He Became Us So That We May Become Like Him

Tom Shrader works through Philippians 2:1-11, framing the great kenosis passage of verses 5-11 within its practical context: conflict between two women in the Philippian church that threatened the congregation's unity. He shows how Paul's portrait of Christ emptying Himself of glory and taking the form of a bondservant is not merely theology but a direct model for how believers are to regard others as more important than themselves. The teaching presses toward application, arguing that no relationship—marriage, church, workplace, or nation—can survive when self-interest dominates, and that only the mind of Christ, received through being in Him, makes genuine humility possible.

“Jesus Christ became like us in order that we might become like Him — and now we can begin to love like this, suffer like this, and yield like this.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Philippians

Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 49 min

Themes: humility, unity, service, self-sacrifice, conflict, christlike living, pride, relationships, navigating conflict, struggling with pride, married couples, new believer, church member in conflict, workplace tension, feeling overlooked, struggling with selfishness

Scripture: Philippians 1:27, Philippians 1:29, Philippians 2:1-11, Philippians 3:1, Philippians 3:3, Philippians 3:5, Philippians 3:7, Philippians 3:12, Philippians 4:2, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 2 Corinthians 5:21, John 1:1-3, John 5:30, John 6:38, John 8:58, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 John 3:14, 1 John 3:17-18, Colossians 1:15-17, Isaiah 6, Isaiah 14:13, Genesis 3:5, Romans 11:25, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 5:5-6

Theological Themes: kenosis, incarnation, christology, sanctification, imitation of christ, servant leadership, soteriology, union with christ

Full Transcript

Introduction and Context

Good morning. Open your Bibles to the book of Philippians, chapter 2. For those of you here for the first time, please take a moment to complete the registration card — we would love to get to know you, and that card will start that process.

Philippians chapter 2 is where we pick up today. Last week we spent essentially our entire time on verse 29: "For to you it has been granted" — given, extended to you — two things. One, that you would believe, and two, that you would suffer. When we think of the things God has given us, we so easily navigate to this idea of believing in Him. We understand we are saved by grace through faith. But He also said that suffering is ordained and comes into your life, and God uses it in a significant way. It was a wonderful time and a great reminder that we as followers of Christ are not exempt from what happens to the world. We have trials, tribulations, and difficulties just like everyone else. In addition to that, there will at times be persecution as well, and God grants it and uses it for our own good, so that we will eventually become wonderful display cases for His grace and His mercy.

Overview of the Passage

Today we are going to look at verses 1 through 11 of chapter 2. At the center of this section, beginning in verse 5 through verse 11, is a wonderful passage that will be familiar to many of you. I am very conscious of the fact that at East Valley Bible Church some of you know these passages very well, while for others this is the very first time you have been in the book of Philippians. There are two, three, even four different categories of listeners, and as we work through the passage we need to keep that in mind.

Verses 5 through 11 present the picture of Jesus Christ, who existed before this earthly life, who empties Himself — not of His deity but of His glory — and takes the form of a man, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. It is a wonderful communication from the Apostle Paul, reminding us of the great gift we receive when we understand that Jesus came and accomplished exactly what He said He would do. It is really an expansion of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, where he said, "He, God, made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." There are volumes written about verses 5 through 11, and we will certainly touch on them today, but they are not the primary focus. We want to keep what we have here in its context, and I am going to labor to make sure we do that.

Ray Stedman and the Temptation to Lose Context

By way of introduction to this section, Ray Stedman writes: "Now we come to what I think is the most breathtaking passage in all of Scripture. This is the passage on the de-glorification of our Lord Jesus. It is the Mount Everest among the mountain peaks of revelation concerning the person of Christ — the amazing story of how the eternal Son of God stepped out of eternity and into time and became a man as God intended men to be. In these few short verses, in this simple little letter written to the believers at Philippi many miles away from Rome, is captured some of the most amazing theological truths that have ever confronted the minds of men."

It is interesting that when I came back to Stedman — this morning, in fact, when I was already done and had everything together — I thought, I haven't read any Ray Stedman. Let me see what he says. Let me see if he wrestled with this passage the way I did. He came to exactly the same tension I had felt as I worked through today's lesson. He said, "It's an amazing passage, yet I think there's a temptation as we study it to forget its background, remove it from its context, and treat it as a passage on systematic theology."

Stedman continued: "We must never forget that this passage is set against the backdrop of two quarreling ladies in the church at Philippi. That quarrel was threatening to destroy the unity of the whole church. The Apostle has made it clear already in this letter that the secret of maintaining unity is humility. Wherever there is contentiousness, it is a revelation of the presence of pride. Pride in a single individual life, in a family life, in a church, in a government, in a whole nation always destroys, divides, sets one person against another, perpetuates conflicts, breaks up marriages, partnerships, and every union of every sort."

The Two Women at Philippi

Let me remind you of something. If you look at the very end of this book — chapter 4, as Paul begins to close the letter — he makes reference to exactly what Stedman is describing. He writes: "Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved." And then he gets to the heart of what he is addressing: "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are written in the book of life."

We do not have any of the details. All we know from the background is that something has happened between these two women. We do not know what it is. My assumption, based on how Paul identifies them here as co-laborers, is that they have been part of this church — and a vital part of it — but something has arisen between them that is causing some level of strife and contentiousness within the body. And as you well know, something like this that happens between two people never stays contained.

The Context of Unity in Philippi

This conflict was between two people. Rarely do both parties have the discipline to work those things out one to another, but it spills over — and in this case it spilled over into the church at Philippi. Paul is pleading with them to live in harmony and gives them today the supreme illustration of how they can live this way.

What we see in verse 1 is a continuation of the idea Paul introduced in chapter 1, verse 27, where he said, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear that you are standing firm in one spirit and one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Chapter 2, verse 1 becomes a direct continuation of that same thought. Let's read verses 1 through 4, first from the New American Standard, and then from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase.

Here is what the New American Standard says: "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit and intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." That is the context leading up to the wonderful passage beginning in verse 5: "Have the mind in you that is also in Christ Jesus."

What Paul is doing here is not only teaching great doctrine — he is giving us an example of how we live in peace and harmony, how we do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, and how we do not look out only for our own interests. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase puts it this way: "If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if His love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care, then do me a favor. Agree with each other. Love each other. Be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front. Don't sweet-talk your way to the top. 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."

The Meaning of "If" in Verse 1

As we look at verse 1, we notice that Paul uses the word translated as "if" four times. There is a sense in which there is an "if" and then a "then." However, the word translated "if" is probably better rendered "since" or "because." When we hear the word "if," we think of something uncertain — maybe, maybe not. But that is not at all what Paul is saying. He is referring to something that has already been done. He is saying: since you are in Christ, since you have been part of His love, since you have the fellowship of the Spirit, and since you have affection and compassion — make my joy complete by remaining of one mind.

Who Are You?

Last week in the first service, we stepped briefly into verse 1 without covering it in the other services. So this portion may be somewhat repetitious to some of you — and if so, that is fine, because we probably need to hear it again. We talked about this phrase, "if there is any encouragement in Christ" — that favorite expression of Paul's for what it means to be a Christian, to be in Christ. The question that idea raises is this: who are we?

Suppose someone comes up and asks, "Who are you?" And the answer is, "Tom Schrader." They say, "No, don't tell me your name — who are you?" So the answer becomes, "Well, I teach Bible, I have this Priority Living study and some other things." They respond, "I didn't ask what you do. Who are you?" So then: "I'm a husband to Susan, a father to Sarah and Haley, a grandfather to Braden and Yale and Gracie and another one coming soon." They say, "I didn't ask you that. Who are you?" And so it continues: "I'm a friend to some."

The reason that question is so important is twofold. First, we have been searching for the answer since the beginning of time. We grow tired of it, perhaps even wary of the questions — who am I, why am I here, where am I going — but they are basic, fundamental questions. Who am I, really, at my core? That is a great and legitimate question, and the Bible certainly addresses it.

The second reason the question matters — and perhaps the more important one — is this: whoever I understand myself to be is where I will go to find my value, my meaning, and my purpose. If someone says, "Who are you?" and the answer is, "I'm a lawyer," what happens when you are no longer practicing law? If you asked Tom Brady, "Who are you?" and he said, "I'm a quarterback for the New England Patriots," what happens when he is no longer quarterbacking? The same applies to every identity we anchor ourselves to.

Consider the identity of "mother." At East Valley Bible Church, and in conversations with people from other churches, there is an almost epidemic rise of women leaving their husbands. We have traditionally assumed it was always the man who left, but we are seeing that change — women who have been married twenty, twenty-five, thirty years are walking away. What often happens is that their whole identity has been "mom," and once the children are raised, there is a crisis. They go to the class reunion, they see someone they knew thirty-five years ago, and they run off to start a new life all over again — whatever the specific version of that looks like. This issue of who you are is at the very heart of it.

The Foundation: Being in Christ

This is really important because it's where you are going to find meaning and value — it's where you are going to look for meaning and value. Whose praise am I concerned about, yours or God's? What is my purpose for being here? What Paul is saying is, if in fact you are in Christ, if in fact you have experienced this comfort of His love, His love for you — 2 Corinthians 5:14: "for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded that one has died for all." He is trying to describe what it means to be in Christ. We have been comforted by His love. We have participated with the Spirit.

You and I have the Holy Spirit that indwells us and has knit our hearts together. This week in a pastoral staff meeting, we were talking about a variety of things, and as part of our time of devotion, we went to a variety of pictures and passages from Scripture that talked about the body. The assignment I was given that morning was to read a bit from 1 Corinthians 12 — the idea of the body, how there are many parts, using the illustration of the physical body. There is a foot and a knee and a hip, an eyeball and a tooth and an ear and an elbow, and though the physical body is made up of many parts, it is still one body.

Paul makes a wonderful picture here. He says we have a real problem if the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body," or if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body." He says you may have parts that feel unworthy. Then he turns it around and says, "If the eye said, 'I have no need of you'" — he begins to talk about how a body functions, how many parts come together into one body. It is the same idea he has here of participation and fellowship in the Spirit.

Many Parts, One Body

There is going to be a variety of people who have a variety of expressions. We see things differently. We live differently. We have different giftedness. Some of you are incredibly emotional and very sensitive — you cry every time a new store opens, you begin to weep, you are just compelled by the passage of time before you. Others of you, it is strictly linear, strictly thought. And oftentimes what makes things interesting is you marry each other.

The same thing is true in the body of Christ. It is amazing — you can take ten people, put them in a room, begin to talk about things, and they see things differently, feel things differently, and experience things differently. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, that is God's design. I was in a meeting not long ago where two men were exactly like that, and one said, "I need to think for you, and you need to feel for me" — meaning they needed each other desperately in that relationship.

Paul is making a point here. He says that if you are in Christ and you have participated with the Spirit, then you have, as he says at the end of the verse, affection and compassion. This reminds us of Christ and His meekness. He says if you have those things, then what he wants is for his joy to be made complete — by being like-minded, maintaining the same love, united in the Spirit.

Paul as a Living Example

I suggest that the Apostle Paul gives us, in himself, an incredibly accurate picture of how this begins to look — though I am not sure he intends to do that. Look at chapter 1, verse 1. Paul identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. He then unpacks everything going on, including his imprisonment. And he says, because he is a bondservant, in verse 18, even though the gospel is being preached by some with selfish ambition, even though there are some who are trying to do him harm, "in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice." Paul is saying this is not about him — this is about the gospel.

Even in his own mind, and we will look at this in a couple of weeks, chapter 3, verse 1, Paul begins to lay out who he was humanly speaking, especially as it relates to faith and religion. He is — and we said this last week, not in a pejorative way — he is a super Jew. If anybody had confidence in the flesh, he says in chapter 3, verse 3, if anybody could work his way out, if anybody could earn his salvation, it would be him. He says, "I have done all these things," and you see them listed beginning in verse 5: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the Law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church." He did not merely play at religion — he did not just attend synagogue. He took his faith right into the marketplace. He understood, at least in his mind, that those Christians were an enemy of the faith, and he was going to go and get them.

But then, he says, all of a sudden there was a role reversal — the very role reversal he describes here in chapter 2, verse 1. All of a sudden, he is now in Christ. Conversions take place. He says in chapter 3, verse 7, "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I now count lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

Pressing On Toward the Goal

Because that is true — and this is his personal illustration — he says in verse 12 of chapter 3, here is what he wants to do: he wants to know Jesus more and more. "Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on to lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize."

Unity in Love and Purpose

Paul says here is what has happened in his life — it is, again, an expression of what you see in chapter 2, verse 1. He is in Christ. He has experienced the love of Christ. He has experienced the fellowship with the Spirit, and now he begins to live this. He is calling a church that is in the midst of at least some potential problem — we do not know what it is, some sort of strife. As we said, in chapter 4, verse 2, he mentions two women by name, which I am sure would get their attention for all eternity, as long as this word lasts.

He says, since you are there, and since you are followers of Christ, since you are Christian, since you have experienced His love, since you have His fellowship, since you understand meekness and humility — make my joy complete by being of the same mind. That means literally to think the same thing about doctrine and about behavior, to be like-minded, to be of the same love. It means to be devoted to one another in love, to begin to share one another's burdens.

John, the one who writes the gospel, also writes the little letters in the back, and he speaks of us loving one another in a very material way. First John, chapter 3, verse 14, he said, "We know that we have passed out of death and into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love the brethren abides in death." First John 3:17: "Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth."

This idea of being like-minded and in the same love means action toward one another. It means that we are devoted and care for one another. It is filled with the "one anothers" we see in Scripture — that we are in this mystical body somehow united together, and we have the great privilege of ministering to one another.

So, again in verse 2, we are united in spirit. The word used here — the only time it appears in the New Testament — carries with it the idea of being one-souled, united together in spirit and soul as one person. Here is what Paul says: he wants to see this church moving together, understanding there is diversity, that this is not uniformity, but that they are united — united in the same mind, the same love, the same spirit, and intent on the same purpose. What is the purpose? In the overarching sense, it is the continuation of the gospel. That is what he comes back to again and again — the striving for the gospel.

The Contrast: Selfishness Versus Humility

Now the admonition, verse 3: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit — but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others." From the Phillips translation: "Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but should learn to see things from the other person's point of view."

Let us unpack some of these words. Paul says, here is what he does not want us to do: do not be motivated by selfishness. That is the idea of unbridled selfish ambition — it is consuming, it is destructive, it is sinful. And then there is empty conceit, a phrase that appears only this one time in the New Testament. It carries with it a highly exaggerated self-view, an arrogant pride. Romans 11:25 calls it being wise in your own estimation. That is how we are naturally. That is natural man. That is everyone who comes into the world.

But Paul is talking here about people who are in Christ, and he says this is still a struggle. We still flinch toward ourselves. We still look out for number one. He says, do not do that. Why? Because we are never going to be able to hold this church together if we live that way.

Here is the contrast: "But with all humility, humility of mind." It is the opposite of selfish ambition. It means literally lowliness of mind — the opposite of the sin of pride — the idea of looking out for and regarding one another as more important than yourselves. "More important" means to excel, to surpass, to be superior to. The question is: how do you view other people? How do you look upon them? Are they just tools? Are they simply here for your disposal?

The Problem Is Not Just a Church Problem

Paul identifies a problem in the church at Philippi, but it is not just limited to that church. It appears in churches anywhere, and it appears in every relationship you can imagine. There is probably a temptation to hear this and think, oh, that is a church thing — I do not really care that much about it. But no — this is the relationship called marriage. This is every business relationship you know. No relationship at all can survive when one person thinks more highly of themselves than the other.

We had a long conversation this week about the world — a big topic. I am not sure at the end of the day whether we did not cause more problems than we solved, but at least we talked about them. We talked on a variety of levels: what the Democrats are doing, what the Republicans are doing, the struggles they have. We talked about management and labor, about business, about church, about families, about countries. We came to this conclusion: it is getting very difficult to lead. It is getting very difficult to hold relationships together. Everything seems very fragile.

Here is why I am convinced of that. There are thousands of books out on how to be a leader. All you have to do is go to Google today and type in "leader," and you will get millions and millions of references. But type in "how to be a follower" and hardly anything comes up. Now, to be clear, Scripture has a great deal to say to leaders about how to lead in a loving and serving way — and that is important.

The Art of Living Together

The illustration Jesus gives us is not only to follow, but to live together. It is this art — not a science — of living together, yielding to one another, looking out for each other's interests, putting things in their proper perspective. Years ago, there was a giant controversy in the church around the idea that you will never love someone else until you love yourself first. There were people in the church teaching this, pointing to the command to love your neighbor as yourself and saying the whole point is that you must first love yourself.

But the whole point Jesus is making, the whole point Scripture is making, is that you naturally love yourself. The problem is not that you do not love yourself. The problem is that the reflexive, instinctive love you have for yourself is exactly the love you are to have for others.

Consider marriage as an example. If all Tom is concerned about is meeting Susan's needs, and all Susan is concerned about is meeting Tom's needs, tell me how that does not work. It is impossible for that relationship to fail. In theory, you could take any Christian man and any Christian woman, arrange the marriage, and it should work — though in practice, of course, that is another matter.

When Tom and Susan married, neither of them knew Christ, and each had married expecting to be made happy. Within three months, both of them were unhappy and unsure the marriage would survive. What changed was not a shelf of books or a round of counseling, though those things have their place. God saved Tom, and when He did, He made it clear: Susan is more important to you than you are. It is more important for you to meet her needs than to have your own needs met. Then God saved Susan, and the same transformation took place in her. Suddenly both of them were asking, "What can I do for you?" That dynamic is not natural — it is supernatural, and it belongs in every relationship.

The Mindset of Christ

Paul writes, "Have the attitude in you which is also in Christ Jesus" — have the mindset of Christ, this grid by which we evaluate and see the entire world. Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 5 this way: "Think of yourself the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself." Once you begin to see the world as Jesus sees it, you begin to respond and act within that world as Jesus acted.

The theological term *kenosis* becomes the picture here. It is the idea of Jesus preexisting in glory, emptying Himself, becoming a man, dying, and then being restored to that position. That arc is captured right there in verse 5. And we must remember the context, because the temptation is to dive into all the theology — and we will touch on it — but Paul's point in using this illustration is not to unpack a complete systematic theology. His point is to say there is a fundamental problem, at minimum between these two women in the church at Philippi and likely in other areas of the church as well, and the solution is to begin to think like Christ.

Christ, Paul says, "although He existed in the form of God" — and that word *form* does not simply refer to outward appearance or image. It means exactly the same in essence. John opens his Gospel this way: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." When Jesus confronts the Pharisees in John 8:58, He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."

Colossians 1:15 speaks of Jesus this way: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Jesus all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." This is Jesus Christ — God. One God, three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Grasping Versus Emptying

He did not regard equality with God — that exact sameness of essence — as something to be grasped, something to cling to. Instead, He emptied Himself. And that is the exact opposite of how Satan thought.

In Isaiah 14:13, as Lucifer falls, God recounts what was in his heart: "I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High." That ambition — to seize equality with God — is precisely what Christ refused to cling to.

This is not entirely different from the temptation of Adam. In Genesis 3:5, the serpent says to the woman, "You surely will not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And man looked at what was offered, already having God's own way, and yet reached for more.

The Self-Emptying of Christ

Man aspired to be more like God. This is exactly the opposite of how we think naturally, humanly. It is not how Lucifer thought, and it is not how we think. We wanted to grasp the idea of being like God. We did not want to empty ourselves of anything — we wanted to fill ourselves with this idea of being God.

Jesus Christ exists in the form of God. He did not regard this as something to be grasped. He emptied Himself. What did He empty Himself of? John MacArthur lists five things.

He emptied Himself, first of all, of His divine glory — that position in which He was worshiped by the saints and the angels. Second, He emptied Himself of His divine authority. He says while He is on this earth in John 5, "I can do nothing of my own initiative. I don't seek my own will but the will of Him who sent me." John 6:38: "I've come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of Him who sent me." In Gethsemane, three times He says, "My Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not My will but Your will be done."

He also emptied Himself of a voluntary exercise of some of His divine attributes. There were times when He looked and understood what people were thinking, and there were other times where He says the Son of Man does not know the day or the hour of the return. He emptied Himself as well of His eternal riches — He became poor for our sake, not monetarily, but by leaving the throne and coming here. And He emptied Himself temporarily of His unique, intimate, face-to-face relationship with His heavenly Father. As the passage we read at the beginning states, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we may become the righteousness of God.

The Form of a Bond-Servant

He emptied Himself, and He took the form of a bond-servant — the same description, by the way, that Paul uses of himself in verse 1. A bond-servant was the lowliest form of servant, owning nothing, including the very clothes on his back. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. He leaves that position we see in Isaiah 6 and takes the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of man, found in the appearance of man.

He humbled Himself to the point of death. He was arrested, tried, beaten, scourged, and spit upon. He humbled Himself to the point of death — but not just death. Death on a cross: the most excruciating, painful, and shameful form of execution that man knows.

He did it for a reason. As 1 Peter 2:24 says, "He bore our sins on His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness." He died, but He died for our sin.

The Cry of Desolation

There is that moment on the cross that we have been working hard to prepare for this Good Friday. We want to do something a little different — there is a teaching component to it — and one of the most powerful moments is when He cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" That is the moment in time when Jesus is separated from the Father. In that moment, He experiences all the pain and all the judgment of your sin. He takes upon Himself exactly the agony, the suffering, the pain, and the punishment that you, I, and we deserve for our sin.

We come then to the point of death, even death on a cross — and for this reason, God also exalted Him. Now He is lifted up. God exalted Him, and His is the name above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

The Central Event of the Christian Faith

This is the magnificent truth of the cross. I was reminded of a study this week: one third of Luke's gospel deals with the last week of Christ's life. Forty percent of Matthew's gospel deals with the last week of Christ's life. Fifty percent of the gospel of John deals with the last week of Christ's life. Sixty percent of Mark's gospel is devoted to it.

This is central to us. This is the Christian faith. Everything before it looks toward it. Everything since looks back upon it. It is where we find our hope. It is where we find our salvation.

Becoming Like Him

The model Paul has in mind here is the suffering and humiliation of Christ. He did not have to experience it, but He did — motivated by love for us. James Boyce writes that the meaning of the incarnation of Jesus Christ is this: Jesus Christ became like us in order that we might become like Him. Are we going to be deity? No, that is not what he is saying. But in order that we can now begin to love like this, suffer like this, and yield like this — not driven by our rights, our privilege, and our demands.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 5, "Humble yourselves. God is opposed to the proud, gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you at the proper time." It is exactly the same idea that is here. Do not worry about your praise and your exaltation, about what people will think of you, about your agenda. God will get to that later. Right now, He wants to use you in a significant way in every relationship, and at the essence of that is being able to yield.

The Natural Pull of Pride

Jesus said it this way: we have to deny ourselves — our wants, our needs, our agenda. We begin to acknowledge that by nature we are prideful people, and that our instinct is to fight for our own. To tell us to look out for number one is a waste of energy. We do that instinctively.

The "What About Me" Problem

Whenever I traveled, I would always bring back at least a T-shirt. If Sarah came in and I gave her her T-shirt and Haley was there, it didn't take two seconds for her to say, "What about me? What about me?" And we just go through our whole lives asking, "What about me?" No relationship, no marriage, no parent-child relationship, no management-labor dynamic, no church can withstand that question: "What about me? What are you going to do for me?" Watch any presidential debate, and when they ask people on the street if they have a question for the candidate, the answer is always, "What are you going to do for me?" You cannot have 400 million personal agendas driving a country.

What Paul is saying in verse 27 of chapter one is: conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Because you are in Christ, because you know His love, because you have fellowship with the Spirit, because you have experienced His affection and compassion, He wants us to be same-minded. That doesn't mean identical. It doesn't even mean that you cannot disagree, or that you cannot disagree and separate. But it means that at the heart of everything, there is a shared commitment to the intent and purpose of the gospel, and in the middle of any division, what I have to guard against is the desire to have it my way — "What about me?" That is what Paul is saying.

Working Out What Is Already Within

He is saying we need to begin to look at the world around us and live accordingly. That is verse 12: "Beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation." We will unpack that more next week, but notice what he says: work out your salvation. He does not say work for your salvation, or work forward to your salvation. He is saying there should be a visible manifestation of the fact that you are in Christ. What does that look like? Chapter one, verse 27 tells us: you conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel.

I want to plead with you to begin to look around at the people you can serve. I am always looking for the "so what" — not just what does a passage say, but so what do I do with it? As I began thinking about looking at people in other places, I thought of an old country western song: Garth Brooks, "I've Got Friends in Low Places." The rest of the song does not quite work for this setting, but when I searched for the lyrics online, somewhere around the third or fourth result, something else came up with the same title.

Friends in Low Places

It was a blog post. A woman wrote that her son's stillbirth on November 1st, 2007, forced her to make a critical life decision: sink or swim. She wrote that she had never been a strong swimmer, but she came up for breath. Her resurfacing in life and in spirit was, she said, the only decision she could have made — for herself and for her son.

She titled that first post "I've Got Friends in Low Places," and this is what she wrote: "I'm surrounded by pain, hurt feelings, lost dreams — deep, unrelenting, unending pain. And it's not just my own. Every morning I wake up, and after the kids are fed and go off to school, I log into my blogger account and one by one go through my favorite blogs. As I read along, I hurt, I ache, I commiserate. Sometimes I laugh, but most times I cry. I can physically feel the hurt in each one of these women, and I can relate to their pain. Our stories — some different, some the same, some new, some old — have one constant theme throughout: a very much loved, wanted, cherished, but dead baby."

Opening Your Eyes to the People Around You

Here is the point. If you want to move away from thinking more highly of yourself, if you want to begin thinking of others instead, you do not need a complicated plan. All you have to do is open your eyes and look around. There is hurt and pain and suffering all around you. The opportunity to yield — over and over again — is all around you.

It shows up in its simplest forms. Somebody cut me off in the parking lot last Sunday. And I am sure I have done the same thing. But as long as I am driven by "me" and "what about me," that is the problem Paul is addressing. He is saying you do not need to learn to be a leader so much as you need to learn to be a follower — a follower of Christ. Chapter two, verse one points us to what it means to be in Him, and because of that, to no longer be driven by selfishness. Will there be conflicts? Of course. Will there be disagreements? Certainly. Do you need to continually examine yourself? Absolutely.

The Weekly Virus Scan

My wife Susan was dealing with a computer problem recently, and she said she would scan it for a virus. She scans it every week, and this time it came back with something like 87 issues. I thought: that is exactly what I need to do to myself, at least every week if not every day. I need to scan my own life. I need to see the viruses in there. I need to make sure my motives are correct. I need to make sure I am not driven by my own agenda in my relationship with Susan, or with you, or with anyone else. I need to make sure that whatever conflict arises is driven not by me wanting my own way, but by God beginning to work in our lives. Is that not a wonderful truth?

The Ultimate Illustration: Jesus

Paul offers an illustration, and there is no better one than this: think like Jesus. Here is Lucifer — here is Adam — grasping at the desire to be like God. And Jesus does the opposite. He does not grasp, does not cling to equality with God, but empties Himself of that and takes the form of a bondservant, becoming obedient to the point of death. Why? So that He can achieve the mission He was sent to accomplish: to save people from their sin. And why does He do that? Because of His wonderful love for them. That is what drives Him — not pride, but humility. That is the example before us as we come to chapter two, verse 12.

Closing Announcements and Save the Date

He starts talking about how we're supposed to live, and he continues to unpack this just a little bit more. We will pick up there in two weeks. Next week is World Expo.

The other day I got in the mail a save-the-date card from some kids who were getting married. Let me give you a save-the-date card of our own. March 9th — that is a Sunday morning. Why don't you save the date and make sure you are here? We had a plan and a discussion that we wanted to share with you on Anniversary Sunday, which was the first of November, and we have had a chance to revisit and rework that. We will really be talking about a state of the church. So save the date: March 9th.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for this truth. Will You take our hearts? We don't need to love ourselves anymore — we just need to love You more. I am blown away by James Boyce's idea that the meaning of the incarnation of Jesus is this: that Jesus becomes like us in order that we could become like Him. Father, let us be like Christ. Let us love the things that He loved and hate the things that He hates. Let us have the same agenda that He had, and let us be driven not by selfishness or empty conceit. God, we thank You for Christ. We pray to You in His name, amen.

Have a great week.