A Simple Humility (Philippians 2:5-11)

Sermon

Key Passage

Philippians 2:5–11 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Series Introduction

I hope Christmas was merry for you all.

We are going to dive back into the Christmas story, but from a very different angle today

The last three weeks, we have simply looked at the text and tracked our lives in following Jesus.

What does it mean to know and obey the will of God.

We discussed the struggle along that journey

Struggles like confusion, hurdles, doubt or even sin.

But along the way, we also saw the redemptive nature of God as we strive to follow His will

We tend to make our journey with God all about our circumstances.

Sometimes God does use and change our circumstances.

But God reveals His nature, at times, in spite of our circumstances.

We saw Mary and Joseph in the barn with the baby Jesus.

It is possible that they felt they let God down.

But, when the shepherds showed up, they knew God was being glorified, even if His Son was in the barn.

Their circumstances didn’t change, but their view of God did.

And that changed everything.

We have navigated this series around the topic of God’s will

As disciples, the topic of God’s will is central to our journey with Christ

Jesus called His disciples:

Matthew 4:19 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

In this call, we find the three points of how we define a disciple:

Matthew 4:19 Definition of Disciple

A disciple follows Jesus (Head)

A disciple is being changed by Jesus (Heart)

A disciple is on mission with Jesus (Hands)

Today, we are taking this discipleship journey from a different Christmas text.

We have talked through the Matthew text and the Luke text, but now we are looking at a text we don’t often see as a Christmas text, but we will find that truth as we go through it.

Sermon

I would like to open our text today by understanding a few things about our passage today.

Paul is writing a letter to the church in Philippi.

This is a church that has endured some suffering and struggles as a result of following Jesus as His disciples.

Our text comes between two very important points of emphasis.

The passage before the text we are reading today talks about humility and unity. The passage following our text today talks about holiness.

The linking passage between the churches unity, humility and holiness is what we will see as our Christmas passage today.

If you were to make a top 5 list of Biblical poetry, what would you include?

You might have a confused look on your face because you may not have known the Bible contains very much poetry.

There are no verses that begin, “Roses are red, Violets are blue”

This is because most Hebrew or Greek poetry doesn’t translate very well into English.

So as a result we are left with a passage of Scripture that is formatted differently in our Bibles, and we often don’t really know or care why.

Genesis 1 is an example of poetry in the Bible

It is written in a very rhythmic manner

“There was evening and morning, the first day...

Psalm 23 is another example of poetry

An artistic verbal painting of the journey of following God is presented in the poem that begins, “The Lord is my shepherd...”

Philippians 2 is a poem

We don’t know if Paul wrote it just for this passage, or if it was written already and Paul used it for this purpose.

Either way, we see know that it is a very early written poem of theology, from pre-50 AD.

Why would Paul use a poem here?

Poetry, music and art communicate something that a simple statement of fact cannot do.

If you look at a beautiful piece of art, or listen to a well played musical instrument, you will find that the arts contain multiple layers of communication that may require another form of communication numerous paragraphs.

Our poem today contains all of these truths pulled together in one poem:

Jesus nature

His pre-humanity

His human life

His glorification

OT reflections

It nods back to the “servant poems” in Isaiah 40-55.

The story of our humanity

The fall and state of humanity

The eventual destiny of humanity

Contrast with human leadership

The audience would be familiar with some of the language used in this passage as kingly or forms of leadership

They would understand that by seeing how their current human leadership looks compared to Jesus.

The centerpoint of humanity

This poem is written in a chaistic form

The first line and the last line align

The second line and the second to last line align

Then the middle of the poem is the most important part of the poem

In this case, it is the phrase “EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS”

So this passage communicates the most important thing to happen in creation from the beginning to the end.

All of this in a short handful of verses

The value of poetry.

I really wanted us to understand this text before we dove into it.

Philippians 2:5 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

We are going to start and finish here

Paul is saying that this poem ought to change the way we think and live.

In other words, we ought to look at Jesus and it will give us very clear understanding of how we ought to live as His disciples.

If this is what Jesus did, then we ought to follow Jesus

Philippians 2:6 (NIV)

Who, being in very nature God

This is talking about Jesus before Mary and Joseph

Jesus didn’t simply begin to exist at His birth. He existed before His birth.

This is an important part of understanding our passage today.

If I were to ask, “Who am I by nature?”

If you were to talk about Jared and say, “Jared, who being in very nature…What?”

I am by nature a human being.

I am a created being.

But Jesus has a very different nature.

He is by nature, God.

This was not a controversial statement at that time.

This was written very early in church history and there were still some of the disciples who were alive when Paul wrote this letter.

None of them doubted or questioned this writing.

They all knew and they all agreed that Jesus was by nature, God.

Philippians 2:6 NIV

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

The second half of this verse has been confused by many people, even some who say, “I’m a Bible scholar and I’m really smart because I’ve read a bunch of books.”

Some may read this and say, “Jesus was God, then he stopped being God and became human, then he started being God again later.”

That defeats the entire purpose of this passage

The point of this passage and all of these verses lead to the purpose of the cross

It wouldn’t be very loving for God to say, “I’m going to create someone to just go and die for your sins.”

It is quite loving for God to say, “I am coming to die for your sins”

It is the love of God that He came to us as a human baby and lived a life that was fully God and fully human.

If that blows your mind today, imagine that what it did for the listeners in that time.

Paul is not saying that Jesus gave up His deity.

He is saying that He didn’t exploit His deity.

This is the contrast between Caesar and Jesus

Jesus didn’t use his status as a means for greatness and build a kingdom

Caesar did

Jesus went in the opposite direction

Instead of exploiting His deity...

Philippians 2:7 NIV

rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Instead of doing things the way of the world, he did things very differently

He made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant.

He emptied himself, not of divinity, but of anything that might resemble earthly glory

Even to the point of being born in a barn and his first crib being a feed trough.

Think about last week in talking about the shepherds coming in to see Jesus.

If Jesus had been born anywhere else, the shepherds would have likely been stopped at the front door and told not to enter.

But Jesus was born in the most humble circumstances, so that the lowest of the low would be able to find Him.

And anyone who would seek Him, would have to humble themselves to find Him.

He did not stop being God

He still had the authority, but chose not to utilize it as we would seem he ought.

We can see the tension as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane

Matthew 26:53–54 NIV

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

Jesus was modeling a different form of power and authority

This is how God reconciles the world to Him. Not through power and position, but rather through humility and love, as was seen in Jesus.

Philippians 2:8 NIV

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

One might read this and hear that Jesus is a servant, and we see that He is obedient to death

So you may conclude that Jesus’ master was death. This is incorrect.

When you see the phrase, “to death” it means that Jesus was obedient to the point of death.

In being human, Jesus was obedient to the plan and the will of God in its entirety ,up to and including the death of that human body.

So here we are in our passage:

The church must strive for unity, humility and holiness in a world that actively works toward the opposite.

We are called to have the same mindset as Jesus. That is exactly what is said right before this passage:

Philippians 2:3–4 NIV

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

At all cost, and in every way possible, we are called to live a life that gives up our will, our rights, our desires and our plans so that we may find Jesus.

Is there any other way to interpret this passage?

Again, I go to the birth of Jesus.

Who was it that found Jesus? Only the humble, broken hurting and desperate.

Shepherds, sick, outcasts, fishermen, etc.

Who struggled with Jesus? The leaders, the religious and all those who had esteem and power in this world.

“Even death on a cross”

This is the purpose of the whole poem

From the pre-incarnate Jesus to the glorification of Jesus after His resurrection, it all hinges on this reality.

We will talk more about this in a moment.

Philippians 2:9 NIV

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

Jesus humbled Himself and this is the model for us to follow

But it says that God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.

A few weeks ago, we talked about the importance of a “name”.

It isn’t just a label, but when the Bible talks about a “name” it talks about the entirety of the person. Their identity, their being and all of who they are.

Jesus didn’t use his authority as God to glorify Himself. Rather the Father was glorified through the life of Jesus and Jesus was glorified by the Father.

It is pure humility and worship.

So Jesus is given the name and identity that is above every other name and identity.

Now before we go diving into the next couple of verses, I want to draw a quote out of the OT.

This was written hundreds of years before Paul penned Philippians 2.

This passage is God speaking of Himself to the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 45:22–24 (NIV)

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.

They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.’ ”

God says, “Turn to me and be saved”

Where is salvation from? God.

God says, “I am God and there is no other.”

How many Gods are there? Only one.

God says, “I have sworn by myself that not a word will be revoked: Before me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear (Literally: Make a statement)

That in the Lord and the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.

God makes a massive statement about Himself.

Now we turn to the rest of the passage in Philippians 2:10-11

Philippians 2:10–11 NIV

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

At Jesus’ name, or Jesus’ identity, what will happen?

Every knee will bow and every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Does that sound familiar?

It is a point of this poem that draws from and fulfills an OT prophecy about Jesus and His deity.

God said that every knee would bow and every tongue confess before the God of creation and that there is no other God.

Then the Father says of Jesus, that at His name every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the deliverer and our strength.

This passage and what it points to tells us that Jesus Christ is God, just like at the beginning of the poem, which is what ties those two points together.

Conclusion

This is a massive passage about Jesus and His birth

It revolves around one word to define what we are to follow, and that word is “humility”

Today is a 1 point sermon, and here is the point.

Point #1- Humble yourself

Humility is difficult

I want to walk this out as we close our service.

For the lost:

If you are here today and you don’t know Jesus, here is what you need to know. There are those who think they need to clean themselves up to find Jesus.

That following Jesus is a way of making yourself or your circumstances better.

You are not too sinful for Jesus. It was the broken, the sinful, the undeserving that Jesus most related to.

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, it is the sick.”

If you recognize your brokenness, your hurt, your inability, or even your desperation, then you are exactly where you need to find Jesus.

You cannot be saved by yourself, you cannot become more righteous by yourself. You certainly will not make yourself “good enough” by yourself.

The recognition of our need for a savior is the humility He desires.

For those who are a disciple:

We tend to think that maturity is knowing and learning more about God and becoming less sinful.

So we walk into church and see all of these people we think have figured out what maturity is because they can quote a bunch of Bible verses or because they look like they haven’t sinned since 1994.

Somehow we think that is maturity and we say, “Either my struggles are too big to be like that, so what is the point?” or “That person is a liar, and I don’t want to be like that.”

Maturity is being like Jesus

Maturity is humility. It is not building status. It is laying down status, so the broken, hurting, helpless and desperate can find the Savior.

Maturity is engaging in those Jesus engaged with and realizing that we too must discover that we are helpless, hurting hopeless and desperate apart from Jesus.

Maturity is not building myself up.

It is continually humbling myself so Jesus can be built up.

Philippians 2:3–4 NIV

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Real Life in Action

Head: How does my definition of humility differ from Jesus’?

Heart: Ask God to change your heart to live in humility.

Hands: Who is God placing in your life to show His love, hope and grace? Do it.