Navigating life with the mind of Christ

faithful God, you caused all scriptures to be written for our learning. Help us to hear them, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word we may embrace and always hold firmly to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Are we at the beginning of an AI apocalypse? An AI agent this week hacked Medicare. Our world leaders around the globe are striking fear into everyone's hearts with doomsday scenarios. Kind of feels like a little bit like a sci-fi movie, has become real. We're just waiting for the talented individual like Nia in The Matrix or Sarah Connor and Terminator, who's going to arise and save the world. Do we join the chorus of doomsayers? Do we live in fear? Or is there another option? Well as we look at Philippians today, God in His Word shows that there is a different Savior and a different end-of-world scenario, which has helped Christians for thousands of years and will help us as we think about these big questions of what the end of the world is going to look like. It will help us put the ideas of an AI apocalypse in perspective. Now as we come to the letter of Philippians, it's written by the apostle Paul. It was written to a young house church barely 10 years old. So far in the letter Paul has rejoiced that this church in Philippi partners with him in sharing the gospel. He shares with them his mindset to live his Christ and to die his gain. He's urged them to live the lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to stand firm in the gospel, striving together. In chapter 2, Paul encourages the Philippians to live the lives worthy of the gospel in the way in which they treat each other. So we're going to look today at our mindset, Christ's mindset, and then the end of history. Our mindset. Our mindset is to be one of gospel unity and other person-centeredness. There is a focus on unity in the letter to the Philippians. Unity first with Christ, verse 1, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ. See when we place our faith in Christ we are united to him. We are joined to him. From the moment that we place our faith in Jesus, our life and future are intricately tied to Jesus' future and life. We're connected. It's like when I married Beck. We became joined, connected. Now what's mine is yours and yours is mine, which to Beck's credit I didn't really have much at the time. Through faith in Jesus, we are joined to him, connected. The Christian life is not one where we are separated from God, but joined to God through Christ. And it's not just a piece of intellectual knowledge that we are to know, but it is something to change how we live in the here and now. It changes our mindset. For if we're united to Christ, as Paul says, if we share in the Spirit, because when we become Christians we are given the Holy Spirit, if we have any tenderness and compassion, then in verse 2, make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love being one in Spirit and one mind. This is Paul's logic. You're united to Christ, so live in gospel unity with one another. Now gospel unity doesn't mean uniformity. There is room for differences of opinion amongst the church. It's okay to have different opinions on politics or art or church music preference. However, where we do need to remain united is on the core truths of the good news of Jesus. We need to affirm, as we do in the Creed, the truth of the divinity of Jesus, that he came into this world, that he died, that he was raised. See, our unity is based on the historical person of Jesus and our unity with him. Without Jesus there is no Christian unity. If a person denies Christ and his works, if a church denies Jesus and what he did on the cross and in his resurrection, there is no unity. Not the unity that Paul urges the Philippians to have at any rate. But not only are we to be united in the doctrinal truth of the gospel, it actually has practical implications for how we treat each other. It's possible to be agreed on the gospel but still not live in unity. We see this in verses three and four. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility, value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. A church where everyone is seeking to better themselves, to do their own thing, to put forward their own agenda is not a church living out the unity that they have in Christ. If we're living out the unity that Paul talks about, we will be other person-centered. We will be wanting to put other people's interests above our own. This is hard because not everyone thinks the same way we do. It's hard because we're sinful humans. We like to put ourselves first. It's hard because we live in a culture that emphasises that we should put what we want and what we need before everyone else. It's hard because others too are sinful and can be burdensome and they might not have your best interests in mind. But imagine a church where we lived out this reality of gospel unity where we were thinking of each other's interests, not our own. Now we are a church and we do do this. We see people serving each other, praying for each other, going out of each other's way to serve and help others. When we see it, we should praise God for that. But it's also an area where we need encouragement, just like the Philippian church needed encouragement from Paul. We need to keep being reminded and exhorted and encouraged to put others' interests before our own, to consider others better than ourselves. So we need to ask God's help. We need to ask God's help when we feel overlooked. We need to ask for God's help when people become exhausting. We need to ask for God's help that we would put our own interests below that of others. And here in Philippians, God gives us his help by reminding us of Christ's mindset. Verse 5, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. So let's have a look at Christ's mindset. The next part of Philippians is a song or early creed that Paul is used here. And this is how Paul tells us how to be more like Jesus, how to have the mindset of Jesus. It's by telling us about Jesus. You know, often we get caught in the trap of thinking that to become more like Jesus, we just have to try harder. But actually the way that we become more like Jesus is by hearing again and again the good news of Jesus, letting God's words soak into our hearts and minds and let the Holy Spirit transform our lives as it applies the Word of God to us. And so if we had the mindset of Christ, we need to hear about Christ. So let's hear Paul's words. What does he say? In verse 6, we see the divinity of Jesus. Jesus was in very nature God, but he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Jesus as God, he could have stayed in heaven. He did not have to come into our world. He did not have to come as he did as a baby born in Bethlehem. Jesus could have come into our world in glory and power demanding that everyone pay attention to him to be invited to the VIP dinners held by Caesar, to have the media write front page articles about him, to seek all the glory for himself. And he would be right in doing so. But that's not what he did. He could have been like the VIP that demands the best. But no, in verse 7, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. He put aside his privileges as God. Now, this is not saying that Jesus left his Godhood behind, that he somehow stopped being God. This is not what this is saying. But rather it's just that for a time he gave up his position of glory and all added entails to become a human. A servant no less. That's how he made himself nothing in verse 7, by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became a finite human being in time and space just like us. It's like an undercover boss scenario. The CEO leaves his corner office on the 70th floor, doesn't tell anyone he's the CEO, and goes and takes a more lowly job on level one, maybe serving customers. But without telling anyone. Well, Jesus leaves the heavenly throne and he comes into our world as a human, as a servant. Now, Jesus was still divine. We see that in the Gospels, don't we? Jesus walked on water, Jesus calmed the storm, Jesus raised the dead, but he was fully human with a human body like us in our likeness. And he came as a servant and what do servants do? They serve. And Jesus came to serve us. And we see how in verse 8, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Jesus served us through death, our criminal's death. And he did it willingly for us to serve us, to save us from our sin. See, Jesus is not just an example for us to follow, but he is our Savior, who died for our sin. On the cross, Jesus took our place, taking the punishment from God that we deserve so we can have our sins forgiven, so that we could be united to him and have life. This is the mindset of Christ. This is Christ in humility, valuing others above himself. This is Christ not looking to his own interests, but to the interests of others. Jesus died on the cross not for his own gain, but for ours. Christ came to serve us, you and me. And we need to let him serve us. Lots of people do not want Jesus to serve them. Lots of people think that they are fine without Jesus. For many, Jesus is an interesting guide in history, maybe a good moral teacher, but not a Savior. But the reality is we have a debt of sin to God that we cannot pay, which deserves God's judgment. We need Jesus's death for us. We need the divine Son in the flesh to die for our sin, so that we can be forgiven. So let Jesus serve you today. If you haven't already, put your faith in him. God in the person of his Son came into the world so that you can trust him and know him and be united to him. Because when we let Jesus serve us, that's what happens. We become united to him and we become united to his people. And he serves us no matter what our history, no matter our poor decisions, no matter our guilt or regrets. He serves us whether we're rich or poor or educated or uneducated. He serves us all in the same way by dying for us on the cross. And this is the mindset that we are to have in our relationships with each other, Christ's mindset. The mindset where we humble ourselves, where we give up something of us for others. Jesus gave up his life for us. So Christ is our Savior, but he didn't stay dead, did he, when he died on the cross. He rose from the grave. And this has huge implications for us as we think about the end of history. Jesus came back from the dead on the third day. Yes, he humbled himself, dying on the cross. He defeated death and sin and the devil. But in his resurrection, we see that God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. See, God humbles, sorry, God exalts those who humbled themselves before him. Jesus preeminently said, Jesus was humbled as the lowest of the worst of humanity, dying on a cross. But now he's in the highest place with the most honor, the most glory, the name above every name. And in the Bible, names are important. And to have the name that is above every name, that means that Jesus is the most important of all. In fact, the one that we should worship, verse 10, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Letting Jesus serve us means honoring Jesus as Lord, bowing before him, worshiping him. And Jesus is not just a savior of convenience. We can't just come to Jesus and treat him like health insurance, you know, just in case. We have to treat Jesus as he ought to be treated as Lord of all. He serves us. And then in response, we serve him in worship. And some people are willing to acknowledge that Jesus is the savior that they need. That they need Jesus to die on the cross for their sin. But they're not willing to let Jesus be Lord of their life, to be king. And that is to misunderstand who Jesus is. Jesus is exalted by God as the divine human son. He now sits at God's right hand. He is worthy of worship. And as we have the mind of Christ, as we meet together, that's one of the things that we do, isn't it? We worship Jesus together. And a day is coming when at the name of Jesus, the name above all names, that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in heaven and on earth and under the earth. History is not going to end with an AI apocalypse, but with every tongue acknowledging the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now that is not saying that everyone is going to live happily ever after. Those who have rejected Jesus, who have never let Jesus serve them, who have continued to live their life as if Jesus was not Lord, they will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, that he has the name above all names when he returns, but they will still be under the judgment of God because they will not be united to Christ. That's why it's so important for us now today to put our faith in Jesus, to be united to him, to share in the benefits of the cross. It's one of the reasons Jesus hasn't come back yet. He wants as many, as many that will, to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And don't miss this. Jesus is exalted. He's not some person who just lived 2000 years ago that we should dismiss. The church should never move on from proclaiming the good news of Jesus in his death and resurrection because only Jesus has the name that is above every name. Now I just want to flag an objection that you might be thinking about and it goes a bit like this. You go, Daniel, it doesn't really look like Jesus is Lord, does it? According to the media, we're on the brink of an AI apocalypse. There is injustice and suffering and what about crime and about the wars and homelessness or anxiety and the loneliness that is affecting so many lives? It's very easy to look at the world and draw the wrong conclusion. And the wrong conclusion to draw from looking at the world is that Jesus is not exalted. However, if we look at Jesus in history, we see that Jesus is raised from the dead. We hear God's word to us that Jesus is exalted, that he is seated at God's right hand. And so there is an unseen reality. Jesus is Lord. And as we meet here this morning, we recognize that. We recognize the unseen reality that Jesus is Lord. We worship him and one day everyone will see it. Meanwhile, we worship Jesus as Lord in a world that is broken and suffering while we wait his return, urging and encouraging everyone to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late. And so we have these great words about Jesus, don't we? How he came, he humbled himself on a cross, is now risen and exalted with the name above all names. And as these words ring in our ears and our hearts, we too will be able to have the same mindset as Christ. It means that we can forego our preferences when it comes to church for the sake of putting others' interests before our own. Christ did. We can honor others above ourselves without fear because we know that Christ humbled himself even to death. We can give of ourselves and sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our brother and sister Christians because Jesus did. That's what he did for us. And as we humble ourselves, our future is intricately tied with Jesus. As we declare Jesus as the one that has the name above all names and bow before him, our future is that we will get to share in his glory with him. As I was writing this sermon, there's a well-known hymn that came to my mind. And I'm just going to use a couple of the verses from this song and use it as a prayer for us that we would have the mind of Christ. May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day by his love and power controlling all I do and say. May the word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour so that all may see I triumph only through his power. Amen.