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As we come to study the word of the Lord, I remind my own heart and I remind yours of that indispensable principle of Bible Study. We cannot take for granted that we need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One that puts the spotlight on the Lord Jesus. If we just study the Bible without the Holy Spirit, we’re going to end up being Bible experts but we’re going to miss union with the Lord. It’s all about union with Him.
Before we go to prayer, I want to share two verses that ties into the indispensable principle, but also is the message of Philippians. One is 1 John 5:11&12, “The testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life; this life is in His Son; he who has the Son, has the life; he who does not have the Son of God, does not have the life.” Then from Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The book of Philippians talks about this life, this life is in His Son. The book of Philippians as no other book shows us how to live as God intended us to live. It describes the Christian life and actually it should be the normal Christian life, but people are not living normally. A lot of Christians are abnormal, subnormal; it’s sad. We’re going to look at Philippians, and as God intended it to be. Let’s pray together.
Our Father, we thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit, the author, the One who inspired this precious Bible, and now the One who always puts the focus on the Lord Jeseus. We commit our meditation unto You and ask You once again to show us our Lord in a living and fresh way. We thank You that we can trust You to do this because our Lord deserves it and we come claiming it in His matchless name. Amen.
Welcome again to our gathering. We’re beginning a new series of studies. We are going to be looking at one of the thirteen epistles of the Apostle Paul. It’s a new study, but so we all know where we’re coming from, it’s not a new focus. Our focus is always going to be the same, on the Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, we study the Bible to know the Lord, not to know the Bible. The Pharisees did that, John 5:39, “You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life; it’s these that testify about Me, and you are unwilling to come to Me, so that you might have life.” They were experts on the Bible, but they missed the point of the Bible, and that is to reveal the Lord Jesus. Scripture testifies on Him, whether you are in the Old Testament, the New Testament, whether you are studying the Law or the history or the prophets or poetry, whether you are in the New Testament in the gospels or the history in Acts or the explanation in the epistles or prophesy in Revelation, it’s all about the Lord Jesus. Every book in the Bible presents the Lord in a unique way, in a distinctive way. In other words, the book of Philippians is going to present Christ as no other book presents Him in the same way. Every book has a different revelation of Christ. I’m not saying that some of the revelations don’t over overlap; they do. But as far as the main direction, every book has a unique revelation. So, we’re going to continue with our devotional study. Those who have studied in the past, you know the approach that we take.
This morning we’re going to begin a meditation on the wonderful epistle to the Philippians. I’m going to begin to give an introduction. I say begin because it will be a little bit more than this particular lesson. Our approach to this inspired epistle is going to be different than if we were studying Corinthians or Galatians or Hebrews or 2 Peter. The historical background really sheds light on those particular books. There are a couple of areas of the historical background that help us in Philippians, but we’re not going to begin with the historical background; in other words, what is the occasion for the book and are they addressing any errors like Gnosticism or legalism or religious hypocrisy, or anything like that. Today we’re not going to look at the theme, and we’re not going to look at a suggestive outline or how it relates to other books.
There is historical background, and we will get to that, but this morning what I’d like to do is give you what I consider to be the necessary background to understand Philippians, and it’s not the historical background; it’s theological background. I won’t be afraid of that word “theology”. It can be abused, there’s no question about it. But if I’m ever going to see how Philippians presents Jesus, as no other book does, I have to begin with this background. There is a theology, it’s a personal letter, it’s the most personal of all his letters, and yet the deepest theology he has embedded in this particular book. So, we’re going to look at that background this morning.
This theological background is going to put the focus right on the Lord Jesus; this is the heart of the book of Philippians. It may seem to some like I’m not really beginning with the book of Philippians, but I am, and this theology comes right out of the book. So, we’re going to be looking at the book and the theology that comes right out of the book, and we have to study this strategic passage. This passage is famous, not only is it strategic in Philippians, but in the whole New Testament. Commentators are quoting this passage, six verses. They quote this whether they’re studying Matthew or Romans or Hebrews, they always come back to this passage. These verses have been called “the greatest Christological verses in the entire New Testament. You are going to miss not only Philippians but the whole New Testament if you don’t get the theology of these six verses.
The truth we are going to look at appeared before the book of Philippians, but Philippians spells it out and makes it very clear. These verses are so rich, they’ve been highlighted and they’re famous. For example, if you took the two words “Christ Hymn” and put it in Google, it would come up with this Philippians passage. It’s known as Christ Hymn, and it’s known as Christ Hymn because it’s form is very like lyric poetry. There are other titles. It’s been called “the gospel in miniature”. It’s been called “the descent and ascent narrative of Messiah”. One of my theology books calls in “the mind of Christ” passage; another “the humility and the exaltation of the Incarnate Christ, the greatest Lordship passage in the New Testament, because in this passage, every knee is going to bow to Him, and every tongue is going to confess Him. This is a very famous passage and so now, let me read it with you.
I’m referring to Christ Hymn, and I’m referring to Philippians 2:5-11, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.” You know that is one precious theological passage.
I’m going to begin looking at it with a specific focus. We’ll develop it as we move along, especially when we come to the chapter in which we find these verses. This morning I want to catch the first glimpse of Christ from these verses. The big picture is this; in verse 7, “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, made in the likeness of men.” Then, starting at verse 9, “For this reason, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name above every name.” So, the passage is divided into two parts; verses 5-8 talk about His stooping love, His humility, God became man and went to the cross, and then in verses 9-11, His exaltation.
Now, I’m not interested in counting steps, as some of my theology books say, “When we study this, you notice there are four steps down and four steps up.” Well, I don’t care about that. When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute a long time ago, we studied this passage, and they are connected with the dispensational approach to scripture. You don’t need to know what that is; it’s not important. The point is that we were taught there were seven steps down and seven steps up, and then they traced out those steps. The point isn’t, “How many steps did He take in His humility and how many steps are in His exaltation?” The real question is, “How does this passage reveal Jesus? What are we to know about the Lord from this passage? How does His stooping love and His exaltation reveal Him, and why did God wait for the book of Philippians to give us the full picture of that revelation?” That’s what we’re going to look at.
This morning I want to begin and we’ll take the first part, the humiliation part, and then, Lord willing, next time we get together, we’ll look at the other part. I’m not saying that we aren’t going to see Jesus until we get the whole thing. We’re going to have a full picture of Jesus when we get the whole thing, but since He’s revealed in both parts, we’re going to divide it into two parts. This morning we’re looking at 5-7, and then, Lord willing, next week we’ll begin verses 8-11. Let me read again verses 6&7, “Although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. Many of you have heard this before from my lips. I’m not impeaching Philippians, but because it’s such a theological passage, almost every series that I teach, this comes up. So, you might have heard it before. We’ve got to start with this, apart from this revelation, Philippians is going to be nothing but a pie in the sky; it’s going to be a utopia that you wish that you knew and you could enter into. There are many verses to memorize, many verses to put on Bible plaques and hang on your wall, but the reality of the message of Philippians, if you miss this theology, you miss that message. It’s impossible to understand Philippians apart from these six verses. I pray God will help us enter into that because you don’t want to study Philippians and have it turn into a great bondage in your life because you can’t appropriate it. I’m not suggesting that we’re not going to see the Lord this morning; we will and it’s an awesome revelation of the Lord, but next week when we see the other part, we’ll see the full revelation and why it’s in Philippians.
Let me start here. In verse 7 there’s an expression, “He emptied Himself.” King James Bible says, “He made Himself of no reputation. New International Bible says, “He made Himself nothing.” In the Greek, it’s from a word called “kenosis”, from the Greek word “kenoe” and it just means “empty”. I call attention to this because these verses have become famous in the minds of theologians, and it’s called “the kenosis passage”, and they just took the word “kenosis”, the Greek, empty, and say, “This is a kenosis passage.” The problem with calling it a kenosis passage is that it has changed meaning in the minds of some. The word “empty” can mean several different things. For example, some people say, “When Jesus lived on the earth, He emptied Himself.” Of what? Of His Godhead, kenosis. He was only man when He lived on earth; He wasn’t the God/Man, He wasn’t both, and they call it kenosis. They go to this passage in Philippians to prove it. In other words, they say, “When He was earth, He didn’t have the omni-attributes; He wasn’t omni-present, He wasn’t all knowing, He wasn’t all powerful. He emptied Himself of His deity.” Others look at the same word, Kenosis, and they actually say, “If He stopped being God, then He never was God in the first place, because you can’t stop being God because God is immutable, and He can’t change. So, He was never God to begin with.” They call it “kenosis”. There are others, and I incline more to this, they say, “When He emptied Himself, He didn’t stop being God; He emptied Himself of the prerogatives of the Godhead. In other words, He wanted to live as a human being, as God intended man to live, but He was still God; He was always God, but He limited Himself to His humanity.” You can see that a little bit when Satan tried to tempt Him, and in a sense said, “Use your Godhead, and turn these stones into bread,” and He refused to do it. “Jump off of the temple, and You won’t be hurt. Use Your Godhead.” He never lost His divine nature, but He didn’t depend on it. He could have. Actually, He said in Matthew 26:53, “Do you not think I cannot appeal to My Father; He’ll at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels.
Matthew 27, they mocked Him when He was on the cross, “Save Yourself; if You’re the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In other words, “If You are God, You can come down.” In the same way the chief priests, also, along with the scribes and the elders were mocking Him, saying, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save.’” He didn’t come down from the cross in order to save us. He emptied Himself, but He never stopped being God.
Because the word kenosis is used in a bad way and in a good way, I apologize to all my theologians but I’m scrapping the word altogether. I will not refer to this passage as the kenosis passage. I have to explain more what I mean; I don’t want to have to do that. There are other words like that. For example, the word “gay”. The word “gay” used to describe light-hearted happiness. Now, it has other meaning. So, I just throw the word out and don’t use the word anymore because I don’t want to get involved with the change. There’s a word called “niggard” and it just means a pauper or a miser, rather, someone who is grasping after wealth. I’m not going to use that word because it can be used in different ways, and I’m just going to avoid the controversy. The word “abortion”, many things can be aborted. They aborted a moon mission. You can abort a vacation, change your mind. Many things can be aborted, but when it comes to a baby in the womb of a woman, I will not call it an abortion; it is not abortion; that’s aborticide; that’s murder of a baby. I’m not going to call it an abortion. I’m just trying to be careful with words. All of that to say that I’m not calling this passage kenosis. If you looked up kenosis on the internet, it’s going to take you right to this passage, but stay away from that.
Beyond all question and argument, this first part teaches the incarnation of almighty God; God became man; He humbled Himself and became man. I’m going to take each phrase and put your theology hat on because each phrase is pregnant with Bible truth; it’s so full, “Existed in the form of God,” “Did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,” “Emptying Himself, took on the form of a bondservant made in the likeness of men,” “Found in appearance as man,” “Humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death.” Do you humble yourself to be obedient to death? I’m going to succumb to death; I’m not going to humble myself and say, “Oh, I think I’ll die.” Only the Lord Jesus could do that, even to the death on the cross. At this time, just catch the mystery; every phrase is awesome; we’re not going to look at every phrase, obviously, but it was stooping love when God became a man, when the infinite became infant. There is only one step that was more amazing than God becoming man, and that’s when the God-man became sin. That was even a greater step than God becoming man, that He could become sin.
In Philippians 2:6-8 if it teaches anything, it teaches that Jesus is God and God became man. In order to get into the heart and how it ties to Philippians, I want to raise two questions and then try to answer those two questions. The first question is why, why did God become man? The second question is, when He did become man, how did He live as a man? Those two questions need to be answered. Lord willing, we’ll try to answer those this morning.
Why did God become man? Well, there’s many answers to that. If you are relating His coming to Satan, according to Hebrew 2, He came to destroy the works of Satan; that’s why He became man. If you are relating this to sinners, He came to seek and save that which is lost; that’s why He came. He came to bring many sons to glory; that’s why He came. He came to taste death for every man; that’s why He came. If you relate it to God, the Father, He came to do the Father’s will; He came to glorify God; He came to manifest His Father. But, if you answer it in terms of why did He come as it is revealed in Philippians, there’s an altogether different answer, and it’s illustrated in these wonderful verses. Why did God come to live on earth for thirty-three and a half years? Let me try to answer that. We’ve got to go back to the beginning, so please bear with me.
Why did God create man in the first place? Genesis 1:26, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female He created them. Man was created in the image of God. So, what is the image of God? Don’t get all involved in comparison; you look at yourself and you look at God, and He’s three in one, and we’re three in one -body, soul and spirit, or mind, emotion, will. Don’t get involved in all that. That’s going to lead you down a wrong path, in terms of who God is. God spells out exactly what’s meant by the image of God. Let me quote two verses, and you’ll never have a question again about what’s the image of God.
The first is 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” That’s the image of God? It’s Christ, who is the image of God. Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God; the firstborn of all creation. By Him all things were created, both in the heavens, on earth, visible, invisible, whether throne or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him. The image of God is a Person, and His name is Jesus, the second Person of the Godhead. Man was created to manifest the image of God, to manifest Christ, to put Him on display. God the Father, after He created the crown of His creation, wanted to look down from heaven and see His Son on display in humanity. That’s why He made you; that’s why He made me, that’s why He made man.
You know the story. Man sinned, and what did he lose? The Bible tells us. The Apostle expresses it in Ephesians 2:12, “At that time you were separated from Christ; you had no hope and were without God in the world.” What did they lose when they sinned? They lost the Life of God. Ephesians 4:18, “They were excluded from the Life of God.” Isaiah expresses it this way, “Your iniquities have made separation between you and your God.” Man was created, and here is the reason, to put Jesus on display, to put the image of God on display. It takes the Life of God to put Him on display; it’s not something you can just work up yourself. That was the sad story of Adam’s race; they lost Life. That’s why we began, “He that has the Son has Life. If you don’t have the Son, you don’t have Life. You have existence. The world has existence. People are existing all over the place; they don’t have Life, because he who has the Son, has Life. He who doesn’t have the Son, does not have Life.
The sad story of Adam’s race is they lost the Life of God and the purpose for which God created them, to put that Life on display. Interesting, in 1 Corinthians 15, there are two titles given to our Lord Jesus. One is in verse 45, the last Adam became a living Spirit; He’s called “the last Adam”. Then, in verse 47, “the second man from heaven”. What is significant about those two titles, the last Adam and the second man? You see, man failed to live as God intended him to live, so God is going to start over again. Adam #1 blew it, so now we have Jesus, the last Adam. He’s not called the second because then you might think there is a third, or a fourth or fifth. No, He’s the last Adam; God is going to start all over, and He’s man, the second man. Adam was the first man and Christ is the second man. He’s the last Adam and the second man. What do you have in the incarnation? We sort of read it la, la, la. God is back in the man, the God-man. That is so essential to understanding why did God come as He came? He came as He came to live as He lived. Why is that revelation in chapter two, verses five to eleven so important?
I’m going to take it apart, and we’re going to look at four principles. In last days people won’t be principled minded. I’m into principles, and these verses teach four wonderful truths. Now we’re going to answer the question, “How did He live when He came as He came?” The first principle from these verses is that He willingly laid aside who He was by nature; He emptied Himself; He willingly laid aside who He was by nature. He took the prerogatives of the Godhead and set it aside. The gospels show that He was God; He proclaimed it Himself, John 5:18, “For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him. He was not only breaking the Sabbath, but was calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God. John 10:30, “He said, ‘I and My Father are One.’” Jesus is God. Jesus said in John 14, “Phillip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father; it’s enough for us.’ Jesus said, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you’ve not come to know Me, Phillip? He who has seen Me, has seen the Father? How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me?’” You remember what He told the Jews, John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am.’” He’s God, and that’s what He willingly laid aside; He never stopped being God. For thirty-three and a half years He lived on the earth as the God-man. Though He willingly laid aside the prerogatives, He lived as God.”
Let me give an illustration. When you go to heaven, and I think it’s a few hours for all of us, one description of it is in Revelation 21:23, “The city has no need of the sun or of the mine to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and the lamp is the Lamb.” Why don’t you need the sun in heaven? It’s because you’ve got the Lamb, and He’s the lamp; you don’t need the sun; you’ve got the Son of God. When Jesus lived on earth, did we need the sun to shine? Yes. Why? It’s because He laid aside his glory; He laid aside His great glory to shine brighter than the noonday sun. One time in the record it started to leak out, at the Mount of Transfiguration. You remember that? In Matthew 1:2, “His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.” He laid it aside. When we get to heaven, we’re not going to need the sun because we’ve got Him. That’s the first principle, that He laid aside who He was by nature, the Godhead.
Number 2, He never grasped at what He willingly laid aside. Philippians 2:6, “Although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” He laid aside the prerogatives of Godhead, and He never looked back. He never said, “Boy, I wish I didn’t do that, because I could really use part of that Godhead right now; I could use My divinity; it would satisfy My hunger; it would satisfy My weariness; I wouldn’t have to take the beating I’m taking or the abuse I’m taking; I could avoid the thorns and the crown and the nails.” He never once depended on what He laid aside. Number 1, this is how He lived, He laid aside who He was naturally and never reached back to rescue Himself and pull out that which He laid aside.
There’s a third principle on how He lived. How did He live as a man, and the answer is (I’ll give you the answer and then show it to you), every moment of every day of His Life for thirty-three and a half years, He depended totally on the One who lived inside of Him. That’s how He lived. 100% He depended on His Father who indwelt Him.
I want to lay two expressions from Philippians 2:8, “He humbled Himself by being obedient.” Who is He obeying? He’s obeying the One who lives inside of His heart. His whole life was dependent on that. He said that He didn’t even come on His own initiative, John 8;42, “If God were your Father, you’d love Me. I proceeded forth and I’ve come from God; I have not even come on My own initiative. He sent Me.” He had a lot of teaching – the Sermon on the Mount; that wasn’t His. John 7:16, “Jesus answered and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine. It’s Him who sent Me.’” He did many miracles; He didn’t do any. Listen to Acts 2:22, “Men of Israel, listen to these words, ‘Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs, which God performed through Him in your midst…” He didn’t do it; His indwelling Father did it. John 5:19, “Truly, I say to you, ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it’s something He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner.” He always lived to do the will of His Father, John 5:30, “I can do nothing on My own initiative; as I hear, I judge; My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who went Me.” That was His passion. John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and accomplish His work.” He was obedient to the One who lived inside.
Alright, let’s take it back to the beginning. How did God create man to live? God created man to live in order to put Him on display. Christ, the second man and last Adam, came, laid aside Who He was by nature, determined never again to reach back and grasp at it, to rescue Himself, but instead depended on the One Who lived in His heart, even on the cross. You say that Christ died for me, and oh, He did, but listen to 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
I told you there were four principles. This is how He lived. He willingly laid aside who He was by nature, determined to never reach back and grasp, and to depend instead on the One who lived in His heart, and now the fourth principle. Because He lived that way, He put His Father on display, as God created man to live. John 12:44, “Jesus cried out and said (this is a strange verse), ‘He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me.’” “ He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.” Again, In John 13:20, “Truly, I say to you, ‘He who receives whomever I send receives Me; he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me.’” “How do you say, ‘show me the Father.’?
If you’ve seen Me, I’ve had Him on display; I have displayed Him; everywhere I went I was showing you the Father.’” He willingly laid aside who He was by nature, and He determined never to reach back and grasp it. Instead, He would depend on the One who lived in His heart, and by doing that, His Father would be publicly on display.
Do you notice how this wonderful theology section begins with verse 5? “Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians was written thirty years after Jesus ascended into heaven, and yet He taught the same thing when He was on the earth. John 20, “Jesus said to them, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father sent Me,’ (to live as God intended man to live), ‘so I send you.’ And when He said this, He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Such a life is not possible apart from the Holy Spirit. John 6:57, “As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me will live because of Me.” He’s the second man, the last Adam, and He came to live the way God intended man to live, but Adam failed, so we started over. Jesus lived the way God intended man to live, and now Jesus said, “Now, you do it. You live that way, as God intended us to live.”
Let me revisit those four principles. Principle #1, don’t answer out loud (I hope you answer in your heart), have you ever willfully laid aside who you are by nature? If you are going to live as God intended to live, you’ve got to lay aside who you are by nature. Just like Jesus was still God, when you lay aside who you are, you’re not going to lose it; it’s still there. Flesh will always be flesh. Matthew, Mark and Luke all taught the same thing. I’m going to quote Matthew 16:24, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for My sake, will find it. Mark says the same thing, but adds the word “daily”; daily take up the cross.
What does the cross picture? The answer is rejection. That’s the ultimate picture of rejection. If you get in your mind a crossroads; you come to a point and you’ve got to make a decision; I go right or I go left, a crossroads. On one road is you, your life. The other road is Him, His Life. You’ve got to make a choice. According to Matthew, you’ve got to take up your cross, the place of rejection. There are two lives, His and mine; one must be rejected. No brainer; I reject me and I choose Him. One life must be denied; His or mine. No brainer; I deny me and I choose Him. One life must be lost; His or mine. No brainer; I lose me, and I choose Him. That is spelled out in the book of Philippians, living as God intended man to live. I lay aside who I am by nature, and then listen to Philippians 3:3, “Worship in the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.” Do you know that is saying? You laid it aside; don’t go back and grasp it; put no confidence in the flesh. Don’t come to a place in your life where you say, “This time I’ve got to figure it out. This time it’s my strength; this time it’s my ingenuity. This time it, “I’ve got to be loyal, and I’ve got to be faithful, and I’ve got to be sacrificial.” No, leave it alone. Don’t grasp; no confidence in the flesh. I lay aside who I am; I reckon myself dead in Christ; I determine I’m never going to turn back and grasp it.
#3 I’m going to depend totally on the One who lives inside of me. You are going to look when we get to Philippians, you are going to see it over and over – “In Christ”, “In Christ”, “In Christ”, “Christ in you,” Christ in you.” I’ve got to depend on the Lord. He initiates; it’s my word; it’s His. It’s not my decision; it’s His. It’s not my power; it’s His. It’s not my life; it’s His Life. I lay aside who I am, I determine I’m not going to grab it again ever to depend on the flesh; I’m going to depend on the One who lives inside. What’s the result? Listen to 2 Corinthians 4:10, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may be manifest in our body.” He’s on display. “We who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the Life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
We are back to the beginning; that’s how God created us to live, and that’s why He redeemed us, to go back to the way God created us to live, to lay aside who we are, and never grasp it again, and depend on the One who indwells us, and thus in a way that puts Jesus on display. Philippians is going to describe that life; it’s going to describe that life as full of joy. If you don’t have joy, you’re not living as God intended you to live. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If you do not have strength, you don’t have this message; you don’t have Christ. “Be anxious for nothing.” If you have any anxiety, you are missing the message of Philippians. God wants us to live as God intended us to live, and everything He describes in Philippians, if you take this away, will just be religious platitudes; it will mean nothing. We have got to have this; lay aside who you are by nature, and never grasp it again, and depend 100% on the One who lives inside of you, and put Him on public display. That, He says, is the normal life. If you are not living that way, you are not normal.
I have one little illustration about normal. My son, Daniel, was with me on a trip and he was about two steps in front of me, and we stopped to get a little refreshment, and he opened the door and didn’t know I was so close behind, and he let the door go, and it hit me in the head. He turned back all concerned, “Oh, Dad, are you alright?” I made this comment, “I said, ‘Now, that might bother some people, normal people, but not me.’ He said, “Oh, it doesn’t bother you sub-normal people?” Well, God doesn’t want us to live subnormal; He wants us to live the normal life, and this is the normal life.
We’re going to look at some beautiful things in Philippians, but it all depends on if we’re going to live as God created us to live. Let me pray, and then I’m going to open it for testimonies and also for any comments or questions you might have.
Father, thank You for inspiring this marvelous book, and Lord, we want to enter into it in all of its fullness, but we want to enter into it on the right footing, that our Lord Jesus became the last Adam, the second man, the only One who ever lived the way You’ve created man to live. Lord, we know that He’s the only One that can continue to live the way You created man to live. So, we pray that You’d write this on our heart as we prepare to look into this marvelous book of Philippians, and we thank You for the revelation of Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.