Welcome And A Strange Selfie Stat

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, good morning and a special greetings to each and every one of you. I just want to say a special welcome to uh all of you visitors. It's good to good to see some uh family here as well, and uh it's good to have you guys here. I invite you all to open your Bibles to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter two. I've been working my way through this this letter, and uh we're gonna be reading verses one through 11 this morning. Before we get into that, I would like to uh might just state this from the top that I don't have as much time as I planned on, so I'm gonna have to be cutting out quite a bit. So bear with me as I as I sort of sort my way through this. I came across a statistic that was sort of shocking to me, and that is this. You are statistically more likely to die from a shark attack, or you're statistically more likely to die while taking a selfie than by being in a shark attack. Um annually, only five to six people die from shark attacks, which is still way too high, in my opinion. But on average, 43 people die globally in selfie-related deaths. Um a total of like over 500 people have died uh that have been that have been on record at least. Some of this is um is just carelessness in in how they're taking selfies. So um, you know, trying to capture that perfect shot, you know, on top of a waterfall or on the edge of a cliff or a canyon. Um, I saw a headline that that stated uh someone died while they were trying to take a selfie in front of an oncoming train. Um this is tragic, but it's actually led to uh this the a term called uh selfitis. And this is a a term used to describe the obsessed or the obsessive compulsive behavior of taking and posting selfies on social media. And researchers have created a selfitis behavior scale that categorizes the severity of this problem. So uh borderline is taking selfies at least three times a day, but not posting them on social media. Acute sulphitis is taking selfies at least three times a day and posting all of them online. Um and chronic sulphitis is an uncontrollable urge to take selfies around the clock and posting them more than six times a day. I don't know how serious that actually is. If that actually um I didn't look too much into that, it was uh, but it's what I what I what I found online at least. Now, there's nothing wrong with taking a selfie. I do it the whole time. I'm not here to preach against selfies, but I use this point to illustrate that we live in a self-absorbed world. We live in a self-absorbed world. As humans, we are obsessed with self. The human condition is bent towards self and selfishness.

A Self-Absorbed World Meets Philippians

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Paul addresses this problem, this position or this condition in his letter to the Philippi. So we're gonna be reading um verses one through eleven, just a little bit of context to set the stage here.

Philippi’s Roman Pride And Church Unity

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Philippi was uh was settled, uh was formed as a city by King Philip II. King Philip II was the father of Alexander the Great, um a little over 300 years before Christ. And this Macedonian city was eventually conquered by the Romans and became a Roman colony, and they adopted all the laws of Rome, um, the the uh the structures, um, the the sort of the social and political um structures of Rome. So as we read this letter, this is a small congregation that is living in what is essentially a mini Rome, uh uh in a in a in a society that is deeply proud of their heritage, that views um the greatness of the empire with pride. It's it was actually settled by veterans of the Roman Civil War. And so this is uh a city that is uh well known or well versed in sort of the military world. This is a church that is learning to live as citizens of heaven, um, and it's set in the context of suffering and persecution. So previously we saw Paul encourage and exhort them to let their lives, their the manner of their lives, be worthy of the gospel of Christ and to strive in one spirit, in unity, and essentially the whole message was be unified, be one. And that is gonna carry over into the text today. So I'm gonna read these verses and we're gonna look at uh three different stages of Christ's um nature, Christ's pre-existence, his incarnation, and his exaltation. So I'm gonna pick up here uh reading verse one and make a couple comments as we go. I invite you all to follow along with me.

Practical Humility And Church Life

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, and being in full accord and of one mind. Again, the the idea of unity, being unified in one spirit, one mind, one attitude. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. I'm just gonna pause right there before going on to the next several uh uh verses. Just a couple things to note here. This is just a like very practical advice on how to live humbly and selflessly in the community. Uh do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Count others more significant than yourselves. Uh, these are all very practical exhortations. And the foundation for these for these verses comes from the next the next passage, the next uh five verses. And this is essentially uh the foundation from which the church can can live selflessly and humbly love each other. So verses five through 11 are what are called Carmen Christi or the Christ hymn. Many scholars believe that this was actually a hymn that was sung in the early church. Some there's debate around this, but some believe it was actually written before Paul, uh, and Paul is simply quoting it as a well-known hymn. Um, but this was uh this is a statement on the nature of Christ and his example of selfless love for the church, for you and I, for humanity. There's a term that we use called um upward mobility to describe the idea that you can start at the bottom of society and with enough hard work, uh enough effort, and uh enough connections, you can sort of climb the ladder of success. And that that with um with enough hard work and looking for the right opportunities, you can sort of climb over time this ladder of success. Upward mobility. This describes downward mobility, downward mobility. As we read these verses, pay attention to uh where the the first stage that that work of where Christ existed, he starts at the top and descends. Um so just pay attention to that as we read this. 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, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Just a beautiful passage that describes the incarnations uh and and the uh the nature of Christ.

Preexistence And The Meaning Of Grasped

SPEAKER_00 10:21

So the first stage, if you will, is Christ's preexistence. Christ's preexistence. Verse 6 says, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. John wrote about this. He said, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So the word there in verse 6, he was in the form of God. The word form there in Greek is called morphy, and it essentially means substance or essence or nature. Um so essentially this is saying Christ was in the in the in the he had all the attributes of God, he was the form of God, he was uh in in essence the very nature of God. The next thing I want to I want to look at is is actually a a term or a a word that is debated amongst scholarship. It's actually, I didn't realize this is such a heavy debate until I looked at this. And it is the phrase, a thing to be grasped. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. So the question here is uh, what does the word grasped mean? Uh and there's two different interpretations of this word. In Greek it's harpogmos. And the the first, I guess, sense of this is an active sense, which means the act of seizing something that is not yours, of robbing something that does not belong to you. But the second interpretation is a more of a passive sense, which means um a thing held as a prize, holding, grasping onto something that belongs to you and not letting it go. And this has really big implications for how you how we view the deity of Christ or the nature of Christ. So, on the one hand, um, if this is saying Christ did not count equality with God something to rob, uh, if we read it in that way, we're essentially understanding that term to or that verse to mean Christ existed but was not God, and tried to rob deity from God, and tried to take or grasp something that was not his. Uh, and the implication of this would be that Christ was was not fully God, and he tried to take something that did not belong to him. So I think of this with my my children, and I'm not gonna name names, but uh my youngest is has learned to be very, very defensive and protect um her little possessions as as strongly as she can. She's had she has to put up a fight. But um when she views someone else as trying to take something that is not hers or that is hers, she grasps onto it. Um Oscar, actually, I'm not gonna name names. When one of my children wants something that does not belong to him or her, he grasps, grasps for it and tries to take it by force. Um, that's one one uh way of uh defining this word um something to be grasped. The other way of interpreting this is something to hold on to. Christ did not count equality with God as something to hold on to. And this holding on to is something that is already yours. And the implication of this interpretation is that Christ had the had was fully God and had the full nature of deity, but he did not hold on to it or grasp it. He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped for his own advantage. So deity was something that he already had, but did not hold on to so tightly to exploit or to take advantage of that position that he was in. Paul says in in 2 Corinthians 8, he says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. So we're gonna look at verse 7 now.

Incarnation And What Emptying Means

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Christ was uh did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped or held on to for his own advantage, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That verse describes the incarnation. Jesus came to earth as a baby, God came to earth in the form of man, he emptied himself. The question arises from this verse: what did he empty himself of? What was this act of emptying? And there's some debate around this, uh, and it's gonna be a little bit confusing because if Christ was God and He He was fully God in his pre-existence, when he emptied himself, what did He what was being emptied? Did he empty himself of his God nature, of his of his deity, uh when he came to earth? Did Jesus, did Christ remove or shed his his nature as God when he came to earth? I think the question should that we should ask here is not what he's emptying himself of, but how he emptied himself. And Paul qualifies that by saying he took on the form of a servant, being born as in the likeness of men. I found a couple quotes that help me sort of understand this idea. This is this gets into um some really confusing and maybe sometimes complicated uh theological terminology that I'm I'm just I I can struggle to make sense of. The idea here of emptying himself means not to subtract his deity, but adding humanity. Christ did not literally empty himself of any divine attribute. Instead, he metaphorically emptied himself by revealing the form of God in the form of a slave and in human likeness. Pope Leo the Great back in the uh 400s, when this was being debated in all the council, the I guess the council of Chalcedon, he said Christ took the form of a servant without the stain of sin, enriching what was human, not diminishing what was divine. So this is a matter of um of addition, not subtraction. Christ emptied himself by adding humanity, not by emptying or subtracting deity. I don't know if are you guys tracking with me at all? Okay. Sort of. Okay, all right. I'll try to explain this a little bit more. This is something we don't debate much anymore, but this was a highly debated idea in in early Christianity. And they would hold councils to try to make sense of who is Jesus? Was he God? Was he fully God? Um, was he was he uh human um and just had like maybe maybe uh like a was it partially God? Did he lay aside his deity to become human? And there was some heresies that came up with this, and I guess I'm gonna try to encapsulate or try to explain what they were, the different different ideas. So one of them was that this idea that Christ existed as two separate persons coexisting in in a single body. So Jesus was fully human, but there was also a fully God nature living in the same body, so two separate beings in one one body. The other idea was uh that when the incarnation happened, God the God nature in Christ absorbed the human nature, so that human nature was basically uh diminished. And the third sort of heresy was that Jesus had a human body and soul, but his human mind and will were replaced by a divine mind and will. So he had a human body and soul, but a a God, mind, and will. Okay, I I'm on the I'm like this close to losing you guys. Um, I'm gonna try to try to wrap this up because in essence, in summary of this idea here, Christ emptied himself, he took the form of a servant and was born as a human. God became man, fully God, fully human, in one person, Jesus. Now, why did he do this? Why does this why does this really matter? Like what's what's the point of this? This matters because it took a perfect man to die for our sins. Only perfection could take and pay for the sins that you and I committed, that you and I have have uh found ourselves

Obedience To Death On A Cross

SPEAKER_00 20:28

in. And this comes to verse 8, which describes Christ's humiliation. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Death on a cross. This was uh like a the most offensive kind of death that you could experience. It was the death of a slave. Um, one what Cicero, who's a Roman Roman, wrote, far be it, or far be the very name of the cross, not only from the body, but even from the thought, the eyes, the ears of Roman citizens. Like it's so offensive you shouldn't even think about it as a Roman citizen. And this is this is the death that Christ was subjected to: the death of a slave. So, how is it possible for deity, for God Himself to die the death of a slave as a perfect human and perfect God? He went the whole way, and this is where it's like we do well to get maybe uh uh get out of the weeds of of some of the like the theological hair splitting and and focus on this this amazing act of love. This was history. This was this this happened, uh, and it was the history's greatest act of love that Christ took on your sins, my sins. The sins of the world, and he died the death that you and I deserve to die. There's a verse that in or there's a a phrase in the in one in a song that we sing, it was my sins that held him there until it was accomplished. My sins were laid on him. In verse nine, we see that Christ's downward mobility did not end in the grave.

Exaltation And Every Knee Bowing

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Did not end when he was buried. And this is the final uh exaltation of Christ. And it's a picture and a vision of a time to come when all of creation will acknowledge the truth that you and I hold on to. And think of the Philippian church suffering persecution. They're just like carving their way and trying to survive in this Roman society. And they're singing this song. And this is a song that someday every creature will sing. 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. So powerful. Someday we will, along with all of creation, all of humanity, whether willingly or unwillingly, we will bow the knee and pay honor to Christ. This brings up the question of uh does this mean that every single human being, every single uh creature will be saved? No, this does not mean that. Rather, it means that all will recognize and all will give recognition that Jesus Christ is Lord. For those of us who are in Christ, if you've been born again, you've been washed by the blood of Jesus, that will be a wonderful time of worship. A wonderful time of worship. But for those who are not found in Christ, those who have not been born again, those who are living in rebellion towards God and towards Jesus, that will be a terrible, terrible day. A day when you too will bow the knee and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. But that will be a thing of terror to admit. All right.

Three Practices For Selfless Love

SPEAKER_00 25:14

I do want to uh close here with just a couple of practical um implications for us. The whole point of these verses that Paul is writing is not just to give a theological statement. Um, it's actually being written in a in the context of a of a local church, local community, and it has implications for how we are to relate to one another as believers. He started he introduced it in verse five by saying, have this mind among yourselves, this mind, this picture of um humility, of selflessness in a world that is self-obsessed. So, what does this mean for for you and I as we we relate to one another? Peter says, Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And again, just coming back to the practical verses that that Paul wrote out, verse three and four, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. We could go so many different places with this, but a couple of things I want to point out is is uh maybe I have three points on this. And the first point I have is practice love that costs. Practice love that costs. We live in a in a society and uh that I'm gonna be careful how we frame this. There's there's been a huge um focus on the need for self-care and setting proper boundaries, uh as a as a reaction to some of the abuses of and and the burnout that can come from giving, giving, giving, giving with no boundaries, and being being burned out, fried to a crisp in ministry. And I see a bunch of you shaking your heads yes. Okay. So that's a that's a problem, and there's a need for proper boundaries and setting limits and and acknowledging your limitations. I think we have to be careful that we don't um guard our own boundaries so again. This sounds I want to be careful how I say this. I hope you can understand what I'm saying. Let's not guard our boundaries so so carefully and so tightly and hold on to those boundaries so carefully that we are unable to love sacrificially. Does that make sense? And I'm preaching to myself here. We can hold on to our own our own schedules, our own um time with family, um, sleep, um, calendars so tightly that we're we're unwilling to give when needs arise. I've done this. How do we love self-sacrificially like Christ poured himself out and emptied himself? Did not count equality with God as something to be grasped and held out onto, but he poured himself out in love. So I don't know what that looks like. It might look like losing sleep to uh to go and help a neighbor. It might look like uh saying no to a family thing or a date night uh because uh your neighbor down the street needs help moving some furniture. Um it might look like sacrificing what in the moment feels like a boundary. Please don't hear me say violate your boundaries. I think just let's hold on to those loops with discernment. Discern the spirit. Okay. All right. Secondly, pass on your freedom. Pass on your freedom. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 8 when he talks about food offered to idols, and actually just flip back to that because it's really I think is some uh some good counsel for us as believers. And again, the question is how do we live selflessly as Christ did in our community? 1 Corinthians 8. He's talking about food offered to idols, that we we're no no worse off if we do eat, if we don't eat. There's freedom there, but not everyone feels the same freedom. He says this in verse 11, verse 10 of chapter 8 For if anyone sees you have you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged? If his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols, and so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, and the brother for whom Christ died. Thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. It's a really strong, strong word there. Then he finishes with this. He says, Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. He's saying, I have the freedom to eat meat, but on account of my brother, I'm gonna pass on my freedom to eat meat for love's sake, for his sake. What does this look like for for for us to give up a freedom for the love of a brother? I don't have practical uh words for how this looks or looks like, but I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on this after after the service. And uh thirdly, watch veterans of humility. Watch veterans of humility. Um I think of people who don't have worldly status, maybe older men or women who um have walked with God year after year after year, who are humble, who don't have a uh don't have high prestige, high honor in society, but they're just faithful, they're humble, they love. I've I think of uh my father-in-law who just passed away. He was not a man who who had a lot of wealth, he did not have a lot of uh a high status in society, um, but it became evident after he passed away just how um selflessly he loved the people around him. So, how do we love self-sacrificially? Watch veterans of humility. There's much more that could be said, but I am already over time.

Core Takeaway And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 33:26

And I guess the the the big takeaway from this sermon, this passage is Christ is our ultimate example of selfless love. And Paul tells us to follow his example in how we love each other. He is the ultimate pattern for us. I invite you all to stand for a closing word of prayer, and I'll turn the time over to Kim. Thank you, God, for your plan of salvation. Thank you for sending your son down to earth to take on the form of a servant and to be born in the likeness of men. Thank you that it didn't end there, but uh it went so far as a cross and uh the death of a slave, but it didn't end there. It uh ended in the resurrection happening, and someday we'll will uh culminate with every knee bowing, every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. I thank you that we get to be part of that. I pray that you could help us to learn how to live selflessly in a self-obsessed world. Uh help us to uh look to the interests of others above our own interests, and teach us how to do that in our families, in our in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our church. I pray that your spirit could do this work in us. In Jesus' name, amen.