THE MIND OF CHRIST

The main ideas of this information are that the church of Philippi had a weak spot in their character, specifically in their careless and undisciplined living. They were sound in doctrine but lacked unity and harmony. Pride was their biggest problem, causing them to be self-centered and resistant to correction. Paul urged them to clothe themselves in humility and have the same attitude as Christ. Humility doesn't mean being a doormat, but rather doing things selflessly and teaching others how to be self-sufficient. It is important for believers to act in a way that is different from non-believers, and it is surprising when believers act out of character. I want to go to Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 through 13. Now when we look at this passage of scripture, there was evidently a weak point or weak spot in the church of Philippi, okay, because Philippians comes from the church of Philippi. There were three things that Paul began to reprove to the believers in this particular letter. It was not for doctrinal error. It wasn't that they didn't know what the doctrine was, but it was for their careless and their undisciplined living, all right. This is important as believers, but one of the things that they failed to do, they lived carelessly and they had undisciplined character. And the background verses to that will be Philippians chapter 1 verse 27, Philippians chapter 2, let me find my glasses, I'm sorry, verse 1 through 5, and then Philippians 4, these words running together, hold on, chapter 4, 1 through 5. They were sound in doctrine. In other words, they knew what the doctrine was, but they were not manifesting what we call the unity in the spirit that Ephesians verse 4 and 3 talks about. Instead of concord, there was discord, all right. Instead of unity, there was, or instead of harmony, excuse me, there was disharmony. Their believing was all right, because sometimes folks can't believe according to what you teach them. They'll believe things. But behaving was the problem that they had that was wrong with the church. So you got some believers, they believe, but their behavior depicts something totally different from what they believe. This messes with the witness of the believer. When I say the witness, because remember I told you all a long time ago, and I make this habitual saying, that people may not ever come to church. They may never die this line on Wednesday, wait a minute, Thursday and Sunday for life application, all right. And they may never come on the first Sunday to worship, but they'll study you all day long. You'll be their Bible. Some folks may not ever pick up the Bible, but you are their Bible. They'll watch you. And every time somebody watch you, it's not always for the bad. Some people, you know, people look up to you and you don't even realize that people look up to you. You'll find people watching your character. You'll find people watching you because some people just want to be like you. Some folks don't want to admit that they, you know, that they want to be like you. Excuse me. Are they a mind what you do? Some folks ain't that honest. But there are folks that watch you, and our behavior as believers certainly matters, especially publicly. Now, character comes into play behind the scenes, you know, when you're by yourself or you're in your secret groups that the believers abroad cannot see. That's dealing with character. Right, and integrity. All right. All right. Oh, no, I don't take it as that. And the biggest problem was that they had the ugliest manifestation of pride, P-R-I-D-E. They had so much pride. No, pride is dangerous because pride will have you so lifted up within yourself until people be trying to tell you stuff that's right. And you won't be receptive to truth because you feel like, you know, they got this saying, which I think they say Tupac said this or this was a song or something. But only God can judge me. And people got this saying where you can't judge me or whatever the situation is, because pride has people thinking that what I'm doing is okay, is right. You can't tell me what I'm grown. You ain't been through what I've been through. You don't know my struggle, blah, blah, blah. This is what people are lifted up in pride because they don't want to hear correction. All right. Correction means that if somebody sees you, I'm talking about believers, if a believer sees another believer in error or headed towards error, it's our job to stop them and correct them so they can get back on the right path and or stay on the right path. It's not to embarrass anyone or to make anyone feel like they're falling short of anything. And I think the church got the concept of correction mixed up and got the concept of correction out of order. Correction is not an embarrassment. Correction is just what the word says, to correct. You know, if you're headed the wrong way, it's our job to put you back on the right path. Look at the shepherd. I'm going into my notes after this. Look at the shepherd when he corrects the path of the sheep. He doesn't get his staff and start hitting at the sheep and screaming and hollering and yelling. Sheep are very timid. All right. The least noise or something like that could scare them into a frenzy. But when he corrects them, sometimes the sheep, if you look at the shepherd's rod, he's got a hook on the end of it, per se. Sometimes they get caught in places he can't reach. He'll use his rod to get into places his hand or his arm can't get. He'll use that rod, the end that got the hook in it, to grab the sheep safely where the sheep cannot be harmed. And he gets the sheep, puts it back in his arm, and there he goes trying to console it, letting it know, you know, it's okay. All right. He's just correcting the path of that sheep, or they may be going too close to the edge. And he takes his staff, and he'll reach out and he'll hook them or reach out and kind of get them back on the right path so that they won't meet destruction. So we have to equate things that we do in the body of Christ to the way the shepherd handles the sheep. Jesus is our shepherd, and Jesus handles us with the same care. We mess up or we make mistakes, or he doesn't, you know, he doesn't, you know, like we do folks. We know folks make mistakes. We, you know, we make them feel like the scum of the earth. So when people are lifted up in pride, it causes them to be self-centered and to be proud. And one of the things that Paul was urging them was to come away from the spirit of pride, 1 Peter 5 and 5. And he told them to clothe themselves in the spirit of humility. Let me go here before I go to my notes. Humility don't mean stupidity. It doesn't mean that you be a doormat for people to continue to abuse who you are and what you represent. And I mean be stupid. Okay, and that may be kind of far-fetched for a preacher, but I'm just, it's just wrong. But humility means that everything that I do, I don't do it selfishly. I don't do it for gain or for pleasure or for somebody to pat me on the back to say, oh, prophet, you taught a good lesson. Oh, prophet, you really hit that on the head. Oh, he said that didn't he? It came to pass. That's not humility. We don't do things to operate it because if I would take glory, and this is an example for any of these things, that's pride. Understand what I'm saying? So a believer doesn't hand someone a sandwich that's hungry to get on the phone and broadcast about, oh, you know, they didn't have no food, and I had to feed them, and oh, they got all them children up there. They ain't got no way humility would be to take care of the need but let them know, listen, I don't always have fish to give you, but in me being who I am and what I have, let me teach you how to fish. There was a saying, and if I say it wrong, y'all let me know, but they say if you give a boy a fish, you feed him for that day. But if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. All right? So sometimes in our humility, it may not be for us to always cast out folks. Sometimes you just have to tell folks, listen, I'm going to help you this time, but I'm going to show you how to manage what you're doing so that you won't always have to be needy or be dependable. See what I'm saying? So there's nothing wrong with that. So I think all of that goes with humility. But now people will make you think that because every time they call or that every time they ask you for something, that you're supposed to do it because you're a believer. Why big a difference? I think that sometimes no will teach a person how to become dependent within themselves to do what they need to do in order to handle what they need to handle. I don't know where I got off on that, but I did, and I'm sorry. So number one, in this particular passage, that was an exhortation that Paul was given to the church of Philippi, and that exhortation is one that we should obey. Verse five, it talks about your attitude should be the same that is in Christ Jesus. What attitude is in Christ Jesus? An humble, lowly attitude. In verses one through four, we see why exhortation of verses five was and is so necessary, because of the failings indicated and because Paul knew that the root of the prejudice of the problem was pride. So he exhorted the believers to have the same attitude as our Lord Christ Jesus, that they would be humble, meek, and loving-minded. These are characteristics that only believers in Christ can exemplify. Those that are not believers can't exemplify this. It's sort of like we expect nonbelievers sometimes to do what those of us who are believers ought to act like or to have the characteristics that some of us as believers have, and it's just shocking to us that an unbeliever is acting like an unbeliever. It doesn't shock me when an unbeliever doesn't act like an unbeliever. What is shocking to me is that a person who say they are a believer starts acting out of character and starts acting unseemly. That's surprising to me when preachers or those that are just believers, period, start acting out of character. That's surprising because I don't expect a believer to be acting the same way unbelievers act. So they were so lifted up in pride until Paul exhorted them to have the same mind that's in Christ, the mind that's humble, the mind that's meek, the mind that's gentle. Jesus, even though he was 100% warrior in his nature, I understand God, and you got to understand Jesus. You have to understand the characteristics of Jesus, because even though he came and, you know, we try to say, oh, he was so humble, he was so gentle, you have to understand, yes, he had a 100% man nature, but he was also 100% God. So everything that God is, Jesus was. But that was a specific purpose why he acted the way he acted, because he came to fulfill purpose. All right? And so he couldn't get distracted from the assignment that he came to fulfill, and that was to redeem us back to God. All right? So we got to understand that even though Jesus had a physical body, he was 100% man because he hurt it like you and I hurt. He had to sleep. He had to eat. Everything we do and need, he had to do, you know? But he was 100% God. Now, I ain't talking about the sin part of man. I ain't talking about that. I'm talking about the eat, sleep, that type of stuff Jesus had to do. All right? So this example, that we should have the same mind that's in Christ, that Paul was talking about in the book of Philippians, that he was urging the believers to follow, is the same mind that we must follow. If we read verse 5 again, it talks about the first word. We read the first word of verse 6. And in the Lord Jesus, we see humility personalized. All right? He alone could say in Matthew 11 and 29, he is the supreme example of humility. In verses 6 through 11, the amazing condensation and the glorious exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ are contrasted. All right? Who is this who stooped so low and whom God raised up so high? Verses 5 and 6 tells us Jesus Christ. All right? Who, being in the nature of God, as you remember I just talked about this, as God the Father has no visible form, this can only mean that Christ Jesus was and is himself God. He has always was and always is and always will be God. All right? All right? John 1 and 1. Do not consider equality with God something to be grasped. All right? Because if he was God, he was not taking something to himself that did not belong to him when he claimed equality with God. You compare that to John 5, 18, John 5, 23, John 10, and 33. The amazing condensation of our Lord Jesus Christ is also described in verses 7 and verse 8. They tell us of the seven steps he voluntarily took from the throne down to the cross. He made himself nothing. Verse 7. This does not mean that he deprived himself of his deity. It means that when he became man, he voluntarily laid aside his glory. He took off his royal robes and came among us as men, but he was still and always will be the same royal person. Colossians 3 and 29. He took on the nature of a servant. Verse 7. Compare the nature of God in verse 6 with the nature of a servant in verse 7. Then we look up Matthew 10 and 45. Then we look up Luke 22 and 27. Then after all of that, we read John 13, 3 through 5. Then John 13, 7 through 17. Even though he was 100% God, he took on the nature of a servant. Then also he was made in human likeness. Again, verse 7. We compare that verse to Romans 8 and 3. Only in human likeness, truly God, but truly man. Remember I said he was 100% God and 100% man. He wasn't an alien. Jesus is not, not was. He is not an alien. He's 100% God, 100% man. He was also found in the appearance as a man. Verse 8. He looked like a man. Hebrews 2 and 17. He became hungry. Remember I just said this. Matthew 4 and 2. He was tempted. Matthew 4 and 3. He was tired. Mark 4 and 38. Then we also reference Mark 15, 39. Luke 15, 2. Luke 23, 41. Then Luke 7 and 46. Even though he was all of 100% God. I keep saying was because I'm thinking in the tensions of him being here on earth. But was is not a good word. He is. Even though he is, the same Jesus that was 100% man, this same Jesus also humbled himself in verse 8. He was born in a little town called Bethlehem. Micah 5 and 2. He lived in despised Nazareth. All right. Luke, I mean John 1 and 46. He plied a humble trade. Matthew 13 and 55. He had nowhere to lay his head. Luke 9 and 58. He became obedient to death. Verse 8. Also compares that to Hebrews chapter 5, 8 through 9. With Romans 5, 19 and also 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. He was obedient to death. Is what verse 8 in this book of Philippians talks about. But also, even death on the cross, he was still humble. Even going through his death on the cross. Verse 8 again comes back. Verse 8. This was the most degrading and shameful death that was known. Yet, he willingly submitted to this awful indignity and scorn. And it's a shame they came along with it. Hebrews 12 and 2. Because he loved us so. He haven't come right down. But God raised him up. Now, we have to understand when we talk about Jesus being human. We have to understand that not only was his death something that was degrading and very just horrible. I don't think no death that you and I could ever imagine could be as painful as the death that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross. On our behalf. You got to understand something. They whipped him the night before. With the cat of nine tails that had metal and bones. And every time that whip would catch onto his flesh. And because it had those bones and metal in it, it would rip his flesh. And I'm talking about to the point. I ain't talking about just having whips. But Jesus' body, it ripped his flesh wide open. I'm talking about all night long. They whipped him and he dealt with his flesh being torn open. The average man probably would have died from such a severe beating such as what Jesus took on our behalf. All right. But I want you to understand that it was more than a physical thing. You got to understand that they also attacked him mentally. And this is the part I never heard preachers attack this angle. They spit on him. They, ah, if you the king, ah, hell king. And they dressed him and they made fun of him. They mocked him. You hear them talk about them mocking him. But let's go in depth to them mocking him. Think about when somebody talks about you. Somebody calls you fat. Somebody calls you ugly. Somebody say your breath stinks. How it makes you feel just from those few words. Now I want you to then think about you knowing that you are God. You knowing who you are. And you're down here with folk that you made humiliating you, talking crazy to you. Because now you have humbly taken on the role to lay down your godship and you picked up sonship in the natural. So think about what could have been going through his mind even before the beating. All right. So psychologically and physically they ripped Jesus apart. But he stayed there humbly for you and I. All right. You ought to think about the fact that even when they got him and he was marching after they had whipped him, they kept him up all night falsely interrogating him because they really had no cause to try him or to convict him. But they kept him up slapping him, crushing him, spitting on him, making fun of him all night long. They beat him nearly to death. I mean beat him within an inch of his life just so the rest of his life he can carry a big old thing of wood that we call a cross up Galgathas Hill. Now I used to know the length of Galgathas Hill, how many miles or whatever it was that he had to travel up Galgathas Hill. And Brother Melvin, Elder Melvin is on the phone and if he knows right off hand he can insert right there how many miles it was to travel up this hill. Now you got to understand he's physically tired. He refused any drink that they gave him. He's been up all night. He's exhausted. He's physically in distress because they didn't beat him just violently until whatever inch of life he had left. He's using that to travel up Galgathas Hill. Then they give him his own cross and no telling how much that weighed to carry up the hill to the place of his death. I think when we talk about Jesus dying on the cross, I'm painting a picture to you because I want to get in the mind of the believer that when we transgress against God, the Bible says that it crucifies Christ, it's like crucifying him all over again. We think the crucifixion just started when he made it to the cross. But I've just painted a mental picture of you, I mean of Jesus Christ, to the believers that his crucifixion started way before he made it to the cross. So even unto death he was obedient. Let's talk about the glorious exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's described in verse 9 and it goes to verse 11. They tell us that it was seven steps from the shame of the cross to the glory of the throne. God exalted him to the highest place. We find that in verse 9. As God, Christ always shared his father's glory. But now God exalted him. As men look up Ephesians 1, 20 through 21, God gave him the name that is above every name. Verse 9, the precious name of Jesus. His name is above every name because he is above all others. Song of Solomon. At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Find that in verse 10. Every believer should humbly and adoringly bow. Now Ephesians 3 and 14. But when he was crucified, he did not bow. But one day, even his enemies will bow in recognition of whom he is. As the Egyptians were made to bow before Joseph in Genesis 41 and 43. As Ezra's king did to Elijah. And I think I pronounced that wrong. In 2 Kings 1 and 3. For God had declared that it will be so, Isaiah 45 and 23, and then Revelation 6, 5 and 17. Let me say this. Brother Elder Melvin said it was less than half of a mile that he had to carry that cross. But you just think about less than half of a mile walking, being on the cross. It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking. that he had to carry that cross. But you just think about less than half of a mile walking, being brutally. And thank you Elder Melvin also. Being violently beaten, humiliated mentally. And you carry your cross up a hill. Less than half of a mile on foot. In here today was pretty extreme, pretty stressful within itself. All right. Let me go back here. I heard somebody, and I read this just yesterday. A person posted on Facebook said they don't believe in the favoritism of God. I believe in my own God. Let me say this. It does not offend God that we don't believe in him. It hurts him because he would that all of us would be saved. But just because we fail to believe in him, it does not take away who he is. All right. And those that don't believe in Jesus Christ, those that don't believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ, it doesn't affect him or it doesn't offend him that we don't believe. It hurts him. Because, again, it's the will of God that all of us would be saved. But you heard me read something in my notes that even his enemies on that day is going to bow down before him, and they're going to call him Jesus Christ. And they're going to declare that he is the king of kings. Let me say this. It doesn't matter what these folk rant and rave about. Oh, you know, some folks say Jesus was just another prophet. Some folks say whatever their ideology, their concept, their perception, whatever the correct grammar is for who they perceive Jesus to be, it does not matter because on that day in heaven, everybody is going to bow their knees at the foot of Jesus Christ, and all of us collectively will call him Lord. That's whether we're going to heaven or whether we're going to hell. Let me tell you, you ain't got to believe, but I'm telling you that that day is coming, that everybody that has ever been created, every being that has ever been created, they're going to bow their knees and they're going to call Jesus Christ Lord, like it or not. All right? Amen. So when people say things like that, it gets underneath my skin, but I just say, you know what, Lord? They may not do it now, and they may think they're getting away with it, and it's fun, but my sister got this saying. She got an old soul. She's older than me anyway, but anybody here older than me, that's my baby, but she got this saying. She said, what makes you laugh now makes you cry later. All right? Because it may be fun and dandy now to make their profession to say that they don't believe and they don't this and that, you know, but on that day, everybody collectively all together is going to bow, and we're going to call him Lord. All right? So let's talk about this. There are in heaven, verse 10 talks about celestial beings on earth. Verse 10 talks about terrestrial beings. I hope I pronounced it right, and then under the earth in verse 10 talks about infernal beings. That's Satan, the false prophet, the beast, the demons, and all of the wicked. They are called infernal beings. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father in verse 11. How wonderful. Do you feel, do you not feel like singing Revelation 5 and 12? Thus our Lord Jesus Christ is betrayed before us as our great example in humility, lowliness, and selflessness. My words get tired. And we are not to let this attitude get away from us and our character as believers. And then the third thing that Paul was saying to these believers was that there is an enabling we are to enjoy. Verse 13 talks about how, or it tells us how, what we have to do is to let go, verse 5, let God, verse 13, so that we work out what he works in. All right? The main thing about all of this is that if we're going to take on the mind of Christ, and we think that the things that we go through on the earth is just so unbearable for us. But just look at what Jesus Christ has done for us. He has done so much for us. Now he did no wrong. Now I want to go back to this. I want to take us all the way back to Gethsemane. When he told it, it's like he said, wait here, I'm going to pray. Y'all watch while I'm going to pray. And that was the past where he came back those several times and he said, wait here, I'm going to pray. Y'all watch while I'm going to pray. And that was the past where he came back those several times and he said, wait here, I'm going to pray. And that was the past where he came back those several times and they were still sleeping. But he went and he prayed because on his way to be given up to the enemy, to be betrayed by those he trusted and he walked with, he was on his way. But he felt something, all right, that he had never felt before. All right. He felt all of the weight and the cares of sin on his shoulders. Isn't that something? He went to his father, he said, you know, if you do your will.