This week, my family back home in the Appalachians reminded me that when the first taco restaurant came into our not-very-ethnically-diverse community in WV, the tacos we got at the drive-in window were accompanied by instructions.  How to Eat a Taco:

*Take wrapped taco out of paper bag,

*Pull back wrapper, exposing part of taco,

*Hold taco with end still wrapped on bottom,

*Pour on taco sauce if desired,

*Take bite from part uncovered avoiding chewing paper,

*Pull back additional paper from still-covered taco,

*Take another bite (again avoiding paper)

*Continue repeating unwrapping and eating until finished.

*Dispose properly of paper to avoid littering.

Now, that may seem to be overkill in terms of giving instructions.  But, if you are like me – and are not particularly gifted at fixing machines or computers (or anything for that matter) -- then, when you go at the tasking of building or fixing something, you like to have clear, detailed and simple instructions.  And I know that sometimes we’d like to have the pastor give specific instructions for how to live life too.  I have occasionally had people say to me, “Pastor, don’t just give us the principles or general commands of the Bible.  Just tell us specifically what to do with them.”  Well, of course, I cannot do that for every decision you will be making this week.  And – deep down – you don’t want me to.  (At least, I don’t think you do!)

One of the most beautiful – but also (for some) most challenging – parts of following Jesus is the God gives us some clear commands about how to live life and many principles – like those found in these great verses we come to today.  And then we are asked to consider prayerfully how we should live in the light of them.  I’m convinced God gives us all we need so that we will know how to make good decisions. 

But… we rarely have specific 1-2-3 rules about what daily life looks like when we obey those commands and seek to follow those principles.  I mean – the Bible doesn’t tell us the exact time to get up every morning, the words to use when we must discipline our children if they’re not getting their homework done, how long today’s sermon should be – or countless other decisions we make moment by moment and day by day.

With that said, let me show you again two of the great wisdom-producing verses that we have memorized over the weeks of our study in Philippians called Life Together:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (1:27).

            Those kinds of verses – prayerfully applied to our daily lives – will lead to God-honoring living.  But how do we learn to apply them to situations?  Today, I’m going to show you that among the most important keys to applying God’s Word is that we are to seek wisdom in the community of faith we call the church.  We are to do life together. Wisdom is not a solitary attainment. It is a corporate and relational attainment. Loners are rarely wise. Wisdom is forged in the fires of committed Christ-centered relationships.

I once heard Pastor John Piper speak about this.  He said (in his usually unforgettably passionate way): Wisdom is the ability God places in the human soul to perceive in the context of Christian community God-glorifying, Christ-exalting, gospel-fashioned, people-helping ways to live. Wisdom is not the ability to memorize specific biblical rules of behavior. Yes, we must know what’s in the Bible if we will live in ways consistent with it.  But, seeking God’s wisdom together with other believers is needed because so many of our decisions are not explicitly regulated by specific rules in the Bible.

            And, this point brings us again to Philippians 2.  We have confessed that to live is Christ (1:21).  Then, when Christ is indeed the center and source of our life, we are to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of him and his gospel (1:27).  Then, the very foundation of that conduct is stated most clearly in 2:3-4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In other words, wise living begins with us setting our minds not on our own ambitions and interests but on those of others in the community.

            And, Paul had been teaching carefully – then almost begging them to see that living life in Christ-centered community where we love and respect one another and seek wisdom together is what following Jesus is all about.  It seems, as we come to 2:5-11, that he senses that they haven’t got it yet – it hasn’t sunk in.  So, he says, “I’ll show you what it looks like.  And the rest of Philippians 2 gives us four illustrations of what wise living worthy of Jesus looks like -- in the lives of Jesus (2:5-11), Paul (2:17-18), Timothy (2:19-24), and Epaphroditus (2:25-30). So, on this Father’s Day, 2011, we are going to start at the very top – with Jesus.  We are to have the mind of Christ as we seek to live wisely.  My prayer is that you will join me in making this your prayer:

Lord, work so deeply in my heart today that I will freed from the bondage of self-centeredness and given the mind you had – a mind set on looking not only to my own interests, but to the interests of others.  I know that, only then, will I be able to live in a way that is worthy of you.

            The command is found in v. 5: In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.  In other words:  You used to live for yourself and thus be driven by your own desires.  Now, you have given your life to Jesus. Let his mind fill your inner being.  Seek to learn of him and to allow his ways to guide you.  Set your minds on what he set his mind on.

            This, of course brings us to vv. 6-11.  Let me say that when it comes to biblical texts, this is one of the mountaintops.  I say that every text is one of the great ones in the Bible – but this one IS!  This text tells us more about the “mind” (inner disposition, mindset) of Jesus than any other passage of the Bible.  I doubt that any text in the Bible has been studied by scholars as much as this one has – because of what it teaches us about Jesus – his preexistence, his deity, the relationship of his divinity to his humanity, etc. etc.  But, we will see, the main goal of the text within Philippians is not so much to teach us truths about Jesus, as it is to teach us how to conduct ourselves with the mindset of Jesus.

So, let us look (way, way too briefly) at what the text says about Jesus – and then at how this should affect our thinking.  What are we told?

#1:  Jesus is God – Being in very nature God, Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage (2:6).

            Many people think that vv. 6-11 is a hymn of the early church written either by Paul or by someone else he is quoting here.  Personally, I believe it probably was a hymn.  Its point is quite clear – but, like all poetry, it is very hard to translate into a different language.  I think the 2010 NIV translation is about as good as it can be in current English.

            Being in very nature God – you may remember the older versions saying, “Being in the form of God.”  That truly confused people because they took it to mean that he was not really God but only one who took some kind of external form of deity.  But the word was morphe.  It was a word that had been used for centuries in the schools – including those among the Jewish people like Paul – for the true and lasting essence of something – for what makes something what it is.  For example, Plato and Aristotle asked what made a dog a dog.  Plato said there was a perfect example – the perfect “morphe” -- of dog-ness in existence and all dogs are recognizable shadows of it.  Aristotle said, “No the morphe” is in the thing.  Either way, the morphe is the essence of the thing – the very nature of it.  And, Paul says that’s who Jesus is and always has been, i.e., the very essence of God.  And, if you are unsure about my explanation, then look at the next line in v. 6, i.e., Jesus is equal with God.

            So, if anyone had glory, it was Jesus.  If anyone had the right to demand that others serve him, it was Jesus.  He is the king over all kings – the Lord over all lords.  So, how did he use his authority and position?

 

#2:  Jesus became a Man – Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness… (2:6b-7).
            Please notice that Jesus did not cease being God.  No, he remained God.  But, Jesus, who had existed as God before his birth in Bethlehem, also became fully human.  As C.S. Lewis wrote, “The Son of God became a man so that men could become sons of God.”

#3:  Jesus the God/man became the king/servant – Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…,  he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross (2:6-9)!

            Kings or CEOs or presidents usually have the attitude, “Do you know who I am?”  And, they expect their subjects to serve them.  Do you remember in v. 3? “Do nothing out of eritheia – just to get your own way or just to win – or out of kenodoxia – an empty self-centered way of wielding your authority for your own advantage?”  Here, Jesus is the one who has all power and authority – not an “empty glory at all.  But he uses his authority not for himself but for the benefit of others (like us!).  He looked to the interests of others instead of to his own interests (2:4).  Paul is saying, “This is what it looks like to conduct ourselves worthy of the life of Christ.”  Do you see it?

            Notice how relentless Jesus’ service was in v. 8:

And [Jesus,] being found in appearance as a human being,

Jesus became in every respect human (but without sin)

he humbled himself

he stripped himself of what was owed him, he emptied himself of the clout that came from his deity

by becoming obedient

Jesus chose to do whatever his Father asked him. He trusted him and was faithful to him

to death—what???

even death on a cross!  In the hymn, this is underscored.  This is where the brass blares.  This was the cruelest and most humiliating form of public execution ever devised by sinful human imagination.

            Read the Gospels and you will see that Jesus always set his mind two things:  1) obedience to God the Father and 2) service to people.  He asked:  What would God the Father have me do, and he always discovered in prayer that what the Father had him do was to serve people.  This is the mind we are to have – a commitment to use whatever we have to benefit others – a mind committed to service (even to death) for others. Paul says this kind of mind must start right here in church.

#4: Jesus obedient service results in blessing to all - Therefore God exalted him to the highest place… (2:9)

            The result of using Jesus looking to the interests of others was threefold – 1) exaltation for Jesus, 2) salvation for all who believe on him, and 3: glory to the Father.  V. 11 reveals the ultimate Father’s day – the Father being glorified.  Often, we think that if we give up our own interests and serve others, then we lose.  But Jesus shows us that obedience to the Father and service to people leads to gain.  Paul says, “That’s the mind we are to have.  This is how we are to live.  When we do, everyone gains.

            It’s a part of the lore of living in Chicago to think of the early days of Michael Jordan as a Chicago Bull in contrast to his later years.  He was an incredible player in his first three years – but even he did not have the ability to win an NBA championship on his own.  It was only when he was willing to do the hard things of playing team defense, setting picks for teammates, kicking the ball out to shooters John Paxson and then Steve Kerr -- that the team was able to win.  Only when his own life was committed to making others around him better through sacrificing his own statistics was he able to see victory.

            And the same principle can be applied to music groups, to business and – the Bible is saying – to the church family.  If we will conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel of Christ and stand even when opposed by the world, we must have the mind of Christ.

            So, we are to conduct our lives in a manner worthy of this gospel of Jesus.  How do we live that way?  We may say we want a detailed set of step-by-step instructions to tell us how to live wisely – but the main thing God gives us is – the person of Jesus as our Lord, the presence of Jesus in our lives and the beautiful example of Jesus as our guide.   But, if you say, “Pastor, give us some help with this.  How do you seek to have the mind of Christ?  What steps do you take?”  I cannot be as specific as the steps for eating a taco were in WV, but here are a few suggestions:

*Make a commitment to being a “learner of Christ” for the rest of your life.  This is a point Paul made so clearly in Ephesians when he called us to a godly way of life.  He said, People are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them… they indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.  That, however, is not the way of life you learn when you learn about Christ… (4:19-21).  So, make a commitment to keep learning about Christ.  Keep reading about him in the Scriptures.  You won’t know what was in his mind unless you do.

*Find a time and place to pray and meditate every day – especially in the morning.  Specifically, take time to remember what you are learning about Christ – and to acknowledge that Jesus lives within you.  Tell him that for you to live is him!  Ask him to shape your thinking and living.  Ask God to make himself clear to you, to speak to you in language that you will understand. Trust him, look and listen for him.

*In your meditation, seek to apply the “mind of Christ” to the situations you anticipate you will encounter that day.  In his Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said that he sought to develop a way of life in which he would imagine Jesus actually being in the situation he was in -- and how Jesus would speak or act.  Lewis said that envisioning Jesus in the situation invariably would lead him to do things different from the way Lewis had been planning to do them.  He said that, when he imagined Jesus in the situation, he would discover thoughts in him that he knows Jesus would not have had -- and would discover duties that Jesus would never have neglected.  I have always found this to be true as well.

*Find others in your church to join you in the journey.  We are not created to be able to conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel of Jesus on our own. Bring your brothers and sisters into the conversation. You’ll  find that as you share with others around God’s Word, you will begin to recognize his voice.  When he speaks to you, obey him! Skip the part where you question him. So, in your smaller group discussions, learn to ask, “How do you think Jesus would have approached this?  What would his mind be in this?  What would Jesus set his mind on in this decision?”  Then, listen as brothers and sisters also committed to Christ and indwelt by his Spirit seek wisdom together.

*Know that this life of wisdom is to begin with life in the church – doing “life together”.  Pray with me that the “brand”, the reputation of LAC will be shaped by these verses: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests only but each of you also to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.  It must start here – in the life of the church.  Then, it can flow from here into our biological families, our school friendships, and our workplaces.

So, we might as well begin now.  Set your mind on these questions:  How might you use whatever has been entrusted to you to serve others in this church family?  How might you set your mind today on the interests of others here as having higher priority than your own?

We can’t do this in our own power. If I am typical at all, I don’t even remember to notice others much of the time. My own needs stare me in the face so I cannot see others without intentionally choosing to look.  We simply don’t have the power to change ourselves on the inside.  But Christ is in us – so we can ask him to fill us with his mind.  That mind will direct us to look to the interests of others as he did. And together, as his church, Jesus will be exalted as the world witnesses this life being lived in this church family. And in God’s time, every knee will bow at his name, 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.

            May this begin even now – with us.

You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you… Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them (Jn 13:13-17).