Dennis Tuuri

We return for the third and penultimate time. Next Lord’s Day, we’ll finish with Philippians 2:5-11, well through 11 actually, but we’ll read verses 5 to 8 today for today’s sermon text. Please stand. And Philippians 2:5-8, “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 bondservant, 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. Let’s pray. Lord God, bless us today. Bring us gospel news in this time of gospel proclamation and joy. In this time in which our cultures and our homes are filled with songs of Christmas, make our hearts individually and our heart corporately sing forth praises to you today in spite of whatever the external circumstances are that we find ourselves in.

Bless us, Lord God, with an understanding of your word to the end that we may be transformed by it. And may joy us in Jesus name we ask it. Amen. Please be seated.

Oh to be nothing, nothing, painful the humbling may be, yet low in the dust I lay me that the world might my savior see. Rather be nothing, nothing. To him let our voices be raised. He is the fountain of blessing. He only is meet to be praised. Oh to be nothing, nothing, only to lie at his feet. A broken and empty vessel for the master’s use made meet.

Well, we come to a text that has produced such erroneous texts of songs like we just read. We come to a text today verses 7 and 8 that talk about the emptying of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has spurred a theory called the kenotic theory in which Jesus became nothing and as this text tells us from verse 5 on that we’re to imitate this attitude of Jesus and if Jesus emptied himself became nothing then surely the correct Christian response to considering the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the text is to become nothing. Nothing. Wrong. Wrong. It’s not what the text says. It’s not what we are to be. I suppose we could nuance it. You know, the human mind can nuance almost anything. The words of this hymn. We could nuance it. I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Making us a fit vessel and then we’ll be something. But the text never really gets to that of that song. That song remains what we would call dogmatic Christianity, that’s one version of it—to be nothing, giving up everything, stop, who cares—that is a great tendency of slothful sinful men to be nothing and nothing in the world. But this is not what our text today tells us. It tells us something quite different from that.

The text began by instructing us in verse 5 to act like Jesus. You know, you might want to think of these candles over here, right? And so, you know, the first Advent candle we lit was the candle of mimesis, positive mimesis, not imitating sinfully, but God does call us to imitate Jesus. And throughout the New Testament, we’re called to imitate the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that light as we see it in other men and women as well. And I told you last week, you know, have you got a mentor yet? That’s probably a little too formal, but I hope you’re thinking of people the context of your life that you do try to imitate right. So you know, informal modeling we could call it. Sometimes formal mentoring programs. I don’t know. It’s worthwhile looking into. There are programs that you can engage in as a church so that people actually get a little help and trying to hook up with mentors but that’s quite important. That’s where this text began and so then we move to well what are we supposed to mentor? Who are we supposed to be imitating? Jesus, of course, but then the text begins to tell us things about Jesus in light of this. What is it specifically we’re supposed to be imitating him in?

And the first thing that we said was we’re not to be raptors. Jesus, not although he was God, but precisely because he was God, did not consider equality with God, ruling at the right hand of the Father, a thing to be grasped, a thing to grab a hold of quickly and immaturely and impatiently. No. So, the first thing we learned in imitation of Jesus is that first of all, we’re imitating, you know, the divine nature, right? We’re Christians. We’re supposed to be image-bearers of God. Now, we’re not God. So, there’s a distinction between us and Jesus, but we’re to be image-bearers of God. And we bear God’s image if we don’t grasp at rule and authority.

Now, that seems a little odd to us because, well, God doesn’t grasp. No, God is not a grasper. Adam denied his image of God. Eve denied her image bearing of God when she listened to the twisted words of Satan. And let Satan show God as a rival to her and something to be, you know, not listened to much because he’s got his own agenda going on. “God is against you,” the serpent said. And the woman then examined the world in isolation from God and then instead of obeying God and waiting for rule and authority grasps at it. “This can make me wise—wisdom overnight, right now. Let’s get it.” And the woman grasped and Adam grasped along. He watches her grasp. He could have done his job of interceding for her. He doesn’t. He wants to see what’ll happen to his wife. And then Adam grasps at the fruit as well.

Adam is a raptor. He’s a grasper. You and I and Adam, we don’t want to wait for anything. We want it right now. We grasp. And the first thing we’re told to imitate about Jesus is he is not a grasper. He comes as the God man in history, but he doesn’t grasp at rule and authority. Instead, he serves the Father faithfully. He’s not a grabber. He’s not a raptor. And that’s what this candle reminds us of. As you come next week, as you look at these candles, imitate, imitate Christians, godly Christians, imitate Jesus. Imitate them specifically in patience, not impatiently grasping at things, wanting things.

Oh, I had a conversation with another teenager this week. Oh, you know, let me tell you teenagers something. You’re not adults, okay? You are not adults. I don’t care what the government says. The Bible says that the age of maturity is 20. When you’re 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, you’re not an adult. Okay? Get used to it. That’s just what the Bible says. Now, do you know why you think you’re an adult? The Vietnam War. The state wanted cannon fodder. The state wanted to fight an illegal, unconstitutional war, and it wanted to draft 18-year-old kids to accomplish that. It wanted cannon fodder and that’s what changed the constitution of this country giving you those supposed voting rights and full maturity and all that stuff at 18. I don’t know why you can’t drink yet. Makes no sense. But sorry but you can go out there and be cannon fodder for the government for the state. That’s why you think you’re an adult. Is that what you want? You want your identity to be defined by the state as opposed to the Bible and by the culture that’s been produced by a state that wants you for cannon fodder?

That’s example, but it’s a good example of how impatient we are to move ahead in life to get to the next phase. Hey, the essence of how you’re going to achieve peace in a community. Remember, the imitation is y’all in your community. The essence of that peace is by putting off grasping and raptor. No, don’t be like that. Don’t grasp at adulthood. Yeah, I know the state tells you you’re an adult now. I don’t care what the state tells you. State says it’s okay to kill your baby before it’s born, too. Do you go along with that one? Come on. Come on. We don’t listen to the state when it’s opposed to God’s word. So, we don’t we don’t we don’t impatiently grab at things.

And then today, we’re going to see something else. And what we’re going to see is humiliation. And then next week, we’ll get to exaltation. I feel a little released today. We went and saw a gospel Christmas Friday night—black choir, wonderful singing. I mean, all kinds of joy and dominion being sung about Christmas, such as I never thought I’d see in downtown Portland at the Arlene Schnitzer with the Oregon Symphony playing. I couldn’t believe I’d ever see such a thing. I mean, there wasn’t one word of political correctness. Praise God. It’s an event I highly recommend. They’ve been doing it 13 years. First time I ever gone. But in any event, you know, they know about this whole thing about humility. They right out of the shoot at this gospel Christmas concert, they start singing about glory and dominion from the book of Revelation and honor and all this stuff. They know that’s what Christmas is about. We’ll get here. We’ll get to glory and exaltation. But you don’t get there until you go through this third candle. And that third candle is humiliation. And that’s what today’s text verses 7 and 8 are about. Is the humiliation of Jesus that leads to his exaltation.

This is what Adam didn’t want to do. Adam was a grasper. He didn’t want to go through this. He wanted to jump right over to here. You see, Jesus was offered jumping to here. Do you remember in his earthly ministry? Where was it? Right after his baptism, three years of service leading up to his death on the cross. He knew what it was. But what happened? Satan comes along. Just like Satan tempted Adam, “Be immature, be impatient, be a raptor.” So, he tempted Jesus, “You can have rule now. You don’t got to do that three and a half year and death on the cross and all that horrible. You can jump right over this candle.” That’s what Satan told Jesus. Jesus said, “No, no, no. I’m the second Adam. I’m the right humanity. I’m the one that’s going to redeem humanity because I’m going to do this candle. I’m doing this phase. I’m humbling myself. I’m going to do the will of the Father. If you see me, you see the Father.” That’s how tight I’m submissive to the Father’s will.

Well, then in that Father’s will, I’m going to go through humiliation. That’s what today’s text is about. So, let’s talk about it. Let’s look at our outlines and talk a little bit about this text. Now, I before we I’ve got here some verses about patience, and we don’t have to look at them very closely, but they’re good verses for you to look up and read perhaps today or on into the week. There’s verses about the patience of Jesus, right? And I just as an example of reinforcing what we’ve been saying the first couple of Sundays in these texts.

1 Timothy 1:16 says, “I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might,” now listen, “Jesus might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” Okay, so there that’s kind of the first two sermons in this series. Paul would be a displayer of the example of Jesus’s perfect patience, his anti-raptorness, his perfect patience and submission to God. And so that’s and it says that’s an example to us. And it says that example was found then in Paul. And Paul displayed that to those who were becoming Christians and who were becoming born again. We’re in that equation now, right? So we’re supposed to be those who display the example of Christ’s perfect patience that brings salvation. We’re supposed to not be raptors. And this text tells us that a specific title of Jesus, the specific attribute that’s singled out here to imitate or to explain to model to others is his perfect patience. So I think that’s kind of significant.

And then as a result of that in 2 Timothy 3, Paul can say you’ve seen my patience and my love, etc. Romans 2:4-5. “Or did you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, but instead you’re storing yourself up for the day of wrath.” Now, remember, we said love is patient. Love is kind, that is the description of what love is. And before we jump to that as character qualities for us out of 1 Corinthians 13, which we always do, what it’s describing is God. God is love. And love means being patient and being kind. And what we see last week is Jesus’s love come to earth and that love is patient. And today we’ll see that love is kind. Okay, those are the two designations of what it means to be God. And again in Romans 2, the God nature is his kindness and forbearance and patience—kind of two words for the same thing. So that’s the image of God. That’s who we’re supposed to be like. God is patient, very patient. And specifically in terms of Jesus, He’s patient waiting for what God has promised him until the time it comes.

And I know you teenagers sometimes we parents promise you things and then we don’t deliver on time. That’s our fault and we ask you forgiveness for that, right? Parents ask your forgiveness for you know the other side of this is if Jesus is patient waiting for the Father’s will, the Father’s going to see through see his way to do that on time. So that’s the other side of it is we have to be faithful as well. Then I got some verses about our patience and how important patience is as a virtue. So I’m not going to read those now, but I you see the thing here, right? You see the thing that this is a this is not one of a whole long list of attributes. Patience. This is central. It was central to our fall. It was central today’s text tells us to our recovery. It’s central of how we’re to dis play this to other people.

I mean, if you wanted to say that there was one sin that Adam had going on, it was impatience. Now, again, I’m not getting into a discussion of whether he should have eaten that particular fruit, but we know that the knowledge of good and evil would be given to Adam and that as he matured, Hebrews tells us through use of his senses, he could discern good and evil. At some point, you teenagers are going to be able to discern good and evil and after that then you can start to vote. Well, no, I guess you can vote when you’re 18 these days, but you know, you just you have to that’s what happens is God has prepared Adam to equality with God in the sense of ruling at his right hand. Man is to exercise dominion over all the earth. Man is to be God’s vice gerent, his king to rule over the world. But that happens through a process of service and humiliation before it happens in terms of its acquisition.

And so that’s what Jesus comes to fulfill. Okay. Now, let’s look at verses 7 to 8. And on your outline, I kind of broken it out a little way. I don’t know if it’s helpful or not, but there it is. I break out first this word, “but”—very important word, and it’s really there. Some of these kind of small words are sort of implied in text or maybe not properly implied, but this one is there, and it’s important. So, he’s not a grasper, right? He isn’t a grasper but he is this thing that’s going to be described for us. So this is the contrast. So that’s why we can talk in terms of putting off Adamic grasping and putting on uh whatever Jesus tells us here. This is the put on side.

And what does the put on side consist of? He empties himself. Oh boy. What does that mean? That’s the tough thing. We’ll come back to that in a minute. But he empties himself. That’s the head of this list. Okay, he empties himself. And that word “by” is not there. That’s why I put brackets around it. It’s an implied word, but it really gets in the way of the meaning. He empties himself, taking the form of a servant. So, the emptying himself is going to be described for us what it actually consists of. He empties himself. He takes the form of a servant. He’s born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbles himself. Okay. So now you see those three words there. He takes the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men being found in human form. Okay? Three different words. Actually, there’s three distinct Greek words. But the point is there’s a three-fold chord here. There’s a three-fold emphasis. There’s a witness of three things to Jesus’s humanity. Okay? And that’s why this text is usually looked at that as a advent text, an incarnation text. Jesus is up in heaven. He empties himself. He strips off his glory and stuff. Then he comes to earth in the incarnation.

Now, we’ve said we don’t think that’s the right view of the text because the text is telling us about Jesus Christ, the incarnate one. Incarnation is assumed. So, it’s a great advent. It tells us why the purpose of the incarnation, right? But it’s not about the event of the incarnation. Okay? It’s about a different for an event. It’s about an event and it spells it out for us here in just a few words. But the event is not the incarnation. He empties himself in this three-fold designation. He’s man. Okay, that’s the whole point of that thing. He’s man. He’s man. And he’s serving man in the context of being man. Okay, he’s a servant.

How is he a servant? Well, he’s a servant generally, right? Jesus says that he has come to not to be served but to serve. He’s a servant generally, but the payoff of all these things, the questions that are asked, “Emptied himself. What does it mean?” Okay, so he’s he’s taking the form of men. He’s he’s become fully man and then he humbles himself. How does he Here it is. Here’s the humiliation. How did he humble himself? By becoming a man? No, it tells us that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. It was not humbling in this sense here. His humiliation is not taking upon himself evil, awful, bad flesh because the Bible says that’s a gnostic view of things. That’s not a right view of things. That’s not a good way to think about human flesh. Flesh is good. Humanity is good. Man is made as an image bearer of God. He’s the crown of creation, right? He’s the last thing made in the image of God. And God says, “This is good. This is very good.” That should be our attitude toward our humanity.

Some people hate their humanity and they think it must have been so humbling for Jesus to become a person. No, no, no. It tells us what was so humbling. And what was so humbling wasn’t even the service that he did, right? It wasn’t his doing things. What was humbling, it says, is that he became obedient to the point of death. And it doesn’t just stop there. It wasn’t just death. It was death on a cross. There’s the place of his humiliation. So, he’s fully human, fully divine, and his humility is shown forth by death on a cross. Okay.

Now, let’s go back over these things a little more slowly. First, the “but” again, there’s this tremendous contrast. And remember, you know, all this is not in spite of being God, Jesus does this stuff. No, it’s because precisely because Jesus was God because he was God. He does not grasp. He doesn’t reach out impatiently to grab rule and authority. But instead, he humbles himself. “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he’ll exalt you in due time.” That’s Jesus. He’s humbling himself under the hand of God his Father. Okay? That’s the nature that Paul says will change the Philippian community that will allow them to mature. in unity and well-being as a community. That’s the attitude to put off grasping, to put on a humiliation in terms of serving each other, not seeing our own interests as the number one thing to do.

And so Jesus doesn’t come to serve himself. He comes to do the Father’s will to serve humankind. So it’s a very stark contrast here telling us what God’s nature is not. He’s not a grasper. And then what God’s nature precisely because he exists in the form of God, precisely because he’s God, he comes to serve. He comes to serve. Now, this is quite important because and it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? That God’s nature is to serve. It’s hard to believe because we’re so used to we’ve had 6,000 years Adam lay abounded. We’ve had years and years and in each of our lives individually, you know, we’re fallen people and We tend to have Adam’s eyes as we look at the world. And Adam’s eyes were determined by the twisted words of the serpent that said, “God is not a good God. God is all powerful. Yes, he is. But watch out because that guy, he didn’t want to give you anything. He wants it all for himself.”

Man has been set up to see God as a rival ever since. And now this, that’s why the importance of this text for us. Importance of I mean, if you get this text down in your soul, not only will it improve prove your Christian sanctification, but you’ll be being I hope this isn’t bad to say this, but we went to that concert again, gospel concert, and I wanted to be black, you know, because I mean, the music was great and people seemed to feel free to do singing. I mean, it was great. I thought maybe we should turn our church around. And well, no, we couldn’t do that, but you know, I want you know, I hope if you get this down into your soul, the nature of God revealed in the incarnation of Jesus. It will add to your joy. It will add to your joy because what gets in the way of our joy is improper views about the person of God himself. And Jesus comes to reveal God to us. Jesus comes to do that.

So, but secondly, “emptied.” So, here we go. Oh, to be nothing. The heresy of kenosis. The word here is “keno”—empty. He emptied himself. What does it mean? What did he empty himself of? Well, there’s been all kinds of answers. He emptied himself as godhood. He emptied himself of his omniscience, his omnipresence, his omnipotence. He emptied himself of his glory. He emptied himself of various divine attributes. All these different theories. And in the last 400 years, there’s been a theory Hugo Grotius was one of the proponents of it in late 17th early 18th century called kenopticism. And the basic idea is that Jesus emptied himself of his divinity, you know, and there’s this song, right? And a song that comes from Arminianism, by the way, this Grotius also was a proponent of Arminianism and didn’t like Calvinism, yada yada.

And this kenopticism kind of goes along with that. And so there’s this song, we’ve changed the words, but you know, emptied himself of all but love, right? Emptied himself of all but love, right? and that’s an expression in song of this kenotic view that Jesus when he becomes incarnate, he’s not fully God anymore. As soon as I say it that way, you know how wrong it is, right? You know how heretical such an idea would be that God Jesus is not God. No, if Jesus is going to die for our sins on the cross and do affect our salvation, he’s got to be God, folks. Otherwise, and so Along with kenopticism, you’ve had this kind of moral governance theory of the atonement that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross to affect any real atonement. It was just showing through God pouring out his wrath on the son how badly God thinks about sin, how he’s really upset with our sin and but there’s no real atonement. These are theories that are heretical and these are theories that stem from this particular text and I wanted to read a couple of quotes about this emptying idea or kenopticism.

Okay, this is I’m going to quote now from a couple of quotes from Lensky who is the great Lutheran commentator and these are from his commentaries on this text in Philippians both verses 7 and 8. So Lensky says, “It was in the execution of the divine redemption method by substitution through being obedient, suffering and dying to pay the sin guilt of men. That to be sure could not be affected by laying aside the deity partly or completely. He could not do without his deity in his state of humiliation. He had to attach the full weight of his deity to his being obedient and to his suffering and dying. Even in the midst of the death he had to be the mighty God in order by his death to conquer death to raise up again the temple of his body”—he’s quoting from referencing John 2 there—”to take up his life again”—John 10:18—”and again he says the conquering second Adam is not only man but the Lord from heaven”—1 Corinthians 15:47—”he is God and therefore also according to the human nature in God’s form.”

Another quote he quotes from Luther. Luther has said this: “If I permit myself to be persuaded that only the human nature has suffered for me, then Christ is to me a poor savior. Then he himself indeed needs a savior. Throughout his life, Christ revealed that his human nature was in possession of the divine attributes communicated to it. John 1:14 testifies about him who became flesh and dwelt among his apostles. We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, second person of the Trinity. Although all his glory dwelt in his human nature, all this glory dwelt in human nature, he used it only to the degree that was needed for his office. It was covered. Yet at Cana, he manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him.”

So number one, We need deity, Jesus to be fully deity on the cross to affect a real and completed atonement for our sins. And so if the kenotic theory is right, then all kinds of other things fall, including the theory the truth of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, that 2,000 years ago, he paid the price for your sins. Then 2,000 years ago, a real and effectual atonement was made because He was God man. And if he’s only man, then we have no real savior. We’ve got some other kind of view of atonement going on that’s out of sorts with what the scriptures teach.

And then secondly, the evidence is replete in both the gospels and various epistle texts that Jesus did still possess his glory, his divinity. He still did possess those things. So, so what does it mean he emptied himself? If it doesn’t mean that, if that’s a heresy, and it truly is, so what does it mean, “What does it mean?” Well, in a way, the text has already told us. “Empty.” It could be translated “poured out.” He emptied what? He emptied. What did he empty? Himself. That’s right. It tells us what he emptied. He emptied himself. He poured out himself.

What are you talking about, pastor? Well, you know what’s going on here is that the text right there. If we just take the text, it doesn’t say that Jesus became was somehow subtracted from his nature in Philippians. The whole point of Philippians is just the reverse. He adds to his nature humanity, right? So it’s an addition problem we have here, our addition demonstration equation, not a subtraction one. And it tells us that in that divine human nature, in as the God man in history, as Christ Jesus. He didn’t grasp for something, but instead he poured something out. He poured himself out. He emptied himself.

Now, these texts are replete with imagery from Isaiah 52-53. There’s these various so-called servant songs in the book of Isaiah, the servant of the Lord. And he comes and he comes to serve Yahweh. And it says that he pours out himself for his people and that’s in the Septuagent that’s the same word going on. Okay. So what he’s he’s telling us already what he poured out what he poured out was himself. He emptied himself and the rest of the text then say that in this human nature in that three-fold emphasis of the servant human nature he had it culminates then in his death. Right? So what he the pouring out of himself is matched by his death and specifically Paul then says even the death on the cross. So what Jesus does in emptying is to die. That’s what it means. It doesn’t mean that he emptied some part of his eternal nature, some aspect of who he was. It means that he poured himself out which was prophesied in the book of Isaiah that the servant of the Lord would come to do this and is now fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ emptying himself. He pours out himself and that was the ministry that he came to fulfill.

He emptied himself. Once you see that well everything just see you know it seems to kind of move along quite nicely at that point the text makes a lot of sense and it just under everything is makes sense. I mentioned excuse me for just a minute while I go back and find my Okay. mistakenly. Is that me making that noise? Sorry. Who else could it be? Dennis, I don’t know. Okay.

So, he emptied himself. See Isaiah 53:12. That’s the particular reference. And he empties himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likening flesh, being found in human form. He humbles himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. There it is. So, the match is that he empties himself by dying. on the cross. He empties himself. Okay, he empties himself. This is his humiliation. This is his particular form of humiliation, right? He humbled himself. The humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ is not in taking on himself flesh, right? It’s not in becoming a person and it’s not even ultimately in being a servant. What would be wrong about being a if God is a servant and he is Jesus reveals his nature to us. if God is a servant, if the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are perpetually serving one another in eternity, and they do, and if then God serves his imagebearer man in all kinds of wonderful ways, and he expects us to serve him in response, right?

If God is a servant, why would it be humiliating for Jesus to become a servant? It wouldn’t his nature. It’s precisely because he’s God that he comes to serve. It’s not in opposition. That’s hard for us. Why? Because we’ve got an old Adamic satanic view of God in our heads. So, it isn’t. His humiliation is not in becoming incarnate. His humiliation is not in becoming a servant. His humiliation is precisely in the way that servant role had to include an element which is extraordinary and that is his death on the cross. A non-repeatable event. That’s what his humiliation is tied to. So this verse is not teaching some sort of kenotic “oh to be nothing” and “oh Jesus became nothing.” It’s not like that at all. It’s Jesus uh his humiliation is immediately related to he pours himself out in death. He takes on upon himself death for us and death is exactly what he does.

Let me read from Isaiah 52. “My servant, this is verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were as astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men, so shall he sprinkle many nations. kings shall shut their mouths at him. So in Isaiah 52 when the servant of Yahweh is being discussed and Jesus comes as a servant, the servant of Yahweh is the one who will die, who will have his visage marred, who will pour out his soul for his people, for the sheep, and as a result of that God will exalt him. So here in Philippians next week, we’ll move on to verses 9 to 11. Because he comes as the servant, because he serves to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, his exultation occurs.

Now, remember, we’re talking about the divine nature. We’re talking about the what God’s image that we’re to bear in us. We’re talking about what makes for a good functioning community in the church. We’re talking about what we’re supposed to imitate in other people as they imitate God. And that imitation of God involves itself with patience, putting off impatience and putting on kindness, usefulness to people by serving them and by humbling oneself, humiliation. And then we’ll see that the end result of that here in the servant series in Isaiah 52 and 53 is of course exaltation. That’s precisely what happens in the Philippians text. And that has a lot of implications for you and me, a lot of implications for us that we’ll draw out next week.

So again in Isaiah 53, he’s despised, a man of sorrows. He bears our griefs. In verse 4, he carries our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. And all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Okay? He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He was submissive to the will of the Father. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? He was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people he was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich in his death, because he has done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many. He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Because he pours out his soul unto death because he empties himself, not his attributes but his very life. He empties it out. He pours out himself for his people.

Because of that The exaltation of the Lord happens predicted in Isaiah 52 and 53 and then specifically again recounted in Philippians 2:9-11. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what he does. Don’t think it was easy. It wasn’t easy. I’ve got Luke chapter 22 on there. He sweat drops that were like blood in the garden. This was not an easy thing becoming the sin bearer for all people becoming separated for that period of time on the cross from his father. This was not an easy task. This was the humiliation the death and not just the death the cursed death on a cross for us.

You see we can talk about death and people have talked about death. Well, it’s humiliating to die. Yeah, death is bad and particularly death on a death on a cross is bad. He became a servant. You know, a Roman citizen wasn’t even supposed to think about the cross or the crucifixion tool, not let his eyes see it. Roman citizens didn’t get crucified. Servants got crucified. Slaves got crucified. Jesus was crucified as a slave. As a servant, because that’s who he was. Not a slave of Rome or any man, but a slave to God. Slave to love, we could say, that led him to that cross and crucifixion. Of course crucifixion is a difficult death. We know this it was you know one of the most painful ways that a person could die.

So death is bad. Death on a cross with all the physical torture accompanying it is even worse. But if we understand the meaning of death on a cross then we come to the full depths of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay. He exists in the form of God, but in that form, he serves mankind in his incarnated humanity. And in that incarnated humanity, he dies on the cross. And he doesn’t just die, he dies on a cross. And he doesn’t just die on a cross. He dies on a cross, which the scriptures tell us in Galatians and in Deuteronomy that death on a cross is to become a curse. A person is cursed by dying on the cross. And this text finds its great culmination, the depths of his humiliation, the absolute low point of this text before we then climb back up the exaltation text next Lord’s day. The low point is the death of Jesus Christ on a cross in a humiliating way.

But more than that, much more than that, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ taking upon himself the curse for your sin. We’re deserving of curse. And the Lord, as Isaiah 53 showed, put upon him the transgressions of his people. Put upon the Lord Jesus Christ the legitimate curses that were to come upon us because of our sin. Because of our being raptors, because of us obeying Satan instead of obeying God, because of us embracing the lie rather than the truth, because of us twisting the truth in all of our dealings for our own purposes, for our rebellion against our gracious maker for calling his goodness bad. For all those things, God says that we deserve a curse. We deserve to be cursed eternally in hell. God says that’s what Jesus came to earth for. That’s the purpose of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was to reveal the character of God clearly. But the character of God is such that he will go to the deepest depths of hell to rescue his people, his creation, his bride.

That’s what he is willing to do. Adam wasn’t ready just to even speak up to the servant. He wasn’t ready to, hey, you know, Eve, God said no. He wasn’t ready to do a doggone thing to prevent the death of his bride. Adam instead joins right along with her and spitting in the face of God who gave I mean can you imagine you all you all think well if I just had more money if I just had a better wife better husband I had a nicer house you know I wouldn’t be tempted to sin so much these people were in perfection they were in paradise all the fruits of the world there for their taking perfect wife perfect husband right perfect environment And they spit in the face of God by doing the one thing, the one thing he asked him not to do.

And maybe if you believe this view of it, one thing that they couldn’t do for a while at least. But in any event, one thing they couldn’t do and they do it. And because of that, God says they fall. That transgression brings them into a cursed state. It ends up with rivalry. It ends up with them blaming each other immediately. It ends up with them thinking that God is going to kill them. They hide from God because God is absolutely their rival. Now their descendants, their two kids start killing each other. And the lives that we live today marked by the kind of difficulty and trials and sin and war and violence and carping and bitterness and ingratitude and unthankfulness and impatience. All of that ushered in through Adam and Eve, our forebears. And we would be just like them. In fact, we are. are just like them. God says in the midst of all of that, he has come to change things. He hasn’t left us in that state.

The gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ in spite of not in spite of precisely because he’s God came to earth to serve gladly taking upon himself human flesh and to serve to the point of dying for God’s people. But not just dying on a cross, but Not just dying on a cross, taking upon himself the full weight of God’s curse owed to you. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself 2,000 years ago. That’s the kind of God we serve. That’s the kind of God that we complain against every day because he doesn’t give me this that or the other thing in this that or the other time frame that I want. Shame on us. Shame on us.

This text tells us the great love, the incredible, fantastic, incomprehensible love of God the Father. Remember Jesus said, “As you see me do these things, you see the Father’s heart.” It isn’t just the son, it’s the father and it’s the spirit. This is the depth of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. To die on the cross when the scriptures have told us that cross is the curse of God represents that person who was on that cross is dying a curse. Now, why did he do it? Well, we’re told in Hebrews why he did it. You know, the Bible tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan. Nothing short of that. We’re all started with Satan, right? Adam and Eve became the works of Satan, and God comes to redeem Adam and Eve and to destroy the works of Satan. We’re told in Hebrews 2:14-18, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same thing that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Now listen, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Okay, three-fold emphasis on death. He partook of these things that through death, this death we’re talking about in Philippians, through his death, he destroys the one who has the power of death, the devil, that he might redeem came or deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. He came to set you free. And he says here that for Christians, for us, the reason we’re not free is we still fear death. And the Lord Jesus Christ has come so that we don’t have to fear death anymore. He deals with death for a particular purpose.

Now, he’s revealing the humiliation of the nature of God, right? The servant nature of God. He’s doing that, but he’s doing it on a particular mission from God. His mission is to save us and not just save us in the eternal sense, but to deliver us in the here and now from the kind of fear of death that holds us subject to slavery, that holds us as slaves to doing the wrong things. Think of the last few wrong things you did. You probably did it because you were afraid. Fear. Fear of death doesn’t mean just physical death. Fear of death of reputation. Fear of death of finances, fear of death of all kinds of things. God says, “Look, I understand how horrible death is. But I sent my son Jesus Christ to die for you to destroy the power of death.” And what he’s going to show us next week in the text is because of that, everything is transformed.

And that death becomes the point of his exaltation. In the Gospel of John, Jesus dying on the cross is the great demonstration of the glory and majesty of God. And as we encounter the problems we go through as we encounter our little deaths in our lives that shake us so badly and as we do that faithfully believing that Jesus has redeemed us from death saved us from death so that we don’t have to sin in our fear of death and as we then experience our own deaths our little deaths faithfully then the brightness and the glory and the majesty of God is shining through as if we’re one of these Advent candles that triune God is shining through our lives when we don’t fear death and instead remain faithful to Jesus knowing that death will come sometimes. Right? He doesn’t say he died so that we won’t have to die. He said he died so that we might not be held slavery by our fear of those deaths. We’ll have to go through various kind of deaths, but the Lord God will be with us through it all. And that very thing that we fear most will be the highest mark of exaltation from God. And that’s what the text will tell us next week, right?

How do you consider things? Jesus considered something, right? He didn’t consider it a good thing to be like Adam and to be a grasper, but instead, but he considered it a good thing to serve people and if necessary in his particular service to die for them, the death of a cursed person on a cross to redeem them. Now, we can’t do what Jesus did dying for someone and affecting their deliverance from sin. But we can have the attitude, the mindset. He doesn’t say, “Do the very things that Jesus did.” He says, “Have the mindset in you. Don’t consider it a thing to be grasped after your own well-being, but rather consider it that your attitude in life should be like Jesus, that you serve other people in humility, and that you’re willing to go through humiliation as the only path to exaltation. If that humiliation is in the context of serving other people.

What do you consider it to be like this week? Don’t consider grasping for yourself. Do consider humble service for other people. And this is just exactly what he’s trying to motivate the Philippians to do. Humility and mission. Recognize that Jesus had a mission to destroy the works of the devil. And that as you as little Christ, Christians, little anointed ones, go about encountering your little deaths, faithfully in service to others. What happens? You’re on a mission. You’re to let your light show sign shine in the show so shine in the midst of a darkened world that men may behold it and the light might grow in this world. You have your part in rolling back the effects of the curse and the and the restoration of God’s image back to his people.

The Lord God has blessed us in tremendous ways. May we at the depth of our being this year as we look at these Advent candles week to week as we see them around in stores. May we think about that we want to be image bearers, proper image bearers. We don’t want to be graspers and we do want to be those who serve other people if necessary going through the humiliation of death-like struggles ourselves in obedience to the will of God because Jesus has freed us by his death for sinners on the cross. Philippians 2 tells us then, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.” That was Adam. But in lowliness of mind, Jesus, 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’s pray. Lord God, bless us. Bless us all. May we all this week, Lord God, be challenged anew to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, models and those that follow models of patience, not impatience, and of service and humiliation, not seeking our exaltation, but rather casting ourselves and our every care to you, knowing that as we humble ourselves before you, you’ll exalt us in due time. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.