Spiritual Formation 2: Self-Denial - Philippians 2:1-16; Luke 9:23-24 November 9, 2014
Today is the 2nd message is a series where we’re looking at the subject of spiritual formation. Last week in a message called: “Desiring God”, we covered some of the basics of what spiritual formation is, how it is God who draws us to Himself, to seek Him and to give us the desire to come near to Him.
We talked about some of the basic practices of spiritual formation: The practice of listening to God as we pray, the practice of regularly gathering with other Christ-followers for worship and teaching and encouragement.
We talked about how reading and meditating on the Word of God, the Bible, becomes one of the beautiful and rewarding rhythms of our lives, and how we need to examine ourselves, to re-order our affections.
That’s so that in daily, practical ways, the Lordship of Jesus Christ shows itself in our decisions and in the things we start to care about, things that reflect God’s concerns and passion – for justice for this broken world, for healing and reconciliation between people and families and nations and many other things.
If you missed or want to review that message, you can find it on our Podcast page on the church web site, www.catm.ca.
Today we’re going to reflect, still on spiritual formation, but more to the point on one of the ABC's of following Jesus. What are the ABC’s? Well, they are the Attitudes, Behaviours and Character of Jesus.
Philippians 2 calls us to be LIKE Jesus, to reflect in our lives the Attitude, Behaviours and Character of Jesus. "May our attitude be as that of Christ..."
We’ll look at this passage and hopefully gain a sense of the ways in which Jesus Christ lived not for own interests, but rather for the interest of his Father. So we’re going to be talking a lot about Jesus today.
In order to live for His Father, He had to live, actually, NOT for Himself. In order to affirm the ways of God the Father, He made the choice, the commitment to deny His own rights.
Did you know that Jesus had rights as the Son of God. He is God the Son. Philippians 2 says this: Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
Jesus was in His very nature God, yet that fact, that reality didn't lead Him to assume privilege for Himself, or, as Paul says, being God wasn't something Jesus chose to use for His own advantage. Rather, Jesus denied Himself in the most amazing way imaginable. He 'made Himself nothing'.
That's a little bit like if you, [person in front row], somehow had the power to become an ant (photo) or actually an amoeba (photo), one of the smallest life-form that exists. You had the power. It was of no advantage of you personally to do it; none at all.
And yet in order to build a vital connection with the other amoebas you compress yourself to that humble size. You create a way to enter that world, tiny though it is compared to the world you’re accustomed to.
So perhaps imagining that ratio takes us nearer the ballpark, perhaps, of at least being able to imagine how much greater, how much bigger than us God is. And what Jesus accomplished by becoming a man and inhabiting human flesh.
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Jesus, gave up His rights; again, not using His equality with God the Father as something that was for his own profit or gain or blessing, not for His own advantage. He didn’t do this in theory, in the abstract. He did this in action.
Jesus said “no” to one thing that benefited Him in order to say “yes” to another thing that extended benefit to others. He said “no” to privilege and position and His own state of full glory, in order to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Jesus, the 2nd person in the Trinity, said ‘no’ to Himself and ‘yes’ to the One who is sent Him to us, God the Father. Jesus modelled self-denial - selflessness, unselfishness, self-sacrifice. The self-denial that Jesus calls us to is something that He first lived out.
Once, we’ve been drawn by God, to a decision to receive God's salvation through faith in the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, followed naturally by baptism, we are members of the church of Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter what church or denomination we belong to.
But we still face a decision. This decision is something that the Apostle Paul addresses in this passage. He speaks here to the church, to its people and its leaders.
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
First here he speaks tenderly of some of the benefits all that Christians share. Don’t we feel a deep encouragement, a confidence, a hope, an inspiration and motivation that is rooted in belonging to Jesus?
Of course we do. If we ever lose track of the encouragement that we live with daily, we just need to remember, really remember what things were like before Jesus came into our life, before we chose to follow Jesus.
Of course we’re encouraged from being united with Christ. And isn’t there an extraordinary comfort, contentment and serenity that comes from knowing that God loves us, and that His love is deep and wide and expansive, proven in the willing sacrifice for our sins by the Son of God?
And don’t we enjoy the mutual blessings of the Holy Spirit, the ONE who brings us comfort and counsel?
Well, hopefully, Paul deduces, there is a resulting tenderness and compassion in us, being that we have been the recipient of such matchless grace from God, on the receiving end of such divine tenderness and compassion from the heart of the Father.
THEREFORE, Paul says, therefore...because all that is true, because it’s common knowledge among Christ-followers,
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
Here Paul speaks from a careful consideration of the model of Jesus’ life. Jesus did not act out of selfish motives, He didn’t do anything He did out of vanity or an inflated sense of self, despite the fact that...[whisper] He is God.
He didn’t use His position, His title, His identity to on any level express entitlement. Entitlement is the feeling or belief that you deserve special privileges.
Despite the fact that He could have, and He would have been within His rights to do so.
Paul says: “in humility value others above yourselves”. The best definition I know for the word humility is ‘an accurate assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses”.
It doesn’t come to us naturally to value others above ourselves. It comes only as a decision, an act of the will. Our first instinct is usually, in the way we work out our lives practically, is to consider ourselves above others. Paul continues:
4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
He’s driving home the point here. The WAY we value others above ourselves is by considering the interests of others and not our own. Paul is calling for all of us as the church to function with so high a level of maturity and Christlikeness that we can look out for each other.
Look around you. If you knew, really knew that everyone here, and those not here today, was looking out for your best interests, had your back, how would you feel?
Well, we might feel that we don’t NEED to just look out for ourselves because – look whose caring for me, look who loves me, look who gives thought to what best for me.
The early church in Acts REALLY lived this out. It may have been from reflecting on what Paul was hearing about from some Christian communities that he wrote of those early Christians. Listen to this:
Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Acts 4:32 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need”.
Now this happened. In real life, real time. It was the experience of some early believers. Now, it may have broken down, due to the unwillingness of some to enter in to what God was doing among them by His Holy Spirit.
But it still stands as an example of what we can chose to aspire to, and to the KIND of community we can have when we follow the example of Jesus, when we look out for the interests of others.
When we deny ourselves what many feel is a natural right to put ourselves first and foremost, ahead of everyone else.
The Message paraphrase says: “Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand”.
This is challenging stuff, and it’s far enough away from our lived experience that it’s really not hard at all for us to say: “You know. That just DOES NOT apply”.
But, but...what we have in this picture of the early church is an idea of how we can live, of what actual capacity for generosity and sharing and love God has placed in us.
Our capacity is high. My capacity for being generous, because I am in Christ Jesus, is enormous, much greater than I can imagine and much greater, if I'm to be honest, than the way I live. You might be like me. So, again, there’s a decision to make.
Let's look at a corresponding passage to Philippians 2 that we find in the Gospel of Luke.
23 “Then (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
Jesus teaches here something that He has lived. I can imagine Him, as He's speaking here, just remembering His own decision to leave the comforts of heaven, the priveldges of all the majesty of His deity, in order to come to this planet to BE with us.
His decision to leave heaven in order to show us what God is like and then, at the end of His earthly life, to die for our sins.
He remembers His own loving obedience to the Father and then teaches in order to pass this on to His disciples. He asks of you and me nothing that He Himself hasn't live to the full.
Breifly, a very popular fringe of our faith speaks much of prosperity. Of earthly gain. Of material possessions and wealth as being a sign of God’s favour. Some synonyms of prosperity are success, affluence, wealth, luxury.
God’s blessing in my life, in other words, according to prosperity theology, is for me and about me. If doesn't take a lot to realize that this is the opposite to Jesus' actual teaching.
God's blessing in our lives, in whatever form it takes, is intended to go through us to others, to be passed on so that others are blessed.
God is concerned about the blessing of the nations.That started in the Garden of Eden when, after creating Adam and Eve, God blessed them and told them to multiply. That blessing was reaffirmed in Abraham when God told that patriarch that all nations would be blessed through him.
Ultimately God's blessing now comes to us in Jesus Christ, who comes into our life by faith, calls us to a life of discipleship and then, AND THEN, Jesus commissions us to go and make disciples, students of the Way of Jesus.
People sometimes respond with some fear and trepidation to Jesus' teaching on self-denial. We can sometimes recoil with the idea that this means Jesus is calling us to deny ourselves material goods, maybe even some of the necessities of life.
That's not...I have good news...that's not the case. Jesus does call us, throughout the Scriptures, to NOT live in selfish excess, to NOT spend all our resources on ourselves. That's a sad, narrow and ultimately impoverished way to live.
Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun who was a follower of Jesus, prayed this: "Lord, do not punish me, I beg you, by granting what I wish for or ask, if it offends your love which should always live in me. Let me die to myself, that I may serve you: let me live for you, who in yourself are the true life.
Oswald Chambers in his book My Utmost for His Highest explains self-denial as “Surrender for Devotion”: “The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being.
He says, ‘If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me.’ And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever you circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient”
I think this is helpful for us as we try both to understand what self-denial is and how it is a core part of our spiritual formation.
It also helps us to understand that what Jesus calls us to in practicing self-denial, is actually a call to joy.
It's at its heart a giving up of the ultimate control of our lives to God, and to recognizing the best, most joyous AND most purposeful way for us to live our lives is as willing clay in God's hands. Malleable. Permiable. Ready to be formed and shaped for serving God and humanity.
Isn't that just SO MUCH BETTER than living my life for just little old me?
Isn't willingly putting our lives in the hands of the Creator of the universe better than trying to control the variables of our own lives, with only our own comfort and ease as our highest purpose? I think it is. What do you think?
There’s a quote that helps here from author Richard Foster, who testifies to the freedom Jesus gives when we come to Him in true self-denial: “In submission we are free to value other people.
Their dreams and plans become important to us. We have entered into a new, wonderful, glorious freedom, the freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others.
"For the first time we can love people unconditionally. We have given up the right for them to return our love. No longer do we feel that we have to be treated in a certain way. We can rejoice with their successes. We feel genuine sorrow at their failures.
"It is of little consequence that our plans are frustrated if their plans succeed. We discover that it is far better to serve our neighbor than to have our own way.”
So it seems to me that Jesus wants me to live my life as He would live my life. Why? The truth is, when we become more like Jesus, we become more human, more ourselves and more like God in whose image we are created.
So may you and I, as we seek God and as we seek God's best for us, come to willingly embrace the joy of giving our whole selves to God, in faith, trusting that He is good, that His love endures always.
May we live to serve in the way modelled for us, demonstrated for us by Jesus. And may we rejoice in the gift of life eternal, won for us by Jesus Christ, all based on His own merits, His own perfection. In His matchless name we pray. Amen.
