Scripture reading: Matthew 21:23-32.

Sermon text: Philippians 2:1-13.

We’ve all read stories about people traveling in disguise. Sometimes, the traveler is a spy on a nation-saving mission, or an undercover policeman trying to infiltrate an illicit organization. Occasionally, the traveler is a ruler who journeys through his realm to see for himself how the subjects live and how his officials treat those under them.

In chapter 2 of his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul told the story of the greatest “undercover” mission of all: God Himself comes to earth as a human being to save all Creation. Admittedly, humanity had wrecked terribly on the rocks of sin in the Garden, and only a divine mission would rescue us from the disaster and restore our relationship with God.

However, as I read this week about Jesus’ mission, and about the confession of the ages — “Jesus Christ is Lord” — another thought kept nagging me: Why did St. Paul write this passage to the Philippians? Why did he include such a glorious (in every sense of the word) description of Jesus’ sacrifice and reign in a thank-you letter? We need to examine this passage deeper than before to determine his reason.

Therefore, I see two major issues in this passage. First, we need to examine why Jesus humiliated Himself to become human in first-century Palestine. Next, we need to examine what this sacrifice means to us today. The more we ponder this passage, the more we see a rich description of Jesus’ desire for His people. We must not wait until the end to declare Jesus as Lord; we must begin demonstrating His Lordship today and live this declaration throughout eternity.

Sermon

St. Paul continued his call for unity in the Philippian church in chapter 2 by requesting that the Philippians not preach the gospel of Christ in a manner he observed in Rome. Remember that in last week’s passage, St. Paul said some Christians preached the gospel “from envy and rivalry” in an attempt to injure him. St. Paul felt no harm from these misguided souls; instead, he wrote the Philippians that “in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”

St. Paul knew the best way for a church to proclaim the gospel involved the ultimate humility: “count others more significant than yourselves.” In other words, St. Paul had watched a lot of believers in his time; he had discipled countless new Christians, had planted far more churches than anyone in history, and he knew what worked. He knew that churches that demonstrated humility and love within the congregation would spread the gospel far more effectively than those that lauded their own accomplishments and qualifications. The Church needs something that will distinguish us from society, and humility accomplishes that distinction far more than anything else we can demonstrate to the world.

Think of our society today. American society in particular seems to revolve around pride. Many of us watched college football yesterday and will watch professional football today. How many times will we see football players parade around the field after a good play? (Forget for the moment that they’ve done nothing they weren’t supposed to do; it still makes for a good show.) How many times have we watched politicians tout their achievements? Let’s not talk about movie stars; goodness knows we’ll see little humility in Hollywood, where stars and starlets alike proudly flout their disdain for morality and the legal system.

Closer to home, how many times have we witnessed the rupture of relationships when someone feels their pride has been injured? Even the lowest of our society will leap to the fight when they sense the slightest affront to their pride.

If the Church must stand out from the rest — if the Church must demonstrate a higher standard of morals — we must build our achievements on humility. We must demonstrate that our identity rests not in our own achievements, but in our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. Our Lord has commanded us to serve one another in humility; we must obey.

This humility will require more than serving others. St. Paul encouraged the Philippians, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Each of us must actively place one another above ourselves. Society says, “Look out for number 1.” Instead, we should care more for the well being of others in the Church and in the world than for our own.

It is in this context that St. Paul presented the greatest description of Jesus’ humility: The doctrine we know as the “Kenosis,” or “emptying” of Himself to accept human form for us.  St. Paul wanted the Philippians to follow the ultimate example of humility, and he wanted them to recognize that example in their Lord, Jesus.

St. Paul told the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Scripture clearly teaches the divinity of Jesus Christ (see John 1:1 for details). Early Christians — all Jews — recognized that, in His words, His actions, and in His resurrection, Jesus demonstrated that He was more than the Messiah of Jewish expectations; He was clearly God. God had revealed Himself in human form (1 John 1, Hebrews 1).

However, although He was God, Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” This saying takes us back to the Garden of Eden, where Satan’s ultimate temptation sent Adam and Eve into sin: “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). In contrast with Adam and Eve — and every human since — Jesus did not try to grasp equality with God the Father; instead, He “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

The word translated “made himself nothing” in the ESV is translated “humbled himself” in the King James Version and gives us the name of the doctrine: “kenosis,” or “emptying.” St. Paul implied with this verb that Jesus voluntarily surrendered those aspects of divinity that would separate Him from humanity. Jesus submitted Himself to the effects of time. He was born a baby as we are. He aged as we do. Jesus submitted Himself to the indignities of a mortal body. Jesus felt emotions as we do. Jesus was, in every possible way, fully human.

However, Jesus accomplished something we could not. No one else has successfully lived a sinless life. Only Jesus fully kept the Law of God, and in so doing, He fulfilled it for us. Unfortunately — but within the will of God — Jesus’ life and actions aroused vehement opposition from those who claimed to protect the Law. In this, Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” In what seemed a pointless death to protect a corrupt and dying system, Jesus submitted Himself to God for us.

This leads to the question, “Why?” Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t God simply forgive our sins without the death of His Son?

Others have stated it better; I recommend you read St. Anselm of Canterbury’s Why God Became Man or C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity for further explanation. I’ll summarize as best as I can.

We must ask ourselves, “What did we expect God to do when Adam and Eve sinned?” God had given humanity a simple command with a clearly stated penalty for disobedience: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Unfortunately, we have as difficult a time with the simple prohibitions as with the complex ones. In our society, we like to ignore the reality that actions bring consequences, but the reality stands. Adam sinned, leading to death for every member of the human race. God had said death would result from disobedience, and disobedience wrought its terrible work.

Well, what now? Adam and Eve and their descendants soon learned a horrible lesson: Death did not end the suffering of life. Their spirits suffered the consequences of sin as well, as pride drove them from the God who created them for a relationship with Him and separated people eternally from God. Humanity needed rescuing and restoration. Humanity needed to surrender to God’s will again, but pride prevented the surrender. Although a precious few kept a knowledge of God and followed Him in faith, most worshiped everything but the God who had created them and who alone could save them. Could anyone represent humanity in surrender to God?

Only someone perfectly humble could represent us, but if someone were perfect, he would have no reason to surrender; he would never have rebelled against God in the first place.

Even worse, the penalty of sin stood in the way of the surrender. Death would seemingly prevent anyone from redeeming us, because its finality seemed an impenetrable barrier to anyone who would surrender and remove its effects from us.

Fortunately, in His plan, God the Son knew God the Father’s desire for a relationship with humanity; He shared this desire. Jesus, the Son of God, would take on the burden of our sin. He would become human, and in so doing submitted Himself to mortality.

The Jews, of all the people on the planet, should have noticed what was happening. Their Scriptures virtually shouted for centuries that Someone would suffer for humanity (Isaiah 52-53 will serve as an example). Their prophets had stated where this Someone would be born (Micah 5); that He would be born as a virgin (Isaiah 7); and that He would rule over the kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 7). The prophets even stated this Someone would be not merely a human ruler, but God Himself (Isaiah 9). Their prophet Daniel had prophesied nearly to the day when this Someone would appear, but also that this Someone would be “cut off;” in other words, this Someone would die for the people (Daniel 9).

Yet, when He appeared, only His followers recognized Him as the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Even then, His followers didn’t see all the ways He fulfilled the prophecies until after His death and resurrection.

So Jesus came, a willing Servant to serve humanity by surrendering to God on our behalf and conquering death for us. He “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” His death paid the penalty we could not pay ourselves, removing the penalty of sin. In His humility, Jesus achieved victory. In His sacrifice, He destroyed sin’s hold on us. In His death, He accomplished our redemption.

Thus, it follows that God “has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” God lifted Jesus above all Creation; He now has returned to rule over heaven. God has also given everything in Creation to His Son. One day, all Creation will recognize its Lord.

I’ll touch on this more in an upcoming sermon (see Philippians 3), but we need to understand something about the confession of Jesus as Lord. Remember that Philippi was a Roman colony; its citizens enjoyed Roman citizenship. Every Roman citizen was expected to make a yearly ritual sacrifice of incense to Caesar and proclaim, “Caesar is lord.” Now, St. Paul will turn the ritual on its head. No longer could the Christians of Philippi proclaim Caesar is lord. Caesar claimed lordship because of his authority over the Empire, and authority won through blood and conquest. Now, Jesus claims authority as Lord through His blood and His conquest of death. His citizens now must proclaim Him as Lord. This confession will resound throughout all eternity in the great Day of the Lord.

If Jesus set this example of humility for us, St. Paul continued, then we should uphold this example and live our lives according to Jesus’ way. Humility would demonstrate our relationship with God, because only those who humble themselves before God can confess Jesus as Lord.

Once we are born again and receive this relationship with God, we must demonstrate the relationship. We are born again at conversion, but our salvation continues as we set ourselves aside from the world and live for Christ. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” As God works in us through the Holy Spirit, we will see ourselves changed from the proud rebels of our birth into godly believers who please God through our love for one another.

Can we take any lessons from this passage?

First, we need to realize that Jesus humbled Himself out of love for us. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  If you’ve ever wondered if God loved you, this passage answers your doubts. Had God not loved you, Jesus wouldn’t have died for you and rose again from the dead to give you victory over sin and death. Because He lives, your debt is paid. Once you confess Jesus as Lord of your life, He adopts you into the family of God (Romans 8) and gives you the privilege of addressing the Creator of the Universe as “Father.”

We should also realize that our confession of Jesus as Lord compels us to serve other through humility and love. If Our Lord can humble Himself by becoming human for us, we should demonstrate love for one another through humble service in His name. The world will see plenty of examples of pride today; they should see humility in you. We must humbly accept Jesus’ lifestyle and bring glory to God through that lifestyle.

Lastly, we should realize that salvation brings more than assurance of eternal life and fellowship in the Church; it also calls us to live according to God’s standards. We must study Scripture to learn more about His standards and then raise our lifestyles to meet those standards.

Jesus humbled Himself to raise us above sin and death. Everyone who demonstrates His humility will one day find themselves exalted. “Jesus Christ is Lord;” live the confession of the ages.