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Study Two: It's All About... (Philippians 2)
Key Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11 (The Message)
Jesus is our example and focus as we grow in our faith. We’re called to grow as disciples – in our faith, in our maturity, in our wisdom and in our love. Jesus said, ‘I have come that you might have life and life to the full.’ He is saying, ‘I didn’t come for you to have titles, change religion or attend a new church’. Jesus came to give us life – His life – so that we may become more like Him.
This leads us to live lives:
How do we experience this fullness? We often look to the Holy Spirit for comfort, for counsel, for power… but how does the Holy Spirit also enable and guide us to live as disciples of Jesus?
The Holy Spirit is a person! He is intimate, alive, and relational. In this passage in Philippians, Paul is encouraging us to have fullness in life like Jesus; in our relationship with Him and relationships with one another. Jesus models for us how we can have this fully human life as God intended for us, by becoming more like Christ through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care – then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.
Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.
Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
Philippians 2:1-4 (The Message)
1. LOOK TO JESUS' EXAMPLE OF SERVING ONE ANOTHER
In verses 2:1-4, notice that these verses talk of how we relationally outwork Jesus’ Greatest Commandments – Loving God and loving one another. How did Jesus do this in His life – with people of all different backgrounds, needs, issues, levels of brokenness through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit?
Question: How can we ask the Holy Spirit to help us relate with one another like Jesus would?
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.
He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.
Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
Philippians 2:5-8 (The Message)
2. IDENTIFY WITH JESUS
In verses 2:5-8, Jesus’ identity was that of a servant. ‘Think of yourselves as like Jesus…’ And he has unlocked the opportunity for us to experience this servanthood, serving as He serves.
Question: When it comes to better identifying with Jesus, what areas of your life – your character, your dreams, your fears – is the Holy Spirit prompting you to surrender to enable you to become more like Jesus?
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth – even those long ago dead and buried – will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11 (The Message)
3. BEING OBEDIENT LIKE JESUS BRINGS DIVINE FAVOUR
In verses 2:9-11, through the most significant struggling and agonising moments, Jesus surrendered his divinity, and was obedient to the Father in life – ‘and even death to a Cross’, bringing Him divine favour.
Question: What areas of our lives (including our character, our hopes, our fears, and our hurts) can we be more obedient to Jesus? The Holy Spirit can help. Read Galatians 5:22-23 and see what the fruit of our lives can be when we live according to the Holy Spirit.
PRAY TOGETHER
Pray together, and perhaps commit to praying each day in the week ahead.
Come Holy Spirit, enable me to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Help me in prayer. Help me to better hear your voice. Teach me your ways. Comfort me. Counsel me. Bring conviction where conviction is needed. Correction where correction is needed.
Fill me up with your power. Help me to become more like Jesus. Amen.
Thank you to Marley from Melbourne City Campus for these studies.