Sermon Cloud

February 22, 2009

Philippians 2:1-11 Humility

(2:1-4) It’s hard to get along and there’s a simple reason for it: we are looking out for ourselves in almost every situation. You probably noticed that rivalry and conceit are mentioned in particular in verse 3.  Man, have I seen this pretty often in my 36 years in and outside of the church.  Ever watched some kids be cruel with a kid that is a little awkward or has some mental challenges?  Ever seen a parent dress down a teacher or coach because their kid wasn’t getting a chance to star?  Ever watch a dominant social clique intentionally exclude people?  Ever notice people with lots of money or powerful positions in our city or maybe in a church throw their weight around to get their way?  Ever listen to a group of people make fun of an individual that is an easy target?  Ever see a group of people on the outside of a social network or power structure to rip the insiders for an extended period? I could go on, but you get the picture.  Look at our marriages we know the buttons to press and sometimes we do it to get back at our spouse and try to win arguments and to have them cater to our desires while we are inflexible with theirs.  Do we really need more convincing that self-absorption is a problem?  The hip hop artist TI talks about excesses in this area in circles he runs with in his song “Live Your Life.”

The problems are obvious and this should be conceded regardless of how much of the Bible you know, right? We are selfish.  Another way to say it is that we are prideful.  And just so you know, in the words of C.J. Mahaney, “the real issue here is not IF pride exists in your heart; it’s WHERE pride exists and HOW pride is being expressed in your life.”  If you are the type that enjoys definition, let me offer you Mahaney’s definition of pride.  “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence on Him.” Even if it is just for an instant, we are competing with God’s right to rule when we say that harsh word, lie to avoid accountability, indulge in the flesh, or hope for recognition from people.  Bold, Pink-esque self-importance is more related than we realize to the insecure person that wants to be the center of the universe, but isn’t. Any and every sin has this as pride as its root.  Oh and God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5). 

Again, the problem is simple and obvious.  And there seems to be an equally simple and obvious solution to it: Humility.  Its is the pathway for unity among people (3).  Unfortunately, I guess diagnosing the problem and identifying the solution are easier than actually doing it.

            The way we are going to attack our selfishness is going to be, once again, to look at ourselves and others through gospel-centered lenses.  Really, this is how verse 1 starts, right? If you are being encouraged in Jesus, comforted from His love, feel any impact of His Spirit, sense any affection and sympathy from God, then that reality should grip us and cause us to encourage others, comfort others, participate with others, and be affectionate and sympathetic.  Apparently, looking to Jesus and our experience of Him attacks our selfish, prideful tendencies.  More on this in a few minutes.  The gospel has been referenced in general, but becomes explicit right here in this next section.

Case study: Jesus as an example of considering other’s needs first

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

            This is one of the clearest and most beautiful passages in the Bible that gives us insight into the mindset of Jesus (5).  Jesus existed forever in perfect communion with the Father and the Spirit.  That communion certainly continued when Jesus came to earth, but the One who had made everything and who ruled everything, made himself nothing.  A baby, seriously?  He could have pulled rank at any time, but He took on humble human form and was subject to all of the temptation and humiliation that we can face here on earth.  “Obedient” might be one of the best ways to describe Jesus.  He obeyed all of the Law and all of God the Father’s expectations and did this most powerfully on the cross.  Jesus humbled Himself and was finally exalted as the Father resurrected His body from the dead and honored Him as the One that all men will confess one way or another.  Each of us can both love and follow this exalted King now or we can acknowledge it at our judgment.  It won’t be an acknowledgment of affection there.  It will be if it happens now.  Notice this pattern of the humble Jesus and the exalted Jesus.

This Mindset of Jesus Belongs to the Christian

If this seems like wishful thinking, remember that this mindset is yours (5)! Let’s press the principle of humility and exaltation. 1 Peter 5:6 says that if we humble ourselves before God, He will exalt us.  Hmm.  I’ve heard interesting ideas on this.  Some would say this proves that if we are nice now at our job and maybe tithe at church or something, that we’ll be the CEO in a few years.  Instead, perhaps our exaltation follows the trajectory of Jesus.  We have to humble ourselves to come to Jesus in the first place where we die with Him.  We admit that we are helpless and our best efforts are destructive and misplaced.  We admit that we were going on a path that would take us to hell (on this earth and after!).  We reach to Jesus and recognize that He alone is good and He alone will be responsible for any good that comes from us as a result of our new heart that He’s given us.  In short, we are humbled with Him and made alive (exalted) with Him because of the power of His resurrection. We are humbled and exalted in Jesus and then we now can consider others as more important than ourselves. We keep coming back to Jesus over and over again and that’s why Paul urged them to push towards humility in the first verse by appealing to God’s gracious activity in them. 

Getting Practical

            It’s hard to imagine us interacting without pride at the center point of it. Could you imagine if this church and the individuals and families that make it up were immersed enough in considering Jesus that we were being corrected and a deep humility was being formed in us?  The trick here is that this passage is calling us to attack our pride with humility. In fact, Mahaney again points out that we can “admire humility while remaining prideful ourselves” and he offers a few ways to practically attack our pride and cultivate humility:

1.  Reflect on the wonder of the cross.  Carl Henry rightly stated “How can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross?” This is the most important point because all of the things that follow are specific ways of doing this thing.  This is a call to return to Jesus. We come to a place of honesty about our motivation and recognize our pride for what it is, repent of it, and then look to Jesus and consider the gospel.  Consider His excellence.  Perspective is sure to follow. 

Think of it this way: We will order our priorities around what we think about most, admire the most, and enjoy the most.  If this is ourselves, well, you see where this ends up.  Division.  Hate.  Fights with no constructive end.  Using people to get what we want.  On the other hand, if this is Jesus, we seek to build up and when we confront, we do it in love.  So will we commit to meditate on Jesus the same way we have been meditating on ourselves?  Can you imagine the state of your soul if you considered Him with the same intensity you daydream about your future successes?  Or if you thought of His worth in a way that you wanted to help other people and thought about ways to use your resources to bless instead of gratify yourself?  Let’s cultivate affections for Jesus and make ourselves smaller. 

2.  Begin your day acknowledging your need for God.  Cultivating humility isn’t passive because sin’s growth vis a vie through our pride isn’t passive.  It is constantly attacking making cases for itself to us.  Cast your cares on Him. 

3.  Begin your day expressing gratitude to God.  “An ungrateful person is a proud person.”  Think about it.  Pride feels like you’ve got things coming to you and nothing is every enough.  Humility is genuinely grateful for anything that you have.  Its grace. 

4.  Seize your commute.  This is walking, driving, etc.  Memorize Scripture, listen to sermons, meditate on your morning Bible reading. Cultivate your soul.

5. At the end of your day, “carefully assign all glory to God for the grace we’ve experienced that day.”  If not, we assign glory to ourselves very subtly and unintentionally, a grace from that day actually feeds our pride instead of cultivating a Godward humility.  Think you don’t do this? Ask yourself this: Think of really smart or talented people you’ve known ask yourself if generally gifted people are more or less enjoyable and affirming of others than less gifted people?  Why would that be?

6.  Accept the gift of sleep.  This should remind you every day that you are weak and dependant person.  Your strength and stamina have limits.  Every night your fatigue should remind you of your need for Jesus.

7.  Be quick to encourage others and identify evidences of grace in them.  I could spend all morning telling you how I see God at work in members of Redeemer.  Spend more time trying to build people up…even if its while simultaneously mocking them. 

            Let’s sing and humble our hearts and acknowledge our need of our humble King and His rightful place at the center of our affections and thoughts.  We now share in the mind of Christ and can follow His example.  Feel free to pray with our prayer team for God to help you.  After we sing, we’ll take Communion as an act of humility and then hear from some of our people that are taking the covenant sign of baptism because this humbling has recently happened for the first time.