The Attraction of Maturity

Why do so many people see Christians as angry, divisive, and judgmental?

In this sermon from Philippians 2, Pastor Matt challenges believers to rethink what spiritual maturity actually looks like. Looking at the lives of the Protestant Reformer,  both their courage and their flaws, we’re reminded that truth without love can damage our witness.

This message explores:

Why Christians struggle with unity
The danger of pride and contentiousness
What it means to have the mind of Christ
How humility becomes a compelling witness to the world

Jesus didn’t grasp for power. He gave Himself away. And mature believers are called to do the same.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Amen. Let's take our Bibles. I want to invite you this morning to open to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Well, as I mentioned, we're we're back from a Reformation tour. You can pray for us. The jet lag is real. I'm not quite sure if I'm dreaming right now or if I'm really here, but I'm glad to be here. Either way, uh we saw so much over there. I mean, let me just put some pictures up. A picture's worth a thousand words. Uh and so our group got to tour uh France, Switzerland, and Germany, and we we went through all these places and it was an amazing trip, an amazing walk through history. Uh we saw Calvin's Church. This is Calvin's Church. This is me sitting, uh standing and our group sitting on the steps of John Calvin's church. John Calvin was uh the return to expository preaching. It wasn't the dead liturgy of uh popes and bishops and where they just read the Latin. It was back to preaching. And Calvin brought preaching to the center of the worship service. It was amazing, amazing just to be there walking in the footsteps of giants. We went to Luther's church. This next one is uh really the college church. It's where Martin Luther uh was married. It's where Martin Luther received his degree. It's also the place where he nailed his 95 thesis. And that moment changed the world. And so we stood in front of that door. The door had previously burned down, it was replaced by a metal door with the 95 thesis uh on them forever. And it was an amazing, amazing uh sense just to be in that place where Luther changed the world. We went to Wurtburg or Wurtburg Castle, and uh that was amazing as well. In fact, this is probably my favorite picture from Wurtburg Castle. It's the room where Martin Luther was imprisoned for three years, and he translated the Bible into the German vernacular. He gave a Bible to every person so that they could read for themselves what the Word of God said. Now, if you look closely on this picture, you'll see on the wall there's a dark spot right here, and it is the inkwell that he threw at the wall. In fact, uh he fought the devil, some have said. Now, I would I would modify that just a little bit. I don't think he meant like he was literally doing combat with the devil, throwing things. I don't think that's what it was. Uh I think what he meant by that, and he would go on to say this, is I fought the devil with ink. In other words, his greatest tool was the word of God and copying and translating the word of God. And his work was to be in this castle for three years of his life, translating the scriptures. He fought the devil with ink. We saw other giants. We saw Zwingli's church. Again, Zwingli uh was so if Calvin is in uh Geneva, Zwingli is in Zurich, and Zwingli is also uh the return to expository preaching. Now, this is a picture of the Diet of Verms, back to Luther. This is where he stood and he said, uh, I can do no other. I'm bound to my conscience, I'm going to stand on the Word of God, not give up my Bible, not give up my writings, no matter if you kill me. All right, that's Luther. Next slide. This is Zwingli. Uh Zwingli is the pastor with a sword. And he went into battle often. And uh it's really interesting. This guy was, I don't know if you've seen that movie, The Patriot, with Mel Gibson and the priest who takes up his musket. Do you remember that scene? He takes up his musket, and uh he says sometimes you have to fend off the fool the the wolves. And uh that's kind of what Zwingli was. Zwingli would go into battle and he would be a chaplain for the army and he would take up a sword often. He died in battle, actually, uh, in his 30s. But uh Zwingli was also the return to expository preaching rather than reading a liturgy, rather than reading what the Pope or the bishops laid out for him just from a dead book, and he he got back to preaching and exhorting and illustrating. And it was a bit more artistic. And so Zwingli is powerful. Now, here's the summary. We saw so many of the reformers. Here's my two summaries that I want to give you this morning of everything that I learned. Number one, we stand on the shoulders of some giants. Like guys that were courageous and bold. I mean, they would stand up to the greatest powers in the world unafraid. Here's my second summary. These guys were messed up. Like these preachers. Every one of these guys, I'm like, wait, they really did that? Like the sum of the stories that come out of their life is absolutely ridiculous. You think about you think about how they attacked each other like crazy. In fact, we stood in front of this wall with all the reformers and their images, and they all attacked each other like you can't imagine. Luther didn't like Zwingli because of his view of the Lord's table. Luther would go on to say that Zwingli wasn't in heaven, wasn't a Christian. Luther would go on to write, draw images and publish images of Jews that were almost animal-like because of his antisemitism. Zwingli was a great expositor, but Zwingli would go on to be a part of the council and the city council that would execute Anabaptists because they believed that baptism was different than what Zwingli believed. They believed that if you were a believer, that's when you get baptized, not as a baby. And they would have these massive arguments, so much so that the council in Zurich would say, Well, you want water? Then we're gonna drown you. And they would drown Anabaptists. In fact, speaking of Zwingli, this is fascinating. Uh, Zwingli and many other priests at the time were very promiscuous. Zwingli, the great expositor, the great reformer. He had like six kids out of wedlock. The only reason he got his pulpit was because the other guy who wanted the pulpit had more promiscuity than him. Like this is crazy. These guys are messed up, and you keep going, and it just gets worse and it's worse and it's worse. And here's my summary of these guys. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and yet the giants have blind spots and they are messed up. And what are the lessons? Number one, I think the lesson is that God can use messed up people. He can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. Now here's the second thought. Where is it in our life that we have blind spots to where we're messed up? Like a hundred years from now, five hundred years from now, if the Lord tarries. Where is it in our life where they're gonna be like, I can't believe Christians did that? I can't believe they were doing that stuff. I can't believe, I can't believe that they were involved with that. Where is it? We have blind spots. Now, I want to put one before you this morning. I think one of our blind spots is actually the same one that they struggled with back then. I think the blind spot of our time, one of them, is our lack of charity and love when we disagree. We don't know how to disagree with love and charity. Neither did they. They called each other unbelievers, they called each other false teachers, they slandered each other all day long. But here's the truth: our tribe is notoriously known for fighting. We have been called mean-spirited, we attack, we eat our own, we're contentious. In fact, I've said this before. Our seminaries often train young seminarians to be fighters. So much so, and I told you this, I think, four weeks ago. Uh, one of my friends said we stop sending our guys to seminary because they come back messed up. They come back contentious and fighters, and they're willing to die on a hill for some topic, but they're not active in winning the next soul. They're not fighting for the next soul. And I'm and look, I'm a believer in seminary. I've got several seminary degrees, I've been there, I've done that, but that is that's a reality in our time. Unfortunately, the more education you have, one of the things you have to guard against is pride and contentiousness. The perception is bad. In fact, one of our guides shared of someone that he knew that would never return to church because the church was so toxic. I felt that on this trip. There's a joylessness. And as we conclude this series, I want to put those pictures back up that we started the series with. There's judgmental church lady. These are the views of Christianity. This is what Christians look like. There's somber, broken worshiper who doesn't have joy in his life, Luke Skywalker, as a reformed uh Christian, right? He just looks sour and dour. And unfortunately, that is the reality the world looks at us with. And the problem with this is ultimately that we're so unlike our Savior. See, Jesus was filled with joy. Right down Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. He endured the cross. How did he do it? For the joy that was set before him. Jesus was the most joyful uh person, the most joyful human there has ever been. Over in Luke chapter 7, uh, he's described as eating and drinking, that he didn't come uh, he didn't come like other people. He came eating and drinking. He was a friend to sinners. In Mark chapter 2, he's described as a bridegroom. In Matthew 18, he rejoices to find the lost sheep. Jesus was filled with joy. You see, we've got to work on our presentation and who we are. We've got to have a compelling witness. So for that reason, I want us to look this morning at Philippians chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2, we're continuing our series called Grow Up. And I want to talk to you this morning about the attraction of maturity. You see, the more mature that you become, the more attractive you become to an onlooking world. It's a personality that is not willing to die on molehills. It's a personality that has grace and charity on secondary issues. Philippians, in fact, the context of Philippians too is the topic of unity. It's the unity that we have. In fact, it's a picture of a united church. This is one of the most theological passages in the Bible. This is one of the most practical passages in the Bible. In fact, it's a stunning look at Jesus Christ, and it's a call to all of us to adopt the mindset of Jesus Christ. Let's take our Bibles. Let's stand in honor of God's word. Philippians chapter 2 says this. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. That's our call. Verse 3. Do nothing. 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, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but 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 by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly 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. And all God's people say, Amen. Amen. You may be seated. What we're reading today is an early church creed, it's an early church hymn. They sang songs like this. There's a chiastic structure to it. And the reason they would put theology to song is they would make it portable. You could take it with you, you could sing it, it could come into your heart and change you. And so today we're actually seeing that together. Notice in verse 2 with me, the call to complete my joy. That's a central call. Notice with me also in verse 5, have this mind among yourselves. That's a central call. What this is essentially saying is that an attractive church is an adoring church. You are adoring the works of Christ, the pattern you see in Christ. And I think in this passage, what I see is at least three words that should describe us if we want to become an attractive church. Number one is that you ought to adore what? The community priority. It's about people. It's about people. There ought to be this community push. You are always thinking about how your heart attitude, your action is affecting people. Second, the Christ-like posture. All of life is to relive the life of Christ. All of your life is to seek to relive the life of Christ. What was his posture? What was his actions? Number three, we're going to see the completed picture that when he comes back, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. And that's going to diffuse some of the tension that you feel when you're talking with someone that you disagree with. One day all things will be made right. All bad theology is going to be corrected. Okay? So let's start with number one. Let's start with the community priority. Paul is essentially saying, if you're going to get this right, if you're going to have the right type of life and living, you've got to have a priority for others. Notice the others' focus in verse two. Complete my joy. Verse three, do nothing from selfish conceit. But what? Count others more significant. Verse 4, look not only to your own interests. Verse 4 continues, but also to the interest of others. All of these words, all of these phrases, they're pointing us to the priority for other people. It ends with the word others. Notice with me this path to another's focus. It begins with our common experience in Christ. And I want you to see this. I'm not going to geek out on you too long in the Greek, but notice with me in verse 1, there's something what's called a first class conditional clause. Now, if you're a Bible student, you just need to know that you could translate that, not if, but since. It's an assumption. And there's three of them. There's three clauses like that. You could read it since there is encouragement in Christ, since there is comfort from love, since there's participation in the Spirit. And what this is essentially saying is think about how God treated you. Think about God's encouragement towards you, God's love towards you, God's commitment to you, that he gave you the Holy Spirit. Think how he has blessed you and he has thought about your community. That should cause us to think about others. That's the basis of experience. You see, Paul is connecting this other's focus not only to the community and how he has treated you, but also a participation in the Holy Spirit. He gave you the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who unites us in the same mind, same love, full accord, one mind. He points us to Christ. And the point here is that you don't get unity in the church by talking about unity. What we don't need is just another sermon on unity. The way that you get unity is not sermons on unity. The way that you get unity is uniting around our common experience in Jesus Christ. Someone said it so well. They said that you don't tune yourself, if if a thousand pianos tune themselves to each other, they're still going to be out of tune. But if a thousand pianos tune themselves to a tuning fork, to one tuning fork, they will all be in tune with each other. That's essentially what this is saying as it relates to our relationship to Jesus Christ. That if you're in tune, if we're all worshiping at the same altar of Jesus Christ, what will naturally happen is that we will begin to be in tune with each other. And so all of us need to go back and say, look what Christ has done for us. He saved us, he rescued us, he cleaned us up, he's got us on this trajectory towards heaven. Look what he's done for us. And then we worship. And what happens is our relationships begin to fix themselves. Notice the third path to another uh another's focus. Paul says it. He says, part of the community that you need to consider is your leaders. And where do you see that? Look at verse 2. He says, complete my joy. Paul, an elder, a pastor of the church. He says, What is essentially true is that whenever there's constant bickering, constant disunity, constant fighting in the church, this immaturity that's allowed to just dwell within a church, it is a drain to your elders. It is a drain to your pastors. In fact, he's saying, this will be a ministry to me. It's my joy that you have unity. Notice with me, Hebrews 13, 17, write it down. Paul will say that you are to obey your leaders, submit to them. Why? They're keeping watch over your soul. And he says, Let them do this how? With joy. Let them do this not with groaning. This is of no benefit, no advantage to you. What he's essentially saying is that every single Christian in the church ought to think about their words, their action, their division, and they ought to have this community thought of their leaders in mind. It wasn't the Egyptians that drained Moses, it was Israel. The constant bickering, the conflict, the fighting. What Paul is essentially saying is consider how you delight or drain your leaders and be mindful of them that constant bickering, constant fighting is actually painful to the church. These three realities should cause us to pursue the heartbeat of community, this community generosity, to have charity and secondary issues. Let me just say this. There are good and godly Christians in this church that hold different views of salvation and in times and different views on the work of the Holy Spirit. And good and godly Christians are going to heaven together, even though we differ in secondary doctrines. That's true whether you're a continuationist or a cessationist. That's true whether you're a Calvinist or an Arminian. That's true whether you are living your life expecting Christ to come any moment, or that you believe we're in the millennial kingdom now. Good and godly Christians are going to have different views, and we're called to live with charity, with family conversations, and not be like the reformers saying, well, that guy can't be a Christian. We have to be united by a common love. One of the great uh examples of this in history is how many of you know the name Wesley and Whitfield? Uh, they together uh founded a group called the Methodists. Now, my family was involved in the Methodist Church, but what you may not know is these guys were absolutely divided on doctrine. Whitfield was a Calvinist, and Wesley was an Arminian, and the movement grew to a point where they were just like, man, who's gonna take this thing? It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and yet there's division at the very top. And we don't know what to do with this. And Whitfield ended up giving it away, but it was the people in their congregations that were dying on a hill for these doctrines. Um, so much so that very similar to the story that I told you with R. C. Sproul and Billy Graham, someone came up, someone came up to one of these guys. They came up to uh Whitfield uh and said, Hey, do you expect to see Wesley in heaven? It's the same story. And Wesley said, No. Because he'll be so close to the throne, I'll be so far away. But there was just love and there was charity in these two guys. In fact, uh whenever whenever uh Wesley, or whenever Whitfield uh, it came time uh for his funeral, you know who preached his funeral? Wesley. Wesley. These men who could not agree on the order of salvation, they found agreement in the worship and adoration of their savior. And if you're finding yourself stirred up in this community or maybe having arguments with people on secondary issues, this is such a powerful thought for us. Is that you ought to consider the community, you ought to consider charity towards each other. Good and godly Christians have disagreed on a variety of topics, but we've got to have charity and love towards one another in these topics. That's the maturity that the gospel produces. The question is whether love stays louder than the disagreement. I'll say it again. The question is whether your love can Stay louder than the disagreement. That should be the loudest note about you. It's your love for each other. Number two, if you're taking notes. Number two, the attraction of maturity, we need to consider our community priority. We also need to consider our Christ-like posture. Now, this is really the heart of the text. We need to stare at Christ and be drawn to him. Now, we while we were on our tour, we uh saw something that I couldn't believe I was seeing. It was these European cars. They're called the Trebant. I hope I'm pronouncing that right, Trebant. And uh they did these tours with these little, almost like clown cars. They were they looked crazy to me. And it's like my wife, we're sitting at a little place eating dinner or eating lunch, and we look out and we see these guys touring the city in these little European cars, and uh I just think to myself, would I be drawn to that? Let me stare at it for a while. And the answer was no. I don't think I would. I don't think I'd want to do that. Like it's just it just looks cramped, it almost looks like a clown car. But you tour the city in one of these little cars, the more I stared at it, the more I hated it. All right, the more I disliked it. I remember, and that was uh that was uh that was the old the Gremlin, right? Or that was the what was that what was the older car that was the same same thing? The more you look at it, the more you like it. It's uh there are these old cars that are lemons that are just old, I don't think I would want to be a part of that. But when I stare at Christ, when I look at the conduct of his life, the more I want to be like him, the more that life makes sense. In fact, in our passage, what we see in Christ is really a wonderful pathway towards servanthood. Write these three words down there or circle them, they're in your handout. Notice his renunciation, his incarnation, and his humiliation. His renunciation, his incarnation, and his humiliation. Notice first this posture of renunciation. What did he do that we need to begin doing? He gave up his rights. Verse 6, though he was in the form of God, Greek word there is morphe. Speaks of he possessed all the all the form, all the quality, all the attributes of deity. Truly God. And it continues in verses six and seven. He did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped now. The language here is really important. It shows the conduct of his life, his renunciation. The word for grasp here is interesting. It's the idea of Isaiah 14. You remember the actions of Satan? Do you remember in Isaiah 14 how Satan was constantly saying, I will, I will, I will, this unbridled ambition, I will ascend to the heaven, I will set my throne on high, I will sit on the mount of assembly, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High God. Satan is just grasping and grasping and reaching. But that's not how Jesus lives. Jesus doesn't have to grasp for anything, he owns everything already. In fact, his action is one of renunciation, his action is one of giving up his rights. He emptied himself, verse 7. Well, you have to answer the question now. Of what? Of what did he empty himself? I would argue two things. One, he emptied himself, not of deity, not of his form, of majesty, but his glory. In fact, how can I prove that? He gave up his glory. John 17, verse 4 is the prayer of Jesus. So this is what's called his great high priestly prayer in John 17. And he's asking the Father, he says, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you. He empties himself. And there are moments where the veil is pulled back, like on the mountain of transfiguration, like at the baptism. There are moments where the glory of Christ comes through, but for a time he laid aside his glory. He also laid aside the prerogative of his own rights and his own desires. In John chapter 6, verse 38, I've come down from heaven. Why? Not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me. Jesus gave up and he gave and he gave. He wasn't grasping and grasping and demanding his rights. He was saying, I'll give more. I'll give up more of my rights. How much would this change every relationship in our life if we live that way? You might be saying here today, some of you are here and you are absolutely relationally broken. And you might be saying to yourself, I've got the right to be angry. You don't know what they did to me. How they hurt me. How they lied to me. You have no idea. I've got the right to have wrath over them for the rest of my life. And you may, by the way. But then you look at Jesus and you become inspired by his giving up his rights. He eternally had the right to eternal glory in heaven, adoration forever, and yet he gave and he gave and he gave and he gave. You may have the right to be angry. You may have the right to a lot of stuff. But in Christ, when you look at him, you renounce your rights. Not only do you renounce your rights, you pursue your relationships, it would mend your relationship. Notice in verse 7, he took on the form of a servant. This is so hard. He emptied himself. See, our greatest temptation is not to be a servant. Can I get vulnerable with you this morning? Every single week I have to fight that. Every week. Every time I come up on the stage, I have to fight that. Everything in this room is set up for me not to be a servant. It's like lights. Camera. If I'm not preaching the gospel to myself every single week, and if I don't come up here on this stage and say, these people have nothing for me, like that's the temptation, isn't it? Isn't the temptation for me to come up here and to say, well, I've got to have a better sermon than last week. And I've got to have a marriage breakthrough for somebody and maybe tell something to get somebody to laugh. Isn't that the temptation? That I would appear a certain way? And if I'm not preaching the gospel to myself every single week and I'm not saying, God, you are the one who fulfills me, not these people, you are the one who satisfies my soul, what's going to happen is I'm going to become a slave to an idol. Tim Challey identifies the absurdity of that. He said this. He said, When's the last time you took a selfie with a mailman? He says, Have you ever had the experience of, is my hair okay before I meet him? Have you ever gone up to the mailman and said, Hey, I like the way you deliver that mail? In a moment of awkwardness?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Of course not. You know why? It's not his mail. He's just a servant. He's just a hired gun.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

I preached that a few weeks ago at the one gospel conference in Phoenix, and I had the funniest moment. This guy came up to me after the service, and he held his phone up, and we took a selfie together because he was a mailman. And it was so funny. I I laughed. I couldn't stop laughing. Um that's how you're to live your life. I'm just a servant. I'm just a humble presenter of truth. If you reject me, it doesn't matter. I'm just a servant. So I'm not offended. And I renounce my rights to be offended. And you don't have anything that I need. You're all wonderful. You're all beautiful, you're all wonderful, you're all great, but you're not that great. No offense. Moving on. Uh the Moravians were so powerful with this that they would literally sell themselves into slavery. They said we're not reaching the slave community, and so they would sell themselves into slavery to reach people because they wanted to be servants.

unknown 31:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

There needs to be renunciation of our rights. Second, for this attractive posture, we need incarnation. Write that down. Circle it on your handout. Incarnation. It means you draw near. It means you close the distance. That's what we see in verses 7 and 8. Being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form. When I lose trust, what happens to me is I withdraw. I tend to withdraw. I tend to say to people, you're dead to me because I can't trust you. I can't, I can't, I don't know which direction you're coming from. I've lost trust. That's not what Jesus did. I think that the modern therapeutic method is hurting us to some degree today. Unfortunately, what's happening in our society is that therapists are replacing pastors, and the advice that people are getting is not always biblical advice. It's not always biblical counsel. In fact, therapists will love to emphasize boundaries in your life. You need boundaries in your life. Protect yourself. You need a safe place. And if you do that, I promise what will happen is the relationship will just get more and more and more distant. It's not always wise counsel. In fact, it's, as we look at this passage, it's often unchrist-like. This passage actually says to shorten the distance, Jesus, he shortened the distance. In fact, the word here that's used is incarnation. The word is that we are to have an incarnational life. Incarnation is a picture of shortening the distance. I always think of uh of chili con carne when I think of uh incarnation. You can almost hear it in the word. You know what I mean? It's like chili. Chili with meat, that's good. Amen. All God's men said amen. Chili with meat, fajitas con carne with meat. Godly. It's good. It's good, it's godly. Vegan chili? Satanic. It's evil. You can tell Todd I said that. I don't care. It's in the text. I mean, um. Jesus was incarnate. He was in flesh. He put on flesh. He stepped down from heaven. What this is essentially saying is that Jesus drew near in the most humble way possible. He put on flesh. He became a baby. Had to have his diaper changed. He nursed at a mother's breast. He stepped down to us. Doesn't mean he laid down his deity. Doesn't mean that he ceased being God. It's a word of his nearness. It's a word of his power. It's a word of his approach. In fact, Brian Chapel illustrates this. He talks about like a chief of a tribe over in Africa, and he says this. He says, the strongest man in the tribe is the chief. And when there's an emergency, the chief rises up and gets to work. So if somebody falls down a well, they break their legs in the bottom of the well, they can't get out. The chief will literally take his glorious headdress, take it off, and set it aside, climb down in the well, strap this guy to his back and climb back up. Did he cease being the chief because he removed his headdress? No. He maintained all of his identity. And so it is with Jesus, who climbed down for us and he shortened the distance to us. He became incarnate. He put on flesh so that we might be saved. And what this tells us is that we're to do that with our relationships. To draw near to the people who hurt us, to refuse to hold grudges, so that even if there is no resolution with someone who has hurt you, you forgive them in your heart. And you seek to draw near to them as the Lord opens that door. This calls us to make the first move. This calls us to set aside our glory. This calls us to apologize for our 1%, our 8%, our 30%, our 60%. Whatever of the argument, whatever of the problem, it calls you to seek peace. There's renunciation. Jesus also shows us incarnation. Lastly, he shows us humiliation. Have you ever been humiliating? Man, when we were out there at Calvin's church, I'll never forget this moment, as long as I live. I was up there preaching. I'm five minutes into my sermon. They're all sitting there, and I'm trying to preach a sermon, and the bells of the town go off for like the next 20 minutes. I can't hear myself, they can't hear me. We might as well have just sat there. It's humiliating. When we think about humiliation, there's no greater humiliation than what Christ went through in verse 8. He humbled himself. Nobody humbles Jesus. He did this to himself. He humbled himself. He wasn't born in Athens. He wasn't born in Rome. He wasn't born in Jerusalem. Where was he born? Bethlehem. A field. Grew up in Nazareth. Little podunk town. Becoming obedient. Even to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is horrific. It's like Paul can't even hardly say it. Even death on a cross. Those who died on the cross, it was said back then that he who dies on a cross dies a thousand times. It's where we would get that word excruciating. It means literally means from the cross. Historians show the horror of the cross so much that Roman citizens weren't even allowed to die on crosses. Over in Deuteronomy 1, it's called a curse to be pinned to a tree. Galatians 3 will pick that up and say that Christ became a curse for us. He was willing to endure humiliation, put out, exposed to the elements, completely naked in front of everybody. He was humiliated for us. Are you willing to endure humiliation? Reputation attack, slander. I had a pastor friend at my former church. It was Pastor Philip. He went to a church and within his first year there, this was so hard. The church had a PDO program, and it was one of those programs that unfortunately wasn't doing well, and it was pulling the church under, and they had to shut it down. And they had to make that call within his first few months. It was a very difficult situation because the church was not doing well financially. He made that call, and some of the employees slandered him and went to the newspaper and said all these things like, this church has become unloving towards young families, and they just, you know, they've done this and they've done that and they've done that the next thing. And it was a terrible situation, but the leadership and elders decided to hold their tongue and they just took it. They just took the humiliation. They knew they had to do what they had to do. It was the only option available to them. But it went to the newspapers. It was wild. It was crazy. He tells the story that years later, one of those employees that was slandering and running their mouth to the newspaper and causing so much trouble said, Hey, I need to come to you and I need to just talk to you and the elders. And he said, Okay, we'll set that up. And the lady came into the elders' room and she brought in a boombox, a stereo. And she just put on Christian worship, press play, and she set it aside and she pulled out a basin and just started washing the feet of all of her elders and asking forgiveness for how she slandered them, how she was divisive at a time when the church needed unity, and how she hurt them personally. And she started humbling herself. And Philip tells the story, and he says there wasn't a dry eye in the audience. Not one. He said every single one of us was crying, she was crying, and we had a remarkable time of forgiveness. Humility opens doors, but also so does holding your powder and taking it on the chin when someone attacks you. If they would attack back, there's probably no hope of someone coming back and repenting. Forgiveness is radical. And what happens is when the world sees it, it becomes beautiful and it becomes compelling. But you can only do this as you stare at Christ and say, He renounced his rights, he shortened the distance, and he was willing to endure humiliation. That's my path. Last point. And we're done. How do we take the humiliation? We adore the completed picture. This is the fuel to live this way. Verse 9 says, Therefore God has highly exalted him. In the Greek, it is he has super exalted him. He has mega exalted him. He is the highest, most exalted person in a class, all by his own. When did this happen? I would argue it happened at the resurrection. It was the vindication of the justice of God and the righteousness of Christ. And he has bestowed on him the name that is above every name. What is that name? There's dissertations written on what that name is. Some people say Yahweh, some people say Jesus, some people say it's the Lord. And I would probably err on the last one simply because that's the last thing said of him in verse 11. That the name that he gets is the name Lord, but no one ultimately knows. And anyone who says they do is lying. This passage shows the end. This passage shows the finality of it. Shows that one day Christ will be vindicated. And he will vindicate his people. And so we don't have to die on hills for little squabbles about secondary issues. We can love each other. Good and godly Christians can still show love even when we disagree. I believe this passage does several things for us. What does it do for us? Well, it corrects critical spirits, it heals wounds, it forces you to move towards people you disagree with. It actually causes your anger towards people who have hurt you to be resolved. It mends relationships. It causes you to give up your right. You may have the right to be angry. You may have the right to be offended. You may have the right to be irked. But then you look at Jesus and you say, wait, he gave up his rights. I can do that. This passage reminds us of the one who stepped down from glory. And is there someone that we need to shorten the distance with? Someone to forgive. It reminds us of the end that every CNN reporter, everyone who's ever said something you disagree with, everyone who's been a messed up preacher, every crooked politician, one day they're going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is a victory that is so complete that you don't have to win. This victory in this life, one day Christ will come back and justice will be dealt. I'll close with this. When Christians were rising in Rome, Emperor Hadrian sent out spies to spy on the church. What is this growing sect, this cult called Christianity? He said. So he sent a spy in. There was a guy named Aristides. He was sent to report on the church. And this is what Aristotes said. He said, they love each other. They never fail to help widows. They save the orphans. If they have something, they freely give to one who has nothing. They see a stranger, they take him in their homes, they rejoice over him as a true brother. Before Christians could articulate what the church was fully in Rome, Rome had already seen it in action. How? How they treated each other. By their Christ-like giving. Remember, Satan grasps. He takes, he takes, he takes, but Christ is constantly giving up, giving up, giving up. And may we relive his life all over again. Let's pray. As the team comes out, what made these Christians so attractive? It was the mind of Christ in each one of them. They tried to relive the mind of Christ. What of this sermon do you need to relive as you leave today? And if you're here today and you have been in a church that has hurt you, if you've been in church conflict, if you're still walking wounded, we have great sympathy for that. We know what that's like. Every church has seasons of highs and lows. Christians are not always acting in their greatest, best behavior with an attitude that's Christ-like. But I would just urge you, I would encourage you. He gave up his rights. What do you need to give up today? What heart attitude is God calling you to give up? What heart idol is God calling you to relinquish finally? Maybe it's a relationship where you need to just grant forgiveness in your heart right now, and that's the starting place. Won't you do that before we leave? And if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ, God sent his son for sinners. He died in your place and for your sins, if you would believe the gospel, that he died, he rose, and he calls you into a relationship with himself. If you would do that, if you would name the name of Jesus as your Lord, as your Savior, God would save you and give you the very hope that I'm talking about today. That one day you'd bow the knee to Jesus, not begrudgingly, but with excitement. Some will bow with horror. But for those who love Jesus, we love his appearing. And you'll be able to bow with great delight. And you'll be able to say, Lord, it was a pleasure to serve you. Father, thank you for this group. Thank you for that message. May it humble us. May it create in all of us a contagious Christianity. Father, church unity is always under attack. In every age and every stage of the church. It's one of the ways that Satan loves to attack. He loves to use gossip and uendo, broken relationships. It's a tale as old as time. David and Absalom. But Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit that draws us back to Christ as the uniting factor for us this morning. And Lord, may we unite in the common worship of Him. And may the spirit of love be felt in this place, even as we leave to go into the lobby today. May the relationships in this place be warm and loving and may it provide something that the world is missing. We love you. And it's only because you first loved us. Would you now bless our worship as we seek to apply these things to our life? It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.