The Suffering Servant

Good morning, welcome to New Horizon Christian Church. Please open your Bibles to Philippians 2.

In this sermon series- Who is Jesus?

God with us.

The Victorious King.

The Giver of life.

If these are accurate portrayals of Jesus, an important question will follow. What will Jesus do? How will Jesus live in light of these realities of who He is?

Nicene Creed does a good job of answering the question for us.

After a number of statements revealing who Jesus is, the creed turns its attention to what Jesus did.

Nicene Creed- “…Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father…”

Jesus came to serve humanity through the offer of salvation and true life.

Should always be on our mind.

Jesus is one who serves through His suffering.

Read Philippians 2:5–8- “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 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.”

Pray.

1. From high to low.

Let’s begin with a contrast.

Notice the language used to describe the heights from which Jesus came.

We are reminded here of the pre-existence of the Son of God.

He was in the form of God.

Form- morphe- The external appearance that reveals what is reality.

Who this person is as shown by what is seen and perceived by others.

What you see is what you get, there is no deception or impurity to be found.

Let a person show you who they are, don’t make assumptions. What do we find when we study the life and works and character of Jesus? We find God made man.

Not merely through His claims, but through who He was, who He is.

How would He live as a result of being divine? How would we expect Him to live?

Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

The only One who could claim the privilege and power of God and cling to and utilize such power for His own benefit without doing so from a place of sinful pride and dishonest gain chose not to grip such privilege so tightly.

Oscar Joseph- “Had it pleased the Son of God to express only, and to impress on all minds only, His equality with God, this could not have seemed to Him encroachment or wrong.”

The One person who could claim equality with God constantly and seek the privilege that comes from it wouldn’t. Everyone else would.

Jesus didn’t grab on to it to use for His good pleasure.

Dennis Johnson- “The divine Son did not regard his equality with the Father as a pretext for grasping but as a platform for giving.”

Think of how this reality plays out in the Garden of Eden.

Satan told Adam and Eve that God was withholding from them, that He didn’t want what was truly best for them, even though we readers know the falsehood of the serpents claim and the reality of the benevolent nature of God.

Adam and Eve believed the serpent; they believed that in order to be like God, they must grab at what they wanted, or what they believed to be the very best for THEMSELVES.

Jesus doesn’t live in such a way. Rather than grabbing at what would advance Him the most according to wordly standards, Jesus seeks to give what is best for those around Him, at great cost to Himself.

2. The depths of the low.

How far does Jesus condescend?

Taking the form of a servant.

Just as we see the very form of God in the person of Christ, Paul reveals that we also find an exterior that matches the interior of servanthood.

This is who Jesus is. What we see in His life is the reality of HIs life, His heart, His desire.

He is not pretending.

C.S. Lewis- How do you love the unloveable? Fake it til you make it.

This is not how Jesus operated. He loved those who were greatly unworthy of His love, and he sought to serve all of them in one way or another.

He saw need, and sought to meet it.

Humbled himself.

Reminded of the downward trajectory of Jesus’ life, particularly when considering the worldly definitions of success.

Greek word is used when a mountain or hill is reduced to a plain.

We all want to be mountains, to have our heads above the shoulders of others.

The problem is that when our motivation is obsessed with being on another level, we lose all ability to know and serve others.

Obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

We likely don’t consider this truth nearly enough- In the death of Jesus, we see the depths of what is referred to as His humiliation.

Oscar Joseph- “Death is the signature of failure and disgrace. Even with sinless creatures it seems so. Their beauty and their use are past; their worth is measured and exhausted; they die.”

At the cross of Jesus, we see Him in what we can only consider to be crushing defeat.

And while we recognize that the wages for sin is death, and that Jesus carries the cost for our sins, we are reminded of this truth at the cross.

Jesus didn’t merely die by natural causes, a death shameful enough for the Messiah, but He died a death which portrayed Him AS a sinner, as a criminal.

The very method of execution which put to death the Son of God is meant to remind us of His sacrifice on our behalf, that WE are the ones deserving of His death.

3. A lowly birth.

When we comprehend the exhaustive nature of this emptying, this condescension, when we grasp the comprehensive extent of this unwillingness to grasp equality with God, we find the birth of Jesus to

Why this lowly birth?

We might know who God is.

When we see Jesus, we see the character of the godhead.

Athanasius- “When people see the Word of the Father, they may be able to receive through Him a conception of the Father, and thus, coming to know their Maker, live the happy and truly blessed life.”

The Word reveals to mankind the reality of who God is.

This is why the entirety of Christian faith hinges on who Jesus is. Faith in Jesus as the Son of God, as God revealed, is everything to us.

This is so important because we have so many misconceptions for God.

Romans 1:22–23- “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Dad coming home on report card day.

Charles Spurgeon- “He was so born in lowliness that they world find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Is there cause of joy there? I say indeed there is, for it is the terror of the Godhead that keeps the sinner oftentimes away from reconciliation; but see how the Godhead hath graciously concealed itself in a babe…Who ever heard of trembling in the presence of a babe? Yet is the Godhead there.”

Imagine what happens here.

Athanasius gives a brilliant illustration.

What happens when a portrait of a person becomes stained? The subject must return and sit again for it to be retraced.

The image of God is made known in Adam and Eve, but the image became stained.

So God came near in the person of Christ, unstained and perfected. And we know God as He truly is as a result.

What did God reveal of Himself in the lowly birth of Jesus?

The birth sets the stage for the life.

When we see the lowly nature of Jesus’ birth, we ready ourselves for the lowly nature of His life.

In this moment that we discover that Jesus is born to die.

As Paul has stated, a life of perfect obedience that leads to the ultimate moment of obedience, that moment of Jesus’ death on the cross.

We are reminded of the servant nature of Jesus.

Mark 10:45- “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The Son of God came not to be served, but instead to serve, and the highest form of this service was the giving away of HIs own life for the sins of others.

4. Christmas brought low.

Know yourself loved.

Christmas reminds us that we go from merely knowing who God is to better understanding who we are in light of God.

Many times in life, we don’t feel loved by God. It’s a loss of perspective.

If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you would do well, even on Christmas morning this coming week, to consider the volume of God’s love for you, and how it has been proven.

Chad Bird- “If you’ve ever wondered how far the Lord would go to make sure you were his own, look down into the manger, look up onto the cross. There’s your answer.”

Worship God.

Touched on this last week by reading Luke 2. The shepherds experienced the Christ child and went away glorifying and praising God.

Praising and rejoicing of the shepherds. Do we not know the gospel even more fully?

Philippians 2 continues by reminding us that because of the condescension of Jesus, there is to be an exaltation of Jesus.

We see the extent of His humility and servitude and as a result, make much of Him and exalt Him in our own lives.

Look to serve.

Christ humbled Himself, we are to do the same.

We love as Christ loved, we forgive and Christ forgave, we serve and Christ served, we live as Christ lived.

Remember the beginning of our text. Philippians 2:5- “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”

Is this impossible? This is the power of Christ in us.

This mind is yours in Christ Jesus.

The Spirit is at work in your life, recognize this and fall in line.

Christmastime provides many opportunities to serve others- Ask God to open your eyes to the needs surrounding you.

As we rightly celebrate the love of God shown in Christ, we seek opportunities also to reflect the love of Christ who is in us.