Let This Mind Be in You — Philippians 2

0:00 Good morning. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we bow before you this morning, thanking you for this time that we have to open your word. We pray that you would speak to us. We ask that you would speak to us.

0:17 May our hearts be opened. May our hearts be soft to hear your words. Pray that you would take control of this meeting and and let your spirit speak to us. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Turning your Bibles to Philippians two, if you would.

0:43 Today, we're starting a topical study over the next several weeks. We're studying Christ and with a destination, if you will, after studying some of Christ, how does this knowledge that we have of Christ, how does that motivate us in terms of body life? How does knowledge of Christ, knowledge of who he is, his person, his works, how should this spur us to action in the local body specifically? So, that's kind of where we're we're going to be looking over the next several weeks. We're starting today in Philippians two.

1:38 Let's read it. Perhaps this is a obvious choice. This might seem an obvious choice when you want to study Christ. Let's read the first, 11 verses or 12. If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose, Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.

2:27 Do not merely look out for your own personal interests but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he existed in the form of god, did not regard equality with god, a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We'll stop there.

3:19 So, as we look to study Christ, as to remind us of who Christ is and what he's done. We look at this passage as a glorious and a profound declaration regarding Christ's humility and his exaltation. And we as Christians can rejoice in the fact that the Son of God was willing to come as a man, but he was he was willing to come to each of us individually as a man and not stopping at healing and teaching. But he went to the cross as the paramount expression of his perfect love. This passage not only contains profound doctrine but it points to Christ as the pure and perfect and ultimate example that he is for us to follow.

4:27 When you read some more of the context of Philippians, even just the beginning part of this chapter, we can understand that Paul was writing to the Philippian church and they were having some issues with unity. Euodia and Syntyche are mentioned specifically in chapter four. But I think we can reasonably assume that they were having issues reconciling differences of opinion, having a hard time struggling with unity in the local body. And Paul writes this to teach unity through humility and sacrifice by looking at Christ. As is the most perfect and fitting way to do it.

5:23 We'll start actually in verse five. The first four verses are giving a little bit of that context. Paul's pleading with the Philippians about their unity and when he starts in verse five, he says, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus or many translations have the word mind. Have this mind in you. Let this mind be in you.

6:18 Let this mind be in you. Kenneth Weest said this about this. He said, Paul does not give all that is in the mind of Christ in these verses. He selects those qualities of our Lord, which fits the needs of the Philippians at that moment. This lack of unity among the Philippian saints became the occasion for perhaps the greatest Christological passage in the New Testament that sounds the depths of the incarnation.

6:54 Let this mind be in you. It is so easy for us to read this description of the Lord Jesus Christ and to marvel at it from a distance. God wants us to be awed by it. Absolutely, we should be awed by it. But we should also see it as something that we must imitate.

7:21 And the word that he says, let this mind or have this mind, have this attitude, it means we have a choice. It means that that there's a conscious decision that must be made here. We must let this mind be in you. Now, this mind is granted to us by god. Let's not forget that.

7:41 First Corinthians two sixteen says that we have the mind of Christ. But let this mind tells us it's something we must consciously choose to walk in, to let it be so. Have this mind in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse six, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, or did not count it robbery to be considered equal with God, and the various permutations of that. So we have two seemingly conflicting aspects of Christ to consider here.

8:29 Is he equal with the father or is he not? He's counted as equal here and in John ten thirty Christ says, I and the Father are one. In John fourteen twenty eight, he says that the Father is greater than And in Matthew 24 Christ says that the Son doesn't know but only the Father. Really poor paraphrase. Right.

8:57 So there's some of this, you know, in what aspects are they equal and in what aspects are they not. And perhaps, obviously, we hold that they are equal, absolutely, and there is no contradiction. But what does it mean that Christ had equality with God? That they were equal? I already mentioned John 10 and we'll read it there for just really quickly so I don't butcher it too much poorly, too much more poorly.

9:33 John ten twenty nine-thirty. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. The word one there is the Greek word hen. And it means one in essence or in power or in quality.

10:00 Is in the neuter gender and it doesn't mean one person. It means one, it means unity, it means one in essence. And so snatching from the father's hand is the same as snatching from Christ's hand and vice versa. For they are one in power, one in agreement. When Jesus Christ prays for his disciples in John 17, he prays that the disciples would become one and it's the same Greek word there.

10:30 It's hen. So, he's not, he's obviously not praying that the disciples become one person. It's that they be one in essence. He's praying for unity of mind and so, I and the father are one. It is unity of mind.

11:44 So, to to do this passage any justice, we've we've gotta be spending some time in the Greek because English really lacks here. So, he existed. So, generally speaking in English, we say this is existed past tense. So, he did formally, formerly exist in the form of god But that's not what the Greek means. The Greek word there existed is which means that he was in continuation of what he was before.

12:16 So he was this before and he still is in continuation of it. It is not the Greek participle on from the word which means I am or I have been or or begin to be. Being in his essential form as God, John one:one, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In this being in the essential form of God, he continued to be that when he became man and while he was man. It was a continuation of it.

12:55 In English, I could say, I can say, I am married, present tense and that doesn't give any indication as what I was yesterday or what I will be tomorrow. That it doesn't actually imply that and if I said, I was married last week, that also doesn't indicate technically that I am today or that I'm going to be in the future. We don't have a a way to really convey that. But this is what the Greek is talking about. It's that he was and then he became man and it stayed that way.

13:24 It continued that way. He existed in the form of god. He was the form of god. And he didn't count it robbery to be considered equal with god. Why was it not robbery?

13:36 The Greek word is harpagmos which literally is the same thing as robbery. But when you think about robbery, you think about something that is forcibly taken. Something that is eagerly coveted. The object of plunder is being coveted. So why wasn't it robbery to be considered equal with God?

13:55 Because he had it. It wasn't something that could be grasped because it was already possessed. The essence of his deity was not something he took upon himself from time to time or occasionally. It is something he always has, had, and will have and can never be taken. So we've just discussed Christ's equality with God.

14:29 But there's another aspect of equality. We've just discussed, we could call this personal equality. The Lord Jesus Christ was personally equal with God in every way. But he emptied himself, verse seven, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men. When Christ came to earth now, his positional equality changed.

15:02 We can call this his personal equality and his positional equality. The personal equality never changed but the position he was in changed. When Christ was with the father in heaven from all eternity past, the personal and positional equality were there. When Christ came to Earth, he relinquished the joys of being in heaven and came to an infinitely lower place. He emptied himself.

16:01 Edwin Gifford put it like this, Thus it is not the nature or essence but the mode of existence that is described in this second clause. And one mode of existence may be changed for another though the essential nature is immutable. Let us take Paul's own illustration in second Corinthians eight:nine, Though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty might become rich. Here in each case, there is a change of the mode of existence, but not of the nature. When a poor man becomes rich, his mode of existence is changed, but not his nature as a man.

16:41 It is so with the Son of God. From the rich and glorious mode of existence, which was the fit and adequate manifestation of his divine nature, he, for our sakes, descended, in respect of his human life, to the infinitely lower and poorer mode of existence which he assumed together with the nature of man. He emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men. Verse eight, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself. So now we're told what he voluntarily did in order to make possible his humiliation unto death, but emptied himself.

17:39 The verb emptied himself in Greek is ekinoze. And it's from the verb kanoo in the active form. And what that means is that no one took away from him what he was, but he himself, God voluntarily empties himself. In John seventeen five, in the very words of Christ himself, we look at, we we we see Jesus Christ asking the father to glorify him in a position next to him. That's literally the the word in the Greek is next to him.

18:20 Christ was asking the father to glorify him in a position next to him with the glory which he had in perfect tense icon which means from all the way back in the past before the world was. We also don't have a word in English for this. Not just past tense in general at some point, but from forever eternity past. The glory, the word, comes from the verb, which means to think and to recognize. So, glory is the recognition which the lord Jesus had with the father from before eternity past.

19:06 And before he came into the world. And the Lord Jesus lacked this recognition while he was here on Earth in a human body. He lacked the recognition by men but did not lack this recognition as far as the father was concerned. And it was Christ to enjoy again after the resurrection. So this is what it means that he emptied himself.

19:34 The doxa glory was set aside. It was emptied. The recognition of that glory. Taking upon him or or or better taking the form of servant. So, when he took the form, it's the aorist participle Leban.

19:59 Okay? And when he took indicates that it is not the principal verb of what we're talking about. In verse seven I'm sorry, in verse six, the principal verb in verse six is hege sato, which is he did not regard. In verse seven, the principal verb is ekkenose, he emptied himself. And in verse eight, the principal verb is itapanosan, which is he humbled himself.

20:22 All the other verbs are participles, which means they serve the other principal verbs or they're subservient or dependent upon that. Okay? Stay with me. Okay? I'm I'm getting to the good part.

20:35 So to try to drive this home and to have it make sense. So we can more literally translate this passage like this. Who, Jesus Christ being, having always been in the form of God. He did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but himself he emptied. When he took the form of a servant, when he became in the likeness of men, and when he found himself in shape as a man, he humbled himself when he became obedient unto death or until death, the death of the cross.

21:19 Now, the words form and shape. In verse six and seven, the Greek word is morphe, form. And it means the... It means one's essence. What what you truly are and not as you appear on the outside.

21:42 In English, the real only word to describe that is hypocrite and it's a negative word that you are not the same on the inside as you are on the outside. But in the Greek the Morphe is this is the essence And then we have the word shape which is schema. And we also have the word homooma in verse eight. And so these mean appearance and external shape. So we've got form and we have likeness, depends on your translation, form, likeness and then appearance.

22:27 And in Greek you've got morphe, homooma and schema. And the difference is that schema and homooma talk about the external shape and what you are, what you see outside and not what is inside. So he became like ourselves taking upon himself the likeness of flesh. And so his morphe, number one was God. This is who he is in essence and not as he appears to be.

22:57 His morphe is God, number one, and number two is a bond servant. And then his schema, his shape is that of a man. So he emptied himself of his positional equality with God and veiled the doxa glory in a body of human flesh. The glory was all there. Though it was hidden and he possessed at all times all of the attributes of his deity.

23:44 His glory shown on occasions such as on the Mount Of Transfiguration. There was some of it. Not all of it because they would have all burned up. But there was there was this much of it that was shown. There was no moment in his life on Earth that the lord Jesus Christ did not possess all attributes of his deity.

24:43 So a human person, so son cannot claim to be his father, but you can claim to be a human being. We also think about, you think about she's exactly like her mother. She's exactly like her father. And sometimes someone really personifies 90% of a particular parent and and that happens. And we use the word like, we'll use the expression, they're the same person.

25:16 And technically in English, no they're not. Mean the word same means same. But we use it as a colloquialism to say that they're very very very much alike. And they're the same in essence. Like they react the same.

25:28 Their mannerisms are the same. Their speech patterns are the same. Their body language is the same. Like, wow. Just like her mother or just like his father.

25:38 And so that's that's maybe helps to to to to wrap your mind around what the unity of the father and the son is like. And it and you kind of have to dial it to 11 because their unity is so perfect. But they aren't the same. There's so much the same that seeing the son is the same as seeing the father. He who has seen me has seen the father.

26:13 That's the extent. So the son no matter, me no matter how much I'm like my father, doesn't matter how much you look at me but I still don't look exactly like him. Still don't. Even if it's pretty close. But this identity in essence with the father was so important and and and paramount, but the distinction between their persons was essential to the person and work of Christ and and and as his being the redeemer of the human race.

26:48 Their unity was so important but so was the distinction between them. Something, a phrase that a lot of you have probably heard before is something that Bruce Shelley said. He said, Christianity is the only major religion to have at its central event, the humiliation of its God. Have this attitude in yourselves which also was in Christ Jesus, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

27:52 Therefore, also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. Or you can bridge it further and say, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name. The name That every knee should bow. Christ emptied himself while maintaining every aspect of his deity. He emptied himself and not just for a day but for thirty plus years and was killed.

28:51 And after the resurrection and his ascension when he took back what he had emptied himself of. He took back the positional equality. He took back the doxa glory. And showed himself in every way to be equal and to be god. I'll close with the statement here from John MacArthur.

29:48 Everything he did really was fulfilling the Father's will and the Father's will was being expressed for our sake. He did nothing for empty conceit. Not hardly. They spit on him and killed him. With humility of mind, he regarded others as more important than himself.

30:06 You say, did he really do that? Yes, he did. He regarded others more important than himself. He did not look on his own things, on his own interests, but on the things of others. And he set aside his own importance and looked at others as superior in the sense that he died to give them life.

30:29 He is the living model of the principles in verses three and four. This wonderful passage starting in verse five shows us the beauty of Christ revealed. He is our model. So I said, the standard is high. The only one who lived it to perfection was Jesus Christ.

31:08 And we confess our weakness in fulfilling what you have called us to do. We struggle daily with the charges that you've given us, but we know that we can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, accomplish all things through your name. We give you thanks for your grace, your power, and your mercy, and your love, which are limitless and are upon us and enable us to walk in a way worthy of you if we let it be so. May we let it be so. May we have the minds of Christ.

31:51 Ask that you would be with us now as we depart. We pray these things in the Lord Jesus name. Amen.