Philippians 2:1-18 February 8, 2004
You were Created To Become Like Christ
What do you think of when you hear that phrase? Things you should not do?
Colossians3:5-10
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Things that you should do?
Colossians 3:12-14…
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
The do’s ant don’t’s of the Christian life are an important aspect of becoming like Christ. They should be obeyed. We must be righteous people. But, if we only emphasis the do’s and don’ts of the faith we are in danger of a dead legalism that kills the soul and leads to pride.
Today I want to go deeper into becoming like Christ and do some heart surgery. I want to talk about our attitudes becoming like Christ’s.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
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 human being,
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.
Your Attitude, The Same As Jesus’
Jesus Knew Who He Was
“who being in very nature God…”
This phrase could be read in two different ways, “although he was in very nature God…” or, “because he was in very nature God…”. Because he was God he didn’t grasp at the position of being God, Because he was God he became a slave, because he was God he died for us…”
Because Jesus knew his standing, he did not have to prove it through force or coercion.
At his Baptism – Matthew 3:16- 17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Right after this the devil comes and tempts him about his identity
At the Last Supper John 13:3-5
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Before Pilate
John 19 8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."
The reason that Jesus was able to have the attitude of humility that he has is because he knows who he is at the core of his being.
Do you know who you are? When you became a Christian, your identity changed and you were given a new identity in Christ. Do you know who you are in Christ?
Exercise – meditate on the list of who you are in Christ by Andrew Chomiskey – on PowerPoint. Let these words wash over you.
Which phrase do you need to hear God speak over you today? Choose one, write it out in the space provided.
Find a partner, the person beside you will do just fine, trade papers. In God’s voice speak the name they need over your partner. – you can pray a short prayer if you like.
Because Jesus knew who he was he was able to be a slave, he was able to be obedient.
Adam and Eve
Created in the image of God
Genesis 1:27
So God created human beings in his own image,
In the image of God he created them;
Male and female he created them
The serpent comes and tempts them at the core of that statement.
Genesis 2:15-17 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Genesis 3:1-13 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
God made them in his image, and the devil comes and says “do you really want to be like God? If they truly knew that they were made in his image, they would say, “we are like God, leave us alone.”
So the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her and he ate it.
Shame, fear and control enters the picture.
Shame – they realize they are naked
Fear – they hide from God
Control – the fruit in the first place and making clothes to cover – the curse “your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The desire is desire to control, (see Gen 4:7) and the husband takes control.
All of us have inherited the curse of shame fear and control from the first human right down through our family of origin. Even the best parents often resort to the use of shame, fear and control to raise our kids. The church has often used these cursed tools to keep the people in check. We want to control our children or the people in the pews and we use shame or fear to do it. We shame them “you are acting like a baby”, “I’m not sure I could sit in a pew with someone who did that.” we use fear, “do that again and I’ll whack you!”, or we with hold love when they disobey… hellfire and brimstone messages.
Those who have been most impacted by the abuse of shame fear and control often respond by saying “no-one is going to do that to me again, I am going to control my life and situation so that I won’t be hurt again!” Do you hear the problem?
You can see it in other areas of our lives, at work, in sport. My old joke is you look up the word controller in the dictionary and it says “please see pastor.”
We aren’t actually called to control our kids, our spouses, our friends, our employees, employers, or our brothers and sisters in the church. We are supposed to raise our kids up, not knock them down. We are called to serve one another. We are called to encourage one another
Ring of Power
In the Lord of The Rings the evil king Saruman has created rings of power that he gave to the kings of middle earth, but what they do not know is that he created another ring for himself to control the rest of the rings. The quote is “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
The movies are all about the quest to destroy the ring and take the power from the evil lord.
All through the movie, people are tempted to take the ring because of the power that it would give them, but you see through the characters of Golum, Bilbo and even Frodo that if you keep the ring to control the world it eventually controls and destroys you.
In our own lives we have the choice to make. Do we take the way of shame, fear and control, or to we reject the ring, and take the way of Christ which is the way of mercy, love and service?
This is the core of what it means to become like Christ – do we take the way of Adam and Eve, and try to control our own destiny? Or do we take the way of Christ, knowing our identity, and letting God control our destiny.
Adam and Eve chose the way of shame fear and control and they are driven from God’s presence
Jesus takes the way of service, obedience and sacrifice and 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.
Which will you choose?
