Let The Cross cross Your Mind – Preaching The Cross

Philippians 2:1-11

INTRO: Good Morning Church. This morning we will take a look in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi and in particular the first eleven verses of chapter 2. This is one of the great texts in the New Testament, sometimes called “The Christ hymn”. It spells out in such beauty who Jesus is and what He did.

Philippians 2:1-11 – “1. Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,
2. fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”[ NKJV]

Paul begins chapter 2 with a plea. It’s a poetic plea, punctuated with four uses of the word “if”: “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion...” Paul knows they have these things, so he really means “since.” “Since you have all of these things...” He continues in verse 2, “Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.”

Back in the days of the military draft there was a young private, who had been in the army only a few weeks; He was going through basic training. Everyone noticed his behavior was rather odd—rather strange. Whenever he had a free moment, he would just walk around aimlessly on the base, picking up scraps of paper. He picked up an old Skittles wrapper, looked at it and said, “This isn’t it”. He found an old newspaper, and picked it up, looked at it, and said, “This isn’t it”. Other soldiers became concerned and assumed he must not be right in the head. This certainly was not normal behavior. His sergeant took him to the doctor, the doctor sent him to the base physiatrist. The psychiatrist thought he was becoming unstable. After the staff received the psychiatrist’s and doctor’s reports they decided to discharge him from service on medical grounds. As he was walking out the camp gates holding his discharge papers, he smiled and said, “This is it”…

The point of the story is: who gets to decide what normal thinking is? Consider those people who don’t think in the main stream, those people who don’t go along with what everybody else is thinking; maybe they’re the people that are more normal. Do we ever consider that those people, who consistently seem to go against the grain of the culture and think totally different, are the ones who have their heads on straight?

Now the Bible does not often complement the way men think. The problem with man’s thinking is that our minds are heavily influenced by the world. The Bible says in Romans 1:28 – “Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind.”[para] You might say our thinking in this world is very messed up.

Of course it is. People have depraved minds, so why should we expect them to have their heads on straight? Listen; if we’re going to be pleasing to God, we need to learn a new way to think. We’ve got to think differently. What we’ve got to do is let the cross of Jesus, cross our minds. That’s what I want to talk about this morning—about how we need to think.

Starting with this very important principle: what we believe… affects how we believe. The Bible says so. Look in Proverbs 23:7 - “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he...” Decide what kind of person you want to be and then learn how to think to be that kind of person. Romans 8:5 – “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”

I. This is one important reason why we teach Christian doctrine. I am fully aware some people say, “That doctrine is so boring and they wished the preacher would preach something more practical.” Actually there is nothing more practical then sound doctrine. Teaching explains to us what everything is, how everything works and how it is connected. The Bible tells us, “Only when you’ve got your thinking right, are you going to make the right choices that will help you live right.”

A. That’s why all through the New Testament you find the little word “Therefore”. Whenever a church has a problem, Paul never writes about the problem first. What he always does first is start with doctrine and then after he’s got their thinking right, he says, “Therefore, in light of what is true and how you ought to think, this is how you live.” The Bible says in Colossians 3:2 – “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
B. Is that easy for us? Well, not at the beginning, not until we have matured a little as Christians. The world’s view of life is a powerful force. The next time someone says to you, “That’s not how everybody else thinks, or that’s not how everybody does things.” You tell them, “That’s irrelevant, because the world does not tell us how to think; we get our thinking from another source. Our minds have been renewed by what the Bible says.”
C. Where does that begin? Let me give you the principle that is the primary influence on our ethics. It is our understanding of the cross. The scandal of the cross was central to everything that Paul considered Christian. How we think about the cross will affect our behavior. In other words, do you want to be the right kind of person? Do you want to do the right things? Then you need the cross to cross your mind because when you’re thinking is based on the cross, you’re going to start living right.
D. The reason people have problems in church is simply, “because they are not thinking right about the cross.” For example: Many churches struggle with division because people follow the teachings of men. People will divide over issues that are absolutely ridiculous. Paul says in 1^st Corinthians 1:13 – “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The reason there are so many fractures, is because they haven’t figured out, they do not understand, the cross.

II. Let’s consider some problems people have. How about the problem of purity? Why is it that some of us struggle with lust? It’s because we haven’t understood the cross. We were bought with a price, we are not our own. “Therefore”, Paul says in 1^st Corinthians 6:20 - “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.” “Honor God with your body”.

A. How about racism? Those who practice it do not understand the cross. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:15-16 – “… so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” We can’t be a racist and understand the cross of Jesus. We can’t have it that way. No one who is a Christian can be a racist.
B. What about bitterness? How many people do we know that have problems with their brothers and sisters in the Lord? How many are having struggles forgiving somebody? Ephesians 4:32 says; “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” Over and over again when someone brings up something about a problem or behavior Paul is going to say, “Let’s get our thinking back to the cross.”
C. Look at marriage. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” We as Christians must never forget that central event. It sustains us and nourishes us. We must constantly allow the shadow of the cross to renew our minds and reshape our thinking.

III. When Paul was in prison in Rome he received word that the church in Philippi was having some struggles over unity.

A. Two of the women there were at odds and it was affecting the whole congregation. What’s the first thing Paul does? Does he talk about the problem first? No! He talks about the cross. That’s what he does in Philippians 2. He tells them and us; “1. Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2. fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”
B. Notice he said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”, “Your mind should be like that of Christ’”. In other words, “If we’re going to fix the problem, we have got to get our minds right.” Paul continues in Philippians 2:6-11 – “6. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7. but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8. 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. 9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10. 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, 11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
C. Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in His very nature God, took on the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Then being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
D. Paul is saying, “Listen Christians, when tension arises, let the cross of Jesus cross your mind.” Or put it this way, “The cross of Christ controls how we think and act towards each other.” Paul wrote this for a very practical reason. He’s telling us, “Jesus is the supreme example of unselfishness. Jesus is the ultimate model when it comes to dealing with other people”.
E. I wonder why sometimes we can’t see that. One reason may be that we do not understand the cross; another is that the world shouts a different message; and still another… may be pride. There is nothing that keeps people apart like pride. Once we have made a position for ourselves where we think we are right… we forget about the cross and lose site of what it means.

IV. Perhaps another reason we have tensions and fights, whether it’s at church or at a job or at home is because we are by nature “clutchers”. When a baby is first born, you will see them working their hands as if they want to grab something. One word a child will learn quickly is the word “Mine”. A reason we fuss, a reason we fight, is we have a little bit and were going to hold on to it. We’re not going to give up our place, our position. We’re not going to give up our privilege. We’re not going to give up our “rights”, were going to look out for No1… What we get is a world full of competition and strife.

A. What if we tried a Jesus’ kind of thinking? Instead of clutching, what if we let go? Instead of looking out for “me”, what if we looked out for one another? Ohhh there is a concept, isn’t it? What if we tried to think about the cross, when it came to dealing with people?
B. The Bible says in Philippians 2:6, “He did not think that being equal to God, was something to be used for his own benefit.”[para] In other words, He looked out for the interest of others even when they were not looking out for his.
C. Verse 7 is saying, “Of his own free will, he gave up all he had.” That’s a radical way to think, isn’t it? Here is the One who had everything, who had every right to have everything. The One who had done no wrong, and He is looking out for a world full of people, full of envy and hate, those who had a right to nothing. Instead of clutching, He let go—to serve.
D. What if we tried to think like that? What if we thought like Jesus thought? The problem is, we come together, we read verses from the Bible about the cross, and we sing about the cross, some people put crosses on their necks; some put crosses on their church buildings. But then—we walk out the door, leave the building and we go home. We don’t think about the cross again for six days. Someone once said, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings, who… more or less,… ignore its meaning”.

V. The apostle Paul tells us, “Those scared hands of Jesus have determined once for all, for us, who we listen to, what we think about, how we live.” We’ve got to let the cross, cross our minds.

A. It’s not easy, and I think God knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Do you know what He said? God said, “To help you out, here’s what I want you to do, Every 7 days, every first day of the week, get together, just to remember the cross, just to keep the cross of Jesus on your mind. Break some bread, drink some fruit of the vine together, and when you do… think about the cross”. We do that don’t we?
B. Remember this too. We are not supposed to come to the Lords table, if we have got problems with one another. God says, “It’s an affront to Him if we do that.” Because we can’t come to the Supper, if we won’t let the cross be on our mind. When Paul wrote these beautiful verses about Christ in Philippians 2, he was trying to change the behavior of the lives of Christians. This is not addressed to those who are not Christians. If any of us sitting here are at odds with brothers or sisters—are we being Christ like? Are we being Christians?

VI. I know that are those who do not understand why we let Jesus control our lives the way we do. Why do we? Why do we give Him the attention that we give Him? Why do we want the cross to cross our minds? Why do we want to think like Jesus thought and try to live like He lived? These verses tell us something about Jesus that I want to be clear about, and one day, hopefully, we will tell it to more people. Whether you name the Name of Jesus or not, I don’t want anyone to stand before God someday and say, “I never understood what Jesus did.”

A. We as people have a problem. That’s why our world needs Jesus. God made a perfect world. He put Adam in it and asked him to take care of it. Very quickly things got messed up.
B. Perhaps some remember those vinyl albums before CDs came along. Not the ones we called 45s but the 78s. I remember when I was a kid I got a drill and drilled a little hole in one of the records, just about a half inch off center and put it on the record player. It would go around and round. It played, but it would make noise that didn’t sound right because it was off center. That’s what’s happened to the world. We have gotten off center; we have left the correct center. The world sort of works but not the way it should. The center is supposed to be God. We were made in the image of God to look up to Him and worship Him.
C. We know what Adam did. He listened to a lie which came from Satan, and he decided he would try to clutch or grasp at being God. Satan came along and said, “…you will be like God…” What did Eve and Adam do? They said, “I’ll be like God, I’ll be my own God.” They passed that attitude down to us today. That’s what people have been trying to do. They’ve all been trying to be their own God… and the world has the wrong center.

VII. I don’t know how many of us know this but sometimes Jesus is referred to as the 2nd Adam in the Bible. Turn with me to 1^st Corinthians 15:45-49 – “45. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being.'' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

A. The Bible says Jesus did 2 things. “He emptied himself and humbled himself.”
B. First of all He emptied himself, so that He could be a servant. Verse 7 says, “He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
C. Then who was Jesus when He walked the earth? Was He God? Was He man? Who was He? He was both. He was God & man. When the Bible says, “that he emptied himself”, it doesn’t mean He became less than God here on earth, it means He became more in a sense. He was God, but now He was also a man. He didn’t get rid of deity, He emptied deity into humanity. He could never stop being God, God’s His nature. So how do we think about what He did?
D. He relinquished His glory; He concealed it in human flesh. Every now and then we get a glimpse of it. If you remember, one time He was up on a mountain, with 3 disciples and He was transfigured. They saw His glory. Paul saw it on the road to Damascus. John in Revelation 1 in his vision got a glimpse of His glory. Someday we’re going to see the bright, brilliant glory of Jesus, too. When He was on earth as a man, He concealed that glory.
E. Why was that done? So that we can approach him. So that He can come near to us and serve us and meet our needs. So He could heal the sick and wash feet and tell about God’s plan. He humbled himself, or emptied himself in order to serve. That’s not the only reason though He needed flesh.

VIII. Mark 10:45 says, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” As deity there was no flesh to nail to the cross. No blood to shed. Jesus of Nazareth was born to die. He came to subject Himself to the absolute humiliation of a criminal’s death.

A. Why? Because it was the only way you and I could be saved. It’s the only way. The Bible says in Philippians 2:8 – “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Let’s pause there a moment and think about that verse. It says, “God humbled himself”.
B. How does one humble God? I can understand how to humble people. I can humble a little child because I’m more grown up than they are. Perhaps I can humble a homeless person because I’m more affluent. Maybe I can even humble an uneducated man because I’ve been educated.
C. Who is big or rich or strong enough or smart enough to humble God? The only way God is ever humbled is if He humbles himself. The Bible says, “He humbled himself and he became obedient to death”. Just think about that. Nobody here is going to become obedient to death because death is part of our nature already.
D. Death for you and me is a necessity. We’re going to die whether we want to or not. Jesus didn’t have too. Jesus obeyed when He died. He chose it. Why? Because it was the only way, you and I, have a chance. We were down here covered up in our sins believing the lie that if we just did enough good deeds, we would get to heaven. We thought we were going to work off the debt and we could work our way up to heaven, not understanding that our righteousness is but filthy rags to God.
E. The only chance we have to be saved is if we are covered up with a righteousness that was sinless. That’s not me and that’s not you. Jesus Christ came and lived a sinless life and then took the penalty that our sins deserved. He was willing to transfer His righteousness to cover us. Then when God looks at us, He sees sinlessness. 2^nd Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

IX. 2^nd Corinthians 8:9 tells us, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

A. We need to be very aware and very clear about this. Jesus of Nazareth was God in the flesh. He did this so that His flesh could be nailed to the cross. He did it so the penalty our sins deserve could be taken away, and the righteousness that we never could have, He could give. That’s what Jesus did.
B. What did God do? The Bible says in Philippians 2:9 – “God also has highly exalted Him”. That word “exalt” means to lift up. In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Think of it this way, men lifted up Jesus on a cross, and then God lifted Him up out of a grave, and gave Him a place above everyone and above everything.
C. Then in Ephesians 1:20-21 – we read; “20. which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21. far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers and kings, not only in this world, but also in the next. Do we understand what that means?
D. Jesus Christ is above our boss at work. Jesus Christ is above our addiction. He is above our disease. He is above our marriage. He’s above our family, above our leaders, and above our nation. There is not a person or a thing on this earth that has got a claim on us that supersedes the claim of Jesus Christ. He is above it all. That’s one of the reasons why we come here every Sunday and give Him praise. There is only One who deserves our worship. There’s only One who deserves our praise. There’s only One in the highest place, and it’s the God Paul talks about in the Bible.

CONCLUSION:
In Hebrews 2:8 – “In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him, yet at the present we do not see everything subject to him.” Wait… what does that say? That’s true, isn’t it? What we see are a bunch of people playing that record off center. What we see are people not making Jesus highest in their lives. What we see is a world that still seems pretty messed up. We see a world that does not want to give Jesus the place we are saying He deserves.
You and I know: The day is coming when every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess, what we’re saying here right now. God not only gave Him a place that nobody else could claim. God gave him a Name that everybody is going to name—a Name that is above every name.

What is that Name? That name is Lord. Philippi was a Roman colony, and back then you might be tested for loyalty to Caesar. I have been told that if you lived there, a soldier might walk up to you one day and demand you say, “Caesar is Lord.”

Do you know what those early Christians would do? Those early Christians would say Caesar is king, or say Caesar is ruler. But they would not say Caesar is Lord. Some of these Christians would die before they would call anybody else “Lord.”

The day is coming, when every being in heaven and every demon in hell and everyone in between is going to say what that little congregation said every first day of the week when they worshiped. “Jesus Christ is Lord”. Everybody in this room is going to confess it. Everybody outside of this room is going to confess it. The only issue is when.

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Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you never have done that, today would be a good day to come forward and make that great confession, Jesus Christ is Lord. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Adopted from Sermon by: Mike Glover