Technicolor Joy: The Christ Hymn (Part 1)
Philippians 2:5-11
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
6-18-2023
Attitude is Everything
I spent the week with Rich and Ken in Branson, Missouri, while Maxine and Beth were on the beach in the Dominican Republic.
On Tuesday, we went to Silver Dollar City and saw “Nick Wallenda’s Zirkus” show. Nick is a Jesus-loving tightrope walker who holds 14 World Records. He has walked over the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and in between two skyscrapers in New York.
As he and his wife stood on the tightrope above us, he talked about how important his attitude, or mindset, is when he is attempting a new challenge.
When he walked over the Grand Canyon, the wind was gusting almost 50 miles per hour. His grandfather taught him that only he could control his attitude and if he allowed fearful thoughts in while on the wire, he could panic and fall. So instead, he quotes Bible verses to himself to counter any negative thoughts.
As the old 80s ad campaign told us, attitude is everything!
The word attitude comes from a French word for posing for an artist. In its English form, it's a settled way of thinking about a person, event, or circumstance.
Paul knows the Philippians are being opposed by the pagan culture around them and that they are experiencing conflict from within the church.
In chapter two, he calls for an attitude adjustment, a mindset change.
Review
Last week, Paul began by listing four blessings of being in the faith:
Encouragement in Christ
Love of God the Father
Fellowship of the Spirit
Tenderness and Compassion
Since these are realities in their spiritual lives, Paul issues his command - make my joy complete.
Paul knows that this church is a solid church. He doesn’t have to remind them about sound doctrine. He is willing to fight for their joy in the midst of internal conflict.
He is saying, “I love you guys. It gives me joy when I pray for you. Make me even happier by ruthlessly pursuing unity with the church body.”
Being like-minded (Matthew and Simon)
Having the same love (not just mind but heart as well)
One in Spirit (souls that beat together)
One mind (being united in one purpose, one focus, one mission)
Paul wrote to the Ephesians:
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:3-6)
What’s the secret to unity? It’s humility.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.”
The word humble means “a sense of modesty, without arrogance, the opposite of pride.” It produces a correct view of ourselves, our relation to Christ, and others.
When we get the order correct - Jesus. Others. You. That produces JOY!
That humility will lead to holy helpfulness.
“not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
If you weren’t here last week, you can always listen or watch on FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, or our website.
In the verses that we will study over the next two weeks, Paul is going to give the Philippians, and us, three examples of humility, starting with the most amazing model of all - Jesus.
Turn to Philippians 2:5.
Read Philippians 2:1-11.
Prayer.
The Christ Hymn
These verses are the most famous in the letter to the Philippians and some of the most precious in all of the Bible.
Most commentators believe this was an early Christian hymn that Paul’s readers would have known and sung in their gatherings.
Paul takes this hymn and uses it to paint a picture of what true humility looks like.
This morning, we will study verses 5-8 (His humiliation), and next week, verses 9-11 (His exaltation).
Walk This Way
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:”
Paul, with the two women in conflict in his mind and heart, gives them a command - “have the same attitude or mindset as Jesus.”
We can’t imitate his moral perfection or miracles, or redemptive work. But we can imitate his humility.
John wrote:
“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
Paul told the Corinthians:
“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (I Corinthians 11:1)
Peter writing about suffering wrote:
“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (I Peter 2:21)
It’s been said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
Danette and Phil and I went to see the band, “The Hairbangers Ball” in Bloomington last weekend. They are an 80s tribute band.
In other words, they dress, play, and sing like our 80s rock heroes even though they are really millennials from Chicago.
If you have seen the movie “Elvis,” Austin Butler did an uncanny version of Elvis, down to his walk and mannerisms.
In the Christian life, imitation of Jesus is one of the most powerful forms of worship.
Paul is going to highlight His humility as our example but he begins with His preexistent glory.
Pre-Existent Glory
These verses are some of the most beautiful, profound, and controversial in the entire Bible.
We are going to take our time and go through it slowly.
“Who, being in very nature God…”
Paul begins before there was time. This speaks to the pre-existence of Christ as the second Person of the Trinity.
He was in “very nature God.” Your translation may use the word “form.” The Greek word is “morphe.” This is the essential form that doesn’t change. An outward manifestation of an inward reality.
We are humans from the moment of conception. That’s our morphe. But our schema changes from zygote to embryo, to fetus, to newborn, to toddler, to preteen, to teen, to young adult, to middle-aged, then to silver foxes. All the while, we are still humans.
Paul would write in Colossians that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God.” (Col 1:15)
And in 2:9: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…” (Col 2:9)
The author of Hebrews says it this way:
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” (Hebrews 1:3)
The moon merely reflects the Sun’s light. Jesus radiated the glory of the Father.
John wrote:
In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1)
Jesus wasn’t shy about claiming his oneness with God. He told the religious leaders that Abraham rejoiced in his coming. They indignantly responded that He wasn’t even fifty years old and He has seen Abraham?!
I can just imagine Jesus smiling and saying, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” He used the name of God as His own.
When Jesus prayed for His followers in John 17, He said,
“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:5)
In 325, the Nicene Creed was published to combat errors directly related to this verse.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
The only Son of God,
Eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
True God from true God,
Begotten, not made,
Of one Being with the Father.
So Paul establishes that Jesus was 100% God. He had eternally existed as the Second Person of the Trinity. He was worshipped and adored by the angels in heaven and had all the Divine rights and privileges of God.
But here is where we see His humility.
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage…”.
Your translation may say “grasped” or the KJV says “did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.”
Jesus didn’t feel the need to grasp or hold on to His divine place or prerogatives. In His humility, He accepted the terms of the rescue mission that God would send Him on.
He would have to leave heaven and the position of power and authority. And He made that decision willingly.
“rather, he made himself nothing…”
This literally reads “He emptied Himself.” But what did He empty Himself of? That question has led some cults to claim that He emptied Himself completely of His Deity. But that’s not how Paul is using that word.
It’s better translated as nullify, make of no effect, or like the NIV (made Himself nothing).
He divested Himself temporarily of Divine Glory and laid aside the independent use of His Divine attributes.
John Calvin described this as “veiling” and we sing about that at Christmas:
Christ, by highest heav’n adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord:
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus “unzipped” His humanity to let the glory shine out.
In “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain, the Prince trades places with a poor peasant and they live out each other's lives. But at no time does the Prince actually lose his title and prerogatives as royalty.
The story is told of a warrior King that wore an ornamental headdress and ornate robe. One of his warriors fell into a pit and he took off the headrest and robe to climb down and rescue him. At no time during the rescue did He stop being King.
How did He do that? First,
“….by taking the very nature of a servant…”
Here’s that word morphe again. Jesus didn’t act like a servant, His very nature was that of a servant.
His disciples James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and asked if they could have the positions of authority on His left and right in glory.
Jesus replies, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
He is speaking of his suffering.
They arrogantly insist they can. And Jesus tells them they will “drink the cup’ of suffering but their mindset is all wrong.
When the others heard of their request they were indignant. Jesus called them together and said:
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)
They were all speechless when He washed their feet in the upper room. He then tells them that He has done this to spur them on to love and good deeds:
“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:14-17)
Second, He permanently became a human being.
“being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man…”.
Paul is speaking of what we call the Incarnation. This is not a flower but the fact that Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, became a human in every way possible, except for sin.
I love the way Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14:
“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14, The Message)
Jesus was not only 100% God but He permanently took on a real human body and walked this earth.
Imagine we are walking along a dirt path and we come upon an ant hill. It’s obvious that someone has ridden a bike right over the hill and the colony is in total chaos.
What if I got down on my knees and tried to help them put things back together again? How do you think that would work? It would be terrifying! I’m way too big, too overpowering and they would be too afraid to accept my help.
But what if I could become an ant and visit their hill and show them the way back to being a thriving colony?
C.S. Lewis wrote this concerning the incarnation:
“The second person of the Trinity, God the Son, became human Himself and was born into the world as an actual man, a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many pounds, the eternal being that knows everything and created the whole universe, became a man, and before that a baby, and before that a fetus in Mary’s virgin womb.”
If Mary and Joseph were to have an ultrasound, the baby looked…well, like a baby.
He was born, He cried, He had to be changed, He learned to walk, He grew in stature and wisdom, He felt pain, He grieved, He cried, got angry, frustrated, got tired, hungry and thirsty.
He was 100% human. Wait a minute. I thought He was 100% God.
This is the only time in all of history where one plus one = one!
Jesus was fully God and fully man.
Paul told Timothy:
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus…” (I Tim 2:5)
Charles Spurgeon wrote how important Immanuel is:
“It shows how low God bent down to save man; He added the nature of one of His own creatures to His own divine nature, accepting the weaknesses, frailties and dependency that the creature experiences.
It shows what a great miracle it was that God could add a human nature to His own and still remain God.
It shows the compatibility between the unfallen human nature and the divine nature; that the two could be joined shows that we are truly made in the image of God.
It shows that we can come to Him; if He has come to us, then we can come to Him. “Then, if Jesus Christ be ‘God with us,’ let us come to God without any question or hesitancy. Whoever you may be you need no priest or intercessor to introduce you to God, for God has introduced himself to you.”
“History is full of men who would be gods - Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin. But only one God who would be man.”
Thirdly, He
“…He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Jesus left the glory of heaven and was born in a stable in the dustbowl of an obscure town in the Middle East.
Barnhouse wrote, “Love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out is affection. Love that stoops is grace.”
Humans die out of necessity. It is part of our fallen nature. But Jesus made a choice, a decision, to die. But not just any death but death on a cross.
Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified. The cross was only for slaves, criminals, and traitors. It was considered the most barbaric and cruel punishment possible and the word “cross” was actually a curse word that wasn’t spoken in polite company.
Jews considered anyone hung on a tree (crucified) to be cursed.
Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born wrote this prophecy of the Messiah:
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Is 53:4-6)
It was on that cross that Jesus willingly gave His life as a ransom for many. On the cross, God the Father poured out all of our sins past, present, and future on Him. Jesus absorbed the Father’s wrath and turned away his anger.
Jesus carried out his assignment with perfect obedience and joy. We couldn’t reach up to Him so God came down and demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, He died for us, in our place, for our sins.
Jesus died for self-absorbed, self-glorifying people like me…and you. He is our supreme example of humility - emptied himself, took on the form of a slave, humbly accepted death on a cross.
Frederick Lehman wrote:
Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every one a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure -
The saints and angels song.”
Solomon wrote in Proverbs that God “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (Prov 3:34). James and Peter quote this verse in the New Testament.
D.L. Moody put it simply, “Be humble or you will stumble.”
What if we "in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
What would happen if we actually lived this out in our families, at our jobs, and in our churches?
Max Lucado wrote:
“Christianity in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. Christian service in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating Him who we see. To see His majesty and imitate Him, that is the sum of Christianity.”
