The Spirit of Christmas: Humility

The Spirit of Christmas: Humility

If you will please turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 this evening. I had intended to preach last week, but the Lord had other plans. I believe we can still cover this tonight as well as through next Sunday, if we're willing, and then on Christmas Eve, the four messages that I want to present. I know this morning after the Christmas cantata, I mentioned that we have been going through the sins of the Spirit on Sunday nights for I think it's been 13 or 14 weeks. I wanted to take the opportunity, as we've been, for every sin of the Spirit, there is the contrasting, corresponding grace that God gives that is in contrast to that sin of the Spirit. I mentioned this word this morning—humility. We certainly went through, as we were looking at those sins of the Spirit, one of the sins we saw was pride, but in contrast to that, as we look at this time of year at Christmas, we think of the humility of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look here in Philippians chapter 2 and begin the reading there in verse number five.

Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse number five: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless the reading of your word to our hearts. Lord, help us to gain from these words tonight what you'd have us to gain. Sometimes we may read a whole chapter, we may read several chapters, and yet sometimes it's good for us to focus our hearts upon a few words or a few verses that we may glean more fully what you have for us in those particular verses. So help us to do that tonight in these four verses that we have read. We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

It's safe to say that Jesus came to this earth, he came to a world full of pride. You know, I only have personal experience in this world since, well, not that I was fully aware of what was going on in 1987, but since 1987. I remember the '90s growing up, and I remember the first 25 years of this century. But throughout human history, as we read the books, as we read the records that have been written, we see that there's nothing new under the sun. The condition of the human heart has always been the same ever since the fall. It's expressed in different, unique ways in different time periods, but to really sit here and say this time was worse than that time—yes, there's ebbs and flows in the course of history—but the human condition has always been the same. It's been the same problem of pride. We see that Jesus came to a world that was full of pride, and yet he is meek and lowly. Jesus is meek and lowly. He calls, in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28, I believe it is, all those that are weary and heavy laden. With what? What is he calling? "Come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden"—heavy laden with what? With sin, with your own pride, with your own sin. We talked about the sins of the Spirit—pride and all those other things that are manifestations of that sin, the manifestations of that corrupt, deceitful heart. "Come unto me with all your sin," and you'll find rest, is what he promises. "I will give you rest." We sing that hymn, "If you're tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart. He'll give you rest. He'll give you that which you cannot attain for yourself." We saw this morning, I mentioned from John how it was said that no man has ascended up to heaven. God had to send his Son to this earth to show us what true humility was. He did have to, but if we were to be saved, redeemed, he would have to send his Son.

Looking at 2 Corinthians before we begin to unfold our text, in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse number 9, it's there in that verse that we read this truth: "For you 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." There's so much that can be said about what that implies. He was rich, but he became poor. He humbled himself. We read in Philippians tonight, he was rich, but he came poor, became poor for a very specific reason—it was for our sakes that he became poor, that we might be, as it says here in verse number 9, that we through his poverty might be rich, that we might be made rich. Well, he became poor.

We see in our text tonight in Philippians 2, we're first of all told to let this mind be in us which was also in Christ. What kind of mind? Well, we're already seeing here that he's going to give us something if we'll receive it, that we wouldn't have had unless he came. He's made available to us something wonderful that otherwise we would not have had. That's what a gift is—something that must be received. It's something we must receive; it's not something we buy, it's something given, it's something not necessarily something we merit, but it's something that is freely given with no strings attached, we might say. God sent his Son that we might live through him, and here in Philippians chapter 2, it says that he, being in the form of God, Jesus the Son, being in the form of God—this is beginning to describe what it means when we read "let this mind be in you." Well, let's see what it means. He, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Well, he was in the form of God, but then we will read in the next verse, as I pointed out this morning briefly, he took on the form of a servant. Though he was in the form of God, he was rich in that. He said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." When he prayed in his high priestly prayer in John 17 to the Father, he spoke about, as he was praying to the Father, about the glory he had shared with his Father before he came to this world, how he spoke so joyfully and glowingly about that glory, and he longed to be back with the Father once again in that glory. But he had already shared for eternity past, as we might think of it in our minds, how he shared in that glory in eternity past, and he looked forward to being restored to that fellowship in glory with the Father. But he came in time. Though he was in the form of God, he took on the form of a servant. He came and dwelt among us, as we read.

The idea here is that, being in the form of God, he was literally equal with God. I was listening to a message someone sent me this past week by A.W. Tozer, and he was pointing out, he says, "We don't serve multiple gods. We serve one God, and that one God is in three persons. But there's only one God. There is God in the person of the Father, the person of the Son, and the person of the Holy Spirit. But there is one God—three persons, but one God." That one God came and dwelt among us in the person of the Son. In the Son, we see that in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The fullness of God—he wasn't partly God; he was 100% divine. Did he take on 100% humanity? He came in flesh, but he was still God come in flesh. I can't fully explain that. I don't need to fully explain that. It's just that he humbled himself that he might come and dwell among us, taking on flesh. Well, he was not cast out of heaven. He willingly left the portals of glory to come and dwell among us. He willingly, even though he truly deserves—how can we say it?—he truly was God. He became man for our sakes. He is God; he is God the Son. But Paul is saying here tonight that he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Jesus did not, when it came to the point of him coming and dwelling among us according to the Father's will, he did not say, "No, I enjoy being God so much that I don't want to come and dwell among men." It's not that he was unwilling to come and dwell among us. Yes, he emptied himself. He humbled himself. In fact, he literally, it says here in verse 7, he made himself of no reputation. That's the idea of emptying himself. He didn't empty himself of being God, but he emptied himself of his, as has been said, his divine prerogative.

He took on the form of a servant, and so as he lived on this earth, as he came to this earth, he said, "Not my will, but Thy will be done." Not my will, Father, but what? Thy will. He would even tell Pilate, "If you hadn't been granted power against me, you'd have no power at all. It was my Father that made it possible that you might have this power against me, but if he hadn't permitted it, you would have no power at all." He came as a sheep before his shearers, as dumb; he opened not his mouth, not because he couldn't have. We see when he was in the garden, those soldiers that came to get him, he simply said that he was who they were looking for, and they fell down on the ground because just a tiny fraction of his divine power was somehow emanated when he made that statement to them. You have to wonder why they didn't just give up the mission at that point when that divine power was, just in the smallest portion, manifested. Well, he was rich, and yet he became poor for our sakes. He emptied himself. He emptied himself of those riches and became poor so that we might be made rich, right? In fact, he was rich in that the earth belongs to him.

So here we have the King of the universe, the King of all the earth. The earth is the Lord's, right? Psalm 24 verse 1, "The earth is the Lord's." Oh yes, the Lord we're speaking about, the one true God here, but that is inclusive of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Father was very much involved in the creating and overseeing the creation of the world, but it was by the Son that the world was created. We see the Spirit of God moving upon the waters, right? We see all these different aspects of the Trinity involved in the creation of the world. But it was the Son by whom the worlds were created, right? Without him, the Word—remember John 1 verse 3, "All things were made by him. The Word was with God, the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." Think about this: Jesus standing before Pilate, Pilate's questioning him, and he says, "Don't you know I have the power to end your life?" And Jesus could have said many things, like, "Don't you know you wouldn't be here if I didn't create you? Don't you know all of these things?" The clay boasting itself against the potter. But he became poor. As many things he could have said, many things he could have done, and yet he humbled himself, took on the form of a servant. He emptied himself as the Creator of all things and joined his creation.

He was rich in glories, as we said, that he shared with his Father. He said, "All things the Father hath are mine," John 16 verse 15, "All things that the Father hath are mine." And yet, he was born in a manger. He was born in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn. He was, as he came through this earthly ministry on this earth, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but he had no permanent dwelling place. He had no permanent place to lay his head. He was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth; they sought to throw him off the cliff, and it was not God's time for him, it was not the Father's time for him, and he walked out from among them unnoticed as they were in a complete state of confusion. He was truly despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, as Isaiah will say. He willingly took on our sorrows in exchange for heaven's bliss. Would you and I have done that? No. How can you, like Isaac Watts said, that, you know, he talked about "such a worm as I"? You know, how could the Lord, "When I survey the wondrous cross"? But he was talking about what a worm, that the Lord would die for us as worms. I think some more modern versions or some adaptations of that may have taken the word "worm" out, but that's really the idea. We're just helpless, worthless little worms that the Lord would come and, "such a worm as I." Well, Jesus exchanged heaven's bliss for our sorrows, that we might know eternal bliss with him.

Christmas is not just about what God gave; it is about what God gave up. God gave up Jesus, his Son. God gave up his only Son; he offered him up for us all, and Jesus gave up the glories of heaven. I've often been struck by the words of that hymn, "What wondrous love is this, O my soul." What wondrous love is this that Christ, the Lord of bliss, should lay aside his crown for my soul. I thought of another hymn today, or yesterday actually, but "My Father's house of light," it goes, "My glory-circled throne." Some, I think the original version said, "the rainbow-circled throne," drawing from Ezekiel's vision there. "I left for earthly night, for wandering sad and lone. I left, I left it all for thee. Hast thou left aught for me? I left, I left it all for thee. Hast thou left aught for me?" Jesus became poor that we might be made rich. That's not Joel Osteen's version of prosperity; that's that we might spiritually be made rich, that we might know the true eternal riches of glory.

But verse 7, back in our text here, he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. True God, but true servant. If this verse, if this passage is telling us that he wasn't truly God, which is not what it is saying, it is saying though he truly is God, but he truly humbled himself and took on the true form of a servant. He wasn't an angel. Isn't it the Jehovah's Witnesses, I think it is, who say that—maybe I'm mixing that up with the Mormons—but anyway, one of them says, I think it's the Jehovah's Witnesses, that he's something like Michael the archangel come in flesh. But Hebrews 1 destroys that argument. He's not merely a man; he's God come in flesh. He's not an angel, but he is God in the flesh. True God, but made himself of no reputation to be a servant among men, to be made in the likeness of men.

Well, when we consider Jesus Christ and the fact that he not only—what God gave, but what he gave up to become the Savior of men—how can it be? How can it be that the world would do this for us? I think of that other hymn we sing, "I suffered much for thee," he said, "more than thy tongue can tell, of bitterest agony to rescue thee from hell. I've borne, I've borne it all for thee." This is, of course, the words of a hymn writer that is condensing all that we read in the Scriptures about what Jesus has done for us. But don't we see in all these hymns humility, humility, humility? He humbled himself. He did not have to do this, but he did it. "I've borne, I've borne it all for thee." The hymn says, as we were just—and this is the hymn we were just looking at—"I've borne it all for thee. What hast thou borne for me?"

Verse 8 in our text says, "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Even Paul would say that he had no man like-minded like Timothy that would naturally care for the state of others like Timothy did. The only way we can truly care, look on the things of others, is because of what the Lord has done for us. Remember, even in the Old Testament, the Lord commanded his people to be kind toward the strangers, remembering they were strangers in the land of Egypt. "As I have loved you, I didn't set my love upon you because you were more numerous than any other people. I set my love upon you for my own name's sake," in so many words, he said that. He set my love upon you, and the Lord set his love upon us. And if we have believed the love that God has to us, that is why we then ourselves should serve one another by love, right? We should serve others out of that gratitude for the love that he's shown us. We should humble ourselves and wash one another's feet, right, and humble ourselves to serve others and think on the things of others because of what the Lord has done for us. If we're motivated by anything less, 1 Corinthians 13 tells us we're just—this is not anything other than a humility motivated by his true love for us. This love that he showed and demonstrated, not only in what he gave but what he gave up, was motivated by his true love for fallen sinners. This love doesn't just automatically sweep people into the kingdom; it must be received.

But the hymn we sing, "O meek souls," saying, I believe this morning, "will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in." Well, if our life, our mind, is truly the mind of Christ, then, we talked about the sins of the Spirit, if in our spirits the humility of the Savior is there in our lives, if it's the humble mind of the Savior, then the thoughts, the actions, the words flowing out of that will be actions of humility. There will be actions of true love, not focused upon ourselves but upon others, not just upon me, me, me, my, my, my, but upon others. When Jesus was tempted to make his life easier and take out vengeance with his own hands, he didn't do it. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. In fact, he took the ear of the high priest's servant and put it back on, right? He put it back on that ear.

Well, Jesus Christ abased himself. He humbled himself, emptied himself, not because he had to, not because he was forced at gunpoint, so to speak, or he was held at knife point, no, because he willingly did it for us. He willingly came, humbled himself. He's the source of goodness and righteousness and grace and love, and we are simply to be channels of those blessings. The only way we can be channels of those blessings that we find in our Lord is that we must trust and obey, right? "Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done." Not about me, but it's about the—well, think about what, think about these burdens that bowed our Lord's head. I think of Isaiah 53 when we think about what he went to that cross and did for us.

I think of the words of Isaiah 53. Let's look at the first two verses there briefly tonight. In Isaiah 53, verse number 1 and 2, Isaiah asked the question, "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he, the Lord, the Messiah, shall grow up before him as a tender plant. He'll grow up before the Lord, the Father, God the Father, as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. Well, he hath no form or comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." When Jesus came and dwelt among us here on this earth, he didn't come in regal robes, royal robes. He didn't come riding in on a chariot. He wasn't born in a palace. He was born in a humble manger. He didn't live in a palace. He rode a donkey. He was despised and rejected of men. He veiled himself in flesh. And yet, there was—he had the potential. He could have wiped everybody out if he wanted to and just spoken a word, and all of his enemies would have fallen dead. But he emptied himself of that prerogative and came as the suffering servant, came as the suffering Savior for you and I. Purity, we might say, dwelt in the midst of defilement. The pure one dwelt in the midst of defilement. Royalty, I was just thinking of the contrast, ways we could say the contrast—royalty dwelling among commoners, but dwelling in common garb. There was no beauty, there was no comeliness, there was—his form was not such that people would just look at him and say, "Oh, look, here comes the king." No, just seemed like an average man, we might say, and yet without sin. He was tempted at all points like we are, yet truly humble and truly obedient to the Father.

I thought of that story—maybe you've heard it—and actually, as I was looking into it a little bit, there are various versions of this in different cultures around the world. I'd like to do a little more research on it. There are, in different cultures, all the way from Iceland to England and some of the eastern countries, just stories about the king dressing up as a commoner and walking among the common people, not revealing who he truly is. And I think of that story, the version of it that I remember hearing even when I was a child, was that the king was supposed to come into a village. He was supposed to visit one of the villages in his empire, in his realm, and I guess just days before he was to come, they were busily bustling about, getting things ready for the arrival of the king. And he came into town in an unassuming fashion, as just a lowly peasant type of individual, just in very common dress. And he came in and was asking if someone would give him something to eat and a place to stay, and he was rejected at several places. Then finally, someone—he came to their home, and they took him in, and they gave him a warm meal and gave him a place to stay for the night. And the story goes—and of course, this is perhaps not an actual event, probably something like this happened—where when he came in and he rode into the city in his royal procession a few days later, it is said that he gave the citizens of that town the story of what he had done. He had come into the town, and he spoke of those who would turn him away and would not receive him, and yet this one home that did receive him and did treat him as if he was a king, though he was dressed as a commoner. And I think, isn't that so much like the story of our Lord Jesus? Jesus didn't come dressed and appearing as a royal. He came just like us, a commoner, and yet no one talked like he talked. When people listened to the words that he spoke, he taught as one having authority. The words that he spoke were spirit, and they were life. The words that he spoke were truth, and the truth, for anyone who would receive it, set them free.

Only the meek, only those that look for redemption, would receive him. And those who were proud, Jesus said, "The whole need not a physician." Those that are rich, those that are rich don't need any help, but those that are poor, like the publican, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And as we think of that tonight, isn't that still so true? How often is it that people don't receive Christ until they come to the pits and to the low places of life? They come to the hardships, and they realize, "I cannot save myself. God, help me. God, save me. Be merciful to me." At Christmas, we think of the humble Savior. We think of the lowly Jesus. "Come unto me, all you that are heavy laden." We're heavy laden. "I'll give you rest." He came to give rest to those who labor in sin, those who travail and try to make it in their own strength. He came to save us from ourselves. He came to save us from our pride. Do you ever feel, even as a Christian, pride rearing up its ugly head in your life? "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ." Take his yoke upon you, learn of him, as he says he's meek and lowly, and we will find rest to our souls. We'll find rest in our spirit.

When we strive according to the flesh, we're beating the air. We're wasting our breath. We're wasting our energy. But when we walk in the Spirit, when we humbly walk in yoke with the Lord and say, "Not my will, but Thy will be done," only then can the love of Jesus Christ and the humility of Christ be seen in us as we live according to the Spirit, as we walk not according to the flesh, but walk in the new man, walk in the Spirit. Put on the new man, not put off and cast off the works of darkness; put on the armor of light. May we, this Christmas, be drawn afresh in our hearts to just stand in awe at the true, pure humility of Jesus that caused him to come and dwell among us.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the sincere and true humility that we see in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only in that you gave him, but that he gave up heaven's glory and laid aside his crown for our good, that we might be made rich. He became poor, intentionally, purposely doing this for our good, though we did not deserve the least of that mercy. Lord, we see that you’ve given all to us. Help us to lay hold of all that for which we've been laid hold of by your grace. Help us to let this mind be in us, which was in Christ Jesus, demonstrated so well in his coming to this earth. Bless us as we conclude with the final hymn this evening. May we show others, as we go forward in this week, may we show by our spirits, our words, our actions, may we demonstrate the humility of the one who came for us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.