TEACH US LORD,

TRUE HUMILITY

April 09, 2017

Pastor Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Zechariah 9:9-10

Gospel Lesson; Matthew 21:1-9

Sermon Text; Philippians 2:5-11

The text we will look at today is a famous text from Philippians, chapter two, verses 5 through 11.

Indeed, let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Though He was by nature God, He did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but He emptied Himself by taking the nature of a servant. When He was born in human likeness, and His appearance was like that of any other man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

These are your Words, Heavenly Father. Lead us in the way of truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

There is a guy by the name of Daryl, who drives this big, Peterbilt semi-trailer truck. He goes cross country, and he drives the same route every week. And so, every Monday evening he stops at this place called Joe's Diner. Joe who owns Joe's Diner knows what Daryl is going to order. He is always going to order meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and iced tea.

One Monday evening, Daryl pulled up to Joe's Diner in his big semi-truck, and parked it in the parking lot. He went in, sat down, and Joe asked him, “Is it going to be the usual.”

Daryl said, “Yep.”

So, out comes the meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and the iced tea. As Daryl was sitting there, enjoying himself eating, there was this huge rumble out in the parking lot from a whole bunch of motorcycles. All of a sudden, the rumble dies down, as the motorcycles were turned off.

Into Joe's Diner walk twelve, big, Harley riding, leather covered, chain wearing, tattooed, tough guys who smell like smoke, wearing bandanas on their head. They were looking for trouble, and saw Daryl sitting there. One of them said, “Look at that wimp over there.”

Another one of them said, “He's just a little sissy.”

Since they were looking for trouble, they all walked up to him, surrounding him. They started clicking their thumbs, like there was going to be a fight.

One of them took Daryl's ice tea, and dumped it over Daryl's head. Daryl just sat there, as it dripped down his face. He took a napkin, and wiped off his face, but kept eating.

Another one said, “What a sissy”, took Daryl's mashed potatoes, and smashed them on his head, rubbing it into his hair.

Again, Daryl just sat there, eating his meatloaf.

They kept taunting Daryl, clicking their thumbs, and calling him all kinds of names, but Daryl just kept eating his food.

When he was done, he got up, walked over to Joe, and paid his bill. And then, he walked out.

As he was walking out, these motorcycle riders were saying, “What a sissy. He's not much of a man.”

Joe, who is behind the counter, looked out the window, and said, “Huh. He's not much of a driver, either. He just ran over twelve Harleys!”

So, this week is what we call, Holy Week. We are going to see people surround Jesus. They are going to be taunting Him. They are going to be saying He is not much of a man. In fact, He says, “I am a worm, and no man”.

They are going to be saying something like, “What a sissy.” “He saved others, but He cannot even save Himself.” “Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God.”

They are not going to be pouring ice tea over His head, and rubbing mashed potatoes in His hair. They are going to be beating Him, whipping Him, mocking Him, flogging Him, and crucifying Him. We are going to watch our Savior, as He silently takes all of this.

Then comes next week, on Easter Sunday, when that 'big semi-truck' runs over, not Harleys, but runs over our worst enemies - death, sin and Hell – totally, totally defeated.

But today, as we enter what we call Holy Week, it is really important for us to look at what we call, what scripture refers to as,

“The Humiliation”,

or

“The Humility of our Savior, Jesus”.

Our Bible passage talks about Jesus humbling Himself. In Latin, the word for 'humbling Himself', 'humble', or 'humble yourself', is the word, 'humus'. (Not the same as 'hummus'. That is an Arabic word that means 'chickpeas with spices'.) 'Humus', which is Latin means, 'organic material that makes up dirt, or ground'. And so, 'to be humble', or 'humus' means 'you are low to the ground'. You make yourself low'.

And so now, Jesus, it says, “humbled Himself”. It was not that people made Him low, but

He was willing to make Himself low.

He was willing to “humble Himself”.

What exactly does it mean, “He humbled Himself”?

Does it mean, here is God, and He took on human flesh, and the fact that God became a human, that is what it means to make Himself low?

That is not what we are talking about. Jesus is a human being, right now. And, Jesus is in all of His glory, and all of His honor. So, it is not because He became a human, that it means He made Himself low.

       -It is the manner in which Jesus took on human flesh.

       -It is the manner in which He lived in this earthly life.

He humbled Himself,

and made Himself low.

Listen to what it says.

“Though He was by nature God,

He did not consider equality with God

as a prize to be displayed,

but He emptied Himself

by taking the nature of a servant.

When He was born in human likeness,

and His appearance was like that of any other man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to the point of death -

even death on a cross.”

So, there it says even though he was by nature God, He didn't consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed. Jesus could have displayed His power, as God, very easily. He could have totally defeated all of the Romans. He could have given the people of Israel a fantastic economy. He could have displayed His power, as God. But He didn't do that, because to what end would that have been? So what if the Romans would have been defeated? So what if they would have had a great economy? They still would have all died, and gone to Hell, as sinners.

Jesus came for a different purpose.

And so, Jesus was willing to make Himself low. That means He hid His powers as God. He was willing to appear as if He was weak, powerless, and not capable of even saving Himself. He was willing to be beaten, whipped, mocked, spit on, made fun of, nailed to a cross, and die a torturous death. And why in the world, why in the world would God, in the flesh, do that for us?

I want to read something. There is a man by the name of John Gerhardt. John Gerhardt was a young man who claimed he was pretty involved in what he referred to as, “the sins of youth”. He ended up ultimately becoming a pastor at a pretty young age. By his early 20's he was a pastor, and wrote something called, “Meditations on Divine Mercy”.

I want you to listen to a little section. It is a great section where he is talking about Jesus' sufferings. Why would Jesus humble Himself? Why would He be willing, even though He was God, be willing to let people spit on Him, mock Him, make fun of Him, be silent through all of this, and let them crucify Him?

I want you to hear this, because he puts it in words, so well. He is saying a prayer to Jesus, and he personalizes what Jesus did.

“Oh kindest Jesus,

I recognize the depth of your mercy, and the earnestness of your love. You appear to love me more than you love yourself, because you gave yourself up for me. What was the sentence of death pronounced on you? You were completely innocent. Why were you, the fairest among the sons of men spit on? Why did you, the righteous One, undergo flogging, and fetters? All of these abuses rightly belong to me. But you, because of unspeakable love, descended to the prison of this world. You willingly took on yourself what I justly deserve. Because of my sin, I was to be assigned to the unceasing, scorching flames of Hell. But you, boiled with the fire of love on the altar of the cross, set me free from these flames. I was to be cast away from the face of the Heavenly Father, because of my sin. But, for my sake, you chose to be abandoned by your Heavenly Father. I was to be tormented forever by the devil, and his angels, but you, because of immeasurable love, gave yourself for me, and were harassed, and crucified by the servants of Satan.”

Do you see what John Gerhert keeps saying there?

“Jesus you humbled yourself for me.”

“You did it for me.”

“It was for me, you did it.”

Everyone of us can say that. In fact, I love what John Gerhert says. “Jesus you appeared to love me more than you love yourself.”

Wow! It is almost impossible to take it in that God did that for us!

And so, our scripture reading says,

“Your attitude,

your attitude should be the same as that of

Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

So, all of us should have that same heart, a humble heart, like Jesus has. And, it says your attitude should be that way. The Greek word for 'attitude' is actually the word 'phronos'. We get our word 'diaphragm' from that. Your 'diaphragm', the ' phronos ' is where the internal organs are around, protecting the heart. And so, the ' phronos ' was this visceral, internal way of looking at things, where it controlled your attitude, your internal way of looking at things, and controlled your outlook on life. It says this internal outlook, this visceral outlook you have on life should be just like that of Christ Jesus, who humbled Himself. And so, the Bible tells us our attitude should be an attitude of humbleness, or humility.

So, what does it mean to be humble?

       -Does it mean I am like a wall flower, and am timid?

No, that is not what it means. Jesus was not a wall flower, and He wasn't timid. Jesus certainly went out, and was willing to be very welcoming of all people. So, it is not being timid, or that type of thing.

       -Does it mean you think you are worthless, and you act like you are worthless? Jesus didn't act that way.

       -Does it mean you have this false sense of modesty? You work really hard at something, and then you tell people, “I just threw that together.” That is not what it is talking about. That is not how Jesus was.

I love how C. S. Lewis describes humility. “Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking of yourself less.”

“Humility isn't thinking less of yourself,

but it is thinking of yourself less.”

Let's look at that a little bit. I want to do it by comparing it to the opposite of humility, because this is something we can all understand.

The opposite of humility is pride.

Pride is something we all struggle with. I struggle with it, and you struggle with it. Pride is what we call the root sin.

       -Pride is the thing that caused Adam and Eve to fall into sin. Adam and Eve wanted to be number one. They wanted to be like God. They wanted to be in God's place, and so they chose to go against Him.

       -Satan's root sin was pride. He wanted to be like God, and so he fell into sin.

       -Our root sin is pride. Pride puts me in the center. It puts me on top. Pride has to survive, and can only survive this way: It has to compare itself to other people. So, pride looks at other people, and the pride we have in our heart says, “I am smarter”, or “I am faster”, or “I am better looking”, or “I am more affluent”, or “I am more respected”. Pride is continually, continually comparing itself to other people.

Humility is the opposite. Humility is not comparing itself to other people.

Humility compares itself to Jesus.

Humility compares itself to Jesus, and says, “Look at Jesus. Here I am, a person who sins against the Lord, and look at what Jesus did for me. He was willing to make Himself low to save me from all of my sin.”

Humility says, “That is viscerally, what I want to be. I want to be like Jesus.”
Pride struggles with insecurity. Pride looks at somebody else. There might be somebody else out there who is smarter, or faster, or is highly respected, and that threatens pride. Then, pride becomes covetous, or envious, or jealous, and struggles with these insecurities.

Humility is the opposite. Humility isn't looking at itself.

It is looking at Jesus.

It is looking at the gifts He has given to other people. Humility in confidence says, “I am thankful God gave you those gifts, and abilities.”

Pride is always hoping you notice me. “You know who I am, don't you?” “You know what I accomplished on the football field, don't you?” “You saw that grade I got in Chemistry Class, didn't you? You saw how nice I was to the people who came walking into the church, today, didn't you?” It is always wanting to be noticed. It is hoping you notice me.

But humility is the opposite. Humility says, “It is not me who wants to be noticed. I want you to notice Jesus. Do you know Jesus? Do you notice Him? Do you know what He did for you? Do you know how much He loves you? Do you trust in Him?” That is humility.

Our scripture reading says our attitude, this heart-felt way of looking at the world, should be this attitude that says, “It is not that I want to think less of myself, but I want to think of myself less. I want to think of others more, because of what Jesus did for me.” That is an attitude, and it is not a “one and done type thing”. It is an attitude. It is a way of walking through life.

And so, we certainly pray God grant every one of us, as we look at what Jesus did for us, His humble attitude for us, that whether

       -we are at home, or

       -we are at work, or

       -we are at school, or

       -we are in the neighborhood,

we have this attitude that says, “I don't want to think less of myself, but I do want to think of myself less, and I want to put others more important than myself, just as Jesus did for me.”

It means lowering myself. It may mean changing diapers. It may mean hanging out with people who aren't all that cool. It may mean loving people who are unlovable. That is what Jesus did for us. And so, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, our Lord, who “humbled Himself, and became obedient death - even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him” to the highest place “and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in Heaven and on earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Amen