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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (19-5-1991 Cleland Baptist Church)
Paul started this chapter by appealing to the Philippians
to be united, and in these verses he points to the example of Jesus to ram the
point home. To create concord needs lowliness of mind – and to learn that,
look at Jesus. He is the most glorious example, the supreme example of lowliness
of mind. He occupied a height we have never been on, and went to a depth lower
than any of us have descended to. We have never stooped as He did.
Paul’s argument is that if He,
the Lord of glory, your Lord and Master, humbled Himself, then so should you.
Paul lays before us Christ as our example. We shy away from this for He is more
than our example, He is our Saviour. Many get no further than His being an
example to them. True, but having established He is first and foremost Saviour,
He is also our example. This is in keeping with the New Testament emphasis.
The passage before us gives us an amazing picture of Christ. It is one of the most important New Testament passages explaining who He is. It is a sublime and moving passage, which begins in heaven and ends in heaven. Present and future glory is presented, and lessons we learn from it.
Christ was in the very nature (morfh)
God, He was in the form of God, He was fully and completely God, He was
unalterably and unchangeably God, just as much as the Father and the Holy
Spirit. He received the praise and adoration and worship of heaven, long before
He ever came to earth. He was fully divine, and received all the glory, powers
and attributes of God. He was the second Person of the blessed Trinity.
These may be difficult truths,
but they must be underlined. These things are clear and definite. We may be
attacked by the common view that Jesus was just a very good man who knew God in
a special way. The Jehovah’s Witnesses will say Jesus was something a little
less than God. But this is utterly wrong. Jesus was, and is, God.
And the wonder of it is that,
though He was in that position, He counted His existence equal to God the Father
as not something to be held on to, a prize that had to be kept at all costs, a
treasure to be clutched and not allowed to slip from His grasp. But instead He
emptied Himself. He made Himself nothing. He gave up, though remaining divine,
His position equal to the Father, the heavenly glory, the riches and the honour
and praise He had in heaven, all His rights and privileges. He took on our human
nature. He remained the Son of God, but now in addition to His divine nature He
took human nature. Godhead and manhood combined.
With the appearance of man, He
humbled Himself and, more than that, became a servant or a slave. He came to
serve and minister to others. The Lord and Ruler of all came into this world to
wait on and serve His creatures. Think of what was involved in the incarnation.
The appearance of a man. The nature of a servant. The Creator and Master of all
in a manger in Bethlehem. Not in marble halls, clothed in purple. He truly
exchanged the glory of heaven for the shame of earth. From master to slave. From
life to death.
How poor He was. His cot was
borrowed from animals. He borrowed a house to sleep in, a boat to preach from, a
colt to ride on, and a tomb to be buried in. He was at the beck and call of all
kinds of people – fishermen, tax collectors, sick, sorrowing and immoral.
Before His ministry He was a humble carpenter in Nazareth. At the end of His
ministry He took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. Then consider His
suffering and indignities – He went hungry, thirsty, had nowhere to lay His
head, tempted by the Devil, subject to constant criticism, suspicion and abuse.
But His suffering is most of all seen in the fact of His perfect obedience to
the will of God which led Him to death, even death on a Cross.
Death by crucifixion was the
instrument of execution reserved for the lowest of the low – criminals and
slaves. The ultimate indignities, degradation, agonies and suffering were
associated with that form of death. On top of this, Christ was betrayed by one
of His own disciples, denied by another, deserted by the rest, rejected by the
crowd, handed over by Pilate, and deserted by His Father Himself, as He cried,
bearing our sins, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Never was there such a stoop. We
know nothing of such condescension. We no nothing about having an existence of
equality with God. We have never known such abject circumstances in life, or
such degradation, humiliation and suffering in death. How dare we stand on our
rights, claim proper recognition, get on our high horses, have wounded pride,
not admit our mistakes, have our apologies stick in our throats. Who are we,
after all – only specks on the face of the earth, only one of billions upon
billions who have ever lived on earth, only on the face of the earth for a very
brief moment. Yet the Lord of glory – the only one who had any right to exert
His rights – waived them as He came from the heights of heaven to the depths
of earth.
And what has been the sequel? God
exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). Whatever men may think of
Christ, His Father thinks everything of Him. He raised Him from the dead and
restored Him to His right hand, giving Him majesty and power. Christ had
conquered sin and death and Satan, and is now crowned with glory and honour,
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is enjoying again the glory which He had in
heaven before the world was created. He has all authority in Heaven and earth.
He is directing the affairs of the world in the interests of His people. God has
placed Him in control of events. His kingdom will rule over all.
We get agitated over the state of the world, godlessness, materialism and confusion. In our worst moments we ask, is this the end? Will evil finally win? But we are going to see Him at the right hand of God, with his enemies as His footstool. Time and again in history, evil has seemed to have the upper hand, but God has always put it down. He is controlling everything and He will continue to do so till the time comes at the second coming for Him to wind up world history and its affairs. Then every knee will bow, and every tongue confess He is Lord, i.e. will see and have to concede His sovereignty, deity and supreme authority. Not only believers, but all men, even the lost and unsaved, will give Him His rightful place, even in their condemnation and judgement. The redeemed will acknowledge Him joyfully; the damned will acknowledge Him remorsefully. The angelic hosts, the redeemed whom no man can number, the Devil and the damned – there will be universal, final and complete acknowledgement of Christ.
I said originally that this passage is set
forth to portray Christ as our example. But before this, lets consider our
relationship to Christ. Why did He come and die? He came to give his life as
a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). What has that purpose achieved in my life?
Do I acknowledge His lordship? If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans
10:9). Is His lordship acknowledged in my life day by day? Is He lord and master
in my life? Can He do with me what He wills? Does His will rule every aspect of
my life? Do I give Christ a love, loyalty and allegiance that I give to no other
person in this world? He came and lived and died in obedience to His Father. Do
I live my life in obedience to Him?
Then this lesson of humility before God and others, which this passage is
given to teach us. This awful pride of which we are so guilty is no little
thing. It is a most deadly and damnable sin, which reeks in the nostrils of God
more than any other. It bears the marks of the devil and hell more than any
other sin. It robs God of honour, sours our relationships with others, and robs
us of usefulness in service for God. If Christ went down, down, down, it ill
becomes us from always seeking to go up, up, up. The way up is down. For
whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be
exalted (Matthew 23:12). Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that
he may lift you up in due time (1 Peter 5:6). This is the rule of God’s
kingdom. All God’s thrones are reached by going downstairs.
F.B.Meyer wrote that he once thought God’s gifts were on shelves that
rose higher and higher. Then he realized it was the other way around. The
shelves go down, one under the other. We reach them, not by growing taller, but
by stooping lower. Here is a paradox of the Christian life – the more we give,
the more we receive; the more we deny self, the more God blesses us; the more we
submit, the more joy is ours.
“Lord,
bend that proud and stiff-necked I,
Help
me to bow the head and die,
Beholding Him on Calvary
Who
bowed His head and died for me.”
