In the sermon titled 'Christ's Example for Us', Peter Allison focuses on Philippians chapter 2, emphasizing the call for believers to have the mind of Christ. This involves humility, selflessness, and obedience, mirroring Christ's own actions and mindset. Allison explains that Jesus, though fully divine, took on human form and humbled himself, becoming obedient to death on the cross for the sake of humanity. This act of ultimate sacrifice serves as the perfect example for believers to follow in their relationships with one another. Paul urges the Philippian church to live in unity, cooperating as a well-trained team, with humility and love being central to their interactions. The sermon underscores the importance of setting aside selfish ambitions in favor of esteeming others and prioritizing collective interests. Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection exemplify the ultimate submission to God's will and the path to salvation, highlighting the necessity for believers to emulate this mindset.

Please turn in your scriptures to Philippians chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 5 to 11. I'd like to read though The first 18 verses though. Philippians 2, beginning of verse 1, hear God's word. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.

Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others. 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 bond-servant 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 every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. May He write its truth upon our heart. Almighty Heavenly Father, we ask that you might open our hearts to your Word and that you might open your Word to our hearts this morning. We ask that you would do this, for we are your children. We desire to learn of you, to sit at your feet, to hear your voice.

We desire, Lord, to know you. We ask that you would work in us. What is well pleasing in your sight? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

For the last two weeks we've been looking at the deity of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, the one who made all things, the one for whom all things were made, the one who sustains all things, the one who is glorious, who dwells in an approachable light. This glory of the pre-incarnate Christ we looked at, And we looked at his significance of that for us. But today as we begin, as we continue this look at the person and the work of Jesus Christ, we want to begin to look at Christ's human nature. He was God, fully God, and yet he was also man with a human nature just as we have. Paul has in the context here, the greater context of this book that we are going to look at this morning, this chapter, Paul has been very passionately and fervently and unrelentingly pleading with the people of Philippi to be like-minded, to live in harmony with one another, to have a mutual love for each other, an affection for each other, to live in one spirit, to have one understanding together.

That understanding, that unity that comes from Having a mind that is illuminated by the same one in the same Holy Spirit Such that they are able to labor to co-labor together for the for the faith of the gospel It's like he's urging them to be like a well-trained team of oxen who are able to walk in step with each other. And because of that, they are able to walk in the same direction with each other, and they are able to both put their shoulders to the load together and to pull together. And that there's a synchronicity to their labor. That if one pulls and then the other pulls, it doesn't work. They both have to pull together.

They both have to go in the same direction. They both have to be of the same mind. And together they can pull a lot more than two of them individually could pull. There is a spirit there of cooperation, of submission to each other. Paul is calling the Philippian church to have that like-minded spirit of cooperation among themselves.

And He gives them the means by which this spirit of cooperation, of co-laboring together in the work of the gospel, he gives them the means by which this is achieved. Humility. Humility and self-forgetfulness or lowliness of spirit. Do nothing from selfish ambition. That's erethea, that word actually means electioneering.

Just think of somebody who is running for office, who is self promoting himself. He wants people to promote him, to vote for him, to choose him, and he goes around telling everybody how good he is. That's what this word means, selfish ambition, erotheia. It means electioneering. It used to be something that was looked down upon, frowned upon in our country.

In fact, a sitting president was considered to have committed a terrible disgrace to even mention the name of his party as a president of the United States when he's campaigning for re-election. And yet, and so Paul says, do nothing from selfish ambition. If you want a picture of what that is, just think of your typical politician asking you for his vote. Putting himself ahead. Self-promotion.

Selfish ambition. Do nothing from selfish ambition or pride, groundless self esteem. Instead Paul says, esteem others more highly than yourself. Look out for the interest of others and not just your own interests. And we might ask, yes, that's wonderful, but can you show us?

Paul, can you show us what that looks like? To look out for the interests of others and not just our own. Can you give us an example? Can you demonstrate this for us? Every math student, when they hear the principle that is being explained, then wants a demonstration of that.

Can you show us how that principle works? Can you give us a pattern, An example to follow, a template. Paul says, yes. Yes. And so at this point that we pick up our text this morning.

That example that Paul holds out to the Philippian Church and to us also as being in Christ is the example of Jesus Christ. There is His example. I realize in saying that Christ is not merely an example. Christ didn't just come and live as an example for us. He is Almighty God, the Everlasting Father.

He is God. He said, I and the Father are one. He that has seen me has seen the Father. No man comes to the Father but by me. He was also man.

Fully God and fully man. Two distinct natures combined in one person forever. And so he was a unique man who came to do a unique work. By his life, by his obedience, he has merited our salvation. He fully kept the law of God.

By his sacrifice he has paid the penalty, the debt that is owed for our sin as the God man. He came and he submitted his will to his Father. Not my will, but your will, he said. So he definitely was unique. He had a unique person and unique work.

And we are not diminishing that in any respect this morning when we say that Christ is our example. Christ is also our example. He's our pattern That we are to follow if we are to walk in unison with Him and with one another. And we might ask, well how can Christ be our example? We're not God.

We haven't created all things. We haven't dwelt in the glory of heaven. We haven't received the praise of every being. We can't speak things into existence out of nothing. We don't sustain anything.

Our words can't uphold this earth. We can't speak and have the wind stop, or speak and have the winds begin. How then can He be our example, if we are not God, And we can't do the things that he does. If we do not have that uniqueness of office and uniqueness of person that he had even as a human man, We can't die to save anyone. But Paul says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. We are to have the same mind, the same way of thinking that Christ had and In so doing by having the same mind we can he is an example for us. That's a command. That's an imperative You your Bible might say Let this mind be in you.

As if it is sort of an optional thing. If you want, you can do this. But that just obscures what the Greek actually says there. That is an imperative. It is a third person imperative.

We don't have anything like that in English. We don't have a way to give a command in the third person. Only way we can give a command is in the second person, come. And that's assumed that we're giving that command to whoever we're speaking to. But the Greek has a way to give a command in the third person, to people that aren't present that you're not exactly talking to.

And that is used many times. And so whenever you see this let Construction you might ask if that is if that is a third person imperative like Romans 13 is an example that comes to mind Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities that that's not just maybe it's not an optional thing. That's a command. It's an imperative. Be subject.

You could say it this way, every person must be subject to the governing authorities. And so this is a command here. Every Christian, every person must have this mind that was in Christ Jesus. That's what we must have. He is then our example.

We follow him and when we have this same mind in us that Christ also had now What was the mind that Christ had that we are also to have? While Christ was in the form of God. Let this mind be in you. Every person must have this mind, which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God. Morphay is that word.

Form. It is what strikes the vision of a person. It's what your eye sees. It's what you behold. You behold this external appearance, this form, this morphay.

It's not exactly talking about the eternal essence of God, but rather it is the form. The form of a king is his majesty. He has certain robes, he has a throne, he has a scepter, he has these appearances, his court. These are the things that we see that are the form of a king. You know, the president, we might say, has similar aspects that we see.

The form of our president is people with machine guns, secret service, guarding him. That's a form of being the president. Traveling in bulletproof cars, accompanied by somebody carrying the football. And so the form, he had the form of God. He received the adoration and praise of all creatures.

He was the creator of heaven and earth, the one who sustained all things. He dwelt in this glory, in this unapproachable light. The seraphim covered their faces, covered their eyes that stood before His throne. They covered their eyes because of His glory. They covered their feet because of His glory with two more of their wings.

This is the form of God. Jesus Christ had this glory, belonged to Him, because He was God, He is God. He received the worship and the praise of all creation. The stars testify to the glory of God. The heaven displays His work.

This is the form of God. And he did not regard it as robbery to be equal with God. He made a judgment about this form of God which he possessed. He said, being equal with God, there's two different ways that you could understand this and I think both are true. He didn't regard it as robbery.

He didn't regard it as anything wrong to be equal with God. When he was praised as God, he didn't say that you couldn't. When he would forgive sins, He would receive the worship of people who worshiped Him as God. He didn't regard that as improper. Whereas we see the apostles or any people or even angels, when people went to worship them they would say, no, no, that would be robbery.

That would be wrong. That worship and that glory is due to God alone. Jesus didn't regard it as robbery to be equal with God. But the other way to see it, and I think this other way is probably more close to this text and what is the context here, and that is he didn't regard it as something to be seized and laid hold of. He made a judgment about it and was willing to let it go.

Even though this passage is not talking about Christ's divine essence, yet this passage also proves that He was God. He was of the same substance with God Because there's no way for him to be equal with God Without robbery unless he was God Because Isaiah says God is not going to give his glory to another. And so if Jesus was not God, if he wasn't of the essence, the same substance, the same essence, If he wasn't very God, then it would be robbery for him to consider himself equal to God. God is known by His excellencies, His attributes, His perfections. And so Christ's divine essence, the fact that Christ is God, is rightly proven from the fact that he possessed equally the majesty and the glory of God the Father before his incarnation as well as after it.

And so this is the mind then that Christ had, that he who possessed this glory was willing to give it up. He gave up His rights. He gave up. He voluntarily and willingly gave up His right as the Lord of glory, as the Creator, as the Sovereign to receive worship from all creatures and adoration. He gave up those rights.

He made himself of no reputation. That word is he emptied himself. He laid aside his glory. He gave up this right to it. Now that's not saying that he ceased to possess this glory.

He veiled that glory. It was his emptying was not his divesting himself of his attributes because God is unchangeable, He's immutable. God cannot cease to be God. He cannot cease to have the attributes, the perfections of the eternal God. And so when it says that he emptied himself, it means that this glory was veiled, it was covered, it wasn't seen.

Christ was still God, fully God, As He lay in Mary's womb, as He walked the earth, as He hung on the cross, He was still God with no less power than in His pre-incarnate existence. But that glory, that power was veiled. And He did it willingly. And he did it willingly. Some have wandered into various errors When they have said that he gave up his divine essence, in this emptying of himself, he did not lose anything.

The incarnation was an addition. He took to Himself this human flesh. And temporarily, while on earth, His glory was veiled. But he did not have it. He did not possess it.

And as our text goes on in the latter verses, he is, that glory is restored. God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee will bow, those in heaven and those in earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He gave up his glory temporarily when he came to earth. And Paul lists all the different ways that He gave up His rights. So He willingly did this.

It wasn't something that was done to Him, something that he couldn't stop. He willingly and voluntarily gave up his rights. They weren't taken from him. It says that he made himself of no reputation. He took the form, secondly, of a bond servant.

That word is dulas, a slave, the lowest of slaves. Slaves who had virtually no rights. Slaves who could be crucified at the whim of their master, slaves who could be branded, slaves who were treated as property, mere property, to be sold and bartered, to be used however the Roman master desired that they could be used. Make no mistake, a due loss in the Roman Empire is very different from the slavery that is described in the Bible and the Old Testament. They're two totally different things.

The slave in the Bible had rights. He was to be treated as a human and there was a limited duration. It was for specific purposes, not so for a do-loss. Christ took the form of a slave. He set that example of service.

He himself, remember at the last supper after they had eaten, he took off his garment and girded himself with a towel and went around with a basin washing the feet of each of the disciples, Doing something that was the work of a menial slave. And Peter was so upset that he didn't want Christ to do that. He realized that was completely inappropriate in one sense, in his view, that Christ should do this menial work. But Christ said, if I, your Lord and Master, wash your feet as a servant, then you ought also to do the same. He was our example.

He set himself up as our example in becoming a slave. He was made in the likeness of man. It was the next thing that Paul lists. He took human flesh. There was in his appearance nothing that differed from the common condition of mankind.

He had a true body. It bled, it had bones, it had pains. He got hungry, he got tired, he became weary, his feet got dirty. He had a true body, just like we do. He had a true soul.

He was fully human. Now this is certainly a great mystery. Paul said, great is this mystery, that God was manifested in the flesh. How does the eternal Son of God become man? How does He also take to Himself the human flesh and still be the second person of the Trinity?

That is a great mystery. That's a wonderful mystery. But that's what the Bible teaches. We just have to be careful that we don't diminish His humanity. That we Don't consider Him as somehow less than fully human.

Some have taken this to mean that Christ only had the appearance of man. It was just God appearing in some form. So it looked to us like he was a man. But he wasn't really a man. But yes, he really was a man.

Some have said that his human flesh was just a mode. That he existed. God can have these different modes. He can appear in this mode or in this mode and so they're denying really the That there are two natures in in one person separate from as the second person of the Trinity Others have said that the human spirit was replaced by God's spirit, and so they're confusing the divine nature and its human nature. But no, these are two separate natures.

They're two distinct natures. They're not to be confused or conflated. He's not two separate persons, it's one person with two separate and distinct natures that are not to be confused or fused together or mixed together. He was made in the likeness of man, of the true body and a true soul. He was found in appearance as a man.

Found in the fashion of a man. In other words, this is speaking of his habits, his schema. He was like any other person, other than his conception, which was supernatural, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But like any other person, He grew nine months in his mother's womb. Like any other person, he was born as an ordinary baby.

Any other ordinary baby does. He was wrapped in clothes just like any ordinary child would be. The size and the shape of his body was like any other person's. He grew from a baby being born into a man over the course of years just like any other man. He grew in stature, by degrees.

He didn't just become a man, a full grown man. He had a mother and a father who were over him and to whom he submitted himself. Just like all of us had mothers and fathers or somebody that took care of us as we grew up, to whom we were directed by. He was subject, as we said, to the same weaknesses, the natural weaknesses, the limitations of a human body, hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, sorrow, even subject to death as a human. He lived under the law just like we do.

Here he was the sovereign, the king, above all other kings. And yet he is living underneath the law, being in submission and subjection to the law, just like every other person. He humbled himself. He humbled himself. From all eternity, God the Son was in the bosom of the Father.

But He humbled Himself to become a man, to live under the law, to be born in a very low condition, to be born in a barn, because his parents didn't have enough money and there was no room for them in the place that they could afford. It wasn't born in a great and exalted condition. He was born in a barn and laid in a cattle food trough where their cattle ate. That's a humble. He humbled himself to be made under the law, to live in obedience to the law, so that by his obedience many might be made righteous.

He gave up his rights for our own interest, for our sake, so that we might be made righteous, so that our sins might be paid for. He surrendered His will. That's to humble yourself. He surrendered his will to do the will of his Father in heaven. He prayed in the Garden of Eden, let this cup pass from me.

But not my will, but your will. He surrendered his will to the Father. He said that his desire was to do the will of the Father. He said, I do always those things that please him. I do always those things that please him.

He was obedient. He was obedient. He was obedient to death. Obedience is shown, submission is shown, when we do what we don't want to do and when otherwise do because that is what we are being commanded to do. That's obedience.

It's not really obedience, it's not really submission if we do what we're told to do but we really want to do that anyways. There's no real submission there. It looks like it but it's not really submission. True submission, true obedience is when we do what we otherwise wouldn't want to do, and wouldn't do, unless we weren't being told to do it. That's where the test of obedience is.

That's what we see Christ doing. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but your will. He was in anguish, in agony over the death that he was to die. And yet he willingly, he willingly was obedient to death.

He was willingly obedient to death. Jesus says that He laid down His life, that no one took it from Him, that I lay down my life and I take it up again. I lay it down, I take it up. His obedience to death was a voluntary and willing, a voluntary and willing submission to the will of the Father for our sake. He obeyed the law, he humbled himself and kept the law for our sake.

He wasn't for his own interest, he didn't gain anything, didn't add to his glory to humble himself. To go through the suffering that he did. He did it for our sake. He was looking out for us. He had our best interests on his heart.

He had our names on his heart in his death. He was buried. He was obedient to death. He was buried. And he continued under the power of death for three days.

For three days he continued to bear the wages of sin. The Apostle's Creed says he descended into hell. That doesn't mean he went to the place of eternal unending torment and punishment. The word hell, Hades, is Hades, or Sheol in the Old Testament. That doesn't mean, it's never referring to the place of eternal punishment.

When The New Testament speaks of that place, it talks about Gehenna, it talks about the lake of fire. Gehenna was this place of fire that burned forever. And that's what's used to speak of hell, or the place of eternal punishment. Jesus continued, When the Apostles Creed says he descended into hell, it's referring to the fact that he continued under the power of death, the abode of the dead in the grave for three days. Christ's example in being obedient to the point of death is for us to follow, to put the interests of others before our own and look out not only for our interests but the interests of others.

Christ is our example. His obedience even to death is our example in that. But he was also not obedient just to death but he was obedient to death even the death of the cross. Crucifixion was a particularly humiliating way to die. It was particularly painful, particularly excruciatingly painful, particularly humiliating.

It was a death that was only reserved for the worst of criminals, for the worst of the enemies, for slaves. A Roman was not crucified. They would be executed some other way. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his own disciples. Betrayed with a kiss, he was mocked, he was rejected by the world.

They made fun of him. They spit in his face. They dressed him up in a royal robe and pretended that he was a king to mock him. To mock him. He was unjustly condemned by a kangaroo court in an unjust trial with false witnesses, tormented by persecutors.

He also faced the terrors of the wrath of God. God forsook him and poured out all of His wrath for all of the sins of His people on the cross. Christ bore that death, even the death of the cross. He laid down His life as a sacrifice in our place. He was looking out for our interests.

He had a concern. He loved us and he was willing to do this for us and that is what Paul holds up as Our example that this might be in you that was also in Christ Jesus who being in the very form of God thought it was not robbery to be equal with God, but he humbled himself. He gave up his rights. He was made into it as a man. He lived under the law.

He submitted himself to even wicked rulers and unjust authority. He was obedient to that whole law without sin. He was obedient even to the point of death that he might on the cross bear the penalty and the wrath of God for our sin and by his righteous obedience of the law merit our salvation. That is the mind of Christ. May we have that mind in us as well.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this example, one that we fall far short of. And yet you hold it up to us, you call us to be holy even as you are. Father, we ask that you would give to us this kind of love, this kind of humility, this kind of concern for one another, for one another's interests. Lord, we ask that You might sanctify to us our trials and our sufferings, for we have not resisted to the point of shedding blood as You have. Lord, may you bring us to give thanks, to rejoice in all things, to hope in you, to count our trials a joy, that through them we might be more conformed to the image of your Son.

That our mind and our thinking might be renewed, no longer conformed to this world, but conformed to the mind of Christ. That we may offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto you, which is but our reasonable service, our reasonable duty. Father, may you transform us, our thinking, and sanctify us to be vessels fit for your service in your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

In this name we pray, Amen.