Have the Mindset of Your Master Philippians 2:5-11 032915M

Attitude is everything. For example, is the glass half empty, or is it half full? Some people always see what is lacking, what is bad, pointing out all the obstacles and why things won't work. Others find all the possibilities, opportunities, and ways of doing things others never thought of before. In short, some are pessimists and others are optimists. And that attitude makes all the difference in how they face life. It's the same when it comes to the attitudes of pride and humility. Some people see themselves as better than everyone else for one reason or another. It might be because of their life's achievements, their moral standards, or their habits of orderliness and cleanliness. Others are humble, seeing others as being as important or even more important than they are. What attitude does our Lord want us to have? Paul makes that clear in the lesson that is before us: 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. So he's saying: Have the Mindset of Your Master 1. He humbled himself before God and people. 2. He was exalted to glory after suffering.

1. First, let's review: who is Jesus Christ? He is God from all eternity, almighty, all-knowing, Lord of all. And he is truly human, ever since the time he was conceived by the Holy Spirit within the Virgin Mary. He is divine and human, God and man inseparably bound in the person of Jesus Christ from the moment of his conception to the present time. As the God-man, how did he think? What attitude or mindset motivated him to do what he did? If we're to have the mindset of our master, we need to see that He humbled himself before God and people.

Jesus was and is true God in every way. But he didn't feel compelled to always act that way, especially if it served his own purposes: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.... Yes, he did miracles to prove his divinity. But that was so that people would believe his words and have forgiveness and eternal life in him as their Savior. It was for THEIR benefit, not his. Most of the time he would have appeared as an ordinary human being, minus the sin, even though he never ceased to be God.

So what did God come to do on earth as a human being? Jesus came to serve: 7...He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. He served. Even his miracles were to serve, whether providing wine at a wedding, feeding thousands of people at one time, healing the blind and the lame, or returning a deceased son or daughter to a parent. He showed he came to serve when he washed his disciples feet in the upper room Maundy Thursday. Above all, he served with his innocent life and dying for all sin on the cross. In doing so, he "made himself nothing." He gave himself completely for others, whether in his life or his death. In our Bible reading the other night, my wife and I remarked how, even when Jesus was mourning the death of John the Baptist, and trying to take some time alone with his heavenly Father in prayer, he was interrupted by the crowds, on whom he had compassion to the extent that he healed their diseases and proclaimed spiritual healing in his redeeming work. Others always came first before his own needs, not that he neglected those either. Again, we see that especially on the cross where he truly "made himself nothing," filling himself up with our sins instead. No wonder, in prophecy, he could say, But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people (Ps 22:6).

So Paul summarizes: 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Jesus obeyed his heavenly Father perfectly. To what extent, we typically outline in the Apostles' Creed: he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary under God's law so he could obey that law, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified and died on that cross under God's wrath, counted as guilty of all the world's sins. The wages of human sin is death--even separation from God, and that is the price Jesus paid. Yes, he humbled himself before God and people.

And that was because you and I have not done that. In the verses immediately before our lesson, Paul had encouraged the Philippian Christians, 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. The "natural" thing is to value ourselves more than others. We tend to look out for our own interests first. Even doing favors for others or giving generously because "it makes us feel good," isn't that, too, a selfish motive? What about giving of ourselves even when it hurts, or it's difficult to let go of something? Consider a husband giving up a bowling night to do something with his wife, or a parent giving up a weekend away to attend a child's baseball game, or an adult child giving up a vacation to assist an older parent. What about a church member sacrificing a new television set or home remodeling project in order to make a major contribution to church? Okay, now I've gone too far, haven't I? Or have I? How easily we look to our own interests rather than the interests of others. Do we empty ourselves before God and realize that we have nothing to offer him as far as our salvation is concerned? Or do we cling to the shreds of value and worth we think we have because "we're basically good people," after all? No, under God's law, we're really not!

And that's why we need Jesus who made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, and humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We are forgiven of our selfish motives and our pride before God and others. In Christ God sees us as perfectly humble, loving servants. And we are, consequently, moved to actually THINK and LIVE that way! 2. In Christ, we can truly have the mindset of our master who humbled himself before God and people. But his "story" didn't end there, and neither does ours. He was exalted to glory after suffering.

Paul says, 9 Therefore God exalted him) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.... Again, we confess the specifics in the Apostles' Creed: he descended into hell. Alive, before his Easter Sunday appearances, he went to that place of torment, not to suffer nor to give those there another chance at salvation; rather, he went to proclaim his victory over sin, the devil and hell to the devil and his angels, and to the souls of all who, through unbelief, remained under the devil's control while they lived on earth. He appeared alive to his disciples in resurrection glory--to 500 believers at one time. He ascended into heaven where he lives and rules over all things to this day for the good of his Church on earth. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

That means that everyone will have to stand before him one day, and acknowledge that he really is Lord and God, whether they believed in him during their life on earth or not. Paul continues, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Even the damnation of the unbelievers will serve to glorify God who sent the Savior for them, whom they, nevertheless, rejected. In the end they will have to admit the truth.

Praise God that you and I will be among all those people acknowledging Jesus as Lord, not in unbelief, but as those who believed in him as our Savior, our substitute, and our only hope for heaven. We will be able to worship him as our Lord for all eternity because in him our lives will follow the same pattern his did on earth: first suffering, pain, cross and death, then glory. He will share his glory with us. We, too, will rise with bodies glorified as his, to live in new heavens and new earth with our Lord and Master. So...why not worship him as we live our lives here on earth! We can join those Palm Sunday crowds praising the King who came in humility to go the cross and grave so we can share glory with him!

Until that day, we can strive to have the mindset of our Master. He humbled himself before God and people to suffer, die and win our salvation. Now he is exalted to glory after the suffering he endured. And the day is coming we will be delivered from all of our sorrows, all of our weaknesses, all our temptations, and everything in this world of sin and death to live with our Lord in eternal joy. May we praise him now as we will in all perfection then! Amen. Philippians 2:5-11

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. So he's saying: Have the Mindset of Your Master 1. He humbled himself before God and people. 2. He was exalted to glory after suffering.

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage....

7...He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

"made himself nothing."

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people (Ps 22:6).

8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

9 Therefore God exalted him) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name....

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.