Humility From Pride

Good morning, welcome to NHCC, please open your Bibles to Philippians 2.

Good Friday: An Evening of Lament- Describing Lament.

Introduce the sermon series:

What is made possible in the life of a person who has received the gift of faith in Jesus Christ?

Begin today with the movement from pride, or being self-centered and self-seeking, to humility and putting others first.

John Calvin- “Christ’s humility consisted in his abasing himself from the highest pinnacle of glory to the lowest ignominy: our humility consists in refraining from exalting ourselves by a false estimation. He gave up his right: all that is required of us is that we do not assume to ourselves more than we ought.”

Simply stated, humility in Christ for each of us is a right understanding of who we are before God.

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.

Natural progression here- Begin with Jesus, see the challenge of the text, then apply.

1. The humility of Jesus.

He was in the form of God.

To truly understand the humility of Christ, we must understand the heights from which the King stepped down.

Greek- morphe.

Two typical meanings

The essence or nature of a thing.

What are we at our core if we could honestly strip away everything.

Interesting exercise- Take away everything. Everything that you’ve built up of how others perceive you. All of your titles. What are you left with as the base of your very identity?

What a thing truly is. Jesus is truly God.

John 1:1- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Hebrews 1:3- “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

The visible appearance of something.

This is the way that others will perceive something.

John 20- My Lord and my God.

Mark 9- Mount of Transfiguration- a glimpse of Jesus’ nature as God.

Likely both are true.

Dennis Johnson- “It seems that Paul selected form because it blended the ideas of nature and the visible display of that true identity. Paul is speaking of One who not only is and has eternal been truly God, but also displayed his glory as God in reincarnate radiance.”

In describing Jesus, it was important for Paul’s audience to understand the reality of who Jesus is.

2 Corinthians 8:9- “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Did not grasp equality with God.

Though Jesus was equal with God, He didn’t hold onto His equality with white knuckles.

Kids before bed, holding onto a finger.

Grasped- Cling to (Message), Used to His own advantage (NIV), Exploited (NRSV).

R.B. Strimple- “Christ was and remains equal with God, but he did not regard that equality as a ‘perk’ to be exploited for his own advantage…a fortuitous springboard to be used for self-aggrandizement.”

Taking the form of a servant.

Again, note the use of the word morphe.

What is revealed to us in such a statement?

Remember the two ideas that are both linked to one another.

The essence of who Jesus is… is a servant.

Shouldn’t be surprising, look at His entire existence. His entire purpose in life was to serve mankind.

Its not that this was some fake persona, Jesus in His essence is a servant. And He brings glory to the godhead through His service.

This is also who Jesus is manifest, or shown, as.

We cannot read the gospel accounts without coming to such a conclusion.

Perhaps most clearly shown in the washing of the disciples’ feet.

Born in the likeness of men.

Not such a humbling statement until we recognize who Jesus is.

C.S. Lewis- "In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down further still, down to the very roots and sea bed of the nature He had created...one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness then glancing in mid air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay.”

This is not necessarily our experience of human reality (though perhaps for some, it’s not far off). But consider the heights from which Jesus came. Born in the likeness of men is an astonishing descent for such a King of Glory.

Becoming obedient in everything, even death on a cross.

Christ was obedient in all things to the will of the Father. But this obedience was more than simply being willing to do God’s will. It was a suffering of sorts.

Obedience to the Father always ran Jesus headlong into opposition, largely because of the nature of God’s will versus the nature of the world’s will.

Louis Berkhof- “His whole life was a life of suffering. It was the servant-life of the Lord of Hosts, the life of the Sinless One in daily association with sinners, the life of the Holy One in a sin-cursed world. The way of obedience was for Him at the same time a way of suffering.”

Jesus was aware of His coming crucifixion- this had been the plan since before creation.

Each witnessed sin was likely a reminder of the cross to come.

And Jesus was obedient to the point of a criminal’s death. Scandal to gentiles. The very curse of God to Jews.

In all of these ways, Jesus has given to us the living display of true humility.

2. Our call to humility.

Now we turn our attention to verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves.

The call is clear. Have this mind. What mind? We look both forward and backward.

First, looking backward.

Philippians 2:3-4- “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.”

In humility, serve others.

Then, looking forward- the example of Jesus.

We have the clear instruction, we have what it will look like in our lives, and we have the fuel for such instruction.

Let’s briefly pay attention to what is said in v. 5.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Two different truths being communicated.

KJV- Jesus is the example of humility. ESV- Jesus gives the ability of humility.

Both are true, both in accordance with the rest of Scripture, and possible that both are meant to be communicated.

Jesus is the example to be held before us.

How does Jesus see people? Don’t lose sight of others.

The humility in Jesus is made possible only by God’s redemptive power in us.

This sort of humility that Paul writes of, bringing about unity in the church for the ultimate aim of God’s glory, runs contrary to the flesh.

3. Our expression of humility.

Humility makes obedience possible.

Love God.

John 14:15- “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Considering lately the Sermon on the Mount.

Recognize the emptiness of idolatry and the beauty of humility.

Jesus didn’t count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, or exploited, or used to His advantage.

But, he would not have been wrong to do so. He was God, after all.

We are not equal with God, and yet the root of every one of our problems is that we cling to the false assumption that we are.

Adam and Eve- You can be like God.

Pride and self-exaltation is harmful because at its root is a lie- that we are like God and deserve to live as such.

Dennis Johnson- “Whatever it may cost you now to put your own interests, comforts, conveniences in second place behind others’ needs, in the end you will discover that you have lost nothing of value in having your heart turned inside out to serve others. In fact, through your giving away of your rights, God will have given you the most amazing gift: the joy of starting to look (a little) like himself, more and more, until you, too, at Christ’s return and your resurrection, are so radically transformed that you find pure delight in bringing glory to his father!”

This is the aim of life in Jesus, after all, is it not? Bring God glory through our love for him and our obedience to him.

The death and resurrection of Jesus, received through faith, make humility possible where once there was only pride.