The Way of Jesus - Pastor Tim

The Way of Jesus

Pastor Tim Spirk

If you want to understand what it means to follow Jesus, you have to start with who He actually is — and what He actually did.

Not a simplified version. Not a comfortable one. The real thing.

Philippians 2 gives us one of the most breathtaking portraits of Jesus in all of Scripture — and it doesn't just tell us who He is. It tells us how we're supposed to live because of it.

Jesus Has Always Existed

Before we can understand what Jesus gave up, we have to understand what He had.

John 1:1 opens with words that echo the very beginning of Genesis: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word — Jesus — was not created. He was not born into existence at Bethlehem. He has always been. He was with God, He was God, and everything that has ever been made was made through Him.

His human birth was not His beginning. He was, He is, and He is to come. The manger was not the origin of the Son of God — it was the entry point of the eternal into the temporary.

Jesus Humbled Himself

This is where Philippians 2 becomes almost impossible to fully take in.

He is not just part of God. He is God. And yet Paul writes that He "emptied himself" — taking on human form, appearing as a servant, walking among the people He created. Picture a king who sets aside his royal robes and moves through the streets dressed as a beggar. His outward appearance changed completely. But He was still fully the king.

Jesus was tempted in every way that we are tempted. He got tired. He grieved. He was betrayed by people He loved. He entered fully into the human experience — not from a safe distance, but from the inside.

And He did it because He preferred us above Himself.

Jon Trout put it simply and profoundly: "He died on the cross as us so we could stand before the Father as Him."

That sentence is worth reading again.

The Mind of Christ

Philippians 2:5 says: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

This is not a passive suggestion. It's a call to adopt the same posture Jesus carried — to go the same distance He went to reach people, love them, and see them redeemed. To be a disciple of Christ means we do what He did. We live the way He lived.

And what does that look like practically? Verses 3–5 spell it out: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves."

Paul unpacks each of those words carefully:

Selfishness is jockeying for position — maneuvering to look powerful, insightful, or significant. Empty conceit is hollow boasting and self-promotion. And humility — the antidote to both — is thinking modestly of yourself, not grabbing for the spotlight, and genuinely recognizing the contribution others carry.

This is not weakness. It's the posture of the Son of God.

Isaiah 66:2 says God looks graciously to the one who is humble and contrite in spirit. James 4:6 says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Romans 12:3 puts it plainly: "Don't think you are better than you really are."

The way of Jesus begins with honest, grounded humility.

Jesus Was a Man Under Authority

Here's something that often gets overlooked: Jesus, fully God, chose to live as a man under authority.

He said it himself in John 5:19 — "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing." And in John 7:16 — "My teaching is not My own, but His who sent me."

When soldiers came to arrest Him in the garden, He did not call down thousands of angels to protect Himself — though He could have. When He stood before Pilate, He submitted to the authority of a man who had no idea who he was actually talking to. His obedience to the Father was not passive or automatic. It was deliberate. It wasn't easy.

But it was love.

John 4:34 gives us a window into what actually drove Him: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish and completely finish His work." The will of the Father wasn't a burden to Jesus. It was sustenance. It was what He lived for.

And here's the principle that runs through all of it: we only have authority to the degree that we come under authority. Jesus modeled this perfectly — and because He humbled Himself and was obedient all the way to the cross, God exalted Him to the highest place.

One day, every knee will bow. Not out of fear — but in honor, in humility, and in worship.

A Closing Thought

The way of Jesus is not the way the world operates. The world tells us to promote ourselves, protect our position, and move up at all costs. Jesus did the opposite at every turn — and changed everything.

Following Him means adopting His posture. Not because we have to, but because we've seen what love like His actually looks like — and nothing else compares.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

That's the invitation. And it's enough to build a whole life around.

📖 Philippians 2:1–11 | John 1:1–5 | John 5:19 | Isaiah 66:2 | James 4:6 | Romans 12:3