Do Nothing Out of Selfish Ambition

Our sermon text comes from the book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 1 through 11.

Philippians 2:1–11

We are currently in a sermon series from this epistle, this letter to the church of Philippi, written by the Apostle Paul.

Hear the Word of God.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

This is the reading of God's holy and precious word.

Would you please join me in prayer?

Father, as we sang, show us Christ.

O God, reveal your glory through the preaching of your word until every heart confesses Christ is Lord.

We pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Learning to find joy and contentment in the gospel, we might also add learning how to find unity in the gospel, because that's the thrust of Paul's words this morning before us.

Last week we saw and heard the command, a command that really pulls together this whole section in this letter to the Philippians, chapter 1, verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

Live out your citizenship in Washington, D.C., Metro, as residents of heaven.

That's essentially what he's saying.

Live out your citizenship because your truest citizenship is not as a resident of this city or this country.

Your truest residency, citizenship is heaven, Christian.

We're just on earth now living that out by faith.

And so that thought continues through this section before us this morning.

This morning we're looking at a great challenge, a great example, and finally a great power.

What's the great challenge?

Well, it's hard to miss, isn't it?

How about verse 3?

Don't do anything from selfish ambition or conceit.

But in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

That's a challenge.

That's a challenge if I've ever been challenged.

And the temptation is to give ourselves a pass or to kind of let ourselves off.

I mean, because it really all depends on the bar, the standard that we look to, doesn't it?

That challenge isn't hard to do if you just compare yourself with certain people.

You can always find certain people that make you look good, that make me look good.

And that's the temptation of the flesh, is just to find somebody that does this worse than you do.

But the challenge is according to the example that he gives us here.

In this verse one, so some of your translations say, therefore, so he is connecting this from what precedes.

So if you have any participation in Christ, which we looked at last week, if if you have any connection with Christ, it connects with verse 29 and verse 30, and particularly suffering.

There he said, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, Christ, but also suffer for his sake.

Engaged in the same conflict that you saw that I had, and here that I still have.

I think what that means in this context is if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, he is calling you into suffering in many ways, but in one way in particular to crucify your pride.

And that is suffering, if we've ever tried to do that.

To die to suffer is part of our suffering that we're called to in Christ Jesus.

As a matter of fact, we will not grow in Christ Jesus if we are not learning how to suffer specifically, and seeing our sin and seeing our pride and seeing how quick we are to disunity, to fracturing unity.

And so he gets our attention, doesn't he?

It flows from this context of the suffering for Christ.

He says, therefore, if you have any encouragement in Christ, if you have any comfort from his love, if you have any participation in the Spirit, well, that's the Holy Spirit.

If you have any affection and sympathy, all these participles that Paul gives us, because we're united with Christ, if you have any of this, Paul says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

But before they can complete Paul's joy in them, and we talked about that the last two weeks, here's what he's saying.

You got to get your act together.

He's saying you have to get it together.

Because right now there are some significant gaps in the church at Philippi when it comes to unity.

Your eye is not on the ball, some of you.

Your eye is more on yourselves, your eye is more on other people that you're comparing yourself with, that you don't like, that you wish weren't in the same church.

I mean, Paul keeps it real.

Well, how do we counteract that?

He says, I'm praying that you will complete my joy so that when I, Lord willing, come back and visit you, I will see that even these sharp edges have been wounded, that have wounded people have been kind of sought off.

Okay, they're not, your elbows aren't so pointy.

You're not, you're not bruising each other.

You're not offending each other in some of the ways that I've heard about and I've seen.

Having the same love, he says, that's a very important phrase.

Whose love is that?

What he means by that is not having the same love that you all just kind of love each other with.

He's referring to you all have the love of Christ in you.

Lean on that, draw from that.

Having the same love.

We could put it like this.

He's just reminding them, do you know that God has no favorites?

He loves all of you the same.

He loves the person that you.

And that's just really good practical theology there.

You're in danger of being splintered apart by your differences, and then he uses a phrase that is really so powerful.

Literally, it means together in soul, being in full accord and of one mind, one soul, thinking and feeling as one person, as one soul.

Now, for some of us who have been married, we've noticed that that tends to happen, hopefully, over the years.

You just think like each other more and more.

You you kind of anticipate what the other one will choose or likes or desires, and you just find yourself melding together.

Well, he says that's really what the body of Christ should be coming more and more of, that one soul.

Verse 3, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit.

Some of your translations say a vain conceit.

This is what it means in the Greek: empty glory.

Don't be a person who lives for empty glory.

Now that's an oxymoron in itself, isn't it?

I mean, glory is not empty.

Glory is heavy.

That's what the word means in the Hebrew language.

Something that's heavy, something that's weighty, something that has gravitas, like God.

Empty glory.

You know, in the book of, in Paul's letters to the Galatians, in Galatians chapter 5, verse 26, he tells them, and by the way, have you noticed as you read your New Testament, how many congregations had trouble getting along with each other?

Galatians 5:26

It just keeps coming up.

It's not just our problem.

Galatians chapter 5, he says, let verse 26, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Fifteen times in Galatians chapter 5, where Paul refers to the works of the flesh, they have something to do with sins of discord.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Now that's significant.

Not getting along, being aware of differences, those differences creating friction, that friction causing rifts in relationships.

That's why Paul is talking about humility.

Humility is the answer, right?

Well, now how do you get it?

It's a different question.

We'll talk about that.

But the answer is a humility.

Not thinking too highly of ourselves.

In the Roman world in which the Apostle Paul wrote, humility was not a virtue.

If you were not a follower of Jesus Christ, you would despise, you would see that as weakness.

And by the way, a lot of people today still do, don't they?

Some people, when they are around a humble person, they just get more and more, you know, full of themselves.

They just get more and more like, you know, yeah, I am in charge.

And I should be in charge.

And people around here ought to listen to me more.

There are some people that will walk, try to walk all over the humble person.

Shame on them.

Jesus has an answer for that.

Paul says, don't be like that.

Count others more important than yourselves.

Well, how do we actually do that?

Verse 4, he says, let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

That phrase, keeping a keen eye on.

Keep a keen eye on others' interests, not just your own.

And this is pride, right?

This is the problem of pride.

Isn't the problem of pride the root of every sin?

I think so.

Augustine thought so.

A lot of the church fathers have thought so.

Pride is just at the root of all of the mess of our lives.

Thinking we know better, thinking we know best, thinking that other people ought to be more like us.

Pride.

John Stott put it like this.

The problem is pride.

At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is our greatest enemy.

And humility is our greatest friend.

Can you testify to that today?

Have you been in Christ?

Have you been a follower of Christ for a number of years?

Can you get that?

I think I do.

Wouldn't it be nice if pride just kind of fell off?

You know, you had to deal with it for a few years, but then you kind of outgrew it.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Wouldn't your life be so much easier?

Listen to Stud again.

The problem of pride at every stage, every stage of our Christian development, and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy, and humility is our greatest friend.

I remember Jack Miller, pastor who's now with Jesus, shared one time that Dr.

Cornelius Van Till, who was the preeminent theologian by, at least considered by many, at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia for many, many years, shared with Jack toward the end of his life.

Jack asked him, Dr.

Van Till, do you still struggle with pride?

And Jack said, I wish you could have been there.

I wish you could have seen, I wish you could have heard Dr.

Van Till.

He said, Jack, it's the greatest problem I have today.

And I wish, I wish that I could say otherwise.

Well, there's a man who knew himself.

There was a humble man.

Why do I say that?

Well, let me put it in the words of C.S.

Lewis.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can tell him the very first step is to realize that one is proud.

And it is a rather biggish step.

I guess that's a British term.

It is a rather biggish step, and nothing can be done before it.

Nothing can be done about growing in humility until we first acknowledge how big the problem of our pride is.

Nothing.

So I ask you, do you believe that?

Is the Spirit of God convincing you of that?

Or are you stiff arming the Spirit right now?

Yeah, a lot of people in this church have that problem, don't they?

Is that what you're hearing?

My wife, my husband, my kids have that problem.

You know, there's other people in this room that have that problem.

But that's not my problem.

Really?

Is that what you're thinking?

The Spirit of God is not speaking in your life.

If that's what you're thinking.

If the Spirit of God is working in your heart right now, the Spirit of God is saying, no, Tom, this is your problem.

And you're saying, no, this is my problem.

And I will never outgrow it.

What I can do is acknowledge it.

And what I can do is invite the Holy Spirit into my heart and my life to begin to see it in new ways so I can address it and get the help that I need.

So what is that help?

It's not only a great challenge, but it's a great example.

What a great example it is.

Verses 6 to 8.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours.

There's that prepositional phrase, in Christ Jesus.

You can only do this if you're in Christ Jesus.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Though he was in the form of God.

You know one of the biggest problems I've noticed over the years of my life?

I remember being in seminary and spending hours and hours and hours in the classroom trying to understand this very difficult Greek passage.

This is not an easy passage to unpack in the Greek.

What I remember, sadly, is a lot of discussion, debate, criticism, harshness among these amateur theologians about what this really means.

This is not a theological treatise on the incarnation.

This is not a seminary lecture on the incarnation.

This is a very practical problem that the Apostle Paul is addressing very directly in a very helpful way.

Get out of the classroom, get in real life.

Paul says, this is the greatest example of all.

Are you learning how to live out of this humility, following this example of Jesus Christ?

Though he was in the form of God, the nature of God, fully God.

It refers to the essence of something.

This word form, nature, morph, it means the essence, the qualities that define somebody.

What he's saying here is Jesus Christ has the same exact qualities as God the Father.

He is not in one bit less than God.

He is equal with God.

And yet did not count equality with God as something to be grasped.

Oh, listen to me, listen, fellow graspers.

How quickly we are ready to grasp something that we think we need at the expense of someone else.

Jesus Christ did not do that.

Jesus Christ did not grasp.

He gave up.

To grasp the need to have Something that we are without.

This is a gospel problem every time.

But emptied himself.

And I know theologians have spent a lot of time talking about that.

What does that mean?

He emptied himself.

Did he empty himself of his divinity?

Absolutely not.

Then he could not have saved us.

What did he empty himself of?

Greek scholar A.T.

Robertson puts it pretty succinctly.

He emptied himself of his environment of glory.

That's what he emptied himself of.

Let me paraphrase.

He left an awful lot of perks behind in heaven.

He left the perfect place in the perfect relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit to come to this mess that we call life on earth.

And the mess that every one of us has experienced.

We know how messy life can get, don't we?

We know how hard it can be to not break the unity in our own family.

We know how hard it can be to not break the unity in our own marriage.

We know how hard it can be to not break the unity in our own church, in our own neighborhood.

Jesus Christ emptied himself.

He who was full of glory emptied himself.

We who are empty of glory, remember that phrase earlier?

Vain conceit, empty glory?

Paul's using this play on words, I think, in a very purposeful way.

We who are empty of glory in ourselves, who go around life trying to seek glory, seize glory, grab glory.

Won't we grab glory wherever we can get it?

If we're not walking in the Spirit, you bet we do.

We will grab glory anywhere, everywhere we can.

We will put the spotlight on ourselves.

We want to make sure that we're recognized for our accomplishments.

We can get kind of grumpy if we're not.

We're very careful.

We're very, we're just very fragile when we're not walking in the Spirit.

To make sure that we get the glory, to grab the glory, to steal the glory.

The Apostle Paul says, Why are you living like that?

Put the spotlight on Jesus Christ, and you will not be a glory grabber.

Invite the Spirit of God into your life, and you will be quicker to look out to the interest of others than yourself.

You will be other centered in a new way.

Now that's a better idea, isn't it?

The Apostle Paul himself said in the sixth chapter of Galatians, be I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me.

If we're going to boast, let's boast in the name of Jesus, who humbled himself to the point of the cross.

Jesus did not become less than God.

Jesus became a man.

This is, in terms of math, this is not subtraction, this is addition.

He didn't become less than God.

He became more because he became fully man, having always been fully God.

He is now fully man, so he understands the mess.

He's been in the mess.

He's in the mess that you're in right now.

And he understands the mess that you're in right now.

He wants to speak to you today.

He wants to speak to you through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, he has a message for you.

I don't know what that message is for you.

I have to have my ears open to what that message is for me.

But I know he has a message for you.

Because that's what he does.

He did not empty himself of any of God's glory or God's wisdom or majesty or mercy.

He's full of wisdom, majesty, and mercy.

This is the opposite of vain empty glory.

And then Paul says he entered history not as curios, Lord, but as dulos, servant, slave.

He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Most scholars believe, and I think they're right, this is not just a coincidence that he uses the word obedience.

He's calling the Philippians to obedience, specifically in the area of where they're fracturing and wounding each other.

I think what he's saying here is to the Philippians and to the Alexandrians today, this is what he's saying.

Can you not be obedient?

Can you not submit yourself?

Can you not bow your heart a little bit?

In whatever messy relationship you're in, when you look at how he obeyed, like, and I have to say yes, Lord.

Yes, in Christ I can.

I have to say yes, Lord.

I have to say, Lord, forgive me where I have not done that well this week.

Lord, forgive me.

Make me more like Christ.

Show us Christ.

By being obedient, becoming obedient to the point of death.

This cross was scandalous to the Roman world.

You know that.

Nobody wore a cross around their neck.

Again, that would be like wearing a guillotine around your neck.

That'd be like wearing an electric chair around your neck.

Nobody did that.

This was a very ignoble symbol to everybody in the Roman world except followers of Jesus Christ.

Because they knew what it meant.

Being found in human form, he humbled himself.

Are we humbling ourselves this morning?

He did it by becoming obedient to the point of death.

You know what?

You probably won't have to do it to the point of your physical death, but you surely will have to do it to the point of your psychological, emotional death.

You surely have to learn, I surely have to learn how to put myself to death.

Put my desires, put my strong will to death.

If we're not learning how to put our strong will to death, we're not following Jesus Christ very well, are we?

But we can't.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, we sang about that this morning, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is curiosity.

Curios is the term they gave to Caesar.

Remember, this is the conflict, this is the suffering that these Christians at Philippi were finding.

Because they dared to say that there's only one curiosity.

There's only one Lord.

And everybody, the neighbors would be like, what?

Are you unloyal to the state?

No, there's one Lord.

They, in their world, there, in Philippi, no, there are many lords, including Lord Caesar.

Paul was a prisoner of his Lord.

Will those around you and me today be uncomfortable and challenged if we bow before Jesus' Lordship in our lives?

Will people in your life become uncomfortable and challenged and maybe even upset with you?

If you live your life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and no one else, or nothing else.

I think there will be some who will.

But then there's a great power, friends, and hear this.

It's not only a great challenge, and it's not only a great example in Jesus Christ, but there is great power offered to us this morning.

He says in the verse, if there's any participation in the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit.

And just notice how many times in Paul's letters he references what it means to be in Christ.

And to be in Christ is to have the power of Christ available to us.

If you want to, you can just turn over to Philippians chapter 1, verse 19.

Philippians 1:19

Listen to this.

Paul wants the church to know the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward those who believe according to the working of his great might.

That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

That same power that is at work in us.

Is it if it's not, why not?

It's available to us.

But it starts by acknowledging this is a great challenge.

It's fueled by looking at Christ, the great example, but it requires, if I'm participating in the Spirit of Christ, if I'm participating in the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, then the Holy Spirit will surely give me the power.

He will point me to Christ.

He will show me that the finished work of Jesus Christ is all that I need to be, all that He's called me to be in any relationship, no matter how difficult that relationship may be.

This great power.

Let me close with a true story that Francis Schaefer talked about after World War II, well, actually during World War II, Hitler commanded all the religious groups to unite so that he could control them.

He already knew that.

But among the Brethren Church assemblies, about half of them complied, and about half of them refused to go along with Hitler's orders.

As you can imagine, those who refused to comply with Hitler had a much harder time.

Those who did not comply faced harsh persecution.

In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.

When the war was over, there were a lot of feelings of bitterness that ran deep between those two groups, and there was a lot of tension.

Finally, they decided that the situation had to be healed somehow.

Leaders from each group met at a quiet retreat.

For several days, each person spent time in prayer, examining their hearts before God in scriptures like the one before us this morning.

Then they came together.

Francis Schaefer, not long after the war, asked a friend who was there, How did you do it?

He says, After we got alone with God and his word, we were just one.

And we started confessing our hostilities and bitterness to God and to each other.

And we learned how to yield to his control.

And the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among us.

And love filled our hearts and dissolved our hatred.

That's how we did it.

Man, I need to hear stories like that too, right?

If the Holy Spirit can do that in that group where people lost loved ones over this difference, what is it?

What is it that's keeping you at odds with your friend, your neighbor, your brother, or your sister in Christ?

What is it?

The same power is available to us that was available to the Brother and Church in Germany.

It's the Holy Spirit whose job is to show us Christ.

And seeing Christ, we will repent.

And we will invite the Spirit to show us how to love and empower us how to love and how to be one.

That's the good news I leave you this morning with.

Let's pray.

Father, we ask, would you please pour out your spirit this morning on every heart?

Would you show us Jesus?

Would you give us Jesus?

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for emptying yourself.

Thank you for becoming a slave so that we would be freed spiritually.

Thank you for your love.

Thank you for the unity that you had with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Oh, grow us.

Show us Christ now, we pray.

Amen.