And we come to our text today
in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 7. When we consider
what we see here in the midst of Paul's writing to the Philippian
church, we are at that place. We're at a place where we begin
to contemplate what he's read when he says, have this mind
among you. which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not take equality
with God, something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking
the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. We're
just going to deal with that today. And it's often worthy of time to sit and ask
yourself, what is it that you would see if you were not here
this morning? Had you read those? That one
sentence. Those words. What would you see? What would you contemplate in
the in the fullness of your own? Mind of your own worship of your
own. I don't know heart. What would
you expressly come to conclude in your thoughts. Where would
this put you in your thinking and in your meditation if you
just read it today by yourself? Well, I promise you this, after
today you will look at it differently. Not differently as in there's
more to see than you could see, but that just as we are awakened
by the truth of what we sing, we should be awakened by the
truth of what we see. In God's word. If we have to
beat a drum. To pump adrenaline. I suggest
to you that the drum is an idol. If we have to have a chordal
progression in order to feel in tune with the spirit of God,
I would suggest to you that that is not the spirit of God, but
rather the spirit of error. And I'm not belittling worship
through music. I think it's essential. But I'll
tell you that at the end of the day, we worship through what
we're saying today because it is resonating in our hearts and
in our ears of what we know is true of Christ because of what
the scripture teaches of him. So it is truly sola scriptura
to the end of our worship as the beginning of our worship.
We worship from scripture back to scripture, the one true God
who is Jesus Christ. And when we see things that do
not align with what we know the word of God teaches, then we
silence those things. We push those things to the cliff
of heresy and we shove them off with a mighty force so that they
dare not take place in our lives. And as we read these words today,
it is very easy for us to just want to drive into verse 8. I
want to drive into the place that Jesus begins to say, and
being found in human form, He humbled Himself, and we see the
obedience, if you will, of Christ. We see the obedience of Christ,
and then we want to focus on that. We want to focus on the
passion of Christ, which is good and delightful. Wonderful things
to focus upon. However, we don't want to miss
what Paul has said thus far. Last week, as we saw, prior in
this text is that we are to have one mind. For we are of one spirit. And we are unified in one truth. We walk with one vision. With
a mission and a purpose and a passion that is single-fold as a people. In all essence, as one body.
Because Christ has established us such that we are united to
him through the gospel, that he paid for our sins and raised
us to life, that we are no longer slaves to the flesh and to the
world. We die to the world and the whole
world is dead to us, but we are slaves to Christ, slaves to the
righteousness of his holiness, to the righteousness of his worthiness. And therefore, we are able to
put to death those insignificant differences, those silly and
worldly quabbles, the fodder that seems to so eloquently flow
from our fingertips and our Facebook messages and off of our lips
and our gossip sessions. Those things are insignificant. And in Paul's teaching, they
are not the product of the gospel, but rather the product of the
flesh that every human being has. Therefore, because we are
in this way inclined to be like that, we are desperately in need
of a savior. And those who are by faith in
Christ have a new heart, have a new mind, have a new soul. Have a fullness of hope that
is not a wishful thing, but a certain proof. God is going to complete
that which He began through the preaching of the gospel, through
the expansion of the gospel. God is going to bring those people
who have received the gospel by His grace to a place of powerful
living. The Philippians, though they
were powerful in their affection with Paul, though they were powerful
in their suffering, though they were powerful in their doctrine,
they did not or were not without problems. As we see Paul then
moving into this section of this letter, that there probably was
some discord amongst the hearts of the people, the attitudes
and Philippi, not necessarily for those who were tending to
his needs and concern for the ministry of the gospel, but as
a whole. Don't you see that in the local
church? We see the two or three zealots out of a group that people
think are extraordinary Christians, that they're just on fire for
Jesus, and everybody sort of walks around with their cups
in hand at the end of the socials and say, I wish I could be on
fire like that. That was just, maybe one day,
man, I wish I had the heart like John over there. He's just, he's
on fire for Jesus. Let me go back to the ho-hum
life I live. Friends, that's the normal Christianity. Being
consumed with the fire of the passion of the gospel is the
normal Christian life. It is what it means to be saved
in living out our salvation, first and foremost, because that
which we love the most will speak to that which we do. It'll speak
to that which we think. Our greatest desire, our greatest
affection will inform Our motives. It will inform our attitudes.
It will inform our feet and our hands and our eyes and our ears
and our mouth. It will inform what we speak out and what we
bring in. It will inform how we forgive
and how we're forgiven. It will inform how we worship.
And what we believe is most essential in that worship. And Paul is now saying that there
is. A man are worthy of the gospel of Jesus. and that it is wrapped
up in the intimacy of the body of Christ in itself. Would you
hear this? He argues, as we've already seen,
that the people of God, the people who are Christ's. Grow in many
areas, but primarily in their joy. Together. as they minister to each other
powerfully through the gospel. Okay? So, as we get to the end,
though there is conflict in Philippi, what is that conflict? I'll remind
you. They are being arrested. Their property is being seized.
They are being put to death. Their families are being sold
and put in prison. That's their conflict. Why is
that happening? Because they preach the gospel
of Jesus. Not because they quietly sit
in their house and love Jesus in the closet, though they do
that, too, but it's that they preach, proclaim, expose, display,
reflect the power of Christ through the here to the teaching, through
the expression of the gospel, not just through their lives,
but explicitly with their mouths. Did you hear what I said? You
know what that means? There's no such thing as a relationship
gospel. There's no such thing as preaching
with actions that are louder than words. Now, they shouldn't
contradict, but you can't say that we live for Christ as the
church and we don't proclaim Christ with our mouth. It's impossible
to do so, because let me tell you something about the world
in which we live. I can name 50 people who are as moral as
any of us who are not in Christ. I know atheists who sit on boards
at colleges, who sit as heads of departments in universities,
who are as moral as I will ever be. Christianity is not about our
morality. It really boils down to our affections, which speaks
to our moralities. Now Paul is saying this is certain,
this conflict. I'm going to hear of these things. I'm going to see suffering. I'm
going to see your joy. I'm going to be certain. I'm
going to hear of your unity and your affection for the brethren.
However, we know. We know because Paul said there
were some who preach from wrong motives that the Philippian Christians
were upset about the fact that people were preaching for the
sake of trying to up one on Paul. In other words, make him look
bad. Look, my ministry is better than his ministry. And so when
we see this, we understand then by implication, the Philippians
are probably frustrated with these types of people. You know,
they're not worldly people. There are people who are in the
church who then now that Paul is incarcerated, think it's a
good opportunity to get themselves known. That's when we looked
last week at this vain glory. Do nothing out of selfish ambition
or conceit. Vain glory, empty glory. Do not
rob the glory that is God's for yourself and say, look at me,
look at the ministry I have, look at the teaching I have,
look at the stuff that's going on, look at the people that come,
look at the baptisms that roll, look at the money that we've
amassed, look at the property that we've done, look at the
seminary that we've started, look at all this and all that.
Sound familiar? Yeah. That's not the point. The point is, is that we don't
look at these things. We look at Christ and we become
nothing. Paul's no ministry. Paul's no
preaching. Paul's no longer in the throes
of church planting, but he's sitting in a cell with his hands
tied and his legs tied and his mouth tied. However, the gospel
is going forth. more mightily now than it had
before. So Paul knows that because of
the gospel, he suffers. Because of the gospel, he is
going to be imprisoned. But he will not die because his
ministry in prison to the churches of Asia Minor and Palestine are
important for the sake of their growth in the gospel and their
joy in Jesus Christ. so that they would continue to
proclaim and defend the gospel of Jesus, so that they too might
suffer and die for the sake of the cross, that others may hear
the gospel. Why are they killing those people
down there? Why are they arresting these people down there? Why
are they seizing their property? Why are they suing them? Because
they're followers of Christ. Why don't they just stop? They
cannot stop. And Paul says, well, if there's
any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love. In unity
in the Spirit, in experience, in sympathy, in affection. Complete
my joy by being of one mind. Having the same love, being in
full accord with one mind. Do nothing out of rivalry 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. Then
have this mind among you. That is a command of God. You notice it wasn't a suggestion.
It wasn't something that was, he wasn't teaching this in an
ambiguous way. Paul says, you church beloved
have this mind. He's commanding them to have
this mind. Now here's a problem. Much of
the world would see that and go, okay, I want to, I want to
have the mind of Christ. However, we can't have the mind
of Christ except we be given the mind of Christ. That's why
he then goes and says, have this mind among you, which is yours
in Christ Jesus. So he's told us to have what
we already possess. And so if we look at what we've
seen previously, we understand that this attitude of affection,
this attitude of selflessness, this attitude of humility, this
attitude of unity, this attitude of of putting others before ourselves,
this attitude. And this is how we closed last
week of considering others' spiritual well-being and growth paramount
above our own, that we might be interested in looking into
with great significance and with great zeal the spiritual growth,
also the joy in Christ of each other. This mind then is yours. So what Paul is trying to say
now is there are people who are coming against you. Have the
mind of Christ when you relate to them. There are people who
are going to be weaker than you and annoy you. Have the mind
of Christ when you relate to them. There are going to be people
who persecute you. Have the mind of Christ when
you receive that persecution. This is really going to take
some people off. Because it's anti-American. It's
anti everything we know in our culture. Our culture lives in
a worldview of self. Self. These United States is
a country in the continent of America about self. My rights, my desires, my freedoms,
my materials, my property, my boundaries. That's what it is. And God has established our country
and given us those rights, exercise them until they begin to step
into the gospel and then flush them down the toilet. So how
would that work for us? Have this mind among you, which
is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of
God, did not take equality with God, something to be grasped. If you have a KJV here, it says,
did not think it robbery. but emptied himself, made him,
taking the form of a servant, being born the likeness of men.
Now there's a lot, there's a lot here. And this continuation here,
it seems, and that is really the introduction to what Paul's
about to teach, which is incredibly powerful. But for us, as we read
through this, I want you to see what is literally being said
here. He literally says, have the mind of Christ, which is
yours. Already you have the mind of
Christ, so exercise it. Have the attitude of Christ. And Christ, equal with God, he
was God, but he made himself nothing, some translations say.
It's a good, it's a good phrase. Emptied himself, taking the form
of a slave, doulos, slave. not servant, being born in the
likeness of men. So how is it now that Paul begins
to go here? Because in the in the limitedness
of our understanding, when we're told to be Christlike, It works
well when things are going well. It works well when people among
us are treating us the way we like to be treated. It works
well when nobody's sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.
It works well when everybody's doctrine sounds just like ours. It works well when nobody's fussing
about what we're saying. It works well when everybody
likes and puts a smitey emoticon on what we post. It works well
when people share our tweets. It works well when somebody goes,
hey, you know that James, man, I really love that guy. He loves
the Lord. Yeah, I don't get upset about that. Quit talking about
me. That's gossip. Nah, you go ahead
and say that. That doesn't bother me. But where
it stops working well, the mind of Christ, the attitude of Christ,
is when someone causes discord. When someone begins to step into
our lives in such a way that everything, listen, 30 billion
millimeters of, of space in our life could be, that's probably
not that big miles could be filled with all good things. And that
one little encroachment, the size of a microscopic Adam could
come into our lives and say, Ooh, his theology is bad. And all we can see is that spot.
Now it's time to see that we put on the mind of Christ, that
the attitude of Christ begins to stand paramount above all
things and all these well-wishers. Jesus even says, beware those
who wish well of you, who speak well of you, for they spoke little
of the prophets. All this good stuff becomes non-important
and we focus on the one thing. We focus on that. And then we
begin to feel in our hearts disdain. Hurt, disdain, frustration, aggravation. I know none of you have experienced
any of that, but let me just share with you. My life, I experience
it a lot. And my personality and my temperament
and my mind, it bothers me. Somebody could walk in here and
give me all the writings of antiquity. Paul the piper. And they say, I want to give
all this to you because you're an idiot. You don't even know what you're
talking about. Maybe you'll learn something. I would care less about the library.
It would hurt me. It would bother me. And that's
so silly. You see what I mean? How do we
respond in that? How do we deal with conflict
when people speak ill of us? How did Paul deal with the fact
that people were saying Paul was in prison because he failed?
How did Paul deal with it? How did the Philippians deal
with it when they were told in Philippi, see, we locked Paul
up when he was here, getting you involved in all this mess.
Now he's in prison in Rome. Now he's got to go stand before
Caesar. You guys should learn your lesson. Quit following such
an idiot. I mean, it probably wasn't the word idiot back in
those days, but I'm sure something of equivalence was there. And
they were frustrated by that. They wanted to defend Paul. They
wanted to take up for Paul. They wanted to take up for the
ministry. They wanted to make it right and make people see
that they weren't who they were being called out to be. So I imagine there was some discord.
I imagine not only was there discord in that way, but even
amongst the brethren and the sisters who were there, who were
like minded and of one vision and one purpose in Philippi in
the church. I imagine that as people began to start talking,
someone else that was spiritual would say, Hey guys, Paul says
we need to have the mind of Christ. So let's let's be humble. Remember,
Christ, who is the magnificent God, as we'll see, came to earth
and subjected himself to creation by becoming like the creation.
And we should be like that. We should humble ourselves in
this way. And then that other brother, who's just as spiritually
astute, turned around and said, you must be crazy. I don't let
him talk about us that way. He's not going to talk about
our ministry that we don't talk about Paul that way. So then there was strife
in the church. And so more than that, I think
Paul is talking to that end, not about there, though we ought
to have the mind of Christ with those who hate us. Christ, who
died for his enemies, consider that, but most importantly, in
the context of Paul's writing to the Philippian church, he's
saying, don't let these things cause discord among you, because
discord among the church is Antichrist. The world, you're going to have
discord, but you keep yourself in check. You keep the gospel
in power, empowering you to love them. In the church, it has no
place. And we can see that everywhere.
We can see that in places. We see that in Ephesians. We can
see it in Galatians. We can see it. We can see it in a lot of
writings where Paul says there's no place for disunity and hatred
in the church because it's a, it's a mockery of what God has
established and what God has said would be. So now he says, because you have
the mind of Christ, have it. It's really what he's saying.
Exercise it. You have the attitude of Christ
because it's been given. You have this mind of unity,
have this mind of truth, have this mind of affection, have
this attitude of vision, have this have this attitude of boldness
and have this attitude of birth. You are all birth. You have a
father in heaven who has created you in his image and then saved
you from the darkness and transferred you into the domain of life,
into the kingdom of life. Have this attitude of unity as
a heavenly citizenry. Don't put your eggs in the basket
of Rome. Don't put your eggs in the basket
of the government. Don't count yourself much as
a citizen of this world, for it is a temporal fleeting one.
Put yourselves as a citizen of heaven, for that is your eternal
home. Because of this, it is ours in
Christ Jesus. We can have this mind because
it is ours in Christ Jesus. And now for me, it may not be
for you, but for me, it begs the idea that how am I supposed
to have this if it is mine in Christ Jesus? Well, see, that's the wrong question.
You know what the right question is? The right question is, who
is Christ to tell me I have this mind? Let's ask that. Because
when we say, how am I to have this mind? We're really saying,
who is Christ? And that Christ isn't his name either, is it?
No. Christ means holy, anointed one
of God. Jesus is his name. Jesus is the Christ. He is the
Lord. He is the one who gave us His
mind. So therefore, the question now,
who is Christ? Who is Jesus? To say that we
should have this attitude, to give me such a mind, He is the
Lord. He is the God of heaven. And
we, as his people, have been saved by his grace, through his
blood, through his life, through his death, through his burial,
his resurrection from the dead. He has satisfied the wrath of
God against us, and by faith, received that great gift of hope
and life through Jesus Christ. We are balked by Christ. He therefore owns us. He is now
our master. Therefore, he is able to give
us the mind of himself so that we are not bound by the flesh
anymore. Christ. Abides with his people and they
abide with him. Not just walking to church with
a Bible, but walking with the same attitude as he has. putting
to death the opposite that we see every so often and trusting
in Christ alone when we do see Him to save us from such. Who is Christ? He is holy. He is approved by God. He is
anointed by God. He is the ruler over the cosmos. He is the one who has given the
mind of God to His people. We know God, intimately, because
of Christ, He is the King of all kings. And in this attitude
of mind, there is a sense of understanding. There's a sense
of being. There's a sense of thinking and
desire and passion that goes with walking in Christ. This
mind, which is ours, in Christ Jesus, is ours. So we have it. It is ours, so we activate it. It is ours, so it becomes known
to us. It is ours, so we work in it
because Christ is in us, lest we have believed in vain. We can have this mind because
it is ours in Christ, we can have this mind because Christ's
mind is our mind. I want to I want to throw this
out for a moment. It is our mind. But is it our
mind? It's our mind and that it's been
given to us, but our mind still fights against the mind of Christ,
doesn't it? Oh, yeah. Don't say no, say it does. It does. Our good works fight
against the righteousness of Christ, don't they? Not only
do they fight against them. How does that work? Because we
put our hope in them. And then we go, man, I really
put my hope in my good works. I need to put my hope in the
righteousness of Christ so that even when we do righteous things,
it's not us, but Christ. Paul wasn't joking when he said
it's not I who live, but Christ. Paul was not lying when he said
to live is Christ. Remember that sermon? that our
lives in Christ, as Christ is effective in us, exude the reflection
of the nature of Jesus. So the mind that we have that
is Christ's mind is our mind that is Christ's mind. So we
can know the Lord. How are we to effectively deal
with problems, doubt, worry, hatred? Sin. Because we know
the mind of the Lord. In a discussion that someone
shared yesterday, it got me looking at Barth's views on natural theology. I don't want to get into that.
If you want to hear more about it, come Tuesday. 999, he says. I thought, well, maybe he's got
something there. Well, maybe he doesn't. Do you know who he
is? Look him up. Blow your mind. 9,000 pages of
theology that man wrote. A lot of ink. The point is, many people, even
the Scripture says we cannot know the mind of the Lord. Who
knows the mind of the Lord? Christ knows the mind of the
Lord. And Christ reveals the mind of
the Lord perfectly. so that then we can know the
mind of the Lord. I believe it's very much inclusive
of what Jesus means when he says this is eternal life, that they
know you, the one true God and the Son, Jesus, whom you have
sent. If we don't know the mind of the Lord, then we don't know
the Lord. If we don't know his ways, though
they are far above our own, Christ has revealed these things to
us. Christ reveals the mind of God. We can see the mind of God
through Christ. We can hear the mind of God through
the words of Christ. We can know the mind of God through
the Holy Spirit and thus have the mind of Christ. Christ makes
God known and we are saved eternally because Christ has given us himself,
inclusive of his righteousness and of his mind and of his heart.
We are new creatures because of Christ. It is seen in a lot of ways,
but here, as I've already stated, Paul is saying that this is seen
specifically in relationships among the church, relationships
among the brethren. Now there is a time and a place
and a process of how we separate sometimes with groups of Christians,
amicably. And sometimes we're in the midst
of groups of so-called Christians and we find out they're not at
all Christian and then we have to run while our butts are on
fire. But at no time do we hate them. Most important, we pray for them.
But there's a process and a way in which we deal with relationships.
And in this context, nothing more is being stated except that
we ought to have the mind of Christ when we deal with each
other. We ought to be thinking as Christ is thinking, as he
relates to us, as we relate to each other. Christ did not put
His own needs first. He did not put His glory ahead
of His call. He did not put His majesty ahead
of His mission. And so in this relationship context,
Christ said the greatest of the commandments was what? To love
the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and soul and some
strength. But the second of equal importance
is to do this, to love your neighbor as yourself. So if this is what
Jesus, the God of heaven, the King of all kings, the majestic
Creator that is divine above all the cosmos, who was in work,
in building and creating everything that is, If He says that this
is the greatest of all the commandments, these two, all the laws of the
prophets, 614 of them hinge on these two. In other words, Jesus
is saying the fulfillment of the law is found in the hearts
of man if they have obedience to these two commandments. Now
that's a big order. And the rich young ruler even
thought he had it. But he found out he loved his stuff more than
he loved his brother. He loved his role and his authority more
than he loved the slavery of being in Christ. Which is why Jesus told him to
do what he did. The Apostle John says that the love for the brethren
is a proof of being in the light of God. That if we see our brother
in need and close our heart against him, that the love of God is
not in us. That when we hate our brother, that we're a liar,
we don't practice the truth. It is evident there, Jesus himself,
Partners with John. Isn't that amazing that Jesus
would be so sweet as to agree with John? I think John was agreeing
with Jesus. When Jesus says the world will
know that you are my disciples, he did not say because you're
in church. He did not say because you're a student of theology.
He did not say because you, you know, you tithe. He did not say
because you dress nicely. He did not say because you don't
smoke, drink, cuss or bar hop. He said because you have love
for one another. Now in our day today, the idea of what love
is, is really, really, really explicative. Whatever the most
horrible thing you can think of that means damaged, you put
it there. And you shout it with exclamation
points. Because the view of love in our culture is damaged. You
know why? Because the world does not know
the mind of God. The world does not have the mind
of Christ. So that anyone who claims that
love wins when a blasphemous example of anti-Christ, anti-gospel
marriage is expressly deservedly now are right in our culture.
Anyone who claims the name of Christ who does not see how that's
a problem is one of two things, not in Christ or as dumb as a
bag of rocks when it comes to growing up in Christ. And we
are all guilty at one time or another of being in both camps.
Lest we forget, by the grace of God, we see the mind of Christ. A lot of love. So Christ's mind,
then, is the pinnacle of how our lives should look. The attitude of Christ is the
example of what God has done in us. It's how we should be.
It's how our attitude should be. It's how our thinking should
be. Verse six, who Christ, though he was in the form of God. Let's
see, what is the mind of Christ explicitly being shared here?
Though he was in the form of God, he did not take equality
with God, something to be grasped. Let's just stop there. They was
in the form of God. This idea, the likeness or the
form, some people love to take the English and they love to
twist it and they'll say, well, see, you know, if I take and I, I take this
clay and I'm molded into the form of a car, it's sort of like
a car, but it's not a car. That's not the point. Because
we know, how do we know? Because Paul already says, even
in this letter about who Christ is. Paul says to the Colossians
about who Christ is, the Hebrew writer. Who I would argue is
Paul says. Who Christ is. Christ is the
perfect display of the image of God and all his attributes. So for Christ to be in the form
of God, it doesn't mean like when Christ said in Genesis one,
let us make man in our image. It doesn't mean in the image
of a sort of a reflective nature. For those of you who were here
on Tuesday, we spent a whole hour in Genesis. Looking at how
Adam and Eve reflected the nature of God's power. until the fall. And it was their desire to have
that power that caused them to fall. Because they forgot that
they were a reflection of power rather than the possessor of
power. Jesus was not in the likeness
of God in that he was sort of looking like God or resembled
God. It means he was God, the exact imprint of his nature.
That means as God is flesh, Jesus is God. This fullness of deity, fully
God, fully human at the same time, not mixed, not intermingled. God didn't become a little bit
human in this man. Jesus become a little bit godly.
He was fully God all the time and at the same time being fully
human all the time. Jesus is the Creator of all things. He is Elohim. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is Jehovah,
God the Son. He is God the Son, the Master
of all things. The One who speaks and kingdoms
rise. The One who commands and kings
fall. The One who spoke and the cosmos
leapt into existence. He is the Supreme One, the Mighty
One, the Magnificent One, the Majestic One. He is the magnificence
of majesty. Jesus Christ is the foundation
of all things. He is the beginning of all things.
He is the Ancient of Days. He is eternal. He is the last. He is sufficient. He is fully
God. He is not lacking in anything. He contains all the attributes
of God. at all times, forever. He is
always omnipotent. He is always omniscient. He is
always omnipresent. He is unchangeable, immovable,
sovereign, holy, Jesus Christ in the womb that He created,
inside the body of Mary that He created, forming the body
through which He would live on this earth that He created, was
fully God all the time, and at no time did He ever cease being
the fullness of God. And there are 15 views on how
that's supposed to be understood. And I say they're all waning.
Sit there and go, wow, that's the view you should have. Jesus formed Adam and Eve and
gave him breath. Jesus formed, hurled Lucifer
out of the presence of his glory. and He tried to usurp that which
was not His. Jesus was the Deliverer of Israel
and the One who brought them under discipline to prove He
could for their good. Jesus is the preexistent One.
He existed long before He was ever born. He created the womb
through which He entered the world. The very nature of Jesus
Christ is divine. He is the fullness of God. Everything
that God is, Jesus is. All that God is is who Christ
is. And Jesus is due all that is
due God. Jesus is due all glory, all honor,
all power, all wonder, all praise. The prerogatives of God are Jesus'
prerogatives. They belong to Him for He is,
in every aspect, perfectly and completely, eternally God. So when we see that He was in
the form of God, that ought to be the pause for about 30 minutes
in our minds. We ought to stop and sit down
and fold our hands and drool in the lostness of seeing the
vastness of the divinity of Jesus. Why would we drool? Because you
forget to swallow. That's why you drool. And though he was gone. See,
that's the point Paul wants us to go there so that we can understand
the next phrase. Because he was the fullness of
all of that. Imagine Sinai. Imagine. Being Moses. and standing in the presence
of the shadow of the smoke of the vapor of the back of the
glory of God and receiving the law of holiness that is reflective
of his perfection. And saying, can I see your glory?
And God, in some way of paraphrasing, says, I'm going to pass by you,
and I'll let you feel the dust of the wind of my passing. But
if you looked any deeper, you'd die. And he received the stone with
the law of the Lord, and after seeing the breath of the blow
of the passing, like a semi-truck flying by the wind, or a chicken
truck, and after it's gone, he's still like, That's about as much of God's
glory as Paul got. And he said that his face shone
in such a way that when the Israelites saw him, they begged him to cover
his face, for they cannot stand to look at the glow of the joy
of Moses' soul after seeing the wind of the shadow of the back
of the glory of God. And we look at that face-to-face
in the face of Jesus Christ. Though He was all that, He did
not count it as something to be grasped. Now, let's put that
into perspective. He did not take equality, being
God, something to be grasped. In eternity past, Jesus and the
Father did not sit around and God the Father say, but you know,
son, I want you to go down there and redeem these people. And
Jesus contemplated for a minute and sit around and say, yeah,
sounds pretty good, dad. But I tell you what, when I go,
I want to go like you went at Sinai. I want to thunder. I want to shake the world. I
want smoke to rise up out of my coming where everybody just
cowers in fear. I want the ground to open up
and swallow up the reprobate. I want fire to shoot out and
lightning bolts to hit the ground. I want people to die if they
get near me. And I want people to tremble
at my sight. That's what I want to do. No. Was he due all that?
Yes. But Jesus, the Eternal Son, became
the temporary man, human. And he did not take equality
with God something to be grasped. He did not invoke his rights
to come and boast on that. It's quite the contrary. All
through, especially John's Gospel. That's why I think it's most
precious to me. is that I see Christ in His fullness
through John's gospel. It's also the point that he makes
in writing the gospel. No one has seen Him. He who is
at His side in May has made Him known. See, the fullness of Christ
as God humbling Himself. He does a miracle. And Jesus
says, It's not for me, but for the glory of the Father. Someone needs him to help in
a situation of grave importance. He says, it's not my time. He's tempted by the devil and
he says, I will not do this because I'm not coming to receive glory,
but to give glory to the one who sent me. Jesus chose not
to expose his divinity, but he did not lose one inch of it. Understand this. He did not restrict
the power of His divine nature. Jesus didn't bottle up His omniscience
so that He didn't know all things at all times. I want you to hear
this. But Jesus the man did not know
all things. Jesus the man, the visible man,
did not take equality with God, something to be bragged on, boasted
about, and exploited. Did he have the right? Yes. Was
it due him? Absolutely. See, Jesus did not
incarnate as this supreme being like Mount
Sinai. He came as a nothing. a slave,
a human being in humility, the God of the cosmos being birthed
in a barn, riding a donkey, dying as a criminal, being beaten and
humiliated and not saying a word. Jesus did not argue to exploit
his divinity. He did not come to have a powerful
display of his rule and authority, though he was worthy to do so.
He did not. Jesus was not seeable, listen
to this, as God on this earth during his ministry. Do you hear
me? In other words, when people saw
Jesus, they didn't go, hey, that must be God. Look how beautiful
He is! My goodness! Blue eyes and blonde
hair, knocking on your door, wanting you to let Him in. I'm
just talking about those pictures that we see everywhere. No, He's
probably not much to look at according to the Scripture. Matter
of fact, when He was beaten on the way to the cross, the Scripture
says that He was very recognizable as a human being. Jesus was not easily recognized
as God. Jesus assumed a human nature. He took it on. He possessed a
human nature. When I say possessed, that means
He made it His. He obtained a human soul. He
obtained a human body. But he never stopped being fully
divine, yet he subjected himself to these things. Friends, we
spent a lot of time on this about four weeks ago, on Tuesday. If
you can make on Tuesday, it'd be good to come and study with
us on that. If you have an interest and you're
able. He gave up his rights and his
humanity to his divine authority. But he did not stop having them. Christ became subject to the
law of God, his own law as a person. Christ, as God, was fully holy
and fully upright and fully righteous at all times. But yet as a man,
he had to learn obedience. He was righteous as a man, too.
He never sinned. As a matter of fact, he could
not sin. But he grew in wisdom. So what does that mean? Well,
Christ did not demand what was his. Glory. Power. But rather, he obediently
followed the father's will, and we'll see that next week. He
lowered himself willingly to take the place of slavery, the
place of humanity, being subject not just to the life of a man,
but to the judgment of God against men. Jesus gave up. His dignity. Jesus gave up his glory in human
flesh. But he never ceased to be God.
I'd like to say that Jesus gave his all, but let me define what
that means in my own words. Jesus gave up his all and that
he divested his divine visibility, but not his divinity. What does
that mean? The words you wouldn't know he
was God because he did not assume to take that glory. But even
when he performed miracles, what did he do? It's not me. It's
the father. It's not me, it's the father.
But the resurrection was a different story, wasn't it? And we'll see
that in a couple of weeks. The divine nature and the human
nature were together, but they were not infused together. They
were completely separate natures. So God never became human in
His divine self. The divine never became human,
just like the human never became divine. But Jesus Christ became
human without subjecting the divine to the humanity. And the
humanity never told the divine nature what to do. However, many
times the omnipotent, omniscient, divine God, Jesus, the Son of
God, informed the human Jesus many times. Jesus gave up all he was for
the sake of the glory that was due to him and for the sake of
the people that he was to redeem. Why? This is it. Why do we need to see this? Why
do we have to get into some of these theological things? Because
let me tell you something, there is a large number of people who,
because of assumption, have created a theology around who Christ
is that is heresy. And when we assume and when we
take our minds and our thoughts, which is philosophy, and we start
to draw out conclusions based on that, create error that we
then are excited about and then we purvey it, we sell it, we
propagate it, we spread it around. And then all of a sudden it becomes
confusion, then we start worshiping differently, then we start making
assumptions and say, oh, this is how that works because of
this. And we make an assumption on a wrong assumption on a wrong
assumption. The next thing we know, we've got a different religion.
We've got a different gospel. We've got a cult. We've got a
false theology. Where do you think all the cults
come from? Some well meaning person. Considering what they
think probably happened, making it truth and sharing it with
others. And what's the source of all
that? The flesh of men. Being tempted by the evil one. Jesus gave of himself. So that God would be just. and
justifying sinners. Had Jesus not come, had God the
Son not become a human to suffer the consequence of sin, which
is death, God would be wicked to forgive sinners. It can't
happen. It is not good to be forgiven
without penalty. It is evil. So how does God do it? Because
Jesus, who was innocent, paid for the guilt. That's the gospel. When we say gospel, that's it.
It's good news. Someone said to me just Wednesday,
well, how maniacal is that? God demanding worship and saying,
if you don't worship Him, He's going to put you in hell. But
just in case you can't worship Him, I'm going to come and die
for you, but you still got to follow me or I'm going to put
you in hell. Now, see, that's all backwards. From conception,
we're condemned. We're condemned because we're
human. Before we ever sin, We see evidence of that in many
places in scripture, but don't throw me away because of that
soundbite. Walk with me for a few weeks and we'll see it even more.
Then make your judgment. But we're condemned, and rightly
so, because God is holy. Who says what is right? Who says
what is right and holy and just? God says. If God doesn't say,
then someone else is God. If we as humanity get to decide
what is right and wrong, then we have put God's role and rule
and authority as ours. So if God says something is sinful,
it is sinful. And because we all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God, the only hope we have
is that Jesus Christ, the righteous one, took our sins on Himself.
So that God could then be just and forgiving us of our sins,
where he can, by his holiness, say you are forgiven, James,
of your lying and your stealing and your and your hatred. And
your wickedness and your pride. You're forgiven of that, you're
free from that. to which people would go, how
can you forgive such a wicked person to which God can say,
because I took his guilt and I put it on Jesus who was innocent
and he took the punishment. So that the debt of sin is paid
at the cross, so therefore you, beloved, owe me nothing. That's the gospel. And so we're redeemed through
Jesus Christ, the God man. Therefore, because of that, that's
why Paul comes here because of all this. Now you can relate
to each other in view of it. The attitude of Christ that did
all that, you can do that with each other. Though you may be
right, though you may be powerful, though you may be in charge,
though you may be wise, you lower yourself as Christ lowered himself. Thinking of others interests.
Looking out for each other's spiritual well-being, not what
they want, but what they need. Quit worrying about how much
they love you and worry about how much they love Christ. consider their needs, relinquish
our rights, serve at the cost of ourselves, live in humility,
live in Christ, because Christ lives in us. And I thought and
I thought and I thought and I thought, what is a good example of this
in closing? So I went to that great. Book
that I never talk about, John. And in John 13, we see Jesus
doing something incredibly miraculous. In John 13, it says this. Now,
before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour
had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved
His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During
supper, when the devil had already put in the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, to betray Jesus, Jesus, knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from
God and was going back to God, rose from supper." Now get this. Here's Jesus. The divine nature
of Jesus just informed the human nature of Jesus. How did that
happen? Because Jesus grew up learning
the Word of God. And the Holy Spirit of God spoke
to the human Jesus and told him it was time. This is amazing. Jesus didn't tap in over there
and bleed a little bit into it. It's hard to comprehend and it's
supposed to be hard to comprehend. Jesus then knew with all the
fullness of assurance that the father had given all things into
his hands and that he had come from God and he was going back
to God. So he rose from supper. He took
off his outer garments. He took a towel, tied it around
his waist. And he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with to
wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around his waist. Now, picture this for a minute. Number one, in the context of
their humanity, Jesus was their rabbi. Let's not go into the president's
mansion or the king's mansion and the king jumps down off the
throne at a banquet and takes off all his clothes and covers
with a towel and cleans the feet of his people. And nearly nude, stands there
and dries off their feet like a slave. And this is God. He came to Simon Peter. Now,
you got to know Peter. You just got to know Peter and
Peter. Said to him. Lord, you wash my
feet. You're going to wash my feet. You're going to wash my feet.
You shall never wash my feet. Jesus says, what am I going to
what I am doing? You do not understand now, but
afterward you will understand. And he says, you will not wash
my feet. He refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet because
he saw the horror of his teacher, of his master, standing there,
kneeling there to wash his nasty feet. It was the job of a servant,
not the job of a teacher. In fact, none of the disciples
would have done it, even to Jesus. They were expecting somebody
in the home that would have a servant to wash their feet so that their
nasty feet wouldn't be near the food. But there was no servant
there. because they were in turmoil.
They didn't have the niceties, if you will, a quote unquote
of life. So Jesus then says, if I do not
wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him,
Lord, do not my feet only, but also my hands and my head then.
Hello, Peter, I wish I could take time to tell about that. Jesus said to him, the one who
was bathed does not need to wash except for his feet. But it's
completely clean and you are clean, but not every one of you,
for he knew who was to portray him. That that was why he said
not all of you are clean. We had wash your feet and put
on his outer garments and resumed his place. He said to them, do
you understand what I've done to you? You call me teacher and
Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord
and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to have
washed one another's feet. For I've given you an example
that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly,
truly, amen, amen. It's where we get the word amen
from. It's a double serious, absolute. This is so it is. So I say to you, truly, truly,
a servant is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater
than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed
are you if you do them. If you know my mind, then follow
it. See what Paul is talking about,
and this is just in service. But Jesus was talking about feet.
I'm talking about washing the body at all. I'm not speaking to all of you.
I know whom I have chosen. But the scripture will be fulfilled.
He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. Talking
of Judas, I'm telling you this now before it takes place, that
when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives
me and whoever receives me received the one who sent me. Jesus. Does far greater than wash feet. He washes our souls. Jesus, who is God Almighty, washes
the souls of His people. When He lived this life of obedience
and holiness, and when He subjected Himself to die a sinner's death
by the wrath of God the Father, He satisfies God's judgment against
us. So our sin debt to God is paid. Can we not then have that strongly
active in our minds when we relate to one another? How dare we at
all be offended by each other? When we offended God, He sent
Christ to die. There's the crux of Paul's teaching. It is the power of the gospel
displayed most beautifully. It is the result of regeneration
of the new birth, of being filled and led by the Holy Spirit. It
is the perfect picture of the compulsion of the love of Christ
in our lives. It is the greatest example of
Christ with his people that could ever be displayed. Paul even
tells the Corinthians that whether we even if we have great knowledge
and wisdom and understanding with great prophecy and teaching
and gifts, but we have not love, we're not. Love is God. Christ reveals what love is perfectly. Christ and His church, in a temporal
way, display the love of God through marriage. In an eternal
way, it's displayed between our relationships as the church.
Get it? Jesus Christ became a servant. So must we. Let's pray. I feel sometimes like Isaiah,
Lord. Woe is me. A man of unclean lips. Father, as Paul often said, the
chief of sinners We thank you, Father, that we
are able to see the beauty of the gospel. That we are able
to relate to each other in such a way that you get the glory,
not us. We're able to forgive and to
work into seeing the interest of others, to seek out each other's
joy in you rather than our own joy. That our own stands, that
our own rightness. Father, I do fear, not with a
hopelessness, but with a burden. I fear that there are many among
the body, many among the churches of our
area, who claim to be Yours, who are allowing politics to
divide them, who are allowing tradition to divide them, who
are allowing their sinfulness to divide them, May it not be, Father. May we all see if we are in the
faith, if we are unwilling to lay down our lives for each other.
And that we find ourselves not therein, Lord, would you grant
us repentance that we might see the gospel and believe, Father, that we might be fruitful
in sharing our faith and living and tending to each other for
the sake of your name and your glory, just as Jesus shows us
and sufficiently empowers us. May we be the same. In his name
we pray. Amen.