THE HUMILITY OF CHRIST
Question: In the life of the believer,
what does humility look like?
Text: Philippians 2:1 thru 11 (NIV)
We found this morning the importance of our having the JOY of the Holy Spirit. In that Jesus died for our sins, and has since sent to us the Holy Spirit, we know that God’s eternal JOY can be made real in each of our lives.
The Apostle Paul has written this letter to the Christians of Philippi. Paul has been one of the overseers for the saints there. He has met with the Lydia, the woman of purple.
One of the things that takes place there, is Paul and Silas are thrown into prison together. Later the Lord delivered them when they began to sing and worship the Lord.
Paul has grown attached to others and he wants the saints to understand the reality of Christ.
Paul has recognized that there were (apparently) some strife and discord among some of the believers.
Paul also recognizes that there are some things that are common among these people.
They all have:
1. Found encouragement from being united with Christ
2. Found comfort from his love
3. Fellowship with the Spirit
4. Tenderness and compassion (for one another)
Sounds like a pretty good church to be a part of. Things are going good.
For the most part…???
There were a few problems though. There were some (or a lot) who wanted to do their own thing.
Paul wrote this letter to remind them –
There were those who:
• Were not like-minded
• Didn’t have the same love that others did for Christ
• Were not one in spirit and purpose.
• Did things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit
• Did not consider others
• Were looking out only for their own interests, and not the interests of others.
Paul listed all of the things they were doing wrong. How embarrassing that must have been for anyone else who read this letter from the Apostle Paul.
But this is what happens when someone gets to read your mail.
Paul sums up all of the problems in this church by saying something very profound that we all need to hear:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
So in verses 6 thru 8, Paul outlines the attitude that Jesus has (as His example)
The attitude of Christ is HUMILITY.
And this is the attitude we must have.
According to this outline, Jesus:
1. Empties (Greek for no reputation) Himself of all His glory
2. Became a servant to all mankind.
3. Clothed Himself with human flesh
4. Humbled Himself
5. Became obedient to the death on the cross.
After He did all of these things, then God exalted Him.
Before coming to Earth, Jesus was full of the glory of God. But He had to empty Himself of all of that glory in order to come here.
The disciples did get a momentary glimpse of the Glory of God when they witnessed what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
But this was only for a few moments while Jesus met with Moses and Elijah.
Afterwards Jesus had to return to being emptied of God’s Glory and fulfill the plan of salvation.
As a result of being emptied and humbled, Jesus experienced all of the emotions of life that we experience.
Being tired and hungry, tempted and tried, etc.
Jesus experienced the lowly state of man living in a world of sin and evil.
I find it interesting that Jesus -
• Was humbled while living in this world, and yet we are humbled when we are in His presence.
• Took off His robes of majesty to come to earth, and yet we must put on His robes of righteousness to be in His presence.
• Humbled Himself and came to earth to die, so that we can be exalted to go to heaven and live.
And all of this started when Jesus first emptied Himself of His Glory.
This is what God is expecting of us today. That we would (someday) decide to empty ourselves and take on the humility of Christ.
Psalm 25:9
The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.
Proverbs 18:12
12 Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.
Isaiah 66:2
"This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.
God is attracted to those who are humble.
Micah 6:8
what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Matt 11:28-30
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Ephesians 4:2
Be completely humble
Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Titus 3:2
show true humility toward all men.
If there is “true humility” - then there must be “false humility”.
You can find it in Colossians - 2.
James 4:6
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Perhaps someone has offered to pray for you in a particular area of your life and you have said, “No thanks – I can make it…I’ll be alright…”
God will “Oppose” that way of thinking. You will not find grace for what you need until you are willing to humble yourself and admit that you need help.
Matthew 18:4
"Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:12
"And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Our fearless determination to overcome things we are going through on our own is nothing less than foolish pride.
God will not help until you humble yourself and ask for help from Him.
God is attracted to humility. So much so that God may choose to humble you when you won’t allow humility in your life.
Your humility will eventually give God Glory. That is why God will (at times) do what ever it takes for you to succumb to humility.
God’s not difficult to get along with.
You are!
That may mean something to someone who is trying hard to figure out what their problem is. You may be surprised to realize that your only problem is that you won’t humble yourself before the Almighty.
God cannot do anything for you until you humble yourself.
God deals with things in our lives only when we are able to seem them more clearly.
The example is a “vanity mirror”.
God may be shining a “vanity mirror” in your face sometimes trying to get you to see your foolish vanity.
Question: What can we do to humble ourselves?
Perhaps -
1. Reconcile ourselves to God and each other. Asking forgiveness from someone, or maybe, forgiving someone who has wronged you.
2. Become a Servant – Perhaps we need to wash one another’s feet (so to speak). The significance here is not a “foot washing service”. Maybe we need to go to someone and find out what we need to do to genuinely serve them in humility.
3. Make yourself approachable to everyone. You are not too good to speak to or serve anyone. You may need to sit at someone else’s feet. This is what the woman with the alabaster of oil did for Jesus. What if we were to sit down and let someone who is godly speak into our life?
4. Seek God literally on our face. You may not be able to see God until your face is on the floor. That is as low as we can go.
5. Make sure that God always get the glory. Sometimes that will mean a simple thank you instead of a super spiritual answer. It times past folks knew how to say thank you. They bowed before the person who recognized them. This was a symbolic gesture to giving the glory (of what they had done) to the Lord.
Closing:
One of the greatest reasons for us taking on the Humility of Christ is for
The purpose of forgiving sin and healing our land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
When we humble ourselves, the Lord in heaven will hear us.
