The Mind of Christ

FROM: MAY 1 @ 8, 2018

TOPIC: "The Mind of Christ" Philippians 2:5 (Luke 22:44) "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."

“Tears He did not have for His pain, But for mine blood sweat was pured.” Charles H. Gabriel

I. May there be, well...in you and in me the same feeling that Jesus had! (Vs. 5)

A. Of course, for each of us there is the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, for us to imitate Him.

1. In a total life of sacrifice for others:

a. In Jesus there was the service

b. Jesus constantly thought of others.

2. Christ Jesus was in the form of God (Vs. 6)

a. It was not that he seemed like God.

b. It is that He really is God, in the truest sense of the word.

3. But He did not consider to be equal to God as something to be grasped. (Vs. 6)

a. Since all eternity, Christ was positionally equal with His Father, enjoying the glories of heaven.

b. But He did not consider this position as something to which He had to grasp at all costs.

c. When a world with a lost humanity needed to be redeemed, the Lord Jesus was willing to leave His positional equality with God, He left the well-being and joys of heaven.

d. He did not consider all this to be something that he had to cling to forever and under all circumstances.

e. God the Father was never spit on, beaten or crucified.

f. In the position of Son He was spit on, beaten and crucified

4. "But made Himself nothing..." (Vs. 7)

a. He emptied Himself.

b. He deprived Himself of what He has.

c. Voluntarily He left everything that could make things easy for Him.

d. He was Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, of the same nature, quality, value, form and position with God the Father. And the glory of the Deity was to be placed in a body of human flesh.

e. The glory was there, all of it, although hidden, but it shone on certain occasions as on the Mount of Transfiguration.

f. There was not a moment in His life on earth that He did not possess all of God's attributes.

g. He emptied Himself of all that glory taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Vs. 7)

h. He emptied Himself by taking upon Himself something He never had before, a human condition.

i. He did not leave aside His deity, only His place in heaven, and that only temporarily.

j. Taking the form of a servant; in John 13:4 "(Jesus) ...he took off his mantle, and taking a towel, he girded it."

k. He came and served them with a towel and apron in hand like a servant. It was always to serve!

l. Paul exhorts to have the mind of Christ and not the mind of their vanities, not the minds of mortals.

m. Christ had always existed, but he came to earth made in the likeness of men, as a real man.

5. He emptied Himself, became a Man and humbled Himself. (Vs. 8)

a. There was no depth to which Jesus would not descend in order to save our guilty souls.

b. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death.

c. He obeyed, although this cost Him His life.

d. Obedient until death means that He obeyed until the end.

e. Until death, and death on the cross.

f. Death by crucifixion was the most shameful form of execution, as if it were the gallows, like the gas chamber or the electric chair, they are only for the worst murderers.

g. And this was the form of death reserved for the Best of Heaven when He came to this world, how sad!

h. He was going to die in a shameful death on a cross.

6. Jesus did not seek what you seek, He never sought a name for Himself! (Vs. 9)

a. But rather He humbled Himself.

b. What about you?

c. Then, "God also exalted Him to the highest place."

d. Yes, He did not seek a name for Himself, but God granted Him the name that is above all names.

7. God was so satisfied with the redeeming work of Jesus that He determined that every knee should bow before Him, all beings in the heavens, earth and under the earth. (Vs. 10)

8. Paul had not undertaken the task of writing a treatise about the Lord, but rather He wanted to correct the selfishness and the spirit of what each one wanted for himself. The means to correct that condition was to bring them to have the mind of Christ. And you, are you willing? Amen.