Phil 2_5-8 Web

8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

1/37

Philippians 2:5-8

Saturday, April 10, 2010

8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

2/37

Context


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

3/37

Context

The Philippians are experiencing external opposition and need to

remain steadfast. This standing firm requires unity which isultimately made possible through humility. It appears however that

the opposition is causing a self preservation mode in which

opinions and needs are becoming opportunities for selfishness.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

4/37

Context





Stand Firm


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

5/37

Context





Stand FirmUnity


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

6/37

Context





Stand FirmUnityHumility


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

7/37

Context







8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

8/37

Context






Pauls objective is not to give instruction in doctrine but to reinforce

instruction in Christian living by referring to the Jesus story.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

9/37

A majority of scholars understand Phil 2:6-11 to be a worship hymn

of the early church.

Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia-Pontus, wrote to the

Emperor Trajan (a.d. 11213), that Christians were in the habit of

singing hymns to Christ as to a god.Word Biblical Commentary


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

10/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

11/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

12/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

13/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

14/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

15/37

Jesus vs Adam


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

16/37

form of God

Possession of the form implies participation in the essence

FF Bruce

The Preexistence of Jesus

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things

came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ,through whom all things came and through whom we live.

Colossians 1:15-17

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or

authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before

all things, and in him all things hold together.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

17/37

something to be grasped

The point is rather that he did not treat his equality with God as an

excuse for self-assertion or self-benefit. Instead, he treated it as anoccasion for renouncing every advantage or privilege that might

have accrued to him as God and chooses self-impoverishment and

unreserved self-sacrifice.

The Temptation of JesusThe stones to bread and jumping from the temple were both

suggesting that Jesus use his divine abilities for self-serving

purposes.

Paul has just finished telling the Philippians . . .

do not look out for your own interests


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

18/37

emptied himself

Jesus did not empty himself of his deity but emptied himself of the

rights he had as deity.

John 13:3-5

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and

that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up

from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towelaround his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began

to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was

wrapped around him.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

19/37

taking the form of a servant

Christ did not cease to be in the form of God when he took the

form of a slave any more than he ceased to be the Son of Godwhen he was sent into the world. On the contrary, it is in his self-

emptying and his humiliation that he reveals what God is like.

Morna Hooker


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

20/37

death on the cross

Jewish Attitude

By the Jewish law anyone who was crucified died under the curseof God (Gal. 3:13,quoting Deut. 21:23).

Roman Attitude

In polite Roman society the word "cross" was an obscenity, not to

be uttered in conversation. Even when a man was being sentencedto death by crucifixion, an archaic formula was used that avoided

the pronouncing of this four-letter (crux).


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

21/37

death on the cross

By enduring the cross Jesus turned that shameful instrument of

torture into the object of his followers' proudest boast.

Galatians 6:14

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

22/37

death on the cross

The humiliation of Jesus was crowned by his undergoing death on a

cross. By the standards of the first century, no experience could bemore loathsomely degrading than that. It is difficult for us, after so

many Christian centuries during which the cross has been

venerated as a sacred symbol, to realize the unspeakable horror

and disgust that the mention or indeed the very thought of the cross

provoked.FF Bruce


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

23/37

I think death on the chair comes close to a modern day equivalent

of death on the cross, although it is a much quicker death.

The point of the comparison is that anyone in our modern history

who died by the chair was condemned as a vial criminal worthy of

death.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

24/37

Pieta wax sculpturePaul Fryer


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

25/37

Pieta wax sculpturePaul Fryer


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

26/37

If we were the century God chose tosend Jesus into and if Jesus would havebeen crucified on the chair we would

make little electric chair charms.

Although this may seem bizarre, that iswhat happened to the symbol of thecross . . . it lost its vile status through

years of being venerated.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

27/37

The Humility Spiral of Jesus


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

28/37



8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

29/37



8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

30/37



8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

31/37



8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

32/37

Sow What?


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

33/37

Sow What?

We live in a culture fixated on personal rights (consider the

abundance of lawsuits). Living within our rights cannotbe the ultimate standard for determining acceptable

behavior. Certain actions may be within our rights but it is

not what is best for others or the kingdom of God.

Because we are in Christ we can exercise humility and lay

down our rights just as he did.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

34/37

Sow What?






down our rights just as he did.1. If we are experiencing relational conflict lets prayerfully

assess if we are contributing to the situation by clinging

to our rights.


8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

35/37

Sow What?








to our rights.

2. Ask God to help you cultivate humility and live with

others in a way that is governed by what is best for

them not your personal rights.


S ?

8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

36/37

Sow What?








to our rights.




3. Are there steps you can take to go down the humility

spiral in those situations?


S Wh ?

8/9/2019 Phil 2_5-8 Web

37/37

Sow What?








to our rights.




3. Are there steps you can take to go down the humility

spiral in those situations?

Documents

Phil 2_5-8 Web