Knowing Him: An Example To Live By - Philippians 2:1-11 - December 18, 2011
Series: What’s Jesus Got To Do With Christmas? #2
One of the things I’ve always looked forward to as a parent are those opportunities to watch the kids participate in school productions such as the annual Christmas concert. For the last two years though I’ve been terribly disappointed – not in the children, not in the effort that everyone has put into it, not in the costumes, nor anything like that, but I’m disappointed in the theme of the concert itself. This year the play centered around Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, and the Three Little Pigs. The message of the play? Books are good gifts to give at Christmas.
Santa of course had a significant role in each of these productions but nowhere, and at no time, was there ever any mention of Jesus. And this year, as last year, I sat in the audience and watched as class after class came up to do their bit, and my spirit called out to me one question over and over again: How many of these kids have no idea what Christmas is really all about?
See, God has been taken out of our schools and our schools are the poorer for it. The big push the last few years has been to take “Christ” out of “Christmas.” It’s no longer politically correct to wish someone a “Merry Christmas;” instead you’re supposed to wish them, “Happy Holidays.” Never let go of Christ, no matter how politically incorrect it becomes, because the truth is that every time we shut God out of a part of our lives, society as a whole is poorer for it. You could have asked any man, woman or child who saw that school play the other day, “What’s Jesus Got to do With Christmas?” and based on what they saw and heard there, they wouldn’t have been able to give you an answer.
So what does Jesus have to do with Christmas? That’s the question we asked and began to answer last week and it’s also the title of our Christmas series this year. Last week we were reminded that Jesus is the very heart, the very essence of Christmas. Without Christ there could be no Christmas for Jesus is called “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” In the birth of Christ, God was with in a whole new way and in the coming of Jesus the world experienced God’s love in an entirely different light.
This morning we discover that not only do we experience God’s love in a very real and profound way in Christmas, but that’s in Christmas that we’re shown how it is that we are to love one another, as well. Open your Bibles with me please to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. This is one of the deepest and most stirring passages of Scripture we have and it is one of the core passages from which many of our beliefs about Jesus come to life. These are not, however, your typical Christmas verses and yet they tell the incredible story of the incarnation just the same. Philippians 2, verse 1 …
“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, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming 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 acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1–11, NIV)
Christmas is one of those times of year when families get together. Relatives you might not have seen since last Christmas gather together to eat and celebrate and to catch up with each other’s lives. And most of us are of two minds about that. On the one hand we enjoy seeing family but on the other it’s family and we know that when family gets together there are often tensions that arise or an extra measure of stress that crops up in the household. This of course destroys the joy and peace we were hoping. One of the reasons this happens is because we’re all different – we have different preferences, and habits and expectations. And on one level we know this, but deep down we believe that our way is the ‘right way’ and that no other way of doing things, or celebrating, or preparing is going to be quite as good as our own. When we all insist on our own way, our own expectations, our own preferences, our own purposes even, the unity in the family that we should be able to enjoy, is instead, destroyed.
And you know what? It’s no different in the family of God than it is in our own households. Paul is writing this letter to the family of believers who worship together in the church in Philippi and he’s calling them to unity in Jesus Christ. Why would he have to do that? Because despite all the good things going on at the church there, there were some underlying tensions between the believers. The unity was being eroded. Relationships were being torn apart and the fellowship of the church was being affected as was their witness to their neighbours. And so in the 27th verse of chapter 1, Paul pleads with them to live in a “manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” so that they would be able to stand “firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.” That plea leads us into what Paul has to stay in chapter two.
First of all he gives us the basis of the unity we share. Now we might all have different hopes, fears and dreams. We might have different expectations of one another and our churches and how our faith is best lived out in our communities but there are four things that Paul says true believers are going to have in common and these are going to the be the foundation on which unity can be established. This is common ground and this is what we need to keep coming back to. We find all four of them in verse 1 and we’re going to just touch on them very quickly this morning. What do we share in common?
#1 - As Christians we are all united with Christ. You might see things differently than the person seated next to you but Jesus died for them just as He died for you. Together we share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a shared experience, a shared reality that we have in common and that no-one besides a Christian can ever know.
#2 - We are comforted by the experience of His love. First in the incarnation, then in the cross, then in the resurrection and then in the life and hope we have in Him today. God loves me, just as He loves you, just as He loves the person sitting next to you this morning.
#3 - We share in the same Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is given to a new believer there is not a different spirit given to each of us. We all receive the same Spirit and it’s the same Spirit which works in us the last thing which Paul mentions here …
#4 - We share in a tenderness and compassion that is brought to life by the Holy Spirit at work in us as well. It looks different in each of us, and it’s often expressed differently by each of us, but that tenderness and compassion – let’s call it love for others – is there in each of us as well. If it seems to be to a different degree in each one’s life, it is only to the degree that we have let the Spirit work in our own hearts, and submitted ourselves unto Him, that it will be evidenced.
Paul introduces all four of those things to us by a word, which in English we have translated as, “if,” which is unfortunate because that leaves us with the idea that these things might not be true of us. And yet the wording in the Greek doesn’t suggest the mere possibility of something but rather the certainty of it. So really, you could say, “since we are all united with Christ, since we all share in His love, since we have all been given the same Spirit who works in us tenderness and compassion to the glory of God,” then the result ought to be this like-mindedness that Paul mentions in verse 2. Since we have these things in common we ought to have unity in our midst as well.
The result of this common ground should not be a cookie cutter Christianity where we all look and act exactly the same as one another. God is a God of diversity and creativity. If He wanted us all to be exactly the same as one another He would have made us that way to start with. But He didn’t. Instead He made an incredibly unique creation in each one of us – and we need each other. But because of that common ground, the family of God, despite the diversity within the family, should be brought together and united in love and purpose – a love and purpose that should move us beyond petty differences, beyond the grudges we hold, the hurts we nurse, the bitterness we too often let take root.
When that doesn’t happen, when that unity begins to disintegrate, it’s often because our love has failed and in it’s place has arisen this selfish ambition or vain conceit that demands it’s own way, that’s unwilling to forgive, that’s reluctant to extend grace, that is easily offended and that struggles to think the best of others.
What’s the answer? Verse 3 … to humble ourselves and to value others and not just to value them, but to value them above ourselves. When this takes place we let go of our need to be first, to have our way at any cost, to put ourselves above everyone else. Paul says this was the mindset of Christ Jesus our Lord and when we allow that attitude to prevail in our own hearts we will truly be one in spirit and in purpose and in love. There will be a unity that brings peace to the family, and to the church, which is pleasing to God and striking to the world.
How do we do this? Christmas! Christmas is where we find an example of what just such a life looks like. It’s in the true understanding of Christmas that we see an example of how we can be living each day of our lives. Jesus is our example. We are to have the same attitude towards ourselves and towards others as did He. He is the pre-eminent example of what this life ought to look like, of what our attitude can be.
Verse 6, in the NRSV, says this of Jesus … “who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” When we hear the word “form” we think of “shape.” It’s not what the Greek words means at all. The Greek word carries with it the idea of the very essence of something. Jesus is the very essence of God. Like we heard last week – He is the exact representation of God – not in physical shape but in His very nature. Jesus is fully divine – fully God. But He was also fully man. Verse 7 says He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” Jesus did not stop being God when He was born into this world in the flesh. But what He did do was to empty Himself. He set aside His right to visibly manifest all the glory, and wonder and splendour of who He was, as He became flesh and blood.
Consider that for a moment. The highest of the high, willingly surrendered all of His rights and became a servant, a slave, the lowest of the low. Consider that truth in light of the differences that otherwise well meaning Christians are often willing to allow to sunder relationships and to break their fellowship simply because they insist on their way, their rights, their satisfaction. Verse 8 really puts it in perspective saying, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” Jesus emptied Himself and surrendered His life that you and I might have life. That’s humility and that’s love. And Paul says that the same mind that was in Christ, the mind that lead Him to empty Himself for our sake, is the mind that is to be in us.
Folks, in the mind of Jesus we see humility. He could have demanded His own rights but He chose instead to empty Himself so that He could identify more closely with us. I mean really – God become a baby? Who would have ever dreamed of that? But He became one of us that we in turn might know Him. In doing so we experience the self-sacrificing love of God for us, that He, who was so much more than we are, would choose to become so much less, than He was. And we see it not just by the emptying of Himself, but we see it by the giving of Himself. Jesus says He has come, not to be served, but to serve. That’s what was taking place in those verses that were read earlier in our service. There Jesus says, “I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done for you.” And what had he done? He humble served the disciples. He showed them love in action.
British author Gilbert Chesterson was once asked, along with a number of other prominent authors, to write an essay that would answer the question: What’s wrong with the world? Chesterton’s answer was short and memorable. When his essay was read it consisted of merely two words: “I am,” he wrote, “I am what’s wrong with the world.” How very perceptive and how very true that is of each of us. It’s our own selfish ambition, vane conceit, lust of the flesh, and so on that shapes the world in which we live. Some would say, “Well, that’s just the way people are. We’re just going to have to live with it.” But in the coming of Christmas we see the truth; we see that that’s not the way it needs to be at all for we are to have in us the same mind that is in Jesus. Or, to put it another way, the way we see the world around us, the manner in which we live and do life, should be the same way in which Jesus saw the world, the way He lived and did life.
In Christmas we see that the example that we are to follow, in our families, in our work, in our relationships, in our churches, is that of a humble, self-sacrificing, compassionate love that serves others. Imagine how much our individual worlds would change if we were each to live out the mind of Christ from our own hearts! What wounds would be healed? What divisions closed? What families reconciled? When we adopt the mind of Christ as our own, it will have a dramatic impact on our relationships, our families and our churches.
By His life, He served us. By His death, He saved us. By His example, He showed us how to live. The mind of Christ can be the mind that is in you. That humbleness, that self-sacrificing love, that heart for others that we see so clearly in Him can be evidenced in our lives as well. And we’ll never be more like Jesus than when we love the unlovable; when we love those who have wounded, mocked or rejected us, when we love even those who have abused and betrayed us. And we’ll know that we have loved them when we have been moved to reach out and humbly serve them in some way because, while you can serve without loving, you can’t love without serving. And Jesus shows us the way.
There is an interesting map on display in the British Museum in London. It’s an old mariner’s chart, drawn in 1525, outlining the North American coastline and adjacent waters. The cartographer made some intriguing notations on areas of the map that represented regions not yet explored. He wrote: "Here be giants," "Here be fiery scorpions," and "Here be dragons." [All things that might bring fear to the heart of man.] Eventually, the map came into the possession of Sir John Franklin, a British explorer in the early 1800s. Scratching out the fearful inscriptions, he wrote these words across the map: "Here is God." (God’s Gift of Hope, Brian Moon, www.sermoncentral.com)
In Jesus we can say, “Here is God!” In the brokenness of life, in the hurting of the heart, in the sorrow of grief, in the misery of despair in the needs of the moment we can cry out, “Here is God!” because He has come and dwelt among us and suffered and struggled with us. But even more so, for our purposes this morning, as we adopt the mind of Christ as our own, as we bring the attitude that Jesus lived out into our families, homes, and churches, all the fiery scorpions, dragons and giants that threaten to sunder relationships and interfere with our fellowship, our joy and our unity will be overwhelmed and done away with and we will be able to declare, “Here is God,” in our midst. And the world will cry out, “Here is Christ the Lord” in this people.
And the day will come when “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 pray.
