What Would Jesus Do? - Part A

Paul gave a principle. He said, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

That was the principle. Now he gives us an example of that, and the example he chooses is the ultimate example. It's the example of Jesus Christ.

He's going to give more examples as we keep reading this book. He'll give us an example of Paphroditus as an example of humility. He'll also give us an example of Timothy as an example of humility. But first, he gives us the example of Jesus Christ. In the 90s, there was a popular bracelet that said, what would Jesus do? As a reminder to think like Jesus. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip tackles the question, what has Jesus already done? Helping you follow Christ's example so you can show others God's love through humility. But first, Skip wants to share a bit about another way you can hear these encouraging Bible messages.

Thanks, Skip. As we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. There's a story about a pastor in the Midwest who challenged his congregation for the next year before they made any decision, entered into any transaction, did any action, to filter that through the notion of what would Jesus do. And the book goes on to show how the whole church was transformed by that approach to life, and in turn, the whole community was changed.

So that's where it began, 1896, that book was published. But in 1990, a youth leader in Michigan decided that her group of young believers, the youth group, ought to have a little bracelet so they could wear it around and people could ask them about it and started a grassroots movement that spread around the world. What would Jesus do? WWJD. Now as wonderful as that is, I bet you have discovered that actually doing what Jesus would do is hard.

It's hard to put it into practice. One mom found that out. She had been trying to teach her two boys this lesson, what would Jesus do? The oldest boy was Kevin. He was five years old. Brian was three years old.

One day, it was Saturday morning, she's cooking him up breakfast, making pancakes, and the two boys started arguing about who ought to have the first pancake. I want it. No, I want it.

No, I want it. So she thought this is a perfect teaching moment. What would Jesus do? So she said, boys, if Jesus were here, what would Jesus do? And before they could answer it, she said, I'll tell you what Jesus would do.

He would say, I'm going to let my brother have the first pancake. Well, Kevin, the oldest, turned to Ryan, the youngest, and said, hey Ryan, you be Jesus. It's a whole lot easier to say, you be like Jesus, rather than me. And to answer the question, what would Jesus do, you have to first ask the question, what has Jesus done? And Paul answers that question by giving us four characteristics of Jesus Christ.

They are outlined for you in your little bulletin, the little worship folder. You have an outline there. We're going to look at verse 5 through 11 in just a moment, because verse 5 through 11 form a paragraph of thought. It is an example of Paul's principle. If you remember last week, Paul gave a principle. He said, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

That was the principle. Now he gives us an example of that, and the example he chooses is the ultimate example. It's the example of Jesus Christ.

He's going to give more examples as we keep reading this book. He'll give an example using a guy by the name of Epaphroditus as an example of humility. He'll also give us an example of Timothy as an example of humility. But first, he gives us the example of Jesus Christ. Now I just have to say this, the text we're about to read is one of the deepest, most glorious texts in the entire New Testament. It is like the seminal text that talks about the condescension of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, as God becoming man. Now keeping that in mind, let's look at verse 5, read through verse 11, but we're really only going to talk about up to verse 8 today, but let's just read it all. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, as we just sang a moment ago, every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on the earth and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now we're going to split that paragraph in two. We're going to take the first part this week, the second part next week. We're going to talk about his lowering today. Next week we're going to look at his lifting. Today we're going to look at the cross. Next time we're going to consider more the crown. Today we look at him giving up his glory.

Next time we'll look at gaining more glory. Now, before we can ever appreciate what Jesus has done, we have to understand who Jesus Christ was. You will never appreciate this whole idea that Paul presents unless you begin where Paul began, understanding who Jesus Christ was and is. And over the years I've always been interested in what people think about Jesus.

I usually ask people that. What do you think about Jesus? Who is he to you? Some of the things that people believe I've already known. Some of the things I discover I'm baffled by. I'm just amazed that people actually think these things. I've known, for example, that many Hindus believe that Jesus is the reincarnation of Lord Krishna. I've understood that the Mormon Church believes that Jesus was a product of a sexual union between the resurrected Adam God and the Virgin Mary. Or that the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first created being, aka also known as Michael the Archangel. But then there are some even wilder ideas like Jesus was an illusionist who went around practicing magic, or here's one I came across recently, Jesus is an alien who came from Venus.

And then there are those who espouse the fact, or the idea, not a fact at all, the erroneous idea that Jesus was the husband of Mary Magdalene and together they procreated a secret lineage to rule the world. Well the Bible says Jesus Christ is God. He is God who humbled himself to become a man. And I want to share with you four descriptions that form the character of Christ. First of all, his divinity. His divinity. Verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

We'll get to that in a moment, but look at verse six. Who being in the form of God. You see that little phrase, form of God? That is translated in English from the Greek morphe theou. And morphe theou literally translated is form of God.

But it's not the best translation. Because when you and I think of the word form, we think of an outward form. We think of size and we think of shape, but that is not the word that is used. He uses the word morphe. If Paul wanted to talk about outward form, he would have used the Greek word schema. Morphe outward form, the word that he uses here, the word morphe speaks about essence, nature, or character.

It's who you are at your core. That's morphe. Morphe never changes. Schema always changes. That's the outward form.

Here's an example. As a human being, we have both morphe and schema. Morphe. We have the essence of who we are from birth. That is, we are human. That is our morphe. You are a human being from your birth through every stage of your life all the way to death. That's the essence of your nature.

You are humanity. But your schema outward form changes throughout life. You begin as a zygote.

You go, I didn't even know what that is. After a zygote, you became an embryo. Then your form changed to a fetus. Then your form changed to a small baby being born, an infant. Then your form changed to a toddler. Then you became an adolescent.

Then you became an adult. That's the schema. It always changes.

The morphe never changes. So what Paul is saying by this is saying that Jesus Christ possessed the unchangeable, essential nature and character of God, who being in the form of God. And please notice the word in verse 6, being. You see that word, who being in the form of God? That's a present active participle. And some people are going, oh no, not an English class.

I thought I got out of that. Why that is important is this. In using it this way, he is saying that Jesus Christ always has been and presently continues to be in very essence and nature, God. This is why Jesus could say, he who has seen me has seen the Father. If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. So Jesus never became God at a certain point. Because he used this word, Paul wants us to know he always was this way and continues to always be this way, who being in the form of God. So the deity of Christ was pre-human. It was pre-Bethlehem. A while back I had a knock on my door. I opened it up. It was Jehovah Witness.

I've been through a number of these encounters, so I kind of know the song and dance. So I just decided, you know, I'm just going to cut to the chase. I said, I believe Jesus Christ is God in a human body.

I took a step back and, you know, I almost had an apoplectic reaction to that. I said, no, he is God. No, he's not.

I said, well, the Bible says he is. No, it doesn't. Yeah, it does.

No, it doesn't. And so I said, John 1, 1, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. And he goes, ah, that's a wrong translation. It literally is, in the beginning was the word and the word is with God and the word was a God. It doesn't say that. It does say that. So I pulled out my Greek New Testament, opened it up, turned to John 1, 1, and read it to him out loud.

NRK, ein halagas, kai halagas, ein prostan theon, kai theos, ein halagas. I said, it states very plainly that the God is the word. And then I said, listen, if you're telling me Jesus was a God, now you have bigger problems because you just are telling me there are two Gods. And he, you know, started to register a little bit like, yeah. But he quickly, it went south from there.

It didn't go well after that. But to say that Jesus never claimed to be God is a ludicrous statement. The only one who could ever make such a statement is somebody either who, A, has never read the New Testament or B, blatantly denies the plain text that is written in the New Testament. For example, in Luke 5, you know the story of the crippled man being let through the rooftop by his buddies. They lowered him down and he can't move and he's paralytic and Jesus looks at him and he says, man, your sins are forgiven. On the other side of the room are the enemies, the scribes and the Pharisees who said, he speaks blasphemy. Nobody can forgive sins but God only.

Duh. That's the whole point of him saying your sins are forgiven because only God can forgive sins. In John chapter 8, Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am.

I am is, as you know, that Old Testament construction of absolute timelessness when God said to Moses, I am that I am. In John chapter 5, we're told the Pharisees sought to kill Jesus because he said God was his father making himself equal with God. And then in John chapter 10, the Jews wanted to stone Jesus and Jesus said, many good works I have done for my father, which of these good works do you want to stone me for? And they said, for a good work we do not stone you but for blasphemy because you being a man always make yourself out to be God. They understood what Jesus was saying about himself. This is why when Jesus rose from the dead and stood before Thomas, Jesus didn't argue with Thomas when Thomas said my Lord and my what? God.

My Lord and my God. So listen, if Jesus was not God, then he deserves an Academy Award because he sure acted like it and talked like it for three and a half years in his ministry. So Paul is talking about his divinity, who being in very nature God, who being in the form of God, meaning Jesus Christ is the God who created everything. John 1-1 and then John 1-2, all things were made by him and without him nothing was made that has been made.

So when you look at the Milky Way galaxy and remember there's a hundred billion stars in that galaxy and think that they say there are a hundred billion other galaxies beside that, down to the 800,000 cataloged insects that crawl on the earth and that bother your garden, Jesus made those. That's why he could stand before the waves and the sea and tell them to shut up, rebuke them basically and say stop. And it says the winds and the sea obeyed him.

He could do that because he had the authority to do that as creator God. So he begins with the divinity of Christ, followed by number two, second characteristics, his humility. Who being in the form of God, verse six, now watch this, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.

Now what does that mean? Robbery is a word that means to seize or to carry off by force. It was a word used of a soldier who would plunder and steal. Why is Paul using that term to describe Jesus? He means to say and it's often translated this way, he didn't think equality with God was something to be grabbed a hold of, that's how it is often translated in modern versions of the New Testament.

So Paul's idea here is this, Jesus didn't think that equality with God was something to be taken and held onto and clutch and never let it go. Now think for a moment, Jesus as God didn't need anything. He had all the angels around him in heaven giving him praise. He had all the glory of heaven. Being in heaven with the Father and with the Spirit, he reigned over all of creation. Now he could have stayed right there.

That's a pretty good gig. Why would anybody want to leave that? And the answer is because he wasn't thinking of himself. He was thinking of others.

His attitude was an attitude of unselfish concern. You see that's the principle that Paul begins with back in verse 3 and 4. So it's as if Jesus said I'm not going to keep my privileges for myself, I'm going to lay them aside and serve others.

Now look again at verse 7, but he made himself of no reputation. At this point it's like Paul goes, hey come here, let me take you backstage into the mysteries of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and let you know what is really going on. It's like he's given us direct insight into the miracle of all miracles and that is the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is like the theological diamond that sparkles brighter than any other. Did you know that many scholars believe that verses 5 through 8 was originally a hymn that was sung by the early church.

Wouldn't you love to hear this put to music? So they sang it and they sang it so they would remember and commemorate the incarnation. It was that important to them.

It was that important to them. Having said that I also have to say I don't totally get it and I'm not afraid to admit that. When it comes to God becoming a human being, it's like boy do I believe that, I'd even die believing that, I'd die for that. But to really get my head all the way around that, it's like the trinity. I'm accepting it by faith but it's, well Paul put it this way, great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh.

It's one of those great mysteries. I sometimes feel like the little boy who was outside looking up stars and he said, Mom are you sure God's up there? She said sweetheart he's up there, he's everywhere. You're sure he's up there?

Yeah I'm sure. Then he said, wouldn't it be great if you just poke his head out from time to time so we could see him? Essentially the incarnation was that, God poking his head out.

Moreover, taking on human skin and living among us. That's the incarnation. Now the incarnation was a fulfillment of what Isaiah the prophet said would happen. A child would be born, you will call his name Immanuel which is translated what? God with us. Jesus Christ is God with us. Now I want your eyes to see it for yourself.

Look at what it says, he made himself of no reputation. All of those words are one single word in the original Greek language, ekennosen. Theologians talk about the kenosis, the emptying. Because this word made himself of no reputation, ekennosen means to empty of contents. To take something and pour it out.

So if you were here one day night and you saw me pour water in that cup and pour out the contents. It's as if it's saying Jesus who being in very nature God poured himself out. He emptied himself of content. The question and the controversy is what did Jesus empty himself of? When he poured himself out, what did he empty himself of? You can't say of deity. Because remember Paul's whole point is Jesus by very nature always was and continues to be and evermore will be God.

That's his nature. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series Technicolor Joy. Right now we want to share about a great resource that will help you grow in your knowledge of God's word. You know those times you hear a sermon that really speaks to you? It's almost as if the pastor knows what you're personally going through and he teaches a message like you're the only one listening. Well it's not that the pastor knows you personally, it's that God knows you personally.

Here's Skip Heitzig. In nearly 40 years of expository teaching, I still love hearing that one of my messages spoke to someone personally. That it urged them on to know God better or become more like him.

But that's not because of me, that's just the power of the word of God doing the work of God in the hearts of the people of God. Get to know the God who knows you with Pastor Skip's Picks. A collection of some of Pastor Skip's most memorable teachings including Is the Rapture Real?

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Thank you! Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig takes a close look at the humility of Christ and shares how you can lovingly serve others just like Jesus did. Satan had a subversive mind, Jesus had a submissive mind.

Complete polar opposites. So Paul says let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.