Unity Through Humility (5): Obedience Exemplified

Unity Through Humility (5): Obedience Exemplified (Phil. 2:5-8) July 15, 2018 John 13; Mark 14; I Sam 15 Read Phil 2:5-8: Dr. George Harris, pres of Amherst in the early 1900s, rose to address the first assembly of the year, but then paused and said, “I intended to give you some advice, but now I remember how much is left over from last year unused.” Then he exited the stage. Now imagine if Jesus was preaching this morning! That’d be something! But would He say, “So much of what I gave you last year is still unused. I’m still waiting to see you obey.” How would He evaluate our unity through humility. He’s told us to love each other by putting the interests of others above our own – horribly difficult – but Jesus did it! Unity through humility. Paul has shown us the Motive (1) (the work of God in our lives already), the Mission (2) (unity), the Means (3-4) (humility). Last week we began to look at the Model – Jesus Himself. This great passage highlights the deity of Christ – and it highlights how far He humbled Himself to redeem us. The God of the universe became us to save us. That’s a lifechanging truth when we really get it! The Bible uses doctrine to encourage right living. Lives will never change without truth – but teaching without change is dead. Paul doesn’t just want us to know – He wants us to do! He wants us to see Jesus, then emulate Jesus. He is and always will be the “form” (μορφη), essence of God – truly God. But to His divine nature He added full manhood that He might redeem a fallen race. And Paul’s point is, if you will follow His humble example, the discord that threatens to divide your church will disappear. Rather than fighting, you will seek to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom 12:10). Imagine a church like that! Imagine our church like that! “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Let’s go there together – like Jesus did for us. Paul urges in v. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Then he shows us 3 elements of the mind of Christ that need to be ours. I. In Regard to Self – Stop Playing God. II. In Regard to Others – Seek to Serve. III. In Regard to God – Submit to the Death. Last week we saw how to stop acting as God, like Jesus did. He gave up His rights, His reputation, His riches, and His rulership. We’re to do the same! By allowing Jesus to live through us. You say, “If I give all that up, there won’t be much of me left!” Exactly! Exactly! That’s taking up one’s cross daily – killing self, every single day. These are the marks of a true believer. They have stopped acting like God – in their own life and the lives of others. Hard. Yes. Worth it. Yes. But Paul’s not done. So let’s move on. II. In Regard to Others: Seek to Serve V. 7: “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Here’s “form” (μορφη) again. Christ, while retaining the “form” of God, added the “form” – the essence of man – becoming someone we can never fully understand or describe – fully God and fully man in one unique person. Theologians call it a hypostatic union – 100% God and 100% man in one unique person. But in outward appearance (σχεμα – likeness) of man. Thus He is in essence both God and man, but appearing now as a man. Ultimately, it’s a mystery, but we do know that in Jesus, God took on a human body that He will have eternally. And in becoming a man, He assumed the inner essence of a servant. From the core of His being He serves. This drove His whole earthly existence and beyond. Just think how He served. First, He served the Father. The Father sent; He came. It was the Father’s will, not His own, that defines Him. Jn 4:34: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” “The thing that sustains my life is to do the Father’s will.” Jn 5:30b: “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Jn 6: 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” That “form of a servant” compelled Jesus to first and foremost do anything and everything Father asked. Second, He served humanity. Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Is there any greater thought than that? Anywhere? Jesus came to serve us by giving His life to ransom us from sin. In serving the Father, He also served us by paying our debt on the cross. No service could ever compare to that. But that’s not all! His service toward us continues to this very moment. Rom 8:34b tells us right now He “is at the right hand of God . . . interceding for us.” He is praying for you and me right now – a service second only to His dying for us. Heb 7:25: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Serving us. By praying for us. Hard to grasp? You bet it is. But even that is not the end. Lu 12:37b: “Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” Who is He talking about? Believers. And His point is when He comes again, He will still be serving us. You think Jesus doesn’t love you? You still refuse to acknowledge who He is and bow the knee to Him? Then you deserve whatever judgment God imposes. You will have earned it fair and square. Jesus took on the form – the μορφη – of a servant. And that wasn’t just theoretical for Him. It cost Him His life, and it defines who He is now. So, Paul says, “Have this mind in your which was also in Christ Jesus.” Think like Jesus! Be humble to a fault. Seek to serve, not to dominate. Jesus said the same thing! The disciples came to the Last Supper arguing about who was the greatest. With no servant to wash feet, it was for sure none of them were going to. So in another kingdom preview, Jesus, Jn 13:4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” Jesus, with the cross staring Him cold in the face, began to do what none but a slave would ever do. He began to wash their feet. He didn’t just instruct unity through humility. He lived it. Then He said Jn 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Take off your outer garments. Lay aside your precious opinions. Forget how smart you are. Seek to serve. Been there lately? I mean really been there. Few follow there. It’ll cost too much. People will take advantage. No one will recognize me. All true. But Jesus says, “do just as I have done to you.” And in fact is doing for us right now. Does this help us look at life differently? I saw a book once where one page had a pix of the Pope in the Middle Ages -- people filing by his throne and kissing his feet. Across the page was another picture. It showed the disciples standing around with dirty feet, and there was Jesus, dressed like a slave, kneeling down to wash their feet. Washed any feet lately? Done for anyone else something that cost you? I dare say you can’t name that Pope from the Middle Ages. Neither can I. But we all know Jesus, don’t we? Greatness and worth are not proven by who can have the biggest fuss made over them. True greatness is proven by who can serve the best. Someone once sent a letter to Stanley Marcus, chairman of the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas. The letter read, “There’s a very nice looking woman whom I frequently see in your store picking dead leaves from your plants. Surely you can find a better position for a person of such obvious quality.” Marcus wrote back: “The only way we could give that woman a higher rank would be to give her my job. That leaf-picker is my 93-year-old mother who is also a member of the board of directors.” Member of the board – but not too big to serve. How we need believers who are more interested in serving others than in imposing their will on others. Unity – through humility demands that we seek to serve – just like Jesus. III. In Regard to God: Submit to the Death 8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Jesus recoiled at the cross, the hardest thing done in human history because He knew what was coming. The Father – with whom He had been in intimate communion since before time began – would credit the sin of the whole world to His account – and then He would leave Him destitute to absorb the eternal penalty for our sin all alone. Jesus could hardly bear the thought. Remember Gethsemane? Mark 14:33) And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 34) And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35) And going a little farther, he fell on the ground (literally, threw Himself down in agony) and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36) And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Three times He went through this same scenario – seeking any way out. But when there was no other way. So He obeyed – all the way. Remember the opening scene of “The Passion of the Christ”? In Gethsemane Jesus struggles violently with the temptation to avoid the cross knowing the pain and suffering it will entail. Drops of blood form. A shadowy figure suggests the burden is far too great for one man to bear. The serpent arrives – the devil behind the temptation to run. But strengthened by the Father, Jesus at last stands and crushes the head of the serpent symbolizing what is about to happen. He is arrested, beaten beyond endurance, and forced to carry a cross. Yet – all the way to Calvary, rather than shrink from what is happening, He clings ferociously to the cross. Why? Because He is obedient to the death, and He realizes while His suffering will be unspeakable, it is the only way to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14). And now Paul says, “That’s the mindset I want you to have – obedient to the death.” Not necessarily physical death, tho maybe, but death to self. That’s the mark of a believer. Jesus said, “If anyone will follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily (die to self, every single day), and follow me” (Lu 9:23). Starts to make some of our battles seem petty, doesn’t it? God infinitely prefers unity through humility over division through pride. Unity through humility means obedience all the way to the death of our own desires and opinions. It can’t be halfway, like Saul. God told him to go and destroy the Amalekites? – every man, woman, child and animal. Now please know these were some of the most vile, degenerate people who ever lived who were intent on destroying Israel. And God had given them 400 years to repent. Time was up. Saul was the instrument. But remember how Samuel came to Saul after the day of the battle and found that the king was still alive, and the best of the sheep and oxen had been spared. Saul’s excuse was they were saved bc the people wanted them to sacrifice. Blaming others – just like we all do from Adam on. But it was just a lie to cover his disobedience. He wanted them for himself, not for God. All disobedience is a desire to have my will over God’s. Samuel brought Saul up short with a question in I Sam 15:22: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” God is saying what He has always said, “I don’t want your sacrifice until I have your heart.” Failure to obey cost Saul the kingdom. Samuel tells him in v. 23b: “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” The point is you can have your way, or you can have God’s way, but you can’t have it both ways. And when we bicker and fight among ourselves, that’s just what we are trying to do. We all love to point out our sacrifices, don’t we? Our half-measures. Like Saul insisting that he got most of the job done. We’re the same. But God – didn’t I give up a ballgame for Workday? Don’t you remember how much we gave over and above to the Building Fund? And we gave to the food bank on Christmas Eve. Why do you keep insisting that we go to the prayer meeting or teach that SS class, or invite my neighbor to church? And I have a right to be mad at so-and-so. They hurt my feelings and you know it. Aren’t you glad Jesus didn’t think like that? Aren’t you glad that even after you’d violated His character 10,000 times He died for you anyway? Someone asked George Mueller, who cared for more than 10,000 orphans, established 117 Xn schools that educated more than 120,000 children, and did it all by praying in the money – someone asked the secret to his service. His said: “There was a day when I died, utterly died – died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will – died to the world, its approval or censure – died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends – and sine then I have studied to show myself approved unto God.” Obedient to the death! That’s what will produce unity through humility. Conc – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was hanged days before the liberation for his opposition to Hitler, said this: “When Christ calls a man (or woman), he bids them come and die.” That doesn’t necessarily mean physical death – although it may well. But it certainly means death to self. That’s the call and that’s the command. And here’s a practical example. In 1878 William Booth’s Salvation Army was beginning to gain traction. Men and women were coming from all over the world to enlist. One such was Samuel Brengle, who had always dreamed of becoming a bishop, and so left a fine pastorate, and crossed the Atlantic from America to England to join. General Booth accepted him, but with reluctance. Booth told Brengle, “You’ve been your own boss too long. But if you want to help, you can clean the boots of the other trainees.” You can imagine Brengle’s reaction! “I’ve crossed the Atlantic to polish the boots of others.” But as he began to complain to the Lord, he got a vision. He saw Jesus bending over the rough, dirty feet of his less-than-stellar disciples. And with that, he bowed in submission and told the Lord: “You washed their feet; I will polish their shoes.” And so he did, and the Lord used him greatly. He had learned Mark 10:44) and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” Want to be first in the church – have your opinion count – be thought great? You don’t get there by argumentation or a critical spirit or by pushing yourself forward. You get there by serving. That’s the mind of Christ. That’s the command of Paul. That’s how to build unity through humility. Let’s pray.