“The Attitude of Christ”
Philippians 2:1-13
Would you agree that there is nearly nothing so beautiful as a person who is both truly strong and truly humble at the same time?
Would you agree that this kind of person is hard to find?
We might know a few people who fit this description, but the majority of us have a very hard time with humility and with strength.
Pastor Craig Groeschel offers this story:
“One time I was praying during worship, a few moments before preaching.
Eyes closed, focusing on God, I felt someone slip a note into my hand.
I never saw who it was, but the note was marked “Personal.’”
He continues, “I thought to myself, ‘Someone probably wrote a nice note to encourage me before I preach.
A warm, loving feeling settled over me as I unfolded the paper.
A moment later, I lost that loving feeling.
Evidently the note was from a woman who had tried to see me on Friday, my day off.
She took offense at my absence and blasted me with hateful accusations.
This happened literally seconds before I was to stand up to preach.
In that moment, I had a choice.
I could internalize the offense and become defensive or demoralized and discouraged.
Or I could ask myself, ‘I wonder what she’s experiencing that caused her to lash out?’
I began to pray.
‘Lord Jesus, please give me YOUR compassion for the person who wrote this letter.
Give me Your attitude; Your strength; Your humility.’”
Groesdhel writes that as soon as he prayed this, his heart began to physically hurt for this woman.
He knew that such a disproportionate reaction must indicate deep pain, and he didn’t take the note personally.
Humility is the ability to get outside ourselves and into the heart and soul of others.
Humility is sanity.
It’s reality.
It is beautiful.
But it is running scarce.
There can be no doubt that we live in an incredibly broken world.
People are shouting over one another.
Talk radio and cable t-v news channels are not helping the situation any as they go 24 hours a day with an endless array of panelists and hosts all angry with one another.
Just watching or listening to it can get your blood pressure up.
How can we learn to listen TO one another instead of yelling AT one another?
How can we learn to include others rather than exclude them?
How can we overcome so many misunderstandings that lead to hate, divisiveness and even violence?
How can we learn to become humble, compassionate people?
I think the answer is right here for us in Philippians Chapter 2: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…”
I mean, we are, after-all Christians, Christ followers.
Right?
The Philippian Church was generally a pretty good church.
They had received the Gospel enthusiastically.
They had even sent Paul a gift when they had heard he was imprisoned in Rome.
This is where Paul was when he wrote the letter.
The only concern Paul seemed to have about the church was that some kind of dispute or feud was taking place between two women in the church whom he mentions by name in Chapter 4.
“I plead with [them],” Paul writes, “to agree with each other in the Lord.”
And that appears to be what Paul has in the back of his mind as he writes our passage for today.
He wants to make sure the church remains unified so that it will be able to keep “pressing on toward the goal…for which God has called [them] heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
In Chapter 1:3-6 Paul writes to the church: “I thank my God every time I remember you.
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”
God begins a good work in us when by grace—we receive the gift of faith—and make the decision to allow Christ to be our Lord and Savior.
But, as we are warned in 1 Peter 5:8 our “enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
And so we are to “resist him,” having the same attitude of Christ Jesus.
“Having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose…”
…and “in humility consider[ing] others better than ourselves.”
This is what conquers evil.
This is what wins the victory over envy and strife.
This is what brings peace.
It is the only way.
Everything else is sinking sand!
Now, we are told that Jesus’ very nature is God—He is God.
But we are not.
Therefore, we are called to imitate Christ.
That is what will make us strong.
When people in the ancient world thought of heroic leaders, rulers and kings they often thought of Alexander the Great who had himself said that people should think of him as “divine.”
Another one was Emperor Augustus.
Many of those who lived under his rule came to think of him as a god as well.
The power of military might and the ability to hold an empire together brought people to this conclusion.
This is what heroic leadership looked like in Paul’s and Jesus’ world.
Only when we grasp this do we see just how utterly counter-cultural it was to declare that Jesus of Nazareth was the world’s true Lord!!!
In Mark Chapter 10 Jesus says to His disciples: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers…lord it over [the people they rule], 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.”
There is a stark difference between the pagan gods and heroes and Jesus of Nazareth.
And there is a huge difference between the persons we worship as if they were gods today and Jesus Christ.
Jesus of Nazareth was a homeless out of work carpenter Who talked to people about loving their neighbor, feeding the hungry, taking care of the widow and orphan, and dying so that others may live.
And unlike Adam and Eve who arrogantly grasped at the chance to be “like God, knowing good and evil,” Jesus made Himself nothing.
Alexander and Augustus were just doing what the human race has always done.
And the leaders of the 21st Century are doing the same thing.
And so am I.
And how about you?
We are all guilty, are we not?
But we are called to have the “attitude of Christ” just the same.
And at the center of that attitude is self-emptying humility and love.
That’s right.
Jesus emptied Himself.
He was not, in other words, some kind of victim.
No one made Him a slave or humbled Him; He took the form of a slave and humbled Himself.
It was entirely of Jesus Christ’s choosing to pour Himself out, even to the point of crucifixion.
For this God has highly exalted Him.
This is the attitude of Christ: not to grasp at glory, but to live, to love, to die, an emptied self.
And we are called to have the same attitude.
What does this look like?
Well, rather than grasping after worldly power, we might hear these words as a call to give up trying to be like God and instead willingly take on the role of servants.
This means identifying completely with human suffering and the marginalized.
As Christians, we are not called to have power over the world.
Rather, we are called to be like Christ Jesus, Who gave up power and privilege to be in the midst of the suffering world.
And the more time we spend serving others who are suffering, the more we will find our lives and attitudes toward ourselves and toward God transform into something which might be called “truly beautiful.”
May it be so for you, for me, for all of us at this little Church on Prater Road in East Ridge.
Amen.
