The Ultimate Example of Selflessness Philippians 2:1-11

It's always amazing when we hear of someone giving up their life for another person.

This has happened many times throughout history. And eight years ago, in a place not too far from here, in northern

Minnesota, this took place. There were two youth workers in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

One was named Al Hermiston, and the other was named Nathan Junker.

Nathan was the associate pastor, and Albert was a youth worker.

And there was a boy who was caught out on the lake at a weekly event that they had.

The winds were fierce, the waves were large, and the boy got stranded out in the water.

And these two men went out after him and gave him a float.

The boy made it back to shore safely. These two men did not make it back.

They were found later. They had drowned. And they died as heroes.

And these two men set the ultimate example that Christ set for us, and that is giving up their life for another person.

And that's what our sermon is about this morning. It's titled, The Ultimate Example of Selflessness.

And we're going to look to Jesus, who set this ultimate example for us.

And as we continue our sermon series in Philippians, we're going to be looking at verses chapter 2, verses 1 through 11.

So if you have a Bible with me, please turn there with me this morning. Philippians, by the way, is located about halfway through the

New Testament. So it's kind of at the back half of your Bible. So that will help you locate it. And it's a wonderful letter that the

Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. And we're going to see a treasure here again this morning as we look at this letter.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the

Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete mine joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from rivalry 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.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is also 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 made himself nothing, 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. So this text of scripture this morning, and this sermon, is calling you to follow

Christ's unparalleled example of selflessness. To follow

Christ's unparalleled example of selflessness. And we're going to see three ways how that I'm going to show you here, that we're going to find here.

And the first is by placing others before self. You'll notice you have an outline in your bulletin if you want to take notes.

The first point is placing others before self. From the previous passage, as we looked at verses 27 through 30 last week,

Paul continues to call the church in Philibi to live in a certain way. In verses 27 through 30, the

Apostle Paul called them to live in a way worthy of kingdom citizenship by being united as a church, by having no fear, and enduring suffering that will come your way.

In our text this morning, we are going to see the importance of living a life where you put others before yourself.

Paul begins in verse 1 by making a conditional statement. A conditional statement is when you begin a sentence with the word if.

He says in verse 1, Of course, all of these things that I just described here, as I just read, belong to those who know

Christ. There is encouragement in Christ. There is comfort from love.

There is participation in the Spirit. Christians also show affection and sympathy as they go through the

Christian life. So Paul is saying if these realities exist in a relationship with Jesus, which they do, then believers need to put them into practice.

They need to put them into practice in their own community. The community that they find themselves in.

The community that we find ourselves in here in the St. Croix Falls area.

It brings Paul great joy when churches are doing this. In verse 2 he says,

So he is saying if you do this, you are completing my joy. This overflows him with joy.

As the church lives this out, they are unified in loving one another.

Paul is their spiritual father. And he takes great joy in knowing these people he has invested much time in are walking with the

Lord together as a Christian community. There was a youth leader that I once had that I met with recently.

And we had a really good time together talking about the old days. I'm sure you have those experiences where you talk about the old days.

And he remembers me when I was a teen. And this is the first time he saw me since I was 18 years old.

And he was encouraged to see that I had pursued the ministry and following hard after Christ.

But we also talked about others whom he was discouraged about because they had jumped ship.

They are not following the Lord anymore. But it was great for me to see the joy that was in his heart to see me walking with the

Lord and to see others, as he described, who were still walking with Christ. And this is the joy that Paul has here as he sees this community living this out.

And he calls them, you know, live this out. And if you live this out, then you are completing my joy. Paul wants this church to be unified in demonstrating faithfulness to one another.

He wants the church to be unified in living this out. And it brings great joy to him. At Eureka Baptist, are we unified in faithfulness and love toward one another?

This is a question we must ask ourselves. This text this morning is calling us to be.

And if we are doing this, then we are placing others before ourselves.

If we are loving one another, if we are being faithful toward one another. In verse 3,

Paul continues this thought of elevating others and lowering ourselves when he says,

What does it mean to count others more significant than yourself?

You may be able to think of examples of selflessness. I described one as we began the sermon this morning.

As I think of selflessness, what comes to mind is when someone helps another when it brings no benefit to him or herself.

You do it because you love the person. And you're not getting something in return. In the late 90s, the

American people saw the movie The Titanic. Many millions of people saw it.

It was a movie put together by James Cameron. And he showed the men not giving up.

Remember the chaos that people were trying to get on the boat. And some of the men were putting themselves before the women and children even though the people were told women and children first.

It's really sad because that's not how it took place. And the reason he said he portrayed it that way is because he didn't think people would believe it.

That the men would actually put themselves behind the women and children by sending the women and children onto the lifeboats.

In 1912, when the Titanic happened, almost all of the men gave up their seat so that the women and children could live.

That's the true story. And then the men went down with the ship. They were putting themselves before others.

And this is what we need to do. We need to follow the example of Christ by doing this.

These men who did this, they demonstrated tremendous selflessness. Now in verse 4,

Paul elaborates on what selflessness is. Selflessness is of course the opposite of selfishness.

They're two words that sound similar, but they're the opposite of each other. Now selflessness does not come easy for us.

Naturally, we look to our own interests. And this is what Paul says in verse 4. He says, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

None of us do this naturally. And the reason we don't do this naturally is because all of us are sinners by nature.

And what that means is that we are born sinners. For any of you who've had children, and many of you have, and some of you have little children right now, there's one thing you don't need to teach your children, and that is to be selfish.

They are selfish. You need to teach them to be selfless. They don't have that naturally.

Psalm 51 .5, King David said that in my mother's womb, she conceived me in sin.

Romans 5 .12 says that sin came into the world through one man.

Which means that Adam and Eve sinned, and through their sin, the entire human race sinned.

And so that's why all of us sin. It's because we are sinners by nature. We are born that way.

But we're not only sinners by nature, we're also sinners by choice. We choose to sin.

Romans 3 .23 says that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nobody holds a gun to your head when you sin.

You do it because you want to. That's why we do it. Now as we look at this verse, verse 4, it is important to point out that we have to look to our own interests.

We have to live our lives. So he's not saying just forget about, completely forget about your life. We should be concerned about our own interests.

And that is why Paul says that we should not only look to our own interests, but he assumes that we will do this.

But if you look to your own interests alone, going beyond what is healthy, where you're just so self -absorbed that you never think about anyone else, we have a problem.

The same concern we have for our own lives we need to have for the lives of others.

It is hard to do, but as a Christian you are able to do this.

And here's why. Verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.

So this is yours in Christ Jesus. Your mind has been transformed when you become a believer in Christ.

The Holy Spirit is given to you and he empowers you to have the mind of Christ.

So this is yours in Christ Jesus. So verse 5 is telling us that you are able to do this.

You are able to put others before self. You are able to be selfless.

And this is what you are called to do. You are called to count others more significant than yourself. So go against your natural desire to only care about your own interests and look to the interests of others by going out of your way for them.

Jeremy Hall actually did something for me about a week ago. And I was thinking, he did exactly what this sermon is telling you to do.

He came to meet me one day and it snowed a little bit the night before and there was a little snow on the ground and he plowed our driveway without even asking.

I was like, wow, that was really nice of him. I didn't ask him to do it, but he thought about our own interests before himself.

And he performed an act of selflessness. And I've seen others of you do that to us too as we've gone through this process of transitioning to this new area.

So thank you for doing that. And when you're doing that, you are following the example of Christ.

And of course, Jesus looked to the interests of others. And we are going to see that in our next point.

This is the first way how you must follow Christ's unparalleled example of selflessness, by placing others before self.

The second way how you must follow Christ's example is by looking to the ultimate act of love.

By looking to the ultimate act of love. I mentioned in the first point that you have the power, because of the

Spirit's presence within you, to put others before yourself. As you strive to live this out, aim to follow the example of Christ.

The upcoming verses explain to us the wonder of what Jesus Christ did. What he did is truly unparalleled.

Nobody else has done what he did. Verses 6 -8, listen to this closely.

Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.

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.

In these verses, we see what Jesus did. And we see something unique about Jesus that we can say about no one else in the world.

Jesus has two natures. He has a divine nature, and he has a human nature.

And the way to say it is, he's God, he's fully God, and he's man.

He's fully man. He's not part God and part man, he's fully God and fully man.

Now when Paul writes verse 6 here, he's referring to Christ's divine nature. He says, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

So he is in the form of God. Whatever makes

God, God, Jesus has it. He has all the attributes of God.

He's all -knowing. He's all -powerful. He's omnipresent. He's holy.

All the attributes of God he has. And Paul writes here that Jesus is equal with God as the second person of the

Trinity. Now there's three persons of the Trinity. The Father is the first person of the Trinity.

The Son is the second person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the

Trinity. So Jesus is equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

And when this verse says that he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, this means to be held onto and exploited for one's own gain.

He didn't use the high place that he held in heaven as an advantage when he came to earth.

Instead he humbled himself when he came to earth. Politicians in Washington may come to mind here when you think of those who exploit their office for their own gain.

Many have used their positions of power to benefit themselves. And that's why we vote people out like that if we see that they're doing that.

Now Jesus as God did not do this. Instead he came to earth and had all the weaknesses that humans have.

And we have many weaknesses. This is what it means in verse 7 when it says that he made himself nothing.

It says here, he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Now some have wrongly said that Jesus gave up some of his divine nature to come to earth.

This has been called the kenosis theory. But this is incorrect. What it means to make himself nothing is that he gave up his high position in heaven to come to earth to be a lowly human who had weakness.

We all have weaknesses. We get sick. We get hurt. We die. Jesus put himself in the position where he faced everything that we face.

We get depressed. We go through hard times. Jesus faced that. He knows what you are going through because he went through it himself when he was on earth.

So God became man. Think about that for a second. God became man.

Look up at the stars at night and realize that the very one who put all those stars in the heavens, the very one who created you, the very one who created everything, became a man.

Think about that for a second. This isn't something we should just gloss over. It should be like, wow, that's incredible.

That's what this verse is telling us. He became man. And this is known as the incarnation.

He takes on human flesh. And the end of verse 7 says that he took on the likeness of men.

And this describes the other nature of Christ, his human nature.

The Father and the Holy Spirit don't have a human nature. The second person in the Trinity, the

Son, has a human nature. During his life on earth, Jesus did not grow up in privilege or expected to be treated like a royalty, even though he was the creator of all things, even though he was the king of the universe.

Rather, he lived as a servant. So Jesus set us the ultimate example of selflessness by humbling himself.

And he went beyond just being a servant on earth. He went far beyond it.

He died the worst and most humiliating death possible by dying the death on a cross, where he hung for hours to be seen by all.

He was naked as he hung on a cross and suffered the ultimate penalty. And he did all of this to bring us into a relationship with God by dying for our sins.

Verse 8 says, In being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So he not only leaves his high place in heaven to become a man, but he also suffers this brutal death at the hands of the

Romans. The torment the Romans put a man through as he died on the cross is hard to put into words.

Some of you maybe have seen the movie The Passion of the Christ. You've seen how horrible it is.

Even before he went to the cross, he was lashed 39 times.

So he was almost dead when he went to the cross. He was bleeding tremendously. He suffered a horrible death.

And the God -man himself went through all of this suffering of crucifixion.

Mark 10 .45 says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Wonderful verse. Jesus did this for you. He humbled himself for you.

He did the most selfless act in the history of the world. And he did it all for you.

So my question to you this morning is, Have you trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins?

I know that many of you have, but some who are here maybe have not. So have you trusted in Jesus?

He came to this earth because you are a sinner. And you need to be reconciled before a holy

God. And Jesus suffered the penalty for sin that you deserve when he went to the cross.

Jesus bore the wrath of God that you deserve. God the Father poured out his holy wrath upon Jesus.

So that anybody who believes in Jesus, they don't have to face that wrath. Because Jesus already faced it for you.

So have you trusted in Jesus? The example that Jesus set of counting us as more significant than himself, even though we were not, brought salvation as he paid the penalty for our sins when he went to Golgotha.

And we're going to recognize what he did with a special service on Good Friday in a couple of weeks.

I hope you can make it to that service at 6 .30 on Good Friday. So we must follow

Christ's example and count others more significant than ourselves. And this must lead us to worship

Christ. He is worthy of our worship. And as you do this, as you follow

Christ's example of selflessness, you will reflect Christ. And you will have the mind of Christ.

And the world will see that you are different. They will see, this person is not like the other people

I know. This person is selfless. They do things not because it just benefits them.

They do it because they love me. Because they're counting me more significant than themselves. So this is the third way how you must follow

Christ's unparalleled example of selflessness. By looking to the ultimate act of love. The love that Christ demonstrated for us.

And we must follow that. The third way how you must follow Christ's selflessness is by realizing that those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Those who humble themselves will be exalted. Verses 9 -11

Therefore God has highly exalted him, Jesus, 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. Verse 9 says that God the

Father has exalted his son and given him the name that is above every name.

And the name that is above every name is Lord. Lord. Lord is a translation of the name

Yahweh. Maybe you've heard that before. Yahweh is the name for God in the

Old Testament. God gave himself a name. And his name is

Yahweh. If you read Exodus chapter 3, you can see where that came from. Where Moses says, what shall

I tell the Israelites? Your name is. And he says, I am. That's his name. Now the

Old Testament was written in Hebrew. And so the word

Lord is a translation of the name Yahweh. In between the

Old and the New Testament, there was a translation of the Bible called the Septuagint. It was written in Greek.

It was the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. So when these people are translating

Yahweh, they're putting Lord in there. So that's where we get the word Lord. If you read your

Old Testament, L -O -R -D, Lord, when it's in all caps, so the whole word is capitalized, that's

Yahweh. So you might say, I don't see Yahweh in my Bible. Well, it's actually L -O -R -D, capital letters.

So it is in there. Now, Jesus is declared Lord of heaven and earth after he accomplished redemption through his death and resurrection.

As verse 9 says, it says, Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

This happens after his suffering at the cross and his resurrection. Now, it is right to call

Jesus the name of God, which is Yahweh. And it's right to call him that because the

Bible tells us he has earned that. He is worthy to be called that. And he is God. This name belongs to him.

And as you have noticed in our passage this morning, Jesus is shown to be God in several places. People don't know this.

Jesus is God. And the scriptures are very clear about that. Now, the

Father also gave Jesus an authority that he did not have before he achieved redemption.

In Matthew 28, 18, Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Now, in verse 10, when Jesus comes back and establishes his kingdom on earth, everyone is going to acknowledge him as Lord.

So it says, In the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

When Jesus returns, nobody is going to be able to say that he is not

Lord. Jesus will come, and it's going to be inescapable that he is

Lord. People aren't going to be able to have an out. They're going to say, Okay, it's so obvious that he is

Lord because he just returned, that everybody is going to say one day that Jesus Christ is

Lord. Everyone will bow to the King, whether you are a believer in Christ or an unbeliever.

Believers will gladly bow to him. Unbelievers will bow in shame.

But everyone will bow to Jesus. In the first half of verse 11,

Paul writes that they will not only bow, but also confess with their tongue that Jesus Christ is

Lord. It says, Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. That's going to be a humiliating day for some people. People who have denied him and said,

Well, he might have been a good teacher, but he's not Lord of heaven and earth. People are going to be humbled on that day.

And how great it's going to be for those who followed him and worshipped him throughout all of their lives.

The joy that will be there for those when Christ returns. My prayer is that every one of us would have that when

Christ returns. The second half of verse 11 says that the

Father is glorified when his Son is worshipped and honored. Let's not overlook this.

It says, To the glory of God the Father. The Father is pleased when his

Son is worshipped. We worship the Father. We worship the Son. We worship the Holy Spirit.

Because it's one God in three persons. The New Testament is

Trinitarian. We see it everywhere. The Father, the

Son, and the Holy Spirit are given in equality. Each of them are fully God. And Jesus is a human.

And we worship him because he is God. We don't worship anyone else but God.

And Jesus set us the ultimate example. He humbled himself. And you'll notice here that he was then exalted.

And you as a Christian will also be exalted by God after humbling yourself.

The passage that I read this morning from Matthew 23, verses 11 and 12, it says, The greatest among you shall be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 1

Peter 5, 6, that says, In due time you will be exalted.

Those who humble themselves will be exalted. So another way to say it is, The way up is down.

Lower yourself now. And one day you will hear a well done from Jesus. And in that moment you will be exalted.

And you will have an exalted place. Jesus humbled himself and God has highly exalted him.

And everyone who follows Jesus will one day be exalted also.

Not the same way as Jesus. Nobody is going to bow to us. Because we are men.

We are mankind. People will only bow to Jesus. But you will be exalted.

We must notice that here in the text of Scripture. You will be exalted. So those who are selfless and count others more significant than themselves are the ones who will be exalted by God.

And Jesus is the one who showed us this example. And we must follow in his steps.

So this sermon this morning is calling you to follow Christ's unparalleled example of selflessness.

By placing others before self. By looking to the ultimate act of love.

By realizing that Jesus will be acknowledged as Lord by all. And this is not going to be easy as I have already said.

This is not for the faint of heart. But God has made you a new creation in Christ.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. Which means that you can do this.

You have been given the mind of Christ. And as Christians, this character trait of selflessness should be visible in our lives.

As you follow Christ closely, selflessness will be seen in your life. It will become a regular pattern in your life.

And one day God will exalt you for it. Those two men, Nathan Junker and Albert Hermanston, put that teenager, that young boy, before themselves.

They displayed extraordinary selflessness by giving up their life for him. They followed

Christ's example. And so should we. Let's pray. Father, I pray that we would live this out.

I pray that we would model what Jesus modeled. I pray that we would not take this lightly.

This is not easy to live out, Lord. And Lord, you've given us a mission while we're here on earth.

And your mission for us is that we would not live for ourselves. But that we would live for others.

The greatest commandment is that we would love you with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And the second greatest commandment is that we would love others as ourselves.

Lord, we already love ourselves. And we love ourselves too much.

And it's sinful when we do that. But I pray, Lord, that we would love others.

That we would put others before ourselves. That we would count them as more significant. And when we do that, we will be following the example of Christ.

And so I pray that you would give us the grace to do so. And we ask this in Jesus' name.