into getting what you want over someone else. It is not okay to reach for glory that does not belong to you. The idea of vain glory is just an empty glorying in self a glory that is not glorious at all.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of a “glory grabber” that we have in the Scriptures is found in . Adam and Eve see the fruit, desire the fruit as something that will make them wise like God and well, the rest is history. Ever since that day in the garden, mankind has been reaching for glory that belongs to God alone. We wrestle with one another. Our desires war inside of us and from those desires comes quarreling and fighting and war between us. That’s what James says about us. We are selfish by nature. We come from the womb crying for survival, but it does not take long for us to realize that our cries give us what we want so eventually we turn those cries into longings for the things we crave. We cry selfishly and grab for glory that does not belong to us.

Ask yourself this question: What do I desire most right now? Is it peace, prosperity, protection, security, freedom, control, love? We could go on and on with the list, but if you are willing to sin to get it or sin if you don’t then you have manufactured an idol of the heart. I hope you take advantage of the next 6 Tuesdays. The Bible Study, “God’s at War” will ask you some more great questions about the gods that might be fighting for your affections.

Here though, Paul says that we must not strive selfishly for the things we want or the glory we crave if we want to have the mind of Christ.

2. Care about what others care about

Paul identifies the second characteristic at the end of verse 3 and into verse 4. Here, Paul calls the Philippian believers to consider others more important than ourselves. This is not to say that we don’t care for ourselves at all, but it does fly in the face of today’s culture that says things like, “you just need more you time” or things like “you deserve this” or just about anything you hear in a commercial or advertisement. Every ad is directed at consumers as if they are the sovereigns of their lives and each ad is targeted to have you consider yourself and what you want.

Think of just a few sources here: “Have it your way” - Burger King “Follow Your Heart” - Disney “Just do it!” - Nike. Another commentary I was reading mentioned that we are so conditioned in our world to feel entitled to certain things, but entitlement is not just a millenial thing, though we get beat up for that quite a bit. Some of this dates back pretty far, like the founding of our nation. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence

I know this doesn’t make me popular, but that last “right” mentioned in our founding document, the pursuit of happiness, sounds very similar to “follow your heart” “if it feels good do it” “have it your way” and many other slogans that are out there. This is the world that we live in. This is engrained in our nature so everything in the world is telling us to pursue our best interest and it truthfully doesn’t matter who gets harmed in the process.

Paul says here, if you want to have the mind of Christ, you need to care for others and you need to care about what they care about.

Let’s look at the example of Christ now and see how He exhibits these two characteristics in His life.

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v.5 - It is worth noting that the mind of Christ is already ours. If we are in Christ, we possess the mind of Christ. It just comes down to the practical outflow of it. Do we exemplify this mind or not. Do we look like Jesus. So let’s see what He looked like.

v.6-7 - Jesus is not a glory grabber. Notice in verse 6 that Jesus did not see equality with God as something to be grasped, held onto tightly, Lorded over others. V. 7 says he made himself of no reputation or emptied Himself. There is a lot of debate about what Jesus emptied Himself of. The important thing to remember theologically here is that Jesus never lost his deity. This “emptying” is actually an addition to His divine nature. He did not lose His deity, instead He added to His deity another nature, humanity. It is worth noting that he is identified as a servant or slave. This is the comparison from deity to humanity. There is something to be learned there about our own humanity. Could we describe ourselves as servants to God? Certainly the connotation is that mankind is subservient to deity so we ought to serve Him. That is the way the world was created to be. All that being said, the incarnation of Jesus that we celebrate as Christmas is a great act of humility and Jesus did not act as Adam did. Jesus enjoyed all the privileges of heaven but did not see His deity as something to Lord over others, instead, He poured Himself out and came in the likeness of men.

v.8 - Jesus cared about what others cared about. That statement isn’t entirely true, Jesus cared about what others should have cared about, there eternal souls. Jesus became the obedient Son to His Father. He was so obedient as to go to the cross. We know it wasn’t the will of Jesus that He would endure the suffering of the cross. He sweat drops of blood as He prayed before the cross, but He came to do the Father’s will and to save sinners, sinners that were not even interested in being saved.

v.9-11 - Verses 9-11 give us a glimpse into the exaltation of Christ and some of the future glory He will experience. This serves as a reminder that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. There is really no better comparison than what we have already discussed in Adam and truthfully we could go to Satan as an even better example. Lucifer was very glorious but he reached and grabbed for glory that he wanted and fell. Now eternal torment and judgment await Satan in the Lake of fire. Jesus was even more glorious than Satan being God Himself, but pours Himself out on behalf of mankind for the glory of God in the most god-like act (self-sacrificing love) and He will be given eternal glory and worship.

So, what do we learn here… If love is not the problem here at Calvary, perhaps disunity and pride are, and don’t enjoy that love for too long because disunity and pride will murder love eventually. We may be the nicest, friendliest church in town, but if we lack unity and we have pride in our midst, people will disappear from this place.

Years ago, there was a book written by Rick Warren. I am not a huge Rick Warren fan and I definitely would not recommend everything that he writes to you, but years ago he wrote “The Purpose Driven Church”. That book helped a lot of churches focus on some important things to focus on in the church. Right now, churches everywhere are writing the story of “the Preference Driven Church”.

Churches like ours and yes, even ours are having internal friction from things like music style. I have yet to meet a teen that has said, “Man I wish we could sing more hymns in the worship service.” I also have not met many in the older generation that have said “Wow! I really wish we could sing some more new songs!” I can tell you what I do see on many Sundays though. I see a cross-armed posture from the older generation who refuses to sing new songs because they were written after a hymnal was produced. I also see teens checkout as some of the hymns are played. It’s funny, I believe the healthy church would have teens begging me to sing more old songs and grandparents pleading for more new. After all, that would be looking to the interests of others.

Music is just one example though. Churches argue about translations of the Bible, the kind of clothing worn to the church, whether drinks should be brought into the auditorium or not, whether you should call the place where the church meets the auditorium or the sanctuary, and yes, even things related to decorating like carpet swaths, furniture, and paint color.

Then there is a group of us that would rather cling to our American rights and miss out on the privileges of a heavenly citizenship. Sometimes it is worth laying aside your right to pursue your own happiness in order to help someone else pursue their happiness or holiness.

As a pastor of Calvary, I have to honestly assess where we are, and I would say that we would do well to heed the words of Paul. Regardless of whether you think our church is healthy, and thriving or a dead church walking, we all have room for growth here. As long as you have a pulse today, you have an opportunity to become more like your Savior Jesus Christ. We must all possess the mind of Christ. We must all live like Him. This is what it means to have the same disposition in how we live as poeple of God in Ludington. It’s not about your preferences, it’s not about your politics, it’s not about you or me at all! It’s about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s about laying down our lives in sacrificial love for one another daily! Will you choose today to live humbly in obedience to the Father. My prayer is that each of you will. I would echo Paul and say that it would fulfill my joy!