He Emptied Himself, Philippians, 2:5-8
Philippians 2:5-8 · Vern Peterman · Jun 29, 2003
Philippians (2003), No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262256456773

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

A couple things I want to cover first, and as we've said before, some things you're going to like. Some of this is by way of reminder. This is the end of the electives for this quarter, and so next week we start another, and Mike will be teaching through the Book of Galatians for this next quarter, and he's going to be covering the six chapters in 13 weeks, and so get on your racing helmets.

You're going to be having lots of fun in that if you signed up for that. And then we'll be covering the church history and God's Word will be the next one. It won't be just a dry church history. At each point, we will be wanting to make connection with God's Word so that it comes home with spiritual truth, not just historical truth.

And so one of the things to remind you, we have a sign-up table in the lobby. Make sure you get your name on one of those. We want to make sure two things. One, we get the right room. for the number of people, and that we have the materials available where those are needed. The other reminder is that two weeks from now we have the baptism at the Lord's table in the evening for the month of July, and to see how Mike or myself, if you wish to be baptized.

Alright, we're moving into our passage in Philippians 2, 5-8. This is a passage with lots of substance, and it's also important that we make some fine distinctions here. And one of the things that Paul has been talking to the believers about, because remember, at the end of chapter 1, he started into this issue of them working together and being cooperative and striving together with each other. And so he's brought on that issue, and we've made the point, of course, that he's drawing on athletic and military terms as he does so. Furthermore, he's told them that they're to be in one accord.

Okay, and we brought that point forward Now as we get into this passage I've done something a little differently this week than usual and I want to point it out so you can track with me on your handout I've gone ahead and put the the verse of the very upper left-hand corner side one they'll be looking at and Because of the material, I didn't do what I usually do, and that is I use the New American Standard and then quote the King James as well. In this case, we've got so much to put on some of the pages and so much material that I did it this way a little differently. I'm not sure we'll continue with that, but just for this Sunday, we've done it that way.

The other thing we've done is on your handout, you've got It underlined, and the bold underline is where we've got a particular word that we're looking and we're doing a word study on, so you'll be able to track that in the rest of the handout. And then we've got an underline, but not bolded, where we're looking at phrases. And again, that's intended to help you. One other point, and this typically I'll have a title that say, you know, Key words in Philippians, and then I'll give the whole passage. What I've done to separate that out is I've listed those verse by verse. Again, the idea is so that you can track with us here. And as we look at this passage, one of the things I think to keep in mind is that there are cultural factors, there's background to this that we want to bring forward.

The cultural factor that we want to point out is this, and you have it on your handout as well, and that is that one of the things that Paul is battling here is the cultural pattern that is true not only of those in Philippi, certainly there, but really throughout the Roman Empire. And we're going to find that's not the only cultural wind, if you will, that Paul is bucking. But the one that we want to point out here is that humility was not considered a virtue among those in the Greek and Roman cultures. It was simply not considered a virtue.

And on your handout, we even point out a Greek philosopher, Epictetus. It's not a disease, okay? Epictetus. And Epictetus actually even made the statement that humility is a weakness of character. How about that? So that's the backdrop behind what Paul is bucking here.

And so as he is talking to the church, he is trying to teach them something that is totally contrary to their culture. Now think about that a minute. As believers, don't we run into the same thing now? Don't we encounter things that are in Scripture that are totally contrary to the culture? And Paul is doing the same thing here. The other thing we want to look at here is the big picture issue.

He is addressing this problem of division and disunity, but he is not trying to tell them, okay folks, give it your best effort, give it your best try at being unified. He is pointing them to their position in Christ. He is pointing to them to behold Christ in the process.

Let's look at the first key word here. It may be at first confusing. You look at it and say, have this attitude. You say, that's more than one word. It is, in the English. But the Greek word is one we've looked at before, phroneo. That word is pointing to us is telling us, and Paul's message here is, oh I'm sorry, I'm not pulling it back up. There we go.

Have a mindset about something or someone. It's important to remember this mindset isn't just an intellectual fix. but it's the will, emotions, and conscience. It's everything that is involved about the mind. And this word freneo, as we pointed out before, this is something that is a word he's returned to before.

In this case, it's a plural present active imperative. Present means right now, continuing. The active means it is your doing. And the third thing is it is imperative. It's not simply optional. It's not something, you know, this is just a suggestion. He's saying, instead, no, this is essential to who you are as Christians.

This word phreneo is part of a thread that he weaves through the book of Philippians from the first chapter to the fourth. And we're going to see it, of course, then again and again. And he's brought it up particularly in this passage that starts off in chapter two. Did you notice that? Several times he's brought it up, and now he's bringing it up again here in this passage as well.

He's talking about this mindset that they have, and actually phreneo is more being-minded. It's not a noun, it's a verb. When he's talking about that, he keeps bringing this up, because it's an important issue. It's how you see things. What is your perspective?

So here it shows up in Philippians 2.5. This is the way the meaning of the Greek text comes across. It says, And I put in brackets here to give it clarification.

Because of the profound character of who you are in Christ and the life you have in Him, you must be continuing to be minded. Does that make sense? You must be continuing to be minded this way. Alright, now here's something, we put in a diagram, you have in a form you'll see in a little bit here, you have this diagram on your handout as well, because I think it's It's important to get what he's saying. This being-minded is in you. And he's saying all of you. He puts this in the plural form. He's saying this being-minded is to be true of all of you. And that Greek, in yourselves, is in whom mean. Now, there's something I want to point out, because we're going to see it a few times this morning. I'm going to teach you Greek. You're going to learn Greek this morning. You're going to walk out of here knowing Greek.

And this is real simple. You take your left forearm and you put it up like this. And then you curl the hand like this. See? And you know what that does? That goes, KHA! That's the H sound in Greek. That's that little H sound. Now don't try that in some dark alley when some guy tries to mug you. It won't work. But it will help you. Just remember, when you see that little squiggle on top, See that little squiggle? When you see that, that's that H sound. So when you see that, and you're going to see it a couple more times, the left forearm up, curl the hand, and... Alright, that's the key.

So, being minded is in you all. And what is he saying about that? That's what he's qualifying, which was also in Christ Jesus. The Greek text actually doesn't have a verb. How about that? This is, again, where the translators have put it in there to kind of make the English a little smoother. But the truth is, it's not there. And so it really has that being-minded, because he's carrying that over, also in Christ Jesus.

So Philippians 2.5 is saying this.

This is the message of Philippians 2.5. Being-minded is in you as that being-minded was in Christ Jesus.

And he says, those are to be the same. How about that? The same mindedness that Christ had, that's what I want in each of you, Paul is saying. As a matter of fact, he doesn't say, that's what I want. He says, it is imperative that that is the way you are minded. How about that? Potent. Now, let's bring this over. What's he telling them?

Paul is saying that we must, in our present condition, where we are right now, as a logical outcome of our eternal position in Christ. Why do I say that? Because Paul, all the way through here, made these if-then-and-since kinds of statements, so he's carrying on this logic. It's a logical consequence, based on who you are in Christ, for you all to be minded as Christ was minded.

That's his point. He then goes on to describe, and words, I just have to call them awesome. Again, I was looking at this passage and I just was jumping up and down in sight because I was seeing, boy, what is he saying? This is phenomenal stuff. I've got to wait until Sunday to tell people about this? This is great stuff.

What he does, he describes how Christ was minded in His first coming. And this is the way he describes it. He's setting up for them Okay, folks, you need to be minded as Christ was minded. This is how it looks. So that's what we're looking at in these next verses.

Keywords in Philippians 2.6. This word form.

We need to take a look at this because this word for form, morphe, is not exactly as we would think of it, perhaps, in English. In the English, the word form kind of gives us the idea of the shape of something, the outward physical configuration. That's kind of the picture we tend to get. This word morphe was a Greek philosophical term, and the idea is that it is the expression of the basic and inner nature. That's what it is, the expression of the basic and inner nature. So, when we look at this here, let's look at how it's translated. Who, although he existed in the form of God, the idea is When he says form, he is expressing the very nature of God.

Ah, that's different. It isn't some sort of an outward appearance that imitates well. It is instead the very expression of the nature of God himself. Now, something else to point out here, neither the word form nor God is a definite article in the Greek.

So that means that the focus is upon character and essence. That's the point here. Character and essence. The first part of verse 6 is saying this about Christ. Who in the expression of his essential nature being deity. That's the point. In the expression of his essential nature being deity.

He wasn't sort of like God. He didn't kind of look similar. It wasn't a really good imitation. It wasn't like Anthony Hopkins playing C.S. Lewis Boy, it sure is convincing. He is expressing the very character of God. Deity. That's what this is pointing out to us. Here's another key word that shows up. Regard. Hegeomai.

What that word is used for, it relates to the idea of judgment, estimation, or appraisal. It's making an official assessment of something. It was frequently used of public officials who had to make a judgment or decision. So that's the word that Paul picks, and it's very fitting because the people in Philippi were very accustomed to the Roman leaders, and being a Roman political center, that was something that their leaders had to do all the time, this very word. They had to make judgments and decisions and assessments of various things.

So he picks that word to carry across to them. He says of this thing here, to be grasped. And what do you notice? That's the thing that shows up, our Pogmos. Now what's that word doing there? It's telling us, it has the idea of needing to possess something as first priority.

In the face of all hazards, something, if anything, I'm going to grab onto this. We might have the idea in our own lives of something like this. Suppose you were told, hey, there's a fire in the building, maybe it's your own home. And while you're going out the door, you get to grab something and that's it. You say, boy, if there's anything I grab, this is the thing. You can think of whatever that might be. But basically, you don't have time to grab that one thing. He's saying there's something here that even at that is not to be held on to. That's the idea. Even with all hazards, you won't hold on to this. This is not something that you have to hold on to. That's the point.

Now, so the last half of verse 6 is saying that although Christ always remained deity, he is always the expression of deity, not an imitation, not similar to, not kind of like, okay? He is the expression of deity, okay? Why? It's because it's essential to who he is. He would not at all cost cling to the heavenly glories, rights, and privileges of that deity. He's saying there is some other cause or purpose for which the Lord Jesus would let loose of those heavenly glories, rights, and privileges, at the same time retaining that deity. Now, what does that mean?

We'll find out in a little bit here. Let's move on. We can get an idea of what he's talking about. As Paul writes to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, he makes a similar kind of statement. And I think it helps me perhaps clarify in our minds what he's talking about.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. See that? He had riches in his hands, and what did he do? He let loose of the heavenly glories and privileges and honors that were certainly due him for our sake. That's his point. Now, continue on here. We move into verse 7, and this word comes up. Now, we pointed this out before.

This word in English is translated, but it's the Greek word alah, and it means in sharp contrast, quite the opposite, not just a mild contrast, It's not something like, I was thinking of going to this door, but I'll go to another one. Not a minor contrast, a sharp one. It's a black and white kind of statement. And this one shows up here, it is intended to convey a major contrast.

Instead of holding on to all the honors and glories and distinctions that were due him in the heavenly realms, he let go of that sharp contrast. The contrast is about to be made with his rights and privileges due him as deity. That's the point that he's beginning to make here. Emptied. Now this is the question Hal was bringing up. Okay, and we'll stop here. Okay, thank you. Well, maybe not. Okay. Emptied.

Now this word here is telling us in context that Christ set aside the glorious expression of himself and the glory due him and the powers and rights of his inherent deity. He'd emptied himself of these things, but remained still deity in his being. See the difference there? When Christ came to earth, he was, and still remained, completely deity.

When the Pharisees opposed him, could he not have burned them to a crisp? Yes, he could have. Did he do so? No. At any point where he met opposition, he could annihilate the opposition. He did not do so. At any point where he said, hey, I'm uncomfortable, that could have been taken care of. He didn't do so.

Satan even offered him various solutions along that line. Do you remember that? He said, hey, since you're the son of God, you've got this available and that available. He said, no, that's not what I'm here for. He denied himself the rights and privileges and glories of his heavenly place, maintaining his deity and remaining as deity because it was essential to his being.

Now, bondservant. This is coming as a bondservant. As we pointed out sometime past here, this is back in January, we looked at this word doulos. It basically means a slave. A slave, and one little, again, since you all know Greek, we just want to build on that. Doulas, you want a little trick for remembering that? A slave has to doulas, okay? So if that helps, you know, remember, that's great. If it doesn't, don't worry about it.

Alright. This slave, one of the definitions of a slave in the Roman Empire was to be completely subject to the will of another, okay? That was the idea. So, one of the things, we look at a slave, he didn't just come down to earth and take a lowly form, pure and simple, but the fact is, his will was entirely subject to the will of the Father. That's the bottom line.

And that comes out real crystal clear in John 12.50 and 14.31. In those two passages, he says, I don't say or do anything but what the Father says to me. He came as a slave, to do everything and to say everything that the Father had him to do and say. Now, the next word that jumps out at us here is likeness. Here's that again, okay? Homoemoia, excuse me, homo-ioma, okay? To be made like something else is the idea of that word.

Christ was still deity, and yet He was made like man as well. This is the amazing thing. Still deity, but made like man as well. He was both God and man. He didn't cease being God in order to become man. When it says He emptied Himself, He didn't say, okay, that's done, I'm going to be called Jesus and I'll be the Savior, but I'm just a man. No. He maintained His deity. He didn't take on just the outward form of a man, sort of like an apparition or a phantom. He was, as a real man, the expression of the essence of God as well. That's what Paul is saying here. Alright, catch your breath. You're almost at the top. You ready?

We've been through this this person looking at a lot of detail, we got just one more bit of detail, and we want to bring this together, because it's important as we go through these verses not to get lost in the details, but to end up with an understanding of what's being said, and that's our reason for going through the details.

There's one key word to bring up, appearance, schema. We've got a few English words that draw from this very same Greek word here. That's the word that's translated here as appearance, and here's the idea. Morphe has the expression of an outward expression of an inward nature. That's the idea in the word morphe which we've seen before. Here, this word schema comes across as a different idea. It refers to an outward expression not originating from the inward nature. So the inward nature is he is deity. The outward expression is he is man. God and man both. That's what Christ was in His coming. There's a phrase that comes, and it's at the very end of this passage we're looking at, and it's important not to lose sight of what it meant, because it is not incidental to what Paul is saying.

Even death on a cross, in the Roman idea, you only crucified those who were poor and the lowest levels of society. These are the cast-offs. Those are the ones that you crucify. It was, as some termed it at the time, a slave's death. Crucifixion is the way slaves die.

There was even, just a decade after Paul wrote this letter, there was a revolt against the Roman Empire, and that revolt in 73 AD ended up with thousands of slaves being crucified. There was a roadway and they just had a whole string of thousands of crosses. Something like 6,000 was the estimate. Cross after cross after cross after cross. The great many of them were slaves under this one leader. It was a slave death. It was the ultimate in shame and humiliation.

Our pictures We typically will see people crucified in our pictures, modern pictures, which show them with a loin cloth. That was optional. Frequently the idea is we want ultimate shame. So what do we do? We strip them naked, male and female alike. One of the other things, let me step back here a bit.

One of the other things here that this is something we pointed out at Easter time, In the upper diagram, this is an actual find from the first century, New Testament times. And they actually drove the nail right through the bone. If you can imagine that, I'm sure that doesn't feel good.

The Roman soldiers didn't care. This thing's going to hurt anyway, and if it goes through a bone, so what? This is an extremely painful as well as extremely humiliating death. Under Emperor Nero, and he was the emperor during the time of the writing here of this book, the law held that all slaves in a household were to be crucified if the master of the house was murdered.

How about that? You might think, well, that's terribly unfair. But the mindset was, well, a couple of things. First of all, that if there was any murder of the master, the slaves might have been a part of it. So just in case, we'll just kill them all. The second thought was, well, if you're a slave, you could have prevented it. So they did that as well. The third thought was, we don't care, they're slaves. The slaves were the lowest. Even death on a cross is the way it comes across here. Crucifixion was exceedingly despised in the Roman Empire.

One of the reasons why I want to bring this point across is what Paul is saying here is not only counter to the culture, it was shocking. for him to say what he said. Here's the idea. The word was not even spoken in polite company. I'll give you an example.

When they sentenced somebody to death, the official that pronounced the crucifixion did not say the word. He used other legal jargon that got around it and allowed him to say it without saying the word in Latin, crux, because that was considered profane. You just didn't do that in polite company. So even the official pronouncement of, this one is to be crucified, was something that they avoided in the court situation.

Crucifixion came to be used among the lower classes as a vulgar insult. If you wanted to insult somebody, he'd yell out, crucify ya. And that was considered vulgar, not just insulting, but vulgar. So what Paul is saying here, wait a minute, the creator of the universe, the very son of God, he was the one subjected to this horrible, horrific insult. Amazing thing. And that he would say this was shocking, shocking words to the people that read this. Here's something else to put into the mix.

This is a Roman city, a Roman colony that he's writing to, right? And what are they composed of? Roman soldiers and retired Roman soldiers, for the great part. So some of the people in the church, we know the jailer was a Roman soldier. Some of the people in the church were very likely some who had been given crucifixion duty and knew it well. That must have really stung them, huh?

So now we come down to this verse. Let's look at this, and you have this also on the back side of your handout. You all must, because of the profound character of who you are in Christ and the life you have in Him, be continuing to be minded in yourselves. Plural. All of you. That's his point. That same being minded as was in Christ Jesus. The very same. Not something like it, not most of you, not some simulation. The same.

How about that? who, in the expression of his essential nature of being deity, did not regard the heavenly glories, privileges, and honors of his deity something to be retained at all costs. He let loose of it. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. But abandoning the heavenly glories, privileges, and honors due himself, taking upon himself the form of a bondservant to his father, and being made an outward expression like earthly men." And now on to verse 8, "...being found an outward expression as an earthly man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to his father to the point of death, even the most humbling and humiliating death on a universally despised cross." Universally despised. Now, I wanted to kind of give this a graphic to get the point across, just to make sure, okay? Because we've covered a lot of details and we want to make sure we pull that together here. So here's the sequence. Just a few points.

Christ was in heaven, okay? That's where his place was, being eternal deity and having heavenly glory, privileges and honor. That was the starting point. Would you give that up? Okay, he did. Now, that's his starting point, and I've symbolized it here with this blue line.

Now, next step. Christ came to earth retaining his deity, but forsaking his heavenly glory, privilege, and honor. See that? He didn't give up his deity, but all the things that were due him, including his power of retribution for the obvious injustices that he was to suffer. He let loose with that.

And so we've shown that here in this diagram. Here's this blue arrow coming down, maintaining his deity, then taking on, and here's this dashed brown arrow. The idea is that showing he's coming as a man. Next step. Christ became a man being made like us in earthly form, yet still being by nature deity. We showed that. Here's the brown line and the blue line together. He was man and he was God both. Not some apparition. He didn't come down just barely man-like. He came down as a man. Maintaining his deity all the while.

And then the next part there, is humbling himself even to death on a cross. And notice when Paul lays this out, he doesn't just say to the point of death and just cut it off. He wants them to see that Christ took this to the point of taking upon himself the slave's death. He wasn't just coming down as a slave to the Father and being a slave in that regard. but that slavery came all the way to dying a slave's death.

Now, what's Paul's point in laying this out here? If we look at the larger context, he's dealing with the divisions and the divisiveness that was apparent there at the church at Philippi. He was thankful for their continuing participation and fellowship in his ministry, but he was obviously concerned about the division and divisiveness that has set itself up in the church.

And so he's using positive messages, okay, striving together, and we've looked at that in 127. But now he's turning to saying, okay, in this not considering yourselves more important than another, I've got some examples to show you. And he starts off with four examples. He says, Christ, Paul himself, Timothy and Epaphroditus, and we'll look at the next one in weeks to come.

His point here with Christ, though, as he starts off, is he's saying, look, contrary to the culture that you have been a part of, which is telling you that you really ought to be climbing the ladder, and if you've got to step on top of somebody to do it, so be it. If you've got to be divisive to do it, so be it. Contrary to that, he's saying instead, look out for the interests of others ahead of your own. And so he's dealing with the meat of the issue, in terms of the divisiveness that had sprung into the church at Philippi.

Because the culture was sending a message, and had been all along, to tell them to be sure to look out for number one. Boy, our culture doesn't do that, does it? Right? Okay? Because of that constant message, he's coming back with and saying, okay, here is the example of Christ.

Here is the example of Christ. his humility, what did he have a right to, and yet he let loose of it. He didn't consider in the light of what he was going to accomplish in saving us and all the blessings that we were to gain in the process. Because of his wanting to do that, he considered this humiliation worthwhile. The humility was not something that he took on reluctantly, but as Hebrews points out, for the joy set before him. It gives him great joy to save us. It gives him great joy to bless us with every spiritual blessing.

And so with that perspective, Christ was willing to empty himself, that is, to shed these rights and privileges and honor due him. in order to be humbled, and to be humbled not just to come down as a man, that would be enough, but to come down as a slave to the Father, even to the point of dying a slave's death, the most despicable death, a death so bad that a crude people like the Greeks and the Romans wouldn't even speak the word in polite company. That kind of a death is the kind of death that our Lord laid out as example. We've got one more question to ask. Is Paul's intent that those Christians look at that example of Christ and say, yeah, that's a real good example.

I can do it. I can do it. By golly, I'm going to pull it off. That's an awful good example. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. Right? No. His point is not to tell them that you've got what it takes, and boy, this is such a great example, you just can't help but follow it. It's not simply to grab you at heart and think, boy, that's a wonderful thing that he did, and I can do it too.

His point from the very beginning is to say, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. The only reason that Paul can appeal at all for the Philippians, consequently ourselves, to be minded as Christ was minded, is because we have the mind of Christ. is because we are in Christ. That's the only basis on which it makes sense. He is asking them to stand in their position, the position that they have in Christ. He is not only just requesting, he's saying it is imperative. The imperative mood is used there.

It is not optional, it is essential to who you are as a believer, to be in Christ, and this is what it looks like. since you have, after all, the mind of Christ. That's Paul's message. And as we look at it here, he's giving this first of four examples of humility, and he starts off with Christ, not so that we can imitate it externally, not so that we can give it the old college try, not so that we can re-re-re-re-rededicate our lives, okay? But so that we can, in Christ, be minded as he was.

Let's pray. Lord, we look at this passage and certainly the example that we have is humanly impossible. We cannot do it. We should not even hope to do it. We should not think that we fall short if we fail to do it. But Lord, you've given it here not as suggestion and not as even encouragement, but as an imperative because it is who we are in you, who we have been made to be.

And Lord, that's not burdening news. That's good news. That's glorious news. So as we look at this here, Lord, we know that Paul was seeking to convey unity. And Lord, if each of us here this morning has the mind of Christ, how can there help it be unity? How can any division creep in? Lord, we thank you for the position that we have in you. And we just pray that the eyes of our hearts might be opened that we might see that more and more, and that the fabric of disunity might be taken apart by our stance on you. And we just give you thanks for all that you have bought with your very own blood. In Jesus' name, amen.