Ridiculous Thought #1 - The Most Glorious Became The Most Humble Series

TEXT: Philippians 2:5-11

TITLE: The Most Glorious Became the Most Humble

SERIES: Seriously Ridiculous

TOPIC: Christmas series; The incarnation of Christ

OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, December 7th, 2008

PROP.: God in his wisdom, power and might, truly works in RIDICULOUS ways!

INTRODUCTION: Good morning! I’m Mark Nichols in case you forgot! I want to thank you for being gracious enough to allow me to be gone for the time I was. Lindsay and I were able to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and last Sunday Lindsay and I were at Church in Hessville Indiana.

The Sunday before that, Brigham and I were at our yearly convention. It was phenomenal.

To be honest, while at that convention, I got the idea for this sermon series. The theme of our convention was the theme for this month’s sermons. Seriously Ridiculous!

What does that mean? “Seriously Ridiculous”? I will tell you what I think it means: Galatians 1:27. Memorize it. Put it in your heart. Meditate daily on these words for the month:

27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

It means that God wasn’t born to an earthly king, but a scared, meek, humble virgin.

It means that God comes as a baby to rescue the world.

It means that God started with 12 men who were sinners, who got it wrong a lot of the time, who messed up time and time again but faithfully followed Him.

It means that God would show Himself victorious through dying a criminal’s death.

GOD WORKS IN SOME SERIOUSLY RIDICULOUS WAYS, AMEN? Why would he do that? Because He’s powerful enough to do just that! God can take the most ridiculous thing and use it for his plans, purposes and glory…and that includes coming to this earth as a baby!

During the next few weeks, I’m going to be giving you some seriously ridiculous thoughts!

Our text is very familiar. Philippians 2:5-11.

BACKGROUND: Paul wrote this to the Christians living in Philippi. Paul is in prison at Rome when he writes this letter. Philippi was a cosmopolitan city. There a great number of people all from various backgrounds and walks of life. Acts 16 gives us just a little hint at the great diverse makeup of this church. The church included Lydia, a jewish convert and a wealthy business woman…the church included a slave girl (Acts 16:16,17) probably a native Greek; and the church also included a Roman man who worked as a jailer.

So it’s easy to understand why maintaining unity in this Philippian church would have been difficult. So Paul writes and encourages them to do just that - to remain united!

And in the midst of Paul’s encouragement for unity, comes the first ridiculous thought!

Are you ready for the seriously ridiculous thought of the day?

“The Most Glorious, Became the Most Humble”

Let’s first talk about the:

I. The Glory of Christ (vs. 5,6)

I hope you are here today and you understand that there is something special about Christ. I hope you are here today and have come to worship Jesus Christ because there is something Glorious about Him.

In Philippians chapter 2:5,6, Paul confirms that there is something special about Christ!

Let’s read verses 5 & 6

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

6Who, being in very nature[a] God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

Verse six is pretty short. But it gives some MIND BLOWING details concerning Christ.

A. JESUS HAS THE SAME NATURE AS GOD!

--What does that mean?

Nature speaks of the elements which anything is made up. The nature of Water is H2O…that is, one molecule of water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the EXACT REPRESENTATION of God’s nature…meaning whatever “elements” one finds in the Father, that is precisely what one finds in the Son. They match exactly! If the Father is all powerful, all knowing, all present, infinitely wise, holy, just and good, then so is the son!

And yet, here’s the amazing thing…

B. JESUS DIDN’T CONSIDER EQUALITY WITH GOD AS SOMETHING TO BE GRASPED!

Jesus is equal to God. He’s not just kind of a neat guy. He’s not just merely, a good teacher. HE. IS. GOD. He is THE MOST GLORIOUS! He was worshipped as a baby! He was obeyed as an adult. He is Immanuel - God with us!

ILLUSTRATION: Show some pictures of some famous people.

I want to show you some pictures this morning. What do all of these people have in common? They are more “glorious” than Mark Nichols. These people are well known, famous celebrities!