Many of us have been humiliated at some time in our lives. And I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it this way, but Jesus, being hung naked on a cross, was a humiliating experience, but as we’re going to discover today, Jesus wasn’t humiliated. Humiliation means something was done to you. Jesus, on the other hand, was in control the whole time. He purposefully and intentionally sacrificed his life for you and for me. Keep that in mind.
We’re looking at this passage out of the book of Philippians.
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Let me review for just a minute because we learned some important things about Jesus last week from verses 5-7:
We are to be like Jesus.
Jesus was and is God.
Jesus didn’t cling to his rights and privileges as God.
Jesus made himself nothing.
Jesus took the form of a servant.
Jesus was fully human and fully God.
And we ended by saying that if we are to be like Jesus then we need to be servants. And some of you sent me some examples of how you served this past week.
Share stories of people serving.
- Somebody went home last Sunday night and dried and folded their roommates’ clothes that were in the washer.
- Someone took a meal to a homeless guy who was holding a sign that said, “I’m hungry.”
- Someone giving their time and talents, specifically their technical skills, to help out some people who need it.
The first step in being like Jesus is to serve.
Today I want to pick up where we left off and unpack one verse. Verse 8: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Let’s unpack what this incredible verse is saying. It starts off with:
And being found in appearance as a man
This is just a restatement of what we’ve already learned, that Jesus was not only fully God, but that he was fully human. The God of the universe put skin on and moved into our neighborhood. This really is profound. It would be like you and me becoming a roach so that we could relate to roaches. That’s the most equivalent example I can think of.
He humbled himself
Now, let me stop there. I think it should probably go without saying that when Jesus stepped out of heaven and became a man that he humbled himself. I mean, seriously, the creator becoming one of the created. But not only is that an example of Jesus humbling himself. His life was an example in humbling himself. Over and over again from birth to death we see Jesus humbling himself.
Now, let me tell you what “humbled himself” means because I think most people are confused by what it means to humble yourself. Most people think that humbling themselves means thinking low about themselves: “Whoa is me,” “I’m a nobody,” “I’m not worthy”… you’ve probably heard things like that before. You may have even thought that you were being humble by acting like that about yourself. But that’s not humility at all.
That view of humility is never seen in the attitude and behaviors in Jesus. Jesus modeled something different. Jesus modeled for us what it truly means to humble yourself.
See, to humble yourself doesn’t mean to think lowly about yourself. To humble yourself means you’re not thinking of yourself at all. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. Your focus isn’t on you. It isn’t on your needs. It isn’t on what you’re doing or what you’re thinking. It isn’t on what other’s are thinking of you. Being humble means not thinking of yourself at all, which means that you’ll be thinking of others.
Jesus was the master at this. Over and over again in the Gospels we see instances where Jesus was trying to get away to rest or to spend time with his closest friends when all of a sudden, crowds show up and interrupt him. One time he had been teaching and healing and wanted to take a break, so he got in a boat to cross over to the other side of a lake. Well, the crowds ran around the lake and beat him to the other side, and we read that when Jesus saw them he didn’t get mad, he didn’t ask them to leave him alone, he had compassion on them. In other words, Jesus humbled himself. He stopped thinking of himself and started thinking about others. Then there’s the time when he’s teaching in Peter’s mother-in-law’s house to a standing room only crowd when all of a sudden the roof starts to fall in on them, because there are four guys who wanted to bring their crippled friend to Jesus. They were so determined to get the guy to Jesus that they interrupted Jesus’ teaching time. And what did Jesus do? He didn’t get mad. He didn’t say, “I’ll talk with you when I’m done with my sermon.” Jesus healed the guy. He humbled himself by thinking of others. This is a theme throughout Jesus’ life.
We see him humbling himself when he washes the disciple’s feet. We see him humbling himself when he’s hanging on the cross and he looks down at the Roman guards and prays, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” I’m not sure I would be praying that right then, but Jesus over and over again humbled himself. It goes on:
And became obedient to death, even death on a cross
Obedience. Obedience is big to God. Jesus lived a life of obedience. Now, if you think about it, that’s a bit odd, since he’s God and all, but Jesus, being God, set an example for you and for me by living a life of obedience to his heavenly father. Look at this:
Jesus is talking to his disciples in John 15:10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Jesus obeyed his Father’s commands. His was a life of obedience.
Whenever I think about it I am blown away by Jesus’ life of obedience. I think he best illustrated this obedience during the final night before his crucifixion. Remember when he was praying in the garden of Gethsemane? He prayed over an over again that if there was any other way for what was about to happen to happen that it would, but over and over again he said, “Not my will be done, but yours.” And his ultimate act of obedience was allowing himself to be nailed to a cross. Let me talk about that for a minute.
Crucifixion was the most horrific mode of execution possible. I won’t go in to graphic detail here, but do some research. It was an inhumane and awful way to die. Crucifixion was such a shameful death that it was not permitted for Roman citizens. The Jews considered a victim of crucifixion to be particularly cursed by God. So what did Jesus do? Jesus willingly, obediently allowed himself to be put to death in this way. Jesus became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
So, what do we learn about Jesus? Jesus humbled himself. Jesus was obedient to the end.
That’s incredible information. I recommend you meditate on that some this week as we celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection, but remember, we’re learning this stuff about Jesus so that we can be like Jesus. We are to have the same characteristics of Jesus, which, according to this verse, means we are to be humble and obedient. You and I, as disciples of Jesus, should live lives characterized by humility and obedience.
So let’s talk about what that might look like for you and for me.
Remember what humility is. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. Be honest, some of you think about yourself too much. I know I do. I want people to like me. I want to look good. I want to impress people. Too often I find myself acting like an adolescent because all of my focus is on me. Way too often I’m as far from humility as I can get. I think that many of you in here feel the same way.
So how do we humble ourselves? There are many ways, one of them is serving, like we talked about last week, but I want to give you another idea that you can put into practice today. When having conversations with other people, get them to talk about themselves. Seriously, in most conversations, what do we do? We want to talk about ourselves. We want to share our stories. We want to get our point across. But what if you focused on getting the other person to share their stories? What if you got the other person to talk about themselves? This is a great way to humble yourself.
Not only are we to live lives of humility, but we are also to live lives of obedience. As followers of Jesus we are to live lives of obedience to Jesus. Now, this is big. Let me show you a few verses so that you don’t take my word for it.
Joshua 1:7 – Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
Proverbs 19:16 – He who obeys instructions guards his life, but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die.
Jeremiah 7:23 – Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.
Luke 11:28 – He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
John 14:15 – If you love me, you will obey what I command.
John 14:21 – Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.
John 14:23 – Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.
Do you get the point? Obedience is big to God.
So, what does that look like? How can we live lives of obedience? Let me give you some ideas, and whatever step you’re supposed to do, I want you to write it on your connection card
I’ll be blunt. I think the first step of obedience some of you need to take is to surrender your life to Jesus. You know some stuff about him, but it’s time to surrender your life to him. If you want to do that write it on your connection card.
Some of you need to be obedient by being baptized. If you’ve never been baptized as a believer then now’s the time to step out in obedience and be baptized. If you need to be baptized then write that you need to be baptized on your connection card.
For others of you, there is something that God’s been speaking to you about and you’ve been putting it off. It’s time to be obedient.
For the rest of us, if we’re honest, we’re not all that sure of what we need to obey. That’s why you need to spend time reading your Bible and talking with God on a regular basis. He wants to speak to you. He wants to show you, through his word, what to do.
Phil. 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Humility and obedience. Those traits are key to you and I being like Jesus.
