Jesus, Our Humble Savior And Exemplar - [Philippians 2:5-11]

Philippians as a Book of Joy and the Church at Philippi

The message that I have for us this morning is found in the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, we'll be looking at verses 5 through 11. And I've titled this text as Jesus our humble savior and exemplar.

Jesus our humble savior and exemplar. This was actually the first message I preached here at BBC over 20 years ago. It was on that podium there and it was at a preach-a-thon like we'll be having pretty soon.

I'm very grateful for Pastor Mike for equipping the men here to be able to preach and study God's word and to proclaim it. When I first preached it, I asked people to imagine that they were duckies. I'm not going to do that today.

I think I've learned a little bit about exegesis since my first message. But this very message I actually preached parts of it last month in Cape Cod Bible Church. And we've been preaching there as there have been needs there from health and otherwise.

But I also bring you greetings from Cape Cod Bible Church. They are very grateful for the partnership that we have. And those of you who are going to be serving in attending the men's retreat, you'll get to hear Pastor Mark along with Pastor Mike and Pastor Steve.

So, Philippians 2. This text is one of those really powerful central texts that every single person here likely knows pretty well. This is one of those diamonds that just reflects so many truths about our gracious God and Savior Jesus Christ.

And there is much that can be spoken about this particular text. Today, when I focus on this text, I'm going to try to bring out the connection that this text has with some of the verses that proceed and some of the verses that follow.

Prayer for Understanding and the Theme of Joy in Philippians

But before I jump into the text, I want to pray and ask God for help as we understand his word and that he does the work of transforming us through his word. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Loving Father, as we come before you, we pray that you would take these words of yours and make them clear to us that the words I speak and the meditations of each of our hearts would be pleasing in your sight.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. When you think of the book of Philippians, the word that should come to you is joy. This book is a book that is just overflowing with joy. As the Apostle Paul writing from the prison in Rome is communicating to the church at Philippi.

What does it mean to live this wonderful life that God has called us to? He is actually showcasing how in the midst of adverse circumstances, the believer can have a joy that is just overflowing and abundant and supernatural.

Something that the world cannot quite understand. That's what Jesus Christ provides for us. But this book as we read, there's just four small chapters. The church at Philippi was founded, if you go back to Acts chapter 16, when Paul first came there and preached to a bunch of women by the riverside.

Lydia was the first convert there in Europe. And we get to see after that how Paul was put in jail in Philippi because he cast out a demon from a young woman. And then we get to see how they were beaten.

But they showcased this joy while they were suffering in this dungeon in the middle of the night. And God showcased his power as he jail broke them, as the earthquake took away their shackles. And we get to see how the Philippian jailer was saved.

So that's how this church was formed in Philippi about 10 years before this book was actually written. And through those years, the Philippians and the Apostle Paul had a wonderful relationship. The Philippians were grateful for the word that they had received from Paul.

And they were supporting Paul through his ministries. If you look at 2 Corinthians 8, you get to see how Paul says, you know, these Macedonians, these Philippians, even in their poverty, were continuing to support me.

And there was this love that was shared between them as the Philippians had received God's word, wanted to give back, that that very word would go out to many others who hadn't heard it since. So when you come into Philippians chapter 2, I want to just point out two verses from chapter 1, as we kind of get ready to unpack this few verses that we have for us today.

The first verse I want to show you is in verse 6. And there Paul says this, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So this is a powerful assurance for the believer.

If you are a Christian today, the fact that you are a Christian is because Jesus began that work in you. And there is a strong assurance that that work will be completed at the day of Jesus Christ. So if you are having doubts or fears or temptations or trials that are overwhelming you, your confidence is that Jesus will finish that work at the very end.

And with these bookends, we get to see how God works in us to get us ready for glory. Pastor Steve actually concluded last Sunday with verses 9 through 11, as Paul prays for the Philippians. And there are certain things that Paul wants the Philippians to grow in as they come to know Jesus Christ.

And one aspect of that growth is what we are going to see today in Philippians chapter 2. The other verse that I want to call out to you is in verse 21. And there Paul says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

So here was Paul in prison and he didn't know what the outcome was going to be. And he said, well, if it is death, that's really not a loss at all for me because I get to get more of Christ when I die.

And he was rejoicing in the choices that he had before him. One was to live and the other was to die. Everything is kind of covered in that, you would think. And with death, he actually sees a gain rather than a loss because he gets to be with the Savior forever.

But the rest of the sections that follow talk about what it means to live. To live is Christ. Actually, the last time I preached in an evening service, I covered this message. So we looked at some of the verses that follow from here.

But I want to pull a thread and connect it to our text this morning from what it means to live. To live is Christ. There is a train of thought that Paul has. I was wondering why I couldn't read my notes.

There is a train of thought that Paul has. So if you want to think of the engine starting in verse 6, you know, God begins this work in you and he'll finish it. And then you have this engine where Paul says, to live for me is Christ.

And for each of you here who are believers, your life is Christ. And what that looks like is then unpacked in a few sections that follow. And one of the things that Paul is going to open up for us here is that living in Christ for each of you means that you are also going to live in unity with each other as a body.

Living in Christ as a believer requires you to live in unity with each other as a body. And part of living in unity with each other as a body requires each of you to be humble like Jesus himself. And so Paul is going to show us a few sections.

And I'm going to just kind of highlight them before we jump into our main text. What that unity and that humility are. What is it that Paul wants you to get? What the Spirit of God wants you to get? And then we are going to look at Jesus as the one who lived that perfect, humble life.

And the one who is not just the one who has procured your perfection in humility as your Savior, but he's also your exemplar, the one that you ought to follow in humility. And so those are the, that is the train that I want you to see.

Unity in the Face of Opposition

So here are the sections. The first section I want you to see is in Philippians chapter 1 verses 27 to 30. What you're going to see here, I'm going to just read a little bit from verse 27. Paul says, Paul wants to hear something about the Philippians.

And what is it that he wants to hear? He says, I want to know that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Would you say that there is something about being unified or in unity here?

There is something that Paul wants them to be cohesive and locked arms on. And what is it about? He says in verse 28, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them and a sign of salvation for you from God.

And then in verse 29 he says, God has granted you not only to believe in Jesus, but also to suffer on his behalf. So the context of 27 to 30 that you want to remember is that each of you who's been saved out of the world, you as a church, a local church body that is assembled here together, are placed in a situation of adversity.

You are going to face opposition. You are going to face suffering as you stand up for the cause of Christ. Just as Jesus was ridiculed and killed, so also those who will proclaim and follow after him are promised suffering here on this world.

So if you just take for a moment and think, okay, right now, if you just pictured that this church building was surrounded by, I don't know, you can picture the weaponry that would make it pretty scary to open those doors and get outside.

I would imagine in a moment all of us would be like, okay, let's lock arms. Let's see what we can do to face the challenge that is before us. Many of the small petty divisions that we may have will just kind of fly out the door because there is here a danger that is outside of us.

And so Paul here, when he talks about standings firm in verse 27, the word steko there is like something that is given to a soldier. You need to lock arms and be unified as you face the challenges that are outside the church.

So that's the first compartment in this train, as you were. When you look at unity, you are unified as a body of Christ against this opposition that is outside. The second section, and this is a section I want to kind of dive a little bit deeper into, is in Philippians 2 verses 1 through 4.

The next section that follows talks about a different kind of unity. This unity is talking about unity through humility within the church. So if you look at verse 1, so let me put it this way. When there is opposition, it's pretty easy.

You can all be unified in facing the dangers that is outside. Let's just assume there is no danger outside as it is today. How do we have this unity within the body when we meet with each other? I always say this, you know, when you see Pradeep from a distance, he looks really nice.

You come close to him, you see he is full of barbs. And it's like not that easy to love Pradeep when you come close to him and get to realize, hey, he is just a sinner saved by grace. And he has a long way to grow in his sanctification.

And that is true for each of us. So how do we have this unity as we come close together, as we do the ministry of the kingdom as brothers and sisters in Christ? So when you look at verse 1, Paul gives them an encouragement for unity.

And he says, hey, just reflect about your position today. What is it that you are thankful for in the church? And I'd like each of you to think this. You're all here at BBC. You all came here through God's varied ways of bringing you here.

What is it that you are blessed by? And that's what Paul is saying in verse 1. He says, think about this. If there is any, which is translated as since there is these things, these are the things that hopefully you have found in BBC, in the church that you belong to.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, have you found encouragement in Christ by coming here through your brothers and sisters? From a world of discouragement to come here and receive the encouragement as a body.

Consolation of love. Whether you were in distress and you come here and you find the love of Christ in the body as brothers and sisters come alongside you. The fellowship of the spirit being in a place of isolation to coming to a place where you can actually find the true koinonia, the participation in each other's lives as you get to see the spirit of God working in you through brothers and sisters.

If there is any affection and compassion. There have been many of you who have faced wounds and hurts and suffered trials. Have you found that affection? Have you found that compassion within this body?

That's how it ought to be. The work of Christ and the work of the spirit is that through each of us here, we would find this sort of joy in the body that God enables as brothers and sisters come together.

And so, Paul says, hey, these are things that happen in your body. Philippians, this is 2 ,000 years back and BBC today here. And then he says, make my joy complete. And then he gives a few verbs. What are verbs?

Action words. Here are things you need to do. He says, by being of the same mind. Be of the same mind. Maintain the same love. Be united in spirit. Be intent on one purpose. So Paul here is saying, all right, having been blessed with all of these things, here are the things that I'm calling you to do these things to be active and unified of the same mind.

And, you know, if you just kind of look around and say, oh, you know, is that an area where I need to be unified in? How do I do that? Oh, well, Paul writes this not for some academic reason. If you move forward to Philippians 4, he's writing to Eurydice and Syntyche and saying, hey, could you be unified here?

You know, you guys are a great church, one of the best churches that I minister to. But there are challenges here because when you have two people who love the Lord but can't get along with each other, it takes some work and you need to apply toward this unity.

And how do you do that? Look at verse three. He says there are some things you can avoid and some things you need to do in order to have that unity in the spirit. So two things he says to avoid. One is don't do anything from selfishness.

It's very easy to put yourself in the center and make your choices around it. Don't do anything from selfishness or from pride or from empty conceit, which is valuing yourself as higher than you actually are.

Don't do that. But instead, with humility, consider one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So Paul says you want to have unity within the body.

The means to unity is through humility. And then he says, look, he gives some counsel on how you can do that by looking out for the interests of others. Now, this is not the text. This is still just the introduction.

And I'm going to jump to our main text. Think of it as this. If you are coming down a ski slope for a ski jump, this is where you pick the momentum. Verses one to four, you kind of get to know. Okay, I need unity.

I need humility. Here is what the Bible commands me. And then in verse five, you're going to take off. Five through 11, you're not doing anything. You're actually just looking at the Savior. You're just kind of flying and looking at the one who did it perfectly.

And then verse 12 through 18, you're going to land. And then it's going to end with, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good purpose.

Then you get to see how God then enables all of these things to happen as you see the work of God in your life. But five through 11 is that section where it says, focus on Christ. You're going to see something that's going to transform you because he has done this perfectly for you.

So you are not going to be judged by your lack of humility. But he also has showcased it in a way that makes it clear how your life must be lived out today in humility. So our first point for today, actually, I'm going to read verses five through eight.

And then I'm going to we're going to walk through them one by one. Verse five says, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as he already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a bond servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Death on a cross. I want to read a small section from a song that many of you are probably familiar with. The song follows the arc, and I'm going to kind of repeat that as we go through the text.

This is the song, Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I love to sing your praises. I'm so glad you're in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. And this is the refrain. The refrain goes, you came from heaven to earth to show the way from the earth to the cross.

My debt to pay from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky. Lord, I lift your name on high. Verse five, have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus. So Paul finishes verses one to four, and then he's giving you a command.

You need to have an attitude which is the same as Jesus Christ. Why? Looking at the context that goes before for unity in the church, you need to have that same kind of attitude. How can you have this attitude?

Those of you who are in Christ share the mind of Christ and are able to have this attitude that Christ himself has. How are you to look at this command in verse five? This is a command which is your responsibility, your duty.

This is something that God calls you to have, so it is your duty. And it is also your virtue. Remember verse six, he who began a good work will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And here is the transformation in the middle as God conforms you into the image of Christ.

How do you get conformed into the image of Christ? Christ has lived it and the perfection has been bought. But now he enables you to live something that you didn't have before. I was an extremely proud person when God changed me.

And now I get to see life through a completely different lens. Because I get to see what true godliness is through Jesus Christ. And this is the source and occasion for my joy here on this life. Because my happiness was anchored on a bunch of different things.

But now I get to see Jesus and I want to have the attitude that Jesus has. You want to have the attitude that Jesus has. So let's begin with the first point here, which is humility does not seek its own rights.

Christ's Equality with God and His Refusal to Cling to Rights

In verse six, Christ Jesus, who as he already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. You must have Christ attitude. But who is Christ in this text? This text is a very rich text talking about Christology, who Jesus Christ is.

The answer is pretty simple. It says he already existed in the form of God. The word already existed talking about the eternal nature of Jesus. The second person of the Trinity who is fully God. If you think of the Nicene Creed, very God of very God.

This is in his essence. The second person of the Trinity is fully and completely God. Nothing has changed in him since eternity past. He was always in the form of God. The word form there morphe is talking about the substance, something that is essential to the nature of who Jesus is.

He is fully God. Now ask the next question. What were Jesus rights as God? What was his right? Equality with God was a right of the second person of the Trinity. You have got the father. You have got the son.

They are same in essence. They are both fully God. The equality of the son with the father is not something that is in question. As God, he is equal with the father. Hopefully so far, nothing is complicated.

But look at the last part of this verse. And this last part of the verse, depending on your translation, I'm using NASB. You have probably ESB or other translations. For me, I found the first time I read this text, NIV was what actually helped me.

But whatever translation you use, it's helpful to understand. What does this mean to say something to be grasped? What does that language communicate to us? Jesus' attitude here, being fully God, being equal with God, wasn't something that he needed to hold on to his rights as the second person of the Trinity, as clinging on to it.

MacArthur explains this pretty nicely. You know, if Jesus didn't have deity in him, and then he was trying to grasp something, that would be kind of what Satan did. Remember? Satan made Lucifer, had all of the things, but he wanted to be like God.

He was reaching out and grabbing for something that was not his to hold. Here you have Jesus who is fully God, who is equal with God, but he does not seek to look at his rights as something that needed to be clinging on to.

He was willing to let go of what he could claim, in order to accomplish the purposes of God the Father. So I want to remind you again, our title is, Jesus our Humble Savior and Exemplar. When you think of in the Trinity, you know, if you think of polytheism, you have many gods that disagree with each other.

There is complete unity of will between the Father and the Son, when it comes to this. It takes the Son to humbly say, I will go and do what you have asked me to, in order for him to accomplish our salvation.

And even as he does that, he is your exemplar in showcasing that you need to do something similar. What is it that you who are in Christ need to do? What is the attitude that is required of you, in order to reflect Christ in your life?

So let me ask the question. We said, who is Jesus? He is fully God. Who are you? You're not God, but you are a child of God. Your position is that of being someone who has been redeemed from the kingdom of darkness, placed in the kingdom of light.

You are all citizens of heaven. You are all brothers and sisters with each other. So what is your rights? You are all equal with each other. As brothers and sisters in Christ, in the body, when we talk about unity, we are all equal.

There is really no difference. I'm no better than you, just because I'm standing on a platform. Nor is anyone lesser, because we are all being brought with the blood of Christ. We all belong to the body of Christ, who is our head.

What should our attitude be? Remember, Jesus is equal with the Father. He did not think of equality with God as something to be grasped, to be clinged on to, to be held on to. Our attitude likewise ought not to be that of clinging on to my rights.

You know, in the world, we have people who aspire for power, who aspire for position, who aspire for a lot of different things. And what that involves is to put yourself up front and get what you deserve and accomplish what you think is your will that needs to be finished.

But here, when we think of the attitude of Jesus Christ, the way he relates to the Father, so also as you relate to your brothers and sisters in Christ, you do not want to cling on to your own rights.

Humility, Incarnation, and the Form of a Servant

Let's keep moving. So the next verse here, humility accepts humiliation for God. Here, we're going to see how Jesus in his incarnation was humiliated in order to be humble and accomplish God's will. Verse 7, Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a born servant and was born in the likeness of men.

Once again, we are to have Christ's attitude. So what is it that Christ actually gave up? There are some who look at this text and say, well, you know, if it says Jesus emptied himself, then he probably emptied himself of his divinity.

You know, he became less than God by coming down here on earth. If the Bible said he emptied himself of his divinity, I would say, sure, that's what the Bible says and that must be true. But that is not what the Bible says.

The Bible just says he emptied himself, not emptied himself of these attributes of God. How do we know that he didn't empty himself of the attributes of God? You just have to go to the Gospels. There are things that Jesus did that only God can do.

He can calm the storm. He can raise the dead. He can forgive people's sin. He would acknowledge worship from people. Things that only God can do. So Jesus did not lose his divinity when he came here on earth.

Instead, if you look at other texts, there are some other things that Jesus chose not to exercise. Some of those things would be his glory. In John 17, 1 -5, we see Jesus' high priestly prayer, and he talks to the father, and he says, Father, glorify your son with the glory that I had with you before.

So there is some ways in which the second person of the Trinity, his glory is veiled. You get to see glimpses of it in the transfiguration on the mount. But while he is here on earth, his glory is muted, as it were.

He also chooses not to exercise some of his divine attributes while he is here on earth. But then verse 7 continues. It says he was taking on the form of a born servant. What was it that Jesus took on?

The second person of the Trinity, fully God, never lost any of his divine attributes, but it says that he took on the form of a born servant. The word form here is the same word used in verse 6 of Jesus when it's talking about him being in the form of God.

So here is something that is actually an ontological statement. There is something that Jesus adds to himself. He takes on humanity, but not just humanity. He takes on the nature of a born servant. A born servant, a doulos, is someone who doesn't own anything.

He is someone who has come here to serve, and it is that serving nature that is now an essential part of who Jesus Christ is. So Jesus is, the text says, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

So this is a nature of the addition. So when Jesus in the incarnation comes down here on earth, he doesn't lose his divinity. There is no subtraction, but there is an addition of his humanity, and now you have the perfect God man.

Now, the last part of verse 7, he was born in the likeness of men. What did Jesus look like? He looked like you and me. And for us to just kind of comprehend what that means with humiliation, you have the creator, the eternal God, taking on dirt.

That's basically what we are. Adam was taken from the dust of the ground, and the breath of God was blown into him, and he became a living being. Here is the glory manifested taking on the form of a worm, as it were.

So here you have, when we think of the Christmas story in the incarnation, this is power encompassed in weakness. You have majesty that takes on ignominy and lack of reward. So for 30 years, here would be this man, Jesus, who lives unknown and unrecognized, and living in abject poverty, as it were, here on earth.

So let me remind you the title again. Jesus, our humble savior and our exemplar. You are in the church, and you need to have Jesus' attitude. How do you reflect the attitude of Christ from verse 7? What ought you to give up?

Jesus gave up his glory and his position upon heaven. What are things that are called upon you to give up? You can't give up your position even if you try. If you are a child of God, you are a child of God.

No matter how dirty you get, how terrible you fail, there is absolutely nothing that can change that. Jesus cannot be not God. Jesus is always God. You will always be a child of God. But while you can't give up your position, you can give up your privilege that is rightfully yours.

What ought you to take on? You know, Paul would often refer to himself as doulos. You wonder why? Because he was serving Jesus, the doulos, the one who was the great servant who came to seek and save who were lost.

And each of us ought to be able to take on that same mindset of Christ as we look to serving one another. So what are some of the things that come with it? We ought not to be worried about our appearance.

Here was Jesus, the king of glory, in this podunk town that nobody ever knew about. It wasn't a problem for him, and it should not be a problem for us. Jesus wasn't looking to elevate himself, so also we shouldn't be looking at elevating ourselves either.

So that song that I said, you know, you came from heaven to earth to show the way, here is one of those exemplar aspects of it. Here is Jesus showing, this is the kingdom that I am the king of, and you are citizens of this kingdom, and here is how you reflect the mind of Christ in your own living.

Let's go to verse 8. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Found in appearance as a man. When people saw Jesus, they did not know that this was the eternal God in the flesh.

Most people never saw it throughout his life. Some came to get to see, oh, this is God himself, as God opened their eyes. But for the most part, people just thought this was just only a man. In fact, a man that's not even famous or great.

Now, when we talk about having Jesus' attitude as a humble man, here is God of heaven, living as a man like you and me, ask yourself the question, whom did Jesus obey? If you go all the way back, you look at Jesus obeying God to give up his glory and come down and live this kind of a life.

This was at a great cost to himself because he trusted in God the father and his wisdom and what was called off him in giving up those privileges that were rightfully his. And not just that, he also was obedient to the authorities that he was under here on earth.

God, perfect, makes no mistake. Authorities make mistakes. Yes, they put him on a cross. They beat him. They killed him. Obedient all the way up to the cross. What kind of a death? A humiliating execution on the cross.

You know, sometimes I forget the torture, the pain and the suffering and the shame that comes with being naked and beaten and looked upon by all the people as they walk by thinking that this was a common criminal.

Most people didn't know. Most people said, oh, he deserved it probably. And the point of going to death means that you've given up everything that you have. It's not just giving some things that I can get it back again with a reward.

After death, you can do nothing. You have nothing to give when you're dead. He was willing to go all the way in order to bear our sin upon himself. And here is the holy God who is willing to take my sin, things that don't mix with each other, and not just that, by taking my sin, and he now bears God's wrath, the one who has, through all eternity, been in a loving, benevolent fellowship with the Father, now experiences the wrath of God on my behalf because of his obedience to the Father.

And he now, that is the consequence of what his humility led to, which is death, and death on a cross. How about yourself? Think of Jesus, our humble Savior. If he didn't do this, you would have no Savior.

His humility cost you your salvation. But in what way is he your exemplar? Remember verse 5, have this attitude which is yours in Christ. Whom do you obey? It should be a no-brainer. You ought to obey God, because he's trustworthy.

No matter what the cost is, you ought to be able to trust him. And the way you know you obey God is through the Word. The Bible is the means through which God speaks to you, and you listen to the Word of God as from God himself.

And through that, you also listen to the people that God has placed in authority over you. You are willing to submit to the will of God, even if it costs you much. Why? Because you are in Christ. Let's talk a little bit about the extent of obedience.

You know, when we talk about obedience, we often talk about sanctification. Let's talk a little bit about justification. What was it that you believed when you became a Christian? When you became a Christian, you said, my life, everything good that I've done, accounts for nothing.

I can clearly see that the sin has tainted all the things that I've done, and the wages of the good and the bad that I've done is an eternity in hell, and I no longer want to live for myself. I repent and I believe in Jesus Christ, and what that means is, I've taken myself out of the center of my life, put it aside, and I've replaced it with Jesus in the center.

I have, Pradeep is now crucified on the cross, he's dead and gone, and the life that I now live is by faith in the Son of God, who has given his life for me. So there is a death that actually began your journey as a Christian.

Sometimes I forget that, that there was a death that started my journey as a Christian. Now, in my walk as a Christian, I sometimes forget and I go back and pull that dead body off the cross and say, okay, I want to live for myself.

That's not the way of the cross for the believer. We ought to continue by faith in the Son of God, who has given his life for me. A good example for us is Abraham. When Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac, he trusted God enough to say, yes, God, and he obeyed, because he knew that the God who called for the sacrifice of Isaac, who also promised that through Isaac, his generation would be able to accomplish what he has promised, even though, humanly speaking, he could not see how that was possible.