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The longer I live, the more I
realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more
important than facts. It is more important than the
past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures,
than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance,
giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company,
a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have
a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
for that day. We cannot change our past. We
cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We
cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play
on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced
that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to
it. And so it is with you. We are
in charge of our attitudes. And it is to this subject of
the attitude of the believer that the Apostle Paul comes to
in writing to the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter 2. I'd like to direct your attention
to Philippians 2, where we'll be studying verses 5-11, and
I would like to read the whole passage at this time. Philippians
2, verses 5-11. The attitude the believer should
have in correspondence to the example of Jesus Christ. Paul
writes, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ
Jesus. who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness,
and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore,
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that
is above every name, 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. When Paul writes this, I assume
that it is his attitude that all of us need attitude checks
once in a while. And so he wrote to the Philippian
church concerning their attitude because of his awareness of this
need. We deal constantly with a natural
instinct to serve ourselves. We all have needs. We have all
desires. People that I know have a desire
for companionship with other people. They have a desire for
acceptance. They have a desire for love,
for productivity. They have a desire for pleasure
and they have a desire for security. We all have needs and I think
it's natural As you look at your life and you look at the lives
of those around you, that we become easily preoccupied with
pursuing the meeting of those needs, those things that we feel
we need, our desires. The problem is, though, that
we live in a world where you and I are not the only ones who
can so easily become preoccupied with pursuit of our own desires. You see, the other people around
you are just like you. and they're in pursuit of their
own desires and the accomplishment of their own needs. And so how
do I get what I want without keeping you from getting what
you want? That is the problem. Now today's
attitude, the contemporary attitude that you probably are very familiar
with is, hey man, the other guy is not your concern. You got
to do what you got to do. Have you ever heard that? That's
what people would advise you to do in a contemporary world
like ours. That's probably what they advised
them to do in Philippi 1900 years ago. In other words, you don't
need to consider what happens to other people. only what pleases
you. That's what you're told all day
long, all week long, when you read the magazines, when you
listen to the media, when you watch the television. You are
being bombarded with it. And now, through the Apostle
Paul's words, I want to bombard you with another point of view. The truth. Life becomes a battle
because people are colliding emotionally, they are colliding
economically, they are colliding psychologically and financially
in our society because they are preoccupied with pursuing their
own interests and do not consider in their pursuit the interests
of other people. This is why Paul says we need
an attitude check. This is the second reason he
goes on to. as he speaks in this passage,
and that is in an introductory way he speaks of the need for
serving others, because it is not natural for us. He says that
this is a foundation for unity, and we'll be looking at what
he says about this. This is why Paul tries to prevent us from
being self-preoccupied, because he knows that this preoccupation
is destructive to unity. Look at verse 4 that we saw last
week. He says, Each of you should look
not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others. So he urged them to avoid self-preoccupation. There is another reason. Attitude can help or hinder right
action. Not only is there a constant
conflict within our attitude to serve ourselves, not only
is it necessary for us to combat that, but it's also important
to recognize that attitude can help or it can hinder you in
right action. Before Paul feels confidence
that the believers in Philippi will actually do what he has
commanded them to do in verse 4, to look out for others' interests
and to consider themselves less important than the other person,
he first of all reinforces the fact that he realizes their attitude
is first of all critical before their action will follow. And
this is why he said what he did in verse 3. Notice that. He says,
do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility
consider others better than yourselves. Consider others more important
than yourselves. So clearly Paul, like Chuck Swindoll,
thought attitude had a lot to do with influencing your actions
and controlling what you would do. It is this command, Paul's command
in verse 3, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit
that Paul holds before his friends in Philippi in a new way in verses
5-11. He holds before them this attitude
by showing them a picture and the picture that he shows them
is the portrait of the life of Christ and the example of the
world's most supreme illustration of humility, and that is the
life of Christ. And so in verses 6 through 11,
after Paul has said in verse 5, your attitude should be the
same as that of Christ Jesus, in verses 6 through 11 he now
goes to present this portrait of the life of Christ in order
to challenge the believers in Philippi to pursue after a right
attitude towards one another. and in this example he sets before
them the standard of Christ and in this presentation of the standard
of Christ with precision and amazing simplicity he presents
the whole doctrine of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you will not find in the New Testament a more concise
presentation of the whole of Christology, or what is the doctrine
of the person of Christ. In these verses you see his pre-existence,
his equality with God, his incarnation, his true humanity, his voluntary
death, his ultimate triumph over death and evil, and the permanence
of his ultimate reign over all things. all capsuled in six concise
verses. And you know, this passage also
should bring to mind what are some of the key tests for orthodoxy
within the study of Christology. In other words, who is Jesus
Christ? And what has he done? And what
is the right way of viewing the Lord Jesus Christ? And you might
ask yourself, well, why is that so important? Well, that is critical
because if you do not have an orthodox view of who Jesus Christ
is and what he accomplished, then your whole doctrine of salvation
and heaven is inadequate and inaccurate. But, for example,
suppose the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking at your
door. How is it easy and simple for you to interact with them
and discern the error of their theology? Well let me give you
the four tests of an orthodox Christology or a right understanding
of who Jesus Christ is. Test number one, Jesus Christ
is fully God. And you must ask those who claim
to be Christians, do you believe that Jesus Christ is fully God? Secondly, he is fully man. And you may test a person's view
of Jesus Christ by asking them, is he fully man without sin? Test number three. A proper orthodoxy will understand
that his divine and human natures are united in one person. It
is not that God took up the body of a man and took over some human
and made him a superhuman. It's not that some superhuman
had a little spark of divinity that came into his mind. It is
that in one person, two distinct natures, God and man, were resident. And the fourth test is that these
two distinct natures, although distinct, are resident in one
person. You do not have a God and a man,
they are distinct, they are together in one person. So you have four
tests, fully God, fully man, two distinct natures, not mixed
together, but yet residing in one person. And if those four
tests can be met by a person who claims to be a Christian,
they are probably on the right road, understanding who he is.
Something else that's interesting as I read this passage just in
general, and what Paul has said, and some of the ingredients that
I see in this passage, what strikes me is that in the day in which
Paul wrote this passage, it would have been very easy for someone
being so close to the history of that period to challenge or
refute what Paul was claiming about our Lord Jesus Christ,
about his person and about his work. However, how does Paul
write? What is the tone in which Paul
writes? He writes in a tone of clear assumption. He assumes
everything that he says is true. He makes no apology for it. He
doesn't seek to defend or argue what he is teaching the Philippians
about the person and work of Christ. In other words, for the
Philippians, it does not seem that Paul was at all concerned
about the authenticity or the authority of Jesus Christ. How interesting it is today that
so many years separated from the facts and the events, people
have so much difficulty accepting as true and trustworthy the facts
that a person so close to the events was able to write without
dispute. We have a clear word of truth.
Something else that I see as I began to just look at the passage
as a whole is how interesting it is that Paul, in an attempt
to deal very practically with the Philippian church, what does
he do? He employs systematic theology. Now for those of you who have
been burned by someone who claims that doctrine is not practical,
I urge you to take a look at what Paul has done. He is doing
what? He is urging them to remain unified. A very practical need within
the church and how does he address the problem? He presents before
them a complete systematic theology of the Lord Jesus Christ person
and work. And so I would submit to you
that this climactic call to unity in Philippi came through doctrine. beloved. Doctrine is very practical. And so, let's take a look at
what Paul says. In verses 6 and 7, Paul begins
his description of Christ by first explaining what Christ
was like in eternity past. And he has about five things
to say. Quickly, number one, he says that Christ existed in
the form of God. Notice how we read in verse 6,
who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped. It is unfortunate that the NIV
has used the word nature to translate the word morphe in the Greek. Morphe is the word that is most
commonly translated form in the original language and the NIV
has for some reason decided that they will use the word nature.
However, the word form is more appropriate here because it speaks
of the outward appearance. It speaks of of the shape of
the bottle, if you will, not of the contents inside the bottle.
And so the word form is more appropriate because it's speaking
of how the form was manifested. He was manifested as God. Dr. John Walbert has said, the
second person of the Trinity expressed himself in all the
attributes of deity. And so Paul is speaking of how
the second person of the Trinity in eternity past was manifest
in the spiritual dimensions of eternity past. He was manifest
in all the perfections and all of the attributes of God, fully
divine. Then Paul says, secondly, that
he was equal with God. Notice how he says, who being
in the very nature or form of God did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped. Now here when he is speaking
of equality with God, what he is speaking of is equality in
form. Equality in expression. Any way
that you would have seen the substance or the essence of God
the Father displayed, God the Son was displayed with the same
perfection and glory. And so what is being argued here
by Paul is that Jesus did not consider holding on to that kind
of display as something that he would do. He was equal with
God in form. A third thing that we see in
this passage, he did not regard this equality with God in form
as something to be grasped. Notice, something to be grasped
or held on to. The Puritan John Eady has said,
Christ's own generosity, not his submission to any divine
command, is what Paul commends and holds up to the Philippians
for imitation. Jesus was willing to relinquish,
he was willing to let go of his prerogative and his privilege
to display himself in all the glory of God in order to accomplish
a mission that we'll see described in just a moment. So rather than
holding firmly to his privilege and prerogative to display his
full glory, Paul next moves and he says, Christ emptied himself. Notice how it says, who being
in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped that made himself nothing. And it's
unfortunate again, and this does not occur very often in the NIV,
but the most clear translation of this passage should be, but
emptied himself. And what the NIV translators
are simply trying to do is clear up the difficulty that has occurred
in history in translating the meaning of the Greek word to
empty. Because all through church history
there has been theological debate about how could Jesus Christ
empty himself when he came to earth? What does it mean that
he emptied himself? Did he give up something of his
divinity? And many have argued through
church history that that was the case. Only that creates a
partially divine Christ who is fully inadequate to serve as
our Savior. And so I believe that it should
be translated emptied himself, taking the very form of a servant. And so rather than holding firmly
to his privilege, Jesus let go of this privilege and prerogative
and emptied himself. But what does this emptying,
which has been so difficult to understand, what does it mean?
As I say, some theologians have argued that it meant Christ giving
up something he had in heaven. But I think the best understanding
of emptying here means basically what Paul says. He emptied himself
by taking on something else. He emptied himself by what? Taking
on in verse 7 the very nature or form of a servant and being
made in human likeness. And so when Jesus emptied himself,
he accomplished this by taking on something else, a form, a
new form, a new way of displaying himself and that was the form
of a human body which was easily identified by other men as a
human body. There was no problem in Palestine
recognizing that Jesus of Nazareth was a man and that's what Paul
is saying and being made in human likeness. He took the form of
a servant that form was identifiable as a man. So according to Paul's
grammar we must understand that what is being said here is really
not to be understood literally that he like you pour out water
from a glass poured out something in heaven but it is to be understood
figuratively it is like a paradox. So basically his emptying was
accomplished as I say by taking on something else and what is
really being said here is that when you compare the form of
God in heaven in eternity past with the form or the way he manifested
himself in time on the earth it looks as though he was emptied
of a lot of things because in the person of Christ we see reserved
and cloaked many of the things that we would attribute to God
the Father many of the attributes he did not give them up but he
willingly cloaked them or had them covered in order that he
might accomplish his mission on this earth. Therefore, this
emptying was what his coming to earth appeared to be like
in comparison to the glory of heaven. In comparison to the
glory of heaven, it looked like it was nothing. I think the King
James translators have done an excellent job actually. They
say, Jesus made himself of no reputation. I can remember how
important that was to me when I left my first church and was
provided a job in the automobile business and how so many of my
fellow clergy had such a good yuck about that. to the used car lot. Now, I have
so many friends in that business in our congregation that I appreciate
them very much, but gentlemen, you know how often it is, even
if you are a lawyer, even if you are a doctor, any of the
professions, how easy it is for people to find one bad egg and
say you're all no good. Has that ever happened to you?
Well, you're in that profession and you're all no good. Well,
there are some times when you just cannot protect your reputation. No matter how hard you try, I
guarantee you, someday somebody will find a way to slander your
good name. Remember Jesus Christ. He made
himself, by coming to earth for us, virtually of no reputation. They robbed him of his good name.
A fifth thing that Paul says about his pre-incarnate or his
condition in eternity past, was that he assumed humanity in order
to do the work of a servant. Who did he serve? He served God
the Father. He executed the plan of redemption. Not only did he
serve God the Father, but he served you and me, sinners, by
securing for us salvation. Verse 8 tells us about his life,
his humiliation. After describing what Christ
was like in eternity past and how he came to earth to become
a man, Paul explains what Christ did as a man. And this we find
in verse 8. And Paul tells us one key thing. He tells us that Christ humbled
himself. He was the glorious person of
the Trinity, second person. Veiled himself in order to become
a man. Now humility means basically
that I accept a lower position for myself than I think I deserve. I accept a lower position for
myself than I think I deserve. And that's precisely what is
taking place here. Jesus Christ, of course, knew that he deserved
the supreme position, but he accepted a lower status for us. And notice how he says, being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death, even death on a cross. Notice how it doesn't
say death on the cross. That's because the Apostle Paul
is trying to emphasize the nature of cross death. He could have
spoken of Calvary, but what he's trying to emphasize for the Philippians
who are living in a Roman colony is, remember the kind of death
that Roman cross execution involves. This is cross death. This is
cross-execution. This is the most ignominious
and disgraceful way for a person to be executed. It was only for
slaves and the vilest of malefactors, the vilest of lawbreakers and
murderers. And so what is being argued here
is this humiliation of Jesus was so astonishing that the word
of glory came down and in compliance with the plan of God for your
redemption and mine, suffered the lowest, most shameful, and
most heinous and horrible form of death to be known to man at
that time, the death of the cross. And so in suffering the death
of the cross Jesus was humiliated before men. But the death of
the cross caused Jesus to suffer humiliation in another way also. And that was to accept within
himself the wrath and curse of God for your sin and mine. And
so he was humbled before Almighty God as he took upon himself for
the first time and only time in eternity the wrath and curse
of God for the sin that he bore in himself on the cross for you. And then after talking about
his life and career here on earth and the key thing which was his
attitude of humiliation and humility and his death, Paul then summarizes
Christ's life with a description of his exaltation, or what took
place after he rose from the dead. And Paul doesn't get into
great detail about the resurrection itself, but about the results
that followed the resurrection. And notice what he says as he
moves into verse 9. Therefore, God highly exalted
him and to the highest place and gave him the name that is
above every name. God exalted him. The exaltation of Christ
was a great dramatic occurrence. He was exalted to heaven to receive
back all the prerogatives that he had had in eternity past,
the prerogative to display his glory and his splendor, but There
was something new added to the glory of the Trinity, and that
was the exalted and glorified humanity with which he was raised
to heaven. How interesting it is. Remember
the story in Isaiah of Lucifer? What did he do? Lucifer sought
to exalt what? Himself. What happened as a result
of him seeking to exalt himself? Well, he was cast out of heaven,
wasn't he? And yet quite the opposite of the servant, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one who did not seek his own but sought
to serve you and I, he humbled himself to death and then was
exalted to heaven. Every intelligent being, according
to this passage, is now required and obligated to give honor and
pray is to the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And that is precisely
what you'll find if you read in Revelation chapter 5 verse
13 about the worship that is taking place in heaven. It says
that all those that are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and John adds, and in the sea, fall down and worship him. as
God. And so this is the career of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul again, as I remind
you, has brought before us this career for a practical purpose,
and that is that we might have our attitude checked by looking
at this picture of this most perfect career which exemplified
humility. And so I suggest that you follow
me with several attitude adjustments. First, we need an adjustment
of our attitude towards ourselves, how you and I think about ourselves.
And I think that what I hold before you is what Paul holds
before you. First of all is the readiness of the Lord Jesus Christ
to veil the glory that was his, the prerogatives and privileges
that were his, and to not hold on to that privileged position
and that display. Jesus possessed the glory of
divine nature and perfect communion with the Father, but he allowed
it to be masked by the lowliness of a human body in order to gain
glory for who? To gain glory for you and for
me. What desires, possessions, personal preferences are you
grasping? This passage is challenging you
to lay them aside if they are preoccupying you to such an extent
that you are unable to look at the needs of other people. That
is the attitude of Jesus Christ. Now, I exhort you because, you
see, if you do not follow this exhortation, you run a risk. There is a danger. And that is
the danger that Paul talks about in verse 3. Remember verse 3?
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Other passages,
other translators say vain glory. Be careful. If you seek after
your own things, you will wind up with empty glory. That's the
downside of ignoring Paul's admonition here. It's vain glory. You risk
the consequences of building your life around empty glory. Your own glory, self-exaltation,
just like Lucifer did, and what happens in the end? It's a stinging
rebuke of emptiness. As a result, bitterness comes,
loneliness comes, lack of fulfillment, and certainly no approval from
God. Jesus said, but the greatest
among you shall be your servant, and whoever exalts himself shall
be humbled. If you reject the admonition
of verse 3, which Paul is trying to illustrate, you'll be like
the self-made executive who built his life around climbing the
ladder to the top of his company. And when he got to the top of
the company, and he was able to look at the books, he discovered
the company was bankrupt. And that's exactly what happens
when you pursue and become preoccupied with your own things to the exclusion
of others. There's another attitude check
that Paul would call our attention to, and that is our attitude
toward one another. Christ's willingness to humble
himself from the glory of heaven to the death of the cross shows
us what our attitude should be toward one another. He illustrates
it in verse 3 again. In humility, consider others
as more important than yourselves. That is to be the attitude. In
humbling himself, Jesus demonstrated his estimate of your value. You
see, you had no value. But Jesus saw in you value for
himself. And so he estimated you as one
worthy for him to come and substitute his life for you in death. And
this passage admonishes you and me to assign ourselves a little
lower status than perhaps we think we deserve. This passage
admonishes you and me to test our humility. And how would we
test our humility? The same way that Jesus' humility
was tested by his obedience. Are you obedient to scripture?
Are you obedient to properly designated authority in scripture?
Well, that is the test. Because you see, Jesus displayed
his humility by his performance. And that was his obedience to
death, even death of a cross. And then finally, Paul speaks
and admonishes us about our attitude toward God. He says, our attitude
toward God should be one of rejoicing, exaltation, rejoicing at the
privilege of being related, personally related. You are personally related. to the Lord Jesus Christ who
Paul says God exalted to the highest place. How about that? Who could you
be related to that you would want to be more related to than
that? Think about it. If you were related to the president,
if you were related to the sheikhs who have all the money, I mean,
most people that you rub shoulders with would think, oh, that's
great. You are personally related to the one who owns the whole
world, who is the sovereign over all the universe, the one who
made you, takes care of you. You are personally related to
him by faith. Aren't you glad that God has
granted you and I the grace to see our sin and to see in Jesus
Christ personal salvation? Aren't you glad that God has
enabled you to recognize that Jesus Christ is the sovereign
of the universe and that by giving us that recognition we have bowed
to him now as our Lord rather than after it's too late as our
judge. Because the Bible says every
knee shall bow and we will bow now or you will bow later. One way in submission to his
lordship The other way, in subjection to his judgment. Aren't you glad
that you can play a part in helping to encourage others who want
to be like Christ, who want to be servants? Servants of the
Exalted One. And so, as Paul has argued here,
I think the principle that must be taken from this passage is
this. Selfless service is the attitude of glory. Selfless service
is the attitude of glory. Let's pray, then we'll have our
closing hymn and be dismissed. Lord God, our Heavenly Father,
this attitude of our Lord Jesus is so foreign to our personal
old nature. Create in us a new heart every
day, Lord, that we may follow the Holy Spirit who desires to
make us like Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.
Philippians 2:5-11, Selfless Service, the Attitude of Glory
Series Philippians
| Sermon ID | 517242042567972 |
| Duration | 35:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Philippians 2:5-11 |
| Language | English |
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