Philippians: Real Peace Requires the Mind of Christ (Phil 2:1-18)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

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Our second lesson is taken from Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 to 18.

Philippians 2:1–18

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 interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have 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.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

The word of the Lord, thanks be to the Lord.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray.

That to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision.

Speak to us, Lord, through your word in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I want to share with you a quote.

If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.

I think there's a lot of truth to that quote, don't you?

Do you know who said that quote?

I'm surprised you haven't, you don't know.

His name is Lao Tzu, and he lived 2,500 years ago.

Truthfully, I came across it on the internet earlier, so.

Lao Tzu, like I said, lived over two millennia ago and speaks so profoundly about what peace requires.

We have known what peace requires for a long time, haven't we?

It is not a mystery to us how to achieve harmony in a state of justice, a state of well-being amongst fellow neighbors.

We've known what peace requires for a long time in our communities and in our lives, but it always seems to elude us, doesn't it?

Twenty, five hundred years later, here we are.

Maybe it seems like peace eludes us all the more in our present moment, doesn't it?

Doesn't it seem like peace is that much further away?

The more we tune into the news, the more we go scrolling.

What does peace require?

Paul is writing a letter to a church meeting in this Roman colony of Philippi.

Paul is writing this letter to call this church to a state of peace, to a state of union, to a state of unity in Christ.

So Paul writes, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, in other words, if there is to be any peace in accordance with Christian behavior, complete my joy, he says, 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 interests, but also to the interest of others.

I think we can sum it up like this.

The Philippian church is called to be a model of heavenly harmony, of the peace of heaven in the midst of earth, of selflessness, of true generosity.

And this requires, Paul understands, that this church sets aside selfish ambition or conceit.

Because so often it's our agendas that seem to get in the driver's seat, isn't it?

But if we're going to put away things like selfishness or conceit, if we want to realize this heavenly state of harmony, it requires a greater vision.

It requires a deeper vision, it requires a sense of the common good together.

And what that is, or better who that is, for Paul is Jesus.

Verse 5.

Have this mind, Paul writes, among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Have the mind of Christ Jesus.

Make it realized in the life of your community, and you'll realize something of the life of heaven.

See, I think Paul understands, he wants the Philippians to understand, I think you would have us here at Newsong in 2023 understand that realizing true peace, heavenly harmony, requires us to have the mind of Christ.

Now, if we're going to have the mind of Christ, we need to understand what Christ's mind is.

So let's have a look at verses 6, 7, and 8, especially together this morning.

As we try and understand what is it that Christ is Christ's mind, what does it mean to have this for ourselves?

Paul says, by the way, that this is yours in Christ Jesus.

Not that this can be yours, but this is the work of God in you, in us presently.

What is that work?

What's Christ's mind?

Let's look at verse 6.

Paul writes that though Christ was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

So a couple of important things to note there.

Christ is in the form of God.

When we talk about the form of God, or when Paul talks about the form of God here, I think we're getting along the same lines that are that we just confessed in our creed.

When we say we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.

Let's say it together if you know it.

God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.

Nice.

I didn't know how to cue us to anyway.

We wouldn't do the whole thing again.

Here we have a statement about Christ's divine nature.

This is what Paul wants us to understand.

Christ is fully God, 100%.

He is the perfect likeness of God in the form of God.

But being God, Paul wants us to understand, that he doesn't count equality with his father, the son with the father, as a thing to be grasped.

I think this tells us something so important about the mind of Christ.

See, the kingdom, the power, and the glory truly belong to him, and yet for Jesus, they are not something to be exploited.

Can we say that about our experience of power and glory in our present moment?

For Jesus, his ultimate authority, his ultimate power, his ultimate glory, is not something he wants to use for his own selfish ambition, were he to have any.

But, Paul says, verse 7, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.

This word emptied is such an important word.

It's the word canosis.

And we should know what this means and what it doesn't mean.

What it doesn't mean is that Christ, in becoming human, subtracted his godhood.

That Christ stopped being God to, you know, I don't know, take an easier job or something.

This isn't an undercover boss type of situation.

He's not emptied of his godhood, rather, he surrenders his divine glory, his divine privilege, and empties himself, as it were, into humanity.

So this isn't subtraction by subtraction minus his godhood.

This is subtraction by addition, taking humanity into himself.

If we can wrap our minds around that.

So Paul wants us to understand that he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man.

Jesus being fully human, or pardon me, fully God, 100% also becomes fully human, 100%, 100% divine, 100% human together.

Two natures in one person.

So we can say that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

This is one of the most important statements from the early church about the person and natures of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, this is from the 5th century, true is truly God and truly man, acknowledged in two natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably.

And it's this statement that Jesus is fully God and fully man that has informed the church's understanding ever since.

Okay, this is some heady stuff.

Why is this important?

I want us to catch where Paul goes with this.

It's important because we have to consider Jesus' purpose.

If he is not fully God or if he is not fully man, he cannot realize reconciliation.

Verse 8 Being found in human form, he humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So there's a prophecy of an in the Old Testament of a servant who God will raise up from among his people who will accomplish the redemption of God's people.

Isaiah 53 very famously talks about this servant.

He says, Isaiah says, He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So the question for centuries, having read this anticipation of what God will do to accomplish the redemption of his people, is this how is that possible?

How can a human being do that?

How can a human being take upon himself all of the condition of sin and death and do away with it?

And Paul's answer is this, because God is making peace on the cross.

When we look at the cross, we see Jesus, fully God and fully man, reconciling a wayward humanity with God.

If Jesus is not fully God, then God has subjected someone or something else to the punishment of the cross.

If Jesus is not fully human like we are human, then how can we have any guarantee that salvation is promised to us?

That we have a share in the cross, that we have a share in Christ's resurrection.

To be fully God and to be fully human is for us to participate in the fullness of the reconciliation of the salvation that Christ has accomplished on our behalf.

And that's why Paul can write to the Corinthian church that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself.

Come behold, the wondrous mystery, slain by death, the God of life.

This is what Paul invites us to behold.

This is God's outrageous love for you and for me.

So here's Paul's point.

This is what Paul wants us to understand.

The mind of Christ is complete selfless humility.

Self-giving that withholds nothing to secure peace.

We should let this hit us, I think.

We all want peace and harmony, don't we?

We all want to live in a state of heavenly harmony, but we also want what we want.

At least I want what I want, right?

And so often I'll do whatever it takes, whatever I think it takes, to make sure I get what I want.

And when I do that, Paul would say, I am operating out of selfish ambition and conceit.

It is so subtle, isn't it?

We can justify some of our worst actions with good intentions, with a desirable outcome.

Now we're trapped in this state of desiring peace, but never being fully able to realize it on our own.

Here, Paul wants us to see Christ shows us a better way.

He calls us to die to ourselves for the sake of one another, so that we can discover the true peace that we seek.

That's why Mother Teresa can say, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.

When I operate out of selfish ambition, I will do what it takes to get what I want.

Here Christ shows us a more beautiful way.

And that's why, with great celebration, Paul says that it's this servant, this God man who went to the cross for our sake, that ultimately is exalted in his resurrection and in his ascension.

Paul writes in verse 9, 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.

The way down seems to be the way up.

Christ's humiliation ultimately leads to his exaltation.

But not an exaltation by selfishly grasping at that power and glory for himself.

It's an exaltation that takes place selflessly, through self-giving, voluntarily.

Why is that?

Because he wants us to share in it.

We are promised a share in Christ's exaltation.

That's what Paul writes to Timothy.

If we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him.

Friends, this is what God wants us to share in Christ.

He wants us to share in Christ's exaltation, to reign with him as his royal people.

And to realize this heavenly harmony requires us to die to ourselves, requires us to will the good of the other, even ahead of our own ambitions.

See, realizing true peace requires the mind of Christ.

Complete, humble, self-giving.

So get cracking.

I think we should all recognize that we are truly unable to do this for ourselves, aren't we?

We should know ourselves better than that.

It's why I think we need to hold on to the promise that what Paul says is true, that this is the work of God in you, verse 13.

God, the Holy Spirit, is at work in you, conforming you to the image of Christ, inviting you deeper.

Into the cross, yes, but into his exaltation too.

This is God at work in us.

This is not for us to muster up our bootstraps, it is for us to invite God to do this work in our hearts, to fortify us, to strengthen us.

That's what he's purposed to do.

And because this is God's work in us, we can now work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

What does that mean?

How do I do that?

Paul would say, verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

Why know grumbling?

Because it's the opposite.

Pardon me, because grumbling is the practice of selfish ambition, isn't it?

When I'm left with an unrealized goal, what I want for myself, what do I do?

I complain about it.

I make it known.

I stomp my feet.

Maybe not really, but definitely inside I do.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing.

Work out your salvation, by the way, doesn't mean that salvation is our work.

It's God's work in us.

It's up to us to realize how this is practiced in the real world and in real time with real Christians who are really imperfect people.

Do nothing with grumbling or disputing.

How do we do that?

It's when we have a vision of what Jesus has done for us, that we can then do that for one another.

God's word is asking nothing of us here that He Himself has not already done in Christ.

And when our hearts are conformed to Christ, when they are shaped with Christ, when they are enamored with Christ, when we adore the crucified and risen Savior, and suddenly our hearts start to incline out of our own selfish ambition and towards one another in selflessness and in humility.

So the question I ought to ask myself is where does selfish ambition and conceit and grumbling reside in Creighton's heart?

For my neighbor's sake, am I willing to value the mind of Christ more highly than what I want?

When I used to come home from school in grade school, I'd flip on the channel, and about the only thing worth watching was Dr.

Phil.

Do you remember what Dr.

Phil?

Is he still going?

Okay, good for him.

And Dr.

Phil had this phrase, you know, in the middle of a maybe a dispute, husband and wife or whatever it is, often he'd say this phrase, you probably know what it is.

Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?

And sometimes I gotta ask myself that question.

Do I want to be right or have my way?

Or do I want to find true happiness in humility, in pursuing peace through the practice of the character of Christ?

See, Nusong, we have an opportunity like the Philippian Church to be an outpost of heavenly harmony in the midst of the world that is desperate for peace.

We can put that into practice with one another in real time, when we value the mind of Christ such that we are willing to give of ourselves for one another.

So, friends, it's not that the things we desire are bad in and of themselves, but we value each other as brothers and sisters far more because we are valued in Christ.

That's why.

So one scholar can conclude this way: following Jesus is not a self-aggrandizing struggle for supremacy, but a deep love for God and neighbor shown in deeds of service.

This is what we're called to, saints.

This is who we are in Christ.

May we have this mind among us, which is ours in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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May God bless you and keep you today and every day.