The Humility of Jesus

WELCOME:

Good morning church! It is good to see you all here today.

Thank you to everyone who came and helped decorate the church Wednesday and clean up! Everyone did a fantastic job. Our heat is back on and we are excited for this Christmas season we are entering.

Wednesday we will do Bible Trivia over Romans chapters 3-7. All the questions will be the questions asked at the beginning of each study. It will be a good time together and it will also be a great way to learn these essential truths of our faith.

SCRIPTURE READING:

Isaiah 45:20–24 “Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

Series Intro: We are going to begin a short series of Christmas messages from the letters of Paul over the next three Sundays that do not contain the traditional story of Christmas but behind the scenes of that story. We are accustomed to the story of the baby wrapped in swaddling clothing and placed in a mange, but do we know what it took for that to happen? We will see today that great humility accompanied the incarnation and Paul calls each of us to cultivate that kind of humility in our own lives. And next week we will look at the preeminence of Christ from the book of Colossians. And then we will look at the purpose of His coming from the book of Galatians.

Christmas didn't begin in the manger, it began with the highest Ruler in existence humbling Himself, stepping down from his throne in glory, and taking on the flesh of a fragile baby born where animals are kept, laid in a trough, most likely made of stone that fed and watered animals and given two imperfect parents who almost got divorced before He was ever born. And He did it willingly, not because He had to, but because He is the humble Savior.

This sermon today is picking up before the incarnation, but with the incarnation in mind. Before the baby, before the manger, before Mary and Joseph, before the world was ever created there was a plan to save us from our sins. And the only way this could be carried out is if God Himself would step down into human flesh become a man, and die for the sins of the world, offering salvation to all who would turn to Him to be saved.

We will be in the book of Philippians chapter 2 this morning and there are three things I want to focus on from this text: The call to humility, The example of humility, and the eternal product of humility

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory in this text today. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and help us to know it at a heart deep level. Help us to apply every word to our own lives. Amen

Philippians 2:5 NASB95

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

Explanation:

If we back up to verse 3 we will see that the attitude Paul is calling for is one of humility: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind (Philippians 2:3, NASB95). Verse 5 is a traditional verse both looking backwards at the previous verses and looking forward to what he is about to describe in the person of Jesus.

Paul is saying, “Have an attitude of humility in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus!

What is humility?

Humility is to not think more highly of ourselves than we should. It is to NOT think of ourselves in terms of greatness, or what we deserve, or what we have earned the right to. Humility is really rooted in self-denial.

The great enemy of humility is pride. Pride is believing that we are inherently better than those around us. Pride is boastful, pride is self-elevated, pride is entitlement, pride refuses to ever say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong”. Pride refuses to bow down to that alter! Pride destroys relationships, it destroys church’s, and it destroys the soul…

Let’s go a little further here. There is nothing wrong with being proud of an accomplishment. You can be a humble person and be proud of something you have done. If you build a beautiful house and are proud of how it turned out, there is nothing wrong with that.

Sinful pride is rooted in arrogance. If someone builds a beautiful house and when it is finished they think to themselves that they are the greatest architect in the county and better than everyone around them, and people should begin to treat them differently because of how great they are…that is arrogance.

Two completely different attitudes to the same experience.

Pride comes naturally to us. We are quick to compare ourselves to others, we are quick to elevated ourselves, we have to learn to be humble! Humility takes great effort and it always begins with self-denial!

Let’s look at our verse again. “Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus”. This call to humility is an imperative which is a command. And commands call for obedience. The 10 commandments are 10 imperatives which call for the people of God to obey!

That means that HUMILITY IS A CHOICE AND A DISCIPLINE! Humility is going to automatically enter into our lives and heart and flow out of us in every area of our lives! We must choose it! We must acknowledge our own pride, see it for what it is, set our to destroy it, and set our minds to pursue humility

Jesus taught us the same thing in: ““For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”” (Luke 14:11).

Do you hear the choice there? This is a choice presented before us. Choose to be prideful and we will be humbled. Choose to humble ourselves and we will be exalted.

Peter also saying this: “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time…” (1 Pet 5:6-7)

Again, humility is something that we must choose to pursue

Paul moves from this call to humility to the greatest example of humility ever demonstrated in human history. The humility Jesus teaches us in His life is the model we are called to follow. And there are some great lessons in these verses about steps we can take to cultivate humility in our own

Philippians 2:5–8 NASB95

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Paul is essentially saying to us, if we want to know what genuine humility looks like, then we must look at the example in Jesus.

(v 6) “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped”

This verse takes us back to pre-incarnation. Before the Child Jesus was ever conceived in the womb of Mary, Jesus was there existing in the form of God equal with God: meaning that ALL THAT GOD THE FATHER IS, JESUS IS. This is Christian Theology of our Trinitarian God.

Jesus did not begin in the manger, nor dis God create Him to save us, nor was there ever a time when Jesus was not in existence! Jesus has always existed as God, has always been one with the Father. The Father is not in charge of the Son, they are equal. And the reason Jesus became a man is not because He is less than God the Father but because He humbled Himself and took on human flesh.

Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are all:

Equal in power

Equal in existence

Equal in essence

And the point of this is even though Jesus is perfectly equal with the Father, He did not use this equality to His advantage.

Jesus had every right just like the Father to stay right there in heaven and stay on the throne. In fact to be completely fair, they would have had to draw straws to see who would go to earth, to be criticized, to be rejected, to be persecuted, to be hated, to be kicked out of cities and even rejected by your own family….to be beaten, spit on, and hung on a cross to die, because they were both completely equal.

But what Paul makes clear here is that there was no fuss at all by Jesus. There was not one word of “why me” or “why is this my task to go and endure all these things” “Why am I the One who has to go and be crucified!?”

Jesus never used His equality as a privilege…

(v 7) “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men”

This verse says Jesus “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant”.

Now this does not mean that Jesus handed over His deity to become a man. We see clearly in the gospels that the power of God was still present in Jesus.

IT DOES MEAN THAT HE LAID ASIDE HIS PRIVILEGES when he took on human flesh. In other words, Jesus poured Himself out for the sake of others even though He did not have to..

Now you talk about a downgrade. To go from outside of time, outside of the realm of this world, to leave the place where there is absolute perfect peace and harmony and sinlessness, where there is constant worship and praise by angels and seraphim and cherubim, out of the presence of the Father…into this fallen sinful dark place to be criticized, and hated, and spit on, and rejected, and beaten, and whipped, and killed by the very ones you love and came to save.

What a picture of humility!

Poured Himself our for the sake of mankind, left His rightful place at the throne, took severe punishment and pain, not because He had to, but because He is the humble Savior…

There are two characteristics of humility I want to point here that we see in these verses:

1) Humility is rooted in selflessness!

This is what we see in Christ! It is not about me or what I deserve or what my position or status or power can get me…it is to set all that aside all of my privileges and consider the good of others! It is to regard other people as more important than ourselves regardless of where we stand.

CS Lewis said this, “True humility is not thinking less of yourselves; it is thinking of yourselves less”

I think that captures the essence of selflessness.

We are programmed by this world to think about me first! What I deserve, what I can achieve, what I can get for myself!

Yet God calls us to be selfless

I can’t think of a much better lesson to put into practice for Christmas than selflessness. It is real easy to think about ourselves during this time, our own needs, what we deserve, and yet at the same time there are so many opportunities for us to be selfless this Christmas season.

I want us to think about one other example in Scripture of selflessness that is found in Moses.

God said this about Moses Numbers 12:3 “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)”

Can you imagine God saying that about you? Why did God say this about Moses?

Because Moses has been assigned to a great position of power in Israel. He was God’s chosen leader for over 2 million Israelites. He was God’s spokesman and mediator, prophet. god worked miracle through Moses. He was the man in Israel.

But like every leader, there are critics. And in this chapter of Numbers the critics were his sister and brother: Miriam and Aaron. And they began to murmur about Moses saying that God doesn’t just speak through Moses, but God also speaks through us! In other words, they are just as important as Moses!

And God hears this, calls a family meeting, calls out their folly, and before leaving….Miriam is covered with leprosy.

And do you know what Moses does? He immediately prays that the Lord would heal her.

That’s great selfless humility. Wronged by someone so close to you, yet even receiving what is just according to God….Moses immediately prays for them.

Humility is selflessness even if we have been wronged. It is to put others ahead of our own selves.

2) Humility is expressed through obedience to God

(v 8) “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”

Here, Paul links Jesus’ humility to Jesus’ obedience.

Who was Jesus being obedient to? The text doesn’t say, but Scripture teaches that Jesus was obedient to God and that is what is implied here.

Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.””

It’s clear that the obedience Paul is referring to is Jesus’ obedience to God..

And this was not just simple obedience but costly obedience. Notice it says He became obedient to the point of death. Jesus was so humble that He obeyed even though it cost Him His life.

Now why is obedience a characteristic of humility?

1) Because we must care more about the will of God’s than we care about our own will and desires. Because in order to truly obey God, what we must be willing to say no to self and yes to the Lord no mater how difficult or unfair the situation may be!

It comes back to a matter of self! How much do I really love myself, my dreams, my plans, my opinions, what I think I deserve….or do I really elevate God and His will to His proper place in my life?

2) Obeying God means we really believe that God is smarter and wiser than we are. And what He tells us to do is going to better for those around us and the Kingdom of God.

I doubt any of us would really admit or say, “I think I’m smarter than God”. But when God gives us clear direction to carry out His will, whether it be by Scripture or by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and we know what God wants us to do, YET WE DO NOT DO IT, what we are saying? We are saying to God in pride: “Sorry Lord, but You are wrong and I am right on this issue….and I’m going to follow my own advice, and my own wisdom, because it is better than Yours”.

Humble obedience BELIEVES GOD. It trusts what God says regardless of what we think because He knows all and every bit of counsel from the Lord trumps human wisdom and thinking.

What did Jesus do in His life?

“Not My will, but Your will be done.” And if we want to choose humility, and cultivate the discipline of humility in our lives, this is a great place to begin!

Start today, saying right now, “Not my will Lord, but Your will”

This is the heart of a servant.

Servanthood is about placing ourselves under the Mighty hand of God! No matter what the cost. Even if it cost us our lives!

And the pages of history are filled with the blood of humble saints because they were obedient to God to the point of death!

Humble people obey the Lord

Philippians 2:9–11 NASB95

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is divine vindication of God’s humble Servant.

Jesus did what most people would consider foolish. Humble Himself all the way to the point of death and lost His life. But the twist is that God exalted Him in the end and because He humbled Himself to the lowest point possible (to the point of death on a cross), God in His unlimited power exalted Him above every being in existence.

And because of this God says: “every knee will bow”

“of those who are in heaven”

This refers to the all the hosts of heaven: angels, cherubim, seraphim, those who sit on thrones, all the hosts of heaven.

But this also refers to the demons and the wicked spirits in the spiritual realm

“and on earth”

This is all the people on earth who are still alive when Christ returns. This is both those who refuse to bow the knee to Jesus in humble submission and those who those who humble themselves before Jesus

“and under the earth”

These are those who have died who will also be raised to bow the knee to Jesus regardless if they followed Christ or not.

HERE’S THE POINT: EVERY person and EVERY being that has ever existed including the devil himself will one day bow his knee to Jesus Christ the King!

Humility is not just a good virtue, it is a necessity to enter into the Kingdom of God.

We must not look at being humble as optional….no one will come to Christ unless they first humble themselves!

No one will enter into the kingdom of God carrying with them pride and arrogance!

Matthew 18:1–4 NASB95

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

This entire overview of the humility of Jesus is a paradigm for the life of a believer:

To be willing to step down off of the throne of our own life, just as Jesus did. To deny ourselves and become selfless. To step down from being the center of our world and humble ourselves before Almighty God.

It is to become a become a bond servant just as Jesus did. No longer seeking prominence or influence, but to see the great privilege to simply be a servant of the Most High King. If we are not a servant, we will never become a child of God.

It means to become obedient even if it means to the point of death. We do not obey our way into heaven, but a heart that obeys God, is a heart that has been changed by God.

It means that even though we may be wronged in this life, and others may get over on us, and we put aside our own will and dreams to obey the Lord, one day we will be exalted in the same way Jesus was exalted!

Give up your life now, give up your pride now, give up the love of this world now, and in return we will receive eternal life and spend eternity in the presence of God forever and ever.

~PRAYER~