Philippians 2 // The Humiliation Of Christ

um um who heals us that's what you called yourself and so we can trust you with our bodies too lord we thank you for doctors even even paul had a doctor luke the physician um but god you're the ultimate physician and so god we just pray that you enter would intercede in erica's situation god that you would heal her body and that you would make her completely whole and uh lord if you've got other things going on with her we just pray that you make those things clear to her and we just ask that you do this all in jesus name amen all right how you guys doing right one hey tom i got i got this for you i see one mask in the whole group you guys are all rebellious oh you people crack me up um we are in the book of philippians uh we started the book of philippians a few weeks ago and uh we're continuing in it we're in philippians chapter two one of the coolest passages in in the whole bible about what jesus was uh thinking when he came down to the earth what he was thinking what he was doing uh when he came down to be a man um it's a it's a passage that deals with the humility of christ and not only the humility of christ but it deals uh with the trinity uh the whole nature of god uh situation and uh specifically the deity of christ it's one of the clearest presentations of the fact that jesus is god in human form uh in the bible so it's a really cool passage um and i'm titling the study the humiliation of christ so we're in philippians chapter two let's uh pray before we get into it just ask the lord to bless the study tonight and uh to work through it lord we thank you for your word thank you so much for the fact that you are the word uh you're the word made flesh your your god come down to dwell among us and lord we thank you for a heart that desired to reach out to fallen humanity so that you can bring us back into a relationship with you lord we love you so much and we thank you so much for uh the fact that you would sacrifice yourself for us and as we go through and look at this passage we pray that you just be speaking to our hearts and that you bless the time and we ask that you do this all in jesus name amen i want to welcome all you guys online too i always forget to do that because i get focused on everybody that's in the amphitheater but man it's just a blessing to be able to to do services and not only accommodate the people who want to come out but take care of the people who are at home and having to be um uh careful about the whole the whole coven thing and i i totally understand that and i get it i think i think that's a good thing okay we're in uh philippians chapter two let's go through and start reading in verse one if the wind will allow me i gotta hold my bible down man it says therefore if there is any consolation in christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any affection and mercy fulfilled my joy by being like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mine let each esteem others better than himself let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus and so you can you could see the point of the passage when paul begins talking about um our need for humility and humility not in the sense of downplaying our gifts or downplaying uh what we are in the in the in the sense of what god has done to us but humility in the sense of not always um uh going after my own way all not always getting what i want that's the that's the point of the passage um we need to have a lack of selfish ambition you can see that um in verse three let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in loneliness of mind let it esteem others better than himself and we talked about that um last week uh in the context again of um having a unity as believers uh unity of mind one of the things that is always going to happen when you get a group of people together is you're gonna have people who clash with each other you're gonna have situations where one person wants to do one thing and another person wants to do another thing and if you don't have a have a heart that's willing to yield is the idea behind it a mind that's willing to yield you're always going to get these conflicts the bible says only by pride comes contention and so one of the things that i pay attention to when i'm feeling contentious there are those times rare times not very often i hardly ever feel contentious there are those times when i feel contentious and i i go through and i do i kind of do a checklist in my head why why am i being so um adamant about this why is this something that i'm willing to die for does this have to do with my pride or does this have to do with a with a bigger principle and i do this all the time without fail no i'm just joking i you know it's like it's it's one of those things that i pay attention to and so if i think that something should go a certain way and i get some backlash from other people around me it's you know it's one of the first things that i'm looking at am i just being prideful about this whole thing or is there a bigger issue um one of the things that that we need to have as believers is the ability to be talked out of your opinion the ability to listen to other people because there might be somebody in the room who's smarter than you there might be somebody in the room who knows more than you there might be somebody in the room who has more information and i'm not even talking about knows more i'm talking about they might have some inside information that you know nothing about i've had situations where i've made decisions and i've asked people what they thought about uh the decision that i was making and i get nothing but oh yeah knotted heads and and that kind of stuff i go ahead and do it and then something backfires on the whole thing and then i find out later that somebody in the room knew that the situation was going to come up that was going to make it blow up in my face and i'm like what are you doing why didn't you tell me that and they're like well everybody else was saying yeah and so i didn't want to be the only guy who said no and you know it's like what do i need you for if all i wanted was my own opinion why do i need you in the room you know what i mean and so you know it's it's one of those things where if you're going to um be able to run your life and run your life in any way that's halfway reasonable you have to be able to listen to wisdom the whole book of proverbs is about listening to wisdom that comes not just from you listening to wisdom that comes from others listening to wisdom that comes from the word listening to wisdom that comes from people with more experience than you i remember um you know i've had a couple of situations uh in the last few months where the whole issue of age versus youth has come up as far as wisdom goes and you know i've been i've been talking to somebody who's like they should listen to me because i'm older and i have more experience and you know it's like that's absolutely true it is absolutely true that's not how how i would approach that if i was talking to somebody but it is absolutely true i came i came from the generation well i wasn't i was a generation after all the people who said don't trust anybody who's over 30. that was like a hippie thing don't trust anybody who's over 30. and i've you know i've been waiting for somebody to you know to talk to me i heard about one person who said well that generation and this was this was somebody that was in their 20s or 30s actually they were in their 30s well that generation is like this and uh you know kind of looking at older people and and go on well you know they don't really have anything to say because they don't really know the situation blah blah blah blah and i just been waiting for something like that because i'm gonna say to him you know what i was alive during the 70s and during the 70s they wouldn't trust you because you're too old you're in your 30s you freak don't trust anybody over 30 right you guys remember those days anybody remember that were you one of those people didn't trust anybody over 30 i want to know that first time i heard that i was like i think that's kind of dumb i don't think everybody's smart but there are some people over 30 that i might listen to you know and so uh you know it's just that kind of attitude that can get you into all kinds of trouble and so i need to be able to be willing and able to listen to other people i have reasons for the things that i do and if the reasons that i do things become invalid i would like to know about that right have you have you guys heard about the um the lady who always cut the end off her roast this is an old story so this this one time ladies making a roast she's making a pot roast and before she puts the pot roast in the pan she cuts the end off it cuts like three inches off the end of the roast and she puts it in a pan and she puts it in the oven and her daughter's there sitting with her and she goes you know she's teaching her how to cook and she goes mom how come you cut three inches off the roast and the mom goes you know what i don't really know i mean that's how i've always done it well mom why are you doing it that way well that's because grandma that's that's how your grandma always did it well do you know why she did it she goes no i don't know let's call her so she called up grandma and and grandma doesn't know why she did it so she's like i don't know that's how i've always cooked pot roast you cut three inches off the end of the pot roast you put it in the pan and it always comes out great and so i never thought about it and they go they go well where'd you get it from well we got it from great grandma well great grandma's still alive so they call up great grandma great grandma how come you cut three inches off the edge of the pot roast and she goes well it's because the pan i had was too small there are times when the things you're doing become invalid and it would be nice to know if the situations have changed and so you know again just being open to input from from other people in other situations and and that kind of thing there are things that never become invalid obviously when god makes a command about how i'm to treat people or or what my relationship is supposed to be like with certain people he's looked down all through the ages and he knows that there's not going to come up a situation that's going to invalidate his commands right and so again we need to be watching out for that but there's a again there's a lot of stuff that we do that we just do because we've always done it that way and again maybe maybe that should change sometimes we're making decisions and we're not getting enough information from the people who are around us and again that's why i keep i keep people around me who are pretty sharp and and care about stuff that's the biggest thing i want them to care about it if i if i have to come up after the fact and say why are you doing this why are you doing this why are you doing this why didn't you do this why didn't you look this up why didn't you do that and they go well i don't know i just didn't it's like my next question is why do i need you you know it's like you need to care about this stuff as much as as much as i do if not more if you're not caring about your ministry more than i care about it that's not a good thing and so you know again it's it's uh one of those kinds of things but i surround myself by around surround myself with people like that i get input from them then i pray about stuff and i ask the lord and then i move on it from there that is humility i'm not saying that i'm the example of humility but that's what humility is about i don't always have to have my way i don't you know i don't i don't understand everything that's going on necessarily and i try to find out if somebody knows more than me about a situation that is exactly the opposite of selfish ambition selfish ambition is all about i'm right i'm right i'm always right and you are always wrong in fact that's a that's a thing that mitch and i do with each other whenever you know whenever we have a conflict about something mitch says one thing i say another thing he does this all the time so he'll say one thing i'll say another thing and i'll go no mitch that's not right and he'll go yes it is absolutely it is that's right and i'll go no it's not uh you know i just read the thing and it's that's not right and he goes i'll bet you and so we go through and we we look at it and and you know we find out that i was right and he was wrong and so he has to say i'm wrong i'm wrong i'm always wrong and steve is always right and that's just a blessing it's a good thing and then there are those times when mitch is right and usually when i'm making a stand like that it's because i know something that that he may not know and every once in a while i'll make a stand on something and i'm absolutely wrong it's the worst thing in the world to look at mitch dunphy and go i'm wrong i'm wrong i'm always wrong and you are always right it's really fun you know the whole thing's fun though as long as i'm winning in any case nothing's to be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in loneliness mind let each esteem others better than himself and so we're to be putting others above ourselves and not constantly going after matters of self put others first and then what paul does is he gives the ultimate example of putting others first and that's the example of jesus he says in verse 5 let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus who being in the form of god did not consider it robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross therefore god also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and so he talks about the fact that jesus was a guy who was humble and that's exactly what jesus said about himself i'm i'm meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for your souls now again when i when i'm looking at the humility of christ um i'm i'm not thinking of a marvin miltos type of guy you guys ever heard that marvin milk toast you know what milk toast is it's where you take toast dip it in milk and it all falls apart so marvin milk toast is like a gut like a piece guy who's made out of toast and he gets dipped in milk and he falls apart he can't stand up for anything toast is pretty stiff again until you put it in milk right so you don't want to be a marvin milk toast that's not what jesus was there were times when jesus stood up and he didn't care what anybody thought about him and so you know there's obvious examples when they were polluting the father's house with materialism and ripping people off and that kind of stuff he went in and flipped tables that's not a marvin milk toast that's a guy who doesn't care about what anybody thinks about them and when he sees something wrong he goes it in and he does something about it uh again in that situation there were times when jesus saw um evil being done to people who were around him one one issue was he was in the synagogue one time and they brought up to a man with a withered hand and said is it okay to heal on the sabbath and what jesus realized what he knew because he knew the hearts of people what he knew at that point was that they were using this dude for a prop they didn't care about healing and they didn't care about him the man what they cared about was getting jesus and so they're using this guy for a prop and the bible says that he looked around at them with anger at that point did a little teaching on the fact that they would go out on that day the reason that they were having a problem is because they they didn't think that you should heal anybody on the sabbath day of all things and so one of the things he said to him is on this day on the sabbath day if you had a mule that fall fell into a ditch you would go and get him out and this guy you don't care about and the bible says again he looks around at them with anger i'm paraphrasing that whole thing but that's that's what he was talking about and he's done he does that a couple of different a number of different times he does that but with the disciples at one point they're arguing about who's the best who's the greatest who's gonna who's gonna be ruling in the kingdom that kind of thing and jesus apparently was walking ahead of these guys on the road and afterwards they get to where they're going he gathers them up around him and he says what was it that you were talking about on the road as we were coming here and they didn't want to say and what he does is he begins to rebuke them and he talks to them about the fact that you know king lords and kings and kings and uh governors will lord it over you but it's not going to be like that here and he talks about the fact that everybody needs to be a servant of everybody else he wasn't a guy who didn't care or or didn't want to confront a situation when the situation needed confronting jesus would stand up and he would do exactly that and so again when you're when you're talking about the humility of christ humility doesn't mean i'm always quiet and i'm always you know i don't you know meekness is not weakness is what i'm telling you meekness is not weakness and for in fact the word meek has the idea in it of power under control it's the idea that i can wipe you out and i don't that's what meekness is i can wipe you out i have every reason to wipe you out and i don't that's meekness and that's the situation that you had with jesus of all people on this planet he had the ability to judge us and just drive us into the dirt of all people on this planet he had the ability to judge us and destroy us of all people on this planet he had the ability and the right to look at everything that we've done in our lives and classify us as vile and inhuman and unworthy of life and get rid of us and he doesn't when they came to get him to take him to the cross he had the ability to wipe out the planet that's something that's going to take place the bible teaches not only is going to wipe out the planet earth he's going to wipe out the universe the whole universe is going to fold up and be destroyed and he's going to start over he's got the ability to wipe out everything if it you know if it pleases him and he doesn't do it and he specifically doesn't do it with us because he cares about us and even despite the fact that many times we're opposed to him we have been opposed or there are other people who don't know him who are opposed he doesn't wipe us out then that's meekness he can wipe me out at any moment and he doesn't and then you have love on top of that and so that's a cool thing meekness is not weakness meekness doesn't means that even though i have the power i don't take it and that's again one of the things that you see with jesus he says let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus and then he gives the um the uh basically the description of where jesus descended from who being in the form of god did not consider it to be consider it robbery to be equal with god that word form is the word morphe in greek it's not the idea of the shape it's the idea of the outward expression of something that comes from inside it's the nature you could literally translate that being in the nature or having the nature of god in fact a little bit later on verse seven it says he made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant or of a servant say that word form it's exactly the same was jesus servant did he serve people and the answer to that said yes absolutely he came to seek and to save and to serve that which was lost and so jesus is really a servant and so he's really god is what that passage is talking about being in the in the form it literally means the perfect form the thought the intent and then the outward expression of who god is in john chapter one verse one it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with god and nothing was made that was made without him and um in that passage jesus uh is being called the word it's the word lagos it's the idea uh when i speak a word what i'm doing is i'm telling you what's inside me i'm telling you what's in my mind i'm telling you what my thoughts are and so my words are something that express my nature my words are something that express my thoughts my words are something that express my desires and that's exactly what jesus is he's the one who expresses the thoughts he's the one who expresses the nature he's the one who expresses the desires of the father in fact the bible talks about the in the same passage that jesus is the revealer of the father he's the one who shows us what the father is like and that's what a word does that's why he's called the word and that's the same idea um uh that's behind this term morphe it says again who being in the form of god that can be translated deity it doesn't have i don't want to get into greek with you but it does just for you scholars it doesn't have the article in front of it it's not saying being in the form of be god it's the idea of having the nature of god or having divine nature that kind of idea that you can have behind it it's not that the the translation is wrong the translation is right but it's not saying being in the form of the father for example he's saying being having the nature of god he did not consider it robbery to be equal with god robbery in that passage is a word that um can mean one or two things one of two things it can mean the act of seizing or robbery or the things ceased which is a treasure okay and so that can be translated in two different ways and it is translated in two different ways so being in the form form of god he didn't consider it robbery to be equal with god some translations have it being in the form of god he did not didn't consider it something to be grasped to be equal with god so on the one level it's something that i can't claim as a man either either way if we're talking about being equal with god is ripping god off or being equal with god is something that i need to not hold on to let's let's put it in those terms it is robbery for me to claim to be equal with god it's robbery and so if jesus is nothing but a man it is robbery to say that you're equal with god turn over to isaiah chapter 42. this is this is something that's that's worth seeing in your bible and even underlining isaiah chapter 42 you can get there without all your bible pages tearing in verse 8 it says i am the lord that is my name and my glory i will not give to another nor my praise to carved images it's the idea that god does not share his glory and then if you look down in verse 11 in the same chapter it says let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice the villages oh that is oh yeah uh the villages that cater inhabits let the inhabitants of the salah sing let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory to the lord and declare his praise to the coastlands the lord shall go forth like a mighty man it's the idea that god's glory is something that belongs to him and again not to anybody else in any case it is robbery for me to ever claim to be equal with god and if i said you know i'm uh i'm god in human form and i you know if i ever taught anything like that hopefully you would get up and walk out of the amphitheater right if i taught that that's something that jesus talked about all the time being equal with the father and we're used to that because it's coming out of the mouth of jesus but it's actually a pretty radical statement and it's either true or it's not and what paul says is it's true and it's not something that where jesus was ripping off the glory of god ripping off the nature of god in that situation let's use it in the other context and the idea of something to be grasped or laid aside and the point of that translation is uh as as it says in that passage who being in the form of god did not consider it something to be grasped or something to be held on to to be equal with god the idea behind that is he has equality with the father in heaven and he doesn't hold on to that absolute equality he's willing to come down to the earth and he's willing to humble himself okay and so in the one instance i can claim to be equal with god but that's robbery in this instance i can never consider equality with god something not to be grasped because it's something i never had if i never had it laying it aside is impossible and so the idea either either way that you want to translate that it's a the point is that jesus has the nature of god um one other thing that you have in this passage it says being he is and he continues to be in the form of god and he didn't give it up so this is one of those things that you know becomes kind of like a theological debate with some people did jesus give up any part of his divinity when he came down to the earth did he stop being god and just become a man and that is not something that the bible teaches that's something that false teachers will teach but it's not something that the bible teaches there are things that jesus gave up so for example one of the things that he gave up was omnipresence when it comes down to the earth he's no longer everywhere at the same time is he and so that's something that he gave up something that he also gave up was glory not in the sense of uh the the nature of god or um actually you got to know what the word glory means in greek it means to be well thought of to be spoken well of and so when jesus comes down to the earth he doesn't give up his nature in the sense that he's good and he's righteous and he's somebody to be glorified he doesn't give that up but as far as his glory as far as his his nature in the sense that you can't stand in the presence of god because his overwhelming glory would destroy you obviously jesus took that and he covered it up with flesh the bible says that he tabernacled among god amongst us in john chapter one and so there are some things that he gave up but he didn't give up his nature he didn't give up his uh his divinity um one of one of the things that um actually many of the cultists have a real problem with is when we say that jesus is god when we believe that he's one with the father when we believe that he's equal with god and not only will cultists have a problem with that but many times people who aren't christians people who are just in the world will say things like i believe that jesus is god's son but i don't believe that he's god and that's a that's a mistake that's a misunderstanding of what the term son means if you if you would turn over with me to john chapter 5 john chapter 5 and check this out jesus is having a conversation with the jews it says in verse 17 and it says jesus answered them my father has been working until now and i've been working therefore the jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the sabbath but also said that god was his father making himself equal with god he said that god was his father making himself equal with god now one of one of the things that you need to understand about the jews is they understood the concept the concept of being a son of god in the sense of creation there are passages in the book of songs that talk about the sons of god it's talking about men it's talking about women it's just it's talking about us in the generic and the fact that we're created and we're like children of god it uses the term sons of god okay so the jews understood that these jews understood that jesus was making a claim that was different than what you find in the old testament he said i've been working till now or my father's been working till now and i've been working and so on and they said you're you're making yourself equal with god by claiming that god is your father and again this is how jews think of this if a dog has a son what is it what's its nature doggy he has a doggy nature if a squirrel has a son what is it it's a squirrel if a cat has a son what is it it's a cat if a human has a son what is it it's human and if god has a son what is it because if you're gonna say that you're the son of god in the sense that jesus was talking about you're saying you're bone of his bone flesh of his flesh you're one with him you're exactly like him i've got a son who acts in all kinds of ways just like me in all the really good ways actually in the bad ways too he acts just like me people can tell that he's my son and it's because he has my nature he has his mother's nature in him too but in this instance we're talking about jesus having the nature of the father and so when he says my father's been working these people rightly take him as saying that he has this connection with the father as far as nature goes god has a son the son has to be god um if if he's really his son and so jesus at that point goes whoa whoa whoa that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about we're all sons of god we've all been created we're all part of the family of god no he doesn't do that he doesn't do any of that in fact what he does is he goes through and he makes it worse for these guys he doesn't make it better he makes it worse this is another one of those instances where jesus is standing up and he doesn't give a rip about what people think about what he's saying in verse 19 and 20 he says i'm doing the same works as the father watch this most assuredly i say to you the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do for whatever he does the son also does in like manner and what he's saying there is whatever he sees the father doing he does in exactly the same way okay let's you know that sounds reasonable because it's jesus let's plug steve wintery in there and so steve wintery can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do for whatever the father does steve wintery does in the same way in like manner does this work so who who parted the red sea that would be god right he was able to part the the red sea is steve wintery able to part the red sea no you know and when you go through and you you look at the things that jesus did jesus goes around doing miracles on cue and he does things that are absolutely amazing walking on water i can't walk on water and so the idea that that you could plug anybody else in there is just nonsense and when you plug anyone else in there what you see is how radically jesus radical jesus is being and making the claims that he's making i do everything the father does in the same way that he does it that's what he's saying verse 20 for the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does for the father loves steve wintery and shows him all things that he does does the father show me all things that he does ever god doesn't even show me all things that he does for my life much less your life or anybody else's life or anything else that's going on on the planet and again jesus is making a special claim when he goes through there shows them all things that he himself does and he will show them greater works than these that you may marvel for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them even so the son gives life to whom he will and so in verse 21 what he's saying is he gives life just like the father does now again let's let's i don't want to plug my name in there let's plug mitch dunphy's name in there for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them even so mitch dunphy gives life to whom he will does that sound stupid yes absolutely that sounds stupid doesn't sound stupid when jesus is in there but it sounds really dumb when mitch dunphy is in there then you go to verse 22 um it goes on and says for the father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the son okay let's let's plug zach lamberson in there for the father judges no one but he's committed all judgment to zach lamberson are you afraid you should be zach lamberson's going to judge you not a good thing right and so again it sounds stupid when you put zach's name in there but it's totally normal to us when we put when we put jesus's name in here but the people that he's talking to think he's like think think that he's like steve wintery or mitch dunphy or zach lamberson that's what they think of him and jesus is saying i'm not like any of those guys i'm something special i'm something different i'm something you've never run into people and so he talks uh he talks again about um the fact that he's gonna judge not the father look at verse 23 it says that all should honor the son just as they honor the father and so in exactly the same way that the father is to be honored so is the son to be honored is he making it easier for these people nope he's making it harder he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him you know what he just said there you're not saved if you don't honor me like you honor the father you you don't know the father and so again if i came up here and said you have to honor steve winry just like you honor the father and if you don't honor steve winry just like you on don't just like you honor the father um you're not honoring the father at all right and again that's a radical statement if you plug my name in there but again it's what jesus was saying um in that passage that's pretty cool huh it goes on in um verses 28 and 29 and it says do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who've done evil to the resurrection of condemnation and so in in that passage jesus is saying i'm going to raise people from the dead and in fact i'm going to raise you from the dead it's not the father's voice that you're going to be hearing when i raise you from the dead it's my voice that you're going to be hearing and again plug anybody's name into there matt lewis it's not the father's voice that that you're going to hear when you're raised from the dead it's matt lewis's voice matt lewis is our tall guy he's our nephilim that's what we call him and again that's just nonsense jesus goes on and he talks about witnesses he says if i bear witness of myself verse 31 my witness is not true there is another who bears witness of me and i know that that the witness which he witnesses of me is true you've sent to john he's born a witness to the truth yet i do do not receive the uh testimony from man but i say these things that you may be saved um it goes on in in verse 36 and he says but i have a greater witness than john's for the works which the father has given me to finish the very works that i do bear witness of me that the father has sent me and the father himself who sent me has testified of me you've neither heard of heard his voice at any time nor seen his form but you do not have his word abiding in you because uh whom he sent him you do not believe you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me and so he goes through and he talks about the fact that john the baptist was somebody that witnessed of him uh the father was somebody that witnessed of him the word of god that they were trusting in was something that spoke to the fact that he's the coming of the coming messiah god in human form and again it's the point that he's making all the way through the chapter and uh what you have there again is jesus making the claim that he's god on the basis of being the son it does not make any sense to say i believe that jesus is the son of god but i don't i don't believe that he's god so when you're talking to your jehovah's witness friends this is the passage to take them to when you're talking to your mormon friends this is the passage to take them to when you're talking to your friends who think that jesus is nothing but a good teacher this is the passage to take him to because if those things are not true if jesus doesn't do the works of the father exactly like the father does them if jesus is somebody that is not going to raise the dead as the father raises the dead if jesus is somebody that is not to be honored like the father is to be honored if jesus is somebody that you're not going to hear his voice when you're uh when you're resurrected to life if jesus is not those things he's a false teacher and worse than that he's a wacko he's a crazy guy if i said all of this stuff to you and meant it i'm a wacko i'm somebody that you know it's like you need to send me to kellogg's where they keep the froot loops when you look at matthew chapter 26 why don't you turn over there real quick matthew chapter 26 starting in verse 63. this is a the trial of jesus actually let's um start in uh verse 61. he says two false witnesses come and they say this fellow said i'm able to destroy the temple of god and to build it in three days and the high priest arose and said to him talking to jesus do you answer nothing what is it these men testify against you but jesus kept silent and the high priest answered and said to him i put you under oath by the living god tell us if you are the christ the son of god so that what that means is you tell us if you're the messiah the son of god that's what he's asking him i want you to notice that jesus just got put under oath here and so this is the only time that he answers the guy and he says jesus says to him it is as you said that i'm the christ the son of god nevertheless i say to you hereafter you will see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven then the high priest tore his his clothes saying he has spoken blasphemy what further need do we have of witnesses look now you have heard his blasphemy what do you think and they answered and said he is deserving of death then they spat in his face beat him others struck him with the palms of their hands saying prophesy to us christ who is the one who struck you why was jesus crucified [Music] what the high priest say there it's for blasphemy what's the blasphemy that he said he was the messiah the son of god that's the blasphemy and again these guys know exactly what jesus is talking about he's not talking about the concept of son of god in the sense of creation and again jesus didn't allow it he didn't allow them to think that he said it is as you said i'm the messiah the son of god and then he says nevertheless i say to you hereafter you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven and what he's talking about obviously is the second coming things that were prophesied about god in the old testament you know the passage that we all go always go to in zechariah chapter 14 where it says jesus comes down and his feet touch the mount of olives and it splits in two right and so we talk about that all the time you know who it says is coming down touching down and his feet split the mount of olives it's jehovah you don't have jesus in the old testament in the sense of jesus christ from nazareth that kind of thing the one who does that in zechariah chapter 14 is jehovah and so in the bible you know when we talk about christ coming back and doing exactly that that's a that's a verse that specifically pointed to the fact that god is coming down and again what you have when you're talking about jesus being the son of god his son the only begotten son there's a reason he's the only begotten one we're all sons and daughters by adoption he's a son of god by nature and that's the point again that paul is making in philippians chapter 2. then it talks about the emptying that jesus went through it says back in philippians chapter 2 but he made himself of no reputation that word reputation there is implied in the greek it's not actually there what it actually says is he emptied himself he emptied himself having taken the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men the emptying again he laid aside the outward manifestation of what god is in other words his shininess his glory the fact that in the presence of god things that are not pure are destroyed that kind of thing he laid aside the privilege of his deity but the bible teaches actually jesus said that after the crucifixion he was going to take it right back up again in john chapter 17 verse 4 and 5 he says to the father i've glorified you on the earth i've finished the work which you have given me to do and now oh father glorify me together with yourself with the glory which i had with you before the world was and so there was a glory that christ had before the world was created and when he goes back from this earth to heaven he reassumes that glory you might be um sometimes people are flipped out by the fact that the bible says that jesus sits at the right hand of the father in heaven you know how that's described in revelation chapter 5 there's a throne and on the throne we don't see anything but light and in the midst of the throne is a lamb as though it had been slain that's how it's described when jesus appears in heaven he comes out of the throne of god which is nothing but light he comes out of the throne of god and he's described as a lamb who's been slain you know and it goes on goes on with the description and all of heaven begins to worship so when you're talking about being at the right hand of the father it's an idiom from ancient times it's the idea of i'm his arm i'm the i'm the one that's closest to him i'm the one that's tightest with him i'm the one who implements what the father wants it has all those kinds of implement or uh implications in any case jesus has the glory now that he had before the world was created and the bible says that he takes on human flesh in romans chapter 8 it says that he comes in the likeness of sinful flesh this is the quote for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh god did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh that's romans 8 chapter 3 or 8 3 chapter 8 verse 3. and so when you're looking at form in this passage here the form is the outward expression of the in most being and one of the cool things about this is that when you look at form at the very beginning he came in the form of god and like i said he comes in the form of a bond servant here same word in greek and so what you have here is god serves first he's identified as god he's got the very nature of god and then in the next very next verse what paul is saying is god came to serve god serves and that's something to keep in mind when i'm looking around at the way that i'm treating people who are around me am i a servant or am i a master you know how you can tell what kind of servant you are what happens when you get treated like one right we all get put in positions where it's like people just expect things from us and demand things from us and that kind of stuff and do you get all hoity-toity and have a big fat attitude and that kind of that kind of thing or do you only serve when it's pleasant or only serve when you want to you can tell what kind of servant you are when you get treated like one and again something to keep in mind god serves god didn't have to do any of this he could have just said you know what do over and wiped out the whole planet but he does it what he does is he comes down and he serves and he saves then it goes on we talked about likeness in romans chapter 8 verse 3 likeness is the idea of that which is made like something else it's not the real thing it's an incomplete copy that's what likeness means in greek and so when the when the bible talks about him coming in the likeness of men even in this passage right here it's the idea of he's an incomplete copy he's not an exact copy of mankind he can't be he's god in human form and so when you look at jesus uh versus anybody else in the bible when you look at jesus versus any anybody else in all of history when you look at jesus in uh comparison with anybody that you know or anybody that is he is nothing like us he's nothing like us he's a he's got an outward likeness but there's something qualitatively different about jesus and that again is the fact that he's god and a god god in human form um he didn't when you're when you're looking at the word for likeness it's not a word that means it expresses all of that thing's being so for example i have a likeness of myself on a wall somewhere there's a picture of me somewhere right in my house is there a picture of me in our house my wife doesn't know oh luanne my sister-in-law knows how does my sister-in-law know my wife doesn't so there's a likeness of me and so what it looks like is me but it doesn't show everything that i am obviously that's what the term likeness means and then you have appearance in the passage he came being found in appearance verse 8 as a man that word appearance is the idea of the outward form literally it means appearance as an element of outward form it's what you see on the outside and again what you have is jesus coming and he puts on flesh so all of that stuff just really blows me away i've talked about this before in the in you know in the context of jesus coming to the earth you know when when i when i really think about you know i i get detailed when when i put these things in my head so i just imagine myself being god i am spirit i can't imagine all of that but you know what i mean i'm spirit i have absolute power i have absolute knowledge there's nothing impure about me everything is awesome and i decided that i'm going to come down to the earth and the first thing that i do is i go inside a teenager's body [Music] ew and then at some point you know i'm growing i'm getting squished up it's liquidy and organic and gross in there i'm coming out with white stuff all over me sorry to be so specific i'm remembering the birth of my son i'm coming out with white stuff all over me and i'm coming out through the birth canal again gross gross that's not you know i don't i don't even like to think about it in in my own life much less you know being god and coming down to the earth i don't you know it's like people look at it and they go oh it's such a beautiful thing and i think that life is beautiful i i do the way it comes about is not [Laughter] i always i always you know my daughter just had a baby don't tell her this my daughter just had a baby and we're doing covid and they wouldn't allow us in the hospital and i was like good because i i don't think she would have wanted me in the room with her but i was worried that she would and i don't want to do that anymore i don't ever i don't ever want to do that and so the fact that god would come and co go through the birth canal and then you know what babies do right they come out and there they are and you clean them up you wrap them up and all they do is eat and go to the bathroom for months all they do is eat and go to the bathroom and then mama has to take them by their two cute little legs lift up their bottoms wipe it for them do it can you imagine your god and you're going to come down and do that and just subject yourself to that you're going to sit there in your own excrement in whatever past for diapers back in the first century you're gonna sit there and you're gonna do that and you're the god who created the you see what i mean and you start going through everything that you that that jesus had to go through in his life just living as a human being i think that's ridiculously over the top i don't know that i would have done it of course if i was god i'd be perfect and so obviously i would have done it but the fact that jesus does that just blows me away jesus is ridiculed by things that he can speak out of existence at any moment he has people you know one of the things that i have never liked about people is the fact that sometimes they can just be so snotty and so mean they can come up into your face i've seen this on tv in the last couple of weeks come up to the face of cops screaming in their face cussing them out doing that's the kind of stuff that jesus went through and i look at that and all i can think is somebody needs to pop that guy in the nose all i can i'm a christian all i can think of is somebody needs to knock that lady out you know i look at that stuff and it's just over the top to me and that's the kind of stuff that the creator of the universe endured when he came down to this planet people screaming in his face prophesy prophet who ki who hits you prophesy christ who just struck you that's the kind of stuff that he went through and he didn't speak them out of existence and he could have at any moment and again when you when you go through and you look at everything that jesus had to deal with even with his disciples his disciples are just you know there i i love them because it makes me feel better about me because when i do something stupid all i got to do is go and look at one of the apostles and go oh well he did it too and jesus still loves him and so i guess i'm in you know and have that kind of thing but the fact that jesus everybody that jesus deals with is somebody that doesn't believe doesn't follow sometimes actively opposed sometimes hates his guts you realize the guy never did anything wrong never ever did anything wrong never ever did anything wrong and they killed him for it it's ridiculous and this world is ridiculous and yet that's what the god of the universe decides to do he comes down to the earth and he endures that kind of nonsense he goes to the cross it says being found in verse 8 being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross and so he comes to die and it wasn't just a regular death it wasn't it wasn't something where somebody shot him with an arrow or stuck him with a sword he hangs on a cross and you know we've talked about the uh just the the brutality of the form of execution you realize that you die when you're on a cross you died of a fiction of fix asphyxiation can't even say it's so bad you died of asphyxiation and the way that worked is as you were hanging on across it would just contract your stomach muscles and so the only way that you can breathe was by pushing up on your feet which has an eight inch nail going through it that's about three-eighths to a half an inch across and so you have to push up on your feet to get the to to get the tension off your arms so that you can get a breath and so every time you try to move on this thing it's just excruciating it's where the term comes from it's excruciating pain every time somebody on a cross would move it's why it was one of the worst forms of execution it's why it was never allowed for a roman to be executed in that way it was considered something that a roman citizen would never be put to death by unless they were somebody who had become traitors to rome in any case even the death of the cross he goes to so not only does he go through the birth canal not only does he live as a baby not only does he endure everything that you have to endure when you're a little kid not only does the does he have to endure the things that people said to him when he told the truth every single time he opened his mouth not only does he have to endure the mockery and the insolence and the arrogance of the people who are around him he ends up going to death and it's the death of the cross is the picture there then it says verse 9 therefore god also has highly exalted him and given in the name which is above every name point being jesus didn't exalt himself jesus humbled himself and the one who did the exalting was the father and that's exactly the picture that we're given in this passage we're not to exalt ourselves we're to humble ourselves and we leave the exaltation the act of exalting me to the lord himself i don't have to make things happen i don't have to build things i don't have to make sure that my name is known i don't have to make sure that people notice me i don't have to speak up to get the things that i need i don't you know and so on and so forth i don't have to do any of that that's not my job that's the lord's job and so he says therefore god has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name when he goes to the cross he buys us back he seals redemption for us and after he does that what the father does is he exalts him this is how paul described that in ephesians 1 19-23 said this according to the working of this mighty power which you worked in christ this is the father doing this work which you worked in christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named so jesus is exalted far above principalities powers might and dominion that includes earthly might and power and dominion it also includes heavenly power and might and dominion it also includes demonic power and might and dominion jesus is above the angels jesus is above the devils jesus is above kings and presidents and prime ministers jesus is above everything and not only is he above them he's far above them so when people can compare jesus to an angel nonsense he's far above principalities and powers and he says every name that is named he's above moses he's above david he's above elijah elisha he's above zechariah he's above isaiah he's above john the baptist he's ju above paul the apostle peter he's above all those guys he's above muhammad he's above buddha he's above whoever started the dow he's above not the wall street now spelled tao he's above all of those things and every name that's named he's above them all every name that his name let me go back he's far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come and he put all things under his feet so everything's under his feet i'm under his feet you're under his feet uh governor inslee's under his feet president trump is under his feet putin's under his feet everybody on this planet who's ever lived is under his feet satan is under his feet michael the archangel is under his feet this is where jesus sits he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all and we could we could do a whole bible study on the last four words phil's all in all jesus is the one who fills all in all there is nothing that content can contain him there's nothing that can hold him he's the thing that fills everything and it's jesus and that's where the father put him and he's our example he's our example and so let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus as he said in that passage and so when i look at my life practically there are things that i would like to happen i remember when i was a young believer and i'm going to calvary and riverside i wanted to be you know included in a group that was being taught to counsel and i wasn't there was this whole group of us that hung out together and most of the guys were anywhere from 28 to 30 years old and i was the lone 19 year old in that group so all these guys are getting noticed and they're getting you know asked if they would uh be able to be counsel you know be taught to do counseling and stuff like that and i sat there and i watched each one of the guys that was around me getting picked and i was like i wonder if i should say something and then i just went no i'm not gonna do it i'm not gonna do it and so i just kind of prayed and i said god i don't know if i'm just being a fat head here but i would really like to do that can you do something about this and um less than uh actually probably within the next two days i got a call from a guy named fred farley and he said hey steve would you like to be in my in my counseling class we're teaching people to be counselors and i was like okay well let me pray about it and i prayed about it for two seconds and my prayer was thanks god it was awesome and so it was like that then guys were you know uh back in in in those days the guys who did communion the guys who brought the communion up were the deacons right and so again all my guys all my friends in my group every single one of them is getting picked to go up and do that and steve the 19 year old is left out once again i'm like god you know and i i didn't i don't whine a whole lot i went a little bit and my name after all is steve winery and so i went a little bit and i just went god you know again i don't know if i'm being a fat yet here but i would really like to do that and the next time we had communion um the pastor asked me if i would like to do that with him and so it was cool you know here's the thing about god he knows everything that i desire he knows everything that i need and i don't have to ask anybody else jesus said you go and talk to your father who's in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly and you know i've always taken that seriously that's that's what i think that god does i've never i've never gone around put myself in positions where i have made sure that i gained power or gained notoriety or gained a place i've never done it all i've done is just sat there waited on god prayed about the things that god wanted me to do i asked i got asked to be on staff actually i found out i was going to be asked to be on staff at riverside but by that time i decided to move out and i was going to be involved in the in another church in southern california when i got there they asked me to go on staff there i didn't walk up and give them my resume i didn't walk up and tell them everything that i was all i did was i did what the lord told me to and i kept my mouth shut um when i was talking to people and i kept my mouth open when i was talking to god and asked him what he wanted me to do where he wanted me to go how he wanted me to do things the same thing when i came up here you know what you guys when we started calvary chapel up here i didn't even put it in the paper i didn't put it in the phone book i didn't put it in i didn't do any kind of advertising for years and the only reason i ever put it in the in the paper was because a lady called me crying and said how long have you been here and i said well we've been here for two years she goes i've been looking very turned forever and she starts just weeping over the phone i get i went okay i guess maybe i should put it in the paper that's the only reason i ever did it everything that we got going on here has happened because god's the one who builds things that's exactly what god will do with you you are no different than i am and so you go you you have you have things that you think that god wants you to do you have things that maybe you think that god has spoken to you or you have desires that you would like to see fulfilled you know who you go talk to not the people who can fulfill them you talk to the god who's got control over everything including the people who can fulfill them you go talk to him and see what happens see what happens god is awesome and again he's the one who exalts us now we ourselves you know in the in the passage it talks about the fact that um we would confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father let me get there again my bible just flipped all over the place last verse he says therefore god has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father that is a direct quote from isaiah 4 chapter 45 verse 23 i'm going to read to you and this is the last verse i'm going to use i'm going to read to you what it says in that passage this is isaiah 45 21 through 24 if you're taking notes or if you want to turn there and where in verse 21 it says tell and bring forth your case yes let them take counsel together who has declared this from ancient time who has told him uh from that time have not i the lord that's the word jehovah in the passage or yahweh and there is no other god besides me a just god and a savior there is none besides me look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth for i am god and there is no other i have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that to me every knee shall bow every tongue shall take an oath he shall say surely in the lord i have righteousness and strength to him men shall come and all shall be ashamed who are sins incensed against him what paul is doing isn't it is attributing a passage that's directly pointing to the god of the universe and he's attributing that passage to jesus himself and so he's saying it's not to the father that every knee is going to bow and every tongue confess it's to the son that every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess guess what paul the apostle is calling jesus he's calling him jehovah he's calling him yahweh he's the he's the god of the old testament that's what he's calling him there and he does that over and over and over again in the new testament passages applied only to jehovah are pointed at jesus so that's who we're dealing with and again god coming down humbling himself becoming a servant and not only being a servant but going to his death and the death on the cross also that he could get you all so that he could get me do you guys think that's worth it i like it that he did it i like it that i'm going to heaven i like that that he would do that for me i like that i love that but i don't think it's worth it i'm amazed by the fact that that god would act like that towards me i'm amazed by the graciousness of god and again that's our example how gracious are you how willing to put yourself down in the sense that we're talking about ear not put yourself down but how willing to humiliate yourself in the in the sense of being humble how willing are you to do that um with the people who are around you and that's again our example it's a good one i'm done let's pray thanks father thank you lord for your love for us thank you for the fact that you would send your son to die for us thank you um lord for the plan that you always had when you started this whole thing out and lord jesus we thank you for the humility thank you for the love thank you for just the blessing that you are to us not only 2 000 years ago but but every single day you know i was talking about whining at you why in the world would the god of the universe put up with my whining and the only reason is because of love you have no other reason it's not because you owe me anything it's not because i deserve anything it's not because i'm worth listening to in the sense of my absolute worth but it's because you consider me someone that you would like to listen to you consider us people that you would like to listen to and again it's because you love us thank you lord for such a great love or we pray that you would help us to exhibit that to the people who are around us um we have people many times who are kind of difficult and sometimes we're in situations where we don't get noticed and sometimes we get passed over all of those things are going on lord and many times we look at it and we we think that maybe what we ought to do is step up and start making some noise and really what we need to do is step back and make some noise to you and allow you to be the one who works and works for us and through us lord i know you love these people i know that you want to bless them and so lord i want to pray for your blessing on them i know that that's exactly what's going to take place and so god i just pray for your blessing on each one of us as we go our way and that lord our lives would be something that reflects you as we go through the rest of this week just ask it all in jesus name amen god bless you guys you guys online too god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 378

Rating: 4.1111112 out of 5

Keywords: Truth, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Jesus, Bible teaching, Sermons, verse by verse bible teaching, Good bible teachers, Philippians, New testiment

Id: 5VdJ4rjqOiw

Length: 75min 59sec (4559 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020