478: The Pattern | Tim Henderson

Introduction

Jesus Christ is the pattern for all of humanity. His life shows us how life is supposed to work. It shows us how life does work. He's God, but he's not only God. He is also the perfect human being, and the extent to which you recognize what he has done and receive it to yourself predicts your capacity for joy. Not only that, but if we receive it genuinely, then we will also imitate it. And the degree to which we imitate his life determines the degree to which we fulfill the purpose for which we were created. And the reverse of all of that is true as well. If we reject his pattern for life, we take inexorable steps towards our own dissolution into nothingness.

Paul will say this later in his letter to the Philippians:

For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. — Philippians 3:18-19

It's noteworthy. It might become more clear as we go why he doesn't simply say they walk as enemies of Christ, but enemies of his cross. Their end is destruction.

The Central Passage

I'd like to welcome you to our series on Philippians. If you were here a couple of weeks ago, you heard that we're going to be doing this, and if you'll give me just a few minutes this morning, I'd like to try to prove to you everything that I just said.

Two weeks ago, I gave you notice that we're going to be studying Philippians for the rest of the summer, and I did so because I was hoping that what you would do is read through it a bunch of times, maybe listen to it a bunch of times. If you missed that talk, you can find it at chsaronup.com. It kind of gave the overview of the book, but even if you don't hear that or you know, you can't go back in time, it's not too late. To read it, to read it again, to listen to it, to understand the meaning of this great letter.

And if you have or when you do, I wouldn't mind if it's just kind of leaps off the page to you that this passage this morning, Philippians 2, is the central passage of the book. Normal people when they do a series on Philippians, they just start at chapter 1 and go to 2 and then to 3 and then to 4. We have taken chapter 2 out and put it in the front because we want to emphasize to you the preeminence of this passage. Philippians 2:1-11 is the heart of the book. It's very, very central to Paul's argument, and I think it should be central to your life and to our shared life as a church.

Next week, we'll get to chapter 1. Sloop's going to teach that, and then we will walk more or less in order for the rest of the summer like you might expect us to do. But today we're starting with Philippians 2:1-11 because I just want to lift it off the page and show it to you, okay?

Now, Philippians 2:1-11, if you just looked at that, it would probably be pretty natural if you were to recognize that that passage itself splits in half. The first section, Paul appeals to all we have in Christ as a way to exhort us to do something, in particular to follow a pattern, and then the second half of Philippians 2:1-11, starting at verse 5, is that pattern.

What he's going to do is it's going to be like, do you guys remember when you were learning how to write, and you were being trained to trace dotted letters? Remember this? Does that bring back the memories? You would draw like, or I guess it was drawing, you would write, you know, like 20 Ms across the line, and then more Ms, and then more Ms, and then you would do all that, you know, S's, S, S, and you're learning a little dotted line in the middle, and you just trace the dotted line, trace the dotted line, trace the dotted line. What Paul is doing here, in the second part of Philippians 2, is he's giving us the dotted line to trace.

Jesus is the shape. There are things about his life that mark all of humanity. What he is, he is the perfect letter. He is the letter J, and we'll see, not just because Jesus starts with J, but because the particular shape of his life is shockingly like that. I'll show you that as we go through it. What Paul is doing is he's drawing for us the dotted line shape of that life.

Okay, we're going to spend most of our time there, but let's get there in order. The first thing he does is he gives us this reminder of all we have, and an exhortation of what we ought to do. So here's how it starts, in verse 1:

So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation of the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being full, in full accord, and of one mind.

We'll take a look at this. It’s this kind of string of if statements. The ESV only keeps one that strips out the rest of them, kind of implies them, but in the Greek it’s if, if, if, if, if. He says if you have any encouragement from Christ, if you have any comfort from love, if you have any participation—that's a little bit weird—the Greek word for participation is coinonia. You might have heard of that term; it means fellowship. So really what he's saying is if you have any fellowship with the Spirit, if you have any affection, any sympathy, then do something.

We'll talk about what you want to do in a minute, but just first for a second, I don't know, do you have any of those things—any encouragement or comfort, fellowship, affection, sympathy? Of course you do. Those things pour forth from Christ. He communes with the lowly. He speaks to the Father in our defense and is in fact our atoning sacrifice. It's in him that we have every spiritual blessing, every good gift comes from him. He is a sympathetic high priest. He always lives to intercede for us.

So yes, of course we have those things in abundance. We have encouragement and comfort and fellowship and affection and sympathy from him. And since we do, what are we supposed to do? Take a look at what he says. He says we're supposed to be of the same mind as each other. It's an idea of agreement and unity. Have the same love as each other. To be in full accord and one mind with each other.

What Paul is saying is that all that we have in Christ, all the abundance, is supposed to draw us together so that we would function as a unified community—that we would love each other, that we would choose each other.

Unless that sounds like just a bunch of mushy, meaningless embroidery, he then bottom-lines it. Listen to what he says, in verse 3:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Okay, we'll take a look at that, but I want to focus on the basis for this. Here's what's going to get this done—here's the line, can’t say it enough—the dotted line that we are supposed to trace. Notice the shape. Go back to grade school. Notice the shape of the letter. What's going to happen? Jesus' life is going to start out high, and then it's going to go lower, lower, lower, lower down to the absolute nadir, and then it's going to be exalted, higher, higher, higher. Even higher than it started.

Watch the shape, okay? Here's how it goes. Jesus is going to take the lowest place and therefore be exalted to the highest place. This is the shape—that "J" shape I want you to see. Verse 5:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

His mind is your mind; his life is your life. Who? Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

You see the descent, unmistakable: lower, lower, lower, lower. Does your marriage look like that? Does your parenting look like that? Does the way that you run your business look? Okay, lower, lower, lower, lower.

Then watch what happens as a direct result of him taking the lowest place. Verse 9:

Therefore, because of that, God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Do you see the way back up? Jesus has been made king of the cosmos. He went to the lowest place. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place. It is because of his cross that he was made king, because he mastered the human perfection of the lowliness. He was granted authority over everything.

This is the physics of the kingdom. This is how the universe is designed to function. This life in Jesus is meant to be everyone's life. It's meant to be our life. This is how the world is supposed to work. This is why Jesus was constantly saying things like, "The last will be first. Whoever loses his life shall save his life. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever wants to be great among you must be the servant of all."

He says, "The tax collectors and prostitutes are any of the kingdom of God ahead of you." He says, "That the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give his life as a ransom for many."

You guys, we recently sang a song, kind of my new favorite song here. It's called, I forget, Who else is worthy? Thank you. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? I love it. It's really pretty. It's just about the fact that Jesus is supreme. I heard for the first time here just a couple of weeks ago, and then I went home and I got it on Spotify, and I listened to it on Spotify. The version I have on Spotify was recorded in a particularly charismatic church, it seems. You can tell because it's like nine minutes long, right? And they say they're refrained like 500 times in the middle of the song. The worship leader stops singing, and he talks to the audience and kind of like, "You know what I'm talking about?" This style.

And I love this song, and they do a magnificent job of just kind of like transporting you into a place to help you worship and see his majesty and his greatness. I’ve listened to that a bunch of times, and the refrain of the song is very simple. It just asks the question:

Who else is worthy?

And then it answers the question. There's no one. Only you, Jesus. Now, in every song, lyrics always limp without the music. No song is pretty when you just read the lyrics, right? You need the music’s magic; it does something. It lights it all up, and it might be that even to hear those lyrics like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he's worthy. We've heard that before." The song, for whatever reason, kind of jiggled the key in my lock. You may have experienced this before, and we're in here, and I was standing back there, and I was just thinking, "Who else is worthy?" And the answer is like, it's a joke. There's no contest. The comparison between Jesus Christ and literally every person who has ever lived is so, the gap is so vast. I was thinking, what if we could raise from the dead because they're all dead—every great leader of religion throughout the history of the world? If we get Muhammad up here, if we get, pick out one you want, Abraham or Moses, right, to represent Judaism, you get Joseph Smith, if you want to bring the Mormons to the party. You could bring Siddhartha Ghatama, who is the Buddha. You could bring Guru Nanak of the Sikh faith, compare their lives, compare their teaching, compare what they offer, what they accomplished. Look at the manners of their death, or if you feel like it's a rigged fight—I don't care—who do you want to bring up? George Washington, Alexander the Great, some Caesar.

There is no contest. He is not only great but infinitely greater than ever. He wins in a walk. And I love this song because no one else is worthy. But I do have a gentle correction for whoever sang that particular recording of the song. There is this moment in the song where he stops singing, and he turns to the audience, and he asks, here's what he says, I wrote it down:

Tell him how worthy he is, tell him how holy he is, tell him how wonderful he is, tell him how beautiful he is, tell him how powerful he is.

He is worthy, King Jesus, there is none like you. Listen to me, this is important. He is all of those things and more. I almost step off the stage.

He is all of those things and more. It's all true, but none of those things are the reason that he is worthy. Do you know why he is worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise? Do you know why? Here, I'm going to do this; I'm going to read this here, Revelation 5. In the scene in Revelation 5, there's this scroll, and the urgent imperative for all humanity is that the scroll would be open, that the seals would be broken, and his contents would be read, but nobody can do it. Verse 2:

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming an allowed voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth, could open the scroll or even look inside it. And I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look inside it.

Then one of the elders said to me,

"Do not weep. See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals."

And I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne. Verse 9:

And they sang a new song:
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because—

Do you know the next line?

"You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe, language, and people and nation."

You guys, he is worthy to receive all of those things because he was slain. It was the slain lamb of Revelation 5 that was able to open the scroll. You guys, Jesus has been exalted to the highest place because he went to the lowest place. It is because of his cross that he was made king. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are. And none of the rulers of the age understood it. None of the rulers of any age ever understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but that is the secret to how the world is designed to function. And God has revealed it to us that we would know the secret, friends.

The glory of Christ is seen in his humility and his loneliness. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he humbled himself. He became a human being. He took on the form of a servant, and not just a servant, but he humbled himself to death, and not just any death, but death on a cross. He goes from the highest place to the absolute lowest place, and therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That is the shape of his life. It is all the way down at his doing and then all the way up at his father's doing. That is to be the shape of our lives. It is to be the shape of your role as a husband. It is to be the shape of your role as a wife. It is how your life is meant to be lived, looking for opportunities to serve the other.

I know, I know, you would much rather that the world existed to serve you. It does not. We imitate him, and it is as if—and only if—you are overwhelmed that he went to the lowest place for you. He's not just a dotted line on a page. His descent might inspire you for like a minute, but what will transform you is when his descent is for you. When it's yours, when you realize that he took the lowest spot for you, that's not just an example that inspires; it is love that transforms.

And if you understand that he went to the lowest place for you, then and only then will you find the resources to go to the lowest place for others—to consider that they perhaps maybe might be more significant than yourself.

It is in light of the cross of Christ that we are resourced with the humility to prioritize the needs of others. It is the only thing that works.

Application

I think generally speaking, this notion—the shape of the letter "J"—is missing from our prevailing understanding of Christianity. We love power too much. We love ourselves too much. And I get it, right? I mean I am it. If I'm here, and I want to be here, what strikes you as the best path to get from here to here? Right there, baby. Let's go. Right? Do you not see this in your life? Straight lines, all day.

What is the path that Jesus took to get from here to here? Lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, exalted. This, I'm telling you, this is just the way it works. We all want the shortcut. Once you see this in the Scriptures, it's going to be hard to unsee it. It's all over the place. Once you see it in your life, it's going to be hard to unsee it. It's all over the place.

Paul, who is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, imitator and explicator of the life of Christ, he got this and he lived this. He says this:

To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty. We’re in rags. We’re brutally treated. We’re homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we’re cursed, we bless. When we’re persecuted, we endure it. When we’re slandered, we answer kindly. It could be a marriage counselor. Up to this moment, we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

That’s the downstroke—unmissable. Listen to the upstroke:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

You guys, this is the shape of the life of Christ. Some of you may have already begun to notice that it is, it has become, it is becoming the pattern of your life. The life is a series of deaths followed by resurrections, trusting him, cooperating with him on the way down—that is the path to life. That’s just the way he works.

Baptism and Union with Christ

Today we baptize these boys, Grayson and Lucas. What we did is we put them into the water, and we were doing that. What Dave was physically manifesting in their lives is that you are united with Christ in his death. He went into the grave, you go into the grave. But he didn't keep them down. Good work. He pulled them back up to say that you are also united to Christ in his life. He goes down, we go down. He comes up, we come up. And the point of that, by the way, is neither the death nor the life. It is our union with him in which is found everything.

If this is the shape of his life, I want it to be the shape of my life because the most important thing in the world is to be united to him. He is the vine. We are the branches. And apart from him, we can do nothing. It is all the way down in service to others, and then all the way up as God exalts the humble.

Conclusion

You guys, this message is going to permeate the book of Philippians. You're going to see it all over the place. You'll see examples not just that Christ is the principal example, but Paul will show how his own life imitates this, how Timothy imitates this, how a puffer diedus imitates this, so that we might imitate this—that we would look in our lives. And you will see. Sometimes, sometimes, the down stroke, there ain’t nothing you can do about it. It’s down, baby, down—and you're going to hate that part. But in his wisdom and his mercy, you can trust that it is down on the way to up. And sometimes, the down baby, down, is voluntary. You could step away from it. You could take the biggest piece of the pie, get the parking spot, or you can voluntarily choose the lowest place as Jesus did. This is the way it works. This is the pattern of our life.

And I pray that God might give us the grace together to notice it, not just in Philippians, where it's kind of easy to see, but outside where we hate to find it—that it is the way the world works.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, we exalt you, we praise you. You deserve the highest spot because you took the lowest place. Lord, you give us the grace to follow you there—to consider others' needs as more significant than our own. And to meet you that we would be united to you in that, in your death. And also, in due course, in your life. We love you. Amen.