There are words I don't like to say, mainly because I don't like the sound of them. And no, I'm not telling you what they are, because some of you out here will find ways to make me miserable. How many of you like to be humiliated? Odd, no show of hands. I was trying to think of a story from my own life of a time that was just humiliating. I've got two that come to mind. One of them I'll tell you because Matt's coming next week and it's a sheer miracle of God's grace that he and I can still talk after this particular incident. Now, in order for this story to make sense, I need for all of you morning people to understand that there are another subset of people in the world that do not rise with the dawn before your alarm clock. Okay? So just suspend disbelief for a minute to go with me into this story. We had produced an album together, Matt and I, of our worship band in Florida. And it was time to let people know, because we wanted to sell the album, because we had told the people that funded the album that we would sell the album because they, anyway, it was a whole money thing. Anyway, we were leading chapel music at Reform Seminary on a Tuesday morning. My band had gotten off of work. to be there. I woke up as I normally do with an odd feeling. This time of feeling very rested. Man, I feel rested. What time is it? It's 1003. What time did chapel start? 10. How far from campus am I? 20 minutes. Oh boy. And so I, as I was thinking to myself, if I had actually had my heart stop, the amount of adrenaline that suddenly coursed through me would have started it again. I drove to campus, bedhead and all. Most of the songs that we had programmed that morning were piano dependent. The band had to move on without me. They were getting up to play the last song. The sermon had already finished. I came down the aisle with the gaze of everyone upon me, took my seat right there at the piano bench, not even to make eye contact with Matt, except to maybe We'll talk about this later. Let's just get through the song. I was embarrassed. The other story. Um, I don't know if you knew this about me. I have a stubborn streak that runs through me. It's weird. There was a day in class that a professor. had noticed that I wasn't paying attention and called on me to answer a question. I, of course, had no idea where we were. Classmates were trying to come to my aid to help me. And the professor said, no, no, no. I'd like to hear from David. I was quite irritated and stopped showing up to the class. he was quite irritated and stopped giving me grades. I had to take the class again. It was embarrassing. But was it humiliating? See, humiliation is not something that we necessarily can really understand the definition of. So let me give you a third story. It's not of me. It's a made-up story to make a point. Imagine that a teacher is returning work to a class and gets to the last piece of paper where the name had been omitted. And she said, who? Who forgot to put their name on their paper? Little Susie raises her hand. That was a very stupid thing to do, Susie. Here, let me write your name on the paper so that it reminds you. And she writes in the name blank, stupid. Do you feel it now? And then Susie's self-talk is, you know what? You're right. I'm stupid. That's humiliation. That's humiliation. And that's what we have to think about when we think about the humility of Christ. Where as most of us would run from a situation like that to never experience that level of shame, that level of humiliation, that is what Jesus went towards. Philippians chapter two, verses five through eight. The first part of this glorious hymn, speaking of Christ and his humiliation. Stand if you would, and let's hear the scriptures read. 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 emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. even death on a cross. This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, would we enter into the humiliation of your son? Always remembering that it was because of the love of the father that the son was sent to rescue those who deserve humiliation. Forgive the one who preaches his sins because there are many. Our desire is to see Jesus in him only. We pray these things in your name. Amen. Be seated. I'm gonna skip over verse five. I'm gonna come back to it before we can really talk about the so what of this is what you should do We do need to dig in a little bit to the, this is what Jesus has done. So I want to look at four things this morning. I want to look at Christ's humility in heaven. I want to look at Christ's humility in his incarnation. I want to look at Christ's humility in his death. And I want to then answer the question, how do we have the mind of Christ? So. By the way, Matt and I are fine now. We got through that whole thing. We can actually laugh about it now. One of us can. Paul says in verse six, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. So here's the first thing I want to tackle. Being in the form of God. Here's what John Calvin says. I don't normally quote a lot of outside guys. I use a lot of outside guys, but I don't necessarily quote them. But this morning, there's a few things that people say better than I can. So here's what Calvin says about the form of God. He said it refers here to the majesty, to Jesus's majesty. Here's what Calvin says. For as man is known by the appearance of his form, So the majesty which shines forth in God is Jesus's figure. Now, how does Calvin get there? In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed in the upper room that God would glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed, okay? Now, straight away, let's just say this right at the outset. We don't like incomprehensible things. Okay? We don't like mystery. We like to explain things, solve things, discover things. We don't like mystery, we like discovery. And the problem with this text is even in language, even in quoting things, even in explaining things, we can only go so far. We can only wrap our heads so far around what is the majesty, the glory that Jesus had before anything was anything. Well, I don't know, but Jesus prayed in John 17 that God would glorify him in his own presence to the glory that I had with you before the world existed. This is really as close to incomprehensible as we get. We can't adequately paint a proper picture of what this is actually like. So when we say in the Nicene Creed, for instance, that Jesus is God of God, light of light, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, we're really working hard to say right things and true things. But how many of you can actually, like, show me a picture of what light of light is? It's kind of like closing your eyes and describing to someone who's never seen before what the color yellow is. How do you describe color without associating it with another color, right? So when Paul describes Jesus here as having the form of God, he doesn't just mean his external appearance, but he means the very essence of his being. Alright, so for instance, in Hebrews 1, we learn that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Remember we said a couple weeks ago, we said that Jesus isn't like the moon, merely reflecting the glory of God, he's like the sun actually radiating the glory of God. He shines forth his own essential glory along with that of the Father and the Spirit in the great mystery of the Holy Trinity. We could just stop there and just think about that for a minute. But it goes on, right? Because Paul says having the form of God, he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. So very, very complex issue. Was Jesus always subordinate to God? Right? But there are some that would say, Well, maybe he was. So let's listen to what Kevin DeYoung says. It's a now out of print book, but this is what he says. He says, the father and the son share the same essence and rank. And yet in their relationship, the son submits to the father while the father never submits to the son. But yet there's no inferiority, there is no inequality, yet there are different roles. There has always been an order to the Trinity, an order, not of rank, but of relationships. The father sends the son and the father and the son send the spirit and the relations are not reversible. Mutuality and equality exist in the Trinity alongside a divinely instituted order. So let me unpack that for you for a second. What Paul says here when he says that Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, this doesn't mean that Jesus was of some lesser rank and the Spirit is of lesser rank still. There is an equality and a mutuality in the Trinity. There is no lesser form of the Godhead. There are different roles. There are different relations. But this is God's divinely ordered way of being. Calvin writes this, he says, for even though we admit that in respect to order and degree, the beginning of divinity is in the father, yet we say it is a detestable invention, that being is proper to the father alone as if he was the deifier of the sun. Now, what did Calvin say? Calvin says that God the Father didn't make the Son divine. The Son is God. The Son is divine, just as He was in the beginning and now forever shall be. This is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. It's deep water, but Paul is saying all of this because it's incredibly important that we understand who Jesus was in heaven, right? We have to understand the Son of the living God in heaven before he takes on human form. So we're invited in this text to gaze in wonder upon the very nature, the very essence of our eternal God. Because this is what Jesus did. Jesus didn't use his co-equal co-eternal status as a negotiating chip, as a bone of contention, saying, why must I go? Why must I go? Because we're equal. Jesus is willing to be sent. Jesus is willing to be sent. Now, Paul had just finished talking about, as we saw last week, look back at verse four. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Okay? Back in verse three, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. We said selfish ambition was that desire to be hyper-fighting. Conceit, vainglory, right? That glory hunger. So you have a starved, glory hunger people willing to fight. It's kind of like, have you ever seen in those nature documentaries, like hyenas when they get around an animal carcass? Like they're just ready to go. They're ready to tear each other up if it means they can get a morsel of the food. And that's that nature of that empty glory, that vain glory that we have, that glory hunger. It drives us to the point we'll fight anyone, we'll do anything, we'll knock anyone down, we'll get anyone out of our way simply so that we can be satisfied for a moment with a glory that we'll never have on this earth. And so Paul is then saying, have the mind of Christ. Rather than saying any other thing, he says, look at Jesus. Look here at Jesus. Rather than seeing his equality with God as something to keep, he saw it as qualifying him for his humble descent to save his people. So I want to move straight into the second point. What is it that Jesus did? Look at what, look at verse seven. Jesus emptied himself. Now there have been some, that have tried to say over the years that what this means when it says that Jesus emptied himself is that he stripped himself of his divine nature and ceased to be God. That's just silly. That's not what it means. What does it mean then when it says he emptied himself? Okay? The way we understand the meaning of emptied himself is to look at the words that follow it. The words that follow it are, he took the form of a servant and was born in the likeness of men, okay? Ken Hughes says this, he says, the negative action of emptying is actually defined by Christ's positive action in the incarnation, okay? The negative action of emptying is defined by the positive action of the incarnation. So what's the first emptying? The first emptying that we see is Paul saying that Jesus empties himself by taking the form of a servant. So Paul uses the word form here in the same way he did back in verse six. So again, it's that appearance and being. So Paul's saying that he had the, Jesus adopted both the appearance and the essence of a slave. Now where do we see that? You see that in John chapter 13, this great passage where in the upper room, Jesus gathers his disciples. He then takes off his outer garments. He puts on the towel of the slave and he takes the base and it begins to wash his disciples feet. He takes on in visible form, the most menial and frankly disgusting of tasks to serve his disciples. So he is taking on the form and the essence of a servant. He didn't exchange the form of God for the form of a slave as one might do with a garment from Kohl's that doesn't fit quite right. But he manifested the form of God in the form of a slave. Now here's the second thing that he did. The second thing that he did is he was born in the likeness of men. So how did Christ become human? Well, look, Jesus didn't appear in a palace. He didn't appear on a throne one day and say, here I am. Jesus was born to an immigrant couple. Jesus came in as a slave without rights, whose purpose in his life was simply to meet the needs of others. Instead of demanding that his rights be served because of his rightful essence and place as God, second person of the Trinity, he stooped to perform menial tasks. So when Paul says he was born in a likeness of men, he's not saying there was some sort of grand illusion happening, some sort of make-believe. He wasn't God in disguise. He really did take upon himself our flesh. Hebrews reminds us that he was made like his brothers in every respect. Consider this. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus was exhausted. And upon a fisherman's vessel, from sheer exhaustion, he sleeps. The storm comes. It blows over the side of the ship. The disciples are terrified. And Jesus, the same one that from exhaustion sleeps, is now the one that gets up and speaks to the storm as its sovereign Lord and creator and says for it to be still. Jesus. Fully God. Fully man. Now, consider this. We've been steeped in this language. Can you imagine though, what it would be like for a first century Jew to go around proclaiming that God had a body? Well, I can tell you what the Old Testament would say to do of that level of blasphemy. scone them. That level of blasphemy requires public execution. So why do you think that every time that it got close to the Pharisees hearing Jesus say in the Gospels that he was God in the flesh, they picked up stones prepared to stone him. It wasn't because they didn't like what he was saying. It's because that's the punishment of the law. God doesn't take on human form. It's blasphemous. Jesus, in His great love, humiliated Himself, became one of us so that we might be one with Him. Just as the teacher in my illustration at the beginning handed Susie her paperback, And wrote stupid. In the name blank. And Susie said. You're right. That humiliation. He became sin. God made him to be. Sin. But there's more, right? because Paul says in verse eight, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Here's one of the most profound things that caught me as I was studying for this sermon this week. and being found in human form, he humbled himself. Please note this with me. The text does not say that Jesus was humbled. As if to say someone else humiliated him. The text does not say that Jesus was mastered by someone else, that Jesus was overcome by someone else. It, the text says that Jesus was humbled himself. Go with me here. We, a people who would run the other direction from being humiliated in any sense because none of us could bear the thought that our humiliation might actually reveal what we actually fear is true about ourselves. That's the way the humiliation works, by the way. Others participate in bringing you to a place where you feel less than and where you feel ashamed. You say, I am the stupid. I am the mistake. I am the less than. And we want to run from those places. And Jesus ran towards those places. And the text doesn't say that anyone else did this to him. The text says that Jesus humbled himself. Nothing mastered him. Nothing brought him to his knees. So I want you to just let the weight of this quote by Soren Kierkegaard break over you. Christ humbled himself, not he was humble. Oh, infinite sublimity of which it must categorically be true that there was none in heaven or on earth or in the abyss that could humble him. He humbled himself. The infinite qualitative difference between Christ And every other man lies indeed in this, that in every humiliation which he suffers, it is absolutely necessary that he himself should assent and confirm that he is willing to submit to that humiliation. This is infinite superiority over suffering, but at the same time also suffering infinitely more intense in kind. I'm going to break that quote down for you. My auditory learners are like, why? And my kinetic and reading learners are like, please do. Okay. First, there is none in heaven or on earth or in hell below that had, did, could, would conquer the Christ, the King and drop him to his knees. There was no contest and there was no question. Jesus humbled himself. Secondly, what this means as Kierkegaard states and so important in every humiliation that Jesus endured, he chose it. He allowed it. He permitted it. The wind and the waves stood still at his command. By His spoken word, wine out of water at the wedding of Cana. By His spoken word, dead men came out of their tomb. By His spoken word, blind received sight. The lame walked. The deaf heard. The leper healed. By His spoken word, the world came into being. All he had to do. And when the whip, when the latch of the whip fell upon his back, when the spitting and the mockery occurred, when the crown of thorns pressed down upon his head, all he had to do was whisper, stop. This means at every point and at every turn in every way, he could have stopped it and he didn't. He allowed himself to be humiliated. He allowed himself to take all of that shame upon himself. Which means just as no one conquered his will to allow the suffering to happen, he was actively, willingly, moment by moment saying, yes, to the disgrace and humiliation because of his great, unbreakable, and unfathomable love for you and I. You know how you thought if you had a loved one caught in a building and the building was on fire, you'd run in, flames be damned? That was Jesus at every moment and at every turn. actively saying yes, not being subjected as if it was out of his control to stop it. But actively saying yes, because he loves you. He loved you enough to rescue you. He loves you still even when you forget about his love. Zephniah 3 says that He will exult over us with loud singing. He will quiet us with His love. Kierkegaard's last sentence. This is infinite superiority over suffering, but at the same time, also suffering infinitely more intense and kind, right? It's one thing to survive something that you have no control over. It's another thing to survive something that you have every control over. Right? Do you see the difference? And he suffered then the greatest humiliation possible. Becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. This is execution in its most brutal, heinous, and ghastly form, outside the gate of the city. But it leads us to this. Why? Why did Paul say to a church that is brimming with underlying strife just under the surface, right? We know the Philippians is Paul's letter of joy, but we also know that there's some really deep-seated stuff going on in Philippi as well. So why would Paul say all of these things? That's the thing we need to consider as our last point. How do we have the mind of Christ? How do we have the mind of Christ? So back to verse five. Right? This great transition from 1 through 4 to this great text about Jesus. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Okay? Here's the problem with this passage. Linguistically, in the Greek, it is incredibly tricky to translate. because in the second half of the sentence, there is no verb. Now, all my grammarians just perked up a little bit. All of my non-grammarians said, I don't understand the question. That's all right. Here is, I think, the takeaway here. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." This is, I think, what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying here not that the power of this text is in Jesus being our example, though he is. but rather the power of this text and all that will follow, it is because the same mind that is in the essence of Christ is now in us because of our union with Jesus. So when Paul says, have this mind of Christ, which is yours in Christ Jesus, have the same mind among yourselves, he's not saying, look to Jesus and be moved by the example of Jesus. That's awesome. It's an incredibly moving thing, but that's not all of what he's saying. What he's saying is, because of the power of the Son who rose from the dead and the Spirit that proceeded from the Father and the Son has now been poured out in all those who believe in Jesus Christ. You therefore can have this same mind of Christ in you. this humility, this self-giving, this active assent to say no to yourself and say, my life for yours rather than your life for mine, have that mind, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Paul sets out to show this beautiful synopsis of the humiliation and the exaltation of Christ, not simply to show us true things and not simply to give us an example, but also to say that if you are going to delight at the expanse of the kingdom, even if it is at your expense, if you're going to pursue others with a love that expects no reciprocity or mutuality, it is only going to be possible with Christ in you and changing you, not simply being an example for you. You need Jesus in you, changing you, not simply being an example for you. I love this quote. I wish bill was here today because I'm quoting all of the old dead guys, more old dead guys. I've quoted in one sermon that I haven't an entire year, Richard Baxter and the saints everlasting rest. Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved of God? to be the son, the spouse, the love, the delight of the King of glory. Christian, believe this and think on it. You will be eternally embraced in the arms of that love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting, of that love which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory, that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced, which did fast, preach, pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, die, that love will eternally embrace them. When perfect created love and most perfect uncreated love meet together, oh, the blessed meeting, Because it is Jesus who brought himself near to us through his humiliation in order to rescue us. It is this Jesus who will lead us to everlasting joy in his heavenly father. And it is this spirit that Christ sends forth to inhabit his people that is shaping us, teaching us, molding us. The unexpected lesson that our highest privilege lies in reflecting our triune God's self-giving love in our treatment of one another. So what about you? What is it going to cost you? What is it going to cost you to love in this way? Is it going to cost you your time? Is it going to cost you your energy? Is it going to cost you your resources, your comfort, your worth, your standing, your stature, your very life? To seek to have the mind of Christ is to take on the mind of Christ. By the power of the spirit work in you, you can have the deepest joy possible of sharing and starting to look a little like Jesus until you too at Christ's return and at your resurrection are so radically transformed that you find your purest and most enduring delight in bringing glory to God. So dear friends, The call, it would seem, is not for us to say, I'm a worm, I'm nothing, I'm a sinner, I'm a failure, I'm Susie with the test being handed back, stupid in the name blank. No, see, here's the thing, here's the thing. He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That name blank on the top of the test doesn't say stupid. It says beloved saint. It says son and it says daughter. It says mine. If ever you wanted to know what happened in that great exchange, know this, Jesus took our humiliation out of love and Jesus gives us the exaltation that was rightly due to him. How do you love others in that way? You have the mind of Christ and you take it one day at a time.