Our second passage of Scripture for this evening and the topic of our sermon is going to be Philippians chapter two, verses one through 11, if you'd like to turn there in your Bibles. Philippians chapter two, verses one through 11. This is God's Word. 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 the 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. Let's join together in prayer. Lord, we do pray that you open our eyes to see wonderful things in your word, that you will hide us away, O Lord, and show Jesus Christ most clearly from your word, that we will follow him, O Lord, in the path of discipleship, and that we will come to worship your holy name, O Lord. Hide me away now that Christ will be shown most beautifully, O Lord, and that we will cling to you by faith. We do give you thanks, and it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Pride is at the heart of the sins of the world. Thinking of ourselves as greater, as having a higher status than others, wanting to make a great name for ourselves, putting our own needs before others. This is the cause of much heartache in the world. and pride is celebrated in our modern culture. Men are supposed to be successful, stepping over anyone who gets in their way. Women are supposed to leave their homes and the people that they care for in order to step over other people and to get what they can out of their careers. There's a celebration of pride in the homosexual movement today, who takes their very name as being pride, and they glory in their sin. Nations war with other nations out of a sense of superiority, And at the heart of these matters is pride. Are we less infected with pride in the church and our own households? Churches divide over insignificant matters. We want what we want, no matter what it costs anyone else. But is it so surprising that Satan uses pride to tempt the church? What did Satan tempt Adam and Eve with in the garden? If you eat of this tree, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. He wanted Adam and Eve to commit the sin of pride. He wanted Adam and Eve to say, surely God's word isn't true. Surely God doesn't want what's good for me. Surely I know, and I'm going to go get it for myself. And this sin that our father Adam has committed has infected our world and seeps into all of our fallen condition. Self-conceit, empty glory, rivalry, division, all have their starting point with pride. wanting to be great and to be like God. In Philippi, where Paul's writing, the situation is no different. The Roman world gloried in pride. They thought that it was one of the virtues of the world. They gloried in their own self-achievement. Humility was seen as a vice and not as a virtue. But was this the way the apostle Paul thought? Was this the way our Lord Jesus thought? In Philippians 2, 1 to 11, we get a different picture, a greater picture of what God desires out of his people. We see a picture of humility. This passage shows us the greater way is humility, and it's the humility that is shown in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that being conformed to his mind is the healing balm of the sin of pride. The servant attitude, the servant mindset of the Lord Jesus is the only thing that can heal our pride. And so let's look at our passage and see how Paul brings this out, looking at our first section in verses one to five. Paul's primary concern in this section of his letter is the unity of the church. In chapter 127 to 30, Paul had exhorted the congregation to stand firm in one spirit, there to be a united front, not divided amongst themselves, but to be one people of God. In Philippians 2, Paul is now going to show us how this unity is to come about, how Christians are to practice unity in this fallen world. And unity for Paul is fostered in humility, and this humility comes from a right mindset. Philippians 2, 1-5 shows us what type of mindset the church is to have because of Christ's finished work. Because Christ has purchased us, drawn us out of the sin of the world, and brought us into a heavenly kingdom, we are to think as He did. We are to have our minds be conformed to the mind of Christ. Look at how many times Paul uses words related to mind and thinking and counting in this section. Verse two, having the same mind. Verse three, count others more significant than yourselves. Verse five, have this mind among yourselves. Throughout this passage, Paul is highlighting that the mind of the church is to be one mind. It is through our thinking, through our mindset, that we are conformed to the image of Christ. Paul highlights this elsewhere in his writings. We can think of Romans 12. where he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And Paul lays out this mindset practically in our passage here. He shows us first in verse two that we are to be of one accord and of the same mind. The church is to strive for unity because of Christ's finished work. Christ has purchased for himself a single people, and we have our allegiance to him alone. Divisions in the church grieve the heart of God. He has bought us with his very blood. We are to have the same mind being in agreement with one another. We don't serve ourselves or anyone else for their own sake, for that matter, but we serve the one same God. And our mindset should be the same because of our unity and because of our allegiance to the one same God. We are to have the mindset of Christ our Savior. In verse three, Paul shows us what our mindsets should not be. They shouldn't be selfish ambition or conceit. Selfish ambition is the cause of great division in the church, wanting something for ourselves instead of seeking the needs of others, wanting to make our names great. It only fosters division among the people of God. And this is the problem of those preaching the gospel. We're trying to afflict Paul that we read about earlier in chapter one. They're trying to provoke envy and rivalry in the church. They're trying to provoke Paul to be divided amongst the body. They want to make a great name for themselves instead of drawing people to be followers of Christ. Conceit is also dangerous in the church. And this word in this passage means something like empty glory. It has the same root as verse seven, when it talks about Christ emptying himself and it has glory added into the end. Seeking after those things which actually have no glory. We want things for ourselves. We want things that are gonna make us great, that are gonna point inward to ourselves, but these things have no glory. And instead, Paul points us in a greater direction. He points us to the path of humility, counting others more significant than ourselves. Humility is at the heart of this passage. Christ's humility, his humble example, is to be an example for our lives. We are not meant to live for ourselves, but for others. Think about how striking that passage is. It says, counting others more significant than yourselves. How often do we count others more significant than ourselves? Humility is not thinking greatly about ourselves then, but it's caring for the needs of others, thinking them greater than our own. The Christ-centered life is one that looks out for the needs of others using the gifts that God has given us out of service to his church. And we are to build up the whole body in love, counting others more significant than ourselves. Christian discipleship cannot be done in a vacuum. It needs people, it needs a community in order to be practiced. In order for us to care for the needs of others, we need other people to care for. We need to have people whose interests we seek. Putting others above ourselves shows the true heart of Christ's mission. Christ did not come to be served, but he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Christ taught us these very things in his own earthly ministry. He says, but many who are first will be last, and the last first. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. It is not the great in this world that will be first in the kingdom of heaven, but is those who are last. Those who humble themselves will be exalted. Now, church, I don't want us to misunderstand Paul here and have us think that Paul is heaping up law on the church, a burden that they are unable to bear, something that they are unable to keep. Paul is showing instead the reality of the Christian life because of our union with Christ and because of our fellowship and participation in the spirit. It's not that if you do these things, you will live. It's not that we're saved by works, but rather because of what the work of Christ has done, we are united to him by faith and his spirit dwells in us. He's showing what life in the spirit looks like. He says in verses one to two, if we have any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy. Paul is showing us that this servant attitude, this humility is only found in those redeemed by Christ who have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We are built up as servants in the world because of the work of our gracious savior who has come to bring redemption to the world. And it's because Christ has come to bring redemption to the world that we can live lives pleasing to God in service of others. This is the mindset that we must have because it is the mindset of our Savior. Before we can have Christ as our example, we must have Him as our Savior. Christ did not come merely as a moral example for us to follow, though He definitely did come for us as an example. but we are dead in our trespasses and sins apart from him. There's nothing that we can do to reconcile ourselves to God. Pride strikes at the heart of this world because it is such in such a fallen condition, dead apart from him. We cannot work our way up to having a heavenly mindset, even following Christ, even having his example, unless we are first united to him by faith, unless we were first born again by the Holy Spirit. And even then, we still struggle with the old man in us. We still struggle with the temptation to have ourselves be the center of the world. But take heart, for Christ is now at work in his people. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He will make us more like him through the spirit who is now at work among us. Beloved, this passage is humbling, and it strikes at the heart of the Christian life. It shows us what our true lives are to consist of. Humility is at the heart of Christian discipleships, and it begins in the mind. In humility, we do not think ourselves as being great, but we think others as being greater than ourselves. Christ has called us to be salt and light in the world, to show what it is to be a follower of him, to live in humility, to put others above ourselves. The Christian ethic then is to be one of service and humility, not seeing ourselves as greater because we are all dead in our sins and trespasses. It is only because of what he has done for us that we can live lives pleasing to him. We are then supposed to be servants in the midst of the world. We are called to proclaim reconciliation to God. We are called to show the world what true love looks like. And as we live in a world that is dead in sin, we show the light of Christ in all that we do, whether it be in our jobs, not thinking to trample over others in the pursuit of something greater in our careers, or it be in our families, wanting to give ourselves in service for those whom we love, even those who do not yet know Christ. But most especially in Christ's glorious body, His church, we are to give ourselves even for the weakest members, Christ loves all of his sheep, and we are to give ourselves for them in service and love. Humility is the healing balm of the pride that infects the world. God has given the church gifts for its building up, and humility is using those gifts which God has given. It's no humble thing to say that we are not going to use the gifts which God has given us. Don't even neglect what we might consider the smallest of gifts. Christ says, and whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. You may think that caring for the physical needs of others is a small work compared to missionary work in Africa or working with people in war-torn countries. But Christ has given you gifts by His Holy Spirit, and they work in you now. Use them in service of one another, putting those gifts to work because Christ is working through it for the building up of His body. Christ has equipped us to serve the world, to count others more significant than ourselves. But Paul doesn't just leave us here with commands. uh, to, to try to figure out what humility looks like in our lives with no motivation, but instead he gives us the greatest example of humility. He shows us the mindset of Christ's that our mindset will be common. They will have the same mindset among ourselves, that of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so in verses five to 11, Christ is shown as the greatest example of humility. Paul exhorts the congregation. He leaves them with a command in verse five, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And having given the church instruction to be united in mind, Paul now shows us what sort of mind we are to have by powerfully picturing the true humility in the person of Christ. This passage teaches us that Christ is in the form of God. And though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But what does Paul mean by Christ being in the form of God? What does he mean? I mean, Jesus walked around as a human person on the world. What does he mean by him being in the form of God? Paul is talking about Jesus in his pre-existence, before he was born. He has always been and ever will be God. He did not come into the world only when he was born of a woman, but he has always been and ever will be. This is the true God over all of the universe. This is the God who rules and reigns over all things. Jesus himself is God who is taken on flesh. He is eternal. There was no beginning to the Son of God. All glory and reverence and honor is ascribed to him. And yet, this Jesus, the true God over all of the universe, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. It was not something that Christ was going to lord over others, but instead Christ emptied himself. And this may give us pause to reflect on what it means by Christ emptying himself. I was at a wedding once where the preacher exhorted the husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church. And he said, the greatest love that this world has ever seen is that Christ emptied himself of his divinity in order to love the world. And that's the greatest example of love that this world has ever seen. Did Christ empty himself of his divinity? Is that what this passage is speaking about? When God became man, did he cease to be God? Scripture shows us this is not the case. In Colossians 2.9 it says, in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily. It can't be that Christ emptied himself of divinity. Christ taking on human form does not lose his divinity, but as our passage shows us, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. He took on human flesh, a true human nature out of love for his people. So what then did Christ empty himself of then? Christ emptied himself of his own self prerogative. He took no account of himself. He instead gave himself an obedience to his father by taking on human flesh and living in perfect obedience. The God of the universe took on flesh and concealed his divinity. He gave himself over to perfect obedience on account of his church. Christ does subtraction by addition. He adds to himself a human nature and thus humbles himself, taking the form of a servant. For Christ to empty himself of his divinity would be for him to no longer be God. For him to no longer be God would be for us to have no true Savior. Christ would have been doing the impossible. He cannot separate his divinity from his humanity. He is truly God and truly man. This passage teaches no such thing that he emptied himself of his divinity. Instead, he emptied himself of his own self prerogative, of those rights that he had before the world. And instead he clothes himself in the likeness of men. And he shows himself to be in the form of a servant. And this servitude, this emptying of himself is for us and for our salvation. It is what we call Christ's state of humiliation. Christ has taken upon himself a true human nature with all the perils that come along with it, all the infirmities, all the bad things that come along with being in this body, in this sinful world. He was born in a lowly condition, born under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, and he does it out of service for us. Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. This is the heart of the Lord Jesus for his people. His whole life was an act of service for people. He visited the lost. He healed the sick, the lame, the lowest in society. He suffered anguish and felt all the miseries of this life. And he took on the form of the servant in the fullest sense of the word. As we read earlier in our service from John 13, we see a tangible expression of this servitude in Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet. Christ literally takes the lowest position in society by taking the place of a servant. A servant is the one who washes people's feet. And these disciples who Jesus would wash are ones who would abandon him in his deepest anguish, in the garden of Gethsemane, in his place upon the cross. They would leave him in his deepest place of suffering. And yet this is what the God of the universe has done for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven and entered into a world of sin and misery, and he washes the disciples' feet. Such a tangible act of service. And this is a striking example in and of itself. This is God who takes on flesh to come and to serve humanity by serving their physical needs. That's something that's worth considering and to meditate on that act of service. But the greatest example of his servitude, the greatest example of the servant heart of our Lord Jesus is his going to the cross out of obedience and love for his people. whipped in the streets of Jerusalem, scorned by the ones he came to save, taking on himself the curse of the law, being hung on a tree, Jesus sensed the deepest despair the world had ever known. The wrath of God was poured out upon him, and yet he did it for the joy that was set before him. This is the God of the universe, the one eternal, unchangeable, perfect in all of his ways, absolute without fault, perfect love, perfect wisdom, perfect justice. And he takes on himself flesh and goes to the cross for you and for me. He goes to the lowliest execution in all of the Roman world. He underwent the deepest suffering that this world has ever known. And he did it for you and me. This is the God who has emptied himself for us. This is the heart of our God. He is the God who took on servant form for us and for our salvation. And therefore, because Jesus, the true God man, emptied himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death upon the cross, God has highly exalted him. He has bestowed upon him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus knew the path to glory came only through suffering and death. He had all glory in heaven. He didn't need to come on earth in order to attain glory. And yet this Jesus, this beloved Savior, came down for you and for me. The path of our Savior is one that goes from suffering to glory, from humiliation to exaltation. Jesus' work and coming down for us in obedience is then crowned by the Father. The Father confirms Him and exalts Him as head over all things. Jesus had all glory and honor in heaven, the name that is above every name. And yet He came down and suffered for you and for me. And God crowned that suffering for us by exalting Him over all things. He has secured for himself a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Christ's life, death, and resurrection has brought heavenly life to a sinful world. The kingdom of God has come in the person of Christ. And through this suffering, Christ is now seated with all authority and power over all things. Christ is the universal king over all creation. But his path had to go first to suffering and humiliation, and then unto glory and exaltation. And should this not be our own path, beloved? We think that we can avoid the path of suffering and service for others. We think that we deserve great status in the world and want others to serve us. But Christ, the one who by his very nature is God, was worthy of all glory and honor and praise. And he didn't think this way. Christ came down out of heaven, out of service for his people. He took the form of a servant. And beloved, we are not greater than Christ. We do not have a greater status than the God of all things. In fact, none of us is truly greater than any of the others, for we are all infected with sin. We think that we might have more money or greater status or greater abilities, and this makes us greater than other people. And so we neglect others out of a sense of pride. Just as Adam counted equality with God a thing to be grasped, we too think that we are the center of the universe, that we can go out and get it for ourselves. But what Christ's example shows us is that Christ had all things. He had a truly greater status than anyone in the world. And yet he did not leave the world to die in sin, but he came to serve. He came to seek and to save the lost. He came to seek and save you and me. He was compassionate to the lowliest in society, poor fishermen, widows, prostitutes, the poor, the suffering, the lowly. His example on earth was perfect servitude. He emptied himself most fully by being obedient to the point of death, even death upon the cross. And Christ's example is an example for us. The world wants to conform us to its image. The world wants us to seek things for ourselves instead of others. But what Christ did is an example. We are to be servants in the midst of the world. We are to seek out the welfare of others above ourselves. We are to follow the path of our Savior from service, suffering, and obedience in this life unto glory and exaltation in the next. We are to go from humiliation to exaltation, just as Christ our Lord has. And so let this mind be among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Follow him in the path of service. For that is the mind of our Christ, that is the mind of our God. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself for you and for I. So have that same mindset amongst ourselves. Beloved, the world is infected with pride. We see the manifestation of this throughout our daily life. We see how it is destroying the world that God has created. The world is infected with the same sin that our father Adam fell into. Our attitude may be that of retreating from the world, thinking we protect ourselves from the sin present in it. But this was not Christ's mindset. God took on flesh, humbling himself for us and for our salvation. He underwent all the miseries of this life, even death itself, even the most humiliating death on the cross. The humility of Christ is the only balm that can heal this pride-ridden, sin-sick world. Look to him as your salvation. Cling to his finished work for you and his humiliation and rest and receive what he has done for you and follow him in the path of service for one another. This is the mindset our Lord Jesus had. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of the servant. We too are servants in the world after the image of our Lord Jesus. Let us follow him in service and humility for one another. Let's pray. Lord, we do give you thanks for such a wonderful word, for such a word of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to suffer for us and leaves us with the greatest example of humility and love that this world has ever known. We, oh Lord, are sinful and we need your supernatural work to enter into us. So we pray that you make this word effectual into our hearts. We will look to you, oh Lord, and rest in the finished work of Christ our Savior, following him in the path from humiliation to exaltation. We do give you thanks, O Lord, for such an incredible work and for such work in our Lord Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.