Sermon – March 20

Text: Philippians 2:5-11
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, {6} who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, {7} but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. {8} 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. {9} Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, {10} 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, {11} and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

True Humility

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

As you have seen in the bulletin, the theme for today’s sermon is True Humility. With such a title, I am making the supposition that there is also such a thing a false humility. False humility will have the wrong focus on self. Such a thing happens when a person takes pride in himself for making himself so low. He’ll call a person uppity who has more money than he does, or get down on somebody for being happy and joyful.

True humility is promoted by our Savior. To be truly humble is to be able to lower yourself. It is marked by service and obedience. These are two qualities that our Savior had in abundance. He knew who He was, namely the Son of God, but He also knew how to lower Himself and to serve and obey. True humility can only be inspired by Christ. True humility will also be followed by God lifting you up. May the Holy Spirit be our teacher today.

1. It is found in Christ
If there ever was anybody who had a right to boast, it would be Jesus. As true God He rightly claims divine honor and glory. It was Jesus who out of nothing created the earth and created life. He is eternal and holy. Our text says that He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. It was no stretch for Him to say, I and My Father are one. When the soldiers came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane they fell back when He merely opened His mouth. He has thousands of angels at His beck and call. He reminded all those present in the Garden that He could have summoned the angels. He could have defeated the soldiers merely by speaking. But He chose to do neither one because He chose at this time to take on the form of a servant.

The time of His arrest was shortly after He had raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the ear of Malchus after Peter cut it off with a sword, and made the soldiers fall over by merely speaking. Amazingly though, they felt with their swords and clubs they could take Him. This is because He was very ordinary looking. He had set aside His divine glory, and when they saw Him they were not intimidated. Even his disciples, who were around Him every day, forgot how powerful He was because He was in the form of a servant.

Even on Palm Sunday as He had His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, He was draped in humility. Yes, the people recognized Him as King, but look at Him riding the foal of a donkey. His feet must have almost touched the ground. Look at His entourage – a bunch of scruffy fishermen. As we sang a moment ago, there was “no tramp of soldier’s marching feet.” Look at those adoring Him – mostly common folk and children. Consider why He was riding into Jerusalem – it was to face a bloodthirsty mob intent on His death. 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.

There was no greater height from which Jesus had come, and there was no greater depth to where He could go than the death of the cross. This was true humility because He lowered Himself not just in title or appearance, but in His service and in His obedience. To be humble is to be willing to serve and obey. Jesus was willing even though it meant that He would experience the death of the cross. It is one thing to taste death. That would have been bad enough for the innocent Christ. It was quite another that He would experience the torment of paying for sins. But in exhibiting the qualities of true humility – to obey His Father and to serve sinners, Christ did that very thing.

2. It is to be imitated by Christians
We are told in verse 5 of our text, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. That mind, that way of thinking that is to be in us is true humility. We are told to imitate Christ’s obedience and His service. Now, you would think that it would be somewhat easy to lower ourselves because we’re already pretty far down. We are not equal with God. It’s robbery (yes, blasphemy) to make such a claim. We’re made out of dust. The Lord pulled Adam together from the dirt of the ground when He made him. Unlike Christ, we’re on a level playing field to start out with when we consider all of those around us. We’re all made out of dirt. We’re all sinners. Too often we put ourselves in the role of superiority, thinking ourselves to be better than a person or a group of people, but not so.

So then, in imitating Christ the Lord wants us to obey Him and to serve other people. Those are the expressions of true humility offered in our text. In obeying God we also obey His representatives: for kids that is your mom and dad, as adults we recognize the government and our employer, our leaders in the church. Everybody has some sort of boss to obey on this earth. If Christ being equal with the Father became obedient to the point of death, then what He is asking of us pales in comparison.

Serving others gets to be tricky too. When I’m serving God I have this love for Him. Maybe, though, I’m not too fond of this other person that I’m supposed to be serving. Serving God also means serving your neighbor. This is what He’s asking you and I to do. It doesn’t matter what your relationship is otherwise. It doesn’t matter whether or not that person loves us or even likes us. True humility doesn’t ask those questions. Service is unquestioned.

We are thankful that Jesus’ service and obedience has covered our lack of service and our disobedience. Not one day goes by that we could claim true humility throughout the whole day, but Jesus’ humility is more than an example, it is the cure for our mistakes.

3. It is followed by exaltation
There is a final truth about true humility. It’s well worth it. Let us read of the results for Jesus: 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. Jesus knew that His humiliation had an end point. That time of being a servant was only temporary. After His resurrection no longer would He hide His glory, but it would be revealed to all. When He returns as King it will not be in lowliness. It will not be with a band of fishermen. He will come with the sound of a trumpet and with His holy angels.

When He was on trial, His accusers put a purple robe on Him to mock Him. They gave Him a crown of thorns and insulted Him. That was our King in lowliness. When He returns in glory there won’t be a single person that will dare to mock Him. Those who blaspheme Him will hide because they will be terrified of this exalted King.

What a blessing that you bow the knee before your Savior. You confess that He is Lord. The Holy Spirit has allowed you to see beyond His humility and His suffering to know that He is the Son of God your Savior.

It is also a blessing to consider your future, because your relationship to Christ ties you into a parallel relationship with Him. You may know that a life of humility and lowliness will be forgotten because you will be glorified and exalted. Your humility now is an act of patience and trust.

We trust that God knows what is good for us, and that when He says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, we have to assume that it will be good for us. We have patience knowing that even if our time of service and obedience is 70, 80, 90 years long, there will be a time when it ends. There is a time of glorification and exaltation coming. Your heavenly glory will far surpass any sort of humility that you have had on this earth. This mind of Christ also relieves us from having to seek the glory that this earth offers. After all, much better glory is coming.

False humility is easy. True humility is hard. And while we make mistakes being selfish when we should be servants, we do strive to have that mind of Christ Jesus who served, and was obedient and was humble. God will give you opportunities to be truly humble today. May we do so in honor of our Savior this Palm Sunday. Amen.