Mind of Christ (Philippians #8) - Bible Baptist Church

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Text: Philippians 2:5-11

The Philippians have been persecuted for their faith and as would be expected the question of whether this life of public testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ drawing persecution was truly of God or not. Paul points again to the Lord Jesus Christ and his sufferings that he endured, the mind that regarded those sufferings as worthwhile, and the exaltation from God the Father because of that humbleness of mind.

Allow the Head of the church to do the thinking

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus… (vs 5)
To turn a sinner into a servant of God, the mind has to be corrected. And moreso, for that servant of God to stay in the race and faithful to the end of his life, the thinking has to change. It’s called renewing your mind.
- Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Christ’s position as God manifest in the flesh, but not highminded
- Being in the form of God…Jesus Christ is the express image of God, he is God manifest in the flesh. If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father is what he told Philip.
Thought it not robbery to be equal with God…
- This made the Jews want to kill him even more because he said he was the Son of God.
- John 5:16-18 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

A mind to be nobody

…made himself of no reputation…
Birth in a stable to an unwed mother.
No family name.
No school credentials.
No business enterprise.
When people heard he was the Son of God they hated him more.
Not even the resurrection from the dead sealed his success. It just made the devil’s crowd, the world, angry to the point of paying for lies to be told about him.
John 15:18-21 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Offense of Christ
Matthew 11:6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
Galatians 5:11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

A mind to be a servant

…form of a servant…
Wear what the boss tells you to wear. Eat when the boss tells you to eat. Go where the boss tells you to go.
Matthew 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered:
It means he learned what obedience was like as a man. As God in heaven there was no one to obey, no one to be subject to, but he learned that obedience by the things he suffered.
Unashamed
- God became a man in order to call men brethren; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
- Moreover, it wasn’t something he was ashamed to do.
- Jesus Christ is unashamed to associate with us, but we are ashamed to publicly associate with him.

An humble mind

…made in the likeness of men…
Subject to hunger and thirst
Isaiah 53 …man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…
- got tired, but God never gets tired – Matthew 8:24
- got hungry, but God doesn’t get hungry – Matthew 21:18
- got thirsty, but God doesn’t get thirsty – John 4:7

An obedient mind

…obedient unto death…
I might obey until the cost is too high or I decide there are some pleasures I’m missing out on.
The victory of the cross is the putting down of flesh and blood
- John 12:30-33 The cross would be the judgment of this world and the prince of this world.
- The cross was defanging the serpent.
- It was destruction of the flesh and completely disarming the enemy. The flesh was is a friend of the devil.
- Remember the philosophy of the devil back in Job? His philosophy is man will do anything to preserve his own flesh and blood, live in physical comfort and worldly prosperity.
  - Colossians 2:11-15 The cross was a public victory over the flesh and the devil’s philosophy of mankind – Adam.
  - So Jesus Christ took the weapon out of the devil’s hand and beat him with his own weapon so to speak.
  - Now, it didn’t appear to be a victory from a physical point of view.
- Jesus would say, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

A disciplined mind

…even the death of the cross.
- So not just living out into old age, but an unjust trial and cruel death.
- Severe torture
It’s a subject I will not do justice to and it’s a subject too high for me.
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Injustice
- Pilate says several times, I find no fault in him. Who else in the world could that be said of? No one.
- The thief on the cross would also say Jesus Christ was holy. Something he concluded from a couple of hours on a cross with him.
- The centurion standing by the cross came to the same conclusion in a matter of hours: that Jesus Christ is holy. Mark 15:39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

An exalted mind

1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1 Peter 4:1-2 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Mark 10:29-30 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
- Highly exalted him
- Given a name above every name
- All knees will bow
- Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
John 3:35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.