Today we continue our study of Philippians by looking at a new section of Scripture! Believe it or not, after four weeks studying Philippians 2:1-4 we are now moving on and I want you to know as we get started today, that what we are diving into, is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most moving passages Paul ever wrote about Jesus. How is that for an exciting build up to a section of Scripture! I want to read this for you as we get started today, but I want you thinking about where we have been. We just came through those four verses that tell us to unite with Christ and as people, to be of one mind and purpose, to get along with each other, to not be selfish and look to our own interests but to be humble and serve looking to the interest of others. Then Paul says something that is so profound, and just an incredible Scripture about Jesus, which I believe clearly is showing us how to live in this confusing, challenging, and often painful world that we are living in…while also showing us the primary purpose of what God is up to, so yeah…this is a big one. Let’s read it as we will get started here today.
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. NIV
This section of Scripture is such a big deal, and I’m excited to break this down for you today! I’m also glad this fell on a Better Together Sunday so the kids could be in here and we could all learn together. Jamie will be up in a moment, with a video and a lesson that can help us all visualize this Scripture, but I wanted you to see it as we get started here today. What’s interesting as we look at this passionate writing that Paul has about Jesus here, is it really lines up with the heart of something Paul wrote in his letter to Corinth.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. NIV
So what Paul is doing here is building on this same thought or concept from 2 Corinthians, and just expanding on it to the Philippian church. Do you see the concept? Jesus was rich, he had equal status with God, yet for our sakes he became poor. He didn’t hold onto the status of being God, no, He humbled himself so that we can be rich, so that we could have it all. Wow! So, remember Paul is pleading with the Philippian people and all of us to unite, to live in harmony, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or pride, and to stop chasing the things of this world. Things like titles, prestige, fame, and to have humble hearts, with a desire to serve which was the very essence of the life of Jesus, then Paul moves from that plea with us to live lives of humble love, right to pointing to how Jesus lived His life. So, this Scripture is so important, and we need to dive into it today and we will start with a time for the kids and all of us to visualize this Scripture. We will start with a video, and then Jamie has a lesson for us, and I will be back to discuss two huge points in this section of Scripture.
So, we are to have the attitude of Christ. I like how strongly this is worded in the NLT version here…
Philippians 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. NLT
That is really strong, isn’t it? We must, that doesn’t sound very negotiable, does it? Well, if that is the case then I think it’s going to be really important for us to understand the attitude of Christ, which Paul explains in the next three verses. Let’s start by looking at the NIV then add The Message version…
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! NIV
Ok, let’s move to the Message version and read that same section again, and then we’ll talk…
Philippians 2:6 He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. MSG
So, Paul is showing us two very clear characteristics of Jesus’ attitude that we are to have.
First, Jesus lived a life of humility. Paul says Jesus has equal status with God, but didn’t hold onto that status, or special privileges that come with being God, no…he stepped into our mess, he humbled himself. This is hard for us to even comprehend, laying aside the privileges of deity for us…though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor…so that in his poverty you and I could become rich. He didn’t walk in pride for being better than us, even though He is. He didn’t walk in entitlement because He was God’s one and only Son even though He is. He never held his status over us but laid it all down for us. Jesus lived a humble life. You cannot have the attitude of Christ without humility.
Second, Jesus lived a life of obedience. Jesus lived His life fully submitted to His Heavenly Father. He lived a humble life and did what His Father asked of Him, and it wasn’t easy, at times it was frustrating, and tiring, and challenging, and also at times every part of his flesh and heart would be telling Him to quit, or not to continue on, but Jesus lived a life trusting His Father, and living out God’s will. Jesus lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless obedient death and the worst kind of death possible, a crucifixion. You cannot live for yourself and have the attitude of Christ, you must live a fully surrendered life, as Jesus did. You cannot have the attitude of Christ without obeying God…and what have we learned about this attitude of Christ? What does Paul say about it?
Philippians 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. NLT
So, at the start of this talk I told you that I believe the key to life is found in this Scripture. I believe peace and contentment are found right here in these four verses. And I would like us to take some time and really work through this because as tough, and challenging, and confusing, and often painful as life can be…I believe that when we wrap our hearts and minds around this concept from Paul we can actually find and live with peace, and joy, and freedom in our lives regardless of what life throws at us next…and we know that life will continue to throw things at us. So, let’s really start to personalize some things for a moment, then we will look at the way Jesus lived. Paul is pointing us to His example, so we need to look at His life to grasp something extremely important here today! It’s something that is so rare for us as people to ever wrap our hearts and minds around! So, let’s start to really personalize some things here today, because this concept of the attitude of Christ is the key to so much of our lives.
I want you to think about this question. Do you fight life? Now if you aren’t sure if you are fighting life, let me ask you this. Do you walk in frustration, stress, and just miserable about the way things are going for you in life or are you feeling peaceful and content about your life? The answer to that question will help you see if you are fighting life or not. Now let’s start to build out from that idea.
Does everything in life happen the way you want? Do people treat you the way you hope to be treated? Are all your prayers answered exactly the way you want them to be answered? Can I tell you something? I am very confident that we would all answer these questions the same way, with a resounding NO! And I would add to that, that the longer we live on this planet, the harder and more challenging life seems to be…life just doesn’t get easier. But what if I told you that it doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it? What if I told you that while we will always face difficulties and challenges, and unexpected hardships in life, it doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. In so many ways, we can be our own worst enemies. We fight for control of our lives, and the reality is we have none. We fight to control how people view us and their opinions of us, and no matter how hard we try some people just won’t like us. We fight for control of our futures, and our families, and so many different things in life and the reality is we have no control over it. I think whether we consider ourselves controlling people or not, we all want things to look a certain way, we have an idea in our minds of what things should look like and for the most part as life plays out, things just don’t look like we want them to look, do they? Then we walk through a life frustrated and miserable because it doesn’t look like we thought it would, and if we aren’t careful, we miss it. We miss the gift that life is, the gift of this short time on this planet that God gave us to enjoy on our way to Heaven. Let me ask you again, are you fighting life? Now, let’s look at Jesus’ life for a bit because I want you to see something…
When you read about Jesus’ life on this Earth…do you think His life was easy for Him? Do you think it all went the way he would have wanted? How do you think it felt to love, teach, and serve people who never paid attention to what He was saying or applied any of His teaching? How do you think it felt to be rejected by family and loved ones? Remember they thought he was crazy and tried to get Him to stop. How do you think it felt to invest so much into the disciples and to watch them just never seem to get it, and no matter how much he pushed serving and humility they were jealous, selfish, and fought for titles and wondered who ranked where among them? How would it feel to watch them live and do the opposite of what He asked of them? Do you think he wanted to be betrayed by Judas or denied by Peter? How would it feel when the going really got tough, to watch all your friends who promised to be with you until the end run away and abandon you? How would it feel to be in constant conflict with the religious leaders who were always lurking, looking over your shoulder just trying to catch you doing something you shouldn’t? How would it feel to be God, and be ignored and misunderstood and overlooked by the people He was there to save? How would it feel to know you are going to lay down your life for people who really didn’t seem to care one bit about you or their eternal destinies? You think he wanted to die such a painful, horrific death as a crucifixion? Do you think it was easy to live the life Jesus lived?
So how could he love, and serve so unconditionally with so much peace even when things don’t seem to go the way anyone would have wanted them to go? This life wasn’t easy for Him, but He lived with so much love, and peace, and contentment even in the most intense of moments. Well, this is what we must see in the life of Jesus. His life wasn’t easy. He carried the weight of the entire world on His shoulders all the way to The Cross, working to protect and save a people that were so ungrateful for what He was doing for us, and this is what Paul wants us to see in this passage today.
Philippians 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. NLT
Jesus could navigate all the pain, challenges, disappointments, and intensity of life on this planet because of this mindset or attitude that Paul is showing us here in Philippians 2…and we must have the same attitude that Jesus did. It’s this humility and obedience to God that Jesus can walk through so much pain and so many challenges with peace and contentment in His life…and so can you.
I want you to see this, so many of us walk in so much stress, intense pain, and anxiety and really a lot of that is self-inflicted. So much of the misery and pain in life is what we put on ourselves because we fight, and wrestle with some things that Jesus did not. Jesus wasn’t worried about how people viewed Him, in fact He understood that He would be a polarizing figure just by being God. Jesus didn’t worry about the decisions others made off His teachings. Jesus didn’t stop loving people or serving them regardless of how ungrateful or stubborn they were to Him. Because Jesus lived a humble life, fully surrendered to God. This means that he had nothing to prove, or to worry about, because he let go of any fleshly wants and desires. So even when things got really tough or didn’t make sense, He trusted His Heavenly Father and obeyed. This is the key for us today too, and for so many of us, we need to hear this because we are our own worst enemies. Life is hard but we make it harder because we fight it.
You know, I battle in my own life too. Some of you know this, and some of you don’t but this last year has been really tough on Mashawn, and I because our oldest daughter moved out last year right around this time. And when I say she moved out, she didn’t move across town, she moved to Georgia, and it really left us shell shocked. Now, this is part of life, kids grow up and move out, but I will tell you it was very tough on us and made for a very difficult year behind the scenes. We have prayed a ton, worried a ton, and it’s just felt like a huge weight on our shoulders where you worry about her safety, and her health. It was our first year without her home for any of the holidays, and as is with most young ones, we never feel like we quite know what is happening…so for dad here, it’s been really tough going from having her in the home, to living over 700 miles away and seeing here a couple of times a year. Well, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive down and spend some time with her and while there are still plenty of things that I could worry and focus on that I wish were happening for her…I saw so much good. As she took me around to her work, and to meet her friends, and all the people in the community, I had this moment that really struck my heart. All I saw was a young lady that everyone loves and supports. She is magnetic down there and loved, and I felt so much better about things when I saw how she was doing. I just kept telling her how proud I am of her and how much I love her and I chose not to pick at all the things I wished were happening that aren’t. But I got up early and took a walk around her place and was just praying and thanking God for all He is doing to protect her, and I just felt God pour over me and remind me of my prayers for her growing up. Ever since the day she was born, I prayed that she would be a bright light in this world…and she is. In that moment, I heard God speak, and I felt a peace and a release of so much stress and pain that I had been carrying in my life as He said, “I have always answered your prayers, it just doesn’t always look like you think it should.” I realized in that moment, how much pain, and stress, and weight I was carrying that I was putting on myself, because I was fighting life and not trusting God’s plan in it all. I never saw that my prayers were being answered because it didn’t look right to me, but they were, and God showed me His hand and love and protection in all of it. I spent the drive home just thanking God not only for all He is doing in my life, but for helping me see a valuable lesson that is so hard to see…and it’s that we can really be our own worst enemy.
So, let me ask you again, are you fighting life? Are you tired? Are you miserable and just wondering why in the world life is happening the way it is for you today? Have you decided you’re a failure? Why? Because it doesn’t look right? Paul says we must have the attitude of Christ…
Philippians 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. NLT
Jesus’ life wasn’t easy. People treated Him poorly. He was in a lot of conflict with a lot of people taking from Him. He was hurt and frustrated at times with people. He was rejected and let down by people time and time again…and He did the hardest thing possible laying down His life for us ungrateful people…and He could do it because He lived a humble and obedient life and so should we. This is the key to living a peaceful, restful, and content life…it’s having the same attitude of Christ Jesus. Do you see it? This is the key to life, and it is something Paul clearly shows us in these four verses. Then in the final three verses of our study we see Jesus’ reward for this humble and obedient life…and we also get one of the most important verses of the entire New Testament. Check this out…
Philippians 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. NIV
We have to take a moment here before we close and really look at this, because in some ways it can be glossed over after such a beautiful writing on Christ, but this section is so important because this is what God’s goal is for this world that we live in today. In fact, this was one of the first creeds that the Christian Church ever had, that everyone would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. These four words were a really big deal to the early church.
Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. NIV
I wanted to make sure we hit this, because this was the focal point, the earliest creed of the Christian church and I think it leads to a couple important questions. First, do we personally declare Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives? Second, why doesn’t this seem to be a focal point in our churches today? This should still be the priority today. This is God’s aim and purpose, that the whole world, every person would proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and I think if that is God’s aim, then as a church we need to make sure this is priority one. We can get distracted by many things. We do our best to reach into our communities and to help people hear God’s word and sometimes if we aren’t careful, in an effort to stay relevant to culture, we can compromise a bit on what matters most. We can do all the programs in the world, we can do all the things people want that make them feel like we are building community, we can seek and chase after social injustices, we can push in on all the political and current events of today…but as a Christian priority one is to follow God’s goal of every knee should bow, every tongue confess under that Jesus Christ is Lord.
So, I want to close this talk down with some questions because I’m not sure we will hit a more important section of Scripture in our time together. Please take some time and try to personalize this.
- Are you fighting life? If you aren’t sure, take a moment right now and think. How do you feel? Are you tired? Miserable? Frustrated? Looking around feeling like a failure? These are good signs that you are your own worst enemy, and that you are fighting life.
- Do you see God’s hand or plan in the way your life is going? Do you think anything you are walking through right now is a surprise to God? How does that make you feel?
- Is there something big happening in your life right now that is really wearing you down? What is it? Have you taken it to God? Do you believe God is in control and that He will do what is best for you? Do you believe He would answer your prayers?
- How do you respond to things not going the way you would like in life?
- What prayers have you prayed that felt unanswered that maybe in the end were answered by God just not in the way you thought they would be answered?
- Does it surprise you to think through Jesus’ life and see how challenging and difficult it was?
- Do you have the attitude of Christ that Paul says we must have? Do you live a life of humble obedience to God or are you fighting it?
- Do you proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of your life? When you look at the church or your faith, have you become distracted from the goal of God, that everyone would proclaim Jesus as Lord?
- What would church look like if this was still our highest priority like it was in the early church?
We love you so much and want you to walk in the kind of life that God designed us to live. I really wanted you to see the key to peace and contentment is found in having this attitude of Christ that Paul says we must have, and I wanted us as a church to think through what it would look like to live out this goal that everyone on this planet would proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. NIV