This week we welcome guest preacher Jared Crabtree as we continue with week three of an eight week series through Philippians. Philippians 2:1-11 gives us a glimpse into the very mind of Christ that reveals the life-altering beauty of humility and demonstrates the path He took from the throne of heaven, down into humanity, lower into servanthood, and lower still “…becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
KEY POINTS:
- Philippi was well known for its patriotic nationalism; Christians following Jesus, instead of Caesar, would have been very disruptive for the time, much like being a Christian in Seattle.
- Jesus, who is fully divine, seated at the right hand of God, fully other from us, supremely glorious, maker of all things, comes down to this corrupt place and puts His hands in the dirt and takes on flesh – limiting himself – why?
- The God Man goes as far away from His throne as He possibly can because that displays His heart as clearly as He possibly can; He chose to come down, take on flesh, be with us, because that was the best way to show God’s love for us.
- It’s implied you will look out for your own interests, but not just your own interests (v4). We see in this verse it’s about the passion of our hearts changing such that our interests are in the flourishing of another more than our own flourishing.
- Paul liberates us from the bind of being either solely invested in our own interests (narcissism) or the interests of others (can lead to codependency). As we grow in caring for ourselves and other people, and grow in the mind of Jesus, we can experience freedom here. We can understand more deeply the truth that it really is more blessed to give than receive (Acts 20:35) Jesus knew this more than we can ever comprehend as He gave himself, for us.
- Jesus was the total opposite of the scarcity mindset. Freely of his own accord, He cared more about accomplishing the Fathers will and more about our salvation than His own comfort. And He knew that the ultimate result would be so much greater… what a glorious thing.
- Jared shared the lyrics from song ‘Lower Still’ by My Epic
COMMUNITY GROUP DISCUSSION:
We read in verse 6 that Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. As humans, we tend to equate equality with God as something to be grasped… Any time we try to live in control of our life, orchestrate things to be the way we want them to be, or think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, trying to create happiness apart from God, we are trying to grasp something that is not ours to grasp. It doesn’t work. We were never meant to be God, we are meant to be His sons and daughters.
- Spend time sharing situations in your life where you are doing just this. Then, as a community group, commit to abandoning this mentality. Through a time of prayer, collectively repent, believe and declare the good news of the Gospel, and turn back to Him, together. Let Him be God.
At the end of the sermon, Jared speaks to the profound prevalence within Christianity today in the battle between theology and preference. Jared asserts that this grieves the heart of God and is not embodying the mind of Christ in humility. Furthermore, it tarnishes our witness to a watching world; it’s the total opposite of the attitude in Philippians 2.
- Is this something you wrestle with? Have you focused more on preferences or secondary theological convictions when engaging with new or non-Christians, instead of embodying JESUS? As believers, commit to laying down your desires / preferences / opinions in humility.