We welcome DJ Coleman to teach at the 5:15 gathering. DJ digs deeper into Philippians 2:5-11 to better understand Jesus Christ’s divine and human nature and the incredible humility he displayed in his life and death.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 33:17 — 22.9MB)
Downloads
Notes Transcript Video Audio iTunesGrace Fellowship Church
DJ Coleman
Series: Philippians: The “What Ifs” of Faith
October 20, 2013
What If We Thought Like Jesus?
Philippians 2:5-11
I’m so excited to be here this evening. It really is an honor. I’m overwhelmed at the goodness of God that he would allow me to speak to people much further and advanced than me. I’m truly grateful. I think they’re going to pass out the Bibles. We need everybody to have a Bible. We’re going to be in the book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 5-11.
Last week, we saw Paul. He was telling the church at Philippi to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. He said, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4) I read that charge from Paul. He says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but each of you should look not only to your own interests but to the interests of others.”
I read that passage, and I think about the first 18 years of my life, and I think about how I did everything for myself. If it was going to please me, if it was going to be about me, if it was going to put me in front, if it was going to make me look good or look great I was all about that. I played football. I wanted to be great. I would work hard, lift weights (sometimes three times a day), run stadiums. I would do everything so I could be big and seen. I wanted to be strong, and I did everything, looking at myself.
When I look at Paul and he’s telling this church, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition,” I understand that is completely impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit. He’s telling them to do something they cannot do apart from the Holy Spirit. It’s important we understand the context of this book he’s writing to saints.
He writes and he says something very interesting in chapter 1, verse 6. He says, “God has done a work in your heart. God has done a work in your life. It is God who has done the work. It’s the Holy Spirit who has done a work in your life, and God is faithful. He’s going to bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” It’s the doctrine of sanctification that we’re going to be growing in the knowledge of God, growing in the love for the things God loves, and growing in the hatred for the thing God hates.
The way Paul says it, he says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition.” That’s verses 1-4. Verses 5-11, which I’m going to be speaking on this evening, he’s pointing to Jesus. He’s saying, “Look at the life and the death of Jesus Christ. If you want to see the way you are intended to live, the way you were made to live, look at the man who did it perfectly. What was his mindset? What was he thinking about? What was his attitude?” He says you should have the same attitude as Jesus Christ.
He says that’s possible because Jesus does not have any advantage than anyone in this room. If Jesus has an advantage, then we have no atonement. He cannot atone for our sins. Because man sinned, so man had to die. Jesus had no advantage. He’s fully God, yes, but he’s fully man. He says your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.
Verse 6: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be [grasped]…” (Philippians 2:6) God has done everything he has ever done through the person of Jesus Christ. He created the world through Jesus, he redeems the world through Jesus, and he’s going to judge the world through Jesus. Everything he has ever done, he has done through Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Hebrews 1 says he’s the exact representation of his glory.
Jesus is equal to God, and he sees the throne of God (the great white throne in the book of Revelation) not as an opportunity to lord over a group of people, not as an opportunity to do something out of selfish ambition, but he sees the throne of God as a means to serve. We see in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 Lucifer, the archangel of God. He was created by God to exist eternally in the throne room of God. He was powerful and glorious.
Ezekiel 28 says all the gems of the world (the diamond, the sapphire, turquoise; all these rubies) were ascribed to Lucifer. He was this great archangel, powerful, glorious, majestic, and splendid. All of these attributes of this glorious being. He stands in the throne room of God, and he looks out and he sees that great inscription, “Lord of Lords. King of Kings.” He sees the great white throne. He sees the sea of glass, the rainbow surrounding the throne room of God.
He sees the four living creatures, and he hears them crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” He looks and he turns and he sees the 24 elders casting down their crowns of gold, and they’re ascribing to the man seated on the throne, “You are worthy, Lord and God, to receive glory, honor, and power, and wealth, and riches, and majesty! You are divine! We worship you.”
At that very moment, Lucifer stands up, points his finger, and says, “Get off the throne! I want that! Give me that throne. I want that power. I want to be God.” A third of the angels with him, with borrowed strength, rebel against Elohim, and they’re kicked out of the presence of God, kicked out of the throne room of God…perfect justice, without the hope of salvation, without a plan of redemption. Kicked out of the throne room of God.
And worship continues. “Lord, you are good in your majesty. You’re glorious. You’re faithful. You’re true.” They continue to worship. Adam and Eve do the same exact thing. “I can have knowledge of God. I can fathom all understanding, have all mystery. I can be like God. I want to be like God. Get off of your throne. Give me your power. Give me your knowledge. I want to be like God.”
We do the same exact thing every single time we say, “God, why? Why would you do this? You’re such an ignorant God. Get off of your throne. Why would you allow this to happen?” We’re questioning the sovereignty of God. As judgment stands up to condemn the whole entire world, Jesus, being in very nature God, uses his power not for himself but to redeem us.
In this passage we’re going to look at Jesus. He says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be [grasped, exploited]; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” (Philippians 2:6-7) This is the kenosis, the emptying of God, the emptying of his divine powers, his divine privileges.
This is a dangerous doctrine. To say too much and you blaspheme; to say too little and you’re a heretic. What does it mean that he emptied himself and became a man? Was it a demigod? Was he walking around in half-man, half-God? What does it mean that he emptied himself? It says he became a servant, a doulos, a slave. He became a slave.
In the book of Matthew, chapter 20, it says even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to be a slave to serve others. He comes to the world off of his throne. He puts aside his divine powers, his divine privileges, and he comes to the world, and he doesn’t come into a king’s palace greeted by all these prestigious men, but he comes to an animal’s feeding trough. Do you see the humility of Jesus?
He comes to an animal’s feeding trough. He doesn’t walk around and have an entourage of scholars and people who were important in the world’s eyes, but he walked around with 12 unlearned, uneducated fishermen. The humility of Jesus. Do you see the mind of Christ?
When he’s walking around in Jerusalem, he’s not greeted with the chants of someone like a King David, “Saul has slain his thousands; David his tens of thousands,” but he stands and hears his own creation say, “Get rid of him! Crucify him! Crucify him! Give us Barabbas! Crucify this man!” Do you see the humility of Jesus?
Eighteen years of my life thinking about myself, thinking about how I can be great, I remember seeing Jesus rightly for the very first time five years ago. For my whole life, I was convinced I was a king. I wanted the throne of God. I wouldn’t have said that. I would’ve said, “Yeah, I’m Christian,” but through my lifestyle, through my actions I said, “I want to be like God.” You would think God would just dismiss me, but his goodness and his kindness and through the preaching of the gospel I see him rightly. I see he is Lord. It was through him being a servant.
Just imagine you’re at your dining room table. You have your spaghetti in a big bowl. Your whole family is there. It’s tasting good. (I had Miss Amy’s spaghetti a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing.) Some salad. Some garlic bread. We used to do corn. That was good. You have your dining room set up. Everything is looking great. Good discussion. Everybody is happy. It’s all smiles.
Then dinner is over, and the discussion takes a twist. Evening chores. Who’s going to wash the dishes? Who’s going to take out the trash? You begin to kind of debate and you begin to argue, “I have homework. I don’t want to wash the dishes. You always wash the dishes! I hate taking out the trash. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that.” You begin to argue, “I hate taking out the trash. I’ll do the dishes.” “No!” All this arguing.
It hits the climax of the argument. You’re debating and arguing, and at the very peak of this argument, the manifest presence of God steps into your dining room. Everyone hits the ground. His presence has glued you to the floor. You’re in the fetal position. You can’t open your eyes. No one knows what’s going on. You’re shaking.
A few moments go by and everything is back to normal. You stand up. Everyone looks around. Everybody looks each other in the eye, and everyone knows you are in the presence of Jesus. The only thing he did was washed your dishes and took out your trash. See, that is the attitude of Jesus. Powerful. Glorious. Servant.
Jesus says, “Do you want to see God? Do you want to know what God is like? Behold your God! Take your shoes off and let me wash your feet. Do you want to see God? Give me a towel. Let me serve you.” This is the mind of Christ. This is the strategy of God to empty yourself, to see yourself as a servant, a slave.
Not to consider, not to look at the throne of God, not to look at whatever God has given you, whatever platform, whatever talents and giftings. It’s not yours. Do you see why God says, “Let the wise man not boast in his wisdom, the strong man not in his strength, the one who has riches not in his wealth, but he who boasts boast in this that he knows the mind of Christ, he knows God”?
It says he empties himself, takes the very nature of a servant, and “…being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:7) We are all made in the image of God, the imago Dei. God humbles himself and is found in human likeness. He understands what it’s like to be us. See, we don’t have this far-off, cosmic, deist grandfather off in the clouds God; we have a God who has walked our walk.
We see that in the wilderness after Jesus is baptized. The Spirit leads him into this wilderness. He hasn’t eaten in 40 days. In 40 nights he has not eaten a thing. It’s not just some second grader who comes up to him; it is the father of lies. He knows how to wiggle his way. We see his cunning and his craftiness in the garden of Eden.
This father of lies comes to Jesus in his weakness, and he says, “Do you really think you’re the Son of God? Hey, if you’re the Son of God, turn this rock into bread. Feast.” He says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.'” He knows what it’s like to be tempted. He knows what it’s like to have heartache and tragedy. It says Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. He understands what it is to have a close friend, even his cousin John the Baptist, getting his head cut off. He understands what tragedy is.
He understands what it is to be rejected in his hometown. He understands what it is to be betrayed by a friend. He understands what we’re going through. It says in the book of Hebrews that we have a great High Priest who is able to sympathize with us. We don’t have this ignorant God. We have a God who knows, and when we pray, we must pray with that knowledge that God understands. Being made in human likeness.
Verse 8: “And being found in appearance as a man…” (Philippians 2:8) It says in the book of Hebrews that in the Old Testament God revealed himself through prophets and priests and kings. He revealed himself in a different way. In the New Testament he reveals himself through the person of Jesus.
In the Old Testament, we see the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies, the manifest shekinah glory of God in the Holy of Holies. When the high priest would go in once a year to make a sacrifice, what they would do is they would tie a rope around his leg, and if in the presence of the Lord he did something that was not in accordance with the will of God, the law of God, he would die, then they would pull him out of the Holy of Holies. That is the power and the glory of God being held in a 14-year-old Jewish girl. He was made a man.
When the ark of the covenant was being carried into Jerusalem, mules were carrying the ark, and it begins to shake, and it’s about to fall. A man, Uzzah, touches the ark of the covenant so it won’t fall. He touches the ark of the covenant, the holiness. He dies instantly. That is the holiness of God, walking around touching lepers, walking around and a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years touches the hem of his scarf.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2) Verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and [skēnoō, tabernacled] among us…” (John 1:14) The very presence of God walking around on earth. Jesus Christ, the fullness of God. God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were [made]…” (Colossians 1:15-16).
This man Jesus, the God man, walking around in flesh. It says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…” (Philippians 2:8) That right there is the stumbling block the Jews stumbled over. That’s what the Greeks would say was foolishness. “God, a man? No.”
Those two words, obedience and death, can you ascribe those words to a God? Obedience and death. He obeyed. He identified the will of the Father. Remember when he’s teaching his disciples how to pray? “When you pray, pray in this manner. Pray like this. ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy is your name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.'” He identified the will of the Father and obeyed it completely. Completely obeying the will of the Father.
He becomes obedient. But not only to God; he’s obedient to Caesar. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” He’s obedient to the religious law, the Sanhedrin. He’s allowed to be tried. The humility of Jesus. He’s allowed to be arrested. This is funny. When he’s being arrested and everybody just falls down, “Here I am.” Obedient. He doesn’t say a word. He’s obedient. He’s allowed to be beaten.
Obedient to the will of the Father. “Father, this is your will. I will obey.” We see this perfectly and clearly in the garden of Gethsemane. He’s praying, sweating drops of blood. As he’s looking at the cross, he says, “Father, let this cup of your wrath (referring to Jeremiah 7) pass, but not my will; yours be done so you would get the glory. I do nothing but the will of my Father. I do nothing on my own but only what the Father has done.”
“If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” He identified the will of God and obeyed it completely even unto death. But he wasn’t stoned to death. In his death, he displayed the greatest humility. He died on a cross. I went on the EPIC trip to Israel this summer. We got to see Golgotha, the skull mountain. You have the mountain up here, and you can see it actually looks just like a skull.
A lot of times in movies and in posters you’ll see the cross lifted up, and Jesus is kind of lifted up high, but at Golgotha what you see is there’s actually a path right here and there was a well-traveled path by all the Jews. They say Jesus would’ve actually been crucified at eye level. Whenever you have the banner right over the cross, people would read that. When he died on a cross, it was in demonstration. It was torturous. They would say, “You want to go against Caesar? Look at what will happen to you.” It was a demonstration.
When it says people were mocking Jesus, they were looking at him and saying, “You’re God? You’re on a tree dying. You’ve been beaten. You’re bloody. You’re God? If you’re God, come off the cross. If you truly are God, come off the cross.” They’re taunting him. Do you understand why God says, “I oppose the proud but give grace to the humble”? He is the embodiment of humility on the cross, being nailed by men to a cross, beaten, bloody, and bruised.
I understand Isaiah 53 and I understand the Old Testament that there must’ve been blood to atone for our sins, but listen to me clearly. The pain and the humiliation of the cross is not what man did to Jesus. The pain and the humiliation of the cross is not what man did to Jesus. I don’t want to take anything away from the beating and the blood, but if you read church history, you’ll understand that thousands of Christians were killed in that manner. Many of them lit on fire. Many of them crucified upside down.
The pain and the humiliation of the cross is what Almighty God did to Jesus. This perfect sacrifice knew no sin. On the cross he calls out to his Father, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus looks up to God and God looks down at him and treats us as Jesus and treats Jesus as a sinner, as me and you.
He looks at Jesus in that moment, and he sees someone who broke the law of God, someone who did not obey the covenant. He looks at Jesus and sees an adulterer. He looked at Jesus and treated him as a sinner, treated him as a child abuser, treated him as someone who has cheated and lied. He took that sin on himself, he who knew no sin.
Everyone always quotes John 3:16, “For God so loved the world.” We always quote John 3:16. If you do not understand John 3:14, we don’t understand John 3:16. John 3:14 says, “And as Moses lifted up the [bronze] serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” (John 3:14)
It’s referring to Numbers 21, when the Israelites are in the desert and they’re complaining and arguing, and God sends judgment in these snakes. They’re poisonous and they bite the Israelite people, and they’re dying one by one, dropping dead. They go to Moses, and they pray, and they say, “Go talk to your God. Ask for a remedy. We’re all dying.”
God tells Moses, “Fashion from bronze a serpent. Put it on a pole and lift it up. Every Israelite who looks at this bronze serpent will live.” Why a serpent? Every single Israelite, every single Jewish person knows that a serpent represents sin, from Genesis. They understand when you’re talking about a serpent you’re talking about sin.
So when we read 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” (2 Corinthians 5:21) it’s talking about substitutionary atonement. All of our sins being imputed onto Jesus and all of his righteousness imputed and imparted to us. We have a righteousness not on what we have done. We have a righteousness on not our own works, but on the work of another. That is the humility.
We have to come to God with humility, not with pride. If you go to any other religion, you will see the exact opposite. I live in Clarkston. I work in missions. I speak to Muslims quite often. If you go to a Muslim and you ask this Muslim, “Sir, when you die where are you going to go?” “I’m going to go to paradise.”
If you ask him why, he’s going to say, “I’ve made the shahada. I’ve made the great profession that there is only one god. Muhammad is his messenger. I’ve prayed. I pray five times a day. I fast. I do Ramadan. I’m a good Muslim. I have done good. I have made the hajj. I’m a good Muslim. I will go to paradise.”
I went to the Wailing Wall, and I’ve spoken to Hassidic Jews. If you go to a Hassidic Jew, and you ask this man, “Sir, when you die, where are you going to go?”
“I’m going to go to paradise.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a good Jew. I’ve read the Torah. I delight in the Word of God. I have done all these things. I’m a good Jew.”
If you go to the regenerate Bible-believing Christian and you ask him, “Sir, when you die, where are you going to go?” and you look at him, he’s going to put his head down and he’s going to say, “I was born in sin. I have broken every law of God. I am wrong. I have no good within myself.”
The interviewer is going to stop and say, “Okay, I understand the Muslim. I understand he is a good man. I understand the Jew. I understand he’s a good man. But you; you have the greatest confidence you’re going to go to heaven when you die, but you say you’ve broken every single law of God. Where is your assurance for salvation? How do you know you’re going to go to heaven when you die?”
He’s going to look at you with so much joy and point to Jesus Christ on the cross and say, “Do you see the humility of Jesus? I’m going to stand before God fully clean, fully accepted because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.” We can’t come to God with any pride within ourselves. It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about Christ. We must see this.
But he doesn’t stay on the cross and he doesn’t stay in a grave. If we continue reading, it says, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
He exalted him and gave him the highest name. He is now seated at the right hand of God, and he is Lord. We must see him rightly as Lord. We are not kings. We cannot want to be equal to God. We must understand our positions and see God as good, King, Ruler, just, and true who used his powers not for himself but to serve others.
He is Lord. We will stand before him. It says every knee is going to bow and every tongue confess. This whole, “Do you want to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior?” is all baloney. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord, and you will bow down and your tongue will confess it, whether you do it here on earth or in the pit of hell. Jesus is Lord. He is King. That is not up for debate. That is not up for discussion. He is Lord and we must see him as that. That changes our lives.
That changed my life. When I saw and I looked at the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, I bowed down and said, “You are God. You are King. You are Ruler to the glory of God. All I am is yours. All of my life I give as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to you. What is your will? Arms open. Speak. Your servant is listening.”
We don’t seek some platform. I never seek a present. I never sought a pulpit. I seek only the presence of God. That is what David said, “One thing I seek, one thing I ask, that I would stand in the presence of my God, that I would see the beauty of the Lord.” If God exalts us, great. If he doesn’t and we stay here as whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Our job is to bow down and worship God, for he is good and his mercy endures forever. He is good. That way God gets the glory.
But we first have to look at the cross. When we look at the cross, we see perfect humility. We don’t see selfish ambition. We don’t see vain conceit. We don’t see someone trying to be a president or a CEO or an emperor; we see someone who’s serving. We see someone dying on the cross, not looking at himself.
Do you realize Jesus had a legion of angels that could’ve come and swept over the whole entire world and absolutely no one would’ve questioned him? But he wasn’t looking at himself; he was looking to the interest of others, and he was looking to bring glory to God. Praise and adoration. He is Lord and we must see him rightly as the Lord. Let’s pray.
Jesus, we thank you for being our example. We thank you for the sacrifice on the cross. We thank you that you have walked our walk, that you have lived our life. You became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Father, I pray for anyone in this room. I pray we would understand and we would see you rightly as Lord.
God, I pray we would by your Holy Spirit empty ourselves of pride. God, that we would take the humble position. God, that we would seek your will. We would become obedient, Father, obedient servants. God, give us grace. Father, we would have the same heart as Paul. He said, “If I live, it’s going to be as Christ, but if I die, it’s gain. I want to please you. I want to please you. I have seen the cross. I have looked at the cross. I have seen Jesus, and I am following him.”
God, I pray you would in this room bring conviction, your Holy Spirit would come and empower even now. God, that you would open our eyes to see you rightly as Lord, and we would bow down, and we would declare that you are good, you are Lord. It’s in the powerful name of Jesus, I pray, amen.