He Emptied Himself
Notes
Transcript
Notes:
Notes:
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Luke 1:46b-49 “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
Pastoral Prayer
Pastoral Prayer
(Jeff)
Family Matters
Family Matters
New Year’s service: also no Sunday School
Benediction
Benediction
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
Sermon:
Sermon:
Intro:
Intro:
Should believers celebrate Christmas?
Not in Bible…
JW’s say no…
Truth is: freedom (Christmas gets so bad… )
Why would we consider it something worth celebrating? Spiritually wise?
JW’s wouldn’t understand why, b/c truth they deny
What we celebrate is startling/unexpected/otherworldly => God the Son became one of us…
Read Philippians 2:3-11
The Incarnation
The Incarnation
(starting in vs. 6-7)
“...who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
He Existed “in the form of God”
He Existed “in the form of God”
One of those phrases which seems simple… but wait… God doesn’t have a form/appearance
Invisible God (Col. 1:15)
So: “form of God” = a phrase that requires us to reflect…
Form = ?
outward appearance of God’s majestic perfections
God’s perfections not on full display everywhere/at every time…
Heavens declare = give us strong hints about God’s divine nature…
Scriptures teach = better, but still in a mirror dimly… (but gets bright sometimes by HS’s work)
Yet we do see God’s majesty revealed… (Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc.)
glory of God = display/revealing/outshining of perfections…
God is who he is w/ no need to ever show us anything about himself…
Yet, he does show glory:
glory in judgement against Pharao/redemption of Israel
Moses: “show me your glory”
glory filling Solomon’s temple
Conclusion: Before he became one of us, the Son of God was in the form of God = displayed the full glory of God
Example:
John on how Isaiah wrote about Jesus—
Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
What did Isaiah see? The glory of the God the Son.
But there’s only one place in the book of Isaiah where Isaiah “sees” glory:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
So this is what it was like to behold the Son when he was “in the form of God”
Note: being “in the form of God” => also being God by nature… you have to be God to display God’s glory in that way. [BTW: trinity again… how did Father reveal himself to Isaiah? Through the Son, enthroned… just as he reveals himself to us through the Son… ]
He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”
He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”
Equality with God is His by nature => praise/worship of heaven + earth
He gave this up:
Not actual equality w/ God
But voluntarily laid aside rights/privileges/glories…
It was his by right to express the power and knowledge of God
It was his by right not to be bound by the limitations of a physical body or to suffer the curse/effects of sin in our world
It was his by right to immediately defeat and judge his enemies
It was his by right to be seen fully as God…
“but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (vs. 7)
“but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (vs. 7)
Emptied himself… how? …taking the form of a servant…
Some say => emptied himself of divine attributes, or lessened his divine attributes, or divested himself of at least some degree of divine power, or changed his status within the trinity, etc… sounds good at first… but two problems:
First, not what vs. 7 actually says…
Second, to whatever extent Jesus emptied himself of divine attributes => not Immanuel/God with us!
More biblical => subtraction by addition
NOT empty himself by becoming less divine, but:
Emptied himself by, “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men”
He emptied himself by adding to himself a human nature
He emptied himself by being conceived in Mary’s womb by the HS, and then born in Bethlehem!
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.
So here is the story of Christmas: God the Son—of power and glory so great that it shook the holy prophet Isaiah to his core when he saw just a glimpse of it—God the Son laid aside the glories of heaven to be born into the squalor of an ancient Jewish peasant family.
Heralded by angels, worshipped by filthy, low-class sheep-herders.
Conceived miraculously into a family that no one important cared about.
Pushed out into the world through the agony of his mother’s birth pains as a totally helpless infant. God with us. Immanuel.
Able now not just to crush his enemies in power, but also to fulfill all the OT promises of redemption—his steadfast lovingkindness—to draw many from among his enemies to himself, to receive all who come to him in faith, to cleanse them from sin and lift them up into the very life of God—restored fellowship with their Maker.
Note: a Second Humiliation
Note: a Second Humiliation
Note =>
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Also humbled => death
Why?
Why?
To Accomplish Our Salvation
To Accomplish Our Salvation
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Why was he able to crush Satan, and remove the fear of death?
b/c he shared in our flesh + blood
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Why able to be our High Priest/atone for our sin?
b/c he was made like us in every way… able to cleanse from the guilt of sin + help us in temptation
To Glorify the Father
To Glorify the Father
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
As a result of Christ’s utter humiliation, the Father exalted him to highest place/gave him highest name… Lord = YHWH
Why? In part, to vindicate Jesus’ humiliation in being born in Bethlehem, and crucified outside of Jerusalem = actions which displayed God’s covenant-keeping love
He displayed the covenant-keeping love of the Father, and therefore, as Christ is worshiped, the Father is glorified.
So here is the significance of Christmas: God the Son became one of us—came down as light into our darkness—for us and for our salvation. He became one of us in order to die as one of us and thus crush Satan and death on our behalf. He became one of us in order to become our faithful high priest and deliver us from sin. And he became one of us in order to make possible our adoption by the Father—our union with God. And he did all of this in order to display the glory of God’s covenant-keeping love, so that the Father might be glorified through the exaltation of the Son.
So then, is it wise to set aside a day to celebrate the glorious humiliation of the Son in Bethlehem?
Prayer:
Prayer:
worship + imitation