Skip to content What Would Jesus Do? - Part A Dec 30 · 26 min ...more
What Would Jesus Do? - Part A
December 30, 2025 · 26 min
Who is Jesus—really? Pastor Skip explains how Christ is both fully God and fully man, and why that truth changes everything about how you live.
Series Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast December 30, 2025 · 26 min · Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast
Who is Jesus—really? Pastor Skip explains how Christ is both fully God and fully man, and why that truth changes everything about how you live. ...more Show the full description Show less Who is Jesus—really? Pastor Skip explains how Christ is both fully God and fully man, and why that truth changes everything about how you live.
Series Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
565K followers
Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the
565K followers
0:01 Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you've tuned in today. At Connect with Skip, our passion is to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus through solid verse by verse bible teaching that's0:12 both clear and practical. Every message you hear is designed to strengthen your faith and help you live out God's truth wherever he's placed you. But did you know that you can stay connected beyond the0:24 broadcast? When you sign up for pastor Skip's free weekly devotional, you'll receive biblical encouragement, exclusive content, and free resources to help you go deeper in God's word, all0:36 delivered straight to your inbox. It's quick, easy, and completely free, and it's a great way to stay rooted in truth every week. Sign up today at connectwithskip dot com. That's0:47 connectwithskip dot com. Now here's today's message from pastor Skip Heitzig.0:53 The title of my message is What Would Jesus Do? Now that's not an original title, obviously. You've all seen the bracelets and seen the little acronym WWJD, What Would Jesus1:05 Do? Let me tell you how that started. 18 96. That's when it started, 18 96. A guy by the name of Charles Sheldon wrote a book called1:17 In His Steps. The book was a story about a pastor in the Midwest who challenged his congregation. For the next year before they made any decision, entered into any1:29 transaction, did any action to filter that through the notion of what would Jesus do. And the book goes on to show how the whole church was1:40 transformed by that approach to life. And in turn, the whole community was changed. So that's where it began. 18 96, that book was published. But in1:52 19 90, a youth leader in Michigan decided that her group of young believers, the youth group, ought to have a little bracelet so they2:04 could wear it around and people could ask them about it and started a grassroots movement that spread around the world, What Would Jesus Do? WWJD. Now2:16 as wonderful as that is, I bet you have discovered that actually doing what Jesus would do is hard. It's hard to put it into practice.2:28 1 mom found that out. She had been trying to teach her 2 boys this lesson, what would Jesus do? The oldest boy was Kevin. He was 5 years old. Brian was2:40 3 years old. 1 day, it was Saturday morning, she's cooking them up breakfast, making pancakes. And the 2 boys started arguing about who ought to have the first pancake.2:52 I want it. No, I want it. No, I want it. So she thought this is a perfect teaching moment. What would Jesus do? So she said, boys, if Jesus were here, what would Jesus do? And before they3:04 could answer it, she said, I'll tell you what Jesus would do. He would say, I'm going to let my brother have the first pancake. Well, Kevin, the oldest, turned to Ryan the youngest and said, hey, Ryan,3:16 you be Jesus. It's a whole lot easier to say, you be like Jesus rather than me. And to answer question, what would Jesus do? You have to first3:28 ask the question, what has Jesus done? And Paul answers that question by giving us 4 characteristics of Jesus Christ. They are outlined for3:40 you in your little bulletin, the little worship folder. You have an outline there. We're going to look at verse 5 through 11 in just a moment because verse 5 through 113:52 form a paragraph of thought. It is an example of Paul's principle. If you remember last week, Paul gave a principle. He4:04 said, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. That was the principle. Now he gives us4:15 an example of that. And the example he chooses is the ultimate example. It's the example of Jesus Christ. He's going to give more examples as we keep reading this4:27 book. He'll give an example using a guy by the name of Epaphroditus as an example of humility. He'll also give us an example of Timothy as an example of humility.4:39 But first, he gives us the example of Jesus Christ. Now, just have to say this. The text we are about to read is 1 of the deepest, most glorious texts4:51 in the entire New Testament. It is like the seminal text that talks about the condescension of the second person of the5:03 Trinity, Jesus Christ, as God becoming man. Now keeping that in mind, let's look at verse 5, read through verse 11. But we're really5:14 only going to talk about up to verse 8 today. But let's just read it all. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider5:26 it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.5:39 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has5:51 also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, as we just sang a moment ago, every knee should bow of those in heaven and6:03 those on the earth and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, we're going to split that6:15 paragraph in 2. We're going to take the first part this week, second part next week. We're going to talk about his lowering today. Next week, we're going to look at his lifting. Today, we're6:27 going to look at the cross. Next time, we're going to consider more the crown. Today, we look at him giving up his glory. Next time, we'll look at gaining more6:39 glory. Now, before we can ever appreciate what Jesus has done, we have to understand who Jesus Christ was. You will never6:50 appreciate this whole idea that Paul presents unless you begin where Paul began, understanding who Jesus Christ was and is. And over the years,7:02 I've always been interested in what people think about Jesus. I usually ask people that. What do you think about Jesus? Who is he to you? Some of the things that people believe7:14 I've already known. Some of the things I discover I'm baffled by. I'm just amazed that people actually think these things. I've known, for example, that many Hindus believe that Jesus is the7:25 reincarnation of Lord Krishna. I've understood that the Mormon church believes that Jesus was a product of a sexual union between the resurrected Adam7:37 God and the Virgin Mary, or that the Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first created being, AKA also known as Michael the Archangel.7:50 But then there are some even wilder ideas, like Jesus was an illusionist who went around practicing magic. Or here's 1 I came across recently. Jesus is an alien who came8:01 from Venus. And then there are those who espouse the fact or the idea not a fact at all the erroneous idea that Jesus was the husband8:13 of Mary Magdalene. And together, they procreated a secret lineage to rule the world. Well, the Bible says Jesus Christ is God.8:26 He is God who humbled himself to become a man. And I want to share with you 4 descriptions that form the character of Christ. First of all, His divinity,8:38 His divinity. Verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We'll get to that in a moment. But look at verse 6.8:50 Who being in the form of God. You see that little phrase form of God? That is translated in English from the9:01 Greek, morphe theeou. And morphe theeu, literally translated, is form of God. But it's not the best translation.9:14 Because when you and I think of the word form, we think of an outward form. We think of size and we think of shape. But that is not the word that is used. He uses the word9:25 morphe. If Paul wanted to talk about outward form, he would have used the Greek word schema. Morphe, outward form,9:37 the word that he uses here, the word morphe speaks about essence, nature, or character. It's who you are at your core. That's morphe. Morphe never changes.9:48 Schema always changes. That's the outward form. Here's an example. As a human being, we have both morphe and schema. Morphe. We have10:00 the essence of who we are from birth. That is, we are human. That is our morphe. You are a human being from your birth through every stage of your life all the way to death. That's the essence of your10:12 nature. You are humanity. But your schema, outward form, changes throughout life. You begin as a zygote. You go, I didn't even know what that is. After a10:24 zygote, you became an embryo. Then your form changed to a fetus. Then your form changed to a small baby being born, an infant. Then your form changed to a toddler. Then you10:36 became an adolescent. Then you became an adult. That's the schema. It always changes. The morphe never changes. So what Paul is saying by this is saying that Jesus Christ possessed the10:47 unchangeable, essential nature and character of God, who being in the form of God. And please notice the word in10:59 verse 6, being. You see that word, who being in the form of God? That's a present active participle. And some of you are going, oh, no, not an English11:10 class. I thought I got out of that. Why that is important is this. In using it this way, he is saying that Jesus Christ always has been11:22 and presently continues to be in very essence and nature God. This is why Jesus could say, he who has seen me has seen the Father.11:35 If you've seen me, you have seen the father.11:37 This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. As we reach the end of 20 25, generous support from friends like you is vital to keep Connect with Skip Heitzig strong and sharing God's unchanging truth around the11:48 world. Your year end gift helps more people hear the gospel and find lasting hope in Jesus. And to thank you for your generosity, we'll send you the Daily God Journal, pastor Skip's new yearlong12:00 prayer journal, together with the digital devotional, the Daily God Book. These resources will guide you through scripture day by day, helping you align your heart with God and experience his peace.12:12 Request yours when you give a year end gift of 50 dollars or more at connect with Skip dot com slash offer or call 8 0 0 9 2 2 1 8 8 8. Let's return now to today's12:24 message.12:25 So Jesus never became God at a certain point. Because he used this word, Paul wants us to know he always was this way and continues to12:37 always be this way, who being in the form of God. So the deity of Christ was prehuman. It was pre Bethlehem. A while back, I had a knock on my12:48 door. I opened it up. It was Jehovah Witness. And I've been through a number of these encounters, so I kind of know the song and dance. And so I just decided, you know, I'm just going to cut to the chase. I said, I13:00 believe Jesus Christ is God in a human body. Took a step back and almost had an apoplectic reaction to that. Said, no, He is God. No, He's not. I13:12 said, well, the Bible says He is. No, it doesn't. Yeah, it does. No, it doesn't. The Bible and so I said, John one:one, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he goes, ah,13:24 that's a wrong translation. It literally is, in the beginning was the word, and the word is with God, and the word was a god. The goat doesn't say that. It does say that. So I pulled out my Greek New Testament, opened13:36 it up, turned to John one:one, and read it to him out loud. I13:50 said it states very plainly that the God is the Word. And then I said, listen, if you're telling me Jesus was a14:02 god, now you have bigger problems because you just are telling me there are 2 gods. And he started to register a little bit like, yeah. But quickly, it went south from14:14 there. It didn't go well after that. But to say that Jesus never claimed to be God is a ludicrous statement. The only 1 who could ever make such a statement is somebody either who,14:26 A, has never read the New Testament or, B, blatantly denies the plain text that is written in the New Testament. For example, in Luke 5, you know the story of14:37 the crippled man being led to the rooftop by his buddies. They lowered him down, and he can't move. And he's paralytic. And Jesus looks at him, and he says, man, your sins are forgiven.14:51 On the other side of the room are the enemies, the scribes, the Pharisees who said, he speaks blasphemy. Nobody can forgive sins but God only.15:03 Duh. That's the whole point of him saying, your sins are forgiven, because only God can forgive sins. In John chapter 8, Jesus said, before15:15 Abraham was, I am. I am is, as you know, that Old Testament construction of absolute timelessness when God said to Moses, I am that15:26 I am. In John chapter 5, we're told the Pharisees sought to kill Jesus because he said God was his father, making himself equal with15:38 God. And then in John chapter 10, the Jews wanted to stone Jesus. Jesus said, many good works I have done for my Father.15:50 Which of these good works do you want to stone me for? And they said, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man,16:02 always make yourself out to be God. They understood what Jesus was saying about himself. This is why when Jesus rose from the dead and stood before16:13 Thomas, Jesus didn't argue with Thomas when Thomas said, my Lord and my, what? God. So listen, if Jesus was not God, then he deserves an16:25 Academy Award, because he sure acted like it and talked like it for 3 and onetwo years in his ministry. So Paul is talking about his divinity, who being16:37 in very nature God, or who being in the form of God, meaning Jesus Christ is the God who created everything. John one:one and then John one:two,16:49 All things were made by Him, and without Him, was made that has been made. So when you look at the Milky Way galaxy and remember there's 10000000000017:00 stars in that galaxy and think that they say there are 100000000000 other galaxies beside that, down to the 800000 cataloged insects that crawl on the earth and that bother17:12 your garden? Jesus made those. That's why he could stand before the waves in the sea and tell them to shut up, rebuke them, basically, and say,17:24 stop. And it says, the winds and the sea obeyed Him. He could do that because he had the authority to do that as creator God. So he begins with the divinity of17:36 Christ, followed by number 2, second characteristics, his humility. Who, being in the form of God verse 6 now watch this did not consider it robbery17:48 to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Now, does that mean? Robbery is a word that means to seize or17:59 to carry off by force. It was a word used of a soldier who would plunder and steal. Why is Paul using that term to describe Jesus?18:12 He means to say and it often translated this way he didn't think equality with God was something to be grabbed ahold of. That's how it is often translated18:24 in modern versions of the New Testament. So Paul's idea here is this. Jesus didn't think that equality with God was something to be taken and held onto and clutch18:36 and never let it go. Now think for a moment. Jesus, as God, didn't need anything. He had all the angels around Him in heaven giving Him18:48 praise. He had all the glory of heaven. Being in heaven with the Father and with the Spirit, he reigned over all of creation. Now, could have stayed right there. That's a pretty good gig.19:01 Why would anybody want to leave that? And the answer is because he wasn't thinking of himself. He was thinking of others. His attitude was an attitude of unselfish19:13 concern. You see, that's the principle that Paul begins with back in verse 3 and 4. So it's as if Jesus said, I'm not going to keep my privileges for myself. I'm going to lay them aside and19:24 serve others. Now look again at verse 7. But he made himself of no reputation. At this point, it's like Paul19:36 goes, hey, come here. Let me take you backstage into the mysteries of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and let you know what is really going on. It's like he's given19:48 us direct insight into the miracle of all miracles, and that is the Incarnation. The20:00 Incarnation of Jesus Christ is like the theological diamond that sparkles brighter than any other. Did you know that many scholars believe that verses 5 through20:11 8 was originally a hymn that was sung by the early church? Wouldn't you love to hear this put to music? So they sang it, and they sang it so they would remember and20:23 commemorate the incarnation. It was that important to them. It was that important to them. Having said that, I also have to say, I don't totally get it.20:36 And I'm not afraid to admit that. When it comes to God becoming a human being, it's like, boy, do I believe that? I'd even die believing that. I'd die for that. But to really get my head all the way around that, it's20:48 like the Trinity. I'm accepting it by faith. But it's well, Paul put it this way. Great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh. It's 1 of those great20:59 mysteries. I sometimes feel like the little boy who was outside looking up stars, and he said, Mom, are you sure God's up there? She said, Sweetheart, He's up there. He's everywhere.21:12 You're sure he's up there? Yeah, I'm sure. Then he said, wouldn't it be great if he just poke his head out from time to time so we could see him? Essentially, the incarnation was that, God21:24 poking his head out, moreover, taking on human skin and living among us. That's the incarnation.21:36 Now, the incarnation was a fulfillment of what Isaiah the prophet said would happen. A child would be born. You will call his name Emmanuel, which is translated21:47 what? God with us. Jesus Christ is God with us. Now, I want your eyes to see it for yourself. Look at what it21:59 says. He made himself of no reputation. All of those words are 1 single word in the original Greek language, echenosyn,22:11 echenosyn. Theologians talk about the kenosis, the emptying. Because this word made himself of no reputation, echenosyn, means to empty of22:23 contents, to take something and pour it out. So if you were here Wednesday night and you saw me pour water in that cup and poured out the contents, it's saying Jesus, who being in very nature God,22:35 poured Himself out. He emptied Himself of content. The question and the controversy is, what did Jesus empty himself of when he poured himself22:47 out? What did he empty himself of? You can't say of deity. Because remember, Paul's whole point is Jesus, by very nature, always was and continues to be and evermore will be God. He always22:59 is that's His nature. So when it says He emptied Himself, what did He empty Himself of? Here's the answer the privileges of deity, the prerogatives of deity.23:10 1 of those was His glory. Jesus in heaven enjoying the anthems of praise of all the angelic beings, being in intimate, close, face to face23:22 fellowship with His Father, He gave up that glory. This is why he prays in John 17, verse 5. He says, and now, Father, glorify me together with23:33 yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. He longed to have that glory back that He poured out.23:46 A second thing He emptied Himself of was independent authority, independent authority. That is, while He was on the earth, He completely submitted to His Father's will.23:58 Jesus in John 5 said, I do not seek my own will. I seek the will of Him who sent me. You remember what Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane when they24:10 came to arrest Him before that point, and He was experiencing the anguish of what He was about to go through? And He said, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will,24:23 but your will be done. So get the picture. Jesus Christ had all the rights and authority as God, but he didn't hold on, didn't grasp, didn't clutch24:35 that. He emptied himself of certain privileges, prerogatives, and 1 of those was independent authority.24:43 We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. And remember, before you go, your generosity today makes a real difference. As this year ends, your gift of 50 dollars or24:55 more helps more people hear God's word and find lasting hope in Jesus. And to thank you, we'll send you the daily god journal along with the companion digital devotional, the daily god book.25:07 These resources will help you start the new year aligned with god's heart and growing in faith each day. Give your year end gift now at connect with Skip dot com slash offer or call25:18 809 2 2 18 88. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig.25:49 Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.