Phil 2:5-8, Christ's Example

This message was originally delivered on May 12, 1991.

Episode Transcript

Kimber Kauffman (00:00):
Philippians and the second chapter. And let's
begin reading this veryfamiliar, probably one of the
most famous passages and all theNew Testament, starting with
verse five will read downthrough verse eight. Your
attitude should be the same asthat of Christ Jesus, who being
in very nature, God did notconsider equality with God

(00:20):
something to be grasped, butmade himself nothing, taking the
very nature of a servant, beingmade in human likeness. And
being found in appearance as aman, He humbled Himself and
became obedient to death, evendeath on a cross. I have never
been well known for my mother'sday messages. One of the reasons
for that is that I don't preachthem, maybe once or twice I

(00:42):
have. But I, we're in a text ofScripture, and we continue to go
right through but always I tryto think of some cute way to tie
it in. And you know, this oneties in the Mother's Day because
look at verse five, it says,Your attitude should be the same
as that of Christ Jesus. Now,how many mothers have said over
the years? I don't appreciateyour attitude. You see. Okay,

(01:05):
that's funny. Maybe I'll have toleave that out of the next
message. Next, next service. Allright. So anyway, very much
applies to Mother's Day. Buthonestly, this passage that
we're studying now, pleaselisten to this, it was a pretty
interesting statement, is one ofthe most important and
influential passages ofliterature that has ever been

(01:26):
written in the history of theworld, all the things that could
ever be written there, themaking of books, there is no
end. And yet, if you had to getit down to some of the things
that are most important tothings that have ever been said,
This kenosis passage, thispassage about who Jesus is, is
absolutely one of the mostessential ever. Now, as we study

(01:48):
this passage, and let me havethe blanks, please. This is
something that many of you arefamiliar with this inverted
pyramid. But let me remind youof something. Here's one reason
why what we're studying thismorning is extremely important
and deserves your utmostattention. And that is this. If
we had to, as you've seen usbefore talking about the

(02:09):
philosophy and theology in ourchurch, here, you have an
inverted pyramid. And here's thevery basis of all of
Christianity, there's a God whocreated man has fallen, the only
way back that man, you and I,mankind can have a relationship
with this God who created isthrough Jesus Christ. And notice
the center stone is the personand work of Jesus Christ. He

(02:31):
began all things he's going toculminate history, the second
coming underneath this, youcould tell all the judgments,
even heaven or hell, and thenwhy we live the authority of the
Word and what holds all thistogether is mortar now, we could
be talking this morning aboutthings such as views of church
government. And you know what,there are some godly people that

(02:53):
will be in heaven that wouldstrongly disagree with my
interpretation of views ofchurch government, or views of
music, or differences ofspiritual gifts, godly people
who I would disagree withconcerning spiritual gifts. But
yet my point here is this. Weare talking this morning about
the center stone ofChristianity, the person and

(03:13):
work of Jesus Christ. If we'reoff here, we're off on
everything we can't be, we'vegot to be extremely careful that
we were right on the mark, whenit comes to dealing with this
passage, and any passage thatparticularly deals with Jesus
Christ. Now. Think of this, thisfamous passage, this is really
intriguing to me. This issomething that you normally

(03:35):
don't think of as a Christianthese days. But this passage was
written to illustrate theimportance of humility and
selflessness in regard to othersnot. The reason this famous
passage on the pre incarnate andthe incarnate Christ was written
the purpose for this tremendousteaching was for Christians to
learn how to get along. Now Ifind that pretty interesting.

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It's a passage which you canentitle to the supreme humility.
Christ is the greatest reasonfor unity among his followers in
Christ is the greatest exampleof humility and selflessness.
Now, think of this supremehumility, supreme humiliation.
What do you think of when I sayhumiliation? You know what the
world normally thinks of as thisforced embarrassment. When you

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think of humiliation, peoplethink of that as something bad I
was totally humiliated. In fact,one Dictionary defines
humiliation like this as anillustration, mother, Mother's
Day message again, I'm trying tosee you keep bringing it up.
Mother was humiliated by findingthat she did not have enough
food for her guests. Dust to thedictionary It means to lower the

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pride or self respect to humbleor to mortify. So something
that's not good. But here's whatJesus Christ teaches radically
different than anything we'reused to. Jesus Christ said
humiliation is a virtue that isto be sought and tried to get
into your life. It is somethingthat is important to have. And
what is also so interestingabout this, as we start to get

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into this passage is this, youcannot isolate Christian
theology from Christian conduct.
We are going to go down thetubes and we are going to turn
away to all kinds of answersthat are unbiblical and we're
doing it in mass as evangelicalChristians because somehow we
think this theology andpractical living have nothing in
common theology is for people inseminary somewhere in some ivory

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tower existence, where they sitaround and contemplate some type
of deep thoughts that reallywon't change anything. Instead
of understanding that the soundsthe ology the greatest theology,
the deepest theology of all is,is there purposely to radically
change your life. I have toldyou the past, I sat across from
people in counseling before andat the same time, I've been

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studying through a passage onsome particular idea of the
Atonement. And all of a sudden,my mind is shaken loose, this
person across three needs tounderstand that that's why their
life is screwed up, because theyaren't thinking biblically. And
yet you try to talk to themabout the atonement. It's like,
man, I've got problems once youget onto something real. It's

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like the kid that's in schooland says, How is this ever going
to help me Sunday? I'm nevergoing to use this geometry
someday, why should I study it?
But you see this truth? You'regonna get this. Here's what I'm
saying. This truth about how toget along with others, is based
upon the pre incarnate and theincarnate Christ. In other

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words, do you want to get helpin interpersonal relationships?
Do you want to have help foryour marriage do you want to
help with with people you workwith? You want to help in
getting along with otherChristians? Then guess what?
Consider the pre incarnate andthe incarnate Christ. That isn't
this interesting, because today,we're told this, Hey, to be able

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to get along with others andsolve problems down in your
life, you got to deal with yourpast. And now what we're told
all the time, and listen, youknow what the text says, you
want to learn to get along withothers deal with Christ past,
deal with who he was, before hecame to Earth, and deal with
what he has become when he cameto Earth. And as you come to

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deal with those things, it'sgoing to be able to have a major
impact upon your life, forinstance, last week, but this
whole idea is built upon us thatyou can go all the way back to
verse 27 of chapter one, andthis whole thing starts to
build. But notice again, lastweek, it'll be by way of
reminder, look at verse one, ifyou have any encouragement from

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being united with Christ, and Iknow that you do get
encouragement from being unitedwith Christ, remember, that's
the way it's written, if anycomfort from his love, if any
fellowship with the Spirit, ifany tenderness and passion and
you know there is all thesethings that make my joy,
complete by being like minded,what's the point here to get

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along with people look back tothe cross, look back to the fact
that you are united with Christ,look back to the comfort of the
Holy Spirit, look back to thelove of God and loving you as a
sinner. And think about that.
And that's going to cause younow to want to get along with
others. So we move on tosomething else, have this thing
attitude that Christ had, whatis it well consider the fact of

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who he was. Before he came tous, let me ask you, have you
ever done that? Gone? Do youever have an interpersonal
relationship struggle withanybody? Anybody here ever have
one of those? You know, we doright? Have you ever done what
Paul said to do? You see, thereare so many Christians that
absolutely are hopeless as thefollowing the bible because they

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think there's it just doesn'twork for me. I've tried it. But
have you really done it the wayPaul said to do it. He said,
consider have this attitude whatI had to consider who Christ
was, before he came to Earth,and what he did when he came to
Earth, get our minds upon Christisn't the key to getting along
with people in horizontal unityis understanding not in some

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vague way, but in a crystalclear way vertical unity that
God made through the gospel.
Let's don't pass this off. It isone of the greatest burns of my
heart that people think you justgo to church and get a little
motivational shot in the arm andit's nothing that can really
affect you. If you really needhelp. You gotta go to a

(09:28):
counselor. My point is, I'm notagainst counseling. But I say
this to you. Why not? We take aserious look here at what this
passage is saying to us. And itsays, kind of this attitude, you
you that aren't getting along,there was disunity in the town
of Philippi in the church atPhilippi. He does get along
consider Jesus Christ, who heis. Now, notice this if we had

(09:50):
to outline this passage, I wantto show you very quickly how we
could outline this passage. Andthat is this
In regard to getting along withothers have the attitude Jesus
had had the attitude Jesus hadnow that's just basically verse
five. In fact, look what it saysin verse five, your attitude

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should be the same is that ofChrist Jesus, literally, you
could translate verse five likethis friends, listen, let this
attitude be minded in you overand over. Let this attitude keep
going through your mind over andover, keep thinking this among
you. Okay. And the idea ofattitude is the same word that's
translated some nine other timesin this mindset. And the point

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is have this mindset and theidea of the word attitude has
nothing to do with casualthought. But it has everything
to do with a specific purpose.
In other words, zero inremember, we talked to the past
about the the f6 team, theypressed, I've never been in one.
But you know, all the things welearned about the war, you press
that laser beam, and be 00 onthat plane that is trying to

(10:57):
knock out of the sky. And thepoint here is, is let this out
to be zero and B, have the sameattitude of Christ Jesus. In
other words, look to Christ, asyour example, have the attitude
that he had. Now, let me juststop right there. Somebody loves
You at work, you have adifficulty in your marriage,
you're struggling, so please,here is an answer for you. You

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got to hear it. And you've gotto start to want to practice it
with all your heart, and that isthis, have an attitude about
that situation that Christ had,have the kind of attitude and
outlook towards that situation,that Jesus Christ had to have
the mindset that Jesus had. TheBible says in First Peter to 21,
He is our example and softwareand we're to follow him. And the

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actually the word translatedfollow is where we get the word
imitate, or is actually can betranslated like this one lexicon
says, as a father as walkingthrough the snow like this, and
the little son is following him,the little son stands behind,
trying to step in the exactsteps that his father has tried
to go like this. That's thepoint here, in the way of our
Christian life, we're supposedto be Christ. Like, I talked

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with so many Christians, andsomebody has done something mean
or or screwed them over in someway. And you know what they want
to get rid of now? What aboutbeing like Christ? Yeah, but do
you understand what they did?
Yeah. And Jesus said, Love yourenemies. We often forget this.

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Well, the first thing I want youto see is down to verse six, who
he was before he came to Earth.
Okay, who he was before he cameto Earth. Look what he says in
verse six, this first thingyou're supposed to consider
about Christ Jesus to help youand your attitude towards
others, is to understand who hewas before he came to Earth and
notice what it says, who beingin very nature God, King James
says, who been in the form ofGod, actually the word there for

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very nature in the NIV, or formin the King James is the word
Morphe, where we get the wordmeta Morphosis and what is
metamorphosis, but itstransformation. And the idea
here is this not some abstractV, but a concrete nature and
attributes. It refers to innernature. The form is that of true

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form, true notion, the mostideal sense of form, he existed
before he came to earth, in theform of God. Now, think of John
one, one, in the beginning wasthe Word and the Word was with
God and the Word was God. Okay.

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Now, it's also a present tense,the phrase translated being,
it's subsisting, or it's adenotes prior existence. And so
one thing you gotta understandis this before Jesus Christ came
to earth, He was God. I love theway CS Lewis talks about it. He
says he, as he was contemplatingChristianity came to understand
that things were so bad on thisearth, that God had to invade

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this world as a man. And onething I want you to consider is
this, he was absolutely God inthe flesh, or excuse me out in
the flesh, He was God the secondperson of the Trinity before he
came to Earth. The second thingI want you to notice under this
point, that was a who being invery nature God be is this he
did not consider equality withGod something to be grasped the

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New International numericstandard translated out the same
King James says this, he thoughtit not robbery to be equal with
God. And the idea of grasp orrobbery Is this the police
carefully gotta think throughthis passage carefully to
benefit from it. The preIncarnate Christ, already
possessed equality with God theFather, and resolved not to

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cling to it. He did not regardquality equality with God as a
price. In fact, the word thoughtor the word consider in verse
six that we're in is the sameword as translated esteem. In
verse three, go back to versethree, it says, Do nothing out
of selfish ambition or vainconceit, but in humility
consider our esteem othersbetter than yours. Self. And the

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same thing is this Jesus Christdid not esteem himself. In a
sense. He was he had all themajesty all the glory, all the
wonders of heaven at hisdisposal. And yet he didn't say
this is something I've got tohold on to, I will be willing to
go to Earth. In fact, the ideaof considered or thought is
this. It looks please get this.
It's interesting because theword looks at a logical time in

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the past, when God the sun madea decisive resolution, to
surrender the divine prerogativeto be served in order to serve
the human race. There was a timeand eternity passed, when God
the Son, very possibly beforethe world was even made. As they

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considered the Trinity,contemplated and considered the
creation of man and theknowledge of the fall of man,
because remember, the Lamb ofGod was slain before the
foundation of the world. AndGod, the son said, I will be the
one that would go I would giveup this glories and splendors of

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heaven to go now in case you'reever wondering, by the way,
remember the center on ourpyramid, the very center is the
person and work of Jesus Christ,you know that every cult group
that there is, is off on theperson and the work of Christ.
And one thing I want you to knowis this. Clearly, unmistakeably,

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the Scriptures teach that Jesuswas God. He wasn't some other
man. He wasn't somebody thatcame into being Some time later,
one of the first of all God'screation, He was God. Here's one
more time when you see it veryclearly. Look what it says in
verse six, who being in verynature, God did not consider

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equality with God, something tobe grasp. Literally, you could
translate the phrase like this,to be in such a manner as God or
you could say this to exist in amanner equal to God. The word
equal the adverb describes themanner of existence. To see this
clearly, I want you to go withme to John's gospel, keep one

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place there in Philippians. Andgo over with the the John's
Gospel in the 10th chapter, Johnchapter 10. The look here. And
by the way, you remember who waswriting these words, who wrote
this word, he did not considerequality with God something to
be grasped who wrote this, whowrote the book of Philippians.
Who was Paul Amano theists tothe hilt, right. I mean, if

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there's anybody that said, Here,O Israel, the LORD our God is
one it was Paul, he believedthat with all of his heart, and
he says here, Christ in eternitypast did not consider equality
with God, something he had tohold on to. Now look here, John,
chapter 10. Look at verse 30.

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Jesus Christ did this. I and theFather are one. Okay, I am the
Father are one now what didJesus mean by that? Oh, people
say, Oh, he didn't mean that.
Because they they are okay,let's just let the text tell us
what he meant. Let's go down toverse 31. Again, the Jews picked
up stones to stone him. So hesays, I'm the father want all

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the Jews pick up stones to getaway? Let's get rid of this guy.
Jesus turns to them standingthere with stones in his hands.
And he says this. I have shownyou many great miracles from the
Father, for which of these doyou stone me? And I get the
reply, verse 33. We are notstoning you for any of these,
replied the Jews, but forblasphemy, because you Amir man

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claimed to be God. Now, how didthey interpret the phrase I and
My Father are one. How do theyinterpret it? They interpreted
that he was claiming to be God.
Now, remember the phraseequality with God and
Philippians two, six, you wantto see the exact same use of the
word. Go over to John chapterfive. Here's the same Greek

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word, Isa, and here it is. Johnchapter five, and liquid me to
verse 16. John five and verse16.
It says this. So because Jesuswas doing these things on the
Sabbath, the Jews persecutedhim. Jesus said to them, my

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father is always at his work tothis very day, and I too am
working. For this reason, theJews tried all the harder to
kill them. Why did they why werethey so infuriated when he says
I, the Father, I'm working and Itell them working? Well, they
tried all the more to kill Himwhy not only was he breaking the
Sabbath, but he was even callingGod his own Father making

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Himself equal with God. You seethat? making himself equal, same
word. John 518 is the same wordin Philippians 216 or two six,
and that is this. Jesus wasclaiming equal Quality with God
it was unmistakably clear inthat day that you can go back to
Philippians. And I want to tellyou a couple other ways this
word is used. Listen to this,this same word translated

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equality with God in theslipping chapter two, verse six
is translated in Matthew 20,verse 12 of the Equal Pay of
those who worked one hourcompared to those who work 12
hours, you remember, the guysget hired early in the morning,
and they're working all daylong. And someone else about
three hours later gets hiredsomeone else a few hours later
gets hurt pretty soon, an hourbefore the final break of when

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the sunset, he hires some morepeople. And so they get in line,
the guys that worked an hour getin line to get paid, you get
paid at the end of your day. Andas they're standing there in
line, the guys that have workedthe entire 12 hour day or stayed
in the back of the line, theguys that worked one hour, and
then two hours and four hoursare staying here, the guy that
sits got paid one, for one hour,he stands in line, and he gives
them a full day's wage. And theguy has the back of the line of

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oh, this is awesome. They'regetting a full day's wage for
one hours worked just to gowe're gonna get. But guess what,
he gives them all the same pay,and they start to complain. And
then there's a whole other pointof the parable there. But the
point is, they all got paidequal. So what does equal mean?
Their $1 equals $1. You seethat? Now you may think, what
are you? Why are you laboringthis point we believe you?

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Because, listen, the point hereis this. You got to know who
Jesus is your faith and hope isin the Lord Jesus, you better
make sure you know who he is. Hewas God in the flesh. He
transformed his entire world,not because he was some good man
or extremely wonderful prophet,but because he was the God in
the flesh. Listen, Mark 14verses 5689 men, he testified

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against him. But theirstatements did not agree. That's
the way the NIV translates. Andguess what it says their
statements were not equal, asthey tried to get false accusers
to put Jesus to death on thecross. Or how about this? Luke
634. Hey, when you lend yourmoney to other people, you lend
your money to them. And don'tworry about whether or not
they're going to pay you back.
That's what Christianity is.

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Lend your money to them. Anddon't worry about whether you're
gonna get paid back. BecauseJesus said, sinners lend money
if they think they're gonna getit back in full. And guess the
way they translated in full isASA, the word free quality. And
the point here is this, youlearn $20 You get back $20
That's the way a sinner would doit. So you learn it, and you

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don't worry about it. Or howabout this x 1117. He gave the
same gift of the Holy Spirit tothe Gentiles, Cornelius says, In
other words, the speaking intongues, the miraculous signs,
all the things that happen whenthe Holy Spirit came to the
Gentiles is just equal as it didto the Jews of Pentecost. It's
equality. One last one, if youever, ever had to prove it,

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above all things, here it is.
Are you ready? My favorite one,Revelation 2116. And it says
this, the New Jerusalem is 1200stadia by 1200. Excuse me,
12,000 stadia by 12,000 stadiaby 12,000, zeta, all sides of
the new city are equal. Nowthat's the way the term is used.

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And the point here is this, thathe did not think it robbery. He
did I think he called it wasRobert up equality with God it
was a one man said this beforeit was not something which the
Christ still had to acquire healready was God. It was a
dignity which belong to the preexistent Christ to which he was

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entitled in a right to which heactually possessed. And as he
was in heaven with all the doorsbeing God, the Creator the world
in such a light, Christ did notregard his existence in a manner
equal to God. It was not assomething precious which was
robbed a prize which must slipfrom his grasp, a treasure to be
crushed and retained at allhazards. Christ could have

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existed and could have appearedonly as God only in a manner
equal to God, it was right itwas the right which was do him.
He need not have gone intoanother man of existence, but as
such a valuable possession or athing grass which desperately
had to be clung to at all costs,he did not regard it and that
amazing he could have come asGod. Well, all the glories and

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splendor, but he chose to gointo this other existence.
Listen in his adorable love andgrace. He was willing through
his incarnation to enter intoanother more humble manner of
existence and to take the formof a servant

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who being in very nature God didnot consider equality with God
something to be grasped now. Ourminds are so typical you know
what you know what happens? I'mjust like you I have to battle
all this. But we get poundedwith humanism we get pounded
with humanism we get poundedwith the media we get pounded
with the views of people workingaround us. We get hit constantly
with non Christian thought thatpretty soon you know what

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happens out of all of it. God isabout this big. And man is is
that big. And so thoughtstowards God are small, and we
have problems and we think I'mall alone. He's really not
involved. But here it is thefirst step. Now listen, here it
is the first step, you want tounderstand one of the basic ways

(25:12):
the one of the most foundationalways for you to be able to get
along with other people, thekind of people you never thought
you could get along with mostungodly, unloving, hurtful,
wicked, unjust people. The firstthing you need to remember is
this, who he was before he cameto Earth. This is the setup.
Now, I may be working with thisfor a long time. And I know the
American mind doesn't want towork with this, it may seem sort
of boring, what how the house isgoing to apply to my life. But

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remember, it does. If you wouldactually take time to think
about who he was before he died,or excuse me, before he came to
Earth. And understand it wasGod, the creator of the world.
Remember, in our galaxy, if youtravel the speed of light for
100,000 years, you just then getout of our galaxy. And there's
more galaxies in the world thatare Sands's agreed upon this

(25:55):
shores of the world. This Godwho created this Think of it
this was all the glories andsplendor, hey, it was Don't
women, whether they, the angels,the Sarafem, the chair of them,
what are they doing? Holy, holy,holy is the Lord God of last,
the highest, most adorablecreatures ever created,
worshipping him day and night,bending every, every whim that

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he has instantly met. Rememberthe prayer, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven, hiswill constantly be done peace
and unity and harmony and love.
And perfection. He left all ofthat to come here. And remember
what John says, He came into Hisown and His own received him
not. And then the writer of theGospel of John sort of goes,
it's saying, I can reallybelieve this. He's the one who

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created the world came to theworld, and they booted him out
of the world. Think of that.
This is the only son of God.
Now, how's that gonna affectyour relationships? Just give
this passage a little time. Allright, work with me here a
second. All right. Look at verseseven. Let's go to the next
point. Here it is. There's onlythree points and we're not even
going to this is the last pointbecause the next one's too much

(27:03):
we're gonna have to cover nextweek. All right. Look here. What
he became when he came to Earth,look at verse seven. Look what
it says, but made Himselfnothing. taking the very nature
of a servant, be made in humanlikeness. Now the description
moves from Christ, to hisincarnate state, his pre
incarnate state before he becameincarnate and flesh. Now here it

(27:24):
is, in his fleshly state. Andnotice the main verb here is
this, he emptied himself. It'stranslated in the NIV, as he
made himself nothing and theword but there to start, the
verse is very strong. It meansin strong contrast, the verse
six of the pre incarnateexistence of the glories of
Heaven, here's what he became.
And the idea is to draw yourmind to this clear distinction.

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Here's what he was, here's whathe became. Don't forget this.
And it says he emptied himselfor made himself nothing. For
other times, Paul uses the sameword where we get the word
kenosis. By the way, this is thefamous word right here, emptied
himself made himself nothing.
For other times, Paul uses thisword, and every time he does so
in a metaphorical sense, not aliteral sense. In other words,

(28:08):
he did not empty Himself likesome people have thought where
Jesus Christ, when He came toearth, just emptied Himself,
Vaughn was just a man walkingupon the earth, where he had no
power, where he was not, infact, God. In fact, we even sing
a song that's wrong, andKennedy, that I should get an
interest in the sacred blood.

(28:29):
Three of those verses in thatsong in our handbook are the
most fabulous verses and allhymnology my opinion, but
there's one that's dead wrong.
And he said, This, emptiedhimself of all the love and
blood for Adams helpless race.
That isn't true. He did notempty himself of all but love is
very obviously the case that yousee Jesus Christ, God, and

(28:51):
that's what is the theologicalterm for hypostatic union. You
know what that is? You neverthought the hypostatic union
could affect your interpersonalrelationships, did you? But I'm
telling you, you got to knowthat you won't get along, you
understand? I don't mean to befunny, because it's true. And
that is this 100% God 100% Man,not 75% Man and 25% God, not

(29:13):
5050 but totally, completelyhuman in every way. He ate, he
drank, he slept, he got tired.
He was absolutely human, a veryreal human nature. And yet, at
the same time, he was God in theflesh. He claimed to be God. He
made outstanding statements.
Remember against CS Lewis says,As a man claims to be a poached

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egg. There's something wrongwith the guy. But Christ claimed
to be God. He says, I am the oneand he claims it so he becomes a
man. In fact, if you want to seeone of the clearest evidences of
all this, go with me quickly tothe fourth chapter of Mark. And
I want you to see in Mark'sgospel in the fourth chapter,

(29:56):
this perfect balance of Jesus AsGod at the same time, man, you
see if he would have divestedHimself of His divine
attributes, he would have ceasedto have been God. What when it

(30:17):
says he emptied himself what itmeans is this he gave up the
glories in the majesties ofheaven to become a man. Here's
one of the best examples ofJesus as a man. And yet as God,
Mark chapter four, and look atverse 35, because it says, says
this, that day, when eveningcame, he said, That's Jesus

(30:39):
talking to His disciples, let'sgo over to the other side.
leaving the crowd behind, theytook him along just as he was in
the boat. There were also otherboats with him. So you got a
group of boats going across theSea of Galilee. Okay, picture
this in your mind. A furiousSquall came up, and the waves

(30:59):
broke over the boat so that itwas nearly swamped. Now. You
know, this story is familiar toyou. But remember, the Sea of
Galilee is like a fishbowl. AndI've been on it before when it
was a beautiful day. But theysay it just like a fishbowl in
just a matter of moments as youtook a member kid in the
bathtub, you'd push your legsback and forth, and the water
would go back and forth. That'ssort of the idea of the
listening of Galilee veryquickly, a huge storm can break

(31:21):
out comes over the mountainsquickly. So what happens is
this, Jesus was get this, here'sthe humanity of Jesus, verse 38,
Jesus was in the stern sleepingon a cushion. The disciples
welcome as a teacher, don't youcare if we drowned? By the way,
Jesus was a man who had tosleep. God doesn't have to
sleep. But Jesus was a man. Andhe had to sleep he got tired. He

(31:48):
got up and here's what I love.
Jesus is sleeping. The boat isgoing crazy Jesus sound asleep.
And I just absolutely this isone of my favorite stories. If
you really put yourself into andthink about it, he gets up. And
he walks over and here's all hisdisciples and by the way, the
way it's written in the Greekthe disciples are sort of ticked
at them and they're saying thisdon't even care we're gonna
drown Come on, man, wake up.
There's a sense of, ofirritation in the in the way

(32:11):
they asked him this question.
And he got up and just picturehere's Jesus. Now I'm gonna do
bad imitation of Jesus. But justimagine getting up. He's a
human, he's a total man,everything that a human faces,
we say he faced, he gets up, youknow, what is it when you first
wake up, you just, you know,you're tired, you stretch a
little bit. Now remember, thisis just my imagination. But it
could have been, he stretches,and he looks and here's this

(32:33):
fear and Squam waves and when,and he just says on all the
disciples, watch him, quiet, bestill you. And there he was God.
And notice what it says, thenthe wind died down and it was
completely calm. And notice whatthe disciples said. Why? And he

(32:55):
said to them, Why are you soafraid? Do you still have no
faith? And look at verse 31.
They were terrified. And theyasked each other who is this
even the wind and the waves obeyhim? You knew who he was, he was
God in the flesh. And had to bea little Plexi let's don't let's

(33:18):
don't be too hard on thedisciples. I mean, the guy was
asleep. Let's just like a human.
Because he was and he gets upand he says, calm down, as if it
was his friend, hey, you mightywaves, canal down, boy, no way
to the to the wind, stop, cut itout. Boom, they stop. He was
God. And at the same time he wasman. And we understand from the
scriptures, that he he emptieshimself, not of the glories of

(33:43):
God, but of giving up theMajesty in the comfort of heaven
to come to earth to become aman. In fact, the next verse
says, I mean, the next phrasesays, taking on the form of a
serf, servant. And the wordtaking reveals his willingness,
the form, by the way, the formin verse seven is the exact same
word for form in verse six. Sohe took it off just like he was

(34:05):
in the form of God. So he tookon the form of a servant, and
the word servant is veryinteresting. The word doulos, a
menial place, a slave it depictsservitude and subjection, on
attractiveness, lack ofdistinction. He didn't come to
earth as think if he would havecome to earth, He could have
come as a combination ofSylvester Stallone, and was
another great big huge guy,Swartz Nagar and all these guys

(34:28):
that he could have been out ofwork, you know, and he says, you
know, we could have done one ofthose even. But he didn't. He
came as a humble servant. Infact, Isaiah says there was
nothing about him that wasattractive if you looked upon
him, just you're absolutelyaverage guy. Totally average. So
much. So did you remember it?

(34:52):
Look at the next phrase, it saysbeing made in human likeness?
You know, no halo around hishead, as you've seen in some of
the pictures. Okay. No glow fromhis body that others just call
them a mere man. Didn't they saythis isn't just the carpenter
son? It's just the carpenterson. What's this guy? Who does
he think he is? Christ enemyPsalm is a blasphemy man. The

(35:17):
Bible says if they had known whohe was, he would not they would
not have crucified the Lord ofglory, His half brothers hurled
sarcasms at him, his hometowngave him no honor. And even
Peter rebuked him for his deathpredictions. Not in the glory
and splendor of a glorifiedhuman nature, but he took on a
real human nature and you knowwhat this one thing, whatever

(35:39):
you're struggling with,whatever, whatever temptations
you're facing, whateverdifficulties you have, I've got
news for you. Jesus understands.
Because he was absolutelytotally a human.
Saw that I want to see how muchthis applies here. Listen
carefully and moving on.
Although there is an equality ofpersons, please listen, within

(36:06):
the divine essence, the Trinity.
There is a voluntarysubordination to carry out the
redemptive purpose. He declared,I seek not my own will, but the
will of the Father, which sentme and get this within the
oneness of a family. There is apersonal equality of husband

(36:30):
wife, and yet there is afunctional headship. In the same
sense, there is the functionalheadship of the father over the
son. One of the whole points ofthis passage is this, have an
attitude of humility towards oneanother, have an attitude of
submission, have an attitudewhere you consider others better

(36:53):
than yourself. The greatestexample of this is Jesus, the
Son of God, who did not evenhave to do it, but willingly
volunteered to give up theglories of heaven to become a
man. What is wrong withsubmission and obedience? I've
heard, and it's coming againstthe church in the next 10 years,
this is going to be the biggie.
And that is his whole teachingabout women do we have to

(37:16):
submit? And we have all theseweddings going on this summer?
And do I'm not gonna have thewords obey in my marriage? You
know, or what does that mean,submit and obey me so that if
there's something wrong withsubmission, and there's
something wrong with the Son ofGod did, because the Son of God
submitted to the will of theFather and took on a tremendous
humiliation. And by the way,very much whether it is tied

(37:38):
with this attitude of obedience,people say, I'm going to submit
but I'm not gonna obeyimpossible, because look at
verse eight, it says, And beingfound in the appears as a man,
He humbled Himself and becameobedient to death, even death on
a cross, that's gonna be nextweek's text. You see, there's
this tendency in America tothink this, we don't think

(38:00):
Trinitarian we need to, we don'tthink Trinitarian we somehow
think the individual is moreimportant than the unit. But I
say to you again, but tounderstand the Bible, the unit
is more important than theindividual. And you make choices
and decisions in the Bible basedupon what is best for the unit,
the family unit, the unit is thechurch and all. To tie this in

(38:21):
even farther, the last point isthis. And this is what we're
going to cover next week, but Iwant to introduce it to you the
depths of humiliation to whichyou went. So notice, if you're
supposed to have an attitude ofDo you get along with others,
you have to consider Christ, whohe was before he came to earth,
the glorious God, creator of theworld, what he became when he
came to earth, he became aservant. He became a man, he was

(38:43):
like this man, fully human inevery way. And the last thing is
this, verse eight is the depthsof humiliation to which you
went. If any of you ever readMark Twain's book, The Prince
and the Pauper, the prince,which is places with a paperboy
for a day. So you know, that'san illustration of what Christ
did. For you know, the grace ofour Lord Jesus Christ, that

(39:06):
though he was rich, yet for yoursakes, he became poor, that you
through his poverty might becomerich. Master, do you want to
follow Christ? Do you want to belike Christ, and I want to tell
you this this morning, listen,humble yourself before others.
Have the attitude of chapter twoverse four, where each of you

(39:26):
should look down on your owninterests, but also on the
interests of others. I mentionedthis earlier, but we're told by
a tidal wave of authoritiesthese days to go back and deal
with your past so you can getalong with others now and I want
you to realize again that thething grapple with this, that
you deal with Christ's past toconsider and think about who he
was and it was an example toyou. He left the chair of PIM

(39:48):
and the Sarafem and all of theglories of heaven. You become a
man now listen to this. From theglories of heaven, He emptied
Himself Taking the nature of aservant, made in human likeness,
as a man he humbled himselfbecame obedient even unto death.
I think he started out as God,where do you and I start out? We

(40:11):
start out as what? Rebellioussinners if he started out as God
and he humbled himself to thelowest of humanity, that is
this, you can't get any lowerthan a criminal hung on the
cross by the Romans, as anabsolute maggot of society that

(40:32):
must be destroyed. You can't getany lower than that he went from
the highest glorious extreme oflaw to the lowest extreme that
you possibly could be. We arestarting off as rebellious
sinners, what's your attitude bein relationship to others?

(40:54):
It should be that if you MillieAsian humility, considering
others, better than ourselves.
You know this last Christmas,something happened to me that I
want to tell you about inclosing.

(41:20):
I mean, this is this just showsyou how far off the path I've
been. I was gone for four weeksbefore Christmas, if you could
remember because of a throatproblem. And when I came back,
it was by Christmas time and acouple of the deacons came up to
me one Sunday, and they said,right before Christmas, they

(41:41):
said, Hey, have we done anythingfor the church secretary? And I
was thinking, I said, I don'tknow. I've been gone. Do you
guys got any plans? I missed thelast couple deacons meanings.
Well, you know what? They said?
Because it No, we're going togive her some money as a bonus
over Christmas, which I wastotally for. But you know what I
was thinking in the back of mymind. I was thinking, Oh, baby,
if the Secretary is gonna get abonus, how much more should the

(42:04):
pastor get a bonus at Christmas.
And I was excited about that.
And I was just sort of waiting,you know, in the year before,
the year before, it totallysurprised. The church gave us a
huge bonus at Christmas time.
But it had been decided withoutme knowing that the pastor
wasn't going to get a bonus thisyear, not because anybody was

(42:24):
mad at me or didn't like me,because God is sovereign. That's
what he decided. But I'm goingto tell you, I was absolutely
miserable for the next 10 or 12days, every time I thought about
this. I was because I thoughtthis, you mean to tell me here's
what I thought you leaned totell me they're gonna give the
secretary who's only been herefor less than a year, this kind
of a bonus. And they'recompletely forgetting me. And I

(42:47):
started developing badattitudes. I started griping and
complaining, I started asteaming myself better than
everybody else. Because I had myfeelings hurt because people did
not consider me the way Ithought they should. Let me tell
you something. The things that Ithought about and the attitudes

(43:08):
that I carried during thatperiod of time absolutely shamed
me. Because of this, I did notthink through Philippians, two,
five through eight very well atall, you know what I thought of,
I did not think of Christ andall that he left and we became a
I thought of this what I deservein my rights to this and I have
the right to be happy. And Ihave the right to have peace, I

(43:29):
have the right to have friends,I have the right to have money,
I have the right to have thesethings. And I demanded this kind
of stuff. And I want to tell yousomething, the most miserable
people in the world are the kindof people that live all the time
thinking of what they deserveand what they should get. And
the whole point of this passageis this. Consider Christ

(43:50):
consider the degree ofhumiliation that he went to from
the glories of God however, wecan't even scale it you there's
not a scale in the world bigenough to a criminal dying on
the cross. And let that be yourattitude in regard to others,
let's pray.

(44:15):
Heavenly Father, this is soforeign to us. Because we are so
quick to exalt ourselves that wesee in this passage we humble
ourselves and let you do theexalting.
Please teach us this basic, mostessential, important

(44:39):
understanding of getting alongwith others teach us to look on
Christ to consider him. I praythis in Jesus name. Amen.