Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009
DOWN FROM HIS GLORY
Phil. 2:6-8
In just a little bit Rita is going to sing a song entitled “Down from His Glory.” As most of you know, we have been looking at Phil. 2:1-11. The title of that song – “Down from His Glory” – is a good summary of Phil. 2:6-8. Let’s read it…
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
If you want to a concise but full statement about what Jesus did, this is the place you want to look. I want to encourage you to think long on these verses about our Lord. We are living in a time when there is still talk about Jesus, but there is little understanding. God has blessed us with this wonderful revelation about His Son. Let’s take it to heart and then let’s take it to a world that desperately needs the Lord. So this morning let’s try to digest what is being said here.
In this brief passage, we see that Jesus does three very definite things…
I. He Emptied Himself
Notice the words at the beginning of verse 7. The KJV has it, “But (he) made himself of no reputation.” Later on we will study this in more depth, but now let’s understand that Jesus left the glory of heaven. Shortly before His crucifixion, He would pray to His Father, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John. 17;5 ESV). Jesus was willing to leave the presence of His Father to come to this earth. He let go of unmingled joy in heaven to come to this earth. He emptied Himself of heaven’s glory for what?
He came to this earth to become a man. We read it earlier this morning: “And Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We read about this Word who was made flesh back in John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."” Wow! We’re talking about the one we know as Jesus of Nazareth. He was with God and He was indeed God, as much God as the Father is God. But He became flesh. That is, He became a man. He was as much a man as I am. He was no less God that He had ever been, but He became fully human.
But Jesus didn’t just become a man. That wasn’t low enough for Him.
II. He Humbled Himself
We read in verse 8 that Jesus humbled Himself. Actually, we see that humility back in verse 7 as well, where we are told that Jesus took upon Himself the form of a servant. It wasn’t enough that He was born into this world as a man. That wasn’t low enough for Him. This morning we have read some of the details of His birth. Was He born in a palace? No, He was born in a barn. Was He clothed with the robes of kings. No, He was wrapped and laid in a feed trough.
That was only the beginning. Jesus lived on this earth as a poor man. Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Lk. 9:58). Best we can tell, about all He had was the clothes on His back. When Jesus came into Jerusalem the final time and was hailed as King, He had to borrow a donkey to ride on. When it was time to eat the all-important Passover shortly before His death, He had to borrow a place to celebrate the meal.
Jesus was the bread come down from heaven, but He lived as a servant in this world. He put it like this in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." “Minister” is kind of a dignified word, but it simply means “serve.” Jesus was a servant. No place did He demonstrate it more fully that when He washed the feet of His own disciples. Lord willing, we will talk about that more next week.
So Jesus emptied Himself, and He humbled Himself, but that still wasn’t lowly enough.
III. He Became Obedient to the Point of Death
This was a part of Jesus humbling Himself. When we read that He became obedient unto death, that does not mean that Jesus was obeying death. No, He was obeying His Heavenly Father, but He obeyed even to the point of death. Even when God the Father prevailed on Him to die, He obeyed. What humility and what obedience.
Surely Jesus had a right to demand His own way. After all, He was God in the flesh. There was no good reason for Him to have to die. We die as a consequence of our sins, but Jesus had no sins. He had done exactly what the Father wanted Him to do; there were no exceptions. But did God the Father truly want Jesus to die? Yes. But why? Because it was the divine plan for the redemption of man and for the glory of the Father and the Son.
But that isn’t the end of the story. Even death wasn’t low enough for Jesus. Do you remember during that last week of His life when Jesus began to speak of His death? “The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:23-24). Jesus understood that it was the Father’s plan for Him to die, so that He could bring life to many others. A couple of verses later Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But for this cause I came to this hour” (vs. 27). He couldn’t ask the Father to save Him from that hour, because it was for that very cause He had come into this world.
But what exactly was Jesus talking about? He wasn’t just talking about death; He was talking about death on a cross. And what was so different about the cross? Oh yes, it was a terrible way to die physically. In order to stay alive on that cross, a man had to push himself up in order to get enough air to breathe. When he did, it caused excruciating pain, as the nails pushed against his feet. From exhaustion and pain, he would have to relax and let himself down. When he did, the nails in his hands would tear against the flesh and bones.
Please hear me. That wasn’t what troubled Jesus’ soul. Two other men would be crucified beside him. Their death would be just as painful as His physically. Then was so bad about the cross? It was there that Jesus would take upon Himself the sins of the world. As we read in Is. 53:10, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him” (literally to crush him). How He wanted to cry out, “Father, save me from this hour.” But if He did, He would be forsaking the very cause that brought Him there. So what did He pray? John 12:28, “Father, glorify your name.” He knew what that would mean; it would mean going through with the unthinkable, taking upon Himself the wrath of God. That’s something of what it means when Paul says that Jesus humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death of a cross.
So what does it all mean? How can we make sense out of such a gruesome story? We could explain it in many ways, but let’s go back to the explanation we read earlier in 2 Cor. 8:9, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Jesus had all the riches of heaven, even the riches of everything. He had it all. But He became poor for our sakes. Why? So that through His poverty, we might be rich. I trust you understand that Jesus isn’t talking about dollars and cents, about houses and lands, about fame and fortune. He put it this way in John 10:10, “I have come that they might have life, and life more abundantly.” That’s what Paul meant when he said that we might be rich – that we might have real life, eternal life, life in its fulness. The person who knows Jesus has every spiritual blessing there is.
Apart from Jesus Christ and the life He gives, there is no eternal life. Every person who dies without Christ will ultimately experience eternal agony in hell. That is poverty to the extreme. Jesus came to deliver us from that poverty and give us all the riches He has. That’s right; we can become heirs together with Christ of all the Father has. Please understand that such riches come at a great price, the price of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Let’s end on a high note this morning. The Jesus who came into this world as a man, humbled Himself as a servant, and obeyed His Father to the point of death, even the death of that cross… that same Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to the right hand of the Father. Let’s just read it here in Phil. 2:9-11, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Do you know that Jesus? Are you experiencing His life? Have you been rescued from your slavery to sin? Have your sins been washed away by the blood of Jesus? I’m not talking about getting religion; I’m talking about life, the life of Jesus Himself. You can have that life. Repent and believe. Admit that you have made a mess out of life, that you have rebelled against your Creator. Acknowledge that hell is what you deserve for your sins. And when you have been broken before a holy God, then cry out for a Savior. I assure that the Savior is here, and His name is Jesus. You may think that you are too far gone, that your sins are too bad for God to forgive. Jesus said, “The Son of man has come to seek and to save the lost.” Has He found you? Will you cast yourself upon Jesus? No one else can do it for you. Repent and believe on the Christ who took your place on that cross and endured the wrath of God that you might have life.
Pray
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