Gentle and Lowly Pt. 2 - Lowly

Opening

Hello, everyone! Welcome to church, I’m are so glad to see you all. Children, you are dismissed! We are so glad you are here today. If you don’t have a church family, I highly recommend getting connected here. Fill out a visitor card and get connected with Sunday School, youth group, small groups, volunteering. All of that. It’s so important to be connected in a church, so I urge you… get connected.

Anyway, welcome in! If you were not here last week, we are in a series called “Defining God,” where we’re looking at some of the characteristics of our God and teach on why these are important, what they mean, etc. etc. Now, last week we talked about Matthew 11:29 where Jesus gives us the two words that He ever used to describe His heart. I’m going to recap what we talked about last week. But before we do… Let’s read the same verses we read last week, so if you are able, stand and read with me Matthew 11:25-30

Matthew 11:25–30 (ESV)

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Did you see it, and if you where here last week, you know what we’re talking about, but did you see it? Where Jesus defines his heart for us? The only two words EVER Jesus used to describe himself… It was gentle and lowly… This is the second part of two sermons on “gentle and lowly” and last week, if you were here, you heard us talking about Gentle… and this week, we’re gonna talk about lowly.

A quick over view on gentle… because to truly get the full effect of ‘gentle and lowly’ you need to know both. So here we go… Speed round. Get out your fast writing pencil or pen… first we talked about what exactly gentle means, and going to the greek word Praus, which means “mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness.” and then we talked about meekness which means “enduring injury with patience and without resentment.” Then we looked at how Jesus lived a meek and gentle life, even to the point where He treated those who were crucifying Him with gentleness and without resentment. Then we dove into how the gospel would not be possible without the gentle heart of Christ, how because He is gentle, He can deal with all sinners, the ignorant and wayward the same, gently, and how Christ, once we are in His grasp, will never let us go. We talked about how Christ knows us to the fullest, He knows everything we’ve ever done and will do and yet He still loves us and wants us. He will never say we’re too gross or dirty for Him. Then, we wrapped it up with three challenges… to rest in the fact that your faith is secure in Christ, lean into confession of your sins to Christ, and begin to deal gently with others…

That is the crust of last weeks sermon, and if you didn’t catch and want to listen to it in its entirety, go ahead and check out our Facebook page, you should find a link to the sermon audio there. But now, let’s get into the details on the word lowly…

What is Lowly

What is lowly… that is a great question… First off, by a raising of the hands… who here would like to be thought of as lowly? Just a raise of hands… yeah, I didn’t think many of us would… The idea of being lowly we leave to those who we may look down upon… the outcasts of society, right… those people who have nasty jobs or live in rundown houses or neighborhoods… Someone who stinks and kinda is… as much as we hate to admit it… beneath us. But that, of all other words, was one of the two ways Jesus described His heart.

But how would you define the word lowly? We have our preconceived notions… but what is it really. Let’s go to the dictionary, I

Now the Webster dictionary has 5 definitions of the english word lowly, those are … as not lofty or grand; low in order of importance, value, or esteem; having or being a low rank in some hierarchy; low in a scale of evolution or development; then finally… humble in manner or spirit, free from self-assertive pride… it took our english language 5 different tries till it got to the definition Jesus meant for it here in Matthew 11:29

Matthew 11:29 ESV

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

See, I know that’s what Jesus meant when we go and look at the greek… that’s why it’s never a good idea just to take it based on the English translation… Words and meanings get lost… See, Lowly in the greek means, “humble”. Not low in order of importance or not lofty or grand but Humble. And we all know what humble means, but for the sake of reference… Webster says humble is “not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive”

Jesus is not arrogant and patient. He is not resentful or proud…

We quoted Philippians 2 last week, but I think it bares repeating today… Philippians 2:6-8 says

Philippians 2:6–8 ESV

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. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus did not see himself greater than, but less than, he saw himself as a servant. That is what it means by “lowly in heart.” Is heart is one of servitude and sacrifice… and thank God for that, am I right? If Jesus was not a God of servitude we humans would be in for a rude awakening… How many other religions serve a God who is defined by servitude? Not many, that I can think of… right? Most God’s were domineering, demanding, cruel, and served by the people who worshipped them, and if they didn’t… then they would kill them off… Think about the god, Baal, right… In 1 Kings 18 we read of the prophet Elijah proving to the people that the Baal was fake… But in that chapter how did the prophets of Baal think they had get the attention of their god? Check verse 26… It says:

1 Kings 18:26–28 ESV

And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.

They thought, when he ignored them for about 6 hours… Lets cut ourselves with swords… maybe blood will get his attention… Dude, what??? Does that sound like a god you want to serve?? NO! But instead, we serve a God that longs to hear people… that longs to serve His people. If we look at the new testament, there are TONS of examples of Jesus living lowly…

Examples of Jesus with the outcasts of society.

Like I said earlier… When you and I hear the word lowly, we can tend to think of someone who is on the edge of society, who may even be outcasts in the cultural society. When I was a freshman in high school I began to do theatre. I would act, sing, dance, the whole 9-yards. I was, and still am, a theatre kid. Love the theatre. But the drama group that we were in would could have about 100 kids in the cast ranging from 5th grade all the way to 12th. And because of the age range, there were certain groups and cliques, for lack of a better term, that formed. You had the popular kids, the ones that got all the main roles, then those who were career extras. Those who never had any lines, who would be background performers for life… now in my first year, I fell into the second category, I found myself hanging out with the outcasts… the background performers. And these people that I hung out with were real interesting characters. Into role playing games, video games, comic books, SUPER nerdy stuff… But as I started thinking about this idea of being lowly… I began to think… if Jesus came to my drama group that I was apart of in 9th grade… who would he have hung around…? The cool kids, the leads? Or would he have hung out with the people everyone thought were weird and odd and look down upon?

My guess would be the 2nd group… And if we look at the scriptures… they would back this up. Open up to Matthew 10:1-4 read it with me…

Matthew 10:1–4 ESV

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

So… Jesus’ has been carrying out his ministry and now… he thinks it’s time to call himself some disciples. Guys who were following Him and who He thought had a chance to learn even more through deeper teaching. In those days, boys would go to school to learn about the Bible and whatnot up until 12… and at 12, you would either be called by a rabbi to be his disciple or you would be pushed into a trade because you weren’t smart enough to make it to be a disciple… and this is kinda what Jesus is doing… except they aren’t the smartest kids on the block… they’ve already been rejected by the Pharisees and teachers of the law… they missed out on their chance to be a disciple of a rabbi… But to Jesus… they were the perfect dudes. Tax Collectors, Fishermen, Rebels, normal, ordinary, uneducated men who were called by Jesus… Who Jesus thought could be more. His heart towards them, the lowly, was caring and lowly back. Just because he was God didn’t mean he wanted to choose those intelligent, well-learned men to be his disciples, but instead, he chose normal dudes who had normal jobs who would be open to his invitation, “come and follow me.’ As Philippians said, he did not see the fact that he was God as something to be taken advantage of, he didn’t flaunt it. He didn’t say “I’m so much smarter than you all” but instead helped them understand and these 12, well, 11 and Matthias, later became the ones teaching and preaching and shocking everyone. In Acts 4:13-14 we even see that people knew they were common dudes, and yet they were preaching and teaching and performing miracles! Because Jesus taught them. He took the time with the lowly and spoke into their lives and gave them the right education they needed.

Acts 4:13–14 ESV

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

Second passage of scripture I want to look at is found in Matthew 9:10-13

Matthew 9:10–13 (ESV)

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Woah! According to this… WHY did Jesus come to the Earth? The Pharisees and religions leaders and those who had it all together? No. According to this verse… according to this section of scripture… according to Jesus’ mouth Himself… it’s for the sick. For the sinners. For the social outcasts. For the ‘traders to the Jews.’ If we look at verse 10… Jesus is dining with Tax Collectors. Who, since they robbed from jewish people and gave the taxes to Rome, were considered to be traders against Israel and therefore outcasted and sinners. Jesus is literally dining with them. Jesus is connecting with these people who are, in the eyes of ‘good people,’ outcasts. Outsiders. Unsavory people to hang around with. And yet, Jesus does hang out with them. Not even in a neutral area. Right? A lot of the time, if we share a meal with someone we would consider out casts… we’re not going over to their houses, are we? Noooooo. We’re getting a burger at McDonalds with them… Not going to their house for a meal. But Jesus did just that. He went to Matthew’s house and ate with the tax collectors and the sinners. Not only did Christ go and dine with sinners but he invited himself! He didn’t wait for the sinners to feel like they were good enough or popular enough to invite him, but Jesus stepped into their world and said, “i’m coming to eat with you today.”

Let’s flip quickly over to Luke 5:12-15 read it with me.

Luke 5:12–15 (ESV)

While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

Jesus TOUCHED a leper. That is wild. Leprosy is a disease where you get growths on your body and it effects the nerves, so like you get a patch of red skin on your arm and then you can’t feel that area of your body, and basically… back then, you were ostracized from your community because it really wasn’t healable and it was transmitted from your bodily fluids. So saliva, sweat, you know, the liquids from your body. And so, in these times, they literally, outside of the city a good way, would be what they called leper colonies. Where people who had leprosy would just live together.

So this account is awesome. First off, Jesus was in the city, we read that in verse 12 and yet, there was a dude with leprosy there. Yet, Jesus didn’t run away screaming as some people might have, he didn’t yell at the dude, no. He was kind, compassionate, humble. And healed the dude. how many of us, when we see someone considered lowly, how many of us run the other way, walk on the other side of the street? How many of us, when we see someone begging on the side of the road, how many of us just say “DON”T MAKE EYE CONTACT?” I DO!! (RAISE HAND)

But not Jesus. He healed a dude of a disease that was thought of as something that you just had to deal with and stay away from everyone else. He took the time, He reached out a hand, and healed the dude. Jesus was a servant, and served, he cared, he met with the lowly.

Why Should we Care About This?

Jesus never saw himself as better… he saw himself as a servant. He served the disciples as a teacher and rabbi, he served the sinners by being their doctor and friend, and he served the sick by being their healer. Our God, he is one of servitude and lowliness. He does not see himself as above us, but as someone who comes to heal, care, teach, befriend, and love us. But why does this matter for us…? We’re all decent people? Right? I don’t think any of us our bank robbers or murderers. We haven’t commited a terrible sin, right?

But we are all sinners in need of a lowly savior, willing to step into our world, invite himself in, and clean us and heal us. We have this helper, this servant with us constantly, as we talked about last week, Jesus is gentle and will ‘never let us go.’ Jesus will never stop being with us, helping us, taking care of us. In 1 John 2:1-2

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus is there that if we sin … Jesus advocates on our behalf to the father. This is different from Jesus being our intercessor as we talked about last week; see, Jesus being our intercessor is something that he does ALL THE TIME. He is constantly interceding on our behalf, Jesus advocating is something he does when we sin… Check 1 John 2:1 again ….

1 John 2:1 (ESV)

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

See… IF we sin we have the advocate. Now check Hebrews 7:25

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Jesus ALWAYS LIVES to make intercession for us. ALWAYS. John Bunyan explains it better than I could… He says,

“Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an Advocate, comes after.

Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes; Christ, as Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads.

Christ, as Priest, has need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate, sometimes only.

Christ, as Priest, acts in time of peace; but Christ, as Advocate, in times of broils, turmoils, and sharp contentions; wherefore, Christ, as Advocate, is, as I may call him, a reserve, and his time is then to arise, to stand up and plead, when his own are clothed with some filthy sin that of late they have fallen into?”

The best way I can describe it is this… Christ intercedes for us because we are sinful. Christ advocates for us WHEN we sin. He serves us in that way.

Jesus’ heart is that of servitude towards us. To Advocate for us, to cleanse us of our sins. My favorite example of this in the whole library of scripture that we have is when Jesus, right before He is to be betrayed by Judas Iscariot, washes His disciples feet. John 13:1-5 says this…

John 13:1–5 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Notice this… he washed ‘the disciples’ feet’ all 12 of them. Jesus knew what was about to happen, he knew that one of His disciples was about to betray Him. And yet, He still did the job of a servant, something even His disciples weren’t willing to do for Him, and they knew that Jesus was GOD, yet, Jesus humbled Himself, was lowly enough to wash Peter’s feet. Who was about to say he didn’t even know Jesus because he was embarrassed to be around aquatinted with Him. He washed Thomas’ feet. The guy who was going to doubt that Jesus rose from the dead! He washed James and John’s feet, they guys who were so proud they wanted to sit at Jesus side in heaven, they wanted the best seats in the house. He even washed Judas’ feet. Before those same feet were about to walk out of the room, down the street and say “Yeah, I’ll help murder the Son of God.”

GUYS! If that is not gentle and lowly I don’t know what is. And if Jesus’ heart is that lowly… that gentle… then man sign me up to abide in that… Jesus’ gentleness and lowliness tie together beautifully to draw us into the heart of Christ. Jesus’ heart for us is to advocate, intercede and draw us to Him in a way where we can undeniably be changed by it. God’s heart is beautiful, it’s accessible, and it’s for us.

Would he serve us if He was not for us? Would He heal us if He didn’t care a lick about us? Would He advocate and intercede for us if He was indifferent about the outcome of our lives? Would He forgive us again and again and again if He didn’t have some kind of care for us? No no no. God’s heart for us is one that is gentle and lowly.

How Should we Respond to This?

What does this mean for us? If this is true… if the Lord is drawing us into his heart, if this is a characteristic of God… how should we respond in light of this… A couple of things…First; find ways to serve others today… Begin to think of yourself less and others more. Our culture is a very ME-CENTERED society. I deserve this, care for myself before anyone. When in reality, we should think of others more. Remember Philippians 2 from earlier? If we go to that same chapter, and go to verse 4, it says

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Don’t be so focused on yourself that you miss the interest of others… Christ did this, so should we. Consider others more significant than yourself. As a new husband, this is one things I’ve had to learn.

Up until we got married, I was a little bit selfish of a guy, not too selfish, but a little bit.

As a pastor too! Look after you guys. Students.

Secondly, Matthew 11 says that, if you want to find rest and LEARN from the Lord, you should remain yoked to Christ. He says;

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

A yoke was a farm tool that farmers would use to plow their fields. They would hook up two oxen to a plow with a yoke and they would plow their fields! Now the yoke was good for two things, one… it was what the plow would hook up to, so that’s how the oxen would pull the plow. Number 1, and number 2… It would keep the oxen in line with each other. It would keep them from one walking too fast and one too slow. It would keep them in step with each other… and that is what Christ’s heart does for us. When we put on the EASY yoke of Jesus, unlike the yoke for oxen, Jesus’ yoke is easy, when we do that… then we find rest for our souls because our souls our not getting too far away from Jesus’ not getting too behind or wayward from Christ. When we rest in his heart and begin to become more and more like Christ, then our hearts will be able to rest. That’s one way we should respond, abiding in Christ’s heart and yoke.

This is the heart of Christ. This is what we should Abide in… abiding in the heart of Christ, spending time with the true heart of the Lord… That’s how we become more like Christ. There is a song I want to play for you and then we’ll be dismissed, it’s called Abide With Me by Matt Maher. The idea is that Matt Maher is calling out to God to abide with Him, reveal Himself to him. There is a part where Matt Maher talks about God’s heart; about his servant heart and gentle heart willing to die for us, and I just want us to listen to it, the words will be on the screen, then I will pray and dismiss.