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Prototype: The Mindset of Christ
2025-1-7 | Pastor Stacey Littlefield
During the season of Advent, we focused on the beauty and power and profound impact of Christ’s Incarnation on us and the cosmos in which we live. But the wonder of this singular Christmas Event doesn’t stop there. The Incarnation—the birth of Christ in our midst as one of us—is an ongoing reality meant to continually shape our lives, our way of being in the world, and how we pursue God’s purposes in the world as a community of faith.
Christ was not only our Savior; Christ was our Prototype.
Beginning Sunday, January 11, we will launch a new preaching and worship series on the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We will stay with this study right through the season of Lent, all the way up to Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
We will open by looking at the central passage of Philippians, chapter 2.5-11, which holds the whole letter together in the form of an ancient hymn. In just a few short verses Paul lays out a poetic and powerful retelling of Jesus’ Incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation.
The rest of the sections in Philippians flow out of and contribute to how we are to understand the hymn in chapter 2.5-11 and how it is to shape our lives.
Paul writes,
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!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
In humility, the Son of God served us and saved us and showed us the way to go and how to walk in his footsteps.
His incarnation, his life, and his death have given us a blueprint for our lives and relationships, and our walk with God. He has exemplified what it means to be truly human, as God intended.
Christ has also shown us our future—resurrection and exaltation.
He is our Prototype.
Over the next few days, I encourage to read through the book of Philippians once or twice to prepare for our time together. Or maybe you could consider slowly memorizing the verses 5-11 of Philippians 2.
See you next in a couple of weeks!