Thinking and Living Christian Part 1

0:00Lord, You are my strong tower. Yes, You are my hiding place. And all to graph you, in who You are. Because it's with You I find my place. Welcome to this edition of Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Broderson. The solution to self-centeredness and selfish ambition and conceit in all of those things, the end of that is the mind of Christ. And Paul's point in a sense is to say, okay, let's think about who Jesus is. And then let's talk about what Jesus did. And if this is who Jesus is, then we need to have the same mindset. Today on Back to Basics, Pastor Brian continues his study in the book of Philippians.

1:07Join us as Pastor Brian begins his teaching on Philippians 2 verses 1 through 11 in a message titled, Thinking and Living Christian. And now here's Pastor Brian. Here we are in our study in Philippians once again. As you see, we've moved into the second chapter. And I want to remind you that our theme is the fellowship of the gospel. So that's our big theme that we are working from, the fellowship of the gospel. And the Greek word for fellowship, some of you know this, but the Greek word is coin and nia. And it's translated in a number of different ways. It's translated communion. It's translated partnership. It's translated to share community even. It's translated that way. But the idea is that of a shared interest.

2:09So the fellowship of the gospel, we have a shared interest in the gospel. Paul and the Philippians have a shared interest in seeing the gospel, glorified and advanced in Philippi and beyond. Yet apparently there are attitudes and behaviors among some in the church that are looking more like self-interest and personal ambition than like a shared interest in Christ and the gospel. So here Paul appeals to the Philippians to think and act like Christ, who although equal with God did not leverage his divinity to his own advantage, but humbled himself by becoming a servant to all. So I want to read verses five through eight, but I'm going to read from the NIV.

3:11I want to read it from the NIV because I think this is really the best translation of this portion of scripture. So here's what Paul said. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. So that's the NIV translation and I love the way they translated it here. The NKJV says who being in the form of God, which is a statement declaring the deity of Christ, but I think the NIV just makes it crystal clear that who being in very nature God.

4:19And then as it goes on in the NKJV who did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, again I think the NIV did a better job in clarifying what's being talked about here, did not consider equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage. And so that's what we're going to talk about today because the antidote if you will, or the solution to self-centeredness and selfish ambition and conceit in all of those things, the antidote to that is the mind of Christ. And Paul's point in a sense is to say, okay let's think about who Jesus is and then let's talk about what Jesus did. And if this is who Jesus is and this is what Jesus did, then we need to have the same mindset. And when you think about who Jesus is and what he did, it's hard then to even begin to remotely justify any self-interest on our part.

5:27Now William Barkley said this regarding this passage, I want to read this to you, he said in many ways this is the greatest and most moving passage Paul ever wrote about Jesus. It states a favorite thought of his. The essence of it is in the simple statement Paul made to the Corinthians that although Jesus was rich yet for our sakes he became poor. Here that simple idea is stated with a fullness which is without parallel. And this is this is one of the great texts in all of scripture. And if we understand what it's really saying we see that it's certainly a great text that makes clear who Jesus is. And so that's the first point that we want to just touch on. So who is Jesus according to the text? Well Paul says here in no uncertain terms that Jesus is none other than God.

6:33Now we know this, the Bible teaches this but amazingly some people still don't get it and not just people outside of the church who you would understand if they didn't get it but sometimes people in the church don't get it. Sometimes people in the church are in denial of the very nature of Christ. Now when I say in the church I'm talking about the broader umbrella of what is known as as Christianity but that would include the liberal segment, the progressive segment but amongst those people who are claiming to be Jesus followers. They would deny that Christ is by very nature God but yet the scripture says it so plainly. And as I said here Paul he minces no words. He makes it clear that Jesus is the one true and only God. He is the one who made all things by the word of his power. The one who always has been and always will be the eternal one who has life and being in himself.

7:47And so Paul states who be in the form of God or who be by very nature God. So that's where he starts. But remember and we're going to come back to this at the end but remember he's saying now let this mindset be in you that was in Christ. Who is Christ? Well okay to start he's God. He's the only God. He's the true God. He's the living God. He's the maker of all things. And so then he goes on to talk about well first of all he talks about what he did not do. Now the idea in the minds of people in the ancient world and even in the minds of people today as well would be that if there's a God then that God is going to just by very definition going to be one who has dominion and authority over people. And obviously that is partially true. But there's the true God there's a whole nother aspect to the true God that nobody would ever guess.

8:55And it's this aspect that he did not use his divinity to his own advantage. And so let's look secondly at what Jesus didn't do. And it says here that he did not use his divinity to his own advantage. But what does that look like? Well think about this. He did not use his power to satisfy or to sustain himself. Remember in the wilderness where Jesus is tempted Matthew chapter 4, Luke chapter 4 we have the the account of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. And remember he's fasted 40 days and 49 he's hungry. And and then it says and the devil came to him and said well if you're the son of God take these stones and turn them into bread.

10:01And this is where we see that Jesus did not use his divinity to his own advantage. He did not do what the devil suggested that he do. He did not use his power to satisfy or to sustain himself. In that same temptation moment that was transpiring there maybe you remember that there was a point where it says and the devil took him up to the pinnacle of the temple. And he said to him cast yourself down because it's written that he will give his angels charge over you and they will catch you. They'll save you. They'll sweep you up and bear you to safety. Unless you dash your foot against a stone. But what do we see with Jesus? We see that he did not use his power to prove or to exalt himself. And you would have expected and I would imagine if the disciples or any of us were privy to all of this that was going on. If we were sitting there we would probably say Jesus Jesus do it do it. Turn those stones into bread show him Jesus.

11:19Jesus do it jump down and let him see who you are. Jesus did not do that. He did not use his divinity to his own advantage. Think about this. He did not force anyone to follow him. Now who being in the form of God who being by very nature God if anyone could come and just say follow me. Period. No questions asked. He could have done it but he didn't do it. He never forced anyone to follow him and here's an amazing one. He did not use his power to resist or subdue his enemies. And this is what you would think that he would do. But he didn't. That's the point. He didn't do that. As Paul said he did not use his position to his own advantage. He actually used his position to the advantage of others. That's the amazing thing. And so as we go on what did he do? Well he tells us here what he did.

12:32He tells us that he made himself of no reputation. So God who comes into the world as a human being he made himself nothing. This passage is known among people who kind of talk in theological language as the Kenosis passage. And it's taken from this word that's translated made right here. And the idea behind this word is that he emptied himself. So what did he do? Well he emptied himself. And the best way to explain that I guess would be that he all of these privileges, all of these positives, these things that belong to him because of who he is. He did not use those things. So he emptied himself. He made himself empty. That's the idea.

13:41But it's important that we understand this. That he did not become any less who he already was. So Jesus, the God man, there never was a point where it wasn't like he set aside his divinity. It's like I'm going to leave my divinity behind and now I'm going to become a human being. No, this thing called the hypostatic union is that you have God and man becoming one. And that's what is taking place here. And so in doing this, he did not cease to be what he was before, but he became what he was not before. He became a man, but he was still who he had always been. And so he made himself nothing. And then he took on the form of a servant. He took on the form of a servant. No, you know, if you think of this, I mean, this is really it really is mind boggling.

14:46Now, we've all seen movies or maybe we've read books or we've heard stories, you know, a great story that's been told in so many different ways over and over again. It is the story of the great ruler, the king or whatever the position might be, how they disguise themselves as one of the common people. And they go out and they live among their subjects. And they, you know, they experienced life as they did and they see the injustices that are being done and so forth. And then at a certain point, you know, they rip open their shirt and, oh, it's the king. And everybody's amazed and surprised and, you know, our beloved leader and, you know, he identified with us, you know, those stories have been told over and over and over again. But they're all really a glimpse of this story, which is the greater of all of these stories.

15:48Because he took the form of a servant. And boy, when you think about that, he took the form of a servant. Again, you think of all the ways that God could have sent his son into the world. But yet he came and we know the story of his humble birth in relative obscurity in the city of Bethlehem and in that manger and, you know, that whole story. I mean, this is, this is not a story that somebody made up. This is the real thing that all the other stories are derived from. But he took upon himself the form of a servant, the form of a bond slave. Now in the Roman world, of course, there was the majority of the population and the Roman Empire was made up of slaves. And so really Jesus becomes just one of the people. He becomes a servant. And then it even goes further. He became obedient to death.

17:01He became obedient to death. Even death on a cross. And this is the point of where he condescends to the lowest imaginable point. Now we have, because of 2000 years of church history and because of knowing the glory and the power of the cross and all of that, you know, we've, and rightfully so, we've glorified the cross. And we've made the cross in a sense an honorable symbol. But it was not so at the time and it was not so even for many centuries afterward. The thought of somebody dying on a cross, the cross was reserved for criminals. The cross was reserved for the drags of society. And so the idea that God who becomes a man, not only is obedient to the point of death, but even Paul says the death of the cross.

18:05This is unthinkable. Unthinkable. We were in Israel last year and we were, you know, in part of our tour. We go to the place where Jesus was tried. And we go into a room there that might very well be the very room that Jesus was taken into, where the soldiers mocked him and you know, all of those things went on. And our tour guide at the time was talking to us about just the whole idea of crucifixion and Jesus being crucified as, you know, the savior. And he was trying to emphasize how antithetical this was to the Jewish mind at the time. Because the Messiah in the mind of the Jew was like the best way you could think of the Messiah would be to think of like David in the height of his glory. You know, David, the greatest king of Israel, the one who brought victory.

19:06And of course it was promised that the Messiah would be the son of David. So in the Jewish mind, that's what they're thinking. The Messiah is a king. The Messiah is a conqueror. The Messiah is somebody who comes and defeats the foes. But the message is that the Messiah was crucified by the Romans. This is far from the idea in the mind of the Jew that you could possibly get. But not only was it that to the Jew, it was that to the rest of the world as well. And as Paul says that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews and its foolishness to the Greeks. You mean to tell me now remember the Greeks were the thinkers, they were the philosophers, they were the people who were going to figure it all out. They were really the first humanist in a sense. And so for them, you know, salvation or attaining to glory, all that is going to be through the intellect.

20:13It's going to be through figuring out the system like Plato attempted to or Aristotle or whoever else. But then the message comes to these Greek cities like Corinth, for example, or like Philippi, where they are, that the Messiah, the Savior of the world, died on a cross. Oh my goodness, what? That just makes zero sense. But that's what Jesus did. He became of no reputation. He became obedient to death, even death on a cross. I want to read you a quote from the Swiss theologian Karl Bart. He said this. He said as we look at Jesus Christ, we cannot avoid the astounding conclusion of divine obedience. Notice he became obedient to death. The astounding conclusion of divine obedience. Therefore, we have to draw the no less astounding deduction that in equal divinity between the Father and the Son, there is also a first and a second.

21:26One who rules and commands in majesty and one who obeys in humility, the one God is both the one and the other. And why this statement is so profound because what he's saying is that God himself became obedient to the point of death. So we can never lose sight of Jesus as he's God. And so as he says, and I think it's so profound, one who rules and commands in majesty, and we even saw Jesus demonstrate that in his public ministry, he commanded the wind and the waves to be still and he cast out the demons. And when they came into the garden to arrest him, he spoke a word and they all fell backward. He's the one who commands in majesty, but he's the one who obeys in humility.

22:28And that's what we see. That's what Paul was saying here. He became obedient to death, even death on the cross. This is what God did. This is what God did. And so God and the person of Jesus lived entirely for others. He lived for the will of the Father and for the salvation of mankind. We'll continue tomorrow with more valuable insights from Pastor Brian as we study together in the book of Libyans. Thank you for listening to Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Broderson. You know, Back to Basics is a listener supported Bible teaching ministry. We couldn't do this without the prayers and financial support of friends like you. If today's message encouraged you, would you prayerfully consider supporting the ministry?

23:30You can also sign up for our newsletter to stay connected. Visit Back to Basics Radio.com. And now, back with a final thought for today, here's Pastor Brian. Because of all these things, Paul goes on to tell us what God did and will do for Jesus. And so it says here, in verse 9, therefor God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So this is what God has done. And now, when we think about God doing this for Jesus, the reason why Paul says, as he does in verse 9,

24:32is that God has also highly exalted him. The therefore, God has highly exalted him is not directly tied to because this is what he did, but it's really tied to because this is who he is. Even before he did what he did, he was highly exalted. And so because of who he is, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. So that every knee will one day bow and every tongue will one day confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that's the key word here, that Jesus Christ is Lord. That this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is called the Christ or the Messiah, that he is Kuryos and Kuryos is the name for God.

25:32He was shot on the floor. When you are fine by peace, my peace. Back to basics is the listener supported preaching and teaching ministry of Pastor Brian Broderson.