Follow The Leader
Kenzie Schulz · Tidal Church Shediac · October 11, 2026 · Joy Anyway series
Kenzie Schulz explores Philippians 2:1-11, where Christ gave up His privileges, stepped into vulnerability and was lifted up by the Father. Freed from status and self-promotion, we can humbly love and serve others, trusting Him with our fears.
More from Kenzie Schulz · The Joy Anyway series
Topics: Identity, Fear & Anxiety, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. If we've not met yet, my name is Kenzie. I got to grow up going to Tidal Church in Moncton, and it's a huge blessing to be with you here this morning. Now, before I begin, I wanted for us to go through the Nicene Creed together. So, this is a Creed, a statement of faith that recently celebrated its 1700th birthday, and this has been used by Christians across cultures, generations, church traditions, across the world to declare our faith together and remind ourselves of the foundational things that we believe about God.
[0:54] So, if you're comfortable, would you stand together? And we'll, we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made of one being with the Father, through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man.
[1:56] For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
[2:45] We believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. Thank you very much. Have you ever been given authority that you didn't expect? In February of 2014, I and a team from Tidal Church went on a short-term volunteering trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a trip that was actually led by our very own Pastor Nathan.
[3:35] Now, while we were there, we stayed with a long-term missionary couple named Carl and Maya Gilles. A few days after we arrived, we were having a Saturday evening meeting in the Gilles living room, talking about plans for the week. During that meeting, Carl mentioned that at the church we were going to the next day, the pastor and congregation would love it if one of us shared basically a mini-message before his main sermon. Carl would then translate our words into Haitian Creole. Now, at that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to volunteer to speak the next day, almost like a mental elbow in the ribs.
[4:24] But you see, here's the thing. I was one of the youngest people on the trip. I had never preached, shared a message from Scripture, led a Bible study, or anything similar before. And believe it or not, I wasn't the type of no one else volunteered, and the conversation went on to another topic. About half an hour later, Carl again brought up the idea of one of us sharing a short message before the pastor's sermon. And again, now stronger than ever, I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to volunteer.
[5:15] After I waited a good long moment to see if anyone else would step forward, I raised my hand and said that I would share, much to the surprise of most people in the room, including my dad, who was also on the trip. In that moment, whether I liked it or not, and if you haven't already guessed, I didn't much like it at the time, I was given the authority of interpreting God's word for the sake of his church, both my fellow team members and the local Haitian believers. The responsibility of preaching continues to humble me to this day.
[6:00] For the purpose of our time together today, I'm going to define authority as the capacity for meaningful action. Now, I didn't come up with this definition. I'll get to that a bit later. Meaningful action can be in the form of directly changing something yourself or telling someone else what to do, but it can also be through all sorts of other influences. For example, let's say you're a film director. You have authority over your cast and crew in that you can reasonably expect them to do what you say, but you can also have authority over your audience by inspiring them, encouraging them, or giving them a new perspective.
[6:51] You might even show authority over the whole film industry by influencing the way that other directors make their movies and the messages that they convey through them. People come about having authority in many different ways. Some people are born into authority because of who their parents are, and then hopefully learn to use it well. Many people earn their authority through long years of honing a skill set and convincing others to trust them with bigger resources and higher positions. Most people here today have probably had an experience of suddenly being given authority that you weren't expecting, like what happened to me that night in Port -au-Prince.
[7:44] Maybe as a teenager you were asked to babysit someone younger than you, or maybe you've been put in charge of a group project at school or work. However you arrive at authority, especially if it's going to be long term, you'll have to decide what you're going to do with it. One way or another you will be forced to answer questions like these. Do I want to keep the authority I have? If so, how will I keep it? Do I want more authority? If so, how will I get it? What will I do if my authority is challenged, for example through competition or other people not responding to what you do or say?
[8:36] And what am I using this for anyway? What's my goal here? Who's good am I seeking? Of course, we are far from the first people to have to wrestle with questions like these. Right now we're in the middle of studying Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. Now if you've been tracking along with us through this series, you've learned a few things about this ancient city that help set the stage for understanding the letter. What's most important for our passage today is that like most other Roman cities, Philippi had an imperial cult at the time of the first century.
[9:23] The people who Paul was writing to, especially Gentiles in the church, had grown up surrounded by the worship of Caesar as Lord and Savior. When they thought of what it meant to have and to use status and power and authority, the model that most easily popped into their minds was that of their emperors. But for the church in Philippi and for their brothers and sisters throughout the empire, Caesar was not Lord. Jesus was. And what Paul's going to show in today's passage is that in King Jesus, the church has a completely new vision of how to use their authority and of what it even means to have authority in the first place.
[10:24] Let's see how he unpacks this and encourages the church to live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, even as they and we continue to live in the kingdoms of earth. Starting in verse one, is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Okay, pause there for a moment. Now, it's easy enough for us to look at these first three questions and to think, well, of course there is encouragement from belonging to Christ.
[11:13] Of course, there is comfort from his love and fellowship in the spirit. But then Paul's fourth question and the rest of the passage reveal that he's not asking these things in the abstract. You see the question isn't whether all of these qualities exist somewhere out there. The question is whether they exist in you and I. Am I and are you encouraged from belonging to Christ? Do we take comfort from his love? Do we have fellowship together in the spirit?
[12:00] Are our hearts tender and compassionate? Has the reality of Jesus sunk deep into our bones and become the wellspring of our strength and wisdom for each day? The anchoring point around which our attitudes and outlooks are built? The lens through which we see ourselves, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the wider world around us? And if so, what kind of life does that produce? Not just for us as individuals, but for whole communities who are being transformed by Christ. Paul continues, then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
[13:02] There is a big distinction we need to make here between uniformity and unity. Uniformity squashes people's unique gifts and perspectives and expects us to each be clones of each other. Unity embraces people's unique qualities and uses them for the good of the whole community. As the church, we can lean on each other's strengths and insights to reflect God's love more fully and authentically together than we would apart. But while living and working together as a community has so much beauty, it also comes with its fair share of challenges.
[13:58] Feelings get hurt, commitments fall through, patience is tested, disagreements happen. If we're really going to be in this together for the long haul, then the way that we treat each other needs to reflect the grace we have been given in Jesus. Paul gives some practical guidance on how to do that in the next two verses. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too.
[14:48] Paul advocates for a life that is not measured by me, myself, or I. For the Christian, life isn't about propping myself up on the things that I can get and take, how highly other people think of me, or even how highly I think of myself. We don't need to be propped up by possessions or opinions on earth, because we are already held up by our Father in heaven, no matter how you have been valued or devalued by other people, no matter how highly or lowly you think of yourself, there is only one who gets to make the final call on how valuable you are, and he has made his decision loud and clear. Because I know what God has already said about me, I am set free from trying to build up a status and an image for myself, and I am set free to live a life that is measured in mercy, compassion, reconciliation, a life that declares that Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not, and I certainly am not either.
[16:34] Now, I've got a question for myself and my fellow believers. What keeps us from living this way? Why do we, as followers of Jesus, so often struggle to not put ourselves at the center of our lives? Why do we keep holding on to the self-proper upper, rather than embracing what God has already said about us? As I was preparing for this message, I read a book called Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch.
[17:20] Now, in this book, he focuses on two characteristics of human life, authority and vulnerability. Andy defines authority as the capacity for meaningful action. Yes, that's where I got my definition earlier. And he defines vulnerability as the exposure to meaningful risk. His main argument throughout the book is that in order to have a truly flourishing life, each of us needs to embrace a combination of both authority and vulnerability. We each need to have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on our world and to put into use the gifts that God has given us.
[18:15] Now, in order to express that authority well, we can't hold each other at arm's length or hide behind status and image. We also need to embrace the risks of loving, serving, and standing alongside each other. Now, here's the problem. Those real risks create real fear. It's usually one thing for us to accept more authority. In fact, many of us actively work for it. But accepting more vulnerability, that's something we usually try to avoid if we can, because of the fears and anxieties that come with stepping into risk.
[19:07] Let's go back to verses 3 and 4 of Philippians 2, and I'll show you what I mean. 1. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. But what will they think of me then? How will I know that I have their approval? Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Well, how do I know that they won't think of and treat me as less important? 2. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Well, if I don't put my own interests front and center, who else is going to?
[19:54] And so these fears keep us locked away from each other, away from the truly flourishing life of getting to lean on each other and into the loneliness of self-preservation. Our idols know that we have these fears, and they play on them by promising us risk-free authority. Whether you call your idol Caesar, Baal, or Asherah, or whether you simply call it greed, power, or control, our idols promise that if we walk in their ways and we do what they want, they will give us the ability to do as we please and take what we want without having to worry about uncertainty, mistakes, or the side effects of our actions.
[20:57] 3. Think of the serpent's words to Adam and Eve in the garden. God doesn't have your best interests at heart. He's trying to keep you from your full potential. That's the fear part. Eat from the tree, and you'll have the authority of being like God without the vulnerability of trusting and obeying him. Of course, just like the serpent's words, these promises turn out to be empty in the end. Instead of showing us the path to freedom, idols only lead to suffering, both for the people deceived by them and for many others who they hurt along the way.
[21:54] Who will release us from this snare, to have life, and to have it abundantly? Who will go before us as a new representative, a second Adam, to pave the way for a new humanity living in trust and obedience to God? Who will show us what it looks like to walk in real authority? And who will be by our side as we experience real vulnerability? Many scholars believe that the next verses and flippings too are taken from an early Christian hymn.
[22:42] In fact, you might have heard this passage referred to as the hymn of Christ. Would you stand together and let's declare this truth about Jesus. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.
[23:40] Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Thank you, you may be seated. Let's walk through this passage and see what it reveals about how great our God is. Starting in verse 5, you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had or as another translation puts it, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.
[24:40] Not the mind that can be yours in Christ Jesus if you just try hard enough and get your act together, but the mind that is yours in Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus didn't just come to set an example for us to imitate, although he did do that. He came as a king to establish his kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world and does not trust in or rely on the powers of the world but in the one who has overcome it. Verse 6, though he was God, though he already had all power, all authority, all honor, all glory, all worthiness to be praised, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
[25:47] He didn't stay separate from his creation. He didn't hold us at arm's length in the safety of risk-free authority, but was moved by love to step into vulnerability. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Jesus fully entered into the human experience. He didn't just try out being a human or act out being a human. He really lived a human life and a difficult one at that with all of its joy and beauty but also all of its challenges and pains. He embraced the vulnerability of human life and stood alongside us in our weakness, while at the same time never losing his authority as God but revealing it in a way that no one expected. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.
[27:15] Roman crucifixion was not just simply meant to be painful. It was meant to be the most humiliating, degrading way for someone to die. It was usually reserved for people who had rebelled against Rome and it served to show the utter failure of their rebellion, that the empire had complete control over their life and death. A victim of crucifixion spent their last moments on earth powerless, alone, and despised.
[28:02] In his death, Jesus took the full weight of human evil upon himself and allowed it to crush him. But that wasn't the end of the story. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
[28:59] The very cross that was meant to show Jesus' weakness and defeat became God's ultimate show of his life-saving power and victory over the grave. This brutal means of death became a wellspring of eternal life flowing to the ends of the earth. By raising Jesus to new life and exalting him to his right hand, God the Father transformed the cross of shame into a throne of glory. As followers of Jesus, we still continue to face the effects of human evil on earth. There are plenty of modern-day Caesar's on scales big and small, who try to gather all the controlling authority they can while also trying to shield themselves from any exposure to risk.
[30:06] We ourselves are tempted day by day to run from vulnerability, yet we have been given a hope and a promise that one day every wound dealt by sin will be healed. Every heart and home broken by evil will be restored, and every tear will be wiped from our eyes. One day the lies of the enemy will be exposed for what they are, and the worship of Caesar will be put to shame as all acknowledge that true glory and honor belong alone to the Lamb of God.
[30:57] In the meantime, knowing that this is our future gives us the confidence and strength to walk in trust and obedience to our Savior each day. Now I mentioned earlier that I believe what keeps us from stepping into the risks of loving and serving each other is fear, and so I'll close with a question. What are you afraid of? What do you fear to lose by standing alongside people who are suffering? By offering the gifts that God has given you to bless people around you.
[31:44] By stepping out from behind the mask of status and image, to live as a humble servant of Christ, and then ask yourself this, how are those fears overcome by Jesus, by the life that he lived, by the kingdom he established, by his death and resurrection, by his promise to make all things new. Maybe you'll still be scared of the same things at the end of those questions, and that's okay. Jesus really does know you and understand what you're going through.
[32:33] He really will be with you as you step out in faith. Together, as people transformed and united by God's love, we can put his character on display to the world and invite people from the kingdoms of earth into the kingdom of heaven. Or, as our title church mission statement puts it, we can go the distance to bring people closer to God. Lord God, thank you for all that you have done for us. God, thank you that you didn't count your divine privileges as something to cling to.
[33:23] Thank you that you left your throne in heaven, took on flesh, and walked among us as a human. God, thank you that you stood alongside us in our weakness, and that you continue to stand alongside us. God, thank you for the eternal life that is found in you, that you took the punishment for all of our sins, that we might be set free to have life and life to the full, and life again eternal with you. God, we pray that you would show us and make us more aware of the ways that you have gifted us to be a blessing to the people around us.
[34:16] We pray that you would show us the areas of our lives where we have authority to show your character, to put you on display, and to invite people to come to know you. And God, we pray that as we experience risks in life, as we experience vulnerability, that you would remind us that you are by our side. Lord, we think of people who are experiencing great vulnerabilities this morning, people who have gotten diagnoses, people with chronic illnesses, people in countries where there is persecution, famine, where there is great violence, and other forms of oppression.
[35:13] God, we pray that you would lift up their eyes, that they would know that you are good, and that you are for them, and that you are with them. And we pray for all of us that you would inspire confidence and hope and boldness in you to declare your praises to the world. In your name we pray. Amen.