Unattractive Gospel Part 1 – The Right Attitude Philippians 2:1-11
Who can remember back to the Bejing Olympics. Rememeber the openning ceremony? In the Openning Ceremony there was a little Chinese girl sing a song which caused a massive controversy. It came out a day or so later that the girl everyone thought was singing wasn't actually the voice that everyone was hearing. In fact the organisers had decided that the young girl, I think she was about 8 years old, whose voice it was wasn't attractive enough to be seen byt the how many billion people across the globe who were going watch the openning ceremony.
You see sometimes I think we treat the gospel a bit like this, well I know do. I am very quick to read, meditate and think about the amazing grace of God and his mercy and his love and his forgiveness, but very slow and soemtimes even hesitant to focus on the things in my life that I actually needed to change as well. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with focusing on the grace and mercy and love and forgiveness of God because they are all fundamentals, but as Paul wrote to the Corithian Christians 2 Corithians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! But it isn't really that attractive, well to me anyway, to think about the ways I need to change my life around to bring in the new being that I am in Jesus.
Lets take the passage we read today. See I don't know aobut you but this passage, Philippians 2:6-11 page 1312 completely blows me away.
Jesus always had the nature of God,
but he did not think that by force he shoud try to become equal to God.
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had,
and took the nature of a servant.
He became like a man and appeared in human likeness.
He was humbled and walked the path of obedience all the way to death -
his death on the cross.
For this reason God raised him and gave him the name that is greater than other name.
And so, in honour of the name of Jesus
all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the the world below
will fall on their knees,
and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
We see that Jesus who shared the very Nature of God – who was God, freely gave it all up for us. That Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, Phil 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (NIV). That is pretty amazing that Jesus would give up all his Godness to become a human and hang out with humans like us, humans who aren't fully perfect, who stuff up. But Jesus didn't come down to earth and leave it at that, as amazing as that is Jesus took it a step further - who lived an obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
We know why Jesus died as well. 2Co 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It was through Jesus' death that we were able be made right with God. Through Jesus humbling himself beyond anything that we can imagine that we have been able to be put right with God forever.
And as a sign of his Promise and Jesus' obedience God raised him three days after his death just as he had promised to do!
And that is the Gospel - the good news - that we have. The Good news that we should be sharing with everyone. And one day everyone well be openly proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (PHIL 2:11). On the day when Jesus returns on the clouds of glory it will be impossible for anyone not declare that Jesus is Lord! whether or not they have decalred it before or not.
We could stop here and it is amazing to see what God ahs done for us. It is mind blowing - that Jesus would forfeit his Godness and then die so that we can be friends with God again. It is amazing and I hope that we all have accepted this Jesus as our own saviour, letting his death put us right with God.
But if we stop here are we just looking at the attractive part of the Gospel? Are we only looking at the bit of the passage that is easy for us to hear? Is there more here than just what Jesus has done for us?
Lets thing about what it means to declare Jesus as Lord now? What does it mean to make Jesus the King of our lives? What sacrifices do we need to make? What changes do we really need to make to put Jesus as number one?
Yes it is by grace that we are saved that we are saved as Paul reminds us in Ephessians 2:8 but when anyone is joined to Christ – that is made Jesus their Lord – they are a new being, the old is gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).
In the passage we read today Paul is not just giving the early christians in Philippi a recap of what Jesus has done for them, but he is urging them to have the right attitude. This is not somehting the early Christians in Philippi need to be urged to do but it is something that us here just under 2000 years later who proclaim Jesus as our Lord also need be reminded and urged do as well.
Lets look at verse 3 and 4 of the chapter Don't do anything from selfish ambition or froma cheap desire to baost, but be humble towards one another always considering others better than yourself. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. That is a hard thing to do. It is had not too be in things just for yourself, hard not to boast about htings, and even harder to put pthers ahead of you in everything. We live a world where the media, advertising, even our own human nature tell us that we should be in it for ourselves. We should try and get the best out of everything for ourselves and don't care what others end up with. But that is not the way it is with God. When we make Jesus our Lord, our King, the number One in our life we are no longer living for our selves. We are living for Christ and thus have to live life the Jesus way.
Lets look at verses 6 – 11 again, but this time lets read first 5 first.
The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:
Jesus always had the nature of God,
but he did not think that by force he shoud try to become equal to God.
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had,
and took the nature of a servant.
He became like a man and appeared in human likeness.
He was humbled and walked the path of obedience all the way to death -
his death on the cross.
For this reason God raised him and gave him the name that is greater than other name.
And so, in honour of the name of Jesus
all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the the world below
will fall on their knees,
and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Not only does Paul urge us to put everyone else first, to be humble in all we do and not to look for praise or to boast, Paul also gives us the example which we are meant to be following.
Paul says rightly that we should have the same attitude of Christ Jesus. That like Jesus we shouldn't hold onto position that we may think that we have wether that be a high position or a not so high position, but like Jesus we should humble to the point of considering everyth we have as nothing.
If we declare that Jesus is our Lord, that we have been made one with God through the death and ressurection of Jesus than we need to live it. We need to stop living selfish lives, but we need to be humble in all we do, being humble towards one another always considering others better than yourself. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own.
In fact Jesus himself old his followers that to be great rather than being the “most important” one they needed to be servants. In Mark 10 when James and John ask Jesus if they can share in his glory when He sits on his glorious throne but Jesus' answer is failry straight forward – if you want to be great you have to serve. 10:42 So Jesus called them all together to him and said, “You know that those who are conisdeered rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. 43 This however is not the way it is among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; 44 and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slaveof all. 45For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”
We have a great example to follow – Jesus. Jesus who had everything, he shared the very nature of God, it was through him and by him all htings were made! - but he did not hold on to any of it infact he humbled himself to death for all of us, for all the wrongs we have done and are going to do, so how can we not humble oursleves?
Well we are left with a challenge of how we are going respond. They way I see it there is only two ways that we can really respond.
Firstly we can read this passage in Philippians and be blown away by it. That Jesus would would not consider his equality with God to be held on to but made himself nothing to the point of death - in order to bring us back to God, and that God raised him up again, raised him from the dead!! Maybe you are just blown away, or maybe you put your hand up and say “Hey you know what I believe that Jesus did all that for me, I believe in him”. And to be honest I wuold say too often I find myself taking this option. Being blown away byt what Jesus has done and saying I believe, but that is all.
OR
The other option, the other way to respond is to not only be blown away and declaring that you believe in Jesus and that he is Lord, but also living it out. It doesn't always seem as atrtratcive to put others first, to do things for others, not to be selfish – but that is the true Jesus way. Once you put your hand up and say “hey you now what – JESUS IS LORD!” then you also have to live it out, which I foound a massive challenge, putting other first, but if we are really putting Jesus as Lord he promises his spirit to help us do it!
Amen!
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