Good Friday 2021, Phil 2:5-11
Notes
Transcript
Good Friday 2021, Rough Draft
Philippinas 2:5-8
The purpose of Good Friday - To remember: the seriousness of our sin, the weight of our sin, the death that sin brings to everything it touches, our failure in sin.
AND
To remember the cost of salvation from sin. That the God Man Jesus Christ paid a high price for sin.
Good Friday leaves us with an angst. A heaviness.
So, you may feel an angst, and heaviness when you leave the service today, that is ok. It’s appropriate and healthy.
The relief of the angst comes on Sunday morning as we celebrate Jesus resurrection and victory over Satan, Sin, Selfishness.
Intro?
A hymn or poem used in by the 1st Century church.
1.Challenge, (vs. 5)
Most lessons end with an application - this one begins with the application.
What attitude? the attitude of verse 3-4.
Read verse 3-4
2.(vs. 3-4) Take on the attitude of Christ.
-Humility of Christ,
I am not #1, I am not the most important.
A. -The otherness of Christ. The selflessness of Christ. “looking to the interest of others”
-Who was Christ’s mind on? His mind was on others.
-We know that from a mental health standpoint that when our minds are focused on self, we get overly consumed with ourselves. We our encouraged, even from the seculars, that for mental health sake - to focus on others.
Jesus does this in a way that no else could.
We see this in Jesus High Priestly prayer in John 17:20-23
Context - on Friday Night, after the Passover meal, shortly before he is arrested.
Listen to Jesus otherness in these verses.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
What do we see in this prayer?
Before Jesus was arrested part of His focus was on others. He had mindfulness, not just on the short term, but the long term effects of his death on the Cross.
-The mindset we are challenge to take on is an others mindset.
-Leading the others mindset was the glory not of self, but of His Father.
B. Jesus desire to glorify the Father
In whatever Jesus did he did to glorify the father.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Just before being arrested, Jesus prays this.
40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Even in the greatest anguish (sweat like drops of blood) - as Jesus anticipated the great price He would pay. His thoughts were on glorifying the Father. His thoughts were on doing the Father will.
-While we would focus on self protection and escape, Jesus kept his focus on others and His Father.
Application - and so we are commanded to take on this very same attitude as Christ. To live for the glory of the Father and to spiritual impact others.
Transition - We see even more of the attitude of Christ in verses 5-6.
3.(vs. 5-6) Was not looking to serve himself
Read verses 5-6.
Not looking for honor
-Although Jesus was and is God. Although, He deserves the praise, he deserves the worship.
-He came with a different purpose.
-To glorify His Father by making a sacrifice for sinners. For making a sacrifice for you.
-Pause
I want to offer a different meaning of the word “Grasped” you see in your translation.
The word “grasped” in the Greek can also mean “to take advantage of”
In the stories of the Roman god’s - they were always taking advantage of their positions and their power. The Roman god’s were looking to serve themselves.
But not Jesus. Jesus was a different kind of God than the gentiles were use to worshiping.
Although Jesus was God, Jesus did not regard his equality with God something to selfishly take advantage of.
He did not exploit his deity for selfish gain.
D.A. Carson
“The eternal Son did not think of his status as God as something that gave him the opportunity to get and get and get. Instead, his very status as God meant he had nothing to prove, nothing to achieve. And precisely because he is one with God, one with this kind of God, he “made himself nothing” and gave and gave and gave.”
This understanding of that Jesus did not come to exploit his deity for selfish gain fits perfectly into the understanding of the next verse -vs. 7.
Read verse 7.
Read verse 7
(vs. 7) Jesus came to serve.
Jesus did not come to exult himself. He did not come to take.
We see this with - 3 memorable acts He did before He was arrested.
-Washed the disciples feet.
-Prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for the final sacrifice and for God’s people.
-Ultimately Jesus served by allowing himself to be arrested.
Jesus gave and gave and gave.
He did not come to earth and exploit His deity for selfish gain.
He came to serve.
Christ Follower, Jesus has served you.
Would you worship Jesus by saying in your heart right now to Jesus, “Thank you for serving me.”
transition, Verse 8 tells us of the ultimate act of servanthood.
vs 8., Death on a cross (Gospel)
Read verse 8.
I Peter 2:21-24 Describes Jesus sacrifice this way.
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Jesus died one of the most torturous death a person could experience.
The innocent, sinless God Man, falsely accused, betrayed, and arrested.
Beaten and mocked by Roman soldiers while he was kept awake all night.
Scourged 39 times with the flagellum.
The flagellum - This is a cat of nine tails whip with bone, metal, and balls of led woven into the leather straps… Meant to tear flesh.
His head was punctured with a crown of thorns.
In agony, Jesus was forced to carry his own cross.
At the execution site, being laid on the cross, 9 inch nails driven into his hands and feet.
The cross was a humiliating, torturous, and shameful way to die.
Many historians believe those who were placed on the cross to die were striped of all clothing to humiliate and shame the accused.
Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter - not fighting, willingly laying down his life.
By doing so, he paid for sin.
Your sin and my sin.
This opened the door for you to have faith in Him and gain eternal salvation.
Why such a brutal beating and death?
John Bunyan says that the kind of sacrifice & payment Christ made gives us a glimpse into how offensive our sin is to the holiness of God.
Jesus died a brutal death to make a payment for sin.
Jesus died a brutal death to make a payment for your sin.
Your sin is so offensive to God that it took the death of His Innocent Sinless Son to be a great enough payment.
So today we remember and thank God for sacrificing for us at great cost to himself.
Charle’s Wesley wrote these song lyrics
And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Will you right now say in your heart to God, “Thank you for dyeing for me”.
Let’s Pray.