TOPIC:‌"So You Want To Be Like Jesus"

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Philippians 2:1-11

 

‌‌"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5)

 

‌Most people today live only to please themselves. They very seldom think of God and His eternal truths. But if you are a conscientious Christian your one major desire in life is to please your Heavenly Father. That, my friend, was the heart throbbing ambition of Jesus. He wanted to please God in everything He did in life. And He accomplished that task! At His baptism Jesus heard these words from His Father in Heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).

 

‌When we stand one day before our Heavenly Father, the Almighty God, would we not want Him to say the same thing about us that He said about Jesus? Those words, "I am well pleased," would be wonderful to hear from our God. To please God in everything we do should be the passionate desire of each one of us. Since Jesus pleased God in everything He did, I submit that we should be like Jesus.

 

‌Now that raises two questions: What was Jesus like? and How can I become like Jesus? The answer to the first question is found in the words of our text: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." The NIV has it: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." Weymouth renders it: "Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ Jesus." As we behold the mind, the attitude, and the disposition of Jesus as revealed upon the pages of the New Testament we get a vivid description of what Jesus was like. The answer to the question, How can I become like Jesus? is discovered in the verses around our text.

 

‌So you want to be like Jesus! Then let us from Paul's words in the verses before us discover the kind of life that Jesus lived before others while He was on earth.

 

I.

 

‌For one thing, if we want to be like Jesus it will be a life where SELF-EMPTYING will be our PRINCIPLE. We read these words in verses 6 and 7: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made Himself of no reputation." The New Living Translation puts it: "Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing." The New International Version has it: "Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

 

‌The literal meaning of these words is "He . . .