"Jesus Shows Us the Way Down" (April 26, 2026 Sermon)

Text: Philippians 2

Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

We spend so much of our lives trying to get to the top and we’re taught to call that “success.” More followers, more money, more influence, more control. But Philippians 2 confronts that story head-on, not with shame or scolding, but with a song. We walk through Paul’s sharp pivot from tender encouragement to a clear exhortation: don’t chase selfish ambition, don’t treat people like obstacles, and don’t let the church absorb the world’s obsession with status. 

At the center is the Christ hymn, one of the earliest summaries of Christian belief and a blueprint for Christian character. Jesus does not exploit power or cling to rank. He empties himself, takes the form of a servant, and goes all the way down into costly love. That vision challenges the loud, distorted versions of Jesus that trade humility for dominance and turn faith into spectacle, grievance, or control. The Jesus we meet here serves rather than shows off, invites rather than imposes, and cares less about public performance than about neighbors being fed, safe, and loved. 

Paul also makes it practical by pointing to Timothy and Epaphroditus as flesh-and-blood examples of the mind of Christ: genuine concern, ordinary faithfulness, and self-giving service without a craving for recognition. If you’re tired of the ladder, this is a different way to live and a different way to be church. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: where are you feeling called to take the way down?

Follow us on Instagram @guilfordparkpresbyterianchurch
Follow us on Facebook @guilfordparkpc
Follow us on TikTok @guilfordparkpreschurch
Website:  www.guilfordpark.org

Transcript

Prayer And First Reading

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let us now bow our heads for a prayer of illumination. Oh God, fill us with your spirit and humble our hearts so that we can hear your word. Amen. Our first scripture lesson for today is from Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. Listen to the word of God. If then there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete. Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interest, but to the interest of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name. So that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Culture Of Climbing Up

Paul’s Pivot Toward Exhortation

The Christ Hymn And Self-Emptying

Distorted Jesuses And The Way Down

Timothy And Epaphroditus As Models

What This Church Tries To Be

Choosing Service And Singing Response

SPEAKER_01 1:50

All right, friends, as we continue our journey through Philippians, let us hear again what God is saying to God's church in the second chapter, verses 12 through 30. Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world, holding forth the word of life, so that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you in the same way also you should rejoice and rejoice together with me. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you, so that I too may be consoled by news of you. I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them, all of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ, but Timothy's worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon. Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard uh you heard that he was ill. He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him, but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me. Holy wisdom, holy word, thanks be to God. Let us pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. We spend so much of our lives trying to get to the top. In a culture that measures success by the number of followers we have on Instagram, the amount of money that we have in our bank accounts, or the political power that we've accumulated, getting ahead of everyone else can seem like that is the name of the game. Of course, for there even to be someone at the top, there have to be others, many others below. Our hyper-individualistic society teaches us to see those people below not as neighbors to love, but as obstacles to pass by, or worse, as failures to blame for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and fighting for the top like everyone else. I admit it's a cruel vision for the world, and one that for many of us is all too familiar. And tempting as it may be to think that this is just one more symptom of modern life, Paul reminds us in Philippians that the temptation to measure our worth by status, power, and self-advancement really is nothing new. We know this because Paul makes a significant pivot after the first chapter of his letter that we explored two weeks ago. In that opening, Paul exudes warmth and tenderness and affection. And he does this from the depths of a prison cell. From the depths of his cold, dark, dank prison cell, he encourages his readers, then and us now, to live lives worthy of the gospel of Christ and to not let the joy they find in Jesus depend on their daily circumstances, whether those circumstances are good or bad. And then in chapter two, which we've read today, Paul pivots from thanksgiving and encouragement into exhortation. Now, y'all, reading any of Paul's letters is like reading the back half of a conversation. You and I aren't privy to what prompted the content of his letters, but we do have some clues that hint at what was going on in the communities to which he was writing. And our first clue is found in verse 2 of chapter 2, when he says, Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfless ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. These words suggest that the Philippian church, or at least some faction within it, had begun to absorb the world's obsession with getting to the top. And I think it's important to note that Paul doesn't start wagging his finger at them. He doesn't admonish, he doesn't shame, he doesn't guilt. Instead, he sings. He sings a hymn of the early church, one sung by the followers of Jesus long before there were hymnals or sanctuaries or pews. Paul sings because he knew then what you and I know now that hymns are a powerful way to embody shared theology and to counter dangerous ideologies that threaten the unity and the faithfulness of the church. And though we didn't print it this way in the bulletin because it wouldn't fit, most Bibles, when you read these verses, will switch from prose to poetry in verse 6 of chapter 2. This is, of course, where the hymn begins. It's known as the Christ hymn amongst most scholars, and most of those scholars think that Paul is quoting a hymn, not that he wrote himself, but a hymn that the early church already knew by heart. Now, we don't know the tune that carried this hymn through the house churches of the early church, but we do know the words. Now read them again for us here. The hymn says, Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness, and being found in appearance as a human. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now notice what this hymn doesn't give us. It doesn't give us a Jesus who grasps for power, who clings to status, or uses his equality as God as a weapon to dominate or coerce or crush. Though he is, so to speak, at the top, the Jesus of whom Paul sings has no interest in the kind of power that many of us spend our entire lives purchasing. Paul instead gives us a Jesus who shows us the way down. And that matters. That matters because there is no shortage of distorted visions of Jesus in our country. There is a version of Jesus preached in our nation that is obsessed with dominance and control and spectacle and grievance. A Jesus that is draped in the symbols of national power. A Jesus remade in the image of empire. But that is not the Jesus that we find in Philippians. The Jesus that Paul sings about. He does not seize power. He empties himself. He does not crush his enemies. He takes the form of a servant. He does not climb how uh higher. He stoops lower. Because, friends, it's impossible to wash someone's feet when you put energies rather into climbing above them. And before we imagine this is only someone else's temptation, we we ought to be honest with ourselves and admit that we all prefer the way up. We all want the Jesus who will justify our pride and baptize our ambition and bless our need to come out on top. But thanks be to God that Paul will not let us settle for that kind of savior. He instead points us to the crucified and self-empty in Christ, and he says, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Unless we imagine that the mind of Christ is too lofty or too poetic or too abstract, too far beyond us, Paul offers us something refreshingly practical. He points to two people that the Philippians knew by name, Timothy and Epaphroditus. And then the church is invited to see what Christ-shaped humility, concern, and self-giving service can look like in ordinary human life. We spoke briefly about Ephroditus two weeks ago. You may remember him as the member of the church in Philippi who was sent to Paul in prison to bring him provisions and comfort and solidarity. And as we read today, he became almost deathly ill, but thankfully he recovered. And Paul sent Ephroditus back to the Philippians with the letter that you and I are reading right now. And here, Epaphroditus becomes a living model of that self-emptying love that Paul sings of in the Christ hymn. And then the other person is Timothy. And while we don't have as many specific details about Timothy as we do Ephroditus, Paul speaks of him with equal trust and tenderness. He speaks of Timothy with almost a parental tone, emphasizing that he is not one who seeks his own interest, but rather acts in the interest of others. So, in other words, Timothy and Epaphroditus become flesh and blood, a flesh and blood pitcher of the mind of Christ, not grasping for a status, not seeking their own advantage, but pouring themselves out in genuine concern for others. And of course, Timothy and Epaphroditus are not the only people Paul holds up as examples of gospel faithfulness. In this very letter, Paul later names two women, Eudoia and Syntiche, who he says struggled beside him in the work of the gospel. And Paul's letter is full of other women, Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, Lydia, just to name a few whose faithfulness helped carry the early church forward. But here in this moment, Paul points to Timothy and Epaphroditus as two beloved siblings whose ordinary faithfulness makes the mind of Christ visible. They're not celebrities of the early church. They're not grasping for the top. They are simply people whose joy, whose lives have been shaped by the way of Jesus. And that's who I think we're trying to be here at Guilford Park Presbyterian Church. Imperfect saints whose lives are shaped by the way of Jesus. A Jesus who shows us the way down. A Jesus who invites but doesn't impose, serves rather than shows off, who frees rather than fear-mongers. A Jesus who cares less about whether the Ten Commandments are posted in a classroom than about whether the children in that same classroom are safe from gun violence and hunger. A Jesus who is less impressed by someone reading the Bible for show than by a life spent loving their neighbors. A Jesus who doesn't show fear, but instead plants mercy and compassion. That's the way down. That's the Jesus that we find in Philippians. That's the Jesus that I think you and I are called to model each and every day of our lives. Because ultimately, I think you and I have a choice. We can choose to fill ourselves with the endless search for influence and political power, or we can be filled with something different. A love that kneels at the feet of our neighbors, towel in hand, ready to serve. And so in that light, I want us to do exactly what Paul does in this passage. We're going to sing a song of the church that reminds us how to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus. So together, let's finish this hint, this sermon by singing, Yesu, Yesu, fill us with your love. Neighbors, I invite you to rise as you're able in body or in spirit.