Philippians 2:5-8

Carbon Copies of Christ

 

Introduction: When I graduated from high school in May 1983 I was really excited!  I was excited for a number of reasons.  But one of the reasons was that I was about to attend a HBCU (Historically Black College and University).  After going to, then Bishop College, one of the first things all the students did was go to the fair in October, but not really the fair, but the famed Grambling & Prairie View Classic at the Cotton Bowl.  And, one of the highlights of the game was the half time show!  “The Battle of the Bands.”  Prairie View would normally perform first and then came Grambling!  When Conrad Hutchinson Jr. arrived here in 1952, he had a plan-to make the Grambling College Marching Band the best in the land. It didn’t happen overnight and it certainly wasn’t easy, but "Hutch" and his staff began molding embryo noise-makers into superb musicians and magnificent marchers. And today, his prized unit is frequently labeled, " The Best in the Land." One article stated, “The Grambling State University Tiger Marching Band will always be the best in the land. Like other greats, it is often imitated but never duplicated.”  However, the sermon today my goal is to encourage us, as did the Apostle Paul, to imitate and duplicate Jesus Christ.

For the month of January my purpose is to share sermons that will challenge us to be start off on what some would say, “the good for another year.”  What better book to explore today than Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi.  The theme of this book is “Christian experience.”  Scofield says, “Right Christian experience is the outworking , whatever one’s circumstances maybe, of the life, nature, and mind of Christ living in us.

 

Let this mind/attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (v.5).  Christ’s thoughts and his understanding.  The only way to know his thoughts and understanding is to study the Word of God.

 

I.                   Duplicate his Servant-hood Character (vv.6-7)

·        one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men

·        devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests

·        Jesus, in John 13, demonstrated servant-hood character when he washed his disciples’ feet.

 

II.                Duplicate His Humility (v.8a)

·        Attitude reduction

·        Humility causes us to reduce and make adjustments

·        To make low, reduce one’s level

·        This self-induced humility

 

III.             Duplicate His Obedience (v.8b)

·        Christ obeyed his parents, his elders, the governmental system of the day, the law, the passover

·        (Conclusion) even the death of the cross…

·        which was both painful and shameful

 

(Illustration) How we admire the obedience a dog shows to its master! Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained to Rutledge how it happened. Because he worked out-of-doors, he often took his dog with him. That morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful friend understood, for that's exactly what he did. Then a fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. But he didn't move. He stayed right where he was, in perfect obedience to his master's word. With tearful eyes, the dog's owner said, "I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it." (Our Daily Bread)