Phil 2:5-8, Christ's Example

This message was originally delivered on May 12, 1991.

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Kimber Kauffman: 0:00

Philippians and the second chapter. And let's begin reading this very familiar, probably one of the most famous passages and all the New Testament, starting with verse five will read down through verse eight. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. I have never been well known for my mother's day messages. One of the reasons for that is that I don't preach them, maybe once or twice I have. But I, we're in a text of Scripture, and we continue to go right through but always I try to think of some cute way to tie it in. And you know, this one ties in the Mother's Day because look at verse five, it says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Now, how many mothers have said over the years? I don't appreciate your attitude. You see. Okay, that's funny. Maybe I'll have to leave that out of the next message. Next, next service. All right. So anyway, very much applies to Mother's Day. But honestly, this passage that we're studying now, please listen to this, it was a pretty interesting statement, is one of the most important and influential passages of literature that has ever been written in the history of the world, all the things that could ever be written there, the making of books, there is no end. And yet, if you had to get it down to some of the things that are most important to things that have ever been said, This kenosis passage, this passage about who Jesus is, is absolutely one of the most essential ever. Now, as we study this passage, and let me have the blanks, please. This is something that many of you are familiar with this inverted pyramid. But let me remind you of something. Here's one reason why what we're studying this morning is extremely important and deserves your utmost attention. And that is this. If we had to, as you've seen us before talking about the philosophy and theology in our church, here, you have an inverted pyramid. And here's the very basis of all of Christianity, there's a God who created man has fallen, the only way back that man, you and I, mankind can have a relationship with this God who created is through Jesus Christ. And notice the center stone is the person and work of Jesus Christ. He began all things he's going to culminate history, the second coming underneath this, you could tell all the judgments, even heaven or hell, and then why we live the authority of the Word and what holds all this together is mortar now, we could be talking this morning about things such as views of church government. And you know what, there are some godly people that will be in heaven that would strongly disagree with my interpretation of views of church government, or views of music, or differences of spiritual gifts, godly people who I would disagree with concerning spiritual gifts. But yet my point here is this. We are talking this morning about the center stone of Christianity, the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we're off here, we're off on everything we can't be, we've got to be extremely careful that we were right on the mark, when it comes to dealing with this passage, and any passage that particularly deals with Jesus Christ. Now. Think of this, this famous passage, this is really intriguing to me. This is something that you normally don't think of as a Christian these days. But this passage was written to illustrate the importance of humility and selflessness in regard to others not. The reason this famous passage on the pre incarnate and the incarnate Christ was written the purpose for this tremendous teaching was for Christians to learn how to get along. Now I find that pretty interesting. It's a passage which you can entitle to the supreme humility. Christ is the greatest reason for unity among his followers in Christ is the greatest example of humility and selflessness. Now, think of this supreme humility, supreme humiliation. What do you think of when I say humiliation? You know what the world normally thinks of as this forced embarrassment. When you think of humiliation, people think of that as something bad I was totally humiliated. In fact, one Dictionary defines humiliation like this as an illustration, mother, Mother's Day message again, I'm trying to see you keep bringing it up. Mother was humiliated by finding that she did not have enough food for her guests. Dust to the dictionary It means to lower the pride or self respect to humble or to mortify. So something that's not good. But here's what Jesus Christ teaches radically different than anything we're used to. Jesus Christ said humiliation is a virtue that is to be sought and tried to get into your life. It is something that is important to have. And what is also so interesting about this, as we start to get into this passage is this, you cannot isolate Christian theology from Christian conduct. We are going to go down the tubes and we are going to turn away to all kinds of answers that are unbiblical and we're doing it in mass as evangelical Christians because somehow we think this theology and practical living have nothing in common theology is for people in seminary somewhere in some ivory tower existence, where they sit around and contemplate some type of deep thoughts that really won't change anything. Instead of understanding that the sounds the ology the greatest theology, the deepest theology of all is, is there purposely to radically change your life. I have told you the past, I sat across from people in counseling before and at the same time, I've been studying through a passage on some particular idea of the Atonement. And all of a sudden, my mind is shaken loose, this person across three needs to understand that that's why their life is screwed up, because they aren't thinking biblically. And yet you try to talk to them about the atonement. It's like, man, I've got problems once you get onto something real. It's like the kid that's in school and says, How is this ever going to help me Sunday? I'm never going to use this geometry someday, why should I study it? But you see this truth? You're gonna get this. Here's what I'm saying. This truth about how to get along with others, is based upon the pre incarnate and the incarnate Christ. In other words, do you want to get help in interpersonal relationships? Do you want to have help for your marriage do you want to help with with people you work with? You want to help in getting along with other Christians? Then guess what? Consider the pre incarnate and the incarnate Christ. That isn't this interesting, because today, we're told this, Hey, to be able to get along with others and solve problems down in your life, you got to deal with your past. And now what we're told all the time, and listen, you know what the text says, you want to learn to get along with others deal with Christ past, deal with who he was, before he came to Earth, and deal with what he has become when he came to Earth. And as you come to deal with those things, it's going to be able to have a major impact upon your life, for instance, last week, but this whole idea is built upon us that you can go all the way back to verse 27 of chapter one, and this whole thing starts to build. But notice again, last week, it'll be by way of reminder, look at verse one, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, and I know that you do get encouragement from being united with Christ, remember, that's the way it's written, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and passion and you know there is all these things that make my joy, complete by being like minded, what's the point here to get along with people look back to the cross, look back to the fact that you are united with Christ, look back to the comfort of the Holy Spirit, look back to the love of God and loving you as a sinner. And think about that. And that's going to cause you now to want to get along with others. So we move on to something else, have this thing attitude that Christ had, what is it well consider the fact of who he was. Before he came to us, let me ask you, have you ever done that? Gone? Do you ever have an interpersonal relationship struggle with anybody? Anybody here ever have one of those? You know, we do right? Have you ever done what Paul said to do? You see, there are so many Christians that absolutely are hopeless as the following the bible because they think there's it just doesn't work for me. I've tried it. But have you really done it the way Paul said to do it. He said, consider have this attitude what I had to consider who Christ was, before he came to Earth, and what he did when he came to Earth, get our minds upon Christ isn't the key to getting along with people in horizontal unity is understanding not in some vague way, but in a crystal clear way vertical unity that God made through the gospel. Let's don't pass this off. It is one of the greatest burns of my heart that people think you just go to church and get a little motivational shot in the arm and it's nothing that can really affect you. If you really need help. You gotta go to a counselor. My point is, I'm not against counseling. But I say this to you. Why not? We take a serious look here at what this passage is saying to us. And it says, kind of this attitude, you you that aren't getting along, there was disunity in the town of Philippi in the church at Philippi. He does get along consider Jesus Christ, who he is. Now, notice this if we had to outline this passage, I want to show you very quickly how we could outline this passage. And that is this In regard to getting along with others have the attitude Jesus had had the attitude Jesus had now that's just basically verse five. In fact, look what it says in verse five, your attitude should be the same is that of Christ Jesus, literally, you could translate verse five like this friends, listen, let this attitude be minded in you over and over. Let this attitude keep going through your mind over and over, keep thinking this among you. Okay. And the idea of attitude is the same word that's translated some nine other times in this mindset. And the point is have this mindset and the idea of the word attitude has nothing to do with casual thought. But it has everything to do with a specific purpose. In other words, zero in remember, we talked to the past about the the f6 team, they pressed, I've never been in one. But you know, all the things we learned about the war, you press that laser beam, and be 00 on that plane that is trying to knock out of the sky. And the point here is, is let this out to be zero and B, have the same attitude of Christ Jesus. In other words, look to Christ, as your example, have the attitude that he had. Now, let me just stop right there. Somebody loves You at work, you have a difficulty in your marriage, you're struggling, so please, here is an answer for you. You got to hear it. And you've got to start to want to practice it with all your heart, and that is this, have an attitude about that situation that Christ had, have the kind of attitude and outlook towards that situation, that Jesus Christ had to have the mindset that Jesus had. The Bible says in First Peter to 21, He is our example and software and we're to follow him. And the actually the word translated follow is where we get the word imitate, or is actually can be translated like this one lexicon says, as a father as walking through the snow like this, and the little son is following him, the little son stands behind, trying to step in the exact steps that his father has tried to go like this. That's the point here, in the way of our Christian life, we're supposed to be Christ. Like, I talked with so many Christians, and somebody has done something mean or or screwed them over in some way. And you know what they want to get rid of now? What about being like Christ? Yeah, but do you understand what they did? Yeah. And Jesus said, Love your enemies. We often forget this. Well, the first thing I want you to see is down to verse six, who he was before he came to Earth. Okay, who he was before he came to Earth. Look what he says in verse six, this first thing you're supposed to consider about Christ Jesus to help you and your attitude towards others, is to understand who he was before he came to Earth and notice what it says, who being in very nature God, King James says, who been in the form of God, actually the word there for very nature in the NIV, or form in the King James is the word Morphe, where we get the word meta Morphosis and what is metamorphosis, but its transformation. And the idea here is this not some abstract V, but a concrete nature and attributes. It refers to inner nature. The form is that of true form, true notion, the most ideal sense of form, he existed before he came to earth, in the form of God. Now, think of John one, one, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Okay. Now, it's also a present tense, the phrase translated being, it's subsisting, or it's a denotes prior existence. And so one thing you gotta understand is this before Jesus Christ came to earth, He was God. I love the way CS Lewis talks about it. He says he, as he was contemplating Christianity came to understand that things were so bad on this earth, that God had to invade this world as a man. And one thing I want you to consider is this, he was absolutely God in the flesh, or excuse me out in the flesh, He was God the second person of the Trinity before he came to Earth. The second thing I want you to notice under this point, that was a who being in very nature God be is this he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped the New International numeric standard translated out the same King James says this, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And the idea of grasp or robbery Is this the police carefully gotta think through this passage carefully to benefit from it. The pre Incarnate Christ, already possessed equality with God the Father, and resolved not to cling to it. He did not regard quality equality with God as a price. In fact, the word thought or the word consider in verse six that we're in is the same word as translated esteem. In verse three, go back to verse three, it says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider our esteem others better than yours. Self. And the same thing is this Jesus Christ did not esteem himself. In a sense. He was he had all the majesty all the glory, all the wonders of heaven at his disposal. And yet he didn't say this is something I've got to hold on to, I will be willing to go to Earth. In fact, the idea of considered or thought is this. It looks please get this. It's interesting because the word looks at a logical time in the past, when God the sun made a decisive resolution, to surrender the divine prerogative to be served in order to serve the human race. There was a time and eternity passed, when God the Son, very possibly before the world was even made. As they considered the Trinity, contemplated and considered the creation of man and the knowledge of the fall of man, because remember, the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. And God, the son said, I will be the one that would go I would give up this glories and splendors of heaven to go now in case you're ever wondering, by the way, remember the center on our pyramid, the very center is the person and work of Jesus Christ, you know that every cult group that there is, is off on the person and the work of Christ. And one thing I want you to know is this. Clearly, unmistakeably, the Scriptures teach that Jesus was God. He wasn't some other man. He wasn't somebody that came into being Some time later, one of the first of all God's creation, He was God. Here's one more time when you see it very clearly. Look what it says in verse six, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasp. Literally, you could translate the phrase like this, to be in such a manner as God or you could say this to exist in a manner equal to God. The word equal the adverb describes the manner of existence. To see this clearly, I want you to go with me to John's gospel, keep one place there in Philippians. And go over with the the John's Gospel in the 10th chapter, John chapter 10. The look here. And by the way, you remember who was writing these words, who wrote this word, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped who wrote this, who wrote the book of Philippians. Who was Paul Amano theists to the hilt, right. I mean, if there's anybody that said, Here, O Israel, the LORD our God is one it was Paul, he believed that with all of his heart, and he says here, Christ in eternity past did not consider equality with God, something he had to hold on to. Now look here, John, chapter 10. Look at verse 30. Jesus Christ did this. I and the Father are one. Okay, I am the Father are one now what did Jesus mean by that? Oh, people say, Oh, he didn't mean that. Because they they are okay, let's just let the text tell us what he meant. Let's go down to verse 31. Again, the Jews picked up stones to stone him. So he says, I'm the father want all the Jews pick up stones to get away? Let's get rid of this guy. Jesus turns to them standing there with stones in his hands. And he says this. I have shown you many great miracles from the Father, for which of these do you stone me? And I get the reply, verse 33. We are not stoning you for any of these, replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because you Amir man claimed to be God. Now, how did they interpret the phrase I and My Father are one. How do they interpret it? They interpreted that he was claiming to be God. Now, remember the phrase equality with God and Philippians two, six, you want to see the exact same use of the word. Go over to John chapter five. Here's the same Greek word, Isa, and here it is. John chapter five, and liquid me to verse 16. John five and verse 16. It says this. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, my father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill them. Why did they why were they so infuriated when he says I, the Father, I'm working and I tell them working? Well, they tried all the more to kill Him why not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father making Himself equal with God. You see that? making himself equal, same word. John 518 is the same word in Philippians 216 or two six, and that is this. Jesus was claiming equal Quality with God it was unmistakably clear in that day that you can go back to Philippians. And I want to tell you a couple other ways this word is used. Listen to this, this same word translated equality with God in the slipping chapter two, verse six is translated in Matthew 20, verse 12 of the Equal Pay of those who worked one hour compared to those who work 12 hours, you remember, the guys get hired early in the morning, and they're working all day long. And someone else about three hours later gets hired someone else a few hours later gets hurt pretty soon, an hour before the final break of when the sunset, he hires some more people. And so they get in line, the guys that worked an hour get in line to get paid, you get paid at the end of your day. And as they're standing there in line, the guys that have worked the entire 12 hour day or stayed in the back of the line, the guys that worked one hour, and then two hours and four hours are staying here, the guy that sits got paid one, for one hour, he stands in line, and he gives them a full day's wage. And the guy has the back of the line of oh, this is awesome. They're getting a full day's wage for one hours worked just to go we're gonna get. But guess what, he gives them all the same pay, and they start to complain. And then there's a whole other point of the parable there. But the point is, they all got paid equal. So what does equal mean? Their $1 equals $1. You see that? Now you may think, what are you? Why are you laboring this point we believe you? Because, listen, the point here is this. You got to know who Jesus is your faith and hope is in the Lord Jesus, you better make sure you know who he is. He was God in the flesh. He transformed his entire world, not because he was some good man or extremely wonderful prophet, but because he was the God in the flesh. Listen, Mark 14 verses 5689 men, he testified against him. But their statements did not agree. That's the way the NIV translates. And guess what it says their statements were not equal, as they tried to get false accusers to put Jesus to death on the cross. Or how about this? Luke 634. Hey, when you lend your money to other people, you lend your money to them. And don't worry about whether or not they're going to pay you back. That's what Christianity is. Lend your money to them. And don't worry about whether you're gonna get paid back. Because Jesus said, sinners lend money if they think they're gonna get it back in full. And guess the way they translated in full is ASA, the word free quality. And the point here is this, you learn $20 You get back $20 That's the way a sinner would do it. So you learn it, and you don't worry about it. Or how about this x 1117. He gave the same gift of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, Cornelius says, In other words, the speaking in tongues, the miraculous signs, all the things that happen when the Holy Spirit came to the Gentiles is just equal as it did to the Jews of Pentecost. It's equality. One last one, if you ever, ever had to prove it, above all things, here it is. Are you ready? My favorite one, Revelation 2116. And it says this, the New Jerusalem is 1200 stadia by 1200. Excuse me, 12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadia by 12,000, zeta, all sides of the new city are equal. Now that's the way the term is used. And the point here is this, that he did not think it robbery. He did I think he called it was Robert up equality with God it was a one man said this before it was not something which the Christ still had to acquire he already was God. It was a dignity which belong to the pre existent Christ to which he was entitled in a right to which he actually possessed. And as he was in heaven with all the doors being God, the Creator the world in such a light, Christ did not regard his existence in a manner equal to God. It was not as something precious which was robbed a prize which must slip from his grasp, a treasure to be crushed and retained at all hazards. Christ could have existed and could have appeared only as God only in a manner equal to God, it was right it was the right which was do him. He need not have gone into another man of existence, but as such a valuable possession or a thing grass which desperately had to be clung to at all costs, he did not regard it and that amazing he could have come as God. Well, all the glories and splendor, but he chose to go into this other existence. Listen in his adorable love and grace. He was willing through his incarnation to enter into another more humble manner of existence and to take the form of a servant who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped now. Our minds are so typical you know what you know what happens? I'm just like you I have to battle all this. But we get pounded with humanism we get pounded with humanism we get pounded with the media we get pounded with the views of people working around us. We get hit constantly with non Christian thought that pretty soon you know what happens out of all of it. God is about this big. And man is is that big. And so thoughts towards God are small, and we have problems and we think I'm all alone. He's really not involved. But here it is the first step. Now listen, here it is the first step, you want to understand one of the basic ways the one of the most foundational ways for you to be able to get along with other people, the kind of people you never thought you could get along with most ungodly, unloving, hurtful, wicked, unjust people. The first thing you need to remember is this, who he was before he came to Earth. This is the setup. Now, I may be working with this for a long time. And I know the American mind doesn't want to work with this, it may seem sort of boring, what how the house is going to apply to my life. But remember, it does. If you would actually take time to think about who he was before he died, or excuse me, before he came to Earth. And understand it was God, the creator of the world. Remember, in our galaxy, if you travel the speed of light for 100,000 years, you just then get out of our galaxy. And there's more galaxies in the world that are Sands's agreed upon this shores of the world. This God who created this Think of it this was all the glories and splendor, hey, it was Don't women, whether they, the angels, the Sarafem, the chair of them, what are they doing? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of last, the highest, most adorable creatures ever created, worshipping him day and night, bending every, every whim that he has instantly met. Remember the prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, his will constantly be done peace and unity and harmony and love. And perfection. He left all of that to come here. And remember what John says, He came into His own and His own received him not. And then the writer of the Gospel of John sort of goes, it's saying, I can really believe this. He's the one who created the world came to the world, and they booted him out of the world. Think of that. This is the only son of God. Now, how's that gonna affect your relationships? Just give this passage a little time. All right, work with me here a second. All right. Look at verse seven. Let's go to the next point. Here it is. There's only three points and we're not even going to this is the last point because the next one's too much we're gonna have to cover next week. All right. Look here. What he became when he came to Earth, look at verse seven. Look what it says, but made Himself nothing. taking the very nature of a servant, be made in human likeness. Now the description moves from Christ, to his incarnate state, his pre incarnate state before he became incarnate and flesh. Now here it is, in his fleshly state. And notice the main verb here is this, he emptied himself. It's translated in the NIV, as he made himself nothing and the word but there to start, the verse is very strong. It means in strong contrast, the verse six of the pre incarnate existence of the glories of Heaven, here's what he became. And the idea is to draw your mind to this clear distinction. Here's what he was, here's what he became. Don't forget this. And it says he emptied himself or made himself nothing. For other times, Paul uses the same word where we get the word kenosis. By the way, this is the famous word right here, emptied himself made himself nothing. For other times, Paul uses this word, and every time he does so in a metaphorical sense, not a literal sense. In other words, he did not empty Himself like some people have thought where Jesus Christ, when He came to earth, just emptied Himself, Vaughn was just a man walking upon the earth, where he had no power, where he was not, in fact, God. In fact, we even sing a song that's wrong, and Kennedy, that I should get an interest in the sacred blood. Three of those verses in that song in our handbook are the most fabulous verses and all hymnology my opinion, but there's one that's dead wrong. And he said, This, emptied himself of all the love and blood for Adams helpless race. That isn't true. He did not empty himself of all but love is very obviously the case that you see Jesus Christ, God, and that's what is the theological term for hypostatic union. You know what that is? You never thought the hypostatic union could affect your interpersonal relationships, did you? But I'm telling you, you got to know that you won't get along, you understand? I don't mean to be funny, because it's true. And that is this 100% God 100% Man, not 75% Man and 25% God, not 5050 but totally, completely human in every way. He ate, he drank, he slept, he got tired. He was absolutely human, a very real human nature. And yet, at the same time, he was God in the flesh. He claimed to be God. He made outstanding statements. Remember against CS Lewis says, As a man claims to be a poached egg. There's something wrong with the guy. But Christ claimed to be God. He says, I am the one and he claims it so he becomes a man. In fact, if you want to see one of the clearest evidences of all this, go with me quickly to the fourth chapter of Mark. And I want you to see in Mark's gospel in the fourth chapter, this perfect balance of Jesus As God at the same time, man, you see if he would have divested Himself of His divine attributes, he would have ceased to have been God. What when it says he emptied himself what it means is this he gave up the glories in the majesties of heaven to become a man. Here's one of the best examples of Jesus as a man. And yet as God, Mark chapter four, and look at verse 35, because it says, says this, that day, when evening came, he said, That's Jesus talking to His disciples, let's go over to the other side. leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. So you got a group of boats going across the Sea of Galilee. Okay, picture this in your mind. A furious Squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Now. You know, this story is familiar to you. But remember, the Sea of Galilee is like a fishbowl. And I've been on it before when it was a beautiful day. But they say it just like a fishbowl in just a matter of moments as you took a member kid in the bathtub, you'd push your legs back and forth, and the water would go back and forth. That's sort of the idea of the listening of Galilee very quickly, a huge storm can break out comes over the mountains quickly. So what happens is this, Jesus was get this, here's the humanity of Jesus, verse 38, Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples welcome as a teacher, don't you care if we drowned? By the way, Jesus was a man who had to sleep. God doesn't have to sleep. But Jesus was a man. And he had to sleep he got tired. He got up and here's what I love. Jesus is sleeping. The boat is going crazy Jesus sound asleep. And I just absolutely this is one of my favorite stories. If you really put yourself into and think about it, he gets up. And he walks over and here's all his disciples and by the way, the way it's written in the Greek the disciples are sort of ticked at them and they're saying this don't even care we're gonna drown Come on, man, wake up. There's a sense of, of irritation in the in the way they asked him this question. And he got up and just picture here's Jesus. Now I'm gonna do bad imitation of Jesus. But just imagine getting up. He's a human, he's a total man, everything that a human faces, we say he faced, he gets up, you know, what is it when you first wake up, you just, you know, you're tired, you stretch a little bit. Now remember, this is just my imagination. But it could have been, he stretches, and he looks and here's this fear and Squam waves and when, and he just says on all the disciples, watch him, quiet, be still you. And there he was God. And notice what it says, then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And notice what the disciples said. Why? And he said to them, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And look at verse 31. They were terrified. And they asked each other who is this even the wind and the waves obey him? You knew who he was, he was God in the flesh. And had to be a little Plexi let's don't let's don't be too hard on the disciples. I mean, the guy was asleep. Let's just like a human. Because he was and he gets up and he says, calm down, as if it was his friend, hey, you mighty waves, canal down, boy, no way to the to the wind, stop, cut it out. Boom, they stop. He was God. And at the same time he was man. And we understand from the scriptures, that he he empties himself, not of the glories of God, but of giving up the Majesty in the comfort of heaven to come to earth to become a man. In fact, the next verse says, I mean, the next phrase says, taking on the form of a serf, servant. And the word taking reveals his willingness, the form, by the way, the form in verse seven is the exact same word for form in verse six. So he took it off just like he was in the form of God. So he took on the form of a servant, and the word servant is very interesting. The word doulos, a menial place, a slave it depicts servitude and subjection, on attractiveness, lack of distinction. He didn't come to earth as think if he would have come to earth, He could have come as a combination of Sylvester Stallone, and was another great big huge guy, Swartz Nagar and all these guys that he could have been out of work, you know, and he says, you know, we could have done one of those even. But he didn't. He came as a humble servant. In fact, Isaiah says there was nothing about him that was attractive if you looked upon him, just you're absolutely average guy. Totally average. So much. So did you remember it? Look at the next phrase, it says being made in human likeness? You know, no halo around his head, as you've seen in some of the pictures. Okay. No glow from his body that others just call them a mere man. Didn't they say this isn't just the carpenter son? It's just the carpenter son. What's this guy? Who does he think he is? Christ enemy Psalm is a blasphemy man. The Bible says if they had known who he was, he would not they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, His half brothers hurled sarcasms at him, his hometown gave him no honor. And even Peter rebuked him for his death predictions. Not in the glory and splendor of a glorified human nature, but he took on a real human nature and you know what this one thing, whatever you're struggling with, whatever, whatever temptations you're facing, whatever difficulties you have, I've got news for you. Jesus understands. Because he was absolutely totally a human. Saw that I want to see how much this applies here. Listen carefully and moving on. Although there is an equality of persons, please listen, within the divine essence, the Trinity. There is a voluntary subordination to carry out the redemptive purpose. He declared, I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father, which sent me and get this within the oneness of a family. There is a personal equality of husband wife, and yet there is a functional headship. In the same sense, there is the functional headship of the father over the son. One of the whole points of this passage is this, have an attitude of humility towards one another, have an attitude of submission, have an attitude where you consider others better than yourself. The greatest example of this is Jesus, the Son of God, who did not even have to do it, but willingly volunteered to give up the glories of heaven to become a man. What is wrong with submission and obedience? I've heard, and it's coming against the church in the next 10 years, this is going to be the biggie. And that is his whole teaching about women do we have to submit? And we have all these weddings going on this summer? And do I'm not gonna have the words obey in my marriage? You know, or what does that mean, submit and obey me so that if there's something wrong with submission, and there's something wrong with the Son of God did, because the Son of God submitted to the will of the Father and took on a tremendous humiliation. And by the way, very much whether it is tied with this attitude of obedience, people say, I'm going to submit but I'm not gonna obey impossible, because look at verse eight, it says, And being found in the appears as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, that's gonna be next week's text. You see, there's this tendency in America to think this, we don't think Trinitarian we need to, we don't think Trinitarian we somehow think the individual is more important than the unit. But I say to you again, but to understand the Bible, the unit is more important than the individual. And you make choices and decisions in the Bible based upon what is best for the unit, the family unit, the unit is the church and all. To tie this in even farther, the last point is this. And this is what we're going to cover next week, but I want to introduce it to you the depths of humiliation to which you went. So notice, if you're supposed to have an attitude of Do you get along with others, you have to consider Christ, who he was before he came to earth, the glorious God, creator of the world, what he became when he came to earth, he became a servant. He became a man, he was like this man, fully human in every way. And the last thing is this, verse eight is the depths of humiliation to which you went. If any of you ever read Mark Twain's book, The Prince and the Pauper, the prince, which is places with a paperboy for a day. So you know, that's an illustration of what Christ did. For you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Master, do you want to follow Christ? Do you want to be like Christ, and I want to tell you this this morning, listen, humble yourself before others. Have the attitude of chapter two verse four, where each of you should look down on your own interests, but also on the interests of others. I mentioned this earlier, but we're told by a tidal wave of authorities these days to go back and deal with your past so you can get along with others now and I want you to realize again that the thing grapple with this, that you deal with Christ's past to consider and think about who he was and it was an example to you. He left the chair of PIM and the Sarafem and all of the glories of heaven. You become a man now listen to this. From the glories of heaven, He emptied Himself Taking the nature of a servant, made in human likeness, as a man he humbled himself became obedient even unto death. I think he started out as God, where do you and I start out? We start out as what? Rebellious sinners if he started out as God and he humbled himself to the lowest of humanity, that is this, you can't get any lower than a criminal hung on the cross by the Romans, as an absolute maggot of society that must be destroyed. You can't get any lower than that he went from the highest glorious extreme of law to the lowest extreme that you possibly could be. We are starting off as rebellious sinners, what's your attitude be in relationship to others? It should be that if you Millie Asian humility, considering others, better than ourselves. You know this last Christmas, something happened to me that I want to tell you about in closing. I mean, this is this just shows you how far off the path I've been. I was gone for four weeks before Christmas, if you could remember because of a throat problem. And when I came back, it was by Christmas time and a couple of the deacons came up to me one Sunday, and they said, right before Christmas, they said, Hey, have we done anything for the church secretary? And I was thinking, I said, I don't know. I've been gone. Do you guys got any plans? I missed the last couple deacons meanings. Well, you know what? They said? Because it No, we're going to give her some money as a bonus over Christmas, which I was totally for. But you know what I was thinking in the back of my mind. I was thinking, Oh, baby, if the Secretary is gonna get a bonus, how much more should the pastor get a bonus at Christmas. And I was excited about that. And I was just sort of waiting, you know, in the year before, the year before, it totally surprised. The church gave us a huge bonus at Christmas time. But it had been decided without me knowing that the pastor wasn't going to get a bonus this year, not because anybody was mad at me or didn't like me, because God is sovereign. That's what he decided. But I'm going to tell you, I was absolutely miserable for the next 10 or 12 days, every time I thought about this. I was because I thought this, you mean to tell me here's what I thought you leaned to tell me they're gonna give the secretary who's only been here for less than a year, this kind of a bonus. And they're completely forgetting me. And I started developing bad attitudes. I started griping and complaining, I started a steaming myself better than everybody else. Because I had my feelings hurt because people did not consider me the way I thought they should. Let me tell you something. The things that I thought about and the attitudes that I carried during that period of time absolutely shamed me. Because of this, I did not think through Philippians, two, five through eight very well at all, you know what I thought of, I did not think of Christ and all that he left and we became a I thought of this what I deserve in my rights to this and I have the right to be happy. And I have the right to have peace, I have the right to have friends, I have the right to have money, I have the right to have these things. And I demanded this kind of stuff. And I want to tell you something, the most miserable people in the world are the kind of people that live all the time thinking of what they deserve and what they should get. And the whole point of this passage is this. Consider Christ consider the degree of humiliation that he went to from the glories of God however, we can't even scale it you there's not a scale in the world big enough to a criminal dying on the cross. And let that be your attitude in regard to others, let's pray. Heavenly Father, this is so foreign to us. Because we are so quick to exalt ourselves that we see in this passage we humble ourselves and let you do the exalting. Please teach us this basic, most essential, important understanding of getting along with others teach us to look on Christ to consider him. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.