Audio: Imitating to Become Who You Are Philippians 3:17-4:1
Text: 17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 4:1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
Illustration: There was an aggravating and irritating game that some kids would play when I was a kid call copycat. I guess kids still play that today. You say something, and another kid repeats the word, or you make a movement, and the kid imitates you. You say stop it; they say stop it. You say, “Mom, he’s copy-catting.” He says, “Mom, he’s copy-catting. You could hit the kid, but…as a copy cat, he should, in theory, hit you back.
Introduction: Copy-catting gives imitation a bad name. Because imitating others is actually a well-tried, proven way of improving ourselves. There are certain teachers at school we like and consciously or subconsciously imitate. I liked the handwriting of my junior high German teacher, Mr. Fortin, so I still write like him today. At work, we are usually assigned mentors early on, people who are good at their job and will pass on good habits and advice. They are someone the boss wants you to be like. Children imitate their parents, for better or worse. I enjoy looking back over old photos of when my children were little. Sometimes I notice in a picture with me and one of my children that they are looking intensely at me. You can see a look on their face that they are learning, that they are taking it in, that they are absorbing who you are and what you are about. That is a humbling but at the same time unsettling thought. Our children are watching and learning from everything…everything…we say and do.
Central Idea: Our passage today is about modeling, about imitation. If we are to become who we are called to be in Christ, we will learn to imitate those who are further advanced spiritually and, most important, the way of Christ.
- Language of community, fraternity, group, tribe
- Join together…Brothers and sisters
- Us as a model…Keep your eyes on those..as we
- Many live as enemies of the cross (destruction, god is their stomach, shame, mind on earthly things)
- Our citizenship is in heaven
- We eagerly await a Savior….will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his
- Dear friends
Transition: What is this community of brothers and sisters doing? Why have they formed a community?
- Working in steadfastness and
unity toward a goal
- Eagerly await a Savior from heave, Lord Jesus Christ
- Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body
- So stand firm in the Lord in this sway, dear friends
Transition: What way? What practice does Paul encourage them to engage in so that they might reach their goal as a community?
- Modeling by those advanced
in spiritual growth and imitation by those who are just getting started
- Paul says follow my example.
- But not Paul, alone. He says, just as you have us as a model
- There are ones in our midst who are farther along the path, who are deeper in their spiritual growth, who are more open to the Spirit, who daily practice what in NT Greek is called kenosis
- What is kenosis? In Chapter 2, Paul describes kenosis, and it
is a way of life that is fundamental to you and me as a Christian if we are to
be walking in the way of Christ. You may
not have known the Greek name, kenosis (now you do), but you should understand
and put into practice this essential manner of living.
- Central to the meaning of kenosis is the word humility. Paul says in Philippians 2:3-4, “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 the others.”
- But that is just the external manifestation of humility. Paul goes on to say that it is a spirit of humility that goes all the way to the core of who you are. Philippians 2:5-8: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
- Kenosis means this:
- Self-emptying, a complete consideration of the other in your thoughts and actions, so that you even taken on the role of a servant, make yourself nothing, even a willingness to die before you assert your power and influence…That is kenosis.
- And that is why so few people desire to reach kenosis. That is why so few people desire to be like Christ
- But Paul says there are some among you who
practice self-emptying, they are servants; they, at a practical level, “Do
nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,” but more critically, at a
deeper level , they do not even think that way; they don’t process the world,
others, conflicts, and desires from a framework of selfishness or conceit or
control. They do not consider how they
can work this situation or that to their advantage. They let go of control and give everything
over to Christ, because in Christ, if we will allow, there is a “power that
enables him to bring everything under his control” (Philippians 3:21).
- And when everything is under Christ’s control good things happen.
- When Christ emptied himself, even to death on a cross, the result is that he was exalted!
- Humility of deed and thought and of soul, leads to God being glorified in the one who has humbled himself as a vessel, a channel, of the living Christ.
- Paul says follow my example.
Transition: So, what does this mean for you and me?
- Three things we need to
consider
- First, we must live out our Christian life
in community.
- There are no lone wolf Christians. And, if there are, they are dangerous, because they have no community to walk with them, to help them grow, and help keep them in check.
- Paul makes absolutely clear in our text this morning that this is a group endeavor. This is about us, not just about you.
- John Wesley said there is not holiness except social holiness.
- It’s easy to be humble when isolate yourself physically or psychologically. I’m the greatest person in the world when I’m in my own room considering my own holiness, but when I join with other people, other egos, other ideas and goals, then I learn whether or not I am getting this kenosis thing right or not
- Second, we must identify those in our midst
who practice a soul-level humility and watch them, learn from them.
- The Christian experience is an incarnational experience. God appears in the flesh. The living Christ dwells in hearts.
- Find those hearts and get to know them.
- Third, know, appropriate and live out the
kenotic life of Jesus Christ.
- Paul tells us the story in summary fashion: This is the “mindset as Christ Jesus:Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself thing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place.”
- Take on this mindset of Christ. Imitate Christ. By not considering how you might get the advantage in this or that conversation. Do not always be positioning yourself for the position of power. Rather, take the very nature of a servant. What can I do here to serve? Even be willing to die in terms of influence and power so that God’s Spirit might pour in and bring about a solution, an answer, a future, an outcome greater than you, in your limited vantage point, could have ever imagined.
- That is one of the hardest things you will ever do. That is why it is a lifetime proposition, this notion of taking on the mind of Christ. It is why we are Methodists. We see our journey as the way of Scriptural salvation, of sanctification, of moving on to ever greater holiness not just as solitary individuals but as a community of fatih. It begins and ends with kenosis, a soul-level humility that will, paradoxically, empower you and empower this faith community through the power of the living Christ dwelling in us.
- First, we must live out our Christian life
in community.
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