STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
9.4 - Finding Joy in Service, Pt 1
Continuing through Philippians 2, this episode discusses how Paul describes the mind of Christ in us – sacrificial service for the glory of God.
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
welcome back today in the studio. I'm with Noah. We're in the book of Philippians. We have gotten into chapter two, just barely about the first four verses and now we want to pick up in Philippians chapter two and in verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Kind of looking at the attitude of Christ. Mm-hmm. How we imitate Christ in that regard. But Noah, I think it's gonna help. He has already said in verse two, be like-minded, have the same love be of one accord, of one mind. How is this gonna be accomplished in me and in, in the church at Cedar Park? Well, that's what he's gonna tell us. Have the mind, the attitude, disposition of Christ.
Noah:Yeah. He, in fact, there's, there's a very real sense in which when he says, have this mind among yourselves he's pointing forward and backward. I mean, he's clearly, he makes it he makes it clear that he's talking about the mind that Christ had the example. That Christ said, but also he's pointing backward at the mind that he just talked about, which is the, the one mind, the one spirit, the humble the humble spirit that counts others as more significant than their selves that looks to others' interests, what that's gonna be illuminated by Christ's example. Mm-hmm. But it's, it's really kind of Paul saying the same thing two different ways here though, in verses five and following. He's going to directly attribute it to Christ. And I, I think there's a little bit of a double meaning going on here. It's in Christ as in Christ set the example, right? He lays that out. But also Christ is the source of this kind of a mindset of this kind of an attitude of Christ in us when we're being transformed by him, when we've when we've committed our lives to him and, and are experiencing the sanctification of his spirit. This is the attitude that we should be seeing in ourselves. So he's both the example. And he's the source of this mindset, this attitude that we see laid out.
Paul:Yeah. So it may be good for those that don't have a Bible that may be driving or walking around or something, you just, just give us the text. Noah, you've got the ESV English standards. Yes. Just go ahead and read five through 11.
Noah:Alright. Philippians two verse five. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so 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.
Paul:Yeah. What a, what a text, you know? Yeah. There's a song we sing make me a Servant. I think of that when Philippians two in this context comes up, make me a servant just like your son. Well, what was the attitude? What was the mind? The disposition of Christ. And there's humility. There's obedience connected to his servitude. He had a servant's heart. It's just, you know, when, when we're talking about. You know, being like, Christ, we, we tend to stress the significance of being set apart from sin. Mm-hmm. I mean, he was the sinless son of God. Right. It's not as though you and I are gonna be sinless like Christ, but at the same time, if we're gonna stress this concept of being like Christ, it's not just set apart from sin. Philippians two said it's set apart to serve. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's where I think he's going here with the attitude of Christ, as you mentioned, he had already talked about freeing ourselves from selfish ambition or concede count. Others more significant versus three or four, then ourselves are at what is that gonna look like?
Noah:Yeah. And where is that going to be seen? I, that's something that I think. I didn't notice nearly as frequently when I would study this passage in the past. But in what context do we see this type of mindset exhibited? Mm-hmm. And there's a, a clear biblical teaching that would say, well, this is gonna be seen in all of our relationships. Right? That if, if we have the mind of Christ, it's gonna be seen with, with anyone that we interact with. Absolutely. He's gonna talk later and we won't, I don't think we'll get to this today, but he'll talk later about shining his lights in the world. Right. So that's gonna be happening. But he says have this mind among yourselves. Mm-hmm. Among yourselves. I think that what he's getting at there is that this is where it starts. This mindset starts in how we. In Christ how we treat one another, how we think of one another, how we serve one another, with what mindset do we approach one another? Mm-hmm. It begins with how we do that with one another. Which reminds me of what Jesus says in John chapter 13. He says, by this, all will know that you are my disciples. How if you love one another, it begins with how we treat one another First. It needs to be seen in all of our relationships, right? But it begins with our relationships with one another.
Paul:Yeah. I just think about from the concept of the local church, the, the community in, in this local church. He, he had been stressing that with regards to the being of one accord, of One Mind, be like-minded, have the same love. There's, there was a book that I was reading. It was written by Kevin Harney, the book Seismic Shifts. He, let me just give you a little bit of that book. He says, this picture a church. In which everyone wants to be served. Mm-hmm. Each person believes the church exists to meet their needs, to make them happy, and to cater to their whims and tastes. Imagine a congregation in which everyone has a take care of me attitude and is quick to complain whenever things are not just the way they feel they should be, and we say, oh, just that doesn't happen today. That can get outta control. Mm-hmm. What's, what's the cure to that? What's the fix to that? It. It's the attitude behind the actions.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:Deal with the attitude. So what is the disposition? The mindset of the attitude of Christ that produces a community, a church. Where people are more interested in serving than they are being served. I mean, think about Mark 10 in verse 45. Even the son of man, mark 10 45 did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom. Meaning, if you wanna sum up Jesus life. Serve and give.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:How am I gonna be like Christ serve and give for the good or the betterment of
Noah:others. Mm-hmm. So I, I tend to try to, I, I tend to think of things in couplets. It's just, I think, kind of how my brain tends to organize things. And so you said to serve and to give, that's, that's kind of a couplet. Mm-hmm. In and of itself. So here are a couple of couplets that come to mind when I look at. This description of Jesus and the mind set of Jesus. So we have service. But if, if I were to, I'm gonna put you on the spot here, Paul. If I were gonna ask you to pair a word with that if I were to say what kind of service or what's paired with this service? What, what word would come to your mind? Either selfless or humble. Okay. Yeah. Selfless or humble. Or sacrificial, right. I think would be another one that would go in there. So selfless service or humble service or sacrificial service. So there's a couplet that I have in my mind and then you just mentioned for the betterment of others. And I would say what's the other outcome of this type of mindset that we see in this passage? It's the glory of God. Mm-hmm. So we have this sacrificial service or sacrifice and service for the benefit of others and for the glory of God. And when we look at it that way, what's been removed?
Paul:Me,
Noah:me exactly that, that idea that we can get into a mindset where we become only consumers. I'm not trying to downplay the need that we need to be fed, we need, we are not, we are not self-sustaining. No, we need help. We need service. We need people to, to minister to us, and we need you know, we need the mercy of God just as much as anybody else. But if we come to a local congregation or if we come to any opportunity solely with the mindset of, I am going to be the consumer here. Then we're missing this mindset that Paul talks about here in Philippians chapter two, A mindset of sacrifice and service for the benefit of others and for the glory of God.
Paul:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's, that's what he was saying, who being in the form of God
Noah:mm-hmm.
Paul:Made himself of no reputation, took on the form of a bond, came in the likeness of men. He humbled himself. Verse eight and became obedient to the point of, I mean, you just, you just put all that together. I, I, I, I love this. I've worded it this way before. Jesus was willing to lower himself in order to lift others up.
Noah:Hmm.
Paul:You know, I, I can't fully, it's hard for me to explain. This, this idea of him emptying himself. I don't believe he divested himself of his deity. Right. But how he can be fully, God, fully manned, but he was on equality with God.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:He left the glory of heaven. And he, he did that. He has to do his father's will, but he did that out of love for me.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:He humbled himself to the point of obedience. By way of death on the cross, because that's what I needed. Mm-hmm. Not what I deserved. And when you look at that in very practical ways as it relates to, again, the local church among yourselves, you, you need this in, in the family of God, what am I willing to give up for the spiritual good of others?
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:That's the attitude of Christ,
Noah:right?
Paul:And what makes me resist that? Me selfish. Yeah. I don't want to, I shouldn't have to. And all of the, all and all of us self included, the flesh can, can take over and can be, I can be so deceived and the cure. So many of our challenges in the local church is right here in Philippians two.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah. I, I think you're absolutely right with that. We cannot miss I, and I don't mean it as in it's important that we don't miss, but if we read this passage, honestly, it it, you can't miss it. You can't miss that. If this is the, if Jesus was willing to give up equality with God, if he was willing to. Not hold onto that with an iron grip. Mm-hmm. Then what, what, right. Or liberty should we not be willing to give up to sacrifice? Right. If he's willing to sacrifice that, or if, if, as you mentioned, if he emptied himself, then what, what are we doing when we say, well, I'm gonna hold back. In my service to others, he emptied himself. What, what are, what are we gonna hold back that he, that he didn't hold back? Yeah. Or I think maybe one of the hardest ones, and you, you touched on this briefly just a moment ago, is that in his humility, he joined his creation. Right? He came and he lived among his creation. Can you imagine the forbearance and the patience? The humility that it takes to live among the creatures you created. And then what kind of forbearance and patience do we show? You know, when we start trying to line up what Jesus did with how we interact with our brothers and sisters in Christ, in the context of a local church. Man, we don't stack up.
Paul:No. That's a challenge. It for it surely is. Now I wanna offer this word of caution because I talk about what am I willing to give up for the spiritual good of others?
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:You go connect this back to the example of Christ, the attitude of Christ, the life of Christ. Humbling yourself and yielding yourself does not mean making yourself a slave to everyone else's whims and wishes. Right? That wasn't Jesus. That wasn't Christ. I mean, he said no to some people in some occasions. He didn't always give an explanation for his. No. He refused to be controlled by the demands of the Pharisees, even at times, the thoughts of the chosen 12, what they wanted him to do, where they wanted him to go. So when I say yielding yourself to others, that's not me saying, that's not me saying that. Philippians two is telling me, Hey, just make yourself a slave to everyone's whims and wishes. I don't know that that's our challenge as much as what we've already stated. Sure. Or my challenge and self can get in the way. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not Philippians two.
Noah:Right. But I think it's fair to give a warning against what you could, you could maybe term as like the weaponizing of Philippians two.
Paul:Correct.
Noah:You're not, you're not demonstrating the mind of Christ because you're not sacrificing this or the other thing, you're not. You're holding back, you're, you're not showing forbearance, et cetera. But I think that's part of why this concept, everything we just talked about, has mostly to do with the sacrifice that Jesus made, but to what end did he sacrifice it was to serve. And when we put it in that context, then we have a, we have, what I would say is maybe a little bit more of a concrete context. What does it mean to serve other people? It doesn't necessarily mean to do. Exactly what they want all the time. It doesn't mean to become a slave to them and all of their whims. What does it really mean to serve? Well in the context of Philippians two, what we see Jesus do is he voluntarily did these things. It's referred to as obedience to the Father. He's serving God's greater purpose here He is choosing to do what is necessary to serve God's greater purpose. Now when we put it in those contexts, when we put it in those terms, all of a sudden, I think that helps kind of clarify. We can be willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order to serve God's greater purpose for our brother and sister in Christ. That's what service, that's what Christ likes service really boils down to.
Paul:Mm-hmm. I mean, at verse eight, clear, you mentioned it, humility manifests itself in obedience. Mm-hmm. The obedience of Christ was the result of the attitude of Christ, I'm gonna do the father's will, regardless of the cost or consequence, I am gonna do the father's will. So how do you explain such obedience? That obedience never takes place apart from submission.
Noah:Mm-hmm.
Paul:He was willing to submit himself to his father. Our challenge. We've already talked about selfishness. I think the selfishness is a result of I'm not gonna submit. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna yield, you know, and the attitude of Christ. He was willing to do what the father wanted him to do. He was more interested in advancing the kingdom of God than doing his own will. And if I just look at that in my own life, am I more interested in advancing the, the kingdom of God than I am my own agenda?
Noah:Yeah. Now it's interesting, I think that where Paul goes on the heels of this is when, when he shows the depths to which Jesus humbled himself to death, even death on a cross, he immediately swings back the other way and says, therefore God has highly exalted him. And he goes on to talk about the glorification. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Of Jesus. And. I think that there's echoes perhaps in this teaching of Jesus saying things like the, the first in the kingdom will be, the lowliest will be the servant among you. You know, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. I think there's echoes of that. I think if we, if we're not careful, we're gonna interpret that to mean that, well, the more we humble ourselves and serve, then the more we're going to. Get back what's ours basically, you know? Right. That we like Job, we will, you know receive tenfold the, the, the livestock and the wealth and the riches, and that's not, that's not the intent of the teaching of Jesus, nor the intent of the teaching of Paul. But something again that I don't think has hit me quite as much in the past when I've studied this, but when I was reading it this time, really stuck out to me is what Paul's talking about is he's talking about Christ's true status. This is, this is who Christ is. He's the glorified king. He's the son of God, he is God. He humbled himself. And verses nine through 11 are a reminder of. This is who Christ is. And his humble service didn't diminish his glory. Instead it enhanced his glory. It increased his glory. And that's where we really get back to Jesus teaching. The last, you know, the, the greatest in the kingdom will be last will be the servant of all that Christ through humbly serving was glorified. And when we imitate that. He's glorified. Exactly. Exactly.
Paul:If we want to be exalted, what's what, what, what do we need to do? We need to demonstrate humility. We need to be willing to humble ourselves if we're gonna be exalted and look at the position that Christ occupies. Well, is he lord of my life? Yeah. You know, do I, have I bowed the knee? Have I confessed with the tongue? You know, am I truly a bond servant of his? Yeah. Trying to imitate him.
Noah:Yeah. I think there's a, there is a sense in which I, I don't know, this is exactly how Paul was, was saying this, but, he says in verse 10, sow that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow on heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So all of this, all of this is taking place. His his humbling of himself and then his glorification is to the end that. Every knee should bow and confess that he is Lord. You could read into that. If there's anyone that ever sacrificed more than Jesus, humbled themselves more than Jesus, et cetera, et cetera, then they wouldn't have to bow the knee. But the fact is that's impossible. There's no one that ever has, and no one that ever will sacrifice more than Jesus did, nor anyone that will ever be glorified more than he has been. And so he, he holds a position over all creation both physical and spiritual. And ultimately it's to the glory of God. Mm-hmm.
Paul:Yeah. Jesus name above all names. That's right. I mean, every, everyone will bow then the, and everyone will confess the tongue. Right. The recommendation is do it in this life.
Noah:Right? Yeah. That's a good reminder. Well, I think we, we've kind of hit up on the edge of our time here. Philippians two is so rich. So we'll pick up following this in verse 12 next week. For those who have been following along, thank you for continuing with us as we study through this, this letter of joy the Philippian letter. And I pray that as you continue throughout your week, you can find joy. And the fact that you get to serve Jesus, whose name is above all names, that you get to kneel before him in this life and worship him and glorify him for the wonderful way in which he has served his creation. So I hope you can meditate on this that, on that this week and my prayers that as you think on these things, you'll be able to stand strong.
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