United in Humility

Opening

Would you please open your Bibles to .

Read

This is a beautiful text.

It contains hugely important principles for the church in our behavior with each other.

And also contains one of the clearest passages on the two natures of Jesus.

He is fully man.

And He is fully God.

I had a hard time trying to figure out how to preach this text.

When I come to a text that is as divided as this one, I want to split it up into two texts.

I thought about preaching on humility this week.

Then next week looking at the natures of Christ.

But then I realized that if I did that, it wouldn’t be good hermeneutics.

When we preach, we have to try and look for authorial intent.

That’s preacher jargon for, “What was the author trying to communicate?”

There’s a reason why Paul talked about humility among each other and then talked about Christ’s humility.

And if I split that up, I’d be splitting up Paul’s thoughts.

I’d be in danger of removing the authorial intent.

Let’s begin with the Danger of Disunity

Paul is grateful for the Philippian church.

Back in chapter 1, he began by saying that he thank God every time he thought of the Philippian church.

They were a true testament to the power of the Holy Spirit.

God established this church.

It was originally composed of Lydia’s family, the Philippian jailers family, and possibly an ex-demon possessed slave girl, and maybe even some ex-prisoners.

And now they are a full fledged church.

Complete with Christians, elders and deacons.

He was proud of this little church.

This church isn’t a church that is plagued with theological heresies.

They aren’t like the Corinthians church with big and proud sin.

Paul saw the Philippian church as a church that shared in the joy in Christ.

Verse 1 explains their growth in Christ.

There are 4 things in verse 1 that Paul shares with the Philippians.

They have encouragement from Christ.

Comfort and love.

Participation in the Spirit.

Affection and sympathy.

They share Christ in common.

When we see others come to Christ, it excites us.

When we see a baptism it’s a joyous moment.

There is encouragement seeing people come to Christ.

It’s a reminder that the Holy Spirit continues to convert hearts and that God continues to draw people to Himself.

We are recipients of God’s love.

This is especially encouraging.

Sometimes in this life, the only thing we have is the love of God.

And like the words from , “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

I may be in the valley of the shadow of death.

I may be in the presence of my enemies.

But the love of God is essential and kind.

We are participants with the Holy Spirit.

A bit more literally, it should read if there is fellowship in the Spirit.

As Christians, we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

We have a relationship with Him.

He is present in our lives.

He guides us as we walk.

Please open your Bibles to

He gifts us.

In fact our relationship to the Father is dependent upon the Holy Spirit, since He enables us to pray to the Father.

And then there is the comfort that we receive from Jesus Christ.

I think of the beatitudes that say:

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the meek.

And on they go.

Though we grieve and suffer, we are comforted by Christ.

Who has shown us such great love.

Paul knew that the Philippian church was a church filled with Christians and he was joyful.

His concern wasn’t whether they were in Christ or not.

His concern was they were a church that was becoming divided.

He had such great joy in their love of Christ, but his joy wasn’t as great as it could be.

Verse 2 he explains the problem, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

There are two women in the church, Eudodia and Syntyche.

And they are fighting.

The result is that there is backbiting, grumbling and complaining within the church.

I’m a fan of JRR Tolkien, he’s the author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

If you’ve ever read those books, you’ll quickly be surprised by all the legends, poetry and tales that are included within the stories.

After Tolkien’s death in 1973, his son, began publishing the background stories for these legends.

And on of the biggest projects was called The Silmarillion.

In the Silmarillion, there is a story about the days just after creation.

In his story of creation, he uses music as a way to describe the progress of good and evil.

He describes the world as having one song, and then as evil developed, what started out as a harmony, it began to grow, and eventually, was a competing song with the melody of creation.

Listen to how Tolkien describes how evil fractures the beautiful song.

He speaks of two sounds, “The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.”

In Tolkien’s tale, a second sound, splintered the beautiful sound of creation, bringing disharmony and strife.

And in the same way, empty fighting and strife brings ruin upon a church.

Do you know what I’m most afraid of in the church?

It’s not necessarily a theologically ignorant church.

Because I believe this can be corrected.

If we follow the prescribed order of having elders who teach God’s Word faithfully, it’ll happen.

I think we at Southwest have experienced this.

What I’m most afraid of is a church that bickers among themselves.

A complaining church.

A grumbling church.

A selfish church.

We can get a church to believe the right things, but getting a church to behave the right way is a different story.

How do I know this? Because I meet people all the time who are leaving good churches.

These are churches that believe rightly.

But people leave because:

Their feelings are hurt.

They don’t feel welcome.

They don’t feel listened to.

They don’t feel cared for.

They leave because they don’t like:

The pastor’s voice.

The music.

The music volume.

The way the pastor dresses.

The way the church dresses.

What good is it if we say:

Christ has died for us.

We know His love.

We have the Spirit.

We are comforted by Christ.

Then we turn and divide over preferences?

That’s why in verse 2, Paul says, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

The same mind:

Being of the same mind isn’t a doctrinal statement.

He’s not correcting the Philippians on a heresy.

It’s actually good to divide over doctrine.

But when it comes to preferences and mere opinions, he says be of the same mind.

Have the same love.

This means we don’t show preference to each other.

We love one another equally.

We are of full accord.

This means we are one body.

We are firing on all cylinders together.

And then at the end, one mind.

This means we are of one purpose.

We are pushing for the same things.

Humility

How do we do these things?

Read .

How do we have this kind of unity?

How do we have the same mind, love, purpose and drive?

Today’s text would make for an excellent Christmas sermon.

Oh boy, I’ve got the answer.

There are companies that spend thousands of dollars trying to build unity among their employees.

They go to ropes courses.

They go on adventures together.

They have motivational speakers.

They go to great lengths to try and bring unity.

And the answer?

It’s found in verses 3-4, “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.”

The answer to how to have unity over the non-essentials, is to pursue humility.

And this effort must begin within the heart.

It’s not saying, “Oh I don’t really care.” When in reality you do care.

It begins in the heart, by checking your motives.

Why am I doing what I’m doing?

Why are you doing, what you’re doing?

Is it to make a name for yourself.

Is it to be more comfortable?

And instead, asking yourself, what does this mean for others?

Paul says “in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

The world says, “Take what you can get.”

And naturally, we are selfish, are focused on our own interests.

It’s just the way it is.

I look at life through my eyes.

You look at life through your eyes.

And often times, when I’m walking around, or driving around, I forget that there are others outside of these two eyes.

Most of the time when someone is irritated at church, it’s because one person doesn’t think he or she is being treated the way she wants to be treated.

He has preferential expectations that aren’t being met.

And then Paul gives us the greatest example of humility, The Humility of Christ.

Especially, verses 5-8.

In verses 6-11, Paul breaks out into one of the greatest statements concerning the work of Christ.

Yet, it’s important to see that it’s not theology just for the sake of theology.

Paul is teaching about humility.

He’s speaking to a divided church, and calling for them to be united.

And how does he do this?

By looking to Christ.

The Glory of Christ

The first point of this sermon is The Humility of Christ.

And before we can talk about the humility of Christ, we must begin with where was He before He came to earth.

For example, the story of Pinocchio.

If I were to say Pinocchio is about a real boy and his father Geppetto, I’d be skipping the story.

To accurately tell the story of Pinocchio, you must begin with a piece of wood.

Especially, verses 5-8.

And that piece of wood was carved into a wooden boy.

That wooden boy had strings attached to his limbs and was a puppet, named Pinocchio.

One magical night that wooden puppet, became a living puppet.

But he wasn’t satisfied being a living puppet.

He wanted to become a real boy.

The story of Pinocchio is only fully told, if you begin with a wooden puppet, then you can talk about how at the end he became a real boy.

And so if you were to say the stoy

And the same goes for Jesus.

We can’t just say Jesus is a man who died on a cross.

That’s like saying, Pinocchio is about a real boy.

For us to understand Jesus, and to understand His death, and His humility, we must begin in the past.

Where the story of Pinocchio is about a wooden puppet ascending to the state of a human boy.

The life of Jesus is one of the second member of the Trinity, condescending to the state of a human boy.

And Verse 6 says, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,”

Jesus begins in the form of God.

It begins in eternity past, and continues until the advent.

That means He is God.

Jesus is eternal

says, “He is the image of the invisible God ...”

Jesus exercised the authority of God.

explains that He created all there is.

And there He was, for eternity past.

And in eternity past, Jesus received all the praise and glory that belonged to the members of the Godhead.

says “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Imagine that.

The angels that cause men to tremble, fell down in worship before Jesus.

Jesus certainly was fully God.

But at the incarnation, the advent, the time that we call Christmas, is when we celebrate this eternal God becoming man.

But when He became man, He didn’t come as we would expect.

He didn’t come as a Hercules.

He didn’t come as a Superman.

He didn’t come as a demigod.

Verse 6 continues into verse 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.”

Jesus becoming man is something called the kenosis.

That’s a great big theological term that comes from verse 7.

Where you see “but emptied himself”, that’s the word kenosis.

What does it mean that Jesus emptied Himself?

First, it mean’s He gained a human nature.

So first, He’s fully God.

Then next, He gains a human nature.

He doesn’t lose His divinity, he didn’t stop being God, but He gains humanity.

Verse 7 says He took the form of a servant.

Let me say this in math terms.

There is addition and there is subtraction.

Addition you gain something.

Subtraction you lose something.

When Jesus became man, it wasn’t subtraction it was addition.

He gained humanity

says, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,”

So within Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

He remained God, but the fullness of God now dwelt within the flesh of man.

This means, He is fully God, and fully man.

What does it mean that He gains a human nature, or that He became man?

Back to it says He was “born in the likeness of men.”

Most fantastic legends don’t begin that way.

Superman came to earth from Krypton in a space ship.

Greek mythology says that Athena was born from skull of Zeus.

Another god took an axe and whacked Zeus on the head, and out came Athena, in full armor.

Another Greek God, Dionysus, was born from the thigh of Zeus.

Jesus wasn’t born in such dramatic fashion.

The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and she became pregnant.

She carried the child for 9 months.

And then, while in a small stable, she gave birth to the child.

He didn’t come out with armor, or even a bed.

He came out as a small child, dependent upon lowly human parents to care for Him.

He was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.

And perhaps most humiliating, was that Jesus had to grow like any ordinary person.

, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus is called the Word.

Later on in , it says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, ....”

And yet, the eternal Word, this Word made flesh, had to grow in wisdom, knowledge and intellect.

That means Jesus had to learn.

He had to learn to talk.

He had to learn to walk.

says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

This is humility, because here we have the Alpha and the Omega.

The Word.

In John, Jesus says, He is the way, the truth and the life.

And now the truth has to learn.

Do you see the humility here of Christ.

How did He do this?

It’s the kenosis.

He added a human nature.

He added a human will.

You and I, we are only human.

We are not divine.

You are fully man.

We only do what humans do.

Jesus was fully man and fully God.

This means, He couldn’t remove His divinity, but he could voluntarily, restrain His godness, and live as an ordinary human.

In addition to gaining a human nature, verse 6 says, He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”.

This means, He wasn’t recognized as God.

Again, note the humility of that statement.

says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

says, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’”

Yet, when Jesus was here:

There no earthquakes at His voice.

He never flashed forth flames of fire.

No part of nature trembled at His sound.

He never caused deer to give birth.

And certainly the people in the temple didn’t cry glory.

They cried “Crucify Him!”

He didn’t come in splendor.

He was born to a Jewish couple, who were at the mercy of the Romans.

Though according to creation, He is the Alpha and Omega.

And according to His lineage, He was a king, in the direct line of David.

He did not claim any of that, but was instead born in a stable, after a long journey, because his earthly parents had to submit to Roman rule, and report to Bethlehem for a census.

He wasn’t born in luxury or riches.

His earthly father was a carpenter.

And according to tradition, died young.

He didn’t look like a prince.

He was no prince charming, with a chiseled jaw, and handsome features.

says, “… he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

And the worship He received from creation and from holy angels in heaven, men refused to give Him.

As a toddler, he and his family had to flee to Egypt, because Herod, tried to assassinate Him by killing all the boys his age.

Those in his hometown rejected Him, and tried to throw him off a cliff.

The spotless lamb of God was accused of working by the power of Satan and with Satan.

Ironically, the only ones to accurately recognize Christ, were the damned demons prowling on the earth.

Another part of Jesus emptying Himself, was that He restrained His divine attributes.

There were some things He hid even from Himself.

And lastly, He was obedient to God the Father.

He perfectly obeyed the Law.

He was obedient to the Father even to the point of death.

His human nature would have rather not died.

Yet, He obeyed saying, “Let not my will be done, but yours.”

And because of His love for His people, and out of perfect obedience to God the Father, He suffered the ultimate act of humility, by dying.

And not just any death.

He didn’t die in His sleep.

It wasn’t quick and easy.

It was a death reserved from criminals.

It was a death seen as shameful even for the worst of people.

says he “endured the cross, despising the shame.”

According to the Jewish law, His death was a curse, it was offensive even to the nation.

So offensive, that even a criminal who deserved the death, wasn’t allowed to remain hanging throughout the night.

It was a curse upon the nation to have a hung criminal, left hanging.

Therefore, incarnation, is the greatest act of humility within history.

Jesus didn’t just become a man.

It was the second member of the Trinity:

Putting on humanity.

He was not recognized as Lord.

He veiled His heavenly attributes.

And He endured death.

And none of this was for anything He deserved.

It was because we were under a curse.

says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—”

We were under that curse and He put it upon Himself for us.

Which brings, us to the second point of this sermon, Think like Christ.

In verse 5, Paul tells the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves.”

Paul is grateful for the Philippian Church.

• Back in chapter 1, he began by saying that he thank God every time he thought of the Philippian church.

Back in chapter 1, he began by saying that he thanked God every time he thought of them.

• They were a true testament to the power of the Holy Spirit.

They were a true testimony of the power of God.

• God established this church.

They had some humble beginnings.

• It was originally composed of Lydia’s family, the Philippian jailers family, and possibly an ex-demon possessed slave girl, and maybe even some ex-prisoners.

The Philippian was originally composed of:

Lydia’s family

• And now they are a full fledged church.

• Complete with Christians, elders and deacons.

The Philippian jailer and his family.

Possibly an ex-demon possessed slave girl.

• He was proud of this little church.

• This church isn’t a church that is plagued with theological heresies.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if some inmate from that Philippian jail were there as well.

But now the church was a full fledged church.

• They aren’t like the Corinthians church with big and proud sin.

Complete with Christians, elders and deacons.

• Paul saw the Philippian church as a church that shared in the joy in Christ.

• Verse 1 explains their growth in Christ.

Paul was proud of this little church.

• There are 4 things in verse 1 that Paul shares with the Philippians.

The Philippian church was not a church plagued with theological heresies.

• They have encouragement from Christ.

Nor were they like the Corinthian church, home to big and proud sins.

Paul knew that this church shared in Christ.

• Comfort and love.

• Participation in the Spirit.

In verse 1 he explains their commonality in Christ.

• Affection and sympathy

They have encouragement from Christ.

Comfort and love.

Participation in the Spirit.

Affection and sympathy.

They share Christ in common.

When we see others come to Christ, it’s exciting.

A baptism is a joyous event.

There is encouragement in seeing people come to Christ.

Any time a soul is converted, it’s a reminder that the Holy Spirit continues to convert hearts and that God continues to draw people to Himself.

He is joyful because they are recipients of God’s love.

This is especially encouraging.

Sometimes in this life, the only thing we have is the love of God.

And like the words from , “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

I may be in the valley of the shadow of death.

I may be in the presence of my enemies.

But the love of God will never leave me.

They are participants with the Holy Spirit.

A bit more literally, it should read in verse 1, if there is fellowship in the Spirit.

As Christians we have fellowship not just with each other, but with the Holy Spirit.

We have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.

He is present in our lives.

He guides us as we walk.

He gifts us.

In fact our relationship with the Father is only because of the presence of the Holy Spirit; since it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to pray to the Father.

And then there is comfort that we receive from Jesus Christ.

I think of the beatitudes that say:

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the meek.

And on they go.

We are blessed, because though we grieve and suffer, we are comforted by Christ, who has shown us His great love.

Paul knew the Philippian church was filled with Christians, and for this he was joyful.

Paul’s concern wasn’t whether or not the Philippians were Christians or not.

Paul’s concern was that they were a church that was becoming divided.

He had joy in their love for Christ, but his joy wasn’t as big as it could be.

In verse 2 he explains the problem, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

There were two women in the church, Eudodia and Sytyche.

They were fighting.

And the result was that there was backbiting, grumbling and complaining within the church.

I’m a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien; he’s the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

If you’ve ever read those books, maybe even seen the movies, you’ll quickly read of legends, poetry and tales that the backbone of the adventures within the books.

After Tolkien’s death in 1973, his son, Christopher, began publishing the background stories that made up these legends in Lord of the Rings.

One of the projects that he published was called The Silmarillion.

In The Silmarillion, there is a story about the days just after creation.

Tolkien uses music; melody and harmonies, to describe good and the rise of evil within the world.

He describes the world as originally having one song, which was good.

Evil began as a harmony, but began to grow, and eventually fractured the beautiful melody of creation.

Listen to how Tolkien describes evil rising against good, using music as a picture of it.

He speaks of two sounds, “The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice ...”

In Tolkien’s tale, a second sound, splintered the beautiful sound of creation, bringing disharmony and strife into the world.

And in the same way, empty fighting and strife brings ruin upon a church.

Do you know what I’m most afraid of in the church?

It’s not necessarily a theologically ignorant church.

I think that ignorance can be corrected through faithful preaching.

This is something that we have experienced at Southwest.

And I praise God at how He has grown you as a body.

What I’m most afraid of is a church that bickers.

A complaining church.

A grumbling church.

A selfish church.

We can get a church to believe the right things, but getting a church to behave the right way is a different story.

How do I know this?

Because people leave good churches all the time.

There are Christians who leave good churches all the time.

They aren’t leaving because of doctrine.

They leave because:

Their feelings are hurt.

They don’t feel welcome.

They don’t feel listened to.

They don’t feel cared for.

They leave because they don’t like:

The pastor’s voice.

The music.

The music volume.

The way the pastor dresses.

The way the church dresses.

What good is it if we say:

Christ has died for us.

We know His love.

We have the Spirit.

We are comforted by Christ.

And then divide over preferences?

This is why in verse 2, Paul says, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

The same mind:

Being of the same mind here isn’t saying we agree with the doctrinal statement.

That’s already true in Philippi.

They believe truth already.

This is having the same mind when it comes to preferences.

Have the same love.

This means we don’t show preference to ourselves or to certain people.

Instead, we love each other equally.

We are of full accord.

This means we are one body, together.

And then the end of verse 2, we are of one mind.

This means we are of one purpose.

We are pushing for the same things.

So how do we do this?

He’s saying they need to be on the same page in life.

How do we become a church that is of same mind, love, drive and purpose?

Oh boy, do I have the answer for you.

There are companies that spend millions of dollars trying to build unity among their employees.

They take them to ropes courses.

They go on adventures together.

They hire motivational speakers.

They give out swag, sweaters and pens.

All in the name of unity.

But I’ve got a better answer.

How do we have unity within the church?

Paul gives us some practical tips in verses 3-4

“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.”

It’s humility.

It’s looking to others as better than yourselves.

So often when there is a problem, when someone is irritated with another person, or when someone is upset;

They’re upset, angered or hurt, because they aren’t being treated the way they want to be treated.

Deep down, on some level, they think they deserve better.

And in those feelings, they’ve forgotten the Cross.

The simple reality, is Paul says, we are to count others as more significant than ourselves.

And this begins in the heart.

It has to do with how we think of ourselves and how we think of others.

We are to think of others as better.

It has to do with what is our main goal.

He summarizes it best in verse 5, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”

But he summarizes it best in verse 5, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”

There is that great truth in verses 5-8, but the reason why Paul gave it was not just to teach theology,

That was how the church was to be of one mind and spirit.

The reason why verses 5-8 are there, are to remind the church how to be humble.

That was how to be humble

That was a humble attitude on display.

We absolutely need to have a right understanding of Jesus for salvation.

And we also need to have a right understanding of Jesus in order to treat each other rightly.

So we look to Jesus.

Someone is repeatedly getting on your nerves.

We continually sinned against God, and Christ took on humanity for us.

Someone is repeatedly mean to you.

We continually rebelled against God, and in response, Jesus lovingly died for us.

Someone doesn’t give you the attention you deserve or recognize your efforts.

The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”

And yet, Christ pursued us.

This is the mind of Christ.

This is the mindset that we are to have.

An attitude of laying down our lives for others.

And in all areas.

Not just dying for each other.

says that husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the church.

And so we have husbands that think the only service they are to give their wives is taking a bullet for them should that be required.

But that’s not the only way that Christ humbled Himself for us.

Christ stepped down from heaven, and dwelt with sinful man.

He did things that were lowly for Him.

And so husbands, loving your wives like Christ loved the church means laying down your life for her in all areas, serving your wife.

It means helping clean.

It means taking care of the kids so she can get a pedicure.

Having the mind of Christ in life means laying down your rights and your expectations of others.

It means loving someone if they don’t greet you properly.

It means being patient with others, who get under your skin.

But in the day to day.

Remember, Paul is writing to a good church.

They have good leadership.

They have good doctrine.

But they are bickering.

And the solution, is look to Christ.

Adopt his thinking.

There are two women fighting.

That fight will never be fixed, until one of them lowers her guard.

This is true today.

If you are in a quarrel with someone, it’s never going to get fixed, until one of you, lowers your guard.

Until one of you, empties yourself of what you think you deserve, and lays down your life and your pride for the other.

Lastly, we have the Exaltation of Christ

Before Jesus died, He prayed to the Father in , “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

Jesus died for sins.

How do we know that He accomplished what He set out to do?

Because He was resurrected.

The resurrection of Jesus proves that God accepted Jesus’ death as payment for your sins.

And now God has placed him in a position of power.

Our text says that He is highly exalted.

In , after His resurrection, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

says that Jesus has “put all things under his feet.”

And when Stephen was being killed, becoming the first martyr, he confirmed this truth when he saw Jesus at the right hand of God.

Our confession is that Jesus is Lord.

This means that the call for humility, that Paul has been laying out for us in , is not optional for the Christian.

It’s not a matter of when you feel like being humble, or when you feel like laying down your life or when it’s convenient for you that you should be humble.

This is a command to have the mind of Christ now.

Paul says that the day is coming when the name of Christ will be proclaimed.

In verse 10, he says, “… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”

There’s 3 groups of people here.

Those in heaven.

Those on earth.

Those under the earth.

Those in heaven, are those who have been brought to glory already.

They have died and been brought into the presence of God.

They know Christ as their good and sovereign King.

There they no longer weep or feel pain.

But are safe in the arms of our Lord.

Then there are those under the earth.

These are those who are unredeemed.

They have lived as enemies of Christ.

And they are awaiting His final judgment.

And when they are brought before Christ, they will have their knees knocked out from under them in homage to the King they hated in life.

Then there are those on earth.

That is us.

Those on earth are a mix.

Wheat and the tares.

Sheep and the goats.

Redeemed and unredeemed.

At the name of Jesus, some of us will gladly surrender to Him.

And at the same time, others are a bit more reluctant.

They live as those who are under the earth.

And so, rather then willingly dropping a knee to Christ, when Christ returns, they will be judged as conquered foes.

So in regards to humility, how are you doing?

Jesus is Lord.

He has a name that causes all people to bow and confess His Lordship.

Therefore, if He is Lord, then obedience is not optional, humility is not optional.

Having a mind of Christ is not a suggestion.

It’s an imperative for the church.

Are you living as one of those under the earth, or one of those in heaven?

Suddenly, the concept of humility, is much more than just how we treat each other, it has to do with how we view Christ.

So how do you view Christ?

If you like the dying for us part, then you also need to like the Lordship part.

And if you like the Lordship part, then you need to demonstrate that by obeying Him.

Church, I love the deep truths of the kenosis as found in verses 5-8.

As deep and as beautiful as they are, they are there for the purpose of us being a humble church, in obedience to Christ.

May the stench of hypocrisy be far from us.

If we know Christ, then may we empty ourselves of what we deserve, and lay down our lives for others.